JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T
MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE
MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET
SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO
OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST
FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the
firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of
the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the
adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
OTHER GREAT STORIES
FREESCALE LAB IN ISRAEL CLOSES 1 YR 9 MONTHS AFTER MH370 CRASH
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2016/01/freescale-lab-in-israel-closes-1-year-9.html
VATICAN-PALESTINIAN 2 STATE SOLUTION COMES INTO AFFECT
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2016/01/vatican-accord-recognizing-de-facto.html
2016 WHAT WILL BE HAPPENING
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2015/12/what-we-can-look-for-to-happen-on-earth.html
WHAT COULD BRING A WORLD GOVERNMENT TOGETHER
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2016/01/what-could-possibly-bring-world.html
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
GENESIS 12:1-3
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I (GOD) will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee,(ISRAELIS) and curse (DESTROY) him that curseth thee:(DESTROY THEM) and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
ISAIAH 41:11
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee (ISRAEL) shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing;(DESTROYED) and they that strive with thee shall perish.(ISRAEL HATERS WILL BE TOTALLY DESTROYED)
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
Over 1.7 million visit Auschwitz, breaking annual record-Recent years have seen a dramatic rise in visitors at site of Nazi death camp, up from fewer than 500,000 in 2000-By JTA January 4, 2016, 9:58 pm-the times of israel
WARSAW, Poland — A record number of more than 1.72 million visitors came to the Auschwitz memorial in 2015.The new mark breaks the standard of 1.534 million visitors set last year, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland reported Monday. Recent years have seen a dramatic rise in visitors, up from fewer than 500,000 in 2000.In 2015, Poland clocked the most visitors to the site with 425,000. Rounding out the top five were the United Kingdom (220,000), the United States (141,000), Germany (93,000) and Italy (76,000). Next were Spain (68,000), Israel (61,000), France (57,000), the Czech Republic (47,000) and the Netherlands (43,000).August saw the most visitors with over 210,000.“Going through the remnants of the former camp does not constitute only a history lesson,” Piotr Cywinski, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, said in a statement. “It is also the moment of unique reflection on our own responsibility for the shape of our world nowadays. That is why systematic tools supporting educational visits of young people at the Memorial have been created in so many democratic countries.”Nearly 80 percent of the visitors are guided by museum educators in one of 20 languages.“The appropriate preparation and training of nearly 300 educators constitutes a challenge taking into account dynamically changing attendance of visitors from different language areas,” said Andrzej Kacorzyk, director of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust.Created by an act of the Polish Parliament in 1947, the memorial museum comprises two parts — the Auschwitz I camp, entered through the iconic “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate, and the vast area of Auschwitz II, at Birkenau, about two miles away.One of the museum’s key challenges is conserving the site’s deteriorating buildings, ruins, archival holdings and artifacts. The museum is a state-run entity. The Polish government provides more than one-third of the approximately $15-million annual budget, and the European Union also contributes some funding. But more than half of the budget is generated by the museum itself through visitor fees for guides, sales of publications, onsite business concessions and other income sources.In 2009, a special Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation was established to “amass and manage” a perpetual endowment fund of $120 million whose income is specifically earmarked for long-term conservation. Some 35 states have pledged or donated funds to the endowment, including more than half of the sum from Germany alone.
Netanyahu denies placing conditions on aid package for Arabs-But minister confirms he and colleague were asked to draw up list of demands for community to get billions of earmarked funds-By Raoul Wootliff January 4, 2016, 11:38 pm-the times of israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected reports Monday he is preparing to impose conditions on Israel’s Arab community for a recently passed multi-billion-shekel development plan, though one minister said he had been asked to draw up the demands.Channel 2 News reported Monday night that Netanyahu was considering withholding funds earmarked for Israeli Arab communities unless they accept new measures for “increased law enforcement,” in the wake of a Friday terror attack in Tel Aviv.According to the report, the prime minister instructed government ministers Ze’ev Elkin and Yariv Levin to prepare such a plan in response to the deadly shooting, which, police say, was carried out by Israeli Arab Nashat Milhem.The Prime Minister’s Office denied the report, saying there were no plans to limit or condition the NIS 15 billion ($4 billion) aid package for the Arab community passed by the government last week.“There is no change,” a statement said. “The prime minister is obligated to the plan.”But Immigration Minister Ze’ev Elkin contradicted the PMO’s statement and confirmed the Channel 2 report.Asked to respond to the claims, a spokeswoman for the minister told The Times of Israel that Elkin “affirmed the details in the report” and said he had been asked by the prime minister to prepare measures as a condition for the aid package.Elkin defended the plan Monday, saying it was not directed against Israeli Arabs and had been decided on before Friday’s attack.“We are not talking about giving or withholding budgets from a specific community,” he told Channel 2. “The money goes to local councils and we are saying that if a local council doesn’t take steps for the good of the State of Israel then it shouldn’t be able to receive funds from it.”The report that Netanyahu planned to condition the funds drew harsh condemnation from opposition politicians and members of the Israeli Arab community.Joint (Arab) List head Ayman Odeh rejected the proposal, calling it “spin” and “incitement” from Netanyahu.“We will stand united against any effort to divide the Israeli Arab community into moderates and extremists,” he said in a statement. “We have no expectations from Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government. It’s clear to us that we will have to fight at every stage for the implementation of this plan.”The five-year aid proposal, approved by the cabinet last week, would funnel money into Israeli Arab and other minority communities aimed at leveling funding shortfalls and bringing them up to par with the general population.Meretz chairwoman Zehava Galon said the threat to withhold the funds showed Netanyahu was “straying from the norm acceptable in a democratic society.“Netanyahu’s decision to condition the transfer of billions of shekels, aimed at reducing the gaps in Arab society, is a continuation of his despicable incitement performance from the scene Saturday night,” she said in a statement.Dov Khenin, the only Jewish lawmaker in the Joint List, asked on Twitter whether Netanyahu would withhold funds earmarked for the Jewish community the next time a Jew carries out a killing.Netanyahu has caught flak over comments made at the scene of the attack Saturday night, in which he railed against anti-Israel “incitement” in the Arab community.Speaking outside the Simta Bar on the coastal metropolis’s Dizengoff Street, Netanyahu vowed to compel national loyalty from Arabs, as well as increase law enforcement in Arab population centers.The comments drew a volley of criticism from opposition lawmakers, who accused the prime minister of inciting against Israel’s Arab population.Speaking at his Zionist Union faction’s weekly meeting in the Knesset, opposition leader Isaac Herzog slammed Netanyahu for Saturday’s comments.“Israel does not have a prime minister,” Herzog said Monday. “If Israel had a prime minister, he would not incite against one-fifth of Israel’s citizens and turn them into outlaws.”Netanyahu rejected the criticism, pointing specifically to the recently passed development plan.The plan, by Netanyahu, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel, aims to “advance a systematic and structural economic development plan for the minority sector,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement last week.“This is a significant addition designed to assist minority populations and reduce [societal] gaps,” Netanyahu said during the cabinet meeting. “The plan will lead to the end of single-family home construction and a transition to high-rise construction, as exists throughout the country. At the same time, the plan will strengthen law enforcement in the minority sector with emphasis on illegal construction.”The proposal will focus on Israel’s communities of Muslims, Druze, Christians and Circassians — members of a displaced ethnic group originating in the Caucasus, now spread across the Middle East, of whom there are about 4,000 living in Israel.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Arabs complain of police abuse, discrimination in hunt for Tel Aviv shooter-Tel Aviv residents vent frustration after their apartments targeted by police searching for suspect in Friday’s fatal Dizengoff shooting-By Dov Lieber January 5, 2016, 12:52 am-the times of israel
As Israel Police focused their hunt for the prime suspect in Friday’s fatal Tel Aviv shooting around the northern neighborhood of Ramat Aviv, Arabs living in the area on Monday reported abuse and complained of alleged discrimination by officers who searched their homes.Police intensified their search for Nashat Milhem on Monday afternoon after his cellphone was found in the area days earlier. There were conflicting reports whether the 29-year-old gunmen from Arara — an Arab village in northern Israel — had ditched the phone before or after the attack, in which two people were killed and seven others were injured.In one popular and very sarcastic Facebook status, which included pictures of the apartment in a mess after the police search, Ramat Aviv resident Ahmad Amer wrote:“So the police decided today 4.1.16, that it makes perfect sense to enter our apartment in Ramat Aviv, to turn it completely upside-down in a barbaric way, to take out the clothes in the closet, because obviously the terrorist is hiding in the third shelf, to turnover the couch because, no doubt, he crawled under there.“Of course, all this without any warrant—because we are Arabs and we—a doctor, an engineer, and manager in the stock exchange want to hide your terrorist.“I am seething mad and I have nothing to do with this matter except to write a meaningless Facebook status.”A Druze resident of Ramat Aviv who formerly served as an IDF officer told The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity that he felt the search of his apartment strained the positive relations between the Druze community and the state.“Our apartment was also searched. But unlike other apartments, this apartment is inhabited by two discharged soldiers, one of whom served as a combat officer. This certainly raises a lot of questions about nationality aside humanity, and it also certainly raises a question about the blood-pact policy that Druze leaders advocate,” he wrote referring to the concept that the fates of Druze and Jewish citizens are intertwined through joint military service.The former soldier’s statement continued: “Is this policy real, or is it that the moment you take off your uniform, you’ll wake up on Friday morning to nine officers in the police’s Special Patrol Unit in your apartment with their faces covered?””In a private Facebook status, Muhammad Abdulqader, who is also a student activist for the Hadash Party — a joint Jewish-Arab party currently within the Joint (Arab) List — jibed at the perceived discrimination by police who searched Arab apartments in the hunt for Milhem.“Eliyahu Hakim 10, a new building, seven floors, 28 apartments. But only one apartment is suspected: Apartment No. 20, on the 5th floor. A light knock at the door, police. Unfortunately, this was expected. From the entire building, they went directly to the 5th floor and apartment No. 20. But of course it is ‘random.’-“Well it’s no fun when Mohammed, Mohammed and Qassam are sitting in an apartment in this cold, with too much ‘radicalism’ at the same time.”“So yalla, one for the documents, one for the inspection and one for searching the apartment.And no, do not continue your search in the next apartment for Nashat Milhem. Just click for the elevator and go to the nearest Arab apartment, you can even use Waze: 200 meters more and there is another Arab apartment,” he wrote, referring to the popular Israeli navigation app.Abdulqader told The Times of Israel that the police who came to his apartment acted professionally.“They checked our ID cards, looked around to see who was in the apartment, asked politely some questions and left.”He said he personally knew of 10 cases in which Arab apartments had been searched, and only in one incident had their been any damage done to the premises.“It’s not the damage that bothers me,” continued Abdulqader. “I just think it’s ridiculous to choose me because I am an Arab.”
