English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese
Related, Global News & Editorials
For June 29/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.june29.20.htm
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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