I'm not sure how to react to Russia's long term stay in Syria. My issue is mostly against the principle of foreign intervention. I rarely support American interventionism but since we don't live in a ideal world where superpowers don't intervene in the affairs of smaller states, the reality is much more complicated. The West is portraying Russian aims as mainly propping up the Assad regime and maintaining it's "satellite state". That is true, Russia wants to maintain what little influence it has left in that region but aside from the geopolitical maneuvering, Russia is doing something good that goes far and beyond the Assad regime. The West are ignoring what the fall of Assad actually means. His tribe the Alawite if he falls will likely face a genocidal onslaught from Sunni extremists. ISIS has already made it's intentions abundantly clear regarding any non-Sunni Muslims. They have already slaughtered or ethnically cleansed all minority groups in the region that they crossed paths with. Therefore, I am grateful that Russia has stepped up to protect these minorities - including the Christians - from the genocidal onslaught of ISIS. It should be noted historically Alawites are a integral part of that region. They even had a state, albeit controlled by France under mandate - the Alawite state existed from 1920 to 1936 after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
Russian forces will remain in Syria “indefinitely,” according to a newly published agreement between Moscow and Damascus. Details of the agreement regulating the Russian-Syrian military alliance emerged as Moscow announced its mission in the country would now include “humanitarian operations", a term that appeared to refer to aid drops over regime-held territory. Russia began air strikes in support of Syrian government forces on September 30 last year, in what the Kremlin has described as a war on the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil). But Western governments say the campaign appears to be aimed at propping up the embattled regime of Bashar Assad, the Syrian president.
In public statements, Russian officials have said the deployment will continue only until regime forces complete “offensive operations” and against Isil and other rebel groups.
Israeli soldiers aim towards Palestinian youths during clashes in the West Bank town of Hebron on Oct. 4, 2015. (AFP/Hazem Bader, File)
The footage includes several snippets of conversation between two people said to be Israeli soldiers, one a sniper and the other his commanding officer, as they discuss opening fire on Palestinian protesters.
In one early scene, the officer congratulates the sniper for shooting a Palestinian "in his butt." In other scenes, he repeatedly says: "Wow, very cool," after the sniper shoot and hits protesters.
"Come on, you are allowed to shoot," the officer urges the sniper, after which the sniper fires a shot and says: "I got him! I got him!"
In a later scene, the officer asks: "Did you hit him?" to which the sniper replies: "Of course I did, bro."
A final scene shows the men climbing into an Israeli military jeep, appearing to show the interior of the vehicle. The authenticity of the video footage could not initially be confirmed. An Israeli army spokesperson said she was looking into the reports. Both local and international rights groups have repeatedly criticized the Israeli army for its excessive use of force and for killing and wounding Palestinians who did not pose an imminent threat. Thousands of Palestinian protesters have been wounded by Israeli forces since a wave of unrest swept the occupied Palestinian territory in October.
An effigy of a member of the Saudi ruling family is burned during a protest against Nimr al-Nimr's execution by Saudi authorities in Baghdad on January 4, 2016 AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
Iran's criticism of the Saudi mass executions is outrageous hypocrisy. Tehran is also guilty of barbaric killing methods and, indeed, of putting to death eight times as many prisoners as Riyadh in 2014. It condemns Saudi Arabia for persecuting Shia Muslims, yet it persecutes Sunnis.
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned of "divine vengeance" for the execution of Shia cleric,Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. His website carried an image comparing the Saudis to the fanatics of Islamic State (Isis), suggesting there was little or no difference between the two. Other Iranian officials denounced Riyadh for interfering in neighbouring countries.
The image that appears on the Iranian supreme leader's website Khamenei.irKhamenei.ir
On every count, the crimes Iran accuses the Saudis of committing are crimes Iran has also committed.
In 2014, Iran admitted to executing 289 people. However, unofficial reports, mostly from bereaved family members, indicate that at least a further 454 were hanged in secret without public acknowledgement. This makes a total of 743 executions, according toAmnesty International.
By comparison, Saudi Arabia executed 90 people in the same year – still a shocking roll call but only 12% of the number put to death by Tehran.
The Iranians condemn the preferred Saudi method of execution, beheading, as barbaric. It is inhuman, bloodthirsty and wrong – but at least it usually kills the victim swiftly.
In contrast, Tehran's methods are calculated to make death slow and painful. They include stoning to death; stipulating that the stones must not be too big, in order that the person does not die too fast. The regime wants to make sure the victim suffers a prolonged, agonising fate.
Likewise, when conducting hangings, Iran does not use the drop method, which causes near instant death. It practises slow strangulation, where the condemned personis hoisted on a crane by the neckand sadistically left to slowly asphyxiate, often writhing in agony for several minutes. Iran also sometimes uses the "IS method" of throwing convictees off tall buildings.
As with the Saudis, many Iranian death penalty victims are tortured to extract confessions and nearly all are convicted after unfair, flawed trials. These include secret, summary hearings lasting less than 30 minutes, with no right to submit evidence for the defence. Some defendants only meet their lawyer for the first time an hour or so before the judgment. For these reasons, the credibility of convictions in Iranian courts, especially for capital offences, has been repeatedly questioned by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Ali Mohammed al-Nimr marked his 21st birthday on death rowFacebook
Iran is the world's leading executioner ofjuvenile offenders, with 14 being hanged in 2014. At least 160 young people are currently on death row for crimes they committed when they were children.
UnderIranian law, a girl can be hanged or stoned to death from the age of nine lunar years (eight years and nine months) and a boy from the age of 15 lunar years (14 years and seven months) – or younger if he is capable of producing sperm.
While Iran denounces the Saudis for persecuting Shia Muslims, it doesexactly the same to Sunnis, with a wave of arrests, imprisonments and executions in recent years.
Just as the Saudis targeted Shia leader Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, the Iranians have cracked down hard on Sunni religious figures such as Mulavi Ahmed Naroi, who was jailed and abused in 2008. At around the same time, the Abu Hanifa Mosque, a Sunni mosque and religious school in city of Zabol, was bulldozed, according to Balochistan Human Rights Watch. Many important, priceless early editions of the Quran and historic Sunni religious books were destroyed. The mosque's students and staff were arrested.
Iran also mirrors the Saudi practice of
executing political prisoners. It has been doing this ever since the formation of the Islamic Republic in 1979. In one particularly bloody seven-month period, from August 1988 to February 1989, at least 4,500 people, some of them teenagers, were executed, according to Amnesty International. This works out at an average execution rate of one person almost every hour for over 200 days.
The best known recent example of a political execution was the arrest, trumped up charges, torture, unfair trial and hanging of the much-loved Iranian Arab poetHashem Shaabaniin 2014.
He is just one ofseveralArab activists who have been jailed, tortured, raped and hanged for peacefully protesting against Iran's anti-Arab racism and for defending Arab culture against official suppression.
As for the charge of Saudi Arabian interference in the internal affairs of other countries, Iran is also guilty. A decade or more ago, the Shia militias and death squads in Iraq were trained and armed in Iran. Today, Iran has deployed around 2,000 revolutionary guards in Syria, to defend the dictatorship of President Bashar al-Assad against Syrian democrats. In tandem with the Saudi intervention in Yemen, Iran is backing the Houthi rebels.
The truth is very simple: the pot is calling the kettle black. Both Saudi Arabia and Iran are ruthless clerical tyrannies that systematically abuse the human rights of religious, ethnic, political and sexual minorities. A plague on both of them
The recent news coming out of Saudi Arabia and Iran is something that is long overdue. These two regional heavy weights have been battling it out via proxy wars for decades. It was Saudi Arabia and Gulf states money that funded Saddam Hussein's war against Iran back in the 80's. They battled it out in Lebanon where the Saudi's funded the Sunni's as they battled the Iranian supported Hezbollah. Today we see these proxy battles being waged in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.The religious divide between Sunni and Shia seems to have come out of the closet with the execution of the Shiite leader Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. The response of Iran was one of outrage and anger. Here you see protestors vandalize the Saudi Arabian consulate in Tehran:
What should the American response be?
It is no secret that America plays all sides of this conflict. In Yemen, we are aiding the Sunni government to fight off the Shia rebels. In Syria, we are aiding the Sunni rebels against the Alawites government. In Iraq, we are supporting the Shia government fight Sunni ISIS.
Yes, it is very confusing but our involvement there has only complicated matters. Who are we helping?
So far Israel is looking pretty good amongst all the death and destruction surrounding it. An oasis of calm amongst the ravages of war? Let us not get carried away, the Gaza War and Lebanon War were not too long ago and current unrest with Palestinian violence puts Israel as another unstable country on the brink in the region. No doubt one reason why America blindly supports the Saudi regime is because how the Southern border of Israel close to Saudi Arabia has been the most peaceful since Israel's birth. There has always been a very close relationship between Israel and Saudi regime - albeit behind close doors. It is closer today than ever because they both fear Iran's ambitions.
YES!!! We should stay out but the American empire and the military industrial complex will view this as another bonanza. A very sad commentary on the human condition.
This document purportedly was discovered by American forces who infiltrated Syria on a mission to gather information on ISIS. I don't doubt ISIS is capable of such depravity but I still can't say for sure if this document is legit. The fatwa was among a huge trove of documents captured by U.S. Special Operations Forces during a raid targeting a top Islamic State official in Syria in May. Reuters has reviewed some of the documents, which have not been previously published.
What is clear, such barbarity by ISIS leaves no choice than to make sure they are eliminated for good. More importantly, it must be done by other Muslims from that region. As bad and insane as ISIS is, this conflict remains a religious war between factions of the same faith. Granted, other minority groups - including Christians - are caught in the middle of this trip back to the 7th century. ISIS is a Muslim problem. Our involvement should be to protect Christians in that region and their best interest. That includes creating a safe haven for them. That also includes training and support. Let the Shia and Sunni fight it out because it is not our fight. Our involvement to aid Sunni's against Shia's is insane. Why do we care about King of Saudi Arabia or Jordan or the Emirs in the Gulf States? Nothing good will come out of our involvement if we take sides in what is essentially a struggle between two bad actors: Sunni fundamentalism versus Shia fundamentalism.
Desperate Gaza Escape Attempt Leads to Death, and Recriminations
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Ishaq Khalil Hassan's mother, Amna Hassan, showed photographs of her son and some of his education certificates.CreditWissam Nassar for The New York Times
GAZA — Something drove Ishaq Khalil Hassan, 28, into the Mediterranean last week, to walk naked in the shallow surf, to attempt what has become all but impossible forPalestinians: an escape from theGaza Strip.
Palestinianofficials insisted that Mr. Hassan, who tried to wade across the border intoEgypton Thursday, was mentally ill. His family said he was sane, but desperate — he had been trying all year, unsuccessfully, to enter Egypt legally for medical treatment for an old injury.
“Ishaq thought that Egyptians will be like Europeans, who deal with Syrians and welcome them,” said his brother, Ibrahim Hassan.
But as soon as Mr. Hassan crossed the frontier, Egyptian border guards opened fire, spraying the sea with bullets while ignoring a Palestinian guard who whistled and frantically gestured with his hands that Mr. Hassan had mental problems.A video that captured the shootingmade at least one thing clear: Mr. Hassan appeared to pose no immediate threat to anyone.
When the firing stopped, Egyptian soldiers pulled Mr. Hassan’s apparently lifeless body from the water, as the camera kept rolling: an image that evoked the perilous journeys of migrants across the Mediterranean but also laid bare the hemmed-in lives of Palestinians inGaza, unable to wander even a few steps from their own borders.
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On Sunday, Palestinians gathered to protest Mr. Hassan's death.CreditMohammed Salem/Reuters
Over the past two years, Egypt’s border with Gaza has become an increasingly impenetrable front, fueling desperation among Palestinians trapped between Egypt and Israel, which also severely restricts crossings.
Egypt’s government, under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has kept the border closed for 339 days this year, according to the Interior Ministry in Gaza. More than 25,000 people are waiting to cross, including Palestinians seeking medical treatment, or trying to study abroad, ministry officials said.
As they grapple with an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian officials have justified the border crackdown as a necessary measure to deter the flow of militants and weapons. At the same time, the border guards appear increasingly willing to use deadly force against anyone trying to cross. In the past six weeks, Egyptian border guards have fatally shot at least 20 Sudanese migrants trying to cross into Israel.
An Egyptian military spokesman declined to comment on the shooting on Sunday. But some hoped Mr. Hassan’s death might put more pressure on Egypt to ease its blockade.
“Perhaps Hassan broke the siege in his own way, and permanently got peace,” said Mohammed Lubbad, who organized a demonstration outside Egypt’s embassy in Gaza on Sunday.
The video of Mr. Hassan’s killing was first aired on Al Jazeera satellite channel, which said he had been mentally ill. Officials with Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, repeated the assertion. Iyad al-Bozum, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said that Palestinian border guards had tried to detain Mr. Hassan but that he escaped.
جنود مصريون يقتلون شابا فلسطينيا يعاني اضطرابات نفسيةVideo by Al Jazeera Arabic
The Egyptians, he said, “killed him in cold blood.”
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Mr. Hassan's mother showed photographs of her son, as well as his education certificates.CreditWissam Nassar for The New York Times
“This is a crime in daylight and a clear violation of international law,” he said, “because the man was completely unarmed and also mentally sick.”
But his family strongly denied that Mr. Hassan suffered from any mental illness, saying that he was preparing a new apartment and searching for a wife. They also said he had been studying English at an American nonprofit organization that provides education in the Middle East.
But he was frantic to leave Gaza, they said. He was still suffering from gunshot wounds to the leg he sustained in 2007, when he was struck while shopping during clashes between Palestinian factions, relatives said.
“He could not sleep at night due to the pain,” said his brother Ibrahim Hassan. He said Mr. Hassan had been able to travel to Egypt once, shortly after he was shot, for medical treatment. He tried to return three times this year, but the border was closed, his brother said.
So sometime Thursday, Mr. Hassan took off his clothes and laid them on a rock on the beach, near the border. He undressed, his family said, so that the border guards would know that he was a civilian and unarmed.
Palestinian officials failed Mr. Hassan, including by not preventing him from crossing, his family said. And the Egyptian government is proving itself as repressive, if not more so, than the Israeli government, they said.
“My pain is deep,” said Mr. Hassan’s father, Khalil Hassan. “They published the video on Al Jazeera, and I wonder why they did not stop him? Why did the camera keep filming?”
Mr. Bozum said the Egyptians had promised to return Mr. Hassan’s body in a few days. But his family said it had yet to receive any confirmation of his death.
Family members did not participate in the protest outside the embassy, which was organized by Hamas, but they appreciated the show of solidarity, said Mr. Hassan’s sister, Neama.
“This story is not just about Ishaq,” she said. “It became about everyone. Now people feel that their sons could be Ishaq at any moment.”
