“A top Hamas official said the Palestinian militant group is losing faith in
the United States’ ability to mediate a cease-fire in Gaza ahead of a new round
of talks scheduled for this week amid mounting pressure to bring an end to the
10-month-old war with Israel. Osama Hamdan told The Associated Press in an
interview Tuesday that Hamas will only participate if the talks focus on
implementing a proposal detailed by U.S. President Joe Biden in May and
endorsed internationally. The U.S. referred to it as an Israeli proposal and
Hamas agreed to it in principle, but Israel said Biden’s speech was not
entirely consistent with the proposal itself. Both sides later proposed
changes, leading each to accuse the other of obstructing a deal. Hamas is
especially resistant to Israel’s demand that it maintain a lasting military
presence in two strategic areas of Gaza after any cease-fire, conditions only
made public in recent weeks.”











<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>



Eye on Extremism



August 15, 2024



Associated Press: A Top Hamas Official Says The Group Is Losing Faith In The
US As A Mediator In Gaza Cease-Fire Talks
<[link removed]>



“A top Hamas official said the Palestinian militant group is losing faith in
the United States’ ability to mediate a cease-fire in Gaza ahead of a new round
of talks scheduled for this week amid mounting pressure to bring an end to the
10-month-old war with Israel. Osama Hamdan told The Associated Press in an
interview Tuesday that Hamas will only participate if the talks focus on
implementing a proposal detailed by U.S. President Joe Biden in May and
endorsed internationally. The U.S. referred to it as an Israeli proposal and
Hamas agreed to it in principle, but Israel said Biden’s speech was not
entirely consistent with the proposal itself. Both sides later proposed
changes, leading each to accuse the other of obstructing a deal. Hamas is
especially resistant to Israel’s demand that it maintain a lasting military
presence in two strategic areas of Gaza after any cease-fire, conditions only
made public in recent weeks.”



Associated Press: U.S. Envoy Visits Lebanon And Warns That Regional Tensions
Could Easily Slip 'Out Of Control'
<[link removed]>



“A senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday it’s critical to
take advantage of “this window for diplomatic action” to end the Israel-Hamas
war in Gaza and ongoing hostilities along the Lebanon-Israel border, fearing
that escalations could spiral “out of control.” Amos Hochstein, tasked with
shuttle diplomacy between Lebanon and Israel, spoke to journalists after
meeting Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, as the region anxiously
anticipates retaliatory attacks from Iran and the allied Lebanese Hezbollah
group on Israel. Hochstein met with Israeli officials Tuesday. Cease-fire talks
between Hamas and Israel are expected to resume in Qatar on Thursday with
Qatari, Egyptian, and U.S. mediators. Hezbollah and Israel have traded strikes
since Oct. 8, a day after Palestinian Hamas militants’ surprise attack into
southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.”



CEP Mentions



Integrity Insights Podcast: Countering Right-Wing Extremism With Sanctions
<[link removed]>



“In this episode, Filip Brokes sits down with Hans Jacob Schindler, a
renowned expert in the field of counter-terrorism and extremism. Hans provides
an in-depth analysis of the growing threat of right-wing extremism, its
financing mechanisms, and the international response to this rising danger.
Drawing from his extensive career, including pivotal roles within the German
government and the United Nations, Hans offers a unique perspective on how
these extremist groups operate and what can be done to counter them.”



The Cipher Brief: Three Years After Taliban Return, Terrorists Find Safe Haven
In Afghanistan
<[link removed]>



“Three years after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the return of the
Taliban to power, the country has once again become a haven for terrorist
organizations. Former Afghan officials and United Nations workers say that
since the collapse of the Afghan government in August 2021, more than a dozen
terrorist groups have established – or reconstituted – safe havens in
Afghanistan, helped by the presence of a Taliban regime that is either unable
or unwilling to stop them. The latest report from Islamabad-based Security
Studies Center of Research (CRSS) found that Afghanistan experienced a surge in
terror attacks during the second quarter of 2024. Some 240 attacks and
counter-terror operations resulted in 380 deaths and 220 injuries among
civilians, security personnel, and suspected terrorists.”



FDD’s Long War Journal: New UN Report On Jihadi Threat In Africa, Asia, And
The Middle East
<[link removed]>



“Bill is joined by Long War Journal and Generation Jihad regulars Edmund
Fitton-Brown and Caleb Weiss to discuss the latest report by the UN’s
Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team on the status of jihadi groups
in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.”



