English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese
Related, Global News & Editorials
For June 10/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.june10.20.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
I have called you friends, because I have made known to you
everything that I have heard from my Father
John 15/15-21: “I do not call you servants any longer, because the
servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends,
because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit,
fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in
my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. ‘If
the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you
belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not
belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world
hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, “Servants are not greater than
their master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my
word, they will keep yours also. But they will do all these things to you on
account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 09-10/2020
Lebanon Records 18 New Coronavirus Cases
Aoun Calls for Joint Military and Security Efforts against 'Sedition'
President Aoun briefed on demands of Association of Public Works, calls on
contractors to participate in anti-corruption process
Hitti briefs Aoun on diplomatic efforts to extend UNIFIL's mandate
PM Diab chairs security meeting
Diab chairs tourism sector meeting: What is important today is to put Lebanon
back on tourism map
Lebanon to reopen airport in July and send public sector employees back to work/Najia
Houssari/Arab News/June 09/2020
Diab Warns 'All Lebanese Will Pay Price of any Instability'
Lebanon: Tripoli Fears Chaos, Sectarian Tension
Berri tackles general situation with interlocutors
Israel Vows to Deliver ‘Blow’ to Lebanon if Hizbullah Strikes
Report: Diplomats Concerned over Situation in Lebanon after Saturday’s Clashes
Protesters Rally, Block Roads as Dollar Soars on Black Market
Mustaqbal Says June 6 'Black Day', Warns over 'Sunni Anger'
Geagea Slams Aoun on Judicial Appointments, Marada to Boycott Cabinet
Hariri from Dar el-Fatwa: Coexistence is Key for Lebanon’s Stability
Hariri Launches Scathing Attack on Presidency and FPM
2 Accused in Ghosn's Escape Scheme Fight Extradition
Abdel Samad visits Qattar to discuss criteria for second screening phase for
Tele Liban General Director post
Strong Lebanon: To conclude financial appointments, fill vacancies and
promulgate anti-corruption laws
Bukhari tackles economic developments with Bifani
Hitti advocates safe, dignified and non-coercive return of displaced Syrians
Contact tracing key to keeping Lebanon's coronavirus cases low
We banned Hezbollah activities in Germany. Now it’s the EU’s turn/Christoph
Bernstiel/Al Arabiya/June 08/2020
Hezbollah dragging Lebanon closer to new civil war/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab
News/June 08/2020.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
June 09-10/2020
Republicans in Congress to introduce biggest-ever sanctions bill against
Iran/Joyce Karam/The National/June 09/2020
Iran to Execute Spy Who Helped US Target Soleimani
Allowing Iran to buy, sell conventional weapons further destabilizes region:
Hook
For 2nd Straight Day, Syria’s Suweida Protests against Regime, Living Crisis
US Official: Sanctions Contributed to Devaluation of Syrian Pound
Syria Hit by Rare Anti-Regime Protests Sparked by Economic Crisis
Airstrikes Target NW Syria, Displace Thousands
What’s Behind Netanyahu’s Call for his US Advisor?
Shtayyeh Submits 'Counter-Proposal' to US Mideast Plan
Sudan Begins Negotiations With IMF to Settle Arrears, Get Financial Support
Ethiopia Confident of Filling Nile Dam, Egypt Awaits ‘Comprehensive Agreement’
OPEC+ May Push The Price Of Oil Barrel To Above $50
Canada reaffirms ongoing support for Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons
Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published on June 09-10/2020
Iran Close to Nuclear Weapons Breakout/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone
Institute/June 09/2020
Boris Johnson Leaves the Dirty Work to Everyone Else/Martin Ivens/Bloomberg/June
09/2020
China, US, India and the Landscape of the 21st Century/Hal Brands/Bloomberg/June
09/2020
'Political Correctness' in the UK: Shut Down Discussion Before It Can
Start/Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/June 09/2020
Bringing the Middle East Back Home/Tony Badran/Tablet Magazine/June 09/2020
The worst is yet to come in Libya/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Arab News/June 09/2020
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News &
Editorials published on June 09-10/2020
Lebanon Records 18 New Coronavirus
Cases
Naharnet/June 09/2020
Lebanon recorded eighteen new cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus on Tuesday
raising the total number of individuals retracting the virus to 1368, the Health
Ministry said. According to official data, the new cases have all been recorded
in Lebanese residents. Zero cases were recorded in Lebanese expats repatriated
recently. So far, 795 individuals who retracted the virus have recovered,
according to data.
Aoun Calls for Joint Military and Security Efforts against
'Sedition'
Naharnet/June 09/2020
President Michel Aoun marked the Internal Security Forces anniversary on
Tuesday, calling the institution to join its efforts with other security
agencies to eradicate sedition in Lebanon. “The internal Security Forces must
strengthen cooperation with other security and military institutions to stem
sectarian sedition,” said Aoun. He stated that “sectarian strife aims at
striking the basis of Lebanon's existence,” in reference to Saturday’s clashes
in Beirut.
Furthermore, the President marked the 159th anniversary of founding the ISF.
President Aoun briefed on demands of Association of Public
Works, calls on contractors to participate in anti-corruption process
NNA/June 09/2020
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, stressed that efforts are based
on various levels to emerge from the economic and financial distress that
Lebanon is currently suffering, and that this distress has left negative results
on various sectors in the country.
The President also pointed out that he will not spare an effort to find
appropriate solutions to end the Lebanese suffering, considering that the Corona
Pandemic, which has invaded the world, had major repercussions on the social and
economic life in Lebanon and negatively affected regularity, whether in the
public or private sectors.
President Aoun's stances came during his reception a delegation from the Union
of Public Works and Building Contractors in Lebanon, headed by Engineer Maroun
Helou, who presented the difficult circumstances in which the contractors work
through, and the accumulation of dues owed to them for the years 2018 and 2019
from official departments, especially the Development and Construction Council
and the Ministries of Labor and Energy, totaling 726 Million USD.
Engineer Helou stated a series of demands, most notable of which are:
- Issuing a Government decision which considers what happened after October 18,
2019 as a force majeure, with all the consequential extensions of the deadlines
and studying contract amendment, in terms of increasing prices or compensation
for losses, and expediting the dissolution.
- Non-performing contracts according to the contractors and consultant requests
and liquidating them according to rules so as not to accumulate losses on the
two sides and to stop committing new projects funded locally before solving the
problem of pending projects, and not to launch foreign-funded tenders until
re-issuing guarantees from banks, and committing projects that have financial
capabilities such as water institutions and municipalities.
The contractors also called for restoring facilities, credits and guarantees,
removing restrictions on the movement of funds, and encouraging the sector to
reduce the benefits as happened with the industrialists. In the event that funds
are transferred to the bank in Lebanese pounds, the debt must be paid
immediately and transferred to Dollars at the official price.
President Aoun gave his instructions to the competent references to study the
contractors' demands, inviting them to participate in the process of fighting
corruption and bribery and facing any pressures they are exposed to in the
context of their work. The President pointed to the importance of contractors
adhering to the regulations, laws and deadlines set for the implementation of
projects. -----Presidency Press Office
Hitti briefs Aoun on diplomatic efforts to extend UNIFIL's
mandate
NNA/June 09/2020
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, on Tuesday welcomed at Baabda
Presidential Palace, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Nassif Hitti,
who briefed him on Lebanon's diplomatic efforts to extend UNIFIL's mandate.
PM Diab chairs security meeting
NNA/June 09/2020
Prime Minister Hassan Diab has chaired, this evening, a security meeting
attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Zeina Akar,
Minister of Interior and Municipalities Mohammad Fahmi, State Prosecutor Ghassan
Oueidat, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers Judge
Mahmoud Makie, Lebanese Armed Forces Commander General Joseph Aoun, General
Director of the General Directorate of General Security Major-General Abbas
Ibrahim, Director General of the Internal Security Forces Major-General Imad
Othman, Director General of State Security Major General Tony Saliba, Secretary
General of the Higher Defense Council Major-General Mahmoud al Asmar, Director
of the Lebanese Army Directorate of Intelligence Brig. Gen. Antoine Mansour, ISF
Information Branch Chief Brig. Gen. Khaled Hammoud, Deputy Director General of
State Security Brig. Gen. Samir Sanan, Head of Lebanese Security Information
Unit, Brig. Gen. Mounah Sawaya and PM’s Advisor Khodor Taleb. The interlocutors
took stock at measures taken against those who have stirred up trouble, smashed
the facades of shops and assaulted public properties during last Saturday’s
demonstrations. In addition, the meeting has also discussed the issue of money
changers' commitment to the dollar exchange rate. PM Diab has also received in
the afternoon former MP Atef Majdalani. -- Presidency of the Council of
Ministers
Diab chairs tourism sector meeting: What is important today
is to put Lebanon back on tourism map
NNA/June 09/2020
Prime Minister Hassan Diab chaired a meeting dedicated to the tourism sector, in
the presence of the Minister of Social Affairs and Tourism Ramzi Musharrafieh,
Lebanon’s Central Bank governor Riad Salameh, chairman of the board of directors
of Middle East Airlines Mohamad El-Hout, president of the Economic and Social
Council Charles Arbid, PM’s Advisor George Chalhoub and heads of Tourism Trade
Unions.
PM Diab welcomed the attendees, saying: “The entire world is going through a
difficult stage, not just Lebanon, due to the Coronavirus pandemic that has
smashed the global economy and the tourism activity. Nevertheless, major
countries affected by coronavirus have started preparing for the tourist season
with the aim of reviving the economy, and we must prepare for that. From the
outset, we have been keen on fighting the coronavirus outbreak through relevant
measures, including the closure of schools and airport since the beginning of
the outburst. We have also taken stringent measures that yielded important
results, leading to Lebanon’s ranking among the top 15 countries that were able
to overcome the first wave of this epidemic, despite the lack of commitment to
precautionary measures in several regions.
What matters today is the tourism sector, the economic activity and how to
benefit from the summer season. In this context, we held yesterday a meeting to
discuss the possibility of reopening the airport, in terms of timing, countries,
timeline and the percentage of expatriates having done the PCR test. We are
taking all data into consideration, so as to ensure a good tourist season, with
the economic file being a priority. We are also focusing on the health file to
reduce infections among Lebanese expatriates or foreigners entering the country.
We will be opening air lines to the Arab Gulf region, focusing on countries that
conduct PCR tests and considering special procedures for other countries.
What is important for us today is to put Lebanon back on the tourism map, while
striking a balance between health protection and tourism in order to revive the
economy. It is normal that the tourism activity for this year will be completely
different from previous years; yet, any developed tourism activity over the next
two months before opening schools will be an added value for us. The Minister of
Tourism has developed a strategic plan; it is important to approve it pending a
decision to be taken by the end of this week regarding relevant measures for the
reopening of the airport”.
Minister of Tourism
For his part, Minister of Tourism Ramzi Musharrafieh stressed on the very weak
state of the tourism sector. The main problem lies in the previous difficult
years, coupled with the coronavirus pandemic and general mobilization that
forced the closure of several institutions.
“I have made several proposals to help this sector, as tax exemptions and
deferred payment of fees are not enough to boost this sector again”, he added.
Then, the chairman of the Lebanese Federation for Tourism and president of the
Hotel Owners Association Pierre Achkar has summed up the difficult situation of
all tourism-related sectors and asked Lebanon’s Central Bank governor to
interfere with banks to save the sector. He stressed the necessity of finding a
well-thought-out plan for the future and on the contribution of all sectors,
especially the "Middle East Airlines", by offering price reductions on
air-fares.
In this context, Lebanon’s Central Bank governor Riad Salameh stated that they
were examining how to take advantage of BdL in terms of interests and benefits
for the tourism sector, especially hotels, adding that the Central Bank of
Lebanon has extended all payment terms for an additional 6 months and is
currently working on subsidized loans away from any speculation.
On his part, the president of the Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants, Cafes,
Night-Clubs and Pastries Tony Ramy has decried the faltering tourism sector,
with 80% of restaurants being unable to reopen, including major restaurants and
institutions, in addition to the closure of shopping malls’ restaurants having
to pay 100% rental fees for big commercial centers. Ramy has also requested the
approval of the tourism plan which was discussed with the Ministry of Tourism.
In turn, the head of the tourism syndicates in the South and Southern Suburb Ali
Tabaja indicated that 95% of the institutions in the south were unable to
reopen, due to their inability to pay rentals or even purchase goods. He added
that the problem is mainly due to the exchange rate of 4000 LBP to USD and to
the banning of hookah in restaurants and cafes, which has led to a drop in cafes
and restaurants traffic.
For his part, the chairman of the board of directors of Middle East Airlines
Mohamad El-Hout has encouraged good deals in cooperation with the hotel sector,
while encouraging domestic tourism, given the current circumstances.
For his part, the head of the Association of Car Rental Agencies Mohammad
Dakdouk revealed that 25 % of car rental agencies have shut down, stating that
this sector mainly relies on expatriates and foreign tourists. Dakdouk has
broached the challenging situation of car rental companies, including the
adverse effect of alternate traffic circulation, thefts, non-coverage of
accidents by insurance companies and tight withdrawal limits by banks, calling
for exemption from mechanical fees, registration and traffic violations.
Afterwards, the president of the Economic and Social Council Charles Arbid
presented the difficulties faced by every Lebanese who works in struggling
institutions. He called for the regulation of State-institutions relationships,
State-brokered settlement of banks-institutions relationships, and the need to
submit proposals aimed at securing the Lebanese workforce.
On his part, the head of the Syndicate of Touristic Seaside Resorts in Lebanon
Jean Beiruti pointed out to the impracticality of domestic tourism due to the
high dollar exchange rate and the persistent closure of the majority of seaside
resorts as a result of the non-completion of maintenance licenses.
As for the head of the Association of Travel and Tourist Agents in Lebanon Jean
Abboud, he pointed out that the inability of making wire transfers would lead to
the withdrawal of companies from Lebanon, and called for bank facilities.
Finally, the head of the Syndicate of Restaurants in the Southern suburb and
Mount Lebanon Ibrahim Al-Zaidi stated that the main problem was the dollar
exchange rate adversely affecting the restaurant industry and employees whose
salaries were depreciated. -- Presidency of the Council of Ministers
Lebanon to reopen airport in July and send public sector
employees back to work
Najia Houssari/Arab News/June 09/2020
Prime Minister Hassan Diab: We will work to resume flights to the Arabian Gulf
region, and we will focus on countries conducting PCR tests to detect
coronavirus infections
The Cabinet Office said that all public-sector employees should return to their
workplaces while taking the necessary measures to prevent coronavirus
BEIRUT: Lebanon has announced that it will reopen Rafik Hariri International
Airport in Beirut in early July.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab said during a meeting of the tourism sector’s
representatives on Tuesday: “We will work to resume flights to the Arabian Gulf
region, and we will focus on countries conducting PCR tests to detect
coronavirus infections.”
