LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
November 27/15

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletins05/english.november27.15.htm 

Bible Quotations For Today

I am the bread that came down from heaven
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 06/40-44: "This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, "I have come down from heaven"?’Jesus answered them, ‘Do not complain among yourselves.No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day."

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods
Letter to the Galatians 04/08-12: "Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again? You are observing special days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted. Friends, I beg you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong.

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 26-27/15
Franjieh the second/Michael Young/Now Lebanon/November 26/15
A Russian Gift to the Lebanese on their Independence Day/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/November 26/15
Franjieh becomes appealing choice for Lebanese president/By Joseph A. Kechichian/Gulf News/November 26, 2015
Kuwaiti Author Ibtihal Al-Khatib: ISIS Emerged From Our Heritage Books; If We Do Not Reform Our Discourse We Will Become Extinct/MEMRI/November 26-27/15
Declaration of Geert Wilders before the Court/Geert Wilders/Gatestone Institute/November 26/15
Sweden's Muslim Christmas Show/Ingrid Carlqvist/Gatestone Institute/November 26/15
Rouhani: Jets are not toys to shoot down/Arash Karami/Al-Monitor/November 26/15
Egypt is now publishing Friday sermons in English, but is anyone reading them/Ahmed Fouad/Al-Monitor/November 26/15
Erdogan gobbles up power in new Turkish government/Cengiz Çandar/Al-Monitor/November 26/15
Who are 'Allah's lions'/Orhan Kemal Cengiz/Al-Monitor/November 26/15
Turkey and Russia on collision course in Syria/Joyce Karam/Al Arabiya/November 26/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on November 26-27/15
Saudi Arabia Places 12 Hizbullah Leaders on Terror List for 'their Operations in Mideast'
Transporter of Bourj Barajneh Bombers Killed in Syria
STL Prosecutor Farrell Concludes Working Visit to Lebanon
Report: Hizbullah Adheres to Aoun as Presidnet
Report: Turkish Embassy Requests Tightened Security Measures
Franjieh the second?
A Russian Gift to the Lebanese on their Independence Day
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/November 26/15
Franjieh becomes appealing choice for Lebanese president

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 26-27/15
Egypt's Coptic Pope in Rare Visit to Jerusalem
Germany 'to Send Tornado Reconnaissance Jets' to Fight IS
Russian Foreign Ministry Urges Nationals in Turkey to Return Home
Still No Date for Syria Opposition Meeting, Says Saudi FM
Syrian Paper Recounts Rescue of Downed Russian Pilot
U.S. Has 'Concerns' over Russian Missile System in Syria
Cameron Makes Case for Britain to Join Syria Air Strikes
U.S. Soldiers in Syria to back Anti-IS Kurds
Erdogan Denies Turkey Buys any Oil from Islamic State
Putin Says still No 'Apologies' from Turkey over Downed Warplane
Turkey Risks Sparking World War, Says Iraq's Maliki
Tunisia Leaders Urged to Rethink Anti-Jihad Strategy
Morocco Breaks up 'IS-Linked Terrorist Cell'
Palestinian Tries to Stab Israel Troops in West Bank, Killed
Fierce Battle for Control of Yemen's Taez Province
Brussels Terror Alert Reduced from Highest Level

Links From Jihad Watch Site for November 26-27/15

Saudi Arabia Places 12 Hizbullah Leaders on Terror List for 'their Operations in Mideast'
Naharnet /November 26/15/Saudi Arabia placed on Thursday a number of Hizbullah leaders and investment companies on its terrorism list due to their involvement in “operations throughout the Middle East.”The Saudi Interior Ministry announced in a statement that 12 Hizbullah leaders and officials have been placed on the list. “The kingdom will continue on combating Hizbullah's terrorist activity through all possible means,” it stressed. “It will continue with this mission with its partners throughout the world to emphasize that no country should remain silent over Hizbullah's militias and its extremist practices,” it added. “Hizbullah has long sought to spread chaos and instability, launch terrorist attacks, and perform criminal acts throughout the world,” said the Interior Ministry. “The kingdom will continue to designate as terrorist Hizbullah leaders and operatives and it will continue to impose sanctions on them,” it declared. The Hizbullah members and companies included in the statement are Ali Moussa Daqdouq al-Moussawi, Mohammed Kawtharani, Mohammed Youssef Mansour, Adham Tabaja and his company and tourism establishment and its affiliates, Qassem Hojeij, Hussein Ali Faour and his car maintenance center, Mustafa Badreddine, Ibrahim Aqil, Fouad Shukr, Abdul Nour Shaalan, Mohammed Najib Karim, and Mohammed Salman Fawwaz. Sanctions will be imposed on them and their assets will be frozen, added the Saudi statement. In March, Riyadh imposed sanctions on two prominent members of Hizbullah on charges of “carrying out terrorist acts throughout the Middle East.” It accused them of supporting the regime of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad and of helping fund various factions in Yemen. Tensions have been high between Hizbullah and the kingdom over recent developments in the Middle East, most notably Saudi Arabia's airstrike campaign against Iranian-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen.

Transporter of Bourj Barajneh Bombers Killed in Syria
Naharnet /November 26/15/The man who transported the Bourj al-Barajneh suicide bombers to Lebanon was killed in an ambush by the Syrian army and Hizbullah fighters in Syria, reports said. “The transporter of the suicide bombers was killed in an operation carried out by the Syrian security apparatus and Hizbullah inside Syria's territory,” al-Manar TV confirmed. Media reports said the assailant is known as Abdul Salam Abdul Razzaq al-Hindawi. LBCI said that Hindawi was ambushed in an area that falls under the power of the Islamic State group in Reef Homs. He is one of the main figures who coordinate and transport suicide bombers from the Syrian al-Raqqa to Lebanon, it added. On November 12, two suicide attacks rocked a busy shopping street in Beirut's southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh, killing 43 people and wounding over 239 others. The extremist Islamic State group claimed the attack. Security measures were intensified afterward and police were able to dismantle terror cells and arrest several Islamic State members involved in planning, executing, transporting the explosives and suicide bombers to Lebanon. On Wednesday, State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged 26 people with belonging to the IS extremist group among them are 13 detainees who are linked to the bombing. The suspects are charged with receiving orders from IS “prince” Abou al-Walid al-Souri and with planning to carry out terrorist attacks and bombings in various Lebanese regions. In addition, they were charged with transporting explosive material, explosive vests, weapons, and ammunition and hiding them in various apartments in Beirut and the North and transporting suicide bombers and recruiting members for the IS.

STL Prosecutor Farrell Concludes Working Visit to Lebanon
Naharnet /November 26/15/Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Norman Farrell concluded on Thursday a four-day working visit to Lebanon, during which he held meetings with judicial representatives, other Lebanese officials, diplomats, and the Prosecutor’s staff in the Beirut office. He met with Minister of Telecommunications Butros Harb, Minister of Justice Ashraf Rifi, and Prosecutor General Judge Samir Hammoud. “This fruitful visit was another opportunity to continue enhancing my working relationship with our Lebanese partners”, said Farrell. “This visit allowed me also to directly meet with and thank my staff for their dedication and continued efforts to achieve the mandate of our office,” he added. During his mission, the Prosecutor gave a lecture at the American University of Beirut to students participating in the fifth Inter-University Program on International Criminal Law and Procedure (IUP-ICLP).
IUP-ICLP is organized by the STL in cooperation with nine prominent Lebanese universities and the T.M.C. Asser Institute in The Hague.

Report: Hizbullah Adheres to Aoun as Presidnet
Naharnet /November 26/15/A meeting between Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil and Hizbullah leader's political assistant Hajj Hussein Khalil has reportedly took place late on Wednesday where talks tackled the latest developments at the presidential level, reports said. Despite the latest settlement that saw the possible nomination of Marada leader MP Suleiman Franjieh for the top state post, Hizbullah continues to support its sole candidate MP Michel Aoun, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday. The party's stance has been expressed on more than one occasion through the speeches of its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, it added. The daily stated that Hizbullah is observing the latest developments and is holding consultations with its allies following the Hariri-Franjieh meeting. Media speculation has been rife in recent days that Franjieh, of the March 8 camp, would be a new presidential candidate in the wake of claims that he had held talks last week with Mustaqbal Movement head MP Saad Hariri in Paris. Before the Paris meeting, Aoun was the March 8 camp undisputed candidate. Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor. Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 alliances over a consensual candidate have thwarted the polls.

Report: Turkish Embassy Requests Tightened Security Measures
Naharnet /November 26/15/Turkey's embassy in Lebanon has requested the security apparatus to tighten their measures at the embassy's locations in Rabieh in the wake of the latest confrontations over the Mount of Turkman northern Syria that led to the downing of a Russian plane, reports said. “We have tightened security measures around most of the targeted embassies, and we have already embarked on that in the vicinity of the Russian and Egyptian missions,” an unnamed security source told al-Joumhouria daily on Thursday. “What is happening in Syria in affecting Lebanon. We as security forces monitor the developments and deal positively with the diplomatic missions in the country because their safety is ours,” he added. The source added that the embassies in general, and the Turkish one in particular, have concerns that they could be targeted following the Russian jet downing. On Tuesday, Turkey downed a Russian warplane on the Syrian border after reports that it violated Turkish airspace. The downing has threatened ties between two major rival players in the Syrian war and raised fears it could fuel wider geopolitical conflict, although both Ankara and Moscow have stressed they want to avoid military escalation. In Moscow, several hundred activists hurled stones and eggs at Turkey's embassy and brandished anti-Turkish placards in a brief protest over the jet.

