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The US secretary of state, John Kerry, arrived at nuclear talks with Iran in Vienna on Thursday, insisting negotiators were focused on reaching agreement by the Monday deadline. Kerry was responding to remarks on Wednesday by his British counterpart, Philip Hammond, who suggested that the deadline would have to be extended. “We are not discussing an extension. We are negotiating to have an agreement. It’s that simple,” Kerry said in Paris before boarding the flight to Vienna. “I know that secretary Hammond is concerned about the gaps. We all are. Both sides are taking this process seriously and both sides...

Critics who think Israel is taking a heavy-handed approach in destroying Hamas terror tunnels should see what Egypt has in mind. Facing the same type of underground routes out of Gaza that allowed terrorists to mount attacks on Israel, Egypt is considering creating a huge, 1,000-meter buffer zone in the Sinai Peninsula – they have already evicted 10,000 people in the process of clearing the first 500 meters -- and digging a deep-water trench that would flood any future efforts to carve subterranean routes for smuggling weapons and terrorists in and out of Gaza. And unlike the fierce resistance and...

Vienna - The United States is disappointed with Iran's failure to engage with a U.N. nuclear agency investigation into suspected atomic bomb research, a U.S. envoy said on Monday. "We've been disappointed in their failure thus far to constructively engage on this issue," Ambassador Laura Kennedy, the U.S. envoy to the Vienna-based IAEA, told reporters. Kennedy said she would convey "our concerns with Iran's failure to engage substantively with the agency on the possible military dimensions issue" in a statement to the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors, which convenes on Thursday.

It should also be pointed out that the large scale airplane hijackings used by Al Qaeda on September 11 were pioneered by the PLO, though Al Qaeda received direct training in the techniques from the Iranian-backed Al Qaeda.As ABC’s Jake Tapper and a number of others have pointed out, this year Arab Muslim terrorists who operate under the “Palestinian” brand name have killed more Americans than ISIS. (via David Gerstman)While ISIS beheaded three American hostages, seven Americans have been killed ranging in age from 3-month old Chaya Zissel Braun who was a victim of Car Jihad, hurled out of...

At the U.N. General Assembly in New York last September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set aside time for a critical meeting. But it wasn't President Barack Obama he was keen to see. It was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since Modi came to power in May, ties between Israel and India have been in overdrive, with the two signing a series of defence and technology deals that have underscored their burgeoning commercial and political relationship. The same month as the UN meeting, Modi's cabinet cleared a long-delayed purchase of Israeli missiles for its navy. In October, India closed a...

Syria no longer exists. The tyrannical regime of Bashar al-Assad governs parts of what’s left of it. The psychopathic Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) controls another large swath. Small scraps of territory are ruled by sundry other militias which, more likely than not, will eventually be absorbed by Assad or ISIS. Up north the Kurds have carved out a proto state of their own which they call Rojava. It is being violently squeezed by ISIS from the south, and it’s jammed up against the wall of the Turkish border to the north. It is split into three besieged...

Nothing better showcases Washington’s confusion over foreign policy than the idea that – as part of a U.S.-Iran nuclear deal – Iran would ship much or all of its enriched uranium to Russia, and Russia would then process it for Iranian civilian usage. Were the U.S.-led “P5+1” negotiators (the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany) to reach a deal with Iran with this provision, the United States would subjugate its national security and that of its allies to two U.S. adversaries, both of which are undermining U.S. interests around the world. In addition, Washington would further legitimize Tehran...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem — November 18, 2014 … In one of the most twisted news reports I have ever witnessed from a “Western” based media outlet, MSNBC blamed Israel today for the bloody, Islamic terror attack in Jerusalem. Jihadists attacked innocent Jews at prayer in Jerusalem today with a pistol, an axe and a knife. They murdered four Rabbis and critically wounded several others. MSNBC in reporting the barbaric attack stated that it was the result of Palestinians being “unhappy with their lives” in the West Bank. What planet are the producers of MSNBC on? The Israeli...

Israeli Druze Policeman Fighting for his Life> Zidan Sayif (27) — Israeli Druze Policeman — was the first policeman on the scene at this morning’s terror attack, and he now is fighting for his life. The critically wounded policeman, was shot in the head during a gun-battle with the terrorists at the shul this morning in Har Nof massacre in Jerusalem. The terrorists turned their attention away from massacring additional Jewish worshipers to do gun battle with the heroic policeman. Sayif’s parents and wife are at his bedside at Hadassah hospital praying for his recovery. Sayif has a 7 month...

Russia and Venezuela discussed joint action to combat falling oil prices, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday after holding talks with Venezuela's Foreign Minister Rafael Ramírez the day before. Asked if the two discussed joint moves to counteract the oil price falls, Novak told reporters: "Yes, there is such an initiative. We discussed this theme and now we are working out those proposals on our side."

A leading Iranian cleric has threatened to “raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground” if Israel attacks the country over its nuclear program. Speaking in a televised public sermon in the capital Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Movahedi-Kermani boasted that “the Sejjil ballistic missile can hit and raise to the ground any place in Israel, as well as any America base in the region.” His comments were translated from Iranian Channel 1 by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Kermani, who serves as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s official representative to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards, claimed that “none of...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered one of his sternest warnings to date about Iran, suggesting the U.S. is failing to see the country's intentions in either the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Iran. "Iran is not your ally. Iran is not your friend. Iran is your enemy. It's not your partner. Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel," Netanyahu said in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation" when asked whether the U.S. should try to work with Iran in the fight against ISIS. Both countries want to see the jihadist group...

One week to ‘finish the job’ in Iran nuclear talks ‘Failure would be a dangerous scenario for the entire world’ AFP Published: 14:30 November 16, 2014 Gulf News Vienna: Iran and six world powers begin a final round of talks in Vienna on Tuesday aiming to overcome significant remaining differences and agree a historic nuclear deal by a November 24 deadline. “There’s still a big gap. We may not be able to get there,” US President Barack Obama warned last Sunday. After 12 years of rising tensions, threats of war and failed diplomacy this accord would silence for good fears...

-snip- In the nearly 16-minute video uploaded to social networks on Sunday, a black-clad militant with his face concealed stands before a severed head that he claims is that of the U.S. aid worker.

ALEPPO, Syria, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Here's what every caliphate apparently needs: its own money, so Islamic State leaders plan to mint their own gold, silver and copper coins. The decision aims to remove Muslims from the "tyrant's financial system" and a global monetary operation "based on satanic usury," said a statement by the Islamic State's Beit al Mal, or treasury, and posted on websites used by jihadist movements. The exchange rate of the new currency — which will consist of seven coins — and where it can be found will be spelled out in a future statement. Unlike many...

The Islamic State's Sinai Peninsula terror organization, which was named Ansar Bayt al-Makdas until it swore allegiance to Islamic State (aka ISIS), has blown up the pipeline carrying gas from Egypt to Jordan. The pipeline, which is 1,200 km long, and was built at a cost of $1.2 billion, is used for exporting natural gas to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. In the past, it was repeatedly attacked by Islamist terror groups, until Egypt's gas exports to Israel were halted. The Islamic State's Sinai Peninsula notified the press that it would not allow gas to be exported to Jordan unless ISIS...

Hamas is one of the two richest terrorist organizations in the world, second only to the Islamic State group, according to Forbes Israel. To finance their operations, terrorist groups sometimes use methods similar to those used by criminal organizations, such as drug trafficking, robberies and extortion, but also raise money through charities, donations and, in some cases, government agencies, according to the report. […] The richest terrorist organization today—and in history—is the Islamic State. According to Forbes, the Islamist group, also known by the acronyms ISIS or ISIL, has an annual turnover of $2 billion. Hamas comes in second, with...

The school in the Western Galilee village of Abu Snan will be closed Sunday for fears of renewed sectarian violence following a brawl that erupted late Friday night between some three dozen youths from the village’s Muslim and Druze communities, in which at least 26 people were injured. The announcement was made by the two communities’ leaders in the Muslim-majority mixed town, as efforts to calm tensions between the sides were underway Saturday. At least eight people were hospitalized in Nahariya with moderate to serious injuries after a grenade was thrown during the Friday night scuffle. Some of the injured...

In a 17-minute audio message, purportedly from its elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group sets its sights firmly on Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam and the world's largest oil producer and exporter. The speaker does not refer to it as Saudi Arabia, since this is a name derived from the ruling tribe, the al-Saud, whose authority IS does not accept. Instead he calls it "the land of Haramayn", the land of the two holy places, meaning Mecca and Medina.

Iraq wants an international dispute over a tanker of crude floating for more than three months off Galveston’s coast to remain in U.S. courts because Kurdistan refuses to resolve the matter on Iraqi soil, according to recent court filings. “It appears to be Iraqi Kurdistan’s position that no court in the world may adjudicate this matter,” Baghdad’s attorneys argued in court filings Thursday. “While the issues should be decided in Iraq, they certainly may be decided here.” The Kurdistan Regional Government two months ago asked U.S. District Judge Gray Miller to dismiss Iraq’s pleases to seize more than 1 million...