Protesters ‘throw rocks at police’ at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site

Putin, Netanyahu to discuss Middle East situation — Kremlin

SOCHI, September 18. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the situation in the Middle East next week, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Friday.

"This will be a businesslike sincere conversation of the two leaders," he told TASS.

 

Ushakov said Putin and Netanyahu "meet quite often and have telephone conversations."

Netanyahu’s office announced on Thursday the prime minister’s plans to visit Moscow next week to discuss with Putin "the deployment of Russian forces in Syria."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists earlier on Friday that Russia will consider Syria’s request to send troops if Damascus asks for it, but it is hard to talk about hypothetically.

Peskov also said that Turkish and Palestinian leaders Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Mahmoud Abbas could visit Moscow next week.

At Least 9 Die in Failed Attempt to Free Prisoners from Libyan Prison

TRIPOLI – At least nine people were killed, including six perpetrators and three guards in a failed attempt to storm the prison of Mitiga near the capital Tripoli.

The attack was attributed to the Libyan branch of the Islamic State group.

Spokesman of the task force monitoring the prison, Moaz Khalil told EFE that the six perpetrators, who had explosive belts strapped to their bodies, came out of a nearby mosque and entered the detention center after shooting the doors with RPGs.

Armed clashes took place inside the prison, in which all six attackers were killed as well as three guards, while several other prisoners and police officers were wounded in the incident.

Khalil added that the perpetrators stormed into the prison and made their way to a cell where prisoners accused of committing terrorist attacks were detained.

He said they then provided the prisoners with weapons and grenades in order to secure a way out.

Libya has fallen prey to political chaos and daily violence since the fall of the regime under Muammar Gaddafi in Oct. 2011.

Since then, the Arab country has two parallel governments, one in Tripoli and the other internationally-recognized one in Tobruk, while both are fighting for power and control of natural resources.

‘Day of Rage’ clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces

Iranian VP Ebtekar hopeful of new beginning for Iran

Mayor Rudy Giuliani: We must recognize Iranian Resistance movement

In order to prevent a nuclear-armed regime in Iran and avoid war in the process, the U.S. government should recognize and support the Iranian Resistance which seeks to overthrow the mullahs’ regime, Rudolph W. Giuliani, former mayor of New York, wrote on Friday marking the 14th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

"It would be a mistake, however, to conclude that 9/11 is now simply a part of the nation’s history, like Pearl Harbor. Because there is one big difference. The causes and hatreds that created 9/11 are still with us, and the terrorists have enlisted members who are even more diverse, cunning and determined. The Islamist terrorist war against us continues. This is not a matter of history but of current and future threats," Mr. Giuliani wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

"In the late 1970s, Iran’s theocratic rulers began killing hundreds of thousands of their own people and took American hostages that the regime held for 444 days."

"Now, once again, the terrorist attacks under the banner of jihad are increasing and diversifying. With so many such attacks and thwarted attacks over the past five or six years, we must recognize that 'they'—those who want to destroy civilization—are continuing the war against us."

"Yet those running our government seem to be in an even greater state of denial than the nation was in during the period before Sept. 11. Now, instead of bin Laden, Iran’s supreme ayatollah has declared that he wants to destroy Israel, to continue to kill Americans and to establish an Islamic empire including Iraq, Syria and Yemen—and the terrorist groups Iran supports. At the same time, the group known as Islamic State, or ISIS, has declared a caliphate seeking the destruction of Christianity and other infidels, and now occupies key areas of Iraq and Syria."

"As we reflect on the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we must remind ourselves that all the wickedness underlying those attacks still exists and has expanded. We may very well be in more jeopardy now than before 9/11."

"The Obama administration appears likely to get its nuclear deal with Iran—even though it gives the ayatollahs access to hundreds of millions of dollars that will be used to sponsor terrorist acts against us and our allies, and puts the regime on the road to becoming a nuclear power. The deal makes war, either conventional or nuclear, more likely."

"But there are alternatives to war. The Iranian regime to this very day maintains a two-dimensional approach to us: negotiate with us while maintaining policies on the destruction of Israel, death to Americans and supporting Islamist terrorism. The American leadership should be at least as shrewd, using a two-pronged counter approach: While attempting to reach an agreement assuring a nonnuclear Iran, we should also recognize and support the Iranian resistance movement. It is absurd that we supported regime change in Egypt, a U.S. friend, and regime change in Libya, a neutered country that had abandoned its weapons of mass destruction, and yet have done nothing to support it in Iran," Mr. Giuliani added.

Clashes continue at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem