Turkey leader arrives in Poland for talks on security

October 17, 2017

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in Poland for talks on international security and on his policies at home. Erdogan is to meet Tuesday with Poland's President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and parliament speakers. He is expected to attend a Polish-Turkish business forum with Duda.

Duda's adviser Andrzej Szczerski said there will be no "taboo" themes and the talks will include the situation in Turkey, where tens of thousands of people have been arrested or dismissed from their jobs since last year's coup attempt.

Szczerski argued on radio RMF that it is important to maintain relations with Turkey because it is an important NATO member and European Union's partner with a key role in the migration crisis and in Middle East politics.

Erdogan receives warm welcome from Muslim Serbian town

2017-10-11

NOVI PAZAR - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan received a rapturous welcome on Wednesday during a visit to the Serbian town of Novi Pazar, capital of the Muslim majority Sandzak region that has seen mass emigration to Turkey since the violent breakup of Yugoslavia.

Erdogan, on a two-day visit to Serbia, hopes to boost Turkey's economic and cultural influence in the Balkan region, which was part of the Ottoman empire for centuries, at a time of increased tensions with the European Union and United States.

"We have special relations with this region. Your happiness is our happiness, your pain is our pain," Erdogan told more than 10,000 people gathered in front of the municipality building.

"Sandzak is the biggest bridge linking us with our brothers in Serbia," he said, with Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic standing close by.

Turkish influence is already strong among fellow Muslims in Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo, but mainly Orthodox Christian Serbia is traditionally much closer to Russia. However, Belgrade and Ankara, which both want to join the EU but are frustrated by the slow pace of progress, are keen to increase bilateral trade.

Erdogan said Turkey would finance the construction of a road linking Sandzak with the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, reconstruct an Ottoman-era hammam and build a bridge in Novi Pazar.

In Belgrade on Tuesday, Erdogan pledged gas and Turkish investments for the Balkans and he signed deals with Vucic to expand a bilateral free trade agreement.

In Novi Pazar, local people waved Turkish flags and the green and blue flags of Serbia's Muslim community, and chanted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest). A big banner read "Welcome Sultan" and was signed by "Ottoman grandchildren".

"Erdogan is our nation's leader, Vucic is our state leader, this is the greatest day for us Muslims to have them both here," Ismail Ismailovic, 28, from the nearby town of Tutin, farmer, sporting long beard and white embroidered Muslim skull cap.

It was a far cry from the 1990s when Serbia and Turkey were sharply at odds in the conflicts that tore apart Yugoslavia. Turkey sees itself as the historic defender of Muslims across the Balkan region.

"I know I am not going to be welcomed here like Erdogan is," said Vucic, who was a firebrand Serbian nationalist during the wars of the 1990s but has turned strongly pro-EU. "But at least I can come out and say that I am working in your best interest."

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=85351.

Turkish court overturns jailed lawmaker's conviction

October 09, 2017

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's state-run news agency says a Turkish court has overturned the conviction of an opposition lawmaker imprisoned for allegedly exposing state secrets.  Anadolu Agency said an Istanbul appeals court quashed the conviction handed to Enis Berberoglu, a legislator from the main opposition People's Republican Party, or CHP, and ordered a new trial.

Berberoglu was sentenced to 25 years in prison earlier this year for allegedly leaking footage to an opposition newspaper suggesting Turkey smuggled arms to Islamist rebels in Syria. He was convicted of revealing state secrets and espionage.

In July, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu led a 450-kilometer (280-mile) march from Ankara to the prison where Berberoglu was being held, to protest the government's crackdown following last year's failed coup.

Turkey opens military training base in Somalia capital

September 30, 2017

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — The Turkish government has opened a military training base, its largest in Africa, in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. The Turkish chief of staff Gen. Hulusi Akar and Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire inaugurated the newly-constructed facility on Saturday.

Khaire thanked Turkey for "unwavering" support to help Somalia rebuild its fractured army and stabilize the war-torn country. Two hundred Turkish military officers will train 10,000 Somali soldiers at the base which includes army dormitories, training grounds and prisons.

Somalia's army, including former militia, is struggling to battle the Islamic extremist al-Shabab insurgents who are fighting to establish an Islamic state under strict Shariah law. The Somali government is challenged to take over the country's security before the scheduled withdrawal of 22,000 African Union forces late next year.

Turkey builds orphanage in Bangladesh to host Rohingya children

September 24, 2017

An orphanage, which has been built by a Turkish aid agency and hosts currently 100 Rohingya children, is now preparing to welcome more.

The Turkey-based Yardımeli aid agency in March inaugurated the orphanage complex in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh to provide shelter to 100 Rohingya orphans and give education to 500 local students.

The Yardımeli Darul Hikme Education and Social Complex, which reserves three-floor school building and a mosque, was built on an area of 12,000 square meters (129,166 square feet). The school building has 20 classrooms, five dormitory rooms for orphans and two large halls for social activities.

“All these work we have done here is financed by the compassionate Turkish people,” said Yardımeli’s Bangladesh Coordinator Mehmet Çitil.

“On behalf of Rohingya and people of Bangladesh, I thank all of our brothers and sisters from Turkey and Europe for their support to those who are in need.”

Çitil said that Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) has also took part in meeting needs such as desks and bunk beds.

“Wherever you go in the world, Turkey is now known as a country that is reaching out to needy people…,” he added.

A statement released by the agency on Friday said that 600 families were provided with food supplies in Tamfali refugee camp under the scope of urgent food aid program, urging donors to contribute more since the number of refugees in camps are rising day by day.

It added that the agency is using the complex and 29 affiliated masjids in the region as centers for its aid efforts.

Describing the complex as a “great structure and a great way to obtain better and educated generation”, the school principal Mujib Siraj thanked Turkish government and those who contributed.

Over 1,100 Rohingya children feeling violence in Myanmar have arrived alone in Bangladesh since Aug. 25, according to UNICEF report and other 600,000 Rohingya children could flee to Bangladesh by the end of the year.

These children are at a risk of sexual abuse, human trafficking and psychological trauma.

Since Aug. 25, more than 429,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN’s migration agency.

In total, more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees are now believed to be in Bangladesh, including the arrivals since Aug. 25.

The refugees are fleeing a fresh security operation in which security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes and torched Rohingya villages. According to Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali, around 3,000 Rohingya have been killed in the crackdown.

Turkey has been at the forefront of providing aid to Rohingya refugees and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan raised the issue with the UN.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

Source: Jasarat.
Link: http://en.jasarat.com/2017/09/24/turkey-builds-orphanage-in-bangladesh-to-host-rohingya-children/.

Turkey to build shelters for 100,000 Rohingya

September 24, 2017

Turkey would build shelters for 100,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, an official of Turkey’s state-run aid body said on Sunday.

According to a press release, Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency’s (TIKA) Bangladesh Coordinator Ahmet Refik Cetinkaya held a meeting with Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya.

“Turkey will soon provide 10,000 packets of aid [to Rohingya Muslims],” Cetinkaya told the minister.

He said Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag would visit Bangladesh.

Since August 25, more than 429,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine into Bangladesh, according to the UN’s migration agency. In total, more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees are now believed to be in Bangladesh, including the arrivals since August 25.

The refugees are fleeing a fresh security operation in which security forces and Buddhist mobs have killed men, women and children, looted homes and torched Rohingya villages. According to Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali, around 3,000 Rohingya have been killed in the crackdown.

