English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For July 11/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 03/31-36: “The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 10-11/2020
71 New Coronavirus Cases in Lebanon
Fourteen July 8 Passengers Test Positive for COVID-19
Appetizers/Dr.Walid Phares
U.N. Rights Chief Warns Lebanon Crisis 'Spiraling Out of Control'
Lebanon ‘spiralling out of control,’ says UN rights chief
U.S. Ambassador Holds Lengthy Meeting with Diab
Water Cannon Fired at Stone-Throwing Protesters near U.S. Embassy
STL to Issue Verdict in Hariri Case on August 7
El-Sisi addresses message to Aoun: We are ready to exert every effort that can contribute to prosperity of brotherly Lebanese people
Aoun Has Right to Repeal Laws Violating Constitution, Presidency Says
Report: Lebanon Resumes ‘Paused’ Talks with IMF
Dozens Charged including Officials over Tainted Fuel
Iranian Ambassador tells Najjar his country ready to support Lebanon in all fields
Hitti: Talks Launched to Open Europe Airports to Lebanon Flights
Lebanon in a Compounded Economic, Monetary and Political Crisis
Without IMF Bailout, is Lebanon Heading for 'Hell'?
AUB president blasts 'worst govt in Lebanese history' for disregarding education
Soon on Al Arabiya: Exclusive interview with former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn
Lebanon must turn on Hezbollah to save its economy/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Arab News/July 09/2020
Lebanon: Total Loss of Trust in the Banking Sector/Hussein Shobokshi/Asharq Al Awsat/July 10/2020
Lebanese freedoms not immune to Ankara’s encroachment

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 10-11/2020
Senate Report Prevents Brotherhood Supporters from Entering France
Turkish court clears way to convert Hagia Sophia back to a mosque
Fifteen Centuries, Two Faiths and a Contested Fate for Hagia Sophia
US court orders Iran to pay $879m to 1996 Khobar bombing survivors
UN security removes Iranian ambassador's photo of Qassem Soleimani
Russia, China veto last-ditch UN bid for Syria aid via Turkey for second time
Turkey’s Erdogan may be seriously pursuing his nuclear ambitions: Expert
Macron asks Israeli PM Netanyahu to drop West Bank annexation plans
Hundreds gather in West Bank for funeral of Palestinian shot by Israeli soldiers
Pakistan drug lord Uzair Jan Baloch confesses to spying for Iran: Report
Three-time Iraqi lawmaker Ghida Kambash dies of coronavirus as cases jump 600 pct
Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf says most of his employees are now detained
Former top Democrat praises Trump strategy on Iran, warns Biden against reviving deal
US Bans Pakistan International Airlines over Fake Pilot Licence Scandal
Turkey May Send S-400 System to Back GNA in Libya
Egypt carries out military drill near Libya border

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 10-11/2020
Erdogan to Make Hagia Sophia a Mosque Again, But Will It Help Him?/Soner Cagaptay/The Washington Institute/July 10/2020
Iran’s nuclear defiance fueling Israeli fears/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh//Arab News/July 09/2020
Turkey: How Erdoğan's Migrant Blackmail Failed/Burak Bekdil/ Gatestone Institute/July 10/2020
Rage Produces Much Heat but Little Light/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/July,11/2020
Can an Emerging Market Become a Policy Pioneer?/Daniel Moss/Bloomberg/July,11/2020
Natural Gas Is the Past, the Future/Nathaniel Bullard/Bloomberg/July,11/2020
The US media’s disrespectful obsession with Trump/Khalaf Ahmad Al-Habtoor/Arab News/July 10/2020
EU is stuck in middle of Turkey’s disputes with France and Greece/Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/July 10/2020
Iran unlikely to grab opportunity for change/Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/July 10/2020
On the Murder of Husham al-Hashemi/Michael Knights/The Washington Institute/July 10/2020
 

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 10-11/2020
71 New Coronavirus Cases in Lebanon
Naharnet/July 10/2020
Lebanon on Friday confirmed 71 more COVID-19 cases, recording a relatively high tally for the small country for the second consecutive day. In its daily statement, the Health Ministry said 67 of the cases were recorded among residents and only four among expats who arrived in the country in recent days. Fifty-one of the local cases have been traced to known infected individuals, the Ministry added. Thirty-four of the local cases were recorded in the Northern Metn town of Roumieh while the other cases were recorded in Hamra (3), Ain el-Tineh (1), Mazraa (1), Ras al-Nabeh (1), Ashrafieh (1), Bourj al-Barajneh (3), Arsoun (2), Ghobeiri (1), Haret Hreik (1), Mreijeh (1), Sabtiyeh (1), Rmeileh (1), Hay el-Sillom (3), Sofar (2), Bhamdoun (1), Sehayle (1), el-Mina (1), Mizyara (1), al-Marj (2), Bednayel (1) and al-Rashidiyeh (2). The new cases raise the country’s tally to 2,082 -- among them 36 deaths and 1,402 recoveries.

Fourteen July 8 Passengers Test Positive for COVID-19
Naharnet/July 10/2020
The Health Ministry said on Friday that fourteen passengers who arrived in Beirut on July 8 tested positive for coronavirus. The Ministry announced Friday the PCR results conducted at the airport earlier on Wednesday. It stated that fourteen positive cases were registered in passengers coming from Sharjah with Air Arabia Airlines (1), Copenhagen with MEA Airlines (1), Addis Ababa with Ethiopian Airlines (1), and Abidjan with MEA Airlines (11). Lebanon on Thursday witnessed a major one-day surge in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases reaching 66.
44 of the cases were recorded among residents and 22 among expats who arrived in Lebanon in recent days.

Appetizers
Dr.Walid Phares/July 08/2020
We are seeing “stories” being circulated in Lebanon about a “trade” made between the US and Hezbollah about releasing a Hezb supporter jailed in the US versus releasing a US citizen who was a former SLA officer who was detained in Lebanon. The “stories” claim there is a large US Iran deal in te making. Not true, this is Iran-Hezb propaganda to weaken civil society resistance to Iran’s domination. This is just an appetizer. We will publish a comprehensive assessment later.

U.N. Rights Chief Warns Lebanon Crisis 'Spiraling Out of Control'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 10/2020
Lebanon's economic crisis is getting out of hand, the U.N. rights chief warned Friday, calling for urgent internal reforms coupled with international support to prevent further mayhem. Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the social fabric of the country was at risk as vulnerable populations are threatened with extreme poverty. "This situation is fast spiraling out of control, with many already destitute and facing starvation as a direct result of this crisis," she said in a statement. "The alarm has been sounded, and we must respond immediately before it is too late." For months, the Mediterranean country has grappled with its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. Tens of thousands have lost their jobs or part of their salaries, while a crippling dollar shortage has sparked spiraling inflation. Bachelet said an unemployment crisis would propel poverty and indebtedness with "grave implications" in a country with fragile social nets. She said vulnerable Lebanese, along with 1.7 million refugees, were increasingly unable to meet their basic needs, as were 250,000 migrant workers, many of whom have lost their jobs or been left homeless. "Their situation will only get worse as food and medical imports dry up," the former Chilean president said."As we respond to this pandemic and the socio-economic crisis, we must include and protect everyone, regardless of their migration or other status."
'Ease the pain'
Economic woes last year sparked mass protests in Lebanon against a political class deemed irretrievably corrupt. The Lebanese pound, officially pegged at 1,507 pounds to the greenback, reached more than 9,000 to the dollar last week on the black market in a dizzying devaluation. Prices have soared almost as fast as the exchange rate has plummeted, meaning that a salary of one million pounds is now worth a little more than $100, compared with almost $700 last year. After the country for the first time defaulted on its sovereign debt in March, the government pledged reforms and in May started talks with the International Monetary Fund towards unlocking billions of dollars in aid. But after 16 meetings, negotiations between Lebanon and the IMF are deadlocked, while leaders are reluctant to enact reforms. Bachelet urged Lebanon's political leaders to implement the necessary structural changes, and prioritize the provision of food, electricity, health and education. The rights chief also called on the international community to ramp up its help. "Without strengthened social safety nets and bolstered basic assistance to ease the pain caused by required structural reform, vulnerable Lebanese, migrant workers and refugees will be pushed further into poverty and extreme poverty," she said.

Lebanon ‘spiralling out of control,’ says UN rights chief
AFP/July 10/2020
Michelle Bachelet said the social fabric of the country was at risk as vulnerable populations are threatened with extreme poverty
BEIRUT: Lebanon's economic crisis is getting out of hand, the UN rights chief warned Friday, calling for urgent internal reforms coupled with international support to prevent further mayhem. Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the social fabric of the country was at risk as vulnerable populations are threatened with extreme poverty. “This situation is fast spiralling out of control, with many already destitute and facing starvation as a direct result of this crisis,” she said in a statement. “The alarm has been sounded, and we must respond immediately before it is too late.”For months, the Mediterranean country has grappled with its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. Tens of thousands have lost their jobs or part of their salaries, while a crippling dollar shortage has sparked spiralling inflation. Bachelet said an unemployment crisis would propel poverty and indebtedness with "grave implications" in a country with fragile social nets. She said vulnerable Lebanese, along with 1.7 million refugees, were increasingly unable to meet their basic needs, as were 250,000 migrant workers, many of whom have lost their jobs or been left homeless.
“Their situation will only get worse as food and medical imports dry up," the former Chilean president said. “As we respond to this pandemic and the socio-economic crisis, we must include and protect everyone, regardless of their migration or other status.”
Economic woes last year sparked mass protests in Lebanon against a political class deemed irretrievably corrupt. The Lebanese pound, officially pegged at 1,507 pounds to the dollar, reached more than 9,000 to the dollar last week on the black market in a dizzying devaluation. Prices have soared almost as fast as the exchange rate has plummeted, meaning that a salary of one million pounds is now worth a little more than $100, compared with almost $700 last year. After the country for the first time defaulted on its sovereign debt in March, the government pledged reforms and in May started talks with the International Monetary Fund towards unlocking billions of dollars in aid. But after 16 meetings, negotiations between Beirut and the IMF are deadlocked, while leaders are reluctant to enact reforms. Bachelet urged Lebanon's political leaders to implement the necessary structural changes, and prioritise the provision of food, electricity, health and education. The rights chief also called on the international community to ramp up its help. “Without strengthened social safety nets and bolstered basic assistance to ease the pain caused by required structural reform, vulnerable Lebanese, migrant workers and refugees will be pushed further into poverty and extreme poverty,” she said

U.S. Ambassador Holds Lengthy Meeting with Diab
Naharnet/July 10/2020
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea on Friday held talks with Prime Minister Hassan Diab at the Grand Serail. Shea left without making a statement but media reports said the meeting was lengthy and that Diab asked the ambassador to continue the talks over a lunch banquet. LBCI TV said the talks tackled the latest tensions over the U.S. envoy’s statements, the issue of border demarcation with Israel and Washington’s Caesar Act against the Syrian regime and its financiers.

Water Cannon Fired at Stone-Throwing Protesters near U.S. Embassy
Associated Press/Naharnet/July 10/2020
Dozens of Lebanese protesters held a raucous anti-U.S. rally outside the fortified American Embassy in Awkar on Friday, denouncing what they said was Washington's "interference" in Lebanon's affairs while some chanted in support of Iran-backed Hizbullah. The crowd, made up of mostly young men who support Hizbullah and allied political parties, hurled stones at riot police near the embassy, from which they were separated by layers of barbed wire. Some protesters tried to remove the wire, at which point they were sprayed with water cannons.
The protesters burned American flags and mock-up dollar bills, calling the U.S. the "mother of terrorism." The riot police eventually escorted the crowd away from the embassy area. This is the second anti-U.S. protest in Beirut and its suburbs this week amid strained U.S.-Lebanese relations. Although the U.S., along with Israel and some other Western countries, has designated Hizbullah a "terrorist" group, Washington is also a major donor to the Lebanese Army. Lebanon is facing its worst economic and financial crisis, which has triggered anti-government protests and created domestic political tension between rival groups. Hizbullah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, recently blasted comments by U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea criticizing his group and said Washington was seeking to turn public opinion against Hizbullah. Dozens of Lebanese also protested Wednesday near the Beirut airport, on the day General Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of the United States Central Command, visited Lebanon. The protesters denounced his visit and chanted "Death to America."

STL to Issue Verdict in Hariri Case on August 7
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 10/2020
The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Friday announced that it will issue its long-awaited verdict in the case of ex-PM Rafik Hariri’s assassination on August 7. “The Trial Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) issued a scheduling order today for the public pronouncement of the Judgment in the Ayyash et al. case (STL-11-01) in a public session on Friday 7 August 2020 at 11.00 AM (C.E.T),” the STL said in a statement. In the filing issued Friday, the Judges stated that the Judgment will be delivered from the courtroom with partial virtual participation.
"Due to the COVID-19 and in line with the national guidelines in the Netherlands, a limited number of members of the media will be allowed into the public gallery and the STL’s media center,” the STL added. The court had intended to issue the verdict in mid-May but it later postponed the pronouncement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Hariri, who was Lebanon's prime minister until his resignation in 2004, was killed on February 14, 2005, when a suicide bomber detonated a pickup truck next to his armored convoy on the Beirut seafront.
Another 21 people were killed and 226 injured in the assassination, with fingers initially pointing at Syria which had long been a power-broker in the country.
The tribunal was created by a 2007 U.N. Security Council resolution at Lebanon's request, and four Hizbullah suspects went on trial in 2014 accused of core roles in the attack. Salim Ayyash, 50, is accused of leading the team that carried out the bombing, while Assad Sabra, 41, and Hussein Oneissi, 41, allegedly sent a fake video to the Al-Jazeera news channel claiming responsibility on behalf of a made-up group.
Hassan Habib Merhi, 52, is accused of general involvement in the plot.
The alleged mastermind, Hizbullah military commander Mustafa Badreddine, was indicted by the court but is now believed to have died while leading the group's forces fighting with the Syrian regime in May 2016. Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has refused to hand over the suspects and warned the tribunal "don't play with fire" while Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad says the court is a tool to "pressure Hizbullah."The assassination of Hariri transformed the face of Lebanon, triggering a wave of mass demonstrations that ended with the departure of Syrian forces from Lebanon after a 30-year presence. However the trial remains a sensitive subject in Lebanon, which is politically unstable and crippled with its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. Prosecutors said during the trial that Hariri was assassinated because he was perceived as a "severe threat" to Syrian control of the country and as a "proxy of the West". They said their case was "circumstantial" but "compelling", relying almost entirely on mobile phone records allegedly showing the suspects conducting intense surveillance of Hariri from just after his resignation until minutes before the blast.
But the absence of the defendants has raised questions about the trial's credibility, while the gap of 13 years since the attack has caused doubts about its relevance in a region transformed by the war in Syria. Rafik Hariri's son Saad, who later went on to become prime minister like his father, called at the conclusion of the hearings in 2018 for "justice" but not revenge. The court has heard evidence from more than 300 witnesses and amassed 144,000 pages of evidence -- at an estimated cost of at least $600 million since it opened its doors in 2009. The tribunal opened a second case last year, charging prime suspect Ayyash with terrorism and murder over deadly attacks on politicians in 2004 and 2005.

El-Sisi addresses message to Aoun: We are ready to exert every effort that can contribute to prosperity of brotherly Lebanese people
NNA/July 10/2020
The President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, affirmed Egypt's concern for Lebanon's stability and prosperity, expressing readiness "To exert every effort that could contribute to the welfare of the brotherly Lebanese people and restore their health."
President Sisi’s stances came in a written message addressed to the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, conveyed by the Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon, Dr. Yasser Alawi, who was accompanied by Counselor Mohamed Musleh.
In his message, President Sisi expressed hope that negotiations which Lebanon is conducting with financial institutions to deal with the pressing economic situation will result in "success that will lead to reducing the damage to the Lebanese economy, and that this will contribute to the flow of allocations stipulated in the Cedar conference, so that Lebanon can face all the burdens on its shoulders”. President Sisi also stressed his confidence that "Lebanese officials will have the will to overcome the current crisis and enable Lebanon, which is a dear and brotherly country to all Arabs, to be distanced from regional conflicts and isolated from all negative impacts”. For his side, President Aoun conveyed his greetings to President Al-Sisi, thanking him for his affection towards Lebanon, his keenness to emerge the current crisis, and his willingness to make contributive efforts.
During the meeting, the discussion tackled the Arab and regional situations and issues of concern of the two brotherly countries.
Former Minister Karim Pakradouni:
President Aoun met former Minister Karim Pakradouni, today at Baabda, and deliberated with him current developments. -- Presidency press office

Aoun Has Right to Repeal Laws Violating Constitution, Presidency Says
Naharnet/July 10/2020
The Information Office of the Lebanese Presidency issued a statement on Friday stressing that President Michel Aoun has a “constitutional right to revoke any law that violates the constitution.”The statement said that comments and positions were issued after Aoun requested the Constitutional Council to repeal the law in force related to defining the appointment mechanism in the first category in public administrations and in the higher positions in public institutions. Some comments ignored the constitutional right of the President of the Republic, while others went as far as to launch descriptions that are not based on reality, said the statement. The Office of the Presidency affirmed that by submitting a request to annul the applicable law, Aoun had exercised his constitutional right in accordance with Article 19 of the Constitution because he found a constitutional violation of Articles 54, 65 and 66, in the law. The President swore an oath to respect the constitution of the nation and its laws, and he will not hesitate every time the constitution is violated. The President is not in a position to overlook any constitutional or legal violation, regardless of its nature, reasons and circumstances, according to the statement.
The Constitutional Council shall give the last judgement, and everyone should respect the constitutional institutions, their decisions and rulings.

Report: Lebanon Resumes ‘Paused’ Talks with IMF
Naharnet/July 10/2020
Negotiations between Lebanon and the International Monetary Fund for a bailout plan are set to resume on Friday after a reported “hiatus” over the government's failure to enforce reforms, a condition to provide economic assistance, media reports said on Friday.“Lebanese negotiators asked the IMF to revive paused talks since their 16th meeting last week to discuss Lebanon’s problematic electricity file, and the international lender agreed,” al-Joumhouria daily reported. The daily said an online meeting is set to take place Friday at 4:00 p.m. between the Lebanese side in Beirut and the IMF negotiators in Washington.
Lebanese officials taking part in the meeting include Minister of Finance Ghazi Wazni, Minister of Energy Raymond Ghajar, Member of the Banking Control Committee Marwan Mikhael and energy consultants. Talks will highlight the upcoming steps after the appointment of board of directors to EDL. On Tuesday, the Cabinet appointed a new six-member board of directors to the state-run Electricite Du Liban. However, “informed” sources said the appointments are “insignificant in the absence of genuine steps leading to the formation of a regulatory body to EDL to manage the sector and enhance its independence.”

Dozens Charged including Officials over Tainted Fuel
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 10/2020
A Lebanese investigative judge charged dozens of people including officials Friday over a delivery of counterfeit fuel intended for the electricity sector, a judicial source and state media said. The "tainted fuel" case made headlines in March when Lebanon refused to receive a fuel shipment from a subsidiary of Algerian state company Sonatrach. A prosecutor in April ordered shut the offices of ZR Energy, which acted as intermediary to bring the fuel into Lebanon. On Friday, an investigative judge issued a raft of charges against around 30 people before their expected trial, a judicial source and the official National News Agency said. Sixteen of those individuals are already detained, the judicial source said. They faced charges ranging from "fraud", "bribery" and "forging official documents" to "squandering public funds", it added. Those indicted included Sarkis Hlaiss, chief of oil installations at the ministry of energy and water and oil director Aurore Feghaly, as well as employees and technicians at the ministry and oil installations, NNA and the source said. Sonatrach representative in Lebanon Tarek Fawal, as well as ZR Energy director Teddy Rahme and general manager Ibrahim al-Zouk were also charged, the source added. Lebanon's loss-making electricity sector is plagued by power cuts, and has long been upheld as an example of waste in the public sector. The small country is in the grips of its worst economic crisis in decades. It has since October been rocked by massive then smaller protests demanding the overhaul of the entire political class, who protesters accuse of being inept and corrupt.

Iranian Ambassador tells Najjar his country ready to support Lebanon in all fields
NNA/July 10/2020
Minister of Public Works and Transportation, Dr. Michel Najjar, on Friday welcomed Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad-Jalal Firouznia, who visited him with an accompanying delegation. The meeting discussed the current conditions and developments, in addition to the Lebanese-Iranian bilateral relations and the best means to activate them, especially at various economic levels -- most notably in the field of transportation.The Iranian ambassador assured Minister Najjar of his country's readiness to support Lebanon in all fields, wishing "success to the Lebanese government in its tasks. He also extended an invitation to Minister Najjar to visit Tehran.

Hitti: Talks Launched to Open Europe Airports to Lebanon Flights
Naharnet/July 10/2020
Foreign Minister Nasif emphasized that talks have been launched with European countries to open their airports to flights coming from Lebanon, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday. The Minister assured that Europe is still closed to the Lebanese strictly due to “technical issues rather than political reasons. I am 1000 percent confident about that,” said Hitti. On the rise in coronavirus cases, the Minister said that "Lebanese authorities have no intention to change the precautionary measures at the airport. Everything is going according to plan. We won't change these measures."
On July 1, the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut reopened partially amid strict precautionary measures in light of coronavirus.
European and Gulf states are still closed to Lebanese. Only Cyprus, Turkey and Greece are receiving flights from Lebanon.

Lebanon in a Compounded Economic, Monetary and Political Crisis
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 10/2020
Lebanon is mired in its worst ever economic crisis, marked by an unprecedented plunge of its currency, which has left nearly half of the population in poverty.The economic collapse has led to mass layoffs and salary cuts, in a country already rocked since late 2019 by mass protests against a political system seen as corrupt and incompetent.
Dollar shortages
Anxiety at the lack of availability of dollars emerges on September 29, 2019, when hundreds of people take to the streets of central Beirut to protest economic hardship. Among the hardest hit are petrol station owners who need dollars to pay their suppliers. But media report that banks and exchange offices are limiting dollar sales for fear of running out.
Tax on WhatsApp
A proposed government tax on messaging applications like WhatsApp submitted on October 17 is the last straw, with thousands taking to the streets in Beirut and other cities, some chanting "the people demand the fall of the regime".  The government of prime minister Saad Hariri scraps the tax the same day, but protests continue over the next weeks, culminating in demonstrations gathering hundreds of thousands demanding an overhaul of the ruling class in place for decades.
New government
On December 19 little-known academic Hassan Diab, who is backed by powerful Hizbullah, is named prime minister, replacing Hariri who resigned in late October under pressure from the street. Protesters immediately regroup to condemn the appointment, which also outrages members of the Sunni community.
On January 21, 2020, a new government is unveiled, made up of a single political camp, the pro-Iranian Hizbullah and its allies, who have a parliamentary majority.
Demonstrators respond by torching tires and blocking several roads in mainly Sunni towns across the country.
Default
On March 7, Lebanon, whose debt burden is equivalent to nearly 170 percent of its gross domestic product, says it will default on a $1.2-billion Eurobond.
On the 23rd, it says it will discontinue payments on all dollar-denominated Eurobonds.
Capital flight
On April 24, Diab says that banks have lost $5.7 billion (5.2 billion euros) in January and February in spite of restrictions on withdrawals and transfers abroad.
According to official estimates, $2.3 billion were transferred out of the country last year.
Rescue plan
On April 30, after three nights of violent clashes in Tripoli, Diab says Lebanon will seek help from the International Monetary Fund, after the government approves a plan to rescue the economy.
On May 13, Lebanon launches talks with the IMF.
Arrests
In May the president of the money changers union Mahmoud Mrad is arrested and the director of monetary operations at the central bank Mazen Hamdan charged with "manipulation of the national currency".
Currency collapse
From June 11-13, after the Lebanese pound hits a new low on the black market, protesters take to the streets after sundown, blocking roads, including in Beirut and Tripoli.
Protesters blast central bank governor Riad Salameh's failure to halt the depreciation.
On June 29, the director general of the finance ministry involved in the negotiations with the IMF resigns, citing deep disagreements over the management of the crisis. He is the second member of the negotiating team to go in the space of two weeks.
Out of control
On July 10, the U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet warns that Lebanon's economic crisis is getting out of hand, calling for urgent internal reforms coupled with international support to prevent further mayhem.

Without IMF Bailout, is Lebanon Heading for 'Hell'?
Agence France Presse//Naharnet/July 10/2020
Talks between crisis-hit Lebanon and the International Monetary Fund are deadlocked, and leaders reluctant to enact reforms. Without a vital multi-billion-dollar bailout, is Lebanon headed for "hell"? For months, the Mediterranean country has grappled with its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. Tens of thousands have lost their jobs or part of their salaries, while a crippling dollar shortage has sparked rapid inflation.
After the country for the first time defaulted on its sovereign debt in March, the government pledged reforms and in May started talks with the IMF towards unlocking billions of dollars in aid. But 16 meetings later, the negotiations are stalling.
"The IMF has left the negotiating table and talks have stopped," said a member of the Lebanese negotiating team speaking on condition of anonymity. Another Lebanese source familiar with the negotiations said IMF representatives have "not sensed serious commitment from the Lebanese delegation" towards reform. "Every faction is vying for its own personal interests while the country burns," they said. Deadlock is common in multi-confessional Lebanon, where politicians have for decades been accused of cronyism, conflict of interest and corruption. As Lebanon seeks help from the IMF, arguments are mounting over the scale of total financial losses for the state, central bank and commercial banks.
The government estimated losses at around 241 trillion Lebanese pounds, which amounts to around $69 billion at an exchange rate of 3,500 pounds to the greenback. But a parliamentary committee quoted much lower figures using the old currency peg of 1,507 pounds to the dollar. The IMF considers the government's figures to be more likely. The discrepancy in the figures shows the great power and influence of a "lobby ready to see Lebanon burn rather than expose what they did to it", the Lebanese negotiator said.
- 'Help us help you' -
Since October, the deepening turmoil has sparked mass protests demanding the wholesale removal of a political class seen as incompetent and corrupt. The crisis has shot poverty up to almost 50 percent, and unemployment to 35 percent.
In recent days, the Lebanese pound fetched more than 9,000 to the greenback on the black market. With prices soaring, many can longer afford to fill their fridges, while others have started bartering clothes or household items online for baby milk and diapers.
Four Lebanese killed themselves last week in suicides apparently linked to the economic downturn. In March, the government pledged reforms long demanded by international donors, including budget cuts, tax hikes and electricity sector reform, but little has come through. A Western source told AFP the last meeting "went very badly", ending with IMF negotiators urging Lebanon's representatives "to stop taking them for a ride".
Two key members of Lebanon's negotiating team who resigned last month have accused the government of showing no clear commitment to reform. On Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said he was "very worried". "Help us help you, dammit," he urged. Analyst Nasser Yassin said the ruling class lacked political will. "To guarantee they won't lose everything, they would rather the country remain on the cusp of collapsing than initiate serious reforms," he said.Such reforms, he said, "would strip them of essential tools they use to impose authority and control over the state, the economy, and society".
'Officials in denial' -
Among the IMF's demands are that Lebanon audit its central bank, and issue official capital controls to replace informal withdrawal and transfer caps imposed by the banks since the autumn.
It has also requested the country float its currency so Lebanese can follow a single exchange rate.
To further complicate matters, the IMF talks come as tensions rise between the United States and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shiite movement that is a key political player in Lebanon.
"Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation and we are supportive of Lebanon as long as they get the reforms right and they are not a proxy state for Iran," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this week.
The Western source said: "I don't see any alternative to assistance from the IMF."
"The country is collapsing, and so is the Lebanese pound, while officials are in denial."
Lebanon's government says it needs $20 billion in external funding, an estimate that includes an $11 billion aid package pledged by donors at a Paris conference in 2018.
But without an IMF rescue, donors are unlikely to pump money into Lebanon, the Western source said.
"An IMF agreement will help correct Lebanon's reputation," he advised.
The Lebanese source agreed an IMF rescue would help Lebanon avoid the worst.
"With a skyrocketing exchange rate that could reach 25,000 to 50,000 Lebanese pounds to the dollar and inflation increasing by the day, Lebanon, without the IMF, will plunge into hell," he said.

AUB president blasts 'worst govt in Lebanese history' for disregarding education
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/Friday 10 July 2020
The president of the American University of Beirut Friday called the Lebanese government one of the worst in the country’s history due to its disregard for the education sector. Criticizing the current and previous governments for allowing Lebanon to become entangled in an unprecedented financial and economic crisis, Fadlo Khuri said that no previous government took for granted Lebanon’s higher education the way Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government is. “Now I’m going to be blunt here: this is the worst government in Lebanese history with regard to their understanding of and their care of higher education,” Khuri said in a webinar with DC-based think tank, Middle East Institute. Khuri spoke of the need to continue supporting AUB and other Lebanese universities to produce “educated, capable and real technocrats,” adding that he does not think the current government is technocratic. Diab, appointed by Hezbollah and its allies, promised to head a technocratic government made up of independent experts. However, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement, the Lebanese Forces, Kataeb Party and Progressive Socialist Party are not represented in Diab’s government. The AUB president said that more than 60 percent of all citable research on Lebanon comes from AUB. “No other … university carries that much of its country’s scientific output,” he said, lamenting the country’s current state of higher education. “This government does not care about higher education, and if they don’t care about higher education, they don’t care about education [and] they don’t care about the country,” Khuri said. AUB is currently owed more than $150 million from the government for medical bills. Khuri urged the government to “just talk to us” and provide a schedule of how this would be repaid.
The university, like many other institutions in Lebanon, is facing a difficult financial situation. AUB was forced to lay off around 25 percent of its employees, Khuri previously said. Despite this, the Lebanese prime minister is suing the university and demanding close to $1 million in severance pay and retirement funds. Diab is also demanding this money be paid in US dollars to a bank outside of Lebanon. With the current crisis in Lebanon and a shortage of US dollars in the market, banks do not allow depositors to withdraw dollars. Speaking of the political elite in Lebanon, “including the current government are not patriots,” Khuri said.“To bring confidence [to Lebanon], you’ve gotta be competent. I have not seen one shred of competence so far in six months,” the AUB president said in an apparent reference to Diab’s government that has been in office since the beginning of the year.