Franjieh the second?
Michael Young/Now Lebanon/November 26/15
A deal on the presidency could be closer than we know
The seriousness of Sleiman Franjieh’s candidacy was evident this week as the political class generally avoided discussing the details for fear it would undermine an arrangement. Yet the information seeping out indicated there was a regional and international consensus to fill Lebanon’s presidential vacuum.
On the Saudi side, where the obstacles to a Franjieh presidency were expected to be highest, a decision was almost certainly taken to go along with the option. Otherwise, Saad Hariri would not have taken the risky initiative of opening a dialogue with Franjieh at a time of high regional tensions. Absent a Saudi veto, Franjieh’s chances of securing a favorable vote from the Future Movement are high, even if some still claim there are steps that need to be taken before Franjieh is elected.
Another telltale sign of the Saudi shift was the kingdom’s decision to receive Druze leader Walid Jumblatt in October. Jumblatt, who has been active as mediator in the presidential crisis, met there with King Salman, always a sign of favor, as well as Hariri. Something evidently was cooking at the time.
Other reports indicate that the Iranians, too, may be on board with Franjieh. According to the usually well-informed Philippe Abi-Akl, the decision to move toward a resolution of the presidential deadlock was transmitted to Hezbollah’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, by Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Hossein Abdellahian, when he recently visited Beirut. Signs of change in Hezbollah’s position came in Nasrallah’s speech on Martyrs’ Day this month. He declared: “Let’s come together and discuss the main issues and reach a settlement.” Hezbollah parliamentarian Nawaf Moussawi suggested this was a turning point after 18 months of a debilitating void. In a message to Prime Minister Tammam Salam on the occasion of Independence Day, President Barack Obama showed that he too was of a similar mindset. “For the sake of Lebanon’s stability and security, now is the time for Lebanese leaders to act in the national interest and elect a president,” Obama wrote. His was perhaps an effort to ensure that early efforts to resolve the presidential stalemate would not be derailed.
And France was involved, having taken the initiative of raising the Lebanese impasse with the Iranians last summer (even if, at the time, the Iranian response was lukewarm). Lebanon is a constant French concern and the appointment as ambassador in Beirut of Emmanuel Bonne, who served previously with Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace, was a sign of this. The French were surely in on every stage of the Franjieh scenario. It remains unclear what kind of package deal may be in the works to bring Franjieh to power, but one can venture a guess. It seems probable that one component would be Hariri’s appointment as prime minister. Not only would this allow him to return to the political center, from which he was excluded in 2011; it would also mean that Hezbollah guarantees his security, at a time when the party needs a credible Sunni partner to calm Sunni-Shiite tensions that have devastated the Middle East.
There is a risk that Hariri could become something similar to his father: a Sunni covering for Shiite hegemony. He would have the latitude to lead a government, but also a limited margin of political maneuver. The post-1990 Syrian-Saudi accord over Lebanon could effectively be replaced by an Iranian-Saudi one, even if Saad Hariri’s leverage is greater. Michel Aoun has to be compensated for having been Hezbollah’s willing tool to block the system. You have to pity Aoun in some ways, as he’s spent much of his political career being someone else’s dupe, always to end up falling short of his ambitions. Some have suggested the general will be rewarded with an election law that allows the Free Patriotic Movement to retain a significant share of seats in parliament, as well as a lucrative ministry for his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil.
Other Christian parties, above all the Lebanese Forces, see little to applaud in a Franjieh presidency. His election would sound the death knell of what remains of March 14, from which Samir Geagea effectively withdrew when he began his dialogue with Aoun months ago. Franjieh as president and an election law favoring Aoun would primarily be at his expense. In light of these developments one might reconsider the recent trip of pro-Syrian Sunni politician Abdel Rahim Mrad to Saudi Arabia. This was interpreted as a sign that the kingdom was looking to widen its contacts in the Sunni community as a way of marginalizing Hariri. However, the trip could really have been an effort to facilitate an eventual Hariri comeback by neutralizing a possible rival for the prime minister’s position and seeing to it that all Sunnis were on the same page. In retrospect, Hezbollah’s obstructionism may have worked. The party could be on the cusp of electing the individual they most wanted as president, despite their vocal support for Aoun. Franjieh is preferable to Aoun because he has fewer means to act independently. Moreover, being much younger, he is a longer-term investment. Above all, he satisfies Syria when Iran remains keen to take the Assad regime’s preferences into account. The deal may not yet be done. However, the delay in the national dialogue conference until December 14 was probably an effort to set a deadline before Christmas to allow the political parties to endorse Franjieh’s election. Hezbollah may still need some time to persuade Aoun. The headline in Al-Akhbar on Thursday was revealing: “Nasrallah to Aoun: You and me are one, and we will not take a ‘presidential decision’ without you.”
By implying that there was a presidential decision other than Aoun’s election, the pro-Hezbollah paper was making it apparent that something had changed in Hezbollah’s approach.
**Michael Young is opinion editor of The Daily Star newspaper. He tweets @BeirutCalling.
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentary/566288-franjieh-the-second

A Russian Gift to the Lebanese on their Independence Day
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/November 26/15
The Russian ‘gift’ to Lebanon on its independence day couldn’t possibly have been more poignant. According to official reports the Russian authorities concerned didn’t bother to communicate the news of its sea and air manoeuvres close to Lebanon’s coast to the Lebanese government through official channels, such as the ministry of Foreign Affairs or even ambassadors. What sounds strange is that the Lebanese Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil was in Moscow a couple of days before the incident, and it is quite unlikely that the said manoeuvres were decided suddenly. Furthermore, Bassil belongs to a political bloc supportive of Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad and Iran’s Lebanese appendage Hezbollah which means he should be a fully ‘trusted’ fellow.By saying this, I do not intend to incite the Lebanese government to stand up to the strong will of Vladimir Putin in the region. Washington has made it his ‘back garden’ judging by poor western reactions to his recurring provocations during the last two years. And of course it is not my wish to cause internal strife in a fragile and dysfunctional Lebanon which remains unable to elect a president for two independence days running! What I actually intend to say is that the Lebanese have chosen to forget a few simple facts that pertain to their future as they are surrounded by all types of ‘deals’ and conspiracies.
Had it not been for this intentional forgetfulness, Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah, wouldn’t have stood up the other day to call for a “comprehensive national settlement” that comprises far-reaching ‘agreement’ on the issues of the presidency, the cabinet, the electoral law and future parliament.
The Lebanese Army too, wouldn’t have had to coordinate its field activities – especially in the border area with Syria – with an armed sectarian party composed exclusively from one religious sect, and is the only Lebanese political party to possess a security network and a communications network independent of the country’s state network. The Secretary General, in his call for a “comprehensive national settlement”, mentioned nothing about ‘coexisting’ normally and equally with other Lebanese constituent political communities, under the aegis and legitimacy of the Lebanese governments. He has neither offered to give up his party’s weapons nor did he ever express remorse about transgressing the government, its legitimacy and sovereignty by fighting wars outside Lebanon (in Syria) under the command and directives of a foreign power (Iran) although it is representing in Lebanon’s government institutions.
In fact, Hezbollah is dealing with the Lebanese people according to the formula “What is ours is exclusively ours, and what is yours is both yours and ours!” This formula was used in the past by every Lebanese faction that thought of itself ‘above’ the Lebanese state, government and people. What Hezbollah’s Secretary General really wants is simply to gain enough time to digest what it had recently nibbled, before the next meal. At this moment in time Hezbollah feels its interests – and Iran’s – lie in ‘drugging’ its Lebanese adversaries and consolidating the gains it has made through military might, in tandem with Iran’s gains from the nuclear deal (JCPOA) with the USA before Barack Obama leaves office.Add to the above that Hezbollah, which is part and parcel of Iran’s Middle East ‘master-plan’ would like to reap the maximum advantage from the current ‘honey moon’ between the Russians and Iranians based on the notion that many believe their ‘alliance’ is of a tactical nature, and that there is no guarantee that it will continue to be as strong as it is today if radical changes happen on the world stage, notably after November 2016 in Washington.
Wise Lebanese today realise that Hezbollah has imposed it hegemony over the better part of Lebanon’s Shi’ite community under the banners of “Resistance” (against Israel).
Then, since 2006, it enforced its de facto dominance of Lebanon, including its creation of loyal ‘puppet leaderships’ within non-Shi’ite communities, under the excuse of “defending the weapons of the Resistance”. Indeed, it has gone quite far along this route by signing a ‘paper of understanding’ with Michel Aoun and his party, acquiring a much-needed Christian cover for its ‘master-plan’ under what was for a while a concealed step in establishing an ‘alliance of minorities’, obviously against the Sunni Muslims.
As such, the full dimensions of Hezbollah’s raison d’être, both locally and regionally, have now been uncovered before most Lebanese and many Arabs since the eruption of the Syrian Uprising. At this juncture all illusions collapsed and realities become clear, with Hezbollah fighting alongside Al-Assad’s regime inside Syria against the unarmed Syrian people, even before ISIS existed; with the proof – if a proof was indeed needed – being the ever changing justifications for shifting the alleged aim of its guns and rockets from Jerusalem to Homs and Aleppo.
Today, as Lebanon celebrates its 72nd independence day, which is now meaningless, in a country occupied by illegitimate foreign inspired and led sectarian militia, and living extremely dangerous and complex circumstances; Hezbollah comes up with its “comprehensive national settlement” manoeuvre only to consolidate its gains. The Party simply desires to bestow both ‘consensual’ and ‘constitutional’ legitimacies to its act of plunder and sequestration. Thus, it would be naïve to say the least if one or more Lebanese political groups accept a pointless deal that will give it nothing in return, even under the threat of cross-border terrorism. Major world capitals know quite well about the suspicious relationships that link the Damascus-Tehran Axis with extremist terrorist gangs that were ‘freed’ from Al-Assad’s prisons in Syria and ‘left’ Abu Ghuraib prison in Iraq, only to escape barrel bombs for years.
Indeed, if ISIS atrocities have managed to gift the Damascus-Tehran Axis the current temporary victory, there may be no guarantees for similar successes in the long run, as even Washington still remembers that Iran was once ‘a sponsor of terrorism’ and Hezbollah is still viewed by its State Department as ‘a terrorist organization’!

