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British minister warns of Daesh plot to wage chemical attack on UK

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Britain’s Security Minister Ben Wallace has warned that the Takfiri Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group plans to wage a “mass casualty” chemical attack against the UK, urging the public to report any suspicious behavior. “The ambition of … Daesh is definitely mass-casualty attacks. They want to harm as many people as possible and terrorize as many people as possible,” Wallace emphasized in an interview published Sunday by the UK-based Sunday Times while insisting that the terror group had already used chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq and that intelligence chiefs believe it is intent on using them in Britain as well. …

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srael ‘can’t ignore world’s position’ after UN vote, Abbas says

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‘Benjamin Netanyahu cannot continue saying that only he is right,’ says Abbas “You can’t ignore the world’s position,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday, a week after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning Israeli settlements. Abbas was speaking in his first interview with an Israeli journalist the since the vote took place, in a meeting with representatives of the Council for a Beautiful Israel. Portions of the interview with a journalist from the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper were published on the paper’s English language sister-site Ynet news. The discussion focused on Israeli settlements, with Abbas reiterating …

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Commission clears draft expanding Erdogan’s power

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Draft constitutional amendments will abolish prime minister’s post to hand full executive powers to the presidency.Commission clears draft expanding Erdogan’s power VIDEO The commission’s nod on Friday after nine days of debate, paves the way for a vote in parliament and is supported by politicians from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Under the changes, the prime minister’s post will be abolished, while the president and vice president will have full executive powers. The commission completed approval of the draft in a marathon 17-hour session, parliamentary sources told Reuters news agency. READ …

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PLO official: Overall message of Kerry speech welcome, but parameters unacceptable

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“It must be clear that Jerusalem is east Jerusalem according to 1967 lines. East Jerusalem should be the capital of Palestine.” PLO Executive Committee member Mustafa Barghouti welcomed the overall message of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech on Wednesday, but said that the Palestinian leadership cannot accept the top US diplomat’s suggested parameters. “All in all, I think that the speech was very impressive in making very clear the diagnosis of the situation and in making it very clear that Israel has one choice and no more, either a one-state or a two-state solution,” Barghouti told The Jerusalem …

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Iran plans to build aircraft carrier, boost naval warfare capabilities

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Published time: 27 Dec, 2016 17:44 Iran is planning to build an aircraft carrier, a senior Iranian navy commander has said as he announced that the country is pursuing greater maritime warfare capabilities. “At present, the Defense Ministry and the Navy are both after building military equipment for naval warfare but the Defense Ministry is producing different types of missiles indigenously and the Navy’s needs to missiles are met using this capacity,” Deputy Navy Commander for Coordination Admiral Peiman Jafari Tehrani said on Monday, as cited by semi-official Fars news agency. Read more Tehran threatens clawbacks if Washington scuttles Boeing deal …

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Explosion rocks Syria’s Aleppo as residents return

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By Associated Press December 24 at 6:14 AM BEIRUT — Syrian state TV says an explosion rocked eastern Aleppo as some residents were returning to their homes after the government assumed full control of the city earlier this week. It says the explosion on Saturday was caused by a device left inside a school by Syrian rebels, who withdrew from their last remaining enclave under a cease-fire deal after more than four years of fighting. A correspondent for Lebanon’s Hezbollah-run Al-Manar TV was reporting live from the area when the blast sounded in the background, sending a huge cloud of …

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Netanyahu: ‘Obama Colluded Against Israel’ at Security Council

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Israel rejects anti-settlement motion out of hand, will work with incoming U.S. administration to ‘negate the harmful effects of this absurd resolution,’ Prime Minister’s Bureau says in statement. Barak Ravid Dec 23, 2016 11:39 PM LIVE UPDATES No veto: UN Security Council adopts anti-settlement resolution; U.S. abstains Trump on Security council vote: ‘Things will be different after Jan. 20’ Israel rejects the UN Security Council’s anti-settlement resolution out of hand and has no intention of abiding by it, the Prime Minister’s Bureau said late Friday night. After the vote, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli ambassadors in New Zealand and Senegal for …

