Kicking off unity bid, Rivlin invites Netanyahu and Gantz to meet
After completing meetings with party representatives to hear their recommendations as to who should form the next government, and with neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz receiving majority support in the new Knesset, President Reuven Rivlin on Monday issued an invitation for a meeting between the two in an attempt to move forward in the coalition-building process.
Netanyahu and Gantz both confirmed that they would attend the meeting, called for Monday evening.
Shortly after Rivlin’s appeal, Netanyahu, speaking at a Likud party faction meeting at the Knesset, said that “the only government that can be formed is a broad unity government” between his Likud and the centrist Blue and White.
Netanyahu, who received 55 MK recommendations to Gantz’s 54, made his own plea for Gantz to agree to a meeting “to achieve unity and compromise between the national camp headed by me… and the left-wing camp headed by Gantz.”
Gantz has so far rejected an invitation to meet with the prime minster “with no preconditions,” a call Netanyahu made immediately after signing an agreement according to which his Likud party and all the parties on the religious right agreed to only enter a coalition as a single unit and negotiate the terms of the new government together.
As Rivlin concludes talks with parties, Netanyahu wins 55 backers to Gantz’s 54
President Reuven Rivlin on Monday ended his round of consultations with representatives of all the Knesset parties ahead of his decision on
whom to task with forming the next government, with no candidate securing the backing of the necessary 61-strong majority needed for a governing coalition.Liberman meets Gantz, says unity government a certainty
After the final two parties that Rivlin consulted with, the center-left Labor-Gesher and left-wing Democratic Camp, recommended Benny Gantz as expected, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has the support of 55 lawmakers in the 120-member Knesset to Gantz’s 54. That seemingly gives the incumbent leader a slight edge over his rival, although Gantz’s Blue and White party is bigger than Netanyahu’s Likud.
Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party is in the kingmaker position with its eight seats, having refrained from recommending either candidate. The three-member Arab faction Balad within the Joint List also opted to back neither Netanyahu nor Gantz.
Rivlin is expected to try to force a unity government comprising Likud and Blue and White, although significant disputes remain as to who would be prime minister and what other parties would be members of such a coalition. He is expected to make a decision later this week or early next week.
Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman said a unity government was no longer a question, after meeting with Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz ahead of talks between the two prime ministerial candidates initiated by President Reuven Rivlin and set to take place Monday evening.Arab voters feel more Israeli than Palestinian
Liberman said the only point of contention remaining between Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was who would lead the unity government as prime minister first.
Netanyahu and Gantz both lack majority support to form government, after Rivlin consulted over the past two days with parties elected to the Knesset in last week’s elections.
Liberman has refrained from recommending either one as a candidate for prime minister.
The secularist Yisrael Beytenu leader campaigned on forcing a unity government between his party, Likud and Blue and White if neither could build a coalition without him and now holds the balance of power in the Knesset with Gantz and Netanyahu likely needing his support to secure a ruling majority.
On Tuesday, Arab voters flocked to the polls, defying expectations of a low turnout.
Arab turnout skyrocketed compared to the April 9 election, reaching 59% on Tuesday, almost as high as the Jewish turnout.
This could suggest that the Israeli Arabs are no longer trying to distance themselves from the state's institutions.
Although Arab voters voted for the Joint Arab List, the only Arab list on the ballot, their high turnout sent a message to the Jewish public. The Arab voters essentially said that they viewed themselves as Israelis and want to take part in the Israeli experience.
Likewise, during the campaign Arab candidates put aside their solidarity with the Palestinian Authority in its struggle against Israel, and scaled back their rhetoric on changing Israel’s Jewish character.
Instead, the Arab politicians campaigned on better education, employment, housing, education and so forth, highlighting the need to address the festering problems in the Arab sector.
Arab candidates had realized that their attempt to drive a wedge between Arabs and Jews and their refusal to accept Israel as the nation-state of the Jews were turning off voters. Consequently, they figured they could only win back the Arab street if they changed the discourse and promised a course correction.
Netanyahu: I will be given two chances to form government, plan to succeed
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned his Likud MKs in a closed-door meeting on Monday that the current political dispute could take months to resolve.
Netanyahu told the MKs that the most likely scenario if the current situation does not change is that President Reuven Rivlin would ask either him or Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to form a government and then the other would be given a chance and they both would fail. He said that only after both failures would he be given another chance and succeed.
According to MKs present in the meeting, Netanyahu said that whoever gets the mandate third would definitely form a government so it would better to avoid months of political tension and form a government now.
Why the NY Times obsession with Israel and not with West Papua (half million dead)?
Tom Gross on the media obsession with Israel (Sunday Sept. 22, 2019, ILTV) Why barely any mention in the western media that the US military admits killing over 30 innocent Afghan farmers in a drone strike three days ago? https://ift.tt/2l5TlsB... Why the obsession in the NY Times with Israel and not with West Papua where up to half a million people have died (and thousands raped) since it was illegally occupied by the Indonesia militarily in 1963.
Balad votes won’t count for Gantz, putting Netanyahu in lead
President Reuven Rivlin will subtract Balad, one of the parties making up the Joint List, from the recommendations for Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to be prime minister, his spokesman said Monday morning.
The statement came after his legal advisers investigated whether Balad can revoke its three MKs’ recommendation.
This puts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the lead, with 55 recommendations to Gantz’s 54.
The remaining Knesset seats belong to Yisrael Beytenu, which chose to recommend no one, because neither candidate committed to forming a Likud-Blue and White-Yisrael Beytenu coalition.
The Joint List recommended Gantz – the first candidate it supported since Yitzhak Rabin in 1992 – in the name of all 13 MKs on Sunday evening.
Soon after, Balad released a statement that it does not support the recommendation, but Joint List leader Ayman Odeh said the recommendation is still in the name of all 13 MKs.
Later, Joint List faction chairman Ahmed Tibi sent Rivlin a letter taking back Balad’s recommendations.
This is incorrect, @Guardian. Not all of the Joint Arab List provided an endorsement of Benny Gantz for PM. One of the component parties, Balad, refuse to endorse either candidate. As things stand, Gantz is expected to received 54 recommendations.https://t.co/ZnWeCjCQZc pic.twitter.com/ZXD8wuSuZi
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 23, 2019
Beautiful thought about “shared future”, not shared by Arab politicians in any Arab-majority country, all of which have entirely expelled or made conditions intolerable for Jews. Plus the Palestinian Authority, which seeks to perpetuate Jordan’s ethnic cleansing of Jews. https://t.co/ZRhmV7B8F3
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) September 22, 2019
PreOccupiedTerritory: We Recommend Gantz As Prime Minister As Long As We Can Also Indict Him For War Crimes by MK Ayman Odeh, Joint List (satire)
Our alliance of Arab parties has finally reached its fateful conclusion in the ongoing drama of the recent parliamentary elections: we have told President Rivlin that we back Benny Gantz as incoming prime minister, provided that at the same time we can have him charged with practicing genocide.PMW: Abbas’ duplicity: “We battle terror” (but honor terrorists!)
You must understand our predicament. We prefer anyone to Netanyahu, whose rhetoric in recent years has made us as Palestinian-Israelis (a term I wield as a cudgel despite the majority of Arab-Israelis preferring not to identify specifically as Palestinian) feel insecure in our citizenship, safety, and civil rights, though it can be difficult to point to anything specific he has done that changes our legal status one iota. No matter. We dislike him enough to recommend someone else, almost anyone else, as long as that recommendation comes with a way to get someone in the dock for oppressing Palestinians. Rampant unemployment, crime, misogyny, and other major issues plague the Arab sector in this country, but you know how it is. Priorities.
The main thing for us involves getting rid of Netanyahu, of course. The specific identity of his preferred replacement as Gantz matters less, but that does not render it unimportant. Politics has always been the art of the possible, which necessitates compromise. We in the Joint List have no illusions that anyone who garners enough votes to unseat Netanyahu will come from our little corner of the political map. But we can establish, and have established, certain essential red lines on which we will not compromise, chief among them that Benny Gantz be indicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, or whatever. The specific nature of the charges we have in mind is less crucial than having an Israeli leader indicted for defending Jews.
Abbas to German leaders:
We “act to spread the culture of peace and battle terror in our region and the world”
Abbas to Palestinians about terrorists:
"We view the Martyrs and prisonersas stars in the sky of the Palestinian people”
Op-ed lauds Abbas as “the president of peace, the human president”
The modus operandi of the Palestinian Authority is to pretend to be peace-seekers when meeting foreign audiences, while lauding terrorists and “Martyrs” who died murdering Israelis when facing the Palestinian home audience.
The technique is fundamental to the PA leadership’s diplomacy. When PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas recently met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, he claimed the PA is “spreading the culture of peace”:
“The president emphasized [to Merkel] that we will continue to act to build our national institutions according to the rule of law, and also act to spread the culture of peace and battle terror in our region and the world, regardless of its source. He condemned the use of violence against civilians and emphasized that all of the monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - must be honored equally, and all forms of racism and discrimination must be rejected." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 30, 2019]
Were this statement true, Abbas would actively be speaking out against Palestinian terror attacks against Israeli civilians. But to the contrary, Abbas encourages terror and promises terrorists that "Martyrs" will "reach Paradise" and that the wounded will be “rewarded by Allah.” Abbas lauds and praises those who follow this call to violence, and emphasizes that they are “stars in the sky,” “the most sacred,” and “sanctified.”Moreover, Abbas’ party Fatah is using its official Facebook page to promote terror.
The following are some examples of Abbas lauding terrorists and "Martyrs":
Jason Greenblatt And The Inconvenient Truth Of Palestinian Rejectionism
Mainstream media outlets have derided President Trump’s yet-to-be-released Israeli-Palestinian peace plan as a “sideshow divorced from reality” that is “destined to fail,” and it’s become fashionable to attribute this to the shortcomings of his soon-to-be-departed Middle East special envoy, Jason Greenblatt. But claims that Greenblatt “wasn’t the right guy” for the job are dead wrong. Whatever the outcome of the plan, he has arguably done more to advance the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinians than any American diplomat in recent memory.Eliot Engel weakens Hamas sanctions bill after lobbying from Qatar
Though coming into government with comparatively little knowledge of, or experience dealing with, the Middle East, Greenblatt keenly understood that the primary source of the festering conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is the unwillingness of Palestinian leaders to accept a Jewish state as a legitimate political entity. Hamas and Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders may disagree over tactics and political vision, but they share an absolute rejection of living alongside Israelis as equals, and thus see no need to tone down the viciously anti-Semitic content of their educational curriculum, halt violent anti-Israel incitement on state-run media outlets, or take other steps essential to a good-faith conflict resolution.
For a quarter century, Greenblatt’s predecessors glossed over such harsh realities in their zeal to coax PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and his successor as Palestinian Authority (PA) president, Mahmoud Abbas, into signing agreements and smiling for the cameras. Much of the language used to do the glossing has changed little. In 1988, U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz coached Arafat on the words he needed to utter so that the Reagan administration could say the PLO had “renounced” terrorism. Nearly three decades later, President Obama and his Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, could be found repeating the mantra that Abbas had “long since renounced violence” — never mind that the bloodiest period of Palestinian terrorism was sandwiched between. As rejectionism and incitements to violence running rampant in Palestinian society continually thwarted any movement toward peace, high-level U.S. diplomats continued their incessant glossing.
From his first days on the job, rather than parroting the false narratives and biased framings that had become staples of ineffective American diplomacy, Greenblatt set out to publicly discredit them.
This is most striking in his use of terminology. In his frequent public statements, Greenblatt rejected both the term “occupied” to describe disputed territories controlled by Israel and the word “settlements” to describe Jewish towns and villages there. He pointedly abstained from using the term “refugees” to describe the 5.4 million Palestinians registered by UNRWA, on the grounds that “only a very small fraction” of them are true refugees who fled their homes during the 1948 war for Israel’s independence.
A bill that would sanction sponsors of Palestinian terrorism was watered down significantly after a lobbying campaign by the Palestinian Authority and Qatar targeted Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, public filings show.
When the Palestinian International Terrorism Support Prevention Act was first introduced by Florida Republican Brian Mast in 2017, the bill called out Qatar for aiding and abetting terrorists.
“Hamas has received significant financial and military support from Qatar. Qatar has hosted multiple senior Hamas officials, including Hamas leader Khaled Mashal since 2012,” it read.
“Qatar, a longtime US ally, has for many years openly financed Hamas, a group that continues to undermine regional stability,” US Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said in language which was also included.
The bill made it out of committee, but never onto the floor for a vote.
28 years after being revoked by #UNGA , the PA representative in Geneva praised res. 3379, which claimed that Zionism is Racism, taking us back to the @UN's darkest days!
— Israel in UN/Geneva (@IsraelinGeneva) September 23, 2019
These poisonous words cannot remain unanswered. They must be condemned. #CERD #HRC42 @UNHumanRights pic.twitter.com/9KcDovXfSN
Dictators opening #UNGA on Tuesday:
— Hillel Neuer - watching #UNGA #UNGA74 (@HillelNeuer) September 22, 2019
🇪🇬 Abdel Al Sisi, President of Egypt
🇹🇷 Recep Erdoğan, President of Turkey
🇶🇦 Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Emir of Qatar
🇧🇴 Evo Morales, President of Bolivia
🇯🇴 Abdullah II, King of Jordan
1 dictator, 1 vote, is the UN's idea of democracy. pic.twitter.com/lxDHJW9u1k
Today as world leaders gather at #UNGA, we're placing "The Future of UNRWA" on the international agenda at the UNHRC. Featuring #UNRWA General Counsel James G. Lindsay (2002-2007) & Dr. Einat Wilf, co-author of "The War of Return: The Battle over the Palestinian Refugee Problem." pic.twitter.com/EpWmnvCrQ8
— Hillel Neuer - watching #UNGA #UNGA74 (@HillelNeuer) September 23, 2019
UNRWA regional director proud he forced 10-year-old students to thank his chief “for his relentless efforts,” about which they could not know, and which the world knows is a lie because 4 donor states froze funds over said chief’s abuse of power, sexual misconduct & corruption. https://t.co/gZH5eeQvJR
— Hillel Neuer - watching #UNGA #UNGA74 (@HillelNeuer) September 23, 2019
Washington Denies Visa Entry to Hizbullah's Minister
Washington refused to grant a travel visa to Lebanon's Health Minister Jamil Jabak, a representative of Hizbullah in the government, ahead of a visit to New York to attend the UN General Assembly as part of the official delegation accompanying President Michel Aoun.Henkin family lawsuit against Turkish bank for supporting Hamas
The U.S. has been tightening economic sanctions on individuals and entities directly or indirectly involved with Hizbullah.
Earlier reports said that Jabak was the personal doctor of Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.
A lawsuit has been filed against Turkish bank Kuveyt Türk Katilim Bankasi A.Åž. for aiding and abetting Hamas terror activity. One of the bank’s largest shareholders is the Government of Turkey, which has permitted Hamas to operate within its borders.Elderly woman succumbs to wounds sustained in Gaza rocket attack last year
Stein Mitchell Beato & Missner LLP, Osen LLC, and MM~LAW LLC have been successful in bringing banks and corporations that fund and equip terrorists to justice or securing compensation for victims of terror.
This case is one of many seeking to bring international banks that have provided material support to or aided and abetted terror organizations to justice.
The lawsuit states that "Plaintiffs allege that Kuveyt Bank aided and abetted the Islamic Resistance
Movement ('Hamas'), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization that murdered Eitam Henkin and Naama Henkin and injured their children, by knowingly providing it substantial assistance via financial services during the relevant period. Kuveyt Bank aided and abetted Hamas knowing its own role in facilitating funds transfers through the international and U.S. financial systems on Hamas' behalf and fully aware of Hamas’ violent activities."
