English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For June 19/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 16/20-24/:”Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labour, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 18-19/2020
Six New Coronavirus Cases in Lebanon
Presidency of the Republic extends invitations to Baabda national meeting: Aims to discuss general political developments and to seek calm
Lebanese Cabinet 'Open' to 'Turning East' Economically, Won't Renew Sonatrach Contract
EU Ambassadors in South Lebanon Support UNIFIL's Mission
Scuffles, Jounieh Highway Blocked over Activist's Arrest
Central Bank Governor to Go on Trial in October
Berri tackles developments with Frangieh: National interest requires unanimous opinion
Franjieh Meets Hariri, Says Aoun's Tenure Doesn't Enjoy 'Sunni Cover'
Backing Aoun for President ‘Might be a Mistake,’ Says Geagea
Diab: Airport Reopening to Positively Impact Economy
Crowds Gather Outside Money Changers to Buy Dollars
Loyalty to the Resistance denounces “Caesar” Act, pledges cooperation to clamp down on discord
Jumblatt tackles latest developments with Jamaa Islamiya delegation
Lebanese Politicians Blame Hezbollah for Financial Crisis
Fresh Graduates: Lebanon’s New Poor
IMF reiterates reforms as government advisor resigns over inaction/Georgi Azar/Annahar/18 June/ 2020
Lebanon: Thwarting the Uprising or Sectarian Wars/Hussam Itani/Asharq Al Awsat/June18/2020
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) analyzes antisemitic rhetoric used in Hezbollah textbooks for children/Jerusalem Post/June 18/2020
Lebanon’s health experts warn of national 'mental health pandemic'/Sunniva Rose/The National/June 18/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 18-19/2020
Concerns Rise in Moscow over Repercussions of ‘Caesar
Zarif claims solution is possible to allow access to two nuclear sites in Iran
Iran Test Fires Cruise Missile in Naval Drill
Iran Says 'Cruel' US Sanctions Worsen Syrians' Suffering
Iran’s IRGC attacks Iranian Kurdish groups in Iraq
Turkey Says it Hit 500 PKK Targets in Northern Iraq
Four Rockets Hit Baghdad's Green Zone
US Lawmakers Hint at Sanctions Against Jordan
Arab League Seeks Int’l Alliance against Israel’s Annexation of the West Bank
Jordan’s FM Visits Abbas Amid Israel Tensions
Syrian refugees file law suit against Qatar's Doha Bank for terror funding
Ethiopia, Egypt Exchange Accusations on Deadlocked Renaissance Dam Talks
Tunisia: Resignations Threaten Future of Tahya Tounes Party
Abused Egyptian Laborers Return from Libya
Ex-Aide Bolton Says Trump Unfit for Office
G7 Foreign Ministers’ Statement on Hong Kong

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 18-19/2020
ISIS Terrorists Cannot Be Allowed to Reclaim Iraq/Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/June 18/2020
Is All We Are the Color of Our Skin?/Drieu Godefridi/Gatestone Institute/June 18/2020
Why John Bolton Is Seeking Regime Change Against Donald Trump/Curt Mills/The National Interest/June 18/2020
Iran still works to obtain weapons of mass destruction tech – German intel/Benjamin Weinthal/FDD/June 18/2020
Sanctions Against Syria Will Help, Not Harm, Civilians/David Adesnik/Toby Dershowitz/Foreign Policy
EU leaders under pressure as bloc approaches crossroads/Andrew Hammond/Arab News/June 18/2020
World cannot afford to take its eyes off North Korea-South Korea tensions/Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/June 18/2020
Iran and Russia cannot afford to lose Syria’s Bashar Assad as an ally/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/June 18/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 18-19/2020
Six New Coronavirus Cases in Lebanon
Naharnet/June 18/2020
Lebanon confirmed six more COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Thursday. Five of the cases were recorded among residents while an expat repatriated from Syria was identified as the sixth case.
The Ministry said two of the local cases have been traced to known sources.
The infected expat hails from Brital while the local cases were recorded in Ghobeiri, Barja, Aramoun and and Hay el-Sillom. The new cases raise the country’s tally to 1,495, among them 32 deaths and 944 recoveries.

Presidency of the Republic extends invitations to Baabda national meeting: Aims to discuss general political developments and to seek calm
NNA/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
The Presidency of the Republic stated the goal of the national meeting, to be held Thursday 25th of June, at Baabda Palace, which is devoted to “Discuss and deliberate the general and political situation and seek calm, at multiple levels, to protect stability and civil peace, in addition to avoiding instabilities whose consequences may be dire, and destructive to the country, especially in light of the economic, financial and social conditions, which Lebanon has never witnessed before”.
The General Directorate of Protocol at the Presidency had sent written invitations, on behalf of the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, to the invitees: Speaker of the Parliament, Prime Minister, former Presidents of the Republic, former Prime Ministers, the Deputy of the Speaker of the Parliament, Party Chiefs, and heads of Parliamentary Blocs.
The President also held political, developmental, educational and administrative meetings, today at Baabda Palace.
MP Assad Dergham:
President Aoun received MP, Assaad Dergham,today at the Presidential Palace, and deliberated with him recent developments, andthe needs of Akkar region.
MP Dergham said that he thanked the President for his fairness with the Orthodox community in recent appointments, and asserted President Aoun’s interest in balanced development to represent all Lebanese regions, including Akkar.
Governor of Beirut:
President Michel Aoun met the Governor of Beirut, Judge Marwan Abboud.
The President wished Abboud success in his newly assumed responsibilities and gave him the necessary directives to take care of the Lebanese Capital, in all aspects.
Principal of Jamhour School:
The President met with the Jamhour School Principal, Father Charbel Bator, and discussed with him the current educational situation, and the difficulties facing this sector.
Father Bator said that he submitted a memorandum, to President Aoun, which includes a series of demands to confront this suffocating crisis which schools experience. These demands include exempting schools from measures taken by the Government in future economic plans aimed at deducting part of the sums of some depositors (Hair Cut), or obliging them to lease a portion of their funds as a contribution to some of the banks (Bail-In), in addition to exempting educational funds from fees and paying the sums due on the Lebanese state due to the half-free schools which date back to 4 years ago, and the amounts due on social security due to educational institutions, especially large amounts dating back to more than 5 years ago.
The memorandum also included the necessity of applying the full Law No.210 (of May 26, 2000), regarding the exemption of every recognized sect in Lebanon and the legal entities affiliated, from taxes and fees, in addition to exempting schools from municipal fees and securing loans to private schools through the Central Bank with zero interest. This aims to the facilitation of salary-paying for employees, in case students’ families cannot afford school fees. -- Presidency Press Office

Lebanese Cabinet 'Open' to 'Turning East' Economically, Won't Renew Sonatrach Contract
Naharnet/June 18/2020
The government on Thursday expressed openness to economic cooperation with “Eastern countries” such as China, Iran and Russia, in the wake of calls in this direction from Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
“There was unanimity on being open towards everyone in a manner that achieves the country’s interest,” Information Minister Manal Abdul Samad said after a Cabinet session, responding to a reporter’s question about the matter.
Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar meanwhile said that Cabinet decided not to renew the contract with Algerian oil company Sonatrach following the latest controversy over a ship carrying counterfeit fuel to Lebanon’s power plants.
“The book of terms has become almost ready and we are discussing it with the procurement authority,” Ghajar added. Cabinet meanwhile approved a proposal from the Education Ministry to reopen universities and technical institutions to complete the academic year and conduct exams in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown, while observing “all the health and precautionary measures.”

EU Ambassadors in South Lebanon Support UNIFIL's Mission
Naharnet/June 18/2020
A 15-member delegation of the European Union comprising Ambassadors and senior diplomatic officials accredited to Lebanon visited the UNIFIL Headquarters as well as the Mission’s area of operations and the Blue Line on Thursday.
UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Stefano Del Col received the delegation, led by the Chargée d’Affaires a.i. of the EU Julia Koch De Biolley, at the UNIFIL HQs in Naqoura.
The delegation included the Ambassadors and representatives of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Spain.
Major General Del Col briefed the visiting delegation on “the crucial work carried by the Mission, together with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), in stabilizing the situation in south Lebanon and along the Blue Line,” a UNIFIL statement said. He also joined the visitors during a tour of the Blue Line near the south-western Lebanese village of Ramyah. In his remarks, the UNIFIL head lauded the support of the EU bloc for the Mission’s work, adding that the visit attests to the importance the EU places on UNIFIL’s work in south Lebanon. “Please be assured that the peacekeepers from your countries have been playing an extremely significant role in maintaining the cessation of hostilities, de-escalating tension in the UNIFIL area of operations and preserving stability along the Blue Line,” he continued. “The work of your troops has reinforced the Mission’s strong operational tempo, which is demonstrated by the fact that the area has enjoyed an unprecedented 14 years of calm.”De Biolley said the EU and its Member States acknowledge UNIFIL’s “unique and important role” in ensuring Lebanon’s security and stability.
“Our joint visit to South Lebanon today is a manifestation of the European Union and its Member States’ continuous commitment to the work of UNIFIL and the Lebanese authorities in ensuring continued peace, security and stability in South Lebanon,” she added. “We continue to support all aspects of UNIFIL's work. Its deployment alongside the Lebanese Armed Forces is crucial to maintaining stability in southern Lebanon and along the Lebanese shores.”
The EU contributes significantly to the implementation of UNIFIL’s mandate in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolution 1701.
Sixteen of its 27 Member States contribute troops to UNIFIL, accounting for 33 percent of the Mission’s more than 10,000 peacekeepers. While serving with UNIFIL, peacekeepers from EU countries have been investing “monetary and other resources in the development of south Lebanese communities, which in turn has become a stabilizing factor of the area,” according to the UNIFIL statement.
“Of late, they have ramped up support to the host communities in their collective fight against the COVID-19 Coronavirus,” the statement said.
“In addition, both within and outside the framework of UNIFIL’s mandate, EU Member States have invested significantly in raising the capabilities of the LAF (Lebanese Army) as well as its Navy,” it added.

Scuffles, Jounieh Highway Blocked over Activist's Arrest
Naharnet/June 18/2020
Demonstrators on Thursday blocked the vital Jounieh-Beirut highway with burning tires in protest at the arrest of the activist Michel Chamoun. An Internal Security Forces officer had earlier been injured in the head by a flying stone as scuffles erupted outside Jounieh's serail during the transfer of Chamoun to another detention center. The army later tried to reopen the highway several times as protesters stood their ground, which eventually resulted in fresh scuffles.
Chamoun was reportedly arrested over a social media post.

Central Bank Governor to Go on Trial in October
Naharnet/June 18/2020
Criminal Judge in Beirut Lara Abdul Samad has set October 14 to begin the trial of Central Bank governor Riad Salameh in a lawsuit filed by People Want to Reform the Regime group, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.
A group of Lebanese lawyers, who are also activists in the group, filed the lawsuit against Salameh including Haitham Ezzo, Hassan Bazi, Jad Tohmeh, Pierre Gemayel, Joseph Wanis, Francois Kamel, Basel Abbas, and Joey Haddad a journalist. They said the lawsuit was filed for the alleged violation of Articles 319, 320, 359, 360, 363, and 373 of the Penal Code, NNA said.

Berri tackles developments with Frangieh: National interest requires unanimous opinion
NNA/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Speaker of the House, Nabih Berri, on Thursday welcomed at the second presidential headquarters in Ain El-Tineh, “Marda Movement" leader, former Minister Sleiman Frangieh, in the presence of Deputy Tony Franjieh and other senior officials. In the wake of the meeting, which lasted for more than an hour, and regarding his participation in Baabda meeting, Frangieh affirmed that talks with the House Speaker had affirmed that national interest and the country’s prevailing situation required an agreement on “one opinion that best serves the future of the country.”Frangieh also stressed that the most important factor nowadays was national solidarity. Separately, Speaker Berri welcomed Ambassador of Paraguay in Lebanon, Osvaldo Adib Al-Bitar, with whom he discussed the country’s general situation, as well as bilateral relations between the two countries.
Ambassador Bitar applauded the great role played by the Lebanese community in Paraguay in promoting friendship between the two peoples, especially in helping the Lebanese community in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic.
Later in the afternoon, Speaker Berri met German Ambassador to Lebanon, George Birgelen, who paid him a farewell visit upon winding up his mission in Lebanon.

Franjieh Meets Hariri, Says Aoun's Tenure Doesn't Enjoy 'Sunni Cover'
Naharnet/June 18/2020
Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh on Thursday held talks with al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri at the Center House, amid a flurry of meetings between political leaders in recent days.
“We consulted over the economic situation and we have a common vision,” said Franjieh after the talks. As for the national multi-party talks that President Michel Aoun will host in Baabda, Franjieh said: “There is time till the Baabda meeting and what’s important is for it to reach a real and not a superficial agreement.”“We are all convinced that national accord is necessary,” he added. Noting that he is yet to decide whether or not to attend the meeting, Franjieh pointed out that “Sunnis’ real representatives are not present in power.”
“Hariri does not need support and today the presidential tenure does not enjoy a Sunni cover,” the Marada leader added, emphasizing that his relation with Hariri has been and will always be stable.

Backing Aoun for President ‘Might be a Mistake,’ Says Geagea
Naharnet/June 18/2020
Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea on Thursday said the party’s backing to bring President Michel Aoun to the post might have been a “wrong assessment,” he said in an interview with Kuwaiti al-Qabas newspaper. Geagea commented on whether the Maarab agreement between the LF and the Free Patriotic Movement chief (Aoun) in 2016 negatively impacted the party. “At first glance this impression may be correct, but I did not touch this in practice,” said Geagea. He added: “What options were available then? Settlement or continuation of the vacuum at the presidential post. At the time, that is how we assessed the matter - and it might be wrong - that General Aoun's election was better than the vacuum. I acknowledge that the assessment might be wrong, because in such matters it is difficult to evaluate things accurately.” The 2016 Maarab agreement brought the two largest Christian forces in Lebanon together. It also saw Geagea relinquish his candidacy to support Aoun for president. Aoun was elected later that year. Ties have been strained between Geagea and Aoun. Geagea considers Aoun as “part of the trinity that bears, at least in the last ten years, a large part of responsibility for the situation that we have come to.”

Diab: Airport Reopening to Positively Impact Economy
Naharnet/June 18/2020
Prime Minister Hassan Diab emphasized during the cabinet meeting on Thursday on the impact of reopening the country’s airport on Lebanon’s crisis-stricken economy. Diab said reopening the terminal has a “positive” impact on the economic situation. However, he stressed the need to maintain stability to encourage travel to Lebanon. He also considered the efforts to combat corruption a “priority.”The cabinet convened at the Grand Serail to tackle the latest developments
Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport resumes activity for commercial flights starting July 1, but with anti-coronavirus measures. Air traffic will be limited at 10% of capacity from a year ago. The airport has taken measures to guarantee social distancing among passengers, while placing disinfectants in different locations for personal hygiene to contain the COVID-19 spread.

Crowds Gather Outside Money Changers to Buy Dollars
Naharnet/June 18/2020
Lebanese stood in long queues again on Thursday outside the money exchange shops in some Lebanese regions to buy scarce dollars. In the eastern Bekaa region and in the southern city of Sidon, people stood early in the morning and waited for exchange stores to open their doors to get dollars pumped by the central bank before the quantity ran out. The Syndicate of Money Exchange Houses set the exchange rates for the dollar selling at a minimum of LL3,900 while the buying rate was set at a maximum of LL3,850. The Lebanese pound remains officially pegged to the US currency at a rate of 1,507 per dollar but its value has tumbled on the black market. It lost almost 70 percent of its value compared with the official rate. The central bank has reportedly started pumping (limited amount) dollars into the Lebanese market on Monday to strengthen the Lebanese pound.
Because of an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, Lebanese banks have gradually restricted dollar withdrawals since late last year, forcing those in need to buy them at a higher rate on the black market.

Loyalty to the Resistance denounces “Caesar” Act, pledges cooperation to clamp down on discord
NNA/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Loyalty to the Resistance bloc on Thursday held its weekly meeting at its headquarters in Haret Hreik, headed by MP Mohammad Raad. The bloc broached an array of local and regional issues and developments, and touched on “the so-called Caesar Act”. “This American Act targets Lebanon, as well as Syria; it is an attempt to blackmail both countries’ sovereign and national rights,” the bloc said in a statement issued in the wake of the meeting. “The Caesar Act is an American law that supports the Israeli aggression against Syria and Lebanon. Its goal is to implement the policy of impoverishment and starvation against both of our peoples, and to besiege them under the equation of hunger or humiliation. It is an unacceptable and condemned formula that must be dropped at any cost,” the statement added. Moreover, the bloc expressed commitment to support all of the efforts aimed at controlling internal stability, blocking the path to chaos and discord, and addressing provocations by communicating with the authorities and acting wisely. The bloc also affirmed the need to narrow differences amongst the Lebanese in a bid to unanimously reach a rescue path to the dire monetary and financial situation. It also suggested opening all the horizons of cooperation with all friendly countries. Touching on scandals involving manipulation of the national currency’s exchange rate, the bloc said that it was the judiciary’s task to swiftly apprehend the perpetrators of this dangerous crime, clarify its domestic and external links, and consequently inform the public opinion about it. In view of the deteriorating living conditions and their social repercussions, including the loss of goods such as diesel oil, the bloc called on the government and concerned sides to assume their role and responsibilities to handle the situation swiftly and aptly.

Jumblatt tackles latest developments with Jamaa Islamiya delegation
NNA/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) leader, Walid Jumblatt, welcomed in Clemenceau on Thursday, a delegation of the Jamaa Islamiya, with talks featuring high on latest developments and the general situation.
The meeting took place in the presence of "Democratic Gathering" MP Bilal Abdullah. Both sides emphasized ongoing communication and the importance of exerting every effort to fortify stability, as per a statement by the PSP.

Lebanese Politicians Blame Hezbollah for Financial Crisis
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Head of the Kataeb Party MP Sami Gemayel said that Lebanon was paying the price for Hezbollah’s policy. “No one has the right to drag us into the place they want, and no one has the right to impose on us a lifestyle that we don’t want,” he said. His comments came in response to a recent speech by the movement’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. Gemayel emphasized that Hezbollah “cannot absolve itself from the economic reality that we have reached,” adding that the movement was preventing the army from closing the illegal crossings.
“We don’t want to live in isolation and be cut off from the West, Arabs and the entire world,” Gemayel remarked. Addressing Nasrallah, he said: “We are not agents; rather, we are Lebanese. We consider you a Lebanese like us, and we ask you to join us under the constitution in order to build a new Lebanon.”
Nasrallah’s words were met with rejection, especially his call to resort to the East and deal with China instead of the US. Lebanese Forces MP Pierre Bou Assi said on his Twitter account: “Well done, sir. Just like that, camels are driven; but we are not camels.” He continued: “No; We will not sacrifice our last hard currencies to save the Syrian regime... Our dollars belong to our citizens, the depositors, and they alone have the right to benefit from them.”For his part, former MP Fares Soueid replied to Nasrallah saying: “You give us nothing but sedition and backwardness.”Soueid emphasized adherence to the Constitution, the Taif Agreement, saying that Lebanon cannot be ruled by an authoritarian group.

Fresh Graduates: Lebanon’s New Poor
Beirut - Sanaa Al-Jack/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Engineers, lawyers, school teachers and holders of university degrees, whose parents have paid a fortune for their education, are now facing unemployment. Available unemployment figures are frightening, while the real numbers are much greater than the declared data. The latest of these figures indicates that about 36 percent of workers in the private sector have lost their salaries, and it is expected that the number of unemployed will exceed 500,000 due to the worsening financial crisis, which has been further exacerbated by the lockdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
Farouk, an activist in a charity group, says that the classification of the poor has changed, as they no longer only constitute the destitute class who cannot educate their children, but also degree holders, who were until recently considered from the middle class.
In a survey on living conditions issued by the General Directorate of the Central Statistics Department for the period between April 2018 and March 2019, the unemployment rate among young people with university degrees reached 37%. This rate is expected to rise this year, given that 32,000 students graduate from Lebanese universities annually. Saiid, who refuses to disclose his real name spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on a more painful experience. He is married, the father of two children and holds a degree in business administration. He was working for a commercial establishment with a salary that allowed him to obtain a housing loan years ago. However, he was surprised by his dismissal three months ago. “When I was informed of my lay-off, I felt like the earth was shaking under my feet. Were it not for my family’s support and my faith in God, I would have committed suicide,” he bitterly says. “I cannot plan for the future, nor do I know how I will continue to pay my house loan or the education fees of my children.”Hisham, 28, who holds a graduate degree in biochemical sciences, writes on his Facebook page: “After obtaining a respectable diploma… you start planning for your future and you get a decent job within your major. Overnight, you wake up to find that everything has disappeared.” Hisham was dismissed from his job six months ago. He says that the small company he worked for has closed. He is trying to find work abroad, but the circumstances thwarted his efforts, and today, as other young Lebanese, he is waiting for an opportunity to emigrate.

IMF reiterates reforms as government advisor resigns over inaction
Georgi Azar/Annahar/18 June/ 2020
"Officials are still discussing how to restructure the debt and financial sector," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said.
BEIRUT: Lebanon's discussions with the International Monetary Fund are ongoing, an IMF spokesman said on Thursday, coinciding with the resignation of the Ministry of Finance' advisor and member of the government's negotiation team. It is still premature to discuss the scope of any potential IMF program, Gerry Rice said, adding that both sides are still deliberating to determine "losses and distribute them in an effective and equitable manner".""The Lebanese government needs to implement comprehensive, equitable reforms in many areas," he said, as the small Mediterranean country grapples with a dual monetary and financial crisis."Officials are still discussing how to restructure the debt and financial sector," Rice said. Pompeo has joined President Donald Trump in criticizing China’s response to the outbreak, including giving credence to a theory that the virus may have emerged from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan.
The World Health Organization last month bowed to calls from most of its member states to investigate how it managed the response to the virus, but the evaluation would stop short of looking into the origins of the virus. China maintains that controlling the virus’s spread should be given priority.
China is also being called on to relieve the virus’ financial consequences in Africa. South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed Chinese leader Xi Jinping during an online China-Africa summit. He reminded China that African nations are seeking significant debt relief as they battle the pandemic.
African nations have called for a two-year suspension of debt payments and other relief that would allow them to focus resources on the health crisis. But China, Africa’s biggest creditor, has not indicated it will offer a sweeping solution and experts say it will focus instead on bilateral arrangements with countries.
Ramaphosa urged China to offer more relief or propose alternatives, warning that “the worst is still to come” for Africa in the pandemic.
Xi in his speech said he hopes the international community, “especially developed countries and multilateral financial institutions, will act more forcefully on debt relief and suspension for Africa.”
The virus has infected more than 8.3 million people since it emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. More than 448,000 people have died from COVID-19, according to a Johns Hopkins tally of official data. Both numbers are believed to be deeply undercounted due to limited testing and other factors.
The United States has the most cases and deaths by far, with 2.1 million people infected and more than 117,000 dead. Americans have wrestled with deep emotional divides between those who support lockdowns and restrictions like wearing masks to stop the spread of the virus and those who believe such measures infringe on personal freedoms.
Other countries were confronting politicized debates and growing infections.
India recorded its highest one-day increase of 12,281 cases, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi rejected imposing a new lockdown, saying the country has to think about further unlocking the economy. Turkish authorities made masks mandatory in three major cities following an uptick in cases since the country allowed the reopening of many businesses. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was hospitalized with COVID-19 and pneumonia as the country struggles under the pandemic’s strain and cases rise sharply in the capital. Mexico’s cases continued to increase at near-record levels with few signs of a decrease, even as the economy starts reopening. More than a week after New Zealand declared itself virus-free, the country has confirmed three new cases. The South Pacific country appears to have eliminated community transmission of the virus, but officials confirmed a man arriving from Pakistan tested positive after earlier confirming cases in two women returning from Britain.
While air travel is a concern about transmission of the virus as economies reopen, two Australian universities are planning a charter flight for likely the first foreign students to return to Australian campuses. Australian National University and Canberra University expect to fly 350 students from Singapore in late July. The students would go into hotel quarantine on arrival. Prime Minister Scott Morrison supported the universities’ plan, which would be a pilot program for reopening Australia’s lucrative education sector. “I’m looking to get our economy as close as back to normal as we possibly can and to push the envelope in every possible area,” Morrison told reporters.But China, which is Australia’s largest source of foreign students, providing 200,000 last year, has warned its citizens to stay away from the country because of the risk of pandemic-related racism. China opposes Australia’s calls for an independent investigation into the origins of and responses to the pandemic.

Lebanon: Thwarting the Uprising or Sectarian Wars
Hussam Itani/Asharq Al Awsat/June18/2020
The violent nights that Beirut and Tripoli have witnessed since June 6 were reminiscent of the specter of the civil war and delineated the limits of what a peaceful uprising could reach when facing a dominant group in Lebanon.
All it took were a few hundred young people to take to the streets of downtown Beirut and cursing religious symbols followed by the attempt of a few dozens of motorcyclists to forcefully enter the Christian area of Ain el-Remmaneh for the erection of virtual barrier that has prevented any democratic or civil movement in the country from making progress, reminding the Lebanese of the frontlines that still separate them 30 years after their last war of subjugation.
Since the mid-19th century and through the entire 20th century, whenever social and political tensions would escalate, even if within the same sect, such as the Keserwan peasant revolt against the al-Khazen feudal family in 1858, it would degenerate into a sectarian conflict that would then obscure the social causes that were behind the uprising, bringing to the fore the real fragile composition of the Lebanese entity and its vulnerability to any foreign intervention. Examples of the latter include the French campaign in 1860, the deployment of the US marines on the Lebanese coast after the 1958 incidents, and the intervention of the Syrian forces in 1976 to thwart Leftist-Palestinian advances and reconsolidate the provisions of the system stipulated in 1943.
In addition, there have been numerous interventions and assaults by forces and countries that have taken advantage of the Lebanese disputes and the fragility of the society and its political structure to serve agendas that bring nothing but devastation and the consecration of civil sub-state divisions.
The Iranian expansion is no exception to this list of interventions, turning Lebanon into a battlefield between Iran and proponents of the Syrian regime, on the hand, and the US that has now pulled out the sword of sanctions in the form of the Caesar Act, on the other, as a by-product of Lebanon’s involvement in the Syrian war that has deepened civil strife and escalated local tensions.
Activists of the uprising discovered, then, that their failure to achieve any political gains at the peak of the movement last October and November gave way for the authorities and their parties to revitalize mechanisms of sectarian dominion that are based on a mutual fear that is reinforced by the hunger, which has become one of the elements of the “counter-revolution”, so to speak, in that it allows those who wish to thwart the uprising to empty it of its change-oriented content to mobilize young people who are willing to do anything for an insubstantial sum of money.
The burning of commercial shops in Beirut and Tripoli was a sign that the uprising is rotting and reaching a deadlock and a symptom of its inability to develop its discourse and practices so as to respond to the challenges posed by sectarianism and violence, in other words, what hundreds of thousands of protesters had denounced since the first day of the uprising.
The truth is that nobody can predict the mood of an angry street standing at the brink of starvation being eaten away by unprecedented unemployment rates. Many signs indicate that tensions within sects, especially among Sunnis and Shiites, may even become more violent and sharper than conflicts between the two sects. Saad Hariri’s waning leadership and the insistence of several Sunni figures to compete with him in what could be called al-Mustaqbal Movement’s traditional strongholds, using money, marketing and provocation that is only matched by the frustration of Shiites who have been prevented from protesting as a result of pressures by the Shiite duo, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, in light of deteriorating living conditions and shrinking services that the duo used to provide its supporters.
These pressures are exacerbated by persistent attempts by the Syrian regime’s Lebanese allies to provide financial support to the latter, depleting already scarce Lebanese resources.
Nothing is easier for Lebanese politicians than to resort to their favorite game: Diverting every social and economic movement from the national course that many Lebanese had thought would unite them against the ruling class, and pushing it toward civil conflict, guaranteeing the repetition of similar previous and new experiences. By doing so, they retrieve the map of conflicts to clarity, and the ruling class, made up of an alliance that is hostile to any form of national unity, restores its capacity to rule and to dominate both politically and culturally.
Decades ago, young Lebanese writers discovered that Lebanon is threatened by two devastating potential scenarios: If it gets too involved in regional conflicts, Israel will invade it, and if the tension of internal social disputes heats up, a civil war will break out. Both happened in the seventies and eighties, and here we are once again, standing before a country that is ready to march towards a new catastrophe, without any prospects for solution or hope in change and salvation.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) analyzes antisemitic rhetoric used in Hezbollah textbooks for children
Jerusalem Post/June 18/2020
رابطة مكافحة التشهير (ADL) تحلل الخطاب المعادي للسامية المستخدم في كتب حزب الله للأطفال
The ADL asserts that using these books to teach Lebanese children carefully builds a "systematic and egregious incitement to antisemitism and support for terrorism" with these youths.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has called on the United States and other government entities to issue new sanctions pointed in the direction of educational institutions in Lebanon that use textbooks sponsored by the terrorist group Hezbollah.
The ADL asserts that using these books to teach Lebanese children carefully builds a "systematic and egregious incitement to antisemitism and support for terrorism" with these youths, after the NGO ran a full analysis on two of the texts being used today in these educational institutions.
“It is shocking that children from kindergarten on up are being spoon-fed a diet of antisemitism, drawing on pernicious canards such as Jews are satanic, the Jews killed Christ, and the Jews are trying to undermine other religions to control the world,” said ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt. “These hate-filled ‘lessons’ have no place in any school, but are especially dangerous in Lebanon, where Hezbollah grooms young people to become terrorist ‘martyrs.’”
The ADL "closely examined" two textbooks used to teach elementary school students (“Islam is our Message” and “Us and History”), published by Mustafa Generation Publishing House, which is linked to Hezbollah, and asserted that there is a consistent "hateful depiction of the Jewish people stretching from ancient times to the present" within these texts.
The analysis itself, “Teaching Antisemitism and Terrorism in Hezbollah Schools” attempts to expose the "deep entrenchment" of antisemitism in Lebanese private schools, youth groups and other institutions linked to Hezbollah and furthermore show how the terrorist groups uses these methods to spread antisemitic rhetoric to the next generation.
“Judaism is a religion confined to the Jews, the masters of the world and the emperors of the universe, which nobody is entitled to belong to, no matter his station," an excerpt from the textbook "US and History" reads. "And this is what made them hated and outcast, and perhaps what intensified people’s aversion to them: their unjustness, their arrogance, their greed, and their monopolizing.”
An excerpt from "Islam is our Message" surrounding a 7th century lesson about Mizrachi Jews reads, “Let us take the lesson and the instruction. For the Zionists are the enemies of humanity in the past, present, and future because of their attributes: deceit, treason, treachery, and breaking pacts.”
“While we have long known that Hezbollah uses dehumanizing propaganda to justify violence against Jews, our analysis of these school textbooks shows just how far Hezbollah’s leaders will go to teach children to hate,” said David Weinberg, ADL’s Washington Director for International Affairs, who authored the report. “As this report has extensively documented, there is horrific and systematic indoctrination taking place in many of these institutions, poisoning young minds to sacrifice themselves in service of a violent, fanatical, and Jew-hating agenda.”
The ADL concluded from the analysis that the best form of action is for the United States and other governments to direct counterterrorism sanctions in the direction of educational institutions linked to Hezbollah.
"Sanctions by the US and other governments would have another important effect: they would expose and condemn the role of these schools in fueling hatred and violence, making clear that the antisemitic myths that Hezbollah teaches to children are wrong, both factually and morally," the ADL said in a statement, adding that these institutions are "vulnerable" to these types of actions.
"ADL therefore calls on the United States and other national governments around the world – particularly those countries in Europe, Latin America, East and South Asia, and West Africa where Hezbollah’s logistical or recruitment networks are strongest– to swiftly assess which of these educational institutions are indeed complicit in sanctionable activity involving Hezbollah," the NGO concluded.

Lebanon’s health experts warn of national 'mental health pandemic'
Sunniva Rose/The National/June 18/2020
The country’s worst-ever financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic have increased depression and anxiety
Compounded by the coronavirus pandemic, Lebanon’s nine-month long economic crisis has taken a heavy toll on the mental health of the Lebanese, say experts, who warned of an upcoming “mental health pandemic.”
“It has been a very long confinement that started with the revolution and continued with the virus,” said Pascale Tannoury, a clinical psychologist at a private hospital and psychotherapist.
“That’s why now I fear a mental health pandemic. I feel it around me. People can’t function normally. They can’t pay for sessions either. Therapy is expensive and not paid for either by insurance companies or by social security,” she told The National.
Last October, Lebanon’s worst-ever economic crisis reached boiling point, pushing hundreds of thousands into the street and forcing the country to grind to a halt. Shops, schools and universities barely had time to re-open for a few months early in 2020 before they had to close again due to Covid-19.
The consequences of both crises have been dire. Around 60 per cent of the Lebanese could be living in poverty by the end of the year, according to local officials. The Lebanese pound has lost 70 per cent of its value in nine months, while inflation has soared.
“People lack incentive, lose their appetite, have trouble sleeping and difficulty in starting again the activities that they used to do before confinement,” said Ms Tannoury. “These are usually symptoms of depression.”
Because of Lebanon’s extreme financial instability, NGOs have observed that many patients with mental health conditions feel overwhelmed by the pandemic.
“If I get infected, the Lord will help me. I can’t let myself obsess over the coronavirus or I’ll end up in a psychiatric hospital,” said Abir, from the northern region of Akkar. Trapped in an abusive marriage until her husband’s death three years go, Abir has suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts. Unable to pay for a private psychologist, she has received free mental health support from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) since last summer.
Before confinement measures were imposed in mid-March, Abir, who stays at home to look after her three sons, used to receive financial help from friends, but that stopped when they lost their jobs.
“The economic crisis is very bad. If I’m sick or anything – regardless of psychological problems – there will be no doctor and no medicine,” she told The National, highlighting her financial distress.
The World Health Organisation said last month that mental health will become a significant post-pandemic issue.
But few Lebanese can afford a visit to a private psychologist. A session typically costs between US$40 and $200 at Lebanon’s official – but barely used - official exchange rate of 1505.7 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, said Ms Tannoury.
Additionally, some psychologists have adjusted their prices in the national currency closer to the black market rate, which currently hovers around 5000 Lebanese Pounds to the dollar. The price hikes have caused anger on social media, with some complaining that it would only fuel further anxiety.
Lebanon’s National Social Security Fund partially reimburses inpatient care and psychiatry sessions but not visits to a psychologist.
This should hopefully change in the coming year when professionals establish their own order, paving the way to partial coverage by state insurance, said Rabih El Chammay, head of the national mental health programme at Lebanon’s health ministry. But today, certain Lebanese hospitals are reluctant to treat mental health patients if they are covered by one of Lebanon’s six publicly managed funds because the cash-strapped government can take years to pay them back.
“Some hospitals are more cooperative than others, but I think on the ground people are still struggling to get access to in-patient care,” Mr El Chammay told The National. The ministry issued a memo reminding hospitals that they cannot refuse anyone in need of urgent psychiatric care if they are at risk of suicide or suffering from an acute psychotic episode.
“I think the need [for mental health support] will definitely increase because of the compounded crises…What we know from international studies is that there is a risk of increase of two to threefold for suicide, depression and anxiety, during a crisis,” said Mr El Chammay.
Calls to Lebanon’s national suicide hotline, Embrace, have surged since last December. “Some days we had more than 300 calls when our average per month used to be 300 or 400,” said Embrace’s executive director, Lea Zeinoun. But because of social stigma, the evolution of deaths by suicide is difficult to assess as they are not all reported as such, she added.
As the number of deaths due to Covid-19 has remained relatively low, initial fears caused by the pandemic have been supplanted by worries over Lebanon’s economy.
“The coronavirus feels pretty distant to people now in Lebanon,” Ms Zeinoun told The National. “People are now concerned about not being able to pay rent or buy food.”Additionally, new crises can trigger and awaken past traumas, said Nivine Geagea, resilience program coordinator at local NGO Himaya, which works in the child protection sector.
This is particularly relevant in Lebanon, which suffered from a 15-year long civil war that ended in 1990 and a series of security crises in the past decades, including a wave of targeted assassinations against politicians followed by a spill-over of the Syrian war. “People may be reliving the feeling of insecurity, difficulty to project in the future and to find a meaning and order amid chaos,” said Ms Geagea. The additional stress in households that are already under pressure can also lead to an increase in domestic violence.
“There is a rise in stress and irritability in people; with the confinement coping becomes harder and harder. We see violence in households,” said Anaelle Saade, mental health supervisor for MSF in northern Lebanon.
However, quantifying this kind of violence is nearly impossible, said Ms Saade. NGOs have reduced their work in the field, meaning that referrals about domestic violence also decreased.
Women’s rights NGOs previously told The National that they noticed an increase in complaints of gender-based violence after the pandemic hit Lebanon, with a surge in requests for shelters for life-threatening situations.
Police data reveals a 74 per cent increase in murder cases during the first five months of 2020 compared to the five previous months.
“The majority were committed by people with mental disorders in the context of domestic violence and not for economic reasons” a source from the Internal Security Forces said.
The source attributed the surge in murders to confinement measures imposed by the government to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
However, Mr El Chammay cautioned against equating mental health issues and crime. “Occurrences of acts of violence is not higher in persons with mental disorders than in the general population,” he said, observing that the former were more often victims of violence than perpetrators.
“Lebanon is doing a bit better than surrounding countries when it comes to mental health, but the gap is still huge between what is needed and what there is,” he told The National. Though several professionals pointed out that a number of campaigns in the past decade have increased public awareness of mental health issues in Lebanon, the topic can still be difficult to broach within families.
“My mother thought that if I went once or twice to see the psychologist, I would be fine, like I had the flu or something,” Tania Elmir, one of Ms Tannoury’s patients, told The National.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 18-19/2020
Concerns Rise in Moscow over Repercussions of ‘Caesar Act’
Moscow - Raed Jaber/Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Even though Moscow did not officially comment on the Caesar Act, a United States legislation that sanctions the Syrian government, angry comments by officials, parliamentarians, and media experts reflected Moscow's degree of concern about the possible repercussions of the new law.
Russian media warned of a new challenge testing Russian-American relations. The new law, according to observers, does not necessarily target Syria as it does Russia itself. Russian Presidential Envoy to Syria Alexander Yefimov described the law as “economic terrorism” exploited by Washington to undermine the achievements accomplished by Moscow and Damascus in Syria. He vowed the US will not reach its goals because “Russia and its allies are standing on the right side of history.”A number of Syrian operated industries, including those related to infrastructure, military maintenance and energy production, are targeted by the Caesar Act. The bill also targets individuals and businesses who provide funding or assistance to the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar Assad. Iranian and Russian entities are addressed for their governments' support of Assad in the Syrian civil war. Other than the fear for major companies that already signed significant contracts with Syria over the last few years, Russian media focused on the threat facing Russian arms exports to Syria. The Caesar Act stipulates punishing individuals and institutions supporting the Syrian Army or who have committed any military activity that targets civilians.
Despite Russia’s confidence in having the means necessary to supply its forces in Syria while dodging US harassment, Moscow has gone into activating discussions on a military level with Americans for the sake of military coordination and to avoid accidents. In other words, Moscow is seeking to agree with Washington not to harm the supplies of the Russian military in Syria. In other news, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed that Russia will partake in the conference organized by the EU on Syria aid which will be held by the end of this month. Lavrov expressed his regret that no Damascus representatives were invited to the conference.