Soon on Al Arabiya: Exclusive interview with former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn
Al Arabiya English/Friday 10 July 2020
Al Arabiya will air on Saturday an exclusive interview at 1900 GMT (10:00 p.m. Saudi time) with the former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn who shook the car making industry with his ongoing legal battle since late 2018. Accusations and allegations against Ghosn by Japanese prosecutors and media include: under-reporting his earning at Nissan, misappropriation of funds, using company funds for personal purposes, misrepresenting the company’s investments, among others. Ghosn, who holds both French and Lebanese citizenship, fled Japan where he was awaiting trial and went back to Lebanon, and US prosecutors said that he wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to two men who are now detained for helping “smuggle” him. Ghosn denied all the allegations of financial wrongdoing against him and said that he was ousted as Nissan’s chairman as part of a government-backed coup to destroy any possibility of a merger between Nissan and its French alliance partner Renault.

Lebanon must turn on Hezbollah to save its economy
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Arab News/July 09/2020
حسن عبد الله حسين: على لبنان أن ينقلب على حزب الله ليخلص اقتصاده
Lebanon is in a state of severe economic stress. The price of almost every good has soared beyond the affordability of many citizens. Legions are out of work. Businesses are locked in a dire existential struggle. There is perhaps no more accurate judgment on the state of an economy than the currency market. In this respect, although the Lebanese pound remains officially — fantastically, one might add — pegged at just over 1,500 to the dollar, in truth it takes close to 9,000 pounds to exchange for a dollar. That is an 83 percent devaluation in the market’s faith in the economy.
Many Lebanese, however, are unaware that their national crisis is in fact of Lebanon’s own making. Mostly, they blame an American embargo — one that does not really exist. This misplacement of blame blinds the country to the real cause of its malaise: Hezbollah. Except for sanctions imposed by the US Treasury Department’s anti-terrorism arm, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, on a few Lebanese entities and individuals connected to Hezbollah — the self-proclaimed “Party of God” — there are no financial restrictions on the state of Lebanon or any of great substance against its institutions, public or private.
But, even without being under sanctions, foreign direct investment — usually the engine of economic growth — shies away from Lebanon. Foreign investors are simply unwilling to bring their money into a country that lives in a state of perpetual war, with Hezbollah currently involved in regional entanglements in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, while also threatening to go to war with Israel.
When the Friends of Lebanon group convened an international donor conference in Paris two years ago that came to be known as Cedre, it pledged a rescue package worth $11 billion. The only conditions were that Beirut should get its act together and eradicate corruption and privatize state utilities — especially the highly inefficient Electricite du Liban. It is noteworthy that, even though pledging donors included the US and Saudi Arabia, neither made their contribution contingent on disarming Hezbollah — an organization that both nations classify, for good reason, as a terrorist group. Perhaps they understood that corruption is the lifeblood of Hezbollah, so if Lebanon actually managed to reform away corruption, it would also see off Hassan Nasrallah and his acolytes.
The tragedy is that Lebanon cannot reform. Hezbollah, with its powerful militia, won’t let it. And because reform is out of the question, Lebanon is increasingly dependent on remittances from its vast diaspora. Such transfers are among the highest in the world, but no modern economy can be built on such a broad and deep rentier system: It saps ambition and entrepreneurship. The country desperately needs to change.
But Lebanon cannot change. When the Lebanese economy started on its most recent decline in October, Lebanese citizens took to the streets to demand reform. Hezbollah accused them of being agents of foreign powers. Any hint that Hezbollah was to blame for the economic collapse was suppressed by the party’s thugs, who beat up protesters in the streets. Violence was not the only Hezbollah tool, however. The party also launched a misinformation campaign that depicted Lebanon as a victim of US sanctions, like the group’s allies Syria and Iran.
Next, Hezbollah and its supporters connected every discussion in Lebanon to Israel. Whatever the subject or the problem, they repeated the mantra that the party was preparing not only to launch war on Israel, but to completely destroy Lebanon’s southern neighbor and send Israelis back to “where they came from.” It didn’t matter how tenuous or improbable the connection. Yet, when complaints about the price of bread are answered with “war on Israel,” there is no room in the narrative for macroeconomic plans or support for business.
They have turned the country into an Iranian missile base with which to threaten Israel and blackmail America.
For Hezbollah and the Lebanese oligarchs it controls, the story of Lebanon is one of war and only of war. They have turned the country into an Iranian missile base with which to threaten Israel and blackmail America. And Tehran is unwilling to let go of its investment. It is this that has been the recipe for Lebanon’s unfolding economic disaster.
Hezbollah’s tall tales and delusional plans about destroying Israel create a mixture that distorts reasoning. It is no surprise, then, that many ordinary Lebanese blame America for the country’s ills. But they must stop, for it is only by identifying Hezbollah as the scourge of Lebanon that the Lebanese might begin to find a way out of the morass and begin to pressure the political class to jettison the group. So far, however, that hasn’t happened. So far, Lebanon is blaming everyone else and is unwilling to turn on its enemy within.
*Hussain Abdul-Hussain is the Washington bureau chief of Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai and a former visiting fellow at Chatham House in London. Copyright: Syndication Bureau

Lebanon: Total Loss of Trust in the Banking Sector
Hussein Shobokshi/Asharq Al Awsat/July 10/2020
Among the most important reasons why Lebanon was called the Switzerland of the East was the picturesque nature that made it a distinguished and exceptional tourist destination, the atmosphere of freedoms that made it a center for artistic, journalistic and literary creativity, and a developed banking system that was safeguarded by the law and guaranteed secrecy and financial oversight.
Today, this tourism sector is collapsing, with services deteriorating, capital flight, and freedoms being restricted to an unprecedented degree that is not typical for the nature of Lebanon. The collapse of the banking system in Lebanon, today, is only a matter of time and the issue here is not only banks going bankrupt but a total loss of trust in the banking system.
A few days ago, a well known Jordanian businessman, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh sued one of the largest Lebanese banks for money wasting and fraud — a dangerous precedent. This is neither the first nor the last case of this kind, and there will probably be a flood of cases of the same nature filed by those harmed. This is not the first crisis that the Lebanese banking sector has faced; there was a months-long crisis related to Intra Bank and its founder, Palestinian banker Yousef Beidas. This crisis continued with Roger Tamraz and it has been extensively dealt with in two books by Canadian-Lebanese writer Kamal Dib.
Lebanese banks played a very controversial role during the bloody civil war that went on for more than two decades, acting as a tool that enabled warlords, heads of sects, and those in power. With that, Lebanon’s status as a center for the production of banks in the Middle East was lost, pushing international banks to move from Beirut to Bahrain that had provided an alternative system that was supported by a strong banking law and a stable central bank.
After the civil war, the banking sector in Lebanon was more dangerously and severely infiltrated, with many of them turning into containers for suspicious and dirty money for the terrorist organization Hezbollah and the Assad regime and its agents. This opened the way for funding drug deals and smuggling, as well as arms deals, chemical waste deals, and other corrupt deals, leading to the collapse of many banks, such as the Medina Bank and the Lebanese Canadian Bank, among others. The Lebanese banking sector did not only turn a blind eye to suspicious accounts but also to bank accounts affiliated with well known and very large companies that were known to be fronts for Hezbollah's money laundering from West Africa, Iran, and Latin America through a complicated network of supporters and affiliates of the terrorist group.
This total loss of trust in the Lebanese banking sector, one of the most important soft elements of Lebanese power, is a very grave loss that will be difficult to compensate after years of strengthening and construction. Hence, the propositions by Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on economic and financial solutions is comical. However, Nasrallah is walking down the same path that he had since his first day: Destroying the Lebanese model in all its features and characteristics only to replace it with an ugly mutant that looks nothing like Lebanon.
The banking sector is strong, and it is one of the most important pillars of the modern state, the most important element of which is trust in the system, which has quite obviously evaporated. The collapse of the economic and financial excellence in Lebanon is not a coincidence, and impoverishing people was an inevitable, natural, and expected result of this malicious project that was promoted by the terrorist organization, Hezbollah, since its conception, only those in denial would be surprised.
The Lebanese scene and its implications that are expected to become worse will not change unless the roots of the problem are addressed and Lebanon returns to what it was because Switzerland itself did not reach glory under the leadership of the head of a terrorist organization.

Lebanese freedoms not immune to Ankara’s encroachment
The Arab Weekly/July 10/2020
On Thursday, the Beirut public prosecutor referred Der Haroutiounian to trial on charges of “insulting” Turkey. The trial is set to begin on October 8.
BEIRUT – Recent developments have shown that even Lebanon, where Turkey has no military presence or shared borders, is not immune to Ankara’s interference.
Lebanese political sources said that Turkish prosecutors’ claims against Armenian-born journalist Neshan Der Haroutiounian for “insulting” the Turkish president are part of ongoing confrontations between Lebanese Armenians and Turkey, which is accused of carrying out a genocide against Armenians between 1914 and 1923. Some Lebanese Armenians’ harsh criticism of Turkey seems to embarrass Lebanese authorities, who have tried to intimidate them into observing certain “red lines.”
There are numerous external forces pressuring Lebanon, starting with Iranian proxy Hezbollah. Turkey is now attempting to curb Lebanon’s hard-fought freedoms, of which its citizens are rightly proud, by also exerting pressure on Lebanese authorities.
On Thursday, Beirut referred Der Haroutiounian to trial on charges of “insulting” Turkey. The trial is set to begin on October 8.
Lebanese news agency NNA said that “according to information provided to the Public Prosecution Office, Der Haroutiounian will be referred to trial before the Court of Publications Chamber in Beirut.”
A Lebanese journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that there were no grounds for the judicial charges against Der Haroutiounian.
“This is a matter of a historical dispute that has no prospect, knowing that it is about a great crime against the Armenian people — a crime that Turkey refuses to recognise. This in itself continues to provoke Armenians wherever they are,” the journalist told The Arab Weekly.
Der Haroutiounian hosted former Environment Minister Wiam Wahhab during the “Anna Heek” (This is how I am) programme that aired on the Al Jadeed satellite channel.
Wahhab, who is the head of the Arab Tawhid Party, said in the interview that the Turkish president was “sly” before the campaign against Der Haroutiounian began.
In response to Wahhab’s statements, a Lebanese national intervened in the programme and attacked Der Haroutiounian, saying “Neshan, the refugee, showed his racism,” referring to Der Haroutiounian’s Armenian origins.
Der Haroutiounian responded fiercely to the provocation, doubling down on Wahhab’s position. “A son of a million malicious people … Erdogan, the regime, the Ottomans, and the Turks,” Der Haroutiounian said.
“If you consider me a refugee, then I am more Lebanese than you, and I am proud of my country, Lebanon, more than you are,” he added.
The Turkish Embassy intervened in the dispute and mobilised dozens of protesters to demonstrate in front of the Al Jadeed TV station against “insulting the Ottoman state and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”
The protesters raised Turkish flags, chanted slogans in support of the Ottoman Empire and Erdogan and called on Al Jadeed TV and those in charge of the programme to “apologise for what happened.”
Under the hashtag “The New Ottomans,” Facebook users posted videos showing protesters holding Turkish flags and demonstrating in front of the Al Jadeed TV building.
In early June, a similar online campaign targeting Der Haroutiounian was launched, with supporters of the Turkish president hurling racist insults and using a defamatory hashtag on Twitter in response to his criticism of Erdogan.
Observers said that Turkey has succeeded in exploiting Lebanon’s political vacuum that has been caused by mounting social and economic crises.
Ankara, according to observers, managed to infiltrate the country and create a lobby to silence critics of Ottoman history and Erdogan’s expansionist policies in the region, by which Lebanon, like Syria and the rest of the Mediterranean countries, is affected.
Observers warned of the risks Der Haroutiounian’s trial could pose, not only to Lebanon but to the entire region. They pointed out that Turkey is seeking to create media, political and legal lobbies to prevent any criticism of its old and new colonial policies.
Ankara is also trying to advance a self-serving agenda, a reality that functions in the same radical and intransigent way as anti-Semitism and exposes the critics of the Ottoman Empire to legal charges, the observers said.
The Turks benefit from Muslim Brotherhood support in the region, as they glorify Ottoman history at the expense of Arab countries – a trend that is especially harmful in the Libyan conflict.
This trend is also seen in Ankara’s expanding influence in Tunisia, Yemen and Somalia. Islamists in these countries consider Turkish expansionist manoeuvres to be a “victory” for them and their vision of the Arab and Islamic world.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 10-11/2020
Senate Report Prevents Brotherhood Supporters from Entering France
Paris - Michel Abu Najm/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 July, 2020
Few know that Gerald Darmanin, France’s new interior minister, has Arab origins. His full name is Gerald Moussa Darmanin. His maternal grandfather, Moussa, was a sergeant in the 13th Algerian snipers’ squad that helped liberate France from German occupation. His father, Gerard, hails from a Jewish family from Malta and his grandfather immigrated to France and settled in Valenciennes, where the minister was born in 1982. Given his background, it is evident that Darmanin would be concerned with immigration and religion. As a Minister of Interior, he is also responsible for matters of worship. He touched on the topic of Islam, specifically political Islam and the concept of “separatism” in his first official statement after his appointment to his post. Darmanin previously declared that the state should make no compromise over separatism and “fight with all its forces political Islam targeting the republic,” including its values and laws. French President Emmanuel Macron was the first to talk about separatism and the state’s duty to combat it.
The Interior Minister again took up the issue when answering the questions of Senate members on Wednesday, saying that political Islam was “the deadly enemy of the republic and therefore all forms of sectarian introversion must be fought.”
What he meant was the Muslim Brotherhood. Darmanin did not hesitate to recall his “family legacy” to glorify what he calls “integration” in French society, which is the fundamental opposite of “sectarian and social introversion” concept and what the authorities consider the separatist project of political Islam.
A report issued on Thursday by a special Senate committee put the issue of political Islam at the forefront of concerns. The report was prepared by a commission of inquiry established in November 2019 and was based on seventy interviews with officials, politicians, intellectuals, academics, and members of active civil society associations. It considered Islamic extremism as a “tangible reality” in many neighborhoods, “seeking today to lay hands on Islam in France.”According to the authors of the report, “all French territories are concerned with this phenomenon except for the west of the country”. “It is necessary to act today before it’s too late,” they warned. The report stresses that extremists seek to achieve “separatism in a number of cities”, which means in practice, “denying the values of the republic, such as freedom of religion and belief, equality between men and women, and mixing of the genders.”For years, right parties have been accusing the Ministry of the Interior and security services of avoiding entering suburban neighborhoods in major cities to avoid confrontations with youth groups who consider themselves “marginalized”.
Despite the different plans launched with successive governments, the dilemma has not been solved, but has become more explosive, increasing the dissociation with these neighborhoods.
The report puts forward 44 measures that target the economic, educational, social and cultural fields. It also calls for preventing the Muslim Brotherhood advocates from entering France and fighting the extremist presence within the framework of state institutions, public and private schools, as well as cultural and sports clubs. The report urges the government to strengthen the monitoring through its security services and to educate and qualify local employees as well as members of local councils such as municipalities and others.
This report is not the first of its kind and will not be the last. In a speech in February, Macron stated that France would gradually “abandon” the practice of inviting imams from abroad, but would strengthen instead the training of imams locally. However, at the same time, he warned against confusing the Islamic religion with extremism, stressing that the measures should not be directed against Muslims but rather against extremist Islamists, adding that Islam has its place in the country alongside other religions.

Turkish court clears way to convert Hagia Sophia back to a mosque
The National/July 10/2020
Ruling finds 1934 decision to change Byzantine-era World Heritage site to a museum was illegal
Hagia Sophia or Ayasofya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, that was a Byzantine cathedral before being converted into a mosque which is currently a museum, is seen in Istanbul, Turkey. Turkey’s top administrative court on Friday announced its decision to revoke the Hagia Sophia’s status as a museum, paving the way for 1,500-year-old former cathedral to be opened as a mosque again. The widely expected decision comes despite expressions of concern from US, French, Russian and Greek officials, as well as Christian church leaders, over the move. The Council of State, which was debating a case brought by a Turkish NGO, cancelled a 1934 cabinet decision and ruled the Unesco World Heritage site would be reopened for Muslim worship. The United Nations’ cultural body warned on Thursday that any change in the status of sixth-century building in Istanbul may have to be reviewed by its World Heritage committee.
The World Heritage site was built in the 6th century by the Byzantine emperor Justinian as a cathedral of the Greek Orthodox church before being converted to a mosque under the Ottoman empire nine centuries later. It was declared a museum in 1934 after the secular modern Turkish republic was established in 1923 and is one of Turkey’s most visited monuments. Unesco said the Hagia Sophia was on its list of World Heritage Sites as a museum, and as such had certain commitments and legal obligations.
“Thus, a state must make sure that no modification undermines the outstanding universal value of a site listed on its territory. Any modification must be notified beforehand by the state to Unesco and be reviewed if need be by the World Heritage Committee,” the UN body told Reuters.
Unesco said it had expressed its concerns to Turkish authorities in several letters and conveyed the message to Turkey’s ambassador to the institution on Thursday. “We urge Turkish authorities to start a dialogue before any decision is taken that could undermine the universal value of the site,” it said. The Council of State’s 10th Chamber in Ankara had previously deferred announcing its decision on the issue on July 2. An official from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, which has Islamist roots, had said the decision “in favour of an annulment” was expected on Friday. The move is seen by Mr Erdogan’s critics as an attempt to divert attention from his economic and political troubles. The president had raised the idea previously ahead of municipal elections in March last year in which his party suffered several setbacks, including losing control of Istanbul.
Pro-government columnist Abdulkadir Selvi wrote in the Hurriyet newspaper that the court had already made the annulment ruling and would publish it on Friday. “This nation has been waiting for 86 years. The court lifted the chain of bans on Hagia Sophia,” he wrote.
The association that brought the case said Hagia Sophia was the property of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, who in 1453 captured the city, then known as Constantinople, and turned the already 900-year-old Byzantine church into a mosque.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of some 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide and based in Istanbul, said a conversion would disappoint Christians and “fracture” East and West. The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church said it would threaten Christianity.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Greece also urged Turkey to maintain the museum status.

Fifteen Centuries, Two Faiths and a Contested Fate for Hagia Sophia
Asharq Al-Awsat/July,11/2020
A Turkish court is set to rule on Friday on a 1934 presidential decree converting Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia into a museum. Two Turkish officials have said they expect the decree to be annulled, paving the way for it to become a mosque again.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose ruling AK Party sprung from political Islam, has said the cavernous domed building should revert to being a place of Muslim worship. Hagia Sophia is nearly 1,500 years old and served as one of the most exalted seats of Christian and then Muslim worship in the world, meaning that any change to its status will have a profound impact on followers of both faiths. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Here are the key facts of Hagia Sophia’s history, the campaign to change its status, and statements by religious and political leaders about its fate.
Two faiths
Hagia Sophia, or “Divine Wisdom” in Greek, was completed in 537 by Byzantine emperor Justinian. The vast, domed structure overlooked the Golden Horn harbor and entrance to the Bosphorus from the heart of Constantinople. It was the center of Orthodox Christianity and remained the world’s largest church for centuries. Hagia Sophia stayed under Byzantine control - except for a brief seizure by Crusaders in the 13th century - until the city was captured by the Muslim forces of the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmet the Conqueror, who converted it into a mosque.
The Ottomans built four minarets, covered Hagia Sophia’s Christian icons and luminous gold mosaics, and installed huge black panels embellished with the names of God, the Prophet Mohammed and Muslim caliphs in Arabic calligraphy.
In 1934 Turkey’s first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, forging a secular republic out of the defeated Ottoman Empire, converted Hagia Sophia into a museum, now visited by millions of tourists every year.
Some people now want to change that.
A forgery?
A Turkish association committed to making Hagia Sophia a mosque again has pressed Turkish courts several times in the last 15 years to annul Ataturk’s decree. In the latest campaign, it told Turkey’s top court that Ataturk’s government did not have the right to overrule the wishes of Sultan Mehmet - even suggesting that the president’s signature on the document was forged. That argument was based on a discrepancy in Ataturk’s signature on the edict, passed around the same time that he assumed his surname, from his signature on subsequent documents.
Erdogan, who has championed Islam and religious observance during his 17-year rule, supported the Hagia Sophia campaign, saying Muslims should be able to pray there again and raised the issue - which is popular with many pious AKP-voting Turks - during local elections last year.
Turkish pollster Metropoll found that 44% of respondents believe Hagia Sophia was put on the agenda to divert voters’ attention from Turkey’s economic woes. The pro-government Hurriyet newspaper reported last month that Erdogan had already ordered the status be changed, but that tourists should still be able to visit Hagia Sophia as a mosque and the issue would be handled sensitively.
Reaction
Outside Turkey, the prospect of change has raised alarm.
- Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of 300 million Orthodox Christians, said altering the status of Hagia Sophia would fracture Eastern and Western worlds. Russia’s Orthodox church said turning it into a mosque was unacceptable.
- US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said any change would diminish its ability “to serve humanity as a much-needed bridge between those of differing faith traditions and cultures”.
- Neighboring Greece, an overwhelmingly Orthodox country, said Turkey risked opening up a “huge emotional chasm” with Christian countries if it converts a building which was central to the Greek-speaking Byzantine empire and Orthodox church.
- Turkey has criticized what it says is foreign interference. “This is a matter of national sovereignty,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. “What is important is what the Turkish people want.”

US court orders Iran to pay $879m to 1996 Khobar bombing survivors
Arab News/July 10/2020
JEDDAH: A US federal court has held Iran responsible for the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia where US forces were housed, and ordered it to pay $879 million to survivors. The Khobar Towers was a housing complex in the eastern city of Alkhobar, near the Abdulaziz Air Base and Saudi Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran, that housed American servicemen working on Operation Southern Watch. A truck bomb was detonated on June 25, 1996, near an eight-story building of the housing complex. It killed 19 US Air Force personnel and a Saudi national, wounding 498 others.
The court ruled that the Iranian government directed and provided material support to Hezbollah who detonated the 5,000-pound truck bomb, a Chicago law firm press release said. The attackers reportedly smuggled the explosives used in the attack from Lebanon.
A Saudi political analyst and international relations scholar said that imposing monetary fines was insufficient. “One can understand monetary fines in the case of their ‘accidental’ shooting down of a civilian aircraft recently, but in these terrorist bombings, there should be a military response,” Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri told Arab News. “A response that should be a deterrent. A response that should stop Iran from committing such acts of terror. Iran should not be allowed to get away by merely paying a couple of million dollars.”
He said that this attack was not the only one that had been carried out by Iran and its militias. “They have been responsible for many such bombings and assassinations. We know how they assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. They are yet to be punished for that heinous crime.”
He said there was no doubt about the direct involvement of Iran in that bombing. “It is good to know that the US court has confirmed what we knew all along and it is good that Iran has been finally held accountable.”
Harvard scholar and Iranian affairs expert Majid Rafizadeh said: “This is further evidence that Iran is a major state sponsor of terrorism, a destabilizing force, and is engaged in financial, political and military support for militias and designated terrorist groups across the Middle East and in the West, with the aim of exporting its extremist ideals through terror, expanding its influence and achieving its hegemonic ambitions.”
The lawsuit was brought under the terrorism exception of the US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act by the 14 injured US airmen and 21 of their immediate family members. The defendants in the case were listed as the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security. “We will continue to seek to hold the Government of Iran accountable for this terrorist attack as long as is necessary,” said Adora Sauer, the lead attorney of MM LAW LLC.
US District Judge Beryl A. Howell found the defendants liable and awarded the plaintiffs $132 million for pain and suffering, as well as prejudgment interest, for a total compensatory damage award of $747 million and $132 million for punitive damages.
The court also said the plaintiffs were eligible for partial payments from the US Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, which compensates American victims of acts of international terrorism with funds obtained from fines and forfeitures levied against companies caught illegally laundering money for sanctioned countries and persons.
The attorneys also intend to pursue enforcement of the judgments through litigation intended to seize Iranian assets. “The physical and psychological toll on our families has been extremely high, but this judgment is welcome news,” said Glenn Christie, a retired Air Force staff sergeant crew chief who was severely injured in the bombing. “More than 20 years on, we want the world to remember the evil that Iran did at the Khobar Towers. Through the work of our attorneys, we intend to do just that.” According to John Urquhart of the Urquhart Law Firm, which also represents the bombing victims, the explosion had taken “so much from their minds and bodies” on the day of the attack and every day and night since then. “They can now live with that balance justice provides,” he said.

UN security removes Iranian ambassador's photo of Qassem Soleimani
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya/English /Friday 10 July 2020
A security officer at the UN Human Rights Council removed a photo of slain Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani that Iran’s ambassador to the UN displayed as he was speaking at the council on Tuesday, according to a video circulating online. For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app
Killing Soleimani was an “illegal” act that has “endangered world peace and security,” Esmaeil Baghaei-Hamaneh, Iran's permanent representative to the UN office in Geneva, told the council. Baghaei-Hamaneh had a framed photo of Soleimani next to him which a UN security officer removed a few minutes into the ambassador’s speech. Some Iranian pro-regime social media users criticised Baghaei-Hamaneh for not stopping the officer from taking down Soleimani’s picture. “Why didn’t the Iranian ambassador stop the UN employee who took down the photo of martyr Soleimani?” tweeted one user. “If I were the ambassador, I would have hit the officer … they can’t even stand his photo,” another user said. In a report released earlier this week, a UN expert deemed the US killing of Soleimani in January as “unlawful.”Soleimani, who headed the Quds Force, the overseas arms of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed in a US airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport on January 3. “Major General Soleimani was in charge of Iran military strategy, and actions, in Syria and Iraq. But absent an actual imminent threat to life, the course of action taken by the US was unlawful,” Agnes Callamard, the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said in a report released on Tuesday. In response, US State Department Spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said on Wednesday Callamard’s “tendentious and tedious report undermines human rights by giving a pass to terrorists.”US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also rejected Callamard’s report, calling its conclusions “spurious.”“The strike that killed General Soleimani was in response to an escalating series of armed attacks in preceding months by the Islamic Republic of Iran and militias it supports on US forces and interests in the Middle East region,” Pompeo said in a statement on Thursday. The strike “was conducted to deter Iran from launching or supporting further attacks against the US or US interests, and to degrade the capabilities of the Quds Force,” added Pompeo.

Russia, China veto last-ditch UN bid for Syria aid via Turkey for second time
Reuters, New York/Friday 10 July 2020
Russia and China vetoed a last-ditch attempt by Western members of the UN Security Council to extend approval -- which expires on Friday -- for humanitarian aid to be delivered across two border crossings into Syria from Turkey for the next six months. The United Nations says millions of Syrian civilians in the country's northwest depend on the humanitarian aid delivered from Turkey, describing it as a "lifeline." The remaining 13 council members voted in favor of the resolution on Friday. The 15-member council has been split, with most members pitted against Syrian ally Russia and China, who want to cut the number of border crossings to one, arguing those areas can be reached with humanitarian help from within Syria. This was the third failed vote on the issue by the council and the second vetoes by Russia and China this week. The Security Council first authorized the cross-border aid operation into Syria six year ago, which also included access from Jordan and Iraq. Those crossings were cut in January due to opposition by Russia and China. On Tuesday, Russia and China vetoed a bid to extend for a year approval of the two Turkey crossings. The remaining 13 members voted in favor of the resolution, drafted by Germany and Belgium. Russia then failed to win enough support on Wednesday for its proposal to authorize one crossing for six months. The council is now expected to vote on a second Russian draft text to approve aid deliveries for one Turkish crossing for one year. But because the council is operating virtually during the coronavirus pandemic, members have 24 hours to cast a vote so a decision would not be known until Saturday. Russia has vetoed 16 council resolutions on Syria since Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad cracked down on protesters in 2011, leading to civil war. For many of those votes, Moscow has been backed in the council by China.

Turkey’s Erdogan may be seriously pursuing his nuclear ambitions: Expert
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/Friday 10 July 2020
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be seriously pursuing nuclear weapons, according to non-proliferation expert John Spacapan. Spacapan who is a fellow at the Non-proliferation Policy Education Center in Washington DC, wrote in an article published on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Tuesday that despite Turkey being party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), there are three warning signs suggesting Ankara is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. First: Erdogan has explicitly said it was unacceptable that Turkey couldn’t have its own nuclear weapons. In September 2019, he told his party members: “Some countries have missiles with nuclear warheads, not one or two. But (they tell us) we can’t have them. This, I cannot accept.” Second: “Erdogan is often bombastic, but on nuclear energy he’s taking action. Along Turkey’s Mediterranean coastline, the Russians are building four large civilian nuclear power reactors at the Akkuyu Nuclear Facility,” Spacapan said. Ankara said that the purpose of the plant was to reduce Turkey’s dependence on gas imports to meet electricity demand, but Spacapan said that didn’t ring true for Turkey.
“The Akkuyu facility doesn’t make Turkey less dependent on foreign powers. Russia will own and operate the facility, and it is well-established that Moscow uses all of its energy assets—not just fossil fuels—for coercion,” he said, adding that the nuclear facility is a “bad investment” because Russia will only pay for the first reactor in the facility and the Turkish government will have to secure the financing for the other three reactors. Spacapan also added that from market point-of-view, “natural gas and renewables beat nuclear,” and brought the natural gas drilling deal Turkey struck with Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) last year. “What’s worrisome is Turkey could exploit nuclear power as a cover to procure bomb-related technology and hardware. The technology transfer is already occurring. Since the Akkuyu project began, Turkish engineering students have become the second largest national group studying nuclear sciences in Russia, where hundreds of Iranian and North Korean scientists came before them,” he said. Third: Turkey is collaborating militarily with Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country that is nowhere near Turkey’s borders. Spacapan notes that while Turkish-Pakistani ties were “warm but superficial,” Erdogan “tightened the ties considerably” since 2018 and is supplying Pakistan’s military with “sophisticated weapons.”“Erdogan’s current clout in Islamabad exceeds that of North Korea, Iran, and Libya, all of which received nuclear bomb help from Pakistan,” he said. The non-proliferation expert said: “Since nuclear power provides much of the technology for bomb making, and in Turkey’s case makes little economic sense, the United States should be trying to steer Turkey away from nuclear energy.”

Macron asks Israeli PM Netanyahu to drop West Bank annexation plans
AFP, Paris/Friday 10 July 2020
Emmanuel Macron asked Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from annexing Palestinian territory in the West Bank and elsewhere during a telephone call between the two leaders, the French president’s office said on Friday.
Macron “emphasized that such a move would contravene international law and jeopardise the possibility of a two-state solution as the basis of a fair and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” his office said in a statement after the call on Thursday. It was the latest move by European leaders pressing Netanyahu to drop plans to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the strategic Jordan Valley. The controversial move was endorsed in a Middle East plan unveiled by US President Donald Trump in January. Israel’s government had set July 1 as the date when it could begin taking over the Palestinian areas, where the population of Israeli settlers has grown since the 1967 Six-Day War. The foreign ministries of France and Germany, along with those of Egypt and Jordan -- the only Arab states to have peace deals with Israel -- warned this week that any annexation could have “consequences” for relations. But Macron told Netanyahu that France remained committed to Israel’s security and “expressed his attachment to the friendship and confidence that links France and Israel”, his office said.

Hundreds gather in West Bank for funeral of Palestinian shot by Israeli soldiers
Reuters, Salfit, West Bank/Friday 10 July 2020
Hundreds of people gathered in the occupied West Bank on Friday for the funeral of a Palestinian man shot by Israeli soldiers a day earlier. Israel’s army said troops opened fire after the Palestinian and another man started throwing fire bombs at a guard post near the town of Nablus.Palestinian officials dismissed the report and said the man had been walking with friends when he was shot dead. Mourners pray before the body of Palestinian man Ibraheem Yakoub during his funeral in Kifl Haris in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on July 10, 2020. (Reuters). Mourners pray before the body of Palestinian man Ibraheem Yakoub during his funeral in Kifl Haris in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on July 10, 2020. (Reuters) People at the funeral in the village of Salfit carried Palestinian flags and chanted “Allahu Akbar,” or God is greatest. Tensions have been high in the West Bank in recent weeks as Israel weighs a plan to annex part of the territory that Palestinians seek for a future state.

Pakistan drug lord Uzair Jan Baloch confesses to spying for Iran: Report
Tommy Hilton, Al Arabiya English/Friday 10 July 2020
A convicted Pakistani drug dealer has confessed to spying for Iranian intelligence services in 2014, according to a report from Pakistan’s provincial Sindh government this week. Uzair Jan Baloch was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being convicted of spying in April, according to a letter written by the senior superintendent of Karachi Central Jail and reportedly seen by Arab News. Baloch is accused of a total of 59 criminal cases including extortion, kidnapping, and drug trafficking.
Iranian passport
Arab News reported Baloch as saying that he had obtained an Iranian identity card and passport in 2006, having previously acquired a fake Iranian birth certificate in the late 1980s. According to a public report from the team that investigated Baloch, he met a man named Haji Nasir in the Iranian city of Chabahar in 2014, when Nasir asked him to give information about Pakistan’s army. “On the consent of the accused a meeting with Iranian intelligence officers was arranged by Haji Nasir in which the accused was asked to provide certain information about (Pakistan) armed forces officials,” the report said. “The accused is found involved in espionage activities by providing secret information and sketches regarding army installations and officials to foreign agents, which is a violation of the Official Secrets Act, 1923,” it added. Baloch was based in Pakistan’s southeastern province of Sindh and reportedly close to politicians from the Pakistan People’s Party, which governs the province, according to Arab News

Three-time Iraqi lawmaker Ghida Kambash dies of coronavirus as cases jump 600 pct
AFP, Baghdad/Friday 10 July 2020
Iraqi lawmaker Ghida Kambash died on Friday after contracting the novel coronavirus, parliament announced, its first member to succumb to the virus as its spread ramps up across the country. The 46-year-old was a three-time MP from Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, and helped pass laws on education reform and social welfare. She leaves behind four children. Last month, parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbussi said up to 20 deputies were confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19. In total, Iraq’s health ministry has declared around 70,000 coronavirus cases, of whom nearly 3,000 have died and 40,000 recovered. After seeing a relatively slow spread in the first five months of 2020, cases spiked 600 percent in June alone, according to the International Rescue Committee. “The rate at which COVID-19 is spreading through Iraq is extremely alarming,” said Christine Petrie, IRC’s country director.
The country’s health system -- already worn down by years of war and poor investments -- has been overwhelmed by the rising numbers. Protective equipment, respirators and even hospital beds are all running low, forcing authorities to turn expo centers, stadiums and hotels into coronavirus wards and confinement centers. Particularly stark is the “severe shortage of oxygen,” according to the World Health Organization, which recently airlifted 300 oxygen concentrators to help Iraqi hospitals cope. Aid has also been donated from foreign countries, most recently Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the US. Still, footage shot in hospitals in Iraq’s south shows patients struggling to breathe without access to respirators as their family members berate health staff. Health Minister Dr. Hassan Salman was in the southern province of Diwaniyah on Friday to inspect hospital conditions there.
Iraq relaxed its curfew measures in recent weeks after imposing a strict country-wide lockdown in late March. The restrictions hit its fledgling private sector hard, with an IRC survey finding that 87 percent of Iraqis were out of work as a result of the lockdown and 61 percent were already going into debt. “Once things stabilize there will be a lot of work to do to help people get back on their feet,” said Petrie. “Their loss of livelihoods will have taken a heavy toll on people’s mental health, which was already in a fragile state after decades of conflict and instability.”

Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf says most of his employees are now detained
Leen Alfaisal & Lemma Shehadi, Al Arabiya English/Friday 10 July 2020
After more than 40 days of absence, Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of President Bashar al-Assad, wrote again on his Facebook page saying that most of his male employees were detained and only the females are left.
“For the past six months, the security arrests against our employees did not stop. They arrested most of the men on our frontlines and now we only have the women,” Makhlouf wrote. On April 30, Makhlouf had went online in an unprecedented social media appearance that baffled the public, denouncing a recent tax fraud bill that had been slapped on his telecoms business Syriatel. “After not obtaining what they wanted … and after all the measures they took, including banning all our companies, accounts, and properties, they were still not satisfied. They closed down several companies arbitrarily, and hence laid off hundreds of employees,” the tycoon’s latest Facebook post said.
Syria’s richest man
Makhlouf is Syria’s richest man and al-Assad’s maternal first cousin. He was known as the “exclusive agent of Syria,” whose dominance over the economy for over two decades served to bankroll the regime and the Assad family.
But in the past year, measures to seize his assets and dissolve his networks indicated that he had fallen out of favor with the president. “They are threatening the men with fabricating currency charges against them to get fabricated confessions … while they overwhelm them in other ways to submit to their demands,” Makhlouf said. In January of this year, al-Assad took emergency steps to halt the fall of the local currency, forbidding the use of anything other than Syrian pounds for transactions and punishing the act with prison and hard labor. The spat between the cousins has sparked a flurry of speculation about intrigue at the palace. Many have suggested that Makhlouf has a rivalry with Asma al-Assad, the president’s wife, whose family network competes with the Makhloufs for the spoils. Others point to pressure from Syria’s allies, Russia and Iran.
These measures come as the country faces bankruptcy from nine years of devastating war. The US and EU recently tightened their sanctions on regime affiliates including Makhlouf, with the US Caesar Act coming into effect. The Syrian pound has plummeted and locals have reported the price of basic goods has increased 500 percent. The cash-strapped regime, which claims it has won a war against terrorism, has said it is cracking down on corruption to save the country’s devastated economy. In August last year, al-Assad ordered Syrian businessmen, including Makhlouf, to pay millions of dollars into the Central Bank.
Then, in October, al-Assad told state-television that he was asking “everyone who wasted state funds to return the money.”
On May 21 authorities seized Makhlouf’s assets and those of his family, and issued a temporary travel ban. On June 1, his Syriatel shares in the Damascus stock market were suspended.
“Where is the law? Where is the regime? Where is the constitution that protects the innocent? Have they [Makhlouf’s employees] become terrorists to be treated this way and get detained for several weeks for nothing?” Makhlouf wrote.
Makhlouf’s role in the war The first comment on Makhlouf’s post read: “This is the money of the people. You and your family stole it, and now the government is returning it. Why are you surprised? I just hope they [the government] doesn’t steal it for their own pockets.”
A Damascene businessman who manages a company affiliated to Makhlouf’s recalled the tycoon’s willingness to intimidate and extort as he expanded his empire. “What goes around comes around. Today, Rami is appealing to law. Where was the law back then when he stripped people of his properties?” he told Al Arabiya English.
Washington slapped sanctions on Makhlouf in 2008, stating that he “used intimidation and his close ties to the Assad regime to obtain improper business advantages at the expense of ordinary Syrians.”
When anti-regime protests began in the city of Dar’aa in 2011, Makhlouf was evoked in slogans as a “thief.”The role he then played in the ensuing war would only reinforce his position. Makhlouf maintained his position at Syriatel, laundering money for the cash strapped regime, funding loyalist militias supporting al-Assad, and paying reparations to the families of fallen soldiers. He sided with Bashar’s view that a show of strength was the only solution to the growing protests. His brother Hafez Makhlouf, a senior intelligence official, is believed to have given the orders to shoot to kill on the demonstrators, which led to thousands of deaths. Among the “humanitarian work” that Makhlouf refers to in his videos, is his charity Al-Bustan, which funded a militia of the same name. Experts say the militia was among the most brutal and its fighters were paid twice the Syrian Army’s salaries.
Another revelation from Makhlouf’s videos was his patronage of the Syrian intelligence services during the war, a dreaded institution whose members are currently facing trial in Europe for crimes against humanity. The sprawling security apparatus that was developed during the Cold War with the help of the KGB and other Soviet-backed secret services has been essential to the Assads’ rule, and Bashar’s crackdown on peaceful protestors after 2011. Outraged that his own employees had been arrested by this secret police, Makhlouf described himself as the apparatus’ “biggest donor” and “biggest servant” during the war, and asked: “Could anyone have pictured the security services targeting [my] companies?”

Former top Democrat praises Trump strategy on Iran, warns Biden against reviving deal
Emily Judd, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 09 July 2020
The maximum pressure campaign against Iran is “one of the best things the Trump administration has done,” said former top US Democrat Joe Lieberman in an interview with Al Arabiya English, breaking with the current Democratic leadership’s condemnation of the campaign. The Obama administration pursued “a mistaken course” in trying to negotiate an agreement with Iran – “an extremist, anti-American regime” – to limit their nuclear program, according to Lieberman. “I was thrilled when the Trump administration withdrew from the agreement and began the maximum pressure campaign, which has weakened the regime,” said Lieberman, who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000 and served as a US Senator for the state of Connecticut for 24 years. Trump’s maximum pressure campaign is moving in the right direction, which is “to change the regime in Tehran,” he added.
After withdrawing the US from the Obama-era nuclear deal in 2018, the Trump administration imposed its “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, increasing sanctions to reduce the regime’s funding of foreign interference while pressuring Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. Obama’s vice president Joe Biden, now the Democratic presidential nominee, has condemned the Republican administration’s Iran strategy and signaled he will revive the nuclear deal if elected in November. Lieberman said Biden – his Senate colleague and friend for many years - would be wrong to renegotiate the 2015 nuclear agreement.
“If the deal is recovered, this Iranian government will try to return to the days of the Obama administration when they were paid billions of dollars by the US, which they undoubtedly used to support their aggression in countries like Lebanon and Syria, as well as launch attacks against Saudi Arabia,” said Lieberman, adding that Saudi Arabia has been a “good ally” to the US for a long time, in a “mutually beneficial relationship.”The Obama administration secretly transferred $1.7 billion in cash to Iran, designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the US State Department.
The payout was for $400 million of military equipment – plus interest - Iran ordered from the US in the 1970s, which was never delivered due to the severing of diplomatic relations in 1979. Since the cash delivery in 2016, Iran has increased its interference in the Middle East – seizing ships in the Gulf, attacking Saudi Arabian oil facilities, and directing attacks on US targets in the region. Lieberman said he hopes Biden will not “enter into subservient negotiations with Iran” if he does become president. He added that Biden should take into account Iran’s failture to abide by rules set by the UN nuclear watchdog, incluidng Tehran's barring of inspectors from entering significant nuclear sites.
China-Iran agreement
Iran has been negotiating a 25-year “strategic accord” with China, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif announced Sunday. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has backed the bilateral partnership, which was first announced in 2016 when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a document on strategic relations in Tehran. The two countries represent major threats to the US, according to Lieberman, who said China challenges the US economically and diplomatically, while Iran is an “extremist, terrorist regime” that is “decidedly anti-American.”
“Iran, though less powerful than China, is a greater short-term threat to American security,” said Lieberman, who is chairman of the bipartisan organization United Against Nuclear Iran.
“The coming together of China and Iran in an agreement is problematic to our relations with China,” he added. The US-China relationship is already undergoing a dark period following Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, Trump signed legislation last month that called for sanctions to punish Chinese officials for human rights violations against the country’s Uighur Muslim population. Suspected Uighurs from China's troubled far-western region of Xinjiang, sit inside a temporary shelter after they were detained at the immigration regional headquarters near the Thailand-Malaysia border in Hat Yai, Songkla March 14, 2014. Suspected Uighurs from China's troubled far-western region of Xinjiang, sit inside a temporary shelter after they were detained at the immigration regional headquarters near the Thailand-Malaysia border in Hat Yai, Songkla March 14, 2014.
China has also been affected by the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran, which has sanctioned several Chinese private companies for dealings with Iran.

US Bans Pakistan International Airlines over Fake Pilot Licence Scandal
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 July, 2020
The United States has banned Pakistan International Airlines from operating chartered flights to the country, the airline said,.The decision came after it announced that nearly 150 pilots would be grounded over fake or dubious licences. This also comes after European Union aviation regulators decided to bar the state-run carrier for six months. PIA said in a statement that the Federal Aviation Authority in the US had revoked approval for the airline due to "recent events identified by the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority that are of serious concern to aviation safety," according to AFP. In June, Pakistan's aviation minister said that a government review had found around 260 of the country's 860 active pilots hold fake licenses or cheated on exams. PIA at the time said it would immediately ground about a third of its 434 pilots, just weeks after one of its planes crashed in Karachi killing 98 people -- an accident blamed on pilot error. So far 17 pilots have been fired in the first phase of its investigation, a PIA spokesman told AFP. The airline had suspended its commercial operations to the US in 2017 after booking financial losses on the route.

Turkey May Send S-400 System to Back GNA in Libya
Ankara - Saeed Abdulrazek/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 10 July, 2020
Italy’s itamilradar website revealed that Turkey was continuing its military cargo plane flights to western Libya, amid reports that Ankara may send the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord the Russian S-400 air defense system. Itamilradar reported that a Turkish Lockheed C-130E (63-13188) and an Airbuys A400M (16-0055) departed Istanbul, carrying weapons and ammunition, and landed in Tripoli’s Mitiga airport on Wednesday. Their arrival coincided with Libyan activists’ posting on social media of military vehicles traveling towards western Tripoli, speculating that they were transporting air defense systems to the al-Watiya airbase, which was attacked by unknown jets last week. Meanwhile, Turkey’s Sabah newspaper, which is close to the Ankara government, reported that the military may deploy the Russian S-400 system inside Libya. Turkey had purchased the system from Moscow in July 2019. Sabah reported, however, that Turkey would rather avoid such a provocative move and instead prefers to maintain relations with Russia and the United States. It would not risk jeopardizing ties with one country at the expense of the other. It said that one of the best options, which the three parties could agree on, was deploying the system in the North African country according to the security and military memorandum of understanding signed between Ankara and the GNA in November 2019. Experts said that Russia would reject such a proposal because it opposes the re-export of its weapons. Moscow is also a backer of the Libyan National Army, the GNA’s main rival. The US, in turn, will also reject the move because it would be ceding influence to Russia in the region.

Egypt carries out military drill near Libya border
Arab News/July 10/2020
The Egyptian Army carried out a military drill near the Libyan border called “Hasm 2020”
The drill came a day after the Turkish naval forces announced that they will carry out military exercises off the Libyan coast
The Egyptian Army carried out a military drill near the Libyan border called “Hasm 2020”, the military said on Thursday.
The drill, which included Egypt’s Armed Forces’ land, maritime and air defence, was carried out over several days and was attended by the Minister of Defense and Military Production, Mohamed Zaki, and Army Chief of Staff, Mohamed Farid. The military manoeuvre included involved multi-task aircrafts, including helicopters that use live ammunition. “The exercises aim at eradicating elements of mercenaries, their gathering points, command centres as well as damaging all their logistics,” Egypt’s State Information Service said. The drill came a day after the Turkish naval forces announced that they will carry out military exercises off the Libyan coast. The Turkish Navy said the maneuvers – dubbed “Naftex” – and would take place off the Libyan coast and will include 17 warplanes and eight naval vessels.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 09-10/2020
Erdogan to Make Hagia Sophia a Mosque Again, But Will It Help Him?
Soner Cagaptay/The Washington Institute/July 10/2020
Turkey’s president seems focused on cementing his legacy and boosting his popularity with voters, but the move is more likely to damage the country’s international brand. On July 9, Turkey’s Council of State decided to void a 1934 cabinet decision designating Hagia Sophia as a museum. This high court decision followed an intense campaign by the office of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to convert the nearly 1,500-year-old Istanbul landmark back into a mosque. A 2010 constitutional amendment allowed Erdogan to appoint a majority of the council's current judges, so the decision was not a surprise. Among other reasons, Erdogan apparently wants to move forward with the conversion in order to reverse the ongoing erosion of his popular base. Yet the decision is unlikely to give him more than a temporary boost in popularity; what it will surely do is undermine Turkey’s international brand as an open, Muslim-majority society at peace with its Christian heritage.
FROM CHURCH TO MOSQUE TO MUSEUM AND BACK
Byzantine emperor Justinian I built Hagia Sophia as a Christian cathedral in 537. In 1453, Ottoman sultan Mehmet II converted it into a mosque shortly after taking the city from the Byzantines. In 1934, following the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, the government of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk converted the building into a museum. As the founder of modern Turkey, Ataturk believed that opening the building to all people would underline his secularist revolution and help push Islam out of government and public spaces. Yet just as Ataturk “un-mosqued” Hagia Sophia nearly a hundred years ago, Erdogan seemingly wants to convert it back in order to bolster his religious revolution—one that has steadily flooded Turkey’s government and public spaces with his conservative brand of Islam. Making such a move in Istanbul is particularly important to Erdogan given the city’s deep symbolism in his life and career. Born there in 1954, he emerged on the national political scene after becoming the city’s mayor in 1994, using the position as a springboard to his ongoing run as the most powerful elected leader in Turkey’s history. For years now, Erdogan has been patronizing major mosque construction in Istanbul as a way of leaving his indelible political and religious imprint there. In March 2019, he oversaw the inauguration of Camlica Mosque, informally known as “Erdogan Mosque,” a massive structure that was erected on a tall hill in order to permanently alter the city’s dramatic skyline. Another major Erdogan-backed mosque is also nearing completion, this one poignantly placed on Istanbul’s central Taksim Square, which has historically lacked a mosque. Converting Hagia Sophia back to an Islamic edifice will complete this trilogy of massive, legacy-defining mosques in his hometown.
BUT WILL IT BOOST HIS POPULARITY?
Erdogan’s mosque push has more nakedly political drivers as well. A nativist, populist leader, he no doubt aims to use the controversy generated by the conversion process to support the narrative of victimization that he often peddles to his base. In this case his message would be, “How dare these secularists deny us pious Muslims the ‘liberty’ to pray at Hagia Sophia?”This strategy is unlikely to work, however. Since 2002, Erdogan has won more than a dozen nationwide elections primarily on a platform of strong economic growth. Yet once a recession hit in 2018, his popularity began to slip, and his hand-picked candidates lost mayoral elections for Istanbul and other key cities in 2019. The economy is now suffering another recession due to the coronavirus pandemic, and polls show his popularity slipping further. Thus, even if the Hagia Sophia conversion increases his approval rating by a few percentage points, the boost is unlikely to last, and nothing short of strong economic growth will bring back the wider popularity he once enjoyed.
IMPLICATIONS ABROAD
If implemented in full, the building’s conversion would cause significant, potentially irreversible harm to Turkey’s international brand. Maintaining Hagia Sophia as a museum has long represented Turkey’s openness—most notably, its stated willingness to embrace its Christian past, Christian citizens, and Christian-majority neighboring countries. As the nation’s most-visited building by foreign tourists, Hagia Sophia in many ways is Turkey’s global brand. For officials in Washington and other allied governments considering how best to sway Erdogan from this damaging course, such conversations are likely best conducted in private given the issue’s domestic sensitivities. But if the Trump administration does decide to comment publicly, its statement should highlight Turkey’s long, proud history of religious tolerance—and encourage Ankara to shy away from further steps that undermine this tradition. Turkey should also be urged to maintain Hagia Sophia’s multicultural heritage and allow public access to its religious iconography, taking into account that such access was unhindered during most of the Ottoman era.
*Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family Fellow at The Washington Institute and author of Erdogan’s Empire: Turkey and the Politics of the Middle East.

Iran’s nuclear defiance fueling Israeli fears
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh//Arab News/July 09/2020
Through the prism of the Israeli leaders, a nuclear Iran is an existential threat to their country. Former Defense Minister Naftali Bennett did not mince his words when he warned in 2017: “I have no doubt that the nuclearization of Iran is the No. 1 existential threat to the state of Israel.”
If we were to assume that there will be a war between a nuclear Iran and Israel, the damage inflicted on Israel would likely be much more severe due to its relatively small size. Iran’s land area is approximately 1.6 million square kilometers, while Israel’s is only about 22,000. This means that Iran is more than 70 times larger than Israel. Bennett acknowledged that “an attack on Iran would not destroy the country the way that an attack by Iran on Israel (would).”
The Iranian leaders have indeed repeatedly vowed to destroy Israel. For example, Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has made the Iranian government’s plan vehemently clear, stating: “Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map. And it seems that, considering the evil that Israel is doing, it is bringing itself closer to that.” In addition, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who reportedly published a book on how to destroy Israel, in 2018 posted a Twitter tirade against Israel, stating that “the Zionist regime will perish in the not so far future.”
Whether or not the Iranian leaders ultimately act on their words, Israel has critical concerns about its rival becoming a nuclear state. From Tel Aviv’s perspective, the international community is not doing enough to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, with Russia, China, Germany, France and the UK still advocating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aka the Iran nuclear deal.
The Israeli authorities have vehemently opposed the nuclear deal ever since its establishment in 2015. Its primary objective was to permanently halt Iran’s nuclear program, thus eliminating the possibility of a nuclear arms race in the region and removing the strategic threat that a nuclear-armed Iran might pose due to its hegemonic ambitions. However, the Western powers compromised on their original demands and accepted a deal that limited Tehran’s nuclear program for a set number of years. As Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif told the Council on Foreign Relations think tank at the time: “Let’s establish a mechanism for a number of years. Not 10, not 15 — but I’m willing to live with less.” This is how the sunset clauses came about and Israel became enraged.
The sunset clauses will allow the Iranian regime to eventually resume enriching uranium to the level it desires, spin as many advanced centrifuges as it wants, make its nuclear reactors fully operational, build new heavy water reactors, produce as much fuel for its reactors as it desires, and maintain higher uranium enrichment capability with no restrictions.
Not only are the European powers, along with Russia and China, determined to keep the nuclear deal, they appear to be disregarding Iran’s latest violations of the JCPOA. The International Atomic Energy Agency last month reported that Tehran is violating all the restrictions of the nuclear agreement, is not allowing inspectors to monitor some of its sites, and is declining to answer questions concerning undeclared nuclear sites and activities.
Meanwhile, although Israel would likely wish for the US to take military action to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state, there is little appetite in Washington and among the American public for a direct military confrontation with yet another country in the Middle East.
With the international community reluctant to act on Iran’s nuclear violations, and with it inching closer to becoming a nuclear state, Israel is running out of options to counter Tehran. The Iranian regime already has enough enriched uranium to refine to produce a nuclear bomb if it so desired.
From Tel Aviv’s perspective, the international community is not doing enough to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Desperate to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, the Israeli leaders seem to be taking matters into their own hands. Kuwait’s Al-Jarida newspaper last week reported that Israel carried out a cyberattack that caused a fire and explosion at Iran’s Natanz nuclear site. The newspaper wrote: “This is likely to be an electronic attack on the computer network that controls the storage compression tanks.”
Heightened tensions between Iran and Israel over Tehran’s nuclear defiance could spiral into a wider war. In order to prevent a major military confrontation, the international community must take immediate action to hold the Iranian leaders accountable for their nuclear violations and give assurances to the regional powers that Iran will not become a nuclear state.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Turkey: How Erdoğan's Migrant Blackmail Failed
Burak Bekdil/ Gatestone Institute/July 10/2020
On February 27, Erdoğan's government was on the threshold of executing its threat to flood Europe with millions of (mostly Syrian) migrants ... Hundreds of thousands of migrants began flocking to the border. By the next day, Greece was not only operating 52 Navy ships to guard its islands close to Turkey; it had also mobilized additional troops on land. Its security forces were able to block 10,000 migrants from entering Greece by way of the Turkish land border.
The new blackmail will not work for a number of reasons. First, because many migrants in Turkey have learned from experience that the Turkish-Greek border can no longer easily be crossed. And second, because the Greek security forces are now better equipped and better prepared to confront a new wave of migrants.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's threats to send hundreds of thousands of migrants over the border and into the EU will no longer work, because Greece's security forces are now better equipped and better prepared to confront a new wave of migrants by land or sea. Pictured: Migrants in Turkey throw rocks at a Greek firetruck after they set a fire at the border fence near Pazarkulke Border crossing, on March 6, 2020. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Greece has finally done the right thing and deprived Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of his perpetual threats to blackmail the European Union.
On February 27, Erdoğan's government was on the threshold of executing its threat to flood Europe with millions of (mostly Syrian) migrants and opening its northwestern borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Hundreds of thousands of migrants began flocking to the border. In a few days, by the beginning of March, they would be in EU territory, to be followed by hundreds of thousands of others. Things, however, did not go as planned by Ankara.
By the next day, Greece was not only operating 52 Navy ships to guard its islands close to Turkey; it had also mobilized additional troops on land. Its security forces were able to block 10,000 migrants from entering Greece by way of the Turkish land border. Some migrants were stuck in the no-man's land between the two countries and eventually had to return to the Turkish side. Greek officials reported only 76 illegal entries, whom they detained and prosecuted. In his social media account, Turkey's Deputy Foreign Minister Yavuz Selim Kıran compared the alleged treatment of migrants seeking to cross illegally into Greece with conditions at Nazi death camps at Auschwitz. The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece immediately condemned and denounced the statement.
All the same, on March 6, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu claimed that a total of 142,175 migrants had successfully crossed the border into Greece. In reality, the border had been meticulously protected by Greek security; only a handful of migrants had illegally managed to get though. In a private conversation, a UNHCR official mocked the minister: "Two questions to Minister Soylu: How did he count the number of entries into Greece? And how did those 142,175 people vanish; they are not in Greece?"
The Greek government, rallying EU support, has since deployed riot police and military patrols to the land border as well as naval and coast guard vessels to conduct around-the-clock patrols off the Greek coast near Turkey. The Greek government also scrambled to seal the land border, tripling the size of an existing 12-kilometer fence, including the addition of pylons with thermal and surveillance cameras.
Tassos Hadjivassiliou, a conservative member of Greek parliament, said:
"Once this fence goes up, Turkey will be severely compromised in its ability to push through migrants. And if that happens, then Ankara will have lost its most powerful tool of leverage against Europe... and its chances, therefore, of clinching a new deal with Brussels, plus added financial support will fade."
Eventually, at the end of March, Turkish authorities had to withdraw the remaining migrants that were amassed at the border. In May, nevertheless, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoğlu said that Turkey's "open-gate" policy would continue, and suggested that migrants and refugees would shortly return to the frontier as the two countries emerge from coronavirus lockdowns. In early June, there were reports that illegal immigrants were seen arriving by buses to the Turkish city of Edirne and the border town of Ipsala. Also in June, a video released by Greece's coast guard, showed Turkish coast guard vessels escorting dinghies carrying refugees and migrants arriving in Greek territorial waters.
The new blackmail will not work for a number of reasons. First, because many migrants in Turkey have learned from experience that the Turkish-Greek border can no longer easily be crossed. And second, because the Greek security forces are now better equipped and better prepared to confront a new wave of migrants. And third, because it will be a much easier task to block a few thousand than the hundreds of thousands in March.
As Margaritis Schinas, European Commission's vice president, said: "Events on the Greek-Turkish border in the Evros region showed that Ankara does not have the power to exploit refugees to get its way politically."
*Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from the country's most noted newspaper after 29 years, for writing in Gatestone what is taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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Rage Produces Much Heat but Little Light
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/July,11/2020
It is too early to tell whether the recent riots in the United States were inspired by genuine concern about chronic racism in parts of American society or fostered by political calculations linked to the next presidential election.
However, one thing is certain: traditional America-bashing circles in Europe and elsewhere have seized the opportunity to portray the United States as a nation unwilling to even acknowledge the grievance felt by the “African-American” component. Skimming through magazines gives the impression that the European elites have been observing events in the US with a more than usual degree of smugness. They ignore a few facts.
To start with they forget that the slave trade existed long before the United States was constituted as a nation. They also forget that from the 15th century onwards the trans-Atlantic slave trade was a mainly European enterprise with African tribal chiefs as local supply managers.
More importantly, the European states maintained native slavery, serfs in Russia, Spain and England, villains in France, and the Bauer (tied peasants) in feudal German principalities, for centuries whereas the United States abolished slavery just 100 years after its independence.
The newly created United States had to do with the hands that fate and history had dealt it. And that hand included the legacy of slavery which persisted until the end of the Civil War. Americans were always conscious of the fact that slavery was not only an evil but also hampered their nation’s economic development and socio-cultural development. Even a cursory survey of American literature would show that the issue was never forgotten. American writers and poets, both white and black, took the challenge of understanding and combating what they regarded as an inherited defect in their nation’s social genetics. What is remarkable is that black American writers never used the theme as an excuse for pressing for Apartheid in the name of racial equality. Almost all saw themselves as Americans who happened to be black and not as blacks who happened to be Americans. In her “Black, White and in Color” book Hortense J Spillers, shows that American black writers did not behave as if they were outsiders in their American homeland.
Even before slavery was abolished, Frederick Douglas, arguably one of the greatest orators in all history, envisaged positive change in the United States.
He said: «I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave with hope. While drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Independence," the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.” The same spirit is found in such writers as Ralph Ellison in “The Invisible Man”, Richard Wright in “Fishbelly”, Chester Himes in “Cotton Comes to Haarlem”, and even James Baldwin’s “The Fire next Time”. Alex Haley’s “Roots” is an illustration of the “ Only in America” dream as reality, depicting one family’s story from boyhood in Africa to slavery in America to producing farmers, lawyers, architects, teachers and best-selling authors. Tony Morrison’s “Beloved” is not a fake cry of rage as the ones howled by self-styled champions of Black Lives Matter (BLM). It is about a heroic quest for redemption not by re-reeling resentment by but forgiveness.
The same spirit inspired Martin Luther King Jr who had an inclusive dream, not a project for rejection and apartheid based on skin color. He saw racism and segregation as an evil that affected all Americans.
When he attended theology classes in Medina, Malcom X was known as “the American brother” because he did not wish to discard his American-ness. His message was one of hard work and self-betterment rather than moaning and commerce with victimhood.
The “inherited evil” of racism has not been ignored by non-black American writers. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind”, William Faulkner’s “Light in August”, Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Erskine Caldwell’s “God’s Little Acre”, and John Dos Passos in “USA Trilogy”, take up the challenge in different ways. Even when we see negative portrayals, such as in John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” and Lorraine Hansberry’s play “Raisins in the Sun”, the issue of racism and segregation is not ignored. “Look Who Is Coming for Dinner” by William Rose, F.L Green’s “Lost Man” and John Ball’s “In The Heat of the Night” signal the treatment of black characters in a more mainstream American context without forgetting the uphill struggle they face.
European intellectuals, who sneer at the United States for treating its “Africans” in a decent way, would not dream of labelling their own black communities as “African-French” or “African English.”
The African label is itself a legacy of Imperialism, Roman Imperialism of more than 2,000 years. The Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio was sent to what is now Tunisia for a second war against a coalition led by Hannibal and spearheaded by the local Afri tribe. When Scipio returned victorious the Senate gave him the agnomen “Africanus” and, later, started calling the entire continent south of the Mediterranean Africa although it contained hundreds of different ethnicities often with little in common except various shades of darker skin.
In the same way, another Roman general Caius Julius Caesar was to get the agnomen “Germanicus” after he defeated a rebellious tribe known as Germans in a land that the Romans then called Germany, ignoring its ethnic, cultural and religious diversity.
In recent weeks, anti-American cabals have unleashed much sound and fury but little of substance; much heat, but little light. Their aim is to terrorize the majority by pretending that hatred of America is more widespread than it really is.
This reminds me of a passage in President Ulysses Grant’s memoirs.
In Texas, during the Mexican war, Grant, then a lieutenant, accompanied by another officer, goes to investigate the howling of what sounds like a huge pack of wolves. When they arrive they see: “There were just two of them; they had made all the noise we had heard. I have often thought of this incident since when I have heard the noises of a few disappointed politicians… There are always more of them before they are counted.”

Can an Emerging Market Become a Policy Pioneer?
Daniel Moss/Bloomberg/July,11/2020
Jakarta is unabashedly monetizing state debt — an idea once considered heretical in polite circles because of concerns it would stoke inflation, weaken the currency and erode central-bank independence. But this concept has been slowly making its way toward the light. The central bank said Tuesday it will purchase 574.4 trillion rupiah ($40 billion) in bonds from the government, most of it directly through private placements. The experiment is laudable, and a measure of how far things have come globally that it isn’t condemned. It could even show the way for other emerging markets.
Bank Indonesia now finds itself underwriting muscular budgets that aim to steer the world's fourth-most populous nation from its deepest recession in decades, and help prevent tens of millions of citizens from plunging further into poverty. It certainly isn’t alone. Around the globe, officials have cut rates to zero, engaged in quantitative easing and propped up markets. Finance ministries have unleashed massive supplementary budgets to alleviate Covid-19's catastrophic impact.
But few, if any, have gone this far. It may only be a question of time: India’s economy has been crippled and faces a gaping budget deficit, while Malaysia has fired four fiscal cannons and interest rates are at a record low. If Indonesia doesn’t pay too steep a price — much less no penalty — they will be tempted to follow. The Philippines central bank has bought much smaller parcels of debt in the secondary market and has expressed interest in going a bit further.
Jakarta is trying to bust out of its longstanding constraints. The rupiah isn't a reserve currency, unlike the dollar or euro, and the nation has a nagging deficit in its current account, the broadest measure of trade. That means an avalanche of bond sales to more traditional investors, including international buyers, would tend to weaken the rupiah. This isn't theoretical; Indonesia descended into political chaos and communal violence in the late 1990s when the currency collapsed during the Asian financial crisis.
Investors are giving policy makers the benefit of the doubt, for now at least. Though markets faltered last week when word of monetization began to leak, bonds rallied after Tuesday’s announcement. Perhaps that's because Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati assured us that the deal is a one-off — and many took heart that the amount wasn’t even bigger. Credit-rating companies don’t sound perturbed, either, being largely agnostic about who owns this debt. The rupiah rose 14% last quarter, reflecting a broad rally in emerging-market currencies after a drubbing in the preceding three months.
Central banks have long balked at direct monetization because it challenges the idea that monetary policy should be independent from politics. Another reason why it has been taboo is the risk that rampant spending will spur inflation. It’s worth noting that BI isn't giving the finance ministry a free pass; the government will have to pay the benchmark rate — now 4.25% — rather than zero, as some had feared. Central bank Governor Perry Warjiyo said inflation is under control and that if prices do spike, he can stop them.
Warjiyo is a lucky soldier in this revolution. Deflation is a bigger threat than inflation, which was in retreat around the world for years before Covid-19 came along. Indonesia is no exception; the pace of annual increases in the consumer price index have fallen to the bottom of BI’s 2% to 4% target range.
If anything, Indonesia's steps have exposed the limitations of inflation targeting as the key pillar of central banking architecture. Emerging markets borrowed this framework from the West to buy credibility with investors. In time, forward guidance, public forecasting and press conferences followed.
These models were never quite set in stone. Indonesia and the world now have broader priorities. As a result, fiscal and monetary teams have begun working closely to combat a once-in-a-lifetime crisis, and boundaries have been blurred. In Jakarta, the politically correct term for the monetization is “burden sharing.”
This boldness may not last. An investor panic at the prospect of stimulus withdrawal in big economies — like the “taper tantrum” of 2013 — or a medical breakthrough could see Indonesia return to the traditional model.
Officials have been clear about their intentions and Sri Mulyani, a former top executive at the World Bank in Washington, is a tremendous asset as de facto head of investor relations for President Joko Widodo. She will need to be alert for the slightest whiff of a shift in sentiment that could put emerging markets back under strain. BI is a more lenient lender than the International Monetary Fund was two decades ago. If this gambit doesn’t work, the IMF may again be on the horizon. If successful, however, Indonesia’s policy experiment will be the subject of textbooks and finance seminars for years to come.

Natural Gas Is the Past, the Future
Nathaniel Bullard/Bloomberg/July,11/2020
On Sunday, Virginia-based utility Dominion Energy Inc announced plans to sell almost all of its natural gas pipeline and storage assets to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc for $4 billion. At the same time, the Virginia-based utility said that it’s killing the Atlantic Coast gas pipeline despite a Supreme Court ruling that would grant it passage underneath the Appalachian Trail.
There’s a lot going on here, and not just for the second-biggest US power company by market value and the Oracle of Omaha. Natural gas, the “bridge fuel” to decarbonize the US electricity system, is under pressure. But it’s not yet a bridge to nowhere.
There are a number of factors motivating Dominion’s strategy. The first is that permitting for gas infrastructure is “increasingly litigious, uncertain, and costly,” Chief Executive Officer Thomas Farrell said during a call with analysts to discuss its plans. The second factor is that the economics of operating a midstream pipeline—even one that has had no trouble attracting customers—aren’t great, Farrell admitted.
That doesn’t mean the company is getting out of gas entirely. It still burns gas in power plants and will for some time. It also still owns distribution networks, which deliver gas to customers. That’s the infrastructure Dominion sees carrying it into the future.
The whole thing is part of a strategy to generate more of its earnings from assets with a return on equity that’s determined by state regulators. That may sound unexciting, but that’s part of the point. It’s predictable, and it gives Dominion a clear story to tell capital markets: for every dollar we invest in regulated assets, we’ll receive X amount back, guaranteed.
There’s a slide in Dominion’s analyst presentation that illustrates this idea. It shows the company’s past acquisitions of mostly-regulated companies such as gas distributor Questar and electric and gas utility Scana leading directly to Dominion’s decision to sell its midstream gas interests and other assets. The result, it hopes, is that 90% of its operating earnings will come from state-regulated operations.
There’s a financial strategy at work here too, one that I’ve written about before. It has three parts, the first of which is that returns on equity—both what utilities ask regulators for and what they’re awarded—have been falling for decades. Not only that, the spread between asked and awarded is also fairly tight, and definitely tighter than it was in the mid-2000s and in the mid-1990s. That’s good for messaging: it means you can say that what you want is pretty close to what regulators think you deserve.
The second part of this strategy comes from the long-term decline in the risk-free rate of return on investments, as represented by the US 10-year Treasury yield. We can think of 10-year Treasuries as a utility’s opportunity cost for not investing in regulated businesses; the spread between a utility’s awarded ROE and the 10-year note is effectively the risk-adjusted return on equity for regulated utilities. That spread is at a near-record high, north of 800 basis points, and it’s more than double the risk-adjusted return of 25 years ago.
The third part of this strategy is that Dominion can match a clear growth path to this return on equity. Virginia’s power sector aims to be 100% clean energy by 2045, which requires building at least 16 gigawatts of wind and solar generation assets. Dominion is allowed, by Virginia law, to own up to 65% of those assets. Those it owns will become part of the utility rate base, the assets on which it earns its ROE. It’s not quite risk-free, but it’s not far off.
The same is happening all over the country, meaning that gas networks on the other coast face pressure, too. In California a number of municipalities have mandated all-electric new construction—that is, gas won’t be connected even for cooking purposes.
In the past three weeks, two of the state’s big utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison, have written to the California Energy Commission in support of a statewide all-electric buildings mandate. SCE’s letter says it wants the Commission to move “as quickly as possible” so that utilities might “avoid costly spending on natural gas infrastructure that may become stranded before 2045.” Implicit in that statement: not every gas infrastructure operator can count on Warren Buffett or his successors to buy their assets when the time comes.

The US media’s disrespectful obsession with Trump
Khalaf Ahmad Al-Habtoor/Arab News/July 10/2020
Many once-reputed US television news networks, whose newsgathering, unbiased reporting and war coverage was formerly beyond reproach, have evolved into a platform for people who despise the current president. Besides being wholly unprofessional, some of these channels are undermining their credibility among those of us who once looked to them for global news.
We are today met with a repetitive roll-out of one-sided opinion and unabashed political propaganda. Switch on at any time of the day or night and what you get are talking heads dissecting President Donald Trump’s every action and word on the pandemic or the mass social awakening on racial inequality.
Invariably egged on by program hosts, so-called experts in their field spew their anti-Trump vitriol unchallenged. In fact, I am beginning to think that their invitations to appear on air are based on their ability to indoctrinate viewers with hatred for America’s democratically elected commander-in-chief.
Admittedly, Trump and hard facts are like oil and water. He often exaggerates statistics and has a tendency to put a positive spin on bad news. He is an optimist. He is a fighter. He has been attacked with a stifling cloud of daily criticism and unfounded speculation. Never in America’s history has a president been subjected to such an onslaught of media attacks, vulgar press mockery or treacherous former aides out to pen lucrative tell-all exposes of their time at the White House. He has been stabbed in the back again and again by people he trusted.
His own niece, Mary Trump, who fought with him over the family fortune decades ago, has now leapt on the “literary” gravy train with a book characterizing the president as a product of a toxic family and as a “narcissist” who is a danger to every American. So much for family loyalty. Her opinionated book is long on accusations and unflattering anecdotes that reviewers say are not backed up by evidence. It would not have seen the light of day if publishers respected their readership and did not endorse baseless libel.
Setting aside the occasions when Trump has misspoken — often out of wishful thinking rather than a cynical wish to deceive — he should be praised for his love of his country. He attained office on a conservative ticket vowing to beef up the military and appoint Republican-leaning judges to the Supreme Court. He promised huge tax breaks and said he would not only grow the economy but also work toward job creation.
Almost all of his promises were fulfilled. On his watch, unemployment plummeted and wages rose, while the stock market reached record highs. Despite his bluster and threats, during his four-year tenure the US has not been engaged in a costly new war. Indeed, he has pulled almost all US troops from Syria and is in the process of drawing down the troop contingent from Afghanistan.
From the president’s perspective, the timing of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak could not have been worse. Through no fault of his own, markets tumbled, companies were liquidated and millions of jobs lost. Lockdowns gave rise to poverty, hunger and homelessness. With economic Armageddon looming, most states opened up prematurely, leading to disastrous results in terms of skyrocketing case numbers and deaths.
Several prominent channels are blaming Trump for failing to get a handle on the virus, while alluding to the president’s refusal to wear a mask in public as having contributed to the rate of infections. In keeping with conservative thinking, he allowed people to choose and relied on governors to tailor the reopening of businesses in their states. He gave governors a free hand in deciding if masks were mandatory in public spaces. In a country made up of 50 states with an overall population of 328 million, a one-size-fits-all policy would not be sensible.
The White House COVID-19 task force, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, along with thousands of doctors and scientists, strongly advise social distancing, frequent hand-washing, and nose and mouth coverings to contain the spread until there is an effective vaccine.
Sadly, many Americans, especially young people, have flocked to the beaches, bars and clubs believing they are invincible, with no care for the parents or grandparents they could infect. Others have joined mass protests around the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, no doubt contributing greatly to the spread.
Because the president is not exactly gushing in his approval of the Black Lives Matter movement, sections of the US media are attempting to paint him as a racist. Notably, some people are using the guise of this movement to loot stores, torch buildings and vehicles, attack police officers and vandalize monuments and statues. As head of state and a self-proclaimed believer in law and order, he cannot encourage anarchy or back the dissolution of police forces, of course. Such misbehavior cannot and must not be tolerated.
Against the backdrop of Mount Rushmore and the carvings of four famous US presidents, he this week decried the way, in his view, schoolchildren are being indoctrinated into hating their own country. “Every virtue is obscured… every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond recognition,” Trump said.
We all have deep sympathy for African-Americans, who have been subjected to systemic discrimination for centuries, but alienating the majority or seeking to erase history and the imperfect heroes who began America’s upward trajectory will only embolden white supremacists and accentuate existing racial divisions.
Setting aside the occasions when Trump has misspoken, he should be praised for his love of his country.
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson has his own theory as to why Trump is so hated and despised by the left: He cannot be controlled.
Like him or hate him, what happened to public respect for the office? Now that the genie of no-limit disrespect is out of the bottle, Trump’s successors can expect to be placed under a similar microscope. Anyone with a skeleton in his or her closet or grudging enemies waiting to pounce will be in for a rough ride. If Trump is voted out come November, will Fox News adopt CNN or MSNBC’s presidential battering ram? And, in that event, will the new US president be strong enough to withstand the pain?
*Khalaf Ahmad Al-Habtoor is a prominent UAE businessman and public figure. He is renowned for his views on international political affairs, his philanthropic activity and his efforts to promote peace. He has long acted as an unofficial ambassador for his country abroad. Twitter: @KhalafAlHabtoor

