[IsraelTimes] Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar asserts the need to combat terrorism in Israel and Africa during a press conference with his Ethiopian counterpart Gedion Timotheos.
“Terrorism is a shared threat to our peoples,” says Sa’ar at the event in Jerusalem. “We are witnessing radical Islamic terror in our regions — Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, jihadists in Syria, and Al-Shabaab in Africa. Terror must be eradicated.”
Sa’ar points to ties between the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab militant group in Somalia and the Houthis rebels in Yemen. The Houthis began launching attacks against Israel after the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023 attack, and today threatened to resume attacks on Israeli vessels traveling on Mideast waters as a response to Israel halting aid trucks entering into Gaza during an uncertain ceasefire with Hamas.
“Ethiopia plays a critical role in combating the Al-Shabaab terrorist organization,” says Sa’ar, explaining that Al-Shabaab “collaborates with the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, further destabilizing the region. Since October 7, the Houthis have launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israeli civilians, disrupted global trade routes, and now threaten to block Israeli ships from the Red Sea. They are a threat to Israel, Africa, and the global order.”
The foreign minister adds that Timotheos’s visit is “the first in an initiative…to deepen ties with African nations,” calling Ethiopia “one of the leading countries” in the region.
He says relations between the countries “go back to biblical times”
…King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba…
and that Israel’s “community of immigrants originally from Ethiopia is a central part of Israeli society, integrated into all walks of life.”
Sa’ar adds that he will soon make a reciprocal visit to Ethiopia, according to the Foreign Ministry.
#3
Democracy? won't go there.
Republics are unnatural. That's the failure of old conservatives. It's hard. Man is naturally inclined to hierarchical order. A republic is rare. It requires a constant fight against the concentration and centralization of power.
[GEO.TV] A UK court on Thursday upheld lengthy prison terms handed to the father and stepmother of a 10-year-old British-Pak girl who was killed after suffering years of torture and abuse.
The trial of Urfan Sharif and his wife Beinash Batool caused waves of revulsion in the UK at the horrific way they had treated Sara Sharif.
There was anger too at how the bright, bubbly youngster had been failed by the authorities supposed to be in charge of her care.
Sharif, 43, Batool, 30, and her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, all lost bids on Thursday to appeal against their sentences.
The court also refused a plea by the solicitor general's office to impose a stiffer whole-life sentence on Sharif.
Sara's father was sentenced in December to 40 years in prison for her murder, while her stepmother was ordered to remain in jail for at least 33 years.
Her uncle was sentenced to 16 years after being found guilty of causing or allowing her death.
Sara's body was found in bed at the family home in August 2023 covered in bites and bruises with broken bones and burns inflicted by an electric iron and boiling water.
Seeking to reduce Sharif's term, lawyer Naeem Majid Mian argued that although Sara's treatment had been "horrendous" it did not merit his 40-year sentence.
"There was no intention to kill... and (the death) was not premeditated," he added.
But documents submitted to the court on behalf of the solicitor general, one of the government's top legal officers, called for Sharif to have an indefinite sentence imposed.
"It is submitted that the judge was wrong not to impose a whole life order on the offender," said lawyer Tom Little in a text submission.
A lawyer for Sara's stepmother also told the court that her sentence of 33 years was too long and did not "justly reflect her role".
Dismissing Sharif's appeal, Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr, the highest-ranking judge in England and Wales, said: "We can see no arguable basis to challenge the conclusion of the trial judge."
Passing sentence in December after the trial, judge John Cavanagh said Sara had been subjected to "acts of extreme cruelty" but that Sharif and Batool had not shown "a shred of remorse".
They had treated Sara as "worthless" and as "a skivvy", because she was a girl. And because she was not Batool's child by birth, the stepmother had failed to protect her, he said.
"This poor child was battered with great force again and again."
A post-mortem examination of Sara's body revealed she had 71 fresh injuries and at least 25 broken bones.
