Tuesday, January 07, 2014

IRAN-SYRA-IRAQ-PEACE PROCESS NEWS-WHAT IS UP I MUST ASK MYSELF

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE ANIMAL SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

ISAIAH 33:8
8  The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)

JERUSALEM DIVIDED

GENESIS 25:20-26
20  And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21  And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22  And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23  And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24  And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25  And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26  And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

Netanyahu: No Kerry framework deal yet, and it won’t be binding anyway

Hours after US secretary departs, PM warns of the dangers of dismantling settlements; Kerry may return as soon as next week

January 6, 2014, 10:22 pm 3
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who left Israel on Monday after a long weekend of shuttle diplomacy, is set to return as early as next week in his relentless bid to broker a “framework” agreement for Israel-Palestinian peace.Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Likud Knesset faction Monday that “there is no American framework document yet,” and that even if it could be agreed, it would not be binding on the sides, Channel 2 reported. He also assured the Likud MKs that he had not given in to American pressure for more flexible positions regarding the fate of Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, and said he was only too aware of the consequences of dismantling settlements in the absence of a viable peace accord, the report said.Referring to Israel’s dismantling of its settlements in Gaza and unilateral withdrawal from the Strip in 2005 — which was followed by a Hamas takeover, rocket fire into Israel and two small wars — Netanyahu reportedly told his colleagues, “We saw what happened when we closed our eyes and dismantled settlements. In the best case we get peace; in the worst, we get Afghanistan.”The report said Netanyahu did not rule out dismantling settlements at any price. Another report on Channel 10 said the prime minister had told the Likud meeting he did not intend to dismantle settlements, but did not indicate whether Netanyahu was referring to the short term or further down the line.Kerry has paid 10 trips to the region this year, initially expressing confidence that a permanent peace accord, providing for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, could be wrapped up by the end of April. More recently, though, evidently realizing that this was a tall order, he has been pushing the less ambitious “framework” idea.Netanyahu on Monday, however, reportedly told the Likud that even the framework plan, which Kerry has not yet been able to finalize, would not be binding to the two sides. The prime minister also said there would be elements in the non-binding paper that he and his party colleagues wouldn’t like, and elements that the Palestinians wouldn’t like.The two sides are believed to be at odds over almost every aspect of the core issues involved in a two-state accord. Kerry has been reportedly pushing Netanyahu to agree to at least keep talking on the basis of a Palestinian state to be established along the pre-1967 lines, with land-swap adjustments, and urging Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.Beyond these points, the two sides are said to disagree over security arrangements, border demarcations, the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugee demands under a permanent deal. There have also been disputes over who will be released in a final phase of prisoner releases by Israel of terror convicts in the coming months. And it is unclear whether the Palestinians are prepared to extend the current talks beyond their scheduled expiry date in late April.
The pan-Arab daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi on Monday quoted Palestinian sources as saying that Abbas was inclining to accept a Kerry proposal for an Israeli-Palestinian-international force to secure the eastern border between the West Bank and Jordan even after Palestinian statehood, where previously Abbas had ruled out any Israeli presence. But the claim was unconfirmed, and it is entirely unclear whether it would be palatable to Netanyahu.A Maariv report Monday said Netanyahu had rejected a Kerry proposal for a limited number of Palestinian refugees to enter Israel. The paper also claimed Netanyahu was ready to freeze settlement expansion in order to keep the talks going to the end of the year. Netanyahu is expected to announce 1,400 new building starts over the Green Line in the near future, and the government on Sunday agreed another stage of the approval process for more than 100 homes in the Ofra and Karnei Shomron settlements.
If Kerry failed to close the gaps between Israel and the Palestinians, he did say he had won backing during this visit from Jordan and Saudi Arabia after lightning visits to both countries on Sunday. Netanyahu’s predecessor, Ehud Olmert, on Monday asserted that a full peace deal could be done now, and derided any prime minister who didn’t seize the opportunity as an “idiot.”Netanyahu’s Finance Minister Yair Lapid, from the centrist Yesh Atid, also said Monday there was “a real opportunity” for an accommodation with the Palestinians, “and it’s closer than appearances would indicate.”Before leaving on Monday, Kerry met with Tony Blair, who serves as special envoy for the Quartet of Regional Peacemakers comprising the United Nations, European Union, United States, and Russia. The top US diplomat also convened with the leader of the Israeli opposition, Labor MK Isaac Herzog.Herzog said he assured Kerry that the majority of the Knesset, including the opposition, supports reaching a diplomatic solution but that ensuring security and the rejection of the Palestinian right of return were central issues. ”I stressed that we see the utmost importance in the security arrangements that will ensure Israel’s ability to protect her citizens and the prevention of the right of return of Palestinian refugees to Israeli territory,” Herzog said.One State Department official, quoted by AFP, told reporters on Kerry’s plane home Monday, “There’s a lot of work that needs to happen, a lot of tough decisions that need to be made. At some point there will a document with the ideas from both parties, but we’re not going to make a prediction of when that will be.”