While driving in Judea and Samaria in 2015, the Henkin family was shot to death by terrorists in another vehicle. The terrorists, all of whom have admitted to being members of a Hamas terrorist cell, murdered parents Rabbi Eitam Henkin and his wife Na’ama, while their children, ages nine, seven, four, and ten months, looked on from the back seat of the car. The children survived after Rabbi Henkin – a citizen of the United States – fought back against the terrorists to defend his family and one of the terrorists suffered a friendly fire injury.
A woman severely injured in a rocket attack last November in southern Israel has died from her wounds.Israeli man injured in West Bank when rock thrown through his windshield
74-year-old Nina Gisdenanova from Ashkelon was severely wounded after her building sustained a direct hit from a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip. She had been in a coma at Sheba Hospital at Tel Hashomer for 10 months.
The municipality of Ashkelon was quoted by Ynet news as expressing sorrow for her death, saying that “upon learning of her passing, teams are in contact with the family and providing them with the necessary assistance.”
Ashkelon mayor Tomer Glam was quoted as telling Gisdenanova’s son Igor that, “unfortunately, we lost another resident in the never ending war with terrorist organizations in Gaza. Hopefully she will be the last victim. The municipality will continue to help and provide the dear family with everything it needs at this difficult time.”
Gisdenanova was one of two civilians killed during the round of violence between Israel and terror groups in the Hamas-run coastal enclave, which broke out following a botched IDF intelligence raid in Khan Younis.
The barrages began after a Kornet anti-tank missile was fired toward a bus full of soldiers at the Black Arrow Memorial Site in the Sha’ar Hanegev region. A 19-year-old soldier was transferred to Soroka hospital in Beersheba in critical condition after he was hit standing near the bus.
Over 460 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip toward southern Israeli communities as well as the Dead Sea and the West Bank’s Hebron Hills.
An Israeli man was hit in the face and injured while driving in the northern West Bank when a rock crashed through his windshield and hit him in the face.IDF Releases Dramatic Recording of Special Forces’ Rescue in Gaza
The driver, a 23-year-old Israel Defense Forces officer who was on leave, was driving with his father near the settlement of Maale Shomron on Friday afternoon. He was taken to a hospital in Petah Tikvah and required surgery. The officer lost consciousness after being hit with the rock, and his father had to take over the wheel and pull the car over, he told the Israel National News website.
There were several reports of rocks being thrown at cars bearing yellow Israeli license plates in the area.
A day earlier, three firebombs were thrown at a car driving on the road between Maale Shomron and the Palestinian village of Azzun on the way to the settlement outpost of El Matan. It was in the same place five years earlier that a firebomb hit a car carrying a father and his 11-year-old daughter. Ayala Shapira was severely burned in the attack.
The IDF on Sunday released a recording made by an Air Force helicopter during the rescue of a Special Forces unit from the Gaza Strip, November 11, 2018.
In the recording, the pilot can be heard refusing to take off until all the soldiers are accounted for, despite heavy Hamas gunfire.
On Sunday, Lt. Col. M., 41, who was killed by friendly fire in the operation, was awarded a Chief of Staff Citation posthumously. In a private ceremony, his widow, children and parents accepted the award from IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi.
The IDF issued a clipped statement saying M. was “an example of outstanding bravery, courage, and sacrifice.”
Another soldier who was injured during the same IDF clandestine operation inside the Gaza Strip was also awarded the same citation.
Al-Qassam Brigades battalion commander Nour Baraka, 37, was killed together with six other Hamas terrorists, and seven Hamas men were wounded in the operation.
Israel bans most players on Gaza soccer team due to terror links
Israel is denying entry to most players on a Gaza soccer team scheduled to play a West Bank team later this week.The Plight of the LGBT Community in the Palestinian Authority and Muslim Countries
The Shin Bet security agency says a security check turned up information pointing to "most" of the team's "links to terrorism." It did not elaborate.
Gisha, an Israeli rights group, says an Israeli court sided with the state on Monday, meaning Wednesday's scheduled game is unlikely to take place.
Gazans have lived under a blockade since Hamas seized power in 2007 and must seek permits to leave. Critics say these are increasingly harder to come by and are withheld arbitrarily. Israel disputes this and says it grants tens of thousands of permits for Gazans "uninvolved in terror."
The Palestinian Authority (PA)’s violent treatment of the gay community under its rule offers a gloomy reminder of this community’s difficult situation in most Muslim countries.
On August 18, the PA barred the Al Qaws (Rainbow) organization, which combines several LGBT groups, from holding an event in the Nablus area.
Palestinian policemen not only forcibly prevented the gathering but issued a harsh and threatening warning to members of the gay community. They asked citizens to provide the police with any information they might have about the organization’s activities, and made the following statement:
The Palestinian police will prevent the holding of the event and notes that it did not know about the similar previous events that were held in Nablus. The event in question is not suitable to the conservative nature of the city and will offend the values of the local population and the city of Nablus…The event, if held, will constitute an affront to the tradition and a blow to the values that Palestinian society has upheld throughout its history.
The police spokesman went on to warn that anyone connected to the event would be prosecuted, and promised full confidentiality to anyone providing the police with information that might lead to prosecutions.
In the Palestinian Authority, gay activists and the LGBT community at large are subjected to continual and severe persecution. This persecution comes directly from the PA itself, which is supposed to prevent discrimination and protect all its citizens.
In Al-Aqsa Mosque Address, Palestinian Sheikh Abu Mahdi Baydoun Calls on Soldiers, Officers in Muslim Armies to Overthrow Muslim Leaders, Support Those Who Strive to Establish an Islamic State pic.twitter.com/Lu2hWwUV5N
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) September 23, 2019
While the U.S. Supports Lebanon, Lebanon Supports Hizballah
The U.S. Navy, responding to the Iranian attack on a Saudi Arabian oil field, recently sent a destroyer to the Middle East to demonstrate its willingness to defend its allies. But, write Tony Badran and Jonathan Schanzer, the fact that the ship was dispatched not to the Persian Gulf but to Beirut highlights the confusion of American policy toward Lebanon. For at least a decade, policymakers in Washington have hoped that supporting the country and its armed forces could give it the political and military power to rein in Hizballah, the Iran-backed guerrilla group that operates from its territory. Instead, the opposite has happened:Evidence that Iran Violated the Nuclear Deal Since Day One?
The institution receiving the most U.S. support, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), has worked hand in hand with Hizballah nationwide. It has deployed jointly alongside Hizballah fighters battling Sunni militants both in Lebanese cities and on the border with Syria. It has laid down supporting fire [for the terrorist group] using U.S.-provided weapons and ammunition. UN Security Council Resolution 1701, passed in 2006 [at the end of Israel’s Second Lebanon War], called for Lebanon to disarm Hizballah. Instead, the LAF looked the other way when Hizballah spent two years digging subterranean cross-border attack tunnels into Israel. The LAF allowed the import through Lebanon’s international airport of technology, flown in by Iranian planes, to upgrade Hizballah’s projectiles into precision-guided missiles. Hizballah controls large parts of the country, even where the LAF is deployed.
The problem isn’t only a lack of control—it’s collusion. Israel recently exposed a Hizballah precision-rocket facility in eastern Lebanon. The site of the Iran-led project is a short drive away from an LAF base, where the U.S. has delivered equipment, including ScanEagle reconnaissance drones. The base also hosts the U.S.- and UK-funded Land Border Training Center, designed to help the LAF secure Lebanon’s porous border. Hizballah, with Iran’s assistance, built a missile facility next door.
The State Department has long classified Lebanon as a “safe haven for terrorism.” In fact, it is something worse. With the banks, the military, and the government itself answering to a terrorist organization, Lebanon is fully entwined with Hizballah. The Trump administration deserves praise for going after dirty Lebanese banks. It’s time to . . . acknowledge Lebanon as the Hizballah state, and act accordingly.
The IAEA first ignored the reports. This should not come as a surprise: the IAEA has a long history of misreporting the Islamic Republic's compliance with the deal and declining to follow up on credible reports about Iran's illicit nuclear activities. Iran's clandestine nuclear sites in Natanz and Arak were revealed by the opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.JCPA: French Enthusiasm for Iran: the Background and the Profit
In any event, after a significant amount of pressure was imposed on the IAEA, and after the IAEA's chief passed away and Iran was reportedly able to moving the suspected materials out of the secret nuclear facility, inspection of the site was recently implemented.
What was the outcome? Even though the Iranian leaders had cleaned up the facility, the IAEA's inspectors were able to detect traces of radioactive uranium at the site. Israel's warning and other reports had proved accurate.
Now, Tehran is declining to answer the IAEA's questions about the secret facility. More importantly, one of the most basic requirements of the nuclear deal (while it lasted) was that Iran had to reveal its nuclear activities to the IAEA -- a condition with it even overtly failed to comply.
In other words, the detection of radioactive particles in Turquz Abad, Iran's reluctance to answer simple questions about the secret facility and non-partisan evidence about Iran's nuclear activities at the location, all point to the fact that Tehran was most likely violating the nuclear deal since it was reached.
Where, you may ask, are the strong advocates of the nuclear deal after the new evidence revealed that Iran has long been violating the nuclear deal and pursuing its nuclear ambitions? They are silent.
The international community would truly do itself a great service to recognize that the nuclear deal was nothing more than a pro-mullah agreement which provided Iran's ruling clerics with billions of dollars to pursue their anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Iranian people and pro-terror activities, while simultaneously providing cover for Iran to pursue its nuclear ambitions.
From the day Emmanuel Macron entered the French Presidential Palace in May 2017, he has tried to improve France's image in the international arena and play a central role in resolving conflicts. Macron is essentially the only leader on the Continent who is capable of "restoring the former glory" of the European community, maintaining friendly relations with all sides, and negotiating directly and equally with the leaders of the great powers.Saudi Arabia to Restore Full Oil Output by Next Week: Source
Macron seeks to return to the doctrine of Gen. Charles de Gaulle, which entails following an independent foreign policy that will conform to that of the U.S. and the West only when it is in the interests of France. He has proposed giving Iran a credit line of $15 billion.
Despite their closeness to Iran, the French have always preferred the Sunni camp to the Shiites. During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, France wholeheartedly supported Saddam Hussein. It supplied him with weapons and even a nuclear reactor (that was destroyed by Israel in 1981).
Macron's primary motivation is economic. Since the imposition of new U.S. sanctions, the export of French products to Iran has fallen by 42%. France is the third-largest exporter to Iran in Europe after Germany and Italy. Total Energy and Renault built factories in Iran, employing thousands of locals. However, today both factories are almost idle.
The French president's diplomatic moves are dangerous because Iran would receive the removal of the sanctions on a silver platter and financial credit even before talks began.
Israel's recent discoveries of clandestine Iranian nuclear sites and Iran's continued subversive operations in Syria, Iraq, and especially in Lebanon with the construction of accurate missiles for Hizbullah obligate the international community to consider the dangers that could threaten the Jewish state rather than looking only at economic gain.
Saudi Arabia has restored more than 75 percent of crude output lost after attacks on its facilities and will return to full volumes by early next week, a source briefed on the latest developments told Reuters on Monday.
Saudi’s oil production from its Khurais plant is now at more than 1.3 million barrels per day, while current production from its Abqaiq plant is at about 3 million bpd, the source said.
The Sept. 14 attacks on the Abqaiq and Khurais plants, some of the kingdom’s biggest, caused raging fires and significant damage that halved the crude output of the world’s top oil exporter, by shutting down 5.7 million barrels per day of production.
Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and the chief executive of state oil company Aramco, Amin Nasser, have said the output will be fully back online by the end of September.
The kingdom has managed to recover supplies to customers to the levels they were at prior to the attacks by drawing from its huge oil inventories and offering other crude grades from other fields, Saudi officials said.
No casualties were reported at the sites even though thousands of workers and contractors work and live in the area.
Saudi said it would ensure full oil supply commitments to its customers. The kingdom ships more than 7 million bpd to global destinations every day, and for years has served as the supplier of last resort to markets.
Saudi FM Adel Al-Jubeir: The International Community Must Stand Firmly against Iran; Loans, Money Transfers, Normalization Only Encourage Iranian Hostility pic.twitter.com/cLuorajd78
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) September 23, 2019
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