24 Rhein: Sabotage Against Bundeswehr Bases In NRW: “There Is Much Evidence
For A Russian Attack Attempt”
<[link removed]>



“... Hans-Jakob Schindler, for example, a terrorism expert from the Counter
Extremism Project (CEP), sees three groups as possible suspects: Russian or
Russian-backed actors, radical Islamists or left-wing extremists. He considers
one suspicion to be particularly likely: "The first thing I would check is
whether it was a Russian or Russian-backed attack attempt or whether it was at
least Russian-initiated," said Schindler in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA.
There is much to support this theory. Germany has been the focus of Russian
attackers since 2022 at the latest, if not since the Minsk Agreement in 2015.
And the NATO base in Geilenkirchen in particular plays a special role in the
context of the Ukraine war: AWACS aircraft are stationed there, which can be
used to observe movements on NATO's eastern flank.”



GBN: UK Prepares For Mass Evacuation Of 60,000 Britons Amid Fears Of Attack On
Israel <[link removed]>



“... Edmund Fitton-Brown, Senior Advisor to the Counter Extremism Project and
former Ambassador of the UK to Yemen said "it could all very easily spiral out
of control". "In essence, I think Iran and Israel would both prefer to avoid
escalation out of control," he told the MailOnline. "But Iran (and Hezbollah)
both want to be seen to respond to the Israeli assassinations. "Calibrating
such responses in such a way as to save face and yet avoid escalation gets more
difficult with each successive round of skirmishing."”



CapX: In Nottingham, State Failure Saw Three Stabbed To Death
<[link removed]>



“It was an atrocity that shook the nation. In June last year, Valdo Calocane
stabbed to death 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar
in Nottingham, going on to kill 65-year-old Ian Coates. Calocane then stole Mr
Coates’ van and used it to seriously injure three more people by mowing them
down in the street before police apprehended him. The attack had all the
hallmarks of a terrorist incident, and the people of Nottingham and far beyond
certainly felt terrorised in the initial hours and days after the event. The
courts decided that Calocane was guilty of manslaughter through diminished
responsibility, a decision bitterly resented by the bereaved families. It is
likely he will never be released from a secure hospital where he is now
detained. The brutal trajectory of this attack was laid out in court, so the
how of these killings is easy to determine.”



Iran



CNN: Iran’s Mixed Signals Leave Some Allies In The Dark And Set Region On Edge
<[link removed]>



“The mood in Lebanon’s restive capital has darkened in the two weeks since
Israel’s July 30 attack in southern Beirut that killed Iran-backed Hezbollah’s
top commander Fu’ad Shukr and four civilians. The city woke up the next morning
to find that another Iran-supported official, Hamas’ political leader Ismail
Haniyeh, had been killed in an assassination in the heart of the Iranian
capital, Tehran. The chances of war, for months stowed away into the deeper
crevices of this city’s psyche, had grown manifold. “Do you think I am sitting
in Hezbollah’s war room?” said one exasperated political leader with ties to
the powerful Beirut-based armed group. “I have no idea what’s going to happen
next. You probably know more than I do.” Other officials in contact with Iran
and Hezbollah said they were similarly in the dark as to how Tehran and its
allied non-state fighting groups might deliver the “severe revenge” its top
military officials, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have promised.”



Turkey



Reuters: U.S. Tells Turkey Syrian Kurdish YPG Moving Back To East Of Euphrates
- Sources
<[link removed]>



“U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu on Thursday that Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters were retreating to the
east of the Euphrates river, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said. In an early
morning call, the two emphasised that the fight against Islamic State in Syria
and Iraq would continue together, the sources said. Syrian rebels backed by
Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes entered one of Islamic State's last
strongholds on the Turkish-Syrian border on Wednesday, in Turkey's first major
U.S.-backed incursion into its southern neighbour. The role of the Syrian
Kurdish YPG has been a sticking point between NATO allies Turkey and the United
States. Washington backs the fighters against Islamic State in Syria. Turkey
sees the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK),
which has carried out a three-decade violent insurgency in its Kurdish
southeast.”



Associated Press: Turkey’s Erdogan Meets With Palestinian Leader Abbas Ahead
Of Speech To Parliament
<[link removed]>



“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted Palestinian leader Mahmoud
Abbas for talks that focused on the conflict in Gaza, Erdogan’s office said,
ahead of a planned address to parliament Thursday. Erdogan’s office said late
Wednesday that the two discussed “the massacres committed by Israel in
Palestinian territories” and “the steps that need to be taken for a permanent
cease-fire and peace” at the presidential palace in Ankara. The statement,
released on the social media platform X, said Erdogan pledged continued support
to “Palestine’s just cause” and to work to “increase the pressure on Israel by
the international community … especially the Islamic world” to deliver
humanitarian aid and bring peace. Abbas arrived Wednesday for a visit that
comes as the threat of Iranian retaliation against Israel over the
assassination of Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh fueled concerns of the war
spreading across the Middle East.”



