LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
January 26/19

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
The Parable of The Dishonest Manager/His master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 160-12: “The Lord Jesus said to the disciples: ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.”And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. ‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on January 25-26/19
Walid Phares Meets with Polish Officials on the Plight of Middle East Christians
Lebanon: Possible Breakthrough in Government Formation
Al-Rahi Chairs Meeting of Bkirki Summit Follow-Up Committee
Report: Hariri Plans to ‘Leave’ if Govt. Stalemate Isn’t Resolved 'Saturday'
Kanaan Urges Govt. within Days as Aswad Slams March 8 Sunni MPs
Lebanon Signs Oil Storage Deal with Rosneft
Mashnouq Throws Support behind Othman after Corruption Report
March 8 Sunni MPs Insist on 'Exclusive' Representative in Govt.
Rampling Visits South, Says UK Mine Clearance Support to Continue
Bukhari inspects National Council for Combating Drug Addiction in Sidon's Hlaliyeh
Kanaan: Decisiveness substantial en route to government with financial, economic priority
State Security Arrests 'IS Recruiter, FSA Member'
Airport Police Confiscate 11 kg of Cocaine
Lebanon's consumer confidence stagnated as 2018 expired
The domestication of violence during Lebanon’s civil war

Litles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 25-26/19
Canada/RCMP charge Kingston youth with trying to get someone to plant a bomb
Venezuela Opposition Leader Rejects Maduro Talks Proposal
Iran ‘Angry’ over Failure to Activate S-300 System in Syria
US Sends Additional Troops to Syria Ahead of Pullout
SDF: ISIS Presence in Syria to End within a Month
Iraq Parliament Fails to Vote on Justice, Education Portfolios
France tells Iran new sanctions loom if missile talks fail
EU, U.S. Crank Up Pressure on Venezuela's Maduro
Backed by Military, Venezuela's Maduro Hits Back at Rival
Ex-Trump Adviser Stone Indicted in Mueller Probe
Taliban Appoint Co-Founder as Top Negotiator for Talks with US
Iraq Priest who Saved Christian Heritage Ordained Mosul Archbishop
Yemen Calls on UN to Identify Obstructors of Political Process
Hamas Informs Qatari Diplomat of Doha Grant Rejection
Tension Between Maher al-Assad and Suhail al-Hassan

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 25-26/19
Lebanon's consumer confidence stagnated as 2018 expired/Georgi Azar/Annahar/January 25/19
The domestication of violence during Lebanon’s civil war/Samir Khalaf/Annahar/January 25/19
Canada/RCMP charge Kingston youth with trying to get someone to plant a bomb/The Canadian Press/January 25/19
Tension Between Maher al-Assad and Suhail al-Hassan/Ana Press (Opposition website)/January 25/19
Trump: In Third Year with Three Charges/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 25/19
France and Germany: "We Are Committed to the Emergence of a European Army"/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/January 25/19
Opinion/Why the Rebuilding of Syria Isn’t Going to Happen/David Rosenberg/Haaretz/January 25/19
 Analysis/Iran's Soleimani Seeks New Balance of Terror With Israel. For Now, He Failed/Amos Harel/Haaretz/January 25/19
Trump is right: Ballistic missiles are a threat/Luke Coffey/Arab News/January 25/19
Why is the 1998 Adana pact between Turkey and Syria back in the news/Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/January 25/19

Latest LCCC English Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on January 25-26/19
Walid Phares Meets with Polish Officials on the Plight of Middle East Christians
WASHINGTON, DC, USA, January 24, 2019 /EINPresswire.com/ -- On November 26th, 2018, advisor to the American Mideast Coalition for Democracy, Dr. Walid Phares met with a Polish delegation led by Minister Beata Kempa and Ambassador Piotr Wilczek. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss US and European policies that support and protect persecuted Christians and other minorities in the Greater Middle East. During their visit to the United States, the Polish delegation met with several US officials including Ambassador Sam Brownback, United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.
Phares, a former advisor to Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Mitt Romney on foreign affairs, shared his assessment of the situation of Christian and minority communities in the region who have been subject to oppression and persecution, including those in Iraq and Syria. He explained that Christians in the Middle East are divided into two communities: those living in geographic enclaves, like the Nineveh Valley in Iraq and Khabur plain in Syria, and those living as minorities within large cities or Muslim-majority areas. Phares suggested, and Minister Kempa agreed, that Western support for these endangered groups of Christians should adapt to their geopolitical realities. Countries providing aid to these communities should work with the national governments to protect the status of minority communities within their cities and villages and enable the groups to protect themselves when they live in geographical areas threatened by terror attacks. The Minister agreed with Phares' assessment and offered her assessment based on her experience working to provide aid to Christians in the Middle East. Minister Kempa committed to muster support in Poland and throughout Europe for the protection of human rights of minority communities in coordination with the United States.
Phares stated, “There are minority communities with different geopolitical and legal statuses. While there are certainly challenges faced by most Christian groups in the region, the Christian and Yazidi communities in Iraq and Syria have been the most threatened with mass killing and ethnic cleansing. I am glad that the UN and later the United States designated ISIS’ actions as ‘genocide’ as I have recommended since 2014.”
He added, “Poland, and other European countries, are instrumental in helping, not only by raising the issue internationally, but also by assisting ground missions alongside the United States to provide direct protection to these persecuted groups.”
Rebecca Bynum
The American Mideast Coalition for Democracy
6157756801

Lebanon: Possible Breakthrough in Government Formation
Beirut - Youssef Diab/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 25 January, 2019/Despite optimism over a possible forthcoming breakthrough after Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri relaunched earlier this week his efforts for a solution to the government crisis, observers believe that new obstacles could hinder his mission. Hariri’s last round of talks had almost solved the obstacle on the representation of the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance’s six Sunni deputies. However, there are signs that some blocs could demand exchanging portfolios, a move that could bring back the negotiations to square one. “Hariri continues his contacts with all parties. If intentions are good, a government could see the light soon,” sources close to the PM told Asharq Al-Awsat. They said the new round of talks showed that all parties want a new government, given the dire economic situation in the country and the deteriorating state of public institutions.
Commenting on the March 8 Sunni obstacle, the sources said the problem of the representation of the six deputies from the Consultative Gathering is almost solved as concerned parties agreed that the minister who will represent the bloc would not vote against decisions made by the team of President Michel Aoun during cabinet sessions. At the same time, this minister could attend the meetings of the Consultative Gathering and express his stance during cabinet sessions, the sources explained. “Such formula received the consent of all parties … A cabinet lineup should be ready by mid or end of next week,” the sources said. They said Hassan Murad, Tah Naji or Othman al-Majzhoub would be representing the six Sunni deputies in the new government.

Al-Rahi Chairs Meeting of Bkirki Summit Follow-Up Committee
Naharnet/January 25/19/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Friday presided over a meeting for the follow-up committee that was formed during the recent Maronite summit in Bkirki. The MPs Ibrahim Kanaan, Georges Adwan, Sami Gemayel, Farid al-Khazen, Hadi Hbeish and Michel Mouawad were taking part in the meeting in the presence of Bishop Samir Mazloum. The summit's closing statement had said that the follow-up committee would be formed in order to “confront the alarming challenges.”In the statement, Maronite leaders and lawmakers also stressed that “no one has the right to create a new identity for Lebanon.”The summit was held at al-Rahi's request. Rejecting “anything that harms the balance of constitutional institutions and the powers of each of them, topped by the Presidency,” the conferees emphasized that “Lebanon should not be isolated from its Arab region and international partners.”Turning to the stalled cabinet formation process, the conferees called for “speeding up the formation of the government according to the Constitution” and for “cooperation with the President and the PM-designate.”“We condemn the Israeli violations and reject any attempt to naturalize Palestinian refugees in Lebanon,” they added, while emphasizing that Syrian refugees should “safely return” to their country.

Report: Hariri Plans to ‘Leave’ if Govt. Stalemate Isn’t Resolved 'Saturday'
Naharnet/January 25/19/In light of strenuous efforts aiming to end the nine-month government formation stalemate, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has reportedly said that he plans “to leave” if the government was not formed before “Saturday,” al-Anbaa daily reported on Friday.
A source who spoke on condition of anonymity, quoted Hariri as saying: “The government better be formed before next Saturday, otherwise I am going to leave,” he said, without specifying if that means him “stepping down.”Hariri also did not state if the “deadline” he drew comes this week or the week after, said the daily. “As a PM-designate I am running consultations, and next week I am going to make a final decision on the government formation,” the PM has reportedly said after visiting Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat at the latter’s residence in Clemenceau, Beirut. Hariri’s remarks gave two impressions that he is either going to make a final decision this week, or “step down as PM,” according to the daily. The issue of representing the Consultative Gathering, a grouping of six Hizbullah-backed Sunni MPs, has delayed the formation process for several months now. Wrangling over Christian and Druze representation had also delayed the process before the parties managed to reach settlements over shares.

Kanaan Urges Govt. within Days as Aswad Slams March 8 Sunni MPs
Naharnet/January 25/19/MP Ibrahim Kanaan of the Free Patriotic Movement on Friday called for forming the new government “within days,” as his colleague MP Ziad Aswad lashed out at the Hizbullah-backed Consultative Gathering. “President Michel Aoun is greatly determined to settle the government issue and the situation cannot continue without a government,” Kanaan said in an interview with Radio Sawt El Mada. “The latest government drive and the meetings that were held have facilitated a lot of deadlocked issues, in addition to the pressing stances from the President and the Strong Lebanon bloc on the need to finalize issues withing days,” the MP added. “The country cannot withstand any further and the challenges should be confronted by a government that should be primarily prepared to address the economic and financial issues,” Kanaan went on to say. Firebrand MP Ziad Aswad, who belongs to the same bloc, meanwhile launched a scathing attack on the Consultative Gathering – a newly-formed grouping of six Sunni MPs who are close to Hizbullah and Damascus. “The Consultative Gathering is encouraging demonstrations against the ruling parties and is calling for fighting corruption and corrupts... Great! Who are you, who are you against, who are you with, around which table are you sitting and who are the ruling parties?” Aswad tweeted.

Lebanon Signs Oil Storage Deal with Rosneft
Associated Press/Naharnet/January 25/19/Lebanon has signed a deal with Russia's largest oil company, Rosneft, to upgrade and operate storage installations in the country's northern city of Tripoli. Caretaker Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil signed the deal on Friday, in the presence of Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin, and told reporters that Rosneft will manage storage operations. Abi Khalil said they will start with the development of 450,000 metric tons of capacity, likely to be expanded to 1.5 million metric tons in the future.
The facilities were built about 90 years ago and were used to store oil shipped through a pipeline from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Since the 1980s, they have been used to store diesel for local markets. Abi Khalil says there are plans to rehabilitate the Kirkuk pipeline.

Mashnouq Throws Support behind Othman after Corruption Report
Naharnet/January 25/19/Caretaker Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq on Thursday threw his support behind Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman after a report in al-Akhbar newspaper accused him of preventing the judiciary from interrogating officers accused of receiving bribes from fugitives. “Maj. Gen. Imad Othman is above any suspicion and under the law,” Mashnouq tweeted. “He will remain to be the pillar of the ISF, the spirit of this institution and its strong heart. “I salute him and express all respect for his position and all support for this institution in the face of campaigns wherever they come from,” the minister added. Arab Tawhid Party chief ex-minister Wiam Wahhab cited al-Akhbar's report to wage a fresh attack on Othman, with whom he has been at loggerheads since the deadly Jahliyeh raid.
“From now on, we hope no one will lecture us about combating corruption if Imad Othman does not land in jail. What has been mentioned in al-Akhbar newspaper can topple an entire state and its guardians. Mr. President, the state is at stake, so let this criminal be jailed,” Wahhab said, addressing President Michel Aoun.

