Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From PressTV
US, UK, France politicizing Syria crisis, Russia says
Syrian army launches massive operation to liberate Aqrab town in Homs
The Syrian army, backed by fighters from allied popular forces, has launched a massive operation to retake the strategic town of Aqrab in the central province of Homs from Takfiri militants.
The Syrian forces on Saturday conducted the operation to gain control of the Takfiri militants’ stronghold of Aqrab in northwestern Homs, 12 hours after the government troops captured the village of Jarisah, which is located along the northern border of the al-Rastan Lake.
This comes as a fresh batch of recruits has been deployed to the eastern countryside of Aleppo Province to help protect the roads and villages in order for the Syrian troops to progress further.
Meanwhile, Arab media said some 20 terrorists from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham were killed in Syrian airstrikes in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
Separately, the Syrian army seized control of several regions in the coastal province of Latakia after fierce clashes with terrorists that left scores of the militants dead.
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From Russia Today
EU, US lift Iran sanctions as UN watchdog says Tehran ‘has kept nuclear promises’
Published time: 16 Jan, 2016 20:48
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini address a news conference at the United Nations building in Vienna, Austria, January 16, 2016. © Leonhard Foeger / Reuters
Western sanctions against Tehran have been officially lifted after the UN nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – released a statement saying Iran has fulfilled all of the measures required under its deal with six world powers.
“The report was submitted to IAEA board of governors and to the United Nations Security Council,” IAEA director general Yukiya Amano said on Saturday, adding that “it was issued after agency inspectors on the ground verified that Iran has carried out all measures required under the JCPOA to enable implementation day to occur.”
“The release of the IAEA director’s report on Iran’s nuclear program inaugurates the beginning of the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA],” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The JCPOA, known as Iran’s nuclear deal, was signed between Tehran and six world powers (the so-called P5+1 group comprised of China, France, Russia, the UK, the US and Germany) on July 14, 2015. The deal saw Iran agreeing to shrink its atomic program, with the US, EU and UN promising to lift sanctions in return.
Multilateral and national economic sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program will be lifted within hours, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced on Saturday, following the release of the IAEA statement.
“Today we have achieved Implementation Day of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,” Mogherini told reporters in Vienna.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Iran in compliance, sanctions lifted, Levinson not among prisoners released
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish-American Robert Levinson was not included in a prisoner exchange with Iran that came as the U.N. nuclear watchdog confirmed Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal and the West rolled back sanctions.
Iran on Saturday released five Americans it was holding in its prisons or in detention, four of them as part of a prison swap which included the release of Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post journalist detained on espionage charges since 2014.
The exchange comes on “implementation day” of the sanctions relief for nuclear restrictions deal Iran concluded last year with the United States and five other major powers.
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From PressTV
Turkey urges Germany to ramp up military involvement in Syria
Turkey’s deputy prime minister has called on the German government to increase its military involvement in Syria, claiming that the move can result in stemming the flow of refugees into Europe.
“If Germany and others want to stop the influx of refugees, they must stop the bombings by Syrian and Russian forces against the Syrian opposition,” Mehmet Simsek said in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt on Saturday.
The remarks came days after 10 German tourists lost their lives in a bomb attack in Istanbul, Turkey. The act of terror was blamed on the Daesh Takfiri terrorists.
Simsek also claimed that the origin of terror in Syria is the chaos on the ground caused by what he called the Syrian government’s “refusal to authorize democratic reform and the existence of an opposition.”
Since March 2011, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled the turmoil in the country. The West and some of its allies in the region have backed the carnage in the Arab country which has so far claimed the lives of over 250,000 people.Syrian forces have been battling militants, particularly Daesh terrorists, on different fronts throughout the country. They have recently been making rapid advances against terrorists in operations backed by the Russian air cover, which began on September 30 last year at the request of the Damascus government.
Over the past several weeks, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem has reiterated the country’s readiness to participate in the upcoming peace talks in Geneva to end the crisis in Syria.
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From PressTV
Syria fighters ready for operation to liberate Aleppo
The Syrian army is preparing for its biggest operation since the beginning of the conflict to recapture the country’s second city of Aleppo.