She had been beaten with a metal pole and cricket bat and "trussed up" with a "grotesque combination of parcel tape, a rope and a plastic bag" over her head.
A hole was cut in the bag so she could breathe and she was left to soil herself in nappies as she was prevented from using the bathroom.
Police called the case "one of the most difficult and distressing" they had ever dealt with.
The day after Sara died, the three adults fled their home in Woking, southwest of London, and flew to Pakistain with five other children.
Her father, a taxi driver, left behind a handwritten note saying he had not meant to kill his daughter.
After a month on the run, the three returned to the UK and were arrested after they landed. The five other children remain in Pakistain.
[IsraelTimes] Armenia’s foreign ministry says that a draft peace agreement with Azerbaijan has been finalized from its side and that it is ready to discuss a date and location to sign a final deal.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a series of wars since the late 1980s, when Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan that had a mostly Armenian population at the time, broke away from Baku with Yerevan’s support.
In September 2023, Azerbaijan retook Karabakh by force, prompting almost all of the territory’s 100,000 Armenians to flee to Armenia.
Both sides have long said they want to sign a treaty to end the long-running conflict but have wrangled for years over the details of what it might look like.
“The peace agreement is ready for signing. The Republic of Armenia is ready to start consultations with the Republic of Azerbaijan on the date and place of signing the agreement,” Armenia’s Foreign Ministry says in a statement.
[Rudaw] The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Rawa Majid, the Kurdish leader of Foxtrot Network, a transnational criminal organization based in Sweden over his reported involvement in arms and drugs trafficking and cooperation with Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... in "attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe."
"The United States is sanctioning the Foxtrot Network, a transnational criminal organization, and its runaway leader Rawa Majid," the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... said in a statement, adding that the network "is involved in arms trafficking and contributes to rising violence in Northern Europe, including shootings, contract killings, and assaults."
Rawa Majid, widely known as the Kurdish Fox, is an Iranian-born Kurdish-Swedish national wanted on multiple charges in Sweden. His group is accused of orchestrating drug trafficking, arms smuggling, and violent mostly peaceful crimes such as shootings and contract killings across Northern Europe.
The statement additionally accused Iran of "leveraging the Foxtrot Network to carry out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe, including the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, in January 2024." It said Majid had cooperated with the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security that are already under US sanctions.
According to Rubio’s statement, the US State and Treasury Department "will continue to expose and impose costs on the Iranian regime for its malign activities as part of the [US President Donald] Trump Administration's renewed maximum pressure campaigns."
Trump in early February restored the maximum pressure policy against Iran, arguing that Tehran is "too close" to obtaining nuclear weapons, but expressed interest in negotiating a deal with Iran.
In late February, the US Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on over 30 individuals and vessels for their "involvement" in importing Iranian petroleum-related products.
Amid the increased US sanctions, Iran’s foreign minister said on Monday that his country will "not even consider" negotiating under pressure and intimidation. The Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> in February slammed negotiations with the US as "unwise."
”Nice city ya got here…” says the Trump task force.
[IsraelTimes] The US Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism tells the leaders of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston that the task force will visit to “discuss their responses to incidents of antisemitism at schools and on college campuses” over the past two years.
The task force plans to meet with mayors, district attorneys, local law enforcement, students and community members, the US Department of Justice says in a statement.
“Too many elected officials chose not to stand up to a rising tide of antisemitism in our cities and campuses following the horrific events of October 7, 2023,” says US Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Actions have consequences – inaction does, too.”
The statement says the visits will happen soon without providing a date.
The visits are part of a broader crackdown on antisemitism by the Trump administration that has mostly focused on college campuses.
The task force has also announced plans to visit 10 campuses around the country to discuss antisemitism, including some in the cities the group will visit, such as Columbia University in New York City and Harvard University, outside of Boston.
[NYPost] It took nearly a year for a Lebanese illegal migrant who arrived under the Biden administration and admitted that he’s a Hezbollah terrorist hoping "to make a bomb" to get his deportation papers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Post Monday.
