LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
July 02/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
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Bible Quotations For today
I have learned to be content with whatever I
have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In
any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of
going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through
him who strengthens me
Letter to the Philippians 04/08-14:”Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever
is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing,
whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything
worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you
have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be
with you. I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your
concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to
show it. Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be
content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what
it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of
being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can
do all things through him who strengthens me. In any case, it was kind of you to
share my distress.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese
& Lebanese Related News published on July 01-02/2019
Lebanon: Fears of Inter-Druze Strife after Killing of Minister’s Bodyguards
Higher Defense Council Says Security Must be Restored in Aley
Lebanon vows to restore security after deadly shootout
Aoun inaugurates 'Oasis De Vie' project in Ashrafieh
Aoun meets Arslan, Gharib at Baabda palace over Aley region incidents
Berri Urges 'Prudence, Wisdom' after Gharib Incident
Berri: For demonstrating wisdom and preserving national unity
Al-Rahi Slams 'Armed Attack on Minister', Says Reconciliation a 'Red Line'
Wahhab Says Arrest of 'Killers' Would Pacify Situation
Arslan Decries 'Premeditated' Attack, Slams Shehayyeb as 'Sedition MP, Vampire'
Jumblat Meets Kuwait Emir with PSP Delegation
New Daily Bucks Trend in Lebanon
Kataeb after politburo meeting: Mountain reconciliation is red line
Army re opens Baalchmay road, remove burning tires
Report: Hizbullah Fighters Began ‘Secret’ Pull Back from Syria
Army Demolishes Syrian Refugee Shelters as Ultimatum Expires
LDP Supporters Briefly Block Bhamdoun Highway
Cautious Calm in Aley after Deadly Armed Clash Involving Minister's Convoy
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports
And News published on July 01-02/2019
Damascus: Israeli air/naval forces hit 10 Syrian, Iranian, Hizballah targets
Israel Strikes Iranian Targets in Syria, Report Says; 16 Killed, 21 Wounded
Missile Fired by Syrian Air Defenses Crashes in Cyprus
Iran Exceeds Enriched Uranium Stockpile Limit
Iran Enriched Uranium Stockpile Passes 300 Kg Limit
Israel PM Urges European Nations to Sanction Iran over Uranium Breach
Israeli Spy Chief Says 'Certain' Iran behind Gulf Attacks
U.N. Tells Iran to Stick to Nuclear Deal after Breaching Cap
Iraq PM curbs powers of Iran-backed armed groups
Iran faces new global sanctions for breaching 2015 nuclear deal
Erdogan: Russian Missile Defense System to Arrive in 10 Days
Hamas: We Are Not Occupation Force to Hand Over Gaza Strip, Leave
Egypt Has Succeeded in Destroying Terror Infrastructure, Says Sisi
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Admits Committing ‘Mistakes’ during ‘Revolution’
Foreign Direct Investment in Qatar Drops 322%
Jordan, US Discuss Syria, Anti-Terrorism
Court Overturns Ruling to Strip Citizenship of 92 ‘Hezbollah of Bahrain’
Convicts
Algeria Journalist Beaten, Humiliated after Arrest Covering Demos
Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published
on July 01-02/2019
Damascus: Israeli air/naval forces hit 10 Syrian, Iranian, Hizballah targets/DEBKAfile/July
01/2019
Israel Strikes Iranian Targets in Syria, Report Says; 16 Killed, 21
Wounded/Reuters and Jack Khoury/Haaretz/July 01/2019
Missile Fired by Syrian Air Defenses Crashes in Cyprus/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday,
01 July, 2019
G20 and Peace to Prosperity: a tale of two very different economic summits/Raghida
Dergham/The National/July 01/2019
Palestinians: "Hamas Is Not Afraid of Elections"/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone
Institute/July 01/2019
Erdogan’s Blunders and Imamoglu’s Rise/Bobby Ghosh/Bloomberg View/July 01/2019
Osaka And The World’s Board of Directors/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/July
01/201
Sanders’s Socialism Won’t Bring On the Revolution/Noah Smith/Bloomberg/July
01/2019
Iran’s Bets on the Arabs and the International Community/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq
Al Awsat/July 01/2019
Analysis /Alleged Israeli Strike in Syria Hit Advanced Iranian Weapons Supply
Headed for Hezbollah/Amos Harel/Haaretz/July 01/2019
How Middle East Eye is fake-news central/Ibrahim Alkhamis/Arab News/July 02,
2019
A grassroots antidote to populism/Ismael Emelien and David Amiel/Arab News/July
02, 2019
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News published on July 01-02/2019
Lebanon: Fears of Inter-Druze Strife after
Killing of Minister’s Bodyguards
Beirut - Nazeer Rida/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 01 July, 2019
Fears of inter-Druze strife in Lebanon escalated Sunday following the killing of
two of the bodyguards of Minister of State for Displaced Affairs Saleh al-Gharib
in a shootout that erupted in conjunction with the visit of Foreign Minister
Jebran Bassil to Aley. A third bodyguard and a member of the former MP Walid
Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) were also injured. The dispute
broke out as PSP supporters were protesting against Bassil’s visit to Sheikh
Nassereddine al-Gharib in Kfar Matta in the Aley district of Mount Lebanon,
which the minister later canceled. Protesters blocked the passage of the
minister’s motorcade and the two sides exchanged fire. The deceased bodyguards
were Samer Abi Farraj and Rami Salman. Bassil’s Free Patriotic Movement (FPM)
spoke of tension “two days ago”, while the PSP said Gharib’s bodyguards began to
fire arbitrarily at those protesting the foreign minister’s visit. Jumblatt, who
is outside the country, commented on the incident in a tweet: “I will not enter
into any media debate about what happened. I demand an investigation into the
incident away from the media.” In an attempt to contain the situation, Prime
Minister Saad Hariri held a series of contacts with Bassil, PSP officials and
the Democratic Party, led by MP Talal Arslan, focusing on the need to stop any
escalation and to exert utmost efforts to calm the tension and maintain
stability, as confirmed by ministerial sources who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat.
Higher Defense Council Says Security Must be Restored in Aley
Naharnet/July 01/2019
The Higher Council of Defense convened at the Presidential Palace in Baabda at
the behest of President Michel Aoun, one day after an armed clash in the Mount
Lebanon region of Aley that involved the convoy of Minister Saleh a-Gharib, the
National News Agency reported on Monday. President Michel Aoun, stressed that
the pillars of the Republic are three: freedom of belief, the right to disagree,
and freedom of opinion and expression, the HDC spokesman said in a statement
after the meeting. Aoun called on the judicial and security authorities to
implement the necessary measures, in accordance with the applicable rules and
regulations, and to make the necessary arrests of the persons involved in the
security incidents that took place in a number of villages in Aley on Sunday.
The Council adopted "decisive decisions to restore security to the region that
witnessed the bloody events, without any delay," calling "to arrest all the
wanted persons and refer them to the judiciary."By law, the decisions of the
Council remain confidential. The meeting was held in the presence of Prime
Minister Saad Hariri and Ministers of: Finance Ali Hassan Khalil, Foreign
Affairs Jebran Bassil, Defense Elias Bou Saab, Interior Raya Hassan, Economy
Mansour Bteish, Justice Albert Serhan, Presidential Affairs Salim Jreissati. Top
security and military chiefs also partook in the meeting, alongside State
Prosecutor Judge Samir Hammoud. Before the meeting, Aoun and Harir held a
closed-door meeting.
Lebanon vows to restore security after deadly shootout
Reuters/July 01/2019
BEIRUT: The Lebanese government vowed on Monday to restore security to an area
of a deadly shooting that has stirred fear of renewed strife in the Chouf
Mountains, one of the bloodiest theatres of the 1975-90 civil war. Two aides of
government minister Saleh al-Gharib, the state minister for refugee affairs,
were killed on Sunday in the incident in the Aley region in what he termed an
attempted assassination. Lebanon's Supreme Defence Council, which includes the
president and security chiefs, said it had taken "decisive" measures to restore
security to the area and bring to justice those involved.
"This is to bury strife, safeguard the prestige of the state and to spare
innocent blood," the council said in a statement, adding that the decisions
would remain secret. No arrests have been announced yet. The incident spiralled
as supporters of Walid Jumblatt, Lebanon's main Druze leader, protested against
a planned visit to the area by Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, a Maronite
Christian and Jumblatt adversary. He ultimately cancelled the visit, saying he
wanted to avoid any security problem. Gharib, a Druze politician, is politically
aligned with Bassil and backed by Jumblatt's Druze rival Talal Arslan.
Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) has accused Gharib's bodyguards of
opening fire on the protesters, leading to an exchange of fire in which two PSP
supporters were also wounded. Arslan, in a televised news conference, said the
state must act. "If the state does not strike with an iron fist there will be
negative repercussions in more than one area," he said. The historic rivalry
between Arslan and Jumblatt has surfaced on numerous fronts of late, including
the tussle for Druze cabinet posts in Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri's national
unity government. The families of the men killed on Sunday have said they will
not bury them until the perpetrators are handed over. The Chouf witnessed years
of fighting between Christian and Druze militias in the civil war, leading to
the displacement of the Christian population. Some have returned under
government-backed "reconciliation" agreements.
Aoun inaugurates 'Oasis De Vie' project in Ashrafieh
NNA - Mon 01 Jul 2019
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, this Monday evening inaugurated
in Ashrafieh the non-profit "Oasis De Vie" project for the Lebanese elderly and
patients with Alzheimer. Today's inauguration comes seven years after laying the
cornerstone for this project by the Roman Catholic Charity Association in
Beirut. The newly-inaugurated project costs $ 25 million, comprising 92 rooms
and 131 beds, as well as a daily club for the elderly and people with special
needs. Greeting the Head of State upon arrival at the Center had been the
Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Joseph Al Absi,
Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Beirut and Jbeil Georges Wadih Bacouni,
Beirut Governor Ziad Shbib, President of the Greek Catholic Charity Society in
Beirut Roger Nasnas and CEO of "Oasis De Vie" Zafer Shawi. Aoun, accompanied by
Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, toured the various units and wings
of the freshly-launched center, having firsthand look at the essential services
provided for patients and the elderly. This followed by the inaugural ceremony
attended by scores of dignitaries, including Vice Speaker Elie Firzli, former
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Vice Prime Minister Ghassan Hasbani, Labour
Minister Mansour Bteish, and Social Affairs Minister Richard Kouyoumjian.
Aoun meets Arslan, Gharib at Baabda palace over Aley region incidents
NNA - Mon 01 Jul 2019
President of the Republic General Michel Aoun, on Monday afternoon received at
Baabda palace Lebanese Democratic Party Head, MP Talal Arslan, and Minister of
State for Displaced Affairs, Saleh Al-Gharib. The meeting took place in the
presence of Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Selim Jreissati.
President Aoun was briefed on the circumstances that accompanied the incidents
that took place yesterday in the Aley region. On emerging, MP Arslan said that
he and Minister Gharib called for the referral of yesterday's assassination
incident to the Judicial Council. Arslan also informed the President on his
available information on Sunday incidents.
Berri Urges 'Prudence, Wisdom' after Gharib Incident
Naharnet/July 01/2019
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday called for “prudence and wisdom” in the
wake of the deadly incident in the Aley town of Qabrshmoun. “The time now is for
resorting to prudence and wisdom and for exerting utmost efforts to preserve
unity and public order and we have full confidence in the wise leaders of Mount
Lebanon,” Berri said. “Let the judiciary play its role in the investigation
until the end,” he added. The National News Agency said the Speaker has carried
out a series of phone calls aimed at “containing the repercussions.”Two
bodyguards of State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib were killed and
a third was wounded in a clash with supporters of the Progressive Socialist
Party on Sunday. A PSP supporters was also wounded in the clash. The PSP and
Gharib's Lebanese Democratic Party have traded blame over the incident.
Berri: For demonstrating wisdom and preserving national
unity
NNA -Mon 01 Jul 2019
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, has been following up on the painful incidents that
took place on Sunday and their ramifications on the general situation in the
country. In this framework, Speaker Berri conducted a series of contacts in a
bid to ease repercussions of the Aley region incidents.
Berri stressed: "Now it is time to resort to reason and wisdom and to do
everything possible to maintain unity and stability," expressing full confidence
in the insight of the noble mountain dignitaries. The Speaker called for the
judiciary to take its role in the opening of an investigation till the end. On
the other hand, Berri received at his Ain El Tineh residence the charge
d'affaires of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Lebanon, Ergean Kalikinov, who
informed him of the measures adopted by the government of his country to contain
the ramifications of the latest incidents that targeted several members of the
Lebanese community and Arab nationals in Kazakhstan. Kalikinov assured Berri
that all the wounded have left the hospital. The Kazakh Charge also extended to
the Speaker an invitation to take part in the Euro-Asian parliamentary
conference scheduled for next September in the Kazakh capital. Berri also met
with the Director-General for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement
Negotiations Christian Danielsson, accompanied by EU Ambassador to Lebanon,
Christina Lassen.
Al-Rahi Slams 'Armed Attack on Minister', Says Reconciliation
a 'Red Line'
Naharnet/July 01/2019
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Monday voiced regret over “the bloody
incidents” that occurred Sunday in the Aley town of Qabrshmoun and strongly
condemned “the armed attack that almost killed a government minister and
resulted in the death of two of his bodyguards.”
“It ignited the fire of strife, disrupted peace and sparked panic and fear,” al-Rahi
lamented. He also called for resorting to legal norms and urged security forces
to “pursue the perpetrators, arrest them immediately and hand them over to the
judiciary.”Addressing political leaders, al-Rahi urged them to “rein in their
rhetoric” and “stop the campaigns of provocation and sectarian incitement.”“They
mist respect the other opinion and freedom of expression,” he said. The
patriarch also said that “national reconciliations, whether in Mount Lebanon or
between the Lebanese parties, are a red line that no one has the right to
cross.”
Two bodyguards of State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib were killed
and a third was wounded in a clash with supporters of the Progressive Socialist
Party on Sunday. A PSP supporters was also wounded in the clash. The PSP and
Gharib's Lebanese Democratic Party have traded blame over the incident. PSP
supporters had earlier blocked roads in the Aley district to prevent Free
Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil from touring the region.
Wahhab Says Arrest of 'Killers' Would Pacify Situation
Naharnet/July 01/2019
Arab Tawhid Party leader ex-minister Wiam Wahhab on Monday called for the arrest
of the gunmen who exchanged fire with the bodyguards of State Minister for
Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib and killed two of them. “The Higher Defense
Council's decisions are excellent and security must be imposed on everyone,”
Wahhab tweeted. “Mount Lebanon and the safety of its residents are more
important than all our political calculations,” he added. “The arrest of the
killers is the key to pacification,” Wahhab said. The clash between Gharib's
convoy and supporters of the Progressive Socialist Party in the Aley town of
Qabsrshmoun had been preceded by high tensions over a visit to the region by
Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil -- an ally of Gharib and his
Lebanese Democratic Party. PSP supporters had earlier blocked roads in several
Aley towns to prevent Bassil from touring the region.
Arslan Decries 'Premeditated' Attack, Slams Shehayyeb as 'Sedition MP, Vampire'
Naharnet/July 01/2019
Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan on Monday described the deadly
clash in the Aley town of Qabrshmoun as a “premeditated sedition,” as he lashed
out at Education Minister and Aley MP Akram Shehayyeb of the Progressive
Socialist Party. “The two martyrs Rami Salman and Samer Abu Farraj are the
victims of a premeditated sedition that was incited two days in advance and the
instigator is the sedition MP who sits around the Cabinet table and does not
respect the simplest rules of coexistence, citizens' safety and the safety of
his people. He is a vampire!” Arslan said, referring to Shehayyeb without naming
him. Salman and Abu Farraj were killed and a third bodyguard of State Minister
for Refugee Affairs was wounded as their convoy came under gunfire in a clash
with PSP supporters in Qabrshmoun. The minister escaped unharmed. “What happened
yesterday reminds us of the incidents that Choueifat witnessed a year ago, when
the instigator was the same person,” Arslan added. “These thugs and bandits do
not have the ability to tolerate the other opinion,” Arslan lamented, saying
“the big question is whether Mount Lebanon is within or outside the state's
rule.”He also warned that his party and supporters will take things into their
own hands if the state does not act, calling for referring the case to the
Judicial Council. Arslan later entered into a meeting with President Michel Aoun
at the Baabda Palace.
Jumblat Meets Kuwait Emir with PSP Delegation
Naharnet/July 01/2019
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Monday met with Kuwaiti Emir
Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah in Kuwait. He was accompanied by a PSP delegation
comprising Industry Minister Wael Abu Faour, ex-minister Ghazi Aridi, MP Hadi
Abu al-Hosn and PSP deputy head for foreign affairs Dureid Yaghi. A PSP
statement said talks tackled bilateral ties between Lebanon and Kuwait as well
we as the Arab and regional developments and the challenges facing the Arab
world and the region. Jumblat also met with Kuwaiti Premier Sheikh Jaber
al-Mubarak al-Sabah in the presence of Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khaled
al-Sabah. He also met with the head of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social
Development, Abdul Latif al-Hamad.
New Daily Bucks Trend in Lebanon
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 01/2019
Lebanon woke up to a new national newspaper on stands Monday, even after a
series of prominent dailies have disappeared from print over the past three
years. Nida al-Watan, a 16-page publication to be printed six days a week, could
be seen on newsstands and in libraries. "The newspaper has a goal and champions
a cause, which is, in brief, the sovereignty of Lebanon," editor-in-chief
Beshara Charbel told AFP. It would notably address corruption, foreign
meddling in internal politics, and illegitimate use of force in the country, the
veteran journalist said. Lebanon's media landscape is rife with privately-owned
newspapers affiliated with at least one of the country's many political parties,
who are often the primary source of funding. This has left little room for an
independent press. Nida al-Watan, or Call of the Nation, is funded by Lebanese
businessman Michel Mekattaf who unsuccessfully ran for a seat in parliament
during last year's polls. He was formerly a member of the Kataeb Party and is
affiliated with the March 14 political camp. The launch of Nida al-Watan comes
during a time of crisis for Lebanon's print media. In January, al-Mustaqbal
issued its last print version 20 years after being established by late
billionaire premier Rafik al-Hariri. In September last year, political daily
al-Anwar disappeared from print after nearly 60 years due to "financial losses."
In June 2018, prestigious pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat closed its Lebanon
offices, where it was first founded in 1946 before later becoming Saudi owned.
Its printing presses in Beirut stopped the same month, leaving its international
version only available online. In late 2016, Lebanese newspaper as-Safir closed
42 years after publishing its first edition, with the founder saying it had run
out of funds. "A newspaper can't be a commercial enterprise in Lebanon," said
Charbel, explaining that the country's economy and the many challenges ailing
the print media sector make profitability nearly impossible. But "the newspaper
still has an important place despite the decline of print media," the
editor-in-chief said. "I think there is trust in newspapers, and the proof is
that the most read news websites are operated by newspapers," he added.
Kataeb after politburo meeting: Mountain reconciliation is
red line
NNA - Mon 01 Jul 2019
NNA - Kataeb Party chief, MP Sami Gemayel, on Monday presided over the periodic
meeting of the Party's politburo at the Saifi Central House, to discuss most
recent political developments and the general situation in the country. In a
statement issued in the wake of the meeting, Kaateb deplored the painful bloody
incidents in the Mountain "as a result of the policies of this authority, which
brought down the prestige of the state and dragged the country into a sedition
that jeopardized security and stability, and destroyed the economy," as per
statement.
Kataeb also underlined commitment to the mountain reconciliation, deeming this
reconciliation as a "red line." The Phalange Party also voiced commitment to the
logic of a capable and just state embracing all its citizens, as well as
commitment to respect for the Constitution and the law.
Army re opens Baalchmay road, remove burning tires
NNA - Mon 01 Jul 2019
The Lebanese Army re-opened the international road in Baalchmay in both
directions after being cut off by protestors. In the meantime, the army is
removing burning tires from said road, the NNA correspondent said.
Report: Hizbullah Fighters Began ‘Secret’ Pull Back from
Syria
Naharnet/July 01/2019
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Hizbullah has begun to pull
back many of its units from Syrian territory and that the operation has been
taking place away from the media spotlight, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat newspaper
reported. It said that large groups of Hizbullah fighters have “secretly” pulled
back from different areas of the capital Damascus, from its countryside and
south Syria, which “explains” why Hizbullah and Iranaian fighters are no longer
present in the midst of military battles in the "reduction of escalation" zone,
unlike previous battles in which they played a key role, the monitoring group
said. Unnamed sources reportedly told the group that some of Hizbullah fighters
have withdrawn towards the Zabadani area, in the western Damascus countryside,
where several military headquarters affiliated to the party have been located
since April, 2017 when Syrian government forces and Hizbullah agreed and entered
the city. On April 19, 2019, the Syrian Observatory said it learned from a
“number of reliable sources that over the past week, Hizbullah had carried out a
sudden pull back from some of its positions in the town of Qara of the Western
Qalmoun, north of the capital Damascus.”
Hizbullah is a close ally of the Damascus regime, and its fighters have been
battling alongside its army since the uprising, which began in March 2011.
Army Demolishes Syrian Refugee Shelters as Ultimatum
Expires
Naharnet/July 01/2019
The Lebanese Army started destroying Syrian refugee settlements in northeast
Lebanon Monday after the expiry of a government ultimatum, officials said, as
aid groups warned of more demolitions in the coming days. Keen not to encourage
Syrians to settle permanently, the government had given refugees in the village
of Arsal until July 1 to demolish shelters made of other materials than timber
and plastic sheeting, which it considers illegal. "At 4:30 am on July 1,
military units moved into several camps in Arsal and demolished at least 20
homes," said a joint statement by seven aid groups, including Save the Children,
the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Oxfam. "We fear that this is the start and
more demolitions will take place tomorrow," it added. An estimated 15,000
people, including at least 7,500 children, would be affected by the demolitions
which would impact up to 3,000 units, the aid groups said. A Lebanese security
source confirmed to the AFP news agency that demolitions have started but said
that only four empty concrete houses had been destroyed. The head of the Arsal
municipality, Bassel al-Hujeiri, added that Monday's demolitions were very
"limited" and impacted only homes made almost completely out of cement. The
move, he said, "serves as a warning for remaining refugees who have yet to
comply with the army's decision."The government's ultimatum had prompted
refugees to destroy their own homes in the weeks leading up to the deadline. As
of June 27, less than half of the hard shelters in Arsal had been demolished by
their inhabitants, the aid groups said in Monday's statement. They also urged
authorities "to give alternatives to refugees, allow them to retain their
personal belongings and give them more time to place their families in safety"
before carrying out more demolitions. Lebanon, a country of some four million
people, hosts between 1.5 and two million Syrians on its soil after they fled
the eight-year civil war next door. Nearly a million of these are registered as
refugees with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Lebanon allows
only informal camps to prevent the permanent settlements of Syrian refugees, who
politicians and part of the Lebanese population blame for a string of economic
woes. Rights groups, including Amnesty International, have warned that Lebanon
is using restrictive measures such as evictions, curfews and raids to encourage
repatriation.
LDP Supporters Briefly Block Bhamdoun Highway
Naharnet/July 01/2019
Supporters of the Lebanese Democratic Party and relatives of two guards killed
in gunfire a day earlier, briefly blocked with burning tires the Mount Lebanon
highway of Bhamdoun, as the sound of heavy shooting into the air was heard on
Monday. The Civil Defense firefighting team extinguished the burning tires and
the road was reopened. The Lebanese Army deployed in the area. The move came in
protest at the deadly gunfire attack against the convoy of State Minister of
Refugee Affairs, Saleh al-Gharib of the LDP, that left two of his guards dead
and one critically injured. On Sunday, gunmen opened gunfire at the convoy of
al-Gharib in the mountain village of Qabrshmoun, killing two of his guards and
wounding another. Al-Gharib told local TV he was heading to Qabrshmoun when his
convoy came under fire. Al-Gharib is a member of a Druze party allied with
Hizbullah and supportive of the Syrian government. The shooting came as
supporters of the Progressive Socialist Party, led by Druze leader Walid Jumblat,
closed roads to prevent Free Patriotic Movement chief and Foreign Minister
Jebran Bassil from touring the region. Jumblat's party is opposed to Assad. The
PSP said in a statement that al-Gharib's guards opened fire "randomly" at a
group of people who were closing the road to prevent Bassil from passing. It
said a PSP supporter was wounded in the shooting, and that others who had
weapons opened fire at al-Gharib's convoy, killing two of his guards. "What
happened was an armed ambush and a clear assassination attempt," al-Gharib told
the local al-Jadeed TV. The area where the shooting took place witnessed some of
the worst fighting and sectarian killings during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
Tensions in the area remain high decades later. Prime Minister Saad Hariri
called officials from the rival parties as well as heads of security agencies,
urging them to restore calm. Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Naim Hassan called on
members of the sect to calm the situation and urged state institutions to open
an investigation into the shooting.
Cautious Calm in Aley after Deadly Armed Clash Involving
Minister's Convoy
Naharnet/July 01/2019
The Lebanese Army on Monday reinforced security measures and intensified its
patrols in the towns and villages of Aley after Sunday’s armed clash in the town
of Qabrshmoun that left two dead and one wounded, the National News Agency
reported. NNA said that calm has been restored in the area and that no armed
presence was spotted. On Sunday, gunmen opened gunfire at the convoy of State
Minister of Refugees Saleh al-Gharib in the mountain village near Beirut,
killing two of his guards and wounding another. Al-Gharib told local TV he was
heading to Qabrshmoun when his convoy came under fire. Al-Gharib is a member of
a Druze party allied with Hizbullah and supportive of the Syrian government. The
shooting came as supporters of the Progressive Socialist Party, led by Druze
leader Walid Jumblat, closed roads to prevent Free Patriotic Movement chief and
Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil from touring the region. Jumblat's party is
opposed to Assad. The PSP said in a statement that al-Gharib's guards opened
fire "randomly" at a group of people who were closing the road to prevent Bassil
from passing. It said a PSP supporter was wounded in the shooting, and that
others who had weapons opened fire at al-Gharib's convoy, killing two of his
guards. "What happened was an armed ambush and a clear assassination attempt,"
al-Gharib told the local al-Jadeed TV. The area where the shooting took place
witnessed some of the worst fighting and sectarian killings during Lebanon's
1975-1990 civil war. Tensions in the area remain high decades later. Prime
Minister Saad Hariri called officials from the rival parties as well as heads of
security agencies, urging them to restore calm. Druze spiritual leader Sheikh
Naim Hassan called on members of the sect to calm the situation and urged state
institutions to open an investigation into the shooting.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
July 01-02/2019
Damascus: Israeli air/naval forces hit 10
Syrian, Iranian, Hizballah targets
DEBKAfile/July 01/2019
One of Israel’s largest attacks is reported by Syrian sources to have swept
across 10 targets across the country early Monday, July 1. They included
Damascus Mezza military airport; Iranian and Hizballah military facilities at Al
Kiswa south of Damascus; the base of the Syrian 1st Division; the Syrian
military “research” institute at Jumriyah; military facilities at Siniya; and a
chain of Hizballah bases in the Qalamoun Mts straddling the Syrian -Lebanese
frontier, as well as bases in the Homs district. The attacks were said to have
been conducted by Israeli jets from Lebanese air space and naval vessels. Syrian
sources reported that four people were killed in the attack and its air defense
systems intercepted some of the incoming Israeli missiles. They described
powerful explosions and huge fires at Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hizballah
bases in the Qalamoun Mts and ambulances streaming to the scene. DEBKAfile’s
military sources add that Israel delayed this latest round of attacks on Iranian
and Hizballah positions in Syria to give US and Russian diplomacy a chance to
reach understandings on the Syria situation. When their effort ran into the
ground last week, the Israeli military was ordered to go forward. A large-scale
operation became urgent when Iran and Hizballah were discovered to be preparing
to embark on an operation against Israel, as part of Tehran’s campaign against
US Middle East allies in retaliation for the Trump administration’s sanctions.
Israel’s wide-ranging strikes on the 1st of July aimed at preempting that
Iranian-Hizballah operation before it got off the ground.
Israel Strikes Iranian Targets in Syria,
Report Says; 16 Killed, 21 Wounded
Reuters and Jack Khoury/Haaretz/July 01/2019
Syrian air defenses responded to attacks on Homs and Damascus outskirts launched
from Lebanese air space, Syrian state media says ■ Anti-aircraft missile fired
at assailants hits Turkish Cypriot mountainside, causing no casualties
Sixteen people including a baby were killed and 21 were wounded by an Israeli
attack on multiple Syrian and Iranian targets on the outskirts of Damascus and
Homs, Syrian state-run al-Ikhbariya broadcaster reported, citing its
correspondent.
Israeli warplanes fired missiles at Syria that targeted Syrian military
positions in Homs and Sahnaya, south of Damascus, the Syrian military said on
Monday. Meanwhile, Turkish-held Cyprus said a Syrian anti-aircraft missile that
was fired at Israeli jets landed north of Nicosia. No casualties were reported.
"The first assessment is that a Russian-made missile, part of the air defense
system, which was part of the air defense system that took place last night in
the face of an air strike against Syria, completed its range and fell into our
country after it missed," Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister Kudret Ozersay said
in a social media post.
The object hit a mountainside north of the capital Nicosia. Syrian air defenses
confronted the attack, which was launched from Lebanese airspace, the Syrian
defense ministry said in a brief report on its Telegram feed. The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said 16 people were killed, among them three
children and ten Iranian militias and Hezbollah members. The observatory added
that the Israeli Navy also took part in the strike, targeting ten Hezbollah
bases, including compounds that were used by Iran's Revolutionary Guards. SANA
said the dead included a baby and that other children were among the wounded in
Sahnaya. It was unclear whether the civilians were killed in the strike or in
the resulting blasts. Social media pages affiliated with the Assad regime have
been sharing posts saying a man named Anas Albiat and his wife Rama Arnaout.
along with their infant son, were killed in the strike. According to the
observatory, among the sites hit were Revolutionary Guards' compounds south of
Damascus, a strategic research center northwest of Damascus, Hezbollah
facilities near the Syrian-Lebanese border, where large fires were reported
after several arms depots were hit. In addition, a research center in Homs was
reportedly struck, in addition to an airbase south of Homs that serves Iranian
and Hezbollah forces. The Israeli army has yet to comment on the incident.
Syrian state TV station al-Ikhbariya, citing its correspondent, said the
pressure of explosions over Damascus had caused damage to some homes in Sahnaya,
south of the capital, breaking glass and slightly injuring a number of people.
State news agency SANA cited its correspondent as saying Syrian air defenses had
brought down a number of the missiles. In recent years, Israel has carried out
hundreds of strikes in Syria that it says have targeted its regional arch foe,
Iran, and the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which it calls the biggest threat to its
borders. Iran and Hezbollah are fighting on the side of President Bashar Assad
in the Syrian war, and Israel says they are trying to turn Syria into a new
front against Israelis. On June 12, SANA reported that Syrian Air Defenses
thwarted an Israeli attack on Tal al-Hara in southern Syria and shot down a
number of missiles. Located in Daraa Governorate, Tal al-Hara is considered as a
strategic hill overlooking the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The missile
attack resulted only in damage and Israel then conducted an “electronic war” in
which radars were subjected to interference, SANA added.
Hours after the incident, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a message
saying that Israel responds "decisively and forcibly to any attack against us,"
yet did not claim responsibility for the alleged attack. Earlier in June, Syrian
state media said Israeli missiles were fired toward a Syrian military base in
Homs, a day after Israel confirmed it had struck Syrian targets on Saturday in
retaliation for rocket fire toward the Golan Heights.
Missile Fired by Syrian Air Defenses Crashes in Cyprus
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 01 July, 2019
A missile, fired by the Syrian regime’s air defenses, is believed to have
crashed on a mountainside in Cyprus, officials said.
The errant missile struck early Monday, skimming Nicosia and crashing in the
region of Tashkent, also known as Vouno, some 20 kms (12 miles) northeast of the
capital, with the impact setting hills ablaze and heard for miles around. There
were no casualties.
There were no casualties. An Israeli air strike was underway against Syria at
the time. Syrian state media said the Syrian air defenses had fired in response
to the Israeli attack. "The first assessment is that a Russian-made missile ...
which was part of the air defense system that took place last night in the face
of an air strike against Syria, completed its range and fell into our country
after it missed," Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister Kudret Ozersay said in a post
on Facebook. He said the explosion was thought to have occurred before impact
because there were no craters. "The pieces that fell to several different points
prove that the missile exploded in the air before it crashed," he said. Cyprus
lies west of Syria. Israeli warplanes fired missiles targeting Syrian military
positions in Homs - around 310 kilometers (193 miles) from Nicosia - and the
Damascus outskirts overnight. The attack killed nine mostly foreign pro-regime
fighters and six civilians, including three children, the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said Monday. An Israeli military spokeswoman
declined to comment on the reports. The freak incident would be the first time
that Cyprus has been caught in the crosshairs of military operations in the
Middle East despite its proximity to the region. A Greek Cypriot military
analyst, Andreas Pentaras, said the debris suggested it was a Russian-made S-200
missile, which can have a range of up to 400 kilometers. "An assessment from the
pictures made public shows the base of its wings. It has Russian writing on it,
so it suggests it is Russian made. Syria uses Russian-made missiles, so a
not-so-safe assessment would be it was .. an S-200 (missile)," Pentaras, a
retired army general, told Sigma TV in Cyprus. Jamming technology could have
diverted the missile, he said. Another analyst said that, should the missile
hypothesis prove to be correct, it could have been faulty. "Right now we can't
be absolute but from the pictures and the inscriptions it appears to be an
S-200," analyst Zenonas Tziarras of the Geopolitical Cyprus think-tank told
Reuters.Those missiles were designed to explode in mid-air if they don't hit a
target, he said. Residents told Cypriot media they saw a light in the sky then
three loud explosions were heard for miles around. Tashkent is a small village
in the foothills of a mountain range rimming northern Cyprus. Authorities
evacuated some homes.
Iran Exceeds Enriched Uranium Stockpile Limit
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 01/2019
Iran said Monday it had exceeded a limit on its enriched uranium reserves under
a 2015 nuclear deal that has edged towards collapse as the U.S. imposes a
"maximum pressure" campaign. Russia voiced regret but said it was a consequence
of the U.S. pressure, while Britain urged Iran "to avoid any further steps away"
from the landmark deal. "Iran has crossed the 300-kilogram limit based on its
plan" announced in May, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told semi-official
news agency ISNA. The United States withdrew from the nuclear deal last year and
reimposed biting sanctions on Iran's crucial oil exports and financial
transactions as well as other sectors. Tehran, which has sought to pressure the
remaining parties to save the deal, on May 8 announced it would no longer
respect the limit set on its enriched uranium and heavy water stockpiles. It
also threatened to go further and abandon more nuclear commitments unless the
remaining partners -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- helped it to
circumvent sanctions, especially to sell its oil. In his comments published
Monday, Zarif said Iran had set out its intentions "very clearly" in May. The
International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday confirmed Iran had exceeded the
limit that the deal had imposed on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU).
The IAEA "verified on July 1 that Iran's total enriched uranium stockpile
exceeded 300 kilogrammes", a spokesperson said. A diplomat in Vienna, where the
U.N.'s nuclear watchdog is based, told AFP that Iran had exceeded the limit by
two kilograms.
'Don't dramatise'
World powers were quick to react. Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei
Ryabkov, said Iran's move was a cause for "regret" but also "a natural
consequence of recent events" and a result of the "unprecedented pressure"
imposed by the U.S. "One mustn't dramatise the situation," Ryabkov said in
comments reported by Russian news agencies. Moscow is a close ally of Tehran and
has previously called on European signatories of the nuclear agreement to
respect the deal despite the US pullout. Britain's Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt
said on Twitter that London was "deeply worried" and urged Iran to refrain from
taking any further steps outside the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal. "UK remains
committed to making deal work (and) using all diplomatic tools to deescalate
regional tensions. I urge Iran to avoid any further steps away" the nuclear deal
and "come back into compliance," he said. On Friday, the European Union said
after a crisis meeting aimed at salvaging the deal that a special payment
mechanism set up to help Iran skirt the sanctions, known as INSTEX, was finally
"operational" and that the first transactions were being processed. But "the
Europeans' efforts were not enough, therefore Iran will go ahead with its
announced measures", Zarif said. INSTEX, which "is just the beginning" of their
commitments, has not yet been fully implemented, he added. The 2015 deal saw
Iran commit never to acquire an atomic bomb, to accept drastic limits on its
nuclear programme and submit to IAEA inspections in exchange for a partial
lifting of crippling international sanctions. But US President Donald Trump's
unilateral withdrawal from the deal on May 8, 2018 -- and subsequent sanctions
-- have deprived Iran of the economic benefits it expected and plunged it into
recession. Exactly a year after the U.S. withdrew, President Hassan Rouhani said
Iran would temporarily cease to limit its stocks of heavy water and low-enriched
uranium. Iran has also threatened to start enriching uranium above the agreed
maximum purification level of 3.67 percent from July 7. That remains far short
of the 90 percent purity required to build a weapon. The latest tensions
coincide with a buildup of U.S. forces in the Gulf and a series of incidents
including Iran's shooting down of a U.S. drone it claimed had entered its
airspace.
Iran Enriched Uranium Stockpile Passes 300 Kg Limit
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 1 July, 2019
Iran's enriched uranium stockpile has passed the 300 kilogram limit under its
nuclear deal, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Monday, citing an
unnamed "informed source." Iranian officials have said in recent days that
Tehran is on track to pass the enriched uranium limit, which was set under its
2015 nuclear deal, after remaining signatories to the pact fell short of its
demands to be shielded from US sanctions. Earlier, Foreign Minister Mohammad
Javad Zarif demanded respect from the United States if it wants Iran to return
to negotiations, saying it will resist pressure from Washington. “Iran will
never yield to pressure from the United States ... If they want to talk to Iran,
they should show respect,” Zarif said in a speech broadcast live on state TV.
“Iran has always resisted pressure and has responded with respect when
respected.”
The two countries have been drawn into starker confrontation since May, when
Washington mounted pressure on Tehran by ordering all countries to halt imports
of Iranian oil, and the future of the nuclear accord hangs in the
balance.Washington has tightened sanctions and dispatched extra forces to the
Middle East, and US fighter jets came within minutes of conducting air strikes
on Iran last month after Tehran downed an unmanned American drone. US President
Donald Trump has called for negotiations with Iran with “no preconditions”. But
Tehran has ruled out talks with Trump until the United States returns to the
nuclear pact, which he quit last year.In reaction to the US withdrawal from the
nuclear deal, Iran said in May that it had quadrupled its production of low
enriched uranium.In last-ditch talks in Vienna on Friday to persuade Iran to
back off from its plans to breach the limits, Iran’s envoy said European
countries still party to the nuclear deal had offered too little in return.
Israel PM Urges European Nations to Sanction Iran over
Uranium Breach
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 01/2019
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called on European states to
impose sanctions on Iran after it said it breached an agreed ceiling on its
enriched uranium reserves. "You committed yourselves to act as soon as Iran
violated the nuclear agreement," a statement from his office quoted him as
saying. "So I say to you: Do it. Just do it."Iran said Monday it had exceeded a
limit on its enriched uranium reserves set under a 2015 nuclear deal that has
edged towards collapse as the U.S. imposes a "maximum pressure" campaign. The
United States withdrew from the nuclear deal last year and reimposed biting
sanctions on Iran's crucial oil exports and financial transactions as well as
other sectors. Tehran, which has sought to pressure the remaining parties to
save the deal, on May 8 announced it would no longer respect the limit set on
its enriched uranium and heavy water stockpiles. "Israel will not allow Iran to
develop a nuclear weapon," Netanyahu said Monday. "I am also calling on all
European countries. Honour your commitment," he added. "You committed to
activate the automatic sanctions mechanism set by the (U.N.) Security
Council."Netanyahu has long campaigned against the 2015 agreement. Iran insists
its nuclear programme is entirely for civilian purposes. Israel is considered
the leading military power in the Middle East and is widely believed to possess
its sole, if undeclared, nuclear arsenal.
Israeli Spy Chief Says 'Certain' Iran behind Gulf Attacks
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 01/2019
The head of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad said Monday that his country had
sufficient information to conclude "with certainty" that arch-foe Iran was
behind recent attacks in the Gulf region. "I can assure you, according to our
sources and the best Western sources, that Iran is behind recent attacks in the
Gulf," Yossi Cohen told a security conference in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. He did
not specify which attacks he was referring to nor provide further details on the
sources. Four ships, including three oil tankers, were damaged in sabotage
attacks off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in May, while two more
tankers, Norwegian and Japanese, came under attack in the Gulf of Oman on June
13. The United States and Saudi Arabia have blamed Iran, which strongly denies
the accusations.
U.N. Tells Iran to Stick to Nuclear Deal after Breaching
Cap
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 01/2019
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged Iran to stick to its
commitments under the nuclear deal and address differences through a dispute
mechanism, his spokesman said. Iran earlier said it had exceeded a limit
established under the deal on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium. "It is
essential that this issue, like other issues related to the implementation of
the plan, be addressed through the mechanisms established in the JCPOA," U.N.
spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The JCPOA is the formal name of the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the nuclear deal is known. Guterres encourages
Iran "to continue implementing all its nuclear-related commitments under the
JCPOA," said Dujarric. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif earlier
said Iran had crossed the 300 kilogram limit imposed under the nuclear deal.
Tehran has sought to pressure the remaining parties to save the deal by
announcing that it would no longer abide by some of its commitments.
Iraq PM curbs powers of Iran-backed armed groups
Arab News/July 01/2019
BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi issued on Monday a decree heavily
curbing the powers of mostly Iran-backed Shiite armed groups and forcing them to
further integrate into the country's formal armed forces. The groups, which
helped Iraqi and US-led international coalition forces defeat Daesh militants,
have a lot of influence in Iraqi politics. Abdul Mahdi's decree integrates
paramilitary units into the military and forces groups to pick between political
or military activity. Groups have until July 31 to abide by the new regulations,
the decree said. Following the announcement, the influential Shiite cleric
Muqtada Al-Sadr announced on Monday the dissolution of his armed wing — Saraya
Al-Salam — and ordered the closure of its headquarters, cancellation of its
names and its re-association with the Iraqi official security establishment,
according to an Arab News correspondent. “What was issued by the prime minister
relating to the Popular Mobilization troops is an important decision and a
correct step towards building a strong state,” Al-Sadr said in a statement.
“What I care about is that Saraya Al-Salam — which I established — would be the
first one to apply this decision, hence, I announce that I completely
disassociate myself from it,” he added.
Iran faces new global sanctions for breaching 2015 nuclear deal
Arab News/July 01/2019
DUBAI: Iran has followed through on its threat to breach a central limit of its
nuclear deal with major powers, accumulating more enriched uranium than allowed
under the accord, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday. The
statement confirmed comments from Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that
Tehran had exceeded the stockpile limit of enriched uranium. But Iran’s foreign
ministry spokesperson Abbas Mousavi said the uranium limit breach was
“reversible” and urged Europe to accelerate efforts to salvage the nuclear deal.
"We can confirm that IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano has informed the Board
of Governors that the Agency verified on 1 July that Iran's total enriched
uranium stockpile exceeded (the deal's limit)," an IAEA spokesman said. An IAEA
report sent to member states and obtained by Reuters put Iran's stock at 205 kg,
above the deal's limit of 202.8 kilograms.
Enriching uranium to a low level of 3.6 percent fissile material is the first
step in a process that could eventually allow Iran to amass enough
highly-enriched uranium to build a nuclear warhead. Last Wednesday, the IAEA
verified that Iran had roughly 200 kg of low-enriched uranium. Zarif said Monday
that Iran had exceeded the relevant limit of 300 kg of uranium hexafluoride
(UF6) - a quantity that corresponds to 202.8 kg of low-enriched uranium. The
White House said it would continue to apply "maximum pressure" on Iran "until
its leaders alter their course of action". It said Iran should be held to a
standard barring all uranium enrichment. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin
Netanyahu called on European countries to impost “automatic sanctions” on Iran
in response to Monday’s announcement. "I say again that Israel will not allow
Iran to develop nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said, according to a statement from
his office. "On this day I also call on all European countries to stand behind
their commitments. You committed to act the moment Iran violates the nuclear
agreement, you committed to activate the mechanism for automatic sanctions that
was set in the (U.N.) Security Council," he said.
Earlier on Monday Israel's energy minister accused Iran of pursuing "nuclear
blackmail" by stockpiling more low-enriched uranium than permitted under the
deal but said continued international pressure would cause Tehran to back down.
"It's a blatant violation of the agreement," Yuval Steinitz said on Kan public
radio. "Iran is carrying out nuclear blackmail. It is saying to the world, 'Look
how close we are to a nuclear weapon'."Iran's economy is collapsing ...they are
under atomic pressure, so they are taking unbalanced actions," he added. "If the
pressure continues, and the world doesn't give in, they will give it up.”
Brinskmanship
Breaching the nuclear deal “marks a new chapter in an extremely protracted, and
dangerous, game of brinksmanship between Iran and the other signatories to the
JCPOA,” the Iranian-American Harvard scholar Dr. Majid Rafizadeh told Arab News.
“This demands a strong response from Europe. By surrendering to Iran’s extortion
attempts, Europe will fail to curb Tehran’s regional and global ambitions and
will be, in effect, giving Tehran the green light to continue its march towards
becoming a destructive nuclear force. “There may still be some in Europe who
cannot see beyond what they consider to be the value in the JCPOA, but it is
time to recognize that the agreement is not ‘comprehensive’ at all. It is a
compromise, and bowing to nuclear extortion is a compromise too far. “Europe
must now focus its diplomatic efforts on countering the clear and present threat
that aggressive Iranian behavior across the region poses. It is time for Europe
to move its efforts away from keeping the failing deal alive. It is time for
Europe to switch off life support for the JCPOA.”
"Deeply worried"
Meanwhile, UK Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt also said on Monday that Britain was
“deeply worried” by Iran’s announcement that it has exceeded the limit on
enriched uranium stockpiles set by a 2015 nuclear deal. “Deeply worried by
Iran’s announcement that it has broken existing nuclear deal obligations,” Hunt,
a candidate to become Britain’s next prime minister, said on Twitter. “UK
remains committed to making deal work (and) using all diplomatic tools to
deescalate regional tensions. I urge Iran to avoid any further steps away from
JCPOA (nuclear deal and) come back into compliance,” he added. After talks on
Friday in Vienna, Iran said European countries had offered too little in the way
of trade assistance to persuade it to back off from its plan to breach the
limit, a riposte to U.S. President Donald Trump's decision last year to quit the
deal and reimpose economic sanctions. Mousavi urged them on Monday to step up
their efforts. "Time is running out for them to save the deal," state TV quoted
him Mousavi as saying. The deal between Iran and six world powers lifted most
international sanctions against Iran in return for restrictions on its nuclear
work aimed at extending the time Iran would need to produce a nuclear bomb, if
it chose to, from roughly 2-3 months to a year. Zarif’s confirmation of the
breach came just hours after he warned that Iran would never succumb to US
pressure, adding that if Washington wanted talks with Tehran it should show
respect. “Iran will never yield to pressure from the United States ... America
should try to respect Iran ... if they want to talk to Iran, they should show
respect,” Zarif said in a speech broadcast live on state TV. Tension between
Tehran and Washington have risen sharply in recent weeks, a year after
Washington exited the 2015 deal between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran’s
nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international financial
sanctions. Trump has called for talks with Iran’s clerical rulers with “no
preconditions.” Tehran has ruled this out, saying Trump should return to the
deal if he wants to negotiate with Iran.
* With Reuters, AP and AFP
Erdogan: Russian Missile Defense System to Arrive in 10 Days
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 01 July, 2019
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has revealed that the first delivery of
the Russian S-400 missile defense system would take place within 10 days, after
saying there would be no US sanctions over the deal. Turkey and the United
States, NATO allies, have been at odds over Ankara's decision to purchase the
S-400s, with Washington warning of US sanctions if the delivery took place.
Turkey has dismissed the warnings, saying it would not back down. "Within 10
days, maybe within one week, the first shipment will have arrived. I told Trump
this openly," Erdogan was cited as saying by Hurriyet newspaper after a meeting
with US President Donald Trump. The United States says the S-400s will
compromise its Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets, of which Turkey is a
producer and buyer. Washington has also formally started the process of
expelling Turkey from the F-35 program, halting the training of Turkish pilots
in the United States. But on Saturday, Erdogan said Trump had told him there
would be no sanctions over the Russian deal, after Trump said Turkey had been
treated unfairly over the move. Following the talks, the White House said Trump
"expressed concern" over the S-400 deal and "encouraged Turkey to work with the
United States on defense cooperation in a way that strengthens the NATO
alliance."Speaking to reporters after the G20 summit in Japan, where he held
bilateral talks with Trump, Erdogan said he believed the dispute over the S-400s
would be overcome "without a problem" and added that his US counterpart
supported Turkey in the dispute. "In our phone calls, when we come together
bilaterally, Mr Trump has not said so far: 'We will impose these sanctions.' On
the S-400s, he said to me: 'You are right.' We carried this issue to a very
advanced level," Erdogan said, according to broadcaster NTV. "At this advanced
level, Trump said: 'This is injustice'. This is very important. I believe that
we will overcome this process without any problems," Erdogan added.
Hamas: We Are Not Occupation Force to Hand Over Gaza Strip,
Leave
Ramallah - Kifah Ziboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 1 July, 2019
Hamas movement refused Sunday Fatah's demand to hand over Gaza Strip to the
Palestinian Authority (PA) to complete the reconciliation process. This came in
the first response from the movement after Egypt resumed efforts to end the
division. Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouq said the movement is not an
occupation force to hand over the rule in the Strip for the Palestinian
Authority (PA) and leave. “We are in our country and we are partners in managing
our Palestinian affairs whether in Ramallah or Gaza, and we should discard this
mentality,” said the member of the movement's political bureau. He added that
Palestinians should choose a leadership that is successive and could handle
their affairs without foreign dictates.Abu Marzouq’s comments were made a few
days after member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive
Committee Azzam al-Ahmad announced that Egypt will seek to put inter-Palestinian
reconciliation talks back on track. Ahmad, who is also a member of Fatah
Movement’s Central Committee, explained after talks with Egyptian officials in
Cairo that a high-ranking delegation from Egypt will visit Ramallah soon to meet
with PA president Mahmoud Abbas. He said the delegation will also visit Gaza
Strip to resolve obstacles to inter-Palestinian reconciliation, however, he
didn’t set the dates for such visits. He also pointed to the lengthy discussions
that took place in Cairo with involved officials, saying “there are positive
developments.”Abu Marzouq explained that these developments are related to a new
paper presented by Egypt to Fatah movement on the Palestinian reconciliation
process. He said Fatah has agreed on the paper’s content with some reservations.
The paper might include a timetable for handing over the Strip and solving its
problems, and it might also include suggestions to let Egypt oversee committees
to resolve differences in thorny issues.
Notably, the reconciliation issue has come to light again after being frozen for
one year, due to differences on empowering Rami Hamdallah’s former government,
sanctions on the Strip and talks on a ceasefire with Israel. Fatah wants
comprehensive empowerment in the Strip, including security forces, judiciary,
land authority, tax collection and border crossings. These demands have been
rejected by Hamas without lifting sanctions on Gaza and securing salaries of its
military personnel through tax collection in Gaza. Hamas has also requested the
formation of a new government that includes all factions and independent figures
to solve crises hitting the Strip. Among such crises are problems in the health
and electricity sectors, Hamas employees’ salaries and the full commitment to
paying them with guarantees on not terminating their services, guaranteeing
their rights and solving the security issue without firing any Hamas affiliated
security commanders or employees. Hamas also stressed the need to fully
integrate its employees in a security institution operating in accordance with
national principles and rejected any talk about the resistance’s weapons. Fatah
rejected Hamas’s demands, and they both disagreed over the implementation of the
articles in 2001 or 2017 agreements.
Egypt Has Succeeded in Destroying Terror Infrastructure,
Says Sisi
Cairo - Mohammed Abdo Hasanein/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 1 July, 2019
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said Sunday that his country has
succeeded in destroying the infrastructure of terrorist organizations six years
after the June 30 revolution that toppled former president Mohamed Morsi. The
Muslim-Brotherhood affiliate was deposed on July 3, 2013, following widespread
popular protests against his one-year rule. He died during his trial on June 17.
In an address to the nation on the sixth anniversary of the June 30 revolt, Sisi
said it wasn’t but a cry to express the patriotism of millions of Egyptians,
which have been embraced by their country and their ancestors over the years.
“The loyalty of Egyptians to their country and their rejection of any attempt to
erase their national identity are facts that can’t be changed with time,” Sisi
noted. He said that his people are loyal, and their belonging to their nation
and identity marks a priority. “Masses of Egyptians in the June 30 Revolution
marked a path for us to walk through,” Sisi said, noting that their priority is
to protect and preserve the country and then improve it in order for Egypt to
become a developed nation that provides next generations decent opportunities
and a life that is compatible with the 21st century. He pointed out that over
the past years, the country has managed to avoid suffering from chaos,
fragmentation and conflicts. “We have managed to destroy the infrastructure of
terrorist organizations that tried to weaken the country.”Sisi said Egypt had
launched Comprehensive Operation – Sinai 2018, in which bloods were shed to
eliminate “forces of evil and darkness.”“Our armed forces and police personnel
succeeded in protecting the nation and preserving its dignity until Egypt became
a hub for stability, security and peace amid a turbulent regional environment,”
Sisi said. He pledged to maintain Egypt’s security in order to build a nation
worthy for the next generations. Egypt has been witnessing sporadic terrorist
attacks since 2013, especially in the northern Sinai Peninsula, mainly by armed
elements associated with ISIS organization.
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Admits Committing ‘Mistakes’
during ‘Revolution’
Cairo - Mohamed Nabil Helmy/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 1 July, 2019
The Muslim Brotherhood, classified as a terrorist organization in Egypt, has
admitted to what it termed “mistakes (made) during the revolution of January 24,
2011, and its stage of governance.”In a statement on its official websites and
media, its first after the death of former President Mohammed Morsi, 68, on June
17 during his re-trial, the Movement said there was a “suspicious international
complicity” on his death. However, it reiterated its intention to bring up the
issue of prisoners with legislators abroad and international forums. On several
occasions, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi indicated that reconciliation
with the Muslim Brotherhood is up to the Egyptian people, and he will approve
what the people want. He also refers to the “crimes” committed by the group. The
group's statement said it now separates between the general political action and
narrow partisan competition for power, in what seems to be an admission to the
failure of its experience with the Freedom and Justice Party. The Brotherhood
pointed out that “after the termination of the ‘military coup’" as worded in the
statement, it will now focus on working as a national movement with an Islamic
background, supporting the nation, practicing political life in its general
framework, and backing all national factions that meet the group’s vision. The
group announced that its members of specialists and scientists are allowed to
engage in political work through parties and movements that meet its vision of
advancing the nation. The Freedom and Justice Party was dissolved by a final
judicial ruling in 2014, three years after its establishment, and following the
overthrow of Morsi in June 2013 due to mass popular protests. The group
considered that Morsi's death imposed a new reality in the form and nature of
the conflict. In an attempt to win dissidents over, the Brotherhood asked for
the unification of what it called the “revolutionary camp” and called upon
“different ideologies and rhetoric, specifically our brothers” to overcome
disagreements."With the Brotherhood’s announcement of “multiple internal
reviews” which led to the evaluation of its errors, the group once again blamed
“allies and rivals of the revolution” adding that those miscalculations and
differences enabled the ‘counter-revolution’ from taking control. The General
Office of the Muslim Brotherhood which issued the statement, announced it will
communicate during the coming period with all members of the anti-regime camp in
Egypt, without specifying the names of figures or parties.
Foreign Direct Investment in Qatar Drops 322%
London - Mutlaq Muneer/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 1 July, 2019
Qatar has witnessed a remarkable drop in foreign direct investment in 2018, with
the exit of $2.18 billion compared to an inflow of $986 million in 2017. The
total drop reached 322 percent. The Arab Investment & Export Credit Guarantee
Corporation (Dhaman) announced a slight decline of 0.34 percent in foreign
direct investment to Arab states, reaching $31.2 billion in 2018 compared to
$31.3 billion in 2017. Arab countries declined in the investment attractiveness
index for 2019. The Arab world is now fifth among the world’s seven geographical
groups. During the inauguration of the 34th annual report on Investment Climate
in Arab Countries for the year 2019, Dhaman Director General Abdullah Ahmad
Abdullatif Alsabeeh expressed hope that the report would lay foundations to
attracting more capital surges to the Arab states. Speaking from Kuwait, Dhaman
explained that the Gulf countries continued to lead the Arab performance
followed by the Arab Mashreq countries, which ranked second and the Arab
Maghreb, which came third. The report, which is based on the latest data
released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD),
said that direct investment inflows to Arab countries accounted for 2.4 percent
of global investment that reached $1.297 billion in 2018. “The UAE, Egypt and
Oman received the largest share of investment inflows or 68.5 percent of the
total investment inflow to Arab countries,” it said. According to the report,
FDI inflows to the Arab countries rose by 3.4 percent to reach $889.4 billion in
2018, representing 2.8 percent of global investment of $32.3 trillion. It
pointed out that the number of new investment projects in Arab countries
increased by 56 projects in 2018 to reach 876 new foreign investment projects
compared with 2017.
Jordan, US Discuss Syria, Anti-Terrorism
Amman - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 1 July, 2019
Jordan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi received US Special
Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey, who is visiting the Kingdom
as a part of a regional tour. The top officials discussed the latest
developments in the Syrian crisis, and Safadi stressed the need for intensifying
efforts to reach a political solution in line with UN Security Council
Resolution 2254, which preserves the unity of the Syrian territory and people
and secures the voluntary return of refugees. Both Safadi and Jefferey discussed
the effects of the influx of Syrian refugees, with the Jordanian Minister
outlining his country’s burdens of hosting some 1.3 million Syrians. He called
on the international community to continue upholding its responsibilities
towards Syrian refugees, adding that the Kingdom encourages the voluntary return
of refugees. Jordan’s minister informed the US top official that Syrians reside
in Rukban camp and that the only solution lies in the return of its residents to
their hometowns, noting that the camp is Syria’s responsibility rather than
Jordan’s, as aid from Damascus is now possible. The two sides also discussed the
latest developments in the war on terrorism, highlighting ongoing work within
the framework of international alliances to defeat terrorist groups. During the
meeting, Jeffrey hailed the Kingdom’s humanitarian role towards Syrian refugees
and maintaining regional security and stability. Jordan hosts some 1.5 million
Syrian refugees who fled the war in their country since 2011.
Court Overturns Ruling to Strip Citizenship of 92 ‘Hezbollah of Bahrain’
Convicts
Manama - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 1 July, 2019
A Bahraini appeals court overturned Sunday a decision to strip the citizenship
of 92 people jailed for plotting to form an Iran-linked group in the “Hezbollah
of Bahrain” case. They were among 138 sentenced to prison terms and the
revocation of their citizenship after being convicted of trying to establish a
Bahraini version of the Hezbollah party. Their prison terms were upheld. In
April's original court ruling, the prosecutor said 69 defendants were sentenced
to life in jail, 39 to 10 years, 23 to seven years and the rest to between three
and five years. In April, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa reinstated the
nationality of 551 citizens after they had been revoked by court rulings.
Concurring with the appeals court sentence, King Hamad introduced a new
amendment on the law on revoking nationality, his second since 2011. The
amendment added those convicted on terrorism charges to the list of individuals
who could lose their nationality. The article stipulated that it is allowed to
strip the nationality from any Bahraini who is convicted in any of the crimes
mentioned in articles 5, 9, 12, and 17 of law number 58 of the year 2006 on
protecting society from terrorist acts. The four articles demand a prison
sentence against any suspect who intentionally targets any of the public means
of transportation for a terrorist purpose, who exploits the management of an
organization to call for committing a crime, who contacts a foreign-based
terrorist organization and who incites others to commit a terrorist act.
Algeria Journalist Beaten, Humiliated after Arrest Covering
Demos
Naharnet/July 01/2019
A journalist arrested last week as he covered Algeria's weekly anti-regime
demonstration said Monday that he was beaten, insulted and humiliated for eight
hours. Mustapha Bendjama, editor-in-chief of local daily Le Provincial, told AFP
he was slapped and punched by members of police intelligence last Friday in the
northeastern town of Annaba. He was insulted at the same time although he had
put up no resistance to his arrest. At the police station, he was strip-searched
and detained for eight hours during which he was interrogated about his
telephone communications. Algerians have been holding massive protests since
February when an ailing president Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced plans to seek a
fifth term in office. The veteran leader resigned in April as pressure against
him to quit mounted from all sides, only hours after close ally and army chief
Ahmed Gaid Salah demanded impeachment proceedings against him. Although Gaid
Saleh has ordered a wave of anti-corruption investigations, demonstrators have
kept up calls for his departure along with the entire regime that surrounded
Bouteflika.
Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published
on July 01-02/2019
G20 and Peace to Prosperity: a tale of two very different
economic summits
Raghida Dergham/The National/July 01/2019
In Japan, the US president strode with confidence, but Jared Kushner's plan
faltered in Bahrain
The G20 summit in Osaka has been the most important event of the past week. The
US president headed to Japan with all the confidence of a leader of the world’s
largest economy and sole superpower, and has demanded other world leaders pay
their share of the cost of US-led security arrangements that protect their
interests, and delivered to them the message that he is serious about
rearranging international trade relations to protect his own country.
The Iranian issue has failed to dominate the agenda. As has the
Palestinian-Israeli situation, regional conflicts or terrorism. The mainly
economic summit has been an opportunity for bilateral talks between the leaders
of the US and China, Russia, and the European powers, whom Mr Trump wants to
reform their economic and defence policies, whether under the Nato umbrella or
regarding Iran.
The Europeans, Russians, and Japanese leaders have been trying to defuse
tensions between Washington and Tehran, amid talk of a de-escalation deal that
would pave the way for a more comprehensive agreement. The focus on nuclear
armaments and missile programmes has been causing a lot of anxiety in the Gulf
region, where many capitals fear they would become a theatre of war while being
excluded from the negotiating table.
In this context, the US discourse has been focusing less on Iran’s regional role
and more on issues of disarmament. Informed sources said that Mr Trump and Mr
Putin did not reach a specific agreement in their meeting or talk in depth about
Iran’s role in Syria, contrary to the wishes of the US, Russian, and Israeli
national security chiefs who held an unprecedented meeting in Jerusalem earlier
this week to discuss the very same issue. Instead, the meeting focused on a US
request for Mr Putin to help bring China into arms reduction talks, which
Beijing has resisted so far.
According to Russian sources, Moscow has communicated to the Americans that it
is not yet willing to trade the Iranian role in Syria in return for the US
turning a blind eye to what it needs to do there to accomplish its objectives.
“It is not in our interest to enter a conflict with Iran with unknown
consequences… we are now focusing on Turkey and we do not want to lose both
countries,” said one source, adding that China and India agree with the Russian
position of not coming down hard on Iran. The source added that China’s purchase
of Iranian oil remains an important card should US-Chinese negotiations fail.
It is also important to tackle another supposedly historic event in Bahrain: the
unveiling of the economic component of the plan for peace between the
Palestinians and Israelis entrusted by Mr Trump to his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The initiative has been referred to as the “deal of the century” but, in Manama,
Mr Kushner preferred “opportunity of the century”.
Mr Kushner has made several mistakes: first, by severing the relationship
between economics and politics in the peace plan. Second, by unveiling the
initiative in unconnected stages and surrounding the political component with a
secrecy that has drawn the ire of essential partners.
Furthermore, Mr Kushner erred in his arrogance and condescension during his
presentation at Manama, which failed to build confidence and trust. He made yet
another mistake when he alluded to press leaks detailing information about the
political part of his initiative, and exposed his own claim of the need for
secrecy to ensure its success, and his bias in favour of Israel.
Mr Kushner opened his presentation by disregarding all previous political and
economic peace initiatives for Palestine and Israel, as though no one before him
had thought of the economy and private sector as leverage.
The idea has been proposed countless times by successive US administrations,
including by former Secretary of State George Schultz in the early 1980s. Yet,
it has always failed, because it bypasses the national rights of Palestinians
and renders them a stateless people.
Worse still, Mr Kushner’s Prosperity to Peace initiative appeared determined to
erase the word “occupation”. It was not mentioned once in all official US
statements. He also appeared irritated when the UK’s former prime minister Tony
Blair told him it would be foolish to pursue an economic solution without
building political stability, and that serious peace should be based on the
two-state solution and respecting the legitimate rights of Palestinians. Mr
Kushner insisted that the workshop was a purely economic effort aimed at helping
the Palestinians when its real purpose was to create new norms and erase
reference points for peace established under international law.
Mr Kushner’s economic plans have been preceded by several similar efforts,
including one led by the World Bank in the 1990s. Moreover, Palestinian former
PM Salam Fayad led an effort based on developing Palestinian infrastructure and
was a pioneering proponent of the notion that this would be a de facto challenge
to the occupation. On the sidelines of previous sessions of the World Economic
Forum, Palestinian business leaders also sought to develop a working mechanism
in collaboration with their Israeli peers as a way to foster peace based on the
two-state solution.
Mr Kushner has not reinvented the wheel, but he has expanded the framework to
include major US and international corporations, who sent representatives to
Manama.
The leaders of those corporations from the US, Europe, and the region said they
were willing to invest in utilities, transport and communications, provided that
security and the rule of law are assured. Mr Kushner failed to state how he
would guarantee this in his political plan, to be unveiled later. This exposes
again the illogical nature of discussing economics without politics, and the
arrogance of assuming that people would buy into an economic plan without seeing
the political terms.
When Mr Kushner was asked which should take precedence, the economic or
political component, he said they should be implemented simultaneously, adding
that the economic plan cannot be put into practice without a political solution,
but that, at the same time, a political solution was not enough without
improving people’s lives.
The economic plan itself consists of 140 pages and features 179 separate
projects, and deserves to be assessed in relation to the development of
Palestinian infrastructure. But it is bizarre that Mr Kushner has opted for
suspense and withholding information about the political component. He then
compounded matters by dismissing the Arab Peace Initiative (API).
After the workshop, Mr Kushner adjusted his remarks and said that in order to
reach a deal, concessions must be made by both sides, where the potential
political solution would fall somewhere between the terms of the API and the
Israeli position. However, Israel has no official plan in response to the
initiative, which was launched some 17 years ago.
Indeed, most of the terms of Mr Kushner’s plan require measures by Israel
itself, not by the Palestinian authority in Ramallah, or Hamas in Gaza. The
occupation remains the most powerful entity on the ground, and talk of land
ownership is invalid at a time when Israel is moving to annex Palestinian
territories that illegal settlements have been built on. Meanwhile, the $50
billion earmarked for the plan remains relatively low, according to business
leaders.
The Palestinian Authority’s snub of both the economic and political components
of the initiative is a mistake. It should stop isolating itself, and to signal
approval and disapproval of specific details of the plan, and avoid being
absent. Sulking in silence is not a policy.
Palestinians: "Hamas Is Not Afraid of
Elections"
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/July 01/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14466/palestinians-hamas-elections
New elections [the initiative of Mahmoud Abbas] are certain to result in the
creation of another Hamas-controlled entity in the West Bank. The Palestinians
would end up with two Hamas-run mini-states, one in the West Bank and one in the
Gaza Strip.
If Fatah members are being systematically targeted and tortured by Hamas for
expressing their views, how will they ever be allowed to conduct election
campaigns that challenge the rulers of Hamas in the Gaza Strip?
"Hamas is not afraid of elections. In fact, it's Abbas who's afraid of elections
because public opinion polls have shown that he and Fatah will be defeated by
Hamas. Despite our mistakes, Hamas remains the conscience of the Palestinians
because it does not conduct security coordination [with Israel] and does not
steal the money of the people." — Mohammed Nazzal, senior leader, Hamas.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says that he is ready to hold
long-overdue presidential and parliamentary elections, and has even instructed
the Palestinian Central Elections Commission to start preparing for the vote.
Abbas seems to be taking quite a gamble. There is a real possibility that his
rivals in Hamas will manage to push him off the presidential throne he has been
occupying so persistently for the past fourteen years.
Hamas leaders have responded by welcoming the initiative to hold new elections.
The leaders say they are not afraid of elections: they are confident that their
movement will win.
Hamas leaders are clearly hoping that if and when new elections are held, they
would facilitate its takeover of the Palestinian Authority (PA) presidency and
the Palestinian Legislative Council.
New elections are certain to result in the creation of another Hamas-controlled
entity in the West Bank. The Palestinians would end up with two Hamas-run
mini-states, one in the West Bank and one in the Gaza Strip.
The last Palestinian parliamentary election, held on January 2006, resulted in a
Hamas victory. Hamas officials, who contested the vote under a list called
Change and Reform, won 74 of the 132 seats. The Hamas victory came as a severe
blow to Abbas's ruling Fatah faction, whose representatives won only 45 seats.
Eighteen months later, Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip after
overthrowing the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority. Since then, the
Palestinian Legislative Council has been effectively paralyzed, leaving the
Palestinian Authority without parliamentary supervision.
The last Palestinian presidential election was held in January 2005, when Abbas
was elected to succeed Yasser Arafat. Since then, Palestinians have been
deprived of electing a new president due to the continued power struggle between
Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The 83-year-old Abbas is now
in the 14th year of his four-year-term in office. Many Palestinians stopped
relating to him as a legitimate and rightful leader after his term in office
expired in January 2009.
Abbas is now embarking on a risky move by expressing his readiness to hold new
parliamentary and presidential elections.
First, there is a high probability that Hamas would win the parliamentary
election again. One of the main reasons Hamas won the 2006 election was because
of rampant financial and administrative corruption in the Palestinian Authority.
That is evidently why Hamas chose to name its list Change and Reform -- to
promise Palestinians an end to corruption.
In addition, many of the Fatah candidates suspected of involvement in corruption
and mismanagement who ran in that election are still in power. It is safe to
assume that Palestinians are not going to vote for the same Fatah list that
includes the same people who were voted out because of their corruption.
Second, Abbas's initiative to hold new elections will be seen as an admission of
his failure to remove Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip. Worse, the
participation of Hamas in the new elections will legitimize the Islamist
movement and enhance its role as a major player in the Palestinian arena.
In the past, Abbas and his officials have said that there can be no elections as
long as Hamas officials refused to end their rule over the Gaza Strip. Abbas now
seems to have dropped that condition.
Third, Abbas has no assurances that the election in the Gaza Strip would be
conducted in a free and fair manner so long as Hamas remains in power. Given
Hamas's ongoing, vicious crackdown on its political rivals, particularly Fatah,
it is highly unlikely that Fatah candidates would feel safe openly to challenge
the rulers of the Gaza Strip. Under the current circumstances, Hamas will not
allow Fatah candidates to run election campaigns criticizing the Hamas regime
and leaders.
Last March, Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip got a first-hand -- and
painful -- taste of what happens to anyone who dares to challenge Hamas.
Protests that erupted in different parts of the Gaza Strip against economic
hardship were met with the iron fist of Hamas.
Hamas not only accused Fatah of being behind the economic protests, its security
forces arrested dozens of Fatah members in the Gaza Strip. Fatah says many of
its men were subjected to brutal torture in Hamas detention. Fatah has also held
Hamas responsible for assassination attempts against two senior Fatah officials
in the Gaza Strip: Ahmed Hils and Atef Abu Seif.
"Hamas has abducted and brutally tortured Fatah members," said Fatah spokesman
Osama Qawassmeh. "No Palestinian can imagine what Hamas did."
In addition to severe beatings with clubs and plastic pipes, some Palestinians
say Hamas officers forced them to drink their own urine and broke detainees'
arms and legs.
If Fatah members are not even permitted to protest the living conditions of
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, how will they be able to participate in free and
fair elections under Hamas?
Also, if Fatah members are being systematically targeted and tortured by Hamas
for expressing their views, how will they ever be allowed to conduct election
campaigns that challenge the rulers of Hamas in the Gaza Strip?
Abbas's initiative, meanwhile, has been applauded not only by Hamas, but also by
several Palestinian factions and institutions that have long been calling for
new parliamentary and presidential elections. Recently, the factions and
institutions sent a letter to Abbas expressing their support for his initiative
and saying the Palestinians were entitled to elect their leaders through fair
and transparent elections.
In the bizarre parallel world of the Palestinians, Hamas leaders say that while
they are not afraid of elections, they are not sure that the vote could be free
and fair in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority is continuing to
crack down on Hamas supporters almost on a daily basis.
"Hamas is not afraid of elections," said senior Hamas leader Mohammed Nazzal.
"In fact, it's Abbas who's afraid of elections because public opinion polls have
shown that he and Fatah will be defeated by Hamas. Despite our mistakes, Hamas
remains the conscience of the Palestinians because it does not conduct security
coordination [with Israel] and does not steal the money of the people."
Hamas leaders are confident that they will win any new election for two reasons:
the Palestinian Authority's continued security coordination with Israel is seen
by Hamas officials and many Palestinians as an act of treason, and Palestinians
seem disgusted with the rampant corruption among the top brass of the
Palestinian leadership.
A recent public opinion poll published by the Palestinian corruption monitor
Aman Coalition revealed that 91% of Palestinians surveyed do not trust the
Palestinian Authority. Other polls have shown that more than 60% of surveyed
Palestinians would like to see Abbas step down.
At this stage, it is premature to predict whether Abbas's latest initiative will
succeed. Tensions between his Fatah faction and Hamas remain as high as ever.
Even the Egyptians, who have been laboring in recent months in mediation to end
the dispute, seem to have thrown their hands up in the air and quit.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a
Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Erdogan’s Blunders and Imamoglu’s Rise
Bobby Ghosh/Bloomberg View/July 01/2019
It is much too early to anoint Ekrem Imamoglu, now effectively the twice-elected
mayor of Istanbul, as the New Erdogan—but the willingness of so many, Turks and
Turkey-watchers alike, to do so should worry the Old Erdogan. For the first time
in the best part of two decades, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a political
challenger of proven vote-gathering ability, and only himself to blame for
providing the proof. Had the president not insisted on a do-over of the Istanbul
mayoral election, Imamoglu would have been someone who had squeaked into office
by 14,000 votes, facing opposition from Erdogan’s powerful AK Party and also
other opposition groups. Instead, Imamoglu can boast of a landslide, with a
margin in excess of 800,000 votes, and the backing of an anti-AKP alliance.
This is a body-blow to Erdogan that he has taken with bad grace, warning the new
mayor that he could be tried for having allegedly insulted a provincial
governor; if jailed, Imamoglu would lose his office.
Erdogan has lost more than face: Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul is also the
country’s economic engine, accounting for a third of gross domestic product, a
fifth of the population and a quarter of public spending. In the mid- to
late-1990s, Erdogan himself was able to use the Istanbul mayoralty—the country’s
most important political constituency—as a springboard to national leadership.
The parallels between the two men at this stage in their careers invite
consideration. In 1994, Erdogan was an articulate, charismatic 40-year old,
attractive to both religious conservatives and a new generation of Turks keen
for more economic opportunity to go with their democratic freedoms. Imamoglu is
an articulate, charismatic 49-year-old, appealing to a new generation grown
tired of economic stagnation and alarmed by the erosion of their democratic
freedoms. He has also demonstrated an ideological flexibility that could widen
this base beyond secular urbanites and into the religious heartland.
But the parallels run no farther. Erdogan’s leap from the mayoralty to national
leadership was possible because of the strength and discipline of the AK Party;
Imamoglu can claim neither of those virtues for his CHP, which is a pale shadow
of the party founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Perhaps more important, Erdogan the mayor did not have to reckon with a national
leader of the caliber of Erdogan the president. Imamoglu can count on being
hounded at every turn by a national leader who has amassed executive powers that
give him the ability to undermine the mayor’s economic agenda.
What Imamoglu does have are some very precious political commodities:
credibility, legitimacy and momentum. He now has international name-recognition
that only the mayors of cities such as New York and London can claim.
If he wields these advantages with skill, the mayor could conceivably build a
national constituency to take on the president.
Imamoglu will also benefit if Erdogan keeps making political blunders. Carrying
through on the threat of legal action against the just-elected mayor would be
one. In 1998, Erdogan himself was removed from the mayoralty and jailed for
having declaimed some Islamic poetry in a public speech—this was deemed as
inciting religious hatred. The persecution of a popular mayor had the effect of
making him a more prominent national figure. If Erdogan doesn’t learn from his
own past, he will likely face a serious challenge from Imamoglu in the
not-too-distant future.
Osaka And The World’s Board of Directors
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/July 01/2019
Did US President Donald Trump get from the Osaka Summit what he was planning to
or desiring? Has Chinese President Xi Jinping returned home comfortable with
avoiding or delaying a trade war with America? Has Russian President Vladimir
Putin returned to the Kremlin satisfied with the results of his participation
and his appearance? Did Prince Mohammed bin Salman come back to his Kingdom
pleased with the results of his involvement in the summit?
It is clear that America remains at the forefront of major powers. Tensions
provoked by Trump’s surprises to his opponents and allies have not diminished
the country’s role. It remains the strongest economy and the toughest military
machine.
Trump’s method twisted the US lines of alliance and rivalry with the countries
of the world; but this president, originally from outside the traditional
dictionary, is good at handling surprises with more surprises and shocks.
Through mutual flexibility, the slide towards an open trade war has been curbed,
and the resumption of talks has been approved.
The White House master surprised his European allies when he took a tolerant
attitude towards the giant Huawei, weeks after he was talking about its danger
and calling for its boycott. It is, therefore, possible to say that the Chinese
president was also satisfied. Trump did not miss the opportunity. He crowned his
presence in Osaka with a resounding surprise when he became the first US
president to walk, even a few steps, on the soil of Kim Il-sung.
One can also say that Putin came back home happy. Days proved that he was a
necessary partner, despite the annexation of the Crimea, the destabilization of
Ukraine and the response to NATO's movement along the borders of his country
with painful messages, in addition to his military intervention in Syria.
The Saudi crown prince was also comfortable. Riyadh will host the G20 summit
next year, and this event has an impact on Saudi Arabia’s international presence
and the circumstances in the Gulf region.
Mohammed bin Salman’s meetings were the hallmarks of the summit. It is not only
the heartfelt talk that Trump echoed in front of the cameras. The warm welcome
to the Crown Prince was evident from the host country and the leaders of the big
countries, including Putin, who will visit Saudi Arabia next fall.
The broad international satisfaction with the reform and modernization workshop
led by Prince Mohammed bin Salman was palpable. Shinzo Abe was keen to repeat
the praise.
In covering the G20 Summit, the reporter has a feeling of intimidation unlike in
other international gatherings. This date is far more important than the
oratorical festival of the regular session of the United Nations General
Assembly, where many go to promote their policies, while weak states go to shed
their tears. It is certainly more important than regional summits that are often
concerned with agreeing on the vocabulary of a final statement rather than to
deal effectively with crises and tensions.
There is no exaggeration to say that the G20 concerns every member of the
cosmopolitan village, whether in crowded capitals or countryside longing for
progress and prosperity.
The summit concerns them because it revolves around financial and economic
stability, commercial exchange, sustainable development, prosperity and
investment. It is the locomotive of progress in a world where a revolution is no
longer a much-awaited event, but day-to-day produce of laboratories, which place
nations and peoples in front of a single option - to adapt to a rapidly changing
world.
The image of the participants sitting around the G20 table gives you the
impression that they are members of the board of directors of the world, and
that a sense of the interdependence of destinies controls their decisions, no
matter the fierce competition and the policy of conflicts.
On this globalized planet, you cannot rejoice when a big competitor’s economy
drowns, because you have to contribute to the drowning bill.
Perhaps this feeling is what forces the competing parties to cool their
vocabulary and search for compromises. Political differences impact the
discussions, but the fear of a return to severe financial crises and economic
meltdowns curbs the rhetoric of confrontation and favors the language of
settlement.
A look at the G20 participants is sufficient. Their countries represent about
two-thirds of the planet's population, the same proportion of world trade. Their
countries have the most powerful economies, the largest arsenals, the most
sophisticated laboratories, the best education systems, and perhaps the most
important among them is who leads this enormous technological revolution, and
this amazing digital transformation.
In Osaka, I had the feeling that the summit in Japan is more important than the
one held in Argentina last year, for several reasons. It is a summit held in
this Asian depth, which is said to soon become the heart of the world and the
engine of its progress, with all that this means at the economic, political and
social levels. The transfer of economic weight to this part of the planet is a
major change in the features of the post-World War II era and the rubble of the
Soviet Union.
The summit was held at a time when a trade war between America and China was
lurking - a war threatening to unleash a new Cold War worldwide, especially
after Vladimir Putin was keen to crystallize a Russian-Chinese axis, which was
obvious in regional crises and inside the Security Council.
Experts say China will be the new Soviet Union for the United States, with a
striking difference that it is a huge locomotive, both in terms of population
and economy.
Osaka stole the lights when it hosted the world’s board of directors. Abe ran
the meeting brilliantly, especially when he gave priority to reviving the
US-China dialogue. Osaka has gained its share and opportunity. Now, Riyadh has
to prepare for its big date.
Sanders’s Socialism Won’t Bring On the Revolution
Noah Smith/Bloomberg/July 01/2019
The front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination is still the
centrist Joe Biden. But two strong candidates on the left are competing to
topple him -- Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Both have spent
years advocating for higher wages, higher taxes, stricter regulation of
corporations and a variety of other egalitarian goals. But there’s a big
difference between the two when it comes to ideological positioning -- Sanders
proudly declares himself a socialist, while Warren labels herself “capitalist to
my bones.”
In past decades, those labels might have had more rigorous distinctions. But
these days, socialists in the US don’t do a lot of arguing over what's needed to
produce revolution, or whether workers ought to own businesses and factories.
And Warren feels perfectly comfortable calling herself a capitalist while
advocating government-run health insurance, worker representation on corporate
boards and government promotion of industry. So what do the socialist or
capitalist labels mean in the US in 2019?
A big difference might be how one thinks about power. Sanders, in a recent
criticism of Warren, declared that she had been embraced by corporate interests.
This seems to reflect a more general view among American socialists that wealth
concentration -- at both the individual and corporate levels -- has subverted
the political process. According to this narrative, the US is now an oligarchy,
where billionaires and corporate lobbyists are able to buy their preferred
policies. Taxing wealth and profit, according to this view, won't simply create
a more materially equitable society, but a more politically democratic one as
well. If wealth equals power, a more equal distribution of the former
automatically leads to a more equal distribution of the latter. That raises the
expectation that economic equality could snowball -- that higher taxes on wealth
and profits could lead to the election of leaders who are eager to enact even
more egalitarian policies.
But how accurate is this narrative? Looking at modern history, has greater
egalitarianism been a self-reinforcing process? The greatest period of US
economic equality was in the late 1970s.
But this era of equality is precisely when the US took a turn toward free-market
conservatism, culminating in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Meanwhile,
corporate profits as a share of the economy hit a trough during Reagan’s second
term and -- with a few interruptions during recessions -- have been rising ever
since.
But this seemed to merely whet the country’s appetite for deregulation.
Why did the US support a capitalist revolution right at the point when
inequality was at its nadir? The most prosperous Americans might have been able
to exert a major influence even though their wealth hadn’t yet reached its
present lofty heights -- after all, even today, the biggest political donors
spend only a small fraction of their net worth on politics or buying influence.
Alternatively, the country’s leaders really believed that economic
liberalization was what was necessary to get the economy moving again after
almost a decade of stagnation. Or it could be that policy is like a pendulum,
and that the public will tends to run counter to prevailing trends.
Those who believe the US is an oligarchy often cite the research of political
scientists Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page. In a 2014 paper, Gilens and Page
measured correlations between policy outcomes and the preferences of various
income groups. They found that policy was most highly correlated with the
preferences of high earners. Some take this result as an indication that the
rich have their way in US politics, while the poor and middle class are
voiceless.
But there are many reasons to doubt that conclusion. First of all, the group
that Gilens and Page label “affluent” are those making more than $146,000 a
year. Although this takes in the billionaire class that socialists rail against,
it mostly includes people who could hardly be considered rich. More importantly,
the authors found a strong correlation between the preferences of this affluent
group and those of the middle class -- in other words, the policies that are
enacted don’t often seem to buck the will of the broad public. Additionally,
correlation doesn’t equal causation -- politicians might do things that they
think will benefit the overall economy, and that only coincidentally happen to
please the affluent.
It’s also likely that Gilens and Page are just wrong. A number of other research
teams have done their own studies, and most concluded that it’s the middle
class, not the rich, who tend to hold sway in democratic politics. A 2015 paper
by political scientist Peter Enns, for example, concludes that “policy ends up
about where we would expect if policymakers represented the middle class and
ignored the affluent.”
This isn't to say that the extremely wealthy exert no influence over the
political process, or that corporate lobbyists wield no power in Washington.
What it does suggest is that the struggle for equality of political power will
be an eternal, ongoing one. The idea that reducing wealth and profit
concentration will ignite a self-reinforcing political process that will
eventually lead to true socialism seems like wishful thinking. Sanders’s
policies would undoubtedly make the US a less unequal society, but they are far
more likely to end up as reform than revolution.
Iran’s Bets on the Arabs and the International Community
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/July 01/2019
For those monitoring Iranian affairs for some time, Tehran’s recent military
escalation in the Gulf comes as no surprise. They have always expected the
Iranian leaders to raise the tempo in order to send a clear warning message that
the cost of a military conflict would be extremely high.
‘The Samson Option’ has always been central to the way of thinking of a regime
based on all forms of dictatorships: religious, through the ‘Vilayet e Faqih’
theocratic identity; military through its army, Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and
sectarian militias; and Mafia-style economic network structurally tied to the
previous two. Furthermore, ‘Exporting the Revolution’, as a strategy, represents
those three forms of dictatorships outside Iran and the international waters; as
does the resurrected nationalist hubris of a nation that accepted Islam on its
own conditions and according to its own definition.
Thus, it is impossible to separate the political identity of the Iranian regime
and the strategy of ‘Exporting the Revolution’, which actually means imposing
Iranian hegemony on neighboring countries, and undermining them through
sectarianism whenever the need arises.
We always hear that there are disagreements within the Iranian leadership. Well,
this may be true. There may exist a rational bloc confronting an adventurist
bloc. There may be moderate figures who prefer showing patience in achieving
their goals without the need to provoke the whole world against Iran, against
figures who are keen to impose their will today rather than tomorrow. Perhaps
there still are true ‘reformist’ groups which courageously believe that quiet
approaches can open holes in the wall blocking international relations against
militant ‘field commanders’ who are convinced that ‘attack is the best means of
defense’.
All this is possible; however, we need, as Arabs who have had a long and uneasy
history with the political culture of ‘our neighbors’ across the Gulf and Zagros
Mountains, to hope for the best but to prepare for the worst!
Recalling the days of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who aspired to be ‘the
Policeman of the Gulf’, we today realize that the leaders of the ‘Islamic
Revolution’ went much further in that project. Also, and needless to repeat
facts known to every sane Arab about what Iran has perpetrated in Iraq, Syria,
Lebanon and Yemen, we must not underestimate the latest developments in the Gulf
of Oman and southern Saudi Arabia while rationally weighing up the situation,
interests, expectations and bets.
On a GCC level, one has to admit that the internal cohesion of the GCC could be
stronger and more secure than that it is now. Indeed, even if we overlooked this
reality, the Tehran strategists know what is going on and are exploiting the
situation efficiently.
On the Arab level too, the overall situation does not show the much-needed
solidarity in the face of the arrogance and aggression of the Tehran regime.
Iraq’s unfortunate position during Makkah’s three summits speaks volumes, and
what remains of vestiges of a state in Syria is a living expression of an
Iranian-Russian satellite.
As for Lebanon, it is living under an authority that is nothing but a thin veil
barely covering the identity of its real rulers. This became clearer with the
background of Tehran’s release of Lebanese prisoner Nizar Zakka, and the
antagonistic attitude of the President and government towards Syrian refugees.
In the meantime, the situation in Yemen has already become a worrying sign of
international collusion with the Iranian leadership of which the Houthi rebels
are an appendage in the southern gateway of the Red Sea. Even Arab countries,
that have so far escaped Tehran’s hegemony, seem to be suffering serious
political and security problems that may open the floodgates to serious threats.
Finally, let us have a look at the international scene, and share some candid
thoughts about the following facts:
-Fact One: the US tough stance against Iran’s latest actions in the Gulf of Oman
gives signs of seriousness against any aggression targeting shipping in the
area, as well as on the insistence that Tehran has to change its ‘behavior’.
However, without questioning the real reasons for this tough stance Washington
continues to declare that its intention is not regime change.
-Fact Two: there is no consensus, even in Washington, in support of President
Donald Trump’s Iranian policy; in fact, the vast majority of Democrats continue
to follow his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama’s commitment to appeasing
Iran.
-Fact Three; the general political climate in Western Europe, particularly in
Germany and France, opposes any escalation against Iran. This has been made
clear by the European support to JCPOA. Furthermore, this position stems in part
from European dislike of Trump himself as well as his ultra right-wing policies.
This, means that Tehran, by default, has found ‘indirect’ allies who are
actually backing its aggression and destructive regional actions.
-Fact Four: the Tehran regime is not ignorant of the mechanics of European and
American politics, not to mention its exploitation of its strong tactical
relations with Russia and China. In Europe, the Iranians can rely on the
continent’s leftists and liberals, while in the US the Tehran regime benefits
from a very active political ‘lobby’. Moreover, most of Iran’s Khomeinist
foreign ministers, since Sadegh Ghotbazdeh (Velayati, Kharazi, Salehi and Zarif),
lived in the US, studied in American universities, and interacted with American
culture; so they know America’s strengths and weaknesses, and its interests and
counter interests in both the Middle East and globally.
-Fact Five: American sanctions against Iran have, no doubt, been effective to
the extent that they have pushed its leaders to ‘escape forward’. They are
escalating militarily in order to blackmail the international community, with
the tacit threats Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has been reiterating
that “the war will be costly to all”. The attack on Abha (civilian) Airport,
just a few hours before the attacks on the two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, as
well as the ongoing drone attacks, clearly point to the culprit and intentions.
What we have witnessed lately is a very serious development. Would the
international community misunderstand it … yet again?!
Analysis /Alleged Israeli Strike in Syria Hit
Advanced Iranian Weapons Supply Headed for Hezbollah
عاموس هاريل/هآرتس: الضربات الإسرائيلية استهدفت تعزيزات أسلحة إيرانية متطورة كانت
بطريقها إلى حزب الله
Amos Harel/Haaretz/July 01/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/76273/%d8%b9%d8%a7%d9%85%d9%88%d8%b3-%d9%87%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%84-%d9%87%d8%a2%d8%b1%d8%aa%d8%b3-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b6%d8%b1%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%8a/
Russia’s national security adviser stressed Moscow’s alliance with Tehran in
Israel visit, but Russia not working to thwart Israeli strikes in Syria ? Iran’s
nuclear deal breach pushes U.S. to the table, but Trump has yet to take the bait
Based on Arab media reports, the bombing of Syrian and Iranian targets outside
the cities of Damascus and Homs late Sunday night was one of the largest attacks
attributed to Israel in recent years. Its timing was intriguing, too – a few
days after the summit in Jerusalem of national security advisers from the United
States, Russia and Israel, and at a time when the United States and Iran are
still facing off against each other in the Persian Gulf.
