Or possibly not -- renegotiation is in process, according to that leaked telephone transcript.
20/07/17
Refugees held on Manus Island will begin leaving for the US in October for a one-off resettlement deal, according to the Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.
[AlAhram] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... sent artillery units to the border with Syria Saturday, where its army regularly festivities with Kurdish militia, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
A military convoy with at least five howitzers arrived overnight at the southern city of Kilis the scene of recent cross-border fire between the Ottoman Turkish army and the Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG).
The new units were there to reinforce rather than replace the artillery already in place, the agency reported, citing military sources.
Across the border from the province of Kilis lies an area of northwest Syria that is controlled by the YPG, which is Washington-backed but deemed a terror group by Ankara.
Ottoman Turkish troops and YPG have exchanged fire in the region several times in recent months and Turkey has threatened to launch another cross-border offensive.
Turkey considers the YPG as the Syrian arm of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged an over three decade insurgency against the Ottoman Turkish state.
But the United States works closely with the group as the best ground force in Syria to defeat Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) bully boys. Turkey's NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... allies do not regard the YPG as a terror organization.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/06/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Bill has been watered down a bit but still is better than existing situation.
Hamas has vowed to make the payments to families of terrorists (martyrs in their format) if the PA doesn't but that would mean taking money from other uses which would be dicey for hamas in the long term
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/06/2017 13:53 Comments ||
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#2
I've read that half the PA's budget goes on these payments. I doubt Hamas has the cash. Although Iran will.
[DAWN] Khyber Agency ... the place to go if you've got an Indiana Jones hat and whip. Chock full of high adventure and treacherous Pathans. You should really train up to it, though... will be free of terrorism on completion of the Khyber-IV operation, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa promised in a visit to Rajgal valley on Saturday. He also promised that the return of temporarily displaced persons will soon become possible.
In a detailed briefing on the operation, Gen Bajwa was informed that armed forces have cleared over 90 per cent of the target area of terrorists.
The army chief appreciated the professionalism of the participating troops and the support of the airforce in "skillful targeting of the terrorists' strongholds," according to a statement released by inter-Services Public Relations.
"With full backing of the nation, we are heading towards a normalised Pakistain where writ of state and supremacy of law would be second to none and where every Pak -- whether in cities, tribal or far-flung areas -- will be able to play their positive and rightful part in Pakistain's progress," Gen Bajwa said while talking to officers and troops, the army's media wing stated.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
...What's Khyber for, "suuuuuuuuuure it will..."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/06/2017 19:55 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV] Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has categorically ruled out the dismantling of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), commonly known as Hashd al-Sha’abi.
Abadi said on Saturday that the PMU operated under the supervision of the Iraqi government and religious leadership and was recognized by the state, making it clear that the group would not be dissolved.
Hashd al-Sha’abi is a group of Shia and Sunni fighters that was formed after the emergence of the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... ISIS terrorist group in Iraq in 2014. In the early days of ISIS’s terror campaign, the then-volunteer fighters played a major role in reinforcing the Iraqi army, which had suffered heavy setbacks in the face of lightening advances by the terrorists.
Last November, the Iraqi parliament recognized Hashd al-Sha’abi as an official force with similar rights as those of the regular army.
The Hashd al-Sha’abi forces are now actively cooperating with Iraqi forces in operations to rid the whole country of ISIS elements.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
This militia units are combined Shia & Sunni or separate units?
[IsraelTime] Paleostinian leader blasts Gazoo’s rulers for lighting up tunnels despite power shortage, accuses US of trying to block reconciliation
Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... pledged Saturday to keep cutting support payments for Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,-ruled Gazoo despite what he said was US criticism of such tactics.
"While there is a severe electricity crisis in Gazoo, Hamas provides light for its underground tunnels and the homes of its officials around the clock," Abbas told a group of prominent visitors from East Jerusalem at his Ramallah headquarters.
Abbas’s government in the West Bank began earlier this year to scale back electricity payments and other financial support to force Hamas to cede ground in Gazoo. Such cuts have exacerbated blackouts.
The Islamic terror group seized the territory in 2007 after defeating forces from Abbas’s Fatah faction. Reconciliation attempts failed.
Abbas told the gathering that the PA would "continue the cuts in Gazoo, gradually, unless Hamas accepts the requirements of the reconciliation."
He added that US officials had told him he shouldn’t cut electricity, and said that those opposed to pressuring Hamas "don’t want to see an independent state" -- presumably because a continued political split precludes independence.
His defiant tone toward Washington comes amid mounting criticism among Paleostinian officials, who say US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... and his envoys to the region having taking Israeli positions and stymying the possibility for meaningful peace talks.
On Tuesday, Abbas held a rare meeting in Ramallah with a delegation from Hamas over possible reconciliation between the rival factions.
The meeting, held at the PA’s headquarters in Ramallah, came amid reports that lightning talks aimed at restoring PA control in Gazoo and getting the PA to lift sanctions against Hamas are underway. The talks were initiated by Abbas, according to the London-based pan-Arab daily Rai al-Youm.
The Hamas delegation was headed by former Paleostinian education minister Nasser al-Din al-Shaer, and included Hamas politicians -- Mahmoud al-Ramahi, Mohammad Totah, Ayman Daraghmeh and Samir Abu Eisha.
According to a report of the meeting in the official PA news outlet Wafa, the sides "reviewed the general situation, ways of strengthening unity, and ending division."
In addition to power cuts in Gazoo throughout most of the day, recent months have seen a severe shortage of medicine and medical equipment in the enclave, a rights watchdog said in June, describing a worsening humanitarian situation.
A deal to truck in fuel from Egypt to keep a power plant running was brokered by Mohammed Dahlan, a former Fatah strongman, seen as a top rival to Abbas.
The PA president, who opposes what he sees as Hamas’s shadow government in Gazoo, has said privately that he is tired of being Hamas’s "ATM machine" and that if Hamas wants PA money it must cede power to the PA in the Strip, according to Rai al-Youm.
The new framework reportedly being discussed between the two sides would enable the PA to restore electricity supplies and allow Gazook banks to trade in foreign currency again.
But in return, Hamas must publicly renege on its agreement with Dahlan, and dismantle its governing structures in Gazoo, which, according to the PA, contravene previous agreements between the group and the PA, the report said.
[Iran Press TV] Hassan Rouhani has been sworn in as Iran's 12th president in the Iranian capital in the presence of the country’s high-ranking officials as well as leaders and senior politicians from around the world.
The inauguration ceremony opened at the Parliament building in Tehran on Saturday with delegates from more than 100 countries, including several heads of state, partaking in it.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2017 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[AlAhram] 
[Iran Press TV] Hassan Rouhani has been sworn in as Iran's 12th president in the Iranian capital in the presence of the country’s high-ranking officials as well as leaders and senior politicians from around the world.
