Suspected Israeli revenge killing of Palestinian triggers clashes.

Suspected Israeli revenge killing of Palestinian triggers clashes.

JERUSALEM | Reuters | 02 July 2014 : :  The body of an abducted Palestinian youth was found in Jerusalem on Wednesday, raising suspicions he had been killed by Israelis avenging the deaths of three abducted Jewish teens.

News of the discovery of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair, who was last seen being bundled into a van earlier in the day, triggered clashes between rock-throwing Palestinians and Israeli police in the city.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Jewish settlers of killing Abu Khudair and demanded that Israel "mete out the strongest punishment against the murderers if it truly wants peace".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged police "to swiftly investigate who was behind the loathsome murder and its motive." He called on all sides "not to take the law into their own hands."

The United States also condemned the killing, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry calling it a "despicable and senseless abduction and murder." He urged both Israeli and Palestinian officials "to take all necessary steps to prevent acts of violence and bring their perpetrators to justice." Police said they had found a body in the wooded outskirts of Jerusalem. Abu Khudair's father told Reuters the force had told him the body was his son.

An Israeli security source said Israel suspected the youth had been kidnapped and murdered, possibly in retribution for the killings of the Israeli teens, whose corpses were discovered on Monday, nearly three weeks after they were abducted in the occupied West Bank. Israel says Palestinian Hamas militants killed them. The Islamist group has neither confirmed nor denied the allegation.( Courtesy : F World )

North Korea denies aiding Syria in fight against rebels.

North Korea denies aiding Syria in fight against rebels.

SEOUL | 15 Nov 2013 ::  North Korea denied it was sending military aid to the Syrian government, one of its few close allies, in its battle against rebel forces after media reports said that Pyongyang had sent advisors and helicopter pilots.

"Some foreign media are floating misinformation that the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) supplied war equipment to Syria, its airmen are directly involved in air-raids on insurgent troops in Syria," the North's state run KCNA news agency said late on Thursday.

The Jerusalem Post reported in October that 15 North Korean helicopter pilots were operating in Syria "on behalf of President Bashar Assad's regime" and said the report had been confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Other reports have identified North Korean artillery officers as being in Syria, although they were said not to be directing fire.

North Korea has long-standing ties with Syria and constructed a plutonium reactor there that was destroyed by an Israeli strike in 2007. It also has links with Syria's chemical weapons program.

Under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States, Assad agreed to destroy all Syria's chemical weapons after Washington threatened to use force in response to a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people on August 21.

Japanese media reports in August said Turkey had intercepted a shipment of gas masks and small arms from North Korea to Syria.

The North is under United Nations sanctions for its nuclear weapons and missile program and its role in proliferating nuclear and missile technology.(Courtesy: Dawn)

Syria to target Israel if US attacks.

‘Syria to target Israel if US attacks’

Press TV | 14 Sep 2013 :: The Syrian minister of reconciliation warns that Israel will be among Syria’s prime targets in case of any US attack on the Arab country, Press TV reports.

In an interview with Press TV on Friday, Ali Haidar said the right of Damascus to defend itself will begin from within Syrian territories and extend beyond its borders. 

Haidar also highlighted Saudi Arabia’s role in the Syrian conflict, saying the head of kingdom’s intelligence apparatus Prince Bandar Bin Sultan is the man who is pushing for government-change in Syria. 

On Saturday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reached an agreement on a framework for Syria to verify it is eliminating all its chemical weapons. 

Under the agreement, the government of President Bashar al-Assad must destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons by mid-2014. 

On September 9, Syria welcomed a proposal made by Russia to put its chemical weapons stockpile under international control. 

The Russia plan was aimed at averting a US military strike in retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack last month in the suburbs of Damascus which the White House blames on the Syrian government. 

Damascus has categorically rejected the allegation, saying the foreign-backed militant groups staged the attack to incriminate the government. 

The Syrian ambassador to the UN said on Thursday that his country became a full member of the international treaty prohibiting the use of chemical weapons. (Courtesy:Press Tv)

Lebanon braces for US strike.

Lebanon braces for US strike.

A Syrian boy looks out from his tent at a temporary refugee
 camp in the eastern Lebanese town of Marj near the border
 with Syria on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013. The Lebanese are
 on the frontline of the latest west Asian crisis as the US laid
 the groundwork for a possible punitive strike.AP Photo

BEIRUT | 04 Sep 2013 :: Up in a small village on Mount Lebanon, an elderly man, Antoine, recounts the horrors of the Lebanese civil war (1975-90). “I had a machine gun. I had an M16 and a Kalashnikov,” he said calmly. “It was a dirty war. We don’t want that again” Not far, across a ridge, lies Syria. He reflects on what that war might bring to his small, coastal country. “We will not return to our civil war,” Antoine says. “We experienced it already. We saw that it is fruitless. We will not return to it.”

