Excerpts: US changes in nuclear arsenal management. Iraq fighters who answer
to Iran. Iraq violence cost Jordan over JD 1 million per day.
King,Kerry,Netanyahu meet re Jerusalem tension. France military deployment
to Jordan. Further anti-Israel incitement path? November 14, 2014


+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 14 Nov.’14:”U.S.Secretary of Defense Hagel say s
top-to-bottom changes needed in nuke force”By Robert Burns, Associated Press
SUBJECT:U.S.changes in nuclear arsenal management
QUOTE:”Hegel: fix what ails a force beset by leadership lapses,security
flaws and sagging morale”
FULL TEXT:Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is ordering top-to-bottom changes in
how the nation’s nuclear arsenal is managed, vowing to invest billions of
dollars more to fix what ails a force beset by leadership lapses, security
flaws and sagging morale.

Hagel is scheduled to announce Friday[14 Nov.] the results of two reviews -
one by Pentagon officials and a second by outside experts - and to spell out
actions he has ordered to improve nuclear force management. Two senior
defense officials discussed the Hagel plan Thursday on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to be cited by name.

Hagel’s moves, while not dramatic, are designed to get at the core of the
problem, the officials said.

Hagel’s reviews concluded that the structure of U.S. nuclear forces is so
incoherent that it cannot be properly managed in its current form, and that
this problem explains why top-level officials often are unaware of trouble
below them. The senior defense officials said the reviews found a
“disconnect” between what nuclear force leaders say and what they deliver to
lower-level troops who execute the missions in the field.

To illustrate the degree of decay in the intercontinental ballistic missile
force, the reviews found that maintenance crews had access to only one tool
set required to tighten bolts on the warhead end of the Minuteman 3 missile,
and that this single tool set was being used by crews at all three ICBM
bases in North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. They had to share it via Federal
Express delivery, the defense officials said. The crews now have one at each
of the three bases.

The reviews also found that a combination of problems amount to fundamental
flaws, rather than random or periodic slip-ups, the defense officials said.
They said the nuclear forces are currently meeting the demands of the
mission, but are finding it increasingly hard to cope.

Among his more significant moves, Hagel authorized the Air Force to put a
four-star general in charge of its nuclear forces, the two senior defense
officials said.

The top Air Force nuclear commander currently is a three-star. Lt. Gen.
Stephen Wilson is responsible not only for the 450 Minuteman ICBMs but also
the nuclear bomber force. Hagel has concluded that a four-star would be able
to exert more influence within the Air Force and send a signal to the entire
force that the mission is taken seriously, the defense officials said.

Hagel also OK’d a proposal to upgrade the top nuclear force official at Air
Force headquarters in the Pentagon from a two-star general to a three-star,
the officials said.

The review’s authors, retired Air Force Gen. Larry D. Welch and retired Navy
Adm. John C. Harvey Jr., found fault with one of the unique features of life
in the nuclear forces. It is called the Personnel Reliability Program,
designed to monitor the mental fitness of people to be entrusted with the
world’s deadliest weapons.

Over time, that program has devolved into a burdensome administrative
exercise that detracts from the mission, the authors found, according to the
senior defense officials. Hagel ordered that it be overhauled.

Hagel concluded that despite tight Pentagon budgets, billions of dollars
more will be needed over the next five years to upgrade equipment. That will
include a proposal to replace the Vietnam-era UH-1 Huey helicopter fleet
that is part of the security forces at ICBM bases. The Air Force declared
them out of date years ago but put available resources into other
priorities.

The defense officials said Hagel would propose an amount between $1 billion
and $10 billion in additional investment. An exact amount had not yet been
determined.

The Navy, which operates nuclear-armed submarines, has had its own problems,
including an exam-cheating scandal this year among nuclear reactor training
instructors and has suffered from a shortage of personnel.

When he ordered the two reviews in February, shortly after the Air Force
announced it was investigating an exam-cheating ring at one ICBM base and a
related drug investigation implicating missile crew members, Hagel was said
to be flabbergasted that such misbehavior could be infecting the force.

“He said, ‘What is going on here?’“ one of the senior defense officials
recalled.

Hans Kristensen, a nuclear expert with the Federation of American
Scientists, said Thursday that while he had not seen the Hagel reviews or
heard what actions Hagel was ordering, he was skeptical that it would make
much difference.

