LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 04/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Good works are conspicuous; and even when they are not, they cannot remain hidden
First Letter to Timothy 05/24-25/6-01-05: “The sins of some people are conspicuous and precede them to judgement, while the sins of others follow them there. So also good works are conspicuous; and even when they are not, they cannot remain hidden. Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honour, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed. Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful to them on the ground that they are members of the church; rather they must serve them all the more, since those who benefit by their service are believers and beloved. Teach and urge these duties. Whoever teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that is in accordance with godliness, is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words. From these come envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling among those who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on May 03-04/19
Lebanon Urgently Needs A New Patriotic Non-Religious Political Coalition
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls on Lebanese government to prevent Hezbollah holding weapons
Lebanon may be forced to work with Syria on refugee issue: Aoun
Egypt PM Stresses Support for Lebanon in Talks with Aoun
Lebanon, Brazil Sign Parliamentary Cooperation Protocol
Tensions Expected as Cabinet Holds New Budget Session
Bassil Sends Zarif Appeal to Release Zakka
UK, Canada Envoys Host Journalists in Celebration of World Press Freedom Day
Germanos Files Lawsuit against Othman
Lebanon’s PM Determined to Carry Out Reforms
Berri meets Egyptian Prime Minister, Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister
Press Syndicate celebrates Press Freedom Day, Falha says press situation inseparable from other developments
US Embassy in Beirut launches new construction works and trainings at ISF Academy
Lebanon and Egypt sign 4 agreements to enhance trade and investment

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 03-04/19
Saudi court releases four additional women accused of undermining security
New US ambassador to Saudi Arabia arrives in Riyadh
US Senate upholds veto of Yemen resolution in win for Trump’s policy
Guaido Calls for Protests at Military Bases as Maduro Rallies Troops
Venezuela’s Crisis Strengthens Damascus’ Involvement In Russian Orbit
Heavy Airstrikes In Northwestern Syria Threaten Truce
Tripoli Fighting Continues, More Civilians Flee
Algeria: General Questioned on Involvement of Military Officials in Cocaine Case
Turkey Says Not Distancing Itself from NATO with S-400 Deal
Three Palestinians killed by Israeli military in Gaza
Kushner: Mideast Plan Won't Say 'Two States'
US cracks down on Iran uranium production and nuclear plant
Afghanistan Loya Jirga Demands 'Immediate and Permanent' Ceasefire

Litles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 03-04/19
Lebanon Urgently Needs A New Patriotic Non-Religious Political Coalition/Elias Bejjani/May 02/2019
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls on Lebanese government to prevent Hezbollah holding weapons/Arab News/May 03/19
Lebanon may be forced to work with Syria on refugee issue: Aoun/Najia Houssari/Arab News/May 03/19
Lebanon and Egypt sign 4 agreements to enhance trade and investment/NNA/May 03/2019
Why Does Israel Need The American Peace Plan/Yaakov Katz/Jerusalem Post/May 03/2019
Opinion Trump's 'Deal of the Century' Is Another Tragic Farce in the Making/Salman Masalha/Haaretz/May 03/2019
France's Wake-Up Call/Stop the persecution of Christians and Jews/Lela Gilbert/Jerusalem Post/May 03/2019
Opinion/Stop Trying to Justify Israel/Anshel Pfeffer/Haaretz/May 03/2019
The Monroe Doctrine for Venezuela/Jiri Valenta/Gatestone Institute/May 03/2019
IRGC General Abolfazl Shekarchi: We Will Squash America Under Our Feet, Squeeze Its Throat Until It Chokes; It Is Our Duty To Bring An End To Its Life/MEMRI/May 03/2019
Iran and a Tale of Two Losers/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/May 03/19
Is the US about to fatally wound the Muslim Brotherhood/Dr. Abdellatif El-Menawy/Arab News/May 03/19

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on May 03-04/19
Lebanon Urgently Needs A New Patriotic Non-Religious Political Coalition
Elias Bejjani/May 02/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/74435/elias-bejjani-lebanon-urgently-needs-a-new-patriotic-non-religious-political-coalition/
Our beloved Lebanon is currently encountering a set of very serious and dire existential dangers on all levels and in all domains, as a result of the on going Iranian destructive hegemony, oppression and occupation.
The occupier is the Hezbollah Party, which is totally and in every and each aspect is an Iranian terrorist, denominational armed proxy.
This merciless terrorist occupier is gradually and systematically devouring the country and aggressively destroying all that is Lebanon and Lebanese.
Hezbollah’s ultimate aim as its manifesto shows is to topple the existing Lebanese multicultural, Non- religious, democratic and free regime and erect in its place a Shiite Muslim religious republic, a replicate of the Iranian Mullahs’ dictatorship regime.
Meanwhile the majority of the Lebanese political parties, politicians and officials have already succumbed to this terrorist occupier and openly and with no shame abandoned all their patriotic, sovereign, constitutional duties and obligations.
Sadly the majority of these Lebanese political and official top notch figures are appeasing the occupier, and serving its Mullahs’ agenda on the account of the country’s independence, existence, freedom, democracy, stability and the welfare of the Lebanese citizens.
For all the above critical and extremely threatening national reasons, there is an urgent need to form as quickly as possible a new sovereign, non-religious, and patriotic coalition.
For such a coalition to survive, stand for Hezbollah and succeed, its members ought to be from all the diversified Lebanese denominations and all walks of life.
These members and in a bid to make a difference on the Lebanese political arena are supposed to be brave, honest, patriotic, conscientious and most importantly have no hidden personal power agendas.
The main objective of this coalition and its first priority must be to stand up peacefully and democratically for Hezbollah’s destructive hegemony, impose a kind of political power balance, and stop Iran from fully controlling and annexing Lebanon.
In conclusion, Each and every patriotic Lebanese in Lebanon and in Diaspora MUST never ever keep a blind eye on the fact that Lebanon, the “Land of the Cedars” is a holy and blessed country, and that their holy obligation is to defend and safeguard its independence and sovereignty.
This coalition is an urgent patriotic need, hopefully it will be formed and become a reality before it is too late.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls on Lebanese government to prevent Hezbollah holding weapons
Arab News/May 03/19
Hezbollah has a large militia that has taken part in Syria's civil war alongside President Bashar Al-Assad's government.
In May 2018, Guterres strongly criticized Hezbollah for operating as the most heavily armed militia and a political party in Lebanon.
LONDON: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the Lebanese government to prevent Hezbollah and other groups from owning weapons in a report issued by the UN on Friday. The report added that the presence of armed militias threatened Lebanon's stability and security.
It also stressed the need for the state to monopolize weapons and the use of force. In May 2018, Guterres strongly criticized Hezbollah for operating as the most heavily armed militia and a political party in Lebanon and urged the militant group to halt military activities inside and outside the country, including in Syria. In a report to the Security Council, Guterres also called on Lebanon’s government and armed forces “to take all measures necessary to prohibit Hezbollah and other armed groups from acquiring weapons and building paramilitary capacity” outside the authority of the state. “In a democratic state, it remains a fundamental anomaly that a political party maintains a militia that has no accountability to the democratic, governmental institutions of the state but has the power to take that state to war,” he said. Hezbollah, which is mainly financed by Iran, is considered a terror group by the US, Canada, Israel and the Arab League. The heavily armed group has a large militia that has taken part in Syria's civil war alongside President Bashar Al-Assad's government, and also has elected members of parliament and positions in Lebanon's national unity government.The group's influence over Lebanese state institutions has expanded in the last year. Together with allies that view its arsenal as an asset to Lebanon, it won more than 70 of parliament's 128 seats in an election last year. The group has taken three of the 30 portfolios in the government formed by the Western-backed Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri in January, including the health ministry - the first time it has held a ministry with a significant budget.

Lebanon may be forced to work with Syria on refugee issue: Aoun
Najia Houssari/Arab News/May 03/19
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun told Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell on Friday that Lebanon is hoping the EU will change its stance over the return of Syrian refugees “to avoid repercussions for Lebanon.” Aoun warned Borrell that Europe’s current stance “will force us to take steps to organize this return with the Syrian government.”In a meeting with Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on the same day, Aoun said that Syrian refugees “face political incitement and exploitation because they have not returned to their country, which raises questions about the reasons.”
On Thursday, Volker Türk, the assistant high commissioner for protection at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), announced in a talk at the American University of Beirut (AUB) that the UNHCR’s goal during the next 10 years is to resettle a million refugees around the world in other countries. “We want to encourage countries to host refugees,” he said. “This number does not only include Syrian refugees, because the refugee crisis has worsened since 2011, due to conflicts that have erupted around the world.”
Türk said that there are more than 6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) inside Syria and more than 10 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries. “The peak of this displacement was when Syrian refugees suddenly flocked to Europe, and European countries did not have the mechanisms in place to deal with this matter,” he said. There are 1.1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, according to the UNHCR.Türk flew to Beirut after a visit to Syria, during which he held meetings with Syrian officials and discussed the issue of Syrian refugees. “The discussion with the Syrian side was forthright, and they conveyed a  clear message that they want to work with us (to assist) Syrian refugees who wish to return,” he told Arab News.
Arab News learned that, during his visit, Türk met an assistant to Syria’s deputy foreign minister, but did not meet with any senior officials from the Syrian government.
Türk said that he and his accompanying delegation visited the Zabadani district, much of which has been destroyed by the Syrian conflict. He said that he focused during his meetings with IDPs who have returned to their homes “on the quality of life they lead as well as their needs.”
Türk believes that the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2018 by a large majority to improve the way the crisis is managed at an international level “(will) keep the asylum issue in the international community’s mind in a sustainable manner instead of addressing it occasionally.”
Türk emphasized that the importance of the GCR is that it includes an item on the protection of refugees who cannot return to their countries, notes the situation of refugees living below the poverty line, and makes clear to the international community that it has a responsibility to deal with the consequences of these crises and to find solutions to them. The GCR — which is not binding — was ratified by 181 countries. America and Hungary voted against it, and the Dominican Republic, Eritrea and Libya abstained.
The compact contains four main objectives: Taking pressure off host countries; promoting the self-reliance of refugees; broadening access to third-country solutions; and contributing to securing the necessary conditions for the refugees’ safe and dignified return to their countries of origin.
The GCR also includes a paragraph on the adoption of the 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, which focuses on the protection of people who are forced to flee their countries and on supporting the countries that host them.
During the AUB session, there was a lively discussion about the extent to which countries can be pressured to resettle refugees. Türk was also confronted by skepticism about the resettlement of refugees — with some suggesting that they should be have to remain in the first host country they enter.
Tarek Mitri, former Lebanese minister and director of the Issam Fares Institute, which organized the session, said: “Lebanese society is divided between demands for the immediate repatriation of refugees and support for their voluntary and safe return; thus, this society is in fear. The most important question is whether the Syrian regime wants the refugees to return at a time when it is immersed in engineering a new demography in Syria. And what has become of the Russian initiative to facilitate the return of refugees? Its owners are now saying during private meetings that it has become so difficult to implement. They have even admitted that pressure from the Syrian regime has stopped the initiative, and that this has nothing to do with securing finance for the reconstruction of Syria.”Türk stressed that it is important for Syrian refugees to obtain birth and citizenship documents, adding that this is a right for all refugees as per international conventions. However, while he insisted on that refugees who wish to return home must be allowed to do so, he did not offer any assurance that the Syrian authorities are willing to receive them.
“Those who know refugees who wish to return can inform our offices in Lebanon and we will see what can be done,” he said.

Egypt PM Stresses Support for Lebanon in Talks with Aoun
Naharnet/May 03/19/Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly held talks Friday with President Michel Aoun at the Baabda Palace. The visiting premier stressed that his country will "support Lebanon during this period."He also hailed "President Aoun's efforts and his historic stances."

