[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan government has approved the deployment of UAE Special Forces in Afghanistan to participate in the train, advise, and assist mission led by NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... The Office of the President, ARG Palace, said the proposal for the deployment of the UAE Special Forces in the framework of the Resolute Support Mission was approved during a meeting of the National Security Council.
ARG Palace in a statement said the National Security Council meeting was organized in ARG Palace late on Tuesday afternoon and was chaired by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. The statement further added that the UAE Special Forces will be deployed to Afghanistan to train, advise, and assist the Afghan national defense and security forces.
According to ARG Palace, the UAE Special Forces will be deployed in accordance with the Status of Forces Agreement.
This comes as efforts are underway to bolster the capabilities of the Afghan national defense and security forces by expanding the training mission.
Several NATO member countries have also agreed to increase the number of their forces as part of the Resolute Support Mission led by NATO.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Wait. The UAE has special forces...?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
06/07/2018 6:04 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Well, the Sicherheitsdienst were also a "special force), so take the designation as you will...
#3
Richard, according to this guy they do...verdict is still out in my mind if he is crackpot or not but he does have some interesting perspectives on the ME and UAE. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1004597590443286528.html
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan government is set to release at least 269 prisoners belonging to Hezb-e-Islami as per the peace accord signed in late 2016.
The Office of the President, ARG Palace, said the decision to release more inmates of Hezb-e-Islami was taken during the meeting of the National Security Council chaired by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. According to a statement released by ARG Palace, the schedule for the release of Hezb-e-Islami prisoners was presented during the meeting by the relevant authorities.
The statement further added that the participants of the meeting reviewed the list and necessary decisions were taken regarding the release of the inmates.
This comes as at least 75 prisoners of Hezb-e-Islami were released from Kabul’s Puli Charkhi prison earlier in January.
The inmates are being released as part of the agreement reached between the Afghan government and Hezb-e-Islami for the conclusion of the peace deal.
The peace deal between the Afghan government and Hezb-e-Islami was signed late in the year of 2016.
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06/07/2018 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] Sudan said on Wednesday it had cut all defence ties with North Korea, in a rare admission that it used to have such ties in the first place.
The announcement came as Washington is locked in a standoff over Pyongyang's missile and nuclear weapons programmes, and as Sudan, which is still on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, reels from an economic crisis.
"Sudan's government would like to affirm that its defence production sector has cancelled all contracts ... with North Korea, and ended all relations, direct or through a third party," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
It said this came as part of its commitment to the international Non-Proliferation Treaty and sanctions against Pyongyang. It did not say when ties had been severed, or provide details of what they had been.
The United States lifted 20 years of sanctions on Sudan in October, in a move that looked set to help Sudan's ailing economy, but the country has since plunged into a fiscal crisis, with the Sudanese pound's value plummeting and no significant increase in foreign investment.
Washington said then that Sudan had made progress fighting terrorism, and that it had secured Khartoum’s commitment not to pursue arms deals with North Korea.
But Sudan remains on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism - alongside Syria and Iran - which means a ban on weapons sales and restrictions on U.S. aid.
Sudan's economic problems led to widespread protests earlier this year.
[AnNahar] NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... on Wednesday declined an overture by Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... to join the Western military defence alliance, saying membership was reserved to the United States and Europe.
It was responding to a comment by Qatar's defence minister on Tuesday that his country's long-term strategic "ambition" was to join NATO.
"According to Article 10 of the Washington Treaty, only European countries can become members of NATO," an official of the 29-country alliance told AFP.
"Qatar is a valuable and longstanding partner of NATO," the official said.
Speaking on the anniversary of a bitter year-long diplomatic dispute among Gulf nations that has seen Qatar isolated from its former regional allies, Defence Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah said Qatar wanted to become a full member of NATO.
"Qatar today has become one of the most important countries in the region in terms of the quality of armament," Attiyah told the official magazine of the Qatari defence ministry, Altalaya.
"Regarding the membership, we are a main ally from outside NATO... The ambition is full membership if our partnership with NATO develops and our vision is clear."
His remarks come at a politically sensitive time in the region.
On June 5, 2017, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt abruptly severed ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism and Iran.
The four countries expelled Qataris, and the country's only land border with Saudi Arabia has been closed for the past year.
Diplomatic efforts have so far proved fruitless in what was previously one of the most stable regions in the Arab world.
