English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese
Related, Global News & Editorials
For June 13/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.june13.20.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have
sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 15/22-27/:”If
I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no
excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done
among them the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they
have seen and hated both me and my Father. It was to fulfil the word that is
written in their law, “They hated me without a cause.” ‘When the Advocate comes,
whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the
Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have
been with me from the beginning.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 12-13/2020
MoPH confirms 20 new Covid-19 cases in Lebanon
Question: "What does it mean to pray in Jesus’ name?"
Protesters clash with security forces as roads blocked across Lebanon
Lebanon central bank to inject dollars into market: President
Lebanon gov't will dump dollars into market: Minister
Lebanese President, US Ambassador Discuss New Sanctions
Aoun Says Thursday's Dollar Surge May be Part of 'Plot'
Aoun confers with AUB President over educational situation
Tripartite meeting at Baabda Palace
Al-Rahi Urges Protesters to be Peaceful after Meeting Aoun
Berri Meets Aoun and Diab, Rules Out Sacking of Salameh
Report: Salameh Still Enjoys Berri's Support amid Calls for Firing Him
Cabinet Holds Emergency Session after Night of Raging Protests
Diab Says Citizens Livelihood 'Red Line', BDL to Pump Dollars into Market
Govt. Forms Crisis Cell to Enforce Financial and Monetary Decisions
Hariri Warns that Firing Salameh would 'Slaughter' Economy
Halawi announces agreement to inject cash dollar into market
Geagea Says Lebanese to Hear 'Bad News' Daily if Hizbullah, Bassil Keep Ruling
Lebanon: Months of Protests
Diab’s meeting decides to open Rafik Hariri International Airport as of July 1,
2020
UNIFIL‘s Del Col to NNA: Rotation of troops to resume as of June 15, 2020
Bukhari meets Baasiri
Abdel Samad after cabinet session says pumping USD not enough to remedy economic
crisis
Neshan TV episode: Turkish embassy calls for intervention of Foreign Ministry
Lebanese Take to Streets as Pound Hits New Low
Lebanon PM faces challenge with renewed demonstrations, financial crisis
Destroying Lebanon to Save It/Michael Young/Carnegie MEC/June 12/2020
New US sanctions set to hit Syria likely to have knock-on effect in Lebanon/Abby
Sewell/Al Arabiya English/June 12/2020
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
June 12-13/2020
Transmission of COVID-19 by asymptomatic cases
After Soleimani and Muhandis, pro-Iranian factions in Iraq are weakened, divided
Looming U.S. Sanctions Shake Syria, Hasten Economic Meltdown
U.S. Pledges to Reduce Iraq Troops as Tensions Ease
Seattle Mayor Tells Trump to 'Go Back to Your Bunker'
Putin says 'majority' back plan to change Russian constitution
Britain abandons plan to introduce full border checks with EU on Jan 1
California man charged with videotaped poisoning of homeless people
Bomb explodes in Kabul mosque, at least 4 killed
US Recommends Designating Badr Organization's Leader, PMF Factions as Terrorists
Assad dismisses PM, top military as Caesar Act set to bite
US Pledges to Reduce Troops in Iraq
PLO Member Says 8 European Countries Ready to Recognize Palestine
Aboul Gheit Warns of ‘Religious War’ over Israel’s Annexation Plan
Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published on June 12-13/2020
Facts About the Caesar Act/Akram Bunni/Asharq Al Awsat/June
12/2020
Powers Play with Fire in Libya/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/June 12/2020
The US Elections and the Minneapolis Story of Mr. Chauvin/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq
Al Awsat/June 12/2020
America’s Great(er) Recession Will Last for Years/Noah Smith/Bloomberg/June, 12/
2020
A Brief History of Antifa: Part I/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/June 12/2020
You Are Finished!”: Turkey’s Growing War on Christians/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone
Institute/June 12/2020
Washington offers aid to Baghdad in exchange for curtailing pro-Iranian
factions/Hammam Latifhe Arab Weekly/June 12/2020
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News &
Editorials published
on June 12-13/2020
MoPH confirms 20 new Covid-19 cases in
Lebanon
NNA /June 12/2020
Lebanon has recorded 20 new Covid-19 cases within the last 24 hours, the
Ministry of Public Health said in a statement on Friday, raising the total
number of infected people in the country to 1422.
Question: "What does it mean to pray in Jesus’ name?"
GotQuestions.org/June 12/2020
Answer: Prayer in Jesus’ name is taught in John 14:13-14, “And I will do
whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You
may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Some misapply this verse,
thinking that saying “in Jesus’ name” at the end of a prayer results in God’s
always granting what is asked for. This is essentially treating the words “in
Jesus’ name” as a magic formula. This is absolutely unbiblical. Praying in
Jesus’ name means praying with His authority and asking God the Father to act
upon our prayers because we come in the name of His Son, Jesus. Praying in
Jesus’ name means the same thing as praying according to the will of God, “This
is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according
to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we
know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15). Praying in Jesus’ name
is praying for things that will honor and glorify Jesus.Saying “in Jesus’ name”
at the end of a prayer is not a magic formula. If what we ask for or say in
prayer is not for God’s glory and according to His will, saying “in Jesus’ name”
is meaningless. Genuinely praying in Jesus’ name and for His glory is what is
important, not attaching certain words to the end of a prayer. It is not the
words in the prayer that matter, but the purpose behind the prayer. Praying for
things that are in agreement with God’s will is the essence of praying in Jesus’
name.
Protesters clash with security forces as roads blocked
across Lebanon
Reuters/Friday 12 June 2020
Lebanese protesters set fire to roadways and clashed with security forces on a
second night of unrest on Friday, according to witnesses and Lebanese media.
Protests erupted on Thursday in several Lebanese cities after a crash in the
pound currency, which has lost about 70 percent of its value since October, when
Lebanon was plunged into a financial crisis that has brought mounting hardship.
The pound appeared to halt its slide on Friday after a government announcement
that the central bank would inject dollars into the market on Monday. However,
protesters returned later on Friday for a second night, throwing fireworks and
stones at security forces in central Beirut and the northern city of Tripoli,
prompting them to spray tear gas and rubber bullets to push them back. The
unrest comes as Beirut holds talks with the International Monetary Fund for a
reform program it hopes will secure billions of dollars in financing and put its
economy back on track. The crisis, rooted in decades of corruption and waste,
has brought soaring food prices, unemployment and capital controls that have
severed Lebanese from their hard currency savings.
Lebanon central bank to inject dollars into market:
President
Reuters, Beirut/Friday 12 June 2020
Lebanon's central bank will begin injecting dollars into the market beginning on
Monday in order to strengthen the Lebanese pound, President Michel Aoun said on
Friday. Speaking at the start of a cabinet session, Aoun said huge losses to the
financial system should not be borne by depositors but instead by the
government, central bank and commercial banks. The Lebanese pound has seen its
value fall quickly in recent days, slipping to about 5,000 to the dollar from
about 4,100 a week earlier, sparking protests across the country. Lebanese
parliament speaker Nabih Berri said earlier that the government was aiming to
reduce the dollar price to about 3,000-3,200 pounds through steps agreed on
Friday, without specifying what they were. The pound has lost some 70 percent of
its value since October, when protests first erupted and the country plunged
into a financial crisis that has seen dollars dry up and the economy grind to a
halt. Lebanon’s central bank has tried to rein in the currency's collapse,
agreeing last week with money changers to set a unified daily price that would
be gradually reduced to 3,200 pounds, but importers have said dollars at this
reduced price are unavailable. The heavily indebted country has maintained an
official dollar peg of 1,507.5, but dollars at this level have been rationed
exclusively for imports of fuel, medicine, and wheat. nBerri also said there was
agreement reached on speaking tothe International Monetary Fund in "one
language", amid disagreement between MPs, the central bank and government
officials engaged in talks with the Fund for an economic reform program. Beirut
is hoping to secure billions of dollars in financing, but the talks have been
stalled by internal disagreements over the value of huge losses in the financial
system and proposals for how to cover them. Aoun said on Friday financial sector
losses should not be borne by depositors but instead by the government, central
bank, and commercial banks.
Lebanon gov't will dump dollars into market: Minister
Lauren Holtmeier/ Al Arabiya EnglishFriday 12 June 2020
Following a night of protests in Beirut as the local currency met new lows,
businesses across Lebanon are closing planning weekend closures due to rapid
currency fluctuations.
In response, the Minister of Industry Imad Hoballah announced on Friday it will
dump fresh dollars in the economy in an attempt to stabilize the exchange rate.
Also on Friday, the Syndicate of Money Changers said it would commit to selling
the dollar at 3,940 Lebanese lira, local news station MTV reported.
“These administrative decisions and controls don't address the economic
fundamentals,” said Nasser Saidi, former minister of Economy and Trade and
Minister of Industry of Lebanon.
Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh speaking to a delegation of money changers
said that there is “a sufficient amount of dollars to meet the needs of
citizens, provided that we rationalize the sale and we will not sell the dollar
to those who are trying to reduce the value of the Lebanese pound.”
The Lebanese lira, which is officially pegged to the US dollar at 1507 to $1,
has lost over 60 percent of its value in recent months. The central bank has
tried to manage the spiraling rate by setting the exchange rate at 3,850 to $1,
but has done so unsuccessfully with the value reaching close to 6,000 to $1. One
individual in the country’s Bekaa Valley east of Beirut reported rates closer to
7,000 to the dollar, Al Arabiya English reported Thursday. Wednesday, exchange
dealers were buying dollars at 4,600, Reuters reported.One business owner, Tarek
Hassan, in Batloun, a mountain town near the middle of the country, told Al
Arabiya English that he had decided to close his hardware store until the
exchange rate stabilized. “When the currency goes up and down like this in a
matter of hours, no one can handle it,” Hassan said. He said that his business
that employs 30-35 people would remain closed until the rate stabilizes.
Businesses across the country have said they will close until the exchange rate
stops fluctuating rapidly. “There is no anchor for expectations of the future
course of lira, given the collapse of the peg. [The central bank] does not have
the reserves to support the lira,” Saidi told Al Arabiya English. “There is
great uncertainty concerning the macroeconomic outlook, economic, fiscal and
monetary policies, because none of the promised reforms have been
undertaken.”For years, the government has failed to make necessary reforms to
receive much-needed foreign assistance, and informal capital controls have made
it difficult to impossible for individuals and importers to access dollars in
their bank accounts, which importers need to pay for goods. Since the onset of
the crisis in October, Hassan said he has not received a new shipment of
supplies and materials from China, but prior to the economic downturn, he
received a shipment every 30 days. The current situation has forced employees to
work only part-time. “This month I was going to pay the whole salary and be open
the whole month, but now I don’t know what to do,” he said. Compounded crises,
including the further blow coronavirus has dealt to an already deteriorating
economy, have left many Lebanese businesses struggling to stay afloat, with many
already forced to close shop. The country is currently facing its worst economic
crisis since the end of its 15-year civil war in 1990, and recent further
devaluation of the lira indicate that economic pressure will not ease soon..
Lebanese President, US Ambassador Discuss New Sanctions
Beirut - Khalil Fleihan/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 12 June, 2020
Lebanese President Michel Aoun has discussed with US Ambassador Dorothy Shea a
wave of new tighter US sanctions on Syria, a diplomat told Asharq Al-Awsat. Shea
on Thursday handed Aoun a letter that includes the text of the US Caesar Syria
Civilian Protection Act, which takes effect later this month, the diplomat said.
Shea stressed to the Lebanese president that the new law is on Syria, saying her
country continues to back Lebanon, the source added. The ministers of foreign
affairs, information, economy and justice and their director generals, in
addition to Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, met on Thursday to discuss the
Caesar Act’s repercussions on Lebanon. One of the conferees described the
meeting as "consultative." The Caesar Act targets companies dealing with
Damascus. The sanctions are expected to worsen the already dire economic
situation in Syria.
Syria's economy has been battered by nine years of war compounded by a financial
crisis in Lebanon, which had served as a conduit to bring dollars into
regime-held areas despite international sanctions.
Aoun Says Thursday's Dollar Surge May be Part of 'Plot'
Naharnet/June 12/2020
President Michel Aoun on Friday suggested that Thursday’s dramatic rise in the
dollar exchange rate on the black market could have been part of a “planned
plot.”“Financial experts stressed that the dollar or any other currency cannot
jump to this extent within hours. This removes the spontaneousness label from
everything that happened and indicates the presence of a planned plot against
which we must show solidarity,” the president told a Cabinet session in Baabda.
“What happened yesterday as a result of the unjustified rise in the dollar
exchange rate makes us wonder whether the number given to the price of the
dollar was a rumor that was circulated to push people into the streets and spark
confrontations, and whether it was a political ploy, a banking ploy or something
else,” Aoun added. He also noted that authorities will start implementing a
“measure” as of Monday under which the central bank will supply the market with
dollars and the exchange rate will “gradually drop.”Aoun also pointed out that
“the government, the central bank and banks should bear the financial losses,
not depositors.”Prime Minister Hassan Diab for his part said the country “cannot
withstand further shocks.”“Harsh measures are required against any individual or
side that resort to this approach and practical measures should be taken in
order to grant bigger immunity to the government and the state,” Diab added.
Aoun confers with AUB President over educational situation
NNA/June 12/2020
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, received on Friday at Baabda
presidential palace the President of the American University of Beirut (AUB),
Dr. Fadlo Khuri, in the presence of former Minister Salim Jreissati. Discussions
reportedly touched on the educational conditions in the country and the
circumstances endured by educational institutions, in general, and universities,
in particular, notably AUB. The AUB president hoped that the current situation
will be addressed responsibly and delicately for a better future.
Tripartite meeting at Baabda Palace
NNA/Naharnet/June 12/2020
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, held a meeting which included
Speaker, Nabih Berri and Prime Minister, Dr. Hassan Diab, in which the financial
situation and recent developments in the country were deliberated. After the
meeting, Speaker Berri spoke to reporters, saying: "Normally, I do not like to
talk to the media in order not to disturb you, but after what happened yesterday
and the danger it loomed in the country, we must speak. I had the honor to meet
with His Excellency the President and the Prime Minister, and it was agreed
during this meeting that: First, lowering the dollar rate against the Lebanese
currency starting today, but in reality it will start from Monday, to below
4,000 pounds per dollar, reaching 3,200. This will happen, and the procedures
were agreed upon in the cabinet session that took place before noon. Second, the
second topic agreed upon is to address the International Monetary Fund with
united points of view, under the auspices of the Parliament”.Asked if the
discussion dealt with the dismissal of the BDL Governor, Berri replied "We need
all people today, and we do not need to dispense anyone”.
Oath:
On the other hand, a number of appointees in the public and financial
departments made their oaths in front of President Aoun, who wished them success
in their new duties. The head of the Civil Service Council, Nisreen Machmouchi,
took the oath before President Aoun and the Prime Minister, in the presence of
the head of the State Shura Council, Judge Fadi Elias, head of the Audit Bureau,
Judge Muhammad Badran, and head of the Central Inspection Department, Judge
George Attia. Then, the four Vice-Governors of the BDL Governor: Wasim Mansouri
(First Deputy), Bashir Yaqzan (Second Deputy), Salim Shaheen (Third Deputy), and
Alexander Moradian (Deputy Fourth), and the Director General of the Ministry of
Economy and Trade Muhammad Abu Haidar in his capacity as a member of the Central
Council of the Bank of Lebanon, made their oaths before the President of the
Republic and the Prime Minister, in the presence of the Central Bank Governor
Riad Salameh. Finally, Adel Drake, Kamel Wazani, Joseph Haddad, Marwan Mikhael,
and members of the Financial Markets Authority: Walid Al-Qadri, Wassab Qansu and
Fouad Shukair, swore their oaths.—Presidency Press Office
Al-Rahi Urges Protesters to be Peaceful after Meeting Aoun
Naharnet/June 12/2020
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi held talks Friday in Baabda with President
Michel Aoun, in the wake of a night of raging protests that engulfed Lebanon
over a dramatic rise in the dollar exchange rate on the black market. “Neither
through vandalization nor though burning tires we would get anything. We support
a civilized revolution and it is unacceptable to tarnish Lebanon’s cultural and
civilized face,” al-Rahi said after the meeting. “We respect the ruling
authorities’ decisions and they must shoulder their responsibility towards the
people,” the patriarch added. “We feel people’s pain and we went through bigger
problems in the past, and my words are not meant to anesthetize (the people) but
are rather responsible words,” he went on to say. Defending President Aoun, al-Rahi
added: “President Aoun was the first who said ‘all of them means all of them’
and I call for pinpointing responsibilities instead of blaming them on one
person.”
Berri Meets Aoun and Diab, Rules Out Sacking of Salameh
Naharnet/June 12/2020
A tripartite meeting was held Friday in Baabda between President Michel Aoun,
Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Hassan Diab, following a dramatic crash
of the Lebanese currency that sparked raging nationwide protests. The meeting
preceded a Cabinet session in Baabda. "It was agreed with President Aoun and PM
Diab to lower the dollar exchange rate as of today to below LBP 4,000 and
gradually to 3,200, but the results will not begin appearing before Monday,”
Berri said after the talks. "This thing will happen and it was agreed on the
measures during the Cabinet session that was held in the morning," the Speaker
assured. He added that he also agreed with Aoun and Diab on "addressing the
International Monetary Fund with a unified language."Asked about the possibility
of the government sacking veteran Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, Berri
said: “We need all people and we don’t need to give them up.”
Report: Salameh Still Enjoys Berri's Support amid Calls for
Firing Him
Naharnet/June 12/2020
Several parties who are part of Hassan Diab’s government have called for sacking
Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh over the unprecedented currency crash and the
subsequent protests, media reports said. “As angry protesters were chanting
slogans overnight, political forces taking part in the government were hold
consultations under two titles: preventing the government’s downfall and the
need to address the dollar crisis,” al-Akhbar newspaper, which is close to
Hizbullah, reported on Friday. “The need to fire Salameh was raised by several
parties who are part of the government,” the daily said. But “Speaker Nabih
Berri has not yet given up his support for Salameh and he prefers that Prime
Minister Hassan Diab pressure the central bank governor to control the exchange
rate,” al-Akhbar said. It also reported that there are disagreements over who
should succeed Salameh.
Cabinet Holds Emergency Session after Night of Raging Protests
Associated PressNaharnet/June 12/2020
Prime Minister Hassan Diab held an emergency Cabinet meeting Friday morning
after a night of raging protests that saw demonstrators shut down roads across
the country with burning tires in renewed protests spurred by a plunging
national currency. Scuffles with security forces broke out in several locations
Thursday night as people spontaneously took to the streets after the pound
tumbled to a new low against the dollar. Protesters in central Beirut pelted
police and soldiers with rocks and smashed some storefronts, drawing volleys of
tear gas. Some protesters set fire to a private bank, while others threw stones
at the offices of other banks in an expression of anger at their perceived role
in deepening their economic malaise. "Three glass windows were broken in the
front and the back, the fridge and the phones. And they broke the photocopy
machines and the chairs. ... I am not sure yet what is the estimated material
loss," said the owner of a travel agency in downtown Beirut. Security forces
reopened blocked roads early Friday as the protests calmed. Diab canceled his
scheduled meetings for the day and called for an emergency session to discuss
the crisis. Riad Salameh, the governor of the central bank who has been singled
out by Diab for his mishandling of the situation, was taking part in the
meeting. The renewed demonstrations amid calls for Diab's resignation are a huge
challenge for the prime minister who took over in December after his
predecessor, Saad Hariri, resigned amid nationwide protests late last year. His
government is supported by Hizbullah and its allies and has been weakened by the
crisis. Despite efforts to control the currency depreciation in recent weeks,
the Lebanese pound tumbled to more than 6,000 to the dollar on Thursday, down
from 4,000 on the black market in recent days. The pound had maintained a fixed
rate of 1,500 to the dollar for nearly 30 years. The crash appeared to reflect
the growing shortage of foreign currency on the market amid the crisis. It also
signaled panic over new U.S. sanctions that will affect neighboring Syria in the
coming days as well as lack of trust in the government's management of the
crisis.
The heavily indebted Lebanese government has been in talks for weeks with the
International Monetary Fund after it asked for a financial rescue plan but there
are no signs of an imminent deal.
Lebanon's financial crisis predates the virus pandemic that put the country in a
total lockdown for months, further compounding the crisis. Years of corruption
and mismanagement have left the tiny country with depleted resources, while
shrinking investment in the war-riddled region and falling remittances from
Lebanese abroad only increased the shortage of foreign capital.
Diab Says Citizens Livelihood 'Red Line', BDL to Pump
Dollars into Market
Naharnet/June 12/2020
Prime Minister Hassan Diab emphasized Friday that the government will not allow
anyone to "tamper with citizens' livelihood," warning that "this issue is a red
line." He voiced his remarks during an emergency Cabinet session he chaired at
the Grand Serail in the wake of a night of raging nationwide protests over a
historic Lebanese currency crash. The emergency session was attended by Central
Bank Governor Riad Salameh, Association of Banks chief Salim Sfeir and the
deputy head of the money changers union, Mahmoud Halawi. After the session,
Industry Minister Imad Hoballah announced that the central bank "will
immediately start to pump dollars into the market," describing the meeting's
outcome as "positive." Halawi for his part assured that an agreement was reached
on "pumping dollars to support basic goods and meet citizens' needs."
"We will be disciplined in selling the dollar and we will sell it at LBP 3,940,"
he added. He also warned citizens that buying and selling dollars from and to
the unlicensed black market will lead to "the exit of dollars from the country."
LBCI TV meanwhile reported that Salameh and the money changers have pledged that
the dollar will be sold at the LBP 3,940 rate and that the governor has vowed to
supply money exchange shops with dollar banknotes.
LBCI also said that Diab called Speaker Nabih Berri to "put him in the picture
of the discussions."
Govt. Forms Crisis Cell to Enforce Financial and Monetary
Decisions
Naharnet/June 12/2020
Cabinet on Friday approved a number of measures aimed at reining in the rapid
devaluation of the Lebanese pound. A statement issued after a Cabinet session in
Baabda said the justice minister has been tasked to ask the state prosecutor to
conduct investigations over “fabrications and false claims aimed at devaluing
the national currency.”A crisis cell led by the finance minister will also be
formed and tasked with “following up on the developments of the financial and
monetary situations and enforcing decisions.”It will convene twice a week and
submit periodic reports to the prime minister and the Council of Ministers.
Security agencies were also asked to be stricter in “suppressing all violations”
related to financial and monetary crimes. Earlier in the day, the government
pledged to inject dollars into the market, after a night of angry protests
triggered by the currency plumbing, new black market lows and the worst
recession in decades. Lebanese media reported that the exchange rate had touched
6,000 pounds per dollar on the black market on Friday, compared to the official
peg of 1,507 in place since 1997. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who held a
tripartite meeting with President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab,
said the government's measures aim to bring the exchange rate to stronger than
4,000 pounds to the dollar.
Hariri Warns that Firing Salameh would 'Slaughter' Economy
Naharnet/June 12/2020
Former premier Saad Hariri warned Friday against sacking long-running Central
Bank Governor Riad Salameh, describing any such move as “madness.” “The threat
to fire Riad Salameh is economic, political and constitutional madness that
would slaughter the Lebanese economy,” Hariri said in a tweet.
“The Presidency and its government are leading the Lebanese into the unknown by
turning the economy into a hostage and settling political scores,” he added.
“This is a mentality of spite and vengeance that is looking for a scapegoat to
contain people’s rightful anger and the screams of hunger across all regions,”
Hariri went on to say. “They are looking for an exit to rescue themselves from
the consequences of their decisions and actions, not for a solution to rescue
the economic and stop the lira’s deterioration,” the ex-PM charged.
Halawi announces agreement to inject cash dollar into market
NNA/June 12/2020
Vice-president of the Money Changers Syndicate, Mohammad Halawi, announced at
the end of the Cabinet session held at the Grand Serail, that an agreement had
been reached between the conferees on the injection of cash dollar into the
market, in view to facilitate the import of raw materials and to meet the needs
of citizens. "We are committed to the selling of dollar at an exchange rate of
LBP 3,940," he said, calling on people not to resort to the black market.
Geagea Says Lebanese to Hear 'Bad News' Daily if Hizbullah,
Bassil Keep Ruling
Naharnet/June 12/2020
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Friday blamed Hizbullah, Free Patriotic
Movement chief Jebran Bassil and "their allies" for the country's economic pain.
"As long as Hizbullah, Minister Jebran Bassil and their allies are in power,
prepare to hear bad news and witness a new deterioration with every sunrise,"
Geagea tweeted. His tweet comes after a night of raging protests across the
country that evoked the first days of the October 17 uprising. Protesters took
to the streets, blocked most of the country's roads and clashed with security
forces in some areas after reports said that the dollar was selling for a
historic high of LBP 7,000.
Lebanon: Months of Protests
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 12/2020
Lebanon, mired in an economic crisis, has been rocked since October 2019 by
angry protests over government corruption and incompetence.
Here is a recap:
'WhatsApp tax' anger
On October 17, the government announces a tax on messaging applications,
including WhatsApp.
Seeing it as the last straw, thousands take to the streets in Beirut and other
cities, some chanting "the people demand the fall of the regime".
The government of Saad Hariri scraps the tax the same day, but protests
continue.
Demos grow
On October 18, thousands of demonstrators bring the capital to a standstill in
unprecedented cross-sectarian mass protests.
They demand an overhaul of the political system, citing grievances from
austerity measures and state corruption to poor infrastructure and regular
electricity cuts.
Demonstrations swell over the following days and dozens are arrested.
Government resigns
On October 29, Hariri submits his resignation and that of his government,
prompting celebrations in the streets.
On November 12, President Michel Aoun announces plans to form a new government
including technical experts.
Foreign aid appeal rebuffed
On December 11 at a Paris conference, France, the United States, Russia and
other countries rebuff Lebanon's urgent aid appeal, making assistance
conditional on the formation of a new reform-minded government.
The economic crisis worsens with mass layoffs, drastic banking restrictions and
a strong depreciation of the pound.
New prime minister
On December 19, the president finally names a new prime minister: little-known
academic Hassan Diab, who is backed by powerful Shiite movement Hizbullah.
Protesters immediately regroup to condemn the appointment, which outrages
members of the Sunni community. Protests continue the following day with roads
blocked across the country.
Escalation in Beirut
On January 11, 2020, protests resume after a pause over the holidays. Days
later, clashes take place in Beirut and several banks are vandalized. On January
18-19, at least 546 people, demonstrators, but also members of the security
forces, are injured in clashes in central Beirut. Human Rights Watch accuses the
police of firing rubber bullets at protesters' eyes.
New government
On January 21, a new government is unveiled, made up of a single political camp,
the pro-Iranian Hizbullah and its allies, who have a parliamentary majority.
Demonstrators respond by torching tires and blocking several roads in mainly
Sunni towns across the country.
On February 11, parliament votes its confidence in the new government, despite
attempts by hundreds of protesters to block the session. The clashes leave more
than 370 injured.
Default
On March 7, Lebanon, whose debt burden is equivalent to nearly 170 percent of
its gross domestic product, says it will default on a $1.2-billion Eurobond.
On the 23rd, it says it will discontinue payments on all dollar-denominated
Eurobonds.
Rescue plan
On April 30, after three nights of violent clashes in Tripoli, Diab says Lebanon
will seek help from the International Monetary Fund, after the government
approves a plan to rescue the economy. On May 13, Lebanon launches talks with
the IMF.
Currency plunges
On June 11, after the Lebanese pound hits a new low on the black market,
protesters take to the streets after sundown, blocking roads, including in
Beirut.
The currency plunge goes alongside the closure of shops and massive layoffs due
to the coronavirus. Protesters blast Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh's
failure to halt the depreciation. On the 12th, the government holds crisis talks
on the currency plunge.
Diab’s meeting decides to open Rafik Hariri International
Airport as of July 1, 2020
NNA/June 12/2020
Prime Minister, Dr. Hassan Diab, chaired a meeting devoted to discussing the
issue of reopening Rafik Hariri International Airport.
Attending the meeting had been Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense
Zeina Akar, Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Nassif Hatti, Interior
and Municipalities Mohammad Fahmi, Public Health Hamad Hassan, Information Dr.
Manal Abdel Samad Najd, Social Affairs and Tourism Ramzi Musharrafieh, Secretary
General of the Higher Defense Council Major-General Mahmoud Al-Asmar, PM’s
Advisor for Health Affairs Petra Khoury, Political Affairs Chief at the Ministry
of Foreign AffairsAmbassador Ghadi Khoury, and the Secretary General of the
Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Judge Mahmoud Makie.
It was agreed to reopen the airport as of July 1, 2020, with an operating
capacity equivalent to 10 percent of the traffic compared to July 2019, with the
resumption of private flights starting from June 24.
It was decided that upon arrival of passengers to Rafik Hariri International
Airport fromcountries that perform PCR tests, a sample will be taken for a
second examination, and that passengers will be informed of the result within 24
hours by the examining entity. Upon arrival of expatriates from countries that
do not conduct PCR tests, a sample will be taken for them and they will be
notified of theresults within a period of 24 hours.
In the event that any positive results for those entering Lebanon, relevant
travelers must observe home quarantine and follow the insturctions of the
Ministry of Public Health until they recover as per the approved medical
protocol.
As for non-Lebanese wishing to travel to Lebanon, they must have a valid
insurance policy for the duration of their stay in Lebanon, covering all
treatment costs for the coronavirusepidemic on the Lebanese territory, and this
service will also be available by insurance companies operating in Lebanon.-- PM
Press Office
UNIFIL‘s Del Col to NNA: Rotation of troops to resume as of
June 15, 2020
NNA/June 12/2020
Interviewed by the National News Agency on Friday, UNIFIL’s Head of Mission and
Force Commander, Major General Stefano Del Col, said that as of 15 June 2020,
UNIFIL would start a partial resumption of uniformed personnel rotations under
extraordinary transitional measures, based on a rigorous quarantine regime and
in accordance with WHO guidelines and Lebanese Government policies. “In April
2020, Secretary-General António Guterres had suspended – with rare exceptions –
all rotations, repatriations and deployments of uniformed personnel until 30
June 2020 to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 Coronavirus. On 5 June
2020, in a letter to Member States, the Secretary-General announced temporary
and extraordinary transitional measures for a partial resumption of uniformed
rotations, deployments and repatriations for six months with effect from 1 July
2020. These temporary measures with a rigorous and effective quarantine regime
will be reviewed in October 2020. These transitional measures will continue to
be guided by four central objectives: to protect UN personnel and their capacity
to perform critical operations; to help contain and mitigate the spread of the
virus within Lebanon and globally, ensuring that UN personnel are not a
contagion vector; to support national authorities in their response to COVID-19,
as requested and possible; and to help protect vulnerable communities and
continue to deliver on our mandates,” Del Col explained. Responding to a
question whether UNIFI will resume work as usual any time soon with the easing
down of the lockdown measures, Del Col reiterated the fact that UNIFIL personnel
would continue to strictly follow the robust precautionary measures that have
been in place since the very beginning of the virus outbreak in order to prevent
its spread.
“Such measures will apply to all of our personnel: those living in UN positions
and communities, those returning home, newly incoming personnel and those
returning from leave. All the precautionary measures and decisions on this issue
have been coordinated in close consultation with the Lebanese authorities,” he
added. As for UNIFIL’s resumption date of the rotation of troops, the
UNIFIL chief said that as of 15 June 2020, UNIFIL would start a partial
resumption of uniformed personnel rotations under extraordinary transitional
measures, based on a rigorous quarantine regime and in accordance with WHO
guidelines and Lebanese Government policies. “Consistent with the precautionary
measures required by WHO health guidelines, during the rotation period all
uniformed personnel shall be required to undergo a quarantine period in their
home country before deploying to Lebanon, and also in the mission area, upon
their arrival in Lebanon. UNIFIL is making all the appropriate arrangements for
the secure transportation of the incoming units and personnel to their
designated quarantine facility inside our UNIFIL bases in south Lebanon. UNIFIL
will ensure that the quarantine measures are effective and strictly observed by
all personnel,” he added. Touching on UNIFIL’s operational activity, Del Col
said that UNIFIL personnel continued to carry out operational activities in
support of the Mission’s mandate in accordance with the UN Security Council
resolution 1701.
Bukhari meets Baasiri
NNA/June 12/2020
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, Walid bin Abdullah Bukhari, on Friday welcomed at
the Embassy, former Banque du Liban (BDL) Vice Governor, Dr. Mohammed Baasiri.
The pair exchanged views on a number of issues of mutual concern.
Abdel Samad after cabinet session says pumping USD not
enough to remedy economic crisis
NNA/June 12/2020
In the wake of Friday’s urgent cabinet session at Baabda Presidential Palace,
Minister of Information, Dr. Manal Abdel Samad Najd, said that discussions
mainly focused on the country’s financial and monetary conditions, as well as on
the measures that ought to be taken to remedy the situation.
"The Minister of Justice has been tasked to request of the Attorney General of
the Court of the Cassation to follow-up on the fabricated rumors and false
allegations which have led to a sharp decline in the national currency, and
consequently shaken trust in the state’s monetary power,” said Abdel Samad.
She disclosed a decision to form a crisis cell — to be headed by the Minister of
Finance — who’s been tasked to follow up on the country’s financial and monetary
conditions. “The crisis cell, through which the Central Bank Governor will
submit a detailed report on the latest developments, will be meeting twice a
week. A periodic report, detailing the cell’s activities, will be handed to the
Prime Minister.”“Pumping currency [USD] into the market is not enough.
Therefore, measures must be taken to curb illegal operations in a bid to prevent
attempts to smuggle hard currencies or tamper with monetary stability,” Abdel
Samad added.
Neshan TV episode: Turkish embassy calls for intervention
of Foreign Ministry
NNA/June 12/2020
The Turkish Embassy in Lebanon called, in its statement this Friday, for the
intervention of the Lebanese Foreign Ministry into the affair of the TV program
"Ana Heik" by Neshan Derharoutynian, broadcast on the al-Jadeed channel on
10/6/2020, during which the presenter interviewed former Minister Wiam Wahab.
"During this episode, Wahab and Derharoutynian publicly and directly offended
the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as the Turkish people.
Such insults can in no case be defended under the pretext of freedom of
expression," said the press release.
"The Turkish Embassy in Lebanon strongly condemns the verbal insults against
President Erdogan and requests the intervention of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs with the competent Lebanese authorities in order to guarantee the
respect of the Turkish President in all Lebanese media," it added.
Accordingly, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hani
Chmeitli, called upon the Ministry of Information to take the necessary
measures, in accordance with the laws in force, knowing that such attacks would
disturb the relations of Lebanon with foreign countries.
