English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For June 29/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 16/13-20/:’When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 28-29/2020
The World Council for the Cedars Revolution (WCCR) Joins US State Department in Condemning Lebanese Judge’s Attempt to Silence US Ambassador
Ministry of Health: 21 new corona cases
Aoueidat says he has not referred Judge Mazeh to judicial inspection
US: Hezbollah's Attempt to Silence Lebanese Media is Pathetic
US Ambassador Appears on Lebanese TV Despite Court Ban
Shea Says Judge Ruling against Her 'Unhelpful and Unnecessary'
Lebanon summons US Ambassador Shea in ongoing row over Hezbollah criticism
Lebanon’s FM to summon US envoy over comments on Hezbollah
Foreign Minister Summons U.S. Ambassador
US Embassy Spokesperson to Asharq Al-Awsat: Some Focused on Distraction Instead of Lebanon’s Economic Problems
Lebanon apologizes to US envoy after judicial order banning her from interviews
Judge Vows to Resign if Grilled over U.S. Envoy Ruling
Al-Rahi Says Baabda Talks Worsened Rift, Slams Anti-U.S. Ruling
Hassan Fadlallah criticizes defenders of US Ambassador: Her statements are a blatant attack on the sovereignty of our country
Central Bank: No truth to news of prohibiting entry of more than $ 2000 through Beirut Airport
Siniora: Government has demonstrated its inability to carry out reform
Hariri awaiting results of investigation into Bekaa explosion
Taymour Jumblatt: With the current government's policy, it is only natural to be excluded from Arab support
Merehbi: To rely on local production to face the livelihood siege
Karami from Bqaa Safrine: Government must make up its mind, in wake of IMF head’s mourning of aid project
‘What a mess!’ tweets Jumblatt
Indian Embassy in Lebanon facilitates return of Indians stranded in Lebanon
Mortada: It is difficult to achieve food security at this stage
Was There an Attempt to Assassinate Hariri in the Bekaa?
Lebanese Minister says President Michel Aoun protected him after he killed two men
Accusing Ali al-Amin of treason reflects a double failure in Lebanon/Farouk Yousef/The Arab Weekly/June 28/2020
US ambassador appears on Lebanese TV, denounces court media ban/Timour Azhari/Al Jazeera/June 28/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 28-29/2020
Nine Iran-backed fighters killed in another raid in Syria: Monitor
2 Dead After Shooting at California Walmart Distribution Center
Scottish Police Name Sudanese Man Shot Dead During Knife Attack
US Envoy Calls for Iran Arms Embargo Renewal
Rouhani: Iran Under Toughest Year Due to US Sanctions, COVID-19
Iraq is on the path to regain its stolen sovereignty
Algerian President Dismisses Minister for Refusing to Renounce French Citizenship
Israel Orders Evangelical GOD TV Off Air
Half a Million in Lockdown as Beijing Fights New Virus Cluster

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 28-29/2020
“32,000 Christians Butchered to Death”: The Persecution of Christians, May 2020/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/June 28/2020
Why Hasn't Twitter Flagged 'Kuffar' as a Term of Abuse/Seth Frantzman/The Jerusalem Post/June 28/2020
Why Israel’s Warming Gulf Ties Will Survive Annexation/Jonathan H.Ferziger/Foreign Policy/June 28/2020
The Libyan puzzle is cursed by contradictions despite calls for ceasefire/Raghida Dergham/The National/June 28/2020
COVID Curve Has a Simple Explanation/Max Nisen/Bloomberg/June 28/2020
Iranian opposition’s fight for democracy deserves support/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/June 28/2020
Terror-exporting ayatollahs on the threshold of going nuclear/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/June 28/2020
Islamists’ discourse needs to be challenged in the West/Peter Welby/Arab News/June 28/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 28-29/2020
The World Council for the Cedars Revolution (WCCR) Joins US State Department in Condemning Lebanese Judge’s Attempt to Silence US Ambassador
June 28, 2020
بيان صادر عن المجلس الوطني العالمي لثورة الأرز يستنكر القرار القضائي اللبناني المهرطق الهادف لإسكات السفيرة الأميركية في لبنان
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/87747/%d8%a8%d9%8a%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%b5%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%b1-%d8%b9%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ac%d9%84%d8%b3-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%88%d8%b7%d9%86%d9%8a-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d9%8a-%d9%84%d8%ab%d9%88/

The World Council for the Cedars Revolution (WCCR) joined with the US State Department to condemn the actions of Judge Muhammad Mazieh who has apparently “ordered” all Lebanese media to refrain from publishing US Ambassador Dorothy Shea’s comments for one year after she criticized Hezbollah’s current stranglehold on Lebanon.
Said Ambassador Shea: "It [Hezbollah] has siphoned off billions of dollars that should have gone into government coffers so that the government can provide basic services to its people," she said. "It has obstructed some of the economic reforms the Lebanese economy so desperately needs."
“Ambassador Shea is absolutely right,” said WCCR Secretary General, Tom Harb. “Hezbollah’s tentacles reach into every arm of the Lebanese government and financial institutions. Their use of a mixture of bribery and intimidation is masterful and long-standing. Very few Lebanese have the courage to stand against them individually, but the silent majority wants an end to the corruption of their institutions. Hezbollah is slowing destroying Lebanon.”
“The United States government cannot oppose this terrorist organization everywhere in the world, while quietly allowing it to flourish in Lebanon,” added WCCR National Director, John Hajjar. “It’s ironic that this judge accused our Ambassador of interfering in Lebanese internal affairs, while Hezbollah was founded by Iran, is massively financed by Iran and directed at every turn by Iran. How is that not interference in Lebanese internal affairs?”
Hossein Khorram, AMCD Vice Chair, states: "Judge Muhammad Mazieh, or better said, his Tehran masters, wish to take what little free press is left in Lebanon with this political stunt. Now civil and criminal penalties can be brought against those few brave journalist when threat and intimidation has failed against them. An independent judiciary is essential for any democratic society and I find it a mockery of justice for a sovereign nation's judiciary to protect interest of another nation before their own."
“Hezbollah needs to be disarmed as per UNSCR 1559,” continued Mr. Harb.”Otherwise, the Lebanese people will continue paying the price for their country’s instability.”
WCCR maintains that Hezbollah has corrupted every aspect of Lebanese life. We applaud Ambassador Shea for her courage in speaking out against this evil terrorist organization. Calling it a political party does not change its Iranian-born terrorist stripes. If the Lebanese are to taste freedom once more, Hezbollah must be completely purged from the government and civil society. We stand with Ambassador Shea and the Silent Majority in Lebanon.

Ministry of Health: 21 new corona cases
NNA/Sunday, 28 June, 2020
The Ministry of Public Health announced the registration of 21 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, which raises the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 1740.

Aoueidat says he has not referred Judge Mazeh to judicial inspection
NNA/Sunday, 28 June, 2020
In an issued statement Sunday by the Discriminatory Prosecutor General, Judge Ghassan Aoueidat, he stated that "he did not request that Urgent Matters Judge in Tyre Mohammad Mazeh be referred to judicial inspection following his issued decree yesterday on preventing American Ambassador Dorothy Shea from making statements through the media for one year, as well as prohibiting all media outlets from interviewing her for the same period, under penalty of a coercive fine.”
It is to note that the Supreme Judicial Council is expected to hold its regular session on Tuesday, unless circumstances require that the date of the session be changed till tomorrow.

US: Hezbollah's Attempt to Silence Lebanese Media is Pathetic
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 June, 2020
Washington has slammed Lebanon’s Hezbollah after a Lebanese judge banned local and foreign media outlets in the country from interviewing the US ambassador for a year saying that her criticism of the party was a threat to social peace.
"Hezbollah's attempt to silence the Lebanese media is pathetic. To even think to use the judiciary to silence freedom of speech and freedom of the press is ludicrous,” the State Department said Saturday. “We stand with the Lebanese people and against Hezbollah's censorship," it added in a statement. Lebanon’s foreign minister, Nassif Hitti, summoned US Ambassador to Dorothy Shea over comments she made recently in which she criticized Hezbollah, state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Sunday. Judge Mohammed Mazeh in the southern city of Tyre ruled on Saturday that Shea's comments to Al-Hadath television a day earlier had incited sectarian strife, and banned broadcasting interviews with her for a year. Shea told the TV station that Hezbollah's behavior was preventing Lebanon from properly dealing with a deep economic crisis. NNA said media that violate the judge's ban would be fined $200,000.

US Ambassador Appears on Lebanese TV Despite Court Ban
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 June, 2020
Lebanese media broadcast interviews with US Ambassador Dorothy Shea on Sunday, ignoring a ruling by a judge who banned the diplomat from TV for a year. In an interview with Al-Hadath television on Friday, Shea said Hezbollah's behavior was preventing Lebanon from properly dealing with a deep economic crisis. Judge Mohammed Mazeh in the southern city of Tyre ruled on Saturday that Shea's comments had incited sectarian strife, and banned broadcasting interviews with her for a year. State-owned National News Agency (NNA) said media that violate the ban would be fined $200,000. But the government has repudiated the court ruling, while criticizing Shea over the remarks that had prompted it. Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad tweeted that while she understood the judge's concerns about diplomats meddling in Lebanon's internal affairs "no one had the right to prevent the media from covering news, or to curb press freedoms". A Lebanese government official and a Western diplomatic source both said Shea had been summoned to the foreign ministry on Sunday. No further details were given. In one of several media appearances on Sunday, Shea said a senior government official had assured her the court did not have the authority to order the ban, and that the government would take steps to reverse it. She described the ruling as a "really pathetic" attempt to silence the media, and said the government should focus more on implementing economic reforms. "I would suggest that we all try to put this chapter behind us," she said. US Embassy in Beirut Spokesperson Casey Bonfield said on Saturday: “In light of the tremendous economic problems Lebanon is facing, it is disappointing that some would appear to be focused on distracting.”In a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, Bonfield added: “We, as Americans, believe very much in freedom of expression. We know Lebanese people hold dear freedom of speech and a free press, as well. We stand with the Lebanese people.”

Shea Says Judge Ruling against Her 'Unhelpful and Unnecessary'
Naharnet/June 28/2020
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea on Sunday described the judicial ruling issued against her by Judge Mohammed Mazeh and the controversy surrounding it as a “tempest in a teapot.”Speaking in an interview with LBCI television, Shea said the ruling carried an “element of defensiveness,” describing it as “unhelpful and unnecessary.” Shea also reiterated that she has been given “assurances from the Government of Lebanon that appropriate action is being taken to reverse this inappropriate ruling.”During an interview with Saudi-owned news channel Al-Hadath aired on Friday, Shea had said that the United States has "grave concerns about the role of Hizbullah, a designated terrorist organization."On Saturday, Judge Mohammed Mazeh in the southern city of Tyre said he acted after receiving a complaint from a citizen who considered Shea's comments "insulting to the Lebanese people."
The order he issued bans local and foreign media working in the country from airing or publishing locally comments by the U.S. ambassador for a year.

Lebanon summons US Ambassador Shea in ongoing row over Hezbollah criticism
Tommy Hilton, Al Arabiya English/Sunday 28 June 2020
Lebanon’s foreign minister has summoned the US Ambassador Dorothy Shea to tell her that she should not interfere in the country's internal affairs, following an interview in which Shea criticized the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization, according to Lebanese news outlet MTV. Lebanese officials had apologized to Shea on Saturday, after a judge issued an order banning her from being able to speak to local media outlets following an Al Hadath interview in which she criticized Hezbollah.
The row sparked a row over freedom of speech in the country, with the US Embassy in Lebanon writing: “We believe very much in freedom of expression and the important role a free media plays in the United States and Lebanon. We stand with the Lebanese people.”While Lebanese officials appeared to have backtracked on Saturday, the following day MTV reported that Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti had summoned Shea to the embassy for a meeting on Monday.
“Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti has summoned the US ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, and he will meet with her on Monday at 3:00 p.m. to inform her that, according to Vienna Convention, an ambassador must not interfere in the internal affairs of another country, and that her speech must not include incitement of the Lebanese people against other Lebanese people participating in the authority.”
The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties governs the rules of diplomatic relations.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab formed a new government following months of anti-government protests that began in October. While the cabinet is made up of technocrats, it is widely seen as being approved by the Lebanese political elite, including Hezbollah.
The government has been criticized for its handling of the deteriorating economic situation in the country, with former adviser Henri Chaoul saying that there is “no genuine will” to make reforms.

Lebanon’s FM to summon US envoy over comments on Hezbollah
Associated Press/28 June 2020
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s foreign minister summoned the U.S. ambassador to Beirut over comments she made recently in which she criticized the militant Hezbollah group, state-run National News Agency reported Sunday. In Hezbollah’s stronghold south of Beirut, some 500 protesters marched on foot and motorcycles through the streets chanting: “Oh America, you are the Great Satan.” The agency gave no further details other than saying that the meeting between Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti and Ambassador Dorothy Shea is scheduled for Monday afternoon.
Local media said the minister will tell the ambassador that, according to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, an ambassador has no right to interfere in the internal affairs of another country and should not incite the Lebanese people against one another.On Saturday, a Lebanese judge banned local and foreign media outlets in the country from interviewing the U.S. ambassador for a year, saying that her criticism of Hezbollah was seditious and a threat to social peace. The judge’s ruling came a day after Shea told Saudi-owned TV station Al-Hadath that Washington has “great concerns” over Hezbollah’s role in the government. The move was harshly criticized by many in Lebanon, which enjoys one of the more freer media landscapes in the Arab world. Others, however, criticized Shea for comments deemed an interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs.
Since the ban by the judge was imposed Saturday, several local TV stations aired fresh comments from Shea in which she described the judge’s decision as “unfortunate.” She added that a senior Lebanese government official, whom she did not name, apologized to her.
“I was contacted yesterday afternoon by a very high-ranking and a well-placed official in the Lebanese government and this official expressed apologies, conveyed that this ruling did not have proper standing,” Shea told the local MTV station on Sunday. Shea added that the official told her that the government “will take the necessary step to reverse it.”
The court decision reflected the rising tension between the U.S. and Hezbollah. It also revealed a widening rift among groups in Lebanon, which is facing the worst economic crisis in its modern history. Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah on Sunday called Shea’s comments “a flagrant aggression on the sovereignty of our country and its national dignity.” He called on the foreign ministry to force the ambassador to “respect international law.”Lebanon is gripped by a deepening financial crisis, and talks with the International Monetary Fund for assistance has been complicated by political infighting. The local currency has lost more than 80% of its value in recent months. Shea said Lebanon is reeling from years of corruption of successive governments and accused Hezbollah of siphoning off government funds for its own purposes and of obstructing needed economic reforms.
In southern Beirut, some protesters blamed American sanctions on Hezbollah and neighboring Syria for the crash of the currency, which is throwing more Lebanese into poverty. “No matter how hungry we are, and how much in need we are, at least we have dignity,” said protester Ahmad Jawad referring to Hezbollah’s defiance of the U.S. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shiite group, and its allies are dominant in parliament and back the current government. It is designated by Washington as a terrorist group and the U.S. has continued to expand sanctions against it.
However, Washington is one of the largest donors to the Lebanese army, making for one of the more complicated diplomatic balancing acts in the region.

Foreign Minister Summons U.S. Ambassador
Naharnet/June 28/2020
Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti on Sunday summoned U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea to a meeting that will be held at the Ministry at 3:00 pm Monday, the National News Agency said. NNA said the meeting will tackle "her latest statements."In remarks to LBCI TV, Hitti confirmed summoning Shea but denied revealing what he will tell her in the meeting. LBCI had earlier reported that the Minister would tell the Ambassador that "according to the Vienna Convention, an ambassador does not have the right to interfere in the internal affairs of another country."LBCI added -- before the Minister disavowed the remarks -- that Hitti would also tell Shea that "it is unacceptable for her remarks to contain incitement to the Lebanese against another part of the Lebanese who are taking part in the government." The move comes after a judge in the southern city of Tyre issued a ruling banning local and foreign media working in the country from airing or publishing locally comments by the U.S. ambassador for a year. Judge Mohammed Mazeh said he acted after receiving a complaint from a citizen who considered Shea's comments "insulting to the Lebanese people."During an interview with Saudi-owned news channel Al-Hadath aired on Friday, Shea had said that the United States has "grave concerns about the role of Hizbullah," describing it as "a designated terrorist organization.""It has siphoned off billions of dollars that should have gone into government coffers so that the government can provide basic services to its people," she said. "It has obstructed some of the economic reforms the Lebanese economy so desperately needs," she added.

US Embassy Spokesperson to Asharq Al-Awsat: Some Focused on Distraction Instead of Lebanon’s Economic Problems
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 27 June, 2020
US Embassy in Beirut Spokesperson Casey Bonfield said on Saturday: “In light of the tremendous economic problems Lebanon is facing, it is disappointing that some would appear to be focused on distracting.”In a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, Bonfield added: “We, as Americans, believe very much in freedom of expression. We know Lebanese people hold dear freedom of speech and a free press, as well. We stand with the Lebanese people.”The remarks were made hours after Lebanese Judge Mohammed Mazeh banned media from publishing remarks by the US ambassador after she spoke about the Hezbollah party, in a disputed and non-binding decision.During an interview with the Al-Hadath channel aired on Friday, Dorothy Shea reiterated US policy “that counterterrorism sanctions apply not only to Hezbollah but to those who provide them with material support.”The ambassador said the US is still evaluating the extent to which the government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab is “what it says it is — an independent government of technocrats not beholden to Hezbollah.”The US considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization but the group and its allies command a majority in parliament and the cabinet.
Shea said the US “has not yet seen what we hoped for from this government in the way of concrete steps to implement the reforms the economy so desperately needs.”On Saturday, Mazeh, a judge in the southern city of Tyre, issued an arbitrary and non-binding order banning local and foreign media working in the country from airing or publishing locally comments by the US ambassador for a year.“The US ambassador discussed in her interview a Lebanese party represented in parliament and cabinet and that enjoys a wide popular base,” the order said, referring to Hezbollah.
“The US ambassador has no right to talk about this party,” the order added, accusing her of promoting internal sedition and strife.
The judge acknowledged that international law gives diplomats immunity but said media could be punished for violating the order.Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad dismissed the order, saying “no one has the right to ban the media from covering the news.”
Any issue pertaining to the media should pass through the information ministry and official judicial channels, she added.Constitutional and legal expert Dr. Antoine Sfeir said the order was a “precedent” in the country. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, he questioned the move, adding that such issues should, according to the law, be handled by the foreign ministry as it is related to diplomatic relations, not the judicial authority. President of the Justicia law firm, Paul Morcos described the order as “unusual” because diplomatic relations between countries are subject to international agreements, including the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. These agreements grant ambassadors privileges and immunities and impose certain norms and standards on how to address them, he explained to Asharq Al-Awsat. Local broadcaster LBCI said it would not abide by the ruling, calling it a “non-binding and unenforceable” decision that violates freedom of press. It said it would challenge the ruling in court. A senior judicial source accused the judge of over-stepping his prerogatives, telling AFP that the order is unenforceable under Lebanese law.

Lebanon apologizes to US envoy after judicial order banning her from interviews
Al Arabiya English/Saturday 27 June 2020
Lebanese officials apologized to the US ambassador in the country Saturday after a judge issued an order banning the US diplomat from being able to speak to local media outlets, one day after she criticized Hezbollah in a public interview.
A senior official from President Michel Aoun’s office criticized the south Lebanon judge’s order saying it contradicts international and diplomatic treaties. “This judge should get a warning of some sorts from the Higher Judicial Council,” the official told Al Arabiya English, adding that it was out of the judge’s prerogatives to make such a decision. According to the official, the Lebanese government reached out to the ambassador to apologize and dismiss the order. The US Embassy in Beirut tweeted US Ambassador Dorothy Shea’s Friday interview and wrote: “We believe very much in freedom of expression and the important role a free media plays in the United States and Lebanon. We stand with the Lebanese people."US Embassy spokesperson Casey Bonfield said the ambassador's interviews with Lebanese media outlets was "quite normal."
He added that it was "disappointing that, with these challenging economic times, some are attempting to distract and censor. We, as Americans, embrace freedom of speech, and the important role of a free media, and we know Lebanon does as well.”
Saturday’s order by the judge came a day after Ambassador Shea blasted Hezbollah during an interview with Al Hadath. Shea said that Hezbollah was destabilizing Lebanon and jeopardizing its economic recovery.
In his order, the judge said that Shea spoke about “a Lebanese party represented in parliament and cabinet and that enjoys a wide popular base,” referring to Iran-backed Hezbollah.“The US ambassador has no right to talk about this party,” the order added, accusing her of promoting internal sedition and strife.
The judge acknowledged that international law gives diplomats immunity, but said media could be punished for violating the order. However, a judicial source told Al Arabiya English that the judge’s decision was invalid. “Nothing will happen; it’s contradictory to local and international laws and no media outlets will abide by this. This is strictly ink on paper,” the source said. Lebanon’s former information minister, Melhem Riachi, said that order was not a laughing matter and lambasted the “joke of a judge.”In her interview Friday, the US ambassador said that Washington was still looking at if Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government was truly independent and “not beholden to Hezbollah.”Shea also said that more “counterterrorism sanctions” would be announced against Hezbollah and those who provide the group with material support.
Lebanon’s Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad said, “no one has the right to ban the media from covering the news.”Asked about the the Lebanese judge's order, Head of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Joumblatt told Al Arabiya English that it was "total idiocy and a stupid decision."
The Justice Ministry has yet to comment.

Judge Vows to Resign if Grilled over U.S. Envoy Ruling
Naharnet/June 28/2020
Judge Mohammed Mazeh, the urgent matters judge in the southern city of Tyre, on Sunday pledged that he would resign should he be questioned over his controversial ruling against the U.S. ambassador. "Some news websites have reported that Mr. State Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat has referred me to judicial inspection over ineligibility. I have not been informed of anything in this regard," Mazeh said in a statement. "Should the issue turn out to be true, and before being referred to inspection over a ruling I issued with a clear conscience and full conviction... I hereby submit a request to be relieved of my duties at the judiciary, which I will officially submit on Tuesday," Mazeh added. State Prosecutor Oueidat later denied that he had referred Mazeh to judicial inspection. Judicial sources meanwhile told al-Jadeed TV that "the Judicial Inspection Board has acted on its own in line with its jurisdiction," denying receiving any request from Oueidat. Mazeh has sparked a storm of controversy after he issued a ruling banning local and foreign media working in the country from airing or publishing comments by U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea. Mazeh said he acted after receiving a complaint from a citizen who considered Shea's comments "insulting to the Lebanese people." During an interview with Saudi-owned news channel Al-Hadath aired on Friday, Shea had said that the United States has "grave concerns about the role of Hizbullah," describing it as "a designated terrorist organization." "It has siphoned off billions of dollars that should have gone into government coffers so that the government can provide basic services to its people," she said. "It has obstructed some of the economic reforms the Lebanese economy so desperately needs," she added.

Al-Rahi Says Baabda Talks Worsened Rift, Slams Anti-U.S. Ruling
Naharnet/June 28/2020
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi lamented Sunday that the Baabda national meeting “has unfortunately worsened the domestic political rift” due to “lack of proper preparation.”Turning to the issue of the controversy over the judicial ruling against the U.S. ambassador, al-Rahi reminded of “the freedom of expression that characterizes Lebanon in its region.”“It was enshrined in the constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose preamble was devised by Dr. Charles Malek of Lebanon during his chairmanship of the U.N. General Assembly in 1948,” the patriarch said in his Sunday Mass sermon. “We very much regret yesterday’s judicial ruling which banned a diplomatic figure representing a world power from the right to express opinions,” al-Rahi added. Decrying that the ruling “was issued during a (judicial) holiday contrary to legal norms,” the patriarch said the move “tarnished the image of the Lebanese judiciary and violated the constitution.”“It requires condemnation and must be rectified,” al-Rahi urged. During an interview with Saudi-owned news channel Al-Hadath aired on Friday, U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea said the United States has "grave concerns about the role of Hizbullah," labeling it as "a designated terrorist organization." "It has siphoned off billions of dollars that should have gone into government coffers so that the government can provide basic services to its people," she said. "It has obstructed some of the economic reforms the Lebanese economy so desperately needs," Shea added. Judge Mohammed Mazeh, the urgent matters judge in the southern city of Tyre, sparked a storm of controversy after he issued a ruling banning local and foreign media working in the country from airing or publishing any comments by Shea for a one-year period. Mazeh said he acted after receiving a complaint from a citizen who considered Shea's comments "insulting to the Lebanese people."In his order, Mazeh accused Shea of promoting internal sedition and strife and of inciting the Lebanese against each other.

Hassan Fadlallah criticizes defenders of US Ambassador: Her statements are a blatant attack on the sovereignty of our country
NNA/Sunday 28 June 2020
Member of the “Loyalty to the Resistance” Parliamentary Bloc, MP Hassan Fadlallah, criticized in an issued statement on Sunday, those who are defending the American Ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, in wake of a recent issued ruling preventing media outlets from interviewing her, considering that Shea’s statements deliberately undermine Lebanon’s sovereignty. “It would have been more beneficial for these individuals to stand by their people and their constitutional powers, and defend their violated freedoms and the livelihood of the Lebanese, rather than rushing to beseech the satisfaction of a fleeting American era from Lebanon and the region,” said Fadlallah.He added: “The recent statements of the American Ambassador in Beirut constitute a blatant attack against the sovereignty and national dignity of our country, and an offense to its people, sanctities and the blood of its martyrs, who liberated their lands and protected their people, in the face of American wars by the Israeli and Takfiri enemies, so that Lebanon remains a country on the map of independent states and home to public liberties.”“This is what we adhere to and preserve, and the greatest threat to these freedoms is America's wars in the region and its racism, which is manifested in what is happening in the American streets, and its absolute support for the Zionist entity, which opposes Lebanon, the country of diversity and coexistence,” Fadlallah corroborated. "The recent campaign of incitement and misinformation led by the American administration and its tools, from the head of its diplomacy to his assistant, far-reaching the US Ambassador in Beirut, against the majority of the Lebanese people, is nothing but a miserable attempt to cover up the conspiracy role of this administration against the livelihood of the Lebanese people and their national currency, which was revealed by the Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” the MP emphasized. He indicated herein that Sayyed Nasrallah “has set the correct national framework to confront it [conspiracy role], embarking on a serious national endeavor to open the way for promising economic options for Lebanon outside the American hegemony, which is increasing the tension of American officials and their pressure on Lebanon to prevent it from rising.”"The Lebanese authorities, at the foremost of which being the Foreign Affairs Ministry, are called upon to take immediate action to compel this ambassador to respect international law, which defines the duties of diplomats, and to abide by the Lebanese laws in force,” the MP asserted. “This is a matter we will pursue according to the legal frameworks, because the aggressive behavior of this ambassador is daring and unabashed towards the state, and is a challenge to its laws and the rulings of its jurisdiction," Fadlallah underlined.

Central Bank: No truth to news of prohibiting entry of more than $ 2000 through Beirut Airport
NNA/Sunday 28 June 2020
The Central Bank of Lebanon denied, in an issued statement this evening, the news circulated by some media, over its “prohibition of the entry of any amount exceeding 2000 US dollars through Beirut International Airport,” stressing that “this news is completely groundless and is part of a campaign launched by some sides to cause monetary destabilization.”

