Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says change in Mideast security landscape brought about by Syrian war may ultimately lead to Israel and Egypt joining chemical weapons convention.

With about 92 percent of the world’s declared chemical weapons stockpiles destroyed, the watchdog agency overseeing the elimination of poison gas and nerve agents is looking now to counter emerging threats from extremist groups while still dealing with unfinished business in Syria.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is marking the April 29, 1997, entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention with a three-day conference starting Monday focusing on chemical safety and security.

It appears, in the future, extremists and criminals seem more likely than nations to launch chemical attacks.

“We want to capture the current security threats in regard to chemical weapons, especially from non-state actors,” OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu told The Associated Press at the organization’s headquarters in The Hague.

There have been repeated reports of chemical attacks in Syria’s devastating civil war and a UN-mandated investigation is underway aimed at apportioning blame for nine cases in 2014 and 2015. A final report is expected shortly before the team’s mandate ends in September.

In some of the cases, it’s believed that chlorine was used in the attacks. The widely available substance is sold the world over for legitimate purposes such as water purification, but chlorine gas also was used in the first large-scale chemical weapons attack by German forces in World War I.

“The challenge will remain to prevent the use of toxic substances as a weapon,” said Uzumcu, whose organization won the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize for its disarmament efforts.

The issue is not new, the OPCW has been considering it since the 9/11 attacks in the United States, but it has been brought into sharper focus by the attacks in Syria.

At the conference starting Monday, experts will discuss how to use the existing chemical weapons convention to tackle the problem and whether the OCPW needs to adapt to the new reality.

Ralf Trapp, a former OPCW staffer who is now an independent disarmament and non-proliferation consultant, says protecting people from attacks using readily available chemicals is a difficult balancing act.

“You always will have the dilemma that some of these chemicals are in very wide use,” he said in a telephone interview. “If you over-regulate them or control them to the point where they can no longer be properly used, you’re actually slowing down economic use. It’s not going to work.”

Trapp warned that finding a way to deal with extremists has taken on new urgency with the rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

“Over time, you could expect that if they do decide to go for a chemical weapons program that they will in fact have the capability of investing time and money into it and develop something that would be much more sophisticated than what we see today,” he said.

Meanwhile, the OPCW has yet to complete its work in Syria, which joined the organization in 2013 amid international outrage at a nerve gas attack on the outskirts of Damascus.

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government declared a 1,300-ton chemical weapons stockpile and 14 production facilities, triggering an unprecedented international operation to remove weapons and chemicals from the war-torn country and destroy them.

The weapons have been destroyed, as have 11 of the production plants, Uzumcu said, but member states of the OPCW have repeatedly questioned whether Assad declared everything in 2013.

“We are not yet there,” Uzumcu said. “There are still questions. I am not able to say whether Syria has declared everything or whether Syria continues to possess some chemical weapons or some munitions. I hope that we will be able to clarify the remaining questions.”

He said Syrian officials are expected to visit The Hague in coming weeks to continue talks aimed at clarifying the situation.

Another key challenge for the OPCW is attempting to bring on board four remaining countries that have not joined the chemical weapons convention — Egypt, Israel, North Korea and South Sudan.

Uzumcu believes it is only a “matter of time” before South Sudan joins and says the change in the Mideast security landscape brought about by the Syrian war may ultimately lead to Israel and Egypt joining.

The reclusive regime in North Korea has so far ignored all attempts by Uzumcu to open a dialogue.

Trapp says getting Pyongyang on board will be tough because of the nuclear issue that dominates the disarmament agenda.

“Can you isolate the chemical weapons issue from the rest of the security situation on the Korean peninsula?” he said “If you could do that, you could talk to the Koreans and try to get a process going. If you can’t separate it from the rest, it becomes a ball in a much bigger game and you get the nuclear issue and a couple of other things and it becomes very complicated.”

haaretz.com

Six policemen were killed and severl others wounded on Sunday in a car bomb attack that targeted armored police vehicles protecting the motorcade of Aden’s governor and the city’s security chief, a government official told Xinhua.

Some of the wounded are civilians, other injured are police officers. The bomb attack targeted the motorcade of Aden’s governor General Aidarous Zubaidi and the city’s security chief General Shalal Shayea in Aden’s neighborhood of Mansourah, the government source said on condition of anonymity.

