Hezbollah is navigating a complicated time in Lebanon today. After Beirut’s massive explosion in August, the organization has come under scrutiny because of its illegal weapons stores across Lebanon. However, the Hezbollah also has members in parliament. In July it accused Israel of killing one of its members in Syria and vowed to respond. What was the Hezbollah member doing in Syria? He was part of the increasing presence of the group in Syria. Iran traffics weapons through Syria to Hezbollah.

This is part of the reality that Israel faces daily on its northern border. Hezbollah, armed and backed by Iran, has more than 100,000 rockets and has been increasing its investments in drones and precision-guided missiles. Israel has also been increasing its investments in high-tech defense systems to counter the threat, including the famed ‘iron dome’ system that shoots down rockets, drones and other threats. Investment in defensive systems is only part of how Israel is preparing for the possibility of a future conflict. It is also readying infantry and armored units to confront enemy threats.

The seventh armored brigade is one of Israel’s historic units that earned its spurs in battles with the Jordanians in the 1948 war of independence. Today it uses the advanced Merkava IV main battle tank and is outfitted with the latest information and communications technology. In some ways war hasn’t changed here; the use of tanks, machine guns and infantry uses much of the same equipment that has been in use for years. What has changed is Israel’s investment in having units working closely together, to fight throughout the night and day with air support, more drones and intelligence for the fighters on the ground.

I joined one September drill, walking with soldiers and tanks through dusty fields to secure a mock enemy position. Infantrymen sprinted behind berms and tanks fired, machine guns kicked up dirt in the distance as their bullets impacted. This is Israel’s way of war today, combining quick movement with the best intelligence to confront an enemy that hides among civilians and carpers areas with hidden bunkers.

Israel has been talking a lot more about combining units in recent years. For instance, it has rolled out a new multi-year plan called ‘momentum’ that seeks to concentrate on the most high-tech weapons like the F-35 while creating new special forces and ‘multi-dimensional’ units. Commanders speak about combining as many forces, assets and capabilities into a mission to complete it quickly. That means Israel doesn’t lack for weapons to confront an enemy but wants to choose the best munition to confront each threat. Instead of some slow rolling artillery barrage or carpet bombing, the kind that would have defined the first world war or Vietnam, it is all about chiseling down war to its most precise elements. This also separates what Israel is doing today from the experience of the US in places like Afghanistan.

To make forces more lethal on the battlefield Israel has invested in these kinds of drills to make infantry and tanks work more closely together. This was one of the lessons learned from previous conflicts in Lebanon or Gaza: slow-moving units that don’t communicate run into trouble. The last ten years have been all about reforming and learning from those experiences.

The challenge today is that the threat from Iran and groups it supports, such as Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon, is multifaceted. Israel has faced intermittent rocket fire from Gaza. Missiles fired from Lebanon last year. Increasing drone threats from Syria. In general Israel’s responses have been to try to keep these threats at a minimum while avoiding major conflict.

As Israeli relations in the region thaw, this is what’s needed when Hezbollah is storing arms all across the border and Iran continues its threats against the Jewish state.

Source: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/view-from-the-golan-heights-israel-prepares-to-take-on-hezbollah

The post View from the Golan Heights: Israel prepares to take on Hezbollah first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Russia and China have vetoed at the UN Security Council a one-year extension to a deal allowing aid deliveries to north-western Syria via Turkey.

Up to now, food and other aid for millions of people have come through two crossing points to Aleppo province and to rebel-held Idlib.

A Belgian-German draft resolution was a last-ditch attempt to prolong the deal, which expires later on Friday.

Russia wants one crossing to be open, and a vote on this is now expected.

Moscow argues that aid for Syria should be channeled through its ally there, the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

But analysts say the government in Damascus has a record of restricting the flow of aid to areas in the hands of its opponents.

Last month, the head of the World Food Programme warned that Syria faced the risk of mass starvation or another mass exodus unless more aid money was made available.

David Beasley told the BBC a million Syrians faced severe food insecurity and some were already dying.

The war-torn country’s currency has collapsed and food prices have soared.

In desperation, many Syrians might have no choice but to try to flee to Europe as they did in 2015, Mr. Beasley said.

More than 380,000 people have been killed and 13.2 million others – half the pre-war population – have been displaced inside and outside Syria since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011.

