English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese
Related, Global News & Editorials
For June 15/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.june15.20.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me,
‘Where are you going
John 16/05-11/ But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you
asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you,
sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your
advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to
you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the
world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because
they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father,
and you will see me no longer;1 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this
world is judged.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 14-15/2020
Before and after/Dr. Walid Phares/June 14/2020
Lebanese Political Science Professor Sadek Al-Naboulsi: U.S. Attempts To Crack
Down On So-Called Smuggling Between Syria And Lebanon, Harm The Passage Of
Hizbullah Fighters, Weapons; Hizbullah Refuses To Be Smothered/MEMRI/June
14/2020
Lebanon Records Only Four New Coronavirus Cases
Businessman, Alex Nain Saab close to Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro & Hezbollah
arrested in Cape Verde
Hezbollah’s thugs wreak havoc in downtown Beirut as police watches
Report: Berri's Huge Efforts Stopped Aoun, Diab from Firing Salameh
120 Injured in Tripoli as New Clashes, Protests Rock Lebanon
Fresh Protests Call on Government to Resign amid Crisis
Geagea Slams Vandalization, Ashrafieh MPs Warn Scooter 'Provocateurs'
Fahmi Ends Odd-Even Regime for Movement of Vehicles
Al-Rahi Lashes Out at 'Vandals' and Parties 'Hiding behind Them'
Report: Berri's Huge Efforts Stopped Aoun, Diab from Firing Salameh
Activists block Dahr Al-Baydar Highway to protest security checkpoint inspection
procedures
Demonstrators gather in Martyrs Square: Our actions are not directed against any
sect, but against corruption, sectarianism
Lebanese Army: Hostages freed in Brital, one kidnapper arrested, another killed
Najem requests tracking down those behind rumors of dollar loss, high exchange
rate
Qatisha: Saving the state's finances is not by pumping dollars and transporting
them outside the borders
Hariri: Blocking aids to our brethrens lies not among the values of our people
in the North
Interior Minister cancels vehicles plate number restrictions
Amal, Hezbollah leaders in Bekaa discuss developmental, security affairs in the
presence of Hassan, Mortada
Why Lebanon’s electricity crisis is so hard to fix/Leila Hatoum/Arab News/June
14/2020
The murderous price of Lebanon's sectarianism/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/June
14/2020
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
June 14-15/2020
Pope Calls for World to Push for End to Libya Violence
Rockets Hit Iraqi Base North of Baghdad
Putin Condemns 'Mayhem and Rioting' at U.S. Anti-Racism Protests
Iran Daily Virus Deaths Exceed 100 for First Time in 2 Months
Delhi Coronavirus Fears Mount as Hospital Beds Run Out
New details on Iran’s drones as UN confirms Tehran’s role in Saudi attack
Twitter takes down Turkey’s ‘fake and compromised’ accounts
Iraq has ‘several’ plans to overcome economic, political challenges: PM
The Syrian regime forced prisoners to torture each other, says activist
Putin Boasts Russia Dealing Better with Virus than U.S.
Disinfecting Non-Stop' as Italy Faces Two New Virus Outbreaks
Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published on June 14-15/2020
Copts Crucified: Trump Remembers Egypt’s Persecuted Christian
Minority/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/June 14/2020
Religious Responses to Coronavirus/Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/June 14/
2020
Coronavirus: Central banks must lend directly to business, or risk economic
collapse/Omar Al-Ubaydli/Al Arabiya/Sunday 14 June 2020
E3 must extend Iran’s arms embargo for global security/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab
News/June 14/2020
Republican plan to tackle Iran should be welcomed/Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri/Arab
News/June 14/2020
Plan to withdraw US troops from Europe a mistake/Luke Coffey/Arab News/June
14/2020
Changes afoot for Middle East’s Kurds/Yasar Yakis/Arab News/June 14/2020
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News &
Editorials published
on June 14-15/2020
Before and after
Dr. Walid Phares/June 14/2020
Before 1975, politicians hesitated between enjoying the prosperity and the peace
of the country or taking action to stop the military organizations from
destabilizing and taking over.
Today, the situation is in reverse. The militias have already taken over, they
have already destroyed the country's economy and prosperity. And if no serious
action is taken, what was there before 1975 may never be seen again.
Lebanese Political Science Professor Sadek Al-Naboulsi:
U.S. Attempts To Crack Down On So-Called Smuggling Between Syria And Lebanon,
Harm The Passage Of Hizbullah Fighters, Weapons; Hizbullah Refuses To Be
Smothered
MEMRI/June 14/2020
Lebanese political science professor Sadek Al-Naboulsi, who is affiliated with
Hizubllah, said in a May 27, 2020 interview on OTV (Lebanon) that if Israel
launches a war against Hizbullah because it thinks Hizbullah is weak, Israel
will be destroyed. He also said that Hizbullah will intervene in any attempt to
harm the resistance, referring specifically to the American "fuss" surrounding
the border crossings between Lebanon and Syria, which he said is an attempt to
smother Hizbullah under the pretext of cracking down on smuggling. Al-Naboulsi
said that Hizbullah cannot remain silent about foreign control of these border
crossings, since the passage of weapons and fighters between Syria and Lebanon
is important to it. In addition, Al-Naboulsi said that Hizbullah has strong
relations with the Lebanese army, that their cooperation has limits meant to
prevent harming the interests and sovereignty of Lebanon, and that the Americans
are deluding themselves if they think they can pit the Lebanese army against
Hizbullah.
Click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV
https://www.memri.org/tv/lebanese-academic-sadek-naboulsi-hizbullah-destroy-israel-border-crossings-smuggling-weapons-fighters
Sadek Al-Naboulsi: "Hizbullah will not agree to be smothered, under economic or
social pretexts."
Host: "What will it do?"
Al-Naboulsi: "Let me give you an example. One of the main goals of what has
happened in Syria was to besiege the resistance, but Hizbullah took the
initiative, crossed into Syrian soil, confronted the terrorists, and made the
achievements that we are all familiar with. In other words, Hizbullah did not
wait for the others to smother it.
"If the Israelis think that Hizbullah is weak now, or if they plan to take
advantage of the economic crisis to launch a war on their own terms, then they
are deluding themselves.
"Hizbullah will turn this challenge into a real opportunity to accomplish what
all the Arabs have failed to achieve - the destruction of Israel. The
Secretary-General [Nasrallah] said yesterday that the price for any future
all-out war will be the destruction of Israel.
"When it comes to harming the security and strength of the resistance, Hizbullah
will intervene. Even the land border crossings, about which the Americans are
making a fuss now... They want to establish border brigades. They provide
assistance and brought the British and other countries to monitor the borders.
They do not do it for the sake of the Lebanese or in order to prevent the
smuggling, which constitutes only 10% and does not harm the Lebanese economy. If
it does harm [the economy], the harm is partial. This is not the problem. The
problem is that someone wants to smother Syria and the resistance by closing
down the land border crossings. This is a very important point that all Lebanese
people need to understand.
"Some would say that the smuggling prevention will smother the resistance.
Preventing the crossing of resistance fighters into Syria and the transfer of
weapons from Syria to Lebanon will not naturally [harm the resistance]. This is
not something one can remain silent about. If things get to the point... And I
don't think that they will. The Americans will not be able to force the Lebanese
army to implement their agenda or the agenda of Israel. There are strong
relations between Hizbullah and the Lebanese army. There is complete
coordination and each side knows its limits, and how to refrain from harming
Lebanon's interests and sovereignty. Today, the army is closing some crossings
where there is real smuggling, which, perhaps, harms the agriculture sector. But
if the Americans think that they can pit the army against Hizbullah on the issue
of the border crossings, they are deluding themselves. Hizbullah will not allow
it. After all the blood it has shed in Syria and all the sacrifices it has made
there in an effort to prevent the closing of the borders - some Americans, along
with some Lebanese, will come along and close the borders, under the pretext
that there is some smuggling activity there? Go to the ports. There is plenty of
smuggling there."
Lebanon Records Only Four New Coronavirus Cases
Naharnet/June 14/2020
Lebanon confirmed only four COVID-19 coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, a
drop from twenty daily cases recorded on Saturday.
A statement issued by the Health Ministry said two of the infected individuals
are residents and the other two are repatriated expats. It said the two local
cases have been traced to known sources. According to the Ministry, 885 PCR
tests were carried out over the past 24 hours. The new cases -- which were
recorded in Kahhale, Mreijat and Qana -- raise the country’s tally to 1,446.
Businessman, Alex Nain Saab close to Venezuela's Nicolás
Maduro & Hezbollah arrested in Cape Verde
BBC/June 14/2020
Cape Verde authorities have arrested a businessman accused by the US of corrupt
dealings with the government of Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro. Alex Nain
Saab, who is Colombian, was indicted by the US justice department for money
laundering last July. The 48-year-old was detained on Friday on an Interpol "red
notice" stemming from the indictment. Mr Saab was reportedly travelling to Iran
on a Venezuelan plane and had stopped in Cape Verde to refuel. His lawyer in the
US, María Domínguez, confirmed the arrest, but declined to comment. Mr Saab is
accused by the US government of serving as President Maduro's front man in a
large network of money laundering and corruption. He is accused of making large
amounts of money from overvalued contracts, as well as Venezuela's systems of
government-set exchange rate and centralized import and distribution of basic
foods.
Venezuela has faced chronic shortages of food and medicine as a result of years
of political and economic crisis. "Saab engaged with Maduro insiders to run a
wide-scale corruption network they callously used to exploit Venezuela's
starving population," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said when the
sanctions were announced. "They use food as a form of social control, to reward
political supporters and punish opponents, all the while pocketing hundreds of
millions of dollars through a number of fraudulent schemes." Media captionFrom
2018: Families have resorted to eating rotten meat in Zulia state Mr Saab was
also wanted for money laundering in his native Colombia, where he is regarded as
a fugitive from justice.Washington has long accused the President Maduro of
leading a corrupt regime in Venezuela - a charge he has repeatedly rejected.
In March, the US charged him and other senior officials in the country with "narco-terrorism".The
Trump administration backs Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who
declared himself interim president last year.
Hezbollah’s thugs wreak havoc in downtown Beirut as police
watches
The Arab Weekly/June 14/2020
BEIRUT –Lebanese political circles said that the word “unbelievable” would be
best suited to describe the state of the Beirut Central District on Saturday
morning.
And indeed, one could distinctly read that reaction on the face of every citizen
or official who came to inspect the tremendous damage in the area.
Nothing was spared by Hezbollah’s goons and thugs who ransacked and burned
everything on their path on Friday evening amid a curious absence of the
security forces and the army.
Political circles confirmed that the destruction of central Beirut carries real
fears of a coming Sunni-Shia strife, given that the Sunnis in Lebanon consider
that area of Beirut as symbolising them.
Thee circles wondered what prompted Hezbollah to take the step of participating
in burning shops in downtown Beirut. Was this part of an escalation campaign
aimed at completing its control over all Lebanese institutions and facilities,
including Beirut?
These circles pointed out that such questions were raised in the wake of the
riots and acts of vandalism witnessed in the centre of the capital, part of
which turned into a disaster zone following the systematic destruction of shops
and businesses by extremist Sunni elements who seemed to have come for that
purpose from northern Lebanon and the Beqaa, and by Hezbollah groups as well.
Among the many hypotheses and questions raised was one theory related to
Hezbollah’s belief that the riots in downtown Beirut would compel the Governor
of the Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salamé, to release US dollars in the market in
order to support the collapsed Lebanese currency on the one hand, and present
the party with the chance of collecting and shipping a portion of these dollars
to Syria on the other hand.
The same circles noted that Hezbollah took the utmost advantage of the cover
provided by the acts of sabotage perpetrated by radical Sunni elements along
with others belonging to the Lebanese Communist Party and unleashed its own
thugs for further destruction and arson in downtown Beirut, which led to
transforming one whole large building in the area called Lazariyya Building into
a real battlefield, in a blatant absence of security and army units.
The circles stated that the reaction of the security forces and the army was a
complete mystery. They just stood idly by as the riots continued to rage. So,
everybody started wondering if their passivity had anything to do with the prime
minister’s refusal to show any objection to Hezbollah’s actions, proving once
again that he owes the party his access to his position.
A Lebanese politician quipped that Hezbollah, which has several ministers in
Hassan Diab’s cabinet, “has become the ruling authority and the opposition at
the same time.” He indicated that, thanks to transforming itself into the only
force capable of holding all of the threads of politics, economy and money in
Lebanon, it wanted to show everyone that the country has become its own to do
with as it pleases, and that it (Lebanon) has become part of the
Iranian-American confrontation, plus the recent American-Syrian confrontation, a
confrontation that escalated with the approaching implementation of the Caesar
Act on June 17. Caesar Act allows the United States to impose severe penalties
on the Syrian regime and on anyone who establishes any type of political or
commercial relationship with it.
The devastation caused to Beirut provoked angry reactions from different sects.
Walid Jumblatt, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, called it a violation
of Beirut.
On Saturday, former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri toured central Beirut, noting
the extent of the damage to the shops, while meeting citizens and uttering
“Shame, shame!”
For his part, Nihad Machnouk, former Minister of Interior, said that Beirut has
its defenders and will not allow the coalition of those who hate it go scot
free, urging all Lebanese to defend their capital.
Machnouk launched a sharp attack on what he called the “Motorcycle Alliance”,
which “suddenly remembered that they were poor and hungry, and act under direct
instructions from their leadership, with a specific destructive agenda and goals
that have nothing to do with the revolution, neither from near nor from
afar.”Hundreds of Lebanese took to the streets on the night between Thursday and
Friday in Tripoli and Akkar in the north, Sidon and Tyre in the south, in the
Bekaa in the east, and in Beirut. They burned tires and garbage containers, cut
off main and secondary roads, and chanted anti- Hassan Diab government slogans.
The operations room of the Emergency and Relief Agency (non-governmental) said
in a statement that 49 people, including 6 soldiers, were injured in the
standoffs between the protesters and the army forces on Friday evening. The
injuries varied between wounds, bruises, and suffocation caused by inhaling tear
gas. As he opened a government emergency meeting at the presidential palace,
President Michel Aoun said “We have reached a measure that will be implemented
next Monday based on having the Bank of Lebanon provide the market with dollars,
and it is expected that this measure will gradually bring down its exchange
rate.”
According to statements published on the presidency’s Twitter account, President
Aoun quoted assertions by financial experts that “it is not possible for the
price of the dollar or any other currency to jump this high within just hours,
which therefore excludes the spontaneous character of the phenomenon and points
to the existence of a deliberate scheme that we have to come together to
confront.” The Cabinet asked the security services to “severely crack down on
all violations and refer them immediately to the competent judicial references,”
coinciding with the announcement by the General Security Services of the arrest
of five black market money dealers. In the Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Diab
said that the country “can no longer tolerate additional crises (…), and it has
become imperative to take practical measures that give greater immunity to the
government and the state.”
On Friday, Aoun held a meeting that included Diab and Parliament Speaker Nabih
Berri, and the latter announced an agreement to bring down the exchange rate of
the dollar to less than four thousand liras.
Report: Berri's Huge Efforts Stopped Aoun, Diab from Firing
Salameh
Naharnet/June 14/2020
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri exerted major efforts prior to Friday’s two
cabinet sessions to prevent President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab
from sacking Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh in connection with the dramatic
currency crash, reports said.
Parliamentary and ministerial sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks
published Sunday that Berri had flown from Msayleh to Baabda in an army
helicopter to take part in a meeting with Aoun and Diab that preceded the second
cabinet session. “He had spent Thursday night communicating with all the
involved parties to block the insistence of the president and the PM -- and
through them Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil -- from ousting Salameh,”
the sources said. “Berri did not sleep before managing to stop the firing of
Salameh and removing his sacking from the agendas of the two cabinet sessions,”
added the sources. “The shelving of Salameh’s removal encouraged Berri to move
from Msayleh to Baabda in search of exits to halt the deterioration of the lira
exchange rate,” the sources went on to say.
120 Injured in Tripoli as New Clashes, Protests Rock
Lebanon
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 14/2020
Hundreds of demonstrators angered by a deepening economic crisis rallied
Saturday across Lebanon for a third consecutive day, after violent overnight
riots sparked condemnation from the political elite. Protesting against the
surging cost of living and the government's apparent impotence in the face of
Lebanon's worst economic turmoil since the 1975-1990 civil war, protesters in
central Beirut brandished flags and chanted anti-government slogans. "We are
here to demand the formation of a new transitional government" and early
parliamentary elections, Nehmat Badreddine, an activist and demonstrator told
AFP near the Grand Serail seat of government. In the northern city of Tripoli,
young men scuffled with security forces, who fired rubber bullets to disperse
crowds. The clashes there left more than 120 people injured, according to
figures released by the Red Cross and local medical services.
The stand-off began after young men blocked a highway to prevent a number of
trucks carrying produce destined for Syria from passing through, according to
the official National News Agency. The World Food Program issued a statement to
say that it had sent a convoy of 39 truckloads of food aid to Syria.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab in a speech condemned Friday night's violence and
what he termed efforts to mount a "coup" against the government and "manipulate"
the value of the Lebanese pound. "The state and the people are being subjected
to blackmail," he said, vowing to defeat corruption in the country.
Lebanon is caught in a spiraling economic crisis, including a rapid devaluation
of the Lebanese pound, which has triggered a fresh wave of demonstrations since
Thursday. Local media said the exchange rate had tumbled to 6,000 Lebanese
pounds per dollar on the black market at one point Friday, compared to the
official peg of 1,507 in place since 1997.
Symbolic funeral
In Martyrs' Square, the epicenter of protests in downtown Beirut, demonstrators
dressed in black and with their faces whitened carried a coffin draped with the
Lebanese flag in a symbolic funeral Saturday for their crisis-ridden country.
President Michel Aoun has announced that the central bank will implement
measures from Monday including "feeding dollars into the market," in a bid to
support the Lebanese pound. People also took to the streets in the cities of
Sidon and Kfar Rumman, in the south, to denounce the economic crisis.
Diab called on officials to assess damage in central Beirut. Former premier Saad
Hariri toured the area, condemning vandalism and riots. Interior Minister
Mohammed Fahmi said security forces would find those responsible for damaging
property in the capital. Lebanon -- one of the most indebted countries in the
world, with a sovereign debt of more than 170 percent of GDP -- went into
default in March. It started talks with the International Monetary Fund last
month in a bid to unlock billions of dollars in financial aid. Dialogue is
ongoing. Unemployment has soared to 35 percent nationwide. The country enforced
a lockdown in mid-March to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, dealing a
further blow to businesses.
Fresh Protests Call on Government to Resign amid Crisis
Associated Press/Naharnet/June 14/2020
Lebanese protesters took to the streets in Beirut and other cities Saturday in
mostly peaceful protests against the government, calling for its resignation as
the small country sinks deeper into economic distress. The protests come after
two days of rallies spurred by a dramatic collapse of the local currency against
the dollar. Those rallies degenerated into violence, including attacks on
private banks and shops. The local currency, pegged to the dollar for nearly 30
years, has been on a downward trajectory for weeks, losing over 60% of its
value. But the dramatic collapse this week deepened public despair over the
already troubled economy. Lebanon is heavily dependent on imports and the dollar
and local currency have been used interchangeably for years. The unrivaled
economic and financial crises are proving a major challenge to the government of
Prime Minister Hassan Diab, who took office earlier this year after his
predecessor resigned amid nationwide protests. Diab was faced with handling the
coronavirus pandemic soon after taking office. Lebanon's financial problems
predate the coronavirus pandemic, which put the country in lockdown for months,
further compounding the crisis. Diab's government is supported by the powerful
Hizbullah group and its allies, but has already been weakened by the economic
crisis. He was due to address the nation later Saturday. For the protesters
Saturday, many of them members of organized political parties, Diab's government
has failed to handle the crisis. Neemat Badreddin, a political activist,
described the government as captive to the interests of political groups and not
the public.
"This current government proved to be a failure," said Badreddin, wearing a face
mask featuring the Lebanese flag with its green cedar tree in the center. "We
want a new government ... we want stability and we want to be able to live
without begging or without people having to migrate."
Protesters in Beirut carried a banner that read "There is an alternative."In the
southern city of Sidon, some directed their wrath at the central bank governor.
One protester raised a banner called him the "protector of all thieves in
Lebanon."In the northern city of Tripoli, army troops forcefully dispersed
dozens of protesters who had blocked the road preventing trucks from moving
forward, according to videos posted online. The protesters allege the trucks
were smuggling goods to Syria — a common complaint in Lebanon as the neighboring
country grapples with its own economic hardships.
After an emergency Cabinet meeting Friday to address the crisis, the government
announced that the central bank would inject fresh dollars into the market to
prop up the Lebanese pound — a measure that many everyday Lebanese and
government critics say is likely to offer only temporary relief.
The dollar shortage, coupled with already negative economic growth, has crunched
Lebanon's middle class and increased poverty in the small Mediterranean nation
of over five million that's home to over 1 million Syrian refugees.
The heavily indebted 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.
Geagea Slams Vandalization, Ashrafieh MPs Warn Scooter
'Provocateurs'
Naharnet/June 14/2020
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Sunday accused the government of
negligence towards the rioting that central Beirut had witnessed in recent days.
“As much as we as Lebanese cling to freedom of opinion and expression, we also
cling to public order, public safety and the preservation of public and private
property,” Geagea said in a tweet. “Can the government tell us why it did not
give the necessary instructions to the army and Internal Security Forces to
intervene immediately when the vandalization of the capital and public and
private property started?” the LF leader asked. LF lawmaker Imad Wakim meanwhile
said “the systematic and deplorable vandalization, destruction, firebombing and
motorcycle raids in downtown Beirut require an urgent meeting for Beirut’s MPs,
in order to take a stern, cautionary and firm stance.”“The capital has its
people and residents and we won’t tolerate this violation,” Wakim added. Wakim
and Ashrafieh MPs Nadim Gemayel and Jean Talouzian meanwhile issued a joint
statement decrying that “the neighborhoods of the capital Beirut have recently
witnessed provocative shows of force, rioting and unjustifiable attacks on
public and private property that shook civil peace and harmed the revolution and
its goals and sons.”“We as the MPs of Beirut’s first district cling to the
Lebanese Army and security forces as the sole guarantee for preserving security
and stability and protecting citizens’ properties, and we will be behind these
forces,” the statement added. They also warned “some of those exploiting the
revolution with the aim of attacking and insulting the sanctity of regions and
neighborhoods” that Ashrafieh “has been and will always be the pillar of the
Lebanese resistance” and that its residents “will be vigilant for any attempt to
tamper with its security wherever it may come from.”
Fahmi Ends Odd-Even Regime for Movement of Vehicles
Naharnet/June 14/2020
Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi on Sunday issued a memo ending the odd-even
rule for the movement of vehicles, which has been in place since April 7 as part
of the so-called state of general mobilization over the coronavirus pandemic.
The rule had rationed the movement of vehicles with those whose license plates
end in an odd digit allowed on the streets for three days a week and those who
plates end in an even digit allowed to move for the three other days. The system
had barred both categories of vehicles from moving on Sundays. The rule had
exempted the vehicles of the armed forces, medical crews, diplomatic corps,
media outlets, delivery services and essential services. Fahmi meanwhile issued
another memo upholding the 12am-5am nighttime curfew and the full closure of
amusement parks, public parks, kids zones, nightclubs, video game centers,
theaters, cinemas and social event venues and halls.
Al-Rahi Lashes Out at 'Vandals' and Parties 'Hiding behind
Them'
Naharnet/June 14/2020
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday said “vandals”, “suspicious
protesters” and “saboteurs” have infiltrated the anti-government protests. “We
will not allow anyone to destroy the civilized Lebanese state and we are
supporting the government for a single objective, which is that it heed the
voice of the people who want a government that carries out the reforms that are
demanded domestically and internationally,” said al-Rahi in his Sunday Mass
sermon. “You who are hiding behind suspicious vandals to tarnish the face of the
legitimate revolution, stop planting suspicious protesters,” al-Rahi added,
addressing unnamed political parties. “We call on the State to confront those
saboteurs and end their deeds to prevent the security situation from descending
into strife,” the patriarch urged. He also called on political officials to end
their “distribution of shares and clientelism” as well as their “violation of
the law and justice and theft of public funds.”
