English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For June 25/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
The Parable of the Samaritan who helped a wounded man who was attacked by thieves while a Priest & a Levite ignored him
Luke 10/25-37: “Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 24-25/2020
De-fund it/Dr.Walid Phares/June 23/2020
Dialogue And The Chocolate Factory/Elie Aoun/June 25/2020
Coronavirus toll at 1100 GMT Wednesday
Hotel-Dieu Takes Measures after Patient, 9 Staff Get Coronavirus
Empty Fridges as Lebanon Economic Crisis Bites
Lira in Free-Fall as Pompeo Says Support Hinges on Reforms
US prepared to help Lebanon if it carries out real reforms, says Pompeo
Lebanon: Main Opposition Factions to Boycott Baabda Meeting
Lebanon Parliament Speaker urges declaration of ‘financial state of emergency’
Lebanon’s Judiciary Sues Anti-Hezbollah Shiite Cleric
NNA Says Prosecutor Hasn't Accused al-Amin of 'Meeting Israelis'
Activist Held for 'Dealing with Israel' Gets Arrest Warrant
Protesters Block Roads across Lebanon over Dire Situations
Berri Urges 'Financial Emergency' to Stop 'Lira Collapse'
Ministry of Finance: 15th meeting with IMF broached anti-corruption and money laundering strategy
Lebanon’s Finance Minister: Negotiations with IMF Are Positive
Ministerial Crisis Cell Discusses Financial Issues
Geagea Says to Boycott ‘Misleading’ Baabda Meeting
Aoun chairs tomorrow’s “National Meeting”
Lebanon: Main Opposition Factions to Boycott Baabda Meeting
Exit of Aoun, Diab government among demands of march on Baabda/Demonstration is a blow to dialogue conference after Sunni boycott.
Abdul Samad Apologizes to the Lebanese People
RHUH Announces First Death of Baby with Coronavirus
Foreign Ministry condemns missile strike on Riyadh
ESCWA, FAO discuss regional production and consumption for sustainable land management commemorating Desertification and Drought Day
'End Neo-Slavery': Lebanon Maid Abandonment Sparks Outrage
No-one Wants to Stay': Ethiopia under Pressure to Rescue Maids in Lebanon

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 24-25/2020
Many of the 12 million displaced Syrians will not return home, NGOs warn
US Envoy: Syria Sanctions Do Not Target Humanitarian Aid
Iran's Rouhani Says IAEA Risks Losing Independence
Romania Announces Autopsy Results of Fugitive Iranian Judge
Iran Mobilizes Forces on Iraqi-Kurdish Border
Turkey Accuses France of Dragging Libya into 'Chaos'
Turkey ‘continuously’ violates sovereignty of Libya, Syria, Iraq: Greek FM
Journalists Accused of Revealing Secrets on Trial in Turkey
Kurdish family mourns victim of Turkish airstrike in Iraq
Aguila Saleh: Libyan People Will Urge Egypt to Intervene if Militias Cross Sirte, Jufra
UN Chief Hopes Israel Decides against West Bank Annexation
Hamas Calls for 'Massive' Popular Revolution Against Annexation Plan
Jordan Valley, An Agricultural Plain With Key Resources
Republicans Back Israel’s Annexation Plan, Democrats Issue Strong Warning
Jordanian Minister Warns Against Israeli Annexation of the Jordan Valley
US Secretary of State says it is up to Israel to decide on West Bank annexation

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 24-25/2020
Why John Bolton's memoir will be long forgotten by US election day/Nick March/The National/June 24/2020
Struggle of The Two Global Sensitive Issues for The Near Future/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/June 24/2020
Syrian Sanctions and Despair/Robert Ford/Asharq Al-Awsat/June 24/2020
When to Wear a Mask/Faye Flam/Asharq Al-Awsat/June 24/2020
Was Iran behind the Houthi attack on Saudi Arabia?/Seth J.Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/June 24/2020
State Department Plays Key Role in New U.S. China Strategy/David Maxwell/FDD/June 24/2020
China wants to dominate space, and the US must take countermeasures/Major Liane “Trixie” Zivitski/Defense News/June 24/2020
How to Beat China’s Military-Civil Fusion/Emily de La Bruyère/Nathan Picarsic/FDD/June 24/2020
"Where are the Visible and Audible Women in the Muslim Community?"/Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff /Gatestone Institute/June 24/ 2020
Dump China: Time to End Beijing's Pernicious Tech Empire/Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/June 24/ 20

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 24-25/2020
De-fund it
Dr.Walid Phares/June 23/2020
Top Shia cleric & scholar Imam Ali al Amin to be prosecuted by Lebanon courts for "attending an interfaith round table" in Bahrain, co sponsored by US & international entities. Hezbollah controlled institutions accused him of "speaking with Jewish Rabbis!" The US must respond.
The US cannot fund Governments suppressing moderate religious leaders seeking world Peace, prosecutions targeting free opinion dissidents and security forces who brutally beat protesters exposing corruption. We shouldn't fund a Hezbollah-state.
De-fund it.

Dialogue And The Chocolate Factory
Elie Aoun/June 25/2020
إيلي عون: الحوار ومعمل الحلويات
الطبقة السياسة فاشلة ومغربة عن الناس ولا تعرف كيف تتعامل مع المشاكل والأزمات التي يواجهها لبنان.. وكيف يمكنه أن تحل أي مشكل وهي من تسببت به. ولو افترضنا أن تشرشل وديغول وتوماس جيفرسون شاركوا في الحوار مع هذه الطبقة السياسية اللبنانية فلن تأخذ افكارهم وطروحاتهم النيرة غير ما يناسب مصالحا الذاتية وليس مصالح لبنان وشعبه. أنها طبقة فاشلة لا آمل ولا رجاء منها..
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/87629/elie-aoun-dialogue-and-the-chocolate-factory-%d8%a5%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%8a-%d8%b9%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d9%88%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%85%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d9%84%d9%88%d9%8a/
There is no doubt that there are solutions to the current situation in Lebanon, and there are many Lebanese who are qualified to play that role.
However, the country is not ruled by qualified Lebanese, and its political class, along with all the major political parties, are not equipped to play any constructive role.
Those who failed to save Lebanon in 2005 and early 2006 are not qualified to save it in 2020. Those who could not prevent the country from arriving at its current situation cannot lift it from its current situation.
The ruling class had acted, and continues to act, for its own selfish interest – and no tragedy impacting Lebanon could make them change their attitude.
They pursue policies that undermine the people’s standards of living and the local economy, to the benefit of a regional and globalist agenda. Then, they say that they want a “dialogue” to save the country which they themselves have undermined by their faulty policies and theft of national resources.
Even if Lebanese citizens of the caliber of Thomas Jefferson, Charles de Gaulle, or Winston Churchill attend the dialogue, nothing of their constructive ideas will be implemented. The ruling class will take whatever ideas they hear in the context of how they will use them for their own benefit against their political opponents. The nationalist spirit does not exist in them.
The nation, the environment, public liberties, justice, and all the like have no meaningful value to them. These are only slogans for public consumption.
It is not our job to condemn them or criticize them, but it is our job to speak the truth so that we do not waste our time with them. The country needs new talent, new brains, and new leadership.
True leaders, true politicians, have positive impacts on their country within days (not years) from the day they begin their rule. Those who spend years in a leadership position and produce nothing genuine or constructive, their dialogue is an acknowledgment of that failure.
If their dialogue is sincere, and if they do not know what to do and wish to seek advice, they should have initiated their dialogue at the beginning of their rule – and plan their rule accordingly.
What have they done all these years if now they are acknowledging that they need dialogue to know what to do? Solutions do not exist, but it is a waste of time to discuss solutions with a political class that is inept.
They first say: “We want to save the country.” Then, they rob its resources, pursue failed policies, and undermine it at the economic, political, security, and all levels. After doing all this, they say again: “We want to save the country.” Do they expect us to believe them? They taught us not to.
The dialogue of this political class cannot lead to national recovery because they lack the nationalist vision and ethics for that recovery. To them, the nation and the governing process are similar to a chocolate factory to produce “sweets” (lucrative deals) for their enjoyment. They do not know anything beyond that. If they honestly wish to save the nation, they can begin by stopping to rob the factory from its “chocolate.” They should not need a dialogue to know that.
Finally, many politicians had often preached about the meaning of “sacrifice” and how it is necessary to offer sacrifices for the country. If they truly believe what they say, now it is the perfect time to sacrifice themselves for the country.

Coronavirus toll at 1100 GMT Wednesday
NNA/June 23/2020
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 477,570 people since emerging in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP as of 1100 GMT Wednesday. At least 9,279,310 cases of COVID-19 have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 4,548,900 are considered recovered. The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases. The United States is the worst-hit country with 121,225 deaths from 2,347,102 cases. At least 647,548 people have been declared recovered. After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 52,645 deaths from 1,145,906 cases, Britain with 42,927 deaths from 306,210 cases, Italy with 34,675 deaths from 238,833 cases, and France with 29,720 deaths from 197,674 cases. China -- excluding the regions of Hong Kong and Macau -- has to date declared 83,430 cases, a rise of 12 since Tuesday, including 4,634 deaths and 78,428 recoveries. Europe overall has 194,029 deaths from 2,567,220 cases, the United States and Canada 129,724 deaths from 2,449,065 infections, Latin America and the Caribbean 100,399 deaths from 2,163,594 cases, Asia 30,566 deaths from 1,096,166 cases, Middle East 14,155 deaths from 669,097 cases, Africa 8,565 deaths from 325,216 cases, and Oceania 132 deaths from 8,958 cases.--AFP

Hotel-Dieu Takes Measures after Patient, 9 Staff Get Coronavirus
Naharnet/June 24/2020
The Hotel-Dieu de France hospital in Beirut announced Wednesday that it took precautionary measures and ordered PCR tests after a patient, two of her relatives and nine of the medical staff tested positive for COVID-19. In a statement, Hotel-Dieu said the patient, who has chronic health problems, has been in the hospital for several weeks now. Among the measures that will be taken are “the gradual closure of the unit in which the patient was receiving treatment and carrying out tests for all the patients who were in this unit.”“The unit will then be sterilized and closed for 14 days,” it added, noting that PCR tests have been conducted for the unit’s entire medical staff. “A broad testing campaign will be carried out for those who came in contact with the infected individuals and all patients discharged from this unit over the past 14 days will be contacted with the aim of undergoing PCR tests,” the hospital added. Noting that “tests are currently being conducted for the nurses and cleaning workers who might have come in contact with infected individuals,” Hotel-Dieu said it is exerting utmost effort to “contain this outbreak whose source is still unknown.”Media reports have said that one of the patient’s relatives, who hails from north Lebanon, had infected her before she in turn infected the medical staff. Lebanon meanwhile confirmed 22 coronavirus cases and one more death on Wednesday. The Health Ministry said 15 of the cases were recorded among residents and seven among expats repatriated from Ivory Coast, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Qatar and the Central African Republic. Those infected locally -- which likely include those infected at Hotel-Dieu -- reside in Ashrafieh, Tallet al-Khayyat, Ain el-Rummaneh, Bourj al-Barajneh, Ghobeiri, Bsaba, Hadath, Bouchrieh, Dekwaneh, Roumieh, Sin el-Fil, Kfar Yassine and Kfar Hbab, the Ministry added.

Empty Fridges as Lebanon Economic Crisis Bites
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 23 June, 2020
Lebanon's economic crisis has led to a collapse of the local currency and purchasing power, plunging whole segments of society into poverty as exemplified by near-empty fridges in many households. Earlier this year, Lebanon defaulted on its debt and, while the peg to the dollar remains unchanged, the pound has since nosedived on the black market. In a country so heavily reliant on imports, the blow is huge and thousands of businesses were doomed even before the coronavirus lockdown shuttered the economy. Prices have soared almost as fast as the currency has plummeted, meaning that a salary of one million pounds is now worth around $200, instead of almost $700 last year. The crisis is sounding the death knell of a middle class that is sliding into the half of the population the World Bank now estimates lives under the poverty line. A far cry from the country's erstwhile image as the "Switzerland of the Middle East" fabled for its nightlife and entrepreneurial genius, a class of destitute Lebanese is emerging across the country. AFP photographers spent several days in June visiting people's homes in the main cities of Beirut, Tripoli, Byblos, Jounieh and Sidon to ask them how they managed to put food on the table. Those who accepted to be photographed posed in front of open refrigerators whose bare shelves often hinted at the leanest of diets. Holding her fridge door open, Fadwa Merhebi explains she already downsized once because she could not afford enough food to fill it up. Now it contains only a bottle of mineral water and two cucumbers. "If there were smaller fridges on the market, I would sell this one and buy a smaller one," says the 60-year-old, who lives alone in a tiny flat in Tripoli. "At least I could use the money to buy something to eat."

Lira in Free-Fall as Pompeo Says Support Hinges on Reforms
Associated Press/Naharnet/June 24/2020
Lebanon's currency continued its downward spiral Wednesday, reaching a new low before the dollar and raising such alarm that it prompted Speaker Nabih Berri to call for a state of "financial emergency." The Lebanese pound was reportedly selling at 6,200 to the dollar, losing more than 75% of its value. The pound had been pegged at 1,500 to the dollar since 1997. Despite government efforts to manage the currency crash -- including injecting dollars into the market and setting a higher rate for specific transactions -- chaos prevailed and the parallel currency market continued to thrive.
Highly indebted Lebanon is in the throes of financial and economic crises, made worse by restrictions imposed to combat the coronavirus in March. Political rivalries have also complicated negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, which the Lebanese government has asked last month for $10 billion in financial assistance. Dozens of protesters rallied in the southern city of Tyre, chanting against banks. "They are selling their nation for the sake of the dollar," the protesters chanted, addressing private banks.Anti-government nationwide protests gripped Lebanon before the coronavirus pandemic restrictions. Lebanese grew impatient with the political class in control since the end of the 15-year civil war in 1990, which they accused of corruption, including some warlords who remained in prominent political roles. The protests died down with the restrictions but the currency crisis sparked new, limited and more violent rallies. Meanwhile, the Lebanese political class has been bickering over hosting a national dialogue that was called for by the presidency following violent protests that threatened to ignite sectarian violence. Rivals of the government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab said they will boycott the meeting, scheduled Thursday. Diab's government is backed by the powerful Hizbullah group and its allies. Reflecting the dire straits Lebanon is facing, traditional donors to the state, including Gulf and European countries, have asked for major reforms before dispensing any assistance. Speaking in Washington on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeated the same line, adding that real reforms are necessary before support is extended to the government. He added that it must be a government that is not "beholden to Hizbullah."Hizbullah is on the U.S. sanctions list and Washington considers it one of Iran's most powerful allies in the region. "When that comes, when the government demonstrates, whoever that is, demonstrates their willingness and capacity to do that I think that not only United States, but the whole world will come in to assist the Lebanese government get its economy back on its feet," Pompeo said.

US prepared to help Lebanon if it carries out real reforms, says Pompeo
Reuters/Wednesday 24 June 2020
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday the United States was prepared to support the Lebanese government if it carries out real reforms and operates in a way that is not “beholden to” the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah. Speaking to reporters, Pompeo said that if the Lebanese government demonstrates its willingness to take such actions the United States and the whole world would assist in getting its economy “back on its feet.”Lebanon is grappling with an acute financial crisis seen as the biggest threat to its stability since the 1975-90 civil war. Earlier on Wednesday, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri urged Lebanon’s government, central bank and commercial banks on Wednesday to declare a “financial state of emergency” and review all steps to protect the collapsing currency. He also said Lebanon would not get a penny from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or any donor state unless it carries out reforms, at the forefront of them accelerating an overhaul of its loss-making electricity sector.

Lebanon: Main Opposition Factions to Boycott Baabda Meeting
Beirut - Caroline Akoum//Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
The Lebanese presidency has held onto its invitation to hold all-party talks at the Baabda Palace on Thursday, despite the boycott of several opposition factions, including former prime ministers, the Kataeb party and the Marada Movement. The Lebanese Forces, headed by Samir Geagea, is yet to announce its position, but its sources hinted at a snub to President Michel Aoun’s invitation for dialogue. While opposition parties from across the political spectrum said that the meeting lacked a clear agenda and pointed to the government’s failure to implement any reform measures, sources close to the presidency stressed that the talks would take place on schedule. They also downplayed criticism on the alleged unconstitutionality of the meeting. “There is no doubt that the absence of the former prime ministers (from the talks) is unfortunate, but this does not mean a lack of constitutionality, because all sects will be represented,” the sources noted. Reaffirming that the meeting would discuss the security developments in Beirut and Tripoli, the sources emphasized that there was no dispute among rival parties on security issues and civil peace. All sides reject instability, said the sources. For his part, former President Amin Gemayel urged Aoun to postpone the meeting and rearrange its priorities “according to the requirements of the constitution and the supreme interest of the state, in a manner that preserves Lebanon’s sovereignty… and its Arab and international relations.”In a statement, Lebanon’s former prime ministers, including Fouad Siniora, Tammam Salam, Saad Hariri and Najib Mikari, said that the Baabda meeting was a “waste of time” and lacked an agenda that meets the priorities imposed by the current situation. The head of Marada, former Minister Suleiman Franjieh, announced he would not attend the meeting, and hoped that “those present would succeed in saving the economic and security situation, and finding the desired solutions.”MP Sami Gemayel, the head of Kataeb, also snubbed the talks, urging Aoun to invite for a dialogue on an economic rescue plan that resolves the people’s problems and improves their living conditions.

Lebanon Parliament Speaker urges declaration of ‘financial state of emergency’
Reuters, Beirut/Wednesday 24 June 2020
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri urged Lebanon’s government, central bank and commercial banks on Wednesday to declare a “financial state of emergency” and review all steps to protect the collapsing currency. He also said Lebanon would not get a penny from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or any donor state unless it carries out reforms, at the forefront of them accelerating an overhaul of its loss-making electricity sector. The Lebanese pound has lost about 75 percent of its value since October, when long-brewing economic troubles mushroomed into a financial crisis regarded as the biggest threat to Lebanon since its 1975-1990 civil war. The pound, officially pegged at 1,507.5 to the dollar since 1997, traded at 6,300/6,500 on the parallel market Wednesday, a market participant said, weaker than levels of 6,000/6,200 cited by market participants on Tuesday. With dollars scarce, the financial meltdown has frozen savers out of their deposits and forced up prices in the import-dependent economy. “It is unacceptable that Lebanese be made hostages of black markets in currency, food, medicine and fuel,” Berri said during an emergency meeting of the Amal Movement, the Shia Muslim party he leads. Donor states that have provided Lebanon with aid in the past have said it will not receive any until it undertakes reforms to fix the state corruption and waste that are at the root of the crisis. Lebanon began talks with the IMF in May. “Any Lebanese official will be mistaken if he believes the IMF or any state or donor party can give us one penny of aid if we do not implement reforms,” Berri said. “Frankly, the world and international community believes Lebanon is a bottomless basket, and before this bottom is closed there will be no aid.”

Lebanon’s Judiciary Sues Anti-Hezbollah Shiite Cleric
Beirut/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
The Lebanese judiciary on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Shiite cleric opposed to Hezbollah, Sayyed Ali Al-Amin, for “meeting with Israeli officials” during his participation in a conference of religions held in Bahrain last year, which happened to be also attended by Jewish clerics coming from the occupied land.
Amin was the Mufti of Tyre and Jabal Amel before 2006, and took a political position in 2007 in support of former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, in the wake of the resignation of Shiite ministers from the government at the time.
He was expelled from the South in 2008, “by force of arms,” as he said in previous statements. Shortly after his participation in the interfaith conference in Bahrain in 2019, the cleric’s opponents launched a political campaign against him, while Hezbollah considered his move as “a serious insult to the legacy of religious scholars who had and still have a prominent role in resisting the occupation and rejecting normalization with it.”The Supreme Islamic Shiite Council in Lebanon took a decision to dismiss Amin from his duties at Dar al-Ifta al-Jaafari, because he “worked to fuel internal strife among the Lebanese, and because of his normalization vision with the occupation.”On Tuesday, the public prosecutor’s office in Mount Lebanon filed a lawsuit against Amin for “meeting Israeli officials in Bahrain”. The lawsuit accuses the cleric of “meeting Israeli officials in Bahrain, continuously attacking the resistance and its martyrs, inciting strife between sects, sowing discord and sedition, and violating the Sharia laws of the Jaafari sect.”In a telephone call with Amin, Siniora expressed his condemnation and denunciation of the judiciary’s move. “It seems that those, who claim concern for the independence of the judicial authorities, are working to strike the remaining reputation and image of the judiciary in Lebanon,” he said.

NNA Says Prosecutor Hasn't Accused al-Amin of 'Meeting Israelis'
Naharnet/June 24/2020
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency on Wednesday corrected its report on the lawsuit filed against anti-Hizbullah Shiite cleric Sayyed Ali al-Amin. "It turned out that Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Raed Abu Shaqra's lawsuit is exclusively related to two charges: the offense of stirring sectarian sentiments and inciting conflict between sects, and the offense of contempt of religious rituals," NNA said. "As the National News Agency apologizes for publishing the article in its initial form, it stresses that the matter is merely a mistake by its correspondent, who mixed up between the offenses included in the report (filed by Nabih Awada, Khalil Nasrallah, Shawqi Awada and Hussein al-Dirani) and the lawsuit” filed by Abu Shaqra, NNA added. In their report, on which Abu Shaqra has partially based his lawsuit, the four activists accuse al-Amin of “meeting Israeli officials in Bahrain, attacking the resistance and its martyrs on permanent basis, inciting strife between sects, sowing discord and sedition, and violating the Sharia laws of the Jaafari sect.”

Activist Held for 'Dealing with Israel' Gets Arrest Warrant
Naharnet/June 24/2020
Military Investigative Judge Najat Abu Shaqra on Wednesday interrogated the activist Kinda al-Khatib over the military prosecution’s lawsuit against her on charges of dealing with Israel, the National News Agency said. Khatib’s lawyer Jocelyne al-Rahi attended the interrogation session, NNA said. An arrest warrant was issued for Khatib at the end of the two-hour session, the agency added. Lebanon's military prosecution on Monday charged Khatib with "collaborating" with Israeli spies and illegally traveling to Israel. Khatib -- a female activist in her twenties -- has been active on social media, where she harshly criticized Hizbullah and its ally President Michel Aoun. Lebanese media and activists have drawn a parallel between Khatib's case and that of actor Ziad Itani, who was also accused of "collaborating" with Israel in 2017. Itani was declared innocent and released several months later, and a high-ranking security officer was then charged with "fabricating" the case.

Protesters Block Roads across Lebanon over Dire Situations
Naharnet/June 24/2020
Protesters took to the streets across the country on Wednesday evening to denounce the dire economic and financial situations. The protests come on the eve of a national meeting called for by President Michel Aoun which will be boycotted by most of the opposition parties. In the capital Beirut, protesters blocked the Ashrafieh-Hamra lane of the vital Ring highway, which has become iconic for the anti-government protest movement. Scuffles later erupted between them and riot police, which resulted in injuries according to al-Jadeed TV. Other protesters meanwhile rallied outside the central bank in Hamra. In the Bekaa, anti-government demonstrators blocked the Jdita al-Aali, Qab Elias, Saadnayel, Taalabaya, Zahle-Chtaura, al-Rafid and al-Masnaa roads. Protesters in the North meanwhile blocked several roads in Tripoli as well as the al-Mhammara and Halba roads in Akkar. In Mount Lebanon, the Bhamdoun road was blocked at the Shanay intersection and in the south, protesters blocked the road outside the serail of Nabatieh and the Elia intersection in Sidon. Dozens of protesters meanwhile rallied in the southern city of Tyre, chanting against banks. "They are selling their nation for the sake of the dollar," the protesters chanted, addressing private banks.

Berri Urges 'Financial Emergency' to Stop 'Lira Collapse'
Naharnet/June 24/2020
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday said “the collapse of the Lebanese lira against the U.S. dollar requires the government, the central bank and the Association of Banks to declare a financial state of emergency and review all the measures that have been taken to protect national currency.”
“From now on, it is unacceptable to turn the Lebanese into hostages to the black markets of currency, food, medicine and fuel,” Berri added during an emergency meeting of AMAL Movement’s leadership. As for the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, the Speaker said “mistaken are those who think that the IMF or any state or donor would offer us assistance, even with one dime, if we don’t implement reforms, topped by an instant solution for the electricity sector.”Separately, Berri said “protecting people’s security, freedom of belief and properties as well as the country’s security and civil peace is a religious, legal and ethical responsibility before being a national responsibilit

Ministry of Finance: 15th meeting with IMF broached anti-corruption and money laundering strategy
NNA/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
The Press Office of the Ministry of Finance indicated in a statement on Wednesday that "The Lebanese negotiating delegation, chaired by Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni, held its 14th meeting with the International Monetary Fund, in the presence of Administrative Development Affairs Minister, Damianos Kattar, Legal Advisor, Dr. Paul Morcos, representatives from the Ministry of Justice and a team from Lebanon's Central Bank."The 15th meeting with the IMF mainly focused on the government's strategy to fight corruption and money laundering, adding that discussions will be followed up upcoming Monday, statement indicated.

Lebanon’s Finance Minister: Negotiations with IMF Are Positive
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
Lebanese Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni described negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as “good and positive.”He stressed that there was no dispute between him and Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, noting that it was a disagreement over the calculation of losses. Wazni was speaking during a meeting with a delegation from the Lebanese Press Syndicate on Tuesday. He said the losses were “the public debt that has reached a very high record… and we all have to bear its distribution; each side according to its capabilities.”On Lebanon’s decision regarding the non-payment of the Eurobonds and the negotiations with the IMF, Wazni said: “Three months, ago we said that we do not have the money to pay the Eurobonds, and because of our difficult financial conditions the period may extend to 2035.""As for the meetings with International Monetary Fund, they are good and positive, contrary to what they say in the media, but the issue needs time.”

Ministerial Crisis Cell Discusses Financial Issues
Naharnet/June 24/2020
The third meeting of the ministerial crisis cell tasked with following up on financial issues convened on Wednesday and was chaired by Minister of Finance Ghazi Wazni, the National News Agency reported. The talks have focused on “pumping dollars to money changers to meet the needs of citizens, provided that the Central Bank of Lebanon pumps dollars to the banks according to certain regulations,” said NNA.The meeting was held in the presence of Minister of Economy and Trade Raoul Nehme, Minister of Industry Imad Hoballah, Information Minister Manal Abdul Samad, the governor of the Central Bank Riad Salame, General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim, Head of the Association of Banks in Lebanon Salim Sfeir, and Mahmoud Halawi, Vice Chairman of the Syndicate of Money Changers in Lebanon.

Geagea Says to Boycott ‘Misleading’ Baabda Meeting
Naharnet/June 24/2020
Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea announced on Wednesday his boycott of Thursday’s national dialogue meeting in Baabda. “We will not take part in a meeting only aimed at throwing ashes in the eyes. The Lebanese people are in disagreement with the authority because of what it brought us to,” said Geagea in a press conference announcing the boycott. “None of us was able to estimate the purpose of the meeting in Baabda tomorrow,” he said, adding that the focus of officials is totally distant from the measures needed to solve Lebanon’s multiple crises. “The officials are in one place and the situation in the country is in a totally different one. Some people have one main concern nowadays. To eat,” he added. “We as Lebanese have reached a point we never witnessed before, maybe only in World War I. We are Republicans with distinction and we place great importance on working in the Parliament and Cabinet, and in the participation with the President. From this perspective, we participated in the May 6 meeting in Baabda, which had a clear agenda,” said Geagea. The LF chief addressed the President urging him to intervene whenever Lebanon’s civil peace is threatened. “You have the authority, your Excellency and you must intervene when security is threatened. We always ask ourselves until this very day, why didn’t you interfere when half the capital of Beirut was smashed? What is the purpose of the meeting you called for?” concluded Geaega. The LF chief said that Lebanon is enduring multiple crippling crises that made the country unrecognizable.

Aoun chairs tomorrow’s “National Meeting”
NNA/June 24/2020
President Michel Aoun chairs a “National Meeting”, tomorrow at 11:00am at Baabda Palace, attended by Parliament Speaker, Nabih Berri, Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, in addition to leaders, party chiefs and heads of parliamentary blocs. The meeting is devoted to discuss the general situation in the country, in light of recent security developments which recently took place in Beirut and Tripoli, which threatened national unity, public safety and civil peace. It is scheduled that the meeting will tackle numerous presented topics to determine viewpoints of participants, provided that a statement will be issued by the meeting to confirm all points agreed upon.--Presidency Press office

Lebanon: Main Opposition Factions to Boycott Baabda Meeting
Beirut - Caroline Akoum/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
The Lebanese presidency has held onto its invitation to hold all-party talks at the Baabda Palace on Thursday, despite the boycott of several opposition factions, including former prime ministers, the Kataeb party and the Marada Movement. The Lebanese Forces, headed by Samir Geagea, is yet to announce its position, but its sources hinted at a snub to President Michel Aoun’s invitation for dialogue. While opposition parties from across the political spectrum said that the meeting lacked a clear agenda and pointed to the government’s failure to implement any reform measures, sources close to the presidency stressed that the talks would take place on schedule. They also downplayed criticism on the alleged unconstitutionality of the meeting. “There is no doubt that the absence of the former prime ministers (from the talks) is unfortunate, but this does not mean a lack of constitutionality, because all sects will be represented,” the sources noted. Reaffirming that the meeting would discuss the security developments in Beirut and Tripoli, the sources emphasized that there was no dispute among rival parties on security issues and civil peace. All sides reject instability, said the sources. For his part, former President Amin Gemayel urged Aoun to postpone the meeting and rearrange its priorities “according to the requirements of the constitution and the supreme interest of the state, in a manner that preserves Lebanon’s sovereignty… and its Arab and international relations.”In a statement, Lebanon’s former prime ministers, including Fouad Siniora, Tammam Salam, Saad Hariri and Najib Mikari, said that the Baabda meeting was a “waste of time” and lacked an agenda that meets the priorities imposed by the current situation. The head of Marada, former Minister Suleiman Franjieh, announced he would not attend the meeting, and hoped that “those present would succeed in saving the economic and security situation, and finding the desired solutions.”MP Sami Gemayel, the head of Kataeb, also snubbed the talks, urging Aoun to invite for a dialogue on an economic rescue plan that resolves the people’s problems and improves their living conditions.

Exit of Aoun, Diab government among demands of march on Baabda/Demonstration is a blow to dialogue conference after Sunni boycott.
The Arab Weekly/June 24/2020
BEIRUT – Lebanese political circles considered the country’s Sunni leaders’ move to boycott a dialogue conference called for by President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace on Thursday to be “the strongest blow” to the current era since Aoun was elected president on the last day of October 2016.
These circles suggested that a popular demonstration called for by the forces behind the street protests that erupted last October is more likely to replace the dialogue conference.
Participants in the demonstration, which will try to approach the Baabda Palace, will, among other things, demand the resignation of Aoun and the departure of the current government headed by Prime Minister Hassan Diab.
These circles could not speculate on the size of the demonstration meant to descend on Baabda Palace, where the president resides, but considered it an indication of growing popular anger at the political elite, especially as the country’s economic crisis lingers.
The Lebanese political circles said the Sunni boycott, which was confirmed by a statement issued on Monday evening by former prime ministers Saad Hariri, Tammam Salam, Fouad Siniora and Najib Mikati, shows that Lebanon’s largest community has rejected any form of engagement with the president and his son-in-law Gebran Bassil, who heads the Free Patriotic Movement and who some say really controls the levers of power.
These circles added that Bassil’s provocative speech last Sunday in which he spoke ill of Hariri, accusing him of “running away from his responsibility,” played a role in the former prime ministers’ boycott.
The Lebanese Sunni leaders’ position was reinforced by that of former presidents Amine Gemayel and Michel Suleiman. This has pushed Hezbollah to support the conference, using Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and his Shia Amal Movement, which is represented in the current government.
Despite his many reservations about the performances of Aoun and his son-in-law Bassil, Berri nevertheless sought to persuade Lebanon’s political forces to attend the conference.
Also in favour of boycotting the Baabda conference is the Kataeb Party, headed by Samy Gemayel. Kataeb is one of the oldest parties in Lebanon. It is also expected that the Lebanese Forces Party, which is headed by Samir Geagea and has a large parliamentary bloc of 15 deputies, will boycott the conference.
In a related development, a political source told The Arab Weekly that Beirut MP Nohad Machnouk has postponed his press conference scheduled for Monday in which he intended to condemn Hezbollah’s provocative practices, including its supporters’ sectarian slogans, such as “Shia, Shia, Shia” and insults of Sayyeda Aisha, the Prophet’s wife. The source added that Machnouk agreed to postpone his press conference at the request of political figures currently working to defuse Shia-Sunni tensions in Beirut and other Lebanese regions. The source revealed that Machnouk was intending to state that Hezbollah’s brutal behaviour towards the people of Beirut has not changed since the party’s gunmen stormed the capital on May 7, 2008.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah had described the group’s eventual takeover of Sunni areas of Beirut as a “glorious day.”
An organsier for Thursday’s planned demonstration towards Baabda Palace said the protest’s slogans will challenge Hezbollah and its control of weaponry. The organiser explained that the demonstration will be limited to demanding the preparation of a fair election law, independently administered and monitored, drawing up a plan for economic development and clear delimitations of responsibilities, pursuing the recovery of looted funds, bringing major figures of corruption to justice, protecting the poor and low-income classes, enhancing the independence of the judiciary and guaranteeing citizens’ deposits in banks.
But the demonstration’s most important demands are going to be the departure of Aoun and the government responsible for “bankrupting Lebanon” and the formation of an independent government that has the confidence of the Lebanese people.