March 8 Sunni MPs Insist on 'Exclusive' Representative in Govt.
Naharnet/January 25/19/The Consultative Gathering, a grouping of six Hizbullah-backed Sunni MPs, insisted Friday that their representative in the new government must “exclusively represent” the Gathering. “We insist on the appointment of one of us or one of the three candidates whom we have proposed to represent us in the government,” the Gathering said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting. "We will not accept any new proposal or settlement that repeats the previous settlement that was rejected by the Consultative Gathering in form and content,” it added, referring to the botched attempt to nominate Jawad Adra as a consensus candidate loyal to both the Gathering and President Michel Aoun's camp.“We regret the procrastination in the cabinet formation process, which can be attributed to (Prime Minister-designate Saad) Hariri's intransigence and his refusal to acnowledge the results of the elections,” the Gathering said. And emphasizing that “it is not acceptable for a single party to obtain the one-third-plus-one veto power,” the Gathering described such a scenario as an “infringement on the prime minister's jurisdiction.”“Before elections, March 8 and 14 did not exist, but it is necessary to return to them after the elections,” the Gathering said in a statement recited by MP Jihad al-Samad. Turning to the issue of the relations with Syria, the Gathering called on the Lebanese government to “cooperate with the Syrian government to secure the return of Syrian refugees in a manner that achieves both their interest and that of Lebanon.”

Rampling Visits South, Says UK Mine Clearance Support to Continue
Naharnet/January 25/19/As part of his regional visits across Lebanon, British Ambassador to Lebanon Chris Rampling has made his first trip to the southern city of Tyre and the town of Nabatieh, the British embassy said on Friday. “The visit was an opportunity to meet, among others, with Mine Advisory Group (MAG), Imam Sadr Foundation, and tour the region’s archeological sites,” the embassy said in a statement. With Mine Advisory Group, Ambassador Rampling received a briefing about their demining efforts in south Lebanon and how new funding from the UK Department for International Development is “helping to save more lives -- Lebanese and refugees alike,” the embassy added. The UK recently contributed over £2 million to support clearance of many kilometers of cluster munitions across Lebanon. Rampling also visited the Imam Sadr Foundation and heard from its director Rabab Sadr on the NGO’s current and future projects with a focus on women and refugees. The ambassador also took some time out to visit the historical archeological sites at Tyre and Beaufort. While in Nabatiyeh, Rampling was hosted by MP Yassine Jaber of the Development and Liberation bloc in the presence of officials and dignitaries from the region. After the visit, Rampling said: “I am delighted to be returning to the South, and to Tyre. A city steeped in archeological history dating back to Phoenician times. Like many towns in Lebanon, Tyre represents a symbol of coexistence and harmony among its residents. I also visited the beautiful and historic fort: Beaufort Castle, and many interesting people, discussing both our current and possible future support.”“As part of my visit, I came to hear from Mine Advisory Group (MAG) how the new UK funding is supporting their efforts to clear kilometers of unexploded ordinance. Landmines have left a legacy of suffering across the world, and we are pleased to be working here and across Lebanon to help ordinary people get on with their lives: this was part of the UK commitment in December 2017, and which was the most successful Christmas landmine-clearing appeal ever,” Rampling added. He said Britian is “pleased to be working closely with the Lebanese Army, UNIFIL, UNDP, the Mine Advisory Group (MAG) and local NGOs, politicians and dignitaries all over Lebanon, and including in the south.”“I am delighted to have got to understand the region a little better today,” he added.

Bukhari inspects National Council for Combating Drug Addiction in Sidon's Hlaliyeh
Fri 25 Jan 2019/NNA - Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Bukhari, on Friday visited the Center of the National Council for Combating Drug Addiction, in Sidon's Hlaliyé, at the invitation of former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. Ambassador Bukhari toured the various Center's departments and divisions, and heard from officials about the Center's special anti-drug programs and future work plan. Bukhari was accompanied by Siniora, Sidon Municipality head, Mohammad Al-Saoudi, and the head of the Anti-Drug Bureau in south Lebanon, Major Haytham Soueid. Bukhari expressed appreciation for the work in progress and the Center's fierce fight against "a scourge that poses a threat to societies".

Kanaan: Decisiveness substantial en route to government with financial, economic priority
Fri 25 Jan 2019/NNA - Head of the Finance and Budget Parliamentary Committee, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, said on Friday that President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, was keen on the formation of a new cabinet, especially that the prevailing situation can no longer endure without an active government. “Decisiveness is substantial en route to a government with financial and economic priorities,” he said as being interviewed by Sawt Al-Mada radio station. Kanaan added that the recent moves at the governmental level and the meetings that had been taking place, had stirred many impending issues, in addition to the pressing positions of the President of the Republic and the Strong Lebanon bloc on that need to resolve the cabinet formation impasse within days.“Baabda has taken every initiative possible in every crisis. (...) What is needed now is cooperation between everyone and the president. There must be a full plan to restore confidence in Lebanon and restore the financial system through a road map,” Kanaan maintained. He also stressed that "Lebanon is able to meet its obligations and has the potential to promote and rectify the situation.”

State Security Arrests 'IS Recruiter, FSA Member'
Naharnet/January 25/19/The General Directorate of State Security on Friday announced the arrest of the Syrians Abdul Rahman Kh., Ahmed. A. and Mohammed A. “During interrogation, the first confessed to belonging the Islamic State group and inciting individuals to join it, while the second confessed to belonging to the Free Syrian Army,” a State Security statement said. “Legal proceedings were taken against them and were referred to the military prosecution at its request,” the statement added.

Airport Police Confiscate 11 kg of Cocaine
Naharnet/January 25/19/Police at the Rafik Hariri International Airport thwarted an attempt to smuggle 11 kg of cocaine, the National News Agency reported on Friday. NNA said the culprits were two Turkish passengers coming from Brazil via Addis Ababa on board the Ethiopian Airlines. They tried to conceal the drugs by wrapping them around their bodies, it added.

Lebanon's consumer confidence stagnated as 2018 expired
Georgi Azar/Annahar/January 25/19
BEIRUT: Lebanon's Consumer Confidence stagnation continued into 2018's last quarter, with its index averaging 75.5 according to the Byblos Bank/American University of Beirut consumer confidence index (CCI). The results show that the Index regressed by 0.9 percent in October from the preceding month, declined by 0.8 percent in November and increased by 5.3 percent in December, and was nearly unchanged from 75.3 in the third quarter of 2018.  The stagnation was attributed to the "systematic obstruction of government formation" which is a key reason for the loss of confidence momentum. Lebanon has been without a fully functioning government for eights months, rattling both consumer and investor confidence. The lack of reforms on the part of lawmakers also played a role, said Chief Economist Nassib Ghobril, after "Lebanese citizens had high expectations that the various political parties would quickly form a government and implement concrete reforms to improve their quality of living and economic well-being." Yet ongoing political bickering has stalled the government and plunged Lebanon into uncertainty, highlighting "that the behavior of most political parties hardly changed after the elections."
Meanwhile, the impact from the tax increases of 2017 are still being felt to this day, he noted, through "inflationary pressures, economic stagnation and higher cost of living.'' In addition, the Byblos Bank/AUB Present Situation Index averaged 66.7 in the fourth quarter of 2018 and increased by a marginal 1.1 percent from the preceding quarter, while the Byblos Bank/AUB Expectations Index averaged 81.4 and was nearly unchanged from the third quarter of 2018. The Byblos Bank/AUB Consumer Confidence Index is a measure of the sentiment and expectations of Lebanese consumers toward the economy and their own financial situation. The Index is compiled, implemented and analyzed in line with international best practices and according to criteria from leading consumer confidence indices worldwide.

The domestication of violence during Lebanon’s civil war
Samir Khalaf/Annahar/January 25/19
BEIRUT: In some remarkable respects one might well argue that wars in Lebanon, despite some of their appalling manifestations, displayed comparatively little of the bizarre and grotesque cruelties associated with so-called “primitive” and/or “modern” forms of extreme violence, namely; the systematic rape of women by militias, the ritual torture and mutilation off victims, the practice of forcing family members or a family group at knife or gunpoint to kill each other. Other than episodic massacres and vengeful acts of collective retribution (Sabra and Chatila, Tal-el-Za’atar, Damour, etc.), there was little to compare to the planned and organized cruelty on a mass scale typical of extermination campaigns and pogroms.
The incivility of collective violence in Lebanon was, nonetheless, visible in some equally grotesque pathologies, particularly those which domesticated killing by rendering it a normal, everyday routine; sanitized ahdath (events) bereft of any remorse or moral calculation. A few of these pathologies merit highlighting.
Collective violence assumed all the aberrant manifestations and cruelties of relentless hostility. Unlike other comparable encounters with civil strife, which are often swift, decisive, and localized, and where a sizable part of the population could remain sheltered from its traumatizing impact, the Lebanese experience had been much more protracted and diffuse. The savagery of violence was also compounded by its randomness. In this sense, there was hardly a Lebanese today who was exempt from these atrocities either directly or vicariously as a mediated experience. Violence and terror touched virtually everyone.
Fear, the compulsion for survival and efforts to ward off and protect oneself against random violence had a leveling, almost homogenizing, impact throughout the social fabric. Status, class differences and all other manifestations of privilege, prestige, social distinctions, which once stratified and differentiated groups and hierarchies in society, somehow melted away. At least momentarily, as people fell hostage to the same contingent but enveloping forces of terror and cruelty, they were made oblivious of all distinctions; class or otherwise. Other than those who had access to instruments of violence, no one could claim any special privilege or regard.
Equally unsettling, the war had no predictable or coherent logic to it. It was everywhere and nowhere. It was everywhere because it could not be confined to one specific area or a few combatants. It was nowhere because it was unidentified nor linked to one concrete cause. Recurring cycles or episodes of violence erupted, faded and resurfaced for no recognized or coherent reason. It may sound like a cliché, but violence became a way of life; the only way the Lebanese could make a statement, assert their beings or damaged identities. Without access to instruments of violence, one ran the risk of being voiceless and powerless. Literally, the meek inherited nothing. This was perhaps one of the most anguishing legacies of the arrogance and incivility of violence.
Abhorrent as it was, the fighting went on largely because it was, in a sense, normalized and routinized. It was transformed into an ordinary vice; something that, although horrible, was expectable. The grotesque became mundane, a recurrent every-day routine. The dreadful and outrageous were no longer dreaded. Ordinary and otherwise God-fearing citizens could easily find themselves engaged in events or condoning acts which once provoked their scorn and disgust. In effect, an atrocious raging war became, innocuously, ahdath (literally events). This “sanitized” label was used casually and with cold indifference; a true wimp of a word to describe such a dreadful and menacing pathology. But then it also permitted its hapless victims to “survive” its ravages.
This was precisely what had transpired in Lebanon: a gradual pernicious process whereby some of the appalling features of protracted violence were normalized and domesticated. In a word, killing became inconsequential. Indeed, groups engaged in such cruelties felt that they had received permission, some kind of cultural sanction or moral legitimization, for their grotesque deeds. Those witnessing these horrors were also able, by distancing themselves from their gruesome manifestations, to immune themselves against the pervasive barbarism. Witnessing and coping with the dreaded daily routines of war became also remorseless and guilt-free.
The manifestations of such normalization are legion. In the early stages of the war, when bearing arms and combat assumed redemptive and purgative features, any identification with the garb, demeanor, or life style of fighters and militia groups became almost chic; a fashionable mode of empowerment and enhancing one’s machismo. Belligerency, in fact, was so stylized that groups literally disfigured themselves to ape such identities. Bit by bit, even the most grotesque attributes of the war became accepted as normal appendages to rampant chaos of fear. Literary accounts and personal diaries, often in highly evocative tones, recorded such pathologies with abandon. The daily body count was greeted with the same matter-of-factness, almost the equivalent, of a weather forecast. Fallen bodies, kidnapped victims, and other casualties of indiscriminate violence became, as it were, the barometer by which a besieged society measured its temporal daily cycles.
The most dismaying no doubt was when those grotesque features of war began to envelop the lives of innocent children. All their daily routines and conventional modes of behavior – their schooling, eating and sleeping habits, playgrounds, encounters with others, perceptions, daydreams and nightmares, their heroes and role models – were inexorably wrapped up in the omnipresence of death, terror and trauma. Even their games, their language, their cognitive and playful interests became all warlike in tone and substance. Their makeshifts toys, much like their fairy tales and legends, mimicked the cruelties of war. They collected cartridges, empty shells and bullets. They played war by simulating their own gang fights. They acquired sophisticated knowledge of the artifacts of destruction just like earlier generations took delight in identifying wild flowers, birds and butterflies.
There was hardly an aspect of Lebanese children’s lives, and this was certainly more so for adolescents who were involuntarily drawn into the fray of battle, that was exempt from such harrowing encounters. They were all homogenized by the menacing cruelties of indiscriminate killing and perpetual anxieties over the loss of parents and family members. These and other such threats, deprivations, and indignities continued to consume their psychic energies and traumatize their daily life. Successive generations of adolescents, in fact, knew little else.
Norbert Elias’s notion of the “sanitization of violence” could be of relevance here. It will most certainly help us in understanding not only how violence is camouflaged, even stylized so that it no longer seems offensive, but how in the process it becomes protracted and insoluble (Elias, 1988). During certain interludes, these same horrors were not only bereft of any moral outrage, they managed to become sources of fascination and venues for public amusement and entertainment. The war, in other words, began to acquire some of the trappings of a spectacle.
This facile, almost effortless and light-hearted socialization of innocent adolescents into militancy is another disheartening legacy of the arrogance and incivility of collective violence. Legions of such recruits, often from privileged families, stable and entrenched middle-class groups, became willing volunteers to join the ranks of militias as regular fighters or subsidiary recruits. If one were to believe autobiographical accounts and obituaries of fallen fighters (often doctored to heighten notions of self-sacrifice, daring and fearless courage) they were all lionized into exemplary and mythical heroes. On the whole though, particularly during the early rounds of fighting, one saw evidence of over-zealous fighters buoyed by the bravados of their savagery and warmongering. This was again a reminder that killing was not a byproduct of some crazed deranged monster-like creatures driven by the frenzy of atavistic and irresistible compulsion for aggression. Rather, it was more often the outcome of ordinary people being induced by like-minded peers or the aura of bearing arms in defense of threatened values.
**Dr. Samir Khalaf is a retired professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut and has been the director of the Centre for Behavioural Research at the university since 1994. He received his PhD in Sociology in 1964 from Princeton University.

