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Bible Quotation for today/The Parable of the Master & his three Slaves whom he entrusted with His money for Investment
Luke 19/11-28: "As they were listening to this, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, ‘A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, "Do business with these until I come back." But the citizens of his country hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, "We do not want this man to rule over us. "When he returned, having received royal power, he ordered these slaves, to whom he had given the money, to be summoned so that he might find out what they had gained by trading. The first came forward and said, "Lord, your pound has made ten more pounds." He said to him, "Well done, good slave! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten cities." Then the second came, saying, "Lord, your pound has made five pounds." He said to him, "And you, rule over five cities." Then the other came, saying, "Lord, here is your pound. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth, for I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow. "He said to him, "I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it with interest." He said to the bystanders, "Take the pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds." (And they said to him, "Lord, he has ten pounds!")"I tell you, to all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them bring them here and slaughter them in my presence." ’ After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

Bible Quotation for today/ Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance.
Letter of James 05/07-12: "Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Above all, my beloved, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your ‘Yes’ be yes and your ‘No’ be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 10-11/15
Some of our Today's Tweets/Elias Bejjani/September 10/15
A Tiny Silver Lining in the Otherwise Bad Iran Deal/Daniel Pipes/Philadelphia Inquirer/September 10/15
Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei: 'In 25 Years There Will Be No Such Thing As The Zionist Regime In The Region'; America Is Worse Than Satan/September 10/15
Germany's Appeasement of Radical Islam/Vijeta Uniyal/Gatestone Institute/September 10/15
The Caliph's Revenge/By Paul Salem/Middle East Institute/September 09/15
Iraq: Another turning point/By Zalmay Khalilzad/ The Washington Post/September 9 /15
Aylan Kurdi’s Europe/Roger Cohen/The New York Times/September 10/15
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia: A 21st-century partnership/Faisal J. Abbas/Al Arabiya/September 10/15
The Somalization of Syria/Joyce Karam/Al Arabiya/September 10/15
Europe and the refugee crisis: Don’t blame the Syrians/Mohamed Chebarro/Al Arabiya/September 10/15
Media hysteria over Russia and Syria/Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/September 10/15
Can the GCC test Iran’s government/Manuel Almeida/Al Arabiya/September 10/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on September 10-11/15
Some of our Today's Tweets/Elias Bejjani
Activists, Municipalities Reject Govt. Plans for Dumping Trash in Naameh, Akkar
Aoun not a convincing presidential candidate: Siniora
Intense Sandstorm Kills another Two
Sami Gemayel Holds Talks with Jordan's King in Amman
Geagea Says Direct Presidential Elections are Impossible
Masked Gunmen Rob McDonald's Branch in Amchit
'You Stink' Campaigners Criticize Shehayyeb's Trash Plan
Naameh Municipality, Activists Reject Govt. Decision to Reopen Landfill
Jumblat Seeks to Contain Possible Tension after Balous' Killing
PSP Chief Sticks to Dialogue to Avoid Vacuum
Lebanese Govt. OKs Shehayyeb's Plan, Decides to Reopen Naameh Landfill for 7 Days only
Lebanon/Judge Demands Death Penalty for Tareq Yatim
U.N. Official Says Europe Exodus Result of Aid Lack to Lebanon, Jordan

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 10-11/15
Russia Denies Reports of Military Buildup in Syria
Denmark Shuts Rail Link as Europe Wrangles over Refugees
Netanyahu Seeks UK Support against 'Militant Islam'
Bahrain: Iran explosives enough to destroy capital
Bahrain Says Ground Troops Needed to Purge Iran 'Influence' in Yemen
Drone Kills Four Qaida Suspects in Yemen
Saudi Executes Iraqi for Murder
FM: Russia to take further steps on Syria if needed
ISIS says Chinese and Norwegian hostages ‘for sale’
Coalition raids hit militia targets in Sanaa
EU backs refugee plan to ease load on border states
Two senators whose families fled Nazis support deal with Iran
Biden floats meeting with Israel to discuss U.S. security aid
EU backs refugee plan to ease load on border states
Republican dispute may prevent U.S. Congress vote on Iran deal
U.N. considers response to Mediterranean Sea smugglers
Saudi Arabia Offers to Build 200 Mosques for Syrians in Germany/Why will the Saudis build 200 mosques for these "refugees", yet won't take a single one in?

Some of our Today's Tweets
Elias Bejjani/September 10/15
The Lebanese dialogue yesterday was a joke. Sadly the 14th of March subservient politicians who attended gained nothing, but humiliation.
Because an ox can not be milked and the cock can't lay eggs the Lebanese dialogue hypocrite session of yesterday was useless & fruitless.
14The of March politicians who attended Berry's Dialogue session yesterday are licking the rasp and enjoying the salty taste of their blood
All those Lebanese Politicians who attended the Berry futile dialogue session yesterday went home empty handed, only MP. Micheal Aoun left with his anger, aggressiveness and humiliation after MP Boutros Harb stirred his peacock feather
At Berry's dialogue table yesterday in Beirut there were no stars, but mere chorus boys.

Activists, Municipalities Reject Govt. Plans for Dumping Trash in Naameh, Akkar
Naharnet/September 10/15/Activists and municipalities rejected Thursday a decision by the government to temporarily reopen the controversial Naameh garbage landfill and to set up a landfill in the Akkar town of Srar. “In line with the municipal council's previous decisions and stances, the conferees unanimously stressed their rejection of any attempt to reopen the landfill, not even for one hour,” the Naameh Municipality said in a statement issued after an emergency meeting. For its part, the so-called Campaign for the Closure of the Naameh Landfill emphasized that it will not allow authorities to reopen the facility, launching an open-ended sit-in outside the landfill's entrance to deny access to any garbage truck. “The region cannot tolerate further diseases and deaths resulting from this landfill,” Naameh municipal chief Amin Fakhreddine said at the sit-in. “We came here to reiterate the decision of the municipality, the dignitaries, spiritual leaders and residents on rejecting the reopening of this landfill even for a single hour,” he added. Meanwhile, activists and residents took to the street in the northern region of Akkar to condemn the government's decision to set up a landfill in the Akkar town of Srar. “We won't be a dumpster for your garbage and we reject (Agriculture) Minister Akram Shehayyeb's decision and any non-scientific, non-environmental decision that does not involve releasing the funds of municipalities,” said the protesters who rallied in Akkar's al-Abdeh area. “We are protesting peacefully but we advise you not to try us and we call for a mass rally on Saturday,” an organizer said. The developments come after the government approved in a marathon session late Wednesday a waste management plan proposed by Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb. The plan calls for reopening the Naameh landfill, which was closed in mid-July, for seven days to dump the garbage that accumulated in random sites in Beirut and Mount Lebanon. It also envisions converting two existing dumps, in the northern Akkar area of Srar and the eastern border area of al-Masnaa, into sanitary landfills capable of receiving trash for more than a year. Minister Shehayyeb said the plan will also make use of the waste management plant that is already operating in the southern city of Sidon and would also reactivate the Bourj Hammoud landfill near Beirut. Ministries will also coordinate with the Council for Reconstruction and Development to renovate the Ras al-Ain landfill in the southern region of Tyre. With nowhere to take the garbage, it has been temporarily dumped in empty lots, on roadsides, mountainsides and in riverbeds. Shehayyeb warned that collecting the trash before rains began was essential to avoid contamination. He also stressed that the government is fully committed to the seven-day deadline to use the Naameh landfill as a means to end the garbage crisis.

Aoun not a convincing presidential candidate: Siniora
The Daily Star/Sep. 10, 2015/BEIRUT: Head of the Future parliamentary bloc Fouad Siniora highlighted Thursday the importance of electing a president who could unite the Lebanese and not divide them, arguing that Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun would not make a "convincing" head of state. "The Future Movement is open to all options in this course," Siniora said in remarks published in As-Safir newspaper. He underscored that his objection to electing Aoun as a head of state is not personal, but merely political. "We are not convinced that we should elect him president."Anyone elected president should be acceptable to all factions in order to "bring rivals together and draw everyone to a common ground," he said Siniora expressed the belief that the "representation base [of the candidate] isn't enough to be elected president, as any elected head of state should also be wise and have leadership skills." "If we are looking at the representation base then Hezbollah should head the Parliament and (Future Movement leader) Saad Hariri should become a premier." The former prime minister argued that ending the prolonged presidential vacuum is necessary to end the crises drowning Lebanon, underlining that the appointment of the head of state should be the result of national consensus. "Some Christians who act keen to preserve the prerogatives of the president are the ones turning against them when they refuse to reach agreements on crises in his absence." "The FPM's principles are based on defending sovereignty and independence ... and it collaborated with others on restoring them, but did it protect this achievement?" Lebanon has been without a head of state since the term of President Michel Sleiman ended in May 2014.

Intense Sandstorm Kills another Two
Naharnet/September 10/15/Two more individuals died on Thursday as the result of the dense sandstorm that engulfed Lebanon, bringing the total to five since the storm hit early this week, the state-run National News Agency reported. A 70-year-old woman died from respiratory problems caused by the sandstorm in the Akkar town of Fnaideq, NNA said. Palestinian national Mahmoud Suleiman al-Ashi, from the refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, has also died of respiratory problems. He had a heart disease, asthma and allergy.
Three individuals died since the tempest hit Lebanon early this week, and more than 2,000 were hospitalized as the unseasonal sandstorm covered the country, including Beirut, with a blanket of yellow dust. The storm reached Beirut on Tuesday, a day after it engulfed the eastern Bekaa Valley. The health ministry said that it has gone on alert, urging those suffering from respiratory and heart problems to stay indoors. It said children, the elderly and pregnant women should stay home. Meteorological reports said that the storm is expected to start subsiding late on Thursday.

Sami Gemayel Holds Talks with Jordan's King in Amman
Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel held talks Thursday with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Amman, a party statement said. The meeting tackled “the region's affairs and the challenges it is going through,” it said. It was also “an occasion to stress the need to back moderation in the face of extremism and to protect minorities in general and Christians in particular in the countries where they are being persecuted,” the statement added. Militants from the Islamic State extremist group, which has seized vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, have been waging a campaign against minorities in both countries. The extremist group gave Christians a choice between converting to Islam or persecution, sparking mass exodus in Iraq, especially in the city of Mosul.

Geagea Says Direct Presidential Elections are Impossible
Naharnet/September 10/15/Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea has rejected calls made by the Change and Reform bloc leader, MP Michel Aoun, for direct presidential elections. The election of a president by the people requires a huge change for the regime and needs calm and deep thinking, Geagea said in an interview with the Qatari al-Watan newspaper published on Thursday. Such elections also require a Constitutional amendment which is impossible in these circumstances, said Geagea. The LF chief stressed that he holds onto the Taef Accord, which is irreplaceable. Aoun, who like Geagea is a presidential candidate, first called for a constitutional amendment that would allow the people to elect their head of state in June last year. He said the “limited constitutional amendment” would allow Lebanese citizens to elect the president in two rounds to avoid the same scenarios that parliamentary sessions are witnessing. Parliament has failed to elect a successor to President Michel Suleiman, whose six-year term expired in May last year after the rival March 8 and 14 alliances failed to agree on a compromise candidate. In the interview, Geagea reiterated that the national dialogue which Speaker Nabih Berri is chairing is a “waste of time.” Berri chaired the all-party talks in parliament on Wednesday despite the LF's boycott. A second session is set to take place next week. The talks are aimed at averting a political crisis that stemmed from a trash crisis that has engulfed Beirut and Mount Lebanon.

Masked Gunmen Rob McDonald's Branch in Amchit
Naharnet/September 10/15/Masked gunmen on Thursday robbed a McDonald's branch at gunpoint in the town of Amchit in the Jbeil district, state-run National News Agency reported. The armed men smashed open the restaurant's safe and fled away with 22 million Lebanese pounds, NNA said. They also took with them the restaurant's digital video recorder (DVR) to prevent security forces from making use of the CCTV footage.Security forces have since arrived at the scene and launched investigations, the agency added.

