The U.S. is preparing to send strategic military assets to South Korea for drills as tensions run high on the peninsula following North Korea’s test of a new offensive weapon.
“The two sides have agreed to send U.S. strategic assets, such as the F-22 stealth fighters and a nuclear-powered submarine, to the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises in March,” a military official told Yonhap News Agency. The U.S. may also send B-1B strategic bombers and the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group to the region, according to some observers.
“We are in talks with the U.S. to determine the size of U.S. strategic assets to be deployed and the range of their exposure to local media,” the Ministry of National Defense reported.
The exercise will be the largest ever and is designed to showcase the strength of the alliance in the face of North Korean nuclear and missile threats, the defense ministry added.
POLICE in Paris are struggling to cope with the fall out from a plague of riots which have kicked off in the city’s northern suburbs.
Five large areas have been reduced to no go areas for the past five nights as masked men cause mayhem on the streets.
Now there are fears the fall out from allegations of police brutality could spread all over the country as unrest in the city grows.
Residents have been on lockdown as armed police tried to tackle the rioters who have caused millions of pounds of damage.
Police were hit with molotov cocktails and the heavy metal balls used in the French game Petanque.
And after setting cars and even a disability vehicle on fire the police have been forced to fire live rounds of bullets.
A reporter for the French TV company BMTV was also injured after being attacked.
The areas of Aulnay-Sous-Bois, Aulnay, Argenteuil, Bobigny and Tremblay-en-France in the Saint-Seine-Denis district have all been affected.
It follows allegations of horrific police brutality in a housing estate called Rose des Vents in Aulnay-Sous-Bois which is also known locally as the 'city of 3000'.
Local residents and police forces have called the continued unrest "disgraceful" while the man allegedly assaulted by police named only as Theo has pleaded for calm.
Last night it was claimed rioters shouted 'Allahu Akbar' during violent protests in Paris where a car was set on fire.
Front National (FN) MP Marion Le Pen tweeted the amateur video which shows chaotic scenes including of clouds of smoke after cars were set on fire and a man yelling “Allahu Akbar”, Arabic for God is Greatest, three times.
The niece of the FN leader Marine Le Pen tweeted: “Rioters yelled “Allah Akbar” in Bobigny yesterday night”.
The video was filmed in Bobigny, which is a suburb of Paris where protesters have clashed with French riot police.
As I write this, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is flying to Washington for his first official meetings with President Trump.
The men have known each other for years, and there is a good chemistry between the two. They met last fall in Trump Tower (see picture above) and have spoken several times by phone since then. There is, therefore, a great deal of optimism among Americans and Israelis that a new, warmer, closer friendship can and will be forged after the deep strains of the Obama-Biden years. Yet there are also concerns regarding just how the Trump relationship with Netanyahu and his government will play out.
What exactly should we be watching for this week? Here are five crucial questions to which I’m looking for answers.
1.) HOW WILL THE TWO LEADERS PREVENT IRAN FROM GOING NUCLEAR?
No issue on Netanyahu’s agenda is more important than undoing the damage of the nuclear deal President Obama cut with Iran, the deal the Israeli premier famously called an “historic mistake.”
2) HOW CAN THEY CONTAIN THE CRISIS IN SYRIA?
Here in Israel, we are watching a modern Arab state implode before our very eyes. More than 500,000 people are dead. Chemical weapons have been used by the Assad regime, and by the Islamic State. The militaries of Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and Turkey are all operating in the Syrian theater. The refugee crisis is enormous. Millions of Syrians have poured into Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey.
The big question now is this: Can Trump and Netanyahu map out a unified approach to contain the crisis in Syria and prevent it from causing: A) a new war to erupt with Israel; B) a flood of terrorists to spread out into the U.S., Israel, Europe and the Arab world; and C) the destabilization of Jordan and/or other Arab allies?
3) HOW CAN THEY ADVANCE RATHER THAN UNDERMINE THE EMERGING STRATEGIC ALLIANCE WITH THE SUNNI ARAB WORLD?
As I have been writing about for the last several years (see here, here, here, here and here), a quiet but dramatic shift is taking place in the epicenter.
The existential threats posed by Iran and the Islamic State — and the vacuum caused by President Obama’s foolish insistence on retreating from the Middle East — are causing Sunni Arab states to discreetly drop their intense hostility with Israel. Indeed, they are working closely — increasingly closely — with the Jewish State to protect themselves from common enemies. Every few weeks, I’m hearing of more high-level contacts between current and former Israeli leaders and current and former Sunni Arab leaders.
4) WILL THEY ACTUALLY MOVE THE U.S. EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM, AND IF SO HOW, AND WHEN? — It looked like it was going to happen fast.
However, America’s Sunni Arab allies, and surely the Palestinian leadership, have warned President Trump not to be hasty. They argue such a move could cause a serious backlash against the U.S. on the Arab street and disrupt or even derail the significant progress that is being made behind the scenes in terms of Israeli-Sunni relations.
To his credit, the new President has slowed the process down somewhat. He is rightly listening carefully to a range of counselors on the matter. In the end, this is certainly the President’s decision alone to make.
I do hope he moves the U.S. Embassy to West Jerusalem. This would correct an historic injustice when Washington refused to recognize Jerusalem as Israel capital dating back to 1948.
5) HOW WILL THEY STRENGTHEN ISRAELI SECURITY AND IMPROVE THE LIVES OF PALESTINIANS EVEN IF THE PROSPECTS OF A PEACE DEAL ARE MINIMAL RIGHT NOW?
President Trump sees himself as a deal-maker par excellence. He would love to be the guy who solved this problem where no other American president could. He wants to appoint his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to focus on make a peace deal.
The big question now is this: In the absence of a clear path forward in the peace process for now, can Trump and Netanyahu agree on a strategy to improve Israeli security; improve the lives of the Palestinian people by encouraging economic growth, job creation, and the building of new factories, schools, hospitals, roads and other critical infrastructure; and do so in a way that doesn’t undermine — and may even enhance — the quiet alliance emerging between Israel and her Sunni Arab neighbors?
According to globalist magazine Foreign Policy, one of the fears the Russia has is that President Donald Trump may be "ousted or even killed" by the Washington establishment.
According to the Foreign Policy article, Russia is both confused and concerned with how they will respond to Donald Trump being a “revolutionary insurgent with a mission to dismantle America’s 'old regime,'” according to “conversations with Russian policymakers and experts."
“What the Kremlin fears most today is that Trump may be ousted or even killed. His ouster, Kremlin insiders argue, is bound to unleash a virulent and bipartisan anti-Russian campaign in Washington,” the article reads.
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