Some 6.6 million refugees are scattered throughout the world, the vast majority of them in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt, where the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has wrought havoc on economies.

• Assad under pressure as economic crisis batters Syria
• Carpets, olives, and handcrafts: The Idlib I loved and lost

The UN and its partners have appealed for $3.8bn (£3.08bn) for humanitarian work inside Syria and another $6.04bn to help countries in the region hosting Syrian refugees. The appeals are currently 30% and 19% funded respectively.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has warned that the Covid-19 crisis has had an immediate and devastating impact on the livelihoods of millions of Syrian refugees and their host countries, where there have been sharp economic downturns and poverty has spiraled.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53370890

The post Syria: Russia and China veto last-ditch aid extension deal first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

There’s way too much in play to try to address even a fraction of what’s up in the Update.  Let’s just say that we’ll have fewer obnoxious blow-hards in our living rooms since they’ve started dropping like flies.  From that standpoint, it’s been a pretty good week.  Some guy’s wife bowed out, the dude who loves his husband.  It looks as though the elderly Bolshevik is headed for oblivion too, and none too soon.  Maybe we won’t have to listen to, “Medicaya fo aull!” too many more times.   It’s been pathetic.   The Cherokee dominatrix (courtesy Mark Steyn) is gone after having damaged the Bolshevic and destroying miniature billionaire.  May we be spared the extended-arm body-wave for the foreseeable future, savagely shaken hair and all.

I’ve got to share this with you in case you missed it.  I heard it on the radio as I was driving this morning and don’t think it happened at the Town Hall last night, but anyway.  President Trump was talking about the fake Indian and said (paraphrased as accurately as possible), “She’s not a nice person.  She damaged Bernie so badly.  He may never recover.  She destroyed mini-Mike, it was really easy for her.  Really easy.  She’s mean.  The people don’t want somebody mean, they want somebody nice… like me!”  I nearly crashed the car I was laughing so hard.  It’s probably extra hilarious because you can only imagine the reaction of the humorless crowd at the network anchor desks.  They’re probably throwing private fits.  Hope so anyway.

The coronavirus is still a stage 4 panic.  You’d think we’d never seen this kind of thing before.  It’s nasty and it would be good if nobody we know ever gets it.  But it’s not the black plague after all, and the media’s hopes of bringing Trump to his knees will likely not be realized, again.  John Mitchell, our minister in Rocklin, CA told me there’s been a death from it in his neighborhood.  An elderly gentleman who’d been on a cruise ship, he did have underlying health problems.  The Police have ordered neighbors to stay in their homes, and are standing by to chase them back in if they come outside.  Apparently that’s their biggest concern and first priority.  But that’s California for you.  No offense.  I loved it back in the day.

The Turks and the Greeks are at it again. And the reality of the situation blows politically correct sentiments away,  “…it’s easy to lapse into xenophobic language as they try to seal the border.”  The quote is from a yahoo story about Greek residents trying to stop Muslim refugees flooding out of Turkey and into Greece.  It’s only been a few years since millions of “refugees” changed the face of Europe forever.  Now Greek civilians have joined the effort to monitor their border around the clock in the interests of trying to keep the situation from getting any worse.  In the process, they’ve apparently spoken unflatteringly about the invaders, and as far as yahoo news is concerned, that equates to xenophobia.

How dare the Greeks try to defend their border against another onslaught?  They must be “xenophobic!”  (We can only imagine what yahoo might write if they caught one of us using uncomplimentary language in regard to the invasion from the South).

You would have to look back a thousand years and more to recognize the provocations and resulting clashes between Greeks and Turks.  There have been four major wars between the two, dating back to the Ottoman Empire.  The list of disputes and incidents since Greece won its independence in 1832 consumes many pages of explanation.  The bottom line is that Greece is “Christian,” Turkey is Islamic, and the border between the two represents a line of demarcation between the Islamic nations and Europe.

Both have been members of NATO since 1952.  Turkey has free trade with the EU, but despite decades of negotiations has yet to become a full member.  Muslims displaced by Middle Eastern wars and most recently by the Syrian civil war representing 3.6 million people, have flooded into Turkey.  In 2015 during the flood of millions into Europe, the EU-Turkey Joint Actions Plan paid 3 billion euros to Turkey to keep the refugees and prevent them from coming to Europe.

