By Mansur Rastani, AMERICAN THINKER

Nuclear development in Iran has for three decades been an issue of international concern in the interests of regional and global security. About a decade of diplomatic initiatives by the EU3 and P5+1 to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue have led to the in-progress signing a comprehensive agreement, known as Joint Plan Of Action (JPOA) with two extensions, requiring Iran to suspend many aspects of its nuclear program in exchange for relief from some international sanctions, yet no prospective legally binding instrument that would ensure Iran’s nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful has been attainable.
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By Rami Galai, AL MONITOR

An Egyptian administrative court on Feb. 18 upheld the Ministry of Religious Endowments’ decision issued in September 2013 to close down neighborhood places of worship of less than 80 square meters (861 square feet), a move intended to protect young people from the militancy and extremism that can prevail in such places, which lack the legal standing to hold Friday prayers.

This move sets a precedent that raises many questions about the fate of mosques in many Egyptian villages, the grounds of which are usually less than 80 square meters. In reply, opponents of the decision such as the Salafist Nour Party claimed that closing down places of worship without providing a larger alternative serves to further bolster extremist ideology, considering that the larger existing mosques cannot accommodate Friday worshippers who line surrounding streets to pray. On the opposite end of the spectrum, supporters of the decision such as intellectuals and scholars say that those mosques are time bombs that threaten national security, as they fall outside the purview of the Ministry of Religious Endowments and are used to spread subversive ideologies.
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Ted Belman. Remember, Barnea and YNET are enemies of Netanyahu. Read Bennett: ‘Next disengagement is already here’ He said “The document published this morning is real. The facts are correct.”

Analysis: An Israeli and a Palestinian, each sent by their respective leaders, held years of secret talks summarized in an August 2013 document showing far-reaching Israeli concessions; but while Netanyahu dispatched his most trusted aide, Abbas was playing a different game. Netanyahu’s mistake was trusting Abbas

By Nachum Barnea, YNET

In August 2013, a document was written, summarizing years of secret negotiations held in London between the trusted representative of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and someone who Netanyahu believed was the trusted representative of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It was a document of historic importance.

Netanyahu had dispatched his senior aide, lawyer Yitzhak Molcho, to meet with Abbas’ affiliate Hussein Agha.
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T. Belman. This is not necessarily the case.  I have written to a number of analysts in Israel and the US and I have received two replies that suggest otherwise. On Sunday, I will post something on their opinions.

Today, with the great powers seemingly determined to reach an agreement with Tehran, the chances of an attack being carried out after an accord is signed are smaller than ever.

By Amos Harel, HAARETZ

What can an Iranian intelligence officer learn from the declarations made this week by Israelis about Tehran’s nuclear project? The most disturbing question for the Iranians remains unchanged: How much of a risk is there that Israel will actually decide to attack their nuclear facilities?

The Iranian officer could glean information not only from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s much-quoted speech to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, but also from remarks made by two former ranking members of Israel’s defense establishment: the Mossad’s Meir Dagan and Benny Gantz, who just stepped down as Israel Defense Forces chief of staff. The bottom line with respect to the statements made by all three figures is that at this time Israel is not seriously contemplating the military option against Iran, but is, rather, deep into the process of letting off steam.
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Al Monitor

The relationship between Turkey and Saudi Arabia until now has been treated as almost sacrosanct and is one that is not argued about. Although Turkish and Saudi views on regional issues do not always coincide, both Ankara and Riyadh have kept their bilateral relations away from regional squabbles. Turks, in general, associate Saudi Arabia with pilgrimage (hajj) and oil prices.

Aware of the tense rivalry for regional influence between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Turkey has tried to maintain good relations with both countries, and it was in Syria that Turkish and Saudi interests meshed. Although they agree that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must go, the Turkish-Qatari axis competes with that of Saudi Arabia in Syria.
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It is not merely that the US is deterred by North Korea, and therefore is willing to humiliate and endanger South Korea to avoid having to contend with Pyongyang.

By Caroline Glick, JPOST

South Korea lives under the US security umbrella. Both on a conventional and nuclear level, South Koreans are dependent on the US to deter North Korea from attacking them and overrunning their country.

Last Friday, US Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman scolded South Koreans for being too nationalist. In her words, “Nationalist feelings can still be exploited, and it’s not hard for a political leader anywhere to earn cheap applause by vilifying a former enemy.”

The South Koreans interpreted her remarks as criticism of their President Park Geun-hye for her refusal to reinstate reunification talks with North Korea due to Pyongyang’s refusal to discuss the dismantlement of its nuclear program.
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By Martin Sherman, JPOST

No previous column of mine has ever been preceded by such searing soul-searching, or written with such a heavy sense of melancholy. It is a column that I would have preferred not to write – yet I feel I have little option.

A (rare) personal moment

I find myself compelled to take strong public issue with a man I have known, respected, even admired, for almost four decades: Shabtai Shavit, the former director of the Mossad.

Shavit has been not only a trusted commander, and later, a friend – but was in many ways almost a father figure for me. More than once, he sent me into what could be described as harm’s way. But every time he did, I had implicit trust in his operational judgment and believed, unequivocally, that the risks I was expected to take were unavoidable and worthwhile.
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By Helene Cooper, NYT

A Shiite fighter in Salahuddin Province in Iraq this week.Credit

Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters

WASHINGTON — At a time when President Obama is under political pressure from congressional Republicans over negotiations to rein in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, a startling paradox has emerged: Mr. Obama is becoming increasingly dependent on Iranian fighters as he tries to contain the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria without committing American ground troops.

In the four days since Iranian troops joined 30,000 Iraqi forces to try to wrest Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit back from Islamic State control, American officials have said the United States is not coordinating with Iran, one of its fiercest global foes, in the fight against a common enemy.

That may be technically true. But American war planners have been closely monitoring Iran’s parallel war against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, through a range of channels, including conversations on radio frequencies that each side knows the other is monitoring. And the two militaries frequently seek to avoid conflict in their activities by using Iraqi command centers as an intermediary.

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By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ

U.S. President Barack Obama wants to make a renewed effort to achieve progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in the nearly two years he has left in office, senior White House officials told Haaretz.

The final decision on how to move forward, what sort of effort to make and when, will only be made after the March 17 elections in Israel.
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US military considering deploying THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense), an American anti-ballistic missile system.

By Yossi Melman, JPOST

John Kerry (L) walks with Saudi Arabia’s FM Saud bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud before meeting with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud in Diriyah. (photo credit:REUTERS)

Coinciding with the snap visit of US Secretary of State John Kerry to Saudi Arabia this week, the US military is considering deploying one of its THAAD defense systems in the region.

Both moves are intended to lessen concerns expressed in the Gulf countries about Iran’s nuclear program and its increasing interventions in conflicts across the Middle East. Tehran’s direct and indirect involvement by its Shi’ite proxies is evident in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria.
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Ted Belman. Bibi said this morning,”There is an alternative to this bad agreement and that is a better agreement. No other state has a greater interest in this issue that it be resolved peacefully,” This confirms my suggestion that Bibi has bought into the Hudna that is being negotiated. Yemen and Iraq have already been given over to Iran. Its a whole new world that’s unfolding. Israel seems to be going along with it.

By Elad Benari, INN

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Thursday suggested that a 10-year moratorium on some aspects of his country’s nuclear program might be acceptable to Tehran, Reuters reported.

U.S. President Barack Obama told the same news agency on Monday that Iran must commit to a verifiable freeze of at least 10 years on sensitive nuclear activity for a landmark atomic deal to be reached between Tehran and six world powers.
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By Elad Benari, INN

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) central council decided Thursday to end security cooperation with Israel, AFP reported.

The PLO council decided “to stop security cooperation in all its forms with the occupying power” which it urged to “take over full responsibility for the Palestinian people in the occupied State of Palestine, the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza”.

The PLO said its executive committee would meet to implement the decision taken by the central council which held a two-day meeting in Ramallah, without giving a date.
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ALGEMEINER

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Saud Al-Faisal, told Secretary of State John Kerry in a joint press conference on Thursday that Saudi Arabia is worried about Iran’s regional expansionism and nuclear weapons, pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported.

Al-Faisal said that his country, “supports the P5+1 in pursuing a strict regime of inspections which ensures that Iran will not pursue or possess nuclear weapons, meanwhile ensuring its right, and that of all countries in the region, to use nuclear energy peacefully according to IAEA’s requirements and under its supervision, and in connection to that Iran is now taking over Iraq.”
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T. Belman.  As David Goldman pointed out, this is due to the US insistency that Iraq have a representative government. Since the population of Iraq is 60% Shiite, they dominated the government. Previously the Sunnis controlled Iraq and thus it was a bulwark against Iran. No longer.  It is now a lackey to Iran.

Notice that Iran is also backing the Kurds in Kurdistan (Peshmurga). with this help they also took back Kabani in Syria.

Six months ago US to Make Peshmerga into Professional Army. So has Iran taken over the role or is the US doing this while allowing Iran to be in charge of them.

By Walid Shoebat 

A leaked video by fighters from the so-called Iraqi militia executed an 11 year old boy with bursts of bullets on his head in Diyala province in Iraq. Shoebat.com was able to obtain the footage showing a child in handcuffs being brutally beaten while surrounded by a group of Iranian backed Iraqi fighters, then executed the child with showers of bullets on the head.

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http://www.steynonline.com/6839/the-enemy-of-my-enemy

Ted Belman

Al Monitor published and article by Ben Caspit on Bibi’s speech and he said “I spoke to an Israeli security official who had been very close to the nuclear negotiations and decision-making hubs on the highest levels. On condition of anonymity, this person said,

“The prime minister is a seasoned politician. He reads intelligence reports, he is well-connected and he knows that the chances of an agreement being signed between Iran and the world powers in the current round of talks is very low, if not zero. He knows that out of the eight controversial issues, only two are anywhere near agreement. There is still great distance between the sides on the other six issues. He knows that the French won’t agree to sign under such circumstances, and apparently the Americans as well. What he’s done here with the speech is political genius. He timed it perfectly so that in another week, when the deadline is postponed yet again, he can say that it was his speech that halted the agreement between Iran and the world powers. In reality, this has no basis in fact, but the Israeli electorate will buy into this maneuver and Netanyahu could thus win the elections. We are talking about a cynical maneuver that sacrifices strategic relations with a US president for the medium and long term in favor of narrow, short-term political interests.”

Obama’s Iranian-nuclear strategy brings dividend: Rev Guards lead military assault on Tikrit

DEBKAfile Special Report March 4, 2015,

US President Barack Obama’s plans for Iran, which were spectacularly challenged by Binyamin Netanyahu in his Congress speech Tuesday, March 3, weres manifested 10,000 kilometers from Washington in the firestorm over Tikrit, the important Sunni town north of Baghdad. There, Iranian-led Iraqi troops are on the offensive against the Islamic State in the biggest ground battle fought in Iraq since the Iraqi army fell apart and scattered last June against the conquering Islamist march through western and central Iraq.

For four reasons, this battle is loaded with ramifications for Obama’s Iran policy and the Islamic Republic’s drive for recognition as the leading Middle East power:
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By Evelyn Gordon,  COMMENTARY

One very important word was missing from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress yesterday. Not that I blame him; inserting “Ukraine” into that particular speech would have been counterproductive. Yet without considering America’s Ukraine policy, it’s impossible to grasp quite how disastrous the emerging Iran deal really is.

To understand why, consider the curious threat issued by an unnamed White House official last week, in the run-up to Netanyahu’s speech: “The dispute with Netanyahu prevents all possibility for discussing security guarantees for Israel as part of the emerging Iran deal.” That particular threat was empty, because Israel has never wanted security guarantees from this or any other administration; its policy has always been that it must be able to defend itself by itself. But if Washington was considering security guarantees for Israel, it’s surely considering them for its Arab allies, since they, unlike Israel, always haverelied on America’s protection. In fact, there have been recurrent rumors that it might offer Arab states a nuclear umbrella as part of the deal, so they wouldn’t feel the need to develop nuclear capabilities themselves–something they have long threatened to do if Iran’s nuclear program isn’t stopped. Read more…

Likud closes gap with Labor from previous polls, and Netanyahu further outpaces Herzog as most fitting for PM, as Jewish Home lapses.

INN

Two new polls Wednesday provide the first data since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s much touted Congress address on Tuesday, and show that Likud has evened gaps shown in the last poll before the speech which saw it behind Labor 24 to 21.

In the first of the polls by Channel 2, Labor and Hatnua’s “Zionist Camp” gets 24 again, but Likud is up to 23.

The joint Arab list comes in third with 13 mandates, while Yesh Atid and Jewish Home tie for fourth with 12 apiece. Jewish Home has relapsed into its slump after a recent poll gave it 14 in the first such result since Knesset lists were submitted.
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