Taliban insurgents stormed a court in the Afghan city of Ghazni on Wednesday, clashing with police for at least an hour in an attack in which 10 people, including all five of the militants, were killed, police said. - Reuters
The top Pakistan Air Force (PAF) chief has outlined plans for greater indigenous design and technical/industrial input with its next fighter, which it hopes to realize under the Vision 2030 program. – Defense News
Taliban insurgents stormed a court in the Afghan city of Ghazni on Wednesday, clashing with police for at least an hour in an attack in which 10 people, including all five of the militants, were killed, police said. - Reuters
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“Advancing the Dialogue: A Security System for the Two-State Solution” (Ilan Goldenberg, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Gadi Shammi, Nimrod Novik, and Col. Kris Bauman, Center for a New American Security)
“The security system described in this paper addresses the key needs of all sides. It includes a multilayered system that builds up Palestinian capacity to provide law and order and counter terrorism while minimizing Israeli interference in Palestinian sovereignty. However, it does not foreclose Israel’s ability to act unilaterally in self-defense if it feels it must. It gives the Palestinians a clear timeline, but one that is dependent on conditions and criteria agreed to with the Israelis. It includes a long-term monitoring process so that Israelis maintain clear awareness of what is going on in the West Bank and avoid surprises, but that process is unintrusive and involves joint Israeli-Palestinian cooperation. And it provides an Israel-U.S. consultative process to deal with fundamental strategic surprises that could arise from regional instability. The proposed security system is based on the following central principles, which address both Israeli and Palestinian needs.” Lee Smith writes: Now Iran wants its money, and the administration is doing everything it can to help. That's why John Kerry has effectively become Iran's investment banker, selling the post-industrialized nations on all the great investment opportunities this third-world state sponsor of terror has to offer. It's a low point for American diplomacy and for America. In World War II, the United States lent the Allies money and equipment to fight the Nazis. In the largest conflict of the still-young 21st century, the Obama administration has freed billions of dollars for Iran to use in its war against Sunni Arabs. Why? Because Obama sees Iran as an ally. – The Weekly Standard The Obama administration’s $8.6 million purchase of nuclear material from Iran appears to have stalled over Iranian demands that the United States hand over the money in advance, according to recent remarks by Iranian officials. – Washington Free Beacon A prominent Iranian human rights lawyer and women's rights activist has created a controversy by posting a picture on social media that shows her sitting on a chair with Islamic motifs while holding a glass of wine. – RFE/RL’s Persian Letters Iran's foreign minister says the nuclear deal reached last year with world powers can't be renegotiated despite Republican presidential contender Donald Trump's pledge to do so if elected. – Associated Press FPI Senior Policy Analyst Tzvi Kahn writes: The White House has actively facilitated the Boeing sale despite its frequent pledges to combat Tehran’s support for terrorism — a policy that only encourages Iranian misbehavior. “Have no doubt,” said Secretary of State John Kerry last September, “The United States will oppose Iran’s destabilizing policies with every national security tool available.” If the White House is serious about this commitment, it should not encourage companies to supply Iran with advanced technology made in America. – Foreign Policy Initiative Adonis Hoffman writes: If America's new leader is concerned about how the rest of the world will view an about-face on our policy toward Iran, there will be countless opportunities to mend fences on economic, trade, humanitarian and security matters in the future. When it comes to closer relations with Iran, it is time for the U.S. to just say "no." – The Hill The Iran Nuclear Deal: Prelude to Proliferation in the Middle East?” (Robert Einhorn and Richard Nephew, Brookings Institution) “As the preceding pages make clear, we do not believe the JCPOA will trigger a cascade of proliferation. Due to a combination of technical, political, economic, and strategic factors, none of the most talked-about entrants in a new nuclear arms race are likely to acquire nuclear weapons. Consequently, we find the net nonproliferation effects of the JCPOA in the region to be positive. By removing the most likely near-term instigator of competitive nuclear arming -- Iran’s own acquisition of nuclear weapons -- the JCPOA will restrain future proliferation in the Middle East. However, although we find the chances