LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 01/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
Luke 11/37-41: “While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 31-April 01/2020
Lebanon Registers 17 New Coronavirus Cases, One More Death
Ending Coronavirus Lockdown ‘Depends’ on People’s Behavior
UNIFIL Donates to Naqoura Municipality to Fight COVID-19
Hizbullah Unveils Its Anti-Coronavirus Plan
Despite Lockdown People Queue Near Sidon Banks, Normal Motion in Some Areas
Lawsuit Filed against Man who Transmitted Coronavirus to Others
Israeli Jets Spark Panic in Lebanon during Syria Raid
Troops Quarantined after Major Infected with Coronavirus
Franjieh Says Marada to Withdraw from Govt. if Appointments Unsatisfactory
Lebanese Govt. to Approve BDL, Financial Appointments Thursday
Lebanese Govt. OKs Plan to Bring Home Expats as of April 5
Lebanon: Upcoming Appointments Instigate Sharp Debate
Lebanon, in Virus Lockdown, to Allow Expats to Come Home, Tunisia Frees Prisoners

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on Marc 31-April 01/2020
US, Israel Conclude Drills on Possible Iranian Attacks on Tel Aviv
US extends Iran nuclear cooperation sanctions waivers
Ex-Syrian Vice President Khaddam Dies in France
Iran Says Natural Gas Exports to Turkey Halted Following Pipeline Explosion
Iranian Official: Death Toll From Coronavirus Reaches 2,898
Europe’s trade system with Iran finally makes first deal
UN delivers aid in Gaza
Global Virus Deaths Mount as U.S. Surpasses China's Official Toll
Full Virus Vaccine at Least a Year Away Says EU Agency

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 31-April 01/2020
Treasury Sanctions Quds Force Fronts in Iraq/Mark Dubowitz and Behnam Ben Taleblu/FDD/March 31/2020
Coronavirus Pandemic Impacts Turkey’s Approach to Displaced Syrians/Aykan Erdemir/FDD/April 01/2020
Kurdish-led forces put down revolt by ISIS detainees at prison in Syria/Liz Sly and Louisa Loveluck /Washington Post/Ma5rch 31/2020
“Defying Islamist Protests: Middle East Scholar Speaks at U.S. Army War College”/Raymond Ibrahim/April 01/2020
Coronavirus: Strict Rules and Order Save Lives/Salman Al-Dossary/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 31/2020
Don't Let COVID-19 Become Hunger Game/Qu Dongyu/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 31/2020
What Concepts Are We to Expect in Post-COVID-19 Era?/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 31/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 31-April 01/2020
Lebanon Registers 17 New Coronavirus Cases, One More Death
Naharnet/March 31/2020
Lebanon registered 17 new cases of coronavirus and one more death, the Health Ministry said in its daily tally on the pandemic on Tuesday. The Ministry said the tally includes laboratory-confirmed cases reported by the state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital and private hospitals and laboratories. The new tally brings the total of cases to 463 infected and 12 dead. The Notre Dame Des Secours hospital said in a statement earlier that one of its patients suffering from chronic illness was infected and died of coronavirus. The patient, in his 50s, was being treated at the intensive care unit at the hospital.

Ending Coronavirus Lockdown ‘Depends’ on People’s Behavior
Naharnet/March 31/2020
Lebanon’s security forces on Tuesday vowed to take stricter measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, stressing that it was vital for people to abide by instructions and stay at home otherwise the lockdown could be extended further, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.
A senior security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the daily: “If the two-week extension of the lockdown fails to achieve the required result, certainly the lockdown period could be extended with even tighter security measures.”
Lebanon’s security forces have been monitoring the extent people are abiding by the government-imposed lockdown agreed early in March and extended over the weekend. Police have been fining people for not complying with measures to combat the virus spread. “There is no doubt that we are in a very sensitive phase. The danger we face has swept the whole world and has led to catastrophic situations in many countries,” stated the source. “The military and security services have strict instructions in obliging citizens to protect themselves. This phase requires the utmost degree of response and it must not be underestimated,” he emphasized. He said it was “unfortunate” how many are not abiding by the instructions out of “recklessness” compelling the security and military agencies to “take even more rigorous measures which is necessary to ensure their safety.”Lebanon has reported 446 COVID-19 cases to date, with 11 deaths. To try to contain the spread of the virus, Lebanon has imposed isolation measures on its population until April 12, with a nighttime curfew in effect. Schools, universities, restaurants and bars are closed.Many fear the country's healthcare system could be overwhelmed by cases.

UNIFIL Donates to Naqoura Municipality to Fight COVID-19
Naharnet/March 31/2020
UNIFIL on Tuesday handed over a number of equipment and other accessories to the Naqoura Municipality, which hosts the U.N. Mission’s Headquarters in south Lebanon. “This donation is part of UNIFIL’s broader effort to assist the local population and communities in the common fight against the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic,” the U.N. mission said in a statement. UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Stefano Del Col said: “During these trying times, it’s imperative to care for one another.”“The unprecedented situation requires exceptional measures, maximum cooperation as well as a pro-active approach in assisting the local population that has welcomed us since 1978,” he added. The donated items included 750 surgical masks, 10 N95 masks, 300 pairs of ordinary gloves, 30 pairs of heavy-duty gloves, 10 protective suites and 10 shoe covers. After receiving the items, Mayor Abbass Awada thanked UNIFIL for the support while stressing that the Municipality is doing its best to contain the spread of the virus. “This is the time to work all together shoulder-to-shoulder in fighting COVID-19,” he said. “The Municipality of Naqoura is continuing its efforts and measures aimed at fighting the spread of the virus and urges residents to stay home.” On UNIFIL’s part, the Mission, from the very beginning of the virus outbreak, has taken “all the necessary precautionary measures to prevent any infection of the virus among the Mission’s more than 11,000 military and civilian peacekeepers as well as the host populations,” the UNIFIL statement said. “Despite the difficult situation, UNIFIL continues to carry out its operational activities 24/7 in coordination with the LAF (Lebanese Armed Forces) in order to ensure stability along the Blue Line,” it added.
Lebanon has so far confirmed 463 coronavirus cases among them 12 deaths and 37 recoveries.

Hizbullah Unveils Its Anti-Coronavirus Plan
Naharnet/March 31/2020
Hizbullah on Tuesday unveiled its plan to confront the novel coronavirus pandemic in Lebanon, titled “Societal Resistance for a Country Free of the Coronavirus Pandemic”. Under the plan, the party will deploy 1,500 doctors, 3,000 nurses and medics, 5,000 health workers and 15,000 field services cadres and will cooperate with municipalities and municipal crews, it said in a statement. Noting that it will seek to “work loyally in service of the people away from any political motives,” Hizbullah said its crews will “support the Health Ministry and the government’s measures and will abide by the regulations and instructions of the Health Ministry and the World Health Organization.” “Hizbullah’s assets, capabilities, expertise and health cadres will be utilized to their maximum level in all regions and the priority in the general efforts of Hizbullah and the Islamic resistance will be given to confronting the pandemic,” it said in a statement.
The party added that it will also benefit from volunteers and will urge people to volunteer, noting that it will stand by citizens socially and regarding their livelihood to enable them to face the economic repercussions of the crisis. “Five practical plans have been devised to deal with this situation,” Hizbullah added, revealing that it will seek to “support government hospitals at all levels, especially in terms of providing volunteering doctors and nurses.” “Sections specialized in coronavirus will be equipped at some of our hospitals,” the party said, noting that “the Saint George Hospital will soon be exclusively dedicated to receiving coronavirus cases while its patients will be transferred to the Great Prophet Hospital.”As for quarantine and isolation measures, Hizbullah said “public spaces will be provided and hospitals will be rented and equipped to be used for quarantine and isolation should the situation deteriorate.” It said resorts, scout cities and hotels would be used for such purposes.
Britian’s the Guardian newspaper has reported that health and other officials focused on Lebanon, Iraq and Syria fear the numbers of people infected with coronavirus far exceed the official figures disclosed by all three governments.
“Officials, including bureaucrats, aid workers and international observers, who spoke with the Guardian over the past week say parts of Lebanon and Iraq in particular are likely to be holding thousands more infected people, and that a lack of disclosure poses a serious health risk over the next three months,” the newspaper added. “They also claim coronavirus patients are being housed and guarded by political groups in central and southern Iraq and southern Lebanon,” it said.
Returnees to Lebanon had arrived from all over the world, with a priest traveling from Italy thought to be responsible for one cluster, and travelers from Milan and London for others. However, “the focus of concern has been on arrivals from the Iranian city of Qom, to where the biggest regional outbreak has been sourced,” the Guardian added. “Large numbers of Iraqi and Lebanese people, including religious pilgrims and merchants, had been in Qom as the crisis escalated and were gradually brought back by bus and plane to Baghdad and Beirut, where only small numbers of patients from their communities are being treated in public hospitals,” it said. Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said party members returning from abroad – mainly Iran, Iraq and Syria -- have been placed in quarantine and has vowed to be transparent about infections.
However, so far there have been no announcements from the group about the numbers of suspected or confirmed cases among its ranks, and concerns are mounting that Lebanon’s relatively low official number of cases – 463 as of noon Tuesday – is actually much higher.
“We are not saying this to make a problem for a certain political party, or area of the country,” said one Lebanese official who, like all others spoken with by the Guardian, refused to be named. “But we know there is a much bigger problem in Lebanon than has been acknowledged,” the official added.
A second Lebanese official claimed that over recent weeks Hizbullah had quarantined areas in many towns in the south of the country and provided food and water to suspected patients. The neighborhoods were guarded by party members, the official claimed.

Despite Lockdown People Queue Near Sidon Banks, Normal Motion in Some Areas
Naharnet/March 31/2020
Lebanese in the southern city of Sidon stood in long queues for the second day in a row on Tuesday in front of ATMs without any protective gear against the novel COVID-19 that infected 463 individuals and killed eleven so far in Lebanon. Main streets in the city, mainly in Riad el-Solh, saw traffic jam and citizens standing in ques outside banks as monthly salaries came through after two weeks of ongoing home confinement. No one was wearing any protective gear like masks or gloves. People were standing close and not keeping a two-meter distance from each other in a bid to prevent any possible transmission from an infected person. Media reports even said that some citizens were up in arms about the government-imposed lockdown. Separately, citizens in the northern city of Tripoli also did not comply with the “general mobilization” period imposed by the government. Videos and pictures of the city showed normal traffic movement. MTV station said in a report that motion was also normal in the Metn areas of Dbayyeh and Jal Dib, and in the Beirut neighborhood of Tarik el Jdideh. Lebanon has reported 446 COVID-19 cases to date, with 12 deaths. To try to contain the spread of the virus, Lebanon has imposed isolation measures on its population until April 12, with a nighttime curfew in effect. Schools, universities, restaurants and bars are closed. Many fear the country's healthcare system could be overwhelmed by cases.

Lawsuit Filed against Man who Transmitted Coronavirus to Others
Naharnet/March 31/2020
Akkar Governor Imad al-Labaki on Monday filed a lawsuit against a young coronavirus patient who infected several people after refusing to isolate himself. “Akkar young man Y.F. did not abide by the instructions given to him by the health and medical sides that examined him, in terms of pledging to stay in preventative home isolation pending additional lab tests to confirm his infection with the COVID-19 virus,” the National News Agency said. “He dishonored the pledge and mixed with a lot of his relatives in his town and in other regions after which tests revealed that he had the novel coronavirus and that he transmitted it to several people,” NNA added, noting that he was tested after being arrested by the Intelligence Branch of the Internal Security Forces. His behavior “sparked a state of anxiousness in his town and among all those he mixed with and the municipality concerned did not commit to monitoring him and obliging him to stay in home isolation as required,” the agency said. The governor filed a lawsuit against him on charges of spreading an infectious disease, NNA added, noting that the penalties range between a few months to three years in jail in addition to a fine.
Labaki also decided to refer the municipal chief to the Higher Disciplinary Commission, the Interior Ministry and the relevant judicial authorities over “his negligence and failure to carry out the missions he’s entrusted with under the law.” Lebanon has so far confirmed 446 coronavirus cases among them 11 deaths. The government has imposed a four-week lockdown, shuttering non-essential businesses, public administrations and educational institutions and the air, land and sea ports of entry.
It has also asked citizens to stay home unless it is urgent while imposing a night curfew.

Israeli Jets Spark Panic in Lebanon during Syria Raid
Associated Press/March 31/2020
Israeli warplanes flew at low altitude Tuesday over the Lebanese regions of Metn and Keserwan, sparking a state of panic, state-run National News Agency reported. Syria’s state news agency SANA later reported that Syrian air defenses were engaging “hostile targets” over the central Syrian region of Homs. It later said that a number of missiles were shot down by the Syrian defenses after being fired from Lebanese airspace. The outlet said the warplanes sought to attack a Syrian army position without saying where exactly, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Shayrat Airbase in Homs was targeted with eight missiles. There was no immediate comment from Israel. Israeli jets frequently violate Lebanon's airspace to bomb targets inside Syria, usually arms shipments and depots belonging to Hizbullah and Iran.

Troops Quarantined after Major Infected with Coronavirus
Naharnet/March 31/2020
The Army Command has ordered that all officers and soldiers be placed under quarantine at the Land Border Regiment in Ras Baalbek after a major was infected with the novel coronavirus. An army statement confirmed the officer's infection and said he was undergoing treatment.
"The necessary precautionary measures have been taken and the regiment continues to perform the missions it is tasked with," the statement added. LBCI TV reported that "after returning to his service place from a vacation, the officer showed coronavirus symptoms and the Army Command immediately sent him to hospital, where he underwent the necessary tests and turned out to be infected.”“An investigation was launched to identify the servicemen whom he mixed with and the military personnel who came in contact with him were immediately quarantined,” the TV network added.
Lebanon has so far confirmed 463 coronavirus cases among them 12 deaths and 37 recoveries.

Franjieh Says Marada to Withdraw from Govt. if Appointments Unsatisfactory
Naharnet/March 31/2020
Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh warned Tuesday that his movement will withdraw from the government if it does not get two posts in Thursday’s financial appointments. “There will be six Christian posts in the appointments, which means that we are entitled to two,” Franjieh said in an interview with the Mustaqbal Web news portal. “We have nominated candidates who enjoy competency and if two of our candidates don’t get chosen, we will leave the government,” he added. “Had the government adopted a certain mechanism for appointments, we would have been the first to abide by it, but the picks will happen on the basis of favoritism and in this case we want two posts,” Franjieh went on to say. Asked about reports that he had refused to hold a meeting with Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, the Marada leader said: “He has not requested one and I don’t have the intention to see him.”According to TV networks, Cabinet will on Thursday appoint four deputies for the central bank governor, a chairman and four members for the central bank's Banking Control Commission and three members for the Capital Markets Authority.

Lebanese Govt. to Approve BDL, Financial Appointments Thursday
Naharnet/March 31/2020
The Cabinet will on Thursday approve administrative appointments related to Banque du Liban and the Capital Markets Authority, TV networks said.
The appointments include four deputies for the central bank governor, a chairman and four members for BDL’s Banking Control Commission and three members for the Capital Markets Authority after which the finance minister would name a state commissioner to the central bank and a state commissioner to the Control Commission, the reports said. “All those who will be appointed are new figures and 16 CVs have been distributed to ministers for the four posts of deputy central bank governor, 20 CVs for the Control Commission and 12 CVs for the Capital Markets Authority,” LBCI TV said. “The appointments will be approved during the Cabinet session that will be held Thursday in Baabda,” it added. The issue of the appointments has sparked a wave of political bickering in recent days. Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc warned of a "governmental-presidential plot" to name a new BDL administration and control commission that "meet the desires of a certain political group". Al-Akhbar newspaper meanwhile reported Tuesday that Mustaqbal leader ex-PM Saad Hariri has threatened that his bloc would resign from parliament should the appointments oust Mohammed Baassiri, one of the central bank governor’s deputies.
The daily added that the Lebanese Forces and the Progressive Socialist Party are also opposed to the slated appointments.

Lebanese Govt. OKs Plan to Bring Home Expats as of April 5
Naharnet/March 31/2020
The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a mechanism for bringing home willing Lebanese expats amid the global coronavirus crisis. "The plan will be implemented from April 5 to April 12," Information Minister Manal Abdul Samad announced after a Cabinet meeting at the Grand Serail. "Prime Minister Hassan Diab stressed that the government is keen on protecting the Lebanese and that any expat return must be subject to the conditions laid out with the health minister," Abdul Samad added. "We will not be lenient in enforcing the measures and I call for cooperation calmly and scientifically, away from any other calculations," she quoted Diab as saying during the session. According to a leaked copy of the governmental plan, the priority will be given to citizens who have chronic illnesses, the elderly, families, those who have critical social situations and those who left on short-term visas. The returnees will pay for their travel tickets and they will only be allowed to leave Beirut’s airport if the results of PCR tests conducted at the facility come out negative. They will also undergo PCR tests prior to boarding planes and will sign pledges that they would isolate themselves at homes or at quarantine centers (hotels, complexes and other places) under the supervision of the ministries of health, interior and defense and under penalty of criminal prosecution. The first stage of the plan (April 5-12) has a cap of 10,000 returnees while the number of returnees in the second stage of the plan (April 27-May 4) will be determined “in light of the outcome of the first stage,” the leaked copy says. “Should the need arise for further stages, the issue will be studied then according to the available data,” it adds. The Cabinet also decided to grant financial aid worth LBP 400,000 to each needy family and the money will be distributed by the army, Abdul Samad said. "The premier called for stricter enforcement of the general mobilization measures, noting that the reports coming from some regions over the past two days are alarming," she added. Many expats, especially students, have urged Lebanese authorities to evacuate them in recent days, decrying financial difficulties and health concerns. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah have led political calls for bringing home the expats, with Berri threatening to suspend his ministers’ participation in the government and Nasrallah urging a “safe, calculated and quick” repatriation.
Lebanon has so far confirmed 463 coronavirus cases among them 12 deaths and at least 35 recoveries. The government has imposed a four-week lockdown, shuttering non-essential businesses, public administrations and educational institutions as well as the air, land and sea ports of entry.
It has also asked citizens to stay home unless it is urgent while imposing a night curfew.

Lebanon: Upcoming Appointments Instigate Sharp Debate
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 31 March, 2020
Former prime ministers joined the debate over the financial appointments, which are expected to be presented at Lebanon's government session this week. The appointments will include the deputies of the Central Bank governor and the members of the Banking Supervision Authority.
On Monday, Former Prime Ministers Saad al-Hariri, Najib Mikati, Fouad Siniora and Tammam Salam issued a joint statement denouncing what they described as “attempts to monopolize the State’s positions.”“At a time when Lebanon is going through political, economic, financial and administrative crises, the pandemic of coronavirus comes to deepen and complicate further the situation,” they said. “The Lebanese can see how their government tends to make appointments with an intention to grasp control of administrative, financial and monetary positions without respecting to the standards of competence and merit,” they added. Sources close to the former premiers told Asharq Al-Awsat that the statement was “more than a warning bell, and sends a direct message to Prime Minister Hassan Diab, stating that we will not allow the country to be kidnapped by President Michel Aoun and his political movement.”For his part, Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea issued a statement, saying: “Despite all expectations, the current government is about to make appointments on the same basis that used to be followed previously.” “Search for the trio,” he stressed, referring to Aoun and the Shiite duo, Hezbollah and Amal, as explained by sources to Asharq Al-Awsat. There cannot be any solution as long as this trio continued to grab power in Lebanon, Geagea underlined. Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Shiite duo has informed Aoun and Diab that their bilateral agreement would not be sufficient to pass the appointments. The duo emphasized, according to the sources, that there would be no appointments without taking into consideration the demands of the leader of Marada Movement, former Minister Sleiman Franjieh.

Lebanon, in Virus Lockdown, to Allow Expats to Come Home, Tunisia Frees Prisoners
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 31 March, 2020
Lebanon’s government agreed a procedure on Tuesday to allow citizens abroad to come back despite a coronavirus lockdown after its expat policy drew criticism from political leaders. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had threatened to withdraw support for the cabinet if it did not act to bring home Lebanese stranded abroad during the pandemic. Beirut airport has been closed to flights for two weeks as part of efforts to limit transmissions of the virus, which has so far infected 463 people with 12 deaths. The government has ordered a shutdown and an overnight curfew until April 12 in a country where dollar shortages had drained the healthcare system of critical supplies months before the outbreak.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab, whose government was already grappling with a severe financial crisis before the virus hit, pledged strict measures to ensure safe returns of expatriates, his office said on Tuesday after a cabinet session. “We cannot bear any faltering step, and none of the political forces can bear having on its conscience the spread of the (virus) and the collapse of the health system,” Diab said. Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad said returns would start on Sunday and all passengers would be screened before they board flights to Lebanon. She said cabinet may make changes to the procedure for returns in a session on Thursday.  Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti told local broadcaster al-Jadeed earlier on Tuesday that based on an initial tally from embassies, some 20,000 Lebanese may want to return home. With the world’s big cities in lockdown, Lebanese overseas have faced complications due to curbs by Lebanon’s banks which have blocked transfers abroad in recent months and severely limited cash withdrawals from ATMs.  Lebanon’s banking association said on Sunday that the lenders were “committed to transferring the appropriate sums for Lebanese students living abroad.”Other leaders have also echoed Berri’s call for returning expats, including Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. Most of Lebanon’s main politicians have close ties to the country’s large diaspora communities from which they draw support. Tunisia releases prisonersTunisia’s President Kais Saied on Tuesday ordered the release of 1,420 prisoners in an amnesty to combat the spread of the coronavirus in prisons, a presidency statement said.
Tunisia has declared a general lockdown to slow infection rates, and has confirmed 362 cases of the coronavirus, with nine deaths. The government said in a separate statement that it would provide food assistance to thousands of families in their homes, starting Friday, for a period of about two months. Saied last week ordered the army to deploy in the streets to force people to respect the lockdown.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 30-31/2020
US, Israel Conclude Drills on Possible Iranian Attacks on Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 31 March, 2020
The Israeli and US air forces concluded on Monday joint drills simulating measures when facing air threats and a possible Iranian missile attack on Israel. An Israeli army spokesman said the goal of the exercise was to enhance cooperation in joint air defenses and counter missile threats. The forces were trained in Negev desert on the F-35 stealth fighter jets and simulated scenarios in which they had to deal with both aerial threats and varying strategic threats from the ground.
The troops were trained on a scenario of US forces’ arrival in Israel and cooperating with the Israeli air defense system in protection missions, in case Israel was attacked by missiles and rocket-propelled grenades from several fronts. The three-day exercise was conducted despite the coronavirus outbreak. All contacts between the Israeli and US crew were done remotely through shared communication in the air and all flights were instructed using video conferencing, in light of concerns over the outbreak. An Israeli army spokesman said that the exercise showed Israel’s close relationship with the US military and “increased the sharing of knowledge and study of the F-35’s capabilities and improves the operational capabilities of the Air Force.”The spokesman said the Air Force continues to maintain full operational capabilities, and works in an emergency to continue to perform its mission of defending the country at all times.

US extends Iran nuclear cooperation sanctions waivers
WASHINGTON (AP)/March 31/2020
The Trump administration on Monday renewed several waivers on U.S. sanctions against Iran, allowing Russian, European and Chinese companies to continue to work on Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities without drawing American penalties.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed off on the waiver extensions but couched the decision as one that continues restrictions on Iran’s atomic work. “Iran’s continued expansion of nuclear activities is unacceptable. The regime’s nuclear extortion is among the greatest threats to international peace and security,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. Current and former officials familiar with the matter said Pompeo had opposed extending the waivers, which are among the few remaining components of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that the administration has not canceled. However, the officials said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had prevailed in an internal debate on the subject last week by arguing that the coronavirus pandemic made eliminating the waivers unpalatable at a time when the administration is being criticized for refusing to ease sanctions to deal with the outbreak. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the decision and spoke on condition of anonymity. Last week, the administration slapped new sanctions on 20 Iranian people and companies for supporting Shia militia in Iraq held responsible for attacks on bases where U.S. forces are located. At the same time, however, it extended another sanctions waiver to allow energy-starved Iraq to keep importing Iranian power.
President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018 and has steadily reimposed U.S. sanctions on Iran that had been eased or lifted under its terms. The so-called “civilian-nuclear cooperation” waivers allow foreign companies to do work at some of Iran’s declared nuclear sites without becoming subject to U.S. sanctions.Deal supporters say the waivers give international experts a valuable window into Iran’s atomic program that might otherwise not exist. They also say some of the work, particularly at the Tehran reactor on nuclear isotopes that can be used in medicine, is humanitarian in nature.But Iran hawks in Congress have been pressing Pompeo to eliminate all the waivers, saying they should be revoked because they give Iran access to technology that could be used for weapons. The hawks most strenuously objected to the waiver that allowed work at Iran’s once-secret Fordow facility, which is built into a mountain. Pompeo canceled the Fordow waiver in mid-December but the others, which allow work at the Bushehr nuclear power station, the Arak heavy water plant and the Tehran Research Reactor, were last extended in late January for 60 days. On Monday, the waivers were extended for another 60 days.

Ex-Syrian Vice President Khaddam Dies in France
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 31 March, 2020
Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian vice president who became a prominent opponent of President Bashar Assad’s rule after fleeing to Paris in 2005, died on Tuesday in France, Salah Ayach, a Syrian exile who was close to him, said. He was 88. Khaddam died at 5 am (0300 GMT) of a heart attack, Ayach said, according to Reuters.Khaddam had served for 30 years in the Syrian state under the late President Hafez Assad and his son, Bashar, who became president in 2000.

Iran Says Natural Gas Exports to Turkey Halted Following Pipeline Explosion
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 31 March, 2020
Iran said on Tuesday its natural gas exports to Turkey have stopped after an attack on a pipeline inside the neighbouring country, an Iranian official told state TV.“This morning, terrorists attacked a natural gas pipeline inside Turkey near Iran’s Bazargan border with Turkey ...Flow of gas has been halted,” said Mehdi Jamshidi-Dana, director of National Iranian Gas Co. “The pipeline has exploded several times in the past. It is also likely that the PKK group has carried out the blast,” he told Iran’s state news agency IRNA, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party. The pipeline, which carries around 10 billion cubic meters of Iranian gas to Turkey annually, frequently came under attack by Kurdish militants during the 1990s and up until 2013, when a ceasefire was established, Reuters reported. Jamshidi said that because of the new coronavirus outbreak, “the Turkish border guards have left, but we have informed them of the explosion and are waiting for their response”, IRNA reported.

Iranian Official: Death Toll From Coronavirus Reaches 2,898
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 31 March, 2020
Iran's death toll from coronavirus has reached 2,898, with 141 deaths in the past 24 hours, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state TV on Tuesday. He said the total number of infections has jumped to 44,606, Reuters reported. "In the past 24 hours, there have been 3,111 new cases of infected people. Unfortunately, 3,703 of the infected people are in a critical condition," Jahanpur said. Iran's authorities banned inter-city travel and warned of a potential surge in coronavirus cases because many Iranians defied calls to cancel travel plans. However, it has so far stopped short of imposing a lockdown on Iranian cities. Earlier, President Hassan Rouhani renewed his warnings on Tuesday as the climax of the two-week Persian New Year holiday nears, according to AFP. He called on people to "leave this tradition for some other time" and said violators would be fined, noting that authorities would close parks across the country on Wednesday, in a move that effectively blocks the family picnics that traditionally mark the 13th day of holiday. Also, a parliament spokesman told the Tasnim news agency Tuesday that at least 23 of the legislature's 290 Iranian members have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Europe’s trade system with Iran finally makes first deal
BERLIN (AP)/March 31/2020 
European countries trying to keep Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers alive said Tuesday that a system they set up to enable trade with Tehran has finally concluded its first transaction, facilitating the export of medical goods.Britain, France and Germany conceived the complex barter-type system dubbed INSTEX, which aims to protect companies doing business with Iran from American sanctions, in January 2019. The move came months after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal that Tehran struck with world powers in 2015 and reimposed sanctions. Since then, officials have struggled to get the system up and running. On Tuesday, however, Germany’s foreign ministry said the three European countries “confirm that INSTEX has successfully concluded its first transaction, facilitating the export of medical goods from Europe to Iran.”“These goods are now in Iran,” it said in a statement that gave details neither of the goods nor of who was involved in the transaction. It didn’t specify what the intended medical purpose was. Iran has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, but supplying medical goods to Iran already was a concern before the outbreak. “Now the first transaction is complete, INSTEX and its Iranian counterpart STFI will work on more transactions and enhancing the mechanism,” the German foreign ministry statement said. Tehran has gradually been violating the nuclear deal’s restrictions to pressure the remaining parties to the agreement — China, Russia, Germany, France and Britain — to provide new incentives to offset the American sanctions, saying that INSTEX has been insufficient. The nuclear deal aims to prevent Iran from developing a bomb — something the country’s leaders insist they do not want to do.

UN delivers aid in Gaza
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 31 March, 2020
A UN aid agency Tuesday began delivering food to the homes of impoverished Palestinians instead of making them pick up such parcels at crowded distribution centers — part of an attempt to prevent a mass outbreak of the new coronavirus in the densely populated Gaza Strip. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees has for decades provided staples like flour, rice, oil and canned foods to roughly half of the territory's 2 million people. Under the old system, those eligible lined up at crowded distribution centers four times a year to pick up their aid parcels. Starting on Tuesday, the agency began making home deliveries. "We assessed that tens of thousands of people will pour into the food distribution centers and this is very dangerous,” said Adnan Abu Hasna, the agency's spokesman in Gaza. Some 4,000 deliveries were made Tuesday, with an estimated 70,000 others to be made over the next three weeks, he said. Drivers on three-wheel motorcycles dropped off the food, calling people out of their homes, confirming their identities and leaving the bags outside. The agency instructed people to stay 2 meters from the delivery men to minimize the risk of infection. “This makes it easy for us,” said Manal Ziara, a resident of Shati refugee camp in west Gaza City. “The old mechanism causes crowding and touching that help the virus spread."Only 10 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Gaza, whose borders have been largely sealed by Israel since Hamas seized the territory in 2007. However, there's only a small number of available tests. International officials fear the virus could quickly spread and overwhelm an already gutted health system.

Global Virus Deaths Mount as U.S. Surpasses China's Official Toll
Agence France Presse/March 31/2020
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the coronavirus pandemic as the disease barrels across the globe, with the U.S. bracing for its darkest hours after its death toll surpassed China's on Tuesday.
In a matter of months, the virus has infected more than 800,000 people in a crisis redrawing political powers, hammering the global economy and transforming the daily existence of some 3.6 billion people who have been asked to stay home under lockdowns.
Deaths shot up again across Europe Tuesday as Spain, France and Britain reported their deadliest days.
While there are hopeful signs that the spread of infections is slowing in hardest-hit Italy and Spain, more than 800 died overnight in both countries.
With hospitals direly overstretched, lockdowns have been extended despite their crushing economic impact on the poorest.
In Belgium a 12-year-old girl infected with the virus passed away in another worrying case of a youth succumbing to the disease.
Meanwhile the U.S. -- which has the highest number of confirmed infections -- reached a bleak milestone as deaths topped 3,400, ticking past China's official tally of 3,309, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker. France joined it with a surge to 3,525 deaths, an official toll that includes only those who died in hospital and not those who died at home or in old people's homes.
'We need help now'
The inundation of patients has sent health facilities around the world into overdrive. Field hospitals are popping up in event spaces while distressed medical staff make grim decisions about how to distribute limited protective gear, beds and life-saving respirators. In scenes previously unimaginable in peacetime, around a dozen white tents were erected to serve as a field hospital in New York's Central Park. "You see movies like 'Contagion' and you think it's so far from the truth, it will never happen. So to see it actually happening here is very surreal," 57-year-old passerby Joanne Dunbar told AFP. While many companies and schools around the globe have shifted to teleworking and teaching over video platforms, huge swaths of the world's workforce cannot perform their jobs online and are now lacking pay and face a deeply uncertain future. Food banks in New York City, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, have seen a surge of newcomers struggling to feed their families. "It is my first time," Lina Alba, who lost her job as a cleaner in a Manhattan hotel that closed two weeks ago, said from a food distribution center in the city. "We need the help now. This is crazy. So we don't know what's going to happen in a few weeks," added the 40-year-old single mother of five. With more than 175,000 infections in the United States, three-quarters of Americans are now under some form of lockdown.
Off the coast of Florida, a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship and its sister vessel are pleading for somewhere to dock, possibly at Fort Lauderdale.
"Already four guests have passed away and I fear other lives are at risk," Orlando Ashford, president of Holland America Line, wrote in the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Virus breeds divisions
The staggering economic and political upheaval spurred by the virus is opening new fronts for both cooperation and conflict. In virtual talks Tuesday, finance ministers and central bankers from the world's 20 major economies pledged to address the debt burden of low-income countries and deliver aid to emerging markets. Last week G20 leaders said they were injecting $5 trillion into the global economy to head off a feared deep recession. In the European Union, however, battle lines have been drawn over the terms of a rescue plan to finance the expected severe economic fallout. Worst-hit Italy and Spain are leading a group pushing for a shared debt instrument -- dubbed "coronabonds". But talk of common debt is a red line for Germany and other northern countries long opposed to such a measure, threatening to divide the bloc in the midst of a health catastrophe.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen warned governments not to use emergency measures as a pretext for power grabs.
Her call followed concerns about a new law that gave Hungary's nationalist leader Viktor Orban sweeping authority to rule by decree until his government deems the emergency is over. Activists around the world have voiced fears that autocrats will overreach and hold on to their new powers even after the crisis abates. Elsewhere Poland toughened restrictions on movement while Russia expanded lockdowns across its territory as infections ticked up, including that of the head of Moscow's main coronavirus hospital. Though the doctor recently met with President Vladmir Putin, the Kremlin insisted the Russian leader is fine.
'Nothing to eat'
The economic pain of lockdowns is especially acute in the developing world. In Tunisia several hundred protested a week-old lockdown that has disproportionately impacted the poor. "Nevermind coronavirus, we're going to die anyway! Let us work!" shouted one protester in the demonstration on the outskirts of the capital Tunis. Africa's biggest city Lagos has also been brought to a halt as it entered its first full day of a two-week shutdown. Containment will be especially tough in the megacity's packed slums, where many rely on daily wages to survive.
"To reduce the number of people with coronavirus, we know they need to stop movement," said 60-year-old engineer Ogun Nubi Victor.
"But there is no money for the citizens, people are just sitting at home, with nothing to eat." While much of the world shuts down, the ground-zero Chinese city of Wuhan has started to reawaken in recent days, giving the bereaved the first chance in months to bury their dead.

Full Virus Vaccine at Least a Year Away Says EU Agency
Agence France Presse/March 31/2020
It will be at least another year before a vaccine against the new coronavirus will be ready for approval and available in sufficient quantities, the EU medicines agency said Tuesday. As the number of declared coronavirus cases worldwide passed 800,000 on Tuesday, according to an AFP tally, the race is on to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 which emerged from China late last year. The European Medicines Agency said in a statement it "estimates that it might take at least one year before a vaccine against COVID-19 is ready for approval and available in sufficient quantities to enable widespread use."
This was based on current available information and past experience with vaccine development timeframes, the Amsterdam-based agency said. It added that two vaccines have already entered a first phase of a clinical trials that was carried out on healthy volunteers.
But in general "timelines for the development of medicinal products are difficult to predict", the EMA said. So far, no medicine has yet shown to be a treatment for the coronavirus, that has so far claimed some 40,000 lives.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 30-31/2020
Treasury Sanctions Quds Force Fronts in Iraq
Mark Dubowitz and Behnam Ben Taleblu/FDD/March 31/2020
The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned 20 people and companies in Iraq and Iran with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF), Tehran’s elite foreign operations and terror unit. The designation of these terror networks, which traffic weapons and generate revenue for the Islamic Republic’s destructive activities, underscores the depth of Iran’s influence and networks in Iraq.
Chief among the designations is the Reconstruction Organization of the Holy Shrines in Iraq (ROHSI), which was created in 2003 as a supposed religious charity but in reality is a vector for sanctions busting and advancing regime influence in Iraq. ROHSI has previously worked on projects with a sanctioned IRGC construction firm and, according to Treasury, has been a source of “funds to supplement IRGC-QF budgets, likely embezzling public donations intended for the construction and maintenance of Shiite shrines in Iraq.”
Tehran’s ability to use businesses, religious foundations, and charities to underwrite its malign activities is not new. It is how Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accrues assets to add to his estimated $200 billion off-the-books slush fund.
ROHSI has also funneled money to IRGC-QF–controlled entities in Iraq, such as the Kosar Company, which was also designated. Kosar not only has received money from the sanctioned Central Bank of Iran, but per Treasury, also functions as a forward operating base for Tehran’s intelligence operations and weapons smuggling.
Treasury likewise sanctioned the leader of ROHSI, Mohammad Jalal Maab, noting that the now-deceased IRGC-QF commander Qassem Soleimani appointed him to his position. Jalal Maab replaced Hassan Pelarak, who “worked with IRGC-QF officials to transfer missiles, explosives, and small arms to Yemen,” according to a Treasury statement. Pelarak was pictured alongside Soleimani as late as June 2019. Both Jalal Maab and Pelarak are reportedly from Soleimani’s hometown of Kerman in Iran.
Among the other targets of Treasury’s action was an Iraqi maritime services company tied to the IRGC-QF that sold Iranian petroleum products through Iraq’s Umm Qasr port. The targets also included individuals who transferred money to listed Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) such as Lebanese Hezbollah and Kata’ib Hezbollah. Others violated sanctions by selling oil to the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.
In Iraq, the IRGC-QF has supported Shiite militia efforts to kill American and Coalition soldiers, evict the United States from the country, and bend Baghdad towards Tehran’s will. But it has also operated in plain sight. Iran’s current ambassador to Iraq, as just one example, is a veteran of the Quds Force, as was his predecessor. Since the 2003 Iraq war, Iran has worked in overdrive to penetrate Iraq’s politics, society, military, economy, and even its religious institutions.
The IRGC-QF’s material support for terror groups earned it a position in 2007 on the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals list. In 2019, when the State Department designated the IRGC, the Quds Force’s parent entity, as an FTO, the department made explicit reference to the IRGC-QF and its activities. Hardline Iranian outlets have touted the scope of the Quds Force’s operations, which have ranged from Bosnia to Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and Yemen.
Treasury imposed an asset freeze on the designated persons pursuant to Executive Order 13224, a counter-terrorism authority expanded last year by the White House.
The Trump administration should continue sanctioning regime-connected malign actors, including new leaders of pro-Iran groups in Iraq as well as newly formed groups taking credit for rocket attacks against American and Coalition bases. If Tehran and its proxies continue to harm Americans, Washington will have to resort to more coercive measures, including military force.
*Mark Dubowitz is the chief executive officer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where Behnam Ben Taleblu is a senior fellow. They both contribute to FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP). For more analysis from Mark, Behnam, and CEFP, please subscribe HERE. Follow Mark on Twitter @mdubowitz. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_CEFP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