US-Brokered Deal 'Just the First Stage' in Israel's Demise

Senior member of Mahmoud Abbas' party reiterates his organization's stance: destroy Israel 'in stages'.
By Ari Soffer-First Publish: 1/6/2014, 6:26 PM-Israelnationalnews

Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki
Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki-YouTube/Palestinian Media Watch
As US-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) continue, amid pressure for further territorial concessions by Israel, a senior Palestinian Authority official has told Syrian TV that any agreement will simply be the "first stage" in eradicating Israel altogether.Abbas Zaki posted a clip of the interview - which was promptly translated and circulated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) - onto his Facebook page.In response to concern expressed by the interviewer that any US-imposed deal would be "deficient", insofar as it would "only" require Israel to cede Judea and Samaria, a smiling Zaki urges calm."You can relax. We find ourselves united for the first time. Even the most extreme among us, Hamas, or the fighting forces, want a state within the '67 borders [sic]. Afterward, we [will] have something to say, because the inspiring idea cannot be achieved all at once. [Rather] in stages," he responded.Zaki is a senior member of the central committee of Fatah - the Arab nationalist party which dominates the PA, and is headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.The strategy to eradicate the Jewish state "in stages" via a combination of terrorism and diplomacy, as opposed to in a single military conquest, has been voiced by many PA officials in the past, who note that Israel cannot be destroyed in one fell swoop. Palestinian Media Watch has exposed a string of such statements by senior officials in the past, casting serious doubt over the viability of the Obama administration's recent attempt to impose a solution to the conflict.Earlier this year, in a speech attended by Mahmoud Abbas, the PA's Religious Affairs Minister explained that any treaties with Israel should be viewed as another "Treaty of Hudaybiyyah" - a reference to a "temporary" deal signed by Islam's founder Muhammed, which was promptly broken as soon as the Muslim armies were strong enough to achieve victory.In another interview in 2011, Zaki was even more explicit:"While the agreement is on the borders of June 4, the President [Mahmoud Abbas] understands, we understand, and everyone knows that it is impossible to realize the inspiring idea, or the great goal in one stroke," he explained to Al Jazeera.
However, he continued, an agreement which would see the destruction and ethnic-cleansing of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria would itself prove strategically fatal for the Jewish state in the long-run.
"If Israel withdraws from Jerusalem, if Israel uproots the settlements, 650,000 settlers, if Israel removes the (security) fence - what will be with Israel? Israel will come to an end."If I say that I want to remove it from existence, this will be great, great, [but] it is hard. This is not a [stated] policy. You can't say it to the world. You can say it to yourself."
VIDEOS IN STORY

Netanyahu may suffer if he signs peace deal, settler spokeman says

David Wilder draws parallel between the tragic ends of PMs who surrendered land; comments come with Sharon at death’s door