EU is stuck in middle of Turkey’s disputes with France and Greece
Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/July 10/2020
Against a backdrop of rising tensions between Turkey and some EU member states, the bloc’s policy chief, Josep Borrell, paid a two-day visit to Ankara this week. A number of issues were on his agenda for discussion, including the war in Libya, the refugee crisis, friction in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the coronavirus pandemic. Turkey’s relationships with France and Greece have deteriorated, and Borrell was tasked not only with addressing grievances, but also easing tensions.
His visit came a week before special sessions of the European Parliament and the EU Foreign Affairs Council are due to take place after calls from French officials for new sanctions on Ankara in response to the latter’s actions in the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu used Borrell’s visit as an opportunity to warn the EU that Ankara will retaliate if sanctions are imposed.
“We observe that Turkey will be on the agenda of the EU in the coming days,” he said during a joint press conference with Borrell on July 6 in Ankara. “Taking decisions against Turkey will not resolve the existing problems; on the contrary, it will deepen them.
“If the EU takes additional measures against Turkey, we will have to respond. If you further sanction Turkey, we also have steps to take in the field, in the Eastern Mediterranean.”
Borrell’s visit also included a meeting with Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.
The EU was dragged into the escalating dispute between Paris and Ankara, over the Eastern Mediterranean and Libya, after the former called on the 27-member bloc to take a stand against Turkey. France and Greek Cyprus have also played significant roles in blocking Turkey’s bid to join the EU by putting political roadblocks in the way. Borrell acknowledged that ties between the EU and Turkey are far from ideal, and immediate and serious problems must be resolved.
“We have to change the dynamic of our relationship. We have to follow a more positive track so that we can avoid additional problems,” he said.
The first decade of the 2000s was a momentous time in the relationship between Turkey and Europe, as Ankara began implementing EU-related reforms. The Turkish authorities advocated that accession would not be a burden on the bloc but benefit it, as they would help share the burden of the difficulties faced by the union. Unfortunately, this honeymoon period did not last. Frustrated by the barriers to admission imposed by some members and a lack of progress in negotiations, Ankara appeared to grow increasingly eurosceptical despite its generally pro-EU stance. This was evident not only at the political level but also on a societal level, as support among the Turkish people for membership of the EU began to decline.
Relations between Turkey and EU member states are affected by bilateral, regional and global issues. Since the collapse of EU membership talks, Turkey has redefined its bilateral relations mainly by leveraging border security and migration management.
However, Ankara adopts a diverse approach to its bilateral ties with EU members. For instance, it treads a fine line in its relationship with Italy: The Italian defense minister recently visited Turkey, officials in Rome have expressed support for Turkish intervention in Libya, and the top Italian diplomat recently visited Ankara for talks. Regionally, the Eastern Mediterranean, Libya and Syria are key issues affecting the security and stability of the EU, and there is a need for dialogue with Ankara to resolve them, a point that was raised by Borrell. While some EU members view Turkey as a threat, others believe it offers significant economic and security benefits. There is a long history of relations between Turkey and the EU, and it is hard to predict how they might evolve in the future.
On a global level, the mutual frustration with each other felt by Turkey and the West, including the EU and the US, had significantly influenced Ankara’s pivot toward Russia.
The cooling of relations between Turkey and the EU is also related to developments within the bloc itself. The refugee crisis, caused by regional developments, led the EU to abandon values it had promoted for decades. This created fertile ground for the growth of populist, right-wing parties that contradict liberal, democratic institutions and processes — the very foundation upon which the main pillars of European values, such as human rights, democracy, tolerance, inclusiveness and multiculturalism, are premised. Therefore, expansion is no longer seen as the standard solution to the problems affecting the continent, and European values are being openly flouted in several member countries. There is a long history of relations between Turkey and the EU, and it is hard to predict how they might evolve in the future. Turkey is located in an area where a single incident can start a domino effect that changes the landscape of the entire region; the Arab uprisings, for example, continue to affect regional balances. How will the war in Syria unfold? Will the instability in Libya be rectified any time soon? How long will tensions persist in the Eastern Mediterranean? How will the role of global powers Russia, China and the US evolve in the coming years. These are all questions to which there are no clear answers at this time.
*Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkey’s relations with the Middle East. Twitter: @SinemCngz

Iran unlikely to grab opportunity for change
Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/July 10/2020
Like many of the Middle East’s issues, Iraq is looked at through the Iranian lens. Iraq has been a great opportunity since the mid-2000s for Iran and the Arab world to find a good and strong balance and to bring about change for the region. Unfortunately, this week’s assassination of the Iraqi analyst and political adviser Hisham Al-Hashimi has proven once again that this is wishful thinking. Iraq has become a territory for Iran to expand its revolution and hegemony. Hence, as in Lebanon, it is a land where the rule of the Iranian militias and proxies replaces the rule of law. These are lands where not even suggestions are acceptable and the consequence for the messenger is either death or exile.Therefore, it is always surprising to hear, mostly from Iranian pundits, that Iran is surrounded by enemies and needs to defend itself in order to justify its proxy wars and the presence of armed militias all over the region. They also keep reiterating that the Iranian regime is defending and supporting oppressed Shiite minorities all over the Arab world.
One might argue that, in the 1980s, Iran was indeed surrounded by hostile countries, from Iraq to Afghanistan. Yet, since 2003, this has completely changed; the regimes and governments in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, after the fall of Saddam Hussein, are all, in principle, friendly to Iran. As for the region’s Shiite communities, they are not in need of Iranian protection — a quick look at how Iranian citizens are treated in their home country compared to how they live nowadays in Arab countries suffices to prove this.
The problem with Iran is not about it being a religious regime; this is the composition and the will of the country and its citizens are free to support or oppose it. The problem lies in its relentless attempts to export and impose the regime’s ideology throughout the Arab region since 1979. It is like an Islamic version of Leon Trotsky’s vision of communism.
If Iran did not engage in terrorist activities outside its own territory, it could have constructive bilateral relations with countries around the world. Today, Iran is isolated from its region not because it is Persian or Shiite, but because the regime acts in a rogue manner. If it did not, it would not be facing the hardships it does today and its economy, as well as its people, would not be so badly off. Sanctions exist because this regime carries out terrorist activities, has a potential military nuclear program, and interferes negatively in Arab affairs. Arab countries are not seeking confrontation, but are forced to react to Iran’s actions. Therefore, Western analysts’ continuous comparisons between the two are absurd and look more like a blackmail scheme than anything else.
Iraq is the very symbol of the Iranian vision. The regime’s strategy is not to support a fellow country, with the majority of its citizens belonging to the same religious belief it claims to protect. It is a strategy to secure its own agents in the government and state institutions in order to build its loyal and obedient militias — militias that compete with and threaten the sovereign state. Iran’s regime always looks at weakening the state institutions so that they can fulfill their main role of acting as cover for its militias, which can ultimately become the de facto ruler of the country through their death threats and violence.
If Iran’s objectives were indeed to protect Shiite minorities, then it would help support and build the state, not weaken it, like it has done in Iraq and Lebanon. But its objectives are hegemonic. It needs to keep its target countries weakened, regardless of anything else, to make sure its own proxies and agents are the kingmakers and real decision-makers. Iraq is a perfect example of this, and Lebanon is the case study for all its interference programs from Syria to Yemen.
The Iranian regime’s focus is thus not on its bilateral relations with the state, but its control of armed militias. So, when we hear Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif say during a parliament session last week that he coordinated all his actions with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Qassem Soleimani and also Hassan Nasrallah, this tells you that, despite what Iranian pundits claim, Iran has no doves and hawks, only the orders of the supreme leader and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It is not supporting Iraq and the Shiite community — it is conducting an expansion of its dictatorship to other territories.
The same applies to every country Iran is trying to control. It is strange that it does not apply this strategy to its eastern border; although the return of Afghans and Central Asian fighters from Syria, where they fought with the IRGC, might pose a problem in the future. However, for now, Tehran has concentrated its focus and armed militias exclusively in the Arab world. One might ask why.
But what have been the results for Iran and its people, for the Shiites it claims to protect, and for the citizens of countries it tries to assert its control over? The answer is simple, nothing but destruction and poverty. Lebanon has been plunged into total chaos and destitution, with no hope of an immediate solution. Even economic reforms would not start to fix the extent of the problem.
Iraq might have a better chance thanks to its new Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi. It seems that, with support from most Iraqis, he is trying to change the current situation and hone in on the militias’ lawlessness. Ending the corruption and Iranian interference needs to start with their total dismantling. This has the potential to change the entire Middle East for the better. A stable Iraq would permit the shift toward more balanced relations between Baghdad and Tehran, and could serve as an opening for Iran to do the same with more Arab countries.
Iran is isolated from its region not because it is Persian or Shiite, but because the regime acts in a rogue manner.
A government-to-government relationship, rather than government to Iranian militias, is the key to prompting the start of this change. Just imagine for a second the true revolution if Iran announced its support for Iraq’s leadership plan of dismantling all armed militias. This would be a positive signal that Iraqis from all confessions and the entire region would welcome — a first solid trust-building step.
So there is now a unique opportunity for the Iranian regime, especially as it seems to be suffering both in its regional files like Syria and economically. An overstretched and cash-strapped Iran is also facing domestic issues, with mysterious explosions in strategic sites such as the Natanz nuclear facility. However, as to what to expect from this regime and its proxies, the assassination of Al-Hashimi reminds us that Iran will oppose and combat Al-Kadhimi’s current plan with little hope of compromise.
*Khaled Abou Zahr is the CEO of Eurabia, a media and tech company. He is also the editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi.

On the Murder of Husham al-Hashemi
Michael Knights/The Washington Institute/July 10/2020
On July 6, 2020, Iraq’s most prolific security commentator Husham al-Hashemi was assassinated in Zayouna, a social melting pot neighborhood of east Baghdad. At 8:19 pm, he arrived outside his home, driving his own unarmored white SUV. Seconds before, two motorbikes pulled up, each carrying two young men. They knew that he was coming and they knew where he would park his car.
Before he had even driven into his space, the shooter was on him, peppering the driver-side window with bullets, coming close to finish the job with multiple pistol shots through the shattered glass. The shooter stowed his pistol in the seat storage of the bike and got on behind the waiting driver, and seconds later the second bike, maybe filming the scene or maybe a back-up security team, also drove away. His three boys watched him dragged, bloodied and nearly dead, from the car. He died in a hospital shortly after.
Husham left behind a wife and four young children, along with many friends across the political spectrum and across the world. I had known him for about six years. Husham was a bit of an enigma at first: an Iraqi security analyst with contacts, a strong work ethic and good analytical instincts—a potent combination and a very rare one.
A former inmate of Camp Bucca, a U.S. detention center in Iraq, Husham had seen a little of the Iraqi Salafist insurgency from the inside, though it was never clear how deep his involvement was. He studied the Islamic State in Iraq and his analysis was sought after by think-tanks and grant-funded research projects because he brought an Iraqi voice to a subject that was, and still is, dominated by non-Iraqi researchers.
One of the most intriguing aspects of his work was his interactions with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Sha’abi in Arabic). After the fall of Mosul, he was proud of the PMF and viewed them as part of the loosely coordinated Iraqi and international effort aimed at defeating the Islamic State. He was granted interviews with senior PMF leaders, including the U.S.-designated terrorist Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
As an American, I had no desire (and questionable legal leeway) to interview Muhandis, so I was fascinated to read his writings on the top-level thinking within the PMF. It was hard not to be jealous of Husham’s access, but also impossible to resist his abundant charm and generous nature.
After the Islamic State’s territorial caliphate was defeated in Iraq in 2017, I sensed a gradual change in Husham’s view of Muhandis and the Iran-backed groups within the PMF. He had always known of their ties to Iran, their gangster-ism, and their attacks on Sunni civilians (not that it mattered, but Husham was from a mixed Shia-Sunni background). After the recapture of all Iraq’s cities, Husham began to sense—as many Iraqis did—that the reputation of the PMF was being damaged by Muhandis’ Iran-backed militias. He was an advocate of “normalizing” the PMF under state control, and his thinking helped Iraq and its aid partners to conceptualize how security sector reforms might help put arms under the control of the state.
This Iraqi nationalist position became something more intense after the Iran-backed elements within the PMF started killing tens of young Iraqi protesters in October 2019. I was struck by the change Husham's tone, privately and on his prolific twitter feed. A journalist himself, with children just a decade younger than the protesters being killed, Husham went “all-in” with the protests. He threw caution to the wind at a time when the militias ran Prime Minister Adel Abdulmahdi’s government.
At the time, I wondered how long he could last. His explicit calls for militias to be brought to justice seemed too bold and too prominent not to be answered violently. By the end, Husham was recklessly brave, both with his own personal security and with his words. If there was a living martyr in Iraq—conveying the sense of a dead man walking since the protests—it was Husham.
Husham was not in the inner circle of the new prime minister—Mustapha al-Kadhimi—but they were both writers, both keen observers to the Iraqi security scene, and both Iraqi nationalists who wanted arms under the control of the state. They were also both intensively harassed and threatened by militias like Kata’ib Hezbollah. On June 26, Kata’ib Hezbollah responded to the arrest of some of its members by driving a thirty-vehicle armed column through the International Zone, the government and diplomatic district of Baghdad, in a show of strength aimed at intimidating Kadhimi.
On July 3, Husham was reportedly likewise threatened by Kata’ib Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Mounis (Abu Ali al-Askari), according to phone messages seen by a colleague of Husham’s. On July 5, Husham called out the militias for firing a rocket at the International Zone that wounded a little Iraqi girl. In my view, having monitored seventeen years of Shia militia targeted killings of Iraqi academics, doctors, journalists and soldiers, Kata’ib Hezbollah clearly killed Husham to send a message to the Kadhimi government and to other Iraqi commentators: back off, stop trying to place arms under the control of the state.
The Islamic State affiliated media outlet, Quraysh, applauded Husham’s killing but did not claim it. This is the point that events have reached in today’s Iraq: both the Islamic State and their putative enemies in Kata’ib Hezbollah have the same Iraqi nationalist on their hit lists. I cannot think of a better eulogy for him than the curses of Kata’ib Hezbollah and the Islamic State. If a man is judged by the reputation of his enemies, Husham was doing a great service to Iraq at the time of his death and in his passing.
Iraq’s protesters, journalists, and security agencies knew Husham well, as did nearly all the governments of the international Coalition.If Husham can be killed, then anyone can be killed in today’s Iraq. A weak response may convince militias that they are safe to go even further. Everyone, from every angle, must lend their voice and their efforts to finding and prosecuting Husham’s killers, and those who killed protesters and journalists, before they kill more Iraqis.
*Michael Knights is a Boston-based senior fellow of The Washington Institute, specializing in the military and security affairs of Iraq, Iran, and the Persian Gulf states.