Unequalled Malevolence

"Experts: Iran Now a Nuclear-Ready State, Missiles Capable of Hitting US"

"Regardless of intelligence uncertainties and unknowns about Iran's nuclear weapons and missile programs, we know enough now to make a prudent judgment that Iran should be regarded by national security decision makers as a nuclear missile state capable of posing an existential threat to the United States and its allies...The fact of Iran's ICBM capability and their proximity to nuclear weapons necessitates that Iran be regarded as a nuclear missile state—right now."

Newsmax report

 

"Terrorists or state actors that possess relatively unsophisticated missiles armed with nuclear weapons may well calculate that, instead of destroying a city or military base, they may obtain the greatest political-military utility from one or a few such weapons by using them — or threatening their use — in an EMP attack."

EMP Commission

"Iran, the world's leading sponsor of international terrorism, has practiced launching a mobile ballistic missile from a vessel in the Caspian Sea. Iran has also tested high-altitude explosions of the Shahab-III, a test mode consistent with EMP attack, and described the tests as successful. Iranian military writings explicitly discuss a nuclear EMP attack that would gravely harm the United States."

Dr. William R. Graham, Chairman, Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack

 

 

"By sending a military satellite into space, Iran now has shown that it can target all American territory; the Iranian Parliament had previously warned [the U.S.] that an electromagnetic nuclear attack on the United States would likely kill 90 percent of Americans."

Iranian state-controlled Afkar News 

It is a disastrous potential scenario whose magnitude of destruction is simply unimaginable. Unimaginable as well is the very concept of any country's national head making such a fateful decision as to launch an utterly destructive, desolate attack on another country with the dire potential of an electromagnetic nuclear pulse that would in theory and in practise instantly and entirely annihilate a nation's power grid along with any form of energy distribution, affecting industrial, municipal, military functioning completely.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

When a nuclear explosion takes place, an invisible burst of gamma rays is emitted, a form of light born of the "hottest and most energetic objects in the universe", as NASA puts it, a small fraction of the bomb's yield which smash into air molecules, knock out electrons and accelerate negatively charged particles to around 90% of the speed of light.

Many of the high-speed electrons are shuttled toward Earth's poles by its magnetic field which the electrons respond to by releasing their new energy as a soup of powerful electromagnetic radiation, causing a nuclear electromagnetic pulse, which occurs within a fraction of a microsecond -- the surge of energy capable of overloading (shocking) sensitive electronic devices of the type civilization is heavily reliant on in the operation of just about anything and everything.

Under the influence of that pulse, trains would stop instantly, motor vehicles as well, and planes would simply fall from the sky. As the electromagnetic pulse passes through phones, computers, radios, they 'catch' the powerful pulse generating a rogue current of electricity which then moves instantly through those devices' tiny circuits, disrupting and destroying them. Similarly on a macro scale, electric power grid systems responsible for heat, electricity and water transmission,would simply fail. The excess current can spark and fail for miles around as power transmission and telecommunications equipment overload.

Everything would instantly come to a halt through the massively disruptive electromagnetic waves. As massively destructive as a nuclear detonation hitting the ground can be, nuclear detonations occurring at vast heights measured in hundreds of miles above the surface of the Earth could have grotesquely devastating consequences compared to those that happen on the ground. In 2008, the EMP Commission released a report suggesting that a powerful nuclear device detonated at the right altitude could shower the entire continental US in EMP, entirely and catastrophically disrupting telecommunications and power grid infrastructure.

Photo: Public Domain

The published speculation of the Iranian regime-sponsored newspaper that referred to such an event succeeding in killing 90 percent of the U.S. population, in a casual matter-of-fact statement of potential accomplishment at a future date, may have received its information from the Congressional EMP Commission report itself, which estimated that, given U.S. current unpreparedness, within one year of an EMP attack that might cause a nationwide blackout, two-thirds or more -- up to 90 percent -- of the U.S. population could perish from starvation, disease and societal collapse.

The release in 2017 of an official Iranian textbook meant for military educational purposes dating from 2010, endorses deception measures meant to conceal the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear weapons research. It also speaks of a nuclear EMP attack against the United States. Clearly, both features are in direct violation of international agreements, despite which the textbook is in active use at the military academy and think tank, the Martyr Lt.General Sayad Shirazi Center for Education and Research, for the training of officers.

 

Noor satellite

American intelligence and the Congressionally created EMP Commission estimate that Iran's  relationship with North Korea is steadily advancing its nuclear goal, that North Korea is now in possession of super-EMP nuclear weapons and has the cspability to deliver them. Both countries are actively collaborating and have been for years, signing an agreement to cooperate in "science and technology". Speculation that Iran has or may soon have the capability to deliver an EMP attack is shared by Israel.

 

Iran has succeeded in launching several civilian satellites between 2008 and 2015, including southern polar trajectories -- with the help of North Korean missile technology and technicians. Iran orbited a military satellite over the United States launched by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in April of 2020. The IRGC is in charge of Iran's nuclear operations. Its Noor-1 satellite weighs a mere 30 pounds but the Space Launch Vehicles's third stage went into orbit, clearly showing a capability to circle over the U.S. carrying a net payload of several hundred pounds; quite sufficient for a nuclear weapon.

"On April 22, 2020, Iran successfully launched its first military satellite Noor-1 (“light”) into low-earth orbit and simultaneously announced its parallel military space program run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s Corps (IRGC). Noor was carried by a three-stage Qassed (“messenger”) space-launch vehicle (SLV) and the military satellite is believed to be orbiting the earth at an altitude of about 440 kilometers (km). The success of the launch earned Noor a “code designator” by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)."

Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

 

Prophet or Lunatic?

