LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 23.2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
 

Cana Wedding Miracle
John 02/01-11: The third day, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. Jesus also was invited, with his disciples, to the marriage. When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever he says to you, do it.” Now there were six water pots of stone set there after the Jews’ way of purifying, containing two or three metretes apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the water pots with water.” They filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the ruler of the feast.” So they took it. When the ruler of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and didn’t know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the ruler of the feast called the bridegroom, and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the guests have drunk freely, then that which is worse. You have kept the good wine until now!” This beginning of his signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Tear your heart, and not your garments
Joel/02/13-18: Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth from his room, and the bride out of her room. Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare your people, Yahweh, and don’t give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” Then Yahweh was jealous for his land, And had pity on his people.

Judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occasion for falling.
Paul’s Letter to the Romans/14/13-18: Therefore let’s not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occasion for falling. I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Then don’t let your good be slandered, for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 22-23/2020
Cana Wedding Miracle/The  Forgiveness (Marfaa) Sunday/Elias Bejjani/February 23/2020
Aoun: Solving Economic Crisis is Government’s Top Priority
Public Outcry over Lebanon's Failure to Suspend Iran Flights over Coronavirus
Lebanon Bans Export of Protective Equipment after Coronavirus Reveal
S&P Cuts Lebanon Debt Rating, Warns Further Cut Possible
Education Minister Circulates ‘Prevention Plan’ over Coronavirus
Protesters gather outside Jumblatt's Clemenceau residence
Protesters gather in Verdun in rejection of banking policies
Ministerial Crisis Cell: Measures adopted against Coronavirus, flights suspended to China, Korea, and Iran
Health Minister from Nabatiyeh: No need to panic, no symptoms of Coronavirus in the two cases we examined
Information and Public Health Ministers hold joint press conference on Coronavirus
Abdel Samad: For a Media-Health Crisis Cell to counter Corona disease
Hassan: Anxiety is permitted, but excessive panic is harmful to usShiite Council: Decision to prevent religious visits falls within government's jurisdiction
Akkar-Rahhal Hospital denies news of Coronavirus case
Lebanon hit by double rating downgrades as likely debt restructuring looms/Sarmad Khan and Massoud A Derhally/The National/February 22/2020
A Blackhole Swallows Lebanon/Rajeh Khoury/Asharq Al Awsat/February 22/2020
Serge Gelalian left, but his work for freedom will not/Dr.Walid Phares/February 22/2020
Iran, Hezbollah Stir Chaos in Syria's Southwest/Jonathan Spyer/The Jerusalem Post/February 22/2020
Beirut photo exhibition depicts perils to Lebanese heritage/Samar Kadi/The Arab Weekly//February 23/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 22-23/2020
Mossad chief, top general visited Qatar, ‘begged’ it to pay Hamas, Liberman says/The Times Of Israel/February 22/2020
Pompeo Says Soleimani Killing is Part of US Deterrence
Pentagon: Number of US Troops Wounded in Iran Attack Rises
Iran Faces Anti-terrorism Financing Watchdog Blacklist
Conservatives ahead as Iran Poll Results Trickle In
UN Urges Iran for ‘Prompt’ Probe into Protest Violence
Iraq: Kurdish-Sunni Alliance Weakens Allawi’s Chances to Form Government
Turkish President Admits Sending Syrian Fighters to Libya
Iraq: PMF Names Muhandis’ Successor
Syrian Transport Ministry Says Damascus-Aleppo Highway Open to Traffic
Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Armed with Knife
Cairo Criminal Court Acquits Mubarak's Sons of Illicit Share Trading
Haftar Pledges to Liberate Tripoli if Geneva Talks Fail
Egypt’s Coptic Church Denies Bomb Found Near Cathedral
Ten New Cases of Coronavirus In Iran, Death Toll on the RiseNew Virus Has Infected More than 77,000 People Globally

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 22-23/2020
The Limits of Relying on Disagreements Between Moscow, Ankara/Akram Bunni/Asharq Al Awsat/February 22/2020
Iran: the Masks of Jefferson and Attila/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/February 22/2020
Iran's revolution has failed its women/Shirin Ebadi/The National/February 22/2020
In Syria, Russia is weighing its options against Turkey/Raghida Dergham/The National/February 22/2020
Erdogan’s scheme in Syria behind showdown by proxy with Russia/Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/February 23/2020
Israel’s new type of war means Iran will never achieve its goals in Syria/Stephen Starr/The Arab Weekly/February 23/2020
On eve of elections, Macron seeks ‘Republican Reconquest’ to counter ‘Islamist separatism/Majed Nehme/The Arab Weekly//February 23/2020
Macron and Muslims/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Arab News/February 22/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 22-23/2020
Cana Wedding Miracle/The  Forgiveness (Marfaa) Sunday
Elias Bejjani/February 23/2020
Lent period starts with the Cana Holy Wedding Miracle and ends with the Holy Easter Day.
Lent in the Maronite Church rite starts this year on the ASH Monday, February 25/2020.
The Sunday that comes before the beginning of the lent period is called the raising (أحد المرفع) or forgiveness Sunday (أحد الغفران)
Fasting is a battle of spiritual engagement through which we seek to imitate Jesus Christ who fought Satan's temptations while fasting in the wilderness.
He triumphed over Satan, and we faithfully endeavour during the Lent period to tame and defeat our earthly instincts and make our hearts, conscience and thinking pure, immaculate and pious
The lent period is a spiritual battle that we chose to fight our own selves and all its bodily and earthly instinctual pleasures in a bid to abstain from all acts and thoughts of sin
Lent in principle is a Holy period that is ought to be utilized with God in genuine contemplation, self humility, repentance, penances, forgiveness, praying and conciliation with self and others.
Lent is a privileged time of interior pilgrimage towards Jesus Who is the fountain of all love, forgiveness and mercy.
Lent is a pilgrimage in which Jesus Himself accompanies us through the desert of our poverty while sustaining us on our way towards the intense joy of Easter.
We fastand trust that the Lord is our loving Shepherd.
"Psalm 23:04: Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and staff comfort me."
Lent is ought to strengthen our hope and faith in a bid to fight Satan and to keep away from his ways of sin and despair.
Praying and contemplation teaches us that Almighty God is there to guard us and to lead our steps during the entire Lenten period.
Readind the Holy Bible and praying offers us God's Word with particular abundance and empowers our souls and minds with His Word.
Mark 13:31: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away"
By meditating and internalizing the Word Of God we learn precious and irreplaceable forms of prayer.
By attentively listening to God, who continues to speak to our hearts, we nourish the itinerary of faith initiated on the day of our Baptism.
Prayers and fasting allow us to gain a new concept of time and directs our steps towards horizons of hope and joy that have no limits
When we fast and pray, we find time for God, to understand that his words will not pass away.
Through fasting and praying we can enter into that intimate communion with Jesus so that no one shall take from us the faith and hope that does not disappoint.

Aoun: Solving Economic Crisis is Government’s Top Priority
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
Lebanese President Michel Aoun stressed on Friday that addressing the country’s economic and financial situation will be one of the new government’s top priorities. During a meeting with UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis at Baabda Palace, Aoun said one of the most important battles, which the cabinet will fight, is the war on corruption. The President assured the UN coordinator that Lebanese officials have been discussing with the International Monetary Fund delegation the appropriate measures to resolve the financial and economic crises. Aoun said any move by the government would aim to protect the treasury while preserving the rights of Lebanese citizens. He also expressed hope that the Syrian refugee crisis would be mentioned in the UN Secretary-General’s report on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701. The Council will be briefed on the report at a session in early March. The President stressed that there was ongoing stability is south Lebanon, despite recent developments in Syria and Iraq. Kubis congratulated Aoun on forming the new government. He also affirmed the UN support for the reforms, which the cabinet intends to take, indicating that he would report the reality of Resolution 1701 to the Security Council. Kubis also said that he would visit numerous countries concerned with the Lebanese situation. This week, sources said Lebanon would invite eight firms to bid to be its financial adviser as it studies all options on its sovereign debt. The government is under growing pressure to decide on how to deal with fast-approaching debt payments, including a $1.2 billion Eurobond due on March 9.

Public Outcry over Lebanon's Failure to Suspend Iran Flights over Coronavirus
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 22/2020
Lebanese were up in arms on Saturday demanding a halt to flights from Iran one day after the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in a 45-year-old Lebanese woman who had traveled from Qom in Iran. “We have made contacts with Iranian authorities who assured that all necessary measures will be taken before a new flight arrives from Iran Monday. The same measures will be taken for all flights arriving from coronavirus infected countries,” said Health Minister Hassan Hamad. He added: “Protection procedures from the disease will be activated more and more,” noting that the “woman’s health is getting better.”A medical source at the hospital where the woman is being treated said that she returned from Iran with a high fever, but that her immunity was good and her condition stable. Hamad also said that two other suspected cases in the southern town of Nabatieh were being “monitored closely.” Thousands of Lebanese travel to Iran every year to visit Shiite holy sites in Qom and other cities. The COVID-19 outbreak first appeared in Iran on Wednesday. The Minister's statement that an Iranian flight bound for Beirut will be allowed to land in Lebanon has sent a wave of anger among Lebanese. Tehran has now confirmed a total 18 infections and four deaths by the SARS-like virus, which first emerged in China in late December. On Friday, Iraqi and Kuwaiti authorities were on high alert after banning travel the previous day to and from Iran, where authorities say the death toll from the new coronavirus has hit four. Lebanese, already grappling with an unprecedented economic crisis, took to social media demanding a similar ban for flights from Iran. "We have enough crises on our plate," one Lebanese said in a tweet, "We can definitely do without a novel problem whilst one that robs us our health." “The government must stop all flights coming from Iran. Our health is more important than anything else,” another Lebanese tweeted. China on Friday raised the death toll to 2,236 -- most of them in the province of Hubei, where the virus was first detected. More than 75,000 have now been infected in China and over 1,100 abroad.

Lebanon Bans Export of Protective Equipment after Coronavirus Reveal
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 22/2020
Economy Minister Raoul Nehme issued a decision on Saturday banning export of basic and critical medical supplies used to decrease infectious disease transmission, one day after Lebanon confirmed the first case of the novel coronavirus. The Minister said the decision was taken “considering any negative impact that might affect citizens’ health due to the lack of necessary medical personal protective equipment, and given the recent increase in export of these materials.”He said the ban will include supplies such as rubber gloves, face masks or respirators, shoe covers, etc. On Friday, Health Minister Hamad Hassan confirmed the first case of the infectious disease saying that two other suspected cases were being investigated. The COVID-19 virus was found in a 45-year-old Lebanese woman who had traveled from Qom in Iran, he said. A medical source at the hospital where the woman is being treated told AFP that she returned from Iran with a high fever, but that her immunity was good and her condition stable. Hamad Hassan said that all the people who were on the same flight from Iran had been contacted by the health authorities. He said that anyone returning from Iran would be asked to observe a two-week home quarantine. The COVID-19 outbreak first appeared in Iran on Wednesday. Tehran has now confirmed a total 18 infections and four deaths by the SARS-like virus, which first emerged in China in late December. Thousands of Lebanese travel to Iran every year to visit Shiite holy sites in Qom and other cities. China on Friday raised the death toll to 2,236 -- most of them in the province of Hubei, where the virus was first detected. More than 75,000 have now been infected in China and over 1,100 abroad.

S&P Cuts Lebanon Debt Rating, Warns Further Cut Possible
Naharnet/February 22/2020
Credit ratings agency S&P lowered Lebanon's debt grade a notch on Friday, but warned a further cut is possible should the government miss a payment to creditors. S&P Global Ratings lowered the sovereign credit rating to CC from CCC with a negative outlook, the agency said in a statement. Lebanon's debt burden had been among the largest in the world for some time but a liquidity crunch has brought the crisis home and banks have imposed tough restrictions on dollar withdrawals. The government in Beirut faces a $1.2 billion debt payment on Eurobonds that reach maturity on March 9. "We are lowering our ratings because we believe restructuring or nonpayment of Lebanon's government debt is virtually certain, regardless of the specific time to default," S&P said in a statement, citing "severe fiscal, external, and political pressures." The rating could be cut further to selective default or 'SD,' "if the government signals that it will undertake a distressed exchange offer or if it misses its next interest or principal payment." Lebanon's sovereign debt rating slid into junk territory long ago, but investor confidence has fallen further since a wave of protests erupted in October in a major challenge to the political establishment.
The Lebanese pound, which has been pegged to the dollar since 1997, has plummeted on the parallel market, further crippling the import-dependent economy. Prime Minister Hassan Diab met this week with a delegation from the International Monetary Fund to discuss how to tackle the country's spiraling economic crisis. The Lebanese premier asked the Washington-based crisis lender for advice, but has yet to ask for financial assistance. S&P said that may reflect the "political unwillingness to accept harsh adjustment policies such as exchange rate liberalization." Economists, investors and government officials are divided over what to do with the March bond payment. Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, an influential player in a country where political and economic power are mostly held by the same elite, advocated debt restructuring. S&P said that would be "tantamount to default."Many analysts have argued that paying the bonds next month would only deepen the crisis by putting further strain on foreign currency reserves. SourceAgence France

Education Minister Circulates ‘Prevention Plan’ over Coronavirus
Naharnet/February 22/2020
Education Minister Tarek Majzoub on Saturday circulated a national plan of preparedness to respond to the deadly coronavirus outbreak should cases start to proliferate in Lebanon, the National News Agency reported. "The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has prepared, in cooperation with related authorities, international organizations and local institutions, a national plan of action to prevent spread risks of Coronavirus,” the circular said. It noted that "the health official charged with carrying out the task will be responsible for the plan implementation and will organize awareness-raising meetings with parents, individually or collectively, according to the requirements of the situation." Members should dedicate 20 minutes of information on how to prevent coronavirus with a focus on appropriate hygiene standards, such as sneezing hygine, hand-washing, and correct behavior using disposal methods. The circular also called on parents "not to send any student complaining of symptoms, such as a fever (38 ° C or higher), coughing, and shortness of breath." The circular indicated that it was necessary for students, school employees and parents to contact the Ministry of Education on its hotline instantly (01772186) in confirmed cases. The outbreak which began in December has already killed more than 2,200 people and infected more than 75,500 in China. Lebanon recorded its first case on Friday in a 45-year-old Lebanese woman who had traveled from Qom in Iran.

