English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For August 24/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.august24.20.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
God is light and in him there is no darkness
at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in
darkness, we lie and do not do what is true
First Letter of John 01/01-10/:”We declare to you
what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our
eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of
life this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare
to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us we
declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship
with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus
Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the
message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him
there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we
are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in
the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our
sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and
his word is not in us.””
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August
23-24/2020
Hariri Hospital: One death case, 3 recoveries
Hassan: There is no compensation or aid for the families of the deceased due to
Coronavirus
Petra Khoury: Number of deaths in Lebanon doubles every 23 days
Al-Rahi Urges Removal of Arms Depots from Residential Areas
Finance Ministry: Measures in Block C of the Ministry's building in Adieh area
following a confirmed COVID19 case among its employees
Enemy smoke bombs cause a fire to break out and spread to the occupied
territories
Canadian Foreign minister visits Beirut today
Suspect Held in Kaftoun Crime as Report Says MP was in Nearby Town
Report: Berri in Contact with Macron, Exerting Efforts 'in All Directions'
Berri Says Exerted Efforts on Govt. but 'One Hand Can't Clap'
Owner of ship tied to Beirut explosion connected to FBME Bank linked to
Hezbollah
Kuwait to Rebuild Lebanon's Only Large Grain Silo After Blast
Beirut Blast Exacerbates Misery of Syrian Refugees
PSP, Lebanese Forces Not in Favor of Nominating Hariri to Head Cabinet
FPM: We will press charges against all those who distort the facts, undermine
our reputation
Bassil's Attorney: There are parties trying to divert attention from knowing the
real reason for the entry of the ship 'Roussos' to Lebanon
Army: Aid continues to arrive from brotherly and friendly countries
Two military helicopters join efforts to extinguish forest fire in Mishmish
Mortada follows-up on fires in Akkar district, Akar pledges to send helicopters
Mikati in commemoration of the Tripoli mosques bombing: We affirm adherence of
the Sunnis to the choice of a just and uniting state
Italian Defence Minister to visit Beirut on Monday
FPM boycotts MTV
Geagea to the Lebanese Resistance martyrs' families: I ask you to stay at your
homes during their memorial service, to ensure your safety due to the
Coronavirus outbreak
The world's great powers will soon face off in Lebanon/Raghida Dergham/The
National/August 23/2020
End of the World': Massive, Self-Inflicted 'Bomb' in Beirut/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday,
23 August, 2020
Absurd Theories to Understand Hezbollah/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/August
23/2020
The Traitors Michel and Hasan/Elie Aoun/August 23/2020
Lebanon’s new start needs to be locally led/Javier Solana/Arab News/August
23/2020
Saudi-Pakistan Rift Develops Over India/Simon Henderson/The Washington
Institute/August 23/2020
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on August 23-24/2020
Turkey befriends Hamas amid spiraling anti-Israel rocket
fire from
Iraq government sends special forces to track Basra killers
US-Led Troops Withdraw From Iraq's Taji Base
Aboul Gheit Says Arab Peace Initiative Is Basis of Peace With Israel
Iran admits sabotage caused fire at Natanz nuclear site
Iran retrieves cockpit conversation from Ukraine plane shot down with missile
Pompeo to visit Khartoum in coming days, Sudanese official says
International Anticipation of LNA’s Stance on Ceasefire
Sirte at Crosshairs of Libyan Conflict
East Libyan forces dismiss cease-fire push by rivals
Analysis: The Messages Behind the Latest US Sanctions on Syrian Officials
Sudan's Ruling Coalition... Will It Stay United or Disintegrate?
Trump's Sister Calls Him 'Cruel', 'Liar' on Secret Recordings
Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published on August 23-24/2020
Renovating Old Houses Needn't Be Scary/Marcus Ashworth/Bloomberg/August
23/2020
King Dollar Still Reigns Supreme/Nisha Gopalan/Bloomberg/August 23/2020
An Epidemic of Depression and Anxiety Among Young Adults/Andreas Kluth/Asharq
Al-Awsat/August 23/2020
We Need This Change in the Arab World/Sara Al Nuaimi/Gatestone Institute/August
23, 2020
"We Have No Mercy on You People": Persecution of Christians, July 2020/Raymond
Ibrahim/ Gatestone Institute/August 23/2020
US election winner will have to reconsider Iran, Turkey ties/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab
News/August 23/2020
Middle East’s extremism and sectarianism can be traced back to Iran/Dr. Mohammed
Al-Sulami/Arab News/August 23/2020
Turkey welcomes Egypt’s stance on contentious maritime border/Yasar Yakis/Arab
News/August 23/2020
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 23-24/2020
Hariri Hospital: One death case, 3 recoveries
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
Rafic Hariri University Hospital stated Sunday, in its daily report on the
latest Coronavirus developments, that the number of examinations conducted in
its laboratories during the past 24 hours reached 304, and that the number of
patients infected with the virus who are currently at the hospital for follow-up
is 80, while 18 suspected cases were transferred from other hospitals within the
past 24 hours. The report indicated that 3 recoveries have been recorded during
the past 24 hours; thus, raising the total number of recoveries to-date to 346.
It added that one new death case has been recorded, while the number of critical
cases currently receiving treatment at the hospital is 24. For further
information on the number of COVID-19 infected cases on all Lebanese
territories, the hospital indicated that this data can be found in the daily
report issued by the Ministry of Public Health. It concluded by reminding
citizens that "the Coronavirus Call Center for emergency response and
examination results operates 24/7, including public holidays, and can be reached
through the number 01-820830 or through the WhatsApp communication service
76-897961."
Hassan: There is no compensation or aid for the
families of the deceased due to Coronavirus
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
Caretaker Public Health Minister, Hamad Hassan, tweeted Sunday on the COVID-19
victims, saying that "there is no compensation or aid to the families of the
victims who die of Coronavirus, contrary to all the rumors," adding that "all
that is being circulated may be for the purpose of thwarting the strenuous
efforts to fight the epidemic, belittling it or justifying a specific medical
shortcoming or for some purpose..."Hassan stressed that the matter ought not to
be taken lightly or jokingly. "The epidemic is in a dangerous stage," he
cautioned, calling for "vigilance, wisdom and awareness."
Petra Khoury: Number of deaths in Lebanon doubles every 23 days
NNA /Sunday, 23 August, 2020
Caretaker Prime Minister's Advisor Petra Khoury, tweeted Sunday on the outbreak
of the COVID-19 epidemic, saying: "The virus is real and is spreading. The
number of deaths in Lebanon due to Corona doubles every 23 days. This number is
3.3 times faster than the global average of deaths...Individual behavioral
change is the key. To save lives: wear a mask, avoid crowds, wash your hands and
observe social distancing."
Al-Rahi Urges Removal of Arms Depots from
Residential Areas
Naharnet/August 23/2020
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday called for the removal of “all arms
and explosives depots” from Lebanon’s residential areas, in the wake of the
Beirut port blast that killed dozens, wounded thousands and devastated swathes
of the capital.“Let Lebanese authorities consider the Beirut port disaster an
alarm bell and let them raid all arms and explosives depots and warehouses that
exist illegally in the residential neighborhoods of cities, towns and villages,”
al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon. “Some Lebanese regions have turned into
fields of explosives which we do not know when they will blow up or who will
detonate them,” the patriarch warned. “The presence of these depots represents a
serious and dangerous threat to the lives of citizens, which do not belong to
any person, group, party or organization,” al-Rahi went on to say.
He accordingly called on authorities to “removes these arms and explosives so
that citizens can feel safe, at least inside their homes.”
Official negligence and corruption have been blamed for the detonation of around
2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored unsecured for around seven years at Beirut
port. Ammonium nitrate has a dual use as fertilizer or in explosives.
Turning to the issue of the formation of a new government, al-Rahi lamented that
the political parties “are approaching the formation process from an electoral
and partisan angle.”“They are raising conditions and counter-conditions,” he
decried.
The patriarch also said that “the people and the world are awaiting the
formation of a national and economic rescue government, quickly and without
delay for any reason, on the condition that it be formed of (political and
economic) rescuers.”
Finance Ministry: Measures in Block C of the
Ministry's building in Adieh area following a confirmed COVID19 case among its
employees
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
The Ministry of Finance issued a statement on Sunday, indicating that due to the
diagnosis of one its employees working in Block C of its building located in the
Adleh area with the emerging Coronavirus, and since the aforementioned block
includes both the Exchange and Treasury Directorates, the Ministry will have to
suspend operations in both departments on Monday 24/8/2020, to perform the
necessary sterilization process and conduct PCR examinations for its staff. The
statement added that the pension disbursement department will have to be closed
for a period of 3 days, starting from 24/8/2020 until 26/8/2020, inclusively,
for the same purpose. Accordingly, the Finance Ministry urged all citizens who
visited the above-mentioned departments during the past two weeks to undergo PCR
tests in order to ensure that they did not contract the virus. It also called on
them to adhere to the instructions issued by the Ministry of Public Health in
this regard. "The Finance Ministry affirms that the above-mentioned procedures
will absolutely not affect the salaries and wages that will be transferred to
the accredited banks in due time as usual," the statement reassured.
Enemy smoke bombs cause a fire to break out and
spread to the occupied territories
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
The two Israeli enemy tanks, which violated the technical fence in the Kroum al-Sharaqi
area in the town of Mays al-Jabal earlier today, withdrew behind the barbed wire
in the vicinity, under a cover of smoke bombs that caused a fire to break out
and the winds led to its extension towards the Israeli enemy post in "Dahr Al-Assi"
and the surrounding woodlands inside the occupied territories," NNA
correspondent in Marjayoun reported.
Canadian Foreign minister visits Beirut today
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne is scheduled to visit
Beirut, on Sunday, to stand by the Lebanese people in their plight as a result
of the Beirut Port explosion. Champaign will meet President Michel Aoun to brief
him on the assistance provided by Canada and his country's readiness to rebuild
the port of Beirut.
Suspect Held in Kaftoun Crime as Report Says MP was
in Nearby Town
Naharnet/August 23/2020
The Joint Palestinian Security Force at the al-Beddawi refugee camp has handed
over a man suspected of being involved in the Kaftoun crime to the Intelligence
Branch of the Internal Security Forces, the National News Agency said on Sunday.
The suspect, Palestinian national Ehab Shahine, had turned himself in at dawn to
the Palestinian force following a clash, media reports said.
LBCI TV has reported that fingerprints lifted from the culprits’ car have
revealed that they belong to two individuals arrested in the past over
terror-related offenses: a Syrian resident of the al-Beddawi camp and a Lebanese
resident of the Akkar town of Danbou. MTV meanwhile reported Sunday that the
suspects had links in the past to the jihadist Islamic State group.
It had reported Saturday that MP Nadim Gemayel had been present on the night of
the crime in the Koura town of Kfarhata, which neighbors Kaftoun. Media reports
said Gemayel was attending a dinner banquet in the town and that he left upon
hearing the gunfire. “Gemayel received phone calls from several political
figures, including Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and MP Tony Franjieh,”
MTV said.
The incident in Kaftoun left three municipal police guards dead -- Alaa Fares,
who is the son of the town’s mayor, George Sarkis and Fadi Sarkis.
The three victims were also supporters of the Syrian Social National Party.
According to reports, the assailants opened fire when the municipal guards asked
them why they were roaming the area in car carrying no registration plates.
The gunmen fled on foot after the incident as the town’s mayor said “weapons,
hand grenades and electric wires” were found in the deserted car. Media reports
meanwhile said that only a pistol equipped with a silencer was found in the
vehicle.
Report: Berri in Contact with Macron, Exerting Efforts 'in All Directions'
Naharnet/August 23/2020
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is exerting efforts “in all directions” in a bid
to facilitate the formation of a new government, a media report said.
“Berri communicates with French President Emmanuel Macron every now and then,
and the latter called him in the wake of his (Berri’s) meeting with President
Michel Aoun,” a parliamentary source told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks
published Sunday. Prominent al-Mustaqbal Movement sources meanwhile told the
daily that ex-PM Saad Hariri “has not proposed himself as a candidate for the
premiership.” “He therefore has nothing to do with the conclusions suggesting
that someone is trying to promote his nomination or to convince a certain figure
of endorsing his candidacy,” the sources said. According to media reports, Berri
and Hizbullah are in favor of Hariri’s return as premier while the Lebanese
Forces, the Progressive Socialist Party and the Free Patriotic Movement are
opposed to such a possibility.
Berri Says Exerted Efforts on Govt. but 'One Hand
Can't Clap'
Naharnet/August 23/2020
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed Sunday that he has suspended his
efforts regarding the government formation process.
“I did everything in my capacity as to the issue of forming a government, but it
turned out that one hand cannot clap,” Berri said in an interview carried by the
National News Agency. “I’m now waiting for what others will do in this regard,”
he added.
According to media reports, Berri and Hizbullah are in favor of ex-PM Saad
Hariri’s return as premier while the Lebanese Forces, the Progressive Socialist
Party and the Free Patriotic Movement are opposed to such a scenario.
Owner of ship tied to Beirut explosion connected to FBME
Bank linked to Hezbollah
Ismaeel Naar, Al Arabiya English/Sunday 23 August 2020
The real owner of the ship at the core of the Beirut explosions investigation
that offloaded the 2,750 tons of explosive ammonium nitrate at Beirut's port has
links to the FBME Bank accused of acting as a money launderer for Hezbollah,
according to a new investigative report by Der Spiegel.
The Rhosus tanker – impounded by Lebanese authorities in November 2013 and
subsequently offloaded the ammonium nitrate in Beirut port – was initially
believed to be owned by a Russian man named by Igor Grechushkin. Der Spiegel and
the journalism network called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting
Project (OCCRP) found new documents that prove it was actually owned by Cypriot
businessman Charalambos Manoli. “In contrast to Grechushkin, the Russian who
chartered the vessel, Manoli did have business relations in Lebanon. Court
records show that Manoli took out a loan back in 2011 for $4 million from the
Tanzanian FBME Bank to finance the purchase of another ship, the Sakhalin,” Der
Spiegel reported.
The Rhosus cargo vessel owned by Manoli that reportedly offloaded the 2,750 tons
of ammonium nitrate at Beirut Port in 2013 showed its past routes across the
several countries in the Mediterranean prior to its abandonment in the Lebanese
capital a year later, according to ship-tracking service Marine Traffic.
In 2014, Cyprus, which took management of the Tanzanian FBME Bank (formerly
known as Federal Bank of the Middle East), formally placed the local branch of
FBME under administration, after concerns previously expressed by the United
States that it was a conduit for money laundering for Islamist militants and
Hezbollah. FBME Bank Ltd. (FBME) was established in 1982 in Cyprus as the
Federal Bank of the Middle East Ltd., a subsidiary of the private Lebanese bank,
the Federal Bank of Lebanon. “Illicit activities involving FBME included an FBME
customer's receipt of a deposit of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a
financier for Lebanese Hezbollah. As of early 2015, an alleged Hezbollah
associate and the Tanzanian company he managed owned accounts at FBME,” read a
final ruling from the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)
in 2016. According to Der Spiegel’s report, internal documents from FBME showed
that Manoli still owed 962,000 euros to the bank in outstanding debt as of
October 2014. “Manoli denies any connection between his debts and the fact that
the freighter was stopped in Beirut. However, one investigator notes that FBME
is notorious for pressuring defaulting borrowers into doing favors for dubious
customers like Hezbollah,” Der Spiegel reported. Questions surrounding the
Rhosus connections have been raised in past weeks given its dubious history. A
heatmap of the Rhosus cargo vessel that reportedly offloaded the 2,750 tons of
ammonium nitrate at Beirut Port in 2013 showed its past routes across the
several countries in the Mediterranean prior to its abandonment in the Lebanese
capital a year later, according to ship-tracking service Marine Traffic.
According to Automatic Identification System (AIS) data in 2012, the Rhosus also
changed its name ever so slightly at least five times in 2012.
Kuwait to Rebuild Lebanon's Only Large Grain Silo After
Blast
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
Kuwait said it will rebuild Lebanon's only large grain silo that was destroyed
by the massive Beirut port explosion, raising fears of food shortages in a
country already in financial meltdown. The destruction of the 120,000-ton
capacity structure at the port, the main entry point for food imports, meant
buyers must rely on smaller private storage facilities for their wheat purchases
with no government reserves to fall back on. Kuwait's ambassador to Lebanon,
Abdulaal al-Qenaie, said in comments to local radio VdL at the weekend that the
silo was first built in 1969 with a Kuwaiti development loan. The Gulf monarchy
will now rebuild the silo so it remains a symbol of "how to manage relations
between two brotherly countries that respect each other", Qenaie was cited as
saying.
The port explosion killed at least 180 people, injured thousands and wrecked
swathes of the Lebanese capital, pushing the government to resign.
The now caretaker economy minister, Raoul Nehme, has reassured the public that
there would be no flour or bread crisis in Lebanon, which buys almost all its
wheat from abroad. Plans for another grain silo in Lebanon's second largest port
Tripoli were shelved years ago due to a lack of funding, a UN official, port
official, and regional grain expert told Reuters earlier this month.
Humanitarian aid has poured into Lebanon. But foreign donors have made clear
they will not bail out the state without reforms to tackle entrenched corruption
and negligence.
Beirut Blast Exacerbates Misery of Syrian Refugees
Beirut - Enass Sherry/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
Abdelkader Ibrahim Baluso fled the war in Syria’s Aleppo in 2013 seeking refuge
in Lebanon. He arrived in Beirut with his then three-member family and lived in
Sin el-Fil area and worked as a blacksmith in Karantina, near Beirut’s port.
In 2018, he welcomed his daughter Farah, which means joy or happiness, hoping
she would reflect its meaning on the family, his wife Fatima told Asharq Al-Awsat.
However, he wasn’t aware that a day will come when Farah would vainly wait for
her father’s return from work. Almost three weeks have passed since Beirut
port’s explosion, of which Abdelkader was a victim, and Farah still tirelessly
sits at the doorstep and hoping he would return from work to take her out “as
usual.”Fatima told Asharq Al-Awsat that her late husband was in his workplace
when he was injured in his back from the explosion. She said a person helping to
transport the injured to hospitals tried to save her husband, but none accepted
to receive him, and he died from his wounds two hours later. It further took two
hours to find a hospital that would accept his body. At 10 pm Abdelkader’s body
was put at a hospital morgue in the town of Bsalim, in Mount Lebanon. “We had a
roof over our heads. We were able to eat and drink and our children went to
school,” Fatima said, wondering how she would be able to provide for them alone.
Fortunately, their house wasn’t much damaged and they are receiving some food
and aid from charities. Yet, Fatima has concerns that she won’t be able to pay
the LL450,000 rent. The mother of four has mixed feelings. She thanks God that
her children are safe despite wishing that her husband had not died, and wonders
what the future holds for her. Abdelkader was buried in a graveyard in north
Lebanon’s Akkar district in a village bordering Syria. According to Fadi
Hallisso, co-founder and CEO of the Non-Governmental Organization Basmeh &
Zeitooneh which supports refugees in Lebanon, dozens of Syrian families are
still facing problems with burying their members.They hardly find a cemetery to
bury the dead in Lebanon, not to mention the financial cost of transferring the
dead to Syria. Hallisso told Asharq Al-Awsat that some Syrian families don’t
afford the fees imposed by the government to enter Syrian territories and the
cost of the mandatory PCR test. Faced with this harsh reality, a Syrian family
has resorted to smuggling its son’s body to Syria, he said. Hallisso explained
that the NGO’s legal team used to assist Syrian refugees to register their
marriages and births. Yet, it is currently providing the families of Beirut
blast victims with financial and legal support to issue death certificates and
burial permits. “However, it has only been able to reach 10 of the 43 Syrians
who died in the explosion, which killed 182 people.”In addition to burial
problems, injured Syrians face treatment woes. Hallisso stressed that many of
the wounded are not able to receive the necessary treatment since “some
hospitals are not adhering to the Ministry of Health’s circular, which requests
treating all those wounded in the port blast at its expense.”
PSP, Lebanese Forces Not in Favor of Nominating Hariri to
Head Cabinet
Beirut - Caroline Akoum/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
The Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and the Lebanese Forces are not
enthusiastic about the return of Saad Hariri to the premiership, as shown by
recent meetings and statements made by party officials. The PSP and LF stance
therefore dissipated expectations on a possible breakthrough in the cabinet
formation process before the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Beirut
early next month. As part of the ongoing meetings held to discuss the government
lineup, Speaker Nabih Berri sat down Saturday with MP Wael Abou Faour,
dispatched from head of the PSP Walid Jumblat. Abou Faour did not make a
statement after the meeting. However, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the PSP
delegation was not enthusiastic about the return of Hariri to the premiership.
Before the meeting, Jumblatt made a surprising position on his Twitter account.
“Our party is not linked to any other political movement. We do not owe anyone
any favor,” he tweeted. Despite his stance, Berri and Hezbollah are in favor of
nominating Hariri. The sources did not rule out a change in the position of
Jumblatt, who in general ends up supporting the Speaker’s stances. But the LF
seems to be adamant to reject Hariri’s presence at the Grand Serail. MP Pierre
Abu Assi said Saturday that Hariri is no longer the savior. The position of
President Michel Aoun’s camp and the Free Patriotic Movement led by his
son-in-law remains unclear. Reports said this week that during his meeting with
Berri, FPM chief MP Gebran Bassil did not react positively to the Speaker’s
proposal on bringing back Hariri to the premiership. But Bassil’s sources
swiftly responded by saying that he and Berri did not discuss the names of
candidates for the PM’s post.
FPM: We will press charges against all those who distort
the facts, undermine our reputation
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
The Free Patriotic Movement's central media committee issued a statement on
Sunday, warning of pressing charges against the continuous media and political
campaign aimed at distorting the facts and undermining the image and reputation
of the Movement. "In a renewed political assassination process and an attempt to
mislead the investigation into the Beirut port explosion and the exploitation of
the tragedy for incitement, leaking of fabricated news is taking place with the
aim of confusing the public opinion about the alleged role and responsibility of
the Ministry of Energy in the explosion that occurred while FPM Chief Gebran
Bassil was Minister of Energy in 2013," the statement said. "The Free Patriotic
Movement warns of the seriousness of such fabrications, and cautions the
authority concerned with the investigation of the clear attempts to divert it
from its course," the FPM statement added. "The Movement, thus, announces that
it will sue anyone who distorts the facts and attacks the reputation of FPM and
its Chief," the statement confirmed.
Bassil's Attorney: There are parties trying to divert
attention from knowing the real reason for the entry of the ship 'Roussos' to
Lebanon
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
The legal representative of MP Gebran Bassil, Attorney Majed al-Bweiz, issued a
statement on Sunday, clarifying that "some parties are trying to divert the
course of the judicial investigations into the Beirut port explosion, for
suspicious reasons, and trying to mislead the public opinion with weak
allegations that the ship, Roussos, which carried the ammonium nitrates, entered
Beirut at the request of the Ministry of Energy in 2013, which is a fabricated
lie.""It is clear that these parties are trying to divert attention from
unveiling the real reason behind the entry of the ship, Roussos, to Lebanon and
staying there for a period of seven years," the statement asserted. "The
equipment that the 'Spectrum' company, contracting with the Ministry of Energy,
temporarily brought into Lebanon, are mechanisms used in seismic surveys on
land, and are the subject of a contract between the Ministry of Energy and
Spectrum held on 30/3/2012," the statement went on. "As for the dates and
mechanism of the equipment's entry and exit, they were set by the marine and
land agent for the company in question, without the Ministry of Energy having
any role in it, and this is self-evident," the Attorney's statement explained.
"The Energy Ministry's role has been limited to sending correspondences to the
Customs Directorate to facilitate and accelerate the temporary entry of this
equipment, as per the norms, without any role in the exit of the equipment, the
timing of its exit, or the method of shipment," the statement emphasized.
Bassil's Attorney concluded his statement by "calling on all those concerned not
to mislead the public opinion through similar methods, and to work to uncover
the real reasons behind the requests aimed at detaining the ship, unloading the
goods and keeping them for this long period despite their danger, so that
officials are held accountable after it is proven that they were aware, whether
via reports, correspondences, or judicial minutes, and failed to take the
necessary decisions."
Army: Aid continues to arrive from brotherly and friendly
countries
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
In an issued communiqué on Sunday by the Lebanese Army - Orientation
Directorate, it indicated that "aid from brotherly and friendly countries
continued to arrive in Beirut.""In this context, two Egyptian planes loaded with
medical aid landed at Rafic Hariri International Airport, between 22/8/2020 noon
& 23/8/2020 noon," the communiqué said. It added: "An Italian ship carrying a
field hospital and engineering machinery also arrived at Beirut port today."
Two military helicopters join efforts to extinguish forest
fire in Mishmish
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
"Two army helicopters took off from the Qlayaat air base, to help extinguish the
fire that broke out in the heights of the town of Mishmish, as they are still
ongoing in more than one site, despite the efforts exerted by more than 400
members of the army, civil defense, environmental activists and citizens, using
whatever primitive means available, to put out the fire and prevent its
expansion in this woodland area rich in cedar trees," NNA correspondent in Akkar
reported this evening.
Mortada follows-up on fires in Akkar district, Akar pledges
to send helicopters
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
Caretaker Minister of Agriculture, Abbas Mortada, closely followed up today on
the progress of the firefighting operations in wake of the fires that broke out
in the town of Freidis. In this context, Mortada contacted the Deputy Prime
Minister, Minister of Defense Zeina Akar, who confirmed that she is working to
send army helicopters to help in extinguishing the fire, NNA correspondent in
Akkar reported. Mortada also instructed the Ministry of Agriculture's
apparatuses to mobilize their efforts to help in putting out the fire and
protect the forest lands in the field of Khirbet, above the town of Mishmish, in
coordination with the public administrations concerned.
Mikati in commemoration of the Tripoli mosques bombing: We
affirm adherence of the Sunnis to the choice of a just and uniting state
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
Marking seven years since the occurrence of the twin mosque bombings in Tripoli,
former Prime Minister Najib Mikati confirmed the adherence and commitment of the
Sunnis in Lebanon to the choice of a "just and encompassing state."Mikati
considered that in wake of this horrible crime, the people of Tripoli paid a
huge price for their national choices and Arab affiliation. "Despite all that,
Tripoli is still faithful to its principles and belief in coexistence and in
living together within a just state, which only seeks to achieve justice,
fairness and lifting of all deprivation," he said. Mikati paid tribute to the
memory of the forty-seven victims who lost their lives as a result of the
twin-blasts, and the nearly 500 who were wounded, while praising the
steadfastness of the people of Tripoli in their preserved dignity, pride and
strength despite all their pain and suffering. "It is a sad day for sure, but it
is also a day to reaffirm, that the Sunnis adhere to the choice of a just and
inclusive state, for it is the vessel that embraces everyone, while rejecting
all the absurd adventures and the systematic coup against the constitution and
its spirit," Mikati underlined.
Italian Defence Minister to visit Beirut on Monday
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
In a press release by the Italian Embassy in Beirut, it announced the visit to
Lebanon of the Italian Minister of Defence, H.E. Lorenzo GUERINI, on Monday 24
August 2020. Minister Guerini will meet the President of the Republic, Gen.
Michel Aoun, caretaker Minister of Defence, Zeina Akar, and the Commander of the
Lebanese Armed Forces, Gen. Joseph Aoun. During his one-day stay, the Minister
will visit the Italian field hospital at the Lebanese University Campus in
Hadath and the Italian Navy ship "San Giusto" docked in the Port of Beirut.
Geagea to the Lebanese Resistance martyrs' families: I ask you to stay at your
homes during their memorial service, to ensure your safety due to the
Coronavirus outbreak
FPM boycotts MTV
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
The political committee of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) announced in a
statement, on Sunday, the FPM's decision to boycott MTV, pending the latter's
return to ethical, patriotic and professional rules. The statement indicated
that MTV crossed all ethical and professional red lines, and turned into a tool
to attack the President of the Republic, Michel Aoun and the FPM, and a tool to
implement pre-paid agendas. However, the FPM confirms its adherence to media
freedoms, refusing that this freedom be a means of defamation and attacking the
dignity of others, by spreading false information, lies and rumors, with the aim
of provoking hatred and incitement, contrary to all ethics.
Geagea to the Lebanese Resistance martyrs' families: I ask you to stay at your
homes during their memorial service, to ensure your safety due to the
Coronavirus outbreak
NNA/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
In an issued statement Sunday by the media office of the Lebanese Forces Party
Chief, Samir Geagea, it indicated that "due to the severe circumstances that the
country is going through regarding the Corona pandemic, the Party leader
preferred to attend the Mass service in memory of the Lebanese Resistance's
martyrs, which will be held at LF's general headquarters in Ma'arab on Sunday,
September 6, in the absence of a popular crowd."The statement added that the LF
Chief insisted on not canceling the memorial commemoration due to its great
significance to the Party. Therefore, he sent a letter to the families of the
fallen martyrs, which was delivered by hand to the family of each of the
resistance martyrs. In his letter, Geagea expressed his deep consolation to the
families of the fallen martyrs, regretting not being able to share together in
Mass prayers and urging them to stay home for their self-protection and to light
a candle instead in memory of their martyrs, in conjunction with the start of
their memorial Mass upcoming Sunday. "It is my belief that your prayers,
stemming from pure hearts engulfed with pain, heartache and suffering, together
with the intercession of our martyrs, heroes and saints, will provide us with
the moral and spiritual impetus needed to work to lift Lebanon from the bitter
reality in which it is stumbling, and to realize the dream of our martyrs of a
better tomorrow and a free Lebanon," said Geagea in his letter.
"I know that the ember of martyrdom, despite its inviolability, is burning
deeply, but I have full confidence that the candle that your hands will light to
comfort the souls of the martyrs and ensure the salvation of Lebanon will spread
its light throughout the entire nation, and it will be the spark and the
beginning that heralds the birth of a new Lebanon soon, God willing," he
concluded.
The world's great powers will soon face off in Lebanon
Raghida Dergham/The National/August 23/2020
The US is locked in a struggle with China and Russia over Iran, and the playing
field is now moving to Beirut.
Iran has long been fault line in the politics of great power rivalries, and now
it is increasingly so. China and Russia have been investing in the country based
on their own calculated desires for the region, but also in the context of their
respective rivalries with the US. This, however, does not stop them from being
deeply concerned about the costs that could come with their investments in the
form of US sanctions targeting Iranian interests. A new flashpoint of the wider
tension, however, is in Lebanon. Russia, which has an expensive alliance with
Iran in Syria, has declined to take on the same level of involvement in Lebanon.
Iranian allies in Beirut – namely, Hezbollah – have therefore eyed eyeing
Chinese funds and expertise to restore the city and its port after this month’s
devastating ammonium nitrate explosion demolished them. The speediness and lack
of conditionality that comes with Chinese support would provide a shortcut for
Hezbollah to pre-empt any other powers stepping in as the city’s saviour and to
bring its dominance of Lebanese politics to the level of a monopoly.
Iran’s leadership is seizing the period running up to the US presidential
elections to consolidate its agenda in Lebanon, Iraq and the wider region by
imposing new facts on the ground while Washington is distracted. The distraction
may even last until January, should the incumbent, Donald Trump, lose, requiring
a transition period until the new president’s inauguration. For Iran, it is an
opportunity to consolidate existing alliances or secure new support with Russia
and China in arenas like Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. The next two to four months
are, therefore, a precious gift that Tehran cannot afford to squander.
As Iran advances in the region, the Gulf states may be less exposed than their
other Arab neighbours – not because they are not in Iran’s crosshairs, but
because China and Russia have huge trade interests in the Gulf, especially Saudi
Arabia and the UAE. Therefore, Moscow and Beijing may help to contain Iran’s
designs for the Gulf region.
Lebanon, however, will not be so fortunate. There is little incentive for Russia
and China to deter Iran’s prospective takeover of the country. The US will
object loudly, and while Gulf states will be unwilling to ignore the
implications of growing Iranian influence in Lebanon and a potential showdown
between great powers there, there will be a limit to how much they would want to
wade in. At the UN Security Council, the great-power battle now revolves around
a “snapback” of comprehensive international sanctions against Iran. The
sanctions would be triggered by Iranian non-compliance with the nuclear deal
Tehran signed with former US president Barack Obama and European powers in 2015.
On Thursday, the US formally initiated Security Council proceedings to trigger
the snapback, but it has been opposed by European signatories to the nuclear
deal on the grounds that, as Mr Trump has since withdrawn the US from the
agreement, Washington has no standing to do so.
The division between Western allies is encouraging for Russia, as it signals
that a harsher, more comprehensive sanctions regime is unlikely to pass. Both
Russia and China are eager to do more business in Iran, including potential arms
deals. While the US would no doubt react punitively with its own sanctions
directed at both countries, they will not be as biting. A full sanctions regime
against Russia and even China would have devastating effects for both nations’
economies.
If the price of Russia and China’s endorsement of Iran is so costly, then why
continue the alliance? And why recognise Hezbollah, which Washington and its
allies classify as a terror organisation? Much of it is simply to do with
counterbalancing the US, but it is possible that Moscow and Beijing will need to
reassess. Indeed, allying with Iran as it embroils itself in increasing
complexity – with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Popular Mobilisation Front
militias in Iraq, as well as the Houthis in Yemen – may just prove more
expensive than it is worth.
For one thing, they risk alienating Gulf states, particularly if they begin
supplying Iran with weapons it will threaten to use against Saudi Arabia or the
UAE. Secondly, the US, regardless of which administration sits in the White
House, is unlikely to tolerate any flow of Russian and Chinese weaponry to Iran
that would allow it to monopolise influence in Iraq and Syria at the expense of
American strategic interests. Iran is no doubt unrelenting in its efforts to
sway Russia and China to supply it with weapons, anxious that the two countries
may hold back due to the threat of sanctions. Its efforts to supplant American
and European influence over Beirut’s reconstruction are part of its sales pitch,
by showing that in Lebanon Iran is the only game in town. China may decide that
Iran is a viable window to wider influence in the Middle East and that its
relationships with Arab states are perfectly stable as exclusively bilateral
ones. It is only likely to recalculate if it becomes clear that, in the regional
polarisation between Iran and the majority of Arab states, it has to choose a
clear side.
*Raghida Dergham is the founder and executive chairwoman of the Beirut Institute
End of the World': Massive, Self-Inflicted 'Bomb' in Beirut
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
The 10 firefighters who received the call shortly before 6 p.m. - about a big
fire at the nearby port of Beirut - could not know what awaited them.
The brigade of nine men and one woman could not know about the stockpile of
ammonium nitrate warehoused since 2013 along a busy motorway, in the heart of a
densely populated residential area - a danger that had only grown with every
passing year.
They and nearly all the population of Beirut were simply unaware. They were not
privy to the warnings authorities had received, again and again, and ignored:
ammonium nitrate is highly explosive, used in fertilizer and sometimes to build
bombs. The stockpile was degrading; something must be done.
They knew, of course, that they lived in a dysfunctional country, its government
rife with corruption, factionalism and negligence that caused so much pain and
heartbreak. But they could not know that it would lead to the worst single-day
catastrophe in Lebanon´s tragic history.
Across the city, residents who noticed the grey smoke billowing over the
facility were drawn to streets, balconies and windows, watching curiously as the
fire grew larger. Phones were pulled out of pockets and pointed toward the
flames.
The firefighters piled into a fire engine and an ambulance and raced to the
scene - and to their doom.
Seven years ago, a ship named the Rhosus set out from the Georgian Black Sea
port of Batumi carrying 2,755.5 tons of ammonium nitrate destined for an
explosives company in Mozambique.
It made an unscheduled detour, stopping in Beirut on Nov. 19, 2013. The ship´s
Russian owner said he struggled with debts and hoped to earn extra cash by
taking on pieces of heavy machinery in Lebanon. That additional cargo proved too
heavy for the Rhosus and the crew refused to take it on.
The Rhosus was soon impounded by Lebanese authorities for failing to pay port
fees. It never left the port; it sank there in February 2018, according to
Lebanese official documents.
The Port of Beirut is considered one of the most corrupt institutions in a
country where nearly every public institution is riddled with corruption. Port
officials are notorious for taking bribes. A bribe from an importer, for
example, will ensure an incoming shipment is mislabeled to get lower customs
duties - or escapes duties and taxes completely. Confiscated goods are sometimes
sold off on the sly for a profit.
For years, Lebanon´s ruling political factions have divvied up positions at the
port and handed them out to supporters - as they have ministries, public
companies and other facilities nationwide.
The longtime head of customs is known to be a loyalist of President Michel Aoun,
for example, while the head of the port is in the camp of Saad Hariri, the Sunni
leader who has repeatedly served as prime minister. The Hezbollah militant group
and, even more, its Shiite ally the Amal faction headed by Parliament Speaker
Nabih Berri, also have loyalists at the port, though Hezbollah doesn´t have the
same influence as it does at, for example, the airport, which it controls and
uses to ferry in cash from Iran.
The result is a port divided into factional fiefdoms that don´t necessarily work
together and are sometimes outright rivals. Individual port authorities are
sometimes more concerned with their scams than with proper functioning. And
government officials avoid looking too closely at goings-on at the port to
protect their loyalists.
The first known warning came on Feb. 21, 2014, three months after the ship
docked at the port.
In a letter to the customs authority´s anti-smuggling department, senior customs
official Col. Joseph Skaff wrote that the material on board was "extremely
dangerous and endangers public safety."
It is not known if Skaff ever received a response or if he sent other letters.
He was found dead outside his house near Beirut under mysterious circumstances,
shortly after he retired in March 2017. At least one medical report suggested he
might have been murdered.
Skaff´s son, Michel, said he was killed by a blow to the head. He said his
father dealt with other sensitive matters, including drug trafficking. "Someone
maybe was trying to hide what is happening at the port," he said by telephone
from his home in New York City.
In the years that followed, Skaff´s letter was followed by other correspondence
that went back and forth between top customs and port officials and members of
the judiciary and the army.
On June 27, 2014, with the ammonium nitrate still aboard the Rhosus, Jad Maalouf,
a judge for urgent matters, warned the Ministry of Public Works and
Transportation in correspondence that the ship was carrying dangerous material
and could sink. He said the ministry should deal with the ship, remove the
ammonium nitrate and "place it in a suitable place that it (the ministry)
chooses, and it should be under its protection."
It is not clear if there was ever a reply. Ministry officials did not respond to
requests from The Associated Press asking for comment.
In October 2014, the ammonium nitrate was moved into the port´s Warehouse 12,
which holds impounded materials.
A chemical forensic expert, commissioned by the courts and the owners of the
ammonium nitrate, got a look at the stockpile soon after. It was "in terrible
shape," she said in her February 2015 report. Most of the sacks - she estimated
more than 1,900 of the 2,750 sacks- were torn open, their contents spilling out.
Some of the crystals had darkened, a sign of decomposition. The sacks were piled
so haphazardly that she could not count them to be sure all were still there.
The inspector recommended the chemicals be disposed of according to
environmental guidelines. Her report was uncovered by Riad Kobaissi, an
investigative reporter with Al Jadeed TV who has followed corruption at the port
and within the customs authorities since 2012.
On Oct. 26, 2015, the army command asked customs to sample the material and
check the level of nitrogen "and based on that we can give a suggestion
regarding them."
The then-head of the customs department, Shafeeq Merhi, wrote back in February
2016, saying an expert found the nitrogen level was 34.7%, a very high and
dangerous level, well above the acceptable concentration of around 11%.
The army command responded the following April, saying it didn´t need the
ammonium nitrate. It asked customs to contact Lebanese Explosives Co. - a maker
of explosives for construction of roads and tunnels and for imploding structures
- to see if that private company could use it.
If not, the material should be exported at the expense of the ship owner who
brought it to Lebanon, the army said in its letter.
An administrator at Lebanese Explosives told the AP that it was "not interested
in buying confiscated material because we did not know where they were brought
from, what is the quality nor its expiry."
Merhi and his successor as customs chief, Badri Daher, sent multiple letters in
the following years to the Courts of Urgent Matters, warning of the danger and
seeking permission to sell the material or a ruling on another way to get rid of
it.
Daher told the AP and other media that he never received any reply from the
court. But Kobaissi, the investigative reporter, found documents showing the
court responded each time that it didn´t have jurisdiction and that the Public
Works Ministry had to decide.
Over the years, Lebanese built and bought luxury property opposite the port, a
nearby Beirut Marina including restaurants, cafes and retail shops was built up,
concerts were held, children rode their bicycles and workers went about their
daily business, oblivious to the massive "bomb" waiting to explode.
At some point, someone battered open a door to Warehouse 12 and knocked a hole
in one of its walls.
When is not known. It was reported when State Security inspected the site this
summer. In a July 20 report, it warned that the warehouse´s "Door Number 9 has
suffered a blow in the middle, knocking it away from the wall enough to allow
anyone to enter and steal the ammonium nitrate." It also noted the hole in the
wall and pointed out that there was no guard at the warehouse, "making theft
even easier."
The report to President Michel Aoun and then-Prime Minister Hassan Diab warned
that thieves could steal the material to make explosives. Or, it said, the mass
of material could cause an explosion "that would practically destroy the port."
Kobaissi shared the report with the AP.
Aoun has been in office since 2016. After the explosion, he said the State
Security report was the first time he´d heard of the dangerous stockpile. He
said he immediately ordered military and security agencies to do "what was
needed" - though he added he had no authority over the port.
After being criticized by rival politicians and on social media for not doing
more, Aoun´s office issued a further statement saying that his military adviser
had immediately forwarded the State Security report to the Higher Defense
Council, the top defense body in the country.
But a government official said security agencies had repeatedly sent warnings
directly to the government.
"The same memo was sent roughly every year basically since that ship arrived,
and it became clear the stuff wasn´t moving. So, it was like a tradition and it
wasn´t marked as priority," the official told AP, speaking on condition of
anonymity because he wasn´t authorized to talk to the media.
Kobaissi, the investigative reporter, said all political factions in the country
benefited from using the port for patronage, and most overlooked dubious
dealings. He said many people knew about the initial warning by Skaff, including
Hezbollah's former point man at the port.
Port and customs officials "are a gang, a mafia, appointed by a mafia gang that
has come to office through an election process," Kobaissi told the AP.
He believes officials at the port were trying to find a legal cover to sell off
the ammonium nitrate and skim off some of the money. He noted a similar scheme
was run in the past when containers of confiscated asbestos were auctioned off.
He said there were many instances of port officials profiting off impounded
shipments, even keeping some goods - like Mini Coopers - for themselves.
Both the customs chief Daher and the head of the port, Hassan Koraytem, are
among those detained in the wake of the explosion.
On the afternoon of Aug. 4, security officials say, three metalworkers who had
been working for several days to weld the broken Door Number 9 of Warehouse 12
finished work and left the facility.
The cause of the original fire has still not been determined and is at the heart
of the current investigation. Some have questioned whether the welding may have
sparked stocks of flammable liquids used in making detergents, as well as tons
of fireworks that were also being kept in Warehouse 12. Other possibilities such
as sabotage are also being investigated. The metalworkers, who were hired to fix
the door by the port authorities in response to the security report, have been
detained for questioning, according to security officials.
Shortly after the 10 firefighters arrived at the port, they sent an urgent call
back to headquarters, asking for reinforcements. Photos they sent from their
mobile phones to their colleagues showed them trying to open the gate of
Warehouse 12.
"When they called us, they said they are hearing the sound of fireworks," Beirut
fire chief Nabil Khankarli told the AP.
No one told the emergency responders that dangerous material was stored in the
warehouse. No port officials were even there to help them open the gate,
Khankarli said.
A second team jumped into their vehicles and headed toward the port. All across
the city, flames and the pillar of black smoke could be seen pouring into the
sky, lit up by popping fireworks. Many residents would later report hearing a
jet or a drone and presuming it was Israeli, since Israel sends reconnaissance
flights over Lebanon on an almost daily basis. No evidence has yet emerged of
warplanes.
There was an initial explosion, sending shredded debris into the air. That first
blast, survivors would recount later, sent some who had been watching the fire
scurrying for cover.
Twelve seconds later, at 6:08 p.m., the ammonium nitrate detonated in one of the
biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded.
In an instant, a blast with the force of hundreds of tons of TNT sucked in the
air - one video showed a luxury store window exploding outward from the suction,
spraying a bride and groom taking their wedding video on the sidewalk outside -
and then unleashed its power across the city.
It blew a crater nearly 200 meters (yards) wide out of the port where Warehouse
12 once stood, and seawater poured in to fill it. The port was leveled. A grain
silo right next to the warehouse was shredded and sheared in half - though its
massive bulk partially shielded sections of the city from the blast. For miles
around, in people´s homes and in shops and hospitals, windows were shattered,
doors knocked off their hinges, ceilings or walls blown in a vicious whirlwind
onto those inside.
Alaa Saad and his friends were out diving, about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) off
the coast of Beirut, when they started hearing noises from the direction of the
port and saw the smoke. Was it fireworks? Ammunition?
"There were lots of flashes going off inside the smoke," he said. He heard some
kind of eruption, like a volcano. "Something that was boiling very much," he
said.
"Five seconds passed, and this is when I saw the cloud or the wave that was
coming toward us at very high speed," he said. "It was insane speed. I could not
even think if I wanted to jump in the water or stay on the boat."
Saad fell on the deck. A friend tumbled into the water.
"After that," he said, "I thought it was the end of Beirut or the end of the
world or the war has started."
More than 6,000 people were injured, and at least 180 were killed - among them
the 10 first responders. It would take days of searching before colleagues found
all their bodies in the rubble.
Nearly three weeks later, theories abound. In the deeply polarized country, some
have turned their suspicion to Hezbollah, which maintains a huge weapons
stockpile in the country and dominates its politics. A member of the militant
group was sentenced to six years in prison after he was arrested in Cyprus in
2015 in connection with the seizure of nine tons of ammonium nitrate at a house
where he was staying.
An investigative team that includes Kobaissi, working with The Organized Crime
and Corruption Reporting Project, found that the shadow owner of the Rhosus was
actually a Cypriot who owed money to a Lebanese bank linked to Hezbollah -
raising speculation that he brought in the ammonium nitrate for the group. The
businessman, Charalambos Manoli, denied the report, insisting to the AP that he
sold the ship in May 2012.
Others have peddled a theory that rivals of the group had sought to accrue the
fertilizer for use as explosives in the war in neighboring Syria.
The documents show clear negligence and failure; the question of whether
something more triggered the blast depends on an investigation that so far has
seemed predictably slow and ineffectual.
The fire chief, Khankarli, is furious. So much destruction. So much bloodshed.
All of it avoidable.
"We are waiting for the investigation," he said. "But what is gone cannot be
recovered."
Absurd Theories to Understand Hezbollah
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 23/2020
Time after time, the following analysis comes at us out of nowhere: Hezbollah
had been a force for resistance and then transformed into something else. It had
been virtuous and then turned pure evil.
Some see that the party transformed in 2008, the day of the armed coup against
Beirut, while others believe that it transformed when it intervened in the war
in Syria in 2012- 2013.
This analysis is mythical at best, especially since it is a manifestation of a
reading of major developments and events without their astonishing recurrence
leading to any form of revision, which is, in turn, among the features of
mythical consciousness.
For example, before Hezbollah, the Algerian resistance had been the Arabs and
Muslims’ pride and glory, but the Ben Bella - Boumediene security and
dictatorial regime emerged as a result of its victory. The Egyptian Syrian
unification of 1958 was described as the major achievement of our modern
history, only for Nasserite despotism to take hold in Syria almost immediately.
Nasserism was our greatest achievement, but the resounding defeat of 1967 marked
its miserable conclusion. The Palestinian resistance was our history’s most
crucial moment, but it led to two civil wars in Jordan and Lebanon and then to
the calamity of 1982.
The examples are many, and they go beyond modern Arab history, with world
history at large seen through a mythical lens: The October 1917 Russian
Revolution had been the 20th century’s glorious preamble, but Stalinism soon
emerged and overtook Russia.
This view resembles a verse of two hemistichs: In the first, the sayer says he
remains loyal to the principles (revolution, resistance, socialism, etc.) and
has not wavered in his commitment to them. In the second hemistich, he declares
the wretchedness of fate that did what it had done to us.
Concerning Hezbollah in particular, it will not be difficult to refute this
mythical analysis and discover that the “evil” of the second phase was latent in
the “virtue” of the first phase. As for occupying Beirut in 2008 and
interventing in Syria four years later, these developments merely culminate what
had begun when the party was founded in 1982.
Let us go over this founding history quickly, perhaps we will find “virtue”: the
party, and it is no longer a secret, was born in the Iranian embassy in Damascus
when Ali Mohtashami had been the ambassador. From the outset, it has been
composed of members of a single confessional group, and men with religious
education have always led the party, per Khomeini’s “Vilayet al-Faqih”
(Guardianship of the Jurist, Iran’s theocratic political system) doctrine. It
represented a defiance, sponsored by Tehran and Damascus, of the intentions to
compromise shown by other Lebanese Shiite leaders. During this early period, it
linked Lebanon to the Iraq-Iran war with assassinations, bombings, and
kidnappings of foreigners.
During the same period, it also called for the establishment of an “Islamic
Republic” in Lebanon before abandoning the idea later on.
In the context of a country composed of 18 sects, such a party means only the
country’s absolute destruction. It is pure evil.
Correspondingly: analysis that focuses on the resistance activities of the first
period, and is not struck by the factors mentioned above, announces only one
thing: Lebanon and its civil peace do not concern us. The important concern:
resistance against Israel. This analysis adds to the myth about the resistance
to another myth concerning its plan: basic logic is enough to make us understand
that weakening Lebanon to this extent does not lead to successful resistance to
Israel. With such systemic fragmentation, resistance to the Principality of
Liechtenstein would be difficult.
The fact is, if we put the dramatizations aside, we realize that the party has
succeeded far more at dividing Lebanon than it has at liberating Lebanese land
from Israel. Forget about the liberation of Palestine and praying in Al-Aqsa
mosque!
For accuracy’s sake, the other factors, along with the party’s efforts that
contributed to the liberation, should be recalled: In his election campaign of
March 1999, Ehud Barak pledged to unilaterally withdraw from Lebanon, responding
to the demands of the Israeli public opinion. The deaths of Israeli soldiers at
the hands of Hezbollah undoubtedly had an impact, but they did not exceed the
800 killed over 18 years (1982 - 2000). The victims of traffic accidents in the
Jewish state were always far more numerous. In any case, upon Barak’s assumption
of the prime ministership, he withdrew and implemented Resolution 425 faster
than he promised, on May 24, 2000.
Hezbollah’s major victories are elsewhere: in paralyzing and terrorizing
Lebanese political life, starting in 2005. For a moment, let us think about this
horrifying fact: in one of the clauses of the Doha Agreement that followed the
2008 invasion of Beirut:
“The parties pledge to abstain from resorting to the use of arms or violence,”
while Hezbollah is the only party that owns, and resorts to weapons.
Of course, the party succeeded in snatching the decisions of war and peace from
the state, not to liberate Palestine, but to invade Syria and reinforce the
regime subordinate to Iran!
The theory of “was virtuous and turned evil” is an absurd theory. It was born
evil, and remains so.
The Traitors Michel and Hasan
Elie Aoun/August 23/2020
إيلي عون: الخونة ميشال وحسن
*There is no genuine Hizballah-Israeli conflict, but a collusion for
destruction.
*Michel Aoun’s 1990 sattement that he will die in Baabda rather than sign or
surrender was a signal of treason, not courage.
*Nassrallah’s declaration that they will surrender their souls before their
weapons is also a sign of treason, not courage or conviction. It is the souls of
his fighters and his country that he wants to surrender.
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/89727/elie-aoun-the-traitors-michel-and-hasan-%d8%a5%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%8a-%d8%b9%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ae%d9%88%d9%86%d8%a9-%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%b4%d8%a7%d9%84-%d9%88%d8%ad%d8%b3%d9%86/
The 2006 war between Hizballah and Israel led to an additional deployment of
15,000 foreign UNIFIL troops on Lebanese soil.
The 2020 attack on the Port of Beirut led to the deployment of multinational
forces and the further internationalization of the country’s affairs.
The 2006 and 2020 attacks on Lebanon did not happen by accident. They were
pre-planned by elements from both sides. The kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers
in 2006 was intended to lead to war.
In August 2020, the killing of a Hizballah member in Syria and the crossing of
the Lebanese-Israeli border by certain individuals was intended to be a prelude
to the terrorist act against Beirut – even if the co-conspirators do not assume
responsibility in public.
The Lebanese who saw two missiles being fired at the port cannot all be wrong.
The ammonium nitrate was prepared, in advance, to explode by planting explosives
with it and other flammable materials.
Those who acted in this manner did so in coordination with those who would later
fire the missiles.
Hizballah could also have stored weaponry below ‘Anbar 12, with a tunnel leading
to an area under its control.
There is no genuine Hizballah-Israeli conflict, but a collusion for destruction.
From all the governments who now express their “compassion” with Beirut, none of
their intelligence services has provided any report about what they officially
consider had happened at the Port.
The treason against Lebanon is both internal and external. Although we have no
control over what the non-Lebanese do, we have a control over what we do.
Of course, there are true patriots within governmental and non-governmental
organizations.
At the same time, there are traitors: within Hizballah ranks, Lebanese
intelligence networks, and the commanders of the Lebanese army – and of course
some politicians.
Regardless of the efforts made by many patriotic individuals throughout all
organizations, these patriots must recognize that there are traitors at the
helm.
Michel Aoun’s 1990 sattement that he will die in Baabda rather than sign or
surrender was a signal of treason, not courage.
The end result was that he signed, surrendered, and was the first one to run
away (and not the last one to leave, as he declared).
It was his well-intentioned soldiers and the area he controlled that paid the
price of death and destruction, not him.
Similarly, Nassrallah’s declaration that they will surrender their souls before
their weapons is also a sign of treason, not courage or conviction. It is the
souls of his fighters and his country that he wants to surrender.
Instead of protecting his people, Nassrallah is killing them. More than 2,000
Lebanese fighters were sent to Syria under the pretext of protecting Lebanon
from radical invaders.
If that was the case, Lebanon could have been protected from the Lebanese-Syrian
border without incursion into Syria.
To claim that Hizballah changed the balance of power in Syria’s war is a false
assertion. That change was due to Russia’s involvement, not Hizballah’s.
Instead of being a “protector” of Lebanon from foreign invaders, the so-called
“resistance” is facilitating the occupation of Lebanon by foreign invaders.
Lebanon has become under an international rule and Syria is under Russian rule –
and then they call themselves moumana’a!
Furthermore, Nassrallah’s failure to accept any Lebanese solution to Hizballah’s
illogical practices and existence is an indication that he wants an
international confrontation and interference in Lebanon.
A true nationalist protects his country, not expose it to reckless dangers.
There is nothing wrong with a Lebanese intending to protect his country.
However, that “formula for protection” does not necessarily have to be Hizballah
and Nasrallah. There was national resistance before them, and there will be
after them. They are not the inventors and copyrighters of “resistance.”
In the same manner that the nationalist Christian military strength was
sacrificed as a result of the treason by Samir Geagea and Michel Aoun in
1989-1990, so the nationalist Shiite strength is being sacrificed by its Hasan
Nasrallah.
To create a nation that is submissive to a regional and international agenda,
true nationalists (fighters and politicians, by conflicts and assassinations)
are sacrificed by their treacherous leaders.
All the leaders of the major political parties are traitors to their country.
One proof is that they do not appoint anyone who will truly make a positive
difference for the country.
All their appointments at the Beirut Port, for example, were intended to be
“brokers” to funnel money into the politicians’ pockets and facilitate their
illegal activities – and not responsible individuals who will adequately perform
their duties.
To those who might think that saying “Michel” and “Hasan” is disrespectful, let
it be. Before they ask of others to respect them, let the politicians first
respect themselves, the positions which they hold, and the sacrifices of
well-intentioned Lebanese who struggle to establish a viable country only to be
betrayed by traitors such as Michel and Hasan.
We forgave in the past, and we forgive now. But we no longer give second
chances. If there is one good thing that the traitors can do is to appoint true
patriots (even those who oppose them), and eventually go home. There is no more
usefulness to them except that one act.
Lebanon’s new start needs to be locally led
Javier Solana/Arab News/August 23/2020
The writer Amin Maalouf, one of Beirut’s most celebrated sons, described the
city as it was in the 1960s as “the intellectual capital of the Arab East,” and
“the ideal place for maximum flowering and pluralism.” In his latest work, “The
Shipwreck of Civilizations,” Maalouf charts the decline of that vibrant and
resplendent Lebanon after it was razed by the same sectarianism that robbed so
many countries in the Middle East of a promising future.
At the beginning of August, much of the Lebanese capital was literally razed by
a huge explosion at its port. All indications suggest that the tragedy was the
result of repeated negligence directly linked to the country’s political
sclerosis. On the eve of the disaster, the Lebanese foreign minister had
resigned, warning that narrow party interests threatened to turn Lebanon into a
failed state. The explosion in Beirut is just the tip of the iceberg. Lebanon
was already experiencing a deep economic and financial crisis that prompted a
wave of protests last October against political deadlock, systemic corruption,
and the continued interference of foreign powers. Since then, things have gone
from bad to worse.
The UN World Food Program estimates that the price of food in Lebanon rose by
109 percent between October 2019 and June 2020. To this must be added the
effects of the coronavirus disease, which have been aggravated by the chaos
resulting from the explosion. Moreover, this troubled country has the highest
number of refugees per capita in the world: Today, displaced Syrians make up 30
percent of the population.
Lebanon is mired in its most serious crisis since the 1975-90 civil war,
although in fact the country has never succeeded in closing the door on that
bloody chapter. Its recent trajectory represents a paradigmatic case of what the
British academic Mary Kaldor calls “new wars.” In this type of conflict,
opposing factions seek to encourage extremist identities and perpetuate
hostilities, because doing so gives them free rein to pursue extractive
policies.
Lebanon’s situation demands that the West listen with humility and firmly
support the demands of the local population.
Furthermore, factional leaders tend to use peace agreements to consolidate their
positions of power and patronage networks, as was the case with the 1989 Taif
Agreement that ended Lebanon’s civil war. This pact slightly modified the
confessional quota system that has prevailed in the country’s public bodies
since independence, hindering effective governance and the construction of a
national identity. As Kaldor points out, peace agreements often don’t even end
the violence. The emergence of Hezbollah during Lebanon’s post-civil war period
attests to that.
In short, Lebanon has been adrift for many years and the international community
simply cannot look the other way. Let us not forget that the predecessor of the
current Lebanese state was conceived precisely a century ago by the victorious
powers of the First World War, following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
The League of Nations placed Lebanon under a French mandate that lasted until
1943, and France maintains close relations with the country. French President
Emmanuel Macron visited Beirut two days after the explosion and subsequently
hosted a UN-backed virtual donor conference.
But the West has a broader historic responsibility that includes encouraging
effective governance systems in Lebanon and the rest of the region. All too
often, it has not been up to this task, resorting to interventionist excesses
and paternalistic attitudes in its desire to assert control. The case of Libya,
for example, shows how Western arrogance in backing regime change without viable
reconstruction plans can contribute to state failure. Above all, any policy
initiative undertaken on humanitarian grounds should respect a basic maxim of
medicine: “First, do no harm.”
Lebanon’s situation demands that the West listen with humility and firmly
support the demands of the local population, which is displaying a greater
degree of cohesion than that sought by their leaders. Popular outrage following
the explosion has already brought about the Lebanese government’s resignation,
but that is not enough. Protesters are calling for a complete overhaul of the
system, even by adopting slogans associated with the Arab Spring, although such
an undertaking seems very complicated.
Neither Lebanon’s ruling class nor the country’s more influential neighbors will
accept fundamental reform willingly, and the experience of the Arab Spring is
far from encouraging. Only the Tunisian revolution led to democracy, and even
that success has not been a panacea for the country’s problems. Nevertheless,
any hope that Lebanon might have of rising from its ashes will lie, as in
Tunisia, in allowing local voices to ring loud and dynamic social movements to
develop from the bottom up.
*Javier Solana, a former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security
Policy, Secretary-General of NATO, and Foreign Minister of Spain, is currently
President of the EsadeGeo Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics and
Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Copyright: Project Syndicate
Saudi-Pakistan Rift Develops Over India
Simon Henderson/The Washington Institute/August 23/2020
Growing tensions between the two allies have both Islamic and nuclear angles.
On August 17, Pakistani army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa visited Saudi Arabia
to meet with Deputy Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, younger brother to the
kingdom’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (aka MbS). The trip
came at a time of growing Pakistani friction with Riyadh—historically perhaps
its closest ally—regarding the fate of Kashmir, the divided and disputed
Muslim-majority region that has locked Islamabad in bitter conflict with India
for decades.
Indeed, the issue has split much of the Islamic world for months now. Last
December, Malaysia organized a conference with Kashmir on the agenda. Given the
subject matter and attendance list—which included Saudi rivals Iran and
Turkey—Riyadh pressured Pakistan to withdraw, which it did at the last moment
even though it had been one of the meeting’s prime backers.
Then, earlier this month—the first anniversary of New Delhi’s decision to
forcefully suspend much of the autonomy formerly held by Indian
Kashmir—Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi demanded that the
Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation call for a ministerial meeting
on Kashmir, suggesting that otherwise Pakistan would hold its own meeting. This
and other posturing prompted Riyadh to freeze the $3.2 billion oil credit
facility it had previously granted to Islamabad and insist that the country pay
back parts of a $3 billion loan early.
Their spat over Kashmir seems to stem from a shift in Saudi foreign policy.
Apparently, MbS sees the kingdom’s relations with India’s world-class economy as
more important than its ties with Pakistan—despite years of financing
Islamabad’s nuclear program to such a degree that many assume the Saudis could
call on this foreign arsenal in the event of a dire security crisis in the Gulf.
But the geopolitical angle overlaps with a religious one: by seemingly
marginalizing the situation in Muslim-majority Kashmir, Riyadh is creating room
for Turkey, Iran, or other actors to challenge its claimed leadership of the
Islamic world and perhaps even the Saudi king’s traditional role as “Custodian
of the Two Holy Places” in Mecca and Medina.
Against this backdrop, General Bajwa’s August 17 visit looked like an attempt to
delay a train wreck in bilateral relations, and it is unclear if he succeeded.
Ahead of the trip, a Pakistani cabinet minister claimed that issues with Saudi
Arabia had almost been sorted out, “and the rest of the issues, if [they] still
exist, would also be settled” during the visit. After the general’s return,
however, statements from the armed forces characterized the talks as “primarily
military” in nature. Similarly, in a television interview the next day, Prime
Minister Imran Khan played down the bilateral differences: “The rumors that our
relations with Saudi Arabia have soured are totally false.” But he did not
detail any progress on the financial issues or Kashmir, implying that there was
none to report.
This news is troubling given the brewing domestic crisis in Pakistan, whose
parlous economic circumstances will only be exacerbated by the withdrawal of
Saudi cash. Chinese assistance might fill the gap, but it comes with conditions
that could upset Islamabad’s negotiations with the IMF. On August 20, Qureshi
flew to Beijing for what was described as a “very important” meeting.
In political terms, General Bajwa is more powerful than Prime Minister Khan,
whose 2018 electoral victory is often credited to the fact that the military
disliked the other candidates and backed him. The general’s main lever in
dealing with Riyadh is his control over security and nuclear policy. But recent
reports suggest that although Pakistan may have offered the Saudis nuclear
assistance years ago, China now dominates this role. Any future Saudi
willingness to back Islamabad’s policies on Kashmir and other issues may also be
tempered by Riyadh's desire to ease the India-Pakistan nuclear rivalry.
*Simon Henderson is the Baker Fellow and director of the Bernstein Program on
Gulf and Energy Policy at The Washington Institute.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 23-24/2020
Turkey befriends Hamas amid spiraling anti-Israel rocket
fire from Gaza
DEBKAfile/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
Turkish President Recep Erdogan received Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul
on Saturday, Aug. 22, at the end of a week in which 15 Palestinian rockets and
hundreds of dangerous balloons were launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Also present were Turkish MIT intelligence chief Hakan Fidan and Hanyeh’s deputy
Saleh al-Arour, who has a $5 million US government bounty on his head, Erdogan,
who frequently lambasts Israel, has actively embraced the most radical
Palestinian groups, especially Hamas, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood which
Ankara harbors. After the Turkish president vowed to “liberate” Jerusalem from
its “invaders,” Israel’s defense authorities elevated his country to a place not
far from Iran’s in its national security plans. DEBKAfile has reported that
Hamas has long been allowed to maintain in Istanbul a large network of
high-ranking operatives and a staff of 60 for plotting, orchestrating and
funding terrorist attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem by its sleeper cells.
Most recently, the London Telegraph discovered that the Turkish government had
gone one better and provided a dozen Istanbul-based top Hamas brass with Turkish
passports, granting them freedom of travel, eventually also to countries where
Hamas is proscribed as a terror group. This may include European nations where
Hamas attacks on Israeli targets are a realistic threat. Such fears were
exacerbated by Hamas’ operational ties to Iran’s Lebanese terrorist pawn,
Hizballah, which has made its training facilities in Lebanon available for Hamas
recruits, our sources report. Most of the new “Turkish citizens” are convicted
terrorists and murderers released and deported from Israel under the 2011 Shalit
Deal, in which 1,027 mostly Palestinian prisoners were set free in exchange for
an Israeli soldier.
Among those understood to have received the precious passports are Zacharia
Najib, who oversaw a plot to assassinate the mayor of Jerusalem and other
Israeli public figures and the notorious Jihad Ya’amor and Hisham Hijaz, as well
as Abdel Rahman Ghanimat, who led the Hamas squad responsible for a series of
suicide bombings, including a 1997 attack on the Café Apropo in Tel Aviv which
killed three young women. Kamal Awad, a Hamas financier recently sanctioned by
the US Treasury, also recently moved to Istanbul. In 2015, Ankara asked Arouri,
the most senior Hamas figure outside Gaza, to leave, so as not to embarrass
Erdogan then trying to mend relations with Israel.. Arouri now divides his time
between Turkey and Lebanon.
Iraq government sends special forces to track Basra killers
Mina Aldroubi/The National/August 23/2020August 23/2020
Iraq's government on Sunday launched a military operation to track militias
blamed for the killings of activists in Basra.
Anti-government protests flared up in the southern oil city last week after
gunmen shot dead protest leader Reham Yacoub in her car. The killing of Yacoub
on Wednesday was the third such attack against campaigners in Basra in a week.
Tahseen Oussama, 30, was gunned down on August 14, and four others were shot at
while travelling in a car on Monday. “We will pursue the criminals and arrest
the killers within the next few hours,” Interior Minister Othman Al Ghanmi said.
He said that special forces were sent out on Sunday. The US State Department
publicly urged Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi to hold the militias
accountable, two days after he sacked the Basra police and national security
chiefs and formed a special committee to investigate the attacks. Events in
Basra were in part a result of a lack of action by the government towards
addressing the issues faced by the poor and working class, who are angry and
frustrated with the authorities, said Ali Al Bayati, a member of the Independent
Iraqi Human Rights Commission. “The public feel they are being exploited by some
parties for political reasons due to the lack of security in Basra,” Mr Al
Bayati told The National. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, special representative of
the UN secretary general and head of the UN mission in Iraq, said the killings
were a “serious threat to security and stability” in Basra, the nation’s largest
port. “Basrawis should not live in such an atmosphere of terror and
intimidation. Greater action by the authorities is urgently required,” she said
on Thursday. “The full force of the law must be applied to find, apprehend and
hold the perpetrators accountable, and to put an end to this cycle of violence.”
Angered by the authorities' inaction over the killings, protesters on Friday
burnt the outer gate of the building housing the Iraqi parliament's local
offices for Basra province, the area that produces the lion’s share of Iraq’s
oil. Protesters in Basra have blamed Iran-backed Iraqi militias for the attacks.
Mr Al Kadhimi visited the protest site on Saturday and met with security
officials shortly after returning from a visit to the US.
The prime minister vowed to find the perpetrators and said groups outside the
law were trying to terrorise the people of Basra. The killing of the activists
in Basra came after Husham Al Hashemi, a security analyst and government
adviser, was murdered outside his Baghdad home in July by men on a motorbike. Mr
Al Kadhimi talked tough after Al Hashemi’s killing, pledging to hunt down his
assailants and keep armed groups in check. There have been very few developments
since then.When he took office three months ago, Mr Al Kadhimi inherited a
country exhausted by decades of sanctions, war, corruption and economic
challenges.
US-Led Troops Withdraw From Iraq's Taji Base
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
United States-led international coalition troops withdrew from Iraq’s Taji
military base on Sunday and handed it over to Iraqi security forces, Reuters
witnesses and the coalition said. The base, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad,
had been the site of frequent rocket attacks by Iran-backed militias targeting
US-led troops in recent months. “The movement of coalition military personnel is
part of a long-range plan coordinated with the government of Iraq,” the
coalition said in a statement, adding that Camp Taji has historically held up to
2,000 coalition members, most of whom have departed this summer. Remaining
coalition troops will depart in the coming days after finalizing the handing
over of equipment to Iraqi security forces, it added. This was the eighth
transfer of a coalition portion of an Iraqi base back to Iraqi forces, it said.
The withdrawal came days after US President Donald Trump redoubled his promise
to withdraw the few US troops still in the country. The United States has had
about 5,000 troops stationed in the country and coalition allies a further
2,500. Iraq’s parliament had voted this year for the departure of foreign troops
from Iraq and US and other coalition troops have been leaving as part of a
drawdown. The vote came after a US airstrike on Baghdad airport killed Iranian
general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Aboul Gheit Says Arab Peace Initiative Is Basis of Peace With Israel
Cairo- Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
The Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that the
Palestinian cause is a matter of consensus among all Arab states and ending the
Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is a central goal of all Arab
countries without exception. Arab countries collectively agree that the 2002
Arab Peace Initiative is the basis of any solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict,
he said. "A true, lasting, just, and comprehensive peace with all its elements
remains a strategic option for Arab countries," Aboul Gheit added. He also
voiced complete and unanimous Arab rejection of Israel's plan to annex parts of
the Palestinian occupied territories in the West Bank. He added that a stage of
comprehensive and normal Arab-Israeli peace relations can only be achieved when
the Palestinian people gain their freedom and independence, explaining that this
can be reached through the "land for peace" principle and the establishment of a
fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with
East Jerusalem as its capital. Aboul Gheit reiterated total Arab rejection of
Israeli annexation plans and any unilateral measures or declarations to change
the status of the lands under occupation, stressing that the Arabs will not
recognize Israel's annexation of occupied East Jerusalem. In this context, he
recalled the announcement made by the AL in its regular session last April, by
which it considered the annexation plan a ‘war crime’ to be added to the rich
Israeli history of crimes against Palestinians.
A source from the AL revealed that the Council of the Arab League will discuss
on Sep. 9 several matters including the Palestinian cause – via videoconference.
Iran admits sabotage caused fire at Natanz nuclear site
Arab News/August 23/2020
DUBAI: A fire at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility last month was the result of
sabotage, the spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation told state TV
channel Al-Alam on Sunday. "The explosion at Natanz nuclear facility was a
result of sabotage operations, security authorities will reveal in due time the
reason behind the blast," said Behrouz Kamalvandi. Iran's top security body in
July said that the cause of the fire had been determined but would be announced
later. Iranian officials said that the fire had caused significant damage that
could slow the development of advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges.
Iran retrieves cockpit conversation from Ukraine plane shot
down with missile
AP/August 23/2020
TEHRAN, Iran: Iran has retrieved some data, including a portion of cockpit
conversations, from the Ukrainian jetliner accidentally downed by the
Revolutionary Guard forces in January, killing all 176 people on board, an
Iranian official said Sunday. That’s according to a report on the website of
Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, which described the official’s remarks as
part of the final report that Tehran plans to issue on the shootdown of Ukraine
International Airlines Flight 752. The development comes months after the Jan. 8
crash near Tehran. Iranian authorities had initially denied responsibility, only
changing course days later, after Western nations presented extensive evidence
that Iran had shot down the plane. The shootdown happened the same night Iran
launched a ballistic missile attack targeting US soldiers in Iraq, its response
to the American drone strike that killed Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad
on Jan. 3. At the time, Iranian troops were bracing for a US counterstrike and
appear to have mistaken the plane for a missile. Iran, however, has not
acknowledges that, only saying that after the ballistic missile attack, its air
defense was sufficiently alert and had allowed previously scheduled air traffic
to resume — a reference to the Ukrainian plane being allowed to take off from
Tehran. The Ukrainian plane was apparently targeted by two missiles. The plane
had just taken off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport when the
first missile exploded, possibly damaging its radio equipment. The second
missile likely directly struck the aircraft, as videos from that night show the
plane exploding into a ball of fire before crashing into a playground and
farmland on the outskirts of Tehran. For days after the crash, Iranian
investigators combed the site, sifting through the debris of the plane. The head
of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, Capt. Touraj Dehghani Zangeneh, said on
Sunday that the Ukrainian passenger plane’s black boxes have only 19 seconds of
conversation following the first explosion, though the second missile reached
the plane 25 seconds later. The report quoting him did not elaborate. He said
the first missile explosion sent shrapnel into the plane, likely disrupting the
plane’s recorders. He did not reveal any details of the cockpit conversation
that was retrieved. Representatives from the US, Ukraine, France, Canada,
Britain and Sweden — countries whose citizens were killed in the crash — were
present during the process to gather data from the recorders, Zangeneh said. In
the months since the downing of the plane, Iran has struggled with the Middle
East’s largest and deadliest outbreak of the coronavirus. The Iranian government
is also grappling with both crushing US sanctions and vast domestic economic
problems.Last month, an initial report from the Iranian investigation said that
a misaligned missile battery, miscommunication between troops and their
commanders and a decision to fire without authorization all led to the fatal
downing of the jetliner. That report said the surface-to-air missile battery
that targeted the Boeing 737-800 had been relocated and was not properly
reoriented. Those manning the missile battery could not communicate with their
command center, they misidentified the civilian flight as a threat and opened
fire twice without getting approval from ranking officials, it said.Western
intelligence officials and analysts believe Iran shot down the aircraft with a
Russian-made Tor system, known to NATO as the SA-15. In 2007, Iran took the
delivery of 29 Tor M1 units from Russia under a contract worth an estimated $700
million. The system is mounted on a tracked vehicle and carries a radar and a
pack of eight missiles. The initial report did not say why the Guard moved the
air defense system, though that area near the airport is believed to be home to
both regular military and bases of the paramilitary Guard. It also noted that
the Ukrainian flight had done nothing out of the ordinary up until the missile
launch, with its transponder and other data being broadcast. The aircraft’s
black box flight recorder was sent to Paris in June, where international
investigators have been examining it. “Data recovery activity was all done with
the aim of safety and preventing similar incidents,” Zangeneh said, adding an
appeal against “any political use of the process.”
He added that Iran’s airspace is now “safe and ready” for international flights.
Pompeo to visit Khartoum in coming days, Sudanese official
says
Reuters/Sunday 23 August 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to visit Sudan in the coming days, a
Sudanese government official said on Sunday. Sudan has been normalizing
relations with the United States since the overthrow of former leader Omar al-Bashir
in April 2019 but is still seeking removal from a list of countries the US
considers as state sponsors of terrorism. Pompeo is also due to visit Israel and
the United Arab Emirates on Monday and Tuesday following an accord between the
two countries this month to forge full relations. The Sudanese official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to give details of Pompeo’s
visit.Ending the terrorism listing is a top priority for Sudan’s transitional
military-civilian ruling council and the government of technocrats that serves
under it. The listing dates to 1993 and makes Sudan, struggling with a deep
economic crisis, technically ineligible for debt relief and financing from
international lenders.
A senior government source told Reuters last week that significant progress was
expected on the issue in the coming weeks. In February, the head of Sudan’s
ruling council met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but cast doubt on
any rapid normalization of ties. Sudan sacked its foreign ministry spokesman
this week after he called the UAE’s decision to become the third Arab country to
normalize relations with Israel “a brave and bold step.”
International Anticipation of LNA’s Stance on Ceasefire
Cairo- Khalid Mahmoud/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
International and local circles are awaiting the response of Libyan National
Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar to the ceasefire announced by Head of
Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez al-Sarraj and Speaker of the
east-based Libyan parliament Aguila Saleh.
Sources close to the matter told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that Haftar is
expected to soon announce a conditional approval. Haftar, however, wonders about
the fate of military agreements signed between Turkey and the GNA, in addition
to the fate of ‘several thousands of mercenaries’ recruited by Ankara in the
past months, the sources added. They further revealed that secret talks were
held between Saleh and Sarraj before their statements on committing to the truce
and proposals to handle the oil issue and the placement of Sirte under US-UN
protection.
The sources, who preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed that the US side
presented guarantees on Turkish withdrawal from the country. Saleh on Friday
hailed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s “brave” stance after a
comprehensive ceasefire was announced by conflicting parties in Libya. Saleh
praised Sisi’s efforts that he said aimed at achieving stability in Libya.
Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee of the Libyan House of
Representatives Talal al-Mayhoub considered that any peace talks would go in
vain before dissolving the militias and the withdrawal of Turks and their
affiliated mercenaries. For its part, Libya's State Supreme Council reiterated
unwillingness to hold talks with Haftar and demanded that Skheirat Agreement be
the reference to any upcoming political dialogue. Permanent Rep. of Libya to the
UN Taher EL-Sonni wondered in a tweet if the party that waged the war,
supported, and blessed it then got defeated would respect the ceasefire. Sonni
stressed that any maneuvers or new threats would not be tolerated. NA Spokesman
Col.Mohammed Qanounou addressed the government’s supporters as he affirmed that
the GNA intends to hand over Libyan territories, stressing that the Libyan state
has the sole right to utilize resources, manage wealth, and export oil.
Sirte at Crosshairs of Libyan Conflict
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
Libya's coastal city of Sirte, home town of late ruler Moammar al-Gaddafi and a
strategic gateway to oil export ports, is now at the center of tensions between
rival forces. On Friday, Libya's warring Tripoli-based Government of National
Accord and east based-administration announced in separate statements they would
cease all hostilities and organize nationwide elections. But the promised
ceasefire leaves the fate of Sirte hanging in the balance, reported AFP. Sirte
had been held by GNA forces since December 2016 when they ousted ISIS extremists
after six months of fighting. Sirte lies on the Mediterranean coast, roughly
halfway between Tripoli in the west and Libya's second city Benghazi in the
east, and just 300 kilometers (190 miles) from the shores of Italy. It is also a
mere 150 kilometers west of Libya's main oil export terminals. Sirte consisted
of several villages spread along the coast with a mostly rural population,
including cattle breeders, farmers and a few craftsmen. Most of its people
belong to four major tribes, including the Kadhadfa tribe of Gaddafi, the
powerful and large Werfalla who populate the west, the Forjane and the Magariha
who were closest to the Gaddafi regime.
Before the uprising, the city had a population of around 120,000, but after
years of conflict only about 50,000 remain. Gaddafi was born in Sirte in 1942
and made great efforts to turn the city into the capital of his "Jamahiriya" --
a "state of the masses" run by local committees. He created a new province
around Sirte in addition to the three existing regions of Cyrenaica in the east,
Fezzan in the south, and Tripolitania in the west. In the 1990s, he ordered
ministries to be created in the coastal city, and even set up a parliament
there, but eventually gave up on his plans.
East Libyan forces dismiss cease-fire push by rivals
Arab News/Arab News/August 23/2020
BENGHAZI: The eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) dismissed a cease-fire
announcement by authorities in the capital, Tripoli, as a marketing stunt on
Sunday, saying rival forces were mobilizing around front lines in the center of
the country. Its spokesman, Ahmed Mismari, said the LNA was ready to respond to
any attempted attack on its positions around the coastal city of Sirte, and
Jufra, to the south. Mismari’s comments were the first by the LNA after the
announcement on Friday of a cease-fire and a call for the resumption of oil
production by Fayez Al-Sarraj, who heads the Government of National Accord (GNA)
in Tripoli, in the west. “The initiative that Sarraj signed is for media
marketing,” Mismari said during a briefing for journalists. “There is a military
build-up and the transfer of equipment to target our forces in Sirte.”“If Sarraj
wanted a cease-fire, he would have drawn his forces back, not advanced toward
our units in Sirte.”Mismari made no reference to a parallel cease-fire call also
issued on Friday by the head of Libya’s eastern-based parliament, Aguila Saleh.
Saleh has gained influence compared to LNA commander Khalifa Haftar since
Turkish military support for the GNA forced the LNA to retreat from a 14-month
offensive on Tripoli in June. For more than five years, Libya has been divided
into rival camps based in the east and west of the country. The LNA has received
backing from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia, in a conflict that has
become an arena for regional rivalries. There has been little fighting since
June. In the past, both sides have accused each other of quickly violating
truces and using them to rearm.
Analysis: The Messages Behind the Latest US Sanctions on
Syrian Officials
London - Ibrahim Hamidi/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
The messages that Washington is sending to Moscow through sanctions on Syrian
personalities are having an impact. Since the Caesar Act went into effect in
June, Russia has come to realize that it should start thinking about a political
path rather than celebrating military victories in Syria. The US on Thursday
blacklisted six senior Syrian government, financial and military officials as
part of the Caesar Act to increase pressure on the regime. The measure aimed to
send three “messages” by targeting figures who controlled the assets and
networks of Rami Makhlouf and contributed to smuggling; political personalities
who penetrated state institutions; and military figures who contributed to the
presence of Iran and Hezbollah in Syria. There are signs that the US is
convinced in the “success” of action against Syrian officials because the latest
sanctions included six personalities named by the Treasury and another list
released by the State Department. The first two lists of the Caesar Act include
the names of dozens of people including the wife of the Syrian president and
Hafez, his eldest son. In its latest move, the State Department said in a
statement that the sanctioned figures “should have no role in Syria’s
future.”But it looks like Moscow is the main target. Washington is betting that
Moscow will be convinced that Bashar Assad’s strategy to only hinge on military
victories will not be successful, will not end the conflict and will deepen the
involvement of Iran and Hezbollah in Syria’s war. The US believes that Russia
“should not give Damascus a blank check.” But Russian officials are divided on
Syria’s war. Some hold onto military victories while others believe in mulling a
political track because the conflict would only end through a political
solution. This group continues to raise questions whether Russia is willing to
be militarily involved in Syria’s war for another five years, ending up in a
vicious cycle. Washington is hinging on those who think that Russia’s policies
in Syria are “no longer working.” The US has not only relied on sanctions in its
pressure campaign. It has resorted to directly and indirectly backing Israeli
airstrikes on “Iranian sites” in Syria, and has politically and economically, in
addition to “other means,” supported Turkey’s efforts to preserve a ceasefire in
Idlib province, keep a military presence in northeastern Syria and “respond to
all Russian provocations.”What’s clear in the mind of Americans is that Damascus
will remain isolated even after the US presidential elections in November
because both Democrats and Republications have given their approval to the
Caesar Act.
Sudan's Ruling Coalition... Will It Stay United or
Disintegrate?
Khartoum- Mohammed Amin Yassine/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 23 August, 2020
The Sudanese had high hopes for the transitional government and its ability to
drastically change the country after the popular revolution overthrew Omar al-Bashir
regime and a transitional government was subsequently formed in August 2019.
However, criticism is being leveled at the civilians in positions of authority,
who nominally hold most of the power, for handing over some of their
prerogatives to the military. Controversies have created disputes, threatening
the viability of the Forces for Freedom of Change coalition that led the
revolution.
Despite the overwhelming support for Abdullah Hamdok’s government, its
popularity is gradually declining. It has not addressed systemic issues with the
desired rigor and speed, chief among them economic issues, crippling inflation,
and the currency’s decline. The Forces of the Declaration for Freedom and
Change, composed of political parties, professional unions, civil society
actors, and the Sudanese Professionals Association, which has played a
pioneering role in the popular movement that had overthrown Bashir, is the
political force behind the transitional government. The coalition signed the
“constitutional declaration” in August 2019 with the army officers who had sided
with the revolution and formed the Transitional Military Council. It stipulated
a partnership between the two parties for a transitional period of 39 months and
set up a Sovereignty Council of 11 members, five military and five civilians,
and one member appointed through a compromise. The constitutional declaration
also gave Freedom and Change the power to form the government and choose 67
percent of the 300 members of the Transitional Legislative Council, which, a
year after the agreement was signed, has not yet been formed. However, despite
its nominal control over the civilian aspects of governance, parties within the
ruling coalition regularly and openly decry the civilian government’s weakness
and the military, led by the head of the Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan
and his deputy, Commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo,
undermining its authority.
Sharp internal disputes over power and the legitimacy of the constitutional
declaration amongst the coalition’s parties have also been expressed openly.
Abdullah Rizk, a political analyst, explains that the coalition includes many
political parties and blocs and that they have real objective differences of
opinion that are not a result of negativity, while the bare minimum level of
consensus needed exists. Rizk pointed out that the transitional authorities face
many challenges that have led to modest improvements compared to the people’s
aspirations. The transitional government and the political forces behind it are
dealing with pressing challenges related to pensions and services, which induces
a strong feeling of negligence. Sometimes, criticism from within the ruling
parties themselves goes as far as describing their time in power as a failure.”
Here, Rizk refers to calls made by the political forces headed by the National
Umma Party for the establishment of a new alliance to run the transitional
authority. In parallel, a group from the Professionals Association that signed a
political declaration with the Sudan People’s Movement led by Abdel Aziz Al-Hilu,
the nucleus of a new alliance, declare: The deliberative conference’s goal is to
restore the coalition’s cohesion and reconsolidate it, put an end to the
disputes within the coalition, propose solutions to the government’s slow
performance and overcome the dispute over the IMF program’s dictates with regard
to floating the national currency and lifting subsidies.
Leader of the Forces of Change, Ahmed Hadrah, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the
coalition formed a committee to prepare for its conference, planned for this
August, to discuss the coalition’s experience, restructure it, expand
participation and evaluate the transitional government’s performance. He says
that the conference’s papers have been completed, and that the preparatory
committee has extended an invitation to all the neighborhood resistance
committees and the political forces that signed the Freedom and Change
Declaration.
Despite all of these difficulties and challenges, and though the Prime Minister
acknowledges the challenges and obstacles facing his government’s ability to
make progress and the hardships caused by poor living standards, he promises a
forthcoming breakthrough. He also points to his government’s ability to restore
Sudan’s place as a member of the international community, after having been
isolated for 30 years, and moving forward with peace agreements with the armed
movements as major achievements.
Trump's Sister Calls Him 'Cruel', 'Liar' on Secret
Recordings
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/August 23/2020
Donald Trump's older sister described the U.S. president as cruel and a liar
whose lack of principles meant he could not be trusted, according to secretly
made recordings. It was the latest unflattering insider account to target the
president, only instead of a jilted aide or business associate, it was from one
of his closest relatives.Maryanne Trump Barry, a former federal judge, slammed
her brother over his immigration policy that saw children separated from their
parents at the border and sent to detention centers. "All he wants to do is
appeal to his base," she said in recordings obtained by the Washington Post. "He
has no principles. None.""His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God." The
recordings were secretly made by the president's niece Mary Trump, who published
last month a bombshell memoir of the "toxic family" that produced him. The
president's younger brother Robert, who died last week, went to court to try to
block its publication -- arguing that Mary was violating a non-disclosure
agreement signed in 2001 after the settlement of her grandfather's estate, but
to no avail. Some 950,000 copies were sold the day of the memoir's release, with
the White House calling it a "book of falsehoods."
At one point in the recordings, Barry said to her niece: "It's the phoniness of
it all. It's the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel."The recordings
also shed light on the source of an embarrassing claim in the memoir that the
president paid someone to take a college entrance exam for him. "He got into
University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams," Barry said,
adding she even remembered the man's name. In response, the White House released
a statement to U.S. media from Trump that said: "Every day it's something else,
who cares. I miss my brother, and I'll continue to work hard for the American
people."Not everyone agrees, but the results are obvious. Our country will soon
be stronger than ever before!"
The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 23-24/2020
Renovating Old Houses Needn't Be Scary
Marcus Ashworth/Bloomberg/August 23/2020
Lockdown has made us all rethink what we want in a home. For city dwellers, the
grass is looking abundantly greener out in the country. Londoners are packing up
and heading not just for the suburbs but farther afield — pushing UK house sales
to their highest level in more than a decade, according to property website
Rightmove. Prices have reached record levels in rural idylls like Devon and
Cornwall.
If those alluring Country Life magazine homes are calling out to you but your
budget doesn't quite cover Georgian mansions, never fear: There is a lot of
potential in buying a cheaper, older property and doing it up yourself.
Renovating old houses can be a new way of life, but you have to be smart — and
brave. We moved into an old home in the country even before having children and
are now on our third major renovation. So here are some thoughts on how to
approach a fixer-upper without buying a money pit.
Make sure you’re ready. You are not just buying a house but a lifestyle, so
consider renting first to get a handle on the area and that longer commute.
Having spent 25 years watching London property prices soar as country homes
stagnated, I can confirm that the rural lifestyle requires steely commitment.
Houses take a lot longer to sell in the country, so you have to view the
investment as a long-term pension plan. But improving what a house offers is
what future homebuyers will buy into.
Get a full structural survey of the house. It’s worth paying up for the very
best survey you can get, as it will become your guidebook. In addition, getting
a structural engineer’s report with follow-up inspections — even if it costs
2,000 pounds or more ($2,600) — will ultimately help you sleep better and cut
down on future architect bills. Walk away from the property if roofs, windows,
plumbing or subsidence issues look too daunting. Those tend to eat up the most
cash. Having detailed room plans, with every light socket, switch and plug
configured, can also save you a lot of money down the road.
Do your research. Dealing with local council planners, particularly for listed
heritage properties, has generally become a lot easier than it used to be. But
it still requires researching what renovations, plans, and extensions will
likely get approved, and using local planning agents will help get those
permissions. Make sure to check not just what gets signed off, but what gets
rejected and why. We currently live in a conservation area, which means
something like a loft extension that alters the exterior roofline is highly
unlikely to be allowed, whereas adding some simple windows would be. Budget
wisely. Cash flow is king, as buying an old home requires relentless maintenance
and big one-off expenses. So factor these into your overall budget for the
project. Not only should you pay attention to price of the home, you should also
weigh the cost of hiring a project manager versus hiring a builder and all the
subcontractors yourself. We saved a lot by managing everything ourselves.
Soft furnishings are often where the expensive surprises come, so make sure to
budget for the carpets, curtains, and furniture you’ll need. Outside spaces are
just as important as interiors, so you’ll want to budget for improving gardens
and boundaries too. For example, one painful expense can be upkeep on entrance
lanes. If possible, get the road surface sorted properly as it can really
detract from the value and saleability of your property. One thing we learned
that’s really worth spending money on? Exceptional lighting — both inside and
out.
Save where you can. If you want to ruthlessly control your expenses, living
onsite — even if that entails the glamour of a mobile home — while renovating is
a must. Cutting out as many middlemen as possible can also save you a fortune,
as can buying big-ticket items like scaffolding yourself and then reselling them
later (avoid those rental fees). You can cut down on surprise bills by keeping
building changes to a minimum. If you’re looking at a big project, you can also
set up your own company to manage it, which can help you offset sales tax and
expenses.
Approach things in the right order. Gaping holes in roofs and floors need not be
deal breakers, since they can be surprisingly simple fixes. We navigated both at
minimal expense by getting professional advice upfront. We even managed to fix a
flooded cellar that rose and fell with the nearby pond — the answer was not to
seal the 500-year old foundations of the house, but to invest in a simple
electric pump.
Many old houses also have blackened beams that can make for dark, gloomy
interiors. Sand-blasting these professionally at the outset will transform the
overall feel of your renovation project. Insulating walls and attics can make a
huge difference as well — it cut our fuel bills in half. Get all the messy
stuff, like rewiring and plumbing, done first before any redecoration.
When all is said and done, you will have sympathetically restored a home with a
history. Sure you’ll still enjoy the odd night in the city to see old friends
and haunts. But that drive back into the countryside will confirm that all your
hard work has paid off.
King Dollar Still Reigns Supreme
Nisha Gopalan/Bloomberg/August 23/2020
King dollar still reigns supreme. And that means there are two ways for banks to
go: the US way, or the highway.
Hong Kong and Chinese officials scoffed when the Trump administration imposed
sanctions on 11 individuals deemed to have played a role in undermining the
city’s autonomy. Luo Huining, director of the central government’s Liaison
Office, noted that he had no assets abroad and offered to “send $100 to Mr.
Trump for him to freeze.” Chief Executive Carrie Lam said she wouldn’t be
intimidated and derided the US notice for getting her address wrong. The Hong
Kong Monetary Authority gave banks in the city a pass, saying they had no
obligation to follow US sanctions under local law.
The actions of lenders tell a different story. China’s largest state-run banks
in Hong Kong are taking tentative steps to comply with the sanctions, Bloomberg
News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Major lenders with
operations in the US including Bank of China Ltd., China Construction Bank Corp.
and China Merchants Bank Co. have turned cautious on opening new accounts for
the sanctioned officials, and at least one has suspended such activity.
It’s another demonstration of the realpolitik of the dollar system and the
financial power that comes with being the issuer of the world’s dominant reserve
currency. China’s state-controlled lenders would be the last to willingly follow
a directive condemned as “clowning actions” and “shameless and despicable” by
the Chinese and Hong Kong governments. HSBC Holdings Plc, Standard Chartered
Plc, Citigroup Inc. and other lenders with operations in Hong Kong and ambitions
in China will look on with relief. Squeezed between the conflicting demands of
Hong Kong’s national security law and US sanctions, they have been given
political cover.
For banks with international operations, the threat of having their access to
dollar funding and overseas networks curtailed cannot be countenanced. Just look
at how the US has been able to impose its will via sanctions on Iran, despite
resistance from Europe. Dealing in currencies other than the dollar provides
little cover, as China’s Bank of Kunlun Co. found out. The country’s main lender
for processing Iran-China payments, Kunlun was sanctioned by the US Treasury
Department in 2012. The bank responded by starting to handle payments from Iran
in yuan and euro instead, yet halted even these in 2018 under sanctions
pressure, according to Reuters.
It’s little wonder that China wants to challenge the dollar’s global dominance.
While officials have spoken frequently of their ambition to give the yuan a
bigger role, there’s little sign of progress. The dollar’s share of
international payments rose in the past year, while the proportion of payments
in yuan remains negligible, according to data from the Brussels-based Society
for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or Swift.
As my colleague Andy Mukherjee and I have argued, banks are cogs in a giant
financial machine that Washington keeps aligned with its foreign policy goals.
Take the case of Huawei Technologies Co.’s finance chief Meng Wanzhou. The
daughter of Huawei’s founder is currently battling extradition from Canada to
the US on charges that she misled HSBC into clearing transactions that
potentially violated Iran sanctions. Lawyers for Meng, who has denied the
charges, have argued HSBC could have avoided making the payments through the US.
HSBC routed the money through New York’s Clearing House Interbank Payments
System, or Chips, which handles 95% of all dollar transactions, or $1.6 trillion
a day.
While it’s technically feasible to clear payments in the much smaller offshore
dollar market in Hong Kong, when money crosses borders it is accompanied by
instructions transmitted by Swift. Since the September 2001 terrorist attacks,
the US has watched over financial flows through the organization. In practice,
it would have been almost impossible for money destined for Iran to avoid
scrutiny.
The message ringing from China’s banks is louder and clearer than the contrary
protestations of the country’s officials. Like it or not, it’s still a dollar
world.
An Epidemic of Depression and Anxiety Among Young Adults
Andreas Kluth/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 23/2020
Of the coronavirus’s many side effects, perhaps the least appreciated are
psychological. Those who’ve had a bad case and survived, like people who’ve been
in war or accidents, may suffer post-traumatic stress for years. And even people
in the as-yet-healthy majority are hurting. Young adults, in particular, are
getting more depressed and anxious as SARS-CoV-2 uproots whatever budding life
plans they’d been nursing.
It’s long been clear that Covid-19, like any major disaster, is causing an
increase in mental-health disorders and their accompanying evils. Those range
from alcoholism and drug addiction to wife beating and child abuse. In the
Americas, the world’s most afflicted region with hotspots from the US to Brazil,
this psycho-social crisis has become its own epidemic, the World Health
Organization’s regional branch said this week.
In the US, the national rate of anxiety tripled in the second quarter compared
to the same period in 2019 (from 8.1% to 25.5%), and depression almost
quadrupled (from 6.5% to 24.3%). In Britain, which has also had a severe
outbreak and a long lockdown, depression has roughly doubled, from 9.7% of
adults before the pandemic to 19.2% in June.
As with everything else about this virus, the suffering isn’t spread evenly. As
I said in April, Covid-19 hits the poor harder than the rich and minorities
worse than Whites. And as I wrote last month, it also derails the careers and
lives of some generations — specifically, Millennials — more than those of
others. It’s a similar story with the spread of depression and anxiety, which
are disproportionately tormenting minorities.
Perhaps more surprisingly, it’s also the youngest adults who are suffering the
most mental anguish, in the US and the UK and presumably elsewhere too. At first
glance, this might seem odd, since young adults, like children, have less risk
of major health complications from Covid-19.
But even the young worry about their older relatives. Perhaps more pertinently,
older adults had already built their lives before the pandemic — with routines,
structures, careers and relationships to fall back on. The young had not, and
were just embarking on that adventure when Covid-19 struck.
And what a mess it has made of all those hopes. Even in good times, adolescents
and young adults aren’t exactly paragons of emotional stability. Many are
unhappy with their own bodies or confused about their professional path, their
sexual options and their friendships.
But in 2020 all these bugbears have grown. Schools and universities have been
shut and this fall may close again, or enter newfangled student rotations with
partial presence, masked distancing and little fun. Summer camps have been
cancelled, as have many internships and job offers. Concerts and parties are
frowned upon or banned. The social lives and job-hunting networks of young
adults, for the first time in recent memory, have paused.
And replacing in-person, tactile and pheromonal interactions with screens and
apps just doesn’t cut it. Biologically, we’re still like other primates, who
need to groom and be groomed to lower cortisol levels and feel well. One result,
especially for the hormonal young, is isolation and loneliness, which can lead
to listlessness and despair: in short, depression.
The rise in anxiety may have more to do with something else Covid-19 has foisted
on all of us, but especially on the young: unprecedented uncertainty. In
essence, the pandemic has called off all plans, and all planning. Many young
adults couldn’t take their final exams and can’t accept the grades handed out in
their place. They don’t know whether and when to apply where, given that
colleges may or may not open or be worth the tuition. And mom and dad may or may
not be able to pay, depending on whether they’ll have an income again.
Young or old, individuals differ in where they rank on the so-called Intolerance
of Uncertainty Scale (IUS). The less a person is able to embrace uncertainty,
the more likely he or she is to enter worry spirals about every possible
scenario. This eventually wreaks havoc on our brains and is a major cause of
anxiety, including its severe form, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).
So not all people, even among the young, are at risk, because everyone is
psychologically unique — introverts may even thrive in this time of social
distancing. But the spread of anxiety and depression is enough of a blight to
rank alongside viral transmission as a concern. The scars will be long-term,
from delayed learning and broken relationships to abandoned dreams and more
suicides.
For policy makers, this means they must consider both the virus and the human
mind when deciding future lockdown measures. And they must find more money and
help for those with problems — globally, there’s fewer than one mental-health
professional for every 10,000 sufferers, most of whom get no treatment at all.
For us as individuals, it means we need to brace ourselves. As cases rise again,
even in countries that thought they had the virus under control, a second wave
this fall seems likely, perhaps requiring more restrictions and disruptions.
Everything remains entirely uncertain. The year 2020 seems to be asking all of
us to learn to live with that.
We Need This Change in the Arab World
Sara Al Nuaimi/Gatestone Institute/August 23, 2020
"What is the difference between a Jewish person and an Israeli?" my mother, a
religious and traditional Emirati, asked.
"Well," she said, "when they start coming here, we shall get to know them
better."
For women trapped in the dogma of tradition, half in-half out, adventurous but
guilt-stricken, we now feel proud of the choices we made to carve a niche for
ourselves, because this niche is the new center. We can finally be ourselves and
create the lives we wanted: to be out in the world, not in the confinements of a
golden cage.
There was for so long the mantra of "Israel is the enemy." It was a mantra that
people could not break out of and that they believed without proof. These people
are now quiet. We need this change in the Arab world. It has taken so long to
come.
The United Arab Emirates is making peace with Israel to inspire cultural,
religious and political reform; they are visionary leaders, statesmen. The UAE
saw that accepting Israel and negating the ideology that negated Israel was part
of moving forward. Pictured: The skyline of Abu Dhabi, UAE.
It was easier than we thought, that joint statement of the United Arab Emirates,
Israel and the United States.
There were so many steps that were skipped, though: you can tell by reading on
Twitter the voices of opposition from other countries that were in shock at the
news. They resist the possibility, but to us, now that we are capable of
acknowledging the peace that was created, the opposition feels no bigger than
ants with puny pincers.
This is perhaps the first time that peace has happened without a war. It is
peace for the sake of peace
As an Emirati, I feel unstoppable, invincible, empowered. I can now breathe
freely. I have another life to fall on instead of the limiting social construct
of religion and tradition that was stifling women who were neither religious or
traditional, just open-minded and easygoing with whomever crossed their path.
Decades living in the Emirates contrasted with six years in California. There I
tasted something alien, where you could enjoy the moment -- but it felt
short-lived. When I returned home, I walked back into thick, hot, humid,
culture-shocked air. Now, we have imported a slice of California.
"What is the difference between a Jewish person and an Israeli?" my mother, a
religious and traditional Emirati, asked. "One," I tell her, "is a religion, the
other is a nationality." Trying to bridge the familiar with the unfamiliar, I
reminded her of a friend who is Arab-Muslim Israeli. With a turn of her head,
she replied, "Well, when they start coming here, we shall get to know them
better." I will ask her if she would go there instead.
My cousin called. "Congratulations!" she said. "You know what for, right? Next
trip, Tel Aviv!" Emiratis love a thing called tourism, especially to escape the
summer heat. I imagine a swoon of liberal Emirati women on the beaches of Tel
Aviv with their designer bikinis and sunglasses. I am looking forward to being
one of those women.
For women trapped in the dogma of tradition, half in-half out, adventurous but
guilt-stricken, we now feel proud of the choices we made to carve a niche for
ourselves, because this niche is the new center. We can finally be ourselves and
create the lives we really wanted: to be out in the world, not in the
confinements of a golden cage. All those desires that we were told to reject as
absurd were apparently far from it. We now feel we are full participants in
creating a new society, our society that is no longer in the margin. It is a
fantasy come true.
We are similar to Israelis in so many different ways, but it takes a very bold
and exciting step to see it. My friend, Sarah said she is proud that her
Jewish-sounding name might allow her easily to fit in as an Israeli.
The shift is deep but just the beginning.
Fifteen years ago, working for the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, I resigned because
I didn't think much of working for a government entity. What the crown prince
just did, please understand, took an immense amount of courage.
The nature of the UAE-Israel statement is different from Jordan's 26 years ago.
Making peace with Israel then meant restoring stability for some time and
suspending war. By contrast, the UAE is making peace with Israel to inspire
cultural, religious and political reform; they are visionary leaders, statesmen.
The UAE saw that accepting Israel and negating the ideology that negated Israel
was part of moving forward.
I see myself praying at the synagogue now being built in Abu Dhabi in the
Abrahamic Family House along with a church and a mosque. These beautiful modern
pieces of architecture will be near one another in the same compound, so that a
Muslim like me can perform rituals in all three. And I would openly offer my
heart and my soul to the roots of this Abrahamic friendship.
There was for so long the mantra of "Israel is the enemy." It was a mantra that
people could not break out of and that they believed without proof. These people
are now quiet. We need this change in the Arab world. It has taken so long to
come.
*Sara Al Nuaimi is an Emirati lady, a Muslim and a cultural activist based in
Abu Dhabi. Follow her on Twitter @saranuaimi.
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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.
"We Have No Mercy on You People": Persecution of
Christians, July 2020
Raymond Ibrahim/ Gatestone Institute/August 23/2020
ريموند إبراهيم: قائمة مفصلة بالتعديات على المسيحيين واضطهادهم خلال شهر تموز
2020...لا شفقة ولا رحمة عليكم يا أيها الناس
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/89733/raymond-ibrahim-gatestone-institute-we-have-no-mercy-on-you-people-persecution-of-christians-july-2020-%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%88%d9%86%d8%af-%d8%a5%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%87%d9%8a%d9%85-%d9%82/
"[T]here are young girls who have been abducted and enslaved, forced into sexual
slavery by some of these guerrillas, these insurgents, these terrorists... We
know that the recruitment of boys and adolescents, some of them very young, aged
14, 15, 16, is also happening. It is obvious that these young boys are under
coercion. If they refuse to join the group, they could be killed." — Paulo
Rangel, Portuguese Member of European Parliament, Catholic San Francisco, July
23, 2020; Mozambique, where Islamic State (ISIS) seized a port.
In one week in June, 15 people were beheaded in the Christian-majority nation.
Discussing the situation, Bishop Lisboa said: "The world has no idea yet what is
happening because of indifference." — Mozambique.
A 16-year-old Muslim refugee from Syria pleaded guilty to four counts of
terrorism. His schemes were shared with and exposed by an undercover FBI agent
posing as a fellow ISIS supporter online.... "It was a bomb lab," the report
said. — Global News, July 31; Canada.
"Somalis generally believe all Somalis are Muslims by birth and that any Somali
who becomes a Christian can be charged with apostasy, punishable by death." —
Morningstar News, July 9, 2020.
A Muslim man broke into Holy Cross, a historic Armenian cathedral on Akhtamar
Island in eastern Turkey, and proceeded to recite the adhan — the Islamic call
to prayer— and to scrawl graffiti on the church walls, according to a July 2
report.
The following are among the abuses that were inflicted on Christians throughout
the month of July 2020:
The Slaughter of Christians
Uganda: A group of Muslims beat and drowned a pastor and another Christian for
sharing the Gospel with other Christians. Peter Kyakulaga, pastor of the Church
of Christ, and church member Tuule Mumbya, had begun to sail across Lake Nakuwa,
where they would meet and evangelize to Muslims. More "hard-line" Muslims
disliked this: "We have discovered that your mission is not to fish but to hold
Christian meetings and then convert Muslims to Christianity," a man told them.
"We are not going to take this mission of yours lightly. This is our last
warning to you." The next day in late June, Christian villagers came knocking on
the door of David Nabyoma, a local leader:
"They were requesting help, saying Muslims from Lugonyola had invaded the area
around the lakeside, and several Christians were reported to have been injured,
including my son. Immediately we rushed to the scene of the incident with
several Christians. We hired four boats and drove to the lake and found out that
two of the Christians had been badly beaten and drowned in the lake and died
instantly."
Kyakulaga, 25, is survived by a wife and two children, aged 2 and 4; Mumbya, 22,
is survived by a wife and a 2-year-old child.
Mozambique: Islamic militants have been responsible for "escalating extremist
violence" in Cabo Delgado Province, where they are attempting to carve out an
Islamic state [Note: on August 14, ISIS captured the port], and "where multiple
churches have been burnt, people beheaded, young girls kidnapped, and hundreds
of thousands of people displaced by the violence," according to a July 23
report. More than a thousand people have been slaughtered since 2017, when the
Islamic uprising began. In one week in June, 15 people were beheaded in the
Christian-majority nation. Discussing the situation, Bishop Lisboa said: "The
world has no idea yet what is happening because of indifference. We do not yet
have the solidarity that there should be."
One of the worst incidents occurred on Good Friday, when the terrorists torched
a church and massacred 52 people. After explaining how five or six chapels were
torched in just one recent month, the bishop described what happened to the
historic Sacred Heart of Jesus mission:
"They attacked the church and burnt the benches and a statue of Our Lady, made
of ebony. They also destroyed an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom the
parish is dedicated. Fortunately, they were unable to burn the building itself,
only the benches."
What is happening is "an injustice that is crying out to heaven" he concluded.
Paulo Rangel, a Portuguese Member of European Parliament, also discussed the
situation in Mozambique: "The international community is nowhere to be seen in
regard to the problem," he said:
"The people were already living in extreme poverty, facing grave difficulties.
[The] problem is that at the present moment these people are facing the threat
of death, of losing their homes, of becoming uprooted.... At present we know
that there are young girls who have been abducted and enslaved, forced into
sexual slavery by some of these guerrillas, these insurgents, these
terrorists...We know that the recruitment of boys and adolescents, some of them
very young, aged 14, 15, 16, is also happening. It is obvious that these young
boys are under coercion. If they refuse to join the group, they could be
killed."
Nigeria: In a 35-second video posted July 22, Islamic terrorists executed five
men, three of whom were Christians. Blindfolded and on their knees, with the
executors standing behind them, one of the terrorists said,
"This is a message to all those being used by infidels to convert Muslims to
Christianity. We want you out there to understand that those of you being used
to convert Muslims to Christianity are only being used for selfish purposes. And
that is the reason whenever we capture you, they don't care to rescue you or
work towards securing your release from us; and this is because they don't need
you or value your lives. We therefore, call on you to return to Allah by
becoming Muslims. We shall continue to block all routes you travel. If you don't
heed our warning, the fate of these five individuals will be your fate."
Then the speaker says bismillah — meaning, "in the name of Allah" — and the
executioners shoot their captives in the backs of their heads.
In addition, at least 171 Christians were slaughtered by Muslim Fulani herdsmen
in the space of roughly three weeks. Summaries of some follow:
On July 10, Muslim herdsmen massacred 22 Christians — "mostly women and
children" — and torched many homes. "They killed two of my children [and
husband]," recalled Bilkisu James from her hospital bed. They also "hacked
another five of Bilkisu's relatives to death with machetes including a mother
and her baby daughter and a mother and her two sons."
On July 11, a neighboring village was raided: "ten women, a baby and an elderly
man were burnt to death in a house where they had taken refuge. Another seven
villagers were injured and four houses burnt out."
On July 19, people attending a wedding celebration were among at least 32
Christians massacred in Fulani attacks.
On July 23, a "horrific night attack [was launched] during a torrential rain
storm ... [A]t least seven Christians died... as militants brutally hacked
unarmed men and women and children to death with machetes." The report adds that
"This was the second attack on the village within days, with seven murdered in
an attack days earlier."
On July 29, Muslim herdsmen murdered another 14 Christians — 13 of whom belonged
to one extended family. Only one member of the family remained alive; his wife,
all his children, aunt, uncle, brother and other relatives were slaughtered.
Attacks on Christian Churches
Turkey: A Muslim man broke into Holy Cross, a historic Armenian cathedral on
Akhtamar Island in eastern Turkey, and proceeded to recite the adhan — the
Islamic call to prayer traditionally made from mosques — while others videotaped
him. He repeatedly chanted "Allahu Akbar," and proclaimed the Islamic creed or
shahada. He also scrawled graffiti on the church walls: "Raising the Adhan in
the church's sanctuary has brought life back to it." The July 2 report adds
that,
"Most churches and monasteries in Turkey have been left abandoned following the
genocides of Christian peoples in the early 20th century and the mass emigration
of Christians from the country due to decades of persecution. As a result, many
churches in Turkey were left to ruin or turned into mosques or stables for
animals."
In a separate incident, right before the start of Sunday worship service on July
12, a Turkish man appeared at the Antalya Bible Church and asked to speak to
church leadership. He was told to return on the next day, and did so — only to
issue death and arson threats to a pastor: "You and Özgür [another church
leader] are dead. I broke the window of this church a few months ago, will
attack again and, if necessary, burn it." Security personnel intervened and he
was asked to leave before police were involved. It was later revealed that
police had apprehended him when he first broke the church's windows, but
released him because he had expressed "regret."
Pakistan: A church in a village near Baloki was forced to take down its cross.
Barnabas, a Christian resident of the village, explained:
"We constructed three floors of minarets on a church and fixed the cross on top
of that. However, it was removed after we received threats from local Muslims.
The Muslims demanded we remove the cross and all three floors of the minarets,
therefore, we had to obey them. Now, the building does not look like a church.
It's just a room and therefore we are sad."
"With broken hearts," a local pastor added, the congregation agreed to take the
cross down—even though "it was an illegal demand against Pakistan's
constitution, which guarantees religious freedom to all citizens."
"We took this decision for the safety and protection of Christians in the
village.... Muslims threatened that if we don't remove the cross, they will ban
the prayer services and take the church property.... The authorities must look
into this matter and ensure freedom of religion to all the segments of society."
In a separate incident, police violently interrupted a Christian prayer service.
According to a brief July 13 report,
"A priest was leading a prayer before providing a free meal for the poor when
police officers appeared, and without further notice, they started damaging the
stuff for prayer service.... Policemen turned down the meal, thrashed the pastor
and people present. They captured the small sound-system, and beat men and
women".
Another report offers more details concerning the fate of Raja Walter, the event
organizer, who works to "raise funds to help people who are unfortunate or who
have been severely affected by the coronavirus":
"[A]rmed policemen without a badge identifying them came to the food point and
attacked him. He was beaten and tortured. Agents also smashed the loudspeaker he
uses to motivate people and recite prayers before handing out food. The attack
began as Raja was handing out food. As they struck him, the agents threw away
his heart medicines and mobile phone. When they tried to arrest him, women
present at the scene began to cry and pray for Walter, who by then had lost
consciousness."
"It is ridiculous to treat Mr. Raja Walter like that," a beneficiary of the free
food said: "He has never done anything wrong to anyone. He is like an angel; he
supports the poor and needy."
The attack, notes the report, "was likely caused by the use of speakers for
praying."
Canada: On July 28, a 16-year-old Muslim refugee from Syria pleaded guilty to
four counts of terrorism. His schemes — including "a solo operation in the next
few days" — were shared with and exposed by an undercover FBI agent posing as a
fellow ISIS supporter online. "Churches," the Muslim youth had written, and
other "crowded places filled with crucifix believers" were among his primary
targets. "Detonators, containers filled with white powders that turned out to be
explosives, and diagrams of improvised explosive devices were among the 95
exhibits they seized. It was a bomb lab," the report said. His sentencing is set
for September.
France: After fire broke out in the Cathedral of Nantes — caused by an asylum
seeker — "Muslim [social media] users, mostly of Arab origin, and their leftist
fanboys in Central Europe express[ed] their enthusiasm and glee online,"
according to a July 19 German-language report. Such expressions appeared all
throughout social media, but "especially Facebook," where "the sympathizers of
Islamization bluntly celebrated their satisfaction: through laughing or smiley
emoticons or 'like' clicks they expressed what they think of burning Christian
houses of worship." The report further observed that "this type of expression of
opinion ... does not lead to the deletion and blocking of the users by social
media teams — whereas masses of [other types of] comments are deleted as 'hate
speech.'"
Attacks on Converts to Christianity
Kenya: A group of seven Muslims beat Fozia, a Christian woman, aged 21, until
she lost consciousness. They also broke the teeth of her sister, Asha, aged 19,
and beat their 18-year-old brother. Problems began when "Muslims started
questioning us why we were not attending Friday worship at the mosque," Fozia
explained. "This interrogation continued for several months." Then one day, when
the siblings went outside their home to restore its water supply, they saw a
raucous group of Somalis approaching: "There were noisy shouts calling us
infidels," recalled Fozia:
"They said, 'We know you do not belong to us. We have got hold of you today – we
have no mercy on you people. You need to return to where you came from.' They
began hitting me with sticks and a blunt object, which injured my back and my
right hand. There I fainted for five hours and regained consciousness at the
hospital [where she remained for two days]."
"The attackers injured me by hitting my head against the wall," her sister Asha
added. "My two front teeth got broken, and the attack caused the left side of my
body to swell..." According to their widowed mother, the family has been
"running for their lives from Muslims of Somali descent who have attacked them
for nearly 10 years:
"[And now we] are receiving threats that my children should withdraw the case
from police if we are to remain safe. But we demand compensation for my three
ailing children and medication for them. Three weeks have now gone by, and my
children are constantly on pain killers."
Apparently these were not the first attacks on the apostate family; according to
the report,
"In 2016 Somali Muslims attacked another of her adult sons, beating him
unconscious. Muslim Somalis in Nairobi had seriously injured the same son on
Oct. 27, 2011, after they learned that family members had become Christian. The
Somali neighbors hit him with a metal bar on his forehead and face, and he lost
two teeth and sustained knife wounds to his hand. They left him for dead. Her
family has suffered various attacks since embracing Christ. After she filed a
police complaint about an attack by Somali Muslims in Kenya in 2014, no fewer
than 10 Islamic elders visited her to warn that she was risking her life by
doing so. Somalis generally believe all Somalis are Muslims by birth and that
any Somali who becomes a Christian can be charged with apostasy, punishable by
death."
Morocco: "Converts to Christianity in Morocco have been repeatedly arrested by
police as part of a campaign clamping down on the Faith," says a July 17 report;
some have been arrested as many as three times in one week. Jawad Elhamidy,
president of the Moroccan Association of Rights and Religious Liberties,
elaborated:
"Most are released after interrogation—but are often put under pressure to
return to Islam, and face abuse when they refuse.... The penal code holds that
all Moroccans are Muslims, so those who convert to Christianity face legal
problems, beside threats to their security."
As one example, he gave the story of Mohamed al-Moghany, who converted to
Christianity, and "whose employer had waved a gun at him and threatened to kill
him."
"When Mr. Al Moghany filed a complaint with police, he was told not to speak
about his conversion and threats were made against his family. Six months later,
following an argument with his employer, he was arrested and sentenced to six
months in prison. His wife was interrogated as well.... If a Moroccan enters a
church, one of two things can happen—either a policeman sitting in front of the
church arrests him or her, or the cleric in charge of the church asks the person
to leave, unless the purpose is tourism....Moroccan Christians worship in secret
house churches to avoid state sanctions or harassment from society."
The report elaborates:
"[I]t is even more dangerous for Christian converts when allegations of
blasphemy are made—Christians have been held for several days and there have
been incidents of violence.... Unlike foreign Christians, converts do not enjoy
freedom of worship under the law.... Foreign clergy are said to discourage
Moroccan Christians from attending their churches because of fear of being
criminally charged with proselytism. Under Moroccan law, proselytising or
converting to another religion is a criminal offence punishable by between six
months and three years in prison."
Generic Abuse of Christians
Pakistan: A group of 12 Muslim men, led by one Muhammad Irfan, broke into a
Christian man's household, "and tried to kidnap his [13-year-old] daughter, Noor,
who they planned to rape and forcefully convert to Islam," says a July 26
report. When the man and his family intervened, the Muslims thrashed them. "He
often teased and disturbed my daughter in the streets, but we always ignored,"
said the girl's mother:
"Finally, Irfan forcibly entered into my house and intended to kidnap my
daughter. However, we resisted. In response, he attacked and beat my entire
family who got multiple injuries. My husband and others got injuries in the
attack. However, police have not registered the case against Irfan and medical
staff have not provided medical aid to the injured."
The report adds that "Local supporters of Irfan have issued threats against the
family... [They] have threatened to burn down their house if they pursue legal
action against Irfan and the other attackers."
Yemen: "Christians living in Yemen," a July 28 report says, "request prayer as
they experience persecution amidst ongoing war, food shortages, and COVID-19."
"These challenges have created a significant burden of isolation, both
spiritually and physically. The Christian population, which once numbered
approximately 40,000, is reduced to only a few thousand. Most live unaware of
each other's existence and in great fear of discovery from their neighbors...
[The current] environment has led to persecution that keeps the church
underground."
Germany: Two knife-wielding Muslim men attacked and injured a Christian refugee
from Syria in the streets of Berlin. According to the July 7 report, the victim,
Kevork Almassian, of Armenian descent, had started receiving death threats a
year ago, after "Syrian Islamist activist" Nahla Osman began accusing the
Christian refugee of spreading "hate" through his work at a German magazine. The
executives at the magazine eventually capitulated to Islamist protests and fired
Kevork.
Lebanon/Turkey: As a sign of growing Turkish influence, Neshan Der Haroutiounian,
a Lebanese television host of Armenian descent, will stand trial in Lebanon for
"insulting the Turkish president and the Turkish people," apparently in the
context of mentioning the Ottoman Empire's genocide of Armenians. Turkey's
authorities responded by calling on the Lebanese Foreign Ministry to take
measures against the television host; the Turkish Embassy mobilized protesters
in front of the television station. They "raised Turkish flags, chanted slogans
in support of the Ottoman Empire and Erdogan and called on Al Jadeed TV and
those in charge of the programme to 'apologise for what happened.'" The Beirut
public prosecutor responded by announcing that charges would be filed against
Haroutiounian, who is scheduled to stand trial in October. The report notes:
"A Lebanese journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that there
were no grounds for the judicial charges against Der Haroutiounian. 'This is a
matter of a historical dispute that has no prospect, knowing that it is about a
great crime against the Armenian people — a crime that Turkey refuses to
recognise. This in itself continues to provoke Armenians wherever they are,' the
journalist told The Arab Weekly.... Some Lebanese Armenians' harsh criticism of
Turkey seems to embarrass Lebanese authorities, who have tried to intimidate
them into observing certain 'red lines.' There are numerous external forces
pressuring Lebanon, starting with Iranian proxy Hezbollah. Turkey is now
attempting to curb Lebanon's hard-fought freedoms, of which its citizens are
rightly proud, by also exerting pressure on Lebanese authorities."
Egypt: A Christian woman who disappeared for nearly three months — supposedly
because she had willingly converted to Islam and no longer wanted any connection
to her "infidel" husband and three young daughters — was finally returned to her
family. Ranya Abd al-Masih, 39, a high school teacher of English, had
disappeared on April 22. A few days after her family contacted state security,
she appeared in a one-minute video dressed in a black niqab (Islamic head
covering). In the video, and in between tears, Abd al-Masih insisted that she
had finally and formally converted to Islam, which — "praise be to Allah" — she
had been secretly following and concealing from her family for nine years.
Accordingly, she no longer wanted anyone — her husband, children, family — to
bother about her anymore. From the start, her family refused to believe the
video and gave compelling reasons why. "We've no problem for her to go [to
Islam] of her own free will—based on conviction—but not as a person who is
threatened and coerced into doing so," her brother, Remon, explained: "She was
definitely kidnapped and forced to make that video, due to threats against her
or her husband and children if she refused to comply."
For nearly three months, Abd al-Masih's family and the Coptic Church pleaded
with local authorities — even sending a special petition to President Sisi —
until she was finally returned, on July 15. A Christian spokesman said that Abd
al-Masih and her reunited family are currently staying in an undisclosed
location, "until calm returns" to the region. Due to the delicate nature of the
situation, the spokesman gave no other details concerning her disappearance and
reemergence, other than to say that "Ranya remains a Christian who never once
converted to Islam."
Tunisia: A July 21 report sheds light on the "lack of full citizenship" rights
and "societal stigmas" surrounding the Christians of arguably the world's most
tolerant Arab nation. According to its abstract:
"Although Tunisia is usually presented as ethno-religiously homogenous when
compared to other countries in the region, its minorities have long undergone a
process of invisibilisation and/or assimilation into the dominant Arab-Muslim
identity. Moving from a status of dhimmi [second class, tolerated citizens]
under Muslim empires ... is the quest of Tunisia's religious minorities for full
citizenship still ongoing?... [T]he research shows that religious minorities,
although having acquired a certain set of rights, still lack full citizenship to
some extent and face societal stigma."
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of the recent book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen
Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at
the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center,
and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by
extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but
rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or
location.
© 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.
US election winner will have to reconsider Iran, Turkey
ties
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/August 23/2020
The US coronavirus disease (COVID-19) death toll has topped 180,000, with more
than 5 million cases recorded across the country. The presidential election in
November will most likely be dominated by the pandemic, the White House’s
handling of it, and the subsequent economic fallout.
However, it is easy to forget what a rollercoaster year we have all experienced,
and that it was America’s relationships in the Middle East — particularly with
Iran — that dominated the headlines early in 2020. Back then, it was natural to
think that Washington’s policies toward the region and Iran would be a leading
election topic. Just because it no longer is does not make it any less
important.
The US’ relationship with Tehran has rarely been far from the headlines
throughout Donald Trump’s presidency. Quitting the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (JCPOA) was a bold but long overdue move. While angering some, it
finally shone the spotlight on the deal’s flaws — namely its permissive approach
to terror funding, its silence on Tehran’s ballistic missile program, and its
failure to recognize Iran’s destabilizing impact on the region.
The JCPOA had other fundamental flaws, including the sunset clauses that will
remove the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program once the deal expires. Iran’s
military sites, such as Parchin, which is reportedly where nuclear development
and research is conducted, were also left out of the reach of International
Atomic Energy Agency inspectors. In addition, there was no reference to Iran’s
ballistic missile program, which is a core pillar of its foreign policy and
appears to be linked to the nuclear program. Furthermore, Iran’s breakout time —
the amount of time needed to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for one
nuclear bomb — was set at only one year. Nevertheless, COVID-19 may finally
achieve a necessary step toward regional stability by pulling the Iranian regime
back from the billions of dollars and other resources it lavishes on violent
proxies across the Middle East’s hotspots. The devastation the virus has wreaked
across Iran will hopefully see a necessary turn inwards and recognition of the
need to reallocate these resources to domestic rebuilding. It is imperative that
the US pressures the Iranian regime into changing its destructive behavior.
For four decades, the regime has been squandering the nation’s resources on
terror and militia groups, as well as its nuclear program, which is estimated to
have cost the regime more than $100 billion. But this unforeseen pandemic may
finally starve Iran’s proxies and militia groups, such as Hezbollah and the
Houthis, of the funds they have taken for granted for so many years.
Some of Iran’s authorities have already publicly announced they do not have the
money required to pay their mercenaries abroad. In an April TV interview, for
example, Parviz Fattah, the head of the Mostazafan Foundation, stated: “I was at
the (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) Cooperative Foundation. Haj Qassem (Soleimani,
the Quds Force commander killed by a US drone strike in January) came and told
me he did not have money to pay the salaries of the Fatemiyoun (Afghan
mercenaries). He said that these are our Afghan brothers, and he asked for help
from people like us.”
But for whoever is US president next January, Iran won’t be the only front and
center Middle Eastern foreign policy problem. The US and the wider Western world
has long been able to depend on Turkey as its most powerful security ally in the
region, dating back to the start of the Cold War. Ankara’s presence in NATO has
been an indispensable source of stability and partnership in the West’s Middle
Eastern policy — a constant during times of broader instability. Alas, Turkey
has recently been cozying up to the Iranian regime and taking a hammer to this
once-ironclad relationship.
One need only look at the overtures Turkey has been making to Iran, Russia and
China to see where its international relations priorities lie. While the need
for a re-evaluation of US-Turkish relations is gradually becoming better
understood, Ankara’s close relationship with the Iranian regime and how,
together, they are increasingly operating counter to Washington’s foreign policy
agenda is less so.
The future of US-Iran ties will continue to be the defining feature of America’s
Middle East policy for years to come. An informed policy and substantive
approach toward the Iranian regime and Turkey must be taken by whoever is in the
Oval Office in January. It is imperative that the US pressures the Iranian
regime into changing its destructive behavior in the region, while re-evaluating
its relationship with Turkey.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist.
Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not
necessarily reflect Arab News' point-of-view
Middle East’s extremism and sectarianism can be traced back
to Iran
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/August 23/2020
As many have noted, you can’t change geography. According to an Arab saying,
“The neighbor comes before the home,” meaning that choosing good neighbors is
more important than buying the best house. Similarly, Iranians say, “A good
neighbor is far better than a distant brother.”
Before 1979, the Middle East managed a reasonable neighborly coexistence between
the nations on either side of the Arabian Gulf. Despite some political
differences and disputes over the Iranian occupation of the three Emirati
islands — Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs — all sides prioritized the
importance of harmony, transparency and integrity.
After the shah’s regime was deposed and the popular revolution of 1979 was
hijacked by the mullahs, however, the regional situation began to slide toward
chaos, with the emergence of fundamentalist orientations belonging to the Middle
Ages.
The region and the world were at peace with Iran until the Khomeinists came to
power, hijacking an uprising that desired freedom and imposing a medieval
ideology based on fanning the flames of religious and sectarian wars, and
carrying out countless ethnic and religious killings. The regime achieved this
via the use of mercenaries, with the aim of projecting its regional hegemony via
“exporting the revolution.”
In other words, the regime of Vilayat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic
Jurist) sowed the seeds of terrorism and sectarianism in the region, with the
new Iranian leadership taking it upon itself to spread chaos. To this end, the
regime established cultural centers affiliated with its hard-line Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in several countries, including Syria, Lebanon,
Yemen, Sudan, Nigeria, and Comoros. These centers were tasked with establishing
terrorist cells and spreading the regime’s fundamentalist doctrine. This Iranian
terrorism also targeted diplomatic missions inside and outside Iran, and even
extended to places of worship in Latin America.
Some may wonder about the motives behind this policy or perhaps the hostile
strategy pursued by the Iranian regime. We can claim with absolute confidence
due to geographic proximity and familiarity with Iran’s regime that the Arab
countries in the Middle East, particularly those in the Gulf, understand the
nature and reality of the Iranian regime all too well; far better than anybody
else.
In short, the Iranian regime is fully aware that its survival depends on
ignoring the demands of the Iranian people and the country’s ethnic and
religious minorities in favor of expansionism beyond its borders, or what we
might call “escaping forward.” This focus on projecting Iran’s power abroad is
helpful for the regime in distracting the Iranian people from its fundamental
shortcomings — otherwise its legitimacy would be at risk. The objective of
projecting power came about after the theocratic leaders hijacked and redirected
the revolution, establishing a theocratic regime whose foundations are laid
according to a narrow, proscriptive and sectarian understanding of the Islamic
religion. The regime turned the country from a secular state to a fundamentalist
sectarian theocracy, as set out in the Iranian Constitution’s article 12,
setting the scene for a dark historical period in the region based on inciting
sectarian sensitivities and perpetrating and supporting terrorism via the IRGC’s
proxies inside and outside Iran.
Tehran’s constant efforts to pull on the public’s heartstrings and depict itself
as an innocent victim of persecution have been exposed, with plentiful and
terrible evidence on the ground refuting its propaganda. The Iranian regime has
contributed directly and indirectly to the misery and death of millions of
innocent people in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and even within its own
boundaries. The regime also sent the IRGC and its affiliated militias to fight
in Syria and Iraq and admits it openly. When it comes to cohesion and harmony
between terrorist groups and the Iranian regime, Iran has harbored Al-Qaeda
leaders and personnel, providing them with all the necessary assistance and
helping them to launch attacks on Arab and Western interests.
While some may point to the chaos that has devastated many Arab countries, it is
important to look at the common denominator shared by these countries,
especially Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon: The Iranian regime’s interventions
via its terrorist militias led by the IRGC, which receives its directives from
Khamenei. As for the government of Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammed
Javad Zarif, they do not have the authority to stop these interventions or even
criticize them. Speaking to Zarif or discussing this issue with him is a waste
of time and effort.
Tehran’s constant efforts to pull on the public’s heartstrings and depict itself
as an innocent victim of persecution have been exposed.
Iran’s primary objective is to force Saudi Arabia to abandon its countermeasures
against Tehran’s destabilization of Arab countries. Iran’s regime wishes to be
free to export its ideology of devastation and destruction to the countries of
the region and to ignite more fires across the Arab world, from Lebanon in the
north to Yemen in the south. Arab countries have attempted to thwart Iran’s
destructive regional behavior via diplomatic and political means, repeatedly
warning of and clarifying the dangerous role it is playing, to no avail. Now,
however, Iran has gone too far with its damaging and destabilizing practices,
with Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, finding it imperative to take the
necessary steps to confront these interventions.
Iran’s ludicrous accusations against Saudi Arabia, claiming that the Kingdom
supports terrorism, have been exposed as lies, given the realities on the
ground. Indeed, Saudi Arabia has itself been a victim of terrorism and is among
the countries leading the regional efforts to combat this evil.
The whole world is aware of Saudi Arabia’s efforts, except for Iran, which
defines terrorism differently to the rest of the world. For Iran’s regime,
terrorism is defined as the efforts undertaken to counter its own reckless
actions.
As well as supporting the International Center for Counter-Terrorism and the
Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, Saudi Arabia is also a member of
the Global Coalition Against Daesh and it established the Islamic Military
Counter Terrorism Coalition, an alliance of 41 Islamic countries. In addition to
this, the Kingdom has donated tens of billions of dollars to the UN to support
its efforts in this area and cooperated with security agencies worldwide to
confront and thwart terrorist operations. We could ask Iran’s leaders to tell us
whether the terrorism of Al-Qaeda, Daesh and other groups poses a threat to
Iran, but we know it does not. We could also ask them what Iran has done to
combat this evil, other than issuing statements, but of course the answer is
nothing.
If it wished to, Tehran could be part of the ongoing international efforts to
combat terrorism. Iran could undertake concrete actions, such as suspending its
funding for mercenaries and militias; handing over the Al-Qaeda leaders hosted
on its soil; ending its incitement of religious and sectarian conflicts;
integrating itself into the world; and transforming itself from a sectarian
fundamentalist “revolutionary” entity into a normal state. It could also abandon
its pretense that some factions of the regime are “hard-liners” while others are
“reformist” as, in reality, both factions agree with the revolutionary
foundations that were laid by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and are maintained by
Ali Khamenei. Can Tehran do these things?
It is easy for Iran’s regime to make allegations, but it is difficult to verify
them. The policy of denial and deflection, always shifting the blame to others,
cannot hide or remove the truth. All the world needs to do is step back and
think for a moment in order to figure out when terrorism, sectarianism and
political Islam first emerged on the world stage and which “revolutionary” event
coincided with their emergence.
History proves that Saudi Arabia’s policies and positions have been firm and
unchanging, and the Kingdom has also not witnessed a political or ideological
transformation during the period when this disease of terrorism emerged. By
contrast, during the same period, the clerics of Iran ascended to power,
creating an extremist system of governance based on sectarianism, which was even
condemned by one of its main architects, the late Hussein-Ali Montazeri, as
neither Islamic nor republican.
The 1979 transformation in Iran was the spark and that lit the fires of
sectarianism and terror across the region. With help from other leaders and
movements, the so-called Islamic Republic led the region down the dark path it
is experiencing today.
*Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is Head of the International Institute for Iranian
Studies (Rasanah). Twitter: @mohalsulami
Turkey welcomes Egypt’s stance on contentious maritime
border
Yasar Yakis/Arab News/August 23/2020
Turkish-Egyptian relations have always had their ups and downs. The tensions
increased after Mohammed Morsi was ousted in 2013 and Abdel Fattah El-Sisi came
to power. It is common knowledge that Turkey’s attitude was motivated more by
its bias toward the Muslim Brotherhood than a democratically elected government.
The ups and downs continued in May, when an Egyptian journalist ventured to
write an article intimating that it was time for Turkey and Egypt to normalize
their relations. A few days later, the Egyptian authorities disowned the idea.
The fluctuations reached another level when Turkish president Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said this month that the intelligence agencies of the two countries had
maintained contacts and would continue to do so. Turkey’s presidential spokesman
Ibrahim Kalin last week brought further clarification by expressing his wish
that Egypt could play a positive role in Libya. He said: “We will be pleased if
Egypt, Qatar, Germany, Russia and Italy could contribute to the political
consultations.” We can assume that he would not have said so without Erdogan’s
full consent.
It is only natural for the intelligence agencies of these two important
countries in the Middle East to maintain contact, especially when they don’t
have resident ambassadors in each other’s capital.
A more tangible step was made on this subject this month, as Egypt came up with
a new attitude when it was demarcating its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) with
Greece. This may have escaped the attention of many observers, but it was
significant for Turkey. When Greece and Egypt agreed on the line separating
their EEZs, Cairo stopped short of defining the line that would separate Turkey
and Egypt’s EEZs.
This is important for Turkey because it is part of another contention on whether
Ankara and Cairo have common maritime borders in the Mediterranean. Greece
claims that the EEZ of its Kastellorizo island prevents Turkey’s EEZ from
reaching the Egyptian EEZ. Cairo agreed to mark the western part of the
Greece-Egypt EEZ, but chose to keep silent on the demarcation of the eastern
half because it did not want to become party to a contentious issue between
Turkey and Greece.
This may have escaped the attention of many observers, but it was significant
for Turkey. Egypt did not opt for this attitude only to please Turkey. It is
more logical to presume that it did so because the Greek approach on this
subject was causing the loss of several hundred thousand square kilometers of
EEZ.
Cairo’s silence on this issue was enthusiastically welcomed in the Turkish media
because it was perceived as a rejection of Greece’s claims regarding
Kastellorizo on the one hand and a goodwill gesture to Turkey for thawing their
bilateral relations on the other. The Kastellorizo issue is likely to remain on
the agenda for some time. Basically, it is a question of whether this island
should be allowed to have its own EEZ. As I have mentioned in previous articles,
Kastellorizo is a tiny island of just 7.3 square km, inhabited by about 400
people. It is 1.8 km from Turkey’s coast and more than 500 km from mainland
Greece. According to the Greek assumption, this tiny island creates an EEZ in
the Eastern Mediterranean 4,000 times bigger than its own land area.
The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) contains provisions that may
justify Greece’s thesis. For instance, article 121, paragraph 3, provides that:
“Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall
have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.” Greece concludes from
such provisions that inhabited islands should automatically be entitled to have
an EEZ. This approach is misleading because the UNCLOS contains other provisions
that negate Greece’s approach. For instance, paragraph 10 of article 76
provides: “The provisions of this article are without prejudice to the question
of delimitation of the continental shelf between States with opposite or
adjacent coasts.” In other words, Greece’s first step had to be a fair
negotiation with Turkey to delineate its EEZ. This could not be done, partly
because of the maximalist claims of both sides.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued several verdicts that
contradict Greece’s approach. One of them was its verdict on the Channel
Islands. There are three main islands in the English Channel archipelago —
Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney — surrounded by minor islets and rocks. Jersey is
located about 24 km from France and 146 km from the British coast. The ICJ
decided that Jersey should not be allowed to have an EEZ or a continental shelf.
Instead, its maritime jurisdiction area is confined to 22 km of territorial
waters. The Jersey example proves the incongruity of Greece’s claim to allow
Kastellorizo to have its own continental shelf — and Egypt’s attitude reconfirms
it. Whether this will lead to a thaw in Turkish-Egyptian relations is difficult
to tell.
*Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkey and founding member of the
ruling AK Party. Twitter: @yakis_yasar