Now, the Trump administration is working to finally boot him from the country.
New York-bound migrant Basel Bassel Ebbadi, 22, admitted his ties to the terrorist group, and ambitions when he was captured by border agents in El Paso, Texas, on March 9, 2024 — and was immediately held in federal custody.
During a medical screening in a processing center, Ebbadi was asked what he was doing in the US, to which he replied, "I’m going to try to make a bomb," according to a Border Patrol document previously obtained by The Post.
Ebbadi was transferred to ICE nearly a week later with "order of expedited removal," the agency said.
But because of administrative hurdles and a federal prison sentence he served, he’s only just now gotten a deportation order.
He was then convicted of entering the country illegally and sentenced to five months in federal prison on April 26.
Ebbadi was back in ICE custody after serving his sentence and was finally ordered deported by an immigration judge on Jan. 13.
The Lebanese migrant remains in ICE custody and has yet to be kicked out.
After he was captured at the border, Ebbadi claimed in an interview that he wanted to flee Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... and Hezbollah because he "didn’t want to kill people" and said "once you’re in, you can never get out."
He also admitted that had received Hezbollah training for seven years and served as weapons guard for the terrorist organization for four more years.
Ebbadi’s training focused on "jihad" and killing non-Moslems, he said at the time.
The suspected terrorist didn’t have documents when he entered the US, claiming they were stolen at knifepoint in Costa Rica.
During the Biden administration, border agents caught nearly 400 suspected bandidosgunnies crossing the southern border illegally and let go countless others due to the overwhelming migrant surges.
In one case, Border Patrol released an al-Shabaab ... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa... terrorist from Somalia who roamed the US for nearly a year before ICE realized the mistake and nabbed him in Minnesota.
The Trump administration is also still hunting down more than 100 migrants colonists with suspected ties to ISIS who crossed illegally into the US and were released under the Biden admin.
In an effort to crack down on the issue, the Trump administration has stopped the problematic "catch and release" policy that allowed millions of migrants colonists to go free into the country.
[Rudaw] Iraq’s migration and displaced ministry said on Wednesday that about 23,000 Iraqi families remain in camps in the Kurdistan Region’s Erbil and Duhok provinces but that returns have slowed down.
"The number of families remaining in camps in Erbil and Duhok provinces is approximately 23,000, while the IDP camps in Sulaimani province have been closed," ministry spokesperson Ali Abbas told Rudaw.
Abbas said that the ministry supports IDPs who seek to return to their hometowns but that "the return of IDPs has slowed down ... it will increase with the start of the summer break and the end of the current school year."
On Saturday, Abbas told Rudaw that compensation for IDPs who want to return to their homes has been paused due to a lack of funds, which has slowed down the return process.
The Iraqi government last year said it would give four million dinars (about $3,050) to each returning family, one of several measures to encourage people to leave the camps. Other incentives include providing job opportunities in both the public and private sectors, providing monthly social security stipends for low-income and needy individuals, and offering interest-free bank loans.
In 2024, "more than 10,000 displaced families, which is more than 100,000 people, have returned to their homes across Iraq," Abbas told Rudaw in December.
Many of the camps in the Kurdistan Region suffer from a lack of funds, as the humanitarian focus has shifted from emergency response to development and stabilization.
Human rights advocates have expressed concern about Iraq’s push to close the camps, stressing that all returns must be safe, voluntary, and dignified.
Despite the incentives from Baghdad, many families are reluctant to leave the camps because of continued violence in their home areas, a lack of reconstruction following the destruction of their houses, and little in the way of basic services. Some who voluntarily left the camps have been forced to return.
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[IsraelTimes] Hamas has renewed a demand for Israeli troops to withdraw from south Gaza, accusing Israel of seeking to breach the terms of a ceasefire in talks on the next phase of the accord.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem tells AFP that Israeli forces should have pulled out of a strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border under the first phase of the ceasefire that started on January 19. "Ummmm. No."
