LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
February 26.2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Giving to the Needy/Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them
Matthew 06/01-04: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 25-26/2020
Lebanon Allows 'Necessary Trips' to Corona-stricken Countries
Lebanon limits flights to countries with coronavirus, stops pilgrimage trips
Lebanese Authorities Release Activist Previously Detained Over Facebook Post
Lebanon Faces Lower Expectations to Recover Looted Funds
Lebanon approves debt restructuring advisers: Government source
Cabinet Discusses Precautionary Measures against Virus Threat
Report: Diab’s Govt. Makes 'First' Contact with Arab States
Casino du Liban Denies Coronavirus Rumors
Report: EU Countries ‘Pleased’ with Govt. Performance
Rafik Hariri Hospital: 3 Out of 34 Isolated despite Showing No Virus Signs
Geagea Slams French Journalist who Claimed He Has Cancer
Drillship Off Lebanon to Start Oil and Gas Exploration
Hariri, Jumblat Mourn 'Friend of Lebanon' Mubarak
Parliament General Secretariat Hits Back at U.N. Coordinator
Renault Files Civil Claim against Ghosn
Lebanese star Elissa: Govt. still allowing Iran flights ‘not to upset Hezbollah’
Protesters cut off Jbeil Highway's western lane
Minister of Economy: We will have no mercy on those who manipulate prices, monopolize goods
Future Bloc: To draw coronavirus threat out of politicization circle
Nasr to NNA: Drillship works will take 55-60 days
European Union launches 15th Edition of "Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press"
Lebanon: Hezbollah does 'not accept' IMF managing economic crisis
Distrust in Lebanese banks spurs bitcoin boom/Timour Azhari/Al Jazeera/February 25/2020
Lebanon bars citizens from religious pilgrimages over coronavirus fears/The News Arab/February 25/2020
Lebanese Political Science Professor Al-Naboulsi: Coronavirus - Possible Anti-Chinese Biological Warfare by the U.S./MEMRI/February 25/2020
Is creative nonviolent resistance possible in Lebanon?/Perla Kantarjian/Annahar/February 25/2020

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 25-26/2020
Deadly Toronto hammer attack was terrorism, police allege/Steward Bell & Cathrine Mcdonald/Globe News/February 25/2020
Pompeo Says Iran Must 'Tell the Truth' on Coronavirus
Fear not Coronavirus, Iran ‘endures hardships to make enemy regretful’: Rouhani
Gulf States Cut Iran Links as Coronavirus Cases Rise
Mubarak, Egypt's autocrat ousted by protests, dies at 91
Netanyahu to Announce Retirement, Use Fears of Coronavirus to Reduce Arab Votes
US Mapping Team For West Bank Annexation Arrivs In Tel Aviv
Russia’s FM Lavrov rejects Idlib ceasefire as ‘capitulating before terrorists’
Turkish-backed Syrian Fighters Capture Idlib Town from Regime
Algerian Judiciary Urged to Summon Bouteflika on Corruption Charges
Kurds Set 3 Conditions to Support New Iraq Government

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 25-26/2020
Iran’s Supreme Leader Faces Some Supreme Problems/Bobby Ghosh/Bloomberg/February 25/2020
Treasury Targets Maduro’s Oil Lifeline/John Hardie/FDD/February 25/2020
Climate Change Is Coming to Your Hometown Bonds/Brian Chappatta/Bloomberg/February 25/2020
Something is rotten in the Islamic Republic: Iran’s sinister coronavirus cover-up/Mohammed Alyahya/Al Arabiya/February 25/2020
Pariah states seek to unseat the mighty dollar with crypto/Sultan Althari/Al Arabiya/February 25/2020
The problem with Trump's Middle East peace plan/David Makovsky & Dennis Ross/The Hill/February 25/2020
Inoculating economic growth against the coronavirus/John Defterios/Arab News/February 26/2020
Idlib the latest example of UN’s irrelevance/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim//Arab News/February 26/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 24-25/2020
Lebanon Allows 'Necessary Trips' to Corona-stricken Countries
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 25 February, 2020
The Lebanese government has prohibited residents from traveling to areas that have been infected with the new Coronavirus (Covid-19), including China, South Korea, Iran and Milan, with the exception of essential trips for medical, education and work purposes. Minister of Health Dr. Hamad Hassan called on the Lebanese to “trust the measures taken in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent the spread of the Corona epidemic, as well as the civil society to cooperate to refute the rumors and false news circulating around it.” Following a meeting with President Michel Aoun, Hassan said: “President Aoun was responsive to the need to support the health sector to face the challenges.”“This sector is a red line for everyone,” he remarked. The Health minister stressed that additional measures were taken with the Iranian and Italian planes to ensure that the epidemic does not spread, revealing that medical supplies were available in the Lebanese market, “but there are those who monopolize them.”“This is unethical and unlawful, which entails legal prosecutions,” he stated. Two Iranian planes landed on Monday at the Rafic Hariri International Airport. The first arrived in the morning with 215 passengers onboard, and was found to be clear of Coronavirus. “The measures we take today, with the Iranian and Italian airplanes are additional, ensuring that the virus does not spread, if present,” Hassan told reporters at the Baabda Palace. “The plane landed at the airport, after Iranian authorities conducted a health test for all travelers. We have subjected the travelers to a second medical examination, and those who suffer from symptoms will be directly isolated at Rafic Hariri University Hospital, and those who do not suffer from any symptoms will be taken to resorts or scout centers, in regions,” he explained. A ministerial crisis cell convened on Monday and decided to “isolate people who show symptoms of infection, and those coming from infected areas, at the Rafic Hariri Governmental Hospital.”

Lebanon limits flights to countries with coronavirus, stops pilgrimage trips
Abby Sewell, Al Arabiya EnglishTuesday, 25 February 2020
The Lebanese government has decided to restrict flights to countries with coronavirus outbreaks and to completely halt flights for pilgrims, the information minister said after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Lebanese Muslims regularly fly to Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage. Lebanon declared its first confirmed case of coronavirus on Friday, a 45-year-old woman who had returned from Iran. Some people in Lebanon have called for flights from Iran and other countries to be cancelled over coronavirus fears, after infection rates in Iran rose sharply. Lebanon’s parliamentary Health and Social Affairs Committee met Tuesday to discuss measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the country. The committee’s head said some members asked for flights from countries experiencing outbreaks be suspended. Lebanon reported its first case last week in a woman returning from Iran. “It was a wish of some of the colleagues that all the flights from the affected countries be stopped – after the Lebanese who are there return to Lebanon, because we are responsible for them,” Assem Araji, a Future Movement member of Parliament from the Zahle region in east Lebanon, told Al Arabiya English. The parliament committee met with Health Minister Hamad Hassan and made recommendations he then brought to Cabinet Tuesday afternoon. At the close of the session, Cabinet said it discussed "preventative measures." Araji noted that a number of other countries, including Iraq, the UAE, and Kuwait, had already suspended flights to and from Iran and other countries with significant outbreaks of coronavirus. To date, 27 people have tested positive for coronavirus in six countries in the Arab region after returning from Iran. Iran has reported 15 deaths from coronavirus, the highest number outside China, although the accuracy of the number is disputed. Lebanon has reduced, but not halted, the number of flights coming from Iran and has put in place additional screening measures on arrival for passengers coming from countries experiencing outbreaks. Italy has also reported a substantial number of coronavirus cases. The Beirut airport’s flight tracker showed a flight scheduled to arrive from Rome Tuesday afternoon. To date, Lebanon has one confirmed case of coronavirus, a 45-year-old woman who came on a flight from Iran last week. She is under quarantine at Rafik Hariri University Hospital, a government-run hospital in south Beirut. Hassan said Monday that out of 34 potential cases tested in Lebanon since February 20, including 18 who arrived on the same plane as the infected woman, she was the only one that had tested positive.

Lebanese Authorities Release Activist Previously Detained Over Facebook Post
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 25 February, 2020
The Lebanese judiciary released on Monday activist Charbel Khoury hours after he was arrested over a statement he posted on social media against an advisor close to the Free Patriotic Movement. Last Saturday, Khoury was summoned by the Criminal Investigation Department for interrogation in light of a lawsuit filed against him by the FPM's economic advisor, Charbel Kordahi. In a recent post on his Facebook account, Khoury had criticized Kordahi, who has good ties with the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran Bassil. Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun ordered Khoury’s arrest after he refused to delete the tweet critical to the economic advisor. Following his release on Monday, the activist said, “I fear nothing. I will not delete statements posted on my account.”Khoury said the lawsuit against him was dropped "because of the October 17th uprising,” adding that he has no faith in the Lebanese judiciary. As Khoury was interrogated on Monday, several protesters rallied outside the Cybercrimes Bureau in support of his release. The Alternative Syndicate of Journalists had called for the protest in solidarity with Khoury against the arbitrary detention of an activist over anti-government posts on social media. Also, a massive social media campaign was organized in the past days to demand his release, using the hashtag, “No to Police Repression.”The activist was summoned during the weekend along with an online blogger, Gino Raidy, and journalist Dima Sadek. In Lebanon, activists, including lawyers, journalists, media personalities and writers, have faced physical attacks, arrest, psychological pressure and threats to their families.

Lebanon Faces Lower Expectations to Recover Looted Funds
Beirut- Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 25 February, 2020
Head of the Finance and Budget Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan has lowered expectations about the possibility of recovering looted funds, pointing to a study by the World Bank saying that the global recovery rate according to the United Nations does not exceed 0.2%.The Parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee is currently assisting a government panel “to set up an integrated plan that includes, in addition to restructuring the public debt, a comprehensive economic and financial strategy that restores confidence in Lebanon’s finances and banking sector,” Kanaan said, following a meeting between the committee and the visiting IMF delegation on Monday. During a workshop on mechanisms for recovering looted funds in Parliament, the deputy noted that a new system of legislation was aimed at fighting corruption. “But the problem lies in immunities and interference in the work of the judiciary,” he said, stressing that Lebanon was one of the countries classified by the World Bank as “suffering from such interventions and lack of independence.” Pointing to the World Bank study, Kanaan said that the looting of public money amounted to $40 billion annually “in countries that suffer the same situation as in Lebanon, and so far there are no fruitful results in recovering the looted money, which is not only a Lebanese issue, but a global one, as the global recovery rate according to the United Nations is only 0.2 percent.”

Lebanon approves debt restructuring advisers: Government source
Al Arabiya English and agencies/Tuesday, 25 February 2020
Lebanon has given approval for asset management company Lazard to be its financial adviser on debt restructuring, a government source said on Tuesday, with the heavily indebted state facing a major financial crisis.The approval was given during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Approval was also given for law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP to act as the government’s legal adviser, the source said. Lebanon is currently in the throngs of an unprecedented economic and financial crisis. With a March 9 deadline fast approaching for a $1.2 billion eurobond payment, officials in Beirut are weighing options about whether to repay the bond. Last week, the country’s banking association head called for an orderly rescheduling of the upcoming eurobond payment. “If the government is heading toward debt rescheduling, then this rescheduling must take place in an orderly manner,” Salim Sfeir told Prime Minister Hassan Diab, according to a press statement from Sfeir’s office. Previously, Lebanon approached the International Monetary Fund for technical assistance, and a delegation from the fund was in Beirut for meetings last week. It is expected that the IMF will ask Lebanon to unify its current parallel exchange rate that emerged as the crisis deepened when protests broke out mid-October and fix its ailing electricity sector that runs a $1.5-$2 billion annual deficit. Eight firms had been invited to be Lebanon’s financial adviser as it studied options for dealing with its sovereign debt. Moelis & Company, Rothschild & Co, Guggenheim Partners, Citibank, Lazard, JP Morgan, PJT Partners and Houlihan Lokey were the firms identified, according to Reuters. Earlier this week, two major credit rating agencies, S&P and Moodys, downgraded Lebanon further into junk territory. S&P Global lowered its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings to “CC” from “CCC” with a negative outlook. Moodys posted a similar reduction to Ca from Caa2 with a stable outlook.-With Reuters

Cabinet Discusses Precautionary Measures against Virus Threat
Naharnet/February 25/2020
Lebanon’s government met on Tuesday at Baabda Presidential Palace in a session dedicated to counter threats of the deadly Coronavirus disease that has infected around 80,000 individuals to date globally. President Michel Aoun chaired the meeting in the presence of PM Hassan Diab and ministers. The cabinet is scheduled to discuss all the precautionary measures to be adopted by the Lebanese state facing Coronavirus. The Ministers will also get a briefing on the most recent Coronavirus updates from Minister of Public Health, Hamad Hassan. The first case of Coronavirus in Lebanon was confirmed Saturday in a 45-year-old Lebanese woman who had traveled from Qom in Iran. MTV station said the cabinet will discuss the possibility of suspending flights to and from countries where the disease has spread, and the decisions of the committee dedicated to follow up on the virus outbreak.

