Iran & Russia map out rival route to Suez Canal.

Iran & Russia map out rival route to Suez Canal. (IFP news).

A major project to foster trade connectivity through a less trodden path straddling a promising market is about to feature prominently in discussions when presidents of Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan meet in Baku on Monday.

The International North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC), a multi-model route to link India and the Middle East to the Caucasus, Central Asia and Europe, is being nurtured for significantly reducing costs and travel time and boosting trade.

“Our talks will focus on a flagship project – the International North–South Transport Corridor with a total length of 7,200 kilometers,” Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying on Friday.
“It aims to provide the best possible opportunities for transporting transit cargo from India, Iran, and the Persian Gulf states to Azerbaijan, the Russian Federation and further to northern and western Europe,” he said.

The NSTC concept was formalized by India, Iran and Russia in 2000 but it has not taken off in a big way yet. Western trade sanctions on Russia and Iran in recent years have provided a new impetus to put steam on the project.


Both Iran and Russia as well as Azerbaijan are seriously dependent on oil revenues which have sharply fallen due to the price collapse. The new transit route offers them a unique alternative to diversify their economy.

It also helps them as well as India and other regional countries reduce their dependence on traditional markets in the West where there is currently not much demand.

The corridor, instead, offers access to growing untapped markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The ship, road and rail route connects India’s Mumbai to the Iranian port of Bander Abbas and further to Baku in Azerbaijan as well as Astrakhan, Moscow and St Petersburg in Russia before stretching to northern Europe and Scandinavia.

Besides Iran, India and Russia, countries that are on board to integrate into the transit network include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Turkey, Tajikistan, Oman, Syria and Bulgaria.

“We believe that this cooperation serves the interests of the peoples of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia and, of course, the interests of the entire region,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said.

According to Zarif, the countries were discussing the “final details” of the project.


Dry runs of the route were conducted in 2014, from Mumbai to Baku and Astrakhan via Bandar Abbas. Results showed transport costs had been reduced by $2,500 per 15 tonnes of cargo. Hmmm.....They have some great fiction writer at PressTv. . Read the full story here.

Turkish PM urges UN sec-gen Ban to come up with Cyprus plan....Why not end illegal occupation?

Turkish PM urges UN sec-gen Ban to come up with Cyprus plan....Why not end illegal occupation? (CM).

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has urged the United Nations Secretary-General to come up with a plan to solve the Cyprus problem before his term ends in 2016.

Speaking after a meeting with Ban Ki-moon in New York on Thursday, Davutoglu said he had reminded the UNSG that the Turkish side had supported the Annan plan in 2004, which was rejected by the Greek Cypriot side.

“In 2004 we supported the Annan plan and I suggested to Mr Ban Ki-moon that we need now a Ban Ki-moon plan before the end of his term to end this long-standing crisis,” he said.

The UNSG’s term ends on December 31, 2016. Hmmm......'Neo Ottoman conquerors' ...a.k.a. 'Bullies'. Cyprus best chances are with Russia, since the US and EU won't do anything to prevent Cheap gas flowing through Turkey to Europe.  Read the full story here.

Russia and Egypt to hold joint military exercises in the Mediterranean Sea.

Russia and Egypt to hold joint military exercises in the Mediterranean Sea. (RN). [GoogleTranslate].

Russia and Egypt on Tuesday agreed to strengthen military ties, in particular to carry out in 2015 a joint naval exercise in the Mediterranean Sea and the anti-terrorist exercises "on the ground".

To the agreement came to the defense ministers of Russia and Egypt, Army General Sergei Shoigu and Colonel-General Saeed Ahmed Sobhi Sedky, told the representative of the Russian Defense Ministry.

"The parties agreed to continue the practice of participation of Egyptian troops as observers to the exercises conducted in the Russian Federation, as well as to hold this year the teaching of naval forces in the Mediterranean Sea and anti-terrorism doctrine rapid reaction force", - said the representative of the Ministry of Defense.

In addition, Shoigu proposed colleague to send the Egyptian military in Russia to participate in international military games and international military-technical forum "Army 2015". 

The reaction of the Egyptian Minister for the proposal is not reported.

According FSMTC Russia in September 2014, the Russian Federation and Egypt initialed arms contracts worth $ 3.5 billion. According to the general director of "Rostec" Chemezov, these contracts involve the supply of small arms, artillery and air defense systems. It was also reported Egypt  is interested in buying Party MiG-35.

Of the impending deal to buy Egypt various types of weapons from Russia first began after the failure of the US military aid to Cairo in connection with the overthrow of the military-Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in the summer of 2013. 

Cypriot Pres: "Cyprus and Russia will continue to cooperate without paying any heed to international reaction."

Cypriot Pres: "Cyprus and Russia will continue to cooperate without paying any heed to international reaction." (CM).

PRESIDENT Nicos Anastasiades on Friday said Cyprus and Russia would continue to cooperate without paying any heed to international reaction to the agreements struck with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

One of the agreements, formalising the use of Cypriot ports by Russian navy ships for anti-terrorism and humanitarian reasons, has caused particular consternation abroad, especially in Britain, which maintains two military bases on the island.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) had strong words for Cyprus on Friday, according to a report from the Cyprus News Agency. It cited FCO sources in London as saying that although the agreement was a matter for Cyprus, when set in the context of the West’s stance on Russia over Ukraine, the move was a cause for concern.

The FCO source said London believed the European Union position on Russia’s actions in Ukraine were clear. “We acknowledge the unity which Cyprus has demonstrated with the EU on this,” said the official.

“In light of the current problems it is not the time to extend a hand of friendship to Russia until it shows willingness to fulfill the Minsk agreement,” he added, referring to the agreement signed in the Belarus capital aimed at a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.

But Anastasiades, who has felt let down by the West’s failure to come out strongly enough against Turkey’s violation of the island’s exclusive economic zone, on Thursday said “many of the friends” showing intense concern for other countries, had remained silent on Turkey’s violations, adopting a policy of double standards.

He said although he recognised the concerns of some countries over his Russia visit, Putin had not asked “for the slightest thing that would put us in a difficult position with our partners, or our partners across the Atlantic”.

“We [Russia and Cyprus] will cooperate without paying attention to who is reacting or who may have concerns”. Anastasiades is due back in Cyprus today Saturday. Hmmmm.....He's right By Allowing Turkey to terrorize everyone they pushed Cyprus in Putin's arms, the EU their quest for Cheap Iranian Gas flowing through Turkey will surely create more problems in the future. Read the full story here.


Related: Russia is reportedly getting military bases in EU member........CYPRUS?

Russia does not need bases on Cyprus - Military expert, or Can't Afford them?

Russia does not need bases on Cyprus - Military expert, or Can't Afford them? (RBTH).

Russia does not need military bases on Cyprus, especially considering the current economic climate, former chief of the international agreements division of the Russian Defense Ministry\'s main international cooperation department Lt. Gen. Yevgeny Buzhinsky said.

"Sure, we do not need them [the bases], especially given the present-day economic conditions," Buzhinsky, PIR Center Board Chairman, told Interfax-AVN on Monday.

He was commenting on a statement by Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiadis who said Cyprus was prepared to consider the deployment of Russian air and naval bases on the island.

In the opinion of Buzhinsky, "Cyprus must need something, it wants money and is ready to do anything. It is especially amusing that they are offering [Russia] to open its base near Akrotiri, the location of a British military base."

Being a member of the European Union, Cyprus is part of the sphere of influence of the Europeans and the Americans, primarily, the Brits, he said.

"So, all this talk about Russian bases on Cyprus reminds me of Cyprus' "procurement" of S-300 missile systems. It even paid the bill, but the S-300 systems were finally deployed in Greece because no one would let Cyprus to deploy Russian-made air defense systems," Buzhinsky said.