"I have exposure to the most cutting-edge AI and I think people should be really concerned about it."
"I keep sounding the alarm bell but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don’t know how to react because it seems so ethereal."
"Maybe there's a five to 10 percent chance of success [of making AI safe]. The purpose of Neuralink [is] to create a high-bandwidth interface to the brain such that we can be symbiotic with AI. How much smarter are you with a phone or computer than without? You're vastly smarter, actually. You can answer any question pretty much instantly."
"I think we'll have something interesting to announce in a few months that's at least an order of magnitude better than anything else — probably than anyone thinks is possible. You're currently in a symbiotic relationship with your cortex and limbic system. Best-case scenario, we effectively merge with AI, where AI serves as a tertiary cognition layer. It will enable anyone who wants to have superhuman cognition."
"I tried to convince people to slow down AI, to regulate AI, but this was futile. I tried for years. Nobody listened. Normally the way regulations work is very slow. This time frame is not relevant to AI. You can't take 10 years from the point at which it's dangerous."
"The merge scenario with AI is the one that seems like probably the best. If you can't beat it, join it."
Elon Musk, 47, billionaire inventor, Tesla CEO

Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk

If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea.

37.3K

7:29 PM - Aug 11, 2017

Mr. Musk looks to the future with both a scientific impresario's curiosity and foresight and awareness of the drama that could be unfolding as humanity is challenged by artificial intelligence looming on the horizon with its promise to change our world at least as much as the Internet has done, but, according to Mr. Musk with potentially grave consequences. He believes that artificial intelligence once unleashed has the potential to challenge humankind's primacy as a controlling vector of the future.



He appears to be pragmatic in his approach, believing the worst could happen, that humans could become subservient to a far more intelligent creation than ourselves; that describes the pessimist in this man's inventively creative mind. And on the other hand, he feels that if the initiative is adequately taken humankind can absorb artificial intelligence and in one fell swoop match its intelligence quotient to defray the cost of submitting with our inferior brains to the far more adept and deep intelligence of an artificial construct of a thinking non-human intelligence.

"Essentially, how do we ensure that the future constitutes the sum of the will of humanity? And so, if we have billions of people with the high-band-width link to the AI extension of themselves, it would actually make everyone hyper-smart", he enthuses. "Electron to neuron interface at a micro level", he explains would process humanity into a creature capable of out-thinking and uber-manoeuvring a mere electronic mechanism 'taught' to think."Digital intelligence will exceed biological intelligence by a substantial margin. It's obvious."

So, who among us is willing, perhaps eager and ready to 'upgrade' their human intelligence by having a chip implanted in their head along with "a bunch of tiny wires", the goal of creating a hard drive for peoples' brains to be achieved? What, after all, could go wrong? Everything! Perhaps -- perhaps not. But even so, by submitting to that kind of creative boosting of intelligence will we transcend our human condition? How will we benefit, other than to guard ourselves against the possibility that a computer will gain power over us?

If those of us who agree to having that implanted chip alter our insight and creativity gaining cerebral function well beyond that with which our brains have been endowed will it be a plus for humanity and for the individuals involved? Will we create monsters? With greater intelligence comes the possibility of enhanced power. And humans are simply that; human beings endowed with all the emotional frailties of humanity. Just as hate and love are emotional antagonists that are very closely related, so are noble intentions and corruption.

"We worry", chides this man Musk, "more about ... what name somebody called someone else ... than whether AI will destroy humanity. That's insane." Yet to the uninitiated, Mr. Musk's preoccupation might appear in flirtation with the lunatic fringe of humanity. Ay, there's the rub.... Theatrics, Mr. Musk? Why wouldn't an 'intelligent' computer stop at the victory it is capable of claiming in chess? Why succumb to the fear that a machine would inevitably absorb the more base characteristics of humanity to wish to conquer and control?

Getty Images    Elon Musk

Diplomacy Failed, Sanctions Failed: Military Option?

"It is not only [a] ballistic missile defense system — it has real function. That is why it is alarming. And it is [a] direct threat to Russia. We are convinced that it will increase the tensions of the region. That is our principle position.''
"Economical restrictions should be a kind of tool to invoke North Korea to a peaceful process of resolving the dispute and conflict, and not to once again deteriorate the economic solution in North Korea."
"All states involved in territorial disagreements in the South China Sea need to adhere [to] the principle of the non-use of force."
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks on during the test-launch of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang July 5, 2017.
KCNA/via REUTERS

"Well, there was a failure [in the second-to-last missile test, April]. I don’t know why it failed except there’s been quite a high rate of failure over the last year, and my guess is that’s mainly due to a very rushed pace of development. The North Korean missile program is making some progress, but I think that Kim Jong-un is willing to tolerate a very high rate of failure in his effort to try to develop a more credible long-range capability as quickly as possible. He may feel that he’s got a window of time to try to perfect some of these long-range systems, and he doesn’t seem to be deterred by all of the threats that the U.S. and China and other countries have been trying to dissuade him from continuing testing. But obviously, that’s not working."
"I think this is all just noise. Both sides are rattling sabers, but neither side is going to start a war. We recognize that a military attack on North Korea would probably not be effective in terms of destroying North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program and would run the risk of a North Korean retaliation against South Korea and Japan, which could cost hundreds of thousands of lives. And the North Koreans know that any attack on U.S. allies in the region would provoke an American response that would destroy them. So I think both sides are posturing, but I think the risk of war is very low."
Nuclear security analyst Gary Samore, executive director, research, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, second from right, inspects the preparation of the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile, ICBM, in North Korea’s northwest on July 4, 2017. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP

A lot can happen in the world in the space of a month or so to shatter any sense of possible complacency such as that expressed by Mr. Samore back in April, that the likelihood of Kim Jong-un's threat of "all-out war" is simply verbal over-reach, the kind of empty threat that he appears to enjoy indulging in. Since that earlier missile test fizzled, another hugely more successful test, purported by experts in South Korea and the United States to have been an introductory intercontinental ballistic missile with a range approaching the coast of the U.S.   

Not much was seen in the Western-based news sources that an earlier missile had hit close to Russia, a next-door neighbour of North Korea, which appears to be preaching patient tolerance, diplomacy rather than responding in kind to North Korean provocations. Neither Russia nor China has a wish to see the collapse of North Korea by any means, ending with the unification of the two Koreas under South Korea with its alarming (to China and Russia) firm links to the United States, leaving no bulwark between them and U.S. interests.