The Cabinet Office said on Tuesday that all public-sector employees should
return to their workplaces while “taking the necessary measures to prevent
coronavirus.”
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Lebanon reached 1,368 as of
Tuesday after 18 new cases were recorded. All of the new cases had been in
contact with infected people. The death toll stands at 30.
The government is trying to improve the economic situation, which has worsened
with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, by promoting medical tourism, Diab
told the heads of tourist establishments, restaurants and hotels.
The leaders of the tourism sector’s syndicates complained of the decline in
their businesses due to the deterioration of the lira. The president of the
Union of Owners of Restaurants, Cafes, Amusements and Patisseries, Tony Al-Rami,
said that “80 percent of restaurants, including top restaurants and
establishments, have not been able to open.”The president of the Syndicate of
Tourist Establishments in South Lebanon, Ali Tabajah, said that “95 percent of
the establishments in the south could not open because they were unable to pay
rent or even buy goods.”
The head of the Syndicate of Car Rental Agencies, Mohammed Daqduq, highlighted
that “25 percent of car rental companies have closed, and there are 700
unemployed families because this sector depends 76 percent on expatriates and
foreign tourists.”The head of the Syndicate of Maritime Firms, Jean Beiruty,
said: “Domestic tourism is not possible due to the high exchange rate of the
dollar, and 80 percent of maritime firms did not open because their maintenance
licenses have not been completed.”
Jean Abboud, president of the Association of Travel and Tourist Agents, warned
that “the inability to transfer money abroad will lead companies to withdraw
from Lebanon.”
Ibrahim Al-Zaidi, head of the Syndicate of Restaurants in the Southern Suburbs
of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, said that “the main problem lies in the dollar
exchange rate.”“The victim is not the restaurant sector alone, but also the
employees who lost their salaries,” he said.
Following the disturbances during the protests on Saturday former Prime Minister
Saad Hariri attended a meeting held on Tuesday by the Supreme Islamic
Legislative Council in Dar Al-Fatwa. Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian
presided over the meeting. The council, which includes Sunni figures, called on
the government to “impose control on the entire Lebanese territory, including
stopping smuggling through the Lebanese-Syrian border, adjusting the exchange
rate of the dollar, and addressing the random price hikes that are burdening
citizens.”
The council accused “infiltrators, who were among the peaceful protesters last
Saturday, of attacking the security forces and carrying out acts of sabotage of
public and private property.” The council demanded that an investigation be held
and the instigators of the riots that took place in Beirut’s streets be held
accountable. The council warned against “igniting the fire of sectarian strife
in light of the offensive slogans that targeted a religious figure,” demanding
that the perpetrators be held accountable. It also called on Muslims in Lebanon
to “rise above the strife-inciting hate speech and adhere to the spiritual and
patriotic values that make Lebanon the country of coexistence.”In the Palace of
Justice in Beirut, the head of the Beirut Bar Association, Melhem Khalaf,
stressed that “dialogue is the only way to restore what has been destroyed by
the crises.” He said: “We will not allow our unity to be targeted.”ort in July
and send public sector employees back to work
Diab Warns 'All Lebanese Will Pay Price of any Instability'
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 June, 2020
Prime Minister Hassan Diab warned on Monday that “all Lebanese will pay the
price of security instability.”Speaking in wake of the sectarian clashes that
erupted in Beirut on Saturday, the premier said: “Protecting civil peace is a
national duty for all political forces, not just the government.”“No one can
therefore, shy away from this responsibility, regardless of their position,” he
added. He stressed the importance of protecting civil peace because all
Lebanese, “not just one party or one region, will pay the price of
instability.”Diab said Saturday’s unrest was a “wake-up call” for powers to stop
stoking tensions, because the persistence of such provocations will lead to
Lebanon’s downfall. The circumstances Lebanon is enduring “demand everyone to
display their highest level of national responsibility because fueling strife is
tantamount to national treason.” “Everyone must remain vigilant and confront
attempts to spark strife,” he urged. The PM stressed the need for national
solidarity and cooperation to overcome the living and social crises in Lebanon.
“The people’s concerns should in no way whatsoever be exploited for political
gain.”Hundreds of Lebanese protesters took to the streets on Saturday to voice
outrage over the government’s handling of a deep economic crisis, with security
forces firing tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse rock-throwing
demonstrators. Clashes soon erupted between supporters and opponents of the
Hezbollah party. Many of the protesters had been calling for the disarmament of
the Shiite party, with tensions eventually turning sectarian.
Lebanon: Tripoli Fears Chaos, Sectarian Tension
Beirut - Caroline Akoum/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 June, 2020
Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli is on alert in the wake of Saturday’s
clashes, which almost developed into broad sectarian confrontations after the
spread of insulting videos that provoked the Sunni community. Since Saturday,
the city saw anti-Hezbollah protests and slogans against the party’s
secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, which could herald an escalation of an
underlying sectarian rift. Former MP Mustafa Alloush, a member of Al-Mustaqbal
party, expressed fear that some people would take advantage of the situation to
instigate security problems in the city. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Alloush
said: “Small extremist groups may take advantage of the lack of wise leaders in
the Sunni community in Lebanon in general and Tripoli in particular, to
instigate security incidents.” “What is happening today is an aspect of the
ongoing civil war, which started in Lebanon - albeit sporadically - since 2005,
when they decided to assassinate Prime Minister Rafik Hariri,” he noted.
According to Alloush, Hezbollah could be behind the recent tension that occurred
on the background of provocative religious slogans, but he stressed that the
party was the “first beneficiary of what is happening.”“[Hezbollah] is suffering
at this stage from a crisis within its own environment, as a result of difficult
social and economic conditions, and therefore it is in its interest to lure
others to justify its practices…and gain its community’s support,” He
underlined. Warning that some parties would take advantage of the absence of
Sunni leaders, Alloush feared that Tripoli would enter into open chaos as a
result of increasing poverty, which could lead to the outbreak of violence. The
head of Tripoli’s municipality, Riad Yamak, described the situation as
“uncomfortable, both at the security and social levels.” “Neglect, poverty and
unemployment makes the city vulnerable to violence,” he warned.
Berri tackles general situation with interlocutors
NNA/June 09/2020
House Speaker Nabih Berri, on Tuesday welcomed at his Ain El-Tineh residence
Water and Energy Minister, Raymond Ghajar, with talks reportedly touching on the
Country's general situation, and issues related to electricity and oil
sectors.Asked about the diesel crisis on emerging, Minister Ghajar said that
this problem had been resolved. On the other hand, Speaker Berri welcomed today
at Ain El-Tineh residence the Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social
Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Dr. Rola Dashti. The Speaker also received
Head of the Economic and Social Council, Charles Arbid, and Council bureau
members, with the current financial and economic situation featuring high on
their talks.
Berri also reviewed the current medical situation and physicians' demands during
his meeting with the Head of the Lebanese Order of Physicians, Dr. Sharaf Abu
Sharaf, and a number of Syndicate Board members.
Israel Vows to Deliver ‘Blow’ to Lebanon if Hizbullah
Strikes
Naharnet/June 09/2020
The Israeli president threatened the Lebanese government and that “it will be
held responsible for any aggression practiced by Hizbullah against Israel,”
vowing to deliver a “fatal blow” to Lebanon if the party attacks.
“Israel holds Lebanon and its government responsible for any aggression that
Hizbullah might commit against Israeli targets," Reuven Rivlin said at a
ceremony held in Jerusalem on Monday. He said “Hizbullah is equipping itself
with weapons with the aim of undermining the state of Israel,” threatening to
“strike the dens of terrorism, its perpetrators and those who finance it.”
Rivlin pointed out that Israel “is not at war with the Lebanese people,” but “as
long as Hizbullah continues to exploit the people of Lebanon to serve the
interests of foreign countries, the responsibility for sovereignty rests with
the government of Lebanon, and it will be responsible for any action committed
by Hizbullah from inside Lebanese territory.”“Israel is taking all measures
possible to prevent a war with Lebanon, but will not hesitate to deal a fatal
blow to the enemy wherever it exists,” he threatened.
Report: Diplomats Concerned over Situation in Lebanon after
Saturday’s Clashes
Naharnet/June 09/2020
Arab and Western diplomatic missions in Lebanon expressed “concern” over the
“sectarian” clashes that erupted on Saturday in Beirut, and issued calls for
preserving “stability and calm,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.
The daily said European officials, mainly “French and international” political
sources conveyed their “concern” to Lebanese authorities, urging the need to
“preserve stability, reduce tension, and save no effort in addressing the
economic and financial crisis.”
Moreover, the highest religious leader in al-Azhar in Egypt denounced the
insults against one of the wives of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, Aisha, in Lebanon
on Saturday. Al-Azhar said “religious symbols must be respected and sedition
among Muslims must be buried,” praying to God to “protect Lebanon and unite its
people.”Moreover, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon, Yaser Alawi, visited ex-PM
Saad Hariri and Grand Sunni Mufti of the Republic Sheikh Abdul Latif Deryan on
Monday. He announced from Dar el-Fatwa that “stability in Lebanon is a red line,
and facing sedition is the duty for all Lebanese to prevent.”Former PMs Najib
Miqati, Fouad Seniora, Saad Hariri and Tammam Salam have discussed Saturday’s
incidents during their meeting at the Center House on Monday. Riots and
sectarian tension erupted Saturday in central Beirut and other areas, leaving
dozens of people injured, including 25 soldiers.
The Lebanese military warned that the clashes had endangered national
unity.Shooting broke out in several areas around Lebanon late Saturday after
videos circulated on social media showing some supporters of Hizbullah and Amal
chanting sectarian insults. Riot police fired tear gas at protesters, after
Saturday's attempt to reboot anti-government demonstrations quickly degenerated
into rioting and stone-throwing confrontations between opposing camps. Lebanese
troops deployed to separate the rival groups, and the tensions eventually
subsided before dawn Sunday.
Protesters Rally, Block Roads as Dollar Soars on Black
Market
Naharnet/June 09/2020
Anti-government protesters on Tuesday rallied and blocked roads in several
Lebanese regions as the U.S. dollar reached the record high of around LBP 4,500
on the black market. In Tripoli, a protest turned violent outside the house of
ex-minister Ashraf Rifi where gunshots were fired after demonstrators tried to
storm the guards’ rooms. The protesters “scuffled with the guards as army troops
worked on pushing them away,” the National News Agency said. Protesters also
rallied outside an office belonging to ex-PM Najib Miqati in the city, where
they smashed its CCTV cameras and chanted slogans against the rise in prices.
Demonstrators also blocked the highway between Tripoli and Akkar in the Bab al-Tabbaneh
and al-Beddawi areas and staged a march in Tripoli.Residents of Minieh, Deir
Amar and al-Beddawi meanwhile rallied outside the Deir Amar power plant in
protest at a power outage that has been running since several days. “They
blocked the international highway in both directions outside the power plant,
which prompted army troops to intervene to remove them,” NNA said, reporting
tensions in the area. In Beirut, protesters rallied outside parliament before
moving to the Hamra area where they blocked the road outside the central bank,
denouncing the rise in the dollar exchange rate. Demonstrations were also staged
in the southern city of Sidon as protesters blocked roads in the Bekaa and the
Halba road in Akkar.
Mustaqbal Says June 6 'Black Day', Warns over 'Sunni Anger'
Naharnet/June 09/2020
Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday said the June 6 demo and incidents
“did not resemble October 17, 2019 in anything.”“It was a black day that
deviated from the revolution’s values and goals to reach the extent of sectarian
strife, releasing a malicious spark that almost destroyed civil peace,” said the
bloc in a statement issued after its weekly meeting. It added: “From the very
first day, our decision has been, and will always be, the rejection of strife
among the Lebanese with all their sects and components. We oppose those who
awaken it regardless of their position, sect or rank. We managed the dispute
with Hizbullah on this basis without giving up our principled stance on the
controversial issues.”Apparently addressing Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic
Movement, the bloc said: “We would like to draw the attention of all partners in
the country -- topped by those who breached the dissociation policy and those
who disregarded the settlement due to the illusions of power and authority -- to
the danger emanating from overlooking the reasons and motives behind Sunni
anger, since the assassination of martyr premier Rafik Hariri to the eruption of
the Syrian war and the deliberate breach of the requirements of national accord
and partnership.”
Geagea Slams Aoun on Judicial Appointments, Marada to
Boycott Cabinet
Naharnet/June 09/2020
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday criticized President Michel
Aoun’s decision to refuse and return the proposed judicial appointments.
“Although the proposed judicial appointments are not ideal, the president’s
returning of them is ten steps backwards,” Geagea tweeted.
Aoun has voiced a number of reservations over the judicial appointments, noting
that “reviewing the appointments is something available and left to the
evaluation of the Higher Judicial Council.”In a memo sent to Prime Minister
Hassan Diab to justify the refusal of the proposed appointments, Aoun said they
do not respect the requirements of “competency, integrity, productivity and
seniority.” Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh meanwhile announced that
Marada will boycott Wednesday’s Cabinet session over the issue of administrative
appointments. “Because these appointments are an insolent expression of
sectarian and personal interests, we will not take part in tomorrow’s session,
knowing that we were offered that we be part of them,” Franjieh tweeted. “We
refused in line with our stance that rejects any appointments without standards
or a mechanism,” the Marada chief added.
Hariri from Dar el-Fatwa: Coexistence is Key for Lebanon’s
Stability
Naharnet/June 09/2020
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri emphasized on Tuesday that coexistence in
Lebanon is key for its stability despite the differences in opinion between
various political parties, and also stressed the importance of unity among
Muslims.
“I emphasize the unity of Muslims, and that coexistence is the only way for
Lebanon to endure,” said Hariri after meeting Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheikh
Abdul Latif Deryan in Dar el-Fatwa. He warned against “extremism, which is very
common these days and only leads us to the unknown,” said Hariri.
His remarks came after Saturday’s clashes in Beirut that almost threatened to
destabilize civil peace. “I emphasize my adherence to moderation and to accept
that there is another opinion in the country that must be heard, even if we
disagree with it,” he added. On the politician's condemnation of the clashes,
Hariri said: “Political leaders are aware that sects have sensitivities, and in
my opinion they have demonstrated that in their statements and positions.”
Hariri Launches Scathing Attack on Presidency and FPM
Naharnet/June 09/2020
Ex-PM Saad Hariri lashed out Tuesday at the Presidency and the Free Patriotic
Movement in connection with a number of recent files. In a tweet, Hariri blasted
the Presidency and the FPM for “reversing Cabinet’s decision” on the Salaata
power plant and “returning the judicial appointments after they were signed by
the premier.”He also condemned the “suspicious campaign” against Cabinet’s
secretary general and “the attempt to impose hegemony on the Civil Service
Council,” while accusing the Presidency and the FPM of “continued confusion over
the economic and financial files.”