Hezbollah targets Israeli forces with bomb, Israel shells south Lebanon-[Reuters]-By John Davison and Suleiman Al-Khalidi-January 4, 2016-YAHOONEWS
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah set off a bomb targeting Israeli forces at the Lebanese border on Monday in an apparent response to the killing in Syria last month of a prominent commander, triggering Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon.Israel has struck its Iran-backed Shi'ite enemy Hezbollah in Syria several times, killing a number of fighters and destroying weapons it believes were destined for the group, whose support for President Bashar al-Assad has been crucial in the country's civil war.Israel's army said Monday's blast, targeting military vehicles in the Shebaa farms area, prompted Israeli forces to respond with artillery fire. It made no mention of casualties.Hezbollah said in a statement that the explosive device had been detonated in the Shebaa farms area and carried out by a group whom it named after Samir Qantar, a commander killed in December. The group has accused Israel of killing Qantar in an air strike in Syria, and vowed to retaliate.The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, urged both sides to avoid an escalation, saying it had stepped up patrols on the ground after the incident.In a statement, head of mission Major-General Luciano Portolano urged both sides "to exercise utmost restraint against any provocation."Lebanese media said Israeli shelling had hit the nearby town of Al Wazzani and other areas, with reports of material damage but no serious injuries.Witnesses said at least 10 Israeli shells had hit Al Wazzani shortly after the blast.A Reuters witness said the shelling had stopped later in the day. Al Manar TV reported that calm had returned to the Shebaa area.An Israeli air strike killed Qantar on Dec. 20 in Damascus, Hezbollah said. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said a week later that retaliation would be inevitable.Israel stopped short of confirming responsibility for the strike that killed Qantar, but welcomed the death of the militant leader, who had been jailed in Israel in 1979 and repatriated to Lebanon in a 2008 prisoner swap.Hezbollah did not say which role Qantar played in the Syrian conflict, but Syrian state media said he was involved in a major offensive earlier this year in Quneitra, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.Hezbollah is fighting on the side of Assad in Syria's civil war. The conflict has exacted a heavy toll on Hezbollah, with many hundreds of its fighters killed.In January last year, an Israeli helicopter attack killed six Hezbollah members including a commander and the son of the group's late military commander Imad Moughniyah. An Iranian general was also killed in that attack.Two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish peacekeeper were killed later that month in one of the most violent clashes between the two sides since a 2006 war.Israel and Hezbollah have avoided large scale confrontation along their 80-km (50-mile) frontier since the 34-day war in 2006, which killed 120 people in Israel and more than 500 in Lebanon.Nasrallah has made repeated threats against Israel since then, part of what is seen as a calibrated policy of deterrence.(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Laila Bassam; Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Hezbollah bombs army vehicles on northern border, none hurt-Terror cell named for Samir Kuntar takes responsibility, Israel shells Lebanon in response to attack at Shebaa Farms area near tense border-By Judah Ari Gross January 4, 2016, 4:19 pm-the times of israel
An improvised explosive device detonated near an Israeli army bulldozer and another vehicle near the border with Lebanon Monday afternoon, the military said.No soldiers were hurt in the attack, according to initial reports, which came amid sky-high tensions with Lebanese terror group Hezbollah over the alleged Israeli assassination of a top operative, a known terrorist, last month.Hezbollah took responsibility for the Monday attack, which it said was carried out by a cell named for Samir Kuntar, killed in an airstrike in Damascus on December 20.The group claimed it destroyed an IDF Hummer and injured those inside.However, the army said no one was injured and the vehicles targeted heavy machinery.The heavy engineering vehicles, including at least one D9 bulldozer, were in the area of the northern border in order to create clear a pathway of obstructions and just such explosive devices, the army said.Israel fired “targeted” artillery shells into Lebanon in response to the attack, the IDF said in a statement. Some 20 shells were reportedly fired from Shebaa Farms, known in Israel as Har Dov. Nine of them landed near the Lebanese village of al-Wazzani, located just north of the Israel-Lebanon border, the Lebanese news site Naharnet reported.The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon received reports of the bombing against Israeli vehicles and the IDF’s return fire, but was still investigating the claims independently with its forces on the ground, UNIFIL’s spokesperson Anrea Tenenti said.Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon convened a meeting of security chiefs to discuss the tension on the northern border later Monday. Residents were told to continue with their normal routines.The IDF has been reportedly firing on positions in southern Lebanon for a number of days, in an attempt to keep terrorists away from the border fence.The army has instructed residents of Israel’s north to stay in their homes, a spokesperson said.The IDF has also closed some roads in the area surrounding the border with Lebanon, Hebrew media reported.Israel has anticipated some form of response by Hezbollah or another terrorist group for the death of Kuntar, who led a raid into northern Israel in 1979 in which four Israelis were killed. He served 29 years in an Israeli prison, before being released as part of an exchange in 2008.Over the past few days officials said the military wants to prevent Hezbollah operatives from laying roadside bombs in the area, where Israeli army jeeps perform patrols.On January 28, 2015, two soldiers were killed when an anti-tank missile hit a patrol near Shebaa Farms along the border with Lebanon. The attack came 10 days after an apparent Israeli airstrike killed Hezbollah and Iranian operatives in Syria.