Scars of the Lebanese civil war dot the country, but monumentally so in Beirut. During the Battle of the Hotels in the early years of the war, the Christian Phalangists took control of the Holiday Inn in West Beirut to use as a base against the Lebanese National Movement. Today, the Holiday Inn stands as a sentinel of the destruction. At its base sit a force of armoured carriers of the Lebanese army. The floors above are rattled with bullet holes and missile craters. The Holiday Inn would be an artefact in the Museum of Futile Wars. A taxi driver from Idlib, Syria, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, weaves his old Renault past the Holiday Inn. He points frantically at the building and says, “Surya, Surya,” the Arabic for Syria. Previously he had described the devastation in his native city, from where he had fled two years ago. “We had to go,” he said. “Our building had become the frontline.”

The southern suburbs of Beirut, Dahieh, bristle with activity in preparation for more car bombs or even an aerial strike from Israel. Hezbollah, whose main Beirut base is in these neighbourhoods, is constantly on alert for some kind of attack. It is an organisation that is founded on the defence of this fragile country, whose sovereignty has been threatened since it came into existence as a modern state in 1943. Conversations in the area are often punctuated with fears about Israeli agents on the ground or Israeli drones flying overhead.(Courtesy:The Hindu)

Egypt’s Sinai emerges as new theater for jihad.

Egypt’s Sinai emerges as new theater for jihad.

Peninsula becoming a hotbed for terror groups since the ouster of Islamist president Morsi

Egyptian Army personnel supervise the destruction of tunnels
between Egypt and the Gaza Strip at the border, near the town
 of Rafah, northern Sinai, Egypt, Tuesday Sept. 3, 2013
 (photo credit: AP/AP Television)

CAIRO  | AP | 04 Sep 2013 ::  An Egyptian doctor once close to Osama bin Laden is bringing together multiple al-Qaida-inspired militant groups in Egypt’s Sinai to fight the country’s military, as the lawless peninsula emerges as a new theater for jihad, according to Egyptian intelligence and security officials.

There have been other signs of a dangerous shift in the longtime turmoil in the peninsula bordering Israel and Gaza since the military’s July 3 ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, the officials say. With the shifts, Sinai’s instability is becoming more regionalized and threatens to turn into an outright insurgency.

Sinai has seen an influx of foreign fighters the past two months, including several hundred Yemenis. Several militant groups that long operated in the area to establish an Islamic Caliphate and attack their traditional enemy Israel have joined others in declaring formally that their objective now is to battle Egypt’s military.

Also, Sinai has become the focus of attention among major regional jihadi groups. Al-Qaida’s branch in Iraq last weekend called on Egyptians to fight the military, as did al-Qaida’s top leader, Ayman al-Zawahri. The militant considered the most dangerous man in the Sahara — one-eyed terror leader Moktar Belmoktar, a former member of al-Qaida’s North Africa branch — joined forces with a Mali-based jihadi group last month and vowed attacks in Egypt.

Topping the most wanted list in Sinai is Ramzi Mawafi, a doctor who joined al-Qaida in Afghanistan in the 1990s. Mawafi, 61, escaped from an Egyptian prison in 2011 in a massive jailbreak that also sprung free Morsi and more than a dozen Muslim Brotherhood members during the chaos of the uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak.(Courtesy: Times of Israel)

Israel confirms testing missile jointly with US.

Israel confirms testing missile jointly with US.

Press Tv | 03 Sep 2013 :: Israel says it has successfully conducted a joint missile test with the United States in the Mediterranean Sea, amid high tensions in the region over a possible attack on Syria.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Military Affairs, an Ankor-type radar missile was launched on Tuesday in the joint test with the US. 

Israeli media say the missile was fired to simulate ballistic missiles such as Shahab and Scud. 

This is while the US Navy says it has fired no missiles. 

Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had detected two “ballistic targets” fired toward the eastern part of the Mediterranean from the sea’s central part. 

The launch of the ballistic objects was detected at 10:16 Moscow time (06:16 GMT) by a radar system in the southern Russian city of Armavir, a Defense Ministry spokesman was quoted by Russia’s Ria Novosti as saying. 

Tensions are running high as Washington is pushing for military action against Syria over the alleged use of chemical weapons by Syrian government forces in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21. 

Damascus has vehemently denied the accusations, saying the chemical attack was carried out by the militants themselves as a false-flag operation. 

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies - especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey - are supporting the militants operating inside Syria. 

On July 25, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said more than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria since the outbreak of the foreign-sponsored militancy in the country. (Courtesy:Press Tv)

French Muslim Attacked for Interfaith Ties to Jews.

French Muslim Attacked for Interfaith Ties to Jews.

02 Sep 2013 :: A French imam known for promoting Jewish-Muslim relations said he was physically assaulted in Tunisia by a man who called him a “Zionist.”