On Monday there were reports that Iran had carried out its threat, enriching its
uranium stockpile past the 300-kilogram limit set under the international
nuclear agreement, for the first time.
Journalists in Damascus relate that various sites associated with Iran in
proximity to Beirut were also bombed overnight, as was a weapons depot near the
Lebanese border, in Syria. The distribution of the sites attacked could attest
to the real goal – hitting what is apparently a logistical chain that supplies
advanced weapons to Hezbollah, linking Iran to Lebanon via Syria.
The number of casualties reported so far is unusual: nine fighters, most of them
foreign, and six Syrian civilians. Civilian deaths resulting from Israeli air
raids on Syria are quite rare.
The official announcement published after the trilateral Jerusalem summit last
week was very short on details. At the joint press conference, Russia’s national
security adviser, Nikolai Patrushev, even mentioned the alliance between Russia
and Iran in Syria. But Russia is clearly taking no active steps to curtail
Israel’s assaults on Iranian targets in Syria.
The S-300 surface-to-air missile system, which the Russians say they delivered
to the Syrian Army after their Ilyushin aircraft was accidentally shot down in
September, didn’t operate this time either. The Syrians fired a massive barrage
of older S-200 missiles in response to this latest aerial attack; one fell on
the Turkish part of Cyprus by mistake. As in the Ilyushin incident, this time
too, the Syrians seem to be firing weapons rather hysterically without
considering possible ramifications.
Even though this is an election period in Israel, in contrast to previous
attacks, this time local officials did not immediately begin to drop broad hints
about Israel’s possible involvement. Speaking at the Herzliya Conference on
Monday, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen talked about the situation in the north, in
general.
“We have no interest in fighting with Syria,” Cohen said. “But we won’t accept
Iran’s entrenchment against us in Syria, or Syria’s role as a logistical base
for transporting weaponry to Lebanon.”
He added that in his opinion, Israel’s activity in Syria will ultimately prompt
Iran to decide that it doesn’t pay to operate there. Cohen, who devoted much of
his speech to the Iranian threat to Israel, mentioned Tehran’s intention of
exceeding the permissible limit for enriched uranium under the 2015 agreement
with the six world powers – from which the United States withdrew last May. And
indeed, an hour later, it was reported that Iran had, for the first time, passed
that mark.
In the background, tensions with the Americans in the Persian Gulf continue.
Following recent attacks on oil tankers, rigs and airfields for which Tehran has
been blamed, an expensive American surveillance drone was shot down in the Gulf
on June 20. Iran claimed the drone had penetrated its airspace. Trump
reconsidered his initial response to the incident and canceled a punitive
American attack which, he claimed, could have cost 150 lives – but also
announced more economic sanctions against Tehran.
While no further incidents have been reported in the interim, the Iranians are
exerting pressure by violating the nuclear accord. Their purpose seems to be to
bring the Americans back to the negotiating table, perhaps in the hope of easing
the sanctions. So far Trump hasn’t taken the bait. On the contrary, he is
signaling a crackdown.
Sooner or later the parties will have to resume their direct talks but right now
they’re at the stage of issuing threats. It’s quite obvious that neither wants a
direct military conflict, but as has been said before: The regional situation is
so complex that one cannot be sure that the Americans and Iranians will have the
good sense not to get to that point.
How Middle East Eye is fake-news central
Ibrahim Alkhamis/Arab News/July 02, 2019
In the world of political media, ownership is an important issue that implies
editorial influence. This in itself is harmless as it grants a level of
transparency to an outlet: We know that Al Jazeera belongs to Qatar’s royal
family (yet it denies having editorial influence), Al Arabiya to the MBC Group,
Fox News to Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, and CNN to AT&T. Media ownership is a
fact of the business world and is not inherently negative, but public awareness
of this ownership is essential to understand perspective and influence, whether
cultural or geopolitical.
As the Arab Spring was starting to phase out post-2013, Al Jazeera’s success in
giving a platform to Islamists was beginning to wane. At the time, an outlet
called Middle East Eye (MEE) began to form in London, with job listings posted
and staff carefully selected.
It brands itself as independent, yet MEE has had many Al Jazeera journalists
freelancing for or joining its content production team, causing red flags to be
raised regarding its financing. David Hearst, MEE’s editor-in-chief and a former
foreign correspondent for The Guardian, refused to give details about the
outlet’s finances, attributing its existence to “individual private donors” who
he claimed were “interested in democracy in the Middle East.”
Hearst and others in MEE weaponize their stories by propagating fake news with
anonymous sources, thereby misleading human rights organizations and other news
outlets.
As MEE began to publish articles, it mirrored Al Jazeera’s editorial policy,
highlighting human rights issues throughout the Middle East except when it came
to Qatar’s domestic or foreign policies. What is alarming is that many human
rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty
International, use MEE’s articles as a point of reference, as do the New York
Times, the Washington Post and Germany’s Deutsche Welle.
MEE claims to report on the Middle East, but there are no articles discussing
Qatar’s imprisonment of members of its royal family, such as Sheikh Talal bin
Abdul Aziz Al-Thani, or the abuses faced by his wife and children. Yet it pumps
out articles containing rumors and fabrications against Qatar’s state enemies,
especially Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt.
These articles are displayed as fact with obscure sources and hard-hitting
headlines, reinforcing stereotypes of enemy states. This is reflected in
Hearst’s articles during his time at The Guardian, claiming absurdly that the
2014 Gaza War was backed by Saudi Arabia. He repeated this claim in 2018 but
with a slight adjustment, that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was pushing a
war with Gaza.
Hearst also famously claimed that the Saudis were supporting the Houthis in
Yemen as a means of stopping an Islamist takeover. Yet Saudi Arabia went to war
against the Houthis in 2015, two years after his dubious claims. Hearst seems to
be informed mainly by Islamist propaganda.
He is surrounded by former Al Jazeera staff, including news editors Arwa Ibrahim
and Jacob Powell, and senior editors Graeme Baker and Larry Johnson. It comes as
no surprise that reviews on Glassdoor, where current and former employees can
review their place of employment, center around MEE’s obscure funding. Two of
the three available reviews on the website highlight MEE’s “secret nature of
funding,” while one accuses the outlet of pushing stories with anonymous sources
onto its reporters. These sources seem to be too secretive even for MEE’s own
journalists.From royal family dramas to weaponizing the Palestinian cause by
accusing Qatar’s enemies of doing secret deals with Israel, MEE’s “exclusive”
content tends to center on attacking countries by using anonymous sources. This
clearly illustrates that its purpose is not to report, but to propagate a
pro-Qatar narrative in the West, where Al Jazeera has failed to penetrate
effectively. MEE’s “exclusives” are exclusive in their creativity, not their
reliability.
It is an instrument in creating an illusion of reliability and diverse news
sources for the pro-Qatar narrative. MEE functions as an extension to Al Jazeera
without having to be accused of being a state-owned outlet. Media is arguably
the only tool in Qatar’s diplomacy, other than cash incentives to its clients
worldwide. Diversification of platforms is a new goal in Doha’s media strategy,
but there should be no room for ownership or funding to be hidden. Hearst and
others in MEE weaponize their stories by propagating fake news with anonymous
sources, thereby misleading human rights organizations and other news outlets.
The response to this must be demands for transparency regarding financial and
news sources.
• Ibrahim Alkhamis is an expert in media and Gulf politics with a special
emphasis on fake news.
A grassroots antidote to populism
Ismael Emelien and David Amiel/Arab News/July 02, 2019
The political parties that once dominated Western democracies have been shaken
to the core. Many have suffered electoral debacles, not least in France, Italy,
Greece, the UK, and elsewhere. Others have changed so radically that only their
name remains the same. The Republican Party of US President Donald Trump has
little in common with that of former President Ronald Reagan.
These developments are similar across the West. Leaders of the once-dominant
parties oscillate between denial and despair, while populists siphon off their
traditional supporters. Some refuse to see any legitimate reason for their
defeat, dismissing their opponents’ supporters as “deplorables,” as Hillary
Clinton did shortly before losing to Trump in 2016; others are too petrified by
the populist surge to mount a counteroffensive.
But neither denial nor complacency will break the political impasse.
Progressives must rebuild, and that starts with diagnosing the traditional
parties’ shortcomings. Part of the problem is that traditional parties failed to
recognize the real issues of the age. Still fighting on old ideological
battlefields, they turned a blind eye to declining social mobility, mounting
environmental crises, rising geographic inequality, tensions over
multiculturalism, and other issues that actually matter to voters. Decades ago,
they were the vanguard. Today, they are alone in the woods, wondering where
everyone went.
The social sciences may hold an answer as to why the mainstream lost its way.
The gap between their objective analysis of reality and government policies has
become a chasm. In most Western countries, for example, economists have long
known about the growing divide in terms of incomes and other indicators between
some affluent cities — which benefit from globalization — and the rest of the
country. Yet not until French President Emmanuel Macron’s administration did a
national leader enact tax cuts on the basis of where one lives. As a result, 1
percent of France’s gross domestic product is now being redistributed first to
the poorest parts of the country.
Traditional parties could also learn something from listening to voters
directly, rather than only through the filters of media and pollsters. Back in
2016, Macron’s movement, En Marche, started with the largest door-to-door
listening tour in France’s history. What voters told canvassers then became the
foundation of Macron’s presidential campaign.
When voters refuse to hear what you have to say, shouting louder is not the
answer. Decades ago, traditional political parties were the vanguard. Today,
they are alone in the woods, wondering where everyone went.
For example, more than a year before revelations of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged
sexual predations, “La Grande Marche” had gathered innumerable testimonies from
women about harassment, and Macron issued a pledge to fight the problem if
elected. At the time, Macron’s stance made him the butt of opponents’ jokes; the
laughter soon faded with the onset of the #MeToo era.
Still, an accurate understanding of society is not enough. Traditional parties
also suffer from poor organization. They have long believed that modern politics
should be organized around elections, with activists showing up periodically to
hand out leaflets and cheer on the candidates. This was not cynicism, so much as
a symptom of an approach that treats democracy as a marketplace made up of
government providers and citizen consumers. In this view, seizing and holding
power is a party’s sole raison d’etre. It is little wonder that citizens and
even party members feel ignored between elections.
Despite these weaknesses, established parties had a number of advantages that
forestalled their collapse. In recent years, they have had a technological edge
over less-established opponents, and they were the only political actors with
organized constituencies that could mobilize people for elections, organize
protests, and start petitions.
But this model is no longer sustainable. Citizens nowadays refuse to be mere
consumers of public policies. With rising levels of education have come new
demands for empowerment. Voters want to be treated as political actors in their
own right, not as pawns in someone else’s game.
Moreover, governments themselves are no longer the sole providers of policies.
This is one of the hard lessons we learned during two years working alongside
Macron at the Elysee Palace. The leading policy challenges today — climate
change, religious extremism, digital disruption, gender equality — do not admit
solutions only by national governments. Such challenges demand deep cultural
changes and, in most cases, action at the sub and supranational levels.
Finally, technology has lowered entry barriers to political participation, such
that traditional parties can no longer count on an incumbent advantage and
entrenched support networks. When you have mastered Google, Twitter and Facebook,
you don’t need a century-old party machine. Political movements must be rebuilt
accordingly. The focus should be on specific actions, not just elections. A
party’s formal management structure should serve as the administrative “back
office;” the front office should be staffed by the people on the ground. At La
Republique En Marche, we refer to these as local citizen projects. They can
include anything from after-class reading courses and migrant integration
programs to cooperative vegetable gardens and digital training sessions for
senior citizens. In each case, the point is to offer solutions tailored to local
problems, thereby strengthening communities. Such projects should now be
regarded as essential complements to public policies.
In the future, a party’s ability to offer rewarding avenues for political and
community engagement will be essential to its attractiveness. And, by
demonstrating progressivism in action on a daily basis, parties will have
already laid the groundwork for success when election day arrives.
When voters refuse to hear what you have to say, shouting louder is not the
answer. This is the hard lesson traditional parties learned. Only by
demonstrating a commitment to improving lives, rather than simply winning
elections, can you convince people to come to your side. Reconnecting with
voters’ concerns thus goes hand-in-hand with adapting party organizations. For a
winning alternative to populism, we need grassroots progressivism.
Ismael Emelien, a co-founder of En Marche, has been Head of Strategy for French
President Emmanuel Macron since 2014 and was Macron’s special adviser for
strategy and communication from 2017 to 2019. David Amiel coordinated the
conception of Macron’s campaign platform and was a policy adviser to the
president from 2017 to 2019. They are the co-authors of “Le progres ne tombe pas
du ciel: Manifeste.” Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2019.
www.project-syndicate.org