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Star of David

Russia is ready to facilitate a fair solution between Palestine and Israel

Paul Antonopoulos
FRN
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
Lavrov
© AP
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
Russia's proposal to hold a meeting of the leaders of Palestine and Israel in Moscow without preconditions remains in force. The statement is from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov:
"Russia will continue to contribute to efforts, including those in Egypt, to achieve Palestinian reconciliation between Ramallah and Gaza, of course, we support the need to resume direct dialogue between Palestine and Israel and the proposal we made several years ago to meeting of the leaders of Israel and Palestine in Russia without preconditions remains in place. It is impossible to guarantee sustainable stability in the Mediterranean region, including in Libya, Syria, Iraq and other countries that influence the situation in the Mediterranean, without a fair solution to the old Palestinian regional problem."
The Russian minister also emphasized that the solution to the Palestinian-Israeli problem must be based "on UN resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative."

According to Lavrov, attempts to review the international legal framework for settlement and replace it with certain "rules" that are not universally recognized will only aggravate an already difficult situation.

The Arab Peace Initiative establishes, among other conditions for achieving peace in the Middle East, the complete withdrawal of the Israelis from all occupied territories since 1967 and the recognition by Israel of the sovereignty of the Palestinian state with the capital in East Jerusalem.

Comment: See also:

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Umbrella

Iranian President Rouhani wants a united Muslim front against Israel and US


Sputnik
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 15:14 UTC
Rouhani
© Strategic Culture Foundation
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
Earlier, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani claimed that the US is undergoing the worst period in its history and that Washington is "more isolated than ever" over its sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has urged Muslims across the world, including those from Saudi Arabia, to remain united in order to prevail over the US and Israel. At the 32nd International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran, he said:
"Today, the Muslim world is alone and Muslims should join hands. Relying on outsiders is the biggest historical mistake. Today, there is no way for Muslims except unity and solidarity and if we unite, we can undoubtedly score a victory against the Zionists and the Americans."
Commenting on the ties with Saudi Arabia, another major power in the Middle East which has been called Tehran's rival, he stressed that Iranian people perceive them as their "brothers", and that Tehran is ready to defend Saudi Arabia's interests against "terrorism, aggressors and superpowers" without expecting anything in return.

Comment: Iran is reaching out for support under the umbrella that all Muslim countries have more in common than not. However tribal fighting and defamation antics are perhaps more important to the egos and relationships of the tribes than any callous humiliation served up by the West.

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Light Sabers

To contain Iran, US is seeking to create an Arab NATO (with Israel in it?)

Mikhail Khodarenok
RT
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 15:28 UTC
Arab symbol/Jet
© Getty Images
Lockheed Martin F-16 jet fighter of UAE Air Force, Dubai International Airshow-2015, UAE.
While the US envisages a new military alliance as a tool to counter potential threats from Iran towards the Gulf monarchies and the Middle East, there are a number of obstacles in the way of creating an Arab military bloc.

According to Defense News, an Arab NATO would consist of six Gulf states, i.e. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, plus Egypt and Jordan.

The commander of the Royal Bahraini Air Force, Maj. Gen. al-Khalifah, said that this is an American idea which was approved by the Arab Gulf countries, "but didn't take shape yet." He expects this alliance to be successful, although "we are still at the beginning."

Back in October, the Bahraini foreign minister said that the Gulf security alliance could be formed by next year.

Defense News sees at least one sign of progress there, as the Gulf countries are already involved in the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen that fights against Houthi rebels, mainly by carrying out airstrikes.

"We have been sharing information between coalition fighters all along the operations [in Yemen], and we have been training alongside with the Gulf countries through joint exercises, and this enhances our capabilities," al-Khalifah said.

Comment: A non-starter is what is being proposed. But it's very proposal is instructive in that it highlights the Western Empire's attempts to split the world into camps of 'friends' and 'foes'.

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Star of David

UN Secretary General Guterres urges Israel and Palestine restore two-state solution promise


Sputnik
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 03:03 UTC
IsraelPalesflags
© AP
Symbols of difference and what upholds them.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Israel and Palestine to peacefully resolve their conflict by supporting the two-state solution plan.

"I urge Israel, Palestine and all others with influence to restore the promise and viability of the two-State solution premised on two States living side by side in peace, harmony and within secure and recognized borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of both," Guterres said in a statement on Friday.

Guterres noted that this year the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, observed on November 29, takes place at a time of "turmoil, trouble and torment."

Tensions between the Israelis and the Palestinians near the Gaza border have been mounting since late March. The Palestinians had fired almost 500 missiles and mortar shells at southern Israel, while the Israelis conducted strikes on over 150 buildings and facilities in the Gaza Strip.

Last week, at least 40 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli troops near the Gaza Strip border. Earlier on Friday, a spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry Ashraf Qidra told Sputnik that at least 12 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli troops near the Gaza Strip border.

Comment: Side-by-side, peace and harmony? Guterres is dreaming. Interaction between the two factions is heating up to a new pitch. The ongoing Israeli plan to surround, segregate and eliminate pockets of Palestinian residence has all but made a two-state solution impossible without a grand purge of Israeli occupation. Any chances of that happening without a deadline-driven, enforceable mandate is nil. The UN is a mechanism Israel uses, not obeys.

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Chess

Battle for the North Pole: Russia's new Arctic missile system ensures its supremacy

Paul Antonopoulos
FRN
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
russian Tor-M2DT air defense

New Tor-M2DT air defence system to enter service with Russian Arctic troops
In looking at a world map, conventionally, it is easy to overlook the fact that the shortest distance between the U.S and Russia is traversing the Arctic and North Pole region. Th[u]s the coming battle for supremacy over this region will prove to be highly significant.
Arctic and north pole region map
In May last year, during the annual Victory Parade in Red Square, the Russian military debuted the Russian "Arctic" missile systems. But what are they for?

Earlier this week, the Russian army received the first batch of the Arctic version of the Tor-M2DT anti-aircraft missile system ahead of schedule. The editor-in-chief of the magazine Natsionalnaya Oborona (Russian National Defense), Igor Korotchenko, explained to the military that they need this kind of very special weaponry.


Comment: Battle for the Arctic: US sends carrier strike group to North Pole for first time in 30 years


Comment:

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Headphones

Report says CIA has "smoking gun phone call" of MbS giving order to "silence" Khashoggi

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 18:43 UTC
CIA Haspel Khashoggi
© Associated Press
CIA directer Gina Haspel (L) Jamal Khashoggi (R)
The Turks may still yet have the ultimate "smoking gun" leak up their sleeve which could put to bed the whole question over whether Saudi crown prince MbS personally ordered the October 2nd killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

The story broke on Thursday as Americans were celebrating Thanksgiving, and as President Trump - spending the holidays a Mar-a-Lago - took time to tell reporters at a press conference that the CIA "didn't conclude" that MbS ordered the killing while hedging that he "might have done it".

Comment: Trump is threading a fine but pragmatic line by emphasizing that US relations are with Saudi Arabia as a country, not with its current leader. The US has too much at stake economically and geopolitically to throw over the KSA for murdering what they perceived as a state threat, however reprehensible an action it is. As Trump once said, " "There are a lot of killers. Do you think our country is so innocent? Do you think our country is so innocent?"

Unpalatable as it is, welcome to realpolitik.

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Chess

World following Trump lead: Nations abandoning legal 'framework' being constructed for UN migration pact


Breitbart News
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 17:57 UTC
Grabar-Kitarovic Trump
© Associated Press/Getty
Croatia President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and US President Donald Trump
More nations are joining the exodus from the United Nations' (UN) controversial compact on mass migration, with legal experts now standing up to raise concerns about the drafting of the document and what legal implications signing it might have for countries party to the pact.

President Donald Trump was the first to pull out of the UN pact on migration in December 2017, a move which prompted howls of disapproval from both the mainstream media and globalist leaders.

Comment:

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Propaganda

The BBC is a den of shameless propagandists - Panorama report on Salisbury poisonings


TheBlogMire
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 17:50 UTC
bbc panorama
I mentioned in a couple of comments yesterday that I don't own a television. In fact, I haven't had one since 2001. To begin with it's hard, but if you stick with it you very soon come to see it as remarkably odd that you've spent a significant amount of your time sitting in front of a box, wondering if there's anything on, and still watching it even if there isn't, and letting other people drip their agenda and propaganda into your head night after night, through perhaps the most powerful medium ever created.

One of the big plusses is the fact that I don't have to hand over a penny of cash to an institution I have come to loathe - the BBC. But perhaps the biggest plus is that when I do get to watch a programme - especially a documentary on some political or social issue - I find that I'm better able to spot propaganda than I ever would have done had I been immersed in TV culture on a regular basis.

And so it was with the BBC's Panorama programme. I've only managed to watch the first 20 minutes so far, and so I'm only able to comment on that (my thanks to David S for uploading it to YouTube). But what I've seen so far is one of the best - or worst depending on how you look at these things - examples of political propaganda I've seen in a long time.

