English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For May 10/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.may10.20.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs
John 21/15-25: “When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.’ (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!’ So the rumour spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?’ This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 09-10/2020
Mother’s Day in Canada: All people have hearts, but Mothers’ Hearts brings all hearts together/Elias Bejjani/May 10/2020
Lebanon records 13 new COVID-19 cases
Hariri Hospital: 3 new infections today, no critical cases
13 New Coronavirus Cases in Lebanon Raise Tally to 809
Health Minister: If the results remain high, I will ask for a decision to close the country 48 hours
Lebanese Army: Prevention is required, so as not to fall into a second wave of the virus
Coronavirus: The US will not fund Lebanon's Hezbollah-run hospitals, says official
As crises hit, the American University of Beirut faces fight of its life
Report: Lebanon’s Subsidized Diesel Oil, Flour Smuggled to Syria
Report: Speaker Urges 'Instant' Remedies for Crisis
Justice Minister: I have no allegiance to any political team, and I work according to my conscience and convictions
Hasbani: Let us resort to the government’s minutes, lest Abi Khalil believes his misleading information
Consumer Protection teams close down warehouse in Aley region
Moussa denounces torture of any detainee, says Human Rights Committee will convene next week
Future Movement: The calls to gather in Tariq Jdideh to head to Center House are unfounded
Naameh meets with governors, stresses on municipalities’ role in protecting consumers
Mikati's Press Office denies rumors about his appearance before the judiciary
Shreim: Resorting to IMF is inevitable, our goal is to fight corruption
Nasrallah to address the Lebanese next Wednesday
Lebanese Repatriation Committee evaluates second phase, reviews preparations for third phase
Lebanon rooftops bustle as virus shifts life upstairs
Time For 'Le Petit Liban'/Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI/May 08/2020
Lebanon's Crises Offer a Chance to Address Hezbollah Violations in the South/Assaf Orion/The Washington Institute/May 09/2020
Out of sight, out of mind: Lebanon expands landfill to clear garbage from streets/Emily Lewis/Al Arabiya English/May 09/ 2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 09-10/2020
Pompeo visits Israel on the day its new government is sworn in
Iranian influence in Iraq under threat due to economic crisis, political shifts
Who is Iraq’s new Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi?
Iran Reports More than 1,500 New Virus Cases
Eye for an eye: Iran sentences woman to blinding as punishment
Putin Calls for 'Invincible' Unity as Russians Mark Victory Day on Lockdown
U.S. Prevents Security Council Vote on Pandemic Resolution
Anti-Viral Drug Trio Found to Shorten COVID-19 Illness in Mild Cases
Turkey sets sights on Yemen, raising regional security concerns
King Salman discusses with Trump defence ties and need for oil market stability
Signs of resurgence of ISIS in Syria and Iraq but some experts are cautious
Iran 'attempted' cyber-attack on Israel's water supplies: US officials
Belarus WW2 parade defies pandemic and upstages Putin

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 09-10/2020
The Swedish "Model" for Battling the Coronavirus/Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/May 09/2020
The coronavirus pandemic reopens the debate about the ethics of experimentation/Omar Al-Ubaydli/Al Arabiya/May 09/2020
One man’s lifelong fight against racism and injustice/Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/May 09/2020
Does Boris really want a Brexit deal?/Andrew Hammond/Arab News/May 09/2020
To deal with the pandemic fallout, remember 1945/Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/May 09/2020
Why now is the time for a new Middle East alliance/Luke Coffey/Arab News/May 09/2020
Putin may be rethinking why Russia is in Syria/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/May 09/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 09-10/2020
Mother’s Day in Canada: All people have hearts, but Mothers’ Hearts brings all hearts together
Elias Bejjani/May 10/2020
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/86018/86018/
Canada celebrates today, on the tenth of May 2020, “The Mother’s Day” and honors with love and gratitude all her sacrifices, devotion, and commitments.
This blessed ritual of genuine honoring is certainly a faith obligation and a human, moral, ethical, religious and ecclesiastical duty for each and every believer who fears God and the day of his last reckoning, and at the same adheres in his/her pattern of lifestyle, and practices to the Ten Biblical Commandments in which its fifth one verbatim reads: “Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you”.
Honor means to give high regard, respect and esteem to; to bring respect or credit to; an outward token, sign or act that manifests high regard.
Respect means to have deferential regard for, to treat with propriety and consideration; to regard as inviolable.
Meanwhile, this honor and respect, though primarily intended by God to be given to parents, are not limited to them. In spirit it includes civil, religious and educational authorities as well.
God want us to honor our parents because the family is the basic building block or unit of society, thus the stability of the community depends on the stability of the families that comprise it.
“In God’s eyes—and in a small child’s—a parent stands in the place of God Himself. In the physical sense, parents are the child’s creator, provider, lawgiver, teacher, and protector—and sometimes even savior. A child’s response to this relationship will greatly determine his later response to larger relationships in society. And it is ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN to affect his relationship with God. Thus, since parents represent God, it becomes their obligation to live lives worthy of that honor. Ultimately, the responsibility for keeping this commandment falls on the child, but it begins with the parents through child training and example. If parents neither provide the correct example nor teach the correct way, they can hardly expect their children to honor them” (John W. Ritenbaugh).
Mothers and fathers, through the bond of sacred marriage, secure the continuity of humanity. This holy and blessed institution, the institution of the family “Marriage” is the cornerstone of every society. Without it, societies disintegrate, lose values ​​and morals after which destructive chaos and all forms of loss of faith and immorality prevail.
In one of our proverbs back home in Lebanon we say: The Good mother is like a magnet that pulls together her family members and holds them under her wings. Practically this means that with her love, warm and big heart, devotion, passionate, role model, hard work and sacrifices she brings her family members together, embraces them, nurtures them, and always works to cultivate in them all values of love, forgiveness, giving, humility, tolerance, and faith.
We congratulate the mothers on their annual day, and pray for the eternal rest of the souls of the mothers who have passed away.
We ask our mothers who are in heaven dwelling in God’s mentions to pray for us and for peace in the world, especially during this time of world wide state of loss, confusion, despair and fear, while facing the deadly threats of Corona Virus plague.
A Special Prayer For The Mothers
Dear God,
Thank you for your endless provisions of grace and mercy. We come to you today to lift up every woman who answers to the name of “mom.” We ask that you supply each one with the strength they need for those difficult days. Give them wisdom to know when to encourage and when to correct their children. Supply them with an extra dose of patience. Remind them that children are a heritage and a reward from You (Psalm 127:3 CSB), and shower them with special moments they can cherish. Lord, we also ask that you draw them close to you daily. Remind them of their worth in Your eyes – that they, too, are cherished children of a loving Father. We pray for contentment in this very special calling. May every mom realize that this is a mission from You, one that brings truly great rewards in the end. quoted from the Batchelor Brothers page)
Amen

Lebanon records 13 new COVID-19 cases
Annahar/May 09/2020
1,302 PCR tests have been conducted in the past 24 hours.Virus Outbreak Lebanon. A Lebanese Red Cross ambulance leaves the emergency building of the government-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital on March 11.
BEIRUT: The Ministry of Public Health announced Friday that 13 new coronavirus cases were recorded in Lebanon, increasing the tally of registered cases since February to 809. The daily report specified that out of the 13 new recorded cases, 11 were from the locals, and only two were from the Lebanese expats. 1,302 PCR tests have been conducted in the past 24 hours.

Hariri Hospital: 3 new infections today, no critical cases
NNA/May 09/2020
In its daily report on the latest developments of the novel Coronavirus, the Rafic Hariri University Hospital announced on Saturday that out of 230 laboratory tests conducted today, three new Covid-19 cases have been recorded, while the remaining tests came out negative. It added that the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases infected with the virus that are currently present in the Hospital's isolation area has reached 16 cases, noting that it has admitted 13 cases suspected to be infected with the virus, who were transferred from other hospitals. Meanwhile, the hospital report also indicated that no new recoveries have been reported today, thus the total number of full recoveries to-date remains at 160. It added that three patients were released from the hospital today to be home quarantined after their attending physician confirmed their clinical recovery. “All those infected with the virus are receiving the necessary care in the isolation unit, and their condition is stable," the hospital report added. In conclusion, the Hariri Hospital indicated that more information on the number of infected cases on all Lebanese territories can be found in the daily report issued by the Ministry of Public Health.

13 New Coronavirus Cases in Lebanon Raise Tally to 809
Naharnet/May 09/2020
The tally of individuals retracting the COVID-19 coronavirus in Lebanon rose to 809, with 13 new cases recorded on Saturday. The Health Ministry said 13 individuals tested positive for the virus. The death toll in Lebanon from the virus 26 on Friday. According to official data published on the state-run National News Agency, 234 recoveries were recorded since February 21, when health ministry confirmed the country's first case of novel coronavirus.

Health Minister: If the results remain high, I will ask for a decision to close the country 48 hours
NNA/May 09/2020
Minister of Public Health, Hamad Hassan, disclosed Saturday that if the Covid-19 positive results remain high, he intends to ask for a decision to close the country for 48 hours. “At the Corona level, the number of infected persons jumped today to 11 cases, and I had stated that if the number and results remain high, I will ask the Prime Minister and the government to take a decision to close the country 48 hours to complete or carry on examinations in various Lebanese regions,” he said. “With the easing of public mobilization procedures, the situation requires imposing the mask which is mandatory and a major deterrent against the widespread of the epidemic, and thus ensuring safety among citizens. This is required based on the recommendations that the Ministry of Public Health had called for,” the Minister underlined. Hassan’s words came as he visited the Masnaa border area today, after the Chinese Embassy provided a thermal device to facilitate the work of medical teams at this point in terms of measuring the temperature of passengers. Hassan thanked China for this gift, referring to the advantages of this device in terms of health and security, as it is "equipped with a bell that rings when recording a rise in temperature or in the presence of metal, so it helps to control the movement of travelers, and this is not the first initiative from the State of China and it comes within the close cooperation between the two countries.”The Health Minister hoped that Chinese Ambassador Wang Kejian will provide the Ministry with another device to be used at Al-Abboudieh border-crossing to facilitate work there, and also with equipment for the marine centers and others.

Lebanese Army: Prevention is required, so as not to fall into a second wave of the virus
NNA/May 09/2020 
The Lebanese Army Command urged citizens through its Twitter account to adhere to the Covid-19 preventive measures, saying: "In order to avoid falling into a second wave of the Coronavirus, prevention is required and social distancing is necessary. Through our awareness we can cross over to safety shore. Together we face Corona; with our solidarity we succeed."

Coronavirus: The US will not fund Lebanon's Hezbollah-run hospitals, says official
Jacob Boswall, Al Arabiya English/May 09/2020
The US is not providing financial support to Lebanon’s Health Ministry because it is “run by Hezbollah,” US assistant secretary of Near Eastern affairs told a Lebanese TV channel on Thursday. “Hezbollah is an enormous factor in this government and it is a Hezbollah-backed government … We are not giving money to the Lebanese Ministry of Health because it is run by Hezbollah,” David Schenker told LBCI on Thursday. Critics have branded Lebanon’s current government led by Prime Minister Hassan Diab as a “Hezbollah government,” with ministerial portfolios overwhelmingly controlled by Hezbollah and its allies. One such ministry is the Ministry of Health, headed by Hamad Hassan. Earlier this month, the ministry received the first shipment of medical aid from Iran including 15 ventilators, 5,000 PCR tests and personal protective equipment, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
Hezbollah has sought to capitalize on the state’s limited capacity to deal with the coronavirus outbreak by showing off its own Islamic Health Association workers and medical units, ambulances and Hezbollah-run hospitals. The display has received largely positive media coverage in Western media.
Schenker continued that the US is working with other institutions to help Lebanon fight coronavirus including by “delivering humanitarian and food aid to suffering Lebanese and refugees.”But despite Schenker’s claim that the US “supports the Lebanese people,” Lebanese researcher and journalist Nizar Hassan described the statesperon’s remarks as “frustrating.”“What is really to accomplish from this decision? It is simply a punishment against the Lebanese people for the political affiliation of their health minister,” Hassan told Arabiya English. “[Schenker’s remarks] show that the US administration is not clear in its stance on the Lebanese government, and is not willing to reconsider its arrogant attitude towards the country,” Hassan said.

As crises hit, the American University of Beirut faces fight of its life
Reuters, Beirut/May 09/2020
One of the Arab world’s oldest universities faces its worst crisis since its foundation, with huge losses, staff cuts and an uphill battle to stay afloat as Lebanon’s economic meltdown and the coronavirus pandemic hit revenues. The American University of Beirut has graduated leading figures in medicine, law, science and art as well as political leaders and scholars over the decades including prime ministers. It has weathered many crises, including Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, when a number of staff including two presidents were killed or abducted and a bomb destroyed one of its main halls.
But Lebanon’s problems now may be the biggest threat yet to the institution founded in 1866 by Protestant missionaries. It ranks among the world’s top 200 universities and its collapse would deprive future generations in Lebanon and the wider region of internationally recognized higher education.
“This is one of the biggest challenges in AUB’s history. The country is crashing catastrophically,” AUB President Fadlo Khuri told Reuters in an interview.
With inflation, unemployment and poverty high, many families have little means to cover food and rent, let alone tens of thousands of dollars in tuition fees. The heavily indebted state, which defaulted on its foreign currency debt in March, owes AUB’s medical center – which attracts patients from across the Middle East and Central Asia –more than $150 million in arrears, Khuri said. Government officials have ruled out a haircut on the bank deposits of non-profit universities such as AUB, but Khuri still fears his institution may take a hit if a state rescue plan puts part of the burden on large depositors and includes colleges.
Along with other universities, his school has lobbied the state and, he said, received assurances from the president and finance minister that any such measures would not impact them. But he remains worried, with government plans for plugging vast holes in the national finances not yet finalized.
Government officials could not be reached for comment. “We have all this money they (the state) still owe us for the hospital so it’s very hard to rely on well-intentioned people who may or may not have the ability (to deliver),” he said. The university and hospital expect real losses of $30 million this year after bleeding revenues. For 2020-2021 alone, it projects a 60 percent revenue reduction from this year, down to $249 million.
Fighting to survive
The stark revenue forecasts rely on an “optimistic assumption” that the Lebanese pound will stabilize at 3,000 to the dollar, but Khuri has said they do not take into account a possible haircut imposed on AUB’s bank deposits in Lebanon. Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni has said there will be a shift to a flexible exchange rate in the “coming period.”Khuri said AUB will have to set its own rate in the meantime, taking into account people who have said they can pay in dollars to help cushion the impact of the pound’s collapse on poorer students. AUB has already lost donations and scholarships it was expecting before the pandemic. On top of benefit and wage cuts, it is studying options such as closing whole departments and halting spending. In an email to students and families, Khuri promised to work to protect their livelihoods and to raise money via an emergency fund. “But there is no question that sacrifices must and will take place at every level,” Khuri wrote. “We must fundamentally change in order to survive ... Saving AUB must be our only priority. And save it we will.”

Report: Lebanon’s Subsidized Diesel Oil, Flour Smuggled to Syria
Naharnet/May 09/2020
Smuggling operations through illegal crossings to neighboring Syria continue to run diesel oil and flour from Lebanon to Syria-- two substances subsidized by the Lebanese state beside medicines-- which will further deplete the state’s ability to provide basic commodities to the local market, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported on Saturday. Smuggled diesel oil to Syria is estimated at 400 million dollars annually, according to the daily. Officials took a move after a televised report broadcast on MTV station this week saying Lebanon’s subsidized wheat and diesel oil were being smuggled to Syria, and illegal crossings were crowding with convoys and trucks crossing the two sides of the border. “This report clearly shows the negative impact those illegal crossings have on Lebanon’s finances in general,” Samir Geagea, the head of the Lebanese Forces party said. “This is a notice to related judicial authorities, the public prosecution, ministers of finance, energy and economy. They must take action to save losses worth hundreds of millions of dollars supposed for the treasury and Lebanese citizens,” he added. In compliance with the decision to support basic commodities, the Central Bank of Lebanon provides 85% of the cash needed by the Lebanese market to import diesel and flour, in light of a monetary crisis and shortage of hard currency. But gas stations are having a shortage of oil derivatives, due to “smuggling at least two million liters of subsidized material daily to Syria via Hermel and the Bekaa border,” according to the Central News Agency. The price of 20 liters of diesel oil in Lebanon is LBP9,100 ($6), while in Syria it equals LBP22,000 ($15 dollars according to the official exchange rate). Democratic Gathering bloc MP Hadi el-Hassan of the Progressive Socialist Party’s said: “While the central bank holds on to dollars restricting them for citizens in order to buy basic materials like wheat, oil and medicines, we see smuggling gangs draining us by smuggling flour and diesel across the loose borders in both directions."“We have always demanded an end for smuggling through illegal crossings protected by illegal weapons," said al-Mustaqabl MP Mohammed Hajjar said in a tweet. "It's inflicting annual losses in billions of dollars, and stealing the reserves of the Central Bank," added Hajjar.

Report: Speaker Urges 'Instant' Remedies for Crisis
Naharnet/May 09/2020
Speaker Nabih Berri considers the situation in Lebanon requires “quick and instant” measures to stop the economic deterioration, al-Joumhouria quoted Ain el-Tineh sources on Saturday. The Speaker sees the situation “can no longer tolerate any delay, rather it is strictly necessary and urgent to go to prompt and immediate remedies,” the sources said. “Tough measures must be taken to protect the national currency and the bank deposits of Lebanese,” he said, amid a financial and monetary crisis that saw restrictions placed on bank withdrawals. On the International Monetary Fund’s assistance for Lebanon, the sources raised hopes that negotiations lead to results as “envisioned” by Lebanon, while rejecting “dictated conditions affecting Lebanon’s sovereignty and decisions”.

Justice Minister: I have no allegiance to any political team, and I work according to my conscience and convictions
NNA/May 09/2020
Minister of Justice, Marie-Claude Najm, confirmed Saturday that she has no belonging to any political team, and that her work is based on her conscience and convictions. Speaking in an interview with "Lebanon TV" Channel earlier today, Najm disclosed that her participation in the popular uprising, like many, came within the framework of demanding the dignity of the Lebanese, adding that October 17 was not the start of this participation, as she took part in previous movements as well, which expressed the Lebanese demands for putting an end to wrong practices and policies. "People rose up today because there is an economic and social situation that can no longer be tolerated, and because the policy of accountability is not present, and our aim today is to activate these two principles," Najm corroborated. She added: "People rose up for the sake of human dignity, and because they believe that the self-respecting state must be a protector and a custodian of all." "From my responsible position as Minister of Justice, I relay the pain of the people and the communication is established with all political parties, and with the people who participated in the uprising and are still part of it," Najm went on. “All the demands of the uprising people are legitimate and correct, and we ought to join hands with every person working today for Lebanon’s sake…In the history of all countries profound crises have occurred, and we may fall not only in an economic, financial or social crisis, but in a moral crisis and moral collapse, so we have to put all our differences aside, and all the little political calculations as well, and we ask all the political parties to work in this way…We are in one ship, either we drown together or we survive together. We must create a country in which our children can live in dignity and comfort," the Minister underlined. "We are working day and night, starting with the Prime Minister and the remaining Cabinet Ministers, because this is our duty, and we are doing the impossible so that we can ensure the country’s rise and get it out of the current crisis. The journey is difficult and what matters for us is that we place the country on the right track," Najm maintained. Over the steps undertaken by the judiciary, the Justice Minister stressed that "there is no cover for anyone and it is necessary for all files to move properly, and my hope is that the judiciary will be able to activate them,” pledging that “if there is any political interference to block a particular file, I will be the first to address this obstruction.”
Referring to the judicial appointments’ issue, Minister Najm explained that her position on this matter stems from her convictions of the independence of the judicial authority. “What concerns me in the issue of the judiciary is to have the appropriate, competent, independent and impartial judge in the right place, and this is what matters to the citizen.” On combating corruption, Najm emphasized that “we must all participate in the fight against corruption, and we ought not to forget, as citizens, that we must combat the corruption that we have participated in, and to stop tax evasion, false statements, and bribery.”
Asked about contacting the European Union, Najm said: "Like any other side, the Union can provide support on the issue of fighting corruption, especially in the situation we are going through. We need help from abroad, and I consider it the duty of the Lebanese government to devise a business strategy and decide what must be done, and no one else…It is our duty to set policies from our side, and then the support of the European Union in the area of fighting corruption or other projects would come…It is the duty of the Lebanese government to devise a strategy for action and decide what must be done, and no one else.”Touching on the people’s protests in the streets, Najm said: “Our position is clear, freedom of expression and protest is constitutional and fundamental, and it is the government’s obligation to protect this right and the duty of the security forces to protect demonstrators…People are expressing their pain and the injustice they faced, and I feel with everyone suffering.”However, Najm questioned herein about the actual benefit of attacking the security forces and causing injuries in their ranks? Accordingly, she called on the demonstrators to avoid riots and maintain their peaceful expression and the civilized facet of their uprising. “The security forces are carrying out their duties; and it is necessary that there be respect for the right of defense of the people who are detained,” Najm underlined.

Hasbani: Let us resort to the government’s minutes, lest Abi Khalil believes his misleading information
NNA/May 09/2020
Former Deputy Prime Minister Ghassan Hasbani said Saturday via his Twitter account: “In order for former minister, Deputy Cesar Abi Khalil, not to mislead himself and some would believe him, let us review the minutes of the government’s sessions in 2017 and 2018, when we asked him for a plan to stop the waste expenditure and we approved it, but he ignored its provisions and remained adamant on refusing to resort to the tender department in regard to the point on temporary energy (ships).”In a follow-up tweet, Hasbani said: “Among the points that the Council of Ministers approved and which Abi Khalil did not implement are: i) Contracting with a consultant to develop a book of conditions for permanent laboratories (he was focusing on the ships); ii) Repairing the network connections and adapters to reduce waste; and 7 additional points that no one objected to and which were not implemented, so they later re-appeared in the plan of Minister Nada Al-Boustani in the year 2019.”

Consumer Protection teams close down warehouse in Aley region
NNA/May 09/2020 
Under the directives of Minister of Economy and Trade Raoul Naameh, the Consumer Protection Directorate teams have issued 105 violation records this week, mostly due to high consumer prices and undeclared prices.
In this framework, the Consumer Protection teams raided a warehouse in Aley region on Saturday, where they found brand-imitated detergents made of invalid and non-conforming materials.Accordingly, the goods were seized and the warehouse was closed with red wax, with the support of a State Security Forces unit.

Moussa denounces torture of any detainee, says Human Rights Committee will convene next week
NNA /May 09/2020
Head of the Human Rights Committee, MP Michel Moussa, condemned "any undermining act against freedom of opinion and any physical torture that affects any detainee."In an issued statement today, Moussa said: “In wake of rising complaints and what is being reported in the media about torture acts affecting some of the detainees, we stress on the necessity of adhering to the laws in force, especially the anti-torture acts that Lebanon pledged to abide by in the Agreement to Prevent Torture that has been translated into national legislation, the implementation of which must be respected.”
Moussa reiterated herein the need to take urgent measures to activate the role of the National Human Rights Commission, which includes the Committee against Torture, which was approved by the House of Parliament and named by the Council of Ministers, so that it can begin to carry out its duties.
“Our recent contacts with the relevant ministries have prepared for holding a session by the Human Rights Parliamentary Committee next week, so as to clarify the circumstances and handle the issues at stake,” he concluded.

Future Movement: The calls to gather in Tariq Jdideh to head to Center House are unfounded
NNA/May 09/2020
The Future Movement categorically denied, in an issued statement today, the calls circulated by social networking sites to gather in the municipal stadium in the area of Tariq Jdideh, in order to head to Center House to renew the pledge of allegiance to former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
The Movement affirmed that any call for such gathering or activity is unfounded, adding that the support and devotion to former PM Hariri does not require any kind of popular testing. The statement concluded by stressing that Hariri appreciates the sincere invitations expressed by the loyal public in Beirut and other regions, while warning against those trying to fish in troubled waters.

Naameh meets with governors, stresses on municipalities’ role in protecting consumers
NNA/May 09/2020
Minister of Economy and Trade, Raoul Naameh, held a meeting with various governors in his office at the Ministry this morning, in the presence of the Ministry’s Acting Director General Mousa Karim, and the Director of Consumer Protection Tarek Younis. Naameh emphasized "the importance of cooperation between the Ministries of Economy & Trade and Interior and Municipalities, in training staff from each municipality to intensify monitoring efforts and support the Consumer Protection Directorate in all Lebanese provinces and towns.” This step is one of the measures he proposed during the cabinet session last Thursday, to intensify monitory control. During the meeting, a mechanism and plan were agreed upon to start training the municipal police and units, to coordinate with the Consumer Protection Directorate in this respect. Discussions also touched on the municipalities’ powers and capabilities with regards to control and the prevention of monopoly and fraud.

Mikati's Press Office denies rumors about his appearance before the judiciary
NNA/May 09/2020
The Press Office of former Prime Minister Najib Mikati categorically denied in a statement today, Saturday, that he will stand before the judiciary upcoming Thursday. "The circulated news on some websites and social media, on the appearance of former PM Mikati before the judiciary next Thursday, is totally fabricated, fake, and inaccurate, "the statement said.

Shreim: Resorting to IMF is inevitable, our goal is to fight corruption
NNA/May 09/2020
Minister of Displacement, Ghada Shreim, confirmed in an interview with “Sawt El Mada” Radio Station on Saturday, that "the government’s economic plan is comprehensive and addresses all the sufferings that Lebanon is going through and the various dossiers at stake,” adding that “this is an essential step to go in the direction of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund."“Lebanon cannot borrow more money that would increase its public debt, but resorting to the IMF is inevitable, and the important thing is that it is known where this money will be spent," Shreim asserted. “The government is taking advanced steps, and the current arrests and combating of corruption we are witnessing indicate the seriousness in dealing with the crisis, and we are sure that we will reach a positive outcome," she corroborated. On the issue of the displaced, Shreim said: "The international community has to carry out its duties, and there is a plan that the government is studying in this context. Lebanon can no longer bear today the burdens it has shouldered thus far in this regard, especially in light of the difficult economic crisis." She continued to point to the many files submitted to the judiciary by the Displacement Ministry, urging judges to act speedily in this respect. “There are judges who do everything necessary, while others we need to appeal to in order to take action, so it is not possible to rely on a judge or two," Shreim underlined. She concluded by stressing that the first and foremost goal of the government is to choose the best in every sect, and to fight corruption regardless of the sect of the corrupt.

Nasrallah to address the Lebanese next Wednesday
NNA/May 09/2020
Hezbollah Secretary-General, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, is expected to speak to the Lebanese in a televised speech via Al-Manar TV at 5:00 p.m. upcoming Wednesday, on the occasion of the anniversary of Hezbollah leader, Martyr Mustafa Badreddine-Zulfiqar.

Lebanese Repatriation Committee evaluates second phase, reviews preparations for third phase
NNA/May 09/2020
Prime Minister Hassan Diab, on Saturday, chaired the meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for the repatriation of the Lebanese, in the presence of Ministers of Defense Zeina Akar, Interior Mohamed Fehmi, Public Health Hamad Hassan, Information Manal Abdel Samad, and Social Affairs and Tourism Ramzi Moucharafieh, as well as the Secretary General of the Council of Ministers Mahmoud Makkieh, the Secretary General of the Higher Defense Council, Major-General Mahmoud Al-Asmar, PM’s Advisor for Health Affairs Petra Khoury, Political Affairs Chief at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ghadi Khoury, MEA Chairman Mohammad Al-Hout, and Head of Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport Fadi El-Hassan.Attendees evaluated the second phase of repatriation and discussed all needed preparations for the third phase, which is scheduled to start in mid-May. [Premiership Press Office]

Lebanon rooftops bustle as virus shifts life upstairs
The New Arab & agencies/May 09/2020
Usually the kingdom of water tanks and satellite dishes, Lebanon's rooftops have recently been graced by unlikely scenes of locked-down residents fleeing their flats.Deprived of rehearsal rooms or workshops by restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, or just needing some extra breathing space, many people have found solace without leaving their buildings. Several have ventured onto their roofs to escape the lockdown after taking to the streets in recent months as part of nationwide protests against rulers deemed corrupt and inept. AFP photographer Joseph Eid spent weeks scaling staircases to see how people have taken over underused rooftops, whose only visitors used to be caretakers, plumbers and electricians. "When confinement started, I soon couldn't take it anymore, and that's when I thought of checking out the roof," said Sherazade Mami, a Tunisian dancer who has been living in Beirut since 2016. Every day, she walks up to the ninth floor of her building with her water, her mat and her music to stretch and practise. Like others discovering their rooftops during the lockdown, Mami said her outlook on the city had changed. "Once you're up there, you realise - I have an amazing view on the whole of Beirut. It's beautiful, the city is so quiet," she said of the sprawling metropolis usually known for its noise and chaotic traffic."You can hear the birds singing, you're under the sun, it's heaven ... It's better than rehearsing in the theatre in some ways," she added.
A place to 'feel free'
A bird's eye view of Beirut around sunset since mid-March would show largely empty streets and shuttered shops at ground level, but unusual activity above. On a hedgehopping flight over the city, maybe yoga instructors Rabih al-Medawar and his wife Alona Aleksandrova could be spotted trying out new acrobatic moves on their roof. Travelling north towards the seaside town of Byblos, Lebanese gymnast Karen Dib might appear, tumbling down the red mat she had laid out on the top of her building. And in Tripoli, Lebanon's main northern city, artist and activist Hayat Nazer might be glimpsed working on her latest canvas.Others too have been heading upstairs to sunbathe, read or smoke a shisha water pipe. Nazer said she hoped the weeks of lockdown would leave a positive mark on the way residents thought of their city. "I really hope people will start planting and greening their roofs to help the environment," she said. "They have been underused. You can do sports there, organise barbecues, have parties."Mami, the dancer, said she would not forsake her roof when the lockdown ended and her theatre reopened its doors.
"I have found a place where I feel free and I will continue to use it," she said.

Time For 'Le Petit Liban'
Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI/May 08/2020
البرتو فرنندس/ موقع ميمري/ حان الوقت للعودة إلى لبنان الصغير
مقالة تحكي كيف تحول لبنان التعايش والحريات والعلم والبحبوحة من جراء الإحتلاليين السوري والإيراني إلى بلد معدوم ومحروم ومعزول وفاقد لكل المقومات التي كانت تميزه ووجعلت منه واحة للحريات في محيط دول دكتاتورية ودينية ومؤدلجة. المقالة تشرح الخطر الإيراني المميت والمدمر الذي يقوم به حزب الله الإرهابي ويطالب بالعمل على عزل ورذل الطاقم السياسي النفعي الذي يغطي احتلال حزب الله ويشرح بالتفاصيل عدد من االأزمات الخانقة التي يمر بها لبنان من مالية ومعيشية وجمع نفايات وغيرها.
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We are almost at the century mark of the creation of what was called Le Grand Liban, the Greater Lebanon cobbled together by French authorities at the behest of Lebanese Christian intellectuals and politicians in 1920.
This expanded Lebanon added Muslim majority regions (but also the city of Beirut) to what had been an overwhelmingly Christian-Druze statelet in the Ottoman Empire, the Mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon from 1861 to 1915.
Lebanese had just endured a cruel famine during World War I that killed a third of the population and the expanded Lebanon made good economic, if dubious political, sense.
The political risk was that the newly incorporated territories were less committed to an independent Lebanon and more swayed in coming decades by the siren songs of Arabism and Islamism.
Certainly both of those ideologies played a role in subsequent events, in the Lebanese Civil War and in the emergence of Hizbullah, a commitment to Iranian Wilayat al-Faqih being a type of Islamism.
Today Lebanon's problems are not so much its borders or even its sectarian system but something else.
Lebanon faces one of its greatest crises ever; economic collapse and hunger stalk the land.
Decades of living beyond its means, endemic corruption, and government incompetence are taking its deadly toll.
Crooked politicians and lousy governance are not unique to Lebanon, but for the past few decades, this deplorable leadership has been joined to first Assad regime hegemony and now Hizbullah regime hegemony.
Hard to "throw the bums out" when there is a heavily armed and ruthless outside player ensuring that they stay in.
The damage being done to Lebanon's future, to its historic role as a refuge for religious minorities, including the Christians of the Levant, to the idea of Lebanon as a unique place of convergence and relative openness and tolerance, is nothing new.
The decline has been going on for decades, but it is accelerating at warp speed in the coming months with terrifying power.
Lebanon will need billions of dollars, which can only come from the West and from international financial institutions, to bail it out. Moreover, it will need that money when other, larger and more strategic countries also need massive help. For many in Washington, Lebanon has little strategic value. Right now the current political-military configuration regnant in Lebanon is "strategic" only for Iran, through its local franchise, Hizbullah.
And this is the irony. The more Lebanon seems to become like the rest of the Arab world, the less diverse it becomes, the more intolerant it becomes, the more bureaucratic it becomes, the less space there is for criticism of the powerful and the elite, the less motivation there will be for Western support.
If it continues along the path its rulers are setting for it, Lebanon's future is to become a somewhat larger version of Gaza, but with mountains and a few more token Christians.
Better to support Sudan or Tunisia, larger countries that are leaning more towards the West than the Lebanese Republic. Or Iraq – equally infected by Iranian hegemony, but much larger than Lebanon and potentially richer.
Lebanon's real future lies precisely in the opposite direction of where it is going today.
A Lebanon that is diverse and tolerant would be sharply different than other countries in the "Arab world," would be something unique and precious, worthy of attention.
Such a "Little Lebanon" would eschew Middle Eastern wars and regional conflicts, akin to nearby Cyprus, and hew its own path rather than recklessly serving as Iran's forward rocket base for the next war with Israel.
It would not be any smaller in size than it is today, but "small" because it looks exclusively to its own interests in nurturing its own distinctiveness and separateness.
It would flee from any hint of the ideologies of Arabism or Islamism for the suffocating dead ends that they are.
Such a Lebanon would allow a level of personal freedom and unrestrained level of expression unheard of in other Arabic-speaking countries.
That was once the case, but today, increasingly, you see the state use its coercive power to silence its critics.
They cannot pick up the garbage, but they are able to muzzle and abuse critics.
Rule in Lebanon becomes more like Syria and less like Switzerland every day.
What a bitter irony that this happens under the presidency of Michel Aoun, who rose to prominence opposing the Syrian regime!
The likeliest scenario is that the Lebanese will continue to suffer, the best and the brightest will continue to emigrate (Aoun told anti-corruption demonstrators that if they didn't like it, they can leave), repression and poverty will increase hand in hand.
Eventually some money from the international community will be forthcoming, secured by promises of reform and transparency that the ruling elite, working hand in glove with Hizbullah, will assiduously work to subvert.
More garbage, less rights. More "state" power over individuals too poor or too old to leave.
A far less likely scenario would have the international community (in Lebanon that really means the U.S. and France) play a more aggressive and pointed ground game, playing cat and mouse, against Hizbullah/Iranian hegemony and its willing stooges in government.
Such an approach requires a clear vision and a single-minded focus on our desired outcome.
Continued funding of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) has pluses and minuses but should probably continue.
Aside from the LAF, the institution building in Lebanon that should be done is not in the government but outside of it.
Assistance should prioritize a "Little Lebanon" agenda. This means support for civil society strongly opposed to the pro-Hizbullah status quo, for private groups, including churches and mosques, helping the poor and underprivileged, for salvaging key aspects of Lebanese society – private schools and universities, independent media, entrepreneurs, religious freedom, ethnic and religious diversity – that can make it more distinctive and less like just another Arab League kleptocracy.
Such a scenario should include coercive but targeted measures against Hizbullah enablers.
Iran and Hizbullah have worked hard for years in places like Lebanon and Iraq to expand their base and proxies beyond those Shia Muslims who are faithful to Iran's Islamic Revolution.
In Lebanon, this means sanctioning Christian and Sunni politicians and businessmen who cover for and facilitate the Nasrallah satrapy. It is time for them to pay a higher price for their treachery.
"Le Petit Liban" is probably as likely to emerge as is the restoration of the Habsburgs or the return of the Shah.
Hizbullah most likely will fall when its masters in Tehran collapse and until then Lebanon will suffer.
Hizbullah will certainly seek to decrease Western, particularly American, influence in the country, as Iran seeks to do the same regionally. But this is not a battle we should give up without a fight.
If the status quo is unacceptable to us – and it should be – we must plot towards a different future.
In Lebanon, it may be too late to resuscitate a dying patient, but it is not too soon to work towards resurrection.
*Alberto M. Fernandez is President of Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN). The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official views of MBN or the U.S. government.

Lebanon's Crises Offer a Chance to Address Hezbollah Violations in the South
Assaf Orion/The Washington Institute/May 09/2020
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The UN’s latest report makes clear that the dangerous situation will not improve on its own, compelling the international community to find new ways of addressing the group’s violations and the role that the Lebanese government and military play in enabling them.
On March 10, the UN published the secretary-general’s forty-second report on implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701, covering the period between November 1, 2019, and February 18, 2020. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the council’s discussion on the subject was postponed from mid-March to May 4.
Although the report opens with its usual description of a “mostly calm” southern Lebanon, it once again reveals abundant examples of Hezbollah’s illicit military activities and presence in numerous locations. Moreover, on the night of April 17, Israel’s security fence along the Blue Line frontier with Lebanon was cut in three places. This last incident served two purposes for Hezbollah: firing a shot across Israel’s bow after one of the group’s vehicles was struck in the Syrian border town of Jdeidat Yabus two days earlier, and showing its readiness to launch cross-border attacks in response to certain Israeli actions.
The authors of Resolution 1701 identified Hezbollah’s military presence in southern Lebanon as one of the fuses that lit the 2006 war, and the contact line has only increased its explosive potential since then. To prevent another war, the international community needs to do much more to address the group’s well-documented presence along the Blue Line, and Lebanon’s current multidimensional crises offer a unique opportunity to tackle known problems in new ways.
PARSING THE REPORT
Careful reading reveals two differing voices in the March report. One voice dwells more on the country’s economic-political crisis than on Resolution 1701’s focal point: namely, the military-security situation in the south, the area of operations where the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is tasked with monitoring implementation of a resolution intended to restore state control along the frontier. This voice also uses ambiguity to sidestep inconvenient realities and difficult policy decisions. Despite all evidence to the contrary—including within its own pages—the report falsely contends that “UNIFIL continued to assist the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in establishing an area between the Blue Line and the Litani River free of unauthorized armed personnel, assets, and weapons.” One can safely assume that this voice represents the UN’s political-diplomatic echelons in Beirut and New York.
The second voice, probably emanating from UNIFIL’s military leadership, focuses on fact-based accounts of operational incidents in the south. This is especially evident in the report’s Annex I, which details the various ways in which Hezbollah and its partners have illegally restricted UNIFIL’s freedom of movement. Thirteen incidents are detailed in which Lebanese “civilians,” some of them armed, blocked UNIFIL patrols, took their electronic gear and documents, and otherwise thwarted their missions between November and February—meaning that nothing was been done to improve the situation after fourteen such incidents were detailed in the November report.
As with the April 17 fence cutting, the footprint of the thirteen reported incidents falls along or near the Blue Line, mainly in the central sector. Three of them occurred a few kilometers from the frontier—near the village of Baraachit on January 14, January 29, and February 15, the latter including physical violence against peacekeepers.
The incidents follow Hezbollah’s recognized operational pattern of preventing UNIFIL units from entering key areas in the south or documenting its activities there—an anti-access, anti-documentation, area denial campaign that has enabled the terrorist group to operate as it pleases along the Blue Line while coexisting with the UN mission and the LAF, at little political cost to itself or the wider Lebanese government (see the author’s November 2019 study for a fuller account of this campaign, along with maps illustrating previous incident reporting periods). On this matter as well, the UN report uses data not to clarify but to obscure: “Conducting 14,457 monthly military operational activities on average, including 6,774 patrols, UNIFIL maintained an operational footprint in all municipalities and villages.” UN patrols may indeed be driving through every village in southern Lebanon, but only limited parts of the overall area of operations are accessible to UNIFIL, and areas relevant to Hezbollah activities are off-limits.
The report’s details also shed disturbing light on the LAF’s systemic role in impeding UN access to Hezbollah’s antitank launch areas, cross-border attack tunnels, newly revealed “private roads,” even newer zones dubbed “areas of strategic importance to the Lebanese Armed Forces,” and observation posts run by “Green Without Borders,” a Hezbollah front masquerading as an environmental NGO. The report is also the first to document the longstanding problem of LAF authorities refusing UNIFIL requests to cross into Israel.
Of course, none of this copious evidence is truly new, and none of it led the report’s drafters to issue actionable recommendations that address the growing risks. What has changed is the strategic context. The basic assumptions of Resolution 1701 are no longer valid, Lebanon’s political system is dominated by Hezbollah’s camp, and the LAF and other state institutions are actively supporting a terrorist organization, whether willingly or under coercion. At the same time, the country’s political and economic crises have come to a head, and the coronavirus has made things worse. All of these factors make Lebanese dependence on foreign aid stronger than ever, giving international actors a powerful lever to advance policies that help avert war.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Following the Security Council’s May 4 meeting, authorities have until June 1 to submit an “assessment of the continued relevance of UNIFIL’s resources” per the terms of Resolution 2485, “taking into consideration the troop ceiling.” Subsequent deadlines include the next report on Lebanon (due in July) and the yearly renewal of UNIFIL’s mandate (late August). This timeline gives Israel, the United States, and like-minded actors a chance to focus on the following efforts, which at the very least can help improve conditions for future strategic progress.
Pressuring Beirut. As Lebanon seeks to meet its dire need for foreign economic, medical, and military aid, the international community should present it with some stark choices: between enjoying aid as a legitimate state or continuing to give its institutions and territory to a terrorist organization; and between holding the LAF responsible as a sovereign national military or allowing it to keep collaborating with terrorists. Similarly, Hezbollah should be put on the horns of the dilemma: between continuing its illicit military operations along the Israeli frontier and its precision missile project, or enjoying international aid to the country it now rules, so long as appropriate conditions and verifiable, performance-based programs are put in place first. Realistically, however, the political/diplomatic mindset at the UN and elsewhere tends to favor continuity and wishful thinking about “stability” over changing policy or driving hard bargains with Hezbollah and its cronies. The chances are slim that the French-sponsored CEDRE aid framework or other “friends of Lebanon” mechanisms will attach strings to their aid; major improvements to UNIFIL’s mandate are unlikely as well.
Changing operations, reducing force size. As always, policymakers should demand full and unhindered UNIFIL access throughout its area of operations. The force should also equip its patrols with body cameras, allowing facial recognition of assailants and whoever else impedes their movement and access or attempts to snatch UN gear. Yet it remains unclear whether the countries who contribute personnel to UNIFIL have an appetite for such steps. Whatever the case, these proposals should be backed up by laying another choice before Beirut: either allow unhindered UNIFIL movement or face gradual reductions to the force’s size and budget. A good goalpost would be a 10-20 percent cut at this August’s mandate renewal discussions, based on the findings of the July report and a separate special assessment. Additional performance-based reductions could be considered every four months after subsequent reports. This approach could improve UNIFIL’s efficiency by decreasing the unacceptable gap between its size (currently 10,368 troops and 580 civilian staff) and efficacy; it could also reduce the risk to peacekeepers in case of war, and motivate Beirut into cooperating.
Improving UN reporting. Given the expected strategic and operational hurdles, policymakers may have to settle for the minimal goal of bolstering the UN reporting process with more hard data so that no illusions persist about the true situation on the ground. In 2017, Security Council Resolution 2373 expectedly failed to strengthen UNIFIL’s mandate, but U.S. efforts at the time helped improve reporting and lay the factual grounds for current and future policy debates. Taking this approach to the next level would mean introducing geographical, statistical, and chronological data to UN reporting, such as detailed maps of precise incident locations and patrol routes over time. The March report mentions UNIFIL’s “geographical information systems data platforms”; Security Council members should seek access to this GIS data to better understand the realities in the south. A cumulative record of all previous outstanding incidents and their status is needed as well. Finally, the UNIFIL commander should be invited to brief the council during discussions like the May 4 meeting in order to lend a stronger voice to factual reporting. Failing that, the UN missions of like-minded nations could request fact-based operational briefings by UNIFIL field officers prior to council meetings.
*Assaf Orion is the Rueven International Fellow with The Washington Institute. Before retiring from the Israel Defense Forces in 2016, he held a leadership role in the Planning Directorate that included coordinating with UNIFIL and the LAF.