Hamas has accused Israel of keeping troops in the strategic Philadelphi Corridor. Israel has insisted it needs to maintain control of the corridor to prevent weapons smuggling into the Palestinian territory from Egypt. Not that Egypt could do anything about it, right?
Qassem indicates that the corridor had become one of the sticking points at Qatari-US mediated talks in Doha on the next phase of the ceasefire.
“Reports indicate new proposals are being presented aimed at circumventing the Gaza agreement,” Qassem tells AFP.
“Meetings are continuing with mediators in Doha. We adhere to what was agreed upon and to entering into the second phase,” he adds.
But he insists that Israel must also fulfill its obligations “withdrawing from the entire Gaza Strip” and “begin the withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor” for any second phase deal to end the war.
“Israel has not implemented the humanitarian protocol of the Gaza agreement,” Qassem adds. Israel has stopped humanitarian aid from entering Gaza since March 2 to back its demand that Hamas release all remaining hostages held since the 2023 attacks.
“We do not want to return to war again, and if the occupation resumes its aggression, we have no choice but to defend our people,” the spokesman says.
#2
"The Juice should abide by the agreement because you know that we are certainly not going to and if no one is abiding by these agreements what is the point of having complicated agreements and protocols in the first place?"
-- some Hamass spokesdude
[IsraelTimes] After arriving in Doha earlier this week, US special envoy Steve Witkoff has presented Israel and Hamas with a new outline to extend the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Axios reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The proposal, which differs from a previous outline put forward by Witkoff, would extend the current ceasefire by several weeks, until the end of both Ramadan and Passover, in exchange for the release of additional hostages, Axios says.
At the same time, Israel would also be required to resume the flow of humanitarian aid into the war-torn Palestinian enclave, it says.
One source with knowledge of the proposal’s contents says that Hamas will be required to release at least five living hostages and return the bodies of nine others on the first day of the extended truce.
Citing two named sources, Axios reports that the extension, should all parties agree to implement it, will give the US additional time to negotiate a more concrete, long-term truce agreement.
Should a long-term ceasefire agreement be reached, the report says that Hamas will be required to hand over all remaining hostages, living and dead, on the last day of the temporary truce extension, before the concrete ceasefire comes into effect.
Citing two unnamed sources, Axios says that the extension, should all parties agree, will give the US additional time to negotiate a more concrete truce agreement.
According to the report, Israel has given “a positive response” to Witkoff’s latest proposal, while Qatar and Egypt are still awaiting Hamas’s response after delivering it the details of the outline last night.
[IsraelTimes] The Palestinian Authority condemns Hamas for holding negotiations with the United States regarding Gaza’s future, saying this harms Palestinian unity and violates a law against communications with foreign parties.
In a statement issued on PA mouthpiece WAFA last night, presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh alleges the talks circumvent and “weaken” the Arab consensus in favor of Egypt’s plan for postwar Gaza, as well as the efforts to confront US President Donald Trump’s plan to displace all the Strip’s population.
Highlighting the longstanding split between the PA-controlled West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza, Abu Rudeineh urges the terror group “to come back to national sanity, end the intra-Palestinian division, and hand over the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian National Authority, so that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would be reunited under the rule of a single national authority, a single law, a single weapon, and a single legitimate political representation.”
[IsraelTimes] Hostage families petition High Court over Gaza electricity cut, saying it endangers loved ones’ lives; Trump backtracks from plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza
One of the recently released hostages9 told Israeli authorities that he saw fellow hostage Avinatan Or alive while they were in captivity, Israel’s Channel 12 reported Wednesday, marking the first public sign of life since he was taken into captivity.
The 32-year-old is one of the 24 hostages whom Israel believes remain alive in the Strip, including 22 Israelis, one Thai and one Nepali. The network did not specify when the freed hostage came into contact with him.
All are young men who would go free in the current hostage-ceasefire agreement’s second phase, however, discussions for the next phase fell flat, leaving the truce between Israel and Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... in a fragile state.
