On Monday, Iraqi security forces aided by Shiite militias started an offensive to take back the city of Tikrit, which has been under Islamic State control since last summer. This is at least the third major attempt to dislodge ISIS from the city—previous operations in June and August of last year failed.

Strategically, the battle for Tikrit is a crucial military challenge for an Iraqi army trying to wrest back control of the northern and western parts of the country that it lost to ISIS in the past year. As my colleague Steve Clemons noted on Twitter, the Tikrit operation is, for one thing, "an important training run on the larger eventual challenge of Mosul," the second-largest city in Iraq, which is also under Islamic State control.

But, perhaps even more importantly, the fight is a test of how the country's sectarian divide will play out in the fight against ISIS. Tikrit is not only the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, it is alsodominated by Iraqi Sunnis who are wary of Baghdad's Shiite-led government and Iran's growing influence in the country.

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Ahead of Monday's operation, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi made one last promise of amnesty for Sunni fighters in the city who have joined forces with ISIS. “I call upon those who have been misled or committed a mistake to lay down arms and join their people and security forces in order to liberate their cities,” Abadi said on Sunday. Whether Sunni fighters (or civilians for that matter) in Tikrit will side with government forces remains a huge unknown.

Previous reports have noted that Iraq's Shiite militias, some of them with Iranian training and leadership, have recently been effective in fighting ISIS. But those militias have also committed serious abuses against Sunni civilians. And the country is not long removed from a period of civil war in which Sunnis and Shiites committed atrocities against one another. The New York Times noted U.S. warnings to Iraq not to send Shiite forces into Sunni areas—Iraqi officials told the paper that "among the nearly 30,000 fighters involved in the Tikrit operation were an estimated 700 to 1,000 Sunni tribal fighters."

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This is the first effort to retake Tikrit since Abadi took over for the much-maligned Nouri al-Maliki, who marginalized the country's Sunnis as Iraq's prime minister. The offensive is also different from the previous efforts in that momentum no longer appears to be on ISIS's side. Aided by American-led airstrikes, Iraqi forces recently retook Beiji, the nearby refinery town, which like Tikrit also sits on the road to Mosul.

This article was originally published at http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/03/fighting-isis-for-saddams-hometown/386561/?UTM_SOURCE=yahoo

Geneva (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry Monday warned Israel's prime minister against revealing details of an emerging Iran nuclear deal on the eve of the Israeli leader's speech to the US Congress.

While he did not mention Benjamin Netanyahu by name, Kerry told reporters in Geneva he was "concerned by reports" that "selective details" of the deal aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear programme would be revealed in the coming days.

His deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf went further, saying discussing the contents of classified briefings by US officials to Israelis would "betray" America's trust.

"We've continuously provided detailed classified briefings to Israeli officials to keep them updated and to provide context for how we are approaching getting to a good deal," she told reporters in Washington.

"Any release of any kind of information like that would, of course, betray that trust."

The comments come after an Israeli official said the Jewish state knew about the emerging agreement and that the prime minister would elaborate in his congressional address.

Kerry launched a series of talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in the Swiss lakeside town of Montreux late Monday as they seek to pin down a deal by a March 31 deadline.

"The best way to deal with the question surrounding this nuclear programme is to find a comprehensive deal, but not a deal which comes at any cost," he told reporters.

"We have made some progress, but we still have a long way to go, and the clock is ticking."

The P5+1 group of world powers that are negotiating with Iran have only a few more weeks to reach a political framework for a deal, with the final technical details to be arrived at by June 30.

But Israel is worried the deal will ease sanctions on Tehran -- which is what Iran wants -- without applying sufficiently stringent safeguards to stop Iran acquiring enough fissile material to develop an atomic bomb.

HAVANA — A top Cuban official told Yahoo News that his government has no intention of turning over a fugitive wanted by the FBI for killing a New Jersey police officer.

“I can say it is off the table,” said Gustavo Machin, the deputy director for American affairs at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, when asked about calls for Cuba to return Joanne Chesimard.

Chesimard, 67, is on the list of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives, with a $2 million bounty on her head, for the 1973 murder of a state trooper during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike. Convicted in 1977, Chesimard — a onetime member of the radical Black Liberation Army — escaped from a New Jersey state women’s prison two years later and fled to Cuba, where she lives in seclusion under the name of Assata Shakur, officially protected by the Cuban government.

Officials in New Jersey, led by Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Bob Menendez, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have demanded that Cuba return Chesimard before the U.S. takes any further steps to normalize relations with the communist government.

Cuba’s decision to provide sanctuary for Chesimard “is an intolerable insult to all those who long to see justice served,” including members of the slain New Jersey state trooper’s family, Menendez wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry last week. In an emailed statement to Yahoo News on Monday, Menendez said Chesimard is a “cop killer” and her return should be “a top agenda” item before any further concessions are made to the Castro government.

Machin’s comments during an interview here at the Foreign Ministry underscore the thorny obstacles that still remain even as the U.S. and Cuba continue talks aimed at restoring full diplomatic relations — including the formal opening of embassies in Washington and Havana.

When pressed about Chesimard, Machin responded that Cuba had granted her political asylum and that therefore she would not be subject to any extradition to the United States.

“There are very serious doubts about that case,” said Machin. “We consider that a politically motivated case against that lady.”

The issue of Chesimard’s status — and that of more than 70 other U.S. fugitives who are believed to have received safe haven in Cuba — has taken on new resonance, especially within U.S. law enforcement, since Dec. 17, when President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of three convicted members of the so-called Cuban Five spy ring and returned them to Havana. The commutations were part of a diplomatic breakthrough that included Cuba’s return of imprisoned American contractor Alan Gross and a CIA spy serving time in a Cuban prison.

Last Friday, Machin’s immediate boss, Josefina Vidal, flew to Washington for a second round of negotiations with State Department officials. U.S. officials have said they want to see further progress by Cuba toward democracy and the freeing of political prisoners.

But Machin told Yahoo News his government still has its own list of lengthy demands, starting with the removal of Cuba from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism and, after that, a lifting of the U.S embargo and the return of Guantánamo Naval Base.

In the past, U.S. officials have cited Cuba’s support for the leftist FARC guerillas in Colombia as one basis for the terror designation, although the matter is now “under review.” Machin said the charge of a terror link with the FARC is undercut by the fact that Cuba has been sponsoring peace talks between the government of Colombia and the guerrillas.

“At the very least, we deserve a Nobel Peace Prize” for the talks between the Colombian government and the guerrillas, Machin said. “That is the longest-running conflict in North America.”

“They know in their heart that Cuba has not been involved in anything” related to terrorism, Machin said.

Some U.S. officials have called Chesimard herself a terrorist, given her background with the Black Liberation Army. The group, an outgrowth of the Black Panthers, was linked to a string of bombings, bank robberies and murders of police officers during the 1970s. In Chesimard’s case, she and two accomplices were accused of gunning down New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster after he pulled them over for a moving violation.

But Machin said the U.S. is harboring its own terrorists involved in attacks in Cuba, most prominently Luis Posada Carriles — who is, he said, a “free man” in Miami. Posada, who once worked for the CIA, was charged in Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people, but later escaped from jail and was accused by the Cubans of orchestrating a spate of hotel bombings in Havana in 1997.

“From the Cubans’ point of view, the U.S. is harboring true international terrorists, and Luis Posada Carriles is a case in point,” said Peter Kornbluh, co-author of “Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations Between Washington and Havana.”

“But I don’t think another swap,” of Chesimard for Posada, “is in the works,” Kornbluh added. “Fidel Castro gave her asylum, and those decisions are not going to be reversed.”

Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama faced down criticism from Israel's prime minister over talks with Tehran on Monday, insisting a minimum ten-year deal offers the best hope of avoiding a nuclear-armed Iran.

With Netanyahu in Washington to lobby against an agreement and crunch US-Iran talks underway in Switzerland, Obama said Netanyahu had been wrong about talks in the past.

Obama told Reuters if "Iran is willing to agree to double-digit years of keeping their program where it is."

If the freeze was verifiable "there's no other steps we can take that would give us such assurance that they don't have a nuclear weapon."

Tehran denies its is trying to build a bomb.

Israel believes a deal as short as ten or 20 years would mean Iran would arrive at the threshold of being a nuclear weapons power in virtually the same political environment as today.

Netanyahu on Monday told a pro-Israel conference that a deal with Iran would "threaten the survival of Israel."

Obama said that sentiment is wrongheaded, noting Netanyahu's previous opposition to an interim Iran deal as evidence Israel should back the talks.

"Netanyahu made all sorts of claims. This was going to be a terrible deal. This was going to result in Iran getting $50 billion worth of relief. Iran would not abide by the agreement. None of that has come true.

"It has turned out that in fact, during this period we've seen Iran not advance its program. In many ways, it's rolled back elements of its program."

Reaching a deal with Iran has become a key foreign policy objective for Obama as he enters the final years of his presidency.

He admitted there was "substantial disagreement" with Israel on the issue, but sought to play down suggestions of a lasting rift with Netanyahu.

"This is not a personal issue. I think that it is important for every country in its relationship with the United States to recognize that the US has a process of making policy."

In recent days the White House and Obama have been ever-more detailed about what they believe the contours of a deal with Iran might be, raising speculation that a rough agreement could be achieved by a March deadline.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Monday said the any deal would have to shut down "four pathways" for Iran to acquire fissile material needed to build a nuclear weapon.

That includes dealing with enrichment capacity at the Natanz, Fordow and Arak facilities, as well as ensuring "Iran does not have the capacity to pursue a covert option at a facility that is not yet known to the international community."

But Obama said the odds were still on Iran rejecting a deal.

"I would say that it is probably still more likely than not that Iran doesn't get to 'yes'," he said.