Protesters gather outside Jumblatt's Clemenceau residence
NNA/February 22/2020
Demonstrators participating in today's protest march staged a sit-in outside the residence of Progressive Socialist Party Chief, Walid Jumblatt, in Clemenceau this afternoon, where they chanted slogans condemning Jumblatt and his participation in power over the past years, NNA correspondent reported.

Protesters gather in Verdun in rejection of banking policies
NNA/February 22/2020
A group of activists started to gather nearby Concorde Square in Verdun this afternoon, facing BLOM Bank's head office, in preparation for marching towards Martyrs Square in downtown Beirut, with stop-overs in front of "Fransabank" and 'Bank du Liban" on Hamra Street, as well as "Mediterranean Bank" and "Bank Audi" in Bab Idriss, to protest the banking policies targeting small depositors, NNA correspondent reported.

Ministerial Crisis Cell: Measures adopted against Coronavirus, flights suspended to China, Korea, and Iran
NNA/February 22/2020
The Ministerial Crisis Cell, which convened this afternoon at the Grand Serail under Prime Minister Hassan Diab, to look into the Coronavirus issue following the recent confirmed case in Lebanon, took a series of decisions based on the recommendations of the "Follow-up Committee on Preventive Measures and Procedures for the Coronavirus".
In details, the adopted decisions include:
1- Isolation of individuals showing symptoms of infection, and passengers arriving from areas where infected cases have been reported, at the Rafic Hariri Governmental Hospital
2- Ministry of Interior to commission local authorities (municipalities) to supervise the implementation of the procedures for self-isolation of passengers returning from areas that have registered infected cases, and who did not show symptoms of infection, including all persons sharing their residence
3- Ministry of Health to generalize the self-isolation procedures mentioned in item 2 to citizens and relevant authorities4- Preventing Lebanese citizens and other residents of Lebanon from traveling to the areas that have witnessed Coronavirus cases, and mandating the Follow-Up Committee to provide the Public Security General Directorate with a list of such areas to implement this ban in all land and ports, and at the Rafic Hariri International Airport
5- Stopping campaigns and trips to isolated areas in the following countries: China, South Korea, Iran and other countries, with the exception of necessary travel cases (medicine, education, business), and instructing the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Defense to supervise the implementation of these standards in coordination with the General Directorate of Civil Aviation, the Public Security General Directorate and the Rafic Hariri International Airport Authority
6- Commissioning the Foreign Affairs Ministry, in coordination with the Ministries of Tourism and Public Health, alongside the Public Security General Directorate, to contact Lebanese nationals residing in the affected areas, monitor their health conditions, and coordinate with the local authorities to secure the required treatments and provide them with the necessary guidance
7- Commission the Ministries of Economy and Public Health to prevent the export of individual medical protective equipment (PPE), provide a count of local stock available and secure the import of necessary quantities
8- To spread awareness in sports clubs, schools, nurseries, universities, airport, airplanes and other places of crowded gatherings, of the obligation to implement health protection measures and frequent sterilization, in accordance with the instructions of the Ministry of Public Health
9- Commissioning the Ministry of Public Health with allocating a government hospital in each governorate/province to be an exclusive center for receiving any case of corona infection and providing it with the necessary specifications and equipment
10- Assigning the Ministry of Information, in coordination with the Disaster Risk Management Unit of the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Public Health, to keep the Lebanese public opinion well-informed, transparently and periodically, of all procedures, decisions, and developments in this respect, in cooperation with the audio-visual and written media outlets and social media websites
11- Restricting the transfer of infected or suspected cases solely with the Lebanese Red Cross Association.

Health Minister from Nabatiyeh: No need to panic, no symptoms of Coronavirus in the two cases we examined
NNA/February 22/2020
Minister of Public Health, Hamad al-Hassan, visited the Nabih Berri Governmental Hospital in Nabatiyeh this afternoon, to follow-up on the issue of the two coronavirus suspected cases there. Hassan was received by Hospital Director, Dr. Hassan Wazneh, where both men held a closed meeting in the presence of the concerned doctors to discuss the details of both cases, where it was confirmed that no medical symptoms of the Coronavirus were detected. Both cases are currently placed under home quarantine, in coordination with the Prosecutor General of Nabatiyeh and the Kfarreman Municipality Police. After the meeting and the inspection tour in the section intended to be equipped as a wing for quarantine, Minister Hassan spoke to attending newsmen, saying: "Three constants must be emphasized: First, when there is an infection, we announce it in public and with full confidence relying on close examination. Secondly, the measures adopted by the Public Health Ministry in all land, sea and air ports are serious, and yesterday the World Health Organization made reference to the strict procedures taking place at Beirut International Airport, and this is a matter of pride. As for the third point which I would like to emphasize, it is the need for the media's commitment, and today we shall meet with the Information Minister to affirm that the media is the responsible partner." "There are procedures and guidelines that ought to be adhered to accurately, and fully implemented, and we must prevent certain sides, particularly on social media sites, from circulating malicious rumors that cause a general state of panic," Hassan underlined."A section in the Nabatiyeh Governmental Hospital has been equipped to receive any confirmed case to be quarantined, and to take samples to be sent to our center in Beirut to analyze the result within 24 hours," Hassan added, urging people "not to panic, since there is only one confirmed case at Beirut Governmental Hospital while all those who were on board the plane did not show any symptoms till this moment." "There is no antiviral treatment. The treatment is preventive and does not call for panic. We must be aware of the rumors spread on social media because we are carrying out all the procedures at the borders and at the ports, which allowed us to discover the case early," Hassan went on, commending the epidemiological surveillance unit in this respect. He finally called on the municipalities to "take all necessary steps and coordinate with the health apparatuses and security forces to confront any emergency in this regard."

Information and Public Health Ministers hold joint press conference on Coronavirus
Abdel Samad: For a Media-Health Crisis Cell to counter Corona disease
Hassan: Anxiety is permitted, but excessive panic is harmful to us
NNA/February 22/2020
Minister of Information, Dr. Manal Abdel Samad Najd, and Minister of Public Health, Dr. Hamad al-Hassan, held a work meeting and joint press conference at the Ministry of Information this afternoon, to shed light on the Coronavirus issue and the necessary and responsible awareness needed in this regard.
Attending the meeting were: Civil Aviation Director General Fadi al-Hassan representing the Minister of Public Works and Transport; Advisor to the Prime Minister for Health Affairs and Social Security, Dr. Petra Khoury; Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for National Defense, Major General Mahmoud al-Asmar; Information Ministry Director General, Dr. Hassan Falha; President of the National Council for Audiovisual-Media, Abdul Hadi Mahfouz; National News Agency Director, Ziad Harfouche, and representatives of the audiovisual and written media outlets.
Abdel Samad began the press conference with a word on national responsibility, saying: "Now that the first infection with the Coronavirus has been detected in Lebanon, national responsibility requires us, politicians, media people, citizens, schools and universities, to deal with the emerging crisis with full awareness. At the same time, this awareness requires us not to panic and not to underestimate.""In light of the double responsibility borne by the media in crises, we held a work meeting today with all the concerned, and there was consensus on the need to establish the awareness footprint of the media, in order to fully assume its national, professional and ethical roles," Abdel Samad added. "We agreed that, what the citizen mostly anticipates in this circumstance, is the accurate medical information derived from its sources, i.e. the Ministry of Public Health and the World Health Organization, and periodic educational leaflets published in all media outlets, of all kinds, and across digital platforms," she said.
Abdel Samad continued to outline today's meeting guidelines, indicating that the attendees have stressed on the role of the Information Ministry and the National Media Council in this framework as being an "integrated, coordinating and guiding role, in cooperation with the media, to reduce the possible panic, shedding light scientifically and quietly on ways to prevent a virus, which can easily be eliminated with a little caution and a lot of awareness."
"Let us all join the national, media and health crisis cell, with its deanship: the Ministry of Information with its directorates, the National Media Council, Lebanon TV, the Ministry of Public Health with its medical apparatus, and the printed, audio, visual and digital media," declared Abdel Samad.
"The adoption of the National News Agency as a single and main source of information about Corona, wards off false and exaggerated news, and contributes to protecting health and social security, rather than rushing to spread the news without validation," the Information Minister corroborated.
Moreover, Abdel Samad disclosed that the conferees also agreed that it would be beneficial under the current circumstances, to intensify awareness programs and broadcast periodic instructions in all media outlets, to help everyone overcome the crisis. It was also decided to coordinate between the relevant ministries, such as the Information, Justice, Interior and Public Works Ministries, in order to keep pace with the arising situation; maintaining the need to move quickly to combat false news which causes panic in society, and to hold accountable all those who contribute to the circulation and promotion of incorrect/ fabricated news.
For his part, Public Health Minister Hassan referred to the "sensitive circumstance" we are going through, underlining the need "for everyone to adopt the greatest sense of responsibility." He added: "Anxiety is permitted, but excessive panic is harmful to us all, including state institutions, ministries, and public administrations." "Today, we conducted a field tour, which we began from the Rafic Hariri University Hospital, all the way to Sidon Governmental Hospital, and then to Speaker Nabih Berri's University Hospital in Nabatiyeh. We confirmed the readiness of the hospitals, and we followed-up on some cases that were promoted by the media yesterday, especially on social media and some television stations, and which were considered to be undocumented cases that might be the cause of virus spread. In this context, we affirmed that these cases are within control and have shown no disease symptoms, and are being followed-up periodically by the epidemiological surveillance unit in the Ministry of Public Health," stated Hassan.
"The reassuring news today is that we examined 11 cases in the laboratory of the Rafic Hariri University Hospital, and it was found that they do not carry the Coronavirus," the Health Minister asserted. "These cases had symptoms, some who came to report their conditions individually on their own, and others who were transferred to hospital in coordination with the Lebanese Red Cross, from some regions," Hassan went on, noting that "they had been visiting in Iran and some Arab countries.""These cases reveal the great awareness in our society, since the patients were the ones to initiate contact with the Ministry," he said. Hassan concluded by deeming this as "reassuring" and must be "accompanied by reliable and verified news, with a responsible media, so that we can live up to our hopes, our aspirations, and our national responsibility at this stage."
In turn, Minister Abdel Samad added to Minister Hassan's concluding statement, by saying that "this is a shared national responsibility, for we are facing a problem that concerns all of us, not just the government, and we have to stand together to reach solutions...Every party must play its role, whether in terms of awareness, prevention, or refraining from publishing, transmitting or circulating incorrect news before verification, because any news can harm society and affect social and health security." Abdel Samad hoped for "great care and responsibility by all sides, and mutual benefit for all if we manage to overcome this crisis." "We cannot say that it is impossible to prevent such a crisis in Lebanon, but we can say that we can mitigate its risks, and play a role in reducing its negative consequences, which can be reflected across society as a whole," she emphasized.
In response to a question, the Information Minister reiterated that the accuracy of news is more important than its speed. "We have to refer news to the Ministry of Public Health, the competent authority to verify its authenticity, which in turn refers it into the National News Agency, which circulates it to everyone. Accuracy remains the most important factor in this matter."In turn, and responding to another question on the virus examination, Minister Hassan explained that "the examination is available, and the World Health Organization has provided us with the necessary materials in terms of number and quantity required, but not everyone wants to undergo this test, possibly for being costly...but we are talking here about health security, and when the examination is required and requested by the treating physician, we run it for free whenever necessary." Asked about the other plane which is expected to arrive on Monday from Iran, Hassan explained: "The same measures will be taken, and they are adopted in all international airports; therefore, there is no need for any additional measures."

Shiite Council: Decision to prevent religious visits falls within government's jurisdiction
NNA/February 22/2020
Head of the Pilgrimage Section at the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council, Mufti Sheikh Hassan Sharifa, said in a statement on Saturday that "in wake of several contacts received from different parties, on the need to issue a circular to prevent visits to the countries in which infected Coronavirus cases have been announced, the Council affirms that its office has no authority to prevent any visitor from traveling to any destination, whether to visit Iran or Iraq, or to perform the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages in the Saudi Kingdom, or to visit any other place."
The statement added that "the issue is a general Lebanese matter and the instructions and decisions declared by the Lebanese government include us, like other citizens."

Akkar-Rahhal Hospital denies news of Coronavirus case
NNA/February 22/2020
The Akkar-Rahhal Hospital administration denied, in an issued statement on Saturday, the "recent rumors and circulated news through certain social media networks and websites about the presence of a coronavirus infected case in the hospital."The statement urged all sides "to practice caution and accuracy when it comes to publishing news and information."

Lebanon hit by double rating downgrades as likely debt restructuring looms
Sarmad Khan and Massoud A Derhally/The National/February 22/2020
Both Moody's Investors Service and S&P Global cut the country's ratings as restructuring appears more likely to happen given fiscal and external pressures
S&P Global and Moody's Investors Service downgraded Lebanon deeper into junk territory, as the country facing its worst economic crisis in three decades, is on the edge of default and will most likely have to restructure its debt.
S&P lowered Lebanon's ratings to CC/C from CCC/C with a negative outlook.
"We are lowering our ratings because we believe restructuring or non-payment of Lebanon's government debt is virtually certain, regardless of the specific time to default," said Zahabia Gupta, S&P's primary credit analyst. "The government's funding model has collapsed following substantial deposit outflows from the banking system."
Lebanon was able to escape the 2008 global credit crisis relatively unscathed due to a high interest rate regime, which lured more than $1 billion (Dh3.67bn) a month in capital flows that financed its fiscal and current account deficits. The country's economy, which has long suffered due to domestic politics, rapidly deteriorated following the outbreak of war in neighbouring Syria in 2011, which slowed the flow of funds and led to negative deposit growth at Lebanese lenders.
"The deposit dollarisation rate rose to 76 per cent at year-end 2019, from 71 per cent a year earlier, as residents sought to convert local currency to dollars amid evaporating confidence in the financial system and the currency peg," S&P Global said. "The run on deposits could have been more severe, if not for the restrictions on FX [foreign currency] withdrawals and transfers imposed by banks."
Moody's cut Lebanon's government issuer rating on Friday to Ca from Caa2. The rating agency also downgraded Lebanon's senior unsecured medium term note programme rating to (P)Ca from (P)Caa2. The country's long-term foreign currency bond and deposit ceilings have both been lowered to Ca from Caa1 and Caa3, respectively.
The downgrade further into non-investment grade or junk territory reflects expectations that “domestic and external private creditors will likely incur substantial losses in what seems to be an all but inevitable near-term government debt restructuring”, Moody’s said. Rapidly deteriorating economic and financial conditions are increasingly “threatening the sustainability of the government's debt and [the country’s] currency peg”.
Moody's estimates the restructuring would likely entail losses for private domestic and external creditors in the 35 per cent to 65 per cent range. The agency's stable outlook classification for Lebanon reflects its assumption so far that a debt restructuring may happen in coordination with creditors and under the umbrella of an economic adjustment programme agreed with the International Monetary Fund, which sent a team to the country over the weekend.
Fitch Ratings on Tuesday also said Lebanon's financial position points to a likely restructuring of its debt and the country’s financial sector.
The Lebanese economy has entered its third consecutive year of negative growth and its public debt has risen to unsustainable levels. In the period from 2011-19, real GDP growth averaged only 0.5 per cent, the current account deficit exceeded 21 per cent of GDP and the fiscal deficit reached 9 per cent of the economy's output.
Public debt increased from 131 per cent of GDP in 2012 to 164 per cent of GDP at end-2019, according to the latest estimates from the Institute of International Finance. The country's public debt increased 7.6 per cent to $91.64b year-on-year as of the end of December 2019.
The Lebanese pound has already lost more than a third of its value against the US dollar in the black market amid mass protests against the government that began in October last year as lenders implements capital flows and restricted the withdrawal of dollars. Last month, the IIF estimated Lebanon will require at least an $8.5bn bailout package from the IMF to break its economic impasse, help it meet financing needs and restore growth. However, the political elite of the country is against an IMF bailout package that may require a devaluation of the currency and the implementation of taxes along with a string of other measures.
An IMF team is in Lebanon until February 23 for technical consultations to gauge the policy response to the ongoing crisis, although the country has so far not formally asked for a bailout from the IMF. Lebanon reached out to the fund earlier this month seeking technical advice as it faces a looming deadline to repay $1.2bn in eurobonds that hit maturity on March 9. Another $700 million is due in April and a further $600m in June.
If the current crisis continues for another six months, the government may not have a choice but to ask for a bailout, Garbis Iradian, chief economist for the IIF said in Riyadh on Friday.
Despite the informal capital controls implemented by commercial banks starting November, bank deposits at the end of last year had declined by $15.7bn - almost 30 per cent of GDP - from a year earlier, of which $11.4bn in the last quarter alone.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen below $30bn and Moody’s estimates only about $5bn to $10bn of the total are usable reserves to meet future foreign currency debt servicing requirements at $4.7bn in 2020, followed by over $4bn in 2021 including the country’s eurobond maturities.
"Given that Lebanon's debt is mostly held by residents, a potential debt restructuring will have ripple effects across the domestic financial system, including depositors, and the economy," S&P said. "We expect that social unrest, a contracting economy, and intensifying liquidity pressures in the private sector will make it politically difficult to repay creditors in 2020 ... deep sectarian divisions in the political system and high regional security risks will continue to hamper policymaking, in our view."

A Blackhole Swallows Lebanon!
Rajeh Khoury/Asharq Al Awsat/February 22/2020
This February 4, and after the Iranian regime repeatedly denied that the US sanctions have affected their economy, Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri said that Iran is unable to transfer any money because of the financial sanctions.
He told ISNA News Agency that the US is not allowing them to transfer a single dollar, even from Iranian money abroad. It is indeed known that countries are forced to fully commit to any sanctions the United Nations imposes, but US sanctions are often more important and harsher. Naturally, officials in Lebanon, which are suffering from a suffocating economic and financial crisis know that the economic situation in Iran is suffocating.
Strangely, however, this did not stop the Speaker of the Parliament of Iran, Ali Larijani -who suddenly landed in Beirut last Monday - after meeting President Michel Aoun, from announcing that Iran supports the new government. This new cabient was born out of Hezbollah’s womb. Larijani stated that “Iran is ready to work to improve the economic situation in Lebanon”. This has reminded some of the saying “The blind cannot lead the blind, otherwise both will fall in a hole”.
The joke does not stop at an offer by those who have nothing to offer, but the Iranian visit came at a time that Beirut was swamped by reports from European countries and the US, which have increased pessimism by affirming that a group of factors make offering aid to Lebanon impossible and that the worsening crisis is lighter and easier than what is coming.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab rushed to hold a meeting with European ambassadors in Beirut, revealing that Lebanon needs urgent aid at all levels by saying that the government has put a plan of reforms that are compatible with the CEDRE Conference program.
The European countries that have always heard such promises by Lebanese officials, however, were astounded by the government’s statement, particularly on electricity, which represents the black hole that has swallowed more than 52 billion dollars, more than half of the public debt that has reached 100 billion dollars, a consistent waste of money that has destroyed the Lebanese economy.
Naturally, the International Support Group for Lebanon emphasized the importance of regaining the trust of the Lebanese people and the international community to activate future international aid to the country, affirming that the only way to do this is putting a serious program that is clear in supporting reforms, which fall in the interest of the nation and the people.
From this, some questions arise: Where is the interest of the Lebanese people which has been rebelling since October 17 against corruption and the political class and has yet to touch on any real step towards reform? On the contrary, they have found themselves begging for 200 dollars from their savings at the doorstep of banks, amid reports about hundreds of billions of dollars being transferred to European countries by a group of politicians who own around 40% of Lebanese banks.
Perhaps the worst part is that while the country stands at the brink of collapse with the Eurobonds’ due date nearing at the beginning of next month, at 1.2 billion dollars, and after the value of the Eurobond dropped to 17 cents for each dollar and bank owners purchased them at a declining price, they are now pressuring the central bank to pay its dues on time to make unbelievable profits under the guise of maintaining Lebanon’s reputation in the world.
Others, on the other hand, are calling for a rescheduling of the debt based on a real reform program with a timeframe to close down on wasting resources, at the front of which is electricity which has taken Lebanon to near bankruptcy. The International Support Group is now imposing conditions that begin with deep-reaching reforms especially in electricity and fighting corruption and tax evasion, as well as adopting a national strategy to stop the wild corruption in the country. Also, reforming the judiciary and implementing an accountability program.
However, they all go back to emphasizing the right to protest, which sounds like fully adopting the demands of the Lebanese people. This is what the UN representative in Beirut, Jan Kubis, repeated to high-ranking officials! More importantly, the international group demanded that Lebanon implement Security Council’s resolutions including 1701 and 1559 that stipulate limiting weapons to the state, respecting the Taef Agreement and announcing a dissociation policy. Larijani’s visit implied that it is impossible to implement these resolutions under a one-sided government and that it is impossible to be neutral considering the accusations by the Gulf countries, with Hezbollah’s continued involvement in battles and Iranian intervention in the region.
Despite this, the Prime Minister is repeating that he is planning an Arab tour that will start in Saudi Arabia, and that’s why the Iranians have tried to imply through Larijani’s visit that they are putting their fingerprints on the Lebanese authorities through a one-sided government and that they are the military decision-makers through Hezbollah’s weapons.
Consequently, it would be strange for the Gulf countries to concede to the new government’s request for aid. What is required is reforming relations on the grounds that Lebanon is an Arab country and that it is not allowed to slip under Iranian policies because an imbalance towards Iran’s interest alienates Saudi Arabia from Lebanon. The proof is that it decided to reduce its diplomats in Beirut after Hezbollah decided to form this government.
Returning to the point on the electricity black hole that has swallowed half of the public debt, it seems that the government is now facing a storm of disagreements and deep internal divisions, especially after the government statement adopted the policies of the previous governments from 2010 to 2019.
A few days ago, Speaker Nabih Berri made this clear by saying that he is headed toward “announcing war and that his target is the electricity battle, and that nothing is more important than the electricity battle, as fast and as cheap as possible”. Refuting the government statement, Berri stated that the best solution is constructing two power plants. Out of irony and for the sake of comparison, Egypt is 95 times larger than Lebanon and the population is 20 times that of Lebanon, and Egypt was nevertheless able to construct two power plants producing 14,400 megawatts with 7 billion euros. Lebanon, on the other hand, only needs 3,000 megawatts and has not been able to secure half with 51 billion dollars!

Serge Gelalian left, but his work for freedom will not
Dr.Walid Phares/February 22/2020
د.وليد فارس: رحل صديقي سارج كاليليان ولكن انجازاته لكل ما هو حرية هي باقية
Serge Gelalian, a friend, a cultural expert, historian, linguist, mathematician, and father and husband, passed away this morning at Rizk Hospital, Ashrafie, Beirut. Lost to cancer, after a long battle, Serge Gelalian's passing is a loss to Lebanon even if most Lebanese today, do not know who he was and what role he played over the decades..
Of Armenian descent, this Beirut born intellectual has been active in his homeland Lebanon for the cause of freedom and change for forty years. In his younger years, throughout the 1980s, he was a scout, a social artist, a comedian and a satirical genius who was a member of the "Chansonniers de la Route," the popular singers' group, among the pioneers of the democratic revolution in Lebanon.
After the Syrian invasion of 1990, Gelalian lived a modest life under the "Taef Republic," raising a family and working hard as a translator, social commentator, professor of linguistics at Saint Joseph University and lately an author of essays and books.
He was a faithful personal friend since the times we formed a social democratic network in Beirut (PSDC) in the early 1980s. His intellectual contributions to our debates were cunning, smart and enriching. Serge was a specialist of civil society, particularly the forces of change. Like other members of group, he was too early for the times we lived. The ideas he -and his colleagues- have advanced were prescient for the era. Those ideas, expressions and aspirations waited forty years before a third generation rose with them from Beirut to Tripoli last October.
Over the past couple decades, particularly since Facebook and other social media platforms were disseminated in Lebanon, Serge -known also as "The Baron"- assisted in letting us understand and appreciate the social evolution of the mother country. A prime observer of the minute moves inside that society, he offered (here in the US and the diaspora) very informed assessments of the cultural evolution inside Lebanon.
He emerged from the same root background I was raised in: multiple languages, books, university, neighborhood, resilience, We shared most cultural interests including even comics (bandes dessinees), songs, and sophisticated jokes. Serge's legacy, like many unknown, or less known, intellectuals in Lebanon and the Levant, will be unveiled fully when his country will be freer or fully freed.
Serge left us and left behind a wonderful family, and many afflicted friends. But his work didn't leave. It is a small part of a great quest for freedom. So long friend...

Iran, Hezbollah Stir Chaos in Syria's Southwest
Jonathan Spyer/The Jerusalem Post/February 22/2020
جوناثان سباير/جيروزاليم بوست: إيران حزب الله يثيران الفوضى في جنوب غرب سوري
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The global spotlight has currently returned to Syria because of the Assad regime's current bloody offensive in Idlib, Aleppo and Latakia provinces. The regime is trying to reduce the last enclave held by Sunni Arab rebels in the country's northwest.
The assault has precipitated one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the bloody, nine-year war. Eight hundred thousand people have left their homes to flee the advance of regime forces and the relentless, indiscriminate bombing of Assad's Russian allies.
Far to the south of Idlib, however, and largely ignored by the global media, events are under way that may offer a clue to the future direction of Syria. These events are of direct interest to Israel.
The regime is currently seeking to consolidate its presence in Deraa and Quneitra provinces in Syria's southwest. Assad's army completed its "conquest" of these areas in the summer of 2018.
The Syrian regime reconquered the southwest in 2018, but the region is still not silenced.
Observation of the current situation on the ground in these areas suggests, however, that the situation remains far from a return to the repressive and stifling order of the pre-revolt days.
Rather, the situation is characterized on the one hand by extensive Iranian and Hezbollah activity within the empty shell of the government's structures, and on the other hand by an ongoing, armed resistance to that government. The precise organization, origins and nature of this resistance remain somewhat mysterious. But the tempo of attacks on regime positions and facilities is relentless, and increasing.
Hezbollah forces stationed at Juroud Arsal along the Syrian-Lebanese border.
Deraa is where the Syrian rebellion broke out, in distant early 2011. Nine years on, it is not yet silenced. Rather, the area and its environs increasingly constitute Syria's wild southwest.
Regarding Iranian and Hezbollah activity, the extensive human infrastructure maintained by Iran and its proxy in southwest Syria has been well documented.
In a recent report produced by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Shimon Shapira and Col. (ret.) Jacques Neriah noted that since the return of the area to regime control, Hezbollah has been actively recruiting. The recruits come from among the area's impoverished Sunni communities. They are tempted into the ranks by financial inducements. Hezbollah pays $250 a month, according to Shapira and Neriah. Three thousand five hundred local Syrians have been recruited in this way since mid-2018, according to the report.
Hezbollah commanders are recruiting impoverished Sunnis in the Golan Heights.
They further note that the Hezbollah commander behind these efforts is 50-year-old Munir Naima Ali Shaito, known as Haj Hashem. Shaito is a veteran and senior Hezbollah operative, and is former deputy commander of the elite Badr unit within the organization.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition but generally reliable source, reported this week that Iran-backed militia commanders have begun to offer financial incentives to the mukhtars of villages in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan, in return for their cooperation in recruiting village youth to the militias' ranks. Among the villages named by the observatory are al-Habiriyah and Sultanah.
Iranian efforts in this area are not taking place in isolation from the official regime structures. Rather, in the manner Tehran favors, its operatives both cooperate with regime forces and operate from within them.
The powerful Air Force Intelligence Directorate and the 4th Armored Division, commanded by Bashar Assad's brother Maher, are the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' chosen partners in southwest Syria. Hezbollah maintains an intelligence gathering facility within a base of the Syrian Arab Army's 90th Brigade in the Hadr area, very close to the border with Israel, according to the JCPA report.The implications of this information are significant. The notion that an unproblematic return of the antebellum status quo and of the strong prewar Baathist state is taking place in areas where the regime has replanted its flag needs to be complicated. What is returning is something different – namely, the shell of the prewar regime, within which Iran and its allies appear to have unfettered freedom of action.
They are not having things all their own way, though. Since June 2019, according to the observatory, more than 300 attacks have taken place on regime and allied forces in the Deraa area. These have included shootings, and detonations of IEDs and mines. One hundred ninety-two people have been killed in these attacks, including 36 civilians and 100 members of the regime forces, and its "loyalists and collaborators," according to the observatory.
Attacks on regime forces and facilities in the southwest have increased since June 2019.
The latest attacks came this week, when unidentified gunmen fired on an Air Force Intelligence checkpoint at the southern entrance to al-Musayfirah town in Deraa's eastern countryside.
The precise figures produced by the observatory should be treated with some skepticism. Southwest Syria is closed to media coverage and so there is no way of verifying these. But the ongoing attacks on regime forces and facilities are confirmed from other sources and are not in doubt.
So what is behind these actions?
Haid Haid, a respected Syrian researcher on the war, notes that the regime's continued arrests and violations of amnesty agreements with locals may be motivating the return to resistance.
An organization calling itself Popular Resistance (Al-Muqawama al-Sha'abia) has emerged and has begun to claim responsibility for the attacks. The group, as reported by Haid, gave an interview to an Arabic news site in November, declaring war on the regime and its associated militias. In the interview the spokesman, calling himself Saif al-Horani, said that the group has no affiliation with any foreign state or entity.
Haid notes, however, that no further information is available on this group. Doubts have emerged whether it exists at all, or whether it is simply an effort to take credit for acts committed by others. There is also the possibility that the overt "leadership" of Popular Resistance is an attempt by the regime to draw its opponents in Deraa into the daylight, so that they can be neutralized.
Identifying those behind Popular Resistance is important. A question of particular interest will be the role of Sunni jihadis affiliated with Islamic State or Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in these actions. No evidence of either has emerged as yet. The perpetrators remain shrouded in mystery. But the attacks are continuing and increasing.
In the southwest, a failed state penetrated by outside powers faces an inchoate but deadly insurgency.
Events in Syria's southwest matter for Israel because the chaos and the continued weakness of the Syrian state allow Iran to advance by stealth, organizing in the direction of Israel's border.
More broadly, Deraa and Quneitra are worth watching with care, because they show that contrary to the impression conveyed in regime and Russian propaganda, normality is not returning to Syria with the advance of the regime's flag.
Rather, in Syria's wild southwest, what exists is a chaotic failed state, thoroughly penetrated by outside powers, and facing an ongoing, inchoate but deadly insurgency at the hands of those it claims to have vanquished.
*Jonathan Spyer is director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis and is a research fellow at the Middle East Forum and at the Jerusalem Institute for Security and Strategy.

Beirut photo exhibition depicts perils to Lebanese heritage
Samar Kadi/The Arab Weekly//February 23/2020
BEIRUT - Alice Mogabgab Gallery in Beirut will mark the centenary of the creation of Greater Lebanon through a series of exhibitions by photo artist Houda Kassatly, who documented Lebanese heritage, nature and traditions that have been damaged and abused by wars and post-war developments.
The series “From the End of Civil War till the Hirak; the Abused Heritage; Architecture, Environment, Refugees” covers 40 years of Kassatly’s work through 365 photos spread across five exhibitions.
The works revisit the architectural splendours of Beirut and Tripoli, the ecological wealth of remote Lebanese regions to the rocky beach of Dalieh in Beirut and the tragedy of Palestinian and Syrian refugees in their harrowing daily life in Lebanon camps.
“I wanted to convey a message of hope through Houda’s work,” said gallery owner Alice Mogabgab. “The photos of old houses and the nature that have been damaged from neglect and erratic development are not meant to make people sad but to show the people that we have treasures and we need to do something about preserving them.”
“It is a wake-up call, in line with the national awakening that swept Lebanon since mid-October. Houda has been conveying this message for the past decades through her photo exhibitions and the books that she has published.”
Since the start of her photography career in 1978, Kassatly has made it her mission to highlight Lebanon’s cultural and environmental heritage, both of which face constant bullying and degradation.
“The gallery has accompanied the artist in her many fights against orchestrated amnesia, overwhelming and devastating corruption, massive destruction of the heritage — all scourges that dominated the daily lives of Lebanese in (the) past three decades, against which they are revolting today,” Mogabgab said.
“It is a fact that the work of this artist constitutes an essential testimony, on both scientific and artistic levels, a work that deeply questions, challenges and disturbs a public, surrendered to the euphoria of reconstruction.”
The first exhibition, running through March 21 under the theme “Dalieh the Threatened Shore,” depicts the beautiful rocky beach, a prominent landmark on the main coastal promenade of Beirut, which was threatened by potential development plans. The plans were thwarted by strong activism on the part of civil society groups.
“The project on Dalieh is part of the work on Beirut that I started at the age of 20,” said Kassatly. “The diversity of the place was a great inspiration.
“It is about the only public coastal stretch in the city that is accessible for free. We find all kinds of people doing different activities from yoga in the morning to fishing, swimming and picnicking. All this panoply of people and the bustling life around this small piece of land was very inspiring.”
The area has a considerable natural interest because of its complex shoreline ecosystem, fossil-bearing rocks and plant life in a city with very little vegetation, Kassatly said.
In exhibitions titled “Tripoli of the Orient; Plural City” and “Beirut the Iconography of an Absence,” Kassatly focused on the waning architectural and social heritage.
“I have been documenting the old houses in Beirut right from the beginning because I could preview that they would disappear with all the developments taking place or fall into ruins from neglect,” she said. “It helped raise public awareness and encourage people to rediscover the city.
“The work on Tripoli, such a diverse and rich city, is meant to warn against harming the city in the same way Beirut’s old features were harmed. The old souks of Tripoli and the traditional artisanship are still alive. It is about the only city in Lebanon where you feel it is the Orient.”
In “Sacred Trees, Sacrificed Trees,” the artist raises the challenges made to the environment, which has been badly damaged. In addition to photos of the environment from different parts of Lebanon, Kassatly depicted street art filling protest hubs in which the cedar tree, Lebanon’s national symbol, was highlighted.
One exhibition featured the tragedy of Palestinian and Syrian refugees in their daily life in Lebanon camps.
“Each exhibition raises essential questions related to Lebanon,” Kassatly said. “All these questions are being raised now by the protest movement such as the environment, heritage, the fate of the refugees et cetera. But the main message that applies to the five exhibitions is a call to act and to change things.”
Mogabgab said the unprecedented five-part exhibition is meant to show that “the creative power of art will always triumph over the destructive forces of evil, notably politics.”
“In 2020, the country is far away from the initial vision of its founding fathers 100 years ago. This very sharp contrast, between today’s grieving reality and celebrated past, is feeding the rejection by the young generation who are in protest and cross swords with the all-powerful coalition of former militias, in power since 1990.”
*Samar Kadi is the Arab Weekly society and travel section editor.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 22-23/2020
Mossad chief, top general visited Qatar, ‘begged’ it to pay Hamas, Liberman says
The Times Of Israel/February 22/2020
Yisrael Beytenu party leader says the pair were sent by Netanyahu to convince Doha not to end its money transfers to the Gaza-based terror group
Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and the top officer of the Israel Defense Forces in charge of Gaza, Herzi Halevi, visited Qatar earlier this month and asked its leaders to continue their periodical payments to Hamas, Yisrael Beytenu party chief Avigdor Liberman claimed Saturday night. Speaking to Channel 12 news, Liberman censured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for having “begged” the Qataris to continue supporting the Gaza-based terror group. “On Wednesday two weeks ago the head of Mossad… and the head of [IDF] Southern Command visit Qatar on an errand from Netanyahu, and they simply beg the Qataris to keep sending money to Hamas after March 30. The Qataris have said they will stop sending money on March 30,” Liberman said. “Both Egypt and Qatar are angry with Hamas and planned to cut ties with them. Suddenly Netanyahu appears as the defender of Hamas, as though it was an environmental organization. This is a policy of submission to terror,” he said, adding that Israel was paying Hamas “protection money” to maintain the calm.
With Israel’s approval, Qatar since 2018 has periodically provided millions of dollars in cash to Hamas to pay for fuel for the Strip’s power plant, allow the group to pay its civil servants and provide aid to tens of thousands of impoverished families. Israeli has reportedly done so in exchange for Hamas ensuring calm in the south and as part of efforts to reach a long-term ceasefire with the terror group. Liberman, the former defense minister, has accused Netanyahu of paying protection money to Hamas in the past (despite the payments having started during his time in office). The transfers were also opposed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has sought to pressure and weaken Hamas in Gaza. Israel’s government has offered little information about the transfers. Recently tensions along the border with Gaza have escalated due to an increase in rocket attacks and the use of helium balloons carrying explosives and incendiary devices into Israeli territory. Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip began sending clusters of balloons and kites into Israel laden with explosives beginning in 2018. The practice has waxed and waned over that time, but has picked up considerably in recent weeks, with dozens of such balloon-borne bombs landing in towns and farming communities adjacent to the Palestinian enclave.Netanyahu said on Tuesday the military was planning a “big surprise” for Hamas if the terrorist group failed to rein in violence aimed at southern Israel, amid reports that Israel was contemplating the assassination of two senior Hamas leaders.
Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper reported Thursday that Hamas has warned Israel against any severe measures, saying the immediate response would be a rocket barrage on Tel Aviv. Israel and Gaza have engaged in several sporadic rounds of violence over the last two years as the sides attempted to reach a long-term ceasefire. The last major conflict between the two sides was during a fifty-day clash in 2014, dubbed by the IDF as “Operation Protective Edge.” During the fighting Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in Gaza launched thousands of rockets into Israel, including at Tel Aviv and other central regions of the country.

Pompeo Says Soleimani Killing is Part of US Deterrence
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed on Thursday that Washington’s move to kill Iranian top commander Qassem Soleimani was an “important strategic strike.” In remarks to the press with US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia John Abizaid from the Kingdom’s Prince Sultan Air Base, he added that the strike “has now provided the Iranians with a deep knowledge that our notion of deterrence is real.” “I think it demonstrated resolve not only from the United States, but all of the forces that are working to push back against the Iran. He was actively plotting to kill Americans. He had killed Americans,” he said. Moreover, Pompeo vowed that Tehran will not acquire nuclear weapons. “They’re not going to get nuclear weapons. We’re going to prevent that.” “We are draining their capacity to conduct strategic activity in the region and destabilize the Middle East. They’re having to make harder choices today,” he continued. “It will take time. There remains work to do. But you can see they’ve gone from delivering 2.7 or 2.8 million barrels per day to a couple hundred thousand barrels a day.” “We’re going to try and tighten that down even further to deny the regime the capacity to underwrite Hezbollah, underwrite the Shiite militias, underwrite Hamas and the ‘Islamic Jihad’ in the Gaza Strip,” he stated, noting that the hundreds of thousands of refugees in Syria are a direct result of what the Iranian regime is doing. “We’re trying to deny them the resources to inflict this kind of harm throughout the Middle East,” he stressed. “The Iranians will respond. We’ve seen that. And so you have to establish the deterrence that’s connected to that.”Furthermore, Pompeo reiterated accusations that Iran was behind last year’s attack against Saudi oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais. “No reasonable person has any doubt about where these missiles came from,” he said. “The Iranian fingerprints are all over this thing. Anybody who suggests otherwise is – has got another motive in denying that this was an Iranian attack launch.”“This was an act of war in violation of all kinds of UN norms and rules.”For his part, Abizaid said: “The missiles that are being used and fired from Yemen by the Houthis are all coming from the Iranians. This is so clear.”“We’ve just recently interdicted two dhows down there filled with Iranian-produced equipment that is being used by the Houthis to attack Saudi Arabia. So, I think it’s really important for us to understand who is the aggressor in the region, and it’s no doubt it’s the Iranians.”

Pentagon: Number of US Troops Wounded in Iran Attack Rises
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
The number of US troops who sustained traumatic brain injury when Iran launched missiles at the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq last month has risen to 110, the Pentagon said Friday. The figure is one higher than the last toll, which was announced on February 10. All of the wounded were diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury, the Pentagon said in a statement, adding that 77 had already returned to duty. Meanwhile 35 were transported to Germany for further evaluation, of whom 25 have been sent to the United States, it added. President Donald Trump had initially said that no Americans were hurt in the strike on the base on the night of January 7-8, although authorities later reported that nearly a dozen troops were wounded. Iran fired ballistic missiles at the base to retaliate for the January 3 US drone strike that killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani while he was in Baghdad. The brain injuries sustained in the Iranian missile attack are fundamentally different than those that have typically resulted from past attacks, brain-trauma specialists said. That’s because the al-Asad bombing was more intense than typical quick-hit, single-explosion attacks: The explosions came in waves and lasted more than an hour.

Iran Faces Anti-terrorism Financing Watchdog Blacklist
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
A global dirty money watchdog is likely to place Iran on its blacklist on Friday after it failed to comply with international anti-terrorism financing norms, two diplomats said. The decision comes after more than three years of warnings from the Paris-based Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) urging Tehran to enact terrorist financing conventions or it would see its suspension from the blacklist lifted and some counter-measures applied. It will mean more scrutiny of transactions with Iran, tougher external auditing of financing firms operating in the country and add pressure on the few banks and businesses still operating with Iran. "It will be placed on the blacklist today," said a Western diplomat. "The consequence of (Iran's) inaction is higher costs of borrowing and isolation from the financial system." A second diplomat also told Reuters that Iran would be placed on the list. However, the two diplomats and a third European official, who did not confirm Tehran would be placed on the blacklist, said countries would be called to implement counter-measures relevant to their economies, leaving them with a choice on what to implement. "It's a middle solution. A sort of a fudge to leave the door open for the Iranians," said one the diplomats.
Foreign businesses say Iran's compliance with FATF rules is key if Tehran wants to attract investors, especially since the United States re-imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018 after withdrawing from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and other world powers.

Conservatives ahead as Iran Poll Results Trickle In
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 22/2020
Conservatives took an early lead Saturday as the first results of Iran's parliamentary election came in, boosted by a predicted low turnout following the disqualification of nearly half the candidates. Friday's election followed months of steeply escalating tensions between Iran and its decades-old arch foe the United States. Voters had been widely expected to shun the polls, disillusioned by unfulfilled promises and struggling to cope in a country whose economy has buckled under harsh US sanctions. About half of the 16,000-odd candidates were disqualified. Among them were many reformist and moderate candidates -- including dozens of sitting MPs -- leaving conservatives with virtually no competition. By midday (0830 GMT) Saturday, votes had been counted in 71 constituencies out of 208, according to National Elections Committee figures reported by semi-official news agency ISNA. Tehran is the biggest catch in the election with 30 seats. The conservative and ultra-conservative alliance appeared to have a comfortable edge in the capital in early results, the committee's spokesman Esmail Mousavi said on state television. Most votes went to the first three names on the alliance's list, he said.
Leading the race was Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a three-time presidential candidate, former police chief and member of the Revolutionary Guards who was Tehran mayor from 2005 to 2017. Reformists and moderates hardly figured in the 37 other names of "leading Tehran candidates", Mousavi said. Final results for both the capital and other provinces would be announced by early Sunday at the latest, he added. If the results are confirmed, it will mean President Hassan Rouhani's slender majority of reformists and moderates elected with fanfare four years ago is nearly purged. "A lot of people voted in the previous parliamentary election, but the enthusiasm faded away every day after that," Ali, a Tehran taxi driver, told AFP. "And now there's nothing to be hopeful about to go and vote," added the 53-year-old, who abstained.
Landslide win?
With official figures still coming in, news agencies close to conservatives and ultra-conservatives have predicted a landslide win for their candidates across Iran. An unofficial tally published by Fars news agency said 183 of parliament's 290 seats had already been decided, with conservative candidates winning 135 of them. Reformists were a distant second at 20, it said, adding independents had won 28 seats. Fars tweeted that turnout in Tehran was 1.9 million out of more than nine million eligible voters. Many in the capital seem to have sat out the election, including Arghavan Aram, who manages an NGO for transsexuals. "An election with only one faction is not an election, it's a selection," she said. But Aram appeared optimistic for a future where "Trump leaves, Democrats come to power alongside a moderate supreme leader" in Iran and things would change. The state television website said that among 56 winners announced on Saturday, most were fresh faces and only 10 were former MPs. The 11th parliamentary election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution comes after a surge in tensions between Tehran and Washington, and Iran's accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner that sparked anti-government protests. Turnout was estimated at around 40 percent nationwide and 30 percent in Tehran at the scheduled close of polls on Friday, according to Fars. But authorities extended polling for another six hours to allow as many people as possible to vote. Fars said the official turnout figure would be released on Saturday, while official results are not expected to be announced until Sunday. Schools were closed in dozens of urban centres on Saturday while the count went ahead. Iran fell into a deep recession after US President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions following Washington's unilateral withdrawal from a landmark nuclear deal in 2018.

UN Urges Iran for ‘Prompt’ Probe into Protest Violence
New York - Ali Barada/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, has painted a grim picture of human rights in the country. In his latest report, Rehman referred to the continuation of executions, hanging minors, violating women's and minorities' rights, restricting freedom of thought and expression, and harsh conditions of prisoners, as well as suppressing assemblies and associations. He mentioned the violence used in protests that erupted in November 2019. He called on the Iranian authorities to “ensure that prompt, thorough and effective investigations are undertaken by independent and impartial bodies into all deaths in custody and reports of torture or other ill-treatment and that those responsible are held accountable.”He urged the Iranian government “to release all those detained for legitimately and peacefully exercising their freedoms of opinion and expression, association and peaceful assembly and their right to collective bargaining.” Rehman will present the report at the 43rd session of the Human Rights Council that will meet from February 24 to March 20 in Geneva.

Iraq: Kurdish-Sunni Alliance Weakens Allawi’s Chances to Form Government
Baghdad – Hamza Mustafa/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
A Kurdish-Sunni alliance led by President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Masoud Barzani and Parliament Speaker Muhammad Al-Halbousi has weakened the chances of Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Allawi to win a vote of confidence despite the possibility of a last-minute compromise. Allawi said on Wednesday he has put together a cabinet of independents, and called on parliament to hold an extraordinary session next Monday to grant it its vote of confidence. On Friday, the PM-designate invited deputies to the seat of the government to inform them about the resumes of the new ministers. Muhammad al-Khalidi, the head of the Bayraq al-Khair bloc, told Asharq Al-Awsat that 76 deputies have requested the head of parliament to hold a session on Monday. Even resigned Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi called on the parliament to meet for a vote of confidence. On Wednesday, Khalidi said the government would be approved by a comfortable majority in the presence of 220 MPs who intend to vote for it. Deputy from the Sairoon Alliance Ghaib al-Amiri shared the same view. However, other politicians and MPs expressed pessimism. According to observers, the stances of the Kurdish and Sunni parties have contributed to weakening the position of Allawi. Some politicians were hinging on differences between Sunnis and Kurds to give Allawi higher chances in forming his government and weakening Halbousi and Barzani. However, the observers said that main Shiite parties stuck to their understanding with Halbousi and Barzani. When asked whether Allawi’s government would receive a vote of confidence on Monday, former MP Haidar al-Malla told Asharq Al-Awsat, “The issue has become very difficult,” adding that Halbousi and Barzani informed Fatah leader Hadi al-Ameri their rejection to support the government. “The issue is not related to the cabinet lineup or program of the new government, but the person of Mohammed Allawi, who is now rejected,” Malla said. Deputy Hussein Arab from the Eradaa Movement told Asharq Al-Awsat that the “situation has become more complicated.”
He said the Halbousi-Barzani alliance would not be helpful in granting parliament’s vote of confidence to the new government. Iraqi Forces Alliance MP Mohammed al-Karbouli said his bloc will abstain from voting by meeting the demands of the Iraqi protesters. “Allawi failed to choose ministers based on the conditions placed by demonstrators. Therefore, he is not the person suitable to run the current phase in Iraq,” Karbouli said.

Turkish President Admits Sending Syrian Fighters to Libya
Ankara - Saeed Abdulrazek/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan said his country has sent Syrian opposition fighters to Libya. “Turkey is there [in Libya] with a training force. There are also people from the Syrian National Army,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul, referring to opposition fighters who were previously known as the “Free Syrian Army”. The Turkish president added that the reports are saying Turkey sent mercenaries from Syria, wondering why no one discusses the 2,5000 mercenaries of the Russian company Wagner or the 15,000 mercenaries from Sudan and Chad who fight alongside Libyan National Army (LNA) forces. “We are in Libya at the invitation of the Libyan people, and the legitimate government representing it,” referring to the memorandum of understanding for military and security cooperation signed with Government of National Accord, headed by Fayez al-Sarraj. “We will not go out until peace and stability are achieved in Libya,” continued Erdogan. Several reports had indicated that Turkey sent Syrian mercenaries after they were promised the Turkish citizenship and salaries of up to $2,000 per month, to fight alongside militias loyal to the GNA. This is the first time Erdogan admits to sending these elements and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated they were around 3,600 fighters from pro-Turkish factions and brigades in Syria. The Turkish President reaffirmed that his country will continue to support the GNA and renewed his attack on LNA leader Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, saying that he was “mercenary and has illegal status." Erdogan's comments came after a surprising meeting in Istanbul with Sarraj, who withdrew from the UN-sponsored Geneva peace talks on Libya, aimed to establish a permanent cease-fire. The Turkish presidency said the closed meeting between Erdogan and Sarraj was not included in the President's agenda, without giving any further details. Diplomatic sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Sarraj briefed Erdogan on the Geneva talks, and the situation after the LNA bombed Tripoli port. They suggested that Sarraj may have requested further Turkish military support to thwart LNA’s advancement. Earlier, Haftar visited Moscow where he met the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and the two agreed on the need to implement the decisions of the Berlin Conference on the Libyan crisis. For his part, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that Turkish guarantees in Libya are dependent on a truce between warring sides being upheld. “If the cease-fire does not continue, the transfer to a political process is very hard. The world condemns, but what is being done to stop Haftar?” Turkey's special envoy to Libya Emrullah Isler said Friday that Turkey is in Libya in agreement with the legitimate government, referring to Sarraj’s government, denying that Turkey had established a military base in Tripoli. He indicated that members of the Turkish forces in Libya use bases and camps that were established mainly in Tripoli.

Iraq: PMF Names Muhandis’ Successor
Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) named Abdulaziz al-Mohammedawi as its new deputy commander following the assassination of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis alongside the head of Iran’s al-Quds Force, Major General Qassem Soleimani, in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January.
PMF official Abu Ali al-Basri announced on Friday the appointment of Mohammedawi, aka 'Abu Fadak' and 'the Uncle', who was a top commander of Iraq’s Hezbollah Brigades. He worked with Soleimani while he was organizationally linked with al-Badr Organization in the 1980s. He was an aide to al-Badr head Hadi Amiri and was assigned to intelligence tasks. Al-Basri said the commander of the Iraqi armed forces will sign Mohammedawi’s appointment decree in the coming days. The appointment comes after weeks of intense negotiations among PMF officials on who will succeed Muhandis, who was the group’s deputy commander. The PMF is headed by the National Security Adviser, Faleh al-Fayyadh. However, after restructuring the group’s leadership, the position of the deputy chief was canceled, and replaced by the chief of staff, which will be occupied by Mohammedawi. Al-Arabiya channel quoted sources as saying that ‘the Uncle’ was working as an intelligence member for Badr Organization in the Kurdistan region, but he refused to give up arms after the toppling of the Baathist regime, and formed a combat group which received its salaries and support directly from Amiri. Mohammedawi was closely connected to Iran through his formation of the Hezbollah Brigades, according to sources. However, other sources noted that he was merely a top official in the Brigades, but after differences on the release of Qatari fishermen detained in Iraq by Hezbollah in return for ransom, ‘the Uncle’ resigned, only to join the Brigades under direct orders from Soleimani after the eruption of anti-government protests in October. The sources pointed out that the word ‘the Uncle’ was sprayed on the wall of the US embassy in Baghdad during protests by PMF supporters. They also revealed that his assignment is seen as a provocation to the Sadrist movement.

Syrian Transport Ministry Says Damascus-Aleppo Highway Open to Traffic
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
Syria's transport ministry announced on Saturday that the main highway between Damascus and Aleppo is open to the public after regime troops retook control in a Russian-backed offensive. "Transport Minister Ali Hammoud announces the opening of the Damascus-Aleppo highway to traffic, placing it at the service of citizens," the ministry said in its statement. Clearing insurgents from the highway was part of a 2018 Russian-Turkish deal that called for creating a buffer zone between combatants in the Idlib region of the northwest, though fighting has raged on, Reuters reported. With Russian backing, the Syrian regime regained ground in northwest Syria, the last major opposition stronghold, since December. According to the United Nations, the offensive has uprooted nearly a million people, the largest exodus of the nine-year war. Turkey has "determined our road map" for Syria after calls with the leaders of Russia, Germany and France, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday. "We will announce to all parties that we are at the table," he told a crowd in Izmir. Under its agreements with Russia, Turkey has forces stationed at observation posts in the northwest. Ankara and Moscow, which back opposing sides in Syria's conflict, have collaborated in trying to reach a political settlement.According to Reuters, tensions between the two sides have spiralled during the latest offensive, with both accusing the other of flouting agreements. Meanwhile, Turkey has warned that it will use military power to repel Syrian advances in the Idlib offensive, during which 15 Turkish soldiers have been killed this month.

Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Armed with Knife
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
Israeli forces shot and killed a suspect in Jerusalem's annexed Old City Saturday after he approached officers posted near one of the gates armed with a knife, police said. Police did not immediately release further details on the identity of the suspect. But said that at approximately 11 am a man approached border police officers at Lion's Gate armed with a knife. Police responded by calling upon him to stop. But they shot and killed him after he continued to approach them, they said in a statement. A woman in the area was "injured lightly by shrapnel" and taken to hospital, the statement added. On Friday, police reported an attempted stabbing south of Jerusalem. Israel has heightened security in Jerusalem in recent weeks due to elevated tension in the region after US President Donald Trump unveiled a Middle East Peace plan that Israel has embraced while Palestinians rejected as one sided.

Cairo Criminal Court Acquits Mubarak's Sons of Illicit Share Trading
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
The two sons of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were acquitted on Saturday of illicit share trading during the sale of a bank. Alaa and Gamal Mubarak and seven others had faced charges of illegally profiting from the process of selling the Al Watany Bank of Egypt in 2007. Both men, who denied wrongdoing, attended Saturday's Cairo Criminal Court session, which was held at a police academy for security reasons, and heard the verdict acquitting all the defendants. The public prosecution has the right to appeal, judicial sources said. The pair, detained after the 2011 popular uprising, were sentenced to three years in jail in 2015, along with their father, after being separately convicted of diverting public funds and using the money to upgrade family properties. However, the two brothers were released soon after the ruling because they had spent time in detention pending the case. Their father was freed in 2017 after being cleared of charges of ordering the killing of protesters during the uprising.