“They consider appointments to be an exclusive right to a single political party
and they have turned the Presidency into a barricade to defend the demands of
the presidential term’s party. This is the same course of the arbitrary polices
that violate the constitution, exceed jurisdiction and put partisan interests
ahead of the national interest,” Hariri lamented. “The strong presidential
tenure is competing with the strong president over the pace of failure,
confusion, spite, constitutional violations, the stirring of sentiments and the
chronic hunger for controlling appointments and the administrative, financial
and economic posts,” the ex-PM charged.
2 Accused in Ghosn's Escape Scheme Fight Extradition
Associated Press/Naharnet/June 09/2020
A former Green Beret and his son accused of smuggling ex-Nissan Motor Co.
Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan in a box are fighting their extradition to
the country, arguing the offense is not a crime there. Michael and Peter Taylor
are wanted in Japan on allegations that they helped Ghosn flee the country in
December while he was out on bail and awaiting trial on financial misconduct
allegations. But lawyers for the Taylors said in a legal document filed Monday
that "bail jumping" is not a crime in Japan and, therefore, helping someone
evade their bail conditions isn't a crime either. The attorneys accused U.S.
authorities of "attempting to transform Japanese law to criminalize the act of
helping someone engage in an act that is not itself criminal." "Japan has never
prosecuted anyone, including Ghosn, for 'escaping' bail conditions," they wrote.
"To the contrary, in the wake of Ghosn's departure from Japan, numerous news
articles have reported on the fact that what Mr. Ghosn did was not a crime." At
the very least, the Taylors should be released from jail while they challenge
the extradition because they don't pose a risk of flight or danger to the
community, the lawyers told the judge.
Michael Taylor, a 59-year-old former Green Beret and private security
specialist, and Peter Taylor, 27, were arrested last month in the town of
Harvard, Massachusetts. The defense lawyers called Michael Taylor a "decorated
veteran who has served his country admirably," and his son an "impressive recent
college graduate, with no criminal history whatsoever." Authorities say the
Taylors helped sneak Ghosn out of the Japan on a private jet with former Nissan
boss tucked away in a large box. The flight went first to Turkey, then to
Lebanon, where Ghosn has citizenship but which has no extradition treaty with
Japan. Ghosn said he fled because he could not expect a fair trial, was
subjected to unfair conditions in detention and was barred from meeting his wife
under his bail conditions. Ghosn has said he is innocent of allegations he
under-reported his future income and committed a breach of trust by diverting
Nissan money for his personal gain. He says the compensation was never decided
on or received, and that the Nissan payments were for legitimate business
purposes. It's not clear yet how Ghosn hooked up with the Taylors.The security
business that Michael Taylor and a partner set up decades ago was initially
focused on private investigations, but their caseload grew through corporate
work and unofficial referrals from the State Department and FBI, including
parents whose children had been taken overseas by former spouses. The elder
Taylor has been hired by parents to rescue abducted children, gone undercover
for the FBI in a sting on a Massachusetts drug gang and worked as a contractor
for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. The last assignment had landed
him in a Utah jail for 14 months, caught in a federal contract fraud case that
upended Taylor's family and finances before he agreed to plead guilty to two
charges.
Abdel Samad visits Qattar to discuss criteria for second
screening phase for Tele Liban General Director post
NNA/June 09/2020
Minister of Information, Manal Abdel Samad, met this Tuesday with Minister of
State for Administrative Development, Demianos Qattar, whom she visited at his
ministerial office to discuss the criteria for the second phase of screening to
involve the candidates for the position of general manager / Chairman of the
Board of Directors of State-run Tele Liban.The second evaluation phase will
begin tomorrow, in cooperation with the Office of the Minister of State for
Development Affairs, which took over the first screening process, which resulted
in 75 candidates out of 139 qualifying to the next level. The two ministries
have been mostly keen on maintaining the highest standards of transparency in
the first screening phase, whereby the names of candidates, their regional and
sectarian affiliations, and all their personal information were withheld.
At the end of said phase, the Ministry of Information was handed over a list
revealing only the names that did not succeed, with an explanation of the
reasons for their dismissal.
The second phase, which will begin tomorrow, will be undertaken by a joint
committee from the Ministry of Information and the Office of the Minister of
State for Administrative Development, while maintaining the principle of
withholding the applicants' personal information. The candidates will be
evaluated based on the preference given to certificates and additional skills,
and those who prove more suitable for the post will thus qualify for the third
evaluation stage.
Strong Lebanon: To conclude financial appointments, fill vacancies and
promulgate anti-corruption laws
NNA/June 09/2020
The Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc held its periodic meeting this Tuesday,
under the chairmanship of FPM leader, MP Gebran Bassil, uttering condemnation of
the attacks against religious figures, and calling on the protestors to adhere
to peaceful means of protest, and to pressure for reformist ideas and
anti-corruption approaches.The bloc warned against "suspicious political aims
that could lead to the failure of the street movement, when the latter is
required to persist, so as to achieve the necessary reforms." Conferees stressed
that "the government must complete the necessary appointments, especially the
financial ones, and fill the current vacancies," uttering commitment to
correcting the "injustice that befalls the Orthodox community." The Strong
Lebanon bloc affirmed "its ongoing battle to pass the laws it is fighting for,
especially the development of anti-corruption laws and the legislations
submitted by the bloc in this framework, namely the law relevant to the Special
Court to combat financial crimes and the Accounting and Property Law."
The bloc finally echoed the Minister of Justice's call for "drafting a decree
for the return of Lebanese deportees to occupied Palestine."
Bukhari tackles economic developments with Bifani
NNA/June 09/2020
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, Walid bin Abdullah Bukhari, on Tuesday welcomed at
his Yarzeh residence, the Director General of the Ministry of Finance, Alain
Bifani, with talks reportedly touching on the current fiancial and economic
developments on the Lebanese arena.The pair also exchanged views on a number of
issues of mutual concern.
Hitti advocates safe, dignified and non-coercive return of
displaced Syrians
NNA/June 09/2020
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Nassif Hitti, participated in the
virtual conference organized by the "Antalya Diplomatic Forum", in cooperation
with the International Center for Migration Policy Development ICMPD, and the
Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Minister delivered Lebanon's speech, in which he renewed "the assertion of
Lebanon's positions regarding the Syrian displacement," stressing that "the
lasting solution to the displacement crisis is in a safe, dignified and
non-coercive return."
Hitti called for "helping Lebanon confront the coronavirus pandemic and prevent
its spread in the camps of displaced Syrians in Lebanon."
The conference was attended by foreign ministers of Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and
Pakistan, as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo
Grandi and the European Union Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson.
Contact tracing key to keeping Lebanon's coronavirus cases
low
Emily Lewis/Al Arabiya English/Tuesday 09 June 2020Text size A A A
As governments across the world begin to ease lockdown measures and channel
efforts toward restoring economies battered by COVID-19, identifying and
isolating new cases of the novel coronavirus has become the top priority.
They do this by “contact tracing” – tracking down everyone who has been in close
contact with patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 and instructing them
to go into quarantine where they are carefully monitored.
Many countries have opted to use artificial intelligence and mobile applications
to assist with this process, to varying degrees of success.
In Lebanon, the Health Ministry instead relies primarily on a more traditional
method of contact tracing – calling up suspected contacts one-by-one, asking for
their symptoms and urging them to self-isolate and get tested.
It has helped the country keep coronavirus cases low – the disease has so far
infected 1,350 people and claimed the lives of 30. According to daily reports
from Lebanon’s national operations room, the proportion of people infected by an
unknown source is consistently below 5 percent.
Call centers run by the ministry’s Epidemiological Surveillance Unit and
Beirut’s Rafik Hariri University Hospital – the hub for coronavirus testing and
treatment in Lebanon – are responsible for contacting people who have tested
positive and asking a series of questions about where they have been and who
they have met. “Contact tracing is very important in Lebanon, particularly as we
are still in the containment phase, which is all about finding cases and
isolating them as quickly as possible,” Dr. Firass Abiad, the director of Rafik
Hariri Hospital, told Al Arabiya English. It has allowed teams from the Health
Ministry to conduct targeted testing, which has on multiple occasions revealed
clusters of COVID-19.
“Uncovering clusters through contact tracing has been an essential part of
curbing the spread of the infection in Lebanon,” said Ghinwa Hayek, a member of
the Lebanese Epidemiological Association.
On Thursday, 42 people tested positive for coronavirus in the seaside town of
Barja after coming in contact with a Lebanese woman returning on a flight from
Saudi Arabia. Health Minister Hamad Hasan said that if cases of returning
expatriates continue to infect large numbers of people, reopening Beirut Airport
– closed since March 18 – is out of the question.
While this cluster is a troubling indicator of a lack of compliance with home
quarantine, other cases were quickly tracked down, which is a positive
indictment of the contact tracing system, said Iman Shankiti, the World Health
Organization’s Lebanon representative.
“With good contact tracing you avoid using a blunt weapon like a total lockdown,
and can use a precision missile, with targeted testing and localized, less
damaging, lockdowns,” Abiad said.
However, as the country continues to lift lockdown measures, quickly tracking
down new cases will become even more essential to limit the virus’ spread.
Recently malls were allowed to open again and an overnight curfew was shortened.
Most recently, sports centers and gyms were allowed to reopen.
“We are now at a crossroads, and without improving contact tracing we might slip
into the unknown,” Shankiti explained.
Bolstering the tracing system is not without its challenges, notably when it
comes to recruiting and training enough people to make the hundreds of daily
calls necessary to keep tabs on every suspected and confirmed case.
Social stigma
Effective contact tracing also relies on the people on the other end of the
phone being “cooperative and forthcoming” with information, Abiad said,
explaining that while some people may simply forget who they were with, others
are reluctant to share personal details.
“There are a lot of social issues with a COVID-19 diagnosis, not just medical
issues,” he said. Concerns over sharing personal information are particularly
acute for Lebanon’s most marginalized populations such as Syrian refugees,
undocumented laborers and migrant workers.
Human Rights Watch said in a recent report that while contract tracing is
essential to the COVID-19 response, it assumes that people will “feel
comfortable enough to call a government-run service ... and potentially share
information about where they live, whom they live with, where they have
traveled, and where they work.”Syrian refugees have also expressed fears of
additional stigmatization and discrimination if they contract coronavirus and
have described this as a deterrent from seeking medical care, the report found.
Digital problems
While traditional contact tracing has so far proved effective in keeping cases
low through targeted testing and isolation, Hayek questioned how it will fare in
the long-term, particularly as Lebanese expatriates continue to return in large
numbers.
“COVID-19 is not going anywhere, and many are anticipating another spike in the
fall,” she said. “So how can we make this sustainable?”
Technological solutions are being developed by governments all around the world
to answer the question of longevity. In South Korea, the government has used
controversial surveillance methods like credit card tracking; Singaporean
authorities had to rethink their strategy when only 20 percent of the population
downloaded their contact tracing application; and the British government has
faced backlash from volunteer tracers left in the dark without training.
The Lebanese Health Ministry’s mobile app has a dedicated coronavirus section,
through which users can check symptoms, report confirmed cases and view the
current map of cases.
However, Shanktiti explained, the app often requires call center operatives to
follow up with users due to mistakes in data entry and does not use GPS
signaling to trace users. Digital rights NGO SMEX has also warned that the app
lacks basic privacy protections, with “excessive privacy permissions” prompting
users to give access to their cameras, microphone and locations. “A major
problem with digital contact tracing is a breach of personal information,
meaning people are less likely to opt-in to an app,” Abiad said.
To ensure the Lebanese authorities continue on their path of relative success
with the coronavirus and prevent an underfunded public health system from
becoming overwhelmed, Hayek believes the best solution is “a mixed-methods
approach of digital and traditional contact tracing.”“This way, we meet in the
middle.”
We banned Hezbollah activities in Germany. Now it’s the
EU’s turn.
Christoph Bernstiel/Al Arabiya/June 08/2020
كريستوفر برنستيل: نحن منعنا انشطة حزب الله في ألمانيا والآن
جاء دور الإتحاد الأوروبي ليفعل نفس الشيء
The risk of being injured, or even killed, by an anti-Semitic or extremist
attack in Germany has grown over the last few years. For the German government,
it is important to take a clear and decisive stance against such developments.
This is precisely what we have now done in parliament, by banning the activities
of Hezbollah. Anti-Semitism is not tolerated and terrorist activities are not
acceptable in Germany under any circumstances. Taking action against an
organization like Hezbollah, with its extremist and openly anti-Semitic
positions, is therefore a logical step.
Though Hezbollah has so far not carried out any attacks on German soil, we have
of course noticed the way in which this organization is spreading violence and
terror across the whole world - including the Muslim world - and exploiting
Germany as a supposedly safe haven. Our security authorities have been keeping a
close eye on the organization for some time. Numerous measures have been
implemented in recent years to diminish Hezbollah’s influence in Germany.
For example, mosque and cultural associations where its supporters were active
have been observed. In 2008, Germany banned the Hezbollah TV channel Al Manar.
The channel broadcasted hate propaganda and anti-Israel content, intended among
other things to radicalize Muslims in Germany.
In 2014, a fundraising association claiming to be collecting donations for
orphans in Lebanon was banned and dissolved, since the money raised was being
channeled to a Hezbollah martyrs fund. Last December, the German parliament,
known as the Bundestag, finally called on the federal government to take even
stronger action against Hezbollah and for its activities to be banned.
This uncompromising approach to Hezbollah could be described as a correction of
the course previously taken as Germany had endeavoured for many years to act as
a mediator in negotiations between Lebanon and the State of Israel. Hezbollah
still wields a very strong influence on politics and society in Lebanon. Germany
believed that its readiness to engage in dialogue could help build stability
there.
Yet it became clear that Hezbollah repeatedly exploited this willingness to make
concessions in order to carry out attacks or plan terrorist activities. Germany
therefore reached the conclusion that the time for negotiations and warnings had
gone on long enough.
A ban on the activities of Hezbollah was thus announced in Germany on April 30,
2020. On the same day, buildings used by four mosque associations and their
leaders were searched. This was the last step in a series of measures and
decisions and a clear signal that Hezbollah’s activities in Germany would no
longer be tolerated.
At the same time, there is a growing understanding at European level of the need
to take stronger and more rigorous action against Hezbollah in order to
successfully counter its terrorist activities. At present, not only Germany, but
also the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, classify Hezbollah as a terrorist
organization, and we can expect further states to follow suit. In addition, the
distinction between the political and military wings may well be abolished at
European level.
Together with many of my Bundestag colleagues, I am currently supporting a
campaign by the American Jewish Committee in this context and am lobbying
actively for the European Union to classify Hezbollah in its entirety as a
terrorist organization. All of these activities are already having an impact and
ratcheting up the pressure on Hezbollah. Yet there is still a long and stony
road to travel until this organization no longer has the capacity to carry out
attacks. Luckily, we are able to count on many partners in the Middle East on
this path, such as Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
*Christoph Bernstiel is a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and was
directly elected to the German Bundestag by the 72nd district of Halle (Saale)
in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt in 2017. He is a member of the committee
for Homeland Security, where he focuses on cybercrime, and the select committee
on artificial intelligence. Mr. Bernstiel is also a member of the Board of
Trustees of the federal foundation for the evaluation of the SED dictatorship,
deputy chairman of the CDU State Group Saxony-Anhalt in the Bundestag, a member
of the parliamentary group for small and medium businesses, and a member of the
Future Forum Public Security. In addition to his duties at the federal level,
Mr. Bernstiel has been a member of the Halle (Saale) city council since 2014
where he focuses on the topics of urban development, infrastructure, order, and
security.
Hezbollah dragging Lebanon closer to new civil war
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/June 08/2020.
دانيا قليلات: حزب الله يجر لبنان إلى حافة الحرب الأهلية
Activists in Lebanon called on citizens to take to the streets at the weekend
and finish the mission they started on Oct. 17 last year. The manifesto of the
“October Meeting” — a more or less unitary body representing the protesters —
highlighted three “nos.” No to a government that behaves like a farm, no to a
state that acts like the politicians’ private company, and no to a state that is
used as plunder by the politicians. The protesters were faced by Hezbollah and
its ally, the Amal Movement. They felt threatened as the demands of the
protesters could endanger their grip on the state. The confrontation resulted in
armed clashes. The clashes died down, but if this trend is not contained it
might threaten another civil war.
The protesters want a total break from the previous system. They have lost trust
in the presidency, government and parliament. They have instead asked for a
transitional government that reflects the spirit of Oct. 17. The activists’
statement even detailed what they expect from the transitional government. The
first demand is for the transitional government to design and implement an
economic rescue plan. Secondly, they want it to prepare for free elections under
the supervision of an independent committee, according to a new law. The third
mandate of the interim government would be to put in place laws that guarantee
the independence of the judiciary. The fourth demand is for it to restore stolen
funds and put corrupt politicians on trial. The last demand is for the
government to adopt a neutral foreign policy that will shield Lebanon from
Middle Eastern competition and prevent the country from getting embroiled in
regional conflicts.
Hezbollah saw in these demands a veiled threat to remove its arms and hence to
deprive it of its competitive edge over other factions. Its members pledged that
no one would be able to take away the group’s arms. They went on to the streets
with their light weaponry to show their might and determination in facing the
peaceful protesters. However, this prompted a reaction from other antagonistic
factions and groups carrying the flag of the Lebanese forces stood in Ain Al-Remmaneh,
a Christian area adjacent to Hezbollah stronghold Chiyah, and denounced Hasan
Nasrallah.
Hezbollah’s use of a sectarian and provocative slogan incited a partisan
response on the other side. If the country takes this road, it can have another
civil war. Lebanon is in a region that is sinking into a series of proxy wars.
The factions antagonistic to Hezbollah could very easily find outside backers
who would be ready to arm and fund them. Though a large number of activists are
mature and know that a war will not solve Lebanon’s problems — but on the
contrary will lead to more destruction — other factions feel that the country is
already destroyed and only through arms can they stand up to Hezbollah.
The country is in a very delicate situation. Even President Michel Aoun, who has
largely been in a state of denial, asked for a return to peace and for parties
to refrain from provoking one another. In this case, as I have mentioned in
previous articles, the army is the only unifying institution that can bring
people together. The army still has the trust of the people. It has the moral
authority and can impose order once it is in charge. However, in Lebanon, the
military is under civilian control, hence the control of the corrupt political
elite that has lost the trust of the people.
It is unlikely that the president will take the patriotic decision of stepping
down and letting the army take control. He will not do anything that will
jeopardize the chances of Gebran Bassil, his son-in-law and the apple of his
eye, clinching the presidency after him. Though Bassil was recently voted on
social media as the most hated personality in Lebanon, Aoun still thinks he can
impose him on the Lebanese people.
However, there is hope in Prime Minister Hassan Diab. Unlike Aoun, he does not
have a following and knows very well that his position is only meant to fill in
a blank, rather than to conduct an active role. He might take a patriotic
position and bow to the protesters’ pressure. If that is the case, he should
declare a state of emergency in which the army takes control, and then resign.
The swift and tight control by the army of any armed factions on the streets
would ensure that the country does not slip into the chaos of a civil war.
Even President Michel Aoun, who has largely been in a state of denial, asked for
a return to peace.
Rightly, the protesters asked for the removal of non-legitimate weapons, mainly
meaning those of Hezbollah. Former Justice Minister Ashraf Riffi appeared on
several news outlets asking for the enforcement of UN Security Council
resolution 1559, which calls for the disarmament of all Lebanese and
non-Lebanese militias in Lebanon. However, this radical demand might push
Hezbollah to feel this is a do-or-die moment and so start a confrontation in a
bid to protect its arms. If this happens, it would be the start of another civil
war. A better alternative would be to call for the demilitarization of Beirut,
hence confining Hezbollah’s arms to the south of the country. Then they could
not be used against their fellow citizens.
Better than asking for the full enforcement of resolution 1559 would be for the
protesters to ask Hezbollah to stick to its original mandate, which is that of a
defensive force against Israel. In the current situation, where Lebanon is close
to slipping into a new civil war, two people have the ability to prevent it from
going down this path: The prime minister and the commander of the army.
*Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on
lobbying. She holds a PhD in politics from the University of Exeter and is an
affiliated scholar with the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and
International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
June 09-10/2020
Republicans in Congress to introduce
biggest-ever sanctions bill against Iran
Joyce Karam/The National/June 09/2020
The package would end waivers for Iraq and cut aid to Lebanon’s armed forces
Republicans in Congress are set to introduce an unprecedented sanctions bill
against Iran on Wednesday that would target its leaders, regional proxies and
end economic waivers currently allowed in places like Iraq.
The bill would be the largest punitive measures introduced against Iran in
Congress’ history. The office of Congressman Joe Wilson, one of the proposal’s
sponsors, confirmed to The National that it will include 140 initiatives against
Iran, as well as tightening the pressure on Russia and China to ramp up their
action against the Islamic regime. The bill is timed as the Trump administration
seeks pressure to renew the UN arms embargo on Iran that will expire in October.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, it would target an estimated $70
million of annual security aid to Lebanon and sanctions waivers granted to Iraq
that allow it to sell electricity to Iran. The Republican Study Committee (RSC)
is behind the proposal, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, which has
147 members in the House on board, including RSC chair Mike Johnson. So far, no
Democrats have come in support of the bill, and their party controls the
majority in the US House of Representatives.
The bill in its current form could also face pushback from the Trump
administration. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has supported renewing waivers
for Iraq, and continuing US military aid to Lebanon. The bill would block any
administration efforts to lift sanctions on Iran without Congress approval, and
would impose additional sanctions on its proxies in Iraq. But the bill could
offer the White House tools to pressure Russia and China into renewing the
current arms embargo on Iran, expiring in October.
If that doesn’t happen, Congress would “play a central role in crafting new
embargoes on the sale of weapons to Iran. This would include "new sanctions on
the arms industries of countries like Russia and China that return to selling
weapons to Iran, the banks facilitating any sale of weapons to Iran, and the
companies shipping weapons,” the Washington Free Beacon said.
The bill would also halt US aid to Lebanon and sanction Iran's Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei’s “multibillion-dollar financial empire, as well as the country's
petrochemical, financial, and automotive sectors” the report said.
Firas Maksad, a Middle East analyst in Washington and a professor at George
Washington University, said the proposal is massive in its penalties but will
face several hurdles. “The proposed legislation is designed to be the mother of
all sanctions bills, but its size and the multiplicity of thorny foreign policy
issues it impacts means it will be hindered by political bickering.”In an
election year, “Republican foreign policy hawks in congress believe it will be
difficult for the administration to resist pressure for a tougher approach to
Iran, Russia and China,” Mr Maksad told The National.
But technically the bill could go through several amendments to get support from
both parties in Congress. “The legislation will need to navigate both chambers
of congress and go through a reconciliation process. If elements of it are
ultimately signed into law, it will be after protracted negotiations and the
inclusion of a presidential waiver, thereby allowing the president to suspend
its provision on national security grounds when necessary,” Mr Maksad argued.
Ryan Bohl, an analyst at the US intelligence company Stratfor, said he did not
expect it to pass. “It seems unlikely to pass, especially with the November
election coming up and Democrats not wanting to look like they're creating
overseas tension,” Mr Bohl said. The legislation could, however, “pressure, even
inspire, the Trump administration to tighten sanctions further before the
election,” he said Mr Bohl saw emphasis on Lebanon and Iraq as significant in
the proposal. “Lebanon and Iraq are becoming a hawk priority… the pro-sanctions
community believes that they must crush Iran's links to those countries and are
willing to risk US ties in Beirut and Baghdad to do so.”
Iran to Execute Spy Who Helped US Target Soleimani
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 June, 2020
Iran said Tuesday it will execute a man whose conviction for spying for the US
by helping target a top Iranian general has been upheld by the supreme court.
Mahmoud Mousavi Majd was convicted of spying on Iran's armed forces "especially
the Quds Force and on the whereabouts and movements of martyr General Qasem
Soleimani" for large sums of money from both Israel's Mossad and the US Central
Intelligence Agency, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told a televised
news conference. Majd's death sentence has been upheld by the supreme court and
"will be carried out soon", he added, AFP reported. Soleimani, who headed the
Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, was
killed in January in a US drone strike in Baghdad. Iran in February handed down
a similar sentence for Amir Rahimpour, another man convicted of spying for the
US and conspiring to sell information on Iran's nuclear programme. Tehran
announced in December it had arrested eight people "linked to the CIA" and
involved in nationwide street protests that erupted the previous month over a
surprise petrol price hike.
Allowing Iran to buy, sell conventional
weapons further destabilizes region: Hook
Yaghoub Fazeli, video by: Omar Elkatouri, Al Arabiya
English/Tuesday 09 June 2020
Allowing Iran to buy and sell conventional weapons by not extending the UN
Security Council arms embargo on Tehran expiring in October can further
destabilize the Middle East, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said
on Tuesday. “Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and it is
the world's leading state sponsor of anti-Semitism. And when a regime of this
nature and this quality is allowed to freely buy and export conventional weapons
… this has the potential to really destabilize the Middle East,” said Hook. The
United States in 2018 withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal that sought to prevent
Tehran from developing nuclear weapons in exchange for relief from economic
sanctions. As part of that deal, a UN arms embargo on Iran expires in October.
The US is seeking to have the arms embargo on Iran extended before it expires on
October 18. Commending the US’s maximum pressure campaign against Tehran, Hook
said the Middle East can look “very different” with a “peaceful Iran.” “Our
pressure campaign is making a huge difference and it is expanding the space for
the Iranian people to have a more representative government, which is something
I think a lot of nations around the world hope for the Iranian people,” he said.
Hook added that Iran's future will be decided by the Iranian people, and not the
US government.
Iran protests
Unlike President Barack Obama’s administration, President Donald Trump’s
administration supports Iranian protesters, he said. “We reversed the mistake
that was made in 2009 when President Obama did not stand with Iranian protesters
during the Green Revolution,” said Hook. In 2009, Iranian protesters famously
chanted “Obama, Obama, either with us or with them,” urging the US President to
choose between the Iranian people and regime. Obama has been criticized over the
years for not supporting Iranian protesters in 2009. “Every single time you've
seen protests in Iran, the US and President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, Vice
President Pence and myself have all stood squarely behind the Iranian people,
especially in November when there were protests in all 31 of Iran's provinces,”
said Hook. Referring to recent protests in Iran, Hook pointed out that there
have been no protests against US sanctions and Trump’s maximum pressure campaign
against Tehran. “[The protests] were all directed at the regime because the
Iranian people know whom to blame for the diplomatic isolation and for the
economic malaise that has sort of troubled Iran for 41 years,” he said.
During Iran’s January protests following the Iranian military’s downing of a
Ukrainian passenger plane, protesters were seen in Tehran refusing to step on
Israeli and American flags printed on the ground by authorities for Iranians to
walk over. The current US administration has stood up to the Iranian regime “in
ways that have no historic precedent,” said Hook. “This is a regime that is not
used to being told no. And they're learning that we're serious about reversing
their gains and making the Middle East more support, more peaceful,” Hook added.
For 2nd Straight Day, Syria’s Suweida Protests against Regime, Living Crisis
Daraa – Riad al-Zein/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 June, 2020
Protests erupted for a second straight day in the southern Syrian province of
Suweida on Monday with dozens of people calling for the ouster of President
Bashar Assad and denouncing the deteriorating living and economic conditions in
the country. Local sources said the demonstrations also demanded the withdrawal
of Iran and Russian forces from Syria and chanted for the overthrow of the
ruling regime. Protests had broken out on Sunday over the collapse of the Syrian
pound, with the people blaming Assad and the regime for the crisis. The Suweida
24 network reported that the regime had sent military and security
reinforcements to the province, but activists said they did not intervene to
disperse the protest. After nine years of war, Syria is in the thick of an
economic crisis compounded by a coronavirus lockdown and a dollar liquidity
crunch in neighboring Lebanon.
The Syrian pound has hit record lows against the dollar amid widespread
corruption and leading to a spike in living costs. Authorities have done little
to address the crisis, sparking the people’s ire. Some stores, including
pharmacies, have been forced to turn away customers and close due to the
fluctuation of prices. The cost of food and medicine has risen four and fivefold
in recent days, leaving many families unable to make ends meet. Analysts said
concerns over the June 17 implementation of the US Caesar Act, which aims to
sanction foreign persons who assist the Syrian government or help in post-war
reconstruction, also contributed to the de facto devaluation.
Abou Ziad, a resident of the western Suweida countryside, said the Syrian pound
was trading at 2,600 to the dollar on the black market, its highest rate since
the eruption of the conflict. He said the fluctuation has led to a hike in food
goods. Vegetable oil now sells at 3,500 pounds, when it was previously sold at
1,000 pounds. A kilogram of sugar now costs 1,800 pounds, its price tripling
from 600 pounds. Milk, meat, poultry, cleaning products and other essential
goods have all doubled and tripled in price. Abou Jihad, a public employee who
has four mouths to feed, said the living conditions were “intolerable”.
“Salaries only last three days” with such price hikes, he lamented. “The corrupt
people are the ones who are benefitting the most in Syria. They have reaped
billions while the people now live in poverty.” Heiko Wimmen, Syria project
director at the conflict tracker Crisis Group, said that with the Caesar Act
coming into force, "doing business with Syria will become even more difficult
and risky".Both analysts said the fall from grace of top business tycoon Rami
Makhlouf despite being a cousin of the president was also affecting confidence.
"The Makhlouf saga is spooking the rich," Wimmen said, according to AFP. After
the Damascus regime froze assets of the head of the country's largest mobile
phone operator and slapped a travel ban on him, the wealthy feel "nobody is
safe", he said. Most of Syria's population lives in poverty, according to the
United Nations, and food prices have doubled over the past year. The UN food
agency's Jessica Lawson said any further depreciation risked increasing the cost
of imported basic food items such as rice, pasta and lentils. "These price
increases risk pushing even more people into hunger, poverty and food insecurity
as Syrians' purchasing power continues to erode," the World Food Program
spokeswoman said.
US Official: Sanctions Contributed to Devaluation of Syrian
Pound
Washington, London - Asharq Al-Awsat/February 3, 2020.
US Special Representative for Syria Engagement James Jeffrey said US sanctions
and measures contributed to the devaluation of the Syrian pound against the
dollar. In a video meeting that was attended by his Deputy Assistant Secretary
Joel Rubin on Sunday, Jeffrey said that Washington made a proposal to Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad through a third party to end the crisis. Washington
wants a political process that shouldn’t necessarily change the regime but at
least change its attitude and support of terrorist groups and Iran, he
continued. Regarding the economic crisis, he said that the US sanctions against
Damascus contributed to the collapse of the Syrian current and that the regime
"is incapable of managing an effective economic policy and conducting
money-laundry in Lebanese banks."Moreover, Rubin said that the Caesar Act covers
individuals and companies. Responding to a question on ruling out the Kurdish
administration from this act, he said that if anyone wishes to invest in energy
and construction in self-administered zones then this is out of the US
administration's interest. Meanwhile, Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis said
that stabilizing the exchange rate between 2017-2020 required USD20 billion.
Khamis added that calls are ongoing with friendly states to discuss possible
ways to reinforce the lira’s value.
Syria Hit by Rare Anti-Regime Protests Sparked by Economic
Crisis
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 June, 2020
Syrians held a third day of rare anti-regime protests over deteriorating living
conditions Tuesday in the regime-held city of Suweida, a war monitor said, as
the value of the pound sunk. The value of the Syrian pound has plummeted with
dizzying speed in recent days on the informal market, sending prices
skyrocketing nationwide and shuttering shops. Dozens rallied in the
majority-Druze city of Suweida in southern Syria for the third day running, said
the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The protests had begun
Sunday "with calls for improved living conditions before demands became more
political", Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman said. On Tuesday, men and women
gathered near the main headquarters of provincial authorities and later marched
through the city's streets, shouting anti-regime slogans, according to a video
released by local news outlet Suwayda24.
"The people want to topple the regime," they shouted in chants reminiscent of
the 2011 uprising. In videos published by Suwayda24 on Sunday, crowds could also
be heard chanting: "Revolution, freedom, social justice," and "Down with
(President) Bashar al-Assad". Syria has grappled with an economic crisis
compounded by Western sanctions, a coronavirus lockdown and a rapid devaluation
of the local currency. From Saturday to Monday the exchange rate soared from
2,300 to more than 3,000 pounds to the dollar, more than four times the official
rate of around 700. Before the conflict, it stood at 47.
Even before the latest devaluation, food prices had increased by 152 percent
Suweida in the year to April, according to the World Food Program. The Suweida
region south of Damascus is the Syrian heartland of the country's Druze minority
community. Suweida has been mostly spared by the Syrian conflict, and only faced
sporadic extremist attacks they managed to repel. Syria's war has killed more
than 380,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the
brutal repression of anti-regime protests.
Airstrikes Target NW Syria, Displace Thousands
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 June, 2020
Suspected Russian airstrikes pounded villages on the edge of the last opposition
enclave in northwestern Syria, sending thousands of civilians fleeing, activists
reported Tuesday - scenes unseen in the area since a cease-fire three months
ago. The violence at the edge of Idlib province is the most serious breach of
the ceasefire in place since early March, when an agreement between Turkey and
Russia halted the Syrian government´s three-month air and ground campaign into
Idlib. The Syria Response Coordination Group, a team of aid workers, said the
military escalation displaced more than 5,800 civilians in the last 24 hours
from areas in southern Idlib and western Hama countryside. Many of the displaced
had only recently returned to their villages after the ceasefire, the group
said. On Monday, opposition fighters launched a limited offensive against
government-held positions, briefly seizing a couple of villages. Government
troops, backed by Russian air support, responded, repelling the insurgents but
also widening their area of operations, targeting 10 villages, according to
Mohamed Rasheed, a Syrian media activist documenting the offensive. Rasheed
reported airstrikes, believed to be carried out by Russia's air force, on a
number of villages in southern Idlib. He said he documented 45 airstrikes since
Monday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights recorded 15
airstrikes on Tuesday, also saying they were believed to be Russian. The
Observatory and other local networks said at least one civilian was killed in
Kansafra village. The raids led to the death of one civilian in the village of
Balyun -- the "first to die from an airstrike" since the March ceasefire,
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. Home to around three million people,
the Idlib region is Syria's last major rebel bastion after nine years of
devastating civil war.
A Russian-backed government offensive between December and March displaced
nearly a million people in the region. The truce reached on March 6 has largely
halted the fighting but President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to retake full
control of the region. Russia resumed airstrikes earlier this month and on
Monday hit parts of Idlib and neighboring Hama provinces with dozens of
airstrikes, the Observatory said. The strikes came as ground fighting left 19
government troops and 22 fighters dead, the Britain-based monitor said. The war
in Syria has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced nearly half of the
country's pre-war population since it started in 2011.
What’s Behind Netanyahu’s Call for his US Advisor?
Tel Aviv/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 June, 2020
US Election Advisor Aaron Klein was seen several times in recent days with
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The latter hired him to be part of
his team, without specifying his duties. However, many political sources saw
this development as a sign that Netanyahu was preparing for an imminent election
battle. Klein is a strategic advisor who specializes in election affairs and
works with several political leaders in the United States and the world. He was
a journalist for several right-wing media outlets in the US, then served in the
office of Steve Bannon, the strategic adviser of US President Donald Trump. He
has been with Netanyahu in the last three electoral battles. Observers in Tel
Aviv expect that the premier would be serious in drawing up a new electoral
plan, and if he does not implement it, he will be able to use it to pressure his
allies. They noted that Netanyahu was reading opinion polls and conducting
private surveys himself, all of which indicate that if elections are held today,
he will win an unprecedented victory and be able to form a stable right-wing
government. Politicians, rivals and top political commentators in Israel point
out that Netanyahu’s actions, in the past two weeks, indicate that he believes
in the need to end the unity government with alternate Prime Minister Benny
Gantz and that he does not want anyone else to share with the premiership with
him.
Shtayyeh Submits 'Counter-Proposal' to US Mideast Plan
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 June, 2020
Palestinians have sent the diplomatic Quartet a response to the US Mideast plan
which sees parts of the West Bank being annexed by Israel, Palestinian Prime
Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said Tuesday. "We submitted a counter-proposal to the
Quartet a few days ago," he said, referring to the group mediating in the
conflict, made up of the United Nations, United States, Russia, and European
Union. He said that it proposed the creation of a "sovereign Palestinian state,
independent and demilitarized" with "minor modifications of borders where
necessary".The Palestinian text foresaw possible land swaps between the two
future states on a like-for-like basis, he said at a press conference. Announced
at the end of January in Washington, US President Donald Trump's peace plan
provides for the annexation by Israel of its settlements and of the Jordan
Valley in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinians have rejected in its entirety
the plan, which also provides for the creation of a Palestinian state but on
reduced territory and without east Jerusalem as its capital, denying a core
Palestinian demand.
The European Union opposes it and is demanding that Israel abandon its
annexation ambitions, which it has said it will reveal after July 1.
'International pressure' -
EU member states are weighing options such as economic sanctions or recognition
of Palestinian statehood to dissuade Israel from going ahead with the plan, and
what measures to take in the event that it is not deterred, diplomatic sources
say. "We want Israel to feel international pressure," Shtayyeh said.
"For the first time the European political allies are discussing sanctions
against Israel because we asked for them," he added. In recent days,
demonstrations against the annexation project have multiplied in the West Bank
and also in Israel without, however, drawing large crowds on the Palestinian
side.
"The anger is there, the dissatisfaction is there, the frustration is there, and
all that is a recipe for more problems," said Shtayyeh, assuring however that
the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmud Abbas, wanted to avoid widespread
disruption. An Israeli poll last week showed most Israelis feared that
annexation would trigger a Palestinian uprising. The most recent Palestinian
uprising, known as the Second Intifada, erupted in the early 2000s and included
waves of suicide bombings and deadly Israeli responses. More than 450,000
Israelis live in settlements deemed illegal by international law in the occupied
West Bank, which is home to 2.7 million Palestinians. Analysts say that
Netanyahu has a narrow window of opportunity to move ahead with annexation,
before US presidential elections in November that could see his close ally Trump
voted out of office.
Sudan Begins Negotiations With IMF to Settle Arrears, Get
Financial Support
Khartoum- Khalid Albululat Izyraq
Sudan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been involved in
negotiations aimed at implementing a monitoring program by the Fund’s experts
for the Sudanese economy. The Staff-Monitored Program seeks to open doors for
international financing and investment in major development, infrastructure,
peacebuilding, and job creation projects for youth, Finance Minister Ibrahim
Elbadawi said on Sunday. The non-funded program could pave the way for
international financial support. It is expected to allow the country to settle
its financial arrears, debt forgiveness, and grants from the International
Development Association (IDA). “We have a long road ahead of us to undo the
damage to our economy. However, this engagement is an initial step to open the
door for direct budget support, which is needed to finance the major development
projects,” Elbadawi noted. The talks will allow Sudan to restore its proper
position in the international monetary system, he stressed. IMF communications
director Gerry Rice, for his part, said that Sudan had requested talks, which he
expected to be completed by around the fourth week of June. The program would be
“a way for Sudan to show a track record of good policy implementation,” Rice
said. “By showing such a track record, it can help Sudan toward clearing its
arrears to the IMF, which in turn, and this is the key, can unlock financing
from other sources as well.” Sudan has debts of around $62 billion, including
arrears of around $3 billion to international financial institutions, Elbadawi
said in October. Khartoum is in desperate need of financial help to reorganize
its economy. Inflation has been running at 99 percent and the currency tumbling
as the government prints money to subsidize bread, fuel, and electricity.
Ethiopia Confident of Filling Nile Dam, Egypt Awaits
‘Comprehensive Agreement’
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 June, 2020
Ethiopia seems to be very confident in its ability to fill the Grand Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam (GERD) despite pressure by Egypt. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
stressed on Monday that the decision to fill the dam is “irreversible.”
He said the entire construction was progressing as planned and has reached the
filling of the reservoir. “For us, GERD is a matter of development and national
identity that will not hurt Egypt and Sudan,” the premier stressed, adding that
“no one can stop us from completing the dam.”Ethiopia has ignored Egyptian
pressure, included threats to file a complaint to the UN Security Council. Cairo
rejects any “unilateral decision” by Ethiopia without reaching a comprehensive
agreement that meets the interests of all parties, including Khartoum. According
to former Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Dr. Hossam Moghazy, Egypt
will not object to the first filling process during the upcoming rainy season in
July. However, he stressed that this should be part of a comprehensive agreement
that sets the rules for the filling and operation of the $4 billion GERD.
Moghazy told Asharq Al-Awsat that his country counts on the decision to resume
the tripartite negotiations in the coming period, based on Sudan’s initiative.
“Arrangements are currently being made with all parties to determine the date
and terms of the talks.”Sudan and Egypt both agree on their rejection to fill
the dam reservoir before reaching a comprehensive agreement, while turning to
Washington’s authority in the upcoming meeting to resolve controversial issues
only, instead of returning to square one of the negotiations. Sudan, Ethiopia
and Egypt had been expected to sign an agreement in Washington on the filling
and operation of the dam in February, but Ethiopia skipped the meeting and only
Egypt initialed the deal. These talks are sponsored by the US Treasury
department in partnership with the World Bank. GERD has been under construction
since 2011 when Ethiopia kicked off building it near its border with Sudan on
the Blue Nile, which flows into the Nile River.
The construction has sparked concerns in Cairo that Egypt's already scarce
supplies of Nile waters, on which its population of more than 100 million people
is almost entirely dependent, would be further restricted.
OPEC+ May Push The Price Of Oil Barrel To Above $50
Jeddah - Saeed al-Abiad/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 9 June, 2020
Saudi experts told Asharq Al-Awsat that extending the recent OPEC+ agreement to
reduce oil production to the current level of 9.7 million barrels per day for an
additional month would contribute to rebalancing the global markets.
They noted that the price of a barrel of oil could rise above $50, provided that
countries commit to implement all provisions. Experts emphasized that the price
increase would depend on overcoming the repercussions of the Covid-19 outbreak
and restoring the barrel price to the pre-Corona period. Dr. Rashid Abanmi, an
expert in the oil sector, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the expected results of the
extension of the OPEC+ agreement were significant, compared to the results of
the previous agreement, in which the price of oil reached about $40 per barrel
in a very short time. Therefore, with the extension of the agreement, the price
of the barrel is expected to gradually touch the ceiling of $70. Abanmi linked
this increase to four main factors, including the countries’ “commitment, the
need for oil, the incentives, and external factors.” “The agreement depends on
mutual trust rather than the presence of a monitoring and inspection mechanism
to implement the agreement. This may lead some countries not to commit due to
the presence of many incentives in the global markets. Those might increase some
of the production quotas that they have committed to, for reasons related to
financial needs,” the oil expert told Asharq Al-Awsat. Abanmi stressed the need
to anticipate external factors, such as another wave of coronavirus, which will
force countries to completely shut down their economies, or a conflict between
two oil-producing countries.
But he expressed hope that stability of the oil markets would be restored if all
measures were applied.
Canada reaffirms ongoing support for Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
June 9, 2020 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
On behalf of the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Rob Oliphant, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister, today reaffirmed
Canada’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament during a
virtual meeting of foreign ministers of the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear
Disarmament.
Hosted by Germany and Sweden, participants at today’s meeting advocated for
pragmatic measures that would advance nuclear disarmament under the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT).
Canada will continue to promote concrete efforts, such as empowerment of youth
advocates and more meaningful engagement of women in disarmament
decision-making, to help achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
Quotes
“Canada has a strong history of leadership on nuclear non-proliferation and
disarmament, and is committed to working together with its partners to enhance
international security by strengthening multilateralism and the rules-based
international order.”
- Rob Oliphant, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Quick facts
Launched by Sweden in June 2019, the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear
Disarmament consists of 16 non-nuclear weapon states and aims to promote
concrete actions that would advance nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament
ahead of the upcoming Review Conference of the Parties to the NPT.
The NPT, which came into force 50 years ago, is the cornerstone of the global
non-proliferation and disarmament architecture.
Related products
Minister of Foreign Affairs marks 50th anniversary of Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
Associated links
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
Canada’s nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament policy
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from
miscellaneous sources published on June 09-10/2020
Iran Close to Nuclear Weapons Breakout
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/June 09/2020
مجيد رافيزادا/معهد كيتستون: إيران أصبحت قريبة من تقدم كبير في مسعاها للحصول على
سلاح نووي
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/87131/majid-rafizadeh-gatestone-institute-iran-close-to-nuclear-weapons-breakout-%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%b9%d9%87%d8%af-%d9%83%d9%8a%d8%aa%d8%b3/
Importantly, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the
International Atomic Energy Agency, has failed on several occasions accurately
to detect Iran's nuclear activities. For instance, in a November 2018 speech to
the UN General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke a story
stating that Iran had a "secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of
equipment and material from Iran's secret nuclear weapons program." Although
Iranian leaders insisted that the nuclear warehouse was a carpet cleaning
facility, traces of radioactive uranium were detected at the site; Israel's
warning and other reports have proved accurate.
Are the US and the UN happy to keep sitting idly by while the ruling mullahs of
Iran inch dangerously closer to a nuclear weapons breakout?
The Iranian regime is now comfortably violating all the restrictions of the
nuclear deal it never signed, according to the latest report by the United
Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The ruling mullahs have increased their total stockpile of low-enriched uranium
from 1,020.9 kilograms (1.1 tons) to 1,571.6 kilograms (1.73 tons), as of May
20, 2020. This is approximately eight times more than what the regime was
allowed to maintain under the misbegotten nuclear deal known as the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Tehran had been permitted to keep a
stockpile of 202.8 kilograms (447 pounds) according to the terms of the JCPOA,
and enrich uranium up to 3.67%. Iran is now enriching uranium up to the purity
of 4.5% and possesses more heavy water than would have been permitted under the
nuclear agreement.
Additionally, the mullahs still are not allowing the IAEA to inspect its sites,
a long-term problem which, according to the recent report, has reportedly now
raised "serious concerns" for the international inspectors.
In addition, despite the fact that Iran is a party to the Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT), which it did sign, it has refused to allow the IAEA fully to
inspect its sites, particularly to monitor Iran's military sites, where nuclear
activities are most likely being carried out.
Regrettably, one of the most dangerous concessions that the Obama administration
gave to the Iranian government was surrendering to the Iranian leaders' demand
that military sites would be out of the IAEA's reach. Because of this
concession, at various high-profile sites such as the Parchin military complex
southeast of Tehran, the regime has been free to engage in nuclear activities
without the risk of inspection.
The IAEA's recent report still does not give a full picture of Iran's nuclear
activities and is woefully underestimating the scope of the mullahs' nuclear
program. The Iranian authorities have even admitted that they have a higher
enriched uranium level than that being reported by the IAEA. The head of the
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, declared that Iran has an
adequate supply of 20% enriched uranium. "Right now we have enough 20% uranium,"
he told the Iranian Students News Agency, ISNA, "but we can produce more as
needed". He added that the country is resuming uranium enrichment at a far
higher level at the Fordow nuclear facility -- an underground uranium enrichment
facility which is reportedly located on one of bases of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) -- injecting uranium gas into centrifuges,
and operating 60 IR-6 advanced centrifuges.
Importantly the IAEA has failed on several occasions accurately to detect Iran's
nuclear activities. For instance, in a November 2018 speech to the UN General
Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke a story stating that
Iran had a "secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and
material from Iran's secret nuclear weapons program." Although Iranian leaders
insisted that the nuclear warehouse was a carpet cleaning facility, traces of
radioactive uranium were detected at the site; Israel's warning and other
reports have proved accurate.
Israel's 2018 seizure of documents, from a "nuclear archive" in Tehran answered
some questions that the IAEA has failed to address for decades. According to the
Institute for Science and International Security:
"How many nuclear weapons did Iran plan to make and how was it going to
implement this decision? This question was not answerable in late 2015 and early
2016, based on the information in the hands of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), when the long-outstanding issues, including the Possible Military
Dimensions (PMD), were addressed before the start of the implementation of the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). But now, with Israel's 2018 seizure
of documents, computer files, and images from a 'Nuclear Archive' in Tehran,
such questions can be far better addressed."
The Institute for Science and International Security explained in its report
that:
"Iran intended to build five nuclear warheads, each with an explosive yield of
10 kilotons and able to be delivered by ballistic missile... This report
discusses another document available from the archive that provides an early
look at how Iran planned to achieve its goal of designing and manufacturing five
nuclear weapons and by about 2003..."
Are the US and the UN happy to keep sitting idly by while the ruling mullahs of
Iran inch dangerously closer to a nuclear weapons breakout?
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated
scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and
president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has
authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at
Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Boris Johnson Leaves the Dirty Work to Everyone Else
Martin Ivens/Bloomberg/June 09/2020
An awkward question hangs over the COVID-shuttered world of Downing Street. At
his daily morning meeting, Boris Johnson, back to full duties after suffering a
serious bout of the virus, recently asked who was in charge of relaxing
Britain’s lockdown plan, with all of the risks and uncertainties that entails
for a government. “There was just silence,” an insider told the Sunday Times
newspaper. “He looked over at Mark Sedwill (his top civil servant) and asked,
‘Is it you?’ The official replied, ‘No, I think it’s you, prime minister.’”
Sedwill was right. The UK’s leader enjoys some of the strongest centralized
powers in Europe — and yet, paradoxically, the man who fought so hard to gain
control of his party and Britain’s destiny is reluctant to take responsibility.
Before the crisis, Johnson ruled as a near-absolute monarch, often through his
eccentric but effective adviser (and key Brexit strategist) Dominic Cummings. In
a tale familiar to English court politics down the centuries, the arrogant
outsider resented by lesser talents has himself become a hindrance to the man he
serves. Cummings, one of the architects of Britain’s lockdown, bent the rules by
driving his sick wife and child 250 miles to his family’s northern home, where
he may or may not have breached self-isolation to walk in local beauty spots.
Hitherto, an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons and the trouncing of
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labor Party in the December election had boosted the prime
minister’s natural self-confidence, and a cabinet largely composed of
inexperienced unequals reinforced his dominance.
The coronavirus has changed everything. It has seen Johnson dither over using
his executive power to lay down the law. True, most democratic leaders find
life-and-death decisions unnerving, but the prime minister has made too many
missteps for Britain’s emergence as the “the sick man of Europe” to be seen as
mere bad luck.
The UK has an unwelcome lead in the continent’s league table of fatalities, in
part due to its role as a transport and business hub. But Johnson’s
administration bears the blame for failing to lock down as quickly as Germany,
for prematurely terminating track and tracing of the infected in March, and for
allowing hospital patients to be discharged untested into care homes for the
elderly.
Voters have given Johnson the benefit of the doubt so far out of sympathy for
his own near-death encounter with COVID-19. But the prime minister, while a
convincing advocate for social distancing, still sounds uncertain on many big
calls. No. 10 staffers and his chief ministers lack confidence. His acolytes are
already looking over their shoulders at a likely public inquiry into their
handling of the emergency.
An unfamiliar crisis that demands fast, big-state solutions plays more easily to
the strengths of social democrats or even paternalist Conservatives. Johnson, a
carefree libertarian by instinct, at first ignored the peril, expecting others
to take responsibility for a threat that seemed more tangential than finalizing
a post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union.
Personal foibles matter too. Johnson’s absence from five key meetings in the
initial stages of the pandemic is a matter of record. There are crude metrics
(still evolving) that suggest Scotland’s devolved government has performed even
worse during the outbreak, but perceptions are otherwise and they matter. The
left-leaning Scottish nationalist leader, Nicola Sturgeon, cuts a more
commanding figure, happy to tell her fellow citizens what to do (or in the case
of following Johnson’s lead in easing the lockdown, what not to do).
Britain’s muddled approach to immigration, a central policy area for the
Conservatives, is equally perplexing. While the contagion was still spreading,
the UK permitted free entry from China, Italy, Iran and other countries with
high infection rates. Johnson’s Brexit vision is of an outward-looking Global
Britain, not the protectionist Little England imagined by his enemies, and that
rendered him reluctant to pull up the drawbridge. Now his government has lurched
in the opposite direction, devising a draconian regime that will force all UK
arrivals to self-isolate for 14 days. The policy looks unworkable.
Similarly, Johnson suggests that Brits wear masks while going about their
business, but his inner libertarian makes him reluctant to give this guidance
the force of law. Another area of confusion is his marriage of convenience with
his frazzled health secretary, Matt Hancock, whose unhappy lot is to run a
department that prepared for the wrong pandemic: influenza. The prime minister
sometimes gives the appearance of “neither backing him nor sacking him” — as one
senior Whitehall figure puts it. More cynical souls think the health secretary’s
political life is being held in reserve to offer up for sacrifice after a
punishing public inquiry. What of the charge, leveled since the Brexit
referendum campaign, that Johnson is averse to expertise? This is a cheap shot,
since the prime minister is clearly deferential to SAGE, the committee of
scientists advising government. If anything, he has listened lately to more
cautious advisers on reopening the economy in an attempt to stave off a second
spike of the virus. But fallible scientific opinion has to be balanced against
economics and politics, and that’s a prime minister’s call. Jeremy Hunt, a
former long-serving Conservative health secretary, claims that SAGE’s advice to
end contact tracing back in March was “one of the biggest failures of scientific
advice to ministers in our lifetimes.”
In the end, people will judge a leader’s competence by their impact on them and
their families. And here is the Boris anomaly: The prime minister is a brilliant
election campaigner but, as London’s mayor, he left it to his team — notably
Edward Lister, now No. 10’s chief of staff — to do the heavy lifting while he
took the credit, gave the speeches and swung gaily on a zip wire over the
Thames. A mayor can wield personal power fitfully, but national government
requires a consistent driving will to get things done. Overreliance on Cummings
— personal and political — has damaged Johnson at a time of jeopardy. The lesson
surely is to better develop and deploy his cabinet talent rather than gamble so
much on a single consigliere.
Today, the machinery of state needs a clarifying moment and clearer division of
roles than the present buck passing. The modus operandi of the current
government is that civil servants must be kept in check, lest a “blob” of
resistance hobbles Johnson’s and Cummings’s plans on Europe or anything else.
That is no recipe for cohesion.
The prime minister’s character won’t change. While an aversion to nannying and a
low boredom threshold are foibles, they also explain his personal appeal. But
the COVID-19 crisis means the “PM” can be neither the one-man show of the Brexit
wars, nor a figurehead, leaving the hard work to others. The job is prime
minister and the clue to success is in that title.
China, US, India and the Landscape of the 21st Century
Hal Brands/Bloomberg/June 09/2020
A flare-up in a long-running border dispute between China and India has raised
the temperature in their bilateral relationship. Yet it may be just as
significant for the trilateral US-China-India relationship, which will do a
great deal to shape the strategic landscape of the 21st century.
As the US-China rivalry goes global, India may be the only nonaligned country
that can, by itself, make a major difference in the balance of influence and
advantage. The good news is that the geopolitics of the triangle are producing a
tighter US-India partnership. The bad news is that trade frictions and India’s
internal politics are getting in the way.
The details of the border crisis are murky, in part because both governments are
remaining tight-lipped. But it’s clear that China and India are in the midst of
one of their most serious showdowns in decades, 14,000 feet above sea level in
the Himalayas. There are reports of several Chinese incursions into Indian-held
land, including territory beyond what Beijing has traditionally claimed. China
has sent thousands of troops to reinforce its presence in the area, in what
appears to be a small-scale invasion; both sides are reportedly deploying heavy
weapons to bases near the area in dispute.
For the time being, though, neither side seems eager to escalate into a shooting
war.
Nationalist newspapers in India are already crowing about a Chinese retreat.
This seems dangerously premature. Beijing has succeeded in reminding India that
it has powerful coercive capabilities along their shared frontier — that the
“salami slicer” China uses to carve away at its opponents’ positions is
ultimately backed by a meat cleaver.
That’s trouble for India, but it may offer an advantage for the US. Since
American officials started worrying about China’s rise in the 1990s, they have
looked to India as a counterweight. India’s nuclear tests in 1998 temporarily
threw a wrench in the relationship, but President Bill Clinton nonetheless
visited India in 2000, and a series of Democratic and Republican presidents have
made cultivating a strategic relationship with New Delhi a priority.
Indian governments rarely move as quickly as their US counterparts might like,
in part because the bureaucracy moves glacially even when there is a meeting of
the minds among political leaders, and in part because of the residue of India’s
Cold War tradition of nonalignment. US cooperation with Pakistan on
counterterrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was also a sticking point.
More recently, Indian officials have been reluctant to do anything that risks
making an outright enemy of China, a natural rival that they must nonetheless
find ways of living with.
Yet the geopolitical logic of a US partnership has grown stronger over time,
mostly because China has become more assertive. Indian strategists can be
forgiven for wondering if Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative is an encirclement
campaign, given how determinedly China has been building its presence in
Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other points along the Indian Ocean.
That China appears to have conducted such an intrusion into Indian-controlled
territory, less than three years after a tense standoff in 2017, has reminded
Indian officials of what living next to an aggressive, autocratic superpower
might mean. India’s having to impose a nationwide lockdown to deal with a virus
that began in China has hardly improved the tenor of the relationship.
The pace of US-Indian affairs has quickened in recent years. Modi’s Act East
policy — an evolving effort to increase ties with countries in East and
Southeast Asia — and the increasing US emphasis on the Indo-Pacific has created
a framework for better security cooperation.
The Quad, an informal strategic partnership between the US, India, Australia and
Japan, constitutes an implicit (if still nascent) anti-China coalition of
democracies. In 2019 and 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald
Trump exchanged visits, featuring Trump’s “Howdy, Modi” rally in Houston and
Modi’s “Namaste, Trump” reciprocation in Gujarat.
Defense sales and other military ties have increased, with Trump announcing a $3
billion weapons deal after his visit in February. India is also maneuvering to
displace China in certain global supply chains, a welcome initiative given US
officials’ concern about dependence on Beijing.
India would be a demographically young and vibrant friend at a time when many of
America’s traditional allies are going gray. Symbolically and geopolitically,
India is a billion-plus person democracy to balance a billion-plus person
autocracy.
In regional terms, US-India cooperation is critical to ensuring the security of
the Indian Ocean and bringing greater leverage to bear in the Western Pacific.
If Washington were ever to mount a far-seas blockade against China, it would
benefit enormously from access to India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands. A
US-India strategic partnership would confront China with a heightened challenge
on its Western flank in the event of war in East Asia.
Still, there are hurdles. The trade relationship is contentious, with both sides
slapping tariffs on each other’s goods and the Trump administration ending
India’s ability to export certain goods duty-free through the Generalized System
of Preferences. Trump’s obsession with trade deficits and Modi’s own moves to
protect domestic manufacturing bode ill.
Then there are Modi’s domestic policies. A crackdown in Muslim-majority Jammu
and Kashmir, the enactment of a citizenship law that has been criticized for
giving privilege to non-Muslims, and recurring anti-Muslim violence have stirred
concerns that Modi is reverting to the incendiary Hindu nationalism that once
earned him a visa ban by President George W. Bush’s State Department. Although
Trump seems little bothered by these issues, an India that regresses politically
will make a less comfortable partner for the US down the road.
Yet it is worth keeping these issues in perspective. The economic disputes are
small beer compared with the strategic stakes. The US tolerated worse forms of
economic discrimination from some Cold War allies as the price of strengthening
them against communist expansionism. India is still more pluralistic and
democratic than other key countries the US will have to hold close in the coming
years, such as Vietnam and, under the authoritarian President Rodrigo Duterte,
the Philippines.
US officials should speak candidly, in public and in private, when human rights
are abused or civil liberties are abridged. They should aggressively encourage
economic reforms that India needs to become more of a match for Beijing. But
Washington should meanwhile keep the relationship focused on what is bringing
India and the US into closer alignment: They have a great deal to gain if they
can hold the line against China, and much to lose if they cannot.
'Political Correctness' in the UK: Shut Down Discussion
Before It Can Start
Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/June 09/2020
Political correctness, whatever its commendable origins in a wish to protect
minorities on a basis of race, sexuality, or religious belief, has come to do
great damage in its sometimes neurotic condemnation of anything its advocates
find offensive.
Among some individuals, the word "Islamophobe" seems to have replaced the word
Communist as sort of a new form of McCarthyism with which to smear, defame and
neutralize anyone with whom one might disagree -- presumably to shut down any
kind of discussion before it can even start.
While it is appropriate to... bring in balanced Muslim opinions about how to
define "Islamophobia," organizations with links to more radical Muslim groupings
are probably not the most helpful partners.
Without a serious debate on these issues, no one... can engage in comprehensive
discussions about how Western societies should handle the problems of
discrimination, integration, citizenship, free speech, secular values, human
rights and all the areas of our collective lives that have come to the fore...
in recent years. Trevor Phillips is uniquely placed to bring light to these
discussions. A well-respected man in both British and international society, he
should never be shut down by anyone, especially for the ostensible sake of
political correctness.
For many years now, Trevor Phillips has been one of the most prominent
individuals of black ancestry in the United Kingdom. A well-respected man in
both British and international society, he should never be shut down by anyone,
especially for the ostensible sake of political correctness.
For many years now, Trevor Phillips OBE has been one of the most prominent
individuals of black ancestry in the United Kingdom. He is a multitalented
individual who has played significant roles in business, politics, journalism,
and more throughout a long life (he is now 66). A full list of his achievements
would take up most of this article. Here are only a few examples:
He was, until June 2018, the President of the John Lewis Partnership, Europe's
largest employee-owned company. He has also Chairman of Index on Censorship, the
international campaign group for freedom of expression, and was founding chair
of both the Greater London Authority, and of Britain's Equality and Human Rights
Commission. Originally chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, and as head
of the EHRC, Phillips was a controversial figure: he was an opponent of
multiculturalism, apparently preferring a more constrained policy towards
integration, a view he still maintains. Although a member (until recently) of
the left-wing Labour party, he is still a senior fellow with the leading
Conservative think tank, Policy Exchange.
Shockingly, on March 9, Phillips was suspended from the Labour Party on the
grounds of "Islamophobia." That this exclusion is shocking should be obvious
given the man's long history of anti-racism, principled and critical support for
national counter-terrorist laws, rejection of Islamic terrorism and Muslim rape
gangs, and his focus on faith-based integration. This latter is discussed in his
2016 book for the Civitas think tank, Race and Faith: The Deafening Silence.
As chairman of Index on Censorship, Phillips has a policy largely derived from
the First Amendment of the US Constitution, in order to permit freedom of speech
and the press. Although there are some restrictions in the UK regarding hate
speech and national security, free speech remains a broad principle. It is here
that Phillips apparently fell afoul of "politically correct" criticism.
"Political correctness", whatever its commendable origins in a wish to protect
minorities on a basis of race, sexuality, or religious belief, has come to do
great damage in its sometimes neurotic condemnation of anything its advocates
find offensive.
For many, especially, it seems. on the left, the notion of what is called "Islamophobia"
has come to the fore as the perfect expression of politically correct speech and
writing. This acceptance seems to have taken place despite the appalling use of
anti-Semitic hate speech and anti-Jewish activism before and during the era of
Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of Britain's Labour Party. One is inclined to think
of pots calling kettles black. If the politically correct can get it so wrong
about antisemitism, may they not be equally wrong about "Islamophobia"?
It is not hard to define antisemitism if we are guided by the Working Definition
given by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, but defining
Islamophobia is fraught with difficulties. That it exists in some form, as do
most prejudices, is hardly controversial. In the UK alone, 2018 saw a record
number of attacks on Muslims, sometimes, not surprisingly, in response to Muslim
attacks on non-Muslims.
In 2019, an Australian, Brenton Tarrant, murdered 51 Muslims in attacks on two
mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand -- crimes to which he has now pled guilty.
Such attacks, and often the speech that goes with them, reflect a deep-seated
racism and bigotry that is rightly condemned across most countries. Less violent
but equally unacceptable is the persecution of its Uighur population by China's
Communist Party.
It should go without saying that Trevor Phillips -- and often many people
accused of seemingly the most innocuous transgressions, such as a British
teacher in the Sudan naming a children's teddy bear Mohammed, or in present-day
Nigeria, simply being a Christian -- bears no resemblance to any of these.
In 2016, before the current row, Gatestone Senior Fellow Douglas Murray penned
an article in the Spectator expressing admiration for Phillips and defending him
against early accusations of Islamophobia. Yet, four years on, he has been
termed an "Islamophobe" by a major political party and many in the press. Among
some individuals, the word "Islamophobe" seems to have replaced the word
Communist as sort of a new form of McCarthyism with which to smear, defame and
neutralize anyone with whom one might disagree -- presumably to shut down any
kind of discussion before it can even start.
Phillips himself has worked alone and with colleagues on the problems
surrounding the definition of Islamophobia. In 2018, he wrote the foreword to
Policy Exchange's response to an extremely flawed definition from the UK's All
Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims. The definition had been
heavily criticized, not least by the police, for undermining free speech and
counter-terrorism work. Phillips supported the author, Sir John Jenkins KCMG,
who exposed the risks to free speech and a healthy democracy if the APPG report
were to become law. The following year, Phillips -- with Jenkins and Dr. Martyn
Frampton -- wrote for the same think tank a piece entitled, On Islamophobia: A
Problem of Definition. In it, he differed materially from the views of Nathan
Lean, the left-wing author of The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right
Manufactures Fear of Muslims, who takes even the mildest criticism of Islam or
Muslims as Islamophobic in nature.
One of the concerns expressed in Phillips's responses to the APPG lay in the
fact that the parliamentarians involved might have allowed themselves to be
influenced too broadly by Muslim lobbies that seemed not truly representative,
such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the Muslim Engagement and Development
group (MEND).
While it is appropriate to recognize Jewish contributions to definitions of
antisemitism (such as the internationally supported IHRA version mentioned
above) and to bring in balanced Muslim opinions about how to define Islamophobia,
organizations with links to more radical Muslim groupings are most likely not
the most helpful partners. To eradicate hatred for balanced and peace-loving
Muslims, it is probably not all that productive totally to avoid references to
Islamic radicalism or issues surrounding women's rights, treatment of
non-Muslims, prescribed punishments, treatment of children, and blasphemy to
name but a few -- which is what more traditionalist Muslims might prefer we did.
Without a serious debate on these issues, no one -- from schools to political
parties, think tanks, parliaments, churches and synagogues -- can engage in
comprehensive discussions about how Western societies should handle the problems
of discrimination, integration, citizenship, free speech, secular values, human
rights and all the areas of our collective lives that have come to the fore with
the revival of radical and traditionalist Islam in recent decades.
Trevor Phillips is uniquely placed to bring light to these discussions. A
well-respected man in both British and international society, he should never be
shut down by anyone for the ostensible sake of political correctness.
Following Labour's condemnation of Phillips as a supposed "Islamophobe", Policy
Exchange published another piece The Trial: The strange case of Trevor Phillips,
again by Frampton, in which he dissected the charge raised against Phillips. In
the end, it appears that however many enemies Phillips may have, he is assured
of having many friends. This conclusion is reflected in that the UK government
has just appointed him as an advisor to a formal inquiry into the
disproportionate number of deaths from Covid-19.
*Dr. Denis MacEoin is a former British university lecturer in Islamic Studies
and a Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Gatestone Institute.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Bringing the Middle East Back Home
Tony Badran/Tablet Magazine/June 09/2020
طوني بدران/موقع تابليت: نقل واقع الشرق الأوسط من قبل البعض إلى أميركا
The American Orientalist Class attempts to paint a fantasy Middle Eastern
landscape on the American canvas
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/87136/87136/
Growing up in Lebanon during the worst years of that country’s civil war left me
with a kaleidoscope of experiences that I am unlikely to forget. I remember
going to bombed-out Beirut with my father and being shot at by snipers as we
crossed the Green Line. I remember the strutting militiamen who regularly
abducted and tortured their enemies as well as anyone they wished to extort. I
remember sheltering inside my school building as it was hit by artillery and
rockets. Those are the memories of everyone who grew up in that place at that
cursed time.
Then, like everyone else, I have memories that are more personal, even if
similar experiences happened to hundreds of thousands of other children my age,
or a few years older or younger. An artillery shell exploded on our rooftop,
right over the room where my mother was sitting. I remember coming back from
school, walking down the street to our house, to be met by our sweet neighbors—who
caught me before I went in and tried gently to tell me what had happened without
freaking me out. I remember Syrian soldiers executing a friend—a missionary who
hid out by himself in his house, as the Syrians finalized their brutal
occupation of the country—whom they insanely accused of being a spy.
Most of all, I remember, with a sense of gratitude that has only grown with age,
the heroic efforts of my father—a man who, despite having to cross into West
Beirut daily for work was somehow through providence never taken from us, and
who, equally miraculously, managed to keep me and my siblings safe and fed in
the middle of a situation of Hobbesian warfare that must have been even more
terrifying for him than it was for us.
Shortly after I became a legal adult, I had the great fortune of immigrating to
America, where—if I was lucky—I might help to raise and protect a family of my
own, in a society founded on other principles, whose people had learned to
eschew sectarian violence. In leaving Lebanon, I was leaving behind the demons
of my childhood—the pathological third-world ideologues, secular and religious,
who used riots and violence and the rhetoric of justice as tools to attain
power. Or so I thought.
Yet as terrifying as it is for a child to watch a society descend into a state
of raw anarchy goosed and exploited by armed factions directed toward the
political ends of their power-seeking masters, it can also be a useful school.
It is hard for me to look at the streets of my adopted city of New York, which
offered me both a haven and so much inspiration, and read the newspapers, and
not see familiar scenes unfolding.
I am telling you this not because I want any kind of sympathy for my personal
emotions, which I experience in the safety of my home in Queens while listening
to my old jazz records and reading Albert Murray. I remain immeasurably
fortunate next to the suffering of others, who have been watching their stores
looted and their life savings vanish in the uncontrolled street violence that is
hailed across American media as symbolizing something urgent and important,
which must be acted on immediately—a demand for justice. What, after all, does
the life of a city, and the businesses that people built to feed their families,
mean next to that?
What’s perhaps useful about my reflections is the extent to which they appear to
be shared by a particular group of people in Washington, D.C., who took the
opposite route that I did—traveling from their safe American homes to involve
themselves in the affairs of the Middle East. I call these Americans AOCs,
representative members of the American Orientalist Class—that segment of the
American elite made up former government officials, newspaper correspondents,
and think tankers who are credentialed through study and professional experience
as experts in the Middle East, and appear to see some of the same analogies that
I do between what’s happening in America right now and upheavals in the
dictatorships and failed states of the region I left behind. The way that these
analogies are being deployed seems like a fruitful subject of analysis, given
our shared premise that what we are watching is a product of a third-world
reality, which is a frame of analysis and experience that has traditionally been
foreign to both ordinary Americans and to the elite class.
As American cities are hit with riots and looting, the AOCs ( American
Orientalist Class) have taken to social media to apply the wisdom they’ve
accumulated from their own studies and experience to this delicate moment in
American life. No less an authority on press ethics and behavior than Walter
Shaub directed American journalists to “start covering what was happening in the
U.S. ‘like you’re a foreign correspondent in a collapsing republic.’” Schaub’s
instruction was then cited by Telegraph reporter Josie Ensor, who “spent years
covering Syria and Arab uprisings,” in a Twitter thread in which she compared
President Trump to Syrian dictator and mass murderer Bashar Assad. Ensor’s
thread was in turn enthusiastically endorsed by New York Times Metro reporter
and former Beirut bureau chief Anne Barnard, in a neat example of how such
instructions can directly shape coverage that is intended to provide Americans
with a mirror in which to see the political and social reality that they
inhabit.
Barnard’s AOC colleagues—that weird mélange of commentators, reporters,
policymakers and sources—were eager to join in the fun by sharing inside
references to the third-world countries that had stamped their passports. “I
would say that the legislator is 2 small steps from Qadaffi’s 2011 threat to
clear ‘inch by inch, house by house, alley by alley’ all the ‘cockroaches,’”
tweeted former Ambassador Robert Ford in response to an outraged editor’s tweet
about Sen. Tom Cotton’s remarks about deploying the military, if necessary, to
restore order. “Zenga, zenga,” Anne Barnard piled on, displaying her familiarity
with the Qaddafi reference. A couple of hours earlier, former Obama
administration official Andrew Exum, who studied in Beirut and played paintball
with Hezbollah, separately went with the Qaddafi motif, posting a video remix of
the late Libyan dictator’s “zenga, zenga” (alley by alley) comment.
As American cities burned, the AOCs publicly delighted in being on the same
wavelength. While their joy was recognizable in part as the delight of any
specialist who wakes to find that their semi-obscure subject might in fact be
the center of universal attention, it can lead to truly nauseating results—using
suffering third-world people as doll-like props in advertisements for the
self-importance of their childlike owners. Barnard showcased her command of the
recent history of violence in Syria, for example, by tweeting a comparison of
the New York City Police Department commandeering a city bus to Assad’s
notorious security apparatus, which has used buses at different times since 2011
to detain and torture people, move soldiers, and empty out besieged towns as
part of a systemic ethnic cleansing policy. Hey, look at me!
Barnard’s colleague Liam Stack weighed in with lessons learned from many years
as a foreign expat in Egypt to educate Americans about “one thing” he learned
from that sclerotic and impoverished society: “When people begin to believe that
their country’s military has taken a political side, society can unravel very
quickly.” Of course, Egypt has lived under some form of military or
military-backed dictatorship since the 1950s—but hey, why not?
Former diplomat Dennis Ross lent his weight to this motif, suggesting that
having been “a policy practitioner … throughout the Middle East,” he recognized
that President Trump’s comments about deploying the military were disturbingly
reminiscent of “security forces used not for law and order but to enforce the
preservation of an authoritarian system and its leaders.”
Although these tweets are silly, and appear to be a way for their authors to
hobnob with peers and advertise their ability to crack inside jokes with the
natives, the larger conceit of the tweets is in fact important. Their authors
are making Americans aware of the gravity of their current moment, the
collective conclusion being that America now resembles the Middle East.
Yet, while I agree with this conclusion in some important dimensions, there is
something very wrong with the underlying meaning that the AOCs intend to convey.
The point of the comparison, for the AOCs, is that what is happening here, and
what this class of people has experienced there, is a unified phenomenon. In the
Middle East, they learned life lessons about people and power which can now help
them, and us, interpret what is happening in America. What they are actually
doing, though, is interpreting America through the categories and sensibilities
of the Middle East. If America is indeed coming to resemble the Middle East, the
AOCs are dangerously eliding the key analytical question of how we got here—and
what role they themselves have played in America’s nauseating slide into a
third-world reality.
The point of the comparison, for the AOCs, is that what is happening here, and
what this class of people has experienced there, is a unified phenomenon. In the
Middle East, they learned life lessons about people and power which can now help
them, and us, interpret what is happening in America. What they are actually
doing, though, is interpreting America through the categories and sensibilities
of the Middle East. If America is indeed coming to resemble the Middle East, the
AOCs are dangerously eliding the key analytical question of how we got here—and
what role they themselves have played in America’s nauseating slide into a
third-world reality.
While fantasy and wish-fulfillment have always been prime motivators for
American missions to the Middle East, as can be seen in the frequent use of the
term “the Holy Land” by secular writers and policymakers, 9/11 effected a
multi-trillion-dollar merger of historical fantasies with the realities of
George Bush’s Global War on Terror and his grandiose Freedom Agenda. Niche
psychodramas and projections became urgent matters of life and death—as well as
rocket fuel for a massive industry of experts and professionals that seemed at
times to employ most of Washington, D.C., and the surrounding suburbs in
Maryland and Virginia. For the greater portion of the American elite, the AOCs
provided an important window into what was really happening in the fantasy world
they had wished into being, and to which their favored policies and programs
were now connected by a gold-plated umbilical cord.
As children of 9/11, the AOCs, in particular American journalists, sought to
revise America’s understanding of the drivers of the region’s behaviors. Eager
to advertise their more authentic and thus superior grasp over that of their
predecessors, and their own freedom from outdated prejudices, they denounced
previous analyses as reeking of contempt for “inferior cultures”—while elevating
the conceit of “listening to voices of people from the region.”
In other words, the AOCs would embrace the Middle East’s supposed understanding
of itself. In doing so, they would redeem the injustices and vulgarities of
their predecessors while reshaping U.S. foreign policy for the better, as
cultural anthropology.
Their multiculturalist version of the “white man’s burden” was a fantasy. And
their bitterness has been sharpened by the failures in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and
across the region, where carnage continues unabated, often with the connivance
of American policymakers and their publicists who present themselves as angels
of history. Needless to say, the desire of the AOCs to see themselves as drivers
of history for good participates in the same shallow narcissism as the
condemnation of their predecessors.
Yet it is wrong to suggest that the post-9/11 AOCs and their patronizing of
“voices from the region” have had no effect. In fact, the effect of these people
and their style of discourse have been transformative—although not in the Middle
East. If the region demonstrated its historical resistance to the fantasies of
outsiders, it did succeed in transforming American discourse by injecting it
with the style, prose, categories and intellectual modes, and larger political
and aesthetic sensibilities of the third-world countries where the AOCs made
their bones.
Perhaps the most striking example of the phenomenon of the American elite
embracing the thought categories and operative political styles of Middle
Eastern regimes and their intellectual classes has been best documented and
explained by my Tablet colleague Lee Smith in his investigations of the
weaponizing of the Russiagate conspiracy theory—which has become the premise for
most political reporting in America, and is regularly cited as the justification
for the trashing of American political norms and procedures, despite having been
conclusively proven to be an assemblage of often ludicrous falsehoods, bound
together by the third-world behavior of the American internal security
apparatus.
Another example of the third-worldization of American elite discourse is the
infatuation with mass protests that began with the excitement over street
demonstrations after Donald Trump’s election in 2016. This applause has been
accompanied by the glorification of street theater—rather than legislative
deliberation or the voting booth—as the purest expression of democracy.
The pivotal moment when the politics of the crowds became elevated in the elite
American imagination was captured by the late Fouad Ajami in 2008, on the eve of
Barack Obama’s election:
“There is something odd—and dare I say novel—in American politics about the
crowds that have been greeting Barack Obama on his campaign trail. Hitherto,
crowds have not been a prominent feature of American politics. We associate them
with the temper of Third World societies. We think of places like Argentina and
Egypt and Iran, of multitudes brought together by their zeal for a Peron or a
Nasser or a Khomeini. In these kinds of societies, the crowd comes forth to
affirm its faith in a redeemer: a man who would set the world right.”
Ajami was born and raised in one of those third-world societies—the same one I
was born and raised in—and he spent his life explaining the Middle East to
Americans. But what he did was fundamentally different than what the AOCs are
doing today with their shallow and contemptuous analogies, which leverage the
suffering of real people in the Middle East to score points against their fellow
Americans on Twitter.
Fouad Ajami firmly believed in American exceptionalism, and he held up the
Middle East as an exemplar of social and political pathology. In diametrical
opposition to all these contemporary poseurs who have soaked up the region’s
sickness and injected it in American life, Ajami stressed the saving importance
of cultural difference. Ajami was an immigrant who was an unabashed and
unsentimental believer in assimilation and in breaking with the old world, the
world of death.
It was when the Obama administration pushed its signature policy—the nuclear
deal with Iran—that many of these tropes Ajami first observed became normal,
everyday features of American elite discourse. Take for instance the Obama
administration’s facile expedient analogies about how America has its own
hardliners just as Iran has theirs. And just like that, it became normal to see
American and Iranian politics as mirrors of one another.
This trope continues today, of course, courtesy of the same echo chamber that
Obama and his minions built to sell the Iran deal: “America 2020 looking like
Iran 2019: President threatens to shoot protestors,” tweeted New York Times
journalist Farnaz Fassihi, following Twitter’s decision to censor one of the
president’s tweets.
Why yes, exactly. Go ask anyone being tortured in Evin prison—they’ll tell you
that it’s exactly the same.
Or take the attitude toward Jews and anti-Semitism. Sure, the Islamic Republic
of Iran is anti-Semitic. But that “rhetoric” is merely an “organizing tool” for
Iran, Obama said. “The fact that you are anti-Semitic,” he continued, “doesn’t
preclude you from being rational.” A few months after these remarks, the Times
was running a “Jew tracker” for where Jewish members of Congress stood on
Obama’s deal with Iran.
The fantasy of remaking the Third World in America’s image was ludicrous and
insanely destructive for the people of the Middle East. Instead, destruction
would now be visited upon America by an opposing group of fantasists who wanted
to level the enormous difference between America and the Middle East, to knock
Americans off their high horse, and to normalize countries like Iran in American
political discourse and use them as a cudgel with which to beat the people they
identified as their enemies at home.
Of course, the AOCs haughtily reply, it’s Trump who turned America into a
third-world country—not us! But in fact, Trump, for all his flaws, was clear in
his desire to perpetuate American uniqueness—hence his calls to overhaul
immigration policy and border security. In response, the AOCs cried
racism—advertising their own superiority to Trump and to their missionary
predecessors.
Except, while racism is a discredited 19th-century pseudoscience, cultural
differences are entirely real. They are also hugely important in shaping
everything from social structure to personality to political culture.
Yet America’s leveling ideologues are happy to ignore the mountain of evidence
that contradicts their dogma—especially in the service of opposing Trump. The
shunning of assimilation and the celebration of grievance-based tribalism as the
core American value—which they attempt to enforce by judicial fiat, education,
and social pressure—is both a threat to American democracy and a source of
progressive political power. Instead of liberation from third world norms—the
norms of the societies they came from—immigrants and their children are shackled
to them and told that their value to American society resides in these
continuing attachments. In school, their children are taught that America is
sinful, and that the noxious communal grievance politics of their parents’
societies can be applied to America and layered onto the historical American
rights based political culture. On the low end, this means conditioning a new
generation of young Americans into sectarian competition and resentment, and
block voting within the structure of the Democratic Party. On the elite level,
thanks in part to the AOCs and their use of “voices from the region,” this
validation is sharpened further and made into a source of authority that torques
both American foreign policy and increasingly the lens through which American
domestic politics is presented to Americans.
For the AOCs—and for Obama, who incarnated their tendency to see American
uniqueness as shameful and vulgar—exceptionalism is a misguided relic of the
sinful American past, which “can discourage comparisons with other countries,
suggesting that the United States cannot learn from others.” Hence, the
exultation in the notion that America’s street action is a mirror image of the
mass protests of the Middle East. In fact, the idea of America as the Middle
East allows the AOCs to bring all of the conflicting emotions that drew them to
the region into harmony. America offers a new canvas on which the guilt and
pity—and even the erotic attraction—that this class of Americans feel for those
societies in which they’ve lived and worked can be re-enacted.
Perhaps more important than the chance for a do-over of the failed Middle
Eastern adventures and thought experiments is the opportunity that applying
Middle Eastern thought categories to America offers the AOCs for reconciling
feelings of frustration with and contempt for their own country. Take, for
instance, the leveling language in this tweet by a think tanker who works on
Syria and al-Qaida, in reaction to his Syrian friend participating in protests
in Washington, D.C. The Syrian friend’s participation becomes a “fight for our
rights in #America—just a few years after he was forced to flee #Syria while
demanding the same.” What better way to transcend the bitterness and depression
of helplessly covering and identifying with the third-world societies where
they’ve lived and worked, in which virtually all mass protests ended in failure?
Now it can play out in America, and this time, it will succeed, against our own
Trump-Assad!
The identification of Obama and the AOCs with ugly third-world security regimes
like Iran and the failed societies of the region points to a larger leveling
process that is currently at work in America. That process makes me anxious
about the future of the great country to which I immigrated—in the hope of
leaving the sickness of my former society behind me.
As Americans, we’ve gone from glorifying the politics of crowds, to celebrating
the tribalization of American society and the elevation of the culture of
grievance and self-pity. We accept that the function of the media is not to
provide objective accounts of events but to act as a put-through mechanism for
security agencies. We have entrenched the culture of conspiracy and turned
institutions of government into instruments to paralyze the opposite party and
disrupt the peaceful transition of power. These all are hallmarks of the
politics of the Third World.
9/11 gave birth to a lost generation that threw itself into the Third World in
search of redemption. Now, tragically, they have brought the Third World back
home.
*Tony Badran, Tablet magazine’s Levant analyst, is a research fellow at the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He tweets @AcrossTheBay.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/bringing-middle-east-back
The worst is yet to come in Libya
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Arab News/June 09/2020
Two factions have been battling for power in Libya since 2015. Like all regional
wars, this war started as a simple domestic conflict, then escalated as it
became entangled in regional and international agendas.
The developments in the country during the past few days are important on a
number of levels. In a move of a kind not seen since the fall of the Ottoman
Empire 100 years ago, Turkey crossed the Mediterranean to fight in Libya under
the flag of the Government of National Accord (GNA).
The GNA, which is effectively an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood, recently
began to record military victories after a long string of defeats. Indeed, its
forces managed to break the lines of the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by
Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, which had besieged them in Tripoli for a year, and
then defeated the LNA in the neighboring city of Tarhuna and advanced east
toward Sirte. As a result, the area under GNA control has doubled. Even with
that, however, it controls less than 20 percent of the country, while the army
controls more than 60 percent, including the oil fields.
Time will tell whether the Turkish troops — who will lead air and ground forces,
supported by militias they brought from Syria — can make advances and take
control of eastern cities and other areas.
The Cairo Declaration might be the final chance to save Libya before a new and
more dangerous phase of the war begins
If the Turks seize Sirte and Benghazi, their victory would be dangerous and
might change the rules of the game, not only in Libya but throughout the region.
For the time being, however, although they have seized neighborhoods on the
outskirts of Tripoli, Tarhuna and Bani Walid, the war is far from over.
Haftar and Aguila Saleh, the speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives,
participated in the Cairo Declaration this week in the Egyptian capital. It was
a conciliatory initiative that included a proposed cease-fire agreement. Some
observers dismissed it as the actions of the defeated, but in fact it represents
the best chance for a peace process that would bring all parties together. The
initiative included proposals for a government that features a president and two
vice presidents, a transitional phase for its implementation, a new
constitution, and elections. However, the Turks and their allies quickly
rejected it.
Is the Cairo Declaration really just a tactical maneuver imposed by recent
military developments? The truth is that it is a necessary diplomatic step ahead
of the next stage of the conflict — which is expected to be the worst,
militarily — and represents the foundation for any future resolution. It has
found acceptance with Western and other international institutions but, without
any power to promote it and without the defeat of the Turks, it will not be
feasible.
Does the Turkish invasion of Libya have the blessing of the West — or at least
the absence of any objection? Perhaps, because Ankara could not have transported
this amount of troops and military equipment so publicly without running the
risk of being intercepted by European or, in particular, American warships.
Is this apparent Western apathy a response to what is considered the vanguard of
Russian forces? Moscow, too, has for the first time established a presence in
the region, which is an important development for the world, because of the oil
and for the security of Southern Europe.
After months of denial, Ankara finally admitted its military involvement in
North Africa a few days ago. “Our soldiers, along with their brothers in Libya,
have recently been marching toward achieving the targeted plans,” said President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He added: “The Turkish military has control in Libya,
whether in Tripoli or in Tarhuna and the surrounding airports, where they have
cleared all these areas, and they are now marching toward the desired goals.”
What are these desired goals? These are words with vast meanings. The war in
Libya is no longer only a conflict between Libyans.
Much like Iran before it, Turkey is going through an insane proliferation stage.
It has deployed military forces throughout the region, including in northern
Iraq, a military base in Qatar, Libya, Syria, and Somalia.
The Turkish intervention in Libya will achieve one thing, which is not to take
control of the country and provide the GNA with full authority over it, but
rather the escalation of a conflict that has plagued this war-torn country since
the Arab Spring. That is why the Cairo Declaration might be the final chance to
save Libya before a new and more dangerous phase of the war begins.
*Abdulrahman Al-Rashed is a veteran columnist. He is the former general manager
of Al-Arabiya news channel, and former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat.
Twitter: @aalrashed