Mid-East News

Netanyahu orders gas masks for every Israeli

With Syria’s now-proven willingness to use chemical weapons, the possible threat of an unconventional attack brought Netanyahu to insists it’s time to get protection for all Israelis.

By Israel Today Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week ordered the defense establishment to urgently get gas masks and protective kits into the hands of all Israelis, according to Israel’s Channel 10 News.

Trying on my gas-mask – Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

Currently, only an estimated 42 percent of Israelis have up-to-date gas masks and protective kits. Budgetary constraints in recent years prevented both the manufacturing and distribution of enough masks to protect the entire population. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Chemical Weapons, gas mask

Moscow to sell at least 10 advanced MiG-29 fighter jets to Assad

Russian jet manufacturer Sergei Korotkov says his company signed contract to deliver MiG fighters to Damascus. Meanwhile, Russian news affiliates refute Assad’s assertions that he’s already received shipment.

News agencies

Russian arms manufacturer says it is signing a contract to deliver at least 10 fighter jets to Syria.

Russian Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29M-2 – Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Sergei Korotkov, general director of the MiG company that makes the jets, told Russian news agencies Friday that a Syrian delegation was in Moscow to discuss terms and deadlines of a new contract supplying MiG-29 M/M2 fighters to Syria.

Korotkov did not say how many MiGs Syria were buying, but says it would be “more than 10.” Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: MiG jets, Russia, Syria

Greek minister: Our countries have known each other for thousands of years

Peres & Abbas met separately with FM Dimitris Avramopoulos. While Shimon Peres focused on economic stability, the PA president said he looks towards the peace talks.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, GREER FAY CASHMAN

Both Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres met separately on Thursday with Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos, although the focus of the meetings seemed worlds apart.

Mahmoud Abbas meets Greece’s Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos in Ramallah May 30, 2013. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

Abbas received Avramopoulos at his presidential headquarters in Ramallah on Thursday, where they debated over the peace process, official PA news agency WAFA reported.

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Israel Greece, Mahmoud Abbas, Shimon Peres

Assad skips questions about Russian S-300 missile delivery to Syria

In an interview on Hezbollah-affiliated TV station, embattled regime leader seemed to contradict previous claim that Syria had taken delivery of Russian air defense systems.

By The Associated Press

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in a television interview broadcast Thursday that Russia has fulfilled some of its weapons contracts recently, but was vague on whether this included advanced S-300 air defense systems

President Bashar Assad speaking during an interview on Syrian state television. – Photo: AP

Assad’s actual comments differed from excerpts the TV station conducting the interview had sent to reporters in a text message on Thursday morning.

In that message, the Al-Manar station owned by the Lebanese militia Hezbollah quoted Assad as saying Syria had already received a first shipment of such missiles. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Bashar Assad, S-300 Missiles, Syria

Busted: Hezbollah cell nabbed and weapon cache confiscated in Nigeria

Nigerian state security forces have discovered & arrested a Hezbollah terror cell and recovered their store of weapon and explosives.

By Now News staff

Nigeria’s security services said Thursday they had discovered a home in the northern city of Kano where Lebanese nationals had stored weapons intended to attack Israeli and Western targets in Nigeria.

The military said the weapons carefully stored in sawdust – Photo: AFP

The Kano state intelligence chief, Bassey Etang, and a separate military statement described the compound as hosting a “terrorist cell” tied to the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.

No evidence was provided linking the home to the Lebanese group.

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Hezbollah, Nigeria

Argentinian prosecutor alleges Tehran assembled South American terrorist network

The prosecutor said Iran organized a 1982 seminar in Tehran that was attended by 380 religious men from 70 countries. The meeting was a turning point in the regime’s method of exporting the revolution, which included the use of violence & terrorism.

By JTA

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The Argentinian prosecutor in the AMIA Jewish center bombing case accused Iran of building clandestine intelligence stations in South American countries from which to launch terror attacks.

Remains of the AMIA after the 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina – Photo: Wikipedia commons

Prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s office made the accusations in a 502-page indictment released Wednesday that blames Iranian officials for the July 18, 1994 attack on the AMIA center, which killed 85 and injured hundreds.

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Argentina, Iran, terrorism

Hezbollah exiles Hamas members & officials saying, ‘leave Lebanon immediately’

Lebanese Shiite terrorist movement’s decision to oust Hamas from Lebanon comes as response to Palestinian’s role in fighting against Assad’s rule in Syria.

By Middle East Online staff

BEIRUT – The powerful Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah called on Hamas members and officials who are still present in Lebanon to leave the country ‘immediately and within hours.’ The decision comes as a response to the Palestinian Islamist movement’s role in the ongoing war in Syria against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

No longer friends, Hamas' Meshaal & Hezbollah's Nasrallah - Photo PIC

No longer friends, Hamas’ Mashaal & Hezbollah’s Nasrallah – Photo PIC

Media sources close to the Palestinian national liberation movement Fatah in Lebanon said a Hezbollah senior security official informed Hamas representative in Lebanon, Ali Baraka, that all of those related to Hamas on the Lebanese territory became have become unwelcome.

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: hamas, Hassan Nasrallah, Khaled Mashaal, Lebanon

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Bahrain to seek Hezbollah added to Gulf States’ terror list

Not only are Gulf States consider placing Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Gulf terror blacklist, Iranian spy networks running amuck in Gulf states to be addressed.

