Archive for month: September, 2014

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says his country’s intelligence sources have warned of ISIL plans to carry out attacks on subway systems in the United States and France.

On Thursday, Abadi said captive ISIL Takfiri militants have told Iraqi intelligence agents of the alleged plot.

The comments were made on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.

The Iraqi premier said he was informed of the purported plot by officials in Baghdad, noting that the plan involves French and US nationals who had joined the ISIL militants in Iraq.

“Today, while I’m here I’m receiving accurate reports from Baghdad that there were arrests of a few elements and there were networks from inside Iraq to have attacks…on metros of Paris and US,” Abadi said, adding, “They are not Iraqis. Some of them are French, some of them are Americans. But they are in Iraq.”

Abadi stated that the plot has not been thwarted yet and that Washington has already been alerted.

The Iraqi army has been fighting ISIL terrorists. The militants currently control large areas of Syria’s east and north. They sent their Takfiri militants into Iraq in June, seizing large parts of land along the border between Syria and Iraq.

ISIL terrorists have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations and crucifixions.

Western leaders have been voicing concern over the expansion of ISIL’s terror operations beyond the Middle East. They are concerned that citizens who have joined the Takfiri group will engage in terrorist activities after returning home.

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The Yemeni government has reduced fuel prices by around 15 percent following a deal with the Ansarullah revolutionaries.

The country’s state oil company made the announcement on Wednesday, cutting back a price rise introduced back in July that triggered nationwide protests.

The company said the price of petrol and diesel was cut to 150 riyals ($0.69) per liter, down from 175 riyals earlier.

This is the second time Sana’a is reducing fuel prices in the poorest country of Arab world.

On Sunday, Yemeni government and Ansarullah fighters reached a peace deal that called for an immediate ceasefire and the formation of a technocratic government.

Ansarullah activists, also known as Houthis, have also been staging demonstrations in the capital for more than a month, demanding the formation of a new government.

They say the government is corrupt and marginalizes the country’s Shia community.

Yemen’s Shia Houthi movement draws its name from the tribe of its founding leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi.

The Houthi movement played a key role in the popular revolution that forced former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

Saleh, who ruled Yemen for 33 years, stepped down in February 2012 under a US-backed power transfer deal in return for immunity, after a year of mass street demonstrations demanding his ouster.

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Obama to Arabs:

‘The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force.”

So spoke President Obama on Wednesday from the UN podium here in New York. In candor and purpose, it may be the strongest speech of his presidency.

The president started well by calling the Islamic State what it is: a “network of death.”

Ditto for his public call for Muslim communities — whose people and nations endure the worst horrors from those who bomb and behead in the name of Islam — to “explicitly, forcefully and consistently reject the ideology of” terror groups such as ISIS.

And notwithstanding the frosty relations between Washington and Jerusalem, the president further cleared the air by declaring that “the situation in Iraq, Syria and Libya should cure anyone of the illusion that [the Israeli-Palestinian] conflict is the main source of problems in the region.”

Good, too, for the president for not limiting his tough language to the Middle East. Vladimir Putin’s Russia was also not spared.

The president spoke against a backdrop of dramatic events. These include airstrikes the United States is carrying out with the help of Arab allies.

They also include the many ISIS barbarities visited on the innocent, from the beheading of Western hostages to the slaughter of men, women and children whose misfortune was to be in their path.

Just a few years ago, the headlines were full of the Arab Spring. Since then, we’ve seen the resurgence of the Middle East’s long civil war.

That, of course, was one reason we fought for a free Iraq, to help give the Arabs space where the two main branches of Islam could work together to carve out a more hopeful future.

So kudos to our president. We end with what he said before he went on to chair a meeting of the UN Security Council: “The words spoken here today must be matched and translated into action, into deeds.”

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The National Democratic Opposition Parties warned the Bahraini Authority of the unilateral steps it is taking instead of an inclusive national consensus to take Bahrain out of its crisis.

The opposition parties issued a statement on Wednesday, stressing that decisions regarding the distribution of electoral constituencies must be issued by legislation of an elected representatives council which enjoys full power. The statement refused such decision been taken by the Prime Minister. The opposition parties stated that defining the parliamentary election date before reaching a permanent and inclusive settlement to solve the 3 year long crisis narrows opportunities for solution and leads the people to boycott the upcoming elections.

The statement also mentioned that the three decrees issued two days ago are linked to the administrative system of the State and necessities social and political agreements for any amendments.

The opposition described the decision to cancel the Central Governorate and distribute its constituencies between the Northern and Southern Governorates as being arbitrary.

“The opposition parties have presented detailed suggestions for a political solution, including to implement a single constituency system or a 5-constituencies system with a fair electoral system that reflects the equal weight of voters”, the statement said.

The opposition parties reiterated readiness to engage in genuine dialogue and negotiations, highlighting that the numerous initiatives it delivered to the Authority did not receive replies.

The opposition parties called for a security détente starting with the release of all political prisoners and inviting them to dialogue, implementing the recommendations of both the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry and the UN Human Rights Council, to stop the harassment of the opposition societies by attempting to dissolve Al Wefaq and Waad, to end sectarian discrimination and political naturalization and build confidence bridges.

However, the opposition parties stresses the Authority is sending out negative indicators by continuing its autocratic policies and repression which leads to a further complicated situation and makes it difficult for the opposition parties to participate in the parliamentary elections.

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Lebanon has arrested about 450 suspected Takfiri terrorists near its border with Syria over the past two weeks.

Lebanese security sources made the announcement on Thursday, amid the army’s increasing efforts to stop the militants from using the town of Arsal as a base.

The army also noted on Thursday that it had searched a camp close to the border and arrested four people believed to be linked to al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, which is fighting the Syrian government.

Last month, Arsal saw the deadliest spillover of the conflict in Syria; and during clashes that left dozens dead, Takfiri terrorists captured a group of Lebanese soldiers. They have killed at least three of them so far and are believed to be holding over a dozen others.

The army has arrested hundreds of people in the area this month, accusing them of being members of Takfiri militant groups.

Violence erupted in eastern Lebanon on August 2 after soldiers arrested a Syrian man who the army said confessed to belonging to the ISIL terror group. Angered by the arrest, the Takfiri militants opened fire on army checkpoints and stormed a police station in a border area.

Following truce negotiations with the ISIL militants, they agreed to retreat from the town and freed some prisoners.

The Takfiri militants reportedly infiltrated into Lebanon from Syria’s mountainous al-Qalamoun region.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011.

The Western powers and their regional allies – especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – are reportedly supporting the militants operating inside Syria.

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