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Prime Minister’s Office statement:

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Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms. At a time when the Security Council does nothing to stop the slaughter of half a million people in Syria, it disgracefully gangs up on the one true democracy in the Middle East, Israel, and calls the Western Wall “occupied territory.” The Obama administration not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes. Israel looks forward to working with President-elect Trump and with all our friends in Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to negate …

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IS scored ‘opportunistic’ wins in Syria as Aleppo fell

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AFP on December 24, 2016, 12:37 am Paris (AFP) – The Syrian regime’s all-out offensive to recapture Aleppo enabled the Islamic State group to regain territory elsewhere, including the historic city of Palmyra, and has dimmed prospects of defeating the jihadists, experts say. “The resources deployed (by Damascus and its allies) to retake Aleppo have allowed IS to claim a series of opportunistic victories” in Syria, said Charles Lister of the US think-tank Middle East Institute. During the assault by Syrian, Russian and Iranian forces on rebels in eastern Aleppo, IS jihadists recaptured the historic city of Palmyra on December …

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Muslim migrant wanted for Berlin massacre was jailed 4 years in Italy; police lost him

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DECEMBER 21, 2016 4:58 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER Why was he allowed into Germany at all? Because it would have been “Islamophobic” to keep him out. Why did police lose him after he was arrested three times? Because there are so many young Muslim men like Anis Amri, young men who could be jihad threats, that German authorities simply can’t keep up with them all. Thus it is madness for them to admit even more, but Merkel seems hell-bent on doing so anyway. “Revealed: Tunisian asylum seeker wanted for Berlin massacre was jailed for four years in Italy for burning …

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German police raid asylum-seeker shelter after Berlin attack

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Reports say driver of truck that plowed through Christmas market, killing 12, is Pakistani man who entered country a year ago BY AP AND TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF December 20, 2016 German police on Tuesday morning searched a large shelter for asylum-seekers in Berlin in response to a fatal attack on a Christmas market Monday. German media, citing unnamed security sources, reported that the suspect in the attack is a Pakistani man who entered Germany in late 2015 or early this year. Police said Tuesday that the driver who rammed a truck into a crowded Christmas market in the heart …

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Syria Daily: Russia-Iran-Turkey Confer in Moscow Today

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December 20,2016 Foreign and defense ministers of Russia, Iran, and Turkey will confer on Tuesday over the future of Syria. The talks, held in Moscow, spurred by the imminent occupation of all of Syria’s largest city Aleppo by foreign forces — including Iranian ground units and Iranian-led Iraqi and Afghan militia, supported by Russian airstrikes — alongside Assad regime units. Russia and Iran have been essential backers of President Assad since the uprising began in March 2011, while Turkey has supported the Syrian opposition and rebels. Relations between Moscow and Ankara were at breaking point in November 2015, after Turkish …

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Russia says killing of ambassador in Ankara is act of terrorism

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Published time: 19 Dec, 2016 17:30 The attack on Russian envoy Andrey Karlov, who died of gunshot wounds received during an official event in the Turkish capital, Ankara, is qualified by Moscow as a “terrorist act,” the Foreign Ministry says. Follow LIVE UPDATES on gun attack in Ankara Announcing Karlov’s death, the ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the “day is tragic in the history of the Russian diplomacy.” The ambassador was shot at a public event in the Turkish capital, the ministry confirmed, saying that he later died of his wounds. The topic of the killing of the Russian diplomat …

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Who’s afraid of Donald Trump in the Middle East?

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DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis December 19, 2016, 4:50 PM (IDT) Not much can be ascertained about President-elect Donald Trump’s administration future policies for the Middle East – any more than for most other parts of the world, except that his starting points are likely to be diametrically opposed to those of Barack Obama. It is all still in the making. The Russian policy he decides to pursue after he enters the White House and his administration is in place is as unfathomable as are the motives that led him to appoint his lawyer and close adviser, the pro-settlement David Friedman, as …

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