By The Daily Star staff

KUWAIT CITY: Gulf Arab states will consider placing Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which is openly involved in the Syrian conflict, on its terror list, Al-Rai daily quoted highly placed diplomats on Thursday as saying.

Hezbollah rally in Lebanon (archive) Photo Reuters

Hezbollah rally in Lebanon – Photo: Reuters

Bahrain will ask foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to discuss “placing Hezbollah on the terror list” at a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday, the newspaper said.

Bahrain currently holds the GCC’s rotating presidency. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: blacklist, Hezbollah, Iranian threat

Palestinian leader under int’l pressure to enter peace-talks

Aides reveal Mahmoud Abbas is torn between alienating Washington & Western countries or public backlash over his dropping settlement freeze as a precondition to begin negotiating.

Associated Press

The Palestinian president has told advisers that as the US tries to restart Mideast peace talks, he is under intense international pressure to return to negotiations with Israel and drop demands for a Jewish settlement freeze in the West Bank, officials said Wednesday.

Kerry, Abbas in Ramallah – Photo: AFP

In a closed meeting, Mahmoud Abbas lamented his difficult choice: Rebuff the Americans and alienate Washington, or cave in and face an uproar at home. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: John Kerry, Mahmoud Abbas, peace talks

Washington tells Hezbollah to leave Syria

U.S. St. Dept says Hezbollah involvement broadens Syrian unrest and is an “unacceptable & extremely dangerous escalation”.

US went on to affirms Washington’s continuing efforts to aid & support Syrian opposition.

By REUTERS

WASHINGTON – The US State Department called on Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia on Wednesday to withdraw its fighters from Syria immediately, saying their involvement on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad signaled a dangerous broadening of the war.

Hezbollah terrorists – Photo by EPA

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki condemned the declaration last weekend by the leader of the Lebanese guerrilla movement, Hasran Nasrallah. He confirmed his combatants were in Syria and vowed they would stay in the war “to the end of the road.”

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Hezbollah, Nasrallah, State Department, Syrian unrest

Jerusalem will act to prevent Russia’s S-300 missile from becoming operational

Netanyahu informs European foreign ministers that after Russian missiles get to Assad, Israel’s ‘entire airspace will become a no-fly zone’ & therefore it ‘cannot stand idly by.’

By Barak Ravid

Israel’s National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror sketched out what Jerusalem’s “red line” is vis-à-vis the S-300 missile systems Russia intends to send to Syria before the 27 European Union ambassadors in Israel.

In this picture taken on Thursday May 23, 2013, Israeli soldiers patrol their side near the southern Lebanese-Israeli border of Hamames village, Lebanon. – Photo: AP

Two diplomats who were in the room during the briefing last Thursday, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was a closed event, said that Amidror stressed Israel will act “to prevent the S-300 missiles from becoming operational” on Syrian soil. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Bashar Assad, Benjamin Netanyahu, EU, Hezbollah, Syria

Canada freezes trade with Iran over nuclear ambitions & human rights record

Canada first nation to completely disengage from Iranian imports and exports calling Iran the biggest threat to global security.

By REUTERS

OTTAWA – Canada will freeze all remaining trade with Iran to protest Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and its human rights record, Foreign Minister John Baird said on Wednesday.

John Baird visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem - Photo by Sebastian Scheiner-AP

John Baird visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem – Photo: Sebastian Scheiner/AP

Canada, which has had increasingly poor relations with Iran for more than a decade, had already imposed a series of trade sanctions. In 2012, bilateral trade was worth around C$135 million ($130 million).

Baird said Canada was particularly concerned by the failure of the United Nations’ nuclear agency this month to persuade Iran to let it resume an investigation into suspected atomic bomb research.

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Canada, Iran Nuclear threat, John Baird

israelandstuffcom | May 29, 2013

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Switzerland refuses entry to Saudi cleric for anti-Semitic rhetoric

‘Gulfnews’ wrote that the Swiss gov’t refused radical Saudi cleric Muhammad al-Arefe because of his misogynist & antisemitic ideologies.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

BERLIN – The Swiss government extended its ban of the radical Saudi Islamist scholar Muhammad al-Arefe because of his anti-Semitic and misogynist ideologies.

Mohammed Al-Arefe – Photo Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The website GulfNews.com reported on his denial of entry into Switzerland on Monday.

The Swiss government initially barred al-Arefe from entering the country in December to attend the second annual conference of the Swiss Central Islamic Council.

Germany permitted al-Arefe to deliver talks in April and last year at an Islamic center that houses a kindergarten in the city of Mainz.

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: anti-Semitism, Muslim clerics, Switzerland, Wahhabi

israelandstuffcom | May 28, 2013

PA chief negotiator Erekat demonstrates Palestinians flimsy grasp of democracy

Palestinian officials have repeatedly claimed Netanyahu is the one opposing peace on Arab terms (returning to ’67 lines, releasing prisoners, permitting 5.5 mil Arab ‘refugees’ to return to Israel instead of moving to Palestine).

Apparently, Erekat has failed to grasp that Israel is an actual democracy state, where its leader speaks for those who put him in office.

By Ryan Jones

At the World Economic Forum in Jordan this week, Israeli President Shimon Peres gushed about the peace process, US Secretary of State John Kerry gushed about the peace process, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas…well, he used the word peace, though it’s debatable as to what was his end goal. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: peace talks, Saeb Erekat, Shimon Peres

israelandstuffcom | May 28, 2013