By Jeffery Heller
Jeruslaem (Reuters) - An Israeli security guard (click here) died of wounds he suffered in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday carried out by an assailant identified by Israel as a Palestinian.
The assailant was shot and killed by police at the scene, a police spokesman said.
It was the second attack on Israelis in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank in three days and a sign of rising tensions in the region....
There is more to leading than tweeting. I rarely check my Twitter feed.
BEIRUT (AP) — THE Latest on the Syrian conflict (all times local): (click here)
4:55 p.m.
Britain's foreign secretary says reports of a deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria are "deeply disturbing," and warns that Russia must not try to block an international investigation.
Boris Johnson says the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad have used poison gas in at least four attacks since 2014.
He says Britain backs an investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and warns that Assad-supporting "Russia must not yet again try to obstruct these investigations."
He says "those responsible for the use of chemical weapons have lost all moral integrity and must be held to account."
Britain and Russia are enmeshed in a diplomatic feud over the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a nerve agent. Britain blames Russia for the use of a chemical weapon on U.K. soil. Russia denies responsibility....
It is interesting that Assad is having chemical weapon issues at the very same time Russia is having problems with chemical weapons. Condemning the attacks are worthless, Assad only uses it as an opportunity. People in Syria need immediate relief and the option of rescuing them from the land is a real option. That means more refugees, but, a ceasefire is paramount at this time. A military invasion is questionably a worse idea without risking a larger war with the Saudi-Houthi war blazing and Iraq is still unstable.
This ETC is still in effect for Iraq. Add to that the Kurds facing increased violence from Turkey and the entire idea of escalating the war is hideous.
April 8, 2018
The surge in violence (click here) between armed groups and government forces has resulted to over 3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) across Iraq and left more than 11 million in need of humanitarian assistance.
The ETC in Iraq was activated in August 2014 in response to the deteriorating security situation in the country. Since then, under the leadership of the World Food Programme (WFP), the ETC has been delivering vital communications services to the entire response community on the ground, including its partners, UN agencies, NGOs and other humanitarian organisations.
April 6, 2018
By Peter Singer
Princeton – Last month, (click here) the New York Times marked the 15th anniversary of the US-led war against Iraq with a poignant column by Sinan Antoon, an Iraqi novelist living in the United States, entitled “Fifteen Years Ago, America Destroyed My Country.” Antoon opposed both Saddam Hussein’s brutal dictatorship and the 2003 US-led invasion, which plunged the country into chaos, inflamed ethnic tensions, and killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. By destabilizing the region, the war enabled the rise of the Islamic State, which at its height occupied a substantial slice of Iraqi territory, beheading its opponents, attempting genocide against the Yazidi minority, and spreading terrorism around the world....
The Kurds will be the next ethnic group that will seek refugee status. They are attacked from Turkey and Baghdad. Baghdad should be very careful of ethnic cleansing.
With Baghdad stating the Kurds are to be considered an enemy of the state, it appears as though Iran is seeking more and more land to eliminate the Crescent and instill larger countries.
If anyone within the Iraq government that can understand oppression and ethnic cleansing is should be Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The USA military was aggressively attacking his people in Iraq when the Grand Ayatollah Al-Sayyid Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani spoke to the people from his bed in London and the USA miltiary was stopped without anyone firing a shot.
April 8, 2018
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Shia cleric (click here) and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr voiced on Sunday his rejection of the rumored return of Kurdish forces to areas disputed with the Iraqi government.
Answering his disciples’ questions through his online portal, Sadr stressed that “only the heroic Iraqi army, and no one else, should take charge there”.
He added that the Iraqi army’s control should “include every inch of the homeland, and not only the disputed regions”.
Iraq denied on Saturday reports that it was under pressures from the United States to allow the return of Kurdish forces to areas disputed by Baghdad and Kurdistan Region.
A statement by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s spokesperson, Saad al-Hadithi, reported by The New Arab, said that “The issue of the deployment of Iraqi forces in the northern and western territories is part of the responsibility of the government in Baghdad”. He added that the matter is “a sovereign, independent decision that is not subject to the will of foreign powers”...
Additionally, Iran is interfering in Iraq. Shia vs. Shia.
6 February 2018
This is what the USA's insistence of "One Iraq" has done. Rather than allowing the provinces to form their own sovereignty and strength; "One Iraq" has spawned an opportunity for the government to call Kurds as rebels. It was fine when the USA found a friendly force with the Kurds, but, now with a shifting region and aspirations of Iran, the Kurds are under attack. They are not only under attack from a NATO member, Turkey, Iraq's own government is placing them in the zone of danger. Iraq's sovereign borders is bringing about the end of the northern area of Kurds, once under a "No Fly Zone."
It looks as though Daesh is no longer a worry. Now, with Daesh defeated in Iraq, the aggression is shifting to ethnic cleansing.
Additionally, Iran is interfering in Iraq. Shia vs. Shia.
6 February 2018
Farsi sites reported that the Iranian authorities (click here) on Monday arrested Hussein al-Shirazi, the son of Sadiq al-Shirazi, the famous Shiite cleric in Qom, because of a lecture in which he described the Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei as "the pharaoh."
The entire region is experiencing changing dynamics. To put a Western military invasion in the middle of this is heinous.continued. The region has not been the same since the illegal and immoral invasion by the Bush White House and to kill more people is a heinous idea. Bullets are not going to solve the problems.'This is what the USA's insistence of "One Iraq" has done. Rather than allowing the provinces to form their own sovereignty and strength; "One Iraq" has spawned an opportunity for the government to call Kurds as rebels. It was fine when the USA found a friendly force with the Kurds, but, now with a shifting region and aspirations of Iran, the Kurds are under attack. They are not only under attack from a NATO member, Turkey, Iraq's own government is placing them in the zone of danger. Iraq's sovereign borders is bringing about the end of the northern area of Kurds, once under a "No Fly Zone."
It looks as though Daesh is no longer a worry. Now, with Daesh defeated in Iraq, the aggression is shifting to ethnic cleansing.