Or, 32, was kidnapped from the Nova festival and separated from his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, who was rescued by Israeli soldiers in June 2024.
Later that day, a Hamas video of Or and Argamani was posted on Telegram, showing Argamani on an all-terrain vehicle, as she called in fear, crying, "Don’t kill me!" reaching out her arms to Or, who was being marched away from her, surrounded by at least three terrorists.
After the report was published, Argamani, who has campaigned relentlessly around the world for the hostages, posted on Instagram, that "until Avinatan comes back, my heart is in captivity."
Or, who grew up in the West Bank settlement of Shilo, is an electrical engineer and works for Nvidia. Before his abduction, he lived in Tel Aviv, where he and Argamani were planning to move in together.
The revelation came as an Israeli delegation was meeting mediators in Doha to discuss the so-called "Witkoff proposal" according to an Israeli official speaking to The Times of Israel.
The Israeli negotiating team was scheduled to return home Wednesday night, said the official, but could remain in Doha on the chance of a breakthrough.
The Witkoff outline envisions a roughly two-month extension of the ceasefire, during which Hamas would release about half of the living hostages up front, and the rest at the end along with an end to the war.
However,
the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... Hamas has been adamant on extending the deal in its current form and moving to its second phase, which requires Israel to pull out from the Philadelphi Corridor, a buffer zone along Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ’s border with Egypt.
Hamas has accused Israel of reneging on the ceasefire deal, stating in a statement on Monday that Israel "refuses to commence the second phase, exposing its intentions of evasion and stalling." Israel has already stopped aid deliveries to Gaza amid the deadlock over the ceasefire.
Also Wednesday, some 50 relatives of hostages being held in Gaza filed a petition to the High Court of Justice demanding the reversal of Israel’s decision to cut the electricity supply to Gaza as a means to pressure Hamas, on the grounds that it endangers their loved ones.
"This is a decision that directly and immediately endangers the lives of the hostages, Israeli citizens, who cannot protect themselves," the families said in a statement announcing the petition.
The petitioners contended that Energy Minister Eli Cohen’s decision to cut electricity to Gaza was made without the necessary authority. They argued that immediate action needs to be taken by the court to oblige the government to reverse the decision through an interim order.
Families have repeatedly argued that military pressure or punitive actions against Hamas do not work and the best way to ensure their release is through a deal.
That’s one perspective…
Highlighting this, the mother of freed Israeli hostage Omer Shem-Tov revealed on Wednesday that Hamas snuffies threatened to kill her son when they heard IDF soldiers above the ground while holding him in a tunnel.
Shem-Tov was included in the final group of captives released in the first stage of the hostage-ceasefire deal.
Omer "heard the tanks above and the voices of the soldiers. The captors had their weapons drawn on him and told him, ’If the IDF arrives, we’ll shoot you in the head,’" Omer’s mother, Shelly Shem-Tov, told the Kan public broadcaster.
Shelly described the daily conditions Omer faced — he was kept in "a confined space with four guards. It was even harder when the army was in the area, everything was tense."
Shelly also commented on Omer’s recent meeting with US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... in Washington.
"Omer got the impression that the president was genuinely committed... and intended to bring everyone back. That was meaningful for him. He was disappointed that it took so long to bring him home," she said.
Amid continued frustration by the families, a Channel 13 news poll revealed Wednesday that half of Israelis believe US President Donald Trump is more concerned about the fate of the hostages than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Half of Israelis are fools, it appears.
Asked which of the two they believe is more concerned, 50 percent of respondents say Trump, 29 percent responded Netanyahu, while the rest were unsure.
The Trump administration had been conducting its own negotiations with Hamas focused on the American hostages, in parallel to indirect talks mediated by Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... and Egypt.
The direct negotiations bore no fruit, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... Also Wednesday, Trump appeared to back down from his proposal to relocate Gazans during reconstruction of the Strip.
