LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
March 03/2019

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Jesus Changes Water Into Wine
John 02/01-11/On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” “Woman,[a] why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.[b] Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on March 02-03/2019
Report: U.S. Preparing New Batch of Hizbullah Sanctions
French Envoy Presses for CEDRE Reforms During Lebanon Visit
Lebanon Outlook Revised to Negative on Rising Risks to Foreign Currency Debt Rollover
FM: Australia Open to Follow UK's Lead On Hezbollah
Berri Resolute to Expedite Council to Try Presidents, Ministers
Iran Says British Hizbullah Ban 'Irresponsible'
Kouyoumjian Presents LF Initiative for Refugee Repatriation
Lebanese Forces Says Hizbullah 'Not Serious' About Fighting Corruption
Siniora sheds light on $11B extra spending
Siniora says claims of financial wrongdoing 'fabrications'
Siniora Lashes Out at Hezbollah: Corrupt Are Those who Establish Statelets
Why Hezbollah is spearheading an ‘anti-corruption’ campaign
Hezbollah Rejects UK’s Terrorist Group Listing

Litles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 02-03/2019
US-Backed Syrian Forces Advance in Final Battle Against ISIS
Chemical Weapons Watchdog: Chlorine was Used in Syria's Douma
OPEC Oil Supply Lowest Since 2015
Bashir Delegates Party Powers to Deputy Ahmed Haroun
Jubeir: We Regret Continued Houthi Coup Against Legitimacy in Yemen
Houthis ‘Manipulate’ Stockholm Agreement, Legitimacy Calls for Decisive Int’l Stance
Algerians March en Masse, Calling on Bouteflika to Step Down
Israel Warns of Deteriorating Security Situation over ‘Deal of the Century’
Graft accusation piles pressure on Israel’s Netanyahu as election looms
Israel Closes Jerusalem Restaurant for Hiring Staff From West Bank
UAE Urges Iran to Reconsider its Policies in the Region
U.S. Hits Venezuela Officials with Sanctions for Blocking Aid
Anger over 'Forced' Video of Indian Pilot amid New Kashmir Deaths

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 02-03/2019
Report: U.S. Preparing New Batch of Hizbullah Sanctions/Agence France Presse/March 02/19
Siniora sheds light on $11B extra spending/Ghinwa Obeid/The Daily Star/March 02/ 2019
Why Hezbollah is spearheading an ‘anti-corruption’ campaign/Bassem Ajami/Annahar/March 02/19
The Putin-Netanyahu deal to remove foreign forces from Syria breaks new ground for both/Debka File/March 02/19
The United Church of Christ Wrongfully Attacks Israel/Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/March 02/19
The foreign policies of a free Iran/Alireza Nader/Al Arabiya/March 02/19
The duel between Qassem Soleimani and Mohammad Javad Zarif sends important messages/Raghida Dergham/The National/March 02/19

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on March 02-03/2019
Report: U.S. Preparing New Batch of Hizbullah Sanctions
Agence France Presse/March 02/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/72664/u-s-preparing-new-batch-of-hizbullah-sanctions-%d8%a5%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%a9-%d8%aa%d8%b1%d9%85%d8%a8-%d8%aa%d9%8f%d8%b9%d8%af%d9%91-%d9%84%d8%b9%d9%82%d9%88%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%ac%d8%af%d9%8a/
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to “strike new sanctions on Hizbullah,” and to feature the party’s “growing powers” in the Lebanese government, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported on Saturday. A U.S. official told the daily: “Trump’s administration is preparing new sanctions against Hizbullah,” and will discuss its concerns “from its growing control on the government and Lebanese officials,” he said. However he assured that there would be no measures targeting the Lebanese army.Matthew Levitt, director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in remarks to the daily: “The measure taken by Switzerland is completely separate from the British decision.”He was referring to Switzerland’s decision in February to halt arms exports to Lebanon due to “inability to account for a Swiss shipment of weapons to Lebanon.”Switzerland raised concerns the weapons end up in “undesirable hands” or might have been sold to an unauthorised third party. Ex-Minister Ghazi Zoaiter has clarified later that he bought the Swiss weapons for his own protection. Moreover, Britain on Monday said it will ban the political wing of Hizbullah, making membership of the movement or inviting support for it a crime. The decision follows outrage over the display of the Hizbullah flag, which features a Kalashnikov assault rifle, at pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London. "Hizbullah is continuing in its attempts to destabilize the fragile situation in the Middle East," Home Secretary Sajid Javid said in a statement. Hizbullah made electoral gains in Lebanon last year and now has three ministers in the government. The U.S. and others accuse the group of destabilizing the region through its military intervention in Syria on the side of President Bashar Assad's government.

French Envoy Presses for CEDRE Reforms During Lebanon Visit
Kataeb.org/Saturday 02nd March 2019/French envoy tasked with following up on the implementation of the reforms linked to the CEDRE conference, Michel Duquesne, said on Friday that no deadline has been set for Lebanon to fulfill the reformist measures required by the donor countries, noting, however, that the Lebanese government doesn't have much time to start showing concrete results. "Donors have not given an ultimatum and the funds are still there although some countries have expressed skepticism more than others," Duquesne stressed in a news conference at the end of his three-day visit during which he met top Lebanese officials. "The Lebanese government does not have the luxury of time."Donor countries pledged around $11 billion at the CEDRE conference which took place in Paris last year. The grants and soft loans, which are aimed at funding investment and infrastructure projects in Lebanon, will only be disbursed once the Lebanese government implements a series of reforms. The French envoy said he concluded from his meetings that Lebanon is ready to start implementing reforms, noting that these measures must be enforced as soon as possible. Duquesne stressed the need for Lebanon’s government to reduce the deficit-to-GDP ratio by at least one percentage point per year, noting that the budget deficit must also be brought down while making sure not to break the economy. He also pointed out that Lebanon's chronic electricity problem must be addressed, saying that it would be difficult to boost investments and achieve development without a 24/7 power supply.

Lebanon Outlook Revised to Negative on Rising Risks to Foreign Currency Debt Rollover
Kataeb.org/Saturday 02nd March 2019/Standard and Poor's Global Ratings on Friday revised the outlook on Lebanon to negative from stable given the fact that the country's fiscal deficits are high and its already-large debt stock and debt servicing costs are rising.
At the same time, the agency affirmed its 'B-/B' long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Lebanon. "Our ratings on Lebanon reflect its sizable fiscal and external deficits and very high and rising public debt levels," read a statement issued by S&P. "These partly stem from weak institutions and sectarian tensions. Lebanon's net general government debt, projected at 133% of GDP in 2019, is the third-highest among all the sovereigns we rate, after Venezuela and Greece."
"The negative outlook reflects the risk that a lack of material reforms to reduce the budget deficit will see investor confidence wane. As a result, nonresident deposit flows may decelerate and foreign exchange reserves could continue to decline, eroding Lebanon's ability to service foreign currency debt."
The rating agency expected deposit inflows to the financial system to rebound following the recent formation of a new government, also anticipating that donor support from Qatar and potentially Saudi Arabia, alongside the Central Bank's servicing of the government's foreign currency debt, will remain sufficient to support the government's borrowing requirements and fund the country's external deficit over the next 12 months. "Our base-case scenario assumes that the government will not restructure or reschedule existing commercial debt; doing so could be considered a default under our criteria," the statement noted. S&P said it could revise the outlook to stable if the Lebanese government is able to advance substantial economic and fiscal reforms that would boost economic growth and reduce debt levels over the medium term, including addressing the gaps and inefficiencies in the electricity sector and reducing interest costs.
"We see long-term constraints on Lebanon's institutional and economic profile, largely stemming from a divided political environment organized along confessional lines," the agency said.Moreover, S&P expected disbursement of the CEDRE funds to be gradual and far lower than the pledged amounts, adding that the implementation of the reforms required from Lebanon remains uncertain.

FM: Australia Open to Follow UK's Lead On Hezbollah
Kataeb.org/Saturday 02nd March 2019/Australia is open to following Britain's lead in labeling Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist group, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said. "I will take the British foreign secretary's perspective on that issue and take it back with me to discuss with my colleagues," Payne told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age during her visit to London earlier this week."Well, we have measures in place as you know, particularly in relation to the ESO and threshold around criminal behaviour, but I would want to look at that carefully with my colleagues," she said.
Britain announced on Monday it will ban Hezbollah, labeling the Lebanese group in its entirety, including its political wing, as a terrorist organization. The UK government said it has taken the decision to proscribe Hezbollah in its entirety on the basis that it is no longer tenable to distinguish between the military and political wings of the group. "It is clear the distinction between Hezbollah’s military and political wings does not exist, and by proscribing Hezbollah in all its forms, the government is sending a clear signal that its destabilising activities in the region are totally unacceptable and detrimental to the UK’s national security," British Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said.

Berri Resolute to Expedite Council to Try Presidents, Ministers
Naharnet/March 02/19/Speaker Nabih Berri expressed determination to form the Higher Council to try presidents and ministers in order to “hold accountable officials who violate the law,” the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat reported on Saturday.
Sources close to Berri told the daily the “obstacle hampering the fight against corruption is that some officials violate the law and find no one to hold them accountable.”The source added: “Several tenders were rejected by the Tenders Department of the Central Inspection Bureau for failure to abide by the law, but despite that some ministers have insisted on them and the file of power barges is a perfect example.”In 2017, a tender put forward by then Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil of the Free Patriotic Movement to lease power generation vessels has been marred by allegations of attempted bribery. Early this week, the Speaker called for a parliament session to elect seven lawmakers for the Higher Council whose function is to try presidents and ministers. The Council consists of seven deputies elected by the Chamber of Deputies and of eight of the highest Lebanese judges, according to their rank in the judicial hierarchy, or, in case of equal ranks, in the order of seniority.

Iran Says British Hizbullah Ban 'Irresponsible'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 02/19/Iran condemned Britain’s decision to outlaw the political wing of Lebanon's Hizbullah movement on Saturday, describing it as "wrong and irresponsible."Britain said Monday it would seek to make membership of the Shiite movement or inviting support for it a crime.
The decision followed outrage over the display of the Hizbullah flag, which features a Kalashnikov assault rifle, at pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London. "Iran considers Hizbullah a legitimate and legal force which plays an effective and undeniable role in helping its country’s political stability and safeguarding its security," the foreign ministry said on its website. "[It] considers the decision to place Hizbullah on a terrorism blacklist to be wrong and irresponsible and one which will not contribute to the stability and security of Lebanon."Hizbullah was established in 1982 during the Lebanese civil war and fought a 2006 war with Israel. It is also a major force in the country's politics, holding three cabinet posts. Britain blacklisted Hizbullah's military wing in 2008 but had until now made no move against its political wing. However, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Monday that any distinction between its military and political wings "does not exist". "This (decision) does not change our ongoing commitment to Lebanon, with whom we have a broad and strong relationship," he said. Tehran is a major supporter of Hizbullah and its "resistance" against the Islamic republic's arch foe Israel. Britain's decision drew swift praise from both Israel and the United States.

Kouyoumjian Presents LF Initiative for Refugee Repatriation
Naharnet/March 02/19/The Lebanese Forces ministers on Saturday presented an initiative to Cabinet to repatriate displaced Syrians back to their homeland, which has become a pressing issue affecting Lebanon’s already ailing economy. LF Minister of Social Affairs Richard Kouyoumjian detailed the initiative in a press conference, he said: “First, the Cabinet is the only place to tackle the repatriation of refugee file. Second, to activate the government decision No. 72 dated 23-5-2014, amended on 11-1-2017 to establish a ministerial committee to follow up the displacement of Syrians.” He said the committee is to be headed by the Prime Minister and the membership of the Ministries of Health, Education, Finance, Foreign, Interior, Social Affairs, Economy, and the State Ministry for Refugee Affairs. “We propose the addition of the Ministry of Labor because of its association with work permits and the organization of Syrian labor,” said the Minister. “Third, to mandate said committee to discuss the return issue and find solutions, mechanisms and standards in coordination with the relevant international bodies, especially the United Nations in order to motivate the return by providing assistance within Syria, as well as coordination with major powers mainly Russia the guardian of the Russian initiative,” he added. “In order to encourage the return, the government should ask the international community to put more pressure on the Syrian regime to demonstrate goodwill by abolishing mandatory military service and financial fines, revising the laws of proving ownership of real estate such as Law 42, and to make guarantees against arbitrary arrests,” he added. Kouyoumjian noted that “as part of a national campaign to register the births of Syrians, the regime should be pressed into canceling fees required for the registration of births at the Syrian embassy and the recognition of birth certificates issued by the Lebanese authorities.”"Fourth, since the return of the displaced will take place across the Lebanese-Syrian land border and since the channels of communication on return are already open with the Syrian side through Lebanon’s General Security, the latter is the eligible body to coordinate their return across the border. The Lebanese government will then cancel all fees to settle the residence conditions of Syrians returning home," the LF minister added. “Fifth, the Ministry of Social Affairs has been mandated to coordinate the humanitarian assistance of the displaced with the relevant international bodies. The Ministry is prepared, according to the plan to be approved by the government, to ask the teams working on the plan to contribute and urge displaced people to return and to take the names of families wishing to do so," he noted.The Ministry of Social Affairs coordinates its work with the Ministry of Interior and with the municipalities and provides a special budget for the work of the Ministry to support the return of displaced persons," Kouyoumjian concluded.

Lebanese Forces Says Hizbullah 'Not Serious' About Fighting Corruption
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 02/19/The Lebanese Forces on Saturday said that Hizbullah was not serious about its calls for fighting corruption and that it took the wrong road by targeting a specific political party and a specific phase. “The fight against corruption should be a daily task, it should not be linked to a specific file that a particular political force must confront. This would rather be targeting a political team under a political title,” LF sources told the daily. They were referring to the indirect corruption accusations fired by Hizbullah against Mustaqbal Movement ex-PM Fouad Saniora during his premiership between 2005 and 2009. During the last cabinet meeting, “had Hizbullah been serious about corruption, it should have rejected, like we and the Free Patriotic Movement did, to grant the “six degrees,” (an adjustment for teachers’ wages amounting to 40 percent increase),” said the sources. They added: “The six degrees violates the State Shura Council and the Civil Service Council decisions that affirmed it is not permissible,” because it would not be fair to everyone. “Hizbullah’s performance at the first test in the cabinet was not in the desired form and indicates its lack of seriousness in the fight against corruption,” they added.

Siniora sheds light on $11B extra spending
Ghinwa Obeid/The Daily Star/March 02/ 2019
BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora Friday denied some $11 billion in extrabudgetary spending during his tenure was illegal, lashing out at Hezbollah for reviving the longstanding controversy.
Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah, who has been tasked to spearhead the party’s fight against corruption, brought the allegations back to the limelight in February when he said that there were “manipulated and missing financial documents that could land a lot of people in jail ... including ex-prime ministers who may be held accountable.”
Thursday, Fadlallah submitted documents to the financial prosecutor to back up his allegations of missing public funds. After his meeting with the prosecutor, Fadlallah reiterated that he has not named or accused anyone, saying that anyone who wants to clear their name “can head to the judiciary.”
Many understood Fadlallah’s remarks to be a reference to Siniora, who has for years been accused of responsibility for the $11 billion in extrabudgetary spending during his tenure as prime minister, between 2005 and 2009.
Siniora said at a news conference Friday that “the $11 billion ... was all spent based on the principle and the provisions of the Constitution and the financial laws.”
The news conference was attended by several senior Future Movement figures, including MP Bahia Hariri, in a show of solidarity with their fellow party member. Several figures from the wider March 14 camp were also in attendance.
Siniora explained that when he assumed office in 2005, the total allocations for that year’s budget were set at LL10 trillion ($6.6 billion). Due to the absence of state budgets in 2006-2016, the state’s spending for these years was done based on the last approved budget - that of 2005.
“This makes the total allocations for the budget for the four years to come [during my premiership] LL40 trillion,” he said.
“But the problem starts here because resorting back to the [2005] budget didn’t reflect the reality of the four years that came.”
Siniora provided numbers on state spending for 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, showing a gradual increase.
He said that the Lebanese state’s commitments and needs had increased to exceed the LL10 trillion budget set back in 2005, as public debt, interest rates, oil prices and wages rose, and the government therefore resorted to extrabudgetary spending to cover these expenses.
This, Siniora said, accounted for the $11 billion.
He also broke down how the $11 billion was spent, including the settling of debts for municipalities, advanced payments and paying for public debt.
Siniora denied that expenditures for those years were unaccounted for, saying that the Finance Ministry had all the necessary documents.
“I have prepared a study that explains things in detail and I will present it to the president, to the prime minister and the speaker,” Siniora said.
Siniora also responded to Fadlallah’s claims that donations that came to Lebanon in the aftermath of the 2006 war Israeli with Lebanon had gone missing.
“The financial grants that were given to Lebanon were placed in the accounts of the Higher Relief Committee at the Central Bank,” he said. “Whoever wants to make sure of that, they have the capability to confirm every penny that the Lebanese state received and every penny that was paid to those affected [by the war.]”Siniora said that any claims that he is responsible for unaccounted-for extrabudgetary spending are “fabrications” to shift attention from more pressing problems the country faces. “The biggest corruption and greatest evil is political corruption. Those who create statelets within states and control its facilities are politically corrupt,” he added, in an implicit reference to Hezbollah. He also indirectly said that Hezbollah has taken Lebanon “hostage” and endangered its interests and economy with its participation in regional conflicts. - Additional reporting by Sahar Houri and Benjamin Redd

Siniora says claims of financial wrongdoing 'fabrications'
The Daily Star/March 02/19/BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Friday that any claims he is responsible for unaccounted-for extrabudgetary spending are “fabrications” to shift attention from more pressing problems the country faces. Siniora was previously accused of being responsible for the disappearance of some $11 billion over the course of his premiership, from 2005 to 2009. But at a news conference, standing alongside graphs and tables that showed spending during his tenure, Siniora claimed that the $11 billion in extrabudgetary spending had in fact gone to interest payments, loans to support electricity and wages for military personnel, whose actual cost would not have been reflected in the old budget. From 2006 to 2017, when the government did not pass a budget, money was allocated under the so-called provisional twelfth rule. The provisional twelfth allows the government to allot the same amount of money to the same expenditures as specified in the next most recent budget if no new budget is passed. According to Siniora, the 2005 budget did not show the increases in costs that occurred throughout his premiership, and so the correspondent increases in spending made to match those rising costs would also not have been reflected. This, Siniora said, accounted for the $11 billion. “The spending was completely lawful,” he added. “Those who say the spending is unaccounted for - then how did the Finance Ministry release the [money]?” Siniora said he will provide the current Cabinet and President Michel Aoun with a study that includes all the details of the spending. He also said his Cabinet had drafted a law in 2006 to subject finances of all state institutions from 1989 to 2005 to an audit under "international auditing standards." “My Cabinet drafted the law and sent it to Parliament, and it has been there since,” Siniora added. Earlier in the week, the head of Hezbollah’s anti-corruption efforts, MP Hasan Fadlallah, had submitted documents to Lebanon’s financial prosecutor as proof of allegations he had formerly made that there were “manipulated and missing financial documents that could land a lot of people in jail ... including ex-prime ministers, who may be held accountable.”However, Fadlallah did not name or accuse anyone when making his allegations, saying that anyone who wants to clear his name "can head to the judiciary."

