Islamic State destroys temple at Palmyra
BEIRUT – Islamic State militants destroyed a temple at Syria’s ancient ruins of Palmyra, activists said Sunday, realizing the worst fears archaeologists had for the 2,000-year-old Roman-era city after the extremists seized it and beheaded a local scholar.
Palmyra, one of the Middle East’s most spectacular archaeological sites and a UNESCO World Heritage site, sits near the modern Syrian city of the same name. Activists said the militants used explosives to blow up the Baalshamin Temple on its grounds, the blast so powerful it also damaged some of the Roman columns around it.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday night that the temple was blown up a month ago. Turkey-based activist Osama al-Khatib, who is originally from Palmyra, said the temple was blown up Sunday. Both said the extremists used a large amount of explosives to destroy it.
The Sunni extremists, who have imposed a violent interpretation of Islamic law across their self-declared “caliphate” in territory they control in Syria and Iraq, claim ancient relics promote idolatry and say they are destroying them as part of their purge of paganism. However, they are also believed to sell off looted antiquities, bringing in significant revenue.
Britain’s ‘den of fox’ reopened in Tehran
TEHRAN, Iran – Britain reopened its embassy in Tehran on Sunday in a sign of newly thawed relations in the wake of a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond attended the reopening ceremony and witnessed the raising of the Union Jack over the compound. The embassy has been closed since November 2011, when it was stormed by demonstrators protesting the imposition of international sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
“Maintaining dialogue even under the most difficult conditions is crucially important,” Hammond said during a joint news conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
But despite the mutual optimism on display, the reopening was greeted with open skepticism and hostility in some corners. The semi-official Fars news agency, which is considered close to Iran’s conservative camp, best captured the sentiment with the headline: “Den of fox reopened.”
Ehud Barak: Israel almost attacked Iran
JERUSALEM – Former Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s comments that Israel nearly attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities but the plan was scuttled by military men and cowardly politicians could shake up Israeli politics.
The leaked interview, in which Barak also described Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as indecisive and obsessively pessimistic, was the talk of the town Sunday in an Israel obsessed about Iran. But beyond the hand-wringing, the always-calculating Barak may have been focused on the future, perhaps for a final run at the country’s leadership.
Also a former prime minister, Barak enjoys respect as the last leader of the moderate Labor Party to win an election, defeating Netanyahu in 1999. But he also is seen by analysts as having squandered his opportunity, lasting just two years in a term that cemented his reputation as brilliant but arrogant and prone to overcomplicated analysis and nonstop machinations.
Koreas resume talks; North moves troops
PYONGYANG, North Korea – Senior officials from North and South Korea on Sunday were in their second day of marathon talks meant to pull the rivals back from the brink, even amid reports of unusual North Korean troop and submarine movement that Seoul said indicated continued battle preparation.
While it was not clear whether any progress was made during the first round of talks, which started Saturday evening and finished just before dawn Sunday, the second day of diplomacy, for the time being, pushed aside the heated warnings of imminent war.
These are the highest-level talks between the two Koreas in a year. And just the fact that senior officials from countries that have spent recent days vowing to destroy each other are sitting together at a table in Panmunjom, the border enclave where the 1953 armistice ended fighting in the Korean War, is something of a victory.
The length of the first round of talks – nearly 10 hours – and the lack of immediate progress are not unusual. While the Koreas often have difficulty agreeing to talks, once they do, overlong sessions are often the rule. After decades of animosity and bloodshed, however, finding common ground is much harder.
Associated Press
