The International Atomic Energy Agency rejected a proposal submitted by Arab and Muslim countries to impose on the Zionist entity joining the International Organization for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The Zionist officials considered IAEA as a victory for the Israeli diplomacy.
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The US Department of Defense says American warplanes have launched new airstrikes against the ISIL terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.
The Pentagon said on Friday that 10 airstrikes were carried out in Iraq and Syria targeting ISIL on Thursday and Friday, destroying several tanks, armed vehicles and militant bases.
In Iraq, the US military said it demolished a guard shack and three four-wheel drive military vehicles as well as a checkpoint and command and control node belonging to ISIL. There were also three strikes on ISIL targets in eastern Syria.
A UK-based Syrian opposition group said on Friday that the US-led coalition has bombed oil facilities in east and northeast Syria, where the ISIL pumps oil.
The insurgents have reportedly stopped oil extraction in the eastern province of Deir al-zawr, following the strikes there.
The United States has conducted dozens of airstrikes against ISIL targets in Iraq since mid-August.
The US-led military campaign against the ISIL terrorists in Syria began on Monday, without Damascus’ permission. This is seen as illegal under international law.
Fighter aircraft from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have taken part in the airstrikes in Syria. French fighter jets have struck ISIL targets in Iraq.
The ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, control large parts of Syria’s northern territory. ISIL sent its fighters into Iraq in June, quickly seizing vast expanse of land straddling the border between the two countries.
The ISIL terrorists have captured several oilfields in Syria and neighboring Iraq. They rely on them as a vital source of income. According to reports, ISIL is currently in control of seven oil fields in Iraq and large amounts of the country’s wheat supplies.
The output capacity of the ISIL-held oil fields amounts to 80,000 barrels a day, said the International Energy Agency (IEA) in a monthly oil market report last month.
The potential oil flow from Iraq’s ISIL-held deposits is commensurate to about $8.4 million a day on international markets.
AHT/GJH
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been summoned to appear in a federal court in New York over accusations of human rights abuses in 2002.
The Indian premier has been given 21 days to respond to the summons by the US Federal Court of the Southern District of New York.
“Within 21 days after service of this summons on you…you must serve on the plaintiff an answer to the attached complaint. If you fail to respond, judgment by default will be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint,” the summons read, referring to the Indian prime minister.
The American Justice Center, a human rights group, filed a civil case against Modi on Thursday over allegations of human rights abuses during the outbreak of an anti-Muslim riot in the western Indian state of Gujarat in 2002.
“It is clear that justice for the plaintiffs cannot be obtained in India because of the condoning of this genocidal act of state-sanctioned terrorism,” read the petition, issued by the rights group on behalf of the victims of the riot.
India’s Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that the government will examine the summons.
The Indian premier is scheduled to arrive in New York late Friday, where he will present a speech during the UN General Assembly session. He will then leave for a meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington.
Modi had been denied a visitor’s visa to the United States for almost 10 years for what was described as his inability to stop deadly religious rioting in 2002, when he was the governor of Gujarat. However, he was eventually acquitted of all charges by a panel appointed by the Indian Supreme Court.
GMA/HSN/SS
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian national unity government, has slammed the Israeli regime for the ‘war of genocide’ it imposed on the Gaza Strip.
Abbas berated the Tel Aviv regime for the brutal military aggression against the besieged Palestinian territory in an address to the 69th session of the UN General Assembly on Friday.
Israel unleashed aerial attacks on Gaza in early July and later expanded its military campaign with a ground invasion into the Palestinian territory. Over 2,130 Palestinians lost their lives and some 11,000 were injured.
Abbas said what Israel did in nearly two months of conflict was “a series of absolute war crimes carried out before the eyes and ears of the entire world.”
The Palestinian official called for the Israeli regime to face justice for its atrocities in Gaza, saying, “We will not forget and we will not forgive, and we will not allow war criminals to escape punishment.”
Earlier this week, the Palestinian leader said Palestine would seek membership in international institutions and agencies including the Hague-based International Criminal Court in a bid to open the door to investigate war crimes charges against Israel.
Abbas also said Palestinians want justice to be served regarding the ongoing construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.
His comments against the Israeli regime come shortly after the Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah made a breakthrough in direct talks to form a national unity government in the Gaza Strip, a move which greatly angered Tel Aviv.
FNR/HSN/SS
A German inquiry panel has questioned two employees of the country’s spy agency, BND, in its investigation of US wiretapping methods in the country, Press TV reports.
The hearing sought to determine how close ties between the BND and US National Security Agency (NSA) have been and whether data belonging to German citizens were collected and transferred to the US.
The panel questioned the director of BND’s monitoring base in Bad Aibling, which is known for its cooperation with the NSA, and another BND official.
The witnesses claimed that the BND only focused on “force protection,” meaning the safety of German soldiers in foreign missions and rejected accusations of huge data espionage and extensive cooperation with the NSA.
Following the inquiry meeting, Hans-Christian Strobele, a German MP and a member of the Parliamentary Control Panel overseeing the BND, said he was very dissatisfied with the witnesses as they did not answer very vital questions.
