Iran FM: We did not agree to dismantle anything
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Wednesday that Iran “did not agree to dismantle anything” in the interim nuclear deal it reached with world powers in November in Geneva.
Zarif said the U.S. statements about the deal, which went into effect this week, were misleading.
“The White House version both underplays the concessions and overplays Iranian commitments,” Zarif told CNN from Davos, where he is attending the World Economic Forum.
“The White House tries to portray it as basically a dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program. … That is the word they use time and again,” he said. “If you find a single, a single word, that even closely resembles dismantling or could be defined as dismantling in the entire text, then I would take back my comment. We are not dismantling any centrifuges, we’re not dismantling any equipment, we’re simply not producing, not enriching over 5 percent.”
In response, an Obama administration official told CNN that Zarif’s statements were “spin” for “domestic political purposes.”
*
Palestinians arrested over weapons cache in Hebron
(JNS.org) Two Palestinian residents of Hebron were arrested Wednesday evening in a joint operation by the Israel Defense Forces, the Border Police, and the Israel Police, on suspicion of storing illegal weapons caches in their home, Israel Hayom reported.
One of the suspects is in his 20s, while the other is in his 40s. Among the weapons found by the security forces was an Uzi sub-machine gun, an M-16 assault rifle, a carbine rifle, hand guns, an assortment of some 8,000 bullets, dozens of spare M-16 rifle barrels, and two spare sights for attachable grenade launchers.
According to security officials, the confiscated weapons are believed to have been earmarked for terrorist attacks.
*
Samaria resident’s photographs show Arabs faking ‘price tag’ attacks
(JNS.org) A Samaria resident has reportedly documented that Arabs in the area have been damaging local property and then reporting it to Israeli authorities as “price tag” attacks carried out by right-wing Jews. The 27-year-old anonymous Israeli activist documented such incidents with the help of IS, a legal and security consulting firm. Recently, the Samaria resident had photographed a group of Arabs who were chopping down dozens of olive trees.
“This is not pruning carried out after the harvest, in which smaller branches are cut off,” said the Samaria resident, identified as “K” by Israel National News. “They chopped down the trees at the trunk.”
The Samaria resident had been arrested on suspicion of carrying out a price tag attack. According to Ari Kaniel, director of IS, the Arabs “take the wood for use as firewood and then run to the press and say that the settlers carried out a price tag attack… We were sure that they would do this, and in fact, K went back to the same spot this morning and found that they had written ‘price tag’ in yellow paint on an olive tree and on a rock.”
“The photographs show that the Israel Police have been persecuting K unjustifiably for a long time, while in actuality, it was the Arabs who framed him,” said attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir of Honenu, an NGO assisting Jews accused of nationalist crimes. .
*
Planned Holocaust monument angers Hungarian Jewish groups
(JNS.org) The Hungarian government is planning to erect a statue memorializing the country’s 1944 Nazi occupation. Hungarian Jewish critics view the memorial as an effort by the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban to diminish Hungarian responsibility for the deportations of Jews that were assisted by Hungarian authorities. This year is the 70th anniversary of the deportations of more than 430,000 Hungarian Jews to Nazi concentration camps.
The planned monument will portray Germany’s imperial eagle swooping down on the archangel Gabriel, a symbol for Hungary. But after Germany invaded Hungary, Hungarian officers had assisted the Nazis in deporting Jews. The Budapest-based Mazsihisz, a major Jewish group in Hungary, has threatened to boycott this year’s Holocaust commemorations in Hungary due to this monument.
“There’s only one thing that doesn’t fit into the many ways one can commemorate the Holocaust… if someone lies about it or tries to distort it,” Mazsihisz President Andras Heisler said, Bloomberg News reported.
Hungarian authorities, however, denied that they do not acknowledge Hungarian responsibility for Jewish deportations. “We know we are responsible for the Holocaust and we also know that Hungarian state institutions were responsible for the Holocaust… Hungarians were the perpetrators and Hungarians were those who suffered. Hungarians did the shooting and Hungarians died,” Hungarian Justice Minister Tibor Navracsics said in the country’s parliament, according to the Associated Press.
*
Al-Qaeda-linked cell in Jerusalem nabbed by Israeli security forces
(JNS.org) Three terrorists who were part of an al-Qaeda-linked cell in eastern Jerusalem were recently arrested by Israeli security forces, which uncovered the terrorists’ plots to carry out large-scale terror attacks throughout Israel.
According to the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security force, the intended targets included the Jerusalem Convention Center, a bus line traveling between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, and the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.
The Shin Bet said that the three eastern Jerusalem suspects were recruited by an al-Qaeda operative in Gaza named Ariv al-Sham, who was possibly under direct orders from Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri to carry out the attacks.
Al-Sham used Skype and Facebook to recruit the three suspects—Ayad Abu-Sara, Rubin Abu-Najma, and Ala Anam. The Shin Bet said that Abu-Sara had plotted with Al-Sham to recruit additional foreign terrorists to carry out a truck and suicide bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Convention Center simultaneously. Abu-Sara also said during integration that he planned to attack a bus and gun down passengers and first responders at close range.
Abu-Sara had also planned to travel to Syria for jihadi training. The other suspects confessed to plots to carry out additional terror attacks as well.
*
Preceding provided by JNS.org