Report: Diab’s Govt. Makes 'First' Contact with Arab States
Naharnet/February 25/2020
Minister of Interior and Municipalities Mohammed Fahmi is scheduled to attend the Arab Interior Ministers Council in Tunisia this week, MTV station said on Tuesday. The conference will be the “first opportunity” for PM Hassan Diab’s government to communicate with Arab governments through one of Lebanon's new ministers, added MTV. According to information obtained by the station, Fahmi will hold meetings with his Arab counterparts on the sidelines of the conference. New premier Diab, a little-known academic and former education minister, was tasked with forming a government in December after mass rallies against official corruption and economic woes forced premier Saad Hariri to resign. His government was formed late in January but angry demonstrators charge that the new cabinet fails to address their demands and won't be able to rescue Lebanon's ailing economy. Diab’s government reportedly “did not receive Arab and Gulf consent,” because they consider Diab “affiliated” to the March 8 camp, “endorsed” by Hizbullah and “close” to Syrian President Bashar Asaad.

Casino du Liban Denies Coronavirus Rumors
Naharnet/February 25/2020
Casino du Liban refuted on Tuesday claims attributed to al-Mayadeen TV channel alleging that a case of the deadly coronavirus disease was detected at the Casino, the National News Agency reported on Tuesday. The administration of the Casino, issued a statement denouncing what it said was “malicious rumors disguised under the name of al-Mayadeen," NNA said. It assured that no cases of coronavirus were detected at the Casino. The Casino confirmed that after contacting an official at al-Mayadeen, he confirmed the absence of such news on any of the news channel's websites.

Report: EU Countries ‘Pleased’ with Govt. Performance
Naharnet/February 25/2020
Countries of the European Union reportedly “support” the reform goals set by the Lebanese government and are “committed” to the goals agreed at the CEDRE conference, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday. Quoting western diplomatic sources, the daily said that “EU countries are fully committed to support Lebanon, its people, its unity, sovereignty, stability and political independence as well as commitment to the goals agreed at the Cedre (support) conference,” for Lebanon. The sources said that EU countries are “pleased” with the path taken by the Lebanese government and “the tangible seriousness” in approaching the economic crisis. They said the “government's response to the legitimate demands of the Lebanese people will yield fruitful results, especially in terms of fighting corruption and implementing urgent and long-awaited reforms.”According to the daily, the EU’s position differs from that of the US administration which believes that Lebanon’s crisis may grow even more difficult. The US administration sees “Lebanon’s government facing a very difficult test prompting it for serious reforms and combating corruption. Only then will Lebanon receive US and international assistance,” said the sources.

Rafik Hariri Hospital: 3 Out of 34 Isolated despite Showing No Virus Signs
Naharnet/February 25/2020
The Rafik Hariri University Hospital announced Monday that three out of 34 people examined for the coronavirus over the past 24 hours have been quarantined although they tested negative. Accordingly, the hospital said the number of those quarantined has risen to five – four who have “tested negative” and a 45-year-old woman who tested positive and was declared Friday as the country’s first coronavirus case. The woman “is in a stable condition and is receiving the necessary treatment,” the state-run hospital added in a daily statement. “Lab tests were conducted for 29 cases and they all tested negative as three patients were discharged from hospital after being asked to isolate themselves in their homes for 14 days,” the hospital said. “They were provided with all the necessary instructions and prevention means, according to the directions of the World Health Organization,” the hospital added, noting that the three individuals had tested negative twice. Two Iranian planes and an Italian plane landed Monday at Beirut’s airport where they were inspected by Health Ministry teams. Iran and Italy have emerged as two of the virus’ main hotspots in the world along with South Korea and the epicenter China. Iran's confirmed death toll rose to 12 on Monday, with the government promising transparency and dismissing a lawmaker's claim the toll could be as high as 50. The World Health Organization said Monday that COVID-19 had "peaked" in China but warned the surge in cases elsewhere was "deeply concerning" and all countries should prepare for a "potential pandemic."

Geagea Slams French Journalist who Claimed He Has Cancer
Naharnet/February 25/2020
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday lashed out at a French journalist who has published a report claiming that he has cancer, describing the allegations as “totally baseless.”“Last week, I appeared at least three times through the media and I had an interview with more than 30 journalists, so how can the report about my treatment in France for three days be true?” Geagea said at a press conference dedicated to refuting the claims of the journalist, Richard Labévière. “We will file lawsuits in France and Switzerland against this paid journalist,” Geagea added, blasting Labévière as “a friend of Michel Samaha and Jamil al-Sayyed and a defender of President Bashar al-Assad.”The LF leader also criticized the Lebanese media outlets which published the allegations without exerting efforts to verify them. The blog post published by Labévière on prochetmoyen-orient.ch claims that Geagea has been suffering for several years from advanced cancer localized in the pulmonary and urological systems. “His illness was detected about two years ago and his doctors believe his life expectancy does not exceed one year,” the post alleges. MP al-Sayyed meanwhile hit back swiftly at Geagea, stressing that Labévière is not his friend and that he has not contacted him in years. “Geagea is a liar and his remarks prove that his illness is more dangerous than cancer: his illness is in his brain! May God heal him,” al-Sayyed tweeted.

Drillship Off Lebanon to Start Oil and Gas Exploration
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 25/2020
A drillship anchored off Lebanon Tuesday to explore for oil and gas, an energy firm and the government said, raising hopes for a future boost to the country's crumbling economy. Information Minister Manal Abdul Samad said the first ever such exploration would start within 48 hours.
The Tungsten Explorer was to start drilling in its first exploration well situated some 30 kilometers (16 nautical miles) offshore from Beirut, French oil firm Total said. "Total is pleased to start exploration operations on block 4, which is the first deepwater exploration well in Lebanon," Total's Lebanon chief Ricardo Darre said. Anticipation has been high in Lebanon for exploration to start, with many hoping a major hydrocarbon discovery could help redress the debt-burdened economy. Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar said on Twitter the ship had anchored in block 4. Total said the drilling would last two months, and start at 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) below sea level. "The exploration well aims at exploring targets located more than 2,500 meters below the sea bed," it said. A consortium composed of energy giants Total, Eni and Novatek was awarded two of Lebanon's 10 exploration blocks in 2018 -- block 4 and block 9 near the Israeli border. Drilling was initially supposed to start in December for block 4. Exploration of block 9 had been scheduled for several months later, but has been far more controversial as Israel claims it belongs to it. Total has said it was aware of a border dispute affecting less than eight percent of block 9, and would drill away from that area. Lebanon is one of the most indebted countries in the world, with a burden equivalent to 150 percent of its GDP. It is in the grips of a severe liquidity crunch that has hampered imports, sparked price hikes and caused the value of the Lebanon pound to plummet on the parallel exchange market.

Hariri, Jumblat Mourn 'Friend of Lebanon' Mubarak
Naharnet/February 25/2020
Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri on Tuesday mourned late Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak as a “loyal friend of Lebanon.”“With the death of president Hosni Mubarak, we turn the page on an epoch of the history of Egypt and the Arab nation, which was rife with both achievements and failures and carried landmarks in development and modernity in all fields,” Hariri tweeted. “President Mubarak was a loyal friend of Lebanon and a bright icon for Arab solidarity. We remember his good deeds… and we offer the warmest condolences to the Egyptian leadership and the family of the great departed,” Hariri added. Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat meanwhile said “historical honesty requires acknowledging that president Mubarak was a great friend of Lebanon who stood by us during the peak of the crisis after Rafik Hariri’s assassination in order to pull out the Syrian regime forces.”“He also contributed to the establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon,” Jumblat added in a tweet. “Arab Egypt remains a supporter of Lebanon’s stability and independence and a key nation in the Arab Levant,” Jumblat went on to say.
Mubarak, who ruled for three decades before he was ousted amid the Arab Spring protests in 2011, died Tuesday at age 91. The burly autocrat with the trademark sunglasses went on to spend years behind bars for his role in the deaths of protesters but was freed in 2017 after the convictions were overturned. His death was confirmed by the presidency and on state TV, and his son Alaa Mubarak tweeted that "this morning my father, president Mubarak, passed away."

Parliament General Secretariat Hits Back at U.N. Coordinator
Naharnet/February 25/2020
Parliament’s General Secretariat on Monday responded to remarks voiced by U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis. “We do not need lessons in legislation and we have never legislated behind closed doors,” the General Secretariat said in a statement. Kubis had earlier tweeted that “anti-corruption laws need to be discussed by the Parliament in full transparency, not behind closed doors.” “Draft laws need to be accessible to public for comments in a truly inclusive way, not only to few selected ones,” he added.

Renault Files Civil Claim against Ghosn
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 25/2020
French car giant Renault said Monday it was filing a civil claim for damages against former CEO Carlos Ghosn over alleged financial misconduct. "Renault has filed a legal action to assert its rights," the company said in a statement, adding that it reserved the right "to solicit damages with interest" from an investigation into numerous claims of financial misconduct in France. Renault added it would cooperate fully with judicial authorities. Lawyers for Brazilian-born Ghosn, who jumped Japanese bail in December and is now in his native Lebanon, on Friday delayed a lawsuit seeking a hefty retirement payout for their client from Renault, saying the company had not given them enough time to prepare arguments. Ghosn is seeking a 250,000 ($270,000) retirement payout, which Renault refuses to pay because it says he was forced to quit after his shock November 2018 arrest in Japan on multiple charges of financial wrongdoing.
The former industry titan claims he retired in due form of his own accord. He faces a French inquiry into two parties he threw at the Palace of Versailles, including his opulent 2016 wedding, allegedly financed in part by Renault funds. A party for his 60th birthday two years earlier, replete with musicians, a top chef, period costumes for attendees and a firework display ostensibly to mark 15 years of the Reault-Nissan alliance allegedly cost 530,000 euros. Ghosn is also under investigation by France's tax fraud office over suspicious financial transactions between Renault and its distributor in the Gulf state of Oman, and over contracts signed by Renault and Nissan's Dutch subsidiary RNBV, the public prosecutor said last week. In Japan, he still faces multiple charges including a claim he under-reported millions of dollars in salary as chairman of Nissan. He has denied all the charges, but fled while on bail before he could face trial.

Lebanese star Elissa: Govt. still allowing Iran flights ‘not to upset Hezbollah’
Leen Alfaisal, Al Arabiya English/Tuesday, 25 February 2020
Lebanese superstar Elissa criticized in a tweet on Monday the Lebanese government for not banning flights to and from Iran after the coronavirus outbreak in the Islamic republic. “Our country is shameless. I cannot find a better word to express what is going on,” the star said. Lebanon confirmed its first coronavirus case on Friday, a 45-year-old woman who had arrived from Iran and was being quarantined in a Beirut hospital. Elissa argued that even if the infected came from the Vatican, the Lebanese government should stop flights to and from that country. “Only because we don’t want to upset Hezbollah, we don’t stop Iran flights,” she said. “On top of all that, they tell us not to panic!”Coronavirus has killed around 50 people in Qom, the Iranian city's representative in parliament said, according to the semi-official ILNA news agency, despite official figures saying that only 15 have died. In a harsher tone, Elissa tweeted again saying: “When will we be rid of the sheep’s mentality and start talking logic and science?? What is this place we live in??”Other Lebanese figures also tweeted their frustration with the matter. Jerry Maher, a Lebanese journalist, listed the countries which have banned Iran flights and said: “Lebanon continues to allow Iran to export its virus, sectarianism, arms, and funds to Hezbollah.”

Protesters cut off Jbeil Highway's western lane
NNA/February 26/2020
Protesters have cut off once again the western lane of Jbeil Highway, NNA Correspondent reported on Tuesday. The army instantly arrived at the scene, while the aforementioned Highway is currently witnessing heavy traffic jam.

Minister of Economy: We will have no mercy on those who manipulate prices, monopolize goods
NNA/February 26/2020
Minister of Economy and Trade Raoul Nehme emphasized that "the ministry's priority is consumer protection," stressing that “we will have no mercy on violators [of the law], or on those who manipulate prices and monopolize goods."He announced that an agreement was reached today with the bakeries union, to establish a mechanism to cover the cost of bread production.

Future Bloc: To draw coronavirus threat out of politicization circle
NNA/February 26/2020
The Future Parliamentary Bloc met this Tuesday under the chairmanship of MP Bahia Hariri, with talks touching on the latest political developments and the country's overall conditions, indicating at the end of the meeting that the confirmed coronavirus case in Lebanon "should be given the highest importance, commensurate with the size of the risks arising from the spread of the virus, according to specialists who are unanimous in urging preventive measures that do not tolerate any form of recklessness and irresponsibility, whether from the governmental and medical institutions or from the citizens and residents on Lebanese lands." The bloc stressed "commitment to health guidelines, especially in areas of overpopulation, schools and universities, and avoiding travel to countries where the virus is spreading."It also called to "draw the coronavirus threat out of the politicization circle," and "give priority to the safety of citizens and residents in Lebanon (...) by subjecting the returnees through Beirut airport to the quarantine that is adopted in other countries, or through the mandatory ban on travel to the affected countries." Conferees blamed "the prime minister for joining the team of marketers for the accumulations of the past thirty years, and holding [some] responsible for the exacerbation of public debt, without specifying the main party answerable for debt since 1992, as half of the public debt has resulted from waste in the electricity sector." "The Prime Minister's statements last week on 'starting to address the accumulations of 30 years of wrong policies' are unacceptable. They fall within the framework of the campaigns targeting martyred Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the Hariri policies that have lifted Lebanon from the state of destruction caused by the war, as well as from the policies of procrastination and disruption that had been adopted by alternated governments, covenants or parties which are no secret to any honorable Lebanese," the bloc statement read.