Afghanistan



Associated Press: Taliban Have Deliberately Deprived 1.4 Million Afghan Girls
Of Schooling Through Bans, Says Unesco
<[link removed]>



“The Taliban have deliberately deprived 1.4 million Afghan girls of schooling
through bans, a United Nations agency said Thursday. Afghanistan is the only
country in the world that bans female secondary and higher education. The
Taliban, who took power in 2021, barred education for girls above sixth grade
because they said it didn’t comply with their interpretation of Sharia, or
Islamic law. They didn’t stop it for boys and show no sign of taking the steps
needed to reopen classrooms and campuses for girls and women. UNESCO said at
least 1.4 million girls have been deliberately denied access to secondary
education since the takeover, an increase of 300,000 since its previous count
in April 2023, with more girls reaching the age limit of 12 every year. “If we
add the girls who were already out of school before the bans were introduced,
there are now almost 2.5 million girls in the country deprived of their right
to education, representing 80% of Afghan school-age girls,” UNESCO said.”



Lebanon



Reuters: US Envoy Hochstein Says He Thinks Israel And Lebanon's Hezbollah Can
Avoid War
<[link removed]>



“U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein said on Wednesday he believed all-out war between
Israel and Lebanon's powerful militant group Hezbollah could be avoided but
that Israel and Hamas needed to move towards a peace agreement for Gaza without
further delay. Iran-backed Hezbollah began cross-border attacks on Israel soon
after Israeli forces began a military assault on Gaza in response to the deadly
Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Israeli fire, initially confined to Lebanon's
border area, has now targeted senior Hezbollah, Hamas and other figures further
north. Hochstein, a senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, landed in
Beirut on Wednesday to deter an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, after
the latter killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut's southern suburbs
last month. "We continue to believe that a diplomatic resolution is achievable
because we continue to believe that no one truly wants a full-scale war between
Lebanon and Israel," Hochstein said after talks with parliament speaker Nabih
Berri, a strong Hezbollah ally.”



BBC: Lebanese Hold Their Breath As Mediators Scramble To Avert All-Out War
<[link removed]>



“The Middle East is in turmoil. International diplomacy is in overdrive. And
for once many in Israel, Lebanon and Iran have something in common - a war of
nerves. They worry and they wait for what may come next. It feels like the
whole region is holding its breath. Is this the slide towards an all-out
regional war? Can a ceasefire be wrestled from the ruins of Gaza? How will
Iran, and its proxy militia Hezbollah, retaliate against Israel for
back-to-back assassinations in Beirut and Tehran? Will they heed calls for
restraint? In Lebanon, the stultifying heat of summer is overlaid by a layer of
anxiety. Heart-stopping sonic booms interrupt the hum of traffic in Beirut, as
Israeli warplanes break the sound barrier in the skies above. Many foreign
nationals are gone, heeding the advice of their governments. Plenty of Lebanese
have fled too. Others cannot tear themselves away - like the 30-year-old chef
of a hip café (Beirut has too many of these to count). She is tattooed and
candid but prefers not to be named.”



Middle East



Reuters: Hamas To Stay Out Of Gaza Truce Talks But May Meet Mediators
Afterwards
<[link removed]>



“Hamas said on Wednesday it would not take part in a new round of Gaza
ceasefire talks slated for Thursday in Qatar, but an official briefed on the
talks said mediators expected to consult with the Palestinian group afterwards.
The U.S. has said it expects indirect talks to go ahead as planned in Qatar's
capital Doha on Thursday, and that a ceasefire agreement was still possible,
while warning that progress was needed urgently to avert a wider war. Axios
reported that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a trip to
the Middle East that had been expected to begin on Tuesday. White House press
secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that CIA Director Bill Burns and
U.S. Middle East envoy Brett McGurk will represent Washington at the talks on
Thursday in Qatar. Three senior Iranian officials have said that only a
ceasefire deal in Gaza would hold Iran back from direct retaliation against
Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil last
month.”



Europe



NBC: Taylor Swift Fans Flock To London For Final Leg Of Eras Tour After Vienna
Terrorism Plot
<[link removed]>



“Taylor Swift is poised to wrap up the European leg of her record-breaking
tour with five performances in London starting on Thursday amid tight security
following a thwarted terror plot that targeted her show in Vienna. Last week,
Austrian authorities prevented what was believed to be an ISIS-linked terror
plot targeting one of her shows in Vienna. Three shows were canceled. Swift’s
team is working closely with organizers in the U.K. to ensure heightened
security this weekend as fans flock to Wembley Stadium for the second time this
summer. Katrina Hutchins said she surprised her 9-year-old son Callahan with
tickets to Thursday's London show as a Christmas gift last year. While the news
from Vienna rattled them, Hutchins said her son was primarily concerned about
Swift's mental health and well-being. "I keep reassuring him that the security
will be tighter than ever, and Wembley may just be the very safest place to be
in the next couple of days," Hutchins said.”



The Counter Extremism Project depends on the generosity of its supporters. If
you value what we do, please consider making a donation.

DONATE NOW
<[link removed]>
 




Click here to unsubscribe.
<[link removed]>