During an Oval Office spray with Ireland’s Prime Minister Michael Martin, a reporter asked the Irish leader about Trump’s plan to “expel Palestinians out of Gaza,” to which the president piped in: “Nobody’s expelling any Palestinians.”
The comment appeared to amount to an about-face for Trump, who, when introducing his proposal to take over Gaza last month, said that all of the Strip’s population of roughly 2 million people would be permanently relocated.
No, he said they would want to go somewhere safe and healthy, and that a few would come back to work after clean-up and construction were complete.
REPORTER: What about the president's plan to expel Palestinians out of Gaza?
TRUMP: Nobody is expelling any Palestinians. Who are you with?
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem welcomed what he viewed as a retreat by Trump from his stance, urging him to refrain from aligning with the vision of the "extreme Zionist right."
When pressed last month as to whether he would relocate Paleostinians by force, Trump insisted that no people in Gaza actually want to remain there.
Earlier in the meeting, Trump lamented that people are forgetting what Hamas did on October 7, reiterating the brutal treatment of the hostages by the terror group.
"We’re working hard with Israel... to see [how] we can solve the problem," Trump said.
Syrian people have triumphed over years of oppression, and a new constitutional declaration has been unveiled, paving the way for a future built on justice, dignity, and freedom.
The historic document ensures: ✅ Equality for all citizens ✅ Protection of human rights ✅… pic.twitter.com/CyQQcgRWDy
Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, the Druze spiritual leader in Syria, rejects reconciliation with Damascus, calling the Syrian government "extremist and accountable to international justice." #Syria#Suwayda#Druze#Politicshttps://t.co/cMkzjGdTN2
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) March 13, 2025
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#1
"Reconciliation" is a western concept which could lead to peace and civility. We shall have none of it.
Syria’s Kurdish Administration (AANES) rejects the newly issued "Constitutional Declaration" in Damascus, calling it an exclusionary document that ignores Syria’s diversity. #Syria#AANES#Democracy#SDFhttps://t.co/BF5KYaS9Ww
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) March 13, 2025
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
There are going to be jolly good times in Syria.
[IsraelTimes] Israel sent 10,000 food packages to Druze in Syria in recent weeks, the Foreign Ministry says.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who is credited by his office with initiating the effort, says the packages are part of a pact between minority communities in the Middle East.
“We have a courageous alliance with our Druze brothers,” he says in a statement. “It is a privilege to help them. In a region where we will always be a minority – it is necessary and right to help other minorities.”
Most of the packages reached the Suwayda area, some 75 kilometers from the border with Israel, while others were given to Druze communities closer to the border, says the Foreign Ministry.
The packages contain oil, salt, flour, sugar, rice, and other staples.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the operation was conducted in cooperation with the IDF; Sheikh Muafak Tarif, who is spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel; the Druze Religious Council; and “other parties in the region.”
[IsraelTimes] The US Treasury Department issues sanctions against Iran’s oil minister Mohsen Paknejad, as President Donald Trump seeks to increase pressure on Tehran.
“The Iranian regime continues to use the proceeds from the nation’s vast oil resources to advance its narrow, alarming self-interests at the expense of the Iranian people,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says in a statement.
The sanctions also designate three entities engaged in the Iranian oil trade in China, and names three shipping vessels as blocked property for their use in the transactions.
“These entities provide services to the ghost fleet vessels…enabling Iran’s attempts to disguise its illicit oil trade,” US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce says in a statement.
“Today’s action advances President Trump’s policy of maximum pressure on the Iranian regime.”
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has called for a new nuclear deal with Tehran while reinstating his “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions.
The latest sanctions come after the Trump administration sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging negotiations and warning of possible military action if Iran refused.
[IsraelTimes] Hezbollah-linked outlet reports that 14 Lebanese detainees still held by Israel, including 7 alleged members of the Iran-backed terror group
The Lebanese army on Thursday confirmed receiving the last of five detainees that Israel said it would free as part of what the Prime Minister’s Office called a "gesture to the Lebanese president," following rare talks between the countries.
