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DEBKAfile March 12, 2017, 8:31 PM (IDT) Jason Greenblatt, President Donald |Trump’s special adviser on international negotiations  has scheduled meetings Monday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah Tuesday in an effort to jump-start the long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The US embassy in Israel issued an official communiqué stating that discussions on relocating the embassy to Jerusalem will not be part of Greenblatt’s mission. He will also meet President Reuven Rivlin and opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog. .Saturday, Trump held his first conversation with Abbas. According to a White House press release, Trump …

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March 11, 2017 The explosion of two bombs near a cemetery in the Bab Masala area of Damascus has killed and injured dozens of people, Syrian official news agency reported. A brief SANA report said “two terrorist bombs” near the Bab al-Saghir cemetery had killed “a number of martyrs” and injured other people. The Bab al-Saghir cemetery located near one of the seven gates of the Old City of Damascus. Press TV later reported that the number of casualties has increased to 40 dead and 45 wounded. ifp

03/02/2017 By Tom Miles and John Irish | GENEVA The lead Syrian opposition negotiator at peace talks in Geneva said he hoped U.S. President Donald Trump would correct the “catastrophic” errors of his predecessor Barack Obama to become a reliable partner against “devilish” Iran. The U.N.-led negotiations edged forwards on Wednesday, for the first time in six days, as both sides saw hope of shaping the agenda to their liking, but with indirect talks wrapping up this weekend there is little prospect of any real breakthrough. “The people in Syria paid a high price because of the catastrophic mistakes made …

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ISIS leader Aby Bakr al-Baghdadi has reportedly told his fighters and supporters to retreat to Iraq’s mountainous regions according to Al-Sumaria News. According to a source in Nineveh province in speaking to Al-Sumaria News, Baghdadi gave a speech admitting that ISIS are suffering a defeat in Iraq. “Calling his speech a farewell address, al-Baghdadi circulated it among Daesh (ISIS) preachers and explained what was going on with the group,” the source said. “The preachers started talking about the defeats Daesh is suffering in Nineveh province and other parts of Iraq,” the source added.\ Almasdarnews

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Ahmad Jibril, head of Lebanon-based PFLP-GC, calls for liberation campaign ‘in the Golan, in the Galilee, from Rosh Hanikra to Aqaba’ BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF February 25, 2017 The head of a Palestinian terrorist group in Lebanon said he would like to see Iranian soldiers take part in an “all-out war” to liberate Palestine, and that the future Palestinian conquest would include an invasion of both Israel and Jordan. Ahmad Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, told Hezbollah’s Al-Mayadeen TV on February 17 that his group wants “to see the revolutionary fighters from …

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In telling pivot away from commitment to internationally accepted solution, PM states support only for ‘directly negotiated peace’ BY RAPHAEL AHREN February 23, 2017, 6:35 pm Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu omitted a reference to the two-state solution in a joint declaration Thursday with his Australian counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull. It appeared to be the first formal manifestation of a dramatic scaling back of Israeli support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an idea that for years has been promoted by the international community. “Both countries re-stated their support for a directly negotiated peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Australia …

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Source: Xinhua   2017-02-22 01:59:21   CAIRO, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) — Egyptian president and Jordanian king held talks in Cairo on Tuesday where they reiterated the two-state solution as a “fixed national principle” to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Egyptian presidential spokesman said in a statement. The meeting came a few days after U.S. President Donald Trump said in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington that the two-state solution is not the only way to settle the dispute, which backs off U.S. commitment to sponsor it for Mideast peace. Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan …

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Published time: 20 Feb, 2017 07:42Edited time: 20 Feb, 2017 07:49 US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has arrived in Baghdad on an unannounced visit, reportedly for discussions on defeating the Islamic State terrorist group. He said earlier on Monday that the US military is not in Iraq “to seize anybody’s oil.” “I think all of us here in this room, all of us in America, have generally paid for our gas and oil all along and I’m sure that we will continue to do so in the future,” Mattis told a small group of reporters traveling with him, while discussing …

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