Aleppo, formerly Syria’s commercial hub, is now divided between government control in the west and militant control in the east.
Daesh and al-Qaeda affiliate, Al-Nusra Front, are based in the areas ruled by foreign-backed terrorists.
By recapturing Aleppo, the Syrian army plans to broaden its security zone around the city and and prevent terrorists from receiving supplies and reinforcements from the suburbs.
“This will be the biggest military operation in Syria since the beginning of the war,” the French news agency AFP quoted one Syrian army commander as saying.
He said the army is battling on seven fronts around the city to choke up militant supply lines and surround them on the eastern part of the city.
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From Ynet News
EU: Agreements with Israel only apply within 1967 borders
Israel is battling an EU proposal that will be tabled next week in a meeting of European foreign ministers, which calls for all European Union countries to restrict its international agreements with Israel to within the 1967 borders, thus excluding the settlements.
Two months after introducing labeling for products imported from Israeli settlements, the EU is planning to further differentiate between the areas on either side of the Green Line.
The EU’s Foreign Affairs Council, which brings together European foreign ministers, is expected to approve on Tuesday a proposal that is liable to levy new sanctions against Israeli settlements and undermine their international legitimacy.
The Israeli and European Union flags in Berlin (Photo: AFP)
From Ynet News
Foreign Ministry employees announce Bennett boycott
In response to an interview in which Education Minister Naftali Bennett seemed to cast aspersions on the loyalty of Israeli diplomats, Foreign Ministry employees decide to stop cooperating with Bennett and announce they will boycott his foreign visits.
Condemnation has come in from across the political spectrum following Education Minister Naftali Bennett’s statements that seemed to cast aspersions on the loyalty of Israel’s Foreign Ministry employees.
At the end of the week Bennett stated that the actions of Alon Liel, former head of the Foreign Ministry, showed that he is a prominent left-wing activist who calls for increasing international pressure on Israel in order to end the occupation in the territories. This, Bennett said, reveals something about the DNA of the Foreign Ministry’s employees.
Bennett’s comments came following revelations that Liel had consulted with left-wing group Breaking the Silence.
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From The Daily Mail
Now Ted Cruz is SUED by a ‘birther’ who tells court it must rule Republican is not eligible for the White House
- Houston attorney argues that Texas senator is ineligible to be president
- Lawsuit filed Thursday seeks declaratory judgment on the booming issue
- GOP front-runner Donald Trump has said a declaratory judgment is necessary
- Cruz and Trump are in a virtual tie in polls in Iowa
A Houston attorney has sued Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz over his U.S. citizenship, seeking a declaratory judgment on whether the Texas senator is legally eligible to be elected president.
The lawsuit adds the latest wrinkle to a burgeoning controversy over the Texas senator’s eligibility for the White House – a scandal that has already roiled the waters as recently as in Thursday night’s prime-time national debate.
Nelson Schwartz Sr., who runs a Houston law firm, filed suit earlier Thursday to seek a declaratory judgment on whether Cruz’s Canadian birth to an American woman qualifies him for the nation’s highest office.
+7Donald Trump and Cruz crossing swords during Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israeli Holocaust survivor wins literary award for 1st children’s book
BOSTON (JTA) — A celebrated Israeli novelist is among the winners of this year’s Sydney Taylor Book Award for Jewish children’s books.
The Association of Jewish Libraries on Thursday announced the selection of Aharon Applefeld, a Holocaust survivor who has written about the genocide extensively.
He won the award for older readers for “Adam and Thomas,” his first book for children, along with illustrator Philippe Dumas and translator Jeffrey M. Green.
Laura Amy Schlitz won a Sydney Taylor award for “The Hired Girl,” a novel for teens that recently won the Scott O’Dell award for historical fiction. The Association of Jewish Libraries described the book as a sensitive story that “tells how fourteen-year-old Catholic Joan Skraggs becomes a hired girl to a Jewish family where she learns and grows in unexpected ways.”
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From PressTV
Syrians starving in Daesh-blockaded Deir Ezzor