January 6, 2014, 11:59 pm 0-The times of israel


David Wilder, the spokesman for Hebron’s Jewish community, has written an article published by various right-wing Jewish outlets arguing that Ariel Sharon, Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin all met unhappy ends because they surrendered land. And he warns Netanyahu that he is liable to suffer a similar fate if he gives up land to the Palestinians.In the article — which was published by The Jewish Press, a Brooklyn-based Orthodox weekly, and on the pro-settler Israeli website Arutz Sheva — Wilder writes: “What then is the punishment of people who remove cities from Israel, abandoning the land, expelling the people, endangering the population? What happened to them, what was their fate:“Begin, the hero of the Jewish underground, the leader who destroyed the Iraqi nuclear threat, secluded himself for years following his resignation as prime minister, unseen until his dying day. Rabin was assassinated. Olmert, one of the primary initiators of the Gush Katif catastrophe, has undergone numerous trials on charges of corruption, facing disgrace. Katsav, who as president refused to oppose the Gush Katif expulsion, imprisoned following conviction for rape, from the president’s mansion to a jail cell. Ariel Sharon, suffering the worst kind of hell, neither here nor there, not dead, not alive, for the past eight years. Some 8,600 people were expelled from the Gush, a year for every thousand people. And one can only imagine what he will face when trying to enter the Pearly Gates of heaven.”Wilder goes on to malign US Secretary of State John Kerry (“the word ‘Kerry’ in Hebrew has a distinct meaning: impurity”) before concluding:“I can only say: Bibi, beware. Don’t fall into the potholes left to you by Sharon. And to the others, who can join him, or leave him, can support him or bring him down, your fate is too hanging in the balance. Purify yourselves from the contamination of Kerry. Before Sharon’s miserable fate will almost look good to you.”This is not the first time that a critic has connected Sharon’s illness to his decision to withdraw from Gaza. In 2006, American televangelist Pat Robertson suggested that Sharon’s stroke was divine punishment, a comment for which he later apologized.
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Olmert: PM would have to be an ‘idiot’ to pass up peace

Ex-premier in derisive attack on Netanyahu, also slams Liberman’s population exchange idea; says Assad could have avoided rebellion if he’d signed deal

January 6, 2014, 6:10 pm 38-The Times of Israel
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert took an unusually blatant and derisive potshot Monday at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, indicating that his successor was an idiot for not doing more to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians when such a deal could be done right now.Olmert also criticized Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman for opposing any deal that does not take into consideration the Yisrael Beytenu chairman’s controversial proposal to exchange major Arab population centers for settlements in the West Bank.Speaking about “Media Challenges of Prime Ministers in Times of War and Terror” at a conference in Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, Olmert said it was nearly impossible for an Israeli prime minister to get positive headlines during wartime. On the other hand, any leader who signs peace agreements can be sure of positive press, he said.“Even an idiot prime minister would be portrayed in a positive light [if he signed a peace deal]. But an idiot prime minister doesn’t make peace, and a prime minister who makes peace is no idiot,” Olmert said to raucous laughter in the room, as the capacity crowd in the hall understood his comment to be a snipe at Netanyahu. (He used the derisive Hebrew word tembel for idiot.) “And I’m really saying this in the most general terms,” Olmert continued, laughing, “and not at all personally.”The former prime minister later said that he did not mean to wage a campaign against his successor, but added that peace was possible and that no stone should be left unturned in the attempt to reach an agreement.“There is nothing more important, there’s nothing that will change our lives so substantially, nothing that could negatively impact our lives, more than the existence or absence of a peace agreement between us and Palestinians as soon as possible,” Olmert said. An agreement depends on both the Israeli and the Palestinian leaderships, he added, but if a deal is struck, “the benefit for the State of Israel will be greater than any other issue that we can achieve, and in all other areas combined, any time in the near future.”In 2008, Olmert offered the Palestinians a state.He also negotiated for a peace agreement with Syrian President Bashar Assad. “He understands today that he missed the opportunity of his life, when he didn’t jump at the opportunity that I had presented him. And I presented him an exceptional opportunity,” Olmert said of Assad on Monday. “He made a dramatic mistake, because he might have spared himself the entire rebellion and everything that has happened in Syria since then.”Olmert declined to comment on the current negotiations led by US Secretary of State John Kerry. He merely said that it was “possible to reach peace now, a peace that will secure Israeli’s security, its Jewishness, its Zionism, the security of its residents, its democratic nature, and also establish a Palestinian state that will be the national homeland of the Palestinian people. It’s possible to do that. You just need to reach decisions — that’s the task of leaders.”He also condemned the speech delivered by the foreign minister Sunday, during which Liberman vowed to veto any peace agreement with the Palestinians that lacked the exchange of the “triangle” area southeast of Haifa and Wadi Ara — both areas mostly populated by Israeli Arabs — for West Bank areas populated primarily by Jews, commonly known as “settlement blocs.”“Mr. Liberman understands well that there is no chance to ever make peace on the basis of his positions, to exclude the ‘triangle’ and Wadi Ara from the boundaries of the State of Israel,” Olmert said. “I believe the vast majority of Israel’s non-Jewish citizens — mostly Muslim Arabs — are loyal citizens and we need to approach them with understanding, responsibility and full equality.”Last month, Olmert made headlines when he launched an acerbic attack on Netanyahu, for his “utterly misguided” policy of publicly confronting the United States over its Iran policy. Olmert said the current prime minister was causing an unprecedented and acutely dangerous rift in bilateral diplomatic relations by “going into battle against our best ally and whipping up Congress” against the US administration.

ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11  In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12  Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14  And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD KILLED IN OVERNIGHT RAID) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.


AMOS 1:5
5  I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden:(IRAQ) and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,(JORDAN) saith the LORD.

JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23  Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24  Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27  And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

Syria’s ‘war within a war’ amps up ahead of peace conference

Islamist brigades and more moderate rebels battle al-Qaeda-linked fighters across four northern provinces

January 7, 2014, 12:37 am 0-The times of Israel
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels surrounded a compound held by al-Qaeda-linked fighters and freed at least 50 people from a nearby prison Monday as clashes between rival factions in the country’s northern provinces spread to the largest city controlled by the opposition.The rebel-on-rebel fighting in Raqqa — a stronghold of the al-Qaeda-linked group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — reflects a widening war within a war in Syria, this one against radical extremists. It also adds yet another layer of complexity to the broader Syrian conflict less than three weeks ahead of a planned international peace conference to try to broker a political solution to the civil war.Support from the US and its Western allies for the rebels has faded in the past year as al-Qaeda-affiliated groups have risen to become one of the most dominant forces among the patchwork of opposition fighting factions.There was no indication that the move by a mix of more moderate rebels and powerful ultraconservative Islamist brigades against the al-Qaeda fighters was a reaction to Western pressure to move against the extremist group. Rather, the violence has been largely limited to communities where tensions between the factions were already simmering.The number of towns, villages and neighborhoods where clashes were taking place spread across four provinces, providing an indication of the extent of resentment of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.Since spring 2013, the group has muscled its way into rebel-held territory across northern Syria, crushing resistance from other factions, seizing their weapons and detaining their fighters. It has kidnapped journalists and abducted activists who are critical of its efforts to impose a strict interpretation of Islam.For months, sporadic clashes between its fighters and other rebel brigades have left scores dead and hampered the broader movement to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.But the latest fighting, which broke out Friday in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib after residents there accused the al-Qaeda-linked group of killing a popular doctor, is the most serious since the uprising began in March 2011.The fighting has since spread to the central province of Hama as well as the northeastern province of Raqqa, and killed an estimated 100 fighters on both sides, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group.The fighting in the city of Raqqa — the provincial capital — began before dawn Monday, when a coalition of Islamic brigades attacked fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, said Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman. Another activist group, the Local Coordinating Committees, also reported the Raqqa clashes, saying they were focused around a post office.The Observatory said rebels surrounded the group’s main compound in Raqqa and freed at least 50 detainees from a prison. Abdurrahman said they included fighters and activists imprisoned for criticizing the group.“Many of them were from various rebel groups,” Abdurrahman said. “Some of them had been held a few weeks, some of them a few months.”The Observatory also said the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant retreated from the town of Tal Abyad along the Turkish border after heavy fighting there. Clashes continued in parts of Aleppo province, including the neighborhoods of Masaken Hanano and Shaar in the city of Aleppo.Raqqa was the first provincial capital to fall entirely into the hands of rebels, and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant slowly squeezed many other groups out of the city last year. An Italian Jesuit priest, the Rev. Paolo Dall’Oglio, disappeared in July after traveling to meet al-Qaeda militants in Raqqa. Since then, rumors have swirled that foreign aid workers, reporters and Syrian activists have been held in Raqqa’s detention centers.Abdurrahman estimated that more than 1,000 people are being held in Raqqa province. He said the fate of the priest and foreign journalists was unknown.Activists said another al-Qaeda-linked rebel group, the Nusra Front, was taking part in the fighting in Raqqa against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. However, Abdurrahman said many of the Nusra Front fighters in Raqqa had joined the group from other rebel outfits that had collapsed in the face of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.One of the more moderate rebel groups involved in the fighting elsewhere against the al-Qaeda-linked insurgents, the Syrian Revolutionary Front, appeared reluctant to give up the offensive.The group, a recently formed coalition of rebel brigades aligned with the exiled Syrian opposition, demanded in a statement Monday that the al-Qaeda-linked fighters desert and join their ranks. They also blamed the group for killing at least 400 of their fighters and imprisoning 2,000.“Were it not for these actions, the Front would not have raised its weapons,” the statement said.Rebels appear to have taken several of the group’s compounds in Aleppo province, and its fighters handed over strongholds in the town of Tal Rafat to the Nusra Front to avoid clashes, the Observatory reported.At the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was sending out 20 invitations to the so-called Geneva peace conference, which is to open Jan. 22 in Switzerland. Iran, a close Assad ally that has supplied his government with weapons, funds and military advisers, was not among the nations invited, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.
The US and Russia have not yet agreed on Iran’s role in the talks, but Haq says the UN hopes that can be resolved at a Jan. 13 meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. 