#3
Missing a golden opportunity here: NATo could become a broker to assist in both the buying and selling of the A380 from Airbus; Qatar is the biggest customer and AB needs the sales; already 2 of the birds are going to the breakers as second hand buyers are non-existent.
[DAWN] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s Tayyip Erdogan is seen failing to get the majority he needs to win a June 24 presidential election in the first round, but is expected to gain a majority in the second round two weeks later, a survey by pollster SONAR showed on Tuesday.
Turks will vote in both parliamentary and presidential elections later this month after Erdogan, the president, declared a snap election in April. After the vote, Turkey will switch to a powerful executive presidency that was narrowly approved in a referendum last year.
The survey of 3,000 respondents in 26 of Turkey’s 81 provinces showed Erdogan receiving 48.3 percent of votes in the first round, with the main opposition party candidate, Muharrem Ince, seen at 31.4 percent. The poll was conducted between May 29 and June 3.
More than 53 percent of respondents said they would vote for Erdogan against Ince in the second round.
In the parliamentary vote, Erdogan’s ruling AK Party was seen earning 42.2 percent. Its alliance partner, the nationalist MHP, was expected to garner 7.1 percent of votes.
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06/07/2018 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] A Ottoman Turkish court on Tuesday ordered the conditional release of one of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's most prominent cartoonists a day after he was jugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! to serve a 14-month sentence for insulting President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... , media reported.
Nuri Kurtcebe, 69, was detained and sent to prison Monday after a police check found him on a bus travelling in the northwestern Ottoman Turkish city of Yalova,
But his lawyer Erdem Akyuz told Ottoman Turkish media that a tribunal ruled Tuesday evening that the cartoonist should be released on probation.
"My client Nuri Kurtcebe will resume hs work, his drawings and his cartoons after having been deprived of his pencils and ink for two days," Akyuz was quoted as saying by the private Dogan news agency.
Kurtcebe had been handed the jail term last year for several caricatures he drew in 2015, but launched an appeal and remained free pending the ruling.
His lawyer said earlier Tuesday that the authorities were enforcing the sentence after an appeal was turned down by an upper court.
[AnNahar] Amnesia Amnesty International on Wednesday vowed to intensify efforts to win the release of its The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... chairman who has spent a year in jail on "baseless" charges of links to the group blamed for a failed July 2016 coup.
Taner Kilic has been held since June 2017 in the western city of Izmir, accused of links to US-based preacher Fethullah Gülen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... who Turkey says ordered the coup. Gulen denies the accusation.
Kilic is one of dozens of journalists and rights activists caught up in the crackdown launched under a state of emergency after the coup, which critics say has netted not just the suspected plotters but also opponents of President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... "Today we mourn the year of Taner Kilic's life that Turkey's government has unjustly taken from him," Salil Shetty, Amnesia Amnesty International's secretary general, said in a statement.
"But this is also a moment to redouble our efforts to secure his release and that of many other civil society activists whose work has cost them their freedom," Shetty added.
Kilic was placed in durance vile Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! on June 6, 2017, on what Amnesty describes as the "baseless charge of belonging to a terrorist organization".
Authorities accused Kilic of having an encrypted messaging application on his phone in August 2014 called ByLock, which Ankara claims was especially created for Gulen supporters.
In a cruel twist, an Istanbul court earlier this year ordered his conditional release but then overturned its decision within 24 hours, and he has been in jail ever since.
His next hearing is set for June 21. If he is found guilty, he could face up to 15 years in jail.
Kilic is on trial with 10 other rights activists including Amnesty's Turkey director Idil Eser, who were detained on terror charges after holding a workshop on an island off Istanbul. The other 10 were all released last year though their trial continues. They will also appear in court on June 21.
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06/07/2018 00:00 ||
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[LMTONLINE] U.S. border agents made more than 50,000 arrests in May for the third month in a row, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday, an indication that escalating enforcement tactics by the Trump administration - including separating migrant parents from their children - has not had an immediate deterrent effect.
DHS took 51,912 migrants colonists into custody in May, more than three times the number detained in May 2017, a period when illegal immigration plunged following 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... 's inauguration.
Arrests at the border this spring have jumped to their highest levels since Trump took office, and the reversal has left the president furious at Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and other aides who he believes aren't doing enough to stop the trend.
Border arrest statistics have long served as a metric for illegal immigration flows, but the Trump administration has treated their monthly publication as a barometer for the president's security efforts.