The transfer comes after Tuesday’s military-to-military meeting at the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... peacekeeping headquarters in southern Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... ’s Naqoura, during which Israel and Lebanon agreed to open negotiations to delineate their border, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The US and La Belle France also participated in the meeting.
The prisoner, who was not named, was brought to Lebanon by the Red Thingy and taken to a hospital, the Lebanese Army wrote on X, after Israel released four other prisoners on Tuesday.
Citing two US officials, Axios reported that one of those released is a member of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shiite terror group based in Lebanon that Israel has battled for decades.
Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, which is affiliated with Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and Hezbollah, named the final detainee expected for release as Ziad Shibli, saying he was returned separately due to injuries he sustained.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called the return of the detainees a "gesture" to new Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who has said he will work on improving relations with Arab countries and implementing reforms and whose election in January was seen as a setback for Hezbollah.
Al-Akhbar also reported that 14 Lebanese detainees remain in Israel, including seven others who Israel says are Hezbollah members.
The remaining prisoners could be used as future bargaining chips by Israel, becoming "a price Israel pays in installments whenever it secures a concession from across the border," sources told al-Akhbar.
DISPUTES ON ’NORMALIZATION’
Following the four-way meeting in Naqoura, Israel and Lebanon announced that three joint working groups would be established, focusing on the five points Israel still occupies inside of Lebanon; the Blue Line that marks the de facto border between the two countries; the 13 points that are under dispute; and Lebanese citizens held by Israel.
The working groups could meet as early as next month, according to Axios.
While an Israeli official said the aim of the discussions "is to reach normalization," a Lebanese source told the pro-Iran al-Mayadeen channel on Wednesday afternoon that ties with Israel are not on the table.
The three working groups, said the source, "are not separate from Resolution 1701, and will not engage in direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel."
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the previous round of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, calls for southern Lebanon to be free of any troops or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state.
"Everything being said about these working groups being a prelude to normalization is completely false," said the Lebanese source.
LAND BORDER NEGOTIATIONS Al-Akhbar cited "informed sources" on Thursday, saying that "Lebanon does not want to bring non-military personnel into the [negotiation] process, and that the [working groups] will be composed of Lebanese officers, including experts and technicians, similar to the officers who participated in the Maritime Demarcation Committee."
Jerusalem and Beirut negotiated a maritime boundary in 2022 — an agreement brokered by the US that Netanyahu assailed at the time while serving as opposition leader — but the two countries have yet to adopt an official land border.
Lebanon is "ready for land demarcation" but fears that negotiations "will lead to the loss of areas it is entitled to," sources told al-Akhbar.
In addition to the five strategic points Israel currently operates in Lebanon, the border conflict centers on 13 disputed points along the border.
The most recent ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon began on November 27, 2024, halting more than a year of hostilities initiated by Hezbollah, including two months of full-blown war during which Israel sent in ground troops across the northern border.
The fighting began with attacks by Hezbollah on the Jewish state on October 8, 2023, in support of Paleostinian ally Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... , which invaded southern Israel from Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... a day earlier. Persistent rocket fire from Lebanon displaced some 60,000 Israeli civilians.
"Everyone involved remains committed to maintaining the ceasefire agreement and to fully implement all its terms," US Deputy Special Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus said in a statement on the new negotiations. "We look forward to quickly convening these diplomat-led working groups to resolve outstanding issues, along with our international partners."
[IsraelTimes] Elnaz Rekabi largely vanished from public view after declining to cover her hair at 2022 event overseas as demonstrations raged against the Islamic Republic’s dress code for women
An Iranian sports climber, widely praised in 2022 for competing without a hijab at the height of nationwide protests, has left the country, her brother and an Iranian official said.
Elnaz Rekabi gained global attention in October 2022 when she took part in championships in South Korea without wearing the headscarf required for women in the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
She returned home and largely vanished from public view, with some Persian-language media based outside Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... reporting she had been placed under house arrest and banned from competing abroad.
