LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
July 26/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 01/35-42:”The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God! ’The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).”"

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on July 25-26/2019
Machrouh Lyla Band Challenge is A Leftist-Agnostic Riot Against Lebanon’s Culture & Faith
AMCD“It’s a disgrace that Ambassador Mudallali would defend the Iranian terrorist organization before the UN Security Council
Hariri Holds Talks with Aoun in Baabda
Hariri announces official mourning for Essebsi
Hariri discusses Palestinian Labor issue with Abu Sleiman and Mneimne
Hariri receives Paraguayan Foreign Minister
Samy Gemayel Condemns Government's Plan to Expand Metn Landfill
Army chief meets Lebanon's Consul to Mauritania
Loyalty to Resistance: For realistic settlement to Palestinian workforce issue
Palestinians Pursue their Strike in Ain el-Hilweh
Khalil: Lebanon is Not Greece...Political Crises Cripple Economy
Mashrou' Leila to 'Apologize to Christians' before Byblos Gig
Lebanon Ups Pressure on Syrian Refugees to Return
Kanaan: Nations Can Be Wasted in Power Games
Hariri Meets Lassen
Antiparochi system for the Lebanese housing sector
U.N. nuclear watchdog appoints Romanian diplomat Feruta as interim chief

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 25-26/2019
Israel’s latest missile attack in S. Syria hit a new Iranian intelligence post with overview of N. Israel
Left-Wing Israeli Parties Unite to Counter Netanyahu
Tunisia’s president, 92, dies in hospital
Tunisian parliament speaker to serve as interim president
Tunisian presidential election to take place on Sept. 15: Electoral Commission
Libya Militia Arrests al-Qaida Leaders
British navy to escort UK-flagged ships in Gulf strait
Air Strikes Kill 12 Civilians in Northwest Syria
Haftar: We will raise the banner of victory in the heart of Tripoli soon
Moroccan lawmakers vote to bolster French in education system
Juncker Tells Johnson Brexit Deal Can't be Changed
Trump vetoes measures blocking arms sales to Saudi Arabia, UAE
Ukraine detains Russian tanker, Moscow warns of consequences

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 25-26/2019
Machrouh Lyla Band Challenge is A Leftist-Agnostic Riot Against Lebanon’s Culture & Faith/Elias Bejjani/July 25/2019
AMCD“It’s a disgrace that Ambassador Mudallali would defend the Iranian terrorist organization before the UN Security Council/July 24, 2019
Antiparochi system for the Lebanese housing sector/Abdallah Hayek/Annahar/July 25/2019
Israel’s latest missile attack in S. Syria hit a new Iranian intelligence post with overview of N. Israel/DEBKAfile/July 25/2019
Iran’s blatant violations of international maritime laws/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/July 25/2019
What is Iran hoping to achieve with Gulf confrontations/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Arab News/July 25/2019
Is the time right for a final US exit from Afghanistan/Javed Hafeez/Arab News/July 25/2019
Twenty Years Under King Mohammed VI (Part 1): Domestic Developments/Sarah Feuer and Reda Ayadi/The Washington Institute/July 25/2019
Clarifying Freedom of Navigation in the Gulf/Farzin Nadimi/The Washington Institute/July 25/2019

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on July 25-26/2019
Machrouh Lyla Band Challenge is A Leftist-Agnostic Riot Against Lebanon’s Culture & Faith
Elias Bejjani/July 25/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/76977/elias-bejjani-machrouh-lyla-band-challenge-is-a-leftist-agnostic-riot-against-lebanons-culture-faith/
Freedom has nothing to do with the on going leftist-agnostic charade of the “Machrouh Lyla Band” phenomena at all.
This kind of blatant Freedom is not what the majority of the Lebanese people, from all religious faiths want, accept or even can keep a blind eye on without an angry loud and straightforward “NO”.
What is going on is a mere leftist-agnostic media shameless riot against the actual core and essence of freedom.
What is going on is actually blemishing freedom, because Freedom does not mean at all to advocate in Lebanon openly for sexual deviations or choices without any kind of restrictions, limits, or respect for the majority of the Lebanese peoples’ social norms.
Freedom is not at all a means of instigation of hatred or grudges against ethical and social norms in our Lebanese deeply, established society norms of living and worshiping.
Freedom is not a means of humiliating or insulting Christianity or any other religion and their holy figures.
Freedom is not a means of Free and rude advocacy for LG or any other sexual, life style or social deviations-choices.
Freedom is not is not by any means a venomous media or art tool for the destruction of the Lebanese social and human norms and solid faith convictions.
In conclusion, People are free to be odd or to adopt any odd of life style in any social or faith domains, as long as they do not harm others or break the laws of the country, but they are not free and must not be allowed to advocate openly and freely for their odd life choices.
It is worth mentioning that shame is a biological and Godly gift and privilege that is merely owned and enjoyed only by Human beings.
Accordingly he/she who kills this godly gift in in their lives loses all that is human in all domains and fields.
Meanwhile, shame definitely is, a grace, a and a blessing.
In this regard thank God that the shame gift is still vibrant, active and alive among the majority of our Lebanese multi-cultural and faith Mosaic communities.

التحالف الأميركي الشرق أوسطي للديموقراطية: "من العار أن تدافع سفيرة لبنان لدى الأمم المتحدة عن حزب الله، المنظمة الإيرانية الإرهابية عن المنظمة الإرهابية الإيرانية أمام مجلس الأمن التابع للأمم المتحدة ،
AMCD“It’s a disgrace that Ambassador Mudallali would defend the Iranian terrorist organization before the UN Security Council,
AMCD Calls Out Lebanese Ambassador to UN for Protecting Hezbollah
July 24, 2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/76972/%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%aa%d8%ad%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%81-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a3%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%83%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b4%d8%b1%d9%82-%d8%a3%d9%88%d8%b3%d8%b7%d9%8a-%d9%84%d9%84%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82-3/
The American Mideast Coalition for Democracy called out the Lebanese Ambassador to the United Nations, Amal Mudallali, for protecting, and thus supporting, the terrorist organization Hezbollah in the Security Council.
On Tuesday, July 23rd, the Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, explained to the 15-member Security Council that Iran has been using Lebanon’s civilian port in Beirut to transport weapons to Hezbollah. “Israel found that Iran and the Quds Force have begun to advance the exploitation of the civilian maritime channels, and specifically the Port of Beirut. The Port of Beirut is now the Port of Hezbollah,” said Danon.
In response, the Lebanese Ambassador, Amal Mudallali, claimed Israel was issuing “direct threats on their [Lebanon’s] peace and civilian infrastructure. If it is using them [Danon’s accusations] to prepare the ground and the international community for an attack on Lebanon’s civilian ports and airport and its infrastructure - as they did in 2006 - this council should not stay silent,” she said.
“It’s a disgrace that Ambassador Mudallali would defend the Iranian terrorist organization before the UN Security Council,” said AMCD co-chair Tom Harb. “This makes her, and by extension the government of Lebanon, an accomplice to terror.”
“Weapons smuggling is a dirty business,” stated AMCD co-chair John Hajjar. “The ambassador is clearly attempting to shield one of the world’s worst terrorist organizations as they receive weapons directly from Iran, the world’s foremost state sponsor of terror. A majority of Lebanese and Mideast Americans see Hezbollah as a terror organization and stand with the Trump Administration and US Congress in their efforts to disarm this terror group in accordance with UNSC 1559.”
On July 9th, Representative Michael McCaul (R-Texas) stated that Hezbollah is actively endangering the Lebanese population by hiding 100.000 rockets pointed at Israel in Lebanese homes and schools. He also expressed concern that the Lebanese Army not only does nothing about the staging of these rockets in civilian areas, but that at least some of the money given by the US government to the Lebanese Army ends up trickling down to Hezbollah.
AMCD will continue to stand firmly against any “normalization” of this vicious terrorist organization as it continues to sow fear, mayhem and death wherever its tentacles extend.

Hariri Holds Talks with Aoun in Baabda
Naharnet/July 25/2019
Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday held talks with President Michel Aoun in Baabda, amid continuous efforts to resume cabinet sessions and resolve the crisis over the deadly Qabrshmoun incident. The National News Agency said talks tackled “the general situations in the country, the outcome of the ongoing consultations and contacts over the repercussions of the Qabrshmoun incident, and the approval of the state budget in parliament.”“Be optimistic,” Hariri told reporters after the meeting. Al-Jadeed TV meanwhile reported that “there is an inclination to hold a cabinet session next week at a date to be set by PM Hariri.”“The proposal suggested by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat is being discussed and it is leading the negotiations,” al-Jadeed added. Jumblat has proposed adjoining the cases of the Qabrshmoun and Choueifat incidents and referring them together to the Judicial Council. LBCI television meanwhile said that “the Baabda meeting did not reach an agreement on holding a cabinet session but rather on continuing contacts to reconcile viewpoints over the issue of referring the Qabrshmoun incident to the Judicial Council.” Two bodyguards of State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib were killed and a third was wounded in a clash with Progressive Socialist Party supporters in the Aley town of Qabrshmoun on June 30. The minister escaped unharmed as a PSP supporter was wounded. Gharib and his party have described the incident as an ambush and an assassination attempt while the PSP has accused the minister’s bodyguards of forcing their way and firing on protesters. Gharib’s party has insisted that the case should be referred to the Judicial Council, a demand opposed by the PSP and its allies. The case has forced the suspension of cabinet sessions since July 2.