Siniora: Government has demonstrated its inability to carry out reform
NNA/Sunday 28 June 2020
Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora considered that the current government has revealed its inability to carry out the needed reforms in the country, Speaking in an interview with “Al-Hadath Al-Arabiya” Channel on Sunday, Siniora did not deny the responsibility of the previous governments to what has befallen Lebanon. However, he criticized the current government’s failure to proceed with the necessary solutions. “We confirm that these problems are not the result of the work of this government or its outcome, but we are now referring to the required remedies,” he said. “We are now looking at ways to introduce solutions, and here comes the role of this government, and here we hold it accountable for its delay during the period in which it assumed responsibility for not carrying out the reforms it could have undertaken,” he said. “This government, during the period in which it assumed its responsibilities, has clearly shown that it is unable to take any action leading to the initiative to carry out reforms; in addition to the deterioration resulting from the tremendous grip of Hezbollah on this government, and on Lebanon as a whole, which has aggravated after the recent appointments. This government talks a lot about the issue of reform, and it wastes many meetings and endeavors to form several committees, but it ends up doing nothing," criticized Siniora. Over the issue of civil peace, which was the headline of the Baabda meeting, he considered that it requires addressing two factors, the rampant and uncontrolled weapons and the deteriorating daily living conditions. Siniora indicated that the national meeting in Baabda did not address the actual problems Lebanon is suffering from, as it touched on superficial parts of the crisis, without dealing with the root causes. “We followed this meeting and expressed our position, starting with the statement issued by the former heads of governments, which was shared by a number of other invitees who apologized for not partaking in the Baabda meeting,” said Siniora. “What was required was an affirmation of the Taif Accord and the need to complete the implementation of all its provisions," he corroborated.
“The real reform begins with a firm will and a true determination and directive by His Excellency the President of the Republic and this government, and certainly with the independence of the judiciary, first and foremost,” Siniora underscored.

Hariri awaiting results of investigation into Bekaa explosion
NNA/Sunday 28 June 2020
The Press Office of former Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, issued the below press release on Sunday: “Commenting on what Al-Hadath TV reported regarding former Prime Minister Hariri's visit to the Bekaa 11 days ago, the information in the report is generally correct, but in order to prevent interpretation, especially the one taking place on social media, the Press Office would like to clarify the following: Former Prime Minister Hariri was informed by the security services of an explosion that occurred in the area on the same day. But since the convoy was not subjected to any attack, and in order to prevent any exploitation in light of the prevailing tension, his decision was to remain quiet about the matter and await the results of the investigation of the concerned security services.” [Hariri Press Office]

Taymour Jumblatt: With the current government's policy, it is only natural to be excluded from Arab support
NNA/Sunday 28 June 2020
"Democratic Gathering" Head, MP Taymor Jumblatt, expressed his belief that "in the history of Lebanon, we have not witnessed similar events to what we are living in the current stage,” adding that “in light of the policy that the government is implementing today, it is only natural that we expect to be excluded from Arab support.""We must pay attention to what is happening, and we as a Party are preparing ourselves for a year ahead…Yet, we do not know what might happen if the status quo persists and the country’s policy remains unchanged…But we will work for tranquility as much as possible, and we will communicate with everyone. The Party accords special attention to the educational sector, especially that the private education sector is expected to witness a drastic student displacement movement towards the public sector, in light of the current economic conditions,” Jumblatt said. Over the Baabda Palace meeting, the MP believed that "it would have been better if everyone participated in the dialogue table in Baabda, where we presented an important document, if only it would be taken into consideration!”He stressed herein that "dialogue will remain the only option to confront crises.”Jumblatt’s words came during a meeting held today at the National Library in Baakline with the Crisis Cell at the Chouf Interior Branch in the “Progressive Socialist Party”, attended by members of the “Democratic Gathering” Bloc, MPs Bilal Abdallah and Marwan Hamadeh, alongside dignitaries from the region.

Merehbi: To rely on local production to face the livelihood siege
NNA/Sunday 28 June 2020
Member of the Future Parliamentary Bloc, MP Tarek al-Merehbi, called Sunday for relying on local production to confront the siege on the people’s daily living. Speaking before popular delegations from the regions of Mount Akroum, the Akkar Plain and the Qaytaa coast, Merehbi said that "the pressing daily living conditions have rendered us all before a tragic reality, in the absence of any support from any international or Arab side."The MP called for "steadfastness, resilience and reliance on local production, despite all its challenges.” Merehbi also highlighted the need to “adhere to coexistence and to prevent sedition from penetrating into the regions of Akkar, which have proven throughout history that they are resistant to conspiracy. The MP also met with a delegation of students’ families, who came to raise their concerns with regards to money transfers to their dependents abroad.
In this context, Merehbi demanded to expedite the solution to this humanitarian issue especially that students residing abroad are suffering critical conditions due to lack of sufficient funds.

Karami from Bqaa Safrine: Government must make up its mind, in wake of IMF head’s mourning of aid project
NNA/Sunday 28 June 2020
Head of the “Dignity Movement”, MP Faisal Karami, called Sunday on the government to be decisive in resolving its issues, especially after the head of the International Monetary Fund has mourned the aid project to the country. “I say to the government that it has no choice but to find a solution, because the impact of the economic situation has created large security gaps in Lebanon, especially in Tripoli, and we have no choice but to find a solution,” he said. Speaking before popular delegations and municipality heads from Dinnieh, Minnieh, and Tripoli who visited him at his Bqaa Safrine residence today, Karami touched on the general conditions in the country and listened to their developmental demands. The MP considered that the same concerns are shared by all citizens, namely the economic, developmental, monetary and security conditions prevailing in the country. Over the recent issue regarding the judicial ruling over the US Ambassador’s statements, Karami stressed that “the freedom of the media must be preserved, and we are waiting to build upon the position of the Foreign Minister tomorrow.”

‘What a mess!’ tweets Jumblatt
NNA/Sunday 28 June 2020
“What a mess in the Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, Finance and Administration…The Judiciary appears, in wake of the faltering judicial formations, to be following in Al-Mahdawi’s footsteps as a prelude to a totalitarian regime. In the Foreign Ministry, the Minister reminds us of Walid al-Moallem. In Finance, an influential director has tampered with the numbers to thwart the dialogue with the international bodies. In Administration, spooks of hateful advisors!” tweeted Progressing Socialist Party Chief, Walid Jumblatt, on Sunday.

Indian Embassy in Lebanon facilitates return of Indians stranded in Lebanon
NNA/Sunday 28 June 2020
The Indian Embassy in Lebanon facilitated the return of Indians stranded in Lebanon including Indian workers. In all, 172 Indians returned to India on June 27 on a Special Flight operated by Spice Jet, an Indian carrier, on Beirut-Delhi–Madurai Sector, a statement by the Indian Embassy in Lebanon said on Sunday. “The Indian Embassy wishes to profusely thank all the concerned authorities in Lebanon, including Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Ministry of Labor, General Security and Director General of Civil Aviation for facilitating this Special Flight,” the embassy’s statement added.

Mortada: It is difficult to achieve food security at this stage
NNA/Sunday 28 June 2020
Minister of Agriculture and Culture, Abbas Mortada, on Sunday, said that achieving food security is difficult at this stage. The Minister, who patronized a ceremony organized by the Lebanese Association for Studies and Training in Baalbek, featuring the graduation of 100 students from the agricultural school, said that the government is trying to find solutions to the crisis problem and provide assistance to the Lebanese. Referring to the Agriculture Ministry's strategic plans, Mortada promised to exert more efforts in the government to support the agricultural sector.

Was There an Attempt to Assassinate Hariri in the Bekaa?
Naharnet/June 28/2020
A blast went off 500 meters away from ex-PM Saad Hariri’s convoy during his visit more than a week ago to the Bekaa region, Saudi-owned Al-Hadath TV reported on Sunday. Quoting “sources in Lebanon,” Al-Hadath said the explosion rocked a mountainous area within the convoy’s route as Hariri was returning to Beirut, noting that the blast was caused by a rocket. “Hariri’s convoy continued its journey to Beirut after the rocket blast, as security agencies went on alert and combed the area, where they found the remains of a rocket,” the TV network added. The security agencies opted to “keep the information under wraps,” Al-Hadath said. “Security agencies are seeking to determine whether the rocket was fired by a drone or from a land base, in addition to the rocket’s type and caliber,” it added. Commenting on the report, Hariri's press office said the broadcast information is "generally correct.""Ex-PM Hariri was told by the relevant security agencies that a blast had occurred in the area on the same day, but seeing as the convoy did not come under any attack, and to prevent exploitation amid the current tensions, his decision was to keep the matter confidential and await the outcome of the investigations," the office added. Unnamed sources meanwhile confirmed to LBCI TV that a security incident had occurred during the passage of Hariri’s convoy in the Western Bekaa region. “Preliminary information had suggested that the blast resulted from the explosion of the fuel tank of a drone that was flying near the convoy,” the sources said. “Investigations have been ongoing for the past 10 days and decisive results might be announced tomorrow on whether it was a drone’s fuel tank or a rocket and whether the convoy was being targeted,” the sources added. Voice of Lebanon radio (100.3) meanwhile said the rocket’s remains were found by the Intelligence Branch of the Internal Security Forces, adding that “it was likely fired from a nearby rocket launchpad.”Al-Jadeed TV meanwhile said that the aforementioned Branch “has not received any information about a security incident in the Bekaa involving ex-PM Saad Hariri’s convoy.”

Lebanese Minister says President Michel Aoun protected him after he killed two men
Tommy Hilton, Al Arabiya English/Sunday 28 June 2020
Lebanese President Michel Aoun protected the now Minister of Interior Mohamed Fahmi after he killed two men during the Lebanese Civil War, the minister said in a TV interview shared online this week.
The footage raises further questions over the ties between the supposedly technocratic government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab, brought to power after months of anti-government protests that called for a change of system, and the pre-existing political elite dominated by figures including Aoun.
Fahmi told an anecdote of how Aoun stood up for him in 1981, which was during Lebanon’s Civil War (1975-1990), when describing the “spiritual relationship” between the two men.
“I killed two people, and there was a clash with this party. And even though the party was really strong. [Aoun] called for me to come to his office,” recounted Fahmi in a television interview shared by Maha Yahya, the director of the Carnegie Middle East thinktank.
“[Aoun] said, ‘listen Mohammed, as long as I am breathing no one will even poke you with a fork.’ This is Michel Aoun,” he explained. In 1981, Aoun was a brigadier-general in charge of the eight battalion of the Lebanese army. He later rose to lead the entire army in 1984, before fleeing the current after losing his “war of liberation” against the Syrian army at the end of the war (1989-1990). He eventually returned to Lebanon in 2005, after Syrian troops withdrew from the country, entering politics with the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) led by his son-in-law Gebran Bassil. Aoun became president of Lebanon in 2016, ten years after the FPM signed a memorandum of understanding with Hezbollah that formed the bedrock of the “March 8” political movement. While the protests led to a new government under Diab in January, the government has been accused of being a front for the old political elite, especially Hezbollah and the FPM. Fahmi, as interior ministry, was reportedly one of Hezbollah’s candidates. “There are rumors circulating that the security adviser of Bashar al Assad asked Hezbollah to push for his name as interior minister,” said Nadim El Kak, a researcher at the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, at the time of his appointment in January. Fahmi has also been criticized for his previous role as a security and safety adviser to the board of directors of Blom Bank, at a time when Lebanese banks have come under fire for failing to allow people to access their deposits.

Accusing Ali al-Amin of treason reflects a double failure in Lebanon
Farouk Yousef/The Arab Weekly/June 28/2020
To slap a national figure like Mr. Ali al-Amin with a host of ridiculous accusations, foremost of which is the accusation of meeting with Israeli officials, is an extremely absurd move that the Lebanese judiciary should have been wiser to avoid. These malicious allegations are more akin to cheap sensational rumours meant to confuse public opinion than to serious accusations based on evidence.
Mr. al-Amin is the type of person who is not afraid of hiding his opinions and has never professed to be dead-set on these opinions. Everything he said was an example of tolerance, a call for fraternity and equality, and a rejection of sectarianism. And it is exactly these principles that frame his rejection of Hezbollah’s mini-state and its dominance over Lebanese affairs and state, as he is a staunch supporter of the overriding notion of Lebanese citizenship.
On every occasion that presented itself, Ali al-Amin never failed to voice his anti-Hezbollah stance. In 2008, he condemned Hezbollah’s invasion of Beirut, and that had cost him to be branded forever as enemy of the party by Hezbollah, while in reality, the man’s opinion was never motivated by a visceral rejection of the party and a desire to antagonise it gratuitously.
Al-Amin may have been previously subjected to intimidations. In fact, intimidation is what can be expected of a strict ideological organisation such as Hezbollah, which has already been suspected of being involved in the assassination of political and media figures who were not in agreement with it, such as former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, journalist and member of parliament Gibran Tueni, and writer Samir al-Qasir.
From what we know of his political past, Mr. al-Amin has always been opposed to a sectarian Lebanon. In his view, sectarianism is the antithesis of social justice because it is based on the distinction between one citizen and another. As a Shia cleric, he does not take into account many of the Shia narratives, the adoption of which leads to discord among the components of the same society.
He was often referred to as an “enlightened cleric”, but that’s a naïve classification that does not do justice to a multifaceted figure with a wide range of knowledge such as Mr. Ali al-Amin. He has never compromised on his Lebanese identity which has always been at the base of his political thinking, and turned to religious jurisprudence only in terms of integrity, chastity, and fair judgement.
That is why Ali al-Amin has never been interested in glorifying himself or in playing the hero as he expounded his thoughts on the so-called resistance or on Hezbollah and the danger of uncontrolled weapons, or on the necessity for the Lebanese entity to regain its unity on a political basis, away from the rivalries between parties and their narrow interests and their mafias that have dragged Lebanon into a quagmire of corruption.
Al-Amin never sought notoriety because he was never interested in power and authority
His reputation as a moderate Shia cleric has protected him from being targeted for assassination, since theman does not represent a direct threat to Hezbollah’s interests at the political level. This is why his opponents limited themselves to sending him threatening letters which were not enough to silence him. So now they are resorting to brandishing the accusation of treason to at least discredit him, but everyone knows that these claims can only be false ones.
Mr. al-Amin has attended a conference on interfaith dialogue in Bahrain which was also attended by Jewish scholars and figures. For a person, such as al-Amin, who is open to others, attending a conference of this kind is an occasion to listen to the other and reason with him or her until he or she sees the need to abandon his or her fanaticism.
Engaging in activities of this sort can hardly constitute a base for a charge of treason.
A closer look at the other charges against Mr. al-Amine reveals the true reasons behind the plot against him. He is accused of “constantly attacking the resistance and its martyrs, inciting the sects against each other, sowing intrigues and controversies, and violating the legal rules of the Jaafari school of thought.” Obviously, such charges represent Hezbollah’s point of view only, since this party has monopolized the legal representation of Lebanon’s Shias.
Mr. al-Amine’s problem, therefore, is with Hezbollah and only Hezbollah. However, the Lebanese judiciary played an unworthy role when it tried to cover up this problem with the charge of meeting with Jewish clerics, which was expressed by the logic of the allegation of meeting with Israeli officials in Bahrain, an unfortunate and ill-intended play on words.
As to Mr. Ali al-Amin, he began expecting the worst ever since he decided to tell the truth. However, the incident reveals a double failure: the failure of the mini state when it though it could use the larger state in the service of its minor problems, and the failure of the real state to give any importance or dignity to its institutions by reducing their role to serving the narrow interests of the mini state.
*Farouk Yousef is an Iraqi writer. His article was translated and adapted from the Arabic. It was initially published by the London-based Al Arab newspaper.

US ambassador appears on Lebanese TV, denounces court media ban
Timour Azhari/Al Jazeera/June 28/2020
Court ruling to ban media from covering remarks by US ambassador comes amid widening crackdown on critics of Hezbollah.
Beirut, Lebanon - A number of Lebanese media outlets broadcast interviews with US Ambassador Dorothy Shea on Sunday, ignoring a ruling by a judge which banned local and foreign media from featuring her statements after she criticised Iran-backed Hezbollah in an interview last week.
Urgent Matters Judge Mohammad Mazeh - who is based in the southern city of Tyre, a stronghold of Hezbollah and its main ally the Amal Movement - said on Saturday that media channels who violate the decision could be closed down for a year and fined $200,000.
He said Shea had interfered in Lebanese internal affairs and violated the Vienna Convention that gives special privileges and immunity to diplomats. Her words "offended many Lebanese", pitted them against each other and "constitutes pouring oil on the fire of [sectarian] strife", he said.
In an interview on Saudi-owned al Hadath TV last week, Shea said: "Hezbollah is destabilising the country and jeopardizing Lebanon's economic recovery."
She also said a recent speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was "riddled with classic deflections - blaming everything on the United States when we're Lebanon's biggest donor". Nasrallah on June 16 alleged that a US conspiracy to prevent dollars from reaching Lebanon was behind a dollar shortage that has led the national currency to rapidly depreciate.
He said the US was attempting to starve Lebanon but said Hezbollah would not let that happen and "we will kill them".
Hezbollah's growing influence in Lebanon and the region as a powerful group has strained Lebanon's ties with historical allies in the West and especially among Arab Gulf nations who used to supply the lions share of tourists to the country and gave it billions in aid. Lebanon's deep economic and financial crisis has its roots in decades of mismanagement and corruption, while a lack of political will to reform has stalled relations with donor nations. But uneasiness and anger over Hezbollah's outsized role are of growing concern. Germany last month became the latest Western nation to designate Hezbollah a "terrorist" group, after the United Kingdom did so earlier this year, taking the lead from the US which has ramped up sanctions on those who aid and abet Hezbollah since US President Donald Trump took office.
'Attempt to silence'
A number of Lebanese media channels ignored Mazeh's ruling and broadcast interviews with Shea on Sunday in which she doubled-down on criticism of Hezbollah. "The attempt to silence Lebanese media in a country that is really known for having free media is really pathetic, it doesn't belong in Lebanon. That kind of action belongs in a country like Iran," she said in an interview with MTV news channel.
Contacted by Al Jazeera, Mazeh said the ruling would not go into effect until Tuesday and it would be up to private citizens to file complaints of violations. "I've done my part, it's not my job to go after every violation of this ruling," he said.
He also said he could reverse the decision if Shea promises not to make statements that "pit Lebanese against each other".
Mazeh denied the ruling was a result of pressure from Hezbollah. "I swear to god that no one from Hezbollah called me about this issue at all, and in the case, someone called I would not do anything unless I myself was convinced of such a decision."
Backlash
Mazeh's decision has faced backlash from opposition parties and even the information minister of Prime Minister Hassan Diab's Hezbollah-backed government, Manale Abdelsamad, who said it infringed on media freedom and was "unacceptable".
But Abdelsamad on Saturday said she was not speaking on behalf of the government and that no officials had apologised to Shea because the government respects the judiciary. "Unfortunately I think the minister of information doesn't have all the information," Shea responded in the MTV interview on Sunday. "A very high-ranking and well-placed official in the Lebanese government ... expressed apologies and conveyed that this ruling did not have proper standing and that the government would take the necessary steps to reverse it."
Crackdown on Hezbollah critics
The ban on coverage of Shea is the most prominent episode in a string of recent cases against those critical of the government and the president, both backed by Hezbollah, and Hezbollah itself.
"Saying that there is a troubling trend would be too little. I would say freedom of expression is in a critical, dangerous situation and even at vital risk in Lebanon," Ayman Mhanna, the executive director of the Samir Kassir Foundation, a media freedom watchdog, told Al Jazeera.
"The problem is the politicization of justice, the fact that judges either follow direct orders or the political whims of parties by trying to please the political players who were responsible for naming, appointing or promoting judges," he said.
"Now that Hezbollah is the most powerful player they rule in favour of Hezbollah," he said. On June 22, Lebanon's Military Court charged online activist Kinda el-Khatib with collaborating with Israel and allegedly visiting occupied territories, both of which are crimes in Lebanon, a country that is still technically at war with Israel.  El-Khatib is a harsh critic of Hezbollah, and her family maintains her innocence on all charges.
The next day, state media reported a judge had filed charges against anti-Hezbollah preacher Sayyed Ali al-Amin for allegedly meeting Israeli officials in Bahrain.
Following a widespread backlash, state media issued a correction and said the charges were related to civil peace in the country, rather than collaborating with Israel. And General Security on June 25 interrogated former Hezbollah fighter-turned anti-Hezbollah activist Rabih Tlais for reasons that remain unknown to him. "There was the atmosphere of fabricating a file against me on charges of collaborating [with Israel]," he told Al Jazeera. Tlais said he had decided to stop writing for A New Lebanon, a news website run by an anti-Hezbollah preacher Abbas al-Jawhari, due to fears "they are trying to get to Jawhari through me, which I won't let happen".Jawhari ran against Hezbollah in the parliamentary elections in 2018 and was himself arrested in the lead-up to the elections on drug charges he has said were fabricated.
"It's very regrettable," Tlais said. "Welcome to the Republic of Iran."

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 28-29/2020
Nine Iran-backed fighters killed in another raid in Syria: Monitor
AFP, Beirut/Sunday 28 June 2020
Air strikes targeting positions of Iran-backed militias in eastern Syria killed nine fighters on Sunday in the second such raid in 24 hours, a war monitor said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel was “likely responsible” for the strikes near the Iraqi border.
They came hours after a similar raid killed six other Tehran-backed fighters, raising the total toll to 15 killed in 24 hours, according to the monitor. The fighters killed in the early Sunday raids were mostly Iraqi nationals, according to Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman. There was no official comment from Israel. Israel has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011. It has targeted government troops, allied Iranian forces and fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah. It rarely confirms details of its operations in Syria but says Iran’s presence in support of President Bashar al-Assad is a threat and that it will continue its strikes. The uptick in attacks has prompted concern among Iran-backed forces in east Syria that Israeli agents may be among their ranks, the monitor said. These forces have arrested four people on suspicion of providing intelligence to Israel, the war monitor reported on Sunday, shortly before the latest raids. The war in Syria has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced more than half of the country’s pre-war population since 2011.

2 Dead After Shooting at California Walmart Distribution Center
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 June, 2020
A shooting at a Walmart distribution center in US's Red Bluff, California, left at least two people dead and several injured late on Saturday, officials said. The incident started around 3:30 pm Pacific Time, according to the office of the local sheriff. The shooter killed an employee before police officers shot and killed the attacker, Reuters reported. Tehama County’s assistant sheriff said the attacker circled the center’s parking lot four times before crashing his vehicle into the building and opening fire with a semi-automatic rifle. The authorities identified the employee as Martin Haro-Lozano, 45, of Orland, California. “We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident”, Walmart said in a statement. “This is an active police investigation and we will continue to work with Tehama County Sheriff’s Office and assist in their investigation in any way possible”, it added.

Scottish Police Name Sudanese Man Shot Dead During Knife Attack
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 June, 2020
Police in Scotland named a man who was shot dead by officers during a knife attack in the city of Glasgow as Badreddin Abadlla Adam, 28, from Sudan. Six people, including a policeman, were stabbed at a hotel in the city center on Friday before the attacker was shot dead. Police said they were not looking for any other suspects and were not treating the incident as terrorism. The attacker was the only person killed. Earlier on Saturday, the injured police officer, Constable David Whyte, issued a statement from hospital. “The incident myself and colleagues faced in West George Street was extremely challenging. The scene we were confronted with is something I will never forget,” he said. “Despite suffering serious injuries myself, I know that the swift actions of colleagues saved lives and prevented a far more serious incident.”Whyte’s condition was initially described as critical. On Saturday police said he was in a stable condition. The hotel where the attack took place was being used to house asylum seekers during the coronavirus pandemic. Police cautioned against speculating about the attacker’s motives. Three of the other people who were injured were asylum seekers, and two were hotel staff. All five remained in hospital, and one was in a critical but stable condition. Several British media outlets reported that the attacker had been behaving erratically and displaying signs of mental health problems in the hours leading up to the incident. Police did not confirm those details.

US Envoy Calls for Iran Arms Embargo Renewal

Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 June, 2020
An expiring United Nations weapons embargo on Iran must remain in place to prevent it from “becoming the arms dealer of choice for rogue regimes and terrorist organizations around the world,” the US special representative to Iran said Sunday.
Brian Hook told The Associated Press that the world should ignore Iran's threats to retaliate if the arms embargo set to expire in October is extended, calling it a “mafia tactic.” Among its options, Iran could expel international inspectors monitoring Iran's nuclear program, deepening a crisis created by President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrawing from Tehran's 2015 atomic accord with global powers. The UN arms embargo so far has stopped Iran from purchasing fighter jets, tanks, warships and other weaponry, but has failed to halt its smuggling of weapons into war zones. Despite that, Hook argued both an import and export ban on Tehran must remain in place to secure the wider Middle East. "If we let it expire, you can be certain that what Iran has been doing in the dark, it will do in broad daylight and then some,” Hook said.
Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to an AP request for comment on Hook's remarks. The United Nations banned Iran from buying major foreign weapon systems in 2010 amid tensions over its nuclear program. That blocked Iran from replacing its aging equipment, much of which had been purchased by the shah before the 1979 revolution. An earlier embargo targeted Iranian arms exports. If the embargo is lifted, the US Defense Intelligence Agency predicted in 2019 that Iran likely would try to purchase Russian Su-30 fighter jets, Yak-130 trainer aircraft and T-90 tanks. Tehran also may try to buy Russia's S-400 anti-aircraft missile system and its Bastian coastal defense missile system, the DIA said. Hook declined to discuss an explosion Friday in Iran near an area analysts believe hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites.
Being able to pay for new, foreign weapons systems, however, remains in question. US sanctions imposed after Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal have crushed Iran's oil sales, a major source of revenue. Energy prices have also collapsed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Asked about how Iran would pay for the new weapons, Hook said Tehran's lowered revenues represented “a good thing for the region” and affected its ability to back its regional proxies, like Syria. “We have put this regime through our strategy on the horns of a dilemma,” Hook said. “They have to choose between guns in Damascus or butter in Tehran.”That financial pressure has led to sporadic anti-government protests in Iran, including nationwide demonstrations in November that Amnesty International says saw over 300 people killed. While the Trump administration has maintained it doesn't seek to overthrow Iran's government, its pressure campaign has exacerbated public anger against its Shiite theocracy. Since Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran has broken all the accord's production limits. The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iranian nuclear activity as part of the deal, says Tehran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium continues to grow. While not at weapons-grade levels, the growing stockpile and increased production shortens the one-year timeline analysts believe Iran would need to have enough material for a nuclear weapon if it chose to pursue one. Iran long has denied seeking atomic bombs, though the IAEA previously said Iran had done work in “support of a possible military dimension to its nuclear program” that largely halted in late 2003. Iran has threatened to expel IAEA inspectors and withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty amid the US pressure campaign. North Korea, which now has nuclear weapons, is the only country to ever withdraw from the treaty. “If we play by Iran's rules, Iran wins,” Hook said. "It is a mafia tactic where people are intimidated into accepting a certain kind of behavior for fear of something far worse.”Hook maintained that the UN's ban on Iran exporting weapons abroad also needed to remain in place, even though it has not prevented Tehran from smuggling arms. Iranian arms in particular have turned up in Yemen, where Tehran backs the Houthi militias. “I don’t think anyone believes that Iran’s behavior merits loosening restrictions on their ability to move weapons,” Hook said.

Rouhani: Iran Under Toughest Year Due to US Sanctions, COVID-19
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 28 June, 2020
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that his country is experiencing its toughest year because of US sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic. "It's been the most difficult year due to the enemy's economic pressure and the pandemic," Rouhani said in a televised speech. "The economic pressure that began in 2018 has increased ... and today it is the toughest pressure on our dear country." The new coronavirus outbreak has exacerbated economic problems that worsened after .S President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018 from Tehran's nuclear deal with major powers and reimposed sanctions, Reuters. reported. Iran has seen a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections and deaths since restrictions to stem the spread of the pandemic were gradually lifted from mid-April. The death toll has recently topped 100 a day for the first time in two months. More than 220,000 cases have been confirmed, and over 10,000 deaths. Rouhani said wearing of masks will become mandatory for two weeks starting next Sunday in "gathering places" that are deemed "red spots".

Iraq is on the path to regain its stolen sovereignty
The National Editorial/June 28/2020
The arrest of 14 Kataib Hezbollah members sends a strong message to Iranian proxies that their actions will no longer be tolerated
In recent weeks, attacks on Iraqi sovereignty have intensified. Turkey has conducted airstrikes on Iraq’s Kurdish region, allegedly against Kurdistan Workers’ Party targets, but they have also claimed civilian lives. Turkish incursions are only the latest addition to a long list of encroachments by Iraq’s neighbours, chief among them Iran. Tehran has a plethora of loyalist militias operating in the country, some under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilisation Forces. At the weekend, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi sent a strong message to these groups, signalling that they will no longer be allowed to ignore the rule of law. On Thursday, Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Services raided the base of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah, a PMF militia that is also Iran’s powerful ally in Iraq. Fourteen of its members were arrested and rocket launchers were seized, while an investigation is now under way. These arrests are another step in the right direction for Iraq to win its sovereignty back and reassert the authority of the state. The PMF has fought against ISIS in the past, but its victories have been tainted by sectarian killings and the pro-Iranian stance of most of its militias.
The groups within the PMF have officially been integrated into the Iraqi Army, but in name only. They have their own commanders, to whom they are loyal. This failed integration has fostered the rise of a state within the Iraqi state, threatening peace and stability in the country. In addition to terrorising civilians, some PMF factions have allegedly killed hundreds of peaceful protesters since October last year. Mr Al Kadhimi has opened an investigation into those killings. These dangerous groups have also attacked US assets in Iraq, turning their own country into a battleground where differences between the US and Iran are settled. Last December, Kataib Hezbollah attacked an Iraqi base housing US troops, killing a US contractor and wounding both Iraqi and American soldiers. In the past two weeks alone, pro-Iranian militias have launched six rocket attacks against the US embassy, along with attacks close to Baghdad International Airport.Today, however, these militias are weakened by increased US sanctions on Iran, which have slashed Tehran’s ability to fund its proxies. In January, the US killing of Qassem Suleimani, the leader of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Al Quds Force in charge of co-ordinating these proxies, and Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, the leader of both the PMF and Kataib Hezbollah at the time, also dealt a blow to Iran-aligned militias in the country. Militias have competed with the authority of the state for much too long Afterwards divisions began to emerge between these groups, which were increasingly embroiled in an internecine struggle for power. Since Thursday's arrests, Kataib Hezbollah has sent out convoys to roam the streets of Baghdad and their members have openly threatened Mr Al Kadhimi. No one should be above the rule of law, and the Iraqi state has a duty to protect this principle.
Mr Al Kadhimi had made sovereignty a priority on his agenda. This also includes tackling those who undermine Iraq from within its borders. Militias have competed with the authority of the state for much too long, and their presence has expanded Iran's grip on the nation. It is high time that they are held accountable for their actions.

Algerian President Dismisses Minister for Refusing to Renounce French Citizenship

Algiers - Boualem Goumrassa
A heated debate erupted in Algeria over the appointment of an official, who holds dual citizenship, as the new minister of the diaspora in the recently reshuffled government. According to the constitution and the law identifying the criteria for assuming senior responsibilities, any Algerian national holding a second nationality cannot assume high public responsibilities. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune revoked Samir Chaabna’s appointment on Saturday after he refused to renounce his French nationality. “The presidency of the republic has canceled the appointment Chaabna as delegate minister in charge of the Algerian community abroad, and he therefore, is no longer in the current government formation,” the premiership announced in a statement. Political sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the lawmaker contacted the presidency on Friday and requested that his appointment be scrapped.
Sources explained that his decision came in light of the presidency’s request to renounce his French citizenship to avoid any punitive measures. A source from the Front El Moustakbel (Future Front) party, which nominated Chaabna in the 2017 parliamentary elections, said the minister “has stated in his correspondence that Algerian authorities knew he had been in France for 30 years.”He quoted Chaabna as saying that the Interior Ministry knew he holds the French citizenship when he ran for the legislative elections. The constitutional amendment bill, which has been under discussion for nearly two months now, proposes cancelling the law that bars figures holding dual citizenships from assuming senior positions in public institutions.

Israel Orders Evangelical GOD TV Off Air
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 28/2020
Israel's media watchdog said Sunday that it had withdrawn the broadcast licence from U.S.-based evangelical network GOD TV, accusing it of seeking to target Jews with Christian content. International Christian network's GOD TV launched its Shelanu (Hebrew for "ours") channel at the end of April on Israeli cable provider Hot, describing it as catering to Christians. But the channel provoked an immediate outcry in Israel, with then-communications minister David Amsalem accusing it of being a "missionary channel" seeking to convert Jews to Christianity.
The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council launched an investigation to determine if GOD TV had misrepresented its content when it applied for a licence.  Council chairman Asher Bitton said on Sunday that following the probe and a hearing, he had informed Hot that Shelanu broadcasts must be removed within seven days. "The channel is aimed at Jews with Christian content, in contrast to the original broadcast request, which stated it was designated for Christians," Bitton said in a council statement. It said that a Christian channel for Jews would not be automatically disqualified in the future, but that it would have to seek council approval, which Shelanu had not done. Hot could file a new request for Shelanu that would include "a truthful and detailed" characterization of the channel, the statement added. A spokeswoman for Hot said that the company was "cooperating with the council and will act in accordance with its decisions on the matter."In one promotional clip for Shelanu, GOD TV director Ward Simpson tells viewers, "we're going to preach the Jewish Jesus to the nation of Israel... they're going to hear the gospel presented to them in their native tongue." In a separate online video response to the criticism, he acknowledged that "proselytizing in Israel is a very touchy subject" but went on to say that preaching about Jesus was a mission. GOD TV broadcasts religious content in around 200 countries and claims to have several hundred million viewers. Israel enjoys vigorous support from evangelical movements in the United States but keeps a lid on missionary work in the Holy Land. While Israeli law only expressly forbids the giving of money or gifts to encourage conversions to another religion, missionary activities in general are closely monitored by the authorities and are offensive to many Israelis. According to Israeli government data, around two percent of the population is Christian, mainly Arabs.

Half a Million in Lockdown as Beijing Fights New Virus Cluster
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/June 28/2020
China imposed a strict lockdown on nearly half a million people near the capital to contain a fresh coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, as authorities warned it was soon to "relax" over the new cluster of cases. After China largely brought the virus under control, hundreds have been infected in Beijing and cases have emerged in neighboring Hebei province. Health officials said Sunday that Anxin county -- about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Beijing -- will be "fully enclosed and controlled," the same strict measures imposed at the height of the pandemic in the city of Wuhan earlier this year. Now, only one person from each family will be allowed to go out once a day to purchase necessities such as food and medicine, the county’s epidemic prevention task force said in a statement. Earlier the county had been subject to some travel restrictions, but now individuals are only allowed to leave their homes to seek medical treatment, the notice said. The move comes after another 14 cases of the virus were reported in the past 24 hours in Beijing, taking the total to 311 since mid-June. The outbreak was first detected in Beijing's sprawling Xinfadi wholesale food market, which supplies much of the city's fresh produce and sparked concerns over the safety of the food supply chain. Businesses in Anxin county had supplied freshwater fish to the market, state news agency Xinhua reported. Some 12 cases of the novel coronavirus were found in the area, including 11 linked to Xinfadi market, the state-run Global Times reported. The new cases in Beijing have prompted fears of a resurgence of the virus in China. The capital has mass-tested wholesale market workers, restaurant workers, residents of medium and high-risk neighborhoods and delivery couriers over the past week. Testing has now expanded to include all employees of the city's beauty parlors and hair salons, the Global Times said. Beijing city official Xu Hejian told reporters Saturday: "There is no room for us to relax." City officials have urged people not to leave the city, closed schools again and locked down dozens of residential compounds to stamp out the virus. But Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiology expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters last week the new outbreak had been "brought under control", and officials lifted a weeks-long lockdown imposed on seven communities in Beijing on Friday.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 28-29/2020
“32,000 Christians Butchered to Death”: The Persecution of Christians, May 2020
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/June 28/2020
ريموند إبراهيم: تقرير بجردة اضطهاد المسيحيين خلال شهر أيار/2020/ذبح 32 ألف مسيحي حتى الموت
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/87726/raymond-ibrahim-gatestone-institute-32000-christians-butchered-to-death-the-persecution-of-christians-may-2020/
“The atrocities against Christians have gone unchecked and risen to alarming apogee with the country’s security forces and concerned political actors looking the other way or colluding with the Jihadists.” — The Nigerian Voice, May 14, 2020
Earlier this year, Christian Solidarity International issued a “Genocide Warning for Christians in Nigeria.”
“This [using a church as a personal toilet] is only the latest incident … [I]t has become extremely common for Greek Orthodox Churches to be vandalised and attacked by illegal immigrants on Lesvos…. As a deeply religious society, these attacks on churches are shocking to the Greek people and calls to question whether these illegal immigrants seeking a new life in Europe are willing to integrate and conform to the norms and values of their new countries.” — Greek City Times, May 16, 2020.
On May 8, 2020, a man tried to torch the Surp Asdvadzadzin Armenian Church in Istanbul, which in previous years was repeatedly attacked with hate-filled graffiti, among other desecrations. (Image Enclosed)
The following are among the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of May 2020:
The Slaughter of Christians
Nigeria: From January 2020 to mid-May 2020, Muslim terrorists massacred at least 620 Christians (470 by Fulani herdsmen and 150 by Boko Haram). According to a May 14 report:
“Militant Fulani Herdsmen and Boko Haram … have intensified their anti-Christian violence … with hacking to death in the past four months and half of 2020 of no fewer than 620 defenseless Christians, and wanton burning or destruction of their centers of worship and learning. The atrocities against Christians have gone unchecked and risen to alarming apogee with the country’s security forces and concerned political actors looking the other way or colluding with the Jihadists. Houses burnt or destroyed during the period are in their hundreds; likewise dozens of Christian worship and learning centers.”
The report further states that, since 2009, “not less than 32,000 Christians have been butchered to death by the country’s main Jihadists.”
Earlier this year, Christian Solidarity International issued a “Genocide Warning for Christians in Nigeria,” in response to the “rising tide of violence directed against Nigerian Christians and others classified as ‘infidels’ by Islamist militants…” More recently, in a May statement, the Christian Rights Agenda, another human rights group, expressed concern for “the seeming silence of Nigeria’s President, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces has not only failed to protect the Christian communities but has remained silent over these killings. To date, no Fulani herdsmen have been arrested and prosecuted over the killings, a development that has helped to embolden them.” It is worth noting that Buhari himself is a Fulani Muslim.
Separately, the Muslim man who murdered Michael Nnadi, an 18-year-old seminarian at the Good Shepherd Seminary, confessed from his jail cell that he did so because the youth “continued preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ” to his captors. According to the May 3 report, “the first day Nnadi was kidnapped … he did not allow [Mustapha Mohammed, his murderer] to have peace” due to his relentless preaching of the Gospel. Mohammed “did not like the confidence displayed by the young man and decided to send him to an early grave.”
Democratic Republic of Congo: Muslim fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces, which earlier pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS), murdered at least 17 people, possibly many more, in the Christian-majority (95%) African nation. “They fired several shots in the air,” a local said. “When the population was fleeing, they captured some people and cut them up with machetes.” In late 2019, the same group murdered a pastor after he refused to stop preaching and convert to Islam.
Attacks on Christian Churches, Cemeteries, and Crosses
Greece: Muslim migrants ransacked and transformed a church into their personal toilet. This public restroom was once the St. Catherine Church in Moria, a small town on the island of Lesvos, which has been flooded with migrants who arrived via from Turkey. “The smell inside is unbearable,” said a local. “[T]he metropolitan of Mytilene is aware of the situation in the area, nevertheless, he does not wish to deal with it for his own reasons.” According to the report:
“This is only the latest incident … [I]t has become extremely common for Greek Orthodox Churches to be vandalised and attacked by illegal immigrants on Lesvos….
“As a deeply religious society, these attacks on churches are shocking to the Greek people and calls to question whether these illegal immigrants seeking a new life in Europe are willing to integrate and conform to the norms and values of their new countries.
“These continued attacks have ultimately seen the people of Lesvos, who were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016, become increasingly frustrated by the unresolved situation that has restricted and changed their lives as they no longer feel safe on their once near crime-free island.”
Other incidents on Lesvos include “African immigrants ridiculing and coughing on police in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and thousands of olives trees being destroyed.”
Turkey: On May 8, a man tried to torch a church in Istanbul; the church had been attacked in the previous years, sometimes with hate-filled graffiti. When police detained the arsonist, he said “I burned it because they [Christians] brought the coronavirus [onto Turkey].” Discussing this incident, another report said that “Minorities in Turkey, such as Armenians, Rums and Syriacs [all Christians], as well as their places of worship, are occasionally targeted in hate attacks.”
Two weeks later, on May 22, in broad daylight, a man climbed the fence of a historic Armenian church in Istanbul and proceeded to yank off its metal cross and hurl it to the ground, as captured on surveillance footage. The man, who looks more like a Westernized “hipster” than an ardent Islamist, walks up to and stares at the cross for a while — he even looks at and strikes a pose for the security camera — before attacking the crucifix.
Pakistan: After Friday prayers on May 8, an armed Muslim mob shouting “anti-Christian slogans” attacked and tried to set fire to the Trinity Pentecostal Church in Hakeem Pura. Built 22 years ago, the church was desecrated, and a large cross and part of a wall broken. The Muslim man behind the attack had sold land to the growing church a year earlier, and now wanted it back. A Christian eyewitness said that the mob, “after attacking the walls and the cross, challenging anyone who dare oppose them, fled… Not only was the cross broken, but our hearts were crushed too.”
Separately, Muslim “land grabbers” seized, desecrated, and ploughed over the graves of a century-old Christian cemetery with a tractor. According to the May 22 report:
“The Christian community there reportedly protested against the violation and tried to stop the vandalism. However, they were allegedly threatened with guns… [A]ll graves that were destroyed had crosses fixed on the top… [S]ome of the houses occupied by the Christians were demolished and people were forced to flee from their homes. Amid widespread discrimination against the Christian community in Pakistan, the properties owned by the minorities are often subjected to injustice including land grabbing and being the target of criminals. Moreover, the economic disparities and religious bias in Pakistan’s judiciary have increased the struggles Christians face to recover the lost land.”
Serbia: On Sunday, May 31, two Muslim migrants entered the St. Alexander Nevsky Church in Belgrade during service and robbed several of the mostly elderly congregants. “There were two of them. They broke into the church during the liturgy, which was in progress, and they stole two purses along with three mobile phones,” a church leader said, adding:
“Upon entering the temple, they split up on two sides, and after the people saw what was happening, they managed to catch one of them and take away his mobile phones and the money he stole. The other managed to escape. He took two purses, in one there were 3,500 dinars, while in the other there were 18,000, which was the entire pension of one woman. We handed that young man over to the police, while the other managed to escape. This is an insult. Isn’t anything sacred to people, such as the liturgy? Terrible.”
Egypt: On May 30, 2020 — two days before President Trump recognized Global Coptic Day — Egyptian authorities demolished the only Coptic church in village of Koum al-Farag, even though it had stood for 15 years and served 3,000 Christians. According to the report:
“The destruction of the church was a punishment for the ‘crime’ of building rooms for Sunday school…. When the work began, some extremist Muslims began to attack Christians.”
A separate report on this incident relates:
“According to an ancient Islamic tradition, or common law, churches are prevented from being formally recognised or displaying any Christian symbols if a mosque is built next to them.”
The authorities decided to solve this issue by demolishing the church, which took a tractor “six long hours,” a Copt recalled:
“The decision was not welcomed by the Christians in the village, so they protested by appearing at the site in possession of the documents. However, the police and some radicals began to insult and assault Christians, including women and children. The church leader received so many punches in the face and chest that he passed out.”
In a separate attack in the early hours of May 16, “an air conditioning technician threw a Molotov cocktail inside the Virgin Mary Church in Alexandria.” According to the report:
“Security camera footage led to his apprehension. Fortunately, no one was injured in this attack. Predictably, however, the prosecutors appear to be [pursuing] an acquittal on the claim that the perpetrator of the religious hate crime is also mentally ill. Based on precedent, it is extremely unlikely that this perpetrator will face any consequences for his attempt to torch a church.”
Mozambique: Islamic terrorists attacked a monastery. The four monks residing in it managed to hide and emerge unscathed. However, the hospital they were building for a nearby village was destroyed by the armed Muslims. According to the May 18 report:
“Little is known about the insurgents, and until recently there were doubts they were actually islamists, but they have claimed to be fighting for the imposition of Sharia law in the North of Mozambique…. The attack on the monastery, which included the destruction of a hospital that the monks were building in the village, is the second most serious attack against a Christian target since the troubles began. Last month a Catholic mission was also attacked, although, as here, nobody was killed. Other communities have not been so lucky, as the insurgents have left a trail of death and destruction behind them in the towns and villages they attack.”
Nigeria: On May 7, a helicopter bombed and destroyed a church. The building was empty at the time; no casualties were reported. According to a local leader,
“The helicopter used to hover around the area, dropping some things. We don’t know what they have been dropping but yesterday in the afternoon, the helicopter came and dropped a bomb … [The] Assembly of God church was destroyed including a nearby building…. Hours after the incident, a group of people numbering about 100 pass through the village carrying guns. Some were trekking while others rode on motorcycles. One of them was carrying a flag which is not a Nigerian flag; one other person was making some incantations in Arabic… People have fled the village… The question is who was in the helicopter dropping bomb?… We are very concerned … If it was a mistake by security agencies, they should come out and explain so as to allay the fears of the community.”
Algeria: Four Muslim guards responsible for protecting a church vandalized and overturned its statue of the Virgin Mary. According to the report,
“[T]he chapel of Santa Cruz built in stones extracted from the mountain of Murdjadjo where it is perched, was the object of an attempted theft… Four looters allegedly destroyed the statue of the Virgin Mary by attempting to steal it. They have even destroyed other holy monuments in their path….
It was later found, however, that the chapel’s four hired guards were themselves the “looters” responsible for the desecration. The report continues:
“In addition, the Christian community in Algeria denounces… the intimidation which the faithful are subject to. Many Christians have denounced the series of closings of churches in the national territory. Several evangelical associations and organizations have called for an end to ‘the increasing pressure and intimidation from the Algerian government.'”
Iran: On Sunday, May 17, a Christian cemetery was set ablaze, just two days after the tomb of the biblical Esther and Mordecai was also set on fire on the 72nd anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel. Damage at the tomb — a holy site shared by Jews and Christians — was reportedly minimal. Few other details concerning the burned Christian cemetery aside from video footage showing smoke billowing over its walls are available. A Hindu temple was also reportedly set on fire in May.
France: Unknown vandals cut down an iconic iron cross that had stood on the summit of Pic Saint-Loup since 1911 and was visible for miles around. According to the May 14 report,
“While Europe has experienced a growing number of acts of vandalism and profanation of Christian sites, the greatest number of such acts have occurred in France, where churches, schools, cemeteries, and monuments ‘are being vandalized, desecrated, and burned at an average rate of three per day,’ according to reports drawing from government statistics.”
Although the identity of the vandals responsible for this latest outrage is unknown, it appears that Western European nations that have large Muslim migrant populations are seeing a disproportionate rise in attacks on churches and Christian symbols. According to a 2017 study on France — which has the largest Muslim population in Europe — “Islamist extremist attacks on Christians” rose by 38%, going from 273 attacks in 2015 to 376 in 2016; the majority occurred during Christmas season and “many of the attacks took place in churches and other places of worship.” Similarly, around Christmas 2016, in a German region where more than a million Muslims reside, some 50 public Christian statues (including those of Jesus) were beheaded and crucifixes broken.
Abduction, Rape, and Forced Conversion of Christian Women
Nigeria: Between March 23 and April 30, six young Christian girls and one older married woman were kidnapped. “We are saddened to report to you the battles we have been fighting even amidst the lockdown,” the Hausa Christians Foundation reported on May 4, adding that it “has been working on the following tragic incidences of abduction and forceful Islamization, despite the fact that the lockdown has limited our efforts.” The statement continues:
“The usual practice is that these girls will be forced into marriage and perpetually be abused sexually, physical and emotionally. We are doing our best to rescue these precious lives but our efforts have been truncated by the current government imposed lockdown that has put everything on hold…. The simple reason for the injustice and the persecution we have been subjected to… is because of our faith in Christ Jesus.”
Two of the young girls have since been rescued.
Pakistan: Another young Christian girl was kidnapped. According to a May 2 report,
“On Sunday, April 26, a 14-year-old Christian girl … was abducted by a group of armed Muslim men… [T]he Christian girl’s family has filed a police report and is begging police to recover their relative…. Myra Shehbaz was abducted by a group of Muslim men led by Muhammad Naqash. Eye witnesses claim that Myra was attacked while she was traveling to her workplace as a domestic worker on Sunday afternoon…. Myra’s abductors forced her into a car and Myra tried to resist…. [The] abductors were armed and fired several shots into the air…. [The girl’s mother] fears her daughter will be raped, forcefully converted is [sic] Islam, or even killed…. [A]n estimated 1,000 women and girls from Pakistan’s Hindu and Christian community are assaulted, abducted, forcefully married to their captor, and forcibly converted to Islam every year.”
Egypt: In a May 22 report, Coptic Solidarity, a human rights organization focused on the plight of Egypt’s Christians, made the following remarks:
“The indigenous Coptic Christians of Egypt continue to experience increasing persecution, by the government and society…. To illustrate, at least five Coptic women, including some minors, have reportedly been kidnapped or disappeared in just the last few weeks, and Egyptian state security has made no concerted effort to recover them…. Ranya Abd al-Masih, a Coptic wife and mother of three from a town just north of the capital, Cairo… remains hidden despite protests, including from the region’s church, which laments ‘the total lack of reaction by the authorities.'”
Hate for and Abuse of Christians
Austria: A local newspaper reported:
“A graffiti that rightly causes a lot of agitation. The lettering “Christians must die” can be seen at the Traisen-Markt train station. Above it, in the same style, the words “Allach Akkbar” [sic]. The removal of the graffiti has already begun and will cost about 500 Euros.”
Uganda: A Muslim father burned his daughter for converting to Christianity. While traveling with her father, a sheikh (respected elder) of the Muslim community, Rehema Kyomuhendo, 24, heard the gospel and secretly converted. On the night of May 4, while she and her father were staying at her aunt’s home, she called a Christian associate: “As she was sharing Christ with me, I was so overjoyed,” Rehema later explained, “and my father heard my joy and woke up, came from his bedroom furiously and started beating me up with blows, slaps and kicks.” He also shouted that he was “going to kill her.” He broke a gas container, lit the pieces with the unspilt fuel, and began to burn his daughter. Her cries awakened her aunt, who protected her from the sheikh. Last reported, Rehema was expected to need more than a month of hospitalization due to “serious burns on her leg, stomach, rib area, near her neck and on part of her back.” No one has “reported the assault to police for fear that her father might try kill her.”
Pakistan: In another example of abuse of Christians, this time in connection to COVID-19, “an Islamic cleric claims his organization is using COVID-19 food aid to convert non-Muslims to Islam,” according to a May 8 report. Speaking on Pakistani television, the cleric boasted of how when a destitute Christian man came for aid, the “staff of the organization offered him conversion against food which he accepted.” The man was subsequently renamed Muhammad Ramadan, signifying his conversion had occurred during the Muslim holy month. The cleric had added that Muhammad was then fasting (which is ironic considering hunger is what prompted him to convert in the first place).
Raymond Ibrahim, author of the recent book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16166/christians-butchered

Why Hasn't Twitter Flagged 'Kuffar' as a Term of Abuse?
Seth Frantzman/The Jerusalem Post/June 28/2020
Social-media giant Twitter has been seeking to crack down on abusive and racist language. For instance, on Tuesday it hid a tweet by US President Donald Trump, labeling it "abusive behavior." The tweet had said protesters might be met by "serious force." This was considered abusive by Twitter.
However, the website continues to host thousands of tweets that use the word kuffar, a derogatory Arabic term for non-Muslim unbelievers, as a form of abuse. Usually used by Islamists and far-right religious extremists against minorities and those they disagree with, it was often used by ISIS members in 2014 as a term of abuse directed at those they marked for genocide, such as Yazidis, Shi'ite Muslims and Christian minorities in Iraq.
ISIS members have used "kuffar" as a term of abuse against those they marked for genocide.
The term is nevertheless not labeled by the platform. For instance, a quick search reveals a tweet on June 22: "if you're a feminist you basically believe that kuffar ideologies are better than the rights that Allah gave you." That tweet is directed at feminists, who the user labels "unbelievers."
The way kuffar is used on Twitter often resembles the Nazi term Untermensch, or inferior and subhuman.
Another tweet on June 24 attacked Iran as the "kuffar regime," while another account with 9,000 followers the same day said that "kuffar must fear us and not vice versa."
On June 19, another user slammed Black Lives Matter and feminism, tweeting: "Muslims need to lead rather than be led by the kuffar," insinuating that these movements are heathens. Viewers of a June 20 video were told by an extremist preacher to "strike terror in the hearts of the kuffar."
Hatred of US protesters, oddly, has also become part of the incitement campaign on social media. A user named Umm Suleiman said those "protesting with the kuffar," referring to protesters in the US, are kneeling, which is "not permissible" in the religion. Zahed Muhammad wrote on June 21: "may allah allow these kuffar to die with kufr."
Typical use of the term on Twitter.
Users of Twitter have noticed that pro-ISIS members continue to use the site and call people kuffar, usually laced with other insults, such as calling women whores, who they object to. On June 21, a user named Ibn Ernest wrote about "being increasingly defined by the social media divides between the kuffar, as we become an extension of the kaffir civilization." The term kaffir was a racist term of abuse for black people in South Africa.
Yet both it and kuffar, used in an abusive war, are not flagged by Twitter. An extremist video posted on June 18, in which a religious scholar supposedly answers questions live, includes the explanation above it: "boxing is only allowed if you beat up kuffar."
A user named Akhand Bharat, in reply to a story about India, wrote on June 18: "u r a blot on the face of Islam, u r kuffar, shame on you for being a hard core left liberal." Another man bashed a pro-LGBT post by writing: "filthy kuffar." Another post said: "you kuffar are finally being kicked out of our lands."
Twitter's algorithms could easily flag tweets using the term "kuffar" for review.
There is no shortage of these tweets; the ones above are just the top examples of thousands or tens of thousands, maybe millions. Twitter has cracked down on extremist accounts and pro-ISIS accounts in the past. More than 1.2 million were removed by 2018, and swaths of pro-terrorist accounts have been done away with.
Algorithms could flag the term kuffar and review tweets that use the term and call for terrorism, attacks, beatings, assaults on women and feminists or incite against LGBT and other people, including against minorities such as Shi'ites, or use the term as an abusive one. A review of the recent tweets suggests that it is almost always used as a term of abuse, not as an example or as a quote.
*Seth Frantzman is a Middle East Forum writing fellow and senior Middle East correspondent at The Jerusalem Post.

Why Israel’s Warming Gulf Ties Will Survive Annexation
Jonathan H.Ferziger/Foreign Policy/June 28/2020
Some Arab countries now value good relations with Israel over the Palestinian cause—and not just for strategic reasons.
In the shadow of the world’s tallest skyscraper in Dubai, a new kosher caterer makes delicious tsimmes. The sweet carrot stew is an iconic Jewish dish featured on the menu of Elli’s Kosher Kitchen, alongside matzo ball soup and brisket. For the United Arab Emirates, the new kosher cuisine has become a point of pride as the royal court of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan tries to rebrand the country as modern and multicultural. Along with creating a Ministry of Tolerance and declaring battle on “extremism and fanaticism,” the UAE now boasts two synagogues and a growing Jewish community of about 200.Along with creating a Ministry of Tolerance, the UAE now boasts two synagogues and a growing Jewish community of about 200. In a stunning turnaround from decades of animosity and—in more recent years—secret contacts, the UAE has also been cultivating public ties with Israel.
That’s why it’s perplexing to watch Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu veer from his script of courting moderate Gulf states and proceed with plans to annex parts of the West Bank. The prospect of Israel’s moving forward, which rests on getting a green light from the White House, has drawn outrage from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, King Abdullah of Jordan, the 22-member Arab League, and most European nations. Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, says he won’t recognize Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank if he wins the election in November.
As Netanyahu’s July 1 target date for formal annexation approaches, a diplomatic fog has settled in. Conflicting signals emerge every day over whether Netanyahu will go through with what he promised during the campaign, when he desperately needed right-wing votes to secure his March reelection. So far, his own remarks and those of his aides indicate Netanyahu will buck the criticism and extend the full embrace of Israeli law to at least some of the 132 Jewish settlements that most of the world considers occupied territory. As for the likelihood that Israel’s new friends in the Gulf will tell him to get lost, Netanyahu has ample evidence to suspect they’re bluffing. It’s clear their empathy for Abbas is dissipating.
So far, the most compelling argument that Israel would be spiting itself by formally asserting ownership in the West Bank was made by the UAE’s ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, in a remarkable Hebrew-language newspaper column. Annexation will “upend Israeli aspirations for improved security, economic and cultural ties with the Arab world,” Otaiba wrote on June 12 in Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth, adding that “it will ignite violence and rouse extremists.”
Then he zeroed in on the new tolerance for Jews in his tiny Muslim-majority country. “We have promoted engagement and conflict reduction, helped to create incentives—carrots rather than sticks,” he wrote. “This is what normal could be.”
In truth, the growing UAE-Israeli relationship is anything but normal. Like its Gulf neighbors, the UAE is a monarchical police state, and the cultural shift toward tolerance is part of a set of highly strategic responses to geopolitical threats. First is countering their common adversary, Iran. Second is access to Israeli technology, particularly the pioneering methods developed by Israeli start-ups in desert agriculture, desalination, and cyber-spying.Now under construction in Dubai is an Israeli pavilion for next year’s World Expo, a project that would have been unimaginable five years ago.
A third and suddenly new area of strategic cooperation—one that has already proved resistant to criticism from anti-Israel forces in the UAE—is medical research to fight COVID-19. Gulf investors have their eyes on Israel’s Migal Galilee Research Institute near the Lebanese border and the Israel Institute for Biological Research in Ness Ziona, where scientists are making progress in developing a coronavirus vaccine and treatments for the disease. This week, Netanyahu announced an agreement between the Israeli and UAE health ministries to work together on battling COVID-19. The Emirati response was more muted, saying only that two of its companies would collaborate on research. It’s a familiar pattern from the past—Israel has gone public with Arab-Israeli cooperation before, only for its partners to flinch at admitting to the extent of that cooperation in public. This time, nervousness over annexation may also have played a role.
Developments in the Gulf continue to speak another language. Now under construction in Dubai is an Israeli pavilion for next year’s World Expo, a project that would have been unimaginable five years ago when most ties with the Jewish state were under the radar out of concern it would undermine the Palestinians. That concern has diminished amid friction with Abbas and impatience with his refusal to negotiate on U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace proposal.
For the first time, Israeli visitors to the Dubai exposition will be able to enter the UAE on their Israeli passports, a courtesy that Qatar also plans to offer in 2022 when it hosts soccer’s FIFA World Cup. To prepare for that event, the petroleum-rich peninsula has engaged New York’s Rabbi Marc Schneier—who often takes congregants from his synagogue in the Hamptons on interfaith jaunts through the Muslim world—as an advisor to ensure kosher food is available for Jewish fans. And while the UAE entertained a series of Israeli cabinet ministers over the past two years, Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said shocked the Middle East in October 2018 by hosting Netanyahu himself, along with his wife, Sara Netanyahu, at the late sultan’s opulent palace in Muscat. A clip from the meeting was aired on the evening news once the Netanyahus were safely back in Jerusalem.
The UAE, as well as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, is highly invested in Trump’s “Peace to Prosperity” plan, which the Palestinians summarily rejected. Otaiba himself was present at the White House in January when Trump released the proposal, which includes both establishing a demilitarized Palestinian state and allowing Israel’s annexation of the Jordan Valley and other territory where its settlements sit. The Emirati tycoon Mohamed Ali Alabbar, who has long and deep ties to the UAE’s Jewish community, attended an earlier Bahraini summit where Trump son-in-law and peace team chief Jared Kushner unveiled a $50 billion plan to rebuild the Palestinian economy, which Abbas also dismissed.The UAE dealt Abbas an embarrassing slap by sending the aid on two Etihad Airways flights to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, the first noncovert flights by a Gulf airline to Israel.
To be sure, as Otaiba said, the Gulf’s carrots can be substituted with sticks if Israel goes rogue in the West Bank. Gone would be the presence of Israeli diplomats in Abu Dhabi or military ventures such as Emirati participation in air force exercises with Israel. Forget the possibility of a formal nonbelligerency pact with the UAE and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council that Netanyahu aides have frequently floated. Gulf states could prick harder at Israel in the United Nations or boost support to the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement that has gained strength in Europe and the United States. They could join Qatar in financing Hamas in the Gaza Strip and other militant groups hostile to Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points at a map of the Jordan Valley.
Netanyahu’s Annexation Plan Is a Threat to Israel’s National Security
Annexing the West Bank would threaten Israel’s peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, anger allies in the Gulf, undermine the Palestinian Authority, and endanger Israel as a Jewish democracy.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a meeting with journalists in the Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah on July 3, 2019.
The Oslo Accords Are Dead. Should the Palestinian Authority Live On?
Trump’s peace plan killed any hope of a negotiated settlement. Rather than empty rhetoric, Palestinian leaders owe their people a new approach—even if it means disbanding the PA.
But Netanyahu, shielded by Trump, is betting they won’t. Just days after Otaiba published his Hebrew op-ed, the Emirati state minister for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, participated in a Zoom interview with the American Jewish Committee’s international troubleshooter Jason Isaacson and offered a more conciliatory approach. While restating his opposition to annexation, Gargash said the UAE believes in “decoupling the political from the nonpolitical.” His government, the foreign minister suggested, may look at Israel’s designs on the West Bank and say, “We don’t think it’s a good idea, but at the same time there are areas, such a COVID, technology, and other things, where we can actually work together.”
Even as the UAE raps the West Bank plans in public and presented itself as a champion of the Palestinians by delivering two planeloads of protective gear to help control the coronavirus in the Palestinian-inhabited parts of the West Bank, it dealt Abbas an embarrassing slap by sending the aid on two Etihad Airways flights to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, the first noncovert flights by a Gulf airline to Israel. The mortified leader rejected the shipments, even though they displayed the Emirati flag and were brightly labeled as aid to fight the pandemic in Palestine.
Such an insult would never have happened in the past when Yasser Arafat was in charge and support for the Palestinians against Israel defined Arab political unity. In part, the support has ebbed through diplomatic fatigue as the Palestinians have rejected one peace initiative after another since the 1993 Oslo accords. Ebbing support for the Palestinians is also generational, as Arab millennials who chat online with young Israelis about gaming and software apps find their parents’ dogmas boring.It’s also generational, as Arab millennials who chat online with young Israelis about gaming and software apps find their parents’ dogmas boring. A final factor is intra-Palestinian intrigue. The COVID-19 airport episode seems to bear the fingerprints of Mohammed Dahlan, a political rival whom Abbas drove into exile. Dahlan now lives in Abu Dhabi, where he is a close friend of the crown prince, advising him on real estate purchases in Eastern Europe, handling the Palestinian leadership, and more.
In Washington, Otaiba keeps a ritual Jewish shofar on display in his spacious embassy office. The son of a former OPEC president, he has developed an unusually warm relationship with the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer. In conversation, Otaiba is disarmingly comfortable talking about the mutual benefits of closer ties with Israel, as well as the UAE’s impatience with the Palestinians.
If Otaiba’s boss, the UAE’s foreign minister, was speaking in candor, then even Israel’s ambitions to annex up to 29 percent of the West Bank, including the strategic Jordan Valley border area, can be decoupled as a political disagreement from strategic cooperation, business and technology deals, and the growing comfort with Israelis and Jews. For both sides, it appears, the diplomatic carrots are just too enticing. Netanyahu is confident that the UAE and its Gulf neighbors will keep the tsimmes simmering, that sticks amount to mere twigs, and that they represent little long-term threat to Israel.
*Jonathan H. Ferziger is a writer and researcher who covered the Middle East for more than 20 years for Bloomberg News and UPI.

The Libyan puzzle is cursed by contradictions despite calls for ceasefire
Raghida Dergham/The National/June 28/2020
Russia, Egypt and France all object to Turkey's intervention, but the prospect of a three-way deal is riddled with complications.
International positions vis-a-vis Libya are riddled with contradictions. The overall picture is complicated by a number of local, regional and international entanglements in the conflict there. There are competing strategic and economic interests. To make matters worse, the players involved are at a tactical impasse with each other and victory for any side is impossible at this stage. Libya then could remain fragmented for a long time without any light visible at the end of the tunnel.
The war-torn North African country has become an even bigger priority for many global and regional powers, particularly Russia and Turkey, even as the Syrian civil war has receded in importance. For its part, Egypt is walking a tight rope as the events in its neighbourhood pose a security threat to Cairo.
Meanwhile US policy in Libya, particularly its position on the role of fellow Nato member Turkey in that country, is incoherent. At times, it is determined by the warmth in the relationship between US President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. On other occasions, it is a victim of a lack of commitment from the Trump administration. Lest we forget, it was the preceding Obama administration that got Libya into the mess that it finds itself in, when it helped topple Muammar Qaddafi in partnership with France and with cover from Nato. Worse, it then ignored Libya’s need for capacity-building necessary to transition into a new government.
In its annual report, the US State Department said that Turkey remains a crossing point for extremists headed to Syria and Iraq. Yet it ignores Ankara’s role in shipping extremists and terrorists from Syria to Libya. Indeed, it appears that the Trump administration supports Turkey’s intervention in Libya, even though its allies in the Gulf, plus Egypt, sound the alarm over the dangers.
Washington sees this conflict through the lens of its strategic competition with Russia. It believes that Moscow seeks to control an oil-rich nation that is just across the Mediterranean Sea from Europe and is a key anchor of stability in North Africa. Accurate as this assertion may be, its calculations vis-a-vis Ankara’s ambitions are too narrow. After all, Mr Erdogan seems to be on a mission to establish the Muslim Brotherhood in the region.
A US military intervention is highly unlikely given the Trump administration's current preoccupations, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the nationwide protests following the killing of George Floyd in police custody and, of course, the presidential elections in November.
This then presents Russia with a window of opportunity to make further gains.
So far, it has been careful not to get into a military confrontation with Turkey. I have previously written that the question of how to tackle Ankara has been a point of disagreement in Moscow between the civilian leadership and the military brass – the latter being keen on flexing its muscles. Ankara, too, does not seek to confront Moscow as it realises its military capabilities are limited. For both powers, after all, Libya is not in their backyard and neither wants to begin an adventure that could prove costly and dangerous.
The Russian strategy has so far been to provide military support to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army, which is based in the east and is opposed to the Turkish-backed Government of National Accord, situated in the capital Tripoli.
It has also sought Egypt's help and expanded its military co-operation with Cairo. Such an arrangement is not without its complications due in large part to Cairo's ties to Washington and its reticence to enter a confrontation with Ankara. And yet, Egypt has little option but to help bring peace to Libya. As Nasser Judeh, Jordan's former deputy prime minister, told me during our e-policy circle discussion at the Beirut Institute Summit in Abu Dhabi, the issue is an existential one for Egypt.
hat leaves the other major player in the conflict, which is France. Paris is also opposed to Ankara's dangerous game, even though they are fellow Nato members. It, therefore, also finds itself in a quandary over whether to co-operate with Moscow, even if the two governments have called for ceasefire. In the eyes of the French, Russia has not concealed its determination to play a role in Libya's future, neither has it forgotten its exclusion by the West over the exact same question nearly 10 years ago, following the ousting of Qaddafi.
Christophe Farnaud, head of the Middle East and North Africa department at the French foreign ministry, summed it up best when he suggested that the conflict in Libya had spiralled out of the Libyan people's control. “The last months have seen a clear escalation – and that escalation is not just due to the Libyan themselves, it is due as well to the growing interference by foreign powers."
*Raghida Dergham is the founder and executive chairwoman of the Beirut Institute

COVID Curve Has a Simple Explanation
Max Nisen/Bloomberg/June 28/2020
An alarming chart has been making the rounds. It illustrates the poor job the US has done in containing Covid-19 compared to the European Union, a bigger region of independent countries that suffered an earlier outbreak. Why the big difference? What is America doing wrong?
There are a lot of possible answers to those questions. A sluggish initial response and failure to ramp up testing let the virus spread far and wide in the US. And instead of coordinating a coherent and aggressive national response, President Donald Trump has consistently downplayed the threat of the infection and left decisions to insufficiently supported states. As a result, decisions over lockdowns and reopenings have been chaotic and have ignored the guidelines put forth by federal public health officials.
Amid all of this, one particular difference stands out between the American and European approaches. Many states were happy to reopen after simply "bending the curve" — that is, slowing upward growth and ensuring spare hospital capacity. These states went on to expand economic activity at an elevated plateau with lots of ongoing transmissions. In contrast, European countries mostly waited to reopen until they crushed the curve or reached its far slope, with substantially lower incidence or dramatic reductions in the viral spread. It's not the only explanation for a growing gap, but it's a compelling one.
Italy is something of an exception, having opened with a comparatively high case count. However, the country was recovering from a particularly large and concentrated outbreak, and its incidence was on a steep downward trajectory. Its average daily count was below 20 cases per million within a week of its initial limited opening, a metric none of the most troubled states have managed since early April.
So why is low incidence so crucial to successful reopening? It's simple math. More virus circulating in a community means more opportunities for it to spread. It makes every precaution individuals and officials take a bit less effective, and every activity riskier. This doesn't necessarily translate to immediate outbreaks, as people came out of lockdown quite cautiously. But as activity expands to include things such as indoor service at bars, a high base level of infection becomes increasingly likely to cause problems. Persistently high case levels amid a substantial reopening also make it far more challenging to identify and isolate a high percentage of infected individuals — again, a numbers problem. At a certain point, there are too many cases and contacts to have a hope of tracing them.
The gap with Europe argues for more restraint from fast-opening states going forward, and in fact, some governors are taking the cue. In Texas, where cases are rising at a dangerous rate, Republican Governor Greg Abbott has called a halt to business reopenings and ordered taverns closed. North Carolina has also frozen it reopening efforts, as have Utah and Nevada. And of course there is the example of New York and New Jersey, both of which waited until their steep curves were tamed before starting reopening efforts; now, even as activities resume in both states, new cases have slowed to a trickle. The chart tells the tale: Declaring victory too close to the top of the curve appears to be an excellent way to return to new heights.

Iranian opposition’s fight for democracy deserves support
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/June 28/2020
For more than 40 years, the desire for democracy in Iran has been channeled by the organized resistance movement. That movement reached an early crescendo in 1981, with the first great uprising against the theocratic dictatorship. But proof of the opposition’s staying power came at great cost.
The street protests of June 20, 1981, were met with a brutal crackdown, led by the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Hundreds of activists were killed on the spot and thousands more were systematically executed in the ensuing months, as the regime struggled to exert real control over groups that had been growing more and more popular since Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in the wake of the 1979 revolution.
The number of Iranian political prisoners swelled in the aftermath of the 1981 uprising and, seven years later, inmates all across the country found themselves being interrogated about their political affiliations and their views on the system of absolute rule by religious clerics. The summer of 1988 bolstered the death toll for opposition activists by a staggering 30,000. According to Amnesty International, the majority of the victims were targeted for their association with the main opposition group, Mujahedin-e Khalq. Over the course of the next two-and-a-half decades, the overall death toll would climb to about 120,000.
Yet none of this has been sufficient to extinguish the people’s hopes for democracy or the activity, popular appeal and the organizational integrity of the resistance. Today, that 1981 movement is part of a broader coalition known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which had its genesis in the 1981 uprising and now enjoys strong international support. The influence of the resistance was put on display this month in a video conference organized to commemorate the Day of Martyrs and Political Prisoners, which dates back to the 1981 uprising. The virtual event established connections between 2,000 locations and featured remarks from a number of international dignitaries.
The annual conference is significant because it recognizes June 20 as the anniversary of the beginning of a long and ongoing process of self-sacrifice for Iran’s pro-democracy activist movement. As former French government minister Rama Yade told the conference: “On that day (June 20, 1981), the resistance rose and, since then, has been moving forward, braving threats and fatwas, intimidation and misinformation on the part of the regime, but also our own cowardice, the latest of which was the nuclear agreement, which has come to nothing.”
The Iranian resistance has continued to push for a reversal of the West’s appeasement policies throughout the last 40 years.
Current and former legislators from the US, Britain, France, Spain and Germany all utilized this event as an opportunity to reaffirm their support for the Iranian opposition and to urge their own governments to do the same as a matter of official policy. UK MP Steve McCabe said: “I want the British government to be open in its support for NCRI and Madame Maryam Rajavi,” a reference to Maryam Rajavi, the NCRI’s president-elect.
In her keynote speech during this month’s event, Rajavi said: “We are fighting against a regressive worldview and order represented by the mullahs. We are fighting against a prevalent approach that prefers the appeasement of, and complicity with, this regime.” She added: “June 20, 1981, drew the line between submission to the mullahs’ religious fascism and aligning with the shah and the clerics on the one hand, and remaining steadfast, proud and choosing to make the ultimate sacrifice on the other.”
The Iranian resistance has continued to push for a reversal of the West’s appeasement policies throughout the last 40 years. It has made substantial inroads, as evidenced by the consistent American and European presence at its major events. But formal Western policies still lag behind individual policymakers’ sense of duty to the fight for human rights and democracy in Iran.
While the death toll has continued to mount, the international community has failed to exhibit the kind of support that would make Tehran think twice before instituting another crackdown. Fortunately, the resistance movement has remained strong and it shows no sign of going anywhere. It is also holding another major virtual international gathering featuring hundreds of lawmakers and dignitaries, as well as Iranians from as many as 60 countries, in support of a free Iran on July 17.
The West missed a vital opportunity last November, when the regime responded to nationwide protests with live ammunition, killing at least 1,500 people. This was a chilling reminder of the bloodlust that was obvious in Tehran as long ago as 1981, while the immediate aftermath was also a reminder of the activist community’s resilience.
Inevitably, the public will take to the streets again in the near future to once again demand regime change. And, when that happens, all the democratic nations of the world should finally, after more than 40 years, show their willingness to stand alongside these people and affirm their right to demand freedom and democratic governance in their homeland.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Terror-exporting ayatollahs on the threshold of going nuclear
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/June 28/2020
After the 2015 deal aimed at curbing its nuclear program, Iran was judged to be a year away from “breakout capacity” — having enough 90 per cent enriched uranium to build a bomb. The latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report indicates that Tehran is now less than four months away from breakout capacity, having already stockpiled 1,572kg of low-enriched uranium.
The latest clash at the IAEA was over Tehran’s refusal to cooperate with the agency’s requests to inspect sites believed to have been used before for atomic research, including a testing range for high explosives in central Iran. China and Russia have led the field in blocking IAEA efforts to pressure Iran. One State Department official accused them of acting as “protectors and enablers” of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “What we’re verifying is the gradual diminishing compliance with the agreement we’re supposed to be verifying;” IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi sardonically commented.
European states have supported US efforts to extend a UN conventional arms embargo due to expire in October, with Moscow and Beijing jostling to be at the front of the queue to resume weapons sales to Tehran. This raises the question of where Tehran finds the money to replenish its arsenal, since it already spends billions bankrolling Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Assad regime while ordinary Iranians go hungry.
North Korea is a small, impoverished, failed state, but it must be taken seriously because if provoked it could rain down nuclear and ballistic weapons on its enemies. A nuclearized Iran would be an infinitely greater menace because of its belligerent position throughout the Middle East; for example, its proximity to three marine global trade chokeholds – the Strait of Hormuz, Bab-el-Mandeb and the eastern Mediterranean.
Although Iran’s recent provocative behavior includes attacking US bases, bombing Saudi Arabia and pursuing supremacy in multiple Arab states, it must nevertheless behave with relative caution because a decisive retaliatory strike by America or Israel would be devastating. However, a nuclear-armed Iran would fundamentally up-end such calculations, and could deploy its proxies against Gulf states or Western assets with relative confidence that nobody would dare retaliate.
A senior Obama-era official recalled to me that before 2015 the administration “spent half its time trying to convince Netanyahu not to strike Iran … none of us can live with a nuclear Iran”
Some of US President Donald Trump’s confused attempts to get tough on Iran have produced perverse results, particularly with the cancelation of sanctions waivers for measures under the 2015 deal designed to ensure the use of Iran’s nuclear program for purely peaceful purposes. This occurred with both the Arak/Khondab heavy-water reactor and the Fordaw site, which, instead of being repurposed for medical or research activities, are now being reconfigured toward unmistakably proliferation-sensitive purposes. “Soon the international community will witness our new achievements at the Khondab research reactor,” boasted Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
Likewise, the 2015 deal guaranteed supplies of 20 percent enriched uranium for the Tehran research reactor. This imported uranium was unsuitable for military purposes. The Trump administration’s blocking of these supplies offers the perfect pretext for the regime to return to enriching uranium to 20 percent and beyond, moving us closer to nuclear midnight.
Whoever occupies the White House in 2021, the strategic threat of a nuclearized, expansionist Iran must be policy priority No1.
Even a Biden administration could not simply set the clock back to 2015. A deal would be meaningless unless it addressed Iran’s regional warmongering and vast transnational paramilitary armies, or its recent advances in enrichment technology. Under the 2015 agreement Iran shipped 97 percent of its low-enriched uranium (enough to make more than 14 bombs) out of the country. Given Tehran’s recent advances we could soon be back to square one — or ground zero!
A senior Obama-era official recalled to me that before 2015 the administration “spent half its time trying to convince Netanyahu not to strike Iran … none of us can live with a nuclear Iran.” Biden’s foreign policy advisers have grudgingly acknowledged the brute effectiveness of Trump’s sanctions, although they had little appreciable effect on Iran’s rush for a nuclear weapon or its embroilment in militancy and terrorism.
The best prospect for fruitful multilateral efforts against Iran is via Moscow (and to a lesser extent Beijing). Vladimir Putin has made considerable political capital from disrupting Western policy-making, but he faces a quagmire of his own making in Syria, which can be stabilized only by cutting Iran down to size. Russia and China have most to lose from a belligerent, nuclearized Iran dominating Central Asia. A senior Russian foreign policy official told me: “We can never live with, or accept, a nuclear-armed Iran.”
Rather than indulge in zero-sum-game one-upmanship, America, China and Russia must find common ground over the challenges of Iran, Syria, Turkish expansionism, North Korea and arms proliferation. Nobody wants a planet where terrorist rogue states call the shots while so-called world powers are compelled to appease them.
Iran’s leaders may have no intention of actually using such a bomb, but along with ceaseless rhetoric about annihilating Israel, there are numerous scenarios in which the ayatollahs could resort to such an extreme measure, including a scorched-earth policy to prevent client states such as Syria, Iraq or Lebanon falling into the hands of its enemies; a regional conflagration of their own making; or in the face of efforts to bring down the regime itself.
There are also prospects of an accidental nuclear strike or a Chernobyl-style meltdown. This is a basket-case state with an appalling record of plane crashes because of the unavailability of spare parts, not to mention the Revolutionary Guards shooting their own citizens out of the sky. We await clarification about the huge, mysterious explosion on June 25 next to the Parchin nuclear/military site near Tehran.
As with North Korea, the prospect of crazed, megalomaniacal leaders wielding these weapons of mass destruction prevents the world breathing peacefully. Iranians, Koreans and rogue Pakistani scientists participate in a shadowy proliferation trade in nuclear and ballistic materials. Iran is already the foremost global state sponsor of terrorism; let’s not allow it to become the principal exporter of nuclear secrets and dirty bombs.
The last thing the conflict-wracked Middle East needs is Tehran triggering a regional nuclear arms race, with the logical end-point being wholesale extermination of countless millions of Iranians, Israelis and Arabs.
If Iran’s priority really is safeguarding its citizens, it must immediately and unambiguously advocate a Middle East entirely free of nuclear weapons —including, first and foremost, Israel.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

Islamists’ discourse needs to be challenged in the West
Peter Welby/Arab News/June 28/2020
There was a stab attack in a park in Reading, in the UK, last weekend. As I write, it isn’t clear whether this was an Islamist attack or simply an act of random violence. It is being investigated as a possible terrorist incident, but there are conflicting reports about the individual concerned. The reaction of one UK activist group was interesting: To attack the police for even investigating it as a potential “terrorist incident,” saying that the decision is “connected to ideology and once again a stick to beat down ordinary Muslims.”
If this was just a crackpot fringe group, it wouldn’t really matter. But Cage, the organization concerned, has a history of, at best, inadvisable comments on Islamist extremists — and has been supported by numerous individuals on the hard left, including former UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn.
In fact, Cage is part of a network of hard-left groups, grievance politics-based Muslim activists, and nonviolent Islamists. This is an alliance of convenience that exists across much of the West, in which, by and large, the Islamists don’t question the major progressive shibboleths and the hard-left doesn’t focus too much on the more troubling aspects of the Islamist side.
I specify “nonviolent Islamists,” but defining this is hard. British government definitions have focused on “British” or “fundamental” values. This is weak, as extremism is transnational and many of our allies don’t share some of those we identify. In any case, secular civil servants and politicians have a habit of regarding religious conservatism and religious extremism as broadly synonymous: A dangerous conflation for any counter-extremism initiative. Moreover, government-led efforts to combat nonviolent extremism in much of the West are hampered by commitments to free speech.
Aside from the question of whether it serves as a gateway into violent extremism, nonviolent Islamist extremism poses a threat to social cohesion. Put simply, if the Muslim communities of the West do not feel a part of the societies where they reside as citizens, then they are more vulnerable to extremist ideas. It is, therefore, in the interests of extremists to foster division.
Theories of intersectionality and grievance politics provide fertile ground for Islamist groups to get to work with the far left.
Theories of intersectionality and grievance politics provide fertile ground for Islamist groups to get to work with the far left. Their work is aided by prominent networks of Muslim activists and academics who find they share many views. These networks are not generally themselves Islamist (though some are), but ideas that have long been widespread in Islamist discourse are now in common circulation among non-Islamist Muslim activists and academics on the left. To take three examples: The British or American governments (and other Western governments) are by their nature opposed to Islam and Muslims, at home and abroad; counter-extremism policies target Muslims and are Islamophobic; and Western societies are structurally opposed to Islam and Muslims.
I mentioned academics along with activists because there are those with training in the study of Islam who lean upon their secular academic credentials to present themselves as Islamic theologians — and, to any religious extremist worth the name, theology matters. Most of these belong in that same intersectional activist network, and some come from families with well-known ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat e-Islami, and other international Islamist groups. Efforts by actual trained Islamic theologians and jurists to counter some of their messages tend to get shouted down. Activists and academics from this milieu dominate discussion on social media (as activists tend to in all walks of life).
It is the voices drawn from this activist-Islamist junction that get a large part of the available attention in the media and in engagement with politicians. They had a dominant voice in the evidence given to the British Parliament’s all-party group on British Muslims’ inquiry into Islamophobia, for example, the results of which can be seen in its report. But their views are not really shared by British Muslims at large. A recent Crest Advisory report found broad support among British Muslims for the principles of the UK Government’s “Prevent” program, which aims to spot early signs of radicalization. It is aimed at all forms of extremism and uncovers far-right sentiment as much as other extremist views. In response, four prominent groups claiming to speak on behalf of Muslims responded either that the report was wrong or that its authors were biased.
Grievance politics is now particularly attractive because it draws on genuine concerns. Anti-Muslim prejudice is represented in both public and normal life across the West. And, the louder Islamist voices and their activist friends become, the easier it is to go down the cul-de-sac of suggesting Islam itself is the problem — a cul-de-sac that many political leaders are already exploring. That needs to be avoided.
The alternative to this is equipping trained scholars to counter the activist-Islamist junction in Islamic discourse. As the Crest report, other polling and everyday conversations reveal, the vast majority of Muslims in the West do not share the views of the activists and the Islamists or are even particularly interested in them. But if this discourse continues without significant challenge on social media and in real life, this is liable to change. I am convinced that this is where efforts should be focused — but that requires resourcing and, crucially, it requires proactive defense against their many enemies from the very beginning. Both resources and defenders trained in the kind of political warfare this represents are currently sorely lacking.
*Peter Welby is a consultant on religion and global affairs, specializing in the Arab world. Twitter: @pdcwelby