A Look at the Massive Ship That Will Destroy Syria's Chemical Weapons


ABC News
A Look at the Massive Ship That Will Destroy Syria's Chemical Weapons (ABC News)
To neutralize the most dangerous chemicals stockpiled by Syria in a weapons program that brought global attention to a violent civil war, the international community will rely on a massive ship currently docked in Portsmouth, Va.: the MV (motor vessel) Cape Ray, a transport and humanitarian-response vessel owned by the U.S. Maritime Administration.The plan, announced in November by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and agreed to by Syria, calls for President Bashar al-Assad's regime to move Syria's most dangerous chemical-weapons components - already mixed mustard gas in liquid form, and a precursor to sarin gas - to the port of Latakia and out of the country, onto Norwegian and Danish ships. That process is behind schedule due to fighting in Syria.Italy has offered to host the transfer of chemical components to the Cape Ray at one of its ports, but the details have not been worked out. The OPCW has set a goal of March 31 for the destruction of these chemicals, and June 30 for all of Syria's chemicals.The Cape Ray is part of a reserve fleet that helps surge military equipment into war zones when needed. The Cape Ray has deployed tanks, humvees, helicopters, and other vehicles to Iraq multiple times. It conducts humanitarian response to natural disasters and has responded to Haiti's earthquake, and hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Sandy.It is about 650 feet long, has five decks, and will carry 35 sailors to operate the ship, plus 64 technical crew involved with the chemical destruction (a "handful" of whom will actually handle the chemicals and operate the machinery to destroy them, according to the top engineer), and an unknown number of U.S. military personnel.It's currently being outfitted with two Field-Deployable Hydrolysis Systems (FDHS), which the Pentagon began procuring in February 2013, knowing it might need a way to destroy Syrian chemical-weapons components in the field. It did not expect to do so at sea, and the equipment had to be tested for vibrations, the sloshing of liquids, and other potential problems."Putting these systems on a ship wasn't the first thing that came to mind," Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisitions, Technology, and Logistics Frank Kendall said.The two units are 20 feet by eight feet by eight feet - the size of a standard shipping container - and are being housed in the ship's main deck in a divided white tent about 60 feet by 36 feet. They cost $5 million apiece and were paid for through Department of Defense threat-reduction contingency funds, after Congress was notified.The technology has been around - the U.S. has destroyed its own chemical weapons using a similar process for decades - but it has never been built in such a small, transportable unit, and chemical weapons have never before been destroyed at sea, to the knowledge of Rob Malone, an environmental engineer with Department of Defense and a top engineer on this project."This is not new technology. This is not a high-risk thing that we are doing," Kendall said.
Workers handling the chemicals will wear fully enclosed hazmat suits with oxygen supplied through a mask - described as "scuba suits" by Malone.Seven hundred metric tons of Syria's most dangerous chemical-weapons components will be loaded onto the Cape Ray and destroyed over a 90-day mission, with the two FDHS units running continuously. Syria's chemicals will be stored on decks above and below the main deck where they're being destroyed.The result of this destruction will be 1.5 million gallons of hazardous waste, which a top engineer likened to Drano, that will not be usable for chemical-weapons production, but nonetheless will need to be disposed of at a waste facility of some kind. (Details of disposal have not been worked out yet.)If a spill were to occur, it would be contained to the ship's main deck, Malone said. The tents will be ventilated through carbon before exhaust is released from the ship, and those filters would, according to Malone, neutralize any chemical vapors in the event of a spill.The Cape Ray is docked at a private shipyard in Portsmouth, alongside two other Maritime Administration vessels, and is expected to deploy within the next two weeks, Kendall said. The ship's captain, Rick Jordan, said he has not yet received orders for departure, where the chemicals will be transferred aboard, or where at sea they're to be destroyed.