There was of course lots of creepy music. There were of course no dissident voices. There were of course no difficult questions put to those in charge of an operation which has seen the narrative changing on a regular basis, and not making any more sense despite the changes.
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Airplane

Haaretz: Israeli public still not aware of extent to which security interests compromised after downing of Russian plane in Syria


Sputnik
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 17:26 UTC
il-20
© CC BY-SA 2.0 / Dmitry Terekhov / Ilyushin IL-20
This week, amid media reports about the Israeli Air Force training to destroy the Russian-made S-300 air defense systems recently delivered to Syria, outgoing IDF chief of Staff Gen. Gadi Eisenkot vowed that Tel Aviv would continue to counter alleged Iranian efforts to 'gain a foothold' in the Arab Republic.

The Israeli public still isn't aware of the extent to which Israeli security interests have been compromised by the September 17 destruction of a Russian reconnaissance plane by Syrian air defences attempting to thwart an Israeli airstrike, Haaretz defence contributor Amos Harel wrote.

According to the analyst, while Israel isn't facing the immediate danger of war, "there is also a gap between the public's awareness and the actual severity of the situation" in the region.

"Israel is still deeply mired in a complicated strategic situation: The downing of the Ilyushin plane by a Syrian defence system on September 17 infuriated the Russians, changed their conduct and reduced the IAF's freedom of activity in the skies of Syria," Harel suggested.

Comment: Public statements from Israeli officials are as bad as the Soviets' were: they lie constantly. Harel is correct in his assessment: everything is not rosy between Israel and Russia. And no, Israel hasn't launched any attacks on Syria since the attack. But they're so caught up in presenting the image of themselves and their country as un-moveable and invincible that they can't help but make empty boasts and hollow threats. It's just a nice thing to see them put in their place for once - and there's nothing they can do about it but continue to project an ultimately impotent image of overinflated self-confidence.

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Biohazard

Are the French colluding with Nusra to stage chemical attack in Idlib?


Sputnik
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 17:04 UTC
syrians chemical gear
© AFP 2018 / JM LOPEZ
Damascus has repeatedly accused militants and the controversial White Helmets rescue group of plotting and staging chemical attacks across Syria to prompt a Western military intervention.

A group of French chemical warfare experts working for the Nusra Front terrorist group has entered the militant and terrorist-controlled province of Idlib in northwest Syria to modify missiles and pack them with toxic chemicals, Sputnik Arabic has reported, citing informed local sources.

The sources, who said they were close to the leaders of the various anti-government groups active in Idlib province, told Sputnik Arabic that members of the White Helmets handed five containers of toxic chemicals to these 'French experts'.

The chemicals were previously said to have been stored at a Nusra Front-controlled warehouse in the town of Kafr Nabl, about 35 km south of the city of Idlib, before being transferred to an underground facility in Idlib recently built under the city's prison building.

The sources said the experts are in the area to make modifications to an "unknown" type of missile, and that they brought rocket launch pad components with them.

Comment: Here is one of those reports, from Syrian Perspective:
Emmanuel Macron's intelligence service has sent a team of French terrorist "experts" in Chemical Weapons to Idlib in order to modify the warheads of missiles possessed by mostly the Hay'at Tahreer Al-Shaam criminal organization. Their arrival was coordinated with MIT, Turkey's CIA, across a illegal crossing which Erdoghan thinks will baffle the Russians who have a memorandum of understanding with Ankara over areas designated as "de-escalation zones". Nobody is baffled.

Moreover, the so-called White Helmets were monitored yesterday delivering to the French terrorists 5 canisters of CW hauled from warehouses operated by HTS in Kafr Nibbul, just west of Ma'arrat Al-Nu'maan to a recently dug underground warehouse in Idlib City near the Central Prison. The new warehouse was dug and finished with the use of Turk-supplied backhoes. The canisters are believed to contain Chlorine or Sarin gas.

The team of terrorists are a mix of French citizens of Moroccan descent who were trained for exactly this mission. They are all Arabic speakers but speak a kind of Arabic Syrians are unable to understand. They, therefore, use French in order to communicate with the rodents of HTS.

A few days ago, terrorist websites confirmed that columns of HTS tanks, heavy artillery, flatbeds with 22 mm cannons, various vehicles and American-manufactured Stinger shoulder-carried launchers and rockets had left Idlib City and Khaan Shaykhoon for destinations close to the border with Hama Governorate. There is something clearly brewing and it has something to do with the CW delivered to the Macron-inspired terrorists.

Erdoghan seems to think he is very clever. He is not. Russia and Syria, and Iran, for that matter, all know that he has given the terrorists carte blanche to rearm and deploy any which way they like. He has only placed one condition to supposedly confuse the Russians: use only illegal and non-traditional crossings from Turkey into Syria.


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