Latest LCCC English Miscellaneous Reports & News published on January 25-26/19
Canada/RCMP charge Kingston youth with trying to get someone to plant a bomb
The Canadian Press/January 25/19
KINGSTON, Ont. — The RCMP say they have charged a Kingston youth with terrorism, alleging he tried to get someone to plant a bomb. He's charged with knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity and with counselling someone to use an explosive or other lethal device to cause death or serious bodily injury. The police say no actual device was ever planted. They have also arrested an adult man but have not charged him with anything at this point. Amin Alzahabi, the father of Hussam Eddin Alzahabi, 20, said Friday his son had been arrested but not charged. He was unsure what was happening. "I want to know where he is," Amin Alzahabi said at his Kingston home.The family came to Canada about two years ago after fleeing war-torn Damascus for Kuwait. Their home in Syria has been destroyed. The father was once imprisoned for not joining the ruling political party and would be vulnerable to arrest and severe retaliation should he and the family return home, according to one of the churches that sponsored the refugee family. The RCMP said they are "working closely" with the local police on the probe, calling it an "ongoing and evolving situation."Police were seen Friday searching a home linked to the second arrest. Police cars and orange barricades barred traffic from the street. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said any operational details on the RCMP investigation will be released by the Mounties, adding that the country's security agencies act on credible information about potential threats. "The government of Canada has no greater responsibility than to keep its citizens safe," Goodale said in a statement Thursday evening. "Earlier today, the RCMP and other police partners took action in Kingston, Ontario, based on credible information, to ensure public safety."The RCMP say the agencies involved include the FBI in the United States, Kingston police, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Canada Border Services Agency and the federal agency that tracks suspicious financial activities. A news conference is promised in Kingston early this afternoon where police will give more details. "The government of Canada constantly monitors all potential threats and has robust measures in place to address them," Goodale said in his statement. "Canadians can be confident that whenever credible information is obtained about a potential threat, the RCMP, CSIS and other police and security agencies take the appropriate steps to ensure the security of this country and the safety of its citizens." Goodale said the country's official threat level remains at "medium." It has stood at that level since the fall of 2014.

Venezuela Opposition Leader Rejects Maduro Talks Proposal
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 25/19/Opposition leader Juan Guaido said Friday he would not attend a "fake dialogue" after President Nicolas Maduro said he was prepared to meet with his rival for Venezuela's top office. The two have been locked in a power struggle for since National Assembly leader Guaido on Wednesday proclaimed himself "acting president" in defiance of Maduro.

Iran ‘Angry’ over Failure to Activate S-300 System in Syria
Tehran - London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 25 January, 2019/An Iranian official on Thursday expressed “anger” at Russia’s failure to activate the S-300 air defense system deployed in Syria during a recent Israeli airstrike near Damascus. Head of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee Heshmatollah Falahat-Pisheh told IRNA there was serious criticism in Tehran for not activating Russia’s S-300 during the Israeli attacks. He said if the system had operated correctly, the Israelis would not have attacked Syria that easily. After returning to Tehran from a visit to Damascus and Ankara, Falahat-Pisheh said: “It seems that there is a kind of coordination between Israel’s attacks and the Russian air defense deployed in Syria.”The Iranian deputy said that Israel’s military actions in the war-torn country aim to disrupt stability. “The Israelis claim their actions are against Iran, while they are attacking Syrian infrastructure, security and defense installations,” he said. Meanwhile, a bomb attack hit the al-Adawi neighbourhood of Damascus on Thursday, causing material damage but no casualties, in the second such explosion in a regime-held area in less than a week. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast hit near the Russian embassy, slightly injuring four people.

US Sends Additional Troops to Syria Ahead of Pullout
Washington - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 25 January, 2019/The US military has moved additional troops into Syria in recent days to help provide protection to other American service members as they withdraw under President Donald Trump's directive to pullout all his country’s troops from there, two US defense officials told CNN. The officials would not reveal where in the country the troops are or how many have been sent, it said. Defense officials have acknowledged that a security force of armed troops -- possibly infantry -- would be needed to help carry out the withdrawal of US forces over time, said the report.
The Pentagon officials said the additional security forces may move around Syria to different locations as needed and may move in and out of the country at times. They would not indicate if any troop withdrawals have taken place or will happen in the immediate future, citing security concerns. The news comes after ISIS claimed responsibility for a deadly explosion that killed four Americans and at least 10 other people in the Syrian city of Manbij last week. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the war-torn country has left Kurdish and Arab fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, exposed. The SDF has been among the most effective forces in the battle with ISIS but is under threat as Turkey threatens a new offensive in Syria.

SDF: ISIS Presence in Syria to End within a Month
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 25 January, 2019 /Military operations against ISIS in Syria are wrapping up and the militants’ last pockets will be flushed out within a month, the chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said. "The operation of our forces against ISIS in its last pocket has reached its end and ISIS militants are now surrounded in one area," Mazloum Kobani told Agence France Presse in an interview. With backing from the US-led coalition, the SDF are in the last phase of an operation started on September 10 to defeat the militants in their Euphrates Valley bastions in eastern Syria.
"We need a month to eliminate ISIS remnants still in the area," said Kobani, who spoke to AFP on Thursday near the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh. A few hundred extremists are defending a handful of hamlets near the Iraqi border, the last rump of a "caliphate" which the terrorist organization proclaimed in 2014. "I believe that during the next month we will officially announce the end of the military presence on the ground of the so-called caliphate," Kobani said. Intense fighting in the area known as "the Hajin pocket" has left hundreds of fighters dead on both sides, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor. ISIS lost the town of Hajin late last year and the subsequent collapse of its defenses saw the SDF -- an alliance of Kurdish forces and local Arab tribal fighters -- conquer one village after another. Kobani said their battle had been complicated as ISIS shifted its strategy after the SDF ousted the militants from their de-facto Syrian capital of Raqqa in 2017. New tactics include "sleeper cells everywhere, secretly recruiting people again, and carrying out suicide operations, bombings, and assassinations", he said. "We expect there will be an increase in the intensity of ISIS operations against our forces after the end of their military presence." The extremist organization has retained a presence in Syria's vast Badia desert and has claimed a series of attacks in SDF-held territory. The SDF have been the main ground partner in Syria of the US-led coalition created in 2014 to fight the militants. Last month, US President Donald Trump announced he was ordering a full troop pullout from Syria, a move that left the Kurds feeling betrayed and exposed to Turkish attacks. The minority has since turned to the regime of Bashar al-Assad to guarantee its survival, but Kobani said negotiations were proving difficult. "Any political agreement should include the special status" of the Syrian Democratic Forces after they fought ISIS "on behalf of all humanity and even the Syrian army", he said. "This is our red line and we will not concede this."The Kurdish-led alliance "protected northeastern Syria... liberated these areas, and have the right to continue protecting the region", Kobani added.

Iraq Parliament Fails to Vote on Justice, Education Portfolios
Baghdad - Hamza Mustafa/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 25 January, 2019 /The Iraqi Parliament failed on Thursday to vote on Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s new candidates for the education and justice ministries, respectively Safana al-Hamdani and Rakan Qader Wali. Parliament voted Wednesday on the country’s general budget for 2019. On Thursday, it was set to approve the PM’s proposal for the two cabinet posts. However, Abdul Mahdi, who should have attended the session to present some clarifications about a decision by the cabinet secretariat general to restrict the powers of deputies, failed to show up. He did not give any reasons for his absence. Although Parliament held a normal session Thursday, it later witnessed a lack of quorum when deputies were asked to vote on the two ministerial posts and on a decision to dismiss newly appointed Education Minister Shaymaa al-Hayali from office after it emerged that her brother had appeared in an ISIS promotional video. Hayali, who still has not taken the ministerial oath, had submitted her resignation to Abdul Mahdi late last year. The lack of quorum came after Kurdish deputies from the Kurdistan Democratic Party withdrew from the session, refusing to vote on the candidate for the justice ministry who belongs to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. “The session witnessed several objections from deputies and political blocs concerning a dispute over candidates for the two ministries and a request to dismiss the education minister from her post,” a parliamentary source told Asharq Al-Awsat. The source said several deputies objected to dismissing Hiyali despite the video. "Several other deputies believe that the new candidate for the education ministry has a weak portfolio amid growing problems in the sector,” the source added.
MP Mohammed al-Karbouli, a member of National Axis bloc, told Asharq Al-Awsat that no votes are expected in the coming days on the new candidates for the ministerial posts. “The process will be postponed until the start of the new legislative season next March,” he said.

France tells Iran new sanctions loom if missile talks fail
Reuters/January 25, 2019/PARIS: France is ready to impose further sanctions against Iran if no progress is made in talks over its ballistic missile program, the French foreign minister said on Friday. “We are ready, if the talks don’t yield results, to apply sanctions firmly, and they know it,” Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters. Diplomats previously told Reuters in private that France, Britain and other EU countries were considering new economic sanctions against Tehran. Those could include asset freezes and travel bans on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Iranians developing the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile program, three diplomats said.