Turkey has been at the forefront of providing aid to Rohingya refugees and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the issue with the UN.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170924-turkey-to-build-shelters-for-100000-rohingya/.

Turkey rebuilds over 400 war-torn schools in Syria

November 20, 2017

Over the last eight months, Turkey has rebuilt over 400 damaged schools in Syria’s Aleppo region, enabling 152,000 children to continue their education.

After the Operation Euphrates Shield operation, Turkey’s National Education Ministry launched a study for a total of 458 schools in Aleppo’s Jarabulus, Al-Bab, Cobanbey and Azez regions.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, the ministry’s Lifelong Education Director Ali Riza Altunel said: “I believe the number of students will increase to around 170,000 by the end of the first semester.”

Altunel said the ministry had been running its program since March after Operation of Euphrates Shield was successfully wrapped up by the Turkish military.

“There were enough numbers of primary and middle schools, but a very small amount of high schools,” Altunel said. “In March, we only managed to continue with lessons in only three schools. By the end of June, the number increased to 103 schools.”

The director said children in the rebuilt regions were “extremely happy with Turkey’s contributions,” with Syrian children painting banners saying they continue their education “no matter what”.

“This is the reaction we are glad to receive in exchange for our hard work,” Altunel said.

The director said children in the region were unable to receive a proper education in the last five years.

“So, we launched a ‘compensation program’ for children to make up for the lack of the education,” he said. “We are working hard to graduate children from elementary schools for them to continue with middle school.”

Syria has remained locked in a vicious civil war since 2011. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by the conflict and millions more displaced, according to UN figures.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20171120-turkey-rebuilds-over-400-war-torn-schools-in-syria/.

Syrian forces liberate Albu Kamal from IS

2017-11-19

DEIR EZZOR - The Syrian army and loyalist militiamen Sunday retook full control of Albu Kamal from the Islamic State group, a military source said, ousting the jihadists from their last urban stronghold in Syria.

Albu Kamal has changed hands several times, with government forces announcing the capture of the town near the Iraqi border earlier this month but losing it to a blistering IS counter-attack a week ago.

"Syrian troops and allied forces took full control of Albu Kamal, and are removing mines and explosives left by IS," the military source in Deir Ezzor said on Sunday.

"IS put up fierce resistance and tried to use explosives and suicide bombers, but besieging the city allowed the army to clinch the offensive and take full control of the city," the source added.

State news agency SANA also reported the advance in Albu Kamal, saying the "Syrian army and its allies eliminated the last Daesh (IS) terrorist pocket in the town."

A string of territorial defeats across northern and eastern Syria had left Albu Kamal as the last significant Syrian town held by IS.

Syria's army announced on November 9 it had ousted IS from the town, but the jihadists launched a lightning offensive and retook it.

A week later, the army and allied Iraqi, Lebanese, and Iranian fighters broke back into Albu Kamal and steadily advanced through the town.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed on Sunday that Syrian troops and their allies had captured Albu Kamal.

"IS fighters withdrew from the city towards the Euphrates River," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"There is no more fighting in the town, but there are clashes around Albu Kamal," he said.

The monitor said more than 80 fighters were killed in the three days of ferocious push to retake the town, including 31 pro-regime forces and at least 50 IS jihadists.

IS seized large areas of both Syria and neighboring Iraq in a lightning 2014 campaign, but this year has lost much of the territory it once held.

The loss of Albu Kamal caps the group's reversion to an underground guerrilla organisation with no urban base.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=86013.

Syrian army retakes Deir Ezzor from IS

2017-11-03

DAMASCUS - Syria's army has seized Deir Ezzor from the Islamic State group, state media said Friday, driving the jihadists from the last major city where they were present.

"The army announces full control of Deir Ezzor city," state television said in a breaking news alert, citing sources on the ground.

State news agency SANA also reported that Deir Ezzor had been "fully liberated."

State television reported that engineering units from the army were combing captured neighborhoods to defuse mines and other explosives.

On Thursday, a reporter contributing to AFP saw widespread destruction in the city, with whole buildings hit by air strikes or artillery fire crumpled into themselves and streets strewn with rubble.

Trenches dug by IS fighters to defend their positions were still visible as government minesweepers worked.

Syrian troops and allied fighters backed by Russian air power have been battling inside the eastern city since September, when they broke an IS siege of nearly three years on government-held districts.

In recent days they have advanced, capturing a string of neighborhoods and encircling remaining IS fighters.

The city is the provincial capital of surrounding Deir Ezzor province, an oil-rich region that sits on the county's eastern border with Iraq.

The province was once largely held by IS, though parts of Deir Ezzor city stayed under government control throughout the jihadist group's reign.

IS is now facing twin assaults in the province, from the army as well as US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters.

The jihadist group has lost much of the territory it once held in the province. Its most important remaining position is the town of Albu Kamal on the Iraqi border.

More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=85744.

Assad sets sights on Kurdish areas, risking new Syria conflict

OCTOBER 31, 2017

BEIRUT (Reuters) - With Islamic State near defeat in Syria, Damascus is setting its sights on territory held by Kurdish-led forces including eastern oil fields, risking a new confrontation that could draw the United States in more deeply and complicate Russian diplomacy.

President Bashar al-Assad and his Iranian allies appear to have been emboldened by events in Iraq, where Kurdish authorities have suffered a major blow since regional states mobilized against their independence referendum, analysts say.

Rivalry between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by the United States, and the Syrian government backed by Iran and Russia is emerging as a fault line with their common enemy - Islamic State - close to collapse in Syria.

Syria’s main Kurdish groups hope for a new phase of negotiations that will shore up their autonomy in northern Syria. Assad’s government, however, is asserting its claim to areas captured by the SDF from the jihadist group, known in Arabic by its enemies as Daesh, in more forceful terms.

On Sunday, Damascus declared Islamic State’s former capital at Raqqa would be considered “occupied” until the Syrian army took control - a challenge to Washington which helped the SDF capture the city in months of fighting.

And the eastern oil fields seized by the SDF in October, including Syria’s largest, will be a target for the government as it tries to recover resources needed for reconstructing areas it controls, according to a Syrian official and a non-Syrian commander in the alliance fighting in support of Assad.

“The message is very clear to the SDF militants and their backers in the coalition, headed by America: the lands they took from Daesh are rightfully the Syrian state‘s,” said the non-Syrian commander, who requested that his name and nationality be withheld.

“Regarding the resources of the Syrian people in the east - oil and so on - we will not allow anyone to continue to control the country’s resources and to create cantons or to think about self government,” added the commander, who is part of a military alliance that includes numerous Iran-backed Shi‘ite militias from across the region.

The Syrian official said the SDF could not keep control of oil resources. “We won’t permit it,” said the official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity as he was giving a personal view.

The United States has not spelt out how military support for the SDF will evolve after Islamic State’s defeat, a sensitive point due to the concerns of its NATO ally Turkey.

Ankara regards Syrian Kurdish power as a threat its national security as its forces are fighting Kurdish PKK rebels over the border in Turkey.

The U.S.-led coalition, which has established several military bases in northern Syria, has been helping the SDF shore up control of the recently captured al-Omar oil field in Deir al-Zor province.

“Many people will say that will help them with (political) negotiations, but only if the United States remains with them, otherwise they are going to get clobbered,” said Joshua Landis, an expert on Syria and head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

“I think the Syrian government is going to push on some of these oil wells, in the same way as Iraq just pushed to get Kirkuk oil, and in the same way the Iraqi push is going to embolden the Syrian army,” he said.

KIRKUK “LESSON”

Iraqi Kurds took control of large areas outside their autonomous region during the fight against Islamic State. However, last month’s independence referendum prompted Western opposition and fierce resistance from Baghdad, Ankara and Assad’s Iranian allies, and the Kurdish authorities have since lost much territory to Baghdad, including oil producing areas around the city of Kirkuk.

The Syrian official said this should serve “as a lesson for the Kurds in Syria, so they think about the future”.

Regional sources say the U.S. unwillingness to stop Iraqi government forces, backed by Shi‘ite militias, from recapturing Kirkuk sent an encouraging message to Assad and his Iranian allies to retake the SDF-held oil areas in Syria.

With critical military support from Russia and the Iran-backed militias, Assad has recovered swathes of central and eastern Syria from Islamic State this year, having defeated many anti-Assad rebel factions in western Syria.

The Kurdish YPG militia, the dominant force in the SDF, controls the second largest chunk of Syrian territory - around a quarter of the country. Syrian Kurdish leaders say they are not seeking secession.

The YPG and Damascus have mostly avoided conflict during the Syrian civil war, setting aside historic enmity to fight shared foes. Kurdish-led regions of northern Syria have meanwhile focused on establishing an autonomous government which they aim to safeguard.

Moscow has called for a new “congress” of Syrian groups that may start work on a new constitution. The Russian Foreign Ministry published on Tuesday a list of 33 groups and political parties invited to a meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Nov. 18.

A Syrian Kurdish official told Reuters the administration in northern Syria had been invited to the congress. Kurdish officials said they discussed their political demands with the Russians as recently as last month.

A senior Kurdish politician said government statements directed at the Kurdish-led regions of northern Syria were contradictory, noting that the Syrian foreign minister had said in September that Kurdish autonomy demands were negotiable.

“One day they say we are willing to negotiate and then someone else denies this or puts out an opposing statement,” Fawza Youssef said in a telephone interview with Reuters. “One of them declares war and the other wants to come negotiate. What is the regime’s strategy? Dialogue or war?”

After the final defeat of Islamic State in Deir al-Zor, “the situation will drive all the political sides and the combatants to start the stage of negotiations”, Youssef said.

The SDF has also pushed into Arab majority areas, including Raqqa and parts of Deir al-Zor, where it is working to establish its model of multi-ethnic local governance.

Analysts believe the Syrian Kurdish groups could use the SDF-held Arab areas as bargaining chips in negotiations with Damascus.

“There is no other option than to negotiate,” Youssef said. “Either a new stage of tensions and attrition will start - which we are 100 percent against - or a stage of dialogue and negotiations will start.”

Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Washington; Writing by Tom Perry; editing by David Stamp

Source: Reuters.
Link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-kurds-analysis/assad-sets-sights-on-kurdish-areas-risking-new-syria-conflict-idUSKBN1D02CN.

Access to food 'precarious' for Syrians stranded near Jordan

October 31, 2017

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The U.N. humanitarian chief called for immediate "life-saving" access to 50,000 displaced Syrians stranded on the sealed border with Jordan, as aid officials reported a sharp drop in food supplies in the remote desert camp since Syrian government forces advanced toward the area in the summer.

Black market prices for food have soared and malnutrition is on the rise among young children in the Rukban camp, the officials said. Mark Lowcock, the U.N. official, told the U.N. Security Council in a Syria briefing that a long-term solution is needed for getting aid to Rukban.

He said that "the best approach is to find a solution from within Syria" — an apparent shift after U.N. agencies held months of largely unsuccessful talks with Jordan about access to the camp. Speaking to the Security Council after meetings with Jordanian officials on Monday, Lowcock said U.N. agencies are "straining every sinew" to find a way to deliver aid from Syria.

Jordan sealed its border with Syria in June 2016, after a cross-border car bomb by Islamic State extremists killed seven Jordanian border guards. The pro-Western kingdom has defended the closure, saying its security trumps humanitarian considerations, and that the attack underscored warnings that Rukban has been infiltrated by IS sympathizers.

The international community is reluctant to pressure Jordan, which is hosting a large number of refugees. In all, more than 5 million Syrians fled their country since 2011, including about 660,000 registered refugees in Jordan.

Jordan's foreign minister told European Union diplomats last month that Syria and the international community, not Jordan, bear responsibility for Rukban. U.N. aid deliveries to Rukban from inside Syria would require permission from the government in Damascus and also pose safety risks for staff crossing front lines.

Since Jordan's border closure, U.N. agencies have only carried out two distributions from Jordan, in addition to a partial one in June. At one point, food was hoisted by cranes from Jordan and dropped off near Rukban. A subsequent system of delivery, through a Jordanian contractor, has repeatedly broken down.

The recent deterioration in Rukban followed a temporary cease-fire for southwestern Syria in early July. As fighting ebbed in the southwest, Syrian government forces and their allies advanced in the southeast.

Commercial food shipments from other areas of Syria to Rukban dropped by about 70 percent since the Syrian government's advances, said Firas Abdel Aziz, a Jordan-based activist for Jusoor al-Amal, a charity that operates in the camp.

The price of bread has doubled, sugar is up six-fold and the cost of rice has tripled, he said. Lowcock said that "as limited commercial supplies are reaching Rukban, access to food is precarious and the overall situation remains dire." The situation will become more acute as winter approaches, he added.

While a long-term solution is needed, "immediate access to enable life-saving assistance for the civilian population is critical," he said. A U.N.-run clinic continues to operate on Jordanian soil, several kilometers from Rukban, and receives 100 to 150 patients per day, said other aid officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of ongoing talks with Jordan.

The population size of Rukban has fluctuated, said Abdel Aziz. In early September, residents of a smaller border tent camp, Hadalat, evacuated the area as Syrian troops advanced, with many fleeing to Rukban. Abdel Aziz said hundreds more families arrived recently from another flashpoint of fighting in Syria's far east.

U.N. satellite images from late September indicated there are close to 10,000 shelters in the camp, an increase of 6.6 percent from three months earlier.

Associated Press writer Omar Akour in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

Syrian refugees: 12,000 new Australians settle in to adopted home

29.10.2017 Sunday
By Rebecca Trigger

After escaping her war-torn hometown of Aleppo, Talar Anjer-Koushian threw herself into Australian life — going to university, securing a fulltime job, and now volunteering to help other refugees establish themselves in their adopted home.

Talar was one of 12,000 asylum seekers granted visas in Australia under a special humanitarian intake of Syrians and Iraqis, fleeing terrorism and civil war — all of whom have now arrived on our shores.

Ms Anjer-Koushian said the biggest challenge after arriving in Australia was going back to university — she's studying a masters in International Development in her fourth language.

She also managed to land a fulltime job last week, but says for many other Syrians, securing employment remains their biggest concern.

"We want to work, we want to give back, we don't like just taking and sitting and being lazy," she said.

All of the extraordinary visas announced by the then-Abbott government in 2015 were granted by March this year, but the final families only arrived in the latter half of the year.

The special visas have been granted to people in UNHCR camps, but also to people forced to flee and shelter in urban communities in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

'We decided to leave, to have a life'

For Ms Anjer-Koushian, her life now is a stark contrast to what she was forced to leave behind.

Syria's horrific civil war has left hundreds of thousands of people dead, fueled the rise of the Islamic State group, and caused the biggest asylum seeker crisis since the last World War.

Once a vibrant and thriving commercial center, Aleppo has seen industrial-scale devastation, buildings damaged beyond repair, and basic services to its people cut off.

"We had days that we didn't have water, electricity, it wasn't safe to go outside," she said.

"Electricity was a celebration, so whenever we had electricity we used to wake up even if it was in the middle of the night, just to watch TV, and just enjoy the lights."

She said the worry was constant, and it was always dangerous to leave your home.

"You get used to it, you get the skills that help you to live with the conditions that you are put under," she said.

"But when it was enough … we just couldn't tolerate it, and we decided to leave, and to have a life."

'It needs time': Syrian-Iraq refugees put down roots

Ms Anjer-Koushian said while many of her fellow refugees will be grateful for the chance at a new life, they will need help to adjust to a completely new environment.

"They might get afraid people won't be welcoming of them, so they won't approach others," she said.

"They will be closed and always questioning themselves, 'are we good enough, are we OK to approach and to talk to others, and form friendships and meet other people?

"Although Australians are really welcoming, from my experience everyone was really welcoming and helpful … so I think in time they will get over that."

Despite learning about Australia from an uncle who lived in Perth for many years, Ms Anjer-Koushian still hit a few hurdles adjusting to the culture here.

"Sometimes being straightforward and being honest in my culture is not always that acceptable, you always turn around and you're not straight to the point," she said.

"Whereas here people don't go around and around, they just tell you straight what their opinion is or what they think about a topic.

Volunteering to help others adjust

Now she is giving back — volunteering with the Australian Red Cross's new Humanitarian Settlement Program to help new refugees acclimatize and understand how to thrive in their adopted country.

Of the new refugees arriving in Australia in 2016-2017, more than 6,500 were fleeing the Iraq-Syrian conflict, and many more are expected to come from the region in future years.

Red Cross migration support programs manager Vicki Mau said people who came to Australia through the humanitarian resettlement program had often been through extremely difficult experiences, but that also meant they were incredibly resilient.

"What we're really trying to do is make it a smooth process for them," she said.

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Link: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-29/extraordinary-intake-syrian-iraq-refugees-12000/9090308.

US-backed forces celebrate fall of IS 'capital,' Raqqa

October 18, 2017

BEIRUT (AP) — U.S.-backed Syrian forces celebrated in the devastated streets of Raqqa on Tuesday after gaining control of the northern city that once was the heart of the Islamic State's self-styled caliphate, dealing a major defeat to the extremist group that has seen its territory shrink ever smaller since summer.

Militants took over the vibrant metropolis on the Euphrates River in 2014, transforming it into the epicenter of their brutal rule, where opponents were beheaded and terror plots hatched. It took thousands of bombs dropped by the U.S.-led coalition and more than four months of grueling house-to-house battles for the Syrian Democratic Forces to recapture Raqqa, marking a new chapter in the fight against the group whose once vast territory has been reduced to a handful of towns in Syria and Iraq.

"Liberating Raqqa is a triumph for humanity, especially women," who suffered the most under IS, said Ilham Ahmed, a senior member of the SDF political wing. "It is a salvation for the will to live an honorable life. It is a defeat to the forces of darkness," said Ahmed, speaking to The Associated Press from Ein Issa, just north of Raqqa.

Fighters from the SDF celebrated by chanting and honking their horns as they spun doughnuts with their Humvees and armored personnel carriers, and hoisting yellow SDF flags around Naim, or Paradise Square.

The infamous square was the site of public beheadings and other killings by the militants. Bodies and severed heads would be displayed there for days, mounted on posts and labeled with their alleged crimes, according to residents who later dubbed it "Hell Square."

Crumbled and flattened buildings stood behind the fighters as they drove around the square, a sign of the massive destruction the city has suffered since the militants took over. It was in Naim Square that the extremists paraded tanks and military hardware in 2014 in a chilling show of force that foretold what would come.

SDF commanders later visited Raqqa's sports stadium, which IS had turned into a notorious prison. Dozens of militants who refused to surrender made their last stand earlier Tuesday holed up inside. "Immortal martyrs!" chanted the men and women in SDF uniforms, saluting their comrades who died battling for the city. According to the coalition, about 1,100 SDF forces have been killed fighting IS in Raqqa and Deir el-Zour.

"Military operations in Raqqa have ceased and we are now combing the city for sleeper cells and cleaning it from land mines," Brig. Gen. Talal Sillo told the AP earlier in the day. A formal declaration that Raqqa has fallen would be made soon, once troops finish their clearing operations, Sillo said.

Col. Ryan Dillon, the Baghdad-based spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, was more cautious, saying only that "more than 90 percent" of Raqqa had been cleared. He estimated about 100 IS militants were still in the city and said he expects the SDF to encounter "pockets of resistance" during the clearing operations.

The battle of Raqqa has killed more than 1,000 civilians, many of them in coalition airstrikes in recent months, and displaced tens of thousands of people who face the prospect of returning to ruined homes. The coalition and residents who managed to escape accused the militants of using civilians as human shields and tried to stop them from leaving the city.

In a reminder of the humanitarian catastrophe unleashed by the fighting, the international charity group Save the Children said that camps housing tens of thousands of people who fled Raqqa are "bursting at the seams."

It said about 270,000 people from Raqqa are still in critical need of aid. With the high level of destruction reported in and around Raqqa, most families have nowhere to go and are likely to be in camps for months or years. The World Food Program said it was ready to send teams as soon as the area was secure enough.

Ahmed, the SDF official, said the hardest part will be administering and rebuilding Raqqa. The group has appointed a civilian administration of locals to rebuild the city, but larger questions loom. The SDF is a multi-ethnic force, but its Kurdish leadership harbors ambitions of autonomous rule over a Kurdish region in Syria that now includes the Arab-majority Raqqa, leading to concerns of a possible backlash among the city's Sunni Arab population.

Brett McGurk, the top U.S. presidential envoy to the anti-IS coalition, arrived in northern Syria and met Tuesday with members of the Raqqa Civil Council and members of the reconstruction committee. He also met tribal leaders and urged them to work closely with the SDF, preventing the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad from using any divisions between them, according to the Furat FM, an activist-run news agency.

An immediate challenge was clearing Raqqa of thousands of land mines and booby traps that have killed returning civilians and senior SDF commanders in recent days. One of those killed Monday was the head of the internal security force affiliated with the SDF.

Another challenge for the troops is searching the tunnels that were dug by the militants around the city, Dillon said. "This will take some time, to say that the city is completely clear," he told AP. "We still suspect that there are still (IS) fighters that are within the city in small pockets."

The loss of Raqqa will deprive the militants of a major hub for recruitment and planning, Dillon said, because the city attracted hundreds of foreign fighters and was a place where attacks in the Middle East and Europe were planned. The militants remain active in Syria, he said, farther south around the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.

In recent months, the Islamic State has steadily lost ground in Iraq and Syria, including Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul. It has also lost major territory to Syrian government forces who have been marching against the group in a simultaneous but separate offensive, mainly in Deir el-Zour province.

Syria's state news agency said government forces and their Russian and Iranian-backed allies captured the Deir el-Zour villages of Mouhassan, Bouomar and Bouleil that were once extremist strongholds. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that government forces now control more than 90 percent of the city of Deir el-Zour, where a major offensive is underway to capture remaining IS-held neighborhoods.

The battle for Raqqa began in June and the SDF met with stiff resistance from the militants. It began its final assault on Sunday after nearly 300 IS fighters surrendered. Naim Square was captured Monday.

The force seized the hospital Tuesday, taking down the last black IS flag, according to the Kurdish-run Hawar news agency. A video from Hawar showed the clashes around the hospital, which appeared riddled with bullets and partly blackened from a fire.

Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut and National Security Writer Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

Tens of thousands commemorate Arafat in Gaza

2017-11-11

GAZA CITY - Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered in Gaza on Saturday to commemorate the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in the first such memorial in the Hamas-run territory since 2007.

The anniversary event was billed as a show of national unity after the Islamists of Hamas struck a reconciliation agreement last month with the rival Fatah movement founded and led by Arafat until his death in 2004.

The deal, which is supposed to see Hamas cede civil control of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority led by current Fatah leader Mahmud Abbas by December 1, could end years of bitter division between the rival factions.

Tens of thousands of people from across the Gaza Strip poured into Saraya Square in Gaza City from early morning, hours before the keynote speeches were due to be delivered.

Organizers said more than 100,000 people were in attendance.

Participants waved Palestinian flags and placards calling for unity, as well as pictures of both Arafat and Abbas.

In a pre-recorded speech broadcast on large screens, Abbas, who has not visited Gaza since his allies were thrown out by Hamas in 2007, hailed his predecessor's legacy.

"Our Palestinian people, who have always loved you as a great leader, still have that love, respect and loyalty."

Abbas said the Palestinians were pushing ahead to seal reconciliation and to achieve Arafat's "dream... for freedom, sovereignty and independence on our Palestinian national soil".

"There is no state in Gaza and there is no state without Gaza," he said, stressing that the Palestinian people were "united" and "refuse divisions".

Gaza is waiting

Participants at the rally also said the event underlined the need, now more than ever, for Palestinians to unite.

"Today is a day for loyalty, unity and reconciliation. We say to the president and the government: Your sons in Fatah are waiting for your support of Gaza," said 20-year-old Shukri Antar.

Rania Barbekh, 50, who was carrying a Fatah flag and a picture of Abbas, said she and her son had arrived at the square at 7 am from their home in Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip.

"We are all with Abu Ammar," she said, referring to Arafat by his Arabic nickname. "From this festival, we want Fatah and Hamas to unite against the enemy."

Hamas seized control of Gaza in a near civil war with Fatah in 2007 amid bitter recriminations over the Islamists' landslide victory in parliamentary elections the previous year.

The last commemoration in the territory of Arafat's death was held just months afterwards and ended in clashes between the rival factions.

Fatah has held other events in Gaza since 2007, including a major celebration in 2013, but Hamas has often suppressed its activities.

On Thursday, several thousand people attended a smaller Arafat anniversary event in Gaza organised by Fatah.

On Friday, hundreds of people took part in a "national unity marathon" organised by the Palestine Athletic Federation to support reconciliation between the rival factions.

Tawfiq Abu Naim, head of Hamas's internal security forces in Gaza, said he had instructed them to protect and support Saturday's commemoration, which he described as a "festival of unity".

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=85886.

New multi-specialty medical center inaugurated at Zaatari camp

By JT
Nov 16, 2017

AMMAN — Deputizing for HRH Princess Muna, Minister of Health Mahmoud Sheyyab on Wednesday inaugurated the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) new multi-specialty medical center at Zaatari refugee camp, a SAMS statement said.

With this new enterprise, SAMS, a leading medical relief organisation with offices in the US, Syria and its neighboring countries, in addition to Greece, provides dignified and high-quality healthcare to refugees living in the camp.

SAMS President Ahmad Tarakji and SAMS Foundation Chairman Amjad Rass, attended the opening ceremony at Zaatari Camp, highlighting SAMS’s role in providing healthcare to refugees living inside and outside the camp.

The SAMS multi-specialty medical center will address the vast and urgent health care needs of 80,000 refugees currently living in Zaatari camp, the world’s largest Syrian refugee camp, according to the statement.

Many refugees in the camp suffer from chronic and communicable illnesses and emotional trauma that have gone untreated due to a lack of consistent, specialized medical services. The new medical center is expected to provide 7,700 medical services per month, treating up to 350 patients on a daily basis, in various areas of specialty care, including cardiology, neurology, pediatrics, gynaecology, dental and orthopedics, as well as those pertaining to primary and preventative care.

At the front lines of crisis relief in Syria and its neighboring countries since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, SAMS has provided medical services in Zaatari for over three years, regularly heading medical missions in the area to offer free, quality care to refugees, with 95,637 medical services offered inside Zaatari Camp in 2016, the statement continued.

“The new medical center has been carefully designed to address the growing need for ongoing, quality medical care to refugees, following the recent closure of a number of health facilities in the camp. We are proud to announce that our center will be fully equipped to focus not only on treatment, but also on prevention, wellness and specialty care,” Tarakji was quoted in the statement as saying. “We are confident that the facility will serve as a beacon of hope and a place of respite for the camp’s residents, and in so doing, help provide them a future they can look forward to.”

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/news/local/new-multispecialty-medical-centre-inaugurated-zaatari-camp.

EXCLUSIVE: Jordan fears 'turmoil' as Saudis rush to embrace Israel

David Hearst
Thursday 16 November 2017

Saudi Arabia is bypassing Jordan in its headlong rush to normalize relations with Israel, offering concessions on Palestinian refugees which could endanger the stability of the Hashemite kingdom, and compromise its status as the custodian of the holy sites in Jerusalem, a senior official close to the royal court in Amman has told Middle East Eye.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, accused Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of treating Jordan with contempt. "He deals with Jordanians and the Palestinian Authority as if they are the servants and he is the master and we have to follow what he does. He neither consults nor listens to us," the official said.

The alarm bells went off in Amman following semi-official leaks suggesting that Saudi Arabia was ready to surrender the Palestinian right of return in exchange for putting Jerusalem under international sovereignty as part of a Middle East peace deal that would facilitate the creation of a Saudi-Israeli alliance to confront Iran.

Such a deal would compromise the special status of Jordan as the custodian of the Haram al-Sharif, as stated in the peace treaty Jordan struck with Israel in 1994.

"Half the population of Jordan are Palestinians and if there is official talk in Riyadh about ending the right of return, this will cause turmoil within the kingdom. These are sensitive issues both for Jordanians from the East Bank and Palestinians," the official said.

Jordanian backlash

In fact, 65 percent of the population of Jordan are Palestinian, mostly from the occupied West Bank. They have Jordanian citizenship and access to medical care, but they are under-represented in parliament, and have little presence in the Jordanian army and security services.

Furthermore, any attempt to give the Palestinians more rights in Jordan would provoke a backlash among the Jordanian population, the official observed.

He said any final status deal involving Palestinian refugees would have to include a compensation package to Jordan, which the kingdom would expect to receive as a state.

On the deal itself, the Jordanian official said that what was on offer to Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, was worse than before.

“He (MbS) is concerned about the normalization of the Saudi relationship with Israel and he does not care about anything else. He needs a fig leaf to start off this normalization," the official said.

A separate Western source in contact with some Saudi princes independently confirmed the importance of Israel as a factor behind a wave of recent arrests in Riyadh targeting princes, business tycoons and other influential Saudis.

He said several of the people arrested under the guise of an anti-corruption campaign had acted as "gatekeepers for Saudi funding" going to Israel. He suggested that MbS wanted to keep a monopoly of these contacts for himself. For this reason, he questioned whether those arrested would be put on public trial, or whether there would be secret trials.

This source dismissed the notion that what was a taking place in Saudi was a genuine anti-corruption drive: "The Saudi family do not rule Saudi Arabia. They own it. That is their view. They created the country. They own it, and therefore they cannot be corrupt."

The Royal Court in Amman is also concerned by the pressure being applied on Jordan to join an anti-Iran campaign and the potentially dire consequences of what it considers “reckless” Saudi policies.

“Things in Syria are going to the benefit of Iran and its allies. The Jordanian approach was to try to open channels with Iran and Russia and to calm down the Iranians and have some sort of agreement in the south," MEE's source said.

“But the Saudis are in full confrontation mode, destabilizing Lebanon. If Iran wants to retaliate, it could retaliate across the whole region, which could affect Jordan directly and that is the last thing Jordan would want them to do."

When pressed by the Saudis, Jordan scaled back its diplomatic relations with Qatar, but notably did not cut them as Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt did on the day the blockade was announced. Jordan did, however, close the office of Al Jazeera, the Qatari television network which Saudi has called on Doha to shut down.

Unlike the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, King Abdullah has not been invited to go to Riyadh to express these frustrations in person. He has visited Bahrain, but went home shortly after.

Broken promises

The third source of Jordanian concern about the way Saudi is behaving is economic.

Jordan has lost money as a result of the regional boycott of Qatar, and is currently losing income it earned through the transit of goods. This is a result of the re-opening of a crossing between Saudi and Iraq at Arar, a crossing that had been closed for 27 years since Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Before Arar opened, all trade from Iraq passed through Jordan. With the opening of Arar, Iraq will start to use Saudi ports in the Red Sea to export to Europe, instead of the Jordanian port of Aqaba.

There is anger in the royal palace about promises of aid from Saudi Arabia, but no signs of the cash arriving in its bank accounts.

A separate Jordanian source told MEE: “The Jordanian king and the Jordanian authority are angry about promises made by the Saudis  to compensate Jordan for its loss of income with Qatar, and the fact that nothing has been received from them so far."

A fourth Jordanian grievance is MbS’s recent announcement of plans to build the high-tech mega city of Neom which is set to stretch across the kingdom's borders into Jordan and Egypt. The official said that Jordan was "not well briefed" about the project, fostering the suspicion that the primary beneficiary in the city's construction will not be Jordan or Egypt, but Israel which has established a regional lead in high-tech exports.

He said there were "some positive comments" on the Jordanian side, but overall it reacted cautiously to the announcement.

The official doubted whether Israel would be stampeded into a war with Hezbollah and suggested that MbS had miscalculated the reaction to his offensive on Lebanon, following the Lebanese Prime Minister's Saad Hariri's sudden resignation in Riyadh earlier this month.

Hariri, who is a Saudi citizen with significant business interests in the country, has not yet returned to Beirut and Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Wednesday that he believed he was being detained there.

"The analysis of Jordan is that neither Israel nor the US will go for a war, and that we Jordanians will be saddled with the consequences of a direct confrontation with Iran and we will pay the consequences for this," the official said.

Source: Middle East Eye.
Link: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-jordan-braces-turmoil-saudis-rush-embrace-israel-1491957420.

Jordan plans new city to ease crowding and congestion

Monday 6 November 2017

Jordan has announced plans to build a new city east of the capital Amman in order to ease rising population density and traffic congestion.

The project to build the city some 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) from Amman was part of a drive to stimulate the economy and attract long-term investment, the government said in a statement published on Sunday.

Touted as "environmentally friendly, sustainable and smart", the new city would be built on a major highway that links Jordan to Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

The project was aimed at finding "drastic solutions to rising population density and traffic congestion" in Amman and the northeastern city of Zarqa, said the statement carried by the official Petra news agency.

Amman is home to four million people while 1.3 million make up the population of Zarqa and, according to the statement, their combined populations are due to reach 10 million by 2050.

The project would "invest in clean and renewable sources of energy and water treatment" as well as provide affordable housing, the statement said.

It would be built in five phases with the first one ready by 2030 and the last expected to be completed in 2050.

"State institutions and ministries will be moved to the new city throughout the project's various stages," it added.

Cash-strapped Jordan hopes the project will attract private and foreign investors.

The tiny desert kingdom is devoid of natural resources and has been severely affected by wars in its neighbors Syria and Iraq with refugees from both countries seeking haven in Jordan.

The United Nations says Jordan is hosting more than 650,000 refugees from Syria alone, while the kingdom puts their number at 1.4 million.

Source: Middle East Eye.
Link: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/jordan-plans-new-city-ease-crowding-and-congestion-797860535.

In Morocco, a Blue Tourist Town is Turning Green

Tuesday, 14 November, 2017

Huddling against a hillside in northern Morocco is a tourist town famed for the striking blue of its buildings, and now the mayor is mixing in another color -- green.

Chefchaouen -- known locally as Chaouen -- wants to become a model for sustainable development at a time when the northwest African kingdom has shone a spotlight onto its commitment to the environment and a greener future, said an Agence France Presse report on Tuesday.

Take Aziz, a local council employee in his forties. He whizzes silently around town on an electric bicycle doing his job as an inspector of building sites.

"It's a practical and eco-friendly way of getting around!" he says.

"It respects the environment and allows us to get around easily without using polluting modes of transport," Aziz says, wearing a fluorescent safety vest and with a helmet firmly on his head.

Mohamed Sefiani, mayor of the town of some 45,000 residents where visitors come to admire hundreds of hues of blue, says Chefchaouen began to go green more than seven years ago.

"In April 2010, the municipal council took a unanimous decision aimed at transforming Chaouen into an ecologically sustainable town," he says.

Local political commitment to the project is strong, the mayor says, but much still needs to be done.

"Chefchaouen isn't an ecological town yet, but it certainly has the will to become one," says a smiling Sefiani.

"We are in a transition phase. At a Moroccan and African level, we're among the most advanced towns in this respect."

A newly inaugurated municipal swimming pool equipped with solar energy is near an "ecology center" built from recycled containers where the town's green projects, funded mainly by the European Union and backed by several NGOs, are highlighted.

France's GERES -- Group for the Environment, Renewable Energy and Solidarity -- was asked to help transform Chefchaouen.

"It was at the town's request that we came here to support its energy and climatic transition," says the NGO's Virginie Guy, who is coordinating the project.

Among the initiatives is an "info-energy" center to raise awareness about energy savings, photovoltaic panels at several sites, such as the municipal library, that contribute to electricity production, and an environmentally oriented museum is also nearly complete.

The info-energy center's Houda Hadji explains the basics of eco-construction, energy efficiency and the benefits of energy-saving light bulbs, among other green topics.

"There's very strong interest" from visitors to the center, says the young guide, her hair concealed under an elegant veil.