Siniora Lashes Out at Hezbollah: Corrupt Are Those who Establish Statelets
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/March, 02/19/Former Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Friday hit back at Hezbollah for accusing him of illegally spending $11 billion during his tenure. “The biggest corruption and greatest evil is political corruption. Those who create statelets within states and control its facilities are politically corrupt,” Siniora said during a press conference he held in Beirut, in an implicit reference to the Shiite party. The former PM said that Hezbollah’s campaign against him aims to demonize all the governments headed by late former Premier Rafik Hariri and attack him as well as all the prime ministers who followed him, including Saad Hariri. Last month, Hezbollah revived the longstanding controversy on the $11 billion spent during Siniora’s tenure in 2006 and 2007, when the Shiite party’s ministers had boycotted cabinet sessions. Hezbollah deputy Hassan Fadlallah recently said that there were “manipulated and missing financial documents that could land a lot of people in jail.”Two days ago, Fadlallah submitted the documents to the financial prosecutor, Judge Ali Ibrahim, who launched a probe by summoning an employee from the Ministry of Finance to hear her testimony. Siniora explained that the spending, whether from the budget appropriations or the treasury, was not illegal. “It was fully legal under the acts of Parliament. The spending was subject to the same mechanisms stipulated in the Public Accountancy Act, beginning with the prior and subsequent monitoring and approval of the expenditure controller and the Audit Court,” he said. Siniora added that every disbursement is recorded, audited and available. “Expenditures have full records in the ministries, including the Ministry of Finance, and published on its website,” he said.

Why Hezbollah is spearheading an ‘anti-corruption’ campaign
Bassem Ajami/Annahar/March 02/19
But why would Hezbollah want to target Siniora?
The fight against corruption is starting on the wrong foot. It is turning into a vehicle for politicians to distract attention from their own corruption and advance their agendas.
A striking example is Hezbollah's embrace of the cause.
Hezbollah is targeting former prime minister Fouad Siniora. The party accuses him of misappropriating $11 billion of government funds. The accusation has been repeatedly made by the "Axis of Resistance" several times before, and each time Siniora offered the same convincing answer.
But why would Hezbollah want to target Siniora?
The confrontation between Hezbollah and Siniora is one between two radically opposed mindsets. Siniora stands for everything Hezbollah is not. He stands for the state and its institutions, while the party stands for weakening the state and its institutions. Siniora wants to strengthen Lebanon's independence, while Hezbollah aims to drag Lebanon into the Iranian orbit. The difference between the two mindsets manifested itself in several confrontations. Below are some examples:
Siniora pushed for the establishment of the international tribunal to investigate the assassination of Rafic Hariri, while Hezbollah, which stands accused of the murder, strongly objected to it. Moreover, during the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon, Siniora, who was prime minister, refused a proposal by Syria and Iran to negotiate on behalf of Lebanon the terms of the ceasefire, while Hezbollah enthusiastically supported the proposal. And after the war, Siniora refused Hezbollah's demand that donations to rebuild the areas devastated by the war be handed to the party.
Still, in 2007, Hezbollah strongly objected to Siniora's government decision to deploy the Lebanese army to fight the shadowy group, Fath al Islam. The terrorist organization had taken over the Nahr al Bared Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon. Its aim was to turn Tripoli into a Sunni emirate.
Moreover, in 2007, Siniora defiantly stayed put in the Grand Serail, the official headquarters of the prime minister, while Hezbollah and its allies besieged it for a year and a half.
These and other confrontations convinced the militant group that Siniora was adamant in his opposition to its long term agenda. Consequently, the party began a character assassination effort against him. And the anti corruption sentiment that currently sweeps the country provided a suitable opportunity.
All praise for Hezbollah in its fight against Israel. But if the party truly wants to fight corruption it should start with its own practices at home. The bottom line is not to abuse its popularity to make unwarranted political gains. It should take a close look at its own behavior. The fact that the party is armed, financed, fed and inspired by a foreign country is against the law. Moreover, its use of its military force to intimidate the Lebanese is against the law. And keeping the presidency vacant for two years, insisting on installing its own candidate, defies the law.
Combating corruption is not a political issue. It is a law and order issue. The Lebanese penal code includes the necessary laws to realize that objective. It is the same politicians who make noises about the need to fight corruption who prevent their implementation.
*Mr. Ajami is a freelance researcher, writer, and contributor to The Arab Weekly, London. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Annahar.

Hezbollah Rejects UK’s Terrorist Group Listing
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 2 March, 2019/Hezbollah condemned on Friday London's decision to list it as a terrorist organization, saying in a statement that the Lebanese party was a "resistance movement against Israeli occupation." The British move showed "servile obedience" to the United States, it said. "No country in the world that embraces terrorism, funds and supports it has the right to accuse Hezbollah or any other resistance movement of being terrorist," the Iran-backed party said. The statement also described the move as an "insult to the feelings, sympathies and will of the Lebanese people that consider Hezbollah a major political and popular force and granted it large representation in parliament and in the new government.”The British ban means anyone who is a member of Hezbollah or invites support will be committing a criminal offense with a potential jail sentence of up to 10 years.

Latest LCCC English Miscellaneous Reports & News published on March 02-03/2019
US-Backed Syrian Forces Advance in Final Battle Against ISIS
London- Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 2 March, 2019/The ISIS faced final territorial defeat on Saturday as the US-backed Syrian force battling the militants said it was closing in on their last bastion near the Iraqi border, capping four years of efforts to roll back the group. Mustafa Bali of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces says fighters are advancing on two fronts amid intense fighting with the extremists in the last area they control. Bali tweeted Saturday that "heavy clashes" are taking place in the area on the east bank of the Euphrates River. He said three SDF fighters were wounded. The SDF on Friday evening resumed military operations to liberate the last piece of territory held by ISIS in the province of Deir Ezzor after evacuating thousands of civilians and hostages who had been besieged inside. The Associated Press quoted Zana Amedi, an SDF commander, as saying that "an active ground force" is advancing into ISIS-held territories as the extremists resort to sniper fire and booby-traps. While the fall of Baghouz, an eastern Syrian village on the bank of the Euphrates River, would mark a milestone in the campaign against ISIS, they remain a threat, using guerrilla tactics and holding some desolate land further west. An array of enemies, both local and international, confronted ISIS after it declared a modern-day "caliphate" in 2014 across large swathes of territory it had seized in lightning offensives in Syria and neighboring Iraq. Thousands of ISIS fighters and followers, who had retreated to Baghouz as the group was gradually driven out of those lands, have poured out of the tiny cluster of hamlets and farmlands in Deir Ezzor province over the last few weeks.
Their evacuation held up the final assault until Friday evening when the SDF said it had advanced and would not stop until the militants were defeated. "We expect it to be over soon," Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told Reuters. The SDF commander-in-chief said on Thursday that his force would declare victory within a week. He was later contradicted by US President Donald Trump, who said the SDF had retaken 100 percent of the territory once held by IS. Washington has about 2,000 troops in Syria, mainly to support the SDF in fighting ISIS. Trump announced in December he would withdraw all of them, but the White House partially reversed itself last month, saying some 400 troops would stay. Some 40,000 people bearing various nationalities have left the militants' diminishing territory in the last three months as the SDF sought to oust the militants from remaining pockets. The number of evacuees streaming out of Baghouz surpassed initial estimates of how many were inside. An SDF commander told Reuters on Thursday that many of the people leaving the enclave had been sheltering underground in caves and tunnels.

Chemical Weapons Watchdog: Chlorine was Used in Syria's Douma
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 2 March, 2019/Inspectors have concluded that a "toxic chemical" containing chlorine was used in an attack last year in the Syrian town of Douma, at the time held by rebels but besieged by pro-regime forces, the global chemical weapons agency said on Friday. The attack on April 7 killed dozens of civilians and prompted air strikes against the regime of Bashar Assad by Britain, France and the United States. In a statement, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said the mission visited Douma, analyzed samples taken from the scene and from people affected, interviewed witnesses and studied toxicological and ballistics analyses. The data, it said, provided "reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon" took place on April 7, 2018. "This toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine. The toxic chemical was likely molecular chlorine." The Fact Finding Mission's mandate does not include laying blame for the attack. In December, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Syria to resolve "gaps, inconsistencies and discrepancies" in its declaration of chemical weapons.The UN chief said in a letter to the Security Council that he is "deeply concerned about the continued use of toxic chemicals as weapons” in Syria.

OPEC Oil Supply Lowest Since 2015
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 2 March, 2019/OPEC oil supply fell to a four-year low in February, a Reuters survey found, as top exporter Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies over-delivered on the group's supply pact while Venezuelan output registered a further involuntary decline.The 14 OPEC members pumped 30.68 million barrels per day (bpd) in February, the survey showed on Friday, the lowest OPEC total since 2015, according to Reuters surveys. OPEC, Russia and other non-members -- an alliance known as OPEC+ -- agreed to reduce supply by 1.2 million bpd. OPEC's share is 800,000 bpd, to be delivered by 11 members – all except Iran, Libya and Venezuela, which are exempt from cuts. In February, the 11 OPEC members bound by the deal achieved 101 percent of pledged cuts, the survey found, up from 70 percent in January. Among exempt producers, Venezuelan supply fell, while Iran managed to boost exports despite also being subject to US sanctions. The latest OPEC+ deal came just months after the group agreed to pump more oil, which in turn partially unwound their original supply-limiting accord that took effect in 2017. Oil has risen to $66 a barrel after a dip below $50 in December, boosted by lower Saudi output, involuntary curbs in other OPEC countries and the prospect of lower supply from Venezuela after US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on its oil industry. Russia's energy minister Alexander Novak said on Friday that it was too early to say if the global deal to cut oil production between OPEC and other large oil producers would be extended. "There is no answer to this question now," Novak told reporters. "It is too early because only two months have passed."

Bashir Delegates Party Powers to Deputy Ahmed Haroun
Khartoum- Ahdem Younes /Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 2 March, 2019/Ever since Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has pledged to be at an equal distance from the people, news have made the rounds on the appointment of former Wali (governor) of North Kordofan State Ahmed Haroun as acting head of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP). However, the decision on granting Haroun the President’s powers was only announced late Thursday, following a prolonged meeting of the party’s leadership chaired by Bashir. The President’s move, albeit tactically, to step down from the party’s presidency has raised controversy. Haroun’s remarks after his appointment made the issue even more ambiguous. Following the meeting, he told reporters that the party’s leaders were briefed by Bashir on the country’s political situation, and then were informed of delegating Haroun with the President's powers in order to be able to carry out his national duties and organizational work. The party leadership expressed understanding of the President’s move and readiness to arrange and adjust the party's situation to ensure it contributes positively to Bashir’s decision, Haroun added. Spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals Association Mohamed al-Asbat said Bashir wants to surround himself with his supporters rather than relying on a military team. This change also includes an “intimidation message” to protesters and rebels that his team has a history of “ending conflicts violently regardless of local or international charges against them,” he stressed. Like Bashir, Haroun has an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court.

Jubeir: We Regret Continued Houthi Coup Against Legitimacy in Yemen
Abu Dhabi- Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 2 March, 2019/Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al Jubeir expressed his country’s regret about the continued terrorist Houthi militias’ coup against legitimacy in Yemen. Jubeir, who is also spokesman for the Arab group at the 46th session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers, renewed support for UN Secretary General’s efforts exerted to reach a political solution in Yemen and Swedish agreement, which is considered a significant step to restore legitimacy in the war-torn country. During a session chaired by UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the UAE Dr. Anwar Gargash, Jubeir said the Arab Group is steadfast in its supporting position on the Palestinians' right to establish their independent state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
“Terrorism and extremism are among the most important challenges facing the entire world,” Jubeir noted, calling on Arab countries to intensify international cooperation to eliminate terrorism and eradicate its sources. Iran continues its approach to interfere in countries’ affairs, support terrorism, and occupy the three UAE islands: Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa, Jubeir stressed, affirming the sovereignty of the three UAE islands. He also affirmed Arab countries’ support for the OIC efforts in addressing what is known as Islamophobia. For his part, Abdul Razzaq Gambogo, Gabonese Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and spokesman for the African Group, expressed his aspiration to cooperate with the OIC and strengthen partnerships with its member states. “We are keen to face challenges hindering development in our societies,” Gambogo said, stressing that Africa has the required tools to combat extremists. Afghani Minister of Foreign Affairs Salahuddin Rabbani, spokesman for the Asian Group, however, said the Islamic world is rich and full of human and material resources. “We have been working to enter the fourth industrial revolution and keep pace with technological developments in the region,” he added. "OIC Council of Foreign Ministers’ meeting will boost the Palestinian cause’s status by providing so much support and delivering a message from the Islamic world countries to the international community to deal more effectively with this cause," said Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad al-Maliki.

Houthis ‘Manipulate’ Stockholm Agreement, Legitimacy Calls for Decisive Int’l Stance
Aden - Ali Rabih/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 2 March, 2019/Houthi militias have continued to shy away from the implementation of the first phase of the Stockholm Agreement on Hodeidah that was struck between Yemen’s warring sides in the Swedish capital in December. Yemen’s Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani said the deadline for the Houthi withdrawal from the ports of of Saleef and Ras Issa ended on Thursday, adding that the insurgents were “manipulating” the deal on redeployment of forces in line with the plan proposed by the head of the UN observer mission in Yemen, Danish former general Michael Lollesgaard. Yamani urged Lollesgaard, who also leads the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC), and UN special envoy Martin Griffiths to take a decisive stance from the Houthi “procrastination and the militias’ intransigence.” In a statement published by Saba news agency, the Foreign Minister said: “The UN should raise its voice and urgently name the party that is rejecting and preventing the implementation of the (Stockholm) Agreement.”The deadline for the implementation of the redeployment’s first phase ended on Thursday and the insurgents continue to reject their pullout from Saleef and Ras Issa “for unknown reasons,” Yamani added. His statement came as British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt met in Oman on Friday with Houthi spokesman Mohamed Abdul Salem. He said he asked the militias to speed up their withdrawal from the ports. “Just met Houthi spokesman Mohamed Abdul Salem in Oman. I welcome progress in Hodeidah port discussions but withdrawal of Houthi troops needs to happen SOON to maintain confidence in Stockholm and allow opening of vital humanitarian channels,” Hunt said on his official Twitter account. Meanwhile, Griffiths left Sanaa empty-handed after holding three days of talks with Houthi leaders in hopes of convincing them to implement the pullout plan drawn by Lollesgaard. According to informed political sources in Sanaa, the head of the militias refused to meet with the UN envoy, a move that clearly indicates the manipulative behavior of Houthis and their rejection of peace in Yemen.

Algerians March en Masse, Calling on Bouteflika to Step Down
Algiers – Boualem Goumrassa/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 2 March, 2019/Huge crowds have called on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to leave office during demonstrations held after Friday prayers in the capital and other cities across Algeria. A sea of demonstrators, young and old, had thronged the streets chanting "Bye, bye Bouteflika!" and "Peaceful! Peaceful!" Many were draped in the Algerian flag and carried placards and banners. Large scale demonstrations against plans for Bouteflika to seek a fifth term in power in April elections began a week ago, but Friday saw the biggest turnout yet. “Our response to (Prime Minister Ahmed) Ouyahia has been strong …. Algeria will never be another Syria, there will never be a bloodshed,” said Radia, a university student. On Thursday, Ouyahia warned in remarks at the parliament “against a repeat of the Syrian scenario in Algeria.”Another demonstrator, Ibrahim Aisaroun said that he had a duty to participate with his compatriots in “this celebration.”“It’s about time for this regime to go,” said the mobile phone vendor. “It is no longer acceptable for them to hide behind a sick man incapable of running the country,” said Aisaroun about Bouteflika and his entourage. The 81-year-old president suffered a stroke in 2013 and has been seen in public only a few times since. His candidacy for the April 18 election stoked resentment among Algerians who believe he is not fit to lead. In several of Friday’s protests, police confronted demonstrators by firing tear gas amid clashes that left dozens of people injured. Crowds included families with small children and women. The protests have been largely organized by a movement called Mouwatana, or citizenship, that gathers various opposition parties and activists and wants Bouteflika to renounce his decision to seek a new term. The president has been in Switzerland for the past week for “routine medical checks” announced by his office in a statement.

Israel Warns of Deteriorating Security Situation over ‘Deal of the Century’
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 2 March, 2019/A senior Israeli official warned that the Palestinian response to the US peace plan in the Middle East would stir mass protests that would be counterproductive and lead to a deterioration in the region’s security situation. Instead of reaching peace, the Deal of the Century would cause war, the unidentified official stressed. In his remarks to the press in Tel Aviv on Friday, the official said the US administration disregarded warnings by Israeli and Arab officials and experts regarding its plan. “In case of failure, the Americans don’t have an alternative plan,” said the official. “So, the obvious result would be a total collapse, the return to a political vacuum, a deep economic crisis in the West Bank and Gaza, and an armed confrontation.”His comments came as a response to remarks made by a US official on the Deal. Military analyst at Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper Alex Fishman quoted the official as saying that after the plan’s announcement, all Palestinian families will be able to sit around the dinner table, read it with their children and see to what extent it could be adopted. “They will exert pressure on Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) to change his position and support the plan,” the US official naively added. The Israeli official expressed surprise at the remarks, especially that the US official constantly visits the Middle East since President Donald Trump came to power in January 2017. The US official’s optimism emanates from the simplicity of the plan’s clauses, which according to the Israeli official do not include complicated legal terminologies for the sole purpose of convincing the Palestinian public on the importance of its adoption, such as providing them with work, money, freedom of movement and certain extent of sovereignty. According to Fishman, the Israeli official said that when a naive person and an amateur meet, they create a disaster, adding that Trump’s plan could worsen tension between Israel and Palestinians.

