Citaat:

Nog: Trump may have pushed Saudi Arabia and Iran closer to war -Saudi Arabia's moves over the past few days are bringing it closer to direct war with Iran. -But this process seems to have been kick started by the new Saudi crown prince's meeting with President Trump in March. -It's crucial to keep this conflict contained to the Middle East. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/07/trum...ommentary.html The warning followed several events that have led to growing fear of a war in Lebanon — intended or not — that could engulf the region. Some U.S. and foreign officials worry that strong support for Saudi Arabia by President Trump and presidential son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner may have helped motivate Riyadh to overplay its hand. The United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel share concern about expanding Iranian influence in the region. Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanon-based proxy, now controls significant territory in Syria, near its border with Israel, and in Lebanon. While some Israeli officials have voiced support for moving to constrain Hezbollah, others have urged caution. Saudi allies such as Egypt have strongly opposed military action against Iran or Hezbollah. “We have to deal with great care so as not to add to the challenges and troubles of the region,” Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi told reporters this week. “I am against war.” Vers van de pers (2u geleden): National Security U.S. warns Saudis, Iran of threats to stability in Lebanon https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...512_story.html

A political shock throws Lebanon’s economy back into crisis

-Prime Minister Saad Hariri's shock resignation could unravel the first steps in years toward injecting some cash and confidence in Lebanon's anemic economy
-The crisis is putting at risk multi-billion-dollar plans to rebuild decaying road and electrical and communication networks and get the oil and gas sector moving

Published 1 Hour Ago (AP)

A political shock throws Lebanon’s economy back into crisis

-Prime Minister Saad Hariri's shock resignation could unravel the first steps in years toward injecting some cash and confidence in Lebanon's anemic economy
-The crisis is putting at risk multi-billion-dollar plans to rebuild decaying road and electrical and communication networks and get the oil and gas sector moving

Published 1 Hour Ago (AP)

De leider van de militante sjiitische Hezbollah-beweging, Hassan Nasrallah, zegt dat Hariri tegen zijn zin wordt vastgehouden in Saudi-Arabië. Het land zou de premier hebben gedwongen af te treden.

Verschillende Westerse landen hebben de regio opgeroepen de rust te bewaren in deze situatie. Golfstaten als Bahrein, Koeweit en ook Saudi-Arabië hebben hun burgers opgeroepen Libanon te verlaten. De Saudische regering waarschuwde eerder deze maand dat Libanon als een vijandelijke staat wordt gezien zolang als Hezbollah in de regering zit.
NOS

In 1932 vormden christenen in Libanon met 53% nog de meerderheid van de bevolking,
maar grootschalige emigratie van Libanese christenen naar de Verenigde Staten, Brazilië en Europa
sinds 1880 tot na 1990 deden het evenwicht verschuiven. BRON

<sub>Iran has rejected French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to amend the landmark 2015 nuclear deal to cover the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile capabilities.

“We have repeatedly told French officials that the JCPOA (the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) is not negotiable and other issues will not be included in it,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Saturday.

“France is … completely aware of our country’s stance that Iran’s defensive affairs are not negotiable,” he added.

During his visit to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, Macron suggested amending the JCPOA.

Later in the day, Macron made a surprise visit to Saudi Arabia, where he said he was “very concerned” about Iran’s ballistic missile program, adding, “There are negotiations we need to start on Iran’s ballistic missiles.”

In an interview with the Time magazine, published on Thursday, Macron also said, “We should negotiate a new series of criteria and a new treaty with Iran to stop their ballistic activities in the region.”</sub>

Netanyahu: Israel will act in Syria 'in accordance with our security needs'

>Syria declares victory over Islamic State
>Report: Iranians built new military base in Syria

By Anna Ahronheim
November 13, 2017 16:51
A ceasefire agreement allowing Iranian troops 5km from Israel's border is "a real danger to Israel's stability," said former Defense Minister Amir Peretz.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Net...y-needs-514130

...

Israel will continue to carry out strikes in Syria despite a United States-Russia ceasefire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday after reports that the deal would allow Iranian troops to remain 5 kilometers from Israel’s border.

Speaking during the weekly Likud partry faction meeting, Netanyahu described Israel’s security policy as “the right combination of firmness and responsibility” and said he has told Moscow and Washington that Israel will continue carrying out strikes in Syria despite the ceasefire agreement “in accordance with our understanding and in accordance with our security needs.”

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Netanyahu has publicly criticized the US-Russian ceasefire deal in Syria, saying that it does not include any provisions to stop Iranian expansion near Israel's northern border. In recent months Israel has held talks with Moscow, Washington and Amman in an attempt to ensure that any agreement will define the buffer zone at least 40 kilometers from the border with the Jewish State.

...

Analysis Despite Israeli Demands, Syria Cease-fire Deal Allows Iranian Forces Near Northern Border

Israeli defense figures are troubled by the fact that Russia and the U.S. seem unwilling to take genuine measures to kick Iran out of southern Syria
read more: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.822442


Israel made no official response on Sunday to the trilateral agreement between Russia, America and Jordan on a cease-fire in southern Syria.

Early this morning, Israeli Channel 10 news published a leaked diplomatic cable which had been sent to all Israeli ambassadors throughout the world concerning the chaotic events that unfolded over the weekend in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, which began with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri's unexpected resignation after he was summoned to Riyadh by his Saudi-backers, and led to the Saudis announcing that Lebanon had "declared war" against the kingdom.

The classified embassy cable, written in Hebrew, constitutes the first formal evidence proving that the Saudis and Israelis are deliberately coordinating to escalate the situation in the Middle East.

The explosive classified Israeli cable reveals the following:

1. On Sunday, just after Lebanese PM Hariri's shocking resignation, Israel sent a cable to all of its embassies with the request that its diplomats do everything possible to ramp up diplomatic pressure against Hezbollah and Iran.
2. The cable urged support for Saudi Arabia's war against Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
3. The cable stressed that Iran was engaged in "regional subversion".
4. Israeli diplomats were urged to appeal to the "highest officials" within their host countries to attempt to expel Hezbollah from Lebanese government and politics.

<sub>Below is a rough translation of the classified Israeli embassy cable using Google Translate as released by Israel's Channel 10 News:

"To the Director-General: you are requested to urgently contact the Foreign Ministry and other relevant government officials [of your host country] and emphasize that the resignation of Al-Hariri and his comments on the reasons that led him to resign illustrate once again the destructive nature of Iran and Hezbollah and their danger to the stability of Lebanon and the countries of the region.



Al-Hariri's resignation proves that the international argument that Hezbollah's inclusion in the government is a recipe for stability is basically wrong. This artificial unity creates paralysis and the inability of local sovereign powers to make decisions that serve their national interest. It effectively turns them into hostages under physical threat and are forced to promote the interests of a foreign power - Iran - even if this may endanger the security of their country.



The events in Lebanon and the launching of a ballistic missile by the signatories to the Riyadh agreement require increased pressure on Iran and Hezbollah on a range of issues from the production of ballistic missiles to regional subversion."</sub>

_{Israel Channel 2 News reported Sunday night that army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Eisenkot secretly flew to Brussels on Thursday to meet with Gen. Curtiss Scaparrotti, head of the U.S. army’s European Command. The meeting dealt mainly with Iranian moves in the Middle East, and especially Syria.
read more: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.822442}


Iran is building a permanent military base in Syria, the BBC reported on Friday, citing "a Western intelligence source."

According to the report, the base is being built within a compound used by the Syrian military near the city of Al-Kiswa, located some 13 kilometers south of the war-torn country's capital, Damascus.
read more: https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/1.822134

<sub>[Riyadh’s need to threaten and punish Arab states that dare to deviate from its anti-Iranian line, or even to question the wisdom of its policies, attests, at the very least, to the extent of the disagreement between Saudi Arabia and some other Arab countries. These countries aren’t happy about either Saudi Arabia or Iran trying to dominate the Middle East and force other Middle East states that are not regional powers to accept dictates that impinge their freedom of action.

These countries would apparently prefer to be in the same situation as Pakistan and Turkey, which have close ties with both Tehran and Riyadh and can maneuver between them based on their own national interests. But as a result of these countries’ dependence on Saudi Arabia, it seems the real threat, in their view, isn’t Iran, but the Saudi sanctions they can expect if they disobey Riyadh.

Thus the “Sunni axis” is really a “Saudi axis.” This isn’t a group of Sunni countries driven by religious hatred of a Shi’ite country; rather, the common denominator that unites its members is their dependence on Riyadh or their desire to be its economic ally. Moreover, the claim that there’s a risk of Shi’ite Islam spreading in Sunni states portrays Sunni countries as being weak and on the defensive – as if the sweeping Sunni majority, comprising some 90 percent of all Muslims, were actually afraid of the power of the Shi’ites, who comprise only about 10 percent of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims.

But statistics can’t alleviate a sense of threat, especially not when they must face off against Iran’s consolidation in Syria, its enormous influence in Iraq and its support for the Houthis in Yemen. Iran has become a self-evident threat that needs no further proof, to the point that any attempt to examine the truth of this threat is heretical.

Nevertheless, at least with regard to Israel, it’s worth asking what exactly Israel is afraid of. Iranian forces near its border in the Golan Heights? The ballistic missiles stationed in Iran? The Shi’ite militias? Iran’s nuclear program? And above all, it’s worth asking whether Iran really has an interest in creating another theater of conflict between itself and Israel in Syria.

The Israeli answer, as usual, is “happy is the man who is always afraid” – of everything.</sub>

The BBC has uncovered details of a secret deal that let hundreds of IS fighters and their families escape from Raqqa, under the gaze of the US and British-led coalition and Kurdish-led forces who control the city.

A convoy included some of IS’s most notorious members and – despite reassurances – dozens of foreign fighters. Some of those have spread out across Syria, even making it as far as Turkey.