'You Stink' Campaigners Criticize Shehayyeb's Trash Plan
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 10/15/The organizers of the "You Stink" mass protests over piles of festering trash in the streets on Thursday criticized the government's long-awaited plan to deal with the crisis, which was devised by a ministerial panel led by Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb. Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Beirut in recent weeks to demand an end to long-standing political divisions that have affected even basic public services. After a six-hour session, the cabinet announced late Wednesday measures including handing waste management duties to municipalities and temporarily reopening the country's largest landfill site in Naameh. But activists said the plan was too vague and did not meet their demands. "Our first reaction to the plan is a negative one, especially in terms of the reopening of the Naameh landfill, even if it is temporary," said Lucien Bourjeily from the "You Stink" campaign. He said it was unclear how waste management duties would be transferred to municipalities -- a key demand of his protest movement. "What happened is what the government always resorts to when it wants to calm down the street: partial solutions, 10 percent of which will be implemented," Bourjeily told AFP. The waste management crisis began in July when the Naameh landfill closed, causing trash to pile up on roadsides and in parking lots and riverbeds.It sparked broad-based protests in Beirut, where demonstrators gathered again on Wednesday despite a sandstorm to demand a long-term solution to the trash fiasco. Under the plan, the Naameh landfill is to be reopened for seven days to dump waste already in the streets, in a step that risks opposition from residents of nearby villages. Over the next 18 months, two landfills in the northern region of Akkar and the eastern border area of Masnaa would take in waste as a medium-term measure. The two sites are already being used as local landfills, but they will be adapted to meet environmental standards and accept waste from Beirut and other areas -- a plan not everyone is happy with. "Akkar is our heaven, not your trash dump," an activist group based in the area wrote on its Facebook page. In the meantime, municipalities will prepare the necessary infrastructure to take on all waste management-related responsibilities. Minister Shehayyeb said the plan will also make use of the waste management plant that is already operating in the southern city of Sidon and would reactivate the Bourj Hammoud landfill near Beirut. Ministries will also coordinate with the Council for Reconstruction and Development to renovate the Ras al-Ain landfill in the southern region of Tyre.
Plan 'viable' But it remains unclear how municipalities will recycle or dump waste. Bassam Quntar, a member of the ministerial committee that developed the plan, said if municipalities were not ready to take over rubbish duties within 18 months, "the trash will be back out in the streets." The cabinet plan was met with cautious approval from environmental experts. "The plan is viable, and it can be implemented. We can say it's 80-percent positive," said Ziad Abichaker of Cedar Environmental, a group that specializes in recycling technology.
Abichaker said the plan could boost Lebanon's recycling rate, which now stands at eight percent, but bemoaned the lack of a long-term vision. "Lebanon is a small country, and it cannot have landfills forever. What will the new generation inherit?" he wondered.

Naameh Municipality, Activists Reject Govt. Decision to Reopen Landfill
Naharnet/September 10/15/The Naameh Municipality and the campaign that had called for the closure of the controversial Naameh landfill rejected on Thursday the government's decision to temporarily reopen the facility.“In line with the municipal council's previous decisions and stances, the conferees unanimously stressed their rejection of any attempt to reopen the landfill, not even for one hour,” said the municipality in a statement issued after an emergency meeting. For its part, the so-called Campaign for the Closure of the Naameh Landfill emphasized that it will not allow authorities to reopen the facility, calling for a peaceful demo at 5:00 pm at the landfill's entrance, al-Jadeed TV said. Earlier in the day, campaign activist Ahmed al-Ayyash told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) that the municipalities of Naameh, that lies south of Beirut, and surrounding areas would meet to decide on their next move. Al-Ayyash made the announcement hours after the government approved in a marathon session late Wednesday a waste management plan proposed by Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb. The plan calls for reopening the Naameh landfill, which was closed in mid-July, for seven days to dump the garbage that accumulated in random sites in Beirut and Mount Lebanon. t also envisions converting two existing dumps, in the northern Akkar area of Srar and the eastern border area of al-Masnaa, into sanitary landfills capable of receiving trash for more than a year. With nowhere to take the garbage, it has been temporarily dumped in empty lots, on roadsides, mountainsides and in riverbeds. Shehayyeb warned that collecting the trash before rains began was essential to avoid contamination. He also stressed that the government is fully committed to the seven-day deadline to use the Naameh landfill as a means to end the garbage crisis.

Jumblat Seeks to Contain Possible Tension after Balous' Killing
Naharnet/September 10/15/Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat sought on Thursday to limit any possible tension that could emerge over the killing of Sheikh Wahid al-Balous, a prominent Druze cleric in Syria.
“This is not an opportunity to challenge anyone. We respect all viewpoints,” said Jumblat at the memorial service of al-Balous held at the Druze Community House in Beirut's Verdun district. The Druze official, who supports the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad, said: “We have organized our differences with Hizbullah on the Syrian revolution.” “We also understand Lebanese Democratic Party leader (MP) Talal Arslan's stance. We don't want tension to reach anyone or any side,” he told crowds gathered for the memorial service. “We have our viewpoints and they have theirs,” he stated. Both Hizbullah and Arslan, another Druze official, back Syrian President President Bashar Assad against rebels seeking to topple him. Hizbullah has sent its fighters to Syria to help Assad. Anti-government Balous was killed last week when two car bombings rocked Sweida, a predominantly Druze region in Syria. His murder stirred angry protests by the cleric's supporters who accused the government of killing him. Balous was a popular figure among the minority, which made up around five percent of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million.He led Sweida's most powerful militia in battles against al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State group, but also opposed conscription of Druze men into the Syrian army's dwindling ranks. Analysts said his death would likely benefit Syria's government, which was angered by his opposition to conscription and his desire to keep the Druze independent. Jumblat also stressed in his short speech that “all the Syrian people will emerge victorious.”He thanked French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for hosting Syrian refugees.

PSP Chief Sticks to Dialogue to Avoid Vacuum
Naharnet/September 10/15/Progressive Socialist Party chief lawmaker Walid Jumblat has reiterated that dialogue is necessary to find solutions to the country's growing crises. “Dialogue remains necessary and required despite the rightful and wrong doubts of civil society,” Jumblat told An Nahar newspaper in remarks published on Thursday. “We cannot head towards vacuum,” he said. Jumblat praised Speaker Nabih Berri for being the first to call for national dialogue in 2006. Asked about disputes that erupted between several officials at the dialogue chaired by Berri on Wednesday, the PSP chief downplayed the tension. He hoped that the talks would deal in details with the crises that have engulfed the country, including the waste crisis. All the parties should abide by the government's decision on the garbage management plan, he said.Jumblat denied that he had not talked at the national dialogue session. “I expressed my viewpoint but I am committed to (a decision) not to leak information on what happened during the session.”He also confirmed that he will attend the next session that is scheduled to be held on Wednesday.Thousands of Lebanese demonstrators braved a sandstorm to take to the streets of downtown Beirut on Wednesday and rally against government dysfunction, as politicians met for the first round of talks aimed at averting a political crisis that stemmed from a trash crisis that has engulfed the country. Hours later, the government approved in a marathon session a plan to remove trash from the streets, open new landfills and allow municipalities to manage the portfolio previously handled by the government. Details of implementation are still unclear, but the plan meets some of the protesters demands, such as passing the trash handling to the municipalities level.

Lebanese Govt. OKs Shehayyeb's Plan, Decides to Reopen Naameh Landfill for 7 Days only
Naharnet/September 10/15/The cabinet on Wednesday approved a waste management plan proposed by Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb during an emergency marathon session that was boycotted by Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil of the Free Patriotic Movement and State Minister for Parliament Affairs Mohammed Fneish of Hizbullah. The plan involves the reopening of the controversial Naameh landfill for a period of seven days, said Shehayyeb after the session. The decision to reopen the landfill is aimed at dumping the garbage that accumulated in random sites in Beirut and Mount Lebanon after the July 17 closure of Naameh. The minister said the plan restores the municipalities' waste management role and includes establishing two sanitary landfills in the Akkar area of Srar and the Bekaa area of al-Masnaa as well as “making use of the waste management plant in Sidon” and reactivating the Bourj Hammoud landfill near Beirut. Ministries will also coordinate with the Council for Reconstruction and Development to renovate the Ras al-Ain landfill in the southern region of Tyre. Shehayyeb also announced that a treasury loan of LBP 150 billion has been earmarked for development in the Bekaa region. The decision to hold the extraordinary cabinet session was taken by Prime Minister Tammam Salam ahead of a national dialogue meeting that was held earlier in the day and coincided with street protests demanding an immediate and eco-friendly solution to Lebanon's unprecedented garbage crisis. Education Minister Elias Bou Saab of the FPM said his colleague Bassil boycotted the cabinet session to send “a message of protest over the issue of the cabinet's work mechanism.” Despite the boycott of Bassil and Fneish, Hizbullah's Industry Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan and the two ministers of the allied Tashnag Party and Marada Movement attended the session.
The garbage crisis erupted after the July 17 closure of the main landfill serving Beirut and its surroundings. When the Naameh landfill closed, the government failed to identify sites for new landfills or alternative arrangements. Trash began piling up on the streets until local municipalities found temporary solutions -- dumping in empty lots, river beds and even forests. The unprecedented crisis sparked angry street protests that eventually evolved into a broad-based mobilization against government impotence and corruption. Activists said their pressure forced the government to annul the results of a waste management tender that would have allocated the garbage file to six companies suspected of having ties to influential politicians. But the parties of the coalition government cited high costs and a bidding procedure some said was questionable. As the crisis grew, Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq withdrew from a ministerial panel tasked with addressing the problem and Salam tasked Shehayyeb with presiding over another committee.

Lebanon/Judge Demands Death Penalty for Tareq Yatim
Naharnet/September 10/15/Beirut Examining Magistrate George Rizk demanded on Thursday a death penalty against Tareq Yatim for stabbing and killing a man, and a jail sentence against Lina Haidar for helping the fugitive. An arrest warrant was issued in July against Yatim for stabbing to death George al-Rif over a traffic dispute, in a case that shocked the country after a graphic video of the incident went viral on social media. Haidar was detained then and interrogated. Yatim had dealt al-Rif several stabs in Beirut's neighborhood of Ashrafieh after a long car chase that started on the airport road after the two got into a right of way dispute. Some media reports said Yatim was under the influence of drugs when he committed the crime.
According to reports, the man has a long criminal record.

U.N. Official Says Europe Exodus Result of Aid Lack to Lebanon, Jordan
Associated Press/Naharnet/September 10/15/The influx of refugees to Europe was triggered in part by donors taking the "cheap option" and not giving enough aid to displaced Syrians in Lebanon and Jordan, the head of the U.N. refugee agency in Jordan said on Wednesday. Harper told The Associated Press in an interview that refugees feel betrayed by the international community and the aid agencies. This, he said, "is a reason why we are seeing movement back into Syria, and in many cases, movements continue on into Europe and further afield." "The smartest move would have been for Europe and the Gulf states and everyone to provide more support to countries like Jordan and Lebanon two or three years ago when we were asking for it," he said. "(The donors) sought the cheap option which was to provide us with peanuts in order to deal with the worst humanitarian situation for decades," he added. The U.N. refugee agency has a funding shortfall of 50 percent, or $500 million, for the Syria crisis this year, he said. Harper said resettlement in Europe will only make a small dent and the international community must do more to help the millions who remain in the Middle Eastern asylum countries and displaced inside Syria. "It just makes sense, for no other reason than that it is more cost-effective to address humanitarian needs in countries of asylum, such as Jordan and Lebanon, than it is to deal with them once they get to Europe," he said. Harper's comments reflected the growing frustration of those aiding more than 4 million Syrian refugees in host countries such as Jordan and Lebanon. Severely underfunded aid groups have had to slash food and cash support in recent months, leading to growing desperation. The European Union is imploring member countries to better share the burden of refugees flooding the continent, but the numbers being discussed are small compared with the half-million who have already arrived and hundreds of thousands more on their way.

Russia Denies Reports of Military Buildup in Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 10/15/Russia on Thursday denied it was ramping up its military presence in Syria, saying it was supplying its Middle Eastern ally with humanitarian aid and military equipment in accordance with existing contracts. "Russian planes are sending to Syria both military equipment in accordance with current contracts and humanitarian aid," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters. "We have never made our military presence (in Syria) a secret," he said, denying claims that Russia was beefing up its presence in the war-torn country. "Russia is not taking any additional steps," Lavrov said. U.S. officials said this week that Russia was solidifying its foothold in Syria, sending ships, armored personnel carriers and naval infantry to the country in an apparent effort to prop up the besieged regime of President Bashar Assad. Lavrov rubbished suggestions that Russia's greater involvement in Syria would throw a wrench in the plans of a Western coalition to fight the Islamic State, which has taken control over swathes of Syrian territory. "This logic is incomprehensible to me," Russia's top diplomat said. "The Syrian army is the most effective force that can stand up to the terror threat on the ground." Lavrov said he had discussed his country's presence in Syria with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in two phone calls in the past few days. Lavrov said his American counterpart was concerned that Russia's support for Assad would ultimately strengthen the Islamic State group because its sponsors would be forced to ramp up their military and financial support. "Well, that logic has been turned upside down," Lavrov said. "Once again this is an attempt to appease those who are using terrorists in their fight against unwanted regimes.""I believe this is a colossal mistake."