Zarif claims solution is possible to allow access to two nuclear sites in Iran
Reuters/Thursday 18 June 2020
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that "an agreeable solution is possible" for the United Nations nuclear watchdog's request for access to two nuclear sites in the country. France, Britain and Germany, all parties to Iran's nuclear deal with major powers, have submitted a draft resolution to the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors calling on Iran to stop denying the agency access to two old sites and to cooperate fully with it, diplomats taking part in an IAEA virtual meeting said.

Iran Test Fires Cruise Missile in Naval Drill
Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Iran test fired a "new generation" of cruise missiles in a naval exercise in the Gulf of Oman and northern Indian Ocean, state media reported Thursday. The missiles destroyed targets at a distance of 280 kilometers (170 miles), the official IRNA news agency reported, noting that the missiles' range can be extended. The armed forces' website also published pictures of the drill showing missiles being fired from a warship and the back of a truck, and a vessel exploding out at sea. A video released said some of the missiles were based on "older platforms that have been updated," AFP reported. The report was the first of a drill since May, when a missile fired during an Iranian training exercise mistakenly struck an Iranian naval vessel instead of its intended target in waters near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, killing 19 sailors and wounding 15 others. In April, the US accused Tehran of conducting “dangerous and harassing” maneuvers near US warships in the northern Arabian Gulf. Iran also was suspected of briefly seizing a Hong Kong-flagged oil tanker before that, according to the Associated Press.'

Iran Says 'Cruel' US Sanctions Worsen Syrians' Suffering
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 18/2020
Iran on Thursday condemned new US sanctions which punish any company that works with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, saying they were "cruel" and would exacerbate suffering in the war-torn country. The Caesar Act came into force on Wednesday, with the first batch of designations targeting 39 people or entities, including Assad and his wife Asma. Iran "does not respect such cruel and unilateral sanctions waged as bullying and considers them to be economic terrorism against the people of Syria," said foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi. The sanctions were "against international laws and human values" and would only "exacerbate the suffering of Syria's people" amid the coronavirus outbreak, he said in a statement.Mousavi vowed that Tehran would maintain its economic ties with Damascus. Tehran has also been under US sanctions since 2018, when Washington unilaterally withdrew from a landmark nuclear agreement and reimposed them, targeting the crucial oil and banking sectors. Along with Moscow, Tehran is one of Damascus's main allies in the war that has ravaged Syria since 2011. The conflict has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced millions.

Iran’s IRGC attacks Iranian Kurdish groups in Iraq
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 18 June 2020
Iranian forces carried out artillery attacks against Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in Iraqi Kurdistan for the second day in a row on Wednesday, according to the semi-official YJC news agency.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed it had attacked Kurdish groups on Wednesday, saying it had targeted “armed anti-revolutionary” groups by carrying out large-scale artillery and missile attacks on the Iraqi Kurdish border. “Anti-revolutionary” is a term the Iranian regime uses to refer to any opposition groups. The attacks took place in the area of Alana in Erbil province’s Haji Omaran district bordering Iran. The IRGC targeted members of the Iranian Kurdish opposition groups Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), YJC reported, adding that the IRGC had carried out similar attacks against Kurdish groups on Tuesday.
Attack intended to harm the Kurdish people: PDKI
In a statement on Wednesday, the PDKI condemned the IRGC’s attacks, saying: “The bombardment of the region is directly intended to harm the Kurdish people, destroy Kurdistan’s natural and rich environment and to shift the focus from the critical internal challenges the regime is currently facing.”
“So far, there have not been any reported casualties, however, many farms in the area were reduced to ashes by the regime’s indiscriminate shelling of the area,” the statement added. The Turkish defence ministry said on Wednesday it had deployed special forces in northern Iraq in an operation against Kurdish fighters, backed by air and artillery support. Earlier this week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Ankara. The Iranian-Turkish attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan are likely to be a coordinated manoeuvre. “We suspect that the two sides [Turkey and Iran] are in coordination, because this is the first time that Turkey has bombed this area,” the Haji Omaran district mayor, Farzang Ahmed, told the Kurdish news agency Rudaw.

Turkey Says it Hit 500 PKK Targets in Northern Iraq
Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Turkish forces have hit more than 500 Kurdish targets in northern Iraq as part of an offensive in the region against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Defense Ministry said on Thursday. Turkish warplanes struck PKK targets in various regions of northern Iraq on Sunday and Tuesday in two separate raids, which Ankara said were in response to an increase in attacks on Turkish army bases. Ankara launched the "Claw-Tiger Operation" on Tuesday in northern Iraq's Haftanin region. A Defense Ministry statement said Turkish F-16 jets, drones and howitzers had hit and destroyed more than 500 PKK targets in 36 hours. "The Claw-Tiger Operation is going very well,” the statement cited Defense Minister Hulusi Akar as saying. “By continuing with the same seriousness and determination, we will conclude the operation with success," he said.
Turkey regularly attacks PKK fighters, both in its mainly Kurdish southeast and in northern Iraq, where the group is based. It has also warned in recent years of a potential ground offensive against PKK bases in Iraq's Qandil mountains.

Four Rockets Hit Baghdad's Green Zone
Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Four rockets exploded inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone near the American embassy, Iraq's military said Thursday, in the third such attack since the US embarked on strategic talks with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s government and the fifth in ten days. It wasn't immediately clear who was responsible for the attack, which caused no casualties or damage, but the US has blamed Iran-backed militia groups for a recent quick succession of rocket attacks targeting the American presence in Iraq. The attacks are proving to be a key challenge for the administration of Kadhimi, whose government has promised to take action against militias who attack the US. Thursday's attack was the third since strategic talks were launched last week. In a tweet following the attack, Kadhimi said it aimed to “undermine our stability and future” and was “unacceptable.”“I will not tolerate rogue groups hijacking our homeland to create chaos and find excuses to maintain their narrow interests,” he said. The first session of the much-anticipated talks between the US and Iraq began last week and laid the agenda for the months ahead, including the issues of the presence of US troops in the country, militia groups acting outside of state authority and Iraq’s dire economic crisis. During the talks, Iraq committed to “moving ahead and undertaking their obligations" to protect the American presence against militia attacks, said US Assistant Secretary of State David Schenker. But attacks have continued in an apparent defiance of that promise. A military statement said four rockets struck the Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign embassies including the US, just after midnight Thursday. The statement said there were no casualties or material damage. Security forces later found a Katyusha rocket launching platform near Al-Rashid camp south of the capital. On Monday, three rockets landed after midnight in the vicinity of Baghdad airport, a military statement said. The launch was from the al-Makaseb neighborhood, a police investigation later found. On Saturday, two rockets hit Camp Taji base, north of Baghdad, without causing casualties. The base is frequented by US troops. Since October, at least 32 attacks have targeted American interests in Iraq that the US has blamed on Iran-backed factions.

US Lawmakers Hint at Sanctions Against Jordan
Washington - Rana Ebter/Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Jordan’s King Abdullah II held a virtual meeting on Wednesday with members of the Foreign Relations Committees of the US Senate and House of Representatives in light of the mounting US pressure on Amman to hand over Jordanian-Palestinian Ahlam al-Tamimi, In a statement following the meeting, Sen. James Risch, the committee’s chairman, said: “The United States and Jordan share a long history of mutual cooperation on issues ranging from security to trade. This relationship is one based on shared values and regional objectives.”He continued: “Jordan has been central to promoting peace in the Middle East, and I look forward to our continued work together to achieve stability in the region.”Risch also expressed appreciation for Jordan's generosity in hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees, as well as its assistance in fighting extremism. “While we have made significant progress, continued counterterrorism pressure is required to ensure [the ISIS terror group] is never again in a position to destabilize the region. I look forward to continuing to build upon this important relationship in the months and years ahead,” the senator said. Although the meeting was initially held to present Jordan’s stance against Israeli plans to annex West Bank settlements, some US lawmakers have expressed their intention to discuss Al-Tamimi’s file, hinting at freezing aid to Jordan in case the country refused to hand her over to the US. The threat came in written answers submitted by the US Administration’s nominee to be the next US ambassador to Jordan, Henry Wooster, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in response to questions posed by Sen. Ted Cruz. “The United States has multiple options and different types of leverage to secure Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi’s extradition,” Wooster wrote.
“We will continue to engage Jordanian officials at all levels not only on this issue, but also on the extradition treaty more broadly. US generosity to Jordan in Foreign Military Financing as well as economic support and other assistance is carefully calibrated to protect and advance the range of US interests in Jordan and in the region.” Wooster added. The United States had filed terrorism-related charges against Al-Tamimi in 2017, and demanded that Jordan extradite her in accordance with the 1995 Extradition Treaty, but the Jordanian Court of Cassation ruled against her deportation. The FBI included Al-Tamimi in the list of most wanted terrorists, and the State Department offered $5 million to anyone who provides information leading to her arrest and conviction against the background of the 2001 bombing of a restaurant in Israel, in which two Americans were killed.