Nasr to NNA: Drillship works will take 55-60 days
NNA/February 26/2020
Head of the Lebanese Petroleum Administration, Walid Nasr, stressed in an interview with the "National News Agency", that the drilling process by the Tungsten Explorer drillship, which arrived in Lebanon today, will take between 55 and 60 days in block 4 of the Lebanese waters, at a depth of 1500 meters. Nasr also noted that the depth of the well is about 4,100 meters below sea level. Asked about the step that will follow the drilling process, he said: "It takes about two months to analyze the results of the drilling.""According to the results, there are two possibilities: either finding a dry well, i.e., no gas and no oil, or finding quantities of these two substances, at which time Total may need to drill additional wells to be able to determine the quantities and to know whether they are commercially viable or not." Nasr deemed that whatever the results, this step is considered important and positive for Lebanon. "In both cases, this process is important and positive for Lebanon.. Even if the well is found to be dry, the geological information that we will attain is of great significance in terms of studying the nature of the seabed in Lebanon with regard to oil, and for better planning for drilling additional wells in the future.""If it becomes evident that commercial quantities are available, then we will enter the phase of preparations and planning for the production stage that requires drilling additional wells and building the necessary infrastructure to start the extraction process."

European Union launches 15th Edition of "Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press"
NNA/February 26/2020
During a press conference held today at the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon, Ambassador Ralph Tarraf launched the 15th edition of the "Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press" together with Ms Gisèle Khoury-Kassir, President of the Samir Kassir Foundation, former winners of the Award, and representatives from the Lebanese media. The "Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press", which has been awarded by the European Union since 2006, honours the Lebanese journalist and writer Samir Kassir who was assassinated in 2005. The competition for the Award has attracted since its creation more than 2,500 candidates the Middle East, the Gulf and North Africa.
Ambassador Tarraf reaffirmed the commitment made by the European Union 15 years ago to pursue Samir Kassir's struggle for free speech and an independent free press. He added that "freedom of expression lies at the core of the European Union values, and we are strongly committed to defend independent media and protect press freedom and media pluralism".
Ms Khoury added: “No country can truly address the challenges facing our societies without transparency, without freedom of thought and expression. Autocratic regimes claim to be providing stability, but we do not accept the factitious choice between stability and freedom.” She also recalled Samir Kassir’s call to the citizens of the region, in 1995, to “break the walls of silence.”
The contest is open to candidates from North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf. The deadline for sending in contributions is 1 April 2020. Three awards will be granted for the best:
- Opinion Article
- Investigative Article
- Audiovisual News Report
The contributions must be centred on one or more of the following topics: rule of law, human rights, good governance, fight against corruption, freedom of expression, democratic development and citizen participation. The winner of each of the three categories will receive a prize of €10,000.
The jury will be composed of seven voting members from Arab and European media and one observer representing the European Union. The names of the jury members will be communicated during the prize-awarding ceremony which will take place on 2 June 2020 in Beirut, marking the 15th anniversary of Samir Kassir’s assassination.
The contest regulations, application forms and details of the candidature file are available on the following website: www.samirkassiraward.org
Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon

Lebanon: Hezbollah does 'not accept' IMF managing economic crisis
Al Jazeera/Reuters/February 25/2020
A team of IMF experts arrived in Beirut last week at the new government's request to offer technical support
Hezbollah on Tuesday spoke out against the International Monetary Fund managing Lebanon's financial crisis but said it does not oppose the country seeking the IMF's advice. "We will not accept submitting to [imperialist] tools ... meaning we do not accept submitting to the International Monetary Fund to manage the crisis," Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said. "Yes, there is nothing to prevent consultations [with the IMF], and this is what the Lebanese government is doing," he added.Iran-backed Hezbollah is one of the main parties that threw its support behind the new Beirut government, which has asked for technical but not financial assistance from the IMF. A team of IMF experts arrived in Beirut last week at the government's request to offer technical support. Facing a huge public debt burden and an acute liquidity crisis, the Lebanese state appointed international investment and law firms as its financial and legal advisers on a widely expected restructuring of its sovereign debt. One of the world's most heavily indebted countries, Lebanon is tasked with deciding how to handle forthcoming maturities of sovereign debt including a $1.2bn Eurobond due on March 9.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally and one of Lebanon's most influential figures, last week echoed Qassem's view, saying Lebanon could not surrender itself to the IMF because the nation could not bear the IMF's conditions. The government gave approval for US asset management company Lazard to act as Lebanon's financial adviser and law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP to act as its legal adviser on the debt restructuring. Ratings agencies and investors expect the debt restructuring to happen.Lazard has previously advised on some of the world's largest sovereign debt restructurings including Argentina, Greece and Ukraine. Lazard Freres, a French subsidiary of Lazard, was one of the firms that advised Argentina in overhauling its debt after it defaulted on some $100bn loans during its crisis in 2002.

Distrust in Lebanese banks spurs bitcoin boom
Timour Azhari/Al Jazeera/February 25/2020
Beirut, Lebanon - When Maher, an engineer in his mid-30s, returned to Lebanon flush with cash from working in the Gulf, he deposited his hard-earned savings in a bank - believing they would be safe.
But as Lebanon has spiralled into its worst economic crisis in decades, banks have imposed informal capital controls that force people to withdraw their savings in Lebanese pounds at the official exchange rate that effectively values their savings at 40 percent less than what its worth on the parallel market. "Nothing can prepare you for the shock of this," Maher told Al Jazeera. But Maher, who asked his surname be withheld to protect his privacy, is not standing by helplessly. He is trying to move what is left of his savings out of Lebanon via a financial instrument many in the country have not embraced - until recently. More Lebanese are embracing the notoriously volatile cryptocurrency as the country's economy founders.
Bitcoin.
"Suddenly everything turns upside down and all the options are open," said Maher. With confidence in Lebanese banks at an all-time low over increasing restrictions on foreign currency movements, more Lebanese are turning to digital currencies like bitcoin as a way to shift their money in and out of the country.
"Right now, Lebanese are interested in escaping tight restrictions on cash withdrawals and transfers. They basically want financial freedom," 29-year old Mahmoud Dgheim, who has traded bitcoin since 2015, told Al Jazeera. "If you want to go around the banking system, bitcoin is a solution."
Bitcoin - the first and most well-known cryptocurrency - is neither issued nor controlled by any government or financial entity. Rather than go through a bank or another middleman, transactions made in bitcoin are peer-to-peer, anonymous and verified by a centralised global network of computers.
Since its launch over a decade ago, bitcoin has gained legions of converts around the globe who use it to buy everything from hotel bookings, to cars, laptops and furniture. But it never really took off in Lebanon where central bank restrictions on purchasing bitcoin with Lebanese credit cards, glacial internet speeds and unreliable electricity have acted as serious impediments to adoption. Risk aversion is another reason Lebanese have steered clear. Bitcoin is famously volatile, whereas the Lebanese pound has long been pegged to the dollar, with which it was used interchangeably.
But faith in the stability of the Lebanese pound has been badly shaken recently. Lebanese Banks began imposing increasingly restrictive informal capital controls after a popular uprising first swept the country more than four months ago. Foreign currency withdrawals are now limited to between $50 and just a few hundred dollars a month. Transfers abroad were recently capped at $50,000 a year for so-called "necessary matters".
Fears that the Lebanese banking system, and indeed the entire heavily indebted Lebanese state, could collapse have led many to invest their cash in assets rather than keep it in the banks. They have bought gold, jewellery, cars, real estate and, increasingly, bitcoin.
Seven Lebanese bitcoin traders said in interviews with Al Jazeera that the volume of their trade had spiked since November, when capital controls were first introduced, with the value of transactions collectively reaching millions of dollars a month.
"It started slow but now, it's going exponential," Simon Tadros, a 33-year-old bitcoin trader who is also the chief technology officer of web development firm cnepho.com, told Al Jazeera. "Before the uprising, bitcoin gave me supplementary income, but now, it's definitely become the primary," Omar Debian, a 24-year old Beirut-based bitcoin trader told Al Jazeera.
Making the transaction
Moving money out of Lebanon via bitcoin often begins with pairing buyers who want to convert foreign exchange or other hard assets into the cryptocurrency, with sellers who have a surplus of bitcoin. The sellers profit from the transaction by charging a commission- typically between 1 percent and 5 percent of the total value of the hard asset being exchanged. Most of these transactions happen by referral, Tadros says. "It's a small community but there are lots of scammers around, so we try to keep things close, verify and establish trust between people."
Some buyers and sellers meet through groups on popular messaging apps like WhatsApp.
In one such group, participants regularly post offerings anywhere between hundreds of dollars worth of bitcoin, to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth. Houses, cars and phones have also been put up for sale in the cryptocurrency on that single group of more than 250 members.
Once a buyer and seller are matched, there are two commonly used avenues for completing the transaction. The first and simplest involves meeting in person and exchanging physical cash for a bitcoin transfer, a method referred to as 'over-the-counter' or OTC. "Basically, this means we meet up in a Starbucks, he gives me the [physical] money, and right there, I transfer him the bitcoin," Tadros explained. Debian said that one of his customers liquidated their assets in Lebanon and bought hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin in cash, in order to transfer that wealth to Germany.
A second popular method for transacting involves buyers handing sellers a physical banker's cheque verified by Lebanon's central bank. These banker's cheques can only be deposited in another Lebanese bank. Once the seller takes possession, they transfer bitcoin to the buyer.
Sellers charge a steep commission on this type of transaction - 25 to 40 percent - because the money they receive remains tied up in a Lebanese bank that could potentially collapse or impose even tighter capital controls. They also assume a normal exchange rate risk.
"I'm basically hedging that I'll still make a profit and the dollar won't devalue by more than 40 percent," a bitcoin trader said on condition of anonymity. For buyers though, the steep commission can be worth it given their only alternative for moving money out of Lebanon is converting their savings at the official exchange rate of 1,500 - which values the Lebanese pound at 40 percent less than the parallel exchange rate of 2,500.
Bitcoin is protected by mathematics, fiat [traditional] currencies are protected by governments. Which do you trust?
SIMON TADROS, A 33-YEAR-OLD BITCOIN TRADER
'It puts your mind at ease'
Many Lebanese banks have allowed customers who put new money in the bank, either in cash or via transfer from outside Lebanon, to open so-called "fresh money" accounts that are not subject to capital controls. In theory, this allows customers all the ease of transferring money that makes bitcoin attractive. But trust in banks has been so eroded that many fear new restrictions could be imposed at any moment, barring their access to even fresh money. "We distrust the banking system, so we just don't use it at all any more," the founder of a Lebanon-based tech company with about a dozen employees told Al Jazeera. The founder, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they transfer about $30,000 worth of bitcoin into Lebanon every month to pay employees. The bitcoin is bought from a foreign account and then sold "over-the-counter" in Lebanon to established buyers. "Some people need to get money out, others need to get money in, when we find each other we match," the founder said. "Over time, we've developed stable relationships." Bitcoin is also attractive because large sums can be transferred within just a few minutes, while waiting periods for bank transfers can top a week, Debian says.
"Fresh money takes at least a week to 10 days to be transferred, and that's if it's sent. Meanwhile, I can transfer bitcoin in $100,000 batches in less than 30 minutes. It puts your mind at ease."A 28-year-old bitcoin trader who goes by CryptoLira on Twitter told Al Jazeera that in addition to Lebanese, wealthy  Arabs with investments in Lebanon are also turning to bitcoin. The trader manages large Middle Eastern accounts. "They just want to get their money out of Lebanon - we're talking really large sums," he said, adding that they were doing so using the banker's cheque method, incurring significant losses.
A volatile currency for volatile times
Bitcoin has had significant ups and downs since it was launched, hitting a peak of around $20,000 in 2017 before crashing to just a few thousand. It currently sits around $9,650. But CryptoLira said the cryptocurrency is still a smart investment in Lebanon, given the country's uncertain financial outlook.
"When people talk about the volatility of bitcoin it's important to remember how volatile currency can be, too - I mean, just look at the Lebanese lira [pound]," he said. "Yes, bitcoin is volatile but it's volatile on the up, it's one of the best-performing assets in the world."
This is true for 2019. The Financial Times reported earlier this month that dedicated cryptocurrency investment funds brought in returns of more than 16 percent in 2019, while traditional hedge fund strategies yielded just 10.4 percent. However, go back a few years and the volatility of the digital currency led many who bought in the leadup to the 2017 peak, or even in 2018, to lose large sums. Still, the inherent anarchy of bitcoin makes it irresistible for many Lebanese living through the country's unprecedented anti-establishment uprising. "If you're fighting for a world where bitcoin is a main currency, you're fighting for the end of all governments," CryptoLira said. "We had the separation of church and state - today, bitcoin is working towards the separation of money and state." Tadros agrees. "Bitcoin is protected by mathematics, fiat [traditional] currencies are protected by governments. Which do you trust?"

Lebanon bars citizens from religious pilgrimages over coronavirus fears
The News Arab/February 25/2020
As coronavirus continues to spread to parts of the Middle East, Lebanon joins a number of countries who have halted flights to virus-ridden places.Tags:Coronavirus, Lebanon, Iran, Qom, Middle East
The Lebanese government has banned nationals from taking part in pilgrimages to Iran and other Middle East countries, after an explosion of fresh coronavirus cases were reported in the region.
Oman has reported two new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the total to four. Iraq has also reported four new cases, after one other person was reported to have the disease. Iran has 16 recorded deaths due to the virus – though that number could be as high as 50 (this has been denied by the Iranian government). Iran has the second highest number of fatalities outside of China. Iran's deputy health minister said on Tuesday he had been diagnosed with the virus. Flights to coronavirus-hit countries have also been restricted, the information minister said. Lebanese Muslims regularly fly to Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia for religious trips, including Mecca for Haj or Umrah. Shia Muslims also regularly travel to Iran's holy city of Qom for pilgrimage. Last week Lebanon revealed its first confirmed case of the virus, contracted by a 45-year-old woman who had returned to the country after visiting Iran. This comes as tension between Tehran and Washington over the Shia state's apparent under-reporting of cases and deaths.
Tehran last week were forced to deny that 50 people had died as a result of the virus, claiming that number had at the time only stood at 13.
Since then, 16 people have been confirmed to have died in Iran, and the number of confirmed cases stands at 95. Now, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he's "deeply concerned" that the Iranian government have been suppressing important information about the outbreak in the country.
"The United States is deeply concerned by information indicating the Iranian regime may have suppressed vital details about the outbreak in that country," he told reporters today.
"All nations, including Iran, should tell the truth about the coronavirus and co-operate with international aid organisations."
Iran's deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi has tested positive for coronavirus, who condessed to in isolation and receiving treatment following his diagnosis.
Despite the growing alarm in Iran and the Middle East, President Hassan Rouhani refused to "shut down the country" and claimed it is an "enemy's" plot to spread panic over coronavirus.
The coronavirus, or Covid-19 as it is called, is believed to have started in China’s Wuhan and spread across Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Symptoms of the virus vary, but it can cause pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. Sever cases report organ failure and death.
Antibiotics do not cure the illness, and though scientists are working on a cure, currently there is none.

Lebanese Political Science Professor Al-Naboulsi: Coronavirus - Possible Anti-Chinese Biological Warfare by the U.S.
MEMRI/February 25/2020
Source: OTV (Lebanon)
In an interview with OTV (Lebanon), Sadek Al-Naboulsi, a political science professor at the Lebanese University postulated that the U.S. has engaged in biological warfare against China, using the coronavirus to prevent China from gaining world economic dominance. The interview aired on February 23, 2020.
Interviewer: "Do you believe that the [corona] virus..."
Sadek Al-Naboulsi: "Yes, part of modern warfare...
Interviewer: "Is to cause diseases."
Sadek Al-Naboulsi: "Biological warfare. Why do we rule this out in advance?"
Interviewer: "Do you believe that the source for this virus is a conspiracy against China?"
Sadek Al-Naboulsi: "I don't have information. I don't know this for sure, but I do not rule out that as a result of the fierce tensions between the U.S. and China, the U.S. would resort to such nefarious methods in an effort to prevent China from leading the world economically by 2025. We all know that by 2025, China will become the world's number one economic power, while the economic power of America will decline. Is this virus part of the confrontation with China, in an attempt to dethrone it or to prevent it from reaching the top? I don't have an answer but this is a legitimate question."

Is creative nonviolent resistance possible in Lebanon?
Perla Kantarjian/Annahar/February 25/2020
In an intimate environment, the event swarmed with full and dynamic intellectual conversation which speculated the validity of nonviolent resistance in the context of the ongoing Lebanese revolution.
BEIRUT: In the heat of the Lebanese revolution, whether or not to adopt tactics of nonviolent resistance has been sparking controversy within protesters, many of whom, “mistakenly correlate nonviolence with weakness,” as Ogarit Younan believes.
In pursuit of expanding on the topic of nonviolent resistance, TEDxHamraSalon hosted an evening of deep-dive discussions at The Olive Grove with guest speaker Ogarit Younan, researcher, writer, and international trainer and advocate of nonviolent resistance worldwide.
Younan is also the founder of the Academic University for Nonviolence and Human Rights (AUNOHR), which is the first of its kind in Lebanon and the Arab region.
At the Sunday event which commenced with an opening word by Sara Sibai, TEDX ambassador and licensee and curator of TedxHamra salon, attendees were shown a TED talk in which Filmmaker Julia Bacha shares stories of effective nonviolent resistance, focusing on the crucial leadership role played by women in their waging. Afterward, guest speaker Younan unraveled the world of nonviolent resistance first by exemplifying powerful strategies from around the world, such as the Indian Independence Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, and the American Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King and then relating them to the local situation. “Revolutions are often associated with violence,” Younan said, “and supporters of violent resistance throughout uprisings tend to underestimate the power of the non-violent approach to resistance, even when they are not fully familiar of its efficacy.”
She added that nonviolent revolutions, if not generating resistance, are invalid. Similarly, she explained, nonviolent revolutions cannot succeed without patient determination, proper strategizing and directing focus on specific objectives.
In an intimate environment, the event swarmed with full and dynamic intellectual conversation which speculated the validity of nonviolent resistance in the context of the ongoing Lebanese revolution.
“In Lebanon, because of the sectarianism, protesters need to be extra creative with their ways since complete unification is difficult to achieve,” Younan said. “However, no protestor has the right to execute a violent resistance which may hurt another individual who may not want to be involved with violence in the first place.”Through the whole of her speech, Younan emphasized on the importance of being strategically planned. If the opponent is throwing bombs, peacefully standing under the bomb is not smartness, but suicide, she said.
In this case, she added, even if we want to respond with violence, we cannot do so unless strategically planned, and that “studying the case is always essential.”
As an attendee who requested anonymity told Annahar, “the process of learning has to continue, and us as Lebanese, who have been neglecting their role in Lebanon for too long, need to realize we are at the beginning of a process which takes years to materialize.”
Another attendee Jad Safwan, a research coordinator at the Samir Kassir, told Annahar that the event “got him thinking” and unveiled methods and implications of resistance he did not previously take into consideration, such as how our actions throughout revolutions affect others.
TEDxHamraSalon is a local forum of monthly salons that aim to connect people both to ideas and to each other in an intimate environment, with the hopes of inspiring people to change their lives, their futures and ultimately their world.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 25-26/2020
Deadly Toronto hammer attack was terrorism, police allege
Steward Bell & Cathrine Mcdonald/Globe News/February 25/2020
https://globalnews.ca/news/6594305/deadly-hammer-attack-terrorism/?fbclid=IwAR2InVmARmHa-arbgNpfNK6LyYxv2KSLxafwmNz5pgGTWgxCCF46akJe-5o
A hammer attack that killed a 64-year-old woman in Toronto on Feb. 21 has been linked by police to terrorism, with the alleged murderer now facing a terrorism-related charge.
Saad Akhtar, 30, was already facing a first-degree murder charge over the apparently random killing of the woman, attacked by a man with a hammer on Friday evening.
But on Tuesday, prosecutors updated charge to “murder – terrorist activity.” The charge applies to a murder “if the act or omission constituting the offence also constitutes a terrorist activity.”
The RCMP and Toronto police said in a joint news release the attack “appears to be an isolated incident and there is no further known threat to the public associated to the accused at this time.”
The victim has been identified by police as Hang-Kam Annie Chiu. She was walking on Toronto’s Sheppard Ave. East near Markham Rd. when she was attacked at around 7 p.m.
The accused’s mother told Global News she had no idea who the victim was, calling Chiu “a stranger” to the family and her son.
Akhtar turned himself in to the Toronto Police Service’s 42 Division following the attack.“As part of our investigation into the homicide, we came across evidence that lead us to believe there may be a terrorism-related offence,” said Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray.
Police then contacted the RCMP-led Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Toronto, which probes terrorism cases.
“And that’s what’s brought us to today where the updated charge was laid in court this morning,” said Gray.
Saad Akhtar has been charged with the terrorism-related murder of a 64-year-old Toronto woman. Family Handout
University of Calgary law professor Michael Nesbitt said he believed this was the first time the specific charge of murder – terrorist activity had been used.
He said there were two reasons to apply the charge.
“One, signalling, and calling it what it is, if authorities think it’s terrorism. And two, it gets you from second degree murder to first-degree murder without having to prove that the murder was ‘planned and deliberate’,” he said. “That in turn gets you a longer sentence in terms of the parole ineligibility going from 10 to 25 years, but still life in prison.
Akhtar’s mother said the family had left Pakistan in 2001 to escape terrorism. She said her son had completed a co-op at the University Health Network at the end of December.
He would punch the walls in her townhouse when he was angry.
Asked if she had been concerned about his behavior, she said: “Of course I am worried but I can’t help because he don’t want to take help.”
He walked an hour every day to a mosque and back but did not return home on Friday night as usual, she said, adding the attack did not occur on his regular route home.
Police later told her he had been arrested.
It would be Canada’s first deadly terrorist attack since a self-described follower of the misogynist Incel movement ploughed a rented van into pedestrians on Toronto’s Yonge Street in April 2018, killing 10 people.
It was unclear whether Akhtar was attached to any terrorist group.
The so-called Islamic State has since 2014 been urging followers to conduct attacks using readily-available weapons such as knives and vehicles.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s latest annual report said extremists inspired by ISIS and Al Qaeda were “the number one national security threat to public safety in this country. Investigating these threats remains a top priority for CSIS.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca

Pompeo Says Iran Must 'Tell the Truth' on Coronavirus
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 25/2020
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday demanded that Iran "tell the truth" about a coronavirus outbreak, voicing alarm at allegations of a cover-up. "The United States is deeply concerned by information indicating the Iranian regime may have suppressed vital details about the outbreak in that country," Pompeo told reporters in Washington. "All nations including Iran should tell the truth about the coronavirus and cooperate with international aid organizations," he said. Iran has reported 15 deaths from the epidemic, more than in any country other than China. Both countries are considered top adversaries by President Donald Trump's administration. The Iranian government has pledged greater transparency after a lawmaker alleged that the clerical regime was playing down the outbreak and that the toll could be as high as 50. Pompeo said that both China and Iran could have better contained coronavirus if they allowed free expression and he saluted foreign journalists who have reported on the epidemic. "If China permitted its own important journals and medical personnel to speak and investigate freely, Chinese officials and other nations would have been far better prepared to address the challenge," Pompeo said. Pompeo said that the United States had quarantined all people known to have contracted the virus and that Washington would take further "appropriate action" if needed.

Fear not Coronavirus, Iran ‘endures hardships to make enemy regretful’: Rouhani
Yaghoub Fazeli/Tuesday, 25 February 2020
Iranians should not be afraid of coronavirus, President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday, assuring citizens that Iran will overcome the virus, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported. Iranian officials on Tuesday reported three more deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringin the total number of fatalities to 15, state media reported. “We will, God willing, get past this virus,” said Rouhani. “Influenza B virus had 16,000 causalities in America, while it had just over 100 casualties in Iran,” he said. “Coronavirus spreads more quickly but it is not tougher than influenza.”He called on Iranians to follow the health ministry’s instructions and added that they should not be afraid of coronavirus. “This [Persian] year, we had a lot of problems and sadness,” the president said. “From the martyrdom of commander [Qassem] Soleimani, to the death of the people of Kerman and the plane’s passengers, and natural disasters … our nation does not surrender to sanctions and endures hardships to make the enemy regretful.”The Iranian city of Qom's representative in parliament said on Monday coronavirus has killed around 50 people in his city alone, according to the semi-official ILNA news agency. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Iran has risen to 95, the health ministry’s spokesman Kianush Jahanpour said on Tuesday, the official IRNA news agency reported. The death toll from the virus in Iran is currently at 15, Jahanpour said. Eleven countries across the Middle East have closed their air and land borders to Iran as the deadly coronavirus continues its spread throughout the Islamic Republic.

Gulf States Cut Iran Links as Coronavirus Cases Rise
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/February 25/2020
Gulf countries announced new measures Tuesday to cut links with Iran to prevent coronavirus spreading after the confirmation of 20 new cases, all of them people returning from the Islamic republic. The United Arab Emirates suspended passenger and cargo flights to Iran, while Bahrain closed schools and nurseries for two weeks. This came after Gulf countries Kuwait and Bahrain announced additional cases of COVID-19. Over the past two days, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman have reported 29 cases of the novel coronavirus among people returning from pilgrimages to Iran, which is battling the deadliest outbreak outside China.  The three countries have large Shiite Muslim populations who frequently travel to Iran to visit holy shrines. The UAE General Civil Aviation Authority "suspended all passenger flights and cargo to and from Iran starting today and for one week," a statement carried by the official WAM news agency said, adding that the ban could be extended. Bahrain's health ministry said 15 more people -- including six Saudi women -- had tested positive for the virus after returning to the kingdom from Iran via Dubai and Sharjah in the UAE. Shortly after, the Bahraini authorities said citizens were banned from travelling to Iran "until further notice" and suspended "all public and private schools as well as nurseries for two weeks", according to the official Bahrain News Agency. The first case of coronavirus in Bahrain was of a man who had transported children to three schools after returning home from Iran on February 21 via Dubai airport. In neighboring Kuwait, three new cases were recorded among Kuwaiti men who had been under quarantine in the emirate after returning from Iran. And Oman -- which on Monday reported its first cases of coronavirus, two Omani women who had returned from Iran -- said it had detected an additional two cases. Muscat was making arrangements to bring back its citizens from the Islamic republic, the foreign ministry said, a day after it suspended all flights to and from Iran. Oman also announced that it would suspend trade with Iranian goods from Wednesday. The UAE has already announced 13 coronavirus cases, all foreigners, including an Iranian couple who had traveled from Iran. Kuwait has cancelled celebrations for national holidays on Tuesday and Wednesday and also scrapped all sports events to counter the spread of the disease.

