date:1994-00-00

Heavy fighting erupts over separatist Nagorno-Karabakh | Boston Herald
▻http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/2016/04/heavy_fighting_erupts_over_separatist_nagorno_karabakh

Heavy fighting has broken out between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces along the front lines of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region, reportedly killing at least one child in what one official called the worst clashes since 1994.

Officials from each former Soviet republic blamed the other Saturday for the fighting that began overnight. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan said they had inflicted heavy losses on the other.

Jérusalem: la France réclame des observateurs sur l’esplanade des lieux saints
Par Cyrille Louis Publié le 16/10/2015 à 19:18
▻http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2015/10/16/01003-20151016ARTFIG00322-jerusalem-la-france-reclame-des-observateurs-sur-

INFO LE FIGARO - Les membres du Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies devront se prononcer, à la demande de la France sur l’envoi par l’ONU d’observateurs internationaux sur l’esplanade des lieux saints à Jérusalem.

L’ambassadeur francais auprès des Nations unies a déposé ce vendredi soir à New York un projet de texte réclamant l’envoi d’observateurs internationaux par l’ONU sur l’esplanade des lieux saints à Jérusalem.

Ce document doit être débattu dans les prochaines heures par les membres du Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies. S’ils parviennent à un consensus, ce texte pourrait faire l’objet d’une déclaration endossée par le président du Conseil de sécurité.

« Il s’agit de mettre en place des observateurs indépendants capables de recenser d’éventuelles violations du statu quo », précise une source informée de ces démarches. Mais un responsable israélien précise : « Un tel dispositif est à nos yeux inenvisageable. »

Les tensions autour de l’esplanade des mosquées ont contribué à provoquer une vague de violences au cours de laquelle sept Israéliens et trente-cinq Palestiniens ont perdu la vie depuis le 1er octobre.

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Israel and U.S. Cooperating Against French Bid for Int’l Presence on Temple Mount

’The French proposal is completely absurd,’ senior Israeli official says of draft for UN Security Council presidential statement calling for observers to be deployed on Temple Mount.
Barak Ravid Oct 17, 2015 6:19 PM
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.680872

Israel, the United States and other countries are working together to remove from the agenda a French draft for a UN Security Council presidential statement calling for international observers to be deployed on the Temple Mount, senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office said Saturday.

“The French proposal is completely absurd,” a senior Israeli official said, noting that it is only a declarative step.

According to the official, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen and the Foreign Ministry to protest the biased and absurd phrasing of the draft to France.

“We expect the French to condemn the Waqf’s incompetence on the Temple Mount,” the official said, referring to the Muslim religious trust. “Those who brought in bombs and fired firecrackers were the Palestinians, who turned the Temple Mount to a terrorist storeroom and it is they who tried by that to change the status quo.”

The Israeli official stressed that Israel is safeguarding the status quo and is committed to it. According to him, Jews are allowed to visit the site only according the status quo. He added that according to the 1949 armistice agreement, Jewish access to the Temple Mount was internationally guaranteed. “This right wasn’t realized until 1967,” the official said. “Israel is the one keeping the visits to the Temple Mount free. The torching of Joseph’s Tomb shows what would have happened to the holy sites if they weren’t under Israel’s control. Exactly what is happening in Palmyra in Syria and in Iraq.”

France is pushing for a presidential statement on behalf of the UN Security Council that calls for the deployment of international observers to Jerusalem’s holy sites, notably the Temple Mount, to ensure the status quo is maintained, “Le Figaro” reported on Saturday, citing French diplomats.

The presidential statement does not constitute a binding Security Council resolution, only serving as a statement of intent. 15 members of the UN Security Council need to consent in order for a presidential statement to be published. It remains unclear if France has managed to achieve such consensus.

On Wednesday, Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour called on the Security Council to adopt a resolution guaranteeing the safety and protection of Palestinians and Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, similar to Resolution 904 adopted after the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in 1994, which saw international monitors deployed in Hebron.

Israel’s new ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said on Friday that Israel objects to any international involvement or oversight on the Temple Mount since it would violate the status quo. In light of Israel’s position, it’s hard to see how the U.S. could support the call for deploying international observers on the Temple Mount, even if this is only a declarative step.

Argentina: Iran committed to investigate 1994 Jewish community center bombing

Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.549373

Iran has approved a deal with Argentina to investigate the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center that courts in the South American country accuse Tehran of sponsoring, Argentine official state news service Telam said.

Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman met in New York on Saturday with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who assured him Iran “would honor all points of the agreement” to shed light on the bombing that killed 85 people, Telam said.

The two countries will form investigative teams to meet in Geneva in November to get on with the probe.

The apparent breakthrough took place amid signs of a thaw in relations between Iran and the West.

President Barack Obama and new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke by telephone on Friday, the highest-level contact between the two countries in three decades and a sign that they are serious about reaching a pact on Tehran’s nuclear program.

Iran, a major buyer of Argentine corn, has long tried to improve relations with the grains powerhouse. President Cristina Fernandez is allied with other Latin American leftist leaders who have defied Washington in their pursuit of ties with Iran.

In February, Argentina’s Congress approved a pact with Iran to set up a “truth commission” to shed light on the AMIA center bombing after years of legal deadlock.

The memorandum of understanding to form the commission needed ratification in Tehran, which Timerman told Telam has been all but granted.

“He gave us a full guarantee that the legal process has been completed,” Telam quoted Timerman as saying, referring to Zarif.

The memorandum “has been approved by Iran’s National Security Council and now awaits the signature of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Telam said.
Argentina, home to Latin America’s biggest Jewish community, has secured Interpol arrest warrants in the bombing case for nine men - eight Iranians and one person presumed to be Lebanese.

Tehran denies links to the 1994 bombing but offered talks with Argentina in 2011 to start “shedding light” on the case.

Indictment of Iran for ’94 Terror Bombing Relied on MEK – Gareth Porter
▻http://original.antiwar.com/porter/2013/08/07/indictment-of-iran-for-94-terror-bombing-relied-on-mek

Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman based his 2006 warrant for the arrest of top Iranian officials in the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994 on the claims of representatives of the armed Iranian opposition Mujahedin E Khalq (MEK), the full text of the document reveals.

The central piece of evidence cited in Nisman’s original 900-page arrest warrant against seven senior Iranian leaders is an alleged Aug. 14, 1993 meeting of top Iranian leaders, including both Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and then president Hashemi Rafsanjani, at which Nisman claims the official decision was made to go ahead with the planning of the bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA).

But the document, recently available in English for the first time, shows that his only sources for the claim were representatives of the MEK or People’s Mujahideen of Iran. The MEK has an unsavory history of terrorist bombings against civilian targets in Iran, as well as of serving as an Iraq-based mercenary army for Saddam Hussein’s forces during the Iran-Iraq War.

IPS – Indictment of Iran for ’94 Terror Bombing Relied on MEK | Inter Press Service
▻http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/08/indictment-of-iran-for-94-terror-bombing-relied-on-mek

Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman based his 2006 warrant for the arrest of top Iranian officials in the bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in 1994 on the claims of representatives of the armed Iranian opposition Mujahedin E Khalq (MEK), the full text of the document reveals.

The central piece of evidence cited in Nisman’s original 900-page arrest warrant against seven senior Iranian leaders is an alleged Aug. 14, 1993 meeting of top Iranian leaders, including both Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and then president Hashemi Rafsanjani, at which Nisman claims the official decision was made to go ahead with the planning of the bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA).

But the document, recently available in English for the first time, shows that his only sources for the claim were representatives of the MEK or People’s Mujahideen of Iran. The MEK has an unsavoury history of terrorist bombings against civilian targets in Iran, as well as of serving as an Iraq-based mercenary army for Saddam Hussein’s forces during the Iran-Iraq War.

#Gareth_porter #iran #MEK

Law blocking Israel’s enemies from suing the state gets government backing
By Jonathan Lis
Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/law-blocking-israel-s-enemies-from-suing-the-state-gets-government-backing.

The Israeli government is backing draft legislation to prevent citizens of enemy nations from suing the state. 

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation gave the government’s approval to the proposed “Dirani Law,” named after Mustafa Dirani, a Lebanese citizen who was abducted by Israel in 1994 in an attempt to get information about captive Israeli Air Force navigator Ron Arad. Israel then detained Dirani to use him as a bargaining chip in securing Arad’s release by Hezbollah. Dirani sued Israel for NIS 6 million in 2000, while still in jail, claiming one of his interrogators, known as “Captain George,” sexually abused him and threatened his life.

The Peace Process was always a process of subjugation — War in Context
▻http://warincontext.org/2013/04/01/the-peace-process-was-always-a-process-of-subjugation

Amira Hass writes: (...)

The signs were there right from the start − signs that the so much talked-about Peace Process was a process of subjugation; signs that Israel intended to impose on the other side an agreement whose terms were far from the Palestinian minimum, and far from what many countries in the world envisioned as a two-state solution.

(...)

The chronology is important here − I’ve repeated it countless times and will repeat it countless more times − because local readers like to think that the blanket prohibitions on Palestinian mobility were a response to the suicide attacks from 1994 on. That is not the case.

It began in January 1991, on the eve of the Gulf War. The Israel Defense Forces GOC Central and Southern Commands then revoked an earlier order, from the 1970s, of a “general exit permit to Israel” − in other words, one that allowed the Palestinian residents of the occupied territory to enter Israel, and move freely within its borders and between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Initially, the revocation was interpreted as something temporary, a preventive measure during the unclear period of wartime. But after a lengthy curfew, the residents of the Strip woke up to a new reality. If up until 1991 Israel had respected ‏(for reasons of its own‏) the right to freedom of movement for all Palestinians, but withheld it from a few people, after 1991 the situation was reversed: Israel denied all Palestinians ‏(those in the West Bank as well‏) the right to freedom of movement, aside from a few groups and numbers that it determined. ...