Displaced Christians say they might return home, but only on three conditions
It is almost certain that, as a senior Christian cleric in Iraq, Patriarch Louis Sako, put it in an interview with news agency, AFP, “for the first time in the history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians”.
But what, if anything, would make Mosul's Christians want to return to the city they used to call home?
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Travel agents turn to Iran - and find plenty of Jewish interest
Ask the State Department whether it is any safer now for Americans to travel to Iran, and the answer you’ll get will be unequivocally negative. The nuclear deal reached with Tehran, as a State Department travel warning makes clear, “does not alter the United States’ assessment of the risks of travel to Iran for U.S. citizens.”
But then ask Steve Kutay, a tour organizer to Iran based in Ashville, North Carolina.
“I tell them it’s one of the safest countries I’ve ever visited,” said Kutay, 75, a Jewish transplant from Brooklyn now settled deep in the South.
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The West softens its stance on Assad
In recent weeks, governments in Washington, London, and Paris have indicated a softening in their stance toward Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, suggesting that it is no longer a pre-condition to peace talks that he renounce his office.
Since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Western leaders, including President Barack Obama, have insisted that Assad step aside as president before negotiations to end the conflict in Syria can take place. But, as noted by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennedy Gatilov earlier this week and reported by Russian news agency TASS, “there have been some shifts from this point of view.”
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