These are the items as stated in the agreement:

—All new irregular migrants crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands as of 20 March 2016 will be returned to Turkey;

—For every Syrian being returned to Turkey from the Greek islands, another Syrian will be resettled to the EU;

—Turkey will take any necessary measures to prevent new sea or land routes for irregular migration opening from Turkey to the EU;

—Once irregular crossings between Turkey and the EU are ending or have been substantially reduced, a Voluntary Humanitarian Admission Scheme will be activated;

—The EU will, in close cooperation with Turkey, further speed up the disbursement of the initially allocated €3 billion under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey. Once these resources are about to be used in full, the EU will mobilize additional funding for the Facility up to an additional €3 billion to the end of 2018;

—The EU and Turkey will work to improve humanitarian conditions inside Syria.

— EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan

But that was then, and this is now.  Turkey’s military intervention in the Syrian civil war in Kurdish controlled Northern Syria displacing another 100,000 civilians and was being characterized as an “invasion.”  President Erdogan of Turkey said the following, speaking at a party gathering, “Hey EU, wake up.  I Say it again.  If you try to frame our operation there (in Syria) as an invasion, our task is simple.  We will open the doors and send 3.6 million migrants to you.

That’s the leverage Erdogan has over the European Union.  If Europe thinks it has it bad now, (and it does) just wait until he opens the floodgates.

Erdogan is involved in talks with Russia in order to try to prevent all-out war.  Their armies have clashed, with Russia backing Syrian President Assad, and the result has been more displaced Syrians coming to Turkey.  The “deal” listed above no longer holds sway as far as Erdogan is concerned.  He doesn’t approve of the Greek civilian actions to guard the border and accuses them of having killed or wounded well over 100, which the Greeks deny.  Erdogan has reportedly sent units to the scene, and that might not go well.  Meanwhile, we’ll have a great Sabbath!

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/index.php

The post Weekly Update from Mark Armstrong – 6 March 2020 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

This is an opportunity for Israel and Turkey to recognize a new alignment of interests.

As the brutal eight-year Syrian Civil War winds down, uncertainty over what the future holds for the country is prompting new alliances while testing established ties. Both Israel and Turkey border Syria and have a strategic interest in the postwar settlement that emerges there. While there has been no shortage of disagreements between Israel and Turkey over the past decade, both share a desire to see stability across their Syrian borders. However, each holds a different set of priorities informed by distinct geopolitical and national security exigencies. How this plays out may have far-reaching consequences for stability in post-war Syria and should be of close interest to the United States—a long time strategic ally of both Israel and Turkey.

Through key military cooperation agreements, Israel and Turkey were historically allied since the 1990s in pursuit of a shared goal: to deter the Syrian regime from hostile actions against them by creating a bulwark on its southwest and northern borders. Israel’s limited direct participation in the Syrian Civil War focused on thwarting the Islamic State (or ISIS) threat and the Hezbollah-Iranian presence near its frontier with the Golan and Lebanon. Turkey has been intertwined with the theatre of war at a greater cost. The Turkish Armed Forces conducted two major cross-border ground operations into northern Syria within the span of two years: Operation Euphrates Shield and Operation Olive Branch. Turkey controls Syrian territory in Afrin and its surrounding areas, and has amassed troops along the 566-mile border. Turkey received over 3.6 million Syrian war refugees since 2011, placing a burden on its already overstretched economy and sparking irreversible demographic changes. Israel received none, although it has been concerned that the refuge issue is destabilizing the regime in Jordan. Despite diverging wartime experiences, both Turkey and Israel share overlapping concerns about future stability in Syria.

First, a key shared goal is curbing the maneuverability space of armed non-state actors and militia groups. Indeed, in a Facebook post in March 2013, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained that one motivation behind his apology to Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan over the Mavi Marmara incident was the situation in Syria: “Syria is disintegrating, and the huge advanced weapons stockpiles are beginning to fall into the hands of different forces…it is important that Turkey and Israel can communicate with each other.”

According to Gallia Lindenstrauss, a senior research fellow at the Israel-based Institute for National Security Studies, while Syria has not developed into an area for cooperation between Turkey and Israel, neither has it become an area of competition between the two states. This is due mainly to diverging immediate priorities: Israel is focused on conflict triggers in southern Syria while Turkey is interested in the future of northern Syria.