Denmark Shuts Rail Link as Europe Wrangles over Refugees
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 10/15/Denmark became the latest flashpoint Thursday in Europe's migrant crisis, with the continent bitterly spit over how to cope with the vast numbers of refugees pouring across its borders. German generosity has sparked an angry backlash from its eastern neighbors, as another 3,000 migrants crossed the Austrian border from Hungary during the night, and more landed on Greece's overwhelmed Aegean islands and trudged into Macedonia. Scandinavia's busiest ferry crossing to Germany remained shut to trains after a sudden surge of migrants trying to reach Sweden on Wednesday led Denmark to suspend cross-border trains and close a motorway for several hours. Germany is pushing hard for the EU go further than a new plan to accept 160,000 refugees fleeing war in Syria and Iraq as it revealed Thursday that it had already taken in 450,000 since January. Instead Berlin wants compulsory long-term EU quotas with no limits on numbers. But binding quotas are already facing fierce resistence, with hardline Hungary ready to send troops to its border and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico warning Wednesday his country would not bow to Berlin. "I don't want to wake up one day and have 50,000 people here about whom we know nothing," he said as European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker urged the continent to look to its history and ignore populist scaremongering. "Now is not the time to take fright, it is time for bold, determined action for the European Union," he told the European Parliament as he unveiled the quota plan on Wednesday. With Europe strained and divided by the biggest refugee crisis it has faced since World War II, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington was considering resettling more Syrian refugees. "We are looking hard at the number that we can specifically manage with respect to the crisis in Syria and Europe."
Stuck in no-man's land
Denmark's train operator said Thursday its rail services across the German border would resume after they were shut by a standoff between around 350 migrants and police that also closed the main motorway between the two countries for a time on Wednesday. But the ferry crossing at Rodby -- one of the busiest in Scandinavia -- would remain closed to trains, the authorities said. The move came a day after hundreds of migrants refused to disembark from services arriving from Germany and register in Denmark, demanding instead to continue to Sweden, which has a more welcoming asylum policy. Around 100 later agreed to remain in Denmark while the rest were allowed to leave. On Hungary's tense border with Serbia, scores of families were stuck in no-man's a day after 400 desperate migrants broke through police lines at the flashpoint town of Roszke yelling "No camp!" as they scattered in all directions. And on the Greek island of Lesbos, where up to 20,000 were stranded earlier in the week, more migrants landed on the beaches on rickety boats from Turkey, shouting with joying and kissing the sand as they arrived on dry land.
'Is this the EU?'
"Is this the European Union?" one passenger asks anxiously as he landed on Skala Sikamineas beach. "As soon as I put my feet down I stopped feeling tired," said Feras Tahan, a 34-year-old Syrian graphic designer, unaware he was facing a 50-kilometre (30-mile) walk in the heat across the island to be processed by the authorities. The migrants' plight has touched hearts around the world, spurred especially by pictures last week of three-year-old Syrian Aylan Kurdi, whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach. "The wave of migration is not a one-time incident but the beginning of a real exodus, which means that we will have to deal with this problem for many years to come," EU President Donald Tusk warned on Tuesday. As the international community grappled for a solution to the crisis, Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg proposed hosting a donors' conference to help the millions of Syrians displaced by war. The EU quota plans must be approved by a majority of EU states, and Berlin said it was open to a special EU refugee summit ahead of the next scheduled EU summit on October 14. Juncker's proposals also include a possible revision of the EU's Dublin Treaty, under which asylum claims must be processed by the first country that refugees arrive in, and he also urged for them to be allowed to work while their claims are dealt with.

Netanyahu Seeks UK Support against 'Militant Islam'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 10/15/Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought Britain's cooperation to "turn back the tide of militant Islam" as he met Prime Minister David Cameron in London on Thursday. "The Middle East is disintegrating under the twin forces of militant Islam: The militant Sunnis led by ISIS and the militant Shiites led by Iran," said Netanyahu as he began talks with Cameron at Downing Street. "And I believe that we can cooperate in practical ways to roll back the tide of militant Islam both in the Middle East and in Africa altogether."ISIS is an acronym for the Islamic State jihadist group, which has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria. Three things were on the agenda at the talks, according to Netanyahu: security, peace and technology. The Israeli leader said he was willing to "immediately" resume negotiations with the Palestinians, "with no conditions whatsoever". He also indicated he wanted increased cooperation with Britain on cyber-security, adding, "if we pull our resources together we can offer a better future and great prosperity. "Netanyahu's visit was preceded by clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters outside Downing Street on Wednesday. Police intervened to break up the scuffles as around 500 protesters gathered, waving placards and flags. More than 108,000 people have signed a petition urging Netanyahu's arrest for war crimes, enough for the issue to be considered for debate in Britain's parliament. Israel's embassy in London called it a "meaningless publicity stunt." Britain is pushing for a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and "will reinforce this message to Mr. Netanyahu during his visit," according to an official response to the petition. As he touched down Thursday in the British capital, Netanyahu turned his attention to the Iran nuclear deal agreed with western powers in July.
"All responsible countries must cooperate in order to stop Iran's terrorism and aggression which, to my regret, will only increase as a result of the agreement," Netanyahu said.

Bahrain: Iran explosives enough to destroy capital
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News/Thursday, 10 September 2015/Explosives smuggled on boats from Iran seized by authorities in July were enough to destroy the Bahraini capital Manama, state-run media reported the Gulf country’s foreign minister as saying on Thursday. Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Khalifa urged Iran to refrain from interfering in internal affairs of other countries and said the Islamic republic should stop what he described as “dualism” between its language and actions, the Bahraini News Agency reported. He also called on Iran to revise its foreign policy. Bahrain has long accused Iran of interfering in its internal affairs and trying to lure its Shiite population towards Tehran’s ideals. Saudi Arabia is also fighting the Iran-backed Houthi militia group in Yemen, in an attempt to stem what it describes as Iranian meddling in its backyard.

Bahrain Says Ground Troops Needed to Purge Iran 'Influence' in Yemen
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 10/15/Bahrain's Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa called for a ground offensive "to eliminate the Iranian influence" in Yemen, in an interview with France's Le Figaro newspaper published Thursday. "We need to be present on the ground to obtain the application of U.N. Resolution 2216 and the return of the legitimate authority to power," he said. "We must be sure that we completely eliminate the Iranian influence and that of their Huthi allies."Bahrain is part of an Arab coalition that since March has been striking from the air at the Shiite Huthi rebels in a bid to prevent them from taking full control of Yemen and to restore the rule of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who is exiled in Saudi Arabia. On Friday, the coalition suffered its heaviest losses with the deaths of 45 Emirati troops, 10 Saudis and five Bahraini border guards in a Huthi missile strike. The minister said it was necessary to send in ground troops because "we cannot continue to come under attack from missiles." He also conceded that the coalition's air strikes were causing "collateral victims", so a new approach was needed in a conflict that has cost the lives of more than 4,500 people. Gulf Arab members of the coalition have reportedly sent thousands of heavily armed reinforcements to Yemen in the wake of Friday's missile strike. A Qatari official on Tuesday said Doha had dispatched 1,000 troops "ready to fight", saying at the time that they were on the border with Saudi Arabia.Roughly 1,000 Saudi soldiers have already arrived in Marib province east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, according to military sources in the war-torn country. Andreas Krieg, a London-based consultant to the Qatari armed forces, estimated this week there were "slightly more than 5,000 coalition troops in total on the ground" but that the exact figure was unknown.

Drone Kills Four Qaida Suspects in Yemen
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 10/15/Four suspected al-Qaida members were killed in an apparent U.S. drone strike on the jihadists' stronghold in southeastern Yemen, a local official said Thursday. The raid late on Wednesday targeted a 4x4 transporting the four suspects near Mukalla, capital of Hadramawt province, with a missile leaving the vehicle charred, the official said. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), viewed by Washington as the most dangerous affiliate of the jihadist network, has controlled Mukalla since its militants overran the coastal city in April.The United States, the only country known to operate armed drones over Yemen, has carried on with strikes on militants during months of fighting between pro-government forces and Shiite Huthi rebels. AQAP said in June that its leader in Yemen, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, had been killed in a drone strike.

Saudi Executes Iraqi for Murder
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 10/15/An Iraqi convicted of murder on Thursday became the 132nd person executed in Saudi Arabia this year, the interior ministry said. Kazim al-Abasi, a sheep herder, was found guilty of killing a Saudi with whom he worked, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. It said Abasi bashed the victim in the head with a hammer while he slept, bound him and tossed him down a hole before fleeing in his car. Authorities carried out the death sentence in Hafr al-Batin, near Iraq. According to Agence France Presse tallies, 132 foreigners and Saudis have been put to death in the kingdom this year during a surge of executions that compares with 87 for all of 2014. London-based Amnesty International last month described Saudi Arabia's judicial system as "deeply flawed" and called for a moratorium on executions. Death sentences have nonetheless continued to be carried out. The interior ministry has cited deterrence as a reason for the punishment. Under the conservative kingdom's strict Islamic sharia legal code, murder, armed robbery, rape, drug trafficking and apostasy are all punishable by death. Most Saudi executions are carried out by beheading with a sword. In July, Amnesty also protested a "staggering" execution spree in Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran, where almost 700 people were put to death this year.

FM: Russia to take further steps on Syria if needed
Lavrov said Russian military servicemen have been present in Syria for many By Staff writer, Al Arabiya News/Thursday, 10 September 2015/Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Russia will take further steps on Syria if needed after admitting that his country’s “humanitarian” flights to Syria carry military equipment as well as humanitarian aid. Lavrov also said Russian military servicemen have been present in Syria for many years. His statements come after the United States and some European countries expressed growing concern over the cargo on the flights. Moscow has previously insisted in public that its flights to Syria are only humanitarian. Washington has put pressure on Greece and Bulgaria in recent days to deny Russia's requests to use their airspace for its Syria flights.
Kremlin declined to comment
Meanwhile, the Kremlin declined to comment on Thursday on whether Russian troops were fighting in Syria, after sources in Lebanon told Reuters that Russian forces had begun participating in military operations there. Bashar al-Assad’s opponents in the West and among Gulf Arab states fear a onsiderable Russian military buildup is taking place in Syria to support the Syrian president. Moscow says all its military assistance to the Syrian army is in line with international law. “The threat coming from Islamic State is evident... The only force capable of resisting it is the Syrian armed forces,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, reiterating Russia’s position that its long-time ally Assad should be part of international efforts to combat the ultra-hardline Islamists. Peskov said Putin would talk about Syria and Islamic State during his speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York later this month. No meeting between Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama in New York has yet been scheduled, he said. Russia’s respected Kommersant daily on Thursday said Moscow’s advanced BTR-82A armored personnel carriers were among arms supplied to Damascus. (With Reuters)

ISIS says Chinese and Norwegian hostages ‘for sale’
By AFP | Dubai/Thursday, 10 September 2015/ISIS said on Wednesday that it was holding a Chinese and a Norwegian hostage and has reportedly asked for an unspecified ransom for their release. In Oslo, Prime Minister Erna Solberg confirmed a Norwegian citizen was being held, and insisted that “Norway does not pay ransoms”. The ISIS announcement came in the latest issue of the extremist group’s English-language magazine, Dabiq, distributed on Twitter. On page 66 of Dabiq magazine, ISIS reportedly said that the sale of the captured two was an “an offer for a limited time only.” It gave no details about where or when they were captured, or where they are being held. In the case of each man, it published an “advertisement” announcing that he was “for sale”.Under each man’s photograph, it says: “To whom it may concern of the Crusaders, pagans, and their allies, as well as what are referred to as human ‘rights’ organizations, this prisoner was abandoned by his government, which did not do its utmost to purchase his freedom.”At the bottom it said: “Whoever would like to pay the ransom for his release and transfer can contact the following telegram number,” adding that this is a “limited time offer”. It did not say how much money was being demanded, nor when the opportunity to pay it would expire. It identified the Chinese hostage as Fan Jinghui, a 50-year-old consultant. Speaking at a press conference, Solberg named the Norwegian hostage as 48-year-old Ole-Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad, connected with a university in Trondheim, and said he had been abducted shortly after arriving in Syria in January. “I can confirm that a Norwegian citizen has been kidnapped and is being held prisoner in Syria,” she added in a separate statement, adding that a crisis cell had been formed to follow the case. “This is a serious and complicated affair,” she said, adding that “our objective is to bring our fellow citizen home safely to Norway.”