Abdul Samad Apologizes to the Lebanese People
Naharnet/June 24/2020
Information Minister Manal Abdul Samad apologized to the Lebanese people on Wednesday for an economic crisis that pushed many into poverty, saying that “the people are hungry and prices are soaring.”The Minister said her work at the Ministry prevented her in the last few months from communicating directly with the people. “I went down to the street Tuesday evening. I talked to the people. I was upset to see the generous people (of Lebanon) suffer like that. The prices are burning and the people are hungry,” she said in a tweet. Abdul Samad added: “Some have lost their confidence in the government because of the practices of previous terms. I apologize. I am doing my best at my ministry and will be their voice in the Parliament.”Lebanon's economic crisis has led to a collapse of the local currency and purchasing power, plunging whole segments of society into poverty. Earlier this year, Lebanon defaulted on its debt and, while the peg to the dollar remains unchanged, the pound has since nosedived on the black market. Prices have soared almost as fast as the currency has plummeted, meaning that a salary of one million pounds is now worth around $200, instead of almost $700 last year. The crisis is sounding the death knell of a middle class that is sliding into the half of the population the World bank now estimates lives under the poverty line.

RHUH Announces First Death of Baby with Coronavirus
Naharnet/June 24/2020
The governmental Rafik Hariri University Hospital announced in a statement on Wednesday the first infant death from Covid-19 in Lebanon who suffered from "congenital heart defects."The infant was taken to the hospital 25 days after her birth, said the statemnet. Tests found she was infected with coronavirus and suffered from a congenital heart defect. She was receiving oxygen around the clock to help her breathe, it added. Recorded illness caused by the coronavirus has been rare among children. The total number of coronavirus cases in Lebanon reached 1,622 on Tuesday. The first case was recorded on February 21.

Foreign Ministry condemns missile strike on Riyadh
NNA/June 24/2020
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants condemned, in a statement on Wednesday, the fresh missile strike on the Saudi capital, Riyadh, calling the concerned sides to spare civilians. "Such terrorist operations are considered a violation of all international norms and conventions, and an impediment to the peace efforts," the statement read. The Ministry also confirmed Lebanon's solidarity with Saudi Arabia "in the face of any attempt to target its security and stability."

ESCWA, FAO discuss regional production and consumption for sustainable land management commemorating Desertification and Drought Day
NNA/June 24/2020
The Arab region needs to innovatively sustain its land and protect it from degradation and loss in order to ensure a sustainable future. This was the main message of the joint FAO-ESCWA celebration of Desertification and Drought Day under the theme "Food. Feed and Fibre" held virtually on Monday across the Arab region. Representatives from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization Regional Office for Near East and North Africa (FAO RNE) joined experts, practitioners and academic institutions from different countries in exploring ways in which the region can become more resilient to address the risks arising from desertification, drought and the depletion of natural resources, in order to preserve terrestrial ecosystems, shift to more sustainable consumption and production patterns, prevent land degradation and rehabilitate agricultural land.
"Desertification and drought are serious challenges of the region where 92% of the land is arid while 73% of the limited arable land is subject to degradation. We pay high economic cost of land degradation exceeding 9 billion dollars each year," said Roula Majdalani, Leader of the Climate Change and Natural Resources Sustainability Cluster at ESCWA. "Desertification and drought are two critical issues for the Arab region as it is facing water shortages along with a growth in population amid a time of conflict and war in many countries," said Serge Nakouzi, FAO Deputy Regional Representative, on behalf of Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region. "When we all work together to change our practices to more sustainable ones, only then will we see a future with enough healthy land to provide food security for all."
Desertification and drought
The quest to meet the growing needs of humans - be it food, clothing or space for settlement - in addition to climate change are the leading drivers of land degradation and desertification. The vicious cycle of unsustainable production and consumption patterns is expected to continue as the population keeps growing, changing the agricultural land use, and settles more and more into cities.
Safeguarding the increasingly challenged lands is paramount to ensuring current and future productive activities in support of food security and livelihood. The challenge is even greater in the Arab region, characterized by limited natural resources and fast degrading soils in an arid environment where a better stewardship of the land is urgently needed. If the Arab region were to continue its current consumption rate, it would require the resources of about 4.2 Arab regions. This is due to the interlinked challenges of water scarcity, population growth, conflict and instability, dietary habits, and food loss and waste, as well as the expected adverse impact of climate change on the region. These challenges are proving detrimental to the region's environment and the sustainability of the fragile and scarce natural resources, particularly land and water. The annual economic cost of land degradation in the Arab region has been estimated at $9 billion (2.1 - 7.4% of the region's GDP). Salinity as a form of land degradation reduces productivity and crop yields, causing economic losses estimated at $1 billion annually across the region.
To preserve these resources with the aim of improving livelihoods and the quality of life, there will be a need to revisit how land-degrading and water-depleting production systems, including for example rice, foraging, khat or animal husbandry, are conducted.
A sustainable future
"Covid-19 gave Mother Nature a well-deserved break from our footprints on the environment with reduced social and economic activities. We have all enjoyed seeing clearer skies and breathing cleaner air during this lockdown. It taught us that we are all capable of consuming and producing less and still live well in harmony with nature, in fact live better." added Majdalani. "There is an urgency to act promptly, which becomes naturally evidenced by the alarming situation of the current Covid-19 pandemic. It is imperative to re-adjust human behavior to live in harmony with nature in a more sustainable World and Arab region. This is reasonably feasible, should we start instigating measures that adhere to the principles of responsible production and consumption, materialized on the ground by simple but efficient actions that proved to enhance both earth and human well-being." added Nakouzi.
There are many such ways and initiatives in which we can protect our land, such as promoting agricultural practices that strengthen the land regenerative capacity, adopting innovative ways to improve soil fertility, use the limited water in more sustainable way, reduce post-harvest food loss and waste, planning for urban expansion and cities to ensure that they become more sustainable, and supporting the adoption of green technologies. Desertification and Drought Day is observed every year on 17 June to promote public awareness of international efforts to combat desertification. This year's observance is focused on changing public attitudes to the leading driver of desertification and land degradation: humanity's relentless production and consumption.---ESCWA

'End Neo-Slavery': Lebanon Maid Abandonment Sparks Outrage
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 24/2020
After preparing dozens of rice packages for out-of-work domestic staff, 30-year-old Tirsit breaks down in tears recounting life as a foreign housekeeper in crisis-hit Lebanon. "The (recruitment) agencies sell us," said the 30-year-old Ethiopian, a large sack heaped with bags of rice by her side. "If I come to work for (a woman) and I don't like it, or she hits me, or there is no food, if I want to change households or leave, I can't," she explained. "She says: 'I bought you. Pay me back $2,000 then go wherever you want.'"Around 250,000 migrants -- usually women-- work as housekeepers, nannies and carers in Lebanese homes, a large proportion Ethiopian and some for as little as $150 a month. None are protected by the labor law.Instead, they work under a sponsorship system called kafala that has repeatedly been condemned by human rights groups as abusive and racist.
As the Black Lives Matter movement trends worldwide, activists in Lebanon are saying abolishing kafala is long overdue. "Something really needs to change," said Tirsit, after seeing persistent mistreatment of fellow workers during her 12 years in Lebanon. Under kafala, an employer pays around $2,000 to $5,000 to a recruitment agency to find a helper, with prices varying according to nationality, then sponsors the worker to stay legally in the country. The live-in employee cannot resign without their permission, or she becomes undocumented. Nothing prohibits an employer from confiscating the worker's passport. This leaves the worker entirely at the mercy of their employer.
Abandonments
Activists have long called for an end to kafala in the oil-rich Gulf, but a raging economic crisis in Lebanon has given the issue new urgency. With tight capital controls and the value of the Lebanese pound plummeting on the black market, employers are struggling to find dollars to pay their foreign staff, some no longer paying them at all. In recent weeks, more than 100 Ethiopian women have arrived outside their consulate, activists say, most after employers kicked them out without pay in the middle of a pandemic that has closed the airport. Ignored by consular staff, several have had to sleep rough on the pavement before they could find shelter. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres says six had to be hospitalized for severe psychiatric distress, some after trauma including physical or sexual violence. "End kafala. Repatriate," read a sign briefly hoisted outside the consulate earlier this month. Online, a petition describing the sponsorship system as "neo-slavery" has gathered more than 30,000 signatures since June 1. Human rights groups have documented a wide range of ill-treatment under kafala, including being confined to the home and refused any time off. Many workers have also died. Human Rights Watch in 2008 found more than one domestic worker died each week in Lebanon, mostly in suicides or "falling from high buildings, often while trying to escape."
On Thursday, an Ethiopian woman was found hanging in a home in east Lebanon, the state-owned National News Agency said.
'She is a human being'
Amnesty International researcher Diala Haidar said Lebanon must abolish kafala, bring domestic staff under the safeguards of its labor law and give them the right to unionize. The labor ministry and the International Labor Organization have been working to improve the standard contract. The latest draft would add an important provision recognizing "the right of workers... to terminate their employment at will, and the right to change employer without the consent of their current employer", Haidar said. But it has not yet been approved and, if it were, "it is not enough to adopt a new contract if there are no inspection and enforcement mechanisms," she told AFP, as abandonments in recent weeks show. Many of the women have been dumped without their passport, making it difficult to track down their employers and hold them accountable. A security source said employers were also filing complaints alleging their employee had stolen from them, "to get out of having to pay the Ethiopian domestic worker her monthly wages and try to escape all other due payments."Ethiopian activist Tsigereda Brihanu, 25, said she dreams of kafala ending one day, but until then urged employers to show some respect.
Even "if you don't have money, don't throw her outside in the street," said the coordinator with the Egna Legna group now helping to bring food to out-of-work domestic workers."She is not garbage. She is a human being like you."

No-one Wants to Stay': Ethiopia under Pressure to Rescue Maids in Lebanon
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 24/2020
After she flew to Lebanon in 2017 to work as a maid for a family of eight, Birtukan Mekuanint managed to call her own relatives in Ethiopia only a handful of times.So her father, Abiye Yefru, did not know what to think when Birtukan emerged unannounced from a taxi outside their home in Addis Ababa last week. "Everyone was very emotional when she came to meet us," Abiye told AFP, describing their reunion. "Me, I didn't hold back my tears, and my wife cried even more." Soon, though, Abiye's joy turned to anger as Birtukan recounted her hardship in Lebanon -- an all-too-common tale of uncompensated labour in abusive conditions. Now he's joining the chorus of Ethiopians pleading with the government to bring back thousands of domestic workers stranded in Lebanon. "It's too difficult over there," he said. "Of course they should be brought home."A quarter of a million migrants are employed as domestic workers in Lebanon, the majority of them Ethiopian. A sponsorship system known as "kafala" leaves maids, nannies and carers outside the remit of Lebanese labour law and at the mercy of their employers. The workers' plight has come under the spotlight in recent weeks as Lebanon grapples with its worst economic crisis in decades, with dozens of women kicked out by their employers and dumped outside the Ethiopian consulate in Beirut. Yet Ethiopian women have for years endured nonpayment of wages, forced confinement and physical and sexual violence, activists say. Making matters worse, Ethiopian authorities have turned a blind eye to the abuses, said Banchi Yimer, founder of an NGO that advocates for migrant workers' rights. "I would say they do nothing," she said. "Nothing has been done by the Ethiopian government."
A broken system
Like many Ethiopian women, Birtukan believed the brokers who told her moving to Lebanon would be an easy way to improve her family's fortunes. For 7,000 Ethiopian birr (around $200), they promised to arrange her travel and place her with a family that would pay $200 (177 euros) a month while covering her expenses. Upon reaching Beirut, however, she learned the brokers would pocket her earnings for the first two months. The brokers then cut off contact, and her Lebanese boss refused to pay her. Under the kafala system, migrant workers can't terminate contracts without the consent of their employers, meaning Birtukan was effectively trapped. She spent long hours mopping floors, ironing clothes and cleaning bathrooms, all while tallying the days on a piece of cardboard she hid under her mattress. "I didn't see other people. Even if I tried to talk on the phone, they would stop me," she told AFP as tears rolled down her cheeks. She seized the first chance she could to escape, swiping a key to the compound gate left behind by one of the family's children. She then secured a spot on one of the flights organised last month by the Ethiopian government and state-owned Ethiopian Airlines. But only around 650 women have been flown home so far. As the coronavirus pandemic exacerbates Lebanon's economic woes, Birtukan wants to see more repatriations. "I think the government should bring back all the women there," she said. "They're sleeping under bridges. They don't have enough to eat."Ethiopia's foreign affairs ministry and the consulate in Beirut did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Tough times ahead
For all the horror stories out of Lebanon, some women are glad they made the journey. Almaz Gezaheng, 32, travelled to Lebanon in 2008, moving in with a family of four. She found the pay too low and the conditions too strenuous, but after she left she landed a job as a cleaner at a beauty parlour that paid $400 per month.She sent half that money home, enabling her parents to buy their own house.  "At least I changed my family's life, even if I haven't done anything for myself."But after the Lebanese economy tanked, Almaz lost her job, and she exhausted her savings before securing a spot on a repatriation flight this month. "I think the future will be very difficult for Lebanon. I would advise young Ethiopians to stay here and do their own work rather than go there," she said. She urged the Ethiopian government to step in and help those still stuck there. "Most of their madams are throwing them out of the house," she said. "Before anything worse happens, it would be good for the government to bring back all of our girls from Lebanon." The call is echoed by Banchi, founder of the migrants workers' rights NGO, who said she is receiving reports of Ethiopian women in Lebanon who are in such despair that they drink bleach or try to jump off balconies. "The inaction of the Ethiopian government is leading domestic workers to depression," she said. "Everybody wants to go home. No-one wants to stay in Lebanon."

