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Haaretz's latest Middle East analyses and opinions: Hezbollah's latest attack: PR for the resistance (Anshel Pfeffer) | Will the blood of Kobani's Kurds be on Turkey's hands? (Seth Lipsky)
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3:36 A.M. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday that the U.S. wants to know how far Turkey is willing to go in helping train and equip moderate opposition fighters trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, including whether it will conduct training on its own land.
Turkey has agreed to support efforts to train and equip the Syrian opposition, but the U.S. doesn't yet know whether Ankara is willing to do the training inside Turkey itself. Saudi Arabia, for instance, has agreed to host training facilities for Syrian rebels on its territory. U.S. officials are still discussing the details with Turkish officials.
'The specifics that go with train and equip - locations, contributions, trainers - will be part of that conversation,' Hagel said in Colombia, his first stop on a six-day trip to South and Central America. 'Part of those discussions will include how far Turkey is willing to go. Certainly one of those questions will be, will they be willing to provide training locations.'
Hagel said a joint team from U.S. Central Command and U.S. European Command will travel to Turkey next week to meet with officials there and discuss the different ways Turkey can contribute to the effort to degrade the Islamic State group militants. (AP)
10:20 P.M. A top leader of Egypt's most active Islamist militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis was killed on Friday by Egyptian soldiers in the lawless north of the Sinai Peninsula, an Egyptian military spokesman said on Facebook.
Sinai-based Ansar, which seeks to topple the government, has killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police over the past year and beheaded several people in recent weeks, saying they were spies for Israeli intelligence. (Reuters)
7:45 P.M. Turkey has agreed to support the training and equipping of the moderate opposition in Syria, the U.S. State Department said on Friday, saying a U.S. military team would visit Ankara next week to discuss the matter.
'Turkey has agreed to support train-and-equip efforts for the moderate Syrian opposition,' spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters in describing a visit to Turkey by the two senior U.S. officials responsible for building a coalition to fight the Islamic State militant group in Syria and Iraq. 'There will be a (U.S. Defense Department) planning team traveling to Ankara next week to continue planning that through military channels,' she added. (Reuters)
6:46 P.M. Egyptian police have arrested 40 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood during protests after Friday prayers in Cairo and Egypt's second city Alexandria, Egyptian security officials said. The officials say protesters shouted slogans against the police and armed forces and blocked traffic in scattered marches in Alexandria after Friday prayers. (AP)
6:11 P.M. France's foreign minister is calling for the creation of a buffer zone between Syria in Turkey to protect refugees and civilians as the Islamic State group advances in the region. He met with his Turkish counterpart as the militants pushed into the Kurdish Syrian town of Kobani after the U.S.-led coalition stepped up airstrikes.
France's Laurent Fabius said Friday that world powers should do more to urgently support moderate forces fighting both the extremists and Syrian President Bashar Assad's army. He said 'we support the idea of a buffer zone,' though stressed that it would require 'extremely close international coordination.' France is participating in airstrikes against extremists in Iraq but not Syria. (AP)
Posted by Unknown on Saturday, October 11, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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