Lebanon, Brazil Sign Parliamentary Cooperation Protocol
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 3 May, 2019/Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and his Brazilian counterpart Rodrigo Maya have signed a protocol of cooperation between the two countries. During a meeting on Thursday, Berri affirmed “the depth of relations between Lebanon and Brazil,” describing them as “distinguished and familial.”“Twice the population of Lebanon lives in the brotherly country of Brazil. The protocol we signed today aims for the establishment of a diplomatic relation between the two parliaments, so as to reach positions as unified as possible in various international forums, in addition to carrying out legislative exchange of delegations, and establishing stronger economic, cultural and social relations,” the Lebanese speaker said. Maya, for his part, underlined that Lebanese-Brazilian rapprochement extended to the peoples of the two countries.
“This stems from a historic and old relationship between our peoples. The protocol we signed today is very important as it helps cement the relationship between our two countries and our peoples,” he emphasized. The protocol aims to strengthen relations between the two parliaments based on the principles of equality, reciprocity, mutual benefits and respect for the independence of each side. It also provides for the exchange of practices on political control, legislative process, parliamentary administration, assistance in parliamentary infrastructure matters, and technical assistance in drafting legislation, external relations, electronic archiving, publications and technologies for proper operation of parliamentary services.

Tensions Expected as Cabinet Holds New Budget Session
Naharnet/May 03/19/The Cabinet convened anew Friday to continue discussions over the 2019 draft state budget. Speaking to reporters before the session, Economy Minister Mansour Bteish said the atmosphere was "positive and constructive."MTV meanwhile reported that the debate is expected to be tense and that one of the ministers has ruled out the possibility of finishing the discussions on Sunday. "A lot of controversial items have not been discussed yet and informed sources said there are tensions, especially between the Free Patriotic Movement ministers and the finance minister," MTV said. Media reports have said that Thursday's session had witnessed a verbal clash between Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and several FPM ministers before the situation was pacified.

Bassil Sends Zarif Appeal to Release Zakka
Naharnet/May 03/19/Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil on Friday sent a letter to his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif asking that Tehran free Lebanese national Nizar Zakka from its prisons. The National News Agency said Bassil handed the letter to Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammad Jalal Firouznia, who in turn handed the minister a letter from Zarif. Bassil's letter calls on Iran to "issue a special pardon for Lebanese national Nizar Zakka on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan." Zakka has been detained in Iran since 2015 over spying allegations. He was sentenced in 2016 to 10 years in prison and a $4.2 million fine. Zakka, who lived in Washington and held resident status in the U.S., was the leader of the Arab ICT Organization, or IJMA3, an industry consortium from 13 countries that advocates for information technology in the region. Zakka disappeared Sept. 18, 2015, during his fifth trip to Iran. He had been invited to attend a conference at which President Hassan Rouhani spoke of providing more economic opportunities for women and sustainable development.On Nov. 3, Iranian state television aired a report saying he was in custody and calling him a spy with "deep links" with U.S. intelligence services. It also showed what it described as a damning photo of Zakka and three other men in army-style uniforms, two with flags and two with rifles on their shoulders. But that turned out to be from a homecoming event at Zakka's prep school, the Riverside Military Academy in Georgia, according to the school's president.

UK, Canada Envoys Host Journalists in Celebration of World Press Freedom Day
Naharnet/May 03/19/Defending free media around the world "has never been more pressing," the British embassy in Beirut said on Friday, adding that in April 2019 UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Canadian FM Chrystia Freeland launched a campaign to defend free media around the world.
This will include a major conference in London in July, and aims to shine a spotlight on media abuses and reverse the trend of violence against journalists, the embassy said in a statement. British-Lebanese Lawyer Amal Clooney has been appointed the UK’s Special Envoy on Media Freedom and will chair a panel comprising the world’s "best legal minds" to develop and promote legal mechanisms to prevent and reverse media abuses. Celebrating World Press Freedom Day, British ambassador to Lebanon Chris Rampling and Canadian Ambassador Emmanuelle Lamoureux hosted a joint reception for Lebanese and Foreign media in Lebanon. Minister of Information Jamal al-Jarrah, Minister of State for Administrative Development May Chidiac, U.S. Ambassador Elizabeth Richard, EU Ambassador Christina Lassen, and over 80 guests attended the event which highlighted the opportunities and challenges facing media in Lebanon and the world. "World Press Freedom Day is an opportunity to celebrate the basic human right to freedom of expression: a free press underpins that right. In a world of disrupted facts, distorted truths and fake news, free, credible and investigative journalism holds private and public spheres to account, and helps support a safer, more prosperous and progressive world," the embassy added.
During the reception, Ambassador Rampling said: "So much is happening in the world today, and information of one sort or another is everywhere. The facts our democracies need to thrive: this is dependent on a free press. But over the last year again we have seen journalists around the world face harassment, imprisonment and sometimes death. 2018 was the deadliest year for journalists, with 99 killed, 348 detained and 60 taken hostage by non-state groups. In the UK, just last month we witnessed the tragic murder of Lyra Mckee – shot while reporting on a protest in Northern Ireland.""In Syria, 11 journalists were killed last year alone, and over the eight years of conflict, countless others have disappeared, or been detained, tortured or killed. They risk their lives to bring news of the unfolding situation to the wider world – often bearing sole witness to horrific atrocities," he added.
"We, in the British Embassy, will continue to work with journalists here in Lebanon too. I am delighted to see here many of the 25 bloggers, journalists and freelancers who recently attended the Skeyes – Maharat program supported by the UK and learned skills and techniques to enable them to grow and promote their media platforms," Rampling went on to say. Canadian Ambassador Lamoureux meanwhile said "promoting media freedom is a key component of Canada’s efforts to strengthen the rules-based international order, democratic resilience, and respect for the right to freedom of opinion and expression.""As we mark this important day, the world unfortunately is witnessing a crackdown on press freedom. From targeted killings of journalists, to censorship laws, criminal prosecutions, threats and intimidation – freedom of expression is at risk. While the Middle East and North Africa continue to be one of the world’s most difficult and dangerous regions for journalists, no part of the world is unaffected," she added.

Germanos Files Lawsuit against Othman
Naharnet/May 03/19/A new chapter of the "proxy war" between the Free Patriotic Movement and the al-Mustaqbal Movement began over the past two days, after State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Peter Germanos filed a lawsuit against Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman, a media report said. The lawsuit accuses Othman of violating a judicial decision by "failing to heed judicial writs issued by Germanos related to artesian well violations and illegal construction," al-Akhbar daily said. Germanos referred his lawsuit to Military Examining Magistrate Fadi Sawwan, it added. "While certain sources have held the FPM responsible for backing Germanos' decision, FPM sources have said that the anti-corruption file and its consequences are legal matters that have nothing to do with the FPM," the newspaper said. It added that concerned parties expect Prime Minister Saad Hariri to intervene to "protect Othman."

Lebanon’s PM Determined to Carry Out Reforms
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 3 May, 2019 /Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Thursday he is determined to carry out the necessary reforms despite many difficulties, and commended the Egyptian experience. “It is not easy, especially if we want to fight corruption and squander,” Hariri told the Arab Economic Forum 2019 held at the Four Seasons Hotel, with the participation of the Egyptian Prime Minister, Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, and many Lebanese, Egyptian and Arab officials and businessmen. According to the Lebanese Prime Minister, the most important common challenge today in the Arab countries is to stimulate growth and diversify its sources to create jobs for the youth. “We are now convinced that this cannot be achieved without implementing reforms that can develop our national economies… without the modernization of our procedures, laws and administrations and the promotion of governance and transparency,” he said. Hariri also called on learning from the Egyptian experience and expertise in the fields of electricity, communications, gas, oil and other sectors. “What we are trying to do today in Lebanon is actually the same as Egypt did, but the difference is that Egypt suffered economically more than Lebanon,” he said. “That is why we are implementing optimistic reform plans. Some ask how we can implement these reforms. I say that these reforms are in the interest of the Lebanese citizen and the young men and women who do not find jobs at the moment,” Hariri explained. He said a meeting of the Lebanese-Egyptian Higher Joint Committee in Beirut is expected on Friday to lay the foundations for further cooperation and coordination between the two countries to promote trade exchange and joint investments.

Berri meets Egyptian Prime Minister, Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister
NNA/May 03/2019/Speaker of the House, Nabih Berri, on Friday welcomed at his Ein Teeneh residence visiting Egyptian Prime Minister, Mostapha Madbouli, with whom he discussed cooperation between the two countries, as well as the current political developments. For his part, Speaker Berri emphasized Lebanon’s need for investments from brotherly countries, including Egypt. In turn, the Egyptian PM announced that he had conveyed to Berri the greetings of Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and Egypt's full support for Lebanon. "We have briefed the House Speaker on the topics we’ve discussed with Prime Minister Saad Hariri," he said, adding that he had discussed with the head of Parliament important economic issues, particularly those related to energy and the willingness of his country to support Lebanon in this area.Berri had previously met with Spanish Foreign Minister, Josep Borrell Fontelles. Discussions focused on the situation in Lebanon and the region, as well as on bilateral relations.

Press Syndicate celebrates Press Freedom Day, Falha says press situation inseparable from other developments
NNA/May 03/2019/The Lebanese Press Syndicate celebrated on Friday the "World Press Freedom Day" under the auspices of Information Minister, Jamal Al-Jarrah, represented by the MoI’s General Director, Hassan Falha, in the presence of senior official and media figures. “It is no surprise that the press syndicate has called for the revival of the World Press Freedom Day, as this syndicate exercises this freedom in every sense, every day, through the values that are the basis of its professional task,” Falha said as delivering a word on the behalf of Minister Jarrah. “It is no surprise that the Lebanese press, which is the custodian of public freedoms, has been at the forefront in defense of these freedoms. For decades, Lebanon has been the oasis that inspired neighboring countries to exercise this freedom. The Lebanese press played an influential role writing the history of events in Lebanon and the region,” Falha added, recounting the golden age of the Lebanese press. “What the Lebanese press endures today, starting with the economic distress, is part of all the other events nationwide, and can not be separated from what the country is going through. We have started studying the budget, and we’re trying, as much as possible, to practice strict austerity measures without affecting people with limited income,” Falha added, hoping that these measures will eventually lead to economic recovery in Lebanon. "What concerns us today, as we celebrate World Press Freedom Day, is to keep this freedom intact and to keep the Lebanese press steadfast in the face of calamities,” Falha concluded.

US Embassy in Beirut launches new construction works and trainings at ISF Academy
NNA/May 03/2019/In a press release by the US Embassy in Beirut, it said: “Today, Ambassador Elizabeth Richard joined Internal Security Forces (ISF) Director General Imad Osman, and other ISF officials at the groundbreaking ceremony launching the construction of new facilities at the ISF Academy in Aramoun. The construction of a new dormitory and classroom buildings will provide short-term housing for the ISF trainees from outside of Beirut and additional classrooms to accommodate training from the U.S. sponsored Expanded Police Professionalism (EP2) program. This additional $5 million dollar investment is another demonstration of the strong and continuing U.S. government support for Lebanon and the ISF. Since 2008, the United States has provided over $278 million dollars to train and equip the ISF through the State Department’s Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). Since 2007, the United States has provided nearly $5 billion in total combined assistance to Lebanon, including more than $1.7 billion in military assistance and more than $3.1 billion in development and humanitarian assistance.
Below are Ambassador Richard’s remarks.
Thank you very much, Director General Osman, Brigadier General Hajjar, dear friends, and colleagues.
I am so happy to be back here at Aramoun, a place that we have gotten to know very well, over the more than ten years that we have worked with the ISF and we’ve watched you grow. Today we are marking another step in the partnership that we have together to professionalize the internal security services and forces here in Lebanon. The ISF does have a strategic plan and it is an excellent plan, and we reviewed it closely with you and your officers before the Rome conference. We found it to be a superb roadmap for what comes next as you build the force. It is our honor to be part of that strategic plan and today we are looking at just one part of that plan. What we are doing today is helping you expand the great successes we have seen here in Beirut to the entire country. More than 7500 ISF Gendarmerie and municipal police from around the country will be able to live and work and train here.
The Expanded Police Professional (EP2) Program is a big part of this effort. And I think today, what we are doing, in not only talking, as General Hajjar did about the human capital that we are trying to reach, but we are looking at the infrastructure that we need to improve. This is for us a meaningful $5 million contribution to that effort, in creating this infrastructure. These buildings are going to be a modern, purpose-filled facility that is going to allow you deliver first class training and mentoring. I think it will be, little by little, the envy of everyone in this region.
This is a commitment we made at Rome II and I’m very happy that we are able to meet that commitment. I’d like to say one last thing, that it is very easy to focus on equipment and I know it is tempting to want to know, where are the weapons, where are the trucks, where are the vehicles, and where are the airplanes. But the fact is that modern security forces do not thrive and succeed based on their equipment. They thrive and succeed based on their human capital. They thrive and succeed on leadership and training, and discipline, and dedication. That’s what builds the security force of the future and that is what we are helping to build today. Without the training, without the dedication of the teachers, the mentors, and the instructors, you do not have a security force no matter what equipment you have.
So I couldn’t be more proud to be part of this today. Thank you so much to both officers for your leadership and all our fellow officers for their dedication and I very much hope you will invite me back to see the completed buildings.”

