In Iraq, a historic Christian library saved from militants

April 03, 2015

MAR MATTI MONASTERY, Iraq (AP) — As Islamic State group militants advanced toward this monastery perched on a mountain in northern Iraq, the monks rushed to protect a cherished piece of their heritage: Their library of centuries-old Christian manuscripts. Dozens of the handwritten tomes were spirited to safety in nearby Kurdish-ruled areas.

There they remain, hidden in a non-descript apartment in the Kurdish city of Dohuk where Christians who have fled the extremists' onslaught are living and watching over them. The Associated Press was allowed rare access to the library, a collection of copies of Bibles and biblical commentaries, mostly written in Syriac — a form of the ancient Semitic Aramaic language — and mostly dating back 400-500 years. The oldest is a copy of the letters of Saint Paul, some 1,100 years old. The bound tomes, some with tattered pages written in black and red ink, lay on shelves.

Their rescue is a bright spot in the devastating onslaught by the Sunni extremists against Iraq's people — particularly religious and ethnic minorities — and Iraq's heritage, as they took over much of northern and western Iraq the past year.

When they captured Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, and other parts of the north last summer, most Christians and other minorities fled the city and nearby towns for the Kurdish autonomous zone further north. The militants seized churches and monasteries in and around Mosul, removing symbols of Christianity like the cross and blowing some up. They have also attacked Sunni Muslim shrines they consider idolatrous. In recent months they have accelerated their campaign to destroy more ancient sites, like the 3,000-year-old ruins of Nimrud; they shattered artifacts in Mosul's museum and burned hundreds of books at Mosul's library and university, including rare manuscripts.

The Syriac Orthodox Christians of Mar Matti, a monastery that dates back to the 4th century, moved to rescue their library of around 80 manuscripts in August, at the height of the Islamic State group's blitz, when its fighters were bearing down from Mosul to the north, toward the monastery, 35 kilometers (20 miles) from the city. Their advance was halted by Kurdish pershmerga fighters, who now hold the road leading to the monastery.

That was a relief to the monastery's monks and their community. But they aren't taking any chances and are leaving the manuscripts where they are until the group is decisively defeated. "Thank God they were unable to reach the monastery," said Raad Abdul-Ahed, a local Christian who helped transport the library. But "we will keep it here until the crisis is over, until the situation is stabilized." Abdul-Ahed, who fled his hometown near Mosul, now lives in the apartment with the manuscripts.

Still, their absence leaves a void — sentimental and practical — for the handful of monks who continue to live at Mar Matti, along with seven Christian families who have taken refuge there after fleeing their nearby town of Bashiqa. They can still see their houses — just a 10 minute drive away down the mountain — but they can't return since it's still held by the Islamic State group's fighters.

The monastery used to get throngs of visitors — nearly 2 million a year from around Iraq, the monks say. Now it's too dangerous, and the only visitors are Kurdish fighters, taking a break from battle to take pictures of the site.

The Syriac Orthodox archbishop for northern Iraq, Saliba Shimon, now lives at the monastery after fleeing his home village outside Mosul. There, he teaches Syriac to students. Unfortunately, the rich trove of Syriac tomes is no longer there for him to use. He wanders through the empty library room, showing where the manuscripts used to be.

He says many other Christian manuscripts that were scattered in churches in villages around Mosul are now lost after the militants overran the areas. He and other bishops managed to bring only a few as they fled.

"Each manuscript has its own spiritual value," he said. "When we keep the manuscript, we are not doing it for the sake of its financial value, but rather because of its spiritual value."

Yacoub reported from Baghdad.

Iraq PM says Tikrit 'liberated' after month-long battle

Tikrit, Iraq (AFP)
March 31, 2015

Iraq said security and allied forces backed by US-led coalition aircraft "liberated" the city of Tikrit on Tuesday, its biggest victory yet in the fight against Islamic State jihadists.

The operation to retake the hometown of former president Saddam Hussein began on March 2 and had looked bogged down before Iraqi forces made rapid advances in the past 48 hours.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi "announces the liberation of Tikrit and congratulates Iraqi security forces and popular volunteers on the historic milestone," his official Twitter account said.

He was referring to paramilitary groups which played a major role in the fighting to retake Tikrit, a Sunni Arab city which IS had controlled since it captured swathes of Iraq in June.

A spokesperson for the US-led coalition told AFP however that "parts of the city remain under (IS's) control and there is still work to be done."

In a statement to AFP just minutes before Abadi's tweet, his spokesman Rafid Jaboori said: "Iraqi forces reached the center of Tikrit, raised the Iraqi flag and are now clearing the city."

The provincial government headquarters was retaken on Monday and on Tuesday the Iraqi tricolor replaced the black IS flag on the building.

In scenes captured in an AFP video, jubilant fighters can be seen tearing up the black flag amid the extensive destruction in the city.

"We are in the center of Tikrit. The city and all administrative buildings were completely liberated," said one of them, policeman Bahaa Abdullah Nasif.

Iraqi military officials have been saying since the start of the operation that IS fighters had laid thousands of bombs in streets, houses and tunnels to make their last stand.

- Political tension -

There no immediate information on how many fighters were killed, wounded or captured in the fighting.

The government has not provided any casualty figures since the operation started.

Iraqi army and police forces, as well as volunteers and Iran-backed Shiite militias, completely surrounded Tikrit within two weeks of launching the operation.

There was a lull in fighting when government and allied forces apparently balked at the number of snipers, booby traps, berms and trenches which IS was using to defend its city center redoubt.

Iran was Baghdad's top foreign partner in the early stages of the operation but Iraqi air force strikes were proving insufficient to break the back of IS resistance.

Abadi's government eventually requested strikes from the US-led coalition which has been assisting Iraqi forces elsewhere in the country since August last year.

US jets began bombing IS targets in Tikrit on March 25. France also took part in the campaign.

The move sparked a freeze in the participation of the Popular Mobilization units, an umbrella organisation for volunteers and militias which accounted for the bulk of the forces in Tikrit.

The Pentagon had expressed unease at the role played by Iran and its proxies in the battle and said it conditioned its intervention on regular forces taking the lead.

- Mosul next -

On Friday, it hailed the withdrawal from the fight of "those Shiite militias who are linked to, infiltrated by, (or) otherwise under the influence of Iran".

But after giving themselves political cover by declaring they do not want to work with each other, both sides took part in the operation this week.

Tikrit, once with an estimated population of about 200,000, had been largely emptied of civilians by the time the operation was launched.

The fate of those believed to have remained in the city was unclear, however.

Thousands of people displaced last year or more recently from Salaheddin province, of which Tikrit is the capital, have started returning to their homes in outlying liberated areas.

But the level of destruction and the threat posed by unexploded bombs mean residents could take longer to return.

Tikrit holds both strategic and symbolic importance.

It was the hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, remnants of whose Baath party collaborated with IS last summer.

Iraqi forces had since June tried and failed several times to retake the city, seen as a key stepping stone to recapturing Mosul, the jihadists' largest hub in Iraq.

Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi met all his top commanders Tuesday to discuss preparations for an operation to retake the Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iraq_PM_says_Tikrit_liberated_after_month-long_battle_999.html.

Iraqi Sunni tribe wages costly battle against IS group

March 27, 2015

DULUIYAH, Iraq (AP) — The consequences of the al-Jabouri tribe's decision to ally with Iraq's Shiite-led government against their fellow Sunnis in the Islamic State group are etched on row after row of gravestones in this palm-shaded town by the Tigris River.

As Khamis Daari paces the cemetery he points out the final resting place of his son Ali, killed in December alongside scores of others who battled the IS group. A few plots over lies Yazen al-Abeelah, a playful three-year-old killed when a rocket hit his home. Mahmoud Salama, 80, is said to have battled bravely alongside fighters half his age, only to die in an explosion.

Unclaimed plots may soon be filled. Daari's other son Omar is preparing to join Sunni tribesmen fighting alongside Iraqi troops and Shiite militiamen in the country's Sunni heartland. "If he doesn't fight then he has no future," Daari said, his face creased in distress and his eyes welling up with tears. "These terrorists are destroying Iraq."

Sunni tribes played a key role in driving out al-Qaida in Iraq — a precursor to the IS group — and are widely seen as the only force capable of securing the country's northwest Sunni heartland. But the few Sunni tribes that have stood up to the IS group have paid a heavy price, and anger at the Shiite-led government runs deep in the areas of northern and western Iraq that now make up the extremist group's self-styled caliphate.

When IS fighters reached Duluiyah in June, some 45 miles (75 kilometers) north of Baghdad, they gave the al-Jabouri an ultimatum: join us or die. Many of Iraq's Sunnis have chosen the former, however reluctantly, but the al-Jabouri elected to fight. They had learned their lesson years earlier, when al-Qaida in Iraq recruited some of the tribesmen to fight the government and the Americans only to turn on the tribe after suffering losses on the battlefield, killing more than 300 al-Jabouris.

"We suffered a lot from al-Qaida," said Sheikh Eissa al-Dahour, an al-Jabouri tribesman. "We have no tolerance for this organization." This time around, the al-Jabouris allied with Iraqi troops and Shiite militiamen against the IS group and drove out the extremists in December. Some 200 al-Jabouris are now taking part in a major offensive in the nearby city of Tikrit, and the government has held them up as an example for other Sunni tribes, hoping to create a non-sectarian national guard.

To do that, the government will have to somehow reverse the centrifugal forces unleashed by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, which toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein and handed power to the long-oppressed Shiite majority.

Sunni grievances mounted during the long rule of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who was widely seen as pursuing sectarian policies and who responded to protests with a heavy hand. When IS militants swept across Iraq last summer, many Sunnis initially greeted them as liberators and cheered the retreat of the despised security forces.

"The reason so many tribes joined Daesh in the first place is because they saw them as revolutionaries fighting against the government that abandoned them," said Sheikh Amin Ali Hussein of the al-Khazraji, another government-allied tribe in the nearby town of Samarra, using an Arabic acronym for the group. "The government now has a big chance to make up for all the blood that was shed."

The government hopes to somehow revive the Sahwa, or Awakening Councils — Sunni tribes and militias who switched sides starting in 2006 and allied with the Americans to drive out al-Qaida. But the U.S. and Iraqi commitment to the Sahwa waned once the threat had passed, an experience many Sunnis fear will be repeated.

Sunnis also fear the brutal consequences of confronting the IS group. In November, the extremists killed more than 200 men, women and children from the Sunni Al Bu Nimr tribe in the western Anbar province, apparently viewing it as a threat. The mass killing, and grisly online pictures of bodies displayed in the streets, led the remnants of the tribe to go into hiding, fearing the government could not protect them.

When the al-Jabouri rebelled, the IS group laid siege to Duluiyah for six months and blew up the only nearby bridge across the Tigris. Many homes were destroyed, and those left standing are still pocked and blackened from the fighting.

But the al-Jabouri say if the government helps them rebuild their community then the tribesmen can help sew the country back together. "The al-Jabouri are trying to make amends with the other tribes that may have supported Daesh in the beginning," said Col. Azzam Abed, a police officer from the al-Jabouri. "But the government needs to show that it is sincere."

Sectarian tensions simmer in Iraq shrine city targeted by IS

March 25, 2015

SAMARRA, Iraq (AP) — The al-Askari shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra is surrounded by thousands of Shiite militiamen in mismatched uniforms, many of them awaiting transport to the nearby front lines of the war against the Islamic State group.

For months, they have fended off attacks by the extremists and now they are on the offensive in Tikrit to the north, but their presence has alarmed Samarra's mainly Sunni residents, who fear both sides of the increasingly sectarian conflict.