Hariri announces official mourning for Essebsi
NNA - Thu 25 Jul 2019
The President of the Council of Ministers Saad Hariri issued a memorandum declaring a three-day official mourning for the late Tunisian President Béji Caid Essebsi, who passed away today. Flags on official departments and institutions and all municipalities will be lowered to half-staff starting today and until Saturday 27/7/2019 inclusive. Regular programs on radio and television stations are to be modified in accordance with the painful occasion.

Hariri discusses Palestinian Labor issue with Abu Sleiman and Mneimne
NNA -Thu 25 Jul 2019
The President of the Council of Ministers Saad Hariri met today at the Grand Serail with Labor Minister Camille Abu Sleiman, in the presence of the Chairman of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee Hassan Mneimne and former Minister Ghattas Khoury. Discussions focused on the issue of the Palestinian labor in Lebanon. After the meeting, Abu Sleiman said: "We discussed the implications of the plan of the Labor Ministry for Palestinian refugees. It is recognized that there is a special status for the Palestinian workers as compared to foreign workers, and the Lebanese law recognizes this. We also discussed ways to facilitate the necessary documents for the Palestinians to obtain the work permits imposed by the Lebanese law. The discussion was positive and I will hold a meeting next week with the Ministry team and the Palestinian brothers to look into their concerns about this subject and to work on simplifying the procedures as much as possible within the framework of Lebanese law."

Hariri receives Paraguayan Foreign Minister
NNA- Thu 25 Jul 2019
The President of the Council of Ministers Saad Hariri received this afternoon at the Grand Serail the Paraguayan Foreign Minister Luis Alberto Castiglioni with a delegation, accompanied by the Paraguayan Ambassador to Lebanon. After the meeting, Castiglioni said: "We just had a very important meeting with Prime Minister Hariri, and I had the honor to convey to him the greetings of the President of Paraguay and I invited him to visit the country. I also informed him that the Lebanese community in Paraguay is one of the largest and best communities. It has contributed to the development of Paraguay and the Lebanese are successful at all levels. The current president of Paraguay is of Lebanese origins, as is my wife, and this shows the strength of the Lebanese community in our country. Therefore we, as officials, must do everything in our power to promote rapprochement between our two countries."
He added: "I also informed Premier Hariri about the meetings I held with Speaker Nabih Berri, Minister Gebran Basil, and at the Chamber of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, and the excellent atmosphere of these meetings. I stressed the need to conclude agreements as soon as possible between Lebanon and the MERCOSUR, especially since this group has concluded an agreement with the European Union. Any agreement between Lebanon and Paraguay will have very positive results for the Lebanese State." He concluded: "I also informed the Prime Minister that this is my first visit to Lebanon, during which I also met with Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Rahi. I am very pleased that Prime Minister Hariri has accepted our invitation. Next year, the President of Paraguay will visit Lebanon and then we will be waiting for Prime Minister Hariri in our country."

Samy Gemayel Condemns Government's Plan to Expand Metn Landfill
Kataeb.org/July 25/2019
Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel on Wednesday condemned the decision to expand the Burj Hammoud waste landfill especially following the environmental damage and health impact on the residents of the area.
During the Cabinet meeting held in the Grand Serail, Gemayel proposed an alternative practical short-term solution and a long-term plan to the waste crisis.The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the presence of Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab and Environment Minister Fady Jreissaty along with several of the Metn district lawmakers.

Army chief meets Lebanon's Consul to Mauritania
NNA -Thu 25 Jul 2019
Army Commander General Joseph Aoun, on Thursday received at his Yarzeh office Lebanon's Consul to Mauritania, Elie Nassar, with talks reportedly touching on the general situation in Lebanon and the broad region. Maj. Gen. Aoun then met with Head of the Municipality of Jdeidet, Bouchrieh, al-Sed, Antoine Gebara. A range of matters topped their discussions.

Loyalty to Resistance: For realistic settlement to Palestinian workforce issue
NNA - Thu 25 Jul 2019
The "Loyalty to the Resistance" parliamentary bloc on Thursday upped calls for a just and realistic settlement that would regulate the issue of the Palestinian workforce in Lebanon, in accordance with the joint interests of the Lebanese and Palestinians, and the enforced human rights law. "The bloc calls to address the Palestinian labor in Lebanon as per a realistic settlement that translates the joint interests and commitment to fair laws respecting human rights," the MPs said in a statement following their weekly meeting, chaired by lawmaker Mohammad Raad. Moreover, the bloc indicated that the endorsement of the 2019 state budget would help gain time to decide on the means to activate the sought reforms, highlighting the necessity to finalize the 2020 budget in the nearest time possible. Also, the bloc underlined the necessity to reach a final solution to the waste crisis, adding that it will not accept any delay or postponement. On a different note, the bloc condemned attempts to normalize ties with the Israeli enemy. It also heaped praise on Iran's stance to defend its sovereignty.

Palestinians Pursue their Strike in Ain el-Hilweh
Naharnet/July 25/2019
Palestinians refugees in the southern camp of Ain el-Hilweh are on an ongoing strike in protest against Lebanon's labour ministry cracking down on businesses employing foreign workers without a permit, media reports said on Thursday. The National News Agency said the sub-security council of the South held a meeting at Sidon’s Grand Serail under the chairmanship of the Governor of the South, Mansour Daou and in the presence of leaders of judicial, military and security agencies to discuss the situation in Sidon in light of aggravating protests. Ain el-Hilweh hosts the highest concentration of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Palestinian refugees protested last week in the streets of Beirut and in refugees camps, as well as the south and east of the country, against the labour ministry cracking down on businesses employing foreign workers without a permit. Last month, the ministry gave companies a one-month deadline to acquire the necessary work permits. After the grace period expired last week, it started inspections, closing down non-compliant establishments and issuing others with warnings.

Khalil: Lebanon is Not Greece...Political Crises Cripple Economy
Naharnet/July 25/2019
Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil appeased concerns on Thursday and said that “Lebanon is not Greece” and is not in a state of bankruptcy as some rumors claim, assuring that it is capable of overcoming the crisis, al-Joumhouria daily reported. “Apart from the ratings and reports of foreign agencies, Lebanon is in a difficult situation, but it is not a bankrupt country and there is nothing to fear over the price of Lebanese pound as some "black rooms" claim only to promote confusion and anxiety,” said Khalil in an interview with the daily. “It is not a rosy image, as all Lebanese wish, but at the same time it is neither bleak nor hopeless. We have the potential and capabilities to move this image, in a short period of time, to the oasis of recovery,” assured the Minister. "Lebanon is not like Greece," Khalil said, "our banking sector is strong, steadfast and influential in our economy and finances. We have reasonable reserves in the central bank, and there is a serious willingness to take reform steps, although it is not easy, but I believe that with a bit of seriousness we can make a big difference, and we are keen to achieve this difference,” he assured. On the 2019 state budget, Khalil said: “This budget did not come from vacuum, but was the product of a long debate with the political forces and parliamentary blocs. “We can frankly say, today we are in front of a budget that refuted accusations of reducing salaries and wages, imposing new taxes, and targeting the military, army and retirees. On the contrary, it turned out that all these allegations were not originally proposed by the Ministry of Finance,” he added. On Lebanon’s 2020 draft state budget, Khalil said his ministry “will complete discussing the budget figures of 2020 in the next 24 hours,” stressing commitment to the constitutional deadlines stipulating that it be submitted to the Cabinet before the end of August.The Minister concluded: "In short, Lebanon can still emerge from the crisis, provided that there is a serious political will to keep pace with the proposed economic steps."