Speaking of Greek media reports regarding the Russian government's request for leasing an air base on Cyprus, a military diplomat told Interfax-AVN in Moscow earlier that the Russian army did not have an operative need to deploy an airbase in the Mediterranean but it could temporarily use the Cypriot territory, for instance, for possible evacuation of Russian citizens from conflict-ridden Syria.

"The Russian army has no operative need to station an airbase on Cyprus, because the Russian Defense Ministry does not posses a regional group which will require support from such base," the source said.

"Most probably, it could be the question of temporary use, with the consent of the Cypriot side, of some airfield for possible evacuation of Russian citizens in the case of escalated tensions in Syria," he continued.

"The situation around that country [Syria] has changed, and Russia has contributed to that by its efforts," the source said.

At present, Russian airbases are deployed outside the national territory wherever Russia has army forces, i.e. in Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Tajikistan, he said.

Western media, which commented on the statement by Anastasiadis, said that a formal agreement on military cooperation between Russia and Cyprus might be signed on February 25, 2015.

"CHANGE" - Moscow & Cairo to drop USD, use national currencies in bilateral trade – Putin.

"CHANGE" - Moscow and Cairo to drop USD, use national currencies in bilateral trade – Putin. (RT).

Russia and Egypt might soon exclude the US dollar and use their national currencies in the settlement of accounts in bilateral trade, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview to Egyptian media ahead of his Monday visit to the country.

The issue of abandoning the dollar in trade is “being actively discussed,” Putin told Al-Ahram daily newspaper ahead of his two-day trip to Egypt. The Russian president was invited for a bilateral meeting by his Egyptian counterpart Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.

“This measure will open up new prospects for trade and investment cooperation between our countries, reduce its dependence on the current trends in the world markets,” Putin said.

“I should note that we already use national currencies for trade with a number of the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] states, and China. This practice proves its worth; we are ready to adopt it in our relations with Egypt as well. This issue is being discussed in substance by relevant agencies of both countries.”

Egypt is a long-time and trusted partner of Russia and the relationship between the two countries has been rapidly developing, the Russian president said.

During Sisi’s last visit to Russia in August 2014, the two leaders agreed to look at a possibility of creating a free trade zone between Egypt and the countries of the Customs Union. Meeting in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, the presidents also agreed upon the creation of a Russian industrial zone in Egypt, which will be part of a new Suez Canal project. Hmmmmm.......And Cyprus will sell GAS To Egypt. Read the full story here.


RELATED: Russia is reportedly getting military bases in EU member........CYPRUS?

Egypt's Pres Al-Sisi kicks off new Suez Canal project, lays down tight completion deadline.

Egypt's Pres Al-Sisi kicks off new Suez Canal project, lays down tight completion deadline.(ED).


President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi announced Tuesday a new Suez Canal project to dig a 72-kilometre canal alongside the original, to be implemented over a year at a cost of EGP 29bn ($4bn).

The announcement was made during the inauguration ceremony of the Suez Canal Axis Development Project on Tuesday in Ismailia. The Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority Mohab Memish provided a detailed presentation on the projects that come under the national project.

Al-Sisi called on the army’s engineering corps, who will directly supervise the project, to conclude the project in one year instead of the previously scheduled 3–year timeline. Al-Sisi attributed the shortened time period to the “the deteriorating security” which could threaten the project.

The president called on all Egyptians to participate in funding the project through a stock market IPO (Initial Public Offering), asking Egyptians resident in the country to contribute EGP 100, and those living abroad to donate $100.

The president said the government had refused any foreign participation in the project, stressing that only national banks, companies and investors would be able to finance it.

Memish said that the new canal will be established to increase the absorptive capacity of the Suez Canal to 97 passing ships per day, up from the current rate of 49. The project would involve 35kms of dry digging and 37kms of “expansion and deep” digging.

Upon completion, the project would see canal revenues increase by 259%, Memish added, up from current annual revenues of $5bn.

The new canal, which would ensure that shipping traffic would not stop, will be carried out with the participation of the armed forces along with 17 companies.

The Suez Canal Axis Development Project was adopted by the current government after being proposed during the rule of former president Mohamed Morsi. It had been rejected by the armed forces at that time for “national security” concerns.

The current plan for the project was amended by the armed forces.Read the full story here.

Related:  UAE replaces Qatar as Egypt's partner on Suez project

Turkish PM Erdoğan must consult Parliament on Syria.

Turkish PM Erdoğan must consult Parliament on Syria.(HD).

The ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) subjective understanding of democracy is revealing itself once again over Syria. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan argues that there is no parliamentary authorization required for Turkey to participate in a U.S.-led operation against Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.
They point at the authorization obtained a year ago, after the fighting in Syria started spilling over into Turkey and killing Turkish citizens, and which is valid until Oct. 4. Constitutionally, the government has to get parliamentary authority to send Turkish troops abroad or allow foreign troops into Turkey.

Last year’s authorization allows the government to send forces into Syria if and when it deems this necessary. The opposition argues with some justification that it does not cover the kind of operation that is being considered against Syria, and is therefore demanding the matter be brought to Parliament.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said this is possible should the need arise. But it is clear his government does not want to face the kind of situation it faced in March 2003 when Parliament refused – with support from AKP deputies – to permit the U.S. to use Turkish territory to invade Iraq.
What makes matters more difficult for Erdoğan, however, is that he has the example of U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama, who decided to consult their legislatures before embarking on the Syrian operation, even if they did not have to in absolute terms.

Even if Erdoğan were correct in saying his government does not require additional authorization to participate in a U.S.-led operation against Syria, respect for democracy demands that he seek this. The need is amplified by the fact that participation in this operation is no less controversial in Turkey, than it is in Britain of the U.S.

It is obvious from his statements that Erdoğan believe the 50 percent of the vote he received in the June 2011 elections gives him the mandate to push ahead with his government’s desire to topple the al-Assad regime. His government, however, is already under attack for announcing that Turkey will participate in any “coalition of the willing” before having consulted Parliament in anyway.

Erdoğan’s understanding of democracy as a majoritarian system of government, and not a pluralist one, is manifest once again in all this. In trying to convince the public that Israel was behind the coup in Egypt, he recently pointed to a remark by French Jewish philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Lévy uttered during a panel discussion at Tel Aviv University in June 2011.

Asked to comment on the possibility that the Muslim Brotherhood may win the Egyptian elections and whether the military should intervene in that case, Levy said “If the Muslim Brotherhood arrives in Egypt, I will not say democracy wants it, so let democracy progress. Of course not. Democracy, again, is not only elections, it is also values.”

Latching onto Lévy’s remark that “Democracy is not only elections” and totally disregarding his qualifier that “it is also values” Erdoğan has used these words as proof that Israel is behind the Egyptian coup. For those who are interested, the Huffington Post carried Lévy’s long rebuttal on Aug. 26.

The point, however, is that Lévy is correct in arguing that democracy is not only about elections. It is not a “zero-sum game” devoid of values. Advanced democracy requires that if you are about to embark on a highly controversial military adventure, which could have dire consequences for the country, you have to consult the elected representatives of the people, even if you need not do so in strict terms.

It is necessary to keep reminding Erdoğan and members of his government that Turkey’s system of government is based on pluralistic democracy, and not on a skewed “winner-takes-all” understanding of democracy.

  Hmmm.....Such a nuisance Congress, Parliaments ....who needs democracy these days.

Obama likes Erdoğan, because......?

Obama likes Erdoğan, because......?(HD).by MURAT YETKİN.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan flew to St. Petersburg yesterday in order to join the G-20 Summit to be held today and tomorrow, during which sustainable growth issues are expected to be discussed in the context of employment, transparency and new regulations.

Erdoğan’s priority and expectations from the G-20 Summit are not those. At first Erdoğan asked the Foreign Ministry and his close aides to set up a series of face-to-face meetings with leaders of countries, especially those with seats on the U.N. Security Council, in the hopes of motivating them to take a stand against the July 3 coup in Egypt which toppled President Mohamed Morsi. 