The car bomb exploded while armored police vehicles were passing near the Kaltex roundabout in Mansourah, he said.

A source of Aden’s Police Command told Xinhua that Aden’s governor and the police chief escaped the terrorist attack unharmed and only bodyguards were either killed or injured.

The official spokesman of Aden’s local government said that a suicide bomber slammed his explosive-laden car into the motorcade carrying both the governor and the police chief.

Following the suicide attack, fierce gunfights broke out between al-Qaida assailants and army units in the same area, the spokesman said, adding that heavy security troops were deployed in the city.

Witnesses said that several ambulances were dispatched to the scene while the injured police officers were transferred to nearby medical centers for treatment.

On Thursday, a suspected al-Qaida suicide bomber wearing women clothes rammed his explosive-laden car into the residential building of Aden’s police chief, leaving four people injured.

Thursday’s attack was the third failed attempt by suspected al-Qaida assailants to assassinate Aden’s police commander in recent weeks.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot is believed to be behind most such attacks in the past, which usually targeted security and government officials.

Security experts fear that al-Qaida terrorist group may carry out coordinated suicide bombings against army bases in southern Yemen in revenge for the latest anti-terror military operations in neighboring southern provinces of Lahj and Abyan.

The government authorities in the port city of Aden, Yemen’s temporary capital, tightened the security measures near state facilities and deployed armored vehicles around the city’s entrances.

Yemen, an impoverished Arab country, has been gripped by one of the most active regional al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East and the affiliate of the Islamic State group.

The al-Qaida branch in Yemen, also known locally as Ansar al-Sharia, emerged in January 2009. It had claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks on Yemen’s army and government institutions.

It took advantage of the current security vacuum and the ongoing civil war to expand its influence and seize more territories in Yemen’s southern part.

The already fragile security in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when an all-out war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes since then, half of them civilians.

xinhuanet.com

anotherwarblog.wordpress.com

https://youtu.be/_-ujkXW5eFA

A suicide bomber driving a car killed at least 19 people and wounded 48 others on Saturday in an attack claimed by Islamic State on an outdoor food market in a southeastern suburb of Baghdad, while supporters of Shiite cleric stormed parliament.

A second explosion near a Shiite militia checkpoint in the capital’s Dora district killed two and wounded three others, police sources said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for that blast.

Amaq news agency, which supports Islamic State, said a fighter in the Nahrawan district had driven a truck loaded with three tons of explosives into a gathering of Shiite pilgrims. But other reports say the bomber actually exploded in a market and did not directly attack Saturday’s Shiite pilgrimage, which passes nearby the market. Thousands of Shiite pilgrims are making the trek to Baghdad’s Imam Kadhim shrine to commemorate the 8th century death of one of Shiite Islam’s senior figures.

Later on Saturday in Baghdad, hundreds of supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr stormed into Baghdad’s Green Zone and entered parliament after Sadr denounced politicians’ failure to reform a political quota system blamed for rampant corruption.

The protesters, who had gathered outside the heavily fortified district housing government buildings and many foreign embassies, crossed a bridge over the Tigris River chanting: “The cowards ran away!” in apparent reference to departing lawmakers.

Inside parliament hundreds of protesters danced, waved Iraqi flags and chanted pro-Sadr slogans. Some appeared to be breaking furniture.

Rudaw TV showed them chanting and taking pictures of themselves inside the main chamber where moments earlier lawmakers had met.

There were no reports of clashes with security forces. But an army special forces unit was dispatched with armored vehicles to protect sensitive sites, two security officials said. No curfew has been imposed, they said.

All entrances of Baghdad were shut “as a precautionary measure to maintain the capital’s security,” another security official said.

A United Nations spokesman and Western diplomats based inside the Green Zone said their compounds were locked down. A US embassy spokesman denied reports of evacuation.

Sharqiya TV showed Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi walking inside the Green Zone with dozens of armed guards following the breach, discrediting reports he had fled. Protesters later entered the nearby cabinet headquarters.

Such a breach is unprecedented, though only a few years ago mortars frequently rained down on the 10-square-kilometre Green Zone, which once housed the headquarters of the US occupation and before that a palace belonging to Saddam Hussein.

Checkpoints and concrete barriers have blocked bridges and highways leading to the neighborhood for years, symbolizing the isolation of Iraq’s leadership from its people.