And nor does either happily contemplate the kind of acceleration that would see both South Korea and Japan, concerned for their own security and defence, securing their own nuclear arms and ICBMs, with the consent of the United States. There can be no mistaking the alarm felt in both South Korea and Japan over the danger that Kim's North Korea poses to them. Public service announcements were being run in Japan to warn citizens to stay clear of windows should a missile attack strike.

Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP

North Korean women soldiers march across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in celebration of Kim il Sung's 105th birthday. Gary Samore, executive director for research at the Belfer Center, sees little substantial change in the decades-long stalemate with North Korea, but with economic sanctions imposed even by China, a longtime ally, the hermit nation may be running out of options to sustain its nuclear ambitions.

The Japanese are well versed in how they must react in such earth-shaking conditions, knowing full well how to take refuge, since they are accustomed to reacting to earthquakes on a regular basis, in their earthquake-prone geography. Although the Russian representative to the recent ASEAN Shangri-La conference in Singapore urged restraint in response to North Korean threats, it is extremely difficult to set aside the reality that it is simply not possible for rational debate with North Korea with Kim Jong-un at its helm.

China, its only regional ally, has had ample experience in trying to guide North Korea's actions, to no avail. Even though China has long been North Korea's regional mentor, it too has not been immune from experiencing Kim's glum threats and petty retorts to what it feels is interference in North Korea's affairs. All the more so since Beijing has been lately taking Pyongyang's provocations far more seriously, resulting in its own sanctions hitting the North Korean economy, eliciting more threats from Kim.

Kim Jong-un's reputation has been well earned. This is a man, after all, who summarily arrested and ordered his trusted uncle by marriage, who had guided him in the early days of his presidency, to be killed. The mysterious death of his older half-brother was not really a mystery, representing as it does yet another instance of Kim's penchant for ridding himself of those he no longer finds useful or views as threats.

The Hwasong-14 missile fired into the Sea of Japan with its capacity to fly 6,700 kilometres by U.S. expert estimate, represents a direct threat to Alaska. Other competing estimates of its powerful range go up to 8,500 kilometres, and once it is fine-tuned even more, and fitted out with a miniaturized nuclear head, it becomes a viable threat to the United States and Canada. There are, as it happens, NORAD fighter bases in Alberta and Quebec and they would make achievable targets for this man whose ambitions threaten world order.

Jihadist Terrorism Central Destined to Become Dispersed

"There are important developments in our region. On one hand, Turkey is in a very serious fight against terror but there are other important developments on the other side of our borders. Turkey must be ready for all possibilities, these are part of these preparations."
"Developments that would change Mosul's demographics are Turkey's red lines. We are talking on these issues with Iraq and the [anti-ISIL] coalition. Of course, in the meantime Turkey is making the necessary preparations."
Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik

"Kata’ib Hizballah is a radical Shia Islamist group with an anti-Western establishment and jihadist ideology that has conducted attacks against Iraqi, U.S. and Coalition targets in Iraq [and it is one of the militias acting under orders of the Popular Mobilization Forces."
"[The Hezbollah Brigades are known to be an official designated foreign terrorist organization] responsible for numerous acts against Iraqi, U.S. and other targets in Iraq since 2007."
U.S. State Department

Street fighting has commenced between Iraqi special forces and Islamic State in the outer eastern areas of Mosul. That in itself is a complicated affair with the eyes of the world fixed on Mosul to espy the fate of the world's currently most notorious Islamist jihadist group, and the prospects of Sunni Iraqis who populate Mosul in the majority though there are also other small ethnic contingents of Shias, Kurds, Turkmen and Christians, all of whom crowded into the city now being invaded are vulnerable to harm in the crossfire of opposing militias and U.S.-led firepower from above.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey is adamant that nothing will deter his military from their operations in Iraq to ensure that the shared border does not become a hotbed of Kurdish settlement. He speaks of Turkey's "historical responsibility" in the area, threatening military force should Iraq continue to deny Turkey its insistence that it has a place in the conflict. Turkey, needless to say, is fixated on Mosul remaining majority Sunni. And that Kurdish intention is to incorporate the city into a greater Kurdistan does not impress Erdogan one whit beyond infuriating him.

 
As far as Turkey's president is concerned, Turkey's claim to Mosul originated with the end of the Ottoman Empire and World War One, with the redrawing of national lines in the Middle East, creating the ungovernable muddle that now exists, in ignoring historical ethnic realities. Citing those realities and the imposition by Europe of new national borders while handily overlooking the betrayal of the Kurds by the colonial powers which had originally promised a Kurdish homeland would be re-established is deliberate on Erdogan's part, unwilling to give any credence to an independent sovereign Kurdish nation.

Groups of civilians heading for safety, riding in any vehicles available, battered old trucks rumbling on the highway east of Bazwaya where Iraqi troops had arrived to liberating acclaim, to use the village in its strategic plan to enter Mosul on the eastern outskirts, creating of it a launch pad to pave the way for the initial assault on the city limits. Iraq's Counter Terrorism Service captured a foothold at Gogjali, a Mosul industrial district under five kilometres distant from Bazwaya.

"Now is the beginning of the true liberation of the city of Mosul", prophesized General Taleb Sheghati al-Kenani, head of the Golden Division of the CTS, from Gogjali. Troops, according to Iraq's Joint Operations Command, had "entered the Judaidst Al-Mufti area, the left bank of the city". The massive offensive is now in its second week with tens of thousands of Iraqi and Kurdish troops depending on the backing of U.S. air strikes. The city is being pounded by artillery and airstrikes.

"We can see Daesh [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] fighters firing toward the Iraqi forces and moving in cars between the alleys of the neighbourhood. It's street fighting", reported one resident, witness to the events as they unfold. White flags placed a few days back by residents to indicate that the Iraqi forces are welcomed and have nothing to fear from them in opposition, festoon Bazwaya. Even shepherds leading sheep away from the fighting place white cloth on the retreating animals.

It is believed that 600,000 children are among the million residents of the city trapped between Islamic State fighters and the gradually entering Iraqi forces. "We expect the fighting to get more intense as we enter deeper into the city", Ahmed Majid, a Golden Division soldier said, from Bazwaya. "Daesh doesn't have enough men, so they defend with suicide trucks and roadside bombs."

According to Iraqi commanders, the conflict could go on for months. ISIL has prepared for the onslaught contesting their command of Mosul, their last major stronghold in Iraq. Their efforts meant to thwart the advance of the Iraqi military and the Kurdish militias has left towns and villages on the way to Mosul littered with improvised explosive devices. A maze of tunnels criss-cross the city, sheltering the presence of fighters, while the tactic of employing suicide bombers remains a focal point of military alertness.

An American security authority now in the news for other reasons has warned the Senate Homeland Security Committee to anticipate that a wave of terrorist fighters have the potential to spread across the globe in response to Islamic State losing control of its geographic territory marking its caliphate. "They will not all die on the battlefield in Syria and Iraq", said FBI Director James Comey. "There will be a terrorist diaspora sometime in the next two to five years like we've never seen before, larger than the one that came out of Afghanistan after the war there in the 1980s."

Sanctimoniously Normalizing Gender Inequality : Islamicizing Canadian Values

"IUMS [International Union for Muslim Scholars] was founded by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s leading ideologue and a notorious figure who, among other accomplishments, was for many years banned from entering France and endorsed the murder of Israelis."
"That PM Trudeau went to an IUMS-associated mosque is typical of left-leaning politicians, who apply a crude violence filter: if the person has not personally advocated or engaged in violence, then no problem. To put it mildly, that misses the point."
Daniel Pipes, Islamic studies scholar, United States

"Right now we have these political leaders -- ironically, politically liberal leaders -- who are just putting blinders on their eyes about their values."
"That's the big differential for liberals, they fancy themselves as honouring the woman's body and yet the segregation by its very definition hyper-sexualizes women's bodies. That's the great irony."
Asra Nomani, journalist formerly with the Wall Street Journal

"I will meet with Canadians regardless of where they are in Canada. I will speak to inclusive growth, help for the middle class. I will talk about gender equality. I will talk about the rights of the LGBT community."
"We [Liberal Government of Canada] will continue to promote the values which bring us [Canadians of all origins] together."
"Diversity is a source of strength, not just a source of weakness, and as I look at this beautiful room [Ottawa Mosque] -- sisters upstairs -- everyone here [I see] the diversity we have just within this mosque, within the Islamic community, within the Muslim community in Canada."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to members of the Muslim community in Ottawa, Monday September 12, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

"So whether you're in an indigenous community or in a community of faith or in a military community ... there are a number of traditions and cultures and standards that the community upholds and I think the respectful thing is to understand that it might not be your practise but it is theirs."
Patty Hajdu, Minister for the Status of Women

Minister Hajdu chooses to overlook that respect goes both ways. When in Rome... She did not accompany Prime Minister Trudeau on his courtesy visit to the gender-segregated mosque in Ottawa on Monday -- respectfully acknowledging Eid al-Adha, the holy feast day at the conclusion of Ramadan for the world's Muslims -- but three other female Members of Parliament accompanied him when he addressed the gathering at the mosque. Mr. Trudeau entered by the front door of the mosque.

The female Members of Parliament made their arrival through a side door and stood separated from all males present, demurely head-covered; not a Canadian custom, nor were they invited to address the gathering on this splendid social/religious occasion. Men on the main floor of the mosque, where the Prime Minister spoke, and women and girls in other portions of the mosque or on a balcony,

Only men are permitted on the main floor. Women will watch Trudeau from balcony. David Akin

Ms. Nomani, author of Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam noted that recent surveys reveal that mosques are increasingly separating men from women congregants, an steadily growing trend from a decade earlier. So much for Muslim adaptability to the values and priorities of equality between the sexes, with Islamist values superseding the values and guarantees under the Canadian Charter of Rights.

As for Mr. Trudeau's verbal assurances of his intention to speak of gender equality and the rights of the LGBT community, he somehow managed to overlook doing just that in his remarks, and nor did he blink when he remarked on the separation of "sisters upstairs". His presence and that of the other Members of Parliament, at a mosque whose imam is connected with Islamism, a ferociously radicalizing form of Islam, signals either a lax intelligence or an obtuse executive function in upholding Canadian values.

The lead imam at the Ottawa Muslim Association, Samy Metwally, according to the mosque's own website, is "a member of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS). The United Arab Emirates since 2014 has placed the group on its list of designated terrorist organizations. And the Muslim Brotherhood has also been designated a terrorist organization, by at least half a dozen countries globally, including Egypt.

Canada has yet to do so, though its junior offshoot, Hamas, is on Canada's designated terrorist list. Both the Brotherhood and Hamas have infiltrated Canada. The Ottawa Mosque, just incidentally, was mentioned in an August report issued by co-authors Thomas Quiggin, formerly an intelligence analyst with the Privy Council Office and the RCMP, and Saied Shoaaib, a journalist originally from Egypt who conducted research in mosque libraries and Islamic schools, concluding that Islamist extremist literature exclusively was featured in those venues across Canada.

"The struggle for the soul of Islam between Islamists and humanists goes on in Canada and the U.S.A., not just in the Middle East, Europe and South Asia", the study noted.

The Ottawa Mosque -- ReSearch

Islamist Radicalization Simplified

"The 'why' question is natural and I think it feeds an instinctive human need. But we're never going to figure the why part out. Understanding that would mean it could be recognized and dealt with."
"Violent radicalization may be complicated, but it is usually detectable -- if you know what to look for."
"Terrorism was around back then but we didn't pay a lot of attention [decades earlier]."
"Differences and disagreements about Canadian government policies are not uncommon in this country. The threat lies not in the differences of opinion but in the belief that Canada has an overt animosity toward Islam and therefore must be punished through acts of terrorism."
"It is my hope that by learning what the indicators can mean, people best positioned to detect them in their early stages will be empowered to not ignore them but act."
"In most cases what really impressed me was how engaged people were [in the Muslim community]. They know it's happening in their midst, they're a little bit confused about it."
"[Employment, education and integration] do not correlate with lower levels of radicalization. [The] oft-pronounced view that extremists have a poor grasp of Islam and only need to be nudged [or coerced] back to the true path is overly optimistic."
Phil Gurski, former intelligence analyst, retired

The publication of a book by the former Communications Security Establishment employee and later Canadian Security Intelligence Service officer, titled The Threat From Within: Recognizing Al-Qaeda-Inspired Radicalization and Terrorism in the West, hopes to alert the general public and more particularly, people from within the Muslim community of the characteristics adopted by people who have become radicalized.

To identify them to be enabled to intervene; to work with them in an attempt to de-radicalize, or to contact intelligence authorities and police to alert to their presence.

Mr. Gurski's three decades with official groups as a Canadian intelligence analyst does place him in a fairly unique position to describe a process that remains a mystery even to him; the pathology of Islamist paranoia that leads to violent jihad. Just exactly how and why, where and when supposedly normal people become entranced with violent jihad and undertake what they see as an obligatory role in defending Islam against the malign intentions of non-Muslims is a mystery to all Western governments.

And it is not a mystery that will be cleared up any time soon, and certainly not with the aid of this book. Mr. Gursky cautions readers that the people who have pledged themselves to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as an example -- people who are capable of committing gruesome atrocities, claiming that what they have done in the service of Islam is permissible and even needful, and those who support them within the Muslim community are not 'monsters'. "They are us", he holds; ordinary people.

Ordinary people who have succumbed to the the belief that the non-Muslim world is out to destroy the world of Islam. And it then becomes an absolute requirement that all believing Muslims leave their ordinary lives to embark upon a life dedicated to avenging the perceived wrongs done to the Islamic world, and the wrongs yet to be imagined. Terrorizing Western agencies and civilians by murder and mayhem, by disrupting the Western equilibrium has its telling effect, and such missions whether they reach their goal of slaughter or are apprehended before succeeding, all succeed in adding to the terrorism-success file.

No one template exists for motivating the susceptible to become jihadists But he has assembled a roster of "tangible, observable behaviours and attitudes" linked with radicalization. Signals are there, they just have to be read: "a sudden increase in intolerant religiosity", for one. The rejection of alternate interpretations of Islam diverting from jihad. The new converts to jihad will isolate themselves from non-Muslims, refuse contact or to deal with their businesses. They condemn outright the Western way of life and democracy in particular is anathema. Homosexuality and gender equality represent another symbol of Western degeneracy.

The politics of the West disguise "an anti-Islamic crusade". Western military intervention in the world of Islam represents war on Islam. Travel to conflict zones becomes a burning desire. An obsession with jihadist websites, with the al-Qaeda narrative, with martyrdom and the end-of-times, are all representative of typical radicalization. And oops, did we really need a book by a seasoned Canadian intelligence retiree to tell us the obvious?

Countering The Terrorist Threat in Canada

"[The federal government should] work with the provinces and the Muslim communities to investigate the options that are available for the training and certification of imams in Canada."

"The committee heard testimony from members of the Muslim community and others that some foreign-trained imams have been spreading extremist religious ideology and messages that are not in keeping with Canadian values."

"These extreme ideas are said to be contributing to radicalization and raise serious concerns if they continue to go unchecked."

"The committee believes that having more informed ‘eyes and ears’ is vital to terrorism prevention."

"[The government should investigate and discourage the spread of violent extremism] especially the ideology promoted by the global Islamist fundamentalist movement. [Ottawa should work with Muslim communities in the creation of an] effective counternarrative [to denounce this extremism]."

Senate committee on national security and defence interim report, recommendation no.9 

Conservative Senator Carolyn Stewart Olsen, attends a Senate committee hearing on Parliament Hill May 28, 2013 in Ottawa. The Senate Standing Committee on National Security and Defence, led by senators Daniel Lang and Stewart-Olsen issued an interim report Wednesday on its study of “security threats facing Canada.”   (Dave Chan For The Globe and Mail)

"Countering the Terrorist Threat in Canada", the interim report by the Senate committee on national security and defence includes a total of 25 recommendations that have resulted from months of study, presentations and interviews with people as diverse as the heads of Canada's intelligence services, policing, Muslim imams and community leaders and others from Canadian society, all concerned to render for the consideration of the committee their experience and perceptions.

Government is called upon to forbid funding for radical groups in Canada by foreign sources. It is challenged to launch an investigation into the Muslim Brotherhood and other like fundamentalist Islamist organizations creating havoc in the Middle East and with a presence in Canada, including groups that have been declared terrorist groups which clearly have supporters within the Muslim population in Canada, like Hamas and Hezbollah. 

The 22nd of the recommendations speaks of "legislation to protect Canadians who are participating in the public discourse from vexatious litigation", such as the complaint brought to the Canadian Human Rights Commission against Maclean's magazine and writer Mark Steyn by the Canadian Islamic Congress in response to a 2006 magazine article titled "The Future Belongs to Islam" which spoke of Islamic domination of Europe and the West verging on a demographic shift.

The Congress's assertion that the article was likely to expose Muslims to hatred and contempt, despite the fact that nothing in the article reflected anything but reality, was rejected by the Rights Commission. The article claimed that Muslims would eventually dominate Western countries, quoting a European imam who is alleged to have remarked that Muslims are reproducing like "mosquitoes". The Commission dismissed the complaint on the basis that "when considered as a whole and in context [the views in the article] are not of an extreme nature, as defined by the Supreme Court".

The vexatious nature of the complaint and the threat behind it that the Islamic community through its representatives would not tolerate any comments relating to its unwillingness to assimilate into the culture and accept the values of the countries absorbing migrants, and the threats arising out of Islamic theology and the incitement to jihad in the Koran, along with the disaffection of many Muslim youth, resentful and complaining of Islamophobia, are not to be broached.

One of the recommendations is for the publication of a "Wanted Terrorist List" of Canadians distinguishing themselves by warranting inclusion in terrorism-recognized incidents causing warrants for their apprehension, is yet another urgent item that requires consideration. But it seems that the single most noted and critically commented upon recommendation is that which calls "for the training and certification of imams in Canada".