Haftar Pledges to Liberate Tripoli if Geneva Talks Fail
Cairo - Khalid Mahmoud/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
Libyan National Army (LNA) Commander Marshal Khalifa Haftar has pledged to liberate Tripoli if the UN-sponsored talks fail. His statements come before the end of the indirect military talks resumed on Friday in Geneva with Fayez al-Sarraj-led Government of National Accord (GNA) which aim to reach a lasting ceasefire. Addressing Russian media, Haftar said he would be ready for a ceasefire if "Syrian and Turkish mercenaries” withdraw from the country and if Turkey stops providing the GNA with arms." He noted that any ceasefire hinges on “the implementation of several conditions.” These include the expulsion of “Syrian and Turkish mercenaries, the cessation of Turkish arms supplies to Tripoli and the liquidation of terrorist groups in Tripoli.”Haftar also pledged to confront what he described as “Turkish invaders.” “In case Geneva talks don’t lead to establishing peace and security in the country and mercenaries don’t return to their homelands, the armed forces will carry out their constitutional duty to defend the country from the Turkish-Ottoman invaders,” he stressed. Haftar said that bombing the sea port of Tripoli “has nothing to do with the presence of Algeria’s foreign minister or the Military Committee’s dialogue,” pointing that it came in response to violations. For his part, Head of the UN mission to Libya Ghassan Salame said his mission to secure a lasting ceasefire and eventually a political solution for the conflict-torn country was extremely difficult but “possible.” According to an AFP report, Salame said “negotiations in which two senior military leaders are involved are technical, but vital,” stressing the importance of their success.

Egypt’s Coptic Church Denies Bomb Found Near Cathedral
Cairo - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
Coptic Orthodox Church spokesperson Boulos Halim has denied that a homemade bomb was found near the Virgin Mary Cathedral, south of Cairo. News circulated on social media about the bomb is untrue, said Halim in a statement on Friday. A source also told the state-run MENA news agency that the reports on the bomb are baseless. Pope Tawadros II attended on Friday the launch of the seventh expatriates conference organized by the Coptic church.

Ten New Cases of Coronavirus In Iran, Death Toll on the Rise
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 22 February, 2020
Ten new cases of coronavirus have been detected in Iran, one of whom has died, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said on state TV on Saturday. The new numbers bring the total number of cases of the new coronavirus in the country to 28, with five of the total having died.
People are receiving treatment in at least four different cities, including the capital, Tehran, where some pharmacies had already run out of masks and hand sanitizer. Other cities are Qom, Arak and Rasht. Minoo Mohraz, an Iranian health ministry official, had said Friday that the virus “possibly came from Chinese workers who work in Qom and traveled to China,” without elaborating. According to The Associated Press, a Chinese company has been building a solar power plant in that cit. Earlier on Thursday, health officials called for the suspension of all religious gatherings in Qom where most of the cases have been detected. Iran has suspended religious pilgrimage trips to Iraq over coronavirus fears, an official who oversees pilgrimage trips said on Saturday. Meanwhile, Iraq announced that it had banned border crossings by Iranian nationals for three days because of worries about the spread of the disease, Iraq’s state news agency said, Reuters reported. Iranian state TV reported on Saturday that a mayor of a district in Tehran had been diagnosed with coronavirus but the Fars news agency later tweeted a denial from the director of the public relations for the district.

New Virus Has Infected More than 77,000 People Globally
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 22/2020
A viral outbreak that began in China has infected more than 77,000 people globally. The World Health Organization has named the illness COVID-19, referring to its origin late last year and the coronavirus that causes it.
The latest figures reported by each government's health authority as of Saturday in Beijing:
— Mainland China: 2,345 deaths among 76,288 cases, mostly in the central province of Hubei
— Hong Kong: 69 cases, 2 deaths
— Macao: 10
— Japan: 751 cases, including 634 from a cruise ship docked in Yokohama, 3 deaths
— South Korea: 346 cases, 2 deaths
— Singapore: 86
— United States: 35 cases; separately, 1 U.S. citizen died in China
— Thailand: 35
— Taiwan: 26 cases, 1 death
— Australia: 23
— Malaysia: 22
— Italy: 19 cases; 1 death
_Iran: 18 cases, 4 deaths
— Vietnam: 16
— Germany: 16
— France: 12 cases, 1 death
— United Arab Emirates: 11
— United Kingdom: 9
— Canada: 9
— Philippines: 3 cases, 1 death
— India: 3
— Russia: 2
— Spain: 2
— Lebanon: 1
— Israel: 1
— Belgium: 1
— Nepal: 1
— Sri Lanka: 1
— Sweden: 1
— Cambodia: 1
— Finland: 1
— Egypt: 1

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 22-23/2020
The Limits of Relying on Disagreements Between Moscow, Ankara
Akram Bunni/Asharq Al Awsat/February 22/2020
There has been a lot of talk about the dispute between Moscow and Ankara over influence in Syria. This talk stems from the clashes between factions aligned to each of the two sides and their contestation over the most important sites and facilities in rural Idlib and Aleppo, marking a new level of tension and escalation as Turkish military observation points were bombed by Syrian forces, probably with Russian support and cover, killing and wounding several Turkish soldiers.
Ankara retaliated by targeting a group of Syrian forces, killing and wounding dozens. The Syrian army and the Iranian militias’ successful takeover of dozens of villages and towns make matters more severe. This while Ankara hardened its rhetoric and dragged thousands of troops to protect its military sites in an attempt to pressure the regime and its allies and hinder their advances on land and try to change the scene in the last de-escalation zone.
The two sides indeed have divergent reasons for their involvement in Syria, but it is also true that they have strong shared interests that compel them to put an end to what is happening or limit it to the greatest extent possible.
Firstly, they are both classical pragmatists, opening the door to mutual readiness to make concessions and solidify an agreement, thus preventing things from going as far as they potentially could or towards a bone-breaking battle. This explains the two sides’ repeated statements on their commitment to the agreements made in Sochi and Astana, including noteworthy commitments to maintain coordination and expanding channels of communication and dialogue to avoid surprises and keep developments under control, especially that both of them are aware of the importance of each of them to the other and the major losses that they would incur if the contention were to escalate.
Just as Russia wants to avoid drowning in the swamp of an endless war, Ankara wants to avoid dragging itself into a wide-ranging battle with the regime that could lead to a losing confrontation with its two allies Russia and Iran, in light of an ambiguous American position which will most likely be limited, as usual, to verbal support.
Naturally, neither eliminating nor challenging the Kremlin's presence and role in Syria or the Levant, is a priority for the government in Ankara so long as it receives several forms of support and protection from it. Rather, what it has in mind is cooperating with Russia to curb Kurdish expansion and limit the Kurds’ abilities and the threat that they pose, find a solution to the growing Syrian refugee crisis and expand the influence it has managed to garner or at least maintain it.
It is also not in Russia’s interest to lose its alliance with Ankara so long as it can employ this alliance in its contest for influence with the West over points of tension all over the world. This does not mean that Russia is not working to curtail the agreement’s significance and use it to maximize its influence and control the region's balance of power; this includes using the agreement to threaten the regime in Damascus and shape its positions. Russia also wants to use the agreement to control what remained of the opposition and its armed factions, ensure a degree of favorability for itself among the Sunni Muslim majority and, most importantly, to curtail Iran’s ideological and military presence, which is growing further and further in Syrian society and its economic, security, and military infrastructure. Russia also wants to prepare for the possibility of the west playing a new role in Syria, compelled by the war’s developments on the ground and the possibility of progress on the reconstruction front.
Secondly, there’s the pair’s strong political agreements, which have accumulated over the years preceding Erdogan’s major shift towards Moscow, which began with his apology for downing the Russian Sukhoi jet-plane. This deepened their relationship and shared interests and made them interlinked and intertwined to such a degree that it is difficult to imagine either of them taking a position that is antagonistic to the other’s presence in the region or either of them being ready to cut off his relationship with the other.
This was strengthened further by the emergence of their mutual need for solidarity and cooperation in the face of western economic sanctions imposed on them and the agreement the pair laid down in Sochi and Astana. Before that, Turkish complicity allowed Russia and the regime's forces to control Aleppo and led to opposition militants being transferred from rural Damascus, Homs and Daraa to Idlib after the deals and reconciliations that were made there. Russia returned the favor by turning a blind eye to Turkish forces’ incursion in Afrin, then in Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad, its purge and murder of Kurds. Subsequently, last October, Russia signed a deal with Turkey agreeing to the establishment of a safe zone in the region north and east of the Euphrates.
Third, what makes the idea of reaching a mutual understanding more appealing is the depth of the shared economic interests between the two countries. The size of commercial exchange between them in 2019 reached around 30 billion dollars, while the number of Russian tourists in Turkey reached around 6 million. These numbers are very important to the stability of the relationship and on the Turkish economy that is currently facing difficulties that make cutting ties with Russia unbearable. Their relationship was made even more stable after they cooperated in the construction project of a nuclear power plant and Turkish gas pipelines to transport Russian gas to Turkey and Europe.
One should therefore not rely on a new Turkish position in confronting Russian presence only because Erdogan's tone has become sharper and more threatening. Probably, the strength of their shared interests will push them to reach a new understanding, that will be as usual at the expense of Syrian blood, interests and the suffering of refugees. This may culminate in Ankara settling for the outcome of the last battles and framing it under the Sochi Agreement of 2018 on accepting the spread of regime forces supported by Russia between Damascus and Aleppo, and between the M4 and M5 to secure the two international routes from Aleppo and Lattakia.
In the end, regardless of the nature of the struggle over influence between Russia and Turkey in Syria, its horizons are limited, which means that it is necessary to be cautious of building and relying on it. What we have observed in the last few years has shown us time and time again the bitterness of this bet, and that it is nothing more than a waste of efforts and opportunities, and has confirmed the readiness of both sides to overcome any dispute between them and that they are more often than not in agreement, and that they now see that the severity of the damage that would result from their competition and the radical divergence in interests and goals that comes with it.

Iran: the Masks of Jefferson and Attila
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/February 22/2020
Iranians are supposed to go to the polls on Friday to elect a new Islamic Consultative Assembly, an ersatz parliament designed to give an autocratic regime a pseudo-democratic varnish. At the same time, voters are invited to participate in by-elections to fill vacancies in the Assembly of Experts, a grouping of mullahs supposed to supervise the performance of the “Supreme Guide”.
We said “supposed to go the polls” because it is not at all clear how many of the 60 million eligible to vote would bother to take part in an exercise that many regard as insulting and futile. A number of polls, including some conducted by the government, predict a turnout-no higher than 50 percent. A Ministry of the Interior poll puts the number of those who intend to vote in Tehran at 24 percent.
Some Middle East experts often ask me why a regime like the one in control of Iran needs any election specially when candidates are pre-selected by the authorities and those elected won’t be declared winners without the final approval by the office of the “Supreme Guide”.
The reason is that, in its initial phase, the Islamic Revolution was, in fact, a classical bourgeois revolution reflecting typical middle class dreams of democracy, nationalism, socialism or even communism. With rare, and at times important, exceptions, the mass of Iranian workers and peasants took no part in anti-Shah demonstrations. The difficulty was that the leadership of the revolution had no intention of creating a Western-style society in which economically and socially Westernized Iranian middle classes would feel at home. One way to deceive them was to continue with a tradition of elections dating back to 1907.
For decades later, a new middle class has emerged, President Hassan Rouhani refers to it as “the well-off 30 percent”, people who are prepared to live a double life in which economic comfort, not to say prosperity, is combined with lack of political freedoms and restrictive social norms.
In this double life, the new middle class passes part of the year abroad, mostly in Western Europe and North America, where it can wear what it likes, eat what it likes and live like its Western counterparts.
I was astonished to learn from an Islamic Majlis study that over 3,000 high-ranking officials have permanent resident permits for the United States and Canada. For example, six out of the 31 provincial governors in the Islamic Republic commute between Canada and Iran on a regular basis. Thousands of the children of this new middle class attend Western universities, mostly in the US and Canada. The new middle class, including some senior mullahs and their families, also uses several specialized hospitals in Germany, Switzerland and Britain. In many cases, as soon as a passenger aircraft leaves the Iranian airspace, the ladies cast off their hijab and the men queue up to shave or at least trim their beards. They look like a troupe of actors capable of playing different roles in accordance with the script at hand and the venue of the show.
The new middle class has also built egg-nests outside Iran, for a rainy day when one might be forced to flee. Iranians have bought an astonishing 70,000 properties in Turkey alone. Georgia recently stopped the sale of property to Iranians and Oman has just imposed restrictions on Iranians buying real estate in the sultanate. In Western Europe and North America tens of thousands of former Islamic officials and their associates own property and substantial investment portfolios.
The new middle class also has a network of propagandists abroad, peddling the yarn that the Islamic Republic, in the words of Noam Chomsky, is a “people-based” regime, a little lamb defying the American big bad wolf.
Interestingly, the new Islamic middle class often cites Western “Infidel” authorities to support its world vision. Last Tuesday, “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei, addressing an election rally in Tehran, quoted former US President Jimmy Carter and Senator Bernie Sanders to back the claim that the US is about to implode because of widening class divisions, mass poverty and spiraling national debt. Hardly a day passes without the daily Kayhan, echoing Khamenei’s views, quoting unknown or little known “American scholars” and think-tanks praising the Islamic Republic and demanding that US cease opposing Tehran’s regional ambitions.
That a new regime creates a new middle class isn’t something limited to Iran. Serbian writer Milovan Djilas has a whole book on the new middle class created by the Communist regime in Yugoslavia. In Communist China the new middle class began to take shape in the 1970s. Han Suyn depicted that new stratum of the Chinese society, consisting of people who could wear Western clothes and munch chop-suey, an American invention, when abroad but could also march, waving Mao Zedong’s Red Book in Beijing. Today, you would be astonished by the number of Chinese Communist officials who have attended American universities and have their offspring treading the same path. You may be even more astonished to learn the volume of Chinese investments in Europe and North America.
There is, however, a big difference between the Islamic Republic’s new middle class and its counterparts in Titoist Yugoslavia or Communist China. In Yugoslavia and China no section of the new middle class pretended to have democratic aspirations. The “moderates-vs-hardliners” show that has plagued Iranian politics for decades did not exist in Yugoslavia or China.
The least bad outcome of today’s polling would be the end of the “moderate-hardliner” duet. Since there was no campaigning worthy of the name and no major political issues were discussed by the candidates it is impossible to know exactly who is who. But some observers predict a low turnout and claim that the overwhelming majority of candidates likely to be declared as winners belong to the faction led by Khamenei and backed by the security-military apparatus.
In other words, next Majlis will have fewer “half-pregnant” members, those who want to appear like Jeffersonian democrats but acting more savagely than Attila. I am not sure that such predictions would become reality. But I sure hope they will. A Majlis reflecting the reality of a corrupt, incompetent and brutal regime in full is less harmful than one designed to hide the nature of the Islamic Republic and promote forlorn hopes of moderation and reform.

Iran's revolution has failed its women
Shirin Ebadi/The National/February 22/2020
Forty-one years after Ayatollah Khomeini promised equal rights, the regime continues to deny them their basic freedoms
Forty-one years have passed since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Before ascending to power and while in Paris, the republic's first supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini had insisted on equality among all Iranians in his many speeches and declarations. He said that Muslims, non-Muslims, men and women will all be free and have equal rights in the Iran that he promised to build. Unfortunately, he went back on his word from the moment he rose to power.
A woman can reach high positions in her career. Yet a married woman cannot travel without her husband’s permission. This leads to interesting paradoxes
The revolution succeeded on February 11, 1979 and, on March 8, the nationwide radio broadcast announced that women who worked in the public sector should wear a veil. Until then, it was not obligatory in Iran. Many women opposed Khomeini’s declaration but, as a result of government-led violence and oppression, it became the norm. Two years later, it became mandatory for women to wear a coat to cover the body and a scarf to cover the hair when they stepped out of the house; violation of this law was a punishable offence. It is interesting that, according to this law, any woman living in Iran – Muslim or non-Muslim, Iranian or non-Iranian – should follow the law, when in fact non-Muslims are not be obliged to be veiled. Forcing women to be veiled is not correct and even Muslim women in Iran want to be able to decide for themselves what clothes to wear.
Women in Iran are not against the veil, they are against the fact that it is compulsory. They believe that they should be free to wear whatever they want. Having been deprived of that freedom, a number of women are enduring heavy punishment in prisons simply because they lifted their veils on the streets or declared that they were against the practice being made compulsory.
In the immediate aftermath of Khomeini’s victory, there was no ratified constitution, Parliament or president. The country was governed by a committee called the Council of the Revolution, and using its interim powers, passed a law that allowed any Muslim man to marry up to four women. Polygamy was previously allowed only for a second spouse and was possible only if stringent conditions were met. However, such conditions were done away with, and men were allowed to have four wives. Before the revolution, mothers were allowed to have custody and the guardianship of their children but they lost this right thereafter. Following years of struggle, they have been able to recover child custody rights, but are still deprived of guardianship. In other words, they do not have the ability to administer the financial affairs of their children; in fact, paternal grandfathers have priority over mothers.
A woman can reach high positions in her career. Yet a married woman cannot travel without her husband’s permission. This leads to interesting paradoxes. Iran has two female ambassadors who have to obtain written permission from their husbands in order to travel. This fact in itself is a clear example to illustrate that women have no rights, and that the little progress they may have achieved is superficial at best.
Women are deprived from working in certain positions. Before the revolution, I was a judge who presided over a court; after the revolution, however, I became an administrative worker – along with 50 other female judges. I became secretary of the same court I had previously been the head of. Obviously, I did not accept the offer. I left the judiciary and opened my own law firm. I chose to became a lawyer and since then, I have been dedicated to the defence of victims of human rights violations.
According to the constitution, women cannot become presidents of the republic – although there is no legal impediment when it comes to ministries. In 41 years, there has been just one female minister: a woman held the position of health minister. Among the 290 members of the previous Parliament, only 17 were women. Elections are not free in Iran and people have no right to vote for whomever they want. Candidates for the Parliament and for the presidency must be approved by a body called the Guardian Council.
This council comprises 12 members. Six of them are experts in Islamic laws and are directly selected by the supreme leader. The remainder are jurists and are appointed by the head of the judiciary, who in turn is also appointed by the supreme leader. So, we see how the members of the Guardian Council are not elected by the people, but that they are all either directly or indirectly appointed by the supreme leader.
For this weekend's parliamentary elections, many candidates were barred the council – a decision that drew public criticism and even protests. A poll conducted last week by a state-run news network found that more than 80 per cent of participants said they were not voting in the elections.
Because of current situation, the existing system of oppression in Iran and – especially because of the legal discrimination they suffer – women participate in all demonstrations against the government. They are even at the forefront of these protests. Women in Iran want a secular and democratic government. They also demand a separation of religion and state, so that politicians do not use people’s religious sentiments and hide behind Islam to justify oppression. Women in Iran know that the dissolution of their rights is not because of Islam but due to a repressive government. We all know that Islam has different interpretations and that the government only accepts its own, rejecting those of open-minded religious experts. Therefore, what is working against women in the country is political oppression, not Islam.
The government finds its toughest enemies among women. Currently, more than 150 notable women feminists are languishing in prison simply because they are demanding equal rights. The number of political prisoners in Iran is high, but the government does not offer accurate numbers, and threatens families with severe consequences if they inform the media. However, according to the information that I have received, there are more than 1,000 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.
Fortunately, the feminist movement in Iran has not been opposed by men; on the contrary, many men are followers of it. Women are at the forefront of the struggle and men support them in their demand the elimination of all kinds of discrimination.
I know that democracy will be carried by Iranian women and established in Iran. That day is not far away and, until then, we will struggle. We want a free, independent and democratic Iran.
*Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian political activist, lawyer and former judge. She will speak at the Hay Festival in Abu Dhabi

In Syria, Russia is weighing its options against Turkey
Raghida Dergham/The National/February 22/2020
Even as Moscow continues to rely on diplomacy, the military establishment is preparing for a confrontation
The military establishment in Russia is determined to contain Turkish ambitions in Syria and put an end to what it sees as excesses being committed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the war-torn country. However, members of Moscow’s diplomatic corps are still hoping that the Turkish president would change course and avoid a potentially dangerous confrontation between the two regional powers in Syria's north. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, it is reliably learnt, is hoping to personally influence Mr Erdogan but finds himself in a position where there is pressure to make a decision quickly.
Either way, what is clear is that Russia will not abandon the Syrian regime of Bashar Al Assad. After all, Mr Al Assad’s government is a key component in furthering Moscow’s strategic interests in the Middle East.
I was in the Russian capital earlier in the week to attend the Valdai Club conference, the theme of which was “Middle East in a Time of Change: Towards New Stability Architecture”. There, I met figures apprised of the thinking of the Russian civilian and military leadership groups – especially vis-a-vis Turkey and Iran – and got the sense that a military confrontation with Turkey in Syria is inevitable. For what they are worth, the Astana and Sochi agreements delineating the two sides’ interests in the country are now in a state of clinical death.
The military brass in Moscow believes that Mr Erdogan’s efforts to undermine Russian involvement in Syria would have damaging consequences for its strategic interests, as well as prestige, and concludes that the time has come to counter his actions. Russian forces have momentum on the ground – and therefore control over timing – for them to swing into action. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to push for a political solution.
Russia defines its intervention in Syria “a war on terror” but it could well turn into a war for Syria. Which would be an important development because, while Russian public opinion might not warm up to the idea at the beginning, that will change when the conflict is framed in the context of a nation preserving its strategic interests and preventing Turkey from undermining its prestige.
Because of this deterioration in these ties, Iran – the third party to those agreements – could acquire greater importance for Russia. The catch, however, is that Moscow’s attempt to strengthen its relations with Tehran in Syria and beyond would invite US measures against Russia – in the form of economic sanctions or even an undermining of its interests in other parts of the world. In other words, Moscow’s two allies in Syria have become burdens – one economic and the other military.
There is certainly anxiety in Moscow regarding Iran’s domestic situation, especially in light of the recent anti-regime protests across the country.
Hardliners in Tehran, led by the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – the regime’s influential militia arm, see the weekend’s legislative elections as an opportunity to squeeze out the so-called liberals from within the establishment. Having already disqualified most liberals from running in polls, the regime has sought a national mandate for harsher policies vis-a-vis the West.
However, while Tehran is keen to assure Moscow that it has things under control at home, the worry is that its attempted purges would reduce any influence President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif might have in the country’s dealings with the rest of the world. This would preclude any negotiations with the US and possibly lead to further escalations in the region.
Given its problems with Turkey, Russia might have little choice but to accept Iran’s assurances and its boastful claim of having helped Hezbollah, Tehran’s ally in Lebanon, to consolidate its power in that country. But it does not encourage the current developments in Tehran.
There is also the threat of economic pressure on Moscow. Last week, Washington imposed sanctions on the commercial arm of the Russian energy giant Rosneft for helping Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro – another ally – to evade US sanctions. Moscow has described them as illegal and threatened to respond but Russia is nonetheless set to incur financial losses. There is also anxiety that new US laws could impose restrictions on foreign investments in Russia.
Moscow is aware that Washington is determined to get it to end its support of the regime in Tehran, even if that means slapping more sanctions. What it does anticipate fully is an official warning from the US next month, when a key meeting regarding US foreign policy on Iran and its supporters is scheduled to be convened.
In a nutshell, recent events have left Moscow concerned even as it reviews its tactics and partnerships – both existing and potential – as it looks to preserve the gains it has made over the years in the Middle East and elsewhere.
*Raghida Dergham is the founder and executive chairwoman of the Beirut Institute

Erdogan’s scheme in Syria behind showdown by proxy with Russia
Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/February 23/2020
It is the poor Syrian people who will continue to pay the price of having their country transformed into a quagmire for Russia, Turkey and Iran.
Will there be a direct confrontation between Turkey and Russia on Syrian soil?
It is highly unlikely but the confrontation between the Syrian government, backed by Iranian militias and the Russian Air Force, and the Turkish Army and militias affiliated with Ankara will continue, especially if Turkey’s side insists on its publicly announced demands.
Turkey wants the Syrian Army to retreat behind the Turkish observation posts before the end of February. This is Turkey’s declared goal but it hides others.
Turkey is using Idlib to pressure the Russians to let Ankara pursue its agenda in other places, including Libya. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s scheme in Libya has been exposed and now Turkey needs Russian cover.
It is clear Turkey wants to act as the spearhead of the Muslim Brotherhood and its ambitions in the region. How else can Erdogan’s insult to the Syrian revolution, which he claimed to support, be explained? Did he insult it by sending more than 2,000 Syrians to fight alongside one side in a war in Libya that has nothing to do with Syria?
Behind the tragedy at Idlib and the surrounding area, there are Turkish and Russian calculations that extend beyond northern Syria. Russia will remain supportive of the Syrian government even when it pushes to end hostilities according to specific conditions.
At the same time, it will negotiate to preserve Russian interests in the region. It is likely that there will be surprises of a military nature, such as Turkey’s use of heavy and anti-aircraft weapons. Turkey will target warplanes of the Syrian government and not Russian aircraft, especially after its acquisition of the Russian S-400 air defence system and after the price it paid for downing a Russian warplane in 2015.
Recent Turkish-Russian meetings in Moscow have led to an agreement. This artificial agreement aims to achieve a kind of truce, with Turkish observation points remaining in place surrounded by Syrian forces backed by Iranian militias and both sides conducting joint patrols of the area.
Turkey is to disband Al-Sham Liberation Army — or at least change its name — and contain the Syrian refugees in areas outside the government’s control. Of course, international aid will be sought to help the refugees and displaced people, whose numbers exceed 900,000 after displacements from Idlib and other regions in its vicinity.
Yes, there is a Turkish agenda and a Russian agenda for Idlib but they both have weaknesses.
The first Turkish weakness is the lack of any long-term strategy in Erdogan’s plan. The man is of a nervous nature and reacts before thinking. In addition, he apparently believes in his delusion that he could be another Ottoman sultan.
He forgot that the Ottoman Empire collapsed a century ago and that the modern world, with all its complexities, is one thing while the glories of the past are another. This is what caused a large group of his comrades in the party to drop him.
These include Abdullah Gul and Ahmed Davutoglu. The latter spent a long time in pre-revolution Syria. He knows many well-established Syrian families. Davutoglu also tried to understand the nature of Syrian society and its position regarding the minority regime that has placed itself at Iran’s service, especially after Bashar Assad succeeded his father as president in 2000.
Over time, Erdogan got rid of aides who could have given him good advice. He lectured the world about changing Syria and promised the moon to the Syrians but he never translated any of it on the ground.
He made many mistakes against the Americans and inside Turkey, especially after the failed coup against him in 2016. He found himself in the Russian bosom and he started making deals with Russian President Vladimir Putin as his equal, while blackmailing Europe and the United States.
Erdogan was defeated in Syria the day he could not transfer his threats to actions. He took a long time to decide and now finds himself a prisoner of many restrictions, including the weakness of the Turkish economy, his relationship with Russia and his volatile relationship with the United States.
Turkey’s weaknesses will not back up Erdogan’s claims that he will turn Idlib into a “safe area, whatever the price, for the sake of its people and for the sake of Turkey.”
“We are ready to continue discussions with Russia,” he said, “but what has been offered at the negotiating table is very far from Turkey’s demands.”
Such a conciliatory tone cannot hide Turkey’s “determination” in Idlib. Erdogan said Damascus and its supporters did not understand that “our warnings are the last warnings and that there are preparations for a military operation that have been completed and ready for execution.”
The Turkish president refuses to admit that his country is in a dilemma that it cannot get out of, essentially because of his hesitation. That hesitation left Turkey unable to make a decision in Syria. Turkey’s dilemma is made worse because it must consider Iran as well. Would it not have been better for Turkey to make its move right from the beginning in 2011 and make Russia and Iran face a given reality in Syria?
It is too late for a Turkish settlement. However, that does not mean that Russia is necessarily in a good position in Syria. The problem with Russia is that it wants to have the first and last word in Syria, unlike the Americans who seem happy with a bystander role.
Russia is making the mistake of hanging on to a regime that has no legitimacy in Syria. It was found that all areas recently returned to the Syrian government with the support of Iranian militias are, in fact, out of its control. Events in Daraa and its environs, and even in the countryside of Damascus, are the best examples of that. One wonders how much longer Russia will play the card of the Syrian regime, a regime that cannot move on the ground without the help of Iran’s sectarian militias and without the brutality of the Russian Air Force, which does not differentiate between a safe house, a hospital, a school or a military site. It is the poor Syrian people who will continue to pay the price of having their country transformed into a quagmire for Russia, Turkey and Iran. How long will this tragedy last? Nobody can tell if it can end without the fragmentation of a country that was once considered one of the most important in the region.

