Terror suspicion has delayed the repatriation of some 330 illegal Moroccan migrants from Libya, local media reported according to xinhuanet.com.

The Moroccan authorities had sent an official delegation to identify the Moroccan nationals stranded in Libya’s detention centers, Hespress.com news site said.

It added that the process of identification and background checking is still underway before their repatriation.

During the last few years amid the rise of Islamic State (IS) group in Libyan territories, Moroccan security services have busted several cells over recruiting Moroccan sympathizers to join terror groups in Libya.

Hundreds of Moroccan migrants, who sought to enter Europe illegally, are stuck in Libyan detention centers.

Morocco has already repatriated 425 of its stranded nationals in Libya in 2017

Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) spoke about the Trump administration’s announcement regarding cuts in US aid to UNRWA, the UN’s agency for “Palestinian refugees”, like reported by inn.com.

“UNRWA is a terror-supporting organization,” Bennett said. “Its very existence perpetuates the sad situation of Gaza residents, who are groaning under Hamas rule.”

“Aid to Gaza residents does not need to be any different than aid to Syrian residents who are living under the rule of terror, or different than [aid] to any other group of refugees’ descendants in the world.

“US President Donald Trump and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley’s decision to cancel US aid is the right thing to do. I expect everyone in the Israeli government, including in the Foreign Ministry, to support the decision to cut the budget to an organization which employs Hamas terrorists and in whose schools rockets are hidden.”

In a Thursday statement, UNRWA spokesman Sami Mshasha said he had not received any update from the US administration regarding a change in its policy vis-à-vis the funding allocated to the organization.

For years, UNRWA has been a target for criticism in light of Hamas’s activity in its educational institutions and the use of its facilities by Palestinian Arab terrorist organizations in Gaza.

UNRWA was documented storing Hamas rockets and weapons “designed to kill Israeli citizens” in its schools, a fact which the UNRWA chief admitted himself.

In addition, the organization has actively taken part in inciting anti-Semitic violence.

The extremist Islamic State group’s branch in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has taken a simmering dispute with the Palestinian Hamas group based in nearby Gaza to new levels, releasing a 22-minute video in which it calls on its followers to attack the group and shows the execution of a man it said was a collaborator, like reported by washingtonpost.com.

Analysts say the escalation has the potential to destabilize an already fragile security situation in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave that Hamas has controlled for the past decade.

“Never surrender to them. Use explosives, silenced pistols, and sticky bombs. Bomb their courts and their security locations, for these are the pillars of tyranny that prop up its throne,” said the knife-wielding narrator of the video, according to a translation distributed by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist websites.

The video cited Hamas’s crackdown on Islamist militant groups in Gaza and their failure to prevent the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as reasons for attacking the group. It begins with a video clip of President Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem last month.

The confrontation between the two militant groups has been building for more than a year, as Hamas has cracked down on Islamic State supporters in Gaza and tightened its border with the Sinai region in an attempt to repair relations with Egypt.

Although it is considered a terrorist group by Israel and the United States, Hamas has been trying to mend ties with neighboring Egypt and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and analysts say it has tried to avoid direct confrontation with Israel in recent years. The Islamic State in Sinai has an altogether more radical approach and carried out a recent attack on an Egyptian mosque killing more than 300 people. In the video, it criticized Hamas for “following in the footsteps of the disbelieving West.”

The Islamic State probably lacks the reach into Gaza to launch a large-scale attack, but it could encourage its supporters to launch more rockets into Israel, knowing that Israel’s military will respond against Hamas, which it holds responsible for all military aggression from Gaza, according to Mohannad Sabry, the author of “Sinai: Egypt’s Linchpin, Gaza’s Lifeline, Israel’s Nightmare.”

“It achieves the same goal,” he said.

In the video, the man accused of collaborating with Hamas’s military wing is executed by another who is described as a former member who has repented.

“A small spark may force one or both parties to engage in military confrontation,” said Hani Habib, a Gaza-based political analyst.

Israel’s announcement Wednesday that the Islamic Jihad was being behind last Friday’s mortar attack on the western Negev reflects something of a change in the narrative about the Gaza Strip, like reported by haaretz.com.

During the recent escalation along its border with Gaza, Israel had been taking pains to present a clear narrative that extremist Salafist organizations have been behind the rocket attacks on Israel; in retaliation, Israeli forces were bombing Hamas positions and command posts (in a manner presented more forcefully to the public in Israel than the reality experienced in Gaza). The narrative went that in an attempt to halt the attacks on Israel, Hamas security forces were arresting Salafists.

But the narrative was based on various assumptions, including that Israel’s deterrence of Hamas has remained strong and that Hamas would prefer to take on small groups in Gaza rather than being dragged into a new war with Israel. Another was that it is better for Israel to put off confrontation. This would give it time to complete the barriers to prevent new attack tunnels along the border while continuing to look for tunnels that had already been dug.

Saying that Islamic Jihad has joined in firing at Israel puts this narrative and the basic assumptions behind it to the test.

Islamic Jihad is the second-largest military organization in the Strip. It has about 10,000 armed forces under its command and a rocket arsenal about half the size of Hamas’.

Islamic Jihad has its own reason to attack Israel: avenging the deaths of 12 Islamic Jihad and Hamas members when Israel destroyed an attack tunnel under the border in late October. Indeed, Islamic Jihad had fired mortar shells at an Israeli outpost on the Gaza border in November. No casualties were reported.

Israel then threatened to strike at senior Islamic Jihad members in Gaza and even in Damascus. Wednesday morning’s announcement appears designed to send a message that if the fire continues, Israel will respond directly against Islamic Jihad. Israeli defense officials don’t rule out that the organization’s members are hiding their group’s involvement in the attacks from Hamas. One way or the other, Hamas seems to have difficulty, or is hesitant, to restrain both Jihadist and Salafi fire.

On Wednesday too three rockets were fired from the Strip to Israel. While the Knesset was engaged in the legislation farce regarding the death penalty for terrorists, which the government has no intention of implementing, the coalition heads’ talk about Israeli deterrence sounded especially hollow.

When Prime Minister Netanyahu is blasted from right and left about displaying weakness in the face of terror, we appear to be nearing another round of fighting in Gaza, after more than three years of relative quiet.

The Israel Air Force struck “central terrorist infrastructure” targets in the Gaza Strip overnight Wednesday in response to the rocket fire.

In the background, of course, is the involvement of Iran, which has been funding most of Islamic Jihad’s activity in the Strip and also recently renewed financial support for Hamas’ military wing.

For now it seems that Israel has been making great efforts to prove one of the grievances that have arisen during the current protests in Iran – that the Iranian regime has been supporting guerrilla groups and terrorist organizations across the Middle East while neglecting the distress of average Iranian at home.

On Monday, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot stressed this very point in a speech at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. On Tuesday, Israel’s trick was already becoming apparent. First came the announcement that Islamic Jihad was responsible for firing Iranian-made mortar shells; then, less than an hour later, came word from the Shin Bet security service that a Palestinian terrorist cell from Hebron, run by an Iranian intelligence agent from South Africa, had been uncovered and that its members had been arrested in November.

The intelligence itself is certainly authentic, but it’s hard to believe that its disclosure now is innocent and divorced from the current context. In fact, not another hour elapsed and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement of his own, following the Shin Bet disclosure, accusing Iran of aiding terrorism against Israel.

A senior official in the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) said that ISIS was likely plotting attacks on Libya’s strategic oil crescent, like reported by aawsat.com.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, AFRICOM spokeswoman Robyn Mack said: “At the moment, we believe that the organization (ISIS-Libya) is likely to give priority to the restructuring of security forces and infrastructure, and to launch strikes, which may include targets in the Libyan oil crescent.”

The oil crescent, which is located 500 km east of the capital Tripoli, encompasses the largest oil reserves in Libya, as well as the ports of Sidra, Ras Lanuf and Brega.

The Libyan National Army succeeded in regaining control of the area in November 2016 following a massive military operation.

Mack suggested that ISIS-Libya would maintain its current strategy, which focuses on rebuilding its operational capabilities and exploiting areas under Libyan control, to destabilize the country and disrupt the political process.

“The United States stands by its Libyan counterparts and supports their efforts to combat terrorist threats and defeat ISIS there. We are committed to continuing to exert pressure on the terrorist network and prevent it from establishing a safe haven,” she stressed.

Brigadier General Ahmad al-Mesmari, spokesman for the LNA, confirmed the authenticity of this information.

“Yes, they have tried more than once to reach the oil crescent and were faced by our forces that secure the region,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Last week, an explosion occurred at a Waha-operated pipeline near Marada in the oil crescent region. A source in the National Oil Corporation in Libya said gunmen possibly caused the explosion.

Meanwhile, a senior Libyan military official said that the army was preparing to enter the city of Derna, east of Libya, and liberate it from the grip of ISIS, while stressing the confidentiality of any information regarding the next battle.

“There will be no talks on Derna due to the secrecy of operations. It is impossible to publish information,” he stated.

Sn Iranian intelligence officer living in South Africa recruited and funded the West Bank-based operative, like reported by haaretz.com

Israel’s Shin Bet security service said Wednesday that it had uncovered Iranian intelligence operating in the West Bank. According to the Shin Bet, an Iranian intelligence officer living in South Africa recruited and funded the West Bank-based operation.

The Shin Bet, with the assistance of the Israeli military, arrested the main operative, a 29-year-old computer engineering student named Mohammed Maharmeh from the Hebron area. According to the Shin Bet, he was recruited into Iranian intelligence in 2015 by a relative, Bahar Maharmeh, who has lived in South Africa for the past several years.

Following a Shin Bet investigation, it became clear that Iranian intelligence had used South Africa as a significant base for locating, recruiting and operating agents in Israel and the West Bank.

“The Shin Bet and the IDF exposed and thwarted in the West Bank a terror network operated under the auspices of Iranian intelligence,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

“This is not the first time. They try in different ways there and in other places to target the State of Israel. I’m glad that the Shin Bet and our security services are successful in thwarting [these attempts],” Netanyahu continued.

“I wish to stress to you that Iran is employing terrorism against Israel, not just by assisting terror organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but also through attempts to organize terror attacks inside Israeli territory.”

read more: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.832761

read more: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.832761

The Libyan National Army (LNA) announced the establishment of a new battalion under the name of “rapid intervention” but did not specify its functions, like reported by aawsat.com.

The army also continued to demine the city of Benghazi, east the country, and remove the corps of extremists after announcing its full control over the city last week.

Marshal Khalifa Haftar issued a decision on Monday to establish the battalion and appoint Lieutenant Colonel Emad al-Zwei as its commander, and he said it should follow the National Army’s “control body.”

The decision did not specify the nature of the battalion and its tasks, but military sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that it comes within the framework of the army’s readiness to move towards other Libyan cities to continue its operations to free them from the grip of extremist groups.

Meanwhile, the Libyan Red Crescent has recovered 17 corps of terrorists, who were killed during the army’s battles to free the areas of Sidi Ekhrebish and the Benghazi’s municipal hotel.

Spokesman for the LNA special forces Colonel Miloud al-Zwei said that the city of Benghazi is already under control of the army, pointing out that one of the terrorists committed suicide Sunday evening in the Qawarsha area west of the city.

He said the Special Forces asked the terrorist to turn himself in voluntarily, but he resorted to bombing himself.

The death toll from booby traps and landmines planted by terrorists in Benghazi has amounted to 197 military and civilian personnel over the past year while 27 experts have been killed in an attempt to demine some areas of the clashes, according to a statistic presented by a military official on Monday.

Abdul Salam al-Massmari, commander of the military engineering faction of the army, said that the army’s general command issued instructions to launch an awareness campaign through the publication of posters and guidelines in the areas that were liberated from ISIS.

Army forces began a large-scale sweep of the fighting areas days after the army declared full control of Benghazi, knowing that Haftar has announced the liberation of the city in July after three years of fierce fighting.

Egypt’s Health Ministry spokesman says at least 10 people, including eight Coptic Christians, have been killed in a shootout outside a south Cairo church, like reported by nypost.com.

Khaled Megahed says Friday’s attack took place when gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire outside Mar Mina church. One gunman was shot dead as was a security officer, he said.

Egypt’s state-run MENA news agency, citing an unnamed Interior Ministry official, said the other assailant fled the scene and was being pursued.

Earlier, security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said two police were killed.

The spokesman for the Coptic Orthodox Church said in a statement that at least six people were killed in the attack including five Copts and a policeman. It also said there was a separate attack on a store in the same neighborhood of Helwan that killed two Copts.

Egypt’s Christian minority has been targeted by Islamic militants in a series of attacks since December 2016 that left more than 100 dead and scores wounded.

Six Egyptian soldiers died when their vehicle was blasted during a raid against militants in restless North Sinai province, the army said according to middleeasteye.net.

“An officer and five soldiers died when an explosive device blew up their vehicle during a raid on a terrorist den,” spokesman Tamer al-Rifai said in a statement.

In a separate operation, three militants were killed, he said, adding that they were in possession of weapons, ammunition and explosive devices.

Four vehicles belonging to the cell were also destroyed, killing the passengers inside, according to the statement.

He did not specify the date of either incident.

Separately, militants killed two people, including a policeman, at a bank in the town of El-Arish in North Sinai on Thursday, Reuters news agency reported, citing security sources.

Militants have escalated their attacks on security forces since the military ousted Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.

They are particularly active in North Sinai province where a wing of the Islamic State (IS) group has a presence.

Hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed.

In November, suspected IS gunmen killed more than 300 Muslim worshippers at a mosque in Sinai associated with Sufism, a form of Islamic mysticism that IS views as heretical.

After the mosque attack, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi instructed his military chief of staff to quell the attacks in three months using “brutal force”.

The eastern Mediterranean is expected to witness the first conflict of 2018, as developments at the end of 2017 are signaling worsening relationships between Turkey and the Greek Cypriot-Greece-Israel-Egypt bloc. Territorial disputes over natural gas and newly discovered hydrocarbon reserves in the eastern Mediterranean basin are the reason, like reported by al-monitor.com.

Up until a few years ago, the hope was that these hydrocarbon reserves would offer a real opportunity for a peaceful settlement of the Cyprus conflict. But these optimistic hopes vanished with both Turks and Greek Cypriots unilaterally speeding up exploration and drilling operations.

In 2004, the European Union had declared the Greek Cypriots the sole entity representing the island of Cyprus and accepted it as an EU member. Feeling that its hand has been strengthened following the EU decision, the Greek Cypriots claimed the right of natural resources exploration in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around Cyprus.

Turkey, however, has been insisting that the Greek Cypriot administration in Nicosia cannot unilaterally “adopt laws regarding the exploitation of natural resources on behalf of the entire island,” as it doesn’t represent the Turkish Cypriots. Also, there is a separate disputed EEZ between Turkey and Greece in the eastern Mediterranean — another point of tension in the conflict.

Ankara reacted strongly to the Greek Cypriots’ natural gas drilling efforts in July. The Turkish army dispatched a frigate in the eastern Mediterranean to “monitor a drilling ship that is believed to have begun searching for oil and gas off ethnically divided Cyprus despite Turkey’s objections,” The Associated Press reported.

On Nov. 20, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi visited Greek Cypriot for a trilateral meeting in Nicosia to discuss hydrocarbon resources in the region. In addition to Egypt’s president, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also participated in the meeting, which was hosted by Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades. The Turkish Foreign Ministry, on the other hand, declared the outcome of the trilateral meeting to be “null and void.”

However, despite Turkey’s opposition, drillship Saipem 12000 sailed to carry out exploration and drilling operations on behalf of French TOTAL and Italian ENI companies in the Calypso region between March 1 and Dec. 26 in accordance with an agreement reached during the trilateral summit.

Moreover, Italy, Greece, Greek Cypriot and Israel had already agreed on the construction of a gas pipeline from newly discovered fields. The project — dubbed “East-Med” — will cost some $6 billion. An over 2,000-kilometer-long (1,243-mile-long) pipeline will channel offshore reserves in the Levantine basin to Greece and Italy.

The East-Med project could be interpreted as an effort to form a regional alliance between Greek Cypriot and Greece to confront Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean. The Greek Cypriots and Greece also signed a separate agreement with Israel to channel natural gas reserves in the Mediterranean basin via an undersea pipeline. Italy’s participation in this project didn’t come as a surprise, as Italy has already been exploring natural gas in the Mediterranean on behalf of the Greeks. The undersea pipeline is expected to channel natural gas from Israel’s Leviathan Basin and Greece’s 12th plot — also called Aphrodite — to Crete, and then to Europe via Greece.

On Dec. 5, the energy ministers of Greece, Greek Cypriot and Israel and the Italian ambassador to Greek Cypriot signed an accord in Nicosia on the construction of the East-Med pipeline. The participation of EU representatives in the ceremony indicated Brussels’ support for the project.

In 2017, the Greek Cypriots, Israel and Greece conducted three joint exercises in March, June and November. At the beginning of November 2017, Greece and Egypt held their first joint naval exercise for the first time in quite a while.

In response, Ankara initiated its own moves and issued a navigational telex to reserve an area for military exercises. The area covers the disputed sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth blocs that the Greek Cypriots had declared as their EEZ. Ankara’s declaration came at a time when Saipem 12000 arrived in the Mediterranean.

Also, the Turkish army has kept some of its forces in the eastern Mediterranean following NATO’s Standing Maritime Task Force exercise, which was conducted Nov. 7-16. The Turkish navy’s TCG Gediz and TCG Barbaros frigates; the TCG Kalkan, TCG Mizrak, TCG Bora and TCG Meltem gunboats; the TCG Akar fuel tanker; and four underwater commando teams are still in the sixth bloc.

In 2018, Turkey will have its first brand-new drilling vessel, the Deepsea Metro II. According to navigation data, the ship left Norway’s Hoylandsbygda port some two weeks ago and is currently sailing west of Portugal. It is expected to arrive in Turkey on Dec. 31. The critical question now is whether the Turkish navy will be providing military escorts for the new drilling vessel.

If the Deepsea Metro II is to be escorted by a Turkish navy fleet while sailing to the sixth bloc, then the affair is bound to heat up. In the meantime, the Nicosia administration also announced that drilling operations in its EEZ would begin Dec. 30 and that Saipem 12000 would join the operations as well.

Now the question is whether Turkey’s Deepsea Metro II and Saipem 12000 and naval fleets escorting them will confront each other in the disputed sixth bloc.

One should also consider domestic developments in relevant countries when trying to measure the extent of a possible crisis. A possible hydrocarbon crisis is an excellent domestic political issue that all governments can use to consolidate their nationalist support base.

In sum — and in comparison to 2017 — one will witness more eventful scenes in the eastern Mediterranean in 2018. The only actor that could mediate between Ankara and Nicosia is not Washington but Moscow, the new shining star of the Middle East.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/12/turkey-eastern-mediterranean-likely-to-heat-up-in-new-year.html#ixzz52YnPWX50