The attacker of Hassen Chalghoumi, the imam of Drancy near Paris, punched him in the chest and shoved him to the ground on Sunday near Hotel Gammarth near Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.

“He insulted me, called me a ‘Zionist and collaborator’ and then he hit me,” Chalghoumi was quoted Monday as telling Le Parisien daily. Chalghoumi was assaulted in front of his wife and children, who also were hit by the unnamed attacker, the report said.

According to the report, the man, who addressed Chalghoumi in French, was detained by hotel staffers and arrested by police. Chalghoumi was taken to hospital after the incident, according to the French news agency AFP. Neither he nor his family members sustained serious injuries.

Chalghoumi, who is well-known in France for his involvement in interfaith forums and initiatives, has received many death threats in France for his friendly ties with CRIF, the umbrella group representing French Jewish communities, and for visiting Israel several times.(Courtesy:The Jewish Daily Forward)

Netanyahu: Israel is ready for every possible scenario on Syria.

Netanyahu: Israel is ready for every 

possible scenario on Syria.

Israeli army Merkava tanks are seen stationed in a deployment
 training area in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights near the
 border with Syria on August 28, 2013. (AFP)

Al Arabia | 01 Sep 2013 :: Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his country was prepared for “every possible scenario” that could happen in adjacent Syria after U.S President Barack Obama delayed military action.

“Israel is calm and sure of itself, the citizens of Israel know that we are prepared for every possible scenario,” he told ministers at a cabinet meeting, in remarks broadcast on public radio, according to Reuters.

Although the White House is currently waiting for U.S. Congress to convene on Syria, Israel’s military is on high alert over a possible strike, Israel-based news site Ynet reported on Sunday.

U.S. President Barack Obama has chosen to seek congressional approval for military action on Syria.

The Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) Northern Command and Air Force is currently on high alert, with the Iron Dome and Patriot missile systems expected to be positioned in the country’s north and central areas.

Israeli political sources quoted by Ynet noted that waiting for Congress to convene on Syria will mean that the U.S. will not attack Syria until at least ten days. Congress does not return from recess until September 9.

“Obama is determined to take action, and as far as Israel is concerned when an attack is launched is meaningless,” said a source quoted by the website.

“What's important is the president's clear stance that he will not stand idly by.”

By seeking approval from Congress, Obama now risks the same fate as British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was defeated on Friday when he lost his motion in support of military action on Syria.

The Syrian government said on Saturday that it has its “finger on the trigger” as it braced for what it had considered an imminent Western military strike, following the departure of U.N. weapons inspectors.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)

Israelis divided over fallout from Syrian attack.

Israelis divided over fallout from Syrian attack.

Slight plurality think Assad will hit Israel if US intervenes militarily, despite official assessment that odds of retaliation are low

Israelis wait to collect gas mask boxes at a distribution center
 in Tel Aviv on August 28, 2013. (photo credit: Gili Yaari/Flash90)

01 Sep 2013 :: Israelis are mostly split on whether they think Syria will try to hit Israel in the aftermath of a possible US-led attack, a poll partially released Sunday found.

The survey, conducted for the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University as part of the monthly Peace Index, also found that most Israeli Jews think Washington’s position in the region will be strengthened by such a move.

According to the poll, 46 percent of Jewish Israelis think Assad will carry out his threat to hit Israel, while 42% think he will not.

Among Arab Israelis, 40% believe Assad will attack Israel, and 47% believe he will not.

Israeli officials have said there is only a small probability Israel will take on rocket attacks as a result of US action, as Syria and Iran have threatened. However, masses of Israelis swarmed gas mask distribution centers last week over fears of a possible attack, and the IDF slightly raised its alertness level.

On Saturday, US President Barack Obama announced that he would seek Congressional approval for military action against Syria, an apparent about-face after Washington seemed poised to hit Damascus in retaliation for a chemical attack that the US says killed over 1,400 people on August 21.(Courtesy:Times of Israel)

Report: Saudi missile sites target Iran, Israel.

Report: Saudi missile sites target Iran, Israel.

The discovery is a sign that Saudi Arabia has prepared for the possibility that Iran will become a nuclear power, and it's a reminder that a decades-long truce between Saudi Arabia and Israel is just that, and not a peace treaty, one analyst says.

Satellite imagery over this Al Watah DF-3 complex on
 March 21, 2013, reveals details of a previously undisclosed
surface-to-surface missile facility within Saudi Arabia.

 Oren Dorell | 14 Jul 2013 :: Saudi Arabia has built missile launch pads that target both Iran and Israel with ballistic missiles, according to imagery and analysis by IHS Jane's, the British security consultancy.

While IHS Jane's analysts did not see actual missiles, the sites include command and control facilities and underground bunkers that likely conceal missiles and launchers nearby, said Allison Puccioni, a senior image analyst at IHS Jane's.

The discovery is a sign that Saudi Arabia has prepared for the possibility that Iran will become a nuclear power, and it's a reminder that a decades-long truce between Saudi Arabia and Israel is just that, and not a peace treaty, says Michael Rubin, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute who briefs members of the U.S. military on Iran.

The Saudis' "predominant fear is that Iran will become a nuclear power," Rubin said. "They're showing they're serious."

Puccioni said one site, at Al Watah, is about 5 years old and others were apparently build in the mid-2000s. They resemble missile launch sites in China built for the Dongfeng-3 (DF-3), a medium-range missile that can launch a 4,700-pound payload with a range of 1,600 miles. The DF-3 launches from trucks known as transporter erector launchers (TELs).

"We've not seen the TELs but the entire area has drive-in bunkers." she said. "How far it goes into the mountain I can't tell you, but it's wide and tall enough to accommodate a transporter erector launcher."

IHS Jane's analysts concluded that unlike two previously-known sites at Al Sulayyil and Al Jufayr, the new site at Al Watah has a different layout than previously known missile bases and that the new site "potentially serves as a training and storage complex with the ability to perform operational missile launches as required."

Launch pads at the new site also bear markings on the ground that point in the direction of Iranian and Israeli targets, they said.

"Saudi Arabia is likely to begin re-arming its missile stock with more modern and accurate Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs)," said Robert Munks, deputy editor of IHS Jane's Intelligence Review.

Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said in 2011 that his country would purchase "off the shelf" nuclear weapons if Iran developed its own supply. "For such short notice, the foundations for both nuclear-capable launch vehicles and for acquiring the warheads will need to be laid in advance," Munks said.

Kenneth Pollack, a senior fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said the Saudis started buying ballistic missiles from China in the 1980s at a time when Iran and Iraq were warring with similar weapons. The Saudis maintain the weapons as a deterrent to Iran, Iraq and Israel, its chief rivals in the region, Pollack said.

The most significant aspect of the IHS Jane's analysis is what it does not show, Pollack said: The review did not find that Saudi Arabia is investing in new missile capability to counter a growing threat from Iran.

"These are really old missiles," Pollack said. "Wouldn't you want faster, better missiles if only to send a message to the Iranians?"

Rubin says Saudi Arabia's current alliance with the United States and its truce with Israel should not be taken for granted because the monarchy leadership is in flux.

The succession to the Saudi throne passes from brother to brother, and many of that generation are now in their 80s. "Each king may last a year or so if not less," Rubin said.

And among the 3,000 or so princes, there are pro-Western moderates such as Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, as well as others who dislike the United States and lean toward radical ideologies, Rubin said.

"Anyone looking at this structure must recognize that what seems safe today could pose a tremendous threat in the future," Rubin said. (Courtesy:USA TODAY)

British report reveals Israel’s arms exports to Pakistan.

Soldiers crouch as a helicopter

 lands on top of Kund mountain 

near Kotkai village in South

 Waziristan, October 29, 2009.

 — Photo by Reuters/File

Israel|11|June|2013:: has exported security equipment over the past five years to Pakistan and four Arab countries, Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted a British government report as saying.

In addition to Pakistan, Israel has exported arms and security equipment to Egypt, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco, the report says.

The report deals with British government permits for arms and security equipment exports and was released by Britain’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The department oversees security exports and publishes regular reports on permits granted or denied to purchase arms, military equipment or civilian items that are monitored.

Haaretz reported that from January 2008 to December 2012, British authorities processed hundreds of Israeli applications to purchase military items containing British components for use by the Israel Defence Forces, or to go into systems exported to third countries.

The UK government reports also list the countries to which Israel sought to export the items. Among Israel’s clients are countries with which it does not have diplomatic ties.

The report says that in 2011 Israel sought to purchase British components to export radar systems to Pakistan, as well as electronic warfare systems, Head-up Cockpit Displays ‏(HUD‏), parts for fighter jets and aircraft engines, optic target acquisition systems, components of training aircraft, and military electronic systems.

Prior to that, in 2010, Israel applied for permits to export electronic warfare systems and HUDs with components from Britain to Pakistan. Also in 2010, Israel sought permits to supply Egypt and Morocco with Israeli electronic warfare systems and HUD systems that use British parts, the Haaretz said in its report.

In 2009, Israel requested permits from British authorities to process security equipment exports to Algeria, Morocco and the UAE. The exports processing south for Algeria and the UAE also including permits to supply components for drones.

According to the British reports, Israel’s other clients for military exports over the past five years include India, Singapore, Turkey, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Sweden, Portugal, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Holland, Italy, Germany, Spain, Thailand, Macedonia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Switzerland, Ecuador, Mexico, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Equatorial Guyana, Poland and Argentina.(Courtesy:Dawn)