Uprooted Palestinian: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM – سلام القدس عليكم

Friday, 15 September 2017

SYRIAN WAR REPORT – SEPTEMBER 15, 2017: ISIS ON RUN IN DEIR EZZOR COUNTRYSIDE

Last night, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) Tiger Forces, the Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) and their allies fully secured the Baghiliyah area from ISIS northwest of Deir Ezzor city after capturing the missiles base, the Hajjanah regiment, the radio transmitter station, the al-Jazeera university, the Saiqa Camp and the arms depots around Baghiliyah.

Separately, government forces captured the Nishan oil field, the Nishan gas station and the water pumping station east of Thurdah mount number 3 fully securing the western flank of Deir Ezzor Airport.

Southeast of Deir Ezzor, the SAA captured the Dhamn base and al-Kurum hill and deployed in about 35km from al-Mayadeen city, one of the key ISIS strongholds in the Euphrates Valley.

The Russian Aerospace Forces and the Russian Navy supported the government advance.

Two submarines, the Velikiy Novgorod and Kolpino, have fired seven Kalibr cruise missiles on ISIS targets, including “control centers, communications hubs, the militants’ weapons and ammunition warehouses in the ISIS controlled areas in the south east of the city of Deir Ezzor,” according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

According to local sources, Russian warplanes conducted multiple airstrikes on ISIS units and fortifications in the same area.

On Friday, the SAA and the SRG further advanced in the direction of Ayyash northwest of Deir Ezzor and Abu Amr southeast of the city using a superiority in the firepower.

The ISIS-linked news agency Amaq claimed that ISIS fighters destroyed two vehicles of the SAA east of al-Taim oil field southwest of Deir Ezzor city.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured Al-Husseiniyeh town capturing the eastern bank of the Euphrates River north of Deir Ezzor city.

With this advance, the SDF and the SAA fully besieged ISIS units deployed along the Euphrates River between the southern Raqqa countryside and the northwestern Deir Ezzor countryside. Maadan, At Tibini and Al Karash are the key ISIS strong points in the area.

Pro-government sources believe that no less than 1,000 will-armed ISIS fighters are deployed in this part of the Euphrates Valley. A major part of them is on the government-held bank of the river. This will create additional problems if the SAA and its allies want to push towards the Iraqi border. The ISIS terrorists remaining in southern Raqqah will pose a threat to the rear of the government assault force.

Amaq claimed that 120 civilians including 100 children were killed in an airstrike by the US-led collation on a refugee camp near the village of Jadid A’akidat in east of Deir Ezzor. So far, the mainstream media has ignored these claims and the US-led coalition has not commented on the issue.

SYRIAN GOVERNMENT FORCES CROSSED EUPHRATES RIVER AND GAINED FOOTHOLD ON ITS EASTERN BANK – RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTERY SPOKESPERSON

South Front

A screenshot from the video

After a victory near Deir Ezzor city, Syrian government forces have successfully crossed the Euphrates River and gained foothold on its eastern bank, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said during a weekly press briefing.

Zakharova added that the Russia military as well as the Syrian Army is now working on forcing ISIS to leave Deir Ezzor city and defusing IEDs and mines planted by the terrorists.

Zakharova’s statement could be described as an official confiration of the fact that government forces have already crossed the Euphrates River amid a total media blackout.

Earlier this month, multiple pro-government sources speculated that the Syrian Army and its allies were crossing the Euphrates River or even crossed it already. However, no official confirmation or photos and videos confirming these claims were provided.

On the other hand, the statement of the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson cannot be a rock evidence. All sides of the Syrian conflict have shown that their statements could be contradict with the reality on the ground.

You can find the part about Syria at 30:16:

Map: ISIS empire shrinks by 70 percent in Syria since start of 2017

By Andrew Illingworth

–

15/09/2017

BEIRUT, LEBANON (5:50 P.M.) – Since the beginning of 2017, the Islamic State’s empire in Syria has shrunk by about 70 percent. Most of this achievement can be attributed to the Syrian Arab Army, its paramilitary allies and Russian intervention forces.

In mid-January of this year, the Syrian Arab Army and its allies, backed up by Russian airpower, commenced an offensive against ISIS in eastern Aleppo Governorate in the north of the country. At the same time, pro-government forces in the center of the country also re-started their push into eastern Homs Governorate.

The immediate objectives of these campaigns were to liberate the remainder of Aleppo province that was still under ISIS control and re-liberate ancient city of Palmyra (respectively).

In the event, not only were these objectives achieved, but the offensives in both the north and center of Syria never really stopped – Syrian Army forces simply kept on rolling.

If any parallels in modern military history can be drawn to what is being witnessed in Syria, then the current military and territorial state of ISIS can be compared to that the Third Reich in the winter of 1944 after a number of summer and autumn offensives carried out earlier in the year (namely those which took place on the Eastern Front) devastated its armies throughout Europe and forced the Nazi polity to cede vast tracks of land it had otherwise held onto for years.

With the Syrian Army’s recent lifting of the siege on Deir Ezzor city, the war against ISIS now appears to have reached its terminal stage.

ALSO READ All eyes on Idlib at 6th meeting on Syria in Astana

Just like the Nazis, the Islamic State believed it could fight the entire world and win; of course, also likewise, despite its early golden years of successive conquests against an unsuspecting Syria and Iraq, the collective willpower of many peoples who refused to surrender to its fundamentally oppressive ideology have now brought the jihadist polity to its knees.

When and where the final military blow will be delivered to the pseudo-caliphate as a standing territorial entity are really the only two questions which remain on the matter of ISIS in Syria.

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Report: Israel May Be Planning ‘Forced Transfer’ of Residents from 2 Palestinian Villages

Posted on September 13, 2017

by Richard Edmondson

[ Ed. note – The email below was sent out yesterday by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. Apparently the Israeli government authorities are planning to completely eradicate two Palestinian villages and forcibly transfer the population. To where is not clear. But B’Tselem is calling it an “extreme escalation,” and judging from the tone of the email there are concerns that what’s apparently in the works now may just be a precursor to an ethnic cleansing operation on a far wider scale. ]

Dear friend,

According to Haaretz, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told journalists in late August that plans for the implementation of a measure virtually unheard of since 1967 were months away from completion. These are plans for the eviction: Eviction and demolition of two whole West Bank Palestinian villages. Together, the two villages, Susiya, in the South Hebron Hills, and Khan al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem, are home to hundreds of people, about half of them minors.

Demolishing these communities would constitute the forcible transfer of protected persons, a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention. A forcible transfer occurs whenever residents do not leave of their own free will – for instance, when the authorities make living conditions impossible. This is exactly what Israel has been doing to these and to many other Palestinian communities throughout the West Bank for years – forcing residents to live without connections to electricity or running water and under the constant threat of demolition. Still, demolishing an entire community would be an extreme escalation of this already abusive policy.

Crimes are usually committed far from the public view, and effort is put into covering them up. Seasoned politicians do not usually declare their criminal intentions, especially in on-the-record conversation with journalists. The fact that Minister Lieberman did so attests to his confidence that the planned evictions will receive the full backing similar actions – albeit less extreme – have always been given here, including the disgraceful support of the High Court. This is an official policy and is not seen as a crime.

For that reason, last week we sent a letter to the prime minister, the defense minister, the justice minister, the chief of staff and the head of the Civil Administration cautioning that demolishing an entire community would constitute a war crime for which they would bear personal liability. This was an unusual step for B’Tselem to take: we do not use the term lightly and it rarely appears in our publications. Yet the extreme circumstances demand it.

For many years, B’Tselem has been advocating for the Palestinian communities that are struggling against Israel’s de facto expulsion policy in Area C. We are determined to do everything in our power to help the residents of Susiya and Khan al-Ahmar escape expulsion, and ensure Israel avoids committing a war crime.

Sincerely yours,

Hagai El-Ad
Executive Director
B’Tselem

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‘Our missiles capable of reaching UAE’ – Houthi leader

By Leith Fadel

15/09/2017

BEIRUT, LEBANON (6:40 A.M.) – The leader of the Ansarullah movement, Sayyed ‘Abdel-Malek Al-Houthi, stated during a televised speech on Thursday that Houthi missiles are capable of reaching the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

He added that Ansarullah also had several domestically-manufactured drones in its inventory that would become operational in the near future.

Furthermore, Sayyed Houthi stressed that Ansarullah fighters and Yemeni army soldiers were fighting against the US’ state-of-the-art military technology, which Saudi and Emirati forces were using in Yemen.

He went on to say that Saudi Arabia had failed on numerous occasions during its military campaign against Yemen, stressing that officials in Riyadh have not come to their senses, despite huge losses that the oil-rich kingdom has suffered as a result of its adventurism.

“Saudi Arabia and the UAE are paying the price of their erroneous policies. Such mistakes have forced them to alter their approach to the conflict in Syria,” Sayyed Houthi commented.

Sayyed Houthi also said his fellow fighters could target Saudi interests in the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, underlining that Ansarullah missiles could hit oil installations in Saudi Arabia’s mainland as well.

Source: Al-Manar and Al-Masirah

China and Russia Warn the U.S.

Do Not to Seek North Korean Regime Change

By Ting Shi and David Tweed

Beijing, Moscow worked to weaken sanctions on North Korea
China says it will never allow war on Korean peninsula.