Turkey views the establishment of an autonomous Kurdish region in northeastern Syria as an existential threat and seeks guarantees of the territorial integrity of the Syrian state. Turkey seeks to halt the territorial gains made by the American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is dominated by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian militia linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an insurgent group the United States and Turkey list as a terrorist organization.

Israel’s support for the independence referendum held in Iraqi Kurdistan on September 30, 2017 put it at odds with Turkey. According to a Turkish foreign-policy expert that I spoke with, Ankara understands the Israeli approach to be “smaller is better” when it comes to its neighbors, meaning that the fragmentation of Syria into statelets or autonomous territories would serve Israel’s national security over a unified and stronger Syrian state.

Turkey’s fears may be exaggerated. Israel’s own experience with cross-border terror attacks means it can fully understand the challenges facing Turkey in Syria. Lindenstrauss adds that given the United States decision to withdraw from Syria, it is unlikely that Israel will take a strong position on the issue of Kurdish autonomy there.

Israel’s priority is dismantling the threat of Hezbollah on its northern border, making it paramount that steps are taken to oust Iranian forces and Shia militias out of Syria. With the winding down of the Syrian conflict, the fear is that eyes will invariably turn back to the group’s stated enemy of Israel. Moreover, as its engagement within Syria diminishes, Hezbollah will likely augment its position in Lebanon.

A related second goal is that Turkey and Israel both wish to limit Iran’s influence in Syria. Israel’s recent raids in Syria, including a September 2018 strike on ammunition depots in western Syria, were a clear signal of Israel’s intention to maintain its military dominance in the region, ignoring fears of backlash from Russia. After an attack on an Iranian arms depot near Damascus International Airport in January, Netanyahu announced that Israeli forces had attacked “Iranian and Hezbollah targets hundreds of times.”

Although Turkey is part of a coalition that supports Iran, it is weary of protracted Iranian influence over Syria, as well as its hegemonic aspirations over the wider region. Turkey has sought to place itself as a check on Iranian expansionism but has encountered setbacks after failing to oust the Assad regime.

The Israeli leadership perceives itself to have few allies in its bid to counter the entrenchment of Iranian-Hezbollah power in Syria. But this is an area where Turkey and Israel share a common interest. According to Nimrod Goren, the head of Mitvim (The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies), “Israelis tend to overestimate Turkey’s relations with Iran, and Turks tend to overestimate Israel’s relations with the Kurds in northern Syria.” Overcoming misperceptions and building mutual trust—however difficult that may seem in the short-term—will benefit both states as the security architecture of Syria takes shape.

Third, both states support a process of political transition to a postwar settlement. Applying a common pragmatic lens, both Israel and Turkey recognize that Bashar al-Assad has reconsolidated regime authority in territories lost to opposition forces in most of the country and that there are no alternatives to his leadership.

Obstacles to Realigning Cooperation

Despite complex shared interests on the future of Syria, as well as cooperation on natural resources, investment and trade, a number of factors at the regional and domestic levels complicate short-term realignment between Israel and Turkey.

The current situation is highly dependent on what Russia has in store for the beleaguered country of Syria. Despite public rhetoric to the contrary, Turkey maintains an uneasy relationship with its Arab neighbors and long-standing rivalries create a historic check on Turkey’s influence. Turkey has tilted toward Russia in recent years in a bid to re-calibrate its foreign-policy isolation that spiked due to its policy missteps during the Arab Spring. To regain strategic relevance over the future of its Syrian neighbor, Turkey continues to edge toward Moscow, a relationship that has tested its longstanding status as a NATO member.

In parallel to Israel’s enhanced relationship with the United States under the Trump administration, it has also cultivated ties with Russia in a bid to check Iranian influence. Putin has significant ties with Russian expatriates and investors within Israel and Israel’s continuing favor toward the Russian Church has warmed bilateral ties. Russia has assured Israel that it will work to deter Iran or Hezbollah from opening a new front with Israel. However, the extent of Russia’s influence over the Assad regime is not straightforward, making any promises to Turkey and Israel far from given.