Syria's opposition urges all Arab states to cut Iran ties-[Reuters]-January 4, 2016-YAHOONEWS
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's political opposition in exile urged all Arab countries on Monday to sever diplomatic ties with Iran after Saudi Arabia, a strong supporter of the Syrian opposition, cut relations with Tehran.Saudi Arabia has been rallying Sunni allies to its side in a growing diplomatic row with Iran, deepening a sectarian split across the Middle East following its execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric.The Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition declared its support for Riyadh's move, calling on "all Arab and Islamic countries to take a similar step" and criticised what it said was Iran's support for militias in Syria and Iraq.Iran supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces, backed also by Russia, are fighting against an array of insurgent groups including rebels backed by Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region.Sunni-Shi'ite tension in the region spilled over on Saturday night when Iranian protesters stormed the kingdom's embassy in Tehran after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shi'ite cleric.(Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Dominic Evans)
At U.N., Saudi Arabia says 47 executed were granted fair trials-[Reuters]-January 4, 2016- YAHOONEWS
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia defended its judicial process at the United Nations on Monday, saying that 47 people executed at the weekend had been granted "fair and just trials without any consideration to their intellectual, racial, or sectarian affiliation."The Saudi U.N. mission expressed "deep regret" that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had raised concerns about the nature of the charges and fairness of the trials of those executed, which included a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric.(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Chris Reese)
In the Iran-Saudi Arabia conflict, a clash of civilizations-The cold war between the two regional powers is likely to heat up, reviving an age-old sectarian war between Sunni and Shiite Islam in which every country and group in the Middle East will have to choose a side-By Avi Issacharoff January 4, 2016, 6:03 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The attack by an angry Iranian mob on the building of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran appears to be the opening salvo in an escalating battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia.Only a few hours later, the official website of Iran’s spiritual and supreme leader Ali Khamenei published a summary of his speech to Shiite religious figures in the Iranian capital, in which he clearly said that Saudi Arabia could expect revenge for the execution of the Shiite religious figure Nimr al-Nimr. The Revolutionary Guard Corps also published a similar announcement shortly after Sheikh Nimr was executed along with another 46 “terror suspects.”Monday morning headlines in all the major Arab media outlets dealt with the Iranian-Saudi dispute, and by the time the afternoon rolled around several Arab countries had severed or downgraded their ties with Tehran. One report dealt with American fears of the expected escalation between the two countries.And indeed, nearly all the actors in the Middle Eastern arena now understand that the Iranian declarations are not hollow and that Tehran will try to give them substance in the form of an attack on the Saudi kingdom.Any revenge attack via Shiite actors will draw a Saudi response. Which means, as the London-based site Al Araby Al Jadeed wrote Monday, the cold war will heat up suddenly into a more much more dangerous confrontation between the two countries.It has to be said that this crisis, which is likely to lead to a clash of the two civilizations, Shiite and Sunni, does not come as much of a shock.In all, what’s come to light here is the depth of the loathing between the two local powers, which have for years been fighting behind the scenes for years for regional hegemony.There’s hardly a country or a region in which the fingerprints of the hostility between Tehran and Riyadh cannot be seen; or more precisely, between the representative of Sunni Islam — Saudi Arabia — and Iran, its competitor in the Shiite world.Consider the list: Lebanon, where for more than a year and a half there has been no president, partly because of the tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran; Yemen, where a civil war is being waged with the direct intervention of Saudi forces and Iranian advisers; Syria, of course, where Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are fighting militias funded by Riyadh; Iraq (which is in many ways similar to Syria in that regard); and even the West Bank, where the Iranians give financial support to the Islamic Jihad, to the A-Sabireen movement in Gaza and, to a limited extent, to Hamas.The problem that Hamas will have from now on is that this battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia will force it to take a side.Hamas is not alone. From now on, the name of the game in our region is that every country or organization will have to choose a side. The Israeli-Arab conflict no longer interests decision-makers in Riyadh or Cairo; rather the battle for the future of the Middle East between Shiites and Sunnis occupies center stage.Almost 1,400 years have passed since the first battles broke out within the Muslim world between the inheritors of the Prophet Muhammad, which led to the schism between Shiites and Sunnis, and it seems little has changed here: We are returning to the same very old sectarian war, which is likely to lead to severe ongoing bloodshed that will once again shape the face of the region.
EU in telephone diplomacy on Saudi-Iran crisis By Andrew Rettman-EUOBSERVER-JAN 4,16
BRUSSELS, Today, 09:29-EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini has urged Saudi Arabia and Iran to avoid escalation over the Saudi execution of a Shia Muslim cleric.Saudi authorities, on Saturday (2 January), hung and shot 47 people, including Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shia Muslim cleric, who had been arrested in 2004 on terrorism charges.He had taken part in anti-government protests, calling for democratic elections and for greater rights for the Shia minority in Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim state.His killing comes amid a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran in Syria and Yemen, which dates back to Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and the ensuing struggle for regional hegemony between Riyadh and Tehran.But the sectarian rivalry has much deeper roots, going back to the Battle of Karbala 1,300 years ago.EU states, in a joint statement on Saturday, said al-Nimr’s killing “raises serious concerns regarding freedom of expression and the respect of basic civil and political rights”.It added that the move “has also the potential of enflaming further the sectarian tensions that already bring so much damage to the entire region”.Mogherini the next day phoned the Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir and his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif.She told al-Jubeir she “deplored the attack” on the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Sunday and voiced “concern for the risk of an escalation of sectarian violence in the Muslim world”.Her office said Mogherini and Zarif agreed that “the security and stability of the whole region … is at stake.”The EU readout added: “The international community and the main regional actors are actively working together to support a political solution for the crisis in Syria and to join forces against terrorists groups, and these efforts should not be jeopardised by new instability.”Saudi Arabia is a strategic ally and oil supplier to the EU and US and buys billions of euros of Western arms each year.But it has long faced criticism for supporting radical Islamist groups in Syria and further overseas, including in Europe.The EU and the US, last year, finalised a deal on nuclear non- proliferation with Iran, auguring a thaw in relations and increasing Iran’s political and economic weight.Iran and Saudi Arabia have also joined a fragile, US-led coalition to fight against Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim group, in Syria and to orchestrate a political settlement in Damascus.The Syrian war has prompted the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.More than 1 million people, most of them Syrian refugees, fled to the EU last year, creating internal tension on border security and burden-sharing which threatens to unravel the Union, EU leaders have warned.