Christian Flisek, a member of the inquiry panel, also commented after the hearing, saying “my impression of the BND in Bad Aibling is something like an outsourced subcontractor of American services, also of the NSA.”
Flisek continued by saying data is being recorded through a satellite monitoring system for the US and it is the panel’s responsibility to find out what is being done with the gathered data.
The meeting was one of several held during the past five months and the panel has reportedly had zero progress.
It was recently revealed that the German government is holding back hundreds of documents regarding BND-NSA cooperation.
The government’s move is causing a rift between German parliamentarians and the Federal government, with the opposition Greens saying they are seriously considering a constitutional challenge aimed at getting the documents released.
The NSA inquiry came in the wake of last year’s revelations by US whistleblower Edward Snowden about US and UK spy agencies’ surveillance programs.
Leaked documents released last October revealed that the NSA had been tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone, which provoked outrage in Germany.
CAH/HMV/SS
The US chief negotiator in the nuclear talks with Iran says the Sextet of powers and Tehran have made progress in the course of their ongoing meetings in New York.
“I believe we are making progress,” Wendy Sherman said in a Thursday interview, adding, “That said, there are still some very crucial decisions that need to be made.”
Sherman described the current round of negotiations as “very, very complicated” and “very technically detailed,” saying, “I think we have made progress while we’ve been here during the UN General Assembly and many leaders and virtually every foreign minister of the P5+1 (Sextet of powers) has had a bilateral with Iran, and it has helped to improve our understanding.”
The US negotiator noted that the parties to the negotiations should make changes in their approaches.
Sherman pointed to the prospect of removing the sanctions against Iran if the nuclear talks achieve a final deal, saying, “I have to tell you as soon as we suspend our major sanctions – which will happen very early in the agreement – the world will flood into Iran. Many international delegations have already been to Iran and so they will begin to see what they can do.”
On Friday, senior Iranian negotiator Abbas Araqchi said nuclear talks between Iran and the Sextet have reached a breathtaking stage.
Iran and the six world powers – the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany – are currently in talks to work out a final accord that would end the dispute over Tehran’s civilian nuclear work.
The two sides clinched an interim deal in Geneva, Switzerland, last November. The agreement took effect on January 20 and expired six months later. In July, they agreed to extend the negotiations until November 24 amid differences over a number of key issues.
ASH/HMV/SS
Iraq’s President Fuad Masum has praised Iran as the first country to provide weapons to Iraq to fight against the ISIL Takfiri terrorists.
Speaking at the US Council of Foreign Relations, Masum also noted that Iran was the first country to provide humanitarian aid for the people of Sinjar, a town in northwestern Iraq which was attacked by the ISIL in early summer.
The Iraqi president noted that Baghdad and Tehran share mutual interests as two neighbors.
Masum argued that the ISIL did not assist the Sunni Iraqi citizens and merely forced them to flee their homes in Mosul.
Iran has repeatedly stressed that it will not interfere militarily in Iraq, but promised to provide aid to the country in the course of its fight against ISIL.
Since early this year, Iraq has been facing a growing militancy by ISIL Takfiri group and its allied militants, who have taken over areas in the country’s west and north. The crisis has deteriorated since June, when the ISIL declared a so-called caliphate in the territories they have seized.
Mosul, which is Iraq’s second largest city, has been also captured during militants’ rapid advance across the country. The ISIL cult destroyed a number of historic landmarks in the city last month, including several mosques and shrines.
The ISIL terrorists have threatened all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians and Izadi Kurds, in Iraq. They have been committing heinous crimes in the areas they have taken, including the mass execution of civilians as well as Iraqi army troops and officers.
ASH/HMV/SS
Homage has been paid to Press TV’s slain correspondent, Maya Nasser, who was fatally shot by foreign-sponsored militants while reporting on air in the violence-plagued Syria capital Damascus two years ago.
Nasser, who used to report from the frontlines of the Syrian conflict and his video reports from war-torn Aleppo were a valuable source of on-the-ground information, was killed by sniper fire on September 26, 2012, while reporting on bombings in Damascus.
Hosein Mortada, who serves as Damascus bureau chief for both the English-language Press TV and Arabic-language Al-Alam news networks, was wounded in the same attack.
They were covering the aftermath of massive twin explosions that had hit the Syrian army headquarters in Damascus.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Syria ranks as the most dangerous country in the world for journalists.
Since the start of the foreign-backed military in Syria, at least 65 journalists have been killed, more than 80 have been abducted, and approximately 30 are still missing.
Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011 with ISIL Takfiri terrorists currently controlling parts of it mostly in the east.
More than 191,000 people have been killed in over three years of fighting in the war-ravaged country, says the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), calling the figure a probable “underestimate of the real total number of people killed.”
MP/HMV/SS
The US government’s attempt to encircle Russia and other “increasingly dangerous behavior” in Eastern Europe, including in neighboring Ukraine, is provoking Moscow to stand up against these “confrontational policies,” says a political commentator in San Antonio, Texas.
