LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
January 21.2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
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Bible Quotations For today
It is good to be made much of for a good purpose at all times
Letter to the Galatians 04/13-20/:”You know that it was because of a physical
infirmity that I first announced the gospel to you; though my condition put you
to the test, you did not scorn or despise me, but welcomed me as an angel of
God, as Christ Jesus. What has become of the goodwill you felt? For I testify
that, had it been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to
me. Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? They make much of
you, but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you, so that you may make
much of them. It is good to be made much of for a good purpose at all times, and
not only when I am present with you.My little children, for whom I am again in
the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, I wish I were present with
you now and could change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese
Related News & Editorials published on January 20-21/2020
Colombia and Honduras designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization
Honduras becomes latest to officially declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization
U.N. Condemns 'Vandalism' and Use of Force against Lebanon Protesters
Online Solidarity with Lebanese Protesters who Lost Their Eyes
Baabda Security Meeting Vows Crackdown on 'Sabotage Groups'
Lebanon officials vow to deter 'infiltrator' attacks
Lebanese security chiefs move to stop vandalism after riots
No Turning Back’ Protests Rage in Lebanon
Rahi welcomes Canadian Ambassador
Kanaan visits Berri: Budget necessary to prevent ‘chaotic expenditures’
Consumers’ Association says reducing prices not impossible
Raad: Whether you participate or not in the government, you are concerned and we
will not let you be!
Hajj Hassan after Communications Parliamentary Committee meeting: Cellular
companies' contracts expired on Dec 31, 2019
Lebanon’s protests turn into riots during weekend of violence
Lebanon’s protests turn into riots during weekend of violence/Lauren Lewis, Al
Arabiya English/Monday, 20 January 2020
Worried by Violence, Paris Urges New Government in Lebanon
Hariri: Lebanon Sliding towards ‘Unknown’ While Sides Bicker over Govt.
Diab Meets Franjieh, Khalil, al-Khalil, May Accept 20-Seat Govt.
New gov’t needed urgently to avoid collapse: Lebanon’s Hariri
Lebanon FM Gebran Bassil’s invite to Davos sparks protests, online campaign
Jumblat Meets Hariri, Tells Protesters Violence Not Useful
Qassem Says Hizbullah against Rioting, Urges Parties to Sacrifice Shares
U.S. Journalist Held for 'Broadcasting Beirut Demo to Haaretz'
State Security: U.S. citizen arrested after live-streaming Beirut events for
enemy daily
Report: Investigations into ‘Suspicious’ Money Transfers Not Over Yet
Security forces say Lebanon's rioters ‘organized’ as Hariri warns over 'cycle of
collapse'/Najia Houssari/Arab News/January 20/2020
Lebanon needs international help to fight corruption/Nathalie Goulet/Arab
News/January 20/2020
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
January 20-21/2020
Iran says it remains in nuclear deal, EU claims ‘unfounded’
If nuclear issue is referred to UN, Iran will pull out of the NPT: Iran FM
Eight countries support a European-led naval mission in Hormuz: France
Ukraine to press for plane crash black boxes as Iran minister visits
Iran considers dual nationals on downed Ukrainian plane to be Iranians: TV
Iran’s only female Olympic medalist moving to Germany: Coach
Trump lawyers attack impeachment, call for immediate acquittal
Erdogan says Turkey not yet sent troops to Libya, only advisers: Report
Russian airstrikes kill seven civilians in northwest Syria: Report
Palestinian family vows to appeal Israeli ruling over Jerusalem home eviction
China confirms human-to-human transmission in coronavirus
Ten killed in seating collapse at Ethiopian festival: Doctors
Easing of strike brings relief for Paris commuters
Russian opposition wants big protest over Putin’s plan to ‘rule forever’
EU must consider ways to support ceasefire in Libya: Borrell
Hail, floods, dust hit Australia amid raging wildfires
Two dead, 15 reportedly injured in Missouri shooting: Police
Bangladesh sentences 10 terrorists to death for 2001 bombing
Evacuation crackdown ordered as Philippine volcano ‘recharges’
Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published on January 20-21/2020
We “Have to Kill Christians”: Persecution of Christians, October 2019/Raymond
Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/January 20/2020
Iranian Women Defy the Mullahs; Western Feminists Nowhere in Sight/Giulio Meotti/Gatestone
Institute/January 20/2020
An Unsettled Mediterranean/Michael Young/Carnegie MEC/January 20/2020
What's Next for the Iran Nuclear Deal/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/January
20/2020
Christian Couple Kidnapped in Turkey/Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/January
20/2020
Iran will go beyond missile strikes to avenge Soleimani/Sara Bazoobandi Sara
Bazoobandi/Al Jazeera/January 21/2020
Libya and Iraq: Geopolitical tensions only resulting in temporary oil price
hikes/Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/January 20/2020
Protesters offer hope after India loses its way/Chandrahas Choudhury/Arab
News/January 20/2020
Putin happy to remind rivals of his control over Syria/Chris Doyle/Arab
News/January 20/2020
Proxy flag stunt betrays Iranian regime’s confusion/Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab
News/January 20/2020
Details Of The Latest English LCCC Lebanese
& Lebanese Related News & Editorial published
on January 20-21/2020
Colombia and Honduras designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization
كولومبيا وهندوراس يعلنان وضع حزب الله على قوائم الإرهاب
Jerusalem Post/January 20/2020
Netanayahu: They took important step joining Israel and US in fighting terror.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Honduras and Colombia for officially
designating Lebanese Shia organization Hezbollah as a terrorist group on Monday.
Netanyahu said these countries took an “important step” to “join Israel and the
US in our fight against global terror. I call on more countries to join this
move.”Honduras and Colombia join Argentina and Paraguay who already view
Hezbollah as terrorists. Colombia accepted the full US and EU lists of terrorist
organizations, which also includes the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hamas
and Islamic Jihad. The decisions were announced at a meeting on counterterrorism
in Bogota between US Secretary of Mike Pompeo and ministers from several Latin
American countries. Pompeo and Netanyahu campaigned in recent months to have
more countries in the region sanction Hezbollah. Colombian President Iván Duque
tweeted that he has information about Hezbollah activities in Venezuela, and the
adoption of the EU and US terrorist lists "will allow timely detection" of
terrorist activity. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández announced on
Twitter earlier in the day that his country would declare Hezbollah a terrorist
organization. “On December 8th, 2019, I addressed the Israeli American Council,”
he wrote, “describing the security threat posed by the terrorist group Hezbollah
and its activities of transnational organized crime... The terror attack against
AMIA in Buenos Aires, and the killing of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman.”
Hezbollah has a long history in Latin America, killing 85 in an attack on the
AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires. In 2015, Alberto Nisman, a Jewish
Argentinian prosecutor, was assassinated shortly before he was to testify about
Iranian activities in Argentina. Foreign Minister Israel Katz also praised the
Latin American governments for their decision. “This is an important step in the
international war on terror, following countries like the UK, Argentina,
Paraguay and other countries in the region and the world,” he said. Israel will
continue to discuss the matter with Germany, Australia and Brazil, with an
expectation that they will follow suit and join the effort against the Iranian
proxy organization, Katz said.
“There is no time like now to send the necessary message,” he said. Israeli
Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon tweeted his thanks to Hernández, saying: “An
important step in the fight against Iranian terrorism and proxies in the Middle
East and throughout the world. Thank you.”When tweeting his announcement in
English, Hernández retweeted Pompeo, who wrote: “On this five-year anniversary
of prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s death, we remember the 1994 AMIA Jewish center
attack in Buenos Aires and his tireless efforts to bring the perpetrators to
justice. We call on all nations to designate #Hezbollah as the terrorist
organization it is.”
Honduras becomes latest to officially declare Hezbollah a
terrorist organization
Reuters/Monday, 20 January 2020
The Honduran government has formally declared Iranian-backed Lebanese group
Hezbollah a terrorist organization, the country's deputy security minister said
on Monday. Honduras follows Guatemala which said it was set to designate
Hezbollah as a terrorist group as well last week.
Hezbollah, a heavily armed group designated as a terrorist organization by the
United States, was established in 1982 by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps and is an important part of a regional Tehran-led alliance known as “the
axis of resistance.”
U.N. Condemns 'Vandalism' and Use of Force against Lebanon Protesters
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 20/2020
The United Nations on Monday condemned the use of force against Lebanese
protesters at the hands of riot police. "Violence from protesters and vandalism
are of course unacceptable," said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
But the vast majority of protesters are peaceful "and they need to be
protected," he added. Lebanon has been rocked by mostly peaceful anti-government
rallies since October 17 but the protests turned violent over the weekend amid
political stalemate and an ever deepening economic crisis. On Saturday and
Sunday night demonstrators, who had called for a "week of rage", lobbed stones,
firecrackers and street signs at riot police, who fired tear gas and rubber
bullets to clear a road leading to parliament. The escalation saw more than 540
people wounded on the two sides and came as wrangling delayed the formation of a
new government to replace that of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who quit last year
in the face of street protests.
Online Solidarity with Lebanese Protesters who Lost Their
Eyes
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 20/2020
Lebanese activists on Monday launched a social media campaign to express outrage
and solidarity with anti-government protesters who lost eyes after being hit by
rubber bullets fired by riot police. The activists posted pictures of themselves
covering one eye under the Arabic hashtag “Our Revolution Is Your Eyes”. Two
protesters reportedly lost an eye each after being hit by rubber bullets in
Sunday evening’s demo in central Beirut. In another show of defiance,
demonstrators who said they took part in the weekend protests used the Arabic
hashtag "The Infiltrator Is Me" and disclosed their full personal details in
response to accusations by authorities that “infiltrators” are taking part in
the demos. More than 540 people, including protesters and security forces, were
wounded in the weekend violence in central Beirut, according to a toll compiled
by AFP from figures provided by the Red Cross and Civil Defense. Lawyers and
rights groups have condemned "excessive" and "brutal" use of force by security
forces, who they said hit protesters on the head, face and genitals. Human
Rights Watch accused riot police of "launching tear gas canisters at protesters'
heads, firing rubber bullets in their eyes and attacking people at hospitals and
a mosque."The violence also drew condemnation from the United Nations, which
called the crackdown "unacceptable." A 22-year-old protester, who asked not to
be named for security reasons, said he was severely beaten by security forces
until he was bleeding in the head. "Four of them were beating me with batons,"
said the man, who has been in the hospital since Saturday. "Then they dragged me
on the ground before they started kicking me," he told AFP. "One of them slammed
the base of a tear gas launcher against my mouth, another jabbed my
face."Protesters had called for a week of "anger" over the political
leadership's failure to form a new government even as the debt-ridden country
sinks deeper into a financial crisis. Lebanon has been without a government
since prime minister Hariri resigned on October 29 in the face of popular
pressure. Political factions agreed on December 19 to appoint former education
minister Hassan Diab as the new premier but have since squabbled over
ministerial posts and portfolios. "The ruling elite is going back to its
traditional bickering over their shares in government" said Bashar al-Halabi a
researcher at the American University of Beirut. "This has laid the foundation
for a more violent approach by initially peaceful protestors." Protesters have
demanded a new government be comprised solely of independent experts, excluding
all established political parties -- a demand analysts say is a tall order. The
political impasse is worsening an already-dire economic crisis that the World
Bank says may see the number of people living in poverty climb from a third to
half the population.
Baabda Security Meeting Vows Crackdown on 'Sabotage Groups'
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/Naharnet/January 20/2020
Lebanon's top security officials said on Monday that they planned to crackdown
on vandalism after a week of rioting in Beirut that left hundreds of people
injured and damaged public and private property -- violence that comes against
the backdrop of a deepening political deadlock. The announcement followed a
presidential palace meeting that included President Michel Aoun, the caretaker
interior and defense ministers and the chiefs of security agencies. The
officials called for more coordination among the Lebanese security agencies to
better deal with the unrest.Lebanon has been roiled by three months of largely
peaceful anti-government protests that over the past week turned into acts of
vandalism in different parts of Beirut. On Saturday and Sunday night
demonstrators, who had called for a "week of rage", lobbed stones, firecrackers
and street signs at riot police, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets to clear
a road leading to parliament. Officials who took part in the security meeting
said they would take measures to protect peaceful protesters and prevent attacks
on public or private property, the statement said. It added that they would also
move to "deter groups that are carrying acts of sabotage," without elaborating
further. Saturday witnessed the worst rioting since the protests began, with
nearly 400 people injured, including around 120 who were treated in hospital. On
Sunday, more than a 100 people were injured in downtown Beirut. The protesters
have also attacked public and private property in Beirut, targeting mostly banks
that have imposed informal capital controls, limiting the withdrawal of dollars
and foreign transfers. In a show of defiance, demonstrators who said they took
part in the weekend protests responded online using the Arabic hashtag "The
Infiltrator Is Me", disclosing their full personal details. They also accused
security forces of firing rubber bullets at the eyes of protesters in other
Twitter posts, as rights groups and the U.N. criticized police over the
crackdown.
Lebanon officials vow to deter 'infiltrator' attacks
Al Jazeera/January 21/2020
Protesters lobbed stones, firecrackers and street signs at riot police in
weekend clashes that injured over 540 people. Officials in protest-hit Lebanon
on Monday promised to take measures to deter attacks on security forces by
alleged "infiltrators" during the violence over the weekend that injured
hundreds of people. Lebanon has been rocked by mostly peaceful anti-government
rallies since October 17, but the protests turned violent on Saturday and Sunday
amid political deadlock and an ever-deepening economic crisis. Over the weekend,
demonstrators, who had called for a "week of rage", lobbed stones, firecrackers
and street signs at riot police, who fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets to
clear a road leading to Parliament. The escalation saw more than 540 people
wounded on the two sides and came as wrangling delayed the formation of a new
government to replace that of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who quit last year in
the face of street protests. On Monday afternoon, President Michel Aoun presided
over crisis talks on the violence between the caretaker interior and defence
ministers, as well as the chiefs of the military and security agencies.
Participants accused "infiltrators" of attacking security forces and vandalising
property, and discussed security measures to "deter" further offences and
protect peaceful protesters, government sources said after the meeting, without
disclosing what measures would be taken. Aoun met security chiefs to work out a
plan for deterring violent groups that "security services have detailed
information on" while protecting property and peaceful protesters, the sources
said.
'Brutal force'
In a show of defiance, demonstrators who said they took part in the weekend
protests responded online using the Arabic hashtag "The Infiltrator Is Me,"
disclosing their full personal details. They also accused security forces of
firing rubber bullets at the eyes of protesters in other Twitter posts, as
rights groups and the United Nations criticised police over the crackdown. Human
Rights Watch accused riot police of "launching tear gas canisters at protesters'
heads, firing rubber bullets in their eyes and attacking people at hospitals and
a mosque". The UN also condemned the use of force.
"Violence from protesters and vandalism are, of course, unacceptable," said UN
spokesman Stephane Dujarric. But the vast majority of protesters were peaceful
"and they need to be protected", he added. A 22-year-old protester, who asked
not to be named for security reasons, said he was severely beaten by security
forces until he was bleeding from the head. "Four of them were beating me with
batons," said the man, who has been in the hospital since Saturday. "Then they
dragged me on the ground before they started kicking me. One of them slammed the
base of a tear gas launcher against my mouth, another jabbed my face."
Politicians have failed to agree on a government or an economic rescue plan
since the unrest pushed Hariri to quit as prime minister on October 29,
paralysing efforts to recover from a crisis that has shattered confidence in
banks and raised investor concerns about its ability to repay steep foreign
debt.
Last month, little-known former minister Hassan Diab was designated prime
minister with the backing of armed Shia group Hezbollah and its allies. But a
deal on the cabinet formation is yet to be announced, with political factions
squabbling over ministerial posts and portfolios.
Lebanese security chiefs move to stop
vandalism after riots
The Associated Press, Beirut/Monday, 20 January 2020
Lebanon’s top security officials said on Monday that they planned to crackdown
on vandalism after a week of rioting in Beirut that left hundreds of people
injured and damaged public and private property - violence that comes against
the backdrop of a deepening political deadlock. The announcement followed a
meeting that included President Michel Aoun, as well as the interior and defense
ministers, at the presidential palace. The officials called for more
coordination among the Lebanese security agencies to better deal with the
unrest. Lebanon has been roiled by three months of largely peaceful
anti-government protests that over the past week turned into acts of vandalism
in different parts of Beirut. Protesters first took to the streets in
mid-October to denounce Lebanon’s ruling elite, which they blame for corruption
and mismanagement. The country has since sunk deeper into a political crisis.
Prime Minister-designate Hassan Diab has not been able to form a Cabinet over
political bickering, a month after his nomination and amid a crippling economic
and financial crisis. The outgoing premier, Saad Hariri tweeted Monday that
Lebanon needs a new government as soon as possible to help stop the economic and
security deterioration “that are increasing by the day.” He added that a
caretaker government is not the solution and there should be new leadership that
takes over full responsibility.
Government officials said they would take measures to protect peaceful
protesters and prevent attacks on public or private property, the statement
issued after Saturday’s meeting at the presidential palace said. It added that
they would also move to “deter groups that are carrying acts of sabotage,”
without elaborating further. Saturday witnessed the worst rioting since the
protests began, with nearly 400 people injured, including around 120 who were
treated in hospital. On Sunday, more than a 100 people were injured in downtown
Beirut. The protesters have also attacked public and private property in Beirut,
targeting mostly banks that have imposed informal capital controls, limiting the
withdrawal of dollars and foreign transfers. Security forces detained an
American freelance journalist on Sunday night, on suspicion of broadcasting live
footage to an Israeli newspaper. Lebanon and Israel are at a state of war and
ban their citizens from visiting or contacting the other country. In a statement
released overnight, Lebanon’s State Security department said the US citizen was
at the scene of the protest near the parliament building, a location from which
someone was broadcasting live to the Israeli paper. State Prosecutor Ghassan
Oueidat referred the journalist to Military Intelligence for questioning and
investigation, the department said. The area outside Parliament was packed with
journalists, many of them correspondents for international news agencies.
International coverage of the three-month old protests in Lebanon has picked up
in the past two days as the violence worsened. An eyewitness, speaking on
condition of anonymity fearing reprisals, said the young man was taken away by
men dressed in black who put him in a civilian car and drove away.
No Turning Back’ Protests Rage in Lebanon
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 20/2020
After the most violent weekend in three months of street protests, several roads
were blocked on Monday and schools were closed in several areas around the
country. The National News Agency said protesters started early in the morning
in the northern areas of Tripoli and al-Koura and blocked major roads and some
side streets. The Lebanese army reopened some of them. Moreover, schools in the
Zahle town of Bar Elias staged sit-in near the banks to protest the monetary
policies amid illegal capital controls and restrictions on dollar withdrawal.The
National News Agency said several schools were closed in the town of Chekka
after students threatened a day earlier that they will prevent access for anyone
wishing to go in. School administrations had issued a statement earlier urging
parents not to send their children to school. Students had called for a protest
and march they dubbed “no turning back.”Demonstrators at the weekend lobbed
stones, firecrackers and street signs at riot police, who fired tear gas and
rubber bullets to clear a flashpoint road near parliament. Over the most violent
weekend in three months of street protests, some 530 were wounded on both sides,
according to a toll compiled by AFP from figures provided by the Red Cross and
Civil Defence. Lawyers and rights groups have condemned the "excessive" and
"brutal" use of force by security forces. Human Rights Watch accused riot police
of "launching tear gas canisters at protesters' heads, firing rubber bullets in
their eyes and attacking people at hospitals and a mosque". Internal Security
Forces, for their part, have urged demonstrators to abstain from assaulting riot
police and damaging public or private property. Protesters had called for a week
of "anger" over the political leadership's failure to form a new government even
as the debt-ridden country sinks deeper into a financial crisis. Lebanon has
been without a government since outgoing prime minister Saad Hariri resigned on
October 29 in the face of popular pressure. Political factions agreed on
December 19 to appoint former education minister Hassan Diab as the new premier
but have since squabbled over ministerial posts and portfolios. Protesters have
demanded a new government be comprised solely of independent experts, and
exclude all established political parties. The United Nations' envoy to Lebanon
pinned the blame for the violence on politicians. "Anger of the people is
understandable, but it is different from vandalism of political manipulators,
that must be stopped," Jan Kubis wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
Rahi welcomes Canadian Ambassador
NNA/January 20/2020
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Rahi, on Monday welcomed at the
patriarchal headquarters in Bkerke, Canadian Ambassador to Lebanon, Emmanuelle
Lamoureux, with whom he discussed the general situation in the country,
especially on the political and economic levels. The ambassador denied rumors
that Canada had adopted a special program for the immigration of Christians from
Lebanon. She also affirmed that Canada had not altered its immigration policy.
Kanaan visits Berri: Budget necessary to prevent ‘chaotic
expenditures’
NNA/January 20/2020
Finance and Budget Committee Head, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, on Monday met with Speaker
of the House, Nabih Berri, and discussed with him an array of financial affairs
— on the eve of tomorrow’s legislative session, which had been scheduled to
study and approve the 2020 state budget.
In the wake of the meeting, Kanaan said that the meeting had been an opportunity
to discuss the Finance and Budget Committee’s amendments to the 2020 budget, as
well as some exceptional measures to restore confidence and put Lebanon back on
the right track.
“In terms of credits, there is a reduction of LBP 800 billion to the figures
received from the government. There are also some exceptional measures that have
been approved by the Finance Committee, including prior scrutiny of all loans
and grants, especially those involving public institutions,” Kansan explained.
He added that there were legal articles requiring the transfer of Beirut Port
money and revenues, and those of both of Lebanon’s cell phone companies,
directly to the treasury. Kanaan went on to explain that the budget also
included raising deposit guarantees for small depositors from LBL 5 to 75
million.
“What we found out from the Association of Banks and the Central Bank is that
86% of depositors’ finances belong to small depositors, which means that this
step can relax citizens, especially in extreme cases which might lead to
bankruptcy,” the lawmaker said.
He added that among the measures mentioned in the budget were those related to
defaulters in housing, agricultural, industrial, tourism and environmental
loans, in terms of stopping the criminal and contractual procedures, and
granting a period of 6 months without accumulation of interest, which was agreed
upon with the concerned banks. Kanaan also pointed out that the budget
included extending the deadlines for tax exemptions to June 30, 2020, for car
mechanics, municipalities, and various taxations. “There are long-awaited items
in this budget, including securing the shortage of the optional social security
services, in addition to the dues of Lebanese University professors since 2016,”
Kanaan said, adding that discussions will also touch on other items such as
those involving the Civil Defense. “The approval of the budget is necessary to
prevent chaotic expenditures. This is a basic, non-political action that
benefits every citizen; it requires integration between institutions, the
street, and the citizen to accomplish it," he added.
Consumers’ Association says reducing prices not impossible
NNA/January 20/2020
The Lebanese Consumers Association on Monday condemned the massive increase in
prices “for the first time in the history of Lebanon at rates exceeding 40
percent within 3 months.” The statement deplored the caretaker government’s
idleness facing the situation. “The caretaker government is watching and the
designated prime minister has not announced any position; however, the depth of
the crisis entails a government that thinks differently,” the statement added.
It suggested that the new government, when formed, began to get rid of the
“false economics claims and jettison boasting about the pioneering and capable
role of banks,” and opted instead for studying the experiences of countries that
had been subjected to collapse. The measures to reduce the crisis at this
exceptional stage should be extraordinary, the statement stressed, adding that
the Consumers’ Association, which has accompanied the social, economic, and
health conditions of the Lebanese citizen for 20 years, proposes to the Lebanese
government to take the following measures to curb prices and eliminate the
injustice caused to most nationals:
- Expanding the scope of social security items to include the following sectors:
medicine, all basic grains, fuel, meat, milk, and cheese and milk.
The state should support the aforementioned imports and fix their prices to
remain within the poorest citizen’s reach.
-Be aware of the fact that subsidies for some commodities have in the past
turned into support for traders in this or that sector. For example, mills,
bakeries, diesel oil dealers, sugar beets, and others.
-There is no necessity to support local vegetables and fruits but rather
immediate investment in agriculture by allocating a double budget to agriculture
and industry. That is, opting for a productive economy model. Within this
framework, expatriates can play an important assisting role through Lebanese
capital, which is available in most of the countries of the world.
- The immediate liberalization of the economy by abolishing all forms of
monopoly in all sectors.
- Imposing the use of the national currency immediately as the sole currency in
internal transactions, on top of which are all forms of billing, and the
allocation of foreign currencies for imports only.
Raad: Whether you participate or not in the government, you
are concerned and we will not let you be!
NNA/January 20/2020
"We want to form a government to boost the constitution, and we seek dialogue
between all components of the Lebanese society, despite our major comments on
all the policies that have led us, since decades, to where we are today," said
Head of the "Loyalty to Resistance" Parliamentary Bloc, MP Mohammad Raad, on
Sunday. Speaking during a memorial ceremony in the town of Adloun earlier today,
Raad criticized those who say they will not partake in the government, thus
fleeing responsibility. “It it is forbidden to escape and relinquish
responsibilities…Whether you participate or not in the government, you are
concerned, and we will not leave you alone...This country is our country and
your country, and for the past thirty years, you have been scooping its good
resources…and today, you are abandoning your duty and leaving the people on
their own,” he said.
“We are with the people’s movement, but if we actually participated in it, then
civil war would have been knocking on our doors by now,” Raad went on. On the
prevailing economic crisis, Raad said reassuringly: “We are all troubled by the
financial and monetary policy, but do not despair, because it is a transient
economic crisis."
Hajj Hassan after Communications Parliamentary Committee
meeting: Cellular companies' contracts expired on Dec 31, 2019
NNA/January 20/2020
Information and Communications Parliamentary Committee on Monday met in session,
under the chairmanship of Committee Head, MP Hussein Hajj Hassan, to follow up
on the dossier of the contracts of the two cellular companies, Touch and Alpha.
The meeting was attended by Caretaker Minister of Telecommunications Mohammad
Choucair. Following the meeting, the Chair of Communications Parliamentary
Committee, MP Hajj Hassan, said that the contracts of the two cell phone
companies have expired on December 31, 2019, indicating that most Committee MPs
during today's meeting stressed that the sector's management restoration
operation does not require an extraordinary decision by the Council of
Ministers. Hajj Hassan said that the Committee MPs considered that the sector's
management restoration decision becomes automatic once the contracts' date
expires, in accordance with article 31 of the contract.
Lebanon’s protests turn into riots during weekend of
violence
Lauren Lewis, Al Arabiya English/Monday, 20 January 2020
Riots in Lebanon broke out on Sunday, as riot police deployed water cannons and
fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and allegedly real bullets at demonstrators amid
a second night of violence. President Michel Aoun is to hold a security meeting
at noon on Monday with interior minister, Raya El Hassan, and the heads of the
Army, Internal Security Forces (ISF), State Security, and General Security,
following two nights of escalating violence. This comes after ISF chief Major
General Ima Othman and army commander Joseph Aoun met on Sunday to ensure
coordination between the two agencies, after 142 ISF members were injured in
Saturday night’s clashes, with three serious injuries including skull fractures.
Protesters initially gathered on Sunday evening at Mohammad al-Amin Mosque in
central Beirut for a cross-religious evening prayer for 4:55 p.m. However, a
number of those present were not there for the prayers. “We are here for the
protests,” Jana Hakwaji, a 19-year-old school student, told Al Arabiya English.
Shielded security personnel used megaphones to call on protesters to disperse
before releasing rounds of rubber bullets, which hit a reporter from Al Jazeera
in the leg and injured a crew member from News Channel Al-Jadeed. The leading
Lebanese television channel later took to Twitter to condemn the excessive use
of rubber bullets by security forces. Initial reports from the Lebanese Red
Cross said 38 people had been injured and transferred to hospital, with a
further 52 treated onsite. Pictures of grotesque injuries circulated on Twitter,
after security forces allegedly contravened international regulations on the use
of rubber bullets. “I am here because of what happened last night, I am against
this,” Hakwaji said. “I don’t know why they are treating us like this, most of
them have sisters, and fathers, and brothers here with us.”The previous night,
nearly 400 were treated for injuries.
Protesters returned to downtown after a military motorcade displaying
rocket-propelled grenades, armored vehicles, and firearms paraded past the
mosque during the call to prayer.
“They are trying to scare us, but we are not scared at all,” Hakwaji told Al
Arabiya English. Protesters gathered near Nijmeh Square in downtown Beirut under
the slogan “No turning back,” and battered walls with metal poles, using loose
fragments to attack riot police on Sunday evening.
One protester held a blowtorch up to the barricade that riot police used to warm
their hands in a show of mockery. Others attempted to climb barricades, which
have obstructed access to the Parliament building since the beginning of the
protests in October.
Amidst an increasing security presence in downtown Beirut, ISF used Twitter to
call for calm, and to ask protesters to refrain from vandalizing public and
private property and attacking security forces.
Despite requests for calm as clashes escalated, some protesters launched Molotov
cocktails over blockades at riot police. Later, cheering crowds of protesters
battered into state-run telecommunications company Alfa’s downtown branch and a
branch of chocolate shop Patchi, reportedly looting items from inside.
“There is a way to calm the popular storm. Stop wasting time, form a government
and open the door to political and economic solutions,” Caretaker Prime Minister
Saad Hariri said via Twitter on Sunday. Prime Minister-designate Hassan Diab met
with President Michel Aoun at Baabada Palace on Sunday evening but made no
statement to press regarding the formation of a new government when he left.
Sunday marked a month since former Education Minister, Hassan Diab was nominated
as the future Prime Minister, and the 95th day of nationwide demonstrations
which have protested against the political deadlock that has led the country
into its worst economic crisis since the civil war.
Worried by Violence, Paris Urges New Government in Lebanon
Naharnet/January 20/2020
France on Monday expressed concern over the violence that marred the latest
demos in Lebanon, urging the formation of a new government that would carry out
credible reforms. “France is concerned over the violence in Lebanon’s demos over
the past days and it stresses that the demonstrators’ legitimate aspirations
should be expressed through peaceful means,” the French foreign ministry said in
a statement, while reiterating its support for the right to assembly. “As for
the dangerous economic and social crisis that Lebanon is going through, and in
light of the latest violent incidents, there is a dire need for a new government
to carry out a credible host of reforms to meet the aspirations that the
Lebanese have called for since more than three months,” it added. The ministry
also underlined that France “will always stand by the Lebanese people.”
Hariri: Lebanon Sliding towards ‘Unknown’ While Sides
Bicker over Govt.
Naharnet/January 20/2020
Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri lamented “obstructions” hindering the
government formation while the crisis-hit country seems heading towards an
“unknown” future. Hariri said in a tweet that his “government has resigned in
order to form a new one to address the popular demands, but for over ninety days
obstruction continues while the country heads towards the unknown and the group
concerned with the formation is taking its time to discuss the kind of
government” they desire. On confrontations between security forces and
protesters that left hundreds wounded in two days, Hariri said security forces
are protecting civil peace. “All security forces assume their responsibilities
in applying laws and protecting civil peace. They bear the outcomes of the
confrontations with popular movements on a daily basis. Continuing the cycle of
security against people only means a persisting crisis and denial of the new
political reality,” emphasized Hariri. “A new government must be formed to stop
an aggravating economic and security crisis,” he added, noting that a government
in a caretaker capacity “is not the solution”, and urging political parties to
“stop wasting time.”
Diab Meets Franjieh, Khalil, al-Khalil, May Accept 20-Seat
Govt.
Naharnet/January 20/2020
Prime Minister-designate Hassan Diab held talks Monday at his residence with
Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh, Hizbullah secretary-general’s political
assistant Hussein Khalil and Speaker Nabih Berri’s political aide Ali Hassan
Khalil. LBCI television said the meeting “did not achieve tangible results in
terms of resolving the obstacles delaying the government’s formation.”“Diab is
still insisting on an 18-minister cabinet and will hold further consultations
over a proposal to raise the number of ministers to 20,” LBCI added. Al-Jadeed
TV for its part said Diab “insisted on keeping the number of ministers at 18”
but noted that he would accept a 20-seat government “should this proposal
represent an exit from the country’s crises.” MTV meanwhile revealed details
about the "settlement" that is being discussed. "A 20-minister government would
be formed in which Marada would get a second Greek Orthodox minister while (Free
Patriotic Movement chief Jebran) Bassil would back a Greek Catholic minister and
the Syrian Social Nationalist Party would name a Druze minister," MTV said. "But
this proposal is awaiting the approval of the PM-designate," it added.
New gov’t needed urgently to avoid collapse: Lebanon’s
Hariri
Reuters, Beirut/Monday, 20 January 2020
Lebanon needs to urgently form a new government to get out of a cycle of
collapse that has repercussions for the country’s economic and security
situation, caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri tweeted on Monday. Hariri said
the country was headed to the “unknown” while obstruction has continued and the
team responsible for forming a government has taken its time. Lebanon has been
without a government since Hariri resigned on October 29 in the face of mass
protests.
Lebanon FM Gebran Bassil’s invite to Davos sparks protests,
online campaign
Joanne Serrieh, Al Arabiya English/Monday, 20 January 2020
Social media users are campaigning against the Lebanese caretaker Foreign
Minister Gebran Bassil representing Lebanon at this year’s World Economic
Forum (WEF) in Switzerland, the night after anti-government protesters clashed
with riot police in Beirut.
Bassil is scheduled to speak during a session titled “The Return of Arab
Unrest” at the annual forum that brings together thousands of world leaders to
collaborate on activities to shape the global, regional and industry
agendas. But back home, Bassil has become a deeply divisive figure, with
anti-government protesters accusing him of epitomizing the corruption and
nepotism of the current system. Bassil, who is the son-in-law of President
Michel Aoun and leads the Hezbollah-allied Free Patriotic Movement party, has
refused to step down from politics despite protesters’ demands. Twitter users
flooded the platform on Monday calling on WEF and Davos to disinvite Bassil and
replace him with someone who better represents the country and the people. “Out
of all people, they chose Gebran Bassil,” wrote Twitter user Ramez Dagher. “The
politician featured in the flagship chant of the Lebanese revolution against the
political class…” Another Twitter user Lynn Zovighian called the situation
“incredulous” and said it “cannot go unchanged.” She added “Speakership roles at
@Davos must be vetted for principles and expertise. @Gebran_Bassil has neither
the ethical backbone nor the technical elegance of mind to speak [on the
panel].”
One person directly called out Davos, saying it “legitimizes nepotism, cronyism
and corruption” by inviting Bassil to speak. “[WEF] becomes complicit in
the corruption by inviting Gebran Bassil to speak,” wrote Ibrahim Alhusseini on
Twitter. “Take a stand and disinvite him immediately and stand with the Lebanese
people and not against them.” A Carnegie Endowment scholar based in
Beirut even questioned the expense of Bassil’s “luxury trip.” “At whose expense
is he taking this luxury trip while Lebanon faces [economic] collapse?” Kim
Ghattas asked on Twitter. Meanwhile, in homage to the iconic protest chant
heard across the world out of Lebanon, Alexander Rayes said on Twitter, “Hela hela, hela hela ho!
@Gebran_Bassil should not go! @Davos @wef.” Protests have swept through Lebanon
since October 2019 and led to the resignation of then Prime Minister Saad Hariri
and his cabinet, which includes Bassil, who remains caretaker foreign minister
until a new cabinet is formed.