EU, U.S. Crank Up Pressure on Venezuela's Maduro
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 25/19/The European Union and United States ratcheted up the pressure on Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro as his power struggle with the opposition leader intensified on Friday. The EU is drafting an appeal for Maduro to call elections to resolve a political crisis after National Assembly chief Juan Guaido proclaimed himself acting president on Wednesday. "We want an immediate call for elections in the near future," one EU diplomat told AFP. The United Nations has announced a Security Council meeting for Saturday on the crisis, which has left 26 people dead as anti-Maduro activists angry over four years of recession have clashed with security forces. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will "underscore the administration's support for the Venezuelan people" and urge Security Council members to recognize Guaido as the constitutional interim president, the State Department said. President Donald Trump's administration has spearheaded the international pressure on Maduro, who accuses Washington of being behind an attempted "coup," by declaring on Wednesday his regime "illegitimate." Washington's immediate support for Guaido led to Maduro, who retains the powerful military's backing, closing his country's embassy and consulates in the U.S. and breaking off diplomatic ties. Despite allies Russia and China backing Maduro, Spain pushed the EU to recognize Guaido's claims to the presidency if no new elections are held, while Germany said it may follow suit.
'A coup is brewing'
France warned Maduro against "any form of repression" of the opposition as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said more than 350 people were arrested this week during the protests. Maduro's reelection last year was contested by the opposition, and criticized internationally -- but the military has repeatedly reiterated its loyalty to the socialist leader. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, a general, declared the 56-year-old Maduro "the legitimate president" on Thursday and vowed to defend his authority against an attempted "coup d'etat." Eight generals also expressed their "absolute loyalty and subordination" to Maduro. The Supreme Court -- made up of regime loyalists -- warned that "a coup is brewing in Venezuela with the consent of foreign governments."Guaido, 35, has galvanized a previously divided opposition and even attempted to attract military support by offering an amnesty to anyone who disavows Maduro. In a Skype interview with Univision late on Thursday he went one step further by suggesting Maduro could also be offered amnesty if he agrees to step down.
But such an option would have to be evaluated, he said, because Maduro is responsible for the deaths of protesters. Analysts at the Eurasia Group consultancy noted that while international recognition of Guaido as interim president cemented his position as the main opposition leader, his failure to win over the military meant Maduro's fall "does not appear imminent."
Food shortages
Venezuela's descent into a political crisis began this week when a group of soldiers rose up against Maduro and sparked a number of protests leading up to major rival rallies on Wednesday opposing and supporting the socialist leader. That was when Guaido proclaimed himself acting president, with major regional players such as Brazil and Argentina following the US lead in recognizing his claim. Trump has openly mused about military intervention in Venezuela, saying "all options are on the table," but Russia said that "violates the fundamental norms of international law." Since Maduro came to power in 2013, Venezuela has descended into an economic crisis that has left millions in poverty and shortages of basic necessities such as food and medicine. Some 2.3 million people have fled the country since 2015, according to the United Nations. Inflation is forecast to hit 10 million percent this year.

Backed by Military, Venezuela's Maduro Hits Back at Rival
Associated Press/Naharnet/January 25/19/Backed by Venezuela's military, President Nicolas Maduro went on the offensive against an opposition leader who declared himself interim president and his U.S. supporters, setting up a potentially explosive struggle for power in the crisis-plagued South American nation. A defiant Maduro called home all Venezuelan diplomats from the United States and closed its embassy on Thursday, a day after ordering all U.S. diplomats out of Venezuela by the weekend because President Donald Trump had supported the presidential claim of Juan Guaido. Washington has refused to comply, but ordered its non-essential staff to leave the tumultuous country, citing security concerns. The Trump administration says Maduro's order isn't legal because the U.S. no longer recognizes him as Venezuela's legitimate leader. "They believe they have a colonial hold in Venezuela, where they decide what they want to do," Maduro said in an address broadcast live on state TV. "You must fulfill my order from the government of Venezuela." Meanwhile, all eyes were on Guaido whose whereabouts have been a mystery since the 35-year-old was symbolically sworn in Wednesday before tens of thousands of cheering supporters, promising to uphold the constitution and rid Venezuela of Maduro's dictatorship. Speaking from an undisclosed location, Guaido told Univision he would consider granting amnesty to Maduro and his allies if they helped return Venezuela to democracy.
"Amnesty is on the table," said Guaido, who just weeks earlier was named head of the opposition-controlled congress. "Those guarantees are for all those who are willing to side with the constitution to recover the constitutional order."Besides the United States, much of the international community rallied behind Guaido, with Canada and numerous Latin American and European countries announcing that they recognized his claim to the presidency. Trump promised to use the "full weight" of U.S. economic and diplomatic power to push for the restoration of Venezuela's democracy.
Maduro has been increasingly accused of undemocratic behavior by his opponents, and has presided over skyrocketing inflation, a collapsing economy and widespread shortages of basic goods. Meanwhile, Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Cuba and Turkey have voiced their backing for Maduro's government. China's Foreign Ministry called on the United States to stay out of the crisis, while Russia's deputy foreign minister warned the U.S. against any military intervention in Venezuela. Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the information committee at the Russian Federation Council, called Guaido's declaration "an attempted coup" backed by the U.S. Russia has been propping up Maduro with arms deliveries and loans. Maduro visited Moscow in December, seeking Russia's political and financial support. Over the last decade, China has given Venezuela $65 billion in loans, cash and investment. Venezuela owes more than $20 billion.
Diplomats at the Organization of American States held an emergency meeting Thursday on the Venezuelan crisis, during which 16 nations recognized Guaido as interim president.
Domestically, attention has been on Venezuela's military, a traditional arbiter of political disputes in the country, as a critical indicator of whether the opposition will succeed in establishing a new government. Venezuela's top military brass pledged their unwavering support to Maduro, delivering vows of loyalty Thursday before rows of green-uniformed officers on state television. A half-dozen generals belonging largely to district commands and with direct control over thousands of troops joined Maduro in accusing Washington of meddling in Venezuela's affairs and said they would uphold the socialist leader's rule.
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, a key Maduro ally, dismissed efforts to install a "de-facto parallel government" as tantamount to a coup.
"It's not a war between Venezuelans that will solve our problems," he said. "It's dialogue."Guaido has said he needs the backing of three critical groups: The people, the international community and the military. While yesterday's protest drew tens of thousands to the streets and over a dozen nations in the region are pledging support, the military's backing is key. Though many rank-and-file troops suffer the same hardships as countless other Venezuelans when it comes to meeting basic needs like feeding their families, Maduro has worked to cement their support with bonuses and other special benefits.
In a video addressing the military earlier this week, Guiado said the constitution requires them to disavow Maduro after his May 2018 re-election, which was widely condemned by the international community because his main opponents were banned from running.
But there were no signs that security forces were widely heeding Guaido's call to go easy on demonstrators. Gunfire during the protests and looting left 21 dead between Wednesday and early Thursday in the capital of Caracas and throughout the country, reported Marco Ponce, coordinator of the non-profit Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict. Many Venezuelans were looking for Guaido to re-emerge and provide guidance on the opposition's next steps. Guaido, a virtually unknown lawmaker at the start of the year, has reignited the hopes of Venezuela's often beleaguered opposition by taking a rebellious tack amid Venezuela's crushing economic crisis.He escalated his campaign Wednesday by declaring that the constitution gives him, as president of the congress, the authority to take over as interim president and form a transitional government until he calls new elections.

Ex-Trump Adviser Stone Indicted in Mueller Probe
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 25/19/ Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Donald Trump, was arrested Friday under an indictment issued by the U.S. special prosecutor examining possible collusion between the president's campaign and Russia. Stone was charged with seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, making false statements and witness tampering, according to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office. The indictment concerns Stone's communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose group leaked tens of thousands of stolen Democratic Party emails that embarrassed Trump's rival Hillary Clinton in an apparent bid to influence the 2016 presidential election. But Stone was not accused in the document of conspiring with Assange or Russian officials. The White House rejected the idea that the noose was getting tighter around Trump, who has denied any collusion with Russia. "This has nothing to do with the president and certainly nothing to do with the White House," spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told CNN. It was the first indictment in months by the special prosecutor probing Russian efforts to influence the election and whether Trump and his aides tried to obstruct justice. FBI agents arrested Stone at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida before dawn, and he is due in federal court there later in the day. CNN broadcast footage of the pre-dawn operation. One agent pounded on the door and shouted: "FBI. Open the door."Stone's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Stone, who launched his career as a campaign aide to Richard Nixon and has a tattoo on his back of the first U.S. president to resign from office, has spent decades advising various U.S. political campaigns.He was one of the first members of Trump's team when the billionaire real estate magnate formally announced he was seeking office, but he left months later. The two men, however, remained in close contact, with the indictment saying that Stone "maintained regular contact with and publicly supported the Trump Campaign through the 2016 election."
Do a 'Frank Pentangeli'
The indictment said Trump campaign officials contacted Stone about future releases of stolen emails by WikiLeaks, referred to as "Organization 1," after a first dump on July 22, 2016, indicating the campaign was aware of the moves before they occurred.
It was unclear which Trump campaign official was initially directed to contact Stone about the WikiLeaks releases. Stone's contacts over the cache of documents were also revealed to be far more extensive than previously known. "On or about October 4, 2016, the supporter involved with the Trump campaign asked Stone via text message if he had 'hear(d) anymore from London,'" the indictment said. "Stone replied, 'Yes -- want to talk on a secure line -- got WhatsApp?' Stone subsequently told the supporter that more material would be released and that it would be damaging to the Clinton campaign."According to the indictment, Stone also tried to cover up his actions by lying about it to Congress and pushing another witness to refuse to speak to the House Intelligence Committee as well, in one case using an analogy from one of the "Godfather" movies. "On multiple occasions, including on or about December 1, 2017, Stone told Person 2 that Person 2 should do a 'Frank Pentangeli' before HPSCI in order to avoid contradicting Stone's testimony," it said. When testifying before the Senate in the film, the Pentangeli character declares "I don't know nothin' about that" when questioned about his possible links to the mafia. Mueller's indictment quoted a radio interview between Stone and "Person 2" that shows the unnamed individual is comedian Randy Credico.
Ready to testify?
Stone had previously said he was ready to face possible charges from Mueller's team, and publicly criticized the special counsel, echoing Trump's claims of a "witch hunt.""This was supposed to be about Russian collusion, and it appears to be an effort to silence or punish the president’s supporters and his advocates," he told NBC's "Meet The Press" in May. "It is not inconceivable now that Mr Mueller and his team may seek to conjure up some extraneous crime pertaining to my business, or maybe not even pertaining to the 2016 election," Stone said. "I would chalk this up to an effort to silence me."Stone has also previously insisted that he would never testify against Trump. "There's no circumstance under which I would testify against the president, because I'd have to bear false witness against him," he told ABC's "This Week" in December. "I'd have to make things up, and I'm not going to do that."

Taliban Appoint Co-Founder as Top Negotiator for Talks with US
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 25/19/The Taliban have appointed a co-founder of the movement as the new head of their political office in Doha, where talks have been held since Monday with US officials seeking to end 17 years of conflict in Afghanistan."The esteemed Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has been appointed ... head of the political bureau," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement released late Thursday. "This step has been taken to strengthen and properly manage the ongoing negotiations process with the United States," he added. The announcement comes as the insurgents said Thursday they had held four straight days of talks with US officials in Doha. It was not immediately clear if the negotiations were ongoing Friday. The duration of the talks, described as "unprecedented" by analysts, has raised hopes of an imminent agreement that could pave the way to peace talks. But Washington, which confirmed on Tuesday that talks were being held in Qatar between its envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad and representatives of the Taliban, has made no comment since. Afghan officials, who have complained previously about being cut out of the talks, also warned that any agreement would need their endorsement. Baradar, formerly a number two of the Islamist group, helped Mullah Omar, who died in 2013, to found the Taliban movement. Arrested in Pakistan in 2010 in an operation then considered to have dealt a fatal blow to the movement, he was released last October after a first meeting in Doha -- never confirmed by the United States -- between the Taliban and Khalilzad. In addition to the appointment of Mullah Baradar, "many changes have also occurred in the military and civilian departments", the Taliban in their statement.

Iraq Priest who Saved Christian Heritage Ordained Mosul Archbishop
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 25/19/An Iraqi priest who saved a trove of religious manuscripts from the Islamic State group was ordained on Friday as the new Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul. Najeeb Michaeel, 63, was inaugurated in a ceremony in Mosul's St. Paul Church attended by Catholic leaders from the region and the U.S., as well as local officials and residents. "Our message to the whole world, and to Mosul's people, is one of coexistence, love, and peace among all of Mosul's different communities and the end of the ideology that Daesh (IS) brought here," Michaeel told AFP. Michaeel entered religious life at 24 and spent years serving at Al-Saa Church (Our Lady of the Hour) in Mosul. There, he managed the preservation of nearly 850 ancient manuscripts in Aramaic, Arabic and other languages, as well as 300-year-old letters and some 50,000 books. In 2007, he transferred the archives to Qaraqosh, once Iraq's largest Christian city, to protect them during an Islamist insurgency which saw thousands of Christians flee Mosul. And when IS -- who was notorious for defacing churches and destroying any artifacts deemed contrary to its neoconservative interpretation of Islam -- swept across Iraq in 2014, Michaeel again took action. As the jihadists charged towards Qaraqosh, the Dominican friar filled his car with rare manuscripts, 16th century books and irreplaceable records and fled east to the relative safety of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. With two other friars from his Dominican order, Michaeel also moved the Oriental Manuscript Digitisation Center (OMDC), which scans damaged manuscripts recovered from churches and villages across northern Iraq. From the Kurdish capital Arbil, he and a team of Christian and Muslim experts digitally copied thousands of Chaldean, Syrian, Armenian and Nestorian manuscripts. Iraqi forces recaptured Mosul from IS in the summer of 2017, and Michaeel returned to the city months later to attend the first post-IS Christmas mass. He found his church in ruins, with rooms transformed into workshops for bombs and explosive belts and gallows had replaced the church altar. But he insisted there was reason for hope. "I'm optimistic. The last word will be one of peace, not the sword," Michaeel told AFP last year. On Friday, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church called for more international support to Iraq's Christians. "Bishops from outside Iraq are participating in this occasion to support the Christians of Mosul," said Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako. "They are encouraging them to return to their city, rebuild it alongside the other communities and turn a new page based on trust and peaceful coexistence."

Yemen Calls on UN to Identify Obstructors of Political Process
Riyadh – Abdulhadi Habtor/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 25 January, 2019 /Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi warned on Thursday of the failure of the Sweden ceasefire deal that was reached between the legitimate government and Iran-backed Houthi militias in December. He said that the collapse of the deal would be tantamount to the failure of the entire political process. He made his remarks on the sidelines of a meeting he held in Riyadh with UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths and head of the UN team tasked with monitoring the truce, retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert. Hadi urged during the talks Griffiths to speed up the implementation of Sweden deal and inform the international community and all concerned powers of the sides to blame for the obstruction of the truce and peace process. He accused the Houthis of stalling in implementing the Stockholm deal and all other previous agreements.
In addition, officials present at the meeting reported the envoy’s unease when asked to comment on Cammaert’s alleged decision to quit his post. UN diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the organization plans to replace Cammaert next month with Danish Major General Michael Anker Lollesgaard, who led a UN peacekeeping mission in Mali in 2015 and 2016, reported Reuters Friday. During the Riyadh talks, Cammaert briefed the gatherers on the measures that he had taken since his appointment in December and the challenges he has faced.
Head of the media office of the Yemeni Congregation for Reform, Adnan al-Adeeny, who was present at the talks, said that the political parties expressed their disappointment with the UN’s lenient approach towards the Houthis. Such an approach is harming the political and peace process and creating new conditions for war, he warned to Asharq Al-Awsat. Moreover, the political parties urged Griffiths to be more strict in condemning Houthi violations in Hodeidah, informing him that he was “not a mediator,” but an executor of international resolutions. The envoy, for his part, gave “unconvincing” answers when confronted with the demand to clarify Cammaert’s intention to resign, said Adeeny. “He denied that the resignation was prompted by his yielding to Houthi demands, explaining instead that Cammaert was originally tasked to his position to simply form his team and then depart Yemen,” he added.
Also on Thursday, Griffiths held talks with Mohammed bin Saeed Al-Jaber, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, executive director of the Isnad Center for Comprehensive Humanitarian Operations in Yemen and supervisor of the Saudi Reconstruction Program in Yemen.
Jaber highlighted Saudi and the Arab coalition efforts to support the humanitarian operations in Yemen and informed the envoy of Isnad’s future projects in the country.

Hamas Informs Qatari Diplomat of Doha Grant Rejection
Ramallah - Kifah Zboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 25 January, 2019 /The Gaza Strip-ruling part Hamas informed Qatar’s ambassador, Mohammed al-Emadi that the group has refused grant offered earlier by Qatar. Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official in Gaza, said on Thursday Israel had broken previous agreements brokered by Qatar and Egypt. He said Hamas had told Qatar’s ambassador, Mohammed al-Emadi, that it refused the money “in response to the occupation policy”. “We will not accept that Gaza and the understandings are part of the blackmail and the electoral process in the occupation,” he said.
Al-Hayya blamed Israel for sidetracking understandings arranged with Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar, stressing that return marches will continue “Palestinian national rights are retrieved and goals are realized.”“The Palestinians will take their rights,” he added. Hamas’ decision came as a shock to the Qatari ambassador, who eventually considered the move as understandable. The group’s decision followed Israel approving the transfer of Qatari funds to Gaza. Israel allowed the transfer of funds to Gaza after they were deferred by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the shooting of Israeli soldiers on the Gaza border. Israeli sources confirmed that the Israeli security establishment supported the transfer of funds, in order to avoid any escalation. According to the sources, part of this position is related to the fact that Israeli security is convinced that Hamas is not behind the recent attacks.
Former Israeli strategic and intelligence affairs minister Yuval Steinitz said that Doha’s grant would probably arrive in Gaza on Friday, adding in an interview with the official Israeli radio that Israel’s “policy was always to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”Steinitz denied that the funds go to Hamas’ armed wings and are dedicated to civil workers in the Hamas-ruled area, but said militants will inevitably force their way into getting a portion of the funds. “They are employees in Gaza. They are under better surveillance than they were in the past. But as everywhere, there are terrorists there, and I suppose they will succeed in getting something and stealing something from their citizens.”In November Qatar began a six-month, $150 million program to fund the wages and shipments of fuel for power generation in Gaza. The staggered payments, widely seen as a Qatari bid to increase its regional role through winning over Hamas’ Islamist leadership. However, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hamas was angry over Israel’s blackmail policy, saying Israel would stop or allow the funds through whenever it wishes. Sources also said Hamas blasted the Israelis for presenting a new mechanism for funds transfer.
The Hamas leadership is expected to hold a meeting son to discuss the next stage.

Tension Between Maher al-Assad and Suhail al-Hassan
Ana Press (Opposition website)/January 25/19
Maher al-Assad, brother of the regime's president, is being marginalized, by the Russians, as Suhail al-Hassan achieves prominence reports Ana Press.
Ana Press has obtained information from a source close to the commander of the Fourth Division, Maher al-Assad. In a private WhatsApp message, which contained “secret orders” issued by the Hemeimeem base to President Bashar al-Assad, they forbid Mahed al-Assad from carrying out any individual military acts, and to work quickly to dissolve the Fourth Division, while moving Ghassan Bilal (Maher al-Assad’s right hand) to become head of the southern region staff, which means “marginalizing” Maher, as the source put it. According to the same source, the information which was made available to him due to his proximity to Maher al-Assad, also revealed that, “Russia has taken control over the fronts, and that military power is in their hands, and it is giving power to Brigadier General Suhail al-Hassan, who is an important officer in Syria known for his obedience to Russian orders, and who has had full control of the Abou al-Dahour Airbase after Russia withdrew all forces and handed full power to Hassan.”The source said that, “The relationship between Suhail al-Hassan and Maher al-Assad has been very tense and strained because Maher al-Assad considers Suhail al-Hassan to be a rebel, under the authority of the Hemeimeem base, while noting that Hassan does not take any orders from the Syrian Defense Minister, and that he resides solely in the Hemeimeem base, and that tanks and forces have been withdrawn from the Fourth Division and sent to the Fifth Division.”
The source noted that, “The dispute has reached the point of fighting between followers of Maher al-Assad and the Fifth Division, which is under Russian control, with the poisoning of 23 fighters from the Fourth Division. Meanwhile, Maher al-Assad has requested a meeting with the Hemeimeem base a number of times, but Moscow has repeatedly refused, intensifying the dispute between them and increasing the conflicts on the ground, which have still not ended.”On Wednesday, through its sources, Ana Press monitored heavy clashes between members of the Syrian regime forces, represented by the Fourth Division and members of the Fifth Corps and the Eighth Division in Sahel al-Ghab in Hama, after a dispute about the administration of the area, in which both sides are present. The clashes killed dozens on both sides.
*This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.

Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 25-26/19
Trump: In Third Year with Three Charges
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 25/19
Theoretically, we have another year before the next American presidential campaign gets underway. And yet those who follow US policies more closely know that the 2020 presidential campaign has already started. In a sense, at least as far as the two main political parties are concerned, the campaign started the day Donald Trump took the oath of office. In his first two years in office Trump has attended at least 30 rallies across the United States that could best be described as campaign sorties. Add to that more than two dozen media interviews, not to mention thousands of tweets designed to create the image of a successful president running for a second term. For their part, Trump’s Democrat rivals have campaigned against him in a guerrilla-style, hoping to kill his hope of a second term with a thousand cuts.
Unable or unwilling to confront his policies or lack thereof, Democrats have focused their strategy on destroying the persona that Trump has tried to forge for himself. They have done this with three charges.
The first is incompetence. Two years after entering the White House Trump has not yet succeeded in filling some 34 percent of the positions in his administration. In the same period, he has lost almost all the top figures of his initial administration, including a handful of prestigious generals who gave his presidency the gravitas many claimed it lacked.
However, Trump’s supporters may claim that he has not rushed to fill the posts with cronies mainly because, coming from the private sector, he did not have a political entourage. As for the heavyweight fellows who left or were kicked out, Trump was perhaps right in not keeping them even after he and they had found out they cannot work together. And that was in contrast with many previous administrations in which people who couldn’t abide one another stuck together, saying cheese in front of the cameras to hide their clenched teeth. One recent example was the cohabitation between President Barack Obama and his first Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The second charge brought against Trump by is arrogance.
There is little doubt that Trump’s opinion of himself seems to be higher than justified by reality. But then, considering his surprise ascendancy to the presidency in just a few months, would others have felt differently?
Have we forgotten Obama who claimed that the start of his presidency meant “oceans receding ”to end climate change? Or his boast that he would solve the Israel-Palestine problem in one year? The third charge against Trump sounds potentially more serious but is surely more bizarre. That is the claim that Trump may be a kind of Manchurian candidate working with if not for Russia or even Vladimir Putin himself.
This charge is incompatible with the first two. An incompetent agent would be of little use to anyone and liability for everyone. And if Trump is afflicted by the sin of arrogance how would he accept to work for a son of Stalin’s cook?
Accusing senior leaders, including residents, of being agents of foreign powers is nothing new in the United States’ short history.
Those who opposed the creation of the US as an independent nation claimed there was collusion between the Founding Fathers and the French who wished to prevent the English from extending their empire to the whole of North America.
Even today, the French still boast of how they sent 6000 troops commanded by General Rochambeau “to help American colons led by George Washington against British forces.” And that is not to mention General Lafayette whom legend has upgraded into an American national hero. Aaron Burr, the third US vice president under Thomas Jefferson, was accused of colluding with Napoleon to seize Florida from Spain, capture Texas and create an empire of his own by annexing chunks of American territory. He was also suspected of being a Manchurian presidential candidate for the British.
The 10th US President John Tyler was suspected of shenanigans in negotiating trade deals with the German states of the Zollverein (customs’ union) and China. He was later threatened with impeachment for a range of other reasons.
More recently Charles Lindbergh, a famous aviator and founder of the America First movement, was the subject of similar suspicions. Many saw him as a standard-bearer for the Republican Party to defeat President Franklin D Roosevelt and keep the US out of the Second World War. But his hopes were dashed when his Nazi sympathies and links to the Bund (federation) of German-Americans were revealed. He later renounced his pro-Nazi sympathies but didn’t live long enough to rebuild a political career.
Needless to say, evil tongues also accused Roosevelt of colluding with the British to get the US involved the Second World War.
Throughout his presidency, Obama had to cope with claims that he was not a genuine US citizen and had been propelled into the presidency thanks to un-named foreign powers.
The claim that “foreign interests”, including European, Latin American, Arab and Iranian (during the Shah’s time) have tried to buy influence in the US by financing candidacies up to the presidency has been a routine part of the political war in America for decades.
A new nation, the US may appear rather vulnerable to the conflict of loyalties among the numerous ethnic and religious groups composing it. The use of double-barrel identities, such as African-American or Irish-American to cite just two, may reinforce that impression. However, anyone familiar with the US would know of the mysterious, not to say a mystical bond that holds Americans of all ethnicities, creeds, and colors together, making the betrayal of America unimaginable.
My guess is that the much-heralded Mueller report, likely to appear long before the next presidential campaign is put in high gear, will exonerate Trump of the third charge while the other two charges fade into background noise.
But, even if when the next presidential election comes, Trump faces nothing but the three charges leveled brought by Democrats he would have a good chance of sailing through to a second term. By making themselves prisoners of these charges, the Democrats may have blocked the path for serious debate on key issues of domestic and foreign policies. And that is bad for American democracy.