Coalition raids hit militia targets in Sanaa
By Staff Writer | Al Arabiya News/Thursday, 10 September 2015/Planes from the Saudi-led military coalition has bombed targets throughout Yemen’s capital Sanaa on Thursday, in what witnesses described as the fiercest series of attacks on the city in over five months of operations. The air raids hit houses of political leaders from the Iran-allied Houthi movement and military bases, as explosions and wailing ambulance sirens had forced a sleepless night on the city’s nearly 2 million shell-shocked residents. The coalition forces used Apache helicopters for the first time over Yemen. The Arab alliance states see their campaign as a fight against creeping Iranian influence in their backyard. Loyalist Yemeni forces and Gulf soldiers took back Aden and most of Yemen’s south in July, but battle lines have barely moved since as the allied forces face stiff resistance in the Houthis’ northern strongholds.

EU backs refugee plan to ease load on border states
By AFP | Berlin/Strasbourg/Thursday, 10 September 2015/The European Parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly backed plans by EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker to ease the burden on the bloc’s border states from a wave of refugees mostly coming from Syria. The lawmakers also called for an international conference bringing together the EU with the United Nations, United States and Arab states in a bid to end the most serious crisis of its kind since World War II. They voted in favor of a motion welcoming Juncker’s proposals for the relocation of 160,000 asylum-seekers from Greece, Hungary and Italy and for a permanent mechanism of binding quotas to deal with future emergencies. The non-binding resolution was approved by 432 votes to 142, with 57 abstentions. “MEPs welcomed a fresh proposal for the emergency relocation of more asylum seekers from Italy, Greece and Hungary and a permanent mechanism,” the European Parliament said in a statement. Juncker, the head of the 28-nation EU’s executive branch, unveiled the plans in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, in which he urged member states to back the proposals and said that “now is not the time to take fright.”EU interior ministers will consider the plans at an emergency meeting on Monday but, amid opposition from some eastern European member states, Brussels may have to call a special summit to get them approved. In the motion, MEPs called for revision of the EU's Dublin Treaty on refugees, under which asylum claims must be processed by the first country that refugees arrive in. They said they were “ready to work on draft laws to set up a solid migration and asylum policy for the future.”MEPs also called on EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to convene an international conference on refugees “with the aim of establishing a common global humanitarian aid strategy.”It should involve the EU, U.N. agencies, the United States, non-governmental agencies and Arab states, it said. 450,000 refugees arrived in Germany Around 450,000 refugees have arrived in Germany so far this year, including 37,000 in the first eight days of September, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told parliament on Thursday. “Up to the day before yesterday, Germany registered 450,000 refugees, including 105,000 in August, and 37,000 in the first eight days of September. There may be more than 100,000 in September,” he said. “Honestly speaking, this shows that the distribution of 160,000 refugees across Europe is a first step, if one wants to be polite,” said Gabriel, referring to the European Commission’s proposal for EU member states to share out the new arrivals. Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged the 28-nation bloc to go further and agree on a proportional distribution of refugees with no limits on actual numbers, amid a record influx from war-torn Syria and other countries.
“We cannot just fix a ceiling and say, ‘I don’t care about anything above that’“, she told parliament on Wednesday. Germany is expecting to welcome 800,000 asylum-seekers this year, four times more than last year and far more than any other European country.

Two senators whose families fled Nazis support deal with Iran
By The Associated Press | Washington/Thursday, 10 September 2015/Some of the most strident opponents of the nuclear accord with Iran are invoking memories of the Holocaust in an effort to defeat the agreement, arguing the deal could enhance Iran’s ability to build a bomb, leading to the destruction of Israel. Those arguments, however, failed to sway two senators who grew up hearing stories of the Holocaust firsthand, despite fierce opposition to the deal from Israeli leaders and some Jewish groups.
“My parents told me at a young age what it was like to live in fear,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. “For German Jews, the fear was always the knock on the door in the night.”Wyden said his parents escaped Germany in the 1930s, but not before both of his grandfathers lost their livelihoods and his father was kicked out of school for being Jewish. Sen. Michael Bennet’s grandparents smuggled his mother, who was still a baby, out of the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland to escape the Nazis. They, too, had “everyone and everything they knew taken from them in the Holocaust,” said Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado.
Both senators said the Iran deal is a flawed agreement with an adversary that has threatened both the United States and Israel. But both said they strongly believe the agreement offers the best hope of keeping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
“Let me be clear: the survival of the state of Israel is essential to the security of the Jewish people, and, as far as I am concerned, Israel’s survival is essential to our humanity,” said Bennet. “For those reasons and for our own national security, we cannot allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and we must be crystal clear that we will use force to prevent it from doing so.”The agreement struck by Iran, the U.S., China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany in July will provide Iran hundreds of billions of dollars in relief from international sanctions in exchange for a decade of constraints on the country’s nuclear program. Critics say Iran would use its newfound wealth to support international terrorists while also cheating on its nuclear obligations. When the rhetoric gets heated, the specter of another Holocaust sometimes creeps into the debate. “The one threat that could kill 6 million Jews again is a nuclear Iran,” Sen. Ted Cruz said on the Senate floor Tuesday. Cruz, a Republican from Texas, is running for president. In July, Mike Huckabee, another GOP presidential candidate, said the Iran nuclear deal “will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.” The Anti-Defamation League, which monitors anti-Semitism, denounced Huckabee’s language. But Huckabee refused to back down. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also compared the Iranians to the Nazis. In March, he denounced the deal with Iran in a speech before a joint meeting of Congress.
House and Senate Republicans are working to pass resolutions to reject the deal. But President Barack Obama has enough support from Senate Democrats to block the GOP effort. Wyden and Bennet are among 42 Senate Democrats who have come out in support of the agreement. If they band together, they have enough votes to block a Republican resolution to reject the deal. In making his decision, Wyden said he spoke with Jews who support the agreement and those who oppose it. “There’s a pretty spirited debate going on in the Jewish community,” he said. Wyden said he believes the Iranians will inevitably cheat on the agreement. And, he said, even small violations should be met with a harsh response. “When people say they want to kill you,” he said, noting that Iran has threatened America and Israel, “it’s a safe bet that you ought to take them seriously and certainly my family knows about that.”

Biden floats meeting with Israel to discuss U.S. security aid
By AP | Washington/Thursday, 10 September 2015/The United States plans to meet with Israel to discuss how the U.S. can ensure Israel’s military advantage over its enemies, Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday. U.S. officials said such a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was already in the works. Biden raised the prospect of increased U.S. support for Israel as he sought to allay concerns among American Jews over the nuclear deal with Iran. Although Biden hosts Jewish leaders for a reception each year ahead of the Jewish High Holy Days, this year’s confab took on heightened significance, with many of the attendees among the most ardent opponents of the nuclear deal. Ad-libbing in front of a few dozen guests at his official residence, Biden said the U.S. was “fully, thoroughly prepared” to sit down with Israel’s intelligence and defense community to ask a simple question: “What do you need?” Then in his characteristically freewheeling style, he turned to an aide and asked: “Have we announced the meeting with the Israelis?”It was unclear which U.S. or Israeli officials would be attending the meeting, and when. But a senior Obama administration official said the U.S is discussing possible dates with Israel for a meeting with Netanyahu, with a sit-down expected “in the coming months.” The official wasn’t authorized to comment by name and requested anonymity. Obama and Netanyahu have not met face to face since the nuclear deal Obama and other world leaders struck with Iran sent a deep chill through U.S.-Israeli relations. In previous years, Obama and Netanyahu have held meetings in September around the time of the U.N. General Assembly, but neither the U.S. nor Israel have confirmed that such a meeting will take place again this year. Describing the U.S. commitment to Israel’s protection as infallible, Biden said the U.S. had committed to provide more than $7.18 billion in security aid over the next year. He floated the possibility of signing a new 10-year agreement about U.S.-Israeli security cooperation. But Netanyahu’s government has been reacted tepidly to that proposal, out of concern that signing such a deal would suggest Israeli acquiescence to the nuclear accord.
Biden’s comments to a room packed with prominent Jewish leaders came as the Obama administration works to smooth over recent tensions with Israel that reached an apex earlier this year when Netanyahu gave a controversial speech to Congress railing against the emerging nuclear deal - without consulting the White House. Secretary of State John Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and other high-level officials made sure to attend the reception, as the White House sought to show how seriously it is taking Israeli and Jewish concerns. Obama has spoken harshly in the past of Republicans opposing the deal, even accusing them of making common cause with Iranian hardliners. But Biden took a noticeably softer approach, saying he understood Netanyahu’s perspective and would “fully, thoroughly respect” lawmakers whose conscience forces them to vote against the deal. Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran to be an existential threat, and Netanyahu has insisted the deal makes Israel less safe. A chief concern is that lifting sanctions on Iran as a concession will free up funds that Iran will use to fuel extremist groups that attack Israel. Yet despite opposition from a majority of lawmakers, Obama’s allies have secured enough votes to thwart legislation seeking to scuttle the deal. “I know that disappoints some of you,” Biden said, “but it’s a done deal.”

EU backs refugee plan to ease load on border states
By AFP | Berlin/Strasbourg/Thursday, 10 September 2015/The European Parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly backed plans by EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker to ease the burden on the bloc’s border states from a wave of refugees mostly coming from Syria. The lawmakers also called for an international conference bringing together the EU with the United Nations, United States and Arab states in a bid to end the most serious crisis of its kind since World War II. They voted in favor of a motion welcoming Juncker’s proposals for the relocation of 160,000 asylum-seekers from Greece, Hungary and Italy and for a permanent mechanism of binding quotas to deal with future emergencies. The non-binding resolution was approved by 432 votes to 142, with 57 abstentions. “MEPs welcomed a fresh proposal for the emergency relocation of more asylum seekers from Italy, Greece and Hungary and a permanent mechanism,” the European Parliament said in a statement. Juncker, the head of the 28-nation EU’s executive branch, unveiled the plans in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, in which he urged member states to back the proposals and said that “now is not the time to take fright.”EU interior ministers will consider the plans at an emergency meeting on Monday but, amid opposition from some eastern European member states, Brussels may have to call a special summit to get them approved. In the motion, MEPs called for revision of the EU's Dublin Treaty on refugees, under which asylum claims must be processed by the first country that refugees arrive in. They said they were “ready to work on draft laws to set up a solid migration and asylum policy for the future.” MEPs also called on EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to convene an international conference on refugees “with the aim of establishing a common global humanitarian aid strategy.” It should involve the EU, U.N. agencies, the United States, non-governmental agencies and Arab states, it said.
450,000 refugees arrived in Germany
Around 450,000 refugees have arrived in Germany so far this year, including 37,000 in the first eight days of September, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told parliament on Thursday. “Up to the day before yesterday, Germany registered 450,000 refugees, including 105,000 in August, and 37,000 in the first eight days of September. There may be more than 100,000 in September,” he said. “Honestly speaking, this shows that the distribution of 160,000 refugees across Europe is a first step, if one wants to be polite,” said Gabriel, referring to the European Commission’s proposal for EU member states to share out the new arrivals.Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged the 28-nation bloc to go further and agree on a proportional distribution of refugees with no limits on actual numbers, amid a record influx from war-torn Syria and other countries. “We cannot just fix a ceiling and say, ‘I don’t care about anything above that’“, she told parliament on Wednesday. Germany is expecting to welcome 800,000 asylum-seekers this year, four times more than last year and far more than any other European country.

Republican dispute may prevent U.S. Congress vote on Iran deal
By Patricia Zengerle, Richard Cowan and David Lawder | Reuters, Washington/Thursday, 10 September 2015/A rebellion by conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives on Wednesday delayed Congress’ first vote on the Iran nuclear agreement and raised the possibility that lawmakers might never vote on a resolution disapproving of the pact. The House was supposed to vote on a procedural motion to begin debate on Wednesday, but it was put off after some Republicans said they wanted President Barack Obama to provide more information about the deal. As a result, the Republicans, who control Congress and for weeks had been marching in lockstep in opposition to the nuclear accord, were suddenly battling each other and possibly giving Obama the upper hand.
The dispute arose after announcements on Tuesday that deal supporters had mustered 42 votes in the Senate, more than enough to use the chamber’s procedural rules to block a disapproval resolution. Late on Wednesday, House Republican leaders developed a plan for three Iran-related votes, none of which would immediately affect the nuclear pact, even though Senate Republicans said they would stick to their original plan to vote on a resolution of disapproval. One House vote would be on a resolution saying Obama provided too little information to Congress, a second would be to defeat a resolution of approval and a third would be a bid to eliminate Obama’s ability to waive sanctions. A law Obama signed in May gave Congress a 60-day window, ending on Sept. 17, to vote on the nuclear agreement, between the United States, five other world powers and Tehran. The law, the Iran Nuclear Review Act, allowed for a resolution of disapproval, which, if passed, would sink the deal, under which Iran gains relief from sanctions in return for curbing its nuclear program. A disapproval resolution would eliminate Obama’s ability to waive many U.S. sanctions on Iran. A resolution of approval, also allowed under the law, would send a message that many members of Congress are not behind the pact if it were defeated by a large margin. But it would not affect Obama’s ability to waive sanctions.
Obama would be expected to veto the proposed new sanctions measure, if it passed the House and Senate.

U.N. considers response to Mediterranean Sea smugglers
By AFP | United Nations/Thursday, 10 September 2015/The U.N. Security Council is considering allowing European naval forces to board and search ships on the high seas in an effort combat the smuggling of migrants, diplomats said on Wednesday. The draft Security Council resolution, focused on ships leaving from Libya, is currently being circulated among the five permanent members of the Security Council and the other European countries affected. But it has not yet been distributed to the full 15-member Security Council, diplomats said. Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin, this month's president of the council, said the resolution "may well be adopted in September." Another Security Council diplomat expressed hope the resolution could be adopted "in the next couple of weeks, before the UN General Assembly" meets in late September. Churkin has said the current text, put forward by Britain, is "something more limited" than a previous draft that would have allowed EU member state navies to pursue migrant smugglers in Libyan territorial waters. Interactive: Mapping the EU migrant crisis
That draft died because it would have required the approval of Libya, a prospect complicated by the political tumult in the country where the internationally recognized Libyan government does not control the coastal territory. The new resolution would authorize European navies to board and inspect suspicious vessels. If migrants are found on board, they would be given first aid and sent on to Italy, where they could try to seek asylum. The ships would be seized and destroyed or dismantled, and legal action would be sought against the smugglers. According to one diplomat on Wednesday, EU member states currently have differing degrees of legal leeway to act in the Mediterranean, with Italy, for instance, able operate more freely in the region than Britain or Germany. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has organized a high-level meeting on migration on the sidelines of the General Assembly on September 30, to which he invited European leaders Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia Offers to Build 200 Mosques for Syrians in Germany/Why will the Saudis build 200 mosques for these "refugees", yet won't take a single one in?
Daniel Greenfield/Frontpage/September 9, 2015/Saudi Arabia, which doesn't permit the construction of churches but finances a mosque construction spree in the land of the infidel, will not be taking in Syrian refugees. Even though they are fellow Muslims. It will however offer to build 200 mosques in Germany for their use. It's a kind offer. The only proper way for Europe to reciprocate would be to send a million soccer hooligans to Saudi Arabia and then offer to build facilities to teach them of the importance of trashing the country and abusing any native they come across. Of course the Saudis aren't stupid enough to fall for that one. Not even if the soccer hooligans bring along the occasional woman and child to use as emotional human shields while battering their way into a country they hate in every possible way aside from its social services. Only Westerners are stupid enough to fall for that one. Saudi mosques have played a key role in the rise of Islamic terrorism in the West. Just think of the explosive wonders that something short of a million migrants and all the mosques they can Allah Akbar in will accomplish in Germany. Maybe the next Caliph of the Islamic State will even shout Allah Akbar while beheading some local infidel with a German accent. Maybe that Islamic State will even be in Hamburg.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/260080/saudi-arabia-offers-build-200-mosques-syrians-daniel-greenfield#.VfGhaN4w2JC.twitter

A Tiny Silver Lining in the Otherwise Bad Iran Deal
Daniel Pipes/Philadelphia Inquirer/September 10/15
http://www.danielpipes.org/16102/one-tiny-silver-lining-in-the-otherwise-bad-iran
I despise the July 14 Vienna deal because it could do incalculable damage to the United States and its allies. That said, I find a tiny silver lining in the possibility that it could, if everything goes just right, end up hurting the Iranian regime more than its enemies.
The drawbacks of the "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" are so numerous that listing them requires more space than the 159-page treaty itself. In very brief, the JCPOA offers the tyrants in Tehran over the next 10-15 years more money, more legitimacy, more arms, and an approved path to nuclear weaponry. As an Israeli analysis sums up the problem, "the agreement unilaterally and unconditionally grants Iran everything it has been seeking without any viable quid pro quo."
To make matters worse, the deal includes no provisions that Tehran stop supporting violent groups, end its aggressive plans to conquer neighbors, eliminate the Jewish state, or deploy an electromagnetic pulse weapon against the United States. Indeed, so confident are the mullahs of their position, they never paused from expressing these bellicose intentions and insist that Americans remain their enemies. The country's tyrant, "Supreme Leader" Ali Khamene'i, even published a book during the negotiations about destroying Israel. In short, the deal makes war with Iran more likely.
For its part, the Obama administration shamefully dissembled about the terms of the treaty, used underhanded methods to pass it through congress, and became lawyer and spin doctor for Khamene'i.
For these reasons, I am appalled by the congressional Democrats who sheep-like went with Obama's folly, I join the 2/3s of the American public that rejects the Iran deal, and I tremble at what catastrophes the deal might bring.
More than 12,000 attended the "Stop Iran Rally" in New York City on July 22, 2015.
As for that tiny silver lining: Assuming that the Iranian leadership does not deploy its shiny new nuclear weaponry, the deal could end up undermining it, and for two reasons.
First, greater contact with the outside world and a higher standard of living might erode the regime's stability. The Soviet and other examples suggest that the more the subjects of a totalitarian system know and compare themselves to the outside world, the more dissatisfied they become with the existing ideological and tyrannical order. (There's a reason North Korea's population is kept so isolated.)
Changes have already started in Iran: Expectations are "ballooning" for more prosperity and more freedom, reports Saeid Jafari, an Iranian journalist. "With Iran's recent nuclear deal with six world powers, many young Iranians are hoping for better days." And it's not just the youth; "Depending on the strata, there is different emphasis on contentious matters such as foreign investment, Iran's relations with the world and the cultural, social and political atmosphere at home." Also, just about everyone demands a stronger currency.
This Iranian 100,000 rial note is worth about US$3.34.
The regime resists making changes, however. It rejects new political parties and arrests merchants who sell clothing with the American flag; so much for freedom. It maintains a "resistance economy" (meaning a domestic capacity so as to reduce vulnerability to sanctions and not depend on the outside world); so much for consumerism. President Hassan Rouhani, who is closely associated with the nuclear deal, has tried to head off expectations by warning that the road ahead will be long and painful: "We can import pain killers immediately after the sanctions are removed by spending the unfrozen funds on cheap imports. We can also use our resources for investment in the manufacturing, agriculture, and services sectors. We opt for the latter."
Second, as Stephen Sestanovich of Columbia University argued in a brilliant 1993 article explaining the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West's giveaways in the détente process destabilized the Soviet regime, even though these concessions allowed "the realization of all major Soviet military and diplomatic desiderata" – rather like the Iran deal today. "The infuriatingly inconsistent West turned out to be an opponent that Soviet communism simply could not understand, much less subdue. In the end, the democratic weakness that so many bemoaned may actually have helped to bring victory in reach." Ronald Reagan ridiculed the Jimmy Carter-Leonid Brezhnev kiss; the West's back-and-forth vis-à-vis the Soviet Union wore the communists down.
Like the Soviet dictators, their Iranian counterparts may also be undermined by Western inconsistencies and changes. This possibility does not reduce my vehement opposition to the Iran deal but it does add meager hope of long-term benefit, a goal that American, Israeli, Gulf Arab, and other strategists should now exploit to the maximum.

Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei: 'In 25 Years There Will Be No Such Thing As The Zionist Regime In The Region'; America Is Worse Than Satan
Special Dispatch | 6155 | September 9, 2015 The Middle East Media Research Institute
On September 9, 2015, in a public address at the tomb of the founder of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that the U.S. — the "Great Satan" — is worse than Satan, and warned the Iranian people and the moderate stream against being deceived by its attempts to infiltrate Iran. Khamenei added that in 25 years, Israel would no longer exist and that until then it would not have one minute of quiet.
The following are excerpts from his address:
"[Ayatollah] Khomeini called America 'the Great Satan.' That is a very wise saying... Satan only deceives man, but the U.S. deceives, murders, and imposes sanctions."
Crowd: "Death to America, Death to Britain, Death to Israel."
Khamenei: "America raises the banner of human rights, but every day, the blood of someone else is shed in the states of the U.S.... Now there are people [in Iran] who insist on dressing up America, which has these characteristics and which is worse than Satan, and presenting it as an angel. Why? Even if we ignore religion and the revolutionary spirit, what about loyalty to the country's interests? What about common sense? What common sense and what conscience allow you to choose America as a friend, as someone who can be relied upon, and as a guardian angel?"The [Americans] bedeck themselves in a suit, a tie, and perfume, and present themselves differently to innocent people. The great Iranian people has extracted this Great Satan from Iran. It must not be allowed to return. Anyone who leaves through the door must not be allowed to return through the window. [The U.S.] must not be allowed to infiltrate [Iran].
"The hostility [of the Americans] knows no bounds. Look now, these days following the nuclear agreement, the fate of which is still unclear [both] here [in Iran] and there [in the U.S.]. They sit in Congress and are busy hatching plots. According to the information I have received, certain people are now sitting in Congress and preparing a resolution to harass Iran and cause problems for it... Only when you become so strong that the enemy despairs of attacking [us] politically, in security and economic matters, and through sanctions and so on only then will the hostility of America cease..."America does not even hide its hostility. The Americans divide up the tasks one smiles while the other prepares an anti-Iran resolution. They want to negotiate with Iran, [but] negotiations are a pretext and a means to infiltrate [Iran] and to impose their desires [upon us]. "For clearly defined reasons, which we have consistently stated, we negotiated with America on the nuclear issue. I agreed for [our team] to go and negotiate. They went and negotiated, and, God be praised, our negotiating team conducted itself well. But I did not approve negotiations on any other subject, and we will not negotiate with America."
Crowd: "Death to America, Death to Britain, Death to Israel."
Khamenei: "We will negotiate with the entire world except America... and of course not with the Zionist regime, because the Zionist regime is an illegitimate and false regime. Let me say something about the Zionist regime. After the nuclear talks were over, I heard that the Zionists in occupied Palestine had said: 'In the meantime, thanks to the results of the talks, we will have 25 years of quiet regarding the problem of Iran. After 25 years, we will think of something.' I respond to them by saying: 'First of all, in 25 years you will not be alive.'"
Crowd: "Death to America, Death to Britain, Death to Israel."
Khamenei: "God willing, in 25 years there will be no such thing as the Zionist regime in the region, and secondly, during this period, the fighting Islamic spirit will not give the Zionists even a single day of quiet..."[1]
[1] Farsi.khamenei.ir/news-content?id=30702, September 9, 2015.

Germany's Appeasement of Radical Islam
Vijeta Uniyal/Gatestone Institute/September 10/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6466/germany-radical-islam
German, and possibly European, demographics are being set to change forever.
"No one knows exactly what actually happens in Islamic classes in German primary schools." — Abdel-Hakim Ourghi, head of the Faculty for Islamic Theology and Religious Studies at the Freiburg University of Education. In Ourghi's assessment, conservative Islam, the one dominant in Germany, is incapable of thinking critically about its past. According to the report, the textbooks fail to "confront the problematic verses of Koran." The curriculum also fails in its most important purpose -- integrating Muslims into the German society -- as it fails to reconcile the "Islamic faith of the students with the reality of the western society" they are living in. By legitimizing extremist groups such as DITIB within German Muslim society as the sole legitimate representatives of Islam, the German government has marginalized genuine voices of reform and dissent within its Muslim population.
These courageous dissident Muslim men and women are left to face threats and intimidation on their own, while the government is busy appeasing the self-proclaimed leaders of the faith. As Muslim migration is being set to change German, and possibly European, demographics forever, Germany is gearing up for the new challenge -- not by integrating and assimilating young Muslims in a free and democratic Western society, but by handing over the religious education of the next generation of German Muslims to Islamist radicals.
Worse yet, German authorities see no problem in doing that.
With Germany predicted to receive 800,000 migrants -- mostly Muslims -- this year alone, and millions more waiting to cross Europe's unguarded borders, the Muslim population in Germany is seeing a historic rise from the current figure of nearly 6 million. Several German states including Bavaria, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia have introduced Islamic Studies in their public schools. The state of Hesse has become the first in Germany to offer Islamic education in public schools, with religious instruction starting as early as the first grade.
Giving young children religious and moral instruction might sound like a good idea, if not for the content of the newly written Islamic curriculum and the influence of Islamist elements over the recruitment of teachers.
The writing of textbooks is being overseen by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB). In an agreement reached between the State of Hesse and DITIB, the organization will play a key role in setting the curriculum, selecting the teachers and monitoring the Islamic religious instruction. The organization is apparently assuming a similar role in several other key German states.
DITIB is the largest Muslim organization in Germany and controls several prominent mosques. The group depends heavily on the Turkish government for its funding, and maintains close ties with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist party, the AKP.
The newly compiled Islamic curriculum for public schools in Hesse has come under great scrutiny. An independent report conducted by Abdel-Hakim Ourghi, who heads of the Faculty for Islamic Theology and Religious Studies at the Freiburg University of Education, has sharply criticized the curriculum.
According to an article in Die Welt, Ourghi, a prominent Muslim scholar, has been raising concern about the activities of DITIB and other conservative Muslim organizations operating in Germany. "No one knows exactly what actually happens in Islamic classes in German primary schools," he says. In his assessment, conservative Islam, the one dominant in Germany, is incapable of thinking critically about its past. According to Ourghi's report, the textbooks fail to "confront the problematic verses of Koran." The report also says that the curriculum fails in its most important purpose -- integrating Muslims into the German society -- as it fails to reconcile the "Islamic faith of the students with the reality of the western society" they are living in.
Confronted with the damning report, Hesse's Minister of Education and Culture, Alexander Lorz, dismissed the allegations and called the Hesse's Islamic education a "success."
Meanwhile, despite Lorz's stance, young German Muslims from his state keep heading to Syria and Iraq to join the ranks of the Islamic State (ISIS). And despite DITIB's regular lip service to denouncing the terrorist organization, the Islamic State receives a continuous flow of fresh recruits from DITIB-run mosques. According to a recent investigative report by the German news magazine, Focus, a DITIB-run Mosque in Cologne is a key base in Germany for Turkey's intelligence agency, the MIT. The intelligence team not only gathers information on Turkish President Erdogan's opponents in Germany, but also maintains a local "thug squad" to mete out "tough punishments" to Turkish dissidents in Germany. The Cologne Central Mosque is used as a key base in German for Turkey's intelligence agency, where they run a local "thug squad" to mete out "tough punishments" to Turkish dissidents in Germany. (Image source: © Raimond Spekking/CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
By legitimizing extremist groups such as DITIB as the sole legitimate representatives of Islam within German Muslim society, the German government has marginalized genuine voices of reform and dissent within its Muslim population. These courageous dissident Muslim men and women are left to face threats and intimidation on their own, while the government is busy appeasing the self-proclaimed leaders of the faith. The fruits of liberty enjoyed by Germans today are not Germany's to squander in the first place. Every bit of this precious freedom was paid for in blood -- from the beaches of Normandy to the pavements of the Warsaw Ghetto -- often meter-by-meter with bare knuckles and bloody fists.
As if history has come full circle, in the span of less than a century, Germany's state institutions are folding again at the mere sight of an organized band of fascists.**Vijeta Uniyal is a current affairs analyst based in Germany.

The Caliph's Revenge
By Paul Salem | Vice President for Policy and Research |
Middle East Institute/September 09/15
http://www.mei.edu/content/article/caliphs-revenge
Almost a century after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk abolished the caliphate in Istanbul and six decades after Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Ba‘th Party led a secular nationalist revolution in Egypt and the Arab world, the Middle East is rife with radical religious counter-revolution, and a caustic caliphate sits astride the Syrian-Iraqi interior. The secular nationalist revolutions, while they made great advances in state building and development, gravely wounded religious sensibilities and at the same time removed or weakened the very authorities that could moderate or lead religion in a more responsible manner. As a result, the region is witnessing a religious backlash that is both ferocious and unhinged. How has a religious tradition, which for a millennium was a global refuge for pluralism, tolerance, and moderation, been subverted to propel intolerance, brutality, and beheadings, and what can be done at this late stage to restore—or create—a more moderate religious authority?
In a recent book called The Paradox of Liberation: Secular Revolutions and Religious Counterrevolutions, the American political philosopher Michael Walzer examines the cases of Algeria, India, and Israel. In all three countries, secular revolutionaries believed that history was a linear process unfolding in favor of secularism, science, reason, and nationalism, and that religion was part of a superstitious and fading past. But in all three countries, radical religious movements arose, reviving in a more virulent manner the religious identities, values, and imperatives of the challenged past.
The same can be said today about Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and, to a degree, Turkey. Walzer does not argue that the secular nationalists failed—in many countries their institutions and political culture remain present—but they were mistaken in their assumption that religion was part of a fading past. Indeed, as mentioned, their actions wounded and aggravated the religious while undermining the very institutions that once regulated and restrained the impulses of religious extremism. In this vein, the abolition of the caliphate and the weakening of al-Azhar in Egypt left mainstream Islam both aggrieved and adrift, and some among the faithful vulnerable to the religious claims of upstart radicals or the pretensions of new would-be caliphs.
The eminent French-Lebanese thinker and novelist Amin Maalouf also takes up this theme in his book Disordered World: Setting a New Course for the Twenty-first Century. Although a confirmed secularist of Lebanese Christian origins like myself, he points out the grave civilizational costs of the decline of the caliphate after the Abbasid period ended in the thirteenth century, and the risks inherent to the absence of an established and recognized religious authority within mainstream Islam today.
He makes his points by reference to the role of the papacy within the Catholic world. Throughout its long and varied history, and despite the rise and fall in its fortunes and its final physical isolation in the confined grounds of a small neighborhood of Rome, the papacy has endured and has played a tremendously important role in the evolution of the West. By maintaining religious authority, at least among Catholic Christians, it was a steady, albeit very conservative, reference point for religious interpretation and faced down religious radicals, like the fifteenth-century Florentine monk Savonarola and others who claimed their own authority to interpret and lead the religion. Also, as some radicals wished to use religious authority to supplant political authority, it maintained the rules of the game and the balance—intertwined but separate—between religious and temporal authority.
The Vatican and its network of institutions around Europe also served as a vast repository of books, learning, libraries, and investigation. Although it occasionally balked at the astounding findings of figures like Galileo or Copernicus, it generally enabled a steady accumulation of knowledge, legitimized reason, science, and learning within religious thought and institutions, and protected the accumulated wealth of knowledge and high cultural production against the vicissitudes of time, war, and devastation. The Vatican took decades, sometimes centuries, to accept new ideas or values, but it slowly moved religious thought and sentiment forward, legitimizing gradual change and finding a way for an ancient religion to evolve and internalize shifts and advances in human civilization.
For six centuries Muslim capitals, first in Damascus and then in Baghdad, led the world in thought, science, and civilizational advance, followed by six centuries of stagnation after the Mongol invasion of the mid-thirteenth century. The rise of the West and the conquests of Muslim lands in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries awakened many to the costs of drift and stagnation.
For a few bright years around the turn of the twentieth century, the grand mufti of Egypt and a leading light of al-Azhar University, Imam Muhammad Abduh, preached the importance of reason, human enquiry, and free will as God-given instruments of progress and railed against an overly textual, static, and backward-looking interpretation of Islam. But as secular nationalists rose to prominence in the post-World War I years and conservative populist religious movements rose to oppose them, the religious reformers were snuffed out in the middle, dismissed by the new secular elites and anathemized by the religious populists.
There may be no point today in lamenting past institutional successes in mainstream Islamic history, but the absence of a centralized, widely authoritative, and relatively enlightened locus of religious authority leaves a community of around 1.4 billion people, one fifth of the world’s population, adrift and vulnerable. This is not merely a religious matter for adherents of that faith, but a matter of regional and global stability and security.
There might also be little point in considering the pros and cons of reviving some modernized papal form of the caliphate, as one cannot imagine the current powers that be in the Muslim world agreeing on how such a project could be undertaken.
But perhaps there is a point to considering how to rebuild one or more loci of moderate Islamic learning and authority. The Gulf countries have—rightly—spent tens of billions of dollars on building institutions of higher learning, the last of which being the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. It has an endowment of $20 billion, making it the third wealthiest university in the world after Harvard and Yale, while al-Azhar University and other moderate centers of religious learning in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and elsewhere languish in disrepair. The religious learning and leadership of the community requires strategic attention. While building centers for science and technology and investing in infrastructure, economic development, and trade is important, it might be equally—or even more—important to invest in the future of religious education and leadership. Perhaps al-Azhar itself could be re-envisioned and transformed into the key center of religious education and training that it once was, but expanded to be a serious center of research into the human and natural sciences as well; or perhaps there could be other visions and plans to move forward. In either case, the vacuum and vulnerability left by the abolition of the caliphate and the undermining of traditional and moderate religious institutions has given rise to threats and challenges that can no longer be ignored.

Iraq: Another turning point?
By Zalmay Khalilzad/ The Washington Post/September 9 /15
Zalmay Khalilzad was the U.S. ambassador to Iraq from 2005 to 2007.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/iraq-another-turning-point/2015/09/09/3c5e8e3e-566f-11e5-8bb1-b488d231bba2_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_opinions
The reform campaign announced last month by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi represents a potential turning point for Iraq. Indeed, the outcome of this campaign will shape the future of a country central to the global fight against the Islamic State and to the stabilization of the Middle East. The United States must focus on Iraq’s newest struggle and assist Abadi’s reform effort.
Abadi is rushing his reforms because of pressure from a nonsectarian movement, which includes many civil society groups, that has taken to the streets for several weeks. The role of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who encouraged Abadi to be courageous and embrace reform, has been critical. Abadi’s reforms include fighting corruption and establishing a meritocracy in government employment in place of party patronage and sectarianism. The protesters also want national reconciliation and reform of the judiciary, including the replacement of top judge Midhat al-Mahmoud, who was a key enabler of the unconstitutional actions by Abadi’s predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki.
Sectarianism has been a cancer on Iraqi politics. The last large-scale expression of nonsectarian politics came during the 2010 elections, when an improved security environment briefly reduced the potency of identity politics. But sectarianism surged again when security deteriorated after the U.S. military withdrawal. Today’s events offer a rare second chance for Iraq.
Abadi’s reform effort faces three key challenges:
First, it has divided the Shiites, producing a political confrontation that Sistani aide Ahmed al-Safi has described as an “existential battle.” The reforms are opposed by militia leaders, including the Badr Organization’s Hadi al-Amiri and Kataib Hezbollah’s Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, as well as a number of political parties that support the political patronage system. Militia leaders have threatened reformers, targeting protesters with violence and kidnapping and even engaging in a deadly skirmish with security forces in Baghdad last week. They have also issued statements opposing national reconciliation in defiance of the prime minister and met with Mahmoud to express support for him.
Second, while the prime minister’s goals are laudable and ambitious, the means available to him to implement them are limited. Given lower oil prices, Abadi has far fewer financial resources than his predecessor. Complicating matters is the fact that, in the war against the Islamic State, he needs the support of the very militias opposed to his reforms. Many senior government officials hold their positions because of patronage and are unlikely to help his agenda succeed. And Abadi’s relations with the Kurds are strained by disputes over oil exports and the budget, among other issues. Abadi’s most important assets are support from Sistani and popular demands for reform.
Third, it appears that Iran wants the militias to dominate the Iraqi security sector and render it loyal to Tehran’s hard-liners. Abadi wants these militias and volunteer forces to be regulated and reorganized in a National Guard force under state control. It’s likely that Iran hopes the prime minister will fail and either simply abandon the reform program to work more closely with Iran or be replaced by someone who will side with the militias. Maliki began his first term as an independent leader, but as conditions changed and put his political survival at risk, he embraced Iran. Abadi’s reform agenda and Iran’s response to it have produced a nationalist Iraqi backlash against Iran. Sistani, Abadi and other reform leaders want good relations with Iran, but they resent Quds Force leader Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani’s effort to turn Iraq into a satellite state.
There is much at stake for Iraq in this struggle. The reform program is not comprehensive — it does not address the problems of the Kurdish region. Nevertheless, its success could lead to more effective governance, reconciliation and a reduction in sectarian tension. Sectarianism and discrimination against Sunnis have fueled extremism and terror in parts of the Sunni Arab community. Greater independence from Iran can also have a positive effect on Iraq’s regional relations and reduce Sunni Arab states’ incentives to support Sunni insurgents and terrorists. Greater emphasis on competence and the rule of law can reduce corruption and improve services for the Iraqi people — and even attract investment to Iraq.
The United States has an interest in the success of reform. To help tip the political balance of power in Abadi’s favor, policymakers should focus on understanding the nature of Iraq’s reform movement and identify ways to bolster and support it. Washington should also continue to provide robust military assistance. The U.S. effort to rebuild the Iraqi army is crucial to provide Abadi with loyal security forces and a strong formal chain of command. This security relationship and our operations against the Islamic State are vital for Abadi. Without them, Iran’s leverage grows.
We should also respond positively to Abadi’s appeal for help, and help him with implementing the reform agenda by providing technical advice to turn objectives into actionable plans and during the execution phase in areas such as fiscal policy, ministerial restructuring, tax reforms and electricity generation and distribution. We should also help Abadi refine the scope and pace of reform to make sure he doesn’t overreach.
Finally, this is a perfect time to redouble our diplomatic support by encouraging Iraq’s Sunni neighbors to constructively engage with Abadi. The reform campaign is evidence that he is moving away from the sectarian policies of his predecessor. The United States should emphasize to Iraq’s neighbors that successful reforms can help with national reconciliation and rebalance Iraq’s relations with its neighbors, positively affecting the broader region.This struggle for political, economic and national security reform in Iraq is likely to be a long one, and success is not inevitable. Prime Minister Abadi faces major domestic and Iranian pressures, and he needs our help to make progress. We need to act quickly.