Jumblat Meets Hariri, Tells Protesters Violence Not Useful
Naharnet/January 20/2020
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat held talks Monday with
caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the Center House. “We will always
support this house,” Jumblat said after the meeting, recalling his support for
slain ex-PM Rafik Hariri. Addressing what he called the “new protest movement,”
Jumblat added: “Violence is not useful… and my words and PM Saad Hariri’s words
about Beirut are not in defense of Beirut’s stones but rather in defense of only
Beirut’s people.” Noting that most of those who protested in central Beirut on
Saturday and Sunday “came from the North,” the PSP leader suggested granting
Russia a contract to reactivate Tripoli’s oil refinery. “Oil would come from
Kirkuk or from Turkey via Syria. I don’t think that the Syrians can object,
seeing as the Russians are in control of those regions, and we would generate
income for the Lebanese and the residents of the North,” Jumblat went on to say.
As for the stalled formation of a new government, the PSP leader said: “What’s
laughable about this government is that there were so-called national unity
governments in the past when they invented the one-third veto power (in
Cabinet), while today there will be a one-sided government and they are at odds
among each other.”Asked whether he and Hariri will “facilitate the work” of the
new government, Jumblat said: “Everything happens in due time. We will
coordinate together day by day and week by week.”
Qassem Says Hizbullah against Rioting, Urges Parties to
Sacrifice Shares
Naharnet/January 20/2020
Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Monday said that his party is
against “rioting,” in the wake of a week that witnessed several violent demos
and acts of vandalism against many banks. “This is rioting that we do not accept
and it will only lead to further deterioration in the country, that’s why we
must all press and contribute to breaking the government deadlock,” Qassem said.
Calling on the parties forming the new government to “offer sacrifices and shun
shares and ministerial seats,” Qassem stressed that Hizbullah “cannot form the
government on its own.”“We are a part and it is necessary to convince the other
parts and cooperate with the various blocs,” he added. Qassem, however, pledged
that Hizbullah would continue to “exert all possible effort to secure the
government’s formation as soon as possible so that we don’t reach further
financial, economic and social deterioration.”
U.S. Journalist Held for 'Broadcasting Beirut Demo to
Haaretz'
Associated Press/Naharnet/January 20/2020
Lebanese security forces overnight detained an American freelance journalist on
suspicion of broadcasting live footage of the central Beirut clashes to Israeli
newspaper Haaretz. In a statement, the State Security agency said the U.S.
citizen was at the scene of the protest near the parliament building, a location
from which someone was broadcasting live to the Israeli paper. State Prosecutor
Ghassan Oueidat referred the journalist to Military Intelligence for questioning
and investigation, the agency said. The area outside Parliament was packed with
journalists, many of them correspondents for international news agencies.
International coverage of the three-month old protests in Lebanon has picked up
in the past two days as the violence worsened. An eyewitness, speaking on
condition of anonymity fearing reprisals, said the young man was taken away by
men dressed in black who put him in a civilian car and drove away. Media reports
meanwhile said the American journalist was not the one broadcasting to Haaretz
and that the Israeli daily’s website was using footage from the Reuters news
agency.
State Security: U.S. citizen arrested after live-streaming
Beirut events for enemy daily
NNA/January 20/2020
The State Security agency said Monday it had arrested a U.S. citizen residing in
Lebanon for live-streaming the recent events in Beirut for Haaretz, an Israeli
enemy newspaper. "Following social media news about a person who had been
live-streaming the events in Downtown Beirut for the Israeli Haaretz daily, a
State Security patrol managed to track and locate the whereabouts, and suspected
an individual who had filmed the same footage that appeared on the enemy's
newspapers' page. He had then been brought in for questioning," a communiqué by
the State Security indicated. The man, had been identified as Nicholas A., a
U.S. citizen residing in Beirut; he claimed to be a freelance journalist.
Report: Investigations into ‘Suspicious’ Money Transfers
Not Over Yet
Naharnet/January 20/2020
The central bank of Lebanon on Monday denied reports claiming that
investigations have identified the names of individuals reportedly involved in
“suspicious money transfers abroad when Lebanon’s banks were closed at the start
of protests, LBCI reported on Monday. BDL sources, told LBCI: “The Special
Investigation Committee at BDL did not receive any letter from correspondents
(banks) related to money transfers between October 17 and the end of the year.”
In December, central bank governor Riad Salameh said he would investigate
reports of large transfers of money abroad after the October 17 uprising, which
if confirmed, would mark a violation of banking restrictions curtailing such
transactions. "We will do everything premissable by law to investigate all
transfers (abroad) that happened in 2019. If there are suspicious funds, we will
be able to find out," he said. Faced with a grinding US dollar liquidity crisis,
Lebanon's banks have since September imposed increasingly tight restrictions on
dollar withdrawals and transfers abroad in an attempt to conserve dwindling
foreign currency reserves. This has fuelled tensions in the debt-ridden country,
where an almost four-month-old protest movement is demanding the removal of
political leaders deemed incompetent and corrupt. Activists say ordinary
depositors are footing the bill for a liquidity crisis worsened by politicians,
senior civil servants and bank owners who used their influence to get their
hefty savings out of the country.A report by the Carnegie think tank in November
said that nearly $800 million left Lebanon between October 15 and November 7,
when most citizens could not access their funds because banks was closed due to
protests. Many of the country's top leaders own, or have large shares in,
several banks.
Security forces say Lebanon's rioters ‘organized’ as Hariri
warns over 'cycle of collapse'
Najia Houssari/Arab News/January 20/2020
BEIRUT: Lebanese security forces claimed demonstrations in the country had been
infiltrated by organized groups in order to provoke riots at a meeting with
President Michel Aoun at the country’s Presidential Palace on Monday
Security force commanders said the information led them to “take the necessary
measures to protect peaceful demonstrators and prevent attacks on public and
private properties, while stopping rioters and coordinating with the judiciary
to enforce the law.”
The decisions came after three nights of violent confrontation between
protestors and the Internal Security Forces (ISF), during which tear gas, smoke
grenades and rubber bullets were used, severely wounding civilians and
journalists.
Commanders submitted security reports on developments since the start of the
protests in November 2019, in which they spoke of “measures taken to face the
elements infiltrating the ranks of demonstrators to cause riots.”
Aoun asked for responsibility to be taken in identifying those who could be
deemed dangerous for stoking riots, and those protesting peacefully.
Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri did not attend the meeting, instead
tweeting: “Lebanon needs to quickly form a new government to stop a cycle of
collapse and worsening economic and security conditions.
“Our government resigned in order to transition to a new government dealing with
popular changes but obstruction has continued for 90 days and the country is
moving towards the unknown,” he said, adding: “The continuation of the caretaker
government is not the solution so let’s stop wasting time and have the
government bear the responsibility.”
After three months of peaceful demonstrations, the protesters switched to what
they have called “revolutionary violence” in light of the continued indifference
of the political class towards their demands. For a third successive day on
Monday they tried to breach the barriers around parliament, but were repelled by
riot police. The father of a wounded young man called Eid Khodr said his son
suffered a fractured skull due to a rubber bullet.
“We protected ourselves, we wore helmets on our heads, facemasks and plastic
coats for the water. What more can we do? We wrote ‘press’ on our chests and
stood aside and still, they targeted us and shot a rubber bullet into my leg,”
journalist Ihab Al-Akdi told Arab News.
Sanaa Al-Sheikh, a 29-year old soccer player who seen defying the security
forces and climbing the obstacles and barbed wire surrounding parliament on
Saturday, is still being treated in hospital for wounds on her back due to
severe beating from police.
Al-Sheikh, from Tripoli, is an accredited referee with the Lebanese Football
Association. She has been a sports coach for almost 15 years, holds a law
degree, and has a sports academy in Tripoli called “Sanaa Star”.
“The political class has to listen to the people. Someone is trying to shift our
attention in the wrong direction. The ISF personnel are our children, just like
the demonstrators. Citizens are committing transgressions and nobody can control
them but, we cannot compare their transgressions to those of the security
forces,” the president of the Beirut Bar Association, Melhem Khalaf, told Arab
News.
Calls have emerged on social media platforms, asking Lebanese people living
abroad to contact or comment at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which
Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs Gebran Bassil is scheduled to attend.
Lebanon needs international help to fight corruption
Nathalie Goulet/Arab News/January 20/2020
The Lebanese seem determined to make sacred union around the fight against
corruption. The protests in Beirut at the end of last year that led to the fall
of Saad Hariri’s government highlighted the country’s financial problems. The
protests have turned violent as the economic crisis deepens and, on Saturday,
protesters tried to storm Parliament.
Corruption on all levels, the flight of capital, ill-gotten property — the list
of the misappropriations that have for years plagued this country, which is also
a favorite theater of regional conflicts, goes on and on.
On many occasions, at international conferences such as CEDRE in Paris in 2018,
or as part of an EU policy, the international community has looked at the
situation in Lebanon. However, Lebanon still struggles to have electricity 24
hours a day, every day of the week, and the roads are in a dramatic state.
Mobile phone plans are probably the most expensive in the world.
All these reasons lead us to reflect on how to get the international community
to come to the aid of Lebanon and its new prime minister-elect Hassan Diab.
There is no question here of reprogramming any donor conference; it is a
question of the Lebanese authorities taking concerted action to finally put an
end to the widespread and endemic corruption.
Transparency International, in its 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index, ranked
Lebanon 138th out of 180 countries studied, with an alarming score of 28 out of
a possible 100. The same organization’s Global Corruption Barometer for 2019
showed that Lebanese people are outraged by this situation, with 68 percent of
them believing that corruption increased in 2019, while 87 percent thought the
government was failing to fight corruption and 89 percent believed that
government corruption was a big problem.
The 2018 CEDRE conference aimed to raise funds to help stabilize Lebanon’s
financial situation by reviving the economy and encouraging growth and
employment. Financial support was offered with the promise of loans of $10.2
billion and grants of $860 million. The sums mentioned are astronomical and it
is now necessary to apply the law using an anti-corruption task force that has
the cooperation of international institutions and experts.
Laws and regulations do exist and they were reinforced by a text that was voted
in last June. Law 154 from 1999 defines unlawful enrichment as the enrichment of
public servants by corruption and the misuse of their prerogatives. To combat
this, it provides that civil servants and public service officials at the third
level and above must declare their assets at the beginning of their duties.
Meanwhile, law 318/2001 aims to combat money laundering. This law kept the
Lebanese banking sector away from money laundering operations and preserved
secrecy on funds deposited with banks in Lebanon. It allowed the removal of
Lebanon’s name from the list of countries not cooperating with the international
Financial Action Task Force.
In 2008, an act increased the powers of the Special Commission of Inquiry that
was established under law 318/2001, granting it the exclusive prerogative to
freeze accounts and lift bank secrecy in accordance with conventions and laws
aimed at fighting corruption.
In June last year, the Lebanese Parliament adopted a law on the fight against
corruption in the public sector, which was undoubtedly a laudable initiative and
a first step toward transparency and the consolidation of public spending. This
was the result of the hard work of a group of parliamentarians who are against
corruption, chaired by Ghassan Moukheiber, with contributions from civil society
representatives and several experts.
This law tries to define the crimes to be placed under the label of corruption
and the means to combat them, entrusting this fight to an independent commission
of six members, made up of two judges, one jurist and three experts who are
disconnected from political circles. The commission is to be supported by an
administration that will work on the implementation of its decisions and
directives, without replacing the control bodies that already exist. It is
urgent that civil society, Lebanese experts and parliamentarians put these
structures in place.
One case that is often cited in debates on corruption is an EU-funded waste
treatment plant in Tripoli. No one can say to date whether or not public funds
have been misappropriated, but the lack of control of the European taxpayers'
money and the lack of evaluation of the needs are subject to investigations.
It is now necessary to apply the law using an anti-corruption task force that
has the cooperation of international institutions and experts.
In Lebanon, as in France and many other countries around the world, civil
society — nourished and supported by social networks — is rightly demanding
transparency. France is not immune from criticism, as the Council of Europe’s
Group of States against Corruption last week called on Paris to implement better
policies to fight corruption.
It would be interesting for Lebanon to get closer to the Council of Europe to
benefit from its independent and recognized expertise on corruption, as well as
institutions such as the Venice Commission, which advises on constitutional law.
It would also be useful to consult the International Consortium of Investigative
Journalists (ICIJ). Such a coordinated will would be an example for many other
countries.
Lebanon’s social and financial stability concerns us all, for Lebanon is an
essential part of the stability of the Middle East. This is why the
international community must place itself at the disposal of the new prime
minister and ensure, at the first request, the implementation of the new
commission’s anti-corruption measures.
*Nathalie Goulet is a member of the Senate of France, representing the Orne
department (Normandy). Twitter: @senateur61
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News
published on January 20-21/2020
Iran says it remains in nuclear deal, EU claims ‘unfounded’
Reuters, Dubai/Monday, 20 January 2020
Iran said on Monday that it had not closed the “door to negotiations” in efforts
to resolve a dispute over its nuclear agreement with world powers that has
escalated steadily since the United States withdrew from the deal in 2018.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said any further move by Tehran to
scale back its commitments to the deal would depend on actions by other parties,
after European states triggered a mechanism that could lead to the reimposition
of UN sanctions.
Iran has gradually stepped back from its obligations to the 2015 deal, under
which Tehran secured sanctions relief in return for limiting its nuclear work,
after Washington quit the agreement and then imposed stringent US sanctions.
Britain, France and Germany, also signatories to the pact, triggered a dispute
mechanism this month, citing Iranian violations. This starts a diplomatic
process that could lead to UN sanctions being reimposed.
“Tehran still remains in the deal ... The European powers’ claims about Iran
violating the deal are unfounded,” Mousavi told a weekly news conference in
Tehran, saying that the “door to negotiations” had not been closed. “Whether
Iran will further decrease its nuclear commitments will depend on other parties
and whether Iran’s interests are secured under the deal,” Mousavi said. US
President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal and began a policy of “maximum
pressure” on Iran, saying he wanted a new deal that would cover nuclear issues,
Iran’s ballistic missile program and Iranian activities in the Middle East.
Britain has said a “Trump deal” could replace the 2015 agreement and France has
called for broad talks to end a crisis with the United States, which briefly
erupted into tit-for-tat US-Iranian military action this month. Mousavi repeated
Iran’s rejection of a “Trump deal”. Iranian officials have said Trump could not
be trusted, so such deal would not have any value.
If nuclear issue is referred to UN, Iran will pull out of
the NPT: Iran FM
Reuters, Dubai/Monday, 20 January 2020
If Iran’s nuclear file is sent to the United Nations Security Council, then Iran
will withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran’s Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday, according to the official IRNA news agency.
“If the Europeans continue their improper behavior or send Iran’s file to the
Security Council, we will withdraw from the NPT,” IRNA quoted Zarif as saying.
Eight countries support a European-led naval mission in Hormuz: France
Reuters, Paris/Monday, 20 January 2020
A European-led naval mission in the Straits of Hormuz - a vital shipping route
for world transport that has been impacted by military tensions in the Middle
East - has won more political support from countries, said the French government
on Monday. The French foreign affairs ministry said the mission now had the
political support of Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands,
and Portugal, besides France itself.Previously, the Netherlands, Denmark,
Greece, and France had expressed support for the European-led naval mission.
Ukraine to press for plane crash black boxes as Iran
minister visits
Reuters, Kiev/Monday, 20 January 2020
Ukraine will press Iran to hand over the black boxes from the crash of a
Ukrainian passenger plane at a meeting with a visiting Iranian delegation on
Monday, Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko told reporters. Ukraine would convey
the message to visiting Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami,
that returning the black boxes would show that Iran wanted an unbiased
investigation of the crash, Prystaiko said. Iran had said on Sunday it was
trying to analyze the black boxes from the airliner its military shot down this
month, denying an earlier report it would hand them to Ukraine. All 176 aboard
the flight died.
Iran considers dual nationals on downed Ukrainian plane to be Iranians: TV
Reuters, Dubai/Monday, 20 January 2020
Iran considers dual nationals aboard a Ukrainian plane that was shot down
accidentally this month to be Iranian citizens, the Foreign Ministry spokesman
said on Monday. Iran does not recognize dual nationality. Many of the 176 people
killed in the disaster were Iranians with dual citizenship. Canada had 57
citizens on board. “We have informed Canada that Tehran considers dual nationals
who were killed in the plane crash as Iranian citizens... Iran is mourning their
deaths,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told a televised weekly news
conference. As protests erupted in Iran over the plane disaster, the British
ambassador in Tehran was briefly detained. Officials said he was at an “illegal”
rally, while the envoy said he was attending a vigil for victims. Britain
criticized his detention. “Iran respects all foreign diplomats in Iran as long
as they do not violate international laws,” Mousavi said.
Iran’s IRGC appoints new Quds Force deputy commander
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English/Monday, 20 January 2020
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) appointed Brig. Gen. Mohammad
Hejazi as the new Quds Force deputy commander on Monday, state media reported.
Born in 1956 in the city of Isfahan, Hejazi joined the IRGC in 1979. He headed
the IRGC’s Basij militia for over 10 years and was the IRGC deputy commander in
2008. Hejazi was also the commander of the IRGC’s Tharallah base in Tehran in
2009, which oversaw the suppression of protests in the city that followed Iran’s
controversial presidential elections that year. The Council of the European
Union added Hejazi to its sanctions list in October 2011 for playing a “central
role in the post-election crackdown.” Hejazi “was the author of a letter sent to
the Ministry of Health on 26 June 2009 forbidding the disclosure of documents or
medical records of anyone injured or hospitalized during post-elections events,
implying a cover up,” according to the Council. In August 2019, the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) revealed that Hejazi was the Quds Force’s man in Lebanon,
and that he was involved in an Iranian-led project to manufacture
precision-guided missiles for Lebanese Hezbollah. Former head of the IRGC-Quds
Force and prominent military commander General Qassem Soleimani was killed in a
US airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport earlier this month. Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei appointed Brig. Gen. Esmail Ghaani as the new commander of
the Quds Force hours after Soleimani’s killing.
Iran’s only female Olympic medalist moving to Germany: Coach
Reuters, Amsterdam/Monday, 20 January 2020
Iran’s only female Olympic medalist Kimia Alizadeh, who has said she had left
her homeland because she had had enough of being used as a propaganda tool, is
moving to Germany, her Dutch coach said. Alizadeh, who won taekwondo bronze at
the Rio 2016 Olympics, had been training in the southern Dutch city of
Eindhoven, after leaving Iran several weeks earlier. “Kimia has decided to
continue in Germany,” Dutch national taekwondo coach Mimoun el Boujjoufi told
Reuters on Monday. German newspaper Bild this weekend reported that Alizadeh
wished to continue her career in Germany and had moved to Hamburg, after having
also received offers to compete for the Netherlands, Canada, Belgium and
Bulgaria. “After the explosion (of interest) many fought for her attention,” El
Boujjoufi said. She had written on Instagram this month she was prepared to
accept the “hardship of homesickness” because she “didn’t want to be part of
hypocrisy, lies, injustice and flattery”. “I wore whatever they told me and
repeated whatever they ordered. Every sentence they ordered I repeated,” she
wrote. “None of us matter for them, we are just tools.”Mahin Farhadizadeh, a
deputy Iranian sports minister, said at the time he had not read Kimia’s post,
adding “as far as I know she always wanted to continue her studies in
physiotherapy”, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported. Alizadeh is one of
several Iranian sportspeople to clash with the Iran authorities of late. Iranian
chess referee Shohreh Bayat who has been accused of violating her country’s
Islamic dress code while adjudicating a women’s tournament said last week she
did not want to return home from Russia out of fear for her safety. Earlier this
month, Iranian chess grandmaster Mitra Hejaziour was expelled from the national
team for not wearing the hijab at the World Rapid and Blitz Championship in
Moscow.
Trump lawyers attack impeachment, call for immediate
acquittal
AFP/Monday, 20 January 2020
US President Donald Trump’s lawyers submitted a trial brief Monday calling his
impeachment by the House “a dangerous perversion” of the constitution and
demanding his immediate acquittal by the Senate. Almost simultaneously, House
impeachment managers responded to an earlier Trump filing, saying the president
engaged in “corrupt conduct... to cheat in the next election.” They said the
Senate should remove him from office “following a fair trial.”The historic
impeachment trial is set to open Tuesday.
Erdogan says Turkey not yet sent troops to Libya, only
advisers: Report
Reuters, Ankara/Monday, 20 January 2020
Turkey has deployed military advisers and trainers to Libya, but has not yet
sent any troops to support the country’s UN-recognized government, Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was cited as saying on Monday. Last week, Erdogan
had said Turkey has begun sending troops to Tripoli. He has also previously said
Ankara would deploy troops.Speaking to reporters on a flight back from a Libya
summit in Berlin, Erdogan said Turkey’s efforts at the summit had set the
groundwork for a ceasefire between the warring parties, according to broadcaster
NTV. He added that Turkey’s presence in the North African country increased
hopes for peace.
Russian airstrikes kill seven civilians in northwest Syria:
Report
AFP, Beirut/Monday, 20 January 2020
At least seven civilians, including five children, were killed Monday in
airstrikes on northwest Syria by regime ally Russia despite a truce declared by
Moscow, a war monitor said. The raids hit several villages held by extremists
and opposition fighters in the western countryside of Aleppo province, said the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Three girls were killed in the village of
Kfar Taal while four civilians, including two other children, died in separate
strikes that hit other villages in the area, said the Britain-based monitor.
Idlib and parts of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces, are dominated by the
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group dominated by Syria’s former al-Qaeda affiliate.
The northwestern region has come under mounting bombardment in recent weeks that
displaced tens of thousands of people. A ceasefire arranged by Syrian regime
ally Russia and opposition backer Turkey this month was supposed to protect the
area from further attacks. But the Damascus government last week pressed a
deadly offensive, reaching within seven kilometers of a key town in southern
Idlib it seeks to capture from extremists. Russian and regime warplanes also
continued to pummel the area, killing scores of civilians, according to the
Observatory which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its reports.
On Thursday, Russia denied launching any combat operations in the region since
the start of a ceasefire which it said took effect on January 9, a date disputed
by Turkey which says the truce began on Sunday. The Syrian government, which now
controls more than 70 percent of the country, has vowed to take back Idlib,
which is home to some three million people. Syria’s war has killed more than
380,000 people and displaced more than half the country’s population since
starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Palestinian family vows to appeal Israeli ruling over
Jerusalem home eviction
AFP, Jerusalem/Monday, 20 January 2020
A Palestinian family pledged on Monday to appeal an Israeli court order to evict
them from their home in a mainly-Palestinian east Jerusalem neighborhood in a
case lodged by a settler organization. The Israeli anti-settlement NGO Peace Now
said a Jerusalem magistrates court ruled on Sunday in favor of evicting the
Rajabi family from their home in the Silwan neighborhood following a lawsuit
filed by members of the pro-settlement Ateret Cohanim organization. The
three-story building houses 17 Palestinians, the family said. “There is no other
home for me and my family to go to,” said Nasser al-Rajabi, adding that the
youngest member of the family is 18 months old. “We reject this decision,” he
said. The family has lived in the building since 1975, he added, arguing they
are “victims of a political game by the Israeli courts and the settler
organizations.”The family’s lawyer, Mohammed Dahla, said they would file an
appeal. Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed
it in a move never recognized by the international community. Israel considers
all Jerusalem its undivided capital but the Palestinians see the eastern part as
the capital of their future state. Around 200,000 Israeli Jews now live in east
Jerusalem in settlement homes considered illegal under international law. Under
a decades-old Israeli law, if Jews can prove their families owned property in
east Jerusalem before the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel, they can
demand that Israel’s general custodian office release the property and return
their “ownership rights.” During the war, thousands of Jews fled Jerusalem as
Jordanian-led Arab forces seized the city, while hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians fled from land that was later to become Israel. No such law exists
for Palestinians who lost their land. Peace Now said the family was one of
around 100 families threatened by eviction lawsuits filed by Ateret Cohanim, in
total putting around 700 people at risk of eviction. It said the eviction
notices were an “attempt to displace a Palestinian community and to replace it
with an Israeli one, in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood in East
Jerusalem.”
China confirms human-to-human transmission in coronavirus
The Associated Press, Beijing/Monday, 20 January 2020
The head of a Chinese government expert team said on Monday that human-to-human
transmission has been confirmed in an outbreak of a new coronavirus that has
infected 217 people in the country. Team leader Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory
expert, said two people in Guangdong province in southern China caught the
disease from family members, state media said. The National Health Commission
task force also found that some medical workers have tested positive for the
virus, the English-language China Daily newspaper said. Human-to-human
transmission could make the virus spread more quickly and widely. The outbreak
is believed to have started from people who picked it up at a fresh food market
in the city of Wuhan in central China. Zhong said the two people in Guangdong
had not been to Wuhan but family members had returned from the city, the China
Daily said. Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that it’s “extremely
crucial” to take every possible measure to combat the new coronavirus. His
remarks, cited by state broadcaster CCTV, came the same day that the country
reported a sharp rise in the number of people infected by the novel form of
viral pneumonia, including the first cases in the capital. The outbreak comes as
the country enters its busiest travel period, when millions board trains and
planes for the Lunar New Year holidays. “The recent outbreak of novel
coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan and other places must be taken seriously,” Xi
said, according to CCTV. “Party committees, governments and relevant departments
at all levels should put people’s lives and health first.” They should “ensure
that the masses have a quiet, peaceful and joyous Spring Festival,” he added.
Health authorities in the central city of Wuhan, where the viral pneumonia
appears to have originated, said an additional 136 cases have been confirmed in
the city, which now has a total of 198 infected patients. As of the weekend, a
third patient had died. Five individuals in Beijing and 14 in southern China’s
Guangdong province have also been diagnosed with the new coronavirus, state
broadcaster CCTV reported Monday evening. A total of seven suspected cases have
been found in other parts of the country, including in Sichuan and Yunnan
provinces in the southwest and in Shanghai. The outbreak has put other countries
on alert as millions of Chinese travel for Lunar New Year. Authorities in
Thailand and in Japan have already identified at least three cases, all
involving recent travel from China. South Korea reported its first case on
Monday, when a 35-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan tested positive for the new
coronavirus one day after arriving at Seoul’s Incheon airport. The woman has
been isolated at a state-run hospital in Incheon city, just west of Seoul, the
Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement. At least a
half-dozen countries in Asia and three US airports have started screening
incoming airline passengers from central China.
Ten killed in seating collapse at Ethiopian festival:
Doctors
AFP/Monday, 20 January 2020
At least 10 people were killed and more than 100 injured on Monday when a wooden
spectator stand collapsed during the Orthodox Christian celebration of epiphany
in the Ethiopian city of Gondar, doctors told AFP. “I can tell you up to now we
have 10 dead. The number of injured is 100 or even 150,” said one senior doctor
at the University of Gondar Hospital. A second doctor confirmed the toll.
Easing of strike brings relief for Paris commuters
The Associated Press, Paris/Monday, 20 January 2020
Paris commuters who were careworn after six weeks of misery-inducing transport
strikes found their smiles again Monday as some subway workers ended their
walkouts against a contested overhaul of France’s pension system. A weekend
announcement by the subway wing of the UNSA union of a return to work after 46
consecutive days of strikes produced a marked improvement in services as the
French capital embarked on a new week Monday. “It was very fluid,” said traveler
Eric Lebrun, after taking a train and then riding the metro during the morning
rush hour. Lebrun travels weekly to Paris from Switzerland, where he lives, and
said the strikes had had a “catastrophic” impact on his journey since they
started December 5. “Now it’s much better,” he said. For the first time since
December 5, services were completely or almost back to normal on 11 of Paris’ 16
subway lines, said the RATP company that runs the metro system. However, not all
strikers voted to return to work. Unions have split over whether to accept
government compromise proposals or to continue pushing for a complete withdrawal
of its plans to reform the pension system. UNSA’s subway wing said that while
its strikers had opted to return to work, the union plans to continue protesting
against the “unfair” pension reform. On five subway lines, services remained
disrupted, the RATP said. On Paris’ suburban train network, some commuters
noticed improvements while others said they were still waiting longer than
normal for trains. “It’s no better than usual, the same as it was last week,”
said commuter Pierre Bouteloup, braving the morning chill on a platform in the
west of Paris. “I’ve been waiting for almost 10 minutes for a train. Normally,
there’s a train every three or four minutes.”But student Lea Toussaint said her
wait for a train to her university was far shorter on Monday - just a few
minutes - than last week. “It’s a lot better,” she said.
Russian opposition wants big protest over Putin’s plan to ‘rule forever’
Reuters, Moscow/Monday, 20 January 2020
Russia’s anti-Kremlin opposition said on Monday it planned to stage a big
protest next month against President Vladimir Putin’s proposed constitutional
changes, which it cast as a ploy for Putin to rule for life. Putin, in a
surprise move, last week unveiled a sweeping shake-up of the political system
that led to the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister along with his
government. Putin’s changes, which would amend the constitution to create new
centers of power outside the presidency, were seen by many as giving the
67-year-old scope to extend his grip on power once his term expires in 2024.
Opposition politician Ilya Yashin on Monday announced what he said were
coordinated opposition plans for a protest march against Putin’s initiative on
February 29 in Moscow. “Society needs a big and genuinely mass protest,” wrote
Yashin, who said Putin’s changes amounted to a move to “rule forever”.
“It will be a political march, the main aim of which will be to call for the
rotation of power and to protest against the usurpation of power,” said Yashin.
Yashin said the protest, permission for which he said would now be requested
from the Moscow authorities, had the support of a wide range of anti-Kremlin
groups including opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption
Foundation. Navalny publicized Yashin’s message on social media. Putin has
dominated Russian politics, as president or as prime minister, for two decades.
His proposed changes, which are set to be put to a nationwide vote on an
unspecified date, have not so far triggered major protests. Over 1,000 people
marched through Moscow on Sunday in an event one Kremlin critic tried to turn
into a protest against the reforms, but many demonstrators chose to voice
dissent about other issues instead.
EU must consider ways to support ceasefire in Libya:
Borrell
Reuters, Brussels/Monday, 20 January 2020
The European Union will discuss all ways to uphold a formal ceasefire in Libya
if one is reached but any peace settlement will need real EU support to make it
hold, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Monday. Asked about whether
the EU could consider a military peace-keeping mission, Borrell said: “A
ceasefire requires someone to take care of it. You cannot say, ‘this is a
ceasefire’ and forget about it ... Someone has to monitor it, to manage it.”Also
asked if the EU’s naval mission off the Libyan coast could be restarted, he
said: “I think we have to revive it, yes.”
Hail, floods, dust hit Australia amid raging wildfires
The Associated Press, Canberra/Monday, 20 January 2020
Dust storms, hail and flash floods have battered beleaguered Australian cities
in recent days, extreme weather that has diminished the threat from scores of
wildfires that continue to blaze across the country’s southeast. A hailstorm in
the national capital Canberra on Monday damaged public buildings, businesses,
homes and cars, cut power to some suburbs, brought down trees, caused flash
flooding and injured two people, emergency services officials said. To the west,
a 300-kilometer (186-mile) wide cloud of red dust was carried by wind gusts up
to 107 kilometers (66 miles) per hour and descended on the drought-stricken
towns of Dubbo, Broken Hill, Nyngan and Parkes, local media reported. Much of
the dust is top soil from New South Wales state farms. “It’s part and parcel of
this record drought we’ve got at the moment,” Dubbo Mayor Ben Shields told Nine
Network television. Hail struck Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, on
Sunday and more hailstorms are forecast to return. The city has been choked by
smoke from distant wildfires in Victoria State in recent weeks. Unusually
intense storms over the weekend caused flash flooding in the cities of Brisbane
and Gold Coast in Queensland State just north of New South Wales, where most of
the wildfire destruction has occurred. The fires have claimed at least 28 lives
since September, destroyed more than 2,600 homes and razed more than 10.4
million hectares (25.7 million acres). The area burned is larger than the US
state of Indiana. Widespread recent rainfall in New South Wales and Victoria
have helped but have not extinguished major fires in Australia’s two most
populous states. Authorities have warned the fire danger will escalate this week
in both states with rising temperatures and drier conditions.
Two dead, 15 reportedly injured in Missouri shooting:
Police
The Associated Press, Kansas CityMonday, 20 January 2020
Police in Kansas City, Missouri, say at least two people are dead and 15 people
were reportedly injured in a shooting outside a bar. The shooting took place
shortly before midnight Sunday, Kansas City police said at the scene. Capt.
David Jackson told news outlets at the scene that responding officers found “a
chaotic scene” and had to call in help from around the city. A man and a woman
were found dead. Police believe the shooter is the deceased man, Jackson said in
a statement. A spokesman said the shooter opened fire on a line of people
waiting to enter a bar, but the motive for the shooting wasn't immediately
clear. The shooter was shot by an armed security guard, police said. During the
investigation, police heard that people - at least 15 - were showing up to local
hospitals with injuries from the shooting. At least three people were in
critical condition, police said. The scene was near U.S. Highway 40. News
outlets at the scene identified the bar outside which the shooting took place as
9ine Ultra Lounge. A Facebook post on the club's page advertised Sunday night's
“Sold Out Sundays” event, which appeared to be a celebration of the Kansas City
Chiefs. The Chiefs - featured on the event's artwork - beat the Tennessee Titans
on Sunday to advance to the Super Bowl. “It just put such a tragic end to such a
wonderful day in Kansas City,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said
at the scene, referencing the win. “It's just hard to stand here and talk about
this kind of tragedy on really one of the best days Kansas City has had in a
long time.”
Bangladesh sentences 10 terrorists to death for 2001
bombing
AFP, Dhaka/Monday, 20 January 2020
A Bangladeshi court sentenced 10 militants to death Monday for the bombing at a
communist party rally two decades ago that killed five people. In January 2001
several bombs were detonated in Dhaka at a meeting of the Communist Party of
Bangladesh, and police blamed the country’s branch of the banned
Harakat-ul-Jihad al Islami (HUJI) after an investigation lasting several years.
The attack was one of several carried out by militant groups whose members were
returning to Bangladesh from the Afghanistan conflict in the early 2000s. On
Monday, Dhaka city public prosecutor Abdullah Abu told AFP that 10 HUJI members
had been convicted and sentenced to death. “They carried out the bombing as part
of their jihad to establish a militant government. They wanted to smear the
image of the secular government and create anarchy,” he said. Two communist
party members accused of involvement were acquitted.
Extremist groups have been targeting secular activists, moderate Muslims and
religious minorities in Bangladesh since the 1990s. HUJI and Jamayetul
Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were the two most prominent outfits. Both were led
by Afghan conflict veterans and were blamed for scores of deaths in bomb and
grenade attacks. The top six JMB leaders were executed in 2007 after being found
guilty of synchronized bomb attacks in August 2005. HUJI chief Mufti Abdul
Hannan and two associates were executed in April 2017 for orchestrating a 2004
attack on a Sufi shrine that killed three people and wounded the British high
commissioner to Dhaka.
Evacuation crackdown ordered as Philippine volcano
‘recharges’
AFP, Tanauan/Monday, 20 January 2020
Philippine authorities ordered a crackdown Monday on evacuees’ daily visits to
their homes in the danger zone around Taal volcano as scientists warned it could
be “recharging” for a more powerful explosion. More than 110,000 people have
taken refuge in evacuation centers since Taal burst to life a week ago, but many
hard-hit towns have let residents back for hours each day to fetch items, feed
livestock and clean up their houses.danger “We are directing DRRMCs (civil
defense officers)... not to allow anyone to enter the danger zone,” said Epimaco
Densing, undersecretary for the Department of Interior.
“It’s dangerous, that’s why we have imposed a lockdown,” he told reporters. The
volcano shot ash 15 kilometers (nine miles) high in the January 12 eruption,
which crushed scores of homes and killed livestock as well as crops. However,
seismologists have warned the volcano could imminently unleash a much bigger
eruption, posing a deadly risk to anyone in the 14-kilometre radius “danger
zone” that surrounds it. Continued earthquakes and an increase in the volcano’s
emission of sulfur dioxide gas were possible indications of a “recharge” of
magna, which would drive a major blast, a top scientist said.
“We consider these are signs that there’s a re-supply of magma which could
possibly... cause an eruption that could be strong,” Renato Solidum, head of the
Philippines’ seismological agency, told a local radio station. Until experts
deem the threat has passed, evacuees will need the shelters spread across some
400 sites that range from school campuses to covered basketball courts.
Conditions vary between sites, but several evacuees told AFP they were getting
food and a place to sleep, but that bathrooms were in high demand. “It’s really
difficult to take a bath or use the toilet because of the sheer numbers (of
evacuees), but we can take it,” said Sonia Awitan, 55. “What is important is we
have a place to shelter and sleep in,” she added. Authorities say they have so
far been able to provide fundamental services to the evacuees, but are concerned
about the longer term. “We can handle the (current evacuee numbers). The issue
is how are we going to sustain resources over the longer term,” Alex Masiglat,
spokesman for disaster relief in the ground zero Calabarzon region. “Our concern
is how are we going to sustain a long term evacuation period,” he added. Though
no people have been reported killed in the eruption, it has wrought havoc on
agriculture and tourism. Taal is set in the middle of a picturesque lake that is
a popular draw for tourists, especially since it is just 60 kilometers south of
the hot and crowded capital Manila.
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published on January 20-21/2020
We “Have to Kill Christians”: Persecution of Christians,
October 2019
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/January 20/2020
ريموند ابراهيم/كايتستون: تقرير مفصل عن جرائم اضطهاد المسيحيين لشهر كانون الأول/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/82465/%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%88%d9%86%d8%af-%d8%a7%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%87%d9%8a%d9%85-%d9%83%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%aa%d8%b3%d8%aa%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%aa%d9%82%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d9%85%d9%81%d8%b5%d9%84-%d8%b9%d9%86/
In another incident, Fulani herdsmen intentionally maimed Grace… , a Christian
woman, by cutting her hand off. She was alone on her farmstead when the
terrorists invaded the village. According to a source, “her attackers told her
to place her hand on a log of wood before cutting it off.” — Punch; October 16,
2019; Nigeria.
“Saudi citizens who convert to Christianity face risk of execution by the state
for apostasy if their conversion becomes known.” — Barnabas Fund, October 14,
2019; Saudi Arabia.
“If the West strikes against Muslims anywhere in the world, enraged
fundamentalists in Pakistan often attack the churches…. Muslims believe that
converting one person to Islam earns them eternal life. If an initial effort
fails, people turn to kidnapping…” — Aid to the Church in Need; October 4, 2019;
Pakistan.
On October 13, 2019, a fire “completely destroyed” St. George Church in Cairo,
Egypt, which was considered “one of the greatest and oldest churches belonging
to the Coptic Orthodox Church.”
The Slaughter of Christians
Uganda: A Muslim mob set fire to the home of former Muslim, Ali Nakabale, 36,
for converting to Christianity. Four of his family members—including his two
children, a six-year-old son and a nine-year-old daughter—were burned to death
in the blaze. His wife, apparently enraged to learn that Ali had become a
Christian, reportedly prompted the arson attack. “I had just visited my aunt
only to receive sad news of the burning of our house,” Nakabale said. “Upon
arriving home, I found the house destroyed by fire that burned my four family
members, including my two children.” His mother and stepfather were also killed
in the blaze. “On reaching the mortuary, I found their bodies burned beyond
recognition.”
“We saw fire emanating from the house of Hamidah with loud chants from Muslims
saying, ‘Allah Akbar [Allah is greater],'” reported a neighbor. Earlier, when
his wife learned that his son and he had become Christian, she had beated the
boy. On “[t]he same day my wife walked out of the marriage and left the home,”
said Ali. “We got scared because we knew that our lives were in danger.”
Egypt: Two Christian men were killed by Muslim men in two separate incidents.
First, according to one report,
“Friends of a 40 year-old Egyptian who converted from Islam to Christianity
believe that his premature death on 4th October is linked to numerous threats he
received from his family that they would kill him for his change of faith.
Before Amr Hussein Mohamed El-Sayeh died, apparently by electrocution at his
home, he told several friends that his uncle had, in July, reported him twice to
the Alexandria police security directorate for his ‘apostasy’. He also told his
friends that when he tried to talk to his wife about his new-found faith, she
told their family, prompting them to constantly taunt and insult him.”
Amr was an Al Azhar graduate and had taught Islamic studies before being
baptized and taking the name “George” in April of 2019, a fact that apparently
aggrieved his kin: “his family began to resist him and insult him, they wondered
that Amr was an al-Azhar student and a graduate of the Faculty of Islamic
Studies, and yet he converted to Christianity,” said a friend. After his uncle
reported him to the authorities, Amr/George, “made a cross tattoo on his right
wrist, which triggered his family against him.”
A number of suspicious circumstances further still surround his case: a hospital
source saw bruises around his face and neck deemed inconsistent with the
official cause of death (electrocution); he was not given a ritual
washing—customary for both Muslims and Christians—reportedly because “the body
washers were told that he should be treated as an ‘apostate'”; nor did his
Muslim family hold a funeral for him, choosing instead to bury him in a charity
cemetery for the destitute. His friend’s concluding thoughts were:
“[He] was a very brave man…. He challenged his family for his faith in Jesus
Christ. He was knowing that his family were going to kill him anytime but he
didn’t fear death. He kept faith till his last breath and refused to renounce
his new faith. He was martyred in the name of Jesus Christ.”
In the second incident, after six Muslim men beat him, Maged Fathi, born a
Coptic Christian, died from his wounds in a hospital, and left behind five
children. His neighbor, an eyewitness, said:
“Maged’s son was carrying dead chickens, and one fell beside the (Muslim) house.
The Muslim man hit the boy on his face with the dead chicken. Maged heard his
son crying loudly and got out of the house quickly. He tried to defend his son,
but the killer [and five other Muslim accomplices] hit Maged on his head with a
cudgel, and injured him with a knife too.”
Ibrahim ‘Abdu Zaid was reportedly radicalized in neighboring Libya; he was heard
urging fellow Muslims that they “have to kill Christians.”
Nigeria: Among the Christians killed by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in October —
including 13 in the Plateau State alone — was Bartholomew David, 23. According
to Enoch Barde, a local, “As he was coming back [from dropping off his sister at
the train station] he gave a lady a lift to Akilbu, and on their way the
kidnappers stopped them, took them inside the bush and shot him to death, and
the girl ran. The girl said the herdsmen kidnapped them because they were
Christians. She told the police the same thing.” The kidnapping of Christians in
the region has become rampant, added Enoch: “In most cases, only a few women or
girls who are lucky usually escape from the rampaging kidnappers. And at times,
the kidnappers will rape the women and girls before letting them go.”
Separately, on October 3, Muslim Fulani herdsmen kidnapped six Christian female
students and two teachers from a Christian-run high school. At last report, the
eight women remained in captivity. A week later, “another attack in the same
county led to the killing of a Baptist woman and the kidnapping of four others
from the same church.”
In another incident, Fulani herdsmen intentionally maimed, a Christian woman, by
cutting her hand off. She was alone on her farmstead when the terrorists invaded
the village. According to a source close to Grace, “her attackers told her to
place her hand on a log of wood before cutting it off.” The source added that
there were machete wounds on her head as well.
Cameroon: During a raid on Sunday, October 20, suspected radicalized Muslim
Fulani herdsmen killed Benjamin Tem, 48, who worked as a Bible translator in the
Aghem language spoken in north Cameroon. Two months earlier, Muslim Fulani
killed Angus Fung, also a Bible translator. Tem, murdered in his home, leaves
behind five children.
Persecution of Apostates and Blasphemers
Iran: During a brief court hearing, nine Christians were sentenced to five years
imprisonment “for leaving Islam,” according to a October 21 report. Christian
Solidarity Worldwide was also quoted as condemning “in the strongest terms,” the
sentences handed to the Christians:
“Once again, it is clear from the brevity of the trial and reported lack of
interest of the presiding judge that due process was not observed. And the judge
was not impartial. The charges against these Christians are excessive,
completely unfounded and constitute a criminalization of a religion which the
Iranian constitution purportedly recognizes.”
Kenya: An October 22 report summarized the sufferings experienced by a former
Muslim family with eight children, after they embraced Christianity. Area
Muslims began to monitor their movements soon after the family stopped attending
the mosque. Then, one night, “[a]t around midnight I heard noise close to the
homestead,” Ibrahim Juma, the father, said. “Peeping through the window, I saw
more than six people wearing masks approaching my house, and I knew that we were
not safe at all. I quickly woke up my children, and we fled out the rear door.”
The house was apparently doused with gasoline before being set ablaze. “The
children’s schoolbooks and their uniforms were all destroyed. Our four-bedroom
house was completed destroyed; beddings and other valuables worth a huge amount
of money were all destroyed by the fire.” According to the mother:
“My two primary-school children are always asking what was the wrongdoing
committed by the family that caused the burning of the house, as well as about
moving from one place to another. I always keep quiet or only tell them that
soon things will get better, and that God is the provider. Sometimes I weep the
whole night when I think back upon the trail of destruction left behind.”
The family has since moved three times, sometimes living in wretched conditions.
“It has been very difficult for my children’s schooling—we are constantly on the
move, which has adversely affected the education of my five children in school,”
continued the mother. “We have started receiving short phone messages from our
Muslim relatives demanding that we return to Islam if life is to go on well with
us.” As of the last report, they were still receiving threats for leaving Islam.
Indonesia: Despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia, a Christian woman was
tried for “blaspheming” against Islam—the penalty for which is a maximum of five
years imprisonment. According to the October 11 report:
“[W]itnesses testified in court that defendant Suzethe Margaret, a Christian
woman living in Bogor, a Jakarta suburb, brought a small dog into a neighborhood
mosque, looking for her husband. Margaret accused the mosque of converting him
to Islam to marry another woman. She was wearing her shoes and kicked a mosque
guard when asked to leave. Judges ordered the trial closed to the public because
the defendant has a psychosocial disability. Margaret has paranoid
schizophrenia, according to a psychiatric examination at two hospitals in
Jakarta in 2013.”
Indonesia’s criminal code (Article 44) states that anyone committing a criminal
act by reason of a mental health condition cannot be held liable, but rather is
to “be placed in a lunatic asylum” for one year maximum. Regardless, even
Indonesia’s Vice President Jusuf Kalla — who is also the chairman of the
Indonesian Mosque Council — said Margaret’s act of “bringing a dog into a mosque
was obviously blasphemous.”
Attacks on Churches
Algeria: Authorities sealed down three more churches, two of which were among
the nation’s largest. First, on October 14, authorities notified the Church of
Makouda that it would be shut down on the following day. When October 15 came,
worshippers of the 500 plus congregation filled the church in peaceful protest,
prompting the authorities to beat and forcefully drag them out and seal off the
church.
Hours later authorities went to seal off not only Algeria’s largest church, but
the largest church west of the Nile River in Egypt: the Protestant Church of the
Full Gospel of Tizi-Ozou, which served approximately one-thousand members. On
learning of the plans to shut it down, a few hundred Christian worshippers again
filled the church in protest. According to the report:
“Some of those praying for God’s intervention were in tears as police arrived
who would beat and drag some Christians from the worship hall…. Police forced
them out, dragging some women by the hair, and when Pastor Chalah and other
Christian men tried to intervene, officers kicked them and struck them with
batons, the pastor said. He sustained minor injuries.”
Prior to this, the church had existed and been legal since 1996. “It’s been 23
years that we exist in plain view,” said Pastor Chalah: “why wait until today to
do so? May everyone know that we have been beaten and abused, including our
sisters too, in our own premises for one reason only — our Christian faith. And
because that’s the cause of our pain, we’re proud of it.” He also explained the
situation in a brief video:
“… I am sharing with you our worries, and the challenges that we are facing on a
daily basis. I would like to bring to your attention that fact that eleven
churches have been closed by the Algerian authorities. We are concerned about
the situation, because we do not know how far this will go, and what are the
intentions of our authorities… [T]he situation is critical. Please share this
message as much as you can.”
On the next day, October 16, authorities sealed off the Church Tafath, which
served about 150 worshippers. It was the twelfth church to be closed down in as
many months in Algeria; eight churches were sealed off in September and October
alone.
Discussing these ongoing closures, Pastor Benzid, another Christian leader in
Algeria, said:
“I never thought that one day places of worship could be invaded by the elements
of security services with their weapons in front of children, women, old people
and young people…. It is unimaginable and unacceptable in the 21st century to
see such a scene occur in a place of worship and in front of pacifist people.”
Egypt: On Sunday, October 13, “a massive fire swept through a major Coptic
church in a Cairo suburb causing heavy damage, but no casualties.” Online images
and video of the St. George Church in Helwan — considered one of the greatest
and oldest churches belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church — confirm that, to
quote Bishop Bishara, it “had been completely destroyed.” Fr. Andrew, who
personally served at the church for three decades, said:
“The old wooden building burned down very fast and the fire destroyed everything
inside, even before the firefighters arrived…. Our loss is great. We have lost a
great historical building and we can’t rebuild anything like it.”
Three days after the fire, on October 16, another blaze broke out in another St.
George Church, this time in Mansoura (images here and here). “The fire
completely ate up the wooden chapel,” the report stated. Five people — two of
whom were firefighters — were injured.
Preliminary reports from Egyptian authorities indicated that both fires appeared
to be accidents related to electrical or circuit failures, not arson. No
concluding report for any of the fires has since been issued. General opinion
among Christians, however, is that the fires were “not a coincidence.” According
to Fr. Samuel of the Mansoura church, “The fire started from the wooden ceiling
of the adjacent hall.” Video footage, he added, indicated that something from
the market behind the church was hurled onto its roof. Another clergyman, who is
also a professional engineer, at the same church, said:
“When we built the church, we designed the electrical circuits in the best
possible way and we make sure to switch everything off when we are not around.
Also, the electricity distribution panel is equipped with devices to protect
against overcurrent and high voltage rise.”
A local source speaking on condition of anonymity added that shortly before the
fires, the security services had contacted several churches and said to make
sure their surveillance cameras were in working order: “This indicates,” he
postulated, “that the national security had information suggesting that some
churches in Egypt would be attacked.”
In a separate but possibly connected incident, two weeks before the first fire,
Ali Batehk, a leader of the Egyptian-founded Muslim Brotherhood, who is
currently exiled in Turkey, released an audio recording which stated, “we will
get the presidency of Egypt again. Also we will prepare something for targeting
the churches and monasteries. … We are preparing something that will get the
Christians on fire.”
Bans on Bibles and Crosses
Turkey: On October 3, before and during a Europa League soccer match against a
German team from Mönchengladbach, Istanbul police removed the flags and banners
of soccer fans because they had the symbol of a cross, which is part of the
German team’s logo (a coat of arms with a black cross on a yellow background).
The German team and its fans also reported general harassment from the Muslim
authorities for carrying their customary Christian symbols during their stay in
Turkey. Responding, German sports director Max Eberl said,
“It makes me extremely sad that we have conditions in Europe in 2019 that the
police can dictate which flags come into the stadium. This rule does not exist…
[There was] harassed from the start… For me, these are bizarre and grotesque
pictures and scenes that are no longer expected in Europe these days. It has
nothing to do with the European Cup. This is a police dictatorship.”
Saudi Arabia: On October 14, about two weeks after Saudi Arabia had announced
that it was launching a new visa program designed to promote tourism, the
Barnabus Fund released a statement saying,
“… Christian visitors should [still] be aware that displaying a Bible in public,
or taking more than one Bible into the country, could place them at risk of
arrest. The new regulations for tourists state that a Bible may be brought into
the country provided it is for personal use only. Bibles must not be displayed
in public and anyone found bringing a large number of Bibles will face ‘severe
penalties.'”
The statement continued by explaining that in Saudi Arabia, openly practicing
Christianity is forbidden:
“There are hundreds of thousands of Christians from other nations, such as the
Philippines, other parts of Asia, or African countries, who are living and
working in Saudi Arabia. But they must meet in private homes to worship, and
risk harassment, arrest and deportation if they are caught doing so. Saudi
citizens who convert to Christianity face risk of execution by the state for
apostasy if their conversion becomes known.”
General Demonization and Persecution of Christians
Turkey: According to top secret documents obtained by the Nordic Monitor, an
NGO, “Turkey’s National Security Council (MGK) secretly drew up plans to
fabricate a threat supposedly posed by Christian missionaries in order to create
fear as part of social engineering.” Excerpts of the report follow:
“A study of the top-secret documents reveals how the legal activities of
Christian faith groups such as Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants in Turkey
were presented as national security threats to the sustainability and viability
of the Turkish state. It shows how the powerful institution that helps shape
policies in Turkey views the European Union as a Christian project and offers
nationwide measures for cracking down on Christians in Turkey…. The documents
confirm that the Turkish state profiled dozens of Christian groups in Turkey and
abroad, proposed controversial measures to halt their work and instructed all
government agencies including the military, police and intelligence to monitor
and thwart their projects. What is more, the Turkish judge who reviewed the
documents … of the criminal investigation into suspects who were involved in
crafting the secret policy that led to murders and attacks on Christians in
Turkey was arbitrarily dismissed and later arrested by the Islamist government
of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.”
Pakistan: Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad expounded on the sufferings
Christians experience in Pakistan during an interview published on October 4.
