LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
March 25/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations For today
The angel Gabriel Delivers the Godly Message To
Virgin Mary
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 01/26-38/:”In the
sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called
Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of
David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings,
favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and
pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be
afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in
your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and
will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the
throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end.’Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this
be, since I am a virgin?’The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon
you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to
be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative
Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month
for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’Then
Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to
your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese
Related News & Editorials published on March 24-25/2020
Assassinations resume in Lebanon, against old foes of Hezbollah/Dr. Walid
Phares/March 22/2020
Coronavirus: Lebanon records 37 new cases bringing total to 304
Hariri Hospital: Three patients have completely recovered, 64 confirmed cases
remain in isolation
Aoun Holds Video Talks with RHUH, Red Cross Crews
Presidency Denies Aoun Opposed to Declaring Emergency for Political Reasons
Berri Says State of Emergency Must Be 'Instantly' Declared
Cabinet concludes meeting, Abdel Samad stresses strict measures to counter
coronavirus epidemic
Diab meets Banking Association delegation
Musharafieh chairs meeting of technical committee in charge of following up on
urgent social affairs
Foreign Minister receives call from German counterpart, stresses need to provide
aid to poor families
Information Minister: PM Diab stresses state's duty to help citizens, people’s
need to show social solidarity
Othman meets new U.S. Ambassador
Jumblatt reiterates call for state of emergency
IMF sees a recession at least as bad as global financial crisis
Report: Lebanese Army Receives Military 'Gift' from France
ABL Unveils $6 Million Grant to Fight Coronavirus
Geagea Denies Having Coronavirus, Says Taking Precautions
Kataeb Party Stresses Need to Declare a State of Emergency, Says Curfew Not
Enough
Hariri Lauds China's Efforts against Coronavirus
Jumblat Urges Economic Plan alongside Coronavirus Measures
Chidiac Says She Tested Positive for Coronavirus
Lebanese industrialists and engineers to start manufacturing ventilators
locally/Tala Ramadan/Annahar/March 24/2020
Jihad Azour, the IMF Mideast and Central Asia department director sees Middle
East facing 'big drop in growth this year'
The desperate final days of a domestic worker in Lebanon/Timour Azhari/Al
Hazeera/March 24/2020
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
March 24-25/2020
Pope calls on Christians to direct prayers toward Heaven
Priest Who gave Respirator To Young Patient Dies/Coronavirus: Giuseppe
Berardelli among 50 priests killed
US Department Of State/Iran: COVID-19 DISINFORMATION FACT-SHEET
Coronavirus: Iran’s death toll reaches 1,934, total cases 24,811
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards founding member Habib Barzegari dies of coronavirus
Trump Warns Coronavirus Shutdown Could 'Destroy a Country'
G20 Video Talks on Coronavirus Set for Thursday
French Coronavirus Lockdown Should Last 'at Least 6 Weeks', Govt. Advisers Say
On the 10th Day of Lockdown, Madrid Shaken by Deaths
Israel Right-Wing Parties Boycott Parliament Re-Opening
U.N. Calls for Syria Ceasefire to Tackle Virus Threat
At Least 70 Nigerian Soldiers Killed in Jihadist Ambush
Three US sailors on aircraft carrier test positive
Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published on March 24-25/2020
How Canada approved an Assad loyalist to serve the country’s terrorized Syrian
refugees
Amanda Coletta/The Washington Post/March 24/2020
US, UAE troops hold major exercise amid virus, Iran tensions/Jon Gambrell/AP/March
24/2020
New Iraqi Prime Minister-Designate Poses Threat to Iran, Opportunity for U.S/John
Hannah/FDD/March 24/2020
Iran manoeuvres to get US sanctions lifted by rejecting US, international
help/Thomas Seibert/The Arab Weekly/March 24/2020
What are millions of refugees to do in this pandemic if we do not help
them?/Kareem Shaheen/The National/March 24/2020
Presidential election to decide which path US takes on Iran/Kerry Boyd
Anderson/Arab News/March 24/2020
World needs a plan to prevent post-virus economic chaos/Osama Al-Sharif/Arab
News/March 24/2020
Coronavirus Could Very Well Slow by the Summer/David Fickling/Bloomberg/March
24/2020
Coronavirus Triggers the Worst Market Crash Since 1987/Mark Gongloff/Bloomberg/March
24/2020
How Iran Became a Global Vector of Infection for COVID-19/The authoritarian
theocracy faces specific challenges in dealing with the coronavirus/Noam
Blum/The Tablet/March 24/2020
Coronavirus: Should the U.S. Lift Sanctions on Iran?/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone
Institute/March 24/2020
Turkey: Violence against Women Continues to Escalate/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone
Institute./March 24/ 2020
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on March 24-25/2020
Assassinations resume in Lebanon, against
old foes of Hezbollah
Dr. Walid Phares/March 22/2020
We’ve learned that Antoine Hayek, a shopkeeper in Mye-Mye town in East Saida,
was assassinated today. He was allegedly an ex assistant to US citizen Amer
Fakhoury who was recently repatriated by the US Government back to America after
being jailed for six months in Lebanon for having served as a member of the
defunct South Lebanon Army. SLA. Hayek has allegedly served under Fakhoury
before 2000 in south Lebanon, during the war between the SLA and US designated
terror group Hezbollah.
This assassination took place just few days after the US military extracted
Fakhoury from Lebanon. Social media supporting Hezbollah is hailing this murder
as a retaliation against what they describe as an “agent” of Israel, but had
lived in Lebanon peacefully for the last 20 years.
Early assessment indicate that Hayek was killed in retaliation to the
repatriation of Fakhoury to the US, to satisfy heavy criticism by many followers
and members of Hezbollah against the liberation of Fakhoury. The cold blood
assassination of a Lebanese citizen living under the protection of the state, is
endangering thousands of Lebanese civilians originating from the south, who live
across the country.
Some believe this is also a message to the US that if Washington protects its
citizens in Lebanon, it cannot protect the friends and relatives of its
citizens. This is a dangerous development, which eventually will have
consequences.
The assassinations between 2005 and 2008 are not forgotten. There an
International Tribunal prosecuting one major crime. Now there is a Corona virus
challenge, but after the challenge is over, justice will continue to march.
Dr. Walid Phares/My take on the face off between Hezbollah and the Lebanese
American community, under Trump: Lebanese-Americans and their friends in the US
are not intimidated by the Iranian backed militia, do not support its agenda and
work on implementing UNSCR 1559 to disarm the militia and back the Lebanese
Army, as much as they can. Lebanon’s war between militias is over. The war with
Palestinian organizations is over. The war with Syria’s regime and Israel is
over. What is not over is Hezbollah’s endless war against all other people.
Coronavirus: Lebanon records 37 new cases bringing total to
304
Joanne Serrieh, Al Arabiya English/Tuesday 24 March 2020
Lebanon recorded a total of 304 coronavirus cases after a new 37 infections were
confirmed over the past 24 hours, according to the health ministry. A state of
health emergency was declared last week initiating a two-week lockdown as part
of the country’s efforts to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. Beirut’s
Rafic Hariri International airport was shut down in addition to the sea and land
ports. Businesses were also ordered to close, with the exception of food supply
stores. Gatherings in public and private places were banned as well.Residents
are required to stay home except for urgent trips. No curfew has been announced.
Hariri Hospital: Three patients have completely recovered, 64 confirmed cases
remain in isolation
NNA /Tuesday 24 March 2020
The Rafic Hariri University Hospital issued its daily report on the latest
coronavirus developments. It read as follows: "The total number of laboratory
cases -- confirmed to be infected with coronavirus and isolated at the
hospital's quarantine unit -- has reached 64, of which 6 were transferred from
other hospitals.Three patients have fully recovered, testing negative twice and
showing no more symptoms of the disease. All those infected with coronavirus are
receiving the necessary care in the isolation unit, and their condition is
stable except for three patients who remain in critical condition. To find out
the number of infections on all Lebanese territories, please follow the daily
report issued by the Ministry of Public Health."
Aoun Holds Video Talks with RHUH, Red Cross Crews
Naharnet/March 24/2020
President Michel Aoun on Tuesday followed up on the work of the crews of the
state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital and the Lebanese Red Cross in the
face of the coronavirus crisis and heard their concerns and demands, the
National News Agency said.
The talks between Aoun and the two sides occurred through separate video calls
via the Skype application, NNA said. The president assessed their situations and
readiness against the coronavirus pandemic and hailed “the efforts that the
medical body in Lebanon and the Red Cross volunteers are carry out in order to
triumph over the pandemic and safeguard the safety and health of the Lebanese,”
the agency added. “Today, you are the source of reassurance for the Lebanese.
Your efforts are sacred because you give unconditionally and risk your lives.
Today only a few people are subjecting themselves to danger like you are doing,”
Aoun told the crews. Lebanon has so far confirmed 304 coronavirus cases among
them four deaths and eight recoveries. It has declared a so-called state of
general mobilization in bid to limit the spread of the virus.
Presidency Denies Aoun Opposed to Declaring Emergency for
Political Reasons
Naharnet/March 24/2020
The Presidency on Tuesday issued a statement in which it denied claims that
President Michel Aoun is opposed to declaring a state of emergency over
coronavirus for political considerations. “All information and stances
attributed to the president are totally baseless and aimed at harming the unity
of constitutional, executive and military institutions, especially the army,”
the Presidency said. Slamming the allegations as “cheap incitement,” the
Presidency said those launching them are seeking to drive a wedge between Aoun
and certain institutions. “This will not happen, because laws govern the
relation between the president and the rest of the state institutions,” it
emphasized. “Enough with manipulation and toxicity, because the country can no
longer withstand such vengeful adventures and policies or the settling of
personal scores,” the Presidency added. Media reports had claimed that Aoun and
his political party are opposed to tasking the army with enforcing the state of
emergency over reasons related to the presidential chances of its commander
General Joseph Aoun. The government has declared a so-called state of "general
mobilization" in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and not a state of
emergency or a curfew. The Free Patriotic Movement on Monday said it supports
the government in its decision to declare a "health emergency" rather than a
"security or military state of emergency," noting that "the declaration of a
state of emergency has legal and procedural requirements that obligate the State
to secure people’s livelihood, issue permissions to leave houses and find ways
to penalize violators."
Berri Says State of Emergency Must Be 'Instantly' Declared
Naharnet/March 24/2020
Speaker Nabih Berri said he deliberated with Prime Minister Hassan Diab the need
to declare a state of emergency over coronavirus fears which has become a
necessity in light of an increase in the number of people infected with the
virus, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.
Berri said that Diab had vowed, during their talks on Saturday, he would declare
a state of emergency, “but I do not know why this decision has not been taken
yet,” said Berri. “The situation is unbearable, a state of emergency must be
immediately and urgently declared,” he emphasized, likening the “general
mobilization” state announced last week by the government to a “light
emergency.”“Measures must be strict to the utmost extent in obliging citizens to
adhere to orders similar to what is applied in the countries of the world, at
least a curfew must be imposed,” said Berri.
“The government’s responsibility is to strive to secure the people's need for
food, medicine and unconditional aid, especially for the poorest,” he concluded.
Cabinet concludes meeting, Abdel Samad stresses strict
measures to counter coronavirus epidemic
NNA/Tuesday 24 March 2020
Following are the Cabinet meeting decisions read by Minister of Information,
Manal Abdel Samad:
Prime Minister Hassan Diab first pointed out that strict measures to counter
coronavirus epidemic, which began on Sunday, have clearly increased people’s
level of commitment in most regions of the country, adding that it is important
to continue implementing these measures in order to ensure that the situation
does not get out of hand, although in many areas the commitment has been
relatively weak. Therefore, it is essential that military and security forces
impose more stringent measures in areas where commitment remains incomplete.
He then underlined: “there have been several and repeated calls for the
declaration of a state of emergency, my answer is my call to read the law and
relevant statement of reasons.”
Regarding the other aspect of the measures, it is our duty to find a way to help
people whose work has been disrupted as a result of confinement, and to look
into their difficult social and living conditions.
Of course, it is the duty of the State to help people. That is what we have to
do. But at the same time, social cohesion among Lebanese people is particularly
essential. Throughout history, the Lebanese have shown cooperation and
solidarity in situations of danger.
Today we are facing a new type of crisis. However, I am confident that we will
overcome it with the least possible losses, and we will work our way out of the
crisis through cooperation and solidarity.
PM also called the Ministers to take decisions within each ministry to suspend
payment at maturity, and to postpone the payment of duties and taxes related to
electricity, water, telephones, social security fund, mechanic and judicial
taxes.
The main decisions that were taken:
An urgent draft law for non-imposing the value-added tax (VAT) for a period of
six months, on donations made to public administrations, public institutions,
and municipalities, funded from sources in Lebanon as a result of the spread of
the coronavirus.
An urgent draft law for suspending some provisions of Article 32 of the Budget
Law 2020, allowing all public institutions, municipalities, unions of
municipalities, councils, funds, independent professions, and persons under the
public law to spend, contribute, or finance, either in cash or in kind,
donations to any public or private body, provided that this money is exclusively
given to secure health or food aids of all kinds in the face of the emerging
coronavirus, and it will not be spent or allocated to any other party. The
Cabinet also decided to reduce tariffs on the international, local and
additional hours required from internet, as well as DSP and ISP carriers
companies, exceptionally and for a limited period, to their subscribers under
the general mobilization conditions for coronavirus (after consulting with the
State Council).
The Cabinet decided to extend until June 3rd, 2020, the provisions of Decree No.
6036 of December 23, 2019, related to the extension of the effect of the
clearance issued by the National Social Security Fund.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs discussed Lebanese students' affairs abroad, and
means of providing them in-kind and material assistance, and he will submit a
social assistance plan for them.
The Minister of Social Affairs presented the Ministry's work plan, which he is
also discussing during the meeting of the Technical Committee in charge of
following up on urgent issues related to social affairs, in order to submit
urgent recommendations and practical and quick steps that meet urgent needs. As
for the Capital Control project, the Ministers' remarks were taken into account,
and discussions will continue to complete this project. -- Presidency of the
Council of Ministers
Diab meets Banking Association delegation
NNA/Tuesday 24 March 2020
Prime Minister Hassan Diab met this morning with President of the Banking
Association, Salim Sfeir, in the presence of General Mohammad Kheir, Head of the
Higher Rescue Committee, members of the Association Nadim Kassar, Chahdan Jbeily,
Antoine Habib, and PM advisors Lina Oueidat and Mohammad Alamuddin. During the
meeting, Sfeir offered the donation of 6 million dollars in the name of the
Banking Association to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Salim Sfeir's speech:
"Mr. Prime Minister
Excellencies,
Distinguished audience,
Today Lebanon is enduring a great national trial. Such trials can only be faced
with solidarity and subsidiarity between the State and all the active forces in
our society.
The banking sector has never failed to perform its duty to help the Lebanese
State and people deal with tough times and get over painful hardships for the
last few decades. Today, despite the difficult economic conditions in Lebanon,
which have also turned into a global crisis, the banking sector is renewing its
commitment to serve the people and ought to take every step that would
contribute to alleviating their suffering.
