Earth calamities and Rumors of war

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IDF topples Hamas headquarters

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/250310

Israeli fighter jets leveled a five-story building in the Rimal neighborhood of the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday evening as the fighting between Israel and Hamas continues to escalate.

Israel says that the building serves as the command center for Hamas' internal security forces, which is responsible for and manages all internal security activities in the Gaza Strip. Some members of the Internal Security Unit are also active in the military wing of Hamas and take part in armed activity against Israel.

The IDF said that it had decided to attack what it deemed a high-value target after Hamas fired rockets at Be'er Sheva on Thursday, the first time Israel's southern capital was targeted since 2014's Operation Protective Edge.

"The attack was carried out following the extensive IDF attacks and in response to the firing of the terrorist organization by the Hamas terrorist organization at the city of Beer Sheva earlier today," said that IDF Spokesperson's Unit, adding that "this attack is an expression of the IDF's intelligence and operational capabilities".

"The Hamas terrorist organization bears responsibility for everything happening in and out of the Gaza Strip, and it will bear the consequences for the terrorist acts against Israeli citizens," added IDF Spokesman Brigadier General Ronen Manelis.

Israel's security-political cabinet is currently meeting in order to ponder its reaction to the incessant rocket fire that has plagued Israel on Thursday. Earlier, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman met with the IDF's top brass at the army's Tel Aviv headquarters.

Since the recent escalation commenced on Wednesday evening, more than 190 missiles have fallen into Israel. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted 30 rockets and the rest fell in open areas.

'There is no deterrence. Go to war now'

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/250303

Major-General (Res.) Uzi Dayan, former deputy chief of staff, called for the restoration of Israeli deterrence in Gaza through a military operation against Hamas following the launching of 180 rockets and mortars from Gaza overnight.

"I hope there will be an operation in Gaza. This is something that needs to be done because our deterrence has been eroded to a point," Dayan said in a conversation with Arutz Sheva.

"Even if there is a kind of ceasefire, Hamas will continue to operate below the threshold of response, to send kites and balloons, on the assumption that we will respond only with a small response, and even if it sends eighty rockets to the Gaza vicinity like yesterday, Israel will not launch an operation. This is called the loss of deterrence.

Dayan, the former head of the National Security Council, explained that a future operation that would end without Hamas being neutralized would be considered a loss for Israel. "It is important to respond strongly because Hamas must be deterred and if we want to deter it, it can only be done through a threat to [Hamas'] very existence. We need to decide whether to embark on a war in Gaza and decide whether the goal is to punish or topple Hamas."

"Anything less than regime change is a victory for Hamas because then Hamas entered the bunkers and even if thousands of people in Gaza are killed, it will not matter to it. It will continue to be in the bunker for a week or two and then it will emerge from the ruins and declare victory. And that's how it will show in the world that Israel did not succeed in eliminating Hamas. "

Dayan estimates that without the support of Israeli public opinion, the IDF would not launch an operation against Hamas. "Why do we recoil? Because of the price to Israel. We fear losses. The main problem is Israeli public opinion. Israel is not going to begin a war that would result in casualties unless Israeli public opinion understands that there is no choice but to go to war."

"Public opinion day is not like that. In the Gaza vicinity they say they hope the quiet will return, they do not support an operation in Gaza," he said. "The IDF needs to present more aggressive plans that include the destruction of Hamas, whether by eliminating the leadership, no matter whether it is a political leadership or military leadership. or by making it leave the Gaza Strip, just as we removed the PLO from Lebanon."

"And if we are determined to harm the leadership of Hamas, it means destroying governmental targets and houses belonging to leading families in Hamas. In this situation, some punishment will indeed be achieved, but there will not be such a deterrent that the masses in Gaza will say, 'If this is the result then we have to stop shooting.' A terrorist organization is deterred only by a threat to its very existence. This does not mean conquering all of Gaza but it would entail a ground invasion."

Sderot pledges support: 'Time to enter Gaza'

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/250285

Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi pledges his city's support of a post-diplomatic solution to the current aggression from Gaza: "We must return life back on track. The time has come to undertake an operation in Gaza," Davidi said. "We must deal a blow to terror and return life to normal. For our part, we'll provide the operating space and the time for the army and policymakers to bring quiet back to our region," he said.

Alarms were heard this morning across the Gaza area, in Ashkelon, and Netivot. The IDF renewed attacks in Gaza and since morning three emplacements of rocket launchers and mortars were hit.

Nine people are still hospitalized. Since the beginning of the escalation, 26 casualties have been evacuated to hospitals last night and this morning.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is holding a security situation assessment with the Defense Minister and top security force echelons in the Kirya in Tel Aviv. At 16:00 the Political-Security Cabinet will convene.


Security cabinet instructs IDF to ‘act forcefully’ against Gaza violence

https://www.timesofisrael.com/secur...-idf-to-act-forcefully-against-gaza-violence/

Wrapping up a four-hour meeting on Gaza, the high-level security cabinet on Thursday instructed the military to “continue acting forcefully” against terror groups in the Strip, amid an intense flare-up in violence over the last day that saw the worst exchange of fire since the 2014 war.

The statement from the senior government panel came as Al-Jazeera reported that an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas had been reached and went into effect at 10:45 p.m.

An Israeli official swiftly denied the report and said no such deal had been clinched.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened the security cabinet on Thursday evening to discuss the violence in the south, as IDF jets flattened a five-story building in the Gaza Strip it says served as a headquarters for Hamas’s internal security service.

“The [security] cabinet instructed the IDF to continue acting forcefully against terrorists,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said at the conclusion of the meeting.

An Israeli official told reporters Hamas has been seeking an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire throughout the day on Thursday, after an earlier truce that went into effect in the afternoon was breached after some two hours. In the absence of a deal, Israel was able to target “valuable” Hamas military targets in Gaza, the official said.

The terrorist group was reportedly eager to cut a deal with Israel, with negotiations via Cairo said to be ongoing throughout Thursday night.

Earlier on Thursday, the IDF said in a statement its airstrike on the building in northern Gaza came in response to Hamas rocket fire that was launched deep inside Israeli territory. The statement said the building was the headquarters for Hamas’s internal security service, which served as the “operational arm” of the terror group. The building also served as a cultural center.

It was not clear if the escalation of hostilities, the latest in a series of intense exchanges of fire in recent months, would derail the indirect ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Channel 10 news reported Thursday there was a “growing understanding” in the defense establishment that reaching a ceasefire deal with Hamas was impossible, and that Israel must launch a full-fledged military operation to restore calm. The report said the IDF was mulling a short but intense operation targeting some the more affluent neighborhoods in Gaza City to exert the maximum pressure on the Hamas leadership. It said any military campaign in Gaza would not ultimately seek to oust Hamas, but force the ruling terror group to agree to an understanding with Israel.

Also Thursday, Hamas insisted that neither it nor the Islamic Jihad terror group were responsible for Thursday’s rocket attack on Beersheba that ruptured a two-hour ceasefire and marked a significant increase in the level of violence from Gaza.

According to a report by Hadashot news, the Hamas leadership blamed a radical Salafist group in the Gaza Strip for launching the rocket 40 kilometers away, provoking the Israeli retaliation.

On Facebook, Hamas spokesman Hazim Qassim slammed Israel for its “deliberate bombardment and destruction of cultural center,” calling it a “barbaric act that belongs in the Dark Ages.”

Eighteen Palestinians were wounded in the Israeli strike on the alleged Hamas headquarters, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. The degree of their injuries was not immediately known.

IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said Thursday that Gaza terror groups have fired about 150 rockets at Israel in the past 24 hours, while Israel has struck some 140 Hamas targets in Gaza.

He said the rocket that landed in Beersheba — some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Gaza border– required a more powerful, longer-range rocket, marking a significant escalation in violence.
 
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Russia denounces new U.S. sanctions as illegal, mulls retaliation

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ns-as-illegal-mulls-retaliation-idUSKBN1KU13C

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia condemned a new round of U.S. sanctions as illegal on Thursday and said it had begun working on retaliatory measures after news of the curbs pushed the rouble to two-year lows over fears Moscow was locked in a spiral of never-ending sanctions.

Moscow has been trying with mixed success to improve battered U.S.-Russia ties since Donald Trump won the White House in 2016, and Russia’s political elite was quick to chalk up a summit last month between Trump and Vladimir Putin as a victory.

But initial triumphalism swiftly turned sour as anger over what some U.S. lawmakers saw as an over deferential performance by Trump and his failure to confront Putin over Moscow’s alleged meddling in U.S. politics galvanized a new sanctions push.

Having bet heavily on improving ties with Washington via Trump, Moscow now finds that Trump is under mounting pressure from U.S. lawmakers to show he is tough on Russia ahead of mid-term elections.

In the latest broadside, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday it would impose fresh sanctions by the month’s end after determining that Moscow had used a nerve agent against a former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, in Britain, something Moscow denies.

The Kremlin said the sanctions were illegal and unfriendly and that the U.S. move was at odds with the “constructive atmosphere” of Trump and Putin’s encounter in Helsinki.

Moscow would start to work on retaliatory measures “in the same spirit” as any U.S. restrictions, the Foreign Ministry said.

The new sanctions come in two tranches. The first, which targets U.S. exports of sensitive national-security related goods, comes with deep exemptions and many of the items it covers have already been banned by previous restrictions.

The second tranche, which can be selectively activated after 90 days if Moscow fails to provide “reliable assurances” it will no longer use chemical weapons and blocks on-site inspections, is potentially more serious.

According to the law, it could include downgrading diplomatic relations, suspending national flag carrier Aeroflot’s ability to fly to the United States and cutting off nearly all exports and imports.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow had not yet received any official U.S. request to open up sites once linked to chemical weapons for inspection.

FILE PHOTO: National flags of Russia and the U.S. fly at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
The State Department’s announcement fueled already worsening investor sentiment about the possible impact of more sanctions on Russian assets and the rouble at one point slid by over 1 percent against the dollar, hitting a two-year low, before recouping some of its losses.

The U.S. move also triggered a sell-off in Russian government bonds and the dollar-denominated RTS index fell to its lowest since April 11.

“There is local panic on the currency market,” BCS Brokerage said in a note. “At times, the number of those who want to ditch the rouble is becoming so high so there is not enough liquidity.”

Despite the steep drop in the rouble, the central bank was not expected to intervene. It let the rouble float freely in 2014 after unsuccessfully burning through substantial foreign currency reserves in a doomed effort to defend it.

The Finance Ministry said on Thursday there was no threat to financial stability, a statement markets interpreted as a signal Moscow had no immediate plans to channel any of its $458 billion worth of reserves into propping up the rouble.

ILLEGAL
The Kremlin said the new sanctions were “illegal and do not correspond to international law.”

“...Such decisions taken by the American side are absolutely unfriendly and can hardly be somehow associated with the constructive - not simple but constructive - atmosphere that there was at the last meeting of the two presidents,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

FILE PHOTO: A coat of arms is seen through barbed wire on the wall of the Russian embassy in Kiev, Ukraine March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo
Washington had become an unpredictable player on the international stage, Peskov added, saying “anything could be expected” from it and that it was important that Russia’s financial system, which he described as stable, was prepared.

Peskov criticized the U.S. decision to link the sanctions to the British nerve agent case, an incident the Kremlin has long cast as a Western plot to damage its reputation and provide a pretext for more sanctions.

Skripal, a former colonel in Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, and his 33-year-old daughter were found slumped unconscious on a bench in the southern English city of Salisbury in March after a liquid form of the Novichok type of nerve agent was applied to his home’s front door.

European countries and the United States expelled 100 Russian diplomats after the attack, in the strongest action by Trump against Russia since he came to office.

Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center and a former colonel in the Russian army, said the State Department’s move looked like the latest salvo in what he called a hybrid war.

“Sanctions are the U.S. weapon of choice,” Trenin wrote on Twitter.

“They are not an instrument, but the policy itself. Russia will have to brace for more to come over the next several years, prepare for the worst and push back where it can.”

At variance with Moscow over Ukraine and Syria, Western sanctions have already drastically reduced Western involvement in Russian energy and commodities projects, including large scale financing and exploration of hard-to-recover and deep water resources.

Legislation introduced last week in draft form by Republican and Democratic senators, dubbed “the sanctions bill from hell” by one of its sponsors, calls for sanctions to be widened to include virtually all Russian energy projects and to effectively bar Western companies from any involvement in the country.

US officials are bracing for cyberattacks in retaliation for sanctions on Iran

https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-experts-iran-could-answer-us-sanctions-with-cyberattacks-2018-8

WASHINGTON (AP) — The US is bracing for cyberattacks Iran could launch in retaliation for the re-imposition of sanctions this week by President Donald Trump, cybersecurity and intelligence experts say.

Concern over that cyber threat has been rising since May, when Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal, under which the US and other world powers eased economic sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear program. The experts say the threat would intensify following Washington's move Tuesday to re-impose economic restrictions on Tehran.

"While we have no specific threats, we have seen an increase in chatter related to Iranian threat activity over the past several weeks," said Priscilla Moriuchi, director of strategic threat development at Recorded Future, a global real-time cyber threat intelligence company. The Massachusetts-based company predicted back in May that the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement would provoke a cyber response from the Iranian government within two to four months.

US intelligence agencies have singled out Iran as one of the main foreign cyber threats facing America, along with Russia, China and North Korea. A wave of attacks that US authorities blamed on Iran between 2012 and 2014 targeted banks and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage. They also targeted but failed to penetrate critical infrastructure.

Iran denies using its cyber capabilities for offensive purposes, and accuses the US of targeting Iran. Several years ago, the top-secret Stuxnet computer virus destroyed centrifuges involved in Iran's contested nuclear program. Stuxnet, which is widely believed to be an American and Israeli creation, caused thousands of centrifuges at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility to spin themselves to destruction at the height of the West's fears over Iran's program.

"The United States has been the most aggressive country in the world in offensive cyber activity and publicly boasted about attacking targets across the world," said Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for Iran's diplomatic mission at the United Nations, contending that Iran's cyber capabilities are "exclusively for defensive purposes."

Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who heads the elite Quds Force of Iran's hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, has sounded more ominous, warning late last month about Iran's capabilities in "asymmetric war," a veiled reference to nontraditional warfare that could include cyber attacks.

The Trump administration says it re-imposed sanctions on Iran to prevent its aggression — denying it the funds it needs to finance terrorism, its missile program and forces in conflicts in Yemen and Syria.

The sanctions restarted Tuesday target US dollar financial transactions, Iran's automotive sector and the purchase of commercial planes and metals, including gold. Even stronger sanctions targeting Iran's oil sector and central bank are to be re-imposed in early November.

European leaders have expressed deep regret about the US actions. They hit Iran at a time when its unemployment is rising, the country's currency has collapsed and demonstrators are taking to the streets to protest social issues and labor unrest.

Norm Roule, former Iran manager for the office of the Director of National Intelligence, said he thinks Tehran will muster its cyber forces in response.

"I think there is a good chance Iran will use cyber, probably not an attack that is so destructive that it would fragment its remaining relationship with Europe, but I just don't think the Iranians will think there is much cost to doing this," Roule said. "And it's a good way to show their capacity to inflict economic cost against the United States."

"Iran's cyber activities against the world have been the most consequential, costly and aggressive in the history of the internet, more so than Russia. ... The Iranians are destructive cyber operators," Roule said, adding that Iranian hackers have, at times, impersonated Israeli and Western cyber security firm websites to harvest log-in information.

The office of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats declined to comment Tuesday on the likelihood that Iran will answer the sanctions with cyber operations against the US. When the US pulled out of the nuclear deal, the FBI issued a warning saying that hackers in Iran "could potentially use a range of computer network operations — from scanning networks for potential vulnerabilities to data-deletion attacks — against U.S.-based networks in response to the U.S. government's withdrawal" from the nuclear pact.

Accenture Security, a global consulting, managing and technology company, also warned Tuesday that the new sanctions would "likely to push that country to intensify state-sponsored cyber threat activities," particularly if Iran fails to keep its European counterparts committed to the nuclear pact.

Josh Ray, the firm's managing director for cyber defense, said it hasn't seen any evidence that Iran has launched any new cyber operations, but he said Iran has the capability to do it and has historically operated in a retaliatory manner.

"This still remains a highly capable, espionage-related type threat," Ray said. "Organizations need to take this threat seriously. They need to understand how their business could potentially be impacted."

Recorded Future's Moriuchi anticipated that businesses most at risk were those victimized in Iranian cyberattacks between 2012 and 2014 — they include banks and financial services, government departments, critical infrastructure providers, and oil and energy.

Those cyberattacks cost nearly 50 financial institutions tens of millions of dollars. The repeated attacks disabled bank websites and kept hundreds of thousands of customers from accessing their online accounts. US prosecutors indicted several Iranians, alleging they worked at the behest of the Iranian government.

One defendant allegedly targeted the computer systems of the Bowman Dam in Rye, New York. No access was gained, but prosecutors said the breach underscored the potential vulnerabilities of the nation's critical infrastructure.

In March, the Justice Department also announced charges against nine Iranians accused of working at the behest of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to steal large quantities of academic data from hundreds of universities in the United States and abroad as well as email accounts belonging to employees of government agencies and private companies.
 
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Turkey’s Erdogan Orders Retaliatory Sanctions Against American Officials

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/04/world/europe/turkey-erdogan-sanctions-us.html

ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said Saturday that he was ordering reciprocal sanctions against two American officials in retaliation for United States measures against two of his ministers, escalating a diplomatic wrangle between the NATO allies.

“Those who think that they can make Turkey take a step back with ridiculous sanctions have never known this country or this nation,” Mr. Erdogan said in a speech in the capital, Ankara. “We have never bowed our heads to such pressure and will never do so.”

The Turkish action came after the White House announced sanctions freezing the assets of the Turkish interior and justice ministers this past week, in protest against Turkey’s detention of an American pastor, Andrew Brunson.

Mr. Erdogan said he would order his government to “freeze the assets” in Turkey of the American counterparts of the targeted Turkish officials, describing them as “the U.S. justice and interior ministers.” Such an order would be largely symbolic. It’s unclear whether American officials would have assets in Turkey.

The United States has sought the release of Mr. Brunson, 50, who leads the evangelical Resurrection Church in the city of Izmir, since his detention 21 months ago on charges of espionage and assisting terrorist groups. American officials say Mr. Brunson is innocent and is being held by the Turkish government as a bargaining chip to leverage its interests in American court cases.

Vice President Mike Pence has taken up the case of the pastor, as have several American senators, describing him as a prisoner of conscience. President Trump has raised the case personally with Mr. Erdogan, including in a phone call.

The case is just one of a litany of disagreements between Turkey and the United States, including American support for Kurdish fighters in Syria, and the United States’ refusal to extradite the American-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Mr. Erdogan of instigating the 2016 coup attempt against the Turkish president.

Washington has been angered by Turkey’s detention of 20 American citizens, including Mr. Brunson, and three employees of American consulates in Turkey, calling it hostage diplomacy. Another point of friction is Turkey’s purchase of a Russian missile system, which flies in the face of cooperation within NATO.

Mr. Erdogan, who amassed sweeping new powers with his re-election in June to an enhanced presidential system, has maintained his popularity with strong nationalist, anti-American rhetoric. He has frequently blamed Turkey’s growing economic problems on a foreign plot, but few political analysts say he is ready to break Turkey’s alliance with the United States and with NATO.

Still, his constant sparring over multiple issues has tested relations with Europe, NATO and Washington.

Negotiations over Mr. Brunson seemed to have failed last month when a Turkish court ordered his continued detention. His conditions were eased to house arrest after American protests. Mr. Brunson wept as he described suffering psychological difficulties in detention during an earlier hearing. His trial is set to continue in October.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced financial sanctions against Abdulhamit Gul, Turkey’s justice minister, and Suleyman Soylu, the interior minister. Both are seen as acolytes of Mr. Erdogan.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the use of sanctions against a NATO ally was a signal of how seriously the United States regarded Turkey’s actions.

“The Turks were well on notice that the clock had run out and that it was time for Pastor Brunson to be returned. I hope they’ll see this for what it is: a demonstration that we’re very serious,” Mr. Pompeo told reporters Friday on his way to a Southeast Asia security conference in Singapore.

Mr. Pompeo made the appeal ahead of his meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on the sidelines of the conference, after previously pressing the case at least three times by phone.

Mr. Cavusoglu responded after their meeting by saying that harsh tactics by the United States would not work, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency.

“Since the beginning, we have been saying that a solution cannot be reached by using threatening language and sanctions,” Mr. Cavusoglu was quoted as saying. “Today we repeated that. And we believe that is understood very well.”

In his speech on Saturday, Mr. Erdogan said that the United States had taken steps that did not suit the strategic partnership between the two countries. “America has been seriously disrespectful against Turkey with that step,” he said.

“It is absolutely impossible to accept such an approach against my ministers who do not have any assets in the U.S.,” Mr. Erdogan said.

Mr. Erdogan also complained that the United States was defending Mr. Brunson, whom he accused of having relations with the Gulen movement and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, both designated terrorist organizations in Turkey. Mr. Brunson has denied the charges.

He also complained that the United States had convicted Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the deputy director of the state-owned Halkbank, for having a role in conspiring to violate American sanctions against Iran, and was pursuing further cases against the bank.

Political analysts have suggested in recent news reports that American and Turkish officials were working out a deal for the release of Mr. Brunson in return for Mr. Atilla, but that Turkey had stalled at the last minute.

But Mr. Erdogan cast the latest sanctions as an imperial plot, in familiar rousing rhetoric that is popular among his conservative, nationalist followers. “This is the manifestation of only an evangelist and Zionist approach,” he said.
 
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Russia wary to take sides in Libya as Hifter offers lucrative deals

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/08/russia-libya-conflict-hifter.html

The spokesman of Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who heads the Libyan National Army (LNA), called on Moscow Aug. 8 to intervene into Libya "to get rid of foreign players in the country.” Ahmed al-Mismari told Russia’s state-owned media Sputnik that the situation in Libya requires a Russian presence similar to that in Syria, and urged President Vladimir Putin’s personal intervention “to directly eliminate foreign players in Libya such as Qatar, Turkey and Italy.”

He added, "We are very confident that Russia is a superpower and its words will be heard if it holds talks with Italy, Turkey and Qatar or other countries such as Sudan, regarding the smuggling of terrorists into Libya."

Mismari also argued that Russia’s intervention in Syria was successful, noting that its role in eliminating foreign players there was "prominent."

“What’s happening in Syria is happening in Libya. The Libyan people are looking for a strong ally like Russia," he concluded.

The words of one of the top man in the LNA hierarchy demonstrate that Russia’s influence in the Middle East continues to increase. In late July, members of the Ansar Allah movement from Yemen also asked Moscow to intervene to stop the war in their country. Moreover, every side of both Libyan and Yemeni conflicts wants Russia to take a more active stance in the peace settlement process.

At the same time such statements made by the LNA show that the positions of Hifter and his allies have substantially diminished and their situation has become worse. The army’s leaders are trying once again to seek Russia’s attention and persuade it to become their new patron, particularly after Hifter’s closest partners — the United Arab Emirates (UAE), France and Egypt — refused to support him and the Tobruk government in their decision to place the oil export ports in the so-called Libyan Crescent under the administration of the National Oil Corporation in Benghazi, a company controlled by groups close to Hifter. As a result, on July 10 the Tobruk government was compelled to return these ports under the authority of the legitimate National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Tripoli. Basically, such hasty, irrational decisions were made by Hifter too as a reaction to his own failures.

For instance, the operation conducted by a small independent unit made up of former Petroleum Facilities Guard militants, led by Ibrahim Jadran, as a result of which the LNA had lost control over strategically important Sidr and Ras Lanuf ports for several days in mid-June substantially damaged the reputation of Hifter’s forces. This was the second time that the LNA failed to provide security for these crucial energy industry objects and lost control over the “oil crescent” ports. In March 2017, the Benghazi Defense Brigades managed to take over Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad ports. Naturally, all this raises uncertainty among foreign players about the LNA’s ability not only to provide constant oil supplies, but also to keep order on the territories they control.

Moreover, the politicians in Tobruk are concerned that the presidential and parliamentary elections planned for late 2018 may fail or be rejected due to the positions of numerous leading nations, particularly Italy, which suggest conducting elections only after national peace is reached. Many Libyan factions, which have refused to acknowledge the Paris agreements between Tripoli and Tobruk on national elections, also support this opinion. This may deal a serious blow to positions of the Tobruk government as a whole and Hifter in particular, as they risk losing a chance to restore their legitimacy. In this context, Hifter will most likely continue to seek Moscow’s support to bring the Paris agreements into life. This is why Mismari mentioned Italy among the countries from which Russia should protect Libya.

At the same time, it is not the first time that Hifter makes populist statements about Russian support. A source in Russian diplomatic circles told Al-Monitor that Moscow repeatedly had to explain its position to the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli about certain statements the LNA representatives had made in regard to receiving aid from Russia or Russia’s willingness to provide military support to them, which had nothing to do with the real state of affairs and had only been used for Hifter’s own political objectives. Nevertheless, those words and actions have partly reached their goal, as on a few occasions they have been able to hinder cooperation between Moscow and Tripoli.

Despite the rumors spread by the Tobruk government, Moscow essentially plays a much less substantial role in supporting Hifter than, for instance, France, Egypt or the UAE. Unlike Russia, these countries provide the leaders in Tobruk with direct military aid. In particular, Egyptian and French special forces have repeatedly taken part in the LNA’s assaults against Libyan militant groups affiliated with al-Qaeda; while the UAE and Egypt have been providing the LNA with aviation backups and weapons supplies.

Russia’s own record of direct military aid for the LNA is murky: injured LNA soldiers received medical treatment in Russian hospitals and the Russian government authorized Belarus to supply the UAE with Russian-made weapons such as Mi-24/35 helicopters that were later handed over to the LNA. Besides, some Russian private military contractors such as the RSB Group have worked in LNA-controlled areas; however, their activities reportedly included only demining of civilian industry objects in Benghazi — in particular, a factory that had belonged to the Libyan Cement Company.

At the same time, Russia has also been developing a dynamic relationship with the GNA in Tripoli. The parties have been establishing cooperation in the security field, while bilateral interagency contacts between them are actually more intensive than those between Moscow and Tobruk.

Moscow is also rather wary of Hifter. First, the Russians never forgot that the self-proclaimed field marshal lived in the United States for about 20 years after he had left former President Moammar Gadhafi in the early 1990s. This fact may refer to his possible ties to the CIA. Moreover, the Russians are concerned with the UAE’s extensive influence on the Tobruk government, supposing that Abu Dhabi strives to use Moscow as a tool to facilitate the maintenance of its own creation. Also, Russia cannot ignore Hifter’s overtures to local Salafists who make up a major part of his forces. The Salafi religious institutions held in authority by the Tobruk government openly make direct proclamations where they push other Islamic groups of Libya (i.e., Ibadhi Berbers) out of the country’s Muslim community.

At the same time, appeals by Hifter’s supporters to Moscow should not be seen merely as populism or propaganda as they are aimed at a certain part of the Russian government. For instance, although the Kremlin includes a prominent faction requesting to avoid providing Hifter with excessive support and expecting great benefits from the cooperation with Tripoli, mostly in economic aspects, there are groups in the government, particularly in power and military industry structures, that lobby for Hifter.

Their interest in supporting the LNA is reinforced by Hifter’s proclaimed willingness to buy Russian weapons in bulk if it is legalized and freed from the sanctions, as well as by his capability to provide in Eastern Libyan ports such as Tobruk and Benghazi, which Russian military leaders have already visited, for military bases. Moreover, Hifter’s image as a resilient fighter against political Islam is quite appealing for many Russian politicians, so that they are ready to overlook his relationships with the Salafists.

Sounds to me like Libya is interested in some form of military alliance with Russia. Russia already has Iran (Persia), Turkey (Meschech & Tubal), and Sudan (Cush) under their belt. Libya, in my opinion, may be the final puzzle piece in the Gog and Magog alliance as it is believed by many bible scholars to be ancient Put as described by Ezekiel. The Libyans already have some ties with Russia but I think we may see a formal alliance being made soon.
 
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alsughasoughaiuyfygh

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Sudan, Russia discuss military cooperation

https://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article66048

Sudan’s Defence Minister Awad Ibn Ouf said relations with Russia are developing steadily, particularly military cooperation, describing ties between the two countries as historic.

Ibn Ouf, who received the Russian Ambassador to Sudan Vladimir Zheltov on Monday at his office, pointed to Moscow’s supportive stances towards Khartoum.

For his part, Zheltov described relations between the two countries as close and friendly, saying they are based on mutual interests in all economic and military fields to serve the joint interests.

It is noteworthy that the meeting was held in the presence of Sudan’s head of the Military Intelligence, Lieu. Gen. Gamal Omar Mohamed Ibrahim, and deputy military attaché at the Russian embassy Anthony Kaplan.

During a visit to Moscow last month to attend the 2018 World Cup Final, the Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir was met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both leaders pledged to promote military cooperation in the near future.

The two leaders last met in November 2017 in the Russian city of Sochi, with both expressing a desire to enhance military ties.

At the time, al-Bashir offered to construct an airbase for Russia on the Red Sea coast and to re-equip the Sudanese army with the Russian weapons including SU-30 fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles.

Politically, Russia is seen as a major ally of the government of al-Bashir that faces isolation from the West. However, economic cooperation between the two countries has remained very low, with a trade balance that does not exceed $400 million.

In December 2015, Sudan and Russia signed 14 cooperation agreements in different domains, including oil, minerals and banks.

The agreements also include a concession contract between Sudan and the Russian Rus Geology to prospect for oil in Sudan’s Bloc E57 and another accord for the geological mapping of the Jebel Moya area, North Kordofan State.
 
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alsughasoughaiuyfygh

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This company embeds microchips in its employees, and they love it

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/...microchips-in-its-employees-and-they-love-it/

When Patrick McMullan wants a Diet Dr Pepper while he’s at work, he pays for it with a wave of his hand. McMullan has a microchip implanted between his thumb and forefinger, and the vending machine immediately deducts money from his account. At his office, he’s one of dozens of employees who have been doing likewise for a year now.

McMullan is the president of Three Square Market, a technology company that provides self-service mini-markets to hospitals, hotels, and company break rooms. Last August, he became one of roughly 50 employees at its headquarters in River Falls, Wisconsin, who volunteered to have a chip injected into their hand.

The idea came about in early 2017, he says, when he was on a business trip to Sweden—a country where some people are getting subcutaneous microchips to do things like enter secure buildings or book train tickets. It’s one of very few places where chip implants, which have been around for quite a while, have taken off in some fashion.

The chips he and his employees got are about the size of a very large grain of rice. They’re intended to make it a little easier to do things like get into the office, log on to computers, and buy food and drinks in the company cafeteria. Like many RFID chips, they are passive—they don’t have batteries, and instead get their power from an RFID reader when it requests data from the chip (McMullan’s chip includes identifying information to grant him access to the building, as well as some basic medical information, for instance).
A year into their experiment, McMullan and a few employees say they are still using the chips regularly at work for all the activities they started out with last summer. Since then, an additional 30 employees have gotten the chips, which means that roughly 80 of the company’s now 250 employees, or nearly a third, are walking, talking cyborgs.

“You get used to it; it’s easy,” McMullan says. As far as he knows, just two Three Square Market employees have had their chips removed—and that was when they left the company.

Sam Bengtson, a software engineer, says he uses his chip 10 to 15 times a day. At this point, swiping his hand over an RFID reader plugged into his computer is no different from typing in his password on a keyboard, he says.

Steve Kassekert, vice president of finance, is so used to using his hand to pay for soda at work that he was annoyed when the RFID reader on the vending machine went down a couple of months ago.

“It’s just become such a part of my routine,” he says.

The company is also exploring some ways to use microchips outside the body. McMullan says in August and September it is running tests at two hospitals—one in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and another in Hudson, Wisconsin—that will verify when doctors and nurses wash their hands. (They’ll wear bracelets incorporating a chip that they can scan on an RFID reader to turn on a sink—something that has been tried before.)

Nick Anderson, an associate professor in public health sciences at the University of California, Davis, says the privacy and security of any information stored on the chips is an obvious concern. The information gathered by readers could give lots of details about employees’ comings and goings, and someone could in theory ping your chip with a reader to find out what’s on it.

“You can sniff it if you’re at a bus stop,” he says.

McMullan says only some of the information stored on the chip in his hand is encrypted, but he argues that similar personal information could be stolen from his wallet, too.

There’s also the chance—and it seems certain to happen eventually—that the technology inside the employees’ bodies will become outdated. Bengtson, at least, is concerned about this.

“There may need to be a—dare I say—upgrade program, or something like that,” he says.

Palestinians react to Abbas' call for ‘popular resistance’

https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-...t-To-Abbas-Call-For-Popular-Resistance-565259

The Palestinian leadership appears to be changing tactics in its effort to establish a state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. At a closed-door meeting this weekend of the Central Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called for an increase in “popular resistance,” which he described as having its own value in “fighting the Israeli occupation."

“Popular resistance is the suitable form given the current situation of a complete closure of the political horizon,” Hassan Faraj, a member of the PLO committee, told The Media Line. “This form of resistance around the world has proven its efficiency in teaching the occupier a lesson and exposing its crimes to the whole world.”

Palestinians, he added, must have deep faith in what popular resistance can achieve on the ground. “This resistance requires full participation and a united combat platform that defines the type of relations that can be maintained with the enemy and what can take shape after the resistance phase is complete,” Faraj said. “Ending the Israeli occupation with popular resistance doesn’t require a specific time frame. It’s an ongoing process aimed at the paralysis of the occupation and its settlers.”

Responding to these statements, a Palestinian activist who requested anonymity told The Media Line that “popular resistance would not aid the Palestinian cause.”

“Popular resistance is being pushed by the leadership now, which demonstrates the pity the PA has for itself,” he contended, adding that Ramallah has been engaged in formulating U.S. President Donald Trump’s yet-unveiled peace plan, known as the “deal of the century.”

“The PA leadership is taking part in devising the American proposal that will strip many Palestinians of their refugee status and will be the death of the two-state solution,” the activist claimed.

Another Palestinian who spoke to The Media Line privately said that he is against popular resistance because of the current political climate. “Many Palestinians are simply being manipulated by the PA and Hamas. Both do not have national agendas, rather they have foreign ones. I believe we must clean up our own internal affairs before we fight Israel.”

Another Palestinian who did not want to be identified disagreed, arguing that, “resistance, in all its forms, is extremely important for the Palestinian cause.” He further explained that negotiations with “the Zionist entity” have proved ineffective and that Israel understands no other language than resistance.

“Abbas seeks to fan the fire with the Israeli occupation without using any weapon," Hanna Issa, a Palestinian political analyst, conveyed to The Media Line. “Resistance allows people to vent their frustrations. Israel is working by force to dissolve Palestinian forms of resistance and it has worked to a certain extent.”

In this respect, Issa highlighted that the PA’s ability to encourage popular resistance is severely constrained by the Oslo Accords and other international agreements. Nevertheless, he concluded, Palestinians trust the effectiveness popular resistance, which may be the only tool left for them to employ.

Moen al-Taher, a Jordanian political analyst, related to The Media Line that “the meaning of the popular resistance is widening, similar to what happened in the First Intifada," a mass uprising that took place in the West Bank and Gaza from 1987-1991.

“The resistance of unarmed people includes boycotts, abstention from paying taxes, demonstrations, sit-ins, stone-throwing, obstruction of roads, and civil disobedience,” al-Taher elaborated, before qualifying that “I do not think there is any seriousness in Abbas’s call for Palestinians to adopt popular resistance now as it contradicts the PA’s negotiated arrangements with Israel over security and administrative coordination.”

Abbas, al-Taher concluded, “is trying to show that he has an alternative but everyone knows it is not real. The goal is to redirect popular resentment with the PA towards America or Israel.”

Report: 'Deal of the Century' to be unveiled next month

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/250824

The Trump Administration will unveil its long-awaited Middle East peace plan next month, according to a report by Palestinian Authority newspaper Al Quds.

The plan, which President Donald Trump has dubbed the 'Deal of the Century,' will reportedly be unveiled during Trump's speech to the UN General Assembly on September 25.

The plan was drafted by US Special Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt and Trump's advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas has refused to consider the Trump administration an honest broker for negotiations since Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last December.

PA officials have repeatedly rejected the Trump administration’s peace proposal, claiming it was coordinated with Israel.

Last week, Jason Greenblatt wrote on his Twitter account that "No one will be fully pleased with our proposal, but that is the way it must be if real peace is to be achieved. Peace can only succeed only if it is based on realities."
 
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Sudan, Russia discuss military cooperation

https://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article66048

August 13, 2018 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan’s Defence Minister Awad Ibn Ouf said relations with Russia are developing steadily, particularly military cooperation, describing ties between the two countries as historic.

Ibn Ouf, who received the Russian Ambassador to Sudan Vladimir Zheltov on Monday at his office, pointed to Moscow’s supportive stances towards Khartoum.

For his part, Zheltov described relations between the two countries as close and friendly, saying they are based on mutual interests in all economic and military fields to serve the joint interests.

It is noteworthy that the meeting was held in the presence of Sudan’s head of the Military Intelligence, Lieu. Gen. Gamal Omar Mohamed Ibrahim, and deputy military attaché at the Russian embassy Anthony Kaplan.

During a visit to Moscow last month to attend the 2018 World Cup Final, the Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir was met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both leaders pledged to promote military cooperation in the near future.

The two leaders last met in November 2017 in the Russian city of Sochi, with both expressing a desire to enhance military ties.

At the time, al-Bashir offered to construct an airbase for Russia on the Red Sea coast and to re-equip the Sudanese army with the Russian weapons including SU-30 fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles.

Politically, Russia is seen as a major ally of the government of al-Bashir that faces isolation from the West. However, economic cooperation between the two countries has remained very low, with a trade balance that does not exceed $400 million.

In December 2015, Sudan and Russia signed 14 cooperation agreements in different domains, including oil, minerals and banks.

The agreements also include a concession contract between Sudan and the Russian Rus Geology to prospect for oil in Sudan’s Bloc E57 and another accord for the geological mapping of the Jebel Moya area, North Kordofan State.

East Libya “army” wants Syria-like Russian intervention in Libya “to eliminate foreign players”

https://www.libyaobserver.ly/news/e...tervention-libya-“-eliminate-foreign-players”

Spokesperson of Khalifa Haftar’s self-styled army, Ahmed Al-Mismari, has requested a Russian intervention in Libya similar to the one in Syria "to get rid of foreign players in the country.”

Speaking to Sputnik, Al-Mismari said Libya’s situations need Russia and President Vladimir Putin’s personal intervention “to directly eliminate foreign players in Libya such as Qatar, Turkey and Italy.”

"We are very confident that Russia is a superpower and its words will be heard if it holds talks with Italy, Turkey and Qatar or other countries such as Sudan, regarding the smuggling of terrorists into Libya," he said.

Al-Mismari claimed that Russia’s intervention in Syria was successful; adding that its role in eliminating foreign players there was "prominent."

“What’s happening in Syria is happening in Libya,” he underscored, claiming “the Libyan people are looking for a strong ally like Russia."

Al-Mismari’s remarks were met with ridicule in many Libyan social media pages, while several bloggers accused him of being "traitor” for openly requesting a foreign country that “caused thousands of deaths in Syria” to intervene in his country.

Many Libyans have likened Al-Mismari to Iraq’s former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahhaf. Last month Al-Mismari was a subject of ridicule after claiming that the command of Khalifa Haftar’s self-styled army is “equivalent to Washington and Moscow.”

Deliberate repost of the two articles. Libya (Put) and Sudan (Cush) are the two suspected minor members of the Gog and Magog alliance. They had military ties with Russia before and now it seem they're interested in a formal military alliance.
 
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LittleLambofJesus

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I am starting this thread to catalogue Earth calamities like earthquakes,volcanoes, storms etc and rumors of war, and to discuss their possible impact on eschatology.Please post anything that is related to this OP.
The OT mentions reports of battles.
There is one inparticular in shown in Daniel 11


8052 shmuw`ah
something heard, i.e. an announcement:--bruit, doctrine, fame, mentioned, news, report, rumor, tidings.

Didn't the Roman army arrive from the North in 70AD?


Jeremiah 10:22
The sound of a report/rumor!<8052>Behold, it comes—
A great commotion out of the land of the north
To make the cities of Judah/Judea A desolation, a haunt of jackals
.


Daniel 11:44

“But rumors/reports<8052> from the East and from the North will disturb him,
and he will go forth with great wrath to destroy and [fn]annihilate many.

Both the Olivet Discourse and Revelation mention "battles/battle"

191. akouo
to hear (in various senses):--give (in the) audience (of), come (to the ears), (shall) hear(-er, -ken), be noised, be reported, understand.


Matthew 24:6
Ye shall be being about yet to be hearing/report of battles<πολέμους<4171> and hearings/reports of battles<πολέμων<4171>. Be seeing no! be being frightened<2360>
for is binding to be becoming, but not yet is the end.


Mark 13:7
Whenever yet ye should be hearing/report battles<ἀκούσητε<4171> and hearings/reports of battles<πολέμων<4171>,
be seeing no! to be being frightened<2360>, for is binding to be becoming, but not yet the end.

Luke 21:9
Whenever yet ye should be hearing/report battles<πολέμου<4171> and tumults<181>, no be being dismayed<4422>
for is binding these to be becoming first but not immediately<2112> the end.

#4171 is used 8 times in Revelation.

The exact form of #4171 used in the Revelation verse is used in only 1 verse outside of Revelation

1 Corinthians 14:8
for if also an uncertain sound a trumpet may give,
who shall prepare himself for battle<πόλεμον>4171>?

Revelation 16:14
for they are spirits of demons, doing signs — which go forth unto the kings of the whole being-homed<3625>,
to be together-leading them in the battle<πόλεμον>4171> of the great day of the God, the Almighty
 
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