Excerpts follow:
“Many minorities give their children Islamic names so they will not be singled
out as Christians and become potential targets for discrimination in primary or
secondary schools or at the college level…. In many cases, minority students do
suffer abuse in public schools… The minorities are considered infidels and they
are depicted negatively in textbooks, which promote prejudices against
minorities. The fundamentalists believe that Islam is the only complete
religion—that salvation is only found in the Qur’an as the last holy book…. Most
of the minorities, and in particular Christians, are afraid of attacks and
persecution…. If the West strikes against Muslims anywhere in the world, enraged
fundamentalists in Pakistan often attack the churches…. Muslims believe that
converting one person to Islam earns them eternal life. If an initial effort
fails, people turn to kidnapping…..Kidnappings and forced marriages are most
common in rural areas, where people have little education.
Separately, according to an October 25 report, in just the three months of July,
August, and September 2019, there were 43 documented cases of persecution
against Christians:
“These cases included kidnappings, rapes, forced conversions to Islam,
discrimination, and several religiously motivated murders…. In early September,
police tortured to death Amir Masih, a 28-year-old Christian gardener in
Lahore.”
In another case, a Christian teenager and student at a government girls’ primary
school was abducted and converted to Islam by the school principal. According to
the girl’s mother:
“On that day, my two daughters went to school, but only one returned home. When
we went to the school in search of Faiza, the principal revealed that Faiza had
converted to Islam and therefore, we had no right to meet her. It was
heartbreaking for me. Instead of returning our daughter, the principal asked all
of us to convert to Islam. She offered us a luxurious life and [said] that she
will bear the entire expenses of the family and we will have access to Faiza if
we converted.”
Among the other 43 documented cases of persecution were the “abductions and
forced conversions of seven Christians girls, another seven cases where
Christian women were targeted for sexual assault, five cases where Christians
were denied their religious freedom rights, seven cases of Christians being
physically tortured, six religiously motivated murders, and 11 cases of
discrimination.”
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries
of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the
Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and
a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
*About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by
extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but
rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or
location.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Iranian Women Defy the Mullahs; Western Feminists Nowhere
in Sight
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/January 20/2020
جوليو موتي/معهد كايتستون: المرأة الإيرانية تتحدى ظلم نظام الملالي، والأطر
الغربية في نمط حياتها موجود بقوة/20 كانون الثاني/2020
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/82469/82469/
Before 1979, Iranian women had freedom. They want it back.
If Iranian feminists who refuse to wear the hijab are brave, their Western
counterparts, who wear pink hats, have wretchedly abandoned them.
Why is Iranian barbarism so easily condoned in the West?
Thirty years ago, the Berlin Wall was torn down by ordinary citizens who wanted
to reclaim their freedom of movement. Today, the wall of the Iranian regime
could be torn down by these ordinary women who want to reclaim the freedom to
wear what they like. They are bravely refusing to walk on flags of Israel and
the U.S. — and enjoying the wind in their hair again.
Today, courageous Iranian women are leading the uprising against the Iranian
regime. They remind one the era before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when the
veil was not mandatory. They know the price: many who have taken part in
anti-regime protests have been raped and tortured in prison. Pictured: Veiled
women appear in a propaganda show on Iranian state television, on July 12, 2014.
In October 1979, in a rare interview with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late
Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci charged that the veil was symbolic of the
segregation into which the Islamic revolution women had cast women. “Our
customs,” Khomeini answered, “are none of your business. If you do not like
Islamic dress, you’re not obliged to wear it because Islamic dress is for good
and proper young women.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Fallaci replied. “And since you said so, I’m going to
take off this stupid, medieval rag right now.” Fallaci removed her veil and left
the room without saying another word. Iranian women, emulating Fallaci, are now
leading protests against the regime.
Soon after Iran’s regime admitted having shot down a Ukrainian passenger
aircraft on January 8, Iranian women outside Tehran began tearing down posters
of the assassinated terrorist, General Qasem Soleimani. A few hours earlier, the
ayatollahs had attacked the Ain al-Assad base in Iraq, which houses U.S. troops.
Before that, a picture was circulated on social media of an Iranian referee at
the Women’s World Chess Championship, Shohreh Bayat, overseeing a game without
wearing a headscarf. “People should have the right to choose the way they want
to dress, it should not be forced,” Bayat said, challenging Iran’s rule that
mandates a strict Islamic dress code for women.
“Should I start with hello, goodbye or condolences? Hello oppressed people of
Iran, goodbye noble people of Iran, my condolences to you people who are always
mourning,” Kimia Alizadeh, Iran’s Taekwondo bronze medal champion, at the 2016
Rio Olympics, wrote after moving to Europe. She, too, protested the “obligatory
veil.”
On January 13, three Iranian female television presenters resigned from the
regime’s broadcaster, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). “Forgive me
for the 13 years I told you lies”, Gelare Jabbari apologized in an Instagram
post after state officials had denied for days that a Ukrainian passenger jet
had been shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, killing 176
passengers and crew.
These self-exiling Iranian women are similar to the dissidents behind the Soviet
Iron Curtain, who eventually found refuge in the West. Their role in defeating
the Soviet Union was fundamental: they opened the eyes of the Western public
opinion to the reality in their country.
The Iranian women now openly challenging the mullahs remind one the era before
the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when the veil was not mandatory. Pictures from that
time show women wearing no veils. Overnight, clothing then went “from miniskirt
to hijab.”
“I’m sorry to say that the chador was forced on women”, said Zahra Eshraghi, a
granddaughter of Ayatollah Khomeini. “Forced — in government buildings, in the
school my daughter attends. This garment that was traditional Iranian dress was
turned into a symbol of revolution.”
The last empress of Iran, Farah Diba, noted that “in our time, women were active
in all sorts of different areas. At one point, the number of Iranian women going
to university was more than the men.” But they “are now abused and disrespected
and have had their rights taken away and yet they’re so incredibly brave.”
You can see in a photograph from 1979, how women took the streets to protest the
veil. “This was taken on 8 March 1979, the day after the hijab law was brought
in, decreeing that women in Iran would have to wear scarves to leave the house,”
said the photographer, Hengameh Golestan. “Many people in Tehran went on strike
and took to the streets. It was a huge demonstration with women — and men… We
were fighting for freedom”. Since then, women have not gone out uncovered.
At the time, 100,000 women protested Islamist rule. Today, courageous Iranian
women are leading the uprising against the Iranian regime. They know the price:
many who have taken part in anti-regime protests have been raped and tortured in
prison.
The mullahs, too, know that 40 million Iranian women are under their
surveillance and that if these women as a group rebel against sharia, the
Islamic revolution will implode. This fear may be part of the reason the regime
is scapegoating the West.
When Iran’s current supreme “guide”, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gave a speech about
the veil, he blamed Iran’s “enemies” for trying to “deceive a handful of girls
to remove their hijabs on the street.” In 2009, the symbol of the Iranian
protests was Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman murdered by the regime. The case of
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning
supposedly for “adultery”, spurred rallies in France, which may have had a role
her eventual release. Two years ago, another Iranian woman, Vida Movahedi,
became a symbol of defiance in Tehran after she waved a white scarf.
Books on Iranian dissent — such as Persepolis and Reading Lolita in Tehran —
have been written by women. Women are fighting the ayatollahs. The 1,500 people
killed by Iran’s regime in the recent crackdown on protesters, as reported to
Reuters by Iranian interior ministry officials, included about 400 women.
According to the Iranian-French novelist Chahla Chafiq:
“Their act challenges us, above all, about the infernal order that the Islamic
Republic establishes by making discrimination and violence against women sacred
in the name of God… The demonization of women’s bodies as places of sin,
symbolized by the obligation to wear the veil, implies a series of prohibitions
that alter the lives of women, who are subjected to constant humiliation and
suffering.”
A human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has represented women protesting the
veil, was sentenced in March to 38.5 years in prison, of which she must serve
12. Activists Yasaman Aryani, her mother Monireh Arabshahi and Mojgan Keshavarz,
were arrested after posting a video showing themselves without headscarves while
distributing flowers to passengers. Three women charged with “disrespecting the
compulsory hijab” have been sentenced to a total of 55 years. Shaparak
Shajarizadeh, a 43-year-old woman from Tehran, has been sentenced to two years
in prison for removing her veil. Azam Jangravi, who held her headscarf in the
air and waved it above her head in a busy street of Tehran, said she did it for
her eight-year-old daughter. “I was telling myself: ‘Viana should not grow up in
the same conditions in this country that you grew up in'”, she said.
Iran’s mullahs seem to be willing to do everything in their power to destroy
this women’s movement. They have sentenced women, who shared videos of removing
their veils, to 10 years in prison, and have introduced 2,000 new “morality
police” units to break up the women’s movement. The Iranian regime is also
producing propaganda videos about the hijab. One girl, who had attempted to
enter a football stadium in Tehran disguised as a man, set herself on fire after
her trial . Iranian women have “the highest rate of suicide among women and
girls in the Middle East.” Seventy percent of suicides in Iran are committed by
women, who have so much to lose under this regime.
The veil, however, is not their only problem. Behind the veil, there are more
activities that are risky for women in Iran: dancing, singing, playing music or
shaking hands with men. Before 1979, Iranian women had freedom. They want it
back.
“The flame of feminism is alive in Iran”, Foreign Policy reported . If Iranian
feminists who refuse to wear the hijab are brave, their Western counterparts,
who wear pink hats, have wretchedly abandoned them. Federica Mogherini, the EU’s
former foreign policy chief who, while wearing a chador on official visits to
Iran, took selfies with Iranian lawmakers, has said not one word about these
extraordinary women.
Masih Alinejad, who helped spearhead the Iranian women’s campaign against the
forced wearing of headscarves, addressed female Western politicians who were
covering themselves while visiting Iran: “Let me be clear with you: calling a
discriminatory law a part of our culture — this is an insult to a nation”, she
said. The Iranian regime promptly arrested members of her family.
A recent criminal law in Brunei — death by stoning for sex between men or for
adultery — was followed by an international outcry. Iran, however, is doing the
same thing: killing homosexuals and hanging women for “adultery.” Why is Iranian
barbarism so easily condoned in the West?
Iran’s 1979 revolution created the first modern state based on Islamic
principles. The ayatollahs proved that governance based on sharia was possible
with the first modern effort to establish a Muslim theocracy. The center of
their system was the subjugation of women.
Thirty years ago, the Berlin Wall was torn down by ordinary citizens who wanted
to reclaim their freedom of movement. Today, the wall of the Iranian regime
could be torn down by these ordinary women who want to reclaim the freedom to
wear what they like. They are bravely refusing to walk on flags of Israel and
the U.S. — and enjoying the wind in their hair again.
*Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and
author.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15457/persecution-of-christians-october
An Unsettled Mediterranean
Michael Young/Carnegie MEC/January 20/2020
In an interview, Marc Pierini explains Turkish and European maneuvers in Libya
and in the seas near Greece and Cyprus.
Marc Pierini is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, where he focuses on
developments in the Middle East and Turkey from a European perspective. He was a
career EU diplomat from December 1976 to April 2012, and served as an ambassador
and head of delegation to Turkey (2006–2011) and as an ambassador to Tunisia and
Libya (2002–2006), Syria (1998–2002), and Morocco (1991–1995). He also served as
the first coordinator for the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership from 1995 to 1998,
and was the main negotiator for the release of the Bulgarian hostages from Libya
from 2004 to 2007. Diwan interviewed Pierini in mid-January to get his views on
the Turkish and European perspectives toward the situation in Libya. This
interview runs in parallel to that with Jalel Harchaoui published last week at
Diwan.
Michael Young: What are the reasons for why Turkey, which already has a troop
presence in Syria, is willing to deploy more troops to Libya, in the midst of
what could be a long, drawn out proxy war?
Marc Pierini: I see various reasons leading to the deployment. First, Turkey had
substantial ongoing contracts in Libya when the uprising took place in 2011 and
is therefore intent on returning to doing business in the country.
Second, Marshal Khalifa Haftar and the Libyan National Army under his command
are supported by Egypt. That is another reason for Turkey to take an opposing
stance, as the two are deeply divided over the Muslim Brotherhood.
Third and most importantly, the military intervention in Libya goes together
with the fierce nationalist narrative currently being heard in Turkey. In
addition, it is based on memories of the Ottoman presence in Libya. The military
deployment serves to bolster the idea of a “powerful Turkey” that can defend its
interests and project force in an area of past influence. But this is easier to
explain in political speeches and much more difficult to implement in practice.
MY: France supports Haftar’s forces in Libya. What are the French, and indeed
the broader European, calculations in intervening in the Libyan conflict?
MP: The French position is most often described as supporting Haftar. In
reality, France and the entire European Union are in favor of a negotiated
settlement under United Nations auspices. European energy companies—not so much
French ones, but British, Dutch, German, Spanish, and Italian companies—have
substantial energy interests in Libya. At the same time, many countries are also
keen to partner with the Libyan authorities in curbing illegal migration to
Europe. These objectives can only be served by, first, having a peaceful
settlement in Libya.
MY: How do you anticipate that Turkey and Russia will manage their relationship
in Libya, as they back contending sides in the conflict?
MP: As we saw on January 14 in Moscow, Haftar left without signing the ceasefire
agreement proposed by Russia and Turkey because of the presence of Turkish
forces on the ground and the proposed involvement of Turkey in post-ceasefire
monitoring. This was followed by a threat from Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan to “teach a lesson” to Haftar. The meeting ended with personal
antagonism between Haftar and Erdoğan, which in a way freezes both sides and,
most important, leaves Russian President Vladimir Putin in the driver’s seat.
Much as in Syria, Turkey’s activities are tolerated by Russia, but the red lines
are set by the Kremlin.
MY: Turkey and Libya have signed a bilateral accord defining a large maritime
zone in the Mediterranean. How will this affect Turkey’s gas interests as well
as ties with Cyprus and Greece, and do you see the potential for conflict there?
MP: Turkey’s redefinition of maritime boundaries with the participation of Libya
should be considered a unilateral move. Indeed, Libya’s Government of National
Accord doesn’t control the eastern shore of the country that faces the Turkish
zone. The aim is to force European Union (EU) countries and the United Nations
to reopen discussions on maritime boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean. This
goes along with gas drilling around Cyprus by Turkish ships under military
escort. Cyprus and Greece enjoy full support from the EU, but this alone will
not be enough to stop Turkey’s assertive moves.
I see the Turkish steps as a “foot in the door” aimed at forcing negotiations
with at least two EU countries, Greece and Cyprus, over both maritime boundaries
and drilling rights and, if possible, thwarting the project of a gas pipeline
linking Israel directly to Greece and Italy. Again, domestic politics play a
major role in this domain, but it is doubtful that Turkey’s military can afford
a real confrontation with the EU and Israel if it ever comes to that.
What's Next for the Iran Nuclear Deal?
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/January 20/2020
"It's unlikely that the parties will be able to reach a serious resolution, and
the EU knows it...." — Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner, January 17, 2020.
"Trump has distinguished himself from his predecessor. The world's most famous
dealmaker appears not to be angling for a deal, and for good reason — there's no
deal to be had because there's nothing left to negotiate. [Former U.S. President
Barack] Obama set it up that way." — Lee Smith, Tablet Magazine, January 13,
2020.
"The JCPOA guaranteed that the Iranians would all but have a bomb within 10
years — or by the end of the second term of Obama's successor.... The point of
the deal was not to stop Iran from ever building a bomb but to prevent the
Iranians from doing so until Obama left office." — Lee Smith, Tablet Magazine,
January 13, 2020.
"The nuclear deal with Iran is over — it failed. You cannot and must not
continue to negotiate with the Islamic regime, you cannot trust it. Such talks
are useless. Governments should stop defending the regime through such talks,
keeping it alive." — Mina Ahadi, Chairwoman of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims
in Germany, Bild, January 14, 2020.
In what would appear to signal a rupture of European unity regarding efforts to
preserve the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA), British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
said that he is open to replacing the existing deal with a new agreement
negotiated by U.S. President Donald J. Trump.
Britain, France and Germany, the three European signatories of the Iran nuclear
deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have
activated the agreement's dispute mechanism in an effort to force Tehran into
compliance with its commitment to curb its nuclear program.
The three European countries — also known as the E3 — triggered the so-called
Dispute Resolution Mechanism (DRM) on January 14, a week after Iranian
authorities announced that they would no longer be bound by any of the
agreement's restrictions in terms of the numbers or type of centrifuges that
they can operate or the level of uranium enrichment that they can pursue.
The DRM (Paragraphs 36 and 37 of the JCPOA) starts the clock on a process that
could result in the return of international sanctions on Iran. The deal's
signatories now have up to 30 days to resolve their differences, although that
time period can be extended by consensus. If the dispute cannot be solved, the
matter could be brought before the UN Security Council and could result in the
re-imposition of sanctions that had been lifted under the deal. That effort,
however, could also easily be blocked by a Chinese or Russian veto.
Iranian authorities said that they were justified in violating the deal because
the United States broke the July 2015 agreement by withdrawing in May 2018. In a
statement, the E3 foreign ministers rejected Tehran's argument:
"We do not accept the argument that Iran is entitled to reduce compliance with
the JCPOA. Contrary to its statements, Iran has never triggered the JCPOA
Dispute Resolution Mechanism and has no legal grounds to cease implementing the
provisions of the agreement."
The E3 stressed that their objective was to save the JCPOA:
"We do this in good faith with the overarching objective of preserving the JCPOA
and in the sincere hope of finding a way forward to resolve the impasse through
constructive diplomatic dialogue, while preserving the agreement and remaining
within its framework. In doing so, our 3 countries are not joining a campaign to
implement maximum pressure against Iran. Our hope is to bring Iran back into
full compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA."
Reactions to the E3's decision to activate the DRM have been mixed. Some
analysts argue that the E3's move will bring Tehran back into compliance and
thereby save the JCPOA. Others believe that the decision brings the JCPOA closer
to collapse and the possible, if improbable, return of UN sanctions. Regardless
of what happens, short of the threat of regime change, Iranian authorities are
unlikely to abandon their nuclear ambitions. Following is a selection of
transatlantic commentary and analysis about the future of the nuclear deal with
Iran:
Addressing the British Parliament, Britain's First Secretary of State and
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Dominic Raab, said:
"Let me set out the pattern of non-compliance by the regime that left us with no
credible alternative. Since last May, Iran has step by step reduced its
compliance with critical elements of the JCPOA, leaving it a shell of an
agreement. On July 1, 2019, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that
Iran had exceeded key limits on low enriched uranium stockpile limits. On July
8, the IAEA reported that Iran had exceeded its 3.67% enriched uranium
production limit. On November 5, the IAEA confirmed that Iran had crossed its
advanced centrifuge research and development limits. On November 7, the IAEA
confirmed that Iran had restarted enrichment activities at the Fordow facility —
a clear violation of JCPOA restrictions. On November 18, the IAEA reported that
Iran had exceeded its heavy water limits. On January 5 this year, Iran announced
that it would no longer adhere to JCPOA limits on centrifuge numbers.
"Each of those actions was serious. Together, they now raise acute concerns
about Iran's nuclear ambitions. Iran's breakout time — the time that it would
need to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon — is now falling,
which is an international concern. Time and time again, we have expressed our
serious concerns to Iran and urged it to come back into compliance. Time and
time again, in its statements and more importantly through its actions, it has
refused, undermining the very integrity of the deal and flouting its
international commitments."
Writing for the Washington Examiner, columnist Tom Rogan noted that by
triggering the DRM, the European Union had admitted that the Iran deal, in its
current incarnation, is dead:
"The European Union's big three have awoken from their slumber to recognize that
the 2015 Iran nuclear accord is dying. Britain, France, and Germany made this
admission Tuesday by triggering a dispute mechanism within that accord.... It's
unlikely that the parties will be able to reach a serious resolution, and the EU
knows it.... This is a pretty remarkable policy shift on the nuclear agreement.
"Up until now, Western Europe's three big powers had insisted that they were
fully committed to the deal. Rather than respond to Iran's breaches of the
agreement with punitive responses, the EU tried to find ways to provide Tehran
with increased sanctions relief.
"So, what changed all of a sudden? Put simply, the European powers have now
recognized two obvious truths. First, U.S. sanctions against Iran have been
effectively deterring European businesses from making investments in Iran for
fear of losing access to the U.S. economy.... Second, Iran's breaches of the
agreement pose an intolerable threat to international security. Iran's ongoing
crackdown against its own people also gives the EU domestic cover to act more
forcefully....
"Next, Trump should continue to dangle the carrot, offering sanctions relief in
return for an agreement from Iran concerning restrictions on its ballistic
missile program, more intrusive inspections, and an open-ended compliance
timeline. That approach would generate a deal worth signing — one that the EU
would get behind."
The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal agreed:
"For months Iran has been violating the 2015 nuclear deal while promising to
comply again if President Trump abandons his 'maximum pressure' campaign.
Germany, France and the UK have criticized Tehran and Washington while trying to
save the accord, but on Tuesday the Europeans took a major step toward finally
siding with the U.S....
"The conventional wisdom has been that Iran is slowly escalating, and Europe
isn't pushing back hard, in case Mr. Trump isn't re-elected and a Democratic
President returns to the nuclear deal. The latest move is Europe's most
significant because it seems the Continent may not be able to wait out Mr.
Trump....
"It's unlikely the formal mechanism will resolve anything, as Iran has ignored
European requests to return to compliance in the past. The better option would
be to join the American sanctions campaign. This may have seemed unthinkable a
year ago, but European unity is showing more signs of stress....
"Tehran's rulers are more politically vulnerable now than at any time since the
2009 protests over stolen elections."
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted that the E3's objective was to
preserve the JCPOA:
"Our goal is clear: we want to preserve the agreement and come to a diplomatic
solution within the agreement."
In what would appear to signal a rupture of European unity regarding efforts to
preserve the JCPOA, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he is open to
replacing the existing deal with a new agreement negotiated by U.S. President
Donald J. Trump. In a January 14 interview with the BBC, Johnson said:
"If we're going to get rid of it, let's replace it, and let's replace it with
the Trump deal — that's what we need to see. I think that would be a great way
forward.... Let's work together to replace the JCPOA and get the Trump deal
instead."
Writing for the European Leadership Network, Tarja Cronberg, a member of its
executive board, admitted:
"The end result of the DRM...will most likely be the final collapse of the deal.
Where will this leave Europe?... Twelve years of coordinating the superpowers in
negotiations to ensure that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons will be lost."
Alexander Sarovic, political editor of the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel,
agreed:
"The Europeans are being made aware of their impotence.... The attempt to enable
European companies to trade with Iran bypassing the US sanctions, among other
things by founding the Instex special purpose vehicle, has failed. European
banks refused to do business with Iran."
Analyst Richard Goldberg, a former member of the U.S. National Security Council,
wrote:
"That Iran is able to breach its JCPOA nuclear limits — enriching uranium above
3.67%, increasing its low enriched uranium stockpile, testing advanced
centrifuges, restarting enrichment at Fordow & increasing its heavy water
stockpile — tells us how horrible the JCPOA was.
"Leaving Iran with turnkey nuclear capabilities ready to emerge at any moment to
threaten international peace and security was a fatal mistake of the JCPOA. The
sunsets were pouring lemon juice on an open cut, as if the deal couldn't have
gotten worse but did.
"Maximum pressure backed by a credible military deterrent remains the only way
to force this regime to permanently dismantle all its enrichment & reprocessing
related capabilities....
"Why did the E3 wait since June 2019 to start a process to push Iran back inside
its nuclear commitments or else end its precious sunsets? Weakness, appeasement,
personal investments in JCPOA and an initial belief that Iran would outlast
Trump. They were wrong and look feckless....
"The JCPOA echo chamber, like Iran itself, is freaking out. They know this is
the beginning of the end of the worst deal in history."
Meanwhile, Israeli military intelligence estimated that Iran could have enough
enriched uranium to produce one nuclear bomb by the end of 2020.
Writing for Tablet magazine, author Lee Smith explained the original purpose of
the JCPOA:
"Trump has distinguished himself from his predecessor. The world's most famous
dealmaker appears not to be angling for a deal, and for good reason — there's no
deal to be had because there's nothing left to negotiate. [Former U.S. President
Barack] Obama set it up that way. The JCPOA guaranteed that the Iranians would
all but have a bomb within 10 years — or by the end of the second term of
Obama's successor....
"The point of the deal was not to stop Iran from ever building a bomb but to
prevent the Iranians from doing so until Obama left office.
"The Obama administration went to extravagant lengths to hide the obvious,
hidden in plain sight. It's all spelled out in the JCPOA's so-called 'sunset'
clauses, the restrictions on the nuclear program that were designed to evaporate
after Obama moved into private life....
"Now three years after Obama left the White House, it's clear why the former
president's party is worried about the fate of his signature foreign policy
initiative. By killing the Iranian commander [Qassem Soleimani] Obama officials
were sending messages to, Trump has shown his fiercest critics to be right —
he's nothing like Obama.
In an interview with the German newspaper Bild, Iranian exile Mina Ahadi,
Chairwoman of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims in Germany, summed it up:
"The nuclear deal with Iran is over — it failed. You cannot and must not
continue to negotiate with the Islamic regime, you cannot trust it. Such talks
are useless. Governments should stop defending the regime through such talks,
keeping it alive. If nothing changes, relations with the regime have to be
broken off completely."
*Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Christian Couple Kidnapped in Turkey
Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/January 20/2020
Since January 11, an elderly Assyrian Christian couple, Hurmuz Diril (71) and
his wife Şimoni (65), have been missing from the Assyrian village of Mehr,
Kovankaya in the province of Şırnak, in Turkey's southeast.
If the kidnapping of the Diril couple were to terrorize the remaining Assyrian
community in Turkey into fleeing the country, it would mark the complete
annihilation of yet another native community in the region. Such a tragedy
should not be allowed to happen.
Western governments should help to find this elderly couple and see to it that
those responsible are held to account.
Since January 11, an elderly Assyrian Christian couple, Hurmuz Diril (71) and
his wife Şimoni (65), have been missing from the Assyrian village of Mehr,
Kovankaya in the province of Sirnak, in Turkey's southeast. In wintry, sub-zero
conditions, their children, followed by military special units, have been
searching for them.
"We found out that my parents were missing when I and my relatives... went to
our village on January 12. My father's uncle last saw them in the morning of
January 11.... And my brother last spoke to them on January 7," the couple's
son, Father Adday Remzi Diril told the newspaper Cumhuriyet.
Father Diril is an Assyrian-Chaldean priest in Istanbul and well known for his
life of service to more than 7,000 Iraqi Christian refugees displaced throughout
Turkey.
"A neighbor of ours in the village initially did not tell us my parents were
kidnapped because he was scared," Diril told the Mesopotamia News Agency, "but
later said they had been kidnapped by armed men."
An investigation concerning the missing couple is underway; the prosecutor's
office in Sirnak has issued a gag order regarding the matter. The Turkish
authorities, Diril said, are in touch with the family. The weather conditions,
though, have been treacherous and the search so far unsuccessful.
The news of the kidnapping came after the arrest of Father Aho Sefer Bilecen, a
well-known Assyrian monk at the monastery, Dayro d'Mor Yakoub d'Qarno, in Mardin
in southeast Turkey and two other Assyrians, Josef Yar and Musa Tastekin, on
January 10 for allegedly "aiding the PKK". The monk and the two Assyrians were
later released on judicial control, pending trial.
According to the monk's lawyer, Mustafa Vefa, Bileçen said:
"I give food to whoever comes to my door. I need to do so as per my religion and
philosophy. As I am a priest, I cannot lie. I am not doing this in the name of
helping an organization, but instead as per my belief. Philosophically, I cannot
also denounce someone. This is also the case in terms of religion. I do not step
outside the monastery anyway."
Sirnak and Mardin are in Turabdin, the ancient stronghold of the Assyrian-Syriac
Church in southeastern Turkey, where Assyrians, an indigenous people of the
area, have been living for millennia. Assyrians were victims of genocide under
the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923, "leaving 300,000 Assyrians dead and innumerable
women abducted," according to author Mardean Isaac. Even after the genocide,
however, the Assyrians continued to suffer. The Minority Rights Groups
International reports:
"During the 1990s, reports by Amnesty International and other human rights
organizations documented the ongoing persecution of Assyrians in Turkey,
including abductions (including of priests), forced conversions to Islam through
rape and forced marriage, and murders.
"... They suffered forced evictions, mass displacement and the burning down of
their homes and villages.... The displaced were not allowed to return to their
homes until 1999.
"In June 1994, the Assyrian Democratic Organization and Human Rights Without
Frontiers issued a joint file at a press conference at the Belgian Parliament
that listed 200 Assyrian villages destroyed in Turkey in the previous 30 years
and a list of 24 Assyrians assassinated in Turkey since 1990.
"These pressures, and other more insidious forms of discrimination, have
decimated the community."
One of the families who returned to their ancient homeland was the Diril couple,
who began rebuilding their village about five years ago despite all the dangers
from the terror groups in the area and the conflict between the Turkish army and
the PKK. Their son, Remzi Diril, said:
"Our village was first evacuated in 1989 during the conflicts between the PKK
and the Turkish army. Back then there were 80 houses there. In 1992, four
families returned to the village. In 1994, the village was evacuated again. Most
residents went to Europe. We have been visiting our village since 2010.
"Our village is ancient. We have churches and monasteries there. It is a rocky
area. Everyone is curious about this place. Right now, we are suspicious of
everyone. We do not have any specific information."
Assyrians are a stateless people exposed to decades-long persecution in the
Middle East. Sadly, they have been left alone by the West amid wars, conflicts
and massacres in the region. If the kidnapping of the Diril couple were to
terrorize the remaining Assyrian community in Turkey into fleeing the country,
it would mark the complete annihilation of yet another native community in the
region. Such a tragedy should not be allowed to happen.
Western governments should use all their resources to help find this elderly
couple and hold those responsible to account.
*Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the
Gatestone Institute.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Iran will go beyond missile strikes to avenge Soleimani
Sara Bazoobandi by Sara Bazoobandi/Al Jazeera/January 21/2020
After the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani on January 3, many
feared a major war would break out in the Middle East. Iran's retaliation came
quickly but it did not provoke a conflict.
On January 8, two bases hosting US and coalition troops were hit by a barrage of
missiles. Many perceived the attack as a sign of de-escalation as it did not
result in human loss and the Iraqi authorities were warned about it in advance.
Since then, Tehran has been sending contradictory signals about the country's
next move in this crisis. While Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced
that the attacks "concluded proportionate measures in self-defence", Esmail
Qaani, the new commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC), declared that Iran will hit its "enemy in a manly fashion".
On January 17, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei outlined the way
forward for Iran. In a rare speech during Friday prayers in Tehran, he called
the Quds Force, "the fighters without border", declared that the European Union
should not be trusted "because of their track record and their support for
Saddam during the Iran-Iraq War", and called on Iranians to put their collective
efforts into "strengthening themselves in every aspect".
Khamenei's speech signals that Iran will likely seek to avoid a full-scale war
and adopt the following strategy: start advancing its nuclear capacity and seek
to continue power projection abroad through the Quds Force and its regional
allies.
In the aftermath of the assassination, Iran announced that it was abandoning
nuclear deal limits. On January 15, European countries triggered a dispute
mechanism that can lead to the return of the United Nations sanctions on Iran.
The Iranian authorities could respond by quitting the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which will pose a set of serious
risks for the West and the Middle East.
Apart from that, Iran could seek to escalate tensions in the region through its
political and military allies.
In its campaign to resist US presence in the region, Tehran has invested heavily
in various armed groups. Over the past decade, under the leadership of Soleimani,
the IRGC has mobilised and equipped tens of thousands of fighters in the region
(mainly in Iraq and Syria).
Groups such as Kata'ib Hezbollah, Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq,
Badr, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, Kata'ib al-Imam Ali, Liwa Zeinabiyoun, Liwa
Fatemiyoun, Quwat Imam al-Baqir, Liwa al-Sayyida Ruqayya, and Quwat al-Ridha
have been receiving Iranian material support and strategic guidance.
This is in addition to a strong alliance with Hezbollah in Lebanon and strategic
engagement with the Houthis in Yemen.
On January 7, the supreme leader ordered the allocation of an additional $220m
budget for the Quds Force, part of which will probably be dedicated to
strengthening these Iranian-backed armed groups.
In the aftermath of the assassination of Soleimani, the IRGC threatened to
attack the city of Haifa in Israel and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, in the
event of an attack on Iranian soil.
The risk of retaliatory attacks by Iranian proxies across the region will remain
high. Iranian-backed militias are determined to fight US forces. Hezbollah's
leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that US "military bases, soldiers, officers, and
warships" will be targeted.
Iran's desire for revenge will also affect the region politically.
In Syria, where Iran has had an uncomfortable partnership with Russia, the IRGC
will likely seek to further entrench its presence. Russian attempts to curb
Iranian military presence in response to US and Israeli calls may not be
successful. In Yemen, Iran will also seek to secure its gains as an
"indispensable diplomatic stakeholder".
In Iraq, Iran will continue to exert influence over internal political affairs,
which will lead to further destabilisation as the country tries to cope with
major political unrest.
Already suffering from major divisions, Iraq will likely see cleavages between
supporters and opponents of Iran deepen. On January 5, the Iraqi parliament
passed a resolution obliging the government "to work towards ending the presence
of all foreign troops on Iraqi soil". The Kurdish and some of the Sunni members
of the parliament did not attend the parliamentary session that approved this
decision.
Many Shia political and religious leaders are in favour of the departure of
foreign forces, but the US military presence is an integral element of the
Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) security, especially in the aftermath of
the 2017 independence referendum. Thus the push to expel US troops will become
another point of contention between Baghdad and Erbil.
Soleimani's assassination also prompted calls for unity among Shia forces in
Iraq which, until recently, were divided over the Iraqi protests. This means the
demands by the protesters for political reform and desectarianisation of the
political system are unlikely to be met. This will likely complicate the
government formation efforts in coming months and could further exacerbate
tensions between the various ethno-religious components of the country.
In Lebanon, the fallout of Soleimani's killing is also likely to be felt.
Hezbollah is the most important strategic asset of the Islamic republic in the
region and therefore, it is likely to continue its financial support of the
group.
Like Iraq, Lebanon is experiencing social upheaval, with protesters demanding an
overhaul of the political system. A stronger Hezbollah will likely be more
assertive in its political negotiations with other forces within the country,
especially as Saudi Arabia, the main backer of former Prime Minister Saad
al-Hariri, has indicated it does not wish to escalate against Iran.
In the Gulf, the escalation in the US-Iran confrontation has caused much
anxiety, especially as last year Saudi Arabia and the UAE witnessed Iran's
military capabilities with the drone strikes on Aramco and the attacks on
tankers near the Strait of Hormuz.
Fearing for their key oil sectors and economic stability, both Riyadh and Abu
Dhabi have made it clear that they want to avoid any further escalation with
Iran.
After the assassination of Soleimani, Prince Khalid bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's
deputy defence minister, travelled to Washington and London to meet with
political and defence officials to express the need for de-escalation.
Saudi Arabia has reduced its airstrikes in Yemen and emphasised that the Houthis
can assume a role in the future Yemeni government. Before his resignation in
November, Iraq's Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi had taken the role of a
mediator between Riyadh and Tehran, actively facilitating negotiations for a
de-escalation between the two. Although, this has not been confirmed by either
Saudi Arabia or Iran, it seems to be the only expected approach for the Saudi
leaders in the coming months.
The UAE also recently initiated negotiations with Tehran to re-establish
diplomatic and possibly economic collaboration. The Emiratis have already
started to scale back their military involvement in Yemen by pulling out their
troops in the summer of 2019.
In October, reports surfaced that Emirati officials visited Tehran to spearhead
talks for normalisation and de-escalation, and that Abu Dhabi had released $700m
in Iranian funds previously frozen due to the US sanctions.
By contrast, Qatar has maintained good relations with Iran, which supported it
during the blockade initiated by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain. Doha has
made long-standing efforts to act as a mediator and partner for its big
neighbour. Just a day after Soleimani's assassination, Qatar's Foreign Minister
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani travelled to Tehran to seek
to de-escalate tensions. A week later, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al
Thani also visited the Iranian capital and called for a dialogue.
Despite efforts to mediate by Qatar and others in the region, more instability
and confrontation is on the horizon.
In his keynote speech at the last Doha Forum in December 2019, Iran's Zarif said
the Middle East was afflicted by a "cognitive disorder" which has caused
countries to perceive security as a zero-sum game - ensuring one's security by
depriving one's neighbours of it - and to pursue ever-growing weapons deals.
The problem is that Iran's overall strategy in the region does not really differ
from this "cognitive disorder". And the assassination of Soleimani has opened a
new chapter in its confrontation with the West. A withdrawal from the nuclear
deal will only deepen the crisis.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily
reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
*Sara Bazoobandi is an associate at GIGA's Institute of Middle East Studies
Libya and Iraq: Geopolitical tensions only resulting in temporary oil price
hikes
Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/January 20/2020
Last week’s performance of oil was lackluster and directionless despite the
US-China trade agreement.
Brent tested the $65 per barrel mark several times but was not really able to
hold the gains. This is understandable when reading the monthly oil market
report of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which predicted a demand growth
of 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) for 2020 and a supply growth of 2.1 million
bpd from non-OPEC countries.
This supply overhang occurs despite Iranian production falling to 2 million bpd
of which only 300,000 bpd were exported in December due to sanctions and
Venezuela’s production going from 700,000 bpd to a virtual standstill due to
both sanctions and disintegration of the economy.
Gone was the temporary geopolitical premium as a result of the killing of the
Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani by a US drone near Baghdad airport.
All of that changed over the weekend when Libyan military commander Khalifa
Haftar stopped exports by shutting down a pipeline under his control. This
forced the National Oil Corporation, Libya’s national oil company, which is
under the control of Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj’s UN-recognized Libyan
government, to shut down two major oil fields and declare force majeure.
Production is expected to decline by more than 800,000 bpd from 1.2 million bpd.
Exports will be expected to be below 100,000 bpd, which according to Bloomberg
is the lowest since 2011.
We should not be unduly concerned because the overall supply and demand picture
still looks relaxed, courtesy of the anticipated demand overhang by non-OPEC
nations.
All of this happened while the Berlin conference tried to kickstart a peace
process in the north African country by bringing together Al-Sarraj’s government
with rebel leader Haftar alongside world leaders such as Turkey’s President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, UN Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, French President Emmanuel
Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
and various leaders from the Middle East including Egyptian President Abdel
Fattah El-Sisi and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.
The leaders came to a sort of compromise honoring the UN-imposed arms embargo
and agreeing to a roadmap to achieve a cease-fire. Alas, the pipeline remains
closed.
At the same time, the security situation in Iraq is not improving and oil
production was temporarily stopped at one oilfield, with a second one at risk.
The IEA had raised concerns about the stability of supplies from OPEC’s
second-largest producer. Iraq has managed to double its production to 4 million
bpd since 2010. Both China and India receive 1 million bpd from the country, as
does Europe.
We should not be unduly concerned because the overall supply and demand picture
still looks relaxed, courtesy of the anticipated demand overhang by non-OPEC
nations. At the same time OPEC, and particularly Saudi Arabia, has considerable
spare capacity.
The organization and its 10 non-OPEC friends have after all taken 1.7 million
bpd out of production to balance the market. Brent jumped 1.6 percent after
Friday temporarily flirting with the $66 per barrel mark on early Monday
morning. It has come down around 80 cents since then.
As long as the demand and supply picture remains relaxed and non-OPEC supply
remains strong courtesy of OPEC spare capacity, US shale oil and producers from
Canada, Norway, Brazil, etc., geopolitical tensions in the Middle East will
remain event risks, resulting in temporary spikes of the price.
However, should there be a persistent threat to the flow of oil from the Middle
East due to, for instance, a prolonged closing of the Strait of Hormuz, the
situation would need to be reassessed.
• Cornelia Meyer is a business consultant, macroeconomist and energy expert.
Twitter: @MeyerResources
Protesters offer hope after India loses its way
Chandrahas Choudhury/Arab News/January 20/2020
In India, the new decade has begun much as the last one ended: With violence,
rancor and vendetta. All around the country, millions of citizens have taken to
the streets to protest, in the first instance against the government’s
controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and, thereafter, against the
government’s crude attempts to marshal the might of the state to crack down
against the protests themselves.
The mass demonstrations have roused the nation and created the most effective,
if piecemeal and decentralized, opposition to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party
since Narendra Modi won his first majority in Parliament in the summer of 2014.
But the attempt by vigilant citizens to restrain, by an appeal to constitutional
values, the divisive agenda of a Hindu nationalist government has so far only
yielded a sense that, in this fight, there is to be no dialogue or common ground
between the two sides; only a struggle over two mutually exclusive ideas of
India.
Without a doubt, this is a crisis that has been precipitated by the government.
The CAA is putatively an attempt to make it easier for persecuted minorities —
among them Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Sikhs — in the countries
neighboring India to become Indian citizens and live under the sheltering sky of
a secular nation. But the stark omission of Muslims from the ambit of the new
law points to many dark and divisive impulses buried in its conception. It also
points to a sinister agenda on the part of the ruling party to isolate scores of
Indian Muslims when it begins its proposed attempt to prepare a National
Register of Citizens (NRC) sometime later this year.
Both Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have been at pains to deny any link
between the CAA and the NRC, and to dismiss objections to the new bill as the
scaremongering and paranoia of the political opposition. Sadly, the easy
availability on the internet of multiple videos of Shah addressing political
rallies in which he explicitly links the two citizenship-related moves of the
government suggests two things. One, the government did not anticipate the rise
of a mass movement in the country against the CAA, and so now it cannot lose
face by backing down. And, two, the ruling party is happy to lie brazenly when
backed into a corner in the hope that its large support base on the ground and
on social media will run with its fabrications until the opposition is drowned
out. This does not bode well for the four years it has left of its term.
The news from other sectors of Indian life is just as disturbing. At the start
of the 2010s, India was one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
Annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth stood in excess of 7 percent for
several years running. Investors the world over sought a foothold in Indian
markets.
In contrast, the decade ended with GDP growth down at 4.5 percent for the
quarter between July and September 2019 — the sixth successive quarter of
declining growth, adding up to an economic slowdown not seen for 23 years.
Indeed, the main highlights of Indian economic life in the past decade were not
sparks but shocks: A series of scams relating to the allocation of public goods
that destroyed the credibility of the coalition government led by Manmohan Singh
in the first part of the decade; Modi’s sudden demonetization of the Indian
economy in 2016; the introduction of a complicated new Goods and Services Tax in
2017; and a deepening of the agrarian crisis that has debilitated millions of
Indian farmers.
It was not only the realities that degraded over the decade; so did the
promises. Modi came to power in 2014 promising millions of jobs for India’s
burgeoning youth population. He returned to power in 2019 sidestepping the
perilous state of the economy, focusing instead on drumming up nationalist
passion over his government’s strikes on terrorist camps in Pakistan. The decade
ended with unemployment at a three-year high.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that the years 2010 to 2019 represent a kind
of lost decade for India.
It is hard to escape the conclusion, then, that the years 2010 to 2019 represent
a kind of lost decade for India. They should have been years in which the
country left behind the divisions that rocked and eventually split the
subcontinent in the 20th century and, secure in its own identity, presented a
mature and confident face to the world. They should have been a decade in which
a new generation of politicians born in the post-independence years rose to
prominence with a plan to extend the liberal project of the founding fathers —
not to sabotage them and set the country off in an entirely new direction. They
should have been years in which social unrest centered on issues of material
life (for instance a theory of development that did not privilege urban over
rural) and structural injustice related to caste and gender, and not about an
attempt to polarize society on the grounds of religion and political ideology.
To all but the zealots and spin doctors of the ruling party, then — and
certainly in the chamber of global opinion — India in January 2020 looks like a
country that has lost its way. Only the hundreds of thousands on the streets, of
diverse languages and creeds, united by banners on which the word “Constitution”
is prominent, give cause for hope that this decade may not end the way it began.
*Chandrahas Choudhury is a writer based in New Delhi. His work also appears in
Bloomberg View and Foreign Policy. Twitter: @Hashestweets
Putin happy to remind rivals of his control over Syria
Chris Doyle/Arab News/January 20/2020
The Syrians all noticed, with social media abuzz with comment, most of it
mocking. For the second time during the Syrian crisis, President Vladimir Putin
of Russia this month visited the country and the Syrian president was summoned
to meet his overlord at a Russian base. Think about it. Even in his own country,
in Syria’s own capital Damascus, Bashar Assad had to go to Putin rather than
receive him as he would with any other visiting leader.
It is hard to think of this as an aberration or that, as Syrian loyalists try to
claim, it was just about security. The whole choreography of these occasions
indicates otherwise. The first meeting of the two in Syria was back in 2017, at
the Russian air base at Hmeimim. At one moment, captured on video, the Syrian
president is prevented from walking next to Putin on the tarmac by a Russian
soldier, who extended his arm to slow Assad down. He had to walk behind. Assad
cannot complain or remonstrate. He goes through the motions, grips and grins,
but he must hide his feelings well. He knows his forces were bailed out by the
Russian military and that Moscow’s support is vital in his quest to re-extend
his writ over the rest of Syria.
Fast forward to Jan. 7 this year and Putin even comes to the Syrian capital, but
not to the presidential palace.
Another feature of these meetings is the number of Syrians. Putin is always
surrounded by a coterie of Russian officials and military figures, while Assad
may have only one or two Syrians accompanying him, even when in Syria. Take
Assad’s visit to Sochi in November 2017. Russian footage, not highlighted on
Syrian official media, shows an Assad-Putin meeting where Assad is alone with
Putin and Russian generals.
All of this reinforces the image of a Russian president dismissive of the
efforts of what he deems to be a largely incompetent Assad. Russian officials
frequently confirm this in private. In their view, the war should have ended
years ago but was held up by a Syrian failure of leadership and a lackluster
Syrian army. Putin insists on keeping Assad firmly in his place for the time
being.
Why, then, does Putin continue to back Assad? Putin has, from the outset, been
determined to prevent the US and its allies from another regime change folly in
the Middle East — not least in a country that Russia views as being in its
sphere of influence. Keeping Assad in the hot seat signals that the US and the
enemies of Russia failed, and Putin is delighted to remind them of that.
But Putin is not just showing contempt for Assad. He is contemptuous of Syrians
and the country too. He mocks them by highlighting their vassal status,
emphasizing that Russia is effectively an occupying power that pulls the strings
and takes all the important decisions. Reinforcing that attitude, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov contrasted the situations in Libya and Syria last
week. “If Libya could become ‘a second Syria,’ I believe the Libyan people will
benefit from this. Unfortunately, there is no statehood in Libya so far.” Nobody
with any sense of respect for either Libyans or Syrians would wish Syria’s fate
on another people, after more than 500,000 have been killed and more than half
the population displaced. Lavrov appreciates what his boss wants to see in
Libya: A central authority figure who dutifully answers to Moscow.
Putin has, from the outset, been determined to prevent the US and its allies
from another regime change folly in the Middle East.
Assad makes token signs of rebellion largely by playing Russia off against Iran.
Yet, even here, the Iranian leadership is hardly respectful. Syrians did not
fail to notice the absence of the Syrian flag when Assad met President Hassan
Rouhani in Tehran last February. The Iranian flag was there as usual but, in
contrast to meetings with other heads of state, the flag of the visiting
leader’s nation was clearly absent.
Iran lacks Russia’s military muscle and diplomatic clout. Putin knows that and
will continue to leverage this in his dealings with Damascus. Yet, as various
countries across the Middle East glance northward to Moscow, alarmed at the
capricious and haphazard nature of Trump’s decision-making, they should be
cautious of turning their back on Washington and instead being too closely
embraced by the Russian bear. It could be an embrace that is suffocating.
*Chris Doyle is director of the London-based Council for Arab-British
Understanding. Twitter: @Doylech
Proxy flag stunt betrays Iranian regime’s confusion
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/January 20/2020
In the midst of the ongoing momentous US-Iranian escalation in Iraq, one
significant development early in 2020 escaped the attention of many analysts,
who were busy focusing on more dramatic developments and their various possible
scenarios and outcomes. On Jan. 9, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, appeared on
state television to comment on the Iranian missile attacks on two bases in Iraq
that host US troops. Unusually, nine flags were used as a backdrop, when past
public addresses by IRGC commanders have only ever featured the flags of the
IRGC and Iran.
Most of the flags in question were those of Iran’s proxy militias, which the
Iranian regime refers to as its “Axis of Resistance” against the US and its
allies in the Middle East. The flags were of sectarian Shiite militias that
support Iran’s regime from Arab and other neighboring countries. They included
the Pakistani Zainabiyoun militia in Syria, the Afghan Fatemiyoun militia in
Syria, the (non-Shiite) Hamas movement of Palestine, the Popular Mobilization
Units (PMU) of Iraq, the Ansarullah militia of Yemen (the Houthis), and
Hezbollah of Lebanon. The three other flags were those of the Iranian Air Force,
Aerospace Force and the flag of Iran.
The significance of this flag display lies in the unspoken, symbolic message
conveyed by the Iranian regime: That it is taking its relationship with these
particular militias to a new level by publicly offering “official” recognition
that they are affiliated with Iran. Although these ties were previously an open
secret, the Iranian regime avoided acknowledging that these militias were its
proxies in the region. Now, however, the pretense is over and these militias
have formally become Tehran’s proxies in the Arab world.
After this flag display, the PMU, the Houthis, Hezbollah, Shiite militias in
Syria, and Hamas can no longer claim to belong to the land where they operate,
nor can they claim that their identity is intrinsically linked to the land and
people where they exist. All of them are now Iranian regime proxies within Arab
nations, working to fulfill Tehran’s expansionist objectives by participating in
extending and securing Iran’s sphere of influence in the region. With this move,
Tehran is expressing open contempt for international law and its principles
relating to respecting the sovereignty of other UN member states and
non-interference in their internal affairs.
In addition, the Iranian regime has conveyed a number of messages and met
certain objectives by undertaking this daring move. Firstly, it is flaunting its
control of proxies in the region, which have permitted it to extend its
operations beyond its geographic boundaries, providing the regime with a
foothold in neighboring Arab countries.
Secondly, Tehran is showing it has moved beyond the previous era of simply
providing financial and political support for its armed militias in Arab
countries. It is now at a new stage of major participation in making and acting
on critical decisions in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, despite its proxies not being
legitimate national movements.
Thirdly, it proves beyond any doubt that the real role of these militias is to
work for Iran’s regime, not for the cause of their homelands. They have shown
that they consider Iran to be their foremost homeland, while Iraq, Yemen, Syria,
Palestine and Lebanon are not even their secondary homelands: They are, in
effect, nothing but Iranian geographic extensions. These proxies are seeking to
protect and expand the Iranian regime’s control of the region.
Finally, the Iranian regime is highlighting that, through its proxies, it can
engage in confrontations with its enemies on multiple fronts in an effort to
exhaust them.
All this goes to show that the Iranian regime is now officially acknowledging
that the foreign armed militias it previously claimed were simply allies are, in
fact, affiliates of the IRGC, which is on the US’ terror blacklist. Thus, these
proxies could be partially or entirely classified as terrorist organizations in
the future. All these militias conducted combat operations under the leadership
of the late Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who was a terrorist, leaving
countless people across the region maimed and mutilated, as US President Donald
Trump has emphasized.
This flag display also reflects the Iranian regime’s confusion and lack of
understanding of how its move would be perceived in the region, as well as its
consequences — potentially adding to the series of setbacks that Tehran has
suffered since deploying its militias in Iraq to mount attacks. This blatant
expression of contempt for Arabs will also reduce the Iranian regime’s regional
influence and will, without doubt, do more harm than good to the country’s
reputation, with the long-suffering people of the Middle East already protesting
against the Iranian regime and the brutality of its proxies, as well as the
international community expressing concern at their destabilizing effect.
The Iranian regime’s flaunting of its proxies also strips them of their veneer
of serving their nations, making it clear that they are now nothing more than
Iranian henchmen; hired mercenaries whose sole loyalty is to the regime in
Tehran, no matter how much this harms the Arab nations. This, in effect, means
that these militias cannot be classified as Iraqi, Yemeni or Lebanese forces,
but as proxies of the IRGC, thus making them a straightforward target in any
military mission.
This proves beyond any doubt that the real role of these militias is to work for
Iran’s regime, not for the cause of their homelands.
This move also raises questions of utmost importance, such as how can the PMU be
an affiliate of the Iraqi army and its political arm have parliamentarians and
ministers in the Iraqi Parliament and government while it is an Iranian militia
that works for the sake of Iran, not Iraq? How about Hamas, which deems itself
to be an Islamic resistance movement, not an Iranian proxy? Doesn’t this move
constitute an Iranian admission that Hamas works for the sake of Iran? How can
Hezbollah have members in the Lebanese government and Parliament while it is
working for the sake of Iran, not Lebanon? How can these countries and their
citizens accept entities and parties that work within their political structures
and official institutions while they are affiliated to another country? The
answers to these questions depend on the positions of the governments of these
countries and how far they desire to maintain the Arab civilization and their
territorial integrity, as well as their national security as independent and
sovereign nations.
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is Head of the International Institute for *Iranian
Studies (Rasanah). Twitter: @mohalsulami