Mortar Fire From Gaza Met With Israeli Strikes

GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP — 

Israeli aircraft and tanks struck a number of militant targets in the Gaza Strip on Thursday in response to a volley of mortar fire emanating from the Palestinian territory. The spike of violence comes a month after Israel demolished a militant tunnel dug from Gaza.

Later Thursday, a 20-year-old Israeli was stabbed to death in what police said they suspected was a “terror attack.” In an unrelated incident earlier, a Jewish West Bank settler fatally shot a 47-year-old Palestinian villager in a clash that occurred under disputed circumstances.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said three civilians were lightly wounded in one of the Israeli strikes.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the 12 mortar shells launched, which the Israeli military said targeted a military post near where a construction crew was working on “important security infrastructure” along the border. No one was injured on the Israeli side.

Tunnel detonated

The border violence comes a month after Israel detonated a tunnel leading from Gaza into its territory, killing 12 people, among them militants from the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. The tense border has remained mostly quiet since a 2014 Israel-Hamas war. The military said the mortar fire appeared to have come as retaliation for the tunnel incident.

“The (Israeli military) sees this as a severe event and we know exactly who conducted this attack,” said Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus. He said Islamic Jihad was behind the mortars but that Israel held Hamas responsible for any attacks emanating from Gaza.

The military said it attacked six militant sites in response to the mortar fire, belonging to both Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It said train service in southern Israel was briefly halted after the mortar attack.

On the West Bank

In the West Bank incident, the military said a group of some 20 settlers were hiking through the Palestinian village of Qusra, southeast of the city of Nablus, when they were attacked by stone throwers and two were lightly wounded.

One of the settlers then opened fire, striking a stone thrower. The settlers then entrenched themselves in a cave near the village until Israeli forces evacuated them, it said.

The military said medical teams rushed to the scene to try to save the Palestinian.

The Palestinians, however, said that 47-year-old Mahmoud Odeh was shot while working on his land in the northern West Bank village.

Palestinian Authority official Ghassan Daghlas said settlers confronted Odeh and ordered him to move. When he refused, one of them shot him in the chest, Daghlas said.

The military would not say where the shooter was, saying only that the incident was being investigated.

The northern West Bank is an occasional flashpoint between settlers and Palestinians. Several isolated hard-line settlements are in the area, situated near Palestinian villages and Nablus.

On Thursday evening, police said a 20-year-old Israeli man was stabbed to death in the southern city of Arad. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said forces were searching for the suspect who fled the scene.

Wave of violence

Thursday’s casualties became the latest in an intermittent two-year wave of violence.

Since September 2015, Palestinians have killed more than 50 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. Israeli forces have killed more than 260 Palestinians in that time. Israel says most of them were attackers and that others died in clashes with Israeli forces.

The frequency and intensity of attacks has lessened in the past year.

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Officials: Trump Mulls Calling Jerusalem Israel’s Capital

WASHINGTON — 

President Donald Trump is considering recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a highly charged declaration that risks inflaming tensions across the Middle East, officials said Thursday. The announcement would be a way to offset a likely decision delaying his campaign promise to move the U.S. Embassy to the holy city from Tel Aviv.

Trump’s announcement is expected next week and follows months of internal deliberations that grew particularly intense in recent days, according to officials familiar with the talks. They described the president as intent on fulfilling his pledge to move the embassy but also mindful that doing so could set back his aim of forging a long-elusive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, who claim part of Jerusalem as the capital of an eventual state.

The officials, who weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the outlines of Trump’s plan emerged from a meeting of his top national security advisers at the White House on Monday. Trump himself was expected to drop by the meeting for 15 or 20 minutes. He ended up staying for at least an hour and grew increasingly animated during the session, according to two officials briefed on what happened.

Trump is likely to issue a waiver on moving the embassy by Monday, officials said, though they cautioned that the president could always decide otherwise.

The White House also is considering a possible presidential speech or statement on Jerusalem by Wednesday, according to the officials and an outside administration adviser. Another possibility involves Vice President Mike Pence, who is set to travel to Israel in mid-December, making the Jerusalem announcement during his trip, one official said. Pence said Tuesday that Trump is “actively considering when and how” to move the embassy.

The Trump administration insisted the president hasn’t made any decisions on the embassy.

“No decision on this matter has been made yet,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Thursday.

White House spokesman Sarah Sanders on Wednesday called an earlier report saying Trump would order an embassy move as “premature.”

Moving the embassy is a step that could spark widespread protest across the Middle East and undermine an Arab-Israeli peace push led by president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Trump’s campaign season promises won him the support of powerful pro-Israel voices in the Republican Party. But as president, he has faced equally forceful lobbying from close U.S. allies such as King Abdullah II of Jordan, who have impressed on him the dangers in abandoning America’s carefully balanced position on the holy city.

Under U.S. law signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, the U.S. must relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem unless the president waives the requirement on national security grounds, something required every six months. If the waiver isn’t signed and the embassy doesn’t move, the State Department would lose half its funding for its facilities and their security around the world. Republicans have championed embassy security since a 2012 attack on American compounds in Benghazi, Libya.

All presidents since Clinton have issued the waiver, saying Jerusalem’s status is a matter for Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate. Trump signed the waiver at the last deadline in June, but the White House made clear he still intended to move the embassy.

Trump’s approach appears to thread a fine needle, much like he did with the Iran nuclear deal. After vowing to pull out, Trump in October decertified the agreement as no longer serving America’s national interests. But he didn’t announce new sanctions or take any other step to immediately revoke the accord.

Now, as then, he faced significant resistance from his top national security advisers.

At Monday’s White House meeting, Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made the case that moving the embassy in Israel would pose a grave danger to American diplomats and troops stationed in the Middle East and Muslim nations, the U.S. officials said.

King Abdullah II, who met Trump and Tillerson this week in Washington, made the same argument, telling the president and others that any change to the embassy in the absence of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would create unrest and instability throughout the region and drive up anti-American sentiment, according to the officials.

After a lengthy back and forth at the White House meeting, Trump and his inner circle appeared to accept those concerns but insisted that the president had to demonstrate his stated commitment to move the embassy, the officials said. The discussion then turned toward waiving the embassy move for another six months but combining it with recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital, which the Israelis have long sought.

Any change in U.S. position is delicate.

The State Department recently advised American diplomatic posts in predominantly Muslim nations that an announcement about the embassy and Jerusalem’s status is possible next week, and advised them to be vigilant about possible protests, officials said.

Inside the Trump administration, officials said debate now centers on how to make a Jerusalem announcement without affecting Israeli-Palestinian “final status” negotiations. One option under consideration is to include in any such statement a nod to Palestinian aspirations for their capital to be in east Jerusalem.

The U.S. also faces legal constraints. Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital without a peace deal could run afoul of U.N. Security Council resolutions that don’t recognize Israeli sovereignty over the city. Washington has a veto on the council and could block any effort to declare the U.S. in violation, but any such vote risks being an embarrassment and driving a wedge between the United States and many of its closest allies.

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More Than 400 US Marines Leaving Syria

More than 400 U.S. Marines who helped recapture the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State are leaving the country, according to the U.S.-led coalition that is fighting the militant group.

“We’re drawing down combat forces where it makes sense, but still continuing our efforts to help Syrian and Iraqi partners maintain security,” U.S. Brigadier General Jonathan Braga said in a coalition statement.

Working with 'partner forces'

“Our remaining forces will continue to work by, with, and through partner forces to defeat remaining ISIS, prevent a re-emergence of ISIS, and set conditions for international governments and NGOs (Non-governmental organizations) to help local citizens recover from the horrors of ISIS’ short-lived rule,” Braga added, using an alternative name for Islamic State.

The Pentagon has said officially there are 503 troops in Syria but U.S. officials said, as of last week, the number was closer to 2,000.

The Marines and their artillery were deployed to Syria in March, joining an alliance of Kurdish and Arab troops and the Syrian Democratic Forces. They recaptured Raqqa from IS in October after an intense offensive that was bolstered by coalition artillery and aerial attacks.

US troop number unsure

The international coalition continues to provide support in nearby Deir Ezzor province while Syrian government forces, backed by the Russian military, conducts a separate campaign in the same region.

It was not immediately clear how many U.S. troops will remain in Syria. Most are special operations troops that are training and advising local partner forces and providing continued artillery support against IS.

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Tensions Rise in Turkey Over Syrian Refugees

ISTANBUL, TURKEY — 

Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees in the world, and three million of them are Syrians. Most live in towns and cities across the country. But this year, a series of clashes between Turks and Syrians could be a sign that for some Turks, patience is running out.

Earlier this year, Istanbul witnessed unprecedented violence against Syrian refugees after they were blamed for the death of a Turkish youth.

In Istanbul’s Esenler district, which is home to about a half million people, almost one-fifth are Syrian refugees. It is one of the poorest areas of the city. Local elected representatives like Mustafa Guven are on the front line of coping with the strains of a large refugee population. Guven says the recent clashes are a worrying sign.

"The people of the Republic of Turkey are not monsters. They help Syrians as much as they can; they share their bread with them. Those Syrians who don't appreciate this are in the wrong. Of course, we see disputes and conflicts among the youth. But Syrians should be quieter. They are in a foreign country after all – a country that gave them refuge. They should keep a lower profile and be more grateful, but they don't have this sensitivity," said Guven.

In the Ali tea shop, it’s not hard to sense the growing unease among local Turks. Sipping his hot tea, Ozan, a hairdresser, who owns a salon, is quick to vent his frustrations.

"Our patience is running out and our point of view has changed. Over the last five years, a large number of people have migrated here, and their number is constantly growing. Our state has already spent over $30 billion on the Syrians. There is no financial contribution from Europe either," said Ozan.

The Nasim barber shop is popular among Syrians. All but one who work here are from Syria. Esenler has been good to shop owner Mahmoud Al Aian. He arrived from Syria when he was 19. Five years later, he has three businesses: a barber shop, a restaurant, and a clothing company. Al Aian is keen to play down tensions.

Al Aian said, "The Turks won’t come to attack Syrians. I mean we haven’t seen anything like this where we are. No such things happen here. If anything happens, you call the police of the Turkish government and they immediately come and solve it."

Turkish authorities appear to be increasingly concerned about the tensions. In some areas of Istanbul, as in other parts of the country, signs in Arabic touting businesses belonging to Syrians have been removed in a bid to lower their profile. The move comes as the Turkish media continue to devote a great deal of coverage to issues involving Syrian refugees. A recent study found that Syrians are the main targets of hate speech, second only to Jewish people, in the Turkish media.

Professor Ahmet Icduygu, an expert on migration and refugees at Istanbul’s Koc University, says Turkey is facing a growing problem over the presence of the refugees.

"There is a kind of tension growing in Turkey and there’s already debate, like in other Western countries, that they are taking our jobs, they are getting privileges such as, for instance, Syrian students can go directly to university, etc. I think we can hear more and more events of unfortunate kinds of attacks on the migrants, some tensions growing, increasing discrimination, xenophobia increasing, those kinds of things," Icduygu said.

Opposition parties are set to make the government’s Syria refugee policy a key issue in the months ahead.

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UN: Hundreds in Syria's Ghouta Die for Lack of Medical Aid

GENEVA — 

A senior U.N. official warns many of the hundreds of critically wounded and ill people trapped in the besieged Syrian area of East Ghouta, a suburb of the capital, Damascus, could die without urgent medical treatment.

U.N. Special Envoy Jan Egeland said the United Nations has been waiting for two months for the Syrian government to give the green light to an emergency medical evacuation from East Ghouta. Over that time, he said the list of serious cases requiring urgent treatment has grown to 500.

“Not a single one of these have we been able to evacuate over those two months. Not a single one," he said. "So, men with power are sitting with lists of children that are in urgent need of being evacuated. If not, they will, many of them die and we still do not have the green light.”

About 440,000 civilians are trapped in East Ghouta, which has been under siege by the government of Bashar al-Assad since 2013. The rebel-held territory is just 15 kilometers from Damascus, where Egeland said hospitals are ready to receive patients.

“Hospitals that could be actually within 45 minutes-drive from where the wounded children are dying," he said. "These hospitals have the beds, the doctors — everything available. We are not able to do it. It is heartbreaking. It is intolerable. It will be a stain on our conscience for a very, very long time unless it can happen very soon.”

Egeland said nine patients on the critical list already have died, and those most in need of emergency medical care are women and children.

The U.N. envoy is appealing to the United States, Russia and other big power players to put pressure on the Syrian government to allow the U.N. life-saving medical operation to go ahead.

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OPEC Agrees Oil Cut Extension to End of 2018

VIENNA — 

OPEC agreed on Thursday to extend oil output cuts until the end of 2018 as it tries to finish clearing a global glut of crude while signalling it could exit the deal earlier if the market overheats.

Non-OPEC Russia, which this year reduced production significantly with OPEC for the first time, has been pushing for a clear message on how to exit the cuts so the market doesn't flip into a deficit too soon, prices don't rally too fast and rival U.S. shale firms don't boost output further.

The producers' current deal, under which they are cutting supply by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in an effort to boost oil prices, expires in March.

Two OPEC delegates told Reuters the group had agreed to extend the cuts by nine months until the end of 2018, as largely anticipated by the market.

OPEC also decided to cap the output of Nigeria at around 1.8 million bpd but had yet to agree a cap for Libya. Both countries have been previously exempt from cuts due to unrest and lower-than-normal production.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has yet to meet with non-OPEC producers led by Russia, with the meeting scheduled to begin after 1500 GMT.

Before the earlier, OPEC-only meeting started at the group's headquarters in Vienna on Thursday, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said it was premature to talk about exiting the cuts at least for a couple of quarters and added that the group would examine progress at its next meeting in June.

"When we get to an exit, we are going to do it very gradually... to make sure we don't shock the market," he said.

The Iraqi, Iranian and Angolan oil ministers also said a review of the deal was possible in June in case the market became too tight.

International benchmark Brent crude rose more than 1 percent on Thursday to trade near $64 per barrel.

Capping Nigeria, Libya

With oil prices rising above $60, Russia has expressed concerns that such an extension could prompt a spike in crude production in the United States, which is not participating in the deal.

Russia needs much lower oil prices to balance its budget than OPEC's leader Saudi Arabia, which is preparing a stock market listing for national energy champion Aramco next year and would hence benefit from pricier crude.

"Prices will be well supported in December with a large global stock draw. The market could surprise to the upside with even $70 per barrel for Brent not out of the question if there is an unexpected interruption in supply," said Gary Ross, a veteran OPEC watcher and founder of Pira consultancy.

The production cuts have been in place since the start of 2017 and helped halve an excess of global oil stocks although those remain at 140 million barrels above the five-year average, according to OPEC.

Russia has signaled it wants to understand better how producers will exit from the cuts as it needs to provide guidance to its private and state energy companies.

"It is important... to work out a strategy which we will follow from April 2018," Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday.

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More Than Half the World’s Population Lacks Social Protection

GENEVA — 

The International Labor Organization says a majority of the world’s population, four billion people, have no social protection, leaving them mired in an endless cycle of poverty.

The report says 45 percent of the global population is covered by at least one social benefit. But that leaves 55 percent without any social protection, a situation ILO Director General Guy Ryder calls unacceptable.

"That means that they do not receive any child benefit, any maternity benefit, any unemployment protection, any disability benefit, any old age pension and that they do not actively contribute to social security systems," Ryder said.

The consequences are severe and tangible. The report finds the lack of social protection leaves people vulnerable to illness, poverty, inequality and social exclusion. The ILO regards the situation as a significant obstacle to economic growth and social development.

Ryder tells VOA governments would benefit from considering social protection as an investment in their populations.

“Social protection is a human right and we should be pursuing it because it is a human right," Ryder said. "But, also, I think there is a great deal of evidence to demonstrate that when social protection systems are in place and where they function well and one can think of the whole cycle of protection from kids right through to old age, then you reap economic benefits from it.”

The report says the lack of social protection is most acute in Africa, Asia, and the Arab States. It recommends those regions increase their public expenditure to at least guarantee basic social security coverage to all their people.

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Lebanese PM Decries Hezbollah's Involvement in Region's Wars

BEIRUT — 

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said in remarks published Thursday that he fears Hezbollah's military role in regional conflicts will end up costing his country dearly.

But Hariri also stressed he was optimistic that a way to end the political paralysis gripping Lebanon following his Nov. 4 resignation is being worked out.

It is unclear what, if any, concessions Hezbollah would offer to ensure that Hariri remain in office, though Hezbollah officials have said they are keen on finding a political solution to the crisis.

Hariri said his resignation was meant to let the world know that Lebanon cannot tolerate the militant Hezbollah group's meddling in the affairs of Gulf countries — a reference to Yemen, where the kingdom is fighting Shiite rebels. Hezbollah, an Iran ally, denies having a military role in warn-torn Yemen though it openly fights on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad in Syria's civil war. Saudi Arabia backs the opposition trying to unseat Assad.

Hariri spoke to the French magazine Paris Match. He is currently on a private visit to Paris and expected back in Beirut next week, according to his office.

"I wanted the world to understand that Lebanon can no longer tolerate the interferences of a party like Hezbollah in the affairs of the Gulf countries, where 300,000 Lebanese live," Hariri said. "We must not pay for the actions of Hezbollah."

He hinted that there were no plans to discuss the disarming of Hezbollah, saying the militant group has not used its weapons on Lebanese soil.

Hariri's resignation, announced while he was in Riyadh, stunned the Lebanese and raised suspicions that it was orchestrated by Saudi Arabia, his main backer. He later returned to Lebanon on Nov. 21 and put the resignation on hold to allow for consultations.

In a tweet late Wednesday, Hariri said matters are moving "positively" and predicted that he may formally rescind his resignation next week.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting proxy wars in the Mideast. Hariri has demanded that Hezbollah remove itself from the conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Days before Hariri's return to Beirut, Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah said his fighters are returning from Iraq now that the Islamic State group has been defeated there. On a visit to Italy, Lebanese President Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa that Hezbollah's fighters would return to Lebanon once the fight against IS is over.

In Syria, Hariri said the victory went to Russia and Iran, who had backed Assad. But to truly end the conflict in Syria, Assad "has to leave," Hariri said. "The problem in Syria is Bashar Assad."

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US-led Coalition Says Its Airstrikes Have Killed 801 in Syria, Iraq

The U.S.-led coalition targeting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq said Thursday its airstrikes have killed 801 civilians since late 2014.

The figures came in the coalition's latest monthly statement about its investigations into reports of possible civilian casualties resulting from the strikes.

In October, the coalition says it investigated 64 such reports, of which five were deemed credible and resulted in 15 deaths. Another 695 reports were still open.

"We continue to hold ourselves accountable for actions that may have caused unintentional injury or death to civilians," the statement said. "We take all reports of civilian casualties seriously and assess all reports as thoroughly as possible."

Outside groups say the bombing campaign that began in August 2014 in Iraq and a month later in Syria has killed far more civilians than the coalition has reported.

Watchdog group Airwars estimates that as of the end of October the coalition airstrikes killed at least 5,961 civilians, and that the number could top 9,000. Its figures include at least 1,504 deaths in Iraq and 3,487 in Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in late October it had documented 2,910 civilian deaths that resulted from coalition airstrikes in Syria.

The pace of airstrikes increased after U.S. President Donald Trump took office in late January. In December, according to coalition data, there were an average of about 16 airstrikes per day combined in Iraq and Syria. That number jumped to 25 per day in January and reached a peak of more than 50 strikes per day in August and September.

Those increases came along with supporting major operations to retake control of areas from Islamic State fighters, including Mosul in Iraq and the group's de facto capital in Raqqa, Syria.

Since the fall of Raqqa in mid-October, the number of strikes has plummeted, and November has seen one of the lowest number of strikes in the entire campaign.

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France's Macron to Give Saudi Arabia Extremist List

PARIS — 

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday he would draw up a list of extremist organizations to convey to Saudi Arabia after its crown prince pledged to cut their funding.

Saudi Arabia finances groups overseen by the Mecca-based Muslim World League, which for decades was charged with spreading the strict Wahhabi school of Islam around the world.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is seeking to modernize the kingdom and cleave to a more open and tolerant interpretation of Islam.

“He never did it publicly, but when I went to Riyadh (this month), he made a commitment, such that we could give him a list and he would cut the financing,” Macron said during an interview with France 24 television.

“I believe him, but I will follow up. Trust is built on results,” Macron added.

The crown prince has already taken some steps to loosen Saudi Arabia's ultra-strict social restrictions, scaling back the role of religious morality police, permitting public concerts and announcing plans to allow women to drive next year.

The head of the Muslim World League told Reuters last week that his focus now was aimed at annihilating extremist ideology.

“We must wipe out this extremist thinking through the work we do. We need to annihilate religious severity and extremism which is the entry point to terrorism,” Mohammed al-Issa said in an interview.

Macron, speaking from Abidjan, said he had also sought commitments to cut financing of extremist groups from Qatar, Iran and Turkey.

The French leader will make a quick trip to Doha on Dec. 7, where he will discuss regional ties and could sign military and transport deals, including the sale of 12 more Rafale fighter jets.

Qatar has improved its ties with Iran since Saudi Arabia and other Arab states boycotted it over alleged ties to Islamist groups and its relations with Tehran.

Macron said he still intended to travel to Iran next year, but wanted to ensure there was a discussion and strategic accord over its ballistic missile program and its destabilization activities in several regional countries.

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Turkish Businessman Describes $50M Bribe at Sanctions Trial

NEW YORK — 

A Turkish-Iranian gold trader testified at a New York trial Wednesday that he paid over $50 million in bribes to Turkey's finance minister in 2012 to overcome a banker's fears he was too well-known in Turkey to launder Iranian money in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Reza Zarrab calmly described his arrangement with one of Turkey's most important public officials as he began what will be several days on the witness stand at the trial of Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla, who is charged in a conspiracy that involved bribes and kickbacks to high-level officials.

In a conversation about shady transactions involving suitcases stuffed with gold, the finance minister, Zafer Caglayan, "asked about the profit margin," Zarrab testified. "And he said, 'I can broker this.' "

Zarrab's decision to plead guilty and cooperate with U.S. investigators — revealed Tuesday on the trial's first day — was a surprise twist in the trial. The prosecution seemed in jeopardy just months earlier after Zarrab tried to free himself by hiring prominent and politically connected American attorneys to try to arrange a prisoner transfer between Turkey and the United States. The effort by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey failed.

Prisoner's outfit

The government's star witness appeared before jurors Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan wearing tan prisoner scrubs, even though he testified he was released from jail two weeks ago and into FBI custody. At the end of the day with the jury gone, the judge asked Zarrab why he was wearing the outfit, telling prosecutors he would sign an order allowing him to wear civilian clothes if he wanted.

Once Zarrab, 34, was on the stand, prosecutors wasted no time in getting him to name names and muddy reputations in the banking industry and in government.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sidhardha Kamaraju elicited details of what the United States has said was a well-orchestrated conspiracy to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran and enable $1 billion in Iranian oil proceeds to move through international banking markets.

Zarrab said he ran into resistance from a Halkbank executive when he approached the Turkish government-owned bank in late 2011 or early 2012 to try to gain access to Iranian money through trades in gold. The executive, he said, feared that Zarrab's marriage to Turkish pop star and TV personality Ebru Gundes made him "too popular" to make the trades.

"I was a person who was in the public eye all of the time," he said.

Undeterred, Zarrab said he met with Caglayan, who was finance minister when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was prime minister. Caglayan told him he would smooth the way for gold trades, but only if he got half the profits, which he said ended up totaling more than $50 million.

Diagrams drawn

At one point, Zarrab drew diagrams for the jury to illustrate the elaborate web of transactions used to beat the economic sanctions and make him a fortune as the middleman.

The tactics included using Iranian proceeds from gas and oil sales to Turkey to buy gold, having couriers carry the gold in suitcases to Dubai, converting it back into cash that was deposited in a front company account, and laundering the money with multiple bank transfers, including some through the United States.

Zarrab testified that the sanction-evasion scheme was done in consultation with Atilla, a 47-year-old former deputy CEO of Halkbank who has pleaded not guilty. A lawyer for Atilla attacked Zarrab's credibility Tuesday during opening statements, saying the trial is about Zarrab's crimes.

Caglayan is indicted in the U.S. case. The indictment describes his alleged role in the gold-transfer scheme and in another scheme in which he and other Turkish government officials supposedly approved of and directed the movement of Iranian oil proceeds by claiming they were connected to the sale of food and medicine to Iran from Dubai.

Erdogan has called on American authorities to "review" the decision to indict Caglayan, saying the former minister had not engaged in any wrongdoing because Turkey had not imposed sanctions on Iran, an important trade partner.

The prosecution of Zarrab has been major news in Turkey, where Erdogan has repeatedly asked the U.S. to release him and more recently portrayed the U.S. case as a sham.

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Palestinian Rivals Delay Full Gaza Handover by 10 Days

GAZA — 

Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas agreed Wednesday to delay final transfer of power of the Gaza Strip from Hamas to the Western-backed Palestinian government by 10 days to Dec. 10 to allow time to "complete arrangements," officials said.

The factions signed a reconciliation deal brokered by Egypt last month after Hamas agreed to hand over administrative control of Gaza, including the key Rafah border crossing, a decade after seizing the enclave in a civil war.

The deal bridges a bitter gulf between the Western-backed mainstream Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas, an Islamist movement designated as a terrorist group by Western countries and Israel.

The agreement states that Hamas, which has disbanded its administration, would complete the handover by December 1, but disputes over the transfer process have emerged in recent days and Cairo has sent a senior security delegation to the territory to try to resolve the deadlock.

In a brief joint statement, Fatah and Hamas said they had asked Egypt to delay the timetable from Dec. 1 so that they could "complete the arrangements to successfully conclude reconciliation steps to which the Palestinian people aspire."

Completion will also strengthen Abbas' standing at any potential resumption of the stalled peacemaking process with Israel, analysts say.

It was initially unclear whether the deadline extension would prevent the 40,000-50,000 Hamas-hired employees being paid their November salaries on time.

Hamas has demanded that Abbas lift sanctions he has imposed on Gaza, such as slashing salaries of Palestinian Authority-hired public servants and limiting electricity imported from Israel for Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority has demanded that it must have full control of Gaza in order to be able to discharge its administrative powers there and failure to pay the salaries could endanger further reconciliation steps.

Earlier on Wednesday, tension between the two factions rose when Hamas refused to allow Palestinian Authority employees to return to their jobs at three ministries as instructed by the government.

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Ex-Egypt Premier Says He'll Run in 2018 Presidential Vote

CAIRO — 

A former Egyptian prime minister living in the United Arab Emirates says he will return to his country to contest the 2018 presidential elections.

Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force general who briefly headed a government after longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a 2011 uprising, says in a video posted to YouTube Wednesday that he was “honored” to present himself for the next four-year term.

Shafiq lost by a narrow margin to the Islamist Mohammed Morsi in Egypt's first free election in 2012. He then fled the country and has since dodged several corruption allegations.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has yet to formally declare his candidacy, although he won the last election by an overwhelming majority in a vote independent observers said did not meet international standards for a free election. Another candidate, a rights lawyer, says he intends to run but has alleged harassment by the authorities.

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Algeria's Independent Press Fears for Its Survival

ALGIERS — 

Stifled by the internet and 24-hour news channels as well as political pressures, Algeria's independent press born only 25 years ago is struggling in a crisis that has already killed off dozens of titles.

Algeria's "democratic spring" that followed widespread protests in October 1988 put an end to a quarter century of single party rule and a state monopoly of the media, with independent newspapers emerging on the scene.

Some of them have built up large circulations and are still going, such as the Arabic-language Echorouk and El-Khabar and French-language papers El-Watan, Liberte and Le Soir d'Algerie.

But since 2014, 26 dailies and 34 weeklies have vanished, Communications Minister Djamel Kaouane said last month.

The sales figures of the remaining 140 daily and weekly papers have slumped, and total circulation of the dailies has declined by 40 to 60 percent in the past five years, according to a study by Algiers University professor Redouane Boudjemaa.

For El-Khabar, as a leading example, circulation ran as high as 1.2 million in 2000 and has since plunged to the current figure of around 200,000 a day, said a former chief of the daily, Ali Djeri.

Boudjemaa said the launch of high-speed internet access in Algeria since 2014 has sparked an explosion in smartphone and tablet computer sales, while "the number of readers of the printed press has crumbled."

Newspapers have failed to adapt to their readership jumping ship to the free contents of online media, he said.

As for lifeline advertising, the lion's share has migrated to the rising number of private television channels, especially those offering round-the-clock news.

The government has promised to unblock next year a six-million-euro ($7 million) rescue fund for "financially troubled" media that has been frozen since the start of the decade because of disputes between management and journalists.

However, rights and press freedom activists accuse the authorities of putting an economic squeeze on papers through institutional ads that the communications ministry says account for 20 percent of the advertising sector.

Advertising a political 'tool'

"Public" advertising for administrative and state-run companies is managed by ANEP, an agency which critics say is used as a tool to reward or sanction newspapers according to political criteria.

Hadda Hazem, director of El-Fadjr newspaper, staged a weeklong hunger strike this month in protest at her newspaper being "asphyxiated" and deprived of advertising following critical remarks about President Abdelaziz Bouteflika she had made on French television.

Several other publications have complained of similar treatment and called for the end to the state agency's monopoly over institutional advertising.

El-Watan director Omar Belhouchet said private companies have also come under pressure over their advertising allocations because their businesses often depend on maintaining good relations with the authorities.

"Since the presidential election of 2014, the paper's private advertising revenues have fallen by 60 percent," Belhouchet, who opposed a fourth term for Bouteflika, told AFP.

His paper's circulation has fallen to 90,000 from more than 160,000 in 2012, and it has had to hike its cover price by 50 percent in the past three years because of the decline in advertising revenues.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which ranks Algeria 134rd out of 180 countries on its press freedom index, charged in June that the North African country used "harassment" and "threats" to pressure journalists.

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Turkey’s Love Affair with Saudi Arabia On the Rocks

ISTANBUL — 

A deal signed by Turkish and Iranian ministers Sunday to enhance efforts to break Saudi Arabian trade sanctions against Qatar, is only the latest move by Ankara against Riyadh. The two once close allies are increasingly finding themselves on opposing sides in the region.

“There is this fear [by Turkey] an axis is developing between Saudi Arabia, [the United States], and Israel in the region definitely,” said Haldun Solmazturk, head of 21st Century Turkey Institute, an Ankara based research organization.

Saudi Arabia's increasingly tough stance against Iran has been matched by Turkey's increasing cooperation with Iran.

Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the frequency of meetings with his Russian and Iranian counterparts to cooperate over Syria would increase.

Tougher Saudi policy

Turkey’s gravitation towards Iran is in part a reaction to Saudi Arabia’s more assertive foreign policy under Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

“Prince Salman has more aspiration in the region, even to cooperate with Israel and Egypt,” notes international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle Eastern Technical University, "This alliance supported by America is automatically against Turkish policy in the Middle East, Turkey is excluded, Turkey is isolated in the Middle East.”

The Saudi’s assertive new policy is a personal blow to the Turkish president. Erdogan’s roots are in political Islam and he has devoted much of his 15 years in power to deepening relations with Riyadh, “President Erdogan was the most closest one [Turkish leader] to Saudi Arabia’s ideology, this is why he is considered an Islamist prime minister and president and now with Saudi Arabia’s growing influence in the region we see how disappointed Erdogan is, he bet on the wrong horse,” Bagci claims.

Bagci an international relations professor who has informally advised Erdogan on foreign affairs, says the Turkish president’s disappointment is exacerbated by the unprecedented lengths he went to court the Saudis.

“When the King of Saudi Arabia visited Turkey, Erdogan and the then Turkish President Abdullah Gul, visited the king [at his hotel] and this was one the mistakes of foreign policy and this one [of the] biggest concessions ever to Saudi Arabia,” Bagci says. Erdogan was strongly condemned by opposition parties for ignoring traditional diplomatic protocol where by a visiting head of state goes to the country’s leader's residence.

Morsi's ouster

The start of the unraveling in Saudi Turkish relations, analysts claim, can be traced back to the ousting of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.

“It goes back to the coup in Egypt,” says political columnist Semih Idiz of Al Monitor website, “Islamists in Turkey discovering the land of Wahhabism fundamentalism is behind a secular coup in Egypt and they can't make sense of it and had to attack it.”

Erdogan, a close ally of Morsi, was in the forefront of condemning the coup. He continues to uses the four finger sign of Rabbia, used by Morsi supporters as a gesture of solitary.

Ankara not only blamed Riyadh for the coup, but also what was perceived as the tacit support of Washington. According to Idiz, the suspicion the two countries are increasingly seeking to shape the region, was exacerbated by the Crown Prince Salman declaration of seeking to adopt a “moderate Islamic” approach to his country and the region.

“In Turkey the notion of moderate islam is a trip wire [alarm sign] ever since former Secretary of State Colin Powell referred to Turkey as a moderate Islamic republic. This idea of moderate Islam as an American inspired project to control the region has very much taken hold in Ankara,” notes Idiz.

“Islam cannot be either ‘moderate’ or ‘not moderate.’ Islam can only be one thing,” Erdogan said earlier this month. “Recently the concept of ‘moderate Islam’ has received attention. But the patent of this concept originated in the West,” he added.

Economic cost

But the price for Ankara’s falling out with Riyadh is likely not to be cheap. Turkey was richly rewarded for a decade of unprecedented close ties with the kingdom, with it becoming a major investor in the Turkish economy. The latest official figures placed Saudis as first among foreign buyers of Turkish residences.

Saudi Arabia was seen by Erdogan as a key player in his efforts dilute the economic dependence on European investment. Analysts warn such plans will need to be reassessed, “Substantial foreign direct investment from Saudi Arabia is not going to happen, it's an illusion,” warns political consultant Atilla Yesilada, of the New York based Global Source Partners.

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Iran Provides Refuge to Families of Shi'ite Afghan Fighters Killed in Syria

HERAT, AFGHANISTAN — 

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she held up the pictures of her two grandsons. Both of them, Sayed Mujtaba and Sayed Ismail, were in the Afghan army a couple of years ago. When the Islamic State started gaining ground in Syria, Iran used its religious influence with Shi’ites in neighboring countries, like Afghanistan, to get volunteer fighters.

Mujtaba and Ismail were two of the many who answered the call. Then last year, Qamar Bibi received news that they had died fighting. One of them left a young wife and a little child behind.

“Since 2013, Iran has supported and trained thousands of Afghans…to fight in Syria,” according to a report by the Human Rights Watch that came out in October this year.

They even have their own unit, a group that an Iranian newspaper close to the government, Kayhan, described as “the Fatemiyoun Brigade for Defense of the Holy Shrines, made up of devout Afghan Muslims.” Some reports suggest the unit has since been elevated to a division.

Tasnim News Agency, an Iranian government affiliated news agency, also described the Fatemiyoun as “an all-Afghan unit.”

According to a recent report by the New York Times, members of the Fatemiyoun division “wear a shoulder patch recounting words of praise from Iran’s supreme leader as a badge of honor.”

Recently, Afghanistan’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, stirred controversy when, during a trip to Tehran, he praised fighters, including Afghans, who participated in the war in Syria against the IS. This was the first time a senior level Afghan official had acknowledged that Iran enlisted Afghans, possibly thousands of them, for participation in the Syrian conflict.

Mohaqiq also reportedly praised Major General Qasim Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp’s international Quds force. The Iranian general is supposed to be one of the founders of the Fatemiyoun Division.

Many of the recruits for the unit came from the more than two million Afghan refugees that have been living in Iran for decades. However, others, like Mujtaba and Ismail, left from Shi’ite dominated areas of Afghanistan.

While the Afghan foreign ministry maintains that it is investigating reports of Iran sending Afghans to fight in Syria or Iraq, an influential warlord and former governor of Herat province, Ismail Khan, believed it was common knowledge in his region.

“Many families have brought back bodies of those killed in Syria and held their funerals here. It has been frequently reported in local media. An Iranian leader even had a meeting with the families who lost men in the Syrian war,” Khan said.

The Afghans going to fight often went willingly. According to Bibi, her grandsons were so eager to go, they left despite their family’s opposition.

“Their parents, all of us, we begged them not to go, but they said they were going to defend our holy sites. They left secretly, first to Iran and from there to Syria and called us from there to tell us they were there,” she said.

The two Shi’ite Afghans fought in Syria for two years. Their funeral was held in the Iranian city Mashhad. Bibi said the graveyard, called Bahisht-e-Raza, was large and full of graves of people who died in Syria.

The government of Iran paid for the funeral and arranged for their father to visit Karbala in Iraq, one of Shi’ite Islam’s holiest sites. Bibi did not know if their family has received any other help, but they still live in Iran.

In Shi’ite-dominated Heart province, where Iran’s cultural influence could be seen all around, locals said recruitment for the war in Syria was done openly. Shi’ite clerics in the region often used their pulpits to encourage locals to join the fight in Syria, in order to defend their holy sites against groups like the Islamic State.

However, with the IS in Afghanistan claiming several large scale attacks against the Shi’ites, and trained Shi’ite fighters returning home, the possibility of a sectarian conflict in the country could not be ruled out.

“There was always talk about that; the commander would say that one day you will go defend in your own country,” one of the returning Afghan fighters told the New York Times.

Additionally, the war in Syria is winding down, and tensions between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran are increasing internationally. Afghan officials worry the returning Afghan fighters could also become proxies in a battle between the two regional rivals.

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Iran Provides Refuge to Families of Shi'ite Afghan Fighters Killed in Syria

When the Islamic State gained ground in Syria, Iran used its religious influence with Shiites in neighboring countries, like Afghanistan, to get volunteer fighters. Now that the war in Syria seems to be winding down, and tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia are heating up, Afghan officials wonder if their country could become a victim of a proxy war between the regional rivals. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem reports.

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Egypt President Gives Forces 3 Months to Calm Restive Sinai

CAIRO — 

Just days after the worst terrorist attack in Egypt's modern history, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Wednesday gave his security forces a three-month deadline to restore "security and stability" in the troubled northern Sinai, the epicenter of an increasingly brutal militant insurgency.

In a televised ceremony marking the birthday of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, el-Sissi authorized his new chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Farid Hegazy, to use "all brute force" against the militants.

Hegazy, appointed last month, rose up from his front-row seat and stood in rigid attention as el-Sissi, a general-turned-president, addressed him.

"I am mandating Maj. Gen. Mohammed Farid Hegazy before you and the entire people of Egypt to restore security and stability in Sinai," said el-Sissi. "With God's benevolence and your efforts and sacrifices, you and the police will restore security and use all brute force, all brute force."

This is the second time since Friday's horrific massacre in a sleepy Sinai village that el-Sissi ordered the use of "brute force" against the militants. It was not immediately clear what the use of such force would entail, but it suggested a scorched earth tactic that many of the president's loyalists in the media have been calling for.

Friday's attack on a mosque in the northern Sinai village of al-Rawdah was the deadliest assault by Islamic extremists in Egypt's modern history. Among the 305 dead were 27 children; another 128 people were wounded.

The so-called Islamic State group hasn't yet claimed responsibility for the mosque attack but the over two dozen gunmen who unleashed explosives and gunfire to mow down the worshippers during Friday prayers carried the black banner of the IS militant group. The mosque belonged to followers of Islam's mystical Sufi movement, considered by IS to be heretics. Militants have in the past targeted them in Sinai as well as elsewhere, like in Iraq.

El-Sissi has frequently said that Islamic militants have benefited from the care his security forces routinely take to ensure that civilians are not caught in the cross-fire. But rights groups and Sinai activists have in the past spoken of civilians enduring collective punishment, usually in the aftermath of major attacks, and of hardships resulting from military operations, including lengthy power, water and phone outages.

Giving his security forces a three-month deadline to quieten Sinai may turn out to be a risky gamble by el-Sissi, who is widely expected to seek a second, four-year term in office in elections due in less than six months. Failure in Sinai would dent the president's standing as the general who won office in a 2014 election mostly on promises of restoring security.

However, only state-owned Egyptian media with unquestionable loyalty to the government are allowed to travel to northern Sinai, leaving authorities in near-total control of the narrative on how the war there is going.

Against the backdrop of such restrictions, an absence or a continuation of attacks by militants during the next three months and after that would likely be the best indicator of the situation.

Egypt's military and police have for years been waging a tough and costly campaign against militants in the towns, villages and desert mountains of northern Sinai. In the past year, militants have bombed churches in the capital of Cairo and other cities, killing dozens of Christians.

A local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group now spearheads the insurgency. It is believed to have been behind the October 2015 downing of a Russian passenger jet that killed all 224 people on board, decimating the country's vital tourism sector.

The insurgency has gathered steam and on occasion spread to the mainland following the ouster in 2013 by the military, then led by el-Sissi, of Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist president whose one year in office proved divisive. Also, a series of recent attacks in Egypt's vast Western Desert suggests the opening of a new front. Authorities believe attacks there are carried out by militants based and trained in neighboring Libya.

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Egyptian Diva, Golden Epoch Actress, Singer Shadia, Dies at 86

Shadia, an Egyptian actress and singer who captivated millions for decades, has died. She was 86.

Born Fatimah Shaker but known throughout her career by her single stage name, Shadia suffered a stroke this month and later went into a coma. She died late on Tuesday.

Shadia has more than a 100 films to her name and hundreds of singles in a career that stretches back to the late 1940s.

Her film roles ranged from those depicting country girls, career women, to comical portrayals of emotionally disturbed women and hopeless romantics.

Her iconic songs have defined the entertainment scene for decades, mostly with hit singles in Egypt's distinctive vernacular Arabic.

Shadia lived in almost total seclusion after she retired more than two decades ago.

Her funeral is due later Wednesday.

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Syrian Government Expected to Join Geneva Peace Talks

Syrian government negotiators are expected Wednesday in Geneva to join U.N.-led peace talks aimed at ending nearly seven years of fighting.

The talks began Tuesday with U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura meeting with the opposition delegation. He said afterward the two sides would have a chance for direct negotiations in Geneva.

"We are going to offer it. We will see if this takes place. But we will be offering that," he said.

Syria's state-run SANA news agency said the delayed arrival for the government delegation was due to the opposition's demand that President Bashar al-Assad step down as part of any political transition.

That issue has lingered as a sticking point in years of U.N. attempts to get the government and rebels to agree on a roadmap for Syria's future.

De Mistura said ahead of the talks he believes it is possible for the two sides to narrow their differences as they negotiate under a framework approved by the U.N. Security Council that calls for a new constitution and elections. But he reiterated his mediation team will not accept either side entering the talks with preconditions.

"This crisis, one of the worst in the history of the United Nations, now has the potential to move towards a genuine political process," the envoy said. "We see the emergence of international consensus, and we must begin to stitch the process into concrete results, enabling Syrians to determine their own future freely."

University of New South Wales senior lecturer Anthony Billingsley says with the gains the Syrian military has made with the backing of Russia and Iran, rebel hopes of toppling Assad are not realistic at this point.

"Everybody apart from some of the opposition groups, and perhaps the U.S., has accepted that Assad need not necessarily go. So there’s a fundamental problem there if the Geneva talks are going to make any progress," Billingsley told VOA.

The Syrian government, meanwhile, agreed Tuesday to a cease-fire in rebel-held rebel-controlled Eastern Ghouta, according to de Mistura.

Eastern Ghouta, located east of Damascus, is among the last remaining opposition strongholds in Syria and one of four "de-escalation zones" that were established to reduce violence.

The fighting in Syria began in 2011 with peaceful protests against Assad and a government crackdown, eventually leading to a multi-party conflict that has left more than 400,000 people dead and 13 million in need of humanitarian aid.

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Official: Senior Saudi Prince Freed in $1B Settlement Agreement

DUBAI — 

Senior Saudi Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, once seen as a leading contender to the throne, was freed after reaching an "acceptable settlement agreement" with authorities paying more than $1 billion, a Saudi official said on Wednesday.

Miteb, 65, son of the late King Abdullah and former head of the elite National Guard, was among dozens of royal family members, ministers and senior officials who were rounded up in a graft inquiry partly aimed at strengthening the power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The official, who is involved in the anti-corruption campaign, said Miteb was released on Tuesday after reaching "an acceptable settlement agreement". The amount of the settlement was not disclosed but the official said it is believed to be the equivalent of more than $1 billion.

"It is understood that the settlement included admitting corruption involving known cases," the official said.

According to a Saudi official, Prince Miteb was accused of embezzlement, hiring ghost employees and awarding contracts to his own firms including a $10 billion deal for walkie talkies and bulletproof military gear worth billions of Saudi riyals.

The allegations against the others included kickbacks, inflating government contracts, extortion and bribery.

The claims could not be independently verified.

Saudi authorities had been working on striking agreements with some of those in detention, asking them to hand over assets and cash in return for their freedom.

News of the purge emerged on Nov. 4 soon after King Salman decreed the creation of an anti-corruption committee led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his 32-year-old favorite son, also known as MbS, who has amassed power since his meteoric rise three years ago.

The new body was given broad powers to investigate cases, issue arrest warrants and travel restrictions, and seize assets.

In an interview with the New York Times published last week, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was quoted as saying that the vast majority of about 200 businessmen and officials implicated in the crackdown were agreeing to settlements under which they would hand assets over to the government.

Apart from Miteb, the Saudi official said that at least three other people allegedly involved in corruption cases have also finalized settlement agreements.

He said the Public Prosecutor had also decided to release a number of individuals and to prosecute at least 5 individuals.

The official gave no details on their identities.

Detailed charges not revealed

The authorities have not revealed detailed charges against any of the detainees. It was also unclear if Miteb was able to move freely or whether he would be put under house arrest.

Officials from Miteb's office could not immediately be reached for a comment about his release. An acquaintance of the family has said earlier on his twitter account that Miteb was receiving brothers and sons at his palace in Riyadh.

The arrest of royals and top business elite capped a frenetic almost three years of growing power by MbS. It was seen as another pre-emptive step by the crown prince to remove powerful figures as he exerts control over the world's leading oil exporter.

The roundup recalled the meticulously planned palace coup in June through which MbS ousted his elder cousin, Mohammed bin Nayef, as heir to the throne, interior minister and veteran head of the kingdom's formidable security apparatus.

In September, he rounded up and jailed religious and intellectual opponents.

This month's purge was another carefully planned swoop on 11 princes, four serving ministers, dozens of former ministers and officials, and tycoons including the kingdom's best-known businessman, Prince Alwaleeed bin Talal, who owns high-profile stakes in global companies like Citigroup and Twitter.

They were held at the five-star Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh.

Yet many observers believe the primary target of the purge was Prince Miteb, overlord of Saudi Arabia's 100,000-strong National Guard, as he represented the last great power center left standing after the toppling of former Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.

By launching a war on corruption MbS combined a popular cause with the elimination of perhaps the last obstacles between him and the throne.

As the Sandhurst-trained preferred son of the late King Abdullah, Miteb was once thought to be a leading contender to the throne.

Before he was sacked by a royal decree on Nov. 4, he headed the Saudi National Guard, a pivotal power base rooted in the kingdom's tribes that was run by his father for five decades.

He was also the last remaining member of Abdullah's Shammar branch of the family to retain a key position at the top of the Saudi power structure, after brothers Mishaal and Turki were relieved of their posts as governors in 2015.

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Libyan Convicted of Terrorism, Acquitted of Murder in Benghazi Attack

A federal jury in Washington on Tuesday convicted a Libyan man of terrorism in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, but acquitted him of the most serious charge, murder.

The 2012 attack killed four people, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

U.S. commandos captured Ahmed Abu Khattala in 2014 and brought him to the United States for interrogation and trial.

His attorneys argued the evidence against him was shaky. They also said questioning him about the attack before advising him of his rights under U.S. law was illegal.

While prosecutors convinced the jury that Khattala led the militant group that attacked the consulate, they failed to prove he was directly responsible for the deaths of Stevens and the others.

But Khattala will still most likely spend decades in federal prison after he is sentenced.

Another suspect, Mustafa al-Imam, was captured last month and also faces trial.

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Pence: Trump 'Actively Considering' Relocating US Embassy to Jerusalem

U.S. President Donald Trump is “actively considering” ways to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday.

Pence’s comments were received with great enthusiasm at an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the United Nations vote that led to the creation of the State of Israel.

As a presidential candidate, Trump had repeatedly promised to move the embassy, a decision that would be welcomed by Israel but fiercely opposed by the Palestinians.

In June, Trump backed off the pledge as his Mideast envoy sought to reinvigorate peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The White House said at the time that the president was only delaying — not abandoning — his campaign pledge to relocate the embassy.

The move would violate a longstanding U.S. policy, which maintains that Jerusalem should remain on neutral ground until the city’s status is determined during peace talks. Such a move is likely to ignite violence as Palestinians would view it as a threat to their hopes of having a part of Jerusalem as their future capital.

But, the Trump administration is facing a deadline within days on whether to move the embassy, and Pence's comments suggest the administration may be closer to agreeing to a key Israeli wish.

“While, for the past 20 years, Congress and successive administrations have expressed a willingness to move our embassy, as we speak, President Donald Trump is actively considering when and how to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” Pence said.

The vice president is traveling to Israel next month and noted that he would deliver an address at the Knesset and visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial during his visit.

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France Calls for Sanctions Against Human Traffickers in Libya

UNITED NATIONS — 

The plight of migrants in Libya was the focal point of a U.N. Security Council meeting Tuesday after CNN aired shocking footage of African migrants apparently being sold as slaves in that country.

The envoys called for the prosecution and the possible imposition of sanctions on human traffickers and their networks.

The footage that aired last week, in which young men from Niger and other sub-Saharan countries were shown being auctioned off as farm workers for about $400, sparked international outrage, including protests in Europe and Africa.

Libya’s U.N. envoy, Elmahdi Elmajerbi, said the government was investigating the CNN video, but he questioned its authenticity and said his country was the victim of "a large-scale false media campaign of defamation" trying to portray Libya as a racist country.

French U.N. Ambassador François Delattre, whose government called for the council meeting, said victims were subjected to horrific human rights violations including rape, torture and arbitrary detention.

Such practices "are not merely intolerable from the moral standpoint, they also constitute crimes against humanity, and they must not, they cannot, be left unpunished,” he said through an interpreter.

The U.N. envoy recommended that the council impose targeted sanctions against individuals implicated in human trafficking and suggested that perpetrators could be referred to the International Criminal Court for prosecution.

Several council members also urged measures to address the root causes of forced migration, especially poverty, and they called for opening new legal pathways for migrants.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said 17,000 migrants were in detention in Libya and many more were being held by smugglers and traffickers protected by militia groups. He said the United Nations had secured the release of about 1,000 asylum seekers and refugees this year.

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Turkish Iranian Gold Trader Pleads Guilty, Cooperates with Prosecutors

WASHINGTON — 

Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab has pleaded guilty to unspecified charges in connection with an Iran sanctions busting scheme and is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors, officials said on Tuesday.

“I can confirm that the defendant has pleaded guilty,” said Nick Biase, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Zarrab was arrested last year and charged with conducting hundreds of millions of dollars of business transactions on behalf of the Iranian government and other Iranian entities between 2010 and 2015.

Eights others, including a former Turkish economy minister, Mehmet Zafer Caglayan, and a former deputy general manager of Halkbank, one of Turkey's largest banks, Mehmet Atilla, have been indicted in the case.

All but Atilla remain at large. Atilla’s trial started on Monday with jury selection.

Zarrab has agreed to testify at Atilla's trial as part of his guilty plea. Biase said Zarrab’s testimony could come as early as Tuesday.

Zarrab was released from a federal detention facility to an undisclosed location on November 8, sparking speculation he was cooperating with prosecutors in exchange for leniency.

The case has become a flashpoint in increasingly strained relations between the U.S. and Turkey. Turkish officials have called the case politically motivated and demanded Zarrab's release.

Zarrab is alleged to have close ties to the governments of Turkey and Iran.

Sentencing has not been scheduled.

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Egyptian Journalist Wins Nelson Mandela Innovation Award

CAIRO — 

An Egyptian rights campaigner has won the Nelson Mandela award for individual activism for 2017, a South African organization announced on Monday.

Khaled el-Balshy, a former board member of Egypt’s Journalists’ Union, will receive the Individual Activist award of the Nelson Mandela - Graca Machel Innovation Awards on Dec. 7 in Fiji’s capital Suva, the Johannesburg-based organization, Civicus, said in a posting on its website.

El-Balshy, it said, has sought every available platform to shine a light on violations by the Egyptian government and share these with the world.

“He has boldly and relentlessly pursued the cause of free speech, despite facing personal judicial and online harassment,” it said.

The organization, which operates in 145 countries around the world, began granting the awards named after Nelson Mandela and his wife Graça Machel in 2005, for those “who have demonstrated remarkable courage and commitment in the pursuit of social change.”

El-Balshy said the award is a step to shed light on the public freedom and the freedom of expression in Egypt.

“It is a message to all jailed journalists who are paying a price for doing their jobs; a message that even they are behind the bars, their voices can be heard all over the world,” he told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

El-Balshy was handed a one-year, suspended sentence in March, along with the former head of the Union and another board member, over charges of “harboring fugitives” — a reference to two journalists, Amr Badr and Mahmoud el-Saka, arrested in a police raid in 2016 on the journalists’ union headquarters in Cairo. The two had sought shelter there from government charges over their reporting on two controversial Red Sea islands that Egypt handed over to Saudi Arabia.

El-Balshy remains in Egypt.

Journalists have been regularly detained, jailed, and prosecuted in Egypt under the rule of general -turned-president Abdel Fatah el-Sissi, who led the 2013 military overthrow of Egypt's first freely elected civilian President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The country was ranked 161 out of 180 countries in the 2017 Press Freedom Index, according to the annual ranking of Reporters Without Borders, a freedom of expression advocacy group.

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Prison-themed Restaurant in Egypt Draws in Curious Diners

MANSOURA, EGYPT — 

A prison-themed restaurant in Egypt? It might seem distasteful in a country where thousands of people, mostly Islamists but also secular pro-democracy activists, are languishing in jail on what right groups say are trumped-up charges.

Yet, the restaurant in the coastal city of Mansoura called “Food Crime” is doing good business because of its novelty, according to patrons. Props like handcuffs, inmate number plaques, a prisoners’ cage and even an electric chair are served up as welcome selfie-fodder.

“It’s a catchy idea and I did not want to do something that is traditional,” said the restaurant’s owner, Waleed Naeem, 37. “Our prices are competitive — our most expensive sandwich on the menu is just 15 pounds (84 U.S. cents).”

Naeem is irked by anyone who tries to link the restaurant’s theme to the large-scale crackdown on dissent since the military ousted an Islamist president in 2013.

“The people of Mansoura really like this restaurant and think it’s a great idea. But others are making a huge deal out of this on social media,” said Naeem, who has refused to give media interviews to news outlets that want him to speak about what his eatery symbolizes.

“My restaurant is not political,” said Naeem, who maintains that the idea of Food Crime was inspired by similar establishments in South Korea, China and Italy. “I don’t think it has anything to do with real prisons and those inside them.”

The restaurant’s unusual decor attracts many in Mansoura, like Yasmeen Khouly.

“The idea is crazy, but it’s all about trying something new and seeing what’s out there, she said after eating there with a friend.

“Obviously seeing handcuffs and an electric chair is strange.”

Engineer Ahmed Atef, however, said the environment reminded him of his days in the army, and “the prisons I used to see when I served.”

The motif has even drawn in policemen like Amr El Gohary, who said he was impressed by features of the “amazing decor,” like the handcuffs and a metal cage that allowed him to engage in some role reversal.

“Obviously it made me love this place. The experience of eating in the cage was interesting because being a policeman, I’m the one who puts people in handcuffs and prisons.”

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Syria, Russia Step Up Air Strikes Ahead of Renewed Peace Talks in Geneva

Talks between the Syrian government and opposition forces aimed at bringing an end to the six-year war resume Tuesday in Geneva. Nearly half a million people have been killed since the President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on an uprising during the 2011 Arab Spring. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, several regional and global powers have intervened in the conflict – and it is they who will likely drive the terms of any peace deal.

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Libyans Take to the Trenches for Paintball

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There’s a new sporting arena in Libya’s coastal city of Misrata. It’s full of trenches and hiding spots so armed competitors have places to duck for cover when the shooting begins. Arash Arabasadi reports. Read More Libyans Take to the Trenches for Paintball : http://ift.tt/2AaWXPo

Migrating Birds Winter in Israel as Climate Change Makes Desert Too Dangerous

AGAMON HULA, ISRAEL — 

Climate change is turning Israel into a permanent wintering ground for some of the 500 million migrating birds that used to stop over briefly before flying on to the warm plains of Africa, Israeli experts say.

The birds now prefer to stay longer in cooler areas rather than cross into Africa, where encroaching deserts and frequent droughts have made food more scarce.

“In the last few decades Israel has become more than just a short stopover because many more birds and a greater number of species can no longer cross the desert,” said ornithologist Shay Agmon, avian coordinator for the wetlands park of Agamon Hula in northern Israel.

“They will stay here for longer and eventually the whole pattern of migration will change,” he said.

Cranes are one of the most abundant species to visit the Hula wetlands and Agmon said that the number that prefer to stay in Israel until the end of March has risen from less than 1,000 in the 1950s to some 45,000 currently.

Although migrating birds are a welcome attraction for ornithologists and tourists, their hunger for food from crop fields makes them a menace to farmers.

Workers at the lush Hula reserve, which lies in the Syrian-African Rift Valley, have lured the birds from surrounding fields by feeding them at the wetlands site and offering them a far more comfortable existence.

“It's harder for the birds to cross a much larger desert and they just cannot do it. There is not enough fuel, there are not enough ‘gas stations’ on the way, so Israel has became their biggest ‘gas station,’ their biggest restaurant,” Agmon said.

Yossi Leshem, a zoology professor at Tel Aviv University and bird expert, cautioned that changes in migration patterns were also affecting the global food cycle because birds eat insects and also protect crops.

“If birds are not present, farmers will have to use more pesticides, which costs more money, kills birds, damages soil and contaminates the water. If one part of the environment is affected, the others collapse in a domino effect,” Leshem said.

Agmon said that because fewer species will be able to survive in traditional wintering grounds and more will spend winter further north, permanent human intervention will become ever more important in assisting nature.

“We will have to deal with it all the time. We will be in charge of the health and wellness of every species around us,” he said.

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Hariri Says Hezbollah Must Remain Neutral to Ensure Lebanon Moves Forward

PARIS — 

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said on Monday that the political and militant group Hezbollah must stop interfering in regional conflicts and accept a neutral policy to bring an end to Lebanon's political crisis.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which forms part of the Lebanese government, is fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and in Iraq against Islamic State militants.

Gulf monarchies have accused the Shi'ite group of also supporting the Houthi group in Yemen and of backing militants in Bahrain. Hezbollah denies any activity in Yemen or Bahrain.

Hariri’s main patron is Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main regional rival, which has also intervened in regional conflicts.

“I don’t want a political party in my government that interferes in Arab countries against other Arab countries,” Hariri said in an interview recorded on Monday with French broadcaster CNews.

“I am waiting for the neutrality which we agreed on in the government,” he said. “One can’t say one thing and do something else.”

Hariri shocked Lebanon on Nov. 4 by resigning from his post in a statement from Saudi Arabia. His resignation, however, has not yet been accepted.

President Michel Aoun held talks on Monday with other Lebanese political leaders over the future of Hariri’s government but gave no sign whether they discussed Hariri’s demand that the country steer clear of regional turmoil.

“Lebanon cannot resolve a question like Hezbollah which is in Syria, Iraq, everywhere because of Iran. It is a regional political solution that needs to be done,” Hariri said. “The interference of Iran affects us all. If we want a policy that is good for the region we shouldn't be interfering.”

He said he was ready to stay on as prime minister if Hezbollah accepted to stick by the state policy of staying out of regional conflicts.

However, he said he would resign if Hezbollah did not keep to that, although consultations so far had been positive.

“I think in the interest of Lebanon, Hezbollah is carrying out a positive dialogue. They know we have to remain neutral in the region.”

He said that if this week’s consultations ended positively he would possibly modify the make-up of the government and added that he was open to elections before next year.

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Turkey Demands Trump Honor Purported Pledge to Cut Off Weapons to Kurdish Militia

Turkish officials say they are watching to see whether the United States will honor a promise, which they claim was made by U.S. President Donald Trump to his Turkish counterpart last week, to cut off the supply of arms to Kurdish militias that played a key role in defeating Islamic State militants in Syria.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced the promise at a press conference shortly after the two presidents spoke by telephone Friday.

"Mr. Trump clearly stated that he had given clear instructions, and that the YPG won't be given arms and that this nonsense should have ended a long time ago," the Associated Press quoted Cavusoglu as saying.

However, a White House statement issued after the call with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was more circumspect. It said Trump "also informed President Erdogan of pending adjustments to the military support provided to our partners on the ground in Syria, now that the battle of Raqqa is complete and we are progressing into a stabilization phase to ensure that ISIS cannot return." ISIS is an acronym for Islamic State.

The lack of clarity continued Monday, threatening to exacerbate already serious tensions between the United States and its key NATO ally, or alternatively to undermine the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units or YPG, a U.S. ally which bore the brunt of the fighting to clear IS forces from their self-proclaimed capital in Raqqa, Syria.

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said in a television interview Monday that Turkey needs "to see the concrete reflections of [Trump's] statement on the land. Has the PYD/YPG terror organization been given weapons by the U.S. after the statement was made? Turkey will certainly monitor this pledge."

A day earlier, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu issued a thinly veiled threat: "I am talking to the Western powers who are trying to play games over Turkey. You are going to suffer a historic slap and you will be sorry; you cannot trick Turkey."

White House statements

U.S. officials, however, continued to offer ambiguous statements Monday.

White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to confirm how the U.S. is changing its relationship with rebel forces who have been a partner in the fight against the Islamic State.

"Once we started winning the campaign against ISIS, the plan and part of the process is to always wind down support for certain groups. Now that we're continuing to crush the physical caliphate, … we're in a position to stop providing military equipment to certain groups, but that doesn't mean stopping all support of those individual groups," she said.

"The United States is committed to the defeat of ISIS and other terrorist groups in Syria and to ensuring that they cannot return to liberated areas," said a National Security Council statement. "We have always been clear with Turkey that the weapons provided to the Syrian Democratic Forces, which includes the Kurdish People's Protection Units [YPG], would be limited, mission specific, and provided incrementally to achieve these objectives."

A State Department official said the United States "is reviewing pending adjustments to the military support provided to the SDF in as much as the military requirements of our defeat-ISIS and stabilization efforts will allow to prevent ISIS from returning."

U.S. military officials, meanwhile, appeared to indicate that the YPG is still needed.

"We have always said we would arm the SDF in a limited, metered way," Army Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the counter-ISIS coalition in Iraq and Syria, told VOA.

"There are still areas that have to be cleared in eastern Syria," he said, adding that the U.S. is remaining "open and transparent" with Turkey.

Strained relations

U.S. relations with Turkey have long been strained over U.S. support for the YPG, as well as other issues since a coup attempt against Erdogan in July 2016.

There have been concerns about Turkey's growing ties with Russia and Iran since then, including the possibility that Washington could be cut out of peace talks on Syria and that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime could be allowed to continue its brutal rule.

Erdogan met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani last week to discuss the future of Syria. Both Russia and Iran helped to drive ISIS from areas now controlled by Assad's forces, and they want U.S. forces to leave Syria.

Abdulkareen Sarokhan, president of the administrative council of Jazera, the largest of four cantons in the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria, said he did not believe that the U.S. would not cut off support to all Kurdish fighters, and suggested that Turkey is pitting Washington against Moscow.

"Erdogan's message to U.S. is that if you do not stop your support to Kurdish fighters, Ankara will ally itself with Russia," Sarokhan said. "At the same time, he tells Russians that if they do not accept Ankara's conditions regarding these meetings, Ankara will take the U.S. side in its policies in Syria.

"What is important for us [Kurds] is the fight against terrorism; moreover, we do not believe that U.S. will stop its support to FSA [Free Syrian Forces] because that will create a vacuum space for Islamic militants. Americans know that ISIS has established its bases in Northern Syria. Yet, we do not know how the White House statement 'adjustment of military support' would be implemented."

VOA's Steve Herman, Pete Heinlein, Dorian Jones and Carla Babb contributed to this report, along with VOA Turkish and Kurdish services.

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Suicide Bombers in Iraq Kill at Least 11

Police in Iraq say a suicide bombing at a popular market on the outskirts of the capital, Baghdad, has killed at least 11 people.

Officials say at least 26 others were wounded in the attack, which took place in the Nahrawan shopping area southeast of Baghdad.

A security official said two suicide bombers opened fire on civilians in the market late Monday before blowing themselves up.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on its Amaq channel.

Iraq’s military is conducing its last military operations against the militant group after driving it from territory it has held in western Iraq near the Syrian border.

Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the country will soon declare victory against Islamic State. However, Iraqi security forces say they expect the militants to wage an insurgency following the collapse of their self-proclaimed caliphate.

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Activists: Bahrain Shiite Cleric Under House Arrest Is Ill

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — 

Activists said Monday that a prominent Shiite cleric who has been under house arrest in Bahrain after having his citizenship stripped is seriously ill.

Doctors visited Sheikh Isa Qassim on Sunday at his home in Diraz, a Bahraini town that's been surrounded by police for over a year, they said.

Sheikh Maytham al-Salman, another Shiite cleric, told The Associated Press on Monday the 80-year-old Sheikh Isa "is in constant pain" and requires emergency surgery for a hernia.

Responding to questions from the AP, Fahad al-Binali of Bahrain's Embassy in London said Sheikh Isa received medical attention from a doctor and that his house arrest "has no bearing on his access to health care neither does his citizenship revocation."

However, Sheikh Isa could be deported at any time after authorities stripped his citizenship last June over accusations that he fueled extremism and laundered money. His supporters deny the allegations.

Al-Binali said Sheikh Isa's son declined the offer of an ambulance to take the cleric to a hospital. He also said the police cordon around Diraz remains "unchanged, in response to requests by community leaders ... to increase safety for local residents and ensure public order."

Followers of Sheikh Isa have held a sit-in around his home for months. A raid in May there saw police arrest 286 people in an assault that killed at least five demonstrators and wounded others.

Bahrain, a predominantly Shiite island off the coast of Saudi Arabia, is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. The nation is ruled by the Sunni Al Khalifa family, which continues a crackdown on all dissent, imprisoning or forcing politicians and activists into exile.

Amid the crackdown, local Shiite militant groups have carried out several attacks on security forces.

Independent news gathering there also has grown more difficult, with the government refusing to accredit two AP reporters and others.

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UN Envoy: No Signs Damascus Will Participate in Latest Geneva Talks

President Bashar al-Assad's government has not confirmed its participation in peace talks with the Syrian opposition scheduled for this week in Geneva, the U.N. special envoy for Syria said Monday.

Staffan de Mistura told the U.N. Security Council the Assad government said it would not be sending representatives to Geneva on Monday. But de Mistura held out hope saying, "We know and indeed expect that the government will be on its way shortly, particularly in light of President Assad's commitment to [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin when they met in Sochi."

Putin hosted Assad last week for a meeting, during which Syria's president said he was "ready for dialogue with all those who want to come up with a political settlement".

Russia has bolstered Assad's rule with airstrikes since late 2015 against groups trying to overthrow his regime, with Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters also supporting Damascus.

Tuesday's talks in Geneva will be the eighth on a political settlement in Syria after previous meetings achieved little progress to stop the war that has left at least 400,000 people dead and 13 million Syrians in need of humanitarian aid.

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