The triumph of hope over experience, or merely the kind of thing diplomats are required to say?
]KhaamaPress] The U.S. Special Adviser for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad eyes a peace agreement with the Taliban ...Arabic for students... group ahead of presidential elections.
Ambassador Khalilzad cautiously expressed optimisms regarding the reconciliation between the Afghan government and Taliban and said he expects a breakthrough until April of 2019.
In the meantime, informed sources have told Western media outlets that Ambassador Khalilzad met with the Taliban politicians in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... during separate meetings which lasted for three days.
The meetings were reportedly attended by Taliban leaders Khairullah Khairkhwa and Mohammad Afzal.
According to the reports, the Talibs have demanded the suspension of presidential elections and formation of a transitional government.
Khalilzad arrived in Kabul last week to the meet with the Afghan leaders and officials ahead of his trip to Qatar.
The Office of the President, ARG Palace, said last week that Ambassador Khalilzad briefed President Ghani regarding the ongoing efforts for an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned grinding of the peace processor and his planned trips to certain countries.
Ambassador Khalilzad said he would provide further information once completing his trips to the countries which he had visited earlier.
[KhaamaPress] The Chairman of the JointChiefs of Staff of the U.S. Military General Joseph Dunford has said that the Taliban ...Arabic for students... ’are not losing’ in Afghanistan.
Gen. Joseph Dunford has reportedly made the remarks in a security forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Emphasizing that much more needs to be done to bring peace to the war-torn country, Gen. Dunford has said "They are not losing right now, I think that is fair to say."
Gen. Dunford further added "We used the term stalemate a year ago and, relatively speaking, it has not changed much."
He also added that there would never be a "military solution" on its own to bring peace to Afghanistan, the United States and its NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... partners are working to leverage military, political and economic pressure to convince the Taliban it is in their interest to negotiate a political solution to the crisis with the government in Kabul.
Gen. Dunford has said "Without going into detail here, we do believe the Taliban know that at some point they do have to reconcile. The key to success is to combine all that pressure to incentivize the Taliban" to negotiate.
This comes as the Afghan government and the international allies of Afghanistan are have stepped up efforts to end the ongoing conflict through reconciliation process.
#3
*Facepalm* What will constitute "Victory"? Turning the Afghans into happy, peaceful burghers like the Swiss content to make cuckoo clocks and swiss chocolate? Let's try for an attainable objective: For the next generation(s) they stay at home and only murder their neighbors.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The release by Belgium of the frozen Libyan funds interest has provided more confirmations about the presence of a real threat to Libyan funds frozen abroad, either from the host countries or by the Libyan Investment Corporation, the entity that manages the assets.
The Libya’s sovereign wealth fund said five EU countries paid out money from frozen accounts in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... that once belonged to Muammar Qadaffy ...a proud Arab institution for 42 years, now among the dear departed, though not the dearest... despite international sanctions, according to POLITICO.
Questions about mystery payments from the Libyan dictator’s supposedly frozen billions in Europe have already become a hot political issue in Belgium, because significant sums flowed out of accounts in Brussels.
The LIA said in an emailed statement to POLITICO that Belgium’s government was not alone in taking advantage of a loophole by paying out the interest earned on the frozen money.
"In many jurisdictions (the UK, Belgium, Germany, Italia and Luxembourg for example) the interest and dividends on holdings frozen under the UN sanctions are not frozen," the LIA said through its London-based PR agency Maitland.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2018 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash criticized on Sunday some of the Ottoman Turkish news outlets for fabricating news about Gulf and Arab countries, including the UAE.
He said said in atweet that some of "calculated and influential Ottoman Turkish press" has been "mastering the fabrication of news about Gulf and Arab countries, including the UAE."
He aded that "the experience has taught us that rumors and false news have never been the logic which any wise or responsible people opts for."
