"I think Trump presidency will be more beneficial to Iran than Clinton’s." Ali Motahari, Vice-Speaker of Iran’s Parliament.

"I think Trump presidency will be more beneficial to Iran than Clinton’s." Ali Motahari, Vice-Speaker of Iran’s Parliament. (IFPnews).

According to a report by IFP, a number of Iranian officials including President Hassan Rouhani, Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani, and IRGC General Hossein Salami said Trump’s victory will have no influence on Iran’s policy.

“US policies towards Iran never change with the election of a new president,” General Salami said, noting that both Democrats and Republicans consider Iran as a threat and enemy as the US foreign policy is independent of the ruling party.

Spokesman for Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi also said that Iran is ready for any kind of development.

“Iran has long-term plans [for its nuclear industry] … and try to continue the implementation of the nuclear deal,” he added.

There were also negative and positive reactions to Trump and his election as the new US president.

Chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani described Trump as a dangerous figure who does not believe in principles and easily violates the rules and regulations.

“Trump is considered a big threat, and his radical moves in recent years prove it,” he went on to say.

However, Hesamodin Ashna, the cultural advisor to President Rouhani, hailed the election of Trump as an unknown figure, and described it as an opportunity for a new beginning.

In a post on his Facebook account, Ashna referred to Trump’s victory speech, and highlighted the positive and different words and tone he used.

“We hope White House leaders would keep to their promises and show their commitment … instead of focusing on hostilities and differences,” Ashna added.

“In the Arab world and Turkey, Iran was seen as Obama’s favourite, and this was a barrier to JCPOA implementation. However, we can now tell Iran’s regional partners and neighbours that peace is not a gift given by ultra-regional superpowers. We are the ones who should create it.”

Ali Motahari, the outspoken Vice-Speaker of Iran’s Parliament, is one of those who believes Trump’s victory will be to Iran’s benefit.

“Given the stances Trump held during his campaigns, I think his presidency will be more beneficial to Iran than Clinton’s,” Motahari noted.

“Trump is more honest, and his stances on Syria were good. He also does not hold a good view of Saudi Arabia, and is willing to have good ties with Russia,” he noted.

“Even his opposition to the nuclear deal will also be to Iran’s benefit, because they cannot do anything in practice,” the Iranian lawmaker added. Read the full story here.

Video - Max Abrahams explains Hillary Clinton's foreign policy positions.

Max Abrahams:

Northeastern University 2013-Present Assistant Professor of Public Policy Department of Political Science Boston, MA

Northeastern University 2016-Present Assistant Professor School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs Boston, MA

Council on Foreign Relations 2013-Present Term Member New York, NY

Center for Cyber & Homeland Security 2014-Present Senior Fellow George Washington University Washington, DC

Center for the Study of Terrorism 2014-Present Board Member University of Rome Rome, Italy

Chairman of the State Duma’s int affairs CMTE, Pushkov: EU gives cold shoulder to Ukraine’s 'Big Parasite Doctrine'.

Chairman of the State Duma’s int affairs CMTE, Pushkov: EU gives cold shoulder to Ukraine’s 'Big Parasite Doctrine'. (Tass).

European Commission President Jean-Claud Juncker’s statement Ukraine will have no chances of joining the European Union and NATO over the next 20-25 years is a sure sign the doctrine of "Europe’s Big Parasite," which Kiev has pressed for all along is doomed to receive no support, the chairman of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, Alexey Pushkov, has told TASS.

In his speech entitled European Union: a Source of Stability in a Time of Crisis Juncker reaffirmed the idea he had put forward when he took office as the EU leader: the European Union will need a long pause before admitting new member-states. This does not apply to the Balkan countries with which the European Union is already in talks over membership. As for Ukraine, it will certainly have no chance of joining the EU over 20-25 years and the same is true of NATO membership, Juncker said.

"Ukraine has dreamed of becoming the largest parasite on the body of the European Union of all newcomers admitted over the past 10-15 years. This doctrine of the largest parasite has met with no support from the European Union at all," Pushkov said.

Pushkov believes that the Juncker expressed the EU’s prevailing point of view: Ukraine is unprepared for joining the European Union and it should not be admitted to NATO.

Pushkov suspects that the European Union is already experiencing what he has described as "expansion fatigue."

"The EU has already accommodated a number of states that have not benefited it at all. In reality, some countries, for instance, Bulgaria and Romania, make life harder for the EU," he explained.

"These are countries with weak economies that pull the EU back, and not forward. They had been admitted precisely for geopolitical reasons, for the sake of adding the economic component to their military-political integration with NATO," Pushkov said. "As far as I understand, that was done under certain pressures from the United States, but now it is the Europeans who have to pay for the admission of states that have added nothing to the EU’s potential." Read the full story here.

Letter to IS leader Baghdadi by 125 prominent Sunni scholars, refuting him with scripture & theology

Letter to IS leader Baghdadi by 125 prominent Sunni scholars, refuting him with scripture and theology.
Executive Summary

1- It is forbidden in Islam to issue fatwas without all the necessary learning requirements. Even then fatwas must follow Islamic legal theory as defined in the Classical texts. It is also forbidden to cite a portion of a verse from the Qur’an—or part of a verse—to derive a ruling without looking at everything that the Qur’an and Hadith teach related to that matter. In other words, there are strict subjective and objective prerequisites for fatwas, and one cannot ‘cherrypick’ Qur’anic verses for legal arguments without considering the entire Qur’an and Hadith.

2- It is forbidden in Islam to issue legal rulings about anything without mastery of the Arabic language.

3- It is forbidden in Islam to oversimplify Shari’ah matters and ignore established Islamic sciences.

4- It is permissible in Islam [for scholars] to differ on any matter, except those fundamentals of religion that all Muslims must know.

5- It is forbidden in Islam to ignore the reality of contemporary times when deriving legal rulings.

6- It is forbidden in Islam to kill the innocent.

7- It is forbidden in Islam to kill emissaries, ambassadors, and diplomats; hence it is forbidden to kill journalists and aid workers.

8- Jihad in Islam is defensive war. It is not permissible without the right cause, the right purpose and without the right rules of conduct.

9- It is forbidden in Islam to declare people non-Muslim unless he (or she) openly declares disbelief.

10- It is forbidden in Islam to harm or mistreat—in any way—Christians or any ‘People of the Scripture’.

11- It is obligatory to consider Yazidis as People of the Scripture.

12- The re-introduction of slavery is forbidden in Islam. It was abolished by universal consensus.

13- It is forbidden in Islam to force people to convert.

14- It is forbidden in Islam to deny women their rights.

15- It is forbidden in Islam to deny children their rights.

16- It is forbidden in Islam to enact legal punishments (hudud) without following the correct procedures that ensure justice and mercy.

17- It is forbidden in Islam to torture people.

18- It is forbidden in Islam to disfigure the dead.

19- It is forbidden in Islam to attribute evil acts to God .

20- It is forbidden in Islam to destroy the graves and shrines of Prophets and Companions.

21- Armed insurrection is forbidden in Islam for any reason other than clear disbelief by the ruler and not allowing people to pray.

22- It is forbidden in Islam to declare a caliphate without consensus from all Muslims.

23- Loyalty to one’s nation is permissible in Islam.

24- After the death of the Prophet , Islam does not require anyone to emigrate anywhere.

Full Letter can be read and downloaded here.

Video - Gen. Martin_Dempsey: US Strategy in the Middle East Is Sound, But Expect It To Change

H/T and more here @ Defence One.

  Hmmm......'CHANGE"?

American MIM-104 Patriot SAM systems arrived in #Gaziantep, #Turkey yesterday, via İskenderun port in Hatay. #Syria pic.twitter.com/HN93BEXUQN
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) November 20, 2014

Welcome to the new 'Advanced Islamist' Turkish State.

Welcome to the new 'Advanced Islamist' Turkish State. (TheNational).By David Lepeska.

On a brilliantly sunny afternoon in September, dozens of pre-teens kicked footballs and chased each other across a concrete playground in front of the 60th Year School in Sancaktepe, a working- class district on Istanbul’s Asian side.

Among a group of mothers keeping watch, some had recently protested against the school’s colonisation by a religion-focused middle school, known in Turkey as an imam hatip school. Last year, as a pilot project, the imam hatip school commandeered nine classrooms and welcomed 300 students. This year it has 20 classrooms and 750 students.

The mothers were bothered less by the religious curriculum and taxed classroom space than by a lack of equity: every imam hatip student gets a tablet computer and digital lessons (while the ­normal middle-school students lug around heavy textbooks); their bus to school is half-price; and their classrooms come decked out with smartboards, projection tools and better laboratory ­facilities.

“My son sees all this and asks me, ‘Does the state not like me?’” said Nihal Ozturk, who has two sons, one a 13-year-old at 60th Year Middle School. “I’m worried he’s getting a worse education. This new school is telling him and his classmates: the more religious you are, the more the state will love you, the more advantages you will have.”

But it has, in recent years, largely remade the nation in its own image, creating a “new Turkey”, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials like to call it, where a majoritarian state embraces conservatives, moral codes are prescribed if not strictly enforced and Islam informs policy decisions at home and abroad.

“The goal of Islamists is the ­Islamisation of society, in thought and practice, and in the standards that people hold themselves to,” Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, writes in his 2014 book,Temptations of Power.

Few societies in modern times have been so thoroughly cleansed of religion in such a short time as that of the early Republic of Turkey. In seeking to build a modern, secular state, Atatürk abolished the Ottoman sultanate and ended the caliphate, rubbished the newly created Sharia Council and adopted European legal codes. He fired Islamic judges, forbade the headscarf in government buildings and made Friday, the day of Muslim prayer, a workday.

“He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government,” Atatürk said a few years after he founded the republic, in 1923. “It is as if he would catch his people in a trap.”

In September, the European Court of Human Rights was ­unanimous in its decision that that Turkey violates basic education rights by forcing students to attend compulsory classes while failing to ensure respect for parents’ convictions.

The list goes on. The Diyanet intends to transform an Istanbul university into an Islamic academy to rival Egypt’s famed centre of Muslim learning, Al Azhar. Images of human genitalia in some grade 6 textbooks have been replaced with photos of prancing animals. And with classes on Islam recently added to its academies, religious education has crept into Turkey’s bastion of secular nationalism: the military.

“There’s a long game being played here,” Hamid said. “Promoting certain religious values through the education system is important because that’s how you change hearts and minds. Ten, 20 years down the road we’ll see how this plays out in society, with all these students who have gone through a different kind of Islamic schooling.”

The AKP pairs this domestic long game with a neo-Ottoman foreign policy that supports Sunni causes, defends Islam against the imperialist West and seeks to position Turkey as an arbiter of Muslim affairs, potentially displacing Saudi Arabia as the global Sunni leader.

“There’s a very clear reluctance on the part of Turkish authorities to move against jihadists,” said Halil Karaveli, a Stockholm-based senior fellow with the Turkey Initiative at Johns Hopkins University’s Central Asia-Caucasus Institute. “If anything I think Turkish complicity, the fact that Turkey tolerates ISIS [ISIL], has become more clear.” Hmmm.......The new Islamist Turkey..."EinVolk, En Ummah Ein Fuhrer". Read the full story here.

Islamist pres Erdogan: Israeli "attack" on al-Aqsa is an attack on Turkey

Islamist pres Erdogan: Israeli "attack" on al-Aqsa is an attack on Turkey. (TZ).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has reiterated Ankara's stern position on an Israeli incursion into the Temple mount, which houses al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest place, declaring that the Israeli attack on the mosque is tantamount to an attack on Turkey.

Speaking in Algeria, Erdoğan said, "Israel's barbaric attack on al-Aqsa Mosque is tantamount to an attack on Turkey and Algeria because al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to all of us."

Addressing Turkish and Algerian businessmen at a joint business forum, the president said they cannot remain indifferent to both the Israeli incursion as well as the "Palestinian cause." In a bid to justify his Middle East policies, often regarded as an intervention into domestic affairs of neighboring nations, Erdoğan said the problems of Egypt, Libya, Iraq and Syria, similar to Palestine, need to be handled "as a whole" and in a "brotherly sense."

Turkey had previously strongly condemned the Israeli incursion into the Noble Sanctuary and called on other Muslim countries to display a joint position to protest the actions of Israel, currently at odds with Turkish government. Hmmm....The 'Muslim Brotherhood Caliph' is giving the Sign for the final attack on Israel.

Video - Who is the Islamic State?

Turkey's 'Islamist' leader Erdogan raps US on Syria ahead of U.S. VP Biden's visit.

Turkey's 'Islamist' leader Erdogan raps US on Syria ahead of U.S. VP Biden's visit.(AlAhram).

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday chided the United States for failing to meet Turkey's conditions to play a bigger role in the anti-jihadist coalition in Syria, in a new sign of strains ahead of a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden arrives in Istanbul on Friday for a key three-day visit aimed at finding some common ground with Turkey in the fight against Islamic State (IS) militants who have captured swathes of Iraq and Syria.

Relations between the United States and Turkey, NATO's sole Muslim-majority member state, have hit a rocky period amid divergences on how best to resolve Syria's civil war.

Speaking to reporters at Ankara airport before leaving for a trip to Africa, Erdogan said the coalition "had not made the steps we asked them for".

Turkey has insisted it will only play a major role in the coalition against IS if there is a coherent strategy to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power and if a security zone is set up along its 911-kilometre (566-mile) border with Syria.

The government also so far has refused to allow US forces to carry out bombing raids from the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, forcing them to make far longer sorties from the Gulf.

Ankara also wants the United States to help train and equip a large contingent of rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces to fight against the Assad regime.

Erdogan said that the "parties have not taken any decisive steps towards the train-and-equip plan" for FSA fighters.

"From the no-fly zone to the safety zone, and training and equipping, all these steps have to be taken now.

"But the coalition forces haven't taken the steps we asked them for or suggested to them."

US Secretary of State John Kerry had heartened Turkey on October 8 by declaring that a buffer zone was an idea "worth looking at very, very closely".

But in an indication that little progress may be made on the issue during Biden's visit, a senior US administration official said the idea was off the table for now.

"At the moment, we're not considering a no-fly zone or a buffer zone," said the official in comments posted on the White House website.

But the official played down the divergences between Washington and Ankara, saying these were merely "different ways of achieving our common end."

In Istanbul, Biden will meet individually with Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to discuss cooperation in fighting IS.

Talks will center on "coping with the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflicts on Turkey's southern border," according to a statement from the White House, as well as "countering the threat posed by foreign fighters."

Erdogan however signaled Turkey would not change its position unless its conditions were fulfilled. "Of course Turkey will maintain its stance until this process has been completed."

So far, Turkey's sole contribution to the coalition has been allowing a contingent of Iraqi peshmerga Kurdish fighters to transit Turkish soil to fight IS militants for the Syrian border town of Kobane.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the US Embassy in Ankara confirmed that retired General John Allen, coordinator of the US-led coalition against IS forces in Iraq and Syria, was visiting Ankara on Wednesday on a previously unannounced trip.

"He is meeting with senior Turkish officials as part of ongoing discussions about countering the ISIL threat," the official said.

Biden and Erdogan were involved in a highly-publicised spat last month after the US vice president suggested Ankara had changed its Syria policy after realising it had encouraged the growth of IS.

Erdogan promptly declared that his relationship with Biden would be "history" for him had he said such a thing and the two sides even argued over whether there had been an apology. But the US official said: "It's our view that there's no need for reconciliation," describing the relationship between the pair as "close". Hmmm.....Since when do Islamist Turkish leaders dictate U.S. Foreign Policy?

Yday, WH official: Turkey is already active member of anti-ISIL coalition. Today, Erdogan: Turkey won’t join coalition unless conditions met
— ilhan tanir (@WashingtonPoint) November 19, 2014

Head of US naval intelligence in the Pacific claims China plans quick attack against Japan.

Head of US naval intelligence in the Pacific claims China plans quick attack against Japan.(Alalam).

Head of US naval intelligence in the Pacific claims China is stepping up its training for a “short, sharp war” designed to seize the disputed Senkaku islands from Japan.

Addressing a conference sponsored by the US Naval Institute in San Diego, California, Captain James Fannell said the recent Missing Action 2013 exercises were training for the invasion of the uninhabited archipelago, which China considers as its sovereign territory and refers to as the Diaoyutai Islands.

“We concluded that the [People's Liberation Army] has been given the new task to be able to conduct a short, sharp war to destroy Japanese forces in the East China Sea, following with what can only be expected as the seizure of the Senkakus or even a southern Ryukyu island,” said Capt. Fannell, director of intelligence for the US Pacific Fleet.

The Ryukyu islands are Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture, which China has also recently laid claim to.

“As a senior US government official recently stated, there is growing concern that China’s pattern of behaviour in the South China Sea reflects an incremental effort by China to assert control of the area contained in the so-called ‘nine-dash line,’ despite the objections of its neighbors and despite the lack of any explanation or apparent basis under international law,” Capt. Fannell said.

“By the way, ‘protection of maritime rights’ is a Chinese euphemism for coerced seizure of coastal rights of China’s neighbours,” he added.

Beijing has laid claim to vast swathes of the area based on its sovereignty over the Spratley and Paracel island groups.

China is undeterred by Washington declaring that is does not recognize the “nine-dash line” drawn up by Beijing to encompass its territorial claims – which go as close as 125 miles from the mainland of the Philippines.

Reports suggest that as many as 40,000 service personnel took part in the exercise, which was based on a scenario of invading an island “where China has encountered strong resistance to its claims of territorial or maritime assets”.

An analyst with Japan’s National Institute of Defense Studies said Tokyo has “good reason” to be concerned given that Beijing has deployed an aircraft carrier on operation patrols in the South China Sea and has purchased two large hovercraft, designed to land invasion forces on a beachhead, from the Ukraine.

Beijing has announced that it will develop indigenous versions of the hovercraft as well as a new class of large landing ships, designed to put large numbers of troops and equipment ashore.Hmmm.....The World realy has become a 'much safer place' since Pres Obama is a the helm........'leading from behind the golf course'.

Related: http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/02/06/u-s-official-sees-unprecedented-spike-in-risky-china-activity-in-island-dispute-with-japan/

U.S. stance on disputed islands breaks vow of neutrality: China. - China sends ships in waters around disputed islands.

U.S. stance on disputed islands breaks vow of neutrality: China. - China sends ships in waters around disputed islands.(GM).

Veiled U.S. warnings to Beijing not to challenge Japan’s control of disputed islands encouraged Tokyo’s “dangerously right-leaning” government and “betrayed” Washington’s vow of neutrality, Chinese state media said Saturday.

The comments came as Japan’s coast guard said three Chinese government ships had entered Japanese territorial waters around the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday said the area around the islands in the East China Sea was under Japan’s control and therefore protected under a U.S. security treaty with Tokyo.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington, and without mentioning Beijing directly, she said the U.S. opposed “any unilateral actions” to undermine Japanese authority over the islands.
But in a commentary piece, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua criticised Washington’s position, saying it “cast doubts on [U.S.] credibility as a responsible power in the region.”
It was “unwise” for Washington “to throw support behind Japan in Tokyo’s islands dispute with Beijing”, Xinhua said, adding: “This unbalanced position has betrayed its declared intention to stay neutral on the issue.”
The U.S. proposal for “tighter military alliance with Japan will only encourage Tokyo’s dangerously right-leaning tendency,” Xinhua said.
Three Chinese government surveillance vessels sailed in waters around the disputed islands Saturday for nearly five hours but had all left Japanese waters by 1:52 p.m. (0452 GMT), the Japanese coast guard said.
China has repeatedly sailed into the waters since Japan nationalised the chain in September, a move that triggered anger and demonstrations in China.
The United States insists it is neutral on the ultimate sovereignty of the islands. Hmmmm.....Confucius say: Man who cut self while shaving, lose face. Read the full story here.