Christian Today report–  The leaders of Germany and France announced a new peace plan for Ukraine on Thursday, flying to Kiev with a proposal they would then take on to Moscow.

The coordinated trip by Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande comes as rebels advanced on a railway hub held by Ukrainian troops after launching an offensive that scuppered a five-month-old ceasefire.

The importance of reaching a deal was demonstrated by a dramatic collapse in Ukraine’s hryvnia currency, which lost nearly a third of its value after the central bank halted daily auctions at which it sold hard currency to banks.

With Washington moving towards a decision soon on arming Ukraine, US Secretary of State John Kerry also visited Kiev on Thursday. He had no plans to go to Moscow and was not involved in the Franco-German initiative, although he supported it.

Moscow said it hoped talks with Merkel and Hollande would be “constructive”.

German government sources said the key problem for resuming peace talks was that the current front line no longer tallies with what was agreed at talks in Minsk, Belarus, last year. One idea was that a new attempt at a ceasefire should take in the current front line, which reflects rebel gains.

For talks to begin anew, Kiev would have to accept that the separatists now control several hundred square kilometres more than agreed in Minsk – without Kiev having to give up its claim to these areas as part of the Ukrainian state.

In the end, the goal of the peace process should be the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the sources said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Kiev would not consider any peace plan that casts doubt on the nation’s territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence.

The Franco-German plan looks like an eleventh-hour bid to halt the escalation of the conflict ahead of diplomatic deadlines likely to make east-west confrontation even worse.

Peace talks collapsed on Saturday in Belarus and EU leaders are expected to consider new sanctions against Moscow next week.

“Together with Angela Merkel we have decided to take a new initiative,” Hollande told a news conference. “We will make a new proposal to solve the conflict which will be based on Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”

He and Merkel met President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev on Thursday and were expected to go to Moscow to see Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Poroshenko said the talks “gave hope that there will be a result in a ceasefire”, his office said in a statement.

Hollande said earlier: “For several days Angela Merkel and I have worked on a text … a text that can be acceptable to all.”

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier played down the prospect of a breakthrough: “I don’t want to talk about the chances (of success). At this stage there is hope, rather than chances.”

NATO says Russia has sent weapons, funds and troops to assist the rebel advance, negating a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine where war has already killed more than 5,000.

Moscow denies involvement in fighting for territory the Kremlin now calls “New Russia”.

LETHAL WEAPONS

Speaking after meeting Poroshenko in Kiev, Kerry said Washington supported diplomacy, but would “not close our eyes” to Russian tanks and troops crossing the border.

“We are not seeking a confrontation with Russia. No-one is,” Kerry said. “We are very hopeful that Russia will take advantage of our broad-based, uniform acceptance of the notion that there is a diplomatic solution staring everybody in the face. That is what we want.”

US President Barack Obama will decide soon whether to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons to fight the separatists, Kerry said.

In Washington, Republican Senator John McCain said US lawmakers would write legislation requiring the United States to send arms to Ukraine if Obama does not do so. But European defence ministers meeting in Brussels opposed sending arms, suggesting a transatlantic split over the issue.

Moscow said it would consider any US arms sent to Kiev to be a security threat.

Ukraine’s Poroshenko told a German newspaper it was time for NATO to send “modern weapons for protection and for resisting the aggressor.”

The rebels have been concentrating on Debaltseve, a rail hub where a government garrison has held out despite being nearly encircled.

On Wednesday, the rebels appeared to have captured Vuhlehirsk, a nearby small town where government troops had also been holding out. The army said it was still contesting the town, but Reuters journalists saw no sign of areas under army control. Four dead Ukrainian soldiers lay in a garden.

“Someone should come to remove these corpses, it is inhumane to leave them here to rot,” said Sergey Kopun, 50, a metal worker, emerging from a cellar where he had been sheltering with his wife and quadriplegic mother from days of fighting.

War and corruption have nearly bankrupted Ukraine, and Western sanctions and falling oil prices have also hurt Russia.

But Ukraine is by far the poorer of the two, and the collapse in the hryvnia was stunning. The central bank auctions scrapped on Thursday had enabled banks to set a value for the hryvnia, and without them traders had trouble finding a floor. A dramatic hike in the main interest rate to 19.5 per cent from 14 per cent did nothing to stop the plunge.

Source: Christian Today

Christian Today report– Ten elderly Christians who managed to escape from the ISIS militant group have spoken about their ordeal.

According to Assist News Service, the elderly Christians travelled for two days after being freed and reached Kirkuk on January 7, an area now controlled by the Kurdish Peshmerga Forces. The journey took that so long because all the roads were blocked between Mosul and Kirkuk. When they arrived in Kirkuk, they were transferred to the care of the Chaldean Diocese.

The militant group reportedly drove away the elderly Christians, eight men and two women, after they refused to convert to Islam. The Christians originally came from a nursing home in Qaraqosh.

“We did not want to become Muslim; we just wanted to leave,” said a woman named Rahel.

The group moved to Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and stayed there for three months, according to World Watch Monitor.

A nun, Sister Teresa, whose name is changed for security reason, met the elderly group in Qaraqosh. She was also driven from the monastery in Erbil and ended up in Qaraqosh. She confirmed that the militant group stole their money, jewellry and CDs.

According to Sister Teresa, the militant group detained several Christians and the church paid money for their release. Among the detained Christians were a three-year old girl, for whom they demanded thousands of dollars in ransom.

An estimated 40 Christians from Qaraqosh, Bartella and Karamles are still detained in a nursing home in Mosul, according to Sister Teresa. One of the elderly men told the nun about their ordeal under the hands of the militant group.

“When we were in Qaraqosh, ISIS used to beat us every day with their weapons or hands,” he reportedly said.

The elders added that when they were in Mosul they were held in a hall with others and could hear more people detained in another hall beside them.

“They had thrown us out from our villages and our homes, so they could occupy them and then we were all clumped together in a residence in Mosul. We managed to survive thanks to the assistance of some Muslim families, who brought us food and what we needed,” one of the elders told Agenzia Fides news outlet.

“Then, at some point, those of the Caliphate told us we could stay there only if we converted to Islam. I refused. If you want, send me away.”

Source: Christian Today

Christian Today report– They have had enough of the terror and now Iraqi Christians are signing up to receive training to protect their homes and loved ones from the threat brought on by the Islamic State (ISIS).

According to a report by Newsweek, 3,000 Assyrian Christian men have registered for the Nineveh Plains Protection Units (NPU) while 500 are already being trained for combat. The NPU is a militia unit founded by the Assyrian Democratic Movement to counter the further advancement of ISIS forces on Assyrian lands.

“This is our last stand, if this fails then Christianity will be finished in Iraq,” said John Michael, a British American in Iraq.

In an interview with the Assyrian International News Agency, 26-year-old Nasser Abdullad shared that they joined the militia because government forces abandoned them last summer. “I want to defend our own lands, with our own force.”

Abdullah is among those who train the new recruits in the art of combat.

According to the Catholic Herald, the NPU is being supported by fellow Assyrians in the United States, Australia, and Sweden. The first to join are also reportedly receiving training from an American security company.

It remains unclear, however, whether the organisation could support the training of the rest of the recruits. Organisers expressed optimism that the US National Defense Authorization Act, passed last December by the US Congress could become a source of funds in the fight against the ISIS.

The USNDAA has earmarked roughly $1.6 billion funding for “local forces that are committed to protecting highly vulnerable ethnic and religious minority communities in Nineveh Plains and elsewhere.”

Of the territory, only Al Qosh, and three small villages remain free as most of the Christians have been forced out of the Nineveh Plains by ISIS attacks.

“It’s also important for the locals to send a message to ISIS that they are not going to allow the demographic change to become permanent. The Assyrians want their land back and they – as well as the Turkmen and the Yazidis – are sending a message that: ‘We are going to come back and we are not going to leave our villages and towns and our cultures to be destroyed. We want to come back to our homes and, no matter what we face, we’re willing to fight and take that back.’ I think that is a positive message for the entire nation,” Iraq expert Sajad Jiyad said.

Source: Christian Today

Christian Today report– The senseless murder of Jordanian pilot Mouath al-Kasaesbeh by ISIS militants has been denounced by religious leaders, who are praying for interfaith unity.

Muslim clerics across the world have repeatedly condemned the violence perpetrated by jihadists, and have no expressed “deep anger” over the killing of Kasaesbeh which was revealed in a video released on Tuesday.

The captured pilot was shown apparently being burnt alive in a cage by the extremist group. Jordan, which has participated in a US-led military campaign to bomb Islamic State positions, responded overnight by executing two al Qaeda convicts on death row.

Egypt’s top Muslim authority, the 1,000 year old Al-Azhar university revered by Sunni Muslims around the world, issued a statement expressing “deep anger over the lowly terrorist act” by what it called a “Satanic, terrorist” group.

The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, said the killers deserved to be “killed, crucified or to have their limbs amputated.”

In Qatar, the International Association of Muslim Scholars, headed by prominent cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi and linked to the Muslim Brotherhood that has influence across the region, called the burning of Kasaesbeh a criminal act.

“The Association asserts that this extremist organisation does not represent Islam in any way and its actions always harm Islam,” it said.

Islamic State posted a religious edict on Twitter, which said it is permissible in Islam to burn an infidel to death.

However, senior clerics across the Islamic world argued that inflicting death by fire was always banned under Islam.

“The Prophet, peace be upon him, advised against burning people with fire,” Sheikh Hussein bin Shu’ayb, head of the religious affairs department in southern Yemen, told Reuters in Aden.

Saudi cleric Salman al-Odah wrote on his Twitter account: “Burning is an abominable crime rejected by Islamic law regardless of its causes.”

“It is rejected whether it falls on an individual or a group or a people. Only God tortures by fire,” he added.

Even clerics sympathetic to the jihadist cause said the act of burning a man alive and filming the killing would damage ISIS.

“This weakens the popularity of Islamic State because we look at Islam as a religion of mercy and tolerance. Even in the heat of battle, a prisoner of war is given good treatment,” said Abu Sayaf, a Jordanian Salafist cleric also known as Mohamed al-Shalabi who spent almost ten years in Jordanian prisons for militant activity including a plot to attack US troops.

“Even if the Islamic State says Mouath had bombed, and burnt and killed us and we punished him in the way he did to us, we say, OK but why film the video in this shocking way?” he told Reuters. “This method has turned society against them.”

The director of the Catholic Center for Studies and Media in Amman, Jordan’s capital, said churches in the region are horrified at the recent events.

Special Masses and prayers are being held, as “Christian churches in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan convey their deep sorrow and sadness over the martyrdom of pilot Muath Kasasbeh,” Father Rifat Bader said in a statement on Wednesday.

“As the churches denounce this heinous crime against humanity, they ask all citizens to reinforce their national unity under the Hashemite leadership, led by King Abdullah II,” he continued.

“The churches will hold prayers as well in the first week of February for harmony among religions, so that religions will constitute a factor conducive for peace, harmony and unity among the people rather than a factor leading to division, killing, oppression and dispute.”

Church bells were rung at noon on Wednesday, and dedicated services were held at 6pm.

Source: Christian Today

Christian Today report– Jordan’s King Abdullah vowed a “relentless” war against Islamic State on their own territory on Wednesday in response to a video published by the hard-line group showing a captured Jordanian air force pilot being burned alive in a cage.

Jordan hanged two Iraqi jihadists, one a woman, on Wednesday and vowed to intensify military action against Islamic State.

“We are waging this war to protect our faith, our values and human principles and our war for their sake will be relentless and will hit them in their own ground,” state television quoted the king as saying during a security meeting.

US officials said on Wednesday that the United Arab Emirates had withdrawn from flying air strikes in the US-led coalition campaign against Islamic State after the Jordanian pilot’s plane went down over Syria in December.

Jordan, which is part of the US-led alliance, had promised an “earth-shaking response” to the killing of its pilot, Mouath al-Kasaesbeh, who was captured after his F-16 crashed.

Government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said on Wednesday: “We are talking about a collaborative effort between coalition members to intensify efforts to stop extremism and terrorism to undermine, degrade and eventually finish Daesh.” Daesh is used as a derogatory Arabic term for Islamic State.

He said it was a continuation of Jordan’s long standing policy in fighting hard-line Islamist militants and that King Abdullah, who cut short a trip to the United States, headed a meeting with senior security officials on Wednesday.

“All the state’s military and security agencies are developing their options. Jordan’s response will be heard by the world at large but this response on the security and military level will be announced at the appropriate time,” Momani said.

Islamic State had demanded the release of Sajida al-Rishawi in exchange for a Japanese hostage whom it later beheaded. Sentenced to death for her role in a 2005 suicide bomb attack in Amman, Rishawi was executed at dawn.