Out of sight, out of mind: Lebanon expands landfill to clear garbage from streets
Emily Lewis/Al Arabiya English/May 09/ 2020
املي لويس/تقرير يتناول مأساة المطامر وفشل الحكم فالطاقم السياسي العفن إيجاد حل نهائي لها
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Earlier this month, the specter of another Lebanese garbage crisis loomed as mountains of trash once again piled up in the streets of Beirut and Mount Lebanon.
The overspill of garbage cans onto curbsides followed the closure of the giant open-air landfill on Beirut’s northern coast on April 30 after reaching capacity.
The last garbage crisis hit in 2015 – that prompted the popular You Stink movement – when a primary landfill site closed, and government authorities did nothing to implement a contingency plan. Lebanon still suffers from lackluster waste management facilities, with 90 percent of waste ending up in landfills that emit toxic gases breathed in by the neighboring population.
The Burj Hammoud-Jdeideh landfill was originally predicted to fill up in 2019, but a nearly 30 percent reduction in daily waste production following mass protests and the coronavirus lockdown delayed its shutdown, according to Samar Khalil, a member of the Waste Management Coalition that was formed in the wake of the 2015 crisis.
In response to the recent overflow, the government Tuesday approved the expansion of the site by a height of 1.5 meters – a decision that has been condemned by environmentalists and local Members of Parliament as yet another stop-gap measure in Lebanon’s long history of poor waste management policy.
Tipping Point
The mountains of waste emit a foul stink for kilometers around – an invisible indicator of an altogether more deadly emission. The Burj Hammoud-Jdeideh landfill is currently 16 meters in height and accepts around 1,400 tons of waste every day.
According to a 2017 study published in the Environmental Health Journal, people working in the vicinity of the landfill were more likely to suffer from respiratory, dermatological, and gastrointestinal disease.
“It has become an infected region, you can no longer live here,” said Elias Hankach, an MP for the Metn district where Jdeideh is located.
Read more: Lebanon's banking association drafts national rescue plan
Each year, the dump is estimated to leak 120,000 tons of hazardous leachates into the Mediterranean Sea, and nearby fishermen have been forced further out to sea to make their catch.
With another 1.5 meters of waste set to be piled on as the government promises to find alternative solutions, experts are worried about the ability of the concrete walls to contain it, and the potential health and environmental impact.
“There is a major concern around the integrity of the entire landfill,” said Khalil, adding that the landfill was hastily constructed without an economic impact assessment, as the government rushed to end the 2015 crisis.
“Waste management has always been a case of patching up a crisis, and that pattern has not changed,” Najat Saliba, an atmospheric chemist and director of the Nature Conservation Center at the American University of Beirut, told Al Arabiya English.
“[This] is a completely reactive measure,” said Khalil. “They knew they had a problem, and waited until the last minute.”
The environment minister did not respond to a request for comment on the decision.
Beirut’s two controversial coastal landfills, Burj Hammoud-Jdeideh to the north and Costa Brava to the south, were constructed as quick-fix solutions to the 2015 garbage crisis, when trash filled the streets of Beirut due to the closure of the Naameh waste dump and ensuing suspension of waste collection.
Thousands took to the streets in protests that saw the foundation of many now-well-established civil society groups and environmental coalitions.
The landfills, which together absorb waste from Beirut and the adjacent Mount Lebanon governorate, had a predicted lifespan of four years, to give the government enough time to find a more sustainable solution.
Five years on, despite the passage of a decentralized waste management law in 2018, the government has failed to implement the law, instead prolonging the use of hazardous open-air landfills.
The expansion of the Jdeideh site is yet another iteration of Lebanon’s kick-the-can-down-the-road approach to waste, removing what gathers in public view and dumping it elsewhere.
“All they want is for there not to be a scandal and for it to blow up in their faces [like in 2015],” Hankach said.
“They will do everything just to make the streets appear clean.”
The more waste, the better
Those who spoke with Al Arabiya English argue that the expansion of the landfill is not only a result of poor planning and incompetence, but also a reflection of the corruption and cronyism that has become emblematic of Lebanon’s waste management sector.
The multi-million dollar contracts for Beirut’s two coastal landfills were awarded to the businessmen allies of some of the country’s most powerful politicians. Jihad al-Arab, whose company runs the Costa Brava site, is close to former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, and Dany Khoury, in charge of Burj Hammoud-Jdeideh, is said to be close to President Michel Aoun.
“One of the major problems is the privatization of solid waste management in Lebanon,” said Paul Abi Rached, the founder of the TERRE Liban environmental group.
“The solutions are there,” Abi Rached said, explaining that the amount of waste entering landfills could be reduced by two-thirds simply through effective waste sorting, composting, and recycling.
“It is just not in the interest of the waste contractors.”
As contractors are paid for waste removed by the ton, the more garbage a landfill receives, the more money they receive. A December article in The New York Times reported that the contractors in charge of the Costa Brava landfill in south Beirut add water to garbage containers to boost their weight.
“There is no intention to solve this issue once and for all,” Hankach said. “The people in power, and those behind them, do not want that.”
The cabinet of Prime Minister Hassan Diab, formed after mass protests forced the resignation of Saad Hariri’s government, vowed to listen to the calls of demonstrators, including addressing the issue of waste management.
However, by continuing in the policy of temporary measures and directing Lebanon’s waste to landfills, the government has so far failed to keep their promise.
“Instead, they proved they will simply execute the agenda of the mafia in Lebanon,” Abi Rached said.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 09-10/2020
Pompeo visits Israel on the day its new government is sworn in
DekaFile/May 09/2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to pay a short visit to Israel on May 13, ending a pause in his international travels due to coronavirus. He will meet both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, an old friend, and Benny Gantz, the new “alternative prime minister,” on the day that the pair take office as joint heads of a unity national government. The visit is clearly a gesture of US support. The first high-ranking foreign official to visit Israel since the outbreak of coronavirus will, like his hosts, will first be tested for the virus, wear masked and curb friendly gestures.
Pompeo is widely expected to talk about reactivating US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan, Iran’s “malign actions” in the region and cooperation in fighting the covid-19 pandemic. While doing so, he will undoubtedly take a first, curious look at the new Israel lineup, say DEBKAfile’s sources, and report back to the White House on his impressions. For the first time in Netanyahu’s long reign, his government will not be composed exclusively of right wing or religious ministers; some like Gantz, are centrists or left-of-center like some members of his party and a couple of Labor members.
The visitor will no doubt try and find out whether Netanyahu intends to go through with announcing the annexation of areas of Judea, Samaria and Jordan Valley as soon as July 1 as allowed under the Trump peace plan and the coalition deal with Gantz. The peace plan also offers the Palestinians an independent through demilitarized state, which has raised objections to Netanyahu’s compliance in nationalist circles to the right of the new government. The coalition deal stipulates that Israel must take into account regional stability and existing peace agreements when going forward with annexation. Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab nations to have signed peace accords with Israel, have voiced strong objections to the step along with other Arab leaders. Both have developed important security interdependence with Israel and may be content with strong rhetoric.
The Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will not. He has Put before the PLO executive a radical plan. He wants support for his decision to dissolve the dissolve the Palestinian Authority if the Netanyahu-Gantz government annexes one inch of the West Bank. By breaking up the PA, Abbas intends to saddle Israel with the administration and care for all civic needs of two million Palestinian denizens of the territory – health, water, economy, jobs etc. It is up to Netanyahu to decide whether to go for what many of his supporters see as a one-time opportunity for establishing Israeli sovereignty in the heartland of Jewish history, or decide that the international fallout is too high a price to pay and wait for another chance.

Iranian influence in Iraq under threat due to economic crisis, political shifts
Agencies & The Arab Weekly/May 09/2020
LONDON --The United States believes Iraq is well positioned to strengthen its political power in light of Iran’s internal recession due to the coronavirus pandemic and crippling US economic sanctions.
According to Iraqi foreign affairs officials in contact with the US State Department, Washington’s assessment indicates that Iran has received a tremendous shock over the past two months as militias it backs in Iraq have been economically hamstrung by the COVID-19 crisis, unable to use Iraq’s expected budget surplus to fund Tehran’s aims. Iran’s previous economic estimates were based on faulty assumptions that oil prices would increase at a higher rate, allowing militias to be funded by budget surpluses. But the dramatic collapse in oil prices and the coroanvirus pandemic painted a different picture. After the appointment of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, a former intelligence chief who firmly opposes armed militias, Iran’s project in Iraq is in jeopardy. Iranian concerns are father exacerbated by Kadhimi’s history of cooperation with the US and Gulf allies. Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohamed Al-Halbousi earlier pointed to the need for cooperation with the international community so that Iraq can weather the economic storm caused by the collapse of oil prices. Halbousi also said that if Iraq wants urgent financial aid to secure the salaries of its employees, it will not get it from Iran, but rather from Arab Gulf countries, the West and the United States. Saudi Arabia said it was ready to work with Baghdad’s new government and strengthen their “historic ties” to ensure the region’s security and prevent external interference. “We express our support and willingness to work with the new Iraqi government on the basis of cooperation, mutual respect, historical ties and common interests on the basis of strengthening our relations,” said a statement by the kingdom’s foreign ministry. The statement wished Kadhimi success in leading the government and “achieving the aspirations of the Iraqi people regarding their sovereignty, security, and stability.”Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz also personally congratulated Kadhimi in a call May 7. During the call, Crown Prince Mohammed confirmed Riyadh’s support for “Iraq’s development and security” and the “Kingdom’s keenness to strengthen relations between the two countries,” the Saudi news agency SPA reported. Kadhimi and the Saudi crown prince have a close relationship that dates back to 2019, when Kadhimi managed Iraq’s intelligence services. Kadhimi is also credited with helping revive Iraqi-Saudi relations between 2014 and 2018 under Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, when the two countries had historically strong ties. Ties between Saudi Arabia and Iraq were restored in 2015 after the kingdom reopened its embassy in Baghdad following a 25-year break. The countries had been at loggerheads since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. In recent years, Riyadh has been wooing Baghdad as part of an effort to stem the growing regional influence of Iran, while Iraq seeks economic benefits from closer ties with the kingdom. In October 2017, two months before Iraq declared victory over ISIS, the countries established the Iraqi-Saudi Joint Coordination Council, to help rebuild devastated areas retaken from the militants in Iraq. For years Baghdad has seen itself caught in the crossfire between Washington and Tehran — a position that was worsened by US sanctions on Iran. Tehran’s sway over Baghdad dates back more than a decade, to the aftermath of the US-led invasion, when dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.

Who is Iraq’s new Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi?
Leen Alfaisal, Al Arabiya English/May 09/2020
After five months, and two failed attempts to form a government in Iraq, the country has a new Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Khadhimi – a former intelligence chief and journalist.
The country is dealing with multiple crises, including an economy hit hard by the low price of oil – Iraq’s principal source of revenue – and the coronavirus pandemic, which has wrecked economies across the globe, and there is optimism al-Khadimi will be able to set Iraq on a path to recovery.
Described as having a “unique personality,” Iraq’s new prime minister has promised to fight corruption, limit access to weapons to those within the government, and return the displaced to their homes. He has also said a priority will be to hold accountable those who had killed protesters during previous months of unrest. He also promised early elections and to pass a budget law that will have to address the acute economic crisis, that has deepened due to falling oil prices. The absence of leadership has left Iraq without an approved budget.
For five months, Iraq had no government following the resignation of former Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who stepped down as anti-government protesters took to the streets in their thousands, demanding jobs and the departure of Iraq's ruling elite. Al-Khadhimi was nominated by Iraqi President Barham Salih after two previous nominees failed to form a government. Fifteen of the cabinet posts have been filled, but some remain vacant – including foreign affairs, justice, oil, agriculture, and trade – as major political parties failed to form a consensus on how they should be allocated.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince phones Iraqi PM Kadhimi, welcomes new government
Iraq lawmakers approve government of new PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi
US Secretary Pompeo welcomes Iraq govt, extends Iran sanctions waiver
The new leader was welcomed by the US and Saudi Arabia, among other countries. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo extended on April 26 a sanctions waiver, allowing Iraq to import Iranian energy for a further 30 days.Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called the new Iraqi leader and reiterated the Kingdom’s support for Iraq in achieving stability and security. David Schenker, the State Department’s top diplomat for the Middle East, said of al-Kadhimi: “If Kadhimi is an Iraqi nationalist, dedicated to pursuing a sovereign Iraq, if he is committed to fighting corruption, this would be great for Iraq, and we think it would be great for our bilateral relationship.”A source close to al-Kadhimi told AFP that the new leader “has a unique personality and a pragmatic ideology, in addition to having good relations with all the players involved in Iraq. He has good relations with the Americans and a recently recovered relation with the Iranians.”But Iraq risks being further caught in the middle of tensions between Washington and Tehran, as militia groups vow revenge for the killing of Iran’s top commander Qassem Soleimani and his associate in Iraq Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were killed on Iraqi soil.
The right man for the job?
Iraq’s new leader faces myriad challenges, but before his rise to political prominence, he had a career in journalism and later served as the country’s spy chief. Mustafa al-Kadhimi was born in Baghdad in 1967, and studied law before becoming a journalist, where he was known for his opposition of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He lived abroad in Iran, Sweden, and the UK where he worked in several positions, including serving as the Iraq Pulse editor for Al-Monitor and the director of the Humanitarian Dialogue Foundation in London.
After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, al-Kadhimi returned home and helped establish the Iraqi Media Network along with being the executive director of the “Iraq Memory Foundation” that worked on documenting crimes committed by Saddam Hussein’s regime.
In June 2016, al-Kadhimi was named the head of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service amid the country’s escalating battle against ISIS. Beyond a bad economy, and the ever-present potential for regional flare-ups, al-Kadhimi will have to contend with a growing ISIS insurgency in northern Iraq, as the extremist group has stepped up attacks on government troops.

Iran Reports More than 1,500 New Virus Cases
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 09/2020
Iran warned Saturday that coronavirus infections were rising in the southwest despite falls in other regions, as it announced more than 1,500 new confirmed cases. "All provinces are showing a gradual drop in new infections... except for Khuzestan, where the situation is still concerning," health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said in televised remarks. The health ministry stopped publishing provincial figures for the coronavirus last month. It has instead opted for a colour-coded system of white for low-risk parts of the country, yellow for medium-risk and red for high-risk areas. Latest reports have shown Khuzestan red along with a few other provinces, including the capital Tehran and the Shiite clerical centre of Qom, where Iran reported its first cases in February. Early last week, Iran's official daily caseload hit its lowest level since March 10, but it has since climbed again steadily. Jahanpour said 1,529 new cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the overall total to 106,220. There were 48 new deaths taking the overall toll to 6,589. Of all those admitted to hospital, 85,064 people had recovered and been discharged. Experts both at home and abroad have cast doubt on Iran's official figures, saying the actual number of cases could be much higher.

Eye for an eye: Iran sentences woman to blinding as punishment
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English/Friday 08 May 2020
An Iranian woman convicted of blinding a man in an acid attack was sentenced to blinding, local media reported on Tuesday. In 2014, a 30-year-old woman in the city of Mashhad threw acid in the face of a 33-year-old man she had been involved with, according to the state-run Rokna news agency.
The man was blinded in both eyes following the attack. The woman, who is a martial arts instructor, was seeking revenge, according to Rokna. During interrogations, the woman said that she had ended her marriage and had given custody of her child to her ex-husband in order to be with the man who would become the victim of the acid attack. The two entered into a temporary marriage and made plans to get married permanently, but the man ended up marrying someone else a few months later, according to the woman. Temporary marriage, or “sigheh,” is a practice that unites man and woman as husband and wife for a limited time. Temporary marriage – which can last for a few hours, days, months or years – is allowed in Shia Islam but is strictly banned in Sunni Islam. “I had ruined my life because of a street love … I devised a plan for revenge and lured him into a building in Mashhad and threw acid at him there,” Rokna reported the woman as saying during interrogations. Blinding is a form of punishment under Iranian law. The punishment was carried out for the first time in the country in 2015 when an Iranian man convicted of blinding another man in an acid attack was blinded in one eye. The Islamic Republic views blinding as an effective deterrent against acid attacks, but rights groups, including Amnesty International, condemn it as barbaric.

Putin Calls for 'Invincible' Unity as Russians Mark Victory Day on Lockdown
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 09/2020
President Vladimir Putin told Russians they are "invincible" when they stand together as the country on Saturday marked the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II on lockdown from the coronavirus. With the number of virus cases surging and authorities urging Russians to stay in their homes, celebrations of this year's Victory Day were muted after the Kremlin grudgingly agreed to postpone plans for a grand parade with world leaders. Instead of columns of military hardware and thousands of troops parading through Red Square as planned, Putin walked alone to lay flowers at the Eternal Flame outside the red brick walls of the Kremlin. In a solemn televised speech, he made no mention of the virus, despite Russia having the fifth-highest number of confirmed infections in the world, with nearly 200,000 cases as of Saturday. But Putin highlighted the sacrifices made by the Soviet Union in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War and hinted at the threat now facing the country. "Our veterans fought for life, against death. And we will always be equal to their unity and endurance," Putin said. "We know and firmly believe that we are invincible when we stand together." A ceremonial honour guard marched past Putin after his speech, as Russian television showed images of Red Square empty nearby. Military helicopters, bombers and fighter jets then flew over the city, with some releasing smoke in the red, white and blue of the Russian flag over the Kremlin. The pandemic hit Russia later than many countries in western Europe but it has seen a major increase in cases in recent days, with more than 10,000 new infections registered every day this week. On Saturday officials said the number of confirmed infections had risen by 10,817 in the last 24 hours to reach a total of 198,676, putting Russia behind only the United States, Spain, Italy and Britain in total cases.
Political blows to Putin
Russia says the increase is due in part to a huge testing campaign, with more than 5.2 million tests carried out so far. The country's reported mortality rate is much lower than in many countries, with 1,827 dead from the coronavirus as of Saturday. Officials credit a widespread testing and tracking effort, though critics have cast doubt on the numbers and accused authorities of under-reporting deaths. The pandemic has been a major blow to Putin's political plans for this spring. The postponed Victory Day parade, which was due to be attended by world leaders including China's Xi Jinping and Emmanuel Macron of France, had been meant as a major showcase of Russia's increased global prestige under Putin. The Russian leader was also forced to postpone a planned vote last month on constitutional reforms that would have paved the way for Putin, in power for more than 20 years, to potentially stay in the Kremlin until 2036. Officials are hoping both events can still be held later this year, though no dates have been set and much will depend on when the outbreak comes under control. As with others around the world, Russians are deeply worried about the long-term economic impact of the pandemic and polls show many are increasingly frustrated with the government's handling of the crisis. One survey by independent pollster Levada this week showed Putin's approval rating falling to a historic low of 59 percent in April. Authorities across the vast country have ordered a range of quarantine measures with Moscow, the epicentre of the epidemic, on a strict lockdown until the end of May. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin warned residents to stay home on Saturday and only watch ceremonies on television or the flyby from their balconies. A popular event in which Russians walk in a parade holding photos of family members who fought in the war was also reorganised online. While most ex-Soviet countries also remain under lockdown, two are going ahead with traditional military displays. Belarus, where President Alexander Lukashenko has dismissed the dangers of the coronavirus, plans a parade involving some 5,000 troops. "We cannot do otherwise," Lukashenko insisted Friday, likening his country to a wartime fortress withstanding the Nazis. In Central Asia's Turkmenistan, which has reported no cases, a military parade will be held in front of a war memorial in the capital Ashgabat.

U.S. Prevents Security Council Vote on Pandemic Resolution
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 09/2020
The United States on Friday prevented a vote in the U.N. Security Council on a resolution on the coronavirus pandemic, apparently because it made implicit mention of the World Health Organization, diplomats said. The text, under negotiation since March, called for a worldwide cessation of hostilities in conflict zones so governments can address the pandemic. The United States blocked a procedure that would have led to a vote on the resolution, the diplomats said.
President Donald Trump has been sharply critical of the WHO over what he calls its mishandling of the global health crisis and suspended U.S. funding of the U.N. agency.

Anti-Viral Drug Trio Found to Shorten COVID-19 Illness in Mild Cases
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 09/2020
Researchers in Hong Kong have found that patients suffering milder illness caused by the new coronavirus recover more quickly if they are treated with a three-drug antiviral cocktail soon after symptoms appear.  Authors of the study, published in the Lancet on Friday, described the findings as "early but important". They called for larger-scale research on critically-ill patients to ascertain if the drug combo could be a viable treatment for them too.  "Our trial demonstrates that early treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 with a triple combination of antiviral drugs may rapidly suppress the amount of virus in a patient's body," said Kwok-Yung Yuen, professor at the University of Hong Kong, who led the research. He said the treatment, which appeared safe in patients, was shown to "relieve symptoms, and reduce the risk to health-care workers by reducing the duration and quantity of viral shedding (when the virus is detectable and potentially transmissible)". Scientists are racing to identify effective medicines to use against the new coronavirus, but there is currently no treatment, cure or vaccine. The study tracked the virus in 127 adults admitted to six hospitals in Hong Kong after they tested positive.
Of those participating, 86 patients were given a two-week course of three medicines: interferon beta-1b, a drug used to treat multiple sclerosis; HIV drugs lopinavir-ritonavir; and ribavirin, used to treat hepatitis. A randomly-assigned control group of 41 people was just given the lopinavir-ritonavir combination. Treatment began on average five days after symptoms started and all patients otherwise received standard care, including oxygen therapy. Researchers then measured how long it took for a swab test for the virus to turn out negative.
They found that those taking all three medicines were able to clear the coronavirus in seven days on average (between five and 11 days) -- "significantly" shorter than the 12-day average for the control group. Those on the three-drug regimen also saw a complete alleviation of their symptoms in an average of four days, compared to eight for the control group. The study was carried out between February 10 and March 20 in Hong Kong, where everyone who tests positive for COVID-19 is admitted to hospital. The authors conceded several limitations with the trial, including that it was "open label" -- people knew which drugs they were taking and there was no placebo. Also, patients admitted more than seven days after the onset of symptoms were not given interferon because of concerns that it could cause inflammation. Of these, 34 were given the combination of lopinavir-ritonavir and ribavirin, while 17 were in the control group. Both of these groups took equally long to clear the virus which, the authors suggested, meant that interferon was key to the shorter illness for the patients treated from the first week of symptoms. "Future clinical study of a double antiviral therapy with interferon beta-1b as a backbone is warranted," the study said. Reacting to the study, Stephen Evans, Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said it "justifies the consideration of adding interferon beta to the list of genuinely, evidence-based, promising treatments to be tested in further randomised trials. "It has been clear from long experience that HIV is best treated with combinations of different drugs and this could also be the case with COVID-19," he added.

Turkey sets sights on Yemen, raising regional security concerns
The Arab Weekly/May 09/2020
ADEN –Turkey’s growing presence in Yemen, especially in the restive southern region, is fuelling concern across the region over security in the Gulf of Aden and the Bab al-Mandeb. These concerns are further heightened by reports indicating that Turkey’s agenda in Yemen is being financed and supported by Qatar via some Yemeni political and tribal figures affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. They are thought to be aiming to blackmail the Arab-led coalition by creating a Turkish threat in the country and forming a new coalition that includes both Qatar and Oman. Turkey did so far tread carefully in Yemen, apparently waiting for a favourable moment to intervene and hoping for more support from the Yemeni government of Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi before moving in on the ground. Cautious and virtually concealed, Turkish activity in Yemen is currently concentrated in three Yemeni coastal areas: Shabwa, Socotra, and Al-Mukha district in Taiz governorate, according to anonymous sources in the country. In previous reports, The Arab Weekly shed light on the presence of Turkish intelligence elements in the Shabwa governorate under the cover of the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Organisation (IHH), which has been active in the province since it fell under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood in August. The Muslim Brotherhood’s growing influence into Shabwa coincided with increased hostility towards the Arab-led-coalition in Al Alam area in south-west Yemen, which has recently been the target of repeated mortar attacks. The attacks are thought to be aimed at cutting off food and medical supplies, eventually forcing coalition forces stationed there to leave. Once Al Alam area is under control, the Muslim Brotherhood hopes to reach the strategic Port of Balhaf, gaining leverage over critical gas exports and much-needed access to the coast that overlooks the Arabian Sea, a key gateway for any potential Turkish intervention and the shipment of crucial supplies from Turkish military bases in nearby Somalia.
In addition to suspicious activity in Taiz and Shabwa, reports point to Turkish efforts in ramping up tensions with the help of Socotra Governor Ramzi Mahrous. Tensions reportedly escalated following Mahrous’s return from a secret visit to Istanbul, during which he met Turkish and Qatari intelligence officers and Muslim Brotherhood leaders.The developments mean that Turkey has assumed a greater political role in southern Yemen through the country’s local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is helping Turkish charities gain influence.
“The Islah (Reform) party is instrumental in giving Turkish institutions and the Turkish government, all masquerading as charity organisations, access to Yemeni cities,” said Yemeni political analyst Mahmud al-Tahir. “Turkey has interests in abetting the Muslim Brotherhood and giving it more power on the Yemeni stage.”  Founded in 1990, the Reform Party, the Muslim Brotherhood’s local branch, has played an important role on the country’s political scene. The party has gained more power in recent years, filling a political vacuum left by the downfall of the Ali Abdullah Saleh regime in February 2012 and then by a coup staged by the Iran-backed Houthi militia against Hadi in March 2015. The party is represented in the government of Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, which is based in the south-eastern port city of Aden. Brotherhood-affiliated officials and ministers have taken trips to Ankara to lobby officials with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) to be more active in Yemen, particularly by investing in the country’s transport sectors and ports. In mid-January, Turkey’s deputy interior minister, Ismail Catakli, visited Aden and held talks with Saeed. He revealed that Erdogan had asked a team of aides to prepare a report about humanitarian needs in Yemen.  This came two months after former Yemeni Transport Minister Saleh al-Jabwani, a Reform Party affiliate, visited Turkey to discuss cooperation in managing Yemeni ports. Turkey’s efforts to increase their presence near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, through which Gulf oil is transported before reaching the Suez Canal, will threaten the security of Gulf Arab states. Turkey’s efforts to increase its presence near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait are part of a larger campaign to shore up influence in the southern entrance of the Red Sea. With a military base in Djibouti and repeated efforts to gain a foothold in Somalia and the Sudanese Red Sea island of Suakin, Ankara is working hard to become a force in the Red Sea.

King Salman discusses with Trump defence ties and need for oil market stability
Agencies/The Arab Weekly/May 09/2020
WASHINGTON--During a phone call Friday, US President Donald Trump and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud “reaffirmed the strong United States-Saudi defense partnership” and agreed on “the importance of stability in global energy markets,” the White House said.
According to the official Saudi news agency SPA, the two leaders “affirmed historic and strategic relations between the two countries and the achievements of such a distinct relation, at all levels.”The two leaders, it added, “reasserted keenness on continuation of their joint endeavors to consolidate regional security and stability,” as King Salman “pointed to the Kingdom’s exerted efforts to reach a comprehensive political solution in Yemen and the Coalition initiative for ceasefire to back up the UN envoy efforts in this regard.”According to SPA, Trump “stressed the US commitment to protect its interests as well as the security of its allies, in the region, and its determination to confront any act that may destabilize the region and re-emphasized US support for all efforts exerted to reach a political solution for the Yemeni crisis.”White House spokesman Judd Deere said Trump and King Salman “agreed on the importance of stability in global energy markets, and reaffirmed the strong United States-Saudi defense partnership.”“The president and King Salman also discussed other critical regional and bilateral issues and their cooperation as leaders of the G7 and G20, respectively,” he added. Trump worked last month to persuade Saudi Arabia to cut its oil output after an increase in production during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic put heavy pressure on US oil producers. The US statement on the two leaders’ meeting did not mention the planned withdrawal of Patriot anti-missile batteries from Saudi Arabia that have been a defence against Iran, and the White House declined further comment. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed on Friday media reports that the missiles would be withdrawn, but said it did not signal a decrease in US support for Saudi Arabia and was not an effort to pressure Riyadh on oil issues. He also said it did not mean Washington thought Iran was no longer a threat. “Those Patriot batteries had been in place for some time. Those troops needed to get back,” Pompeo told the Ben Shapiro radio show. “This was a normal rotation of forces.”

Signs of resurgence of ISIS in Syria and Iraq but some experts are cautious
Agencies & The Arab Weekly/May 09/2020
TUNIS/ LONDON –After major military setbacks two years ago, ISIS is showing signs it is regrouping in parts of Iraq and Syria, stoking fears of a dreaded resurgence of the terror group in the war-weary countries. But some experts said the group’s lethal capacity remained far lower than in previous years and it has yet to show major tactical changes. On May 7, ISIS attacked military vehicles belonging to the mainly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Syrian desert, killing at least 11 soldiers, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog. The attack adds to numerous assaults in the vast desert region west of the Euphrates — including in Deir ez-Zor, Homs and Suwaidda — which have killed an estimated 515 pro-regime soldiers and loyalists since March 2019. Experts have also expressed concern that the terror group is gaining ground in areas outside the US coalition’s reach, such as Syria’s Badiya desert. Ambassador James Jeffrey, the US special representative for Syria, said ISIS’s activity in Badiya was a “great concern,” but that it had been largely unable to advance in the north-east of the country.
“The area around Deir el-Zor is, as we say these days, a hot spot. We’re watching that closely, but we are confident that we have it under control,” Jeffrey said. In next-door Iraq, there have also been greater signs of aggressive designs from ISIS as the country’s fragile government focuses its efforts on fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
On May 2, ISIS fighters killed 10 members of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in fierce clashes in Salahaddin province, one of the most fatal encounters in the country in at least two years. The PMF released a statement confirming that 10 of its men were killed by the terror group near the city of Balad, and said that it had killed “numerous” ISIS fighters. Newly appointed Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi called the ISIS attack a “desperate” ploy by the extremist group to regain power at a time of national crisis. “The operation carried out by the criminal terrorist groups represents a desperate attempt to exploit the situation of political rivalry that hinders the formation of the government to carry out its national duty of ensuring the security of citizens,” said Kadhimi. Earlier the same week, ISIS launched a series of blitz attacks throughout the country, including in towns near the capital Baghdad where it has long been inactive. As far back as March 8, ISIS fighters killed two US marines accompanying Iraqi counterterror forces on a raid in the rugged Makhmur Mountains in northern Iraq. The close-range assault was referred to as one of the “most intense” US forces have participated in this year.
While ISIS lost all territorial control in Iraq in 2017, it has continued to conduct hundreds of small-scale attacks each year targeting security forces — and experts believe its recent assaults are an extension of this strategy.
But as Iraq now reels from the COVID-19 pandemic, government instability and a recent decline in oil prices, there are signs the group could be more of a threat.
Iraqi security forces, already overextended as they patrol cities during the COVID-19 lockdown, will also have to ready for ISIS assaults largely without US help, as American forces are scaling back their activity during the pandemic. The US was already revising its strategy in Iraq after Iraq’s parliament voted in January to end US troop presence in the country after the targeted killing in Baghdad of Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, the foreign intervention arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). US-Iraqi military cooperation is scheduled for a review next June as part of the bilateral “strategic dialogue.”Some analysts expressed concern that Iraq was in for a prolonged struggle against ISIS as it battles crises on all fronts. “Before the emergence of the virus and before the American withdrawal, the operations were negligible, numbering only one operation per week,” one senior intelligence official told Asharq al-Awsat. “Now, he said, security forces are seeing an average of 20 operations a month.” However, US coalition officials and other analysts highlighted that the group remained far weaker and was relying on “disinformation” to stay in the limelight.
“Despite what Daesh (ISIS) remnants are advertising, their attacks in Iraq are far less than in previous years,” US Lieutenant Colonel Savannah Halleaux, with the coalition’s Special Operations Joint Task Force, told Voice of America. “They are attempting to keep themselves relevant through disinformation on social media, regular media, and amplifying their messages for Recruitment.”Jihadism expert Aaron Zellin added: “They’re following the same playbook as they did previously. Nothing new or innovative.”“It is true that some attacks are also more qualitative than the recent past, but still don’t have the sophistication as previously overall,” Zelln told VOA. “Definitely something to continue to track and watch to see if it gets worse, but now it’s still a bit early to say they are where they had been, say, from 2014 to 2016.”

Iran 'attempted' cyber-attack on Israel's water supplies: US officials
The New Arab/May 09/2020
US officials have blamed Iran for a cyber attack on water supplies in Israel last month, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to add an extra layer of tension between the two countries. Tehran and Washington have been at loggerheads over the tattered nuclear deal, and crippling US sanctions have prompted Iran to lay heavy criticism against US President Donald Trump. Hackers disrupted water supplies in at least two locations in Israel, according to foreign intelligence officials familiar with the matter. The incident occurred on 24 and 25 April and was detected and countered before it could cause damage, Israeli officials said. Cyberattacks that intentionally damage critical infrastructure shouldn’t be condoned," said a senior Trump administration official. "We think they're very destabilising."The hackers attempted to cripple computers that control water flow and wastewater treatment for a pair of rural districts in Israel, according to two officials of a foreign government that monitored the attack in real time. The areas serve residential, medical and commercial customers and provide fresh water as well as wastewater removal and treatment. This comes as much of the country is under lockdown as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Investigators discovered that hackers routed their attack through computer services in the United States and Europe. An Iranian official denied that his country was involved in the attack. "The Iranian government does not engage in cyberwarfare," said Alireza Miryousefi, for Iran's Mission to the United Nations in New York told The Washington Post. Israel neither confirmed nor denied the attack. The foreign intelligence officials described the attack as coordinated, but not sophisticated. The intruders targeted "programmable logic controllers" that operate valves for water distribution networks.
Iran and Israel have engaged in cyber warfare on a several occasions. "The fact is they're getting more aggressive," said Robert M. Lee, a former NSA operator who co-founded Dragos, a cybersecurity firm specializing in defending industrial control systems. "And they’re getting better. The public should not freak out, because the asset owners are taking steps to shore up their systems, but they must do more." Earlier this week US President Donald Trump vetoed what he called a "very insulting" congressional resolution seeking to limit his war powers in Iran.
In a statement, Trump said he had used his veto because the resolution - a rare bipartisan rebuke to the president approved in March - was based on "misunderstandings of facts and law." The measure stemmed from fears among both Trump's Republicans and Democrats that the White House was stumbling into war with the Islamic republic. In the statement, Trump says Congress misinterpreted his constitutional authority as being limited to "defense of the United States and its forces against imminent attack.""That is incorrect," he said. "We live in a hostile world of evolving threats, and the Constitution recognizes that the President must be able to anticipate our adversaries' next moves and take swift and decisive action in response. That's what I did!"

Belarus WW2 parade defies pandemic and upstages Putin
NNA/BBC/May 09/2020
The Red Square 9 May parade has been cancelled because of the pandemic. But in neighbouring Belarus the parade will go ahead, complete with a concert in the centre of the capital Minsk and festive fireworks.
Why is it going ahead?
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko appears unfazed by the pandemic. He has not followed the European pattern of imposing sweeping restrictions.
Russia is still under lockdown, and for six days it has recorded more than 10,000 new Covid-19 infections daily. And yet Mr Lukashenko refuses to cancel his military parade, since it serves a patriotic purpose: to remind people of Soviet-era hardship and sacrifices. Speaking on the eve of the parade, he said: "They gave their lives so we could live today, that's why we can honour our heroes on this sacred day. We cannot do anything different." Mr Lukashenko has been in power since 1994, exerting authoritarian control over Belarus in a style reminiscent of the Soviet era. The Nazi occupation in 1941-1944 devastated Belarus: about a quarter of the population died, including almost the entire Jewish population. So, as in Russia, Victory Day is a deeply patriotic occasion for many citizens.
How has coronavirus affected Belarus?
The Belarus authorities have registered 21,101 cases of coronavirus, having conducted more than 240,000 tests. They say 121 people have died.
There is no regional information and journalists have not been allowed to interview medics or see what is going on in hospitals. Shops, schools and public transport continue to function as normal. But the health ministry has issued recommendations for Belarusians to stay away from crowded places, use hand sanitiser and wear masks, especially if they belong to at-risk categories.And Belarusians themselves are aware of the dangers. Some companies have urged staff to work from home where possible. Some universities and colleges have cut student numbers travelling at rush hour or have switched lectures online.
Many parents are keeping their children out of school. Belarus may have been the only European country not to stop its football championship, but attendances have fallen dramatically. A World Health Organization delegation visiting in April expressed concern about the lack of measures to slow the spread of coronavirus. The EU has promised Belarus €60m (£52m; $64m) to help fight coronavirus - but only on condition that it fulfils WHO guidelines.
What do Russians make of it?
Under different circumstances, the 75th anniversary of Victory Day would have been celebrated lavishly in Russia, too. Instead Russians have been told to stay home and President Vladimir Putin will make a televised address and lay flowers at a war memorial. The Russian Air Force will fly over Red Square with 75 planes and helicopters, and a military parade has been promised later this year. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he hoped "the different methods employed by Russia and Belarus will not bring a sharp increase in the number of those infected". But those different methods have touched off something of a spat. Belarus accused a Russian TV crew of spreading fake news about coronavirus in Belarus and revoked the accreditation of Channel 1 correspondent Alexei Kruchinin and his cameraman. Kruchinin has had to leave Belarus, denying the accusations against him. Russian epidemiologist Viktor Larichev has compared holding the parade to having a feast in the middle of a plague. "It is simple stupidity," he said on Russian radio.
Who will be there?
Normally, pride of place is given to war veterans, but President Lukashenko has said nobody has to join the Victory Day ceremonies who does not want to. Very few veterans are still alive. Most are in their nineties and very vulnerable to Covid-19. A concert stage and a big screen have been erected in the centre of Minsk with space for hundreds of people. Singer Alexander Solodukha has said he will practise social distancing when he performs and will not shake hands or mix with other guests. Mr Lukashenko has invited international guests to join the celebrations, including some Russian MPs and politicians. Russia will not be sending an official delegation and anyone who does go will be there in a private capacity. "I am worried we will get scared and hide in our dens. Belarus is a living monument to that war. And I believe that on this day representatives of all states could be here," the president said. Some reports suggest students and staff at universities and state businesses have been told that attendance is voluntary. And yet there are also suggestions that students are being sent text messages offering $4 towards their stipend next month if they turn up.
What do Belarusians think?
In Belarus itself, there is no shortage of criticism of the parade. Stanislav Shushkevich, Belarus's first leader after independence, condemned the idea as "not only ignorance, but a crime", arguing that President Lukashenko was motivated by a desire to stay in power and by competition with Russia.
The parade has also been criticised by former parliament speaker Mechislav Grib, who saw it as no different from Soviet attitudes during World War Two, "when human life was not valued". Ex-prime minister Mikhail Chigir said: "In the US they don't have military parades at all and are they any worse off? I don't think so." Belarus's leader has certainly stolen the show with Saturday's parade, but nobody else wanted it anyway. --- BBC

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 09-10/2020
The Swedish "Model" for Battling the Coronavirus
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/May 09/2020
"For a long time, Sörmlands Media has tried to get information from all the county's municipalities on how the spread of infection in elderly care looks, how extensive it is and where it is located. The municipalities have replied that they lack knowledge about the extent of the spread of infection and have said that it is also not possible to find out. — Maria Lapenkova, Svt nyheter, May 2, 2020.
Sörmland Media's review, however, shows that the information is not correct and that the municipalities actively concealed the information... Some municipalities have also failed to report the number of infected persons to the National Board of Health and Welfare's national reporting tool for orders for protective clothing. — Svt nyheter, May 2, 2020.
As of May 6, Sweden, which has a population of 10.18 million people, had 2,854 deaths, which corresponds to 280.27 deaths per million people. In comparison, the other countries of the Nordic region, Denmark, Norway and Finland, which all went on lockdown, had 503, 215 and 246 deaths respectively, corresponding to 86.76, 40.46 and 44.58 deaths per 1 million people, respectively.
"I think it's a risky business and we don't know anything about herd immunity. The only thing we know is that a lot of people have died. These are human beings, not just figures. And if we would have chosen another approach, this number would have been much smaller...You cannot take risks with people's lives if you don't know what risks you are taking". — Dr. Stefan Hanson, a Swedish infectious disease expert, The Globe and Mail, Canada, April 30-May 1, 2020.
WHO -- and the media -- might wish to reconsider using Sweden as a model.
Besides refusing to close down businesses, restaurants and schools in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Sweden also has refused to close its borders, even to travelers from countries with large and uncontrollable outbreaks, such as Iran. Pictured: Dr Lars Falk, a department head at Karolinska Hospital in Solna, drops his daughter and her friends off for football practice in Stockholm, Sweden, on April 20, 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images)
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently described Sweden as a "model" for battling the coronavirus. "I think if we are to reach a new normal, I think in many ways Sweden represents a future model of -- if we wish to get back to a society in which we don't have lockdowns," Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's Emergencies Program, said. "They've been doing the testing, they've ramped up their capacity to do intensive care quite significantly," he added.
"And their health system has always remained within its capacity to respond to the number of cases that they've been experiencing... Sweden has put in place a very strong public policy around social distancing, around caring and protecting for people in long term care facilities and many other things,".
"What it has done differently" he added, "is it has very much relied on its relationship with its citizenry and the ability and willingness of citizens to implement physical distancing and to self-regulate."
As noted by Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at the Swedish Lund University:
"The Swedish approach to COVID-19 could not be more different from its neighbours', placing much of the responsibility for delaying the spread of the virus and protecting the vulnerable in the hands of the public... Swedish bars, restaurants and schools remain open. Under the blue skies and blazing sun Sweden has enjoyed lately, people have flocked to parks and beaches, bars and cafes. Nevertheless, Sweden has a high number of people living in single households, and citizens are generally respectful of public health advice and guidelines".
Is Sweden, however, really a "model" to the rest of the world? Several of Dr. Ryan's assumptions seem to be, at the very least, questionable.
As of May 6, Sweden, which has a population of 10.18 million people, had 2,854 deaths, which corresponds to 280.27 deaths per million people. In comparison, the other countries of the Nordic region, Denmark, Norway and Finland, which all went on lockdown, had 503, 215 and 246 deaths respectively, corresponding to 86.76, 40.46 and 44.58 deaths per million people, respectively.
Besides refusing to close down businesses, restaurants and schools, Sweden also has refused to close its borders, even to travelers from countries with large and uncontrollable outbreaks, such as Iran.
"Historically, it has not been a great idea to stop flights. The latest example is probably Italy. There they canceled all flights to China, but they still got a big outbreak," said state epidemiologist and bureaucrat Anders Tegnell in late February. Tegnell has since become the face of Sweden's coronavirus strategy. Tegnell stressed that stopping flights from Iran would complicate helping the country with its outbreak. "If you shut down [flights from] Iran, you cannot help the country with protective materials and such," he said.
As late as February 29, for example, 11 planes from Northern Italy and 1 plane from Iran landed in Arlanda airport in Stockholm, but no measures were taken to check people for the virus or put them in quarantine. Flights from Iran were only stopped on March 2 and as late as March 5, Tegnell criticized the Scandinavian Airline SAS for stopping all flights to Italy, a decision that he said, "lacked medical and scientific basis". Only on March 17, when the EU made its recommendation, did Sweden stop all non-essential travel to its airports. Despite that, 40 planes have landed every day at Arlanda airport in Stockholm, where travelers have not been tested for Coronavirus upon landing or asked to go into quarantine.
In late February, Minister of Social Affairs, Lena Hallengreen, said that she believed that Sweden's readiness for the pandemic was "good". Two months later, she told Aftonbladet that the strategy had been "a failure" with regard to the most vulnerable population group, the elderly. On May 5, the Sweden Democrats called for a special debate to be held in parliament regarding the deaths during the corona crisis in Sweden's nursing homes.
"Sweden has twice the death toll as our Nordic neighbors combined. One of the reasons is that the government has failed to protect the elderly," said the party's group leader Henrik Vinge in a press release.
"The fact that Sweden has not been able to protect vulnerable groups from infection has been identified as a failure by government officials. The development has been particularly devastating in nursing homes in the Stockholm region, which first suffered from widespread infection... 123 [nursing homes] out of 227 in the region had already been infected... by Easter weekend, according to a new survey. The fact that Sweden, unlike other countries, has had too limited testing... and that personnel have not been provided with the necessary protective equipment has probably contributed to the deaths in Swedish nursing homes. Witnesses also allege that there have been cases of staff working despite symptoms... and that it has been difficult to make [nursing home] employees follow basic hygiene practices."
Sweden used to have a storage of seven million respiratory masks, as well as protective suits for adults and children during the Cold War. "The various types of respiratory protection were collected in emergency storages around the country with up to 250,000 pieces in each. The number varied depending on the size of the municipality. In the first decade of the 21st century, the stock was considered redundant and obsolete and everything was burnt," states a brief text on the website of the Army Museum in Sweden. Although several of the masks were no longer functioning, 2.2 million respiratory masks were still adequate, but were burned anyway.
On March 28, realizing that Sweden was facing a shortage of protective equipment for medical personnel, Swedish regional authorities appeared simply to have lowered the protection requirements.
"Healthcare workers are worried that the country's regions have lowered the requirements for personal protective equipment -- for example, mouth protection will not be the standard", noted Swedish Radio. According to Mia Lehtonen, a nurse at Karolinska's staffing center and elected representative for the Healthcare Association:
"Back then [at the beginning of the outbreak] we would have mouth protection with HEPA filter, a cap... long-sleeved protective coat, rubber boots, gloves that were taped to the long-sleeved coat, and now - just a few weeks later - we are supposed to work according to just basic hygiene routines."
In some hospitals health care personnel had to resort to protecting themselves with rain ponchos.
Despite the spread of the pandemic outside of Sweden -- and neighboring countries such as Denmark and Norway locking down offices, businesses and schools -- Tegnell opined that Swedish employees should not be allowed to work from home due to "equality" concerns:
"There is an equality aspect in this. There are certain groups in society that can [work from home], but not all, and how will we see to it so that we continue to have equality in society and that everyone has the same chance to stay healthy?"
Five days later, in mid-March, he encouraged people to think about working from home.
Even before mid-March, Sweden stopped testing how many people had been infected by the virus. "Now it is no longer important to know exactly how many people are infected in Sweden", said Tegnell. Instead, authorities would look at how many people were committed to a hospital.
Some Swedish municipalities have even kept the number of infected elderly in their care a secret, according to Svt nyheter:
"For a long time, Sörmlands Media has tried to get information from all the county's municipalities on how the spread of infection in elderly care looks, how extensive it is and where it is located. The municipalities have replied that they lack knowledge about the extent of the spread of infection and have said that it is also not possible to find out. Sörmland Media's review, however, shows that the information is not correct and that the municipalities actively concealed the information... Some municipalities have also failed to report the number of infected persons to the National Board of Health and Welfare's national reporting tool for orders for protective clothing. Something that, according to Sörmlands Media, may have affected the safety of the infection prevention work".
Criticism of the government's strategy has been articulated by 22 scientists, who wrote that the pandemic was being handled by "officials without talent". One of the scientists behind the criticism, Dr. Stefan Hanson, a Swedish infectious disease expert, told the Canadian Globe and Mail:
"I think it's a risky business and we don't know anything about herd immunity. The only thing we know is that a lot of people have died. These are human beings, not just figures. And if we would have chosen another approach, this number would have been much smaller."
According to the Globe and Mail:
"Dr. Hanson believes Dr. Tegnell deliberately pushed herd immunity and he should have followed the Norwegian, Danish and Finnish approach and introduced a lockdown. 'You cannot take risks with people's lives if you don't know what risks you are taking'".
"The COVID-19 death rate [in Sweden] is nine times higher than in Finland, nearly five times higher than in Norway, and more than twice as high as in Denmark," where there were lockdowns, Hans Bergstrom, former editor-in-chief of Dagens Nyheter, Sweden's leading daily newspaper, wrote in April.
Despite not going into lockdown, Sweden's economy is still taking a hit, although less severe than other European countries. Many Swedes, particularly those who are older, are limiting social interaction, travelling less and therefore consuming less in shops and restaurants. Sweden has also been exporting less because of the lockdowns in other countries. "Sweden's government estimates... a 6% contraction in domestic consumption this year. Combined with a forecast 10% drop in exports, Swedish authorities predict, the result will be a 7% decline in overall 2020 economic output" according to The Wall Street Journal.
WHO – and the media -- might wish to reconsider using Sweden as a model.
*Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
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The coronavirus pandemic reopens the debate about the ethics of experimentation
Omar Al-Ubaydli/Al Arabiya/May 09/2020
The shutdown of nonessential businesses could cost the US economy nearly $6 trillion per year of shutdown, according to new analysis. Consequently, health and business sector innovation that allows a return to normality will yield potentially massive returns. This forces us to reconsider the legal and ethical barriers that society places on innovation.
Once upon a time, scientists could treat the world as their petri dish, resulting in distinctly unethical experiments. Sometimes, the intention was good, such as when 18th century surgeon James Lind experimented on how to treat scurvy-afflicted sailors in the British navy, without adhering to modern-informed consent protocols. Other times, the research was entirely nefarious, such as when British military scientists exposed Indian and British soldiers to mustard gas in the run up to World War II to evaluate the chemical weapon for use against Japan.
Similar episodes led to the first issuance of international guidance on the ethics of medical research involving subjects – the 1947 Nuremberg Code. There have been many subsequent revisions regarding what sorts of experiments society is willing to tolerate. Over the last 30 years, the rules have stabilized, and scholars conducting research on human subjects, more or less, are aware of red lines regarding experiment design. Institutional review boards within research institutions, backed by strong government oversight, and a legal system that allows civil lawsuits ensure that scholars largely respect those red lines.
The coronavirus threatens to change the calculus. The above estimates of the economic damage caused by the lockdown—taken from a new study by University of Chicago professor Casey Mulligan—are eye-watering. Moreover, since these figures are averages, they understate the total damage; in practice, since the effects of the coronavirus are uneven—some people lose their job and income, while others do not—the government is forced to increase social insurance, leading to higher levels of future taxation, exacerbating the economic pain. These factors push the net impact up to $7 trillion per year, equal to $15,000 per household per quarter, according to Mulligan’s analysis.
In light of the stakes, the world’s greatest medical minds are assiduously looking for treatments, cures, and vaccines. Moreover, even those working outside the medical domain are trying to innovate. This can be as simple as designing masks that are attractive enough for people to want to wear them, or as complex as advanced contact tracing apps that collect data in a manner that protects people’s privacy.
The problem that Mulligan identifies is that many of the protections we have in place for human subjects are formulated in a non-crisis environment, whereas we are now in one of the biggest crises in the last century. The US Food and Drug Administration, the primary body that regulates new drugs, has certain emergency measures in place, but they allow far less flexibility than in other countries, where experimental treatments have yielded some success.
Moreover, the lockdown itself is preventing significant amounts of experimentation by businesses. For example, airlines will be in a much better position to gauge the effectiveness of different air filtration systems or seating arrangements in combating the spread of the disease if they are actually able to fly and test them. However, most fleets are grounded as their prospective passengers are banned from traveling.
The key feature of ethical experimentation is informed consent—those taking part do so voluntarily, based on reasonably accurate information regarding the goals of the study, the likely consequences, and the available alternatives. The large costs of the current crisis do not justify a relaxation of informed consent. However, they should make us reconsider the constraints that we place on research conducted on those willing to provide informed consent.
For example, we have a lot of data on which characteristics make someone likely to survive the coronavirus. Among those who have negligibly small risks of death, there are some who would quite happily try experimental vaccines, or willingly contract the disease, either in exchange for a material benefit, or simply as a service to society. They would be willing to fly in an airplane or dine in a restaurant to provide data on transmission.
Yet rules and regulations largely prevent such experiments. Perhaps now is the right time to relax such constraints, both the legal ones in the form or regulations, and the ethical ones taking the form of admonishing and defenestrating the scholars and subjects who take part in such trials.
At the heart of the issue is a belief in the potential of human innovation on the one hand, and, on the other hand, an appreciation of the great hardship that many are facing at present—and are likely to face for the coming years—because of the catastrophic economic fallout. Voltaire indirectly expressed these sentiments when he quipped: “Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.”
*Omar Al-Ubaydli (@omareconomics) is a researcher at Derasat, Bahrain.

One man’s lifelong fight against racism and injustice
Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/May 09/2020
All struggles against oppression have participants whose valor does not receive the recognition it deserves. Dennis Goldberg, who died in Cape Town last month at the age of 87, was one of the unsung heroes of the long struggle against South Africa’s malevolent apartheid regime. He paid a heavy price for his resistance to racist tyranny, spending 22 years in jail and then many years in exile until the anti-apartheid movement finally triumphed, led by his close friend and co-defendant in their trial, Nelson Mandela.
A white man from a Jewish family who emigrated to South Africa in the 1930s, Goldberg was an unlikely recruit to the African National Congress and the frontline of the struggle against apartheid, and even less likely to be part of the armed struggle. However, he was brought up on values of fairness, justice and equality. His parents were working-class communists from London’s East End who left for Cape Town at a time when fascism was on the rise in Europe and causing trouble in their own neighborhood. In those early formative years Goldberg’s outlook on the world developed. That world, of unspeakable Nazi genocidal racism and xenophobia in Europe, and discrimination against black people in the country of his birth, conflicted with the core values of his family, who were welcoming to everyone regardless of race, religion or sex.
What is remarkable about people like Dennis Theodore Goldberg, in common with other notable revolutionaries, freedom fighters and human rights activists who have devoted their lives to bring about change, is that in many instances they enjoyed a comfortable and privileged early life, but their upbringing, morals and personality led them to reject the usual benefits of such a life. Instead Goldberg, and his future wife Esme Bodenstein, who he met while studying civil engineering at the University of Cape Town, became members of the Modern Youth Society — which, since it was not segregated, was rather a novelty, and an unpopular one. This was the beginning of his social and political activism that was to attract the inevitable unwelcome attention of the notoriously unforgiving South African security forces. In an interview in which he reflected on life in the frontline against apartheid, he described his heroes as those people who said “they’re not going to live under the absurd system of racism of the Nazis and were prepared to risk their lives. I think that was the biggest influence on my life, that if I was called on, I would have to do something.”
A white man from a Jewish family who emigrated to South Africa in the 1930s, Goldberg was an unlikely recruit to the African National Congress and the frontline of the struggle against apartheid.
Supporting black South Africans against apartheid was his cause, a cause for which he was ready to sacrifice his freedom and even his life if necessary; and indeed, he came within touching distance of being sentenced to death. In joining the ANC’s armed wing in 1961, Goldberg was aware of the grave risk he was taking, considering that the apartheid regime was increasingly turning violently oppressive against any sign of opposition. And his arrest in 1963, at a clandestine meeting in a Johannesburg suburb with several others including Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba and Govan Mbeki, was the prelude to a long trial and many years of incarceration, most of it in solitary confinement. In the notoriously fixed 1964 Rivonia trial, Goldberg was convicted of sabotaging utility installations, charges that he and his co-defendants never denied, and sentenced to life imprisonment after the judge declined to impose the death sentence. Being white, Goldberg was not sent to the notorious Robben Island prison along with black political prisoners such as Mandela, in keeping with the apartheid regime’s distorted philosophy that the country’s different “races” should not mix. Despite separating him for more than 20 years from his anti-apartheid comrades, the regime could not crush his spirit or his convictions, even by forcing him to spend most of the time in solitary confinement.
When he was finally released from jail in 1985, his commitment to the cause of defeating apartheid had not diminished one iota. After a short time with his daughter’s family on a kibbutz in Israel, he left for London, for family reasons, but also knowing that there he would be better placed to continue the struggle by other means, those of diplomacy and mobilizing public opinion against the evils of the apartheid regime. When events within South Africa, combined with international pressure, led to the release of Mandela from jail and soon afterwards to the end of white rule, the establishment of democracy and the emergence of the “rainbow nation,” Goldberg did not seek to be rewarded with a fancy position in government, but continued his charity work promoting education and culture, which spoke volumes about his character. It also left him with the freedom to criticise the corruption that was spreading under and within the ANC, especially during the presidency of Jacob Zuma. Apartheid ended, governments changed, but the values that guided Goldberg all his life ­— the need for accountable governments who serve their people with integrity and honesty — remained with him until the very end.
Goldberg’s heroism can be summarised in his own words: “I did what I believed was necessary. And it was necessary.” He contributed to one of the most heroic, necessary and successful freedom and equality struggles of the 20th century, giving up a promising career in engineering for a simple reason, but a most honorable one: So that other human beings could enjoy the same human and political rights that he had. He deeply believed in this cause, one that required proactive intervention and not just intellectual debate while waiting for others to do the right thing. He answered the call to arms because it was necessary. This is Dennis Goldberg’s legacy to all those who witness injustice, from the smallest to the most harrowing. Above all, he lived his life in the spirit of one of Mandela’s favorite mottos: “To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
*Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations at Regent’s University London, where he is head of the International Relations and Social Sciences Program. He is also an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. He is a regular contributor to the international written and electronic media. Twitter: @YMekelberg

Does Boris really want a Brexit deal?
Andrew Hammond/Arab News/May 09/2020
Just as Europe gets over the peak of the coronavirus crisis, a second major shock could be on the horizon. As a new Brexit crisis brews between London and Brussels, talks could collapse in May or June.
European Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan warned the UK last week “to get on with the job” if there is to be a deal by the end of the year. With two rounds of talks this month and next, he said June’s stock-take would be “critical”.
By common consent of both sides, little progress has been made since negotiations for a new trade deal began in March. There remain big gaps in positions on the EU’s demand for guarantees of fair competition (so-called level playing field provisions) that have been rejected by the UK; guarantees on personal data protection; and the UK’s request for continued access to the EU police and border database, the Schengen Information System.
While the EU needs to show more compromise, it is the UK government that seems most inflexible. This includes ruling out (for now at least) even the possibility of an extension to the transition period at the end of the year, even if Brussels asked for this.
There are at least three interpretations of the UK’s dogmatic stance. First, that it is tactical and designed to convince the EU that London doesn’t mind if it gets a deal or not in the hope that a better deal then emerges on UK terms; and second, that Boris Johnson’s team would prefer a “no deal” outcome that signals maximum political distancing from the EU to the outside world, but then is somewhat softened by a series of sectoral “side deals” in areas to which the UK gives priority.
A third explanation is that the UK team has no intention of signing up to the likely terms on offer from the EU, and that with the recession accompanying the coronavirus crisis (the worst since 1707, the Bank of England says), leaving on WTO terms is a less daunting prospect that it appeared before the pandemic. It is noteworthy here that London has already said that it has re-commenced preparations to end the transition period for no trade deal on WTO terms.
Just as Europe gets over the peak of the coronavirus crisis, a second major shock could be on the horizon. As a new Brexit crisis brews between London and Brussels, talks could collapse in May or June.
Former Irish minister Hogan leans toward the third explanation. “UK politicians and government have certainly decided that COVID is going to be blamed for all the fallout from Brexit, and my perception of it is they don’t want to drag the negotiations out into 2021 because they can effectively blame COVID for everything. There is no real sign that our British friends are approaching the negotiations with a plan to succeed,” he said.
That startlingly candid assessment has, of course, been rejected by Downing Street. But unless the UK drops its doctrinaire position that there can be no transition extension, Hogan’s views are a plausible assessment of the government’s motivations given the short amount of time now to reach a deal.
Even before the virus crisis began, the 10 months from March to December was not likely to be nearly long enough to agree more than what chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier has called a “bare bones” UK-EU trade agreement; and not the kind of deep trade deal promised by some Brexiteers in 2016.
All in all, with the political mood music between London and Brussels so bad, there is a growing possibility of what even Brexit Party Leader Nigel Farage has called a new crisis next month by which time both sides need to decide if there will be an extended transition into 2021. So there is growing pressure on both sides with the prospect of a no-trade deal Brexit raising its head again.
If that happens, especially in the absence of any sectoral side deals, both Brussels and London would probably need to return to the negotiating table in the months that follow, but with a new set of incentives. Such discussions could take significantly longer in this scenario than if Johnson were to secure a deal in the transition period.
Moreover, outside a transition, the negotiating process could get significantly harder, with the same tough trade-offs as before. One factor that may make concluding a deal significantly more difficult is that — outside of transition, when it requires only a qualified majority of states to ratify — EU unanimity would be needed. Indeed, the possibility of just one European state blocking an agreement remains a key risk.
The stakes therefore remain huge and historic, not just for the UK but also the EU, which could be damaged by a disorderly no-deal Brexit. Delivering a smoother departure now needs clear, coherent, and careful strategy and thinking on all sides so that London, Brussels and the 27 member states can move toward a new constructive partnership that can bring significant benefits for both.
*Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics

To deal with the pandemic fallout, remember 1945
Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/May 09/2020
Celebrations to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day — victory in Europe, the defeat of Nazi Germany on May 8, 1945 — were muted by the coronavirus pandemic; many events were canceled, and those that did take place were curtailed by the need for safe distancing.
In a moving broadcast to the British people, Queen Elizabeth compared their resolve to defeat Hitler with their resolve to combat COVID 19. This disease is not causing the physical devastation that the Second World War did, with Europe in ruins. This time it is our economies that are being devastated, and we still do not know what the lasting consequences will be.
The greatest fear among many leaders in 1945 was that the world would slide into another great depression, as it had after the First World War. Governments responded wisely and generously. The G.I. Bill in 1944 provided a raft of financial benefits to US soldiers returning from the war, including payment of tuition fees that gave them a college education — often the first in their family, thus driving social mobility.
Nor did the US look only inwards, as many accuse it of doing today. Between 1948 and 1952, the Marshall Plan pumped more than $12 billion (nearly $130 billion in today’s money) into western Europe to rebuild its economies. The UK used its share of those funds to lay the foundations of a comprehensive welfare state, including the National Health Service, which guarantees health care to all, free at the point of delivery.
And with the determination that populist nationalism should never again be permitted to provoke global conflict, as it had already done twice in half a century, came the creation of the multilateral global architecture that we know today — the UN and its subsidiary organizations, along with the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the IMF and eventually the EU. As Queen Elizabeth put it, the greatest tribute to those who defeated Hitler is that countries who were sworn enemies are now friends, working together for the peace, health and prosperity of us all.
So what lessons from then are applicable now, as COVID-19 holds the world in its grip?
The egalitarian trend after 1945 has been reversed in the past few decades, and the wealth gap has become a chasm. COVID-19 has laid these inequalities bare.
Individual states in the developed world will be tempted to look inward to address the fallout from the pandemic. Attempts to refinance multilateral development agencies or top up bilateral aid will meet domestic resistance, in an environment of staggering government deficits.
The egalitarian trend after 1945 has been reversed in the past few decades, and the wealth gap has become a chasm. COVID-19 has laid these inequalities bare. African-American and Latino communities in the US have suffered disproportionately, reflecting their lower incomes and inferior living conditions. In the world’s richest country, long queues in front of foodbanks are an abomination.
This pandemic is a global crisis (there’s a clue in the name), and will require global solutions. Alas, the multilateral infrastructure is under attack from populist leaders and populist governments. Do the UN, the WHO, the WTO, the World Bank, the IMF, etc. need reforming? For sure they do, but that does not mean we should abandon them. If ever there were a time for nations to work together, it is now. What the world needs isleadership, collaboration and magnanimity, not “every country for itself and the devil take the hindmost.”
The pandemic has exposed inequalities within countries, and among them. When it is over we will have to ask ourselves, who do we want to be? What can the weak expect from their own countries, and what can weak countries expect from the family of nations? Strong, sustainable societies have strong middle classes and fewer inequalities. And internationally, countries in affluent “neighborhoods” are less likely to turn on each other.
The privileged, whether individuals or nations, have an obligation to look out for the less fortunate, or the initiative may be taken out of their hands. When we emerge from the crisis, we can learn a lot from the magnanimity of the Marshall Plan and the spirit behind the postwar multilateral frameworks.
In her broadcast, Queen Elizabeth appealed to the wartime values of “never give up, never despair.” During the pandemic lockdown, she said, “our streets are not empty, but filled with the love and care we have for each other.” Now is the time to show it.
*Cornelia Meyer is a business consultant, macro-economist and energy expert. Twitter: @MeyerResources

Why now is the time for a new Middle East alliance
Luke Coffey/Arab News/May 09/2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has not changed many of the geopolitical challenges for the US in the Middle East. Iran will continue to export its “revolution” through terrorists proxies. Transnational terrorism will continue to plague Syria and Yemen. For better or worse, Russia and China will strive to be more involved in the region. If anything, new challenges have appeared —the economic fallout from the pandemic and the drop in the price of oil.
What will change, however, is the level of resources the US can devote to these issues. This means Washington needs to be smarter in how it manages its relations in the Middle East. One initiative that deserves further attention is the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA) proposed by the Trump administration.
Because the historical and political circumstances that led in 1949 to the creation of NATO are absent in the Middle East, the region lacks a similarly strong collective security organization. The idea of forming one emerged publicly during President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2017 for the Riyadh Summit, his first official trip outside the US. The Gulf states were focused on building close ties with the new administration after strains with its predecessor over the flawed and risky 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The MESA concept dovetailed with Trump’s push for greater burden-sharing in security. The thinking was that as MESA’s military capacity grew, Washington could promote regional security and stability while freeing US military forces for deployment in other regions. Beyond the security component of MESA, there is also a need for greater economic cooperation between the US and the Gulf, especially when the pandemic recedes.
However, while MESA sounds good in theory, it is more difficult to implement in practice, for three reasons.
First, the dispute between Qatar and some of its neighbors is the main issue preventing the creation of MESA. Until this is resolved, it is unrealistic to think these countries could sit at the same table in a security or economic alliance. US policy makers should redouble their efforts to end this dispute.
The short-term US goal should be to lay strong foundations on which a future alliance can be built. Instead of going for the immediate creation of MESA, Washington should work with partner countries in the Middle East to build confidence and work on a step-by-step basis to lead up to the eventual creation of MESA. Second, there is no clear consensus on what MESA should be. Some Gulf countries want the main focus to be on security, others on trade and economics; they are not mutually exclusive, and a well-rounded MESA should focus on security, economics, trade and energy.
Finally, there is a lack of agreement on the main threats to the region. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE take a hawkish view of the threat from Iran. Oman, which prides itself on its regional neutrality, and Qatar, which shares natural gas fields with Iran, maintain cordial relations with Tehran. Kuwait is somewhere in the middle. This complicates the ability to form an alliance such MESA.
Nevertheless, the effort is worthwhile. The short-term US goal should be to lay strong foundations on which a future alliance can be built. Instead of going for the immediate creation of MESA, Washington should work with partner countries in the Middle East to build confidence and work on a step-by-step basis to lead up to the eventual creation of MESA.
This could be done if the US focused less on specific threats and more on improving military capabilities. Many countries see Iran as the biggest threat in the region. The US is also worried about the increasing role of Russia and China. But not every country in the region sees the situation in the same way. Instead of focusing on a specific threat, which will never enjoy a Gulf consensus, the US should identify key military, security and intelligence-gathering capability gaps that all the countries can address together. This would allow MESA to be ready for all security threats to the region without publicly specifying that Iran is the source of many of them.
The US should also keep the right balance among security, economics and energy inside any MESA proposal. MESA should be seen as a stool with three legs (security, economics, and energy). If one leg is longer than the other, the whole stool is unstable. For too long, the US has focused too much on just one of these issues at a time. This is not a healthy or sustainable way to advance its interests in the region.
As a goodwill gesture, and to show that the US is committed to the principles of economic freedom and free trade, the Trump administration should remove unnecessary tariffs it has placed on Gulf partners — for example, on steel and aluminum. Several Gulf states have done much to diversify their economies, and the steel and aluminum sectors have played a key role. Not only are these tariffs bad for the American consumer, they also needlessly complicate America’s relationships with other countries, especially in the Middle-East
The US will need to forge a broad consensus on the mission, division of labor, and long-term goals of the proposed alliance before it can jump-start its formation — but as the world suffers through the coronaviruspandemic, there is no better time for MESA than now.
*Luke Coffey is director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Twitter: @LukeDCoffey

Putin may be rethinking why Russia is in Syria
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/May 09/2020
Parts of the world are cautiously easing lockdown restrictions and attempting a return to some sort of normality, having overcome the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, in some of the world’s more unstable regions, a return to pre-pandemic days comes with a resumption of violent conflict, because cease-fires often afford belligerents crucial opportunities for rest, regrouping, re-arming, re-positioning forces and revising strategies.
In Syria, in particular, skirmishes will inevitably intensify as Bashar Assad, backed by Iran and Russia, seeks to rout Turkish-backed opposition forces, consolidate power and force an end to the war that would be favorable to Damascus. However, the strange coalition of Tehran, Moscow and Damascus appears to be falling apart.
For the past five years, Russia has shielded the Assad regime by vetoing UN Security Council Resolutions or blunting any meaningful attempts at armed intervention. In turn, Syria became a proving ground for Russian weaponry, technology and combat tactics.
Moscow deployed about 5,000 troops (similar to Operation Barkhane by France in the Sahel), supplied weapons, launched airstrikes, boosted its naval presence and built military encampments in Syria. Russian petroleum engineering-construction company Stroytransgaz has become a dominant player in Syria’s energy industry, securing precious income for Damascus that is key to maintaining loyalty in the loose domestic coalition keeping Assad in power. This limited intervention is in stark contrast to the full-scale Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, which ended in humiliating defeat and, shortly afterwards, the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Until the end of last year, Moscow appeared on track to securing an elusive geopolitical victory that would have achieved the 2018 “Putin Doctrine” goals of eroding American influence globally and boosting Moscow’s ability to project power. The 2008 doctrine has so far only made a mess in Ukraine, provoked a raft of EU sanctions and irritated the Western alliance with anti-NATO measures; these include preventing Montenegro and North Macedonia from joining, and inflaming tensions between NATO and one of its own members, Turkey.
However, Russia's idea of “mission accomplished” in Syria is no longer to keep Assad in power, but to pave the way for a legitimate, internationally recognized government. That is markedly different from Moscow’s initial objectives, which were to maintain existing power structures to focus on the threat posed by Daesh and other extremist groups. The shift can be attributed to changing domestic circumstances from the coronavirus pandemic to plunging oil prices, dealing major blows to an already stagnant Russian economy. The biggest external factor that has recently prompted Russian authorities to make cryptic statements about Syria is Iran. Russia's idea of “mission accomplished” in Syria is no longer to keep Assad in power, but to pave the way for a legitimate, internationally recognized government.
With Daesh largely defeated and opposition forces losing ground, it is becoming evident that Tehran has plans for Damascus — and none of them involve Assad acceding to Moscow goals such as the withdrawal of foreign troops, a new constitution and a coalition government.
Despite assertions that Iran would have no qualms about Assad stepping down, such a scenario is implausible given the strong historical links between the Assad family and Tehran dating back to the formation of the Islamic Republic in 1979. Syria was the only Arab nation to back Tehran in the Iran-Iraq War and has since become part of the so-called Shiite crescent, a sphere of influence that Iran has carved from as far east as Afghanistan to the Mediterranean. Tehran is unlikely to accept any outcome that would oust Assad or empower his political rivals, since it would endanger a vital link to Lebanon’s Hezbollah — itself actively involved in Syria, and occasionally lobbing missiles at Israel.
Additionally, a belligerent Tehran, seeking to frustrate US and Israeli interests, views Syria as just another battleground in a perpetually frosty relationship, which necessitates maintaining the status quo — far from Moscow’s ideals. Worse yet, even though Russia’s assistance has been invaluable, Damascus still prefers to take its cues from Tehran.
There is a growing realization inn Moscow that Russia has expended significant diplomatic and military capital to achieve what is amounting to a fleeting geopolitical victory because of Tehran’s massive political clout and growing influence. Russia is now, uncharacteristically, telegraphing its maneuvers, as if to signal Moscow’s exasperation.
To that end, Russian operatives have begun conducting opinion polls to gauge the appetite of Syrians for Assad remaining in power, during and after any transition period. In addition, Russian media has not been reluctant to criticize the Assad regime; one outlet went so far as to suggest that the failure of Damascus to meet Russia’s objectives portends a repeat of the decade-long Soviet invasion of Afghanistan — an unthinkable prospect.
If Moscow is intent on maintaining its ties with Damascus, despite the growing challenges, the only reprieve lies in exploiting the loose coalition keeping Assad in power to pressure the regime for outcomes favorable to Russian objectives. In addition, the sanctions, isolation, the absence of international aid and rampant corruption have whittled down Syria's finances, crippling any plans for the massive reconstruction efforts the country will need after nine years of civil war. So far, only Russia has committed to mobilize such an undertaking, provided an international coalition forms around that goal.
However, without a constitution and guarantees for opposition forces or political rivals, there is little chance that most countries across the globe will be interested in joining such a coalition if conditions stipulated in UN Security Council Resolution 2254 are not met satisfactorily.
It is unclear whether the flurry of Russian news reports critical of Assad, along with analyses from Moscow think tanks with close ties to the Kremlin, will suffice to remind Damascus that it needs to begin fulfilling the Kremlin’s demands or face an abrupt Russian departure.
*Hafed Al-Ghwell is a non-resident senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Institute at the John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He is also senior adviser at the international economic consultancy Maxwell Stamp and at the geopolitical risk advisory firm Oxford Analytica, a member of the Strategic Advisory Solutions International Group in Washington DC and a former adviser to the board of the World Bank Group. Twitter: @HafedAlGhwell