The golden-domed shrine is among the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, and pilgrims from neighboring Iran continue to flock there despite the fighting. In 2006, Sunni extremists bombed the site, sparking a wave of sectarian bloodletting across the country that killed tens of thousands of people.

As the Islamic State group swept across Iraq last summer, Shiite militiamen heeding a call from the country's top cleric flooded into Samarra to defend the shrine and halted the militants' advance 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad. Today, the area around the shrine is festooned with militia banners and portraits of Iraqi and Iranian Shiite clerics.

But just across the city there is a conspicuous lack of security forces, and while traffic flows and shops are open during the day, residents say they are walking on eggshells. "We're concerned about the presence of the militias, with regard to kidnappings and killings," said Ghani Younis Hassan, the owner of a children's clothing shop, who said he doesn't let his wife and children walk the streets for fear of harassment.

"They feel that the shrine justifies their presence here," he added. "It's the militias who have the power, not the military, so we feel a lot of concern and unease." The United States spent billions of dollars training and equipping Iraq's army during its eight-year occupation, only to see security forces crumble last summer when the Islamic State group rampaged across the north, capturing the country's second-largest city Mosul as well as Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown.

The rapidly mobilized Shiite militias halted the Islamic State advance and have successfully defended Samarra, which is home to a famed ninth century A.D. spiral minaret and is considered a UNESCO world heritage site. The structure is still standing, but today it is covered in black and red graffiti hailing the various militias.

Human rights groups say Shiite militiamen in other parts of Iraq have carried out revenge attacks against Sunni civilians. The reported kidnappings and killings pale in comparison to the well-publicized atrocities committed by the Islamic State group, but have complicated efforts to mend the war-ravaged country's sectarian divide.

Iraqi officials believe Samarra — the last major city between Baghdad and the Islamic State's self-styled caliphate — is still vulnerable, despite the heavy security presence. Even more Shiite militiamen have streamed in since the launch of the Tikrit offensive earlier this month, with many setting up bases in the city.

The city is also hosting Sunnis who fled the Islamic State group or were displaced by the fighting. At a half-built school now housing residents from the nearby village of Kashiefa, one displaced Sunni man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said the militias visit the camp on occasion, confiscating what few belongings the displaced have, including government food aid.

Majda Hamoudi, a displaced woman, said neighbors had called to tell her that Shiite militiamen destroyed her home. "We were afraid of Daesh and now we are afraid of the militias. It doesn't end for us," she said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

The Shiite militiamen deny such accusations, and say they distrust the Sunni residents of the city they are defending. "Daesh consists of 10 percent foreigners and 90 percent residents of the area," said Sheikh Jaber al-Lami, a militia fighter from Baghdad. "We're the ones who are defending this city — it's (the Sunnis) who let them come into this area in the first place."

Iraqi offensive to dislodge Islamic State from Tikrit appears to stall

March 13, 2015

By Saif Hameed BAGHDAD, March 13 (Reuters) - The offensive to retake Tikrit appeared to stall on Friday, two days after Iraqi security forces and mainly Shi'ite militia pushed into Saddam Hussein's home city in their biggest offensive yet against the militants.

A source in the Salahuddin Operations Command said Iraqi forces would not move forward until reinforcements reached Tikrit, of which Islamic State still holds around half.

Using guerrilla warfare tactics, the militants have turned the city into a labyrinth of home-made bombs and booby-trapped buildings, and are using snipers to halt their progress.

Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the Shi'ite paramilitary Badr Organisation and now one of the most powerful men in Iraq said the outcome of the battle for Tikrit was in no doubt, but Iraqi forces needed time.

"We are not in a hurry, but we have a plan and we are following it," Amiri told Iraqi state television from the Tikrit frontline. "Even if the battle drags on for two, three or four days that is okay. We will celebrate the liberation of Tikrit from the enemy."

