Libya

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
July 16/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spiri
Saint John 03/05-08:”Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on July 15-16/2019
King Salman to ex-PMs: Harm to Lebanon Sunnis is Harm to Kingdom
Cabinet May Convene Next Week without Tackling Qabrshmoun Incident
Bassil Slams 'Populists', Says Some Issues Can be Postponed to 2020 Budget
Jumblat Meets Berri, Says 'Open to Solutions'
Arslan Vows to Confront 'State within State' in Chouf, Aley
Hariri Says Robustly Seeking to Launch Maritime Border Negotiations
Hariri receives Egyptian and Cypriot ambassadors and head of ICRC delegation
Mikati from Jeddah: Saudi Arabia shall extend a helping hand to Lebanon
Chidiac from London underlines Lebanon's conviction in media freedom
Bassil after ‘Strong Lebanon’ bloc’s extraordinary meeting: We will vote in favor of budget
Jumblatt after meeting with Berri says open to any suggestion that can lead to solution to Bassatin incident
Italian Embassy: Participation of 3 young Lebanese in the Giffoni Film Festival
Ban On Selling, Renting Property To Muslims In Lebanese Town Sparks Sectarian Conflict In Country

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 15-16/2019
EU calls Iran’s nuclear pact breaches “insignificant.” /DEBKAfile: US & Iran testing ground for talks
Iran Threatens to ‘Return Nuclear Situation to 4 Years Ago’
Iran Says May 'Reverse' Nuclear Program to Pre-Deal Status
EU Seeks to Deescalate Gulf Tensions
Arab League Urges Joint Arab Action to Renew UNRWA's Mandate
Qatar Puts Obstacles to Citizens by Politicizing Hajj Season
Sudan Military Council Appeals Court Ruling to Restore Internet
Arab League Urges Joint Arab Action to Renew UNRWA's Mandate
Canadian Statement on U.S. announcement regarding Section 232 uranium investigation
Islamists in Canada Poised to Grab Anti-Racism Jackpot
May Says Trump's Congresswomen Tweets 'Completely Unacceptable'

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 15-16/2019
Ban On Selling, Renting Property To Muslims In Lebanese Town Sparks Sectarian Conflict In Country/B. Shanee/MEMRI/July 15/2019
EU calls Iran’s nuclear pact breaches “insignificant.” /DEBKAfile: US & Iran testing ground for talks/DEBKAfile/July 15/2019
Islamists in Canada Poised to Grab Anti-Racism Jackpot/The Clarion Project/July 15/2019
Eastern Europe’s ‘Subconscious Fear’ of Islam: The Siege of Vienna/Raymond Ibrahim/July 15/2019
The Hamas March to Destroy Israel/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/July 15/2019
Turkey: No Rights for the Country's Indigenous People/Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/July 15/2019
The Hamas March to Destroy Israel/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/July 15/2019
Calls To Expel The U.S. Ambassador To Iraq Following The Release Of A Recording Of A Telephone Conversation Allegedly Between A Senior Official In The Iraqi Army And A CIA Agent/MEMRI/July 15/2019
Will New Party Deepen Erdogan’s Isolation/Salman Al-dossary/Asharq Al Awsat/July 15/2019
‘I Am Searching for Assad’s Real Friend’/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/July 15/2019
Will Horizontal Escalation Work?/Hal Brands/Bloomberg View/July 15/2019

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on July 15-16/2019
King Salman to ex-PMs: Harm to Lebanon Sunnis is Harm to Kingdom
Naharnet/July 15/2019
Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz on Monday held talks in Jeddah with Lebanon’s ex-PMs Tammam Salam, Fouad Saniora and Najib Miqati. During the meeting, the monarch stressed “the importance of preserving Lebanon within its Arab neighborhood,” noting that “any harm against the Sunni community in Lebanon is harm against us in the kingdom.” “The kingdom’s stance is clear and it wants security, stability and prosperity for Lebanon,” the king added. Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid al-Bukhari said the visit "carries the features of a promising future for strengthening the bilateral relations between the two countries." A statement issued by the ex-PMs said King Salman "emphasized the importance of restoring respect for the Lebanese state and enabling it to extend its full authority with its legitimate forces over all its facilities and territories."The monarch also expressed his desire to visit Lebanon, according to the statement, describing it as "the best forum in the Arab world."LBCI television meanwhile said the meeting was “very positive and excellent.”The former premiers had met with Prime Minister Saad Hariri overnight. LBCI said the visit is “coordinated“ with Hariri, who will “hold consultations with the ex-PMs upon their return.”“The three ex-PMs will discuss Lebanon’s latest situations, especially the issue of the premier’s powers, and they will answer the Saudi leadership’s questions about Lebanon,” LBCI quoted sources as saying.
“The visit comes at the request of the ex-PMs,” the sources said.

Cabinet May Convene Next Week without Tackling Qabrshmoun Incident
Naharnet/July 15/2019
Communication did not stop last week between the country’s top officials regarding the political crisis that has been sparked by the deadly Qabrshmoun incident, media reports said. “Proposals have been discussed as to separating between the Qabrshmoun incident and the government’s work,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday. “Among the proposals is the possibility of convening the cabinet without tackling this issue, seeing as the president and the premier can prevent anyone from talking about this issue,” the newspaper said. Ministerial sources close to Baabda meanwhile told the daily that “there will be no cabinet session this week.”“All eyes are on Nejmeh Square to follow up on the budget session which will likely endorse the solution that was adopted last year as to overlooking the issue of final accounts,” the sources added.

Bassil Slams 'Populists', Says Some Issues Can be Postponed to 2020 Budget
Naharnet/July 15/2019
Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil on Monday said the FPM will vote in favor of the 2019 state budget and that “it is not populist like other parties who approved it in Cabinet and decided to vote against it in parliament.”“We have started the reforms in the 2019 budget, but it is not the reformist budget that we were aspiring for,” Bassil said after the weekly meeting of the Strong Lebanon bloc. “We must adopt the 2020 budget within the constitutional timeframe and we must finalize the economic plan before the end of the year,” he added. In response to a question, the FPM chief said his movement has been calling for the presentation of final accounts for the years between 1993 and 2017 and that Minister Salim Jreissati has proposed a text to avoid any violation. “We will vote in favor of the budget… The budget must be approved with its good articles while the rest of the issues can be left for the 2020 budget,” Bassil added. As for the work of the government, the FPM chief said Prime Minister Saad Hariri “wants a political solution for the Aley incident.”“We’re waiting for him to call for a cabinet session,” he added.

Jumblat Meets Berri, Says 'Open to Solutions'
Naharnet/July 15/2019
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat announced Monday that he is open to solutions regarding the crisis created by the deadly Qabrshmoun incident. Asked whether the solution entails his acceptance of referring the case to the Judicial Council, Jumblat said no one should “jump to conclusions” before the end of the probe, stressing that the investigation must involve the two parties. “I’m open to any solution that might lead to a result, in consultation with Speaker (Nabih) Berri and Prime Minister (Saad) Hariri, which would later be crowned by President (Michel) Aoun,” said Jumblat after meeting Berri in Ain el-Tineh. Jumblat also noted that he condemned insulting Facebook remarks against Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah earlier in the day because “words can sometimes ruin the country.” Jumblat’s Druze rival MP Talal Arslan has insisted that the Qabrshmoun incident should be referred to the Judicial Council, a top Lebanese court that looks into crimes against national security. He has argued that the incident was an “ambush” and an “assassination attempt” against State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib. The Progressive Socialist Party has meanwhile accused the minister’s bodyguards of forcing their way and opening fire on protesters.Two of Gharib’s bodyguards were killed in the incident as he escaped unharmed. A third bodyguard and a PSP supporter were also wounded in the clash.

Arslan Vows to Confront 'State within State' in Chouf, Aley
Naharnet/July 15/2019
Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan on Monday accused the Progressive Socialist Party of “building a state within the state” in the Chouf and Aley regions. “The right of our martyrs will be taken, the era of hegemony over arenas and regions is long gone, people have freed themselves of malice and deprivation, and domination has ended,” a defiant Arslan tweeted, referring to the victims of the deadly Qabrshmoun incident. “The attempt to build a state within a state will be confronted and a dignified, free and safe life for every human in Mount Lebanon will be imposed,” Arslan added. “The state must fully shoulder its security and judicial responsibilities, or else the coming will be more dangerous,” he warned. Arslan, however, thanked President Michel Aoun and General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim for their mediation role and Speaker Nabih Berri for his “keenness.”He added: “Our hand is extended and we’re open to any initiative based on the foundations that we have mentioned.” Arslan has insisted that the Qabrshmoun incident should be referred to the Judicial Council, a top Lebanese court that looks into crimes against national security. He has argued that the Qabrshmoun incident was an “ambush” and an “assassination attempt” against State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib. The Progressive Socialist Party has meanwhile accused the minister’s bodyguards of forcing their way and opening fire on protesters.

Hariri Says Robustly Seeking to Launch Maritime Border Negotiations
Naharnet/July 15/2019
Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday announced that he is “exerting strenuous efforts to launch negotiations” on the demarcation of the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel. “We will eventually have to take decisions over this issue in Cabinet and boosting the capabilities of the Lebanese naval forces will play a central role in protecting our national oil and gas resources,” Hariri said, during a visit to UNIFIL’s maritime headquarters at Beirut’s port, where he was welcomed aboard Brazilian frigate UNIAO by UNIFIL chief Maj. Gen. Stefano Del Col. He added: “This cannot be done without support from the international community. It is time to fully implement all relevant provisions of UNSC resolution 1701. We must all work together to ensure that UNIFIL is able to carry its job at its utmost capacity while working to strengthen our LAF and navy so that it can slowly assume these responsibilities.”“My presence here today on this Maritime Task Force Ship is to reaffirm my commitment and my government’s commitment to UNSCR 1701 and 2433. This resolution (2433) calls on Lebanon to develop a plan to increase the Lebanese naval capabilities. I am fully dedicated to further developing the capacities of the Lebanese Navy,” Hariri said. “In fact, I am proud and happy to tell you that last week I was briefed on the final stages of this plan. I will do my utmost best to have it endorsed by the Council of Ministers before the 31st of August, the date of the renewal of the UNIFIL mandate,” he promised. Hariri explained that this plan falls within his priority to strengthen state security institutions and to “maintain state authority over the Lebanese territorial waters, in order to counter terrorist activities, illegal immigration, human trafficking and the smuggling of goods and illicit material.”U.S. efforts to bring Lebanon and Israel to the negotiations table over the maritime border have reportedly suffered a setback in recent weeks. Last year, Lebanon signed its first contract to drill for oil and gas in its waters, including for a block disputed by Israel. A consortium composed of energy giants Total, Eni and Novatek was awarded two of Lebanon's 10 exploration blocks last year. It is set to start drilling in block 4 in December, and later in the disputed block 9. Last year, Total said it was aware of the border dispute in less than eight percent of block 9 and said it would drill away from that area. In April, Lebanon invited international consortia to bid for five more blocks, which include two also adjacent to Israel's waters. Israel also produces natural gas from reserves off its coast in the Mediterranean. Israel and Lebanon are still technically at war, although the last Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 after two decades of occupation.

Hariri receives Egyptian and Cypriot ambassadors and head of ICRC delegation
NNA - Mon 15 Jul 2019
The President of the Council of Ministers Saad Hariri received today at the Grand Serail the Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation to Lebanon, Christopher Martin, in the presence of former Minister Ghattas Khoury. After the meeting, Martin said: “This is the fourth time I meet with Prime Minister Hariri since I came here two years ago. We talked about two issues; the current situation, considering the plight of the Syrian refugees, which is a big burden not only on the host communities but also on all the structures of Lebanon. We spoke of that with the Prime Minister. We also spoke about an issue that is of prime importance to the ICRC, which is the file of missing persons, where we are in constant conversation with the Prime Minister to see how much support we can get from his office, which is the case. As we know, the law passed last year and now we are in the phase of creating this commission on missing persons, so we hope that we will be continuously supported by the Prime Minister on this file.”
Cypriot ambassador
Hariri also met with the Cypriot Ambassador to Lebanon Christina Rafti on a farewell visit.
Naggari
He also received the Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Nazih Naggari who said after the meeting: “We discussed the political situation on the Lebanese arena. We meet with the Prime Minister at every important phase in order to coordinate with him and understand his assessment of the situation. The Lebanese file is very important for Egypt, and the Prime Minister is a key reference for us in these circumstances.”He added: “We also expressed our full support to the Lebanese government, which needs to carry out a great effort in the next phase, especially on the economic level. We hope that the government will be able to exert this effort to preserve Lebanon's economy and stability.”
Democratic Gathering
Earlier, Hariri received a delegation from the Democratic Gathering that included Ministers Akram Chehayeb and Wael Abou Faour, MPs Bilal Abdullah, Hadi Abulhosn, Faysal Sayegh and Henri Helou, the Secretary General of the Progressive Socialist Party Zafer Nasser and the advisor of the Head of the Democratic Gathering Hussam Harb. After the meeting, Abulhosn said: “Our visit today comes in the framework of the historical relationship between the national leader Walid Jumblatt and Prime Minister Hariri. We wanted to emphasize the distinguished role played by Prime Minister Hariri to address the economic and financial situation and save the country. Today’s visit continues the discussion on the budget and emphasizes the importance of a balanced budget that protects the popular classes and ensures the control of the budget deficit.”He added: “We expressed our observations to Prime Minister Hariri and discussions will continue in the 2020 budget. We will attend the parliamentary session tomorrow and we will take a responsible stance keen on a budget that controls the deficit and takes into consideration the aspirations of the government and parliament to cause the least possible damage to the citizens and control the budget deficit. Prime Minister Hariri's position was understanding as usual, and the relationship will continue to be positive. Every discussion will take place directly with the Prime Minister and within the government through the ministers of the Democratic Gathering.”
Asked if discussions tackled the mountain incident, he said: “We agree with Prime Minister Hariri and the basic rule as the party leader said is that we are committed to the law and the state and everyone should. We handed over all our wanted men and the others must hand over all theirs. We must let the security and judiciary services investigate and then the issue would be brought to the council of ministers. We have full confidence in the security and judicial apparatus.”
Rifi
Hariri also received former Minister Ashraf Rifi who said after the meeting: “I was pleased to meet with Prime Minister Hariri and we discussed the political situation in the country and issues related to the north and Tripoli in particular. On the political issue, we stressed the need for the return of Lebanon to its Arab environment and its Arab identity. We will not be an area of influence for Iran or any other entity and we told Prime Minister Hariri that we agree with him in this role and this orientation”. He added: “We discussed with Premier Hariri the issue of electricity and garbage in Tripoli and he confirmed that he is following up closely the issue of lighting Tripoli and the other areas according to the plan. We told him that we fear promises because we received promises in 2015, 2016 and 2017 but they were not implemented and we hope they will be implemented this time”. He also discussed with the Prime Minister the garbage problem in Tripoli, “where there is a mountain of garbage that is 43.5 meters high and we do not know when it will explode”. Hariri also chaired a meeting for the ministerial committee in charge of the garbage file. The meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Ghassan Hasbani, Ministers Ali Hassan Khalil, Fadi Jreissati, May Chidiac, Youssef Fenianos and Camille Abou Sleiman and the President of the Council of Development and Reconstruction Nabil al-Jisr. After the meeting, Jreissati said that the committee will hold another meeting on Friday to decide about sites, pointing out that the Ministry of Finance will prepare a study on the cost of financing waste treatment in Lebanon.

Mikati from Jeddah: Saudi Arabia shall extend a helping hand to Lebanon
NNA -Mon 15 Jul 2019
Former Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, currently in Saudi Arabia, relayed Saudi Monarch's keenness on preserving Lebanon. "Our concern is to rescue the country in light of the difficulties we are passing through," stressing the paramount importance of cementing national unity. Mikati was speaking during a press conference in Jeddah, where he spoke about the outcome of his meeting with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, along with former Prime Ministers Tammam Salam and Fouad Siniora, and their meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister DR. Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al Assaf. "Saudi Arabia shall extend a helping hand to Lebanon... Our visit today and our meeting with the Saudi Monarch have confirmed that the kingdom is concerned about Lebanon in all its components," Mikati maintained.

Chidiac from London underlines Lebanon's conviction in media freedom
NNA - Mon 15 Jul 2019
Minister of State for Administrative Affairs, Dr. May Chidiac, paid a few-day visit to the British capital, London, where she partook in the "Defend Media Freedom" Global Conference and met with senior British officials and dignitaries. Opening up her meetings in London, Minister Chidiac met with the Executive Director of Communications in the UK government, Alex Aiken, discussions reportedly centering on the need to increase the dimension of communication between citizens and public administrations, in addition to the priority of administrative reform as an essential step for the advancement of the Lebanese state.
Aiken, for his part, expressed his country's readiness to support the development of the Lebanese public administration. Chidiac later visited 'Government Digital Services' Center (GDS), where she signed on behalf of the State Ministry for Administrative Development a MOU with GDS to assist Lebanon in his journey towards digital transformation and automation of its public administrations. Chidiac pointed out that Lebanon will benefit from the UK expertise to develop public administration and improve citizen-centric services. The Minister also partook in a panel at the "Defend Media Freedom" Global Conference, on the issue of the safety of women journalists and defending them. Delivering a word in the name of Lebanon, Chidiac highlighted Lebanon's belief in media freedom and advocacy of the principles of free press. At the sidelines of the Conference, Chidiac met at the ministerial dinner banquet with the renowned Amal Alameddine Clooney. She also signed a pledge on behalf of Lebanon to respect and safeguard media liberties as per the recommendations adopted by the Global Conference on Media Freedom. On the other hand, Chidiac met with the Minister of State for the Middle East at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Andrew Murisson, in the presence of Lebanon's Ambassador to the UK Rami Mourtada. Talks reportedly touched on the current situation in the region and means of UK support to Lebanon in the various domains.

Bassil after ‘Strong Lebanon’ bloc’s extraordinary meeting: We will vote in favor of budget
NNA -Mon 15 Jul 2019
Head of the "Free Patriotic Movement", Foreign Minister, Gebran Bassil, on Monday said in the wake of the “Strong Lebanon” Parliamentary bloc meeting that Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, preferred finding a political solution to the incident shook Qabershmoun region before holding a cabinet session. "We have not disrupted the last cabinet session, and we have no intention of disrupting future government meetings,” Bassil affirmed. He explained that today’s meeting had been dedicated to conducting a comprehensive review on the state budget to determine the bloc’s position. “Today we reviewed the budget and our position is clear; despite our dissatisfaction concerning some budget items, we will vote in its favor. We must get over and done with this budget, despite its negative and positive aspects, and move on to discuss the 2020 budget,” Bassil said, expressing full awareness that the 2019 state budget was not the lengthily sought solution to the country’s ailing economic situation. The Minister added that the 2020 state budget discussions began in September, 2019, and must be completed within the constitutional deadlines. “The 2020 budget would suffer the same problems with regard to the size of the public debt and electricity deficit,” Bassil explained, hoping, however, not to miss the opportunity of reform within the 2020 budget.

Jumblatt after meeting with Berri says open to any suggestion that can lead to solution to Bassatin incident
NNA - Mon 15 Jul 2019
Progressive Socialist Party leader, former MP Walid Jumblatt, on Monday said after his meeting with House Speaker, Nabih Berri, that he was open to any suggestion that could lead to a solution to the Bassatin incident. He pointed out that an investigation must be done with both sides of the conflict. "There is a political dispute in the country, but this disagreement does not have to lead to this sort of tension,” Jumblatt said. “I’m fully open to holding a broad meeting with President Aoun in order to settle the dispute because everyone has his own opinion and vision,” Jumblatt concluded, hoping that political rhetoric remains within respectable limits.

Italian Embassy: Participation of 3 young Lebanese in the Giffoni Film Festival
NNA - Mon 15 Jul 2019
The Giffoni Film Festival is an international high-value event dedicated to the youth, taking place every summer, for ten days, in the village of Giffoni Valle Piana (Salerno), a few kilometers away from the Amalfi Coast. The Festival was launched in 1971 by its founder and current Director, Claudio Gubitosi, who had the vision of a film festival in which young people were the jurors, voting for the best movie and awarding it with the “Grifoned’Oro”, the official prize. Along with the viewing of movies, Giffoni has always been a great opportunity for young people to discuss films with writers, actors and producers and debate the issues that concern them all. The event evolves every year almost 5.000 young people from 47 countries, hosted with local families dwelling in the Salerno area, are divided in different jurors’ age categories (up to 18 years old). During the event the village of Giffoni Valle Piana takes a magic atmosphere. The festival represents a unique opportunity for the young jurors to share opinions and views, to meet new friends and to participate in enriching debates. In Giffoni they live an unforgettable experience.
The theme of the 2019 edition of the Festival is “Air”, as part of a three-years project which aims at raising awareness on the protection of the environment. In 2018 the theme was “Water”, while next year it will be “Earth”. The first international celebrity to have announced his participation is Evan Peters, with many others to follow in the upcoming days.
“The Giffoni Film Festival is a unique social and cultural experience for teenagers to live. They are the engine of an international event that goes around them. Cinema is the subject of the Festival, but the real goal is to make young people from all over the world to be protagonists at center of an international event in a wonderful landscapes”, the Ambassador of Italy, Massimo Marotti declared. MARCH Lebanon is a local non-profit, non-governmental organization that seeks to promote social cohesion and personal freedoms. Its journey began back in 2011 fighting against censorship and advocating for equal rights for all Lebanese communities. In 2015, MARCH expanded its scope of work and embarked on a new adventure. It all started in Tripoli, in one of the country’s most marginalized areas. Peace building and conflict resolution became a pillar of MARCH’s work and gave birth to unique initiatives to help reconcile the youth of Beb El Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen, two feuding neighborhoods ravaged by sectarian conflicts. MARCH has developed a distinctive holistic and rehabilitative approach. The organization believes that arts and culture are powerful catalysts that can foster tolerance, reconciliation and long-term sustainable peace building. It utilizes a diverse set of tools to encourage both constructive dialogue and personal development. The Italian Embassy thanks “March” for accepting to assist three Lebanese boys and girls in their trip to Italy and A.N.Boukatherfor supporting the participation of the Lebanese delegation to the 2019 Giffoni Film Festival. Established in 1927, A.N.Boukather is the exclusive distributor in Lebanon of the prestigious Italian brands Piaggio, Vespa, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi. “It is a great pleasure and honor to partner with the Italian Embassy in Lebanon and March, with whom we share similar values of empowering young Lebanese talents, opening their horizons and brightening their future and the one of beautiful country Lebanon” stated A.N.B. Chairman Nicolas Boukather.