At the same time, Israel’s relations with the Arab Gulf states has improved considerably in the recent period, and a reduction in anti-Israel rhetoric has signaled a turning point. Israel maintains strong trading relations with many states despite a lack of formal diplomatic relations. Part of this new web of relations is Egypt, which has increasingly been vying to reinsert itself as a regional player. By acting as an interlocutor with Hamas, Egypt has effectively removed a key claim Turkey held as a candidate for peace broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With Egypt in the picture, Israel has learned it can rely less on Turkey as a middleman to influence the Hamas leadership in Gaza.

Complicating matter further, obstacles to closer ties are ubiquitous at the domestic level in both states. Turkey is under increasing pressure to find ways to correct its economic downturn and recent municipal elections have underlined the divide within opinion across the country. The current AKP administration, preoccupied with domestic stability, may well be tempted to distract its disgruntled heartland through posturing against Israel. At the same time, Israel is riddled with the problems of an increasing unilateral approach to policy making buoyed by the Trump administration, which has degraded Israel’s dovish factions. It is too soon to tell whether the current post-election period in both states will relieve some of the public pressure and encourage cooperation on shared strategic interests.

A further cause of uncertainty is how regional states will react to the looming announcement of the “deal of the century” to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, conjured up by chief negotiator and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Turkey will find it more difficult to work with Israel if the plan spells the end of the two-state solution.

Turkey and Israel have cooperated in the past when mutual interests superseded short-term differences. At the moment, sufficient reasons for closer relations do not appear to exist. A Turkey expert who use to work in Tel Aviv said recently, “Only God knows” what the future holds for Turkey and Israel relations.

However, according to Goren, a scenario where Israel and Turkey launch a channel of policy and strategic dialogue regarding Syria will deliver benefits for both sides that are currently “missing out due to their bilateral crisis.” The ending of the Syrian war will provide a timely opportunity for Israel and Turkey to recognize a new alignment of interests. The United States can play a productive role to bring the two states closer together to facilitate stability in Syria, particularly against growing Iranian influence. It is clear that the most likely outcome is that despite vitriolic rhetoric to the contrary, increasing normalization and cooperation between two powers at security, political and economic levels will become a necessary theme over the next period.

Burcu Ozcelik is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Ozcelik’s research interests involve the contemporary politics of the Middle East, focusing on Turkey, Iraq, Syria and transnational Kurdish politics. Her work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, RUSI, Government and Opposition, Sada Middle East Analysis (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Lebanon’s Daily Star, Syria Forward, the Cairo Review of Global Affairs and the Journal of the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies.

Image: Reuters

Source: https://nationalinterest.org/feature/syrian-civil-war-changing-turkish-israeli-relationship-61327

The post The Syrian Civil War is Changing the Turkish-Israeli Relationship first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The German Interior Ministry on Sunday confirmed plans to facilitate and accelerate deportations of failed asylum-seekers along with those who should have their asylum requests processed in another EU country under the so-called Dublin rules.

One of the measures submitted to state authorities is bolstering asylum-seekers’ night-time reporting requirements. Another would implement a chip system to record when asylum-seekers pick up their mail to ensure they have received a deportation order. Such systems are already in use in the states of Hesse and Lower Saxony.

Others include securing “no-name bookings” on flights so that a seat can still be used by a potential deportee if the original failed asylum-seeker is unable to make the flight. It provides authorities with more flexibility to use reserved seats on flights, according to the ministry.

Read more: Underage refugees in Germany increasingly going missing

More tools for states

An Interior Ministry spokesperson said the measures would give state authorities tools to monitor and deport failed asylum-seekers. It would also give local authorities the ability to arrest and hold failed asylum-seekers in jail if they are deemed flight risks.

The measures appear to address concerns that arose in the wake of the 2016 terror attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. The perpetrator, Anis Amri, was a known criminal and failed asylum-seeker from Tunisia who managed to elude authorities in the run-up to the attack.

Read more: Anis Amri: How a terror suspect eluded German authorities

The plans were first reported by the Berlin-based newspaper Bild am Sonntag and later confirmed by the Interior Ministry.

Deportations from Germany, especially to Afghanistan, have triggered demonstrations. Protesters have argued that some home countries aren’t safe.

‘Volatile situation’

Confirmation of the plans comes days after the ministry said it is considering revoking its freeze on repatriating Syrian migrants.