The Kremlin has demonstrated that “if the United States is going to play this kind of game of encirclement of Russia, the United States is going to play this kind of game with what it’s been encouraging in the Ukraine, the United States is going to be introducing NATO weaponry into former Eastern Bloc countries…the Russians are going to stand up to this,” said Mark Dankof, a broadcaster and former US Senate candidate.
According to top US commanders, the Pentagon is increasingly concerned by long-range Russian bombers flying near American airspace.
Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of the US military’s Pacific Command, issued the warning on Thursday after US jets intercepted six Russian Bear long-range bombers that neared US airspace off Alaska last week.
In August, US military officials said that Russian strategic nuclear bombers conducted at least 16 incursions into northwestern US and Canadian air defense zones over a 10-day period.
“The Russians are basically conveying with these flights that have been nearing American territory that two can play this game,” Dankof told Press TV on Friday.
“The United States has no one to blame but itself for this increasingly dangerous behavior that is in fact provoking the Russians to demonstrate that they’re not going to be pushed around,” he stated.
The United States and Russia are at loggerheads over the conflict in Ukraine, where pro-Russian forces have been fighting for control of eastern provinces.
Washington and its Western allies accuse Moscow of fueling unrest in eastern Ukraine by supplying arms to the pro-Russian forces. An accusation denied by the Kremlin.
The conflict has dragged US-Russia relations to their lowest levels since the Cold War.
AHT/GJH
US President Barack Obama’s indecisive foreign policy is showing that he is easily manipulated and lacks the conviction or the fortitude to stand up to the establishment’s war machine, an international lawyer and political commentator says.
Barry Grossman, who is based in Indonesia’s Bali island, made the remarks on Friday during a phone interview with Press TV while commenting on Obama’s speech at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
In his speech, the US president strongly criticized Russia over its actions in Ukraine, the Syrian government over its fight against foreign-sponsored militants, but Obama made only a “fleeting” reference to Israel and did not mention the death and destruction caused by the Zionist regime with its military assault on Gaza.
“If we look carefully at President Obama’s foreign policy since Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton resigned after spearheading the Libya fiasco, one could be forgiven for thinking that while unlike George Bush he has been mostly inclined to steer away from full scale foreign military adventures, he clearly has lost his confidence and his way,” Grossman said.
“Indeed, we could be forgiven for thinking that he is isolated and frightened. After all, it’s not like there is an abundance of foreign policy moderates in the United States political, security and policy making apparatus,” he added.
“Increasingly, it’s looking like, despite his best efforts, President Obama is being manipulated and played by neocon elements, hawks and ‘ziopatic’ moles within the establishment who are themselves for the most part beholding to various special interests.
“Increasingly, it’s looking like Obama is finding himself on the back foot as, worried about his legacy, he chooses to be a slave to public opinion carefully manipulated with fabricated intelligence and a mainstream, corporate media which long ago stopped concerning itself both with reality and with ‘right and wrong’.
“He was played in the Ukraine. He was played on GITMO. He was played on his policy of withdrawal from Iraq. He was stampeded into his new policy on Syria, entirely on the strength of staged ISIS videos sold to the security apparatus by a two-bit Israeli shyster posing as a private intelligence contractor.
“Much to the joy of America’s Defense Industry contractors and to Israel, the United States is now not only back in Iraq but has also done a complete 180 on Obama’s 2013 policy regarding bombing Syria.
“GITMO is still going strong.
“The drone war rages on despite Obama’s attempt to wrest control of the fleet from the CIA and micromanage its operation from the White House through the State Department.
“In the lead up to Israel’s election, Obama found himself in a position to actually take a stand against [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu and his government’s policies. It looked like he won the first few rounds and even left AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee] red faced as he rightly opposed further sanctions on Iran.
“But all we have seen that in the long run, Obama simply doesn’t have the conviction or the fortitude to stand up to the special interests — the special interests which drive US foreign policy.
“America’s approach to foreign policy has become like a circus of the absurd. It is like a dying man treating his cancer by using a machete hack a benign tumor from his neighbor’s chest.
“A person’s contribution to public affairs should never exceed their capacity for critical self-examination. And Obama presidency has become a violation of that axiom.
“My view is that President Obama is only a man of words. He has lost control of his own foreign policy. First he was duped and he is now being played hoisted on his own petard, as they say. I don’t see any easy way out but it of this catastrophe for him.
“Like the drone war, he thought he could micromanage his new war policy with Syria, but it’s managing him. He thought he could bring peace to Palestine, but in reality he can hardly mention the word ‘Palestinian’ with wrapping it up in tributes to Israel and its so-called right to self-defense.
“In his UN speech, he made no reference to the thousands of Palestinian victims in the Gaza massacre. He also made no reference to the fact that in the 9 years since the second intifada, the number of Israeli deaths from so-called Palestinian acts of terror alleged by Israel, has dropped almost 95% over the entire 9 year period by comparison to those claimed by Israel during the 4 years in which the second intifada took place.
“If I could say one thing to Obama right now, it would be that no matter how far a person goes down the wrong path, it is always best and never too late to turn back in order to find the right path.”
GJH/GJH