September 13, 2017 “Information Clearing House” – In supporting a watered-down version of North Korea sanctions, China and Russia had a stern warning for the U.S.: Don’t try to overthrow Kim Jong Un’s regime.

The measures passed on Monday at the United Nations Security Council included reducing imports of refined petroleum products, banning textile exports and strengthening inspections of cargo ships suspected of having illegal materials. U.S. envoy Nikki Haley called them the “strongest measures ever imposed on North Korea” even though they ended up dropping demands for an oil embargo and freeze on Kim’s assets.

More worrisome for China and Russia was Haley’s remark that the U.S. would act alone if Kim’s regime didn’t stop testing missiles and bombs. The UN representatives of both countries on Monday reiterated what they called “the four nos“: No regime change, regime collapse, accelerated reunification or military deployment north of the 38th parallel dividing the Korean Peninsula.

“The Chinese side will never allow conflict or war on the peninsula,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a statement on Tuesday.

The comments in the wake of the sanctions signaled that both China and Russia are only willing to go so far in pressuring Kim to abandon his attempts to secure the ability to strike the U.S. with a nuclear weapon. Both nations have called for dialogue, something President Donald Trump has resisted.

China and Russia realize their combined effort “works better than individual action,” said Wang Xinsheng, a history professor at Peking University. “Both oppose North Korea to become a full-fledged nuclear state, and both think parallel action from the U.S. is needed to affect any change in the situation.”

China and Russia — the biggest economic patrons of North Korea — both share the view that North Korea won’t give up its nuclear weapons without security guarantees, and they don’t see the point in fomenting a crisis on their borders that will benefit American strategic goals. At the same time, they don’t want Kim provoking the U.S. into any action that could destabilize the region.

“Sanctions of any kind are useless and ineffective,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters earlier this month at a summit in Xiamen, China. “They’ll eat grass, but they won’t abandon their program unless they feel secure.”

Russia and China were singled out at a U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Tuesday on financing for North Korea’s nuclear program. Republican Chairman Ed Royce said the U.S. should target Chinese banks, including Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. and China Merchants Bank Co., for aiding Kim’s regime. Assistant Treasury Secretary Marshall Billingslea said in prepared remarks to the committee that North Korean bank representatives “operate in Russia in flagrant disregard of the very resolutions adopted by Russia at the UN.”

U.S. officials said the new UN sanctions — combined with earlier measures — would cut North Korean exports by 90 percent, pinching the regime’s ability to get hard currency. The textile export ban alone would cost North Korea about $726 million a year, the U.S. said.

Still, analysts saw the efforts to dilute the original proposal as successful.

“The stiffer sanctions won’t change anything in the near-term,” said Stuart Culverhouse, head of macro and fixed income research at specialist frontier markets investment bank Exotix Capital. “The new embargoes are incrementally tougher, but diplomacy meant they had to be compromised to an extent that they are very unlikely to change minds in Pyongyang.”

Tactical Nukes

North Korea has said it will never give up its nuclear weapons unless the U.S. drops its “hostile” policies toward the regime. Kim has claimed the ability to fit a hydrogen bomb onto an intercontinental ballistic missile, but the U.S. military says he has yet to master re-entry and guidance systems that would allow him to target an American city.

Many analysts think Kim will wait until he’s mastered his weapons before negotiating, as it would strengthen his hand. It might take tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea — something President Moon Jae-in has opposed — to bring Kim to the negotiating table earlier, according to Lee Ho-ryung, chief of North Korean studies at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

“If South Korea, Japan, or both could have the U.S. deploy tactical nuclear weapons, that’ll put pressure on Kim to come to dialogue,” Lee said. “When competition to have better weapons escalates, it’s always the poorer one who gives up.”

George Lopez, a former member of the UN Security Council panel of experts for sanctions on North Korea, said that the U.S. should seek unity of message with China and Russia in addition to a unanimous vote on sanctions. The U.S. should look to engage diplomatically to find a level of security that North Korea and its neighbors will be happy with, he said.

“We did it against powers that have thousands of nuclear weapons,” Lopez said. “We certainly should be able to do this against a power that has less than two dozen.”

— With assistance by Kanga Kong, Enda Curran, and Kambiz Foroohar

This article was first published by Bloomberg –

See also – North Korea May Negotiate on Nuclear Weapons ===

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من التحريض الغوغائي إلى الندب الميلودرامي

رشاد أبو شاور

سبتمبر 15, 2017

لن نتقدّم بالتعازي إلى الياس خوري وشركاه ممّن لعلعت أصواتهم مع بدء المؤامرة على سورية، والذين نافسوا برنار هنري ليفي اليهودي الصهيوني،

فهم نفّسوا تماماً، وما عاد لديهم نفس وقدرة على مواصلة التحريض والادّعاء بـ ثورة سورية بعد الفشل الذريع، والفضائح القاتلة للمموّلين، والمستأجرين، وهزائمهم المُرّة في كلّ الميادين السورية ببطولات الجيش العربي السوري، والقوى الرديفة، والمقاومة الحليفة ممثلة بحزب الله، والقوات الروسية الصديقة.