Mashrou' Leila to 'Apologize to Christians' before Byblos Gig
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/Naharnet/July 25/2019
A Lebanese indie band is to play at a music festival in Byblos next month, but only after apologizing for two songs deemed offensive to Christians, organizers said. Mashrou' Leila, whose singer Hamed Sinno is openly gay and whose outspoken Arabic lyrics tackle often taboo social issues, have created waves in the religiously conservative Middle East. They have played frequently in Lebanon since forming in 2008 while studying at the American University of Beirut. But they have sparked controversy in Egypt and were banned from performing in Jordan.
On Monday, Lebanese Christian clergymen called for the band to cancel their planned performance at the high-profile summer festival in the seaside resort of Byblos, charging that their songs were offensive to Christians.
On Facebook, a group calling itself the "Soldiers of God" started a campaign against the concert, posting warnings suggesting it would take to the streets to prevent the event from taking place. Others weighed in, starting a hashtag that called for stopping the performance.
Late Wednesday, the festival's artistic director, Naji Baz, said a compromise had been reached after a meeting with the town's Maronite bishop. "We reached an arrangement whereby the concert will happen as planned, as long as the band holds a press conference in the coming days," he said. The band are to "apologize to all those who may have been offended" by two of their songs considered to be "insulting to sacred symbols in Christianity," he said. The two offending songs -- titled "Idols" and "Djin" -- will not feature in their set at the festival on August 9, he said.
The band took down posts "violating sacred symbols of Christianity" at the request of the State Security agency, the prosecutor’s office said.
The rhetoric by religious and conservative figures spurred a response from activists, rights groups and outraged Lebanese, angry over what they see as their country's mounting suppression of freedom of expression.
"This is so ridiculous. The whole world seems to be regressing into illiberalism," wrote renowned Lebanese-American writer and novelist Rabih Alameddine, who performed with the band at The Met Breuer in New York earlier this month. "Mashrou' Leila is one of the greatest things to happen to the Middle East."
Social media activists have meanwhile called for a Monday sit-in at the Samir Kassir Square in solidarity with the band. It was not clear what specifically triggered the current outburst. Some critics cited a photo shared online by Sinno that depicts a painting of the Virgin Mary with her head replaced by the pop star Madonna. The band issued a statement on Monday saying they "respected all religions and their symbols," and were saddened by "the distortion of the lyrics of some of our songs."Amnesty International issued a statement Tuesday calling on the Lebanese government to ensure the band is protected and the concert goes ahead. "It is unconscionable that there continue to be such calls emanating from institutions that are meant to serve as role models to their constituencies, and can and should be upholding the right to freedom of expression," said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty's head of research for the Middle East.
The debate has been trending on Twitter for days.
In a country beset by political, economic and financial troubles, many lamented the focus on the arts and censorship.
"What's wrong? Why do you insist on taking us back to the middle ages? Is it not enough that we are collectively sliding backward without any breaks? Is it not enough the despair we live in, on all levels?" Joelle Boutros, an activist, posted on Facebook.
Columnist Diana Skaini, writing in the daily An-Nahar, said the debate goes beyond Mashrou' Leila, to the heart of Lebanon and its message as a country. "Either we consecrate bans and populism and say goodbye to what remains of this moderate spot, or we confront this tyrannical wave that goes against our pluralistic and diverse country," she said. After a Mashrou' Leila concert in Egypt in 2017, at which members of the audience waved a rainbow flag, the authorities launched a crackdown on the country's LGBT community. Planned performances by the band in Jordan were canceled in 2016 and 2017, amid protests by conservative lawmakers. Religiously diverse Lebanon is one of the Middle East's more liberal countries, but its myriad of recognized sects still wield major influence over social and cultural affairs.

Lebanon Ups Pressure on Syrian Refugees to Return
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 25/2019
In a bustling district of the Lebanese capital, a government inspector issues a fine to the manager of a popular restaurant for hiring 17 Syrian refugees without work permits. In a country brimming with foreign workers, the labor ministry is clamping down on businesses employing foreigners without the required papers. But activists have condemned the crackdown, saying it is a pretext to pressure Syrian refugees to return to their war-torn homeland. After a long argument with the inspectors, restaurant manager Younes Younes reluctantly accepts the $3,300 fine. "I can't just replace the Syrian guy who's been preparing my shawarma sandwiches here for years," he said. "Finding Lebanese employees is not easy because they ask for higher salaries," he told the AFP news agency. "We've looked for Lebanese to hire... but we haven't found anyone." On a nearby restaurant window in the Hamra neighborhood, a sign reads: "Lebanese employees wanted.""None available," someone has scribbled over it in red. Lebanon, a small country of just four million people, says it hosts 1.5 million Syrians -- just under 1 million of them registered refugees -- as well as other foreign workers. Across the country, Egyptians fill up cars at petrol stations, Filipinas and Ethiopians clean homes, and Syrians work in restaurants or in the fields.
'Illegitimate pressure'
Due to poor state oversight, employers in Lebanon often hire foreign workers without employment permits, complaining that the process of acquiring one is long and complicated. Not registering a worker also avoids having to pay social security. The labor ministry says it is now looking to change this. It has erected controversial billboards across the country in recent weeks, urging employers to hire citizens. Last month, it gave business owners a one-month deadline to settle the paperwork of their foreign staff, and has started to address violations in recent weeks. But experts and analysts question the motives behind the latest measures. "There's a clear strategy to exert increasing pressure on Syrians" to go back, said Nasser Yassin of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs. Layla, a 20 year-old Syrian hairdresser, said she was forced to leave her job at a Beirut salon along with four Syrian colleagues because they did not have work permits. "They gave us 48 hours' notice," she said. She too believes that the government's latest measures are meant to persuade Syrians to return home, but said that this is not likely to happen. Instead, refugees will likely seek other illegal forms of employment to make a living, she added. Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups have accused the Lebanese government of using various methods to put "illegitimate pressure" on Syrian refugees to go home. "They include ramped up arrests and deportations, closing of shops and confiscation or destruction of unlicensed vehicles," HRW said. They came "on top of other longstanding restrictions, including curfews and evictions, and barriers to refugee education, legal residency and work authorization," the group said. Earlier this year, Lebanese authorities gave Syrians living in the eastern region of Arsal until July 1 to demolish shelters made of anything but timber and plastic sheeting.
Lebanon first
There has been mounting political pressure for the Syrians to be sent home, with some politicians blaming them for the country's economic woes. For more than a year, Lebanon has been organizing "voluntary" returns. Last month, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil called on employers to give priority to Lebanese over foreign labor, including Syrians. His statement drew criticism from activists who accused him of hate speech, but many in Lebanon have defended the minister. "We now wish we were refugees in Lebanon," said Nohad, a 50-year-old housewife. "Syrians are receiving monthly assistance, free education and healthcare that Lebanese don't get," she told AFP. Marlene Attallah, a labor ministry official, said the latest measures were designed to protect Lebanese jobs. "There are thousands of Lebanese looking for job opportunities," she said during an inspection tour. "The campaign concerns all undocumented foreign workers, and not one particular nationality." Yassin, the researcher, acknowledged the "tremendous pressure" Syrian refugees place on the country, but also stressed contribution they made to the economy by renting houses and shops. The latest measures are unlikely to encourage Syrians to go home, he said. Instead, "they will probably become poorer, and turn into groups constantly on the run."

Kanaan: Nations Can Be Wasted in Power Games
Naharnet/July 25/2019
MP Ibrahim Kanaan on Thursday said in a tweet that nations can be lost when parties in a nation fight over power and dominance. “At the time we were in exile and some of us were in prisons, our highest ambition was to return free to our country,” said Kanaan. “The power game is only temporary,” he said, stressing that the struggle for the logic of the state strengthens and “profits nations.”“It is not important to win or lose power, but winning our country back is,” he added.

Hariri Meets Lassen
Naharnet/July 25/2019
Prime Minister Saad Hariri met Wednesday evening at the Grand Serail with EU Ambassador to Lebanon Christina Lassen, for a farewell visit, Hariri’s media office said. The meeting focused on the situation in Lebanon and the region. Hariri presented to the Ambassador a commemorative shield in appreciation for the efforts she exerted to reinforce the relationship between Lebanon and the EU countries in various fields and help Lebanon in the difficult and delicate circumstances experienced by the region. Hariri held a dinner on this occasion attended by a number of ambassadors and diplomatic figures.

Antiparochi system for the Lebanese housing sector
Abdallah Hayek/Annahar/July 25/2019
The economic slowdown that started in 2014 is recognizable in the vacant units, concrete skeletons scattered in Beirut and Mount Lebanon.
BEIRUT: The economic bubble of 2007 has left Lebanon as a major hub for real estate investment in the region, after years of uncontrolled real estate activity and unsustainable legislation that caused an excessive housing development and changes in the social structure.
The economic slowdown that started in 2014 is recognizable in the vacant units, concrete skeletons scattered in Beirut and Mount Lebanon. Current real estate vehicles and regulations should be altered to tackle the difficulties of financing due to high-interest rates and the absence of housing loans, one of such vehicles is the Antiparochi System. The Antiparochi system is a housing system used in Greece which was empowered back in 1929 by the law of horizontal ownership. Through it, a landowner could turn over the plot to a contractor, in order to build a project and receiving in exchange an agreed number of apartments as well as an added 50 to 80 percent of the actual market value of his land after project completion.
It is a kind of social welfare policy for governments that couldn’t afford to finance directly a social housing program, investing instead in this type of semi-informal urbanism, creating favorable conditions and incentives for developers and landowners. This was also a State directive to incentivize and promote the construction sector as its basic productive activity in the Greek economy.
The mechanisms of exploiting on land were studied on a case by case analysis without any zoning restrictions. There were special tax incentives for Antiparochi projects that enabled its widespread implementation - it was almost free of tax for the landowners. It can be assumed that Sntiparochi was the only funding mechanism of the construction sector, which outgrew almost independently of the banking credit system. The Lebanese real estate market is in a desperate need to lower the housing cost for middle-income families. When the land is available at no direct cost, developers will be able to reduce their overhead and the cost of financing, as well as the cost of sales and marketing, given that a major part of the project is already owned by the landowner. Developers will be more malleable to compete with the current stock of vacant apartments which were subjected to a higher cost of financing.
The Lebanese government is requested to promote ample vehicles such as the Public Corporation for Housing (PCH) to reduce the bureaucratic administrative regulations to be less complicated and time consuming and monitor the system by which landowners should be given public assurance to protect their interests, the same was organized by the government of Dubai following the crash in 2008. This is done by allocating special courts to deal with any legal dispute among parties in a short period of time. Investors and developers will enjoy less financing challenges and lower overhead. Is the Antiparochi System the right choice for investors, amid the current interest rates climb and the absence of subsidized housing loans?

U.N. nuclear watchdog appoints Romanian diplomat Feruta as interim chief
Reuters/NNA -Thu 25 Jul 2019
Romanian diplomat Cornel Feruta will head the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) until member states agree on a permanent successor to deceased Director General Yukiya Amano, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said on Thursday. The IAEA announced on Monday that Amano had died, leaving the agency with a leadership vacuum at a time of rising tensions between Iran and the West following Washington’s decision last year to quit a 2015 international deal that curbed Tehran’s nuclear programme in return for an easing of economic sanctions.
U.S. President Donald Trump has reimposed sanctions on Iran and the fate of the landmark deal, which the IAEA has been overseeing, is unclear. "The Board of Governors has decided to designate Mr Cornel Feruta as acting Director General until a Director General assumes office," the IAEA said on Thursday.
However, the political backdrop means that negotiations on who will become permanent IAEA chief are likely to be difficult. The Director General is appointed by the agency’s 35-nation board of governors for four years. The candidate must be approved by the General Conference. Its regular annual meeting will be held September 16-20. The U.N. agency did not lay out a timeframe for naming a permanent successor to Amano. Feruta, the agency’s chief coordinator who was effectively Amano’s chief of staff, has been mentioned by diplomats as a likely candidate for the top job. He has supported the Iran deal in the past, saying last year that the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) had improved access to Iran significantly. Another potential candidate is Argentina’s ambassador to the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, though others could enter the fray.
While each candidate will have his or her own management style, it is widely expected that there will be no major change in the agency’s handling of its most high-profile issues, including Iran and a potential return to North Korea, which expelled IAEA inspectors in 2009. ---

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 25-26/2019
Israel’s latest missile attack in S. Syria hit a new Iranian intelligence post with overview of N. Israel
DEBKAfile/July 25/2019
In Israel’s attack on Tal al-Hara in southern Syria early Wednesday, July 24, its surface missiles leveled a new Iranian forward intelligence station for an overview of northern Israel and parts of the eastern Mediterranean, which had just begun functioning. just 11km from the Israeli border. Israel’s military intelligence watched construction of the station just 11km from the Israeli border and waited until it was up and running before taking it out with surface missiles. Also demolished at the same time were an Iranian observation post at Tal Al-Ahmar near Quneitra opposite the Israeli Golan. Syrian sources confirmed later Wednesday that the Israeli missiles scored a direct hit on the “observation post.” They reported at least 7 Syrian soldiers were killed. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the intelligence facility knocked down at Tal al-Hara was one of five that Iran has been setting up along the Syria-Israel border. Two are going up opposite the IDF’s positions on Mt. Hermon north of the Golan.
We reported earlier on Wednesday morning: The Syrian news agency reports that Israeli air-missile strikes hit at least three targets in the south, near its Golan order, early Wednesday, July 24: One was Tal al-Harra hill, home to Syrian military units, as well as A-Rutha west of Damascus and the Quneitra region. Syrian air defenses responded to all the incoming raids.  DEBKAfile’s military sources report that for two months, relative quiet reigned in all three sectors, largely due to Russian and Syrian efforts to drive pro-Iranian and Hizballah-linked forces out. Moscow and Damascus assured Israel that the border situation was under control. Nonetheless, Iran and Hizballah never gave up on their drive to return to their former bases or maintain operational ties with the local militias under their thumb. Most recently, they have been targeting Russian military police contingents in the southern districts, especially Daraa. The Russians report a roadside bomb attack on one of their convoys – although local sources attest to at least five. Elements linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hizballah are again infiltrating southern Syria, taking advantage of the transfer of Syrian troops stationed there to reinforce the units battling jihadist rebels in Hama on the outskirts of the northern province of Idlib. The Syrian army is stretched too thinly to fight on two simultaneous fronts. Furthermore, some of the Russian forces, mostly Chechens, have been sent back home. Hizballah and other pro-Iranian elements are therefore creeping back to their old bases and regrouping for attacks inside Israel.

Left-Wing Israeli Parties Unite to Counter Netanyahu
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 25/2019
Left-wing Meretz and the new party of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak said Thursday they had formed an alliance to boost the bloc ahead of September's general election. While such a union did not constitute a real threat to incumbent premier Benjamin Netanyahu's rule, it could be the catalyst for further mergers among the smaller parties fractioning both the left-wing and right-wing vote. Meretz barely passed the threshold in snap polls held in April, which saw Netanyahu and his right-wing and religious allies win a majority. And opinion surveys have predicted Barak's party formed in late June would not make it into parliament come September. "The initiators of the union believe that forming the Democratic Camp is the first and crucial step in the mission of bringing Israel back on track," a statement from the alliance said. The union was facilitated by Stav Shaffir of Labour, who will receive the second place on the list, and comes after Labour head Amir Peretz rejected the notion of joining forces with Meretz. It will be led by newly elected Meretz head Nitzan Horowitz, with Barak taking the tenth place on the list. Netanyahu over the weekend surpassed founding father David Ben-Gurion as Israel's longest-serving prime minister, first at the helm between 1996-1999 and then again since 2009. His latest apparent victory in the April polls turned sour after he failed to form a coalition government and opted to move towards new elections instead. He faces the new general election on September 17 while under threat of possible indictment for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in the months ahead.

Tunisia’s president, 92, dies in hospital
Reuters/July 26/2019
TUNIS: Tunisia’s 92-year-old president, Beji Caid Essebsi, who helped guide the north African country’s transition to democracy after a 2011 revolution, has died, the presidency said on Thursday.
A leading figure in the country’s fortunes since 2011, Essebsi was hospitalized late last month and spent a week in hospital after suffering what authorities described as a severe health crisis.
“On Thursday morning, the President of the Republic died at the military hospital in Tunis ... The burial ceremony will be announced later,” the presidency said in statement.
It was later confirmed on Thursday that Essebsi's burial will take place on Saturday.
According to the constitution, the speaker of parliament will temporarily serve as president.
Tunisia’s Independent Electoral Commission said that a presidential election that was scheduled for November 17 will now take place on September 15 instead.
Essebsi has been a prominent politician in Tunisia since the overthrow of veteran autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, which was followed by uprisings against authoritarian leaders across the Middle East, including in nearby Libya and Egypt.
Drafted in as prime minister in 2011 after Ben Ali was toppled, Essebsi was elected president three years later, becoming the country’s first directly elected head of state after its “Arab Spring” uprising.
Parliamentary elections are expected to be held on Oct. 6 with a presidential vote following on Nov. 17. They will be the third set of polls in which Tunisians have been able to vote freely following the 2011 revolution. In a statement, the presidency called on Tunisians to unite and safeguard their country’s present and future. Essebsi seen by critics favouring strong state “After the revolution, the president led the people to avoid confrontation and led the democratic transition and was keen to build and complete the constitutional institutions,” said the presidency. Analyst Ibrahim Ouslati said the death of Essebsi, one of the world’s oldest leaders, was not expected to disrupt politics.
“I don’t think there will be any problem because the Tunisians have a constitution that clearly shows that the speaker of the parliament occupies the position temporarily,” he said. “Politically, there will be no problem. The political elite has enough awareness to manage it wisely like any democratic country.” Essebsi faced criticism that he was seeking a return to a strong state with power concentrated in the presidency, whose role is limited to foreign and defense policies under the new constitution.
Critics also accused Essebsi of attempting a dynastic handover, rowing back on post-revolution freedoms, and failing to support a truth commission seeking justice for the victims of authoritarian rule.
Tunisia has been hailed as the only democratic success of the Arab Spring uprisings, with a new constitution, free elections and a coalition government with secular and moderate Islamists in a region otherwise struggling with upheaval. But political progress has not been matched by economic advances. Unemployment stands at about 15 percent, up from 12 percent in 2010, due to weak growth and low investment. Tunisia has been spared much of the violence seen elsewhere in the Middle East since 2011, although it has been the target of militant Islamists over the years.
Government troops have been battling militant groups in remote areas near the border with Algeria, while high unemployment has also stoked unrest in recent years.

Tunisian parliament speaker to serve as interim president
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English/Thursday, 25 July 2019
Tunisian parliament speaker Mohamed Ennaceur says he will temporarily serve as president according to the constitution. Ennaceur presidency comes after Tunisia’s 92-year-old President Beji Caid Essebsi, a major player in the North African country’s transition to democracy after a 2011 revolution, died on Thursday. Following Ennaceur's statement on national television, the country's ministry of interior said that Tunisia's security situation is stable and the ministry is carrying out its national duty.
The country will hold presidential elections ahead of the previously scheduled November 17 date.

Tunisian presidential election to take place on Sept. 15: Electoral Commission
Reuters, Tunis/Friday, 26 July 2019
Tunisia will hold a presidential election on September 15, the Independent Electoral Commission said on Thursday, following the death of President Beji Caid Essebsi. The new date is two months earlier than previously scheduled. A parliamentary vote is set for October 6.

Libya Militia Arrests al-Qaida Leaders
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 25/2019
A Libyan militia has arrested a number of al-Qaida-linked jihadist leaders in a raid near the capital Tripoli, the group said. The Misrata Joint Security Force carried out the raid against "wanted terrorists, classified as al-Qaida leaders," the group linked to the U.N.-recognized Government of National Accord's interior ministry said on Facebook late Wednesday. The dawn operation "in a suburb of Tripoli" on Wednesday led to the arrest of individuals "linked to attacks launched in the capital," it said. The main target, an Algerian national fighting under the name "Al-Chaoui", was rounded up along with several wanted Libyans, it added, without giving names or the total number arrested. The force published a video of the raid, including footage of three people wearing blue uniforms with their hands bound. It said it had also seized weapons, grenades, ammunition, documents and material used to produce explosives. Libya has been gripped by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Jihadists and people-traffickers have taken advantage of the unrest to gain a foothold in the North African country. Rival administrations and multiple militias are now vying for power, with the Tripoli-based GNA that holds Libya's west at odds with a parallel administration based in the country's east and backed by strongman Khalifa Haftar. Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army launched an offensive on April 4 to take the capital, but his fighters have faced stiff resistance from GNA forces, including the powerful Misrata militia. At least 1,000 people have been killed in the battle for Tripoli, according to the World Health Organization.

British navy to escort UK-flagged ships in Gulf strait
AFP/NNA /Thu 25 Jul 2019
Britain Thursday ordered its navy to escort U.K.-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian soldiers seized a tanker in the flashpoint entrance to the Gulf. "The Royal Navy has been tasked to accompany British-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz, either individually or in groups, should sufficient notice be given of their passage," the defense ministry said in a statement to AFP. The week-long standoff over the British-flagged Stena Impero and its 23-member crew has inflamed tensions between the Islamic republic and the United Kingdom. Britain responded Monday by proposing a European-led mission that could secure the passage of vessels through the world's busiest oil shipping lane. But France said Thursday it was not willing to send extra military assets to the Gulf, but would share information and coordinate its currently deployed assets. Iran had earlier warned Britain that it intended to retaliate for U.K. marines' involvement of the seizure of its own supertanker near Gibraltar on July 4. Britain currently has the HMS Montrose warship in the Gulf and a handful of smaller naval vessels. The Montrose had tried to rush in to rescue the Stena but arrived too late to the scene. Britain has already raised its security level in the region to the highest level and advised all boats in Iranian waters not to enter the strait. Its guidance before Thursday was for ships to notify the navy and receive instructions on "the safest way to transit" into the Gulf. "It is not possible for the Royal Navy to provide escorts for every single ship," now-former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt told Parliament on Monday. The U.K. department of transport had earlier advised British-registered ships not to sail through the area. Hunt told Parliament that two to three U.K.-flagged ships pass through the strait daily. He added that the Montrose had escorted 30 merchant vessels through the strait in 17 separate transits as of Monday. The 33-kilometer wide passageway provides the eastern entrance and exit point into the Gulf and runs between the United Arab Emirates and Iran.

Air Strikes Kill 12 Civilians in Northwest Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 25/2019
Air strikes by the regime and its Russian ally killed 10 civilians including three children in northwest Syria Thursday, a monitor said. Since late April, the Syrian regime and Russia have stepped up deadly raids on the Idlib region of three million people. The bombardment on the jihadist-held bastion has killed hundreds, pounded health centers and schools, and caused more than 330,000 people to flee their homes. Aid groups have decried a "nightmare" that has slain an alarming amount of children, in the latest bloody episode of Syria's eight-year civil war. Save the Children said the number of children killed in Idlib over the past four weeks had exceeded the number slain in the same region in the whole of last year. "The current situation in Idlib is a nightmare," the charity's Sonia Khush said. "It's clear that once again children have been killed and injured in indiscriminate attacks," she added in a statement. On Thursday, Russian air strikes killed seven civilians -- including one child -- in the bastion, most in and around the town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. And regime air raids killed five civilians -- including two children -- in neighboring Aleppo province, the Britain-based monitor said. The bastion under aerial attack is made up of a large part of the Idlib province, as well as slivers of the adjacent governorates of Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia. More than 730 civilians have been killed there in air strikes and ground-to-ground fire by the Damascus government and its allies since late April. The bombardment has increased in intensity in recent weeks, with the toll of almost 50 civilians on Monday alone -- the majority in air strikes on a busy market. Syria's political opposition Thursday condemned "on average at least a massacre a day" in the embattled stronghold.
"The Syrian people are really being targeted by a genocide," the head of the Syrian National Coalition Anas Abdah said at a press conference in Istanbul. A September accord struck between Moscow and Ankara was supposed to protect the region, but it was never fully implemented after jihadists refused to withdraw from a planned buffer zone. In January, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham -- a group led by Syria's former al--Qaida affiliate -- took over administrative control. Outside the bastion, rebel and jihadist rocket fire has also killed non-combatants -- but in far lower numbers. Since late April, retaliatory rocket fire has killed around 70 civilians in nearby government-held territory. Syria's war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.

Haftar: We will raise the banner of victory in the heart of Tripoli soon
Staff writer, Al Arabiya/English Thursday, 25 July 2019
Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar said on Wednesday that his forces were close to “raising the banner of victory” over Tripoli, where clashes have been ongoing for nearly four months. “The banner of victory will soon rise in our capital ... We assure you that the victory date is approaching its target for which the Libyans offered convoys of both martyrs and wounded,” said Haftar in a video speech broadcast on television. “You are faced with an unprecedented brutal enemy in the land of tyranny, but you managed to cut his back and get close to the Nile after a long wait,” he added. He stressed that his forces “stand in the face of the terrorists,” adding that the aim of the advance in Tripoli is “to complete the liberation of Libya from the east to the west and from the south to the north.”Since April 4, Haftar’s forces have been attacking the Libyan been involved in fierce clashes in Tripoli against the UN-recognized Government of National Accord.

Moroccan lawmakers vote to bolster French in education system
Reuters, Rabat/Tuesday, 23 July 2019
Moroccan lawmakers passed a draft law on Monday evening that would pave the way for strengthening the place of French in Moroccan schools, overturning decades of Arabization. The legislation was adopted in the lower house by 241-4, with 21 abstentions. Most members of the mainly Islamist co-ruling PJD and conservative Istiqlal lawmakers abstained from voting on the articles stipulating the use of French as a language of instruction. The text will enter into force after a second reading in the upper house and its publication in the official bulletin. The country’s official languages are Arabic and Amazigh, or Berber. Most people speak Moroccan Arabic - a mixture of Arabic and Amazigh infused with French and Spanish influences. French reigns supreme, however, in business, government and higher education, giving those who can afford to be privately schooled in French a huge advantage over most of the country’s students. Two out of three people fail to complete their studies at public universities in Morocco, mainly because they do not speak French, according to education ministry figures. To curb the number of university dropouts and equip people with the language requirements needed for jobs, the government proposed reintroducing French as a language of teaching science, mathematics and technical subjects. Such classes are taught in Arabic up to high school - a disconnect with French-dominated higher education. The adoption of the draft law irked advocates of Arabization, including the former secretary general of the PJD party, Abdelilah Benkirane, who described the reintroduction of the language of the former colonial power as a betrayal of the “party’s principles.”Two parliamentarians from a coalition of leftist parties, Omar Balafrej and Mostafa Chennaoui, voted against the draft law after the rejection of their amendments to enshrine a tax on wealth and a progressive inheritance tax to fund education reform. Morocco increased the education budget by 5.4 billion dirhams ($561 million) in 2019 to 68 billion dirhams ($7 billion) as it seeks to boost access and improve infrastructure notably in hard-to-reach areas.

Juncker Tells Johnson Brexit Deal Can't be Changed
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/July 25/2019
The president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker told Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday that EU officials have no mandate to renegotiate the Brexit withdrawal agreement. The pair spoke on the telephone for the first time since Johnson was sworn in as leader on a platform of taking Britain out of the EU on October 31 with or without a formal divorce accord. "President Juncker listened to what Prime Minister Johnson had to say, reiterating the EU's position that the Withdrawal Agreement is the best and only agreement possible –- in line with the European Council guidelines," Juncker's office said after the call.

Trump vetoes measures blocking arms sales to Saudi Arabia, UAE
Agencies/July 25/2019
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Wednesday vetoed three congressional resolutions barring billions of dollars in weapons sales to countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The resolutions “would weaken America’s global competitiveness and damage the important relationships we share with our allies and partners,” Trump said in letters to the Senate justifying blocking them. It is the third time the president has employed his veto power since taking office. The measures cleared Congress this month in a strong rebuke to Trump, whose administration took the extraordinary step of bypassing legislators to approve the sales in May. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said the administration was responding to an emergency caused by regional troublemaker Iran. But lawmakers including some Senate Republicans said there were no legitimate grounds to circumvent Congress, which has the right to disapprove arms sales. Critics say the arms sales would aggravate the war in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is leading a US-backed coalition that also includes the UAE in a battle against the Iranian-supported Houthi terrorists. The UN says the conflict has triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. But Trump argued Wednesday that barring the sale of US weapons “would likely prolong the conflict in Yemen and deepen the suffering it causes,” and that “without precision-guided munitions, more — not fewer — civilians are likely to become casualties.”
Iran’s ‘malign activities’
The US president also pointed to Iran in justifying blocking the resolutions. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are “a bulwark against the malign activities of Iran and its proxies in the region,” and the arms sale licenses Congress sought to block enhance their “ability to deter and defend against these threats,” he argued. Tensions between Washington and Tehran have soared since Trump pulled the US out of a deal with Iran last year that was aimed at curbing its nuclear program, and imposed punishing sanctions. The US has said it brought down one and possibly two Iranian drones last week, and has blamed Iran for a series of mysterious attacks on tanker ships in strategic Gulf waters. Tehran shot down an unmanned US aircraft in June, after which Trump announced that he had called off airstrikes on Iran at the last minute because the resulting death toll would have been too high. Trump has said that the choice between war and diplomacy with Iran “could go either way,” and that he is “okay either way it goes.”

Ukraine detains Russian tanker, Moscow warns of consequences
NNA/Reuters/Thu 25 Jul 2019
Ukraine said on Thursday it had detained a Russian tanker for its alleged involvement in the seizure of three Ukrainian vessels by Russia in November, and Moscow threatened consequences if Russian citizens were "taken hostage". Ukraine’s security service maintained that the tanker in the Ukrainian port of Izmail was involved in an incident in November in the Kerch Strait that led to Russia seizing three Ukrainian vessels.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 25-26/2019
Iran’s blatant violations of international maritime laws
د.مجيد رافيزادا: مخالفة إيران الفجة لقانون البحار الدولي
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/July 25/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/76992/%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%af-%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%a7-%d9%85%d8%ae%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%81%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a5%d9%8a%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%81%d8%ac%d8%a9-%d9%84%d9%82/
The Islamic Republic of Iran appears determined to ratchet up its aggressive policies and subversive behavior in the region, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz.
First, four tankers were targetedclose to the port of Fujairah off the coast of the UAE in May. A month later, on June 13, two tankers crossing the Gulf of Oman were sabotagedwith explosives — one went up in flames and both were left adrift. The two ships that were sabotaged were Japanese and Norwegian: The Japanese Kokuka Courageous and the Norwegian Front Altair.
A few weeks later, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) became more emboldened and it broadcasta video boasting about how its commandos, wearing black ski masks and military fatigues, descended from a helicopter on to a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and victoriously seized the ship.
The Iranian regime’s explanations for these dangerous actions are not only unbelievable but also contradictory. On the one hand, some Iranian leaders claim that the attacks are solely “reciprocal.” Iran’s Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei told the semi-official Fars News Agency that the seizure of the British tanker was in retaliation for the British navy seizing an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar. He statedthat it was aimed at confronting “the illegitimate economic war, and seizure of oil tankers is an instance of this rule and is based on international rights.” But Iranian leaders failed to mention that Tehran’s tanker was shipping oil to Syria in violationof EU sanctions.
On the other hand, Iran’s state-owned media outlets claimed that these attacks and seizures were carried out because the oil tankers provoked the Iranian navy.
The accurate explanation for why Iran is carrying out such belligerent policies can be traced to the instructions of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in Iran’s domestic and foreign policies. From the perspective of Khamenei and the senior cadre of the IRGC, the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most strategically important chokepoints, belongsto Iran. That is why, since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, the ruling clerics have always boasted about Iran’s strategic advantage and superiority over this Gulf passageway, through which roughly a fifth of global oil exports pass.
But the Islamic Republic is violatingthe internationally agreed UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Under part three of UNCLOS, “Straits Used For International Navigation,” Article 44, the agreement stipulatesthat: “States bordering straits shall not hamper transit passage and shall give appropriate publicity to any danger to navigation or over flight within or over the strait of which they have knowledge. There shall be no suspension of transit passage.”
UNCLOS also clarifies that transit passage means the “freedom of navigation and over flight solely for the purpose of continuous and expeditious transit of the strait between one part of the high seas or an exclusive economic zone and another part of the high seas or an exclusive economic zone.”
This reveals the fact that Iran is blatantly violating this customary international law on the freedom of navigation. The theocratic establishment of Iran is a signatory to UNCLOS but has long refrained from ratifying it.
The Iranian regime’s explanations for these dangerous actions are not only unbelievable but also contradictory.
In addition, Iran’s aggressive behavior and its threats to block the Strait of Hormuz means closing or interrupting the ports of several other states in the region, including Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE and Iraq.
This is also a blatant violation of the UN General Assembly’s Definition of Aggression, which “callsupon all states to refrain from all acts of aggression and other uses of force contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among states in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.” This resolution states that the following can be classed as acts of aggression: “The blockade of the ports or coasts of a state by the armed forces of another state,” and “an attack by the armed forces of a state on the land, sea or air forces, or marine and air fleets of another state.”
The Iranian leaders believe they are in charge of the Strait of Hormuz. Through its attacks and seizure of tankers, Iran is blatantly violating UNCLOS and the UN General Assembly resolution that prohibits acts of aggression.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. He is a leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, a businessman and president of the International American Council. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

What is Iran hoping to achieve with Gulf confrontations?
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Arab News/July 25/2019
One possible upside for Iran from the recent flare-ups in the Strait of Hormuz is that crude oil prices jumped more than 1 percent on the news that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) last week seized a British oil tanker, supposedly in retaliation for Britain’s Royal Marines seizing an Iranian ship near the Strait of Gibraltar at the beginning of July.
This led to some speculation that one of Tehran’s aims might be to put pressure on the West through destabilizing prices in the global oil markets. The US administration was quick to deny Iran would be able to pursue this tactic to much effect. And, on this occasion, they would be largely correct. The US does, at this moment in time, have effective energy independence and it also has significant surpluses with which it could support its allies.
If all-out war were to break out in the Gulf, global oil prices would still spike, but that spike would be of relatively limited scope — and certainly the US, and by extension much of the West, would be able to absorb it. This is not the 1970s or 80s, when any Gulf nation could send the economies of the West into a tailspin with a mere threat to the supply of Middle Eastern oil.
An alternative explanation is that, even if Tehran is not aiming quite as high as destabilizing Western economies, it would still very likely benefit from an increase in oil prices, however modest. The country’s budget gets an estimated 30 to 40 percent of its revenues from oil exports. In the context of America’s “maximum (economic) pressure” on Tehran, which the regime is currently feeling rather acutely, some reprieve from an oil revenue bump would be more than welcome.
Iran may have the capacity to seize isolated ships, but it does not have the capacity to stare down a US naval deployment to the region
Unfortunately, this is not likely a good explanation either. For such a tactic to be effective, Iran would need to be able to sustain a long-term, credible threat to oil shipping through the Arabian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. This is quite beyond its capacity at the moment. Iran can certainly harass the occasional ship, and individual shipping companies might feel an immediate impact, but, overall, a sustained assault on shipping in the area would prompt the West to deploy naval patrols in force. Iran may have the capacity to seize isolated ships, but it does not have the capacity to stare down a US naval deployment to the region. All this would achieve is to negate much of Iran’s leverage and risk escalating the situation even further.
And escalating the situation is not something anyone wants. Not the US, sure, but certainly not the regime in Tehran. The problem that the US has is that, despite its overwhelming destructive capacity, it is utterly incapable of deploying that capacity to bend the Middle East to its will; the ways in which it has won the wars and lost the peace in both Afghanistan and Iraq is definitive proof of the limits of American hard power. A direct military campaign against Iran would be an expensive mistake for Washington.
But, for the current regime in Tehran, ensnaring the US in another Middle East war would be worse than just a mistake — it would be suicide. The US may not be able to ever compel a country like Iran to bend to its will, but it can certainly bomb the regime to oblivion and hunt down and exterminate every last ayatollah or officer of the IRGC.
The Iranian government knows this. Iran, as a regional power, does have many strengths but the leadership in Tehran is well aware of the limits of that power. The Islamic Republic would not have survived as long as it has, surrounded as it is by existential enemies, if the leadership did not have a clear view of the field. This, as well as the recent drone incidents, would be best understood as limited skirmishing as both sides are gearing toward a rehashing of the Obama-era nuclear deal. Each side is trying to demonstrate capacity to gain extra leverage in that negotiation. This does risk scuppering the chances of a deal altogether if some kind of serious accident happens on either side. But, for now, that remains the direction of travel.
In that respect, global oil prices look quite safe from this particular threat — at least for the time being.
*Dr. Azeem Ibrahim is a Director at the Center for Global Policy and author of “The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar’s Genocide” (Hurst, 2017). Twitter: @AzeemIbrahim​