Mubarak, Egypt's autocrat ousted by protests, dies at 91
Associated Press SAMY MAGDY/February 25/2020
CAIRO (AP) — Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian leader who was the autocratic face of stability in the Middle East for nearly 30 years before being forced from power in an Arab Spring uprising, died Tuesday, state-run TV announced. He was 91.
Mubarak was a stalwart U.S. ally, a bulwark against Islamic militancy and guardian of Egypt's peace with Israel. But to the hundreds of thousands of young Egyptians who rallied for 18 days of unprecedented street protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square and elsewhere in 2011, Mubarak was a latter-day pharaoh and a symbol of autocratic misrule.
His overthrow, however, plunged the country into years of chaos and uncertainty, and set up a power struggle between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood group that he had long outlawed. Some two and a half years after his ouster, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi led the military overthrow of Egypt's first freely elected president and rolled back freedoms gained in the 2011 uprising.
State TV said Mubarak died at a Cairo hospital where he had undergone an unspecified surgery. The report said he had health complications but offered no other details. One of his sons, Alaa, announced over the weekend that the former president was in an intensive care after undergoing surgery.
El-Sissi offered condolences and praised Mubarak's service during the 1973 war with Israel, when he commanded the air force, but made no mention of Mubarak's almost three-decade rule as president of the most populous Arab state. He announced three days of national mourning beginning Wednesday.
“The Presidency mourns with great sorrow the former President of the Republic, Mr. Mohammed Hosni Mubarak," he said in a statement. It referred to Mubarak as "one of the leaders and heroes of the glorious October war, as he assumed command of the Air Force during the war that restored dignity and pride to the Arab nation.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed “deep sorrow” over Mubarak’s death. “President Mubarak, a personal friend of mine, was a leader who guided his people to peace and security, to peace with Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Mubarak “spent his life serving his homeland and the issues of righteousness and justice in the world, with the issue of our Palestinian people at the top of them.”
Born in May 1928, Mubarak was vice president on Oct. 14, 1981, when his mentor, President Anwar Sadat, was assassinated by Islamic extremists while reviewing a military parade. Seated next to Sadat, Mubarak escaped with a minor hand injury as gunmen sprayed the reviewing stand with bullets. Eight days later, the brawny former air force commander was sworn in as president, promising continuity and order.
Over the next three decades, as the region was convulsed by one crisis after another, Mubarak was seen as a steady hand and a reliable U.S. partner against Islamic extremism. He sent troops as part of the U.S.-led coalition in the 1990-1991 Gulf war and contributed to efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Within Egypt he presided over slow but steady economic growth and largely kept the country out of armed conflicts after decades of war with Israel. Unlike his predecessors, both Sadat and Egypt's towering nationalist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, Mubarak pursued no grand ideology beyond stability and economic development.
Over the years, Mubarak tinkered with reform but shunned major change, presenting himself as Egypt's sole protection against Islamic militancy and sectarian division. The U.S., particularly under President George W. Bush, pressed for democratic reforms but was wary of alienating a key ally.
The failure to fulfill repeated promises of change steadily deepened public despair. Those seeking a democratic future were dismayed to see Mubarak making apparent moves to groom his businessman son, Gamal Mubarak, for a dynastic succession.
“At multiple points during Mubarak's reign, he had the opportunity to reform the Egyptian state,” H.A. Hellyer, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, tweeted. “He didn't.”
The Jan. 25 uprising “didn't come out of nowhere — it was the result of many years of pent-up anger at how the state was failing the citizenry, save a tiny slice at the top," he added.
Inspired by the first Arab Spring revolt in Tunisia, protesters took to the streets in January 2011. They harnessed the power of social media to muster tumultuous throngs, unleashing popular anger over the graft and brutality that shadowed Mubarak's rule.
In the end, with millions massed in Tahrir Square and other city centers, and even marching to the doorstep of Mubarak's palace, his resignation was announced on Feb. 11, 2011. The generals took power, hoping to preserve what they could of the system he had led.
Though Tunisia's president fell before him, the ouster of Mubarak was a watershed moment in the history of the region, and gave impetus to uprisings in Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.
Over the next two years Egypt held a referendum on an amended constitution, as well as parliamentary and presidential elections. Turnout was high as enthusiastic Egyptians got their first taste of democracy. But the Muslim Brotherhood emerged victorious again and again, raising fears among their opponents that the country would be transformed into an Islamic state.
The struggle came to a head in the summer of 2013, when the military removed President Mohammed Morsi, a senior Brotherhood figure, from power amid mass protests against his divisive rule. The military assumed power and launched a massive crackdown on dissent. El-Sissi was elected president the following year. Rights groups and activists say his rule has proved far more oppressive than Mubarak's.
Mubarak was jailed shortly after his overthrow and later relocated to a military hospital as he went on trial in an array of cases. The televised images of Mubarak on a stretcher in a defendant's cage were in sharp contrast to the portraits of the leader that had hung from billboards during his long rule.
For the man who was long untouchable — even a word of criticism against him in the media was forbidden for much of his rule — prison was a shock. When he was flown from the court to Torah Prison in Cairo in 2011, he cried in protest and refused to get out of the helicopter.
In June 2012, Mubarak and his security chief were sentenced to life in prison for failing to prevent the killing of some 900 protesters during the 18-day uprising. Both appealed the verdict and a higher court later cleared them in 2014.
The following year, Mubarak and his two sons — wealthy businessman Alaa and Mubarak’s one-time heir apparent Gamal — were sentenced to three years in prison on corruption charges during a retrial. The sons were released in 2015 for time served, while Mubarak walked free in 2017. Following his release, he was taken to an apartment in Cairo’s Heliopolis district, where he lived until his death.
Mubarak is survived by his wife, Suzanne, his two sons and four grandchildren.
*Associated Press writer Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem contributed.

Netanyahu to Announce Retirement, Use Fears of Coronavirus to Reduce Arab Votes
Tel Aviv- Nazir Majli/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 25 February, 2020
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to take several steps to achieve a surge in his power during the electoral battle’s last few days, sources said. One of these steps is to announce retiring from politics after the end of the next government’s ruling period. His other plan is to benefit from the horror spread due to Coronavirus to reduce the number of Arab voters on election day, scheduled for next Monday. According to political sources, Netanyahu has been circulating news among his party activists about attracting new groups of voters.
He also called on his right-wing allies to support him on his path and have “more patience, faith, and a commitment to work to achieve the right-wing’s interests in the electoral battle.” Other sources indicated that the Premier is also planning a surprise for Arab voters on the big day. In April 2019’s elections, he released a video warning that “Arab voters are arriving in masses to the polls on buses funded by European parties in order to bring down the right-wing government.” In September 2019’s elections, he tried to install cameras at the poll stations in Arab towns, fearing fraud. While in the upcoming March 2 elections, sources say he is planning to broadcast horrific news that Coronavirus is spreading in certain areas, mainly Arab, to intimidate Arab voters and prevent them from reaching the ballot boxes. In other news, two opinion polls have shown that Netanyahu’s Likud party will overtake Israeli opposition Leader Benny Gantz’s party Kahol Lavan and regain the parliamentary seats. According to Channel 12, Netanyahu's Likud is expected to win 34 seats while Kahol Lavan is expected to win 33 seats. While a poll by Channel 12 from last week predicted Gantz would win 35 seats and Netanyahu 33.
The third-largest party in both polls is the Arab-majority Joint List, predicted to win 14 seats according to Kan and 13 seats according to Channel 12. The fourth-largest party according to both polls is the Labor-Gesher-Meretz alliance, projected to win 10 seats according to Channel 12 and nine seats according to Kan. Ultra-orthodox parties maintain their seats, with Shas predicted to win eight seats in both polls, and United Torah Judaism predicted seven according to Kan and eight according to Channel 12. Both polls revealed that the Likud is regaining its power, yet Netanyahu will not be able to for his planned right-wing government, and the Blue and White party is losing its popularity. They indicated that Gants will not be able to for his government unless he agrees to form a government with Avigdor Lieberman and the Joint List together. However, Lieberman, MP Ayman Odeh, chairman of the Joint List, and other leaders have clearly disagreed to do so. Arabs say they would support Gantz’s government provided that Lieberman is part of it, and Lieberman stated that he is not ready to engage in a government based on Arab voices.

US Mapping Team For West Bank Annexation Arrivs In Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv, Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 25 February, 2020
The US members of a committee formed to map out areas of the West Bank that Israel plans to annex as part of US President Donald Trump administration’s peace plan has arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Naftali Bennett were seen racing to press ahead with the project. Netanyahu had announced that 3,000 homes would be built for Jewish residents in Jerusalem while Bennett spoke about the establishment of around 2,000 residential units in the Bank settlements. The Israeli PM had also ordered that 12 unauthorized settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank be connected to the state’s power grid while the Defense Minister spoke of a settlement development plan at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. Under Trump’s peace deal, all West Bank settlements are to become part of sovereign Israel. However, the status of Jewish Hebron and the Tomb remains unclear. Accordingly, a joint US-Israeli committee should complete a detailed map of the territory that could be annexed before Israel applies sovereignty to West Bank settlements. The US mapping committee includes US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, his adviser Aryeh Lightstone, and C. Scott Leith, senior adviser for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict of the National Security Council. The committee already held preparatory talks over the issue in Washington before it arrived in Tel Aviv.
The US team should immediately begin talks with the Israeli mapping team, which includes Tourism and Immigration Minister Yariv Levin and Acting Director of the Prime Minister’s Office Ronen Peretz. On Monday, Netanyahu toured the occupied East Jerusalem along with Levin and Peretz. From the West Bank settlement of Ariel, where a meeting with the US mapping team was held, Netanyahu said: “The mapping is underway to prepare the way for extending sovereignty on these territories.” Meanwhile, Palestinian presidential spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the US-Israeli maps that Netanyahu said will be drawn soon according to the so-called "deal of the century" would not give legitimacy to anyone and that all settlements are going to demise. "These maps that violate United Nations resolutions cannot be transformed into a fait accompli, and the only map that can be recognized and dealt with is the map of the state of Palestine on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital," he stressed. The Palestinian spokesman called on the international community to take immediate action to stop this dangerous Israeli-US escalation, which will lead to the elimination of any opportunity for a just and comprehensive peace based on United Nations resolutions. On Sunday, European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell criticized Israel’s announced plans to build a new neighborhood in East Jerusalem and expand another, warning such action “would be deeply detrimental to a two-state-solution.”

Russia’s FM Lavrov rejects Idlib ceasefire as ‘capitulating before terrorists’
AFP, Geneva/Tuesday, 25 February 2020
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday rejected calls for a halt to a Russia-backed Syrian offensive in Idlib in northwest Syria. “This is capitulating before terrorists and even a reward for their activities in violation of international treaties and numerous UN Security Council resolutions,” Lavrov told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Lavrov accused some governments of “a desire to justify outrageous acts committed by radical and terrorist groupings. “Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain admonishments about the possibility of concluding peace agreements with bandits,” he said, referring to the situation in Idlib. A months-long offensive by Russia-backed Syrian troops against factions backed by Turkey in Idlib has seen hundreds of thousands of people flee the violence. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he is planning to hold a summit on March 5 with the leaders of Russia, France and Germany over the escalating conflict. But on Tuesday he said he might instead hold face-to-face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on that date, either in Istanbul or in Ankara. The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross also on Tuesday said in a statement it was “deeply alarmed” by the situation for civilians fleeing the fighting. “This is the worst wave of displacement we’ve seen during the Syrian conflict. Amid the harsh winter conditions in Idlib, we see people trapped, isolated and running out of ways to cope. It’s completely unacceptable,” said Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s director for the Near and Middle East. Carboni called for all sides in the current fighting to “immediately” allow civilians to flee to a safe area.

Turkish-backed Syrian Fighters Capture Idlib Town from Regime
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 25 February, 2020
Syrian opposition factions backed by the Turkish military have seized the town of Nairab in northwest Syria's Idlib, Turkish and opposition officials said on Tuesday, the first area to be taken back from Syrian regime forces advancing in the province. Regime forces, supported by Russian air power, are trying to retake the last large opposition-held region in Syria after nine years of war. Nearly a million Syrians have been displaced by the latest fighting. Turkey has responded by sending thousands of troops and equipment into the region to support the opposition factions in resisting the offensive.
"With the help of our Turkish friends, we have regained control of the strategic town of Nairab, the gateway of Saraqeb, after expelling the terrorist Russian militias," Yusef Hamoud, spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Army, told Reuters.
A Turkish security official said that the Turkish military had supported the opposition offensive with shelling and that bomb disposal teams and the rebels were now clearing the town. Their next goal was to capture the strategic town of Saraqeb, where Syria's main north-south highway linking Damascus and Aleppo meets the road west to the Mediterranean. "This will happen soon. The regime suffered heavy losses in the clashes last night. Also, a serious amount of weapons and ammunition was seized," the Turkish official told Reuters. He said there had been no clash between Turkish and Russian forces in Monday's advance on Nairab and that no Turkish soldiers had lost their lives in the clashes. Separately, Turkish shelling Monday killed nine regime fighters in northwest Syria, a monitor said. Turkish shelling killed four regime fighters near Nairab and another five near the town of Saraqeb to its east, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Two weeks ago, the Turkish Defense Ministry said Syrian regime forces briefly abandoned Nairab as the Turkey-backed fighters advanced on the town. However, the fighters were subsequently pushed back from the area.
Since Turkey poured its forces into northwest Syria to halt the Syrian regime forces' campaign, 17 members of the Turkish forces have been killed. The fighting has strained ties between Turkey and Russia, which although backing opposing sides in Syria's conflict had worked to contain the violence until the latest flare-up. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said there was not yet full agreement on holding a proposed March 5 summit with Russia, France and Germany on the Idlib conflict, but he may meet Russia's Vladimir Putin on that date. At a news conference in Ankara before leaving on a trip to Azerbaijan, Erdogan said that a Russian delegation was set to come to Turkey on Wednesday to discuss the situation. "There is no full agreement yet between (French President Emmanuel) Macron...(German Chancellor Angela) Merkel, and Putin," he said. Macron and Merkel have both urged Putin to end the conflict, concerned about the humanitarian situation. On Saturday, Erdogan said that Turkey had set out a "roadmap" for Syria after calls with the three leaders, while the Kremlin has said it was discussing the possibility of holding a four-way summit.
Turkey already hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees and says it cannot handle another wave. It has closed its borders. Regime forces are advancing closer to the camps for displaced persons near the Turkish border, where the migrants fear being caught up in the fighting. The Syrian Observatory, a war monitor, said on Monday that pro-Damascus forces had seized control of 10 more towns in southern areas of Idlib province in less than 24 hours.

Algerian Judiciary Urged to Summon Bouteflika on Corruption Charges
Algiers - Boualem Goumrassa/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 25 February, 2020
An Algerian court has ordered Mokhtar Reguieg, Chief of Protocol of the Presidency, to be held under temporary detention, as part of an investigation into corruption cases. Reguieg is facing charges related to the abuse of power and smuggling subsidized commodities, in addition to violating the legislation and regulation on exchange and the movement of capital in return for unjustified privileges. A judicial source, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Asharq Al-Awsat that he is accused of exploiting his power as a high-ranking official at the presidency, where he served for eight years, to allow prominent businessmen to get government banking loans and facilitation in importing. he same source affirmed that several executive directors in ministries and government bodies and officials in financial authorities will be summoned to court soon to be interrogated regarding their role in the squandering of huge funds during former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s time in office from 1999 to 2019. The Court of Sidi M’hamed in Algiers sentenced late last year former prime ministers Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal to 15 and 12 years in prison, respectively. Other ministers and businessmen were sentenced for accepting bribes and exploiting their posts to provide unearned privileges. They were close to former Bouteflika and his brother Said, who in turn received a sentence of 15 years in prison on charges of conspiracy against the state and army. Activists and attorneys demanded that Abdelaziz Bouteflika be summoned for questioning because the imprisoned officials were following his orders and policies. Human rights activist Hassan Bouras is leading a campaign demanding that he brought to trial.

Kurds Set 3 Conditions to Support New Iraq Government
Erbil - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 25 February, 2020
Top Kurdistan officials met Monday to determine whether the region will participate in the government of Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi. The meeting was headed by Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani and various Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials, including Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, Speaker Rewaz Fayaq and leaders of several political parties. Member of Kurdistan’s negotiation team, Mohammed Saadeddine, had said the Kurds have a set of conditions for participating in the Allawi government, stating that despite receiving verbal approval on them, the Kurdish parties are demanding guarantees. The conditions are ensuring the constitutional rights of the people of Kurdistan, providing financial dues and normalizing security conditions in the disputed areas listed in Article 140 of the constitution, Rudaw media network quoted Saadeddine as saying.
He expected the meeting of between the Kurdish president with the political parties to result in a decision to participate in the government if there are guarantees to meet these conditions. The parties agreed with Allawi on Kurdish representation in cabinet. It will include four Kurdish ministers, three of whom will be chosen by the Kurds themselves and one appointed by the PM. Adel Karim has been nominated to the Ministry of Trade, Shwan Ibrahim Taha to the Ministry of Justice and Rizgar Mohammad Amin to the Ministry of Justice. No final agreement has been reached on the candidates yet.
Deputy Speaker of the Iraqi parliament Bashir al-Haddad said the talks are ongoing, adding that Allawi showed some flexibility in his positions, which was seen as a positive sign.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 25-26/2020
Iran’s Supreme Leader Faces Some Supreme Problems
Bobby Ghosh/Bloomberg/February 25/2020
Low turnout in the parliamentary elections are the latest sign of public anger and mistrust over the Islamic Republic’s failures.
Not quite two months in, 2020 is already proving to be Ali Khamenei’s annus horribilis. In word, deed and vote, Iranians are demonstrating a profound loss of faith in the Islamic Republic, and a deep contempt for its Supreme Leader. Trust in Iran is also dwindling in its neighborhood, and in the international community. If he were capable of self-reflection, Khamenei would recognize that he bears most of the blame. Instead, the ageing theocrat continues to rail against the U.S., and more generally the West, for all that ails Iran.
This bodes ill for Iranians: A regime in denial is unlikely to respond constructively to the overlapping crises that have so far characterized the year. And since denial is usually accompanied by deflection and disruption, it could also be bad news for the wider Middle East, long the stage for Iranian mischief.
But, as Khamenei learned this past weekend, distracting his people is becoming harder. The parliamentary election he fixed for his favored hard-liners turned into a vote of no-confidence in him: The hard-liners won, but it was the smallest turnout in the country’s modern history, despite calls from Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for a massive mandate.
Per usual, the Supreme Leader tried to pass this off as the result of “negative propaganda” about the spread of the coronavirus. In turn, leaders in the holy city of Qom, where the virus has hit hardest, conjured up an American plot to undermine the religious institutions.
Ironically, an honest appraisal of the threat might have worked to Khamenei’s advantage. He could have used it to postpone the elections and avoided, at least for a while, the loss of face — and of legitimacy — that the low turnout represents.
The crisis brought on by the virus — Iran already accounts for the most fatalities outside China — is a microcosm of the regime failures that have left Iranians with little faith in their leaders. The authorities have gone from underplaying the threat to grudging acknowledgment and blame-shifting. (In Qom, the director of the medical university who had said there was nothing to worry about was found to have tested positive for the virus.) By then, the death toll was swiftly climbing toward the three-figure mark.
Iranians could hardly have missed the parallels with the response to the downing of a Ukrainian airliner shortly after takeoff from Tehran in January: After denying responsibility, the government belatedly admitted that the plane was struck by Iranian missiles — and then blamed the U.S. for creating the atmosphere of heightened tension that led to the error. If Iranians are outraged by the regime’s handling of the virus crisis, the country’s neighbors are taking no chances. Most Middle Eastern states have closed their borders with Iran and halted flights.
Almost lost in the panic was Friday’s news of a different kind of isolation: the decision by the Financial Action Taskforce to keep Iran on its blacklist for the regime’s failure to comply with rules preventing the financing of terrorism. The FATF also called on member states to impose fresh sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The FATF designation is a blow to Iran’s hopes, already reduced by American sanctions, for a resumption of trade with Europe. Tehran responded in the only way it knows how, by fingering the U.S. and a Western conspiracy. But ordinary Iranians know who to blame: Although parliament passed legislation to bring the country into compliance, it was overruled by a clerical body led by Khamenei.
The regime is already shrugging off the FATF designation as inconsequential. It can count on ordinary Iranians not paying much attention, but only because the virus scare has given them more immediate anxieties. Social media platforms buzz with rumors of a run on face masks and hand-sanitizer. To contain contagion, doctors and health officials are calling for a weeks-long holiday for schools and universities, and restrictions on public assemblies, including all religious gatherings.
But the virus crisis, by shutting businesses and keeping shoppers at home, will have a much more immediate impact than the FATF designation on an economy already hobbled by sanctions, feeding the widespread anger at the regime that has sporadically bubbled over into the streets.
For Khamenei, the only silver lining here is that Iranians too frightened to leave home for fear of the virus are unlikely, at least for now, to resume the anti-regime street protests.
But pretty soon, he will need to find a new way to distract his subjects. He can’t rely on the Trump administration to provide one, as it did with the killing of Qassem Soleimani at the start of the year. The regime had counted on the death of its most famous military commander to rally Iranians behind the flag and leadership — but the outpouring of grief at his funeral was swiftly replaced by rage after the downing of the Ukrainian Airlines flight.
Soleimani ran Iran’s complex network of proxy militias across the Arab world, and his death has limited Khamenei’s ability to stage distractions far from home. This was demonstrated over the weekend, when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen launched attacks on Saudi Arabia, as finance ministers and central bankers of the G-20 nations gathered in Riyadh. Missiles fired from Houthi-held territory were intercepted, and an explosives-laden boat heading for the shipping channel of the Red Sea was destroyed.
Other Iranian proxies, like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Shiite militias in Iraq, are preoccupied with local political struggles and popular movements against Tehran’s influence.
And the Supreme Leader’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year has only just begun.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Treasury Targets Maduro’s Oil Lifeline
John Hardie/FDD/February 25/2020
The U.S. Treasury Department last week sanctioned a subsidiary of Russian energy giant Rosneft for its leading role in illicit exports of Venezuelan oil. With this much-anticipated step, the Trump administration aims to sever a key financial lifeline for Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, who has proven surprisingly durable despite nearly 60 countries’ recognition of Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful leader.
Treasury designated Rosneft’s Swiss-incorporated oil brokerage firm Rosneft Trading S.A. (RTSA) along with RTSA’s chairman and president, Didier Casimiro, for violating U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector. Treasury blocked their U.S. assets and added them to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list pursuant to Executive Order 13850, which empowers Treasury to sanction those operating in key sectors of the Venezuelan economy, those complicit in the deceptive or corrupt practices of the Maduro regime, or those transacting with a person already blocked for doing so.
While the United States and European Union previously designated both Rosneft and RTSA under separate, Ukraine-related authorities, those sanctions are relatively narrow in scope; their aim is to restrict the Russian firms’ access to Western capital markets and energy-related technologies, not to block them entirely. Tuesday’s action, on the other hand, strictly prohibits RTSA from accessing the U.S. financial system and threatens potential sanctions for foreign persons doing business with RTSA.
Treasury was careful to make clear, however, that the RTSA designation does not apply to Rosneft as a whole. The administration likely showed restraint toward Rosneft both because it is a state-controlled firm and because its production of 5.8 million barrels of oil per day helps to stabilize global prices.
As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday, Rosneft Trading SA is “the primary broker of global deals for the sale and transport of Venezuela’s crude oil” on behalf of Venezuelan state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PdVSA), which Treasury sanctioned in January 2019. Oil exports account for at least a quarter of Venezuela’s budget and virtually all of its export revenue, making Rosneft crucial for the Maduro regime’s access to hard currency.
Via RTSA, Rosneft initially focused mainly on reselling Venezuelan oil to foreign trading firms. Yet in July 2019, RTSA also began handling the bulk of PdVSA’s marketing and distribution needs as U.S. sanctions led foreign trading houses and importers to eschew Venezuelan crude. By August, Rosneft was moving an estimated 70 percent of Venezuelan oil exports, helping them rebound from a low of 637,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September to roughly 1 million bpd by December, with shipments going mainly to India and China.
Beyond oil, Russia has provided Maduro with significant military, security, diplomatic, informational, humanitarian, and financial support. Along with assistance from Cuba, these efforts have helped Maduro maintain control of Venezuela’s armed forces and security services despite U.S.-led efforts to encourage defections. In addition to propping up an ally, Russia aims to recoup the tens of billions of dollars in investments and loans its companies have poured into Venezuela. Moscow also seeks to expand its control over Venezuela’s massive oil reserves while turning a healthy profit from reselling discounted Venezuelan oil. Going forward, Treasury should continue to target the shipping companies, financial institutions, and illicit networks that support the Maduro regime, and should prevent Rosneft and PdVSA from circumventing U.S. sanctions by finding a replacement for RTSA, such as TNK Trading International, another Rosneft subsidiary. Finally, Washington should push Venezuela’s oil customers to reduce their purchases, perhaps by offering temporary sanctions waivers in exchange for significant reductions, an approach the White House previously employed to limit Iranian exports.
*John Hardie is research manager and Russia research associate at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he also contributes to FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP). For more analysis from John and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_CEFP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

Climate Change Is Coming to Your Hometown Bonds
Brian Chappatta/Bloomberg/February 25/2020
In some corners of finance, climate-change risks are only starting to appear on investors’ radars. By contrast, in the $3.8 trillion US municipal-bond market, natural disasters have been a nagging concern for decades.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Moody’s Investors Service slashed New Orleans’s credit rating by three levels to junk. It didn’t win back its investment grade until May 2007. Joplin, Missouri, suffered the deadliest US tornado in almost six decades in May 2011. Two years later, almost half of its 7,500 students were still in temporary classrooms, but construction progressed on new schools thanks in part to voters approving the largest bond sale in city history. In August 2014, the strongest earthquake in 25 years hit Napa County, California, and traders exchanged a record amount of its debt in the following days amid concern that it could halt payments because of the damage. The list goes on.
Yet for all the examples, pinning down the risk has always been elusive for the muni market, which is known for its dispersion. The US has more than 90,000 “local government units,” according to the most recent Census data, and although not all of them issue bonds, those that do tend to borrow across a range of maturities and with varying revenue streams. While many deal documents now include some language about climate change, and investment banks and legal counsels are more thoroughly conducting due diligence around the issue, ultimately there’s little evidence that the risks are baked into bond prices.
Enter Boston-based startup risQ Inc. Pronounced like “risk,” the company has made moves recently that make it a contender as the go-to source for municipal-bond buyers as they assess the likelihood that climate change and natural disasters will disrupt any potential local government, school district, hospital or utility system.
At the core of risQ is a blend of climate science, catastrophe modeling and geospatial machine-learning technology. It categorizes climate risk based on the probabilities of a given type of hazard — wildfire, flood and hurricane — and also “climate conditioning,” which takes into account changes to variables that would increase the odds of a natural disaster. It breaks down the US into a grid of 100-meter-square cells and spells out two specific variables: Risk to property value and impairment of gross domestic product. And the grid is flexible enough for risQ to compile climate risks across boundaries large and small.
Now, risQ isn’t the only provider of geospacial data. As Bloomberg News’s Amanda Albright and Mallika Mitra reported earlier this month, more investment firms say they’re starting to focus on information from sources like Google Earth as a way to assess climate risks. S&P Global Ratings analyzed US water utilities with data from National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellite missions. “Largely, finance lives in columns and rows in Excel spreadsheets — climate change is not a row and column exercise,” said Chris Goolgasian, director of climate research at Wellington Management.
Chris Harsthorn, chief commercial officer at risQ, isn’t so sure about that.
The company last month announced a partnership with Intercontinental Exchange, in which risQ will provide its climate data and ICE will connect it to specific bonds so investors can analyze and compare distinct securities or even full portfolios. In other words: Working in Excel spreadsheets.
“We’re linking to CUSIPs, which was almost a binary for a lot of the additional folks we’ve been talking to,” Harsthorn said in a phone interview, referring to the nine-character identifier assigned to a given bond. “These are real numbers that can immediately be interpolated into the same sorts of metrics that the analysts are already using.”
The climate product went live Feb. 3. It went through beta testing in the final three months of 2019 with about 10 different entities and 140 users, Harsthorn said.
All the while, risQ had an advocate within the market in Tom Doe, president and founder of Municipal Market Analytics. MMA for a time was itself something of a startup in the state and local government debt market. Now it’s arguably the most well-known independent research firm in the space. Doe said in an interview that he was captivated by the book “The Uninhabitable Earth” and concluded that “climate will be a disruptive element in the municipal market.” He closely watched how Hurricane Florence flooded North Carolina in 2018. “Wouldn’t it be disruptive if you had a wide swath of IG credits become junk because of some circumstance? Could climate be that?” The answer, he decided, was yes.
Doe was among those who told risQ leadership that its climate data probably needed to be attached to specific bonds for investment managers — and, in fact, himself — to buy in. Harsthorn and others were on board with that direction, and Doe helped make introductions to the right people at ICE.
With the product launched, the obvious question is at what point any of it will matter for bond prices. As I wrote earlier this month, munis are in the middle of a relentless rally, with benchmark 10-year tax-exempt yields close to record lows and cash streaming into mutual funds week after week. Money managers as a whole don’t have the luxury of being choosy with their bonds, even if it’s a coastal Florida city vulnerable to hurricanes or a locality in California susceptible to wildfires. Likely, any penalty for those risks will just be viewed as a better buying opportunity.
As with many things involving climate, that view might be too short term. Doe sees risQ as a way to put information into the market, if not for the bond buyers of today then for those two years, five years or 10 years from now. “While people may disregard it at this point, there will be a clear track record that this data was there,” Doe said. “We can utilize the data and be voices for it in order to create awareness, even though the end investor may not yet be engaged.”
There’s no guarantee that risQ will become the muni market’s defining climate-risk tool. In July, Moody’s Corp. acquired a majority stake in Four Twenty Seven Inc., which also provides climate data and analysis. The announcement uses similar buzzwords and phrases, like “quantifying climate-related exposures and producing actionable risk metrics.”
Those who expect climate risks to intensify in the coming years should welcome the competition. As for risQ, it seems to have committed partners, and, perhaps most crucially, is willing to listen to what investors and analysts truly want. A little flattery doesn’t hurt, either.
“Each individual user will have their own strategies and their own opinions and their own scenarios — we don’t want to take the ball out of hands of the smart people on the user side,” Harsthorn said. “We want to give them the tools to allow them to make their own decisions and factor in climate in a way they think is sensible.”

Something is rotten in the Islamic Republic: Iran’s sinister coronavirus cover-up
Mohammed Alyahya/Al Arabiya/February 25/2020
Something is rotten in the state of Persia: the Islamic Republic of Iran is engaging in a large-scale cover-up of the coronavirus epidemic that could wreak misery on the lives of millions.
If we take the government’s claims at face value, the coronavirus outbreak in Iran went from zero cases to 95 infections and 15 dead, the highest death toll outside China, in about a week.
If true, these figures give a mortality rate of about 15 percent -- an extraordinary number compared to the Chinese and global average of 2 percent. Even worse, if 15 people have really died, this would suggest at least 750 and maybe as many as 1,500 people are infected in the country, according to a Harvard professor of epidemiology speaking to Al Arabiya English. The government doesn’t seem to know or care where these people are or what they are doing.
Adding to doubts over the official numbers, the MP for the Iranian city of Qom said 50 people had died from the disease in his city alone, versus the official toll of 15.
Remarkably, only today, two senior government officials have announced that they tested positive for the virus. The first was Iran’s deputy minister of health, Iraj Harirchi, and the second is prominent member of parliament, Mahmoud Sadeghi.
The glaring discrepancies are the result of incompetence or deception. My guess, based on years of watching this sclerotic regime, is that it is probably both. It seems Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state who today accused Iran of suppressing vital details about the outbreak, agrees with me.
Two days ago, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei accused the foreign media of using the coronavirus issue to stop people from going to vote in parliamentary elections. On his official website, he wrote: “Under the pretext of an illness and a virus, their media did not miss the slightest opportunity to discourage people from voting.”
In other words, the wellbeing of Iran’s ruling order is more important than Iranian lives, Arab lives or indeed the risk of a global pandemic.
What is happening inside Iran matters because the outbreak is not limited to one country. It is a global problem and people are still travelling in and out of affected areas inside Iran.
Today, 27 people in six Arab countries have already been infected with coronavirus after visiting Iran. The Iraqi Health Ministry confirmed another case today of an Iranian student in Iraq. Three infected in Kuwait had recently returned from Iran. Some affected countries, like Kuwait, have the money and organization to cope. But what of Afghanistan, right next door? An outbreak could be devastating in such a country.
The Iranian regime has never had a good track record of honesty, but in the past few weeks, the paranoia and delusion of its rulers has worsened.
First came the government's reaction to mass anti-government demonstrations in November – a violent crackdown that killed at least 1,500 people.
A real shock soon followed, with the spectacular assassination of its top agent provocateur. The commander of the Quds Force, the overseas arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), stomped around countries of the Arab world, arrogant in his belief that he could wage war without facing the consequences. That impunity ended early one morning in Baghdad.
The death of Qassem Soleimani shook the regime and it began to display increasingly erratic behavior. So badly organized was his burial that fifty people were killed in a stampede. Immediately afterwards, when the armed forces shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane just after take-off from Tehran’s airport, killing all 176 people on board, the regime went into lockdown. For days, the Iranian authorities denied what video footage clearly showed, compounding the suffering of its own citizens while they mourned.
This not a government that can be trusted to tell the truth, even when lives are at stake. If the regime would do that over an accident, is there any doubt it would seek to cover up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak, which has surely been worsened by its own incompetence? This is a regime that cynically suggested the coronavirus outbreak was a reason for the historically low turnout in last week's election, rather than understandable voter apathy and exhaustion with its incompetent rule.
In fact, the regime appears to be in denial. Has it learned nothing from its disastrous handling of the Ukrainian plane tragedy? Then, the mass protests seen were expressions of anger in how badly the government behaved, lying and then seeking to hide the truth. The same could easily happen if it turns out the full extent of the coronavirus outbreak is being suppressed.
The epidemic is causing episodes of panic in airports as passengers traveling from Iran are escorted to quarantine, and mass disruption around the world and inside Iran. But out of step with the world, out of touch with reality and disconnected from the concerns even of their own people, the geriatric ruling order refuses to respond in a competent or humane manner.
Once again, the Iranian regime has chosen not to play its part in the international community, to show it can play by the rules of the rest of the world. Once again it appears Iran's rulers want to go their own way at the expense of Iranian and Arab lives, no matter how many.

Pariah states seek to unseat the mighty dollar with crypto
Sultan Althari/Al Arabiya/February 25/2020
The fundamental nature of money is changing: only a few years ago, the nexus between geopolitical risk and cryptocurrency was virtually non-existent. Today, their intersection is central to long-term global economic order. Before delving into how that relationship is playing out, some basics: A cryptocurrency – like bitcoin – is a type of digital currency based on a network of independent computer nodes that confirm transactions through decentralized consensus. Put simply, Blockchain is the underlying technology of bitcoin. Oil and uranium have long been considered geopolitical tools of influence – similarly, national cryptocurrencies and blockchain will be employed to create and sustain influence in the global financial system. That reality has shaped an ongoing arms race to the next global reserve currency. It’s one thing having profit-driven tech giants like Google, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft invest in blockchain for innovation; but it’s an entirely different matter when states go into blockchain technologies with various – often conflicting – national priorities. This begs the following question: So what? What would the rise of an encrypted digital currency mean for world order? Why is there a fierce competition for digital currency supremacy? These are the questions animate my take, and more importantly, the future of geopolitical great-power competition.
The rise of an encrypted digital currency has significant security implications, particularly as they pertain to the US. The global financial system is one that is dollar-led – the US dollar (USD) is the world’s reserve currency, granting the US unique supremacy and influence over the global financial system. This leverage means that the US can a) effectively employ economic sanctions to maintain geopolitical stability by cutting off adversaries’ access to dollars and, b) global trade must run through US banks. The US’s ability to leverage economic sanctions as a policy tool is central to geopolitical stability and a rules-based global order. It is therefore no surprise that nation-states impacted by – or at risk of – US sanctions aim to upend Washington’s financial prowess, granting their economies sanction-immunity. How exactly are states attempting to achieve that goal? By developing decentralized payment systems through blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. A new report from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) exposes such efforts by a “crypto-rogue” quartet: Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and China.
Of the four crypto-rogues, China leads the race. Analysts argue that displacing a dollar-led global financial system with a blockchain-based system is nothing less of national priority to policymakers in Beijing. The Digital Currency Research Lab of the People's Bank of China (PBoC) is devoting substantial resources and expertise to digital currency development. However, in the short-to-medium term, China is constrained by its status as the largest holder of US treasury bonds – therefore, strategic caution is imperative.
Crippled by sanctions and public discontent, Iran has been looking for a lifeline. Rather than acting like a rational law-abiding nation where citizens are granted basic services, the Iranian regime has looked into the use of cryptocurrency to evade US sanctions. These efforts include blockchain pilot projects and university-level blockchain tech education. Tehran’s efforts are unlikely to change the dismal reality on the ground where Iranian public discontent has arguably reached a tipping point.
A 2019 United Nations report relays conditions in Venezuela today: stagflation ensues as 94 percent of citizens live in poverty, while chronic hyperinflation persists leading to violence and starvation. Maduro’s administration seems to follow Iranian logic, prioritizing the development of a state-sponsored cryptocurrency – the petro-coin – over internal stability and meaningful accountability. Like Iranian attempts to evade sanctions, Maduro failed miserably.
The Russian impetus to develop blockchain technology is driven by the need to “avoid various limitations in global finance trade,” according to President Vladimir Putin. Moscow has ventured into an effort to develop a regional cryptocurrency with members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), while running various blockchain pilots.
The competition for digital currency supremacy is likely to persist, generating a host of policy challenges that demand greater attention by US policymakers. In the short-to-medium term, it is unlikely that a blockchain-based value transfer system will displace the dollar-led global financial infrastructure. However, the successful deployment of an alternative financial system by any of the foregoing nations would have a dramatic impact on global security and geopolitical stability. As such, it is imperative that US economic policy is nimble in detecting and responding to paradigm-shifting scenarios. One way the US can strengthen in-house blockchain expertise is through deeper and more meaningful private-public partnerships. These partnerships must actively engage the offices of Google, Twitter, and Facebook to develop proactive mechanisms to improve financial resilience and propel innovation in the blockchain domain.
*Sultan Althari is a Masters Candidate in Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Student-Affiliate at the Kennedy School's Middle East Initiative.

The problem with Trump's Middle East peace plan
David Makovsky & Dennis Ross/The Hill/February 25/2020
The Trump administration cannot decide if its peace plan is an opening gambit to trigger a compromise or a fait accompli that precludes one. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in answering a question about Palestinian responses to the Plan said, “I hope they will then present a counteroffer if what’s presented isn’t acceptable.” Fair enough, except that David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, declared that Israel can unilaterally annex territories allotted in the plan once a bilateral U.S.-Israeli panel finishes its work on defining, precisely, Israel’s boundaries.
But if Israeli annexation is front-loaded and proceeds in the coming months, any Palestinian counter-offer would be pre-empted.
Perhaps this is simply the administration’s style in which it seeks to maximize the pressure on the Palestinians by indicating that their possibilities will shrink unless they make a counter-offer; however, if that is the case, what is the meaning of the borders the bilateral U.S.-Israeli committee is finalizing if the Palestinians can propose an alternative map?
Both approaches cannot be true.
Moreover, to have any chance the plan must be taken seriously by someone other than the Israelis. Currently, the administration is taking comfort from the Palestinian inability to mobilize international support for their bitter rejection of the plan — two perfunctory statements by the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation pale in comparison to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, uncharacteristically, being unable to muster 9 votes on the UN Security Council to present a resolution condemning the U.S. plan.
Still, the administration should have no illusions. Others may not be backing the Palestinians, but like European and other representatives at the UN, the general tendency is to point to the plan’s shortcomings. Worse, among Palestinians, polling shows that the public — and not just the leaders — overwhelmingly reject the plan. Palestinians may no longer believe their own leadership, but they see the Trump plan as a proposal not to produce a state but a humiliation.
They cannot see past a map that leaves a truncated state, completely surrounded by Israel, and with its territory fragmented to accommodate 128 Israeli settlements, including all 77 settlements outside or east of the security barrier. With Israel being responsible for overall security and controlling who can enter and leave the Palestinian state, this does not look like a state to Palestinians. And, while Israel gets to front-load annexation and its security needs are understandably addressed, Palestinians don’t receive what Israel’s Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz calls the “broad autonomy” provided in the plan until the Palestinians have fulfilled all their obligations, including disarming Hamas in Gaza — something that even Israel has avoided.
Saying no to such a plan is easy, while acknowledging its merits is impossible for Arab leaders who feel they have nothing to point to. Thus, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Morocco, have largely avoided criticism or direct comment on the plan and instead called for negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.
The Arab posture reflects their growing fatigue with continual (and historic) Palestinian rejection as well as new realities in the region. Many Arab leaders see cooperation with Israel as necessary given the common threats they face and their belief that America is unable to deter those threats. They want to be able to work with Israel not in the shadows but in the daylight, and they are increasingly frustrated by a Palestinian leadership that is divided and incapable of making peace, much less offering serious counter-proposals.
The Trump administration is not wrong to seek to adjust Palestinian expectations. It is not wrong to signal the Palestinians that there is a cost to saying no.
It may even be right to signal that time is running out for the Palestinians if they want a state of their own, and it is better to seize the moment before even worse alternatives are the only ones available to them.
But the administration was wrong to think that its offer would be taken as a credible initial move. To be credible, its offer had to provide for a contiguous state in most of the West Bank and not one largely segmented in roughly two-thirds of the territory.
It is ironic that President Trump referred to the map unveiled at the White House ceremony as Bibi’s map, which offers the Palestinians significantly less than what Netanyahu outlined to the Knesset in 2010. At that time, he privately told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he could envision the Palestinians getting around 90 percent of the West Bank.
Another irony is that while time is not on the Palestinian’s side due to increasing frustration with rejection, time is also not Israel’s friend. Israel needs to be careful not to cross the tipping point in which it loses the ability to separate from Palestinians — and one state for two peoples becomes the only option. Precisely because no Palestinian or Arab can sell the Trump plan as a serious response to Palestinian national aspirations, a one state outcome is becoming more likely.
One last irony: If Trump were to stick to his own words and treat the plan as a “vision” that could be adjusted, not permit annexation for the four-year window he gave the Palestinians to negotiate it, and work with the Europeans and Arabs to jump-start his “vision’s” economic projects to show Palestinians something real is happening, he might rescue his plan. That may be the only way to stop the clock ticking towards one state — an outcome in which Israel loses either its Jewish or democratic identity and the Palestinians lose a state of their own.
It may also be the only way to resolve the inherent contradiction in the Trump approach: Offer an opening gambit that elicits compromise and does not create an irreversible reality that makes compromise impossible.
*Dennis Ross is counselor and the William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He served as special assistant to President Obama, as Special Middle East Coordinator under President Clinton, and as director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff in the first Bush administration. He is the author, with David Makovsky, of "Be Strong and of Good Courage: How Israel’s Most Important Leaders Shaped Its Destiny." Follow him on Twitter @AmbDennisRoss.
*David Makovsky is the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow and director of the Project on Arab-Israel Relations at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Between 2013-2014 he served in the Office of the Secretary of State as a senior adviser to the Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations. Follow him on Twitter @DavidMakovsky.

Inoculating economic growth against the coronavirus
John Defterios/Arab News/February 26/2020
Alarm over the coronavirus continues to spread as cases skyrocket in Far East Asia, Iran and Italy, creating an economic contagion that may prove difficult to contain as well.
To dampen panic, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director Kristalina Georgieva said at the recent Global Women’s Forum in Dubai that her economic crystal ball was being clouded by the coronavirus, but that she was still hoping for a “V shaped” recovery from China — a pronounced drop followed by a quick return to growth. At the G20 summit in Riyadh just a week later, she struck a tone that was clearly less optimistic.
Prior to the coronavirus, China was pegged to grow 6 percent, its slowest pace in nearly three decades.
Phase 1 of the US-China trade agreement lifted a cloud of uncertainty over protectionism, but that 18-month dispute seems like a blip on the screen today based on a sky-high level of uncertainty. Georgieva said China could slow to 5.6 percent, which is already forcing is Asian neighbors from South Korea to Southeast Asia to act.
The Philippines cut interest rates, Singapore announced a $4.5 billion emergency financial package, South Korea described the situation as an emergency that will need funding and the ZEW economic institute in Germany said virus fears are undermining sentiment and that was before Italy was gripped by a sharp rise of infections.
One should not overlook that it was Asia, not the US, that’s been the real engine of global growth the last two decades. The gross domestic product growth of China speaks wonders about the interconnectedness of today’s economy. Back during the sars virus in 2003, China was a $1.6 trillion economy. In 2020, it is a $14 trillion giant that vacuumed up products from all of Asia. That is clearly under threat, as oil, coal, copper and other commodities remain under pressure. But the coronavirus in an era of globalization poses a much bigger threat to global supply chains — where one manufacturing hub, say in South Korea or Japan, is highly dependent on supplies from China.
There is no shortage of analysis on how this is already affecting technology, pharmaceutical and aerospace companies, but at the G20 meeting the first bout of protectionist realism bubbled to the surface. France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire went so far as to suggest that the West has become too dependent on China and its low-cost, highly productive manufacturers. It is not national pride or protectionism, claimed Le Maire, but industrial logic that needs to be applied to future policy.
I remember covering the final GATT trade agreement under the Uruguay round in 1988 before the creation of the World Trade Organization. It was France that posed the biggest challenge to a successful trade deal due to fears of US cultural colonialism from Hollywood and the threat to Europe’s highly subsidized farming sector. Neither proved true, but the language itself does not bode well for a global rules based system.
The coronavirus in an era of globalization poses a much bigger threat to global supply chains — where one manufacturing hub, say in South Korea or Japan, is highly dependent on supplies from China.
But it was Japan that signaled the clear and present danger of the coronavirus to the health of global commerce. China and Japan continue to have strained political relations, but the second and third largest economies are glued together as never before. Japan’s finance minister Taro Aso said it would be a mistake to remain complacent and those who have fiscal space to support growth should do so. Germany immediately comes to mind with its trade surplus and growing dependency on exports to China and the rest of Asia. Japan has its own issues to contend with after the economy collapsed in the fourth quarter by more than 6 percent and with the coronavirus in the mix, a recession seems inevitable.
This emergency policy call to action may give new life to what has been a dormant institutional structure at the G20. The group now represents more than 80 percent of GDP, with a quarter of the group from Asia. During the global financial crisis over a decade ago, then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown revamped the G20 to put forth a coordinated stimulus package that was the right move at the right time to resuscitate growth.
We heard murmurings of the same at the G20 in Riyadh with Saudi Arabia holding the rotating president this year.
“We will enhance global risk monitoring, including of the recent outbreak of COVID-19. We stand ready to take further action to address these risks,” according to the final communique of the conference.
Host finance minister Mohammed Al-Jaadan of the Kingdom said countries are ready to pull the policy trigger if needed.
“We all agreed that all countries and states will be ready to intervene as needed to face these risks and it’ll be a multilateral intervention including the WHO (World Health Organization) to monitor these risks and use relevant policies as needed,” said Al-Jadaan.
Despite that outlook, the G20 said that global economic growth is expected to pick up “modestly” this year and next. At this stage of the coronavirus threat, I would not bank on it.
• John Defterios is CNN Business emerging markets editor and anchor based in Abu Dhabi. Twitter: @JDefteriosCNN

Idlib the latest example of UN’s irrelevance
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Arab News/February 26/2020
Alarm over the coronavirus continues to spread as cas
Syrians stand on the rubble of a destroyed building that covers a street after Assad regime airstrikes in the town of Ariha, in Idlib province. (AP Photo)
Almost a decade after it started — and after many, many chemical weapons attacks on civilian populations, the systematic use of starvation sieges, and the utter devastation of entire cities and regions at the hands of the Damascus government and its Russian and Iranian allies — the Syrian civil war is still raging, and it is still seeing an escalation of human brutality with almost every passing month.
Now, Mark Cutts, the UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, is expecting that the regime’s latest assault on Idlib province, the last major rebel holdout in the country, will see “a massacre on a scale that has never been seen in this entire war.”
In situations such as these, there are normally two avenues to head off a complete humanitarian disaster. The first is for the UN Security Council to fulfill its obligations under international law and deploy peacekeeping troops to separate the warring sides. The second is for some Western country or alliance, usually headed by the US, to intervene with overwhelming force against the aggressors.
However, the US has long washed its hands of Syria and has no standing to intervene now, after it failed to enforce its own red lines on the use of chemical weapons earlier in the war under the Obama administration. Under President Donald Trump, it also has no interest in humanitarian interventions.
And, as far as the UN is concerned, one permanent member of the Security Council, Russia, will be at the forefront of the killing in northern Syria, just as it has been at the forefront of the sieges of civilian areas and the deliberate and systematic targeting of civilian hospitals and international medical organizations in the years since it joined the war on the side of Damascus. Any move by any other Security Council member aimed at doing anything about the situation in Syria will be vetoed by Moscow. Western countries have long since stopped trying.
As so many times before, this leaves us asking: Just what is the UN for if it cannot and will not do anything about even unquestionable humanitarian disasters, like Syria, Myanmar, Yemen and so many others proliferating around the world at the moment?
In the best case scenario, the Security Council can just about get itself to do stuff when some far-off small country, in which no permanent member has an interest, does something truly horrific. For reference, Rwanda did not count as far-off and small enough to meet the criteria — in that case, it was protected by France.
Nowadays, any country that is not at least in some sense a protectorate of the US, or a former colonial possession of Britain or France with close ties to their former imperial masters, can count almost by default on Russian or Chinese backing in the Security Council. China will back just about any country that is willing to embrace an expansion of Chinese influence and commercial ties, as it rises to a prominent position in the global trading system. Meanwhile, Russia is desperately flailing around, grasping at any opportunity for geopolitical relevance and any opportunity to stick it to the West — mostly driven by internal politics in Moscow, as well as Vladimir Putin’s Cold War fixations.
Just what is the UN for if it cannot and will not do anything about even unquestionable humanitarian disasters?
For these two reasons, just about any conflict and any humanitarian abuse anywhere in the world is an opportunity for a proxy conflict between Russia and the West, or an opportunity for Beijing to gain leverage over some smaller nation so as to draw it into their sphere of influence. Thus, one can guarantee that any attempt by any side to do anything through the Security Council will be vetoed by some member or other.
There has been exactly one occasion when this was not the case: In the 1990s, when American reigned supreme, Russia had no desire or capacity to relitigate the Cold War, and China was not yet a global player. That world is gone. And, with it, any chance that the Security Council can serve any purpose. So we find ourselves once again calling for a complete overhaul of the Security Council and the UN system, and the abolition of the unilateral vetoes.
*Dr. Azeem Ibrahim is the Director of the Displacement and Migration Program at the Center for Global Policy in Washington, D.C., where he chairs the Rohingya Legal Forum. He is also author of “Rohingya: Inside Myanmar’s Genocide” (Hurst 2017). Twitter: @AzeemIbrahim