The explanation included that some "foreign-trained imams have been spreading extremist religious ideology and messages that are not in keeping with Canadian values", rather understates the problem of infiltration into Canada by recruiters for jihad, informing and instructing interested would-be-jihadis of their strict obligation to respond to the call to jihad and how they may best set about  achieving that goal.

The complaints centre around government inserting itself in a matter of religious faith, interfering in people's freedom to conduct themselves as their faith demands and potentially contesting freedom of religion. If one faith's penchant to persuade its adherents to act in a manner that threatens the well-being of the rest of a society is interpreted as untouchable because it hinges on freedom of religion, Canada has an urgent need to address the fact that one group's perceived entitlement cannot infringe on the security and safety of the majority.

Nowhere, however, is there the suggestion that government undertake to oppress a religious group by unreasonable demands. Under the circumstances as described by the committee, irrespective of the Liberal segment's dissenting opinion, the recommendation is that governments at all levels work in conjunction with the Muslim communities and its religious representatives, despite which the push-back from those sources is shouting 'racism'.

Pointing out that Canadians of Islamic faith are self-radicalizing through impressions and materials sourced through the Internet and made available by jihadists through channels known for their fanatical calls to violence against non-Muslims, simply points out the extent and breadth of the problem for there are a number of fronts which conspire to threaten the security and stability of Canada and its citizens. All of which require attention, and urgently.

Given the fact that Muslims themselves are targets of violence, particularly through the vicious hatred so evident in the sectarian divide with thousands of people in the Middle East threatened and savaged by Islamist extremists for whom no cruelty goes beyond the permissible in performing obeisance to Islamist doctrine, it would seem far more useful for the Muslim community to participate in and become part of a larger effort on the part of all Canadians to deal with this barbarity.

Radical Islam in Europe: No One to Blame But Us by Vijeta Uniyal January 17, 2015 at 5:00 am http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5033/radical-islam-europe Most of all, we failed to extend our hand of solidarity to those brave Muslim men and women who dared to defy the radical elements within their own communities. The Western school systems have brought forth a generation that that, by taking the gifts of these freedoms for granted, has failed to learn how irregular in history they are, that the heavy price that was paid by generations gone by to secure them. Instead of passing on this flame of enlightenment and freedom to the Muslim world, we have undermined it at home. If we fail to stand up for our values, nobody else will. More hearts of Western civilization have been targeted and hit. First, armed gunmen entered the Paris office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last week and killed 12 people, to impose their understanding of Sharia on the French. Then, the German newspaper Hamburger Morgenpost, which had the courage to reprint the cartoons, was firebombed on January 10. Most newspapers in Germany had apparently decided not to risk upsetting Muslim extremists by reprinting anything that might have have distressed them. The Berliner Zeitung, the Hamburger Morgenpost and Der Tagesspiegel were amongst the few exceptions. Firefighters work at the offices of the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper in Hamburg, Germany, which was attacked by arsonists on January 11. (Image source: Tagesschau video screenshot) Assaults such as these, in addition to a list of demands -- from banning Christmas decorations to putting people on trial, if not murdering them, for exercising their freedom of speech -- lead one to wonder what further demands might be rolling down the pike, how many, and at what point, if any, are they meant to stop? These "prophets of death" come with a clear message intended for all of us: This will be the fate of those who refuse to submit to medieval Sharia dictates. If the general coverage in the mainstream media is any indication, they have already succeeded in landing our compliance. And it wasn't very difficult. The news coverage on U.S. and European television networks began with a familiar discussion: commentators were not sure about the motives of the perpetrators. But today's politically correct newsrooms seem unequipped to report these events even if they happen to trip over them. The voices on television told us one thing was for sure: that Islam had nothing to do with it. If one were hoping for moral clarity or courage in the print media in Europe, one was mistaken again. The Western press fiddled with the French phrase and the hashtag "Je suis Charlie," but often lacked the courage to show Charlie Hebdo's cartoons as a mark of solidarity with the French magazine. For a cowardly press that often abridges what was really said and fails to stand up for the fundamental freedoms -- along with politicians and a society that refuse to demand anything in return -- we in Europe have no one to blame but ourselves. For too long we have celebrated the erosion of our Western values, by calling it "multiculturalism." Our politicians, intellectuals and academics seem to prefer indulging in "social romanticism" than questioning the exploding parallel legal and social norms that are emerging in immigrant Muslim communities. Our politicians courted the radical clergy and lent their ears to their perceived grievances. Our politicians legitimized these persons -- who often turn out to be extremists posing as moderates -- as the sole representatives of all Muslim immigrants. Most of all, we failed to extend our hand of solidarity to those brave Muslim men and women who dared to defy the radical elements within their own communities. Freedom of speech and freedom of inquiry have been central to the rise of Western civilisation, bringing with them values -- such as freedom of (and from) religion, governance at the consent of the governed, and equal justice under law -- unparalleled in the human history. Instead of passing on this flame of enlightenment and freedom to the Muslim world, we have undermined it at home. The Western school systems have brought forth a generation that, by taking these gifts for granted, has failed to learn how irregular in history they are, and the heavy price that was paid by generations gone by to secure them. For years, established political parties and the mainstream media have done everything to undermine a genuine debate on the rising threat of militant Islamism in midst of European societies -- and even today continue to do so. Where our political mainstream has failed us, far-left, far-right and neo-Nazi groups have been quick to materialize. We have been squandering away the freedom the allied forces secured on the continent at the end of the Second World War at a huge human cost. If we fail to stand up for our values, nobody else will. If we wish to safeguard them, we should start by admitting what seems obvious: as Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, put it: "The international jihadist movement has declared war." Our decision in the West is whether we wish to defend this freedom, or whether we wish to submit to rising Islamist intimidation even more. Vijeta Uniyal, born in India and based in Germany, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

Salehi’s Arak “deal” – cover-up for 1,300 kg enriched uranium smuggled to Parchin for secret upgrade

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 20, 2014, 11:02 AM (IDT)

Tags:  Iran nuclear,  uranium enrichment,  Parchin,  centrifuges,  nuclear negotiations,  IAEA inspections,

Secret Parchin nuclear site closed to inspectors

Tehran’s trickery and tactics of misdirection were on full show Saturday, April 19, when Iran’s Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi offered “to redesign” the controversial Arak reactor so that it produces one-fifth of the plutonium initially planned and his claim that this concession had “virtually resolved” Iran’s controversy with the West. But the giveaway was his mock-innocent comment: “We still don’t know why they [nuclear watchdog inspectors] want to visit Parchin for a third time…” 

 

debkafile: For three years, Tehran has denied monitors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to this military facility to investigate suspected nuclear explosive tests.

Of deepest concern, say debkafile’s intelligence and military sources, is the way the Obama administration and European Union members are ready to be taken in by Tehran’s deceptions in their ongoing negotiations for a comprehensive nuclear accord. They dispose of one issue after another and stay willfully blind to the true ramifications of their concessions to Iran and its program’s clandestine military dimensions. 

In its latest report, the Vienna-based IAEA disclosed Thursday, April 17, that, after reducing stocks, Iran was left with “substantially less of the 20-percent enriched uranium than it would need for a nuclear warhead.”

On the face of it, therefore, the immediate danger of Iran stockpiling enough enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb is over and a sigh of relief should now follow US Secretary of State John Kerry’s warning to a Senate committee a week ago that Iran had enough enriched uranium to start building a bomb within two months.

That being the case, the military option for curtailing the Iranian nuclear threat should be set aside and the six world powers and Tehran can resume their negotiations on May 5 for putting the final touches on a comprehensive accord for finally putting their nuclear controversy to rest.  

But only on the face of it: This scenario ignores Tehran’s duplicity and conveniently passes over the sudden spurt in Iran’s production of low, 5-percent grade enriched uranium and the covert smuggling of the surfeit to the Parchin military facility near Tehran for its secret upgrade to 20 percent, a level which can be rapidly enriched to weapons grade.

So with one hand, Tehran has reduced its low-grade enriched uranium stocks, but with the other, has smuggled a sizable quantity of those stocks for further enrichment to a facility barred to nuclear watchdog inspectors.

debkafile’s intelligence sources reveal that 1,300 kilos of low-grade material has been transferred to Parchin and 1,630 advanced centrifuges have been installed there for rapid upgrade work.

Whenever the IAEA applied for permission to inspect the facility in the past three years, it was fobbed off with the pretext that Parchin was strictly a military base which did not host any nuclear activity. It therefore did not qualify for international inspection.

Ali Salehi continued the pretence Saturday when he remarked with mock puzzlement: “We still don’t know why they want to visit Parchin for the third time despite two visits to the site [earlier}. They say they have some information [about the site] and we have told them to pass the information to us to make sure about its validity, which they have refused to do so far.”

Well, debkafile is now putting the information out for the benefit of the nuclear watchdog. With yet another layer of duplicity stripped from Iran’s nuclear program, it is hoped that the six world powers will sit up and take notice before they face Iran’s nuclear negotiators for another round of talks in two weeks’ time.

Al-Qaeda-linked New Terrorists, DAESH, in Gaza Strip

by Khaled Abu Toameh
February 14, 2014 at 5:00 am

"This group is much more dangerous and radical than Hamas." — Palestinian journalist, Gaza City
Palestinians are worried that DAESH terrorists will perpetrate atrocities against those who oppose their ideology and activities.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas need to take into consideration the possibility that Palestinian unity on the pre-1967 lines would pave the way for DAESH terrorists to move into the West Bank.

It's official: Al-Qaeda has begun operating in the Gaza Strip.

A video posted on YouTube this week showed terrorists belonging to the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, known colloquially by its Arabic acronym, DAESH, announcing plans to wage jihad [holy war] against the "infidels, traitors and Crusaders."

This is the first time that a group linked to Al-Qaeda announces its presence in the Gaza Strip.

Members of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DAESH] in Gaza. (Image source: DAESH YouTube video)

The announcement is seen as a challenge to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which has been in control of the Gaza Strip since July 2007.

Palestinian Authority security officials in Ramallah expressed fear that the Al-Qaeda-affiliated group would try to establish terrorist cells also in the West Bank.

The video features 10 heavily-armed masked terrorists declaring allegiance to DAESH, whose men are responsible for most of the atrocities in Syria and Iraq over the past few years.

In the video, a spokesman for the group announces that in addition to Syria and Iraq, DAESH now has "lions and armies in the environs of Jerusalem."

The spokesman says that the group's goal is to restore the dignity of Muslims who have been "humiliated" by their enemies. He urges Muslims to rally behind his group and support its members in their jihad against the enemies of Islam and "Arab tyrants."

Palestinians have reacted with panic to the emergence of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated group in the Gaza Strip.

According to reports from the Gaza Strip, Palestinians are worried that the DAESH terrorists will perpetrate atrocities against those who oppose their ideology and activities.

"This group is much more dangerous and radical than Hamas," said a Palestinian journalist from Gaza City. "The presence of Al-Qaeda in the Gaza Strip is bad news not only for Hamas, but for all Palestinians. Palestinians see the crimes and massacres perpetrated by Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria and fear that they could be repeated in the West Bank and Gaza Strip."

Hamas leaders, for their part, have reacted with skepticism to the announcement by DAESH, describing it as another attempt to "distort" Hamas's image and "resistance."

Salah Bardaweel, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, said that the Gaza Strip was a "small area with no room for Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups."

Hamas has not hesitated in the past to confront tiny jihadi groups whose members had openly challenged its rule. Like DAESH, these groups believe that Hamas is too "moderate" and is no longer committed to the "armed struggle" against Israel.

In one of the deadliest confrontations, Hamas security forces killed and arrested a number of jihadi terrorists who found shelter in a mosque in the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. At least 28 jihadi terrorists were killed and 120 wounded during the 2009 raid on members of a group called Jund Allah [Soldiers of God].

It now remains to be seen whether Hamas will be able to crush the new Al-Qaeda-affiliated group, whose members are also operating in the neighboring Sinai Peninsula.

Those who are talking about "reuniting" the Gaza Strip and the West Bank can no longer ignore the presence of the Al-Qaeda terrorists on the streets of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas continues to talk about the need for Palestinian unity to pave the way for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Last week, he even dispatched a senior Fatah delegation to the Gaza Strip to discuss ways of ending the dispute between his party and Hamas.

Now that Al-Qaeda has begun operating in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas needs to consider the possibility that Palestinian unity would pave the way for the DAESH terrorists to move into the West Bank – an outcome U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his team need to take into consideration when they talk about the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem on the pre-1967 lines.

 

Seven loopholes favoring a nuclear Iran in deal signed by the world powers

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis November 24, 2013, 4:51 PM (IDT)

Tags:  Geneva,  negotiations,  Iran nuclear,  Barack Obama,  Binyamin Netanyahu,  John Kerry,  Hassan Rouhani,  dirty bomb,

Iran has hundreds of these WMDs

The first preliminary nuclear deal the six world powers (US, Russia, China, UK, France and Germany) signed with Iran before dawn Sunday, Nov. 24, at the end of a four-day marathon, failed to address the most questionable aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, i.e. its clandestine military dimensions. The accord confined itself to aspects of uranium enrichment and stockpiles. UN inspections were expanded – but not applied, for instance, to Iran’s concealed nuclear sites - or even the Parchin military base where Iran is suspected of having tested nuclear-related explosions. 

 

Israel, the Gulf States and others are therefore highly dubious of the deal’s capacity for freezing Iran’s nuclear program where it stands today, least of all roll it back, as President Barack Obama claimed.
debkafile’s intelligence and military sources list seven of the most glaring loopholes in the first-step accord:

1. Parchin: This long-suspected facility remains out of UN oversight. President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry boasted after the signing that daily IAEA inspections will take place at Fordo and Natanz. However, cameras are already fixed at both those facilities without an agreement, whereas Tehran’s consistent denial of IAEA access to Parchin is not addressed.

2. Secret nuclear locations:  Under the heading "Possible Military Dimensions," the last IAEA report noted: "Since 2002, the Agency has become increasingly concerned about the possible existence in Iran of undisclosed nuclear related organizations, including activities related to the development of a payload for a missile.”
The watchdog has received information indicating activities "relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device." This was further corroborated by new information obtained since November 2011.
Tehran’s non-cooperation for investigating these findings is not mentioned in the Geneva interim accord, nor was it addressed in the negotiations.

3. Dirty bombs: Iran doesn’t need a full-scale nuclear bomb or missile warhead for attacking Israel. For decades, Tehran has been working on perfecting hundreds of dirty bombs as part of its nuclear program, by adding plutonium or enriched uranium to conventional bombs. These weapons are easy to make and easy to use. In the hands of Hizballah or other Shiite terrorist organizations in Syria or Iraq, for instance, they could be used to strike Israel without leaving a trail to Tehran.
This peril too was ignored by the six powers in Geneva.

4. Rollback. While President Obama has presented the deal as a first step toward freezing or even rolling back “key aspects” of Iran’s nuclear program. The fact remains that, so long as Iran is permitted to enrich uranium, even though this is restricted to a low 5 percent grade, it is free to produce as much fissile material as it wants, whenever it wants. This seems more like roll forward than roll back.

5. Enrichment. Obama and Kerry said the new deal does not recognize Iran’s right to enrich uranium. They were contradicted by the Iranian president and senior negotiator as well as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. So what is the truth? If Iran won recognition for this right, it blows the bottom out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty because, in no time, all the signatories may start enriching uranium with permission from the big powers. Neither is there any point in making Iran join the NPT’s Additional Protocol for snap inspections.

6. Centrifuges. Iran has undertaken not to add new centrifuges to its enrichment facilities, according to President Obama, but there is nothing to stop it from keeping up their production. In the six-month interregnum for negotiating a comprehensive nuclear deal, Tehran wins time to turn out enough centrifuges to substantially expand its production of enriched uranium.

9. A leap to breakout:  Far from being static or in freeze, as the Americans claim, Iran is free to step up centrifuge production and boost its stock of 3.5 percent enriched uranium, thereby accumulating enough material to enhance its capacity for producing enough weapons-grade uranium to break through to a nuclear bomb rapidly enough to defy detection by the IAEA or Western intelligence until it is too late.

The first loophole appeared hours after the new accord was signed: 
Iran’s lead negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, announced that his country’s enrichment rights had been recognized in the negotiations, after which Iranian President Hassan Rouhani praised the supreme leader’s guidelines for achieving world power recognition of Tehran's “nuclear rights.”

However, Secretary of State John Kerry in his first appearance after the signing denied this concession had been made. He said: “The first step, let me be clear, does not say that Iran has a right to enrich uranium."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov lined up solidly behind the Iranian version of the accord, confirming world recognition had been extended for Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy, including the right for enrichment.

Out of step with the celebratory mood in Geneva and Washington, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned that the deal would not impede Iran’s capacity to gain a nuclear weapon. He challenged President Obama’s words that the deal was a historic achievement and called it a historic mistake, which would not obligate Israel. Israel, he said stood by its right to self defense against a regime dedicated to its destruction. As prime minister, Netanyahu pledged not to allow Iran to procure a nuclear weapon.

President Obama also announced that key aspects of Iran’s nuclear program will be “rolled back” against limited sanctions relief and the release of deposits (nettng Iran $6-7 billion in revenue.) He said that no new centrifuges would be activated for the enrichment process, work would stop at the Arak heavy water reactor and UN inspections expanded to daily visits at the Natanz and Fordo enrichment plants to ensure that uranium is not enriched above the 5 percent permitted by the accord.
The core sanctions architecture will remain in place, Obama promised, pending a comprehensive solution to be negotiated in the next six months, but no new sanctions would be imposed.

Lavrov summed up the four-day conference by saying: "Considering the whole body of circumstance, there are no losers [in the Geneva deal], all sides are winners” -   a view seriously challenged by Israel, Saudi Arabia and most other Middle East governments.