Lebanon and Egypt sign 4 agreements to enhance trade and investment
NNA/May 03/2019
The Lebanese-Egyptian talks were concluded by the signing of three memoranda of understanding, and an executive program to enhance trade and investment relations between the two countries.
The Lebanese-Egyptian Joint Higher Committee held a meeting this afternoon at the Grand Serail, chaired by Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his Egyptian counterpart Dr. Mostafa Madbouly.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil, the Minister of Industry Wael Abu Faour, the Minister of Interior and Municipalities Raya al-Hassan, the Minister of Economy Mansour Bteich, the Minister of Public Health Jamil Jabak, the Minister of Labor Camille Abu Sleiman, the Minister of Communications Mohammad Choucair, the Minister of State for Information Technology Adel Afiouni, the Minister of Energy Nada Boustani, the Lebanese Ambassador to Egypt Ali Halabi, the Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers Mahmoud Makkiye and the General Director of the Ministry of Economy Alia Abbas on the Lebanese side. From the Egyptian side, the meeting was attended by the Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohammad Shaker, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla, the Minister of Manpower Mohamed Saafan, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat, the Minister of Trade and Industry Amr Nassar, the Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Nazih Naggari, and the Secretary General of the Council of Ministers Major General Atef Abd el-Fattah.
Memoranda of understanding. After the meeting, Premiers Hariri and Madbouly signed three memoranda of understanding and an executive investment program.
The first memorandum deals with the exchange of tax experiences between the two countries, the second to the export of Egyptian building materials (gravel and sand) to Lebanon, and the third concerns the field of communication and information technology.
An executive program in the field of investment promotion was also signed between the Egyptian Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation and the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon for the years 2019-2020.
Hariri
At the end of the meeting, Hariri said: “Once again I welcome Dr. Mustafa Madbouly and the ministers, members of the Egyptian delegation, who participated in the meetings of the ninth session of the Lebanese-Egyptian Joint Higher Committee. We can say that we managed through our negotiations to solve the problems that existed between the two countries in various fields, especially industry, electricity, labor and others. Premier Madbouly promised us to complete the files related to health and medicine in a few weeks so we can sign a memorandum regarding these sectors and start economic exchange.
During our talks, we focused on ways to develop economic cooperation in light of the obstacles from both sides, particularly with regard to bureaucracy, and we decided to work together to overcome them.
Yesterday, I raised with Premier Madbouly a number of issues and he expressed his readiness to solve them, especially the registration of Lebanese factories in Egypt, which is taking a long time. Premier Madbouly has taken a decision with the Minister of Industry to register these factories quickly, within two weeks. We also reached solutions in the field of labor, and we must approve the agreement in the Council of Ministers, and we will hopefully do this during the first meeting that we will hold.
The Egyptian Prime Minister briefed us on the Egyptian experience in dealing with the economic problems and overcome problems in the fields of electricity, water, roads and others. I benefited from his experience in this regard, especially in terms of the difficulty of taking difficult decisions. What leads to disaster is doing nothing. This is what Egypt suffered from for a long time until the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came with an active team such as the one we have today, which includes a number of women who achieved a great deal. I agreed with the Prime Minister that the competent ministers will solve their problems directly and refer to us only in complex matters.I reiterate my thanks to the Prime Minister and his team and to the Lebanese ministers who exerted great efforts to reach these memoranda”.
Madbouly
For his part, Prime Minister Madbouly said: “First I would like to express my happiness to be in Lebanon, our second country.
I do not need to emphasize the depth of the historical ties between the two countries. There is always a great cultural and civilization rapprochement between the Lebanese and Egyptian peoples, and several hardships and good times brought us together, which confirms the proximity and blood ties between the two peoples. Allow me to convey the greetings of the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his wishes of prosperity and progress to the Lebanese president, government and people, and to convey a message from him of Egypt’s support to Lebanon. This is something we do not need to say because it is a reality. President al-Sisi has a famous saying, which is “Lebanon’s security comes from Egypt’s security.” This is a fact that every Egyptian citizen believe in. I always say that if you ask Egyptian citizens about the relationship and its depth between the two peoples, everyone will emphasize it. I confirm that the coming period will witness the deepening of the cooperation between the two states. There is consensus at the level of political leaders and also between the two peoples but we need to increase economic relations between the two countries by enabling the private sector in both countries to expand joint project. There are areas of investment in both countries, and we encourage the establishment of joint companies between the two countries that can invest in both countries and other markets like Africa or elsewhere, especially that there are several advantages that characterizes the private sector in both countries.
We in Egypt had experience, during the last years, in the fields of energy, electricity, gas, and infrastructure. We overcome these problems and obstacles and the Egyptian companies are keen to provide all support to Lebanon, because we are confident that the Lebanese government can overcome any difficulties facing Lebanon at this stage in the fields of infrastructure and economy.
There was a positive spirit and mutual enthusiasm between the two sides. All the obstacles and problems that have been raised have already been overcome. Even the remaining health issue will be solved within the next few days.
It is very important for the two sides to communicate directly, and we are keen to solve all problems and deepen ties between the two countries during the next period. Once again, I thank the Prime Minister for his welcome and wish him all success in leading Lebanon to safety.”
After that, Hariri and Madbouly headed to Beirut Central District where they had coffee in a café.
Spanish Foreign Minister

Latest LCCC English Miscellaneous Reports & News published on May 03-04/19
Saudi court releases four additional women accused of undermining security
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English/Friday, 3 May 2019/A Saudi court temporarily released on Thursday four women accused of undermining the Kingdom’s security. Saudi Arabia’s laws prohibit the official publication of the names of those accused while on trial. The released detainees were identified by Reuters as Hatoon al Fassi, Amal al Harbi, Maysaa al Manea and Abeer Namnakani. They join three other women released over a month ago, on condition they continue to appear in court. Saudi Arabia’s Public Prosecution issued a statement early last month that it had concluded its investigation and prepared an indictment list against the defendants, a Saudi Press Agency (SPA) report said. The detainees were arrested by the Presidency of State Security after the discovery of coordinated and organized attacks “to undermine the Kingdom’s security, stability and national unity.”
On June 2, the Public Prosecutor’s Office had announced the arrest of nine suspects - five men and four women out of 17 wanted individuals - after obtaining sufficient evidence mandating the arrests. The prosecution also said that the suspects admitted to having links with hostile organizations.

New US ambassador to Saudi Arabia arrives in Riyadh
Reuters, Riyadh/Friday, 3 May 2019/The new US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, retired general John Abizaid, arrived in Riyadh on Thursday, an embassy statement said. Trump nominated Abizaid, who led the US Central Command during the Iraq war, for the position in November 2018. He was approved by the Senate in April. "Saudi Arabia and the United States work together every day to protect the security of our two countries, promote prosperity and economic development, and build the people-to-people ties that keep our relationship strong," the statement quoted Abizaid, 68, as saying.

US Senate upholds veto of Yemen resolution in win for Trump’s policy
Agencies, Washington/Friday, 3 May 2019/The US Senate on Thursday sustained President Donald Trump’s veto of a resolution demanding an end to military support for the Arab-led coalition’s war against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, in a victory for the White House’s policy of continued backing for Saudi Arabia. The vote was 53 to 45, falling short of the two-thirds majority of 67 votes needed to override Trump’s veto in the 100-member chamber,and the minority Democratic camp could only muster crossover support from a handful of Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who supports Trump on Yemen, said the vote offered lawmakers “a second chance to send the right message regarding America’s commitments to our partners in the region, to important humanitarian missions, and to eradicating al-Qaeda from the Arabian peninsula.”It was only the second veto of Trump’s presidency. Both have been upheld. The resolution’s passage earlier this year marked the first time that both the Senate and House of Representatives had supported the provision of the War Powers Act limiting the president’s ability to send troops into action without congressional authorization.Backers of the resolution said they wanted to take back Congress’ constitutional power to declare war. Resolution opponents argued that support for the Arab-led coalition was not an appropriate use of the War Powers Act, because the military provides supports such as targeting assistance, not troops on the ground. (With Reuters, The Associated Press)

Guaido Calls for Protests at Military Bases as Maduro Rallies Troops
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 03/19/Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has called for peaceful demonstrations at army bases, days after a military uprising in support of his bid to oust President Nicolas Maduro fizzled out. The latest appeal came after Maduro called on the armed forces of the crisis-wracked nation to oppose "any coup plotter", as the embattled leader dug in his heels in the face of ongoing protests and international pressure, especially from the United States. In a tweet, Guaido asked supporters to gather for peaceful demonstrations on Saturday at military bases in a bid to get soldiers to "support the constitution." Guaido -- recognized by more than 50 countries as Venezuela's interim president -- had on Tuesday called on the military to rise up against Maduro, and a small group heeded his call. But that movement fizzled out, and sparked two days of protests against the government during which four people were killed. The military leadership has reiterated its support for the government, and Maduro is standing his ground. "Yes, we are in combat -- keep morale high in this fight to disarm any traitor, any coup plotter," he said at a televised event with the military high command, at which he was surrounded by soldiers. "No one can be afraid -- it is the hour to defend our right to peace," he said at the ceremony, which was attended by 4,500 military personnel, according to the government. And Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino said: "We've come to ratify our loyalty... to the supreme commander of the armed forces, who is our only president, President Nicolas Maduro."
'Brutal repression'
Meanwhile, Venezuela's supreme court ordered the re-arrest of influential opposition figure Leopoldo Lopez -- who made a dramatic appearance alongside Guaido on Tuesday after he was freed from house arrest.
Lopez has since taken refuge at the Spanish embassy. Madrid has said it would not hand over Lopez to Venezuelan authorities, nor would it ask him to leave.
The 48-year-old was a prominent opposition leader in 2014 when he was imprisoned after calling for protests against Maduro. He was transferred to house arrest in 2017. And in Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump offered prayers at a White House service for "the people of Venezuela in their righteous struggle for freedom.""The brutal repression of the Venezuelan people must end, and it must end soon," he said. The president also warned in an interview with Fox News that Washington has "lots of options and some of them are very tough options."
"There's always a tipping point" for military intervention, he said, while adding: "I'd rather not do that."Opposition lawmakers and family members announced Thursday that two teenage protesters -- one in Caracas and the other in the northern town of La Victoria -- had died of injuries sustained in the anti-government protests after the Tuesday uprising, raising the death toll to four. Human rights organizations and health services have reported that dozens of people were hurt on both Tuesday and Wednesday, and the government said more than 150 people were arrested on Tuesday. So far, 25 rebel soldiers have sought asylum at the Brazilian embassy after the failed push against Maduro.
U.S.-Russia meeting -
Tensions in Venezuela have soared since Guaido, who heads the national legislature, invoked the constitution to declare himself acting president on January 23, claiming Maduro's re-election last year was illegitimate. The country has suffered five years of recession marked by shortages of basic necessities as well as failing public services, including water, electricity and transport. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned Venezuela's authorities not to use deadly force against demonstrators, while the U.S. and Russia accused each other of making the crisis worse, evoking their Cold War-era confrontations. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are to discuss Venezuela when they meet in Finland next week, a U.S. official said. "We're going to remain in the streets until we achieve freedom for the Venezuelan people," Guaido told his supporters in Caracas on Wednesday. Pro-Maduro groups also marched through the capital on May Day. The International Contact Group of 13 countries -- including Britain, France, Germany and Maduro's ally Bolivia -- announced a meeting in Costa Rica on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the latest flare-up in Venezuela's simmering crisis.

Venezuela’s Crisis Strengthens Damascus’ Involvement In Russian Orbit
London - Ibrahim Hamidi/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 3 May, 2019/The crisis in Venezuela was an opportunity for Damascus to become more involved in the Russian orbit and Moscow's alliances in the Middle East and the world.
On Wednesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the “failed coup attempt” in Venezuela and accused the United States of seeking to destabilize the country, the official SANA news agency reported. Venezuela is witnessing a political crisis, as Parliament Speaker Juan Guaido has declared himself acting president and was recognized by 50 countries, including the United States. President Nicolas Maduro rejected the move and announced last Tuesday the failure of military action against him. In response, Washington hinted at military intervention in support of Guaido.
Maduro’s government is one of Damascus’ allies. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza visited Damascus last month and met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The latter had visited Caracas before the Syrian crisis broke out in 2011.
Damascus’ support for Maduro coincided with a visit to the Syrian capital by North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Guk, who stressed his keenness to “deepen the historical friendship between the two countries in various economic, military and political fields,” according to SANA. Pak Myong Guk briefed Syrian officials on the outcome of talks between North Korean President Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since the direct Russian military intervention in Syria in September 2015, Damascus has taken political, military and economic steps to strengthen its relations with Moscow's allies. The foreign minister of the “Republic of Abkhazia” announced the imminent opening of an embassy in Damascus, in response to the latter’s recognition last year of the independence of the "republics" of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Thus, Syria became the fifth country to recognize the separation of these two regions from Georgia after Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Nauru. Moreover, in addition to the presence of the Russian army and the Tartous and Hmeimim bases in Latakia, thousands of military police from the special forces of Chechnya are deployed in Syria under the orders of President Ramzan Kadyrov, a friend of Putin.

Heavy Airstrikes In Northwestern Syria Threaten Truce
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 3 May, 2019/Dozens of airstrikes by regime forces and Russia on opposition-held enclave in northwestern Syria have killed several civilians, activists said on Friday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that a dozen of overnight raids on the southern edge of Idlib province killed six civilians. Regime warplanes dropped a dozen of indiscriminate barrel bombs on one village, the Observatory noted . The escalation threatens a seven-month truce, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The UN expressed its deep concerned over the violence, saying the escalation has caused massive displacement inside the enclave that extends between Idlib and Hama provinces and is home to about 3 million people. "These increased hostilities are triggering large-scale displacement, from northern Hama and southern Idlib. There are also reports of deserted villages after civilians fled for safety. An estimated 323,000 people are estimated to have been displaced in the northwest since September of last year," AP reported UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric as saying late Thursday. The UN said at least 60 civilians were killed in April.

Tripoli Fighting Continues, More Civilians Flee
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 3 May, 2019/Heavy fighting raged overnight in the battle for Libya's capital Tripoli as an offensive by Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar entered its fifth week. There were heavy clashes between the LNA and forces backing the head of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez al-Sarraj, from Thursday afternoon until early morning Friday in the area of the former international airport but the frontline has changed little, residents said. In Geneva, the United Nations said that despite the latest clashes, no air strikes or artillery barrages had hit civilians or residential areas. Since the offensive began, 102 civilian casualties had been counted, 23 of them killed, it said. More than 48,500 people in Tripoli had fled their homes for safer areas, it said, including 6,000 registered in the past 48 hours. Others remain trapped in conflict zones, where food is running short and the wounded and sick are in need of medical help. The UAE said on Thursday that fighting "terrorism" was a priority in Libya. "Priority in Libya to counter extremism/terrorism and support stability in long drawn out crisis," the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said on Twitter. “Extremist militias continue to control capital and derail search for political solution," he added.

Algeria: General Questioned on Involvement of Military Officials in Cocaine Case
Algiers - Boualem GoumrassaAsharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 3 May, 2019/Former police chief Abdelghani Hamel was brought to court on Thursday for his recent statements on the involvement of several officials in smuggling 700 kilograms of cocaine shipped from Brazil, according to an Algerian judicial source.
The source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the questioning of the judge at the Algiers court revolved around Hamel's statements, which were the direct reason for his dismissal in June last year. The statements were considered directed at the chief of army Ahmed Gaid Salah. Earlier, Hamel told reporters that if someone wants to fight corruption, they must not be corrupt themselves. The former chief was speaking after his son and personal driver were named in the investigations conducted by the gendarmerie in the cocaine case. It was understood that the statement was addressed at Gendarmerie Chief of Staff General Ghali Balqsir. However, Hamel have actually meant Chief of Staff Saleh, since he ordered the investigation. Hamel said that the initial investigations violated the law. He also hailed the judges for their ruling in the case, who also refused to accuse Hamel’s son and driver. The source noted that some indications show that Saleh is behind the investigation against Hamel, especially that last week he made a statement about the cocaine case, adding that no charges have been brought against the former police chief, but he was visibly annoyed as he was leaving the judge’s office.
The main suspect in the cocaine case is the well-known businessman, Kamal Shekhi, known as the butcher, who is currently in prison. Hamel was questioned by Tipaza court last week in the case of “illegally obtaining synthetic drugs”, and his son was also accused of being involved in the case, but he left the judge’s office without being charged. Former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia last Tuesday aslo went to the court after corruption charges were filed against him. He was received at the Algiers court by hundreds of protesters who chanted against him and called him a thief. In other news, hundreds of Cevital workers protested in Bejaia demanding the immediate release of the company’s chairman, Issad Rebrab, who has been in custody for two weeks after being accused of “suspected of having made fake statements concerning the transfer of funds to and from abroad.” The demonstrators chanted against the army chief saying he held Rebrab to settle old scores, calling for the prosecution of the “real gang members” namely Saeed Bouteflika, brother of the former president.

Turkey Says Not Distancing Itself from NATO with S-400 Deal
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 3 May, 2019/Turkey is not distancing itself from the NATO alliance by buying Russian S-400 missile defense systems, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Friday, adding that Ankara should not be excluded from the F-35 jet project over the purchases. Turkey and the United States, NATO allies, have been at odds over Ankara's move to buy the Russian S-400s, which Washington says are not compatible with NATO systems and may threaten the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets, of which Turkey is a prospective buyer and partner in production, Reuters reported.
In an interview with broadcaster NTV, Akar said that excluding Turkey from the F-35 project would put "very serious" burdens on the other partners in the project. "There is no clause saying 'you will be excluded if you buy S-400s' in this partnership. Excluding us just because any one country wants so would not be in line with justice, laws or rights. This should not happen," Akar said, according to Reuters. He said Turkey was trying to explain to the United States and other partners in the F-35 project that the S-400s would not pose a threat to the jets, and added that Ankara had taken measures to prevent that. In his strongest challenge yet to warnings that Turkey may be removed from the F-35 project, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the project would collapse if Turkey did not participate. While Washington has warned of potential US sanctions if Ankara pushed on with the S-400 agreement, Turkey has said it would not back down from the deal. Instead, Turkey has proposed to form a working group with the United States to assess the impact of the S-400s, but says it has not yet received a response from US officials. Akar said on Friday Turkey was still evaluating the latest US offer to sell Raytheon Co. Patriot systems, which he said was more positive than Washington's previous offers.

Three Palestinians killed by Israeli military in Gaza
Arab News/May 03/19/GAZA: Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip Friday, authorities in the territory said, after Israel said two of its soldiers were wounded in a shooting on the border. One of the Palestinians was shot dead along the frontier while the two others were killed in an air strike, the health ministry in Gaza said. The Israeli army said the air strike was in retaliation for the shooting incident on the border that left its soldiers wounded. The Gaza ministry named the men killed in the air strike as Abdullah Abu Mallouh, 33 and Alaa al-Bubli, 29, while the man killed in the clashes was 19-year-old Raid Abu Teer. The Israeli military said it had hit a base belonging to Gaza's rulers Hamas after sh ots were fired at its forces along the border. The army said "one soldier was moderately injured, and another soldier was lightly injured" when they came under fire during renewed protests. An army spokeswoman said around 5,200 Palestinians had taken part in the demonstrations throughout the day. Hamas did not immediately comment on the affiliation of the Palestinians killed but pledged to respond to what it called an "Israeli aggression." Palestinians have been taking part in often violent demonstrations along the border for more than a year, calling on Israel to ease its crippling blockade of the strip. At least 268 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the protests began in March 2018, the majority along the border. Two Israeli soldiers have been killed in that period. Israel accuses Hamas of using the protests as cover to carry out attacks.

Kushner: Mideast Plan Won't Say 'Two States'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 03/19/Jared Kushner revealed new contours Thursday of the upcoming U.S. peace plan for the Middle East, indicating that it will pull back from longstanding mentions of a two-state solution with the Palestinians and accept Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Kushner, the son-in-law and senior adviser to President Donald Trump, is expected next month to present a long-awaited deal on behalf of the U.S. administration, which has closely aligned itself with Israel's right wing. Vowing to take a fresh approach, Kushner gave the administration's strongest indication yet that the plan will not propose two states for Israelis and Palestinians -- for decades the U.S.-backed goal in marathon peace talks. "If you say 'two-state,' it means one thing to the Israelis, it means one thing to the Palestinians," Kushner said at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"We said, you know, let's just not say it. Let's just say, let's work on the details of what this means," he said. Kushner declined to give extensive details about the plan before its release but, asked if it would cover the final status between Israelis and Palestinians, he said: "That's correct, we will."The Palestinian leadership has already said it does not accept mediation by Trump, whose evangelical Christian base is fervently pro-Israel and whose long list of actions in support of the Jewish state includes moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Israel considers the holy city its eternal capital, but Palestinians want east Jerusalem as part of a future state. Kushner, who is also widely distrusted by the Palestinians for his family ties with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Trump asked him before his Jerusalem decision how it would affect peace prospects. "The answer I gave him was I think short term it's probably harder, because people will be more reactive and emotional," Kushner said. "But long term I think it helps because what we need to start doing is just recognizing truths, and I think that when we recognized Jerusalem, that is a truth -- Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and that would be part of any final agreement anyway," he said. - 'Very acceptable' to Palestinians -Netanyahu, campaigning in his successful re-election bid last month, vowed to annex parts of the West Bank, a step that would all but doom a Palestinian state. Netanyahu's stance has alienated even longtime advocates for Israel within the US Democratic Party, who question whether the nation can remain both Jewish and democratic while millions of Palestinians live under occupation.  But Kushner promised that Israel would make compromises, too. He said his team had spoken to Palestinian businesspeople and ordinary residents and believed the peace plan will be "very acceptable to them." Kushner has reached out to oil-rich Gulf Arabs in an apparent bid to create economic incentives for occupied Palestinians. "It's been very disheartening for us to see the Palestinian leadership has basically been attacking a plan (when) they don't know what it is," Kushner said.
"If they truly cared about making the lives of the Palestinian people better, I think they would have taken very different decisions over the past year -- and maybe over the last 20 years," he said. Kushner acknowledged that he may not be the one who finally makes peace in the Middle East, but said he at the very least wanted to "change the discussion." "Our approach has been, if we're going to fail, we don't want to fail doing it the same way it's been done in the past," he said. But Kushner, whose role in government alongside his wife Ivanka Trump has drawn heated criticism on ethical grounds, is at least assured of support in one key corner.  "When you work for a president, you try hard not to disappoint, but you can disappoint. When you work for your father-in-law, you can't disappoint."

US cracks down on Iran uranium production and nuclear plant
Arab News/May 03/19/WASHINGTON: The United States acted on Friday to force Iran to stop producing low-enriched uranium and expanding its only nuclear power plant, intensifying its campaign aimed at halting Tehran's ballistic missile program and curbing its regional influence. At the same time, the Trump administration renewed waivers of U.S. sanctions allowing Russia, China, France and Britain to pursue programs designed to prevent Iran from reactivating a defunct nuclear weapons program, the State Department said in a statement.Instead of granting the waivers for 180 days, the administration will shorten their term to 90 days, the statement said. Under the 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers, Iran agreed to transform its nuclear facilities at Arak and Fordow in ways that would make it much more difficult to use them to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons. The four nations' ability to continue that work, however, was compromised by US President Donald Trump's decision last year to abandon the agreement, which was designed to limit Iran's nuclear program in return for economic sanctions relief.

Afghanistan Loya Jirga Demands 'Immediate and Permanent' Ceasefire
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 03/19/A historic "loya jirga" peace summit in Kabul ended Friday with delegates from across Afghanistan demanding an "immediate and permanent" ceasefire. "The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban movement should declare and implement an immediate and permanent ceasefire, starting from the first of Ramadan," delegates said in a closing statement at the end of the week-long conference that saw thousands of Afghan representatives and tribal elders convene in the capital. Ramadan is due to begin in the coming days.

Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 03-04/19
Why Does Israel Need The American Peace Plan
Yaakov Katz/Jerusalem Post/May 03/2019
Why doesn’t Israel simply decide for itself and by itself what it wants and then implement that vision?
Sometime next month, the United States will unveil the peace plan it has been working on amid great hype, hope and attention ever since President Donald Trump moved into the Oval Office in 2017.
What the plan contains is a closely guarded secret in Washington, Jerusalem and Ramallah. Three people hold the keys: Senior Adviser to the President Jared Kushner, Mideast Envoy Jason Greenblatt and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. Each of these men has a small staff that is also familiar with the plan, and to their credit very little has leaked out until now.
Here is what we know: As first reported in The Jerusalem Post a few weeks ago, the plan will be unveiled sometime in June. At first the administration had seriously considered releasing its plan immediately after last month’s elections in Israel but before the establishment of a new government. In the end, though, that idea was shelved after the Americans understood that such a move would be perceived as interfering in Israel’s post-election governmental process.
So why June? Because that will be after a new government has been formed in Jerusalem, after Israel’s Independence Day and Remembrance Day, and after Ramadan. There will be no more excuses – for Israel or the Palestinians – why the plan cannot come out.
On the US side, June is pretty much the last date to try to build some momentum to give the plan a chance. After Labor Day, in the beginning of September, the president and his staff will completely shift their focus to the 2020 race. Their ability to invest time, energy and other resources in trying to mediate a peace deal in the Middle East will be severely limited, and if the past has shown anything – without buy-in from the president himself, there is almost no chance a plan can succeed.
While the plan is not yet public, based on conversations I have had in recent months with Israeli, European and US officials, it seems we can expect the so-called “deal of the century” to be the most sympathetic (or pro-Israel) plan unveiled to date.
First, it seems that the plan will not call for the evacuation of Israeli settlements. All, or at least the vast majority (including isolated ones), will be allowed to remain.
Second, the plan apparently has some interesting things to say about the IDF’s continued presence in the West Bank, and particularly the Jordan Valley.
Third, while it seems the Palestinians will get some sort of presence in Jerusalem, it will be minimal and in areas which 99.9% of Israelis have never visited.
Such a plan breaks a lot of conventional wisdom when it comes to Israeli-Palestinian peace. The continued presence of settlements and the IDF in the West Bank are enough to keep the Palestinians far away from the negotiating table.
This is where the plan potentially gets interesting, and the issue on which American officials are quietest: How will they entice the Palestinians to engage? This is especially complicated at a time when the Trump administration is almost completely boycotted by Ramallah, and when PA President Mahmoud Abbas doesn’t miss an opportunity to publicly attack the president.
Here the strategy seems to be split into four: First there are the Gulf states, countries like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates that Trump has been trying to woo to his side to help pressure the Palestinians to not immediately reject the plan.
Second is to drop a large amount of money on the table, enough to force the Palestinian leadership to think twice before rejecting.
Third is what seems to be a strategy on the part of the administration to use the plan to reach out directly to young Palestinians. The message will be something along the lines of: We are trying to help improve your lives but your leadership is stopping us. The hope will then be that pressure from the Palestinian street will get Abbas to join the negotiations.
Fourth is a declaration by the administration that it supports the establishment of a Palestinian state, which while it might not have an army or even full control of its borders, would still be able to call itself a state. While this might not seem like much, the administration has until now refrained from endorsing a state.
What will come of this? It is difficult to know. On one side there is Abbas, who seems dead set on rejecting any proposal Trump and his staff put on the table.
On the other side is Netanyahu, who is in the midst of negotiating the establishment of his fifth coalition with a partner – Union of Right-Wing Parties – that is adamantly opposed to any concession to the Palestinians, even if some small steps translate into big gains for Israel. This is without talking about Netanyahu’s own Likud Party, which has strengthened its far-right branch in recent years. There, too, it would be difficult to authorize a Palestinian state.
THE QUESTION I wonder about, though, is, why does Israel even need this American plan? Why doesn’t it simply decide for itself and by itself what it wants and then implement that vision? Why does Israel – a country known for its amazing innovation and courage – need a foreign sovereign power to draft a secret plan that will one day be dropped on it? Does it not have the ability to decide what it wants on its own?
Next week, Israel will celebrate 71 years of statehood and independence. This is an amazing achievement. From a nation of refugees, we have become a military and economic superpower. Do we not know how to decide how to end our conflicts and work toward peace?
If he only wanted, Netanyahu could decide to do whatever he wants when it comes to the Palestinians. Now in the midst of coalition talks, he could form his next government around this issue: If he were to decide suddenly tomorrow morning to negotiate a two-state solution, he’d likely be able to bring Blue and White into his government; and if he were to decide to annex all of the West Bank, he could already do that with his outgoing government as well as the one he seems bent on establishing in the coming weeks.
So why doesn’t he decide? Because indecision is sometimes easier than decision. Having to decide what to do with the Palestinians will determine Netanyahu’s legacy forever. Why do something if there is no reason to? This recent election season was a case example – no party spoke about “peace” or gave a detailed vision of how the conflict with the Palestinians could be resolved.
Sovereign nations, though, determine their fates on their own. They don’t wait for foreign powers – no matter how supportive or friendly they might be – to tell them what to do.
In so many different areas, Israel knows how to take the initiative. It is a culture Netanyahu knows well. The motto of Sayeret Matkal, the IDF commando unit in which he and his late hero brother Yoni served has a motto: “Who dares, wins.”
It is time we see that dare again, and not only when it comes to political survival. Change was once Israel’s story. It still can be.
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editors-Notes-Deciding-our-future-on-our-own-588549

Opinion Trump's 'Deal of the Century' Is Another Tragic Farce in the Making
Salman Masalha/Haaretz/May 03/2019
All eyes will be on the best show in the Middle East in the coming days. No, not the presentation of Israel’s new government, but the peace plan concocted by Abu Ivanka, the real estate agent heading the world’s greatest superpower, the self-proclaimed honest broker who will unveil the ultimate deal to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A short visit to Washington reveals a gloomy picture for the Palestinians. Someone forgot to remove the flags from the building that housed the Palestinian embassy. A copper plate was torn out of the building’s wall. The gate is rundown and dirty and only the two faded flags still fly on top of the building in the Georgetown neighborhood. The site’s neglect symbolizes more than anything the Trump administration’s treatment of the Palestinians and what is about to take place.
Who are the people Trump tasked with formulating the peace plan and who have been working on it for many months? His son in law Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt and David Friedman, the settlers’ devotee who lives in Israel in his capacity as ambassador for the United States. And with such friends for the deal of the century, the Palestinians don’t need enemies.
Keep an “open mind,” Kushner urged a group of ambassadors recently about Donald Trump’s upcoming proposal, which is due to go public after the Israeli government is set up and the Ramadan fast is over.
“We will all have to look for reasonable compromises that will make peace achievable,” he added.
It’s nice that the American administration is waiting sensitively for the end of the month of Ramadan. Since sources familiar with its proposal told the Washington Post that it outlines practical ways to improve the Palestinians’ lives, but does not call for establishing a Palestinian state, there’s a high likelihood that at the end of Ramadan the Palestinians will break their fast not with a gourmet meal but with onion, as the saying goes.
As far as Netanyahu and his Middle East vision are concerned, there’s nothing new. In interviews before the election he repeatedly declared that under no circumstances would he agree to evacuate settlements and uproot settlers, Israel would continue to rule the whole expanse west of the Jordan River and Jerusalem will remain undivided and under Israeli sovereignty. He also made these issues clear to the American delegates working on the plan. If these are the parameters Netanyahu set for the American proposal, then this “deal-of-the-century” act will emerge as another tragic farce in a series of attempts to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians keep declaring they won’t accept any plan that doesn’t delineate a Palestinian state on the basis of the ‘67 borders, whose capital is in East Jerusalem. This declaration is the default position, it’s nothing new. Had the Palestinians been blessed with a visionary leadership, they could have turned the tables by taking practical steps. If the plan failed to live up to their expectations, such a leadership would announce the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority and the “returning of the keys” to Israel.
Mahmoud Abbas has threatened in the past to do just that. Now he has the opportunity to make a dramatic move that would fundamentally alter the picture. In its wake, Hamas’ leadership in Gaza will also push Israel into occupying the Strip again. Thus, Greater Israel-Palestine will be established and the whole Palestinian-Israeli conflict will return to the starting point.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-another-tragic-farce-in-the-making-1.7193981

France's Wake-Up Call/Stop the persecution of Christians and Jews
ليلا جيلبرت/جيروزاليم بوست: دعوة للصحوة في فرنسا: اوقفوا اضطهاد المسيحيين واليهود
Lela Gilbert/Jerusalem Post/May 03/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/74458/74458/
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Frances-wake-up-call-588561
One summer day in 2016, I was having lunch with a French friend in Jerusalem. Because of my interest in religious freedom, she was telling me about persistent disturbances in France’s Catholic Churches – vandalism, arson and obscene desecration of sanctuaries. That evening, to further explain, she sent me links to some church newsletters.
Although there had been a multitude of similar reports about Jewish businesses, synagogues and cemeteries, which was the first I’d heard about such attacks on Christians.
On July 26, I was translating the church reports on-line when a chilling news bulletin materialized on my screen: Islamist terrorists had slit the throat of 85-year-old priest Jacques Hamel, killing him at the altar of his church in Rouen, France. A nun had been gravely injured in the attack.
That day, I wrote for Fox News, “For political and ideological reasons, whenever possible, French politicians (along with many other European authorities) continue to downplay religious attacks. In response, few major media sources bother to report them. Nonetheless, as the jihadi saying goes, ‘First the Saturday People, then the Sunday People.’ Islamist radicals consistently target Jews and Christians.”
Since 2016, attacks on both Jews and Christians have continued to crescendo in France, although many – if not most – have been overlooked. One notable exception were the separate, vicious murders of two elderly French Jewish women.
Then, just days ago, the world watched in horror as the magnificent Notre-Dame Cathedral burned before our eyes, its falling spire eerily reminiscent of the 9/11 horror.
At the time of this writing, although officials almost immediately denied that arson was involved, the cause of the Notre-Dame fire remains in question. Nevertheless, the sight of towering flames devouring Paris’s magnificent cathedral has brought into clear focus countless assaults on French churches and synagogues, as well as religious sites and individuals.
In March, Newsweek reported that in the first two months of 2019, there was a 25% increase in attacks on French Catholic churches. A record 47 documented attacks took place in February alone.
Of course, the question of motivation for such defilements is continuously analyzed by experts. One Vienna-based commentator explained, “The pressure is coming from the radical secularists or anti-religion groups as well as feminist activists who tend to target churches as a symbol of the patriarchy that needs to be dismantled.”
Actually, in several cases where arrests have actually been made, Islamists and anti-Christian Muslims have been the apparent culprits. And CBN News pointed out another essential point, painfully obvious to most observers:
In France, church attacks have increased exponentially as the number of Muslim migrants has enlarged.
In January 2017, a France-24 study claimed, “Islamist extremist attacks on Christians in France rose by 38%, going from 273 attacks in 2015 to 376 in 2016; the majority occurred during the Christmas season and many of the attacks took place in churches and other places of worship.”
Interestingly, in 2016 – the year Jacques Hamel was murdered – three “radicalized” women reportedly plotted to attack Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Their vehicle, containing six gas canisters, was found near the church.
WHILE ATTACKS on Christians surge, antisemitic activities also continue to erupt across France. Just days ago, on April 22, a Jewish couple was brutally beaten and robbed in a “home invasion.” According to officials, four hooded assailants had identified the couple as Jews because of the mezuzah outside their front door. The Algemeiner reports that antisemitism monitors see an emerging pattern of “attacking Jews as close as possible to their homes,” based on “the myth of the Jews and their money.”
Meanwhile, attacks on Jews in France increased by 74% in 2018. In a November CNN report, Francis Kalifat, a spokesperson for the French Jewish community said, “Our first observation is that violent acts are a daily occurrence and they have existed for a long time.”
And while assaults on Jews and Jewish sites persist in France, attacks on Christians and (mostly Catholic) churches escalated to more than 1,000 attacks in 2018 – averaging three per day. Until recently, these incidents have been relatively unknown except among rights groups and church communities.
One can safely say that they’ve been given the silent treatment by the media.
Eldad Beck wrote, “The lesson here should be fairly straightforward: Those who remain silent on the murder and persecution of Christians in distant countries like Nigeria, Syria, Algeria, Indonesia and Sri Lanka will find themselves persecuted at home. While there is no evidence that the Notre-Dame fire was a deliberate act of malice by Muslims, the incident has opened a Pandora’s Box for the silencers and the silent, and sparked a public debate over the persecution of Christians in the very heart of Catholic Europe.”
Those of us who are concerned with religious freedom issues are appalled by the increasing violence against both Christians and Jews, not only in France but far beyond Europe’s troubled borders.
Synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh, and now another in Southern California. Nearly 300 killed and 500 injured in three church attacks in Sri Lanka. Just days ago, an armed attack on Christians near Ramallah – an area under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction.
One frightening international story after another seems to appear nearly every day.
I asked my colleague Nina Shea, Director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Hudson Institute, for her thoughts about why attacks on Christians and Jews seem to be spinning out of control.
“Local minority religious communities are vulnerable to attacks – from a variety of forces – throughout the world, and it is their governments’ responsibility to protect them,” Shea explained.
“When they fail to do so, minority targets will continue to be hit. We saw this happen in Islamist attacks against Nineveh Christian and Yazidi minorities; we are now seeing similar attacks against Christian minorities in Egypt and northern Nigeria.”
“France is a mature democracy, and yet it is following this same pattern by failing, in many cases, to identify and take action after widespread incidents of vandalism, looting and desecration against Jewish and Christian sites, including houses of worship and cemeteries.
“Since October, the US also is seeing an antisemitism crisis develop, thanks to lone wolves and copycats, who are attacking synagogues filled with worshipers.”
“Both France and the United States must find a way to protect their Jewish and Christian communities by preventing such attacks. This requires surveillance of leaders who incite violence; monitoring hate sites online; collecting and acting on intelligence; and shoring up defenses at targeted houses of worship. Finally and obviously, a reliable defense requires following any attack with thorough investigations and prosecutions.”
*Lela Gilbert is a fellow at the Hudson Institute, the author of Saturday People, Sunday People: Israel Through the Eyes of a Christian Sojourner and co-author of Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians.

Opinion/Stop Trying to Justify Israel
Anshel Pfeffer/Haaretz/May 03/2019
Real countries don’t have to argue they are legitimate, not least when they're hitting 71 years old. That's why there is nothing more ridiculous than Israel's holy obsession with hasbara
I met a missionary last Shabbat. He was sitting on a bench near my home in Jerusalem, politely accosting passersby and handing out leaflets explaining why a Jewish carpenter born over 2000 years ago in Nazareth is our savior today.
He had a gentle smile and spoke, almost apologetically, in halting Hebrew tinged with American and Russian accents. He himself had emigrated from the former Soviet Union to the U.S. in his teens, and lost and bewildered in a new land, was taken in by friendly evangelicals who convinced him he could find comfort in Christ, while apparently remaining Jewish.
I won’t say his name as I don’t want to make him a possible target for vigilante groups. They don't need to worry though: he just doesn't have the charisma and burning zeal to actually convert anyone. I tried and failed to explain him that since I find all religions, bar none, fundamentalist and bigoted dogma, I’ll just remain a lapsed member of my own. He tried and failed to explain why he couldn’t be content just worshipping Jesus himself, but needed to convince others to do the same.
The need to be a missionary, for any religion, fascinates me. Six months ago, John Allen Chau, a 26 year-old American missionary, went knowingly to his death on North Sentinel Island in the Andaman Sea, in an attempt "to declare Jesus" to a small uncontacted indigenous tribe living there, known to violently reject visitors from the outside world. I hope my new friend in Jerusalem doesn’t go to such lengths.
But I wonder what it was like back in the days when Jews were also actively proselytizing, before the Middle Ages, when both Christian and Muslim authorities prohibited it on pain of death.
Orthodox rabbis have for over 1000 years invented an entire ideology, making it a virtue to treat prospective converts dismissively, even cruelly, to dissuade them from joining.
But of course Judaism was originally an aggressively proselytizing faith, just like any other religion. Practically the first time we meet Avraham, the Tanakh tells us he "made souls" in Haran. Jews had to stop being missionaries in order to survive in a hostile exile. It wasn’t a choice. It was a necessity born out of genocidal threat and unlike some Christian groups, Judaism deemed staying alive more precious than dying to convert others.
But perhaps the proselytizing urge has never fully been suppressed. How else do you explain hasbara?
Is there anything more ridiculous than Israel's obsession with hasbara? The constant harping on why isn’t hasbara better and if only it was better at explaining and justifying government policies, then the whole world would love us?
How exactly could hasbara be any better? Israel has a prime minister who is the hasbarist-in-chief, government departments, an entire IDF division, embassies, well-financed NGOs, websites, books, television channels and countless thousands of volunteers all equipped with a multitude of arguments and devoted to putting what they see as Israel’s case to the world. What more do they want?
And even if somehow there was a better hasbara operation to be had, what do they actually think it would achieve? Would Israel’s trade surplus grow any larger, or the BDS campaign become more of a dismal failure than it already is?
I sometimes ask hasbarists, both of the professional and amateur types, what exactly they are hoping to achieve. Their first reaction is usually a blank stare. How can you even question the necessity of hasbara? Then you get some burbling about delegitimization and the iniquities of the New York Times and the Guardian.
Excuse me. What delegitimization?
For the last decade no one has stopped Israel from doing pretty much whatever it likes in Gaza and the West Bank. No one has put any meaningful pressure on Israel to end the occupation. And the economy has continued to grow, foreign relations with the Far East, Latin America, Africa and even parts of the Arab world have flourished, and it’s no thanks to hasbara. The world hasn’t been convinced of Israel’s case. It just stopped caring about the Palestinian issue because other things distracted it and meanwhile, Israel has hi-tech to sell. The cold hard facts of geopolitics are that the "international community," such as it is, simply has bigger fish to fry elsewhere. Both from a tactical and strategic perspective, there is simply nothing to be gained by energetic hasbara efforts, from suppressing the pitiful handful of BDS activists who arrive, and the expulsion of human rights NGO employees who write reports few will read and no government will act upon. All it does is draw a bit of attention and invigorate them.
Bad enough that it’s undemocratic and undermines Israel’s claim to be a democracy with freedom of speech, but it’s counter-productive as well. But hasbarists are missionaries. They preach because they believe their very existence relies on it. Not enough that Israel, at least Netanyahu’s Israel, is winning, they need to convince everyone that Israel is justified as well. And thereby lies hasbara’s internal contradiction. If you think Israel constantly needs justifying, then you are accepting its basic illegitimacy. It’s a self-defeating argument. And yes, there are those who question Israel’s right to exist, but they should simply be ignored, because Israel has as much right to exist as any other country or nation. The hasbarists, by treating (nearly) every critic of Israel’s policies as a critic of its very existence, are those who have elevated Israel’s deniers to the status of worthy interlocutors. I was recently asked to be a panelist in a debate on whether anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. I turned down the offer, despite the generous fee (and I’m always happy to speak for money) partly because I won’t sit across from someone trying to goysplain me what anti-Semitism is or isn’t, but mainly because it’s a bullshit argument either way.
Zionism as a real concept ended in 1948, the moment its program was successfully fulfilled and the Jewish state came in to being. There’s no such thing as anti-Zionism, because unless you’re a genocidaire, you can’t will an existing nation or state out of existence.
People who claim today to be anti-Zionists, and are younger than ninety and therefore were not around when the argument was still relevant, are either ignorant, charlatans or anti-Semitic. Quite possibly all three. It’s the equivalent of flat-earthism or being an anti-vaxxer. And no matter how much money you offer me, I won’t degrade myself by debating them.
Israel has a serious racism problem. There is a legal and social framework that discriminates against its non-Jewish citizens. For the last 52 years it has been occupying millions of stateless Palestinians who still have no prospect of receiving their basic rights. Acknowledging these fundamental issues has nothing to do with the argument of whether Zionism was a practical and just solution for the historical and genocidal persecution of Jews before 1948. That’s why hasbara is a waste of time. All it does is undermine Israel’s legitimacy. Because real countries don’t have to argue they are legitimate. Hasbara’s one function is to deny Israel is a real country with real problems that need dealing with. But Israel is a real country, and no one's buying your hasbara. You may as well go and try convince people on an isolated island that your imaginary friend in heaven is more powerful than theirs.Next week, when we justly celebrate Israel completing its seventy-first year of existence, let’s do it the real justice it deserves - and stop trying to justify it.