Coronavirus Pandemic Impacts Turkey’s Approach to Displaced Syrians
Aykan Erdemir/FDD/April 01/2020
Turkey Program Senior Director
The offensive launched by Russian- and Iranian-backed forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad in February to capture Syria’s rebel-held Idlib region forced almost one million people to flee their homes, causing the biggest single displacement of the nine-year civil war. Now, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic has forced Turkey to recalibrate its usual approach to displaced persons and how it takes advantage of circumstances in Syria.
Over the duration of the conflict in Syria, Damascus and its allies have had a notorious track record for weaponizing forced displacement of civilians to put pressure on Turkey and other adversaries. Ankara has had a pattern of leveraging displacement and refugees in its relations with the European Union and the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) that control sections of northeast Syria. In response to the mass exodus from Idlib, on February 29 the Turkish government followed through on its 2019 threat to “open the gates to send 3.6 millions of refugees” to Europe by lifting border controls with Bulgaria and Greece.
For Syria, Russia, and Iran, forcing the residents of Idlib toward the Turkish border during harsh winter conditions was a calculated strategy aimed at pressuring Ankara. The Turkish government had already been overstretched by the upkeep of 3.6 million Syrians hosted under a temporary protection regime and troubled by a spike in anti-refugee sentiment among the electorate. Even before the latest Idlib offensive, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan initiated a policy of deporting Syrian asylum seekers and voiced plans to resettle a million refugees in northern Syria.
Damascus and its allies calculated that the plight of Idlib’s residents forced to flee their homes, with reports of children freezing to death near the Turkish border, would also spill over to and put pressure on the EU, where officials have been wary of a new wave of refugees and their potential impact, namely the rise of xenophobic populists.
Unable to cope politically and economically with yet another wave of displaced Syrians, Ankara tried to push back in Idlib with force. The Turkish government first found itself in intense military clashes not only with pro-Assad forces but also with Russia, and then at the negotiating table in Moscow. In between, Ankara tried to leverage Syrian refugees to induce support from its Western allies. A spokesperson for Erdoğan’s ruling party declared on February 28 that Turkey is “no longer able to hold refugees,” followed by the Turkish president’s announcement the next day that his country’s borders with Europe were open. Just as Russia expected, it did not take long for Erdoğan to drag the EU into the crisis, and he warned that Brussels “has to keep its promises” since Ankara was not “obliged to look after and feed so many refugees.”
In the first week of March, Turkey started bussing asylum seekers for free to the Greek border and allowed others to cross the Aegean Sea to Greek islands, suspending its commitments under a 2016 deal with the EU. Marc Pierini, the former EU ambassador to Turkey, called Turkey’s policy, “the first-ever refugee exodus, albeit a limited one, fully organized by one government against another.”
Turkey’s weaponization of refugees seemed to force EU members into action. On March 1, under pressure of the humanitarian catastrophe on the Turkish-Greek border, Athens suspended asylum applications for a month and the EU called for an emergency meeting on the deepening Turkey-Syria crisis. Although Erdoğan’s leveraging of refugees ultimately failed to win political and military support for his Idlib campaign from Turkey’s European allies, he nevertheless secured a March 9 summit with top EU officials and a March 17 videoconference with British, French, and German leaders. Erdoğan hoped that the leveraging of the refugee crisis would not only allow him to reboot the refugee deal with Brussels, providing him additional funds, but also a visa liberalization deal that he has sought for a long time.
While negotiations were continuing on the EU-Turkey front, coronavirus was making headways on both sides of the border. Turkey confirmed its first coronavirus case on March 11, becoming the last major economy to report an outbreak. The Turkish public, however, was suspicious of a government cover-up, as until that point Turkey was the only unaffected country in the world with a population larger than 50 million. The precarious conditions of refugees on Turkey’s borders with Syria and the EU, and the risk of a coronavirus outbreak among them, further heightened anxieties.
As the potential costs of a coronavirus epidemic began to outweigh the potential benefits of weaponizing refugees, attitudes began to change in Ankara. On March 7, only eight days after announcing that Turkey will no longer stop refugees who want to go to Europe, Erdoğan ordered the Turkish coast guard to prevent migrants and refugees from crossing the Aegean Sea to Greece. As of March 13, Ankara started to wind down its policy of moving migrants to the Greek land border and began bussing them back to Istanbul. The same day, a Turkish court sentenced three human traffickers to 125 years in prison, one of the harshest penalties on record. In an ironic turn of events, nineteen days after trying to force Greece and Bulgaria to open their borders to asylum seekers, Ankara announced on March 18 its decision to close its land borders with both countries to exit and entry, shortly after it confirmed its first coronavirus death. On March 27, Turkey’s interior ministry announced that it has removed all the remaining migrants away from the Turkish-Greek border, “as a precaution amid the coronavirus pandemic.”
Besides anxieties about a coronavirus outbreak, a key factor that led to such a dramatic reversal of Turkey’s strategy is the hardening of the attitudes in Europe. Seeing that European voters were ready to endorse the strictest measure to keep asylum seekers out during a coronavirus pandemic, EU governments adopted a tough stance, even if it meant letting refugees drown in the Aegean. Hence, when Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis raised the possibility of “a win-win solution going forward,” calling for a revision of the multi-billion migration deal between Turkey and the EU, he also warned that such an arrangement would not “happen under conditions of blackmail.” Greece’s foreign minister, Nikos Dendias, struck a similar tone in an op-ed published on March 29: “neither Greece nor the EU will engage with Turkey under duress, threat or blackmail. Maybe the time has come, especially given the difficult situation we all face with the pandemic, for the Turkish leadership to realize that its extortion diplomacy has ceased to be effective.”
Paradoxically, the onset of coronavirus did not have a similar restraining effect on Ankara’s policy toward the displaced populations of northeast Syria. On March 21, Turkey-backed armed groups interrupted the flow of water from the Allouk water station to SDC-controlled regions of northeast Syria, where close to 500,000 reside, including tens of thousands of internally displaced persons sheltered at camps. UNICEF warned that the “interruption of water supply during the current efforts to curb the spread of the Coronavirus disease puts children and families at unacceptable risk.” The Turkish government reportedly interrupted waterflow to receive more electricity to the regions under its control, as part of a Russian-brokered a deal that guaranteed drinking water to SDC-led areas in exchange for power supply.
Ankara calculates that a coronavirus outbreak caused by internally displaced persons who have no access to water in northeast Syria would not spill over to Turkey, and hence poses a negligible risk to the Turkish public compared to the risk posed by destitute asylum seekers stuck in the no man’s land between Turkey and Greece. This might end up as a dire miscalculation. As a spokesperson for the World Health Organization warned on March 8, Syria’s “fragile health systems may not have the capacity to detect and respond” to an epidemic. An International Rescue Committee official added that the situation was “especially ripe for a spread” of the virus. Similarly, Turkey’s ambassador to Washington cautioned on March 9 that the challenge of tracking or preventing the spread of the coronavirus among displaced Syrians is “a mission impossible.” It would, therefore, be prudent for Ankara to unwind its leveraging of displaced Syrians in the war-torn country’s northeast as it has already done so in Turkey’s northwest border region.
Over the course of the nine-year civil war in Syria, a long list of state and non-state actors have taken advantage of the flow of displaced persons to advance policies, extract concessions from counterparts, and impose costs on adversaries. This process has exacted an untold level of physical and mental suffering on the Syrian people. The growing risk of a coronavirus pandemic, however, is slowly forcing decision-makers to factor in the potential costs they are likely to incur as a result of an outbreak in the territories they control. The realization that what afflicts Syria’s vulnerable populations is not something that can be contained or ignored has been made clear, as the COVID-19 disease is now poised to afflict others in the region and beyond. These circumstances should be a wake-up call for regional and global actors to take urgent and concerted action to bring an end to the suffering in Syria that has gone on for too long.
*Aykan Erdemir is a former member of the Turkish parliament and the senior director of the Turkey Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Kurdish-led forces put down revolt by ISIS detainees at prison in Syria
Liz Sly and Louisa Loveluck /Washington Post/Ma5rch 31/2020
BEIRUT — Kurdish-led forces on Monday put down a revolt at a prison in northeast Syria for former Islamic State fighters after militants complaining about their conditions seized control of parts of the facility.
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said the riot was quelled by Monday night, more than 24 hours after prisoners inside smashed doors, broke down walls and took over at least one wing of the prison.
“Due to great efforts made by our forces & swift intervention against the insubordination of ISIS detainees inside one prison, we were able to avoid catastrophe & take control. No prisoners escaped,” the SDF commander, Gen. Mazloum Kobane Abdi, said on his Twitter account.
The prison revolt was the most serious yet by the thousands of former Islamic State fighters detained in prisons in the area, typically in cramped, overcrowded conditions that have drawn criticism from human rights groups.
The jihadis that no one wants
The uprising coincided with mounting fears across northeast Syria that the coronavirus will arrive in the war-ravaged area, with potentially devastating consequences in the crowded prisons. U.S. officials say about 10,000 foreign fighters from dozens of nations and family members are being held in detention centers and camps there, along with tens of thousands of Syrians and Iraqis.
Kurdish officials have long warned that they lack the resources to indefinitely detain such a large number of people and have urged governments around the world to repatriate their nationals who volunteered to join the Islamic State. Most countries have refused to do so, fearing that the former fighters would pose a security threat after they returned.
The SDF’s Mazloum — who goes by a nom de guerre — said the unrest demonstrated the need for the international community to help resolve the burden on the Kurdish authorities left to manage the captured fighters. “Our allies must find a quick radical solution to this international problem,” he tweeted.
The revolt began Sunday night at a prison in the city of Hasakah that houses about 5,000 Islamic State fighters of multiple nationalities who were captured after the group’s final stand in the village of Baghouz, Kurdish officials and local journalists said.
“ISIS terrorists managed to take over the first floor in Hasakah prison,” SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali wrote on his Twitter account. “Some of them managed to escape and our forces are searching to capture them.” SDF officials later said that all the prisoners were accounted for.
Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a spokesman for the international coalition, said the U.S.-led force provided the SDF with aerial surveillance to look for escapees and to monitor for any signs that might indicate a “larger conspiracy.”
Video footage posted by a journalist at the scene Monday morning showed members of the SDF creeping around the outside of the prison wall, suggesting that they still had not brought the facility under control. The prisoners seized control of a section of the prison after they disabled surveillance cameras, broke down metal doors and then used them to smash down walls between the prison cells. “The mutiny is still ongoing,” the journalist said.
Surveillance video footage from inside the prison on Sunday night showed prisoners in orange uniforms tightly crammed together in one of the cells and holding up a sign appealing for intervention by international humanitarian and coalition forces to alleviate their conditions.
Previous footage from the prison cells, seen by Washington Post reporters during a visit last year, showed men packed together so tightly that they tripped over one another as they tried to move across the rooms. Some sat in small, tight circles, deep in conversation. Others lay staring into space, and several could be seen clawing at their own faces.
*Loveluck reported from London. Asser Khattab in Paris contributed to this report.

“Defying Islamist Protests: Middle East Scholar Speaks at U.S. Army War College”
Raymond Ibrahim/April 01/2020
Note: The following account of my Feb. 26 lecture at the US Army War College was written by Leonard Getz, CPA, the Philadelphia Counter-Islamist Grid Associate at the Middle East Forum. It first appeared in American Thinker:
On a 500-acre campus in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Middle East scholar Raymond Ibrahim was finally allowed to give his speech before a packed, mostly civilian audience at the U.S. Army War College’s Heritage and Education Center. Based on his book, Sword and Scimitar — Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West, Ibrahim covered the 7th century origins of Islam, its conflict with Christianity during the hundreds of years that followed, and revisionist attempts to deny Islam’s history of violent warfare and supremacism.
Ibrahim, a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow with the Middle East Forum, was on the receiving end of such an attempt in June 2019, when the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other Islamists convinced the U.S. Army War College to disinvite Ibrahim from his original appearance, fallaciously accusing the son of Egyptian immigrants of being a “bigot” and “white nationalist.”
However, Ibrahim wasn’t alone. In its press release, CAIR ridiculed the War College as “an academic institution run on taxpayer funds” which was “poised to exacerbate longstanding problems such as racism and human rights violations that exist within the US military.”
Ibrahim explained that CAIR is “well aware how important it is to dominate the historic narrative.” He pointed to his reliance on primary source material and actual quotes from jihadist and Islamists to support his view that there is “a continuity between past and present; Muslim religious leaders and jihadists see Christianity as both antithetical to the Islamic world and inherently ripe for conquest or conversion.”
It took a letter signed by ten congressmen to Army War College commandant Major General John S. Kem, as well as a National Association of Scholars letter to President Trump which included 5,000 signatories, to convince Army leaders to reinstate Ibrahim’s invitation.
When CAIR learned that Ibrahim was set to return to the Carlisle campus, it responded by once again suggesting that it suffers from an “internal problem with white supremacists and white nationalists within its ranks,” while claiming that Ibrahim’s talk would “instigate hatred against Muslims.”
Undeterred by his Islamist critics, Ibrahim began his presentation by saying that “since 9/11,” it has “become popular” for media and academia to whitewash the Koran’s objectionable passages. “They say Mohammad may have done bad things, but so did King David and Abraham,” he said. The difference, Ibrahim noted, is that the Torah acknowledges the wayward path of these leaders and advises against following them, unlike the Koran.
For argument’s sake, Ibrahim offered to “put aside what the Koran says,” and “see what Islamists have done.” Beginning with the Islamic conquests of the Middle East and North Africa, Ibrahim argued that Islamists’ consistent goal has been western submission to Islamic supremacy. This region, which is identified today as Muslim-majority, was home to more Christians than Europe in the 7th century. What remained after the Arab Muslim invasion became “the West.” Ibrahim quoted historian Franco Cardini, who wrote that, “Repeated Muslim aggression against Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries and again in the 14th and 18th centuries was a violent midwife to Europe.”
Ibrahim referred to the late historian of Islam Bernard Lewis, who said, “We forget that for a thousand years since the advent of Islam from the 7th century to the siege of Vienna in 1683 Christian Europe was under constant threat from Islam, the double threat of conquest and conversion violently wrested from Christendom.” Ibrahim noted that modern historians often fail to acknowledge this simple truth.
He argued that Mohammad’s guidance to spread Islam was the motivation behind the Islamic conquests. The only way peace could be achieved was through acceptance of Islam by conversion, enslavement, or paying the jizya — an enormous annual tribute which the caliphate levied on non-Muslims.
Short of these options, a non-believer’s only recourse was to fight to the death. He quoted what Islamist conqueror Khalid bin Walid said to a Byzantine general before the Battle of Yarmuk in 636 CE: “We Arabs are in the habit of drinking blood and we are told the Romans are the sweetest of its kind. Where you love life, we love death.”
Unlike contemporary historians who identify the various inter-civilizational wars of this age as ethnic and nationalistic, Ibrahim emphasized that the primary sources clearly show that these ongoing battles were manifestations of jihad, inspired by Koranic scripture. He called this tendency “a historic fact that modern day historians censor.”
Ibrahim showed that modern jihadists “belonging to groups such as ISIS are well-versed in Islamic historic military jurisprudence” and the Koran and point to historical precedents to justify their violence and brutality.
At the fall of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II motivated his jihadists with the same instructions invoked by modern-day ISIS: “Recall the promise of our Prophet regarding fallen warriors in the Koran; the man who falls in combat will be transported bodily to Paradise [and] will dine with Mohammed in the presence of women.”
Next, Ibrahim recounted the American experience with the Islamic Barbary pirates in 1785 and 1786 that attacked U.S. merchant ships and enslaved American sailors. In an effort to ransom the slaves, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams entered negotiations with Abdul Rahman, Tripoli’s ambassador to Britain. The American diplomats futilely explained that they “had done them no injury” and “consider all mankind our friends.”
Abdul answered that “it was founded on the laws of their Prophet, written in the Koran that all nations not acknowledging their authority were sinners, that it is their religious right and duty to make slaves of non-believers, and all Muslims slain in battle were sure to go to paradise.” America’s conflict with Islam did not begin on 9/11. Rather, it dates back to the time of America’s Founders.
To underscore this message, Ibrahim cited Theodore Roosevelt’s 1916 book, Fear God and Take Your Part, where the former president pointed out, “If the peoples of Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries, and on up to and including the 17th century, had not possessed a military equality with, and gradually a growing superiority over the Mohammedans who invaded Europe, Europe would at this moment be Mohammedan and the Christian religion would be exterminated.”
The great English statesman Winston Churchill also criticized Islam for institutionalizing slavery. “The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman is the absolute property — either as a child, a wife, or a concubine — must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.”
Ibrahim rhetorically asked, if the violent history of Islam is so well-documented, “so ironclad” then “why don’t we know about it?” Older historians who studied Islam unprejudiced by political correctness reached conclusions which no longer comport to what the public is told. Conversely, modern historians get away with academic malpractice by reducing previous Islamic studies scholarship to outdated myths.
This is all part and parcel to what Ibrahim referred to as “propaganda as a form of jihad,” misinformation of which academics and groups such as CAIR are the most vociferous defenders.
Meanwhile, CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in the nation’s largest terrorism finance trial and an accused Hamas supporter, engaged in “propaganda jihad ”by working to suppress Ibrahim’s historical review, a practice consistent with Islamist suppression of different religious beliefs.
In the end, Ibrahim gave Army service members and the community a coherent and fact-driven presentation of Islamic history that everyone in America should hear, one that dispels the many false, politically correct notions about the nature of Islam. It lays bare the inconvenient truth that Islamic ideology is what motivates Muslim jihadists to perpetrate acts of terrorism against non-believers, both domestically and abroad.

Coronavirus: Strict Rules and Order Save Lives
Salman Al-Dossary/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 31/2020
From now, people will know that nothing is unimaginable and that they need to rethink everything that they have read about in books and seen in fantasy movies. Not since the Second World War have societies seen such a dramatic change as they are now seeing during the coronavirus outbreak. Airports and trains have practically come to a halt, highways are deserted, borders are closes, health systems have collapsed… even taking a walk in the park is deemed a luxury. Walking on the streets tomorrow? A dream.
Isolation has become the rule and carrying on with life as it was has become the exception.
According to figures published by the Frances’ Les Echos on Saturday, the rate of isolation tripled in the past ten days. Sixty countries, or 3.26 billion people, meaning 43 percent of mankind, are under curfew or strictly advised to stay at home and to venture out for essential goods, medical treatment or work.
As we continue to live in this unprecedented horror movie, the number of infections around the world continues to rise dramatically. For example, Italy, whose population makes up 4 percent of China, has registered more infections than China itself.
There is however, some hope to take from the Asian experience, especially in China, Japan and South Korea. China has gradually eased restrictions and some restaurants have reopened. Japan and South Korea have also eased restrictions, while the United States and Europe have turned into epicenters of the virus.I won’t be exaggerating in saying that the second shock, after the first shock of the virus itself, is just how fast the pandemic is spreading and how dangerous it is, in Europe specifically. It was believed that Europe boasted the world’s best health systems. Now, it appears that Italy and Spain are “competing” with Iran, with all of its backward systems, in registering the greatest number of cases and deaths.
To get a better picture, let us assume that a war were to break out between Britain or France with Hong Kong, for example. We would be shocked if the war machine of the two European countries would be defeated so easily by such a small state. But this is what’s happening now. The greatest government systems in the world are helpless in stopping the spread of the coronavirus.
I believe that the majority of countries adopted one of two strategies: The first relied on strict preventive measures before the outbreak spread across their territories. The second relied on the awareness of people to confront the virus. In this second strategy, governments, specifically western ones, did not adopt preventive measures or strict rules, given the nature of their political systems, which did not allow for such measures to begin with because they were viewed as restrictions on personal freedoms, in the western definition of the term, of course.
The coronavirus crisis was soon upon them and they failed in preempting it and carrying out what was necessary to save the lives of hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions, of its people in the coming weeks. In contrast, countries that took preemptive preventive measures, succeeded in predicting the impending danger before it was too late.
It is odd that the two strategies have the same goal, which is saving people from a human disaster. However, one succeeded, for now at least, and the other, failed, for now at least, as well. It has been proven on the ground, especially at times of catastrophes, that strict rules and order save lives, says Michelle Gelfand, a psychology professor at the University of Maryland.
During the coronavirus crisis, the hardest question confronting scientists, politicians and doctors is: When will this disaster end?
The truth is, no one knows. The difference is that there are some political systems that have realized the danger early on and have limited the possibility of the spread of the virus and protected themselves from imminent catastrophe. They have not left room for criticism against them from their people. Other political systems, however, waited for catastrophe to strike and acted late, incurring the wrath of the people.
The irony here is that the systems that realized the danger ahead of time are accused of violating human rights, while the others pride themselves in defending them, for the world to discover that the principles that protect public liberties are the ones that are failing in saving lives.

Don't Let COVID-19 Become Hunger Game
Qu Dongyu/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 31/2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is putting enormous strains on the public health systems around the world, and millions of people in the world's most advanced economies are in some form of quarantine.
We know the human toll will be high, and that massive efforts to turn the tide carry a heavy economic cost. To reduce the risk of an even greater toll - shortage of food for millions, even in affluent countries - the world must take immediate actions to minimize disruptions to food supply chains.
A globally coordinated and coherent response is needed to prevent this public health crisis from triggering a food crisis in which people cannot find or afford food. For now, COVID-19 has not entailed any strain on food security, despite anecdotal reports of crowded supermarket sieges.
While there's no need for panic - there is enough supply of food in the world to feed everyone – we must face the challenge: an enormous risk that food may not be made available where it is needed. The COVID-19 outbreak, with all the accompanying closures and lockdowns, has created logistical bottlenecks that ricochet across the long value chains of the modern global economy.Restrictions of movement, as well as basic aversion behavior by workers, may impede farmers from farming and food processors (who handle most agricultural products) from processing.
Shortage of fertilizers, veterinary medicines and other input could also affect agricultural production.
Closures of restaurants and less frequent grocery shopping diminish demand for fresh produce and fisheries products, affecting producers and suppliers, especially smallholder farmers, with long-term consequences for the world's increasingly urbanized population, be they in Manhattan or Manila. Uncertainty about food availability can induce policymakers to implement trade restrictive measures in order to safeguard national food security. Given the experience of the 2007-2008 global food price crisis, we know that such measures can only exacerbate the situation.
Export restrictions put in place by exporting countries to increase food availability domestically could lead to serious disruptions in the world food market, resulting in price spikes and increased price volatility.
In 2007-2008, these immediate measures proved extremely damaging, especially for low income food deficit countries and to the efforts of humanitarian organisations to procure supplies for the needy and vulnerable. We should all learn from our recent past and not make the same mistakes twice. Policy makers must take care to avoid accidentally tightening food-supply conditions.
While every country faces its own challenges, collaboration – between governments and the full gamut of sectors and stakeholders - is paramount. We are experiencing a global problem that requires a global response.
We must ensure that food markets are functioning properly and that information on prices, production, consumption and stocks of food is available to all in real time. This approach will reduce uncertainty and allow producers, consumers, traders and processors to make informed decisions and to contain unwarranted panic behavior in global food markets.
The health impacts of the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic on some of the poorest countries are still unknown. Yet, we can say with certainty that any ensuing food crisis as a result of poor policy making will be a humanitarian disaster that we can avert.
We already have 113 million people experiencing acute hunger; in sub-Saharan Africa, a quarter of the population is undernourished. Any disruptions to food supply chains will intensify both human suffering and the challenge of reducing hunger around the world.
We must do everything possible to not let that happen. Prevention costs less. Global markets are critical for smoothening supply and demand shocks across countries and regions, and we need to work together to ensure that disruptions of food supply chains are minimised as much as possible.COVID-19 forcefully reminds us that solidarity is not charity, but common sense. Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General QU Dongyu

What Concepts Are We to Expect in Post-COVID-19 Era?
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 31/2020
House-bound, a group of friends including me, have turned to Skype as an alternative means of communication, socializing and thinking about COVID-19, which has suddenly invaded lives.
Each of us has his own experiences and views about the situation; and, of course, each has his expectation of how this pandemic is going to change our concepts, beliefs, as well as our lifestyle, behavior, and social and economic priorities. However, one thing our ‘Skype gang’ is unanimous about is that the post-COVID-19 world will be something totally different from what we have known and experienced.
One example of the concepts and issues we expect to change, one way or another, is the relationship between politics and religion. Another one is what role humans are going to play in a world dominated by hi-technology and AI, and the majority of whose politicians are obsessed with our globalized economy.
Then, of course there is the future of anything related to knowledge and communication, from the field of education to media, and the radical transformation is already in motion there.
The dimensions of the ‘pandemic’ - as it is officially recognized now by the World Health Organisation (WHO) - are frightening. Indeed, after hesitating to use the term ‘epidemic’, WHO has acknowledged the reality after witnessing the astonishing increase in cases and fatalities, and the shift of its epicenter from China, to Iran and western Europe, and from there to every corner of the world.
I believe that Europe’s experience with the pandemic deserves a lot of attention for several reasons, foremost among which is that Europe has solid and transparent democracies. These democracies never hesitate to admit mistakes, and are never late in correcting them. This is not the case with China which is controlled by a policy of secrecy, a command structure mentality, and one-party rule. Neither is it case with Iran, which is a militaristic theocracy, nor the USA that currently engulfed by excessive populism in an election year whereby public health strategy has become part and parcel of electioneering and marketing.
This is why I believe that we in the Arab world need to monitor and learn from the way a badly-suffering Europe is behaving. Among the costliest mistakes the Europeans have learned from are:
1- Their hesitance in enforcing lockdowns two months after the Chinese locked down the city of Wuhan, a city of 11 million inhabitants.
2- Being too late in carrying out tests, which are vital in knowing about the spread of infections, which would help plan quarantines and carry out treatment. Germany, perhaps, has been the exception here, with the proof being the relatively very low fatality rate compared with that of Italy.
3- Failure to adequately invest in the public health sectors, and the ongoing tendency of under-funding it.
Today, Italy’s fatalities have overtaken China’s, with Germany, Spain, France and the UK moving in the same direction lagging behind only by one or two weeks. Relatively high infection figures are being recorded too in much smaller countries like Belgium, Switzerland, and Ireland. All this means that we are going to witness an unprecedented and rapid rise in both cases and peacetime-fatalities throughout western Europe within one or two weeks.
These facts, no doubt, are very worrying; what is even more worrying are the reports coming from Italy, and those expected elsewhere, about a virtual collapse of medical service under the enormity of the pandemic.
Indeed, this collapse has led to open talk about ‘selectivity’ in saving lives, and some hospitals’ refusal to treat the elderly and those with underlying and chronic health conditions.
Furthermore, despite the late-coming curfews, lockdowns and house isolations, as well as retooling factories to start producing ventilators and other ICU equipments, the effect of the last few weeks’ delay will appear in the cases and fatalities figures of the next three months. This is why the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was talking about around 12 weeks before any improvement becomes evident.
This data definitely points to inevitable changes.
Regarding the relationship between politics and religion, some believe that the aura enjoyed by religious establishments – of all major religions – above any other consideration, is almost gone. They argue that putting peoples’ lives above classical everyday worship is a sign of rationalism and realism that would save religions from excessive ritualism. The counter-argument by others would claim that science failed in the past, and has also failed now to prevent this pandemic.
As for the relationship between the private and public sectors, there was an interesting article last week by the London-based staunchly conservative Daily Telegraph in which it said that to avoid socialism, the government must be a socialist for a while to save the liberal free market!
This came in the wake of the generous relief and compensation package announced by the British government for those who are threatened with losing their income as a result of the repercussions of the pandemic. This package recalls the quasi-nationalization measures taken by US President GW Bush administration during the financial crisis of 2007-2008.
The Western countries have since moved on, and seem to have forgotten what happened in 2007-2008; which is why they have re-elected right-wing leaderships promising better times and low taxes. Well these countries are now facing COVID-19 which is costing them times and times over what they would be spending their tax money on health infrastructures and investment in scientific research.