Is the time right for a final US exit from Afghanistan?
Javed Hafeez/Arab News/July 25/2019
The US, Russia and China all appear anxious for an early peace settlement in Afghanistan. This consensus is juxtaposed to their divergent policies on many other issues, creating the perception of a creeping new cold war. Lately, they have brought Pakistan into center stage in order to accelerate the Afghan peace process.President Donald Trump wants US troops back home before elections next year. At a recent Afghan peace conference in Pakistan, which I attended and where members of the Afghan opposition, civil society, media and gender rights groups were present, one could discern a clear war fatigue and a resultant yearning for peace. Current optimism about peace in Afghanistan is not without basis. US-Taliban talks in Doha were followed by intra-Afghan talks of sorts. These negotiations, which the Taliban insist were attended by Kabul government representatives in their individual capacity, were given the unorthodox nomenclature of “non-talks.” The Doha round was succeeded by the quadrilateral talks attended by special envoys of three world powers and Pakistan in Beijing. The meet endorsed the need for intra-Afghan negotiations for a peace framework that would include the “orderly and responsible transition of the security situation.”
However, there are many imponderables to be addressed before genuine peace is achieved. Will the Taliban agree to work under the current constitution? Should presidential elections in Afghanistan be decoupled from the negotiations? Should the US troop presence be brought down to zero by next year? And, if the troops are completely withdrawn, who will ensure that the framework for peace is implemented in letter and spirit? Who will monitor the cease-fire that is so essential to any progress toward a durable peace? And, more importantly, should the negotiations for a durable intra-Afghan peace be rushed through or be allowed to proceed gradually?
A sudden withdrawal of foreign troops could be a recipe for disaster. The world saw this after the withdrawal of Soviet forces after the US and its allies lost interest in Afghanistan and Pakistan, thinking the Afghans could manage their country. A long and bloody power struggle ensued and culminated in the rise of the Taliban. The abrupt withdrawal of foreign troops could result in a replay of history. The government in Kabul partially draws its influence from the physical presence of foreign troops, while 11 percent of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is related to expenditure on foreign troops.
But Trump has a streak of surprising others. Last December, he suddenly announced that half of the US troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan. This caused fissures in his own Cabinet and Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned. In the first half of 2019, the internal struggle for power in Afghanistan gained momentum and Daesh made its presence felt to all and sundry.
A sudden withdrawal of foreign troops could be a recipe for disaster.
Pakistan’s role in the Afghan peace efforts has now been internationally recognized. Its pre-settlement role was to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table and to coax them to continue talking to their interlocutors. Now, the Taliban are being asked to ensure that, in the post-settlement period, militant entities like Al-Qaeda and Daesh will not be allowed to get a foothold in Afghanistan. The indications are that Pakistan will be expected to monitor this. Traditionally, Pakistan has favored a phased withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, although its stance is now more nuanced. Ideally, the troop withdrawal should be linked to progress in negotiations. This will provide incentive to the Taliban to show flexibility.
Peace in Afghanistan, which is nicknamed the “graveyard of empires,” has to come from within: From intra-Afghan dialogue and its resultant agreements underwritten by regional and global powers. I had the opportunity to represent Pakistan as an observer in the inter-Tajik talks, which reached a successful conclusion because the Dushanbe government had the full backing of Moscow. Moreover, a division of Russian troops was stationed in Tajikistan and, ultimately, a power-sharing formula evolved that was acceptable to both parties.
It appears that the US, under Trump, is ready to exclude Afghanistan from its sphere of influence and pass the baton on to China and Russia. China is keen on an early peace in Afghanistan as it lies on the margins of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. And Russia wants a stable and peaceful Afghanistan as it contemplates the east-west corridor linking it with India and East Asia. Connectivity is the buzzword these days and peace in the heart of Asia will benefit the entire region. Pakistan will be a major beneficiary through higher trade with its neighbor.
Afghanistan will need a Marshall Plan of its own for the reconstruction of its war-ravaged economy, and the US, China and Russia could share the development costs. That means the time for the final exit of the US has not really arrived because stability and economic development in Afghanistan should be and is in the interests of the Americans.
*Javed Hafeez is a former Pakistani diplomat. He appears regularly on satellite TV channels as a defense and political analyst. Twitter: @hafiz_javed

Twenty Years Under King Mohammed VI (Part 1): Domestic Developments
Sarah Feuer and Reda Ayadi/The Washington Institute/July 25/2019
America’s oldest Arab ally has made significant economic progress since 1999, but grievances regarding social issues and political reform continue to pose a challenge.
This PolicyWatch is the first in a two-part series assessing key developments during King Mohammed’s reign to date. Part 2 will examine foreign policy issues.
On July 30, Morocco’s fifty-five-year-old ruler Mohammed VI will commemorate twenty years on the throne. In 1999, he inherited a kingdom of twenty-eight million citizens facing considerable socioeconomic challenges, including a lack of basic necessities in rural areas, high poverty, a labor market and GDP too reliant on agriculture, and unemployment hovering around 14% nationally and nearly double that among youths. Moreover, his father’s four-decade reign had been marked by severe political repression and human rights abuses, albeit capped by a controlled opening of the political system and civil society shortly before succession.
In the twenty years since then, Morocco has made significant strides in several areas of economic and human development. At the same time, Mohammed has largely adopted his father’s preference for limited political openings, eschewing the deeper liberalization many hoped he would introduce. In the coming decades, Morocco’s ability to remain a stable exception to the chaotic regional rule will likely depend on the viability of this implied bargain.
SCHOOLS, SOLAR PANELS, AND SUFIS
Mohammed’s scorecard includes a number of noteworthy economic achievements. Morocco’s GDP rose from $42 billion in 1999 to $110 billion by 2017 (in 2017 U.S. dollars); economic growth, while still beholden to variable weather effects on agriculture, has averaged 3-4% annually, with the IMF recently predicting an improved economic outlook in the medium term; and the country now ranks second in the region after the United Arab Emirates on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index. Signaling a shift from his father, Mohammed invested in Morocco’s long-neglected north early on, one result of which was Tanger Med, the largest port on the Mediterranean Sea and in all of Africa.
Additional bright spots have appeared in school enrollment, women’s advancement, and poverty reduction. In 1999, fully one-third of primary-age children were not attending school. Following a series of reforms, primary school enrollment now stands at 97%, with the biggest gains among young girls. In 2004, the monarchy reformed the code of family law (mudawanna), granting women the rights to divorce, child custody, and self-guardianship while raising the minimum marriage age to eighteen. Poverty has fallen substantially since 1999, when roughly 16% of the population and 30% of rural inhabitants were living at or below the poverty line; today those figures are 4% and 19%. Notwithstanding their higher poverty rates, nearly 100% of rural communities now have access to electricity, compared to only 18% in 1999.
Following the push toward mass electrification, Morocco embarked on a major renewable energy development project, partly to reduce its reliance on hydrocarbon imports and partly to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. One result has been the development of the Noor solar power plant, the largest such complex in the world and one that could ultimately make Morocco an energy exporter to Europe and Africa.
The kingdom is also a regional outlier in its approach to countering Islamist extremism. Four years into Mohammed’s reign, Morocco was rocked by the worst terrorist attack in its history, with twelve suicide bombers blowing themselves up at various tourist and Jewish sites in the capital, killing thirty-three civilians. The attack prompted the king—who as “Commander of the Faithful” is also the country’s chief religious authority—to launch comprehensive reforms such as bringing mosques and Islamic schools under tighter state control, stripping religious education curricula of extremist content, promoting Sufism and other streams of Islam believed to promote moderation, and establishing an imam training academy for students from North and West Africa and, increasingly, Europe.
These reforms have not immunized the kingdom from homegrown extremism, as attested by the estimated 2,000 Moroccans who joined the Islamic State and other jihadist groups in Syria between 2012 and 2016. Still, through a blend of heightened security measures and religious reforms, the country has evidently contained the threat of extremism better than most of its regional peers.
GRADUALISM OR GRIDLOCK?
If the Casablanca attack fueled a push to counter religious extremism, it also slowed the momentum toward political liberalization implied in Mohammed’s pledge to rule differently than his father had. After a series of early initiatives distributed approximately $185 million to over 16,000 victims of King Hassan II’s so-called “Years of Lead,” many expected civil liberties to expand under his son. But the 2003 bombings spurred a sweeping antiterrorism law that human rights groups condemned for enshrining an overly broad definition of terrorism and enabling the government to obstruct ostensibly peaceful political activity. Today, press freedom and other civil liberties remain restricted, and Morocco’s Freedom House ranking of “partly free” hasn’t budged in twenty years.
Frustration with the pace of reforms boiled over in 2011, against the backdrop of “Arab Spring” uprisings throughout the Middle East. In response to nationwide protests demanding greater political rights and an end to corruption and high unemployment, Mohammed organized a constitutional referendum and called for new elections. The main results of these initiatives were partial empowerment of the legislative branch, formal recognition of minority ethnic identities, and a new parliament dominated by the Justice and Development Party (PJD). This mildly Islamist party, with roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, had been active in Morocco’s political landscape for decades and had long since dropped its formal opposition to the monarchy. (The country’s other main Islamist organization, al-Adl wal-Ihsan, advocates eliminating the monarchy and is thus banned.)
At the same time, the 2011 constitution reserved considerable powers for the king, and his allies have since built new parties to counteract the PJD. The resulting dynamic largely reproduced the contours of a political system long familiar to Moroccans: a monarchy unwilling to cede much power governs alongside (or, rather, above) political parties that are unable to advance shared legislative goals. A decentralization program was initiated to grant more discretion and responsibility to regional governments, but the process has largely stalled. Meanwhile, corruption remains rampant; youth unemployment, a driving factor behind the 2011 protests, stands at 22% nationally and 43% in urban areas, a sobering figure given that nearly half of Morocco’s 34 million citizens are under age twenty-four; economic inequality, as reflected in annual measures of Morocco’s Gini coefficient, remains at pre-1999 levels or worse; and access to decent healthcare and education is limited.
Such conditions fueled a series of protest movements in the years following Morocco’s “Spring.” In 2016-2017, mass demonstrations broke out in the traditionally restive Rif region after a local fishmonger was crushed to death by a garbage truck as he sought to retrieve his confiscated catch. More than 150 protestors were arrested in the ensuing crackdown on the al-Hirak al-Shaabi movement, whose leaders are currently serving twenty-year jail sentences. In 2018, an unprecedented boycott targeted three of the kingdom’s leading companies in protest of longstanding links between business and political elites. Notably, two of the companies are run by individuals with known ties to the palace.
According to the latest Arab Barometer poll, 49% of Moroccans want rapid domestic change (the highest percentage of any Arab country polled), and 70% of adults under age thirty wish to emigrate. Adequately addressing the frustrations behind such figures will be a central challenge for Mohammed as he enters his third decade of rule.
CONSIDERATIONS FOR WASHINGTON
The United States has a clear interest in helping Morocco preserve its relative stability, particularly given the uncertainties gripping Algeria next door. That stability largely depends on Rabat’s ability to continue implementing reforms in a way that reduces the drivers of social unrest while avoiding the chaos and authoritarian regression seen elsewhere in the region. Washington can boost the kingdom’s chances of success by more actively engaging it in the development arena.
Targeted U.S. assistance has already yielded substantial results under Mohammed VI. For example, a five-year Millennium Challenge Corporation grant of $697 million in 2008-2013 reportedly facilitated Morocco’s poverty reduction efforts. A second MCC “compact” of $450 million went into effect in 2017, rightly targeting job creation and land productivity. But the Trump administration has repeatedly sought to reduce its annual aid package, perhaps reasoning that Morocco’s relative calm obviates the need for assistance. Given the kingdom’s ongoing economic woes and growing indicators of social frustration, the administration should reconsider this stance.
One area that warrants greater attention—and to which Rabat would be especially receptive—is investment in Morocco’s private sector. Specifically, the Trump administration should consider creating a Moroccan-American Enterprise Fund, based on the highly successful model established by previous administrations with various Eastern European allies. Such a fund would spur much-needed private-sector growth in the kingdom and could even create opportunities for joint business ventures with American firms.
Of course, any engagement with Morocco will be hampered to the extent that Washington’s diplomatic presence remains limited. Accordingly, sending an ambassador to Rabat remains an urgent priority.
*Sarah Feuer is an associate fellow with The Washington Institute, where Reda Ayadi was a research assistant from 2018 to 2019.

Clarifying Freedom of Navigation in the Gulf
Farzin Nadimi/The Washington Institute/July 25/2019
Legal ambiguities have led to disagreements over how vessels can use the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf, so Washington should highlight them in any future talks with Iran.
When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo laid out his twelve “basic requirements” for Iran during a policy speech last year, he made only passing reference to ending the regime’s “threats to international shipping.” Yet the seizure of two foreign oil tankers and other recent events have shown that these threats are very real and need to be addressed frankly in any future negotiations, right alongside Tehran’s nuclear program, missile arsenal, and destabilizing regional activities. Otherwise, diverging interpretations of the applicable laws of the sea will leave room for more misuse and potential military flare-ups.
DIFFERING LEGAL FRAMEWORKS IN PLAY
One major area of disagreement is passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Historically, foreign vessels transiting territorial seas and international straits have been bound by two sets of rules: the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, and the succeeding 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. UNCLOS took precedence over the 1958 convention when it came into force in 1994.
The United States is party to the old convention but has not signed UNCLOS. Washington considers UNCLOS to reflect customary international law and abides by most of the requirements therein, but it objects to certain provisions, and the convention does not allow selective ratification.
Iran is a signatory to the 1958 convention but never ratified it. Tehran also conditionally signed but did not ratify UNCLOS; like the United States, it does not accept certain provisions. Meanwhile, Iran ratified its own national maritime law in 1993, which allows “innocent passage” under certain conditions but does not make any reference to “transit passage” through Hormuz or recognize it as an international strait (see next section for a fuller discussion of these terms).
One key change in UNCLOS was to increase the extent of a country’s coastal seas from three nautical miles to twelve. The United States strongly opposed this provision at first but has since accepted it in most contexts—except when dealing with straits and other international passages. In practical terms, this means Washington does not recognize the right of coastal states to regulate passage or limit activities in such waterways. Rather than viewing unhindered transit as a new right under UNCLOS or as a contractual right in general, U.S. officials regard it as a longstanding, well-established international practice for all states seeking to sail through or overfly international straits.
Oman, the state whose coast lies on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, has ratified UNCLOS. Like Iran, however, it requires foreign warships to give prior notification before transiting the strait—a requirement the United States does not recognize.
INNOCENT PASSAGE VS. TRANSIT PASSAGE
To determine how their vessels pass through territorial waters or international straits, states rely on two concepts: innocent passage (codified by both conventions) and transit passage (introduced by UNCLOS). Some states apply them differently than others depending on their interpretations of international and domestic law.
Innocent passage applies to navigation through a country’s territorial seas, or through an international strait that connects “a part of the high seas or an exclusive economic zone and the territorial sea of a foreign state.” Passage is considered innocent as long as foreign vessels (including warships) respect all of the coastal state’s safety regulations that conform to UNCLOS, and refrain from posing a threat to the state. To clarify the latter requirement, UNCLOS introduced a list of activities that would be considered “prejudicial to the peace, good order, or security of the coastal state” if conducted inside territorial waters during innocent passage (Article 19). A state can temporarily suspend innocent passage in specific areas of its territorial seas for security reasons (Article 25), but this provision cannot be applied in a discriminatory fashion that singles out individual countries. More important, it does not apply to international straits (Article 45).
Transit passage refers to continuous, expeditious navigation through straits that connect two areas of the high seas and/or the exclusive economic zones of two or more countries. The United States categorizes the Strait of Hormuz and its approaches as such. Accordingly, U.S. vessels exercise the rules of transit passage when entering the Persian Gulf—though as mentioned previously, Washington regards this as well-established international practice rather than a contractual right granted under UNCLOS.
Transit passage offers significantly greater navigation rights than innocent passage. Article 39 describes how transiting ships are expected to avoid any threatening activity against “the sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence” of the coastal state as determined by the UN Charter. Yet UNCLOS also explicitly declares that transit passage through an international strait “shall not be impeded” (Article 38), and that coastal states cannot suspend it for any purpose, including military exercises (Article 44).
When signing UNCLOS, Iran declared it would apply the new requirements only to those states that were party to the 1982 convention; for other countries like the United States, it would apply the 1958 convention. This approach can be interpreted as discriminatory, which is prohibited by UNCLOS.
To ensure the safety and security of navigation through international waterways like the Strait of Hormuz, the UN’s International Maritime Organization divides them using a system of transit corridors and traffic separation schemes. Such a system gives coastal states more regulatory rights over foreign-flagged vessels than they can exercise on the high seas (e.g., regarding pollution risks), but less than that provided by the right of innocent passage in territorial seas. In the Strait of Hormuz, these corridors lie entirely in Omani waters; in the Persian Gulf, they mostly run through Iranian waters.
The vulnerabilities of the existing system were highlighted just last week, when Iranian forces seized a British-flagged tanker in retaliation for the Royal Navy’s previous capture of a ship suspected of transporting Iranian oil to Syria in defiance of European sanctions. According to a recording obtained by CNN, a British frigate near the scene told the tanker’s crew, “As you are conducting transit passage in a recognized international strait, under international law your passage must not be impaired, impeded, obstructed, or hampered.” In response, Iranian forces claimed they did not intend to challenge the tanker, but merely to inspect it for “security reasons.”
MILITARY IMPLICATIONS
Views diverge on whether UNCLOS allows foreign military vessels to launch and recover aircraft during a transit passage. This is a major point of contention when carriers or warships with helicopters on board sail through the Strait of Hormuz. According to the principle of transit passage, U.S. military aircraft may overfly the strait in combat formation and with normal equipment operating, while warships may transit in a manner consistent with sound navigational and force-protection practices.
Submarines add a further layer of complexity. Under UNCLOS, they are required to surface when conducting innocent passage through territorial seas (Article 20), but views are divided on whether they can be submerged during transit passage. American submarines often remain submerged while passing through the Strait of Hormuz and the shipping corridors to its west as a way of exercising their right of transit passage.
UNCLOS does not explicitly require countries to give prior notice for the passage of their warships through foreign waters. Thus while U.S. military vessels abide by the provisions of innocent passage when moving through foreign territorial seas (as opposed to waterways covered by transit passage), they generally do not give notice of their passage.
For its part, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy maintains a strong asymmetric presence in the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf, claiming that it interrogates every ship entering the Gulf via radio and monitors traffic closely using aerial drones or small boats. Such “monitoring” sometimes takes an aggressive form. Iranian officials frequently refer to this imposition of will on foreign warships as a “victory.” Now that the IRGC is a U.S.-designated terrorist entity, however, its legal right to engage in such activities is unclear. UNCLOS allows ships and aircraft conducting transit passage to deviate from their “normal mode of activity” if they encounter force majeure or distress (Article 39, paragraph 1c). A threatening approach by armed speedboats or drones in the narrow Strait of Hormuz would seem to fall under this definition, allowing for defensive action.
CONCLUSION
Tehran does not recognize transit passage through any part of its territorial waters or the Strait of Hormuz, and has placed restrictions on innocent passage there as well, partly to challenge the United States. Article 23 of Iran’s 1993 maritime law states that the legislation supersedes all previous laws and regulations, and while some experts contend that this language refers only to domestic laws, the document makes no reference to how it should be interpreted in light of UNCLOS or any other international law. This needs to be clarified. The only way to avert future tensions is through a regional agreement that includes global maritime powers such as the United States while clarifying the maritime laws presiding in the Strait of Hormuz and its approaches.
In the meantime, the United States should continue its customary practice since the Islamic Republic was established in 1979: exercising freedom of navigation in “maritime claims-excessive” zones like Hormuz, meaning waterways where it believes coastal states are exercising too many claims. Yet maintaining current arrangements indefinitely runs the risk of future escalation given the U.S. commitment to freedom of navigation and Iran’s principal policy of forcing America out of the Middle East. At best, any favorable change in Iran’s behavior will be short-lived without a comprehensive, transparent agreement; at worst, the lack of such an accord could lead to wider military confrontation.
*Farzin Nadimi is an associate fellow with The Washington Institute. He wishes to thank Ashley Roach, a former attorney advisor in the State Department’s Office of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, for reviewing this PolicyWatch at the draft stage and offering his expert opinions.