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aavenda2

Saudi Arabia says won't cut oil output - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...es-saudi-idUSKBN0JZ05W20141221

Saudi Arabia Oil

shared by aavenda2 on 24 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • aavenda2 on 24 Feb 15
     
    Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi mentions that Saudi Arabia is not going to cut oil production to stabilize oil prices in the market. Instead they will keep the same target output of 30 million barrels per day.
mharcour

King Bibi Says No State - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...nyahu-campaign-settlement.html

Israel Israeli-Palestinian conflict Palestine No State Netanyahu King Bibi

shared by mharcour on 11 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • mharcour on 11 Apr 15
     
    In this New York Times article, the author covers the final statements made by both front runners during the recent Prime Minister elections in Israel. Chief among the comments was Netanyahu's strong statement against a Palestinian state.
wmulnea

Is Libya on the brink of a new civil war? - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...l-war-2013102183055736865.html

shared by wmulnea on 11 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • former rebel fighters who helped to oust Gaddafi are now jostling among themselves for power
  • The country is flooded with weapons
  • In the past year alone, more than 80 people, many of them high-ranking military and police figures, have been killed in eastern Libya.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan
  • The country's prime minister recently called on western powers to help him stop the spread of what he calls 'militancy' in his country.
  • There are more than 225,000 Libyans registered in militias. They receive state salaries but often act outisde of government control, taking orders from local or political commanders.
  • Groups in Libya's eastern Cyrenaica region and in the southern Fezzan region have called for independence
  • In Cyrenaica, former rebel leader Ibrahim al-Jathran and his 20,000 men strong militia say they now run local affairs, with Jathran and his men controlling facilities that account for 60 percent of Libya's oil wealth.
wmulnea

Libya's civil war: That it should come to this | The Economist - 3 views

www.economist.com/...factional-chaos-it-should-come

shared by wmulnea on 11 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • It is split between a government in Beida, in the east of the country, which is aligned with the military; and another in Tripoli, in the west, which is dominated by Islamists and militias from western coastal cities
  • Benghazi is again a battlefield.
  • The black plumes of burning oil terminals stretch out over the Mediterranean.
  • ...69 more annotations...
  • Libya looked like the latest fragile blossoming of the Arab spring
  • Army commanders, mostly of Arab Bedouin origin, refused orders to shoot the protesters
  • the revolutionaries cobbled together a National Transitional Council (NTC) claiming to represent all of Libya
  • Volunteers from students to bank managers took up arms, joining popular militias and only sometimes obeying the orders of defecting army commanders trying to take control
  • In August Western bombing of government bases surrounding Tripoli cleared an avenue for the revolutionaries to take the capital.
  • Recognised abroad, popular at home and enjoying the benefits of healthy oil revenues—97% of the government’s income—the NTC was well placed to lay the foundations for a new Libya
  • he judges, academics and lawyers who filled its ranks worried about their own legitimacy and feared confrontation with the militias which, in toppling Qaddafi, had taken his arsenals for their own.
  • militia leaders were already ensconced in the capital’s prime properties
  • The NTC presided over Libya’s first democratic elections in July 2012, and the smooth subsequent handover of power to the General National Congress (GNC) revived popular support for the revolution.
  • Islamist parties won only 19 of 80 seats assigned to parties in the new legislature, and the process left the militias on the outside
  • The Homeland party, founded by Abdel Hakim Belhad
  • tried to advertise its moderation by putting an unveiled woman at the head of its party list in Benghazi
  • The incumbent prime minister, Abdurrahim al-Keib, a university professor who had spent decades in exile, fretted and dithered
  • He bowed to militia demands for their leaders to be appointed to senior ministries, and failed to revive public-works programmes
  • which might have given militiamen jobs
  • Many received handouts without being required to hand in weapons or disband, an incentive which served to swell their ranks
  • the number of revolutionaries registered with the Warriors Affairs Commission set up by the NTC was about 60,000; a year later there were over 200,000. Of some 500 registered militias, almost half came from one city, Misrata.
  • In May 2013 the militias forced parliament to pass a law barring from office anyone who had held a senior position in Qaddafi’s regime after laying siege to government ministries.
  • In the spring of 2014, Khalifa Haftar, a retired general who had earlier returned from two decades of exile in America, forcibly tried to dissolve the GNC and re-establish himself as the armed forces’ commander-in-chief in an operation he called Dignity
  • The elections which followed were a far cry from the happy experience of 2012. In some parts of the country it was too dangerous to go out and vote
  • Such retrenchment has been particularly noticeable among women. In 2011 they created a flurry of new civil associations; now many are back indoors.
  • Turnout in the June 2014 elections was 18%, down from 60% in 2012, and the Islamists fared even worse than before
  • Dismissing the results, an alliance of Islamist, Misratan and Berber militias called Libya Dawn launched a six-week assault on Tripoli. The newly elected parliament decamped to Tobruk, some 1,300km east
  • Grasping for a figleaf of legitimacy, Libya Dawn reconstituted the pre-election GNC and appointed a new government
  • So today Libya is split between two parliaments—both boycotted by their own oppositions and inquorate—two governments, and two central-bank governors.
  • The army—which has two chiefs of staff—is largely split along ethnic lines, with Arab soldiers in Arab tribes rallying around Dignity and the far fewer Misratan and Berber ones around Libya Dawn.
  • Libya Dawn controls the bulk of the territory and probably has more fighters at its disposal.
  • General Haftar’s Dignity, which has based its government in Beida, has air power and, probably, better weaponry
  • the Dignity movement proclaims itself America’s natural ally in the war on terror and the scourge of jihadist Islam
  • Libya Dawn’s commanders present themselves as standard-bearers of the revolution against Qaddafi now continuing the struggle against his former officers
  • Ministers in the east vow to liberate Tripoli from its “occupation” by Islamists, all of whom they denounce as terrorists
  • threatens to take the war to Egypt if Mr Sisi continues to arm the east. Sleeping cells could strike, he warns, drawn from the 2m tribesmen of Libyan origin in Egypt.
  • Yusuf Dawar
  • The struggle over the Gulf of Sirte area, which holds Libya’s main oil terminals and most of its oil reserves, threatens to devastate the country’s primary asset
  • And in the Sahara, where the largest oilfields are, both sides have enlisted ethnic minorities as proxies
  • ibya Dawn has drafted in the brown-skinned Tuareg, southern cousins of the Berbers; Dignity has recruited the black-skinned Toubou. As a result a fresh brawl is brewing in the Saharan oasis of Ubari, which sits at the gates of the al-Sharara oilfield, largest of them all.
  • Oil production has fallen and become much more volatile
  • oil is worth half as much as it was a year ago
  • The Central Bank is now spending at three times the rate that it is taking in oil money
  • The bank is committed to neutrality, but is based in Tripoli
  • Tripoli may have a little more access to cash, but is in bad shape in other ways
  • Fuel supplies and electricity are petering out
  • Crime is rising; carjacking street gangs post their ransom demands on Twitter
  • In Fashloum
  • residents briefly erected barricades to keep out a brigade of Islamists, the Nuwassi
  • “No to Islamists and the al-Qaeda gang” reads the roadside graffiti
  • Libya’s ungoverned spaces are growing,
  • Each month 10,000 migrants set sail for Europe
  • On January 3rd, IS claimed to have extended its reach to Libya’s Sahara too, killing a dozen soldiers at a checkpoint
  • The conflict is as likely to spread as to burn itself out.
  • the Western powers
  • have since been conspicuous by their absence. Chastened by failure in Afghanistan and Iraq, they have watched from the sidelines
  • Obama washed his hands of Libya after Islamists killed his ambassador
  • Italy, the former colonial power, is the last country to have a functioning embassy in Tripoli.
  • Even under Qaddafi the country did not feel so cut off
  • Dignity is supported not just by Mr Sisi but also by the United Arab Emirates, which has sent its own fighter jets into the fray as well as providing arms
  • The UAE’s Gulf rival, Qatar, and Turkey have backed the Islamists and Misratans in the west
  • If oil revenues were to be put into an escrow account, overseas assets frozen and the arms embargo honoured he thinks it might be possible to deprive fighters of the finance that keeps them fighting and force them to the table
  • Until 1963 Libya was governed as three federal provinces—Cyrenaica in the east, Fezzan in the south and Tripolitania in the west
  • The old divisions still matter
  • the marginalised Cyrenaicans harked back to the time when their king split his time between the courts of Tobruk and Beida and when Arabs from the Bedouin tribes of the Green Mountains ran his army
  • Tensions between those tribes and Islamist militias ran high from the start.
  • July 2011 jihadists keen to settle scores with officers who had crushed their revolt in the late 1990s killed the NTC’s commander-in-chief, Abdel Fattah Younis, who came from a powerful Arab tribe in the Green Mountains. In June 2013 the Transitional Council of Barqa (the Arab name for Cyrenaica), a body primarily comprised of Arab tribes, declared the east a separate federal region, and soon after allied tribal militias around the Gulf of Sirte took control of the oilfields.
  • In the west, indigenous Berbers, who make up about a tenth of the population, formed a council of their own and called on larger Berber communities in the Maghreb and Europe for support
  • Port cities started to claim self-government and set up their own border controls.
  • Derna—a small port in the east famed for having sent more jihadists per person to fight in Iraq than anywhere else in the world
  • opposed NATO intervention and insisted that the NTC was a pagan (wadani) not national (watani) council
  • Some in Derna have now declared their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the caliph of the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq.
  • In December the head of America’s Africa command told reporters that IS was training some 200 fighters in the town.
kbrisba

US will triple military aid to Tunisia - 0 views

www.voanews.com/...2715055.html

shared by kbrisba on 13 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • kbrisba on 13 Apr 15
     
    The United States will increase military aid to Tunisia and help train its troops. The U.S. government aimed to provide Tunisia with more equipment, weapons and technical support. Tunisian Prime Minister said he wants to enhance their ability to defeat those who threaten the freedom and safety of the nation.
wmulnea

UPDATE 1-Libya's rival forces warn Thinni govt against independent oil sales | Reuters - 1 views

www.reuters.com/...security-idUSL5N0X50MS20150408

shared by wmulnea on 09 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • is currently producing around 600,000 barrels per day, compared with the 1.6 million the OPEC producer pumped before Gaddafi was ousted.
  • wmulnea on 09 Apr 15
     
    Tensions between the two Libyan government factions increase after Prime Minister Thini suggested that his internationally recognized government would sell Libyan oil independently. Thini rival, Ismail Shikri, promised military action if Thini follows through.
fcastro2

Turkey arrests 19 foreigners heading to Syria - 0 views

www.middleeastmonitor.com/...19-foreigners-heading-to-syria

turkey syria ISIS war foreign fighters

shared by fcastro2 on 25 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Security forces in southern Turkey have arrested 19 foreigners as they tried to enter Syria illegally
  • those arrested included a pregnant woman, one of 13 Indonesians, a French citizen, two Russians, two Libyans and someone from Kyrgyzstan
  • arrested at checkpoints established by the Turkish government along the border with Syria in an effort to stop people crossing over to join ISIS
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Western governments and media have blamed Ankara for not doing enough to prevent the flow of foreigners into Syria
  • more than 12,500 people have been blocked from entering Turkey and that the government has deported more than 1,150 people since January
  • Turkey is doing its bit [to stop the flow into Syria] and will continue to do so
  • fcastro2 on 25 Mar 15
     
    There are still numerous foreigners attempting to enter Syria in order to join the group ISIS. Many of these foreigners attempt to go through Turkey and while some Western countries criticize Turkey on the number of people still crossing, the Prime Minister believes he is doing as much as he can. 
kbrisba

'Our hearts are black': Tunisians in shock after gunmen target tourists in capital | Wo... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...-target-tourists-capital-tunis

shared by kbrisba on 29 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • kbrisba on 29 Mar 15
     
    Gunmen entered the Tunis museum to take ancient treasures and its tourists hostage. It was a beautiful day filled with tourists from everywhere. Many tourists and locals were killed and injured. Many were just stuck in shock with what was happening and when it was all over. Just when the people thought Tunisia was on the right track some tragic event like this happens and takes the people two steps back on what the government is really doing to protect them. The museum is in a top security place so for these gunmen to get in there with guns and take order scares the people. The prime minister said they may of had help at the security check points they are not for sure but are looking into it. This hurts Tunisia because majority of its economy is based off of beach resorts and foreign visitors.
irede123

Russia: Hezbollah not a terror group, their cooperation in ISIS fight should be encoura... - 0 views

www.jpost.com/...ir-cooperation-in-Syria-433175

hezbollah ISIS

shared by irede123 on 25 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • irede123 on 25 Feb 16
     
    The deputy prime minister of Russia, Bikhail Bogdanov talks about the countries support for Hezbollah, and encourages thier fight against ISIS.
ysenia

Iran awards medals to team that clinched nuclear deal | The Times of Israel - 0 views

www.timesofisrael.com/eam-that-clinched-nuclear-deal

iran nuclear program Tehran

shared by ysenia on 08 Feb 16 - Cached
  • President Hassan Rouhani awarded the “Medal of Merit” to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the “Medal of Courage” to Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan and Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who is also the country’s nuclear chief.
  • ysenia on 08 Feb 16
     
    Medal of Merit and Medal of Courage awarded to members who helped reduce the nuclear activities taking place in Iran. Helped to lift economic sanctions placed by UN because Iran met the commitments required.
mcooka

Biton Committee begins work to enrich Mizrahi culture in education system - Israel News... - 0 views

www.jpost.com/...ure-in-education-system-446687

begins jerusalem education system higher education

shared by mcooka on 08 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • mcooka on 08 Mar 16
     
    This is an interesting article concerning Minister Naftali Bennet. He will empowering Eastern Jewish Cultural Studies within the general curriculum. This would be a way to de-stigmatize Judaism and help with interfaith commuication
atownen

Biden: Iran under close watch amid reports of missile tests - The Washington Post - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...5-a9ce-681055c7a05f_story.html

iran israel missiles

shared by atownen on 12 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • atownen on 12 Mar 16
     
    This recent update is a report on Vice President Joe Biden's visit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden assures Israel U.S. will back Israel's security in response to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps reports their "ballistic missiles are capable of reaching Israel." Israel was not in favor of U.S. negotiations re: Iran Nuclear Deal last year, and they seriously doubt more security assurance from our end.
irede123

'Hezbollah still far from realizing its goal of attacking Israel from Syria' - Middle E... - 0 views

www.jpost.com/...fense-experts-tell-Post-449360

ISIS israel middle east

shared by irede123 on 29 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • irede123 on 29 Mar 16
     
    Ultimately, Hezbollah's goal is to turn Syria into an extended springboard for attacks against Israel, but it is still far off from being able to realize this vision, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
natphan

Russia's Lavrov, U.S. Kerry express full support for Syria peace talks - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...russia-syria-usa-idUSKCN0XM1PC

Russia US Syria Geneva

shared by natphan on 26 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • natphan on 26 Apr 16
     
    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the Syria crisis by phone on Monday, expressing their full support for Syria peace talks in Geneva, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
natphan

Russia and Syria sign deals worth $850 million to restore Syrian infrastructure - 1 views

www.businessinsider.com/deals-worth-850-million-2016-4

syria

shared by natphan on 26 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • natphan on 26 Apr 16
     
    Syria and Russia have signed agreements worth 850 million euros to restore infrastructure in the Arab nation, Russia's RIA news agency quoted Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki as saying on Monday.
natphan

Syria, Russia Consider Creating Joint Banks to Simplify Trade - 0 views

sputniknews.com/...syria-russia-joint-banks.html

Syria Russia Sputnik Economics

shared by natphan on 26 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • natphan on 26 Apr 16
     
    Syria and Russia are considering the possibility of setting up joint banks to carry out transactions between the two countries, Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader Halqi told Sputnik. "The Russian-Syrian business council has expressed a wish to open a joint Russian-Syrian bank with an equity participation of 50 percent by each side.
micklethwait

Libya: Where are the dividing lines? - Middle East - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...g-lines-20149871934621546.html

shared by micklethwait on 14 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • The House moved to Tobruk after armed groups supportive of the General National Congress began to overrun the capital.
  • Libya's new parliament, dominated by self-styled secular and nationalist candidates, was formed after the heavy defeat of Islamist candidates in June elections.
  • In the House of Representatives camp, many figures have come together in opposition to the contentious political isolation law, which banned anyone involved with the former regime from political participation.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Errishi told Al Jazeera that oil revenues pass through the country's central bank. With members of Libya Dawn guarding the gates to the central bank, Errishi added that "the central bank is controlled by whomever is controlling Tripoli".
  • The UAE, which is home to Mahmoud Jibril, a leading politician opposed to Libya's Islamist groups, has been accused by the US of bombing sites held by Misrata forces with the help of Egypt.
  • t has also been alleged that Qatar, which plays host to Ali Salabi, a leading spiritual figure with close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, has provided weapons and support to Brotherhood-affiliated groups battling former general Haftar.
  • With the displacement of 100,000 people due to fighting in Tripoli and Benghazi, however, the Libya crisis may not yet have taken its worst turn. "If we see more brigades going to one side over the other," said researcher Hamedi, "this will lead to civil war. The role of the regional environment is to help the domestic equation reach a deal."
    • micklethwait
      micklethwait on 10 Oct 14
       
      sghsdghsfghfgh
  • allieggg on 14 Sep 14
     
    Due to Libya's lack of institutional structure and weak centralized government, rival militia violence and clashes have created constant chaos leading the country towards another civil war. After the fall of Qaddafi, who obliterated institutions necessary for a functional government, Libya has been unable to manage the state. The National Transitional Council, which replaced the Qaddafi Regime, turned into the General National Congress and was given 18 months to form a democratic constitution. When the deadline passed the constitution was incomplete, which forced Congress to organize elections to a new House of Representatives. The former GNC members declared a new self proclaimed GNC, electing Omar al-Hasi as their prime minister. The new GNC is not recognized by Libya's parliament nor is it by the international community. Al Jazeera says the country literally has two parliaments and two governments, creating inconceivable instability throughout the state. The newly elected House has moved to Tobruk after armed islamic GNC militia groups overran the capital, seizing control over the major institutions in Tripoli. Due to this lack of a functional government, the rest of the state has turned to chaos. After the civil war, anti and pro Qaddafi forces branched into militias striving for power. Without a working state and government, militias had to rely on themselves to provide security, and really have no incentive to give up arms and no true government to be a part of. General Khalifa Hifter, a former Qaddafi general who later joined the Libyan rebel army in 2011, formed an anti-militia militia, targeting islamist militias like Ansar al-Sharia. Hifter is not affiliated with either of the governments, but rather strives for a military government, and supreme control of the armed forces.
fcastro2

Tunisia says plans to renew ties with Syria to help track fighters | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...-tunisia-idUSKBN0MT14420150402

tunisia syria politics ISIS militant fighters

shared by fcastro2 on 08 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • Tunisia said on Thursday it plans to reopen a consulate in Syria and offered to invite the Syrian ambassador back to Tunisia in part to help track an estimated 3,000 Tunisian militants fighting in Iraq and Syria.
  • two Tunisians who trained with militants in neighboring Libya, stormed the Tunis Bardo museum and shot 21 foreign tourists, one of Tunisia's worst such attack
  • We will not have an ambassador there, but Tunisia will open a consulate or put in place a charge d'affaires, and a Syria ambassador is welcome to Tunisia, if Syria wishes so
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • He gave no dates
  • The minister said a consular presence in Syria would help Tunisia glean information on Tunisians fighting alongside Islamist militants in Iraq and Syria and who officials fear will return to carry out attacks at home.
  • Tunisia would also reestablish diplomatic relations with neighboring Libya
  • Tunisia completed a mostly peaceful transition to democracy but has struggled to clamp down on Islamist militants who have been carrying out regular attacks.
  • After withdrawing their envoys after the start of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, some European Union countries have started to privately support more communication with Damascus.
  • Several countries including China, Indonesia and top allies Russia and Iran have envoys or charge d'affaires in Damascus
  • fcastro2 on 08 Apr 15
     
    Following an attack on a museum in Tunisia, they plan to open a consulate in Syria and plan to renew their ties with the Syrian government. They state that this is so that they can track Tunisian militant fighters who have joined ISIS and to prevent them form any future attacks. 
jordanbrown16

5 Reasons Israel Won't Attack Iran - 0 views

nationalinterest.org/...s-israel-wont-attack-iran-9469

Israel-Iran relations Nuclear Program

shared by jordanbrown16 on 17 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • jordanbrown16 on 17 Apr 15
     
    Concerns that Israel will launch preventative air strikes against Iran are looming. As the nuclear deal approaches, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated, "the regime in Iran is dedicated to destroying Israel and Israel has the right and obligation to defend itself." However, it is unlikely that Israel ail strike Iran in the foreseeable future. Here are a few reasons why.
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