Aylan Kurdi’s Europe
Roger Cohen/The New York Times/September 10/15
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/08/opinion/roger-cohen-aylan-kurdis-europe.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Froger-cohen&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection&_r=1&referrer=
Oh, Europe, the Mediterranean, cradle of civilization, is a watery grave. At the side of an Austrian highway, 71 nameless refugees perish, asphyxiated in a modern-day boxcar. Czech authorities, armed with indelible markers but bereft of a sense of history, inscribe identification numbers on the skin of 200 migrants. Others are duped by Hungarian police with promises of “freedom” and find themselves in a “reception” camp (where presumably they are offered a shower).
Oh, Europe, Slovakia wants only Christian refugees, not the Muslims of Syria or Afghanistan. Viktor Orban, the puffed-up little Putin serving as Hungary’s prime minister, says he is protecting “European civilization” — read Christian Europe — as a 175-kilometer razor wire fence is installed along the Serbian border. David Cameron speaks of a “swarm” of migrants trying to reach Britain; it is locusts that move in swarms. A three-year-old Syrian boy, his little left hand folded back as if he were asleep in a crib, lies dead on a Turkish beach, his face in the sand, his silent reproach indelible. He was called Aylan Kurdi. His family wanted to bring him to Europe.
The shadows return, freighted with ironies. Orban’s Hungary turns its back on the magnificent Hungary of 1989, the first country to open the Iron Curtain a crack as it allowed tens of thousands of East Germans to cross into Austria and make their way to West Germany. Orban’s pusillanimous Hungary forgets how, in 1956, at the time of the Soviet invasion, about 200,000 Hungarians fled into Austria and found refuge and freedom in Western Europe.
This petty Hungary also chooses to ignore that, of all the blessings acquired by the former nations of the Soviet bloc when the division of Europe ended, freedom of movement was the most prized. It was secured, this gift, with the fall of a wall. Now Hungary erects one.
Hungary is not alone in its prejudice. The preference for Christian migrants (in small numbers), and equating of Muslims with inevitable menace, is marked across almost all the countries of Central and East Europe that were once part of the Soviet imperium. These states have not known the influx of post-colonial migrants that has changed several West European societies. Their Jews were almost all killed by the Nazis (with help from local accomplices). Their ethnic makeup was further homogenized through border shifts or mass expulsions (ethnic Germans out of postwar Poland). Their recent history has been of mass emigration in search of job opportunities in the West, not of immigration.
As Jacques Rupnik, a prominent French political scientist, wrote recently in Le Monde, “There is a widespread perception in the East of the Continent that the Western ‘multicultural’ model has failed.” The conviction in these countries is that “migration from the south today equals ‘Islamic suburbs’ tomorrow.”
Oh, Europe, cursed with too much history, thy name is forgetfulness. Thy truth is miscegenation. Thy imagined tribes are just that, an illusion belied by endless migration over centuries. Thy hope is new blood, for racial purity was the altar of thy repetitive self-mutilation. Thy duty is memory, thy covenant with thy children openness and unity, for they must live.
Yes, memory: If Europe cared to remember, it might recall that this is the largest migratory wave since the end of World War II, when millions moved West from Stalin’s totalitarianism. It might also recollect that this mass movement was the culmination of a war that emanated from one of the Continent’s great “civilizations,” Germany — a frenzied attempt to impose on the Continent an Aryan super-race and rid it of Jews, Gypsies and others designated by Hitler as subspecies.
Today, refugees clamor to get into Germany. It has said it expects 800,000 this year. Angela Merkel, the chancellor, raised in Germany’s East, has towered over other European leaders because her personal history clarifies the stakes. “If Europe fails on this question of refugees, its close association with the universal rights of citizens will be destroyed,” she said. And then, almost heretically: “German thoroughness is super, but right now what we need is German flexibility.”
Even German flexibility, an unlikely commodity, is not enough. This is a European crisis. At a time of fracture in the European Union — Greece and the euro, Britain and possible exit, rising rightist parties, Vladimir Putin’s threats — Europe has been reminded of its core purpose and singular achievement: the ruin and misery it rose from, the abandoned masses it housed, the unity it forged after division had cost so many lives.
The need today is for more unity, a coherent immigration policy among the 28 members, and renewal of the maligned European idea. As Laura Boldrini, speaker of the lower house of the Italian Parliament, put it to me: “When the Mediterranean is a cemetery, we need a Europe 2.0. Nobody can love this Europe today. It is time for a renewed push for a United States of Europe.”

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia: A 21st-century partnership
Faisal J. Abbas/Al Arabiya/September 10/15
In Feb. 1945, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with King Abdulaziz al-Saud - the founder of modern-day Saudi Arabia - in a historic encounter onboard the USS Quincy over Egyptian waters. That meeting would for seven decades shape the relationship (or rather the alliance) between the United States and Saudi Arabia. This partnership has proved to be paramount not just in terms of “oil in exchange for security” - a reductive dichotomy used by some observers - but for global stability, prosperity and peace.
President Roosevelt listens as Saudi King Abdul Aziz speaks with him in French aboard a U.S. warship in this Feb. 20, 1945. (File photo: AP) Indeed, it was the Saudi-U.S. alliance that helped end Soviet aggression against Muslim lands, and liberated Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. Even when differences emerged (and serious ones did emerge on numerous occasions), the Americans have found their Saudi allies reasonable, calm and open to practical solution. Such attributes - the United States would find throughout the years - are rare in an unstable region plagued with irrational players such as the former Qaddafi regime in Libya, the current Assad regime in Syria, and most importantly the Iranian regime, which regards the United States as the “Great Satan,” and has for decades been involved in state-funded terrorism against America and its allies in the region.
Nuclear deal
The latest disagreement between Riyadh and Washington - and perhaps among the most significant - is the current Iran nuclear deal, which the Obama administration so passionately defends. There is no dispute on the fact that a nuclear-free Iran would mean a safer, more stable world. However, Saudi Arabia and other U.S. Gulf allies are concerned that Iran, despite crippling economic sanctions, has been engaged in aggressively funding, plotting and backing terrorist groups across the region. Even when differences emerged, the Americans have found their Saudi allies reasonable, calm and open to practical solution. Such attributes - the United States would find throughout the years - are rare in an unstable region plagued with irrational players. From the 1979 embassy hostage crisis in Tehran, to the 1983 attack on U.S. marines in Beirut, to supporting terrorist groups and destabilizing forces such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine, Asaaib Ahl al-Haq (AAS) in Iraq, and most recently the Houthis in Yemen; Iran’s malicious fingerprints have been left all over the place. As such, a legitimate question to the Obama administration was: If Iran managed to create all this damage despite sanctions, what guarantees would be introduced to ensure it does not do even more harm once sanctions are lifted?
Infographic: Iran's funding to terrorist groups all over the region.
There are those on the American side who believe that the Iranians would make a better ally, arguing that they are “strategic”, “not impulsive,” and “respond to costs and benefits,” as President Barack Obama infamously said. Furthermore, and as we all mourn during this 14th anniversary of the atrocious 9/11 terrorist attacks, some analysts believe that Iran makes a better ally because it never attacked America on its own soil, while Osama bin Laden was once a Saudi and many of the hijackers were Saudi. These so-called analysts should read former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent comments about how this nuclear deal could provide Iran with the means to launch a nuclear attack on America. More importantly, such idiotic analysis turns a blind eye to the fact that Bin Laden was stripped of his Saudi citizenship long before 9/11, that the hijackers were acting as individuals, and that Al-Qaeda is officially designated a terrorist group in Saudi Arabia. Contrary to Iran, which officially supports terrorism, Saudi authorities track down and punish supporters, fighters and financers of such groups. Iran does not only back Shiite terrorist groups but Sunni ones, such as Al-Qaeda itself. This is not an assumption, but a fact stated in official reports prepared by the U.S. State Department.
A 21st-century partnership
Seventy years after the historic King Abdulaziz–Roosevelt meeting, Saudi King Salman arrived in Washington DC and had an equally historic encounter with Obama last week. In 1945, Saudi Arabia was largely underdeveloped and in need of U.S. help to bring stability to a post-WWII region. One could assume that among the most important take-outs of the USS Quincy meeting was a pledge by Roosevelt not to engage in any activity that would harm the Arab people. However, what was interesting this time around is what King Salman had to say to Obama: “In our country, thank God we are prosperous, but we want prosperity for the entire region. And we are willing to cooperate with you in order to achieve that.”Saudi King Salman in the Oval Office (L) and U.S. President Obama welcoming Mohammad bin Salman to the U.S. (File photos: SPA/Al-Riyadh)
Equally as important was the strategic vision for a 21st-century partnership between the two countries, which was presented by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman during the visit. This vision, which was aided by studies prepared by leading global consultancy groups such as Booz Allen Hamilton and BCG, is estimated to have a potential worth of $2 trillion in 12 sectors. It includes unprecedented steps toward opening up the lucrative Saudi market to U.S. investors and companies. It also creates a space for deepening ties not just through economic opportunity, but via working toward mutual prosperity and good for both peoples, and sharing knowledge and best practices. One only has to compare the good that this Saudi political and business vision could potentially achieve, with the harm caused by the $14-$30 billion Iran spends every year to support regional terrorism (according to a recent report by the Washington Times), to determine that the United States is far better off on the side of its long-term and stability-seeking allies.

The Somalization of Syria
Joyce Karam/Al Arabiya/September 10/15
When former U.N. Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi sounded the alarm in 2012 over the “Somalization of Syria”, he was shrugged off by the Assad regime and dismissed by some in the opposition. His warning, three years and many militias later, is materializing at a fast pace in Syria as both victory and a political solution seem out of sight. Very much like the overthrow of former Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 after five years of conflict between his regime and the rebels, Somalia’s state of chaos and fragmentation compares in more than one way to the trajectory of the Syrian conflict. The lack of international interest in finding a long lasting solution for Syria and limiting any intervention to counterterrorism or regional security parallels with the case of Somalia and promises a long drawn-out conflict.
No winners and no breakthroughs
Despite the lofty talk of a political solution in Syria, expecting such an outcome in the near term is unrealistic and farfetched given the schism among internal and regional actors over the post-Assad power structure. Also, the speed at which the fragmentation is happening on the ground, and the gains that ISIS and Al-Qaeda’s affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra are making, have introduced new set of realities that torpedo the Geneva II framework. “Nothing is moving; everything is stuck,” U.N. Syria envoy Steffan de Mistura was quoted in al-Monitor telling an NGO analyst most recently. The recent Russian military escalation in Syria is one more nail in the political solution’s coffin
Even De Mistura’s effort at achieving a temporary ceasefire in an Aleppo suburb collapsed earlier this year.
Despite the humanitarian cost of more than 250,000 dead and millions displaced or crossing in despair to Europe, the Syrian regime is not at a point of seeking a major power-sharing compromise while the rebels are marred by divisions and competing agendas.
This reality is rendering many diplomats and negotiators hopeless, with some choosing to limit their goals to relief efforts and focus on preliminary local needs. Similar to the central government in Somalia, the Assad regime’s control is dwindling by the day and as the conflict takes a heavy toll on its military and reinforcements. Today, it is Iran and Hezbollah who are negotiating with the rebel group Ahrar Sham in Zabadani, and it’s Turkey who is vetting the rebels to deploy in its “safe zone” inside Syria. This is all whilst ISIS expands into Palmyra and fortifies its unchecked power in Raqqa. On the opposition side, it is the more extreme groups such as Ahrar Sham, Jaish al-Islam and Jabhat al-Nusra who are gaining prominence while moderate groups such Harakat al-Hazm, cited once by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, has effectively dissolved. Rebel leaders who were also seen as moderate in Washington such as Riad Asaad or Salim Idriss or Jamal Maarouf were not able to withstand Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS. Neither were the 60 trained fighters by the United States, who were either killed in the battle or got kidnapped by Nusra. The Syrian factions, however, face a similar reality to those in Somalia, where neither group including the regime has the power to achieve an outright military win, and are instead trapped in a war of attrition. As in Somalia, the battle lines constantly shift and gains and losses alternate between the regime and the rebels - with neither side the permanent victor or the vanquished.
Russian escalation and adjustment
The recent Russian military escalation in Syria is one more nail in the political solution’s coffin. Russia, very much like Turkey, the United States, Syria’s neighbors and Iran is adjusting itself to a long conflict in Syria, and trying to preserve its geopolitical interests on the Syrian coast through propping up the Assad regime. Syria, akin to its Somali counterpart, is gradually becoming a counterterrorism battlefield while substituting Harakat al-Shabaab with Nusra and ISIS. The international community seems to be adjusting to the humanitarian catastrophes through containment, and only intervening to strike ISIS or Al-Qaeda affiliates. On the other hand, the internal chaos and fragmentation ensued from the fighting is being left to play out.And it’s all at the expense of Syria’s future as a state with a functioning central government. In Somalia and since 1986, more than half a million people have died while the international community kept its distance from intervening. In that conflict, only its neighbors Ethiopia and Kenya stepped in to secure their interests. This scenario is replaying in Syria, whereby the intervention is only understood in anti-ISIS terms, and regional actors such as Turkey and Israel have only intervened to achieve key goals against Hezbollah or the Kurdish groups. Iran and Hezbollah’s intervention meanwhile is focused on expanding Tehran’s role, and seeking new military presence near the Golan heights to threaten Israel. Without a peace deal, “Syria would be transformed to hell...what will happen is Somalization” predicted Brahimi in 2012. In 2015, Syria has made this transformation and its Somalization is happening before our own eyes - as geopolitics and counterterrorism define the global response.

Europe and the refugee crisis: Don’t blame the Syrians
Mohamed Chebarro/Al Arabiya/September 10/15
The Syrian refugees arriving en masse in Europe are just the tip of the iceberg - and a result of the international community’s human and ethical failure to deal with the ongoing conflict in Syria. Those beginning to arrive will grow in number and clearly beg for a new way to look at the Syrian conflict and other fires burning in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. Whether rich or poor, Syrians inside the country or refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey or beyond seem to have lost hope and see no indication that the conflict in their country is likely to draw to a close soon. This is what is finally pushing Syrians to emigrate.
For the flow to stop, the international community must be more proactive in finding solutions to Syria’s forgotten wars. Russia, for example, can no longer supply Assad with hardware to kill his people. Recently the Kremlin seems to be bolstering Assad’s military again under the loose banner of fighting extremism. Iran too must not fund, arm and supply Iranian advisers and militias from Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere to prop up its dream of a Shiite crescent led by the Islamic republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Old tactics
The Supreme Leader’s dream should be to export or import an economic solution to reboot its ailing economy and status of his nation. Iran is a country with limitless potential, but is still enveloped in yesterday’s power posturing and 36-year-old revolutionary values.
Europe should put aside its internal differences and work together to push forward the international community to act on Syria The U.S. under President Obama can no longer bury its head in the sand and ignore the fire of the Syrian crisis spreading.
It seems that only Obama forgot that the U.S. is still a super power. Yet the nation is still a symbolic world leader capable of upholding the ethos and values that echo with most people inside the U.S. and the wider world. Yes oppressed people from around the world still look up to the Western world for salvation and not to Russia or China. The Obama administration could no longer view the crisis from the prism of fighting extremists that spring out by design and default of letting the conflict simmer in Syria.
Closer to Syria, the Turks could not have a two-way tango: one with ISIS and another against the Kurds.
The Arab nations who opposed Assad and encouraged and funded the rebels should also be more proactive at supporting the Syrian diaspora and in playing all the diplomatic cards available to them. They should push the Syrian opposition to unite and present themselves as a viable option for leading a post-Assad Syria.
Hard solution
Europe should put aside its internal differences and work together to push forward the international community to act on Syria. European nations must round off or put aside differences between the Russians and the Americans and push them harder to solve the crisis for a more peaceful world that their people, economy, and values have long upheld. It would not be fair to say that Europe has finally noticed that there was a conflict in Syria. They have been supporters of a speedy resolution of the crisis since day one - and they saw this would be made possible through a quick departure of Assad and his cronies. Nor did Europe just realize that they must double their efforts to make sure that crisis around the world must be contained before spreading and going out of control. European countries experienced a huge influx of refugees in the 1990s due to the Bosnian war and later the Kosovo conflict. To them that was a European problem on their continent. They never believed that the stalemate in Syria and the many proxy wars fought that far from Europe could spill to Europe’s shores.
Warm welcome
Today, towns and citizens in the heart of Europe who had never heard of Syria are expected to welcome Syrians in the tens of thousands and offer them asylum. They need to be praised regardless of how many refugees they welcome. After nearly 5 years of war, with more than quarter of a million killed and another estimated one million injured, imprisoned, tortured and missing, half the Syrian population of over 23 million is on the run. Even those who are not in the line of fire are packing up and heading out in search of a better future and one cannot blame them. With millions scattered inside Syria, and millions of refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and elsewhere, Syrians are also human beings searching to line up a better future for their children. Increasingly the world seem to be failing them and their forced exile is likely to be both be extended and very long.

Media hysteria over Russia and Syria
Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/September 10/15
The opening of the 70th U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 15 will likely be occupied by two issues that are currently making headlines: the refugee crisis, and reports that Russia is preparing for direct involvement in the Syrian war. Public opinion blames the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands heading to Europe (although the deaths of thousands leaving from Libya have been overlooked).The current hysteria is odd because Russia had previously been asked to join the international coalition against ISIS
Regarding reports of Russian involvement in Syria, it has been involved practically since the beginning of the conflict. Russia has a naval base in Tartus that was modified years ago to make it capable of receiving large ships. It is also a key supplier of military hardware and training to Damascus.
No reason
Without this aid, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) would have captured the capital long ago. Russia sees no reason to cancel its military contracts with Damascus until ISIS is defeated and the Syrian conflict is resolved by political means. The number of Russian landing crafts has practically stayed the same, yet the media is creating a frenzy. Any demands to stop military aid in the current circumstances will be perceived by Moscow as unpronounced support for ISIS and proof that the West only seeks to topple Assad.
The current hysteria is odd because Russia had previously been asked to join the international coalition against ISIS. Since Moscow has made clear that it sees Assad as part of the solution in the fight against ISIS, why is the media trying to portray Russian involvement as against the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) rather than ISIS? Moscow is unlikely to put boots on the ground or considerably expand its military presence in Syria. It still remembers Afghanistan, and has vivid examples of failed U.S. interventions. Furthermore, direct involvement in Syria would be too risky given its problems in the Caucasus. The only way it could be involved directly in operations against ISIS is via airstrikes, and only if Assad is acknowledged as part of the solution, which is the only way to stop the refugee crisis and give hope to those who have lost it. However, Syria is part of the solution to the refugee crisis, not the solution itself. After Syria, we will have to deal with Libya.

Can the GCC test Iran’s government?
Manuel Almeida/Al Arabiya/September 10/15
Earlier this week, after a meeting in Tehran with the Austrian president, Iranian President Hassan Rowhani was asked if his country could discuss peace in Syria with Saudi Arabia and the United States. “We will sit down at any table with countries inside and outside the region,” Rowhani responded. Given the determination Tehran has displayed to date in supporting the Syrian regime and specifically President Bashar al-Assad, Rowhani’s comments could easily be interpreted as empty talk. Yet this is not an isolated episode - on the contrary. Following the nuclear deal, a handful of Iranian officials have stated their willingness to reach out to their country’s neighbors to improve relations and seek regional stability. In May, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif expressed publicly his willingness to visit Saudi Arabia. This followed an invitation in 2014 from former Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. That visit never materialized.. Nevertheless, Iranian overtures did not cease and have recently intensified.
Reaching out
In recent weeks, various Iranian officials and former officials have renewed calls for regional dialogue to reduce tensions, and specifically mentioned talks with Saudi Arabia. In August, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, said his government “welcomes dialogue and cooperation with Saudi Arabia with a view to restoring peace, security and welfare to the region.” Discussing a political transition in Syria without Assad raises a lot of hard questions, but it is an inevitable step
Earlier that month, he had called on the normalization of relations between the two countries to bring much-needed stability to the region, but warned the Saudis about the negative repercussions they could face across the region if there is no change of approach.
This month, Hossei Sadeghi, Iran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, wrote a particularly balanced column calling for the “establishment of regional relations on the basis of confidence building with special focus on existing considerations in Iran-Saudi Arabia relations.” He described how Zarif is in charge of this active agenda of public diplomacy and public consultations with Iran’s neighbors to promote dialogue and cooperation. Recently, Mohammad Reza Fayyaz, Iran’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), also signaled Tehran’s willingness to improve ties with Saudi Arabia. Unhelpfully, however, he blamed Riyadh for much of the region’s ills. Last week, Seyed Hossein Mousavian - a former Iranian official now based in Princeton, and whose views tend to be aligned with the moderates in Tehran - wrote a piece on the constructive engagement that can be built between Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Mousavian briefly recognized the legitimate security concerns of the GCC states regarding Iran, and the need to address those concerns.
Where to test?
Washington interprets the nuclear deal as proof that Tehran can become a reliable partner to address some of the region’s crises. However, for most of the GCC states and Saudi Arabia in particular, the deal does not remove most of their anxieties regarding Iran.
While Tehran’s efforts to export its revolution were a cause of anxiety for all GCC states, they do not presently share the same level of concern about its foreign policy and the disruptive activities of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) across the region.
Oman under Sultan Qaboos has established close ties with Iran. The UAE and Qatar have strong economic links with the country, but have serious differences with and worries about its regional policies, as do the Saudi and Bahraini governments. Kuwait has recently started to develop closer economic and trade relations with Iran, but shares the concerns of most other GCC members.
The key question then is how the GCC, and Saudi Arabia in particular, should respond to Iranian calls for dialogue. Where and how could the far less bellicose rhetoric of the Rowhani administration, especially when compared to the years of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency, be tested to confirm whether it corresponds to a real willingness to make concessions, reach tangible compromises and reign in the hardliners? How can it be asserted whether the moderates have the definitive upper hand in foreign policy?
The obvious answer would be the tragic conflict in Syria, with its devastating repercussions for the region and beyond. Tehran cannot reasonably call for better relations with its neighbors for the sake of stability and peace, and support a dictator that is directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, as well as millions of refugees and internally displaced people.
Discussing a political transition in Syria without Assad raises a lot of hard questions, but it is an inevitable step if Iran wants to establish the reputation of responsible regional power.

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