“Throwing money after problems may fix some technical issues but it is
unlikely to resolve the dissolution that must come from sitting in a silo
hole in the Midwest with missiles on high alert to respond to a nuclear
attack that is unlikely to ever come,” Kristensen said.

A cascade of embarrassments befell the Air Force over the past two years,
beginning with an AP story in May 2013 revealing one missile officer’s
lament of “rot” inside the force. Another AP story in November disclosed
that an independent assessment for the Air Force found signs of “burnout”
and elevated levels of personal misconduct among missile launch crews and
missile security forces.

The AP also disclosed last year that four ICBM launch officers were
disciplined for violating security rules by opening the blast door to their
underground command post while one crew member was asleep.

Just last week the AP disclosed that the Air Force fired two nuclear
commanders and disciplined a third, providing evidence that leadership
lapses are continuing even as top Air Force officials attempt to bring
stability to the ICBM force.

After his Pentagon announcement Hagel was expected to fly to Minot Air Force
Base in North Dakota, home of a Minuteman 3 missile unit whose recent
setbacks are emblematic of the trouble dogging the broader nuclear force.


+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 14 Nov.’14:”The fighters of Iraq who answer to Iran’,
Reuters
SUBJECT: Iraq fighters who answer to Iran
QUOTE:”Khazali… is one of the most feared and respected militia leaders in
Iraq and one of Iran’s most important representatives in the country
FULL TEXT:AMONG the thousands of militia fighters who flocked to northern
Iraq to battle the self-proclaimed Islamic State over the summer was Qais
Al-Khazali.

Like the fighters, Khazali wore green camouflage. But he also sported a
shoulder-strapped pistol and sunglasses and was flanked by armed bodyguards.
When he was not on the battlefield, the 40-year-old Iraqi donned the robes
and white turban of a cleric.

Khazali is the head of a militia called Asaib Ahl Al-Haq that is backed by
Iran. Thanks to his position he is one of the most feared and respected
militia leaders in Iraq, and one of Iran’s most important representatives in
the country. His militia is one of three small Iraqi Shiite armies, all
backed by Iran, which together have become the most powerful military force
in Iraq since the collapse of the national army in June.

Alongside Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, there are the Badr Brigades, formed in the 1980s
during the Iran-Iraq War, and the younger and more secretive Kataib
Hezbollah. The three militias have been instrumental in battling Islamic
State. The militias, and the men who run them, are key to Iran’s power and
influence inside neighboring Iraq.

That influence is rooted in the two countries’ shared religious beliefs.
Iran’s population is overwhelmingly Shiite, as are the majority of Iraqis.
Tehran has built up its influence in the past decade by giving political
backing to the Iraqi government, and weapons and advisers to the militias
and the remnants of the Iraqi military, say current and former Iraqi
officials.

That was clear this summer, when fighters from all three militias took on
IS. During IS’s siege of one town, Amerli, Kataib Hezbollah helicoptered in
50 of its best fighters, according to Abu Abdullah, a local Kataib Hezbollah
commander. The fighters set up an operations room to coordinate with the
Iraqi army, the other militia groups, and advisers from the Quds Force, the
branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that handles operations
outside Iran and oversees Tehran’s Iraqi militias. Over days of fierce
fighting in August, and with the help of US bombing raids — a rare example
of Iran and the United States fighting a common enemy — those forces
successfully expelled IS.

Tehran’s high profile contrasts sharply with Washington’s. Both Iran and the
United States are preparing for a long battle against IS. But Iraqi
officials say the two take very different views of Iraq. “The American
approach is to leave Iraq to the Iraqis,” said Sami Al-Askari, a former
member of Iraq’s parliament and one-time senior adviser to former prime
minister Nuri Al-Maliki. “The Iranians don’t say leave Iraq to the Iraqis.
They say leave Iraq to us.”

The danger, Iraqi officials say, is that Iran’s deep influence will
perpetuate sectarian conflict in Iraq. Many Iraqi Sunnis complain that
Maliki, who was Iraq’s leader until he was forced out in August, was
beholden to Tehran and prevented Sunnis from getting greater political
power. Maliki has denied sidelining Sunnis.

Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who left office in 2005,
told Reuters that “Iran is interfering in Iraq. Foreign forces are not
welcome here. And militias controlled by foreign powers are not welcome
also.”