On Friday, German Interior Ministry Horst Seehofer, known for his hard-line policy toward irregular migrants, told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland group of local newspapers that authorities are examining whether they can deport Syrians who are known criminals.

But such moves remain controversial, and even more so after the German Foreign Ministry published a classified report on Syria, saying evidence shows a “complex, still difficult and volatile situation” in the war-torn country.

In 2015, Germany received nearly 900,000 refugees under Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door policy. Many of them were fleeing war and extreme poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. At the time, Merkel cited the situation in Syria for her decision.

Read more: Paying the price for helping refugees in Germany

Every evening, DW’s editors send out a selection of the day’s hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.

Fleeing war and poverty

In late 2014, with the war in Syria approaching its fourth year and Islamic State making gains in the north of the country, the exodus of Syrians intensified. At the same time, others were fleeing violence and poverty in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia, Niger and Kosovo.

Seeking refuge over the border

Vast numbers of Syrian refugees had been gathering in border-town camps in neighboring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan since 2011. By 2015, with the camps full to bursting and residents often unable to find work or educate their children, more and more people decided to seek asylum further afield.

A long journey on foot

In 2015 an estimated 1.5 million people made their way on foot from Greece towards western Europe via the “Balkan route”. The Schengen Agreement, which allows passport-free travel within much of the EU, was called into question as refugees headed towards the wealthier European nations.

Desperate sea crossings

Tens of thousands of refugees were also attempting the perilous journey across the Mediterranean on overcrowded boats. In April 2015, 800 people of various nationalities drowned when a boat traveling from Libya capsized off the Italian coast. This was to be just one of many similar tragedies – by the end of the year, nearly 4,000 refugees were reported to have died attempting the crossing.

Pressure on the borders

Countries along the EU’s external border struggled to cope with the sheer number of arrivals. Fences were erected in Hungary, Slovenia, Macedonia and Austria. Asylum laws were tightened and several Schengen area countries introduced temporary border controls.

Closing the open door

Critics of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “open-door” refugee policy claimed it had made the situation worse by encouraging more people to embark on the dangerous journey to Europe. By September 2016, Germany had also introduced temporary checks on its border with Austria.

Striking a deal with Turkey

In early 2016, the EU and Turkey signed an agreement under which refugees arriving in Greece could be sent back to Turkey. The deal has been criticized by human rights groups and came under new strain following a vote by the European Parliament in November to freeze talks on Turkey’s potential accession to the EU.

No end in sight

With anti-immigration sentiment in Europe growing, governments are still struggling to reach a consensus on how to handle the continuing refugee crisis. Attempts to introduce quotas for the distribution of refugees among EU member states have largely failed. Conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere show no signs coming to an end, and the death toll from refugee sea crossings is on the rise.

Author: Rachel Stewart

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-plans-to-fast-track-deportations-of-failed-asylum-seekers/a-46347915

The post Germany plans to fast-track deportations of failed asylum-seekers first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

• > Iran to Israel: Fingers are on the trigger, missiles are ready to launch
• > Iranian Revolutionary Guard general: ‘Resistance is the only way’

Hossein Salami, deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, speaks during Tehran’s Friday prayers July 16, 2010.. (photo credit: MORTEZA NIKOUBAZI/ REUTERS)

The deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran slammed Israel and warned that the Islamic Republic has bases from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

In comments made public over the weekend, Brig.-Gen. Hossein Salami told a forum at the University of Damghan in Semnan province in northern Iran that his forces have bases throughout the Middle East and that Iran was confronting “the Zionists” and Americans in the region.

Speaking at the National Forum for honoring “mujahideen,” which included “jihadist figures from Bahrain and Yemen,” according to Iran’s Al-Alam News Network, the IRGC commander claimed that Iran had emerged victorious from recent conflicts in the Middle East.

“The Zionists know that today any war they start will lead to their being erased. We have bases of the Islamic Revolution from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea,” he said. Hezbollah has become a “nightmare” to Israel, according to Salami. He also pointed to the war in Yemen and said Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen “will never die.”

Salami also claimed that Iran was improving its ballistic missiles, noting that “our missile capabilities have grown today in all dimensions as we need high accuracy.” He also said Iran would confront the US economically and defeat the US sanctions that were reimposed on November 5. As evidence for Iran’s ability to get around the sanctions he noted that the US had given eight countries exemptions, allowing them to trade with Iran. This was a victory for Tehran.

“The IRGC is very strong and popular today. It has been formed in Syria alongside the official army, which is not fighting the remnants of the United States,” he said according to a Fars News report. Salami also hinted that in Iraq those who oppose the US presence, including many Iranian-backed allies among Shi’ite militias that are affiliated with the government, could “abide the enemy,” indicating they would wait out the American presence until the US leaves.

The speech charts a course for Iran’s role in the region. It not only shows that Tehran is seeking to construct a corridor of power stretching from Tehran to the Mediterranean via Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, but that it also sees the Red Sea as part of its plan.

Over the last two years as the Syrian civil war continued and the war on ISIS led to Iran gaining increasing influence in Iraq and Syria, experts warned about Iran’s “road to the sea.”

This is one of the first speeches in which the IRGC has acknowledged that it has constructed a map of influence and bases across the region, and that those bases are directed at the US and Israel. Combining these details with his detailing of the increasing precision of Tehran’s missile programs, illustrates that Iran is no longer concerned about boasting about the power it wields.

In September and October, Iran launched ballistic missiles at Kurdish opposition groups in Iraq and at ISIS in Syria, showcasing its abilities. In Yemen it continues to improve the missiles of the Houthi rebels that they have been fired at Saudi Arabia.

Source: https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-army-official-Any-war-Zionists-start-will-lead-to-them-being-erased-571538

The post Brig.-Gen. Hossein Salami also claimed that Iran was improving its ballistic missiles. first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The IDF is stepping up its presence on the border with Syria ahead of Assad’s advance.

The IDF augmented its forces on Israel’s northern border with Syria Sunday following the southward advance of President Bashar al-Assad’s army and the heavy fighting adjacent to Israel’s Golan Heights.

Following a situation assessment Sunday, the IDF’s Northern Command decided to boost the IDF presence on the border with tanks and artillery.

IDF @IDFSpokesperson

Source: https://worldisraelnews.com/idf-beefs-up-troops-in-the-golan-as-syrian-offensive-escalates/

The post IDF beefs up troops in north as Syrian offensive escalates first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

But we can discount the instant opposition. The Trump-haters criticize almost everything the president says and does, no matter what. Sometimes they sound like followers of Marx – Groucho Marx, that is – in this video clip from 1932, when he sang “Whatever it is, I’m against it.”

Meeting with Putin – the leader of a nation that can only be described as a gas station run by thugs armed with nuclear weapons – should not be taken as an endorsement by President Trump of everything the Putin government does, any more than Trump’s meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un should be viewed as giving that brutal regime America’s seal of approval.

As the late Israeli military leader and politician Moshe Dayan said in 1977: “If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”

Even before he was president, Donald Trump repeatedly said on the presidential campaign trail that he would try to forge a better relationship with Moscow, a geopolitical competitor of the first order. And you don’t need to be a grand strategist with a Ph.D. in international relations to understand the value of such a move.

Thankfully, the American people get it – they voted for Trump and elected him to the presidency because they wanted a change in foreign policy.

Think back to the long presidential campaign. Trump declared on many occasions that he would meet with foreign leaders who had very different interests than our own. He put forward the idea that it made sense to try to forge common ground in areas where we agreed and to craft a foreign policy based on shared interests.

Candidate Trump was advocating a foreign policy based on realism – something sorely needed following the years America spent promoting nation-building and regime change that have proven expensive and counterproductive.

There aren’t many areas where Washington and Moscow share perceived areas of mutual interest. But there are many areas of tension that both sides need to discuss. Right now, U.S.-Russia relations are about as bad as they were during the height of the Cold War – if not worse.