Graft accusation piles pressure on Israel’s Netanyahu as election looms
Reuters, Jerusalem/Saturday, 02/ March 2019/Protesters waved black flags outside Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence on Friday, sensing vulnerability in the Israeli prime minister weeks before an election where he will face looming corruption charges as well as a surging new rival. Netanyahu’s aim of a fifth term on April 9 that would make him Israel’s longest-serving premier were dealt a blow by the announcement on Thursday of his planned indictment on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. A poll by the public broadcaster Kan gave his right-wing Likud party 29 of parliament’s 120 seats, behind the 37 predicted for Blue and White, a centrist alliance led by charismatic ex-general Benny Gantz. The survey further indicated that center-left parties taken together would win 61 seats, potentially enough to form a government. Yuval Steinitz, a Likud cabinet minister, told Tel Aviv 102 FM radio he was “confident that Netanyahu will continue being able to contend with pressure of whatever kind”. Former party leader Ariel Sharon won a 2003 election and went on to form a coalition government despite a graft scandal, Steinitz noted. But one of the opposition Labor party flag-wavers, Alon Visser, said: “It is a black day for the citizens of Israel. We are all ashamed of our prime minister and we are calling him with one big voice: Please resign from your office.”Netanyahu is suspected of wrongfully accepting $264,000-worth of gifts from tycoons and dispensing favors in an attempt to secure positive coverage in a newspaper and on a website. He denies any wrongdoing, but could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of bribery. However, charges cannot be filed until Netanyahu has been given a chance to address a review hearing - which is unlikely to happen before the election. In the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan, social worker Coral Kala, 24, said she had not been surprised by the indictment announcement: “I think everyone was expecting this to happen.”But others echoed the position of Netanyahu, widely known as Bibi, that the political and media elites are against him. “I think that Bibi did a wonderful job,” said Tzipi Amit, 44, from Petah Tikva. “All the news and reporters want to hurt him and they are not fair to him ... All of us are people, all of us make mistakes.”

Israel Closes Jerusalem Restaurant for Hiring Staff From West Bank
Jerusalem- Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 2 March, 2019/Israeli authorities on Friday shut down a Palestinian restaurant in Salah al-Din Street in occupied East Jerusalem, under the pretext of hiring a West Bank resident as an employee. Local sources said that Israeli authorities hung up an order closing Abu Ali Hummus and Falafel Restaurant for ten days under the pretext of employing a West Bank resident, who did not obtain an Israeli entry permit to enter Jerusalem. Sources added that the owner of the restaurant, Rashdi Ishti, was summoned for interrogation by Israeli police forces and was informed regarding the order to shut down his business. The owner did not receive prior notice concerning the Israeli decision. Under Israel's permit regime, Palestinian residents of the West Bank are not allowed to access occupied East Jerusalem or Israel without an Israeli-issued permit, and many risk being shot and injured while trying to cross into Israel to work. Tens of thousands of Palestinian workers are forced to seek a living by working in Israel due to crippling unemployment in the West Bank, as the growth of an independent Palestinian economy has been stifled under the ongoing Israeli military occupation, according to rights groups. Workers who hold Israeli entry permits, however, must endure long waits either at the Checkpoint 300 or the Qalandiya Checkpoint, the only two access points Palestinians from the southern and central West Bank have to Jerusalem and Israel. Additionally, the rules only allow Palestinians with blue identity card -- either those who are Israeli citizens of East Jerusalem residents -- to enter, meaning even Palestinians over the age of 45 who are from the West Bank or elsewhere are unable to enter. Palestinians who remained in Jerusalem after the 1967 war when Israel seized the city were granted temporary residency permits, or “blue ID” cards, which could be confiscated from Jerusalemites by Israel under different legal pretexts. In contrast, Palestinians living in other parts of the West Bank hold Palestinian Authority identity cards, or “green ID” cards. Palestinian West Bank identity holders have to apply to the s-called Israeli Civil Administration to obtain entry permits to Jerusalem.

UAE Urges Iran to Reconsider its Policies in the Region
Abu Dhabi - Musaid al-Zayani/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 2 March, 2019/UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan has reiterated his call on the Iranian regime to reconsider its policies with regard to building friendly ties with its neighbors based on non-interference in their internal affairs. In delivering a keynote address at the 46th Session of the Foreign Ministers Council of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Abdullah said: “Iran is also demanded to stop its efforts to destabilize the region by spreading chaos and fueling sectarian disputes and refrain from supporting groups that add fuel to conflict.”Tehran should also “stop sponsoring, financing and arming terror militias and organizations which brazenly violate the United Nations Charter and other noble human values.”Turning to issues concerning the OIC, the Foreign Minister said that “the economic and social deterioration is one of the daunting challenges facing its member states.”He noted the “successful model” of the UAE, saying his country is “keen to adopt a foreign policy that includes development, humanitarian and cultural dimensions to assist Islamic countries and contribute in their efforts to deliver sustainable development goals.''Sheikh Abdullah opened on Friday the two-day conference in the presence of OIC Secretary General Dr. Yousuf Al Othaimeen. “The meeting convenes at a time when the world is witnessing a series of important regional and international transformations, which place us before a challenge to cope with them in order to meet aspirations of our peoples and preserve our national security,'' UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said. He reiterated his support for the Palestinian people in their quest to enjoy their legitimate rights, topped by their call for an independent state, with Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and international resolutions. He described Islam as a religion of tolerance and peace that renounces extremism and terrorism. He also called for “adopting necessary measures against all forms of terrorism and extremism through the media, including a study to form a mechanism to address these issues with resoluteness and to cease providing direct or indirect support to entities and individuals involved in terrorism and extremism and refrain from harboring them, offering them safe haven, financing or assisting them.''

U.S. Hits Venezuela Officials with Sanctions for Blocking Aid
Associated Press/Naharnet/March 02/19/The Trump administration imposed sanctions Friday on six high-ranking members of the Venezuelan security forces and revoked the visas of other officials and their relatives in the latest effort to pressure President Nicolas Maduro into leaving office. The sanctions are in response to the blocking of humanitarian aid convoys last week while the visa revocations on dozens of individuals are intended to punish people who have flourished amid the South American country's dire economic crisis, Elliott Abrams, the special representative for Venezuela, told reporters. "Maduro supporters that abuse or violate human rights, steal from the Venezuelan people or undermine Venezuela's democracy are not welcome in the United States," Abrams said. "Neither are their family members who enjoy a privileged lifestyle at the expense of the liberty and prosperity of millions of Venezuelans."
The measures were the latest by the Trump administration to increase the international pressure on Maduro, whose re-election last year is seen as illegitimate, to resign and turn power over to the opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has been recognized by the U.S. and 50 other government as interim president.
The State Department later said that the U.S. had revoked the visas of 49 people, making them subject to deportation if they are in the country. It placed an unspecified number of others on a visa restriction list. The U.S. already has travel bans on other high-ranking Venezuelan officials connected to Maduro who are accused of committing human rights abuses or corruption. Separately, the Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions on six officials from the National Guard and police who are allied with Maduro. These officials played a role in closing Venezuela's borders with Brazil and Colombia to prevent the entry of assistance from countries opposed to Maduro's continued rule. Maduro's forces fired tear gas and buckshot at activists trying to deliver humanitarian aid in violent clashes on Feb. 23, leaving two people dead and about 300 injured.
Friday's action targets six security officials "who control many of the groups that prevented humanitarian aid from entering Venezuela, thereby exacerbating the humanitarian crisis that has left millions of Venezuelans starving and without access to medical care under the Maduro regime," Treasury said in a statement.
The sanctions block any assets they have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from conducting financial transactions with them. Those targeted are Richard Jesus Lopez, the commander of Venezuela's National Guard; Jesus Maria Mantilla, the commander of Venezuela's Strategic Integral Defense Region Guayana; Alberto Mirtiliano Bermudez, the general in charge of Venezuela's Integral Defense Zone in Bolivar State, which borders Brazil; Jose Leonardo Noronom, the general in charge of Venezuela's Integral Defense Zone in Tachira State, which borders Colombia; Jose Miguel Dominguez, a national police commander in Tachira; and Cristhiam Abelardo Morales, another commander in Tachira. The men are part of security forces that have remained loyal to Maduro and are essential to his hold on power in the once-prosperous country. Guaido had announced that last weekend's attempt to deliver U.S.-supplied humanitarian aid from Colombia into Venezuela would be politically decisive, but Maduro called the aid part of a scheme to overthrow his government. Maduro has denounced his opponents as killers and criminals in fiery speeches reminiscent of the style of his predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chavez.

Anger over 'Forced' Video of Indian Pilot amid New Kashmir Deaths
Associated Press/Naharnet/March 02/19/A furious backlash erupted in India Saturday over a video of an Indian pilot shot down by Pakistan praising his captors, as deadly tensions simmered between the neighbours with fierce shelling across their Kashmir frontier.Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, whose MiG fighter was shot down Wednesday as he chased Pakistani jets over disputed Kashmir, crossed over at the Wagah frontier late Friday several hours after the scheduled time. His capture had become the centrepiece of hostilities between the arch-rivals after a February 14 suicide bombing in Kashmir killed 40 Indian paramilitaries. Abhinandan, who ejected to safety but was set upon by a crowd on the Pakistani side of the Kashmir ceasefire line, had a noticeable black eye and was immediately taken for a medical checkup before a debriefing by military and intelligence agencies.
Media reports said Abhinandan's return to India had been held up because the pilot was forced to make the video before getting his freedom. In the heavily edited video distributed by the Pakistani military just before his release, he praised the professionalism of the Pakistani army and criticised Indian media for creating war hysteria. "The army personnel saved me from the mob. The Pakistani army is very professional and I am impressed by it," he said. Omar Abdullah, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state, said the video tainted Pakistan's gesture to return the pilot so quickly. "Sadly the image you paint for us is marred terribly by the video he's forced to record just before you sent him back," Abdullah said on Twitter. "That high moral ground you had bequeathed to yourselves slipped at the end." Indian media slammed the video as "distasteful" and said it breached international norms for prisoners of war.
"There is no peace without dignity and Pakistan just forgot that basic lesson in violation of Geneva convention," wrote Rajdeep Sardesai, a top editor with the India Today group. India's feverish social media also slammed the video, which was tweeted by the Pakistan government but later taken off its official account.
- 'Just want peace' -
Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the country had acted with prudence in releasing the pilot. "There was no pressure on Pakistan to release him nor any compulsion," he told BBC Urdu. "We wanted to convey to them that we do not want to increase your sorrow, we do not want to mistreat your citizens, we just want peace." Pakistan media praised the government for releasing the pilot, with lawyer Shahzaib Khan writing in the Express Tribune that Prime Minister Imran Khan had "done Pakistan proud by not engaging in chest thumping or war-mongering for political gain." Some social media users though criticised the military video, calling it "cheap" and "unnecessary". "Not a good idea. This will backfire," said Gul Bukhari, a prominent critic of the government and the powerful military. Abhinandan was captured a day after Indian planes bombed what New Delhi said was a militant camp in Pakistan, in retaliation for the Kashmir suicide bombing claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group. The end of the air raids did not stop more violence raging in Kashmir, with both sides firing mortars and artillery over the frontier Saturday. Two Pakistani army soldiers were killed in Nakiyal sector in one cross border exchange of fire, the Pakistan military said. "Pakistan Army troops gave a befitting response by targeting Indian posts," said a statement that accused the Indian army of deliberately targeting civilians. At least 12 civilians have been killed on either side of the frontier since the start of the week, including a mother and her two children whose house was pulverised by a mortar shell on the Indian side on Friday. Two civilians on the Pakistan side have also been killed since Friday afternoon. Five Indian security personnel were killed Friday in a gunfight after troops laid siege to a house where militants were hiding in Handwara district.

Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 02-03/2019
The Putin-Netanyahu deal to remove foreign forces from Syria breaks new ground for both
اتفاق بوتين ونيتنايو لإخراج القوى الأجنبية من سوريا يخلق أرضية جديدة لكليهما
Debka File/March 02/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/72666/the-putin-netanyahu-deal-to-remove-foreign-forces-from-syria-breaks-new-ground-for-both-%d8%a7%d8%aa%d9%81%d8%a7%d9%82-%d8%a8%d9%88%d8%aa%d9%8a%d9%86-%d9%88%d9%86%d9%8a%d8%aa%d9%86%d8%a7%d9%8a%d9%88/
When President Vladimir Putin sat down with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Feb. 27, the US envoy Jared Kushner was in Ankara and two days earlier, Bashar Assad arrived in Tehran on a surprise visit. All the parties involved in Syria were on the move to break the deadlock on Syria’s future. And for the first time, Israel’s leader was given a place at the table by the Russian president.
The only Iranian officials who knew the Syrian leader was coming on Monday, Feb. 25 were supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s Middle East commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani. No word leaked from their tightly closed-door conversations. However, the ayatollah is believed to have directed Assad to hand over to Iranian firms all the contracts for his country’s vast reconstruction projects and to turn away all oil-rich Arab emirates funding propositions.
In Moscow, Israel’s Military Intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Tamir Hayman spread before Putin maps showing Iranian military sites in Syria. Netanyahu’s main object in meeting Putin at this time was to prevent Iran from establishing a military presence in Syria. The Russian leader replied that both Jerusalem and Moscow have a common goal, which is “to return the situation in Syria to what it was before the eight-year long civil war.”
This was a landmark departure for both. Its epic significance was shouted down by Israel’s tempestuous election campaign and the attorney general’s ruling on the bribery case against the prime minister. What happened in Moscow was that Netanyahu broke with the conventional wisdom of his own intelligence chiefs, who consistently claimed that Assad had lost the war and that the IDF had destroyed 90 percent of Iran’s military structures in Syria. Admitting that neither was realistic, he struck a deal with Putin for setting up a joint Russian-Israeli commission for the removal of all foreign forces from Syria.
For Putin this was an audacious albeit calculated move. If Assad, whose regime he had saved, could fly to Tehran without a word to Moscow, Putin was ready to introduce Israel into discussions on the future of Syria. After last month’s talks with Iran’s Hassan Rouhani and Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan in Sochi, the Russian president was bringing Netanyahu into the equation.
The prime minister also trod on new terrain when he agreed to talk with the Russian president on ways to remove “all foreign forces” from Syria – American as well as Iranian – and even to discuss the security arrangements to prevail after they were gone.
As for Jared Kushner’s meetings that same Wednesday with Erdogan, the official word was that they discussed the US Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. What they really talked about was the creation of a Turkish-led buffer zone in northern Syria and the sale of US Patriot air defense missiles for the Turkish army, provided Erdogan cancelled his S-400 missile deal with Moscow.
Therefore, while in Ankara, Kushner discussed with Erdogan the introduction of Turkish troops into Syria (on certain conditions), in Moscow, Netanyahu and Putin laid plans for the withdrawal of all foreign troops. It will take a while to find out whether these discussions lead anywhere or peter out like so many other moves on Syria. It will be interesting to see if Netanyahu can serve as a bridge between Donald Trump and Putin on the Syrian question. The US president’s hands are tied by the conspiracy climate in Washington around any connection with Moscow.
Netanyahu too is hobbled by the charged atmosphere over the allegations against him and his challengers’ loud calls for his resignation. Nevertheless, while both are severely hampered for seizing bold new initiatives, Putin has opened a door .

The United Church of Christ Wrongfully Attacks Israel
Denis MacEoin/Gatestone Institute/March 02/19
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13656/ucc-attacks-israel
Mistakes and falsehoods such as those we encounter throughout the UCC's misnamed guide to "Promoting a Just Peace in Palestine-Israel", each one seemingly trivial, cannot be dismissed as the results of a moment's inattention. Much effort has gone into the writing of this Guide, and factual errors, which take up so much of the text, are clearly the result of conscious assumptions that have never been checked against reputable facts.
If a body of Christians really cares about Palestinian lives, Muslim and Christian alike, not to mention the lives of Israeli children, the lives of everyone on either side, then supporting an illegal and fanatical use of violence by telling lies and permitting distortions in order to incite an anti-Semitic hatred that will embolden and activate further terrorist attacks is beyond measure a contradiction of normative Christian ethics.
The UCC cannot continue to assert its association with Jesus Christ, a man of peace, when they so openly espouse the cause of Palestinian resistance that embraces violence as a solution above any form of peace-making. Jesus said "Blessed be the peace-makers", yet here is a Christian church that blesses men of violence.
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a shrinking Christian denomination mainly active in the United States, and "perhaps the most liberal of the Mainline Protestant American denominations". With just under a million members and 5,000 churches (down from two million members and 7,000 churches in 1957, when it was founded), it still has prominent congregations in the heartland of the American Congregationalist movements, in states such as Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Although the UCC's membership has included many US governors, senators, Supreme Court Justices such as William H. Rehnquist; some outstanding theologians such as H. Richard Niebuhr, his older brother Reinhold, and Paul Tillich; and several writers, and academics, it is, however, best known today as the church that U.S. President Barack Obama attended for twenty years between 1988 and 2008. For all that time, it was his spiritual home: "Trinity was where I found Jesus Christ, where we were married, where our children were baptized." He attended Trinity UCC in Chicago, with the largest of the denomination's congregations, some 10,000 members. Trinity UCC is a black or "Afrocentric" church that bases itself on the pursuit of love and justice. Its black congregation stands out as different from the wider UCC's mainly white membership.
Obama's "close spiritual advisor" in the church was none other than its senior pastor, Jeremiah Alvesta Wright Jr., who served as pastor there from 1972 to 2008. Wright was not merely a radical, but apparently believed and "preached anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, advocated bizarre pseudo-scientific racial ideas, opposed interracial marriage, praised communist dictatorships, denounced black 'assimilation' ... and really believed that HIV/AIDS was created by the American government to kill black people."
As if this were not enough, Wright harboured deep anti-American beliefs. In a sermon delivered on September 16, 2001, entitled, "The Day of Jerusalem's Fall," Wright appeared to celebrate white America's suffering:
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye... We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
It is clear that Jeremiah Wright has a strange understanding of love and justice. And it is also disconcerting that Obama spent twenty years attending his sermons and called him a close spiritual mentor. Perhaps Trinity Church and Pastor Wright are aberrations in the belief and practice of the United Church of Christ as a whole. It could well be that other churches within the denomination are milder in their views and affiliations. On one topic, however, there is clear unanimity between Wright and the wider church. That topic is the Palestinians and Israel. It is there in the above-quoted statement by Wright: "We supported state terrorism against the Palestinians...."
It is even more evident in a speech given by Wright in 2015, in which he declared without blushing that "Jesus was a Palestinian". He also compared young black men and women in Ferguson with the young men and women in "Palestine".
This and other statements were delivered at a Nation of Islam event in Washington D.C. Speaking of the Black Lives Matter movement, Wright said:
"The same issue is being fought today and has been fought since 1948, and historians are carried back to the 19th century ... when the original people, the Palestinians — and please remember, Jesus was a Palestinian — the Palestinian people had the Europeans come and take their country."
The speech was, in short, a farrago of counter-historical nonsense. He said further, citing the modish notion of intersectionality:
"The youth in Ferguson and the youth in Palestine have united together to remind us that the dots need to be connected. And what Dr. King said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, has implications for us as we stand beside our Palestinian brothers and sisters, who have been done one of the most egregious injustices in the 20th and 21st centuries."
Really? More egregious than Cambodia or Maoist China or the Jewish Holocaust or Stalinist Russia?
He then went on to condemn Israel as an "apartheid state", and repeated one of the most ubiquitous lies in modern history:
"As we sit here, there is an apartheid wall being built twice the size of the Berlin Wall in height, keeping Palestinians off of illegally occupied territories, where the Europeans have claimed that land as their own. Palestinians are saying 'Palestinian lives matter.' We stand with you, we support you, we say God bless you."It is hardly a secret that former US President Barack Obama held the state of Israel in low esteem and disliked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It takes only a small leap of the imagination to attribute that dislike for the state and its leader to the sermons of Jeremiah Wright. In addition, it seems possible that Obama's anti-Israel stance derived from his close relations with the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam and his earlier experience as a nominally Muslim child in Indonesia.
In addition, it appears that "Obama was 'part of the Chicago scene' where [Louis] Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. and radicals would go to each other's events and support each other's causes."
Newsmax reports:
"A former top deputy to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan tells Newsmax that Barack Obama's ties to the black nationalist movement in Chicago run deep, and that for many years the two men have had 'an open line between them' to discuss policy and strategy, either directly or through intermediaries.
"'Remember that for years, if you were a politician in Chicago, you had to have some type of relationship with Louis Farrakhan. You had to. If you didn't, you would be ostracized out of black Chicago,' said Dr. Vibert White Jr., who spent most of his adult life as a member and ultimately top officer of the Nation of Islam."Here again, the question arises: was this anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel current simply a part of black Chicago radicalism or did it pervade the UCC as a whole?
The answer can be found in two overwhelming votes passed on Boycotts Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) and Israel-apartheid resolutions by the church on June 30, 2015. According to the New York Times:
"Approval came at the church's general synod in Cleveland, where delegates voted 508 to 124 in favor of divestment and boycott, with 38 abstentions. It was one of two resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict debated by the church, which has about one million members and more than 5,000 congregations nationwide."
A second resolution, condemning Israel as a supposedly "apartheid" state received fewer votes (51.4%) and did not pass, but its presence at the synod said a great deal.
There is a final irony here, and it makes matters worse. On the one hand, the UCC shows itself to be profoundly anti-Semitic. Not only do they hold a supersessionist view of Jews and Judaism, but their startling double standards towards Israel fall foul of the international definition of anti-Semitism in the modern age - and at a time when a new anti-Semitism is rising rapidly in Europe and elsewhere.
On the other hand, the UCC loves Muslims and goes out of its way to support them. Of course, there is nothing wrong with befriending others or supporting them when they are subjected to discrimination. Several of the church's online pages make a point of this (for example here and here and here).
According to a June 8, 2016 report by the UCC:
This interfaith Ramadan campaign, a celebration of solidarity, is the result of a partnership between representatives from the Northwest Chapter of the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Church of Christ, and denominational leaders. UCC churches, to honor Muslim neighbors' Ramadan commitments, have been invited to do three simple things during this holy month:
1) Hang a banner or change their message boards in a way that honors our Muslim neighbors.
2) Take time to make an appointment to visit a local mosque or Islamic center to bring greetings from their local congregation.
3) Consider hosting an event to learn more about Islam and make a special effort to speak up against anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Is the UCC unaware that Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is far from being a feel-good interfaith movement for peace and warm relations? It has, in fact, close ties to Islamic terrorism. As far back as ten years ago, its true character was well known:
But there is another side to CAIR that has alarmed many people in positions to know. The Department of Homeland Security refuses to deal with it. Senator Charles Schumer (Democrat, New York) describes it as an organization "which we know has ties to terrorism." Senator Dick Durbin (Democrat, Illinois) observes that CAIR is "unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect." Steven Pomerantz, the FBI's former chief of counterterrorism, notes that "CAIR, its leaders, and its activities effectively give aid to international terrorist groups." The family of John P. O'Neill, Sr., the former FBI counterterrorism chief who perished at the World Trade Center, named CAIR in a lawsuit as having "been part of the criminal conspiracy of radical Islamic terrorism" responsible for the September 11 atrocities. Counterterrorism expert Steven Emerson calls it "a radical fundamentalist front group for Hamas."
It is worth pausing here to point out that Hamas is, in fact, the leading terror organization fighting Israel today. Its 1988 Charter is a testament to jihadi intransigence, the absolute opposite of peacemaking. It calls for the slaughter of all Jews in the world, declares that "Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement" and argues that "There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."
Has no one in the UCC the decency to repudiate this unsuitable connection? Or, in their wider dealings with Islamic groups, to raise the fact that many Muslims across the Middle East have been killing, expelling, and humiliating Christians, Jews and even Muslims (here, here, here, here and here) for a very long time, but especially in recent decades? Will they not admit that the expanding exodus of Christians from the West Bank and Gaza has been precipitated by extremist Muslims and the Palestinian authorities? That under the Palestinian Authority since 1995, the number of Christians has plummeted?
In 2015, Israel's UN ambassador, Ron Prosor, said to the General Assembly:
"After the PA took control of Bethlehem in 1995, Palestinian gunmen seized Christian homes and looted the Church of Nativity. Owing to this persecution, the city's Christian population fell by nearly 70 percent."
In 2002, armed Palestinian terrorists occupied the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, looted it and used it as a latrine. Today, Christians comprise a small minority of their holy city's population. According to the Christian journalist Lela Gilbert:
"In Bethlehem, Christians are not just a minority population in an overwhelmingly Muslim community. They aren't simply marginalized; they don't just suffer discrimination. Too often, they are threatened and intimidated; injured or even killed. They are cautious. They are uneasy. Many of them live in fear."
In Gaza, most Christians have fled in fear of attacks from Hamas gunmen. If there was ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Christians, it was under Muslim rule: two-thirds of Christian Arabs from Jerusalem and its surroundings left the areas between 1949 and 1967, the period when Jordan occupied and annexed the West Bank, and Egypt controlled Gaza -- years before Israel governed those areas. At the end of 2018, as Christianity neared extinction in the lands of its birthplace Britain's Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, called for redress.[1]
In July 2017, the UCC passed another resolution, condemning Israel for its alleged mistreatment of Palestinian children held in detention following engagement in clashes involving Israeli soldiers and civilians. This fresh resolution seems to have been inspired by a February report from Amnesty International, which itself has been accused of "Failed Methodology, Corruption, and Anti-Israel Bias" and "singling out Jews in 2019". Amnesty also recently hired two openly anti-Israel activists:
Most recently, in 2017, Amnesty-USA hired Raed Jarrar as Middle East and North Africa Advocacy Director and Allie McCracken as North American Campaigner. These two individuals exemplify the organization's troubling ideological approach to Israel and retreat from the universal principles of human rights.
In addition, Amnesty systematically "ignores the weaponization of Palestinian children."
The Israel Defense Forces have offered refutations of biased attempts to use at best questionable claims concerning Palestinian children to attack Israel and its genuine human rights standards. Moreover, in passing a resolution based on such claims, the UCC made no effort to elicit comment from Israeli military or legal sources. The UCC also did not ask why Palestinian parents permit and often encourage their children to take part in attacks. The UCC also did not discuss deeper questions about aggressive Palestinian behaviour. Israeli troops and civilians do not just face stone-throwing and terrorist fire-kites from children; they also are forced to function in keeping the peace against the efforts of armed terrorist adults.
Building bridges between faith communities is commendable for any church; but to do so in such an uncritical fashion, failing to raise authentic Christian concerns about Islamic persecution, exhibiting the worst possible naïvety about Islamic radicalism and terrorism, and turning with such vehemence against the Jewish world passes far beyond a decent and -- should we not say it? -- Christian expression of faith.
Much effort has gone into the writing of the UCC Guide, and factual errors, which take up so much of the text, are clearly the result of conscious assumptions that have never been checked against reputable facts. But there can be no excuse for this degree of carelessness in such an important document, given the number of lives that have been lost, are still being lost, and may well be lost in future in the course of this unending conflict. If a body of Christians really cares about Palestinian lives, Muslim and Christian alike, not to mention the lives of Israeli children, the lives of everyone on either side, then supporting an illegal and fanatical use of violence by telling lies and permitting distortions in order to incite an anti-Semitic hatred that will embolden and activate further terrorist attacks is beyond measure a contradiction of normative Christian ethics. The UCC cannot continue to assert its association with Jesus Christ, a man of peace, when they so openly espouse the cause of Palestinian resistance that embraces violence as a solution above any form of peace-making. Jesus said, "Blessed be the peace-makers", yet here is a Christian church that blesses men of violence.
*Dr. Denis MacEoin, an Irish and British citizen, is a scholar of Islam and an active supporter of the State of Israel. He serves as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.
[1] For a well-researched and balanced report on Christian flight, by the Jewish Council on Public Affairs, which provides full contexts and suggests a degree of stability, see here.
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The foreign policies of a free Iran
Alireza Nader/Al Arabiya/March 02/19
Since the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy has been defined by an ideology promoting revolution, designed to transform the Middle East. Under its Islamist regime, Iran has fought America, Israel, and much of the Arab world, in opposition to the national interests of Iran and the Iranian people. The Islamic Republic may be dominant in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, but Iran, itself, has been devastated by decades of policies that have led to its international isolation, and economic and ecological collapse.
Under sanctions because of the regime’s behavior, Iran is unable to update its energy industry or even sell much of its oil. It is also experiencing water and food shortages, despite being, potentially, one of the richest countries on earth. While Iranians go thirsty and hungry, Ayatollah Khamenei’s regime has spent billions of dollars on wars in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, that don’t serve the national interests of the Iranian people.
However, Iranians are not destined to live under an expansionist revolutionary regime. For more than one year, the people have come into the streets to demand an end to the Islamic Republic’s costly involvement in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and beyond, shouting, “My life is for Iran, not for Syria and Lebanon.” Another popular slogan is, “The real enemy is here (in Iran), they lie when they say it’s America.”
The nationwide campaign of civil disobedience holds much promise, especially if it receives global support, as the anti-Maduro movement has in Venezuela.
For Iranians are no longer eager to accept false reforms or superficial diplomatic engagement that prolongs the regime; they are demanding the end of a political system which actively works against their interests.
Facing deep popular dissatisfaction and an economic implosion, the regime’s elite, including members of the Khomeini and Rafsanjani clans, increasingly speak of the regime’s collapse and overthrow by the Iranian people. In anticipation, many of the elite have moved their wealth and families abroad.
The freeing of Iran from the Islamic Republic’s grasp could not only lead to the revival of Iran as a successful nation, but could also dramatically transform relations with the US, Israel, and much of the Arab world.
In order to succeed, Iran must shed its revolutionary ideology and pursue policies that prioritize economic growth, foreign investment, environmental preservation, and peace with neighbors, coupled with a truly defensive foreign policy.
A free and democratic Iran would not benefit by continuing its dangerous enmity with several nations, including Israel, where both countries can cooperate in areas that are mutually beneficial to them, such as resolving Iran’s water crisis and combatting extremism.
First and foremost, a free Iran should abandon its support for sectarian revolutionary groups, such as Hezbollah. The Lebanese group is an extension of the Islamic Republic in the Levant. If Iranians are to free Iran from Khamenei, they must also free themselves from the regime’s tentacles across the region.
A free Iran would have little use for the Assad regime or Shiite militias that dominate Iraq, or violent Palestinian groups, such as Hamas.
Iran’s abandonment of its revolutionary ideology and regional proxies could dramatically improve relations with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states.
Iranians and Arabs have been rivals for a millennia, but the present dangerous rivalry between the two peoples is largely due to the Islamic Republic’s revolutionary agenda.
Iranian-Arab relations should be defined by open markets, trade, investment, and cooperation in saving the region from economic devastation. But that doesn’t mean that Iran would become weak and defenseless. As Iran grows economically, it will have to naturally rebuild its dilapidated conventional military force and replace equipment purchased from the US in the 1960s and 1970s.
However, it makes little sense for Iran to pursue weapons of mass destruction in the absence of a credible threat; the nuclear program has cost Iranians hundreds of billions of dollars, much of it due to sanctions and Iran’s international isolation.
Iran will always be a major power in the Middle East; its history, size, and economic potential make it destined to be a key regional and, perhaps, global player.
Iran and its neighbors don’t have to agree on everything; but cooperation and competition must be pursued peacefully in promotion of the welfare of Iranians. Only freedom from the Islamic Republic can make a peaceful and prosperous Iran a reality.
*Alireza Nader is founder and CEO of New Iran, a nonprofit and nonpartisan advocacy organization in Washington. He tweets @AlirezaNader.

The duel between Qassem Soleimani and Mohammad Javad Zarif sends important messages
Raghida Dergham/The National/March 02/19
The Iranian foreign minister's approachable brand of diplomacy stands in stark contrast to the military hardliners and shields the regime from accountability
Who benefits the most from the rejection of Mohammad Javad Zarif’s resignation as Iran’s foreign minister, made this week in protest at his exclusion from a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in Tehran?
At first glance, the moderate faction in Iran appears to be the biggest winner, having successfully resisted attempts to banish it and having imposed itself in the struggle for power dominated by the hardliners.
Practically speaking, the Iranian consensus on the reinstatement of Mr Zarif has sent out several important messages, namely that the “smiley diplomacy” he represents is the best protection against international accountability for the policies of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Quds Force commander Major General Qassem Soleimani.
Mr Zarif’s soft approach is something Iran desperately needs to mitigate Mr Soleimani’s heavy-handedness, extremism and domination of foreign policymaking, especially as it relates to Iran’s regional expansionism and efforts to export its revolutionary model.
The moderate comeback restores some balance between the rival factions, which had been tipped in favour of the hardliners. However, how will this be translated at the foreign policy level, when Mr Soleimani had, a week before Mr Zarif’s resignation, declared that Iran’s regional role was non-negotiable?
Does rescinding the resignation mean that Mr Zarif has regained control of foreign policy in earnest, or does it mean that Mr Soleimani was forced to give back control temporarily to Mr Zarif, without a license to engage in serious negotiations with the Europeans over the regime’s regional role?
What is certain is that Iran’s domestic front is witnessing battles between factions, while the country’s foreign outlook suffers the consequences of its adventurism in Arab countries, and that its relations with its partners in Syria – Turkey and Russia – will be affected.
Right now, Mr Al Assad, who had pompous words of praise for Iran’s rulers during his visit to Tehran, may be the country’s only asset, amid growing Iranian-Russian mistrust. Following a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, Russia appeared to adopt a new discourse on Syria.
Mr Putin said he would be launching an international plan with a mechanism for a final settlement in Syria, which includes a working group focusing on securing the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country and putting in place arrangements for the state to impose its full control over Syrian territory.
Some like to see Mr Soleimani and Mr Zarif’s gambits as a duel between the moderates and the hardliners – the civilian and military wings of the regime respectively. Mr Zarif is a skilled negotiator and is good at selling to the Europeans the idea that there are moderates in Iran, who have a different policy from that of the regime on the ground. Some describe this as deception, however, and say that Mr Zarif has no qualms about Mr Soleimani’s policy of expansion in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon. Yet some observers hold that Mr Zarif is honest and wants to see the regime curtail its regional ambitions and focus on having normal relations with Iran’s neighbours and the world.
Regardless, Mr Zarif has always been diplomatically useful for the regime in Iran, including both moderates and hardliners. And in reality, there is no equivalence between him and Mr Soleimani. Despite having proven himself necessary during the resignation saga, Mr Zarif remains an executor, not a maker of policy, unlike Mr Soleimani. In the words of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Mr Zarif is a front man for a “corrupt religious mafia”. “We know [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei makes all the final decisions. Our policy is unchanged – the regime must behave like a normal country and respect its people,” he tweeted on Tuesday.Many agree with that assessment but that does not negate the fact that there is a serious power struggle in Iran, in which Mr Zarif’s resignation upended the equation. Going forward, this struggle will take new forms that can change the rules of engagement, with both domestic and foreign-policy consequences.
The IRGC is in an offensive posture to make up for the damage it and Iran have sustained as a result of US sanctions, after US President Donald Trump overturned his predecessor’s love affair with the Islamic Republic, which rewarded its regional expansion and turned a blind eye to its domestic repression, making Iran a de-facto alternative strategic partner replacing the US’s traditional Arab allies.
The IRGC may exaggerate its capabilities, but it has teeth, for sure. The IRGC has been able to impose its political domination at home and military domination abroad, weakening the hardliners’ moderate rival President Hassan Rouhani, who has made big concessions, to the point that on more than one occasion, he flat-out endorsed their discourse. But as a result of Mr Zarif’s resignation and reinstatement, the moderates have caught their breath, and cautioned their rivals that if the Iranian ship sinks, all sides will drown.
Many Iranians fear that the alliance between Ayatollah Khamenei and Mr Soleimani could lead the military to full control of the Islamic Republic.
Everyone is keeping a close watch on the power struggle in Iran and the battle for succession looming over the post of Supreme Leader. But the implications of this battle for foreign policy will not wait until succession is settled. For this reason, observers are expecting the duel between Mr Zarif and Mr Soleimani will have big ripples in foreign policy and Iran’s regional role.
Perhaps the consensus in Iran regarding Mr Zarif signifies that the regime does not want to abandon diplomacy at this juncture. But it is not clear whether Mr Zarif has been told that the temporary licence for him to resume diplomatic engagement is conditional on refusing to put Iran’s regional role on the agenda of talks with the Europeans and others.
Last week, Mr Soleimani cautioned his country’s government against negotiating this role, saying that any attempt to contain or reduce it is “an attempt to dry out the spirit and movement of Islamic Iran”. Most likely, Mr Zarif heard this well and will heed it.
In other words, it is very unlikely for Tehran to engage in any serious negotiations over its regional role, or comply with Washington’s demands, Moscow’s urges, or Europe’s wishes – the latter being built on the deceptions of Mr Zarif’s brand of diplomacy. That is, unless Iran is forced to reform as a consequence of crippling US sanctions and new strategic equations alluded to by the Russian leader.
The surprise announcement by Mr Putin was addressed to his Astana partners, Turkey and Iran. Both powers do not want to leave Syria and want to reap the benefits of their investments in the war-torn country. Mr Putin spoke about creating a new international group that includes nations involved in the Syrian conflict, to normalise the situation there and achieve permanent stability after uprooting terrorism. Among other things, he added, this is linked to withdrawing “all [foreign] armed forces from the territories of the Syrian Arab Republic”.
Mr Putin’s remarks effectively removed the long-term political process in Syria from the framework of the tripartite Astana process in the direction of an international one. They were made a day after the Russian president met with Mr Netanyahu, who said his talks at the Kremlin concluded with an agreement to establish a working group to launch efforts towards removing all foreign troops from Syria.
Mr Netanyahu also said that Mr Putin placed no restrictions on Israeli military operations against Iranian positions in Syria, adding that he did not believe there was an “organised and coherent” axis that included Syria, Iran, and Russia.
No doubt, such statements are not a cause for reassurance among the IRGC, Quds Force, and the Soleimani-aligned Hezbollah – the Lebanese group implementing the IRGC's policies in Syria and Lebanon and everywhere it is asked to go.
However, the battle being fought by this hardline camp will not stop because of these developments in Russian-Israeli and Russian-Iranian relations. This group is patient, seasoned, and shrewd, and there are no indications that it wants to reform itself or adapt to developments.
Instead, all signs indicate that its members want to fight an existential battle for survival, because reforming the regime and reducing Iran’s regional expansion invalidates their raison d’etre. Therefore, they will continue their internal and foreign battles, while maximising their benefit from Mr Zarif’s smiley diplomacy.