Video showed protesters attacking a white, armored SUV with sticks and other objects on Saturday. In separate footage, they beat a man wearing a gray suit.

Sources in Sadr’s office said several Kurdish deputies who had been holed up inside parliament were evacuated by a Sadrist MP in his motorcade.

A Kurdish peshmerga guard at a checkpoint said the protesters surged in after security forces pulled back from an external checkpoint in an unsuccessful effort to secure parliament. They had not been searched before entering the Green Zone, he said.

About ten members of the armed group loyal to Sadr were checking protesters cursorily as government security forces who usually conduct careful searches with bomb-sniffing dogs stood by the side.

Thousands more protesters remained at the gates chanting “Peaceful!”. Some stood atop concrete blast walls that form the district’s outer barrier.

A Sadr spokesman said the cleric called on supporters to evacuate parliament and set up tents outside, according to Reuters.

“Negotiations are ongoing between security and government officials and protesters’ representatives to make sure their demands are met,” said Sheikh Muhanad al-Gharrawi.

President Fuad Massoum called on protesters to leave parliament but added: “Burying the regime of party and sectarian quotas cannot be delayed.”

Parliament failed to reach quorum earlier on Saturday to complete voting on a cabinet reshuffle proposed by Abadi after a handful of ministers were approved on Tuesday despite disruptions by dissenting lawmakers.

Political parties have resisted Abadi’s efforts to replace some ministers — chosen to balance Iraq’s divisions along party, ethnic and sectarian lines — with technocrats in order to combat corruption.

Supporters of Sadr, whose fighters once ran swathes of Baghdad and helped defend the capital from Islamic State in 2014, have been demonstrating in Baghdad for weeks, responding to their leader’s call to put pressure on Abadi to follow through on months-old reform promises.

Moments before the Green Zone breach, Sadr seemed to offer an ultimatum: “Either corrupt (officials) and quotas remain or the entire government will be brought down and no one will be exempt from that.”

In a televised speech from the holy city of Najaf announcing a two-month withdrawal from public life, Sadr said he was “waiting for the great popular uprising and the major revolution to stop the march of the corrupt.”

Abadi has warned that delays to overhauling the cabinet could hamper the war against Islamic State, which controls vast swathes of northern and western Iraq.

Security has gradually improved in Baghdad, which was the target of daily bombings a decade ago, but attacks against both the security forces and civilians are still frequent.

The rise of Islamic State, which is fighting government forces for control of swathes of northern and western Iraq, has exacerbated the country’s sectarian conflict, mostly between Shiites and Sunnis, which emerged after the 2003 US-led invasion.

Also on Saturday Islamic State militants launched an offensive near the northern town of Baiji, which Iraqi forces and Shiite militia fighters recaptured months ago along with a large oil refinery devastated by the conflict.

In the first set of attacks on Friday evening near Siniya west of Baiji, Islamic State seized four security checkpoints, according to sources in Salahuddin operations command. The militants used car bombs, killing 11 members of the security forces and wounding 12 others.

From the eastern side of Baiji, the militants attacked security forces near Makhoul, killing three police officers and wounding two others in fighting that continued on Saturday, the sources said.

vice.com

While President Barack Obama was hardly welcomed with open arms during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, behind the scenes, progress is being made on a new “trilateral alliance,” involving the United States, NATO and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). This effort transcends the Obama Administration, and has been slowly moving forward for the past dozen years.

Obama Administration sources claim that in the closed-door discussions with King Salman, President Obama was able to counter Saudi fears of a burgeoning US-Iran alliance by spelling out US plans to deepen cooperation with the GCC countries, which would include efforts to contain Iran’s regional destabilizing actions.

While this Administration spin is dubious, the deeper process of military cooperation and eventual integration between US, NATO and GCC forces was the subject of talks led by US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, CIA Director John Brennan and top officials from the US Central Command, who met with GCC counterparts the day before Obama arrived in Riyadh, in preparation for Obama’s meeting with the GCC heads of state. Carter and Brennan have also established strong lines of communication with Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman, which is another venue through which the military cooperation is quietly moving forward.

As reported in MEB, the idea of a formal NATO-GCC alliance has been on the table for years, with former Obama Administration National Security Advisor General James Jones (a former Commander-in-Chief of NATO) promoting the idea at a 2010 conference at the National Defense University in Washington.

In fact, the formal framework for an eventual NATO-GCC integration has been in place since 2004, when the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) was launched on the sidelines of the NATO summit in the Turkish capital. Four GCC countries formally joined the ICI, which established military-to-military cooperation with NATO on a country-by-country basis.  Those four GCC states—Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Kuwait—were joined in December 2014 by Saudi Arabia and Oman at the tenth anniversary conference of the ICI in Doha. At that session, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spelled out three immediate areas of greater NATO-GCC ICI cooperation:  increased military cooperation, maritime security and political consultations. He cited the Libya campaign as a recent example of NATO and GCC military integration, and invited all of the GCC countries to join NATO’s “Ocean Shield” counter-piracy program.

At an earlier ICI meeting in 2011, Kuwait had proposed to host an ICI Regional Center, which would be a point of integration between NATO and the four GCC states formally part of the ICI.

GCC countries are also being encouraged to join NATO’s Civil-Military Cooperation Centre of Excellence in Enschede, Netherlands, and its Centre of Excellence Defense Against Terrorism headquarters in Ankara. These centers engage in practical coordination of military and civilian defense personnel, establishing the kinds of personal channels of communication that will be vital to more formal NATO-GCC force integration in the future.

The Istanbul Cooperation Initiative founding charter provided for membership expansion, even beyond the GCC states, to include “all interested countries in the region who subscribe to the aim and content of this initiative, including the fight against terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

In addition to the ICI, NATO earlier established a Mediterranean Dialogue, with similar objectives of security cooperation, increased systems interoperability and intelligence sharing. The member countries of the Mediterranean Dialogue, in addition to the 26 NATO countries are: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. At the December 2012 NATO summit in Chicago, Libya was formally invited to join the Mediterranean Dialogue. With new priority attached to the fight against the Islamic State in Libya, some NATO and US military officials are looking at the near-term prospect of joint military actions against ISIL in North Africa, which would be a concrete opportunity to expand force integration, albeit on an ad hoc basis.

While both of these formal partnership structures exist, there are clear obstacles that stand in the way of rapid integration of NATO and the GCC. These obstacles are not insurmountable and there is already progress.  The GCC is moving forward with the creation of a joint military command, which is vital to the plans for further integration with NATO. Saudi Arabia has taken the lead in promoting this joint command, including greater attention towards common weapons systems that also match up with NATO capacities.

Another issue that must be resolved is the role of two leading Arab military powers—Egypt and Pakistan—in the NATO-Middle East military integration. While Saudi Arabia has, by far, the biggest military budget in the Arab world (Saudi Arabia’s annual defense expenditures this year passed Russia’s budgeting), Pentagon and NATO officials believe that some form of involvement by Egypt and/or Pakistan is vital for there to be a viable Arab military force to partner with NATO.

Both Egypt and Pakistan refused Saudi requests for military assistance in the Yemen war, while the United States and Great Britain have actively participated.

[In their talks in Riyadh, President Obama and Defense Secretary Carter both emphasized concerns over Al Qaeda’s growing presence in Yemen. In the days following the summit, Saudi and UAE military forces launched effective bombing and ground operations against Al Qaeda positions in Yemen.]

Washington sources emphasize that the NATO-GCC integration is “down the road,” but remains a clear priority objective. That will remain the case regardless of who wins the November presidential elections in the United States. In the interim, as efforts like the ICI and Mediterranean Dialogue mature, the United States military will continue to take the lead in moving the integration process forward.

Washington will continue to pursue “coalitions of the willing” to address issues like the war against the Islamic State. The anti-ISIL coalition that was forged in Paris on September 15, 2014 included leading Arab states:  Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE (all six of the GCC states).

But even as these coalitions take up the immediate issues of fighting ISIL, dealing with piracy, the refugee crisis and humanitarian and natural disasters, the process of formal institutional collaboration is always prominent in the minds of NATO and Pentagon officials, who see NATO building partnerships that will form the basis of the core security architecture for the twenty-first century. And nowhere is such an architecture more essential than in the extended Middle East.

mebriefing.com

In the rolling hills of northern Iraq, the Canadians are mentoring local peshmerga troops on the skills and military tactics needed first to contain Daesh extremists, and then to squeeze them out of existence.

thestar.com

Eight Bahrainis were sentenced to life imprisonment after a court convicted them of “terrorism” and violence against police.

The eight accused were tried in two seperate cases on Wednesday, with three found guilty in one case for causing an explosion in the Shia village of Shakhour last January.

The blast wounded a policeman and caused damaged to police vehicles, state news agency BNA reported.

The accused were also convicted of “possession” of explosives, the state agency added.

The remaining five sentenced to life imprisonment were convicted for “imposing and possessing explosives for terrorist aims,” according to state prosecutors.

The convictions follow those passed down last week sentencing four men for violence against the police and possession of weapons.

Earlier this month a wide-ranging declaration issued by the Bahraini government labelled 68 Bahraini and foreign organisations as “terror groups.”

Included were the February 14 Coalition, the al-Asthar Brigades and Resistance Brigades, which are believed to be Bahraini Shia majority groups allegedly involved in anti-government protests.

Reports of attacks against police officers continued to come since unrest shook the island kingdom in 2011.

Human rights activists and organisations have accused the Bahraini security services of arbitrary detentions and excessive use of force against protestors.

Earlier this month, Amnesty urged Bahraini authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release jailed opposition figures.

“The alarming erosion of human rights in Bahrain in recent years means that anyone who dares to criticise the authorities or call for reform risks severe punishment,” said Amnesty’s regional deputy director James Lynch.

Five years after Bahrain’s revolution, demonstrators still take to the streets and clash with police in Shia towns surrounding Manama, but are met with a heavy-handed government response.

alaraby.co.uk

Admiral Kevin M. Donegan commander of the United States’ Fifth Fleet told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that Houthi insurgents, al-Qaeda and ISIS represent the greatest threat to naval freedom of waters surrounding the Arabian Peninsula, which comprises the three prominently vital passages for global economy.

Donegan added that the U.S. navy is aware of the capacity of Houthis and recognizes their wish to hamper naval movement, in addition to knowing how that would reflect over world-wide economy, which is why the IMCMEX naval drill focuses especially on addressing that threat.

Donegan’s declarations were made after concluding the IMCMEX drill, which is considered the world-wide most comprehensive naval drill staged by the U.S. navy and includes 36 countries, across the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. The military naval drill is for ensuring the protection of all the naval passages.

The drill coincided with the U.S. Fifth Fleet’s commandership emphasizing that the U.S. has not directed its attention away from the Middle East, as to confirm the vital character to the region and the U.S’s commitment to its security and acknowledgment to it being a principal factor to world security.

Adm. Donegan labeled Houthis, alongside the score of organizations as a threat to naval freedom of vital world-wide economic water pathways.

United States Fifth Fleet commandership considered that the threat of true terrorism affects ports and naval infrastructure all across the region; which is why

it would not be wise, on a security level, to negotiate or compromise any of the naval exits which are subject to the threat.

United States Fifth Fleet commandership pointed out that the force evaluation of the powers working side-by-side with the U.S. – who are a part of the naval common forces, partners with the coalition and allies- confirms that no efforts are being saved and that the navies are continuously active for the protection of trade routes and oil pumping into the region.

Despite the existence of a real threat, the U.S. has not shifted its focus into the region, clarifying that piracy is still a source for concern affecting regional waters surrounding the Arabian Peninsula; which is why counter-piracy and anti-trafficking operations are frequently arranged and carried out on a daily basis by partners of the coalition.

Achievement in the arena fighting piracy was established on international coordinated cooperation and U.S. efforts on countering piracy in the region. The success rate has been registered based on no launched pirate attacks being reported successful since 2012, the fleet leadership added.

U.S. Fifth Fleet officials confirmed that the contribution of over thirty countries from all across the six continents into the annual IMCMEX drill stands to prove the continuing desire for expanding the capacity and disposition of employment among countries, armies and industries.

Expansion guarantees naval freedom, flow of free trade and the preservation of security from threats posed by pirates, terrorist organizations, governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations.

aawsat.com

Officials claim new 7,000-strong force will protect women, but critics fear main aim is to enforce Islamic dress code.

Local resident Sousan Heidari has stopped letting her headscarf slip casually down over her neck and shoulders while driving in the Iranian capital. These days, the 22-year-old with a taste for bold makeup makes sure to pull it tightly over her dark hair, fearful of running afoul of a newly established undercover division of the morality police.

“Every single man or woman could be a member of the unit,” she cautioned. “I don’t know. Maybe some plainclothes have already reported me because of heavy makeup.”

Tehran police chief Gen. Hossein Sajedinia recently announced his department had deployed 7,000 male and female officers for a new plainclothes division — the largest such undercover assignment in memory. Authorities say the division, which started work last week, will patrol major Tehran streets and intersections, policing transgressions including harassment against women and excessive car honking and engine noise.

Critics fear the unit’s main focus, however, will be enforcing the government-mandated Islamic dress code, which requires women to be modestly covered from head to toe. They see it as the latest flashpoint in the struggle between relative moderates such as President Hassan Rouhani and establishment hard-liners who fear looser social norms will weaken the Islamic Republic’s values and principles.

Iranian women these days, particularly younger ones, often forgo the traditional long black long veil known as the chador and opt instead for trendy dresses and fashionable headscarves. More and more, they are daring to let their scarves slip down to their shoulders while driving.

Influential ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani alluded to those concerns about moral erosion during a recent Friday sermon in Tehran, saying that a woman driving without a veil, “cannot be called freedom.”

Avoiding sartorial trouble in Iran has been fairly straightforward up until now. Police assigned to the morality-enforcement beat normally wore the same dark green uniform as regular Iranian police, and were stationed out in the open at major squares and crossroads.

They would take a range of approaches to enforcing dress codes, including handing out scarves as gifts, giving verbal warnings or having female officers physically remove excessive makeup.

At worst, offenders would be sent to court and face fines of up to $250 or hauled to the local police station until their family members gave a written promise that they would never commit the same offense again.

Azizeh Shirazi, a mother of two college-aged daughters, said last week’s announcement of the new force has left her worried that something might happen to them on the way to university. “When the girls do not answer my phone calls during the day, my heart beats faster,” she said.

The outcry over the new undercover police force extends to senior officials.

Shahindokht Molaverdi, vice president for women and family affairs, criticized the decision and expressed concern that it would be “limited to giving warnings to women over improper attire,” according to local media reports.

Molaverdi said many citizens have complained to her about the police decision, and she vowed that the Rouhani administration will review the proposed force.

Even the popular Hamshahri daily, which is linked to conservative opponents of Rouhani’s government, raised questions about the plan in an editorial, asking why it was necessary now and whether there would be any way to verify the unit’s reports.

Police responded to the criticism by saying that “demands by the people” led to the creation of the new unit and that concerned citizens could contact police about any ambiguities.

They have found support from hard-liners, including female parliamentarian Fatemeh Rahbar — who said the previous practice of uniformed morality police was too easy for violators to spot and evade.

“The police are thinking about a more precise, more effective and more functional method since the previous open method did not bear fruit,” she said.

On Sunday, the spokesman of the hard-line dominated judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, added his voice of support, saying the “judiciary definitely supports the police plan to confront open social corruption.”

Tehran-based political analyst Saeed Leilaz believes the new unit is a reaction to the resounding defeat of hard-line and conservative candidates in Tehran during recent parliamentary elections. A bloc led by moderates and reformists won a majority of seats around the country, but captured all 30 seats representing the capital in the 290-seat parliament. A runoff election for 68 remaining undecided seats will be held Friday.

Leilaz noted that these new plainclothes units have only been announced for Tehran, not for any other major Iranian city.

“This is part of the establishment’s reaction toward Tehran residents’ attitude in the election,” he said. “It’s an expression of discontent and taking revenge, as well as applying efforts in restricting President Rouhani.”

Leilaz said the new initiative suggests previous hard-line dress code policies have failed. And he questioned how effective the new division would be.

“The plan, as usual will have a short-term limited impact. Soon people will return to their routines,” he said.

toi.com

On Wednesday, a source in Nineveh Liberation Operations Command announced killing 35 ISIS fighters in an artillery shelling targeted their gathering south of Mosul (405 km north of Baghdad).

The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “A force from Nineveh Liberation Operations Command shelled a gathering belonging to ISIS in Khayata village in Qayyara District (60 km south of Mosul), killing 35 ISIS militants.”

The source, who requested anonymity, added, “The security forces continue to target ISIS headquarters in Qayyara District.”

iraqinews.com