OTHER GREAT STORIES
FREESCALE LAB IN ISRAEL CLOSES 1 YR 9 MONTHS AFTER MH370 CRASH
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2016/01/freescale-lab-in-israel-closes-1-year-9.html
VATICAN-PALESTINIAN 2 STATE SOLUTION COMES INTO AFFECT
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2016/01/vatican-accord-recognizing-de-facto.html
2016 WHAT WILL BE HAPPENING
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2015/12/what-we-can-look-for-to-happen-on-earth.html
WHAT COULD BRING A WORLD GOVERNMENT TOGETHER
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2016/01/what-could-possibly-bring-world.html
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
GENESIS 12:1-3
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I (GOD) will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee,(ISRAELIS) and curse (DESTROY) him that curseth thee:(DESTROY THEM) and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
ISAIAH 41:11
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee (ISRAEL) shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing;(DESTROYED) and they that strive with thee shall perish.(ISRAEL HATERS WILL BE TOTALLY DESTROYED)
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
Over 1.7 million visit Auschwitz, breaking annual record-Recent years have seen a dramatic rise in visitors at site of Nazi death camp, up from fewer than 500,000 in 2000-By JTA January 4, 2016, 9:58 pm-the times of israel
WARSAW, Poland — A record number of more than 1.72 million visitors came to the Auschwitz memorial in 2015.The new mark breaks the standard of 1.534 million visitors set last year, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland reported Monday. Recent years have seen a dramatic rise in visitors, up from fewer than 500,000 in 2000.In 2015, Poland clocked the most visitors to the site with 425,000. Rounding out the top five were the United Kingdom (220,000), the United States (141,000), Germany (93,000) and Italy (76,000). Next were Spain (68,000), Israel (61,000), France (57,000), the Czech Republic (47,000) and the Netherlands (43,000).August saw the most visitors with over 210,000.“Going through the remnants of the former camp does not constitute only a history lesson,” Piotr Cywinski, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, said in a statement. “It is also the moment of unique reflection on our own responsibility for the shape of our world nowadays. That is why systematic tools supporting educational visits of young people at the Memorial have been created in so many democratic countries.”Nearly 80 percent of the visitors are guided by museum educators in one of 20 languages.“The appropriate preparation and training of nearly 300 educators constitutes a challenge taking into account dynamically changing attendance of visitors from different language areas,” said Andrzej Kacorzyk, director of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust.Created by an act of the Polish Parliament in 1947, the memorial museum comprises two parts — the Auschwitz I camp, entered through the iconic “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate, and the vast area of Auschwitz II, at Birkenau, about two miles away.One of the museum’s key challenges is conserving the site’s deteriorating buildings, ruins, archival holdings and artifacts. The museum is a state-run entity. The Polish government provides more than one-third of the approximately $15-million annual budget, and the European Union also contributes some funding. But more than half of the budget is generated by the museum itself through visitor fees for guides, sales of publications, onsite business concessions and other income sources.In 2009, a special Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation was established to “amass and manage” a perpetual endowment fund of $120 million whose income is specifically earmarked for long-term conservation. Some 35 states have pledged or donated funds to the endowment, including more than half of the sum from Germany alone.
Netanyahu denies placing conditions on aid package for Arabs-But minister confirms he and colleague were asked to draw up list of demands for community to get billions of earmarked funds-By Raoul Wootliff January 4, 2016, 11:38 pm-the times of israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected reports Monday he is preparing to impose conditions on Israel’s Arab community for a recently passed multi-billion-shekel development plan, though one minister said he had been asked to draw up the demands.Channel 2 News reported Monday night that Netanyahu was considering withholding funds earmarked for Israeli Arab communities unless they accept new measures for “increased law enforcement,” in the wake of a Friday terror attack in Tel Aviv.According to the report, the prime minister instructed government ministers Ze’ev Elkin and Yariv Levin to prepare such a plan in response to the deadly shooting, which, police say, was carried out by Israeli Arab Nashat Milhem.The Prime Minister’s Office denied the report, saying there were no plans to limit or condition the NIS 15 billion ($4 billion) aid package for the Arab community passed by the government last week.“There is no change,” a statement said. “The prime minister is obligated to the plan.”But Immigration Minister Ze’ev Elkin contradicted the PMO’s statement and confirmed the Channel 2 report.Asked to respond to the claims, a spokeswoman for the minister told The Times of Israel that Elkin “affirmed the details in the report” and said he had been asked by the prime minister to prepare measures as a condition for the aid package.Elkin defended the plan Monday, saying it was not directed against Israeli Arabs and had been decided on before Friday’s attack.“We are not talking about giving or withholding budgets from a specific community,” he told Channel 2. “The money goes to local councils and we are saying that if a local council doesn’t take steps for the good of the State of Israel then it shouldn’t be able to receive funds from it.”The report that Netanyahu planned to condition the funds drew harsh condemnation from opposition politicians and members of the Israeli Arab community.Joint (Arab) List head Ayman Odeh rejected the proposal, calling it “spin” and “incitement” from Netanyahu.“We will stand united against any effort to divide the Israeli Arab community into moderates and extremists,” he said in a statement. “We have no expectations from Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government. It’s clear to us that we will have to fight at every stage for the implementation of this plan.”The five-year aid proposal, approved by the cabinet last week, would funnel money into Israeli Arab and other minority communities aimed at leveling funding shortfalls and bringing them up to par with the general population.Meretz chairwoman Zehava Galon said the threat to withhold the funds showed Netanyahu was “straying from the norm acceptable in a democratic society.