Israel’s new type of war means Iran will never achieve its goals in Syria
Stephen Starr/The Arab Weekly/February 23/2020
Iran has turned its focus to long-term, strategic advantages it hopes can strengthen its influence in the Syria/Lebanon territorial sphere.
In the eight years since Iran embarked on an embedding process to establish a permanent presence in Syria, Israel has struck Iranian targets hundreds of times but in recent months there has been a steep uptick in those attacks. Ten Syrians and foreign fighters — almost always Iranian — were killed in Quneitra last June and 11 more in November. On February 13, Damascus International Airport was struck for the umpteenth time, when Israeli missiles killed seven fighters believed to have been involved in a weapons delivery that had just arrived from Iran. The Syrian government under President Bashar Assad is powerless to prevent the attacks or the repeated breach of its territorial sovereignty, despite that it casts itself as the protector of the Syrian people. However, there’s nothing new about that. What is telling is that Assad’s government is penniless; it has little to no material way of paying Iran back for the multitude of ways Tehran has helped throughout the conflict. There is one important way, however, Damascus can repay the debt: allow Iran free rein to use Syria to get at Israel.
As a result, Iran has turned its focus to long-term, strategic advantages it hopes can strengthen its influence in the Syria/Lebanon territorial sphere. It is thought to command tens of thousands of militia members across Syria but more important are its attempts to establish a web of covert operations.
In December, a Fox News report claimed Iran was building underground tunnels — large enough to pass vehicles through — on the Syrian-Iraqi border at its Imam Ali base, close to Albukamal. The implication is that Tehran’s big picture plan is to link Iran all the way to Lebanon through a series of cross-border tunnels. It’s likely Iran is attempting to replicate the kind of subterranean network Hezbollah built over the decades in southern Lebanon, some of which extended into Israeli territory. Israel said last year it found and destroyed all tunnels that impinged on its territory but Reuters reported that some of those tunnels went 22 storeys — 80 metres — deep.
As Hamas did in Gaza in 2014, Hezbollah was expected to use tunnels to fire rockets from inside Israel proper, before their discovery.
Iran’s plan in Syria looks very similar, indeed. That would explain why most of the Iranian activity — and Israeli attacks — have been concentrated in Syria’s southern regions close to Israel, such as Daraa and Quneitra.
Tehran probably hopes to one day connect Hezbollah’s infrastructure in Lebanon with a similar underground system close to the illegally occupied Syrian Golan Heights. It’s likely it, too, has hopes of tunnelling into the Golan Heights proper.
Israel, of course, knows this. On February 11, Israeli Defence Minister Naftali Bennett told a memorial gathering that “we are now engaged in a continued effort to weaken the Iranian octopus through economic, diplomatic and intelligence measures, as well as with military means and various other approaches” and that “you (Iran) have no business being in Syria and, so long as you continue to build terrorist bases there, we will continue to hurt you even further.”
Days previously, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned: “I’ll tell you what else (Iran is) failing at: in transferring weapons to Syria and Lebanon because we are operating there all the time, including at this time.” In this, Israel basically admitted it had spies on the ground in Syria.
This helps paint a larger picture of how advanced Israel’s intelligence and security activities are and how we can expect it to always be one step ahead of Iran.
That’s because an incredible 20% of global venture capitalist investment in cybersecurity is made in Israeli companies. Israel’s drone technology development industry puts it in the top two or three countries in the world. Iran, by contrast, is struggling with mass public unrest.
In January, it was reported that Israel had begun building an “anti-tunnel sensor” along its border with Lebanon. The system apparently uses cutting-edge acoustic and seismic measurements to detect subterranean digging.
What can Iran ever hope to gain in Syria with Israel constantly on its back? Very little, it seems.
Almost every time it attempts to move weapons into or across Syria, often using commercial planes to disguise the cargo, Israel attacks, lives are lost and further infrastructural damage is visited on the country’s main airport. Israel targeted the Imam Ali base with missile strikes in September and again in January.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that Iran is deploying 20th-century weapons — spies, boots on the ground and underground tunnels in Syria — in an attempt to win a 21st-century war in which cybersecurity, unmanned drones and satellite technology will decide the outcome.
As a result, however much time, effort and expense Iranian officials put into carving out a long-term presence in Syria, their dream of operating freely over an open, borderless landmass from Tehran to the Mediterranean will remain exactly just that.
*Stephen Starr is an Irish journalist who lived in Syria from 2007 to 2012. He is the author of Revolt in Syria: Eye-Witness to the Uprising (Oxford University Press: 2012).

On eve of elections, Macron seeks ‘Republican Reconquest’ to counter ‘Islamist separatism’
Majed Nehme/The Arab Weekly//February 23/2020
PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron went to the Alsatian city of Mulhouse on February 18 with the announced objective of the fight against “Islamist separatism” and the start of the “Republican Reconquest.”
Macron spoke in the Bourtzwiller district, considered one of France’s 80 priority security zones. It was also declared one of 47 neighbourhoods slated for the “Republican Reconquest” programme set up by French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner at the beginning of 2018 and sadly reminiscent of the Spanish far right's anti-migrant plank of "La Reconquista."Bourtzwiller is also one of the 17 target areas in the fight against radicalisation. Cells have been set up to counter Islamism and community withdrawal, terms that Macron seems to have abandoned for the sake of a new concept -- “Islamist separatism.”
A semantic shift
Did Macron choose the right words to name the radical political Islamism plaguing France during his trip to Mulhouse? Was it well inspired of him to pronounce his crusade against Islamism near the gigantic building site of the Mosque al-Nour, the very symbol of separatism that Macron is claiming to fight and which is managed by the Association of the Muslims of Alsace, which is close to the Qatar-sponsored Muslim Brotherhood?
Half of the funds for the construction of this huge mosque, about $15 million, came from the Qatari NGO Qatar Charity.
Macron’s visit was a few weeks before municipal elections scheduled for March 15 and 22, which promise to be disastrous for the president’s party, La Republique en Marche.
The president’s crude electoral calculations partly explain most of the indignant reactions of the French political class to this declaration of war against communitarianism, even if this war seems amply justified given the de facto control exercised by Islamist movements in these districts.
Bernard Rougier, professor at New Sorbonne University Paris 3 and director of the Centre for Arab and Oriental Studies, did not hesitate to describe, in a work published by the Presses Universitaires de France, these marginalised areas in France as “territories conquered by Islamism.”
Macron contented himself with lightly borrowing ideas contained in these kinds of writings in a typically populist fashion to appeal to public opinion just before important elections. He rejected insularity and separatism in the name of religion.
“One can be attached to a religion, have foreign origins that he holds on to and still be fully French,” the French president said. “The problem is when, in the name of a religion or in the name of belonging to some community, one wants to separate from the republic and therefore one threatens the possibility of living together.”While taking precautions not to confuse radical Islamism with Islam and Islamists with Muslims, Macron was pursuing the same failed strategy of his predecessors.
The secular school, the cornerstone of the republican edifice, is more deprived than ever of means to combat the scourge of “separatism” and that allows the most obscurantist and close-minded currents of all kinds to try to fill the void.
Islamist Turkey, the Trojan horse of “separatism”
Successive administrations in France have been reluctant to name the currents responsible for these abuses because it often turns out that those currents are publicly supported by foreign countries. The latest of these sponsors of obscurantism and “separatism” in France is Turkey.
As indicated by Alexandre del Valle and Emmanuel Razavi in their book "The Project," “the most successful model” of these Islamist currents is embodied by the Justice and Development Party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a great protector of the Muslim Brotherhood and nostalgic for the Ottoman Caliphate. Del Valle and Razavi claim, with supporting evidence, that the Muslim Brothers, protected and funded by Qatar and Turkey, “have openly established themselves in Europe, France and everywhere in Western societies, of which they are, however, the worst civilisational enemies.” In some cases, they receive public subsidies. The authors concluded that this incoherence is because the Muslim Brothers passed themselves off as “moderate Islamists” and because the French state chose to capitulate to them and even enter into covert deals with these Islamists, whom it is claiming to fight today.
Another inconsistency, revealed by Macron in Mulhouse, concerns the teaching of languages and cultures of the countries of origin, otherwise known in France as ELCO.
Nine countries -- Algeria, Croatia, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Serbia, Tunisia and Turkey -- have been granted these privileges, implemented through bilateral agreements. The problem with ELCO is that it was intended to provide migrant children the opportunity to learn their native language with the prospect that they would be returning to their native countries. ELCO is no longer relevant in the present context because now the goal of national education in France is integration and not preparing children for a hypothetical return home. Another oddity of this system is that a good number of foreign teachers working in France within the framework of ELCO and paid by French taxpayers do not speak a word of French.
“The problem we have today with this system is that we have more and more teachers who do not speak French… and that we have more and more teachers who are outside the control of the National Education,” Macron said
The president promised to remove this inadequate system by next September but to replace it with what? New agreements have been established with Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Only Turkey is resisting. However, it has no choice, Macron insists, because he “will not let any foreign country nourish, on the soil of the republic, some form of separatism, be it religious, political or identity.” Really now?
From apartheid to separatism
It’s not just ELCO that nurtures “separatism.” After all, this system remains marginal and concerns 80,000 students and not necessarily from immigrant backgrounds. In addition to measures banning the Muslim Brotherhood, it is in France’s interest to introduce a Marshall Plan to recover lost territories of the republic, not only in terms of security but especially in terms of social, economic, cultural and civil deficits in those areas. Manuel Valls, the former Socialist prime minister, once shocked the public by describing such territories as “ghettos” governed by a system of social and economic “apartheid.” Macron preferred the term “separatism” to speak of communitarianism and Islamism. If the terminology has changed, the situation of those territories conquered by radical Islamism, which Islam specialist Gilles Kepel in 1987 described as “suburbs of Islam,” has hardly changed. It even got worse, considering the lack of audacity and vision on the part of French authorities.
*Majed Nehme is a Syrian-French journalist in Paris.

Macron and Muslims
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Arab News/February 22/2020
When dealing with disruptive, potentially dangerous individuals or groups within society, the dilemma lies in differentiating between the sheep and the wolves. This is what President Emmanuel Macron is trying to do in France.
Muslim citizens in France are not the problem — the extremists are. The same applies to the wider population of the country; there are extremist, hostile racist groups in other sections of French society, but the peaceful majority of people from these communities are not subject to suspicion and persecution to the degree that Muslims are. Macron visited a mosque last week, where he addressed the Muslim community and made comments that did not appeal to some. He said he would not allow separatist movements to flourish in France, as the country is one republic and everyone should coexist and accept its laws. He denounced, for example, those who refuse to shake hands with women, who shun modern medical treatments or who will not allow their children to study in public schools, describing these acts as cultural separatism.
The truth is that some behaviors are personal choices. The state cannot force any man to shake hands with women, for example, but it does have the right to take action against parents who try to limit their children’s education or keep them at home. The authorities can intervene in this type of cultural separation, backed by the force of law, and punish parents for it.
Like many European politicians, Macron is in favor of respecting freedom of religion and worship as these rights are enshrined in the constitution. However, he complains that some groups are trying to mobilize the large Muslim community in France to achieve political goals. Some French Muslims have suffered from intellectual and religious extremism, in the same ways that Muslims in their countries of origin suffered. These are not merely extremist ideas that spread as people move from country to country, or are transferred through travel and mixing with others; they are mostly organized activities directed by groups with political agendas and goals in mind. The French president in particular issued a warning to Turkey, accusing it of being a source of financing, support and organization of extremism. Macron in particular issued a warning to Turkey, accusing it of being a source of financing, support and organization of extremism. This is indeed part of the problem; Istanbul is the capital of extremism in the world today. It is the official destination of choice for Islamist groups fleeing from Egypt, Gulf nations, Sudan, Syria and other countries.
The true problem, however, lies not with Turkey but Europe. It has allowed these groups to exist and create legal, economic and political entities, even when it became evident that they are affiliated with dangerous groups in the Middle East, and operate according to a political agenda that is hostile to the ruling systems/regimes that harbor them.
The concept of Western “freedom,” which these groups use as a cover under which to operate contradicts their core beliefs. The founder of one of these groups stated publicly in London that the West is like a toilet in which he takes a dump.
These groups were established easily, taking advantage of the freedoms of expression that exist in countries such as France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Now they have become a source of concern and a security threat to Europe, which is faced with a complex problem: How can it prohibit the expression of objectionable ideas while still sanctifying the concept of freedom? The second problem is that Europe has other groups to deal with that are no less dangerous to society. These include far-right fascists, Nazis and left-wing extremists. How can Europe ban Islamist organizations when their members have learned the rules of the legal and political games and enjoy the rights of acquired citizenship? What makes these extremist groups affiliated with Islam more dangerous than other extremist organizations is that they are against society as a whole. They target Muslims with their messages of change and use them, almost isolating them, leaving them at their mercy. In addition, these groups are backed by overseas benefactors with huge financial resources, and are also managed and directed by foreign interests. So how should we view them: As puppets under the control of others, or as dissidents in their new host societies?
After a long slumber, Europe has awakened to the problem and started to take action, very slowly, either as a result of electoral pressures or shocking information such as that published by the French press about the people and financiers behind these groups.
Banning these groups will save Muslims in the West, and the West from itself. *Abdulrahman Al-Rashed is a veteran columnist. He is the former general manager of Al Arabiya news channel, and former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat. Twitter: @aalrashed