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Much of the world focused its attention on the Tehran summit last week between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in the hope that the three “Astana partners” could prevent a bloodbath in Idlib, in northwestern Syria.Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu issued promising statements before the Sept. 7 summit, expressing his belief that a crisis would be averted in the last opposition stronghold. The summit not only failed to achieve this, but also highlighted Turkish and Russian differences over Syria. This comes at a time when Ankara and Moscow are keen to highlight their burgeoning...

"You Tube has banned a number of Syrian state-run and pro-government channels....The reason provided was that these accounts allegedly violate 'You Tube's Terms of Service'" "Southfront"-9/10/2018 "Around four weeks ago, we knew that British intelligence was working toward a chemical attack in order to blame the Syrian government to hold Syria responsible" Virginia State Senator Richard Black (R-Loudoun) quoted by "Washington Post" 9/8/2018 "We've tried to convey the message in recent days that if there's a third use of chemical weapons, the response will be much stronger" National Security Adviser John Bolton 9/10/2018 "When it comes once again the debt...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is closing the Palestine Liberation Organization’s mission in Washington, the latest U.S. blow against the Palestinians and an international court during the stalled Mideast peace process. Some things to know: THE GIST The administration’s move to close the PLO office in Washington is not directly connected to the Trump White House’s opposition to the International Criminal Court, although the administration is trying to link them. But the Trump administration is trotting out discussions about the two on the same day — Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year — in a move certain to inflame...

US President Donald Trump has warned the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies against "recklessly" attacking rebel-held Idlib province. In a tweet he warned of "a grave humanitarian mistake" in which hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Syrian government forces are said to be preparing a huge offensive on the last major rebel stronghold in the country. The UN says such a campaign could have disastrous consequences for thousands of civilians. The US State Department also warned on Monday that Washington would respond to any chemical attacks by the Syrian government or its allies..... US ambassador...

Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan has lashed out at the United States, accusing Washington of supplying crude oil to a rebel group calling itself the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, which Turkey classifies as related to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK, which Ankara has designated a terrorist group. Turkish news outlet Ahval quoted Erdogan as telling local media that, “They are currently suppyling terrorist organizations, such as the YPG, in [Syria’s] Deir ez-Zor with oil. Terrorist organizations receive 300 million dollars income from crude oil.” The comments were made after a meeting Erdogan had with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Vladimir...

Broadway legend Carole Cook implied she wants to see President Trump get assassinated, asking “Where's John Wilkes Booth when you need him?" when approached by a TMZ cameraman in Los Angeles on Sunday night. The 94-year-old Cook’s comment delighted her husband, who quickly reminded viewers that John Wilkes Booth killed a president, who was obviously Abraham Lincoln.

National security adviser John Bolton is expected to announced Monday that the U.S. will shutter the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) office in Washington, D.C., The Wall Street Journal reported. “The Trump administration will not keep the office open when the Palestinians refuse to start direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel,” Bolton is expected to say, according to a draft of his speech reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Bolton will reportedly threaten the International Criminal Court with sanctions if it carries out investigations into the U.S. and Israel. ADVERTISEMENT The action against the PLO, which serves as the main entity...

The Philippines and Bangladesh have put an order for the 100 KAPLAN medium tanks which are co-produced by Turkish defense contractor FNNS and Indonesia’s PT Pindad, Windu Paramata, the head of the medium tank project at Pindad, has said. Paramata said the two countries had expressed willingness to buy 40 to 50 units each. “In October, we will be demonstrating medium tanks there, as a condition for the procurement of defense equipment in their countries,” Paramata told state-run Anadolu Agency on Sept. 7. Paramata said the Indonesian Defense Ministry also mulled purchasing the KAPLAN tanks but the ministry was still...

The anti-terrorist units of the People Protection Units YPG arrested the mercenary and the prominent leader in IS whose name is "Adil Musa Abdel-Jazzar called Abu Karam, he is Palestinian origin, when he tried to escape and enter Turkish territory on 11 August. Hawar news agency held interview with him talking about Many details about his work and Turkey's relations with Daesh. SIVI KHADER/KOBANIThe mercenary, Abu Karam, was born in 1984 in the Palestinian Gaza Strip and took up arms in the Palestinian factions since he was a child. In his youth, he joined the Jund Ansar Allah belonging to...

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered that $25 million earmarked for the care of Palestinians in East Jerusalem hospitals be directed elsewhere as part of a review of aid, a State Department official said on Saturday. Trump called for a review of U.S. assistance to the Palestinians earlier this year to ensure that the funds were being spent in accordance with national interests and were providing value to taxpayers. “As a result of that review, at the direction of the President, we will be redirecting approximately $25 million originally planned for the East Jerusalem Hospital Network,” the State Department official...

The weekly protest by Hamas-controlled Gaza Arabs along the border with Israel took a macabre twiest Friday as Donald Trump, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman were hanged in effigy. The current wave of disturbances on the Gaza border began in late March, following US President Donald Trump's decision to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. .....

High ranking ISIS officer captured by the YPG Abu Kerem has made important confessions. Abu Kerem spoke about the Turkish stateÂ’s relationship with ISIS and stated that attacks in Europe have been in agreement with Turkey. Adil Musa Abduljazar (Abu Kerem) is a high ranking officer in the ISIS gangs. His terrorist activity and crimes have spread from Palestine to Libya, and to Turkey and Syria from there. He has been in Jund Ansar Allah under Al Qaeda, ISIS, Al Nusra and Ahrar Al Sham, gangs that come from the same source. According to ANHA, the gangleader Abduljazar was captured...

GENEVA (7 September 2018) – UN human rights experts* have appealed to Iran to halt the imminent executions of Iranian Kurd prisoners Zanyar and Loghman Moradi, amid serious concerns that they did not receive a fair trial and were tortured during pre-trial detention. They also reiterated calls to halt the execution of Mr. Ramin Hossein Panahi. “We urge the Government of Iran to immediately halt their executions and to annul the death sentences against them in compliance with its international obligations,” the experts said in a joint statement, following reports that they will be executed on 8 September.“We are alarmed...

“This is not prison; this is a genocide,” stated an audience member following August 29 movie screenings concerning the Gaza Strip at the Washington, DC office of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). Typifying the Israel-hating audience of about 25 that filled FCNL’s small Capitol Hill presentation room, this woman’s comments demonstrated how Quakers at FCNL and beyond have joined the global demonization of Israel. The woman, a self-professed member of the radical anti-Israel organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), “was totally sickened” by the evening’s viewings of Gaza in Context and Gaza: A Gaping Wound. These two...

Former Secretary of State John Kerry said former President Barack Obama should have followed through on his infamous "red line" warning to Syria, and the United States "paid a price" as a result of Obama's inaction. Obama vowed in 2012 that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime used chemical weapons on civilians, it would be a "game changer" for U.S. military involvement in Syria. But Obama failed to enforce the promise a year later when hundreds of Syrians were killed in a sarin gas attack, and he instead brokered a multi-nation deal in which Assad pledged to remove his chemical...

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists called for Rudaw anchor Omar Kalo's immediate release by the Syrian government on Wednesday. "The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Syrian authorities to immediately release Omar Kalo, a news anchor for the Iraqi Kurdish satellite news broadcaster Rudaw," stated CPJ on Wednesday. Rudaw Media Network issued a statement on Tuesday that Kalo was being held by military intelligence in the city of Aleppo. Kalo, a native of Kobane, was traveling to Aleppo to renew his passport with his family when they were separated at a Syrian government...

In a development that cast further doubt over the independence of the judiciary in Turkey, judges and prosecutors from one of the top courts in the country were taken to the presidential palace in Ankara by bus for a ceremony marking the inauguration of the new judicial year on Monday. In past years, ceremonies marking the opening of the new judicial year were held in judicial buildings in a symbol of the independence of the judiciary from politics. However, this ceremony began to be held at the presidential palace in Ankara in 2017 upon an order from President Recep Tayyip...

Medeni Duran wrote that his imprisoned brother Metin "cannot walk, speak, or eat and does not recognize anyone anymore. He can only breathe." Mistreatment and even torture of journalists and media employees, along with arbitrary arrests, are getting alarmingly commonplace in Turkey. At least 183 journalists and media workers in Turkey in are being held, either in pretrial detention or serving a prison sentence, according to the Platform for Independent Journalism. Dissident journalists and writers in Turkey increasingly face government threats and arbitrary arrests for their work and opinions, but for Metin Duran, the punishments have been even more...

“Abbas is apparently prepared to give up his job as president of Palestine to become the mayor of a local municipal council in a Jordanian province,” commented a Ramallah-based senior official. Many Palestinians and Jordanians have expressed surprise over the renewed talk about a Palestinian-Jordanian confederation, saying they believe the idea is being floated as part of US President Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-unveiled plan for peace in the Middle East. They also warned that the proposed confederation was part of an Israeli-American “conspiracy” aimed at preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and turning Jordan into the homeland of the...

The Jordanians immediately rejected the confederation idea. Israel is not behind what Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said was a US-backed peace plan based on a Palestinian confederation with Jordan, senior Israeli diplomatic officials clarified Sunday. The clarification came after reports claimed the idea of a Palestinian-Jordanian confederation – which Abbas told a Peace Now delegation was raised in a conversation he had with US envoys Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt – was an Israeli proposal. Be the first to know - Join our Facebook page. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position remains that an agreement must be directly negotiated between...