White House aides have been receiving regular updates on illegal migration trends this spring, and administration officials said last week they were not surprised by the May numbers, expecting them to remain high into the summer. Homeland Security front man Tyler Houlton said in statement Wednesday the administration's crackdown needed more time to work.
"These numbers show that while the Trump administration is restoring the rule of law, it will take a sustained effort and continuous commitment of resources over many months to disrupt cartels, smugglers, and nefarious actors," Houlton said.
"No one expects to reverse years of political inaction overnight or in a month," he added.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the May numbers or on whether the president has seen them.
Eager to campaign on his border security agenda ahead of November's midterm elections, Trump has told aides that curbing illegal immigration is crucial to GOP success. He cited the issue as one of his key achievements in a tweet Monday marking the 500th day of his presidency.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Prosecution witnesses in the Naqeebullah Mehsud killing case have been receiving threats, the prosecution lawyer told the Anti-Terrorism Court on Wednesday.
Suspended SSP Malir Rao Anwar and his 11 detained subordinates, with around 15 absconding officers are accused of abducting an aspiring model, Naseemullah, better known as Naqeebullah Mehsud, for ransom and killing him with three other detainees by dubbing them ’militants’ in a staged encounter in Malir on Jan 13.
Advocate Salahuddin Panhwar made the revelation today as the court was deliberating over a bail application for the suspended SSP Malir and his 11 detained subordinates.
Panhwar had asked the ATC judge how justice could be served in such an environment when witnesses are being threatened.
Despite the prosecution lawyer's earlier objections, Anwar was produced in court amid protocol and without handcuffs.
The court subsequently deferred arguments on the request for bail from the defending counsel until June 9.
The prosecution lawyer, while speaking to news hounds after the hearing said that the court should ensure security for witnesses.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The British High Commission in Pakistan on Wednesday expressed concern over the abduction of journalist and activist Gul Bukhari, saying it is reaching out to her for consular assistance.
Bukhari, who is a dual British-Pakistani citizen, was abducted by unknown persons in Lahore on Tuesday night. Early on Wednesday, her family confirmed she was home and “fine”.
"We are very concerned at reports of Gul Bukhari’s abduction last night," the British High Commission said in a tweet. "As a dual Pakistani-British national, the British High Commission is reaching out with consular assistance." Still nothing in The Nation about it.
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[NATION.PK] LAHORE - A sessions court on Wednesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for eight personnel of Nawab Town Police Station for killing a lawyer’s son in an alleged encounter three years ago.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Munsif Khan passed the order while hearing a private complaint moved by Advocate Muhammad Masood Akhtar. The judge issued non-bailable arrest warrant after the accused repeatedly ignored the court orders for appearance. Masood Akhtar, father of deceased Ihtesham Masood, had moved a private complaint to the court imploring that Naseerabad SHO/SI Khalid Pervez, Nawab Town SHO/SI Imran Qamar, Nawab Town SI Naveed Aslam, Inspector Sajjad Rasheed, Constable Muhammad Azam, Muhammad Javed, Muhammad Riaz and driver Abdul Ghafoor kidnapped his son from outside the sessions court and took him to an unknown place. He said that accused SHO Imran Qamar, SHO Khalid Pervez, Inspector Sajjad Rasheed and others killed his son Ihtesham Masood. The body of his son, he said, was later found in Jinnah Hospital’s mortuary. He said that police potted his son and ruined their lives. He asked the court to take action against the accused for killing his son. The court adjourned the hearing until June 11. Islampura police booked the police officials on charges of murder.
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[PRESSTV] The Iraqi parliament has voted in favor of a manual recount of votes in the country's May 12 parliamentary elections.
On Wednesday, politicians also voted for the suspension of Iraq’s Independent High Elections Commission (IHEC) and its replacement by nine judges.
"The Independent High Elections Commission shall commit to a manual recount in all voting centers in Iraq under the supervision of the Supreme Judicial Council and with the attendance of representatives from political groups and the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... ," said an amendment issued by the parliament.
It also annulled the results from overseas votes and those from internally displaced voters in Anbar, Salahudin, Diyala and Nineveh provinces.
The amendment also voided the future use of electronic vote-counting devices.
The votes were initially counted with an electronic system that was meant to stop fraud but is now being blamed for irregularities.
On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said there were "dangerous" violations and that he mostly blamed the IHEC, high-ranking members of which he banned from exiting the country.
On May 28, Iraqi's parliament predominantly canceled expats' and internally displaced people's votes in the parliamentary elections.
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06/07/2018 00:00 ||
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[Jpost] Israel fears that the Argentine Football Association’s cancellation of a Jerusalem soccer match out of fear for the life of its star player Lionel Messi and his family, sets a dangerous precedent for future international events.
"The decision behind the cancellation is because of one reason only, the threats by terror elements sent to Messi, his family and to other players in the Argentina team,” Miri Regev said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the cancellation was "disappointing and unfortunate." He told news hounds in London that he hoped "it would not affect other events."
"We must prepare for the possibility that all kinds of pressure will be exerted," Netanyahu said.
Continued on Page 49
[Ynet] New facility at Natanz's uranium enrichment center will allow Tehran to increase its nuclear enrichment capacity, yet stay within the provisions of the nuclear deal; Iran can use 5,060 older-model centrifuges at Natanz, but only to enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent.
Iran's nuclear chief on Wednesday inaugurated the Islamic Theocratic Republic's new nuclear enrichment facility that is geared toward producing centrifuges which will operate within the limits of the nuclear deal Tehran signed with world powers.
Iranian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
broadcast an interview with Ali Akbar Salehi after nightfall, showcasing the facility at Natanz's uranium enrichment center.
In the interview, Salehi said the facility's construction began even before the 2015 deal was signed and that he hopes the first centrifuges‐known as old-generation centrifuges‐will roll out in a month's time.
In a gesture likely directed at the Trump administration's withdrawal from the deal, Iran on Tuesday informed the UN nuclear watchdog that it will increase its nuclear enrichment capacity, yet stay within the provisions of the accord.
The landmark agreement, which lifted crippling economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its uranium enrichment program, has been facing its greatest diplomatic challenges in the wake of 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... 's decision to pull America out of it.
European nations and others involved in the accord are now trying to salvage it, and many companies that rushed to make billion-dollar deals with Iran now are backing out for fear of being targeted by US sanctions.
Natanz, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of the capital, Tehran, includes underground facilities protected by some 7.6 meters (25 feet) of concrete, which offer protection from Arclight airstrikes.
The Stuxnet computer virus, widely believed to be an American and Israeli creation, caused thousands of centrifuges at Natanz to spin themselves to destruction at the height of the West's fears over Iran's program.
Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran agreed to store its excess centrifuges at Natanz under constant surveillance by the UN nuclear watchdog, the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran can use 5,060 older-model centrifuges at Natanz, but only to enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent. Natanz was designed to have as many as 50,000 centrifuges operating there.
In Wednesday's interview, Salehi said mass-production for new-generation centrifuges will take years to be fully operational. "Every new generation of centrifuges needs eight to 10 years for testing," he said.
That low-level enrichment means the uranium can be used to fuel a civilian reactor but is far below the 90 percent needed to produce a weapon. Iran also can possess no more than 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of that uranium. That's compared to the 100,000 kilograms (220,460 pounds) of higher-enriched uranium it once had.
Iran also this week told the IAEA it had a "tentative schedule to start production of UF6," or uranium hexafluoride. Uranium hexafluoride gas is spun by centrifuges to make enriched uranium that can be used in nuclear weapons and atomic reactor fuel. That work is also restrained under the nuclear deal.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned Iran against restarting higher enrichment of uranium.
"It is always dangerous to flirt with the red lines," he said.
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06/07/2018 00:59 ||
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[AlAhram] The strategic town of Manbij in northern Syria won't be abandoned by the US-led coalition, a local military official said Wednesday after the leading Kurdish militia announced its withdrawal.
On Tuesday the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) said it was pulling its military advisers from Manbij, where they had been training local forces in the fight against the 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.... group.
The announcement came a day after an agreement between the US and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... over the future of the Arab-majority town, which sits just 30 kilometres (about 20 miles) from the Ottoman Turkish border.
Manbij's military council had not been privy to the details of the deal, but it has received reassurances that the US-led coalition will not leave the town, the council's chief Mohamad Mustafa Abu Adel said.
"With this agreement, we have had meetings with high-level officials from the coalition who have assured us that in no case will they abandon the town of Manbij," Abu Adel told AFP.
The YPG forms the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-Arab alliance that has received extensive backing from the US-led coalition.
The militia spearheaded a victorious offensive in 2016 to drive IS from Manbij, where French and US troops belonging to the Western coalition against the jihadists are currently stationed.
"The coalition forces are still there at their outposts," Abu Adel told AFP on the sidelines of a news conference.
Dozens of YPG advisers were expected to leave the town within days, he added.
Ottoman Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the aim of the roadmap agreed with the United States was to "eradicate the YPG" from Manbij.
"Then we will work (with the Americans) to set up a security framework, and we will decide together who will manage the town," he said on Wednesday.
Ankara accuses the YPG of being the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is outlawed in Turkey.
Washington's support for the YPG has strained relations with Ankara, which fears the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region on its southern border.
[AlAhram] The militia controlling the flashpoint north Syrian town of Manbij said on Wednesday it would not accept any Ottoman Turkish military deployment there, after Ankara and Washington said they had reached an agreement for administering the area.
"We will not accept that," said a front man for the Manbij Military Council, a militia allied to the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria, when asked by Rooters if it would accept a Ottoman Turkish military presence in the area.
It said in an earlier statement it did not know the details of the The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... -U.S. roadmap for Manbij announced on Monday, but added it was capable of preserving the security and borders of the town against any external threats.
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06/07/2018 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] La Belle France, Britannia, Germany and the EU on Wednesday sent the United States a joint official request for their companies to be exempt from punitive measures resulting from fresh US sanctions on Iran.
"As allies, we expect that the United States will refrain from taking action to harm Europe's security interests," said the letter to US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said the three countries and the EU were asking the US "to exempt European businesses doing legitimate trade in Iran from all extraterritorial American sanctions".
"Those businesses must be able to pursue their activities," he wrote on Twitter.
The plea comes as European leaders scramble to save the hard-fought deal signed between Iran and world powers in 2015 under which Tehran agreed to limits on its nuclear capacities in exchange for relief from crippling economic sanctions.
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... announced he was abandoning the deal last month -- which will mean new sanctions on the Islamic republic and punitive measures for those who trade with it.
Analysts say European firms which have rushed to invest in Iran after the lifting of sanctions over the past three years have the most to lose from the renewed sanctions.
Several major companies including La Belle France's Total and the Netherlands' Maersk have already said it will be impossible to stay in Iran once the sanctions are fully reimposed over the next six months, unless they receive explicit exemptions from Washington.
French automaker PSA said Monday that it would pull out of two joint ventures to sell its cars in Iran to avoid the risk of punishing fines.
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06/07/2018 00:00 ||
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[PRESSTV] A former top aide to ex-US president Barack Obama It’s very rare that I come to an event where I’m like the fifth- or sixth-most interesting person.... says Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... gave a delegation of United States officials visiting the kingdom for the first time large suitcases containing jewelry worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Obama’s speechwriter and former deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes wrote in his newly-released memoir that Saudi authorities gave White House aides the suitcases on their arrival to Riyadh in June 2009.
In the book, entitled "The World As It Is," Rhodes explained that after landing in Saudi Arabia, the US officials were taken by golf carts to "identical housing units amid the rolling desert."
"When I opened the door to my unit, I found a large suitcase," he wrote. "Inside were jewels."
Rhodes explained that he initially thought it was a bribe aimed at him because he was Obama’s speechwriter; but he later found that others in the delegation had received "suitcases full of jewels" as well.
But of course they left the untouched suitcases behind when they left, to prevent even the appearance of having accepted bribes, right?
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
'Tens of thousands of US$' is trivial. Did Iran pay much, much more?
#3
A large suitcase full of jewelry ought to be enough to retire on several times over
‘Struth. I recall during the six months I worked at that wonderful jewelry store in 1981-‘82, falling in love with an absolutely fabulous necklace in the showroom: 18” long, 18 karat yellow gold set with graduated diamonds leading down to a 2 caret, eye clear, pear shaped emerald at the throat. As I recall, the wholesale price was around $10,000.
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.
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
North Korea
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
[DAWN] 
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
[DAWN] Prosecution witnesses in the Naqeebullah Mehsud killing case have been receiving threats, the prosecution lawyer told the Anti-Terrorism Court on Wednesday.
[NATION.PK] LAHORE - A sessions court on Wednesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for eight personnel of Nawab Town Police Station for killing a lawyer’s son in an alleged encounter three years ago.