Lebanese Take to Streets as Pound Hits New Low
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 12 June, 2020
Protesters took to the streets across Lebanon on Thursday as reports said the
dollar sank to a new low on the black market, despite the authorities' attempts
to halt the plunge of the crisis-hit country's currency. Lebanon is in the grip
of its worst economic turmoil in decades and holding talks with the
International Monetary Fund to secure billions in aid. A prolonged economic
downturn was the major grievance that sparked unprecedented mass protests in
October last year against the political class, accused of corruption and
incompetence. Protests broke out again on Thursday, with roads blocked across
the country, and security forces fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators. A
throng of protesters blocked a key road in the center of the capital Beirut, an
AFP journalist reported. "Thief, thief, Riad Salame is a thief!" demonstrators
chanted, referring to the governor of the central bank. Demonstrators also
chanted slogans of national unity, after sectarian clashes shook Beirut during
protests last weekend. "People can't take it anymore, that's enough," said
Haitham, a protester in central Beirut. "People have no work, no food to eat.
They cannot buy medicines, nappies, or milk for their children."In the center of
the capital, near Riad al-Solh square, security forces fired tear gas to
disperse protesters who threw stones, according to local television. In the
northern city of Tripoli, the army also fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators
who had tried to take over the local branch of the Central Bank, according to
the state news agency ANI, adding that eight people were wounded. A Molotov
cocktail set fire to trees in front of the building, an AFP correspondent
witnessed. Also in Sidon protesters hurled Molotov cocktails at the city's
central bank branch, setting its outer entrance ablaze. Demonstrators also tried
to storm the central bank's branches in Tyre.
Tumbling currency
The Lebanese pound remains officially pegged to the US currency at a rate of
1,507 per dollar but its value has tumbled on the black market. Rates from three
money changers on Thursday morning indicated it had lost almost 70 percent of
its value compared with the official rate. One money changer who asked to remain
anonymous said he was selling dollars at a rate of 5,000 pounds and buying them
at 4,800. Another in Beirut's Dahiya neighborhood was buying dollars for 4,850
pounds. Rumors spread on social media platforms claiming that the dollar was
selling at a historic rate of LBP 7,000 on the black market.
The new nadir came despite government pledges to halt the pound's devaluation,
and the money changers' union issuing a maximum daily buying rate of 3,890 and
selling rate of 3,940. On Thursday evening, a central bank statement cited by
local media hit out at "baseless" information on social media of "exchange rates
at levels far from reality, which mislead citizens". The office of Prime
Minister Hassan Diab announced an urgent cabinet meeting would be held on Friday
to discuss the situation. Lebanese banks have gradually restricted dollar
withdrawals since late last year, forcing those in need to buy them at a higher
rate on the black market. An AFP photographer said on Thursday that many
money-changing shops had closed, citing a lack of dollars. In an apparent bid to
better oversee the exchange market, the central bank is set to launch an online
platform on June 23 through which changers will be asked to register all
operations.
Buying power battered
Lebanon's economic crunch has caused poverty to soar to 45 percent of the
population and pushed unemployment up by 35 percent. It has also sparked steep
inflation, including on imported products. Nabil, a retired 64-year-old, said
his buying power had taken a blow. "Yesterday I went to a home appliance store
to buy a fridge, and the salesman asked me for $1,200 in cash, or the equivalent
at an exchange rate of 5,000, which is six million pounds," he said. "That's
twice my monthly pension." Lebanon needs "emergency external assistance to ward
off the worst social consequences of the crisis", analysts from the
International Crisis Group warned on Monday. The country defaulted on its debt
in March for the first time in its history.
Lebanon PM faces challenge with renewed demonstrations,
financial crisis
The Arab Weekly/June 12/2020
BEIRUT--Lebanon’s Emergency and Relief Corps announced Friday that more than 36
people were injured as a result of the clashes that broke out a day before
between the security forces and demonstrators.
Meanwhile, Lebanese local media reported in breaking news that hundreds of
protesters had tried to storm the home of Prime Minister Hassan Diab. The
escalation of the anti-government protests came as the pound sank to a record
low on the black market despite the authorities’ attempts to halt the plunge of
the crisis-hit country’s currency. Lebanon is in the grip of its worst economic
turmoil in decades and holding talks with the International Monetary Fund to
secure billions in aid. A prolonged economic downturn was the major grievance
that sparked unprecedented mass protests in October last year against the
political class, accused of corruption and incompetence. Protesters
spontaneously took to the streets again on Thursday, with roads blocked across
the country, and security forces fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators. A
throng of demonstrators blocked a key road in the centre of the capital Beirut,
a journalist reported. “Thief, thief, Riad Salame is a thief!” protesters
chanted, referring to the governor of the central bank. Demonstrators also
chanted slogans of national unity, after sectarian clashes shook Beirut during
protests last weekend. In the centre of the capital, near Riad al-Solh Square,
security forces fired tear gas to disperse protesters who threw stones,
according to local television. In the northern city of Tripoli, the army also
fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators who had tried to take over the local
branch of the Central Bank, according to the state news agency ANI. As the
protests calmed on Friday, security forces reopened blocked roads. Prime
Minister Hassan Diab cancelled his scheduled meetings for the day and called for
an emergency session to discuss the crisis. Salameh, the governor of the central
bank who has been singled out by Diab for his mishandling of the situation, was
taking part in the meeting. The renewed demonstrations amid calls for Diab’s
resignation are a huge challenge for the prime minister who took over in
December after his predecessor, Saad Hariri, resigned amid nationwide protests
late last year. His government, supported by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and
its allies, has been weakened by the crisis. The Lebanese pound remains
officially pegged to the US currency at a rate of 1,507 per dollar but its value
has tumbled on the black market.
Rates from three money changers on Thursday morning indicated it had lost almost
70 percent of its value compared with the official rate. The crash appeared to
reflect the growing shortage of foreign currency on the market amid the crisis.
It also signalled panic over new US sanctions that will affect neighbouring
Syria in the coming days as well as lack of trust in the government’s management
of the crisis. The new nadir came despite government pledges to halt the pound’s
devaluation, and the money changers’ union issuing a maximum daily buying rate
of 3,890 and selling rate of 3,940. On Thursday evening, a central bank
statement cited by local media hit out at “baseless” information on social media
of “exchange rates at levels far from reality, which mislead citizens”. Lebanese
banks have gradually restricted dollar withdrawals since late last year, forcing
those in need to buy them at a higher rate on the black market. In an apparent
bid to better oversee the exchange market, the central bank is set to launch an
online platform on June 23 through which changers will be asked to register all
operations. Lebanon’s economic crunch has caused poverty to soar to 45 percent
of the population and pushed unemployment up by 35 percent. It has also sparked
steep inflation, including on imported products. Lebanon needs “emergency
external assistance to ward off the worst social consequences of the crisis”,
analysts from the International Crisis Group warned June 8. The country
defaulted on its debt in March for the first time in its history. Lebanon’s
financial crisis predates the coronavirus pandemic that put the country in a
total lockdown for months, further compounding the crisis. Years of corruption
and mismanagement have left the tiny Mediterranean country with depleted
resources, while shrinking investment in the war-riddled region and falling
remittances from Lebanese abroad only increased the shortage of foreign capital.
Destroying Lebanon to Save It
Michael Young/Carnegie MEC/June 12/2020
مايكل يونغ: تدمير لبنان لإنقاذه
شرح مفصل لمشروع القانون الأميركي الذي هو قيد الإعداد ويهدف إلى خنق إيران
اقتصادياً وأيضاً لبنان الذي يهيمن عليه حزب الله ويتحكم بحكمه وحكامه وأطقمه
السياسية والحزبية المستسلمة والمتورطة في الفساد والصفقات والسمسرات. مشروع
القانون يطالب بوقف كل المساعدات عن لبنان بمن فيها الجيش وبفرض عقوبات على كل من
يساند حزب الله من المسؤولين والسياسيين ويخص بالذكر نبيه بري وجبران باسيل. مفهوم
إسرائيل وكثر في أميركا يقول بأن لا مجال لإضعاف حزب الله دون اضعاف حكم لبنان نفسه
ومعاقبة المسؤولين عن مساعدة ومساندة حزب الله أو الساكتين خدمة لمصالحهم عن تمدده
وهيمنته.
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/87217/michael-young-destroying-lebanon-to-save-it-%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%8a%d9%83%d9%84-%d9%8a%d9%88%d9%86%d8%ba-%d8%aa%d8%af%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d9%84%d8%a8%d9%86%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%84%d8%a5%d9%86%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%b0/
Lebanon will have to pay close attention to a report released on
June 10 by the Congressional Republican Study Committee (RSC), containing
recommendations on a variety of foreign policy questions. The RSC is a
conservative group of members of the House of Representatives, and what it wrote
about the Middle East in general, and Lebanon in particular, should cause great
anxiety in Beirut.
The recommendations are focused on containing Iranian power in the region
through a hardening of the maximum pressure campaign against Tehran. But what is
new is the inclusion of Lebanon in that effort. The report calls for two things
with regard to the country.
It asks, first, that security assistance to the Lebanese army be ended. In the
same passage it also requests that, because of what it calls Hezbollah’s control
over Lebanon, Congress should pass legislation “prohibiting any taxpayer money
to the [International Monetary Fund] from going to a bailout of Lebanon,” which
would “only reward Hezbollah at a time [when] protesters in Lebanon are
demanding an end to corruption and standing against Hezbollah’s rule.”
A second recommendation is that the United States should sanction Hezbollah’s
allies in Lebanon. The report names President Michel Aoun’s son in law Gebran
Bassil and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri as two people who should be
targeted.
The fate of the recommendations is unclear. There is a Democratic majority in
the House of Representatives and this is an election year, so there are serious
obstacles to turning these ideas into actual legislative measures. Moreover,
even within the administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has opposed
suspending aid to Lebanon. Yet there is a deeper issue here that cannot be
ignored. The recommendations are firmly in line with Israel’s interpretation of
the Lebanese situation, which can contribute to their bipartisan appeal.
Israeli officials and their U.S. allies, several of them quoted in the report,
have long believed, perhaps reasonably, that Hezbollah’s missile arsenal poses a
strategic threat to Israel. They subscribe to the view of the former Israeli
defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, that “Lebanon = Hezbollah,” therefore
believe that only by crippling Lebanon can the United States weaken Hezbollah.
Ironically, a Lebanese-American think tanker associated with the campaign, and
quoted in the RSC report, neatly summed up the prevailing logic in an article he
wrote in 2017: “Lebanon’s stability, insofar as it means the stability of the
Iranian order and forward missile base there, is not, in fact, a U.S. interest.”
Certainly, Lebanese officials bear a significant share of the responsibility for
what is happening. By allowing Hezbollah to turn Lebanon into an Iranian
outpost, the country’s political leadership has shown criminal indifference to
what this would mean for the country. They may not have had a margin to do much
about it, but nor did they sound the alarm bells of how this could place Lebanon
in the American and Israeli crosshairs. Bassil, previously the foreign minister,
was so eager to secure Hezbollah’s support for his presidential bid, that he
failed to do his job and warn the government of the perilous shift in
Washington. If he is sanctioned, he will have asked for it, even if keeping a
U.S. knife above his head without using it would surely be more useful in
forcing concessions from him.
Admitting all this, however, the RSC recommendations would go much further than
containing Hezbollah. If Lieberman’s equating Lebanon with Hezbollah were true,
then the RSC would not have mentioned the many Lebanese who oppose the party’s
agenda. To judge, and punish, all the Lebanese because one party has imposed its
will on them through its arms is something worth rethinking.
Furthermore, preventing an IMF bailout would lead to nothing less than Lebanon’s
social and economic destruction, since the country could soon run out of hard
currency to import vital necessities such as food, medicine, and fuel. Things
will be made worse by Washington’s implementation of the Caesar Act, legislation
to sanction the Assad regime in Damascus and those dealing with it, which will
close a safety valve allowing Lebanon to conduct transactions through Syria.
Lebanon could soon find that it has become a Venezuela on steroids.
If the RSC is truly concerned about those Lebanese who have demanded an end to
corruption and have stood against Hezbollah’s rule, then impoverishing them,
denying their children a future, and creating a situation that could lead to
civil conflict, perhaps even sectarian conflict, is hardly the way to help.
That’s unless, deep down, the unmentioned calculation is that a new civil war
would be an ideal way of neutralizing Hezbollah, much as the civil war of
1975–1990 damaged the Palestine Liberation Organization. If that’s the
reasoning, then U.S. policymakers and their amoral ideological facilitators
should be prepared to cope with the potential repercussions of another failed
state in the region, one that would surely have negative consequences for the
West.
If Lebanon had a government with minimal competence, it would make these points
to members of the U.S. Congress. Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti has considerable
diplomatic experience and surely grasps what is at stake. But it is Bassil who
placed his people at the Foreign Ministry. He and his appointees are hardly
credible in persuading House members that collective punishment of the Lebanese
would so undermine those opposed to Hezbollah, that the party would probably
come out of the ensuing trauma relatively reinforced.
It is a national trait in Lebanon that we only see a problem when it is already
upon us. The RSC recommendations are not policy yet, but they have made their
way into the mainstream of the current administration’s party. The Lebanese
government has to act quickly, by making the case in Washington against
Lebanon’s devastation, and by reaching an agreement quickly with the IMF before
a bailout is blocked. However, it is also necessary for those in Washington or
other capitals, above all Paris and Berlin, who can sense the genuine risks
involved, to warn that wantonly destroying Lebanon to save it from Iran’s
influence is really the most insane path of all.
New US sanctions set to hit Syria likely to have knock-on
effect in Lebanon
Abby Sewell, Al Arabiya English/Friday 12 June 2020
Lebanon’s frail economy now faces another potential blow from the implementation
of wide-reaching US sanctions targeted at the Syrian regime set to take effect
next week.
The Caesar Act will begin to take effect on June 17, threatening sanctions
against all those who “provide significant support or engage in a significant
transaction with the Syrian government or those acting on behalf of Syria,
Russia, or Iran,” the legislation says.
The Lebanese government, which currently faces a collapsing currency and dire
economic situation, has not yet taken an official stance on the act, with a
government committee set to meet Monday to discuss it.
Lebanon and Syria’s economies are inextricably linked, with money and goods
moving across the border – legally and illegally – and Lebanon’s political class
is divided between pro- and anti-Syrian regime camps.
“Lebanon and Syria are very much hooked at the waist when it comes to the impact
of these sanctions,” Firas Maksad, a Washington-based consultant on Middle East
policy and adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Elliot School for
International Affairs, told Al Arabiya English. That opens up the potential that
“the impact Caesar will have on Syria will pull Lebanon down with it,” he said.
Some analysts linked the sudden acceleration in the devaluation of the Lebanese
currency on the black market over the past few days to anxieties about the
upcoming Caesar implementation, as Syrians worried about an impending squeeze on
foreign currency have been buying up dollars in Lebanon.
“Panic is now rife now because of the impending implementation of the Caesar
Act. People are trying to hedge against inflation and the depreciation of the
Syrian pound,” economist and former Minister of Economy and Trade and Minister
of Industry of Lebanon Nasser Saidi told Al Arabiya English.
The Lebanese lira, officially valued at around 1,500 to the dollar, had been
going at around 4,000 to the dollar on the black market, when suddenly the rate
spiked to above 5,000 Thursday. Maksad noted that, in addition to the
fluctuations of Lebanese and Syrian currencies impacting each other, the
smuggling of imported commodities like fuel and wheat from Lebanon to Syria has
put further pressure on Lebanon’s dollar reserves.
More electricity shortages could be on the horizon
The threat of sanctions could also impact Lebanon’s power supply. With long
running chronic shortages in its own electricity system, Lebanon imports up to
276 megawatts of power from Syria.
Without that potential supply, Lebanon would have to rely more heavily on the
diesel generators that provide power for most of the country when state-provided
electricity is cut, noted Marc Ayoub, a researcher in the energy policy and
security program at the American University of Beirut’s Issam Fares Institute
for Public Policy and International.
During the summer, when demand usually spikes, Ayoub said, the country might see
an additional 100- to 150-megawatt power deficit if the option to import from
Syria is not there. As of now, there is no option to fill that gap apart from
relying on costly generators.
“And if there is another problem with the fuel and diesel imports because of the
financial situation, this means that we will be facing a very bad situation in
terms of supply,” he said. “…We will be having more electricity shortages and
cutoffs, etc., because the diesel generators will not be able to supply this
unmet capacity.”The sanctions could also halt plans to reactivate a gas pipeline
running from Egypt to Syria and then to Lebanon, Ayoub noted.
It remains unclear whether the electricity sector might be exempted from the
Caesar sanctions.
A US State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the question but said
in an emailed statement that the law “seeks to deny the Assad regime the
financial resources that his regime uses to fuel its campaign of violence and
destruction that has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, and is meant to
send a clear signal that no external actor should enter into business with or
otherwise enrich such a regime.”Maksad said any proposed exemption would likely
be reviewed by attorneys before a political decision was made but added, “I’d
have to say that the political climate in DC is not conducive for trying to help
the Lebanese government out.”
Increasing hardline on Hezbollah
The US has taken an increasingly hard line on Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian
regime which, along with its allies in government, including the Free Patriotic
Movement headed by former Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, has been pushing for
Lebanon to normalize political relations with the Syrian regime. With the Caesar
Act now in play, that looks less likely, analysts said. “I think politically
this will make it incredibly difficult now for Hezbollah, or Gebran Bassil, for
that matter, to continue pushing for normalization with Syria,” said Maha Yahya,
director of the Carnegie Middle East Center.
She noted that the sanctions will also stymie Lebanese businessmen who had set
up companies in hopes of profiting from the post-war rebuilding of Syria.
Nasser Yassin, interim director of AUB’s Issam Fares Institute, said while the
Lebanese government may be reluctant to announce that it will cooperate with the
Caesar Act in practice, “they have no choice.”
“I think they’re going to come up with the usual gray language about ‘we take
note of it,’ but deep inside, I guess they have to [comply].”