The only way we will defeat this epidemic is to increase immunity, and we can
only relieve the plight by national immunity Lebanon has acquired over time. All
Lebanese remember that the banking sector has contributed several times, in the
modern history of Lebanon, to mitigating the effects of the Israeli attacks on
Lebanon and has stood by the State and the people in every crisis and ordeal the
country have experienced.
Today, we publicly announce that the Lebanese Banking Association will
contribute to the provision of medical and hospital equipment to treat people
suffering from coronavirus, at a cost of about USD 6 million. We were keen on
having this in-kind donation ready and delivered in a few days to the different
governmental hospitals officially accredited as treatment centers. It is with a
strong sense of national duty that we are launching this initiative today, which
is neither a charity nor a favor. There will be other initiatives in the next
few days.
Mr. Prime Minister, Trials can only be faced with solidarity, coordination and
consultation between the government and the active and productive sectors of the
society. On this occasion, I pay tribute to the doctors and nurses who have been
on the front lines of facing this epidemic.
I would also like to thank Dr. Lina Oueidat, Advisor of the Prime Minister, for
engaging in communication and fruitful efforts to ensure that Lebanon gets the
equipment in the best possible way and within a standard time frame.
Mr. Prime Minister,
We assure you that we will be at the side of the State institutions until we
overcome this crisis. We pledge to the Lebanese people our commitment to placing
the banking sector at the forefront of institutions seeking to restore normal
life in the country and overcome the effects of the ordeal.
Therefore, we add our voice to yours in calling on the Lebanese to unite and
support each other in order to overcome this difficult ordeal with the least
possible human losses. Lebanese people are the real wealth of the nation.
Everything else is just compensable.
May God protect Lebanon and the Lebanese people."
Prime Minister's speech:
"First of all, allow me to thank the Banking Association and its Chairman, Dr.
Salim Sfeir, for this initiative, as well as the promise he made today that
there will be other initiatives to face this creeping epidemic seeping into our
nation.
Lebanon is enduring a distressing ordeal, and the Lebanese people are starting
to feel the brunt of an accumulation of economic, livelihood and financial
crises, in addition to the current coronavirus threat.
The current situation requires joint efforts, without unnecessary commotion and
calculations. The whole country is under severe pressure, and no one can carry
the burden of such pressure alone. Even the State, given its present potential,
finds it difficult to fulfil its full obligations to its citizens. Therefore, we
rely on the solidarity of the Lebanese society and cooperation with the State,
for there is no recourse but to resort to the State being the sole incubator for
all the people, without discrimination.
Today, we must rally around the State and its institutions, and strengthen its
capabilities, since only the State confers immunity to the Lebanese against all
viruses posing a threat to the nation's health, security or existence.I take
this opportunity to call on everyone to become more united and proactive in
increasing the State's resilience, so that it may form a protective wall for the
Lebanese. I thank the Banking Association as well as every good initiative
standing with the State to save Lebanon." ---Grand Serail Press Office
Musharafieh chairs meeting of technical committee in charge of following up on
urgent social affairs
NNA/Tuesday 24 March 2020
Social Affairs Minister, Ramzi Musharrafieh, chaired the meeting of the
Technical Committee in charge of following up on urgent issues related to social
affairs, in the presence of Minister of Labor Lamia Yammine and Head of the
Higher Rescue Committee, General Mohammad Kheir.
After the meeting, Musharrafieh noted that: “in view of the exceptional
circumstances the country is going through, notably the major economic and
social pressures on the Lebanese and on a large number of families under severe
living conditions, and with the aggravation of the current situation due to the
actual crisis, after the announcement of the general mobilization and relatives
measures to face the coronavirus, which prevented a large number of people from
securing their basic daily needs, the Ministry of Social Affairs held several
meetings with the ministries of Industry, Agriculture, Defense, Interior and
Municipalities, Labor, Economy and Trade, Finance and Information, in order to
develop a joint plan for emergency intervention and provide steadfast support
for families that have been affected, provided that the implementation would be
carried out through municipalities and different village councils, under the
supervision of development services centers and their branches, as well as the
Lebanese army. This plan aims at helping the vulnerable communities by providing
two baskets for each family, the first one for food, and the second for cleaning
and sterilization materials, based on scientific studies and research.
Our concern for the Lebanese citizen motivates us to work in solidarity to help
those affected economically and financially by the emerging crisis. We will work
on providing assistance for citizens to help them overcome the critical stage."
-- Grand Serail Press Office
Foreign Minister receives call from German counterpart, stresses need to provide
aid to poor families
NNA/Tuesday 24 March 2020
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Dr. Nassif Hitti, on Tuesday received
a phone call from his German counterpart, Heiko Josef Maas, during which the
former thanked the latter for the assistance provided by Germany to Lebanon.
Hitti briefed Maas on the difficult economic conditions that Lebanon was going
through as a result of the economic crisis and the novel Coronavirus outbreak.
He also stressed the need to provide aid to the poorest families, especially
those that can only survive through their daily income.
The Minister also pointed out that the Lebanese government was in the process of
developing programs that include plans to combat corruption and carry out
structural economic reforms. For his part, the German Foreign Minister affirmed
that his country was ready to help Lebanon cope with its economic crisis and
contribute to overcoming the financial and economic distress it was witnessing.
He pledged to support Lebanon in implementing structural reform once the
Lebanese government's program in this regard crystallizes. The German official
also expressed hope to keep the channels of communication open with the minister
Hitti, especially on matters of common concern, in a bid to enhance cooperation
between the two countries and help Lebanon out of its crisis.
Information Minister: PM Diab stresses state's duty to help
citizens, people’s need to show social solidarity
NNA/Tuesday 24 March 2020
Minister of Information, Dr. Manal Abdel Samad Najd, said in the wake of the
Cabinet session held this Tuesday at the Grand Serail, that Prime Minister Dr
Hassan Diab has stressed that it is the duty of the state to help people and
that social solidarity among the Lebanese is also essential. Minister Abdel
Samad also stressed the need for the military and security forces’ to maintain
further firmness in the areas where people did not adhere to the quarantine to
prevent corona virus spread. Abdel Samad also pointed out that the Cabinet has
taken note of the ministers’ remarks on the Capital Control Project, with
discussions to be continued later.
Othman meets new U.S. Ambassador
NNA/Tuesday 24 March 2020
Internal Security Forces chief, Imad Othman, met Tuesday in his office with new
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, accompanied by officials from the
embassy, who came on a protocol visit aimed at cooperation and coordination.
Talks reportedly touched on the general security situation in the country.
Jumblatt reiterates call for state of emergency
NNA/Tuesday 24 March 2020
Progressive Socialist Party leader, Walid Jumblatt, on Tuesday said via his
twitter account: “Some municipalities have been blocking roads and setting up
barriers, which is a form of self-security; however, this may cause many
problems. The best solution is for the security forces and Lebanese army to take
over these roads and adopt the necessary measures against those who violate the
traffic ban.” In his tweet, Jumblatt also reiterated calls for declaring a state
of emergency in Lebanon whilst ensuring the basic needs of citizens.
IMF sees a recession at least as bad as global financial
crisis
NNA/Tuesday 24 March 2020
The International Monetary Fund said it expects a global recession this year
that will be at least as severe as the downturn during the financial crisis more
than a decade ago, followed by a recovery in 2021. Nearly 80 countries have
asked the Washington-based IMF for emergency finance, Managing Director
Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement following a conference call of Group of
20 finance ministers and central bankers. Georgieva said the fund strongly
supports extraordinary fiscal actions already taken by many countries and
welcomes easing moves by major central banks.
“These bold efforts are not only in the interest of each country, but of the
global economy as a whole,” she said in the statement. “More will be needed,
especially on the fiscal front.” The Institute of International Finance
said earlier Monday that it projects a 1.5% contraction in the global economy
this year, with advanced economies shrinking 3.3%. Updated IMF forecasts are
usually released in April with the fund’s World Economic Outlook. “The pace of
deterioration in expectations is breathtaking. Even so, it’s important to keep
in mind that -- in contrast to the Asian financial crisis, the great financial
crisis, or the European sovereign debt crisis -- the coming contraction is not a
reflection of underlying economic imbalances. When the outbreak is over, that
means there’s hope growth can get rapidly back on track.” —Bloomberg
Report: Lebanese Army Receives Military 'Gift' from France
Naharnet/March 24/2020
France has reportedly “gifted” the Lebanese Armed Forces with four
“sophisticated” warships that will join the fleet of the Lebanese Navy, al-Joumhouria
daily reported on Tuesday. Unnamed diplomatic sources told the daily that the
French Ambassador to Lebanon Bruno Foucher has “personally supervised the
operation which took place in the past few hours.”Foucher has boarded one of the
French battleships that transported the warships accompanying them from the
Toulon arsenal military base in southern France to Beirut, which arrived in the
past few hours, according to the sources.
ABL Unveils $6 Million Grant to Fight Coronavirus
Naharnet/March 24/2020
The Association of Banks in Lebanon announced on Tuesday a $6 million grant to
fight coronavirus. An ABL delegation led by its chairman Salim Sfeir met with
Prime Minister Hassan Diab and handed him the cheques of the amount. In a press
conference, Sfeir said: “Today Lebanon is enduring a great national trial. Such
trials can only be faced with solidarity and subsidiarity between the State and
all the active forces in our society. The only way we will defeat this epidemic
is to increase immunity, and we can only relieve the plight by national immunity
Lebanon has acquired over time. Our initiative today is a national duty. There
will be other initiatives in the next few days."
Geagea Denies Having Coronavirus, Says Taking Precautions
Naharnet/March 24/2020
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday denied social media rumors
claiming that he has contracted the COVID-19 coronavirus, as he reassured that
he is taking precautions. “It is not shameful for any person to be infected with
coronavirus these days,” Geagea added, in a phone interview with MTV. Lamenting
that some political rivals have more than once circulated rumors about his
health, Geagea urged them to practice “honorable political rivalry.” Asked
whether he is staying home this period and whether he is engaging in any
political activities, Geagea said: “I’m staying home and at my office
simultaneously, seeing as they’re next to each other. I’m also carrying out
political activities in a normal manner but through the available electronic
means.” “When necessary, I’m holding some small and limited meetings with a
limited number of individuals while taking all the necessary measures,” he
explained. The rumors apparently started circulating after ex-minister May
Chidiac of the LF announced Monday that she had tested positive for the virus.
Kataeb Party Stresses Need to Declare a State of Emergency, Says Curfew
Not Enough
Kataeb.web site/March 24/2020
The Lebanese Kataeb party on Tuesday called on officials to announce a state of
emergency as soon as possible in response to the coronavirus outbreak, saying
that a curfew is not enough to curb the spread of the virus. “The State must
improve hospital capabilities and quarantine areas with clear conditions and
standards in a bid to ease the spread of the virus,” said a statement issued
following the weekly meeting of the Kataeb's politburo that was held online.
“Protecting the Lebanese’ health is no different than protecting them socially
and that's by helping them stay at home," the statement added.
The party praised the municipalities’ effective role in responding to all health
and social requirements despite the lack of potentials, recalling those
concerned to transfer all the municipalities’ entitlements to the cities’
treasury.
The politburo called on the government to address the social crisis that is
prevailing over Lebanon, saying that there are many ways that can help speed-up
the country’s productivity growth.
“This can be achieved through activating a program for the poorest families,
updating data, assessing needs, and securing a minimum level of income so as to
avoid a wave of hunger and starvation,” the statement added. The party also
urged the Education ministry to provide the students with all the needed means
so as to continue their studies, saying that they should offer them free
internet service that would help them in their online courses. The politburo
blamed Hezbollah, the ruling authority as well as the Lebanese banks for the
situation the country is going through today, calling them to stop messing with
the depositors’ funds. “How come there is yet no economic plan that would
contain the crisis the Lebanese are facing daily with the banks regarding
withdrawing their money and collecting their rights?” the statement added. The
party stressed the need to adopt a transparent and comprehensive reform view
that would boost the country’s economy, saying that such plan will help restore
the local and international confidence which remains the base for attracting the
necessary aid and investments.
Hariri Lauds China's Efforts against Coronavirus
Naharnet/March 24/2020
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri has sent a reply letter to the head of the
International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Song
Tao, in which he expressed his great appreciation for the coordinated efforts of
the Chinese officials to confront the coronavirus pandemic, lauding China's
contribution in helping Lebanon combat this virus, his office said. “I express
to you, on my behalf, and in the name of the Future (al-Mustaqbal) movement, and
through you to the Communist Party of China led by its Secretary General,
Chinese President Xi Jinping, the great appreciation for the coordinated efforts
of the party, the government and the people, and for the transparent
humanitarian responsibilities to face the coronavirus, on the human, health,
economic and social levels,” Hariri said in an English-language statement
distributed by his office.
“We are pleased to note the good points achieved in your country, and the
experiences and approaches from which all humanity can benefit,” the ex-PM
added. He said: “We in Lebanon are facing the spread of the pandemic. And from
our political and public position, I announced and worked on the necessity of
Lebanese solidarity, from all popular, official and governmental forces, to take
the appropriate measures at all levels to succeed in the battle of limiting the
losses, combatting the virus and ensuring the health of the citizens, despite
the current conditions of Lebanon.”Hariri also lauded China's contribution
through its embassy in Beirut, as well as China's contributions in many
countries of the world. He concluded by saying: “I would like to express my
personal desire, and that of the Future movement, to pursue and activate
communication with the Communist Party of China in all forms and at all levels.
I also express my wishes for direct communication with you and the party's
Secretary-General, when circumstances allow it, after humanity’s victory over
the epidemic and the return of global stability and direct interaction.”
Jumblat Urges Economic Plan alongside Coronavirus Measures
Naharnet/March 24/2020
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Tuesday wondered whether the
government has an economic plan in parallel with the emergency measures it has
declared to fight the coronavirus pandemic. “The most important question, along
with the coronavirus crisis, is that where is the government’s reformist
economic plan?” Jumblat tweeted. “Are we still in quarantine as to taking any
decision starting from the electricity sector?” he wondered. “Have the
recommendations of the CEDRE (conference) and the technical recommendations of
the International Monetary Fund been forgotten?” Jumblat went on to say, saying
“support for the army of needy and unemployed” might have become a “priority.”
Chidiac Says She Tested Positive for Coronavirus
Naharnet/March 24/2020
Former minister and prominent journalist May Chidiac announced Monday that she
has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. “After my return from the French
capital Paris last week, I developed some symptoms similar to those of
coronavirus, which required immediate home isolation,” she said in a statement.
“On Saturday, I underwent medical examinations at the Hotel Dieu hospital to
identify the reason behind the symptoms, and after the results of the tests came
out a while ago, I was asked to head to hospital for treatment after my
infection with the virus was confirmed,” Chidiac added. She also noted that her
condition “is not critical,” adding that she will soon join the ranks of those
who recovered from the disease. Chidiac survived an assassination attempt in
September 2005 but she lost her left leg and left arm in the attack. She served
as state minister for administrative development in Saad Hariri’s government
between 2019 and 2020. Lebanon has so far confirmed 256 coronavirus cases among
them eight recoveries and four deaths.
Lebanese industrialists and engineers to start
manufacturing ventilators locally
Tala Ramadan/Annahar/March 24/2020
Health officials are becoming increasingly alarmed about the bleak reality of
not having enough ventilators for patients who might need it.
BEIRUT: As COVID-19 spreads across the country, health officials are becoming
increasingly alarmed about the bleak reality of not having enough ventilators
for patients who might need it.
Accordingly, a new and potentially life-saving initiative that seeks to
manufacture ventilators locally was launched by the Lebanese American University
Medical Center-Rizk Hospital, American University of Beirut Medical Center,
Polytextile, S&AS controllers, and Technica.
Barbar Akle, Assistant Provost at the Lebanese American University, told Annahar
that this project will help build ventilators in a short period of time.
“As clinical staff and engineers, we offered some technical advice to the
different teams working on this project,” Bassam Tabshouri, head of AUB's
Medical Engineering Department told Annahar.
Ventilators are in short supply in many parts of the world. Physicians rely on
them to help treat patients who have contracted the virus in which, in most
severe cases, damages healthy tissues in the lungs, making it hard for it to
deliver oxygen to the blood. The machines are also used routinely to help other
hospital patients breathe, namely those undergoing surgery while under general
anesthesia.
“This is a stellar example of intersecting the skillsets and capabilities of
academia from all over Lebanon, with those of leading industrialists and
entrepreneurs including Polytextile, S&AS controllers, and Technica, to face a
critical challenge,” said Joseph G. Jabbra, President of LAU, in a statement.
The teams working on the initiative include Barbar Akle, Michel Khoury, and Ali
Ammouri from the engineering school at LAU; Fayez Abillama, a specialist in
Intensive Medicine at LAU Medical Center-Rizk Hospital; Paul Abi Nasr from
Polytextile; Bassam Tabshoury, head of their Medical Engineering Department at
AUB; and Mohammad Khatib, professor of Anesthesiology at AUB.
Jihad Azour, the IMF Mideast and Central Asia department
director sees Middle East facing 'big drop in growth this year'
AFP/The Arab Weekly/March 24/2020
The International Monetary Fund called Tuesday for urgent action from Middle
East governments as the coronavirus pandemic threatens a persistent slump in oil
revenues and a "big drop" in growth.
The IMF said a dozen Middle Eastern and North African countries had already
approached it for financial support. It urged governments across the region to
swiftly draw up rescue packages to head off a protracted recession.
"The region is likely to see a big drop in growth this year," the IMF's regional
director for the Middle East and Central Asia, Jihad Azour, said in a report.
The fund had already substantially cut its growth projections for the region
over low oil prices, civil unrest and US sanctions against Iran. The coronavirus
pandemic has triggered a 50% fall in oil prices that has slashed government
revenues across the region.
"The coronavirus pandemic has become the largest near-term challenge to the
region," Azour said. Moody's Investors Service estimated on Tuesday that oil
income for crude-exporting nations will decline this year by between four and 10
percent of gross domestic product.
Kuwait and Iraq will see their oil revenues dive by more than 10 percent of GDP,
while the decline for Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain will be between four
and eight percent, it said in a report. It did not provide estimates for the UAE.
Moody's said it based its estimates on the assumption that Brent oil prices will
average between $40 and $45 a barrel in 2020, although prices currently hover at
a round $28 a barrel.
Earlier this week, Standard and Poor's ratings agency lowered its projection for
average oil price this year to $30 a barrel, which would signal a greater
decline. The coronavirus has shattered global demand for oil due to weak growth,
at a time when businesses from hotels and shopping malls to airlines have
virtually ground to a halt.
"The pandemic is causing significant economic turmoil in the region through
simultaneous shocks -- a drop in domestic and external demand, a reduction in
trade, disruption of production, a fall in consumer confidence, and tightening
of financial conditions," Azour said.
The coronavirus shutdown is hurting sectors that are major sources of employment
like tourism, hospitality and retail, with rising joblessness and falling wages
the likely results, he said.
IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said March 23 that world economic growth will be
negative this year and could be worse than the 2008 global financial crisis,
further sapping demand for Middle East oil.
The desperate final days of a domestic worker in Lebanon
Timour Azhari/Al Hazeera/March 24/2020
Faustina Tay's body was discovered in a car park under her employers'
fourth-storey home in Beirut.
Beirut, Lebanon - On the morning of March 13, Faustina Tay sent a final
desperate message to an activist group she had contacted about the abuse she was
suffering at the hands of her Lebanese employers.
"God please help me," the 23-year-old Ghanaian domestic worker wrote.
About 18 hours later, she was found dead.
Tay's body was discovered in a car park under her employers' fourth-storey home
in Beirut's southern suburbs, between 3 and 4am on March 14. A forensic doctor
who examined her body found that her death was caused by a head injury "as a
result of falling from a high place and crashing into a solid body". The doctor
found "no marks of physical assault". A search of Tay's employers' home found no
signs of a struggle, and the death was being investigated as a suicide,
according to a police report.
Hussein Dia, whose home Tay had lived and worked in for 10 months at the time of
her death, told Al Jazeera he and his family had been sleeping when she died.
Dia said he did not know what had driven the 23-year-old to take her own life,
and denied he ever physically assaulted her - "I never laid a hand on her." But
in the week before her death, Tay sent dozens of texts and more than 40 minutes
of voice messages to Canada-based activist group, This Is Lebanon, and her
brother in Ghana, providing detailed accounts of recurrent physical abuse.
This Is Lebanon names and shames employers accused of maid abuse online in an
attempt to resolve issues facing domestic workers on a case-by-case basis.
Human Rights Watch found in a 2010 report that Lebanon's judiciary fails to hold
employers accountable for abuses, while security agencies often do not
"adequately investigate claims of violence or abuse".
Tay told the group that Dia and Ali Kamal, the owner of the domestic worker's
agency that had brought her to Lebanon, had each beaten her twice between
January 16 and March 6. Kamal had beaten her along with one of his employees,
Hussein, she said. In the messages, Tay repeatedly expressed concerns that
speaking about her ordeal could lead to more abuse, and the confiscation of her
phone, which she said had taken place once before.
She also feared much worse.
"I'm scared. I'm scared; they might kill me," she said, in a chilling voice note
to activists.
'Modern-day slavery'
The manner of Tay's death is not uncommon in Lebanon, a country with about
250,000 domestic workers. Two die each week, according to the country's General
Security intelligence agency, with many falling from high buildings during
botched escape attempts, or in cases that are ruled suicides. Domestic workers
like Tay are employed under the country's notorious kafala system, which ties
their legal residence to their employer, making it very difficult for them to
end their contracts.
This sponsorship system, which is in place in several Middle Eastern countries,
has facilitated a range of abuse, such as non-payment of wages, a lack of rest
time and days off, and physical and sexual assault.
Lebanon's former Labour Minister Camille Abousleiman likened the system to
"modern-day slavery," and began a process of reform that is still in its early
stages. Women who come to Lebanon for domestic work from a host of Southeast
Asian and African countries such as the Philippines, Nepal and Ethiopia are
usually looking to support their families back home and eventually return. Tay's
case sheds light on the type of abuse that ends with many returning to their
families in coffins.
From Accra to Beirut
A little more than 10 months before her death, Tay had been running a small
noodle business in Ghana's capital Accra, with financial help from her brother
Joshua Demanya, who works as a driver. Demanya told Al Jazeera that he had
advised his sister against going to Lebanon "because there have been stories of
people who go there and suffer so much they run away". Tay ignored her brother's
advice and arrived in Beirut on May 5 to begin working at Dia's apartment, where
he lives with his wife, Mona, and their three children.
There, she did not have her own room, instead, she slept on a sofa in the
kitchen. She complained that she was overworked, had no days off and was usually
only able to get to sleep at 2am and was woken up at 8am.
'I should have stayed'
She quickly regretted her decision to leave Ghana. In November 2019, she texted
her brother: "I should have stayed [and] continued with my business." In
January, she told her employers that she could not work for them any more, and
asked to be sent back home. They refused - "I paid $2,000, and I said, 'Take it
easy on us, we'll let you travel after Ramadan,'" Dia recalled telling her.
That was when Tay said Dia beat her for the first time, on January 16, before
taking her to Kamal's agency, where she said Kamal and Hussein beat her. Both
denied the claims when contacted by Al Jazeera. Kamal said his agency,
established in 1992, brings roughly 1,000 domestic workers into Lebanon every
year. "The state would have closed us a long time ago," if they mistreated
domestic workers, he said.
Kamal informed Tay that the only way she would get back home was if she worked
two more months with the Dia family, to pay for her ticket back to Ghana. She
agreed.
But when the agreement came due in March, she contacted This Is Lebanon and said
Dia was refusing to let her leave. A few days later, on March 10, she said Dia,
Kamal and Hussein beat her again.
"My boss beat me mercilessly yesterday [and] dis (sic) morning he took me to the
office [and] I was beaten again, this is the second time they beat me up in the
office."
Dia said he had taken Tay to the agency with the intent of letting her travel,
but received a call two hours later from the agency: "We've worked it out,
she'll travel in July."
Demanya said his sister had agreed "out of fear".
'I don't want to die here'
Al Jazeera informed Lebanon's Labour Ministry of Tay's case. An adviser to
Labour Minister Lamia Yammine said that the names of Tay's employers had been
noted and the ministry would be informed if they applied to be allowed to employ
another domestic worker.
She said they would be permanently blacklisted "if it is proven later on that
the suicide was caused by abuse". On March 12, Tay sent a series of pictures to
her brother, appearing to show an inflamed hand, a bruise on her forearm and a
scratch underneath her eye that she said were caused by the beatings. She also
shared a picture of a bloody tissue that she said was the result of a nosebleed.
Despite the abuse, she described, Tay expressed a strong will to live.
"I'm very, very weak," she said in a voice message, describing pain in her
wrist, legs and neck. "Please, help me. Help me to go back to my country for
treatment. Please, I don't want to die here."
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News
published on March 24-25/2020
Pope calls on Christians to direct prayers
toward Heaven
NNA/Tuesday 24 March 2020
Pope Francis wrote on Twitter: “Let us stay united. I invite all Christians to
direct their voices together toward Heaven, reciting the Our Father tomorrow, 25
March, at noon. #PrayTogether #PrayForTheWorld “
Priest Who gave Respirator To Young Patient Dies/Coronavirus:
Giuseppe Berardelli among 50 priests killed
BBC/24 March 2020
An Italian priest who gave a respirator to a younger coronavirus patient he did
not know has died of the disease. Father Giuseppe Berardelli, 72, died in
hospital in Lovere, Bergamo - one of the worst-hit cities in Italy.
At least 50 priests have reportedly been killed by coronavirus in Italy. The
world's worst affected country with 6,077 deaths so far, Italy has been under
prolonged lockdown as it tries to stop the spread of infections from the
worst-hit northern region of Lombardy. Coronavirus has been spreading rapidly
across the globe, affecting more than 160 countries and claiming more than
16,000 lives. There are more than 360,000 confirmed cases
worldwide. Europe is now at the epicentre of the crisis and the US is facing a
surge in cases.
Who was Fr Berardelli?
Giuseppe Berardelli, the main priest in the town of Casnigo, died last week in
Lovere hospital. According to the hospital, he refused to use a respirator his
parishioners had bought for him - choosing to give it to a younger patient,
instead. Residents of Casnigo were reported to have applauded from their windows
and balconies as the coffin was taken for burial. There was no funeral. On
Tuesday, Pope Francis led a prayer for the deceased doctors and priests,
"thanking God for their heroic example in serving those who were sick".
What is the situation in Italy?
Italy shut down most businesses and banned public gatherings nationwide on 12
March as it tried to halt the spread of the virus.
Bars, restaurants and most shops have closed, as have schools and universities.
The lockdown has been extended, and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has said it
has helped prevent "the collapse of the system". On Tuesday, it reported a
slight slowdown in the rate of infection for a third day in a row. But at more
than 600 deaths a day, it is far from bringing the pandemic under control.
Italy has 63,927 people with Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. So far
it has reported 6,077 deaths and 7,432 people who have been discharged from
hospital after recovering.
But the number infected could be far higher. Angelo Borrelli, Italy's civil
protection chief, told newspaper La Repubblica on Tuesday it was "credible" to
estimate the numbers are 10 times higher in reality.
"In the next few hours… we will see if the growth curve is really flattening,"
he told the paper.
What is the situation worldwide?
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the coronavirus disease
pandemic is "accelerating", with more than 300,000 cases now confirmed. It took
67 days from the first reported of Covid-19 to reach 100,000 cases, 11 days for
the second 100,000, and just four days for the third 100,000. But WHO Director
General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was still possible to "change the
trajectory".
He urged countries to adopt rigorous testing and contact-tracing strategies. In
the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday night that, with
immediate effect, "people will only be allowed to leave their home...for very
limited purposes". The number of people who have died in the UK rose to 335 on
Monday.
US Department Of State/Iran: COVID-19
DISINFORMATION FACT-SHEET
FACT SHEET
OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON
MARCH 23, 2020
“I also want to call attention to the Iranian regime’s misinformation campaign
surrounding the origination of the Wuhan virus. Instead of focusing on the needs
of the Iranian people and accepting genuine offers of support, senior Iranians
lied about the Wuhan virus outbreak for weeks.”
The Iranian leadership is trying to avoid responsibility for their grossly
incompetent and deadly governance. Sadly, the Iranian people have been suffering
these kinds of lies for 41 years. They know the truth: The Wuhan virus is a
killer and the Iranian regime is an accomplice.”
-Secretary Pompeo, Remarks to the Press March 17, 2020
FACTS
Iran’s lack of transparency about its coronavirus outbreak has resulted in a
catastrophic public health risk to the Iranian people, as well as to Iran’s
neighbors.
Instead of halting flights to China when the risk of contagion was clear, the
regime threatened and imprisoned dozens of Iranians who told the truth about the
outbreak. The regime encouraged large public gatherings to try to bolster its
legitimacy, with no regard for the health risk to Iranian citizens.
The regime is hiding a significant amount of information about the coronavirus
outbreak. It is likely far worse that the regime is admitting. This lack of
transparency poses a significant health risk to the Iranian people, as well as
to Iran’s neighbors.
Reports that COVID-19 has spread to Iranian prisons are deeply troubling and
demand nothing less than the full and immediate release of all American
citizens. Their detention amid increasingly deteriorating conditions poses a
serious health risk and undermines their basic human dignity.
The United States has and continues to offer humanitarian assistance to the
Iranian people to help address the coronavirus outbreak. It is unfortunate for
the Iranian people that their government has rejected this offer. Our priority
has been to stand with the Iranian people – and this offer is still on the
table.
U.S. sanctions are not preventing aid from getting to Iran. The United States
maintains broad authorizations that allow for the sale of food, agricultural
commodities, medicine, and medical devices by U.S persons or from the United
States to Iran.
The media should know better than to believe and propagate Chinese and Russian
propaganda that misleads the public into believing U.S. sanctions are to blame.
Now, regime officials make false claims that the U.S. engineered the virus –
focusing their time and resources attempting to deflect blame instead of taking
responsibility and providing for the health, prosperity, and rights of Iranians,
who deserve far better.
For years, the Iranian regime has prioritized its proxies over the Iranian
people and stolen the money the Iranian people deserve and expect to go for
their healthcare. In July 2019, one billion euros intended for medical supplies
“disappeared” and another $170 million dollars allocated for medical goods were
instead spent on tobacco. Since 2012, the regime has spent over $16 billion on
terror abroad – the Iranian people know that any sanctions relief would go to
sponsor terrorist, not humanitarian activities.
If regime officials are looking for funds to combat the outbreak, they can start
by returning money they stole from the Iranian people. Supreme Leader Khamenei
runs a hedge fund worth tens of billions of dollars, much of which was “earned”
by confiscating resources from the Iranian people.
DISINFORMATION AND MISMANAGEMENT
Instead of taking appropriate precautions against the spread of COVID-19, Iran’s
terrorist airline, Mahan Air, operated at least 55 flights between Tehran and
China in February, according to public reports.
On February 10, Deputy Health Minsiter Ali-Reza Raisi told reporters: “I declare
that there are no cases of coronavirus in the country and our citizens should
only follow news released by the Health Ministry on the coronavirus.” The same
day, a 63-year-old Iranian woman died from the coronavirus.
The Iranian regime only admitted that coronavirus had entered Iran on February
19, nine days after the first reported death.
On March 5, the head of Iran’s cyber police announced the arrest of 121 Iranians
for “spreading rumors” about the coronavirus. The regime also reportedly
threatened medical staff against revealing accurate statistics of coronavirus
cases and deaths.
In March, the head of the IRGC, Hossein Salami, claimed the spread of COVID-19
in Iran might be due to a U.S. biological attack, and an advisor to the Speaker
of the Iranian Parliament claimed coronavirus was being used as biological
warfare by the United States.
On March 12, Ayatollah Khamenei falsely claimed that there is evidence that
COVID-19 might be a “biological attack.”
On March 17, Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif falsely claimed U.S. sanctions
are killing Iranian “innocents” with its sanctions. He failed to note the
Department of State has offered aid through Switzerland dating back to February.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has also falsely accused the United States of
hampering Iran’s epidemic by not lifting sanctions. In fact, on February 28, the
Department of State offered aid to specifically address the spread of COVID-19
in Iran, an offer that was conveyed to Iran through the government of
Switzerland and rejected by the regime.
Coronavirus: Iran’s death toll reaches 1,934, total cases
24,811
Reuters/Tuesday 24 March 2020
Iran's death toll from the coronavirus outbreak increased by 122 in the past 24
hours to1,934, Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said onTuesday. The
total number of people diagnosed with the disease increased by 1,762 in the past
24 hours, to 24,811, he added onstate TV.
Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards founding member Habib Barzegari dies of coronavirus
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English/Tuesday 24 March 2020
Habib Barzegari, a founding member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),
has died of coronavirus, state media reported on Tuesday. Barzegari was a
founding member of the IRGC in the city of Meybod in Iran’s central province of
Yazd, according to state media.
Visit our dedicated coronavirus site here for all the latest updates. Barzegari
was also an advisor to the representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei in Meybod. At least 16 Iranian regime figures have died from
coronavirus since the beginning of the outbreak in the Islamic Republic.
Trump Warns Coronavirus Shutdown Could 'Destroy a Country'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 24/2020
U.S. President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday that he wants the coronavirus
lockdown relaxed in the United States by mid-April, warning that keeping the
measures in place could "destroy" the country.
"A lot of people agree with me. Our country -- it's not built to shut down," he
said on Fox News. "You can destroy a country this way by closing it down." "I
would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter," Trump
said. Easter is on April 12. Social distancing and quarantine measures have been
instituted across much of the United States, bringing the world's biggest
economy to an abrupt halt. Health experts have advised the measures are the only
way to prevent the easily transmitted, potentially fatal illness from
multiplying uncontrollably.
In the chat show format interview with Fox at the White House, Trump made it
clear that he thinks the shutdown has been an overreaction. "We lose thousands
and thousands of people a year to the flu. We don't turn the country off," Trump
argued. "We lose much more than that to automobile accidents. We didn't call up
the automobile companies to say, 'Stop making cars. We don't want any cars
anymore,'" he said. With his November reelection campaign also on hold, Trump is
eager to get back into the fray. One of his main claims to a second term, prior
to the coronavirus outbreak, was the strong economy and low unemployment. "We
can't lose a Boeing, we can't lose some of these companies," he said. "If we
lose those companies we're talking about hundreds of thousands of jobs, millions
of jobs."
G20 Video Talks on Coronavirus Set for Thursday
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 24/2020
Moscow on Tuesday confirmed world powers, including President Vladimir Putin,
will be holding an emergency G20 online summit this week to discuss a global
coronavirus response. "On March 26 the president will participate in the
emergency G20 summit which will take place in a videoconference format," the
Kremlin said in a statement.The conference "will be dedicated to battling the
coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the global economy," it said. Saudi
Arabia, which currently presides over the G20, last week called for the "virtual
summit" and France and China on Tuesday supported the idea as the global toll
from COVID-19 surged close to 16,000 and over 1.7 billion people were confined
to their homes. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Tuesday evening
that the Russian leader was preparing to join the video conference while on a
working visit to Saint-Petersburg.
French Coronavirus Lockdown Should Last 'at Least 6 Weeks',
Govt. Advisers Say
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/March 24/2020
The lockdown imposed last week in France to battle the coronavirus should last
at least six weeks in total, a committee of scientific experts advising the
government on the outbreak said on Tuesday. The warning on the potential length
of the lockdown came as the coronavirus killed another 240 people in France,
bringing the death toll in the country from the pandemic to 1,100. "The
confinement will likely last at least six weeks from the moment it was put in
place (on March 17)," said the scientific council, adding it was "indispensable"
to extend the measure from its initial duration of two weeks. The council of
doctors and sociologists was created by the health ministry to advise President
Emmanuel Macron and the government on the best way to combat the coronavirus.
The lockdown, already in place for a week nationwide, orders all in France to
stay inside except for essential trips outside such as shopping.
Speaking after talks with the experts at the Elysee Palace, Health Minister
Olivier Veran said that the figure of six weeks was an "estimation" and no one
knew at this stage how long the confinement would last. "They said that we need
to be prepared that the confinement will last more than two weeks and that maybe
it could be even more like five or six weeks," he said. "It (the lockdown) will
last as long as it needs to," he added.
The experts said that the lockdown was currently the "sole strategy that is
realistic in operational terms," adding that other strategies like mass testing
or isolating all those who may have the virus were not realizable on a national
scale. It said three weeks of lockdown would be needed before an estimation of
its impact can be made. Top French health official Jerome Salomon told reporters
that 22,300 people had been registered as testing positive for the virus in
France, with a total of 10,176 hospitalized of whom 2,516 people are in
intensive care. Officials believe that the published number of those
infected largely underestimates the real figure, as only those showing severe
symptoms are usually tested. Salomon also emphasized that the death toll of
1,100 includes only those recorded to have died of the coronavirus in hospitals
and not those who die in old people's homes. He said that the hospital deaths
were only a part of the total toll and vowed to give data on mortality in old
people's homes in the next few days.
On the 10th Day of Lockdown, Madrid Shaken by Deaths
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/March 24/2020
At the foot of the skyscrapers in Madrid's business district, the streets are
empty as the city silently marks day 10 of lockdown to halt the spread of the
coronavirus. The only signs of life are those coming and going at a nearby
hospital where another five people died overnight, raising the body count to
1,535 in the Madrid region. The coronavirus epidemic has hit particularly hard
in this normally bustling city of 6.5 million, where ambulances now sweep
through its wide streets and boulevards without even sounding their sirens as
they rush ever more people to hospital.
Spain has so far lost 2,696 people to the virus, with 60 percent of the deaths
in Madrid and the surrounding region. At the gates of La Paz university hospital
in the north of the city, staff are unloading dozens of bottles of oxygen as
doctors wearing masks and gloves come and go from a recently-erected white tent.
"The (reception) tent opened yesterday for possible COVID-19 patients and those
with mild symptoms," explains a spokeswoman. "Our staff are up to their eyes in
work. We've been getting protective suits and masks but we're still short."
'Five died in A&E'
After completing a night shift in the hospital's A&E department, Guillen del
Barrio sounds completely empty as he relates what happened overnight.
"It is really hard, we had feverish people for many hours in the waiting room,
sometimes we had to give them oxygen, some of them very old people," he told AFP
by telephone. "Just in A&E we had five people die of coronavirus overnight, the
30-year-old added..
"Many of my colleagues were crying because there were people who are dying
alone, without seeing their family for the last time, and we hardly even had
time to keep them company."Last week, a 52-year-old nurse in the northern Basque
Country died, becoming the first coronavirus victim among healthcare workers.
"It reminded us that we are very much in danger," said Del Barrio whose partner
is a nurse who "has tested positive and is at home in quarantine." For him, the
main thing is to recognize the importance of the public health system. "The
number of beds have been reduced a lot because of budget cuts during the
economic crisis," said Del Barrio, a union member. "And right now we are really
missing all those nurses and doctors who went to work abroad."
Ice rink as morgue
Inside the city's vast IFEMA exhibition hall, the army has rapidly set up "the
biggest hospital in Spain" -- a field hospital with an intensive care unit which
may eventually accommodate up to 5,500 patients and where ambulances can be seen
going in and out. Just two kilometers (less than a mile) down the road, red
trucks carrying soldiers in protective suits can be seen driving into the
Palacio de Hielo (Ice Palace) shopping center, whose ice skating rink is being
used to store dead bodies because the city's morgues are overwhelmed. In front
of a nearby building, several undertakers are cleaning their hands after
unloading a body from their grey lorry. "This one died a normal death," not due
to coronavirus, one of them explains. "It's crazy, we have so much work," he
adds, before being hurried away by his colleagues.
Bread, papers and letters
In the city center, however, postmen are still delivering letters, bakers are
selling bread and newspapers kiosks remain open. "I'm not selling anything, it
means people are being very careful and going out very little," shrugs Carlos
Garcia at a newsstand in the city's famed Puerta del Sol.
Now deserted, the huge square is normally buzzing with life, with tourists
snapping pictures of the towering statue of a bear grasping onto a strawberry
tree -- the emblem of the city. "Am I afraid? No. If I was afraid, I wouldn't be
here," said this white-haired 58-year-old. "But I do worry about my family
because nobody knows where this virus will strike next."Under the lockdown,
Spain's 46 million population has been ordered to stay home with people only
allowed out to buy food or medicine, to walk the dog or in limited cases, to go
to work.
"The city is desolate," says Jesus Santa Rosa, a 33-year-old Venezuelan who is
delivering food by bike. "I have to work to be able to send something back to
Venezuela. I got here only a month ago and now I'm working through an epidemic."
Near Gran Via, in the middle of a pedestrianized street without pedestrians, a
group of construction workers are standing around a cement mixer. "Building and
renovation work is still going on," sighs Ruben Sanchez, 42, who manages the
site.
"Why don't they just shut it down?" he wonders. "I'm in charge but I'd much
rather be at home."
Israel Right-Wing Parties Boycott Parliament Re-Opening
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 24/2020
Israeli right-wing parties backing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boycotted
the re-opening of parliament Monday to protest what they called the
"dictatorial" conduct of their centrist rivals. The dramatic move came after a
year of political turmoil that saw three inconclusive elections, and as
Netanyahu has imposed strict legal and security measures to deal with the
coronavirus pandemic. Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party accused the centrist
Blue and White, led by ex-military chief Benny Gantz, of breaching standard
practice in parliament, the Knesset, following March 2 elections.
The row centered on whether Gantz would use his bloc's slight majority of
lawmakers to shape the composition of a powerful parliamentary committee. Noting
the "severe health crisis" -- with 1,442 confirmed coronavirus cases in Israel
-- Likud accused Blue and White of "hate-driven, dictatorial and destructive
conduct".The election early this month saw the anti-Netanyahu parties claim a
narrow lead of 62 seats. Right-wing and ultra-Orthodox factions that back the
caretaker premier claimed 58. Gantz was last week tasked with forming a
government, something that had proved impossible following the last two votes
given deep divisions within the anti-Netanyahu camp. There was no guarantee
Gantz would fare better this time.
'Disgraceful process'
Monday's spat centered on the key arrangements committee, which is responsible
for forming other parliamentary committees. When the new Knesset was sworn in
last Monday, lawmakers failed to agree on the committee's composition, which is
traditionally negotiated among different Knesset factions. But Blue and White
declared it would put the issue to a majority vote. Knesset speaker Yuli
Edelstein, a Likud member and Netanyahu ally, scheduled the vote for Monday.
Hours before the chamber was due to re-open, Likud announced its boycott, saying
it would not take part in the "disgraceful process." Gantz's bloc voted despite
the boycott, creating an arrangements committee that will see Knesset business
move forward, including the formation of a new body to tackle the
coronavirus.Gantz accused Netanyahu of trying to "paralyze the Knesset," in a
speech to a near empty chamber on Monday.
Virus surveillance
Netanyahu has repeatedly called for Gantz to join him in a unity government,
with the premier's job rotating between them, and President Reuven Rivlin has
backed such calls amid the pandemic. Israel has imposed severe restrictions to
contain coronavirus, including banning non-essential movements. Netanyahu had
also enlisted the Shin Bet internal security agency to track possible virus
carriers through their mobile phones -- without a court order. That move
triggered outrage over alleged national security over-reach, with the supreme
court ruling last week such surveillance could not go ahead without Knesset
oversight.
The committee tasked with overseeing the Shin Bet, the foreign and defense
committee, was scheduled to be formed in the coming days.
Speaker showdown
A dispute also escalated over the powerful job of Knesset speaker.
Likud has argued that its member and Netanyahu loyalist Yuli Edelstein should
remain as speaker until a new government is formed. Blue and White asked the
supreme court to weigh in. On Monday, judges told Edelstein he had two days to
schedule a vote for a new speaker.
Edelstein rejected what he described as the court's "ultimatum," saying it was
not the role of judges to set the Knesset agenda. Blue and White in a statement
warned Edelstein that he would be "shamefully remembered" for defying the court.
Netanyahu is also facing criminal corruptions charges, allegations he denies,
but which could soon leave him vulnerable: MPs who oppose him have backed
legislation that would bar anyone under criminal indictment from serving as
prime minister.
U.N. Calls for Syria Ceasefire to Tackle Virus Threat
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 24/2020
The United Nations top envoy for Syria on Tuesday called for a nationwide
ceasefire to allow for a better response to the threat of the novel coronavirus.
The government in Damascus has so far only reported one case of COVID-19 but
fears are high that the virus could spread rapidly among the war-battered
country's most vulnerable communities. "Syrians are acutely vulnerable to
COVID-19. Healthcare facilities have been destroyed or are degraded," Geir
Pedersen said. "There is a shortage of key medical equipment and health
professionals."
The aid community has warned that Syria, where around a million people have been
displaced by conflict in the northwest since December alone, is particularly
vulnerable. "To confront this danger, the long-suffering Syrian people
desperately need a sustained period of calm throughout the country respected by
all parties," Pedersen said. He called for the mass release of detainees,
demanded full and sustained humanitarian access to all parts of the country and
urged donors to heed dedicated funding appeals. The International Rescue
Committee this week warned that an outbreak of novel coronavirus in northern
Syria could be one of the worst the world has seen.
At Least 70 Nigerian Soldiers Killed in Jihadist Ambush
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/March 24/2020
At least 70 Nigerian soldiers were killed in an ambush on their convoy by
jihadist fighters in the restive northeast of the country, military and security
sources said Tuesday. Two military officers told AFP on condition of anonymity
that Islamist insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and heavy guns at a
truck carrying troops as it travelled near Gorgi village in Borno state on
Monday.
Three US sailors on aircraft carrier test positive
AP/March 24, 2020
WASHINGTON: Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly says three sailors aboard the USS
Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for coronavirus. The aircraft carrier at
sea in Asia last made a port call 15 days ago in Vietnam. The chief of naval
operations, Adm. Michael Gilday, says there currently is no plan to pull the
carrier from its mission. He says the three sailors are being removed from the
ship and admitted to a Defense Department hospital. Navy officials say those who
came in contact with the trio are in isolation aboard the ship, as best they can
do that while at sea. But the officials couldn’t say say how many are in
isolation.
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on March 24-25/2020
How Canada approved an Assad loyalist to serve the
country’s terrorized Syrian refugees
Amanda Coletta/The Washington Post/March 24, 2020
Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was foreign minister when her
department approved the appointment of Assad loyalist Waseem Ramli as Syria’s
honorary consul in Montreal.
Montreal businessman Waseem Ramli is so devoted to Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad that his red Hummer — custom license plate “1SYRIA” — features the
leader’s portrait splashed across a side window.
So when Maclean’s magazine reported in September that Canada had approved
Syria’s nomination of Ramli to the post of honorary consul in Montreal,some
members of the Syrian diaspora were frightened.
Since 2015, Canada has resettled more than 50,000 refugees who have fled Syria’s
bloody civil war. They included members of the White Helmets, a volunteer group
that has rescued thousands of civilians harmed by Syrian and Russian airstrikes.
Ramli has described the White Helmets as a “terrorist organization” — echoing
unsubstantiated claims made by Assad and his backers in Russia. As honorary
consul, Ramli would have authority over renewing passports, notarizing documents
and helping Syrians secure legal representation, among other services.
While other countries turn Syrian refugees away, Canadians are taking them home
Then-Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said she hadn’t been informed of Ramli’s
appointment. She called Ramli’s views “shocking and unacceptable,” condemned her
department for signing off, and withdrew the approval.
Ramli declined to comment. He told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that his
political views wouldn’t interfere with his ability to execute his duties
fairly. Freeland announced the revocation of his status on Sept. 25.
But a question remained: How did it happen in the first place?
Documents obtained by The Washington Post under an access to information request
reveal deficiencies in what was a quicker-than-average vetting process.
They show that the officials who vetted Ramli knew of his support for Damascus
but didn’t discover views they considered “extreme” enough to forestall
approval. They show that officials fielded queries from concerned Syrians well
before Ramli was to take up his post but struggled to respond and pushed ahead
anyway.
Members of the White Helmets recover bodies in Maarat Misrin, Syria, following
government airstrikes.
Members of the White Helmets recover bodies in Maarat Misrin, Syria, following
government airstrikes. (Ahmad Al-Atrash/AFP/Getty Images)
Canada joined several other countries, including the United States, in ejecting
all Syrian diplomats after the massacre of 108 civilians in the Syrian area of
Houla in 2012. Since then, honorary consuls in Vancouver and Montreal have
operated intermittently to provide consular services to Syrians in Canada and
the United States.
Canadian government guidelines for honorary consuls direct the Foreign Ministry
to avoid “controversial or politically active persons” in favor of individuals
“of good standing and reputation in the local community.”
Thomas Juneau, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa, said locals
considered Ramli a “thug” of Assad. Aside from the appointment’s “abysmal
optics,” he said, there was fear that the personal information of Syrians who
opposed Assad might make its way back to him or that they could be targets of
retribution.
‘What Canada is about’: Country gives a warm embrace to Syrian refugees
Approving an honorary consul application in Canada typically takes four to six
weeks. Ramli’s took less than three.
Canada began vetting the restaurateur on July 25. Sébastien Beaulieu, then
executive coordinator for Syria, based in Beirut, wrote colleagues an email on
Aug. 7.
Given the “context of our administrative and consular engagement with the
Syrians, and given that this is effectively the only service and document
delivery point for Syrians in Canada and the U.S.,” he wrote, “we favor the
prompt review/approval of this request, barring any real adverse information
related to the proposed candidate . . . other than expected proximity/alignment
with Damascus.”
Beaulieu, now Canada’s ambassador to Senegal,hand-delivered the note of approval
to a Syrian official at the United Nations in New York on Aug. 14.
Five days later, Robin Wettlaufer, then Canada’s head of political affairs for
Syria in Istanbul, forwarded colleagues a message from a Syrian contact in
Montreal. The person described the appointment as “really scary,” and said he or
she had flagged concerns about Ramli to the Canadian Foreign Ministry the month
before.
An alleged ISIS fighter wants to face justice in Canada. Canada doesn’t want
him.
Wettlaufer sought help from officials in the protocol and Middle East relations
offices in crafting responses to messages she continued to receive about the
appointment. On Sept. 20, in light of new information (redacted in the documents
released to The Post), she recommended officials “set the record straight.” She
attached to the email photos of Ramli’s Hummer and social media comments she
translated from Arabic to English.
“I don’t know how the Canadian government allows this monster and real threat to
be [an] honorary [consul],” one person wrote.
On Sept. 22, Emmanuelle Lamoureux, Canada’s ambassador to Lebanon, asked
colleagues for guidance over the “unfolding situation.” Members of her team were
off to Syria that week.
Sandra McCardell, the Foreign Ministry’s director general for the Middle East,
said she would bring up Ramli’s “inappropriate and provocative conduct” with
Syrian officials at the United Nations in New York that week.
The Maclean’s story landed the next day.
Senior managers immediately requested a review of the appointment, and the
department prepared to revoke Ramli’s status before he took up his post on Oct.
1. Those involved in the approval process drafted a chronology of events.
The caliphate has crumbled, but ISIS still haunts Yazidis in Canada
In one email, Sean Boyd, executive director for Middle East relations, was asked
for bullet points on “what happened to let this one pass.” He said the “vetting
of business relationships and social media” didn’t flag anything “of significant
concern or that could be construed as extreme views.” He said social media posts
in Arabic weren’t searched.
It appeared “the concerns of the local community” and the degree of Ramli’s
“political activism” had not been “sufficiently probed/broadly known” before
his appointment, Boyd said.
But another email noted that Ramli’s support for the regime, including on social
media, and experience helping to organize a demonstration against U.S.-led
airstrikes in Syria in 2018 were flagged as early as the first week of August.
“His tone was, however, not as strong as other pro-regime Canadians in Canada,”
one person wrote, andan online search did not reveal Ramli’s position on the
White Helmets.
The Washington Post found an article Ramli shared on his Facebook page in 2018
from the Russian state-sponsored media outlet RT describing Canada’s decision to
resettle the White Helmets as “dangerous and criminal.”
The Office of Protocol said revoking Ramli’s approval would bring “relief” to
Syrians, who had highlighted Ramli’s attempts to “intimidate” them and his
“self-acknowledged financial support for an organization accused of diverting
humanitarian aid funds to the Syrian regime.”
Some Syrian refugees in Canada already want to return to the Middle East
Foreign Ministry spokeswomanBarbara Harvey said the department’s processes
“clearly” were “not sufficient.” The ministry has since revised the vetting
process to include “social media and language requirements.”
The incident highlights a broader conundrum: how to ensure that Syrians have
access to key consular services without exposing refugees to the Assad regime,
which is responsible for the nominations.
“On the one hand, you don’t want to legitimize the regime in any way and to
approve an individual [who] will very much intimidate the population,” Juneau
said. “At the same time, by not appointing anyone, you are penalizing Syrians
who need access to services.”
It’s a “difficult situation” for the government, he said, but doesn’t excuse
Ramli’s approval.
“Considering that it is Syria, the speed at which it was delivered was somewhat
worrisome,” said Ferry de Kerckhove, a former Canadian diplomat.
He said the vetting process was “conducted as usual” — and that might have been
the problem.
“In my view, I would have said, ‘If it’s Syria, make sure the minister signs
off,’ ” de Kerckhove said. “That’s my bottom line.’
Americans, Canadians scramble to get home before border shuts down
Eritreans can sue company in Canada for alleged abuses overseas
He says he didn’t know his parents were Russian spies. Canada’s Supreme Court
says he can keep his citizenship.
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
*Amanda Coletta is a reporter based in Toronto who covers Canada for The
Washington Post. She previously worked in London, first at the Economist and
then the Wall Street Journal.Follow
US, UAE troops hold major exercise amid virus, Iran
tensions
Jon Gambrell/AP/March 24/2020
AL-HAMRA MILITARY BASE, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. Marines and Emirati
forces held a major military exercise Monday that saw forces seize a sprawling
model Mideast city, a drill conducted amid tensions with Iran and despite the
new coronavirus pandemic.
Troops raced over the dunes of the Al-Hamra Military Base to take the model
city, complete with multi-story buildings, an airport control tower, an oil
refinery and a central mosque. Controlled explosions rang out as Emirati troops
rappelled from hovering helicopters and Marines searched narrow streets on the
Persian Gulf for “enemy” forces.
The biennial exercise, called Native Fury, shows the close ties between American
forces and the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula
home to Abu Dhabi, the capital, and Dubai, its financial heart.
It also comes after the U.S. killed Iran’s most prominent general in a drone
strike in January, and Tehran retaliated with a ballistic missile attack on
American forces in Iraq. While acknowledging the tensions, U.S. officials
dismissed the idea of Tehran viewing such an exercise with suspicion, only some
300 kilometers (185 miles) from its shores.
“Provocative? I don’t know,” said Brig. Gen. Thomas Savage of the 1st Marine
Expeditionary Force, the ranking U.S. commander at the event. “We’re about
stability in the region. So if they view it as provocative, well, that’s up to
them. This is just a normal training exercise for us.”
The exercise saw 4,000 U.S. troops from the Army, Marines and Navy position
armored vehicles and other equipment from Kuwait and the island of Diego Garcia
in al-Hamra using a portable pier system. The barren desert, some 200 kilometers
(125 miles) southwest of Abu Dhabi, is home to the UAE’s vast oil reserves as
well as its new Barakah nuclear power plant.
The combined U.S. forces and the Emirati troops then stormed the imaginary city
of al-Hamra, whose blocks of stand-alone houses, hotels and apartment complexes
include an unfinished gas station with a sign for the fast-food chicken
restaurant Popeyes on it.
While the gunplay included mostly blanks, the practice remains deadly serious
for the UAE, which has spent billions on its military — including the Blackhawk
and Chinook helicopters that circled overhead, the armored carriers that
splashed into the city’s canals and the facility itself.
The UAE deployed forces into Afghanistan after the 2001 U.S. invasion targeting
al-Qaida following the 9/11 attacks. Its day-to-day ruler, Abu Dhabi Crown
Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has sought to project Emirati
military power in the Mideast and into East Africa as well. Former U.S. Defense
Secretary Jim Mattis famously proclaimed the Emirates “little Sparta” for its
posture.
That military push has included taking part in the long-running Saudi-led war in
Yemen, which has seen sexual abuse at a UAE-controlled prison and the Emirates
paying off members of al-Qaida’s local branch there. The UAE since has pulled
its troops out of Yemen, calling for a political settlement to end a conflict
between the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels there and its Saudi-backed,
internationally recognized government.
Emirati military officials at the base in al-Hamra on Monday declined to speak
to Associated Press journalists. U.S. Ambassador John Rakolta Jr., on hand for
the event, praised the UAE.
“Partnerships are based on many aspects, many fundamentals, and this happens
just one of them,” he said when asked about Yemen. “Trust is a huge, huge
factor. Transparency, common values all work into a partnership.”
Rakolta also described the exercise as “defensive in nature” when asked about
Iran.
“I don’t believe that they’re intended to demonstrate a provocative act to the
Iranians to say we’re coming,” he said. “Rather, we’re protecting ourselves and
we want to sit down at the conference table and negotiate a lasting peace
settlement.”
There was no immediate reaction in Iranian state media to the exercise. Iran’s
mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Also a concern is the ongoing outbreak of the new coronavirus. Rakolta said no
U.S. diplomat in the UAE had contracted the virus. Savage said those U.S. forces
involved had had little contact with the outside world after shipping out for
the event and none had tested positive since. However, he said the military
remained vigilant in terms of sanitation while living at the desert base.
“This has been an incredible training opportunity for us to go through this and
practice how we would do something if, God forbid, we are forced to go fight in
this region again,” Savage said.
*Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
New Iraqi Prime Minister-Designate Poses Threat to Iran,
Opportunity for U.S.
John Hannah/FDD/March 24/2020
The March 17 nomination of Adnan al-Zurfi as Iraq’s prime minister-designate
highlights the extent to which Iran’s stranglehold on Iraqi politics could be
eroding. As such, Zurfi’s nomination holds out both the promise of a restoration
of Iraqi sovereignty that aligns with U.S. interests, as well as the danger of
escalating violence by an Iranian regime desperate to prevent such a strategic
defeat.
Zurfi’s nomination by Iraqi President Barham Salih came on the heels of the
failed effort of Mohammed Allawi earlier this month to replace the caretaker
government of Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi. Abdul-Mahdi was forced to resign
in late November under pressure from a mass protest movement demanding an
overhaul of Iraq’s post-2003 political system.
Allawi’s February 1 nomination was almost entirely engineered by Iran, operating
in conjunction with its Iraqi allies and Lebanese Hezbollah. It reflected a
concerted effort by the Islamic Republic to shore up its position in the face of
two fundamental challenges: first, the January 3 U.S. drone strike that killed
both Qassem Soleimani, the mastermind of Iranian strategy in Iraq since 2003,
and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, Soleimani’s most powerful Iraqi agent; and second,
the anti-government protests that have roiled Iraq since October, centered in
the country’s Shiite heartland and propounding a distinctly nationalist
narrative deeply resentful of Iranian interference.
Allawi’s failure to gain parliamentary approval marked a profound defeat for
Iran. A surge in violence against protesters, ordered by extremist cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr (eager to prove himself as Iran’s new post-Soleimani enforcer),
only bolstered the protest movement’s unambiguous rejection of Allawi. Sadr’s
efforts to intimidate Kurdish and Sunni politicians into providing a
parliamentary quorum for Allawi’s appointment also cratered.
Scrambling to recover, Iran dispatched the head of its national security
council, Ali Shamkhani, to Baghdad on March 7 to press Iraq’s leading Islamist
parties (the so-called Shiite House) to unite behind a new candidate. But to no
avail. In the wake of Soleimani’s death and the collapse of Allawi’s nomination,
divisions within the Shiite House only accelerated, preventing it from putting
forward a new prime minister-designate by a March 17 deadline. No doubt sensing
the signs of faltering Iranian clout, the pro-Western Salih stepped into the
vacuum and exercised his constitutional authority to put forward a candidate of
his own choosing: Zurfi.
It was a bold move. Zurfi, a Shiite, is widely viewed as pro-American in his
sympathies. He spent more than a decade living in exile in the United States and
holds dual U.S. citizenship. He returned to Iraq in 2003 with U.S. forces and
was quickly appointed by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority to serve
as governor of Najaf province. After a stint working in Iraqi intelligence,
Zurfi was twice elected as Najaf’s governor, where he earned a reputation as an
aggressive administrator who delivered large-scale reconstruction while
antagonizing Islamist parties that smeared him with corruption allegations. In
2018, Zurfi was elected to parliament as a member of the U.S.-supported list
headed by former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
Not surprisingly, Zurfi’s appointment has elicited fierce opposition from many
of Iran’s most important Iraqi allies, including former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
and the head of the Badr Organization, Hadi al-Ameri. The full panoply of
Iran-backed Iraqi militias has also targeted Zurfi’s nomination as an American
plot that will not stand.
In contrast, the protest movement’s reaction to Zurfi has been far more muted
and ambiguous than it was for Allawi (perhaps also a function of its increased
dispersal in the face of the coronavirus crisis), while Kurdish, Sunni, and more
independently-minded Shiite politicians have been favorably disposed.
The threats by Iran’s allies to derail Zurfi’s candidacy should be taken
seriously. The ascendance of a genuine nationalist like Zurfi determined to
restore Iraqi sovereignty, undermine militia power, and prioritize relations
with the West would be one of the Iranian regime’s worst nightmares. Iran and
its proxies will likely spare no effort to defeat him, whatever the cost to Iraq
and despite the fact that Iran itself is now being ravaged by the coronavirus.
Already, in the days leading up to Zurfi’s nomination, Iraqi militias targeted
U.S. troops and diplomats in multiple rocket attacks, a significant escalation
of their efforts to force an American withdrawal and claim some semblance of
strategic victory for Iran. Efforts to intimidate, blackmail, and, if necessary,
violently attack those supportive of Zurfi’s candidacy – including Zurfi himself
– are not only possible, but likely.
The Trump administration should understand that Zurfi’s nomination is a sign
that Iran is now on the defensive in Iraq. This situation carries great dangers
of violent escalation as Iran flails to reassert its dominant position, but also
offers a strategic opportunity. Whether Washington has the bandwidth to take
advantage as it rightly focuses on America’s own coronavirus crisis is an open
question – a fact that no doubt gives Iran great heart.
Of course, if pro-Iranian militias continue to escalate their targeting of U.S.
personnel, the administration will have little choice but to respond in some
fashion. It should err on the side of strength, not restraint. Prominent militia
leaders should be targeted a la the Soleimani strike. Sanctions should be
imposed on Iran’s most prominent allies, particularly Maliki and his corrupt
relatives as well as Amiri and Sadr.
Making clear that Iran’s proxies will pay a painful price for their aggression
offers the best means not only of deterring further attacks on Americans, but
also of keeping the pro-Iran camp on the defensive while exacerbating its
divisions. The fact that it would also weaken the forces that now have a
bullseye on Zurfi’s candidacy would be an added benefit, albeit one of
potentially great strategic consequence for both Iraq and U.S. interests.
**John Hannah is senior counselor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD),
where he also contributes to FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP).
For more analysis from John and CMPP, please subscribe HERE. Follow FDD on
Twitter @FDD and @FDD_CMPP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research
institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
Iran manoeuvres to get US sanctions lifted by rejecting US,
international help
Thomas Seibert/The Arab Weekly/March 24/2020
ISTANBUL - Iran is rejecting offers of international help to fight coronavirus
in hopes of getting US sanctions lifted.
The pandemic has hit Iran harder than any other country in the Middle East.
Iranian Health Ministry figures March 24 said nearly 25,000 people in the
country has been infected and approximately 2,000 have died since the first
coronavirus case was diagnosed in Iran in mid-February. Only Italy, China and
Spain have seen more fatalities. Teheran has been criticised for downplaying the
threat posed by the virus and under-reporting infections and deaths. Even though
the government called on citizens to stay home, thousands turned out for the
funeral of high-ranking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Hossein
Assadollahi March 23 near Tehran.
Iranian President Hassan Rohani said Iran had no intention of accepting an offer
of humanitarian assistance from the United States and that the Trump
administration should end its “maximum pressure campaign” instead. “American
leaders are lying… If they want to help Iran, all they need to do is to lift
sanctions… Then we can deal with the coronavirus outbreak,” Rohani said March 23
in a televised speech.
Rohani’s remarks echoed a statement by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, who said his country would never accept aid to fight the coronavirus
from arch-enemy and “charlatans,” the United States. Citing a conspiracy theory
that claims the virus could have been created by the United States, Khamenei
asked “who in their right mind would trust you to bring them medication?” He
alleged that the virus was “specifically built for Iran using the genetic data
of Iranians that they have obtained through different means.”
Reports said Iran also rejected a plan by the medical aid organisation Doctors
Without Borders (MSF) to build a 50-bed inflatable hospital, staffed with an
emergency team of nine people, in Isfahan.
MSF said the hospital had been sent to Iran from France by air but the
US-financed Radio Farda reported that an adviser to Iranian Minister of Health
Alireza Vahabzadeh called the MSF action “irrelevant.” MSF did not immediately
respond to a question for clarification.
US President Donald Trump, who has stepped up sanctions against Tehran over its
nuclear programme, said on February 29 that Washington was ready to help Iran
fight the virus if its leaders requested it.
However, there is no sign that Washington would ease sanctions. US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo signalled the United States was unreceptive to Tehran’s
request for a loan from the International Monetary Fund, where Washington
effectively holds a veto, accusing the regime of funding “terror abroad” with
its resources.
Reports said there was a debate inside the Trump administration of how to
respond to attacks by pro-Iran militias on US military installations in Iraq.
One group of advisers, including Pompeo, argued for a forceful response while
others, such as US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper, said there was no clear
evidence Iran ordered a recent attack that killed two US servicemen and a
British soldier, the New York Times reportes.
NBC News reported that Trump “expressed concern that hitting back hard at Iran
at this time would make the United States look bad given the extent to which
Iran and the rest of the world are struggling to contain the spread” of the
coronavirus.
More than 25 organisations, including the National Iranian American Council (NIAC)
and the International Crisis Group think-tank, asked Trump in an open letter to
loosen sanctions for four months.
“To help stem the continued spread of the virus inside Iran and beyond, we urge
you to issue a time-bound suspension of those US sanctions that make it harder
for ordinary Iranians to secure basic goods and services to weather the crisis,”
the letter, published on the NIAC website, read.
Some of the United States’ allies also voiced concern because Iran is a regional
hotbed for the virus. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan asked Trump to lift
the sanctions. “The people of Iran are facing untold suffering as sanctions are
crippling Iran’s efforts to fight COVID-19,” Khan wrote on Twitter.
However, observers say the Trump administration is not expected to ease pressure
on Iran. Washington argues that the sanctions regime does not ban the import of
medical supplies and machines.
“The Trump administration is infected by an addiction to its own sanctions and
is unlikely to suspend them to help Iran contain the spread of COVID-19,” Ali
Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the Crisis Group, said via e-mail, “but as
Iran’s neighbours have realised: If Iran sneezes, they will catch a cold.”
Vaez said the US government was hoping to “bring Iran to its knees” with the
combined effect of sanctions and the coronavirus crisis.
“That is a misguided understanding of Iran's strategic calculus, as the weaker
Tehran becomes the less it will want to negotiate with the US,” Vaez said. “The
US indifference to the wellbeing of the Iranian people in the midst of this
public health crisis will have long-term consequences.”
What are millions of refugees to do in this pandemic if we
do not help them?
Kareem Shaheen/The National/March 24/2020
The global system set up to look after the displaced is already strained, but
without urgent help it may collapse
Syrian refugees in a construction site they have been using as a shelter in the
southern Lebanese city of Sidon as Lebanon enters lockdown to protect against
coronavirus outbreaks, on March 17, 2020. AFP
All of us have had our lives upended by the coronavirus outbreak. Schools have
shut down, airplanes have been grounded all over the world, doctors and nurses
are working round the clock to save lives and the rest of us who aren’t
absolutely essential to the day-to-day functioning of food and supply lines have
to stay home. We are practicing social distancing in an effort to limit the
spread of the virus, washing our hands regularly and sanitising everything.
It can all seem onerous, but many of us are quite lucky when you think about it.
We have access to potable water and soap, we can shower, we aren’t worried about
the food running out from the supermarkets or the medicine from the pharmacies.
Many of us have roofs over our heads.
There are many who don’t.
Today, there are more than 70 million people displaced worldwide, according to
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. That includes internally displaced
people, or IDPs, who have fled war inside their own country and refugees who
crossed borders in search of shelter. Most of the refugees are from Syria,
followed by Afghanistan and South Sudan. Around 37,000 people a day are forced
to flee their homes because of war and persecution. That is one person every two
seconds.
Most of them are fleeing to neighbouring countries that are themselves
struggling, leaving them vulnerable in places with poor or inadequate
healthcare. Those who stay in their countries will fare even worse in areas
devastated by conflict.
Let us take the case of Syria. Most of those displaced by the war are still
inside the country – around 10 million people rendered homeless by fighting. A
recent government offensive in Idlib province, near the Turkish border, forced a
million civilians to flee to the frontier between the two countries, their
children in tow.
Most are living in flimsy tents that flood every time it rains or under the open
air, in large family groups. They have little access to life’s basic
necessities, including running water. In a recent interview with the New York
Times, one man in the province said he had to go for days without bathing his
children, let alone wash his hands regularly, for lack of clean water. Social
distancing is a privilege. If the virus takes hold in those communities, it will
be a catastrophe. Nor are there medical facilities capable of handling any
outbreak. The Bashar Al Assad regime and its allies have conducted at least 537
separate attacks on healthcare facilities in the country, destroying the ability
of communities to care for the sick.
Protecting refugees is paramount – not only because it would help curb the
spread of the virus, but also because it is the decent thing to do
In the meantime, reports have emerged of possible Covid-19 cases in
government-controlled and impoverished areas of Syria – though, officially, the
authorities have only acknowledged one case. The health minister there, when
asked about the disease, said the military had “cleansed the country of germs”,
referring to the opposition. It hardly inspires confidence, and the risk of an
outbreak in a failed state with a ruined economy and healthcare system are even
graver.
Those living in refugee camps further afield fare no better, such as in
neighbouring Lebanon or in overcrowded neighborhoods of Gaza living under siege
in a tiny strip of territory. The potential for an infection spreading like
wildfire is extremely high and very deadly due to the absence of proper care.
Then there are the refugees who have to endure the racism of demagogues, both in
the Middle East and abroad. The pandemic has already seen Donald Trump refer to
coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” and imply that preventing migrants from
entering the country would protect everyone from infection. In Europe, far-right
politicians have spread conspiracy theories about refugees and migrants bringing
the pandemic to Western shores – a racist accusation against the world’s most
vulnerable. Some of those most vulnerable people live in notoriously awful
conditions in refugee camps in Europe, such as the Moria camp in Greece, where,
once again, the pandemic taking hold could be disastrous.
Protecting refugees, who have already lost everything, is paramount – not only
because it would help curb the spread of the virus, but also because it is the
decent thing to do. The public health emergency that the world is enduring at
the moment will last for quite some time, and it depends upon everyone doing
their part to “flatten the curve” – i.e. curb infection rates – and helping the
most vulnerable in our societies.
Governments must take measures to provide health care and support for the most
vulnerable among us and, in conflict zones, to establish ceasefires that allow
aid and assistance to reach everybody in need. As individuals, we can perhaps
provide for the more vulnerable closer to home, whether that is an elderly
neighbour who cannot shop for groceries or a family whose parents have lost
their jobs because of the pandemic. And, when social isolation frustrates us, we
must remember we are lucky to have the facility to self-isolate in the first
place.
The time is now to start building the societies that will emerge out of this
pandemic. Perhaps, cooped up in isolation, we will grow kinder to others, no
matter the colour of their skin or their mother tongue.
*Kareem Shaheen is a former Middle East correspondent based in Canada
Presidential election to decide which path US takes on Iran
Kerry Boyd Anderson/Arab News/March 24/2020
Following more primary elections last week, it appears that former Vice
President Joe Biden is very likely to be the Democratic Party’s nominee to
compete against President Donald Trump in the November election. Recent
retaliatory strikes between the US and Iran-affiliated militants in Iraq have
highlighted that Iran will continue to pose a challenge for whoever is the next
US president.
Trump’s presidency has represented a major break with previous Republican and
Democratic foreign policy precedents. Biden promises an approach much more
similar to that of former President Barack Obama. However, the world has changed
significantly in the last four years, and even the type of centrist foreign
policy experts that Biden would likely look to for advice would suggest some
changes to US foreign policy.
Trump’s approach toward Iran is already well known. His disdain for the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — and for the Obama administration’s
negotiation of it — was clear during his campaign for president. He withdrew the
US from the agreement in May 2018. His administration subsequently imposed
severe sanctions on Iran, as the key element of a “maximum pressure” campaign.
Under Trump, America has been more assertive toward Iran militarily while
seeking to avoid an all-out war. Most notably, a US strike killed key Iranian
figure Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January.
While the Trump administration has clearly been willing to use sanctions and
limited military actions against Iran, the ultimate goal of the maximum pressure
approach has been less clear. It appears that Trump wants to force Iran to
negotiate a deal that is more conducive to US interests and therefore
demonstrate that he is a better negotiator than Obama. However, within the
administration, different advisers appear to have varying ideas about what an
acceptable agreement might look like. For example, in a 2018 speech, Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo laid out a series of demands that went far beyond the
JCPOA’s focus on Iran’s nuclear program; including requiring that Iran halt
funding for groups like Hezbollah, withdraw its forces from Syria, and in other
ways fundamentally reverse its foreign policy. Going even further, some advisers
promoted regime change, though Trump appears to have little interest in that
approach.
If Trump wins re-election, it is likely that his administration will continue
its maximum pressure approach. The cycle of escalation and de-escalation between
Iran and the US would also be likely to continue. This would raise the ongoing
risk of war. While Trump appears to want to avoid a large-scale military
conflict with Iran, the political risks of a war would be lower in a second
Trump administration, thus increasing the probability of aggressive US military
action.
A Biden administration would likely take a very different approach. Biden has
been clear that he sees Iran as a “destabilizing actor in the Middle East” that
supports terrorism, opposes US interests, and represses dissent. He has said
that Iran must never have nuclear weapons. In his view, the US must act to
counter Iran, but should do so with a clear strategy, specific goals, and in
cooperation with allies, particularly those in Europe. He has criticized Trump’s
approach as lacking a strategy, with “no endgame.” He has expressed concern that
Trump, acting reactively, jumps into cycles of escalation with no clear way out.
Biden has defended the JCPOA, saying that it significantly reduced the risk of
Iran developing nuclear weapons and created space for diplomacy to help manage
other problems related to Iran. If he became president, Biden has said that he
would rejoin the JCPOA, on the condition that Iran returned to compliance with
the agreement. He suggests that restarting the JCPOA would be a first step,
rebuilding US credibility and re-establishing an international consensus against
an Iranian nuclear weapons program. He would hope to build on that to gain other
compromises from Iran and to ensure multilateral cooperation to contain Iran’s
regional activities.
If he became president, Biden has said that he would rejoin the JCPOA, on the
condition that Iran returned to compliance.
Both Trump and Biden would likely adopt Iran policies that would fit into their
overall approach toward foreign policy. Trump prefers an approach that
emphasizes being tough, using sanctions as a key tool, and fundamentally
demonstrating a strong break with the Obama administration. Biden is emphasizing
continuity with the Obama administration, though, in reality, the world has
changed in the last few years, and his foreign policy approach would likely
reflect those changes. Nonetheless, Biden emphasizes a mix of diplomacy and
other forms of power projection, the importance of allies and multilateral
cooperation, and a focus on traditional US values, including an
anti-authoritarian component.
They both see the Iranian regime as a problem and a threat, but they would deal
with the Iranian government in significantly different ways. The severity of the
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Iran will have long-term consequences
for Iranian politics, and that might change the ways in which the winner of
November’s election approaches the country. However, whatever the impact of the
virus on Iranian or US politics, a Biden presidency would mark a departure from
current US policy toward Iran, while a second Trump term would most likely be a
continuation.
*Kerry Boyd Anderson is a writer and political risk consultant with more than 16
years’ experience as a professional analyst of international security issues and
Middle East political and business risk. Her previous positions include deputy
director for advisory with Oxford Analytica and managing editor of Arms Control
Today. Twitter: @KBAresearch
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not
necessarily reflect Arab News' point-of-view
World needs a plan to prevent post-virus economic chaos
Osama Al-Sharif/Arab News/March 24/2020
As the world battles the alarming spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
through lockdowns, calls for self-isolation and even by imposing curfews, the
specter of an impending global recession is looming large. Factories have
closed, planes have been grounded, oil prices have plunged and stock markets are
in peril amid general uncertainty over how long the global shutdown will last.
Our region has been especially hit as a result of the pandemic. Aside from the
decline in energy prices, many sectors are already feeling the pressure — travel
and tourism and capital markets chief among them. It is not only that sectors
will lose billions of dollars as a result of the lockdown, but there are growing
fears many could collapse unless governments step in with generous bailouts and
stimulus plans.
Last week, Saudi Arabia unveiled a $32 billion stimulus plan to support its
economy, including a $13.3 billion package for small and medium-sized
businesses. Other measures include the postponement of tax payments and
exemptions from various government levies and fees. For its part, the UAE
released its own plan, worth $27 billion, to support critical sectors such as
banking and tourism. Lower oil and gas prices have forced Qatar to cough up $23
billion in financial incentives, while Kuwait and other Gulf countries will
surely follow suit.
These countries are being realistic and are taking pre-emptive measures. The
pandemic could last for months and its reverberations will be felt for years to
come. It could affect this year’s pilgrimage season — the Umrah pilgrimage has
already been suspended — and may have a negative impact on Dubai’s Expo 2020,
which is due to begin in October. Oil-producing countries will face fiscal
deficits due to decreasing global demand.
The pandemic has hit vital sectors in Egypt and Jordan, especially tourism — a
main source of foreign currency. With the lockdown, experts believe that Jordan
could lose the entire tourism season for this year, with a loss of no less than
$3 billion. The tourism sector employs at least 55,000. Farmers will be hit as
well, as the curfew will affect their ability to deliver their produce. For
Egypt, which has closed all tourist attractions and museums until the end of
March, losses for the tourism sector alone are expected to be $1 billion a
month.
Lebanon’s economy, which had been struggling before the outbreak because of the
political impasse, will be especially impacted by the lockdown. Last year’s
political instability had already cost the tourism sector billions of dollars.
With a serious liquidity shortage, the government will be unable to come to the
rescue of ailing sectors.
One of the most serious challenges that many countries in the region face is
their inability to honor payments for foreign loans. Lebanon has already
defaulted on a $1.2 billion Eurobond payment and asked for loan restructuring.
Jordan, where the debt-to-gross domestic product ratio is over 95 percent, will
have difficulty meeting its international obligations. Its main foreign currency
source from expatriate remittances, estimated at $4 billion annually, will
likely be affected.
In short, no country in the region will be immune to the damage that the
pandemic will have on its economy. It goes without saying that, for the world to
halt the spiral into a global recession, it must come up with an emergency plan
to speed up recovery. This is not charity: If even one country fails to fight
the coronavirus due to lack of resources, then the threat of a second wave of
the pandemic will be real.
The pandemic could last for months and its reverberations will be felt for years
to come.
The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and Western governments must act
together to defer debt payments, allow for generous grace periods and even
consider debt forgiveness. Countries that have limited resources will need to
borrow money in order to launch their own stimulus plans. The way lenders did
business before the pandemic will have to change. Solidarity is a must in a
globalized world.
Saudi Arabia, which holds the G20 presidency, has called for an extraordinary
summit of the group’s leaders next week. As with all other gatherings in the
world today, it will be in “virtual” format. On Sunday, the Civil 20 (C20)
issued a statement calling on G20 leaders to respond to changes in the labor
market and the education system in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The statement highlighted the recent virus outbreak, as well as the bushfires in
Australia, as examples of how global systems can be challenged, leading to
inequality between individuals and countries, which the C20 said must be
addressed by the G20 states.
Saudi Arabia is in a good position to speak on behalf of poorer countries whose
economies are suffering as a result of the pandemic. The issue now is how these
countries will recover once the threat of the virus has receded. The world must
work on a plan now in order to step in and avoid mass economic chaos.
*Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman.
Twitter: @plato010
Coronavirus Could Very Well Slow by the Summer
David Fickling/Bloomberg/March 24/2020
One great unknown about the coronavirus pandemic currently circling the globe is
how it will respond as the weather gets warmer.
The virus will “go away in April,” President Donald Trump told a meeting of
governors last month, “as the heat comes in.” That over-confident assertion has
attracted criticism from virologists and fact-checkers. Most respiratory
diseases — such as influenza and the mundane rhinovirus and coronavirus strains
that cause the common cold — do indeed spread more rapidly in the cold, dry
conditions of the winter months. But it’s been impossible to say for sure how
Covid-19 would behave in summer and late spring for an obvious reason — the
strain didn’t exist until around November last year.
At the same time, evidence is starting to emerge that temperature and humidity
do make a difference in the ability of the virus to infect large numbers. That
should give health services hope for some respite as summer spreads across
northern temperate regions, aiding the ability to plan for renewed outbreaks
once winter rolls around.
We can’t simulate summer conditions in countries currently in the grip of
winter, but we can do something almost as good — look at what’s happening in
places closer to the equator where the climate is milder.
There’s been suggestive evidence on this front for some time. Iran, which
accounts for about 90% of coronavirus cases in the Middle East, is unique in the
region for mostly sitting on a plateau where winter conditions resemble those of
more northerly countries. At the same time, some Southeast Asian nations with
close business and tourism links to China have seen surprisingly few cases, even
if you assume their less developed public health systems are missing infections.
Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines have each seen fewer cases than Estonia,
Slovenia or Iceland, despite a combined population more than 100 times as large.
A study uploaded to medical pre-print server MedRxiv Monday plots recorded cases
against climate conditions to suggest that there is indeed a significant
correlation between outbreaks and the weather. In extreme cold and very hot and
wet conditions the virus is “largely absent,” the researchers from Spain,
Portugal and Finland wrote, meaning that people in tropical and polar climates
are unlikely to see local transmission of cases.
Arid regions will see a higher rate of infections but the worst-hit areas will
be temperate countries and high-altitude areas closer to the equator. The period
between June and September should see a slowing rate of infections in much of
Europe and North America, they wrote, although areas closer to the poles in
Scandinavia, Russia and Canada may see worsening conditions as the climate warms
enough to support local infections.
Another pre-print study by four Beijing-based researchers uploaded to the arXiv
server last week comes to a similar conclusion after analyzing the infection
rates in 100 Chinese cities. That rate, known as the R0, is a key determinant of
an infection’s propensity to spread. For Covid-19 it’s currently estimated to be
around 2.2, but moving it below 1 should, if sustained, be enough to turn the
current out-of-control epidemic into an outbreak that goes extinct on its own.
Increasing the temperature by one degree centigrade reduces the R0 by 0.0383 and
increasing humidity by 1% pushes it down by 0.0224, the researchers found. That
should be particularly significant in places with hot, wet summers, they wrote:
In the event the Tokyo Olympics goes ahead, the R0 in the city would likely be
at extinction levels below 1, given normal summer conditions.
The results shouldn’t be too surprising. The mechanism that causes influenza and
colds to spread faster in the winter isn’t perfectly understood. It appears to
relate to the way virus particles can stay active on surfaces such as elevator
buttons and door handles for longer in mild weather; the way people show greater
susceptibility to throat infections when breathing cold, dry air; and to our
tendency to congregate in warm, close conditions where diseases spread easily
during winter weather. Still, it would be remarkable if Covid-19 really behaved
in a manner different from every other coronavirus, or indeed almost every other
common respiratory virus.
Don’t start planning any summer holidays on the expectation this disease will
vanish with the sun. For one thing, both studies are still just computer models,
and neither has been through peer review. On top of that, even a reduced rate of
infection will only slow, rather than halt the spread of this pandemic. In most
places, it won’t even be sufficient to push the R0 below 1, in the absence of
other measures such as social distancing.
Still, one worst-case scenario for this disease — where it rampages through
lower-income regions of Africa and Southeast Asia, and there’s no seasonal break
for health services to catch a breath before the next wave — is looking less
likely than it did a few weeks ago. That still leaves a range of very grim
scenarios, but right now we should take what comfort we can get.
Coronavirus Triggers the Worst Market Crash Since 1987
Mark Gongloff/Bloomberg/March 24/2020
The coronavirus panic gripping markets, with US stocks falling the most since
1987’s Black Monday and threatening a new credit crisis, is being fueled by a
global failure of leadership.
Take President Donald Trump. He had a chance last night to reboot his handling
of the rapidly unfolding virus crisis and end the market sell-off. Instead he
made several unforced errors, blamed other countries for the disease’s spread,
bragged unconvincingly about his crisis-handling, and unveiled plans that fell
far short of what experts or the market wanted. It was a debacle encapsulating
the worst of his presidency, writes Jonathan Bernstein. Stock futures collapsed
even as he spoke, and major indexes plunged today, falling deeper into a bear
market and triggering circuit breakers for the second time in a week.
This must be especially painful for Trump, who has claimed credit for every
stock-market gain, notes John Authers. He’s now learning why other presidents
avoided this: When you claim it on the way up, you own it on the way down.
Trump apparently thinks minimizing the virus’s threat and dribbling out economic
support will turn markets around. But investors foremost want him to take the
health crisis seriously, writes James Bianco. Other countries have gotten to
this point more quickly. Tim Culpan suggests there are stages of virus response
like the stages of grief. Later stages include acceptance and aggressive action,
as we’ve seen in Taiwan and Italy. The US is still wallowing in the early stage
of denial, making the crisis much worse.
And the measures Trump did lay out were inadequate, writes Noah Smith. We need
bigger loans to businesses than Trump proposed, along with paid sick leave and
drastically expanded virus testing and care. All of that and more was in a
Democratic relief bill Trump and Republicans immediately rejected, worsening the
market sell-off.
What’s more, Trump’s controversial European travel restriction is almost
certainly pointless now that the virus is already here, writes Justin Fox. Even
at their most effective, such bans simply delay transmission.
Trump has also floated bailing out affected industries such as cruise lines and
shale frackers, businesses far from critical to the functioning of the nation’s
economy. Frackers in particular need consolidation, given sagging demand for
their product, writes Liam Denning. Supporting them through this crisis is a
kind of corporate socialism the Soviet Union would have envied. Some global
leaders are rising to the occasion. Germany’s Angela Merkel, for example, has
emerged from weeks of politically necessitated hiding to talk seriously about
the challenges of the disease, writes Andreas Kluth. These two have long had
opposing management styles, to put it mildly, and it’s never been clearer.
The time between this bear market’s onset and the most recent market peak is the
quickest since 1929, James Bianco notes. This is a terrifying comparison, but
also a telling one. Back then Franklin Delano Roosevelt successfully calmed the
nation by prioritizing honesty, action, and teamwork, writes Cass Sunstein.
We’re a long way from FDR.
The European Central Bank didn’t help by failing to deliver an expected
interest-rate cut this morning, as its president, Christine Lagarde, apparently
surrendered to the hawks. What’s worse, she also delivered red meat to the
sovereign-debt bears, shrugging as yield spreads jumped for Italy and other
European economies, note Marcus Ashworth and Mark Gilbert.
With one tossed-off sentence — “We are not here to close spreads.” — Lagarde
dismantled the sense of safety her predecessor Mario Draghi had provided when he
protected the debt of EU member states, writes Ferdinando Giugliano. Good thing
there’s no kind of market crisis going on! At least somebody on Liberty Street
in New York knows how to respond to a crisis. For several days now, the Treasury
bond market has been doing very weird things, with rates swinging wildly and
occasionally rising even as stocks crash, which seldom happens. It turns out
forced selling has created something of a liquidity problem in the bond market,
Brian Chappatta writes, so the New York Fed leaped into action with a promise of
$1.5 trillion in bond-buying.
This very briefly eased the pain in stocks, but soon investors were back to
clamoring for more. One thing the Fed should do right away is slash interest
rates to zero, writes Tim Duy. There’s no point in keeping its power dry, now
that the economy is likely in recession already.
Still, it’s good the Fed has committed to supporting the repo market that
greases the skids of commerce, writes Brian Chappatta. This should help keep a
market crash and recession from turning into a full-blown credit crisis. Because
there probably will be unpleasant knock-on surprises, writes Matt Levine, as
leverage and positions built up in the good times suddenly unwind.
As for stocks, the duration of this bear market probably depends less on panic
than on expectations of the damage about to be done to earnings, suggests Nir
Kaissar. Profit forecasts are already being slashed dramatically, notes John
Authers. Expectations are for a v-shaped recovery, but a credit crunch could
blow up those expectations.
The Volatility Index is screaming this is like 2008 all over again, writes Barry
Ritholtz. That’s either reason to freak out, or an early buying signal. Good
luck guessing which!
How Iran Became a Global Vector of Infection for
COVID-19/The authoritarian theocracy faces specific challenges in dealing with
the coronavirus
Noam Blum/The Tablet/March 24/2020
As the world hunkers down to face the global outbreak of COVID-19, also called
the coronavirus (or “Wuhan virus,” depending on one’s political inclinations),
the focus of world attention has shifted from its origin point of China—where
aggressive containment measures have seemingly worked to counter the exponential
growth of those infected—to Italy, where a swift eruption of cases in the north
has led to an effective shutdown of the entire country. Lost in this frantic and
spastic global attention span is how hard the virus has been hitting Iran.
Exclusive reports from doctors inside the country reveal a state of disorganized
chaos, little to no accurate information, and scarce resources that limit the
ability of the health-care system to cope with the flood of new cases.
Iran currently has the third-worst outbreak of COVID-19 following China and
Italy, with as of Friday 514 official deaths since the first reported case on
Feb. 19. Speculation that the situation there is far, far worse than official
accounts indicate has been bolstered by the relatively large number of Iranian
upper echelons—regime officials, clerics, and members of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—who have contracted the disease, some of them
fatally.
Additionally, several countries have discovered cases of COVID-19 that
originated with travelers from Iran in the early days of March. One of the first
cases in New Zealand came from a family who had recently traveled to the Islamic
Republic. At least three of the first 12 cases in Canada came via Iran, as did
all 33 initial cases in Iraq. In the United States, the first confirmed COVID-19
case in New York City was a health-care worker who had returned from Iran, and
Los Angeles also identified a coronavirus patient from Iran who passed through
LAX. India evacuated hundreds of Indian Muslim pilgrims from affected areas in
Iran, many of whom tested positive for the coronavirus. And in Lebanon, reports
indicate—difficult to confirm—that Hebzollah officials (possibly including
Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah himself) had contracted the virus from an
Iranian delegation that visited the country headed by the speaker of Iran’s
parliament, Ali Larijani. There are also reports of new cases in China that were
transmitted there by travelers from Iran.
According to one doctor in Tehran, accurate figures on infection and death rates
are nonexistent. The situation in cities like Rashat in Guilan province and
Kashan in Isfahan province, both close to the outbreak epicenter of Qom, is
especially severe, with full hospitals and patients being sent home without
being admitted. Hospitals in Guilan, he said, are admitting upwards of 200
patients a day with a 2% to 3% mortality rate and not enough kits to test new
arrivals. “Unfortunately, both the government and the Ministry of Health were in
a state of shock due to the rapid and surprising outbreak,” a second doctor told
Tablet.
There are also rumors circulating that the regime was burying the bodies of
anti-regime protesters killed in riots last November together with coronavirus
victims in order to mask their causes of death.
As a result, the natural instinct is to blame Iran’s totalitarian and secretive
nature for the fact that the crisis there is likely much worse than is being
reported. The same happened in China, which initially tamped down news of the
outbreak for weeks, and later provided falsely reassuring statements regarding
both its scope and the virus’ transmission potential. Additionally, the breadth
and nature of emergency measures that can be brought to bear by police states
like China and Iran, with little to no regard for civil liberties or legal
structures, would imply that the latter could have found itself in a position to
counter the spread similarly to the former. Indeed, some reports even indicate
that the close ties between the two countries could be to blame for the initial
spread of COVID-19 to the Islamic Republic.
So, why is Iran so different?
First off, there is the Iranian regime itself and its modus operandi: The
ayatollahs painted themselves into a corner by initially downplaying the
severity of the virus due to the legislative election held on Feb. 21—two days
after the first reported case in the country. Graeme Wood, who estimates the
number of potential cases in Iran could be in the millions, writes in The
Atlantic that “Iran’s government told its people that the United States had
hyped COVID-19 to suppress turnout, and Tehran vowed to punish anyone spreading
rumors about a serious epidemic.”
And so, the paranoia frequently wielded by the ayatollah regime as a
psychological cudgel made the still-developing story a convenient tool to
convince Iranians to head to the polls. Despite the reported turnout in the
election sitting at 43%—the lowest since the 1979 revolution—the regime’s
dismissal of the risk in order to drive higher turnout rates may have ended up
acting as a catalyst for the outbreak. In an ironic twist, officials later
blamed the virus for lower turnout rates.
There is also evidence to indicate that the regime was well aware of the danger
at that point, following reports that Tehran began digging massive burial pits
on Feb. 21 in the Shia holy city of Qom—the epicenter of Iran’s outbreak and the
site of several Chinese infrastructure projects, which could have served as the
initial conduit of transmission. China is investing heavily in Iran due to the
economic sanctions imposed on it, which also play a part in the country’s
weakened health-care system and its inability to deal with the outbreak.
The problem is additionally compounded by a general lack of public trust in the
regime, which initially scoffed at containment measures, only to reverse course
shortly afterward, leading to panic buying and distrust of subsequent official
updates provided by the government. The paranoia so carefully cultivated in
Iranians by their leaders had risen up against its makers, to the detriment of
containment efforts. Other acts of defiance were also tied to Iran’s religious
traditionalism, such as the licking of shrines in Qom, and public objections
from clerics to a lockdown, citing an American conspiracy to undermine Iran’s
religious establishment by tying the virus to the holy city.
Thus, despite sharing the Chinese Communist Party’s paranoia-wielding,
autocratic police state proclivities, the Iranian regime, fearing widespread
panic, did not initiate a lockdown in Qom in the same way that China had for the
60 million residents of Hubei province once matters got out of hand. Instead, it
focused on stemming the flow of information by, among other measures,
threatening health-care providers into silence. On top of this, the regime’s
ability to deploy resources to combat the virus is apparently so lacking that it
has requested a $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund—Iran’s
first such request since the early 1960s. The ayatollahs—whose message of
steadfast resistance to United States-led Western aggression has maintained a
psychological stranglehold on their population for decades—have been reduced to
publicly groveling for financial assistance from international organizations in
order to deal with the crisis.
The real scope of Iran’s COVID-19 outbreak has not yet become clear, and it
remains to be seen whether the ayatollahs can maintain stability in the face of
such a public health crisis, which has only been made worse by the theocratic
regime’s totalitarian tactics, whiplash policies, and the state of international
isolation and economic sanctions that it has brought on its own people by its
pursuit of nuclear weapons, development of ballistic missiles, threats against
neighboring and regional countries, and genocidal warfare in Syria—policies that
the regime is continuing even as it buries its own people in open pits.
*Additional reporting by Avideh Motmaen-Far. Read Tablet’s continuing coverage
of the coronavirus pandemic here.
*Noam Blum is Associate Editor at Tablet magazine.
Coronavirus: Should the U.S. Lift Sanctions on Iran?
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/March 24/2020
In a recent video, a masked man holding a Kalashnikov-style assault rifle warns
that the attacks on Taji and Basmaya military camps were only the beginning of a
much larger offensive. — Usbat al-Thayireen, or League of Revolutionaries, a new
Shiite militia group, Newsweek, March 19, 2020.
"The Islamic resistance of Usbat al-Thayireen vows to strike the occupation
forces' bases and [US] embassy in the coming days and will continue striking the
occupation until it exits the country, and the matter will be taken further if
the occupier does not leave. We say to the hypocrites who are collaborators at
the evil embassy: Your days are numbered and you will face your fate very soon."
— Usbat al-Thayireen, or League of Revolutionaries, a new Shiite militia group,
Newsweek, March 19, 2020.
The idea that the ruling mullahs of Iran and the top state sponsor of terrorism
will use the extra revenues from the lifting of sanctions for humanitarian
purposes is totally irrational. Easing sanctions will enable, embolden and
empower the Iranian regime to damage the US and its allies' national security
interests still further and kill more Americans. The US President's Iran policy
of maximum pressure, which should probably be even more maximum, is headed in
the right direction.
Iran-backed militias recently launched approximately eighteen Katyusha rockets
into Camp Taji, Iraq, killing two American soldiers and one British soldier.
Pictured: US soldiers supervise a training session at the Camp Taji, Iraq on
March 6, 2017.
While the US administration is expanding its maximum pressure policy on Iran,
some people, such as US Senator Bernie Sanders, are calling for immediate relief
for the Iranian regime. "As a caring nation," Sanders recently posted on
Twitter, "we must lift any sanctions hurting Iran's ability to address this
crisis, including financial sanctions."
Lifting sanctions on the aggressive regime of Iran would be an extremely wrong
move.
What politicians such Sanders seem not to recognize is that the Islamic Republic
prioritizes its military adventurism over its nation's health crisis. In other
words, Iran's regime will almost certainly use the extra revenues to arm its
militias across the region that attack the US and its allies' forces, as it has
a pattern of doing in the past.
Amid the coronavirus crisis, for example, Iran-backed militias have been
ratcheting up their rockets attacks in Iraq. A rocket attack killed several
members of the US-led Coalition at Iraq's Camp Taji on March 11. Approximately
eighteen 107mm Katyusha rockets slammed into Camp Taji, killing two American
soldiers and one British soldier in recent weeks.
In Syria, the Iranian regime has recently ratcheted up its efforts to recruit
young Shia fighters. Iranian forces and its militia in Syria such as "Saraya Al-Areen"
have recently recruited around 9,000 young fighters from Shia communities in
Sayda, Da'el, and Izraa, and have sent them for military training, according to
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Mass recruitment can also be
witnessed in the north-east around the Euphrates River in the north-east and
near Deir Ez-Zor province.
Iran is also exploiting the economic crisis by offering financial incentives to
the fighters. "Those young people hurry to join the ranks of Iranian-backed
militias because of the deteriorating living conditions and lack of job
opportunities" according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Iran's modus operandi appears to be anchored in exploiting instability and
crises in order to gain more influence in other countries and further the
regime's anti-American and antisemitic policies. In addition, Hezbollah has been
assisting Iran in recruiting more militants. As the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights (SOHR) added:
"While in Al-Quneitra, near the border with the Occupied Golan, the Lebanese
Hezbollah continues entrenching their presence by attracting young people who
have defaulted the reserve and mandatory service and fled regime security
pursuit. Those young people hurry to join the ranks of Iranian-backed militias
because of the deteriorating living conditions and lack of job opportunities.
Conversions to Shiite and recruitment operations in Al-Quneitra province are
concentrated in Al-Baath city and Khan Arnabah."
A new Shia militia group was also recently established in Iraq. It calls itself
the Islamic resistance of Usbat al-Thayireen, or League of Revolutionaries.
These Iraqi Shia militias are mainly sponsored and armed by the Iranian regime.
In a recent video, a masked man holding a Kalashnikov-style assault rifle warns
that the attacks on Taji and Basmaya military camps were only the beginning of a
much larger offensive. In another statement, the group declares its plan:
"The Islamic resistance of Usbat al-Thayireen vows to strike the occupation
forces' bases and [US] embassy in the coming days and will continue striking the
occupation until it exits the country, and the matter will be taken further if
the occupier does not leave. We say to the hypocrites who are collaborators at
the evil embassy: Your days are numbered and you will face your fate very soon."
In another video the Shia militia group announces its anti-American mission as a
"martyrdom project whose mission is striking the American occupation forces,
striking its bases, striking the occupations' embassy and avenging the martyred
leaders and their companions." In a direct address to US President Donald Trump
and the friends of the two U.S. personnel who were killed alongside a U.K.
service member by Katyusha rocket fire at Camp Taji, the group ordered them "to
leave vertically before we force them to leave horizontally." The Shia militia
group has also threatened Israel by warning of its "victorious, blooming,
prideful and dignified arsenal which has far longer-range weapons that can kill
you in the land of your spoiled child, Israel."
The idea that the ruling mullahs of Iran and the top state sponsor of terrorism
will use the extra revenues from the of sanctions for humanitarian purposes is
totally irrational. Easing sanctions will enable, embolden and empower the
Iranian regime to damage the US and its allies' national security interests
still further and kill more Americans. The US President's Iran policy of maximum
pressure, which should probably be even more maximum, is headed in the right
direction.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated
scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and
president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has
authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at
Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Turkey: Violence against Women Continues to Escalate
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute./March 24/ 2020
Violence against women has become Turkey's new normal.
In 2010 Turkey was shaken by the surfacing of alleged serial rapes.... including
cases of adults raping minors and minors raping toddlers, killing one.
In 2014 Erdoğan said that "women should know their place," and that "gender
equality is against human nature"....
No doubt Turkey's gender equality deficit bitterly shows that Islamist culture
is much stickier than any Western-inspired legislation. Patriarchal cultural
codes are deeply engraved throughout the society; unfortunately, it will take
more than legislation to make them disappear.
Violence against women has become Turkey's new normal.
It has become customary. As in previous years, on March 8, Turkish riot police
brutally attacked demonstrators walking in central Istanbul to mark the
International Women's Day. A feminist march at midnight was dispersed by rubber
bullets and scores of tear gas canisters shot by the police. All that Turkish
women were asking for was equal treatment and protesting the growing "tradition"
of women being murdered.
Ironically their grandmothers were luckier than some of their Western peers. The
secular civil code of 1926, introduced as part of Atatürk's reforms, gave
Turkish women civil rights equal to that of men. The law meant that religious
and polygamous marriages would not be officially recognized. It also gave women
the right to initiate divorce. Shortly afterwards, in 1935, for the first time,
Turkish women were allowed to vote in national elections: as a result, eighteen
female candidates were elected to parliament – a decade or more earlier than
women in Western countries such as France, Italy and Belgium. In 1935, only
eight women served in the US Congress and nine in the British parliament.
Since then, women's problems, including their right to live, have gradually
worsened: violence against women has become Turkey's new normal. According to
the We Will End Femicide Platform, a women's rights watchdog group, nearly 2,000
Turkish women have been killed just since February 2015, often by their
husbands, ex-husbands or boyfriends. In 2019 alone in Turkey, 474 women were
slain. In 2018, in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index, in
broader terms than just murdering women, Turkey ranked 130th among 149 countries
in 2018, behind Tunisia, Algeria and many Arab Gulf countries such as Kuwait,
the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. According to official statistics, women in
Turkey earn on average TL46,208 ($7,584) annually while men on average make
TL50,297 ($8,255). Also, according to an official survey, released just before
this year's Women's Day, the employment rate was 29.4% for women, compared to
65.7% for men.
Where, then is the problem? Evidence suggests the root cause of the problem is
not legislative deficit. In 2012, Turkey was the first country to ratify the
Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women
and Domestic Violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention. The treaty
specifically targets violence against women and obliges the ratifying countries
to prevent gender-based crime, provide adequate protection and services for
victims and assure the prosecution of perpetrators.
The same year, the Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (then
prime minister) passed Law Number 6248 to Protect the Family and Prevent
Violence Against Women and introduced gender equality policies.
Why, then, have gender inequality and murdering women worsened after presumably
successful legislation? The problem most probably lies within the depths of the
cultural codes of the Turkish Islamist, conservative, patriarchal psyche.
In 2009 Hüseyin Üzmez, a columnist for the Islamist, fiercely pro-Erdoğan daily
Vakit (now Yeni Akit), was convicted and imprisoned on charges of having sex
with a 14-year-old girl, but was released from prison after a court suspended
his 13-year sentence. After his release, Üzmez defended the Islamic rules that
he said permit girls to wed under the legal age of 16. Justifying sex with a
14-year-old girl, the 78-year-old Üzmez said, "A girl who has reached puberty,
who is having periods, is of age according to our [religious] belief."
In 2010 Turkey was shaken by the surfacing of alleged serial rapes in
predominantly Kurdish Siirt town, including cases of adults raping minors and
minors raping toddlers, killing one. The mayor defended the scandal: "This is a
small town and almost everyone is related to everyone. We've closed the case
after consultations with the governor, the police and the prosecutor". "Closing
the case" by consulting top local law enforcement officers has been part of the
tribal culture.
In 2014 Erdoğan said that "women should know their place," and that "gender
equality is against human nature" while his deputy prime minister, Bülent Arınç
(now a member of Erdoğan's presidential consultation board), said that "women
should not laugh in public". In another speech Erdoğan criticized women who
chose working over having children as "half-persons". More recently, in 2019,
Erdoğan said that he could well imagine gender segregation at Turkish
universities and asked the Turkish Council of Higher Education to take the
necessary steps to initiate gender segregation in universities.
No doubt Turkey's gender equality deficit bitterly shows that Islamist culture
is much stickier than any Western-inspired legislation. Patriarchal cultural
codes seem to have become deeply engraved throughout the society; unfortunately,
it will take more than legislation to make them disappear.
*Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey's leading journalists, was recently fired from the
country's most noted newspaper after 29 years, for writing in Gatestone what is
taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.