Arab League Seeks Int’l Alliance against Israel’s Annexation of the West Bank
Cairo - Sawsan Abu Hussein/Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit is seeking to form an international alliance that confronts Israel’s annexation plans in the West Bank and Jordan Valley. Israel’s plans did not receive any international support, according to the Sec-Gen, who said that most countries and international blocs oppose it, hoping this will help in the formation of the alliance. Aboul Gheit said in a statement on Wednesday that it is necessary at this stage to form the widest possible international alliance which will expose Israel’s isolation and those who support it in this reckless and dangerous policy that threatens the stability of the region. Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States Hossam Zaki indicated that Aboul Gheit will participate in a session on the situation in the Middle East, which will be held at the ministerial level on June 24th and will be entirely devoted to discussing the annexation plans.
Zaki said that holding this meeting at this time is an opportunity for the Security Council and its members to publicly and collectively reject Israel’s plans and warn Tel Aviv against moving forward with it. He pointed out that the meeting came as a result of successive conferences held by the Arab League delegation in New York with members of the Security Council led by France, the current president of the council, as well as Germany, as the upcoming president. These diplomatic moves aim to implement the decision of the League calling to harness international efforts at the United Nations and its organs to address the implementation of the Israeli annexation plans. Zaki stressed that Aboul Gheit continues his international calls to build an alliance against the Israeli move and demonstrate its grave threat to international peace and security. Aboul Gheit recently sent a number of messages to Japan, India, Australia, and Russia warning against the annexation of parts of the Palestinian territories.

Jordan’s FM Visits Abbas Amid Israel Tensions
Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with visiting Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Thursday, amid tensions with Israel over its annexation plans for the occupied West Bank. Safadi travelled by helicopter for the rare trip to Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, Abbas' office told AFP.The talks were set to focus on Israel's plans to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank as well as the strategic Jordan Valley, moves given US blessing as part of a controversial peace initiative unveiled in January. The Israeli government has said it could begin the annexation process from July 1, prompting Jordan to warn that it would review ties. Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab states to have peace agreements with Israel. Jordan's King Abdullah II this week raised his opposition with members of the US Congress, telling them annexation is "unacceptable and undermines chances of peace and stability in the region."In the online meeting, Abdullah underlined the importance of "establishing an independent, sovereign and viable Palestinian state," according to a palace statement. Washington's peace plan foresees the eventual creation of a Palestinian state but disregards key Palestinian demands such as a capital in east Jerusalem, which is also seen as fundamental by Jordan.Safadi's visit to Ramallah is the first by a high-level foreign official since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which shut borders across the world.

Syrian refugees file law suit against Qatar's Doha Bank for terror funding
Al Arabiya English/Thursday 18 June 2020
Syrian refugees have filed a claim for damages against Qatar's Doha bank and two Qatar residents for its alleged support for Syrian terrorist organizations, according to legal sources. The claim was filed in the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court in London by 330 Syrian refugees residing in the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and other countries. The case was filed against Doha bank and Moutaz and Ramez al-Khayyat, according to a statement from Richard Slade of the "Richard Slade" & Co Law firm in London, seen by Al Arabiya. The claimants say they suffered loss and damage in Syria at the hands of Jabhat al-Nusra, including loss of business and property and serious personal and psychiatric injuries. Some were victims of torture, the lawsuit says. They allege that Doha Bank and Moutaz and Ramez Al Khayyat were instrumental in funding Jabhat al-Nusra. The claim is similar to the claim filed in July 2019 on behalf of eight Syrian refugees residing in the netherlands.

Ethiopia, Egypt Exchange Accusations on Deadlocked Renaissance Dam Talks
Cairo - Mohammed Abdo Hassanein/Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Negotiations over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) continued for the seventh day between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan in hopes for reaching a solution to the legal points on water sharing. Cairo and Addis Ababa exchanged verbal accusations, with Egypt threatening to resort to the UN Security Council, and Ethiopia saying that Cairo’s position has become an obstacle in the ongoing talks. The negotiations were held via video conferencing with the participation of observers from the United States, the European Union, and South Africa, which is the current chair of the African Union.
Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas announced that the three countries agreed on the majority of the technical issues. However, Egypt wants to sign a comprehensive agreement to fill and operate the dam, which Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile, before beginning to fill the reservoir as scheduled in July.
The Ethiopian Foreign Minister, Gedu Andargachew, accused Egypt of obstructing the negotiations, stressing that Cairo is only looking for its own interest. "Egypt came to the latest negotiation with one leg on the talks and another aimed at lodging a complaint to the UN Security Council," Andargachew said, according to state-owned Ethiopian News Agency (ENA). "Egypt wants to take everything for itself with no willingness to give," he was quoted as saying. On Monday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry warned that Cairo may resort to the Security Council to prevent Ethiopia from taking any “unilateral” action on the hydropower project if Addis Ababa remains "intransigent." He pointed out that the recent tripartite talks did not yield positive results due to the Ethiopian obstinacy. Meanwhile, informed sources said the countries agree on the technical issues relating to the safety of the dam, filling it during the upcoming Ethiopian rain season and in regular seasons, and drought management rules. However, differences remain on a number of legal matters such as mandatory clauses that ensure compliance and mechanisms to resolve disputes. Sudan suggested holding negotiations at the level of prime ministers if no agreement was reached, but Ethiopia and Egypt preferred to continue talks among water resources ministers and legal experts. In 2015, the leaders of the three countries signed an initial agreement on the Renaissance Dam to guarantee Egypt’s share of 55 billion cubic meters of the Nile water. Egyptian water expert Mohamed Nasreddine Allam said that the negotiations could end with one of three possible scenarios. He believes Ethiopia could hold onto its position, after which Egypt will announce the failure of the talks and warn Addis Ababa against filling the dam, further escalating the situation.
Allam indicated that the second possible outcome could be that Ethiopia responds to the demands of Sudan and Egypt, and agrees to an initial agreement, or the final scenario, where Addis Ababa agrees to some of the demands and continues negotiating on other controversial issues which require additional time.

Tunisia: Resignations Threaten Future of Tahya Tounes Party
Tunis - Mongi Saidani/Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Three Tahya Tounes deputies have submitted their resignation from the Tunisian parliamentary bloc, which revealed signs of a strong crisis threatening the party that was formed by former prime minister Youssef Chahed in 2019. Deputies Ayachi Zammel, Mabrouk Korchid and Kamel Ouadi have officially resigned from Tayha Tounes coalition. The deputies are all considered first-tier leaders in the party and their resignation has left many questions unanswered about Tahya Tounes’ connection to the Ennahda Movement. Sources close to Tahya Tounes, which split from the Nidaa Tounes party, said that the way the party is being run could be behind band resignations in the future. More so, the National Destourian Initiative is reconsidering its merger with Tahya Tounes which took place in 2019. Observers point out that there is a number of political projects available to Tahya Tounes; the 14-member bloc is studying three options: forming a parliamentary bloc close to and supportive of current Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh, joining forces with the opposition’s Free Destourian Party headed by Abir Moussa, or declaring failure and forming a centrist party. Lawmaker Mustapha Ben Ahmed of the Tahya Tounes party said that the resignations aren’t novel, and denied that his party is distancing itself from the current government. He also added that tension in the political climate is reflected in relations within parties and parliamentary blocs, and on the quality of political discourse. “Tahya Tounes was founded on an ambitious plan of taking over control of the political scene all by itself, but it was shocked by the election results whereby it only won 14 parliamentary seats, while Ennahda Movement won 52 seats,” political analyst Jamal al-Arfawi told Asharq Al-Awsat. Meanwhile, the Tunisian prime minister announced the establishment of a new political party called the "Tunisian National Party", bringing the total number of political parties in Tunisia to 222, an unprecedented record.

Abused Egyptian Laborers Return from Libya
Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 18 June, 2020
Egypt repatriated 23 laborers early Thursday from western Libya after accusations that forces allied to the Government of National Accord (GNA) had detained and abused them. The 23 workers arrived at Marsa Matrouh, a Mediterranean resort town in northwest Egypt, a security source told AFP.
Earlier in the week, a video widely circulated on social media showing the laborers forced to stand on one leg with their bare feet on sand as they raised their hands. The video immediately drew swift condemnation from senior Egyptian officials.It "will not pass lightly and the Egyptian state does not allow assault on its citizens abroad," Immigration Minister Nabila Makram was quoted as saying in local media. The GNA announced Wednesday the arrest of suspects in the abuse after the outcry. Police had "apprehended the people involved" and were preparing to present them to the prosecutor, the GNA's interior ministry said in a statement. Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari said that the workers were being held by a "militia" aligned with the GNA.
The United Nations on Tuesday urged authorities in Tripoli to conduct a prompt investigation.

Ex-Aide Bolton Says Trump Unfit for Office
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 18/2020
Donald Trump has no guiding principles and is unfit to be president, his former national security advisor John Bolton said in an interview released Thursday to promote his explosive book. "I don't think he's fit for office. I don't think he has the competence to carry out the job," Bolton told ABC News.
The Trump administration is scrambling to stop publication of the memoir, "The Room Where It Happened," arguing that it contains classified material. In the book, excerpts of which were published by three newspapers Wednesday, Bolton alleged that Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping for re-election help, voiced support for Beijing's mass incarceration of Uighur Muslims and other minorities and was widely ignorant of the world. "There really isn't any guiding principle that I was able to discern other than what's good for Donald Trump's re-election," Bolton told ABC News in the interview, which will be broadcast in full Sunday. "I think he was so focused on the re-election that longer-term considerations fell by the wayside," he added. Bolton pointed to Trump's outreach to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying Trump was fixated on the "photo opportunity and press reaction to it" rather than on long-term U.S. interests.Bolton, a veteran Republican insider, is well-known for his hawkish views on North Korea -- a key reason for his departure from the White House in September.

G7 Foreign Ministers’ Statement on Hong Kong
Agencies/June 18/2020
We, the Foreign Ministers of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the High Representative of the European Union underscore our grave concern regarding China’s decision to impose a national security law on Hong Kong.
China’s decision is not in conformity with the Hong Kong Basic Law and its international commitments under the principles of the legally binding, UN-registered Sino-British Joint Declaration. The proposed national security law would risk seriously undermining the “One Country, Two Systems” principle and the territory’s high degree of autonomy. It would jeopardize the system which has allowed Hong Kong to flourish and made it a success over many years.
Open debate, consultation with stakeholders and respect for protected rights and freedoms in Hong Kong are essential.
We are also extremely concerned that this action would curtail and threaten the fundamental rights and freedoms of all the population protected by the rule of law and the existence of an independent justice system.
We strongly urge the Government of China to re-consider this decision.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 18-19/2020
ISIS Terrorists Cannot Be Allowed to Reclaim Iraq
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/June 18/2020
Iraqi security officials say the number of ISIS fighters in Iraq is now between 2,000-3,000, which includes around 500 militants who have made their way to Iraq after escaping from prisons in Syria.
The upsurge in ISIS in activity in Iraq should certainly act as a wake-up call for the Trump administration as it reviews America's military commitment to Iraq following the recent appointment of former Iraqi intelligence chief Mustafa al-Kadhimi as the country's new pro-Western prime minister.
The reason Iraq is able to have elections in the first place is because of the enormous sacrifices made by American and other coalition forces to rebuild the country after the overthrow of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, an achievement that the Trump administration cannot allow to be damaged by a resurgent ISIS.
The upsurge in ISIS in activity in Iraq should certainly act as a wake-up call for the Trump administration as it reviews America's military commitment to Iraq following the recent appointment of former Iraqi intelligence chief Mustafa al-Kadhimi (pictured) as the country's new pro-Western prime minister. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons/Iraq Prime Minister's Office)
With the primary focus of the Trump administration understandably concentrated on a variety of pressing domestic issues, from the forthcoming presidential election campaign to tackling the Covid-19 pandemic, there is growing concern that ISIS fanatics are seeking to exploit the situation to rebuild their terrorist infrastructure throughout the Middle East.
In countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, there is mounting evidence that the ISIS leadership is seeking to move on from the catastrophic defeats it has suffered in recent years and rebuild its fighting strength.
In Afghanistan, the most deadly manifestation of the group's new-found strength was demonstrated when U.S. officials blamed ISIS for last month's brutal attack on a maternity ward in the country's capital Kabul in which 24 people died, including a number of mothers, children and new-born babies.
The deepening chaos in Libya caused by the country's bitter civil war has also raised fears that ISIS is seeking to exploit the situation to rebuild its operational strength in the pivotal North African country. Last year U.S. drones carried out a series of attacks against ISIS positions in the Libyan desert, and Western intelligence officials remain concerned that the group is placing sleeper cells in some of the country's major cities.
By far the greatest concern among Western security officials, though, is the prospect of ISIS rebuilding its infrastructure in Iraq, the country where the country's former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi famously proclaimed the establishment of his so-called caliphate in June 2014.
By the time Baghdadi met his death during a U.S. Special Forces operation in Syria's northwestern Idlib province last October, his organisation had been decimated as a result of the U.S.-led coalition's highly effective military campaign against ISIS, which resulted in the destruction of the caliphate.
Since that low point, Iraq security officials have identified a resurgence of ISIS-sponsored activity in Iraq in recent months, with most of the activity concentrated on provinces to the east and north of Baghdad. In April alone the organisation managed to carry out 108 attacks in Iraq, including an assault on an intelligence headquarters in Kirkuk. In early May ISIS militants killed at least 10 Iraqi militiamen in a coordinated assault on their base in the central city of Samarra.
Coalition officials believe there are similarities between the tactics ISIS is employing during its current activity in Iraq and those it used during the start of its campaign in northern Iraq in 2013, which ultimately resulted in the organisation controlling large swathes of the country.
The growing confidence of the ISIS leadership in Iraq is reflected in an online message posted by the organisation's new leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi at the end of last month, which ominously read: "What you are witnessing these days are only signs of the big changes in the region that will offer greater opportunities than we had previously in the past decade."
Iraqi security officials say the number of ISIS fighters in Iraq is now between 2,000-3,000, which includes around 500 militants who have made their way to Iraq after escaping from prisons in Syria. Moreover the ability of the Iraqi security forces to deal with the ISIS threat has been hampered by the fact the Iraqi military has seen a 50 percent drop in the number of available military personnel as a result of the pandemic. This has enabled ISIS to shift the emphasis of its attacks from carrying out local acts of intimidation against government officials to carrying out more complex missions, including IED attacks, shootings and carrying out ambushes against the police and military.
The growing strength of ISIS in Iraq has prompted coalition forces to renew air strikes against ISIS targets in the country. Last month American and British warplanes carried out a series of strikes against a network of caves in northern Iraq that were being used as a base by Isis fighters, killing between 5-10 terrorists.
Western security sources believe a number of factors explain the resurgence of ISIS in Iraq. Apart from exploiting the recent loss of manpower in the Iraqi security forces because of the coronavirus pandemic, ISIS leaders have also taken advantage of the political paralysis the country has experienced following the recent waves of anti-government protests.
The upsurge in ISIS in activity in Iraq should certainly act as a wake-up call for the Trump administration as it reviews America's military commitment to Iraq following the recent appointment of former Iraqi intelligence chief Mustafa al-Kadhimi as the country's new pro-Western prime minister.
The reason Iraq is able to have elections in the first place is because of the enormous sacrifices made by American and other coalition forces to rebuild the country after the overthrow of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, an achievement that the Trump administration cannot allow to be damaged by a resurgent ISIS.
*Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at 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.

