Flag of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in Donetsk EPA/PHOTOMIG
New flag of the latest self-proclaimed republic, the Donetsk Republic. The process of Nation fragmentation, works both ways. Even though this corrosive virus was set into motion by the opportunists in Washington, it is still very dangerous to Obama’s allies. The plague referred to as “Balkanization” threatens all nations, both the guilty and the innocent.
A group of eight Israeli Jews were arrested on Monday while attempting to ascend the Temple Mount and sacrifice a goat there in fulfillment of the biblical instructions regarding the Passover holiday.
Several organizations associated with the group told Israel National News that the arrests were yet another indication of the total lack of religious freedom for Jews atop the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site.
That same Temple Mount again exploded in violence on Wednesday morning when Muslim mobs assaulted police and Jewish visitors.
[SEE: When the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban Unite]
ISLAMABAD: The latest call by the ameer of the Afghan Taliban Mullah Mohammad Omar to the Pakistani Taliban to end their infighting in South Waziristan is actually aimed at securing their support against foreign troops in Afghanistan to launch the annual spring offensive with full force which is about to begin with the end of the winter season.
As bloody clashes intensify between two major factions of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan led by Khalid Mehsud alias Said Khan Sajna and Sheharyar Mehsud alias Shahbaz to capture the command of the Taliban in South Waziristan, Mullah Omar has appealed to the militants in a pamphlet [written in Pashto and distributed in the Miramshah area of North Waziristan on April 14] to work out their differences and end their internal strife.
It is for the first time that such a pamphlet has been distributed in Pakistan on behalf of Mullah Omar who is the supreme leader of both the Afghan and the Pakistani Taliban.
The pamphlet states that all the Muslims and particularly the Mujahideen are informed about the serious differences and clashes between two Mehsud Mujahideen groups. Mentioning verses from the Holy Quran, Mullah Omar has been quoted in the pamphlet as asking the people to recite it 100 times a day so that the hostilities between the warring militant groups of Mehsud tribe could come to an end.
According to well-informed diplomatic circles in Islamabad, the ameer of the Afghan Taliban’s call to the Pakistani Taliban for a truce between the two key warring factions has confirmed earlier reports that Mullah Omar had used his influence to persuade the TTP ameer Mullah Fazlullah for initiating peace talks with the Pakistan government primarily to prevent a Pakistani military action in Waziristan before the withdrawal of the US-led Allied Forces from
Afghanistan. The ameer of the Afghan Taliban was of the view that instead of wasting their energies in battling with Pakistan Army, the Taliban on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border should prepare themselves for a decisive battle in Afghanistan after the American withdrawal for the revival of the Taliban Emirates of Afghanistan.
Mullah Omar had been influencing the Pakistani Taliban in the past as well by using his influence with TTP leadership to help broker numerous peace deals with the Taliban in the tribal belt. The authority of Mullah Omar, who has been in hiding ever since the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001, extends beyond the Pak-Afghan border as the Pakistani Taliban also recognize him as their supreme leader, being their Ameerul Momineen, just like the Afghan Taliban. Therefore, Mullah Omar’s anguish over TTP’s infighting is but natural which has forced him to ask the Pakistani Taliban to end their infighting in South Waziristan. The TTP leadership also realises the fact that the current infighting was weakening their position with every passing day at a time when they are holding talks with the Pakistan government being the representative of the Pakistani Taliban.
Diplomatic circles in Islamabad believe that the TTP’s ongoing talks with the PML-N government were a tactical ploy to ensure a short-term truce which would be used to whole-heartedly support the Afghan Taliban in their upcoming spring offensive against the US-led allied forces stationed in Afghanistan. A spring offensive is launched every year by the Afghan Taliban after the winter season is over. In fact, due to harsh weather conditions, the Taliban slowdown their military activities and resume it as the spring approaches and the weather conditions improve. As yet another spring approaches, another offensive is being planned. But the Afghan Taliban believe that unlike in the previous spring offensives since they were booted out of power from Afghanistan, they are better placed than before, especially when the US-led coalition forces are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014.
The Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, led by Mullah Omar, are still a strong force and are openly mocking the Nato and Isaf troops by saying that they are fleeing their country in disgrace and humiliation. To recall, the TTP had struck a clandestine peace deal with the Pakistani establishment in January 2013, before the start of the spring offensive that year, as per which the Taliban had agreed that they won’t attack the Pakistani security forces in the Fata. The deal was motivated by Mullah Omar who wanted to unite all the Taliban groups in Waziristan on a single platform to reorient the direction of their battle away from Pakistan and towards the allied forces in Afghanistan.
Subsequently, the Shura-e-Muraqaba, an anti-US war body consisting of five key al-Qaeda-linked Afghan Taliban groups, was launched. The five members of the Shura included the Afghan Taliban led by Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Haqqani Militant Network led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Tehrik-e-Taliban led by Hakimullah Mehsud and two more groups of militants led by the South Waziristan-based Maulvi Nazir and the North Waziristan-based Hafiz Gul Bahadar. The TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan had made public the formation of the Shura through a press release, saying all the militant groups have reposed their confidence in Mullah Omar’s leadership and accepted him as the consensus leader of Afghanistan. He had added that the unity among the militants came after a call by Mullah Omar, telling the Pakistani Taliban to stop fighting at home to join the battle to liberate Afghanistan.
Ehsanullah had said the TTP would send its fighters to Afghanistan after March for waging jehad against the US-led “infidel” forces.
“Convey my message to the Pakistani Taliban that you have forgotten the real purpose, which is to fight the US-led invading forces in Afghanistan and liberate it from their occupation. Forget all your differences and give us fighters to boost the battle against America in Afghanistan”, a reported statement by Mullah Omar had cautioned the TTP leadership at that time.
However, what remained hidden was finally made public by Commander Sirajuddin Haqqani, the chief operational commander of the Haqqani network who conceded the existence of a peace deal with the Pakistani security establishment as per which the Pakistan Taliban, Afghan Taliban, Haqqani network and Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur groups won’t attack the Pakistani troops and instead they would focus their attention on the Allied Forces. The revelation came in a statement by Sirajuddin Haqqani, directing the Pakistani Taliban to stop attacking the Pakistani security forces in accordance with a peace deal, thus giving credence to media reports that the militants and the military have struck a clandestine ceasefire. Sirajuddin had issued these directives as the ameer of the Shura-e-Muraqaba.
Shortly afterwards, the spring offensive was launched with multiple attacks targeting Western embassies, the Nato force’s headquarters as well as the parliament building in Kabul. As the spring of 2014 has almost approached, the TTP is already busy holding talks with the Pakistan government amid reports that the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan have secretly agreed to focus on carrying out operations in Afghanistan, with Pakistani militants announcing a ceasefire with their government in order to preserve militant bases used to stage cross-border attacks. An Afghan military commander Major General Sharif Yaftali has already blamed Pakistan on April 12 for exporting terrorism to Afghanistan.
The current level of relationship between the Pakistani Taliban and the Afghan Taliban was well-described by TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid on October 6, 2013 in these words: “The Afghan Taliban not only financially support the Pakistani Taliban in their war with Islamabad but they also provide them sanctuary in Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban are our jehadi brothers. In the beginning, we were helping them. But now they are strong enough to support us financially”, said Shahidullah Shahid while conceding that Mullah Fazlullah is being given shelter in Kunar province by the Afghan Taliban.
Bandar’s final word to Obama.
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has replaced intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the kingdom’s pointman on the Syrian conflict, “at his own request”, official news agency SPA announced Tuesday.
In a royal decree, the powerful official was “exempted… from his position at his own request” and replaced by his deputy, Yousef al-Idrissi.
Bandar, a former ambassador to the United States, is widely regarded as among the most influential powerbrokers in the Middle East.
But the veteran intelligence supremo went abroad for several months for health reasons, with diplomats saying he had been sidelined in Saudi efforts to support rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
They said the file has been transferred to the interior minister, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who cracked down on Al-Qaeda following a wave of deadly attacks in the Gulf state between 2003 and 2006.
Bandar’s management of the Syria file had triggered American criticism, diplomats said.
The prince himself reproached Washington for its decision not to intervene militarily in Syria, and for preventing its allies from providing rebels with much-needed weapons, according to diplomats.
Media run by the Syrian regime and its allies in Lebanon have repeatedly lashed out at Bandar, accusing him of supporting Sunni Islamist radicals in Syria.
ThereAreNoSunglasses 