of a cascade of regional nuclear proliferation to be slight, they are not zero and much will depend on how effectively the JCPOA is enforced and on a range of other factors previously discussed. Moreover, the turmoil that currently afflicts the Middle East renders any judgment as to the ‘most likely’ course of events prone to future revision.” Thomas Donnelly writes: [T]he nuclear deal does more than acknowledge and materially aid Iran’s bid for hegemony—it legitimates Iranian dominance. This is a serious threat to the liberal international order—the American-led order—in two ways. – Hoover Institution’s Strategika Victor Davis Hanson writes: Iranian comportment in the aftermath of the 2015 deal, coupled with the Obama administration’s recent revelations, suggests that an agreement birthed and nurtured in duplicity will not hold. Indeed, its viability now depends solely on a single criterion—the degree to which the Obama administration is willing to overlook Iranian provocations in hopes the inevitable reckoning of this disastrous accord falls on the next president’s watch. – Hoover Institution’s Strategika
Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh write: In his capable hands, Holocaust festivals become yet another reason to support Rouhani’s “moderates.” And Western opprobrium not reinforced with sanctions just affirms the correctness and utility of the mullahs’ anti-Jewish worldview. What matters most is the war for Muslim minds, and the clerical regime intends to exploit anti-Semitism for all that it’s worth. – Washington Post Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield and Ramesh Sepehrrad write: Obscured by the drama of America’s presidential campaign, one major foreign policy issue—the future direction of the U.S. approach to Iran—is at a crossroads…[I]n the aftermath of the July 2015 nuclear accord, statements by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Iranian actions have provided little indication that U.S.-Iran relations are moving in a direction more respectful of American interests. – The National Interest Bret Nelson writes: Iranian hard-liners were quick to condemn a meeting between two friends, Faezeh Hashemi and Fariba Kamalabadi, this month in Tehran. Although Hashemi’s father, former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, is considered a moderate, he too publicly chastised her for meeting with a “heretic.” Such is the plight of Baha’is, Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. – Freedom House’s Freedom at Issue Meet the Iraqi general running the fight for Fallujah. As the Iraqi army pushes into the Islamic State-held city of Fallujah, they’re being led by Lt. Gen. Abdul Wahab Al Saadi, a top general in Iraq’s elite counter terrorism forces. He previously led the successful assaults on the cities of Baiji and Tikrit -- Iraq’s first victories against ISIS fighters last year -- and is again at the front. A Baghdad-born Shiite, Saadi criticized the Iraqi military’s leadership last year, calling it old and outdated, and insisted that he refused Iranian help in taking Baiji, saying, “if I had accepted help from non-Iraqis, the history books will say the victory was not ours.” He also dinged U.S. air support: “sometimes, they would carry out airstrikes that I never asked for, and at other times I begged them for a single air strike and they never did it,” he said. “I don’t think they trust Iraq’s government or military.” In Fallujah, ISIS fighters “are dug in,” he said recently. “We think they will fight to the last.” There are an estimated 1,200 ISIS fighters inside the city, where about 50,000 civilians remain trapped. The battle to retake the Iraqi city of Fallujah from Islamic State fighters will be grueling and violent, according to American and Iraqi commanders, who say the campaign to recapture the city has been driven as much by political pressures facing Iraqi Prime Minster Haider al-Abadi as by strategic imperatives to eventually take the bigger prize of Mosul from the terrorist group's control. – Washington Times
Two U.S. troops were wounded in Iraq and Syria over the weekend, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday, a sign that as the number of offensive operations against the Islamic State has increased, so has the danger to American forces in the region. – Washington Post The battle for Falluja has become entrenched outside the city itself. Iraqi forces surrounding the area have been bogged down by a fierce Islamic State counterattack. A few civilians managed to escape the city as the fighting closed in, but the status of tens of thousands still trapped there is an urgent question. – New York Times Islamic State fighters halted an Iraqi army assault on the city of Falluja with a counter-attack at its southern gates on Tuesday, while the United Nations warned of peril for civilians trapped in the city and used by militants as human shields. - Reuters |
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