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The US and Israel on Monday continued a war of words over the framework deal with Iran. After Saudi media slammed the agreement as a betrayal, the kingdom officially praised it. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said the deal would not bring Iran closer to the West and would only bolster its aspirations for Middle East hegemony. He was speaking on the evening news, directly after an interview with White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes.
Earlier Monday, Niv Asraf, a young man from Beersheba who disappeared in the West Bank last Thursday, was thought kidnapped and then found by security forces, said he was “sorry” for the hassle and damage he caused police and the military. He denied staging his kidnapping; the police said he was lying.
The Times of Israel liveblogged events as they unfolded.
Major Syrian opposition groups absent from Moscow talks
The Syria truce talks in Moscow, starting Monday, will not include a main Western-backed opposition group in exile, the National Coalition, while a leading opposition activist remains inside Damascus, subject to a travel ban.
The closed-door discussions are expected to focus on humanitarian issues and serve as a way for Russia, a main backer of the Syrian regime, to build its profile as a potential mediator in the conflict.
They follow on from a similar round of meetings between the government and officially tolerated opposition in Moscow in late January that failed to make any concrete progress towards resolving the deep-rooted conflict.
— AFP
At least 53 dead in clashes in Yemen’s Aden
At least 53 people have been killed in 24 hours of clashes between rebels and loyalist fighters in Yemen’s main southern city Aden, medical and army sources say.
Seventeen civilians were among those killed in Aden since Sunday, as well as 10 fighters loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour al-Hadi, a medic says.
At least 26 rebels were killed, according to an army source, who said dozens more people were wounded in the fighting across several Aden neighborhoods.
Witnesses say that clashes continued on Monday as rebels tried to seize the city’s port.
President al-Hadi took refuge in Aden in February after the Shi’ite Houthi rebels seized power in the capital Sanaa, but left for Saudi Arabia last month as the rebels advanced on the city.
— AFP
Kenyan war planes strike Shebab camps in Somalia
Kenyan fighter jets bombed two camps of the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents in southern Somalia, the army says, days after the Islamists carried out their worst ever massacre in Kenya.
“We bombed two Shebab camps in the Gedo region,” Kenyan army spokesman David Obonyo tells AFP. “The two targets were hit and taken out, the two camps are destroyed.”
— AFP
‘Digital Holocaust’ intended to start today
The Anonymous hacker cooperative threatens a “digital Holocaust” against Israeli websites, scheduled to start today and ending tomorrow, on Tuesday. A message sent by Anonymous last month said the planned cyber-attack comes as a punishment for Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
According to Israel Radio, 2015 is the fourth year in which Anonymous hackers attack Israeli websites. In previous years, the damage from the cyber-attacks was minor.
A previous Anonymous’ Op-Israel banner (photo credit: screenshot)
Coalition talks scheduled to continue today
Coalition talks are scheduled to continue on Monday.
Likud representatives are expected to meet Jewish Home representatives. According to Israel Radio, Likud officials believe Jewish Home’s demands exceed their power (eight MKs), while in Jewish Home there is still fear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is looking to form a unity government.
Dutchman held by AQIM Islamists freed in Mali: France
A Dutch national kidnapped nearly four years ago in northern Mali’s Timbuktu by AQIM (al Qaida in Mali) Islamists was freed this morning in a French military operation, France’s defense ministry says.
“The Dutch hostage Sjaak Rijke, kidnapped in Timbuktu on November 25, 2011,” was freed during “military action carried out by the French army’s special forces,” says the ministry’s statement.
— AFP
Turkey blocks Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
Turkey blocks access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube over the publication of an image of a Turkish prosecutor being held by leftist militants during a hostage standoff which resulted in his death.
The sites were inaccessible for many users in Turkey, with the Hurriyet newspaper saying that service providers got an order from prosecutors to block Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
YouTube.com ran the text of a court ruling on its site saying an “administration measure” had been implemented by the country’s telecommunications authority (TIB).
— AFP
Tibi says Israel’s freezing of tax money an act of ‘piracy’
Joint (Arab) List MK Ahmed Tibi says Israel rejected the Palestinian Authority’s request for mediation regarding the PA debt to the Israel Electric Company, Israel Radio reports.
According to Tibi, tax money collected by Israel on behalf of the PA “serves to penalize it every time the PA takes a diplomatic step not palatable to the occupier.”
He adds that withholding the funds is an act of “piracy,” and does not stand up to legal scrutiny, and that the PA will prevail if it takes the matter to the International Criminal Court at the Hague.
MK Ahmad Tibi participates in a panel discussion at the Israel Conference on Democracy, in Tel Aviv on February 17, 2015. (photo credit: Amir Levy/Flash90)
Tibi also speaks of PM Netanayhu, who “was once the darling of the international community but today is cornered for his negative behavior and position with the White House.”
The MK was referring to the Palestinian Authority’s refusal on Sunday to accept the withheld tax money Israel transferred, since the government subtracted an amount to cover a portion of the PA’s debts to Israeli service companies.
Israel started freezing the tax money last year, when the Fatah government in Ramallah signed a unity deal with Hamas in Gaza.
Bangladesh Islamist loses appeal against hanging
A Bangladeshi Islamist leader lost his final appeal Monday against a death sentence for overseeing a massacre during the 1971 independence war, sparking protests by his supporters that left one dead.
Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, the third most senior figure in the Jamaat-e-Islami party, could now be hanged within days or even hours for the slaughter at the so-called “Village of Widows”.
His lawyer Shishir Manir said authorities have asked Kamaruzzaman’s family to meet him at Dhaka’s main jail later Monday “for an emergency meeting”.
“It seems the authorities are making preparations to execute him,” Manir told AFP.
— AFP
Israel poses ’10 questions’ to Iran negotiation team
Israel posed 10 questions to the US-led negotiators with Iran that underlined “the extent of the irresponsible concessions given to Iran” in the framework agreement reached last Thursday, and made clear “how dangerous the framework is for Israel, the region and the world,” in the words of the document.
The document was distributed by Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, a Likud party member and confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Read the full story here.
Iraqi PM reportedly says Islamic State ‘verging on collapse’
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al–Abadi says Islamic State is “on the verge of total collapse.”
According to Israel Radio, the Iraqi PM held a press conference in the city of Irbil after meeting Kurdish leader Masoud Barazani and says that in the last battles in Tikrit “IS fighters fled like blocks of salt” and that Iraqi forces were surprised at how quickly they surrendered.
Saudi Arabia supports Lausanne interim deal
Saudi Arabia’s cabinet says it welcomes the understandings reached between Iran and world powers in Lausanne, Switzerland last week, regarding the future of Iran’s nuclear program.
According to Reuters, the kingdom hopes a final deal would rid the region of weapons of mass destruction.
“The council of ministers expressed hope for attaining a binding and definitive agreement that would lead to the strengthening of security and stability in the region and the world,” a statement carried by state news agency (SPA) says.
Saudi Arabia hopes a final deal would pave the way for a “Middle East and Arabian Gulf region free of all weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons,” it continues.
The statement stressed a need for “good neighborliness and non-interference in the affairs of Arab states,” apparently referring to Iran’s backing of Shiite rebels in Yemen.
Families denied entry to national park for having bread
A Tel Aviv couple has filed a discrimination complaint after witnessing families being denied entry to Afula’s city park on Sunday, for having bread in their possession.
The couple said they were surprised to discover the guard at the municipal park’s entrance looking through visitors’ belongings to check if anyone had any hametz (leavened food).
Michal Avivi, who described the incident in a Facebook post as “embarrassing and shameful,” said whole families were either turned away at the entrance or were forced to eat their picnics outside the park’s premises.
“In a 2015 Israel, people’s bags are being searched for food. Not weapons or bombs, food,” Avivi wrote.
“I had a hard time walking past the people outside who were being punished and ignore the brutal trampling of democratic values right in front of me,” she continued.
According to the letter of the Hametz Law, it is forbidden to sell or present hametz from noon on the eve of Passover to sundown eight days later. The law discusses merchants but says nothing about consumers.
The law is not applied in communities where Jews are a minority. Businesses selling hametz in violation of the law usually pay fines, and many restaurant owners decide the profits from selling hametz on Passover are well worth the fines paid, since traditionally Israelis who do not keep kosher have less choice on Passover and these restaurants have greater revenue during that week.
— Tamar Pileggi
Islamists reportedly kidnap 300 Kurds in Syria
Islamist fighters on Monday kidnapped some 300 Kurdish civilians at a checkpoint in northwestern Syria, Kurdish officials and a local journalist tell AFP.
