The comeback of Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

It is clear that Iran’s former firebrand-in-chief Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president from 2005-2013, is attempting a political comeback.

First were the well-timed media profiles of visitors making the pilgrimage to his home in Tehran’s Narmak neighborhood seeking favors; next, the Iranian press accounts of Ahmadinejad’s opportunistic trips to Iran’s provinces; then rumors from spokespeople that he intends to run for the presidency in 2017; and now a public letter to the president of the United States seeking the repatriation of $2 billion of assets frozen in the US.
But will all of these efforts and publicity help him succeed in reclaiming the presidency, and winning the mandate of the Islamic Republic’s hardliners?

An Iran poll survey suggests that the former president now trails incumbent Hassan Rouhani by just eight percentage points in a head-to-head match-up, compared with 27 points in May 2015. But the numbers don’t tell the whole story – indeed, Ahmadinejad faces an uphill battle in regaining the regime imprimatur due to heavy political baggage.

Ahmadinejad was the Supreme Leader’s darling when he began his reign in 2005. It is believed that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei quietly supported Ahmadinejad while his influential son Mojtaba openly endorsed him in 2005, all in the midst of a run-off between Ahmadinejad’s campaign and that of the moderate former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

But as early as 2008, the bloom was beginning to come off the rose, with reports circulating that Khamenei was disappointed with Ahmadinejad’s economic policies, which “had led to steep inflation in basic necessities, from food to property values.”

Then came his hotly contested reelection in 2009, which saw the Supreme Leader publicly bless Ahmadinejad’s purported victory during a dispute between his camp and that of his challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi. But at the same time, the cracks in the relationship continued to grow, with the Supreme Leader having to publicly chastise Ahmadinejad for his accusations of corruption against his opponents during live televised debates, saying “[o]ne doesn’t like to see a nominee, for the sake of proving himself, seeking to negate somebody else.”

Ahmadinejad soon fell even deeper out of favor. In 2011 he fired his intelligence minister, accusing him of being a spy who disseminated information to the Supreme Leader on his chief of staff – and preferred successor – Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei. This led to Khamenei having to reinstate the intelligence chief, prompting Ahmadinejad to begin his “great sulk” – not appearing in public or participating in cabinet meetings for two weeks.

The mullahcracy in Tehran long had its eye on Mashaei, whom it suspected of attempting to undermine their religious authority.

Throughout the rest of his presidency, a fifth clerical column routinely targeted Ahmadinejad’s allies – in 2011 he saw at least 25 lieutenants arrested and accused of “black magic.” According to media reports, one arrested supporter was dubbed by a conservative daily as a “man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with unknown worlds” and was “accused of summoning a genie, who caused his interrogator to have a heart attack.”

By the 2013 presidential campaign season, the former president was considered damaged goods. In a final political rebuke, rumors ran rampant in Tehran that Ahmadinejad would face 74 lashes or six months in jail after he illegally accompanied Mashaei to register as a candidate. In the end his loyal confidante Mashaei was barred from running for the presidency.

Even after Ahmadinejad left office his record continued to haunt the halls of power in Tehran.

His first vice president, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, was sentenced to five years in prison and forced to pay a $300,000 fine on undisclosed embezzlement charges; Hamid Baqaei, Ahmadinejad’s vice president for executive affairs, was arrested in 2015 on unspecified grounds; his ally and billionaire Babak Zanjani was sentenced to death for fraud and economic crimes in profiting off of sanctions imposed on Iran; current regime officials have called for Ahmadinejad himself to stand trial for mismanagement of the country; and the most recent “pay slip-gate” furor over the inflated salaries of the heads of state-owned companies seems to have begun during his reign.

Finally, let’s not forget the power of the Guardian Council. There is a precedent for a former president being prohibited from running for the presidency again: in 2013, the Guardian Council thwarted former president Rafsanjani’s ambitions for a third term, suggesting that Rafsanjani was too old. His battles – like Ahmadinejad’s – with the Supreme Leader have become legendary.

Ahmadinejad could find himself sharing a similar fate.

So, while Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is once again entering the political limelight, his record and reputation precede him. His list of enemies is long, but will memories of his reign be short with the lack of economic improvement in the aftermath of the Rouhani administration’s nuclear deal? Only time will tell.

Official Source: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-comeback-of-Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-464765

Turkish tanks enter Syria to clear ISIS from Jarablus

Turkish tank units have entered Syria as part of a military operation backed by Turkish and US-led coalition warplanes to clear the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group from the Syrian border town of Jarablus, according to Turkish state media.

Turkish special forces had crossed the border and entered Jarablus early on Wednesday, officials said.

“The operation, which began at around 4am local time (01:00 GMT), is aimed at clearing the Turkish borders of terrorist groups, helping to enhance border security and supporting the territorial integrity of Syria,” Anadolu Agency quoted Turkish officials as saying.

Turkish media said the operation involved artillery and rocket shelling as well as warplanes, before the ground forces, including heavy armoured vehicles, entered Syria towards noon.

So far, Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters backed by Turkey have captured four villages and total of 46 ISIL fighters have been killed in the operation, Dogan news agency said on Wednesday.

Turkish daily Hurriyet reported that Turkish tanks in Syrian territories blocked ISIL’s support routes and Turkish fighter jets along with coalition jets pounded ISIL vehicles headed from the al-Bab region to support ISIL fighters in the Jarablus area.

Meanwhile some 5,000 FSA fighters, including groups from the Sultan Murat Brigade, Sukur al-Jeber, Sham Front and Feylek al-Sham, were reportedly advancing toward central Jarablus.

PYD and ISIL targeted

The operation is targeting ISIL and Syrian Kurdish fighters in northern Syria to end attacks on Turkey’s border, President Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech in the capital Ankara on Wednesday.

“At 4:00 this morning, operations started in the north of Syria against terror groups which constantly threaten our country, like Daesh [the Arabic acronym for ISIL] and the PYD [the Syrian Kurdish group],” he said in a speech in Ankara.

Turkey had pledged on Monday to “completely cleanse” ISIL fighters from its border region after a suicide bomber suspected of links to the group killed 54 people at a Kurdish wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

Turkey is also concerned about the growing influence of Syrian Kurdish groups along its border, where they have captured large expanses of territory since the start of the Syrian war in 2011.

Turkey sees them as tied to the PKK, which has been waging an armed campaign mainly in the country’s southeast.

“It is hard to conduct this operation without the green light from Moscow, Tehran, Damascus and Washington,” Metin Gurcan, security analyst, told Al Jazeera from Istanbul.

“The open objective in this operation is that Turkey is trying to create an ISIL-free humanitarian zone by clearing Jarablus for possible flow of refugees,” he said.

“The covert objective is another one. The PYD’s recent advances alarmed Ankara. Turkey aims to deny the PYD’s objective of connecting cantons it controls and creating monolithic Kurdish entity.”

The military operation against ISIL comes as Syrian rebels, backed by Turkey, also say they are in the final stages of preparing an assault from Turkish territory on Jarablus, aiming to pre-empt a potential attempt by Syrian Kurdish forces of PYD to take it.

The PYD, a critical part of the US-backed campaign against ISIL, took near-complete control of Hasaka city on Tuesday.

The group already controls chunks of northern Syria where Kurdish groups have established de facto autonomy since the start of the Syria war – a development that has alarmed Turkey.

Official Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/08/turkish-tanks-enter-syria-clear-isil-jarablus-160824082508482.html

Breaking News: Red Heifer Born!!

‘In next war, thousands of rockets will hit in heart of Israel’

Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan, speaking at a conference today (Monday) shared some projections of what a future conflict in Lebanon would bring to the home front in Israel’s heartland.

“In the 2nd Lebanon war, 70 tons of explosive warheads hit Israel. Let’s estimate the next war will bring four times that and round up. So we’re talking about 300 tons per month. That’s equal to what our Air Force drops in five hours.”

However, Golan argued, the challenge was not insurmountable. “Don’t you think we can withstand this? Do we not have a national sense of  fortitude?”. He also offered statistics that brighten the picture somewhat, “Of all the rockets fired up till now, only 4% have hit in built up areas, and only 1% have hit buildings directly.”

Golan was speaking at a conference organized by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), marking the 10-year anniversary of the 2nd Lebanon war. NEMA was created in the wake of the aforementioned war to better coordinate military and civilian action during states of war or national disaster. Attendees at the conference include Amir Peretz, who was Defense Minister during the 2nd Lebanon war, the head of NEMA, the head of the Home Front Command, and other Defence and Emergency Response officials.

According to Golan, “We’re the country best equipped to deal with this kind of emergency. I look at the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area. How many rockets will land there? Several dozens. We can handle that. The Home Front Command has prepared directives for all relevant government bodies, and we just need to make sure that everyone is doing their job and ensuring preparedness. Israel has a peerless early warning system that lets civilians know exactly what to do.”

Regarding preparations for dealing with the threat from Hezbollah, Golan said some populations may need to be evacuated from areas adjacent to the border, but made sure to note that he is “opposed in principal to evacuations, despite the fact that some small scale evacuations may be necessary.”

Golan summarized, “The IDF knows that the best defense is offense, the removal of the threat. We need to make sure to strengthen the home front, but make sure to remember that wars are won by accomplishing offensive objectives. We’ve had worse times in our history. Our situation is anything but catastrophic, no one has stopped fighting, and we need to keep our heads. The last war in Lebanon saw the deaths of 42 civilians and I certainly don’t dismiss this. It’s been difficult, and things will get more difficult, but there is no doubt we have the ability to handle the situation.”

Amir Peretz, who served as Defense Minister during the war, also spoke at the conference and warned of the inadequacy of the rocket and bomb shelter infrastructure in the North, saying “It’s not good, to put it mildly, and we can’t put it on the inhabitants of the North to solve it themselves.”

Regarding the lead-up to the war, Peretz said: “Our policy of containment created a perception on the Hezbollah side that we were frozen, and they took full advantage.”

Responding to recurring accusations that the IDF wasn’t operationally or logistically prepared for the war, Peretz demurred, saying: “I was Defense Minister for two months when the war started. I could have shifted responsibility for the results on to others, but I didn’t.”

Expressing pride in the war’s accomplishments, Peretz remarked that Israel had enjoyed “10 years of quiet on the northern front. Children don’t know what a Katyusha is and farmers can work in peace. I commend all who were a part of that military campaign and accomplished such wonderful things.”

Reflecting the conduct of the war itself, Peretz highlighted the constraints of the pre-Iron-Dome era. “I had to pay attention to what was going on in our offensive operations at Bint Jbeil and elsewhere and to the Home Front situation in Haifa, all at the same time. The Iron Dome isn’t only an effective military tool, it also gives command the ability to make decisions more calmly. Without it there are far more questions; to evacuate of not to evacuate? I am not a big fan of evacuations but sometimes it may be absolutely necessary as an executive decision and then that opens up the entire matter of where to put all the people who’ve left their homes.”

Peretz also addressed today’s agreement with Turkey, expressing the belief that “this agreement is important. I sympathize with the families of the MIAs, and if it was promised to them that any agreement would include the return of the bodies–that’s a grave issue.”

Yona Yahav, the Mayor of Haifa, spoke at the conference about public bomb shelters, calling them “death traps,” and lamenting the fact that “12 out of the 14 dead in Haifa were hit on their way from their houses to the shelter. The state must fund the building of more reinforced rooms in private apartments.”

Official Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/214157#.V3E-uLsrLx8

Legalize human genetic engineering to cure serious diseases, says Nobel Prize-winner

People destined to inherit serious diseases could be cured by a type of genetic engineering currently illegal in Britain, a Nobel Prize-winner says.

The invention of a new genome editing tool called “germline therapy” means precise changes to genetic material can be made to correct faulty DNA in human sperm, eggs and embryos.

However, the procedure is banned in Britain and many other states because the genetic changes would be passed down to future generations with largely-unknown risks.

Sir Venki Ramakrishnan, speaking to the Guardian, says the risks and benefits of the procedure, which could create the first genetically-modified humans if given the green light, need to be debated.

“It’s definitely a major step, there’s no getting around that.

“What we need is a diverse and transparent group of people to really come together and get to grips with how we go about using this tool and are there red lines. They may well decide there are red lines we shouldn’t cross.

“The concern I have is the same as with any other technology, which is that once a technology is feasible, we may well regulate it but someone somewhere may start using it in ways we consider unethical.”

At a meeting in Washington, DC, in December, scientists decided not to impose their own global ban on modifying human embryos destined to become people but stated that to do so would be unacceptable given the unknown risks today.

‘GM crops shouldn’t be banned’

Meanwhile, the Royal Society, of which Ramakrishnan is president, will publish a report on Tuesday about genetically modified crops.

According to the report, half of the UK population does not feel well-informed about GM crops, and a further 6 percent have never heard of them.

Crops that are modified to resist pests, grow in harsh conditions and contain more nutrients may become increasingly important as the world’s population grows, Ramakrishnan says.

“We wanted to provide the background and facts about some of the most important questions people have on GM crops.

“If we have better tools at our disposal, should we use them or not? It’s a question society has to decide.”

In 2015, GM crops were grown in 28 countries and on 180 million hectares – the equivalent of seven times the land area of the UK.

But in the same year, more than half of the EU officially banned farmers from growing GM crops, including Germany, France, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The bans were imposed despite EU regulators finding GM crops pose no risk to health or the environment.

Ramakrishnan argues crops should not be judged on whether they are GM or not.

“GM as a technique is no more dangerous than any other agricultural technique. What most scientists believe is that any new crop we introduce needs to be tested on a case-by-case basis according to its traits, not how it was reproduced.”

Among the concerns about GM raised by environmental groups and NGOs is the risk that large companies may monopolize agriculture and wield too much power over growers.

“I can understand how a backlash happened against GM. But the solution is not to ban GM, it’s to take it out of the hands of a few corporations,” Ramakrishnan says.

Official Source: https://www.rt.com/uk/344190-human-genetic-engineering-law/

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If You Die Today, Where Will You Go, Heaven or Hell?

Netanyahu renews rejection of French peace initiative

The Israeli leader instead proposed sitting down for direct talks in Paris with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas [Reuters]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has renewed rejection of a French peace initiative, telling the visiting French prime minister that peace cannot be forged through international conferences but only through direct negotiations.”Peace just does not get achieved through international conferences, UN-style,” Netanyahu said on Monday at a press conference with French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

“It doesn’t get to fruition through international diktats or committees … seeking to decide our fate and our security when they have no direct stake in it.” Netanyahu said.

Paris plans to hold ministerial-level talks on June 3 as a first step in reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, which came to a grinding halt in April 2014.

The talks would initially exclude Israel and Palestinian authorities but would bring together representatives of the US, Russia, the United Nations and European Union, as well as representatives from Arab and European nations.

 

The French hope that beginning with non-direct talks could lay the groundwork for an agreement later between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Palestinians have welcomed the French effort, but Israel has rejected it out of concern the country will be faced with foreign dictates.

Instead, the Israeli leader proposed sitting down for direct talks in Paris with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

“I will sit alone directly with President Abbas in the Elysee Palace, or anywhere else that you choose,” Netanyahu said.

Speaking to broadcaster i24news, Valls said direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians had failed.

“The role of world powers is to ensure a regulated dialogue,” Valls said in Tel Aviv.

The French premier is expected to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah on Tuesday.

Earlier this year, France’s former foreign minister Laurent Fabius said France would recognise a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem if the conference and efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks fail.

Official Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/netanyahu-renews-rejection-french-peace-initiative-160523131848117.html

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