Franjieh becomes appealing choice for Lebanese president
By Joseph A. Kechichian/Gulf News/November 26, 2015
Beirut: A floating initiative to nominate Sulaiman Franjieh as a candidate for the presidency seems to be gaining traction in Lebanon. According to press reports, Future Movement leader Sa’ad Hariri, determined to end the presidential impasse that has plagued the country since May 2014, has held a series of meetings recently to push the initiative forward. Franjieh, a pro-Syrian MP in the Lebanese parliament, reportedly held a private meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday, just hours before the 11th National Dialogue session. Observers believe the two discussed Franjieh’s recent rendezvous with Hariri in Paris. He also held separate meetings with Druze leader Walid Junblatt thePhalange Party’s Sami Gemayel. Unable to agree on a number of issues, political elites seem to have found a new urgency in pushing for agreement over the presidential vacancy. This could be because of the double suicide bombing on November 12 in Burj Al Barajneh, which was claimed by Daesh and left over 40 people dead. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has also issued calls for a national settlement. Currently, there seems little hope for a breakthrough in the deadlock over the candidacy of March 8 movement’s Michel Aoun and March 14 movement’s Samir Geagea. Geagea is disillusioned with the March 14 coalition while Aoun is disappointed with Hezbollah. (He believes it could have elected him a long time ago if it wanted to do so). Hariri could also be motivated by regional and international developments, such as the intensifying situation in Syria following Russia’s decision to intervene militarily and the most recent terrorist attacks in Egypt and France. Perhaps Hariri decided that the country could no longer afford to be led by a dysfunctional government that could not even agree on a plan to collect garbage and create necessary employment opportunities for its citizens. As the economy teeters on the brink of a precipice, Franjieh has become an attractive stopgap choice where a quorum could be achieved in parliament. Hariri and Junblatt might be able to influence their deputies to back Franjieh, although it is impossible to be sure. Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah, on the other hand, seem much less persuadable. On Wednesday, Franjieh insisted that the March 8 candidate was still Aoun, despite the fact that he enjoyed the backing of Washington and Riyadh.
Franjieh is a close friend and ally of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad but few know whether he could be able to maintain a certain distance from Damascus if he were elected president. Franjieh was born on October 18, 1965 to Tony Franjieh, who was assassinated in the 1978 Ehden massacre, reportedly perpetrated by the Phalange Party. His grandfather, former president Sulaiman Franjieh (1970-1976), took the 12-year-old boy to Syria and entrusted him to the Al Assad family. Over the years, Sulaiman remained beholden to the Al Assads, and seldom shied from publicly declaring his loyalty to his “brother”, Bashar Al Assad. In 1982, when he was barely 17, Sulaiman became the leader of the Marada Brigades, a militia that evolved into a political party after the 1989-1990 Taif Accords. The nascent leader entered Parliament for the first time on June 7, 1991 and was re-elected for three successive mandates in 1992, 1996 and 2000. He lost his seat in June 2005, though he served in various ministries. Franjieh regained his seat in June 2009, the last time parliamentary elections were held in Lebanon. Starting in August 2012, Franjieh opined that Al Assad would win the war in Syria and gave his full support to the Baath government, even if he backed the August 2012 Baabda Declaration that emphasised the country’s “positive neutrality”.
http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/lebanon/franjieh-becomes-appealing-choice-for-lebanese-president-1.1626905

Egypt's Coptic Pope in Rare Visit to Jerusalem
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/15/Egypt's Coptic Pope Tawadros II arrived in Jerusalem on Thursday for the funeral of a senior cleric, the first visit by the head of Coptic Christians in decades, the church said. He will attend the funeral of Archbishop Anba Abraham, the head of the Coptic Church in the Holy Land, who died on Wednesday at the age of 72. The church's Facebook page announced his arrival, sharing photos of the pope and his delegation in Jerusalem. The funeral will take place on Saturday in the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem's Old City, adjacent to the Holy Sepulchre, the church said. Egyptian Copts were forbidden from visiting Israel in 1980 by their late Pope Shenouda III in protest at Israel's occupation of east Jerusalem. Despite the ban, hundreds of Egyptian Copts have visited Israel over the past few years during Easter.Shenouda passed away in 2012 after leading the ancient orthodox church for 40 years. "The visit is to attend the funeral and nothing more," a spokesman for the church in Egypt, Boulos Halim, told Agence France Presse. "The position of the church remains unchanged, which is not going to Jerusalem without all our Egyptian (Muslim) brothers." While the body of his predecessor was returned to Egypt for burial, Abraham specifically requested a burial in the holy city, according to Halim. "He wrote in his will that he wanted to be buried in Jerusalem," he said. The dominant form of Christianity in Egypt, Coptics make up between six and 10 percent of the country's estimated 90 million population. In Israel, however, the church is one of the smaller of the 13 recognised Christian sects, with only a few hundred families. The entrance to the Coptic Patriarchate in Jerusalem is one of the 14 Stations of the Cross -- the route said to have been taken by Jesus on the day he died. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas met with Tawadros II in Egypt earlier this month.

Germany 'to Send Tornado Reconnaissance Jets' to Fight IS
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/15/Germany plans to send Tornado reconnaissance jets to support the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, the defense spokesman of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives said Thursday. A day after Merkel pledged in Paris to "very soon" decide how to help battle the IS group in Syria, she met cabinet ministers in charge of security ahead of afternoon meetings of the major parties' parliamentary groups. "Germany will play a more active role than before," said the defense policy spokesman of her conservative CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Henning Otte, in a statement. While the government had not yet issued a formal statement, Otte said Germany would go beyond its current arms shipments to and training of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces combating the IS. "We are not only strengthening the training mission in northern Iraq, but will step up our commitment in the fight against IS terror, among other things with RECCE reconnaissance Tornados," he said. The aircraft fitted with surveillance technology can take high-resolution photos and infrared images, even at night and in bad weather, and transmit them in real time to ground stations. Germany may also offer to support the anti-IS alliance with an aerial refueling aircraft, satellite images, and by sending a naval vessel to the Mediterranean, coalition sources told Agence France Presse. The parliamentary groups of Merkel's conservatives as well as of her coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats, were meeting in the afternoon to discuss how to support France in the battle against IS. Post-war Germany has been traditionally reluctant to send troops abroad, although it has joined UN-mandated missions in the Balkans and elsewhere, and the NATO coalition in Afghanistan. Germany has not taken part in air strikes against the IS in Syria and Iraq, which have been mainly flown by U.S. and French aircraft. Otte said that "the IS can only be defeated militarily, therefore no idea must be ruled out as we engage in the fight against Islamist terrorism". "Islamist terrorism is a threat to Germany and to world peace. Together with France and all other countries that oppose Islamist terror, we will provide everything necessary to the battle." He added that all requests by the alliance against IS and by France "must be examined with an open mind". Germany previously sent fighter aircraft for reconnaissance missions in the Balkans and in Afghanistan. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Germany would deploy 650 more troops to Mali to relieve the France mission there.

Russian Foreign Ministry Urges Nationals in Turkey to Return Home
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/15/Russia's foreign ministry on Thursday urged nationals currently in Turkey to return home after tensions with Ankara soared over the downing of a Russian warplane. "In connection with the existing terrorist threats on Turkish territory, we once again recommend that Russian citizens refrain from visiting Turkey, and recommend that Russians who are there for personal purposes return home," the foreign ministry said in a statement. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had warned on Tuesday against travel to the country and canceled his own visit to Istanbul for bilateral talks, citing the threat of terror attacks. But the foreign ministry on Thursday went further with its recommendation, urging Russians already in Turkey to repatriate. There are some 10,000 Russian tourists in Turkey, a popular visa-free holiday destination for middle-class Russians, Interfax news agency reported Tuesday. Turks in Russia were also facing closer oversight from the Russian authorities. In the southern city of Krasnodar, 39 Turkish citizens in town for an agricultural fair were detained for alleged violation of visa rules and were set to be deported, a regional television channel said. On its official website, the Turkish Embassy in Moscow warned its citizens to strictly adhere to Russia's visa rules and reminded them to "obtain the relevant visa" unless visiting for touristic reasons. Russia has lashed out at Turkey after Ankara shot down a Russian jet in Syria, with the Kremlin insisting the aircraft did not enter Turkish airspace. The downing of the jet led to the deaths of one of its two pilots and that of a soldier who took part in a failed rescue operation. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday his cabinet had two days to work out retaliatory measures against Turkey in the economic and humanitarian spheres, calling the plane's downing an "act of aggression."

Still No Date for Syria Opposition Meeting, Says Saudi FM
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/15/There is still no date for a meeting that aims to form a coalition of Syrian opposition groups before peace talks targeted for January 1, the Saudi foreign minister said Thursday. Riyadh is trying to bring "as broad a cross-section of Syrian opposition groups as possible" to a meeting in the kingdom, Adel al-Jubeir told a press conference with his Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz. Those talks would be a prelude to potential negotiations between the opposition and representatives of President Bashar Assad's regime. In mid-November, diplomats from 17 countries met in the Austrian capital to seek a route toward a political transition in Syria, where nearly five years of war have killed more than 250,000 people. "I can't give you a date" for the talks, Jubeir said. "We're trying to do it sooner rather than later. But we need to first make a decision that it is feasible and productive to have these talks. "We want to have all the minorities represented; we want to have all of the political groups represented," added the minister, whose country supports some Sunni forces on the battlefield and has bombed Islamic State group targets in Syria as part of a U.S.-led coalition. Groups on "terrorist lists", such as IS, would not be part of the talks, Jubeir said. "We have reviewed several lists of candidates that were provided by several countries, and we have our own list," he said. Once a decision is made to proceed, the details will be discussed with the United Nations and allies, Jubeir added. The aim will be to unify Syria's opposition and clarify their objectives, and to strengthen their position with respect to potential talks with the Assad regime, he said. Jubeir added that there are only two choices for Assad -- either he steps down peacefully "or he could be ousted militarily, but he has no future in Syria." At the Vienna meeting, diplomats agreed on a target of six months to have a transitional government followed by elections within 18 months after that. Opposition members have called the plan unrealistic, though some reacted with cautious optimism. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Abu Dhabi this week to encourage his Emirati and Saudi allies in their efforts to convince Syria's rebel factions to agree a ceasefire with Assad.

Syrian Paper Recounts Rescue of Downed Russian Pilot
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/15/Syrian special forces launched an operation "behind enemy lines" to rescue the surviving crew member of a Russian warplane downed by Turkey, Syria's Al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday. "Eleven members of an elite unit of the air force intelligence service and a (Russian-language) translator, led by an officer, infiltrated 3.5 kilometers (two miles) behind enemy lines in the Al-Atira region on Tuesday and recovered the airman," the pro-government newspaper said. Al-Atira is an area of Latakia province, around 12 kilometers (eight miles) from the border with Turkey. Syrian forces launched the operation after Turkey downed the Russian jet on Tuesday morning, forcing the two-man crew to eject over rebel-held territory. According to Al-Watan, the team set out in late morning from the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia, where Russian forces are concentrated. The plane's pilot had already been killed by rebel fire as he parachuted down but a Russian drone spotted navigator Konstantin Murakhtin in hiding on the ground. The "Russian drone communicated to Syrian special forces the navigator's location, as well as where the terrorist groups were," Al-Watan said, referring to the rebels. "He was spotted thanks to his GPS. It was a race against time because the terrorists were also looking for him." The paper said the special forces team used the codeword "Costa" for Konstantin, and the Syrian flag to identify themselves to the navigator as rescuers. It said the rescue team clashed with rebels during the 12-hour operation, but were able to recover Murakhtin, who was injured in the leg. Speaking to Russian state media on Wednesday, the navigator gave no details of his rescue, which the Russian military said involved its own special forces working alongside Syrian troops. "I feel good in general. The military doctors work miracles," he said, speaking at the Hmeimim base. "I am waiting impatiently to be released by the doctors so I can immediately return to service."Russia has not released the name of the slain pilot, although President Vladimir Putin has said he will posthumously be given Russia's highest award for valor, the Hero of Russia medal. His body is believed to still be in the hands of rebel forces in Latakia province. Murakhtin is also to be decorated along with soldiers involved in the rescue operation, including one Moscow has said was killed when his Mi-8 helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing after being hit by gunfire.

