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Bennett expected to meet Biden at White House in coming weeks

Alternate prime minister Yair Lapid departed to UAE for first official visit since Abraham Accords * Bennett and Biden’s meeting to take place in coming weeks

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is expected to meet with US President Joe Biden at the White House in July or August, Bennett’s spokesman said on Monday.

The White House and the Prime Minister’s Office have been in talks to set a date for Bennett’s visit, likely to be his first trip abroad since becoming prime minister two weeks ago.

Biden “looks forward to hosting Prime Minister Bennett soon,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in Monday’s briefing. “We’re working on a date.”

The planned visit, so early in Bennett’s term, indicates the Biden administration’s embrace of the new government, made up of parties that span much of the Israeli political spectrum.

The trip is unlikely to take place before July 18, while Congress is in recess.

President Reuven Rivlin landed in Washington on Monday and was expected to meet with Biden in the White House after press time. Rivlin also plans to meet with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Bennett views Rivlin’s trip as a sort of test of how he and his views will be accepted in Washington. Both he and Rivlin oppose a two-state solution but are in favor of humanitarian gestures toward the Palestinians and are right-wingers, but they support working with a diverse coalition, a source close to the prime minister said.

Bennett views the Biden administration’s persistence in bringing Rivlin to Washington in his last days in office as a good sign, being that President-elect Isaac Herzog’s views, especially on a two-state solution, are more in line with Biden’s.

Rivlin is expected to convey to Biden that Israel seeks to be part of the conversation as the US and Iran indirectly negotiate their return to the 2015 nuclear deal, specifically on issues of enforcement and defense if Tehran violates the agreement.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is set to depart for the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday morning for the first state visit by an Israeli minister and the first since Israel and the UAE entered the Abraham Accords.

Lapid is scheduled to meet several ministers during his trip, including his Emirati counterpart, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, State Minister for Economic Matters Ahmed Al Sayegh and Culture Minister Noura Al Kaabi. He will also meet with representatives of the Jewish communities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Lapid is set to dedicate the Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Israeli Consulate in Dubai. Emirati government officials and Jewish community representatives will attend the events.

In addition, Lapid will visit Israel’s pavilion at the Expo 2020 world exposition, which will begin in October.
Ambassador to the US and UN Gilad Erdan on Sunday announced he was resigning his post in Washington and would leave as soon as Bennett appointed a replacement.

Erdan’s time in Washington was supposed to end in November.

“It was a true honor to represent Israel to our closest ally,” he said. “During my tenure, I worked to establish ties with the Biden administration, as well as to strengthen the bipartisan support. Those ties were proven during the Gaza operation when the US halted anti-Israel initiatives in the [UN Security Council] and approved additional funding for the Iron Dome.”

Erdan said he plans to continue to represent Israel at the UN.

New Issue Of Al-Qaeda In The Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) ‘Inspire’ Magazine – The First Since April 2017 – Calls Colorado Shooter Ahmad Al-Issa ‘Mujahid,’ Urges Muslims To Follow In His Path And Target ‘The American Enemy’ Inside And Outside The U.S.

On June 29, 2021, Al-Malahem, the media arm of the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), released[1] the first issue of its Inspire magazine since 2017.

This issue of the magazine, titled “Praise and Guidance,” praised the Colorado shooter Ahmad Al-Aliwi Al-Issa, perpetrator of the March 22, 2021 mass shooting at a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado in which 10 people were killed. It referred to Al-Issa as a mujahid – a jihad fighter – and went on to call on Muslims to target “the American enemy” inside and outside the U.S.

U.S. carries out deadly airstrikes in Iraq and Syria

In a statement, the Pentagon claims American F-15 and F-16 warplanes struck ‘operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq’.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, has reported that one child has been killed and at least three other civilians have sustained injuries on the outskirts of al-Bukamal in Syria’s eastern Dayr al-Zowr province next to the Iraqi border. SANA says residential buildings had been damaged.

The attack in Iraq is reported to have occurred in the country’s western Anbar province, along the Syrian border. It’s not the first time American warplanes have struck this important border crossing region and the second time President Joe Biden has authorized attacks against it since taking office.

The Pentagon statement added that Kata’ib Hezbollah and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada have been targeted in Iraq.

Two battalions that are part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, the most efficient branch of the Iraqi armed forces that fought and liberated towns and cities from the Daesh terrorist group. In a statement, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada has said that it mourns the martyrdom of four of its members in new American aggression.

The statement added that it will avenge their deaths. The airstrikes come as bases where American troops are stationed and American logistical convoys have come under constant attack by Iraqi resistance movements, demanding the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country. Since Washington assassinated Iranian Lieutenant General, Qassem Soleimani, and top Iraqi commander, Abu Mehdi al-Muhandis, in an act of terrorism at the direct orders of then-President Donald Trump, at Baghdad International Airport on January 3rd, 2020, the Iraqi parliament passed a bill calling on the U.S. to withdraw its forces from the country. Following the legislation, a million man march also took place in the Iraqi capital demanding the same. However, the U.S. has so far refused to end the occupation.

Clashes Between Various Groups in Northern Syria

Opposition groups backed by Turkey clashed in-between themselves and with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, according to Athr Press.

Local sources told Athr Press that the Mu’tasim Division group had tried to expel the families of fighters from other groups within the area it controls in Ras al-Ain city, in the rural northwest of Hassakeh.

Prominent Hezbollah Figure Murdered in Daraa

On Saturday evening, unknown assailants assassinated one of the most prominent leaders of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, in Daraa. They shot and immediately killed him on the Saida-Ghariya road.

Jahmani is Hezbollah’s first man in Daraa since 2019. He welcomed several Hezbollah and Iranian generals in mid-2019 and called prominent figures in Saida for a meeting to urge the region’s youth to volunteer in the pro-Iranian National Defense Militia.

Structure of a State: Captured Documents and the Islamic State’s Organizational Structure

When the group known as the Islamic State declared its caliphate in June 2014, it did so with a promise that it was not just an organization engaged in fighting, but in governing as well. As a result, the group’s pursuit of “stateness” required an investment in more than just battlefield advances. It also had to demonstrate a capability to create institutions that ostensibly served the dual purposes of imposing its interpretation of order on people while also improving the lives of its citizens.

While much has been written about the various bureaucratic agencies and institutions created by the Islamic State during the highwater mark of its tenure in Iraq and Syria, still relatively little is known about the size and scope of those institutions, or the personnel power needed to sustain them. Through analysis of a small number of key primary source documents, this report offers a glimpse at both facets, demonstrating that the Islamic State created intricate organizational structures to support its governance efforts, but also that the group’s funding supported tens of thousands of individuals and their families in Iraq.

Although it has lost much of its territorial holdings in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State has continued to show interest in governance there and in its affiliate provinces around the world, making the information contained in this report an important baseline against which to compare the group’s ongoing efforts.

List of Geographic Identifiers for IS Identification Numbers (English)
List of Geographic Identifiers for IS Identification Numbers (Arabic)
There are two versions of the chart in the original Arabic language document. The English translation is for the chart on page 2. However, there are minor differences between the two charts, which are detailed as follows: 1- On the top left corner of the chart on page 1, there is a red stamp that reads: “The Islamic State” “The General Monitoring Committee.” 2- There is a handwritten note on the bottom left corner of the chart on page 2 that reads: “Reserve” or “Archive.” 3- On the chart on page 1, one of the three names under the “War Committee” is written as “Shaykh ( )” which could mean that the person in that position has not been assigned yet. However, in the chart on page 2, it was written as “al-Shaykh” without parentheses.4- On the chart on page 1, the name of the individual under the “General Military Administration” was written as: “Abu Wala’, ” whereas in the chart on page 2, it was written as “Abul-Wala’.”
Islamic State military organizational chart, undated (Arabic)
Islamic State memo for dealing with new recruits (English)
Islamic State memo for dealing with new recruits (Arabic)

Iran Urges Vienna Nuclear Talks Parties To Make Decisions

Despite progresses in the negotiations, the parties have announced that some “serious” differences have not been bridged.

Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh on Monday urged the parties in the Vienna talks to make their decisions on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

4 killed in US airstrikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq, Syria

The United States military said on Sunday it targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq.

At least four members of Shi’ite militias were killed in “defensive precision airstrikes” which US President Joe Biden ordered against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups along the Iraq-Syria border region on Sunday night.