Meanwhile, given Hezbollah’s ties to Syria and Iran, there are questions as to
whether the sanctions might be applied to politicians and government ministries
controlled by Hezbollah and allies.
When asked about the potential for sanctions against party members, the State
Department spokesperson said Hezbollah’s actions “demonstrate that it is more
concerned with its own interests and those of its patron Iran, than what is best
for the Lebanese people,” adding, “US sanctions targeting Hizballah and other
corrupt actors are undertaken in solidarity with the Lebanese people who since
October of last year have called for leaders to implement reforms and to fight
corruption.”
The mass protests initially brought together people of all sects and political
leanings, but since then, tensions between protesters and counter-protesters
have taken on a sectarian element at times. Last week, after a protest in which
some groups participating called for Hezbollah to be disarmed, clashes broke out
between protesters and supporters of Hezbollah and allied groups and later
between Sunni and Shia youth in some Beirut neighborhoods, raising fears of an
escalation of sectarian violence.
While on Thursday night, Hezbollah supporters joined protesters from other
groups expressing outrage over the currency crisis, Yassin said that the Caesar
Act could play into increased tensions in the future.
“With all this pressure, the economic pressure, with all this political
instability…and an inability to come up with something, a way out from this big
hole we are in, I’m sure it’s going to be translated on the streets,” he said,
with potential outbursts of localized violence. But he added, “I don’t see a
fullscale civil war. Civil war needs money, it needs financing. We don’t have
the recipe for a civil war. Or we have it – all the elements are there, sadly –
but we don’t have the means.”
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published on June 12-13/2020
Transmission of COVID-19 by asymptomatic cases
NNA/WHO Lebanon/June 12/2020
Global research on COVID-19 continues to be conducted, including how the severe
acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is transmitted. Current
evidence suggests that most transmission occurs from symptomatic people through
close contact with others. Accordingly, most recommendations by WHO on personal
protective measures (such as use of masks and physical distancing) are based on
controlling transmission from symptomatic patients, including patients with mild
symptoms who are not easy to identify early on.
Available evidence from contact tracing reported by countries suggests that
asymptomatically infected individuals are much less likely to transmit the virus
than those who develop symptoms. A subset of studies and data shared by some
countries on detailed cluster investigations and contact tracing activities have
reported that transmission by asymptomatically-infected individuals are much
less likely to transmit the virus than those who develop symptoms. Comprehensive
studies on transmission from asymptomatic patients are difficult to conduct, as
they require testing of large population cohorts and more data are needed to
better understand and quantified the transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2. WHO is
working with countries around the world, and global researchers, to gain better
evidence-based understanding of the disease as a whole, including the role of
asymptomatic patients in the transmission of the virus. --
After Soleimani and Muhandis, pro-Iranian factions in Iraq
are weakened, divided
LONDON - Earlier this year, Iran-backed militia factions in Iraq
expected their usual cash handouts when the new head of Iran’s Quds Force made
his first visit to Baghdad, succeeding the slain Qassem Soleimani. But to their
disappointment, Esmail Ghaani brought them only silver rings.
For his second visit, Ghaani had to apply for a visa, something unheard of in
Soleimani’s time — a bold step by Baghdad’s new government effectively
curtailing Iran’s freedom of movement inside Iraq.
The episodes, according to several Iraqi officials, illustrate Iran’s struggles
to maintain sway over Iraqi militias six months after the United States killed
Soleimani and top militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone strike.
Iran, at the same time, is grappling with the economic fallout from US sanctions
and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The collapse of the oil market has marked an even dimmer outlook for the Iranian
government, with many intelligence analysts saying that Iranians will try to
hold out until November, when, they hope, a potential defeat of US President
Donald Trump in presidential elections will mean the easing of US sanctions.
On June 10, the US's top commander in the region said the killing of Soleimani
had reshaped the geopolitical reality, deterring Iran from attacking the assets
of the US and its Middle East allies.
“I think [killing Soleimani] has had a significant effect in establishing and
reestablishing a rough form of deterrence in the theatre,” said General Kenneth
F. McKenzie Jr., commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM), during a
webinar at the Middle East Institute.
The US general’s assessment of Iran's recent activities was at odds with initial
fears many harboured about the potential ramifications of assassinating a
powerful Iranian general in a region already mired in turmoil.
Iran, however, seems intent on shifting its strategy to deal with new challenges
and changing dynamics in Iraq and elsewhere.
In Iraq, the absence of imposing figures like Soleimani and Muhandis to unify
disparate factions has left the door open for divisions within the ranks of the
Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), the umbrella group of mainly Shia forces.
Their deaths also disrupted the path to institutionalising the militias, which
Muhandis had been meticulously planning with Soleimani’s blessing.
“With al-Muhandis gone, there is an absence of an anchor around which [PMF]
politics revolves,” said Iraqi researcher Fanar Haddad.
Among Iraq’s Shia political and militia factions, Soleimani, a chief architect
of Iran’s proxy groups across the region, held almost legendary status.
Charismatic and fluent in Arabic, his rapport with Iraqi officials was
unmatched. He slipped in and out of Iraq regularly to plan, mediate and give out
cash assistance. One surprise visit by him was sufficient to broker agreement
between rival factions, officials said. ince his death, Shia factions have shown
discord, arguing over a premier candidate twice before they settled on Mustafa
al-Kadhimi.
Soleimani’s successor as Quds Force commander, Ghaani, is less familiar with
Iraqi militia leaders and speaks to them through an interpreter. Meetings in
Iraq have increasingly been handled by Iranian Ambassador Iraj Masjedi, himself
a former Quds Force member.
Ghaani’s gift of silver rings — symbolically important in Shia Islam — rather
than cash came during a meeting in April with leaders of several militia
factions, according to three officials. Ghaani told them that, for the moment,
they would have to rely on Iraqi state funding, they said, a sign of Iran’s
economic crisis.
The PMF are paid primarily through the state — $2 billion in the 2019 budget —
but the funds are not dispersed equally. Smaller Iranian-backed groups rely on
other informal means of revenue and receive extras from Iran, roughly $3-9
million, two Iraqi officials close to the militias said.
The PMF was created in 2014 as a framework to organise and pay the thousands who
volunteered to fight ISIS after a fatwa by Iraq’s top cleric, Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani. Since then, its political and military might has soared. Under
the staunchly pro-Iranian Muhandis, it became a channel for Tehran’s influence.
The death of Muhandis opened the door for factions opposed to that influence —
particularly ones associated with Sistani — to break from the PMF leadership.
Militias complain that Iran-friendly groups receive preferential treatment.
The man seen as Muhandis’ likely successor, Abdulaziz al-Mohammadawi, known as
Abu Fadak, drew opposition from factions who saw him as the Iranian-backed
choice. He has not been officially recognised by the prime minister, though he
has assumed some administrative duties, according to officials.
Some of the most Iran-friendly militias under the PMF have shown signs of
splintering. Attacks against US forces in March were claimed by a purported new
group, Usbat al-Thairen, believed to have emerged from the powerful Katai'b
Hezbollah, which the US accused of previous attacks.
Recently, four militias affiliated with the shrines connected to Sistani said
they would take orders directly from Iraq’s premier, bypassing the PMF
leadership.
A senior official from Katai'b Hezbollah said the move has weakened the PMF and
its legitimacy with the public. For many Iraqis, the group’s credibility is
derived from Sistani’s fatwa. The fissure was plain to see when, weeks into his
leadership, Kadhimi visited the PMF headquarters. To his right, sat figures
friendly with Tehran, to his left, those affiliated with Sistani.
It marks a “major wrench” by the Shia establishment led by Sistani into Iran’s
broader plans, said Randa Slim, director of the Conflict Resolution and Track II
Dialogues Program at the Middle East Institute.
“They are basically saying we do not want an organ that takes its orders from
Iran,” she said. A larger question looms over the future of the PMF.
Muhandis had been directing plans to transform a band of independent militias
into a more professional force. Those plans remain unfinished, said three
militia commanders on a recent visit to Mosul.
Under Muhandis, the PMF began referring to its units by brigade numbers rather
than faction names and made moves toward imposing military rank structures and
disciplinary courts. He oversaw the creation of engineering units providing
services such as roadworks. He held immense influence over militias and their
supporters.
When protesters attacked the US Embassy in Baghdad last December in response to
US strikes on Katai'b Hezbollah targets, it was Muhandis and not Iraqi security
forces who was ultimately called upon to have them pull back, according to two
Iraqi officials.
“Hajj Abu Mahdi made us an official group, it’s the most important thing he
did,” said Mohammed al-Mousawi, a PMF commander. For the years ahead, he had
planned greater training for fighters, academies and recruitment to improve
management, Mousawi said. Iran appears to be taking a back foot in Iraq, but
experts said this is likely to be short-lived. “Iran has proved that it learns
and evolves,” said Slim. “Now it’s in the learning phase.”
The major blows suffered by Iran in Iraq and the high cost of its operations
there do not mean that the Islamic Republic is pondering an imminent abandonment
of its plans for expanding control in the country. Iran, of course, knows the
risks but, according to the Islamic regime, they are worth taking, even if that
means a constant shift in strategy.
Since his death, Shia factions have shown discord, arguing over a premier
candidate twice before they settled on Mustafa al-Kadhimi. Soleimani’s successor
as Quds Force commander, Ghaani, is less familiar with Iraqi militia leaders and
speaks to them through an interpreter. Meetings in Iraq have increasingly been
handled by Iranian Ambassador Iraj Masjedi, himself a former Quds Force member.
Ghaani’s gift of silver rings — symbolically important in Shia Islam — rather
than cash came during a meeting in April with leaders of several militia
factions, according to three officials. Ghaani told them that, for the moment,
they would have to rely on Iraqi state funding, they said, a sign of Iran’s
economic crisis. The PMF are paid primarily through the state — $2 billion in
the 2019 budget — but the funds are not dispersed equally. Smaller
Iranian-backed groups rely on other informal means of revenue and receive extras
from Iran, roughly $3-9 million, two Iraqi officials close to the militias
said.The PMF was created in 2014 as a framework to organise and pay the
thousands who volunteered to fight ISIS after a fatwa by Iraq’s top cleric,
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Since then, its political and military might has
soared. Under the staunchly pro-Iranian Muhandis, it became a channel for
Tehran’s influence.
The death of Muhandis opened the door for factions opposed to that influence —
particularly ones associated with Sistani — to break from the PMF leadership.
Militias complain that Iran-friendly groups receive preferential treatment.
The man seen as Muhandis’ likely successor, Abdulaziz al-Mohammadawi, known as
Abu Fadak, drew opposition from factions who saw him as the Iranian-backed
choice. He has not been officially recognised by the prime minister, though he
has assumed some administrative duties, according to officials.
Some of the most Iran-friendly militias under the PMF have shown signs of
splintering.
Attacks against US forces in March were claimed by a purported new group, Usbat
al-Thairen, believed to have emerged from the powerful Katai'b Hezbollah, which
the US accused of previous attacks.
Recently, four militias affiliated with the shrines connected to Sistani said
they would take orders directly from Iraq’s premier, bypassing the PMF
leadership.
A senior official from Katai'b Hezbollah said the move has weakened the PMF and
its legitimacy with the public. For many Iraqis, the group’s credibility is
derived from Sistani’s fatwa.
The fissure was plain to see when, weeks into his leadership, Kadhimi visited
the PMF headquarters. To his right, sat figures friendly with Tehran, to his
left, those affiliated with Sistani.
It marks a “major wrench” by the Shia establishment led by Sistani into Iran’s
broader plans, said Randa Slim, director of the Conflict Resolution and Track II
Dialogues Program at the Middle East Institute.
“They are basically saying we do not want an organ that takes its orders from
Iran,” she said. A larger question looms over the future of the PMF.
Muhandis had been directing plans to transform a band of independent militias
into a more professional force. Those plans remain unfinished, said three
militia commanders on a recent visit to Mosul.
Under Muhandis, the PMF began referring to its units by brigade numbers rather
than faction names and made moves toward imposing military rank structures and
disciplinary courts. He oversaw the creation of engineering units providing
services such as roadworks. He held immense influence over militias and their
supporters.
When protesters attacked the US Embassy in Baghdad last December in response to
US strikes on Katai'b Hezbollah targets, it was Muhandis and not Iraqi security
forces who was ultimately called upon to have them pull back, according to two
Iraqi officials.
“Hajj Abu Mahdi made us an official group, it’s the most important thing he
did,” said Mohammed al-Mousawi, a PMF commander. For the years ahead, he had
planned greater training for fighters, academies and recruitment to improve
management, Mousawi said.
Iran appears to be taking a back foot in Iraq, but experts said this is likely
to be short-lived. “Iran has proved that it learns and evolves,” said Slim. “Now
it’s in the learning phase.”The major blows suffered by Iran in Iraq and the
high cost of its operations there do not mean that the Islamic Republic is
pondering an imminent abandonment of its plans for expanding control in the
country. Iran, of course, knows the risks but, according to the Islamic regime,
they are worth taking, even if that means a constant shift in strategy.
Looming U.S. Sanctions Shake Syria, Hasten Economic
Meltdown
Associated Press/Naharnet/June 12/2020
In scenes not witnessed for years in government-controlled parts of Syria,
dozens of men and women marched through the streets this week, protesting a
sharp increase in prices and collapse of the currency, some even calling for the
downfall of President Bashar Assad and his ruling Baath party. "He who starves
his people is a traitor," some of the protesters chanted at the protest in the
southern city of Sweida. In Syria nowadays, there is an impending fear that all
doors are closing. After nearly a decade of war, the country is crumbling under
the weight of years-long Western sanctions, government corruption and
infighting, a pandemic and an economic downslide made worse by the financial
crisis in Lebanon, Syria's main link with the outside world. Syria faces near
complete isolation as the toughest U.S. sanctions yet start to come into effect
next week. While Assad may have won the military war against his opponents with
the help of allies Russia and Iran, he now faces an even bigger challenge of
governing while more than 80% of his people live in poverty. In government-held
areas, prices go up several times a day, forcing many shops to close, unable to
keep up with the chaos. This week the Syrian currency dropped to a record 3,500
pounds to the dollar on the black market -- compared to 700 at the beginning of
the year. Some staples such as sugar, rice and medicine are becoming hard to
find. "The Syrian economy has spiraled out of control and the regime cannot
control the Syrian pound anymore," said Osama Kadi, a Canada-based Syrian
economic adviser. The pain is likely to grow under the new U.S. sanctions, which
Washington says aim to punish Assad and his top lieutenants for crimes committed
during the country's conflict. Effectively, the sanctions prevent anyone around
the world from doing business with Syrian officials or state institutions or
participate in the war-ravaged country's reconstruction. They also target anyone
involved in smuggling to Syria, mostly from Iraq and Lebanon. The U.S. has
already imposed sanctions on Assad and a number of his top officials. The new
authority, known as the U.S. Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, allows
foreign companies to be targeted, including in neighboring Lebanon, Jordan and
Iraq.
"This legislation will close all the doors on the Syrian regime and any person
that deals with it," said Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen who is a member of the
Caesar Act team, a group that advises U.S. authorities on implementing the
sanctions. The first wave of sanctions will be imposed on June 17. Three other
stages will follow before the end of August, he said. Caesar is the code name of
a Syrian forensic photographer who graphically exposed the brutality of the
government crackdown by smuggling out thousands of photos of torture victims.
Experts say the new sanctions will be a heavy blow to a country where 80% of the
population already live below the poverty line, making less than $100 a month,
according to the United Nations. The Syrian government called the sanctions
"economic terrorism."Some of the repercussions have already been profound.
Bread prices increased nearly 60% in the rebel-held northwestern province of
Idlib, even though the territory is not included in the new sanctions. Its
population, many of them unemployed and living in displaced camps, have also
been hit hard by the collapse of the pound, since it is the main currency used
in Idlib.
As a result, protests erupted this week calling for the ouster of the "Salvation
Government" administering Idlib, led by al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
The Syrian pound -- which had been at 47 to the dollar at the start of the
conflict -- had held steady at around 500 to the dollar from 2014 until last
year.
It started crumbling from a number of factors: the coronavirus lockdown,
Lebanon's financial crisis, new rules requiring use of the Syrian pound and a
feud between Assad and his cousin Rami Makhlouf, one of Syria's richest men.
The Syrian government has lost major income from resources in areas outside its
control, including oil fields in the east held by U.S.-backed fighters and
farmlands that produced much of the country's wheat. Most damaging, perhaps, has
been the financial turmoil in Lebanon. Banks there have served as a gateway to
the world for Syrian businessmen, officials and average people. Now Lebanon's
tight capital controls lock away billions of dollars in their accounts.
"Lebanon was not only Syria's economic get-out-of-jail card, but it is the
beating heart of Syria's business community," Danny Makki, a Britain-based
Syrian journalist and political analyst, wrote recently for the Middle East
Institute.
Lebanon is also panicking about losing Syria, particularly the electricity it
still buys from the war-torn country. In recent weeks, the Lebanese army has
begun closing some smuggling routes to and from Syria where fuel, diesel,
medicine and other goods flow. Syria and its allies say the Caesar Act aims at
starving the Syrian people. The U.S. Embassy in Syria -- closed since the
beginning of the conflict -- tweeted on Sunday: "The regime's destructive war
has crushed the Syrian economy, not U.S. or EU sanctions."
Amid the turmoil, Assad fired Prime Minister Imad Khamis on Wednesday in a move
that appeared aimed at deflecting public anger. Khamis told parliament this week
that the government was discussing with allies ways to boost the pound's value.
He said the government was also taking steps to avoid any shortage of
pharmaceuticals.
Samer Aftimos, a pharmacist in Damascus, said shortages are already taking
place, in part because of people hoarding medicine. Drug companies have stopped
supplying some medicines, he said. Syrian legislator Muhannad Haj Ali, who has
been under European and American sanctions for years, said Syria survived past
economic crises and will overcome the Caesar Act. "What the terrorists and the
Americans couldn't take on the battlefield, where we paid with our blood and
wounds, they won't be able to gain politically, no matter how much pressure they
exert," he said.
U.S. Pledges to Reduce Iraq Troops as Tensions Ease
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 12/2020
The United States said Thursday it would reduce troops in Iraq in the coming
months as friction between the two countries eased under a new U.S.-friendly
premier in Baghdad. The United States also promised support to prop up the
struggling Iraqi economy as the two nations held their first strategic dialogue
in more than a decade. Tensions skyrocketed following a US strike on Baghdad in
January that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi commander Abu
Mahdi al-Muhandis, with lawmakers in Baghdad demanding the expulsion of the
roughly 5,200 U.S. troops in the country. President Donald Trump responded by
threatening crippling sanctions and, according to US military sources,
Washington began planning a vast bombing spree against groups blamed for the
rockets. In a joint statement, the United States said that the reason for its
military's return to Iraq in 2014 -- defeating extremists from the Islamic State
group -- had made major headway. "The two countries recognized that in light of
significant progress towards eliminating the ISIS threat, over the coming months
the US would continue reducing forces from Iraq," a joint statement said. "The
United States reiterated that it does not seek nor request permanent bases or a
permanent military presence in Iraq." The coalition has already consolidated to
just three bases in recent months, down from a dozen. The joint statement,
hashed out ahead of time, did not give figures and Thursday's dialogue was
brief, with David Schenker, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, telling
reporters the delegations did not discuss a timeline for reducing troops.Due to
coronavirus travel restrictions, top-level talks expected to take place in
Baghdad were demoted to a brief online kick-off session.
New PM changes tone
Tensions have calmed substantially since Mustafa Kadhemi -- an ex-spy chief with
close ties to the US and its allies in the region -- took the reins as Iraq's
premier in May. Two Iraqi officials said Kadhemi has been invited to the White
House this year, a diplomatic olive branch his predecessor Adel Abdel Mahdi had
never received. "There was a lack of confidence in the relationship with the
previous government," one of the officials said. Iraq in the joint statement
promised to protect US bases that have seen a barrage of rocket fire blamed on
paramilitary groups tied to Iran, a top adversary for the Trump administration.
The United States said it would look to encourage investment and promote
economic reform in Iraq, which was rocked last year by major protests against
unemployment and corruption. "We will support the new government through the
international financial institutions to help it meet the challenge of COVID-19
and declining oil revenues," Schenker said. Iraq's economy relies almost
exclusively on oil exports, with faltering prices and low demand drastically
shrinking the government's ability to pay wages, pensions and welfare to eight
million Iraqis.
After Kadhemi took charge, the United States extended a waiver from American
sanctions to let Iraq keep importing needed gas from Iran, although the
exemption runs out in September. "The entire US-Iraq bilateral relationship will
not be fixed in a single day," said Robert Ford, an analyst at the Middle East
Institute and a U.S. diplomat in Baghdad during the last round of strategic
talks in 2008, which ironed out the U.S. drawdown from the occupation that began
after the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. "But for once, we seem to have
the right people in the right place at the right time," he said.
Eyes on troop future
A dramatic or sudden drop could hamper the coalition's efforts to back an Iraqi
fightback against IS sleeper cells, which have escalated attacks in recent
weeks.
"Whatever comes out of the dialogue is going to set the future of our strategic
relationship," a top American official from the coalition told AFP. "Am I still
going to fly surveillance drones or not? Do you still want our intelligence?" he
added.
Other coalition countries are watching closely. "The ability of non-US members
of the coalition to be in Iraq depends on whether the US can stay. We're tied
down by this dialogue, too," a Western diplomat told AFP. The spokesman for the
pro-Iran Fatah bloc, Ahmad al-Assadi, has insisted on a six-month deadline for
foreign troops' departure. On Monday and Wednesday, two rockets hit near Baghdad
airport and the American embassy, after weeks of calm. But the rhetoric was more
tempered than usual, with even the hardline Kataeb Hezbollah saying it would
take a formal stance on the talks only after the first session. "These groups
are retrenching, which gives Kadhemi some space with the Americans," Ford said.
Seattle Mayor Tells Trump to 'Go Back to Your Bunker'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 12/2020
Seattle's mayor told Donald Trump to "Go back to your bunker" Thursday,
escalating a spat after the president threatened to intervene over a police-free
autonomous zone protesters have set up in the western U.S. city. The reference
to a "bunker" was a nod to reports Trump was rushed by Secret Service agents to
a secure area in the White House as demonstrations against racism and police
brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd reached the president's
residence. Trump sparked the spat when he threatened to intervene in the
neighborhood in Seattle dubbed "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone," or CHAZ, which
was agreed upon by demonstrators and the city's police department. "Take back
your city NOW. If you don't do it, I will," Trump warned mayor Jenny Durkan and
Washington state governor Jay Inslee -- both Democrats -- in a tweet late
Wednesday, calling the protesters "domestic terrorists" who have taken over
Seattle. "This is not a game. These ugly Anarchists must be stooped (sic)
IMMEDIATELY. MOVE FAST," he continued in another tweet. Mayor Jenny Durkan
replied, urging Trump to "make us all safe. Go back to your bunker", with Inslee
joining in the Twitter mockery of Trump.
"A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington
state's business. 'Stoop' tweeting," Inslee wrote. Protests have taken place
across the country following the death of Floyd, an unarmed black man killed in
police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. Officials in Seattle have denied
reports that left-wing activists are behind the setting up of the autonomous
zone.
'Peaceful as hell'
In the CHAZ area Thursday there were tents with supplies for volunteer medics as
well as free gourmet food donated by local restaurants, along with fruit,
snacks, and water bottles for the taking. The sunny afternoon gathering had a
relaxed air, with people of all ages, including mothers with children, milling
around the car-free streets. At one point a crowd locked arms and prevented two
police officers from reaching a boarded up police station in the area. The
officers failed to break in when they tried to enter through a different road.
"The scene here is peaceful as hell," said a demonstrator who identified herself
as Jahtia B. She wondered aloud what Trump meant by tweeting 'take back the
city.' "This is our city. I was born and raised in this damn city. Let's
give it to the people, the people who live in Seattle and have been thriving
here," she told AFP. An African-American demonstrator, Rich Brown, said he was
scared on Sunday when police used tear gas and flash bang grenades in an attempt
to clear the area. "Today I feel supported, welcomed," he said. "We're able to
speak, it's what we've been wanting to do this whole time, without intimidation,
without fear."
Putin says 'majority' back plan to change Russian
constitution
NNA /AFP/June 12/2020
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday an "absolute majority" of Russians
backed his controversial plan to change the constitution, as he made his first
public appearance after weeks of lockdown. Russia, which has the world's
third-largest coronavirus caseload, this week lifted tight restrictions as Putin
set the stage for a vote on July 1 that could extend his hold on power until
2036.Putin greeted his compatriots at an open-air flag-raising ceremony in
western Moscow to mark Russia Day, a public holiday. He was surrounded by
allies, including prominent paediatrician Leonid Roshal. Appearing without a
mask and smiling in the bright sunshine, the 67-year-old leader praised the
spirit of the Russian people as well their traditions and culture. He said it
was only natural that Russians wanted to see these "fundamental, basic premises"
reflected in the constitution. "I am sure that an absolute majority of our
citizens share and support such a position," Putin said. During the ceremony, he
also bestowed labour awards on Roshal, popular Soviet-era actor Yury Solomin and
other figures.--
Britain abandons plan to introduce full border checks with
EU on Jan 1
NNA /Reuters/June 12/2020
The United Kingdom has abandoned its plan to introduce full border checks with
the European Union on Jan 1 as British ministers face pressure from businesses
not to increase chaos already caused by the coronavirus outbreak, the Financial
Times newspaper reported. nInstead, Britain will introduce a temporary
"light-touch regime" at ports such as Dover for incoming EU goods, the newspaper
reported, adding that this will happen whether or not there is a Brexit free
trade agreement with the EU. The newspaper said that officials have conceded,
however, that goods flowing to the EU from the UK could face full checks as they
enter France.--
California man charged with videotaped poisoning of
homeless people
NNA/Reuters/June 12/2020
A California man has been arrested on charges he poisoned eight homeless people
by giving them food laced with a caustic substance derived from hot chili
peppers in a string of attacks videotaped for his own enjoyment, prosecutors
said on Thursday. William Robert Cable, 38, a handyman from the northern
California town of San Andreas, was taken into custody on May 22 and has since
been jailed on $500,000 bond as police continue their investigation, the Orange
County district attorney’s office said in a statement. The victims, all poisoned
in the coastal town of Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles, had been tricked
into ingesting oleoresin capsicum, a chemical compound from which the active
ingredient in pepper spray is extracted, prosecutors said. “These human beings
were preyed upon because they are vulnerable,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer
said in a statement. “They were exploited and poisoned as part of a twisted form
of entertainment, and their pain was recorded so that it could be relived by
their attacker over and over again.” The victims survived but suffered a variety
of severe reactions, including convulsions, breathing difficulty, vomiting, and
intense mouth and stomach pain, according to the district attorney’s office.
Several required hospitalization. The attacks spanned a little more than a week
beginning in mid-May. Many victims were unaware the food had been tampered with,
while several were given other food and beer to entice them to eat the tainted
offerings, Spitzer said. Some were told they were participating in a “spicy food
challenge” as part of the ruse, prosecutors said. Cable was charged with eight
counts of felony poisoning, one count of elder abuse and eight misdemeanor
counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. If convicted, Cable faces
up to 19 years in prison. His attorney did not immediately respond to a Reuters’
request for comment.
Bomb explodes in Kabul mosque, at least 4 killed
NNA/ AP/June 12/2020
A bomb exploded Friday inside a mosque in west Kabul killing at least four
people, including the prayer leader, and wounding eight others, an Afghan
government official said. Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said a bomb
had been placed inside the mosque but had no additional details. Police cordoned
off the area and helped move the wounded to ambulances and nearby hospitals. No
one took immediate responsibility but a mosque attack earlier this month was
claimed by the Islamic State group affiliate. Mofleh Frotan was among the city's
more prominent prayer leaders. Violence has spiked in recent weeks in
Afghanistan with most of the attacks claimed by the IS affiliate, headquartered
in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province. Earlier this month, IS planted
explosives at a mosque in Kabul's posh Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood, killing
the prayer leader and wounding eight others. The United States blamed the IS
affiliate for a horrific attack last month on a maternity hospital in the
capital that killed 24 people, including two infants and several new mothers.
The hospital was located in the city's Shiite dominated area of Dasht-e-Barchi.
The IS group, which reviles Shiites as heretics, has declared war on the
country's minority Shiite Muslims, but has also attacked Sunni Muslim mosques.
The mosque targeted Friday is Sunni. The IS affiliate also took responsibility
for an attack on a bus carrying journalists in Kabul on May 30, killing two.
Also it claimed credit for an attack on the funeral of a warlord loyal to the
government last month that killed 35 people. Washington's peace envoy Zalmay
Khalilzad was in the region earlier this week trying to resuscitate a U.S. peace
deal with the Taliban, which is expected to eventually be enlisted in the fight
against the IS affiliate. The peace deal signed in February to allow U.S. and
NATO troops to leave Afghanistan includes a commitment by the Taliban to fight
terrorism and a vow that Afghanistan would not be used to attack the United
States or its allies. Washington previously said the Taliban have been
instrumental — along with Afghanistan's National Security and Defense Forces and
U.S. air strikes — in reducing the IS's strength in eastern Afghanistan.
US Recommends Designating Badr Organization's Leader, PMF
Factions as Terrorists
Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 12 June, 2020
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) in the US Congress has recommended
designating the “Badr Organization” and its head and secretary-general Hadi al-Ameri,
in addition to several factions of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) as
terrorists. Al-Hurra news station revealed that the report published by RSC
stressed that Badr Organization, Ameri, and factions of Kataib al-Imam Ali,
Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Liwa Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas, Jund al-Islam, among
others should be classified as terrorists. For his part, Ameri pinned high hopes
on the Iraqi negotiators that they will not disappoint the Iraqi people who took
to the streets demanding the departure of foreign forces and the achievement of
full national sovereignty. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hisham Daoud's
advisor affirmed that Iraq shares friendly and strong ties with the US as well
as other countries in diverse fields such as military, security, energy,
culture, and education.Daoud stressed that the US is a key state and Iraq needs
to be on good terms with countries of strong economies. Earlier, Iraq asked for
Washington’s help in the fight against ISIS but Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s government
affirms now that Iraq has military capabilities and potentials to face internal
risks and terrorism, he noted. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, MP and committee
member Aras Habib Karim said that what matters in the current Iraqi-US talks is
that it outlines a roadmap for future ties between the two countries. "It is my
belief that the government of Iraq is going to want to retain US and coalition
forces," General Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of US forces in the region,
said in an online conference sponsored by a Washington think tank. "And as you
know, from my perspective, we're in Iraq to finish the defeat of ISIS and to
support Iraq as they finish that defeat and come to a final, final victory
against it," he said.
Assad dismisses PM, top military as Caesar Act set to bite
The Arab Weekly/June 12/2020
DAMASCUS-- In a move to distance himself from the deep economic crisis gripping
Syria, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sacked Prime Minister Imad Khamis and
replaced him with the Minister of Water Resources Hussein Arnous, who is from
Idlib.
The dismissal of the Prime Minister was accompanied by significant changes in
the top echelons of the military command, including the Special Forces and the
Republican Guard, with the aim of controlling any movement of the active forces
whose primary task is to protect the existing regime.
Khamis's open “dismissal”, and not the customary declaration of “having accepted
the resignation of the Prime Minister and of his government” which is made when
making a government change in Damascus, came against the backdrop of widespread
protests and a rapid deterioration of the economic conditions in the areas under
the regime's control, and less than a week before the famous Caesar Act of the
Trump administration comes into force. There have been widespread protests in
all areas of Syria, but the most virulent ones were in the Druze city of Suwaida,
near Daraa, where citizens have been demonstrating for the fourth consecutive
day, demanding the “departure” of Bashar al-Assad from the presidency.
Demonstrations have erupted as US dollars disappeared from the streets of
Damascus and many other Syrian cities, accompanied with unprecedented inflation
that the Imad Khamis government could not control. Suwaida residents said the
demonstrators, who had gathered near a main square in this southwestern city,
called for the overthrow of al-Assad, picking up slogans and chants heard at the
start of the pro-democracy protests in 2011. The protests have not abated since
last Sunday. Protesters were also demanding an end to rampant corruption and the
removal of Iranian militias and Russian forces, whose support has helped Assad
recover most of the territory from the hands of his opponents. “The protesters
are calling for freedom and the overthrow of the regime as a result of popular
anger over the deteriorating economic, social, security and political
conditions,” said resident and activist Nora al-Basha.
And for the first time since the protests began, dozens of government supporters
staged a counter-demonstration in front of the city’s city hall, and criticised
another wave of new and tougher US sanctions, known as the Caesar Act, that will
be coming into force this month.
Sources in Damascus told The Arab Weekly that the Syrian security services
launched a campaign of arrests in the past few days that included a large number
of money changers, with the aim of bringing down the price of the dollar.
These sources revealed that the security forces confiscated large amounts of
dollars from a number of money changers who were receiving support from the
centres of power, which led the authorities to announce that the price of the
dollar fell from 3,500 to 1,800 Syrian pounds. The US currency, however, was
still missing from the markets.
The same sources stated that merchants in Damascus were forced, by direct
threat, to keep their stores open after a large number of them had decided to
stop selling the goods in their possession because of the high prices of the US
dollar on the one hand, their fear of not being able to replace theirs stocks in
the future on the other hand. Moreover, Syrian political sources revealed that
the "dismissal" of the Syrian Prime Minister had been planned for some time now,
but al-Assad had to wait before announcing his decision given that several
personalities that were contacted for the position of the new Prime Minister
turned it down under various pretexts, showing their unwillingness to bear any
governmental responsibility at this stage. This eventually led the Syrian
president to secure the cooperation of Minister Hussein Arnous from the
dismissed government and appointed him prime minister.
Arnous, 67, was born in Idlib and is a veteran statesman who held several
government positions, including that of Governor of Deir Al-Zour, which borders
Iraq, and Governor of Quneitra in the south of the country. He figures on the US
and the European Union lists of Syrian officials targeted by sanctions.
In related news, Syrian political sources talked about major changes having
taken place in the top echelons of the Republican Guard and the Special Forces
in light of fears of any military moves targeting the regime. They said in this
regard that rather young Alawite officers, most of them with the rank of
brigadier general, were recently appointed to important military positions so
that any movement of forces would be under the direct supervision of these
officers whom Bashar al-Assad considers loyal to him and not to anyone else,
especially his cousin Rami Makhlouf.
In this context, Brigadier General MiladJadid became Commander of the Special
Forces, Brigadier General Mondher Ibrahim as Chief of Staff of the Special
Forces, Brigadier General Kamal Sarim as Chief of Staff of the Republican Guard,
and Brigadier General Amin Asamander as Chief of Staff of the 30th Division of
the Republican Guard.
US Pledges to Reduce Troops in Iraq
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 12 June, 2020
The United States promised Thursday to reduce troops from Iraq over the coming
months after talks with Baghdad, where lawmakers have pushed for their
withdrawal. "The two countries recognized that in light of significant progress
towards eliminating the ISIS threat, over the coming months the US would
continue reducing forces from Iraq," a joint statement said. The joint
statement, hashed out ahead of time, did not give figures and Thursday's
dialogue was brief, with David Schenker, the top US diplomat for the Middle
East, telling reporters the delegations did not discuss a timeline for reducing
troops. Due to coronavirus travel restrictions, top-level talks expected to take
place in Baghdad were demoted to a brief online kick-off session. "The United
States reiterated that it does not seek nor request permanent bases or a
permanent military presence in Iraq," the statement said. Iraq, in turn,
promised to protect bases housing US troops after a series of rocket attacks
blamed on pro-Iranian paramilitary groups. The two countries on Thursday held
their first strategic dialogue in more than a decade, months after Iraqi
lawmakers demanded that US forces withdraw in the wake of a US drone strike in
Baghdad which killed a top general from neighboring Iran. The United States said
it would look to encourage investment and promote economic reform in Iraq, which
was rocked last year by major protests against unemployment and corruption. "We
will support the new government through the international financial institutions
to help it meet the challenge of COVID-19 and declining oil revenues," Schenker
said. Relations have since stabilized under a new US-friendly Iraqi prime
minister, Mustafa Kadhemi, and the dialogue was held virtually due to
coronavirus precautions. Two Iraqi officials said Kadhemi has been invited to
the White House this year, a diplomatic olive branch his predecessor Adel Abdel
Mahdi had never received. "There was a lack of confidence in the relationship
with the previous government," one of the officials said. Iraq's economy relies
almost exclusively on oil exports, with faltering prices and low demand
drastically shrinking the government's ability to pay wages, pensions, and
welfare to eight million Iraqis.
PLO Member Says 8 European Countries Ready to Recognize
Palestine
Ramallah - Kifah Zboun/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 12 June, 2020
Member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee Azzam
al-Ahmad said that eight European states have expressed willingness to recognize
a Palestinian state on the lines prevailing before the 1967 war in response to
Israel's annexation plan. The European Union rejects Israel’s plan to annex
parts of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley and has threatened to impose
sanctions on Israel in case it goes ahead with the annexation, Ahmad added.
Palestinian officials told the Israeli Kan public broadcaster that several
European countries, including Ireland, intend to recognize the Palestinian state
if Israel goes ahead with its plan. The officials say France, Spain, Belgium,
Luxembourg, and Portugal have yet to respond. A committee in the House of
Representatives of the Belgian Parliament passed a draft-law calling on the
government to recognize a Palestinian state. It will be debated by the
parliament in the coming 15 days. Ahmad also said that Palestine "plans to hold
a series of meetings in the United Nations to exert pressure on Israel to
withdraw its annexation" plan. He stressed that Riyadh remains a backer of the
Palestinian people and leaders, lauding the Saudi government for its constant
stance from the Palestinian cause as well as the meeting outcomes of the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Following a meeting, Palestinian Prime
Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has urged German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to
increase pressure on Israel to stop its destructive plan. The talks, via
videoconference, were attended by Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.
Shtayyeh said: “We have affirmed our position of categorically rejecting
annexation as an existential threat to the Palestinian entity and the
Palestinian state, a violation of international law and agreements and a threat
to regional security."He added: "We have asked Germany, which will chair the
Security Council and the European Union, to convey this message to the world and
increase its pressure on Israel on behalf of the European Union to back down
from the annexation plan. It is very clear that if there is no serious cost for
the annexation to Israel, it will not back down from its plan."Maas restated his
country’s opposition to unilateral Israeli annexation. Safadi warned it was
“imperative to stop annexation because ultimately it is a path to
institutionalize apartheid of Palestine and that is not a recipe for peace.”
Aboul Gheit Warns of ‘Religious War’ over Israel’s
Annexation Plan
Cairo - Sawsan Abu Hussein/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 12 June, 2020
Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit warned on Thursday against the
eruption of a “religious war” over Israeli attempts to annex parts of the
occupied West Bank.
“Israel’s annexation of Palestinian lands constitutes a new brutal aggression on
the Palestinian people and their sovereignty on their territories,” he stressed
in a statement. This would be a hostile move against Arab and Islamic nations
and would undermine the chances for establishing peace in the region, Aboul
Gheit said. He added that this “dangerous development may lead to confrontation
and religious wars that the international community shall not allow us to slip
into.”“The annexation plan is a blatant violation of international laws and the
UN charter.”Aboul Gheit pointed out that the whole world is responsible for
defending Palestinian rights. He urged the preservation of the international
system that is based on respect for international law and on mutual respect
between countries and peoples. The Arab League called for maintaining Arab
support for the Palestinian educational process and alleviating the suffering of
Palestinian students. This would allow future Palestinian generations to
confront and challenge Israel to end its occupation and establish the
Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. AL Assistant Secretary General
for Palestine and the Occupied Arab Territories Saeed Abu Ali made these remarks
during the virtual session of the Educational Programs Committee for Arab
students in the occupied Arab territories. Abu Ali affirmed that committee
members are determined to continue supporting and following up the developments
of the educational process in Palestine, especially in light of the extremely
difficult circumstances that Palestine and the entire world are passing through
due to the coronavirus outbreak. He pointed to Israel’s policies to exploit the
current circumstances and implement its colonial settlement plans by annexing
large parts of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. Israel is preventing the
implementation of measures, especially in Jerusalem and its environs, to
confront the pandemic, he noted. Abu Ali also highlighted Israel’s continued
demolition, displacement, arrest, and targeting of educational and health
facilities.
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published on June 12-13/2020
Facts About the Caesar Act!
Akram Bunni/Asharq Al Awsat/June 12/2020
Beyond the exaggeration that the Caesar Act is like a declaration of war to
overthrow the Syrian regime and beyond undermining the implications this Act
will have on an exhausted regime that is in an economic and political crisis,
while always undermining the impact of sanctions, five facts deserve reflection
to understand the limits and implications of this law.
The first fact is the new and persistent role that the diverse Syrian diaspora
in the United States had played to push for this law. This includes formulating
and lobbying for it for over three years until it was passed a few months ago in
both the House of Representatives and Congress. The Syrian people, both men and
women, have suffered the aggression of the regime or influential Syrian figures
in US life while only being supported by a few US-Syrian non-governmental
organizations which spent a lot of money, time, and effort to fight for this
law. They had to resort to the grotesque and horrifying images that were leaked
of thousands of Syrian detainees who died under torture in the regime’s prisons
and detention camps. They then backed these images with evidence and by citing
new crimes that were committed against Syrian civilians to garner more
supporters in US legislative and executive bodies. This surprised the regime,
which still believes that it does not deserve this kind of aggression from the
US and gives no weight to those whom it displaced around the globe and
undermines their capacity to form a center of power and influence in the
positions and policies of western governments to support their people and
nation.
The second fact is the added value of fighting for justice. The Caesar Act
provides the US Department of State with vast powers to support institutions
that gather evidence and follow legal prosecutions against those who committed
war crimes in Syria with an explicit demand to cease all arrests, release
prisoners, reveal the fate of those missing, and enabling international monitors
to visit and evaluate Syrian detention camps and prisons. It is worth noting
that such crimes against humanity do not die out and are not subject to the
statute of limitations; it puts all those incriminated, however long it takes,
under questioning and holds them accountable, telling them that however long
their transgressions and tyranny and however much they try to conceal their
crimes, they will be punished and will reap what they have sown. This compels
Syrian rights activists who have cooperated with European judicial institutions
in Germany, France, and Austria to follow up and prosecute war criminals in
Syria and to punish those who tortured, raped, and killed civilians.
The third fact is that this Act definitively frustrates the regime’s appetite
for reconstruction after claiming victory and aborts plans and projects with
Syrian and non-Syrian investors, including European, American, Chinese, Russian
and Iranian companies that want to split the reconstruction project. The
sanctions that the Caesar Act issues reach all foreign institutions and figures
that are seeking to enable the regime or anybody that provides financial or
technical support or even goods to the regime; it also implicates anyone who
strikes a deal with the Syrian regime to help restore its rule over the country
and its people. Additionally, it sends a warning to many countries that have
recently tried to normalize political and diplomatic relations with the Syrian
regime such as Hungary, Cyprus, and Italy, and prevents the Lebanese authorities
from re-establishing relations with the rulers in Damascus and risking deepening
its economic crisis as a result of the intersection between their two economies
and the withdrawal of Lebanese capital from the reconstruction project in Syria.
The fourth fact: The Caesar Act reactivates the US’s role in the Syrian issue
after the White House’s hasty decisions to leave it be and withdraw from its
implications, turning this Act today into a card in Washington’s hand against
Russian hegemony and to partake in drawing the future of Syria. What makes
things more clear is the return of US forces to East and North Syria, returning
an international alliance led by the US east of the Euphrates, controlling
strategic resources such as oil and gas, signaling an intention to stay there
for a long time.
We admit that the US administration came very short in protecting Syrian
civilians and had neglected and disavowed the Caesar Act that had been
formulated under Obama’s term just like it neglected and disavowed the famous
definitive response it warned the Syrian regime with, in case it used chemical
weapons again. We also admit that this Act was not adopted by the US for
humanitarian or moral reasons alone, but was also subject to a calculation of
interests and a political agenda illustrated by the fact that the US president
provided a margin for maneuvering around its implementation and even suspending
it if he found that those in control in Syria were serious about finding a
political solution, leaving the door open for a compromise over the Syrian
struggle according to the outcomes of the Geneva Conference that limit Iran’s
influence and guarantees a substantial share for Washington.
The fifth truth: The sanctions imposed by the Caesar Act will indeed be
reflected in more damage and harm to the Syrian people who are already damaged
by the oppression and corruption of the regime, and, indeed, it will not be too
harmful to a regime that has no direct economic and financial links with
Washington and whose leaders live in luxury while putting all of the
responsibility for starving and impoverishing the Syrian people on western
countries. However, the implications of this law will no doubt weaken the
diverse sources of income that used to help those in power to maneuver around
sanctions that were imposed on them. Additionally, it will weaken their capacity
to reproduce their social base and to profit from the negative implications of
their bloody war. It is likely to also contribute to heightening the tension and
disagreement between different centers of power in light of the suspension of
the reconstruction project and the free fall of the Syrian pound, one
manifestation of which is the dispute between the head of the regime and Rami
Makhlouf. It will also motivate the majority of Syrians who are hungry to rebel
and push them to stand against this regime that has pushed them into poverty and
neediness. Perhaps the news of the return of peaceful demonstrations demanding
the overthrow of the regime in As-Suwayda and Daraa is only the tip of the
iceberg.
Powers Play with Fire in Libya
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/June 12/2020
With coronavirus lockdown gradually whittled down, last week we started working
on a series of conferences on the greater Middle East region for one of the
local universities. As we suggested topics we came to Libya where a forgotten
war has been going on for almost a decade.
The response from committee members was almost unanimous: Who cares about Libya?
Evil tongues might suggest that, coming from French and British academics, this
“who cares” sounds like an attempt to hide a shameful family secret.
After all, the tragic mess we witness in Libya today is, in good part, a result
of policies pursued by French President Nicholas Sarkozy and British Premier
David Cameron who took on the job of toppling Col. Muammar Gaddafi without
knowing what they would need to do next.
Cameron’s friends tell me that he and Sarkozy were both pushed into the Libyan
adventure by then US President Barack Obama who wished to test his “leadership
from behind” theory which, in turn, flattered the European midgets.
One argument in favor of “who cares about Libya” is that there are many
forgotten wars in the world, the longest being in Congo-Kinshasa which, in a
sense, started in 1960 and, with brief lulls, continues to this day. Another
argument is that, with economic recession ahead, Libya’s oil resources may be
more like a Cinderella than a seductive princess.
However, what is going on in Libya should be of interest to the so-called
international community for at least three reasons. The first is that Libya is
currently the largest theater of proxy wars in the Greater Middle East. More
foreign powers are involved in the Libyan proxy war than in Syria.
At last count, apart from Britain and France that have remained involved in a
homeopathic dose, Italy is also engaged in some shenanigans, albeit mostly in
diplomatic form. Then we have Turkey, with Qatar acting as “deep pockets”, and
the international network of Muslim Brotherhood providing the personnel
supporting the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.
Led by Fayez al-Sarraj, a technocrat, the GNA also enjoys formal backing from
the European Union and the United Nations’ bureaucracies. Recently, Turkey has
supplied the GNA forces with home-made drones, known as Bayraqdar (Flagbearer)
copied from an outdated American model. Ankara has also recruited an estimated
6,000 Syrian former rebels, most with Muslim Brotherhood background, to fight
for the GNA.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tries to justify all that by pointing to
more than $30 billion in Turkish investments in Libya under Gaddafi when almost
a million Turks worked there. Though Gaddafi had granted Libyan citizenship to
many Turks, most immigrants returned home after his fall.
Now, facing mass unemployment at home, Erdogan hopes to see some of those who
still have Libyan citizenship, to return there. In 2019 Turkey signed a series
of accords with the Tripoli-based GNA under which Ankara was granted a swath of
claims over the Mediterranean. That would enable Turkey to challenge the
construction of oil and gas pipelines to ship new offshore resources shared by
Israel, Greece, Cyprus and Lebanon. Despite attempts at gaining a foothold, Iran
has bene reduced to a bit player in the Libyan drama on the side of Turkey and
Qatar.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have Russia, Egypt and several other
African states siding with the Libyan National Army of Khalifa Haftar based in
Benghazi and loosely in control of the eastern half of what is the world’s 18th
largest country.
According to Moscow sources, Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes to gain a
pause-and-resupply base for his navy on Libya’s 1,770-kilometer-long
Mediterranean coast to compliment the aero-naval base he has obtained in Tartus,
Syria. Reluctant to get involved with boots-on-the ground, Putin has been
generous with military supplies including Pantsir air defense systems. More
importantly, perhaps, he has given the green light to four Russian private
security firms to send military trainers, advisers, technicians and even combat
troops to Libya. Haftar who goes around with the grade of a Marshall is also
discretely backed by China which supplies his forces with Wing Loong drones,
needed to provide air cover for ground forces.
The second reason why this mini-world war is worthy of attention is that Libya,
with the longest shoreline on the Mediterranean, is also neighbor on land to six
countries all of which could be de-stabilized or worse. It is no surprise that,
thanks to Egyptian efforts, the Libyan dossier is slated to come up in the
African Union as a threat to security across the continent.
The third reason for not forgetting Libya is that it is the key transit route
for millions of migrants seeking to enter Europe. At a time that coronavirus and
its concomitant economic meltdown has focused public attention control of
borders and halting immigration, the prospect of millions pouring out of deepest
Africa into Libya on the way to Europe is bound to invite some reflection.
It seems that both camps are now aiming at prolonging the status quo under which
neither the GNA nor the Libyan National Army (LNA) are capable of delivering the
knockout blow and imposing their control over that vast but thinly populated
land. A series of seesaw battles, in some of which Haftar’s forces scored
tactical gains, has shown that without military intervention by a bigger player,
neither side is able to kick the other out of the game.
And that brings us to the fourth reason why Libya must not be forgotten. With
both GNA and LNA locked in a fratricide struggle, terrorist groups, starting
with ISIS and African offshoots of Al-Qaeda have already secured footholds in
Libya. To these may be added a dozen ethnocentric groups seeking to carve their
own fiefdoms and ready to join either side according to their own advantage. The
prospect of Libya being Syrianized must be taken seriously. Sadly, along with
others, Erdogan, obsessed with his neo-Ottoman strategy, is playing with fire in
Libya.
The US Elections and the Minneapolis Story of Mr. Chauvin!
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/June 12/2020
It is a painful irony that an African American is killed under the knee of a
white police officer in Minnesota, the ‘most Scandinavian US state’.
It is also ironic that this predominantly white state lies in the country’s cold
northern borders with Canada, not in the southern ‘Cotton Belt’ noted for its
hot weather and race relations, and evangelical conservatism. In the latter, the
grandfathers of its present-day African Americans were originally brought as
slaves to work in the vast cotton plantations; while their descendants have
barely accepted the virtues of the anti-segregation ‘Civil Rights Movement’ of
the 1960s.
A third irony is that the police officer who committed the crime is called Derek
Chauvin. Yes …‘Chauvin’; and the crime itself happened at a time of heated
‘Chauvinist’ rhetoric with the countdown of the presidential, legislative and
gubernatorial elections next November.
In fact, the relationship between the police and activists and demonstrators,
almost everywhere in the world is not perfect; and although democratic
governments recognize the right of expression as a basic ingredient of
democratic practice, ‘emotional’ street demonstrations are rarely immune to
violent confrontations. A recent salient example has been the French ‘Yellow
Vests’ demonstrations in the streets and squares of Paris, before Covid-19
managed to turn them into deserted landscapes.
Usually, the security forces’ task is containment; however, sometimes certain
policemen become tempted to make use of the superiority of being armed, and also
being shielded by the command structure, to go all out in defense of law and
order, as well as private and public property.
On the other side, with the exception of anarchists and ‘embedded saboteurs’,
honest believers in a certain cause only take to the streets because they are
committed to a cause, defending against injustice, or fighting hunger. This
keeps clashes within accepted limits, but it is never the case when the overall
picture is far from this innocent reality. In such cases, accumulated prejudices
and animosities – many of which lying dormant – come in the open, with tragic
consequences.
The history of America, is colorful and diverse, enriching this great country
with a multitude of races, cultures, religions, and sects that immigrated from
all corners of the world. The young country grew gradually, expanding westwards,
through wars and purchases of land; hence, bring in more and more diversity.
The original 13 states – symbolized in the American flag by the red and white
stripes – were originally settled by immigrants from the British Isles (the
states of ‘New England’, as well as Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and
Georgia), Germany (the states of the ‘Midwest’ south of the Great Lakes, and the
Netherlands -New York and Pennsylvania). At that time Florida was Spanish, while
the Scandinavians settled first in New York and then in Minnesota. As for the
French, they colonized the vast area west of the Mississippi River towards the
Rockies, with New Orleans (named after the city of Orleans in France) as their
main hub in the present-day state of Louisiana. Indeed, many cities and towns in
this huge area, which once extended well into northeast Canada, still have
French names.
As the wealth, power, and political clout of the USA continued to grow, more
immigrants and refugees arrived, settled and assimilated, each according to
abilities, circumstances, and interests. Furthermore, along with immigration,
technological advances hugely contributed to the change in the young country’s
demographic and interest-based fabrics.
Here, it is worth mentioning that although the real political rivalry between
the Democratic and Republican Parties began in the early 19th century; its seeds
were sown in the early days of founding the country.
Today, the two great parties embody the rivalry between the Right-wing
Conservatives (represented by the Republican Party) and Centrists and
Center-Left Liberals (represented by the Democratic Party), but this scene has
little to do with the original division. In the beginning, as the founding
fathers were laying the foundations of the new country, the differences were
centered around whether to have a strong central government, as the future
Republicans wanted, or that state rights should be highly respected, as the
future Democrats advocated. Eventually, a federal deal was agreed by the two
sides that balanced out a strong ‘federal government’, strong ‘state
governments’ that enjoyed wide rights and powers each with its state. The
American Civil War (1861-1865), indeed had a lot to do with a conflict of
interests between these two levels of authority, with the issue of slavery as a
catalyst.
In the 20th century, as booming trade and industry further enhanced the status
of America, the political orientations of two major parties gradually began to
change. The Republican Party became more and more associated with free
enterprise, closer ties with the church, and stronger pragmatic and conservative
nationalism, the Democratic Party became the stronghold of ethnic and religious
minorities, trade unionism and idealistic peaceful foreign policies.
The Minneapolis incident, in Minnesota’s largest city, had everything to do with
the old-new divide in America; which has become more complicated after the
Covid-19 pandemic.
It is worth noting here, that President Donald Trump was elected in the autumn
of 2016, on a nationalist conservative platform, by a clear majority of the
white vote. He managed, before and after his election, to provoke the anger of
many minorities, including those who opposed his project of building a wall
along the borders with Mexico, and his restriction on immigration.
Then, when Covid-19 struck, major urban centers like New York City and Detroit,
bore the brunt, particularly, their poor African American and Hispanic (Latino)
neighborhoods; and while Democratic governors turned their attention to caring
about patients, vulnerable people and medical and public health workers,
President Trump and Republican leaders were more interested in helping the
economy and saving businesses.
On this issue, the old conflict between the power of the Center – i.e, the
federal capital Washington D.C. – and the state governments; between a rich,
white and right-wing president and the inhabitants of poor neighborhoods many of
whom are ‘minoritarians’!
Faced with this scenario, promoters of racists and white supremacists, exploited
Trump’s nationalist and protectionist policies, and took to the streets in armed
protests against the lockdown; as unemployment figures exceeded 40 million
people claiming benefits.
In Minneapolis, nationwide anger and chaos erupted when a white officer
technically ‘strangled’ with his knee an African American suspect called George
Floyd. The officer, Derek Chauvin would not ease his fatal squeeze of Floyd’s
neck despite the latter’s pleading for breath. This brutal behavior took place
not only during a tense period but also during an election year.
No doubt that ‘Chauvinism’ is dangerous, and chaotic violence is even more
dangerous. But what may be the most worrying development, would be the
possibility that dubious and adventurers may gamble on creating deeper divisions
and conflict in order to influence the results of the November elections.
America’s Great(er) Recession Will Last for Years
Noah Smith/Bloomberg/June, 12/ 2020
The National Bureau of Economic Research on Monday confirmed what everyone
already knew: The US is in a recession. But there is some good news too: the
employment situation improved a bit in May, with the unemployment rate falling
to 13.3%, from 14.7% in April.
There’s a bit of controversy about the true unemployment level -- counting
workers who are still getting paid but not actually showing up for work, the
unemployment rate was actually 19.7% in April and 16.3% in May. Many of those
workers are probably on temporary paid leave during the pandemic; this is just
what the Paycheck Protection Program was designed to encourage. But this
ambiguity doesn’t matter very much because counting these temporarily idled
workers as unemployed substantially increases the size of the May improvement.
This rapid switch from economic deterioration to recovery -- even as Covid-19
cases continue to pile up -- has raised spirits across the country. In the last
recession, employment continued to deteriorate for more than a year after the
2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers; now, things seem to be on the upswing only a
few months after the virus hit. There’s at least the glimmer of hope that the
coronavirus recession will turn out to be like the Spanish Flu of a century
before -- a ferocious onslaught followed by a quick rebound. Top macroeconomists
such as Ben Bernanke and Paul Krugman have suggested that a rapid V-shaped
recovery is a possibility.
But optimists should be cautious; May’s uptick might be just a dead-cat bounce.
State reopenings are restoring some jobs, but fear of the virus will likely
persist until treatments or a vaccine are available. That means reopenings will
only partially restore business activity.
Job gains may slow down when workers on temporarily leave all return; those who
worked for businesses that have now gone bankrupt will not be able to get their
old jobs back. Jed Kolko, an economist at job search site Indeed, estimates that
permanent unemployment is still rising. This is particularly troubling because
people who are out of work for a long time can lose their skills, connections
and work ethic, making it harder for them to find new jobs later.
So the economy may experience a V-shaped bounce, but it could be an incomplete
one; unemployment might fall more but still remain unacceptably high, then begin
a slow descent more characteristic of a U-shaped recession.
The question is how long that recovery will take. The typical culprit in slow
recoveries -- a financial crisis -- seems unlikely to happen, thanks to swift
and decisive action by the Federal Reserve. But there are other factors that
might prolong the economic pain over several years.
One of these factors is human psychology -- what economists call animal spirits.
The unprecedented speed and depth of the economic devastation from coronavirus
might create pessimism among American businesspeople, consumers, and investors
that lingers for years. Irrational fear of pandemics might long outlast this
particular disease simply because coronavirus looms so large in recent
experience.
A second long-term drag on the economy could come from structural adjustment.
The pandemic has pushed people from brick-and-mortar businesses to online
shopping; from working in offices to working remotely; and from consuming
entertainment outside to consuming at home. Those demand shifts might never
fully reverse themselves. If so, it means many retailers, restaurants and
commercial property owners will shrink or go out of business. Vendors of online
and digital goods will boom, but it will take some time for resources to shift
from the old to the new.
Structural adjustment will also happen on an international scale, as supply
chains and patterns of import demand shift. That could hit US exporters, as well
as companies that are dependent on foreign producers.
And the pain of structural changes might be worsened by what economists call
local externalities. If 50% of the storefronts on a street are shuttered, it
makes that street a less attractive place to eat, drink or shop. That can reduce
foot traffic, causing other businesses in the area to fold. Some neighborhoods
and cities may never recover from coronavirus, especially when the impact of
recent anti-police brutality protests is added in.
Finally, the recession could be prolonged by policy mistakes. There are already
are reports that Congressional Republicans plan to go slow on additional relief
measures, or even block them. That could force cash-strapped states to make
deep, damaging budget cuts, or leave many unemployed workers suddenly unable to
pay rent. Letting up on relief measures while unemployment is still higher than
at any time since the Great Depression would be a grave mistake.
So even with a partial bounce-back and no financial crisis, there are reasons
that this downturn might drag on into the mid-2020s. Policy makers should not
become complacent just because of one good month.
A Brief History of Antifa: Part I
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/June 12/2020
Empirical and anecdotal evidence shows that Antifa is, in fact, highly
networked, well-funded and has a global presence. It has a flat organizational
structure with dozens and possibly hundreds of local groups.
Antifa's stated long-term objective, both in America and abroad, is to establish
a communist world order. In the United States, Antifa's immediate aim is to
bring about the demise of the Trump administration.
A common tactic used by Antifa in the United States and Europe is to employ
extreme violence and destruction of public and private property to goad the
police into a reaction, which then "proves" Antifa's claim that the government
is "fascist."
Antifa is not only officially tolerated, but is being paid by the German
government to fight the far right. — Bettina Röhl, German journalist, Neue
Zürcher Zeitung, June 2, 2020.
"Out of cowardice, its members cover their faces and keep their names secret.
Antifa constantly threatens violence and attacks against politicians and police
officers. It promotes senseless damage to property amounting to vast sums." —
Bettina Röhl, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, June 2, 2020.
A common tactic used by Antifa in the United States and Europe is to employ
extreme violence and destruction of public and private property to goad the
police into a reaction, which then "proves" Antifa's claim that the government
is "fascist." Pictured: A senior citizen flees after being brutally beaten by
members of Rose City Antifa on June 29, 2019 in Portland, Oregon.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has blamed Antifa — a militant "anti-fascist"
movement — for the violence that has erupted at George Floyd protests across the
United States. "The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other
similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be
treated accordingly," he said.
Barr also said that the federal government has evidence that Antifa "hijacked"
legitimate protests around the country to "engage in lawlessness, violent
rioting, arson, looting of businesses, and public property assaults on law
enforcement officers and innocent people, and even the murder of a federal
agent." Earlier, U.S. President Donald J. Trump had instructed the U.S. Justice
Department to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization.
Academics and media outlets sympathetic to Antifa have argued that the group
cannot be classified as a terrorist organization because, they claim, it is a
vaguely-defined protest movement that lacks a centralized structure. Mark Bray,
a vocal apologist for Antifa in America and author of the book "Antifa: The
Anti-Fascist Handbook," asserts that Antifa "is not an overarching organization
with a chain of command."
Empirical and anecdotal evidence shows that Antifa is, in fact, highly
networked, well-funded and has a global presence. It has a flat organizational
structure with dozens and possibly hundreds of local groups. Not surprisingly,
the U.S. Department of Justice is currently investigating individuals linked to
Antifa as a step to unmasking the broader organization.
In the United States, Antifa's ideology, tactics and goals, far from being
novel, are borrowed almost entirely from Antifa groups in Europe, where
so-called anti-fascist groups, in one form or another, have been active, almost
without interruption, for a century.
What is Antifa?
Antifa can be described as a transnational insurgency movement that endeavors,
often with extreme violence, to subvert liberal democracy, with the aim of
replacing global capitalism with communism. Antifa's stated long-term objective,
both in America and abroad, is to establish a communist world order. In the
United States, Antifa's immediate aim is to bring about the demise of the Trump
administration.
Antifa's nemeses include law enforcement, which is viewed as enforcing the
established order. A common tactic used by Antifa in the United States and
Europe is to employ extreme violence and destruction of public and private
property to goad the police into a reaction, which then "proves" Antifa's claim
that the government is "fascist."
Antifa claims to oppose "fascism," a term it often uses as a broad-brush
pejorative to discredit those who hold opposing political beliefs. The
traditional meaning of "fascism" as defined by Webster's Dictionary is "a
totalitarian governmental system led by a dictator and emphasizing an aggressive
nationalism, militarism, and often racism."
Antifa holds the Marxist-Leninist definition of fascism which equates it with
capitalism. "The fight against fascism is only won when the capitalist system
has been shattered and a classless society has been achieved," according to the
German Antifa group, Antifaschistischer Aufbau München.
Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency, in a special report on left-wing
extremism, noted:
"Antifa's fight against right-wing extremists is a smokescreen. The real goal
remains the 'bourgeois-democratic state,' which, in the reading of left-wing
extremists, accepts and promotes 'fascism' as a possible form of rule and
therefore does not fight it sufficiently. Ultimately, it is argued, 'fascism' is
rooted in the social and political structures of 'capitalism.' Accordingly,
left-wing extremists, in their 'antifascist' activities, focus above all on the
elimination of the 'capitalist system.'"
Matthew Knouff, author of An Outsider's Guide to Antifa: Volume II, explained
Antifa's ideology this way:
"The basic philosophy of Antifa focuses on the battle between three basic
forces: fascism, racism and capitalism — all three of which are interrelated
according to Antifa.... with fascism being considered the final expression or
stage of capitalism, capitalism being a means to oppress, and racism being an
oppressive mechanism related to fascism."
In an essay, "What Antifa and the Original Fascists Have In Common," Antony
Mueller, a German professor of economics who currently teaches in Brazil,
described how Antifa's militant anti-capitalism masquerading as anti-fascism
reveals its own fascism:
"After the left has pocketed the concept of liberalism and turned the word into
the opposite of its original meaning, the Antifa-movement uses a false
terminology to hide its true agenda. While calling themselves 'antifascist' and
declaring fascism the enemy, the Antifa itself is a foremost fascist movement.
"The members of Antifa are not opponents to fascism but themselves its genuine
representatives. Communism, Socialism and Fascism are united by the common band
of anti-capitalism and anti-liberalism.
"The Antifa movement is a fascist movement. The enemy of this movement is not
fascism but liberty, peace and prosperity."
Antifa's Ideological Origins
The ideological origins of Antifa can be traced back to the Soviet Union roughly
a century ago. In 1921 and 1922, the Communist International (Comintern)
developed the so-called united front tactic to "unify the working masses through
agitation and organization" ... "at the international level and in each
individual country" against "capitalism" and "fascism" — two terms that often
were used interchangeably.
The world's first anti-fascist group, Arditi del Popolo (People's Courageous
Militia), was founded in Italy in June 1921 to resist the rise of Benito
Mussolini's National Fascist Party, which itself was established to prevent the
possibility of a Bolshevik revolution on the Italian Peninsula. Many of the
group's 20,000 members, consisting of communists and anarchists, later joined
the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39).
In Germany, the Communist Party of Germany established the paramilitary group
Roter Frontkämpferbund (Red Front Fighters League) in July 1924. The group was
banned due to its extreme violence. Many of its 130,000 members continued their
activities underground or in local successor organizations such as the Kampfbund
gegen den Faschismus (Fighting-Alliance Against Fascism).
In Slovenia, the militant anti-fascist movement TIGR was established in 1927 to
oppose the Italianization of Slovene ethnic areas after the collapse of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. The group, which was disbanded in 1941, specialized in
assassinating Italian police and military personnel.
In Spain, the Communist Party established the Milicias Antifascistas Obreras y
Campesinas (Antifascist Worker and Peasant Militias), which were active in the
1930s.
The modern Antifa movement derives its name from a group called
Antifaschistische Aktion, founded in May 1932 by Stalinist leaders of the
Communist Party of Germany. The group was established to fight fascists, a term
the party used to describe all of the other pro-capitalist political parties in
Germany. The primary objective of Antifaschistische Aktion was to abolish
capitalism, according to a detailed history of the group. The group, which had
more than 1,500 founding members, went underground after Nazis seized power in
1933.
A German-language pamphlet — "80 Years of Anti-Fascist Actions" (80 Jahre
Antifaschistische Aktion)" — describes in minute detail the continuous
historical thread of the Antifa movement from its ideological origins in the
1920s to the present day. The document states:
"Antifascism has always fundamentally been an anti-capitalist strategy. This is
why the symbol of the Antifaschistische Aktion has never lost its inspirational
power.... Anti-fascism is more of a strategy than an ideology."
During the post-war period, Germany's Antifa movement reappeared in various
manifestations, including the radical student protest movement of the 1960s, and
the leftist insurgency groups that were active throughout the 1970s, 1980s and
1990s.
The Red Army Faction (RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, was a Marxist
urban guerrilla group that carried out assassinations, bombings and kidnappings
aimed at bringing revolution to West Germany, which the group characterized as a
fascist holdover of the Nazi era. Over the course of three decades, the RAF
murdered more than 30 people and injured over 200.
After the collapse of the communist government in East Germany in 1989-90, it
was discovered that the RAF had been given training, shelter, and supplies by
the Stasi, the secret police of the former communist regime.
John Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University,
described the group's tactics, which are similar to those used by Antifa today:
"The goal of their terrorist campaign was to trigger an aggressive response from
the government, which group members believed would spark a broader revolutionary
movement."
RAF founder Ulrike Meinhof explained the relationship between violent left-wing
extremism and the police: "The guy in uniform is a pig, not a human being. That
means we don't have to talk to him and it is wrong to talk to these people at
all. And of course, you can shoot."
Bettina Röhl, a German journalist and daughter of Meinhof, argues that the
modern Antifa movement is a continuation of the Red Army Faction. The main
difference is that, unlike the RAF, Antifa's members are afraid to reveal their
identities. In a June 2020 essay published by the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher
Zeitung, Röhl also drew attention to the fact that Antifa is not only officially
tolerated, but is being paid by the German government to fight the far right:
"The RAF idolized the communist dictatorships in China, North Korea, North
Vietnam, in Cuba, which were transfigured by the New Left as better countries on
the right path to the best communism....
"The flourishing left-wing radicalism in the West, which brutally strikes at the
opening of the European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt, at every G-20
summit or every year on May 1 in Berlin, has achieved the highest level of
establishment in the state, not least thanks to the support by quite a few MPs
from political parties, journalists and relevant experts.
"Compared to the RAF, the militant Antifa only lacks prominent faces. Out of
cowardice, its members cover their faces and keep their names secret. Antifa
constantly threatens violence and attacks against politicians and police
officers. It promotes senseless damage to property amounting to vast sums.
Nevertheless, MP Renate Künast (Greens) recently complained in the Bundestag
that Antifa groups had not been adequately funded by the state in recent
decades. She was concerned that 'NGOs and Antifa groups do not always have to
struggle to raise money and can only conclude short-term employment contracts
from year to year.' There was applause for this from Alliance 90 / The Greens,
from the left and from SPD deputies.
"One may ask the question of whether Antifa is something like an official RAF, a
terrorist group with money from the state under the guise of 'fighting against
the right.'"
Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency explains Antifa's glorification of
violence:
"For left-wing extremists, 'Capitalism' is interpreted as triggering wars,
racism, ecological disasters, social inequality and gentrification. 'Capitalism'
is therefore more than just a mere economic order. In left-wing extremist
discourse, it determines the social and political form as well as the vision of
a radical social and political reorganization. Whether anarchist or communist:
Parliamentary democracy as a so-called bourgeois form of rule should be
'overcome' in any case.
"For this reason, left-wing extremists usually ignore or legitimize human rights
violations in socialist or communist dictatorships or in states that they
allegedly see threatened by the 'West.' To this day, both orthodox communists
and autonomous activists justify, praise and celebrate the left-wing terrorist
Red Army Faction or foreign left-wing terrorists as alleged 'liberation
movements' or even 'resistance fighters.'"
Meanwhile, in Britain, Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), a militant anti-fascist group
founded in 1985, gave birth to the Antifa movement in the United States. In
Germany, the Antifaschistische Aktion-Bundesweite Organisation (AABO) was
founded in 1992 to combine the efforts of smaller Antifa groups scattered around
the country.
In Sweden, Antifascistisk Aktion (AFA), a militant Antifa group founded in 1993,
established a three-decade track record for using extreme violence against its
opponents. In France, the Antifa group L'Action antifasciste, is known for its
fierce opposition to the State of Israel.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of communism in 1990,
the Antifa movement opened a new front against neoliberal globalization.
Attac, established in France in 1989 to promote a global tax on financial
transactions, now leads the so-called alter-globalization movement, which, like
the Global Justice Movement, is opposed to capitalism. In 1999, Attac was
present in Seattle during violent demonstrations that led to the failure of WTO
negotiations. Attac also participated in anti-capitalist demonstrations against
the G7, the G20, the WTO, and the war in Iraq. Today, the association is active
in 40 countries, with more than a thousand local groups and hundreds of
organizations supporting the network. Attac's decentralized and non-hierarchical
organizational structure appears to be the model being used by Antifa.
In February 2016, the International Committee of the Fourth International
advanced the political foundations of the global anti-war movement, which, like
Antifa, blames capitalism and neoliberal globalism for the existence of military
conflict:
"The new anti-war movement must be anti-capitalist and socialist, since there
can be no serious struggle against war except in the fight to end the
dictatorship of finance capital and the economic system that is the fundamental
cause of militarism and war."
In July 2017, more than 100,000 anti-globalization and Antifa protesters
converged on the German city of Hamburg to protest the G20 summit. Leftist mobs
laid waste to the city center. An Antifa group called "G20 Welcome to Hell"
bragged about how it was able to mobilize Antifa groups from across the world:
"The summit mobilizations have been precious moments of meeting and co-operation
of left-wing and anti-capitalist groups and networks from all over Europe and
world-wide. We have been sharing experiences and fighting together, attending
international meetings, being attacked by cops supported by the military,
re-organizing our forces and fighting back. Anti-globalization movement has
changed, but our networks endure. We are active locally in our regions, cities,
villages and forests. But we are also fighting trans-nationally."
Germany's domestic security service, in an annual report, added:
"Left-wing extremist structures tried to shift the public debate about the
violent G20 summit protests in their favor. With the distribution of photos and
reports of allegedly disproportionate police measures during the summit
protests, they promoted an image of a state that denounced legitimate protests
and put them down with police violence. Against such a state, they said,
'militant resistance' is not only legitimate, but also necessary."
*Part II of this series will examine the activities of Antifa in Germany and the
United States.
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based 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.
You Are Finished!”: Turkey’s Growing War on Christians
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/June 12/2020
Islamic terror attacks that target Christians in Turkey are not uncommon. Around
Christmas of 2011, a large-scale al-Qaeda plot to bomb “all the churches in
Ankara” was exposed.Right before Christmas 2015, ISIS issued death threats,
including “upsetting videos and pictures,” to at least 20 Protestant churches,
and warned that “Koranic commandments… urge us to slay the apostate like you.”
More spectacularly, a gunman dressed as Santa Claus entered a nightclub in
Istanbul during New Year celebrations, 2017, and massacred 39 people. A “heroic
soldier of the caliphate,” the Islamic State (“ISIS”) later claimed, “attacked
the most famous nightclub where Christians were celebrating their pagan feast.”
The statement further characterized the government of Turkey as being the
“servant of the cross.”
What to make of this? Are attacks on Christians limited to clandestine terrorist
organizations operating in Turkey, a nation which otherwise behaves as a
“servant of the cross”?
In fact, hate for Christians in once secular Turkey has come to permeate every
segment of society—from the average Muslim citizen to the highest levels of
government. The examples are many; a few follow.
In late 2019, a Muslim boy, aged 16, stabbed a Korean Christian evangelist in
the heart several times; the 41-year-old husband and father died shortly
thereafter. Months earlier, an “86-year-old Greek man was found murdered in his
home with his hands and feet tied”; he was reportedly “tortured.”
Before that, an 85-year-old Armenian woman was stabbed to death in her Istanbul
apartment. Lest anyone mistake the motive, her murderer carved a crucifix on her
naked corpse. According to the report, that “attack marks the fifth in the past
two months against elderly Armenian women (one has lost an eye).”
Perhaps most notoriously, in 2009, a group of young Turks—including the son of a
mayor—broke into a Bible publishing house in Malatya. They bound, sadistically
tortured for hours, and eventually slaughtered its three Christian employees.
“We didn’t do this for ourselves, but for our religion,” one of the accused
later said. “Let this be a lesson to enemies of our religion.” They were all
later released from prison on a technicality.
Much more common than the targeted killing of Christians—but no less
representative of the hate—are church related attacks. Most recently, on May 8,
2020, a man tried to torch a church in Istanbul; the church had been repeatedly
attacked previously, including with hate-filled graffiti.
Similarly, when a man opened fire on the Saint Maria Catholic Church in Trabzon
in 2018, it was just the latest in several attacks on that church. Weeks
earlier, a makeshift bomb was thrown at its garden; in 2016 Muslims crying
“Allahu Akbar” (Allah is greater) vandalized the church, including with
sledgehammers; in 2011 the church was targeted and threatened for its visible
cross; and in 2006 its priest, Andrea Santoro, was shot dead while conducting
church service.
Also while shouting “Allahu Akbar” and “Revenge will be taken for Al-Aqsa
Mosque,” another Muslim man hurled a Molotov cocktail at another church,
Istanbul’s Aya Triada Orthodox Church, partially setting it on fire. In another
incident, four Turks banged and kicked at the door of Agape Church in the Black
Sea region—again while shouting “Allahu Akbar!” According to the holed up
pastor, they wanted “to go inside and hit someone or attack in some other way.”
The growing brazenness of such attacks was on full display when a random gang of
Muslims disrupted a baptismal church service in Istanbul. They pushed their way
into the church, yelling obscenities; one menacingly waved a knife at those in
attendance. “It’s not the first, and it won’t be the last,” a local Christian
responded.
Threatening and/or defacing churches is especially common. In late 2019, while
shouting abuses and physical threats against Christians gathered at the Church
of St. Paul in Antalya, a man said he “would take great pleasure in destroying
the Christians, as he viewed them as a type of parasitism on Turkey.”
In early 2019, hate-filled and threatening graffiti—including “You Are
Finished!”—was found on the Armenian Church of the Holy Mother of God in
Istanbul. Commenting on it, an Armenian activist tweeted, “Every year, scores of
hate attacks are being carried out against churches and synagogues.”
One of the most alarming instances occurred in 2015: as many as 15 churches
received death threats for “denying Allah.” “Perverted infidels,” one threat
read, “the time that we will strike your necks is soon. May Allah receive the
glory and the praise.” “Threats are not anything new for the Protestant
community who live in this country and want to raise their children here,”
church leaders commented.
Rather than threaten or attack churches, Turkish authorities have the power to
simply confiscate or close them (here, here, and here, for examples). In one
instance, police, not unlike the aforementioned thugs, interrupted a baptismal
ceremony while raiding and subsequently shutting down an unauthorized church.
“Turkey does not have a pathway for legalization of churches,” the report
explained.
Other tactics are resorted to when no pretexts can be found. For example, in an
apparent attempt to conceal the online presence of at least one church,
authorities labeled it “pornographic,” and blocked it. The ban was “horrible,”
responded a church representative. “It’s a shame. It really pains us at having
this kind of accusation when we have a high moral standard.”
Even ancient churches that predate Islam by centuries—including Stoudios
monastery, the oldest Christian place of worship in Asia Minor, founded a
millennium before its Islamic conquest in the fourteenth century—are being
transformed into mosques. After explaining how the Turkish government built
nearly 9,000 mosques over one decade, while banning liturgy in the Sumela
monastery—another historic site inaugurated in 386, about a 1,000 years before
Asia Minor became “Turkey”—a report adds, “This arbitrary ban seems to be yet
another demonstration of the ‘unofficial’ second-class status of Christians in
Turkey.”
Hate for Christians in Turkey has reached the point that it pursues these
“infidels” beyond the grave: attacks on Christian cemeteries are on the rise,
prompting one frustrated Christian to ask: “Is it now the turn of our deceased?”
According to a March, 2020 report, 20 of 72 gravestones in just one Christian
cemetery in Ankara were found destroyed. In another recent instance, the
desecraters broke a cross off a deceased women’s grave; days earlier, her church
burial service was interrupted by cries of “Allahu Akbar!”
What is behind all these attacks on anything and everything Christian—people,
buildings, even graves? An “environment of hate” was the recent response of a
journalist in Turkey:
But this hateful environment did not emerge out of nowhere. The seeds of this
hatred are spread, beginning at primary schools, through books printed by the
Ministry of National Education portraying Christians as enemies and traitors.
The indoctrination continues through newspapers and television channels in line
with state policies. And of course, the sermons at mosques and talk at coffee
houses further stir up this hatred.
In other words, once “secular,” Turks are now born and bred on hating
Christians.
Interestingly, even this is not enough to prevent ISIS from accusing Turkey of
being a “servant of the cross,” which prompts an important question: Just what,
exactly, do so-called “radical” Muslims—between 63 and 287 million Muslims in
just eleven nations support ISIS—deem as the “proper” treatment of Christians?
Washington offers aid to Baghdad in exchange
for curtailing pro-Iranian factions
Hammam Latifhe Arab Weekly/June 12/2020
BAGHDAD –Informed political sources in Baghdad said the government of Iraqi
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi received indications from Washington during
the first round of strategic dialogue talks that it is willing to support a
comprehensive development campaign in Iraq in exchange for cooperation in
curbing the role of pro-Iranian militias.
The sources did not rule out the possibility that Washington is exploiting
Iraq’s urgent need for external support to overcome its salary crisis that
threatens to ignite another round of social unrest by pressuring Baghdad into
going after Iran-linked Iraqi figures accused of corruption and terrorism
The sources said the United States is looking to increase its support to Iraq,
but is wary of it falling into the wrong hands, even as there are indications
that Kadhimi’s appointment as PM is a step in the right direction.
Despite Iraqi government figures’ optimism about the first round of the US-Iraq
talks, observers warn that Washington could still introduce sanctions against
Baghdad if it is convinced it is not seriously looking to disengage from Tehran.
The Iraqi premiere said that the outcome of Iraq’s dialogue with Washington will
ultimately depend on the opinion of the religious authority and the parliament,
as well as the needs of the state. He stressed that the talks are being
conducted on the basis of mutual interests and will cover many issues, including
on security, culture, economy and trade.
Meanwhile, Iraqi political and armed groups loyal to Iran have harshly
criticised the Iraqi-American dialogue, hoping to undermine their success and
further their own interests.
Hisham Dawood, a political advisor to Kadhimi, said the Iraqi-American dialogue
sessions will continue for two days.
He said it would be “wrong to think of the United States as just a source of
weapons,” noting that “the dialogue will discuss prospects for cooperation in
the fields of economy, culture and agriculture, as well as the security and
military files.”
Just after Dawood made the remarks early Wednesday, warning sirens sounded in
the Green Zone in central Baghdad, as the US Embassy was apparently targeted by
a short-range missile.
Dawood said that “Iraq will deal with the military part of the dialogue based on
its sovereignty, and will try to bank on its distinguished relations with the
United States in all fields,” stressing that “what is happening today, is just
the beginning of a dialogue that will develop in the coming stages until it
reaches higher levels.”In a separate press conference, US Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo emphasised the importance of the “strategic dialogue” between the
United States and Iraq. He announced that his assistant for political affairs,
David Hill, will head the American delegation, which will also include
representatives from the ministries of defence, energy, treasury and other
agencies.
“With the global COVID-19 pandemic raging and plummeting oil revenues
threatening an Iraqi economic collapse, it’s important that our two governments
work together to stop any reversal of the gains we’ve made in our efforts to
defeat ISIS and stabilize the country,” Pompeo said. “All strategic issues
between our two countries will be on the agenda, including the future presence
of the United States forces in that country and how best to support an
independent and sovereign Iraq.”
Political sources in Baghdad said that the military and political escalation by
parties and militias loyal to Iran reflects Tehran’s great concern over the
US-Iraq talks.
Tehran fears that by engaging with Washington, Iraq will gain greater political
independence and could stand against pro-Iranian militias in the country.
Iraqi official military sources reported that a Katyusha rocket had hit the
Green Zone on Wednesday at dawn, with no casualties reported. The Green Zone in
Baghdad houses embassies of major countries such as the United States and the
United Kingdom, as well as the main compound for the presidency of the Iraqi
government and the offices of the House of Representatives.
Witnesses said that fire broke out after the rocket landed on a building near
the American embassy. Damages are still unknown.
This missile attack coincided with a coordinated campaign led by political
groups to pressure the Iraqi negotiator to limit the dialogue to the issue of
removing American forces from the country, a demand that tops Iran’s agenda in
the region.
“The departure of foreign troops from Iraq and respect for its national
sovereignty and supreme interests must top the files of the strategic dialogue
between Iraq and the United States,” declared the Iraqi Supreme Islamic Council,
an organisation that was established by the Iranians in the 1980s and composed
of Iraqi fighters fighting against the Iraqi army in the Iran-Iraq war.
This organization, which was accused of dominating the office of the resigned
Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and managing the affairs of state through him,
believes that the chances of a successful dialogue between Iraq and the United
States “depend on the commitment of the Iraqi negotiating delegation to the
national principles and the strategic interests of Iraq,” in a clear attempt to
question the loyalty of a number of the members of the Iraqi delegation.
The now familiar strategy of questioning the loyalty of the Iraqi team was
started by Iraqi journalists receiving funds and orders from the Islamic Radios
and Televisions Union of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, to launch a smear
campaign against members of the Iraqi negotiating delegation, accusing them of
subordination to the United States and Israel.
The Iraqi Islamic Supreme Council, headed by Shiite cleric Hammam Hammoudi,
groups some of the most prominent hawks of Shiite extremism, such as Baqir Jabr
Solagh and Jalal al-Din al-Saghir. It has been insisting that “the topic of the
departure of foreign forces” from Iraq must be “the focal point of the
negotiations” between Baghdad and Washington, although the Iraqi government has
repeatedly announced that the negotiations will cover economic and cultural
cooperation as well as other fields.
The council had argued that it was important to “include military and security
figures in the Iraqi delegation since the issue of the exit of foreign forces is
the focus of negotiations,” noting that “in the event of any failure” of the
negotiations, the government of al-Kadhemi and the members of the negotiating
delegation “will bear the responsibility of that failure before the people, the
parliament and the executive branch.”
In conjunction with the council’s statement, Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the
so-called Alliance of Conquest, the largest gathering of political
representatives from the pro-Iranian Shiite militias in the parliament of Iraq,
called on members of his country’s delegation to “bear in mind the vote by the
Iraqi House of Representatives requiring the departure of foreign forces from
Iraq and the achievement of full national sovereignty.”
Al-Amiri warned that any “negligence, delay or failure, God forbid, will be a
stigma of disappointment and setback in the history of the negotiating
delegation and the history of Iraq.” “You’ll be bearing the blame of that
failure forever, and we do not wish that for you,” he told the delegation.
An Iraqi official said that the Iraqi side does not have details about the
number of American troops in Iraq, but “the US proposal mentions reducing the
number of these troops.”
Nevertheless, this significant reduction appears to be highly unlikely, as the
jihadist threat still exists in Iraq and the region, as also seen by other
coalition countries that are not party to the US-Iraqi dialogue.
On the eve of the strategic dialogue between the two governments, General
Kenneth McKenzie, commander of the US Central Command in the Middle East,
expected that the Iraqi government would ask to keep an American military
presence in the country to combat ISIS. “I think the government of Iraq will ask
to keep American and coalition forces,” he said at an online seminar organised
by a studies centre in Washington.
“As you know, from my point of view, we are in Iraq to accomplish the task of
defeating ISIS and to support Iraq in the accomplishment of that task and
achieve a final victory over it,” he added.
Amid increasing speculations about the outcomes of the dialogue, Robert Ford of
the Middle East Institute considered that “the entire US-Iraqi relationship will
not be redefined overnight.”
A former US diplomat who had participated in the last US-Iraq “strategic
dialogue” of 2008, Ford added that “For the first time there are the right
people in the right place at the right time.”
In the long term, the strategic dialogue can secure contracts for US companies
in the areas of construction and energy and encourage aid from the Gulf or the
World Bank. But Ford asserts that “Washington cannot give money, but it can only
offer not to apply its sanctions” that may deprive Iraq of its Iranian energy
supplier, and that “does not solve Kadhimi’s top problem.”