'Nuclear Bomb Necessary to Put Down Israel'

Iranian cleric and lawmaker reveals that Iran 'needs' a nuclear weapon to 'wipe Israel off the map'; also reveals US 'need' for Iran deal.-By Tova Dvorin-First Publish: 1/7/2014, 1:13 AM-Israelnationalnews

Nuclear talks in Geneva
Nuclear talks in Geneva-Reuters
Iranian lawmaker, cleric, and Majilis (council) member Mohammed Nabavian declared Monday that Iran does need a nuclear bomb - to destroy Israel. Iran would be able to build a nuclear bomb in “two weeks” if it gets “access to 270 kilograms of 20 percent [enriched uranium], 10 tons of 5 percent, and 20 thousand centrifuges,” Nabavian stated, according to Iranian media reports. “We are not looking for a nuclear bomb, but having a nuclear bomb is necessary to put down Israel." Regarding Iran's resumed diplomatic relations with the US, Nabavian stated, "If Obama asked for a meeting five times before the visit to New York and several times during the visit, it's because over these eight years measures were taken [by Iran] and, as a result, the United States [now] needs Iran.""In Syria, the U.S. did not manage to attack and was humiliated. In practice, Obama was humiliated because he did not stand up to Iran, and hence it is necessary to meet with Iran's president to show that he is a strong man and tell the world: I brought Iran to the negotiating table after 30 years."According to MEMRI, Nabavian made the remarks in a speech that he delivered at a political activists' conference in Mashhad (northeastern Iran).Nabavian also claimed that Iran agreed to a deal only to escape the sanctions imposed on its booming oil trade."Forty-nine percent of our budget depends on oil [revenue]. This is a very high figure. This means that half our budget comes from oil money. In [March 2012-March 2013,] we had to sell 2,700,000 barrels of oil daily to supply the budget. Now take into account banking sanctions [even] more severe than the oil sanctions," he mused.  "Since June 2012 all the world's banks have been barred to us and we don't have permission to exchange even a dollar. Think of it, even if we sold 2,700,000 barrels of oil [a day], how could we have conducted the financial transactions?"
Once an agreement was reached, business eased, according to Nabavian. "Finally, Putin sent the governor of his central bank directly [to Tehran] to secure alleviations in the field of money transfers and barter trade. Likewise, China transferred to our account 10 billion toman from the blocked funds."The deal is set to take affect on January 20, according to recent reports. The interim deal requires that Iran freeze or curb its nuclear activities for six months in exchange for some sanctions relief. In the meantime, Iran and Western powers will try to reach a comprehensive agreement.Nabavian's remarks, oddly, echo statements made by Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz in December, who dismissed reports that the sanctions had little effect on Iran and lamented the deal for allowing nuclear building to escalate. "According to calculations the government made a few months ago, during a special Knesset meeting, the sanctions imposed on Iran cost it over 100 billion dollars," Steinitz stated. "This is a vast sum, considering that Iran's GNP is 450 billion dollars per year." Steinitz stated that the sanctions had been one of the State of Israel's greatest successes. "If we would have continued sanctions [on Iran], we would have seen the Iranian economy collapse in a year or two," he said.

US issues rare order to stop transfer of goods to Iran

Commerce Dept. uses anti-terrorism laws in attempt to prevent a Turkish company from exporting two Boeing airplane engines

January 7, 2014, 2:19 am 0-The times of israel
ISTANBUL (AP) — The United States Commerce Department has issued an emergency order using US anti-terrorism export control laws against a Turkish company in an attempt to stop it from exporting two Boeing airplane engines to Iran.Commerce Department officials say that such orders are used rarely to prevent the imminent export of restricted US items to certain countries, including Iran.The order posted online was issued Friday because US officials believed that an Iranian cargo company was set to pick up the secondhand engines Tuesday. The order also targeted the Iranian company, Pouya Airline.H. Engin Borluca , the director of the Turkish company, 3K Aviation & Logistics, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Monday that he was unaware that US restrictions applied to transactions outside of the US and that the company is trying to resolve the matter. He said that his company is seeking to return the engines to the sender.The US Commerce Department order, signed by Assistant Secretary David Mills, imposes strict restrictions on the business of 3K, Pouya and a third company, US-based Adaero International Trade that the document says shipped the engines to Turkey. The order would restrict the companies for 180 days from trade or shipping of any items on US export control lists. It also would prevent other companies, including banks, from financing or supporting restricted trade by the companies. Violations of the order also could subject the companies to criminal prosecution in the United States.Borluca said his company was acting as a logistics and customs clearing company and was not involved in the sale of the engines. He said the order could have drastic consequences for his business.Representatives at Adaero International Trade and Pouya Airline could not immediately be reached for comment.

Escalating Iraq violence not a result of U.S. force withdrawal, says White House


Olivier Knox, Yahoo News
The White House pushed back hard on Monday against allegations that the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq is partly to blame for a surge in deadly sectarian violence there.“I've heard members of Congress suggest this, but if members were suggesting that there should be American troops fighting and dying in Fallujah today, they should say so,” spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. “The president doesn't believe that.”
Al-Qaida-linked extremists have escalated attacks in Iraq and captured two cities in Anbar province, Ramadi and Fallujah, sites of some of the bloodiest battles U.S. troops waged in the aftermath of the March 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.Over the weekend, Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham blamed Obama’s decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011 for making that possible.“While many Iraqis are responsible for this strategic disaster, the Administration cannot escape its share of the blame,” they said in a joint statement. “Many of us predicted that the vacuum would be filled by America's enemies and would emerge as a threat to U.S. national security interests. Sadly, that reality is now clearer than ever.”Obama hoped to leave a residual force of some 10,000 American troops in Iraq, but withdrew all U.S. forces after Iraq’s government refused to grant them immunity from local prosecution.
“There was sectarian conflict, violent sectarian conflict in Iraq when there were 150,000 U.S. troops on the ground there,” Carney said. “So the idea that this would not be happening if there were 10,000 troops in Iraq I think bears scrutiny.”Still, the spokesman said, Obama wants to leave a residual force in Afghanistan after most troops leave by the end of 2014, in order to train Afghan security forces and carry out counterterrorism operations.But Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s refusal to sign a bilateral security agreement (BSA) that would allow that has put that goal in jeopardy.“As each day passes, it becomes harder to plan with our NATO allies for a post-2014 mission because we can't do that without a BSA that's signed after it's been negotiated,” Carney said.At least 7,818 civilians and 1,050 members of security forces were killed in violent attacks across Iraq in 2013, according to U.N. figures. More than 759 people were killed in December. The toll is the highest in five years, but still far below 2006 and 2007 sectarian conflicts.

Pipe bomb explodes at Rachel’s Tomb parking lot

One person lightly injured in blast; security forces search for perpetrator

January 7, 2014, 1:33 am 0
An unknown assailant lobbed a small pipe bomb into the Rachel’s Tomb complex near Bethlehem on Monday night, causing an explosion.One person was lightly injured and treated on the spot, according to Israel Radio. The blast reportedly occurred in the parking lot.IDF units were out searching the area for the perpetrator.Earlier Monday, a Palestinian attacker hurled a grenade at an IDF base near Bethlehem.
No one was hurt and no damage was caused in the attack, which came hours after US Secretary of State John Kerry wrapped up his 10th visit to the region.Sporadic attacks throughout the West Bank have become almost commonplace in recent months, as US-led peace efforts intensify, leading to widespread fears among Israelis that a Third Intifada may be imminent.Follow us: @timesofisrael on Twitter | timesofisrael on Facebook

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