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 24-25/2020
Many of the 12 million displaced Syrians will not return home, NGOs warn
Callum Paton/The National/June 24, 2020
Ahead of a donor’s conference in Brussels on the future of Syria, aid organisations and charities urge action to help the country’s refugees
Syrians displaced by their county’s bitter civil war were unlikely to return home or start new lives abroad in the near future, a group of 50 Syrian and international NGOs has said.
In a report released before a donor’s conference in Brussels on the future of Syria the NGOs, which include Oxfam, Save The Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council, have described the scarcity of options available to Syria’s 12 million refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs).
“The majority of these people have no viable prospect for a durable solution – safe return and reintegration, local integration or resettlement – to end their displacement in the near future,” the report read.
Interviews with Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey and IDPs inside Syria have revealed what the report characterised as a “clear discrepancy” between people’s hopes for the future in contrast with what was available to them.
Refugees in those host nations wanted to return home or travel further abroad in roughly equal numbers, with only one quarter stating they would look to remain in the same place long-term, the report outlined.
IDPs overwhelmingly wanted to return home once certain conditions were met.
“We will never return to Syria. This is not an option for us. We will not improve the lives of our children and there we can do nothing for them. Also, it will be insecure. We are waiting to be able to emigrate; it will be wonderful if we can travel. But, in the worst-case scenario, we’ll live here,” a female refugee in Jordan said. Faced with a lack of options, the NGOs have called for improvements to the areas in which refugees could return. The primary responsibility for this, they have said, lies with the Syrian state. Co-ordinated action is also necessary across political, humanitarian, human-rights, development and peace-building spheres to support people and influence change, they have said.
The Syrians interviewed in the report explained the difficulties they faced when considering going home. “It is impossible for us to return. A few weeks ago, one of the villagers went very close to our village in order just to remember the place and take some photos, but she was hit by a sniper and killed immediately,” a male IDP in north-west Syria said. Women and children in particular face particular danger if they return home. “Our parents tell us to come back but they have no gas and are using donkeys, like in old times. We could manage despite this, but two things are impossible to live with: the lack of safety, like the kidnapping of children and women, and the expensive prices for food, gas, and everything we need,” another female refugee in Jordan said. The United Nations has until July 10 to renew its Syria cross-border resolution, which allows aid to reach four million Syrians living in areas outside the control of the government in Damascus. At the same time that NGOs urge the Brussels donors’ conference, which last year raised €6.2 billion (Dh25.7bn), to rise to the current challenge, charities and aid organisations are also calling on the UN to reauthorise access to north-east Syria. This will ensure vulnerable populations are able to receive the aid they need as humanitarian agencies struggle to scale up and respond Covid-19. “We look to the [UN] Security Council to ensure that this vital lifeline is extended to all Syrians so they can do their part to defeat the global pandemic. Covid-19 calls for global solidarity and action to ensure we do not leave the most vulnerable behind. Now is not the time to scale back humanitarian access,” the letter signed by 20 NGO leaders including International Rescue Committee president and chief executive, David Miliband, read.

US Envoy: Syria Sanctions Do Not Target Humanitarian Aid
Washington - Elie Youssef/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
US Special Representative for Syria James Jeffrey stressed that latest sanctions against the country will not impede the humanitarian aid or target the people, noting that Washington wants to push the political process drawn by the United Nations forward, not change the regime.
Jeffrey asserted that the US is committed to providing humanitarian aid and has no intention of obstructing its distribution anywhere in Syria, including the regime regions. Speaking at a webinar hosted by Washington-based Middle East Institute (MEI), he said that Washington was not seeking to change the regime in Syria via US or international military intervention, adding it is up to the Syrian people to change their regime and the political process can grant them the opportunity to do so. He explained that the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, which took effect last week, reflects the US policy towards Syria. The US has designated for sanctions the “architect of suffering,” president Bashar Assad and his wife, as well as “funder of these atrocities,” he indicated. The envoy asserted that the goal is not to torpedo the economy, as “Assad is more than capable of doing that himself," adding that the president “is doing a terrific job of pushing the pound into irrelevance and undercutting whatever is left of the Syrian GDP.”He stressed that the aim is to inflict real pain on those people around him and get them to understand this pain doesn't go away until they change their policies. Jeffrey also declared that Washington is looking for ways to enhance its assistance to restore stability in northeastern Syria, adding that Congress has been informed of the administration’s intention to grant $54 million in aid to minorities and religious groups there. He reiterated that the sanctions are aimed at money laundering, the Syrian Central Bank, the airline and military air force, and the energy and construction sectors. “We want to make it clear to anyone who wants to rebuild Assad’s Syria that that cannot happen without Caesar sanctions,” until there is a government in Damascus and a political solution has been reached, according to Jeffrey. The official believes that the military and economic situations, sanctions and accountability would allow the United States to pressure the Russians to achieve a settlement under UN Security Council resolution 2254. Jeffrey summed up the US goals of the sanctions by seeing Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies adopt resolution 2254 and a permanent ceasefire. He also indicated that Washington wants to ensure that real terrorists are pursued, rather than Syrian citizens. Russia, Iran and the regime are aware of the US agenda, and it is up to them to take steps in this direction, he said. The envoy refused to talk about the possibility of the sanctions affecting Russia and other Arab countries. Jeffrey also dismissed the idea that the US sanctions policy towards Syria would change should the Washington administration change after the November elections.

Iran's Rouhani Says IAEA Risks Losing Independence
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
Iran's president warned Wednesday that the UN nuclear watchdog risks losing its independence after it adopted a resolution urging access to two sites alleged to have hosted past nuclear activities. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency passed the resolution put forward by European states last week, calling on Iran to help clarify whether undeclared nuclear activities took place at the sites in the early 2000s. But the Islamic republic says the IAEA's requests for access were based on allegations from its arch-enemy Israel and had no legal basis. "The Zionist regime and the Americans are pressuring the agency to investigate something related to 20, 18 years ago. They are deceiving the agency, misleading it," President Hassan Rouhani said during a televised cabinet meeting. "Our expectation is that... the agency should be able to keep its independence," he added, warning that Israel and the United States were tarnishing its reputation. Rouhani also slammed the three European parties to the Iran nuclear deal -- Britain, France, and Germany -- for putting forward the resolution and "sullying themselves for no reason" by cooperating with Israel and the US. "We did not expect this from the Europeans," he said, while praising China and Russia -- also parties to the nuclear deal -- for standing against the resolution. Iran agreed with the five countries plus the US in 2015 to limit its nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions, but the deal has been on life support ever since US President Donald Trump withdrew from it and unilaterally reimposed sanctions in 2018. Tehran has criticised the Europeans for failing to provide it with the economic benefits set out in the accord and has rolled back some of its commitments in retaliation for the US pullout. Rouhani said Iran would continue to work with the IAEA regarding "legal inspections".

Romania Announces Autopsy Results of Fugitive Iranian Judge
London- Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
The Romanian public prosecutor issued the autopsy results of fugitive Iranian judge days after falling to his death in Bucharest, saying he died from violence and "it was done in haste."Judge Gholamreza Mansouri died Friday after falling out of a window in the Duke Hotel, two weeks after the Iran judiciary accused him of corruption and accepting bribes. Bucharest prosecutor's office issued its report announcing that the cause of the death became clear after an autopsy, adding that it was due to a blow by a hard object which did not occur in a natural state.
The report, which was published by Mizan website, also indicated that the prosecutor would begin examining the evidence and surveillance cameras, after obtaining judicial permission. Mansouri's family, friends, and lawyer denied reports that he committed suicide after the Romanian police said it was investigating the incident. The judge was one of the suspects in the largest corruption case in the country accusing senior officials in the Iranian judiciary of accepting bribes and misusing power. He previously denied all charges claiming he had taken more than €500,000 in bribes. Iran’s deputy head of judiciary Ali Bagheri Kani suggested the Iranian judge might have committed suicide, however, the General Prosecutor Mohammad Jaffar Montazeri ruled out that possibility, saying that the circumstances of the case are “unknown and suspicious.”On Monday, Montazeri sent a letter to his Romanian counterpart calling for a “serious and urgent” investigation. Earlier, the Foreign Ministry delivered the letter to the Romanian Ambassador in Tehran, requesting an investigation into the circumstances of the accident and the retrieval of Mansouri's body to Iran. Mansouri was accused of being among the clerics who changed several judicial positions in Tehran. He published a video denying he was on the run and rejecting all corruption accusations. He said he was abroad to receive medical treatment and will be returning to Iran soon. On June 12, Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili confirmed that the Interpol had arrested Mansouri in Romania, but he could not be extradited due to the new coronavirus restrictions. Esmaili indicated Mansouri’s promise to return was not “serious,” which is why Iran notified the Interpol. It was reported that Mansouri spent 48 hours at the Iranian embassy, and Romanian police arrested him after Iran sent a request to the Interpol. The Bucharest Court of Appeals said it released Mansouri from prison and placed him under "judicial supervision" for 30 days, noting that the Iranian request is being reviewed and that Mansouri couldn't leave Romania and ought to appear before court if summoned.

Iran Mobilizes Forces on Iraqi-Kurdish Border
Erbil- Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) mobilized a large force on the border with the Iraqi-Kurdistan region, threatening to attack bases of Kurdish opposition groups if they continue to pose a threat to Iran. The Kurdish media network Rudaw reported that during a meeting at the Mariwan border region, IRGC’s Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour said his troops were targeting sites of hostile forces within Iraqi territories and the Kurdistan region, adding that they will continue to do so in the future. “We would strike any location where terrorists are present, organized, and stationed… We will vigorously continue to cleanse the region of terrorists,” stressed Pakpour. The Brigadier General indicated that the Kurdistan region and Iraq should enhance their monitoring of the borders, asking residents to stay away from the areas near the sites targeted by Iran. Rudaw reported that a few days ago, IRGC began transporting heavily armed forces to the border areas between Iran’s Mariwan and Iraq’s Penjwen. It also warned the residents against approaching these areas until the end of this week. On Tuesday, IRGC announced it was conducting major maneuvers in the Mariwan region, with the participation of ground and air forces, drones, and special task forces. Meanwhile, the leadership of the Eastern Kurdistan Protection Units, the military wing of Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), announced that Iran mobilized large forces on the border villages of Mariwan and established large military bases. The Units issued a statement saying the Iranian forces ordered shepherds to leave those areas, adding that drones flew over the area and artillery units shelled border areas for two hours Tuesday morning. The Kurdistan Democratic Party announced that the Revolutionary Guard started to establish military bases in the villages on the border of Sardasht, adding that the Corps is also pushing residents towards fighting among its ranks. Meanwhile, Turkey continues its “Claw-Tiger” operation to neutralize Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in northern Iraq. Last week, Baghdad summoned the ambassadors of Turkey and Iran protesting their ongoing military actions and violations of Iraqi sovereignty.

Turkey Accuses France of Dragging Libya into 'Chaos'
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
A Turkish government spokesman shot back at French President Emmanuel Macron and blamed France on Tuesday for allegedly “dragging Libya into chaos.”Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy accused Macron of “losing reason” and of making unfounded accusations against Turkey a day after the French leader said Ankara was involved in a “dangerous game” in Libya. Macron also urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday to end Turkey's activities in the conflict-torn country. “Due to the support it has given to illegitimate structures for years, France has an important responsibility in dragging Libya into chaos, and in this respect, it is France that plays a dangerous game in Libya,” Aksoy said in a statement. The spokesman also called on France to end steps that he said “put the security and future of Libya, Syria and the eastern Mediterranean under risk” and to enter into a dialogue with Turkey, a NATO ally. Tensions between France and Turkey escalated following a June 10 incident between Turkish warships and a French naval vessel in the Mediterranean, which France considers a hostile act under NATO’s rules of engagement. Turkey has denied harassing the French frigate.
France accused Ankara of repeated violations of the UN arms embargo on Libya.

Turkey ‘continuously’ violates sovereignty of Libya, Syria, Iraq: Greek FM
The Associated Press, Athens/Wednesday 24 June 2020
Greece’s foreign minister accused Turkey on Wednesday of undermining stability and security in the eastern Mediterranean and causing problems with all of its neighbors, while also violating Greek airspace and territorial waters daily.
Nikos Dendias slammed Turkey’s actions in recent months in the Aegean Sea, which separates the two countries, saying Ankara must “abstain from its illegal gunboat diplomacy.” Dendias spoke during a visit to Greece’s northeastern border with Turkey, accompanied by European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. The Greek minister accused Turkey of “continuously violating the sovereignty of Libya, Syria, Iraq and our EU partner, the Republic of Cyprus. It is violating almost daily Greece’s national airspace and territorial waters, including overflights of inhabited areas here in Evros and the Aegean Sea by armed warplanes.” NATO allies and neighbors Greece and Turkey have long had difficult relations, and the two countries have come to the brink of war three times since the 1970s. Divided over a series of issues, including territorial disputes in the Aegean, relations have become increasingly strained in recent months.
Earlier this year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the borders with Europe were open to migrants living in Turkey who wanted to head into the European Union. Although Turkey also shares a border with EU member Bulgaria, it was only on the Greek land border crossing that tens of thousands of migrants gathered, demanding to be allowed to cross. Dendias described the action as “the exploitation, on the part of Turkey, of the hopes of tens of thousands of civilians for a better life ... misled through a disinformation campaign orchestrated by Turkish officials at the highest level.”
Dendias and Borrell toured the Kastanies border crossing in the Evros region where the migrants had gathered in late February. “It’s very clear that we are determined to protect the external borders of the European Union and to strongly support Greece’s sovereignty,” Borrell said.
The EU foreign policy chief said his visit to Greece had been planned but had been pushed forward after recent incidents involving Turkey “in order to show our solidarity and to show how much we share your concerns.”
Greece and Turkey are also in dispute over oil and gas exploratory drilling rights in the Mediterranean, with Greece, Cyprus and Egypt outraged at a Turkish agreement with the UN-recognized government in Libya laying claim to rights of a swathe of the Mediterranean that they say infringes on their sovereign rights. Borrell said he and Dendias had discussed the deteriorating relations with Turkey and “about how we can stop the dynamics of escalation.”Dendias said that after a brief respite while countries dealt with the coronavirus pandemic, “Turkey has once again declared that its land borders to Europe are open. At the same time, its coast guard escorts boats laden with migrants to the Greek islands. But it also persists in undermining security and stability, as well as peace, in the Eastern Mediterranean.”He said that while Greece was “open to dialogue” to resolve differences with its neighbor, “we are not prepared to discuss under duress or help legitimize Turkey’s persistent violations of legality.”Borrell stressed the importance of good relations for all involved. “I think this is in our interests and the interests of the European Union, Turkey and Greece to try to solve the current difficulties and improve the current relations,” he said.

Journalists Accused of Revealing Secrets on Trial in Turkey
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
Seven journalists went on trial on Wednesday, accused of revealing state secrets for their reports on the funeral of an intelligence officer who was killed in Libya. The journalists from Odatv news website, the pro-Kurdish newspaper Yeni Yasam and the nationalist daily Yenicag have been charged with violating national intelligence laws and of revealing secret information. If convicted, they face between eight and 19 years in prison, reported The Associated Press. Odatv editor-in-chief Baris Pehlivan, editor Baris Terkoglu, reporter Hulya Kilinc and Yeni Yasam newspaper’s editor-in-chief Ferhat Celik and news editor Aydin Keser were charged over their reports on the intelligence officer who died in February as well as Turkey’s military activity in Libya. Murat Agirel, a columnist for Yenicag, and Erk Acarer, a columnist for the left-leaning BirGun newspaper, are accused of revealing the intelligence official’s identity on social media. Acarer is abroad and will be tried in absentia. Eren Ekinci, an employee of the municipality where the intelligence officer’s funeral took place, is accused of providing information to the Odatv reporter. The prosecutors have accused the defendants, who have been held in pre-trial detention since March, of acting “in a systematic and coordinated manner.” Critics of the case say the intelligence officer was previously identified during discussions in Turkey’s parliament and that his name was no longer a secret. Dozens of people gathered outside the courthouse in Istanbul to show solidarity with the journalists. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, has called on Turkey to drop the charges. “Turkey should stop attempting to control independent journalism with intimidation, immediately free the arrested journalists, and drop this case,” the group’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, Gulnoza Said, said in a statement on May 13. The CPJ ranks Turkey among the top jailers of journalists worldwide.About 80 journalists and other media workers are currently in jail under Turkey’s broad anti-terrorism laws, according to the Turkish Journalists Syndicate, including many who were detained in a crackdown following a 2016 coup attempt. Turkey maintains that the journalists are prosecuted for criminal acts and not for their journalistic work.

Kurdish family mourns victim of Turkish airstrike in Iraq
Reuters video edited by Omar Elkatouri, Al Arabiya English/Wednesday 24 June 2020
When she heard an airstrike from her home in the town of Sheladize, Nesrat Khaja ran out looking for her son, who had left that morning to fetch wood from the mountains and hadn’t returned. The 24-year-old Azad Mahdi was among four locals killed by a Turkish airstrike on Friday, according to local news reports. Mahdi’s father, a local Peshmerga force, feels helpless as he receives guests during the customary mourning reception. He says that the ongoing conflict turned their city into a prison, as locals are at risk as soon as they venture out into the mountains surrounding the town. The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. Turkey regularly attacks PKK militants, both in its mainly Kurdish southeast and in northern Iraq, where the group is based.The town of Sheladize, in the north of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, is about half an hour drive away from the Turkish border and home to a Turkish military base. On Monday, Sheladize residents staged a demonstration, protesting against the unstable security situation. According to local journalist Paibar Artisi, 52 Sheladize residents have been killed during Turkish military operations targeting PKK elements since 1991, adding that the conflict hampers local economic development. On Friday, the Kurdistan Regional Government issued a statement condemning the events resulting in the death of citizens, asking Turkey to respect Iraqi territorial sovereignty and the PKK to evacuate the areas in question.

Aguila Saleh: Libyan People Will Urge Egypt to Intervene if Militias Cross Sirte, Jufra
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
Speaker of the east-based Libyan parliament Aguila Saleh declared Wednesday that the Libyan people support Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s efforts to reach a ceasefire in their country. Speaking from al-Qubah in eastern Libya, he said lawmakers have contacted the people, who were unanimous in backing Sisi’s efforts towards their country, whether in regards to his Cairo Declaration or his readiness to intervene militarily to help them preserve their resources against foreign forces. Sisi, he added, demanded that the warring parties remain in their positions and reach a political agreement based on January’s Berlin conference. He did not make threats or attack any side, Saleh told the Middle East News Agency. Egypt’s intervention in Libya will not be aimed at supporting one side against the other, he clarified, but rather, the president is encouraging all parties to hold dialogue and reach a peaceful solution.
He added that the Libyan people will formally call on Egypt to intervene militarily if it was deemed necessary to safeguard the national security of both neighbors. Such an intervention would be a legitimate act of self-defense if the terrorist militias and armed gangs cross the red lines in Sirte or a-Jufra, as stipulated by Sisi on Saturday.Should Sirte be breached, then the Egyptian armed forces will be called in to support the Libyan National Army, Saleh stated. This intervention will be part of Cairo’s efforts to protect it rights and prevent the militias from heading further east towards its borders.
LNA boost presence in Sirte
On Tuesday, LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari announced that the military had bolstered its presence in Sirte city and now controls it by land and air.The LNA used the pullout of its forces in Tripoli to cement its presence in Sirte, he explained. Meanwhile, the US military denied what it described as “inaccurate” reports that the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) had proposed granting it permission to set up a military base in Sirte or military privileges at the al-Watiya airbase.US Africa Command Public Affairs Director, Chris Karns told Asharq Al-Awsat that there was a lot of unhelpful and inaccurate speculation going on. GNA chief Fayez al-Sarraj had allegedly made the proposal during a meeting on Monday with US Ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, and Commander of US Africa Command, General Stephen Townsend.
Karns said the main message during the talks was the need for a ceasefire and return to political negotiations. An official source at Africom told Asharq Al-Awsat that Monday’s meeting was held at Norland’s request. The talks focused on the need for an immediate ceasefire and cessation of hostilities by all parties, added the source on condition of anonymity. Separately, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem stated on Tuesday that his country backs the LNA, Libyan institutions and territorial integrity. Libya today is victim of foreign meddling and ambitions, starting with the Turkish aggression that has its sights set on its resources, he remarked.

UN Chief Hopes Israel Decides against West Bank Annexation
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed hope Tuesday that Israel will hear global calls and will not go ahead with annexation of parts of the West Bank, which would undermine a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The UN chief said in an interview with The Associated Press that the United Nations has been consistently conveying the message “that annexation would be not only against international law but it would be a major factor to destabilize the region.”He spoke ahead of a high-level UN Security Council meeting Wednesday morning on the Middle East where Israel’s plans to annex around 30 percent of the West Bank in line with President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan is certain to be a major topic. Guterres will speak before briefings from Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov. France, which holds the council presidency this month, said half a dozen foreign ministers are expected to take part, along with the Palestinian foreign minister and Israel’s UN ambassador. Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and has built dozens of settlements that are now home to nearly 500,000 Israelis, but it never formally claimed it as an Israeli territory due to stiff international opposition. The Palestinians, with wide international backing, seek the territory as the heartland of their future independent state. Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal under international law. The Trump administration has taken a much softer line toward Israeli settlements than its predecessors. With Trump’s reelection prospects uncertain this November, Israeli hardliners have urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move ahead with annexation quickly. The Israeli leader’s new coalition deal includes an official clause allowing him to present his annexation plan to the government starting July 1. Such a unilateral move would all but dash Palestinian hopes of establishing a viable independent state and is vehemently opposed by the Palestinians, Arab nations and most of the rest of the world. Guterres said annexation “would undermine what I believe is necessary, which is a two-state solution in which Israelis and the Palestinians can live together in peace, respect each other, and guarantee each other’s security.” “I hope that this voice of reason that is not only mine, it is echoing across the world, will be heard by the Israeli authorities and that annexation does not take place on July 1,” he said.

Hamas Calls for 'Massive' Popular Revolution Against Annexation Plan
Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
Hamas has called for launching a popular revolution everywhere to thwart Israel’s unilateral plan to annex parts of the West Bank and Jordan Valley.
This came as Hamas-affiliated newspaper said that al-Qassam Brigades, the group’s military arm, will hold a press conference soon to announce its next step against the plan to “occupy large parts of the West Bank.”The statement indicated that Israel’s plan to steal the Palestinian land is an extension of the conspiracy which began during Nakba 1948, and continued with the disastrous Oslo agreement. It warned that unless the Palestinian people and the people of the whole nation make a move against this plot, the consequences will be dire for the entire region. Tel Aviv fears the situation could escalate in the Gaza Strip and possibly in the West Bank, and worries that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to drag Hamas to clash with Israel.Sources said that the cessation of security and civil coordination may harm salaries as well as transportation and goods exchange to and from Gaza, however, it may also lead to an escalation in the already-tense Gaza. Israeli security forces are concerned that an escalation in the Strip could be paralleled by an uprising in the West Bank. The Fatah movement in the West Bank launched a series of popular activities, starting with the Jericho rally in the Jordan Valley. Hundreds of Palestinians and a number of representatives of the international community gathered in Jericho as part of the popular activities to reject and protest Israel’s annexation plans. Meanwhile, PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said that the participation of foreign dignitaries in the Jericho rally “carries many implications and messages for the Israeli side.”In an interview with Voice of Palestine Radio, Maliki added that the presence of the international community at the rally is a clear message that it is against the annexation. Maliki indicated that the “mass rally was tantamount to an international consensus against the annexation plan.”The PA hoped that the international position would lead Israel to abort its plans, warning of the consequences otherwise, including the dissolution of the Authority itself. Fatah warned that if Israel goes ahead with its plans, then a new stage of resistance will be launched, hinting at armed resistance.
In April, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz signed a coalition agreement that includes a clause to advance plans to annex parts of the West Bank, including Israeli settlements, starting on July 1.

Jordan Valley, An Agricultural Plain With Key Resources
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
The Jordan Valley makes up nearly a third of the occupied West Bank and is in Israel's sights to annex as it considers control of the plain, which sits between two desert mountain ranges, essential for its security. If Israel presses ahead with annexation, the valley will mark the country's western border with Jordan, AFP reported.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January described it as "vital" to Israel, vowing his government would "apply sovereignty" to the area. For the Palestinians, such a step would destroy "all chances of peace".
The valley is home to some 65,000 Palestinians, including around 20,000 Jericho residents, according to Israeli anti-occupation organisation B'Tselem. Israeli settlements are viewed as illegal under international law, but Washington broke with this consensus in November and said it should be up to Israeli courts to decide on their legality. The majority of the Jordan Valley is already administered by Israel, as it forms part of the West Bank's "Area C" as outlined in the Oslo peace accords of the 1990s. Area C covers around 60 percent of the West Bank, while Area B, which accounts for roughly 22 percent, is under Palestinian civil rule but Israeli security control. The remaining Area A, which covers the eight major towns and cities including Jericho, is under full Palestinian control. Lying south of Lake Tiberias and to the north of the Dead Sea, the Jordan Valley is also strategic for its agricultural land and water resources in the arid region. But 85 percent of the valley is inaccessible to Palestinians, according to B'Tselem, while 56 percent is designated for military use. According to AFP, Israel frequently demolishes Palestinian property built in Area C without Israeli permits, which are extremely hard to obtain. The Jordan Valley accounts for the highest number of such demolitions in the West Bank, with some 2,400 structures levelled since 2009, according to European Union figures.

Republicans Back Israel’s Annexation Plan, Democrats Issue Strong Warning
Washington, Tel Aviv - Rana Abtar, Nazir Magally/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
Reflecting partisan differences over Israel’s annexation plans for portions of the West Bank, a majority of Republican members of the US House of Representatives have signed a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsing Israeli annexation of settlements in the West Bank.
The letter, which Asharq Al-Awsat obtained a copy of, has so far garnered 116 signatures out of 198 Republicans in the House at a time when Democrats are pressing Israel not to go ahead with annexation. “We write to reaffirm the unshakeable alliance between the United States and Israel, to emphasize that Israel has the right to make sovereign decisions independent of outside pressure, and to express our support for you as you make such decisions in your capacity as Israel’s democratically-elected prime minister,” said the letter sent Netanyahu. They said they were “deeply concerned by threats being expressed by some to retaliate against Israel as it makes decisions to ensure defensible borders.” They declared support for “the Trump administration’s engagement with Israel on the Vision for Peace Plan, which was based on the critical premise that Israel should never be forced to compromise its security.”These statements angered Democrats who had previously warned Israel that any unilateral decision to annex settlements would harm the historical ties between the US and Israel. Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sens. Ben Cardin and Robert Menendez expressed their disapproval of the action. “A sustainable peace deal that ensures the long-term security of Israel and self-determination for Palestinians must be negotiated directly between the two parties,” they said in a statement. n“Unilateral annexation runs counter to those longstanding policies and could undermine regional stability and broader US national security interests in the region.” In addition to these positions, more than 120 Democrats have signed a document opposing annexation, and the document's supporters are still seeking to sign more signatures to show the Democrats' strong opposition to the issue of annexation, at a time when 19 democrats wrote a letter to the Israeli leaders.

Jordanian Minister Warns Against Israeli Annexation of the Jordan Valley
Amman - Mohammed Kheir Al-Rawashdeh/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 24 June, 2020
Jordanian Minister of Information Amjad Adaileh said his country rejected Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank and the northern Dead Sea - known as the Jordan Valley. Any such unilateral Israeli move is unacceptable and undermines the chances for achieving peace and stability in the region, the minister said, noting that ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict could only be achieved on the basis of a two-state solution. Adaileh, who served as the King’s media adviser for several years, underlined the importance of supporting efforts and unifying positions for the establishment of “an independent, sovereign and viable Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital, in line with international legitimacy decisions and the outcome of the meetings of the Arab League.”In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, the minister pointed to the diplomatic and political efforts of Jordan’s King Abdullah II to prevent Israel from going ahead with annexation. As for the expected scenarios if Israel took its unilateral step, Adaileh stressed that Jordan’s position has always been based on protecting its national interests, adding that Tel Aviv’s plans, if implemented, would have catastrophic consequences on regional stability.
On a different note, the Jordanian minister said that his country has been able to contain the outbreak of the coronavirus through concerted official and popular efforts, and through the commitment to the measures that mitigated the pandemic's impact during the total lockdown. While the health authorities have classified the level of the epidemic within the kingdom’s borders as “moderate risk”, Adaileh refused to consider that the outbreak has ended, warning against the spread of infections in significant numbers, if the measures were eased without maintaining public safety precautions.

US Secretary of State says it is up to Israel to decide on West Bank annexation
Reuters, AFPWednesday 24 June 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that it is up to Israel to make its own decisions on whether to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to do. Speaking to reporters, Pompeo said extending Israeli sovereignty was a decision “for Israelis to make.”With Netanyahu’s July 1 deadline approaching, aides to US President Donald Trump began discussions on Tuesday on whether to give Netanyahu the green light for annexation, which has drawn condemnation from the Palestinians, US Arab allies and EU.Pompeo was speaking moments after the United Nations and the Arab League, during a UN Security Council session, joined in calling for Israel to abandon its plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. A brief history of previous Palestine peace deals – and their failure Arab states, notably US ally Jordan, have voiced alarm at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s indication that he will move ahead as soon as next week to annex much of the occupied West Bank, saying that it would kill prospects for peace.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 24-25/2020
Why John Bolton's memoir will be long forgotten by US election day
Nick March/The National/June 24/2020
Such books don't shift public opinion enough to affect the outcome of a presidential contest.
John Bolton’s new book has been described as “tedious” and “lacklustre” by reviewers, but the former US national security adviser’s tell-all memoir of the Trump White House, titled The Room Where It Happened, is already a bestseller, despite only being released earlier this week.
Mr Bolton is reported to have been paid up to $2 million for his near 500-page manuscript, which now looks like value for money given such strong sales and the blanket media coverage the book has generated.
Interest in his memoir was boosted further by a last-ditch attempt to stop its publication by the US Government on the grounds that it might disclose official secrets. That injunction was rejected by the courts, but few things stir book sales like an aggrieved insider with fire in his belly and a story to tell.
By now, you will be familiar with some of the memoir’s contents.
Mr Bolton and the US President locked horns over foreign policy direction in Iran, North Korea and pretty much every else in 2018 and 2019. Mr Trump’s well-known “tough on China” rhetoric is also laid bare by the author as just that, words delivered for the benefit of a domestic audience that were rowed back in private and in meetings with his Chinese counterpart.The portrait that Mr Bolton paints is of Mr Trump as a skittish and transactional leader motivated by the changing tides of approval ratings or, as columnist Hussein Ibish wrote on these pages earlier in the week, a man driven by politics rather than policy. Interviewed in The Telegraph this week, Mr Bolton defined his book as a “history of how not to be president".
Mr Bolton’s reputation as a thorough note-taker means the detail is forensic, but this is less a smoking gun and more the rolling fog of war that follows the present US administration – and that is why the former staffer’s words will not matter in the end.
Another former staffer this week accused Mr Bolton of acting like “he was president” during his time in office, which hints that the other side of this story may well be forcefully presented over the next few days. It all fits the established direction of travel where allegation and claim are quickly matched by denial and rebuttal. The news cycle in the Trump years has become turbo-charged.
Campaign rallies and, lest we forget, inauguration ceremonies have become highly charged arenas where crowd sizes are contested and claims are raised that set piece events were hijacked by TikTokers and K-Pop followers. Diplomacy has been transformed into an unpredictable and counterintuitive activity and policy is often played out on social media. One moment the President is calling Kim Jong-un a “little rocket man”, the next the pair are shaking hands and walking across the Korean Demilitarised Zone together. A moment later, the discord returns.
There has been wave after wave of scandal-rich tomes and insider accounts of the Trump administration: Bob Woodward’s book Fear: Trump in the White House, Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury and James Comey’s memoir A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership have all skewered the administration in one way or another, but none gravely. Mr Bolton’s book is likely to track that trend. In a few weeks, the hot takes will cool down to lukewarm notices. Many copies will languish unread on bookshelves and bedside tables around the world, with the result that much of the finer detail within its pages will dissolve, including that the text appears to confirm the substance of the impeachment proceedings against the US President, which were voted down by the Senate.
The fact is that political memoirs rarely count for as much as the publication date hullabaloo and serialisations would have you believe. They matter even less in a world where the US President’s natural reflex is to talk about everything and hide nothing. This is not a revelatory moment because that is the lived reality of the Trump years. For those who want to see the US President leave office, the book only validates what they already thought about his motivations, competencies and political methods. For those who support Mr Trump, the coverage only supports their gut feeling that there is an agenda against their man.
The American voting public will act as judge and jury on all of this in the autumn, not Mr Bolton. They will go to the polls long after the noise around In the Room Where It Happened has subsided, and they will be faced with a stark choice between Mr Trump and challenger Joe Biden.
The US President tweeted this week that the 2020 election will be “rigged” against him by fake postal ballots. National opinion polls currently show Mr Biden ahead by around 10 per cent in the polls and set to win the Electoral College.
Many voters will look at how the economy has fared over the past four years, how the country’s Covid-19 strategy has held up – to date more than 2.35 million cases have been confirmed in the US, as well as 120,000 deaths – and whether they find a country united or more divided by the period since November 2016. Those factors will make up their minds, not Mr Bolton’s tale of foreign policy accidents and missteps.
America’s imperfect electoral system is capable of delivering shocks and its pollsters have been surprised when they have made wrong predictions, but November 3 will provide the definitive answer to the success or failure of the 45th President of the United States.
*Nick March is an assistant editor-in-chief at The National

Struggle of The Two Global Sensitive Issues for The Near Future
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/June 24/2020
Historical events can lead to divergent, maybe even opposite, results. This is true for the "Great Depression" of 1929 - 1933: In the United States, the crisis led to the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the "New Deal," while it empowered Nazism in Germany. Roosevelt was elected president for four terms between 1933 and 1945, the year of his death, due to two exceptional turns of event: The aforementioned crisis and then the Second World War, and partly because of he was an exceptional leader. This had not happened before in the US history, nor did it happen afterward. In any case, he saved his country's economy and created jobs for millions of unemployed people. Adolf Hitler, on the other hand, ignited a world war that killed at least 60 million people. The Nazi’s ascension to power through parliamentary elections was an exceptional event as well, but of a different nature.
The divergence of countries’ historical and cultural circumstances undoubtedly plays a certain role in shaping the divergence in their responses, but differences between the countries elites and rulers may, in other cases, play such a role. In the Middle East, we have a well-known example: In 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser and David Ben-Gurion understood the significance of the United States’ global rising prominence after World War II. The former came to understand this because the US support in the Suez War, or the Tripartite Aggression, Egypt’s war with the British, French and Israelis, allowed him to prevail, at least politically. The later came to understand the same fact because American support for Nasser was enough to ensure Israel’s defeat despite its military victory. The prime minister of the Jewish state decided to improve ties with US and made establishing those ties with it, rather than Britain, his top priority. The Egyptian leader chose to try to curtail Washington's influence in the region and expand his own at its expense.
Today, with the new coronavirus epidemic, the economic crisis, and the murder of George Floyd and its ramifications,there are two contrasting global sensitive issues that are crystalizing.
First, engaging with politics that was established by populist and nationalist leaders at least two decades ago: Discrimination against foreigners, refugees, and minorities, to whom elderly and the women who have been subjected to domestic violence have been added to by the recent developments. Blockades, sanctions and violence characterize this approach. The police force is the fist with which it strikes.
Secondly, there is that which is being propelled by the demonstrations in major American and European cities and what those demonstrations stand for: Rhe fight against racism and the demand for equality, justice and non-discriminatory employment opportunities. In this camp, there is a desire to renew democracy and expand its fields of operation, as well as strengthening the link between citizens’ political practice and their tangible interests in the economy, environment and education.
The police force is the direct opponent of those who hold these issues. This was evident in the United States, France, and Britain, and the same question remains: Is the apparatus’ purpose to recklessly and indiscriminately terrorize or serve the people and gain communities’ trust? In other words, is police a primarily repressive institution or an institution that serves and protects?
We will most likely undergo a period, which may be long or short, wherein these two sympathies clash and will be difficult to contain within a particular nation or religious or ethnic borders. The economic crisis will give both teeth: One of the two issues will continue to hold strangers and the other responsible, while the second will carry on blaming it on economic and political policies.
Of course, the power disparity between the two groups is evident, as one controls state agencies while the second still lacks the most basic of organizational requisites. This, in all likelihood, is one of the reasons for some of the chaotic and disruptive behaviors that anti-police demonstrators have been and are being engaged in, and some reckless acts of destruction, as witnessed in Stuttgart and American and British cities. However, we will certainly witness an escalation to this struggle in the media, and social media in particular, and culture and values will be among the most prominent topics of the acrimonious debate, especially since awaited culture works will in a large part revolve around racism, poverty and COVID-19.
What hurts, here, is that the differences of opinion between these two voices on humanitarian intervention against tyrants was and remains the least prominent, but we would not be exaggerating if we're to say that the more democracy and universalism are emphasized in the literature of the oppressed, the more prominent this issue becomes and the more likely that it will be taken with the seriousness it deserves.
How will this development deal with the upcoming major events, like the presidential elections in the US next November, the Chinese- US conflict which, some have been calling a “second cold war” or today’s growing number of regional civil wars? It will most likely be a topic of deep contemplation in the near future, but the only thing that can be asserted is that the conflict of those two sensitive issues, though it does not sum up our universe's contradictions, will have a decisive impact on it and our future.

Syrian Sanctions and Despair
Robert Ford/Asharq Al-Awsat/June 24/2020
The big majority of Americans are watching the protests against racism in American society and they are watching the progress of the coronavirus, and therefore they are not paying attention to the Trump administration’s implementation of the new Caesar sanctions.
Previously, the American sanctions blocked financial transactions of Syrian entities and American companies that worked with them without official permission. Last week, however, the Trump administration imposed financial sanctions for the first time on foreign companies that work with the Syrian government and some of its high officials; Washington struck companies in Canada, Austria, and Lebanon. US officials said they would add more names to the Caesar list during the weeks to come.
American university professor Steve Heydemann who has worked on the Syria file for years wrote an analysis for the Brookings Institute last week that stated that the Caesar sanctions may be the “straw” that finally forces the regime to accept change. Another analyst, Elizabeth Tsurkov, wrote that American officials think the Caesar sanctions will increase pressure on the Syrian economy, widen divisions inside the regime, and bring it to collapse. These thoughts sound more like hope than analysis to me. The Syrian economy is suffering more than ever.
Of course, Assad’s pursuit of a military victory against the 2011 uprising most destroyed the Syrian economy but the US has also played a role. Its arms to the Free Syrian Army prolonged fighting. And the exchange rate which was 50 Syria lira per American dollar in 2011 now is about 2,800 in part because of the American sanctions. The sanctions will impede investment in construction and energy, and decline in those sectors will add to the unemployment and inadequate infrastructure that will hurt regular Syrians. It is strange to hear officials in Washington deny that the sanctions will hurt Syrian citizens since the goal of the sanctions is to increase pressure generally on the economy.
I don’t have much hope for Syria. My analysis is that the Assad government and its powerful four Mukhabarat (intelligence) agencies will not accept reforms or accountability for their terrible crimes. In comparison with the Syrian opposition, the government has stayed united. There is no clear alternative to Assad and President Hafez al-Assad designed the existing system to make a coup d’état almost impossible.
Even if there was a successful coup d’état against President Assad, would Washington drop Caesar sanctions if one of the Mukhabarat generals took his place? The answer is no. Washington demands that the Syrian government change its behavior, stop murdering citizens, stop repressing critics, and accept the rule of law. The Syrian security apparatus will fight a long time before it would accept any accountability. It has no incentive to surrender. In Iraq in 2003, the Americans destroyed Saddam Hussein’s Mukhabarat and imposed accountability. No one will do that in Syria, certainly not Russia or Iran. I see no way to convince the existing security apparatus to stop fighting without some type of amnesty that all sides accept and respect. President Bouteflika had faults but he implemented amnesties that the brutal Algerian military intelligence and Algerian fighters accept, and thus the long Algerian civil war ended.
So far, we see no sign that the Syrian security apparatus will even accept limited amnesties; it has murdered hundreds of opposition members who received amnesty in settlement agreements.
It is also not clear that the Syrian opposition and its defenders will drop their demands for accountability and justice after all the murder at the hands of the security apparatus and army. The Caesar sanctions arrive at this dead end.
The Trump administration or a Joseph Biden administration probably will maintain and strengthen the sanctions. Syrian businessmen who worked with the regime will lose properties if they abandon Assad like Rami Makhlouf or if they come under Caesar sanctions. Syria will be more and more isolated, and it will resemble North Korea where we sometimes hear reports of malnourishment and even starvation. North Korea despite economic pressure is still unified, but it is possible to imagine that some regions in Syria under Turkish and American protection will establish local autonomy if the Syrian government hasn’t economic and military capability to force their reintegration. Some towns in northern Syria are beginning to use the Turkish lira, a development that indicates Syria is losing economic sovereignty. We see the pictures of the victims of the Syrian Mukhabarat that Caesar brought us, and we hope for accountability and justice. Unfortunately, I can only expect that the Caesar sanctions will bring not a solution soon but instead, even more, suffering and despair for Syrian citizens.

When to Wear a Mask
Faye Flam/Asharq Al-Awsat/June 24/2020
Science has a lot to say about the effectiveness of wearing a mask to stop the spread of the coronavirus, but the communication of that science has been corrupted by a combination of partisan divides, sensationalist media stories, distrust, false dichotomies, and letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.
The studies on masks aren’t perfectly definitive, but that’s typical of many issues involving health risks — from mercury contamination to cancer screenings. It’s still better to make decisions based on an incomplete body of evidence than to ignore evidence altogether. In this case, it helps to add a dose of situational awareness and common sense.
The public health community got off on the wrong foot with masks by advising against wearing them and then making a sudden flip-flop and telling us not to leave home without them. Further complicating the picture is a mix of people’s individual attitudes. Some members of the public still fear the virus and want to remain safe, and others are at peace with their risk but want some guidance on how to be a good citizen — or at least be perceived as one.
There have been reasonably convincing studies showing that masks stop some of the particles that might carry the virus out of people’s mouths. That suggests masks’ potential to protect others. Then there are observational studies, which look at mask use in the real world.
On June 1, The Lancet published an analysis of 172 such studies, many of them done in health care settings. The authors concluded that mask-wearing combined with eye protection and social distancing could cut down on the spread of the virus, though the authors admitted to a high degree of uncertainty.
Another study came down on the side of mandatory mask-wearing by watching disease trends in Wuhan and New York City. But some other researchers noted flaws in that study, published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences. The one-to-two-week delay between infection and test results would suggest infections in New York City dropped well before masks were made mandatory. Some experts wanted the study retracted.
When there are multiple changes in behavior going on at the same time, it can be impossible to connect any one of those changes to rising or falling case numbers.
That doesn’t mean the information in those studies can’t be useful. Physician and infectious disease specialist Muge Cevik, who has been a prescient guide to relative risks, pointed out to me that mask-wearing should be informed by other studies on how the virus spreads. A consensus is finally starting to form that there’s a negligible risk outdoors away from other people, and that very brief encounters pose very little risk, such as people walking, running or cycling past you.
Common sense would suggest that if an activity poses negligible risk, then wearing a mask offers only a negligible benefit, and should be optional.
On the other extreme are potential super-spreading events — anywhere many people are confined indoors, especially if there’s close contact. Trump’s planned Oklahoma rally is a good example. There, common sense would dictate that such events should not take place at all.
Then there’s the middle ground. Mask wearing is likely to do the most good in settings where people have little choice but to interact in enclosed spaces — grocery shopping, riding public transportation, ride-sharing, getting a haircut, or seeing a doctor.
Also in this middle category is gathering outdoors in large groups — such as at a protest. If most protesters wear a mask at all times, this will likely reduce transmissions.
Cevik, who works at the University of St. Andrews in the UK, pointed out that the six-foot rule applies best outdoors, while in badly ventilated indoor settings, aerosol particles might accumulate and put people at risk even if they never get that close to others. And length of exposure matters a lot, so bus drivers, haircutters and store clerks face a much higher risk than their customers. Their risk very likely goes down if customers wear masks.
Then there’s a problematic category of activities, such as eating in restaurants, where masks can’t be worn consistently. Would diners be stuck trying to pull masks on and off with every bite? Some experts say such “fiddling” with masks is only going to spread any viruses the mask has captured. As a compromise, many restaurants are seating people outdoors and allowing them to keep masks off while eating. Gyms and yoga studios pose a similar challenge.
The risks associated with close contact and crowds seem obvious and intuitive. And yet Americans have been fixated on the unlikely possibility that infectious doses of virus would fly off cyclists or creep in on packages. In response, some have adopted irrational mask-wearing practices, such as keeping one on while riding or driving, but pulling it down to congregate and chat with groups of people.
And it’s no surprise that politics would infuse the issue, given the moral tone of the mask debate and different messages on mainstream and conservative media. In the US, we have some fraction of people wearing a mask all the time, and some fraction never wearing one. It would be better if everyone wore one when it was likely to help.

Was Iran behind the Houthi attack on Saudi Arabia?
Seth J.Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/June 24/2020
The question now is how Saudi Arabia and its allies will respond.
Iranian media has reported on a Houthi rebel attack on Saudi Arabia overnight. Tasnim and Press TV have coverage of the “large-scale operation” that struck “deep into Saudi territory.” This is important because it hints at Iranian involvement and support.
Iran has increased support for the Houthis in recent years, including sending arms and know-how, as well as bringing Houthi leader posters to Iraq and other areas. Tehran is keen on knitting the Houthis into its “axis of resistance” and use them to threaten adversaries such as Saudi Arabia, the US and even Israel. Last year there were concerns about threats from Yemen against the Jewish state.
Iran closely follows the battles in Yemen. In the past, Iran has blamed the Houthis for Iranian attacks carried out on the kingdom. For instance the massive drone and cruise missile attack in September 2019 was carried out by Iran yet was blamed initially on the Houthis. A May attack likely carried out from Iraq by Iranian proxies was also blamed on the Houthis.
This is routine way of operating for Iran. It wants a cut-out to make it seem like a group between it and the adversary was responsible – then it can pretend to be innocent. It does this in Iraq, using fake names for new “rogue” groups to carry out rocket attacks on the US. Iran likes layers of deception.
Iran’s Press TV has a long report on the large scale attack that unfolded in the early hours of June 23. This was “retaliation” it says for Saudi Arabia’s “bloody military campaign.” Whose retaliation – Iran’s or the Houthis? The report makes it appear that in fact Iran has a role here. We know that Iran has sent technicians to Yemen and that former IRGC Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani took interest in upping the capabilities of the Houthi rebels.
In 2015 the rebels almost took Aden until Saudi Arabia intervened. Since then the rebels have held their own and have launched increasing waves of drone and missile attacks deep into the kingdom. The US since 2016 has compiled evidence of Iran’s role in Yemen. It has displayed Iranian materials linked to the attacks. The UN and other countries are increasingly aware off Iran’s role.
Al-Masirah TV in Yemen, linked to the Houthis, says that the attack was carried out on Tuesday, saying that it lasted for hours. The US embassy in Riyadh became aware of the attack and put out an unprecedented warning, which points to some intelligence about this unfolding attack. Press TV says that blasts could be heard in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia says it intercepted ballistic missiles. The Saudi coalition spokesman has said the attack was a deliberate and systematic operation.
What actually happened is unclear, however, because it was a sophisticated attack that included missiles and “eight bomb-laden drones.” There were at least three ballistic missiles. More interceptions were reported in the dawn hours, so it may be more than that. Press TV says the missiles were fired from Yemen’s Sa’adah province against Najran and Jizan in Saudi Arabia. How did the Iranians know this? Likely due to close work with the Houthis.
The question now is how Saudi Arabia and its allies will respond. While the US and others have backed Saudi Arabia, there are concerns that it is bogged down in Yemen and that its allies like the UAE also want a way out. This coalition must also deal with concerns about Libya and other regional problems.

State Department Plays Key Role in New U.S. China Strategy
David Maxwell/FDD/June 24/2020
The White House on May 26 unveiled its new strategic approach to China, which seeks to export its authoritarian political system around the world in order to dominate regions, co-opt or coerce international organizations, create economic conditions favorable to China alone, and displace democratic institutions. The State Department plays a key role in implementing the new strategy, and it already has plans under way to support three key areas of the approach: promoting American prosperity, advancing American influence, and preserving peace through strength.
The new approach seeks to operationalize the U.S. National Security Strategy of 2017, which initially identified China as a principal threat to U.S. national security.
The State Department has developed two unique programs to promote economic prosperity and advance American influence: the Blue Dot Network (BDN) and the Economic Prosperity Network (EPN).
The BDN will directly counter China’s One Belt One Road concept by offering alternatives to Chinese infrastructure development based on shared standards and certification for global infrastructure development. As the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Elaine Dezenski has written, when fully implemented, the BDN will support the BUILD Act of 2018, which seeks to facilitate responsible infrastructure investments in developing nations. The BDN will mitigate risk and attract private capital by certifying projects that meet international standards.
Most importantly, the BDN will provide an alternative for countries that fear China’s debt trap diplomacy, which currently threatens some 23 countries around the world by leveraging their deep indebtedness to Beijing to secure military and diplomatic concessions.
The EPN will create an alliance of trusted partners consisting of nations, companies, and civil society groups that desire to abide by common standards and practices. When this network is implemented, economic activity will be rooted in shared values, ensuring that like-minded nations prosper together.
The essential U.S. organization for advancing American influence is State’s Global Engagement Center (GEC). This organization is charged with orchestrating the messaging of the federal government to counter disinformation and propaganda from state and non-state actors.
However, the GEC must shift from reactive countering of disinformation to proactive messaging. It must take the initiative to advance the concepts of BDN and EPN and to base messaging on fundamental American values. The U.S. competition with China is ideological, and the GEC must develop themes and messages around freedom and individual liberty, liberal democracy, free-market economic principles, rule of law, and human rights.
Finally, State makes a critical contribution to the concept of ‘peace through strength’ by leading American efforts to sustain and advance the nation’s alliances. The U.S. alliance structure is one of the most important elements of national power and is crucial to U.S. military strength. With a strong and robust alliance system, the U.S. military is able to improve the capabilities of friends, partners, and allies and project U.S. power to key locations to deter conflict.
State is leaning forward with its innovative BDN and EPN programs and ample experience building and sustaining alliances. The department has the right tools to advance American interest through the GEC. However, shifting from a reactive counter-propaganda focus to a proactive, values-based messaging campaign is necessary to successfully implement the new approach that is required to compete with China.
**David Maxwell, a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Army and a retired Special Forces colonel, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he also contributes to FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP). For more analysis from David and CMPP, please subscribe HERE. Follow David on Twitter @davidmaxwell161. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_CMPP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

China wants to dominate space, and the US must take countermeasures
Major Liane “Trixie” Zivitski/Defense News/June 24/2020
China is determined to replace the U.S. as the dominant power in space. While proclaiming its peaceful intentions, Beijing’s doctrine considers space a military domain, and it is investing heavily in space infrastructure designed to secure both economic and military advantages. To ensure that it continues to compete from a position of strength, the U.S. must invest sufficient resources in preparing its new Space Force to defend America’s national interests and security in space.
Beijing’s rapidly improving capabilities are clear to see. On May 5, China successfully launched the Long March-5B rocket designed to eventually transport astronauts into space. This was the first successful launch of any Long March rocket this year after failed attempts to launch the Long March-3B in April and Long March-7A in March.
Three weeks later, China completed back-to-back launches from two separate launch facilities placing Earth-imaging and technology demonstration satellites into orbit. China plans to launch more than 60 spacecraft in over 40 launches in 2020, and has led global launches over the past two years.
Currently, China is second only to the U.S. in the number of operational satellites in orbit, with 363 as of March 31, 2020.
These capabilities are a cause for concern because of Beijing’s concurrent investment in space weapons. The Pentagon recently warned China has developed and fielded ground- and space-based anti-satellite, directed-energy, and electronic warfare capabilities that place the peaceful use of international space at risk.Evidence suggests China could be developing up to three different anti-satellite systems. China launched its first successful ground-based direct ascent anti-satellite missile, the SC-19, in 2007, and spent the last decade improving follow-on versions. In 2018, the People’s Liberation Army formed military units that began initial operational training with anti-satellite missiles. The SC-19 is now assessed operational and capable of targeting low-Earth orbit satellites.
China also fielded sophisticated on-orbit capabilities, such as satellites with robotic arm technology for inspection and repair, which the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency assesses could also function as a weapon.
Because destruction of assets using anti-satellite technology is easily attributable, China is also pursuing a broad range of nondestructive directed-energy and electronic warfare weapons like lasers for blinding commercial and military imaging satellites. It is also working on radio frequency-jamming technologies capable of degrading or denying satellite communications and global navigation satellite systems like GPS.
China’s counter-space efforts have forced the U.S. to take measures to protect itself against what Secretary of Defense Mark Esper accurately labeled the weaponization of space. The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act established the United States Space Force as the sixth independent branch of the military to meet the threat posed to American space-based assets by potential enemies. U.S. Space Command, the Defense Department’s 11th combatant command, recently finalized its campaign plan with a new mission statement emphasizing “defending against and deterring threats.”
However, China is launching capabilities into space at a pace that is becoming increasingly difficult for the U.S. to match amid the current pandemic. Despite the recent success of the SpaceX launch from U.S. soil to the International Space Station, the U.S. has delayed several launches due to COVID-19.
In March, California-based Rocket Lab postponed the launch of three U.S. intelligence payloads from its launch complex in New Zealand. In April, the U.S. Space Force delayed a GPS satellite launch to no earlier than June 30 in order to minimize personnel from COVID-19 exposure. And delays caused by the novel coronavirus also ensured the first launch of NASA’s Artemis program will not happen until late 2021.
Meanwhile, China is already preparing for its next launch, the Tianwen-1 Mars mission, scheduled for July.
Space is the new high ground in great power competition, and the U.S. must secure and maintain its superiority there. It would be less expensive to rely on multilateral organizations and international norms to prevent aggression in space, Beijing’s track record of deviation from international norms leaves the U.S. no choice but to prepare to defend itself. The fiscal 2021 U.S. Space Force budget request for $15.4 billion is a critical first step to combat emerging threats, especially from China.
Although the U.S. cannot dismiss the severe economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, cutting the defense budget cannot repair the economy. Failure to deliver on key capabilities in space opens the door for China to undermine U.S. strategic advantages, which will be far more costly in the long run.
*Maj. Liane Zivitski is a visiting military analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Military and Political Power. Views expressed or implied in this commentary are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Air University, the U.S. Air Force, the Defense Department or any other U.S. government agency.

How to Beat China’s Military-Civil Fusion
Emily de La Bruyère/Nathan Picarsic/FDD/June 24/2020
In September 2018, 27-year-old Ji Chaoqun—a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology and a soldier in the U.S. Army Reserves—was arrested for operating as a Chinese intelligence agent for Beijing. In February 2019, Chinese student Zhao Qianli pled guilty to photographing restricted U.S. defense installations. In January 2020, the Department of Justice charged the chair of Harvard’s chemistry department, Charles Lieber, with hiding the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the Chinese government had paid him since 2008—at the same time as he ran a Department of Defense-funded lab in Cambridge. Two of Dr. Lieber’s graduate students were also charged. The first, Yanqing Ye, had already returned to China. The second, Zaosong Zheng, was arrested at Boston’s Logan Airport while attempting to catch a flight back to China. His luggage was full of contraband research materials.
China’s infiltration of U.S. research facilities is both rampant and deliberate. It is directed by Beijing’s military-civil fusion (MCF) apparatus, which exploits the American, and western, tendency to separate cooperation from competition and to assume boundaries between the government and private domains. Beijing weaponizes its private sector’s integration into global free markets and civil society.
This parasitic strategy hinges on sustained access to foreign technology. The strategy fails if the PLA loses access because developed economies implement what Beijing calls a “high-tech blockade.” But the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is gambling that the U.S. has neither the skill nor the resolve to do so.
The White House may just now be beginning to call Beijing’s bluff. On May 29, the Trump administration issued a proclamation aimed at restricting the ability of Chinese students with People’s Liberation Army (PLA) affiliation from conducting sensitive research in the United States. The proclamation follows the release of a new strategic approach to U.S.-China relations, one that “recognizes the long-term strategic competition between our two systems.”
But these cannot be considered anything more than initial steps. To be effective, a high-tech blockade will need to account for the nuance and scope of China’s MCF strategy, in the U.S. and globally. The United States will have to redefine the range of industries that it protects and the mechanisms of influence from which it protects them. And the U.S. will have to pair the defensive approach of a high-tech blockade with proactive efforts that target China’s own, ample, vulnerabilities.
MILITARY-CIVIL FUSION AS CHINESE COMPETITIVE STRATEGY
The CCP has spent more than twenty years refining a strategic concept of “military-civilian fusion with Chinese characteristics.” As Ma Qing Feng of Hunan University defines MCF, it means “the military is for civilian use, the civilian is military, and the military and civilian are fused.” MCF does not simply seek to transfer civilian technology to the military or to leverage defense production for larger economic benefit. Rather, MCF eliminates distinctions between war and peace, cooperation and competition, commerce and conflict. Military and economic resources, mechanisms, and domains fuse in pursuit of a single, competitive purpose: amplifying China’s global power.
MCF’s roots date back to Mao Zedong. Mao saw no distinction between wartime and peacetime. He marshaled China’s national resources to fuel the military industrial system. Chinese analyses call this “military-civil combination.” In the 1980s and 1990s, Beijing began to rethink military-civil combination with a less military focus. Beijing calculated that advances in technology and in globalization gave the civilian and commercial domains new significance—as drivers of economic development, sources of security-relevant technologies, and arenas in which to exert coercive power.
MCF was the result. It updated military-civil combination for an internet era by manipulating China’s integration into globalized, civilian supply chains, markets, and research and development (R&D) systems for strategic ends.
In 1999, Hu Jintao formally declared MCF a strategic concept. In 2015, Xi Jinping elevated MCF to national-level strategy. It became the guiding principle for Chinese state science and technology (S&T) investment. Beijing also built a corresponding institutional apparatus. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and its subordinate State Administration for Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense oversee the implementation of MCF. They assign MCF mandates and funding to research institutions, pools of capital, companies, S&T projects, industry zones, and human capital programs.
Beijing deploys its MCF instruments and actors to obtain dual-use technology from abroad. Beijing also deploys them and their standards to shape international civilian and military systems. For example, MCF-focused venture capital funds invest in companies that are integrated into the U.S. Department of Defense supply chain and innovation efforts. MCF companies invest in critical raw resources, whether rare earths or cobalt, to govern global supply and supply chains. Beijing also exports its MCF players to build port logistics information systems abroad. These systems award Chinese companies global commercial advantage. They also promise the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy access to maritime intelligence. And China’s MCF information systems may allow China to deny its adversaries their own intelligence.
MCF reflects careful Chinese study of other countries’ public-private partnerships and military-industrial complexes—especially those of the United States and the former Soviet Union. Beijing has drawn inspiration from abroad, but it has not sought to replicate foreign models. Rather, Beijing has learned how to manipulate them to enhance China’s own power.
MCF comprises more than simple industrial policy. It is a competitive strategy. Beijing uses its enduring strengths—an immense, attractive domestic economy, massive pools of low-cost labor, a lax regulatory environment, and market control—to cement advantage over American vulnerabilities. In the process, Beijing also shores up its enduring weaknesses, including a limited capacity for fundamental innovation and unpracticed military apparatus.
MCF is especially well-suited to long-term strategic competition because it is a relatively low-cost, low-risk approach that obscures both its offensive ends and its exploitative nature. Whereas defense expenditures pushed the Soviet system to bankruptcy, MCF offloads China’s costs to its competitors. Its mechanisms, in some cases, operate at a profit. Meanwhile, Beijing cloaks its approach in a narrative that attributes Chinese success to scientific innovation. This narrative cleverly suggests that, to avoid being leapfrogged, the U.S. government must disproportionately invest in expensive basic S&T—which a parasitic Beijing coopts. China thus creates a context in which U.S. efforts fuel America’s top competitor.
The United States won the Cold War by deploying its own strengths against the Soviet Union’s weaknesses. Now, that playbook is being used to unseat the United States. The U.S. is beginning to realize as much—but slowly, reactively, and often without the necessary grasp of China’s strategy.
HIGH-TECH BLOCKADE AS A FIRST STEP TOWARD A COMPETITIVE STRATEGY
Both the United States and China treat S&T as the key variable in today’s great power competition. But they disagree over how to win an upper hand in the S&T field. The U.S. focuses on pioneering basic research and fundamental S&T. Beijing prioritizes applied research. Beijing invests to deploy new technology—at pace, with scope and scale, under state control.
Beijing’s strategic approach leverages two perceived novelties of the modern environment. First, global interconnectedness decreases the value of original innovation. Second, the network effects underlying information technology make quantity, or large-scale application, more important than quality. In this environment, America’s innovative capacity loses some of its luster. China’s size advantage assumes new weight.
But—as Beijing acknowledges—MCF and its asymmetric orientation retain one critical vulnerability. China fears a high-tech blockade: restrictions on Beijing’s access to developed nations’ technology. The first signs of such a blockade have emerged in the form of the Trump administration’s proclamation limiting the entry into the U.S. of Chinese researchers associated with the PLA. The proclamation specifically prohibits the entry of researchers tied to the entities associated with the PRC’s military-civil fusion strategy. Finally, the United States is threatening MCF’s Achilles heel.
To be effective, U.S. defenses must account for the nuance and scope of Beijing’s military-civil fusion program. MCF initiatives permeate the entire scientific and technological landscape. Both government and private Chinese investment funds follow explicit MCF investment mandates. So do industrial parks and state subsidies. Beijing’s top scientific and technological universities exist under the state organ charged with implementing MCF.
Furthermore, blocking MCF initiatives that target the U.S. is insufficient, since Beijing deploys its researchers, companies, and capital across the developed world. This array of international connections serves to “hedge,” as Liang Yixin of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology puts it in International Trade, against the risk of a U.S. high-tech blockade.
For a high-tech blockade to succeed and resonate with Beijing, it will have to account for Beijing’s pervasive presence. It will have to take a wide lens and use rigorous, empirical monitoring to document and track Beijing’s MCF apparatus. It will also have to be deployed in conjunction with American allies and partners—that is, with the other developed economies that Beijing ropes into its MCF offensive. Recent attempts to restrict China’s access to U.S. technology, such as foreign investment review and export restriction reforms, are admirable. But they have left gaps that permit Beijing’s system to continue to operate as it desires.
Efforts to revamp the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) process, which screens foreign investments in the U.S., should expand the scope of covered transactions to match the breadth of Beijing’s priority areas and the mechanisms that MCF deploys. Congress passed a CFIUS reform bill, the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA), primarily to address gaps in the process that China’s approach exploits. FIRRMA implementation hinges on the phrase “emerging, foundational, or other critical technology.” In defining that term, the Commerce Department should borrow from China’s own framing. For example, it should include the entire expanse of automotive technology—a field that Beijing targets for both its security and economic relevance—ranging from carbon ceramic brakes to LiDAR sensors to route-planning algorithms.
The Treasury Department should in turn use this expanded definition to move its investment review operation ahead of the threat. Rather than reacting to isolated cases as, or if, they come up, the interagency lead of CFIUS should monitor early indicators of Beijing’s priorities and educate U.S. firms about the risks of doing business with Chinese actors who target dual-use technologies, infrastructure, and data. The Department of Defense should budget for drastically more “non-notified reviews” than the 150 they currently plan for per year. And the CFIUS process’s covered transaction mandate should be expanded to include capital, which China weaponizes. MCF-focused funds-of-funds, private equity, and venture capital vehicles invest as limited partners in U.S. and overseas asset allocators in order to establish indirect access to operating companies, the innovators who run them, and the information that undergirds their intellectual property. Such activity is not expressly monitored by investment review.
National security reviews of foreign investment comprise just one part of the puzzle. The scope of export control measures should be similarly expanded to protect a wider range of industries and defend against new threat vectors. The Department of Education should require absolute transparency on foreign sources of research funding at U.S. research institutes. The Department of Defense and intelligence community should revamp their Foreign Ownership, Control, or Influence (FOCI) system to demand equivalent transparency. Existing protocols might document foreign ownership, but they do little actually to identify influence. In 1999, Congress required the Secretary of Defense to issue a list of all Chinese military companies as a part of that year’s defense funding bill. The Department of Defense has yet publicly to release such a list—a full 20 years later—which would empower greater transparency about industrial base risks. The Department of Defense should also refresh its threat intelligence inputs for the nature of China’s approach, while applying them across the programming and budget system to more thoroughly vet supply vulnerabilities.
Once it adopts these and similar steps throughout the national security enterprise, Washington can turn to promoting common approaches with allies and partners. Trade deals with the United States should include requirements to establish unified export control and investment review processes. Those processes should be informed by China’s MCF priorities and mechanisms. The Coordinating Committee of the Cold War—and its antecedents—offer inspiration for the necessary alliance approach. But these precedents will have to be updated for the modern technological and economic environment—and China’s engagement with it.
FROM REACTION TO ACTION: AFTER A HIGH-TECH BLOCKADE
The U.S. should not stop at a high-tech blockade. This defensive move is a critical first step. But it is just that. To prevail in the long-term, peacetime contest taking shape with China, the United States needs to start acting rather than reacting. U.S. efforts to date—including the recent proclamation concerning Chinese researchers in the U.S. and moves to “decouple” our economies—have been predominantly defensive. Now, Washington needs to identify its own priorities and invest accordingly. It needs to make sure that those priorities are informed by reliable assessments of the competitive environment and the adversary’s strengths and weaknesses. This would put the U.S. on the path to executing a true competitive strategy.
As MCF’s asymmetry reveals, the CCP’s threat optimizes for a long-term, peacetime struggle. The U.S. national security enterprise would do well to recognize as much and adapt its planning accordingly. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently pointed this out. “The threat from the Chinese Communist Party emanates from the nature of the Chinese Communist Party doctrine and ideology,” he said. “We’re gonna have to be at this for a while.”
*Emily de La Bruyère and Nate Picarsic are senior fellows at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and co-founders of Horizon Advisory.

"Where are the Visible and Audible Women in the Muslim Community?"
Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff /Gatestone Institute/June 24/ 2020
"Muslim women are hampered in their development by difficult circumstances and a theory of coercion. ... I could not tolerate that women can only pray in the back of mosques and are not properly recognized. I wanted to change this traditional picture, but the IGGÖ refused to question this, even institutionalized it." — Fatma Akay-Türker, former spokeswoman for women's affairs of the Islamic Faith Community, who resigned.
"I believe in democracy, freedom, questioning deadlocked theological structures and the equality of human beings. In a world dominated by men I fight for the right of women to speak out, against all forms of discrimination and the sexualization of women." — Fatma Akay-Türker.
"Relevant passages [of the Koran] regarding women must be reinterpreted. But this was not accepted among the men [in the council]. The classical interpretation of the Koran cannot solve the problems of women...." — Fatma Akay-Türker.
In the meantime, a man has filled Akay-Türker's position.
Fatma Akay-Türker, until her resignation, served as the only woman on the highest board of the Islamic Faith Community of Austria. Her unexpected departure raised some eyebrows among the Muslim community. Pictured: Vienna, Austria. (Image source: Xell/Wikimedia Commons)
Fatma Akay-Türker, until June 16 spokeswoman for women's affairs of the Islamic Faith Community of Austria (IGGÖ), has stepped down with a statement:
Resignation!!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to inform you that I have resigned from my position in the Shura Council at the IGGÖ as well as my job as Islamic religious education teacher.
Therefore, I declare that I have no connection whatsoever to any institution, organization or political establishment.
Respectfully,
Dr. Fatma AKAY-TÜRKER
IGGÖ has always been proud of their female participation with women serving as chairpersons in local faith communities in the Austrian provinces of Vorarlberg and Burgenland. Yet, given that Akay-Türker, until her resignation, served as the only woman on the highest board of the IGGÖ, her unexpected move raised some eyebrows among the Muslim community. Notably, the non-governmental organization "Muslimische Jugend Österreich" (Muslim Youth of Austria) asked in a press release:
"Where are the visible audible women in the Muslim community? What is the significance and the role of women in the Islamic community in Austria?"
According to its website, IGGÖ represents all Muslims residing in Austria. In addition, IGGÖ says it pursues an "Austrian way of Islam", without elaborating what this may entail, and acts as an "interface" between Austrian Muslims and public and civil institutions as well as other religious groups. IGGÖ is also tasked with the organization of Islamic religious education in schools, without any interference by the Austrian state. Most interestingly in light of recent developments, IGGÖ believes in the "strengthening of the agenda of women".
In 2019, Akay-Türker was called to serve on the administrative council of IGGÖ, the only woman to do so. Her credentials were impeccable: first, her parents immigrated from Turkey to Austria, in 1989; she and her sister followed and attended school in Vienna, where Akay-Türker began asking questions and reading "consciously". Because the children of guest workers ("Gastarbeiterkinder") did not usually pursue higher education, she became a salesperson. After the birth of her first son, she enrolled at university, in Turkish Studies, and graduated with a doctorate after her fourth child was born. Her thesis discussed women in the Ottoman empire in the 16th century. She then became a religious education teacher in schools outside of Vienna.
When she turned 18, Akay-Türker started wearing the hijab, the Islamic headscarf, too late for her family's taste. In turn, she told her own ten-year-old daughter, "You can start wearing the hijab whenever YOU want, but not before you graduate high school.
After Akay-Türker's announcement of her resignation from the IGGÖ's administrative council, she gave only one interview to justify her rationale. She said she had accepted the offer to serve on the administrative council on the condition that she represent the interests of Muslim women and start internal reforms, because "Muslim women are hampered in their development by difficult circumstances and a theory of coercion."
"I could not tolerate that women can only pray in the back of mosques and are not properly recognized. I wanted to change this traditional picture, but the IGGÖ refused to question this, even institutionalized it...
"Religion is not only a man's preserve. Women have a right to be treated in a dignified, fair and respectable manner. As soon as women demand their God-given rights, they are discredited as degraded as feminists. Enough is enough! I cannot accept the intimidation of women."
She accused the IGGÖ of "advocating traditional Islamic theology, which we must definitely question because it does not correspond with the message of the Koran." In addition, "as a highly educated, intellectual Muslim woman and as a result of my lengthy research of the Koran and my Islamic studies, I can say that there is no reason to deduce from the Koran that women should be discriminated against."
"I believe in democracy, freedom, questioning deadlocked theological structures and the equality of human beings. In a world dominated by men I fight for the right of women to speak out, against all forms of discrimination and the sexualization of women.
"Relevant passages [of the Koran] regarding women must be reinterpreted. But this was not accepted among the men [in the council]. The classical interpretation of the Koran cannot solve the problems of women. ... My motto is: God created humans and does not address them according to their gender, but according to their personality."
Reacting to Akay-Türker's resignation, IGGÖ president Umit Vural announced the appointment of an "independent commission on the topics of equality, promotion of women and diversity in our faith community." He added that the proportion of women in the IGGÖ has risen steadily in the past years: "Competent women are found in key positions such as the Islamic Religious Institute and the secretariat of the shura council." Nevertheless, he conceded, "equality of women has not, by far, been achieved among our group." In the meantime, a man has filled Akay-Türker's position.
Some observers might regard Akay-Türker's resignation as an internal action involving only the Muslim community. They might decide that the discussion whether Muslim women are granted "their rights" or have any rights at all within their religion, should not concern non-Muslims. It is true that Muslim women enjoy full political and personal rights according to the Austrian constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and other covenants. Akay-Türker, in her interview, laments the lack of women's rights in her own religion, Islam. One then might wonder about the following:
What is Akay-Türker's view of "true and authentic Islam"? Is her view perhaps a subjective one that includes some wishful thinking that has very little in common with Islam as taught by Al-Azhar University in Cairo, where teachers articulate the normative aspects of Islam, including the teaching that "men are a degree above women", according to Koran 2:228?
Is her view of Islam one that was propagated by the Islamic prophet Mohammed? Does she negate the countless hadith, or sayings and teachings of the prophet Mohammed, regarding the status of women in Islam?
The female interviewer evidently fell victim to the age-old technique of dissembling to non-Muslims on the teachings of Islam, and did not know what the Koran says about women, -- for instance, Koran 4:34:
"Men are the protectors and maintainers of women because Allah has made one of them excel over the other, and because they spend out of their possessions (to support them). Thus righteous women are obedient and guard the rights of men in their absence under Allah's protection. As for women of whom you fear rebellion, admonish them, and remain apart from them in beds, and beat them. Then if they obey you, do not seek ways to harm them. Allah is Exalted, Great."
The interviewer therefore fell victim was unable to ask relevant follow-up questions.
In her interview, Akay-Türker was successful in portraying Islam as a victim of projections and abuse. Thus, the likable Akay-Türker could act as a role model for a "new and true" version of Islam that is compatible with an enlightened society. Unfortunately, it is not clear how this might be achieved.
Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff is an Austrian human rights activist fighting for the right to freedom of speech as enshrined in the U.S. First Amendment. In 2009 she as charged for incitement to hatred and later found guilty for denigrating the religious teachings of a legally recognized religion. Her case was later accepted at the European Courts for Human Rights. She is the author of the book, "The Truth is No Defense."
© 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.

Dump China: Time to End Beijing's Pernicious Tech Empire
Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/June 24/ 2020
China's window of vulnerability... is only a few years at most. So this is the time for the world to act.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology talks about the country committing $1.4 trillion in the next five years.
China also is working on plundering Google, which has various operations in the People's Republic including its AI China Center in Beijing and partnerships with the country's two leading universities, Peking and Tsinghua. Yet the company has larger plans.
Google, which has refused to work with the Defense Department on artificial intelligence, is helping the Chinese military in that critical field. This situation is hideous. "The United States has to absolutely prohibit Google and other tech firms from doing business in China or with Chinese firms," according to Brandon Weichert.
China's market is losing its attractiveness. The economy is in distress, suffering from both the coronavirus epidemic and systemic weaknesses, such as excessive indebtedness, smothering state controls, and xenophobic hostility to foreign investment.... Now is the time to shut down Beijing's massive, state-directed, and government-funded effort to dominate the world's technologies.
Can China innovate the technologies of tomorrow with an oppressive political system, a failing economy and loss of support from the international community? Despite everything, Xi's China has managed to become a technology leader in critical fields, such as quantum communications and 5G wireless communications.
"China," some say, "is largely a land of rule-bound rote learners." The Chinese try but rarely make breakthroughs on their own. Moreover, ruler Xi Jinping, who demands that his regime dominate the technologies of the world, is fast eliminating the one essential ingredient of innovation: freedom. Totalitarianism promotes obedience, a quality not particularly helpful for developing the technologies of tomorrow.
Yet despite everything, Xi's China has still managed to become a technology leader in critical fields, such as quantum communications and 5G wireless communications. The Chinese, because of their success, are now racing to own the technologies of this century.
China also has weaknesses. Its economy is failing, and the regime, through especially provocative actions, is losing the support of the international community. The country's window of vulnerability, however, is only a few years at most. So this is the time for the world to act.
Thinker David Goldman persuasively argues that it does not matter whether the Chinese people can innovate. Their regime has put together all the elements needed to dominate technology.
Beijing spends enormous sums pursuant to meticulously crafted multiyear programs, like the 13th Five-Year Plan, the Digital Silk Road effort, and the infamous Made in China 2025 initiative. When China spends, it spends big. Premier Li Keqiang, while issuing his Work Report at the National People's Congress meeting at the end of last month, announced a campaign to build "new types of infrastructure," in other words, technology.
China, therefore, is going on a tech-spending binge. More than a dozen Chinese municipalities, including Beijing and Shanghai, have since the beginning of this year committed to spend $935 billion, and corporations like Alibaba and Tencent will chip in. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology talks about the country committing $1.4 trillion in the next five years.
China can spend, but can it innovate in an oppressive political system? Oppressive political systems kill creativity in the arts and social sciences, but they also stifle the other sciences. Innovation often does not benefit from top-down decisions that are often ill-conceived and therefore counterproductive.
Yet it doesn't matter whether communist regimentation has made the Chinese people tech dullards — by and large they are not — because bureaucrats can hire all the creative talent they need from other countries.
As Goldman points out, "For the first time in its long history, China has succeeded in recruiting Western innovators on a large scale." There are, for instance, 50,000 foreigners working for national champion Huawei Technologies including, he writes, "some of Europe's best scientists and engineers in the field."
That was the formula for China's lead in quantum communications. Beijing took the breakthrough of an American — Albert Einstein described the phenomena of "spooky action at a distance" — and expertise from Vienna, and created for itself at least a half-decade lead in developing hack-proof quantum communications.
In another quantum area, computing, China's home-grown effort is lagging. Google is far ahead with a 72-qubit computer. IBM's computer is 50 qubits, and China, according to Zhu Xiaobo of the University of Science and Technology of China, is "working on 24 qubits."
China also is working on plundering Google, which has various operations in the People's Republic including its AI China Center in Beijing and partnerships with the country's two leading universities, Peking and Tsinghua. Yet the company has larger plans. "As Google's AI research ramps up in China, they will ultimately need greater capabilities than a built-from-scratch cloud computing firm can provide," Brandon Weichert of the Weichert Report told Gatestone. "So it is inevitable that Google will attempt to either partner with or purchase a Chinese cloud computing firm, like Tencent."
America's artificial intelligence efforts get an indirect boost from Google's operations in China, but China is benefitting a lot more, especially because tech, like water, flows downhill. Moreover, tech transfers to the Chinese pose a threat to Americans because of Beijing's policy of "civil-military fusion." This policy means there is no such thing as civilian-only tech cooperation in that country. The technologies that Beijing manages to beg, borrow, or steal — often steal — is directly pipelined to the People's Liberation Army.
So Google, which has refused to work with the U.S. Defense Department on artificial intelligence, is helping the Chinese military in that critical field. This situation is hideous, and hideous things never last. "The United States has to absolutely prohibit Google and other tech firms from doing business in China or with Chinese firms," Weichert, also the author of an upcoming book on Chinese space tech, tells me. Furthermore, he persuasively argues that Washington must prohibit American manufacturing concerns from transferring technology to China.
At the moment, a complete ban on technology transfers looks drastic and therefore unlikely. There are, however, two reasons why China may not be able to get its hands on the tech it needs, ban or no ban.
First, China's market is losing its attractiveness. The economy is in distress, suffering from both the coronavirus pandemic and systemic weaknesses, like excessive indebtedness, smothering state controls, and xenophobic hostility to foreign investment.
The economy, from most indications, remains backward. When Premier Li announced his plan for new infrastructure, he also advocated a major push to build a "street stall economy," — an economy built on street vendors.
The reality is that China cannot provide livelihoods for its people, and that in turn suggests the country over the long term will not be able to maintain the resources necessary to fund tech investments. Beijing can say it will spend $1.4 trillion, but an overstretched state with a stagnant economy is unlikely to make good on that pledge.
Second, China is taking on the world — both neighbors and faraway countries — with its fierce "wolf warrior diplomacy." Its wolfish approach is having consequences. For instance, China's killing of 20 Indian soldiers on Indian-controlled territory in the Himalayas on June 15 will probably lead to a ban on Huawei telecommunications equipment in India, perhaps even a "rip and replace" effort.
As Beijing pushes away the world, tech cooperation will be restricted, and that brings us back to Google. The Trump administration in January severely restricted the export of AI geospatial products. This and other restrictions on the way will impact Google's cooperative efforts in China.
Already, Huawei and other companies, due to decades of malicious conduct, have been added to the U.S. Commerce Department's dreaded "Entity List." Because of this designation, Huawei and the other businesses have been ring-fenced: Americans, without prior approval from the Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, may not sell or license to the listed companies products or technologies covered by the U.S. Export Administration Regulations.
What does this mean in practice? Huawei will not be able to sell 5G base stations, an important product, in about 12 months, when it runs out of chips. The company will not be able to source these critical components for years, unless it finds some party willing to violate U.S. law.
Moreover, the Trump administration has been getting more aggressive with coercive measures, even going so far as to sanction educational institutions. Last month, the Trump administration added the Harbin Institute of Technology and Harbin Engineering University to the Entity List.
China's answer is to steal as much as it can and buy tech wherever possible. It has, for instance, been trying to build a relationship with South Korea's Samsung, the world's no. 2 maker of smartphones, to obtain 5G chips it can no longer get due to the Entity List designation. Don't be surprised if Huawei, perhaps with the support of the leftist government of President Moon Jae-in in Seoul, buys Samsung to get its technology.
Backdoor strategies like those involving Samsung can alleviate the effect of foreign sanctions, but they are only stopgap measures at best.
This is, therefore, the time to stop China before, by hook or by crook, it dominates technology to the detriment of the world. The window in which American actions can be effective is narrowing. Huawei, for instance, can design the sophisticated chips it needs, yet it cannot build them due to its inclusion on the Entity List. It should be able to develop the ability to build chips, however, in a few years.
So it's now or never. Now is the time to shut down Beijing's massive, state-directed, and government-funded effort to dominate the world's technologies.
Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China and The Great U.S.-China Tech War. He is a Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow.
© 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.