المرتزقة القتلة من الفصائل المتأسلمة المستأجرة المجلوبة من الخارج تشحنها طائرات الهليكوبتر الأميركية إلى تركيا، ومن هناك ستنقل إلى البلاد التي أحضرت منها، بهدف توظيفها في أماكن أُخرى بعد فشلها في مهمة إسقاط الدولة السورية، وتفكيك سورية الوطن، وتمزيق شعبها، وتغييب دورها، ونشر الفوضى الخنّاقة في ربوعها، وفي لبنان، للقضاء على المقاومة… بعد هزيمتها في معركة دير الزور الكبرى التي لن تقوم لها قائمة بعدها، فهي لم تعد سوى فلول مطاردة.

هذه المجموعات الإرهابية المرتزقة ستوظّف حتماً ضدّ روسيا الاتحادية الصديقة، ولذا في وقت مبكر من فصول المؤامرة عرفنا أنّ روسيا بوتين تخوض في سورية معركة الدفاع عن موسكو… وهكذا التقت المصالح السورية والروسية معاً في مواجهة المؤامرة التي تحرّكها أميركا، وتموّلها السعودية وقطر، وتفتح الحدود لها ومعسكرات التدريب تركيا، ناهيك عن غرفة عمليات الموك في عمّان. انتهى دورها… فالظروف تغيّرت بقوّة السلاح .

لا، لن نتقدّم بالتعازي، لأنّ دموع الياس كاذبة، مفتعلة، ميلودرامية، فضلاً عن أنّ جنازة ثورته تذكرنا بالمثل القائل: الجنازة حامية والميت كلب!

روبرت فورد ـ الياس يحب المسرح، وإن كان بلا بصمات فيه – سفير أميركا، مخرج المشهد الكبير في مدينة حماة ، حيث غمره الغوغاء بأغصان الزيتون، وتدافعوا للتبرّك بالسيارة التي تقله في جوفها، بينما هو يلوّح للجماهير المدفوعة بجهالة لتتحشد حول سيارة القيادة الأميركية المعلنة المفضوحة والتي اختارت حماة لتفجير صراع طائفي كما توهّموا..

تلك كانت سيارة رسم طريق الشرق الأوسط الجديد.. ولكن القائد الأميركي فورد أُحبط تماماً وسبق الياس خوري في الندب والعويل والنعي. انتهى فورد يائساً محزوناً باكي الوجه، وظهر على فضائيات عالمية، وعلى الميادين في لعبة الأمم مع الإعلامي سامي كليب، وقال بالفم الملآن: انتهت اللعبة game is over.

اعتراف أميركي تحت نعال أبطال الجيش السوري المُظفّر وحلفائه، يأتي بعد ست سنوات ونيّف، ويضيف السفير المايسترو : المعارضة كانت بلا برنامج، ولا قيادة، وغير موحدة…

الحقيقة أنّ المعارضات كانت صاحبة برنامج أميركي: تدمير سورية، وتمزيق نسيجها الوطني والاجتماعي، وإخراجها من عملية الصراع في الشرق الأوسط خدمة للكيان الصهيوني والهيمنة الأميركية.

صمدت سورية، وافتضحت فصائل الارتزاق التي دمّرت الكنائس والمساجد، ومواقع التراث والتاريخ، والبنى الاقتصادية، وكلّ ما أنجزته الدولة السورية منذ الاستقلال لتطوير الحياة وتسييرها للشعب السوري.

الياس خوري وبعض الكتاب استغلوا القدس العربي التي بنيناها على امتداد 24 سنة، وسمعتها، بعد أن تمّ تيسير الهيمنة عليها وامتلاكها مع انطلاق المؤامرة على سورية والمقاومة والقضية الفلسطينية، لتبدأ عملية استتباعها لـ«الجزيرة».

في الأشهر الأولى مُنح الياس خوري جائزة فرنسية تقديراً لما يبديه من لوعة وحرص على الديمقراطية في سورية، بل ورشحه زميله صبحي حديدي لجائزة نوبل للآداب.. وترشيح صبحي ليس بالقليل! والياس كما يبدو صدّق، فما هذا على سدنة نوبل بمستبعد، فقد يتكرّمون على الياس بالجائزة العالمية أسوة بأدباء منشقين أمثال سولجنتسين!

انتدب الياس نفسه محامياً للشعب السوري، منطلقاً من أنه أي الشعب السوري- مسكين، لا يستطيع الدفاع عن نفسه، وأنه بحاجة لقدرات الياس الفكرية والثقافية!

يعتبر الياس أنّ ما جرى في سورية ثورة.. تصوّروا: ثورة الياس وصبحي هذه، وبعض مرتزقة الثقافة، جناحها المسلح: جيش الإسلام، أحرار الشام، النصرة، القاعدة… وداعش، وغيرها وغيرها، وكلها تنادي بدولة الإسلام، وتذبح وتستبيح وتبيع النساء، وتفكك مصانع حلب وتنقلها إلى تركيا العثمانية.. تركيا الأردوغانية، مصانع حلب التي يتباكى على أوابدها الياس خوري.. وعلى ضريح أبي الطيب المتنبي!

لم يكتب الياس عن تحرير الجرود اللبنانية، وعن مآثر حزب الله والجيش اللبناني الذي أنقذ لبنان من الإرهابيين، وأعاد الطمأنينة لأهالي عرسال والقاع، لأنّ الكتابة عن هذه الانتصارات محرجة، وهو مختصّ باللطم والصراخ والندب والشتم على سورية!

يوم 13 أيلول الحالي كتب الياس في «القدس العربي» تحت عنوان مأخوذ من عنوان فيلم أميركي: الرقص فوق الخراب.. كال فيه الشتائم لكلّ شيء، لأميركا، ودول النفط، والمموّلين الذين أفسدوا الثورة، والقيادات التي راهنت على الخارج.. فما هي ثورتك إذاً يا الياس؟

سمّ لنا اسم فصيل واحد حمل السلاح ورفع شعارات تقدّمية ديمقراطية يا الياس؟

سمّ لنا قائداً معارضاً واحداً لم يقبض من السعودية وقطر يا الياس؟

ما هذه الثورة التي يفسدها مال النفط والغاز؟ مال النفط موّل المجموعات الإسلاموية الإرهابية المرتزقة… وهؤلاء هم ثورتك وثوار برنار هنري ليفي المُنظّر مثلك لثورة القتلة والذابحين أصدقاء الكيان الصهيوني الذي حدب عليهم وعالجهم، وزوّدهم بأدق المعلومات عن مواقع صورايخ الجيش السوري.. فكان أن خدموه بنسفها وتدميرها لتمرّ طائرات هذا العدو وتستبيح سماء سورية العربية.

أنت يا الياس، مثل كلّ من راهنوا على تدمير سورية في حالة صعبة، فلم تحصدوا سوى الخيبة بعد قرابة سبع سنوات من صمود وبطولات شعب سورية وجيشها وقيادتها.

الياس! أنت وأمثالك من مثقفي عزمي بشارة عار على الثقافة العربية، لأنكم انحرفتم عن سابق قصد، فأنتم تعرفون الحقيقة، ولكنكم تعرفون أنها مُكلفة، وتستدعي التضحية، وأنتم تريدون الجوائز والعائدات المالية، ومواصلة حياة الدعة والراحة، وكسب رضى من لا يليق بالمثقف العربي اللقاء بهم، ووضع اليد في أيديهم.

شعب سورية يرقص فرحاً بانتصارات جيشه، لأنّ سورية هزمت مخططات أميركا والكيان الصهيوني وكلّ أعداء أمتنا، هي ورفاقها في المعركة والميادين، وأنت يا الياس ترقص مع فلول الذئاب التي نهشت لحم السوريين وشربت دماءهم… واأسفاه!!

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Myanmar`s regime is US puppet: Iran`s Velayati

Source

Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs

A senior Iranian official says the current regime in Myanmar is a US puppet, urging Muslim countries not to remain silent in the face of the country’s deadly crackdown on minority Rohingya Muslims.

“Myanmar’s regime is a US puppet,” Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, said on Thursday.

“A person, who has unfairly received the Nobel Peace Prize, is today taking these measures, but Muslim societies won’t be silent and will curb this dictatorial regime through international bodies,” he added.

Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung Sang Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has taken almost no action to end the ongoing violence against the Rohingya Muslims, triggering international outcry.

A Rohingya refugee man cries as he holds his 40-day-old son, who died as a boat capsized in the shore of Shah Porir Dwip while crossing Bangladesh-Myanmar border, in Teknaf, Bangladesh, September 14, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

Myanmar’s government has laid a siege to the country’s western Rakhine State where the Rohingya are concentrated, with horrific violence taking place against the minority Muslims.

Soldiers and extremist Buddhists have reportedly been killing or raping the Muslims and setting their homes on fire. The United Nations Children’s Fund said up to 400,000 Rohingya Muslims had fled Myanmar and entered neighboring Bangladesh since late August, when the latest bout of violence erupted.

Rohingya refugees climb a truck to receive aid distributed by local organizations at Balu Khali makeshift refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, September 14, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

Tehran has called for a visit by an Iranian Foreign Ministry delegation to Myanmar to discuss ways to end the plight of the Rohingya Muslims.

Iran’s Red Crescent is also preparing to send a shipment of humanitarian aid for those stranded on the border with Bangladesh.

Earlier this week, Ayatollah Khamenei called on Islamic governments to exert political and economic pressure on Myanmar’s “cruel” regime to end the massacre.

PressTV-Leader urges pressure on Myanmar over Rohingya

Ayatollah Khamenei says the brutality committed against the minority Muslims by the government, with a Nobel laureate at its top, spells the death of the Nobel Peace Prize.

US ban on aircraft sales to Iran breaches JCPOA

Elsewhere in his remarks, Velayati said a recent US move to block sales of commercial aircraft to Iran has “violated” the 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives voted in favor of new measures that would specifically prevent the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) from clearing licenses to allow aircraft sales to Iran.

“A ban on selling aircraft to Iran shows that we should not trust the US and its allies,” Velayati added.

The JCPOA was reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries — namely the US, Russia, China, France, and Britain plus Germany — in July 2015 and took effect in January 2016. Under the deal, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the termination of all nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran.

The removal of sanctions allowed Iran to purchase hundreds of commercial aircraft from Airbus, Boeing and other aircraft manufacturing companies.

However, officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump have recently been sparing no efforts to undermine the nuclear deal.

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#BDS UN to publish list of companies trading with israel’s illegal settlements

UN’s List of Companies Linked to Settlements to Be Published Despite Israeli, US Pressure

Part of BDS campaign to spread awareness of its work aimed at boycotting Israel. (Photo: Courtesy BDS, file)

The United Nations Human Rights Council reportedly plans to go ahead with the publication of a list of companies operating in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory and the Golan Heights, in spite of immense diplomatic pressure from the United States and Israel.

According to a report published Tuesday by Israel’s Channel 2, the full list will be published in December, and will include some of the biggest firms in the Israeli industry as well as major US companies, a translation of the report from Times of Israel said.

Some of the international companies on the list reportedly include Coca-Cola, TripAdvisor, Airbnb, Priceline, and Caterpillar, in addition to Israeli companies such as pharmaceutical giant Teva, the national phone company Bezeq, bus company Egged, the national water company Mekorot, and the country’s two largest banks, Hapoalim and Leumi.

The list was recently delivered to the Foreign Ministry, the report said.

Last year, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution to support forming a database of all companies conducting business in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, amid fierce opposition by the United States and Israel.

The Washington Post previously reported that Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said that the UN planned to publish the list by the end of this year, which prompted the Donald Trump administration to work with Israel to obstruct its publication.

However, according to the US newspaper, Israel and the United States had unsuccessfully attempted to block funding for the database.

PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi condemned the US and Israeli efforts at the UN as “morally repugnant” at the time.

The attempt “exposes the complicity of Israeli and international businesses in Israel’s military occupation and the colonization of Palestinian land,” Ashrawi said. “This is a clear indication of Israel’s persistent impunity and sense of entitlement and privilege.”

Ashrawi highlighted in her statement that Israel’s settlement activities constituted a “war crime” and were in direct violation of international law and several UN resolutions. “Any company that chooses to do business in the illegal settlements becomes complicit in the crime and therefore liable to judicial accountability,” she said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has complained that the list unfairly targets Israel and has noted that it was part of the larger Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which targets specific companies profiting off of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory and falls within the traditions of the nonviolent boycott movement against the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Israel and the United States have been starkly opposed to any move that could give weight to the BDS movement, and have often claimed that any support of a boycott against Israel amounts to anti-Semitism.

Israel has tightened the noose on the BDS movement in recent months, most notably by passing the anti-BDS law, which bans foreign individuals who have openly called for a boycott of Israel from entering the country.

Furthermore, Israel has routinely condemned the UN for what it sees as their anti-Israel stance, as numerous resolutions have been passed in recent months condemning Israel’s half-century occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and its relentless settlement enterprise that has dismembered the Palestinian territory.

However, Palestinians and activists have long pointed out that nonviolent movements, expressed both in BDS activities and raising awareness on the international stage, are some of the last spaces to challenge Israel’s occupation, as Israeli forces have clamped down on popular movements in the Palestinian territory, leaving many Palestinians with diminished hope for the future.

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On the 35th Anniversary of Sabra and Shatila: The Forgotten Refugees

Source

By Dr. Swee Chai Ang | Arab America | September 13, 2017
This September will be the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Sabra-Shatila Massacre in West Beirut. Three thousand unarmed refugees were killed from 15-18 September 1982.

I was then a young orthopedic trainee who had resigned from St Thomas Hospital to join the Christian Aid Lebanon medical team to help those wounded by Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. That invasion, named “Peace for Galilee”, and launched on 6 June 1982, mercilessly bombarded Lebanon by air, sea, and land. Water, food, electricity, and medicines were blockaded. This resulted in untold wounded and deaths, with 100,000 made suddenly homeless.

I was summoned to the Palestine Red Crescent Society to take charge of the orthopedic department in Gaza Hospital in Sabra- Shatila Palestinian refugee camp, West Beirut. I met Palestinian refugees in their bombed out homes and learned how they became refugees in one of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. Before this encounter, I had never heard of Palestinians.

They recounted stories of being driven out of their homes in Palestine in 1948, often fleeing massacres at gunpoint. They fled with whatever possessions they could carry and found themselves in neighboring Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

The United Nations put them in tents while the world promised they would return home soon. That expectation never materialized. Since then the 750,000 refugees, comprising half of the population of Palestine in 1948, continued to live in refugee camps in the neighboring countries. It was 69 years ago that this refugee crisis started. The initial 750,000 has since grown to 5 million.

Palestine was erased from the map of the world and is now called Israel.
Soon after my arrival, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) evacuated. It was the price demanded by Israel to stop the further relentless bombardment of Lebanon and to lift the ten-week military blockade. Fourteen thousand able-bodied men and women from the PLO evacuated with the guarantee by Western powers that their families left behind would be protected by a multinational peacekeeping force.

Those leaving were soldiers, civil servants, doctors, nurses, lecturers, unionists, journalists, engineers, and technicians. The PLO was the Palestinians’ government in exile and the largest employer. Through evacuation, fourteen thousand Palestinian families lost their breadwinner, often the father or the eldest brother, in addition to those killed by the bombs.

That ceasefire lasted only three weeks. The multinational peacekeeping force, entrusted by the ceasefire agreement to protect the civilians left behind, abruptly withdrew. On September 15, several hundred Israeli tanks drove into West Beirut. Some of them ringed and sealed off Sabra-Shatila to prevent the inhabitants from fleeing. The Israelis sent their allies; a group of Christian militiamen trained and armed by them, into the camp. When the tanks withdrew from the perimeter of the camp on the 18 September, they left behind 3,000 dead civilians. Another seventeen thousand were abducted and disappeared.

Our hospital team, who had worked non-stop for 72 hours, was ordered to leave our patients at machine-gun point and marched out of the camp. As I emerged from the basement operating theatre, I learned the painful truth. While we were struggling to save a few dozen lives, people were being butchered by the thousands. Some of the bodies were already rotting in the hot Beirut sun. The images of the massacre are deeply seared into my memory: dead and mutilated bodies lining the camp alleys.

Only a few days before, they were human beings full of hope and life, rebuilding their homes, talking to me, trusting that they would be left in peace to raise their young ones after the evacuation of the PLO. These were people who welcomed me into their broken homes. They served me Arabic coffee and whatever food they found; simple fare but given with warmth and generosity. They shared their lives with me. They showed me faded photographs of their homes and families in Palestine before 1948 and the large house keys they still kept with them. The women showed me their beautiful embroidery, each with motifs of the villages they left behind. Many of these villages were destroyed after they left.

Some of these people became patients we failed to save. Others died on arrival. They left behind orphans and widows. A wounded mother begged us to take down the hospital’s last unit of blood from her to give to her child. She died shortly afterward. Children witnessed their mothers and sisters being raped and killed.

The terrified faces of families rounded up by gunmen while awaiting death; the desperate young mother who tried to give me her baby to take to safety; the stench of decaying bodies as mass graves continued to be uncovered will never leave me. The piercing cries of women who discovered the remains of their loved ones from bits of clothes, refugee identity cards, as more bodies were found continue to haunt me.

The people of Sabra Shatila returned to live in those very homes where their families and neighbors were massacred. They are a courageous people and there was nowhere else to go. Afterwards, other refugee camps were also blockaded, attacked and more people were killed. Today, Palestinian refugees are denied work permits in 30 professions and 40 artisan trades outside their camps. They have no passports. They are prohibited from owning and inheriting property. Denied the right of return to their homes in Palestine, they are not only born refugees, they will also die refugees and so will their children.

But for me, painful questions need to be answered. Not why they died, but why were they massacred as refugees? After 69 years, has the world already forgotten? How can we allow a situation where a person’s only claim to humanity is a refugee identity card? These questions have haunted me and they have yet to receive answers.

Dr. Swee Chai Ang is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon and founder of Medical Aid for Palestinians. She is the author of: “From Beirut to Jerusalem,” published by The Other Press.

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Glory to the Martyrs of September 1993

Mohammad Nazzal

We no longer read

“Hezbollah marks the anniversary of the September 13 massacre.”

For more than a decade, it has ceased to do so. This was a day when the country almost exploded in a sectarian conflict. That demonstration, which ended in a massacre, had nothing to do with sectarian differences, but it is Lebanon where everything is turned into sectarianism, even the air. It was “to defend the land, sovereignty, nation, and the fate of generations.”

This was how Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah spoke that day. He barely completed his second year as the party’s Secretary General. The party barely completed its second month devoted to the principle of “A Katyusha for a civilian”. He emerged as the resistance, with his head raised up before “Israel’s” “reckoning operation” (the seven-day aggression).

This happened in 1993. Yitzhak Rabin, like his predecessor, Shamir, understood that he was facing “Arabs of another kind”. The other Arabs had a different opinion. The Lebanese government, for example, has decided to reward the resistance. The Lebanese army opened fire on a popular demonstration organized by Hezbollah in [Beirut’s] al-Ghubairi area – just like that “without a reason”. It was a political decision par excellence. It was not an armed demonstration. They were all civilians. It resulted in nine martyrs and dozens of wounded.

Women and men took to the streets to protest the Oslo Accords. They were just chanting. They were a rare group that was still raising its voice, at the time, against the “‘Israeli’ entity”. They wanted Palestine, all of Palestine. They were strangers in an area whose rulers had decided to adopt the “Madrid decisions” (for peace). Their land was occupied – southern Lebanon was occupied – and they resisted but out of sight. There was something about this group that always made them look ahead.

The shooting was not a warning. Fire was directed towards heads and chests, meant to kill. It was a ‘harvest-style’ shooting. Hezbollah did not know a wound deeper than that massacre. In the ensuing years, songs were composed about it:

“We Shall Not Forget September”.

Annual commemorations took place for more than ten years. Its vocabulary entered into the memory of the people of that environment. Those who lived in the [Beirut] suburb remember the annual signs along with the eternal pictures of the martyrs. Fate wanted Nasrallah’s son, Hadi, be martyred one day before the fourth anniversary of the massacre. The party had already made the necessary preparations the for the commemoration in the center of the “Shura Square” in Haret Hreik. Then, the second event came. That night, Sayyed began his speech with the massacre before talking about his son’s martyrdom:

“Shooting unarmed people at the airport road was aimed at igniting an internal war. They know how it begins but do not know how it ends.”

The massacre was engraved deep in the consciousness of the party to the extent that it was placed first in the address, before the second event – the martyrdom of the son of the resistance commander. It was not just any sign. Sayyed Nasrallah continued, “It was an attempt to create an internal rift and we have overcome it with wisdom and patience. We took the most courageous positions in the history of the party, because the easiest thing was to give orders to respond, but we declined and instead agreed to bear the wounds.” The day of the massacre came no more than three years since the end of Lebanon’s civil war. The anger that swept through the skies of the suburb that day – within the party specifically – was enough to serve as the initial fuel to turn the table on everyone. It was an adventure. The party understood that if that happened, the bate would have been swallowed and liberation would not have taken place seven years later. It would not have been a “rock” in 2006. It would not be creating new equations in the region today. It was a pivotal moment in the whole sense of history. On the night of the massacre, the masses chanted to Nasrallah with words that would be repeated for years to come:

“O Shura, O the best, we want to fight”.

It was later reported that the Coca-Cola company in Lebanon expelled some of its employees because they participated in the funeral of the martyrs. It was also said that the late Sayyed Mohamed Hussein Fadlallah issued a fatwa to boycott that company. Fadlullah prayed on the bodies of the martyrs in Al-Rida Mosque in Bir Al-Abed and behind him was Nasrallah as well as a lot of angry people.

Twenty-four years have passed since that massacre, which left nine martyrs. These are their names: Sokna Shams al-Din, Hassan Bazzi, Samir Wahab, Abboud Abboud, Sabah Ali Haider, Ali Tawil, Mohammed Abdul Karim, Mustapha Shamas and Nizar Qansouh. There are those who witnessed one of them running towards a lady who was hit in the head, wanting to help her. She was killed instantly. His concern was to cover parts of her body that were revealed. So he was hit. A martyr laying next to a martyr. That massacre has not yet been made into a movie. Nasrallah said that day, angrily: “This happens in a country that is said to be a country of freedoms!”

Generations grew up to the song “Glory to the Martyrs of September”.

It is the song that Imad Mughniyah was said to have participated in with his voice. It was a hymn for the departed, to the broken pride, to the sorrow of those who do not accept oppression. “Glory to the martyrs of September, they rejected Zionism. They chanted: we will fight Zionism. Glory to the martyrs of September, with their blood and without humiliation, they washed the shame of the Arab peace.”

Source: Al-Akhbar Newspaper, Translated by website team

15-09-2017 | 08:00

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