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AFP:
"Iranians rallied nationwide on Friday in a show of support for
Palestinians as archfoe Israel pursued its deadly campaign against the
Gaza Strip. Demonstrations were held in Tehran and more than 700 towns
and cities across the country on the last day of prayer and rest of the
Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, state television reported. In the
capital, footage showed demonstrators, carrying placards proclaiming
'Death to Israel' and 'Death to America', converging from nine different
points on Tehran University in the city centre. Iran holds Quds Day
(Jerusalem Day) rallies in support of the Palestinians every year on the
last Friday of Ramadan, but this year's demonstrations came on the 18th
day of Israel's deadly campaign against rocket-firing militants in
Gaza." http://t.uani.com/1pgCBqg
Press TV:
"Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has condemned Israel's brutal war
on Gaza, urging Islamic countries to support the Palestinian resistance
in unison. Rouhani who joined International Quds Day rallies in the
Iranian capital Tehran on Friday condemned Israel's war on Gaza as
'inhumane and genocidal' and said all Muslims should show their rage and
resentment, unity and resistance against Israel... He said that all
Muslims should rise up against Israel, saying there is no way to confront
Israel except through unity and resistance." http://t.uani.com/1rRlpJ2
AFP:
"Iran provided Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas with the
technology it has used to rain down rockets on Israel from Gaza, its
parliament speaker said on Thursday. Tehran frequently boasts of the
financial and material support it gives to Palestinian militant groups
Hamas and Islamic Jihad but more rarely talks of its military assistance.
'Today, the fighters in Gaza have good capabilities and can meet their
own needs for weapons,' speaker Ali Larijani told the Arabic service of
state television. 'But once upon a time, they needed the arms manufacture
know-how and we gave it to them,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1lDhQB9
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
Reuters:
"The U.N. atomic watchdog said it needs 1 million euros in extra
funding to help pay for its monitoring of a four-month extension of an
interim nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers. The request was
made in a note to member states of the U.N. International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) dated July 24 and seen by Reuters on Friday, six days after
the extension of last year's agreement was announced... The IAEA saw its
workload increase significantly under last November's preliminary accord,
initially due to run for six months from Jan. 20 but now prolonged until
Nov. 24. Its inspectors accessed Iran's uranium enrichment facilities of Natanz
and Fordow daily, compared to about once a week before. The agency also
provides monthly updates to member states on how Iran is implementing its
commitments." http://t.uani.com/UrZooe
Human Rights
AFP:
"Tehran's chief justice Gholamhossein Esmaili on Friday confirmed
the arrest of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and his wife,
also a journalist, the official IRNA news agency reported... The
Washington Post said on Thursday Rezaian appeared to have been detained
in Iran with his wife Yeganeh Salehi and two freelance photojournalists.
Rezaian, 38, has been the Post correspondent in Tehran since 2012 and
holds both American and Iranian citizenship, according to the newspaper.
His wife is an Iranian who has applied for US permanent residency and
works as a correspondent for a newspaper based in the United Arab
Emirates, the Post said... Esmaili was quoted by IRNA as saying: 'The
security forces have the whole country under surveillance and control the
activities of enemies.' 'They will not permit our country to become a
land where our enemies and their agents carry out their
activities.'" http://t.uani.com/1zbYk7g
Al-Monitor:
"The emergence of a series of horrifying stories about minors being
sexually and physically abused by their teachers or headmasters in
schools and kindergartens has once again raised public concerns about
students' security in Iranian schools, where the education system has
Islamic underpinnings." http://t.uani.com/1tJLhXJ
Foreign Affairs
Tasnim (Iran):
"Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif described the Zionist
regime's killing of Palestinian children and women as a blatant war
crime. Based on no international law nor any interpretation (of the laws)
can the Zionist atrocities be called anything but 'genocide, crime
against humanity and international crime,' Zarif said on Thursday while
addressing a gathering held at the Foreign Ministry to mark the
International Quds Day. He described what is going on in Gaza as yet another
example of the decades-long barbarism of the occupying regime of Israel
against the oppressed Palestinian nation." http://t.uani.com/UxPUHz
Press TV (Iran):
"A senior Iranian military commander says Palestinians are
determined to avenge the deaths of their countrymen killed in recent
Israeli strikes. 'We will chase you house by house and will avenge every
drop of blood [shed from] our martyrs in Palestine, and this is the
starting point of the awakening of Muslim nations for defeating you,'
Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the second-in-command of the Islamic
Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said on Friday. The general said no spot
in the occupied Palestinian territories is safe for the Zionists, adding,
'Today, the [power of] Palestinian resistance's missiles are far beyond
the Zionists' estimate.' Salami said the Palestinian nation will emerge
winner in the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip and the 'Muslim world will
finally become a grave for the policies of the United States, the Zionist
regime and their regional reactionary allies.' 'The power balance will
change in favor of the Muslim world and we warn the Zionists that you are
a rootless community having no territory, no race, no history and no
composing element of a nation,' said the Iranian commander." http://t.uani.com/WPSbQ5
Opinion &
Analysis
Bassam Barabandi
& Tyler Jess Thompson in the Atlantic Council:
"Early in my career as a Syrian diplomat, I learned to respect the
strategic planning of the Assads. One clear memory is from 2007, during a
visit from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. I remember sitting
behind a two-way mirror in a room adjacent to the banquet hall at the
Four Seasons Damascus. Deputy Vice President Mohammad Nasif and I huddled
in the tiny room as we watched a reception featuring Syrian Ministers and
their Iraqi counterparts. We took notes, monitored their interactions,
and sent waiters and messengers to disrupt conversations and alter the
room dynamics. As Nasif and I noted every piece of small talk, every
passing gesture, I realized that no detail is too small for the Assad
regime to overlook. There is always a plan, opportunities are never
missed, and there are no accidents: the rise of ISIS is no exception to
this rule. ISIS's role in Syria fits into a plan that has worked for
Assad on several occasions. When a crisis emerges, Assad pushes his
opponents to spend as much time as possible in developing a response.
While implementing such diplomatic stalls, he floods the crisis with
distractions designed to divert attention away from Syrian government
misdeeds. His favorite diversion is terrorism, because it establishes him
as a necessary force to contain it. In the meantime, world events wash
away international focus on the initial crisis. Assad used this approach
to protect himself after the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister
Rafik al-Hariri. My colleagues took steps to appear cooperative while
stalling investigations. When the tribunal requested documents, the
government sent mountains of information. When tribunal staff planned a
visit, the government sent countless clarifications on minute details,
shifting plans last minute and obstructing the process. Meanwhile, Assad
used his terrorist proxy in Hezbollah to foment sectarian tensions in
Lebanon. He also continued to facilitate the flow of extremist Sunni
fighters into Iraq. These steps shifted international attention to the
stability of neighbors, and positioned Assad's government as a
problematic, yet stabilizing force in the region. Accountability for the
Hariri plot faded from view. Assad renewed a version of this approach
after non-violent protestors took to the streets demanding freedom and
reform in 2011. His closest advisors studied the Arab Spring uprisings in
Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen to craft an approach that would protect
the regime. This small group of political elites concluded that any
meaningful concessions to non-violent protestors could precipitate the
collapse of the regime. The advisors decided that it would enact no
reforms that could weaken Assad's hold on power. Assad learned from the
Libyan case that a hasty resort to large massacres, or the threat
thereof, could draw intervention from NATO forces. A slower increase in
violence against opponents, however, would likely go unchecked. Assad
needed to take steps that would pass time and prove himself as
indispensable, both to the international community and to Syrians who
fear retaliation from the Sunni majority. To achieve these aims, Assad
first changed the narrative of the newborn Syrian revolution to one of
sectarianism, not reform. He then fostered an extremist presence in Syria
alongside the activists. Further, he facilitated the influx of foreign
extremist fighters to threaten stability in the region. Finally, any
efforts to kill time on the clock, such as the chemical weapons deal, its
slow implementation, and the Geneva process, were enthusiastically
exploited. The resulting international paralysis allowed Assad to present
himself as an ally in the global war on terror, granting him license to
crush civilians with impunity. The Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham
(ISIS) emerged as one of those facts created to ensure Assad's survival
as he and his Iranian backers seek to frame this conflict as a regional
sectarian issue, with a classical choice between military powers and
Sunni extremists. Early in the uprising, I was stationed in Washington.
The Assad regime's public messaging sought to construct the narrative
that the Syrian revolutionaries had aspirations to disenfranchise and
eliminate non-Sunni minorities. Even as we received external reports that
the government killed nearly 250 people in Daraa, Deputy Foreign Minister
Fisal Mikdad called to assure the Ambassador and me that there had been
no killing, only a sectarian misunderstanding that the government had
resolved. Once the unrest shifted to an armed conflict, Assad's choice of
allies promoted sectarianism. Hezbollah and the Iranian Republican Guard,
primarily Shiite forces, assisted in further highlighting Assad's
sectarian narrative. Today, the conflict has morphed into a sectarian
regional proxy war. This is precisely how Assad envisioned it, and
creates a dynamic that the internationals can dismiss as too complex or
dissonant to Western interests." http://t.uani.com/1pjQMYT
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