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Minister Maliki: Palestine ready for direct talks with Israel


Sputnik
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 19:23 UTC
Maliki
© Sputnik/ Maksim Blinov
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki
Palestine is currently seeking experts' advice and is considering legal options in case Israel and the United States choose to derail negotiations on the Israel-Palestine settlement, Palestine Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki told Sputnik in an interview.
"We are asking an advice of many internationally recognized legal experts to help us also to focus on different specific legal tracks and to see what could we do in the near future when it comes to this, you know, if the negotiations track is closed by the rejection of Israel and the United States, that means that they are not leaving us with many options but to focus on the legal one," Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki said.
Maliki emphasized that Palestine has signed over 100 international conventions and agreements with certain conditions on how member states should or could act.
"Absolutely, we are ready for direct talks through a third party, of course... We do not think that taking Israel for 15 minutes reunion in Jerusalem will do that. We think that this will be a disaster. We think, you know, probably, coming to Sochi or maybe to Moscow could be the right one, if Netanyahu is willing to do so, you know, it's only a flight of three hours, and he will enjoy, of course, the hospitality of president Putin and the Russian people. So, I advise the Israeli ambassador to look into it and to show the positive attitude," Maliki said.

Comment: It is a travesty of monumental proportions that the issue of the Palestinian state has not been formally addressed and settled. It indicates the depth and breadth of Israel's influence on the global scale. Shutting biased US out of negotiations is mandatory.

See also:

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Jet1

Pro-government tank destroyed in second US "self-defense" airstrike in Syria this week


RT
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 19:11 UTC
Syrian Army modified T-72 tank
© Hawsh Nasri / AFP
FILE PHOTO: A Syrian Army modified T-72 tank.
The Pentagon has confirmed that it destroyed a pro-government tank in eastern Syria on Sunday, marking the second US attack on Syrian forces in a week and raising concerns about a serious military confrontation in the country.

Pentagon officials claim that US special operations forces working as advisers to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) came under attack from a Soviet-made T-72 battle tank operated by pro-government forces. In response, US forces called in a drone strike, destroying the tank.

Lt. General Jeffrey Harrigan, commander of the US Air Forces Central Command, told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday that the airstrike was an act of self-defense.
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Bad Guys

U.S. Intelligence community crisis poses a threat to the World

George Eliason
Consortiumnews.com
Sun, 11 Feb 2018 20:35 UTC
Intelligence Community logo

Intelligence Community logo
Back in 1991, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the general consensus of the intelligence community was that America needed a strong Russia. Russians bore the weight of dismantling the Soviet Union and an internally strong and stable Russia was considered the biggest stable democratic government in the hemisphere.

A strong Russia provides stability throughout the region, it was understood. Without a strong and stable Russia, the massive Russian Federation would descend into small nationalist countries. Warring nations and instability would be the norm and not the exception.

For its part, Russia also needs an internally and externally strong America, as does the world. A weak America that is susceptible to overthrow would be the largest threat that nobody wants to talk about. Such a strong America requires professional and competent intelligence services.
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Bizarro Earth

US has no evidence but claims its strike on Syria killed Russians

Stepan Kravchenko , Henry Meyer and Margaret Talev
Source
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 10:12 UTC
People celebrate with Russian and Syrian flags inside Waer district, after rebel fighters and their families evacuated the besieged Waer district in the central Syrian city of Homs, May 21, 2017 Reuters
© Reuters
People celebrate with Russian and Syrian flags inside Waer district, after rebel fighters and their families evacuated the besieged Waer district in the central Syrian city of Homs, May 21, 2017
U.S. forces killed scores of Russian mercenaries in Syria last week in what may be the deadliest clash between citizens of the former foes since the Cold War, according to one U.S. official and three Russians familiar with the matter.

More than 200 contract soldiers, mostly Russians fighting on behalf of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, died in a failed attack on a base held by U.S. and mainly Kurdish forces in the oil-rich Deir Ezzor region, two of the Russians said. The U.S. official put the death toll in the fighting at about 100, with 200 to 300 injured, but was unable to say how many were Russians.

Comment: See Also:

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Gear

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: Control over oil fields allows Washington to influence situation in Syria


South Front
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 19:52 UTC
US State Secretary Rex Tillerson
© AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
Speaking on the sidelines of an Iraq donors conference in Kuwait on February 13, US State Secretary Rex Tillerson rejected claims that the US lacks support in Syria. The diplomat epmhasized that Washington controls a large part of the country's oil fields and area and this allows it to influence the situation.

"The United States and the coalition forces that are working with us to defeat [ISIS] today control 30% of the Syrian territory, and control a large amount of population, and control a large amount of Syria's oil fields," Tillerson told media. "This observation that the US has little leverage or role to play is simply false."

Comment: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson addressed representatives of the coalition fighting the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS; formerly ISIL/ISIS) in Kuwait city on Tuesday, warning that "the fight is not over"
While Tillerson acknowledged that the coalition had made "outstanding progress," he cautioned that "the enduring defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria means all members of the coalition must support and sustain the post-ISIS stabilisation efforts. This means continuing to provide essential aid and services to communities which are only now starting to rebuild."


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Passport

Expelled from Ukraine, stateless Saakashvili arrives in Netherlands under wife's citizenship


RFE/RL
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 18:37 UTC
Saakashvili netherlands
© Jan Hennop/Agence France-Presse
Mikheil Saakashvili stands in front of the Immigration and Naturalization offices in Rotterdam on February 14.
Mikheil Saakashvili has arrived in the Netherlands, his wife's home country, after being expelled from Ukraine into neighboring Poland.

Asked upon his arrival on February 14 how long he planned to stay in the Netherlands, Saakashvili said, "We will see. But for sure, it's due to the circumstances I'm here because of what happened in Ukraine."

"But, obviously, it's a country I come to very often anyway," he told Dutch national broadcaster NOS.

Saakashvili, 50, was hired in 2015 by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to head Ukraine's Odessa region but fell afoul of his friend over corruption and reforms and was stripped of his citizenship in July 2017.

Comment: Saakashvili exhibits an preternatural, rat-like instinct for political survival. It is unlikely he will retire gracefully under the protection of his wife's citizenship. A small sample of his political and non-political incarnations.

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Stormtrooper

'Limited offensive': Syrian Army deploys massive reinforcements to Deir Ezzor for all-out offensive against US-backed forces

Andrew Illingworth
Al Masdar News
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 19:37 UTC
Syrian army soldiers

Syrian army soldiers
The Syrian Arab Army and allied paramilitaries are rushing massive reinforcements to the Euphrates valley region within Deir Ezzor province in what early reports are saying is preparation for an all-out offensive against US-backed forces.

Already, military-affiliated sources note that Syrian Army sentries have stepped up patrols along the west Euphrates bank whilst engineering units have been building new fortified areas and trenches.

Comment: From its side, the SDF and the US-led coalition had also deployed large reinforcements to their positions on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, according to Kurdish sources.
In cause of the escalation, the US-led coalition will carry out another series of heavy airstrikes similar to the ones conducted on February 7. However, some Syrian pro-government sources believe that the SAA may use air defense systems against US-led coalition warplanes in any future military confrontation.
...

Although of all of this tension, observers believe that the SAA and its allies will not risk to launch an attack against the US-led coalition now, as they are preparing for a more important battle around the Syrian capital, Damascus.
See also: Damascus vows Syrian Army will down 'any jet' that launches an assault

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Megaphone

Tucker Carlson "You have to be a moron" to believe Steele dossier (Video)

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 17:57 UTC
tucker carlson dossier moron
The Steele dossier is completely absurd, and yet the entire US government is fixated on it

What kind of a moron would believe the Steele dossier on Trump and Russia? Lots of Democrat and Hollywood elite morons...and lots of morons at MSNBC and CNN.

It's so transparently partisan, outrageous and full of fictitious claims, the dossier reads like a parody of a badly written spy novel.

Amazingly, the dossier is what the FBI used to justify spying on American citizens.

Tucker Carlson easily debunks the many claims that Democrats in Congress repeatedly cited as reason to stop the normal functioning of government, so that millions of tax payer dollars can be spent trying to figure out if Trump has been a Russian spy for the last 10 years.

Comment:

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Network

Putin and Saudi King Salman discuss Syrian crisis, Qatar, and cooperation on oil market policies


RT
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 16:17 UTC
Putin Salman
© Alexei Nikolsky / Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi King Salman have discussed the situation in Syria following the National Dialogue Congress in Sochi, as well as cooperation between the two countries on the world oil market.

The two leaders talked over the phone on Wednesday, the Kremlin's press service said. Russia's President and the Saudi King exchanged their opinions on the Syrian crisis, "taking into account the results of the Syrian National Congress in Sochi."

The Syrian National Dialogue Congress was held in Sochi, Russia, late in January, bringing together over 1,300 delegates representing different parts of Syrian society. The Saudi Arabia-based High Negotiations Committee (HNC), an umbrella body created back in 2016 to represent some of the Syrian rebel groups at the Geneva talks, however, boycotted the event, claiming they would stick solely to "credible political transition" in the UN-sponsored Geneva format instead.
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Snakes in Suits

Macron announces plan to introduce mandatory national service for all French youth


RT
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 17:10 UTC
French soldiers
© Ludovic Marin / AFP
Two decades after France scrapped compulsory military service, President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to introduce "obligatory" national service for all young people. It could also be a "civic engagement," Macron said.

"I want a mandatory service, open to women and men," the French leader said on Tuesday, adding that its duration could be "around three months" but could be "longer if we integrate a civic service." The president said the service will include "a mandatory part [set to last] between three and six months, which is not yet established."

The whole thing is "not about recreating massive barracks," Macron noted, however.

The planned service "will be universal, will involve the entire age group, and will be mandatory," government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux confirmed in an interview with Radio Classique earlier on Tuesday.
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