France and Germany: "We Are Committed to the Emergence of a European Army"
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/January 25/19
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13620/france-germany-european-army
"Populism and nationalism are increasing in all our countries. For the first time, a country — Great Britain — is leaving the European Union. Worldwide, multilateralism is under pressure...." – German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"Converging this much with Germany is an abandonment of sovereignty — a betrayal. If we had not alerted the public, this text would have been signed on the sly. The text provides in particular for the need to legislate in the event of obstacles to Franco-German cooperation.... I do not want more convergence with Berlin, be it in social or security matters, or in closer consultation in the UN Security Council." – Marine Le Pen, Le Temps.
"Emmanuel Macron is calling for a grand debate to involve citizens in the public life of our country. At the same time, however, the President of the Republic negotiated a treaty on the sly even though it concerns conditions essential to the exercise of our national sovereignty. Neither the French people, nor the Parliament, nor the Constitutional Council were consulted... For many reasons, this treaty undermines our national sovereignty." – Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, leader of the party Debout La France! (Stand Up, France!).
German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said that a new pact between German and France aims to build a Franco-German "common military culture" and "contribute to the creation of a European army." Pictured: Soldiers of the Franco-German brigade, a military unit founded in 1989, jointly consisting of units from the French Army and German Army. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have signed a new Franco-German friendship treaty aimed at reinvigorating the European Union, which has been buffeted by the European debt crisis, mass migration and Brexit — as well as innumerable conflicting interests and priorities among its 28 member states.
France and Germany, the self-appointed guardians of European integration, have said that the new treaty is a response to the growing influence of populists in Austria, Britain, France, Italy, Hungary, Poland and other European countries who are seeking to slow, and even reverse, European integration by recouping national sovereignty from the European Union and transferring those powers back to national capitals.
The continental showdown, which threatens to split the European Union down the middle between Eurosceptic nationalists and Europhile globalists, will heat up in coming weeks, ahead of elections for the European Parliament in late May 2019.
The "Aachen Treaty" [Traité d'Aix-la-Chapelle; Vertrag von Aachen], signed on January 22 in the German city of Aachen, consists of 28 articles organized into seven chapters; both states commit to closer cooperation in a series of policy areas. The first eight articles, which encompass bilateral foreign and defense policy as well as the European Union, are the most ambitious and consequential items in the treaty:
Article 1 commits both states to deepen their cooperation on European policy by "promoting an effective and strong common foreign and security policy and strengthening and deepening Economic and Monetary Union."
Article 2 commits both states to "consult each other regularly at all levels before the major European deadlines, seeking to establish common positions and to agree coordinated speeches by their ministers. They will coordinate on the transposition of European law into their national law."
Article 3 commits both states to "deepen their cooperation on foreign policy, defense, external and internal security and development while striving to strengthen Europe's autonomous capacity for action." The two states also pledge to "consult each other in order to define common positions on any important decision affecting their common interests and to act jointly in all cases where this is possible."
Article 4 commits both states to "increasingly converge their objectives and policies on security and defense.... They lend themselves to mutual assistance by all means at their disposal, including armed forces, in case of armed aggression against their territories." They also "commit themselves to strengthening Europe's capacity for action and to jointly invest to fill its capacity gaps, thus strengthening the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance." They "intend to promote the competitiveness and consolidation of the European defense industrial and technological base...they support the closest possible cooperation between their defense industries on the basis of mutual trust...both states will develop a common approach to arms exports with regard to joint projects. The two states will "establish the Franco-German Defense and Security Council as the political body to manage these reciprocal commitments. This Council will meet at the highest level at regular intervals."
Article 5 commits both states to "extend cooperation between their foreign affairs ministries, including their diplomatic and consular missions" and coordinate action at the United Nations and NATO.
Article 6 commits both states to "further strengthen their bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism and organized crime, as well as their cooperation in the judiciary and in intelligence and police matters."
Article 7 commits both states to "establish an ever-closer partnership between Europe and Africa...with the aim of improving socio-economic prospects, sustainability, good governance and conflict prevention, crisis resolution, especially in the context of peacekeeping, and the management of post-conflict situations."
Article 8 commits both states to "cooperate closely in all organs of the United Nations." They will "closely coordinate their positions, as part of a wider effort of consultation among the EU member states sitting on the UN Security Council and in accordance with the positions and interests of the European Union." They will "do their utmost to achieve a unified position of the European Union in the appropriate organs of the United Nations." The two states also "undertake to continue their efforts to reform the United Nations Security Council." The admission of Germany as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council "is a priority of Franco-German diplomacy."
The remainder of the treaty pledges closer bilateral cooperation in the areas of artificial intelligence, climate change, cross-border issues, culture, economic affairs, education, energy, environment, health and sustainable development, among other issues.
Merkel, speaking in Aachen, noted that the city was home to Charlemagne (742-814), whom she described as "the father of Europe." She said that the new pact aims to build a Franco-German "common military culture" and "contribute to the creation of a European army." She added:
"Populism and nationalism are increasing in all our countries. For the first time, a country — Great Britain — is leaving the European Union. Worldwide, multilateralism is under pressure, be it in climate cooperation, in world trade, in the acceptance of international institutions or even in the United Nations. Seventy-four years — within one lifetime —after the end of the Second World War, what was seemingly self-evident is again being questioned.
"Therefore, first of all, this situation requires a new founding of our responsibility within the European Union — the responsibility of Germany and France in this European Union. Secondly, it requires a redefinition of the direction of our cooperation. Thirdly, it requires a common understanding of our international role, which can lead to joint action. For this reason, there is, fourthly, a need for shared similarities between our two peoples — in institutions, but above all in the daily living together of our peoples; and especially in the area close to the border....
"We are committed to developing a common military culture, a common defense industry and a common line on arms exports. We want to make our contribution to the emergence of a European army."
Macron, also speaking in Aachen, added: "At a time when Europe is threatened by nationalism, which is growing from within, Germany and France must assume their responsibility and show the way forward." He said that the agreement is an "important moment" for showing that the bilateral relationship was "a bedrock which can relaunch itself... in the service of reinforcing the European project." Macron defended the European Union as a "shield against tumults of the world."
The treaty, however, is short on details and may end up being more symbolic than substantive. Merkel and Macron are both facing waning authority and it remains unclear whether they will have the necessary political capital to jump-start European integration. Germany is now looking toward the post-Merkel era, after she announced that she would step down as chancellor in 2021. Macron is grappling with a nationwide wave of anti-government protests that may yet bring down his government.
The treaty has been met with a mixture of anger and indifference.
In France, Marine Le Pen, leader of the populist party National Rally (formerly the National Front), said that the treaty undermines national sovereignty and accused Macron of "selling off" France to the Germans. In an interview with the Geneva-based newspaper Le Temps, she said:
"Converging this much with Germany is an abandonment of sovereignty — a betrayal. If we had not alerted the public, this text would have been signed on the sly. The text provides in particular for the need to legislate in the event of obstacles to Franco-German cooperation. The French nation is one and indivisible and the law cannot be applied differently for the border regions with Germany. There is the letter of this treaty, but also the spirit. I do not want more convergence with Berlin, be it social or security matters, or in closer consultation in the UN Security Council. The permanent seat of France was hard-won during the Second World War and made France a major power. To call it into question would be to defeat what General de Gaulle did."
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, leader of the sovereigntist party Debout La France! (Stand Up, France!), said:
"In no case should this Franco-German friendship treaty be a pretext for submission. Yet this appears to be the case.
"First, the method of the treaty. Faced with the democratic crisis that our country is going through, Emmanuel Macron is calling for a grand debate to involve citizens in the public life of our country. At the same time, however, the President of the Republic negotiated a treaty on the sly, even though it concerns conditions essential to the exercise of our national sovereignty. Neither the French people, nor the Parliament, nor the Constitutional Council were consulted.
"Second, the content of the treaty. In concrete terms, many stipulations of the treaty aim to share with Germany the sovereign powers and prerogatives of France. Indeed, if mutual defense is integrated into the treaty, France offers Germany the benefits of its military assets, which are envied around the world: (the world's fifth-largest military power, nuclear deterrence, etc.) (Article 4). France offers Germany access to its diplomatic network, the third-largest in the world after the United States and China (Article 5). France offers Germany indirect access to its permanent seat on the UN Security Council by coordinating their positions and coordinating their decisions (Article 8). France wants to give Germany a permanent seat on the UN Security Council by making this objective a diplomatic 'priority' (Article 8). For many reasons, this treaty undermines our national sovereignty.
"Finally, the lack of reciprocity. While Germany is taking advantage of France's strengths as a world power in diplomacy and defense, Germany offers no real counterpart. This is why the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle is not an act of Franco-German cooperation, but of submission of France to Germany.
"In reality, this one-sided treaty is an insult to the friendly relationship that France should maintain with Germany. In view of the concessions made by France to Germany, without compensation, the text signed today in Aix-la-Chapelle constitutes a true act of treason."
In Germany, Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel, leaders of the populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD), issued a statement:
"The Aachen Treaty is a step in the wrong direction. Under the guise of European cooperation, the treaty is the result of the French interest of transferring and redistributing German power, to the detriment of the German taxpayers. It would also create a Franco-German special relationship that would alienate Germany from other European nations.
"AfD federal spokesman Alexander Gauland explains: French President Macron is unable to maintain order in his own country. The nationwide protests in France are never-ending. This failing president is imposing visions for the future of Germany. The EU is now deeply divided. A German-French special relationship will alienate us even further from other Europeans. This torpedoes exactly those European thoughts that Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Macron summon so intimately. They seem to suspect that this EU will disintegrate in the current form.
"Leader of the AfD in the German Bundestag, Dr. Alice Weidel, adds: This treaty is a unacceptable submission of an elected chancellor to a troubled president. Macron gets what he wants: Germany is committed, in the first article, to strengthen and deepen the Economic and Monetary Union, in other words, to complete the transfer and redistribution of wealth.
"Macron promises better and faster access to German taxpayer money in order to be able to continue the French inflationary policy and to fund his election promises. He has already laid out concrete plans for this and has received plenty of applause from established German parties.
"France should also be the main beneficiary in the planned intensified cooperation of the armed forces for the purpose of joint operations and in the consolidation of the European defense industry, which is also envisaged in the treaty. Article 4 of the treaty opens the door to new questionable foreign deployments in Africa and the further sell-off of German technology under the umbrella of French-dominated joint ventures.
"These policy points of French interests are embodied in the pathetic affirmation of obviousness and a plethora of symbolic measures and well-intentioned declarations of intent. Where this treaty, beyond general Europeanness, should also serve German interests, remains a mystery. This agreement furthers the breach with those EU member states that do not want a Franco-German 'European Superstate.' The Aachen Treaty is therefore not only superfluous, but counterproductive.'"
**Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Opinion/Why the Rebuilding of Syria Isn’t Going to Happen
تحليل من الهآرتس لديفيد روزنبرج لهذه الأسباب لن تتم أعادة الإعمار في سوريا
David Rosenberg/Haaretz/January 25/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/71470/david-rosenberg-haaretz-why-the-rebuilding-of-syria-isnt-going-to-happen-%d8%aa%d8%ad%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%84-%d9%85%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%87%d8%a2%d8%b1%d8%aa%d8%b3-%d9%84%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%81%d9%8a/
The Russians hope to recruit the West for the $250 billion-plus effort, but it’s a non-starter and Assad's allies can’t do it alone.
In the film “The Mouse that Roared,” the bankrupt Grand Duchy of Fenwick declares war on the United States in expectation that its inevitable defeat will open up American pockets for post-war reconstruction.
That political farce had some basis in reality. When the movie was made in 1959, America regarded itself as the leader of the free world, and had a deep sense of global responsibility and the money to act on it.
Flash forward 60 years, and a variation on the theme is occurring as the Syrian civil war is supposed to be winding down. Syria wasn’t defeated by the U.S. – quite to the contrary, with the help of its allies, Bashar Assad's regime defeated the Western-backed forces trying to topple him – but the West is being lobbied to pay to rebuild the country anyhow.
Syria is broke and its Russian and Iranian allies haven’t the financial resources to cover the cost, which could run upwards of $250 billion. Russia is leading a campaign to lure Europe (and with some luck maybe even the U.S.) by marketing reconstruction as a way of ending the suffering of the Syrian people, bringing the refugees back home, and ensuring political stability.
The campaign is cynical and its assumptions are false. The war is still on and the suffering will continue for the foreseeable future. Assad has shown little interest in allowing the refugees to return. Rebuilding won’t do very much except help solidify his rule and reward his cronies with fat contracts and payoffs.
But by themselves, cynicism and lies are not why the Russians stand no chance of succeeding. Their real problem is that no one who has the resources to rebuild Syria has a compelling interest to overlook the untruths.
Sand and death
It’s no longer 1959. America still has the money (after all, it’s spending $45 billion a year in Afghanistan alone), but Donald Trump is no George Marshall of the Marshall Plan. Trump would love to cut Afghanistan loose and pare back America’s other financial commitments abroad.
Trump’s vision of America is not one of a responsible world leader but as an enormously big business making deals. As he told the cabinet about why he wants to bring U.S. troops back from Syria, “We’re not talking about vast wealth. We’re talking about sand and death.”
As a business proposition, Trump is correct about Syria. It was an economic sinkhole before the war, and the opportunities to do any profitable business there remain virtually nil. Anyhow, the Kurds control all the country’s oil in the northeast, and the Russian and Iranians have first dibs on the most lucrative contracts.
Well, then what about Europe? European leaders would be glad for the refugees that flooded the continent in 2015-16 to return to a rebuilt Syria. If they believed Assad was ready to welcome them back, they might even be prepared to hold their noses and help.
But Assad doesn't even want it. He has signaled he would prefer a smaller, more politically pliable Syria over one crawling with Western contractors and aid officers and suspect Sunnis. “We lost the best of our youth and our infrastructure,” he told a 2017 conference. “It cost us a lot of money and a lot of sweat, for generations. But in exchange, we won a healthier and more homogeneous society in the true sense.”
Like the U.S., the Europeans are holding out for a political transition in Syria, which everyone knows isn’t going to happen. Assad didn’t fight a year an eight-year civil war at the cost of 500,000 dead and 12 million refugees so he could hold elections.
And the Saudis? That’s Trump’s preference. As he said in a little noticed tweet last month, “Saudi Arabia has now agreed to spend the necessary money needed to help rebuild Syria, instead of the United States. See? Isn’t it nice when immensely wealthy countries help rebuild their neighbors rather than a Great Country, the U.S., that is 5000 miles away. Thanks to Saudi A!”This is a typical specimen of Trump politics – an admixture of ignorance, if not outright lies, unmoored from any strategy.
The Saudis themselves had no idea what Trump was talking about after he made the claim. They are locked in a bitter cold war with Iran and aren’t about to send tens of billions of dollars to a Tehran ally. If Assad rids his country of Iranians, the Saudis might come up with some money, but his military position remains too insecure to trade Iranian fighters for Saudi dollars.
In any case, the Saudis don’t spend their money in the carefree way they once did, and they have financial commitments to countries in which they have a strategic interest, like Egypt, Jordan and Yemen (which fits the "Mouse that Roared" model perfectly).
China is another candidate, but an unlikely one. In contrast to Western countries, Beijing isn’t going to set unpleasant conditions like a political transition in Syria, respect for human rights and an end to corruption.
But their political involvement in the Middle East is almost nil. The only reason Syria might interest them is for the economic benefits, and like Trump, they know there are few to be found in Syria. Beijing would rather invest in countries with substantial amounts of oil and gas.
In the movie, the Grand Duchy of Fenwick accidentally wins the war and gets American aid to boot. But that’s Hollywood, and Damascus is 7,500 miles away.

 Analysis/Iran's Soleimani Seeks New Balance of Terror With Israel. For Now, He Failed
تحليل لعاموس هاريلمن الهآرتس: قاسم سليماني يسعى إلى تحقيق توازن جديد في الإرهاب مع إسرائيل. ألا أنه حتى الآن فشل
Amos Harel/Haaretz/January 25/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/71466/amos-harel-haaretz-irans-soleimani-seeks-new-balance-of-terror-with-israel-for-now-he-failed-%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B3-%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%84/
Netanyahu and new army chief reap benefits from Syria strikes – but who will sound the alarm bells when Israel approaches the precipice of war?
Political advisers in the country, currently busy promoting Knesset candidates, would give anything for someone to love their clients the way the Israeli media loves its chiefs of staff. The series of blows exchanged between Israel and Iran in Syria earlier this week was described by one newspaper as a resounding Israeli victory, and by another as a brilliant ambush that the new Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, set for his adversary, the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. In Haaretz, too, cartoonist Amos Biderman depicted Kochavi piloting a warplane and bombing Soleimani with missiles, while the latter wonders whether this is what a vegetarian chief of staff looks like.
So, on the domestic propaganda front, the IDF chalked up a victory. That narrative was fondly adopted by the newspapers and the electronic media. Kochavi, who is far from enthusiastic about the frequent mention of his dietary preferences, set out to correct any false impression during the ceremony marking his installation, when he talked about his wish for the IDF to be a “lethal army, efficient and innovative.” The attacks in Syria and the reports that followed also helped the cause.
The operation the Israel Air Force launched, according to Syrian sources, at midday on Monday in the vicinity of the Damascus airport was apparently based on intelligence received about concerning new Iranian arms shipments. The Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, of which Soleimani is the commander, responded with a move that had been planned some time in advance: by firing an intermediate-range, surface-to-surface missile into northern Israel. The IDF, too, appears to have planned for such a scenario: The Iron Dome system intercepted the lone missile successfully. A few hours later, there was a fierce Israeli response in the form of an extensive attack, in which various Iranian targets in the Damascus area were bombed and Syrian air-defense batteries were knocked out of action after they opened fire at the Israeli aircraft.
This sequence of events is not very different from what occurred last April-May, when the Iranians and the Syrians sustained casualties in a series of Israeli attacks. They tried to respond at that time, too, by means of a series of operations that the IDF preempted. And back then, as well, a final Iranian act of vengeance failed, when a volley of dozens of rockets aimed at Israel met a frustrating end, as far as Soleimani was concerned: Most of the rockets landed on the Syrian side of the border, on its part of the Golan Heights, and the few that got through were intercepted by Iron Dome.
Indeed, in May, the media also praised the heroism and wisdom of the army’s commanding officers – although it’s now all the more clear that nothing was decided: The Iranians did not abandon their efforts to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon via Syria, or to widen their military foothold in Syria. And then this week too Soleimani tried – and failed again – to impose a new deterrent balance in the area by signaling to Israel that when it decides to attack in Syria, it must take into account not only Syrian antiaircraft fire but also the possibility of a heavy missile being launched into Israeli territory.
Israel’s victory in May was thus less clear-cut than many tended to believe. Nothing has been settled yet. What’s underway now is an exchange of blows amid an overall, lengthy campaign, most of it at taking place at relatively low intensity, far from public scrutiny.
According to IDF Brig. Gen. (res.) Shimon Shapira, an expert on Iran and Hezbollah who is now a senior research associate at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, this week’s events show that the Iranians are willing to take risks against Israel, even to the point of precipitating a limited confrontation with the IDF.“From Iran’s perspective,” Shapira says, “the Israeli attacks cannot be countenanced, certainly in light of the end of the Israeli policy of ambiguity and its readiness to assume direct responsibility for attacking targets in Syria.”
Political security
Another puzzling issue concerns the scale of Iran’s arms-smuggling efforts and its attempt to entrench itself in Syria. Just last month, the IDF claimed that those efforts had been substantially diminished, in the wake of pressure from Moscow on Tehran. Russia, it was explained, is apprehensive that military friction between Iran and Israel on Syrian soil will hinder the continued stabilization of President Bashar Assad’s regime. Accordingly, the Russians were said to be trying to restrain both Iran and Israel. Now we’ve had two Israeli attacks in the Damascus area within 10 days. Was this an urgent operational need in light of a change that occurred on the ground, or an attempt to change the rules of the game (and preserve freedom of maneuver) in the skies of the north?
For some months, the chiefs of staff – first Gadi Eisenkot and now his successor, Kochavi – have appeared to be fully coordinated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Initially, this situation prevailed to the chagrin of the defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who subsequently resigned. Lieberman pushed for a broad operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip; Netanyahu and Eisenkot preferred to focus on the north, first in Operation Northern Shield, to destroy the attack tunnels dug by Hezbollah below the Lebanon border, and afterward in the ongoing resoluteness in Syria.
The developments of the past few months in the north benefited Netanyahu throughout: The situation did not lurch out of control and so far things have not deteriorated to the brink of war. The security-based agenda serves him vis-a-vis the public, given the double challenge he faces of the police investigations and the looming election. The IDF, too, would like to maintain good working relations and common interests with the prime minister, especially considering he is also the defense minister. Just as the operation against the underground tunnels supplied something of a militant finale to Eisenkot’s tenure, the attacks in Syria are now helping to establish an aggressive image for his successor.
This is all the more pertinent with Kochavi facing a more important and more urgent mission, for which he will need Netanyahu’s full support: the formulation of a new force-building plan for the IDF. There are multiple advantages inherent in close cooperation between the political and military arenas. Yet, a different question arises: With the continuation of the attacks in Syria being convenient to both of them, will there be someone to sound the alarm if the confrontation with the Iranians escalate to the point at which we are liable to lose control?
On Wednesday, following two days of silence, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the latest attack in Syria and called on Israel to desist from further such operations. It’s possible that these bombing runs – and the scrapping of the policy of ambiguity, in the form of declarations by Eisenkot and Netanyahu (the latter even tweeted that he had “renovated the airport in Damascus”) – went too far from the perspective of Moscow and Tehran. The result could be a strategic misstep, to which the IDF will also have contributed its part.
A very similar process, in which a security problem is intertwined with political needs, is also underway with regard to the Gaza Strip. Neither the prime minister nor the army want a war there and therefore both agreed to an arrangement whereby Qatar would inject $15 million a month into the Strip – even though it’s clear that part of that money ultimately makes its way to Hamas. But Netanyahu wants to be elected to a fifth term as premier, and Lieberman’s persistent sniping about how Israel is paying protection money to Hamas doesn’t help him among right-wing voters.
As a result, the latest monthly transfer of Qatari money, which is brought in in the form of cash in suitcases, was delayed for two weeks. Then this week, Islamic Jihad, for reasons of its own, initiated two attacks along the Israel-Gaza border fence and exacerbated the dilemma. It was even less convenient for Israel to approve the transfer of the money following the shooting incidents, but a delay in delivery would increase the chance of a violent clash with Hamas, which is also dangerous for Netanyahu during an election campaign. (Late Thursday, the cabinet approved a transfer of funds to Hamas, which immediately announced its refusal to accept it.)
Missed opportunities
Stanley McChrystal, the retired U.S. Army general who was commander of American forces in Afghanistan and before that of special ops in Iraq, apparently didn’t read the latest reports from Israel about Qassem Soleimani’s painful defeat. An article he published this week in Foreign Policy contains surprising praise for the Iranian general.The tone McChrystal takes in writing about Soleimani, who is responsible for the deaths of no few Americans and Israelis, borders on admiration: “The humble leader’s steady hand has helped guide Iranian foreign policy”; and also, “there is no denying his successes on the battlefield”; and even, “Soleimani is running the Syrian civil war.” “Arguably,” McChrystal adds, the Quds Force commander is “the most powerful and unconstrained actor in the Middle East today.”
The American general describes the Iranian adversary as a combined product of the Islamic Revolution in his country and of the protracted Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Iran’s complex political arena has allowed him to head the force for 21 consecutive years. His success is due to his skills, but also to the stability afforded by such a lengthy tenure, the kind that American commanders can only envy. Soleimani, McChrystal writes, is an extraordinarily dangerous person – and he occupies a position that could affect the future of the Middle East.
In 2007, McChrystal relates, U.S. forces under his command tracked a convoy in which Soleimani was traveling from Iran to the Kurdish city of Erbil in northern Iraq. “There was good reason to eliminate Soleimani,” whose troops were building the roadside bombs that were activated by Shi’ite militias and ravaging American convoys in Iraq at the time. In the end, however, the decision was made not to liquidate him. The Americans observed the convoy until it reached Erbil, by which time “Soleimani had slipped away into the darkness.”
That wasn’t the only time Soleimani was in the crosshairs of either the Americans or other foes. A year later, in February 2008, Imad Mughniyeh, who was described as the commander-in-chief of Hezbollah, was assassinated in Damascus. In 2015, The Washington Post quoted American intelligence personnel as saying that Soleimani had been standing next to Mughniyeh when the latter got into a jeep in which a bomb had been planted. According to the paper, the assassination was a joint Israeli-American operation, and it was the Americans who at the last minute vetoed the killing of Soleimani as well, on the grounds that he was not an original target of the operation.
In his exit interviews with Israel’s TV news programs, Gadi Eisenkot was asked over and over about the possibility of Israel deciding to assassinate Soleimani. Eisenkot chose not to respond.

Trump is right: Ballistic missiles are a threat
Luke Coffey/Arab News/January 25/19
Donald Trump takes center stage during the Missile Defense Review announcement at the Pentagon.
The proliferation of ballistic missiles around the world is a real threat, not only to the US but to many of its allies. This is why US President Donald Trump’s latest speech on the subject, and his administration’s recently published Missile Defense Review, are so timely.
During his speech at the Pentagon last week, Trump laid out his vision clearly, saying: “Our goal is simple, to ensure that we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States anywhere, anytime, anyplace.” While some might dismiss this as the usual Trumpian rhetoric, he is right to focus on improving America’s missile defense capability.
A strong and robust missile defense system serves as an important component of America’s national security architecture. A capable missile defense system gives policymakers more time to make decisions during a crisis, and offers the US a greater ability to deter attacks. If an attack does occur, a missile defense system can protect vital infrastructure and population centers.
The threat is not going away. Ballistic missiles are the weapon of choice for many adversaries. More than 30 countries have them in their inventory, and this number is only increasing. Ballistic missiles are able to evade many existing defense systems because they travel at very high speeds. They also come at a relatively low cost compared to other conventional weapons. As technology advances, the cost of developing, maintaining and employing these weapons decreases.
Regarding the protection of the US, the Missile Defense Review announced more improvements to missile defense, including increasing the number of interceptors in Alaska and building new sensors in the Pacific region. There was even a focus on space-based sensors, though little mention of space-based interceptors, as originally envisioned by then-President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative in the 1980s.
During his speech, Trump explicitly stated his desire to place the safety and protection of Americans first against the threat of missiles. As US president, this is a completely reasonable desire. While this might have undertones of an “America First” ideology, many allies stand to benefit from US advancements in missile defense technology.
More than 100,000 American citizens are living in the Middle East — all of them are under threat from Iranian missiles.
In fact, Trump stressed the importance of helping US partners and allies defend themselves, saying: “Our plan directs the Department of Defense to prioritize the sale of American missile defense and technology to our allies and to our partners.” So the more the US focuses on improving missile defense capabilities, the better for its allies because that same defense technology will become commercially available over time.
Perhaps there is no region that understands the missile threat more than the Middle East. Iran is the biggest culprit. The failed nuclear deal completely ignored Tehran’s ballistic missile ambitions, and now the region is suffering the consequences.
Iran routinely flouts UN resolutions on the testing of ballistic missiles. Its proxies have benefited greatly from its largesse. Hezbollah and the Houthis possess more missiles in their inventory than some nation states — many of these missiles are ballistic. In 2018, the Houthis fired dozens of ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia, a number of which were intercepted by Saudi missile defense systems.
The US should place a particular focus on helping its partners in the Middle East improve their missile defense capabilities. Doing so is in America’s national interest. After all, there are tens of thousands of US service personnel and more than 100,000 American citizens living in the Middle East — all of them are under threat from Iranian missiles. So any missile defense system protecting Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Riyadh will also potentially protect tens of thousands of US citizens.
Critics of US missile defense argue that advancements in this technology will create an arms race, like that seen during the Cold War, by forcing adversaries to rapidly increase their missile inventory. This is nonsense. Every country has the right to self-defense. If the technology exists and the threat is real, any leader of any nation has the moral obligation to do everything possible to protect its citizens.
As with most major policy speeches delivered by politicians, the proof will be in the pudding. Implementing the type of missile defense system that Trump outlined will be incredibly expensive, and will require policymakers and legislators to appropriate adequate funding. Given the strain on federal spending in the US, it remains to be seen if the vision in Trump’s speech will become reality.
The threat from ballistic missiles is not going away, and the technology to defend against them must keep pace. Giving a speech and publishing a review is one thing. Actually developing and employing a proper missile defense system is quite another. Now is not the time to become complacent.
*Luke Coffey is director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Twitter: @LukeDCoffey

Why is the 1998 Adana pact between Turkey and Syria back in the news?
Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/January 25/19
The Adana agreement, signed by Turkey and Syria on Oct. 20, 1998, was the most critical issue on the agenda during the meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Jan. 23.
Both leaders mentioned the deal during their joint press conference. Putin highlighted the fact that the 20-year-old agreement between Ankara and Damascus is still binding, while Erdogan stressed its importance and said that Turkey would be keeping it on its agenda. This was the first meeting of the two leaders since the announcement of the decision by the US to withdraw its troops from Syria. Therefore, their talks were already important — and raising the issue of the Adana agreement made them even more so.
What is this 1998 agreement and why is it back on the agenda after seven years of conflict in Syria? The Adana agreement was signed at a time when relations between Turkey and Syria were strained and the neighbors were on the brink of war. Damascus had been allowing Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — who is now serving a life sentence on the Turkish island of Imrali — to take shelter and direct the activities of the terrorist organization from within its borders for several years. When Turkey threatened military action, Damascus deported Ocalan and closed the PKK camps in the country.
The Adana agreement was designed to help restore bilateral relations. It was eventually concluded after Iranian Foreign Minister Kemal Harrazi and Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa intervened on behalf of their presidents. Some described the deal as a Turkish-Syrian version of the Camp David agreement signed by Egypt and Israel.
The provisions of the agreement clear a legal path for Turkey to take action in Syria, with the full approval of Russia.
Syria’s decision to expel Ocalan and negotiate with Turkey was linked to its concern about the strength of the Turkish military in the face of its own weakness. A few years later, however, Syrian President Bashar Assad said during an interview that “the deportation of Ocalan was not out of fear but because we preferred you. We could either be friends with the Turkish people or prefer the Kurds and lose you. Because our preference was with you, we sent Ocalan out.”
With the signing of the agreement, Syria recognized the PKK as a terrorist organization and pledged not to provide it with any kind of support — financial, logistic or military. Until 2011, Turkey greatly benefited from the agreement in its fight against the PKK. However, when the civil war erupted in Syria, Assad was inclined to play the PKK card against Turkey once again, because his neighbor to the north had taken a stern attitude and criticized him.
Article 1 of the Adana agreement states: “Syria, on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, will not permit any activity that emanates from its territory aimed at jeopardizing the security and stability of Turkey.” However, several reports during the war suggested that Syria had given the PKK free rein on its soil, and even that the Syrian security services had assassinated moderate Kurdish politicians to clear the way for the PKK to reassert itself in Kurdish regions.
Turkey now faces a serious threat emanating from Syria due to the activities of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Syrian offshoot of the PKK. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: “We think he (Putin) referred to this protocol, implying that Turkey can intervene in (Syria). And this is positive for us.”
Under the 1998 agreement, Damascus agreed that it would not allow the PKK to operate on its soil. Now, however, the YPG has claims for an autonomous administration in northern Syria based on the political ideals promoted by Ocalan.
The renewed focus on the Adana agreement brings to mind some critical points. Firstly, it means that Syria should be obliged either to extradite terrorists to Turkey, in this case members of the YPG or the Democratic Union Party (PYD), or remove them from the country. But to expect this from Damascus, Turkey will need to engage in official communication with the Syrian regime. According to several analysts, the return of the Adana agreement to the agenda serves to pave the way for formal contact between Ankara and Damascus and a new beginning for bilateral relations.
However, with Turkey concerned about the possible power vacuum that will be created after the US withdrawal, significant contact between Turkey and Syria remains unlikely for now. In addition, what action Turkey might take against Kurdish terrorists in Syria depends on what sort of approach Damascus adopts toward the Kurds.
Ankara has been able to raise its security concerns through the ongoing Astana process, which also includes Russia and Iran, and does not need any other platform to discuss its concerns. Turkey wants its borders to be free from the threat posed by terrorist elements in Syria, and Russia seems to understand these concerns. Putin and Erdogan’s positive remarks regarding the importance of the Adana agreement should be read in the context of the issue of a safe zone, regarding which Moscow and Ankara are on the same page.
It is important for states to remember their history as they shape their policies for the future. Time will tell the full reasons why the Adana agreement has been raised again. However, it seems safe to presume that the provisions it contains clear a legal path for Turkey to take action in Syria, with the full approval of Russia.
• Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkey’s relations with the Middle East.