A victory in Tikrit would give Iraqi forces momentum for the next stage of the campaign to retake Mosul, the largest city under control of Islamic State, which now rules a self-proclaimed caliphate in Sunni regions in Syria and Iraq.

But the involvement of Iran, which backs some of the Shi'ite militia at the forefront of the campaign and is also playing a direct role, is a source of unease for some Sunnis in Iraq and across the wider region.

Islamic State fighters overran Tikrit last June during a lightning offensive that was halted just outside Baghdad. They have since used the complex of palaces built in Tikrit under Saddam, the executed former president, as their headquarters.

MARCHING TO MOSUL

The insurgents were still in control of the presidential complex and at least three other districts in the centre of Tikrit on Friday.

Iraqi special forces attacked a medical college in southern Tikrit at dawn, but the militants managed to fend them off, killing three soldiers. A further six people were killed when a Humvee vehicle packed with explosives rammed into an outpost of the Iraqi forces and to the west of the city.

More than 20,000 Iraqi troops and Shi'ite militias, supported by local Sunni tribes are taking part in the offensive, which began 11 days ago, advancing from the east and along the banks of the Tigris.

Any assault on Mosul is likely to be a far more complex undertaking. The northern city is larger, further away from core government-held territory and still densely populated, unlike Tikrit, most of whose residents fled long before the operation began.

The foreign minister of Sunni kingdom Saudi Arabia, Saud al-Faisal, last week said the battle for Tikrit showed how Iran was "taking over" Iraq.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander Qassem Soleimani has been spotted on the battlefield overseeing the Tikrit offensive, in which Shi'ite militia are a prominent actor, since the regular army folded last June.

The Shi'ite militia are accused of committing abuses against Sunnis in other territory they have retaken from Islamic State -- charges they deny.

OFFENSIVE AROUND KIRKUK

Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani said in an audi-recording published on Thursday that its fighters remained "steadfast" and were growing in strength, dismissing its enemies claims of gains in Tikrit as "fake".

Adnani warned followers of the danger posed by Shi'ites, using a derogatory term to refer to them: "The rejectionists have entered a new phase in their war against the Sunni people: they have begun to think of taking and controlling the Sunni areas," he said. "They have come to take your homes and belongings, kill your men and rape and enslave your women."

Even if the militants are routed from the city, they still hold a vast area straddling the Syrian border where they are likely to regroup, and Iraqi forces have previously struggled to hold ground they have retaken from the extremist group.

Islamic State is on the back foot in the north, where Shi'ite militia and Kurdish forces known as peshmerga went on the offensive around the oil-rich city of Kirkuk on Friday.

The peshmerga began attacking IS positions near Kirkuk on Monday and have since retaken territory and a number of villages to the southwest. Kurdish commanders said they had faced relatively weak resistance, but were being held up by homemade bombs the militants laid before retreating to their stronghold of Hawijah.

Shi'ite militiamen, many of them from Iraq's ethnic Turkman minority, were closing on the village of Bashir south of Kirkuk, which Islamic State overran last June, massacring more than a dozen people.

Islamic State militants seize villages near Ramadi in Iraq

April 15, 2015

BAGHDAD (AP) — The Islamic State extremist group launched an offensive Wednesday in Iraq's western Anbar province, capturing three villages near the provincial capital of Ramadi in what was the most significant threat to the city by the Sunni militants to date.

The militants' push comes after the Islamic State was dealt a major blow earlier this month, when Iraqi troops routed the group from Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown. Wednesday's fighting could also further threaten Ramadi, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad. Nearly a decade ago, Ramadi was one of the strongholds of the insurgency in the U.S.-led war in Iraq. It now is mostly held by Iraqi government forces, although militants control some parts of it, mainly on the outskirts.

In a dawn advance, IS extremists seized the villages of Sjariyah, Albu-Ghanim and Soufiya, which had also been under government control until now, and residents said they had to flee their homes. Fighting was also taking place on the eastern edges of Ramadi, about 2 kilometers (a mile) from a government building, they added.

