[Centraal] Crisis in Syri� #216 Sultan Erdo

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Official: Israel independently learned of secret U.S. letter to Iran
Information in Israel's hands suggests the letter stressed the need to reach a nuclear deal and made clear U.S.-led strikes in Syria aren't aimed at toppling Assad.

By Barak Ravid | Nov. 9, 2014 | 2:00 AM | 8

Israel learned independently about the secret letter U.S. President Barack Obama sent to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to a Jerusalem official who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The official said Israel learned about the letter shortly after it was sent. The information arrived indirectly, through channels that are not part of Israel’s official contacts with the American administration.

The Wall Street Journal broke the story, reporting that the U.S. president had suggested to the Iranian leader to cooperate in the struggle against the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL), on condition that the Islamic Republic reach a nuclear agreement with the Western powers by November 24.

The information in Israel’s hands indicated that Obama was trying to allay Iranian fears. Obama made clear in the letter that the international coalition that had been established, and the air strikes in Syria, were meant for a war solely against ISIS, and that the U.S. administration had no aspirations of toppling President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Likewise, Obama stressed to Khamenei his desire to reach an agreement with Iran on a nuclear program, and that such a deal would release Iran from its international isolation.

The fact that the Obama administration kept Israel out of the loop, and that Israel found out about the letter indirectly, adds to already deep suspicions in the Prime Minister’s Office about the White House on the Iranian issue. The letter also strengthened fears in Israel that the struggle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria – two areas with a massive Iranian presence – will make the United States soften its position regarding Iranian nukes.

While the letter was kept secret, there was quiet Israeli-American dialogue on the issue. The matter probably arose during talks the Israeli delegation, headed by National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen, held with a group of senior American officials, headed by U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice 10 days ago in Washington.

A senior Israeli official briefed on details of the talks remarked that Rice and Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, who heads the U.S. negotiation team with Iran, noted that, despite continuous diplomatic efforts, they did not think they could reach a permanent deal with Iran by the November 24 deadline.

Cohen, together with the head of the Foreign Ministry’s strategic division, Jeremy Issacharoff, and other senior Israeli officials who participated in the talks, said that America’s handling of the negotiations is hardening Iran’s position.

The Israeli officials reportedly told their U.S. counterparts that the Iranians think the Americans want to reach a deal more than they do, and so they don’t want to close a deal now. They added that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wants to be flexible, but Khamenei won’t let him.

Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, said that "both the subjects and the details in that account of our recent consultations with the Israelis are inaccurate." "Any attempt to misrepresent what has been a very constructive dialogue with our Israeli friends on the Iranian nuclear negotiations is disappointing," she added.

Jerusalem responded harshly to the letter over the weekend. “I think the struggle with ISIS doesn’t need to come at the expense of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear arms,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, before meeting with the European Union’s new foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini. “One has to act in both these directions, and not tie one to the other.”

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman also said Israel opposed linking ISIS with Iranian nukes. “It’s not our job to advise the U.S. president, but we disagree on this matter,” Lieberman said ats a press conference with Mogherini. “We oppose this approach ... we think it is a mistake ... Iran is not an acceptable partner for any moderate coalition against ISIS, or any type of dialogue in the Middle East.”

The White House and U.S. State Department in Washington declined to comment on the existence of the Obama-Khamenei letter over the weekend, but did engage in damage control. “There is no linkage whatsoever of the nuclear discussions with any other issue, and I want to make that absolutely clear,” said Secretary of State John Kerry, at a press conference in Beijing yesterday. “The nuclear negotiations are on their own.”

A decisive trilateral summit opens today in Muscat, involving Kerry, Zarif and the EU’s negotiator on Iran, Catherine Ashton. Senior Iranian and U.S. officials stressed over the weekend that the summit’s goal is to make a breakthrough in the stalled talks.

According to website Al-Monitor, Ali Akbar Velayati – Khamenei’s foreign policy adviser – is expected to join the meeting. Velayati’s participation in the talks could signal that Iran’s supreme leader is preparing for the possibility of making decisive concessions on the nuclear issue, ones likely to lead to signing a deal by November 24.

Significant gaps remain between the Iranian positions and those of the United States and the five world powers. Prime Minister Netanyahu is reportedly very concerned about the summit in Oman, which revolves around the final round of negotiations set to commence in Vienna on November 18. Netanyahu, who reportedly believes Obama is set on a deal with Tehran, suspects the Americans and Iranians are cooking up a secret bargain, which will leave a large portion of nuclear infrastructure in Iran’s hands, and present the deal as a fait accompli to the rest of the world.

Netanyahu said at a press conference with Mogherini in Jerusalem on Friday that it would be a mistake to allow Iran to become a threshold nuclear state.

"If Iran is left with residual capacity to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb, ultimately this will destabilize the world - not just our region, not just pose a direct threat at Israel, whom Iran spells out for eradication, but also I think for all the Middle East and well beyond the Middle East," he said. "I think this is something that should be prevented."

Netanyahu added: "Better no deal than a bad deal that leaves Iran with a capacity to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb."

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Op maandag 10 november 2014 21:53 schreef mr_jack het volgende:

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triest iig.
Soms vind ik het jammer dat er geen hel is...

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Op dinsdag 11 november 2014 13:34 schreef hafez1234 het volgende:
Ben verbaasd dat firefly dit neppe filmpje nog niet heeft geplaatst om vervolgens te zeggen dat het Syrische leger onschuldige mensen vermoordt.

SYRIA! SYRIAN HERO BOY rescue girl in shootout الطفل السوري البطل

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Turbulent path for Syrian Kurd fighters' 'first foreign female recruit'

ARBIL, Iraq/JERUSALEM - Reuters

A Facebook page registered to Rosenberg showed photographs of her in settings marked as Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria.

A Canadian-born immigrant to Israel has become the first foreign woman to join Kurds battling Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria, a Kurdish source said on Nov. 11, as details of the volunteer's turbulent past surfaced.

Gill Rosenberg, 31, is a civil aviation pilot who enlisted in an Israeli army search-and-rescue unit before being arrested in 2009, extradited to the United States and jailed over an international phone scam, one of her former lawyers said.

On Monday, Israel Radio aired an interview with Rosenberg in which she said she had traveled to Iraq, was training with Kurdish guerrillas and would go into combat in next-door Syria.

The station did not name the interviewee, who spoke North American-accented Hebrew, but source involved in the report identified her as Rosenberg.

"They (the Kurds) are our brothers. They are good people. They love life, a lot like us, really," Rosenberg said, explaining why she joined up after contacting the guerrillas over the Internet.

A source in the Kurdistan region with knowledge of the issue said Rosenberg was the first foreign woman to join YPG, the Kurds' dominant fighting force in northern Syria. She has crossed into Syria and is one of around 10 Westerners recruited by YPG, the source said.

Rosenberg could not be reached by Reuters for comment. A source provided an Iraqi Kurdistan cellphone number for her, but it was turned off on Tuesday.

"After me"

A Facebook page registered to Rosenberg showed photographs of her in settings marked as Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria.

"In the IDF (Israeli army), we say 'aharai', After Me. Let's show ISIS (ISIL) what that means," read a Nov. 9 post.

Yahel Ben-Oved, an Israeli lawyer who represented Rosenberg in the U.S. criminal proceedings, said they had no knowledge of her joining the Kurds though they had spoken recently. "It is exactly the sort of thing she would do, though," said Ben-Oved.

Rosenberg had consented to extradition and served around three years in a U.S. prison under a plea bargain, Ben-Oved said. A 2009 FBI statement on the case names her as Gillian Rosenberg, among 11 people arrested in Israel "in a phony 'lottery prize' scheme that targeted victims, mostly elderly".

Israel's NRG news site reported at the time that Rosenberg turned to crime after running short on money, that she was estranged from her parents and had tried in vain to join the Mossad spy service.

Israel has maintained discreet military, intelligence and business ties with the Kurds since the 1960s, seeing in the minority ethnic group a buffer against shared Arab adversaries.

The Kurds are spread through Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq. In the latter country, the have the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).

Israel bans its citizens from traveling to enemy states, among them Syria and Iraq. It has been cracking down on Israeli Arabs who return after volunteering to fight with ISIL or other rebels against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

Canada similarly worries about its citizens fighting in Syria. Israeli and Canadian officials said they were aware of Rosenberg's case, but did not immediately elaborate on what if any efforts were being made to return her.

November/11/2014

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Op dinsdag 11 november 2014 21:29 schreef mylamboisblack het volgende:

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Op zich een goede oplossing, Syrie opdelen in een Koerdische Autonome regio, Soennitische regio en Sji'itische regio, maar zijn oplossing haalt ook meteen een probleem aan:

Hij gaf aan dat Turkije Syrie moet gaan opschonen van ISIS, maar wie gaat ISIS dan vervangen? Turkije kennende, zetten ze daar gewoon een puppet-regime die alles voor Erdogan gaat doen, oftewel Erdogans Ottomaanse droom komt uit.

Deels ook begrijpelijk: waarom zou Turkije Syrie binnenvallen, soldaten opofferen, en er niks voor terugkrijgen?

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Een ding is duidelijk, zowel Syrie als Irak zijn kunstmatig gecreerde landen die geen bestaansrecht hebben. Te veel verdeeldheid binnen de bevolking.

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Op dinsdag 11 november 2014 22:43 schreef Malatyali0691 het volgende:

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Veel Turkse jongeren vloeken op IS en doen takfir op ze.

WTF. Welke Turkse jongeren zijn geintervieuwd.

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Op dinsdag 11 november 2014 23:15 schreef .Exe het volgende:

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Heeft wss o.a. te maken met het feit dat daesh de Koerden bevecht waar de Turken een tering hekel aan hebben.

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Op woensdag 12 november 2014 11:35 schreef Reki het volgende:

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Hebben ze geen electriciteit in Latakia en Tartus? Daar is geen oorlog.

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Op woensdag 12 november 2014 12:34 schreef firefly3 het volgende:

جبهة النصرة حماة ثغور المسلمين في إدلب العز