“Netanyahu’s decision to condition the transfer of billions of shekels, aimed at reducing the gaps in Arab society, is a continuation of his despicable incitement performance from the scene Saturday night,” she said in a statement.Dov Khenin, the only Jewish lawmaker in the Joint List, asked on Twitter whether Netanyahu would withhold funds earmarked for the Jewish community the next time a Jew carries out a killing.Netanyahu has caught flak over comments made at the scene of the attack Saturday night, in which he railed against anti-Israel “incitement” in the Arab community.Speaking outside the Simta Bar on the coastal metropolis’s Dizengoff Street, Netanyahu vowed to compel national loyalty from Arabs, as well as increase law enforcement in Arab population centers.The comments drew a volley of criticism from opposition lawmakers, who accused the prime minister of inciting against Israel’s Arab population.Speaking at his Zionist Union faction’s weekly meeting in the Knesset, opposition leader Isaac Herzog slammed Netanyahu for Saturday’s comments.“Israel does not have a prime minister,” Herzog said Monday. “If Israel had a prime minister, he would not incite against one-fifth of Israel’s citizens and turn them into outlaws.”Netanyahu rejected the criticism, pointing specifically to the recently passed development plan.The plan, by Netanyahu, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel, aims to “advance a systematic and structural economic development plan for the minority sector,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement last week.“This is a significant addition designed to assist minority populations and reduce [societal] gaps,” Netanyahu said during the cabinet meeting. “The plan will lead to the end of single-family home construction and a transition to high-rise construction, as exists throughout the country. At the same time, the plan will strengthen law enforcement in the minority sector with emphasis on illegal construction.”The proposal will focus on Israel’s communities of Muslims, Druze, Christians and Circassians — members of a displaced ethnic group originating in the Caucasus, now spread across the Middle East, of whom there are about 4,000 living in Israel.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Arabs complain of police abuse, discrimination in hunt for Tel Aviv shooter-Tel Aviv residents vent frustration after their apartments targeted by police searching for suspect in Friday’s fatal Dizengoff shooting-By Dov Lieber January 5, 2016, 12:52 am-the times of israel
As Israel Police focused their hunt for the prime suspect in Friday’s fatal Tel Aviv shooting around the northern neighborhood of Ramat Aviv, Arabs living in the area on Monday reported abuse and complained of alleged discrimination by officers who searched their homes.Police intensified their search for Nashat Milhem on Monday afternoon after his cellphone was found in the area days earlier. There were conflicting reports whether the 29-year-old gunmen from Arara — an Arab village in northern Israel — had ditched the phone before or after the attack, in which two people were killed and seven others were injured.In one popular and very sarcastic Facebook status, which included pictures of the apartment in a mess after the police search, Ramat Aviv resident Ahmad Amer wrote:“So the police decided today 4.1.16, that it makes perfect sense to enter our apartment in Ramat Aviv, to turn it completely upside-down in a barbaric way, to take out the clothes in the closet, because obviously the terrorist is hiding in the third shelf, to turnover the couch because, no doubt, he crawled under there.“Of course, all this without any warrant—because we are Arabs and we—a doctor, an engineer, and manager in the stock exchange want to hide your terrorist.“I am seething mad and I have nothing to do with this matter except to write a meaningless Facebook status.”A Druze resident of Ramat Aviv who formerly served as an IDF officer told The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity that he felt the search of his apartment strained the positive relations between the Druze community and the state.“Our apartment was also searched. But unlike other apartments, this apartment is inhabited by two discharged soldiers, one of whom served as a combat officer. This certainly raises a lot of questions about nationality aside humanity, and it also certainly raises a question about the blood-pact policy that Druze leaders advocate,” he wrote referring to the concept that the fates of Druze and Jewish citizens are intertwined through joint military service.The former soldier’s statement continued: “Is this policy real, or is it that the moment you take off your uniform, you’ll wake up on Friday morning to nine officers in the police’s Special Patrol Unit in your apartment with their faces covered?””In a private Facebook status, Muhammad Abdulqader, who is also a student activist for the Hadash Party — a joint Jewish-Arab party currently within the Joint (Arab) List — jibed at the perceived discrimination by police who searched Arab apartments in the hunt for Milhem.“Eliyahu Hakim 10, a new building, seven floors, 28 apartments. But only one apartment is suspected: Apartment No. 20, on the 5th floor. A light knock at the door, police. Unfortunately, this was expected. From the entire building, they went directly to the 5th floor and apartment No. 20. But of course it is ‘random.’-“Well it’s no fun when Mohammed, Mohammed and Qassam are sitting in an apartment in this cold, with too much ‘radicalism’ at the same time.”“So yalla, one for the documents, one for the inspection and one for searching the apartment.And no, do not continue your search in the next apartment for Nashat Milhem. Just click for the elevator and go to the nearest Arab apartment, you can even use Waze: 200 meters more and there is another Arab apartment,” he wrote, referring to the popular Israeli navigation app.Abdulqader told The Times of Israel that the police who came to his apartment acted professionally.“They checked our ID cards, looked around to see who was in the apartment, asked politely some questions and left.”He said he personally knew of 10 cases in which Arab apartments had been searched, and only in one incident had their been any damage done to the premises.“It’s not the damage that bothers me,” continued Abdulqader. “I just think it’s ridiculous to choose me because I am an Arab.”