In Soufiya, the militants bombed a police station and took over a power plant. The residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety, said airstrikes were trying to back up Iraqi troops. Iraqi security officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Around noon Wednesday, the militants opened another front with government troops on three other villages to the northeast of Ramadi, the residents added. An Iraqi intelligence official said the militants were preparing to launch another offensive from the western side of the city, describing the situation as "critical."

The IS was also trying to take control of the main highway that goes through Ramadi to cut off supplies, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Tahseen Ibrahim acknowledged that Islamic State militants "gained a foothold in some areas" in Anbar. But he said reinforcements were sent to the province and that airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition were supporting Iraqi forces.

"The situation is under control, and the standoff will be resolved in the coming hours," Ibrahim told The Associated Press. He added, however, that most of the villagers in the area had fled from their homes amid the fighting.

Hundreds of U.S. and coalition forces have been training Iraqi troops at Anbar's Ain Al-Asad air base, about 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Ramadi, which came under IS attack in mid-February. The attack, which involved a suicide bomber, was repelled.

The Anbar fighting coincides with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's visit to Washington where he met Tuesday with President Barack Obama and appealed for greater support from the coalition carrying out airstrikes against the IS militants, who have also captured large areas in neighboring Syria. While Obama has pledged another $200 million in humanitarian aid, he made no mention of any further military support.

In an interview with a group of U.S. reporters, al-Abadi made no mention of the events in Ramadi. He spoke optimistically of gaining Sunni tribal fighter participation in the government's offensive, saying about 5,000 tribal fighters in Anbar had signed up and received light weapons. "There is a problem because they are asking for more advanced weapons, which to be honest with you we don't possess," he said.

Those Sunnis are working "hand-in-hand" with Iraqi security forces, al-Abadi said. As an example of this cooperation, he said he recently visited Habbaniya in Anbar province and walked among 1,500 armed Sunni tribal fighters.

"I felt safe," he said. "That's how much the situation has changed in the country. That says a lot about the situation in Anbar," he said. Ramadi and Fallujah were major strongholds for al-Qaida insurgents during the eight-year U.S.-led invasion, and fighting in Anbar was especially costly for Americans there. A lasting image of the war was the bodies of U.S. contractors hanging from a bridge in Fallujah in March 2004. The six-week fight in November 2004 to retake Fallujah was an iconic moment for the Marines — with nearly 100 Americans killed in battle and hundreds more injured.

Many of the insurgents were forced to flee Iraq or go into hiding in the latter years of the invasion. In late 2013, however, militants of the Islamic State group used the Syrian civil war to their advantage and began to push back into Iraq through Anbar province. They capitalized on resentment toward the Shiite-led government in Baghdad to secure their position among predominantly Sunni residents. In January 2014, Fallujah was the first major Iraqi city seized by the militant group, and it has been making slow, but steady progress in the province ever since.

The seizure of about a third of Iraq by the Islamic State has pushed the country into its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops. Al-Abadi said Iraqi forces will follow their victory in Tikrit with campaigns against Islamic State in the oil town of Beiji and western Anbar province. He said a counteroffensive against the northern town of Mosul would not come before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in mid-June.

The U.S. Central Command said the international coalition carried out 23 airstrikes on militants in Iraq and Syria since Tuesday. Of those, 17 were in Iraq, including three near Ramadi on tactical units an armored personnel carrier, two near Fallujah, and nine near Beiji, it said.

In addition to the clashes in Anbar province, a series of militant attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least 43 people in the past two days.

Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub, Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Vivian Salama in Baghdad and National Security writer Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

Turkey 'has spent $5.5bn on Syrian community'

Tuesday, 14 April 2015

Turkey has spent $5.5 billion supporting Syrians in Turkey to date, Fuat Oktay, the president of the Turkish Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Administration, has said.

"The international community has spent $306 million for the Syrians, unfortunately," Oktay said.

He also said a Turkish delegation will visit refugee camps in the Turkish provinces of Gaziantep and Kilis on April 15 and 16, before going on to Lebanon and Jordan, countries which also host Syrian refugees.

Donor Support Group Denmark representative Carsten Ulrich Staur thanked Turkey for its aid to Syrian refugees.

He said: "Turkey has played a great role as a regional actor since the beginning of the Syrian crisis."

He also thanked Oktay for his leadership on the national and international level and said he hoped Turkey will continue to do a "great job."

The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, also praised Turkey last week for hosting Syrian refugees.

The four-year-old Syria conflict has created an acute refugee crisis, with as many as 3.8 million Syrian refugees currently registered in neighboring Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.

Turkey is currently hosting nearly 1.7 million Syrian refugees, according to the Turkish Development Ministry.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/18044-turkey-has-spent-55bn-on-syrian-community.

Head of Hungary's far-right Jobbik vows to prune racism

April 13, 2015

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The head of Hungary's far-right Jobbik party said Monday he would "prune" racist views from the organization and become the main challenger of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party in the 2018 elections.

Jobbik president, Gabor Vona, said that their candidate's narrow victory in a rural by-election on Sunday showed that the party has a big chance to defeat Fidesz three years from now. "There is a force in Hungary capable of replacing the government and it is Jobbik," Vona said. "Jobbik is Fidesz's challenger. Today in Hungary Jobbik is the opposition force."

Jobbik first entered parliament with 16.7 percent of the votes in 2010, assisted by the since-banned Hungarian Guard which wore black uniforms and held intimidation marches against the Roma in Hungary's poorer areas.

In 2014, the party gained 20.2 percent of the votes partly by projecting a more sympathetic image and avoiding extremist views, like the anti-Semitic or anti-Gypsy statements made earlier by party politicians.

"I take responsibility for pruning our own wild sprouts and everyone, including Fidesz and the Socialists, should tend to their own gardens," Vona said. The Socialists are the leading left-wing opposition party.

According to preliminary results, Jobbik's Lajos Rig defeated Fidesz candidate Zoltan Fenyvesi by around 300 votes in a by-election held in Veszprem County after the death of a Fidesz lawmaker elected last year.

"Jobbik has become a people's party with very strong support across the whole country and in every voter segment," said Peter Kreko, director of the Political Capital Institute. "Based on the current result, it cannot be excluded that Jobbik can grow strong enough to turn into a governmental force in 2018."

Kreko said that while domestically Jobbik was no longer considered an extremist party, it remains a "pariah" on the global scene, even in the eyes of some other far-right European groups.

Russia lifts ban on delivery of S-300 missiles to Iran

April 13, 2015

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin on Monday sanctioned the delivery of a highly capable Russian air defense missile system to Iran, a game changer move that would significantly bolster the Islamic republic's military capability and fuel Israel's concerns.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry objected to Moscow's decision in a phone call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and the White House indicated the move could endanger plans to ultimately lift sanctions on Iran as part of a proposed nuclear deal.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said unity and coordination with nations like Russia is critical to the success of the negotiations. Washington has said Moscow played a constructive role in the Iranian nuclear talks, despite sharp differences between Russia and the West over Ukraine.

Putin's move was quickly welcomed by Tehran, while it worried Israel, which saw it as a sign that Iran already had begun to cash in on the emerging nuclear deal with world powers that is expected to be finalized by the end of June.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the missile system could be shipped to Iran at any moment. Russia signed the $800 million contract to sell Iran the S-300 missile system in 2007, but suspended their delivery three years later because of strong objections from the United States and Israel. Putin on Monday lifted that ban.

The preliminary agreement on settling the Iranian nuclear standoff struck earlier this month made the 2010 Russian ban unnecessary, Lavrov said in a televised statement. The framework agreement reached by Iran and six world powers is intended to significantly restrict its ability to produce nuclear weapons while giving it relief from international sanctions. The agreement is supposed to be finalized by June 30, and there is no firm agreement yet on how or when to lift the international sanctions on Iran.

The S-300 missile system, which has a range of up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) and the capability to track down and strike multiple targets simultaneously, is one of the most potent air defense weapons in the world.

"The S-300 is exclusively a defensive weapon, which can't serve offensive purposes and will not jeopardize the security of any country, including, of course, Israel," Lavrov said. Deployed in big numbers, the system could provide a strong deterrent against any air attack. If Israel decides to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, the S-300s would further complicate the already daunting task.

Israeli Cabinet minister Yuval Steinitz said the framework nuclear agreement helped legitimize Iran and cleared the way for Monday's announcement by Russia. "This is a direct result of the legitimacy that Iran obtained from the emerging nuclear deal," Steinitz said. "Instead of demanding Iran stop its terror activities that it spreads in the Middle East and the entire world, it is being allowed to arm itself with advanced weapons that will only increase its aggression."

Israel has harshly criticized the U.S.-led nuclear deal, saying it would give Iran relief from sanctions while leaving its nuclear program largely intact. Israel believes Iran still intends to develop a nuclear weapon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn't specifically mention the Russian move Monday, but poured scorn on the proposed nuclear agreement, saying that "Iran draws encouragement from the concessions that it is receiving from the major powers."

"It is a deal that leaves Iran in possession of the capability to arm itself with nuclear weapons, that fills its coffers with a lot of money and that not only enables it to continue its terrorism and aggression in the Middle East and around the world but does not even demand that it stop doing so," he said.

Moscow's plans to sell the S-300s to Iran long have been an irritant in Russia-Israeli relations. In recent years, Israel has refrained from providing sophisticated weapons to Georgia and Ukraine as part of an "understanding" with Russia that it not sell the s300s to Iran — a position that now may change.

Russian officials previously said that the specific model of the S-300 that Russia was to deliver under the 2007 contract is no longer produced, and offered Iran a modified version of it called S-300VM, or Antey-2500.

But instead of manufacturing new missile systems for Iran, Russia may provide some S-300s from its own military arsenals. In that case, the delivery may happen quickly. In Tehran, Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan welcomed Russia's decision to lift the ban. "The decision is the translation of political determination of leaders of both countries for improving and promoting cooperation levels in all fields," Gen. Dehghan was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying.

Back in 2010, Russia linked its decision to freeze the missiles' delivery to the sanctions the United Nations Security Council imposed on Iran over its nuclear program, but Lavrov argued Monday that the Russian move was voluntary and not directly required by the U.N. resolutions.

"It was done in the spirit of good will in order to encourage progress in talks," Lavrov said. "We are convinced that at this stage there is no longer need for such an embargo, specifically for a separate, voluntary Russian embargo."

Iran responded to the Russian ban by filing a lawsuit with a court in Geneva seeking $4 billion in damages for breach of contract, but the court has not issued a ruling. Lavrov said that Russia had to take into account "commercial and reputational" issues linked to freezing the contract.

"Because of the suspension of the contract, Russia has failed to receive significant funds," he said. "We see no need to continue doing that." He added that Iran badly needs modern air defense systems because of a tense situation in the region, specifically in Yemen.

Observers said the go-ahead on the S-300 deliveries could reflect Moscow's maneuvering to secure a niche at the lucrative Iranian market before other powers move in. Vladimir Sazhin, an expert on Iran with the Moscow-based Institute for Eastern Studies, said the move came "at the turning point, when the Iranian market is becoming a strong attraction."

"Preparation is already going on for the day when the sanctions are lifted and everyone will rush to Iran," he was quoted by Interfax as saying. Lifting the ban could also mark an attempt by the Kremlin to raise the heat on Washington and its allies and make them more willing to listen to Russian arguments in the Ukraine crisis.

Lynn Berry in Moscow, Josef Federman and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran contributed to this report.