U.S. Has 'Concerns' over Russian Missile System in Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/15/Russia's announcement it is deploying its most hi-tech air defense system to its base in Syria is raising "significant concerns" for the U.S. military, a U.S. official said Wednesday.Russia says it is sending S-400 anti-aircraft missiles to Latakia in northwestern Syria, in a move that comes after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet in the increasingly crowded air space along the border on Tuesday. The S-400 missiles have a range of about 400 kilometers (250 miles), posing a potential threat to U.S.-led coalition planes, and adding yet another dangerous element to an already volatile mix of competing military interests in Syria. "It's a capable weapons system that poses a significant threat to anyone," a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP. "There are significant concerns related to air operations in Syria." The United States has for more than a year been leading a coalition that has flown more than 8,000 bombing runs against Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq. Russia, too, is dropping bombs in Syria but these are mainly in different parts of the country from where U.S. and coalition planes are flying. Russia and the U.S.-led coalition have agreed on a set of guidelines aimed at ensuring pilots stay out of each other's way, but the prospect of batteries of Russian anti-aircraft missiles arriving in Syria is nonetheless raising eyebrows in the Pentagon. Another U.S. official, also speaking anonymously, said the S-400s "shouldn't" affect coalition flights. "We are not going to interfere with (the Russians') operations and they are not going to interfere with ours. There's no reason for us to be targeting each other," the official said. He also noted that Russia in the past week has delivered more than 30 T-90 and T-72 tanks to Latakia. It was not clear if these were for use by the Russian military or will be provided to forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. On Tuesday, Turkey shot down a Russian aircraft along the Syrian border, and rebels killed one of the pilots as he parachuted down after ejecting from the plane. A second pilot was rescued by Russian and Syrian special forces. A Russian rescue helicopter was also destroyed by rebels, who apparently used a U.S.-made TOW missile. The prospect that Syrian rebels used U.S. weaponry to kill a Russian further raises concerns that the Syria conflict could devolve into a proxy war.

Cameron Makes Case for Britain to Join Syria Air Strikes
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/15/Prime Minister David Cameron argued his case to MPs for Britain to join air strikes on Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria Thursday amid signs that opposition was weakening after the Paris attacks.
Cameron told the House of Commons that Britain should not "wait until an attack takes place here" before acting, adding it was "morally" unacceptable to be "content with outsourcing our security to our allies". A vote is expected to be held early next week. While the numbers are tight, MPs look set to approve the move, meaning the first British air strikes on Syria could come within days. "If we won't act now when our friend and ally France has been struck in this way, then our friends and allies can be forgiven for asking: 'If not now, when?'" Cameron said. The prime minister has stepped up pressure on MPs to vote for strikes since IS claimed responsibility for the November 13 attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people. Britain is involved in air strikes on IS targets in Iraq but has so far shied away from joining action in Syria. Many MPs are still troubled by the memory of unpopular British interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Cameron's government suffered one of its most embarrassing defeats in 2013 when a previous motion on taking military action against the Assad regime in Syria was defeated by the main opposition Labor party. But this time, things look different. "The events in Paris have clearly changed things," Professor Malcolm Chalmers of military think-tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) told AFP. "There's skepticism on both sides of the House (of Commons) but I think opinions are beginning to change."Losing a vote would be "catastrophic personally" for Cameron and would hand IS "a huge propaganda coup," added Professor Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics. Cameron said he will not call a vote until he is sure of securing a clear parliamentary majority. The prime minister still faces a fight in the coming days to persuade enough MPs to support joining air strikes, particularly as his center-right Conservatives have a Commons working majority of only 17. The leader of the main opposition Labor party, Jeremy Corbyn, is opposed to any military action but some Labor MPs say they could support the move. Corbyn said there was "no doubt" of the threat posed by IS but added: "The question must now be whether extending the UK bombing from Iraq to Syria is likely to reduce or increase that threat". The Scottish National Party, the third largest party in the Commons, will vote against the move. The prime minister's campaign received a boost when Crispin Blunt, chairman of the influential Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said he would now support air strikes, having previously opposed them. Cameron adopted an open, conciliatory tone with MPs, taking several hours of questions about the seven-point strategy on Syria he presented. This stressed the need for a political settlement and a new government in Syria to replace the Assad regime while taking military action against IS. He ruled out deploying British ground troops to Syria, implicitly acknowledging the lessons of Britain's interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan under Tony Blair. "There is good evidence from history that the presence of Western ground troops could itself be a radicalizer," Cameron said. "We don't propose the application of British ground troops."A string of MPs questioned Cameron's assertion that there were 70,000 moderate Syrian forces on the ground who could help secure territory cleared by air strikes. Julian Lewis, Conservative chairman of the Commons Defense Select Committee, said the figure was "a revelation to me" while Labor's Emily Thornberry added there was "some question about whether they really exist". Others wondered whether joining air strikes could distract from the push for a diplomatic solution. A Times/YouGov opinion poll last week found that 58 percent of people would approve of Britain joining air strikes in Syria, compared to 22 percent against.

U.S. Soldiers in Syria to back Anti-IS Kurds
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/15/U.S. soldiers are in Kobane, the town in northern Syria nearly destroyed in fierce fighting with the Islamic State group, to train Kurdish forces to battle the jihadists, Kurdish sources said Thursday. Mustapha Abdi, an activist in the town on the Turkish border, told AFP the American instructors had arrived "in recent hours". A source with the Kurdish People's Protection Units said the Americans would help plan offensives on two Syrian cities held by IS -- Jarablus and the jihadists' Syrian "capital", Raqa.

Erdogan Denies Turkey Buys any Oil from Islamic State
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/15/President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied Thursday that Turkey bought any oil from the Islamic State group, insisting his country's fight against the jihadists was "undisputed". "Shame on you. Those who claim we buy oil from Daesh (IS) are obliged to prove it. If not, you are a slanderer," Erdogan said, lashing out at Russian charges after the downing of a warplane on the Syrian border. Tuesday's incident prompted a tough response from Moscow, a major trade partner and Turkey's largest energy supplier. But Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara did not need to apologize "on an occasion that we are right," adding that he had already said "sorry" in a phone call with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced the act as a "stab in the back" by "accomplices of terrorists."But Erdogan denied Ankara was collaborating with IS. "Our country's stance against Daesh has been clear since the very beginning," Erdogan said in a speech to local officials at his presidential palace in the Turkish capital. "There is no question mark here. Nobody has the right to dispute our country's fight against Daesh or to incriminate us."Turkey and Russia stand on opposing sides of the four-year Syrian conflict, with Ankara pushing for the ouster of President Bashar Assad by backing moderate opposition rebels. Moscow is one of the few remaining allies of the Damascus regime. Russia further enraged Turkey with the launch of its air campaign in Syria in September, accusing Moscow of focusing its fire on moderate rebels rather than IS jihadists. "Those who carry out a military campaign with the pretext of fighting Daesh are targeting anti-regime opponents," Erdogan said. "You say you are fighting Daesh. Excuse me, but you are not fighting Daesh. You are killing our Turkmen kinsmen hand-in-hand with the regime in order to clear areas north of Latakia," he said, referring to the Syrian port city. IS extremists have severely damaged Islam and the Muslims, he said, but added there was no difference between "an organization’s terror and state terror," referring to the Assad regime. Erdogan called Russia a "strategic partner" which he said required solidarity rather threats. "We are saddened by this," he said. "There is no reason for us to target Russia with which we have multi-faceted and very strong ties, without any border violation," he noted, saying that disagreements with Moscow over the Syrian crisis and Ankara's activating its military rules of engagement were two separate things. "If the same incursion happens today, Turkey will be obliged to retaliate."Erdogan also hit back at Putin's charges that Turkey's leaders were encouraging the Islamisation of the country. "How dare you speak like that," said Erdogan. "Ninety-nine percent of Turkey is Muslim."

Putin Says still No 'Apologies' from Turkey over Downed Warplane
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/15/President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had not received any apology from Turkish leaders over the downing of a warplane, nor any proposals to compensate Moscow. "We still have not heard any articulate apologies from Turkey's highest political level nor any proposals to compensate for the harm and damage, nor promises to punish criminals responsible for their crimes," Putin said at the Kremlin in televised remarks. "We believe treacherous stabs in the back from those who we considered partners and allies in the anti-terror fight to be absolutely inexplicable," Putin said. Putin, who spoke ahead of talks with French President Francois Hollande, reiterated his call for the creation of a broad coalition to fight the Islamic State group which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq. "We will continue our attempts to reach agreement with all the partners," he said.
The Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu responded to calls for an apology by saying: "We don't need to apologize on an occasion that we are right."Turkey insists its forces repeatedly warned the Russian jet on Tuesday, an assertion backed up by the United States. Some observers believe Ankara shot down the jet out of anger over Moscow's strikes against ethnic Turkmen in Syria, a minority it views as an ally in its struggle against Bashar Assad's regime. Moscow claims the plane never crossed over the border from Syria, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has branded the incident a "planned provocation."Turkey's military said it did not know the warplane was Russian and that it was ready for "all kinds of cooperation" in an apparent bid to defuse tensions. The raging tensions have threatened to derail French President Francois Hollande's marathon effort to try to cobble together a broad anti-IS coalition that would include global and regional players. After jihadists killed 130 people in Paris this month in attacks claimed by the IS group, the French leader traveled to Washington for talks with U.S. President Barack Obama and then met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris. Few expect the Kremlin talks to produce a breakthrough, however. Experts say it is hard to imagine Russia and Turkey in the same anti-IS coalition given their stark differences on the Syrian conflict and the new tensions over the Russian jet.

Turkey Risks Sparking World War, Says Iraq's Maliki
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/15/Iraqi Vice President Nuri al-Maliki Thursday accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of pushing the world to the brink of a global conflict after Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane. Maliki, a former prime minister who remains very influential, lashed out at Erdogan after Turkey shot down a Russian jet it said briefly violated its airspace during operations in northern Syria on Tuesday. "Erdogan claims that a Russian aircraft entered Turkey's airspace for a few seconds, forgetting that its own planes violate Iraqi and Syrian airspace every day," he said in a statement. Turkish fighter jets have in recent months carried out a series of deadly strikes against rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in their bases in the north of Iraq. "Erdogan's double standards and aggressive policies are threatening a new world war," he said. The authorities in Baghdad have long accused Ankara of playing a key role in the rise of the Islamic State group, which took over entire regions of Syria and Iraq over the past two years. Maliki and his allies among Tehran-backed Shiite militia groups battling IS jihadists see Moscow as a key ally and have welcomed Russia's growing involvement in the regional conflict. The downing of the Russian jet has threatened ties between two major rival players in the Syrian war and raised fears it could fuel wider geopolitical conflict, although both Ankara and Moscow have stressed they want to avoid military escalation.

Tunisia Leaders Urged to Rethink Anti-Jihad Strategy
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/15/unisia's leaders faced calls Thursday to rethink their strategy in the fight against extremism following a suicide bombing by the Islamic State jihadist group of a busload of presidential guards. The North African nation's struggle against Islamist violence has taken on added urgency following three major attacks this year by IS, which has made Tunisia one of its main targets. The authorities closed the border with strife-wracked Libya for 15 days, imposed a nationwide state of emergency and a night-time curfew in Tunis after 12 presidential guards were killed in Tuesday's blast. "Some of the materials used in the bombing are not available in Tunisia, but they can be found in Libya," Prime Minister Habib Essid said in parliament. On Thursday, the interior ministry identified the suicide bomber, based on "final biological analysis", as Hussam ben Hedi ben Miled Abdelli, a 26-year-old traveling salesman from Manouba near the capital. The bombing comes after 60 people were killed, all but one of them foreign tourists, in two separate IS attacks earlier this year in the Mediterranean resort of Sousse and at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis. The response has been criticized by some politicians as insufficient. "Our people expect more," leftist lawmaker Ahmed Seddik said in parliament. Several other politicians, including Abdellatif Mekki of the Islamist party Ennahda, the country's number two political force, called for a national congress on the fight against terrorism. The National Security Council on Wednesday decided to increase surveillance of maritime borders and in airports, recruit 6,000 more personnel for the army and interior ministry, and step up efforts to block Internet sites linked to extremism. It also pledged to implement a terrorism law -- which was met with skepticism by many Tunisians when it was adopted in July --- as quickly as possible. Independent expert Selim Kharrat criticized the response as "superficial decisions taken to reassure a frightened public, which indicates a lack of vision". "What is the basic strategy? What about the reform of the security apparatus? What do you plan to do for education and to tackle unemployment?" he asked. Essid told parliament that a youth employment plan in regions plagued by extremism and poverty would be implemented "from next week". Hamza Meddeb, a non-resident researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said Tunisia lacks "a real concerted national strategy against terrorism, which involves the state, civil society and political parties". Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring uprisings, has been plagued by Islamist violence since the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Thousands of Tunisians have traveled to Libya, Iraq and Syria to fight alongside Islamic extremists, according to the authorities, who say the Sousse and Bardo attackers received arms training in Libya. Tunis Cathedral was due to hold a mass for peace Thursday in memory of the victims of extremism in Tunisia and worldwide. Rights groups have urged Tunisia to respect civil liberties during the state of emergency and curfew, which the authorities have voted to apply "strictly". "Now more than ever, Tunisian authorities have a responsibility to stay committed to a rights-respecting society and democratic principles," New York-based Human Rights Watch said.

Morocco Breaks up 'IS-Linked Terrorist Cell'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/Moroccan security forces have broken up a "terrorist cell" linked to the Islamic State (IS) group and arrested its three members, including a woman, the interior ministry said Thursday. The cell, operating in the cities of Fez, Casablanca and Ouled Taima, followed "instructions from the terrorist group and was planning... attacks in the kingdom," a statement said. This is the third time Morocco has announced the arrest of people affiliated with IS since the group carried out a bombing and shooting spree in Paris on November 13 that left 130 people dead. Moroccan intelligence helped put French investigators on the trail of the Belgian jihadist suspected of orchestrating the attacks. A Moroccan tip-off, along with other information, helped police track Abdelhamid Abaaoud -- a Belgian of Moroccan descent -- to an apartment block in a northern Paris suburb, where he was killed in a raid last week. Belgium has asked Morocco to share any intelligence it has to help track a key suspect in connection with the Paris attacks.

Palestinian Tries to Stab Israel Troops in West Bank, Killed
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/A Palestinian tried to stab Israeli border police in the northern West Bank on Thursday but was shot and killed before harming anyone, police said. "An attacker got out of a taxi with a knife" at Tapuah junction near Nablus, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement. "Forces responded by firing shots at him, resulting in his death." The Palestinian health ministry confirmed his death, identifying him as Samer Hassan Siresee, 51. He was the second Palestinian killed on Thursday after Yahya Taha, 21, was shot in the head by Israeli security forces during clashes northwest of Jerusalem, the health ministry said. The deaths bring to 96 the number of Palestinians killed in violence since October 1, including an Arab Israeli. Around half of them have been alleged perpetrators of a wave of stabbing, shooting and car ramming attacks. Others have died in clashes with security forces. The violence has also left 17 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean dead. More than 800 Palestinians have been arrested over the past two months, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told public radio on Thursday.

Fierce Battle for Control of Yemen's Taez Province
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/Fierce fighting raged Wednesday between Yemeni pro-government forces and Iran-backed rebels for control of a region near a key shipping channel at the mouth of the Red Sea, military sources said. Sixteen rebels and eight loyalist fighters have been killed in 24 hours of clashes in the Dhubab area of the southwestern province of Taez near the Bab al-Mandab strait, they said. Government forces backed by air and ground support from a Saudi-led coalition last week launched a major offensive aimed at driving the Huthi Shiite insurgents out of Taez. They have faced strong resistance from the rebels, who seized the capital Sanaa in September 2014 before sweeping southwards, forcing President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia. Pro-government forces have retaken five provinces from the rebels since July. But underscoring the challenge facing the loyalists, rebel forces managed to retake the region of Najd Qassim, on the road between Dhubab and Taez, from loyalists, the military sources said. Forces loyal to Hadi also struggled to advance on Rahida, Taez's second-largest city which is in the hands of the Huthis and seen as crucial to recapturing the province, they added. The Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign in March to push back the rebels. More than 5,700 people have been killed in the fighting while 82 percent of the population -- 21 million people -- are in urgent need of aid. Tribal sources accused the coalition of killing four civilians, including a child, by mistake on Wednesday in an air raid that struck a house in a village between the provinces of Shabwa and Baida. The coalition says it does not target civilians and has previously denied accusations it bombed two weddings in Yemen as well as a hospital run by the medical charity MSF. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a joint statement Wednesday that the coalition had used a British-made cruise missile to destroy a Yemeni ceramics factory in Sanaa province in September. It said the strike, using a British missile supplied in the 1990s, killed one person "and was in apparent violation of international humanitarian law, the laws of war." "The UK should suspend further sales of aerial munitions to coalition members pending a thorough investigation into this case, and other apparently unlawful air strikes," said HRW's David Mepham.

Brussels Terror Alert Reduced from Highest Level
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /November 26/Belgium reduced the terror alert in Brussels Thursday, five days after it was raised to the highest possible level that saw schools and the metro closed, the government's crisis center said. "We can confirm that the Threat Analysis Coordination Agency re-evaluated the threat level from four to level three," a spokesman for the crisis center, which is part of the interior ministry, told AFP. There were no immediate details on what basis the agency reduced the threat level, with the national security council of top government officials set to decide on the consequences at a meeting later Thursday. The alert level was raised early Saturday after the government warned of a "serious and imminent threat" of attacks in the capital similar to the Paris atrocities that left 130 people dead on November 13. The city was locked down with armed police and troops patrolling near deserted streets and the metro system completely shut down, while schools stayed shut on Monday and Tuesday. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel had said on Monday the threat level would remain at its highest until November 30 but that it would be reviewed constantly. Schools and the metro system reopened partially on Wednesday despite two suspects from the Paris attacks still being at large. Belgian police on Tuesday charged a fifth suspect in connection with the Paris attacks after a series of raids carried out during the lockdown.

Kuwaiti Author Ibtihal Al-Khatib: ISIS Emerged From Our Heritage Books; If We Do Not Reform Our Discourse We Will Become Extinct
MEMRI/November 26/15/In a November 20 interview with Sky News Arabia, Kuwaiti academic and journalist Prof. Ibtihal Al-Khatib called for an urgent reexamination of the school curricula. Pointing out that ISIS emerged "from our schools, from our ideology, and from our books of heritage," she said: "Either we reform our [religious] discourse and join modern life, or we will become extinct." Al-Khatib, who is a professor of English language and literature at Kuwait University, further suggested "removing the Islamic education curricula completely, and perhaps replacing them with curricula about the history of religions."Ibtihal Al-Khatib: "We have gotten used to a victim mentality, and have somehow learned to enjoy it. We always feel that we are victims, the ones being attacked, the ones that the world conspires against. Therefore, when others suffer disasters or catastrophes, we tend to express naïve and childish vindictiveness. We saw this in the case of the Russian plane that went down in the Sinai, and we saw it again in what happened in France. We do this rather than see things realistically." Host: "Some say that justifying terrorism is tantamount to terrorism. Do you agree?" Ibtihal Al-Khatib: "Absolutely. Any attempt to justify or to legitimize terrorism is a terrorist idea, and is just as dangerous as the terrorist act itself, because the idea and the act are equally dangerous. "I believe that there is a clear sentiment critical of ISIS, but by the same token, there is a strong pro-ISIS sentiment, and there is sympathy toward the Islamic State. This is why ISIS is growing. It is not growing in a void, and it did not emerge in a void to begin with. It emerged from schools, from our ideology, and from our books or heritage, the contents of which the Islamic thinkers refuse to reexamine. "If you do not reform yourself, the world will not wait for you. We are facing two options. Either we reform our (religious) discourse and join modern life, or else we will become extinct. I really believe that stagnant nations, which stick to principles that are at odds with the progress of civilization, are bound to come to an end. Such nations will not survive."

Declaration of Geert Wilders before the Court
Geert Wilders/Gatestone Institute/November 26/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6958/geert-wilders-court-declaration
During the first meeting, the investigative judge told to me, "You should have a fair chance; the law will be interpreted broadly." But the opposite has happened. All my 39 requests, all the requests from the defendant have been rejected. ... if all reasonable requests are rejected, then I cannot defend myself, and I apparently have to be sentenced at all costs. I am taken to court for what I have said. But I have said nothing wrong. Fewer Moroccans, fewer Syrians, fewer Mexicans, fewer Russians, I do not see why stating that is punishable. However, when Turkish members of the Dutch parliament call me a tumor that must be fought and when they compare me to Hitler, then there is no consternation, no massive complaints on pre-printed forms, no prime minister who speaks shame of it and no Public Prosecutor to come into action.
What kind of country are we living in?!
Mr. President, members of the Chamber,
I have the right to a fair trial. That is why I am here.
Not to ask you a favor. But to ask you what I am entitled to.
A fair trial. And the right to defend myself in the best possible way.
If you do not give me that chance then this trial will be a farce.
During the first meeting, the investigative judge told to me, "You should have a fair chance; the law will be interpreted broadly." But the opposite has happened. All my 39 requests, all the requests from the defendant have been rejected.
Apparently, I am not allowed an adequate defense.
The investigative judge is uncritically following the Public Prosecutor. The Chamber agreed with the Public Prosecutor to reject the first twelve requests. Hopefully, that will not be the case for the 27 rejections that you must decide on now. Because if all reasonable requests are rejected, then I cannot defend myself, and I apparently have to be sentenced at all costs.
I am taken to court for what I have said. But I have said nothing wrong.
Fewer Moroccans, fewer Syrians, fewer Mexicans, fewer Russians, I do not see why stating that is punishable. However, when Turkish members of the Dutch parliament call me a tumor that must be fought and when they compare me to Hitler, then there is no consternation, no massive complaints on pre-printed forms, no prime minister who speaks shame of it and no Public Prosecutor to come into action.
What kind of country are we living in?!
Geert Wilders during his March 2014 speech, where he asked "Do you want more or fewer Moroccans?" (Image source: nos.nl video screenshot)
I speak for millions of Dutch. And I will continue to do so.
That is my duty as a representative of the people.
And that is my right. It is a travesty that I have to stand here before you today.
I have done nothing wrong.
At least, I want to be allowed to defend myself in court.
I want to hear witnesses and experts so that I can defend myself.
The investigative judge promised me a fair chance, but he did not give me such a chance.
I now turn to you: Give me the chance to defend myself.
Give me the chance to a fair trial.
**Geert Wilders, is a Member of Parliament in The Netherlands, and leader of the Party for Freedom [Partij voor de Frijheid, PVV]. This declaration was delivered before the Court, sitting in Chambers, The Hague Tribunal, November 25, 2015 at 3:00 pm.

Sweden's Muslim Christmas Show
Ingrid Carlqvist/Gatestone Institute/November 26/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6957/sweden-muslim-christmas-show
What finally seems to be dawning on the Swedes is that while the government puts the right to asylum before the safety of its own people, the country could be filling up with terrorists.
"No, 'Sweden' has not been naïve. You, your party and your coalition partners have been naïve and you still are." — Mattias Karlsson, Parliamentary group leader of the Sweden Democrats.
The announcement that a person such as Dirawi, who professes to be of the Islamic faith, and who according to Islamic scholars should believe the celebration of the birth of Christ is a heathen tradition, will be Christmas Host, sparked feelings of anger and betrayal.
From the night of the Paris attacks until Tuesday, when Sweden's government announced it was reversing its open-borders policy, Sweden was in a state of turmoil. No matter what the government said, it accomplished nothing -- other than making the Swedes increasingly livid.
When Prime Minister Stefan Löfven accused his people of being naïve about radical Islamism, anger exploded on social media. You could read comments such as: "No. Some of you have been naïve. The rest of us have been labeled fascists and other ugly things."
The shock and horror of the Paris attacks -- in which one Swedish woman was among the 130 dead and another among the 350 wounded -- had barely subsided when the Swedish people received another blow. On November 18, a grim Security Service Chief, Anders Thornberg, held a press conference during which he revealed that a combat-trained ISIS terrorist was suspected of having entered Sweden and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Because of this, Thornberg had raised the threat level in Sweden from three to four on a scale of five -- meaning the country was now facing the highest "threat level" since the scale was introduced in 2010.
The Security Service Chief, as well as various Ministers, then urged people not to be alarmed. The suggestion had little effect. Rumors ran rampant on Facebook and other social media that police in Stockholm had told their family members to "stay away from the inner city for the next four or five days as the threat was a lot more serious than what had been made public; apparently they are looking for more terrorists, about 20 people; you need to decide for yourselves. In any event, the threat is bigger than what was shown on the news."
The next day, the Stockholm subway, which normally transports 1.2 million passengers a day, was rather desolate. Then, on November 20, the Security Service confirmed that an attack had indeed been planned to take place in Stockholm.
The day after the nationwide alert, the suspected ISIS terrorist was apprehended. It turned out that he had sought asylum in Sweden under the name Mutar Muthanna Majid, and had been living for several weeks at an asylum seekers' home in the small mining village of Boliden in northern Sweden.
Only after the arrest did Prime Minister Stefan Löfven speak out in public. During a press conference, he announced stricter anti-terror laws to deal with foreign Islamist extremists, which he now admitted posed the biggest threat to Sweden, and not the only one:
"We know that about 300 Swedish citizens have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside ISIL. We also know that about 120 have returned. The Security Service believes that among them, there are individuals who pose a threat to our society and have also committed crimes against people in other countries. It is unacceptable that people can travel, participate in terrorist acts and come back without being held accountable -- and drain the society of large resources."
Next, the Prime Minister claimed that "Sweden has been naïve," conveniently forgetting that he had called those who were not naïve -- those who had expressed concern about the Islamization of Sweden -- "racists" and "Islamophobes." He also neglected to mention that as far back as May, Security Service chief Anders Thornberg had raised the alarm that Sweden could not handle any more jihadism. At the time, Thornberg had also expressed concern that foreign jihadis would take advantage of the Swedish asylum system -- through which more than 90% of applicants lack identification documents but still got permanent residency -- by hiding among the refugees.
A few days after Mutar Muthanna Majid, the suspected terrorist, was arrested, the District Attorney dismissed the Security Service's evidence against him. On November 22, Majid was released and all charges dropped. A columnist from the daily Dagens Nyheter, Lasse Wierup, called the Security Service's conduct "astonishingly unprofessional."
Even as the mass immigration of Muslims to Sweden increased at an explosive rate during the last few years, the government kept stubbornly insisting that it did not entail any problems. According to the government, everyone was the same, and it did not matter if Sweden was populated by Swedes or by Muslim Somalis, Iraqis or Afghans. Those who insisted otherwise were ruthlessly branded "racists" and "Islamophobes."
Finally, last week, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven stood up on live television, and said:
"I must say that Sweden has been naïve in this regard. Maybe it has been hard for us to accept that in our open society, right in our midst, there are people, Swedish citizens, who sympathize with the murderers of ISIL."
In response to questions from Gatestone Institute about who, exactly, was being called naïve, Mr. Löfven's press secretary, Dan Lundqvist Dahlin, said that the Prime Minister had in mind "Swedes in general." When asked if that meant Löfven was blaming the Swedish people for the peril the country was now in, Dahlin replied: "The Prime Minister says that we have been naïve in Sweden. He means me and you and you and you and you!"
When asked if that meant he was accusing the Swedish people of being naïve, Dahlin said: "But can't you see what I mean? It is not an accusation. If someone feels accused, that is his problem. I suppose he means politicians and everyone else."
The Prime Minister's statement seemed to outrage many Swedes. The hashtag #naiv ("naïve") immediately started trending on Twitter, and people began posting comments such as: "I haven't been ‪#naiv so don't drag me into this."
"'Sweden has been naïve'? No, you have betrayed your country."
"I have been called many things over the years, but this is the first time I have been called naïve. By the Prime Minister no less. Not bad."
"Why is Löfven saying that 'Sweden' has been naïve? Very, very many have warned about exactly the situation we are now in!"
The only political party that warned about the Islamization of Sweden was the Sweden Democrats, and it has consistently been shut out of all consultations. During the press conference, Löfven called for national unity and invited all the opposition parties to talks -- except the Sweden Democrats. He even said:
"In moments such as this, it is important that Sweden stands united. There is no room for partisan squabbling or party politics here. That is why I have invited the right wing-bloc for talks on how to fight terrorism."
The Sweden Democrats' Parliamentary group leader, Mattias Karlsson, wrote on Facebook: "No, 'Sweden' has not been naïve. You, your party and your coalition partners have been naïve and you still are."
Karlsson reminded the public of the massive criticism of the Sweden Democrats, when its members recently handed out flyers to migrants in southern Europe. The flyers -- signed by the Sweden Democrats and "the people of Sweden" -- urged asylum seekers not to go to Sweden. Journalists and politicians then attacked the party for speaking on behalf of "the people."
"Judging by the media storm and the comments of government representatives about our flyer the other week," Karlsson wrote, "I got the impression that speaking in the name of the Swedish people was utterly terrible, but apparently, that was not the case."
Löfven, appearing on the newscast TV4 News, was asked if stricter border controls should have been introduced earlier, to prevent terrorists from entering Sweden. Löfven was evasive, but the question was actually inaccurate.
The border controls Sweden had introduced in past, meant, in reality, nothing. The borders were as wide open as ever to anyone claiming to seek asylum. The flow of migrants was as big as before: 10,000 new asylum seekers a week.
While the mainstream media is careful to avoid telling the public about this, Dispatch International recently broke the story that at the Öresund Bridge, which connects Sweden and Denmark, the border police performed only random checks -- and only on people not claiming to seek asylum. The people who claimed to seek asylum were not checked at all. They were simply transported to an Immigration Service facility. There, they were fingerprinted and photographed; however, as very few of the asylum seekers actually have passports or other identification documents, it takes months even to get a "probable" identification.
While the identity of the asylum seekers was being investigated, they were not held. On the contrary, although many are actual refugees or honestly seeking better lives, they all were sent to various asylum facilities around the country, where, if some wished, they were free to plan any terrorist acts they liked in peace and quiet. For example, Mutar Muthanna Majid, the man who a few days ago had been suspected of being a terrorist, even had his own apartment in the Boliden village -- with his name on the door.
Instead of closing Sweden's borders, Löfven kept pressing for a redistribution of Sweden's asylum seekers throughout the EU. He called the EU countries that did not have open borders (all except Sweden, Germany and Austria) "irresponsible." He apparently did not reflect on the idea that the responsible thing might, in fact, have been to protect your own people, and put their well-being first.
Keeping the country's borders wide open and calling terrified people "racists" and "Islamophobes," while claiming "we have been naïve," did not exactly increase the Prime Minister's popularity. The daily Metro recently reported that Löfven's Social Democrats now have only 21.4% of Swedish voters on their side, while the Sweden Democrats reached a new record of 26.7%. Moreover, according to the same survey, despite people tending to rally around their leaders in times of crisis, Löfven has become one of the government's least popular ministers – in 21st place out of 24. His Deputy Prime Minister, Green Party leader Åsa Romson, is the most unpopular.
The poll also showed that more and more Swedes believe that the most important political issue right now is the migrant problem. Since the last poll a month ago, the number of people believing this has grown to 64%, an increase of 8% since October.
What finally seems to be dawning on the Swedes is that while the government puts the right to asylum before the safety of its own people, the country could be filling up with terrorists.
To add insult to injury, Swedes have just found out that the host of the Christmas Show on Swedish Public Television -- a very prestigious role designed mainly to comfort lonely people who do not have anyone with whom to celebrate Christmas -- will this year be a young Muslim woman, Gina Dirawi, aged 24. Regrettably, on several occasions she has made anti-semitic remarks, yet she nevertheless keeps getting new TV hosting assignments.
Swedish Public Television's appointment as Christmas Host of Gina Dirawi, who professes to be of the Islamic faith, and who according to Islamic scholars should believe the celebration of the birth of Christ is a heathen tradition, sparked feelings of anger and betrayal in Swedes. (Image source: Expressen video screenshot)
The Public Service director, Safa Safiyari, who recently introduced Dirawi to a large press gathering, came to Sweden at the age of 14. In newspaper articles, he has spoken about how he does not feel "fancy" enough for the Swedish archipelago; and how, in 2001, when he got to do current affairs shows for young people about "all the injustices in Sweden," it felt as if it were revenge for all the injustices he said he has experienced in Sweden and that still characterize his life.
The announcement that a person such as Dirawi, who professes to be of the Islamic faith and who according to Islamic scholars should believe that the celebration of the birth of Christ is a heathen tradition, will be Christmas Host, sparked widespread expressions of anger and disappointment on social media. Comments were posted on Twitter, such as: "Public Television has declared war on Christian Sweden by choosing Muslim Gina Dirawi as Christmas Host! It is shameful!" And, "If things continue down this road, by next Christmas, Christmas ham will be banned."
Safa Safiyari told the daily Göteborgs-Posten, that Swedish Public Television had been prepared for all kinds of reactions: "We have chosen Gina Dirawi as Christmas Host based on her competence, her comedic talents and experience in large television broadcasts. When we hire our Christmas Hosts, religious belief is not something we inquire about."
**Ingrid Carlqvist is a journalist and author based in Sweden, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute.

Rouhani: Jets are not toys to shoot down
Arash Karami/Al-Monitor/November 26/15
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani criticized Turkey for shooting down a Russian military aircraft Nov. 24 on the Syrian-Turkish border. While Rouhani was diplomatic in his criticism, conservative Iranian media lashed out against Turkey and its policies in Syria.Contrary to Turkish claims, Rouhani said Nov. 25 that the Russian Su-24 was struck inside Syria’s borders. He added, “assuming it was close to Turkey’s borders, missiles and planes are not toys that someone could decide to shoot them down in the air.”Rouhani called Turkey’s actions “provocative,” adding, “We want our neighbor and friend Turkey to be seriously watchful of the situation, because the circumstances are very sensitive.” He added that Iran is not happy to see a deterioration in Russia-Turkey relations, saying that it is neither in Iran’s nor the region’s interests, especially in the fight against terrorism.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on all sides to show restraint, saying that conflict between the two nations aids terrorists. During the Nov. 25 press conference, Zarif said the incident should be used as an opportunity to create a broader coalition to fight terrorism in the region “without preconditions.”Iran’s hard-line media, however, saw Turkey’s actions in the broader context of the country's and NATO’s policies in the region. The top story in Vatan-e Emrooz was headlined “Turkey’s playing with fire.” The article called Turkey, along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, “supporters of terrorism.” Javan Newspaper, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, headlined their story “NATO’s stab in the back of those fighting Daesh [Islamic State].”Iranian analyst Sa’adollah Zaeri told Mashregh News that NATO’s backing of Turkey in this incident will not be “beyond verbal support” and that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made a “strategic mistake” in thinking otherwise. He said Turkey exposed their interests to “serious damages,” and the suspension of military cooperation between the two countries weakens Turkey’s standing from its north in the Black Sea to its south in Syria.
Zaeri also said Russia’s intervention in Syria is strategic and the downing of their jet will not change their calculations. According to Iranian parliament member Alireza Zakani, Russia’s intervention in Syria was prompted when Quds Force Cmdr. Qasem Soleimani personally told Russian President Vladimir Putin that there are 16,000 Chechens fighting in Syria and Iraq who will return to the Caucuses and create a security problem for Russia.
Despite being on opposing sides of Syria’s bloody civil war, Iran and Turkey have been able to maintain their economic relationship. As sanctions are lifted from Iran, this relationship will likely increase. Russian and Iranian ties, however, are much more significant and deeper for Iran. And this relationship will only continue to grow in the coming years based on the reactions to the meeting between Putin and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Nov. 23. In reference to the two-hour Putin-Khamenei meeting, Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy adviser to Khamenei, said there has not been a meeting of this “quality and importance” in the last 37 years since the 1979 Revolution. He called it a “turning point” for both countries and said that Iran and Russia have “entered a strategic relationship,” adding that the futures of Iran and Russia are tied together in many aspects.

Egypt is now publishing Friday sermons in English, but is anyone reading them?
Ahmed Fouad/Al-Monitor/November 26/15
CAIRO — The Egyptian Ministry of Awqaf (Religious Endowments) announced Nov. 2 its intention to publish the unified Friday sermon it prepares each week on the ministry’s website, in a bid to “convey moderate Islamic discourse to the whole world in various languages.” While the ministry has hinted at future plans to translate into languages other than English, the exact details have yet to be announced.  The Ministry of Awqaf decided in January 2014 to unify the Friday sermon in all Egyptian mosques, vowing to take over the administration of any mosque that violated the decision and strayed from the set sermon.
The ministry published its first English sermon on Nov. 6, followed by subsequent translations for Nov. 13 and Nov. 20. However, the declared goal behind the publication of the sermon in English — making it accessible to “the whole world” — isn't being accomplished due to some flaws in how the English version is published.
The Ministry of Awqaf itself is responsible for some those flaws, as its website is designed in Arabic and has no English version. This makes it nearly impossible for those who do not read Arabic to find the published sermon, since all instructions leading to the English version are in Arabic.
Mohammad Aziz, one of the founders of 3rd i Studios, a website design and e-marketing company, spoke to Al-Monitor about the importance of proper website design when marketing content to audiences in multiple languages. He said that when non-Arabic speakers are trying to navigate an Arabic website, Google Translate may be the only option available to them. However, this “turns out to be useless” in the case of the ministry’s website, given the poor quality of Google's translation and the fact that one must navigate through several pages to arrive at the English copy of the sermon.
“Having an English version of the website is not enough," Aziz said. "The page must also be publicized [to English speakers], similarly to the English page of the Egyptian Dar al-Iftaa.” The latter has nearly 150,000 followers on its Facebook page.
The ministry's website has very few visitors from outside Egypt. According to SimilarWeb, a site that provides traffic data for websites, the ministry’s site had 130,000 visits in October, with more than 90% of them coming from within Egypt. The percentage of foreign visitors is small compared with other Arab countries' ministries of religious endowments. For example, the website of the Ministry of Awqaf in the United Arab Emirates, which has an English version, had 140,000 visitors in October 2015, with more than 65% of them coming from abroad.
Another flaw in publicizing the English version lies in the content of the sermon itself, which often fails to address current events that would be of interest to a global audience. On Nov. 6, when the first English sermon was published, the downing of the Russian airplane that took place on Oct. 31 was recent, and Wilayat Sinai (the Islamic State’s branch in the Sinai peninsula) had claimed responsibility for the attack. The sermon, however, made no mention of the incident despite its serious implications for Egyptian national security and Egyptian-Russian relations.
What’s more, the Ministry of Awqaf’s later sermons made no mention of the terrorist attacks that took place in Paris on Nov. 13, despite the fact that French mosques delivered a unified sermon on Nov. 20 to highlight Islam's rejection of terrorism and crimes committed by IS. This unified anti-terrorism sermon was set to be delivered in “most American and European mosques after Islamic leaders on the three continents signed a religious work agreement to unify the Friday sermon of Nov. 20,” as per a statement issued on Nov. 19 by Mohamed Bechari, secretary-general of the Islamic European Conference (IEC) and chairman of the National Federation of Muslims in France. For his part, Abdel Fattah Idris, head of the Comparative Jurisprudence Department at Al-Azhar University, told Al-Monitor, “The Friday sermon must deal with the problems that people are grappling with, as the Prophet Muhammad did, and the biggest problem currently facing Muslims is terrorism. Just like other religions, Muslims are threatened and frightened by terrorism, which is distorting their image and tarnishing the image of Islam in the world as all of the [terrorist] organizations are using slogans of religion and Jihad [in an attempt to justify their actions].”
Until the Ministry of Awqaf focuses the unified sermon on issues that concern a wider audience — in addition to making the website accessible to English speakers — its goal of presenting moderate Islamic discourse to the world is not likely to be achieved. The ministry should work to publicize its English content and coordinate with Islamic leaders and institutions abroad to make translating the sermon a worthwhile venture.

Erdogan gobbles up power in new Turkish government
Cengiz Çandar/Al-Monitor/November 26/15
I was waiting for the announcement of the new Turkish Cabinet on Nov. 24 when a Russian fighter jet was shot down by a Turkish F-16 on the border between Turkey and Syria. The magnitude of the international crisis that the incident may generate is still too early to predict. Hearing an angry Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said Russia was “stabbed in the back by those who abetted the terrorists” and accused Turkey of aiding the Islamic State (IS) in transporting and selling its oil, and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov canceling his visit to Ankara and calling on Russians not to go to Turkey, it is not hard to predict the days ahead could hold very serious developments. The announcement of the anxiously awaited new Turkish Cabinet revealed the identity of the government that has been much debated. Would it be the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan or a coalition between the president and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu? Following the announcement of the new Cabinet, it is clear that the 64th government of the Republic of Turkey is the government of Erdogan.
One of the 72 founding members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), who asked to remain unidentified, talked to Al-Monitor about the nature of the expected government a few hours before the announcement. The official, who was until he was sidelined recently a well-known figure within the AKP, speculated that the new government would reflect the power that Erdogan has with some minor concessions given to Davutoglu for face-saving purposes.
The announcement of the new government had in store surprises even for the most well-informed AKP veterans. The darling of the Western financial circles in terms of preserving trust in the Turkish economy, former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, who has been in charge of running the Turkish economy for over a decade and who Davutoglu has insisted on keeping his post, was excluded. Former Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek replaced Babacan, as if to assuage the worries of international markets. Two names on the list leave no doubt that this new government will be ruled by Erdogan: Binali Yildirim and Erdogan’s son-in-law Berat Albayrak, who took key portfolios. Yildirim, formerly Erdogan’s minister of transport, who is considered his de facto prime minister, assumed his former post. It is well known that Davutoglu had showed some resistance against having him in the government.
Yildirim's position requires close relations with the construction sector, which has been the main engine of the Turkish economy under Erdogan. Albayrak, who has been the CEO of Calik Holding, an energy company involved in energy deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, since 2007, gives Erdogan a strong hand in controlling the economic and finance policies of the new government in his position as minister of energy and natural resources.
The posts of the interior and justice ministries have also gone to staunch Erdogan loyalists: Efkan Ala and Bekir Bozdag.
The Foreign Ministry post has returned to the hands of the unimpressive Mevlut Cavusoglu.
However, with the downing of the Russian Su-24, by an air-to-air missile shot from a Turkish F-16, the new Cabinet announcement and analyses were overshadowed. Only time will tell how the events will unfold, but it is fairly safe to assume that the Nov. 24 incident will further deteriorate the relations of parties considered central to a possible solution of the Syrian conflict. Deteriorating relations between Turkey and Russia may have a significant negative impact on the optimism generated during the Vienna talks. Another victim of the latest development could be the positive expectations in the conflict between Turkey and the Syrian Kurds. Iran is delighted by Putin’s sensational visit to Tehran and his meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei a few days ago. And of course Russia would be overtly supporting the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters against IS with military cooperation from the United States in its offensive against Raqqa, the capital of IS in Syria. The souring of relations between Ankara and Moscow might also cast a shadow on the cooperation between Turkey and the United States to evict IS from the 98-kilometer (61-mile) border that is still under the control of IS in northern Syria. Turkey enlisted the Americans by opening up its Incirlik Air Base, in exchange for a tacit pledge to prevent YPG forces from moving to "west of the Euphrates."
If Russia were to provide overt support to the YPG in its quest to remove IS from the border region, such a political move could further complicate not only the US-Russian relations but also the cooperation between Washington and Ankara.
After all, Turkey is a member of NATO, but for Washington, under the Obama administration that is serving its last year in office and is increasingly reluctant to engage in any sort of direct military involvement in Syria, it might be difficult to push “the unruly teenager of the Transatlantic Alliance” to invoke Article 5. Article 5, which describes the principle of collective defense and states that "an attack on one Ally shall be considered an attack on all Allies," has been invoked only once in NATO’s history — after the 9/11 attacks, when the United States was targeted by a relatively obscure nonstate actor, al-Qaeda.
Would NATO invoke Article 5 for Turkey, which might be threatened by a resurgent Russia, ostensibly seeking to fight against IS in the aftermath of the Paris attacks? It remains to be seen.

Who are 'Allah's lions'?
Orhan Kemal Cengiz/Al-Monitor/November 26/15
For several months now, Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast seems to have been thrown back to the 1990s, a period marked by gross human rights violations, as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) pushes a new strategy extending armed confrontations to urban areas.The bloody unrest in cities and towns has followed a distinct pattern: PKK militants first dig trenches in various neighborhoods and then proclaim the area an “autonomous region.” The local governor subsequently responds by imposing a round-the-clock curfew, which not only bars residents from going out but completely cuts off the area, making it off-limits to the media and any nonresidents, as the security forces move in to purge the PKK militants. The curfews and the ensuing clashes have lasted up to 10 days in some areas, with civilians confined to their homes, unable to go out to buy food or go to the hospital. The security operations, unfolding away from the public eye and media scrutiny, have led to allegations of grave human rights violations, including claims that civilians are deliberately killed in raids that sometimes involve tanks and aerial bombardments.
Neighborhoods have been completely destroyed, and the media have carried images reminiscent of war zones, with walls torn down and houses riddled with bullets and mortar shrapnel.
Judging by the extent of the destruction and bloodshed, one could conclude the Turkish state has reverted to its familiar, heavy-handed style of “problem resolution.” Yet, some images captured by the media and witness accounts point to a new, alarming element unseen in the country so far. In the town of Idil in Sirnak province, for instance, special operations police forces, clad in black and wearing balaclavas, were filmed celebrating a “successful” operation by firing in the air and chanting "Allahu akbar" (God is great). Police and soldiers fighting in the Kurdish areas are known to be using nationalist slogans and symbols, but the use of religious ones is unprecedented.
Moreover, grisly graffiti with racist, militarist and misogynic messages have appeared on the walls in neighborhoods placed under curfew for security operations. A new term has emerged: "Esedullah team" (team of Allah’s lions), which has been inscribed on the walls as a signature, with variations including “the Esedullah team is here” or “the Esedullah team has arrived.” Representatives of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have expressed dismay at how “different” the security forces operating in cut-off neighborhoods are. “They point guns at women and children. They force men to lie face down and then stamp on their hands, feet and backs. They know no law. Their faces are covered and no one even knows who they are,” HDP lawmaker Caglar Demirel said last week.
In remarks to the Diken news site, residents of Diyarbakir’s Sur district, which has seen some of the worst curfews, offered other disturbing descriptions of the masked men. “They cover their faces. Some have long beards and look as if drugged,” one resident said. Another man expressed doubt that the men were police at all. He said, “The police here are not the normal police of the state. They have long black beards and don’t look like police at all. I don’t believe they are actually police. With their long beards, they look more like Islamic State [IS] militants than the police of the state.”
As the concerns of the Esedullah teams grow, lawmakers from the HDP and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) took the issue to parliament last week. In a written question to Interior Minister Idris Baluken, an HDP lawmaker for Diyarbakir claimed that “the masked men who call themselves the Esedullah team” looked like IS militants and chanted “IS slogans,” spoke a language other than Turkish or Kurdish, used force against civilians “mercilessly” while chanting "Allahu akbar" and appeared “to take inspiration from the methods used by IS.”
The CHP’s Sezgin Tanrikulu, meanwhile, submitted a written question to the prime minister, asking “who and for what purpose were the Esedullah teams created?” He demanded an explanation also on allegations that the security forces “acted with feelings of vengeance.”
In response to the growing outcry, the Interior Ministry last week launched an investigation, though not into the Esedullah teams in particular but into the threatening graffiti inscribed on neighborhood walls during security operations.
So, who are the Esedullah teams? The available information falls short of providing a clear answer. Yet, what has emerged so far from news reports, witness accounts and images in the media suggests that a group within the police — religiously motivated, heavy-handed and hostile to Kurds — is increasingly taking the forefront in security operations in the southeast. The locals tend to believe these policemen share the same mindset as IS fighters and see them as an IS-linked paramilitary force. Regardless of whether this perception has any factual basis or stems from psychological fears only, one thing is certain: It serves no good to Turkey’s Kurdish problem, already mired in conflict, tensions and mistrust.

Turkey and Russia on collision course in Syria
Joyce Karam/Al Arabiya/November 26/15
Their trade is booming and their gas and oil flow is uninterrupted, but when it comes to Syria, Russia and Turkey are not the best of partners, and their disagreements have become more costly this week as Ankara downed a Russian fighter jet over its border, while Moscow continued to bomb Syrian rebel forces allied with Turkey. The downing of the Sukhoi 24 on Tuesday is by all means an unprecedented escalation unseen since the 1950s, but it wasn’t unpredictable. Ankara and Moscow, given their diametrically opposed political and operational roadmaps for the conflict in Syria, have been on a clashing trajectory since Russia entered the Syrian military fray last September. One of Russia’s many objectives in Syria is to cut into Turkish influence in order to boost the Assad regime, and now that they are in each other’s crosshairs, more clashes directly or via proxies seem inevitable. Among the many outside agendas colliding in Syria, Russia’s and Turkey’s are the most in conflict.
Russia’s intervention eyes Turkey
Among the many outside agendas colliding in Syria, Russia’s and Turkey’s are the most in conflict. Moscow is attempting to shore up the authoritarian security structure of the Assad regime as it flirts with key minorities, while Turkey has pitted itself on the side of the anti-Assad rebels and is embracing the Islamist factions from the country’s Sunni majority. In that context, interjecting Turkey’s role and plans in Northern Syria is a crucial part of Russia’s calculus in order to achieve its own. Hence, Moscow’s airstrikes have predominantly focussed on areas where Turkish supported rebels operate in Idlib, Aleppo, near Latakia and Azzaz, and less so on ISIS. Russian air presence in Northern Syria also directly aims at spoiling Ankara’s plans of establishing a safe zone to absorb refugees, prevent Kurdish autonomy, and train and equip the rebels. When it comes to proxies inside Syria, Turkey and Russia are on opposite sides of the battlefield. Moscow is aligning itself with the Assad forces, Hezbollah and pro-regime militias, while Turkey is a key supporter of Ahrar Sham, Turkmen brigades within the Free Syrian Army, and has had a murky relationship with Jabhat Nusra (affiliated with al-Qaeda). In fact, it was Russia’s strikes against the Turkmen villages in the last few days that have angered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stating openly “we have kinsmen in the area that are being bombed.” Almost 1.5 million Syrians are members of the Turkmen community, including the head of the largest Syrian opposition coalition Khaled Khoja. The Turkmen community is historically, linguistically and culturally close to Turkey and their brigades are critical in the fighting against both Assad and ISIS. If Turkey has any hopes of securing a 100-km long safe zone “west of the Euphrates River and reaching into the province of Aleppo” as reported last summer by the Washington Post, the weight of governing and securing it from ISIS and Assad would fall on the Turkmen brigades, Ahrar Sham and Kurdish forces cooperating with Ankara.
Collision with Russia
Whether it’s establishing a safe zone in Northern Syria, or fighting Assad close to his Allawite homeland, Turkey is bound to clash with Russia whose entry into Syria is to protect the regime strongholds and prevent the creation of a safe zone.
In their statements from the White House on Tuesday, both U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and his French counterpart Francois Hollande called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to focus his strikes on ISIS and refrain from targeting the rebel forces near Turkey’s border. Hollande even hinted indirectly at possibility of a humanitarian safe zone, stating that “Turkey plays an important role, and it is together with Turkey that we must find solutions so that the refugees can stay close to their country of origin.” Erdogan went a step further, saying Ankara “will soon put into practice humanitarian safe zone between Jarablus and Mediterranean coast” according to CNN Turk. Easier set than done, however, as the task of securing any safe zone in Syria and managing the day to day services will be threatened by both Russia’s and Assad’s air force, as well as questions surrounding the opposition’s ability to govern those areas. Washington has also not committed itself to a safe zone in Syria and is now focused on the diplomatic track in Vienna to bring representatives from the regime and the opposition to the table by January. But even with the Vienna process, there are little to no indications that major gaps on identifying rebel groups or path to transition can be overcome imminently. The polarization has only grown in Syria and neither Russia nor Turkey are in a place to change their battle bets, or strategic objectives whether it means forgoing support for the regime or the rebels.
Against this backdrop, the Syrian sequel of Turkish-Russian clashes has only begun with the downing of the Sukhoi-24. Their confrontation will ultimately continue in Syria’s skies and through ground proxies, as Russia tries to force its hand and Turkey to claim its backyard.