Jordan also executed a senior al Qaeda prisoner, Ziyad Karboli, an Iraqi man who was sentenced to death in 2008.

The Jordanian pilot was the first from the coalition known to have been captured and killed by Islamic State.

Jordan is a major US ally in the fight against hardline Islamist groups and hosted U.S troops during operations that led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It is home to hundreds of US military trainers bolstering defences at the Syrian and Iraqi borders, and is determined to keep the jihadists in Syria away from its frontier.

CALLS FOR REVENGE

The fate of Kasaesbeh, a member of a large tribe that forms the backbone of support for the country’s Hashemite monarchy, has gripped Jordan for weeks.

Some Jordanians had criticised the king for embroiling them in the U.S.-led war that they said would provoke a militant backlash but the pilot’s killing produced a wave of outrage and calls for revenge.

Jordan’s authorities have not commented on how many missions the air force has carried out against Islamic State.

In a televised statement to the nation, the king urged national unity and said the killing was a cowardly act of terror by a criminal group that has no relation to Islam.

Muslim clerics across the Middle East, even those sympathetic to the jihadist cause, also expressed outrage, saying such a form of killing was considered despicable by Islam.

President Barack Obama’s nominee for defence secretary Ashton Carter on Wednesday vowed to understand and resolve reported delays in US arms sales to Jordan.

Obama has sought to attract a broad coalition, drawing on as many regional countries as possible, to avoid the appearance that the campaign is just an endeavour involving Western powers.

The US officials who said the UAE had withdrawn from the air campaign spoke on condition of anonymity. “I can confirm that UAE suspended air strikes shortly after the Jordanian pilot’s plane went down, but let me be clear that UAE continues to be an important and valuable partner that is contributing to the coalition,” one official said.

There was widespread shock and anger across Jordan at the brutality of the pilot’s killing, which drew international condemnation.

The European Union combined a statement of solidarity with Jordan over the killing of the pilots with criticism of its immediate execution of two Iraqi jihadists.

Kasaesbeh’s father said the two executions were not enough and urged the government to do more to avenge his death.

“I want the state to get revenge for my son’s blood through more executions of those people who follow this criminal group that shares nothing with Islam,” Safi al-Kasaesbeh told Reuters.

Islamic State has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria, Jordan’s neighbours to the north and east.

In the pilot’s home village of Ay, mourners said Jordanians must rally around the state. “Today we put our differences behind us and rally behind the king and nation,” said Jabar Sarayrah, a shopkeeper.

DAWN EXECUTION

The prisoners were executed in Swaqa prison, 70 km (45 miles) south of Amman, just before dawn, a security source who was familiar with the case said. “They were both calm and showed no emotions and just prayed,” he added without elaborating.

Rishawi, in her mid-forties, was part of an al Qaeda network that targeted three Amman hotels in suicide bombings in 2005. She was meant to die in one of the attacks – the worst in Jordan’s history – but her suicide bomb belt did not go off.

Only two other prisoners are on death row in Jordan – Mohammad Hassan al Sahli, a Syrian who was convicted of plotting and executing a rocket attack in August 2005 against a U.S. navy vessel and the Israeli port city of Eilat, and Jordanian Muamar Jaghbeer, a leading al Qaeda operative.

There are at least 250 Islamist militants in prison, almost half of them were arrested in the past year and are Islamic State sympathisers.

Jordan said on Tuesday the pilot had been killed a month ago. The government had been picking up intelligence for weeks that the pilot was killed some time ago, a source close to the government said.

“The horror of the killing, the method of killing is probably going to generate more short-term support for the state,” said a Western diplomat. “But once that horror dies down, inevitably some of the questions revert on Jordan’s role in the coalition.”

The Syrian government condemned the killing and urged Jordan to cooperate with it in a fight against Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in Syria. The United States has ruled out Syria as a partner in the campaign against Islamic State, describing President Bashar al-Assad as part of the problem.

The executed woman came from Iraq’s Anbar province bordering Jordan. Her tribal Iraqi relatives were close aides of the slain Jordanian leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, from whose group Islamic State emerged.

Islamic State had demanded her release in exchange for the life of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. However, Goto was beheaded by the group, video released last Saturday showed.

Jordan had insisted that they would only release the woman as part of a deal to free the pilot.

Source: Christian Today