US troops will worsen Syria crisis: Zio-Watch, April 25, 2016

Iran warns that a US plan to deploy more troops to Syria will worsen the crisis as it pledges to continue support for the Syrian government.

“We have announced from the start of the Syria crisis that any foreign intervention in Syria without coordination with its government will further escalate the crisis,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

President Barack Obama will announce plans on Monday to send up to 250 more military personnel to the war-torn country, US administration officials have said.

This would bring to 300 the total number of American troops in Syria. The White House claims its ground troops will help in the fight against Daesh terrorists.

“Any dispatch of military forces must be carried out in coordination with the Syrian government,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi-Ansari told reporters in Tehran during a weekly news briefing.

US plans to send more troops to Syria come in the midst of a fragile ceasefire which came close to collapse last week after foreign-backed militants pulled out of the negotiations held in Geneva.
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People living near the Syrian Jabisah oil field, recently liberated from Islamic State extremist group, told RT Arabic crew, that the jihadists transported the oil from the facility first to their stronghold in Raqqa and then to Turkey.

Jabisah oil field and facility near the town of Shaddadi in northern Syria were under Islamic State (IS, Daesh, formerly ISIS/ISIL) control for two years, with the illegal oil trade being a major source of funding for the extremist group.

The field was liberated in February by Kurdish and Syrian rebel troops united under the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) banner, who are now working to restore operations at the fields.

People living in the area say that before leaving the facility damaged and plundered, foreign IS militants made ample use of its oil deposits.
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Number of North African refugees hits record lows in Germany this year, after government pushed for fast-track deportations following the New Year’s Eve attacks in Cologne, according to the immigration service’s report seen by local media.

The number of North African refugees hit record lows in Germany this year, after the government pushed to fast-track deportations following the New Year’s Eve attacks in Cologne, according to an immigration service report seen by local media.
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The mother (L) and brother of Palestinian Dima al-Wawi, 12, who is believed to be the youngest female detained by Israel, greet her in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, upon her release from Israeli prison on April 24, 2016. © Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP

Palestinian 12-year-old Dima Al-Wawi has been released from an Israeli prison. She was sentenced to four-and-a-half months in custody for allegedly plotting to carry out a stabbing attack against Israelis in the Hebron area. She spent two-and-a-half months behind bars.

The girl’s family have also been obliged to pay a fine of 8,000 Shekels (about $US2,080).

Having informed Dima’s family, who live in the town of Halhoul near Hebron, about her release, Israeli authorities handed the girl over to relatives at the Jbarrah checkpoint near Tulkarem in the West Bank on Sunday.

Israel’s practice of prosecuting children in military courts has been criticized in the report titled No Way to Treat a Child: Palestinian Children in the Israeli Military Detention System, compiled by Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) and released on April 14.
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A man casts his vote at a polling station in Vienna, Austria, April 24, 2016. © Leonhard Foeger / Reuters

The anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO) made huge gains in the first round of the Austria’s presidential vote, leaving the traditionally powerful centrist coalition parties in the dust and out of the race.

Norbert Hofer of the far-right FPO won around 36 percent of the vote, followed by the Green Party’s Alexander Van der Bellen with some 20 percent, and independent candidate Irmgard Griss with just over 18 percent, local media reported on Sunday.

Rudolf Hundstorfer from the Social Democrats (SPO) and Andreas Khol from the People’s Party (OVP) came in fourth and fifth, respectively, each garnering around 10 percent of the vote.

Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico’s president, speaking during a panel session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2016. (Jason Alden/Bloomberg)

(JTA) — President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico called on Mexicans in the United States to follow the Jewish community’s example and unite to defend their interests in an urgent effort to defeat Donald Trump.

The call was announced by the newly appointed Mexican ambassador to the United States, Carlos Manuel Sada, during an interview last week with the Noticanarias news portal, and made headlines in the Latin American Jewish press.

Unity among the 35 million Mexicans and their descendants in the United States — including 6 million residents, as many undocumented workers and another 23 million U.S.-born descendants — is urgent, Sada added, due to the rise of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
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Syrian ambassador to the United Nations and head of the government delegation, Bashar al-Ja’afari ©AFP

Syria’s chief negotiator says the Damascus delegation to the UN-brokered talks has proposed “constitutional amendments” to a peace initiative put forward by the UN mediator.

Follwowing two meetings with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura in Geneva on Monday, Bashar al-Ja’afari, also the Syrian ambassador to the UN, said discussions between the two sides were “rich in ideas,” and that the they agreed to continue their talks on Tuesday.

“Today we submitted constitutional amendments to the paper submitted to us by the special envoy and we consider such amendments to be an integral part of this paper,” Ja’afari said.

This came as the so-called opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) leaders left the ongoing peace talks last week. Only a few of its representatives are still in Geneva, Switzerland, for informal technical sessions with the UN team.

However, de Mistura said on April 22 that he would continue the talks probably until Wednesday despite the departure of the Saudi-backed group, which called for renewed attacks on the battlefield against the Syria army.

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UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed attends a press conference after the first direct meeting between Yemen's warring factions in Kuwait City on April 22, 2016. ©Reuters — UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed attends a press conference after the first direct meeting between Yemen’s warring factions in Kuwait City on April 22, 2016. ©Reuters

UN envoy to Yemen says “significant differences” still remain between warring sides as peace talks in Kuwait enter their fifth day.

The fifth day of negotiations between representatives from Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement and the former government began on Monday in Kuwait City.

“Significant differences in the delegations’ points of view remain but nonetheless there is consensus on the need to make peace and to work intensively towards an agreement,” Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement late on Sunday.

Both sides are reportedly still addressing ways to consolidate a ceasefire deal that went into effect on April 11, but have yet to address a political settlement yet.

Cheikh Ahmed said each side is expected to appoint an official to propose recommendations on how to sustain the ceasefire.

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The Ohio Governor and Texas Senator agree to stay out of each other’s way in upcoming primaries, leaving front-runner Donald Trump with a tougher road ahead in his quest to clinch their party’s nomination. Republican White House rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich announced a deal on Sunday to stay out of each other’s way in some upcoming state primaries in hopes of blocking front-runner Donald Trump from winning the party’s presidential nomination.
Cruz’s campaign said in a statement he would focus on Indiana and give Kasich a clearer shot in Oregon and New Mexico, states where the Ohio governor expects to do well. Kasich, in turn, agreed to shift resources west and away from Indiana.
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Workers prepare the stage before for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee 2015 Policy Conference. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Workers preparing the stage before for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference in 2015. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — An AIPAC-backed letter to President Barack Obama urging a more “robust” defense package for Israel reportedly has garnered the signatures of 83 senators, including Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz but not Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders.

Reuters reported Monday that 51 Republicans and 32 Democrats, more than four-fifths of the Senate, had signed on to the document.

The letter, initiated by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Chris Coons, D-Del., was one of the lobbying day requests during the American Israel Public Affairs Committee annual conference last month.
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