The Monroe Doctrine for Venezuela
Jiri Valenta/Gatestone Institute/May 03/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14178/venezuela-monroe-doctrine
"It is impossible that the allied powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can anyone believe that our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord." — President James Monroe, 1823.
"The destinies of our nations will not be dictated by foreign powers; they will be shaped by the people who call this hemisphere home. Today, we proudly proclaim for all to hear: the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well." — National Security Adviser John R. Bolton, Miami, Florida April 17, 2019.
"The movement for freedom in Venezuela reveals that the twilight hour of socialism has arrived in our hemisphere..." — President Donald Trump, Feb. 19, 2019, Florida International University.
At the same time, it is probably a good idea to keep an eye on the Ukraine, where Putin has been offering around fast-tracked Russian passports, as he did prior to his invasions of Georgia's South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2008, and Crimea in 2014. It is probably advisable for the US to help the Ukrainians reinforce their defenses there, especially around the city of Mariupol.
It might also help to explain to the American people what is at stake for the Western Hemisphere in Venezuela....
Under no circumstances should the Russians be allowed to bring in more troops, planes or war materiel into Venezuela by air or sea.
In his speech to Bay of Pigs veterans in Miami, Florida on April 17, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton explained the Trump administration's measures against Venezuela, which he said should serve as a warning to Russia and others offering military assistance to the regime of the dictator Nicolás Maduro:
"This incredible region [Latin America] must remain free from internal despotism and external domination... The destinies of our nations will not be dictated by foreign powers; they will be shaped by the people who call this hemisphere home. Today, we proudly proclaim for all to hear: the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well."
The heart of the Monroe Doctrine can be illustrated by President James Monroe's declaration in 1823:
"It is impossible that the allied powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can anyone believe that our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord."
With a conflict now erupting in Venezuela, the American people clearly need to understand the relevance of the Venezuelan crisis to them, and why they should support it.
Here, therefore, is a short history of the milestone document drafted in 1823 by then Secretary of State and future president, John Quincey Adams, with input from former presidents James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.
The document was delivered in an 1823 annual message to Congress by our 5th president, James Monroe. His message -- not called the "Monroe Doctrine" until 1850 -- began by addressing the geopolitical ambitions in America of European tyrants ruling Russia, France and Spain. His greatest concern, as is among U.S. President Donald J. Trump's today, was Russia. Tsar Alexander I's 1821 ukaz [edict] was claiming all the coastal territory of the American Pacific Northwest down to the 51st parallel, today's State of Oregon, and was prohibiting non-Russian shipping in these regions.
America was still too weak to enforce its interests in the Western Hemisphere. Fortunately, America did have friendly support from Britain, with her then powerful Royal Navy, which helped to contain the Russian bear.
The first president to invoke the Monroe Doctrine by name was Abraham Lincoln. As America's Civil War continued to rage, a new threat had already opened south of the Texas border. Reform-minded Benito Juárez, the president of a new Mexican republic created in 1858, was fighting not only Mexican conservatives, but the troops of France's emperor, Napoleon III, to whom Mexico owed a considerable debt.
Napoleon III, apparently desiring to re-establish a monarchy in the Western Hemisphere, had created a Mexican throne for an Austrian archduke, Ferdinand Maximilian, and Confederate emissaries to the "Emperor" Maximilian were inquiring about a possible alliance.
Lincoln responded with covert military and economic aid for Juárez, the legitimate President of Mexico. Meanwhile Juárez dispatched agents across the U.S. to court capitalists, arms dealers and editors -- and even established "Monroe Doctrine Societies."
Finally, Lincoln deployed Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan secretly to fight the French at the Mexican-Texas border. By 1867, the French units, evidently discouraged, began to withdraw. Maximilian was captured and shot. Juárez had prevailed.
In 1904, several other European powers -- Germany, Italy and the UK -- blockaded Venezuela and fired at its coast, evidently as part of an effort to collect an enormous foreign debt. Meanwhile, under President Cipriano Castro, a leader similar to today's Nicolás Maduro, chaos reigned and Venezuelans starved. Invoking the Monroe Doctrine against the extra-hemispheric powers. President Theodore Roosevelt sent in the U.S. fleet -- all of 50 ships. He then helped to negotiate and settle Venezuela's debts by using 30% of the country's customs duties until they were fully paid.
Roosevelt also added a "corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine: he proclaimed the right of the United States to exercise 'an international police power' to curb glaring and 'chronic wrongdoing.' The U.S. Marines were subsequently sent into Santo Domingo in 1904, Nicaragua in 1911, and Haiti in 1915. It was a move designed ostensibly to keep the Europeans out, but also to protect U.S. business interests. Other Latin American nations seem to have viewed these interventions with misgivings: for many years, relations between the "great Colossus of the North" and its southern neighbors remained strained.
Then came a course correction. Another Roosevelt, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), recognized that the Monroe Doctrine was framed to protect the Americas from extra-hemispheric threats, not to police Latin neighbors. To enhance stability, he placed an emphasis on trade, cooperation and good neighboring.
The improved relations that resulted from the return to the doctrine's original meaning helped FDR prepare Latin America and the Organization of American States (OAS) for the rising threat of Nazi Germany. In 1940, the Monroe Doctrine came to include the collective right of self-defense at the "Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics" in Havana.
The same year, FDR emphasized Monroe Doctrine in his presidential campaign, and in 1941, he extended the Monroe Doctrine "... eastward into the middle of the Atlantic." He also announced that it encompassed Greenland, then owned by Denmark, but at the time temporarily occupied by the U.S. : "We are applying to Denmark what might be called a carrying out of the Monroe Doctrine..."
Originating with FDR came an extended and more broadly defined Monroe Doctrine – one of taking the war across the Atlantic to the enemy, and rescuing an old ally, Britain, and with her Western Europe. The U.S. even made a temporary alliance with the Secretary General of the Soviet Communist Party, Joseph Stalin, to block the ability of Germany's Führer, Adolf Hitler, to advance to the east.
Thereafter, amidst the long Cold War that followed WWII, the Russians returned to the Americas with a new geopolitical and ideological challenge -- this time to its eastern coast. In the 1960s, as 140 years earlier, the Russians tried to defy the Monroe Doctrine by injecting their communist system into Cuba, followed by Nicaragua and Grenada in the early 1980s.
In 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced at a press conference:
"We consider that the Monroe Doctrine has outlived its time, has outlived itself, has died, so to say, a natural death. Now the remains of this doctrine should best be buried as every dead body is so that it should not poison the air by its decay."
Two years later, President John F. Kennedy discovered that the Soviet Union had quietly built missile-launching sites in Cuba and had secreted almost 42,000 disguised Soviet troops into the island. What followed was the Cuban Missile Crisis, bringing the U.S. to the brink of nuclear war. In August 1962, Kennedy said at a press conference:
"The Monroe Doctrine means what it has meant since President Monroe and John Quincy Adams enunciated it, and that is that we would oppose a foreign power extending its power to the Western Hemisphere, and that is why we oppose what is happening in Cuba today. That is why we have cut off our trade. That is why we worked in the Organization of American States and in other ways to isolate the Communist menace in Cuba."
Supported by the OAS, Kennedy stood up to Khrushchev and encircled the island with a naval and air "quarantine" -- a word less bellicose than "blockade". Mobilizing for a possible invasion, Kennedy was also aware that a military strike at Cuba might inspire Russia to retaliate against West Berlin.
After several tense days of this Doomsday Clock ticking loudly, the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw the missiles and dismantle its sites. Reciprocally, the United States dismantled several obsolete air and missile bases in Turkey.
As laudable as was Kennedy's courage and iron resolve, the finale was not a clear-cut U.S. victory. Neither he nor subsequent presidents demanded that all Russian military assets be withdrawn from Cuba, as President Trump is now demanding for Venezuela.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter's Administration acknowledged that a Soviet brigade of about 10,000 men was garrisoned in Cuba. Incidentally, it was the Soviet Embassy, and not former U.S. leaders and intelligence officers, who notified the U.S. State Department of a "Soviet military advisory group" that had been in Cuba since 1962.
Kennedy's people, like subsequent administrations, had apparently forgotten about the threat. The issue of the Russians in the Western Hemisphere re-emerged with the growing activities of a brigade that was training Nicaraguan and Grenadan communist guerrillas who had come to power 1979.
On March 11, 1981, President Ronald Reagan evoked the principles, if not the name, of the Monroe Doctrine:
"On this side of the Atlantic we must stand together for the integrity of our hemisphere for the inviolability of its nations, ... and the right of all our citizens to be free from the provocations triggered from outside our sphere for malevolent purposes."
Reagan thus became determined to reverse a Leninist tide in Grenada, Nicaragua and the communist guerrillas in El Salvador and in other regions, such as Angola and Afghanistan.
After Reagan liberated Grenada in 1983, his tactic became not to invade Nicaragua, but instead to arm and support anti-communist guerrillas, later known as Contras, to fight the left-wing Sandinistas there. Reagan, apparently to persuade the Russians to leave, also approved sabotaging some strategic targets there.
In 1990, the Sandinistas lost free elections in Nicaragua. In December 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, largely as a result of Reagan's doctrine and military policies, combined with pressure from radical Russian reformers.
Over the years, however, Russian President Vladimir Putin, while rejecting Bolshevism, has reverted to backing tyrannical, anti-American regimes, seemingly for geopolitical and economic reasons. In Nicaragua, in tainted elections, the Sandinistas also came back to power and have stayed to this day. So have their 21st century "socialist" allies in Venezuela, led by the late Hugo Chávez and now by Maduro.
As Lincoln supported Juárez, the legitimate President of Mexico, Trump has been supporting the democratic and legitimate Venezuelan president, Juan Guaidó. Not only has Maduro become the puppet of extra-hemispheric powers, particularly Russia and China, but he and his allies in Cuba and Nicaragua clearly maintain security ties with Russia and support a tyrannical "socialism" at home. All three, in Ambassador Bolton's words, constitute a "Troika of Terror" as well as a "Troika of Poverty."
Russia's successful invasions of Georgia in 2008 and Crimea in 2014 appear simply to have whetted Putin's appetite. Now, partly because of enormous investments that Russia and China have made in Venezuela's oil and defense industries, both superpowers are trying to save the Maduro regime by flying in military personnel (as is Russia) and weaponry (from both Russia and China). On April 29th media reports surfaced of Russian air-defense specialists deployed to Venezuela, evidently "sent to ensure the nation's sophisticated S-300 surface-to-air missiles remain a credible deterrent to any U.S. military action..."
Moreover, reports have emerged that Russia recently requested permission from Malta "to use its airspace to fly military aircraft from Syria to Venezuela," and that "two Russian military planes also flew through the airspace of Greece and Cyprus from Syria en route to Venezuela on March 22 and 23."
What else should President Trump do in Venezuela now? Under no circumstances should the Russians be allowed to bring in more troops, planes or war materiel by sea or air. Trump should follow Kennedy's example with a "quarantine" around Venezuela.
In addition, as Ambassador Bolton has said, "all options are on the table."
At the same time, it is probably a good idea to keep an eye on the Ukraine, where Putin has been offering fast-tracked Russian passports, as he did prior to his invasions of Georgia's South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2008, and Crimea in 2014. It is also probably advisable for the US to help the Ukrainians reinforce their defenses there, especially around the city of Mariupol.
In addition, it might help to explain to the American people what is at stake for the Western Hemisphere in Venezuela -- like the earlier "Monroe Doctrine Societies" in the United States. Most Americans are possibly not aware that while most statues and busts of Lenin were torn down after the 1989 democratic revolutions in eastern Europe, Maduro had erected a bust of Lenin in Caracas at the 100-year anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution in 2017, and sent birthday wishes to Lenin on April 22.
Last month, President Trump announced that, "The movement for freedom in Venezuela reveals that the twilight hour of socialism has arrived in our hemisphere."
The American people and its "southern brothers" need to know that the Monroe Doctrine protects everyone in the hemisphere -- from their own tyrants as well. As the Marquis de Lafayette noted, the Monroe Doctrine is the "best little bit of paper that God ever permitted any man to give to the world."
A member of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, Dr Jiri Valenta is a senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in Israel. A former tenured professor at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, he testified at Henry Kissinger's Bi-partisan Commission on Central America in 1983. The author of Soviet Intervention in Czechoslovakia, 1968, Johns Hopkins, 1991, co-author of Conflict in Nicaragua, Allen and Unwin, 1987, and Grenada and Soviet/Cuban Policy: Internal Crisis and U.S./OECS Intervention, Westview Press, 1987.
© 2019 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.

IRGC General Abolfazl Shekarchi: We Will Squash America Under Our Feet, Squeeze Its Throat Until It Chokes; It Is Our Duty To Bring An End To Its Life
MEMRI/May 03/2019
https://www.memri.org/reports/irgc-general-abolfazl-shekarchi-we-will-squash-america-under-our-feet-squeeze-its-throat
IRGC General Abolfazl Shekarchi, the spokesman of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, said in an April 25, 2019 address that aired on Khorasan Jonoobi TV (Iran) that America and its "disgraceful government" have been party to all the murder, plunder, and bloodshed in the world. He described America as "hostile to humanity" and said that it is laughable when America presents itself as a champion of human rights. General Shekarchi called America the "mother" of Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Jabhat Al-Nusra, Boko Haram, and all the other terrorist groups in the world, and he said that it is Iran's mission and responsibility to choke America and save humanity. He added that Iran must act to destroy America in the next 40 years, and that anybody taking a different path will be considered a traitor of the Revolution. General Shekarchi delivered his address in Tabas in the Iranian desert, near the site of Operation Eagle Claw, the United States' botched attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran in 1980. The address was delivered on the 29th anniversary of the failed operation.
**To view the clip of General Abolfazl Shekarchi on MEMRI TV, click here or below.
irgc-general-abolfazl-shekarchi-spokesman-general-staff-iran-armed-forces-choke-america-mother-terrorism
"Animals Would Complain If We Compared [America] To Animals"
General Abolfazl Shekarchi: "Wherever murder, plunder, and bloodshed have taken place – and continue to take place – on Planet Earth, America has been party to it.
"[The U.S.] government is disgraceful. It is a country without a single spot of light on its record. It has set the world on fire. It isn't just its animosity towards the Islamic Republic of Iran in the past 40 years.
"I would compare [America] to wolves, but I fear that on Judgment Day, the wolves will complain. Animals would complain if we compared [America] to animals. This disgraceful government – this murderous government that is hostile to humanity – is viewing pure Islam today as an obstacle hindering its intention to ride humanity. They view the Islamic Revolution and the regime of the Islamic Republic as an obstacle."
"We Have Powerfully, Decisively, And Actively Proven That We Will Squash America Under Our Feet"
"It is in character for the criminal and terrorist-sponsoring America to spread murder, bloodshed, killings, and insecurity across the planet. How wretched, ridiculous, and laughable it is when America presents itself as a champion of human rights! Humanity is being squashed under America's boots. U.S. history has squashed humanity under the boots of America. Human rights? What human rights? It is extremely ridiculous that the impure and evil American president presents Iran in the world as the axis of evil and the IRGC as a terrorist group.
"America is the mother of Al-Qaeda, the mother of ISIS, the mother of Jabhat Al-Nusra, the mother of Boko Haram, and the mother of all the terrorist groups in the world. It is only natural. What can we expect from such an enemy? Reconciliation?
"Can we expect friendship? Can we expect compromise? This is why we courageously say, in obedience of the late imam [Khomeini], and out of respect to our Leader: We have powerfully, decisively, and actively proven that we will squash America under our feet."
"Our Front With America Is Never Defensive, When We Talk About A Defensive Force – It Is For The Rest Of The World's Countries"
Man in Crowd: "Say: 'Allah Akbar!'"
Crowd: "Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! Khameini is the leader! Death to those who oppose the Rule of the Jurisprudent! Salutations to the warriors of Islam! Peace be upon the martyrs! Death to America! Death to England! Death to the hypocrites and infidels! Death to Israel!"
General Abolfazl Shekarchi: "Our front with America is never defensive. When we talk about a defensive force – it is for the rest of the world's countries. First of all, we do not recognize Israel as a state. This is a fake, occupying regime, which we view as the heart of America. In facing America, we are not talking defense.
"We will squeeze America's throat until it chokes, so that humanity is saved from America. This is our mission. This is our responsibility."
"In The Next 40 Years, We Must Act Quickly And Powerfully To Bring An End To America's Life"
"In the next 40 years, we must act quickly and powerfully to bring an end to America's life. Anyone taking a different path will be a traitor to the Revolution."

Iran and a Tale of Two Losers
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/May 03/19
Last November Westminster University in London organized a seminar with an enticing theme: Is a Plan B for Iran possible?
In its simplest form the main argument was that 40 years after the Islamic Revolution, the clergy-led ruling elite was still behaving like a sect rather than a state, thus preventing Iran from behaving like a normal nation with all its merits and defects.
In the paper that I presented, I drew on the teachings of several Iranian classical historians, most notably Abul-Fazl Beyhaqi (died in 1077 AD). Tracing the course through which the Ghaznavids, a Turkic warrior tribe, seized power in Iran and established a dynasty, Beyhaqi identifies five stages.
The first stage is that of “conquest” when Saboktakin, the warrior-chief seizes a chunk of territory to use as a base for future episodes in his saga. In the next stage, known as “domination,” the conqueror tribe establishes itself as the predominant force within the territory seized.
The next stage is known as “control” and sees the new ruling elite set the agenda throughout the region seized, and preventing putative rivals from challenging it on major issues. The fourth stage is that of “governance”. In it, the power provided - thanks to “control” - is used to arbitrate among diverse, often conflicting, interest and agendas in a way that ensures a minimum of law and order and the elimination of the threat of civil war.
The fifth and highest stage is that of “statehood” which becomes possible when society is used to the rule of law regardless of the quality of the law in force, and respects the primacy of state institutions as representations of the public will and interest.
Thus, the creation of a “state” is regarded as the highest goal of politics and the sine qua non of what one might call civilization.
In the 19th century, some Muslim intellectuals, including many with a clerical background, identified the failure of the Islamic “ummah” in developing the structures of statehood as the principal cause of Islam’s decline and eventual domination by Western Powers.
Ruling elites in the Islamic world, including even empire-builders such as the Ottomans and Safavids, progressed through the first four stages described above but never reached the fifth stage, that is to say, the creation of a proper “state” based on the rule of law.
The same is true of most of the present-day Islamic nations. In many cases, what they offer is a caricature of statehood in the sense intended by Muslim classical historians. In some instances, such as the Taliban “emirate” in Afghanistan, the Boko-Haram “caliphate” in West Africa and the ISIS in Iraq and Syria - the process stopped at the second (domination) or the third (control) stages.
But, what about the ”imamate” created by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran?
By what may have been a coincidence it seems that the “Supreme Guide” of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have been reading some of the texts that I had been re-reading last winter. In what he terms “a guide for the new Islamic civilization”, published last March, he claims that the Khomeinist revolution has successfully completed the first four stages of conquering, dominating, controlling, and governing Iran, but has failed in the fifth stage which is the creation of a state. And, yet, he argues that without building genuine state structures he would be unable to realize his dream of creating “the new Islamic civilization” within the four-decades timeframe he has fixed.
In 40 years’ time, Khamenei may still be around to assess the success or failure of his project for mankind under his ideal state.
For my part, since I doubt that I would be around to interject an “I-told-you-so”, the best is to assert straightaway that, as far as creating proper state structures is concerned, the Khomeinist movement is unlikely to do any better than the Qarametah, the Thwarat al-Zanj (Revolution of the Blacks) and Hassan al-Sabah's Hashasheen not to mention Mullah Abdul-Rahman in Somaliland, Akhund Abdul-Ghafour in Swat, Muhammad Ahmad in the Aba island, and more recently, Mullah Omar and Abubakr al-Baghdadi.
Islamic history is full of instances in which a tribe, a group or even a charismatic leader, used religion as a rallying point in the service of a political project.
But those who succeeded beyond the first two or three stages did so by putting religion back in its proper place, and move to the later stages of progress towards statehood. In some cases, that “putting back in its proper place” took the form of massacres of former allies. In other cases, the goal was achieved through reform, redefinition of roles and, as often in Islamic history, outright bribery.
In the best cases, there was a realization on all sides that confusing the political space with the religious one was bad for both. This does not mean adopting “secularism”, whatever that means or, worse still, making religion subservient to the state as was the case in Kemalist Turkey.
In Iran of the 1930s, a group of intellectuals tried to guide the nation towards modern statehood not by shutting religion in a ghetto but by persuading and, when needed, coercing it, to know its place and play its proper, necessarily circumcised, role in society by abandoning totalitarian ambitions. The scheme worked by allowing Islam to prosper in its proper sphere while Iran recast itself as a modern nation-state.
Now, however, four decades after the Khomeinists seized power, Iran cannot behave like a nation-state while Islam, in its Iranian Shi’ite version, has suffered a historic setback.
Khamenei admits failure in creating a genuine state. And, Grand Ayatollah Abdullah Jawadi Amoli, one of Iran’s highest-ranking Shi’ite clerics, signals an equally big failure on the religious front.
“In the past 40 years, The Seminary in Qom has not produced a single book that could be regarded as a reference,” he told a conference of senior seminarians last month.
“If they take the Najaf Seminary from us, we won’t have anything left.”
Khomeinism has produced two losers: Iran as a nation and Shiism as a faith.

Is the US about to fatally wound the Muslim Brotherhood?
Dr. Abdellatif El-Menawy/Arab News/May 03/19
Does Washington’s reported plan to label the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization mean the imminent end of the group? Everyone is talking about this, with the allies of the Brotherhood — Iran and Turkey mostly — attacking the White House over this move, which was set in motion by US President Donald Trump a few days ago.
The Muslim Brotherhood, already designated as a terrorist organization in many Arab countries, is emerging once again as the hottest topic. Not as a victim, as it insists on presenting itself to the world, but as the party responsible for the chaos, tension and proliferation of terrorism in the Arab world. The Muslim Brotherhood is once again grabbing headlines, not behind the curtain of its premier ally and supporter in the region, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but by attacking the White House, which will apparently soon confirm its decision.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the White House was pushing to issue an order that would designate the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), after a White House visit on April 9 by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. It also reported that El-Sisi, in a private meeting without reporters and photographers, urged Trump to take that step. The US president apparently responded affirmatively, saying this “would make sense.”
The US newspaper also said National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo supported the idea, and that such a designation would have consequences on America’s relationships with the likes of Turkey and Qatar.
In a statement, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said: “The president has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern, and this designation is working its way through the internal process.”
If the decision is implemented, it really could mean the end of the Brotherhood, as it will be followed by a travel ban on all individuals involved with the group and economic restrictions on its members, along with the deportation of immigrants who have worked for the organization.
This step — if implemented — directly opposes the direction of the US during Barack Obama’s presidency. The White House then was not only in contact with the group, but helped it come to power, mainly in Egypt and Algeria, amid the changes in the Arab world in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring.
US action will undoubtedly lead to the Muslim Brotherhood’s resources drying up, a limiting of its illegal activity and the beginning of the end.
Some have described the anticipated US move as the “decision of the century,” much like its planned “deal of the century” to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict. Trump, since the beginning of his presidential campaign, expressed disgust at “those who espouse hatred and evil.” It is hoped that the American sparring, whether explicit or implicit, over the Muslim Brotherhood and Muslims in general, will not hamper the decision, which has been long-awaited by many Arab governments, including those that have suffered at the hands of the terrorist Brotherhood.
The significant thing is that this step is being discussed after discord between the Brotherhood’s younger members and older leadership, as well as between its domestic and foreign leaderships, along with many accusations of financial corruption inside the organization. It also comes after many Arab states made it clear that the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood on their lands constituted a heavy burden.
Once the Muslim Brotherhood is designated as an FTO, as expected, this will undoubtedly lead to the group’s resources drying up, a limiting of its illegal activity and the beginning of the end of this illicit organization.
The US decision might have its basis in the fact that, some years ago, Washington was seeking to establish Islamic governments in the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood. However, certain events have changed the US position.
The first was the Brotherhood’s failure in Syria and its reporting of lies and false information to the US regarding the situation there. Washington later discovered that the group’s misleading reports had dragged it somewhere it did not wish to go.
The second problem was the Brotherhood’s submission of the people it governed and its control over them, as well as using violence to achieve its objectives, which soon polluted its reputation and unveiled its true image to the world. Moreover, the Muslim Brotherhood created sharp divisions among Arab societies and sponsored extremists seeking to destroy countries and civilizations. If allowed to continue, they would cause the entire region to drown in violence and blood. This is not something the US wants, for its goal is to preserve and protect its interests.
Another very important reason is the White House’s strong desire to suffocate Iran, mainly to eliminate the radical governments in the region that are directly threatening US interests. This reason probably comes first for the Americans.
Trump is also likely seeking to increase his chances of winning the next election. The president knows his people well and the election is months away. The decision to include the Muslim Brotherhood on the list of terrorist organizations might increase his chances, as Americans totally and explicitly reject the terrorist acts occurring around the world that are caused by members of armed Islamist organizations.
Regardless of the reasons, the American decision is important. It might not only reshape the court of political interests, but also the whole map of alliances and understandings. The US decision will also have a direct impact on declaring the end of an organization that emerged in Egypt in the first half of the 20th century. But the main challenge will be in cutting off the negative consequences that might affect normal citizens, whose only guilt is their political preference.
*Dr. Abdellatif El-Menawy is a critically acclaimed multimedia journalist, writer and columnist who has covered war zones and conflicts worldwide. Twitter: @ALMenawy