He concluded by saying that in addition "it harms the source and deprives him of his remaining credibility."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2018 00:00 ||
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[Clarion Project] Threat analyses of Middle Eastern terror organizations in Latin American countries are now focusing on why Hezbollah is in Argentina.
On November 15, 2018, two Argentine citizens were arrested in Buenos Aires for their suspected connections to Hezbollah. They were discovered in possession of weapons ‐ including a rifle, shotgun and a number of handguns ‐ as well as "credentials in Arabic and an image of the Hezbollah flag" along with evidence of travel abroad.
Just this summer, Argentina’s government initiated a first strike against a Hezbollah fundraising network in the Triple Frontier (the junction between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil), where one of Hezbollah’s cash cow operations engages in drug trafficking and money laundering.
In 2002, the Bush administration identified the Triple Frontier as a hotbed for terrorism finance activities that included Hezbollah. Counter-terrorism experts have identified the Triple Frontier as the most important Hezbollah base outside of Lebanon.
A key question surrounding this story centers around the question of why we’re seeing Hezbollah-specific activity in Argentina. Part of the answer includes the fact that Argentina hosts a large Lebanese expat community. Hezbollah’s staunch anti-Israel views are culturally welcomed in Argentina, which has its own complex history. Argentina became an anti-Semitic conclave after World War II, when many high ranking Nazis fled Europe and found safe haven in Argentina.
Hezbollah’s interests in Argentina might offer the organization unchallenged space for their deep-seated anti-Semitism, but Hezbollah’s primary equity in the region is establishing funding streams. The U.S. State Departments 2015 and 2016 Country Reports on Terrorism concluded that Hezbollah "continued to maintain a presence in the region [Latin America, extending] ... an important regional nexus of arms, narcotics, pirated goods, human smuggling, counterfeiting, money laundering ‐ all potential funding sources for terrorist organizations."
In June of 2018, the Trump administration increased sanctions against Hezbollah, at the same time as a conflict rose with the Lebanese embassy in Paraguay (part of the Triple Border territories). As Foreign Policy reported in an article titled Lebanon is Protecting Hezbollah’s Cocaine Trade in Latin America, "The Lebanese Embassy in Paraguay attempted to block the extradition of alleged Hezbollah financier."
The question of the hour is where else in Latin America is Hezbollah attempting to gain a stronghold?
[DAWN] Police have launched investigations into the Quaidabad kaboom, which killed two teenage boys and maimed 12 other persons on Friday night, and law enforcers said that their assessment suggested involvement of sub-nationalist groups in the deadly incident, it emerged on Saturday.
Two teenagers were killed and 12 other persons, mostly vendors, sustained injuries when a bomb planted under a pushcart went off on Friday night near the Quaidabad flyover.
The dead and maimed were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.
Ten of the injured persons were discharged after first aid, said Dr Seemin Jamali, executive director of the JPMC.
Two seriously injured persons were admitted for treatment. One of them had sustained injuries in the head, but his condition was improving. Another injured person’s leg was amputated to save his life. He was badly injured in the blast and was shifted to the intensive care unit of the hospital, added Dr Jamali.
The funeral of one of the dead teenagers, Ali Hasan, was held in the city on Saturday, which was attended by politicians and officials. He was stated to be the only brother of seven sisters.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...a Pak religious party. It is usually part of the govt, never part of the solution... -Sami (JUI-S) on Saturday said it would not allow exhumation of the body of Maulana Samiul Haq ...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time... for a postmortem as police had got permission from a sessions judge of Rawalpindi in this regard.
"We have not yet received any official or court order regarding exhumation of the body of Shaheed Maulana Samiul Haq, but why will we allow the postmortem today which was refused yesterday (immediately after the incident)," said JUI-S provincial chief Maulana Yousaf Shah.
He said that they had not received any notice regarding postmortem, adding it was the right of heirs of a family to allow police to conduct it or not. He said that in this connection the decision of Shariat Court was also available that the government could not force a family for the postmortem.
The JUI-S leader said that the history showed that the government had never tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! any culprit on the basis of postmortems. He said that the government had failed to arrest the killers so far and now was trying to hide its failure on the pretext of postmortem.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/19/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Tableeghi Jamaat (TJ) Emir Haji Abdul Wahab passed away in Lahore on Sunday at the age of 95 after a prolonged battle with dengue. The holy man's funeral prayer was offered at Raiwind Ijtema Haveli after Maghrib prayer after which he was laid to rest in a graveyard adjacent to the TJ centre in Raiwind.
Maulana Nazarur Rehman led the funeral prayer, which was attended by a large number of devotees, holy mans, members of the TJ council and people belonging to all walks of life.
Haji Abdul Wahab had been admitted to Doctors' Hospital for the past few days after being afflicted with dengue. He also suffered from asthma and was put on life support yesterday, according to a close aide of his belonging to the Tableeghi Jamaat.
Prime Minister Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... expressed grief and sorrow over Haji Wahab's demise, Radio Pakistain reported. He offered his condolences to the bereaved family, and said Haji Wahab's services as a religious scholar will always be remembered.
Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Noorul Haq Qadri expressed deep sorrow over Haji Wahab's demise.
"Haji Abdul Wahab's contribution to religious affairs will always be remembered," he said.
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11/19/2018 00:00 ||
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Sinjar (IraqiNews.com) The relics of seven Iraqi Yazidi victims of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... massacres were found in the mintority’s habitat of Sinjar, west of Iraq, a local official was quoted saying.
Mahma Khalil, Sinjar mayor, was quoted, by Kurdish network Rudaw, saying that a mass grave of seven Yazidi Kurds was found in Kar Azir town, out of whom five were identified.
He said this raises the total number of mass graves discovered since Islamic State snuffies were expelled from the region to 71, a number that is potentially increasable, he clarified.
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[Rudaw] A bloody, age-old custom used by Iraq’s powerful tribes to mete out justice has come under fire, with authorities classifying it as a "terrorist act" punishable by death.
For centuries, Iraqi clans have used their own system to resolve disputes, with tribal dignitaries bringing together opposing sides to mediate in de facto "hearings." If one side failed to attend such a meeting, the rival clan would fire on the absentee’s home or that of fellow rustics, a practice known as the "degga ashairiya" or "tribal warning".
But in an age when Iraq’s vast rural areas and built-up cities alike are flooded with weapons outside state control, the "degga" may be deadlier than ever. A recent dispute between two young men in a tea shop in the capital’s eastern district of Sadr City escalated to near-fatal proportions, leaving a 40-year-old policeman with a broken hip and severely damaged abdomen.
Continued on Page 49
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Four people were tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in southwestern Iran on Sunday as locals joined striking sugar workers in mounting protests over unpaid wages and alleged criminal activity by managers, the official IRNA news agency said.
Protests by workers from the Haft Tapeh sugar company in Shush, a city in Khuzestan province, have been building in recent days.
IRNA said locals had joined the demonstrations on Sunday, without giving numbers.
Those arrested included two local workers’ representatives and a female news hound, it added.
Iran has seen multiple strikes and protests in recent months over working conditions and unpaid wages in a range of sectors, including steel, education, mining and transport.
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11/19/2018 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iranian parties and political forces have reportedly agreed to ally together to set plans and political preparations in motion that aims at "overthrowing the regime in Tehran", according to sources familiar with the groups.
Al Arabiya English received a copy of the statement which stated: "Political parties and forces started a ’joint activity’ to ’form a broader coalition’ despite their clear ideological differences".
According to the statement the forces and parties which agreed to align are the following:
"The Azerbaijan Democratic Alliance, the Democratic and secular republic advocates movement, the Ahwazi Democratic Solidarity Party, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, the Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... People’s Party, the organization of Iranian People's Fedai, the Provisional Council of the Socialist Left, the Kurdish rebels movement (Komola)".
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
the 
