Evening Update: Earthquakes Back In The News

Not only are earthquakes back in the news, but if you track prophecy related news it has become obvious that we're in the midst of another series of birth pains. When two updates per day isn't enough to cover evolving news stories (many articles are 'left on the table' lately just due to volume), you know this is the reality. 

Today we see another major quake, this one off the coast of Peru, which comes just after the massive quake in Pakistan:

Massive Earthquake In Pakistan - At Least 350 Killed And Hundreds Injured - Deadliest Earthquake Since 2011

Seismic Monitor

Very Strong 7.0 Earthquake In Coastal Area Peru

Iran's Rouhani Says He Seeks Nuclear Deal With West In 3-6 Months

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a newspaper interview on Wednesday that he wants to reach a deal with world powers on Tehran's nuclear program in three to six months.

"The only way forward is for a timeline to be inserted into the negotiations that's short," Rouhani was quoted as telling The Washington Post, through a translator, during a visit to New York where he addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

"The shorter it is, the more beneficial it is to everyone. If it's three months that would be Iran's choice, if it's six months that's still good. It's a question of months not years," said Rouhani when asked for a time frame for resolving Iran's nuclear dispute with the West.

Iran's foreign minister expressed hope on Wednesday that a meeting with top diplomats from the United States and five other powers this week will jump-start negotiations to resolve the decade-long dispute over the Iranian nuclear program.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is set to meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry as well as diplomats from Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany on Thursday in New York in a rare encounter between American and Iranian officials.

Asked what he expected from the meeting with the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany, Zarif said: "a jump-start to the negotiations ... with a view to reaching an agreement within the shortest span."

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday cautiously embraced overtures from Rouhani, as the basis for a possible nuclear deal and challenged him to take concrete steps toward resolving the issue.

Skeptical Netanyahu 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers aren’t alone in their skepticism of Tehran’s newly friendly face. But Jerusalem’s refusal to consider giving the Iranians a chance to prove their sincerity, and to do as little as possible to acknowledge the ostensible goodwill gestures — as underlined by the Israeli delegation solo boycott of President Hasan Rouhani’s UN speech on Tuesday — threatens to isolate Israel rather than the Islamist foe it so mistrusts.

Jerusalem is well aware of this. Netanyahu knows he’s “spoiling the party,” an official told The Times of Israel with striking candor. But the prime minister, said the official, sees a “moral obligation” in insisting that Iran be measured by deeds not speeches, in urging the world not to be misled by empty rhetoric.

And on Tuesday, the outreach became an onslaught. In his first appearance at the United Nations General Assembly, Rouhani sought to woo the world with a brief, direct speech in which he used the word “peace” 19 times (and mentioned the Torah). Soon afterwards, in a CNN interview, he starkly separated himself still further from his easy-to-demonize predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, by acknowledging the Holocaust, though not its scope, and condemning it.

Only Israel has made up its mind, with Netanyahu adamant that Rouhani’s comments and tone are disingenuous, “hypocritical,” “cynical” — designed solely to buy time while Iran inches toward the bomb.

Before Rouhani had even spoken, Netanyahu was declaring that he wouldn’t be fooled by Iran’s “smokescreen” and urging the world not to be fooled either. In a video statement after Obama’s speech, the prime minister, quoting the US president, said he too would “welcome a genuine diplomatic solution that truly dismantles Iran’s capacity to develop nuclear weapons.” His emphasis was on the words “genuine” and “truly,” and he uttered them in tones that bespoke his immense skepticism.

The decision to then order out the members of Israel’s UN delegation meant Netanyahu was dismissing Rouhani’s rhetoric before even hearing it. And he justified the move as soon as Rouhani had finished his address because, he said, for them to have stayed “would have given legitimacy to a regime that does not accept that the Holocaust happened and publicly declares its desire to wipe Israel off the map.” As Israel’s prime minister, Netanyahu said, “I won’t allow the Israeli delegation to be part of a cynical public relations charade by a regime that denies that Holocaust and calls for our destruction.”