Report: Berri's Huge Efforts Stopped Aoun, Diab from Firing
Salameh
Naharnet/June 14/2020
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri exerted major efforts prior to Friday’s two
cabinet sessions to prevent President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab
from sacking Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh in connection with the dramatic
currency crash, reports said. Parliamentary and ministerial sources told Asharq
al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published Sunday that Berri had flown from Msayleh
to Baabda in an army helicopter to take part in a meeting with Aoun and Diab
that preceded the second cabinet session. “He had spent Thursday night
communicating with all the involved parties to block the insistence of the
president and the PM -- and through them Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran
Bassil -- from ousting Salameh,” the sources said. “Berri did not sleep before
managing to stop the firing of Salameh and removing his sacking from the agendas
of the two cabinet sessions,” added the sources. “The shelving of Salameh’s
removal encouraged Berri to move from Msayleh to Baabda in search of exits to
halt the deterioration of the lira exchange rate,” the sources went on to say.
Activists block Dahr Al-Baydar Highway to protest security
checkpoint inspection procedures
NNA/June 14/2020
Activists from the people's movement in the Bekaa staged a sit-in at the
Internal Security Forces' checkpoint in Dahr Al-Baydar this afternoon,
cutting-off the Beirut-Bekaa international highway in both directions, in
protest against the checkpoint's routine procedures in examining personal
identity documents and searching passengers in vans while on their way to
joining the civil movement in Beirut, NNA correspondent reported.
Demonstrators gather in Martyrs Square: Our actions are not
directed against any sect, but against corruption, sectarianism
NNA/June 14/2020
Protesters of the October 17 Movement gathered in Martyrs' Square this evening,
under the headline "Lebanese Against Sectarianism", where participants raised
the Lebanese flags and banners calling for "the fall of the corruption system in
all its branches", amid a heavy presence of security and anti-riot forces.
Families of prisoners and convicts from Baalbek also participated in the
demonstration, holding banners calling for the approval of the General Amnesty
Law, "and not an unjust special amnesty".
NNA's correspondent pointed to a number of separate clashes the occurred between
the demonstrators and a group of young men, which quickly expanded and moved
from one place to another across Martyrs Square, as new groups joined, but the
organizers worked to calm them down.
A number of protesters spoke about their moves, affirming that their actions
"are against corruption and the corrupt, and against sectarianism and this
ruling class, which has publicly and shamelessly shared corruption," while
stressing that their movements "are not directed against any sect or
confessional side, because we are all Lebanese, and hunger, medication, price
hikes and unemployment impact us all.""There are those who are working to
demonize the revolution ever since its beginning on October 17" demonstrators
indicated, calling for "unity and solidarity from all sects and regions."
Lebanese Army: Hostages freed in Brital, one kidnapper
arrested, another killed
NNA/June 14/2020
The Lebanese Army Command - Orientation Directorate issued a communiqué on
Sunday, in which it indicated that following information made available to the
Intelligence Directorate about the kidnapping of a number of persons by an armed
gang as hostages for a financial ransom in the town of Brital, a special Army
force raided two different places in the town, where it was able to liberate 23
hostages, including women and children of Syrian nationality who were kidnapped
for 15 days, and who are in good health. The communiqué indicated that the Army
force came under fire during the raid, whereby one of the kidnappers of Syrian
nationality was wounded, while another kidnapper of Lebanese nationality was
arrested. The injured Syrian kidnapper was taken to hospital for treatment,
where he soon died.Meanwhile, an investigation is underway with the Lebanese
detainee, under the supervision of the concerned judiciary.
Najem requests tracking down those behind rumors of dollar
loss, high exchange rate
NNA/June 14/2020
Minister of Justice, Marie Claude Najem, addressed a letter to the
Discriminatory Attorney General, Judge Ghassan Aouidat, in which she called for
taking the right action against whoever necessary, following news circulated via
social media that undermines the national currency and points to the loss of the
US dollar from the market and the rise in its exchange rate to 7000 against the
Lebanese Lira. This has created confusion, panic, and manipulation of the value
of the Lira, the exploitation of citizens, as well as the increase in the prices
of basic commodities, Najem indicated.
Qatisha: Saving the state's finances is not by pumping
dollars and transporting them outside the borders
NNA/June 14/2020
Member of the "Strong Republic" Parliamentary Bloc, MP Wehbe Qatisha, said in a
statement on Sunday that "the measures adopted by the government to reform the
financial situation are similar to the sedative drugs that lack
validity."Qatisha deemed that "saving the state's finances actually begins with
preserving its finances, which are being violated via the land borders, in the
port, in the electricity, tele-communications and casino dossiers, and with the
law enforcement to ensure justice among the Lebanese, instead of pumping the
remaining dollars in the Central Bank's reserves into the trading market, to be
purchased by some identity dealers and taken outside the borders.""Are you in
power to save Lebanon and protect its people, or to save the Syrian regime?" he
questioned, addressing the people in authority. "Be Lebanese first, before the
temple falls on everyone's head!" Qatisha warned.
Hariri: Blocking aids to our brethrens lies not among the
values of our people in the North
NNA/June 14/2020
In a series of tweets on Sunday, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, said: "It is
the right of any citizen suffering from the extreme price hikes and loss of food
items, to perceive the queue of trucks loaded with aids heading to Syria as part
of the daily smuggling series in light of the loose borders and lack of
confidence in the state's actions. However, this right ceases at the limits of
national and fraternal responsibility towards the aids that the United Nations
is transporting to the Syrian interior through Beirut's Port, and none of the
people of Tripoli, Beddawi, Minnieh, and others, can prevent aids from reaching
the Syrian brothers who suffer from the regime's bitterness."He added: "Things
have become clear after the World Food Program's statement, and blocking the way
in face of helping brethrens is not a feature of our people in the North...But
our fear and their fear is that the geniuses of the mandate and government will
take us to a day when the Lebanese will await the arrival of the World Food
Program trucks!"
"As for the army, it remains the sanctuary of the Lebanese for their safety and
their right to peaceful expression," confirmed Hariri.
Interior Minister cancels vehicles plate number
restrictions
NNA/June 14/2020
Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Brigadier Mohamed Fahmy, issued a
memorandum on Sunday, announcing the cancellation of restrictions on the
movement of cars, vehicles and motorcycles according to their plate numbers.
Amal, Hezbollah leaders in Bekaa discuss developmental,
security affairs in the presence of Hassan, Mortada
NNA/June 14/2020
Leaders of "Amal" Movement and "Hezbollah" in the Bekaa held a joint meeting at
the Movement's center in Baalbek on Sunday, during which discussions tackled the
overall developmental, services and security conditions prevailing in the
region. Attending the meeting were Ministers of Agriculture and Culture Abbas
Mortada, and Public Health Hamad Hassan, alongside MP's Hussein Hajj Hassan,
Ghazi Zeaiter, Ali Mokdad, Ihab Hamadeh, Walid Sekarieh, and Anwar Joumaa, and
various prominent figures and representatives from the region.In his word during
the meeting, MP Hajj Hassan considered that the deteriorating security
status in the Bekaa in general, and in Baalbek-Hermel in particular, is not a
new thing, due to the state's failure to assume its responsibilities towards
this region despite all political, partisan, popular, and media calls.
"Therefore, the leaders of Amal and Hezbollah in the Bekaa, and the cabinet
ministers and deputies of the Baalbek and Bekaa regions, appeal to the state
with all its political and security institutions, to tend to its duties in
dealing with the deteriorating security conditions, especially in light of the
tight economic circumstances that are pressuring the lives of citizens, who are
suffering from high consumer prices and unemployment," Hajj Hassan explained. He
added that the conferees during today's meeting affirmed that security is the
responsibility of the state, and that, through its shortcomings, it is pushing
citizens to options and steps they do not want. Hence, agreement was reached to
intensify contacts and political, popular, partisan and media meetings, "to
press towards a more serious and effective treatment and solution in this
respect."In turn, MP Zeaiter highlighted the need for the Finance Ministry to
transfer the various municipality funds the soonest possible, since they are
urgently needed in light of the difficult social, monetary and economic
circumstances and the Corona pandemic in the country.
Why Lebanon’s electricity crisis is so hard to fix
Leila Hatoum/Arab News/June 14/2020
BEIRUT: It is two in the afternoon and Verdun Street, one of Beirut’s upscale
neighborhoods, is doubly lit up — by the midday sun and by street lights.
“Look at the street lamps shining brightly in the middle of the day while most
areas suffer from power outages,” Fatima Hachem, 29, a local resident, told Arab
News. The incongruity of the scene — street lights kept unnecessarily on during
daylight hours — is unmistakable in a country where residents get between three
and 12 hours of electricity a day depending on the locality.
Such systemic inefficiencies are all the more glaring at a time when Lebanon is
seeking a $10 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Given its disproportionate contribution to Lebanon’s public debt, the urgency of
an overhaul of the electricity sector cannot be overstated.
“Electricity reform is one of the key steps to re-equilibrate the economy,” an
IMF official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arab News.
“We will see it as an emblematic and major improvement.”
The official added that, without reforms, “there would be no loan program.”
As a first step, the IMF has asked Lebanon to audit its national electricity
company, known as Electricite du Liban (EDL). Loss estimates should note “not
only the changes in price of fuel oil, but also the change in the exchange
rate,” it said. In recent months, the purchasing power of the Lebanese
population has eroded, with the currency losing two-thirds of its value,
dropping to LBP4,000 from LBP1,515 to the US dollar.
“At the moment, the Lebanese government links increasing tariffs on electricity
to the increase in power generation, while the IMF believes that those two
should not be tied. Also, eliminating electricity subsidies is the most
significant potential expenditure saving,” the IMF official said.
To generate fiscal savings, it is imperative the Lebanese government increases
tariffs as soon as possible, they said.
However, this would mean raising electricity charges for most of the population,
who are already under economic pressure as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The murderous price of Lebanon's sectarianism
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/June 14/2020
Diplomat and journalist Ghassan Tueni’s immortal plea of “Let my people live” at
the UN in 1978 resonates today, as Lebanon once again teeters on the brink of
sectarian bloodletting and social collapse. Lebanon’s streets have again erupted
in furious desperation after the currency plunged against the dollar, leaving
salaries and pensions almost worthless.
Lebanon is losing the foundations of statehood. It is a bankrupted economic
basket case in perpetual political crisis, bled white by corrupt thieves. It is
a country in the latter stages of dissolving itself. Recent days have witnessed
scenes of panic-buying, while other citizens are terrified of stepping outside
their front doors, with civil chaos set to escalate.
Hassan Diab’s Hezbollah-backed government is fiddling while Beirut burns. There
is nothing it can do, short of dissolving itself and making way for a civilian
administration not underwritten by Tehran.
Lebanese financial institutions have been the primary vectors for Iranian and
Syrian money laundering. With the US poised to impose fresh Caesar Act sanctions
against the Assad regime and its cronies, destitute Lebanon will, for the
thousandth time, pay the price of being dragged into Tehran’s ill-omened
“resistance axis.”
Seeing its own followers joining the protests, and with a minority chanting for
paramilitary disarmament, Hezbollah’s leadership reacted violently. It mobilized
rock-throwing thugs, who chanted sectarian insults against Sunnis and
Christians, along with the inevitable “Shia, Shia, Shia.” Nevertheless,
Hezbollah supporters later joined protests as part of their agitation against
central bank chief Riad Salameh.
The toxic sectarian logic of Hezbollah’s insistence on retaining its weapons was
spelled out in one of many widely circulated videos. It employed viciously
insulting language against other sects and asserted that, even if all problems
were solved with Israel, for “a hundred years and more” the Shiite “resistance”
weapons would never be handed over — even if the Lebanese “die of starvation”
and all Lebanon is “burnt down” — because “these weapons give us dignity.”
Lebanese social media is increasingly a hotbed of rumors and toxic sectarian
conspiracy theories.
Lebanon’s Shiites didn’t achieve their “dignity” because of their weapons, but
through education and hard work. Such justifications manifest what we always
feared: That “the resistance’s weapons” are ultimately intended for use against
other Lebanese. Hassan Nasrallah loves to remind us that he will cut off the
hand that seeks to take Hezbollah’s weapons. The group’s traitorous readiness to
see Lebanon starve or burn before surrendering its weapons does Israel’s work
for it.
If every sect and faction suffered from such an inferiority complex that it
needed to be armed to the teeth in order to feel “dignity,” the resulting arms
race would be a recipe for Lebanese Armageddon.
Sectarian chants by groups brandishing Hezbollah and Amal regalia are a chilling
reminder of the calculated cultivation of sectarian hatred during Lebanon’s
civil war: We went from hardly knowing one another’s sects to murdering each
other at checkpoints just because someone’s name happened to be George, Omar or
Hussein.
Hezbollah’s propaganda outlets systematically distort history. Sectarian hatred
and a climate of Shiite victimization are fueled by a narrative that states that
Lebanon’s other sects “cowered in their homes” while the “Shiite resistance”
stood alone against the “Zionist enemy.” The reality is that all Lebanon’s sects
have struggled and sacrificed — and will be forced to do so again if malicious
hands push us back into war. Nasrallah ceaselessly berates the Gulf Cooperation
Council states, yet for years they tirelessly bailed Lebanon out with billions
of dollars and stepped in after these confrontations to rebuild schools,
villages and hospitals.
Bizarrely, Hezbollah’s media outlets accused Israel of both being behind the
anti-Hezbollah protests and responsible for the widely circulated sectarian
insults used against protesters. Hezbollah and Nabih Berri thus would have us
believe that, last week on Beirut’s streets, Israeli infiltrators were fighting
Israeli infiltrators.Iran is not the worldwide protector of Shiites. Throughout
the region, it stokes socially corrosive civil tensions that have contributed to
the disenfranchisement and weakening of these communities. The agent of Arab
Shiites’ marginalization pretends to offer their salvation.
As long as Hezbollah presented itself as a nationalist, pan-Lebanese entity,
“the resistance” enjoyed sincere cross-sectarian support. However, its post-2006
mutation into an aggressively sectarian faction, doing Tehran’s bidding and
massacring citizens in Syria, alienated other sects and Shiite moderates.
Hezbollah can either be a force for defending the well-being and security of all
Lebanese, or a sectarian Iranian proxy that turns its guns on citizens in its
quest for supremacy. It cannot be both.
Nobody “won” the Lebanese Civil War. We simply killed each other until we were
so sick of killing that exhausted, punch-drunk factions signed whatever was put
in front of them. If Hezbollah really desires to let the sectarian genie out of
a bottle, this fate again awaits us; while Israel, Iran, Bashar Assad, France,
Russia and America sit on the sidelines stoking the fire.
Lebanese social media is increasingly a hotbed of rumors and toxic sectarian
conspiracy theories. Just as in 1975, rumors become self-fulfilling prophecies
by destroying trust and pitting sects against one another, with ample cannon
fodder — a generation of unemployed, starving and angry young men and women who
believe they have nothing to lose. We need only look to Syria for a reminder of
how much Lebanon still has to lose.
Lebanon as a nation only exists as the sum of its many parts. The only way
Lebanon’s diverse social fabric can survive these catastrophic times is through
recalling the words of Tueni after Hezbollah and Syrian agents murdered his son
Gebran during the 2005 succession of assassinations: “Let us bury hatred and
revenge along with Gebran.”
Hezbollah holds all the weapons and could dominate or destroy its compatriots at
will. But if Hezbollah’s foot soldiers reduce their motherland to rubble, what
is left for them and their families? They certainly shouldn’t expect Tehran to
welcome them with open arms or to help them rebuild.
Hezbollah must acknowledge that, when it holds a knife to Lebanon’s neck, it is
ultimately only threatening to slit its own throat.
*Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle
East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has
interviewed numerous heads of state.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published on June 14-15/2020
Pope Calls for World to Push for End to Libya
Violence
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 14/2020
Pope Francis on Sunday urged international bodies as well as political and
military leaders to stop the violence in Libya and to also end the plight of
migrants, refugees and others trapped there. Speaking from a window at his
Vatican residence on St Peter's Square, the pope told the faithful he included
his concerns in his prayers over recent days. "I am following the dramatic
situation in Libya with great apprehension," he said. "I urge international
bodies and those who have political and military responsibilities to recommence
with conviction and resolve the search for a path towards an end to the
violence, leading to peace, stability and unity in the country." The pope also
said he prayed for "the thousands of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and
internally displaced persons in Libya." Alluding apparently to the coronavirus
pandemic also hitting Libya, he said "the health situation has aggravated the
already precarious conditions in which they find themselves, making them more
vulnerable to forms of exploitation and violence."He added "there is cruelty",
urging the international community to take "their plight to heart" and find ways
and means "to provide them with the protection they need, a dignified condition
and a future of hope."
The oil-rich North African nation has been mired in chaos and violence since a
NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi in
2011. The U.N.-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) controls the west,
including the capital Tripoli, while military strongman Khalifa Haftar holds the
east and some of the far-flung oases and oilfields that dot the south. War and
division are now weakening Libya's fight against the novel coronavirus, with the
government struggling to deal with an outbreak deep in the desert south.
Rockets Hit Iraqi Base North of Baghdad
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 14/2020
A rocket attack late Saturday north of Baghdad hit an Iraqi base but missed
U.S.-led coalition troops stationed there, Iraq's military and a coalition
official said. A statement from Iraq's security forces said the rockets were
launched north of Baghdad and did not cause any damage to the Taji base.
A coalition official confirmed the projectiles fell outside the coalition's
segment of the base. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. It
was the third attack in a week to target U.S. troops or diplomats. Two rockets
struck the grounds of the vast Baghdad airport complex on Monday and an unguided
rocket hit close to the fortified U.S. embassy two days later. The attacks
follow several weeks of relative respite from more than two dozen similar
incidents in recent months. Since October, at least 30 attacks have targeted
American troops or diplomats, severely straining ties between Baghdad and
Washington. Tensions reached boiling point in January when the US killed Iranian
general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone
strike in Baghdad. Washington has accused armed groups backed by Iran, Iraq's
powerful neighbor and the U.S.' top regional foe, for the repeated rocket
attacks. But it also blamed the Iraqi government for not doing enough to protect
U.S. installations. Washington and Baghdad are hoping for a reset after
launching a strategic dialogue this week that aims to better define their
military, economic and cultural relationship. As part of the talks, the U.S.
pledged to continue reducing in-country troop levels, which numbered about 5,200
last year. Iraq, meanwhile, vowed to "protect the military personnel" operating
on its territory as part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting remnants of the
Islamic State jihadist group.
Putin Condemns 'Mayhem and Rioting' at U.S. Anti-Racism
Protests
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 14/2020
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday criticized anti-racism protests in
the United States for sparking crowd violence, in his first comments on the
issue. "If this fight for natural rights, legal rights, turns into mayhem and
rioting, I see nothing good for the country," Putin said in an interview with
Rossiya-1 television to be broadcast in full Sunday evening. "We have never
supported this," he said.The Russian leader stressed he supported black
Americans' struggle for equality, calling this "a long-standing problem of the
United States.""We always in the USSR and in modern Russia had a lot of sympathy
for the struggle of Afro-Americans for their natural rights," he insisted. But
Putin added that "when -- even after crimes are committed -- this takes on
elements of radical nationalism and extremism, nothing good will come of this."
Putin also described the protests as a sign of "deep-seated internal crises" in
the United States, linking the unrest to the coronavirus pandemic, which he said
"has shone a spotlight on general problems."He said he nevertheless expected
that the "fundamental basis of American democracy will allow the country to
escape this series of crisis events."Asked about reactions to the U.S. protests
including demonstrations in Europe and statues being pulled down, Putin said
"this is undoubtedly a destructive phenomenon."He suggested protesters wanted
only Afro-American doctors to treat Afro-Americans and said this would be
impossible in "multi-ethnic Russia". The interview was billed as Putin's first
since the start of the pandemic though it is not clear when it was recorded. The
president made his first public appearance at an open-air event in Moscow on
Friday after weeks of lockdown at his country residence.
Iran Daily Virus Deaths Exceed 100 for First Time in 2
Months
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 14/2020
Iran on Sunday reported over 100 new deaths in a single day from the novel
coronavirus, for the first time in two months. In televised remarks, health
ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari announced 107 Covid-19 fatalities in the
past 24 hours, raising the overall toll to 8,837. "It was very painful for us to
announce the triple-digit figure," said Lari. "This is an unpredictable and wild
virus and may surprise us at any time," she added, urging Iranians to observe
health protocols. Iran last recorded triple-digit daily fatalities on April 13,
with 111 dead. Lari also announced 2,472 new cases confirmed in the past day,
bringing the total infection caseload to 187,427, with over 148,000 recoveries.
There has been skepticism at home and abroad about Iran's official COVID-19
figures, with concerns the real toll could be much higher. Iran has struggled to
contain what has become the Middle East's deadliest outbreak of the illness
since it reported its first cases in the Shiite holy city of Qom in February.
But since April it has gradually lifted restrictions to ease the intense
pressures on its sanctions-hit economy.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on
Saturday reproached citizens for failing to observe measures designed to rein in
the virus. Official figures have shown a rising trajectory in new confirmed
cases since early May, which the government has attributed to increased testing
rather than a worsening caseload.
Delhi Coronavirus Fears Mount as Hospital Beds Run Out
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 14/2020
Ashwani Jain succumbed to the coronavirus in an ambulance as his family pleaded
with several hospitals to take him in, the latest victim of the pandemic
sweeping through the Indian capital and exposing a deadly shortage of hospital
beds.
"They don't care whether we live or die," said his 20-year-old daughter Kashish,
whose uncle, Abhishek, sat with Ashwani in the back of the vehicle on its
desperate journey across Delhi. "It won't matter to them but I have lost my
father, he was the world to me," she said, tears welling up as she showed a
photo of him. All of the hospitals the 45-year-old businessman's family tried
refused to admit Ashwani, even though an app set up by the city government
indicated Covid-19 beds were free, Abhishek told AFP. With surging infections
highlighting the precarious state of the Indian healthcare system, the death of
Jain and others like him have heightened anxiety in Delhi over the growing
threat. More than 1,200 have died from the virus in the Indian capital and more
than 1,000 new cases are being reported each day. Mortuaries are overflowing
with bodies and cemeteries and crematorium staff say they cannot keep up with
the backlog of victims. Some local Delhi councils say the real death toll is
twice the number given by the regional government. Indian media has been
full of tragic stories of people dying after being turned away by hospitals. One
pregnant woman died as she was being shuttled between hospitals. A 78-year-old
man petitioned the Delhi High Court for a ventilator bed but died before the
matter could be taken up. India has now recorded more than 300,000 coronavirus
cases with nearly 9,000 fatalities. - High price for rare beds -Several families
have used social media to recount their harrowing experiences after being
refused hospital beds. Jain's family had joined a noisy, nationwide tribute to
health workers, banging pots and pans from rooftops and balconies after a
nationwide lockdown started in March. Now they feel abandoned. "The government
is doing nothing. They are just playing with our feelings," Kashish said. Jain's
devastated relatives are now waiting to get tested themselves but the Delhi
government allows that for only high-risk and symptomatic family members. The
city government has estimated that it could need 80,000 beds by the end of July,
and warned hotels and wedding venues that they are likely to be turned into
hospitals. Currently government hospitals have 8,505 designated pandemic beds
while private hospitals have 1,441. But families say they are being forced to
spend a small fortune for the few beds that are available. Suman Gulati, whose
father is a coronavirus patient, said she was asked for one million rupees
($13,200) by a private hospital for a bed. "Once I paid the money getting a bed
was not a problem. But arranging such a huge amount of money at such a critical
time was," she told AFP. "What if I fall sick next, what will I do? Should I
sell my property, my jewellery?" A sting operation by the Mirror Now TV channel
showed five Delhi hospitals asking coronavirus patients to pay up to $5,250 in
order to be admitted. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has accused private
hospitals of lying about available beds and promised tough action if they were
found extorting money.
Experts are questioning the city's handling of the pandemic however. Virologist
Shahid Jameel said Delhi, like other major cities, has not tested enough people.
So far, it has covered just one percent of its population. "At the moment Delhi
government is doing everything to make people panic," he told AFP. "It should be
testing aggressively. I don't understand the logic of testing only people who
are symptomatic. How will you find how much the infection has spread in the
community if you don't test them?"
New details on Iran’s drones as UN confirms Tehran’s role in Saudi attack
Seth J.Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/June 14/2020
The finding should put Iran on the back-foot regarding implementation of
resolution 2231 which is linked to the 2015 Iran Deal.
The cruise missiles and drones that were used to attack Saudi Arabia in
September 2019 were of “Iranian origin,” the UN secretary-general has concluded.
The document in which the UN assessed that the cruise missile parts used in four
attacks are from Iran was part of a report by UN head Antonio Guterres.
This should be a ground breaking and important study because it reveals Iran’s
involvement in attacks on a neighbor. Tehran has rejected the claims.
The finding should put Iran on the back foot regarding implementation of
resolution 2231, which is linked to the 2015 Iran Deal. The transfer of weapons
would be “inconsistent” with 2231, the UN said. Iran disagrees.
But the evidence seems clear. Iran was involved in the attacks on Saudi Arabia,
including an airport attack, by transferring technology to the Houthi rebels in
Yemen. The UN also saw evidence from US seizures of weapons at sea found in
December 2019 and February 2020.
This has wider implications because The National in the UAE reports that the
Houthis also built up their drone industry with the help of Iran. This was
already widely suspected, as the Houthis don’t have the technology to build the
Qasef drones they used against Riyadh. These loitering and surveillance
munitions have proven effective, giving the Houthis a kind of instant small air
force to wreak havoc.
Now the UAE report says that there was “reverse proliferation” in that the
Iranians “then took the Houthi manufactured drones to the launch area in Iran,
opposite the Kuwait border, and used them alongside their own cruise missiles as
part of a "plausible deniability" operation against Saudi Arabia.
The Houthi Qasef-1 drone is based on the Iranian Ababil-2 drone. It’s widely
known that Iranian technology, such as gyroscopes, link Iran to these Houthi
drones. But the new report argues that Iran not only exported technology but,
after having tested it in Yemen, brought it back.
It used these drones to fly hundreds of kilometers to strike at oil facilities
at Abqaiq in September 2019. The drones apparently couldn’t fly the 800 km. from
Yemen to do the job. But they did avoid radar and air defense. It was a
sophisticated operation using 25 drones and cruise missiles.
Of interest is that pro-Iranian groups in Iraq also want drone technology.
Brigade 26 of the Popular Mobilization Units, a group of mostly Shi’ite
paramilitaries in Iraq, showed off a new surveillance UAV on Saturday. The drone
is in the hands of the Al-Abbas Combat Division, which is linked to the Abbas
shrine in Karbala. It’s not clear from where the brigade got the know-how to
build its own drone, but drones increasingly play a role in the region.
Whether the UN report will result in more pressure on Iran is unclear. It is now
widely known that Tehran transfers weapons and technology to Yemen.
But the UN has shown itself unable to prevent or do much about Iranian weapons
transfers to Hezbollah and others, so the finding may fall flat: One more piece
of evidence that is accepted but not acted upon.
Twitter takes down Turkey’s ‘fake and compromised’ accounts
The Arab Weekly/June 14/2020
ISTANBUL –In the latest development showing Turkish regime’s reliance on social
media propaganda to burnish its image, Twitter took down June 11 7,340 “fake and
compromised” accounts associated with Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development
Party’s (AKP).
The accounts, according to Twitter, were being used the AKP’s youth branch to
amplify political narratives favourable to Erdogan’s ruling party. “Based on our
analysis of the network’s technical indicators and account behaviours, the
collection of fake and compromised accounts was being used to amplify political
narratives favourable to the AKP, and demonstrated strong support for President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” Twitter said. It revealed that the main tools used by the
Turkish accounts were “a network of echo chambers used to push propaganda,
spread misinformation or attack critics of the government.” In response to the
axing of the accounts, the Turkish Presidency released a strongly worded
statement condemning Twitter’s move and saying that the allegations were
baseless and politically motivated.
“(This) has demonstrated yet again that Twitter is no mere social media company,
but a propaganda machine with certain political and ideological inclinations,”
said Presidency Communications Director Fahrettin Altun. In a written statement,
he added that allegations these were “fake” profiles designed to support the
president and were managed by a central authority were untrue. He also said
documents cited to support Twitter’s decision were unscientific and that it was
scandalous to cite a report by individuals “peddling their ideological
views.”Those remarks appeared to refer to a report by the Stanford Internet
Observatory, with which Twitter shared its information, that said the network
posted some 37 million tweets, promoting the AKP and criticising Turkey’s main
opposition parties. In a warning that sounds more like a threat, Altun spoke of
possible action that Erdogan’s regime could take against Twitter. “We would like
to remind the company of the eventual fate of a number of organisations which
attempted to take similar steps in the past,” Altun said. In the past, Turkey
has blocked access to online encyclopedia Wikipedia, YouTube and Twitter.In
March 2014, the Turkish government imposed a ban on the grounds that Twitter had
failed to remove the allegations of corruption involving senior officials. A
number of complaints, however, were filed to courts, arguing the ban was illegal
and unconstitutional. Later in April that year, the country’s top court ruled
the government’s ban on Twitter violates freedom of expression and individual
rights.The constitutional court also said the ban must be lifted, sending a
statement to Turkey’s media regulator and the government. Censorship in Turkey
has caused troubling developments in Turkey’s media landscape, leading to
greater distrust and more misinformation being spread on social media, according
to a new report by the Center for American Progress. The report also finds that
the growing prevalence of misinformation may further aggravate partisan divides
and weaken accountability.
Iraq has ‘several’ plans to overcome economic, political
challenges: PM
Al Arabiya English/Sunday 14 June 2020
Iraq has “several” plans to overcome the challenges its facing, including
economic ones, that have affected the country’s security, Iraqi Prime Minister
Mustafa al-Kadhimi said. “The government has several plans to overcome these
crises and face these challenges,” al-Kadhimi added.
Protecting and preserving Iraqi citizens’ dignity is important and dealing with
all challenges will be done in accordance to the principles of human rights, he
said. However, Iraq will not allow anyone to attack its security services,
according to the prime minister. Reforms will soon be implemented to address the
financial and administrative situation, he said. The prime minister added that
dialogue with the United States would start today if all parties are ready to
coordinate.
“We do not want Iraq to be a zone of conflict, but rather a zone of peace,” al-Kadhimi
added.
The Syrian regime forced prisoners to torture each other,
says activist
Tommy Hilton, Al Arabiya English/Sunday 14 June 2020
The Syrian regime tortured prisoners with a range of brutal methods, including
forcing prisoners to torture each other, said Syrian public speaker and human
rights activist Omar Alshogre in an interview with Al Hadath on Saturday.
Alshogre, from a village Syria’s Tartus province, was arrested when he was 15
years old and spent a total of three years in detention after being arrested
seven times between 2011 and 2013. While Alshogre eventually managed to escape
as a refugee to Sweden after his mother secured his release from prison in 2015,
several of his family members including his father, brothers, and cousins were
killed in regime prisons.“I was studying and my father wanted me to become an
engineer and my mother wanted me to become a doctor. And I had a lot of studying
to do. They raided the home where I was living with my cousins, Bachir, Rashad
and Nour,” Alshogre told Al Hadath, which is Al Arabiya's sister channel.
“Bachir and Rashad died under torture. In May 2013 … my father and two brothers,
Mohammed and Othman, were killed by the regime. So I lost my brothers and
father, in addition to my childhood friends and cousins during the massacres by
the regime,” he explained.
Torture methods in Syrian prisons
Alshogre also gave details of the methods of torture used in the prisons.
“Some methods involved tying a prisoner’s hands behind his back or tying his
hands to the ceiling. Shoulders were [jerked out of place with these methods],”
said Alshogre. “For the older prisoners, it was a different situation. Tearing
off fingernails is something the Syrian “Mukhabarat” [the Syrian security
services] are notorious for. They also burn [prisoners] with cigarettes a lot,”
he said. One method involved forcing prisoners to torture each other, including
their family relatives. “The most difficult form of torture was when they sit me
down and ask how many officers I had killed. I would tell them none. And then
they would hang my cousin in front of me and say as long as I didn’t speak, they
would torture him. After an hour, they would bring my cousin and give him a
cable and an electric stick and tell him to torture me or else they would
torture us and both and we would die together. So prisoners were forced to
torture each other,” Alshogre told Al Hadath. Alshogre now lives in Sweden and
is the director of detainee affairs at the Syrian Emergency Task Force. While
the regime of President Bashar al-Assad remains in power in Syria, two former
intelligence officers have been on trial in the German city of Koblenz since
April. The officers are accused of complicity in torture at Damascus’ Al-Khatib
prison between 2011 and 2012.
Putin Boasts Russia Dealing Better with Virus than U.S.
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 14/2020
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised interview Sunday that
Russia has been more successful in dealing with the coronavirus than the United
States. He contrasted the situations in the two countries, saying in Russia, "We
are exiting the coronavirus situation steadily with minimal losses, God willing,
in the States it isn't happening that way."Russia on Sunday confirmed 8,835 new
virus cases, taking the total to 528,964, the third highest in the world.
Regions are gradually lifting lockdown restrictions and Moscow has reopened
non-essential shops and hairdressers. The United States has the world's largest
number of cases by far at 2.07 million. Putin told state television the
coronavirus pandemic had exposed "deep-seated internal crises" in the U.S. He
criticized a lack of strong leadership on the virus situation, saying that "the
(U.S.) president says we need to do such-and-such but the governors somewhere
tell him where to go.""I think the problem is that group interests, party
interests are put higher than the interests of the whole of society and the
interests of the people," he said. In Russia, however, he argued, the government
and regional leaders work "as one team" and do not differ from the official
line.
"I doubt anyone in the government or the regions would say 'we're not going to
do what the government says, what the president says, we think it's wrong,'"
Putin said of the virus strategy. He boasted that when the northern Caucasus
region of Dagestan suffered particularly hard from the virus, "the whole country
rallied to help".Russia has so far reported 6,948 COVID-19 fatalities, a
fraction of the U.S. total of 115,436 deaths. The remarkably low number has
raised questions over possible under-reporting. Russia has now begun giving
fuller information on deaths, including cases where coronavirus appeared to be
the cause but was not detected by tests, as well as cases where the virus was
confirmed but not considered the main cause of death. Using this new method,
Russia on Saturday published official figures for virus deaths in April of
2,712, more than twice the figure of 1,152 previously reported by the task
force.
This represents a death rate of 2.6 percent among those infected, while
officials said the death rate for May and early June would be higher.
Disinfecting Non-Stop' as Italy Faces Two New Virus
Outbreaks
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 14/2020
Yellow police tape -- a familiar sight across Italy since the coronavirus began
sweeping the country in March -- reappeared at the weekend outside a Rome squat
where nine new cases have emerged. Health workers insist the outbreak affecting
a Peruvian family and four of their close contacts is under control, at a time
when Italy is cautiously relaxing measures to contain the disease that has
claimed more than 34,000 lives. A second outbreak was numerically far bigger but
less concerning because it occurred at a hospital on the western edge of Rome,
with 104 cases and five deaths. Rome's regional COVID-19 crisis centre said all
those who tested positive for the virus at the illegally occupied building had
been transferred, adding that all their contacts were identified and tested.
After the uproar of blaring ambulances to handle the new cluster of cases, the
southern working-class district of Garbatella returned to normal on Sunday,
apart from the police tape and a squad car outside the building, as well as a
posse of journalists. Mask-wearing shoppers could be seen buying groceries, a
man walking his dog, another throwing garbage into overflowing bins.
"Occupants who are still in the building are confined there," a police officer
told AFP, adding that the Red Cross was delivering food to them. Many of the
windows were shuttered in the orange brick block of flats, typical of the
buildings that sprang up in the outskirts of Rome during the 1970s.
The squatters also receive aid from an NGO. An employee at a nearby grocery
store who gave his name only as Ion said the inhabitants were both South
American and Italian, "working people, mainly families". He added that some of
the flats share toilets.
"This doesn't worry us very much," he said. "We're wearing masks and being
careful."But Raffaele, a 77-year-old who lives nearby, complained that "there is
absolutely no check (on) constant comings and goings of people from all over the
world."He said he feared that such transience could help spread the coronavirus.
"Let's say we are being very careful, we are disinfecting non-stop."
- 'No illusions' -
Meanwhile two army vehicles were stationed outside the San Raffaele Pisana
hospital on Sunday, but the situation appeared under control. Health officials
said rigorous contact tracing was under way, with some 200 recent patients being
tested. The two new outbreaks of COVID-19 came as Italy was re-emerging from
lockdown in a gradual process that began in early May. The epidemic appeared
under control even in its epicenter in the northern Lombardy region. "No one had
any illusions that the problems were over," WHO deputy director Ranieri Guerra
told Italian journalists. "It means the virus hasn't lost its infectiousness, it
isn't weakening... we shouldn’t let down our guard." However, the Italian
immunologist added: "Such micro-outbreaks were inevitable, but they are limited
in time and space. And today we have the tools to intercept them and confine
them."Italy, which went under nationwide quarantine on March 10, has been one of
the hardest-hit countries in the world by COVID-19, mostly in the north.
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published on June 14-15/2020
Copts Crucified: Trump Remembers Egypt’s Persecuted
Christian Minority
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/June 14/2020
ريموند إبراهيم/معهد كايتستون/الأقباط المصلوبون: ترامب يتذكر الأقلية المسيحية
المضطهدة في مصر
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/87299/raymond-ibrahim-copts-crucified-trump-remembers-egypts-persecuted-christian-minority-%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%88%d9%86%d8%af-%d8%a5%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%87%d9%8a%d9%85-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af/
On May 30, 2020 — two days before President Trump congratulated Copts around the
world — Egyptian authorities demolished the village of Koum al-Farag’s only
Coptic church, even though it had … served three thousand Christians. According
to the report, “The destruction of the church was a punishment for the ‘crime’
of building rooms for Sunday school…. When the work began, some extremist
Muslims began to attack Christians.”
Police further arrested and imprisoned 14 Christians overnight. The nearest
church to the Christians of Koum al-Farag, most of whom are limited to traveling
by foot, is 10 miles away.
“No one should fear for their safety in a house of worship anywhere in the
world.” — President Donald J. Trump, “Presidential Message on Global Coptic Day,
2020”, June 1, 2020.
All that former President Barack Obama could bring himself to do [after the 2011
Maspero Massacre, when the Egyptian government slaughtered and ran over dozens
of Copts with tanks for protesting the burnings and closures of their churches]
was call “for restraint on all sides” — as if Egypt’s beleaguered Christian
minority needed to “restrain” itself against the nation’s armed and aggressive
military.
Attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt are common. On April 9, 2017, Palm Sunday,
two Christian churches in Egypt were bombed during mass; at least 50 worshippers
were killed. Pictured: Local Christians at the late-night funeral of the victims
of the attack on Mar Girgis Coptic Orthodox Church in Tanta, 120 kilometers
north of Cairo, on April 9, 2017. (Photo by Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)
On June 1, 2020, President Trump issued a statement titled “Presidential Message
on Global Coptic Day, 2020.” (Copts are Egypt’s indigenous Christians, now a
minority.) After sending his “best wishes” to the “millions of Coptic Christians
in the United States and around the world,” he said that recognizing Global
Coptic Day provides “an opportunity for the world to mark the contributions,
legacy, and ongoing challenges facing the largest Christian group in the Middle
East.” He continued:
“Today is also a time for us to acknowledge the importance of religious freedom
and reaffirm our commitment to promoting and defending this core tenet of a free
society. Tragically, far too many people the world over face persecution on
account of their faith.”
This is certainly true for the Copts. Most recently, on April 14, 2020, an
Islamic terror plot to bomb Coptic churches around Easter was thwarted. Previous
plots, however — which also targeted churches during Christian holidays, when
they are most packed with people and therefore offer the greatest harvest of
slain Christian worshippers — came to fruition:
On April 9, 2017, Palm Sunday, two Christian churches were bombed during mass;
at least 50 worshippers were killed.
On Sunday December 11, 2016, a cathedral in Cairo was bombed during mass; at
least 27 churchgoers, mostly women and children, were killed.
During New Year’s Eve mass, 2011, another church in Alexandria was bombed; at
least 23 Christians were killed. According to eyewitnesses, “body parts were
strewn all over the street outside” and “were brought inside the church after
some Muslims started stepping on them and chanting Jihadi chants,” including
“Allahu Akbar!”
After Christmas Eve mass, 2010, six Christians were shot dead while exiting
their church.
Especially common in Egypt, are attacks that cause few or no casualties on
Coptic churches — here, here, here, here, and here — although they are seldom
reported in the West.
Coptic Christians and their priests have also been randomly assaulted in the
streets of Egypt — not by professional terrorists but by regular Muslims — and
several Christians have been murdered in cold blood (here, here, here, here,
here, here, here, here, and here).
Two examples just from this year include one that took place on January 14, when
a Muslim man crept up behind a Coptic woman who was walking home with groceries,
then grabbed a handful of her hair, pulled her head back and slit her throat
with a knife. Two days later, on January 16, another Muslim man tried to kill a
Christian man with a box-cutter; he only managed to sever an ear. When asked
about his motive, Muhammad Awad confessed that he did not know the Copt; he
simply “hates Christians.” Speaking in 2016, one Coptic bishop said that in
Minya, which has a large Coptic minority, Christians are attacked “every two or
three days”.
While the examples above were all carried out in violation of Egyptian law, the
most common form of persecution against Copts — the random closure of their
churches — is regularly carried out in accordance with Egyptian law. Thus, on
May 30, 2020 — two days before President Trump congratulated Copts around the
world — Egyptian authorities demolished the only Coptic church in village of
Koum al-Farag, even though it had stood for 15 years and served 3,000
Christians. According to the report:
“The destruction of the church was a punishment for the ‘crime’ of building
rooms for Sunday school…. When the work began, some extremist Muslims began to
attack Christians.”
Later, and seemingly out of spite, Muslims, who already have four mosques in the
village, started to build an illegal and dangerously constructed mosque on
unsuitable land directly adjacent to the church. a separate report on this
incident explains:
“According to an ancient Islamic tradition, or common law, churches are
prevented from being formally recognised or displaying any Christian symbols if
a mosque is built next to them.”
The authorities decided to solve this issue by demolishing the church, which
took a tractor “six long hours,” a Copt recalled:
“The decision was not welcomed by the Christians in the village, so they
protested by appearing at the site in possession of the documents. However, the
police and some radicals began to insult and assault Christians, including women
and children. The church leader received so many punches in the face and chest
that he passed out.”
Police further arrested and jailed 14 Christians overnight. The nearest church
to the Christians of Koum al-Farag, most of whom are limited to traveling by
foot, is 10 miles away.
The worst aspect of this recent incident is that it is not an anomaly. Muslims
protesting the renovation or building of a church and local authorities
responding by demolishing or shutting it down is a regular occurrence in Egypt.
As one of many examples, on January 11, more than one thousand Muslims
surrounded and demanded the instant and permanent closure of another church.
Authorities complied — including by evicting the church’s two priests and
congregants who were holed up inside the church and then shuttering it — to
triumphant cries of “Allahu Akbar” from the mob (a brief video can be seen
here). Another report elaborates:
“Egyptian authorities have closed four churches within the last four and a half
weeks. No formal procedures against the attackers of these churches have begun.
Instead, in the village of Manshiyet, the police arrested the church’s priests
and transported them to the station in a car used for carrying animals and
garbage.”
The Coptic Church responded in a statement:
“This is not the first time a place used for worship by Copts in Minya is
closed. The common factor among all closures, however, is that they were done to
appease fundamentalists and extremists to the detriment of the Copts. It appears
to indicate that extremists now hold the upper hand, and appeasing them is the
easy way out of problems.”
Indeed, a few months earlier — in just one Egyptian province alone, Luxor —
eight other churches were closed, all of them “following attacks by Muslim
villagers protesting against the church[es] being legally recognized.” Due to
such closures and an overall dearth of churches in Egypt (see here and here for
more examples), Christians have been forced to hold funeral services for their
loved ones in the streets (here, here, here).
Responding to one of many church closures, one Coptic lawyer said:
“We haven’t heard that a mosque was closed down, or that prayer was stopped in
it because it was unlicensed. Is that justice? Where is the equality? Where is
the religious freedom? Where is the law? Where are the state institutions?”
Discussing the closure of a separate church, another local Christian explained:
“There are about 4,000 Christians in our village and we have no place to worship
now. The nearest church is … 15km [nine miles] away. It is difficult to go and
pray in that church, especially for the old, the sick people and kids.” (Months
later, a 4-year-old child was killed in an accident during his family’s complex
trek to a distant church.) He too continued by asking the same questions
possibly on the minds of Egypt’s millions of Copts:
“Where are our rights? There are seven mosques in our village and Muslims can
pray in any place freely, but we are prevented from practicing our religious
rites in a simple place that we have been dreaming of. Is that justice? We are
oppressed in our country and there are no rights for us.”
It is good, therefore, and timely, that President Trump touched on the plight of
Egypt’s Christians in the context of Global Coptic Day. In the same June 1
statement, Trump said,
“In September of 2019, during a speech at the United Nations, I called on world
leaders to take action to put an end to all attacks by state and non‑state
actors against citizens for simply worshipping according to their beliefs. I
challenged them to work to prevent threats and acts of violence against our
sacred places of worship. No one should fear for their safety in a house of
worship anywhere in the world.”
Earlier, in May 2017, after Islamic gunmen massacred 28 Coptic Christians — ten
of whom were children, including two girls aged two and four — who were
traveling home after visiting a monastery (seven more pilgrims were butchered
again while returning from that same monastery in 2018), Trump said:
“This merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt tears at our hearts and grieves
our souls. Wherever innocent blood is spilled, a wound is inflicted upon
humanity… America also makes clear to its friends, allies, and partners that the
treasured and historic Christian Communities of the Middle East must be defended
and protected. The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their
killers must be punished.”
It may be argued that these are just “words.” Even so, coming from the U.S.
president, they help to create awareness for the plight of Egypt’s Copts.
They are, moreover, a breath of fresh air compared to the words of Trump’s
predecessor: After the worst state-sanctioned terrorist attack on Egypt’s
Christians in modern history — the 2011 Maspero Massacre, when the Egyptian
government slaughtered and ran over dozens of Copts with tanks for protesting
the burnings and closures of their churches — all that former President Barack
Obama could bring himself to do was call “for restraint on all sides” — as if
Egypt’s beleaguered Christian minority needed to “restrain” itself against the
nation’s armed and aggressive military.
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of the recent book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen
Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at
the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center,
and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 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.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16105/egypt-christians-persecuted
Religious Responses to Coronavirus
Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/June 14/ 2020
Even though modern science will prove the only path to prevention, millions have
approached illness and fear of death through faith, prayer, and ritual.
"It is often said that Muslims in the 21st century have rejected modernity. What
they are in fact rejecting is the process of suiting themselves to changing
circumstances. There are two kinds of thinking: one that seeks to change in
order to relate to times and one that seeks to change the world to suit its
tenets." — Khaled Ahmed, journalist, Express Tribune, August 15, 2010, Express
Tribune, Pakistan.
One consequence of this anti-modernity position is that it can involve a
suspicion of modern science and medicine.... Does the voracity of the disease
mean to them that Muslims are no different from non-Muslims in their
vulnerability to the disease? Or that coronavirus is a punishment from God that
affects Muslims as well as unbelievers?... None of these options might sit well
with the widespread Islamic doctrine that Muslims are God's favoured people.....
To avoid that dilemma, many Muslims might resort to an even broader rejection of
modernity....
Even though modern science will prove the only path to the prevention or cure of
Covid-19, millions of people have approached illness and fear of death through
faith, prayer, and ritual. Pictured: The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by
coronaviruses. (Image source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Religious communities around the world have gone through a multitude of
responses to the global Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, which has inflicted
lasting damage to most nations. Lives have been lost, economies have been
undermined, and more might still be to come. Scientists have responded with a
range of rational rejoinders to the challenge the virus poses. They have been
carrying out research to find testing, treatments and a vaccine.
Not everyone, however, is a rationalist. Even though modern science will prove
the only path to prevention or cure, millions have approached illness and fear
of death through faith, prayer, and ritual. Many have practiced their faith
quietly while observing the recommendations of scientists and governments.
Churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, shrines and other faith centers have
been closed or have continued to operate through videoconferencing. The largest
of these closures was the Saudi kingdom's decision to postpone the annual
once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca.
Some Christians, Jews and Muslims have been less responsible, insisting on
breaking the rules that apply to whole populations, including their own. For
these believers, it might be the intensity of their faith (being saved by Allah
or the blood of Jesus) or the need to retain a continuity with sacred
traditions, such as mass funerals to show respect for the deceased that drives
them to persist in dangerous practices.
Many Muslims, thinking responsibly, have closed mosques in the West or, as
mentioned, cancelled the hajj in Mecca. In northern England, for instance, the
Newcastle Central Mosque has set up a support group for vulnerable people in the
wider community, complete with aid packages and shopping for people in
isolation.
Elsewhere, sadly, many have reacted to the pandemic in much less positive ways.
Broadly speaking, Muslims globally seem to be finding it difficult to embrace
modernity. Writing in Pakistan's Express Tribune, journalist Khaled Ahmed
proposed:
"It is often said that Muslims in the 21st century have rejected modernity. What
they are in fact rejecting is the process of suiting themselves to changing
circumstances. There are two kinds of thinking: one that seeks to change in
order to relate to times and one that seeks to change the world to suit its
tenets."
One consequence of this anti-modernity position is that it can involve a
suspicion of modern science and medicine. This view that can lead to a refusal
to accept Western understanding of illnesses such as coronavirus, and that
conclusion can take millions to dangerous interpretations of what the epidemic
really is. As the coronavirus spread within Muslim countries such as Iran or
Pakistan, it was no longer possible to deny the reality of the global
affliction. This in itself might have presented a psychological problem for
radicals and traditionalists. Does the voracity of the disease mean, to them,
that Muslims are no different from non-Muslims in their vulnerability to the
disease? Or that coronavirus is a punishment from God that affects Muslims as
well as unbelievers? Or that the disease struck those who probably did not
practice their faith zealously enough?
None of these options might sit well with the widespread Islamic doctrine that
Muslims are God's favoured people, devotees of Muhammad, the divinity's last
prophet, and his last scripture, the Qur'an. To avoid that dilemma, many Muslims
might resort to an even broader rejection of modernity, one that has grown
sharply in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
In earlier centuries, from 634, Muslim empires conquered and ruled wide parts of
the world, most before the advent of modern Western countries. The Ottoman
Empire stretched from what is now Turkey across the Middle East, Egypt, all of
North Africa, the Balkans, and much of Spain and Portugal. At all times since
the death of Muhammad in the seventh century, it has been a fundamental doctrine
in Islamic law that any territory, once conquered for Islam, must remain under
Muslim rule in perpetuity. By the nineteenth century, nevertheless, some Muslim
territories were passing out of overall Islamic control. The British ended the
cultivated Mughal Empire in India. Iran fought wars with Russia and in the 20th
century came under divided Russian and British influence. The vast Ottoman
Empire was defeated by the allies in World War I, and the last of the great
caliphates was abolished by the newly-formed secular Republic of Turkey in 1922.
Some Muslim reformers chose to adjust to this new world, but as decades passed,
and with the development of hard-line radical Islam accompanied by oil wealth
from the 1970s, so grew an increasingly outspoken resentment of the West. Muslim
states, such as Turkey, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, found it hard to function as
nation states under democratic rule. The establishment of Israel in 1948, in
what had previously been part of an Ottoman province, led to at least four wars
to dislodge and displace it, as well as more than 70 years of terrorism.
It may well have been within this context that radical and traditionalist Muslim
preachers and politicians leaped on the coronavirus pandemic as a new modality
of their crusade against the West. Iran, for instance, has blamed the virus on
America and Israel. Many articles and social media in the Arab world, parroting
China's disinformation, claim that Covid-19 was created by the United States in
order to topple the economy of China, its rival. Al-Qa'ida Central insists that
the coronavirus is divine punishment for the sins of mankind and that Muslims
must repent while the West must embrace Islam. Extremists in the Islamic State
(ISIS) group and al-Qa'ida seem to see the upheaval caused by the virus as an
opportunity to gain recruits and strike harder using terrorism. One
Salafi-Jihadi ideologue, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi wrote online that:
"There is nothing wrong with a Muslim praying for the deaths of infidels and
wishing that they contract coronavirus or any similar fatal disease."
İbrahim Karagül, the editor of the Turkish newspaper, Yeni Safak, which has a
close relationship with the country's ruling AKP party, euphorically wrote:
"It seems that everything produced and imposed to the world by the West in the
form of a global discourse and order is coming to an end. The West has already
lost its 'central' power.... The West's financial system is collapsing. Its
political system and discourse are collapsing. Its security theories are
collapsing. Its social theories are collapsing. Humanity no longer has any
expectation of them.... New superpowers will emerge.... If there are going to be
any countries to rise post-corona – and there will be – Turkey is going to be
one of them."
The Middle East Research Institute (MEMRI) has posted dozens of similar
responses from Muslims online. Readers might start here.
*Dr. Denis MacEoin, a specialist in Iranian Studies, is a Distinguished Senior
Fellow at New York's 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.
Coronavirus: Central banks must lend directly to business, or risk economic
collapse
Omar Al-Ubaydli/Al Arabiya/Sunday 14 June 2020
The unique circumstances of the 2020 coronavirus crisis mean that giving banks
access to cheap credit is largely ineffective; instead, central banks must lend
directly to normal businesses, or risk economic collapse. Thus, Main Street –
and not Wall Street – must be the main target of quantitative easing.
This is the main conclusion of a new paper by University of Notre Dame (USA)
economists Eric Sims and Jing Wu, based on the similarities and differences
between the current crisis and the 2008 Great Recession.
On the surface, the two economic contractions have much in common: collapsing
asset prices, sharp declines in consumer spending, and surging unemployment.
Consequently, central banks, such as the US Federal Reserve, have introduced
quantitative easing packages, including lending to financial organizations at
zero or near-zero interest rates, large-scale asset purchase programs, and the
relaxation of strict reserve requirements.
The goal of such policies is to ensure that banks do not go bankrupt, and that
they have access to the liquidity necessary to keep lending to the private
sector, so that businesses can pay each other and the wages of their employees.
In 2008, this was a sensible response, since the root of the problem was a
sudden and unexpected deterioration in the balance sheets of banks. Banks had
irresponsibly granted housing loans to people who were almost certainly unable
to pay them back, and investment companies created complex financial derivatives
based on these loans that obscured their inherent riskiness. The result was that
financial organizations assumed that the assets that they were holding were
worth a lot more than they actually were.
When this large-scale error was uncovered, it triggered a massive contraction in
financial activity as banks sought to stabilize their finances. The ensuing
collapse in asset prices and credit crunch caused unemployment to rise sharply,
igniting a vicious cycle. The quick and easy response, as central banks
surmised, was to print lots of money and give it to the banks, interrupting the
vicious cycle, and putting the economy back on an upward path.
It may have required unprecedented levels of money printing, but it basically
worked; and to stop it from happening again, new regulations were imposed on
banks, diminishing the likelihood of irresponsible lending and risky leveraging.
In 2020, unlike 2008, the root of the crisis is not financial; it is the “real”
economy: people can’t go to work to produce things, and people can’t go to shops
to buy things. The resulting contraction in economic activity, including falling
asset prices, has precipitated a financial crisis, too; but as a corollary
rather as an ignition point.
To avert a catastrophic economic collapse, governments have realized that they
need to focus on the cash flow of normal businesses: their revenues have sharply
declined, and without a cash injection, they will lay people off, and default on
their loans, exacerbating the financial crisis. Then, once the health crisis is
dealt with and people can interact normally again, the economy can commence a
conventional recovery.
Prof. Sims and Prof. Wu show that repeating the 2008 strategy will be
ineffective, for two reasons. First, the problem isn’t with banks; it’s with
normal businesses, and so helping banks only works if banks help normal
businesses. Second, giving banks access to cheap credit will not convince them
to help normal businesses by lending to them; the banks will predictably be
afraid to lend to businesses with acute and unprecedented cash flow problems,
meaning that the cheap credit will just sit idly in Wall Street while Main
Street goes under.
Fortunately for the US economy, the Federal Reserve anticipated this, and so
they took the unprecedented step of lending directly to Main Street. This has
been especially important because the US government has not paid the wages of
workers in the same way that other governments have, including those in the Gulf
states and the European Union.
Yet not all central banks have been so prescient, underscoring the importance of
reading and disseminating this research paper. Instead, many financial
authorities have largely replicated their 2008 playbook, potentially impeding
their economic recoveries.
This speaks to a deeper problem in many countries, which is the lack of
communication between those who are able to help – the government – and those
who need help – people and businesses. Technocrats are often skeptical of the
value of consulting directly with stakeholders, either because they think it
needlessly slows them down, or because they think that they understand the
issues better than the affected parties.
While such presumptions may be acceptable during generic recessions, they are
potentially disastrous during unprecedented crises, such as COVID-19.
Consequently, it is critical for all governments to engage the people they are
trying to help, as they have information that is critical to determining the
effectiveness of countermeasures.
*Omar Al-Ubaydli (@omareconomics) is a researcher at Derasat, Bahrain.
E3 must extend Iran’s arms embargo for global security
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/June 14/2020
As the expiration date for Iran’s arms embargo under the terms of the 2015
nuclear deal approaches, once again tensions among the P5+1 (the US, Russia, UK,
France, China and Germany) are escalating.
Unfortunately, one of the major concessions granted to the Islamic Republic
during the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiations was linked to
the UN’s arms embargo against the Iranian regime. From the outset, the US and
the E3 (Germany, the UK and France) should not have agreed to negotiate a date
with the Iranian authorities for the lifting of the arms embargo within the
nuclear talks.
The arms embargo, imposed on the theocratic establishment by the UN Security
Council (UNSC) prior to the nuclear negotiations, should have been considered a
totally separate topic from Tehran’s nuclear defiance. The arms embargo was
related to Iran’s conventional weapons and ballistic missile technology, efforts
to smuggle weapons, arming of militia groups, and sponsoring of terror groups
across the region. The ban was leveled against a range of weaponry, including
large-caliber artillery, combat aircraft, battle tanks, armored combat vehicles,
attack helicopters, some missiles and missile launchers, and warships. It was
passed through several UNSC resolutions between 2006 and 2010.
Therefore, it was a major political failure that the world powers surrendered to
the Iranian leaders’ demand and included a lenient policy on the arms embargo in
the nuclear deal. The JCPOA should have only concentrated on Iran’s nuclear
activities.
Currently, the only member of the P5+1 that is calling for an extension of the
arms embargo beyond October is the US. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US
Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft have been urging the global powers to make
extending the arms embargo against Iran a top priority. Craft stressed in a
press briefing that: “Russia and China need to join a global consensus on Iran’s
conduct. This is about not only the people of Iran but the people in the Middle
East.”
But there is no incentive for Russia to extend the arms embargo, and Moscow’s UN
Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has already made it clear that it will oppose any
UNSC resolution to extend the ban.
It was a major political failure that the world powers surrendered to the
Iranian leaders’ demand.
It seems that the US has limited options to prevent the lifting of the arms
embargo. One approach would be for Washington to introduce a standalone UNSC
resolution listing a new round of sanctions on Iran’s arms activities. But, in
order for that to pass, the five permanent members of the council would all have
to approve it. Russia would most likely veto any such motion.
The second method would be to use UNSC resolution 2231, which endorsed the JCPOA.
One of its provisions is that there exists no requirement for all members of the
nuclear deal to reach a unanimous vote in order to extend the arms embargo
against Tehran. Any member can unilaterally extend it and that move cannot be
vetoed. However, this would require the US to make the legal argument that it is
still a bona fide participant in the JCPOA.
Washington is trying to accomplish its goal through this method. “The UN
Security Council resolution 2231 is very clear. We don’t have to declare
ourselves as a participant… It’s there in the language… It’s unambiguous and the
rights that accrue to participants in the UN Security Council resolution are
fully available to all those participants,” Pompeo stated in April. US Special
Representative for Iran Brian Hook also referred to resolution 2231, pointing
out “For the purpose of resolving issues, we have certain rights that are
clearly there and there’s no qualification.”
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh
However, it is not only Russia but also the European powers that are opposing
the US argument that it is still part of the JCPOA. EU foreign policy chief
Josep Borrell insisted last week: “The United States has withdrawn from the
JCPOA, and now they cannot claim that they are still part of the JCPOA in order
to deal with this issue from the JCPOA agreement. They withdraw. It’s clear.
They withdraw.”
Emboldened Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif in April told Pompeo to
“stop dreaming” that Washington was still a party to the JCPOA, while President
Hassan Rouhani last month warned: “Iran will give a crushing response if the
arms embargo on Tehran is extended… Iran would never accept the extension of an
arms embargo.”
America’s E3 allies can unilaterally or collectively extend the UN arms embargo
against the Iranian regime — the top state sponsor of terrorism. They must stand
on the right side of history by not allowing it to expire.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist.
Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh
Republican plan to tackle Iran should be welcomed
Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri/Arab News/June 14/2020
Whoever reads the strategy developed by the Republicans for US national defense
will know the reality of Iran’s terrorism, its proxy militias and their impact
on the security and stability of the Middle East. They will know the threat Iran
poses to the world, will find themselves in agreement with this strategy, and
will hope to see it implemented in its entirety.
The Republican Study Committee has drawn up a new bill, which the committee’s
president Mike Johnson says contains “the most severe sanctions that have been
put forward in Congress against Iran until now.” Its goal is to disrupt Tehran’s
support for terrorism and bankrupt the regime. In their proposal, the
Republicans call for the abolition of all the exemptions Iran still enjoys
within the 2015 nuclear agreement.
According to the proposal, the White House will not be able to lift any
sanctions on Iran without the approval of Congress, as the authors consider that
such exemptions reduce the impact of the maximum pressure strategy US President
Donald Trump has imposed.
The draft bill calls on the US to use its influence in the UN Security Council
to push for the reimposition of international sanctions on Iran in the event
that the UN’s arms embargo on Iran, which ends in October, is not extended. It
also states that, in the event of non-extension, Congress has the right to
introduce a new arms embargo on Tehran and to impose sanctions on countries that
sell weapons to Tehran, such as China and Russia, in addition to sanctions on
banks that facilitate the sale of arms to Iran and the companies that ship these
weapons.
The threat of Iran and its terrorist militias is clear in several Arab
countries, particularly Iraq, which remains one of the most important arenas of
confrontation between Tehran and the US. Iraq is a major source of funding for
Iran with its oil and other wealth, and it is also a major source of terrorist
militias affiliated to Tehran, most of which were established after the fall of
Saddam Hussein’s regime. Today they are affiliated with the so-called Popular
Mobilization Units, which was established under the pretext of confronting Daesh
as if Iraq did not have an army.
These militias are preventing Iraq’s stability and reconstruction and they must
be removed if Tehran is to be suppressed and its projects sabotaged. Eliminating
these militias will cause Iran to falter. The American Embassy in Iraq and a
number of US contractors have been targeted by the militias. The killing of
Qassem Soleimani at the beginning of this year was the most appropriate solution
to behead Iran’s terrorism, as he was the chief terrorist. Restoring Iraq and
defeating Iran will be almost impossible without going in the direction of
liquidating the militias.
Restoring Iraq and defeating Iran will be almost impossible without going in the
direction of liquidating the militias.
As for Lebanon, the draft US law calls for stopping all American aid and
preventing any financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund because
such money would not really go to help the country, but rather the Hezbollah
militia. This is the correct procedure considering that any government in which
Hezbollah members or affiliates participate is a government of terrorism and
therefore will not represent the Lebanese people. Lebanon’s parties and people
must then make a choice: They are either with the international community in
rejecting Iranian terrorism or they remain with this terrorist militia.
Hezbollah has held Lebanon hostage for decades, but it is now time the country
returned to being a pillar of science, economics, coexistence, tourism and
trade.
Regarding Syria, the Republican project states that: “Congress must stress the
administration’s position in support of a political transition and the
withdrawal of all Iranian forces from Syria.” It affirms that there is no
solution in Syria with Bashar Assad remaining in power and calls for the full
implementation of the Caesar Act to ensure that the countries neighboring Syria
do not cooperate with the regime.
Iranian militias helped the regime destroy Syria and kill thousands of
civilians. Their stay in Syria means a repetition of the Iraqi scenario, though
it may even be worse. The first person responsible for the massacres and
destruction is Assad, who called on Iran and its militias for help. If Assad
stays in power, it would mean the survival of his relationship with Iran and
Hezbollah, while his demise would weaken Iran, which could be considered as a
small gift of humanity to compensate the people of Syria, who have suffered and
sacrificed a lot.
In Yemen, imposing sanctions on the Iran-backed Houthis and placing them on the
list of terrorist organizations is a long-awaited solution. The Iranian regime
is the world’s largest supporter of terrorism, so everyone who joins it must be
classed as the same and be held to account. Yemen is suffering from a major
humanitarian crisis because of the Houthi militia, which steals humanitarian aid
and prevents it from reaching those in need. Saving Yemen from this vile group
would provide salvation for nearly 30 million Yemenis and stop another Hezbollah
from taking over the country.
Tehran, which also threatens international navigation and global trade, even
hides behind the Houthis, as it got them to claim responsibility for the
terrorist attacks on the Saudi Aramco installations in Khurais and Abqaiq last
September.
The Republican strategy shows that there is a will to counter Iran’s arms and
militias and put an end to the regime’s evil. Whoever wants to defeat Tehran
will begin with its militias — a course will lead it either to the negotiating
table or to suicide.
*Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri is a political analyst and international relations
scholar. Twitter: @DrHamsheri
Plan to withdraw US troops from Europe a mistake
Luke Coffey/Arab News/June 14/2020
It has been reported that President Donald Trump is instructing the Department
of Defense to draw up plans to withdraw almost 10,000 US soldiers currently
based in Germany by September. For many observers of transatlantic relations,
this news came out of the blue for a number of reasons.
September seems like an impossible deadline. There seems to have been no
consultation with America’s allies in Europe over this issue. There are many
unanswered questions. For example, where would these 10,000 troops go if they
were returned to the US? After all, it is not just the troops but also their
family members who would need a place to live, access to health care, and
schooling for children — and at such short notice.
But the biggest surprise in this news is that it would undermine all the
progress the Trump administration has made with transatlantic security. Since
2017, the US has increased the number of its troops and training exercises in
Europe, while bolstering spending on European defense. After doing so much to
improve security in Europe, why take so many troops out of Germany now?
Perhaps Trump is trying to put more pressure on Germany to do more inside NATO.
Germany is Europe’s biggest economy but fails to meet even the most basic NATO
spending requirements for its military. Perhaps he is trying to score political
points during election year. After all, bringing US troops home from Germany
would resonate well with Americans, who believe that Europe is not pulling its
weight in NATO.
US troop numbers in Europe have come down drastically over the years. During the
height of the Cold War, there were more than 300,000 US soldiers based across
the western half of the continent. After the Soviet Union collapsed, this number
was sharply reduced in the 1990s. Today, there are roughly 34,000 US soldiers
permanently based in Europe, with a few thousand more regularly rotating to the
continent for military training exercises.
It is important to remember that American troops are in Europe today first and
foremost for US national interests. They are not there just to protect
Europeans. While the presence of US troops on the continent might bring
additional security to European countries, this is a consequence of, and not the
reason for, their presence.
American troops are in Europe today first and foremost for US national
interests. They are not there just to protect Europeans.
There are four reasons why it is in America’s national security interest to
maintain a robust military presence in Europe. First, the stability and security
provided by the US troops benefit the transatlantic economy as a whole.
Together, North America and Europe account for almost half of the world’s gross
domestic product. They are each other’s No. 1 source of foreign direct
investment. They are each other’s No. 1 trading partner. They are also
responsible for creating millions of jobs for each other.
Other than the fighting with Russia in Eastern Ukraine, and pockets of
instability in the western Balkans, Europe has not known this level of peace and
stability in centuries. The US military presence makes this a reality.
Secondly, the reason for US troops in Europe goes beyond Europe. The military
presence in Europe gives American policymakers more options and flexibility to
respond to crises on Europe’s periphery. The huge US military garrisons during
the Cold War are now America’s forward operating bases in the 21st century. From
North Africa through to the Levant, past the Caucasus and into Russia, and then
up to the Arctic, there is a zone of instability and unpredictability.
Overlaying this region are some of the world’s most important oil and gas
pipelines, shipping lanes, and fiber optic cables.
Thirdly, Russia is getting increasingly aggressive and the US has NATO
obligations to help defend Europe. Whether it was in 2008, when Russia invaded
Georgia, or in 2014, when it illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine, Moscow has
shown a willingness to use military force to meet national objectives.
The large US military presence in Europe serves as an important deterrence
against Russian aggression, especially among NATO’s members in Central and
Eastern Europe. After all, it is far easier to deter Russian aggression and to
defend the Baltic states than it would be to liberate them. And stability in
Europe creates the conditions for economic prosperity. European economic
prosperity benefits the US economy for reasons already mentioned. Therefore, as
long as Russia remains a threat to European stability, then US forces have a
role to play on the continent.
Finally, withdrawing US forces in this unexpected manner will be watched by
America’s friends and foes alike. There has been very little, if any,
consultation with NATO members or America’s other partners in Europe about this
possible troop withdrawal. Many of America’s friends in other places, like East
Asia or the Gulf, will wonder if they might be next.
Also, the Trump administration should not believe that the withdrawal of 10,000
US troops from Europe can be considered as a goodwill gesture to Russia to
improve relations. On the contrary, Moscow will see this withdrawal as a sign of
weakness. This was the case in 2009, when President Barack Obama unexpectedly
removed key components of America’s missile defense system in Eastern Europe
leading up to his administration’s so-called “reset” with Russia. Only a few
years later, the reset became a regret. Russia was invading Ukraine and changing
the borders in Europe by using military force for the first time since 1945.
Trump should not repeat the same mistake.
At this stage, the president has not given the green light to remove the troops.
He is only asking for a plan. Let’s hope that this is a ploy to put pressure on
Germany to do more within NATO. However unwilling some in Europe might be to
invest more in their armed forces, an American withdrawal from the continent is
not the right answer. It will only invite aggression that will weaken the US and
the transatlantic community.
*Luke Coffey is director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign
Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Twitter: @LukeDCoffey
Changes afoot for Middle East’s Kurds
Yasar Yakis/Arab News/June 14/2020
The fate of the Kurds is in a constant state of flux in all countries that have
a sizable Kurdish minority.
US efforts to consolidate the Kurdish identity in Syria continue unabated. At
first sight, this may look inconsistent with the American policy of shifting its
focus from the Middle East to the Pacific Rim, but it is not. The US policy on
Kurds is part and parcel of Israel’s security and is likely to remain so for a
long time.
The entire fabric of Syria is in the process of taking a new shape. The Syrian
government is negotiating with the Kurds on how to integrate them into the
future state structures, while the US wants to use them as a bargaining chip to
pressure the Assad regime.
Based on the support the Kurds receive from both Russia and the US, they will
probably try to grab as many competences as possible during this process. But
the game is far from being over. Even the light at the end of the tunnel is not
yet in sight. Too many factors are interacting in Syria to determine the final
outcome.
US President Donald Trump, weary of unnecessary American military involvement in
various parts of the world, might like to find an accommodation with Russia —
and Syria could be the country where this accommodation is tested. Because of
the fluidity of the situation in Syria, it is too soon to tell whether such
cooperation will materialize. If it does, Turkey will face both risks and
opportunities. The risk is that the two superpowers’ policies will contradict
that of Ankara. The opportunity is that Turkey could cooperate with both of
them.
In Iran, the promotion of the Kurdish cause is compounded with provoking
dissidence in order to destabilize the country. Its impact on Israel’s security
is a slightly more distant target.
The US’ handling of Turkey’s Kurdish file differs from other countries where
there are Kurdish minorities.
In Iraq, the Kurdish cause reached the level of a proclamation of independence
in 2017, but that backfired for several reasons stemming from the prevailing
circumstances at the time. The US opposed the proclamation for reasons of
political expediency, but the process cannot be considered complete. It is being
kept in the refrigerator for the time being.
The US’ handling of Turkey’s Kurdish file differs from other countries where
there are Kurdish minorities. It recognizes the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
as a terrorist organization, as do the EU and other NATO member countries. The
US authorities were even the main actors in capturing PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan
in the Greek Embassy in Kenya and securing his extradition to Turkey. But the US
authorities continue to deny that the strongest Kurdish political party in
Syria, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), is the Syrian branch of the PKK.
On the link between the Kurdish cause and Israel’s security, videos circulate in
Turkey from time to time claiming that even the establishment of Turkey’s ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP) is related to it. It is claimed that this
footage shows that, in 1998, a group of Americans came to Turkey to meet
intellectuals and politicians and negotiated with them to help carry them to
power, provide financing, and neutralize any obstacles in their way. In exchange
for this, the Americans asked for support for Israel’s security.
Journalist Abdurrahman Dilipak claimed to have worked on these proposals, met
influential people in Ankara, and persuaded them to translate these ideas into
action. This was how the AKP was established. At the beginning, the videos
looked like a conspiracy theory, but Ali Bulac, one of the journalists who
apparently attended the negotiations, published in 2014 an article in the
Turkish daily Zaman admitting that he was present.
Irrespective of this background, there is encouraging news about the Kurdish
question in Turkey. Two months ago, Ocalan was allowed to speak to his brother
for the first time in 21 years. He told his brother that the PKK should not
fight with the Iraqi Kurdish leaders. Meanwhile, the leader of the Syrian Kurds,
Mazloum Kobani Abdi, last week announced that they had completed the first round
of their negotiations with the Iraqi Kurds’ Masoud Barzani.
These messages lack clarity, but we may be on the threshold of new developments
on the subject of the Kurds in the Middle East. As far as Turkey is concerned,
this may be part of Erdogan’s strategy to win more Kurdish votes for his party.
*Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkey and founding member of the
ruling AK Party. Twitter: @yakis_yasar