Ban On Selling, Renting Property To Muslims In Lebanese Town Sparks Sectarian Conflict In Country
B. Shanee/MEMRI/July 15/2019
In a June 18, 2019 Facebook post, Lebanese Muslim social and political activist Muhammad 'Awwad revealed that the municipality of Al-Hadath, a Lebanese town in Beirut's southeastern suburbs, bans the sale and rental of homes to Muslims. Al-Hadath was originally a Christian town and its municipality is still dominated by Christians, although today the majority of its residents are Muslim. 'Awwad wrote that he tried to rent an apartment in the town, but the landlady told him that the local authority prohibited renting to Muslims, a claim that he later verified with the municipal authority itself.[1] Subsequently, a recording of a conversation between 'Awwad's wife, Sara Ra'ed, and an employee at the municipality, who informed her that this ban has been in effect for many years, also went viral on social media.[2]
Given the sensitive sectarian fabric of Lebanese society, the affair sparked an uproar on social media and responses from local leaders, as well as from Lebanese MPs and other senior officials. Many Muslims on social media attacked the ban as racist and illegal. Lebanese Interior Minister Raya Al-Hassan stated that it contravened the Lebanese constitution, which sweepingly prohibits limiting property deals on a sectarian basis.
Al-Hadath mayor George 'Aoun, a Christian, hastened to rebuff the criticism and justify the town's policies, explaining that the ban has been in effect for many years and is intended to preserve the sectarian character of the town, which was originally Christian. He also claimed that Lebanese President Michael 'Aoun and leaders of the Shi'ite movements in the country support this decision. As a matter of fact, there reportedly exists an unwritten agreement between the Al-Hadath leadership and the Shi'ite Hizbullah intended to preserve the sectarian identity of communities in Beirut's southern suburbs. The Lebanese media also claimed that sectarian restrictions on residency exist in other places in Lebanon as well.
Poster on Al-Hadath street: "In order for Al-Hadath to remain the town of its inhabitants – don't sell your home, don't sell your land..." (Source: Saidagate.com, June 19, 2019)
The media buzz created by the affair prompted Al-Hadath's Christian residents to stage a demonstration in support of the mayor and his policy.[3] A few days after the demonstration, the flag of the Shi'ite Amal movement was hung over the municipality building in an act of counter-protest.[4] However, Amal leader and Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri condemned the act and clarified that he had ordered to investigate it. Berri expressed understanding for the sentiments of the town's Christian residents and their desire to preserve their way of life and the existing social fabric.[5]
A survey of the responses to the incident reveals that they largely follow sectarian lines, with the supporters of the ban mostly Christian and its opponents mostly Muslim and Druze. .
This report presents translated excerpts from some of the responses by Lebanese officials and in the Lebanese press.
Supporters Of The Ban: This Is An Old Arrangement Made With Hizbullah, Crucial For Preserving Coexistence
In a June 21, 2019 interview with the Lebanese website elnashra.com, Al-Hadath Mayor George 'Aoun explained that the ban had been instated by the municipality already in 2010, when it became known that, since 1990, 60% of the town's homes had been purchased by Shi'ites. He claimed that the ban was intended to preserve the town's demographic diversity, and was widely supported by the town residents, as well as by Lebanese officials, including President Michel 'Aoun and the leaders of the country's Shi'ite movements, Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri and Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.[6] Noting that President 'Aoun, as well as Foreign Minister and Free Patriotic Movement head Gebran Bassil, had contacted him personally to express their support,[7] he added that the decision conformed to the constitution and was aimed at preserving coexistence in the town. He warned that if the ban was canceled he would resign.[8]
Al-Hadath resident Hikmat Dib, a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, also justified the policy and described the background to the decision and the understandings reached between the municipality and Hizbullah. Dib said that, since the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s, Christians had been leaving the town, sometimes due to persuasion or intimidation, hinting at Shi'ites who moved into the town and bought homes there. "This situation," he explained, "compelled us to sign [an agreement of] political understandings with Hizbullah." The agreement was signed in 2006 under the personal sponsorship of President 'Aoun and Hizbullah Secretary-General Nasrallah, and was aimed at stopping the emigration of Christians from the town, he said.[9] Dib claimed that Nasrallah even asked Shi'ite investors and entrepreneurs to ignore the Al-Hadath region in order to preserve coexistence.[10]
Ghassan Hajjar, editorial director of the Christian-owned Lebanese daily Al-Nahar, wrote in a column that the ban was a realistic and "nationally courageous" step, because the town's original Christian population had dwindled, and noted that in Hizbullah-dominated areas similar bans were in effect. He added: "Everyone has expressed his opinion [on this affair], whether they understand it or not: secularists and fundamentalists, [as well as] people who live far from Al-Hadath and from all the regions where there is coexistence, and particularly residents of homogenous villages. Some were against and some were in favor, but most did not base their positions on any substantive arguments. The gap between the [Lebanese] constitution and laws [on the one hand] and the realities of life [on the other] is immense…"
Hajjar wrote further: "It is true that [banning] the sale of land and homes to Muslims in a Christian area contravenes the constitution, but this is the reality in several regions, even if [people] don't know this. In areas close to Hizbullah's strongholds, the identity of buyers is investigated, and if some doubt arises, the property owner is prevented from selling on some security pretext – yet none of the parties makes this public. Statistics indicate that, between the end of the Civil War in 1991 and 2000, about 50% of the properties in Al-Hadath were sold, meaning that the town was beginning to change. Its inhabitants began selling their [properties] on the border of the southern Dahiya [a south Beirut suburb considered a Hizbullah stronghold], in droves. At some point, anyone who had held on to his land began to feel like a foreigner [there] and the emigration [of the Christians] became a fact on the ground. [They left] not because the neighbors were Shi'ite Muslims, but because the way of life had changed and [Shi'ite] tribes had taken over the [public] space, [and] there was a decline in security and in certain liberties... As result, the Christians began retreating and building their homes to the interior neighborhoods, farther from the [zones] of direct friction with the powerful [Muslim] tribes and parties [i.e., Amal and Hizbullah], and the town's [Christian population] began to diminish.
"This is why Al-Hadath Mayor George 'Aoun decided to take a bold measure by prohibiting the sale [of property] to non-Christians, in order to protect what was left of the land and of the [Christian] population. 'Aoun's decision preserves Al-Hadath and its people and allows them to [conserve] their status while conducting dialogue with others, living alongside them and working with them without fearing for their fate and their future… The municipality's decision may be abhorrent from a sectarian point of view, but it is bold from a national one..."[11]
Opponents Of The Ban: It Is Racist And Subverts The Constitution And Coexistence In Lebanon
Not surprisingly, opposition to the ban was expressed mostly by Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, and Druze. Lebanese Minister of Interior and Municipal Affairs Raya Al-Hassan, a Sunni, declared that if this practice indeed exists, it is illegal that she will act to stop it. She noted that she had instructed Muhammad Makkawi, head of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, where the town is located, to investigate the matter and conduct a hearing for the mayor, and added: "The sectarian narrative stands in flagrant contradiction to coexistence, and we cannot adopt such measures under the pretext of [preventing] demographic change… If we have respect for [the country's ] institutions, this cannot be allowed, for it is unacceptable.[12]
Druze MP Faysal Al-Sayegh, of the Democratic Gathering faction headed by Walid Jumblatt, wrote on his Facebook and Twitter accounts: "It is disgraceful and revolting that the mayor of Al-Hadath publicly declares his refusal to [allow] the renting of a home to a Muslim family in his Christian town. His call for Muslim municipalities [to do the same by] not renting to Christians, in order to preserve what he calls coexistence, is despicable and repulsive. To what [kind of] backward Lebanon are these people taking us? Where is [the principle of] citizenship? Where is the Taif Agreement[13] and where are the constitution and the law…?[14]
Shi'ite journalist Dima Sadek warned that the Lebanese public would not remain silent over this racism, tweeting: "You [proponents of the ban] tell us this is not racism, and that you are pro-Lebanon. Fine, so what about the Muslims? Are they not Lebanese? You have sown terrifying thoughts in the minds and souls of our young people. The racism and sectarianism that you are nurturing is a horrifying threat, and we will not remain silent about it. We will not remain silent!"[15]
Journalist Fadi Shamiya, who writes in the anti-Hizbullah Shi'ite Lebanese website Janoubia, also noted that the Al-Hadath ban contravenes the Lebanese constitution and paves the way to the division of Lebanon along racial and sectarian lines, in a manner that recalls the civil war. He wrote: "Instead of being summoned to the Interior Ministry to give account for violating the Municipalities Law, George 'Aoun defies the constitution and the [Interior] Ministry, with the support of the [Free Patriotic] Movement [headed by President] 'Aoun. [He does this] on the pretext that there is an agreement with Hizbullah that is not anchored in law… stipulating that Muslims may not buy or rent [property] in the 'Al-Hadath Republic,' which also encompasses the towns of Sabiniya and Wadi Al-Baten. The surprising fact is that a look at the records reveals that there are Muslims, [both] Sunni and Shi'ite, in Al-Hadath (in its south and north) and also in Al-Baten, and that there are Sunnis, Shi'ites and Druze in Sabiniya. Are these [people] also prohibited from owning or renting [homes] or working in that region, which is prohibited to Muslims? What would happen if towns with a different sectarian makeup behaved the same way?
"The danger of his matter lies not only in the fact that it contravenes the constitution and laws of Lebanon, but also in that it allows the sectarian [consideration] to take precedence over the most supreme of laws. This also opens the door for other towns to declare that they are following a similar path, and [then] the homeland will be fractured. Is the Orange Movement [i.e. the Free Patriotic Movement, founded by Michel 'Aoun] aware that it is leading the homeland into a furnace of sectarianism that goes beyond the [existing] racism, and reviving the ghosts of the civil war?! [16]
* B. Shanee is a research fellow at MEMRI.
[1] Facebook.com/mhammad.awwad, June 18, 2019.
[2] Twitter.com/DimaSadek, June 19, 2019
[3] Facebook.com/Hadat-Municipality, June 21, 2019.
[4] Elnashra.com, June 24, 2019.
[5] Akhbaralyawm.com, June 27, 2019.
[6] Elnashra.com, June 19, 21, 2019.
[7] Almouhallel.com, June 21, 2019.
[8] Elnashra.com, June 20, 2019.
[9] Beirut-news.com, June 21, 2019.
[10] Facebook.com/mphikmatdib, June 21, 2019.
[11] Al-Nahar (Lebanon), June 25, 2019.
[12] Al-Hayat (Dubai), June 21, 2019.
[13] The 1989 Taif Agreement ended the Lebanese civil war and distributed political, civil, and military authority in the country along sectarian lines.
[14] Facebook.com/faysalsayeghofficalpage, twitter.com/mpfaysalsayegh, June 20, 2019.
[15] Twitter.com/DimaSadek, June 19, 2019.
[16] Janoubia.com, June 24, 2019.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 15-16/2019
EU calls Iran’s nuclear pact breaches “insignificant.” /DEBKAfile: US & Iran testing ground for talks
DEBKAfile/July 15/2019
The EU foreign ministers’ refusal on Monday, July 15, to find Tehran in significant breach of the nuclear pact put US plans for more sanctions on hold. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said after their meeting that since the remaining parties to the Iran nuclear deal do not see Tehran’s breaches as significant, they have decided for now not to trigger the pact’s dispute mechanism, preferring more diplomacy to ease the crisis. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu retorted in a short video clip: “The European Union’s response to Iranian violations reminds me of European appeasement in the 30s. Then too they preferred to bury their heads in the sand; they will only wake up when Iran’s nuclear missiles fall on European soil. But then it will be too late.” Netanyahu went on to say: “We at all events will continue to do what needs to be done to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
Netanyahu’s message was addressed more to his domestic audience than Brussels. He too is aware that President Trump in Washington and Hassan Rouhani in Tehran are secretly feeling their way towards conditions for resuming US-Iranian nuclear talks. The Europeans are therefore keeping a light hand on the pressure button. This week, Rouhani said his government would come to the table “anywhere, at any time,” provided the US lifted economic sanctions and annulled its walkout from the nuclear pact. The Trump administration will not of course meet either condition, but, at some level, Washington and Tehran are, with ups and downs, bandying conditions for talks to begin – mainly through Swiss, Iraqi and Omani go-betweens. Our sources also note that Tehran, for its part, is taking steps to de-escalate the tension with Washington: attacks on Gulf oil targets have been paused as have pro-Iranian Shiite strikes against US diplomatic and military targets mainly in Iraq. A resurgence of Iranian aggression would therefore signify the breakdown of the ongoing tentative diplomacy for launching US-Iran negotiations.

Iran Threatens to ‘Return Nuclear Situation to 4 Years Ago’
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 July, 2019
Iran threatened on Monday to further reduce its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal and return the situation to before the accord with world powers was signed if Europeans do not meet their obligations towards Tehran. “These actions are not taken out of stubbornness but to give diplomacy a chance so the other side comes on its own and fulfills its duties,” said Iran’s nuclear agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi. “And if the Europeans and America don’t want to fulfill their commitments we will create a balance in this deal by reducing commitments and return the situation to four years ago.”
Iran has been pressuring Europe to save the nuclear pact after the US withdrew from it last year and reimposed punishing sanctions on Tehran. In the deal, Iran agreed to curtail its atomic program — seen by the West as a cover for making atomic bombs — in return for relief from economic sanctions crippling its economy. In reaction to the reimposition of US sanctions, which have notably targeted Iran’s main oil revenue stream, Tehran has reduced some of its nuclear commitments under the deal, leading the European parties to the pact, France, Britain and Germany, to warn it about not fully complying with the terms.
Britain said on Monday there was a “small window” of time to save the deal.
“Iran is still a good year away from developing a nuclear bomb. There is still some closing, but small window to keep the deal alive,” Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told reporters on arrival for a foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels. The Brussels meeting will seek to flesh out how to convince Iran and the United States to reduce tensions and initiate a dialogue amid fears that the deal is close to collapse. When asked whether the European powers would seek to penalize Iran for breaking parts of its nuclear commitments, Hunt said they would seek a meeting of the parties to deal with it.
“We will and there’s something called a joint commission, which is the mechanism set up in the deal which is what happens when one side thinks the other side has breached it, that will happen very soon,” he said. Iran says the European countries must do more to guarantee it the economic benefits it was meant to receive in return for curbs to its nuclear program under the deal. France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Europe had to remain united in trying to preserve the deal, and said Tehran should reverse its decision not to comply with parts of it.
France, Germany and Britain, who are party to the deal alongside Russia and China, have sought to defuse the tensions, which culminated in a plan for US airstrikes on Iran last month that Trump called off at the last minute. French President Emmanuel Macron dispatched his top diplomat to Tehran last week to offer suggestions on how to freeze the current status quo to gain some time and had said he wanted to review the diplomatic progress by July 15. The Europeans are still trying to set up their Instex mechanism, a conduit for barter-based trade with Iran, but an equivalent Iranian mechanism has yet to be established. Should the mechanism go ahead it would initially only deal in products such as pharmaceuticals and foods, which are not subject to US sanctions. Diplomats have that in any case they fear US blowback, while Iranian officials have repeatedly said Instex must include oil sales or provide substantial credit facilities for it to be beneficial. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday reiterated Tehran’s stance that it would be ready to negotiate if the US lifted sanctions and returned to the nuclear deal. Trump has shown no sign of backing down for now. “The deal is on the brink. The message on Monday will be to show EU unity, but make it clear to Iran that it needs to come back into line,” said a European diplomat according to Reuters.

Iran Says May 'Reverse' Nuclear Program to Pre-Deal Status
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 15/2019
Iran's atomic energy agency said Monday it could reverse its nuclear program to its status before curbs were imposed under a landmark 2015 agreement with world powers. "If the Europeans and the Americans don't want to carry out their duties... we will decrease our commitments and... reverse the conditions to four years ago," agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said, quoted by IRNA state news agency. "These actions are not out of obstinacy. It is to give diplomacy a chance so that the other side come to their senses and carry out their duties," he added. The deal promised economic benefits and sanctions relief to Iran, but U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord in May 2018 and reimposed tough punitive measures against the Islamic republic. Angered that its beleaguered economy is not receiving sanctions relief it believes it was promised under the deal, Iran has intensified sensitive uranium enrichment work. European foreign ministers were meeting in Brussels on Monday for crisis talks on the deal. On Sunday, the European parties to the deal -- Britain, France and Germany -- called for dialogue as tensions further intensified between Iran and the United States. In a statement, the so-called E3 expressed concern the deal was at risk of further unraveling but said it was up to Iran to ensure its survival. Iran has repeatedly threatened to leave the deal unless the remaining parties to the agreement bypass U.S. sanctions and deliver the promised benefits.

EU Seeks to Deescalate Gulf Tensions
Associated Press/Naharnet/July 15/2019
European Union nations were looking to deescalate tensions in the Gulf area on Monday and call on Iran to stick to the 2015 nuclear deal, despite the pullout of the United States from the accord and the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions on Tehran. Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok said that "it is still not too late, but Iran really has to stick to its obligations."Iran recently begun surpassing uranium enrichment limits set in its 2015 nuclear deal, saying these moves can be reversed if the other parties to the agreement — Germany, France, Britain, China, Russia and the European Union — come up with enough economic incentives to effectively offset the U.S. sanctions. But EU foreign ministers first and foremost want to get Iran to respect the terms of the deal again. "All these gestures are really raising doubt about intentions" of Tehran, said Linas Linkevicius, the foreign minister of Lithuania. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was essential to keep all diplomatic channels open. "The Middle East is already one of the most unstable regions in the world, but if the different parties were armed with nuclear weapons it would represent an existential threat to mankind," Hunt said. The leaders of the UK, France and Germany, signatories to the nuclear deal, called for an end to escalation of tensions in the region. At their regular monthly meeting, the EU foreign minister will also look to drum up further support for the bloc's barter-type system to trade with Tehran and get around possible U.S. sanctions. Ten nations are already on board with the idea. Iran has said it needs improved economic ties with Europe since the United States has re-imposed harsh sanctions on Tehran's oil exports, exacerbating an economic crisis that has sent its currency plummeting. Tehran said Sunday it is ready to negotiate with the United States if Washington lifts its punishing economic tensions. President Hassan Rouhani's official website quoted him as saying, "The moment you stop sanctions and bullying, we are ready to negotiate." And the day before, Britain's top diplomat said the U.K. will facilitate the release of a seized Iranian tanker if Iran can provide guarantees the vessel would not breach European sanctions on oil shipments to Syria. Hunt's remarks late Saturday could help de-escalate tensions. In apparent retaliation for the seized tanker, Iranian paramilitary vessels tried to impede the passage of a British oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz, only turning away after receiving "verbal warnings" from a British navy vessel accompanying the ship, the British government said.

Arab League Urges Joint Arab Action to Renew UNRWA's Mandate
Cairo - Sawsan Abu Husain/Monday, 15 July, 2019
The Arab League (AU) has called for unifying Arab efforts to confront the American plan to paralyze the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The League’s warning was made during the 102nd round of the Conference of Supervisors of Palestinian Affairs in Arab Host Countries, which kicked off Sunday at the League's general secretariat in Cairo. The AU tackled the fierce campaign against UNRWA, which started when the funding was halted and continues with efforts to terminate its work, as clearly stated in May by US President Donald Trump's envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt. Arab League Assistant Secretary-General for Palestine and occupied Arab lands Said Abu Ali said that this meeting comes amid critical challenges facing the Palestinian cause topped by the unprecedented Israeli aggression on Palestinian rights along with the US bias to Israel.
Abu Ali called for joining Arab efforts to confront the US plan aiming to dismantle UNRWA, stressing the importance of mobilizing political and financial resources to renew the agency's mandate, which ends in September. Ahmad Abu Houli, the Director General of the PLO's Department of Refugee Affairs, said that the session was held under serious circumstances and developments in light of serious statements made by the US administration and the occupation government on the liquidation of the refugee cause. He also highlighted the necessity of supporting and sustaining the refugees and Palestinians.
Representatives of Arab countries hosting Palestinian refugees, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the General Secretariat of the League of the Arab States, the Arab League's Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) participated in the conference.

Qatar Puts Obstacles to Citizens by Politicizing Hajj Season
Riyadh - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 July, 2019
Qatar has renewed its intransigence in trying to impede Qataris from performing the Hajj rituals this year.
Its move came after Saudi Arabia urged on Sunday concerned authorities in Qatar to facilitate procedures for Qataris wishing to perform Hajj and remove the obstacles imposed by the government to prevent them from visiting the holy sites.
But a Qatari official involved religion in Qatar's political crisis. “It is difficult to understand Saudi Arabia’s keenness to enable Qataris and residents in Qatar to perform Hajj without a Qatari embassy (in the Kingdom) or the permission for Qatar Airways to operate direct flights to Saudi Arabia,” Director of the Information Office at the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ahmed al-Romaihi tweeted. UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash, for his part, slammed what he described as “obstacles imposed by Qatar on its pilgrims.”“The Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah’s call on Qatar to facilitate the procedures of its citizens to perform Hajj is obligatory and prudent,” Gargash tweeted on Sunday. He added that hurdles imposed by Qatar on its pilgrims reflect its failures in managing the crisis, stressing that the priority lies in not “politicizing Hajj.”Qatar has been acting similarly for the past two years, leading many Qatari pilgrims to be arrested and interrogated upon their arrival to their country. Saudi Arabia has earlier issued an official statement in which it called on Qatar’s Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs to allow Qatari pilgrims to travel to the Kingdom and perform their Hajj rituals via all international airlines except Qatar Airways. It also urged Qatari authorities to keep pilgrims away from political issues. The Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced it had invited Hajj officials from Qatar and other countries to come to the Kingdom and arrange the arrival of their pilgrims.
It said it had held a meeting with them and discussed all matters related to the organization of the arrival of pilgrims and residents in Qatar to perform Hajj. The Qatari delegation, however, “left without signing the Hajj agreement,” it added, preventing Qatari Hajj companies from traveling to Saudi Arabia and finishing required procedures.

Sudan Military Council Appeals Court Ruling to Restore Internet
Khartoum – Ahmed Younes
Sudan’s ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) asked the high court in Sudan to reverse its decision to restore internet services in the country, only days after the court ruled to restore them. Last Tuesday, a Khartoum court ordered telecommunication companies to restore the internet services in the country, pending a decision on the lawsuit filed by the Sudanese Consumer Protection Society (SCPS). SCPS Secretary General Yasir Mirghani told Asharq Al-Awsat that a person named Haydar Ahmed Abdallah had, within his capacity as the president’s legal adviser, filed an appeal with the Khartoum District Court, requesting the cancellation of the decision to return the services.The TMC had ordered MTN and Zain telecommunication companies to block internet access to customers citing security concerns after demonstrators were violently dispersed on June 3 by men in military fatigues. They stormed a weeks-long protest camp outside army headquarters in Khartoum where Sudanese had camped to demand that the generals step down. Mirghani said that the SCPS legal adviser objected to the appeal, citing the presidential vacuum in the country, asking Abdallah for proof of his identity. Long-time President Omar al-Bashir was toppled by the military in April. Military council spokesman General Shamseddine Kabbashi had deemed internet services as a threat to national security in Sudan, justifying the decision to block them. The SCPS had filed a lawsuit at the Khartoum court against telecommunications companies for cutting the services without legal grounds. In the light of the complaint, the judge issued an order to bring the services back. Telecommunications companies were quick to respond within a few hours of the order.

Arab League Urges Joint Arab Action to Renew UNRWA's Mandate
Cairo - Sawsan Abu Husain
The Arab League (AU) has called for unifying Arab efforts to confront the American plan to paralyze the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The League’s warning was made during the 102nd round of the Conference of Supervisors of Palestinian Affairs in Arab Host Countries, which kicked off Sunday at the League's general secretariat in Cairo.
The AU tackled the fierce campaign against UNRWA, which started when the funding was halted and continues with efforts to terminate its work, as clearly stated in May by US President Donald Trump's envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt.
Arab League Assistant Secretary-General for Palestine and occupied Arab lands Said Abu Ali said that this meeting comes amid critical challenges facing the Palestinian cause topped by the unprecedented Israeli aggression on Palestinian rights along with the US bias to Israel.
Abu Ali called for joining Arab efforts to confront the US plan aiming to dismantle UNRWA, stressing the importance of mobilizing political and financial resources to renew the agency's mandate, which ends in September. Ahmad Abu Houli, the Director General of the PLO's Department of Refugee Affairs, said that the session was held under serious circumstances and developments in light of serious statements made by the US administration and the occupation government on the liquidation of the refugee cause.
He also highlighted the necessity of supporting and sustaining the refugees and Palestinians. Representatives of Arab countries hosting Palestinian refugees, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the General Secretariat of the League of the Arab States, the Arab League's Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) participated in the conference.

Canadian Statement on U.S. announcement regarding Section 232 uranium investigation
July 15, 2019 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement in response to the decision by the U.S. government to not impose restrictions on uranium imports:
“Canada and the United States are staunch allies in NORAD, in NATO and on the border between our two countries. Canadian uranium is not a threat to the national security of the United States.
“We welcome this decision, which follows Prime Minister Trudeau’s meeting with President Trump on June 20, 2019, when this issue was raised by Canada. This also follows months of advocacy by the Canadian government and industry.
“Canada is a stable and reliable supplier of uranium for American civilian nuclear power reactors. Our two countries need to work together to ensure we have reliable supplies of critical minerals, including uranium.
“Our government will continue to work with the uranium industry to support the sector, the workers, and their families.”
Quick facts
On July 18, 2018, the U.S. Department of Commerce initiated an investigation under Section 232 of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act (1962) into whether imports of uranium threaten to impair the United States’ national security.
On April 14, 2019, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce transmitted to the President his report on the investigation into the effect of imports of uranium on the national security of the United States under Section 232.
On July 12, 2019, the President announced in a memo that he did not concur with the Secretary’s finding that uranium imports threaten to impair the national security of the United States as defined under Section 232.

Islamists in Canada Poised to Grab Anti-Racism Jackpot
The Clarion Project/July 15/2019
The Canadian government recently unveiled a new anti-racism strategy that dedicates $45 million to fight systemic discrimination through community programs, public education campaigns and combating online hate.
While it’s good to combat racism and bigotry at every level, this particular anti-racism strategy is based on key recommendations that came from the anti-Islamophobia motion M103.
When Motion M103 was first introduced in Canada by MP Iqra Khalid, we were among the individuals and organizations that expressed concern about use of the term “Islamophobia.”
I was invited to give testimony at the capital in Ottawa about my concerns, which I expressed along with a number of members of parliament.
I explained that the term Islamophobia was created in the 1990s, when groups affiliated to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood decided to play victim for the purpose of beating down critics. It is also in sync with a constant push by the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) to turn any criticism of Islam or Muslims into racism and bigotry.
The Heritage Committee which promoted M103 recommended the government update its national action plan against racism and create a directorate to implement the plan — recommendations Ottawa has now fulfilled.
While M103 did not define Islamophobia, this plan does. Specifically, it defines Islamophobia as “Includ(ing) racism, stereotypes, prejudice, fear or acts of hostility directed towards individual Muslims or followers of Islam in general. In addition to individual acts of intolerance and racial pro?ling, Islamophobia can lead to viewing and treating Muslims as a greater security threat on an institutional, systemic and societal level.”
This definition has been taken upon recommendation from a Muslim group that say they represent all Canadian Muslims when, in actuality, they don’t.
Despite the fact that Islamophobia is one of the key components of this new anti-racism strategy, some Muslims are still not happy with the newly unveiled anti-racism document because it’s not more specific in use of the term Islamophobia.
Jasmin Zine, a professor of sociology and Muslim studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, and someone who has been front and center about the so-called racism and bigotry against Muslims in Canada, said she’s disappointed the document “barely acknowledges” Islamophobia, noting it only once references the 2017 shooting at a mosque in Quebec City that left six dead.
“The lack of political will to address or even acknowledge Islamophobia is an affront to those who were murdered in the QC massacre in an act of terror inspired by white nationalism as well as to all Canadian Muslims,” Zine wrote in an email.
Our concerns still remain:
Who will receive this funding to fight racism? There are a number of Islamist organizations which have given recommendations, written umpteen letters to support M013 and are waiting on the sidelines to get the funding.
As it should be in a secular country (which we strive for), the state should have no business getting involved in religious matters. Racism, discrimination and bigotry need to be addressed head on through dialogue, engagement and honest debate. This can only happen when there is freedom of expression.
By using the term “Islamophobia” in the document, the state is singling out one faith community, as though Islam and Muslims are exclusive and need special attention. In fact, statistics show that hate crimes against the Aboriginal peoples, Jews, Blacks and LGBTQ communities are the highest.
As for Muslims, just how badly they are really treated? There are approximately over 100 Mosques and 50 Islamic organizations just in the greater Toronto area (and growing). There are 11 Muslim MP’s in our government and Muslim prayers are taking place in some public schools. This doesn’t look like systemic racism to me! By the way, anti-racism programs like this are not just happening in Canada. Pakistan has just proposed a six-point plan at the United Nations to address faith-based hatred and Islamophobia.
The plan was proposed by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi at an event titled “Countering Terrorism and Other Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief.” The event was organized by Pakistan with Turkey, the Holy See and the UN.
Cheeky coming from two countries where minorities are routinely discriminated against and oppressed.

May Says Trump's Congresswomen Tweets 'Completely Unacceptable'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 15/2019
Outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday called U.S. President Donald Trump's tweets telling progressive Democrat congresswomen to "go back" where they came from "completely unacceptable.""Her view is that the language which was used to refer to the women was completely unacceptable," May's spokesman told reporters.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 15-16/2019
Eastern Europe’s ‘Subconscious Fear’ of Islam: The Siege of Vienna
Raymond Ibrahim/July 15/2019
“Austria acts against Muslims almost every day because of their subconscious fear of Turks,” writes Turkish historian Erhan Afyoncu. “Austrians have not forgotten the fear and their emperor’s escape in the Battle of Vienna in 1683. When Turks were defeated in the Battle of Vienna, Europeans were so happy…”
This is true. As such, a brief refresher on the Siege of Vienna—the anniversary of which is today—is in order:
The largest Islamic army ever to invade European territory—which is saying much considering that countless invasions preceded it since the eighth century—came and surrounded Vienna, then the heart of the Holy Roman Empire and longtime nemesis of Islam, on July 15, 1683.
Some 200,000 Muslim combatants, under the leadership of the Ottomans—the one state in nearly fourteen centuries of Islamic history most dedicated to and founded on the principles of jihad—invaded under the same rationale that so-called “radical” groups, such as the Islamic State, cite to justify their jihad on “infidels.” Or, to quote the leader of the Muslim expedition, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa, because Vienna was perceived as the head of the infidel snake, it needed to be laid low so that “all the Christians would obey the Ottomans.”
This was no idle boast; sources describe this Mustafa as “fanatically anti-Christian.” After capturing a Polish town in 1674 he ordered all the Christian prisoners to be skinned alive and their stuffed hides sent as trophies to Ottoman Sultan Muhammad IV.
Such supremacist hate was standard and on display during the elaborate pre-jihad ceremony presaging the siege of Vienna. Then, the sultan, “desiring him [Mustafa] to fight generously for the Mahometan faith,” to quote a contemporary European source, placed “the standard of the Prophet…into his hands for the extirpation of infidels, and the increase of Muslemen.”
Once the massive Muslim army reached and surrounded the walls of Vienna, Mustafa followed protocol. In 628, his prophet Muhammad had sent an ultimatum to Emperor Heraclius: aslam taslam, “submit [to Islam] and have peace.” Heraclius rejected the summons, jihad was declared against Christendom (as enshrined in Koran 9:29), and in a few decades, two-thirds of the then Christian world—including Spain, all of North Africa, Egypt, and Greater Syria—were conquered.
Now, over a thousand years later, the same ultimatum of submission to Islam or death had reached the heart of Europe. Although the Viennese commander did not bother to respond to the summons, graffiti inside the city—including “Muhammad, you dog, go home!”—seems to capture its mood.
So it would be war. On the next day, Mustafa unleashed all hell against the city’s walls; and for two months, the holed-up and vastly outnumbered Viennese suffered plague, dysentery, starvation, and many casualties—including women and children—in the name of jihad.
A drawing of Kara Mustafa Pasha leading the Ottomans
Then, on September 12, when the city had reached its final extremity, and the Muslims were about to burst through, Vienna’s prayers were answered. As an anonymous Englishman explained:
After a siege of sixty days, accompanied with a thousand difficulties, sicknesses, want of provisions, and great effusion of blood, after a million of cannon and musquet shot, bombs, granadoes, and all sorts of fireworks, which has changed the face of the fairest and most flourishing city in the world, disfigured and ruined [it] . . . heaven favorably heard the prayers and tears of a cast down and mournful people.
The formidable king of Poland, John Sobieski, had finally come at the head of 65,000 heavily-armored Poles, Austrians, and Germans—all hot to avenge the beleaguered city. Arguing that “It is not a city alone that we have to save, but the whole of Christianity, of which the city of Vienna is the bulwark,” Sobieski led a thunderous cavalry charge—history’s largest—against and totally routed the Muslim besiegers.
Although a spectacular victory, the aftermath was gory: before fleeing, the Muslims ritually slaughtered some 30,000 Christian captives collected during their march to Vienna—raping the women beforehand. On entering the relieved city, the liberators encountered piles of corpses, sewage, and rubble everywhere.
It is this history of Islamic aggression—beginning in the fourteenth century when Muslims first established a foothold in Eastern Europe (Thrace), and into the twentieth century when the Ottoman sultanate finally collapsed—that informs Eastern European views on Islam. As one modern Pole, echoing the words of Sobieski, said, “A religious war between Christianity and Islam is once again underway in Europe, just like in the past.”
Whereas Western nations cite lack of integration, economic disparities, and grievances to explain away the exponential growth of terrorism, violence, and sexual assaults that come with living alongside large, unassimilated Muslim populations, Eastern nations tend to see only a continuity of hostility.
Note: The above account is excerpted from Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West — a book that CAIR and its Islamist allies did everything they could to prevent the U.S. Army War College from learning about.

Turkey: No Rights for the Country's Indigenous People?
Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/July 15/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14533/turkey-indigenous-rights
The root of these violations appears to be Turkey's denial of its extermination of the indigenous Christian peoples from 1913 to 1923.
"[Denial] is the final stage that lasts throughout and always follows genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres." — Dr. Gregory H. Stanton; President, Genocide Watch; "The Ten Stages of Genocide", 2016
To this day, Turkey refuses to acknowledge its past and present crimes against the indigenous peoples whose rights it has vowed to protect. This is among many things that differentiates Turkey from civilized nations that have taken serious steps to improve the rights of their native peoples.
In May, the doors of homes of some Armenian Christians in Istanbul's Samatya district were marked with Star of David graffiti and threatening messages, among them the words: "Attention, Israel." This was a few days after a woman from Armenia in the same district was the victim of a knife attack carried out by two masked assailants shouting, "This is [only] the beginning." Pictured: The upper facade of the Armenian Church of Saint George of Samatya (right), in the Samatya district of Istanbul, Turkey. (Image source: Stilbes/Wikimedia Commons)
Ankara's hair-raising human-rights record, including an ongoing attempt to erase all vestiges of other religions and cultures in Turkey, is one reason that it has been prevented from realizing its long-standing dream of membership in the European Union. It does enjoy status, however, as a member of NATO, and remains a signatory to the 2007 "United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples," which reads in part:
"Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State. [Article 5]...
"Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions...[Article 31]"
The most widely cited working definition of indigenous peoples is that of Jose R. Martinez Cobo, the Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. In his "Study on the Problem of Discrimination against Indigenous Populations," Cobo notes:
"Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system."
Turkey, however, home to indigenous Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians (Syriacs), has never fulfilled its obligations under that UN declaration. The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in fact, continues blatantly to violate it, as recent examples illustrate:
On June 25, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in favor of Nuri Aktaş, an Assyrian citizen of Turkey, who had been denied, by the Turkish civil registrar, permission to change his surname.
The legal basis for Turkey's refusal to allow Aktaş to adopt a non-Turkish surname is the 1934 Surname Law, enacted as part of a policy to erase the identity of non-Turkish citizens.
On June 21, the Turkish media reported that the Saint Jean Theologos Greek Girls School in Izmir, which has been empty since the extermination of the city's Greek Christians in 1922, was plundered, its doors and windows removed and its valuables looted. The historic building, now owned by Turkish Undersecretariat of the Treasury, has mostly been used by homeless drug addicts.
On May 14, an 86-year-old ethnic Greek resident of the island of Imbros (Gökçeada) was found murdered in his home, with signs that he had been tortured.
Also in May, the doors of some Armenian homes in Istanbul's Samatya district were marked with Star of David graffiti and threatening messages, among them the words: "Attention, Israel." This vandalism was perpetrated less than a week after a woman from Armenia in the same district had been the victim of a knife attack carried out by two masked assailants shouting, "This is [only] the beginning." According to a priest from the Armenian Patriarchate, two months before the assault, the woman's home had been marked with hate speech and a cross. The media later reported that, due to their "fearful situation," her family decided to return to Armenia.
According to the 2019 Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom:
"In 2018, the state of religious freedom in Turkey remained deeply troubling, raising serious concerns that the country's current trajectory will lead to the further deterioration of conditions in the year ahead. The lack of any meaningful progress on the part of the Turkish government to address longstanding religious freedom issues was continued cause for concern. Many serious limitations on the freedom of religion or belief continued, threatening the continued vitality and survival of minority religious communities in the country; in addition, increased demonization and a smear campaign by government entities and progovernment media contributed to a growing climate of fear among religious minority communities. The Turkish government continued to interfere in the internal affairs of religious communities, disallowing patriarchal elections for the Armenian Apostolic Church and maintaining its requirement that Greek Orthodox metropolitans obtain Turkish citizenship in order to participate in the church's Holy Synod...
"Government officials also continued to engage in anti-Semitism in the form of public statements and comments made on social media platforms, while progovernment newspapers and media outlets propagated hate speech directed against both Christians and Jews. While the state proposed a budget increase of 36 percent for the government body charged with overseeing the exercise of Sunni Islam, other religious groups, including Alevis—whom the government views as a culture rather than a religion—do not receive equal funding... Other longstanding religious freedom concerns remain, such as the return of expropriated religious properties and state-mandated religious education for primary and secondary students. Finally, the unjust detainment and trial of Protestant pastor Andrew Brunson, an ordeal that lasted for more than two years and gave way to a rise in hate speech against Christians, concluded in October 2018 with his conviction and immediate release, after significant pressure from the U.S. government. A USCIRF delegation attended Pastor Brunson's hearings in Aliağa, Turkey, in May, July, and October 2018. Based on these conditions, in 2019 USCIRF again places Turkey on Tier 2 for engaging in or tolerating religious freedom violations..."
The root of these violations appears to be Turkey's denial of its extermination of the indigenous Christian peoples from 1913 to 1923. Denial, according to Genocide Watch president Gregory H. Stanton, "is the final stage that lasts throughout and always follows genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres."
To this day, Turkey refuses to acknowledge its past and present crimes against the indigenous peoples whose rights it has vowed to protect. This is among many things that differentiates Turkey from civilized nations that have taken serious steps to improve the rights of their native peoples.
Australia, for example, conducted an independent inquiry in 1997 on the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and communities. In addition, it has become protocol in Australia to acknowledge the Aborigines -- the country's first people -- at the start of official events.
If Turkey were to conduct a similar inquiry into the separation of Christian children from their families during the 1913-1923 Christian genocide -- and recognize its own indigenous peoples as the traditional owners of the land -- it would be illustrating a desire to reckon with and rectify its abhorrent treatment of minorities. Failure on the part of the Turkish government to undertake such an endeavor is simply additional evidence that it has no desire to improve its standing among nations that honor commitments and historical fact.
*Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The Hamas March to Destroy Israel
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/July 15/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14548/hamas-march-destroy-israel
By choosing to hold the protests under the banner of the "Three No's," the organizers of the "Great March of Return" have again proven that the weekly demonstrations are not about improving the living conditions of Palestinians or easing restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip. Instead, the message the organizers are sending to the Palestinians and the rest of the world is: "We don't recognize Israel's right to exist and therefore we will never make negotiate or make peace with it."
Hamas's two other "No's" – no to recognizing Israel and no to making peace with Israel – do not come as a surprise. In fact, Hamas appears to be reminding Palestinians of its true objectives as outlined in its 1988 charter: "There is no solution for the Palestinian question expect through Jihad (holy war). Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors...[Hamas] believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered."
This is all that Hamas has to offer the Palestinians 12 years after its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip? Sadly, thousands of Palestinians continue to heed Hamas's call for trying to breach the border with Israel every Friday while ignoring that it is their leaders who are mainly responsible for dragging them from one disaster to another.
On the one hand, Hamas is sending Palestinians to clash with Israeli soldiers along the Gaza-Israel border under the banner of "No to negotiations [with Israel]." On the other hand, Hamas is begging the Egyptians and the UN to help arrange a ceasefire with Israel. Pictured: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh greets protesters in Gaza, at the border fence with Israel, on May 15, 2018.
When the Palestinians launched the weekly protests along the Gaza-Israel border in March 2017, they said that their No. 1 goal was to force Israel to lift the "blockade" on the Gaza Strip. The protests, however, according to the organizers, have another goal: achieving the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to their former homes inside Israel.
The protests, held under the banner "The Great March of Return," have since been hijacked by Hamas and other Gaza-based Palestinian armed groups who are using them to advance their political agendas.
The weekly demonstrations are no longer aimed either at lifting the "blockade" on the Gaza Strip or paving the way for millions of refugees and their descendants to return to their former homes.
On July 12, the weekly protests along the border with Israel were held under the banner of "No to negotiations [with Israel], no to reconciliation [with Israel] and no to recognizing the [Israeli] entity."
The Three No's appear based on the Khartoum Resolution issued at the conclusion of the Arab League summit convened three months after the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and the Arab countries: No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel and no negotiations with it.
By choosing to hold the protests under the banner of the "Three No's," the organizers of the "Great March of Return" have again proven that the weekly demonstrations are not about improving the living conditions of Palestinians or easing restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip. Instead, the message the organizers are sending to the Palestinians and the rest of the world is: "We don't recognize Israel's right to exist and therefore we will never make negotiate or make peace with it."
Even some Palestinians have expressed astonishment over the Gaza protests' "Three No's," calling them "unrealistic" and "absurd."
Hassan Asfour, a former Palestinian Authority (PA) cabinet minister and political analyst, scoffed at the organizers' decision to use the "Three No's" during the protests along the border with Israel. Denouncing the decision as "damaging," Asfour said that the organizers of the demonstrations "have become stranger to the public scene and are engaging in political cynicism." He added:
"Unrealistic slogans never serve the national struggle. We do not believe there is a Palestinians who would have been able to read that slogan (the "Three No's") without being ridiculed because he sees how Arab interaction with Israel has become closer than interaction with the Palestinians."
Next week's Friday protests will be held under the banner "Burning the Zionist flag." The organizers announced that the "peaceful" and "popular" protests will continue "until the Palestinians achieve their rights." The protests along the border with Israel, they said, are also aimed at foiling US President Donald Trump's plan for peace in the Middle East, also known as the "Deal of the Century," and abrogating the Oslo Accords signed in 1993 between Israel and the Palestinians.
In the eyes of Hamas and the organizers of the weekly demonstrations, burning the "Zionist flag" and foiling a peace plan to end the conflict with Israel is part of a "peaceful" and "popular" protest.
Last June, the weekly protests were held under the banner "The Friday of foiling the Bahrain conference" – reference to the recent US-led "Peace to Prosperity" economic workshop sponsored by the Trump administration. The Palestinian Authority called on Palestinians and Arabs to boycott the workshop on the pretext that it was part of Trump's scheme to "liquidate the Palestinian cause."
At the workshop, the Trump administration unveiled the economic portion of the "Deal of the Century" -- a plan that "represents the most ambitious and comprehensive international effort for the Palestinian people to date and which has the ability to fundamentally transform the West Bank and Gaza and to open a new chapter in Palestinian history."
The thousands of Palestinians who participated in the protest against the Bahrain workshop were in fact saying no to economic prosperity and improving their own living conditions. Ironically, the organizers of the weekly protests were acting against their own declared goal: ending the "blockade" and improving the economy and living conditions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Last April, the organizers of the weekly protests again proved that the demonstrations near the border with Israel are totally unrelated to the suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. This April protests were held under the banner "Together against normalization [with Israel], " and The demonstration was directed against some Arab states that were accused by Palestinians of normalizing their relations with Israel.
Bizarrely, while the organizers of the weekly protests are voicing their opposition to negotiations with Israel, they are at the same time conducting indirect talks with Israel on ways to reach a truce between Israel and Hamas.
The indirect negotiations are being held under the auspices of Egypt and the United Nations. Last week, a senior Egyptian security delegation visited Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of an effort to preserve those truce understandings.
Hamas said that under the unwritten terms, Israel agreed gradually to lift restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip in exchange for calm. The Israeli measures include expanding the fishing zone and allowing Qatar to deliver financial aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. However, continued rocket and arson balloon attacks from the Gaza Strip toward Israel have hindered the implementation of the understandings.
On the one hand, Hamas is sending Palestinians to clash with Israeli soldiers along the Gaza-Israel border under the banner of "No to negotiations [with Israel]." On the other hand, Hamas is begging the Egyptians and the UN to help arrange a ceasefire with Israel. The pounding seems a way of trying to coerce the Israelis into bigger concessions, faster.
Hamas's two other "No's" -- no to recognizing Israel and no to making peace with Israel -- do not come as a surprise. In fact, Hamas appears to be reminding Palestinians of its true objectives as outlined in its 1988 charter:
"There is no solution for the Palestinian question expect through Jihad (holy war). Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors...[Hamas] believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered."
Evidently Hamas, instead of seeking ways to solve the economic crisis in the Gaza Strip, is taking advantage of the weekly protests to advance its ideology.
In addition, Hamas is now seeking to take Palestinians 52 years back, to the days when the Arab countries issued their three No's.
This is all that Hamas has to offer the Palestinians 12 years after its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip? Sadly, thousands of Palestinians continue to heed Hamas's call for heading to the border with Israel every Friday while ignoring that it is their leaders who are mainly responsible for dragging them from one disaster to another. Now that Hamas has again revealed its true intentions, it should change the name of the weekly protests from the "Great March of Return" to the "March to destroy Israel" or the "March to destroy peace."
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Calls To Expel The U.S. Ambassador To Iraq Following The Release Of A Recording Of A Telephone Conversation Allegedly Between A Senior Official In The Iraqi Army And A CIA Agent
MEMRI/July 15/2019
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On July 5, 2019, "The Resistance Media Network,"[1] which is affiliated with the Hashd Al-Sha'bi (the Popular Mobilization Units, PMU) released a recording of a telephone conversation between Mahmoud Al-Falahi, commander of the military operations room in Al-Anbar, and a CIA agent with Iraqi citizenship. According to the report, during the call the CIA agent demanded that Al-Falahi provide him with the geographic coordinates of the dispersal of the Iraqi army, security forces, the PMU, and the resistance factions, with a focus on the outposts in Al-Qa'im of the Iranian-backed Hizbullah Brigades in Iraq. This information was requested as part of the preparation for attacks on these areas by the U.S. and Israeli air forces.
On June 17, 2018, Shi'ite and pro-Syrian regime forces were attacked on the Syria-Iraq border and 50 men were killed. PMU elements do not discount the possibility that this was an Israeli action that at the very least was coordinated with the U.S.[2]
Members of the political and military wings of the Shi'ite militias affiliated with Iran described the report as further evidence of an American plot against Iraq and its security forces and called for the expulsion of the American ambassador and closure of the embassy. Hashtags expressing these sentiments were posted on social media.
The following is a review of responses to the report about the phone call suggesting Iraqi-CIA collaboration:
Hizbullah Brigades: The U.S. Is Trying To Destroy Iraq; the "Embassy Of Evil" In Baghdad Should Be Closed
On July 7, 2019, the political bureau of the Hizbullah Brigades, a U.S.-designated terror organization, published a statement saying that, "The espionage scandal... is a difficult blow for the Iraqi people and the military establishment. The information exposed the destructive role of the American Embassy which spies and schemes with the Zionist entity against Iraq and its national fighting forces.
"This scandal has exposed the character of the American military presence in Iraq and its [true] aims which are not training, advising, or fighting ISIS as the U.S. claims, or as some government elements claim, but fighting the resistance factions and supporting and perpetrating criminal activity, to wear down Iraq and destroy it.
"Therefore, the Iraqi government and the General Commander of the Armed Forces should open a comprehensive investigation and expose the espionage cells connected to the American, the Zionist, and other intelligence [apparatuses].
"It is the government's responsibility to examine the attacks against our military forces and the resistance factions, especially those perpetrated against the Hizbullah Brigades on the Syria-Iraq border [on June 18] last year, during which 19 people were killed, and to hold the U.S. directly responsible for this, and to prosecute and convict it.
"We demand that the national forces, the jihad forces and the popular activists and tribes take a national stand and behave justly toward the fallen and the murdered and insist on the expulsion of the ambassador and the closure of the American Embassy of evil."[3]
Mohammed Muhyee, spokesman for the Hizbullah Brigades, claimed that the American Embassy in Iraq is currently working to drive Al-Falahi beyond the country's borders, and is attempting to interfere in the operations of the Commission of Inquiry appointed by the Ministry of Defense, so as to influence the inquiry and distort its results. Muhyee urges his countrymen "to censure the U.S. Embassy for its suspicious role in Iraq and also the American forces. We have been in a confrontation with the U.S. since it entered Iraq due to the crimes it has committed. It is not possible to rely on the U.S. or to have a good relationship with it."[4]
The Al-Nujaba Movement: Iraq Will Not Have Security As Long As the "Stronghold of Satan" Is In Baghdad
Nasr Al-Shamari, spokesman for the Al-Nujaba movement, a U.S.-designated terror organization, said: "The American Embassy plays an indecent scheming role, incites civil strife among the Iraqi people, supports terrorists, and has tried several times, publicly and in a callous manner to harm the Iraqi forces and to deliberately kill those who serve in them. It also [carries out] suspicious commercial activity which steals the country's natural resources by means of companies which take control of the oil and the GE [General Electric] Company, which has taken over all the gas [-operated] electric power stations – companies whose aim is to control the country's economy and the Iraqi citizens' income. Once these [facts] have been proved, Iraq should be liberated from it [the U.S. Embassy]... therefore, we demand that the Iraqi government expel the American ambassador and close the American Embassy of evil in Iraq. If not – our country will not have security as long as the stronghold of Satan is in Baghdad."[5]
Calls From Within the Iraqi Government to Close the American Embassy
"In the Iraqi political system, and especially among the elements which belong to, or at least support the Shi'ite militias, calls were heard to prosecute the United States for its interference in the internal affairs of Iraq and to monitor the activity of the embassy and the American forces in Iraq.
Hamad Al-Moussawi, Member of Parliament (MP) for the Badr faction, urged the government to prosecute Mahmoud Al-Falahi for treason, and to sentence him to death. He added that should the connection between Al-Falahi and the U.S. be proved, then "[the U.S.] should be prosecuted in accordance with international law and the interference of its embassy in the internal affairs [of Iraq] should be stopped, the movements of its forces monitored, its military bases supervised, and it should be prevented from taking any action unless it is with the approval of and in coordination with the government."[6]
MP Hassan Salam of the Al-Sadiqoun faction, the political arm of the Asa'eb Ahl Al-Haq movement, also a U.S.-designated terror organization, said, "[The Iraqi] military establishment is out of control, since many military commanders are traveling to Britain and the U.S. to meet with suspicious individuals and intelligence people and agents. The collaboration with the commander of operations of Al-Anbar, Mahmoud Al-Falahi, is very serious. The government must expel the American ambassador from Iraq immediately."[7]
Supporters of PMU On Social Networks Call for the Expulsion of the American Ambassador
Supporters of the Shi'ite militias posted the following hashtags in Arabic on social media: #expeltheU.S.ambassador and #closetheAmericanEmbassy.
Sharaf Haider, who supports PMU, shared a post on his Facebook page which includes a quote from the spokesman of the Hizbullah Brigades calling to close the U.S. Embassy and expel the ambassador from Iraq, as well as a poster depicting a Hizbullah Brigade fighter shooting a gun, with an American flag visible in the background emblazoned with an ISIS slogan, and the words: "The Response is Ready, Hizbullah Brigades" also appearing at the top of the poster.[8]
The above poster was shared by PMU supporter Sharaf Haider on his Facebook page.
Haider Ibn Al-Wilaya, another PMU supporter, shared a poster on his Facebook page with the Arabic hashtag "expel the American ambassador" which reads: "The American Embassy has 10,000 workers and 20,000 soldiers, and it is unclear what their task is or why they are necessary. In the recent period the scandal was exposed about the conspiracy against Iraq through the cooperation with the collaborator the operations commander in Al-Anbar. The GE Company controls all the gas sources, which will gradually lead to control of the Iraqi economy. Our national resources are being stolen, they are conspiring against our country and the enemy is known. The choice is in the hands of the honorable ones among the people."[9]
The above poster expressing anti-American sentiment was shared by PMU supporter Haider Ibn Al-Waliya on his Facebook page.
[1] http://r-m-n.net, July 5, 2019.
[2] See MEMRI report, Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) Threaten To Respond To Attack On Their Forces At Iraq-Syria Border: We Can Fire Missiles At The U.S. Embassy, U.S. Forces In Iraq, June 28, 2018.
[3] Kataibhezbollah.com, July 7, 2019.
[4] Almayadeen.net, July 6, 2019.
[5] Alnujaba.com, July 7, 2019.
[6] Hamidalmosouy, July 7, 2019.
[7] Alalamtv.net, July 9, 2019.
[8] Facebook.com/sharafhaider.almosawi, July 8, 2019.
[9] Facebook.com/profile.php?id=100034654955619&fref=search&__tn__=%2Cd
%2CP-R&eid=ARDufLGWFhZ_4-U3NdgTV8ePNYNM_6iT_YN1tT36qqbVxGbjisqLOXe3C3xrv4xPLiNehrkYkMweqRqm, July 9, 2019.

Will New Party Deepen Erdogan’s Isolation?
Salman Al-dossary/Asharq Al Awsat/July 15/2019
The move was coming even if late. After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled for a long time with undisputed authority, his party controlling and sweeping the rivals, the time came when his nearest confidant abandoned him and jumped out of his boat.
As his former ally and former prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu - who was a good friend and then became a bitter opponent – is on his way to establish a new party, another close member of the narrow circle and one of the founders of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), former Economy Minister Ali Babacan, submitted his resignation, saying Turkey was in need of a "new vision."
Babacan, as Davutoglu, is heading to establish another party, born out of the old shaky political coalition. The new alliance will group leaders who are upset with the president’s policies that have brought their country to its own fate. Not only the former president, Abdullah Gul, is the strongest supporter of the new endeavor, but dozens of senior AKP members and parliamentarians are waiting for the moment when the party is officially announced.
The new move is ready to be launched. Its program is well defined and prepared. The Erdogan ship is no longer safe to board. It is now sailing in a sea of broken waves, with a lost compass. The Erdogan regime has destroyed the state’s relations and alliances, which has negatively affected the internal situation.
Erdogan is fighting to maintain his party’s popularity through which he was controlling with a strong grip the state’s internal and external policies; but all this has become from the past. Many of the founders of the “Justice and Development” are no longer in his camp, and the rest are either afraid to abandon him or awaiting his departure. All this happens in the midst of internal political calamity after the party lost major municipalities in Turkey. This comes in parallel with a great political failure in foreign relations, whether with the European Union on the one hand, or with the United States of America on the other.
Then the S-400 deal with Russia came to make matters worse, and Erdogan found himself alone, not supported by any of his former allies, who were decreasing while his enemies were multiplying.
Perhaps the successive rifts are considered by Erdogan as a small snowball that does not imply any trouble. Didn’t he describe those who left as traitors, only because they wanted to correct the path?
However, the great difficulties facing his country, driven by reckless policies at home and abroad, will push towards a bigger snowball, until it reaches a level that Erdogan can no longer withstand.
No one knows the moment when the Sultan will see his power erode and his popularity fade away; but it is a moment that will undoubtedly come, and its signs are obvious for all those who are watching the aggressive policies pursued by Erdogan.
While he has been long resting on his party’s power and allies and the weakness of his rivals, the equation has changed in less than a year, and the Justice and Development has been slapped from within. While the top founders are scrambling to jump out of the Sultan’s train, all political parties and forces are standing against Erdogan’s policies.
It is certainly the first time his rule is that weak. Even if he is trying to show that he was still powerful, the circumstances surrounding him are exposing his weakness, revealing his isolation, and further alienating his friends.

‘I Am Searching for Assad’s Real Friend’
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/July 15/2019
In late 2004, I was having lunch with a friend in Paris. He received a telephone call from former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who had just arrived in the French capital. I said I would be unable to meet with him because I had a flight to catch. My friend suggested that I contact Hariri right away and ask to meet him today. Indeed, I telephoned and met up with him without delay.
I entered Hariri’s house and saw him flipping through television channels. I asked him what was preoccupying him. He replied: “Believe me, I am trying to find a real friend to Bashar Assad.” I told him that Assad has numerous allies and friends, but he replied: “I mean a real friend who speaks frankly to the president. I am not aware that such a friend exists. The problem is that advisers and friends tell the ruler what they believe he wants to hear. They avoid telling him anything that may bother or embarrass him or contradict with his security agency reports. No one wants to anger the decision-maker. I know from experience that some parties claim to be friends to Syria and its president, but they are actually a burden on them because they provide wrong information or information that only serves their own interests.”
“You may question my keenness after my bitter experience with (President) Emile Lahoud,” continued Hariri. “I am approaching this issue from a strategic perspective. Any collapse in Syria similar to the collapse in Iraq will be a disaster on the country, Lebanon and the region. I do not hide to you the fact that I have a lot of reasons to be resentful of Assad, but this issue goes beyond personal reservations. My information is that Assad is leaning towards working with Iran to bring about the failure of the American military deployment in Iraq. The invasion of Iraq was a massive error, but we are here talking about Syria and its future and also Lebanon’s interest.”
“Ignore local writers of reports and their friends in some agencies in Damascus. It is not in Assad’s interest to claim victory against Rafik Hariri and Walid Jumblatt in Lebanon. He has greater and more dangerous problems to worry about. I am searching for a real friend who can tell him that the actual path that will ease his fears over the American presence on his border is different than the path he has chosen to take,” he said.
“They must also be frank with him that the economic situation is bad and needs to be addressed immediately. Unemployment is also on the rise and the situation in the countrysides is getting worse. The population is increasing and public administrations are bloated with ineffective employees,” he added.
“The party has become an old creaky machine that is operated by security officers and its relationship with the people is strictly based on intimidation. Moreover, UN Security Council resolution 1559 has placed Syria in a confrontation with the international community. It is unfortunate that the decision to extend Lahoud’s term in office has pushed Syria into a corner. It could have brought in another president who is allied to it,” remarked Hariri.
“I know that Saudi Arabia and Egypt are keen on Syria’s stability. Damascus can turn to Riyadh and Cairo to obtain guarantees related to the Americans’ intentions. It can kick off a campaign of openness that can ease the silent internal tensions and somewhat revitalize the economy and encourage investors. Lebanon, with its expertise and banking sector, can also help. This is why I told you I was searching for a real friend to Assad,” he told me.
I recalled Hariri’s comments during a recent discussion with a diplomat in London. He said that the horrors that have been committed in Syria have left deep scars and a need for revenge among the Syrians. Surrendering to emotions does not, however, end wars despite the massive losses in human life. The diplomat added: “Let us be honest. We have no option but to be realistic about Syria. The idea of toppling the regime was taken off the table when Russia intervened in its favor. All of the parties that worked on and wished for Assad’s ouster have surrendered to this fact. Nonetheless, the current situation is very dangerous and may lead to greater problems if the Syrians are not allowed the right to determine their own fate in a manner that ends the war.”
He explained that Syria today is an open arena for a number of wars. “A war between the authority and its allies on the one hand against the Idlib-based opposition. Add to that the clear hegemony terrorist organizations have over some regions. Another war pits Israel against Iranian military influence in Syria. This confrontation could spiral out of control due to the escalating tensions in the Hormuz Strait. Turkey is also engaged in a war against Kurdish armed groups deployed on the Syrian-Turkish border. Furthermore, the foreign military presence in Syria also coincides with attempts to introduce demographic changes in order to alter old balances of power in some region. The persistence of the current situation and the lingering presence of militias may pave the way for a new round of terrorism, despite the defeat of ISIS in Syria and Iraq.”
The diplomat added: “Iran is committed to its military presence in Syria and Israel is bent on ending it. Turkey is also committed to its military presence and the Kurds are prepared to wage a long battle. Two men can attempt to gradually change this situation: Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin. No one is asking Assad to kick out the Iranians and Turks tomorrow. He has an actual chance to make a change. He can begin by gradually restoring Syria’s right to decide its own fate, which will in turn lead to a gradual withdrawal of Iranian and Turkish forces from his country.”
“One must steer clear of the rhetoric of victor and vanquished and adopt the rhetoric of someone searching for a solution from a position of power and garner the support of the Syrian people to restore their decision-making power. Life must be restored to the Syrian state through reconstruction, the return of refugees and a number of reasonable political measures that would ultimately reduce the regional military and political influence in Syria and on its decision-making. The international community is addressing the situation in Syria from a realistic perspective. Any friend of the Syrian leadership must advise it to show some realism and launch a calm operation that would return complete power to the Syrians, with Russian support,” he went on to say.
Fifteen years separate Rafik Hariri’s remarks from that of the diplomat. Numerous major and dangerous developments have taken place in Syria and the region during this time. Both figures share the same conviction that Syria is vital for the security and balances of power in the Middle East. A united and stable Syria that is seeking its own prosperity will be embraced by the Arab world and international community. It will reflect positively on the stability of its neighbors, especially the Arabs. The stability of Syria and Iraq are a main condition to restore historic balances between the components of the Middle East.

Will Horizontal Escalation Work?
Hal Brands/Bloomberg View/July 15/2019
An American war against China or Russia would be truly awful. Even if the US won — no sure thing — it could well suffer costs and casualties that would make the toll of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars seem minor by comparison. So is there a way the US could stymie a Chinese attack in the Pacific, or a Russian land-grab in Eastern Europe, without having to defeat enemy forces head-on? This is the motivating question behind the idea of “horizontal escalation.”
Horizontal escalation is a strategic concept that relies on attacking an adversary's weaknesses outside the theater where the fighting started, so as to avoid confronting its strengths within that theater. It is an alluring idea that has won support from some key national security professionals. Unfortunately, it probably won’t work. As studies by the RAND Corporation have shown, if Beijing decides to use force against Taiwan, or Russia assaults its Baltic neighbors, the US would be hard-pressed to respond effectively. American forces would be defending exposed territories on the adversary’s doorstep. They would have to project decisive power over thousands of miles, into areas where China and Russia can bring to bear formidable “anti-access/area denial” capabilities (sophisticated air defenses, anti-ship missiles and others). It would be harder than anything the US military has done since World War II.
Suppressing enemy capabilities would bring additional dangers. Taking out Russian long-range artillery or neutralizing Chinese anti-ship missiles might require striking targets within Russian and Chinese territory. (In the Russian case, this dynamic is exacerbated by the fact that Kaliningrad, a part of Russia wedged between Lithuania and Poland, is full of advanced weapons and located behind NATO’s front lines.) These actions would raise the prospect of the adversary responding by threatening to use its nuclear weapons against US or allied forces.
It is because these scenarios seem so ghastly that horizontal escalation looks so attractive. For years, US strategists have argued that Washington should respond to Chinese aggression in the Western Pacific with a maritime blockade that would starve China of oil and other critical imports. Similarly, the US and its allies could punish an aggressive Russia by leveling harsh financial sanctions, such as kicking Moscow out of the Swift global payments system. In theory, the US military could even conduct operations in secondary theaters — targeting Russian forces in Syria, for example — as a way of distracting and punishing the enemy. Rather than confronting China and Russia where the fighting would be toughest, the thinking goes, the US would broaden the conflict into areas where it has the advantage, eventually inflicting enough pain that the enemy yields.
The theory of horizontal escalation thus holds that the US can wage a war on its terms rather than the enemy’s — and that it can achieve victory without paying the price of a more direct approach. Unfortunately, this theory is too good to be true: Horizontal escalation ultimately stumbles on several key problems.
First, it underestimates the commitment of the adversary. Russia and China are governed by regimes that derive their legitimacy from a deliberate stoking of nationalism. Their rulers understand that it would be politically catastrophic — perhaps fatal — to start a conflict with the US and then back down, particularly if their forces have not yet been defeated in the field. Once Moscow or Beijing decides to gamble by using force, in other words, they will presumably be willing to absorb a lot of punishment to avoid conceding defeat. This goes especially for conflicts where the object of aggression (Taiwan, for instance) is seen as a part of the adversary’s homeland, and recovering it is essential to the prestige of the ruling regime.
Financial sanctions or a far-seas blockade can inflict real pain, but probably not enough to persuade Chinese rulers to sign their own political death warrants. And both China and Russia are steadily working to make themselves less vulnerable to this sort of pressure: Russia by encouraging its oligarchs to bring their assets home so they are less vulnerable to Western sanctions, and China by building overland supply routes that are less vulnerable to American naval power.
Second, horizontal escalation suffers from a time problem. Coercion — particularly economic coercion — takes a while to work. But in the meantime, analysts such as former Trump administration Pentagon official Elbridge Colby have pointed out, the aggressor will be consolidating its gains and fortifying a position from which it cannot easily be dislodged. Meanwhile, America’s front-line allies such as the Baltic states will be left to absorb punishment or even occupation by Russian and Chinese forces — a possibility that will make them less likely to antagonize Moscow and Beijing by standing with the US.
Third, horizontal escalation is itself highly escalatory. A far-seas blockade of China would severely disrupt the international economy, beyond the shocks created by a localized conflict in the Western Pacific. And if the US is obstructing oil shipments and interdicting third-party maritime traffic to China, then Washington may appear to be the one intensifying the war dangerously.
The US might still find some forms of horizontal escalation useful in a major conflict with China or Russia, as a way of complementing rather than substituting for a more direct response. But its weaknesses as a stand-alone concept are such that for America to defend its interests in Europe and the Western Pacific it must be able to prevent Russia and China from conducting successful aggression in the first place.
As both the National Defense Strategy and the National Defense Strategy Commission have made clear, this will not be easy. It will require pushing allies and partners to develop their own anti-access/area denial capabilities, as opposed to the more expensive but less useful planes and large naval vessels that the Taiwanese, among others, seem to love. It will entail investing in new technologies that allow the US to project power even in contested environments, and developing the new operational concepts that will enable American forces to use those capabilities most effectively. And it will involve making smart upgrades in America’s nuclear arsenal, to ensure that an adversary does not try to escalate itself out of conflict.
All these changes are only beginning, as some former Pentagon officials have acknowledged, and completing them will present a strenuous test of whether the US can meet the challenges of deterrence and defense in the 21st century. But given the shortcomings of horizontal escalation, tackling those broader challenges squarely is still the best approach.