“The prime minister is aware that he’s spoiling the party,” the Israeli official told The Times of Israel, referring to Jerusalem’s insistent skepticism in face of the world’s cautious optimism. “Many people in the international community want to believe in Rouhani’s charm offensive. But the prime minister believes firmly that we haven’t seen change of substance. And he will make his case even if there are those who believe that he’s spoiling the party, even if he risks sounding like a broken record. He believes that’s his moral obligation.”

Maybe so. But so long as Jerusalem holds to that line, its isolation is likely to grow, and Iran’s supporters will be able to depict the Jewish state as the intransigent party.

Kerry: Israel, Palestinians Agree To Intensify Peace Talks With Increased US Role

Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to intensify their peace talks and to increase the US role, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday in a rare comment on the negotiations.

Speaking to donors who support the Palestinian Authority, Kerry said the two sides have met seven times since the talks resumed on July 29 although Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have not met.

Israelis and Palestinians had increased verbal hostility toward each other in the past week trading barbs fueled by the killing of two IDF soldiers in the West Bank by Palestinians in two separate incidents.

Israel complained to the US on Monday in the wake the killings, saying that the Palestinian Authority had failed to stop violence and incitement against it and its citizens.

The Palestinian Authority said that the killing of the soldier should not be used by Israel to avoid fulfilling its obligations toward the peace process, adding that "several Israeli violations and trespasses" would be addressed to Obama by Abbas.

NSA Spy Scandal May Scuttle EU-U.S. Anti-Terrorist Agreement

The European Union is threatening to suspend a data-sharing deal with the United States used for tracking terrorist bank funding over suspicions the National Security Agency was stealing financial data from law-abiding Europeans.

The European Union is threatening to suspend a data-sharing deal with the United States. It is supposed to track terrorist bank funding, but there are suspicions the National Security Agency was stealing financial data from law-abiding Europeans. 

Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU commissioner responsible for investigating the implications of the NSA and GCHQ spy scandal, said the Terror Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) of 2010, which supplies bank and credit card transaction information to the US treasury in an effort to trace funding to terrorist groups, may be in jeopardy if it is determined the Americans were abusing the agreement.

Malmstrom said she was unhappy with the information supplied by the US government, saying the Americans need to provide more data 

"I am not satisfied with what we have received so far," the commissioner told a European parliament committee debating the NSA disclosures. "Whilst from the US reactions last week we now have some understanding of the situation, we need more detailed information in order to credibly assess reality and to be in a position to judge whether the obligations of the US side under the agreement have been breached.

Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is a British intelligence agency that has also come under suspicion of EU commissioners when it was revealed the organization was collecting all online and telephone data in the UK via the Tempora program, also revealed in the NSA disclosures.

"A decision to maintain the agreement or to consider proposing its suspension is a serious matter,”Malmstrom admitted. 

The Terror Financing Tracking Program (TFTP) was one such piece of legislation that is now, following the NSA revelations, raising eyebrows among some of America’s leading allies.

TFTP is a collaborative effort between the Central Intelligence Agency and US Treasury that has provided US officials “with a unique and powerful window into the operations of terrorist networks and is, without doubt, a legal and proper use of our authorities," Stuart Levey, an undersecretary at the Treasury, said in an interview with The New York Times in June 2006.

The agreement required EU authorities to transfer data to the US treasury from the Brussels-based system Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

This provided US officials with a large amount of data since the majority of international interbank messages use the SWIFT network. According to the SWIFT website, “more than 10,000 financial institutions and corporations in 212 countries…exchange millions of standardized financial messages”daily.

Although Levey ensured that “multiple safeguards” were put in place to protect against any unwarranted searches of records, EU MEPs are demanding that TFTP be scrapped following recent reports that the NSA was “also tapping into the SWIFT databases to gain access to the private data of Europeans on their financial dealings,” The Guardian reported.

A New York Times report ("Bank data is sifted by U.S. in secret to block terror," June 23, 2006) on the program detailed a “significant departure” as to how the government acquires financial records through TFTP.