English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For August 22/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.august22.20.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
Strive to enter through the narrow door; for
many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint
Luke 13/22-30:”Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching
as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few be
saved?’ He said to them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I
tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the owner of the
house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock
at the door, saying, “Lord, open to us”, then in reply he will say to you, “I do
not know where you come from.”Then you will begin to say, “We ate and drank with
you, and you taught in our streets.”But he will say, “I do not know where you
come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!”There will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets
in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out.Then people will come from
east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. Indeed,
some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.’”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August
21-22/2020
Lebanon Records 605 Virus Cases, 4 Deaths on Lockdown Eve
Lebanon Queues Up for Russian COVID-19 Vaccine
Pompeo: Hezbollah is in Much Worse Place
US Congress Calls For Standing Against Chinese-Iranian Ambitions in Lebanon
Report: Berri Expected to Discuss Govt. Formation in Meeting with Bassil
Lebanon bids farewell tenth fallen firefighter, Joe Bou Saab
President Aoun receives credentials of Ambassadors of Greece, Germany, Slovakia
and Bangladesh
UNHCR's Grandi affirms immediate support to 100,000 individuals affected by
devastating Beirut blast and additional funding for COVID-19 response
Rahi meets Caretaker Foreign minister
Citizen threatens to torch himself over Bank’s failure to transfer son’s
university tuition abroad
Wazni pushes to stimulate, accelerate work at Tripoli Port
Lebanon: Aoun Prioritizes Cabinet Formation Before New PM’s Appointment
Beirut Continues to Bid Farewell to Explosion Victims
Lebanon judge issues new arrest warrants over Beirut explosion
1 Dead, 3 Hurt in Southern Town Shooting, 2 Killed in Jabal Mohsen
Beirut Blast Shattered Taboos around Hizbullah
After Port Disaster, Lebanese Brace for Virus Lockdown
Real Estate Brokers Exploit Residents in Destroyed Beirut Neighborhoods
Lebanese experts capable of leading nation’s reforms/Zaid M. Belbagi/Arab
News/August 21, 2020
Will Lebanon finally gather the strength to oust Hezbollah?/Con Coughlin/The
National/August 21/2020
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on August 21-22/2020
Turkey's Erdogan Converts another Former Church into Mosque
World Bank Chief Warns Extreme Poverty Could Surge by 100 mn
Rival Libya Govts Announce Ceasefire, Elections
Libya’s Haftar Rejects Proposal to ‘Demilitarize Sirte’
Trump Meets Kadhimi, Vows to Withdraw Troops Soon
Targeted Killings Against Activists Send Shivers Down Spines in Iraq
Israel prepares for Gaza showdown after 7 rockets notch up Palestinian
aggression
Palestinian Leadership: Arab Initiative Best Route to Peace With Israel
Israel Strikes Hamas Targets in Gaza
Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian Teen Near Ramallah
Biden Vows to Defeat Trump, End US 'Season of Darkness'
Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published on August 21-22/2020
UN Supports 'World's Worst State Sponsor of Terrorism,'
Iran/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/August 21/ 2020
A Slippery Patch in World Affairs/Amir Taheri/ Asharq Al-Awsat/ August 21/2020 -
Floods, Covid, Chaos. China Data Show It All/Anjani Trivedi/Bloomberg/August
21/2020
Can Terrorists be Deradicalized? - Part II/Denis MacEoin/Gatestone
Institute/August 20/2020
European statement sets out refusal to back Iran arms ban extension/Thomas
Harding/The National/August 21/2020
A ‘new era’ in the Eastern Mediterranean — or the ‘new normal’?/Sinem Cengiz/Arab
News/August 21, 2020
The UAE has skillfully moved to check Iranian aggression/Dr. John C. Hulsman/Arab
News/August 21, 2020
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 21-22/2020
Lebanon Records 605 Virus Cases, 4 Deaths on Lockdown Eve
Naharnet/August 21/2020
Lebanon recorded 605 new coronavirus cases and four deaths over the past 24
hours, the Health Ministry said on Thursday evening. In its daily statement, the
Ministry said 597 of the cases were recorded among residents and eight among
individuals coming from abroad. Twenty-two of the cases were meanwhile recorded
among medical workers. According to the statement, 263 COVID patients were
admitted into hospitals over the past 24 hours, among them 72 into intensive
care units. The new cases raise the country’s overall tally since February 21 to
10,952 -- including 113 deaths and 3,050 recoveries. The high number of cases
comes on the eve of a two-week general lockdown and nighttime curfew aimed at
curbing a spike in infections. The new measures will come into effect on Friday
morning but they would not affect the clean-up and aid effort following the
devastating August 4 Beirut port blast. A curfew will be imposed from 6:00 pm to
6:00 am. Malls will be closed and restaurants restricted to delivery and
takeaway, with curtailed operating hours. Social gatherings will also be banned.
The airport will operate normally and ministries will be staffed at half
capacity. Lebanon was already seeing rising cases of the novel coronavirus
before the Beirut blast but has reported a string of record tallies in recent
weeks. A previously planned lockdown was scrapped in the wake of the explosion,
which flattened neighborhoods near the port and left thousands homeless. Health
Minister Hamad Hassan warned on Monday that hospitals were reaching maximum
capacity to treat novel coronavirus patients after the Beirut blast overwhelmed
health centers already stretched by the virus. "Public and private hospitals in
the capital in particular have a very limited capacity, whether in terms of beds
in intensive care units or respirators," he said. "We are on the brink, we don't
have the luxury to take our time," he warned.
Lebanon Queues Up for Russian COVID-19 Vaccine
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/August 21/2020
Health Minister Hamad Hassan is set to lead a crisis cell meeting on coronavirus
on Friday, after remarks that Lebanon made an agreement with the World Health
Organization to reserve Lebanon’s share of a possible Russian COVID-19 vaccine.
Lebanon “made an agreement with the World Health Organization to reserve
Lebanon's share of the possible COVID-19 vaccine,” the minister said in
televised remarks. He added that “coordination is underway with Russia to secure
a package of the Russian vaccine,” and that Lebanon will pay for that from the
World Bank loan. Hassan is expected to chair a crisis cell meeting at noon
Friday to discuss the developments. Russia said on Thursday it would start
clinical trials of its controversial coronavirus vaccine next week, involving
tens of thousands of people. The drug, Sputnik V, has already been hailed by
Russian officials as a success even as experts questioned the rigor of the
testing regime. Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin had stated that
“he will make every effort to secure the Russian COVID-19 vaccine as soon as
possible to Lebanon." Lebanon is to partially close down for two weeks from
Friday to stem a string of record daily infection rates that have brought the
number of COVID-19 cases to 10,952, including 113 deaths. Authorities fear
Lebanon's fragile health sector would struggle to cope with a further spike in
COVID-19 cases, especially after some hospitals near the port were damaged in
the explosion. They have said the new lockdown measures, which include a
nighttime curfew from 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) to 6:00 am (0300 GMT), will not affect
the clean-up or aid effort in areas ravaged by the blast. The stay-at-home order
from Friday is only the latest such decision after a months-long lockdown from
mid-March. It came on the heels of a dire economic crisis since last year that
has trapped people's savings in banks, sent food prices soaring and caused tens
of thousands to lose their jobs or a large part of their income. Even before the
explosion of a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate at the port on August 4
sparked popular rage against official negligence, Lebanon's crisis had doubled
poverty rates to more than half of the population, according to UN estimates.
Pompeo: Hezbollah is in Much Worse Place
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 21 August, 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that Lebanon’s Hezbollah “is in
a much worse place” due to Washington’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran.
Pompeo submitted letters to the president of the UN Security Council and
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York, accusing Iran of "significant"
non-compliance with the terms of the 2015 nuclear accord. It is intended to
launch the start of the process to snapback sanctions on Iran that threatens to
torpedo the nuclear deal. “Today Hezbollah is in a much worse place, that the
militias inside of Iraq that are run and controlled by the Iranians have fewer
dollars, that Iran has less capacity in Syria today, all because of the US
sanctions and our enforcement efforts,” Pompeo told reporters after delivering
the letters. Pompeo was sharply critical of “our friends in Germany, France, and
the United Kingdom” who didn’t support a US resolution to indefinitely extend
the arms embargo on Iran, which was resoundingly defeated a week ago. He accused
them of privately agreeing with the US but lacking courage to say so publicly
and proposing “no alternatives.”“Instead they chose to side with ayatollahs,”
Pompeo said. “Their actions endanger the people of Iraq, of Yemen, of Lebanon,
of Syria and indeed their own citizens as well.”
US Congress Calls For Standing Against Chinese-Iranian
Ambitions in Lebanon
Washington- Elie Youssef and Rana Abtar/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday,
21 August, 2020
A group of Democratic and Republican senators called on the US administration to
lead international efforts to help the Lebanese people after the Beirut Aug. 4
explosion and to stand in the way of Iranian and Chinese goals in Lebanon.
In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a group of senators urged the
White House to work to secure reform opportunities, warning that Iran and China
would take advantage of the existing vacuum to extend their control over the
country. The letter - written by Democrats Jeanne Shaheen, Chris Murphy, Tim
Kaine and Republicans James Lankford, and David Perdue - urges the US
administration to develop a long-term plan to implement reforms and encourage
recovery. “It is sadly telling that there is little to no faith in providing
assistance directly to the Lebanese government due to its rampant corruption. As
such, while responding to the short-term needs of the Lebanese people is
paramount, we hope that this disaster will refocus the US and international
community on the necessity of addressing Lebanon’s deep-seated governance crisis
that has brought us to this moment,” the senators wrote. They added: “It is in
the United States’ interest to have a stable and secure Lebanon. Iran is eager
to exploit this tragedy to further expand its influence, and we know that
Chinese financing to Lebanon would not require the reforms that are desperately
needed at this critical juncture. Therefore, we urge you to lead a robust
longer-term effort to yield the reforms needed to help the Lebanese people
suffering under a collapsed economy and gross government mismanagement.”
Meanwhile, US Under Secretary for Political Affairs David Hale said that
Washington had dealt in the past with Lebanese governments that included members
of Hezbollah and that they would look into the matter if this happened again.
During a phone conference in Washington, with the participation of Asharq Al-Awsat,
Hale talked about his visit to Lebanon last week, saying: “The popular demand
for change could not be clearer, and while I, of course, met with and respect
all of the leaders and politicians that one has to meet with, frankly, the
meetings that were the most rewarding were those with civil society, with
protest leaders who asked to meet with me to express their views, which they
have not been able to do to the government, which I did.”He continued: “We will
not be providing that kind of long-term assistance until we see a government
that’s actually capable of reform and change.”Asked about the amount of
humanitarian assistance that the US has provided to date, Hale revealed that USD
18 million was sent so far for emergency relief assistance. “This has been
between the US CENTCOM, which responded immediately with assistance packages
that went to the Lebanese army, and then subsequent aid… and these are going to
our NGO partners. None of it goes to the Government of Lebanon...” He
emphasized. On whether he saw any room for Hezbollah to get involved in the next
government, the US Under Secretary said: “[Hezbollah] have been in past
governments. We have been able to deal with governments in the past with a
Hezbollah component, but the question is whether it is going to be a government
that’s truly capable of reforms.”“Reforms are contrary to the interests of all
of the status quo leaders and that very much includes Hezbollah, which is today
perceived as a big part of the problem,” he underlined.
Report: Berri Expected to Discuss Govt. Formation in Meeting with
Bassil
Naharnet/August 21/2020
As part of efforts to reach an agreement on a new government, Speaker Nabih
Berri will likely hold talks with head of Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc MP
Jebran Bassil in Ain el-Tineh, Saudi Asharq el-Awsat newspaper reported on
Friday. According to the daily, President Michel Aoun was the one to ask Berri
to receive Bassil for talks on the government. The meeting could expand to
include political aide to Hizbullah leader Hussein Khalil, and Berri’s political
aide Hassan Khalil, said the daily. Berri has been meeting with senior officials
in a bid to facilitate the formation of a new government after the resignation
of PM Hassan Diab over the colossal Beirut port explosion, widely blamed on
negligence and corruption by the country's ruling class. Sources following the
ongoing consultations to name a replacement for Diab, said that Berri has
asserted during talks with Lebanese and foreign officials that ex-PM Saad Hariri
is what the upcoming stage in crisis-hit Lebanon needs. An-Nahar daily said
Berri-Bassil talks are aimed at “easing the hurdles hampering the formation of a
new government, and to appease the atmospheres before French President Emmanuel
Macron re-visits Beirut early next month.”In a show of solidarity with the
Lebanese, Macron visited Lebanon two days after the devastating explosion that
flattened large parts of the capital.
Lebanon bids farewell tenth fallen firefighter, Joe
Bou Saab
NNA/August 21/2020
Lebanon on Friday bid farewell to the tenth firefighting victim, Joe Bou Saab.
Joe is one of the ten martyrs who were killed while on duty to extinguish the
fire that broke out in Ward 12 at Beirut Port. His companions received his
coffin wrapped in a Lebanese flag at the Fire Brigade headquarters in Karantina;
with a heavy heart, they applauded and took turns carrying his coffin. The
funeral procession will head next to Joe’s hometown in Damour, where he will be
buried. Prayers will be recited for the comfort of his soul at 3:00 pm in
St. Elias Church - Damour.
President Aoun receives credentials of Ambassadors
of Greece, Germany, Slovakia and Bangladesh
NNA/August 21/2020
President Michel Aoun received the credentials of four new accredited
Ambassadors to Lebanon, today at the Presidential Palace.
Ambassadors are: Bangladeshi Ambassador, Al Mustahidur Rahman Jahangir, Greek
Ambassador, Ekaterini Fountoulaki, German Ambassador, Andreas Kindl, and Slovak
Ambassador, Marek Varga. The credential presentation was attended by Foreign
Affairs Minister, Charbel Wehbe, Secretary-General of the Foreign Affairs
Ministry, Hani Shmaitly, Protocol General Director in the Lebanese Presidency,
Dr. Nabil Chedid, and the Protocol Director of the Foreign Affairs Ministry,
Mrs. Abeer Ali. As the Ambassadors successively arrived to Baabda Palace,
approved ceremonies were held, and the army music played the anthem of the
country each Ambassador presents, while the country’s flag was raised on palace
mast, alongside the Lebanese flag. Then, each Ambassador greeted the flag, and
was accompanied by a company from the Republican Guard Brigade, to the 22nd
November Salon, in the middle of two rows of spears, where the credentials were
presented to President Aoun. Upon departure, and after credentials were
presented, the Lebanese Army music played the Lebanese National Anthem. On the
other hand, Ambassadors conveyed greetings and condolences of their heads of
states, to President Aoun, condoling the victims of the Beirut Port explosion,
and wished the President success in his national responsibilities, asserting
their work to strengthen relations between Lebanon and their countries. For his
side, President Aoun conveyed the Ambassadors his greetings to their Presidents,
wishing them success in their diplomatic missions, and thanking their support to
help the injured and those affected by the explosion.
Ambassador Biographies:
Bangladeshi Ambassador, Al Mustahidur Rahman Jahangir:
-Holds postgraduate studies in military defense sciences, and held several
positions in the Army Command of his country, as well as teaching military
sciences at the Military Academy in Bangladesh.
-Assumed military positions in missions outside his country in Iraq, Kuwait,
Sudan and Liberia.
-Joined his Bangladesh foreign ministry and assumed multiple tasks.
-Visited several countries on official duties, most notably Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi
Arabia, Singapore, Sudan, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Malaysia, in addition to
Denmark, Sweden, Thailand, Australia, Spain, France, China, Canada and the
United States of America.
Greek Ambassador, Ekaterini Fountoulaki:
-Holds a BA in Law from the University of Athens.
-Joined the Institute of Diplomatic Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of her country.
-Fluctuated in several diplomatic positions, appointed as an attaché to the
Department of Political Relations with Cyprus and Turkey, and then as the
secretary of her country’s embassy in Nicosia, before she was appointed
Ambassador of Greece in Vienna, in addition to a permanent representative of
Greece to the European Union in Brussels.
-Worked in the office of the Minister of European Affairs in her country, and
was appointed as the permanent representative of Greece to the United Nations in
New York, before she was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary in her country’s
permanent mission to the United Nations in New York as well.
-Fluent in English and French.
German Ambassador, Andreas Kindl:
-Pursued university studies specializing in the jurisprudence of the ancient
Greek language in addition to the sciences and literature of the German language
and the sciences of Islam at the universities of Heidelberg, Bonn and Oxford.
-Holds a Masters of Arts.
-Joined the German Federal Foreign Ministry and fluctuated in several positions,
appointed to each of his country’s embassies in Tunisia, the German permanent
mission to the European Union in Brussels and German embassy in Sanaa.
-Chaired his country’s mission in Sanaa between 2015 and 2017 and held the
position of plenipotentiary at the German Federal Foreign Ministry since 2017.
Slovakian Ambassador, Marek Varga:
-Pursued postgraduate studies in international relations and diplomacy at the
Faculty of Political Science and International Relations of the Matij University
in Slovakia.
-Attended a course at NATO to combat terrorism.
-Holds a Bachelor’s degree in Military Sciences and Law from the University of
Bratislava, Slovakia.
-Fluctuated in several positions, where he assumed the position of observer and
liaison officer in a EU mission in the former Yugoslavia.
-Assumed diplomatic and administrative positions in both the Ministry of Defense
of his country, and the Embassy of Slovakia to the United States of America.
-Worked, as coordinator, in the Strategic Analysis Unit of the Council of
Europe.
-Headed the Strategic Analysis Unit between 2013 and 2017.
-Fluent in English and French.—Presidency Press Office
UNHCR's Grandi affirms immediate support to 100,000
individuals affected by devastating Beirut blast and additional funding for
COVID-19 response
NNA/August 21/2020
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, today concluded a visit
to Lebanon during which he affirmed UNHCR’s immediate support to over 100,000
people who were severely affected by the blast that devastated the capital,
Beirut, on 4 August. This support aims to provide emergency housing repairs and
trauma counselling to Lebanese, refugees and other affected populations. During
his visit, Grandi observed the devastating impact of the blast, and listened to
the plight of Lebanese and refugee families. From Beirut, he called on the
international community to continue their generous support and stand by the
people of Lebanon at this trying time. “The situation is very difficult. Lebanon
is enduring multiple challenges - the swirling economic crisis, the COVID-19
pandemic, the impact of the Syrian conflict - and now, this horrible explosion.
All of us have a role to play in the response – we cannot let people sleep in
the open, without a roof and privacy, exposed to food insecurity, lack of water
and medicine.”He added: “Let us not forget that Lebanon hosts the largest number
of refugees per capita in the world. The people of Lebanon have sheltered
Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian refugees for decades. It is not the time for the
international community to leave Lebanon alone in its own hour of need. I am
here to say to all affected communities – Lebanese, refugees, and many others -
that we will do everything we can to help them overcome this hardship.”
UNHCR is mobilizing a total of US$35 million for its emergency response to the
hardest-hit and most vulnerable households in Beirut. This package includes
US$32.6 million for shelter interventions and US$2.4 million for protection
activities for the next three months. The High Commissioner discussed the
situation with the President of the Republic, the caretaker Prime Minister, and
several local and central officials. Grandi also met with the Lebanese Red Cross
(LRC) to reaffirm to the two organizations’ partnership, notably on the
emergency shelter response. UNHCR is targeting 100,000 most severely affected
individuals and has immediately dispatched its existing in-country stockpile of
emergency shelter kits to distribute both directly and through partners
including Medair, ACTED, Intersos, Save the Children, Solidarités International,
Concern, PU-Ami, and Leb Relief.
During a visit of the devasted neighbourhoods in the capital, Grandi witnessed
the emergency response delivered by UNHCR and partners. Over 3,140 shelter kits
have already been distributed to the worst-affected households, benefiting over
10,000 people so far.
“It was shocking to see first-hand the scale of the destruction, but it is the
human cost of this disaster that is truly heartbreaking,” Grandi said. “The
families I met have suffered terrible physical and psychological injuries, but
despite everything they remain determined to rebuild their homes and their
lives.”
UNHCR and partners are also providing legal aid to recover lost documents and
above all, psychological first aid and psychosocial support to help people heal
from the trauma caused by the blast.
During his visit, the High Commissioner also assessed UNHCR’s support to the
national COVID-19 response in Lebanon. He visited Tripoli Governmental Hospital
where UNHCR funded a 43-bed COVID-19 expansion. Grandi also visited an isolation
center supported by UNHCR in Akkar, northern Lebanon, which was fully equipped
to receive individuals from all nationalities who need to self-isolate and do
not have the capacity to do so at home.
UNHCR’s COVID-19 support to hospitals will cover 800 additional beds and 100
additional ICU beds in total, including ventilators and other advanced
equipment, as well as medicine stocks. Since February, UNHCR teams deployed all
efforts to build dedicated hospital expansion facilities or rehabilitate
existing unused sections and refurbish them with new medical equipment. The
latter will remain the property of the hospitals after the pandemic, with the
aim to cure many more patients long after COVID-19.
In light of the rapid spread of the virus in recent weeks, UNHCR is currently
fast-tracking the deployment of ventilators and other ICU equipment to hospitals
across the country to help them face the increase in patient admissions.
During his visit, Grandi decided to allocate an additional US$3million to
reinforce UNHCR’s COVID-19 response, in addition to the previously allocated
US$40 million. Throughout the visit, the High Commissioner met with refugee
families, and heard accounts of growing hardship and challenges. In recent
months and as a result of the deepening economic and financial crisis that was
exacerbated by COVID-19, the proportion of refugees living under the extreme
poverty line jumped from 55 per cent to over 75 per cent today.
“Refugee and Lebanese communities are pushed further down into poverty and
vulnerability as a result of the economic crisis, the consequences of the
pandemic and now the tragic explosion in Beirut, and need our urgent help
today”, said Grandi. “We are working with humanitarian partners and the donor
community to ensure that all people in Lebanon are not forgotten – they need our
help now more than ever before.”--UNHCR Lebanon
Rahi meets Caretaker Foreign minister
NNA/August 21/2020
Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rahi, is currently meeting in Bkerke
with Caretaker Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Minister Charbel Wehbe.
Citizen threatens to torch himself over Bank’s
failure to transfer son’s university tuition abroad
NNA/August 21/2020
Retired soldier, Sherif R., on Friday morning threatened to set himself on fire,
inside a Sidon bank, due to Bank management and employees’ failure to respond to
his request to transfer his son’s university tuition free abroad from his
personal account. Subsequently, the bank manager and one of the bank’s security
personnel intervened and convinced the desperate man to refrain from taking his
own life.
Wazni pushes to stimulate, accelerate work at
Tripoli Port
NNA/August 21/2020
Caretaker Minister of Finance, Dr. Ghazi Wazni, on Thursday met at his
ministerial office with a delegation from the “Independent Center” Parliamentary
bloc. The meeting tackled all the obstacles that must be eliminated to help
facilitate the resumption of activity at Beirut port.
Wazni also discussed with his visiting delegation the content of the work paper
presented by Tripoli Port Director, Ahmad Tamer, to secure the needs and
priorities of Tripoli Port. For his part, Minister Wazni expressed his
"determination and enthusiasm to stimulate and accelerate work at Tripoli Port —
under the framework of integration among all Lebanese ports."In order to ensure
permanent follow-up, the meeting also agreed to hold subsequent meetings to make
sure that the adopted procedures are implemented and outcomes are presented
effectively.
Lebanon: Aoun Prioritizes Cabinet Formation
Before New PM’s Appointment
Beirut - Mohamed Choucair/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday,
21 August, 2020
Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri has proposed to President Michel Aoun the name of
former Prime Minister Saad Hariri for the premiership, parliamentary sources
told Asharq Al-Awsat. The sources said that during their meeting at the Baabda
Palace on Wednesday, Aoun was open to Berri’s suggestion, but the President has
insisted on continuing talks with officials to reach consensus on the shape of
the new government before announcing the date of binding parliamentary
consultations to name the next PM. The parliamentary sources said Thursday that
Berri would spare no effort for a breakthrough in the cabinet formation. “Berri
held talks with Aoun out of his belief that Lebanon cannot rely on other
countries to solve its own problems,” the sources said. The international
community has been repeatedly calling on the Lebanese officials to first help
themselves if they wish to receive support to stop the current financial and
economic collapse that culminated with the Aug. 4 explosion at the Port of
Beirut. The sources revealed that Berri's role is essential in staying in
contact with Lebanon’s rival politicians. “The Speaker considers that any
breakthrough to the crisis begins with the parliamentary consultations to name a
Prime Minister who forms a new cabinet,” the sources said. This remains the only
means to encourage French President Emmanuel Macron to return to Beirut early
next month. They said the international community, mainly the US, encourages the
formation of an independent government, denying that Macron supports a national
unity cabinet. “Berri would wait until Sunday for Aoun to end his consultations.
After Monday, the Speaker would have another say,” the sources said. Asharq Al-Awsat
learned that Berri is expected to meet Friday with head of the Free Patriotic
Movement MP Gebran Bassil, who is Aoun’s son-in-law. Reports said that Aoun
asked Berri to sit down with Bassil to discuss the government formation, adding
that the meeting could be attended by Hussein Khalil, the political aide to
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, and the speaker’s advisor, Ali
Hassan Khalil.
Beirut Continues to Bid Farewell to Explosion
Victims
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 21 August, 2020
Beirut is still bidding farewell to the victims of the port explosion that shook
the city two weeks ago. On Thursday, the family and friends of Elias El-Khoury,
15, who succumbed to his wounds, escorted him for the last time to his school
where a ceremony was held in his memory. Meanwhile, the Beirut Bar Association
announced the establishment of the National Coordination Commission to help
those affected by the explosion. The head of the association, Melhem Khalaf,
said that the commission - created in cooperation with the syndicates of
engineers, contractors, the Industrialists Association and others - had the
primary goal of rebuilding Beirut. He explained that its mission was to
implement a comprehensive plan for the recovery of the city, in coordination
with all the bodies currently working on the ground, and to receive and
distribute in a transparent and effective manner in-kind or financial assistance
received from Lebanon or abroad. Khalaf also announced the setting up of a field
operations room with a dedicated hotline to facilitate the communication between
the different donors and associations working on the ground. He praised “the
tremendous work carried out by the Lebanese army” and its support to the
Commission’s efforts.
Lebanon judge issues new arrest warrants over Beirut
explosion
AFP, Beirut/Friday 21 August 2020
A Lebanese judge leading investigations into Beirut’s port blast issued two new
arrest warrants on Friday, a judicial source told AFP. “The investigating judge,
Fadi Sawan, continued his investigations... and today issued two arrest
warrants,” the source said. According to the official National News Agency, the
subjects of the warrants are Beirut’s customs authority director, Hanna Fares,
and Nayla al-Hajj, an engineer contracted for maintenance work at warehouse 12,
where the explosion took place. A huge stock of ammonium nitrate stored
unsecured for years in the rundown warehouse at the Lebanese capital’s port
exploded on August 4. The blast caused severe damage across swathes of the city,
killed at least 181 people and injured more than 6,500. Lebanon has launched an
investigation into the disaster, which many have blamed on official negligence
and corruption. So far arrest warrants have been issued for six of the 25 people
currently facing lawsuits over the blast, including Beirut Port director-general
Hassan Koraytem and customs director-general, Badri Daher. While authorities
have rebuffed widespread calls for an international probe, Lebanon’s
investigation is being aided by foreign experts, including from the US Federal
Bureau of Investigation. France, which counted among the dead several of its
citizens, has launched its own enquiry.
1 Dead, 3 Hurt in Southern Town Shooting, 2 Killed in Jabal
Mohsen
Naharnet/August 21/2020
One person was killed and three others were injured as a dispute erupted into
gunfire in the southern town of Loubieh, the National News Agency said. The
deceased person succumbed to his wounds in hospital, as security forces sought
to contain the situation in cooperation with the area’s dignitaries, NNA said.
Social media reports said the slain young man, identified as AMAL Movement
supporter Hussein Khalil, was killed in a confrontation with Hizbullah
supporters over a dispute related to the hoisting of partisan flags. Separately,
two young men were killed as a dispute between several people erupted into
gunfire in the al-Mohajireen area in Tripoli’s Jabal Mohsen, NNA said. Army
troops immediately arrived on the scene and managed to arrest the shooter, the
agency added.
Beirut Blast Shattered Taboos around Hizbullah
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/August 21/2020
Hizbullah's emphatic defence of the political status quo in Lebanon has exposed
it since the deadly Beirut blast to levels of public contempt and anger it was
once shielded from. The powerful Shiite movement remains the dominant player in
Lebanon, but the special status it enjoyed and the fear it instilled were torn
down by the explosion. In a scene that was almost unthinkable only a few months
ago, an image of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah was among the cardboard
cutouts protesters hanged from their mock gallows this month.
"In the hours that followed the explosion, many blamed Hizbullah," said Fares
al-Halabi, who has been active since an unprecedented anti-government protest
movement that erupted in October 2019.
Last year, he said, "there had been a tacit agreement among the revolutionary
camp not to raise the issue of Hizbullah and of its weapons."The group is the
only faction to have kept its weapons long after the 1975 to 1990 civil war. Its
military might rivals the state's and is seen by many as one of the main
obstacles to democratic reform.
The verdict of a special court based in The Netherlands on Tuesday found a
Hizbullah member, Salim Ayyash, guilty in absentia of murder over the 2005
assassination of former prime minister Rafic Hariri, a Sunni.
The investigation did not establish a direct link with Hizbullah's leadership
but it stressed the evidently political nature of the crime. "Hizbullah
operatives do not freelance," was how US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put it.
By jumping into the mainstream political swamp, the group has exposed itself to
being held responsible, if not accountable, for the shortcomings of the state.
Whatever investigations come to reveal of what triggered the August 4 port blast
that killed more than 180 people, many Lebanese already agree one thing: that
their entire corrupt ruling elite is the real culprit. Whoever may have owned
the stock of ammonium nitrate that blew up and devastated swathes of Beirut, the
main powerbrokers of a system that Hizbullah dominates and protects all knew
about it.
When protesters, in a rare show of non-sectarian unity, last year sought to
bring down the system, it was Hizbullah that came to the rescue of Lebanon's
reviled class of hereditary political barons.
- 'De-facto ruler' -
"To me that was a significant move. Hizbullah could have shielded itself from
this role but chose to protect this house that's collapsing," said Sami Atallah,
who heads the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies.
Hizbullah has long enjoyed some level of popular legitimacy over its history of
resistance against Israel, which has spared it some of the spite directed at
other parties. The fervour surrounding Nasrallah as a religious leader also
created a lese-majeste rule that made his fiercest opponents think twice about
voicing their opinions with the same bravado they would use against other
politicians.
That restraint was laid to rest after the August 4 deadly blast as an angry
public let rip at their political leadership, Nasrallah included, in ways not
seen before.
Many Lebanese saw the explosion as the starkest evidence yet that corruption
kills. Tongues have loosened now and ridiculing Hizbullah is no longer
sacrilege.
A widely shared meme had a screen grab of Nasrallah choking back tears over the
killing of Iranian spymaster Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Iraq
earlier this year, contrasting with another of him looking composed and smiling
after the Beirut blast. Lebanon's worst peacetime disaster left more than 6,000
people wounded and maimed, 70,000 jobless, and hundreds of thousands without a
home.
Many victims said they will never forgive the state for failing to prevent the
blast, and also for failing to respond adequately. Activist Naji Abou Khalil
said that before the explosion "Hizbullah had managed to cast itself as an
anti-establishment party".
"Now Hizbullah's image as a governing party like any other dominates that of the
resistance party," said Abou Khalil, also an executive committee member of the
reformist and secular National Bloc party. Hizbullah long had the best of both
worlds, wielding considerable behind-the-scenes power without having to answer
publicly for its decisions.
Now it is finding that being the boss comes with drawbacks, Halabi said of the
movement which dominates parliament and government with its allies.
"Hizbullah is the de-facto ruler and everything that happens falls under its
authority, and the... ruler is always the one who bears responsibility for any
negative consequences that occur," he said.
After Port Disaster, Lebanese Brace for Virus Lockdown
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 21 August, 2020
Still reeling from a deadly port blast that ravaged their Beirut homes and
businesses, Lebanese wearily braced themselves for a new coronavirus lockdown
due to start on Friday. "What now? On top of this disaster, a coronavirus
catastrophe?" said 55-year-old Roxane Moukarzel, as she waved towards the
devastated port from the balcony of her gutted home. Lebanon is to partially
close down for two weeks from Friday to stem a string of record daily infection
rates that have brought the number of COVID-19 cases to 10,952, including 113
deaths, AFP reported. Moukarzel said she supported the decision, especially
after the massive blast at Beirut's port on August 4 that killed 181 people,
wounded thousands and laid waste to windows and doors across swathes of the
city. "Economically closing up the country is not good, as people want to sell,
but let them lose out a little instead of getting sick and having to be carted
off to hospital," said the mother of one, who trained as an architect. "There's
no more space in the hospitals. If people suddenly start burning up, where will
they put them?" Authorities fear Lebanon's fragile health sector would struggle
to cope with a further spike in COVID-19 cases, especially after some hospitals
near the port were damaged in the explosion. They have said the new lockdown
measures, which include a nighttime curfew from 6:00am (0300 GMT) to 6:00pm
(1500 GMT), will not affect the clean-up or aid effort in areas ravaged by the
blast. The stay-at-home order from Friday is only the latest such decision after
a months-long lockdown from mid-March. According to AFP, it came on the heels of
a dire economic crisis since last year that has trapped people's savings in
banks, sent food prices soaring and caused tens of thousands to lose their jobs
or a large part of their income. Even before the explosion of a huge stockpile
of ammonium nitrate at the port sparked popular rage against official
negligence, Lebanon's crisis had doubled poverty rates to more than half of the
population, according to UN estimates. Meanwhile, sitting inside his carpenter's
shop in a Beirut neighborhood inland from the port, Qassem Jaber said he did not
see how a further lockdown was helpful after months of slow business and an
explosion that blew away his workshop's shutter. "There's no work. People have
no more money. They have nothing to eat," he said, determined to keep his
business open to help people rebuild their homes."What's coronavirus got to do
with it? We all get better and then it's fine," the 75-year-old added.
Real Estate Brokers Exploit Residents in Destroyed Beirut
Neighborhoods
Beirut - Paula Astih/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 21 August, 2020
Pamela Gerji, a resident of Fassouh area in Beirut’s Ashrafieh district, was not
expecting a call from brokers asking her if she wanted to sell her damaged
house, a week after the August 4 Beirut port explosion. So far, she has no idea
why they contacted her, knowing that at no time did she express her desire to
leave her home. She told Asharq Al-Awsat that the person who called her
introduced himself as an employee of a real estate company, claiming he had
information that she had an apartment for sale in Ashrafieh. “I immediately told
him that I have no desire to sell, as I am a fan of buying real estate, not
selling ... I even think of traveling abroad if I find a job, given that I have
been unemployed for the past three years, but I will not sell my apartment,”
Pamela recounted. Her insistence on repairing what the explosion had damaged,
despite the financial temptations, does not apply to all those whose homes were
destroyed in the blast. Some people, who saw their houses and apartments
suddenly turn into rubble, have started to search for buyers. Brokers and real
estate agents have been wandering around the stricken areas in search of
potential sellers.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, the head of the Association of Mukhtars of
Beirut’s First District, Beshara Ghulam, said that a broker has recently
contacted him, asking to introduce him to people wishing to sell their homes in
the area and promising to pay the amounts requested by the owners.
“Some residents also contacted me wanting to sell their homes, which we
understand considering that they are still in shock; but we didn’t allow any
sale to take place and we encourage residents to stick to their homes by
convincing them that we are not left behind, and that the international
community will help us in the reconstruction,” he emphasized. Resigned MP Paula
Yacoubian ruled out a political scheme targeting Beirut’s damaged neighborhoods,
considering that what is happening today is the result of the brokers’ appetite,
who are trying to take advantage of the decline in prices of the destroyed
houses.
“The result will be the same if there was such a scheme,” Yacoubian said, noting
that this would lead to “a demographic change that we are currently standing up
against.” “Real estate hunters” are trying to lure residents whose homes have
been destroyed by offering to transfer the sums in US dollars to banks outside
Lebanon to avoid the strict banking measures imposed since the start of the
severe financial crisis in October 2019. Tony Kahwaji, whose apartment in Mar
Mikhael was severely damaged in the explosion, says that some people contacted
him offering an estimated 40 percent of the price he had paid for his property
on condition that the money be transferred to any bank abroad. He told Asharq
al-Awsat that he rejected the offer, calling on banks to release at least the
money of those affected by the explosion in order to rebuild their homes.
Lebanese experts capable of leading nation’s reforms
Zaid M. Belbagi/Arab News/August 21, 2020
For Lebanon — a country facing a perfect storm of hyperinflation, food shortages
and an acute political crisis — the notion that circumstances could worsen
seemed impossible to countenance. However, the Aug. 4 explosion of 2,750 tons of
ammonium nitrate in Beirut port proved that things could indeed get worse. Who
was responsible for the storage of such quantities of the explosive will remain
the subject of speculation, but it must not be allowed to distract from the very
real challenges Lebanon faces. A country urgently in need of a bailout, it must
look to its talented citizens, not its disconnected elites, for a way out. If
anything, the explosion served to underscore the negligence of a nomenklatura
that has always put its own financial interests ahead of those of the Lebanese
people. As one of the world’s most indebted nations, which now finds itself
without a government, the uphill struggle could not be steeper. Whereas
disasters elsewhere in the world are met with a period of investigation, in
Lebanon crises provide an excuse for those in power to entrench themselves
further.
Lebanon’s political elite, unabated by popular anger, is jockeying to form
another sham government of self-interest and avoid any sort of investigation.
Perhaps more worryingly, an important audit of the country’s central bank is
being all but averted. The institution that was complicit in the laundering of
billions of dollars stands at the center both of what has plagued Lebanon and
any attempt to find a resolution.
The lackluster President Michel Aoun has once more deemed that his own political
future, as a man of 85, supersedes that of his nation. Ignoring calls to resign,
he and MPs must now agree on a new government — though, given the fate of
Lebanon’s outgoing prime minister of just a few months, such efforts seem
unlikely to succeed.
Moody’s last month downgraded Lebanon’s credit score to C, the lowest rating in
its scale and the same as crisis-ravaged Venezuela. It is, therefore, not wholly
surprising that 60,000 Lebanese signed a petition calling for the return of a
French mandate.
The former State of Greater Lebanon lasted for more than a quarter of a century
and, under French occupation, the Lebanese did have a more streamlined
post-Ottoman experience than others. Even though the French-imposed constitution
of 1926 laid the foundations for the sectarian facets of the modern Lebanese
political system, it is considered as a golden age by many. In fact, the
invitation for the return of a colonial power is without precedence in the Arab
world. The call was, nonetheless, reflective of the extent of the Lebanese
despair.
Lebanon’s challenges cannot be resolved overnight with the entrance of a foreign
power.
The immediate visit to the streets of Beirut by French President Emmanuel Macron
in the wake of the explosion, while Lebanese politicians remained bunkered in
their strongholds and very much bewildered by the situation, gave impetus to the
calls for a new mandate. However, the episode also highlighted the perennial
issue in Lebanese politics of the country’s susceptibility to foreign inference.
Lebanon’s challenges cannot be resolved overnight with the entrance of a foreign
power — only a bailout can provide the lifeline the Lebanese people seek.
In April, the outgoing finance minister had genuinely sought a bailout.
Estimating total bank losses at $83 billion and a gaping hole $50 billion wide
in the central bank, he sought an International Monetary Fund (IMF) lifeline.
While Gulf money and intermittent foreign aid gave Lebanon a semblance of
normality over the last two decades, the reality is that the only chance of
breaking the impasse is through the IMF.
However, just as in 2018, when international donors committed to $11 billion of
conditional pledges, the deal that was being discussed with the IMF was held
hostage by the interests of Lebanon’s ruling elite. Any large tranche of aid
will be conditional on the institution of significant reforms. But as Lebanon’s
elite seeks once again to project a veneer of change through conjuring up a new
government, it will shy away from meaningful reform. The international community
must ensure that the right kind of political process is encouraged.
The myopic view that politicians alone can solve Lebanon’s problems is outdated.
No political system in which the parties look out for their own sectarian
interests and are able to outgun the Lebanese military will be able to function
effectively. The confessional-based system of the Taif Agreement is now
redundant. Lebanon needs a government that will represent the best interests of
the nation, not its warlords. The clientelism and corruption brought about by
the sectarian political system will stifle any attempt at recovery following
this month’s disaster. Damage estimated at $15 billion has created another
challenge that Lebanon’s elite very clearly cannot overcome.
Though the concept of having a French arbiter oversee the Lebanese political
system is appealing, a country that has seen the full spectrum of the ills of
foreign intervention must find a more innovative way out. A Lebanese diaspora
three times the population of the country, which uprooted in search of a better
future, provides a talented grouping from which much of Lebanon’s regeneration
can be funded and, importantly, governed.
The parachuting in of international advisers will do little to wean Lebanon off
the cycle of repeated domestic crises alleviated by sporadic aid. However, a
concerted effort from its own countrymen, who have in many cases reached the top
of their professions and become synonymous with success, provides a more
credible solution. The likes of Jamil Baz, one of the most prominent economists
focusing on sovereign debt, or Nasser Saidi, an authority on financial
governance, can provide the skills to help Lebanon with its recovery.
The original call to end the French mandate was tied up in the winds of Arab
nationalism and a genuine belief that the Lebanese could better govern
themselves. The entire episode of Lebanese independence has been marked by
tragedy, civil war and suffering. The events of Aug. 4 will not be an
opportunity for rebirth if the episode is manipulated by kleptocratic elites.
Lebanon’s salvation rests with an international bailout package — one that is
conditional upon reform and that those who should effect change are the talented
and independently minded experts of which Lebanon has many.
• Zaid M. Belbagi is a political commentator and an adviser to private clients
between London and the Gulf Cooperation Council. Twitter: @Moulay_Zaid
Will Lebanon finally gather the strength to oust Hezbollah?
Con Coughlin/The National/August 21/2020
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon verdict, though disappointing to many, has
given more evidence that the Iran-backed militants have to go
Now that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has ruled that a terrorist with the
Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah was responsible for the murder of former
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the challenge for Lebanon is to end the
malign influence Iran continues to exert over its political system.
There will be many in Lebanon who will be profoundly disappointed at the
tribunal’s judgment; it found only one of the four defendants guilty and no
evidence linking Hezbollah’s leadership or the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar
Al Assad to the atrocity.
On one level it is perhaps unsurprising that the tribunal, which has cost a
staggering $1 billion, reached such an unsatisfactory outcome. Both the
Hezbollah leadership and the authorities in Damascus refused to co-operate in
any meaningful sense, so investigators were denied access to evidence that might
have resulted in a very different conclusion.
The extent of Hezbollah’s hostility to the tribunal was reflected in the fact
that none of the four indicted suspects were made available to it. The entire
trial was held in their absence, meaning it is highly unlikely that Salim Ayyash,
who was found guilty, will ever serve a moment of the sentence the tribunal is
expected to hand down on Friday.
Even so, as far as the hard-pressed Lebanese are concerned, there are some
positives that can be taken from the judgment For one, an internationally
recognised body has publicly ruled that a Hezbollah operative committed the
cold-bloodied murder of a democratically-elected Lebanese politician.
Ayyash, it should be said, is no ordinary Hezbollah operative. He happens to be
the brother-in-law of Imad Mughniyeh, who helped to establish Hezbollah’s
military wing. Mughniyeh was also the notorious architect responsible for, among
many other atrocities, the lorry bomb attacks on the US embassy in Beirut in the
early 1980s.
Mughniyeh was a constant presence in both Tehran, where he worked closely with
senior members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including Quds Force
commander Qassem Suleimani, and Damascus, where he lived with his family until
he was killed by a joint CIA-Mossad operation in 2008.
Although less is known about the 56-year-old Ayyash’s role in Hezbollah, the
fact that he was a close family associate of Mughniyeh suggests he will be
well-versed in the relationships between Hezbollah and the regimes in Syria and
Iran. The latter is so intimate that Hezbollah’s every move is closely
coordinated with the IRGC.
Ayyash was also related by marriage to Mustafa Badreddine, another senior
Hezbollah commander who was originally charged by the tribunal alongside him,
although those charges were later dropped when Badreddine was killed fighting
for the Assad regime in Syria in 2016.
Therefore, even though many will be disappointed with the tribunal’s overall
findings, there is nevertheless enough material that can be drawn from Ayyash’s
involvement in the murder to raise serious questions about whether Hezbollah
should be allowed to participate in Lebanon’s political future.
Hezbollah’s ability to influence key political decisions in Lebanon is due
primarily to the accord it reached with Lebanese President Michel Aoun in the
year after Hariri’s murder.
But as Bahaa Hariri, the eldest son of the murdered former prime minister, told
me when I met him in London earlier this week, the tribunal’s verdict ought to
result in Hezbollah’s complete removal from Lebanese politics.
An internationally recognised body has publicly ruled that a Hezbollah operative
committed the cold-bloodied murder of a democratically-elected Lebanese
politician
“Hezbollah has no place in Lebanon’s future,” said Mr Hariri, who is campaigning
for a new Lebanese constitution aimed at healing the country’s long-standing
sectarian divisions. He also wants an end to the ability of countries like Iran
to control Lebanon’s political destiny.
“Hezbollah cannot and does not do anything without the say-so of its foreign
masters. The new Lebanon must be a neutral country. The only way for this to
happen is for Hezbollah to be removed. They’ve had their chance and, if they
haven’t delivered for Lebanon so far, they will not in future. Nobody with blood
on their hands can hold political office in Lebanon.”
The challenge now for Mr Hariri and the thousands of Lebanese protesters who
have taken to the streets to protest at the Lebanese government’s disastrous
handling of the economy, as well as its complicity in the recent devastating
explosion at Beirut port, is how to achieve their goal of ending Hezbollah’s
involvement in running the country.
On a domestic level, the country might appear to be in too weak a position to
challenge Hezbollah, especially in the Shiite heartlands in the south of the
country. Iran, despite its own financial difficulties, continues to provide
financial and military assistance to the organisation, which means that any
attempt by the Lebanese authorities to challenge its dominance could lead to
further bloodshed.
Even so, there are encouraging signs that the Lebanese people have finally had
enough of Iran's unwelcome interference in their affairs, so the widespread
clamour for a root and branch reform of the Lebanese political system could
prove to be unstoppable.
Moreover, the tribunal verdict, at the very least, should finally persuade Mr
Aoun, who has previously supported Hezbollah’s participation in the coalition
government, that it is no longer in his country’s interests to tolerate an
organisation that is associated with the assassination of one of its most
admired, democratically-elected representatives.
*Con Coughlin is the Telegraph’s defence and foreign affairs editor
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published on August 21-22/2020
Turkey's Erdogan Converts another Former Church into Mosque
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 21/2020
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday ordered another ancient
Orthodox church that became a mosque and then a popular Istanbul museum to be
turned back into a place of Muslim worship.The decision to transform the Kariye
Museum into a mosque came just a month after a similarly controversial
conversion for the UNESCO World Heritage-recognised Hagia Sophia. Both changes
reflect Erdogan's efforts to galvanise his more conservative and nationalist
supporters at a time when Turkey is suffering a new spell of inflation and
economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus. But they have added to Turkey's
tensions with Greece and its Orthodox Church. The Greek foreign ministry called
the decision "yet another provocation against religious persons everywhere" by
the Turkish government.
'Steeped in history' -
The 1,000-year-old building's history closely mirrors that of the Hagia Sophia
-- its bigger neighbour on the historic western bank of the Golden Horn estuary
on the European side of Istanbul. The Holy Saviour in Chora was a medieval
Byzantine church decorated with 14th-century frescoes of the Last Judgement that
remain treasured in the Christian world. It was originally converted into the
Kariye Mosque half a century after the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by the
Ottoman Turks. It became the Kariye Museum after World War II as Turkey pushed
ahead with the creation of a more secular new republic out of the ashes of the
Ottoman Empire. A group of American art historians then helped restore the
original church's mosaics and opened them up for public display in 1958. But
Erdogan is placing an ever greater political emphasis on the battles that
resulted in the defeat of Byzantium by the Ottomans. Turkey's top administrative
court approved the museum's conversion into a mosque in November. "It's a place
steeped in history which holds a lot of symbolism for a lot of different
people," said 48-year-old French tourist Frederic Sicard outside the building.
"For me, (these conversions) are a little difficult to understand and to follow.
But we would visit if it were a mosque. We might just have to arrange visits
around prayer times."
- 'Tolerance' -
The sandy-coloured structure visible today replaced one created as a part of a
monastery in the fourth century when Constantinople was the new capital of the
Roman Empire. It features a minaret in one corner and small cascading domes
similar to those of other grand mosques whose calls to prayer echo over
Istanbul. But inside it is filled with magnificent frescoes and mosaics that
represent some of the finest examples of Byzantine art in the Christian world.
Turkey's tumultuous efforts to reconcile these two histories form the
underpinnings of the country's contemporary politics and social life. Opposition
HDP party lawmaker Garo Paylan called the transformation "a shame for our
country". "One of the symbols of our country's deep, multicultural identity and
multi-religious history has been sacrified," he said in a tweet. Yet some locals
fully supported the change. "There are dozens, hundreds of churches, synagogues
in Istanbul and only a few of them have been opened to prayer as mosques," said
Yucel Sahin as he strolled by the building after the morning rain."There is a
lot of tolerance in our culture."
World Bank Chief Warns Extreme Poverty Could Surge by 100
mn
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 21/2020
The coronavirus pandemic may have driven as many as 100 million people back into
extreme poverty, World Bank President David Malpass warned Thursday. The
Washington-based development lender previously estimated that 60 million people
would fall into extreme poverty due to COVID-19, but the new estimate puts the
deterioration at 70 to 100 million, and he said "that number could go higher" if
the pandemic worsens or drags on. The situation makes it "imperative" that
creditors reduce the amount of debt held by poor countries at risk, going beyond
the commitment to suspend debt payments, Malpass said in an interview with AFP.
Even so, more countries will be obliged to restructure their debt. "The debt
vulnerabilities are high, and the imperative of getting light at the end of the
tunnel so that new investors can come in is substantial," Malpass said. Advanced
economies in the Group of 20 already have committed to suspending debt payments
from the poorest nations through the end of the year, and there is growing
support for extending that moratorium into next year amid a pandemic that's
killed nearly 800,000 people and sickened more than 25 million worldwide. But
Malpass said that will not be enough, since the economic downturn means those
countries, which already are struggling to provide a safety net for their
citizens, will not be in a better position to deal with the payments.
Recession or depression? -
The amount of debt reduction needed will depend on the situation in each
country, he said, but the policy "makes a lot of sense.""So I think the
awareness of this will be gradually, more and more apparent" especially "for the
countries with the highest vulnerability to the debt situation."The World Bank
has committed to deploying $160 billion in funding to 100 countries through June
2021 in an effort to addresses the immediate emergency, and about $21 billion
had been released through the end of June. But even so, extreme poverty, defined
as earning less than $1.90 a day, continues to rise. Malpass said the
deterioration is due to a combination of the destruction of jobs during the
pandemic as well as supply issues that make access to food more difficult."All
of this contributes to pushing people back into extreme poverty the longer the
economic crisis persists." Newly-installed World Bank Chief Economist Carmen
Reinhart has called the economic crisis a "pandemic depression," but Malpass was
less concerned with terminology. "We can start calling it a depression. Our
focus is on how do we help countries be resilient in working out on the other
side."
- More debt transparency -
Malpass said he has been "frustrated" by the slow progress among private
creditors in providing comparable debt suspension terms for poor countries.
While the Institute for International Finance has set up a framework to waive
debt service payments, as of mid-July member banks had not received any
applications. Having a clear view of the size of each country's debt and the
collateral involved also are key to being able to help the debtor nations,
Malpass said. China is a major creditor in many of these countries, and the
government has been "participating in the transparency process," but he said
more needs to be done to understand the terms of loans in nations like Angola,
where there are liens on the country's oil output. Governments in advanced
economies so far have been "generous" in their support of developing nations,
even while they take on heavy spending programs in their own countries, Malpass
said. "But the bigger problem is that their economies are weak," Malpass said of
the wealthy nations. "The most important thing the advanced economies do for the
developing countries is supply markets... start growing, and start reopening
markets."
Rival Libya Govts Announce Ceasefire, Elections
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 21 August, 2020
Libya's warring rival governments announced in separate statements Friday that
they would cease all hostilities and organize nationwide elections soon, an
understanding swiftly welcomed by the United Nations and Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The statements were signed by Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the
Government of National Accord based in the capital Tripoli, and Aguila Saleh,
speaker of the eastern-based parliament. Sarraj, who heads the Presidential
Council, said parliamentary and presidential elections would be held in March.
Both statements called for demilitarizing the city of Sirte and the Jufra area
in central Libya, and a joint police force to be responsible for security there.
Both administrations also called for oil revenues to flow into the bank account
of the National Oil Corporation outside Libya. The announcements came amid fears
of an escalation in the more than 9-year-old conflict. The UN Support Mission in
Libya welcomed both statements, and called for the expulsion of all foreign
forces and mercenaries in Libya. Among the first to react to Friday’s
announcement was al-Sisi, who welcomed the ceasefire declarations. "I welcome
statements by Libya's Presidential Council and the House of Representatives
calling for a ceasefire and halting military operations in all Libyan
territory," Sisi said in a tweet.
Libya’s Haftar Rejects Proposal to ‘Demilitarize Sirte’
Cairo - Khalid Mahmoud/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 21 August, 2020
The Libyan National Army commanded by Khalifa Haftar has rejected a US proposal
backed by western parties and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL)
to demilitarize the city of Sirte. Haftar stressed that the LNA will not hand
over the city to the invaders and will not back off. The Security Chamber of
Sirte and Al-Jufra zone that is affiliated with Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of
National Accord (GNA) announced the deployment of commanders to posts near Sirte.
Acting Special Representative and Head of UNSMIL Stephanie Williams met with
Head of the High Council of State Khalid Al-Mishri and his accompanying
delegation in Geneva. They discussed the current situation in Libya as well as
dialogue tracks emanating from the Berlin Conference. UNSMIL said in a statement
that the meeting focused on ways to resume the political track as soon as
possible in order to avoid potential deterioration in the military situation. In
addition, the two parties discussed the issue of corruption and its devastating
impact. LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mesmari, in a press conference held on Wednesday,
refused to establish a demilitarized zone in Sirte, stressing that it was “safe
and not a conflict zone.” He explained that the purpose of this proposal is to
hand over the city to Turkey without fighting. Mesmari said that “all weapons
are available, all types of forces are available, and radar air cover is now
available on all Libyan territories.” He pointed out that the ports of Tripoli,
Misrata, and Khamis have become “the main ports for the invading forces
supported by Qatar.”Regarding the opening of the oil ports, Mesmari announced
that Haftar “issued a decision to empty the oil tanks and derivatives located in
the oil ports and export them.”Chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC)
Mustafa Sanallah met Justin Brady, head of Office for the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and defended the role of NOC
despite the water scarcity in Libya due to the illegal shut down of oil sources.
Sanallah pledged transparency by publishing data and statistics related to
output and revenues of oil exports and sales.
Trump Meets Kadhimi, Vows to Withdraw Troops
Soon
Washington- Muath al-Amri/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday,
21 August, 2020
US President Donald Trump confirmed Thursday that the US military presence in
Iraq will end soon and that forces will be decreased to the lowest level as
quickly as Washington possibly can. Asked whether American troops will be out of
Iraq in the coming three years, the US President failed to offer an exact
timetable of the withdrawal or the number of troops it would involve. “We have
been taking our troops out of Iraq fairly rapidly, and we look forward to the
day when we don’t have to be there. And hopefully Iraq can live their own lives
and they can defend themselves, which they’ve been doing long before we got
involved,” Trump said.
The US President was speaking after talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa
Kadhimi in Washington Thursday. He said the presence of US troops in Iraq is
linked to fighting ISIS, blaming the Obama administration for doing “a very poor
job” in this regard. Trump said his country is also involved in many oil
projects and oil development within Baghdad. “I think we’ve had a very, very
good relationship since we started.”The US President stressed that his country
possesses the finest and greatest military in the world. “When somebody hits us,
we hit back hard than they hit us,” he confirmed.
Asked about the Turkish attacks on the north of Iraq, Trump said the US and him,
in particular, has a very good relationship with Turkey and with President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan. “We’ll be talking to him,” about those attacks, he stressed. For
his part, Kadhimi said the Iraqi constitution does not allow Iraqi territory to
be used to attack any neighboring country. “The Iraqi constitution also does not
allow Iraq to be — to become used to attack any — any neighboring — neighboring
country. We are entering dialogue with Turkey to rectify this situation,” the PM
said. Kadhimi added that Baghdad and Washington are working on building a strong
relationship that is based on joint interests, that is based on economic
interest for the better future of the Iraqi people and the United States people.
“I’m grateful for all the support offered by the United States to Iraq during
the war against ISIS. This support has built our partnership for the best
interests for our nation,” Kadhimi said. A high-ranking official at the White
House told Asharq Al-Awsat that Trump and Kadhimi mainly spoke about the foreign
interferences in Iraq. The official, who wished to remain anonymous, said the US
position from the Turkish interference in Iraq was followed-up carefully by the
American administration because Trump considered Iraq a sovereign state. m“The
relationship between Iraq and its neighbors is the main issue of discussions
between Washington and the Iraqi PM. We are keen on decreasing the impacts of
such interferences in the country,” the official said. He added that Trump and
Kadhimi also discussed the relations of Baghdad with the government of the
Kurdistan Region. “We are working to secure the rights and needs of the
religious minorities there, including Christians, Yazidis, and Shabak,” he said.
Concerning Iran, the officials noted, “We plan to secure the non-presence of
Iranian malicious and destabilizing presence in Iraq. Our talks with Kadhimi
will help reach this end.”
Targeted Killings Against Activists Send Shivers Down
Spines in Iraq
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 21 August, 2020
Two Iraqi activists have been assassinated while three others survived murders
attempts in southern Iraq in one week. Riham Yaaqub, a 29-year-old athletics
coach who was deeply involved in anti-government protests and was shot dead in
the southern province of Basra on Wednesday. Five days earlier, activist Tahsin
al-Shahmani also died in Basra after being shot more than two dozen times.
Iraq's civil society is already deeply disturbed by the July killing in Baghdad
of Hisham al-Hashemi, who is a government adviser. "The government and security
forces have done nothing, but everyone knows the killers are the same... (they)
killed Riham, Tahsin, and Hisham al-Hashemi," said Ammar al-Hilfi, a prominent
activist in Basra, AFP reported. The list of victims is long: dozens of
activists have been killed in Iraq in recent years, including during bloody
protests in 2018 over a public health crisis in Basra that had put more than
100,000 people in hospital. Then, in October, widespread rallies erupted across
Baghdad and the south against a government seen as corrupt, inept and beholden
to neighboring Iran. Protest-related violence left nearly 600 dead, including
some shot dead while walking home from demonstrations. Still others were
kidnapped, assaulted or threatened. On Monday, three more activists in Basra --
Ludia Rimon, Fahad al-Zubaydi and Abbas al-Subhi -- were heading to the Shahmani
family home to offer their condolences when a car full of armed men began firing
at them.The trio managed to escape, wounded and shaken but alive. The city's
activist collectives have been left reeling by the sudden spree of violence.
"During the month of August, there have been six assassinations or attempted
killings," said Mehdi al-Tamimi, who heads the city's Human Rights Council. In
total over the last year, Tamimi told AFP, the city has been hit by eight such
murders and seven attempted killings. Basra is oil-rich but infrastructure-poor:
electricity grids, water networks and roads are some of the most badly
maintained in the country and the rule of law is weak. Yaaqub began speaking out
during Basra's 2018 protests, appearing on several media outlets despite limits
on the public role of women in her conservative hometown. Two years ago, she was
targeted by an online smear campaign for having met with the US consul in Basra.
This week, online accounts began republishing a 2018 article from Mehr, an
Iranian news agency close to Tehran's ultra-conservatives, accusing Yaaqub and
others of belonging to a "network woven by the Americans to target Iran in the
region." Other activists, journalists and researchers have faced smears accusing
them of links to Western embassies or intelligence services. No group has
officially claimed responsibility for the propaganda campaigns or the killings
and authorities have yet to hold anyone to account. The United Nations and
Western embassies have blamed "militias," urging Baghdad to fully protect free
speech. "It is unconscionable that the perpetrators of these horrible acts
continue to act with impunity," the US State Department said after Yaaqub's
killing. Last month, a senior Iraqi official said the government suspected
"possible assassinations" as a reaction to raqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhmi's
policy of extending state control. Following Yaaqub's killing, Kadhmi announced
he had sacked Basra's police chief and dispatched his interior minister Othman
al-Ghanemi to Basra to handle security. Basra's civil society network isn't
optimistic. "The government is weak compared to militias," Hilfi said, according
to AFP. "But this will only make us more determined. Now, more than just
demanding our rights, we will demand those of our martyrs."
Israel prepares for Gaza showdown after 7 rockets notch up
Palestinian aggression
DebkaFile/August 21/2020
Palestinian terrorists launched three salvos of 7 rockets overnight Thursday,
Aug. 20 – one a direct hit to a Sderot home, six intercepted. The IDF hit back
in three waves against Hamas military sites, including a rocket factory near
Khan Younes. During a night broken by repeated Palestinian rocket fire, three
women were treated for shock and a third was hurt when stumbling while running
for shelter. This was the IDF’s 12th day in a row of strikes against Hamas
military sites and it continued up until 6 am Friday morning, when the Southern
Command urgently reviewed the deteriorating situation for its next decisions. .
Local farmers told not to work in the fields adjoining the Gaza Strip. The
Palestinian rocket fire came on top of the hundreds of arson and incendiary
balloons launched against Israel in the past two weeks. During the day, 42 fires
were ignited by balloons from the Gaza Strip; three more early Friday. The IDF
reported that 15 incoming clusters were intercepted by the new “Light Flame”
device devised to counter terrorist balloons for the Border police force .From a
safe place in friendly Turkey, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh threatened to raise
the stakes with a renewed cycle of violence, unless Israel complied with the
long list of demands submitted by the terrorists via Egyptian intelligence
officers who shuttled between Tel Aviv and Gaza this week. Hard cash may be the
only answer acceptable to the Palestinian Hamas for buying calm. Tensely awaited
is a decision by Qatar about whether or not to continue its $25m aid program to
Gaza when it runs out next month. Meanwhile, the Erdogan government is being
solicited for terrorist funding.
Palestinian Leadership: Arab Initiative Best Route to Peace
With Israel
Ramallah- Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 21 August, 2020
Azzam el-Ahmad, a member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah central
committee, welcomed on Thursday the Saudi position on peace with Israel on the
basis of the longstanding Arab Peace Initiative.
“The Saudi position is important because it adheres to Arab consensus, the Arab
Peace Initiative, and plays a central role in the region,” Ahmad said. On
Wednesday, Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the Kingdom remains committed to peace
with Israel on the basis of the longstanding Arab Peace Initiative, in the first
official comment since the United Arab Emirates agreed to normalize relations
with Israel. "The Kingdom considers any Israeli unilateral measures to annex
Palestinian land as undermining the two-state solution," the Saudi Minister said
in an event in Berlin on Wednesday, in comments reported on Saudi's foreign
affairs ministry Twitter page. Ahmad said the Saudi position confirms that the
Kingdom would not normalize its relationship with Israel because it is a central
state at the Arab, regional, and international levels. Israel and the UAE
reached a historic deal last week that will establish diplomatic ties, becoming
the third Arab country to recognize Israel after Jordan and Egypt. For his part,
Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that “abiding by the Arab Peace
Initiative (API) is the real test for Arab states’ positions on Jerusalem and a
test for the seriousness of the Arab joint action.”He added that the Palestinian
people’s firm position against the US-touted Mideast plan, dubbed deal of the
century, as well as against Israel’s illegal annexation move and Arab-Israeli
normalization that comes for free has thwarted all colonial schemes against
Palestine. Abu Rudeineh pointed out that the Palestinian people’s unified stance
in support of the recent Palestinian leadership led by President Mahmoud Abbas
is “the optimal response to all conspiracies and steps that breach the Arab
consensus” as well as to Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks on
eliminating Palestinian veto on Arab-Israeli
peace.
Israel Strikes Hamas Targets in Gaza
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 21 August, 2020
Palestinian militants fired 12 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip overnight,
nine of which were intercepted, and Israel responded with three airstrikes on
targets linked to the territory's militant Hamas rulers, the Israeli military
said early Friday.
It was the most serious exchange of fire along the Gaza frontier in months, but
there were no reports of casualties. Police said buildings and vehicles in
Israel were damaged, and that bomb-disposal units had been dispatched to pick up
shrapnel and rocket parts. In recent weeks, groups affiliated with Hamas have
launched incendiary balloons into Israel, igniting farmland in a bid to pressure
Israel to ease the blockade it imposed on Gaza when the militants seized power
in 2007. The rocket fire marks a significant escalation. Israel and Hamas have
fought three wars and several smaller battles over the last 13 years. Neither
side is believed to be seeking war, but any casualties could ignite a wider
conflict. Israel has closed Gaza's only commercial crossing, causing the
territory's sole power plant to shut down for lack of fuel and limiting the
territory's 2 million residents to around four hours of electricity a day.
Israel has also banned fishing in Gaza's coastal waters, measures it says are in
response to the incendiary balloons. Egyptian mediators were in Gaza earlier
this week to try and shore up an informal truce but left without announcing any
progress. Israel has allowed the Gulf nation of Qatar to provide hundreds of
millions of dollars in aid to Gaza in recent years to keep the economy from
collapsing and preserve calm. The latest exchange of fire began late Thursday
when militants fired two rockets that landed near the security fence. A few
hours later, a volley of three rockets was intercepted by Israeli missile
defenses. Another seven rockets were fired early Friday, six of which were shot
down. The Israeli military said it carried out airstrikes targeting Hamas
military infrastructure, including a compound used to manufacture rocket
ammunition, in response.It was the most serious cross-border exchange since
February, when the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group fired dozens of rockets
into Israel after one of its fighters was killed near the border while allegedly
planting explosives. Israel struck dozens of targets across the territory.
Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian Teen Near Ramallah
Ramallah- Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 21 August, 2020
Israeli soldiers killed, late on Wednesday at night a Palestinian teen, and
injured at least two others, in Deir Abu Mashal town, west of Ramallah, in
central West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry said it was informed that
Mohammad Damer Matar, 16, succumbed to wounds he had sustained from Israeli
gunfire. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its medics provided
the needed treatment to two Palestinians; one of them suffered a
moderate-but-stable injury, and the second suffered mild wounds, before they
were rushed to Palestine Medical Complex In Ramallah. Their condition was
stable, the ministry reassured. Head of Deir Abu Mashal Village Council Imad
Zahran said that Matar was arrested by the Israeli military after getting
injured. His body remains withheld by the Israeli military, he added. Meanwhile,
an Israeli military spokesperson said that soldiers on Wednesday had "spotted a
cell, whose members were carrying flammable materials used to prepare firebombs
near the Palestinian village of village of Deir Abu Mashaal". The village is
near a road used by settlers to reach their settlements in the West Bank. These
roads usually witness clashes where Palestinians throw stones on the army and
settlers while they attack Palestinian passers-by in their turn.
Biden Vows to Defeat Trump, End US 'Season of Darkness'
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/August 21/2020
Joe Biden accepted the Democratic presidential nomination with a vow to be a
unifying "ally of the light" who would move an America in crisis past the chaos
of President Donald Trump's tenure. In his strongest remarks of the campaign,
Biden spoke Thursday night both of returning the United States to its
traditional leadership role in the world and of the deeply personal challenges
that shaped his life. Virtually every sentence of his 22-minute speech was
designed to present a sharp, yet hopeful, contrast with the Republican
incumbent.
"Here and now I give you my word: If you entrust me with the presidency, I will
draw on the best of us, not the worst. l'll be an ally of the light, not the
darkness," Biden said. "Make no mistake, united we can and will overcome this
season of darkness in America." For the 77-year-old Biden, the final night of
the Democratic National Convention was bittersweet. He accepted a nomination
that had eluded him for over three decades because of personal tragedy,
political stumbles and rivals who proved more dynamic.
But the coronavirus denied him the typical celebration, complete with the
customary balloon drop that both parties often use to fete their new nominees.
Instead, Biden spoke to a largely empty arena near his Delaware home.
Afterward, fireworks lit the sky outside the arena, where supporters waited in a
parking lot, honking horns and flashing headlights in a moment that finally lent
a jovial feel to the event. The keynote address was the speech of a lifetime for
Biden, who would be the oldest president ever elected if he defeats Trump in
November. Trump, who is 74, publicly doubts Biden's mental capacity and calls
him "Slow Joe," but with the nation watching, Biden was firm and clear.
Still, the convention leaned on a younger generation earlier in the night to
help energize his sprawling coalition. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois senator who
lost her legs in Iraq and is raising two young children, said Biden has "common
decency."
Cory Booker, only the ninth African American senator in U.S. history, said Biden
believes in the dignity of all working Americans.
And Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and a gay
military veteran, noted that Biden came out in favor of same-sex marriage as
vice president even before President Barack Obama.
"Joe Biden is right, this is a contest for the soul of the nation. And to me
that contest is not between good Americans and evil Americans," Buttigieg said.
"It's the struggle to call out what is good for every American."Above all, Biden
focused on uniting the nation as Americans grapple with the long and fearful
health crisis, the related economic devastation, a national awakening on racial
justice — and Trump, who stirs heated emotions from all sides. Biden's positive
focus Thursday night marked a break from the dire warnings offered by Obama and
others the night before. The 44th president of the United States warned that
American democracy itself could falter if Trump is reelected, while Biden's
running mate, Kamala Harris, the 55-year-old California senator and daughter of
Jamaican and Indian immigrants, warned that Americans' lives and livelihoods
were at risk.
Biden's Democratic Party has sought this week to put forward a cohesive vision
of values and policy priorities, highlighting efforts to combat climate change,
tighten gun laws and embrace a humane immigration policy. They have drawn a
sharp contrast with Trump's policies and personality, portraying him as cruel,
self-centered and woefully unprepared to manage virtually any of the nation's
mounting crises and policy challenges. Voting was another prime focus of the
convention on Thursday as it has been all week. Democrats fear that the pandemic
-- and Trump administration changes at the U.S. Postal Service -- may make it
difficult for voters to cast ballots in person or by mail.
Comedian Sarah Cooper, a favorite of many Democrats for her videos lip syncing
Trump's speeches, put it bluntly: "Donald Trump doesn't want any of us to vote
because he knows he can't win fair and square."
Biden's call for unity comes as some strategists worry that Democrats cannot
retake the White House simply by tearing Trump down, that Biden needs to give
his sprawling coalition something to vote for. That's easier said than done in a
modern Democratic Party made up of disparate factions that span generation, race
and ideology. Though he has been in the public spotlight for decades as a
Delaware senator, much of the electorate knows little about Biden's background
before he began serving as Obama's vice president in 2008.
Thursday's convention served as a national reintroduction of sorts that drew on
some of the most painful moments of his life.
"I know how mean and cruel and unfair life can be sometimes," Biden said. He
added: "I found the best way through pain and loss and grief is to find
purpose."
As a schoolboy, Biden was mocked by classmates and a nun for a severe stutter.
He became a widower at just 30 after losing his wife and infant daughter to a
car accident. And just five years ago, he buried his eldest son, who was
stricken by cancer. From such hardship, Biden developed a deep sense of empathy
that has defined much of his political career. And throughout the convention,
Biden's allies testified that such empathy, backed by decades of governing
experience, makes him the perfect candidate to guide the nation back from
mounting health and economic crises. His allies Thursday included Brayden
Harrington, a 13-year-old boy from Concord, New Hampshire. The boy said he and
Biden were "members of the same club," each with a stutter they're working to
overcome.
He noted that Biden told him about a book of poems he liked to read aloud to
practice his speech and showed the boy how he marks his speeches so they're
easier to read aloud. "I'm just a regular kid, and in a short amount of time,
Joe Biden made me more confident about a thing that's bothered me my whole
life," Harrington said. The end of the carefully scripted convention now gives
way to a far less-predictable period for Biden and his Democratic Party as the
2020 election season speeds to its uncertain conclusion. While Election Day
isn't until Nov. 3, early voting gets underway in several battleground states in
just one month.Biden has maintained a polling advantage over Trump for much of
the year, but it remains to be seen whether the Democratic nominee's approach to
politics and policy will genuinely excite the coalition he's courting in an era
of uncompromising partisanship. Trump's Republican Party is expected to deliver
a message next week squarely focused on the president's most loyal supporters.
Biden summed up his view of the campaign: "We choose a path of becoming angry,
less hopeful and more divided, a path of shadow and suspicion, or we can choose
a different path and together take this chance to heal."
The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 21-22/2020
UN Supports 'World's Worst State Sponsor of Terrorism,'
Iran
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/August 21/
2020
Europe's leaders also did not support extending the arms embargo. They have been
arguing that they want to preserve the nuclear deal. What deal? The deal that
Iran never signed? The deal that Iran has been violating anyway?
The European powers have also ignored a recent plea by Iran's neighbors to
extend the arms embargo, as well as a recent statement made by the IAEA Director
General Rafael Mariano Grossi, who raised serious concerns about possible
clandestine and undeclared nuclear sites in Iran.
The six-country Gulf Cooperation Council -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates -- submitted a plea to the UN Security
Council to extend the Iranian arms embargo. The letter accurately stated that
"Iran has not ceased or desisted from armed interventions in neighboring
countries, directly and through organizations and movements armed and trained by
Iran. As such, it is inappropriate to lift the restrictions on conventional
weapons' movement to and from Iran until it abandons its destabilizing
activities in the region and ceases to provide weapons to terrorist and
sectarian organizations."
The UN's decisions to allow "the world's worst state sponsor of terrorism,"
freely to have an unlimited supply chain of conventional weapons may sadly go
down in history as one of the most dangerous acts against stability and world
peace.
On August 14, the United Nations Security Council voted to permit the 13-year
arms embargo on Iran, "the world's worst state sponsor of terrorism," to expire.
Pictured: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, flanked by US Ambassador to the UN
Kelly Craft, speaks after meeting with UN Security Council members about the
restoration of sanctions against Iran, on August 20, 2020.
One would think that one of the most dangerous things possible would be to allow
what the US Department of State calls "the world's worst state sponsor of
terrorism," Iran, freely to buy, sell, import and export advanced weapons. Yet,
this is exactly what the United Nations just decided to do. The UN Security
Council voted on August 14 to permit the 13-year arms embargo on the Iranian
regime to expire.
Even the ruling mullahs do not seem to believe that they received such a great
reward. "I don't remember [in the past] the US preparing a resolution for months
to strike a blow at the Islamic Republic of Iran, and it garners only one vote
[the Dominican Republic]," said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. This, he
added, was a humiliation and blow to the US. Iranian politicians and media
outlets are also celebrating. As the headline of the Iranian newspaper Etemad
read in Persian (Farsi): "US is Defeated in Home Game: Attempts in New York to
Convince the UNSC Member States Fail".
Iran, thanks to the previous US administration, is crying victory. Among the
many concessions that the Obama-Biden administration gave the ruling mullahs of
Iran was setting a date when Iran's arms embargo would be lifted. President
Obama agreed to add a provision in the nuclear deal -- which, by the way, Iran
never signed – for the arms embargo's disappearance.
Although the US recently drafted a resolution to extend the Iran arms embargo,
Russia and China exercised their UN security council vetoes. The other 11
members abstained. Russia's leaders appeared more than willing to help Iran.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of Russia's Liberal Democratic Party, said in
January 2020 that Russia needs to "offer Iran an agreement on military
cooperation and urgently sell the most modern weapons so that no one dares throw
anything in the direction of Iran."
Europe's leaders also did not support extending the arms embargo. They have been
arguing that they want to preserve the nuclear deal. What deal? The deal that
Iran never signed? The deal that Iran has been violating anyway?
According to the latest report from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has been violating all the restrictions of the
JCPOA anyhow. Israel, too, has been collecting evidence of Iran's cheating for
years. The European Union, however, has refrained from criticizing the Iranian
regime even though it has increased its total stockpile of low-enriched uranium
from 1,020.9 kilograms to 1,571.6 kilograms -- approximately eight times more
than what the regime was allowed to maintain under the JCPOA deal. According to
the terms of the JCPOA, Iran was permitted to keep a stockpile of 202.8
kilograms, and to enrich uranium up to 3.67%. Iran is now enriching uranium up
to the purity of 4.5% and possesses far more heavy water than permitted under
the nuclear agreement.
The European powers have also ignored a recent plea by Iran's neighbors to
extend the arms embargo, as well as a recent statement made by the IAEA Director
General Rafael Mariano Grossi, who raised serious concerns about possible
clandestine and undeclared nuclear sites in Iran. The six-country Gulf
Cooperation Council -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the
United Arab Emirates -- submitted a plea to the UN Security Council to extend
the Iranian arms embargo. The letter accurately stated:
"Iran has not ceased or desisted from armed interventions in neighboring
countries, directly and through organizations and movements armed and trained by
Iran... As such, it is inappropriate to lift the restrictions on conventional
weapons' movement to and from Iran until it abandons its destabilizing
activities in the region and ceases to provide weapons to terrorist and
sectarian organizations."
The UN's decision to lift Iran's arms embargo is a critical threat to regional
and international stability. As Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi pointed
out:
"The extremist regime in Iran doesn't just finance terrorism: it takes an active
part in terrorism through its branches around the world and uses it as a
political tool. This behaviour represents a danger to regional and international
stability."
The UN's decisions to allow "the world's worst state sponsor of terrorism,"
freely to have an unlimited supply chain of conventional weapons may sadly go
down in history as one of the most dangerous acts against stability and world
peace.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated
scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and
president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has
authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at
Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
A Slippery Patch in World Affairs
Amir Taheri/ Asharq Al-Awsat/ August 21/2020 -
“The world has stepped into a slippery patch, and we need to steady it.” This is
how Benjamin Disraeli saw the international scene in the early 1880s.
Andre Maurois, the French biographer of the British Prime Minister, claims that
Disraeli had become aware that the British Empire could no longer rule the waves
alone and that others had to be invited to the banquet of global power. That
analysis led to the convening of the Berlin Conference which, starting in
November 1884, continued until February 1885.
The British trick was to site the conference in Berlin and flatter Otto von
Bismarck, Germany’s “iron chancellor”, into believing that, as the new strongman
in Europe, he was running the show. Bismarck, the arch warmonger, was cast as
peace-maker trying to temper rivalry among European colonial powers.
Still smarting from its humiliating defeat by the Prussians a decade earlier,
France was the other “great power” present along with the ailing
Austro-Hungarian empire. Also invited was Russia, still licking wounds inflicted
by its defeat in the Crimean War. The newly independent Italy and the Ottoman
Empire, labeled “sick-man of Europe”, were also given seats at the banquet
table.
Smaller players like Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Sweden
(which then also included Norway) received tripods at the table. The surprise
guest was the United States the only power not involved in the colonial game but
already seen as a contender for world leadership.
While the conference was focused on carving up Africa, more specifically the
Congo, it also offered implicit endorsement of the zones of influence
established by European colonial powers while the US achieved recognition of the
Monroe Doctrine (1823) that restricted European empire-building activities in
the New Hemisphere. The compromise reached in Berlin kept the peace until the
First World War.
The question now is whether we need another Berlin conference to reconcile
conflicting ambitions that are fomenting instability and war in several regions.
Today, as in the 1880s big and small, or even mini wannabe empire builders, are
engaged in a ruthless power game.
The most intense activity comes from Russia and China.
Having recovered from its nightmarish Soviet experience, Russia is reverting to
nationalistic ambitions that inspired the conquering tsars for centuries. Russia
has annexed territories from Ukraine and Georgia and casts itself as master of
Syria’s destiny. It is also trying to carve a zone of influence in Libya while
waging what looks like lukewarm war against Western democracies. Using the
concept of “near neighborhood” Russia projects political and at times military
power in Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Russia is also treating several
countries, notably Serbia and Iran, as glacis in its non-declared
empire-building project.
Western powers are beginning to wake up to the new Russian threat, at times with
exaggerated rhetoric. A prestigious British weekly, for example, devotes its
cover to what it calls Russia’s “plan to destroy Western civilization”. Like in
the 1950s when people saw “reds under the bed”, some in the West detect a
Russian hand in everything, including Brexit and American presidential
elections.
China, for its part is projecting power all over the world while bullying some
neighbors and bribing others into submission. When deemed necessary it also
opens fire as it did recently along the ceasefire line with India. China treats
some African, Asian and Latin American countries, notably Congo-Kinshasa,
Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Ecuador as abatis or territory left
by previous masters and open for pickings by new reapers.
As in the 1880s, today we also have midget empire builders.
Turkey is trying to carve out a piece of Syria, and, talking about a revision of
the Treaty of Lausanne (1923). It hopes to snatch part of Iraq. It is also
projecting power in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, north Cyprus, Azerbaijan and
Qatar.
Iran is also trying to stay in the game, either through proxies and mercenaries
as in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, or as Sancho Panza to Russian and Chinese
Don Quixotes.
For its part, India has imposed hegemony on several neighbors notably Nepal and
Bhutan while finalizing annexation of the disputed part of Jammu and Kashmir.
Overall in economic, political and even military terms, Western powers, still
nominally led by the United States, remain involved in all continents but are
increasingly behaving as if their heart, not to say their pocket, is no longer
in it.
Under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the US has flirted with
isolationism without, however, abandoning front-stage.
Among European powers, France is still active in parts of Africa, including a
mini-war against militants in the Sahel. More recently France has also tried to
claim a role as protector and savior of Lebanon on the edge of systemic
collapse.
As for Germany, it seems that its hapless Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has no
ambition beyond caressing the corpse of the Obama “nuke deal” with Iran.
Despite claims that Brexit would allow Great Britain to seek a broader
international role, there are no signs that the new leadership in London is
capable of developing a global strategy even as a medium-sized power.
The European Union may be an economic giant but remains a political dwarf in
terms of global power, a fact borne out by its choice of a fifth rate diplomat
as foreign policy point-man.
The current lukewarm war may never morph into a hot one but the risk should not
be dismissed. Today, projecting power with low intensity war, often waged
through inexpensive proxies as Iran does in Lebanon, or through mercenaries as
Russia does in Syria and Libya, enables even relatively poor countries to cast a
larger shadow than they deserve. While a full-scale conventional war is too
expensive for most nations, fairly inexpensive down-market war via roadside
bombs, terrorism, hostage-taking, missile fireworks, cyber-attacks and drone
hits are available even to semi-solvent powers such as Iran and North Korea. A
new Berlin conference may be needed to cool things down and construct a new
rule-based international order. But at a time that even the next G-7 summit may
not take place, who is going to take the initiative?
That’s the million-dollar question.
Floods, Covid, Chaos. China Data Show It All
Anjani Trivedi/Bloomberg/August 21/2020
One of the most severe floods in decades is ravaging the industrial heartland,
just as China struggles to shake off the impact of Covid-19. The Yangtze River’s
inundation has so far caused direct economic losses of 178.9 billion yuan ($25.7
billion), including collapsed buildings, flooded factory floors and homes and
livelihoods lost for millions of people. Average rainfall for June and July
surpassed previous years; fixing the damage has barely begun.
The latest disaster feeds into a picture of an uneven turnaround as China picks
itself up from the pandemic. Beijing has pumped in trillions of yuan in stimulus
and relief, and there are signs of upticks in activity. But it’s getting harder
to say what the true state of the Chinese economy is. The numbers are all over
the place. For investors buying into a cyclical rebound, it may be worth a
deeper look.
Parsing through more granular data shows that heavy trucks are selling like
hotcakes – up 89% last month from a year earlier. Excavator sales rose almost
30%. Demand for automation machinery has picked up, as has movement of goods
across the country. Machine use hours fell 3% overall, and were flat in
flood-stricken southern China. Monthly electricity generation is down, and
cement inventory levels are higher than in previous years. Government spending
on fixed assets is rising strongly, but industrial production and manufacturing
investment are sagging.
Much of the enthusiasm for China rides on expectation alone. Hopes that Beijing
will spend, ease and build its way out out of the slowdown are pushing up
proxies of economic activity. Two trillion yuan ($288 billion) of additional
funds, including special direct transfers of over 1.5 trillion yuan, have been
committed. That’s in addition to funds that were deployed previously, including
the issuance of special bonds. Yet, the reality is turning out to be harder. The
floods haven’t just caused consumer prices to tick up, they’ve slowed the
ability to build and manufacture – regardless of money promised toward
infrastructure, roads and railways. Will buying trucks now force repair activity
to restart in the second half of 2020? Unlikely. The pain will be lasting.
All this points to the recovery starting to lose steam. Though China was first
in and (sort of) first out of Covid-19, consumers aren’t jumping on the
bandwagon. Part of the problem is that the outbreak came on top of already
sagging demand that Beijing was struggling to revive. Manufacturers and
industrial firms were facing a crisis of confidence, balance sheets were
constrained and a boost to direct financing wasn’t trickling through.
Now, the floods have come. Sure, the meiyu front is a seasonal affair. In
certain years, like 1998 and 2016, the rains turn severe. To deal with this,
China has built 98,000 reservoirs, 110,000 hydrological stations, and a web of
hundreds of thousands of levees. Climate change has made the deluges worse. A
study on the impact of floods on the manufacturing sector over the seven years
to 2010 found that firms’ output, on average, decreased by 28.3% in years of
large-scale inundations, or a total of 15.4 trillion yuan loss to the economy.
The study also found there was a lagged effect: In the two years following such
disasters, a further 2.3% was lost, indicating the impact lingers and is larger
than just the direct damage. Bringing these lessons forward to now, while
freight volumes may be rising, people aren’t traveling by rail and air in
droves. Returning to work has become much more challenging, especially for
factory and migrant workers traversing the country.
The crises of 2020, worse than any single natural disaster, confront Beijing
with a dilemma. On one hand, old-school fiscal pumping and railways to nowhere
will boost short-term growth. So, domestic construction machinery manufacturers
like Jiangsu Hengli Hydraulic Co. forecast production of certain excavator parts
to rise by 30% this month from a year earlier, sending its stock price up over
80% this year. On the other, the top brass knows that investments in high-tech
infrastructure will pay off in coming years, helping fuel the current stock
market rally. The uneven turnaround stems from unclear priorities: growth, debt,
or the future economy? The numbers show as much.
Underlying it all is a teetering banking system with clogged plumbing. Despite
the monetary easing, direct financing is handicapped at a time the economy needs
it most. State planners have tried to strike a balance. But they’ve failed to
show an appetite for the pain required to let some weaker companies fail and
allow real demand to emerge. Only when they demonstrate real priorities to
investors can China get this recovery back above water.
Can Terrorists be Deradicalized? - Part II
Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/August 20/2020
However pure religious Islam was in its earliest phase, after Muhammad came to
rule in the city of Medina and during the successive caliphates that followed
his death in 632, it became a dogma that the state must be ruled by Islam, its
beliefs, and its laws. Today's radicals, whether in Iran or as newcomers in
Western societies, apparently consider this a view worth fighting to uphold.
As far as Western countries are concerned, radicalization appears to rest on
three things: education in many Muslim schools, upbringing in unintegrated
Muslim families, and the intensity of close-knit Muslim communities.
When implemented, these measures will certainly increase the likelihood of
long-term deradicalization. But more still needs to be done to prevent the
spread and acceptance of radical views in the first place.
On February 3, 2020, Sudesh Amman, who had just been released from prison in
England after serving half his prison term, stabbed two people in Streatham,
south London, before he was shot dead at the scene by police. Amman was one of
the top five terrorist risk people in the country and was known still to possess
extremist views, yet the parole board did not assess him before setting him
free. Pictured: Police officers at the scene of Amman's terror attack. (Photo by
Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images)
In the first part of this analysis, "Can Terrorists be Deradicalized? Part I,"
of the ongoing threat of Islamic radicalism in the United Kingdom and elsewhere,
it seems to have proven difficult to take convicted terrorists and turn them
into pious Muslims who repudiate violence.
The great irony, as some reports have shown, is that the very fact of being
imprisoned or, in some instances, being trained in deradicalization courses can
actually result in further radicalization. So far, not enough work has been done
to identify and act on this problem, but it has been recognized by experts such
as Ian Acheson. And the UK government has published important findings on the
subject.
The truth is that many modern Western states seem to have trapped themselves in
a range of social attitudes -- such as the well-intended wish to show empathy or
sound hospitable, or a fear of offending, or laws condemning "hate speech", or
simple self-censorship -- that can unfortunately ignore or even sustain radical
Islamic belief systems. This is not to say that the UK, France, or other
countries actively promote the sort of radicalization that so often leads to
acts of terror; but our failure to act, our insistence on political correctness,
combined with a need to appear innocent of anything that might conceivably be
considered anti-Muslim "hate crimes", often leads to such results.
Often this tolerance of the intolerant comes about through the best of motives
-- and those good motives need respect. Precisely because Western countries are
well-functioning democracies, it is essential that our laws and behaviors
express that by treating all citizens fairly, granting them rights to have
freedom of expression and the right to worship (or choose not to worship), so
long as those citizens do not infringe upon the laws of the republic. Fair and
respectful treatment applies as much to Muslims as it does to Jews, Hindus,
Christians, or anyone else. The United States is the outstanding example of
freedom for religion and the right to free speech, with Britain and others not
far behind.
This is where our problem begins. Democracies can impose restrictions on
religious observance and preaching (as France does regarding some items of
religious dress, such as the burka), but in the main, democracies legislate to
protect religious people from intolerance, and minorities from "the tyranny of
the majority." The recently introduced Australian religious discrimination bill,
for instance, provides religions with rights that often override secular values.
One would be where a Catholic doctor would be allowed to refuse contraception to
all his or her patients or where a pharmacist could provide the contraceptive
pill. Religious hospitals or care providers could discriminate against staff on
a religious basis. And much more in other fields including education.
We are aware that Muslims in our countries in the West may be subjected to what
is incorrectly termed "Islamophobia"[1], but is it possible that this aversion
might be the result of simple xenophobia on the part of the very far right? The
murder of 50 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand in March 2019, for example,
was carried out by Brenton Tarrant, an Australian racist "Identitarian" with
links to European extremists.
For the most part, democratic governments and institutions seem more interested
in integrating Muslims than in discriminating against them. France apart,
Western societies do not impose rules on how men or women may dress in public.
The problem seems to be that this reluctance to treat Muslims differently has
frequently led to failures to investigate or condemn signs of radicalism within
Muslim communities. Fear of trampling on Muslim sensitivities (which tend to be
the sensitivities of the more fundamentalist organizations) has meant that
children in Muslim schools can be exposed to radical ideas without government
interference, and allowed to grow up ready to embrace dangerous attitudes.
In 2007, for instance, I wrote a lengthy report, "Music, Chess and other Sins,"
on Muslim schools in the UK for the think tank Civitas. The report was published
online without detailed lists of the individual schools involved, but a full
record was kept and handed to the schools inspectorate, Ofsted. The astonishing
fact is that despite having inspected many of the schools, they had never
identified the often very visible signs of extremism in about 60 percent of the
institutions I had examined, which were all the active academies in the country
from primary to secondary levels.[2] The schools have cleaned up their online
links and statements, but it is not at all clear that fundamentalist
institutions have abandoned their hard-line religious convictions.
In June 2019, in fact, Ofsted inspectors discovered extremist material in the
library of the Jamia Islamia school in Birmingham.
Schooling aside, not enough is being done to identify and challenge
radicalization within families. Children and teenagers, as they grow up, are
often persuaded to become radicals and terrorists by their parents or other
family members. Many of these youths have travelled abroad to join Islamic State
or return to European countries with their mothers, who themselves had gone to
Iraq and Syria. Many of these mothers and youngsters may have attended and were
indoctrinated in Islamic State schools.
In February 2019, Britain's Henry Jackson Society (HJS) published a detailed
report -- "Radicalising Our Children: An Analysis of Family Court Cases of
British Children at Risk of Radicalisation, 2013-2018," by Nikita Malik, the
director of the HJS's Centre on Radicalisation and Terrorism. The report
identifies, in fine detail, issues that inhibit courts in dealing with children
and families who are at risk of radicalization or already radicalized. In the
foreword, Lord Carlile of Berriew writes:
"Since 2013, judges in the Family division of the high Court have presided over
cases involving at least 156 children at risk of radicalisation. Whilst the
Court and the authorities often are aware that they are dealing with the
children of parents who are radicalised, possibly terrorists or with extremist
mind-sets, it is also apparent that the family court is not always able to take
the appropriate steps to protect their children."
There can be no doubt that most Western governments, courts, counter-terrorism
authorities and police, are well aware of Islamic terrorism and the threat it
poses to our communities. For many, however, that is seen as a problem very like
criminality of other kinds. This impression often seems to lead to the curious
and incorrect assumption that Islamist terrorism has nothing to do with Islam.
That notion has been strongly urged by Michigan State University Professor of
Religious Studies and Director of Muslim Studies Muhammad Hassan Khalil. It has
equally been promulgated by Saudi-sponsored a non-Muslim professor at Georgetown
University, John Esposito, described by David Bukay as "one of the foremost
apologists of radical Islam in American academia".
There are many problems with this approach. As I have previously argued:
"The use of force, mainly through jihad, is a basic doctrine in the Qur'an, the
Prophetic sayings (ahadith), and in all manuals of Islamic law. It is on these
sources that fighters from Islamic State, al-Qa'ida, al-Shabaab, and hundreds of
other groupings base their preaching and their actions. To say that such people
have "nothing to do with Islam" could not be more wrong."
Another link between the Islamic religion and modern extremist interpretations
of it rests in the conviction that shari'a law should remain a basic form of
legislation in Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, and
elsewhere. It is also of great importance note that, however purely religious
Islam was in its earliest phase, after Muhammad came to rule in the city of
Medina and during the successive caliphates that followed his death in 632, it
became a dogma that the state must be ruled by Islam, its beliefs, and its laws.
Today's radicals, whether in Iran or as newcomers in Western societies,
apparently consider this a view worth fighting to uphold.
I say "radicals" here to emphasize that far from all Muslims practise their
faith in an extremist manner. This is not speculation: in 2013, the research
center, Pew, published a major international survey of Muslim attitudes to
Islamic terrorist groupings:
"More than two years after the death of Osama bin Laden, concern about Islamic
extremism remains widespread among Muslims from South Asia to the Middle East to
sub-Saharan Africa. Across 11 Muslim publics surveyed by the Pew Research
Center, a median of 67% say they are somewhat or very concerned about Islamic
extremism. In five countries – Pakistan, Jordan, Tunisia, Turkey and Indonesia –
Muslim worries about extremism have increased in the past year."
The statistics Pew provides are a cause for optimism. A large sector of the
world's more than two billion Muslims hold groups such as al-Qa'ida, Hizbullah,
Hamas or the Taliban in contempt and are themselves concerned about their
impact.
But that is far from the whole story. Pew's statistics also indicate that
rejection or support for terrorists varies from country to country. In the
world's most populated Muslim state, Indonesia, for example, only 48% expressed
concern, leaving 52% unconcerned. In Turkey, a mere 38% were concerned.
Lack of concern does not necessarily mean complete rejection of extremism. Given
the numbers involved, even small percentages who may support the radicals add up
to worrying figures. One percent of two billion, after all, means 200 million
individuals.
Pew carried out a similar survey in 2015, regarding support for Islamic State
and concluded that views of the extremist grouping were "overwhelmingly
negative". Lebanon, for example, was deemed 100% against ISIS -- in January of
2020, however, its government was officially taken over by the terrorist group
Hizbullah. In Pakistan, a mere 28% held that view, while 9% were in favor.
A broader range of surveys carried out by six different research organizations
and covering twenty Muslim countries found that support for ISIS was chiefly
low:
"In the Muslim world, support for ISIS is low across the board. In 15 of the 20
countries shown, support for ISIS is in the single digits. And with the
exception of Syria, in no country is it greater than 15%."
The Pew statistics have led at least one source to conclude that "All told, 60
million Muslims in the Middle East support ISIS, while more than 250 million
remain undecided".
This seems a rash conclusion. Such a high level of support would surely have led
to a much larger influx of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria. Nevertheless, the
rapid rise of Islamic State did serve to show how many young Muslims, both in
Europe and Islamic countries, were inspired to abandon home and family, suffer
serious injury or give up their lives for religious concept.
As far as Western countries are concerned, radicalization appears to rest on
three things: education in many Muslim schools, upbringing in unintegrated
Muslim families, and the intensity of close-knit Muslim communities.
An extensive 2007 report, "Living Apart Together," by one of Britain's leading
think tanks, Policy Exchange, revealed many positive aspects to Muslim life in
Britain, but showed how a combination of a stress on multiculturalism on one
side and adherence to Islamic values on the other have created a lack of
integration:
"The emergence of a strong Muslim identity in Britain is, in part, a result of
multicultural policies implemented since the 1980s, which have emphasised
difference at the expense of shared national identity and divided people along
ethnic, religious and cultural lines. Islamist groups have gained influence at
local and national level by playing the politics of identity and demanding for
Muslims the 'right to be different'. The authorities and some Muslim groups have
exaggerated the problem of Islamophobia, which has fuelled a sense of victimhood
amongst some Muslims."
Table One on page 47 of the report reveals one disturbing matter: that younger
Muslims in the 16-24 age range are more radical in their thinking than their
parents and grandparents. They scored over 50% for issues such as the veiling of
women, polygamy, the death penalty for Muslims who convert to another faith, and
(71%) that homosexuality should be illegal.
In 2016, nine years after that report was issued, Dame Louise Casey issued a
government review of social opportunity and integration. Among much else, she
discovered that:
"Compared to other minority faith groups, Muslims tend to live in higher
residential concentrations at ward level. In 2011: Blackburn, Birmingham,
Burnley and Bradford included wards with between 70% and 85% Muslim
populations."
She also found that:
"Polling in 2015 also showed that more than 55% of the general public agreed
that there was a fundamental clash between Islam and the values of British
society, while 46% of British Muslims felt that being a Muslim in Britain was
difficult due to prejudice against Islam. We found a growing sense of grievance
among sections of the Muslim population, and a stronger sense of identification
with the plight of the 'Ummah', or global Muslim community."
Significantly, her research revealed that there was "a notably younger age
profile among Muslims", with a median age of 25. She found, as well, that:
"Further analysis of the raw polling data illustrated that there was a
relationship – though not necessarily a causal connection – between sympathy for
extremist or radical actions, and other views that diverged from those of the
general population: British Muslims who said they wanted to live a largely
Islamic life rather than integrate, were more likely to express sympathy towards
extremist actions; those who said they were sympathetic to extremism were more
likely to say that religious harassment is a problem in their area; those with
the greatest sympathy for extremist and violent actions were more likely to
think that girls and boys should be taught separately and to support the
introduction of Sharia law; analysis of the polling results also indicated that
socio-demographic factors which had an association with sympathy towards
extremist actions included where the person lived and their social class."
Overall, Casey found that Muslims were the least well-integrated minority group
in the UK, even while she had many positive things to say about the majority of
those of the Islamic faith. The rest of her review deserves to be read in
detail.
The question we have been asking in this article is how far deradicalization of
Muslim extremists and convicted terrorists is possible. As we saw in "Part I,"
often the British judiciary and prison authorities are not up to the job,
leaving a man such as Umran Khan to continue his radical pursuits. In "Part II",
we have looked at the ways in which individuals are radicalized and the social
contexts in which released or returned terrorists are brought back. Regrettably,
the prospects of deradicalization and integration for all such offenders still
seem poor.
Britain's Prime Minister, Boris Johnson said after the London Bridge attack that
the "grim reality" is that "some people can't be rehabilitated" in prison.
According to the BBC:
"The PM called for longer sentences and an end to automatic release after
convicted terrorist Usman Khan killed two people on London Bridge on Friday."
In response to this assessment and to the London Bridge attack, on January 21,
2020, Britain's Home Secretary, Priti Patel, announced a major shift in
anti-terrorist legislation. A bill is to be presented to parliament by
mid-March. This will call for a clampdown on sentencing and the extent of
imprisonment for terrorist offenders:
"Automatic early release from prison will be scrapped for terror offenders while
a minimum jail term of 14 years for serious crimes will be introduced."
Despite this initiative, serious questions remain. Leading British lawyer,
Jonathan Hall QC, the government's Independent Reviewer of Terrorism
Legislation, has called on the House of Lords to reject the policy of longer
sentences for terrorists. His reasoning is that spending more time in prison
will likely lead to further radicalization from other jihadi inmates -- a
corollary we know has already taken place.
The government also called for "a sweeping independent review of the way
different agencies, including police, the probation service, and the security
services investigate, monitor and manage terrorist offenders – called Multi
Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). This will be led by Jonathan Hall
QC, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation".
In addition, more money is to be spent on counter-terrorism policing and
surveillance, specialist probation staff, and specialist psychologists and imams
from the Muslim community.
When implemented, these measures will certainly increase the likelihood of
long-term deradicalization. But more still needs to be done to prevent the
spread and acceptance of radical views in the first place.
Denis MacEoin PhD has studied, taught, and written about Islamic subjects since
1979.
[1] On the phenomenon, but rejecting the term, see essays in Emma Webb (ed.),
Islamophobia: An Anthology of Concerns, Civitas, London, 2019
[2] For a useful US-based summary of the report, go here.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
European statement sets out refusal to back Iran arms ban extension
Thomas Harding/The National/August 21/2020
America fails to convince Britain, Germany and France to junk nuclear deal
The Trump administration’s efforts to extend the international arms embargo on
Iran suffered a humiliating setback yesterday after Britain, France and Germany
refused to supports its efforts.
In a joint statement Europe’s three biggest economies said the American move to
restore total sanctions on Tehran was incompatible with efforts to support the
Iran nuclear deal.
The United States has pressured Britain into backing sanctions after its UN
ambassador suggested that failing to do so would allow the “world’s largest
state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell weapons”.
Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, has requested the UN Security Council
trigger a “snapback” mechanism contained in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal to seek the reimposition of sanctions lifted in
2015. It cites Tehran’s breach of the agreement by its continued attempts to
enrich uranium.
The ballistic missile named after Qassem Suleimani is being tested in an
undisclosed location in Iran. AFP / Iranian Defence Ministry
But America withdrew from the JCPOA two years ago, which European leaders say
makes its “snapback” attempt invalid.
“The US ceased to be a participant to the JCPOA following their withdrawal from
the deal on May, 8 2018. We cannot, therefore, support this action, which is
incompatible with our current efforts to support the JCPOA,” the countries,
known as the E3 – European Three – said in a statement.
In what appeared to be a rebuke to the Trump government’s diplomatic efforts,
the statement added: “We call on all UN Security Council members to refrain from
any action that would only deepen divisions in the Security Council or that
would have serious adverse consequences on its work.”
Washington has become increasingly concerned that the UN vote in October on
whether to continue the arms ban will not be supported by other major countries.
If the embargo is lifted Iran will be able to buy advanced military technology
from states such as China and Russia, which could sell it sophisticated
surface-to-air missiles, jets and submarines.
Reiterating that they remained committed to the JCPOA despite the significant
challenges caused by the American withdrawal, the E3 said the priority was to
“address the current issue of systematic Iranian non-compliance with JCPOA”.
To preserve the agreement, they urged Iran “to reverse all measures inconsistent
with its nuclear commitments and return to full compliance without delay.”
The E3 also pledged to continue to work with the Security Council to continue
further diplomatic resolution. “Our efforts will be guided by the need to uphold
the authority and integrity of the UN Security Council and to advance regional
security and stability.”
The accord, originally signed by the US, Britain, France, Germany, China and
Russia, was a key diplomatic achievement for former president Barack Obama,
limiting Iran’s nuclear research in return for ending crippling economic
sanctions.
Within the deal is a provision for the arms embargo, first imposed in 2007, to
expire in mid-October this year as long as Iran remains compliant. The embargo
now looks likely to expire after the UN refused to back an extension last week.
Britain, France and Germany caused further frustration for the Trump
administration at the time by abstaining from the vote.
Mr Pompeo traveled on Thursday to New York to hand-deliver a letter to the
president of the UN Security Council saying Iran isn’t complying with its
obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal “despite extensive efforts and
exhaustive diplomacy”.
Washington contends that the notification starts a 31-day clock that will end
with the council required to “snap back” sanctions on Iran. It puts the
administration on a collision course with other world powers who say the U.S.
doesn’t have the standing to invoke the sanctions provision because President
Donald Trump quit the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“In the end they provided no alternatives, no options,” Mr Pompeo said of
America’s European allies, adding that they “chose to side with the ayatollahs”
and put their own citizens at risk. “America won’t join in this failure of
leadership. America will not appease, America will lead.”
Commentators believe that the sanctions issue is likely to be delayed until
after the US presidential election in November.
A ‘new era’ in the Eastern Mediterranean — or the ‘new
normal’?
Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/August 21, 2020
As I write this, the focus of attention of many in Turkey, and neighboring
countries, is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was due to make an
announcement on Friday that he said would mark the “beginning of a new era” for
the country.
Many predicted that this “good news” would relate to the discovery of a new gas
field in the Eastern Mediterranean or the Black Sea.
A number of nations and other interested parties are involved in the dispute
over control of natural resources in the Eastern Mediterranean, including
Turkey, Israel, Russia, the US, the EU and Arab countries. In the past few
months, it has been high on the international agenda.
Whether Friday’s announcement will truly mark the beginning of a new era for
Turkey remains to be seen but one thing is certain: Despite calls for a new era
in the relationship between Turkey and the EU, there seems to be no end in sight
to the current era.
Turkey’s relationship with the EU has turned into a protracted courtship with no
sign of marriage on the horizon, no sincere commitment but so many expectations.
In addition, external forces have applied an increasing amount of pressure on
the relationship, making things even harder. The latest statement by Faruk
Kaymakci, Turkey’s deputy foreign minister and director of EU affairs, further
proved this point.
“There are some accusations coming from the EU: ‘Turkey is drifting apart from
the EU, from the EU’s values,’ they say. I think the main problem is that Turkey
is being estranged from the EU,” he said, but added that despite this, Turkey is
determined to pursue its relationship with the bloc.
Turkey is expected to top the agenda during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in
Berlin on Aug. 27-28. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who currently chairs the
EU’s rotating presidency, has been trying to persuade Turkey and Greece to enter
into negotiations over their conflicting claims to air and sea rights in the
region. In fact, Berlin has been working hard to ease tensions in the dispute
for a while, but the frequent developments have sabotaged these efforts.
In mid-August, a Greek and a Turkish warship were involved in a minor collision
in the Eastern Mediterranean. The incident further raised tensions in the most
combustible naval stand-off the region has experienced in 20 years.
For decades, maritime boundary disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean have been
internal issues for Turkey, Greece and the Greek-Cypriot administration.
For decades, maritime boundary disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean have been
internal issues for the sides involved: Turkey, Greece and the Greek-Cypriot
administration. However, the Arab uprisings did not only create a wave in the
Arab world but also in the Eastern Mediterranean, which has become a key
strategic arena in which Russia, the US, Israel, Egypt, France, Italy and others
have become involved. Far from encouraging a solution to the years-long dispute,
this external pressure has only further complicated the issue.
Very recently, the USS Hershel Woody Williams arrived at the Greek island of
Crete on a mission to keep an eye on the escalating tensions between NATO allies
Greece and Turkey over energy rights in the Eastern Mediterranean. The American
warship joined others from the EU and Russia, raising concerns about the
implications of the presence of several external forces.
The emergence of these new actors, in primary or secondary roles, in the Eastern
Mediterranean transforms what was a years-long local dispute into a new
military, economic and even ideological battle, raising the stakes considerably.
From the US perspective, the fact that Turkey, Greece and France are all members
of NATO makes it crucial that the dispute is dealt with through diplomacy, by
managing conflicting interests. For a similar reason, the EU cannot simply turn
its back and ignore the dispute. Stability lover Merkel’s main task is to keep
Turkey on track, while at the same time not giving the country the upper hand at
the expense of EU members Greece and France. Meanwhile, the presence of Russia,
which treats the Eastern Mediterranean as an area of rivalry with the US and the
EU, challenges western influence in the region.
For Turkey, as long as its interests harmonize with those of the Russians,
Moscow could be considered a port in the storm. Moscow and Ankara have, in the
past few years, become experienced in finding common ground despite their
differences.
Unilateral action, bilateral deals, increased frequency of state visits,
provocative announcements resulting from these visits, EU meetings and their
usual outcomes, tit-for-tats, and friction in the Eastern Mediterranean have
become the new normal.
Every step taken to counter another has done nothing but lead the dispute down a
blind alley. It is likely that it will remain top of the agenda in the states
involved for some time, overshadowing the main problems facing those countries
and the issues affecting the wider region in general.
Soon, eyes will turn to the EU summit in October, during which Turkey-EU ties
will be brought to the table once again.
* Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkey’s
relations with the Middle East. Twitter: @SinemCngz
The UAE has skillfully moved to check Iranian aggression
Dr. John C. Hulsman/Arab News/August 21, 2020
The German philosopher Georg Hegel was surely on to something when he wryly
noted that “reading the morning newspaper is the realist’s morning prayer.”
Realism as a way of thinking is grounded in the actual facts of life as it is
lived — the empirical realities of the world that cannot be wished away. It is
this aspect of realism, more than anything else, that explains the stunningly
successful act of diplomacy — the normalization of relations between the UAE and
Israel — concluded last week.
The terms of the deal are simple but of the greatest importance. The UAE agrees
to have full normalization of relations with Israel, becoming only the third
Arab country to do so, following Egypt and Jordan. In return, the government of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to suspend its highly controversial
plan to annex some 30 percent of the West Bank.
Two key concessions underpin the treaty. Israel’s suspension of the planned West
Bank expansion has real political costs for Netanyahu, getting him into hot
water with his right-wing Likud party base just as he desperately needs them to
fight off the three court cases for corruption he is presently weathering. In
return, the UAE recognizes Israel, even as the Palestinian issue remains far
from solved. Upon these two bedrock concessions an enduring realignment has
begun.
Lurking beneath these significant diplomatic concessions lies realist thinking
of the first order on both sides. First, in many ways, the deal — as realists
would note happens all the time — is merely the political recognition of what
has already been happening in the newspapers (to quote Hegel) for quite a long
time. Informal Israeli and UAE security and commercial ties have been growing
for almost two decades. In one sense, the treaty merely codifies what has
already happened organically.
Second, in realist terms, Netanyahu is merely making a strategic virtue of a
domestic necessity. Though the prime minister is without doubt the Harry Houdini
of his political generation, surviving endlessly in the shark tank that is
Israeli politics, lately his wings have been clipped. According to a July
Channel 13 news poll, only 34 percent of respondents approved of Netanyahu’s job
performance — a precipitous fall from his 70 percent approval rating in April of
this year. Failures over the coronavirus, the corruption trials, and endless
political jockeying have all taken their toll. This domestic political reality
explains the prime minister’s initial pivot to his right-wing base to shore up
political support in this tsunami of a crisis.
However, here Netanyahu found himself blocked, as both Foreign Minister Gabi
Ashkenazi and Defense Minister/Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz made it
clear they would bring down the government should the partial annexation take
place. Aware of both his plummeting popularity and the Israeli public’s voter
fatigue after the endless general elections of the past year, Netanyahu
brilliantly made a virtue of necessity, pivoting to the UAE deal. The move
shores up his shaky government and has proven immensely popular with the Israeli
public. A Channel 12 poll conducted after the deal finds fully 77 percent of
respondents in favor, with only 17 percent opposed. In realist terms, Houdini
has escaped again.
Tehran’s sponsored proxy forces in the Middle East have grown more powerful in
Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, making it clear that Iran is now the greatest
threat to regional stability in the long run.
Third, the UAE has skillfully moved to check Iranian aggression in the Middle
East. Again, one needs to look at this with realist eyes. The US, the long-term
champion of the anti-Iranian coalition, is doing less and less in the region. As
such, shoring up the coalition by including Tehran’s most stalwart enemy, the
Netanyahu government, makes eminent strategic sense for the UAE, all the more so
as Israel is an undoubted first-class regional military and commercial power.
Just as the US has been doing less, Iranian expansionism has grown. Tehran’s
sponsored proxy forces in the Middle East have grown more powerful in Lebanon,
Syria, Iraq and Yemen, making it clear that Iran is now the greatest threat to
regional stability in the long run. The UAE, aware that Israel shares this
precise view of regional geostrategy and that blocking Iran’s expansionism is
now the obvious major template both explaining and dividing the region, has
quite brilliantly shored up its strategic position.
As is true with any accord, there remain dangers ahead. Netanyahu has stated
that West Bank annexation is only temporarily on hold — a statement that keeps
his unraveling right-wing and center-right domestic power base just about
together, satisfying neither but not outraging anyone either. This ambiguity is
vital to the long-term success of the concord.
However, for all these realist reasons, look for the stunning UAE-Israeli
alliance to flourish.
*/Dr. John C. Hulsman is the president and managing partner of John C. Hulsman
Enterprises, a prominent global political risk consulting firm. He is also
senior columnist for City AM, the newspaper of the City of London. He can be
contacted via www.chartwellspeakers.com.