But in the meantime, there was the terrible chemical attack in Syria on Aug. 21 which changed (or rather added to) the priorities of Erdoğan; he underlined before he left that Syria was at the top of Ankara’s list amid Erdoğan’s talks. He will not be able to spend much time for the summit itself anyway as he will have a long flight to Argentina in order to join a meeting on Sept. 7 for the Olympic Games bid of Istanbul for 2020.

Erdoğan wants to have an exclusive meeting in St. Petersburg, particularly with U.S. President Barack Obama, along with the host, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Obama is going to make a short visit himself to St. Petersburg because of his row with Putin over Edward Snowden and the NSA intelligence leaks. Obama has planned only two face-to-face meetings there; one with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping and French leader François Hollande.
Nevertheless, Erdoğan said yesterday that he hoped even a short meeting could be arranged. Disappointed by Obama’s choice to ask for Congress approval for a possible military move in Syria, Erdoğan wants to urge Obama personally to be more active there, plus stop supporting Adly Mansour and his interim government in Egypt in an effort to see Morsi returned to power.

Egypt is an important country for the U.S., like Turkey. Leaving aside its huge presence in the Arab political geography and its important peace agreement with Israel, Egypt also holds a very strategic position; the Suez Channel alone is enough to symbolize that. U.S. has the Naples-based 6th Fleet and the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet in the region and uses the canal round the clock for military purposes. Egypt is one of few countries in the world that has such a location and importance in terms of providing the U.S. military assets, like the landing of strategic planes and the use of air space at short notice.

Actually that is partly an answer to why Obama likes Erdoğan and supports him sometimes personally within the U.S. administration when Erdoğan is under attack because of his increasingly problematic relations with neighboring countries and the violation of civil rights in the country.

It is true that Turkey has differences with Egypt; it is a multi-party democracy with a market economy, NATO membership and candidacy for EU membership. But Turkey’s location is critical for regional and global U.S. military positioning. Turkey’s İncirlik, which is open to U.S. and NATO use, is one of four main operating bases for the U.S. Air Force. The Bosphorus and the Dardanelles connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean have been and are major strategic points regarding Turkish and Western relations with Russians. And recently Erdoğan gave approval to the early-warning missile defense systems to be based in Turkey despite discomfort raised by Russia and Iran. Obama likes Erdoğan mainly because U.S. military needs are meet by Turkey under his rule, as they are met by Egypt under Mansour, or formerly Morsi.

It is not that complicated actually. Will that help in backing Erdoğan’s positions in Egypt and Syria? Not likely, and that is what Erdoğan finds difficult to understand, as he said yesterday once again.

Suez Canal Authority says 'terrorist' attack attempted on container ship.

Suez Canal Authority says 'terrorist' attack attempted on container ship.HT:Reuters

A “terrorist” staged an unsuccessful attack on a container ship passing through the Suez Canal on Saturday, in an attempt to disrupt the flow of ships through the waterway, the head of the Suez Canal Authority Mohab Memish said.

The Suez Canal is a key global shipping line which is secured by the armed forces.

“One of the terrorist elements has carried out a failed attempt to affect the movement of ships in the Suez Canal by targeting one of the passing ships, Cosco Asia,” Memish said in a statement about the Panama-flagged ship.

“The attempt failed completely and there was no damage to the ship or the containers it carried. The situation was dealt with strictly by the armed forces,” he said, adding that the traffic of ships is moving normally.

The statement did not specify what kind of attack it was but shipping sources told Reuters they heard the sound of two explosions as the ship passed through the waterway.

The US warship San Antonio passed through the waterway on Thursday to join other ships in the Mediterranean that could be used in any strike against Syria after a suspected chemical weapons attack.
The armed forces have issued an order to strengthen their security measures along the Suez waterway, Memish said.Read the full story here.

Unconfirmed report: "No warship has the right to pass through the Suez Canal to attack Syria" (Egyptian Minister of Defence).

Unconfirmed report: "No warship has the right to pass through the Suez Canal to attack Syria" (Egyptian Minister of Defence).(GoogleTranslate)irib.ir.

IRIB-"No American war ship or British or else is allowed to pass through the Suez Canal ship," ordered the Egyptian Minister of Defense.

According Farsnews, citing Reuters, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi insisted that no authorization is given to warships that would hear attack Syria. The decision was taken as part of the Egyptian government to respect the joint defense agreement signed between Egypt and Syria, announced Reuters, making it difficult for the United States and Great Britain an attack against Syria, according to the same agency.

Global oil prices rise on Egypt concerns.

Global oil prices rise on Egypt concerns.(AA).

International petrol prices climbed higher on Tuesday amid continued concerns that Egypt's ongoing political crisis could disrupt flow of oil from region.Oil prices Tuesday climbed higher on continued concerns that the political crisis in Egypt could disrupt the flow of petroleum from the Middle East.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for August delivery hit its highest level since May 2012, jumping $1.61 to $99.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent oil futures rose $1 to $104.00 a barrel for August delivery.

Markets are cautiously watching Egypt amid the popular mobilization against President Mohammed Morsi after he snubbed an ultimatum from the army to agree to the "people's demands" or face an imposed solution.

Clashes broke out Wednesday between allies and opponents of the embattled president. Several top Morsi administration officials have resigned in recent days.

The crisis has revived concerns about key oil chokepoints that could be disrupted, said Andy Lebow, senior vice president of energy derivatives at Jefferies Bache. These include the Suez Canal and the Sumed Pipeline, which runs through Egypt and has the capacity to ship some 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, or about 2.7 percent of daily global consumption.

In addition, there is also the risk the strife in Egypt could spread to other countries, Lebow said.
"The market is concerned that perhaps as the situation unravels, that will just destabilize an already unstable region," Lebow said.

"A lot of issues with the Middle East are keeping pressure on the market," said Carl Larry, analyst at Oil Outlooks and Opinions.

Upbeat US economic data has meanwhile boosted hopes for stronger energy demand in the world's top crude consumer, analysts said.

The Institute for Supply Management on Monday said its purchasing managers index of US manufacturing activity rose to 50.9 in June, up from May's 49. Of the 18 manufacturing industries surveyed, 12 reported growth.

Meanwhile, new orders for manufactured goods rose 2.1 percent in May, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That was above expectations for a rise of 2.0 percent.

Russian Pacific Fleet Naval Force to Enter Mediterranean Sea in Mid-May.

Admiral Panteleyev

Russian Pacific Fleet Naval Force to Enter Mediterranean Sea in Mid-May.(Fars).The naval force of the Russian Pacific Fleet will enter the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal in May and may probably call at the Syrian port Tartus, a spokesman said. The naval force of the Russian Pacific Fleet consists of the big anti-submarine ship Admiral Panteleyev, big landing ships Peresvet and Admiral Nevelskoy and rounded off a routine visit in the Iranian port Bandar Abbas on April 24, spokesman for the Russian Pacific Fleet Captain First Rank Roman Martov said.

"On April 24 upon the end of the visit to the port Bandar Abbas these three warships will set out in the Indian Ocean, they will meet with auxiliary ships from the Pacific Fleet naval force, namely the tanker Pechenga and the sea-going rescue ship Fotiy Krylov in the designated area. In this designated area the warships will stay for some time to undergo the technical maintenance and a minor repairs with the diving works, and if it is needed, for the struggle against the pirates. Then, according the action plan, the Pacific Fleet naval force will enter the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal in the middle of May. The Pacific Fleet task force will be acting within the Russian inter-fleet naval force at least for 1-2 months," Martov told Itar-Tass.

He admitted a possible call of the Pacific Fleet warships in the Syrian port Tartus, where the Russian naval logistic base is deployed. "If it is needed and if such task is set, our warships will certainly fulfill it and will call at Tartus," the spokesman said.

The Pacific Fleet warships set out from Vladivostok on March 19 for a combat duty mission in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. During the voyage the Russian naval task force was temporarily divided in two parts - the big anti-submarine ship Admiral Panteleyev, the big landing ships Peresvet and Admiral Nevelskoy that have been on a visit in the Iranian city Bandar Abbas since April 22, the tanker Pechenga and Fotiy Krylov called at the port Salalah in the Sultanate of Oman to replenish the stocks of fresh water, fuel and food on April 18. The ships are to meet on April 24. Read the full story here.

"Vorsprung durch technik" - Both the funniest and most red flag story of the day.

US Navy - Suez Canal.

"Vorsprung durch technik" - Both the funniest and most red flag story of the day.HT: InfidelBloggers.By Epaminondas.More than several times I have written that in international strategic alliances things need not always remain as they are.

We have the 1939 alliance between the USSR and Germany (which made secure the outbreak of WW2)
Iran in 1953 and 1979.
Egypt in 1973 and 2011-2012.
Tunisia, Libya and now Syria.
We should all remember also that in 1948 the USSR was one of the staunchest supporters for the partition of Palestine and the birth of Israel, an issue the US Sec State resigned from government over (George Marshall). And we should remember that until 1967 the USA enforced an arms embargo where Israel was concerned behind the flag of the entire middle east (the rest of which was being armed the USSR).
I have warned here than prior to very recent events Israel and China got along very, very well, and that Russia was very interested in acquiring not only Israeli avionics, but in Israeli reconnaissance and weapons carrying drones, AND in selling combat aircraft (many of which the Chinese have now cloned for their own manufacture).
That makes this event a very neat piece of ju jitsu.
EAST ASIA INTEL:

China backing Israel’s strategic rail-port route as alternative to the Suez Canal.

TEL AVIV — Israel is drafting a project meant to challenge Egypt’s Suez Canal which would be financed in part by China. Industry sources said the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was supporting a plan to make Israel into a strategic passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.
The sources said the plan envisioned long-term instability in Egypt, which could threaten ships in the Suez Canal.
“Shipping companies are nervous because most of the violence now taking place in Egypt is near the canal,” a source said. “It would take one major attack to shatter confidence in Egypt’s ability to protect the canal.”
Under the plan, Israel would expand its port facilities along the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts. The two seas would be linked by a modern railroad that could transport cargo within hours. The passage through the Suez Canal takes up to 15 hours. The sources said China has been supporting the Israeli plan. They said Beijing planned to finance the construction of a second port near the Israeli city of Eilat as well as a railway to the Mediterranean port of Ashdod.
India was also said to have favored the plan, estimated to cost up to $5 billion. The sources said construction of the port and railroad could begin in 2013.
“For Egypt, the Suez Canal is an essential artery for economic survival,” Eran Feitelson, an Israeli analyst, said.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced in a cabinet meeting in January that a pipeline is being created to transport goods between Asia and Europe.
He said that the line "has attracted wide attention among developing countries such as China, India and others," he added that the new line will be "a crossroad between continents and is therefore strategically important on the national and international levels."
Meanwhile, an Israeli official told Reuters, "The new line is a protective guarantee for fear that the Suez Canal is burdened by the increasing movement of maritime trade," rejecting that the plan came in response to the political unrest in Egypt and the rise of Islamist parties.Read the full story here.

Egypt planning to sell part of the Suez Canal to Qatar?

Egypt planning to sell part of the Suez Canal to Qatar?(AM). By: Mohammad Hisham Abeih.Qatar disappeared from the political scene in Egypt for a few hours only to reappear, this time with its best face on: the economic one.
The Qatari finance minister revealed for the first time that the $2.5 billion with which Doha will buy the Egyptian bonds and bills will be deducted from the $4 billion handed over last year as a deposit by Qatar to the Central Bank of Egypt in two payments.
This astonished many banking experts because the Qatari deposit is long term and can only be returned in seven to ten years. So how could Qatar possibly recover part of it now?
This question was raised by banking expert Salwa al-Antari, former director of the research department at the central bank. She told As-Safir that “offering bonds and treasury assets was an approach adopted by Egypt under the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in an attempt to obtain money to pump into the general budget. But the question is, how did Qatar know that Egypt would offer bonds worth up to $2.5 billion or more?”
Antari said that the deposits granted by Qatar to Egypt do not have any economic benefit other than the fact that they have solved some of the government’s temporary needs. She added that these deposits did not develop into real investment projects, which reflects the approach of the incumbent Kandil government based on borrowing and lacking a real economic strategy.
The press conference held by the Qatari finance minister did not last longer than ten minutes. He hastily answered a limited number of questions, not only about technical details related to potential Qatari investments, but about interests and returns Qatar will obtain by pumping these funds to Egypt, as the purchase of bills and bonds by states or entities are usually offset by “sovereign interests.”
It would appear as if there were a prior agreement between the governments of Doha and Cairo, even before any investments were publically and globally offered in this area.
Egyptian officials offered the wealthy Qatari delegation attractive special offers. After meeting with his Qatari counterpart, the Egyptian finance minister said that the government aims to attract Qatari investments worth $15 billion. He also hinted at granting Qatar exclusive privileges in the Port Said project. He said that Egypt aims to fully develop the Suez Canal hub, in response to a request for an increase in Qatari industrial investments in the project, through the construction of infrastructure facilities like electricity, energy, water and roads.
If these concessions persist, the region east of Port Said — and possibly others — may become semi-Qatari territory on Egyptian soil.Hmmmm.....They might even stop Israeli vessels from passing trough the Canal.Read the full story here.

Egypt cannot control traffic in Suez Canal: Muslim Brotherhood member.

Egypt cannot control traffic in Suez Canal: Muslim Brotherhood member.(AA).In response to the criticism directed at the Egyptian government after it allowed a Chinese ship heading to Syria to pass through the Suez Canal, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood said that Egypt does not have the right to control traffic in the strategic waterway. “Egypt does not have the right to prevent any ship from passing through the Suez Canal,” wrote leading Brotherhood member Hassan al-Prince on his Twitter account. Prince explained that the only exception to this rule is if the ship belongs to a country with which Egypt is in a state of war. “The passage of ships in the Suez Canal is regulated by the Istanbul Treaty signed in 1888.” Prince called upon the relevant authorities to publish the text of the treaty so that its terms are clear to all. The Syrian opposition had slammed the Egyptian government for allowing a Chinese ship loaded with arms to pass through the Suez Canal. According to the opposition, the ship was carrying ammunition to the Syrian regime to be used in its brutal clampdown against the revolutionaries. However, a military source denied allegations that the Chinese ship was carrying weapons to Syria saying it was loaded with regular commodities and heading to Ukraine, not Syria. “The ship passed through the Suez Canal in accordance with all international treaties and no law was violated,” the source told the Egyptian newspaper al-Masry al-Youm. The Facebook page of Hamza al-Khatib, the 13-year-old Syrian who was brutally killed by regime forces, launched a fierce campaign against Egypt and its president for allowing the ship to pass. “We thank Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi 2038 times for allowing Chinese ship loaded with weapons to pass,” the page’s administrator wrote in reference to the load of the Chinese ship, 2038 tons. “We feel sorry that at some point we thought we could count on the Egyptian president for supporting the Syrian revolution.” Hmmmm.....Better carve this quote in stone for when they refuse Israeli ships of passing trough.Read the full story here.

Chinese destroyer crossed the Suez Canal today (Sunday) on its way to the coast of Syria.

Russian Destroyer crossing Suez Canal

Chinese destroyer crossed the Suez Canal today (Sunday) on its way to the coast of Syria.(FB-Middle East Insights).Translation of the first two paragraphs:
The Egyptian newspaper "A - Shuruk" reported that a destroyer belonging to China's army crossed the Suez Canal today (Sunday) on its way to the coast of Syria. According to the report, it's said to be on its way to participate in naval maneuvers there. The Egyptian newspaper "Al - Wafd" also reported on the crossing, and elaborated on the increased security measures taken at the time of the crossing. Beijing has so far stood alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad, vetoing sanctions on Damascus in the UN Security Council, in three different votes. It was reported last month that China, Iran and Russia were to hold a large naval exercise in Syria. "A - Shuruk" claimed that Suez Canal authorities allowed the destroyer to pass through after receiving approval from the Egyptian Defense Ministry. It crossed the canal under enhanced security measures. "Al - Wafd" reports in the name of canal officials that security forces were deployed on the banks of the canal, fishing was prohibited, as was use of the canal crossings to the Sinai.More here.

Report: Iran Targeting Israeli Ships in the Suez Canal.

Report: Iran Targeting Israeli Ships in the Suez Canal.(INN).HT: IsraelMatzav.Iranian terrorists planned to attack Israeli ships in the Suez Canal, the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reports. Egyptian security forces reportedly thwarted the attack.Two Egyptians were arrested after offering another Egyptian 50 million Egyptian pounds to carry out an attack on an Israeli ship passing through the Suez Canal. The money came from Iran.
Two Egyptian suspects are accused of attempting to pay a third man to carry out the planned strike. The two allegedly had a budget of more than $8 million.They have had their remand extended for another 15 days.
According to earlier reports, the attack was to involve launching a missile at ships from a farm bordering the canal.Iran has been linked to recent attacks on Israeli embassies worldwide, including a bombing in Delhi in which an Israeli woman was wounded.Read the full story here.

Egypt says foils “terrorist” attack on Suez Canal.

Egypt says foils “terrorist” attack on Suez Canal.(BM).CAIRO: Egypt’s National Security Forces, or State Security, announced on Wednesday night that it had foiled an attempt to carry out terrorist acts “against foreign vessels passing through the Suez Canal,” by an organization consisting of two persons from the Ismailiya Governorate.
A security source at the Ministry of Interior told Egypt’s state-run MENA news agency that the security forces were able to thwart the plot to target the waterway of the Suez Canal by attacking foreign vessels.
The source added that secret investigations led to arresting the leaders of this terrorist cell, in the area of Sheikh Zayed in Ismailiya.
The Supreme State Security authority has decided the detain the two suspects for 15 days pending investigation.Read the full story here.

MFS -The Other News - What the main papers don't say.

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Greece 5.3 - 5.2 ; Indonesia 5.2 !More info here.

• President Obama: I Want Second Term 'Badly'.(Abc).By Devin Dwyer.President Barack Obama today signaled an aggressive tact for his early re-election campaign, critiquing his Republican opponents by name and insisting he's ready to "fight with every fiber of my being" for a second term."How much do you want it?" ABC News' Diane Sawyer asked Obama during an exclusive interview in Las Vegas."Badly," the president said, "because I think the country needs it." "Whoever wins the Republican primary is going to be a standard bearer for a vision of the country that I don't think reflects who we are," Obama said."I'm going to fight as hard as I can with every fiber of my being to make sure that we continue on a path that I think will restore the American dream," he said.Obama pushed back against what he called Republicans' "rhetorical flourishes," including Newt Gingrich's oft-repeated contention that Obama is the "food stamp president."Hmmm......."Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty". ~ Plato.Read the full story here.

• Ayatollah orders terrorist Attacks; Colleague of man given the order Visited recently the White House.(BN).The recent assassination of one of Iran's nuclear scientists has apparently prompted the Ayatollah to dispatch Hezbollah to commit terror attacks through the head of the Al Quds Brigade. That man's name is Gen. Qasem Soleimani. That name is made more relevant by the fact that a close associate of Soleimani was recently given the red carpet treatment by the White House.Al Ameri holds the Iranian nationality under the name of Hassan Ameri and his wife is Iranian. He usually visits Iran and meets with Qassem Sulaimani, the head of Al Quds Brigade, under the Iranian guard forces, on a regular basis.While being in Iran, Al Ameri played a role in torturing the Iraqi prisoners, who were captured by Iran during the Iraqi-Iranian war. Prisoners who returned from there accuse him of being the cruelest against them. This role helped him to reach the status that he occupies in the eyes of the Iranians.Hmmmmm.....Obama's 'guest'?Read the full story here.

• Obama Can’t Handle the Truth (Just Ask Gov. Brewer).(BigGovernment).By AWR Hawkins.President Barack Obama has a problem, a problem much bigger than his plummeting poll numbers among black voters, the ever-worsening housing market, or the chronically high national unemployment numbers. Although these are all bad and must be weighing down on him—whether he admits it or not—they are minor compared to his deeper problem, which is his inability to handle criticism, his inability to handle the truth.We first saw this when Obama was starting to run for president and he put reporters “on notice” regarding comments about the size of his ears. Since then we’ve seen it in the way he locks out reporters who ask hard questions and, most recently, in the way he appears to have lodged a complaint with Gov. Jan Brewer regarding her criticism of the way he has gone to war with Arizona to keep that state from defending its southern border.If you’ll recall, in December 2006, after New York Times’ reporter Maureen Dowd had written about how Obama’s “ears stick out,” Obama tracked her down at a speaking engagement and said: “I just want to put you on notice. I’m very sensitive,” adding, “I was teased relentlessly when I was a kid about my big ears.” (Rush Limbaugh was then criticized for seizing on that comment and warning people that it demonstrated Obama’s skin was too thin for the rigors of the presidency. And in retrospect, Limbaugh was right.)Perhaps you remember the April 2011 exchange that took place between Obama and Dallas news reporter Brad Watson, during an interview wherein Watson asked the president pointed, probing questions instead of the kind of light and fluffy stuff a CNN reporter asks when he or she gets the chance. For example, as the two sat face to face, Watson looked right at Obama and asked: “Why do you think you’re so unpopular in Texas?” And when Obama tried to make it look like he wasn’t that unpopular in Texas, saying he’d only lost in 2008 by a “few percentage points,” Watson countered: “Well, you lost by about 10%. 55 to 44.” And because Obama can’t handle criticism, he became noticeably bothered as the questions continued. When the short interview was over, an angry Obama whispered to Watson: “Let me finish my answers next time we do an interview.”Of course Watson won’t get another interview, because Obama locks reporters out if they dare take him to task. As Keith Koffler wrote of Obama’s reaction to Watson back in April, “Look how thin-skinned he can be.”Speaking of thin-skinned, that’s the exact phrase Gov. Brewer used to describe Obama after he walked across the tarmac in Phoenix on Wednesday and greeted Brewer not with “hello” or “good to see you,” but with a complaint about how she’d described his efforts to deep-end Arizona’s S.B. 1070. He said he’d read the complaint in a passage from her book, “Scorpions for Breakfast.”There Brewer wrote:  [Obama] has repeatedly made fun of those of us who want to see the law enforced, saying we want a ‘moat’ with ‘alligators’ in it around our country. The reason he has resorted to these failed attempts at humor, I think, is that he supports a policy that is fundamentally undemocratic, and he knows it.Said Brewer of the exchange: “He brought up my book and he was a little tense. He said he read the excerpt and didn’t think I was very cordial. I said we’d have to agree to disagree. He was a little thin-skinned and tense, to say the least.”The bottom line: Obama can’t handle criticism. Obama can’t handle the truth. Dowd proved it in 2006, Watson proved in 2011, and Gov. Brewer proved it again two days ago.Read the full story here.

• Obama in SOTU: Cut the Taxes that Pay for Social Security, but Don’t Threaten Social Security.(BigGovernment).By Charles C. Johnson.Last night President Obama renewed his calls for a so-called “middle class tax” cut that would all but kill Social Security:“Right now, our most immediate priority is stopping a tax hike on 160 million working Americans while the recovery is still fragile. People cannot afford losing $40 out of each paycheck this year. There are plenty of ways to get this done. So let’s agree right here, right now: No side issues. No drama. Pass the payroll tax cut without delay.”And yet only two paragraphs later, he said this: Alas, in calling for a renewed payroll tax holiday, President Obama continues to raid Social Security and imperil the retirement account that many Americans have paid into and continue to depend upon.On the one hand, he raids the Social Security trust fund, while on the other he attacks Republicans for threatening Social Security. Republicans ought not let him get away with such transparent chutzpah.As I wrote for Engage America, this is a big mistake and potentially a catastrophic one for America’s largest entitlement program. Indeed, put yourself in the position of those “innocent Americans” and law abiding Americans–Generation X, who will grow old just as Social Security goes belly up.Read the full story here.

• Jon Stewart Forces Secretary Sebelius to Sweat Obamacare’s Details.(Heritage).Monday on The Daily Show, comedian Jon Stewart interviewed Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The Secretary didn’t escape the hot seat in what turned out to be an interesting discussion regarding the implementation of Obamacare.One notable topic covered during the interview was the surprise proposal by HHS to let states determine their own definitions of “essential health benefits.” Obamacare explicitly instructs HHS to fill in the details of the legislation’s mandatory minimum benefit package, but as the Galen Institute’s John Hoff previously noted in a Heritage writing, “Although HHS can, of course, produce a piece of paper (or, more likely, hundreds of pages of regulation) purporting to define the term, in reality this will not provide the real-world uniformity of coverage contemplated by [Obamacare]. HHS has an impossible task.”It seems HHS agrees that it has an impossible task and is now looking for a way to stick somebody else with the problem. Sebelius claims that letting states define benefits will give them flexibility. But in reality, all that would do is intensify the existing special-interest lobbying in state capitols for more mandated health insurance coverage—driving the cost of coverage under Obamacare even higher.In a second installment, Stewart questioned Sebelius about whether or not employers would be inclined to “dump” their employees in the new health care exchanges and pay the new penalty instead. “Is the penalty more than the [cost of] insurance?” Stewart asked. Sebelius responded, “The penalty will help pay for the tax credit that the employee will get in the insurance.” Extensive research does a better job of answering the question. The cost of the new Obamacare subsidies will not be covered by the fines collected from employer penalties. The facts show that some employers will be able to come out ahead even after paying the penalty and increasing workers’ cash compensation to make up for the lost health benefits.Stewart then posed this question:Do you think ultimately this is, a bunch of people dump to the exchange, and it becomes sort of a back door, of government, not a takeover necessarily, but of a government responsibility for the health care, employees, and it decouples it—I’m not saying that’s a bad thing—but decouples it from employment, and people will get it through the government—through tax credits, rather than through their employers—and then suddenly, obviously then, we’re Sweden. Do you think that’s the case?Well, Jon, America may not be Sweden yet, but it’s getting a lot closer under Obamacare.Read the full story here.

• Capitol Hill Chevy Volt Hearing: What About All the Other Fires?(BigGovernment).I attended Wednesday’s 8:00am (8am?!?) House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing entitled: Volt Vehicle Fire: What Did NHTSA Know And When Did They Know It?The witnesses were killer: National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), Barack Obama-appointee Administrator David Strickland.And General Motors (GM), Barack Obama-appointee CEO Dan Akerson.The scope of the hearing was a bit too narrow – leaving out some fairly important attending facts. Like, say, the (at least) five other Chevy Volt fires that have occurred besides the one being discussed.This hearing was all about a single June Volt blaze. The battery burst into flames about three weeks after a test crash at and by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).A fire about which Obama’s NHTSA did tell the Obama White House.But a fire about which neither Obama’s NHTSA, the Obama Administration nor Obama’s GM told the American people for nearly six months – and then did so only when forced by a looming Bloomberg news story.But: The White House had no role in the decision to delay disclosure of a fire that broke out in a crash-tested Chevrolet Volt, the Obama administration told Congress on Friday.Of COURSE not.Hmmmm.....My guess dealers their fire insurance went up quite a bit.Read the full story here.

• "Another one bites the dust" - Another Stimulus-Backed Energy Company Files for Bankruptcy.(Heritage).After months of financial turmoil, an Energy Department-backed lithium ion battery company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company, Ener1, received a $118 million grant from DOE in 2010 as part of the president’s stimulus package. The money, which went to Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel, aimed to promote renewable energy storage battery technology for electrical grid use.But despite generous federal support for the company, Ener1 was racked by problems last year. In October, NASDAQ delisted the company due to non-compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission filing requirements. A month later, the company’s president, chief executive, and top financial officer were fired.On Thursday, Ener1 announced it will initiate a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan as part of an agreement to restructure the company’s debt obligations.Hmmmm........Obama: "All the Choices We've Made Have Been the Right Ones".Read the full story here.

• Israeli Defense minister Barak: Iran 'drifting' toward nuke goal line.(YNet).Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday the world must quickly stop Iran from reaching the point where even a "surgical" military strike could not block it from obtaining nuclear weapons.Amid fears that Israel is nearing a decision to attack Iran's nuclear program, Barak said tougher international sanctions are needed against Tehran's oil and banks so that "we all will know early enough whether the Iranians are ready to give up their nuclear weapons program." Iran insists its atomic program is only aimed at producing energy and research, but has repeatedly refused to consider giving up its ability to enrich uranium. "We are determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear. And even the American president and opinion leaders have said that no option should be removed from the table and Iran should be blocked from turning nuclear," Barak told reporters during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. "It seems to us to be urgent, because the Iranians are deliberately drifting into what we call an immunity zone where practically no surgical operation could block them," he said. Barak called it "a challenge for the whole world" to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran but stopped short of confirming any action that could further stoke Washington's concern about a possible Israeli military strike.IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said at a Davos session that "we do not have that much confidence if Iran has declared everything" and its best information "indicates that Iran has engaged in activities relevant to nuclear explosive devices." "For now they do not have the capacity to manufacture the fuel," he said. "But in the future, we don't know." Read the full story here.

• Pentagon taps students to build robots, and death dealing drones.(StratRisks).With an eye toward revolutionizing how defense systems and vehicles are made, the Pentagon has tapped a team of Bay Area-based scientists, engineers and hackers to create a program that will enlist California high school students to build robots, drones and other low- and medium-tech gadgets.The Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has awarded $2 million of a $10 million program to two outfits that have joined forces to develop a pilot project in 10 schools.Part of the agency’s lauded Adaptive Vehicle Make program, which has employed university-based teams to build new navigation systems, the latest effort wants to cut down on manufacturing time. Dubbed Manufacturing Experimentation and Outreach, the program hopes to develop and motivate the next generation of chic geeks to collaborate through social networks to design and develop new vehicles.The overall goal is to expand to 1,000 high schools, both in and out of the country, said Dale Dougherty, founder of MAKE magazine and one of the directors of the pilot program, along with Saul Griffith of San Francisco-based design team Otherlab.The team has two years to reach the initial goal of 10 schools, then two more years to expand first to 100 schools then 1,000. The Defense Department wants unlimited rights to everything the students build, including all algorithms, source code, equipment and test use cases.Hmmmm.....Am i the only one who has 'moral objections' to this?Why not use the creativity of the youth for something constructive?Read the full story here.

• Twitter to restrict user content in some countries.(Reuters).Twitter announced Thursday that it would begin restricting Tweets in certain countries, marking a policy shift for the social media platform that helped propel the popular uprisings recently sweeping across the Middle East."As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression," Twitter wrote in a blog post published Thursday.It said even with the possibility of such restrictions, Twitter would not be able to coexist with some countries. "Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there," it said.Twitter gave as examples of restrictions it might cooperate with "certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content."A Twitter spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the blog."Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country while keeping it available in the rest of the world," the Twitter blog said."Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country while keeping it available in the rest of the world," the Twitter blog said.Twitter's decision to begin censoring content represents a significant departure from its policy just one year ago, when anti-government protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries coordinated mass demonstrations through on the social network and, in the process, thrust Twitter's disruptive potential into the global spotlight.Hmmmm.....The fact that Prince Alwaleed unveiled a $300 million stake purchase in fast-growing microblogging site Twitter has nothing to do with 'oppressing free speech?Read the full story here.

• 'Iran could ban EU oil exports next week'.(JPost).TEHRAN - A law to be debated in Iran's parliament on Sunday could halt exports of oil to the European Union as early as next week, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted a lawmaker as saying on Friday."On Sunday, parliament will have to approve a 'double emergency' bill calling for a halt in the export of Iranian oil to Europe starting next week," Hossein Ibrahimi, vice-chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, was quoted as saying.The Iranian parliament is pushing for the export ban to deny the EU a 6-month phase-in of the embargo on Iranian oil that the bloc agreed on Monday as part of a raft of tough new Western sanctions aimed at forcing Iran to curb its nuclear program."If the deputies arrive at the conclusion that the Iranian oil exports to Europe must be halted, the parliament will not delay a moment (in passing the bill)," Fars quoted Moayed Hosseini-Sadr, a member of parliament's energy committee, as saying.Read the full story here.

• Turkey to become first Muslim nation to show Holocaust film.(HurriyetDaily).Turkish public television (TRT) was set to show an epic French documentary about the Holocaust last night in the first broadcast of its kind by national media in a Muslim state. A spokesman for TRT said the 1985 film “Shoah” would be shown on one of the network’s 14 channels.The director of the nine-hour-plus documentary, Claude Lanzmann, called the Turkish move historic.“We should acknowledge the courage and determination of the Turks,” said Lanzmann, who spent 11 years working on the documentary. “Turkey is a country people don’t know and understand very badly.”Turkey’s broadcast of the film is the culmination of work by the Aladdin Project, a Paris-based group which tries to improve Jewish-Muslim relations. The group said in a statement that it had never before been shown in its entirely in a Muslim country.Consisting largely of Holocaust-survivor interviews, the film examines the killing of European Jews in Nazi death camps during World War II.The broadcast comes at a sensitive time in Turkey’s international relations.Hmmmm.......How many will actually watch?Read the full story here.

• Muslim Brotherhood Guide: Parliament has right to hold military accountable.(BM).CAIRO: The head of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie, said in statements on Thursday, that the newly elected parliament has the right to hold all state institutions, particularly the military, accountable and that any organization “cannot be above the rule of the people and the parliament can determine the budget of the military by creating a special committee.”Badie said the Muslim Brotherhood, which now holds 45 percent of the parliament`s seats, “will not nominate one of its members in the presidential elections,” and would not get behind Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, or any candidate with an Islamic reference in the elections, but that it would participate with “all national forces in the selection of a candidate that enjoys consensus on the basis of the rules does not favor anyone and define the specifications of the next Egyptian president according to what`s best for Egypt interests.”Badie stressed in statements to reporters on Thursday that the demands of the Egyptian people “is a top priority for the group to restore all fundamental rights of people, and the preservation of freedom and dignity, and social justice, and provide a decent living for every citizen,” stressing that democratic transition is the “only way for the return of the rights of the Egyptian people and dignity.”The Brotherhood chief said that the position of the Muslim Brotherhood towards the military council is one of “a partner in the protection of the revolution, where if it made mistakes … it should be held accountable and if it does well, it has to be praised without undermining the prestige of the Egyptian People’s Army.”Speaking about the defection of a number of young Muslim Brotherhood members recently, he said that what the group witnessed recently were differences and the rejection of youth and leaders to commit to the decisions of the Shura Council of the Brotherhood, “is evidence of the vitality and democracy,” pointing out that the Muslim Brotherhood, “is an institutional group and whoever violates the regulations, has to be subjected to a decision by the institution.”Hmmmmm........"You don't leave the mob"?Read the full story here.

• Hamas quietly quits Syria as violence continues.(AlArabiya).The leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, has effectively abandoned his headquarters in the Syrian capital, Damascus, diplomatic and intelligence sources said on Friday.“Meshaal is not staying in Syria as he used to do. He is almost out all the time,” said a diplomat in the region who spoke on condition on anonymity.A regional intelligence source, who also did not wish to be identified, said: “He’s not going back to Syria. That’s the decision he’s made. There’s still a Hamas presence there, but it’s insignificant.”Damascus is isolated following a bloody, 10-month uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad and is not secure, the diplomat said, adding that Meshaal was no longer able to receive international visitors there.Analysts say Meshaal was also embarrassed by Assad’s violent crackdown, with more than 5,000 people reported killed. Many victims of the security forces have been Sunni Muslims allied to the Muslim Brotherhood, whose support Meshaal relies on.Assad is backed mainly by his minority Alawite sect and other minorities.The sources said Meshaal would not publicly shut down the political headquarters of Hamas in Syria, where it has long been hosted by Assad and by his father before him.“In the past month he may have only stayed five days in Syria and the rest he spent in Qatar, Turkey and Egypt,” said the diplomat. “But he did not close the headquarters in Syria in full and there are some Hamas officials still there.”The sources said Meshaal was currently in Egypt. But “there was no agreement to open an office in Cairo. Not yet,” said the diplomat. “The expected residence for Meshaal is Qatar where he may stay most of the time until the Syria smoke has cleared.”Qatar is the Arab world’s most outspoken critic of Assad. Qatari mediation was helpful in arranging Meshaal’s upcoming visit to Jordan next week, restoring ties with the monarchy more than a decade after Hamas was ejected from the kingdom.Hamas Gaza Strip leader Ismail Haniyeh was thought to have “received promises from Turkey to provide the movement and his administration with $300 million a year to help Gaza”.Turkey is also a strong critic of the crackdown by Assad in its southern neighbor, Syria. Haniyeh is scheduled to travel to Iran in the coming days.Hmmmm.........Muslim Brotherhood Egypt.....Turkey....Quatar.....Shaikh Yousef al-Qaradawi.Read the full story here.

• Car bomb attack outside Baghdad hospital kills 28: medics.(AlArabiya).At least 28 people were killed and 50 others wounded when a bomb exploded near a Baghdad marketplace on Friday in the latest attack on a mainly Shi’ite neighborhood since a political crisis erupted in December, police and hospital sources said.An interior ministry official confirmed the explosion in Zafraniyah, which struck at 11:00 am (08:00 GMT), but said it was caused by a suicide attacker driving an explosives-packed car.The blast hit the funeral procession of Mohammed al-Maliki, a real estate agent who was killed along with his wife and son a day earlier in the west Baghdad neighborhood of Yarmuk, the doctor and interior ministry official said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.The procession had collected Maliki’s body and was transporting it for the funeral when the explosion struck.A medical official said at least four women were among the fatalities, but no further details were immediately available.Maliki and his family were killed by gunmen in Yarmuk, although there have been differing accounts of the attack itself.A medic at Yarmuk hospital said the attackers burst into a real estate agency and killed three, while an interior ministry official said four people, including two real estate agents, died when gunmen opened fire on their car.Friday’s attack came a day after violence in Iraq killed 17 people, and is the deadliest to hit the country in nearly two weeks, amid a political crisis pitting the Shiite-led government against the main Sunni-backed bloc that has stoked sectarian tensions.The row erupted when authorities charged Sunni Arab Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi with running a death squad and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, called for his Sunni deputy Saleh al-Mutlak to be sacked after the latter said the premier was “worse than Saddam Hussein”.Hmmmm.......Obama: If We Work Hard, Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like Iraq!Read the full story here.

• Indonesia's Islamic vigilantes 'turning to terrorism'.(HD).Tolerance of Islamic vigilantism is helping to breed a new generation of terrorists in Indonesia, the International Crisis Group warned in a report Thursday.The report criticised the government and police for lax law enforcement against hardliners, who often claim responsibility for violent anti-vice and sectarian attacks but regularly evade punishment."Indonesia: From Vigilantism to Terrorism in Cirebon" described how a group of poor uneducated men in the western Javanese town went from using sticks and stones in morality raids to using bombs and guns."What we saw in Cirebon was a a group of about 10 people who started out on a path to terrorism by participating in anti-vice campaigns," ICG analyst Sidney Jones told AFP."By using violence in these campaigns, they clearly violated the law but weren't punished." The group went from carrying out anti-vice attacks on TV stations and convenience stores selling alcohol to orchestrating suicide attacks on a police mosque and a church on Java island.The radicalisation of the Cirebon group was fuelled by weekly sermons where spiritual leaders encouraged the bloodshed of Islam's enemies, which have come to include the Indonesian government and police, the report said.Read the full story here.

• Egyptian writer: "Who offends the Prophet is not the West, but we Muslims, for making Islam terrorist".(TJ).Translated from elbashayer.com, 22 December 2011: Who Offends the Prophet?By Ahmad al-Aswani. I don’t believe that cartoons, books, or movies can offend any religion, or affect the faith of those who adhere to that religion with truth and conviction. The ones who offend the Prophet are those who slaughter and blow up innocent people throughout all the world—from New York to Madrid, in London, Bali, Riyadh, Cairo, Kabul, and Baghdad—even now, after mentioning Allah and the Prophet under the banner of Islamic jihad. Protests come out in support of all this, and internet forums sing praises to the knight Usama bin Laden, the hero of the raids of New York and Washington. Who offends the Prophet is a man like al-Qaradawi, who incites people to kill Jewish children in their mothers’ wombs (from an interview with Egyptian journalists in 1996), and incites people to carry out suicide operations. In the name of the religion and the Prophet, he declares jihad in Iraq, and innocent victims are killed.Who offends the Prophet are those who demand that the world issue a decision preventing the disrespect of religions while they practice it themselves in every prayer in their mosques, schools (madrasas), and on their television stations. They especially disrespect Christians and Jews, and curse them in every prayer (after the Islamic bloc offered a decision on this issue in the Human Rights Council in the United Nations, the Saudi Shura Council objected to this decision because insulting other religions is one of the rites of Islam, according to what was published on the Saudi site al-Arabiya).Who offends is ..Continued.....  Read the full story here.

• Bahrain detainee dies in custody, opposition sees torture.(Reuters).Bahrain's police said on Thursday that a man detained over "acts of violence and sabotage" died of a chronic disease in hospital while in custody, but the opposition said he was tortured to death.A police official said the man suffered from sickle-cell disease and died of natural causes, state news agency BNA reported.The main Shi'ite Muslim opposition group, Wefaq, said on its website that the 19-year-old had been injured after being squeezed between two police vehicles as he tried to flee during a protest and that he had been detained and tortured instead of receiving treatment.Amnesty International urged Bahrain on Thursday to investigate its use of tear gas against frequent protests in the Gulf state, citing a Bahraini rights group as saying 13 people had died from its indiscriminate use."The rise in fatalities and eyewitness accounts suggest that tear gas is being used inappropriately by Bahraini security forces, including in people's homes and other confined spaces," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, an Amnesty regional deputy director.Washington, which bases its Fifth Fleet on the Gulf island, has linked a $53 million arms sale to the kingdom's response to the inquiry. Bahrain has said it is implementing the inquiry's recommendations, but the top U.N. human rights official argues that Bahrain is not punishing those who have committed abuses."Given the government of Bahrain's malicious misuse of tear gas, the U.S. government should continue its current policy to not issue new licenses for riot control equipment that have the potential for harmful misuse," Hans Hogrefe, chief policy officer of Physicians for Human Rights, said in a statement.Read the full story here.

• Can there be a second Holocaust?(JPost).By Robert S. Wistrich.In recent years, the Holocaust has been subject to an increasingly sickening blend of ruthless politicization, deliberate distortion, crass commercialization and an often abject sentimentalism.More ominously, it has also become a weapon of choice for many of Israel’s worst enemies and for a resurgent anti-Semitism which brands the entire enterprise of Holocaust memory as nothing but a “Zionist plot.”In contemporary Europe, Holocaust guilt is used more often than not to promote the Palestinian cause rather than to recognize the necessity of having a Jewish state. Arab and Islamist propaganda, aided and abetted by many liberals and leftists (including some vocal Jewish anti- Zionists), hammers away at the grotesque libel that Israeli policies towards the Palestinians are worse than those of the Nazis. Many Europeans believe these fables.In Israel itself, there are even academics who trumpet such absurdities which have become all-too- commonplace on certain campuses abroad, especially in Britain, North America and Scandinavia.Read the full story here.

• Israeli Ships Switch Flags When Sailing thru Suez Canal.(INN).A sharp decline was reported in the number of ships sailing through the Suez Canal under the Israeli flag in 2011, with only seven making the trip, compared to 15 in 2010, according to the Port and Port Website. Total freight tonnage was down 91 percent, from 166,000 tons to 15,000 tons.A senior source in Egyptian shipping said the level of Israeli shipping did not go down but that Israeli ships switch from Israeli flags to international flags for security reasons when making the trip. It was also reported that Wednesday's anniversary of the revolution that ousted former president Hosni Mubarak was marked by record ship traffic and cargo volume on the canal.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Turkey Moves to Deport Armenian Workers after French Vote.(A).BY Nanore Barsoumian.ISTANBUL–Turkey is set to amend a law that aims to rid the country of illegal workers. Many view this move as retaliation against Armenians, in light of the new bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial in France.Different estimates in Turkey put the number of Armenian citizens in the country at as low as 10,000 and as high as 100,000. Many of them are women, and they are employed in low-skill jobs.“This country, which Mark Levene called ‘the Genocide zone,’ throughout its history has made it a habit to deport, expel, and relocate innocent people as retaliation and punishment for things they did not do, or have no connection to at all,” human rights advocate Ayse Gunaysu told the Armenian Weekly Editor Khatchig Mouradian.Back in March 2010, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan hinted at retaliation against Armenian migrant workers if Genocide resolutions were passed in foreign parliaments. In a discussion about Genocide resolutions in the U.S. and Sweden, he told the BBC’s Turkish Service that of the 170,000 Armenians living in Turkey, only 70,000 are Turkish citizens. “We are turning a blind eye to the remaining 100,000… Tomorrow, I may tell these 100,000 to go back to their country, if it becomes necessary.”It appears the French bill was the last straw for Erdogan’s government. On Jan. 25, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters that “Turkey’s response to the adoption of the bill had long been decided.”President of the Migrants’ Association for Social Cooperation and Culture Sefika Gurbuz called the law a “threat to Armenians,” reported Bianet.Meanwhile, Gunaysu characterized Turkey’s response a “black comedy.” “The ongoing blackmail and threats against France is itself proof of guilt as well as a manifestation of lack of dignity and self-respect, despite—of course—pathetic demonstrations of national pride,” said Gunaysu.Gunaysu, who is a member of the Committee Against Racism and Discrimination of the Human Rights Association of Turkey, pointed out the country’s history of deporting innocents peoples. In 1915 the Young Turk regime began its systemic deportations of Armenians as a main tool to rid the Eastern provinces of a native population. “They still tell lies that it was because treacherous Armenians, whereas hundreds of thousands of Armenians were not engaged in any political activity whatsoever,” said Gunaysu. Then it was the turn of Turkey’s Kurdish and Greek populations. “The republican period is full of Kurdish deportations, especially in 1938 during and after the Dersim massacres,” she said. “In 1964, the Turkish government expelled 40,000 Anatolian Greeks, forbidding them to bring along any personal belongings over 20 kg and $20, as a retaliation against Greece in connection with the Cyprus issue—a deportation which is still terribly painful in the memories of these people.”Gunaysu added, “The mindset from which this policy of retaliation originates is racist, inhuman, and brutal. The rulers of Turkey have once more proven that [the government] still follows the same path as that of their predecessors back in 1915 and all along the history of the Republic.”Read the full story here.