"This is the first initiative in Morocco working on energy upgrading in buildings, and providing information about savings, targeting both businesses and individuals," she adds.

Chefchaouen is one of 12 southern Mediterranean locations to benefit from a European program that has granted it around 10 million dirhams ($1 million, 900,000 euros) and declared the town "a model and initiator of change in sustainable energy management".

But not everything is green yet in the little blue town, said AFP.

"The public dump is not yet up to standard," Mayor Sefiani concedes.

"We're working on a landfill and recovery center, and I think that by 2021, we will have ironed out all the problems."

With "green" mosques, solar and wind farms, electric buses and a ban on plastic bags, Morocco has been forging ahead with environment-friendly policies over the past few years.

It regularly trumpets its proactive strategy in terms of green energy, instigated by King Mohammed VI.

Late last year, in the southern city of Marrakesh, the country hosted the COP22 international climate conference, and has begun an ambitious plan to develop renewable energy.

In a country devoid of hydrocarbon resources, the aim is to increase the share of renewable energies nationally to 52 percent by 2030 (20 percent solar, 20 percent wind, 12 percent hydro).

A massive flagship project was inaugurated by the king in February last year. The Noor solar power plant is on the edge of the Sahara desert, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside Ouarzazate.

Spread over an area equivalent to more than 600 football pitches, the plant's half a million metal mirrors follow the sun as it moves across the sky and store the energy collected from its rays.

Despite pushing its green credentials, Morocco still has many environmental hurdles to clear on its way to cleaner horizons.

A recent World Bank report covered by Moroccan media spoke of "alarming" peaks of atmospheric pollution in the country's major cities.

And a number of eco projects announced to great fanfare during the 2016 COP22 conference remain just that -- announcements.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.
Link: https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1083591/morocco-blue-tourist-town-turning-green.

Lockheed offers glimpse into missile defenses eyed by Saudis

November 15, 2017

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A senior executive at U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin said Tuesday the company is delivering its Patriot missiles to Saudi Arabia and that the kingdom is on track to become the second international customer, after the United Arab Emirates, to acquire its THAAD system.

Saudi Arabia is aggressively building up military capabilities as tensions spike with its regional rival Iran. The kingdom intercepted a missile fired by Yemen's Shiite rebels at Riyadh earlier this month, the deepest strike inside the kingdom since its forces went to war in Yemen in 2015.

Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for supplying the rebels with the missile, and a senior U.S. military official appeared to back Saudi claims that the missile was manufactured by Iran. Tehran denies providing material support to the rebels in Yemen, who say the missile was locally developed.

The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday advised U.S. citizens of what it said was "the continuing threat posed by ballistic missiles fired by rebels in Yemen at Saudi Arabia." Reports suggested the kingdom may have used the Raytheon MIM-104 Patriot system to shoot the missile down. The Patriot surface-to-air anti-missile system is produced by Raytheon Co. of Waltham, Massachusetts, and Lockheed Martin produces variants of the missile it shoots. The system was first used during the 1991 Gulf War in Saudi Arabia.

President Donald Trump has credited U.S. defense systems for Saudi Arabia's recent interception. "A shot was just taken by Iran, in my opinion, at Saudi Arabia. And our system knocked it down," Trump wrote on Twitter after the Nov. 4 attack. "That's how good we are. Nobody makes what we make and now we're selling it all over the world."

Lockheed Martin's Vice President of Integrated Air and Missile Defense, Tim Cahill, told reporters at the Dubai Air Show on Tuesday that market prospects for U.S.-made missile defense systems are "very, very good."

"You might imagine if the threats are getting more sophisticated and our systems tend to be on the more sophisticated, more capable end, that that's probably good for business," he said. "We are fielding, I think, more requests than any of us have ever seen before worldwide. Many countries are interested in what our products can do," Cahill added.

The U.S., however, is facing competition from other suppliers, including Russia. Saudi King Salman was in Moscow last month, where he signed an agreement to purchase the Russian-made S-400 air defense missile system.

Cahill said that trying to coordinate the Russian-made system with those made in the U.S. will be problematic. "The governments will have to decide whether that's something they can do, but I can tell you absolutely that will be a difficult subject," he said.

Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Maryland, has two generations of its latest PAC-3 missile, also known as Patriot Advanced Capability. Cahill said the company is delivering the first generation, known as CRI's, to Saudi Arabia. The kingdom does not yet have the second generation, known as MSE's.

A main difference between the PAC-3's and THAAD systems is that the latter reaches much higher altitudes. THAAD, short for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, can destroy incoming missiles without a warhead through the energy of its collision with the target.

Cahill said Lockheed Martin is also developing a "mini hit-to-kill" missile that is about 2.5 feet-long (.75 meters) and weighs in at just five pounds (2.25 kilograms). It is designed to target rockets, artillery and mortar fire in ground combat.

A rift between Qatar and its Gulf neighbors, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, has raised concerns in Congress about the unity of Washington's Gulf allies. In late June, after the diplomatic spat erupted, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said he would halt arms sales to the Arab Gulf states until there's "a better understanding of the path to resolve the current dispute."

Cahill said because THAAD is seen as a "purely defensive system," the State Department submitted the potential sale for Congressional notification and the 30-day period for review expired earlier this month.

"Generally speaking, THAAD has not typically been caught up in concerns about delivering offensive capability," he said.

This story has been updated to clarify that the Patriot surface-to-air anti-missile system is produced by Raytheon Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. makes variants of the missile it fires.

Unrepentant Mladic sentenced to life for Bosnia atrocities

November 22, 2017

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An unrepentant Ratko Mladic, the bullish Bosnian Serb general whose forces rained shells and snipers' bullets on Sarajevo and carried out the worst massacre in Europe since World War II, was convicted Wednesday of genocide and other crimes and sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Defiant to the last, Mladic was ejected from a courtroom at the United Nations' Yugoslav war crimes tribunal after yelling at judges: "Everything you said is pure lies. Shame on you!" He was dispatched to a neighboring room to watch on a TV screen as Presiding Judge Alphons Orie pronounced him guilty of 10 counts that also included war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Human-rights organizations hailed the convictions as proof that even top military brass long considered untouchable cannot evade justice forever. Mladic spent years on the run before his arrest in 2011.

"This landmark verdict marks a significant moment for international justice and sends out a powerful message around the world that impunity cannot and will not be tolerated," said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's Europe director.

For prosecutors, it was a fitting end to a 23-year effort to mete out justice at the U.N. tribunal for atrocities committed during the Balkan wars of the early 1990s. Mladic's conviction signaled the end of the final trial before the tribunal closes its doors by the end of the year.

But legal battles will continue. Mladic's attorneys vowed to appeal his convictions on 10 charges related to a string of atrocities from the beginning of the 1992-95 Bosnian war to its bitter end. "The defense team considers this judgment to be erroneous, and there will be an appeal, and we believe that the appeal will correct the errors of the trial chamber," Mladic lawyer Dragan Ivetic said.

Mladic's son, Darko, said his father told him after the verdict that the tribunal was a "NATO commission ... trying to criminalize a legal endeavor of Serbian people in times of civil war to protect itself from the aggression."

Presiding Judge Alphons Orie started the hearing by reading out a litany of horrors perpetrated by forces under Mladic's control. "Detainees were forced to rape and engage in other degrading sexual acts with one another. Many Bosnian Muslim women who were unlawfully detained were raped," Orie said.

The judge recounted the story of a mother who ventured into the streets during the deadly siege of Sarajevo with her son as Serb snipers and artillery targeted the Bosnian capital. She was shot. The bullet passed through her abdomen and struck her 7-year-old son's head, killing him.

In Srebrenica, the war reached its bloody climax as Bosnian Serb forces overran what was supposed to be a U.N.-protected safe haven. After busing away women and children, Serb forces systematically murdered some 8,000 Muslim males.

"Many of these men and boys were cursed, insulted, threatened, forced to sing Serb songs and beaten while awaiting their execution," Orie said. Mladic looked relaxed as the hearing started, greeting lawyers, crossing himself and giving a thumbs-up to photographers in court. But midway through the hearing Mladic's lawyer, Dragan Ivetic, asked for a delay because the general was suffering from high blood pressure. The judge refused, Mladic started yelling and was tossed out of court.

When he started speaking, "it was not about his health but much more I think trying to insult the judges," Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said. The conflict in the former Yugoslavia erupted after the country's breakup in the early 1990s, with the worst crimes taking place in Bosnia. More than 100,000 people died and millions lost their homes before a peace agreement was signed in 1995. Mladic went into hiding for around 10 years before his arrest in Serbia in May 2011.

Mladic's political master during the war, former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, was also convicted last year for genocide and sentenced to 40 years. He has appealed the ruling. The man widely blamed for fomenting wars across the Balkans, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, died in his U.N. cell in 2006 before tribunal judges could reach verdicts in his trial.

The ethnic tensions that Milosevic stoked from Belgrade simmer to this day. Top Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik said the tribunal only underscored its anti-Serb bias by convicting Mladic. Dodik said the court was established with the "single purpose" of demonizing Serbs.

"This opinion is shared by all the Serbs," Dodik said, describing Mladic as "a hero and a patriot." Serbian President Alksandar Vucic, a former ultranationalist who supported Mladic's war campaigns but now casts himself as a pro-EU reformer, agreed that the court has been biased against Serbs but added that "we should not justify the crimes committed" by the Serbs.

"We are ready to accept our responsibility" for war crimes "while the others are not," he said. For a former prisoner of Serb-run camps in northwestern Bosnia who was in The Hague, the verdict was sweet relief.

Fikret Alic became a symbol of the horrors in Bosnia after his skeletal frame was photographed by Time magazine behind barbed wire in 1992 in a Bosnian Serb camp. "Justice has won," he said. "And the war criminal has been convicted."

Associated Press writers Jovana Gec and Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Sabina Niksic and Amer Cohadzic in Sarajevo, Eldar Emric in Srebrenica and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky dies at 55

November 23, 2017

NEW YORK (AP) — Dmitri Hvorostovsky, the Russian baritone known for his velvety voice, dashing looks and shock of flowing white hair, died Wednesday at a hospice near his home in London, a few years after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was 55.

Called "the Elvis of opera" and the "Siberian Express" by some, Hvorostovsky announced in June 2015 that he had been diagnosed with the tumor. He returned to New York's Metropolitan Opera three months later to sing the Count di Luna in Verdi's "Il Trovatore" and was greeted with a loud and lengthy ovation that caused him to break character. Musicians in the orchestra threw white roses during the curtain calls.

Despite his illness, he sang in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" at London's Royal Opera that December, in Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra" and "Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball)" at the Vienna State Opera the following spring and gave his final four staged opera performances as Giorgio Germont in Verdi's "La Traviata" in Vienna, the last on Nov. 29 last year. He announced the following month that balance issues had caused him to cancel future opera appearances.

"Dima was a truly exceptional artist — a great recitalist as well as a great opera singer, which is rare," said soprano Renee Fleming, who teamed with Hvorostovsky for a memorable run of "Onegin" among their many performances. "His timbre, musicality, musicianship, technique, and especially his capacity for endless phrases, were second to none. I have no doubt that he would have sung beautifully for another 20 years or more, had he not been taken from us. I can't hear Eugene Onegin, Valentin in Faust or Simon Boccanegra without longing to hear Dmitri. He brought an innate nobility and intense commitment to every role."

Hvorostovsky made a dramatic unscheduled appearance at the Met last May for a gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of the company's move to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Walking stiffly, looking thin and with his cheekbones more pronounced, Hvorostovsky received a standing ovation and lit into Rigoletto's second-act aria "Cortigiani, vil razza dannata (Courtiers, vile cursed kind)." Some in the audience had tears in their eyes, and many pulled cellphones from their glittering handbags to snap photos as he walked through the lobby during intermission.

His last public concerts were on June 22 and June 23 at the Grafenegg Festival in Austria. In September, he was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland by Russia President Vladimir Putin for contributions to the nation's art and culture.

"Words cannot express my anguish that one of the greatest voices of our time has been silenced," tenor Placido Domingo said. "Dmitri's incomparably beautiful voice and peerless artistry touched the souls of millions of music lovers. His passing will be mourned by his countless admirers around the world and by those of us who were fortunate to know him."

The Met dedicated Friday's performance of Verdi's Requiem to Hvorostovsky. "One of opera's all-time greats, truly an artist for the ages," Met General Manager Peter Gelb said. "In addition to his astounding vocal gifts, he had an electrifying stage presence and a charisma that won over both his adoring audiences and his devoted colleagues."

The Vienna State Opera scheduled a minute of silence before Wednesday's performance of Strauss' "Salome." "I especially admire the wonderful way in which he carried himself during this terrible illness," Vienna State Opera Director Dominique Meyer said. "Dima leaves a great void behind. He will stay in our memories as an exceptional artist who always gave a hundred percent."

Hvorostovsky was born on Oct. 16, 1962, and grew up in Krasnoyarsk, in central Siberia. He started piano lessons when he was 7, only for his first piano teacher to tell him he was untalented. At Krasnoyarsk Pedagogical School and Krasnoyarsk High School of Arts, he thrived in music, boxing and soccer. "Apart from this, I was the worst pupil in school," he said with a straight face.

He became a soloist at the Krasnoyarsk Opera in 1986, won the Russian Glinka National Competition, then attracted attention by winning vocal contests at Toulouse, France, in 1988 and then Cardiff in 1989 — where he beat out Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel for the top prize.

With long hair that turned prematurely silver before he was 35 and then polar bear white, he was instantly recognizable. Hvorostovky's public musical persona started with a rock 'n' roll band, when he was a teen-age rebel under communism.

"Ah! Freedom! So what could I do?" he remembered in a 1998 interview with The Associated Press. "I had a few options — to become a street fighter, or I could become a hero in front of my girlfriends."

He made his Royal Opera debut in 1992 as Riccardo in Bellini's "I Puritani" and his Met debut in 1995 as Prince Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky's "Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades)." He was lauded around the world for definitive performances as Onegin and also celebrated for the title role in Mozart's "Don Giovanni," Valentin in Gounod's "Faust" and Belcore in Donizetti's "L'Elisir d'Amore (The Elixir of Love)."

"The sheer beauty of his voice and his matinee-idol good looks made him a favorite with any audience," Royal Opera music director Antonio Pappano said. "The joy with which he approached performing was unique."

Hvorostovsky is survived by his wife Florence Hvorostovsky, their son, Maxim, and daughter, Nina, and twins Alexandra and Daniel from his first marriage, to Svetlana Hvorostovsky.

Associated Press Writer Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.