Is All We Are the Color of Our Skin?
Drieu Godefridi/Gatestone Institute/June 18/2020
We should not allow ourselves to fall into the crude trap of this debilitating racialization.
The first problem is collective responsibility; the idea that responsibility for the crimes of a few extends to all members of a group, both criminals and victims.... As Larry Elder, an American radio host, author and attorney, recently noted: "Reparations are the extraction of money from those who were never slave owners to be given to those who were never slaves."
The second problem is responsibility through the generations: the idea that the passage of time does not change anything. Children who are not yet born, are, in advance, responsible for the crimes and abuses of their ancestors -- and all the ancestors of the "group" to which they belong.
Reducing human beings to their skin color marks the supreme defeat in humanistic and political thought.
Larry Elder, an American radio host, author and attorney, recently noted: "Reparations are the extraction of money from those who were never slave owners to be given to those who were never slaves." (Image source: Gage Skidmore/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)
The political left in the United States now seems to embrace the most openly racist ideas perhaps since German National Socialism in the 1930s and 1940s.
Their racist view, according to which the color of skin is the measure of all reality, truth, hierarchy and moral values, marks a startling regression.
During recent riots, shop fronts and synagogues in the United States were defaced with antisemitic slogans. It is argued in vain that these threats should not be exaggerated; a protester in New York City seemed comfortable openly declaring on Fox News that he intended to lead his peers, laden with cheap gasoline, to set fire to a neighborhood, the "Diamond District," where many Jews are known to work.
The doctrine that reduces human beings to the color of their skin does not befit any society, especially a multiracial one.
One of the demands of many on the left is to pay trillions of dollars for reparations (when you love, you do not count) to the descendants of slaves. This demand presents three problems:
The first problem is collective responsibility; the idea that responsibility for the crimes of a few extends to all members of a group, both criminals and victims. As the American radio host, author and attorney Larry Elder, who happens to be Black, recently noted on Twitter: "Reparations are the extraction of money from those who were never slave owners to be given to those who were never slaves."
The second problem is responsibility through the generations: the idea that the passage of time does not change anything. Children who are not yet born, are, in advance, responsible for the crimes and abuses of their ancestors -- and all the ancestors of the "group" to which they belong.
Note that collective responsibility and historical responsibility are the two theoretical and moral matrices of anti-Semitism throughout the ages -- as in "they killed Jesus!" Jean-Paul Sartre showed this most vividly in his book Anti-Semite and Jew ("Réflexions sur la question juive").
The third problem is that of race, more precisely of skin color. From the perspective of many, especially on today's political left, a person is defined first and foremost by his skin; he belongs in some way to the color of his skin and everything else is of less importance. A white person can be considered a criminal by the color of his skin, just as Jews were considered criminals by the simple fact of their Jewishness.
Finally, identifying the descendants of slaves involves the exhaustive genealogical and genetic mapping of the entire American population, down to the last DNA fragment -- even totalitarian China did not dare to go that far -- and raises persistent questions. What about Americans who have both white and black ancestors, for example, President Barack Obama? What about Americans who have both slave ancestors and slave-owner ancestors? What about the countless Americans who are of mixed blood? Will we have to measure their skulls, their jaws, their percentage of ancestors of such and such a race? The Nazis favored the latter technique.
What to do?
We should not allow ourselves to fall into the crude trap of this debilitating racialization. In the arc of civilizations, contemporary Western civilization is the most radically alien to the concept of race since ancient Rome and the empire of Alexander the Great.
Reducing human beings to their skin color marks the supreme defeat in humanistic and political thought.
We should be better than this reinvention of racial hatred by the left. The great American economist Thomas Sowell -- who also happens to be Black -- wrote:
"Nothing could be more jolting and discordant with the vision of today's intellectuals than the fact that it was businessmen, devout religious leaders and Western imperialists who together destroyed slavery around the world. And if it doesn't fit their vision, it is the same to them as if it never happened."
All decent American leaders must stop retreating and take the offensive on all fronts. The legal categorization of Antifa as a terrorist organization is a first step in the right direction.
*Drieu Godefridi, a classical-liberal Belgian author, is the founder of the l'Institut Hayek in Brussels. He has a PhD in Philosophy from the Sorbonne in Paris and also heads investments in European companies.
© 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.

Why John Bolton Is Seeking Regime Change Against Donald Trump
Curt Mills/The National Interest/June 18/2020
In unleashing the Justice Department on Bolton, Donald Trump has done him a huge favor. Bolton’s book is now a best seller.
WASHINGTON—National security adviser was the position President Donald Trump could never quite fill correctly. Conventional wisdom prior to this week held that his most calamitous selection was Michael Flynn—the former general who served in his post less than a month and later suffered federal prosecution. If not him, it was H.R. McMaster, whom Trump soured on almost immediately and who nearly careened America into war with North Korea.
But it appears the third time was the unlucky charm. Recent revelations from John R. Bolton—after an apparently still-delayed book launch—could be the torpedo that helps to sink the flailing Trump presidency. Trump’s third national security advisor was apparently told by the president’s second chief of staff, the ex-Marine general John F. Kelly: “You can’t imagine how desperate I am to get out of here. ... This is a bad place to work, as you will find out.”
Bolton says he found out.
And so—after either resigning, or, in Trump’s telling, being unceremoniously sacked last fall—Bolton is living out his best ninth life. A legal logjam, a global pandemic and rolling national crises delayed the release of Bolton’s book at least a season but now even the Justice Department can’t forestall the inevitable: advance copies are making their way to newsrooms across the USA. Indeed, Trump’s desire to punish Bolton by unleashing the Justice Department has inadvertently aided him. Bolton’s profile has never been higher—and his book is at the top of the Amazon bestseller list. Bolton should be thanking Trump for all the free publicity.
Democrats are fuming that Bolton should have appeared before Congress to testify during the impeachment hearings. House Intelligence Committee head Adam Schiff thus complained, “Bolton may be an author, but he’s no patriot.” But Bolton’s book may actually pack more of a punch now that Trump has already been so badly weakened. The cold, hard truth is that for the White House, the results are dismaying. As Rudolph Giuliani (the president’s personal attorney) once remarked, if he is a “hand grenade” on the administration’s future—as Bolton once famously said of the New York mayor and his dealings in Ukraine—then Bolton himself is an “atomic bomb.”
The problems he presents for Trump are numerous. For one thing, Bolton cannot be presented plausibly as a member of the deep state. He is a hardcore conservative who has been battling in the trenches for the GOP for decades. In 2000 he played a key role in ensuring that Florida ended up in George W. Bush’s column during the disputes over election ballots.
Another problem is the specificity of Bolton’s main charges. According to Bolton, President Trump is “stunningly uninformed,” all but directly sought the help of Chinese leader Xi Jinping in his re-election (before Wednesday, Trump’s China hawkishness was perhaps the most salient rationale for his re-election), did not know the United Kingdom was a nuclear power and was once confused over whether Finland was part of Russia.
Of course, Bolton butters his own bread. He’s trying to take advantage of a national depression for his own (emphatically fringe) foreign policy prerogatives. On Afghanistan, Trump supposedly said: “This was done by a stupid named George W. Bush.” And on America’s protracted deployments, in general, in the Middle East, Africa and Europe, the president is recorded as saying: “I want to get out of everything.” These are surely sentiments closer to the hearts of the voters who elected Trump than the unmitigated hawkishness of Bolton. Anyway, why should Trump have followed Bolton’s nutty advice to go to war with Iran? Whatever his deficiencies, Trump made the right call.
On Venezuela, Bolton was horrified that Trump quickly lost patience with the true faith in Washington: regime change. After recognizing opposition figure Juan Guaido as the country’s president, Bolton says Trump privately complained that the mid-thirties pol was just a “kid” while his opponent—strongman Nicolas Maduro—looked “tough.” Here too Trump’s intuitions are closer to common sense than those of polished Beltway mandarins. Maduro’s now survived six years of oil crashes, hyperinflation and intermittent American efforts to help oust him. Add in the pandemic, and Maduro has proven himself nothing if not pretty “tough” politically. Once again, Trump appears to have had it right.
Still, the wind may be in Bolton’s sails. The Lincoln Project, a congerie of NeverTrump Republicans, aired a hard-hitting ad on Thursday that alleged Trump “choked like a dog,” in dealing with Xi Jinping. At the same time, Joe Biden—the presumptive Democratic nominee for president—launched a fresh ad blitz in battlegrounds Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and others. In his message, Biden said: “I’ll promise you this: I won’t traffic in fear and division. I won’t fan the flames of hate. … I will do my job and I will take responsibility.”
And Trump? He tweeted that Bolton is “a dope” and “a sick puppy.”

Iran still works to obtain weapons of mass destruction tech – German intel
Benjamin Weinthal/FDD/June 18/2020
Iran, along with Pakistan, North Korea and Syria, aims to complete and improve existing arsenals and develop new weapons through illegal procurement efforts in Germany.
A German intelligence report released on Monday says Iran’s clerical regime has continued its illicit proliferation activities in the federal republic during 2019.
The 181-page Baden-Württemberg state intelligence agency document reviewed by The Jerusalem Post declares in a section titled “Proliferation” that the states “Iran, Pakistan, North Korea and Syria are still pursuing such efforts. They aim to complete existing arsenals, perfect the range, applicability and effectiveness of their weapons and develop new weapon systems. They try to obtain the necessary products and relevant knowhow, among other things, through illegal procurement efforts in Germany.”
According to the report, the term “proliferation” refers “to the further spread of atomic, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction – or the products and know-how required to manufacture them – and corresponding delivery systems.”
The intelligence report wrote that the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg is a target for Iran’s regime because of the hi-tech companies in the state.
According to the intelligence document, “Procurement attempts relevant to proliferation were also observed in 2019, which also affected companies in Baden-Württemberg. Since then, it has become even more difficult for affected companies to assess whether the business is still lawful or whether it is already violating sanctions regulations.”
The report urged companies to “obtain precise information about the current [legal] situation before making a scheduled delivery to Iran.”
Iran’s regime agreed to limit the development of its nuclear program in a 2015 deal with world powers. Tehran received economic sanctions relief as part of the unsigned 2015 atomic accord.
However, the intelligence report noted that Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani declared at the end of 2019 “that his country would no longer implement some agreements.”
The Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018 because, the US said, the agreement failed to stop Iran’s drive to build a nuclear weapons device, its use of missiles launches, and curb Tehran’s sponsorship of international terrorism.
Both the Trump and Obama administrations have designated Iran’s regime the worst state-sponsor of terrorism.
The intelligence agency of Baden-Württemberg said its “aim is to prevent risk states from building and developing weapons of mass destruction and the corresponding delivery systems.”
The German intelligence document cites Iran’s strategy to bypass export restrictions and embargoes. “To disguise the actual end user, they can procure goods in Germany and Europe with the help of specially established front companies, and in particular bring dual-use goods to the risk countries. Typical bypass countries include the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and China.”
Dual-use goods can be used for military purposes.
*Benjamin Weinthal is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal.

