Hollande vows 'no concessions' to 'Islamist' Turkey on rights, visas in migrant deal.

Hollande vows 'no concessions' to 'Islamist' Turkey on rights, visas in migrant deal. (Yahoo).

French President Francois Hollande said Saturday that the EU must not grant Turkey any concessions on human rights or visas in exchange for guarantees to stem the flow of migrants to Europe.

"There cannot be any concessions on the matter of human rights or the criteria for visa liberalisation," Hollande told reporters ahead of the resumption next week of tough negotiations between Turkey and the EU in Brussels.

Hollande spoke after meeting in Paris on Saturday with more than a dozen social democrat leaders from the EU, including Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel.

'Moderate' Iranian President Rouhani to visit France.

'Moderate' Iranian President Rouhani to visit France. (Taz).

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has accepted an invitation by Paris to visit the European country, Press TV reported.

French President Francois Hollande will host Rouhani in November, Valls told the French parliament on Tuesday, AFP reported.

Valls also referred to the important role of Iran in the region, saying Tehran can play a positive role “in favor of a political solution” to the deadly conflict in Syria.

Syria has been facing a foreign-backed militancy – including by Takfiri terrorists – since 2011. The Takfiri militants, who currently control areas across Syria as well as northern and western Iraq, have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations, against Iraqi and Syrian communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians.

Meanwhile, reports say that an economic delegation from France is scheduled to visit Iran next week.
Back in July, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius visited Tehran and extended Paris’ invitation to Rouhani.

During his stay in Tehran, Fabius stated that France intends to boost bilateral ties with the Islamic Republic following the conclusion of nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries.

"With the new deal - the lifting of sanctions - France intends, if Iran is willing, to be more present in several areas... political, economic, cultural," he said. Hmmmm...........Amnesty International:
As of 15 July 2015, the Iranian authorities had officially acknowledged 246 executions this year but Amnesty International has received credible reports of a further 448 executions carried out in this time period. In 2014, 289 people were executed according to official sources but credible reports suggested that the real figure was at least 743.

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Syrian Kurds say Obama Admin discussing arms supplies in direct talks.

Syrian Kurds say Obama Admin discussing arms supplies in direct talks. (Rudaw).

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – US officials have been holding direct talks with leaders of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) about arming its fighters in the war against the Islamic State (ISIS).

PYD spokesman Nawaf Xelil told the Arabic Asharq Al-Awsat daily that arms supplies for the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the group’s military wing, were discussed at a meeting in Paris a week ago. He said that talks between the two sides continued in Duhok on Thursday.

“the subject of arming Syrian Kurds was discussed” the newspaper quoted Xelil as saying.

He added that at the Duhok meeting, a US delegation and PYD leaders had discussed Western and Arab support for the YPG.

“They spoke about sending military support to the Kurds in Kobane,” Xelil told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He said the PYD and the US had started their talks two years ago but that Washington had kept the issue under the radar “in order not to upset Turkey.”

US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki confirmed Thursday that US officials had met with the PYD, but did not say where or what was discussed. Read the full story here.

'Champion of Justice' Erdogan demands Hollande explain meeting with dead Kurd.

Yasin al-Qadi -- a Saudi businessman who is on the US Treasury Department's “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” (SDGT) list

'Champion of Justice' Erdogan demands Hollande explain meeting with dead Kurd.(Reuters).

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday demanded French President Francois Hollande explain why he had met one of three Kurdish militants shot dead in Paris this week.

The execution-style killings at an institute in central Paris on Thursday cast a shadow on a new initiative by Erdogan's government to launch a peace process to end a 28-year-old insurgency by the Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) that has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

Hollande told reporters he and other politicians knew one of the three women, who all had ties to the PKK.

"How can you routinely meet with members of an organization labeled a terrorist group by the European Union and being sought by Interpol? What kind of politics is this?" Erdogan said in a speech to a business group broadcast live by CNN Turk.

"The French president should immediately disclose to the public why he met with members of this terrorist organization, what was discussed, to what end he was in communication with these terrorists," Erdogan said, adding that Turkey would pursue unspecified legal measures on the matter.

Among the murdered was Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the PKK well-known to Kurdish nationalists and who was believed to be a key financier in Europe for the group, mainly based in northern Iraq.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Hollande said one of the women "was known to me and to many politicians because she came to meet us regularly."  Read the full story here.

Hmmm.......Of course Erdogan would never meet....in public with known designated terrorists.

Source Below

 https://www.todayszaman.com/_new-evidence-of-erdogans-secret-meeting-with-al-qadi-emerges_355836.html

Presidents Putin, Hollande to Discuss Ukrainian Crackdown Ahead of D-Day.

Presidents Putin, Hollande to Discuss Ukrainian Crackdown Ahead of D-Day. (RN).

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart, Francois Hollande, will discuss Ukraine’s punitive operation in the southeast during their June 5 meeting in Paris.

“The international agenda of the Putin-Hollande meeting will include a substantial debate on the Ukraine crisis, such as the need to stop the Kiev regime’s punitive operation in the country’s southeast, as well as the May 25 presidential election in Ukraine,” the official statement said.

According to the Kremlin, Russia’s cooperation with the European Union and the NATO military bloc will also be on the table during the meeting of Russian and French leaders. They will discuss the situation in Syria in the wake of the recent presidential election and the victory of President Bashar Assad, as well as the turmoil in Libya and Iran’s nuclear program.

Putin’s trip to France ahead of the D-Day commemorations will be first visit of the Russian president to Western Europe since the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict. France invited Putin to take part in the event several months ago and confirmed the invitation despite the disagreements on Ukraine.Read the full story here.

Ex-CIA chief overheard criticising Obama administration in 'off-record' interviews on train.

Ex-CIA chief overheard criticising Obama administration in 'off-record' interviews on train.HT: NDtv.

A former CIA and National Security Agency chief was overheard criticizing President Barack Obama's administration on Thursday in what he thought was an anonymous interview, which instead ended up on Twitter.

Retired general Michael Hayden made the mistake of giving a series of interviews to reporters by phone "on background" while riding a train, in public.

Unbeknownst to Hayden, he was sitting near Tom Matzzie, the former Washington director of the liberal, activist MoveOn.org Political Action Committee who immediately divulged the juiciest bits of the exchanges on Twitter.

The NSA spying scandal, CIA secret prisons abroad and Obama's smartphone were all topics of conversation.

Word of Hayden's comments came just hours after reports that the US government has spied on 35 world leaders.

"Former NSA spy boss Michael Hayden on Acela behind me blabbing 'on background as a former senior admin official' Sounds defensive," Matzzie tweeted at 4:20 pm, more than an hour after the express train had left Washington, headed towards New York.

"On Acela listening to former NSA spy boss Michael Hayden give 'off record' interviews. I feel like I'm in the NSA. Except I'm in public."

Hayden was being interviewed by several reporters, likely including Time magazine's Massimo Calabresi according to Matzzie, and asked each time that he only be interviewed as a "former senior administration official."

The former spy chief spoke with the journalists about allegations the US spied on foreign allies, a "famous Blackberry" (Obama's) and was "bragging about rendition and black sites," said Matzzie, who once led US activist campaigns to end the war in Iraq.

An increasingly nervous Matzzie worried he would be found out by Hayden.

"Phone ringing. I think the jig is up. Maybe somebody is telling him I'm here. Do I hide?" he asked some 15 minutes after he started tweeting about Hayden's conversations. "New call. I am totally busted I think."

Although Hayden's office did apparently call him to inform him of the tweets, the former spy chief "graciously" offered Matzzie an interview.

Matzzie, who now runs a renewable energy company, later tweeted: "I have to say. I'm actually a little afraid. The intelligence world is kind of dark and scary."Read the full story here.

Abbas Invites French Pres Hollande to Visit Palestinian Territories.

Abbas Invites French Pres Hollande to Visit Palestinian Territories.(RN).Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has invited French President-elect Francois Hollande to visit Palestinian territories, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. Abbas congratulated Hollande on winning Sunday’s second round of presidential elections in France. The French president-elect, to take office on May 15, said he was ready to meet with the Palestinian leader. In a telephone conversation, Abbas wished Hollande success for his country’s progress, prosperity and greater role on the regional and international arena. Hollande, an opposition leader of the French Socialist Party, was elected France’s new president in Sunday’s runoff. He was supported by 51.62 percent of the voters, while incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy got 48.38 percent in the May 6 vote. Hollande will be France's first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand who served two seven-year terms in 1981-1995.
A study carried out by the polling organisation OpinionWay on the day of the second round of the election reveals massive Muslim support for the Socialist party. It testifies to a rejection of Sarkozyism but not all the values of the right, especially on social questions such as homosexuality. The Muslims demanded change, and they got it. According to a study of the electorate carried out by OpinionWay and Fiducial on May 6 for Le Figaro based on 10,000 voters, 93% of the believers slipped a "François Hollande" ballot into their envelope. Only 7% of them voted for Nicholas Sarkozy.Given the closeness of the election and the number of Muslims in France (generally estimated at 3-6 million), we can now say definitively that the Muslim vote altered the outcome of this election.Hmmm.....No wonder Obama wanted to see him quickly.Read the full story here.