Officials in Europe with the main Kurdish party in Syria, the Democratic Union Party, say the Kurds were kidnapped as they traveled from the town of Afrin to the nearby city of Aleppo to collect salaries.
A journalist from Afrin confirmed the kidnapping, saying that the Islamists had taken the men and children in the group but freed the women.
— AFP
Hamas arrests Salafi sheikh in Gaza over IS ties
Hamas forces in Gaza arrested a radical Salafist sheikh, accusing him of membership in the Islamic State (IS) group, a security source says.
“Adnan Khader Mayat from the Bureij refugee camp (in central Gaza) was arrested as part of an investigation,” the source tells AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity and without giving further details.
Sources close to the Salafists say Mayat was arrested on Sunday “by the Hamas government security services who fight mujahedeen who belong to the Salafist movement.”
Hamas forces have in the past cracked down hard on Salafist groups in the coastal enclave.
In a separate statement, sources close to Salafists who are currently being held behind bars accuse the Islamist movement of “continuing its raids among our brothers and sons,” denouncing the recent arrest of their two younger members.
“These actions will lead to an escalation which nobody wants,” it warned.
In recent months, there have been a number statements claiming minor attacks that were signed by “the Islamic State-Gaza governorate” but most were dismissed on jihadist forums.
So far, no Gaza-based movement has publicly pledged allegiance to IS, but experts say such claims in the future may show a desire on the part of local factions to be included in the IS fold.
They also point to a growing loss of control by the Gaza authorities and the growth of radical elements, who have become increasingly visible since last summer’s deadly 50-day war with Israel.
— AFP
Egypt readying for 3rd phase of building Gaza buffer zone
Egyptian security forces are close to completing the second stage of a buffer zone between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, according to a report in Al-Masry Al-Youm, an Egyptian newspaper.
The buffer zone aims to eliminate the numerous cross-border smuggling tunnels. A security official in the northern Sinai tells the paper that the tunnels, which extend more than 2 kilometers from the border into the peninsula, “are dangerous because they are technically equipped.”
The tunnels are equipped with phone lines and other means of communications used by armed groups, the official says.
In the second stage of the buffer zone, more than 1,150 out of a total of 1,220 houses near the border with Gaza were reportedly destroyed. Even more homes will be demolished during construction of the third phase, which will further expand the buffer zone.
“The government will definitely expand the area of the buffer zone to start the third phase, which includes an additional 1,000 meters, in order to guarantee the destruction of the border tunnels and prevent armed groups from using them for attacks against police and military,” Al MAsry al-Youm quotes the official as saying.
Niv Asraf apologizes for ‘disappearing’
Niv Asraf, who was presumed kidnapped last week but turned out to have been hiding, says he is “sorry for everything that happened.”
Asraf claims he has been the victim of harassment by career criminals and that he filed numerous complaints with Beersheba police but was ignored. “I received a phone call from which I knew there was no turning back,” he says. “I’d rather disappear than to have been done in.” Asraf even added “if I really wanted to fabricate a kidnapping, no one would have found me.”
Eran Negauker, 22-year-old from Beer Sheva, seen at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on April 06, 2015, a few days after Niv Asraf (not seen) was found in Kiryat Arba after being falsely reported as missing. (Photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)
He accuses police of ignoring his past complaints, saying “what did the Israel police come to that I need to run away in the [Palestinian] territories? I’m not a kid who gets involved with such things. I’m used to transporting prisoners, not to have hand cuffs on my own hands, but I’d prefer it than to be buried inside a tallit [as is Jewish custom].”
Asraf also says he is willing to work as an agent against the people he alleges threatened him.
Police on Monday opposed a court’s decision to release Asraf, and Eran Nagaoker, a career soldier and Asraf’s accomplice. The two were let go free, without even an interim period of house arrest. Police intends to file an indictment against Asraf later this week and says his account of events to the media on Monday differs from his testimony when interrogated when he was found.
Niv Asraf (C) and his friend Eran Negauker (L), 22-year-olds from Beer Sheva, are seen at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for remand extension on April 3, 2015, a morning after Asraf was found in Kiryat Arba after being falsely reported as missing. (Photo credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90)
“These claims lack a factual basis. There is no registry of a complaint by Asraf at the Beersheba police accounts, and if he would have filed a complaint it would be handled appropriately,” says an official statement by Beersheba Police.
Regarding Asraf’s proposal to work as an agent, police says that “since this relates to intelligence aspects that include the matter of personal privacy and immunity, we cannot comment at this time.”
Iraq PM says ‘only’ 152 homes, shops burned in Tikrit
Iraq’s prime minister says that “only” 152 homes and shops were burned in Tikrit, where pro-government forces have been accused of carrying out abuses after retaking the city.
Haider al-Abadi does not specify who burned the structures or when the fires took place, but pro-government militiamen have admitted to torching houses in other recaptured areas and allegedly did so in Tikrit as well.
Security forces and allied paramilitaries retook the city last week from the Islamic State (IS) group, which overran large parts of the country last year, but misconduct has marred Baghdad’s biggest victory yet over the jihadists.
“Only 67 houses and… around 85 stores were burned, and it is a very small number for a city with a population of 100,000 people,” Abadi tells a news conference in the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil.
He says those figures were confirmed by top officials including the governor and police chief of Salaheddin province, of which Tikrit is the capital.
— AFP
US energy secretary says Iran deal ‘based upon limitations, not trust’
United States Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz says during the White House briefing to reporters on Monday that international monitoring of Iran’s nuclear program within the confines of a future deal will give the international community “Unprecedented access in terms of the entire supply chain… It’s quite a strong arrangement.”
Moniz adds that the mechanism to “snap back” sanctions on Iran should it violate the agreement, is such that “no country has a veto power.”
US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz (Photo credit: US Government/Public Domain)
Asked about the production of plutonium, Moniz, who is a nuclear physicist by education, explains that “nuclear reactors produce plutonium, you cannot avoid it at some level.” He explains that Iranian reactors will be reconfigured to produce as minimal as possible a quantity of plutonium which will then – according to the deal – be shipped out of the country.
Moniz was asked by a journalist whether the US trusts Iran to stick to the agreement.
“This is not built upon trust; this is built upon hard-nosed requirements and limitations on what they do,” he says.
He also rejects reports that the English and Persian official accounts of the understandings reached in Lausanne differ widely. “Right now, there’s a different narrative, but not in conflict with what’s written down, just selective,” he says, implying that the Iranians are emphasizing the parts of the deal which are easier to sell to the leadership back in Tehran. “The reactions we are receiving [on the bullet-by-bullet document issued by the White House], there is a certain level of amazement at the specificity” of the document, he says.
‘You will never see a McDonald’s opening in Tehran’
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon says that “security relations [with the US] are really very good,” despite the “deep-seated difference of opinion” Israel has with the White House over Iran, which Ya’alon terms “an existential issue.”
Defense Minister Moshe Boogie Yaalon speaks to students at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, on March 4, 2015. (Photo credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90
Speaking live to Channel 2 news immediately after the airing of an interview with White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, Ya’alon disagrees with Rhodes’ praise of the Iran deal, saying that “as they speak about the number of centrifuges, Iran takes over Yemen… the Golan Heights, Hezbollah – this doesn’t even need mentioning – and all these things were not mentioned in the negotiations.”
“There is obviously a threat here to the State of Israel,” Ya’alon says, and instead of blocking [Iran], they pave its road,” retroactively whitewashing “all its violations of international treaties.”
Asked what Israel can do, Ya’alon says “we have not yet exhausted” all options. The final agreement, he said, “has yet to be written and signed, and there are many holes. It is the prime minister’s duty to bring these to the surface, as he indeed does.”
Asked whether Israel is being “paranoid” in its reaction to the deal, Ya’alon says “I suggest you listen to Arab countries, what they say behind closed doors, not to the media. We have a new situation here with a common enemy and common interests.”
Ya’alon emphasizes that despite Netanyahu’s disagreement with Obama on the Iranian issue, the US “are listening to us very well and channels are open.” Asked again whether cooperation on defense matters suffered due to the two leaders differences of opinion, Ya’alon answers emphatically: “certainly not, certainly not.”
The almost ceaseless locking of horns between Netanyahu and Obama comes “not from obsession [by Netanyahu] but by a worldview we do not share” on Iran.
Ya’alon warns that regardless of US overtures, and the White House’s apparent acceptance of Shiite Iran’s aspirations to become a Middle Eastern powerhouse, the West will not open up to Iran.
“You will not see a McDonald’s opening in Tehran. ‘Death to America’ was chanted in Iran even as President Obama was making his Nowruz greetings recently.”
Joint (Arab) List calls to ‘implement Lausanne understandings on Israel’
The Joint (Arab) List calls on the international community to implement the understandings of Lausanne on Israel as well, NRG reports.
“Israel is the only nuclear country still refusing to sign international treaties and threatening the countries of the region,” says a statement from the party.
Israel’s nuclear capabilities have been reported by foreign media outlets but never confirmed by the government.
“While the understandings of Lausanne are being praised all over the world, including by Iran, Israel is the only country that goes against them. The agreement taking shape safeguards the interests of all sides and prevents a nuclear arms race in the region, and is thus an important step for maintaining regional stability.”
Members of the party, unnamed in the NRG report, attack Netanyahu for his refusal to accept the deal with Iran as is and say his “incitement and aggressive rhetoric against the deal, winning the silent approval of the entire political system, exposes a colonialist worldview.”
The party also says the government may be the target of sanctions as long as it refuses to commit to international treaties, as a result of Netanyahu’s “aggressiveness.”
UN Security Council demands aid access to Yarmouk
The UN Security Council demands aid access to the Palestinian Yarmouk camp in Syria, where thousands of Palestinian refugees are besieged by Assad loyalists on one side and Islamic State fighters who overran the camp last week on the other.
— AFP
Clinton ‘may announce presidential bid at any moment’
Staffers hired for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign have no idea when she’ll announce her candidacy, according to a report by CNN, but according to The Hill, a news website covering American politics, have been told that they must be prepared to start their campaign roles at any moment starting Monday.
When Clinton launches her campaign by traveling to Iowa and New Hampshire, the network also reported, she will not be accompanied by her husband, former president Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton speaks to reporters at United Nations headquarters, March 10, 2015. (photo credit: AP/Seth Wenig)
Until then, they are working out of an office meant for her personal staff, according to the report. The campaign-in-waiting’s digital team has reportedly been operating out of the space’s kitchen.
The team is also reportedly considering various aspects of messaging for the campaign, which is expected to launch in the next few weeks after Clinton signed a lease on office space in Brooklyn.
Clinton is expected to announce her campaign in the coming weeks, The Hill reports. By signing the lease on the office space, she started the clock on the 15 days the Federal Election Commission gives candidates from starting campaign activity to announcing their candidacy. She could also announce sooner.
French PM joins solidarity campaign with Kenya
Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, tweets “Je suis Kenyan” in solidarity with the African country devastated by a terror attack Thursday where terrorists shot to death 150 people in the Garissa University College.
The hashtag echoes the slogan “Je suis Charlie” which became popular after the terror attack on the Charlie Hebdo editorial offices in Paris last year.
#JeSuisKenyan pic.twitter.com/XNiypylBXQ
— Manuel Valls (@manuelvalls) April 6, 2015
Boulder JCC receives letter with white powder
The Jewish community center in Boulder, Colorado, evacuated its building after an employee received a threatening letter containing unidentified white powder.
The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said the letter, opened Monday morning, said “your [sic] have enemies,” several local media outlets reported.
Employees who came in contact with the letter have been put under quarantine. The local health department, fire department and Hazmat team are on the scene.
The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office later determined that the white powder in the letter was “benign” and not harmful to humans. In addition, a Boulder synagogue, Congregation Har HaShem, reported that it had just received a similar letter.
— JTA
Lavrov says Iran deal won’t create Mideast arms race
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov assesses that understandings with Iran on its nuclear program will not bring about a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
If the Lausanne framework agreement becomes a final deal, Lavrov is quoted by a Russian news agency as saying, Iran will be subject to very strict monitoring.
Lavrov adds that implementing the deal and removing sanctions currently imposed on Iran will benefit Moscow, which is still waiting for payments over the deal between Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear company, and the Iranian government. Rosatom won the tender to build the Iranian nuclear reactor in Bushehr.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (center) and others wait for a P5+1 meeting at the Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 28, 2015. (photo credit: AFP/Brendan Smialowski, Pool)
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