The protests erupted in September 2022 after the death in jug of Mahsa Amini who had been arrested for allegedly flouting the obligatory headscarf rule. The movement lasted for months before fading in the face of a deadly crackdown.
Rekabi has left Iran, her brother Davood wrote in an Instagram story quoted by the IranWire website and Iran International television channel, which also expressed hope she could return in the future.
Iran International also shared another Instagram post by a fellow climber showing Rekabi training on an indoor wall in a vest and without a headscarf. It said that according to its information she had moved to Spain.
In Iran, the ISNA news agency also said that she had moved to Spain and quoted the head of Iran’s National Olympic Committee Mehdi Alinejad as saying he was aware of Davood Rekabi’s Instagram post.
"If they want to pursue their professional sports, they should be in Iran. The National Olympic Committee has supported Rekabi for the past two years, and she herself will acknowledge this," he told news hounds on Tuesday.
But he added: "Everyone has the choice over where to live."
It is not clear when and under what circumstances Elnaz Rekabi left Iran.
In another development, the International Federation for Sport Climbing announced last month that Rekabi has been appointed as the "athlete role model" for sport climbing in the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar in 2026.
It said her role was confirmed in a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... between the climber herself, IFSC president Marco Scolaris and International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
IranWire and other outlets have reported previously that the IOC had been closely watching her case and were deeply concerned over her inability to travel outside of Iran.
At the time of the incident, she had issued an apology on Instagram and insisted her bare-headed appearance had been "unintentional."
Some reports suggested she had been pressured by Iranian officials while in South Korea, although this was vehemently denied by Iran’s Seoul embassy.
[Rudaw] The Governor of Syria’s coastal province of Latakia on Wednesday blamed loyalists of the ousted Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... regime for the recent violence that erupted in Alawite-majority regions west of the country, rejecting claims that the violence was sectarian.
Loyalists of ousted Syrian dictator Assad on Thursday launched an attack on security forces affiliated with the new Syrian leadership in regions to the west of Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Monday reported that around 1,500 people, mostly Alawites, have been killed in the violence by government or government-affiliated forces.
Governor of Latakia Mohammed Othman questioned the reported number of casualties, stating that "the statistics are highly exaggerated. The number [of fatalities] was not as high as reported and may have reached 500, with fatalities from various sects, not just the Alawite community."
He further explained that "the killings occurred due to numerous violations... committed by individuals from both official and unofficial bodies," but insisted that they "were not driven by sectarian motives." He pointed out that members of the Christian, Murshidi
…a slightly mystical, Sunni Muslim religious community founded in 1923 in that part of Syria, comprising some 300,000-500,000 souls aimed at personal and communal moral improvement. HTS probably considers them as heretical as the Alawites, Shiites, and Druze…
and Sunni communities were also killed, and not only the Alawite community, to which Assad belongs.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... on Sunday slammed "radical Islamist terrorists" for committing "massacres" against minorities in Syria, calling on the new leadership in Damascus to hold the perpetrators accountable. Several other Western countries and the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... have urged that the perpetrators of violations are held to account.
The Latakia governor said that the unrest began when "very large numbers of people poured into Latakia" after watching "images of [Damascus] security forces being killed or surrounded." This influx of people, which included both affiliated forces and unaffiliated forces led to a series of violent mostly peaceful events.
Othman also accused the Assad loyalists of "committing massacres" during their withdrawal, saying they disguised themselves as government security and military personnel, and explained that the authorities are still pursuing affiliates of the former regime "some of whom have been arrested while others fled to the mountains."
Despite ongoing security challenges, Othman stated that the situation was gradually returning to normal "with shops reopening and residents returning to their homes."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
Unless the Task Force brings the proper equipment, nothing will come of this. 
[NYPost] It took nearly a year for a Lebanese illegal migrant who arrived under the Biden administration and admitted that he’s a Hezbollah terrorist hoping "to make a bomb" to get his deportation papers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Post Monday.
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