Iraq’s Shiite militias have certainly fueled sectarian violence. In the past
few months they have taken revenge on Sunnis thought to be sympathetic to
IS, burned homes and threatened to stop Sunnis returning to their towns.
Shiite fighters have kidnapped or killed civilians, say Sunni family
members. “The militias are a problem,” said Askari, the former Maliki
adviser. “What do you say after Islamic State ends? Thank you very much and
go home?“

ECHOES OF LEBANON

The main body funding, arming, and training the Shiite militias is Iran’s
Quds Force. The model it uses is Hezbollah in Lebanon. Created by Tehran in
the early 1980s, and operating as both a military outfit and political
party, Hezbollah has grown to become the most powerful force in Lebanon.
Like Hezbollah, Iran’s three big Iraqi militias have political wings and
charismatic leaders.

Coordinating the three is Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who, at
least until the IS victories in Iraq this summer, had gained a reputation as
one of the region’s most effective military leaders. After the collapse of
the Iraqi military in June, Soleimani visited Iraq several times to help
organize a counter-offensive. He brought weapons, electronic interception
devices and drones, according to a senior Iraqi politician.

“Soleimani is an operational leader. He’s not a man working in an office. He
goes to the front to inspect the troops and see the fighting,” said one
current senior Iraqi official. “His chain of command is only the Supreme
Leader. He needs money, gets money. Needs munitions, gets munitions. Needs
materiel, gets materiel.”

The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is the most senior religious
authority in Iran and wields huge constitutional power. Soleimani, who
Reuters was unable to reach, knows the heads of the three big Iraqi militias
personally, Iraqi officials say. A picture posted on a Facebook page in
August shows him in an olive shirt and khaki pants next to Khazali, who is
in clerical robes. A picture on Facebook and Twitter late last month showed
Soleimani and the leader of the Badr Brigades grinning and wrapped in a
tight hug after what was reportedly a victory against IS.

In an interview with Iranian state television in September, a senior
Revolutionary Guard commander, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said that Soleimani,
with a force of only 70 men, had prevented IS from overrunning Irbil. “If
Iran hadn’t helped, Daesh would have taken over Kurdistan,” he said, using a
common Arabic name for IS.

THE BADR BRIGADES

Iran’s oldest proxy in Iraq is the Badr Brigades, which is headed by Hadi
Al-Amri, a veteran of both combat and politics. The group renamed itself the
Badr Organization once it entered politics. Amri fought alongside Iran’s
Revolutionary Guard against Saddam’s army during the Iran-Iraq war in the
1980s. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, he won a seat in parliament
and served as Minister of Transportation during Maliki’s second term.

Amri, who could not be reached for comment, is feared and loathed by many
Sunnis for his alleged role in running death squads in recent years. In
July, Human Rights Watch accused Badr forces of killing Sunni prisoners. In
recent battles with IS, Amri replaced his suit with a military uniform and
transformed into a battlefield commander overnight, giving television
interviews from the frontlines.

“Look at Amri’s uniform and then compare it to any Iraqi uniform ... It’s
completely different,” said a senior former security official. “Look for the
uniform of the IRGC” — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — “it’s
exactly one of them.”

KATAIB HEZBOLLAH

The head of Iran’s second proxy, Kataib Hezbollah, goes by the nom de guerre
Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandes. Many Iraqi officials simply call him Al-Mohandes, or
“the Engineer.” Mohandes, who could not be reached for comment for this
story, is Iran’s most powerful military representative in Iraq, according to
senior Iraqi officials. At 60, he has distinctive white hair and a white
beard. He studied engineering in Basra and joined Dawa, a political party
banned by Saddam, according to a Facebook page set up in his name.

He began working with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in Kuwait in 1983,
organizing attacks against embassies of countries that supported Saddam in
the war against Iran. He has repeatedly denied involvement in such attacks.
Following the first Gulf War, Mohandes lived in exile in Iran. After the
United States invaded Iraq, he returned home and was elected to parliament.
Even then, it was clear where his allegiances lay. On a 2006 trip to Tehran,
when protocol dictated that the Iranian and Iraqi delegations sit apart, “he
sat with the Iranians,” said Askari, the former Maliki adviser. “This was
not normal.”

Kataib Hezbollah is the most secretive of Iraq’s militias, and the only one
the US Treasury labels a terrorist organization. In 2009 the Treasury
sanctioned Mohandes for his alleged role in committing and facilitating
attacks against US and Iraqi forces. Mohandes has denied those charges,
though his group’s website features several video clips showing improvised
explosive devices blowing up American Humvees.

He has a house in Baghdad’s Green Zone close to Maliki, Iraqi officials say.
In recent years, he occasionally delivered messages between Maliki and
Iranian officials. He frequently visits Iran, where his family lives,
according to a former senior Iraqi official. When Ayatollah Ali Sistani,
Iraq’s most powerful cleric, called on Shiites to rise up and fight IS
earlier this year, Mohandes took charge of the tens of thousands of new
volunteers. “He’s involved in everything: administration, funding, logistics
and planning,” said a senior Iraqi security official.

ASAIB AHL AL-HAQ

The third big Iraqi militia, Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, started as a splinter group
of the Mahdi Army, a paramilitary force formed by anti-American Shi’ite
leader Moqtada Al-Sadr during the US occupation. Under leader Khazali, Asaib
gained notoriety for kidnapping and killing Sunni civilians and carrying out
attacks against US forces.

In 2007 he was arrested by US military forces for his alleged role in an
attack on an Iraqi government compound in Karbala, which left five American
soldiers dead. Khazali managed to use a kidnapped British consultant as a
bargaining chip to win his own release. (British and US military denied
striking such a deal.)

Askari, the former Maliki adviser, played a key role in negotiations. When a
senior British commander was skeptical that Khazali could wield power from
Camp Cropper, the high security facility where he was imprisoned, Khazali
asked for a phone. “They brought him a phone and he made a call,” said
Askari. “Within two weeks the attacks stopped.”

Asaib has grown stronger in recent years. Sunnis say Maliki allowed Shiite
militias, particularly Asaib, to kidnap and kill ordinary Sunnis to solidify
his grip on power. Some Sunnis began to see Asaib as Maliki’s personal
militia. Khazali was not available to be interviewed. At Asaib’s offices in
an upscale Baghdad neighborhood, the group’s spokesman, Naim Al Aboudi,
denied that Asaib is closely linked with Maliki or that the group targeted
Sunni civilians. “We are ... working toward building a more stable country,”
he said.

THE SYRIA CONNECTION

Fighters from all three militias have sharpened their combat skills in Syria
in recent years. In late 2011, as the Syrian conflict grew, Iran stepped in
to defend Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. Assad is a follower of the
Alawite faith, an offshoot of Shiism. Iraqi Shiite fighters also flocked to
Syria. Billboards and posters in Baghdad praise Iraqi “martyrs” in the
conflict.

Syria has also helped militia fighters hone their media skills. Internet
videos set to a booming soundtrack of Shiite militant religious songs show
fighters shooting rocket-propelled grenades, sniping from rooftops and
firing heavy machine guns from pickup trucks.

Some Iraqi Shiite militia commanders concede that defending Assad has been
unsavory. But they argue that fighting in Syria was necessary for broader
regional reasons, namely the struggle that Iran and its allies are waging
against Israel. “Bashar is a dictator,” said Abu Hamza, a burly commander
from Kataib Hezbollah who has fought in Syria. “But his presence there
preserves the line of resistance.”

BREAKING THE SIEGE

One of the biggest rallying points in recent months was Amerli, an Iraqi
town of some 15,000 Shiites, which was besieged by IS for two months. Most
residents there are Turkmen, not Arabs, but that did not change the
symbolism of the conflict for Shiites. Graffiti sprayed outside the town in
August read “Amerli is the Karbala of the age” — a reference to a seventh
century battle that is a defining moment for Shiites.

Iran helped train Kataib fighters in the use of AK-47 assault rifles, heavy
machine guns, mortars, rockets and IEDs, according to Abu Abdullah, the
Kataib commander. Kataib fighters also used a camera-equipped drone to
gather information on IS positions. A Reuters reporter met two men who spoke
Farsi, the language of Iran, accompanying Asaib fighters during the battle.
A third man said he had come from Iran to train police.

When the battle began in late August, Shiite militias teamed up with Kurdish
fighters to attack IS positions, as American aircraft bombed around the
town.

The importance of the battle for Iran was underscored when photographs and
videos surfaced on the Internet that allegedly showed Revolutionary Guard
commander Soleimani in the town.

In early September, a group of Shiite fighters and Kurdish peshmerga fought
to protect a small village near Amerli called Yangije. Some 50 IS fighters
had attacked the village in the early morning. After nearly eight hours of
fighting, the Shiites and Kurds pushed the fighters out. The next morning,
Shiite and peshmerga fighters went house-to-house to check IS had cleared
out. They came across an IS fighter hiding beneath a blanket. The man shot
and killed one peshmerga and detonated a suicide belt, injuring several
others.

Around midday, the burned and mangled body of the IS fighter was lying in
the sun when a group of Shiite fighters approached. A Reuters team saw one
Shiite fighter behead the corpse with a large knife while a handful of
fighters filmed with their phones. The dead fighter’s head was mounted on a
knife, and one Shiite fighter shouted, “This is revenge for our martyrs!“
The Shiite fighters put the head in a sack and took it away with them. —
Reuters

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 14 Nov.’14:” ‘Iraq violence costing J ordan JDI
million per day’ “, by Taylor Luck
SUBJECT: Iraq violence costs Jordan over JD 1 million per day
FULL TEXT:AMMAN — Ongoing violence in western Iraq is costing Jordan over
JD1 million per day as cargo flow between the two countries slows to a
trickle, trucking companies say.

Mohammad Kheir Dawood, head of the Jordan Truck Owners Association, said on
Thursday[13 Nov.] that growing instability and reduced cargo traffic has
cost local trucking companies over JD200 million since the Islamic State’s
(IS) seizure of large swathes of land in the west and north of Iraq.

Ongoing instability and the threat of roaming militias has reduced daily
traffic flow between Jordan and Iraq from 400 trucks to between 30 and 50,
trucking companies say.

Iraqi government forces briefly withdrew from the Iraqi-Jordanian border in
June, a period during which tribal militias manned the Karama border
crossing.

Although Iraqi government forces have returned to the border, large portions
of Anbar province remain in the hands of militias, causing many trucking
companies to suspend their Amman-Baghdad routes, Dawood said.

According to Anbar tribes, tribal militias have been working to guarantee
the safety of Jordanian trucks heading to the province, the main source of
basic food supplies to under-siege regions in west Iraq.

Despite their efforts, sources within Anbar claim IS militias continue to
man several checkpoints leading into Fallujah and Ramadi.

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 14 Nov.’14:”King meets Kerry, Netanyahu for talks on
Jerusalem tension”, by Merza Noghai,Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: King,Kerry, Netanyahu re Jerusalem tension, with Sisi by phone
QUOTE:”His Majesty King Abdullah holds talks with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State John Kerry in Amman on
Thursday[13 Nov.]
FULL TEXT:AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Thursday[13 Nov.] hosted a
trilateral meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cool tempers arising as a result of Israeli
policies in Jerusalem, which Amman has labelled as “provocative”.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi joined the Amman meeting over the
phone.

According to a Royal Court statement, the three sides also discussed ways to
create a climate encouraging the revival of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.

Netanyahu, the statement said, “reasserted Israel’s commitment to keep the
status quo in Jerusalem’s holy sites without change… and respect Jordan’s
Hashemite leaders’ historical role as custodians of holy sites in Jerusalem”.

During the meeting, His Majesty emphasised Jordan’s stand on the situation
in Jerusalem, reiterating a call on Tel Aviv to take practical steps to keep
the situation there intact, especially at Al Aqsa Mosque and its vicinity.

Earlier this month, Jordan recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv to protest
Israeli practices in the holy city, particularly the repeated violations of
the sanctity of Al Haram Al Sharif compound, which houses Al Aqsa Mosque,
the third holiest shrine to Muslims all over the world.

On the peace process, the King called on the US and all stakeholders to work
as soon as possible to address the obstacles facing peace efforts and the
resumption of talks to reach a solution in line with the two-state formula,
leading to the establishment of an independent and viable Palestinian state
within the pre-1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

His Majesty and the two officials discussed with Sisi over the phone the
peace process, the situation in Jerusalem and anti-terrorism efforts, while
the King expressed sympathies with Egypt, which has been targeted by a
series of terrorist attacks in various parts of the country, the Royal Court
said.

Earlier in the day, King Abdullah held a meeting with Kerry, during which he
underlined Jordan’s commitment to continued coordination with all
stakeholders to revive peace talks that address all final-status issues,
which, he said, require a genuine Israeli intention to stop the unilateral
measures and frequent attacks on Jerusalem.

King Abdullah said there is no other option but to establish the envisioned
Palestinian state.

For his part, Kerry acquainted the King with US efforts to bring about
peace, in addition to its role as part of the international alliance to
fight terrorist groups.

He voiced his appreciation for Jordan’s endeavours to achieve peace and
stability in the Middle East, according to the Royal Court.

At a press conference following the meeting, held jointly between Foreign
Minister Nasser Judeh and Kerry, the US official said steps were agreed on
to lower tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians.

After the three-way talks, Kerry said “firm commitments” had been made to
maintain the status quo at holy sites in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.

He said Israel and Jordan had also agreed to take steps to “de-escalate the
situation” in Jerusalem and to “restore confidence”.

Judeh reiterated that Jordan wants to maintain the status quo of the holy
sites in Jerusalem and respect for the Hashemite custodianship of the
shrines.

The top US diplomat’s diplomatic push Thursday[13 Nov.] included separate
meetings with Netanyahu and Abbas in Amman.

The talks focused on “ways to restore calm and de-escalate tensions in
Jerusalem,” State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said ahead of the
talks in the capital.

Months-long unrest in annexed East Jerusalem has in recent days spread to
the occupied West Bank and Arab communities across Israel, raising fears of
a new Palestinian uprising.

On Wednesday, Israel approved plans for another 200 settler homes in annexed
East Jerusalem — a move sharply criticised by Washington.

Much of the unrest in Jerusalem has been fuelled by Israeli moves to step up
settlement activity in the city’s eastern sector and by allowing extremists
to storm Al Aqsa compound, the third holiest site for 1.5 billion Muslims.

The Palestinians have also been infuriated by a far-right Jewish campaign
for prayer rights at Al Aqsa.

Although Israel insists it has no plans to change the decades-old status
quo, Jordan believes, as Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour put it, there is a
plan in that direction by the Israeli government.

Earlier, a tense confrontation erupted in the city’s Issawiya neighbourhood
as about 100 residents, including schoolchildren, tried to block a main road
after police closed off several neighbourhood entrances with concrete
blocks.

A local activist denounced the blocks as “collective punishment” against
Palestinians in Jerusalem



+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 14 Nov.’14:”France mulls military deployment in
Jordan for IS fight”Reuters

SUBJECT: France military deployment to Jordan

QUOTE:”France will decide… whether to send fighter jets to Jordan to strike
Islamic State militants in Iraq”

FULL TEXT: PARIS — France will decide in the coming weeks whether to send
fighter jets to Jordan to strike Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq in an
effort to increase the number of missions and reduce the cost, the army
spokesman and officials said on Thursday[13 Nov.].

France was the first country to join the US-led coalition in air strikes on
IS insurgents in Iraq, who have also taken control of large parts of
neighbouring Syria during the course of the three-year-old civil war there.

"We are thinking about a deployment in Jordan," army spokesman Gilles Jaron
told reporters, adding that it was being discussed with authorities in
Amman.

"It would reduce time in the air between take-off and missions above Iraq,"
he said.

It currently has nine fighter jets, maritime patrol aircraft, a refuelling
plane at its base in the United Arab Emirates as part of its “Chammal” Iraq
mission, as well as a war ship in the Gulf.

Two French diplomats said putting jets in Jordan would also help reduce
costs at a time when the government is under pressure to cut spending and
this week was forced to find ways to fill a 600 million euros budget gap in
additional costs for overseas military operations.

“It would be quicker and save money,” said one French diplomat. “It’s in our
interest to be as close to Iraq as possible.” A second source said a
decision would be made this month.

France has given Iraqi peshmerga fighters weapons and training, but has
ruled out carrying out air strikes in Syria.

It says it is providing military aid and training to the ramshackle Free
Syrian Army in Syria, but has not given any specific details of its help.

“Between three to six Mirage jets could be deployed to Jordan,” said a
military source.

Jordanian officials contacted by Reuters said they were not aware of the
plans.

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 14 Nov.’14:”Jerusalem Youth Forum opens”
SUBJECT: Further anti-Israel incitement path?
FULL TEXT:AMMAN — Jordan Engineers Association (JEA) President Abdullah
Obeidat, who heads the Jordanian popular committee to defend Al Aqsa Mosque
and sacred sites, on Thursday [13 Nov.]inaugurated the Jerusalem Youth
Forum.

At the opening of the four-day forum, Obeidat warned that Israeli settlers’
attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque will cause a “religious war”, according to a JEA
statement.

Meanwhile, Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs Secretary General Abdullah
Kanaan said the committee had contacted the ministers of education and
higher education and universities to include the Palestinian issue in the
curriculum.

====
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA