LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
August 30/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 11/09-13:”‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on August 29-30/2019
U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Lebanese Bank
U.S sanctions Jammal Trust Bank for aiding and abetting Hezbollah
Security Council renews mandate of UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon
UN Security Council renews UNIFIL's mandate in Lebanon for another year
'Be Careful', Netanyahu Warns Hizbullah, Iran on Lebanon 'Missile Plants'
Report: One of Dahiyeh Drones was Supposed to Explode inside Buildin
Israel Says Hizbullah, Iran Intensifying Missile Efforts in Lebanon
Aoun Returns to Baabda, Says Mt. Lebanon War Won’t be Repeated
Cabinet Postpones Judicial Appointments, Approves Cyber Security Plan
President Aoun meets Iraqi Health Minister, expresses keenness on reinforcing cooperation
Hezbollah Prepares ‘Limited’ Response to Drone Attack
 Army, UNIFIL intensify patrols along border amid enemy flights over Marjayoun
Army, UNIFIL Intensify Patrols Along Southern Border
Berri Working on 'Ideas' to Address Economic Crisis
Arab Ambassadors Say Keen on Stability in Meeting with Hariri
Jabak meets Iraqi counterpart: To bolster cooperation, support Iraq's health sector
More Syrian Refugees Return Home from Lebanon
Lebanese Students Visit STL Marking Conclusion of IUP- ICLP’s 7th Edition
UNIFIL Head in Close Contact with Parties, Urges Maximum Restraint
Paris Urges Hizbullah Restraint to Pass 'Appropriate Resolution' on UNIFIL
Bukhari visits Adnan Qassar: Saudi Kingdom's support to Lebanon continues
Israel to Hizballah: A crushing Israeli response will come – even for a “limited reprisal”
Israeli city on Lebanese border celebrates 70 years with message for Hezbollah
Is The IDF Deploying Dolls Along The Lebanese Border?
Iran Accelerating Hezbollah's Precision Missile Program After Years of Failure, Israel Says

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 29-30/2019
Pompeo, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister discuss enhancing maritime security
Saudi Vice Minister of Defense meets US Secretary of Defense in Washington
UN Security Council condemns escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia
Zarif: US Should Honor Nuclear Deal if it Wants Talks
General Javad Ghaffari: Most Powerful Iranian Military Figure in Syria
Iran’s Adrian Darya tanker changes course away from Turkish coast
Merkel meets Palestinians’ Abbas for talks in Berlin
Gunmen kill 4 Iraqi soldiers at checkpoint in Anbar province
Erdogan discusses fighting in Syria’s Idlib with Trum
Erdogan says won’t allow US to delay Syria ‘safe zone’
Pompeo, Khalid bin Salman Agree on Dialogue for a Stable Yemen

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 29-30/2019
Israel to Hizballah: A crushing Israeli response will come – even for a “limited reprisal”/DEBKAfile/August 29/2019
Israeli city on Lebanese border celebrates 70 years with message for Hezbollah/Ahiya Raved/Ynetnews/August 29/2019
Is The IDF Deploying Dolls Along The Lebanese Border?/Jerusalem Post/August 29/2019
Iran Accelerating Hezbollah's Precision Missile Program After Years of Failure, Israel Says/Yaniv Kubovich/Haaretz/August 29/2019
The Israel-Iran Shadow War Escalates and Breaks Into the Open/David M. Halbfinger, Ben Hubbard and Ronen Bergman/The New York Times/August 28/2019
Israel Faces a Serious Escalation in its Proxy War with Iran/Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/August 29/2019
Iranian Women Fight for Freedom/Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/August 29/2019
Russia, US, China, and Superweapons/Tobin Harshaw/Bloomberg/August 29/2019
Netanyahu’s Wars on Both Iran and Israel/Uzi Benziman/Haaretz/August 29/2019
Israel empowered as Iran weakens/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/August 29/2019
UK’s Brexit divisions widened by Johnson/Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/August 29/2019
Lessons from Lebanon as Iraq’s PMU plan fails/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Arab News/August 29/2019

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on August 29-30/2019
U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Lebanese Bank
Naharnet/August 29/2019
The U.S. administration imposed sanctions Thursday on Lebanon’s Jammal Trust Bank over transactions allegedly linked to Hizbullah.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the bank “knowingly facilitates banking activities for Hizbullah.”“Jammal Trust has a longstanding relationship with a key Hizbullah financial entity and provides financial services to Hizbullah’s Executive Council and the Iran-based Martyrs Foundation. As part of today’s action, OFAC also designated Jammal Trust’s Lebanon-based subsidiaries Trust Insurance S.A.L., Trust Insurance Services S.A.L., and Trust Life Insurance Company S.A.L., for being owned or controlled by Jammal Trust,” the Treasury said in a statement.
Iran’s Martyrs Foundation “funnels money to the families of suicide bombers,” said Sigal Mandelker, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “The U.S. will continue to work with the Central Bank of Lebanon to deny Hizballuh access to the international financial system. This action is a warning to all who provide services to this terrorist group,” he added. “We regret that Hizbullah has brought hardship to the Shia community, in particular, and call upon the Lebanese Government to exert every effort to mitigate the impacts on innocent account holders who did not realize Hizbullah was putting their savings at risk. The United States is confident that the Central Bank of Lebanon and other Lebanese institutions, through their legal and regulatory policies and oversight functions, will continue to work to protect the stability and soundness of Lebanon’s financial system, which is critical to supporting a stable and prosperous economy,” the Treasury said in a statement. The U.S. Department of State had designated Hizbullah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in October 1997 and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in October 2001. Experts meanwhile told LBCI television that “the bank is small and these sanctions will not affect the banking sector.” “The total assets in Jammal Trust Bank amount to 0.39% of the assets of the Lebanese banking sector and the depositors’ money will be transferred intact to other banks,” the experts added. The Association of Banks in Lebanon meanwhile voiced regret over the sanctions on Jammal Trust Bank, reassuring that the measure will not affect the banking sector or JTB’s clients.

U.S sanctions Jammal Trust Bank for aiding and abetting Hezbollah
Georgi Aza/Annahar/ August 29/2019
It accused the bank of “assisting in, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or financial or other services to or in support of, Hezbollah.”
BEIRUT: The U.S Treasury sanctioned Thursday Lebanese bank Jammal Trust Bank for “knowingly facilitating banking activities” for the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. It accused the bank of “assisting in, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or financial or other services to or in support of, Hezbollah.” It also designated Jammal Trust’s Lebanon-based subsidiaries Trust Insurance S.A.L., Trust Insurance Services S.A.L., and Trust Life Insurance Company S.A.L., for being owned or controlled by Jammal Trust.  “Treasury is targeting Jammal Trust Bank and its subsidiaries for brazenly enabling Hizballah’s financial activities. Corrupt financial institutions like Jammal Trust are a direct threat to the integrity of the Lebanese financial system,” a statement released by the Treasury read.

Security Council renews mandate of UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon
UN News/August 30/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/77987/%d9%85%d8%ac%d9%84%d8%b3-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%85%d9%86-%d8%a7%d8%b9%d8%aa%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%ac%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%b9-%d9%82%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%a7-%d9%8a%d9%82%d8%b6%d9%8a-%d8%a8/
The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon for one year.
In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member body requested the Secretary-General to look at ways to enhance the efforts of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), including through increasing the mission's visible presence, through patrols and inspections, within its existing mandate and capabilities.
Originally established in 1978, UNIFIL was greatly reinforced after the 2006 fighting to oversee the cessation of hostilities between Israel and the Lebanese group Hizbollah. It is tasked with ensuring that the area between the so-called 'Blue Line' – separating Israel and Lebanon – and the Litani River is free of unauthorized weapons, personnel and assets. It also cooperates with the Lebanese Armed Forces so they can fulfil their security responsibilities.
UNIFIL's initial mandate included confirming the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, and assisting the Government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area.
The Council affirmed its strong continuing commitment to the existing mandate of UNIFIL, also urging all parties to cooperate fully with the Security Council and the Secretary-General to make tangible progress towards a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution as envisioned in resolution 1701, which helped end the 2006 hostilities in Lebanon between Israel and the Hizbollah. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the Council's unanimous decision to extend UNIFIL mandate until 31 August 2018, his Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.
The Secretary-General reiterated that UNIFIL, in close cooperation with the Lebanese Armed Forces, will continue to enhance its operational activities to effectively implement its mandate, and urged the international community to further support the Government of Lebanon in this regard, the Spokesman said.
The Secretary-General also emphasized the need for the parties to build on the prevailing calm, to focus on the goal of a permanent ceasefire and to act proactively to address all outstanding issues in the implementation of resolution 1701 and other relevant Security Council resolutions, Mr. Dujarric added.

UN Security Council renews UNIFIL's mandate in Lebanon for another year
News Agencies/August 30/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/77987/%d9%85%d8%ac%d9%84%d8%b3-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%85%d9%86-%d8%a7%d8%b9%d8%aa%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%ac%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%b9-%d9%82%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%a7-%d9%8a%d9%82%d8%b6%d9%8a-%d8%a8/
The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to renew for another year the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. The measure backing the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) calls on the Lebanese government to boost its naval capabilities, with the ultimate aim of drawing down the mission's maritime taskforce. That requirement had been pushed by the United States, which also demanded better enforcement of the UN arms embargo against Hizballah. "It is unacceptable that Hizballah continues to flout this embargo, Lebanon's sovereignty, and the will of the majority of Lebanese people," US diplomat Rodney Hunter said after the vote. He blasted Iran for supporting Hizballah and said the group is a "direct threat" to peace and threatens the stability of Lebanon. But the text adopted by the Council does not mention Hizballah by name, despite US demands.
"All states shall take the necessary measures to prevent, by their nationals or from their territories or using flag vessels or aircraft, the sale or supply of arms and related materiel to any entity or individual in Lebanon other than those authorized by the Government of Lebanon or UNIFIL," the resolution states.
A US diplomat said the aim of shrinking the UN maritime force, which consists of half a dozen military ships equipped with weapons and radar, was to cut the UNIFIL mission costs. First set up in 1978, UNIFIL was beefed up after the 2006 Lebanon War, tasked with guaranteeing a ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from a demilitarized zone on the border.  UNIFIL now has 10,500 troops on the ground monitoring the ceasefire and helping the Lebanese government secure its borders. Israel's position on having an international naval force so close to its territory remains unclear.

'Be Careful', Netanyahu Warns Hizbullah, Iran on Lebanon 'Missile Plants'
Naharnet/August 29/2019
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said Israel “will not stand idly by” regarding alleged efforts by Iran and Hizbullah to produce precision-guided missiles in Lebanon, warning them to “be careful.” “Today we unveiled a part of Iran and Hizbullah’s precision-guided missile project. We are determined to foil it,” Netanyahu said in a tweet on his Arabic-language Twitter account. “The publication is aimed at clarifying that we will not stand idly by and will not allow our enemies to obtain lethal weapons to be used against us. I told them this week to be cautious about their actions and today I tell them: ‘Be careful,’” the Israeli premier added. Earlier in the day, Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said Israel has detected an "intensified" effort by Iran and Hizbullah to establish missile-production facilities in Lebanon. He released the names of four officials, led by an Iranian brigadier general, allegedly leading the effort. Netanyahu first accused Hizbullah of setting up secret rocket factories last year, claiming in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly that the group had them near Beirut airport, hiding them among civilians. The Lebanese government denounced his statements at the time and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil took dozens of ambassadors and diplomats on a tour of locations near the airport to dispel the allegations. Britain’s The Times newspaper had reported Tuesday that a suspected Israeli drone attack on a Hizbullah site in Beirut’s southern suburbs targeted “crates believed to contain machinery to mix high-grade propellant for precision guided missiles.”The incident marked the first such "hostile action" in Lebanon since a 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel, the party's chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday, vowing retaliation. The incident also came hours after Israel said it bombed Iranian posts in Syria to thwart a drone attack on northern Israel. Nasrallah said two Hizbullah fighters were killed in Israel’s Syria strike, threatening a response from Lebanon. Israel has suggested that the two Lebanese young men who were killed in the raid were drone experts operating within Iran’s Quds Force under General Qassem Soleimani. Israel did not claim responsibility for the drone attack in Hizbullah’s bastion in Beirut’s southern suburbs but Netanyahu said Monday that Israel was ready to use "all means necessary" to defend itself against Iranian threats "on several fronts."

Report: One of Dahiyeh Drones was Supposed to Explode inside Building
Naharnet/August 29/2019
A new report emerged Thursday about the twin drone attack that targeted the Beirut southern suburb of Mouawad on Sunday, which Hizbullah has blamed on Israel. “The first drone was supposed to open a hole in the wall of the building to allow the entry of the second drone into the building to blow it up from the inside,” al-Jadeed TV reported. “Parts of the drone’s body and wings were made of the explosive C4 material instead of fiber,” the report said, noting that the drones were supposed to target the fourth or fifth floor of the building. “One of the two floors houses Hizbullah’s electronic media center,” al-Jadeed added. One of the two drones fell without exploding as the second exploded in the air on Sunday, damaging the building which houses Hizbullah’s media center in Mouawad. Three people in the center were injured by flying glass. Britain’s The Times newspaper had reported Tuesday that the attack targeted “crates believed to contain machinery to mix high-grade propellant for precision guided missiles.” The incident marked the first such "hostile action" in Lebanon since a 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday, vowing retaliation.

Israel Says Hizbullah, Iran Intensifying Missile Efforts in Lebanon
Associated Press/Naharnet/Agence France Presse/August 29/2019
The Israeli army on Thursday accused Iran and Hizbullah of stepping up attempts to build precision-guided missile production facilities in Lebanon, saying these efforts are putting Lebanese civilians in danger. The announcement comes at a time of rising tensions. In recent days, Israel has struck Iranian targets in Syria and Iraq, and Hizbullah has accused Israel of a drone strike in Lebanon. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Thursday that Israel has detected an "intensified" effort by Iran and Hizbullah to establish missile-production facilities in Lebanon. He released the names of four officials, led by an Iranian brigadier general, allegedly leading the effort. "Iran and Hizbullah are endangering Lebanon," he said. Conricus estimated that Hizbullah currently has some 130,000 rockets, an arsenal he said does not by itself amount to "accurate" weaponry, even if such projectiles constitute a "threat.""However if they are able to produce a precision-guided arsenal ... that will create a different and much more dangerous situation," he added. Conricus accused Hizbullah of being "willing to strike civilians and strategic facilities... in order to create a massive amount of casualties and damage in Israel.""Hezbollah does not yet have an industrial capability to manufacture precision guided missiles" but continues to work towards that goal, he added. Hizbullah denies harboring missile factories. While the group's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah boasts about having highly accurate missiles, he denies that the group produces them. The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee meanwhile announced on Twitter that the alleged missile project is “threatening the foundations of the Lebanese state and is being run in total secrecy by Hizbullah,” warning that the suspected activity “might threaten the security, economic and social situations in Lebanon.” “Between the years 2013-2015, and amid the civil war in Syria, Iran started attempts to transfer ready-to-use precision-guided missiles to the Hizbullah organization in Lebanon via Syrian territory,” Adraee tweeted. “Most of these attempts were foiled through strikes attributed to Israel and Hizbullah failed to obtain those missiles,” the spokesman added. “In light of Iran and Hizbullah’s failures in this regard, Iran decided in the year 2016 to introduce a crucial change in its modus operandi: instead of transferring complete missiles, it started transforming existing missiles to precision-guided missiles on Lebanese soil, through transferring precision technology material from Iran in addition to missiles from Syria,” Adraee added.
He claimed that recently Iran and Hizbullah have been seeking to “speed up the project of producing precision-guided missiles through an attempt to set up production and transformation plants in several regions in Lebanon.”Adraee also said that “senior Hizbullah official Fouad Shukur, who is on the U.S. State Department’s list of wanted individuals,” and three Iranian generals are in charge of the alleged project. Britain’s The Times newspaper had reported Tuesday that a suspected Israeli drone attack on a Hizbullah site in Beirut’s southern suburbs targeted “crates believed to contain machinery to mix high-grade propellant for precision guided missiles.” The incident marked the first such "hostile action" in Lebanon since a 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel, Nasrallah said on Sunday, vowing retaliation. The incident also came hours after Israel said it bombed Iranian posts in Syria to thwart a drone attack on northern Israel. Nasrallah said two Hizbullah fighters were killed in Israel’s Syria strike, threatening a response from Lebanon. Israel has suggested that the two Lebanese young men who were killed in the raid were drone experts operating within Iran’s Quds Force under General Qassem Soleimani.
Israel did not claim responsibility for the drone attack in Hizbullah’s bastion in Beirut’s southern suburbs but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel was ready to use "all means necessary" to defend itself against Iranian threats "on several fronts."

Aoun Returns to Baabda, Says Mt. Lebanon War Won’t be Repeated
Naharnet/August 29/2019
President Michel Aoun on Thursday returned to the presidential palace in Baabda after spending two weeks at the summer presidential palace in Beiteddine. Aoun ended his residency in Beiteddine by holding a meeting with a popular delegation comprising Chouf residents and Free Patriotic Movement members. “I reassure everyone without exception, and the few who perhaps still have some concern, that what happened in Chouf during the war years was a historic mistake, or a series of mistakes committed by various parties,” Aoun said in a speech. “What happened was humanely unacceptable and irrational,” the president added, noting that “such things have happened throughout history.”“One must live with the living, not with the grudges of the past,” he stressed. He added: “Hereby lies the importance of our ability to overcome all these events, because if we stay back there we cannot build the past. Of course we must not forget them so that we don’t repeat our mistakes, but I stress to you and reiterate that what happened has ended forever, and I’m responsible for my words.”Aoun also noted that the latest deadly incident in Qabrshmoun “gave everyone a lesson on the need not to repeat it.”
“As long as I’m with you, there should be no fear,” the president went on to say.

Cabinet Postpones Judicial Appointments, Approves Cyber Security Plan
Naharnet/August 29/2019
The Cabinet held a general meeting on Thursday at Beiteddine Palace, the summer presidential residence in Chouf region chaired by President Michel Aoun. The Cabinet discussed 40 items on its agenda as well as emergency issues in the wake of Sunday's Israeli drone attack in the southern Beirut suburb.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Aoun held a closed-door meeting before joining the ministers. The National News Agency said the two men discussed the latest developments in Lebanon. Briefing reporters after the session, Information Minister Jamal al-Jarrah said the issue of judicial appointments was not discussed in the session. The Cabinet meanwhile approved a cyber security plan aimed at protecting the government's communications, ministries and telecom networks, Jarrah added. As for the Israeli attacks, the minister said "the country is united over condemning the Israeli aggression and the most important message is the message of national unity in the face of what happened."Later in the day, Aoun left the Beiteddine palace and returned to the presidential palace in Baabda where he will stay until next summer.

President Aoun meets Iraqi Health Minister, expresses keenness on reinforcing cooperation
NNA - Thu 29 Aug 2019
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, on Thursday confirmed that Lebanon was keen on reinforcing Lebanese-Iraqi relations in all fields. The President had received Iraqi Minister of Health, Alaa Alwan, this morning at Beiteddine Palace, and said that he welcomed the existing cooperation between the two countries in the hospitalization and health fields,. Aoun alsolauded the ongoing coordination in what concerns profiting from Lebanese scientific and medical expertise to help advance the Iraqi health sector, which has suffered the ramifications of the turmoil that has been rocking Iraq within the past years." During the meeting attended by Minister of Health, Jamil Jabak, President Aoun highlighted the advancement incurred within the drug manufacturing business in Lebanon, as well as the academic scientific progress in terms of health and medicine. He confirmed the return of Lebanese medical personnel to spotlight in this field. President Aoun told the Iraqi minister to deliver his regards to the Iraqi President, Barham Saleh, and his wishes of success to him. As for the Iraqi people, he wished them security, stability, and prosperity. After the meeting, Minister Alwan made a declaration in a press conference: "We were honored today to meet his Excellency the President during our visit to the Lebanese Republic. It is of utter joy to us that he will provide his ultimate support for boosting cooperation between Iraq and Lebanon in the field of health. We had a quick word on the prospects of cooperation, especially in terms of rebuilding the Iraqi health sector and strengthening cooperation in all fields between the Lebanese and Iraqi health sectors. His Excellency has expressed full support of this cooperation, not only health wise."
The Iraqi Health Minister went on to relay the President's desire to reinforce cooperation and joint work with all Iraqi sectors. "We are speaking of implementing the memorandum of understanding between Iraq and Lebanon. God willing, at the end of this visit, we will have established an execution plan to start the soonest possible," he added. For his part, Minister Jabak said, "We have given the President an insight into all the items of the memorandum of understanding agreed on with the Iraqi State. We will begin implementing this memorandum for the sake of Lebanon and Iraq's benefit. I would like to announce that we established a hotline, to be reached at 1214, to solve any problem that might be faced by the Iraqi brothers staying in Lebanon to be hospitalized and treated," "We will work on crystallizing what was included in the memorandum that we established with the Iraqi State so that we get results the soonest possible in terms of drug manufacturing and exporting to Iraq, as well as exporting professional and medical personnel. We want to help our brotherly country Iraq with all the potential Lebanon has," he added. Later during the day, President Aoun received the political consultant of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, former Minister Ghattas Khoury, maintaining that "this stay has left a positive effect in what concerns reinforcing reconciliation and the existing brotherly relations in Mount Lebanon region." President Aoun also held with Minister Khoury a tour d'horizon on the current political situation, and about the means to confront the most recent developments, these being the Israeli aggression on Beirut's southern suburb. Council of Ministers session. On another level, the President of the Republic will head a cabinet session at Beiteddine Palace, with an agenda comprising of 40 items.

Hezbollah Prepares ‘Limited’ Response to Drone Attack
Beirut - Mohamed Choucair/Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 29 August, 2019
Lebanon is gearing up for a potential Hezbollah response to an Israeli drone attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut, near the party’s media office, last Sunday. There have been reports that Hezbollah would not hesitate to respond to Israel’s aggression, particularly after Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah warned that his party will not allow such an attack to take place in Lebanon. The party is now choosing the right timing, by assessing the reaction of Tel Aviv in light of the preparations of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to run in next month’s elections, and his hopes to retain the premiership. No party in Lebanon can predict the nature of the military action that Hezbollah plans to launch, but according to local sources, the party’s response would be “limited and well-studied” to avoid an all-out war with Israel. A well-informed ministerial source told Asharq Al-Awsat on Wednesday that a limited Hezbollah response would lead to an Israeli aggression similar to the 2006 war, and would pave the way for international intervention to restore calm and respect the rules of engagement under Security Council Resolution 1701. The source praised the diplomatic efforts initiated by Prime Minister Saad Hariri following the attack. “Hariri’s efforts are unconditionally backed by President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri,” he said, adding that the PM is working on two goals – guaranteeing international protection for Lebanon and preventing an Israeli attack by forcing Tel Aviv not to respond to a possible Hezbollah retaliation. Hariri is also keen on avoiding differences among Lebanese political parties. Amid Hariri’s moves, the deputy leader of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, warned that his party would deliver a “surprise” response in the coming days to a series of Israeli raids. However, the Hezbollah No 2 ruled out that the atmosphere is one of war. “It is one of a response to an attack,” he said. “Everything will be decided at its time.” Hezbollah on Tuesday said the attack in Beirut's southern suburbs involved two drones -- one which exploded and the other that crashed without exploding because of a technical failure. The attack came after Israel on Saturday launched strikes in Syria to prevent what it said was an Iranian attack on Israel. Nasrallah on Sunday said two Hezbollah members were among those killed in the strikes.

 Army, UNIFIL intensify patrols along border amid enemy flights over Marjayoun
NNA - Thu 29 Aug 2019
The town of Adaisseh is witnessing cautious calm and no Isareli enemy military activity at the border, while the Lebanese Army and the UNIFIL are running patrols along the southern border, the NNA correspondent said.
It is worth noting that two enemy MK reconnaissance aircraft flew over the villages and towns of Marjeyoun at medium altitude.

Army, UNIFIL Intensify Patrols Along Southern Border
Naharnet/August 29/2019
Lebanese army troops and UNIFIL peacekeeping forces ran patrols on Thursday along the southern border amid heightened tensions in the wake of Israel’s drone attack in south Beirut. NNA said the town of Adaisseh witnessed cautious calm and no Isareli military activity at the border. An Israeli MK reconnaissance aircraft flew earlier over the villages and towns of Marjayoun at medium altitude. On Wednesday evening, the Lebanese Army said the military fired at an Israeli drone that flew over one of its posts in Adaisseh, forcing it to return to Israel, according to an army statement. One Israeli drone came down and another exploded early Sunday in a Hizbullah stronghold in the southern Beirut suburb of Mouawad, damaging a Hizbullah media center and lightly injuring three people who were in the building. On Monday, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command reported an overnight Israeli drone attack on its base in the Lebanese eastern border region of Qusaya. In the wake of the Mouawad incident, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed to "do everything" to thwart Israeli drone attacks in Lebanon, threatening to down any unmanned aircraft that violates Lebanon’s airspace. He also pledged to retaliate from Lebanon against an Israeli airstrike that killed two Hizbullah members in Syria.

Berri Working on 'Ideas' to Address Economic Crisis
Naharnet/August 29/2019
Speaker Nabih Berri said on Thursday he is going to suggest several ideas at the economic meeting at Baabda that could resolve Lebanon’s economic crisis, al-Joumhouria daily reported. “I will put forward a number of ideas during the (economic) meeting which would put the difficult economic crisis on the way to a solution,” said Berri to the newspaper. “We have to reach decisive results that enable us to move immediately to rescue measures with substantial steps, qualitative measures and decisions that constitute a direct declaration of an economic emergency to move the country to safety,” added the Speaker.
“The meeting can come up with two main points: the first, to complete the 2020 state budget within a low budget and on the constitutional date. Second, to address the electricity crisis which accounts for one third of the public deficit, while also emphasizing the implementation of all stalled laws,” added Berri.
Lebanese officials are expected to hold an expanded economic meeting at Baabda Palace on Monday to discuss ways to contain the repercussions after the credit ratings downgrade by international agencies. The dialogue session will be attended by senior political figures representing various parliamentary blocs to discuss the economic situation and take “painful” measures if necessary to put the economic situation on track. On Friday, international rating agencies FitchRatings bumped Lebanon down to "CCC" while Standard & Poor's kept it at "B-/B" with a negative outlook.

Arab Ambassadors Say Keen on Stability in Meeting with Hariri
Naharnet/August 29/2019
Prime Minister Saad Hariri held talks Wednesday at the Grand Serail with the ambassadors of Oman, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Tunisia, Egypt, the UAE, Kuwait, Palestine, and the Jordanian Chargé d'Affaires, in the presence of former Minister Ghattas Khour. After the meeting, Ambassador of Kuwait Abdul Aal al-Qinai, said: “Prime Minister Hariri explained the Lebanese viewpoint on the recent events in Beirut and the southern suburbs. We as Arab countries stated our support and attachment to the security and stability of Lebanon and the measures or policies it takes to preserve its security, stability and territorial integrity.”“Arabs are keen on the stability of Lebanon and want it to be safe from all that threatens its security and stability,” he added.

Jabak meets Iraqi counterpart: To bolster cooperation, support Iraq's health sector
NNA -Thu 29 Aug 2019
Iraqi Minister of Health, Dr. Ali Alwan, initiated his visit to Lebanon by meeting with Minister of Public Health, Dr. Jamil Jabak, discussing with him an array of topics on the agenda of the meeting, especially the means to implement the memorandum of understanding signed during the latter's visit to Iraq last July. The meeting was attended by Iraqi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Al-Amiri, and ranking dignitaries. Following the meeting, the two ministers held a press conference during which Minister Jabak welcomed Alwan and the accompanying delegation, pointing out that the two sides are in the process of implementing the initial agreement signed in Baghdad to achieve cooperation between Lebanon and Iraq Lebanon. "We will put all our capabilities at the service of supporting Iraq, the brotherly country, in terms of training cadres and personnel in the management of hospitals and nursing staff." Al-Alwan, in turn, expressed his happiness to visit Lebanon, pointing out that "the discussion centered on a serious and intensive implementation of what was agreed upon during the very important visit of Minister Jameel Jubak to Baghdad, which contributed to strengthening cooperation and joint action between Lebanon and Iraq."
Alwan expressed his gratitude for the initiatives taken by Minister Jabak to ensure that Iraqi patients are treated equally to Lebanese patients. "Iraq is facing a major challenge in rebuilding its health system due to the conditions it has been through for three decades," he said. "So we are interested in coordinating at a high level to train Iraqi staff and exchange visits," he stressed.

More Syrian Refugees Return Home from Lebanon
Naharnet/August 29/2019
Several Syrian refugees were expected to leave Lebanon on Thursday on buses in the latest wave of returns to their war-torn country, the state-run National News Agency said. NNA said the General Security agency organized the return through the crossings of Masnaa, al-Abboudieh, al-Qaa and Arsal through al-Zamarani crossing on the Syrian border. Fifteen buses from Syria entered into Lebanon through the Masnaa border crossing to transport around 960 refugees to their villages in Syria, added NNA. Five buses headed to Masnaa, 6 to Beirut and 4 to the South. Lebanon hosts around 1.5 million Syrians who fled the civil war across the border. Thousands of Syrians have headed home from Lebanon in such returns coordinated by the authorities in Beirut and Damascus.

Lebanese Students Visit STL Marking Conclusion of IUP- ICLP’s 7th Edition
Naharnet/August 29/2019
Nineteen students from Lebanese universities visited the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) as part of a three-day study visit to The Hague, the Netherlands, from 25 to 29 August 2019, the STL said in a press release on Thursday. The study trip was rewarded to the students who obtained the highest grades in the final exam of the Inter-University Programme on International Criminal Law and Procedure (IUP-ICLP). The visit at the STL included briefings by representatives of the four organs – the Chambers, Registry, Office of the Prosecutor and Defence Office – and a courtroom tour. The group visited the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Residual Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (IRMICT). They also learnt about the work of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC), the T.M.C Asser Instituut, and were briefed by the Legal Staff Advisor on International Crimes from the District Court of The Hague. “We were able to get an in-depth knowledge of the internal work of the STL and its different organs and met reputable and experienced international judges,” stated one of the students. The study visit to The Hague concludes the seventh edition of the IUP-ICLP. The course, the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa region, was set up in 2011 in cooperation with the Asser Instituut in The Hague and 11 Lebanese universities. The Programme is aimed at law, political science and international affairs students in Lebanese Universities, currently at no cost to them. The curriculum covers topics such as the history of international law, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes of terrorism and the role of the STL, the rights of the accused in international criminal proceedings, and the role of victims. Almost one thousand Lebanese students have graduated from the IUP-ICLP since its establishment in 2011.

UNIFIL Head in Close Contact with Parties, Urges Maximum Restraint
Naharnet/August 29/2019
UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti announced Wednesday that the U.N. force is closely monitoring the developments in Lebanon and the broad region. In this context, Tenenti stressed in an interview with the National News Agency the importance of ensuring security and stability along the Blue Line, saying UNIFIL is keenly working with the parties on the ground to achieve this end. The U.N. official added that UNIFIL works in close coordination with the Lebanese Army, day and night, along the Blue Line. Tenenti also said that UNIFIL Commander Major General Stefano Del Col is in full contact with all parties to prevent any misunderstanding or incident that could expose the cessation of hostilities to danger. He added that UNIFIL’s chief is urging all parties to exercise maximum restraint, in words and deeds, and to take advantage of the coordination mechanism, assumed by UNIFIL, to raise important issues amid the current tensions. One drone came down and another exploded early Sunday in a Hizbullah stronghold in the southern Beirut suburb of Mouawad, damaging a Hizbullah media center and lightly injuring three people who were in the building. In the wake of the incident, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed to "do everything" to thwart Israeli drone attacks in Lebanon, threatening to down any unmanned aircraft that violates Lebanon’s airspace. He also pledged to retaliate from Lebanon against an Israeli airstrike that killed two Hizbullah members in Syria.

Paris Urges Hizbullah Restraint to Pass 'Appropriate Resolution' on UNIFIL
Naharnet/August 29/2019
Presidency Affairs Minister Salim Jreissati held talks Wednesday at his office in Beiteddine with French embassy charge d’affaires Salina Grenet-Catalano. “He discussed with her the general situations in Lebanon, especially the security situation after the Israeli aggression in Beirut’s southern suburbs and the steps that the Lebanese state is taking to address its aftermath,” the National News Agency said. “Grenet-Catalano relayed her country’s stance that stresses the need for restraint, especially that Lebanon is on the verge of the extension of the term of the U.N. force operating in the South (UNIFIL) and that France along with other countries has contributed to endorsing an ‘appropriate resolution’ that would extend the U.N. force’s term for another year,” NNA added. Jressati for his part briefed the French diplomat on President Michel Aoun’s stances on the latest developments. One drone came down and another exploded early Sunday in a Hizbullah stronghold in the southern Beirut suburb of Mouawad, damaging a Hizbullah media center and lightly injuring three people who were in the building. In the wake of the incident, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed to "do everything" to thwart Israeli drone attacks in Lebanon, threatening to down any unmanned aircraft that violates Lebanon’s airspace. He also pledged to retaliate from Lebanon against an Israeli airstrike that killed two Hizbullah members in Syria.

Bukhari visits Adnan Qassar: Saudi Kingdom's support to Lebanon continues
NNA - Thu 29 Aug 2019
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, Waleed Bukhari, affirmed Saudi Kingdom's ongoing support to Lebanon and its general stability. Ambassador Bukhari's words came on Wednesday in the wake of his visit to former Minister Adnan Qassar, and his brother, Adel, at Fransabank Group's general headquarters, where he presented well-wishes on the holy Adha Eid. Discussions during the visit reportedly touched on the cordial relations between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, and means of bolstering bilateral cooperation in the interest of both countries. Al Qassar highlighted the importance of the Lebanese-Saudi relations, deeming them as "significant and strategic."

Israel to Hizballah: A crushing Israeli response will come – even for a “limited reprisal”
موقع دبيكا: إسرائيل تحذر حزب الله من أن ردها سيكون ساحقاً حتى في حال رد محدود من قبله
DEBKAfile/August 29/2019

Israel categorically rejected Hizballah’s proposal of a “limited reprisal” to close the books on the IDF’s weekend attacks in Beirut and East Lebanon. The offer, as a formula for averting a general flareup of hostilities, was made during an exchange of back-channel messages on Tuesday, Aug. 27. However, as DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources reveal here, it was flatly rejected by Israel who replied unequivocally that any Hizballah attack on a military or civilian target -“limited” or not – would elicit a crushing Israeli blow against its forces in Lebanon. For added muscle, the Israeli Air Force has been maintaining a round-the-clock presence over Lebanon, ready to strike Hizballah for any aggression without delay.
The leaders of Iran’s Lebanese surrogate must therefore take into account that even a single rocket fired against Israel would bring forth a deadly Israeli counterblow and they have no way of predicting where that blow will fall.
It is worth noting that not a single shot has been fired against the IAF aircraft over Lebanon, despite Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s threat on Sunday to shoot down every Israeli aerial intruder.
According to intelligence estimates, Hizballah will try hard to stage an attack in the coming three weeks to take advantage of the pre-election climate prevailing in Israel in the run-up to its Sept. 17 general election.
In line with the US-Israel alliance, President Donald Trump called on Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi, when they met at the weekend G-7 summit in Biarritz, to do what he can to rein in the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip and keep them from joining the violent campaign Iran and Hizballah are waging against Israel. El-Sisi responded by inviting a Hamas delegation to Cairo on Tuesday, Aug. 27 to warn them that Egyptian-Gaza links would be instantly severed if Hamas or Jihad struck Israel again.
DEBKAfile stands firmly by its report that the real object of Israel’s drone attack in Beirut’s Dahya district last Saturday was the targeted assassination of a senior Iran-appointed liaison officer – not a missile factory, as falsely reported by The London Times and presented as fact by domestic media.

Israeli city on Lebanese border celebrates 70 years with message for Hezbollah
 يديعوت أحرونوت/بلدة كريات شمونه الإسرائيلية الحدودية تحتفل بذكرى تأسيسها السبعين وتبعث برسالة إلى نصرالله

Ahiya Raved/Ynetnews/August 29/2019
'Nasrallah is the one who should be scared,' say mayor of Kiryat Shmona, which took its share of rocket fire during the 2006 Second Lebanon War; local security officer laments lack of government funding to reinforce bomb shelters
Despite the growing security tensions in the north, thousands turned out Wednesday for the 70th anniversary celebrations for Kiryat Shmona, the small city on the Lebanese border that bears the scars of multiple rocket attacks. The central Hayarden Street was turned into a thoroughfare, and the city's park hosted a huge event that included a concert by X Factor winner and city native Eden Ben Zaken. "Making sure her concert went without a hitch was the only stress we felt around here," said the city's mayor Avichai Stern. "We don’t feel any security pressures here," he said. "I think there's a bit of a confusion, (Hezbollah leader Hassan) Nasrallah is the one who should be scared. This area is always on the verge of blowing up, but if we let that affect us we wouldn't be able to live normally, let alone celebrate anything." He added, however, that the event had been fully coordinated with the security forces. "If there were any substantial fear of something happening, I don’t believe the security forces would approve having such a public event outside," Stern said.
The vigilance in the north is also present in Kiryat Shmona, which took a significant amount of rocket fire during the 2006 Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah. Locals report more IDF vehicles on the roads, police stand ready to close roads near the border and the occasional buzz of drones can be heard overhead - but this state of readiness does not really drip into the everyday lives of the people of the Golan Heights and Upper Galilee. The heightened alert is in response to an IDF airstrike on the outskirts of the Syrian capital and an alleged Israeli drone attack on a Hezbollah communications center in Beirut, as well as the threats made by Hezbollah in response. There was also evidence of brewing tensions on the other side of the border when Lebanese soldiers shot at IDF drones on Wednesday. Many of the visitors to Kiryat Shmona share the positivity and optimism of the locals, as they visit natural sites and tourist attractions on the last week of the schools' summer vacation.
One such visitor was Avi Einhorn from Beit Shemesh in central Israel, who said that he and his family were deliberately avoiding the news while on holiday. "We arrived here on Sunday, and the first thing we did was shut off the radio," he said. "We don’t have any idea what this is all about. We'll be home on Friday and then we'll catch up on recent events. In the meantime we are hiking and having fun. I'm sure if there was any real threat the army would tell us to evacuate." Local bike shop owner Assaf Deutch says recent events have not had any effect on the number of visitors, and estmiates that there are some 15-20% more visitors than last summer.
The main issue, he says, is the summer heat and not Nasrallah. Few of the visitors to the area have been traveling and camping, trusting that the security forces will protect them from any attacks. We have "God and the IDF to watch over us," says one tourist. The local authorities are updated by the IDF about situational readiness, and the directions are clear: keep up your normal routine. The local council's security officer Asaf Langleben says that the regional authority is always prepared to quickly shift from a daily routine to emergency footing. "This week was very good to us tourism-wise," he says. "Current events will have no effect on the opening of the academic year in any way. We're all practiced and ready, and at the start of the new school year we'll go over security readiness and so on." What does frustrate Langleben, however, is the indefinite delay of the NIS 5 billion the government was supposed to deliver to the local councils in order to reinforce local shelters and protect its citizens. "We don't even have the 15 seconds those communities surrounding the Gaza Strip have," he says. "If you don't have a shelter at home, you're basically totally unprotected. The only thing you can do in that situation is lay flat on the floor."

Is The IDF Deploying Dolls Along The Lebanese Border?
جيروساليم بوست/هل ينشر الجيش الإسرائيلي الدمى على طول الحدود اللبنانية؟

Jerusalem Post/August 29/2019
Hezbollah affiliated reporters mock Israel's military after mannequins are seen in vehicles along the border.
With tensions at an all-time high along the Israel-Lebanon border, Hezbollah militants have been cracking jokes at the Israeli military, which has seemingly placed mannequins in military vehicles.
Pictures began circulating on Hezbollah-affiliated Twitter accounts early Thursday morning of seemingly abandoned vehicles, but taking a closer look at them in the morning, a figure is clearly seen. But it’s not an IDF soldier, but rather a mannequin in military uniform.
Ali Shoeib, a correspondent for Hezbollah's al-Manar satellite TV tweeted that the deployment of dolls “is a joke” and bragged about the group’s capabilities, saying that “the enemy has yet to learn that he is facing a smart, professional, courageous and faithful group that can defeat them.”
Hezbollah’s Al-Ahed news site tweeted that, “fearing Hezbollah’s awaited response, Israeli occupation army places statues inside military vehicles on the border with Lebanon.”Ali Mortada, a reporter with pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV posted several pictures, including a selfie along the border.
“No Israelis on the borders. Where's the army that can't be defeated? They're placing toys instead of real soldiers. Start distributing diapers because your day is nearing,” he tweeted, adding “By the way, Adraee, where are you tweeting from? From which shelter?”Mortada was referring to the IDF's Arabic-language spokesman, Maj. Avichai Adraee. In another tweet, Mortada mocked Adraee and the military saying “come out of your hole, where are you? I just crossed into Palestine. I will carry out an operation for Hezbollah.”
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit told The Jerusalem Post that they don’t comment on foreign reports.
The army’s Northern Command has been on high alert since Saturday night after the Israeli Air Force carried out strikes against a cell belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force in Syria, which was on its way to launch armed drones to attack targets in northern Israel.
Several hours later, two explosive-laden drones were seen in the skies of the Lebanese capital Beirut. One crashed after being pelted with stones while the other exploded, causing significant damage to Hezbollah’s precision missile project.
Israel is expecting a limited strike against military targets in northern Israel. Two sources close to Hezbollah were quoted by Reuters as saying that the Lebanese terror group is preparing a "calculated strike" against Israel.
A reaction "is being arranged in a way which wouldn't lead to a war that neither Hezbollah nor Israel wants," one of the sources said. "The direction now is for a calculated strike - but how matters develop, that's another thing."
The IDF began limiting traffic on roads along the Lebanese border Tuesday morning over fears of retaliation by Hezbollah, as tensions remain high following Israeli attacks.
“In light of an operational status assessment, it was decided that the movement of certain military vehicles on several roads would be possible only on the basis of individual approval and in accordance with the situational assessment of the situation,” the IDF said in a statement given to The Jerusalem Post.
The order was given by the military to all units in the area on Tuesday morning, restricting travel up to five kilometers from the border, and ordering all troops to carry weapons and wear protective equipment should their request to drive on the border roads be approved.

Iran Accelerating Hezbollah's Precision Missile Program After Years of Failure, Israel Says
يانيف كوبوفيتش/هآرتس: تقول إسرائيل بأن إيران تسرِّع في تطوير برنامج حزب الله الصاروخي الدقيق بعد استمر لسنوات
Yaniv Kubovich/Haaretz/August 29/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/77961/%d9%8a%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a%d9%81-%d9%83%d9%88%d8%a8%d9%88%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%aa%d8%b4-%d9%87%d8%a2%d8%b1%d8%aa%d8%b3-%d8%aa%d9%82%d9%88%d9%84-%d8%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%8a%d9%84-%d8%a8%d8%a3/

Lebanese group and its Iranian backers have begun producing dozens of precision missiles in Lebanon, but have not found a way to mass produce them
Iran and Hezbollah have sped up their precision-guided missile project over the past year after six years of failure, Israel's military said on Thursday amid tensions following a strike near Beirut that Lebanon attributed to Israel.
Hezbollah possesses dozens of precision missiles, the army said as it released a comprehensive overview of the missile project for the first time, but has until now failed in its attempts to mass produce them within Lebanon.
Hezbollah has kept the project compartmentalized, and the group has denied its existence in the face of foreign attempts to discover its details, including after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the project's existence in a September 2018 United Nations speech.
The military added that while the Lebanese government has ignored the project, Israel still holds it responsible.
Iran began attempting to deliver precision missiles – which can be accurate within a few meters of a target – to Hezbollah via Syria since 2013.
The Iranians assumed that the civil war raging in Syria would help disguise this activity, but Israel's lack of intervention in that war made it possible to foil such efforts. According to current assessments, Israel destroyed most of the weapons deliveries meant for Syria and Lebanon up until the end of 2015. Iran therefore decided in 2016 to instead transfer parts to Lebanon for building missiles there. The parts were delivered through three routes: official crossings at the Syria-Lebanon border; on civilian flights to Beirut; and on ships arriving at Beirut's port. However, over the next two years Iran and Hezbollah decided that the project was not likely to become operational by the intended date – September 2018. According to the military, this led to them accelerating their plans.
On Wednesday, Haaretz reported that Sunday's strike in Lebanon hit a central component of Hezbollah's missile program. It damaged a planetary mixer — an industrial-sized mixer weighing about eight tons, needed to create propellants that can improve the engine performance of missiles and increase their accuracy. The machine was hit, as far as is known, shortly before Hezbollah planned to move it to a secured site.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who accused Israel of carrying out this strike and a second one – which killed two Lebanese Hezbollah fighters near Damascus a few hours earlier – threatened retaliation for both strikes. The Israeli army is bracing for a reprisal, possibly within the next few days.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Monday that Lebanon had a right to defend itself, what he said were Israeli drone strikes to a "declaration of war."

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 29-30/2019
Pompeo, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister discuss enhancing maritime security
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English/Thursday, 29 August 2019
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman have discussed the need for stronger maritime security and countering the Iranian regime’s destabilizing activities in the region. According to a statement released by the US State Department on Wednesday, Pompeo also discussed with Prince Khalid bin Salman “US support for a negotiated resolution between the Republic of Yemen government and the Southern Transitional Council and thanked the minister for Saudi Arabia’s efforts to mediate the dispute.”“The Secretary and the minister agreed that dialogue represents the only way to achieve a stable, unified, and prosperous Yemen,” the statement read. The Saudi Deputy Minister of Defense had arrived in the United States on Tuesday on an official visit. During the visit, Prince Khalid bin Salman is expected to meet several officials to discuss bilateral relations and issues regarding the security and stability of the region.

Saudi Vice Minister of Defense meets US Secretary of Defense in Washington

Reuters/Thursday, 29 August 2019
Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz held a meeting on Thursday with US Defense Secretary Mark Esper at the Pentagon. They reviewed bilateral relations, enhanced strategic cooperation between the two countries, and opportunities to develop them, enhancing defense capabilities and deepening bilateral partnership, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). In their opening comments, Esper and Prince Khalid said they intended to work toward strengthening the bilateral relationship between the two countries. The meeting dealt with regional and international developments, including combating terrorism, countering Iran’s destabilizing hostile practices in the region, the joint effort within the framework of the initiative to protect international navigation, the continued efforts of the coalition forces in supporting the legitimacy of the Republic of Yemen, and a number of issues of mutual interest. The meeting comes just after Prince Khalid bin Salman met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during which the two discussed the situation in Yemen, which remains tense. They also reviewed bilateral cooperation in various fields, and discussed developments and events in the region. The importance of protecting freedom of navigation in international waters and the role of the Coalition in supporting legitimacy in Yemen to restore security and stability was also discussed.

UN Security Council condemns escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English/Friday, 30 August 2019
The UN Security Council condemned “in the strongest terms” on Thursday the escalation of Houthi attacks on civilian infrastructure in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and called on the militias “to cease such attacks immediately and without preconditions.”In a statement approved by all 15 Council members, the Security Council said such attacks, which have killed, injured and endangered civilians, posed a serious national security threat to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as a wider threat to regional security, and threaten to undermine the UN-led political process. The Council underlined its full support for Martin Griffiths, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, and called on the Government of Yemen, the Houthis and all other parties to engage constructively and continuously with him.  The Council commended the tireless efforts of the Special Envoy to support the parties to implement the Stockholm Agreement and to achieve a political solution to the conflict in Yemen. The statement expressed particular concern regarding recent developments in South Yemen, citing attempts to seize the State’s institutions using violence, calling on all involved parties to observe self-restraint and to preserve Yemen’s territorial integrity.
The Security Council welcomed and fully supported the efforts by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to convene a dialogue in Jeddah to resolve the situation, and called on all parties “to engage constructively to make those efforts a success.”
The Security Council expressed its deep concern at the escalation in violence and the loss of life and injuries in Aden, Saa’da, Sanaa, Shabwa and other parts of Yemen. It called on all parties to fulfil their obligations under international humanitarian law, including in relation to ensuring the protection of civilians, particularly to children and access for humanitarian organizations, and their obligations under international human rights law, as applicable. The Security Council underlined the need to ensure accountability for violations in Yemen. The Security Council also underscored the importance of accelerating steps to put the al-Hodeidah agreement in force, calling for free movement of UN mission personnel and equipment without any obstacles.

Zarif: US should honor nuclear deal if it wants talks
Reuters, Kuala Lampur/Thursday, 29 August 2019
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday the United States must observe the 2015 nuclear deal and stop engaging in “economic terrorism” against the Iranian people if Washington wants to meet for talks. Tensions between Tehran and Washington have risen since US President Donald Trump’s administration last year quit an international deal to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and began to ratchet up sanctions. Iran, which has slowly been breaching the nuclear deal in retaliation for US sanctions, has threatened further violations in early September unless it receives sanctions relief. “The United States is engaged in an economic war against the Iranian people and it won’t be possible for us to engage with the United States unless they stop imposing a war and engaging in economic terrorism against the Iranian people,” Zarif told reporters in Kuala Lumpur after addressing a forum on security in the Islamic world. “So if they want to come back into the room there is a ticket that they need to purchase and that ticket is to observe the agreement,” he said, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal. Zarif said Iran does not want to meet for the sake of meeting. “We need to meet if there is a result,” he said. Trump said this week he would meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani under the right circumstances to end the confrontation over the 2015 nuclear deal and that talks were underway to see how countries could open credit lines to keep Iran’s economy afloat. Rouhani has said Iran would not talk to the United States until all sanctions were lifted. Zarif paid an unexpected visit to the Group of Seven summit in France at the weekend, holding talks on the sidelines of the meeting with French officials. He is scheduled to meet Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad later on Thursday.

EU backs US-Iran talks but says nuclear deal must stay

AFP, Helsinki/Thursday, 29 August 2019
The EU’s diplomatic chief said on Thursday that the bloc would support talks between the US and Tehran, but only if the current nuclear deal with Iran is preserved. Tehran and Washington have been locked in a bitter standoff since last year when US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the 2015 deal that gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its atomic program. The idea of direct talks between Washington and Tehran as a way out of the crisis has grown this week after Trump mooted the idea and the new US defense secretary urged Iran’s leaders to engage.
The EU has desperately sought to stop the deal from collapsing completely, arguing it is the best way to stop Iran developing nuclear bombs. EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini gave a cautious welcome to the idea of negotiations, after Trump said on Monday he was ready to meet Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani within weeks. “We are always in favor of talks, the more people talk, the more people understand each other the better, on the basis of clarity and on the basis of respect,” Mogherini said as she arrived for a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers in Helsinki.
But she added “first and foremost what is existing needs to be preserved” - specifically the 2015 deal known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA. “We will always advocate for the full respect by all sides of the UNSC resolutions and that includes the JCPOA,” she said.
At the G7 summit in Biarritz, Trump showed openness to French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal of a summit with Rouhani. US Defense Secretary Mark Esper followed up on Wednesday by urging Tehran to engage, but Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted Washington must respect the deal and halt what he called “economic terrorism” against his country.

General Javad Ghaffari: Most Powerful Iranian Military Figure in Syria
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 29 August, 2019
Security services in Tel Aviv marked Iranian general Javad Ghaffari as the most powerful Iranian military figure in Syria, claiming he remains under the direct command of al-Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani. The services leaked information to the media that Ghaffari is the mastermind of a recent plot to attack Israel with drones. The security report indicated that Ghaffari is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War and one of the leaders of al-Quds Force. He currently serves as the commander of the Iranian forces in Syria and leads the Iranian entrenchment efforts in the war-torn country. Ghaffari leads tens of thousands of Shiites, from various nations, who operate throughout Syria, including Damascus, Aleppo and the country's east. Ghaffari has recruited the fighters, trained them and supervised the attack, said the report. Ghaffari personally supervised the recruitment of elements responsible for plotting the drone attacks on Israeli targets, which Tel Aviv claims a recent bombing near Damascus, has thwarted his mission. Israel on Saturday launched the strikes to prevent what it said was an Iranian attack on Israel. Israeli Army spokesman revealed that Hezbollah commanders Yasser Ahmad Daher and Hassan Youssef Zbib were killed in the strike along with two other members, who were trained to use drones in Iran. The report stated that al-Quds Force wanted to launch killer drones into Israeli territory from the Arneh area in retaliation for recent Israeli attacks on Iranian sites in Iraq. The two drones were set to be flown on August 22, followed by another attack on the night of August 24. Other sources said that in 2016, around 7,000 fighters led by Ghaffari participated in besieging Aleppo, Syria. In April 2018, Syrian opposition websites reported that Ghaffari was transporting and distributing pro-Iranian militia elements from the countries of the region, especially Iraq and Lebanon, as well as Afghanistan, to implement the scheme of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in establishing a road link between Tehran and Beirut. Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced the launch of its social media pages in the Farsi language. A spokesman said though the decision to set up Farsi accounts was reportedly taken in recent months, it was now a good opportunity for Iranians to see what Soleimani is doing with their money.

Iran’s Adrian Darya tanker changes course away from Turkish coast
Reuters, Istanbul/Thursday, 29 August 2019
Iranian tanker Adrian Darya, at the center of a dispute between Washington and Tehran, has changed course away from the Turkish coast, Refinitiv ship tracking data showed on Thursday. The tanker, formerly called Grace 1, was released from detention off Gibraltar in mid-August after a five-week standoff over whether it was carrying Iranian oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.

Merkel meets Palestinians’ Abbas for talks in Berlin
The Associated Press, Berlin/Thursday, 29 August 2019
Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany continues to believe a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians is the only way for both peoples “to live in peace and security.”Merkel stressed her support for a two-state solution ahead of talks on Thursday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Chancellery in Berlin. Abbas says, “we appreciate Chancellor Merkel’s efforts to create multilateral cooperation aside from unilateral solutions to create stability and peace in the world.”He stressed the importance of Germany’s role in the Middle East and thanked the country for its financial support for Palestinians’ health services, education and the strengthening of civil society. Germany is one of the biggest donors to the Palestinians having given them some 110 million euros ($121.8 million) in 2018.

Gunmen kill 4 Iraqi soldiers at checkpoint in Anbar province

Reuters, Falluja/Thursday, 29 August 2019
Unidentified gunmen shot dead four Iraqi soldiers and wounded seven more at a military checkpoint in Anbar province on Thursday, two security sources said. The attack occurred near Garma, a town 50 km (30 miles) northwest of Baghdad, in the early hours of Thursday morning. In a separate incident early in the day, three policemen were shot and wounded by unnamed gunmen at a security checkpoint in Jalawla, Diyala province, northeast of the capital. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack. Iraq declared victory over ISIS terrorist group, which once held large swathes of the country, in December 2017, but the militants have since switched to hit-and-run attacks aimed at undermining the Baghdad government. The extremists are known to operate in Anbar and Diyala despite having lost territorial control there. ISIS has claimed several attacks on Iraqi forces this year.

Erdogan discusses fighting in Syria’s Idlib with Trump

AFP/Thursday, 29 August 2019
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed with his US counterpart Donald Trump to continue cooperation on Syria’s Idlib to avert new humanitarian crises, Ankara said on Wednesday. The pair “agreed to continue cooperation for the protection of civilians in Idlib where regime attacks continue, and prevention of new humanitarian crises” in a phone call late Wednesday, the Turkish presidency said. Bombardment by the Syrian regime and its ally Russia killed 16 civilians including seven children in the country’s northwest on Wednesday, a monitor said, as Damascus presses an offensive on Idlib near the Turkish border. After months of heavy bombardment, the Russian-backed forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched an offensive against Idlib, the last major province of Syria outside government control. The fighting in Idlib comes despite a deal between Russia and rebel backer Turkey last year to try to avert a full-scale offensive in the region. Earlier on Wednesday, air raids hit near a Turkish military post in the area of Sheir Maghar, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, after Ankara vowed to take necessary steps to protect its troops deployed across the border. Erdogan on Tuesday said the situation in Idlib had put lives of the country’s soldiers at risk and vowed necessary steps would be taken when needed, after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Erdogan says won’t allow US to delay Syria ‘safe zone’

AFP, Ankara/Thursday, 29 August 2019
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed Turkey would not allow the US to delay the establishment of a “safe zone” in northern Syria, in comments published on Thursday. Ankara and Washington earlier this month agreed after difficult talks to set up a buffer zone between the Turkish border and Syrian areas controlled by the US-backed Kurdish YPG militia. The NATO allies agreed to set up a joint operations center which Turkey said at the weekend was at full capacity. “We will never allow a delay similar to that in Manbij. The process should advance swiftly,” Erdogan said, according to CNN Turk broadcaster. Turkey and the United States in May last year agreed a road map including the withdrawal of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) from Manbij in northern Syria. “The agreement made with the US towards clearing the east of the Euphrates (river) from the YPG and setting up a safe zone is the right step,” Erdogan said after returning from talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said the YPG was “pulling a trick in Manbij” and had not withdrawn. Turkey has repeatedly accused the US of delaying the previous deal. Ankara says the YPG is a “terrorist” offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984. The PKK is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara, the US and the European Union. But the US worked closely with the YPG in the fight against ISIS, a terrorist group. Turkey-US relations have been particularly tense over American support to the YPG but other issues remain, including the failure to extradite a Pennsylvania-based Muslim preacher blamed for the 2016 failed coup in Turkey. But Erdogan said joint US-Turkey patrols would “start soon” as part of the latest agreement for northern Syria. He said Turkish forces and armored vehicles were already at the border, adding: “We are in a position where we can do anything at any moment.” Turkey repeatedly threatened to launch a third cross-border offensive in Syria against the YPG until the US-Turkey agreement.
Previous offensives by the Turkish military supporting Syrian rebels took place against ISIS in 2016 and against the YPG in early 2018.

Pompeo, Khalid bin Salman Agree on Dialogue for a Stable Yemen
Washington - Heba El Koudsy/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 29 August, 2019
Saudi Deputy Minister of Defense Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have stressed that dialogue represents the only way to achieve a stable, unified, and prosperous Yemen. State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said following talks between Pompeo and Prince Khalid at the State Department on Wednesday that discussions focused on the situation in Yemen. Pompeo stressed US support for a negotiated resolution to the Yemeni crisis, said Ortagus. They also “discussed a broad range of bilateral and regional issues, including the need for stronger maritime security in order to promote freedom of navigation,” in addition to “the Iranian regime’s destabilizing activities in the region.”Pompeo said on his Twitter account that he had a “productive” meeting with Prince Khalid. He said it was “very important” for the unity, stability, and prosperity of Yemen that the Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council resolve their dispute. The Saudi Deputy Minister of Defense is set to hold meetings with top US defense officials during his visit to Washington. Ahead of his talks with Prince Khalid, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said during a joint press conference with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford at the Pentagon on Wednesday that the US helps the Arab Coalition led by Saudi Arabia for defensive purposes.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 29-30/2019
The Israel-Iran Shadow War Escalates and Breaks Into the Open
ديفيد م. هالبفينجر/بن هوبارد /رونين بيرجمان/ نيويورك تايمز: الحرب الخفية بين إسرائيل وإيران تتصاعد وتظهر إلى العلن
David M. Halbfinger, Ben Hubbard and Ronen Bergman/The New York Times/August 28/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/77952/%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%af-%d9%85-%d9%87%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a8%d9%81%d9%8a%d9%86%d8%ac%d8%b1%d8%8c-%d9%88%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%87%d9%88%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%af%d8%8c-%d9%88%d8%b1%d9%88%d9%86%d9%8a%d9%86/
ERUSALEM — Israel has carried out a series of attacks across the Middle East in recent weeks to prevent Iran from equipping its Arab allies with precision-guided missiles, drones and other sophisticated weapons that could challenge Israel’s defenses.
The attacks represent a new escalation in the shadow war between Iran and Israel, which has broken into the open and threatens to set off a wider confrontation.
In one 18-hour period over the weekend, an Israeli airstrike killed two Iranian-trained militants in Syria, a drone set off a blast near a Hezbollah office in Beirut’s southern suburbs and an airstrike in Qaim, Iraq, killed a commander of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia.
Israel accuses Iran of trying to establish an overland arms-supply line through Iraq and northern Syria to Lebanon. The attacks, only one of which Israel has publicly acknowledged, were aimed at stopping Iran and signaling to its proxies that Israel will not tolerate a fleet of smart missiles on its borders, officials and analysts said.
Subscribe for original insights, commentary and discussions on the major news stories of the week, from columnists Max Fisher and Amanda Taub.
“Iran is building something here in the region,” said Sima Shine, a former head of research for Israeli intelligence, now a scholar at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “What’s changed is that the process reached a level in which Israel has to act differently.”
Iranian officials said the Israeli attacks would not go unanswered. Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force, who oversees covert military operations outside Iran, said on Twitter that “the Zionist actions are insane and will be their last.”
While Iran has not publicly acknowledged the transfer of missile technology, an Iranian with knowledge of Iran’s regional efforts said that in the past year Iran had shifted its focus from training its proxy forces for ground battle in Syria and Iraq to equipping them with high-tech weapons and training.
Leaders on all sides say they do not want an all-out war, but the accelerating pace of violent strikes, often with cheap drones and other covert technologies, has raised the possibility that even a minor attack could spiral into a larger conflict. And public taunting, saber-rattling and domestic politics are all contributing to an atmosphere of volatility and brinkmanship.
Israel acknowledged carrying out the airstrike in Syria on Saturday, which it said was to prevent militants from launching an explosives-laden drone into Israel.
The drone blast near Beirut early Sunday destroyed what Israeli officials described as machinery vital to Hezbollah’s precision-missile production effort. Israel’s responsibility for that strike, the aim of which was first reported by The Times of London, was confirmed by two officials briefed on the operation.
In Iraq, bases belonging to Iranian-backed paramilitary groups have been attacked repeatedly in recent weeks, and their leaders have accused Israel, saying Israeli drones had hit their vehicles in Qaim, killing one commander. Israel carried out at least one of the attacks, on a base north of Baghdad on July 19, and American officials have said that Israel carried out others.
On Wednesday, the Lebanese Army said it had fired on two of three Israeli drones that breached Lebanese airspace before returning to Israel.
The flare-ups highlight how Iran’s opportunistic expansion in much of the Middle East is coming up against fierce Israeli pushback.
“The military theater has been broadened by Israel in terms of the targeting of its attacks,” said Randa Slim, an analyst at the Middle East Institute in Washington. “It is no longer about Iranian presence in Syria. It is about Iran’s network in the region.”
For years, as unrest and conflict have weakened Arab states, Iran has moved in, building strong ties with local forces that benefit from its patronage while expanding its influence and amplifying the threat to Israel.
Iran pioneered this approach by building Hezbollah into Lebanon’s most formidable military force, with tens of thousands of trained fighters and an arsenal believed to contain more than 100,000 rockets and missiles pointed at Israel.
More recently, Iran has strengthened its regional network by providing arms and expertise to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, militias in Iraq and pro-government forces in Syria. Iran has also strengthened cooperation between its allies: Hezbollah operatives from Lebanon have trained fighters in Iraq and Yemen and sent aid to Palestinian jihadist movements, and Iran has airlifted thousands of militiamen from Iraq and elsewhere into Syria to help President Bashar al-Assad defeat a rebellion there.
The lives of the two militants killed by the Israeli strike in Syria over the weekend illustrate the borderless nature of the Iranian network. The fighters, Hassan Zabeeb and Yasser Daher, grew up in Lebanon, studied aviation engineering in Iran and returned to Lebanon to work with Hezbollah, according to the Lebanese news media.
Iran calls its regional network the “axis of resistance.” While its members operate with significant autonomy in their own countries, they share the broader goal of combating American, Israeli and Saudi influence in the Middle East. Having militarized allies across the region also serves as a deterrent against Israeli and American strikes on Iran, since any such attacks could elicit violent responses elsewhere.
Israel’s efforts to hinder Iranian expansion in recent years have focused largely on Syria, where Israel has carried out more than 200 airstrikes since early 2017 on suspected weapons convoys, bases and other sites associated with the Iranian war effort.
Israel mostly avoided killing Hezbollah fighters in Syria and attacking inside Lebanon, which could have provoked counterstrikes. This led to an unwritten understanding — often called the rules of the game — about where and how their conflict would and would not play out.
The attacks last weekend appeared to break the rules by killing two Hezbollah fighters in Syria and reaching into the heart of a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut.
Raising temperatures further are brash public statements on both sides, which seem intended as much for domestic audiences as for each other.
Israel’s military has taken to taunting its adversaries on social media: After the airstrike in Syria, it ridiculed General Suleimani.
TO: Iranian Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani,
RE: Last Night “We will carry out a large-scale attack of killer drones on the ‘Zionist entity’ from Syria.” It sounded good in your morning meeting, didn’t it?
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 25, 2019
“Israel knows how to defend itself and to pay back its enemies,” Mr. Netanyahu said on Tuesday.CreditAbir Sultan/Agence France-Presse — Ge
On Tuesday, it launched a Twitter account in Persian to try to undermine him with the Iranian public.
Addressing his followers over the weekend, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, vowed to retaliate, shouting his determination to prevent attacks in Lebanon from becoming frequent.
“We in the Islamic resistance, we will not allow for this type of path, no matter the cost!” he said. He did not say how or when his forces would respond.
“I suggest to Nasrallah to calm down,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel responded mockingly on Tuesday. “Israel knows how to defend itself and to pay back its enemies. I say the same to Qassim Suleimani: be careful with your words and even more so with your actions.”
Some analysts suggested that the approaching Israeli election encouraged Mr. Netanyahu’s tough stance, while Mr. Nasrallah also could not appear to be weak at a time when American sanctions have hurt his group’s finances.
Talal Atrissi, a sociologist who studies Hezbollah at Lebanese University, said he expected the group to retaliate against Israel to prevent attacks in Lebanon from becoming commonplace.
Alluding to Israel’s national elections on Sept. 17, he added: “There are elections, and Netanyahu needs to show that he is protecting Israel, but if there is no response, he’ll keep doing it. It won’t just be the election. It will become a new strategy.”
Officials and analysts said the recent uptick in strikes, and their spread into Iraq and Lebanon, came in response to adjustments to Iran’s strategy.
One involved General Suleimani’s efforts to maintain supply lines for shipments of arms and equipment from Iran. Until about a year ago, according to a senior Middle Eastern intelligence official, Iran used unmarked or Iranian commercial planes flying into the Damascus airport to reach Hezbollah or Quds Force units in Syria.
But repeated Israeli airstrikes drove Iran to reroute supplies through airfields in northern Syria instead.
When Israel struck those fields, too, General Suleimani moved to set up a land route. That route goes from Iran through Iraq, where drivers and vehicles are often changed to elude surveillance, before crossing into northern Syria.
The Israeli attack on July 19 at Amerli base, north of Baghdad, struck a shipment of guided missiles bound for Syria. It was the first time Israel had carried out an airstrike in Iraq since it destroyed a nuclear reactor near Baghdad in 1981, when Saddam Hussein was in power.
Israel has been working to prevent Hezbollah from manufacturing its own precision-guided missiles since early 2017, using a combination of disclosures, warnings and threats, Israeli analysts say.
Prevented from military action by its understanding with Hezbollah and a desire to avoid war, Israel at first tried to weaponize its intelligence gathering, hoping that exposing Hezbollah’s missile project as a threat to regional security would create international pressure to quash it.
That approach culminated in a speech by Mr. Netanyahu to the United Nations last September, in which he showed aerial photos of what he said were three factories for precision-guided missiles in downtown Beirut.
Ofek Riemer, a former Israeli military intelligence officer who writes frequently on national security, called the public-relations tactic “coercive disclosure.”
But he said that phase appeared to have ended with Sunday’s blast in Beirut.
He cautioned that the explosion in Beirut still appeared well short of an all-out Israeli attempt to stop Hezbollah’s precision-guided missile project by military means.
“We’re still in the signaling business, as I see it,” Mr. Riemer said. “We’re not really going head-on against this project. But it’s also signaling to the international community: Either we take action, and you don’t know where that leads, or you come in and try to pull strings and influence the Lebanese government, Hezbollah by proxy, or even Iran.”
**David M. Halbfinger reported from Jerusalem; Ben Hubbard from Beirut, Lebanon; and Ronen Bergman from New York. Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting from New York.

Israel Faces a Serious Escalation in its Proxy War with Iran
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/August 29/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14784/israel-proxy-war-iran
The fact that Israel has found it necessary to attack targets so far from its traditional area of military operations close to its immediate borders is indicative of the alarming escalation that has taken place in recent months in the threat Iran poses to Israeli security.
Earlier this week, in Lebanon, an Israeli drone was reported to have bombed a Palestinian base that is said to be funded by Iran. Israeli warplanes were also reported to have bombed Iranian military bases on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus.
The very idea of Washington sitting down with the Iranians at a time when it is continuing to threaten the security of its closest Middle Eastern ally would be unconscionable.
The reality is that there can be no meaningful dialogue between Washington and Tehran on a future deal so long as Iran remains committed to its long-standing policy of seeking the wholesale destruction of the Jewish state.
Israel was responsible for the recent attack on an Iranian military base in Iraq, which was being used to assemble medium-range missiles with the capability to hit targets in Israel. The threat was deemed so important that senior Israeli officers decided to launch a daring bombing raid that required F-35 stealth warplanes to penetrate Saudi airspace to achieve their objective. Pictured: An Israel Air Force F-35. (Image source: Israel Air Force/Wikimedia Commons)
The recent confirmation by US military officials that Israeli warplanes were responsible for the recent attack on an Iranian military base in Iraq demonstrates the alarming extent to which the so-called proxy war between Tehran and Jerusalem has escalated in recent weeks.
According to senior Israeli security sources, spoken to on an off-the-record basis, the base in the northern Iraqi province of Salaheddin was targeted because they believed it was being used to assemble Iranian-made medium-range missiles with the capability to hit targets in Israel.
The threat was deemed so important that senior Israeli officers decided to launch a daring bombing raid that required F-35 stealth warplanes to penetrate Saudi airspace to achieve their objective. It is unclear whether the Saudis, who oppose Iranian meddling in Iraq but do not have diplomatic relations with Israel, gave permission for the Israeli warplanes to enter their airspace.
The attack, which took place on July 19, on the base run a group of local Shia militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilisation Forces, which are sponsored by Iran, is said to have resulted in the deaths of two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, as well as several fighters from the Iranian-backed Hizbollah militia.
To date, there has been no official confirmation from Jerusalem that Israel was responsible for the attack, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in the midst of campaigning for re-election in next month's poll, has dropped heavy hints that the Israeli military was responsible for the raid. As speculation mounted about Israel's involvement in the raid, the Israeli premier was reported telling a planning meeting in Jerusalem earlier this week, "We will deepen our roots and strike at our enemies. "
Now, the extent of Israeli involvement has been confirmed by the US, which has 5,000 troops based in Iraq, after military officials said Israel was responsible for carrying out the raid.
This is the first time that Israeli warplanes have attacked targets in Iraq since the famous Operation Babylon bombing raid in 1981 against the Osirak nuclear reactor being built by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as part of his drive to acquire nuclear weapons.
The fact that Israel has found it necessary to attack targets so far from its traditional area of military operations close to its immediate borders is indicative of the alarming escalation that has taken place in recent months in the threat Iran poses to Israeli security.
Furthermore, it comes at a time when Israel is undertaking military operations on numerous fronts to tackle the Iranian threat. Earlier this week, in Lebanon, an Israeli drone was reported to have bombed a Palestinian base that is said to be funded by Iran. Israeli warplanes were also reported to have bombed Iranian military bases on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus.
The recent increase in Israeli military activity reflects the lengths to which the Jewish state is prepared to go to defend itself against the increasingly potent threat Iran poses to the security of its citizens.
It also somewhat undermines the suggestion made at the G7 summit in Biarritz earlier this week that Iran is involved in secret talks to re-enter negotiations over its controversial nuclear deal.
Speculation that there could be a diplomatic breakthrough in the acrimonious stand-off between Washington and Tehran was based on the surprise appearance of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the French resort, apparently at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, the summit's host.
This prompted Donald Trump to suggest that he was prepared to meet with his Iranian counterpart, President Hassan Rouhani, if the circumstances were right.
Any genuine prospect, though, of such a meeting taking place, was quickly quashed after the Iranian leader said it could only happen if Washington ended its punitive sanctions regime against his country, a precondition no one in the Trump administration is likely to countenance.
The very idea of Washington sitting down with the Iranians at a time when it is continuing to threaten the security of its closest Middle Eastern ally would be unconscionable.
The reality is that there can be no meaningful dialogue between Washington and Tehran on a future deal so long as Iran remains committed to its long-standing policy of seeking the wholesale destruction of the Jewish state.
*Con Coughlin is the Daily Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 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.

Iranian Women Fight for Freedom

Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/August 29/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14773/iranian-women-freedom
"The Islamic Republic authorities say 'compulsory hijab' is the law and must be obeyed. However, bad laws must be challenged and changed." — Masih Alinejad, Iranian-American journalist and award-winning activist.
"The basis of this tyranny is the religious law that the government has been enforcing since the 1979 revolution. Women are second-class citizens, and essentially slaves in Iran. The international community needs to have the courage to delegitimize religious law and call it out for its tyrannical nature. Just as the free world delegitimized communism during the Cold War, it should do the same to religious law." — Nasrin Mohammadi, author of Ideas and Lashes: The Prison Diary of Akbar Mohammadi, about the torture and death in prison of her late brother; to Gatestone Institute.
"The international community should also focus on Iran, struggle to end that regime and other similar governments across the world. With Iran, it should also point out the corruption, where religion is used as an excuse to steal money and power from the people." — Nasrin Mohammadi.
"But we need support of the international community to raise this issue with Iranian authorities and take action." — Masih Alinejad.
Three Iranian women held in Tehran's notorious Qarchak prison were sentenced recently to what could amount to more than 10 years in prison. Their "crime"? Failing to wear headscarves, thereby defying the country's dress code. Pictured: An Iranian policewoman (left) warns a woman about her clothing and hair during a crackdown to enforce the regime's dress code, on April 22, 2007 in Tehran, Iran. (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
Three Iranian women held in Tehran's notorious Qarchak prison were sentenced recently to what could amount to more than 10 years in prison. Their "crime"? Failing to wear headscarves, thereby defying the country's Islamic dress code.
The women were apprehended after a video they posted online during International Women's Day went viral. In the clip, they are seen walking bear-headed on a Tehran metro and distributing flowers to female passengers.
"The day will come when women are not forced to struggle," one of them is heard saying, while another expresses hope that one day women in hijabs will be able to walk side-by-side with women who choose not to wear them.
The battle on behalf of a woman's right not to cover her head spurred Iranian-American journalist and award-winning activist Masih Alinejad – author, most recently, of The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran -- to found a social-media movement called "My Stealthy Freedom."
The movement, as part of its efforts, created the hashtag #WhiteWednesdays, where Iranian women can share photos and videos of themselves appearing in public places without headscarves -- or pictures of themselves wearing symbolic white head coverings and other articles of clothing -- and discuss their views on women's rights.
During the five years since its establishment, My Stealthy Freedom has received thousands of photos and videos and has attracted more than a million followers.
In a recent interview with Gatestone, Alinejad, who lives in "self-exile" in New York, said:
"For 40 years, the Islamic Republic authorities have used coercion, public shaming and violence to crack down on women. What is different now is that the women are pushing back and demanding their rights. I started My Stealthy Freedom campaign against the 'compulsory hijab' in 2014, and since then, it has grown massively, with initiatives such as White Wednesdays giving the regime constant headaches, because women have become braver about challenging the authorities for their civil rights.
"The Islamic Republic authorities say 'compulsory hijab' is the law and must be obeyed. However, bad laws must be challenged and changed. Today, the women fighting against the backward compulsory hijab law are the biggest challenge to the clerical regime in Iran and, like a river that will eventually overcome any obstacle, these women cannot be stopped.
"But we need support of the international community to raise this issue with Iranian authorities and take action."
Alinejad's writings and political advocacy have come at a great cost, however. As she wrote in the New York Times in 2018, she has not been able to visit Iran since 2009 for fear of arrest. Also, her family, who "still lives in the poor village where [she] was raised in northern Iran," has been intimidated by the regime – so much so that her sister publicly disowned her on prime-time Iranian television.
Referring to the two-hour interrogation to which Alinejad's elderly mother was subjected recently, Amnesty International expressed concern "that the authorities may feature statements she gave under duress in future propaganda videos, given their long-standing record of engaging in such abusive practices."
Non-violent human rights activists are often violently targeted by the Iranian regime. Akbar Mohammadi, the brother of the US-based Iranian women's rights activist, Nasrin Mohammadi, for instance, was arrested during the student uprising in 1999. Akbar was tortured and eventually killed after seven years in prison. Nasrin published the book Ideas and Lashes: The Prison Diary of Akbar Mohammadi in 2012, about the torture of her late brother.
"Iran's violent crackdown of women is just another example of oppression that the Iranian people go through every day," Nasrin Mohammadi told Gatestone.
"The basis of this tyranny is the religious law that the government has been enforcing since the 1979 revolution. Women are second-class citizens, and essentially slaves in Iran. The international community needs to have the courage to delegitimize religious law and call it out for its tyrannical nature. Just as the free world delegitimized communism during the Cold War, it should do the same to religious law.
"The international community should also focus on Iran, struggle to end that regime and other similar governments across the world. With Iran, it should also point out the corruption, where religion is used as an excuse to steal money and power from the people."
Another U.S.-based Iranian activist Nasim Basiri -- a teacher's assistant at Oregon State University's Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies department -- told Gatestone that, in spite of the risks involved, the feminist movement is growing in Iran.
Basiri said she believes that "foreign feminists can be allies and serve as a voice for Iranian women and women's rights activists."
She continued: "Many Iranian feminists believe that Western policies have favored the dictatorship in Iran that resulted in increased cultural and political violence against women. They do not want to experience what Afghan and Iraqi women have experienced because of wars. That does not lead to liberation and gives excuses to authoritarian regimes to silence women in the name of protecting the nation and fighting against 'imperialism.'"
Faranak Rostami, an Iranian refugee in Qatar, told Gatestone:
"Iranian women really want to exchange this regime for a liberal government. We need liberty and gender equality in all sectors. If we don't have that, we should be provided with refugee status abroad."
Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 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.

Russia, US, China, and Superweapons
Tobin Harshaw/Bloomberg/August 29/2019
Vladimir Putin is a man who loves his toys. He’s never happier than when blasting away with his Kalashnikov Chukavin sniper rifle, chasing cranes on a motorized hang-glider, “hunting” endangered Siberian tigers with a tranquilizer gun, scuba diving for ancient relics in the Black Sea or, of course, cruising on his three-wheeled Harley Davidson with his biker gang, the Night Wolves.
Even so, the world was taken aback by his gumption last March, when the Russian president announced a host of new superweapons, including a nuclear-powered cruise missile with essentially endless range; hypersonic glide missiles able to evade any ground-based defense; a nuclear-armed torpedo; and a laser-weapon array, the Peresvet, named after a warrior-monk who drove the Mongols out of Russia in the 14th century.
The West was skeptical, and was tragically proved correct on Aug. 8: A preliminary test of the cruise missile went badly awry, killing seven and scattering radioactive material across the White Sea.
To get insight into the state of all Putin’s fantasy weapons, and other nations’ latest innovations in nuclear and conventional warfare, I had a conversation with Ankit Panda. Among other things, Panda is an adjunct senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, senior editor at the Diplomat - an indispensable website for those of us hooked on East Asian politics and security - and director of research at that publication’s consultancy, Diplomat Risk Intelligence. Here is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation:
Tobin Harshaw: In addition to being a deadly event, the Skyfall cruise missile disaster was a humiliating indication that Putin’s superweapons are a long way from being realized. Do you think this nuclear-powered cruise missile, the nuclear-armed submarine drone, and the other things he showed off in that crazy video are pipe dreams or realistic?
Ankit Panda: The nuclear-powered cruise missile is probably a pipe dream and a very dangerous dead end. The Russian defense bureaucracy is still sitting on years of mothballed Soviet ideas from the 1980s about how they might have countered some of the more fanciful promises of Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. I strongly suspect some of these programs are dusting off those old plans. Obviously, given that Putin announced these systems himself to great fanfare last March, there is political buy-in at the highest levels of the Russian government, but I’m not sure that the leadership has been appropriately briefed about the risks of certain of these systems — notably the Burevestnik cruise missile.
The US learned its lesson early in the Cold War – the abortive Project Pluto nuclear-powered cruise missile never flew in the end. Russia is determined to push on, and it has now cost five scientists their lives and resulted in the not-negligible dispersal of radiological material. Some of Putin’s other new systems – such as the Poseidon autonomous nuclear torpedo, the Avangard hypersonic glider, the Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile, and the Peresvet directed-energy weapon - are perfectly plausible technical concepts that can be seen through to implementation. Whether all of them will is an open question. Right now, the Kinzhal and the Avangard appear the most promising, with the former having been demonstrated in an airshow just days ago.
TH: Agreed that the hypersonic glide missile is a technology that does seem doable. (Although in a tweet you once called it “buzzwordy.”) Is the US way behind Russia and China in that race, as many say? And if hypersonics prove to be the real weapon of tomorrow and impossible to shoot down, how will that affect the global military balance?
AP: It is buzzwordy! The word hypersonic simply describes speed: If an object is moving at speeds greater than five times that of sound, it is moving at hypersonic speeds. Insofar as strategic nuclear weaponry is concerned, hypersonic projectiles have existed since the Soviet Union first deployed the intercontinental-range ballistic missile in the late-1950s. During atmospheric reentry, ICBM payloads would accelerate to speeds well in the hypersonic range. Every American ICBM and submarine-launched ballistic missile re-entry vehicle behaves in this way. Along these lines, even North Korea has “hypersonic” nuclear payloads.
But what most people referencing “hypersonics” these days are talking about are hypersonic cruise missiles and hypersonic boost-glide vehicles. Putin’s new Avangard is an example of the latter. These weapons are based on old physical concepts from the first half of the 20th century that are now becoming feasible due to advances in materials science. The hypersonic boost-glide vehicle replaces the traditional ballistic re-entry vehicle; instead of falling down to earth on a ballistic trajectory, it leverages aerodynamic forces to “glide” to its destination at great speeds, with some ability to maneuver. The low flight altitude as compared to ballistic missiles poses a challenge for existing US homeland missile defenses, which are designed to intercept ballistic missiles at the highest point in their flight, far outside of the earth’s atmosphere.
The new Russian weapon, as long as it remains nuclear, shouldn’t be a major strategic stability concern, I think. American missile defenses are mediocre and every Russian strategic missile is capable of penetrating them handily. The Avangard is likely to be deployed in limited numbers and give Russia an extra degree of assurance, I guess, about the ability to penetrate missile defense. A common misconception, though, is that hypersonic gliders are very difficult to shoot down. Given that they travel slower than many ballistic missile payloads, it may be possible for point-defense systems (i.e., missile defenses with a short-range) to still deal with them.
TH: With the demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the US and Russia, there is a lot of talk about the Pentagon developing and deploying intermediate-range missiles, especially in the Pacific. Is that a dangerous move?
AP: It’s true that 100 percent of the violations of the INF Treaty were committed by Russia, but I’d say around 80 percent of the impulse driving American withdrawal was concern about China. China’s missile arsenal is overwhelmingly composed of missiles that the US and Russia had been banned from developing for 32 years — ballistic and cruise missiles, nuclear and conventional, with ranges between 500 km and 5,500 km. Now, we’ll be developing a few missiles in that class. Given that China has hundreds of these missiles today and the US has zero, Washington isn’t necessarily about to enter an arms race, but rather it’s catching up.
My concern is that there’s very little thinking that’s been done on how these missiles would be used strategically and, more importantly, where they’d go. A map of the Pacific reveals, of course, very little land, and INF was primarily a basing-mode treaty: concerned with missiles that went on land. It did nothing to prevent the US Navy, for instance, from deploying cruise missiles on its destroyers. Our allies too are skittish about the idea of accepting American missile deployments and turning themselves into Chinese targets without a well-thought-out concept. Much remains to be seen on how the post-INF future will play out, but there are real dangers that may arise from an ill-thought-out rush to build the missiles first and then wait for a strategy to materialize around the capabilities that we’ll spend probably billions acquiring.
TH: Is there any hope for reviving the INF, or renewing New START? Either under the Trump administration or a successor? Likewise, what are the prospects of China joining trilateral or multilateral nuclear arms-control agreements? Or of India and Pakistan joining one of the latter?
AP: Before they violated INF, the Russians in around 2007 had proposed multilateralizing the treaty, having seen the Chinese missile arsenal grow - and the quick progress of India and Pakistan. That was a nonstarter then and it remains so now. Countries assent to arms control for reasons of mutual benefit. The way I see it, if I’m sitting in Beijing, there’s no reason for me to join something like INF without getting something very valuable in return. What precisely that might be is unclear. Maybe American limitations on missile defense, but good luck selling that in Washington.
The idea of adding China to New START is coming from people who don’t know what exactly they’re talking about. We think of the US, Russia, and China as the three “great powers” today, and while everyone’s been obsessing over “great power competition,” they’ve lost sight of the simple facts. The US and Russia have nuclear forces that are an order of magnitude greater than China’s stockpile. Moreover, under the counting rules implemented in New START for deployed strategic warheads, China’s total would likely be … zero or a very low number.
Sure, the idea of all these countries reducing their nuclear arms in tandem is a useful aspiration, but it’s hard not to feel that this idea of trilateralizing New START is a poison pill to prevent the treaty’s five-year extension in 2021. That extension absolutely has to happen; it would be folly not to.
TH: Do you see any way of negotiating away, or at least freezing, North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs? If not, is there any option other than just living with it?
AP: This is what I’ve spent most of my time thinking about for the past three or so years. I don’t think we’ll be convincing a nuclear-armed North Korea to part with its nuclear weapons. For instance, for all the talk of us - and Russia and China - giving Kim security guarantees, it’s very difficult for me to imagine any security guarantee that the North Korean regime would see as equally or more credible than its own nuclear weapons. This is a country that has enshrined self-reliance at the center of its ideology: I think they’d prefer to look out for themselves with their own nuclear weapons. Certainly, for Kim Jong Un, these weapons are the best chance of regime survival, which is why the regime has frequently cited both Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi’s fatal errors as being their willingness to view disarmament overtures with rose-tinted glasses.
TH: So we just live with it?
AP: We absolutely, however, need to work toward a freeze of North Korea’s qualitative and quantitative nuclear force expansion. This was something we should have worked toward before North Korea demonstrated its ICBM, and I spent much of 2016, while Kim really ramped up the tempo on missile testing, insisting that this should be the way forward. Three years later, we’re at the mercy of a flimsy self-enforced moratorium in place on North Korea’s testing of ICBMs and have nothing else to show. To get to even a modest, partial freeze on the production of fissile material - far from the ideal starting point - we’d have to moot partial sanctions relief. For this administration, however, I have little hope that will happen: there’s this deeply ideologically ingrained view here that sanctions are something we do to “bad” countries because they’re “bad” - not because we hope to put them on the negotiating table to get things we want in return.
TH: Finally, what potential disaster scenario around the world most keeps you up at night?
AP: I haven’t mentioned it yet, but the closest we came to nuclear war in 2019 wasn’t on the Korean Peninsula, or with Russia and China: It was India and Pakistan. The February crisis was a wake-up call for folks in Washington that two decades after their successful nuclear breakout, India, and Pakistan remain very much capable of taking their rivalry to new heights. We saw India become the first nuclear-armed state to use conventional airpower against the territory of another nuclear-armed state. I worry about South Asia spiraling out of control. Luck played a major role in ending the February crisis - especially with the serendipitous capture by Pakistan of an Indian pilot in good health, whose prisoner exchange facilitated a drawdown. We might not get so lucky in future skirmishes.

Opinion Netanyahu’s Wars on Both Iran and Israel

Uzi Benziman/Haaretz/August 29/2019
Netanyahu, don't interfere with Trump's diplomatic moves toward Iran
The goal: Granting Netanyahu permission to do as he pleases
Detoxing from Netanyahu
It was enough to hear the talking points recited by Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz on the radio after Israel's attack on Iranian “killer” drones this week to raise suspicions that the prime minister’s political interests were behind the operation. Katz called Iran the head of a snake being defanged by Israel. Katz repeated the message over and over, and it’s significant that he strives to etch in listeners’ minds Benjamin Netanyahu’s role in deciding to attack the drones and his contribution to the country’s security.
Not three hours after the broadcast, Netanyahu himself appeared all over the media taking credit for the attack, warning Iran and any other country aiding hostile attacks against Israel, and promising the people that he had given orders to do whatever necessary to ensure their security. Israelis went to sleep on a regular Saturday summer night and woke up to a stormy and tense day of constant reports on Israeli attacks in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestinian terror attacks in the West Bank and attacks from Gaza, which triggered Israeli military responses.
The ability of one man, Benjamin Netanyahu, to change with one order the state’s agenda, the overall atmosphere in the country and the vulnerability of the people to hostile actions is disturbing enough on routine days, and all the more so during election season. Netanyahu is now serving as a caretaker prime minister, and this fact should limit his authority to lead the country into major military confrontations.
A key ruling bears witness that the spirit of the law doesn’t authorize a caretaker prime minister to radically shake up life in the country. Last week the High Court of Justice overturned the decision by Justice Minister Amir Ohana to bring in his own director general because he’s a caretaker justice minister, so can a caretaker prime minister launch military operations with major implications?
Such trepidations are valid for any caretaker government, all the more so regarding Netanyahu, who’s already suspected of subverting every value of governance to his personal interests. Someone who doesn’t loathe quashing the rule of law to be saved from the terror of the law, who doesn’t hesitate to shamelessly lie to preserve his rule, who isn’t deterred from overturning the parliamentary rules of the game to keep the charges against him from scrutiny seems destined to raise security tensions to distract public opinion from issues he isn’t comfortable with.
One could counter that defense of state security is the main job of every prime minister, even a caretaker prime minister, and that the principle of self-defense allows even a caretaker prime minister to decide on military attacks wherever he deems necessary. Some will also say that Netanyahu isn’t deciding alone, and that the cabinet, the military chief of staff and the other security branches are capable of challenging his initiatives.
However, this critical link doesn’t exist today in the decision-making process. Netanyahu is also defense minister, the cabinet is made up of spineless ministers, Aviv Kochavi is a new chief of staff and the current heads of the Shin Bet, Mossad and National Security Council are perceived as the prime minister’s lackeys.
Therefore, the probability that Netanyahu is creating an excuse for escalating confrontations with Iran and its proxies near and far isn’t unrealistic. And even if the suspicion is mistaken, the very fact that this thought won’t go away shows that this prime minister, during this caretaker period, has lost the legitimacy to take the country into major military conflicts where lives are lost. He’s not the man who will convince grieving families that there was no avoiding the death of their loved ones.
*Stena Impero, a British-flagged vessel owned by Stena Bulk, is seen at undisclosed place off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran August 22, 2019.

Israel empowered as Iran weakens

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/August 29/2019
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While the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz has grabbed the media spotlight lately, less attention has been given to the heightenedtensions between two old foes: Iran and Israel.
Israel has been steadily expandingits military campaign against Iranian-linked targets in the region. This included carrying out a series of airstrikes in northern Baghdad last month, which was considered to be the first time in almost four decades that Israel had engaged in military operations against Iraq.
But why are the Israeli leaders targeting Iranian-linked targets in Iraq at this turbulent time? The first of three key reasons is related to the Iran-Iraq-Syria nexus. The Iranian regime has been attempting to strengthen its military bases and increase its capabilities in Syria. Since Iran does not share a border with Syria, one of the most common methods it has used to transferweapons to Syria has been via commercial airlines. But, due to the latest sanctions and pressure imposed on Iran, Tehran has found it extremely difficult to rely on this approach.
Sanctions imposed on Syria by both the US and EU have also complicated Tehran’s efforts to assist the Damascus government militarily and economically. For example, the oil tanker clash between the UK and Iran was initiated because Tehran was allegedly trying to send oil to Syria in violationof EU sanctions.
Since Iran cannot utilize commercial airlines to transfer weapons to Syria as frequently as it would like, the alternative is to movethem to Iraq by land, establish a depot, and then deploy Iraqi militia groups to ship the weapons to Damascus. Iran’s most prominent proxy group in Iraq is the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). The Islamic Republic exerts significant influence in Iraq, both directly and indirectly, through the PMF, which is a conglomerate of more than 40 militia groups. The Quds Force, the elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which operates in foreign countries to advance Iran’s geopolitical and revolutionary ideals, is also a major player in this arrangement.
Some of Iran’s weapons bases are stationedin Iraqi cities in order to make it more difficult for foreign powers to carry out airstrikes on them due to the high risk of causing civilian casualties. That is why Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi has ordered all paramilitary groups’ ammunition dumps be removed from cities.
The second reason for Israel’s increasing airstrikes against Iran-linked targets is Tehran’s weakened status both geopolitically and economically. The US’ primary and secondary sanctions against Iran’s financial systems and shipping and energy sectors have had a significant negative impact on the Iranian regime.
Iran’s revenues have declined considerably as oil exports have fallen. The sanctions have imposed so much pressure on the Iranian government that its leaders have even been forced to cut funding to its allies, militias and terror groups. Iran’s militantsare reportedly not getting their salaries and benefits, making it extremely difficult for them to continue fighting on behalf of Tehran. One fighter with an Iranian-backed militia in Syria told the New York Times: “The golden days are gone and will never return. Iran does not have enough money to give us.”
As the pressure against Iran mounts, Israel will likely continue to expand its military campaign.
Also feeling the pressure of sanctions on Iran, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Tehran proxy Hezbollah, has called on his group’s fundraising arm “to provide the opportunity for jihad with money and also to help with this ongoing battle.”
The Iranian regime has another major obstacle to deal with: Domestic pressure. Protests and demonstrations against the political and economic systems are continuing. Inflation and the unemployment rate have reached record highs and many people are living below the poverty line. That is why the Iranian regime has been surprisingly silent in the face of Israel’s airstrikes in Iraq.
Third is the fact that the Israeli leaders believe they enjoy the full support of the Trump administration. The US has invited Israel to join an international naval coalition to protect commercial shipping in the Gulf, and Tel Aviv has agreed. In other words, if Israel’s actions lead to war with Iran, it will rely on the US’ military assistance.
As the pressure against Iran mounts, Israel will likely continue to expand its military campaign against the theocratic establishment. In an interview with Russian-language Israeli television Channel 9, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu saidlast week: “We are operating in many areas against a state that wants to annihilate us. Of course I gave the security forces a free hand and instructed them to do anything necessary to thwart Iran’s plans.”
The balance of power between Iran and Israel has tipped in favor of Tel Aviv, which is why Israel is increasing its military campaign against Iran-linked targets and proxies. The Iranian regime cannot afford to respond as it faces pressure from almost every corner.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. He is a leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, a businessman and president of the International American Council. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

UK’s Brexit divisions widened by Johnson
Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/August 29/2019
You could be forgiven for thinking that you are witnessing a Shakespearian plot when observing British politics today.
Brexit was never going to be easy, but nobody expected that it would prove to be this divisive and throw up this many questions about the (unwritten) constitution of the land. Two prime ministers have already had to go. In has come Boris Johnson with energy, verve and a penchant for ruthlessness when it comes to achieving his goals. Johnson was elected by the narrow base of the Conservative Party membership and he rules with an official parliamentary majority of one thanks to a confidence and supply agreement with the right-wing, pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party.
Brexit did not just split the country down the middle, it did the same to the Conservative and Labour parties. This and the tenuous government majority are why Parliament has so far only agreed on one thing: That it is against a no-deal Brexit. It has however, been unable to find a majority for any other Brexit plan.
Three years of parliamentary back-and-forth was the backdrop against which Johnson declared he would leave the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a deal — “do or die.” The prime minister has deliberately left a no-deal Brexit on the table to unite ardent Brexiteers behind him and as a negotiating ploy with the EU.
Earlier this week, Johnson’s adversaries — pro-Remain parliamentarians of all parties and persuasions — met to conjure a plan on how to introduce legislation to make it impossible for Johnson to take the UK out of the EU without a deal. An extension of the Oct. 31 deadline, a second referendum and other scenarios were also on the table.
However, on Wednesday morning Johnson announced that he would prorogue (suspend) Parliament. He dispatched Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg to Balmoral to obtain the monarch’s approval, which put Queen Elizabeth II right in the eye of the storm. Consent was forthcoming and Parliament will be prorogued between Sept. 7 and the date of a “Queen’s Speech” on Oct. 14, where she will read out the government’s agenda.
Outrage ensued from all corners. Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow called prorogation a “constitutional outrage,” while Anna Soubry, a former Conservative MP and co-founder of the Change UK party, ex-Attorney General Dominic Grieve and former Chancellor Philip Hammond were also fuming. An editorial in the Financial Times deplored the fact that “the seat of British democracy is being denied a say on the most consequential decision facing the country in more than four decades.” This is a fair point, as one of the main aims of Brexit was to take back legislative control from Brussels and give the UK’s Parliament sole power over all legislation. Most importantly, within less than 24 hours, more than 1 million citizens signed a petition to stop the prorogation of Parliament.
It did not help that the PM said he had to suspend Parliament as a matter of process in order to allow the Queen’s Speech to lay out his non-Brexit agenda for the country: More money for the police, infrastructure and the National Health Service. That is, of course, all smoke and mirrors and the prorogation is all about giving Johnson the space to pursue a no-deal Brexit, if necessary.
Johnson’s advisers have reportedly played out many scenarios to ensure he gets his way, including filibusters in the House of Lords to frustrate the opponents of a no-deal Brexit. The probability of a vote of no-confidence in the prime minister has increased, if Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn can muster a majority in the gridlocked Parliament. In that case, Johnson is said to consider refusing to step down and only announcing a general election after Oct. 31.
What to make of this most recent twist in the Brexit drama? The prime minister has the right to ask the monarch to prorogue Parliament. He also has the right to set out his government’s agenda, which is traditionally done in a speech by the Queen. There has not been such an address since 2017, which is an unusually long period and a sign of just how much Brexit has derailed the usual processes of British politics. Five weeks seems a long time, but Johnson is de facto only shortening the time Parliament sits by four to six days, because MPs always have time off to attend their various party conferences.
One of the main aims of Brexit was to take back legislative control from Brussels and give the UK’s Parliament sole power.
Constitutionally, Johnson may well be within his rights, but the smoke and mirrors game leaves the question wide open as to whether he acted in good faith, which is an important qualifier. Johnson picked a very difficult time to take this action. The nerves of politicians and large swaths of the country are frayed because of the constant bickering about Brexit and the failure to find a harmonious resolution to the issue.
The PM may well put the union itself in jeopardy. The Scottish overwhelmingly voted to remain in the EU during the 2016 referendum. Two years earlier, they had consented to staying in the UK in a referendum of their own. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon now feels emboldened to prepare for another referendum on Scottish independence. This time around, the result may well be different. Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Conservative Party in Scotland — an ardent Remainer and a rare success story for the Conservatives in the 2017 election — resigned on Thursday. This cannot be a good sign.
What the country needs now are acts of courage allowing for the Brexit wounds to heal, not more incendiary rhetoric. To that effect, it would be helpful if both sides managed to cool their language so as not to divide the country even further. Easy does it.
As for how this latest twist will go down in Brussels, Guy Verhofstadt said it all when he called Johnson’s plan “sinister.” The prime minister may have made some inroads with EU leaders when he visited Berlin and Paris, as well as during last weekend’s G7 summit. But whatever goodwill he managed to gain may well evaporate when EU leaders have to deal with yet another curveball from the direction of the UK. London would do well to accept that Germany, France, the Netherlands and others may need the UK, but its economy needs the EU more.
*Cornelia Meyer is a business consultant, macro-economist and energy expert. Twitter: @MeyerResources

Lessons from Lebanon as Iraq’s PMU plan fails
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Arab News/August 29/2019
On July 1, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi issued a surprise decree to compel the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) — a coalition of predominantly Shiite militias — to join the government’s armed forces and to sever all “political and organizational ties” with non-state actors.
Observers, particularly those with an excess of conventional wisdom, cautioned against this, believing it would allow Iran to insert fifth columnists into Iraq’s armed forces and expand Tehran’s influence inside Iraq. Well, they might have saved their breath because the integration hasn’t happened. The PMU remains free of Abdul-Mahdi’s influence; free to cause mischief in Iraq at the behest of its masters in Tehran. Indeed, the failure to bring the PMU under Iraqi sovereignty is exacerbating the proxy battles being fought on Iraqi soil.
One recent incident illustrates this starkly. When drones, believed to be Israeli, bombed and destroyed PMU arms depots, Iraqis braced for retaliation by the PMU against Israel, which would have invited further attacks on Iraqi soil. Together with President Barham Salih and parliamentary speaker Mohammed Al-Halbousi, Abdul-Mahdi held a meeting with eight PMU leaders to urge the militias not to drag the country into war with Israel. In a joint statement that preceded the meeting, the three most senior Iraqi officials highlighted “the importance of (the PMU) endorsing the position of the Iraqi state” by “opposing the principle of war by proxy.”
In essence, they were begging the PMU not to make Iraq another arena of Iran’s battle with Israel. Instead of toeing the Iranian line and considering the attack on the PMU as an assault on Iraqi sovereignty, the Iraqi state considered the attack part of an Iranian-Israeli contest in which Iraq had no dog.
Because Israel had taken out PMU missiles that can hit its territory, the PMU’s retaliation options were limited. Iran, however, had been priming the PMU and Iraqi public opinion for a possible PMU clash, not with Israel, but with US forces leading the war against Daesh in Iraq, should Tehran find it expedient to settle scores with America.
It is possible that, had the PMU’s integration into Iraq’s armed forces been successful, the Israeli attack would not have taken place. But, being as independent of Iraqi sovereignty as ever and yet continuing to be beholden to Tehran’s influence and money, the PMU’s very existence puts Iraq in a fraught position as it attempts to articulate the nature of a sovereign nation and build a sustainable Iraqi state.
Few countries find themselves in such a situation, where a military force that pledges allegiance to a foreign government acts independently of the national government. Lebanon is one of them.
After a popular uprising ejected Syrian President Bashar Assad’s troops from Lebanon in 2005, the role of Hezbollah came under scrutiny. Lebanon’s oligarchs, finding themselves up against the pro-Iranian militia’s formidable military and intelligence network, tried to integrate Hezbollah into the country’s armed forces. Hezbollah, however, stubbornly refused. Instead, it forced an arrangement whereby it would be equal and complementary to the state’s army. But, while the army is under the command of the Lebanese government, Hezbollah — which is actually more powerful than the army — takes its orders from Iran.
Iraq, however, has proven to be a harder nut to crack for Iran. For one thing, the Iraqi population is five times that of Lebanon. Furthermore, close to half of Iraqis — the Sunnis and the Kurds — refuse to pledge allegiance to Iranian leaders. And neither are Iraq’s other half, the Shiites, fully in Tehran’s pocket either, with many of them priding themselves on being Iraqi and refusing to bow to their Iranian neighbors. The fact that Iraq’s oil revenue is bigger than that of Iran also gives Baghdad another advantage over Tehran.
The PMU’s very existence puts Iraq in a fraught position as it attempts to articulate the nature of a sovereign nation
All of this makes for a strong argument for Iran to tenaciously hold on to its gains with the PMU. For, had Abdul-Mahdi’s integration of the militias worked, PMU fighters would have been assimilated into the various state battalions. National forces usually draft a “fighting ideology” that promotes nationalism, and such an ideology would be at variance with the PMU’s obeisance to Iran. The national Iraqi chain of command, which answers to an elected Iraqi government, also makes it harder for Iran to maintain its relations with PMU militias.
It is Iraq’s misfortune that the militia integration plan was dead on arrival. Such a policy should have been a key priority — the example of Lebanon serving as early warning of what might happen otherwise. In addition, it should have received more support from an international and regional community that declares itself massively uneasy with Iran’s expanding hegemony. So maybe they should get Abdul-Mahdi to try again.
*Hussain Abdul-Hussain is the Washington bureau chief of Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai and a former visiting fellow at Chatham House in London. Copyright: Syndication Bureau