So, what should be on the agenda for the Trump-Putin summit? Here are a few ideas:

The Syrian civil war. The war has raged since 2011, with the death toll in the hundreds of thousands. Over 5.6 million Syrians have fled the country as refugees and over 6 million have fled their homes and remain in the country. With U.S. and Russian forces both operating in the nation in close proximity, both sides need to work together to bring the warring parties together and craft a lasting peace. The conflict needs to be ended for the people of the region who have suffered for far too long, and so U.S. and Russia can end combat operations and withdraw their forces. We must end the danger of an incident sparking a military confrontation between Washington and Moscow.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine. This conflict has been on a slow burn for years. To this day, pro-Russian separatists – and surely Russian military personnel not in uniform – are battling the Ukrainian army. And Russia has absorbed Crimea after it forcibly seized it from Ukraine. While it might not make the front page of the Washington Post or New York Times, the Russia-Ukraine conflict could create a great-power showdown at any moment, just as is the case with the war in Syria. With America now arming Ukraine with deadly weapons and Russia looking to ensure Ukraine is unstable so it can never join NATO or the European Union, both sides need to come to an agreement to bring this conflict to a just conclusion.

Cyberwarfare and election interference. Washington and Moscow must begin to craft some sort of cyberwarfare rules of the road – or at least a truce, considering the stakes involved. While there is no doubt Moscow tried to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, America also has incredible cyberwarfare and information warfare capabilities that could cause havoc across the globe. In fact, many would argue – and I would say correctly – that the next major war will start in cyberspace. America and Russia must begin to work together to draft an agreement – one that hopefully other nations like China, Japan, European countries and perhaps North Korea would all sign – that limits hostile state actions in cyberspace.

No government should attack another nation’s election system, banking, infrastructure, hospitals or other critical systems that depend on the Internet. Just one false move, either by accident or on purpose, could spark a crisis where lives could be placed in harm’s way – and lead to a shooting war. In the worst case scenario this could escalate to involve nuclear weapons.

Presidents Trump and Putin must do their best to forge a better working relationship and at least try to resolve the issues above and others. A summit between the two leaders won’t settle all their differences but at least it is a step in the right direction to avert another Cold War and, even worse, a hot one.

Considering the other massive foreign policy challenges America faces in the months and years to come – a rising China that is a far bigger threat than Russia ever will be, a North Korea that still has not given up its nukes, and an Iran bent on domination of the Middle East – the Trump administration needs to remove as much from its foreign policy plate as it can.

President Trump is right to try and forge a better relationship with Putin. As he loves to say, we’ll see what happens.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted Moscow is not trying to split the European Union.

He was speaking hours before arriving in Austria, on his first trip to Western Europe in almost a year.

He told Austria’s ORF television he wanted a “united and prosperous” EU, calling it Russia’s most important commercial and economic partner.

In Vienna, he said EU economic sanctions against Russia were hurting both sides.

Speaking after talks with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, Mr Putin said Russia had overcome all difficulties caused by the sanctions.

Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s southern Crimea peninsula in 2014 triggered the sanctions, which were later ratcheted up as Russia helped separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has hit back with counter-sanctions on food and raw materials.

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More than 10,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in eastern Ukraine.

Another major concern among many European liberals is close links between the pro-Putin United Russia party with far-right parties in the EU.

The two populist parties now ruling Italy favour closer ties with Moscow and are both Eurosceptic.

In the ORF interview Mr Putin played down the links between United Russia and Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, the FPÖ. The parties have a co-operation agreement, but the FPÖ denies claims it has received money from Moscow.

Splits on sanctions

The FPÖ has some key posts in Austria’s coalition government – it is in charge of the interior ministry and defence – and says it wants to get the EU sanctions on Russia lifted. However, the coalition has agreed to back EU policy on sanctions.

Italy’s new government openly called for a review of EU sanctions on Tuesday, starting with those that “threaten civil society in Russia”. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told parliament in Rome that Italy was in favour of opening up towards Russia, which represented a key partner for Italian business.

“The more problems at the heart of the EU, the more risks and problems there are for us,” Mr Putin told ORF.

“We need to build co-operation with the EU. We don’t have a goal of dividing anything or anyone in the EU.”

Russian soldiers in unmarked camouflage took control of Crimea in March 2014

What some call a “new cold war” was also fuelled by Russia’s role in the Syrian civil war and the poisoning of a former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, in southern England. The UK blamed the Kremlin for that attack; Russia furiously denied any role in it.

Pro-Putin activists have been accused of spreading “fake news” on social media to undermine the tough Western stance on Russia and help empower nationalists in the EU.

Austria and many other EU states depend on Russia for much – and in some cases all – of their natural gas.

Mr Putin is now meeting Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, as well as business leaders.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44364429

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