Hezbollah targets Israeli forces with bomb, Israel shells south Lebanon-[Reuters]-By John Davison and Suleiman Al-Khalidi-January 4, 2016-YAHOONEWS
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah set off a bomb targeting Israeli forces at the Lebanese border on Monday in an apparent response to the killing in Syria last month of a prominent commander, triggering Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon.Israel has struck its Iran-backed Shi'ite enemy Hezbollah in Syria several times, killing a number of fighters and destroying weapons it believes were destined for the group, whose support for President Bashar al-Assad has been crucial in the country's civil war.Israel's army said Monday's blast, targeting military vehicles in the Shebaa farms area, prompted Israeli forces to respond with artillery fire. It made no mention of casualties.Hezbollah said in a statement that the explosive device had been detonated in the Shebaa farms area and carried out by a group whom it named after Samir Qantar, a commander killed in December. The group has accused Israel of killing Qantar in an air strike in Syria, and vowed to retaliate.The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, urged both sides to avoid an escalation, saying it had stepped up patrols on the ground after the incident.In a statement, head of mission Major-General Luciano Portolano urged both sides "to exercise utmost restraint against any provocation."Lebanese media said Israeli shelling had hit the nearby town of Al Wazzani and other areas, with reports of material damage but no serious injuries.Witnesses said at least 10 Israeli shells had hit Al Wazzani shortly after the blast.A Reuters witness said the shelling had stopped later in the day. Al Manar TV reported that calm had returned to the Shebaa area.An Israeli air strike killed Qantar on Dec. 20 in Damascus, Hezbollah said. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said a week later that retaliation would be inevitable.Israel stopped short of confirming responsibility for the strike that killed Qantar, but welcomed the death of the militant leader, who had been jailed in Israel in 1979 and repatriated to Lebanon in a 2008 prisoner swap.Hezbollah did not say which role Qantar played in the Syrian conflict, but Syrian state media said he was involved in a major offensive earlier this year in Quneitra, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.Hezbollah is fighting on the side of Assad in Syria's civil war. The conflict has exacted a heavy toll on Hezbollah, with many hundreds of its fighters killed.In January last year, an Israeli helicopter attack killed six Hezbollah members including a commander and the son of the group's late military commander Imad Moughniyah. An Iranian general was also killed in that attack.Two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish peacekeeper were killed later that month in one of the most violent clashes between the two sides since a 2006 war.Israel and Hezbollah have avoided large scale confrontation along their 80-km (50-mile) frontier since the 34-day war in 2006, which killed 120 people in Israel and more than 500 in Lebanon.Nasrallah has made repeated threats against Israel since then, part of what is seen as a calibrated policy of deterrence.(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Laila Bassam; Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Hezbollah bombs army vehicles on northern border, none hurt-Terror cell named for Samir Kuntar takes responsibility, Israel shells Lebanon in response to attack at Shebaa Farms area near tense border-By Judah Ari Gross January 4, 2016, 4:19 pm-the times of israel
An improvised explosive device detonated near an Israeli army bulldozer and another vehicle near the border with Lebanon Monday afternoon, the military said.No soldiers were hurt in the attack, according to initial reports, which came amid sky-high tensions with Lebanese terror group Hezbollah over the alleged Israeli assassination of a top operative, a known terrorist, last month.Hezbollah took responsibility for the Monday attack, which it said was carried out by a cell named for Samir Kuntar, killed in an airstrike in Damascus on December 20.The group claimed it destroyed an IDF Hummer and injured those inside.However, the army said no one was injured and the vehicles targeted heavy machinery.The heavy engineering vehicles, including at least one D9 bulldozer, were in the area of the northern border in order to create clear a pathway of obstructions and just such explosive devices, the army said.Israel fired “targeted” artillery shells into Lebanon in response to the attack, the IDF said in a statement. Some 20 shells were reportedly fired from Shebaa Farms, known in Israel as Har Dov. Nine of them landed near the Lebanese village of al-Wazzani, located just north of the Israel-Lebanon border, the Lebanese news site Naharnet reported.The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon received reports of the bombing against Israeli vehicles and the IDF’s return fire, but was still investigating the claims independently with its forces on the ground, UNIFIL’s spokesperson Anrea Tenenti said.Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon convened a meeting of security chiefs to discuss the tension on the northern border later Monday. Residents were told to continue with their normal routines.The IDF has been reportedly firing on positions in southern Lebanon for a number of days, in an attempt to keep terrorists away from the border fence.The army has instructed residents of Israel’s north to stay in their homes, a spokesperson said.The IDF has also closed some roads in the area surrounding the border with Lebanon, Hebrew media reported.Israel has anticipated some form of response by Hezbollah or another terrorist group for the death of Kuntar, who led a raid into northern Israel in 1979 in which four Israelis were killed. He served 29 years in an Israeli prison, before being released as part of an exchange in 2008.Over the past few days officials said the military wants to prevent Hezbollah operatives from laying roadside bombs in the area, where Israeli army jeeps perform patrols.On January 28, 2015, two soldiers were killed when an anti-tank missile hit a patrol near Shebaa Farms along the border with Lebanon. The attack came 10 days after an apparent Israeli airstrike killed Hezbollah and Iranian operatives in Syria.
Syria's opposition urges all Arab states to cut Iran ties-[Reuters]-January 4, 2016-YAHOONEWS
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's political opposition in exile urged all Arab countries on Monday to sever diplomatic ties with Iran after Saudi Arabia, a strong supporter of the Syrian opposition, cut relations with Tehran.Saudi Arabia has been rallying Sunni allies to its side in a growing diplomatic row with Iran, deepening a sectarian split across the Middle East following its execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric.The Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition declared its support for Riyadh's move, calling on "all Arab and Islamic countries to take a similar step" and criticised what it said was Iran's support for militias in Syria and Iraq.Iran supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces, backed also by Russia, are fighting against an array of insurgent groups including rebels backed by Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region.Sunni-Shi'ite tension in the region spilled over on Saturday night when Iranian protesters stormed the kingdom's embassy in Tehran after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shi'ite cleric.(Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Dominic Evans)
At U.N., Saudi Arabia says 47 executed were granted fair trials-[Reuters]-January 4, 2016- YAHOONEWS
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia defended its judicial process at the United Nations on Monday, saying that 47 people executed at the weekend had been granted "fair and just trials without any consideration to their intellectual, racial, or sectarian affiliation."The Saudi U.N. mission expressed "deep regret" that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had raised concerns about the nature of the charges and fairness of the trials of those executed, which included a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric.(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Chris Reese)
In the Iran-Saudi Arabia conflict, a clash of civilizations-The cold war between the two regional powers is likely to heat up, reviving an age-old sectarian war between Sunni and Shiite Islam in which every country and group in the Middle East will have to choose a side-By Avi Issacharoff January 4, 2016, 6:03 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The attack by an angry Iranian mob on the building of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran appears to be the opening salvo in an escalating battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia.Only a few hours later, the official website of Iran’s spiritual and supreme leader Ali Khamenei published a summary of his speech to Shiite religious figures in the Iranian capital, in which he clearly said that Saudi Arabia could expect revenge for the execution of the Shiite religious figure Nimr al-Nimr. The Revolutionary Guard Corps also published a similar announcement shortly after Sheikh Nimr was executed along with another 46 “terror suspects.”Monday morning headlines in all the major Arab media outlets dealt with the Iranian-Saudi dispute, and by the time the afternoon rolled around several Arab countries had severed or downgraded their ties with Tehran. One report dealt with American fears of the expected escalation between the two countries.And indeed, nearly all the actors in the Middle Eastern arena now understand that the Iranian declarations are not hollow and that Tehran will try to give them substance in the form of an attack on the Saudi kingdom.Any revenge attack via Shiite actors will draw a Saudi response. Which means, as the London-based site Al Araby Al Jadeed wrote Monday, the cold war will heat up suddenly into a more much more dangerous confrontation between the two countries.It has to be said that this crisis, which is likely to lead to a clash of the two civilizations, Shiite and Sunni, does not come as much of a shock.In all, what’s come to light here is the depth of the loathing between the two local powers, which have for years been fighting behind the scenes for years for regional hegemony.There’s hardly a country or a region in which the fingerprints of the hostility between Tehran and Riyadh cannot be seen; or more precisely, between the representative of Sunni Islam — Saudi Arabia — and Iran, its competitor in the Shiite world.Consider the list: Lebanon, where for more than a year and a half there has been no president, partly because of the tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran; Yemen, where a civil war is being waged with the direct intervention of Saudi forces and Iranian advisers; Syria, of course, where Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are fighting militias funded by Riyadh; Iraq (which is in many ways similar to Syria in that regard); and even the West Bank, where the Iranians give financial support to the Islamic Jihad, to the A-Sabireen movement in Gaza and, to a limited extent, to Hamas.The problem that Hamas will have from now on is that this battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia will force it to take a side.Hamas is not alone. From now on, the name of the game in our region is that every country or organization will have to choose a side. The Israeli-Arab conflict no longer interests decision-makers in Riyadh or Cairo; rather the battle for the future of the Middle East between Shiites and Sunnis occupies center stage.Almost 1,400 years have passed since the first battles broke out within the Muslim world between the inheritors of the Prophet Muhammad, which led to the schism between Shiites and Sunnis, and it seems little has changed here: We are returning to the same very old sectarian war, which is likely to lead to severe ongoing bloodshed that will once again shape the face of the region.
EU in telephone diplomacy on Saudi-Iran crisis By Andrew Rettman-EUOBSERVER-JAN 4,16
BRUSSELS, Today, 09:29-EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini has urged Saudi Arabia and Iran to avoid escalation over the Saudi execution of a Shia Muslim cleric.Saudi authorities, on Saturday (2 January), hung and shot 47 people, including Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shia Muslim cleric, who had been arrested in 2004 on terrorism charges.He had taken part in anti-government protests, calling for democratic elections and for greater rights for the Shia minority in Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim state.His killing comes amid a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran in Syria and Yemen, which dates back to Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and the ensuing struggle for regional hegemony between Riyadh and Tehran.But the sectarian rivalry has much deeper roots, going back to the Battle of Karbala 1,300 years ago.EU states, in a joint statement on Saturday, said al-Nimr’s killing “raises serious concerns regarding freedom of expression and the respect of basic civil and political rights”.It added that the move “has also the potential of enflaming further the sectarian tensions that already bring so much damage to the entire region”.Mogherini the next day phoned the Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir and his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif.She told al-Jubeir she “deplored the attack” on the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Sunday and voiced “concern for the risk of an escalation of sectarian violence in the Muslim world”.Her office said Mogherini and Zarif agreed that “the security and stability of the whole region … is at stake.”The EU readout added: “The international community and the main regional actors are actively working together to support a political solution for the crisis in Syria and to join forces against terrorists groups, and these efforts should not be jeopardised by new instability.”Saudi Arabia is a strategic ally and oil supplier to the EU and US and buys billions of euros of Western arms each year.But it has long faced criticism for supporting radical Islamist groups in Syria and further overseas, including in Europe.The EU and the US, last year, finalised a deal on nuclear non- proliferation with Iran, auguring a thaw in relations and increasing Iran’s political and economic weight.Iran and Saudi Arabia have also joined a fragile, US-led coalition to fight against Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim group, in Syria and to orchestrate a political settlement in Damascus.The Syrian war has prompted the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.More than 1 million people, most of them Syrian refugees, fled to the EU last year, creating internal tension on border security and burden-sharing which threatens to unravel the Union, EU leaders have warned.