Sanctions Against Syria Will Help, Not Harm, Civilians
David Adesnik/Toby Dershowitz/Foreign Policy
The Caesar Act is an overdue effort to starve the Assad regime of the resources that fuel its atrocities.
In person, Caesar is calm and speaks patiently. When he fled Syria, where he served as a military photographer, he brought with him 55,000 images of the burned, strangled, and whipped corpses that President Bashar al-Assad’s interrogators dispatched to the morgue. Rage or depression would seem more appropriate for an individual who risked his life to deliver irrefutable proof of the Assad regime’s mass atrocities, only to see the massacres continue amid U.S. and allied inaction.
Instead, he has helped push for U.S. sanctions against Assad. On June 17, almost six years after Caesar’s first public remarks in front of congressional leaders, the sanctions legislation that bears his name took effect after passing late last year as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020. The sanctions passed with firm backing from the White House and vocal support from both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The legislation is unlikely to have a sudden and dramatic impact on the Syrian economy; rather, it aims to sap the Assad regime gradually of the resources that fuel its atrocities. The law also threatens to sanction any foreign company that contracts with the regime to participate in reconstruction efforts, which would relieve Russia and Iran of the costs of propping up a failed state. An Iranian legislator recently said Iran had spent $20 billion to $30 billion on Syria, while foreign scholars have arrived at a figure as high as $15 billion per year, or $105 billion as of 2018. Russia spends an estimated $1 billion per year on the war, while it has loaned Assad $3 billion.
The legislation is unlikely to have a sudden and dramatic impact on the Syrian economy; rather, it aims to sap the Assad regime gradually of the resources that fuel its atrocities.
While U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Caesar sanctions into law last December, the legislation mandated a 180-day waiting period before the administration could impose new sanctions. During those six months, a financial crisis in next-door Lebanon has had the kind of devastating impact on the Syrian economy that no sanctions regime could design. Lebanon’s heavily dollarized economy served as Syria’s main source of hard currency amid U.S. and EU sanctions; when Lebanese banks restricted access, demand for U.S. dollars in Syria began to dramatically outstrip supply. This culminated in the free fall of the Syrian lira, which traded at 515 to the dollar last June, and 1,500 just a month ago, before bottoming out at just under 3,200 to the dollar last week.
The collapse of the lira brought with it rapid inflation. The United Nations’ World Food Programme estimated in April that the cost of a basket of basic goods such as flour and oil had increased by 111 percent over the previous 12 months. Already impoverished by the war and reliant on foreign aid, Syrians are increasingly going hungry, even in areas where Assad’s grip has long been firm. Restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 made the situation more dire, although the regime has begun to lift them. Last week, Assad fired Prime Minister Imad Khamis as public anger rose in areas under the regime’s control. The population of major urban centers seems resigned to Assad’s rule, but there have been unprecedented protests in the southern province of Suwayda, where demonstrators called for Assad’s ouster.
The deprivation Syrians were already enduring raises the perennial question of whether the sanctions will strike a balance between the pressure they exert on rogue regimes and the costs they inflict on civilians. In the case of Syria, the grisly evidence of systematic mass torture has minimized the extent to which elected officials on either side of the Atlantic have questioned the justice of sanctioning Assad and his accomplices. Still, there are a handful of analysts who equate the thinking behind the Caesar Act with the mentality of the Assad regime.
The deprivation Syrians were already enduring raises the perennial question of whether the sanctions will strike a balance between the pressure they exert on rogue regimes and the costs they inflict on civilians.
According to Aron Lund of the Century Foundation, “Both sides seem to be operating on the principle of ‘Assad or we burn the country.’” Lund elaborated, “One side has shown itself willing to bomb, starve and shell Syrian cities to cinders to prevent Assad’s removal. The other side seems just as determined to destroy Syria’s economy and keep the war smoldering forever to stop Assad from claiming victory.”
Yet extensive U.S. and European efforts to relieve the suffering of Syrian civilians belie such accusations of cruel indifference. For the duration of the war, they have paired their sanctions with billions of dollars of humanitarian aid every year, which is delivered mainly by the United Nations and its partner nongovernmental organizations. The U.N. humanitarian response plan for 2019 entailed the provision of direct assistance to 9 million individuals in Syria.
To mitigate the suffering that persists despite historic levels of aid, what Syria needs is not fewer sanctions but a root-and-branch reform of the U.N. machinery for delivering aid, which Assad has coopted to the point where U.N. agencies have become de facto adjuncts to the siege of civilian populations and other war crimes. Lengthy reports from human rights advocates, along with a disturbing internal review by U.N. staff, have documented the U.N.’s departure from the core humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence.
For years, the U.N. has let the Assad regime give direct aid to supportive populations while systematically blocking deliveries to areas outside of its control. Besieging civilian populations is a war crime, yet convoys en route to deliveries in regime-held areas would pass through besieged neighborhoods without aiding their inhabitants. Annie Sparrow, a pediatrician and professor of public health, has monitored the World Health Organization’s deference to the regime, which included parroting the Syrian Ministry of Health’s denials of a polio outbreak despite evidence the disease had begun to spread.
In a February 2018 article for Foreign Policy, Sparrow also described how the WHO helped the Syrian military evade sanctions that were blocking the procurement of supplies for its blood bank. This year, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO moved quickly to provide Assad’s Ministry of Health with test kits, lab equipment, and protective gear. It was not until weeks later that aid began to trickle to regions in northeast and northwest Syria that Damascus does not control.
Critics of the Caesar Act also tend to rail against potential economic harms, while ignoring how sanctions may spare civilians from the regime’s atrocities. Shortly after Trump signed the new sanctions into law, we reached out to Caesar, who lives in an undisclosed country in Europe where he received asylum. What should Americans know about Syria right now, we asked? “God’s children are being killed today in Idlib and in the regime’s dungeons,” Caesar said. “The search for justice and the ending of the machinery of death in Syria is a trust placed on my shoulders by the families and the souls of the thousands of victims whose horrific murder I documented.”
Critics of the Caesar Act also tend to rail against potential economic harms, while ignoring how sanctions may spare civilians from the regime’s atrocities.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates there are still 129,000 political prisoners by Syrian regime forces. Physicians for Human Rights has evidence of 537 attacks on medical facilities by Russian and Syrian government forces, including facilities whose coordinates the U.N. shared with the Russian military in an effort to prevent accidental strikes.
Caesar’s point seems to be that sanctions are not about seeking retribution for the crimes of the past but denying Assad the resources to perpetrate new ones. About a month after our exchange with Caesar, the regime and its sponsors launched an offensive to overrun Idlib province, the main rebel redoubt in the country’s northwest. Within weeks, Assad’s advance displaced 900,000 civilians, forcing many to live in tents or in the open amid freezing weather. Children died from the cold and families burned to death when heaters lit their tents on fire.
A counterthrust by Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies put a halt to the offensive and resulted in another one of the tentative cease-fires that are a recurrent feature of the war. It’s difficult to predict if tougher sanctions would delay or prevent the next attempt to subdue what’s left of Idlib. Unsurprisingly, the regime’s finances are opaque, as is the extent of the subsidies provided by Russia and Iran. Assessments will always employ a measure of guesswork.
Yet the same is true of claims that the Caesar Act or other sanctions will harm civilians. Nine years of relentless war—much of it targeting civilians—is the main cause of deprivation. So is the rampant corruption that distorts every aspect of the Syrian economy. The crisis touched off by the collapse of the lira will further complicate any effort to distinguish the precise impact of Caesar sanctions.
What makes the Caesar sanctions so tough is that they entail what financial analysts call secondary sanctions. Whereas primary sanctions mainly forbid U.S. persons from making transactions with individuals and entities on the Treasury Department’s blacklist, secondary sanctions impose penalties on third-country persons who do business with those on this list. The primary-versus-secondary distinction is not ironclad, since close cooperation with the regime may trigger penalties even under the primary authorities. Thus, the U.S. has already penalized Lebanese and Emirati companies under pre-Caesar authorities. Still, the introduction of secondary sanctions is the clearest change to U.S. law and sharply increases the risk to third-country firms.
In practice, the law strikes at the regime’s hope that it could pivot from war to reconstruction with the help of foreign corporations. As Caesar told us, the law “cuts off all international allies’ attempts to polish [the image of] the Syrian regime and rehabilitate it again.”
In practice, the law strikes at the regime’s hope that it could pivot from war to reconstruction with the help of foreign corporations.
Some Russian firms may be indifferent to the risk of sanctions, but Chinese firms—let alone Brazilian or Korean ones—are unlikely to risk their access to the U.S. dollar and market to gain a foothold in Syria. The EU just renewed its sanctions in light of continuing atrocities, but if it ever lifted them, Caesar sanctions would still deter European companies from dealing with Assad. The readiness of European firms to comply with U.S. secondary sanctions became clear when the Trump administration withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions. Major EU-based multinationals raced to pull out of projects in Iran despite their own governments’ policy of promoting economic ties.
In principle, the law does not prohibit doing business with the Syrian private sector, yet the blacklisting of Assad’s pet oligarchs, whose reach extends throughout the economy, means that almost all sizable firms are off-limits. The ongoing scandal surrounding Assad’s cousin Rami Makhlouf illustrates the extent to which oligarchs enjoy their wealth at the pleasure of the regime. Makhlouf’s ascent began when he secured the right to operate the country’s first mobile service provider two decades ago. His recent downfall became a public sensation when he posted a pair of videos to Facebook imploring his cousin to stop authorities from abusing him on the pretext that he had failed to pay vast sums in taxes. One school of thought holds that Assad turned on his cousin to secure the cash necessary to pay off Russian loans. Others assert that first lady Asma al-Assad initiated the purge of Makhlouf to consolidate her own power.
Kheder Khaddour of the Carnegie Middle East Center has suggested that purging Makhlouf may backfire, since it will give other oligarchs a powerful “incentive to make quick returns and profits, and most probably to move their money outside Syria to the fullest extent possible.” It could have that effect, yet Makhlouf’s fate also suggests the extreme danger of crossing the regime. Either way, Bashar al-Assad’s dominant concerns on the economic front will remain the currency crisis and inflation.
Another important feature of the Caesar Act is that it makes sanctions mandatory, rather than letting the U.S. executive branch decide when to apply them. The current administration has been vigorous in its application of existing sanctions on Syria, although sudden reversals are also its hallmark. In light of strong support for Caesar sanctions on the Democratic side, there is a good chance that a future administration led by former Vice President Joe Biden would act in the spirit of the law.
Antony Blinken, a top Biden adviser, articulated last month the depth of his regret for Syria’s destruction in the Obama years, during which he served as a senior White House official. “We failed not for want of trying, but we failed. We failed to prevent a horrific loss of life,” Blinken said.“It’s something that I will take with me for the rest of my days.”
Syrians have heard such words before, only to be gravely disappointed by both Republicans and Democrats. The Caesar Act ensures at least a measure of action. While sanctions alone are not a strategy, they are an integral element of any plausible approach to putting constant pressure on Assad. It is worth restraining him, even if the odds of his departure—via negotiations or otherwise—seem remote. The law also sends a message to those Syrians who have not given up hope for a transition.
While sanctions alone are not a strategy, they are an integral element of any plausible approach to putting constant pressure on Assad.
It will take many months, or even years, to assess the impact of Caesar sanctions. Caesar himself knows the imperative of patience and restraints. When we corresponded with him last December, he described how he had to hide his revulsion during the two years he spent collecting evidence of Assad’s crimes. “I could not let a single tear roll down my face,” he wrote. Any sign of sympathy would put him at risk, and his corpse might be the next one left for the photographers.
Testifying before Congress in March, Caesar said, “This law is a powerful message to all who support the Assad regime that the time for accountability and justice is coming and that no matter how long oppression lasts, there is no doubt that truth will prevail.”
David Adesnik is a senior fellow and director of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Twitter: @adesnik. Toby Dershowitz is senior vice president for government relations and strategy at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

EU leaders under pressure as bloc approaches crossroads
Andrew Hammond/Arab News/June 18/2020
Presidents and prime ministers from the EU-27 countries will convene virtually on Friday to discuss the proposed European recovery fund and a new long-term budget. While these matters are mainly economic in nature, they represent what could become a major political milestone in the postwar history of European integration.
Last month, the European Commission laid out its vision for post-coronavirus economic recovery across the continent with a proposed €750 billion ($843 billion) stimulus plan. To much self-acclaim, President Ursula von der Leyen asserted: “This is Europe’s moment… we either go it alone… or we pave a strong path for our people and the next generation.”
While Von der Leyen was long on rhetoric, she was right to highlight that the pandemic has shaken Europe to its core. This is not just illustrated by the huge number of deaths, but also by the economic fallout. The European Central Bank forecasts a 15 percent contraction of gross domestic product in the euro zone in the second quarter of this year, while the European Commission has said that the 27 EU countries together could contract by 7.4 percent this year.
The pandemic has exacerbated the bloc’s vulnerabilities, which in the past decade have been driven by the euro zone crisis, an influx of migrants, and growing Euroskepticism, including Brexit. In so doing, it has also intensified the political fault lines across the continent, widening long-standing splits between some northern and southern states. In particular, there are clear and present divisions between Spain and Italy, which have been hit hardest by the crisis, and the so-called “frugal four” of the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark and Austria, which tend to be more fiscally conservative.
The European Commission has proposed that the €750 billion fund be divided into €500 billion of grants and €250 billion of loans. But a battle royal may lie ahead, as national governments, the European Parliament and the European Commission negotiate not just over the plan’s total budget, but also how much will be linked to grants (favored by Italy and Spain) and how much to loans (the preference of the frugal four).
If the ambitious European Commission blueprint is ultimately ratified in the coming weeks, it could prove a major milestone in the integration of Europe, given the prospect of mutualized debt being used as a funding tool for the first time and potentially paving the way for greater EU supranational powers of taxation. There is even talk of a “Hamiltonian moment” for Brussels in reference to Alexander Hamilton, the treasury secretary of the newly created United States of America, who in 1790 convinced Congress of the benefits of a common debt.
That this moment has arisen reflects not just the stresses that coronavirus has brought to the continent, but also Brexit, given that the UK would have been skeptical of this federalist agenda.
While Brexit and the proposed EU-UK trade deal are not officially on Friday’s agenda, they will be a key topic of informal discussion after Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday spoke with Von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel. Johnson, who reconfirmed last week that the Brexit transition period will end in December, asserts that a trade agreement can be reached in July — but that assessment is very likely overly optimistic, even with the extra “oomph” in negotiations that he advocates.
Johnson and his EU counterparts pledged to redouble their efforts to agree the broadest possible trade deal, which could then be ratified in or before December. With the mood music from Monday’s session upbeat, a breakthrough remains possible in the coming weeks, with a deal potentially hammered out during the German presidency of the EU, which runs from July to December. But, with deadlines closing in fast, there remains a significant likelihood of a hard, potentially disorderly end to the transition with no UK-EU agreement.
If the ambitious European Commission blueprint is ultimately ratified, it could prove a major milestone in the integration of Europe.
The ongoing Brexit talks may serve as a warning to the EU-27 — in the midst of their continued divisions over the coronavirus stimulus plan and long-term budget proposals — that it is vital for the continent to come together in the face of its worst economic shock for decades. As ever, it will probably be France and Germany, the traditional motors of European integration, which are most likely to forge a consensus between the competing interests.
Whether or not they succeed will likely impact not just the continent’s economic recovery, but also its social solidarity, given that support for Brussels in some southern nations, like Italy, plummeted due to the lack of support from EU partners at the beginning of the crisis, for which Von der Leyen has apologized. At this potentially historic crossroads, it is likely that an increasing number of European leaders will feel growing pressure not just to talk the talk, but also to walk the walk by trying to foster an economic recovery and regain public trust across the continent.
*Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.

World cannot afford to take its eyes off North Korea-South Korea tensions
Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/June 18/2020
Across the globe, the coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we work, live and travel, not to speak of the tragic loss of life inflicted on humanity. No wonder then, that priorities shifted and old conflicts were not really the focus of the media.
This holds true for the status of North Korea in the international community. We have heard little of the hermit state and its Kim dynasty over the last few months.
Earlier this year, South Korea withdrew its staff from the joint liaison office in Kaesong, 10 kilometers north of the border between the two countries, out of fear of the virus spreading. Things remained quiet, but North Korea nonetheless ratcheted up the tension. On March 2, Pyongyang fired two projectiles, which was a provocation to South Korea, Japan and the US.
There were concerns over the health of the country’s president, Kim Jong Un, when he failed to appear in public for a few weeks in May. When he reappeared, Pyongyang’s rhetoric ratcheted up further. Actions soon followed these words.
While things remained remarkably quiet during the joint exercises between the US and South Korean air forces in April, the North responded swiftly when human rights groups sent anti-Kim propaganda across the border in balloons. The North Korean state news agency announced that the lines of communication between the two countries would be severed. In an outburst of hate, the Korean Central News Agency said: “All the people of the DPRK (North Korea) have been angered by the treacherous and cunning behavior of the South Korean authorities, with whom we still have lots of accounts to settle.”
Then the regime doubled down. The messenger was not Kim but his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong. No one would have expected such harsh words out of the diminutive figure with a sphinxlike smile. She announced on state media that, “before long, a tragic scene of the useless north-south joint liaison office completely collapsed would be seen.” And so it happened. On Tuesday, North Korea blew up the office, which is located on North Korean territory and funded by South Korean taxpayers.
South Korea’s President did his best to defuse the situation, but to no avail. The North even vowed to redeploy troops to border areas.
How did we get here? Due to the pandemic, North Korea is more isolated than ever, especially since it sealed its 1,400-kilometer-long border with China when the virus started to spread in Northeast Asia. The country also suffers as a result of crippling sanctions, which it feels should have been lifted after it started its detente with US President Donald Trump. Alas, the US and South Korea look at things differently. This means that access to money, medicine and food is not commensurate with the country’s economic and health care needs — especially during this pandemic. The Kim regime seems to be adhering to its time-honored tradition of ratcheting up rhetoric and pressure to force negotiations.
The interesting part is that this time it is not strongman Kim Jong Un, but rather his younger sister, who is wielding the stick. Kim Yo Jong stepped on to the diplomatic scene when she became the first member of North Korea’s ruling family to set foot on South Korean soil during the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in February 2018. She was widely praised for her charm and dulcet tones. Later, she accompanied her brother to his summits with Trump, but was forced to briefly step down from the politburo because she was apportioned some of the blame for the failure of the Hanoi summit in February 2019.
The Kim regime seems to be adhering to its time-honored tradition of ratcheting up rhetoric to force negotiations.
Kim Yo Jong has now been reappointed to the politburo and this seems to be her time to shine. Experts give three reasons for the North Korean leadership having her deliver the messages. Firstly, the harsh words may be designed to endear her to the influential military (her brother used similar tactics when he was new to power). Secondly, when Kim Jong Un was out of sight for a short time, succession planning was widely discussed in the Western press. Her high profile may have been engineered to ensure that succession remains within the Kim family, should the supreme leader die prematurely (his father, Kim Jong Il, died of heart failure). Thirdly, it may be opportune to have the younger sister engage in belligerent talk in case of a revival of the detentes with South Korea and especially the US. It would allow Kim Jong Un to take a more statesmanlike position.
Be this as it may, the last few weeks on the Korean Peninsula should have taught us that, pandemic or no pandemic, we must not neglect the world’s geopolitical trouble spots because conflict can flare up in a second. What happens in North Korea matters. It is located amid one of the world’s most densely populated and affluent regions, which has a huge manufacturing base. The world at large has every interest in peace prevailing.
*Cornelia Meyer is a business consultant, macro-economist and energy expert. Twitter: @MeyerResources

Iran and Russia cannot afford to lose Syria’s Bashar Assad as an ally
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/June 18/2020
د.مجيد رفيزاده : إيران وروسيا لا تستطيعان خسارة بشار الأسد السوري كحليف
The US sanctions against the Syrian government have tightened as the Caesar Act came into effect on Wednesday. Many Syrians have also been protesting as a result of the country’s deteriorating economy, devaluation of the currency, and the rising cost of basic commodities. Will the staunchest allies of the Syrian government, Iran and Russia, continue assisting the Alawite state despite the economic pressure they are facing themselves?
President Bashar Assad effectively owes his current position to Russia and the Iranian regime. If it were not for Tehran and Moscow’s financial, military, intelligence and advisory assistance in the wake of the Syrian uprising in March 2011, Assad would most likely have failed to maintain his grip on power. Financially speaking, the Islamic Republic has been one of the major bankrollers of the Syrian government. It spent about $6 billion a year during the first five years of the conflict in order to keep Assad, its staunchest regional ally, in power. Iran’s economic assistance to the Syrian government has come via a variety of methods, including oil subsidies, credit lines and military assistance. But, as Iran now faces severe economic pressures itself, its financial assistance to Syria has been reduced.
However, Iran has also deployed soldiers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxies, such as Hezbollah, to help the Syrian government score victories against opposition and rebel groups. Additionally, Russia provided military aid to Assad and, in 2015, intervened directly, mainly through missile strikes. The military assistance from Iran and Russia paid off, as Assad has been able to regain control of most of the territories he had once lost.
It is fair to argue that Iran and Russia are both facing significant challenges themselves because of the coronavirus disease pandemic and global economic slowdown, but they will most likely continue their strategic priority of helping Assad. Although Syria is not rich in natural resources, its location is of great significance. Russia’s strategic interests in the Mediterranean are intertwined with the political establishment in Damascus because the Syrian port of Tartus — its second largest — houses Russia’s only naval base in the region. In addition, Syria has been purchasing arms from Moscow for decades.
Although the Syrian government is secular, as opposed to the theocracy in Tehran, losing Syria would be detrimental for Iran on several levels. Since 1979, Syria has served as a platform from which the ruling mullahs have built formidable influence in the region. Iran’s alliance with Syria gave the theocratic establishment the opportunity to establish Hezbollah, the powerful movement in Lebanon, as well as to support the Palestinian Hamas movement. These proxy groups have allowed Iran to strengthen and preserve its regional influence, as well as appease the hard-liners domestically. If the Assad regime were to fall, Iran would lose not just the flexibility and capability that having a friendly Syrian government brings to these proxy groups, but also regional geopolitical leverage.
In other words, the potential collapse of the current political establishment in Damascus would adversely affect Iran’s logistical ties with its proxies in the Levant. Should Syria see a change in regime, it is unlikely that the new government would be supportive of Iran to the same extent as Assad. Undoubtedly, a democratic Syria with a Sunni majority (they constitute about 75 percent of the Syrian population) would be more sympathetic to the rest of the Arab world than it would Iran. More significantly, many Syrians and opposition groups have repeatedly condemned Iran’s human rights abuses in Syria. Assad’s fall would tremendously shift the regional balance of power against Iran and further isolate the Islamic Republic. This, together with its increasing international isolation and domestic pressure, would alter Iran’s regional role and could bring its regime close to the brink of collapse.
Exerting influence through Syria is critical for Iran and Russia because of their shared interest in counterbalancing the US.
Russia’s leaders are also well aware of the disastrous political and strategic repercussions they would face as a result of Assad’s removal. Therefore, they are determined to prevent the current Syrian government’s downfall.
Finally, strategically speaking, exerting influence in the Middle East through Syria is critical for Iran and Russia because of their shared interest in counterbalancing the US and its allies in the region.
As the Syrian government faces more pressure economically, Iran and Russia will most likely do whatever they can to maintain Assad’s hold on power. Keeping him in office is a matter of national security and strategy for both Tehran and Moscow — they cannot afford to lose him.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh