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U.N. Official Details Plans for Removing Syria’s Chemical Arms

The United Nations official in charge of coordinating the disposal of Syria ’s chemical weapons arsenal provided new details on Wednesday about the plan to eliminate them, saying the most dangerous materials would be sealed by trained Syrians and sent overland to the country’s Mediterranean port of Latakia, where ships would take them to a second, unspecified foreign port. From there, the official said, the chemicals would be transferred to a specially equipped naval vessel offered by the United States, which is capable of safely neutralizing the chemicals at sea. The official, Sigrid Kaag, acknowledged that the overland routes in Syria were dangerous because of the civil war, but that the Syrian authorities were taking steps to secure them and had designated Latakia as the departure point for the chemicals. Under a timetable established by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is collaborating with the United […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iran Takes Charm Offensive to the Persian Gulf

Iran’s top diplomat, who only last month brokered a groundbreaking nuclear deal with the world powers, is now traveling the Persian Gulf region, trying to mend ties with Arab neighbors, Sunni nations that harbor deep suspicions of Shiite Iran. On Wednesday, the diplomat, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, arrived in the United Arab Emirates, having stopped in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman this week, with the goal of undoing years of regional tensions, not only sectarian but also the fruit of the confrontational approach of Iran’s former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mr. Zarif met with several Emirati officials, among them Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, where an estimated 400,000 Iranians live and work in companies that are often front offices for trade with Iran — much of it illicit, because of sanctions. Mr. Zarif also invited the Emirates’ president, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iran Plans to Meet Foreign Oil Companies to Seek Investment

Iran plans to meet with international oil companies as soon as March to try to entice investors to its energy industry once world powers lift sanctions, the Persian Gulf state’s oil minister said. Iran, once OPEC’s second-largest producer, is talking with European companies about future projects, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told reporters today in Vienna. The minister said he hopes Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) , Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) Plc, BP (BP/) Plc, Eni SpA and Statoil ASA (STL) will invest in the country. Iranian officials will meet with international companies in London in March, he said, declining to identify them. The Islamic republic agreed last month to restrict work on its nuclear program for six months in return for a loosening of sanctions that offers about $7 billion in relief and access to $4.2 billion in oil revenue frozen in foreign banks. The accord leaves in place banking and […]

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After execution-style killings, Iraqis await worse

A spate of execution-style killings in Iraq has rekindled memories of attacks carried out at the height of the country’s sectarian bloodshed and raised fears of a widespread return to such violence. In the past week Iraqi police have found the bodies of at least 41 men who were either shot in the head or decapitated in a wave of killings in Baghdad and northern Iraq. Iraqi security officials say these targeted killings have more to do with attempts to fuel instability, and with infighting within the two Muslim sects, than with direct hostility between Shi’ite and Sunni communities. They believe the killings are not directly related. But they warn that such chaos could set off wider sectarian violence, especially when combined with an insurgent bombing campaign led by al Qaeda, which is expected to get worse ahead of parliamentary elections in April next year. "The […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Coordinated attacks in northern Iraqi city kill 11, wound 70

Gunmen and suicide bombers attacked a police intelligence headquarters and a nearby shopping mall in a coordinated attack in the northern city of Kirkuk late on Wednesday, killing 11 people and wounding 70, police and medical sources said. Two suicide bombers armed with sniper rifles entered the shopping complex, took control of it and captured around 15 shoppers as hostages, police said. After a gun battle, one suicide bomber blew himself up and the other was shot dead by Kurdish security forces who took over the operation from local police. One hostage was wounded, police said. "I was inside my home when there was a big explosion, our house was shaking and the windows shattered," said a man who gave his name as Abu Ahmed who lives next to the mall. He saw several attackers carrying weapons heading towards the mall. "Dozens of women, men and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq police storm mall, kill gunmen after standoff

Iraqi police stormed a mall in a northern city that gunmen used to launch an attack on a nearby police station, killing three militants and ending an hourslong standoff as attacks elsewhere left seven dead Thursday, authorities said. Militants held off police from their rooftop position on six-story Jawahir mall in Kirkuk overnight, throwing down grenades and firing on officers and civilians who tried to flee the fighting. Officers raided the mall Thursday morning before dawn, killing the militants, said Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir, Kirkuk’s police commander. No security forces or civilians were wounded in that fighting, Qadir said, though it left large portions of the mall burned. Eleven storekeepers hid inside the mall during the attack, scared to leave, he said. The fighting in Kirkuk began Wednesday, when authorities said a car bomb exploded at the gates of the Police Intelligence Department. A suicide […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurdistan pipeline exports imminent despite Baghdad outcry

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz (L) and Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani attend the opening of the CWC Kurdistan-Iraq Oil and Gas conference in Erbil on Dec. 2, 2013. (RAWAZ TAHIR/Iraq Oil Report/Metrography) As Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region continues to pump oil into its new export pipeline to Turkey, leaders in Erbil and Ankara have outlined a revenue-handling mechanism that appears to allow their burgeoning energy cooperation to move forward without Baghdad’s approval.The impending exports and sales threaten to undermine Baghdad’s top oil policymakers, who have long argued that all exports must be conducted under central government authority – a position they have reiterated forcefully … This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Major Hezbollah Figure, Tied to Syrian War, Is Assassinated Near Beirut

Hassane Laqees was a major player in the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah from its inception three decades ago to its current intervention in Syria’s civil war. Over the years, he survived several assassination attempts. But as he parked his car just after midnight on Wednesday near an apartment south of Beirut that he sometimes used, he was shot dead at close range. It was a professional-style killing that signaled a new escalation in the attacks Hezbollah has faced after plunging into the turmoil in neighboring Syria on the side of President Bashar al-Assad. Mr. Laqees’s death was a significant loss for Hezbollah, analysts said, and any of the group’s primary enemies — Israel, the Syrian insurgents the group is battling, or their backers, such as Saudi Arabia or Lebanese Sunni militants — could have had reason to want him dead. Mr. Laqees was variously described […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Car bomb hits Yemen's Defense Ministry, killing 15

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car Thursday at Yemen’s Defense Ministry, killing 15 soldiers and wounding at least 40 in an attack underlining the persistent threat to the stability and security of the impoverished Arab nation. They said as many as 12 gunmen also were killed in a firefight between troops and a carload of attackers who arrived minutes after the early morning blast, apparently in a bid to take over the complex in downtown Sanaa, Yemen’s capital. They said the gunmen were armed with assault rifles, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades. They wore Yemeni army uniforms, the officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida, whose chapter in Yemen is considered among the world’s most active. The Defense Ministry issued a brief statement confirming Thursday’s attack. It said “most” of the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Car bomb hits Yemen’s Defense Ministry, killing 15

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car Thursday at Yemen’s Defense Ministry, killing 15 soldiers and wounding at least 40 in an attack underlining the persistent threat to the stability and security of the impoverished Arab nation. They said as many as 12 gunmen also were killed in a firefight between troops and a carload of attackers who arrived minutes after the early morning blast, apparently in a bid to take over the complex in downtown Sanaa, Yemen’s capital. They said the gunmen were armed with assault rifles, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades. They wore Yemeni army uniforms, the officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida, whose chapter in Yemen is considered among the world’s most active. The Defense Ministry issued a brief statement confirming Thursday’s attack. It said “most” of the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple