LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
May 28/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
No one who believes in him will be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him
Letter to the Romans 10/04-12:”For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that ‘the person who does these things will live by them.’But the righteousness that comes from faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” ’ (that is, to bring Christ down) ‘or “Who will descend into the abyss?” ’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on May 27-28/19
Our People In Israel versus the Dhimmitude Lebanese Maronite, Officials, Politicians, Parties & Clergymen
Hezbollah’s bogus Liberation & Resistance Day
Lebanon 2019 state budget approved by cabinet
Mustaqbal Movement Says Lebanese Man Killed by Syrian Regime Forces
Lebanon Unlikely to Attend Bahrain Conference if Invited
Israel Open to US-Mediated Talks with Lebanon on Maritime Border
Berri calls for joint session Wednesday
U.N. Coordinator Welcomes Cabinet's Approval of Budget
Report: Lebanon Likely to Boycott Bahrain Conference on Palestine
Beshara Asmar Released on Bail, Apologizes for Abusive Remarks
Geagea: Budget Could've Been Better, Overlooking Arsal Incident Unacceptable
More Than Half a Million Lebanese Left Their Country over 26-Year Period
Samy Gemayel Meets with Shiite Scholar, Stresses Need to Build a State of Law
Hassan tackles with UN mission Lebanon's electoral needs
Ghosn Family Contact UN Over 'Judicial Persecution' in Japan
Hezbollah paying the price of Iranian obstinance

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 27-28/19
Israel Strikes Syria Anti-Aircraft Position after Coming under Attack
Casualties as Israeli Missile Hits Syria's Quneitra
6 Civilians Killed in Regime Air Raids on Syria’s Idlib
Palestinian Authority Thwarts Terrorist Operation against Israeli Forces
Dovish Trump Says not Looking for Regime Change in Iran
Trump: Washington Not Looking for Iran Regime Change
Rouhani to Khamenei: Iran Govt Maintained Nuclear Deal
Iran’s IRGC Refuses to Negotiate with the ‘Great Satan’
Israel takes First Step towards New Elections
Baghdad Court Condemns Fourth French ISIS Member to Death
Saudi Arabia Condemns Terrorist Attack in Mosul
Qatar Invited by S. Arabia to Talks over Iran Tensions

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 27-28/19
Our People In Israel versus the Dhimmitude Lebanese Maronite, Officials, Politicians, Parties & Clergymen/Elias Bejjani/May 26/2019
Hezbollah’s bogus Liberation & Resistance Day/Elias Bejjani/May 26/2019
Lebanon 2019 state budget approved by cabinet/Reuters/Arab News/May 26/2019
Hezbollah paying the price of Iranian obstinance/Dr. Yaron Friedman|/Ynetnews/May 27/2019
 Despite Saudi Blockade, Qatar Plans to Attend Trump Peace Conference in Bahrain/Amir Tibon/Haaretz/May 27/2019
Erdogan’s Istanbul Nightmare/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/May 27/2019
How Brexit Ate the Prime Minister/Therese Raphael/Bloomberg View/May 27/2019
Practices, Interventions and the ‘Inevitable Curse’/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/May 27/2019
German Jews Demand Ban On Hezbollah After Kippah Warning/Benjamin Weinthal/Jerusalem Post/May 27/2019
Iranian militias in Syria under pressure from all sides/Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/May 27/2019
Nile neighbors’ relations return to normal/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Arab News/May 27/2019
GCC countries feel force of trade spats between US and Asia/Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/May 27/2019
Why Iran’s diplomatic overtures ring hollow/Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg/Arab News/May 27/2019

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on May 27-28/19
Our People In Israel versus the Dhimmitude Lebanese Maronite, Officials, Politicians, Parties & Clergymen
 Elias Bejjani/May 26/2019
 http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/75194/elias-bejjani-our-people-in-israel-versus-the-dhimmitude-lebanese-maronite-officials-politicians-parties-clergymen/
 “Lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed”.
 Saint Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews 12/12-21
 Yesterday, our patriotic Lebanese people who are taking refuge in Israel since year 2000, were again and again stepped in the back, betrayed and abandoned by all those Lebanese (Maronite and Christian) parties, politicians and clergymen who are supposed to carry and defend their just case of resistance and patriotism.
 With no shed of doubt, and with a fully relaxed conscience, one can feel sad, ashamed and disappointed in regards to the shy rhetoric and cowardice stances that were not taken, adopted, or declared yesterday in the Iranian occupied Lebanon in regards to our Southern people who against their will still taking refuge in Israel and are not allowed to return back to their beloved country, Lebanon.
 These shameful stances of silence, abandonment, denial and Iscariotism were taken publically yesterday by the majority, if not actually by all the Lebanese Maronite and Christian politicians, political parties, clergymen and officials on all levels.
 With no self respect, gratitude, witnessing to the truth, or reverence to the martyrs’ sacrifices they either completely remained mute and silent, or hailed and glorified the terrorist Iranian Hezbollah who is falsely portrayed as a liberator of South Lebanon from the Israeli occupation in year 2000 .
 They did so on the annual event of the big lie and bogus that is called “The Liberation Day Of South Lebanon”
 Sadly 99% of our Lebanese Maronite and Christian politicians and clergymen in particular have lost their faith and national obligations, as well as their memory in regards to our Southern heroic people who were forced by Hezbollah in year 2000 to take refuge in Israel.
 Those leaders and clergymen did yesterday practically and openly downtrodden and crush intentionally all that is gratitude to our martyrs and to our Southern people heroism. Their stances were totally disgraceful, pathetic, pitiful and disgusting.
 They hailed and glorified the Iranian occupier, Hezbollah who forced their own people to escape to Israel.
 In conclusion, these Maronite and Christian leaders at all levels who hailed yesterday the lie of “The Liberation Day) or were cowardly silent and did not stand up for their own oppressed Southern people, they actually do not represent the National Lebanese conscience, dignity, history and identity, and accordingly are not worthy of their current leadership status.
 And definitely history will not have mercy on them.
 May almighty God and His angles be with out Southern people who are still against their will taking refuge in Israel.

Hezbollah’s bogus Liberation & Resistance Day
Elias Bejjani/May 25/19
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/75168/elias-bejjani-hezbollahs-bogus-liberation-resistance-day-3/
Believe it or not, on May 25 each year since 2000 Lebanon has been celebrating the so-called “Liberation & Resistance Day.”
Sadly, this celebration commemorates a bogus event, and a phony heroism that did not actually take place.
On May 22, 2000 the Israeli Army unilaterally and for solely Israeli domestic reasons withdrew from the security zone of South Lebanon in accordance with UN Resolution 425.
This miscalculated and hasty withdrawal was a fatal Israeli decision that has inspired the Hamas terrorism acts and the on-going havoc in the Palestinian Gaza strip.
During the last 19 years many Israeli officials and politicians from all parties openly and harshly criticized Barak’s Government (Barak was PM at that time) hasty and unwise decision through which Israel’ abandoned its ally the South Lebanon Army (SLA) and gave Hezbollah all south Lebanon and the entire Lebanon on a plate of sliver.
The unilateral Israeli withdrawal created a security vacuum in south Lebanon.
The Syrians who were occupying Lebanon at that time and fully controlling its government, did not allow the Lebanese Army to deploy in the south and fill this vacuum after the Israeli withdrawal.
Instead Syria helped the Hezbollah militia to militarily control the whole southern region, and even patrol the Israeli-Lebanese border.
It is worth mentioning that the Israeli army’s withdrawal was executed without any military battles, or even minor skirmishes with Hezbollah, or the Lebanese and Syrian armies.
The Syrian regime, in a bid to justify both its on going occupation of Lebanon and the avoidance of disarming Hezbollah, came up with the “Shabaa Farms occupation big lie” and declared Hezbollah a Liberator, alleging it had forced Israel to withdrawal from South Lebanon.
Syria, in the same camouflaging and devious context, dictated to both its puppet Lebanese parliament and government to declare May 25th a National Day under the tag of “Liberation & Resistance Day”.
In reality Hezbollah did not force the Israeli withdrawal, and did not play any role in the Liberation of the southern Lebanese region.
In fact both Hezbollah and Syria deliberately hindered and delayed the Israeli withdrawal for more than 14 years.
Every time the Israelis called on the Lebanese government to engage in a joint, serious effort under the United Nations umbrella to ensure a safe and mutually organized withdrawal of its army from South Lebanon, the Lebanese government refused to cooperate, did not agree to deploy its army in the south, and accused the Israelis of plotting to divide and split the Syrian-Lebanese joint track.
This approach to the Israeli calls was an official Syrian decision dictated to all the Lebanese puppet governments during the Syrian occupation era.
Since then, Hezbollah has been hijacking Lebanon and its people, refusing to disarm and advocating for the annihilation of Israel.
This Iranian mullahs’ terrorist army stationed in Lebanon, is viciously hiding behind labels of resistance, liberation and religion.
Hezbollah has recklessly jeopardized the Lebanese peoples’ lives, safety, security and livelihood.
It has been growing bolder and bolder in the last 19 years and mercilessly taking the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people hostage through terrorism, force and organized crime.
Sadly, Hezbollah is systematically devouring Lebanon day after day, and piece by piece, while at the same time marginalizing all its governmental institutions in a bid to topple the Lebanese state and erect in its place a Shiite Muslim regime, a replica of the Iranian Shiite mullahs’ fundamentalist republic.
Meanwhile the free world and Arabic countries are totally silent, indifferent, and idly watching from far away the horrible crime unfolding without taking any practical or tangible measures to put an end to this anti-Lebanese Syria-Iranian scheme that is executed through their spearhead, the Hezbollah armed militia.
Who is to be blamed for Hezbollah’s current odd and bizarre status?
Definitely the Syrians who have occupied Lebanon for more than 28 years (1976-2005).
During their bloody and criminal occupation, Syria helped the Iranian Hezbollah militia build a state within Lebanon and fully control the Lebanese Shiite community.
But also the majority of the Lebanese politicians, leaders, officials and clergymen share the responsibility because they were subservient and acted in a dire Dhimmitude, selfish and cowardly manner.
If these so-called Lebanese leaders had been courageous and patriotic and had not appeased Hezbollah and turned a blind eye to all its vicious and human rights atrocities, intimidation tactics, crimes and expansionism schemes, this Iranian Shiite fundamentalist militia would not have been able to erect its own mini-state in the southern suburb of Beirut, and its numerous mini-cantons in the Bekaa Valley and the South; nor would Hezbollah have been able to build its mighty military power, with 70 thousand militiamen, or stockpile more than 200 thousand missiles and force the Iranian “Wilayat Al-Faqih” religious doctrine on the Lebanese Shiite community and confiscate Lebanon’s decision making process and freedoms.
Since Hezbollah’s emergence in 1982, these politicians have been serving their own selfish interests and not the interests of the Lebanese people and the nation. They went along with Hezbollah’s schemes, deluding themselves that its militia and weaponry would remain in South Lebanon and would not turn against them.
This failure to serve the people of Lebanon allowed Hezbollah to make many Lebanese and most of the Arab-Muslim countries through its terrorism propaganda to blindly swallow its big lie of theatrical, faked resistance and Liberation.
Hezbollah would not have been able to refuse to disarm in 1991, like all the other Lebanese militias in accordance to the “Taef Accord,” which called for the disarmament of all militias.
Hezbollah would not have become a state inside the Lebanese state, and a world-wide terrorism Iranian-Syrian tool which turned against them all after its war with Israel in year 2006 and after the UN troops were deployed on the Lebanese – Israeli borders in accordance with the UN Resolution 1701.
On May 7, 2008 Hezbollah invaded Sunni Western Beirut killing and injuring in cold blood hundreds of its civilian citizens, and too attempted to take over by force Mount Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s General Secretary Sheik Hassan Nasrallah called that day (May 7, 2008) a great and glorious victory for his resistance, and keeps on threatening the Lebanese that a replicate of that day will take place if they do not succumb and obey his Iranian orders.
Hezbollah is a deadly dragon that the Lebanese politicians have been allowing him to feed on sacrifices from the southern Lebanese citizens, especially on those who were living in the “Security Zone” and who fled to Israel in May 2000 after the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon.
This dragon who enjoyed devouring his southern sacrifices has now turned on all the Lebanese and if they do not stand for their rights and dignity, he will keep on devouring them all one after the other.
We call on the Lebanese government, the Lebanese Parliament and on all the free and patriotic Lebanese politicians and leaders to cancel the May 25 National Day, because it is not national at all, and also to stop calling Hezbollah a resistance, put an end for its mini-state, cantons and weaponry, and secure a dignified, honorable and safe return for all the Lebanese citizens who have been taking refuge in Israel since May 2000.
N.B: The original version of the above article was first published in 2010..It is republished with minor changes.

Lebanon 2019 state budget approved by cabinet
Reuters/Arab News/May 26/2019
BEIRUT: The government of heavily indebted Lebanon formally approved a 2019 budget on Monday that includes deep spending cuts to narrow the projected deficit to 7.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in a bid to stave off financial crisis. The budget reflected “a real government will to take a corrective path” in state finances and is based on a growth forecast of 1.2 percent this year, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said in a news conference broadcast live on television. It is seen as an important test of Lebanon’s will to enact reforms that could stabilize its debt trajectory in a state plagued by chronic corruption and waste. The cabinet had already agreed to the budget in principle on Friday, and it must still pass in parliament. Lebanon’s public debt burden, equivalent to about 150 percent of GDP, is one of the heaviest in the world. Last year’s deficit was equal to about 11.5 percent of GDP, and economic growth rates have been weak for years. Khalil said the budget had been well received by foreign states. Last year, international donors at the Paris Cedre conference pledged $11 billion in spending on Lebanese infrastructure in return for its government implementing reforms.
“This is a national need, reducing the deficit, before being linked to Cedre ... For sure there is a positive view from all those concerned abroad to what has been achieved on this level: the reform steps and the level of deficit reduction,” he said. Khalil said that Lebanon now expected the new investment projects to start, and that the Finance Ministry’s efforts to keep the deficit in line with budget projections would show its seriousness. This would result in the “injection and launching of new investment projects that will have a big impact on moving the economy,” he said. Khalil said the government had taken steps, which he did not spell out, to bring down Lebanon’s huge trade deficit which he said was “putting pressure on the matter of the foreign currency reserve.”
He said those steps had stirred some “reservations” in government.
Cuts to benefits and pensions for state workers and the military led to protests and strikes as the coalition government spent weeks discussing the budget. Lebanon’s public sector is its biggest expense, followed by the cost of servicing the public debt and subsidies to an inefficient electricity sector.
The budget includes a government plan to cut some $660 million from debt-servicing costs by issuing treasury bonds at a 1 percent interest rate to the Lebanese banking sector, Khalil has previously said. Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh said on Monday the bank was “keen to follow up on current efforts with a focus on respect for Lebanese law and global financial rules that do not permit any obligatory measures on banks,” without elaborating. Salameh said that measures to reform the budget and the power sector were “positive signs” and that financial markets and the Lebanese pound remained stable.
Approving the budget in parliament could take another month, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri was quoted saying in local newspapers. Lebanon’s parliament is dominated by parties in the coalition.

Mustaqbal Movement Says Lebanese Man Killed by Syrian Regime Forces
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 May, 2019/The Lebanese northeastern border town of Arsal laid to rest on Sunday Hussein al-Hujeiri, who was killed by Syrian regime forces, as confirmed by the al-Mustaqbal Movement’s branch in the area.The man was reportedly tortured before being killed by Syrian forces, it said on Sunday.Hujeiri, Wissam Karnabi and Nayef Raed, were reported missing in Arsal’s outskirts on Thursday. The National News Agency reported that Hujeiri’s body was found in the outskirts of Arsal. “Arsal bids farewell to its martyr Hussein al-Hujeiri, who was killed by the Syrian regime’s criminality after its troops made an incursion into Lebanese territory in Arsal’s hills, where they kidnapped Hujeiri and his companions,” al-Mustaqbal said in a statement. “They took them into Syrian territory after assaulting them while they were on a hunting trip in the Wadi al-Shahout area,” it added. It noted that Hujeiri’s body, which was retrieved by Lebanon’s General Security agency on Saturday, bore “torture” marks.Efforts were underway between the Mustaqbal and General Security to find Karnabi and Raed and return them safe to their families and country. In a speech during the funeral, Mustaqbal bloc MP Bakr al-Hujeiri said the Syrian regime ruled Lebanon for 30 years “and still aspires to return to it.” “We tell this regime: you will not return to our country. Your presence was a bad era in the history of Lebanon... Lebanon has sovereignty, freedom and independence,” he added. Al-Mustaqbal said the incident was a “dangerous attack on Arsal and its people,” adding that “the Lebanese border is being violated daily by the Syrian regime’s forces.” “Arsal cannot accept the continuation of this dangerous situation on its border and calls on the state to pay attention to the area and to activate the army’s missions in controlling the border and preventing the violation of Lebanese sovereignty,” the statement read. Arsal deputy municipal chief Rima Karanbi told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hujeiri and his companions had entered Syrian territory on a hunting mission. People often go hunting for partridges in the area using nets. “They did not even have hunting rifles,” she said, adding that the only information authorities had of the incident came from the regime.

Lebanon Unlikely to Attend Bahrain Conference if Invited
Beirut - Khalil Fleihan/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 May, 2019/Lebanon has not yet received an official invitation to a conference in Bahrain next month when Washington is expected to unveil the economic aspects of its Middle East peace plan. The meeting, planned for June 25-26, will be held in Manama. A Lebanese diplomat told Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday that if invited, Beirut would reject to send a delegation to the conference. Beirut believes that there should be no negotiations on the economy of the Palestinian State, or anything of that sort, before finding a political solution to the conflict, and before deciding the fate of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, which rejects their naturalization, the diplomat explained. The White House announced this month that it will launch the first phase of its peace plan at the Manama summit focusing on economic aspects. The proposal of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has not received a warm welcome. Last week, the Palestinian Authority formally rejected an invitation to attend the conference. Also, the majority of Palestinian businessmen decided to snub the summit, or were mainly not enthusiastic about the proposal, despite knowing that they will financially benefit from it. Kushner and the rest of Trump’s Middle East team were surprised about the Palestinian rejection, which would probably have repercussions on the political portion of the long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan dubbed the “Deal of the Century.” A Lebanese official downplayed the Manama meeting’s ability to set the stage for a political solution to the conflict.The official stressed the importance of keeping a unified Lebanese stance as a guarantee to any possible future negotiations with Israel.

Israel Open to US-Mediated Talks with Lebanon on Maritime Border
 Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 May, 2019/Israel voiced openness on Monday to US-mediated talks with Lebanon on resolving a dispute over their maritime border. Such talks, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz's office said in a statement after he met US envoy David Satterfield, could be "for the good of both countries' interests in developing natural gas reserves and oil" by agreeing a border. Satterfield, who is Acting US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, is set to return to Beirut next week to present Israel’s response to proposals made by Lebanon on drawing the land and sea borders between the two countries. Lebanese leaders have said that they have a unified stance on the issue, and proposed that the delineation be made in coordination with the United Nations. Satterfield told the officials last week that Israel had agreed to two important Lebanese demands - that the UN be involved in the mediation and that both land and sea disputes be resolved together.

Berri calls for joint session Wednesday
Mon 27 May 2019/NNA - Speaker of the House, Nabih Berri, on Monday called for a joint parliamentary session by the Finance and Budget, Administration and Justice, National Defense, and Interior and Municipalities committees at on Wednesday to discuss several bills.

U.N. Coordinator Welcomes Cabinet's Approval of Budget
Naharnet/May 27/2019/U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis on Monday welcomed the Lebanese Cabinet’s endorsement of the 2019 draft state budget, hoping that following a “thorough review” by the Parliament it will be adopted “as quickly as possible.”“The adoption of the 2019 budget creates an opportunity to take initial measures to reduce the deficit. It is also an opportunity to start introducing necessary reforms in a politically-, economically- and socially-sustainable way as a part of the broader effort towards revitalizing good governance, accountability, investment and job creation,” Kubis said in a statement distributed by his office. Kubis noted “pledges of constitutional and political leaders in Lebanon to continue working together for a fiscally-responsible pro-reform budget in the spirit of shared responsibility and social justice,” hoping the new budget would put in motion a series of reforms. “Such internal reforms, identified by Lebanon as necessary, are needed to help the country succeed in providing a stable, sustainable, dignified and prosperous future for its people. These reforms aiming at building a well governed, accountable, transparent and resilient State and institutions in service of its citizens are in line with Lebanon’s commitment at the CEDRE conference and have the full support of Lebanon’s international partners,” Kubis added. The Cabinet on Monday approved the 2019 draft state budget after weeks of haggling, referring it to Parliament. Lebanon has vowed to slash public spending to unlock $11 billion worth of aid pledged by international donors during an April 2018 conference in Paris. Last month, Prime Minister Saad Hariri vowed to introduce "the most austere budget in Lebanon's history" to combat the country's bulging fiscal deficit. Lebanon is one of the world's most indebted countries, with public debt estimated at 141 percent of GDP in 2018, according to credit ratings agency Moody's.

Report: Lebanon Likely to Boycott Bahrain Conference on Palestine
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 27/2019/Lebanon is likely to boycott an economic conference in Bahrain next month in support of Washington's Middle East peace plan, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported on Monday. The daily said that Lebanon has not yet received an invitation to attend the conference in Manama, but plans to boycott if an invitation was received. A Lebanese diplomat told the daily on condition of anonymity that Lebanon would apologize for attending even if it received an invitation because it “refuses to discuss an economic plan for Palestine before a political solution is achieved.”“No negotiations about the economy of the Palestinian state before the adoption of a political solution to the issue, and a decision on the fate of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, in addition to rejecting normalization,” said the source on condition of anonymity. The source pointed out that “the plan of first adviser to US President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner did not receive the expected echo. The Palestinian authority and Palestinian businessmen rejected the conference which will probably affect the political part of the deal of the century.” The White House had earlier announced it would co-host the June 25-26 conference with Bahrain focusing on economic aspects of the long-delayed peace plan, with the declared aim of achieving Palestinian prosperity. Last week, the Palestinian leadership said it was not consulted over the economic conference in support of Washington's Middle East peace plan and no party was entitled to negotiate on its behalf. The US peace plan is expected to feature proposals for regional economic development that would include Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.

Beshara Asmar Released on Bail, Apologizes for Abusive Remarks
Naharnet/May 27/2019/Beirut Investigative Judge George Rizk on Monday ordered the release of the head of the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers Beshara al-Asmar on LL500 thousand bail, the National News agency reported.
NNA said that Asmar has been released on bail, but the decision is pending the plaintiffs' move. Asmar was detained in mid May over his abusive remarks against late former Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir. “Accountability must be enforced on all Lebanese officials who caused tragedies of the Lebanese people,” Asmar told reporters after his release. He also apologized for the comments he made about Sfeir saying it was a “slip of the tongue.”Asmar’s leaked remarks have sparked a storm of outrage in the country. He was summoned for interrogation and kept in detention, amid calls for stripping him of his post. A video that went viral on social media shows Asmar mocking Sfeir shortly before a televised press conference. Asmar was unaware his microphone was on before the conference.

Geagea: Budget Could've Been Better, Overlooking Arsal Incident Unacceptable
Naharnet/May 27/2019/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday said the draft 2019 state budget which was approved earlier in the day by Cabinet “could've been better.”“We're happy that the budget has been approved and it is better than the traditional budgets, but it could've been better,” Geagea said during a meeting with a delegation from the Editors Syndicate. The LF leader also questioned “how LBP 40 billion were added to the budget at the last moment” for the benefit of the Ministry of Internally Displaced People. “We will not accept that these funds be dispensed to cronies but rather as part of a clear timeframe and plan,” Geagea added, in an apparent jab at the Free Patriotic Movement. Turning to recent deadly incident in Arsal's outskirts, Geagea accused Lebanese authorities of overlooking the death of a Lebanese citizen and the suspected abduction of two others. “I call on the President and the Premier to launch a full probe into the Arsal incident and the Syrian ambassador to Lebanon must be summoned,” Geagea urged. “It is unacceptable to overlook what happened,” he said. Hussein al-Hujeiri's body was handed over to Lebanese authorities on Saturday after he was killed by Syrian forces while on a “hunting trip” with two other Arsal residents, Wissam Kranbi and Nayef Rayed, media reports said. The fate of Kranbi and Rayed remains unknown.

More Than Half a Million Lebanese Left Their Country over 26-Year Period
Kataeb.org/May 27/2019/Information International founder and managing partner, Jawad Adra, revealed that 601,227 had definitively left Lebanon between 1992 and 2018, with an average of 22,305 people per year. 34,500 Lebanese citizens had left Lebanon in 2018 and haven’t returned since then, Adra said in a post published on his Twitter page.Moreover, 14,300 had departed between January 15 and April 15 this year, compared to 9,700 people who left their homeland during the same period in 2018.

Samy Gemayel Meets with Shiite Scholar, Stresses Need to Build a State of Law
Kataeb.org/May 27/2019/A Kataeb delegation headed by the party leader Samy Gemayel on Monday met with Shiite scholar Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, with talks featuring high on local developments as well as everyone’s responsibility in managing an all-embracing dialogue that would contribute to rebuilding a strong state, and the ways to consolidate national unity. During the meeting, Gemayel voiced appreciation and respect to the late scholar Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah whom he met back in 2008, stressing the need for dialogue in order to overcome stereotypes and preconceptions.Gemayel outlined the importance of building a strong state of law where everyone would be protected and where there would be no place for foreign allegiances, calling for breaking barriers between the Lebanese. For his part, Fadlallah said that the biggest problem plaguing the country lies in the mutual concerns and the fear that the Lebanese feel towards each other, saying that efforts must be exerted to treat this state of anxiety.

Hassan tackles with UN mission Lebanon's electoral needs
Mon 27 May 2019/NNA - Minister of the Interior and Municipalities, Rayya Hassan, on Monday welcomed a delegation from the UN Mission to Assess Lebanon’s Electoral Needs. Discussions featured high on the opportunities that the United Nations can offer Lebanon through its support projects for institutions, administrations, and municipalities to help the Ministry of Interior conduct sound and transparent elections. The minister gave the delegation a briefing on the electoral situation in Lebanon and shared the country’s need for support to help facilitate the voting process, especially for people with special needs.

Lebanon's Army Commander welcomes Dutch Ambassador, UNIFIL Deputy Commander
Mon 27 May 2019/NNA - Lebanese Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, on Monday welcomed in Yarzeh, Dutch Ambassador to Lebanon, Jan Waltmans, with whom he broached cooperation ties between the military institutions of the two countries. Aoun separately met with UNIFIL Deputy Commander, General Shivaram Kharel, with whom he discussed an array of issues.

Ghosn Family Contact UN Over 'Judicial Persecution' in Japan
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 May, 2019/The family of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has asked the UN to intervene against what they termed his "judicial persecution" in Japan | AFP The family of former Renault and Nissan head Carlos Ghosn has submitted another request for UN intervention against what it says is his "judicial persecution" in Japan, one of their lawyers said Sunday. Jessica Finelle said the family had approached the working group on arbitrary detention at the Office of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights to see if they could provide some redress.
In the request, the lawyers say bail conditions imposed on Ghosn amounted to "house arrest" and were intended to weaken him psychologically ahead of his trial. Ghosn was dramatically arrested in November as he stepped off his private jet in Tokyo. He was held for 108 days as prosecutors investigated financial misconduct allegations and charged him with three counts. He finally won bail in March, agreeing to conditions including living in a court-appointed residence monitored by cameras. But prosecutors then leveled a fresh allegation against him in April and he was rearrested, spending another 21 days in detention before winning bail a second time. The former Nissan chief is now preparing for trial on four charges of financial misconduct ranging from concealing part of his salary, to using Nissan funds for personal expenses. Lawyers for the family said in the latest request to the UN's working committee on arbitrary detention that the number and scale of the conditions imposed on Ghosn amounted "in effect to house arrest, meaning that his provisional detention continues and he is still deprived of his liberty". The restrictions, "especially the prohibition of any direct contact with his wife, appear to be abuse aimed at tiring him out psychologically and to put him in a position of weakness... in violation of the right to a fair trial". "This really amounts to a form of judicial persecution of Carlo Ghosn who is prohibited from meeting his wife, even for an hour in the presence of lawyers," they say, according to the documents seen by AFP.
Describing Ghosn as being held "hostage", the lawyers go on to demand that the UN working group declare the Japanese measures to be "arbitrary" and to urge Japan to "release (him) without delay". Lawyer Finelle told AFP that even if the UN working group has no power to compel Japan to act differently, "it is still a matter of image for the Japanese".She said she hoped for a decision before Ghosn's court case begins, which might not be until next year.

Hezbollah paying the price of Iranian obstinance
يارون فريدمن/يدعوت أحرينوت: حزب الله يدفع ثمن تصلب إيران
Dr. Yaron Friedman|/Ynetnews/May 27/2019
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Analysis: U.S. sanctions on Iran are taking toll on its Lebanon-based proxy: fighters' salaries are sliced, assets sold off and even prized Al-Manar TV station is laying off staff; meanwhile, the group itself has not escaped American scrutiny
Hezbollah is facing its worst economic crisis yet, after U.S. sanctions on Iran imposed last year resulted in funding cut to Tehran's Lebanese proxy organization.
The latest round of American sanctions targeted Iran's oil revenue, with the aim of cutting them down to zero. Hezbollah's concern is that its annual income from Iran, totaling $700 million, which comes mostly from Iranian oil revenue will stop. Monthly air shipments of cash from Tehran have already been cut in half. Hezbollah's troubles stem not only from Iran's economic woes. The organization itself is now sanctioned by the U.S., their financial transactions are under strict scrutiny with all bank accounts and fundraising being monitored. The group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, last month appealed for donations - for the first time ever - in a public address to members and supporters. A foundation named "Support for the Resistance" was set up in Lebanon to raise badly needed capital.
Now, for the first time since its inception 36 years ago, Hezbollah is cutting salaries to its fighters. Some have been receiving just two-thirds of their usual pay for the past three months, and half of all reserve fighters have been let go. According to reports, Hezbollah is also selling off property. Apartments have been sold in its southern Beirut stronghold of Dahia and in the Beqaa Valley city of Baalbek. Some services provided to fighters and their families have also been stopped.
The organization's propaganda wing is under economic pressure as well. Al Manar, Hezbollah's cable television network and A Nur, its radio station, have both had to lay staff off and cut pay to others. But not only sanctions are to blame for Hezbollah's economic troubles. Years of fighting in Syria to prop up the regime of Bashar Assad, another Iranian ally, cost the organization dearly both in money and in lives. Families of the estimated 2,000 fighters killed in Syria have been given financial aid by Hezbollah, as have the families of those killed in confrontations with Israeli forces. Now that aid has been reduced too.
Another factor contributing to Hezbollah's troubles is the position taken by the oil-rich Gulf states - Iran's foes in the region - with Saudi Arabia leading Sunni countries in an economic siege of the organization. The American financial offensive, meanwhile, is against the axis of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah. Assad's regime has been under sanctions since 2011. Considering him a war criminal, the European Union joined in with their own sanctions. Syrian business leaders close to the regime have been black-listed and are unable to raise cash.
The Syrian crisis is dire: The country is suffering oil shortages and runaway prices while the country's main benefactor, Russia has not been able to provide the funds needed to rebuild after years of relentless civil war. The American administration speaks the language of money. They are promoting the "deal of the century" and their offensive is financial. The noose around Hezbollah's neck is tightening. The "Deal of the Century" itself may not enjoy as much regional support as efforts to break Hezbollah. So for now at least, any Hezbollah offensive against Israel on the Golan Heights will likely be put on hold. They simply cannot afford it.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 27-28/19
Israel Strikes Syria Anti-Aircraft Position after Coming under Attack
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 May, 2019/Israel attacked a Syrian anti-aircraft position after it fired at an Israeli warplane on Monday, the Israeli military said. It issued the statement after the Syrian state news agency SANA said Israel targeted a military position in Syria's southern Quneitra province, killing one fighter and wounding another. The Monday report was carried on the Syrian state TV al-Ikhbariya and said one military vehicle was also damaged. It said the rocket landed in Tal al-Shaar in Quneitra on the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Syrian media had reported earlier this month two incidents in which Israeli strikes hit inside southern Syria. Israel does not usually comment on reports concerning its strikes in neighboring Syria, though it has recently acknowledged striking Iranian targets there.

Casualties as Israeli Missile Hits Syria's Quneitra
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 27/2019/An Israeli missile struck the Syrian province of Quneitra on Monday, causing casualties, the official SANA news agency reported. "An Israeli missile targeted Tel al-Shaar in Quneitra," the Syrian news agency said, adding a "military vehicle was targeted and there are wounded."

6 Civilians Killed in Regime Air Raids on Syria’s Idlib
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 May, 2019/At least six people were killed Monday in Syrian regime air strikes on a crowded residential area in the last opposition-held stronghold of Idlib in the northwest. First responders known as White Helmets said five women and a child were killed. Rescue workers were still searching for survivors under the rubble after the airstrikes hit in the town of Ariha. Videos from the scene by the White Helmets showed a narrow alley blocked by the debris from a pulverized building. Survivors covered in white dust were among those who lifted a wounded man on a gurney and a young girl into the ambulance. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported six killed. Fawaz Hilal, head of the “Salvation Government” that runs Idlib province, expressed confidence that opposition fighters gathered in the Idlib region from all over Syria would be able resist the onslaught. “This ferocious attack is a bone-breaking battle. If the regime is able to break our defensive lines in northern Hama and southern Idlib it will not stop until it reaches the borders,” Hilal told Reuters in an interview. His government, backed by the powerful Tahrir al-Sham group, had called on its employees to help shoulder the “military burden” through building sandbag defenses, manning front lines, financial support or any other help. “We are all concerned with repelling this attack,” he said. The scene in Ariha was reminiscent of the violence that has hit many opposition-held areas as the regime pursued similar military tactics to regain control of territory it had lost to armed opposition. Idlib is home to nearly 3 million people, who have nowhere to run to escape the regime offensive after they were displaced from other parts of Syria to escape similar regime assaults in the past three years. A ceasefire in place since September, negotiated by Russia and Turkey, has all but collapsed. UN agencies say more than 200,000 are displaced within the stronghold, moving from the southern tip up north and crowding already packed camps and towns. Most of those displaced are living outside of camps, the UN said, while some have sought safety near the Turkish border where they hope no airstrikes would pursue them there. Some 20 health facilities, three displaced people's camp and one refugee camp were hit in the violence, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on Friday. Since the violence picked up on April 30, the Observatory said at least 215 civilians, including 47 children were killed in Idlib. In adjacent regime areas, 21 civilians were killed by opposition fire, according to the Observatory which monitors the war. On Monday alone, the Observatory said there were more than 100 air raids and as many as 93 barrel bombs dropped on the southern section of Idlib. Russia and the regime announced last week the opening of two corridors for civilians to exit the opposition-held enclave— another familiar tactic followed to empty opposition areas amid a military operation. The UN said it was not party to discussions for such a corridor and said movement of civilians must be a choice, not forced by violence.

Palestinian Authority Thwarts Terrorist Operation against Israeli Forces
Ramallah/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 May, 2019/The Palestinian Authority (PA) foiled an attack planned by a woman from the West Bank who was in contact with ISIS-affiliated activists in Syria and the Gaza Strip, according to an Israeli report.
The report, published by Yedioth Ahronoth, stated that the attack was supposed to be carried out by Ala Bashir, 23, who was arrested by the PA two weeks ago and remains in its custody. She is accused of being affiliated with foreign parties linked to ISIS and was planning an attack against Israeli targets. The newspaper stated that Bashir hails from Jinsafut near Kalkilya and is a teacher of Quranic studies. The PA said that the attack was aimed at destabilizing the region. It is unusual for security forces to arrest Palestinian women and it is usually followed by online campaigns calling for their immediate release. In response, the PA was forced to release a vague statement about Bashir’s arrest. The Palestinian opposition criticized the PA, accusing it of arresting Bashir for belonging to the Hamas movement. Activists launched an online campaign in support of the detainee and calling for her release.
The PA’s Preventive Security Service (PSS), whose members detained the suspect, issued a statement on May 14 explaining the details of the arrest. She was taken into custody based on information that certain parties, which had contributed to the destabilization of surrounding Arab countries, had exploited her difficult psychological and social condition.The parties sought to “incite and recruit the woman, with the help of some members of illegal armed militias, to harm the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank,” added the statement. Bashir was arrested in accordance with the law, explained the PSS, adding that her lawyers were allowed to visit her in prison. A high-ranking Palestinian source told Yedioth Ahronoth that Bashir was arrested for her close contacts with ISIS and planning a terrorist attack. She joined ISIS after she was approached on the Telegram instant messaging app to set out on a suicide mission. The foiled attempt comes at a time of strained relations between the PA and Israel following the cut-off of Palestinian tax revenues as a punishment for the Authority for paying salaries of families of fighters and prisoners. This is not the first time the Authority foils plots against Israel. The PA bans any action from Palestinian territories to avoid dragging the region into a "violent" spiral. Joint security coordination usually takes place between Palestinian and Israeli security services, but it has been severely damaged by successive disagreements. President Mahmoud Abbas is now threatening to stop this coordination altogether, with the cancellation of broader agreements with Israel in response to the yet-to-be revealed US “deal of the century” peace proposal and the stalemate of the political process.

Dovish Trump Says not Looking for Regime Change in Iran
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 27/2019/The United States does not seek "regime change" in Iran despite mounting Middle East tensions, President Donald Trump said Monday, in dovish comments also praising North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un as a "very smart guy." Speaking after summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump seemed at pains to dial down tensions in the world's two most pressing flashpoints as the US faces increasingly bellicose regimes in Tehran and Pyongyang. Iran "has a chance to be a great country, with the same leadership. We're not looking for regime change, I want to make that clear. We're looking for no nuclear weapons," said the president. "I really believe that Iran would like to make a deal. I think that's very smart of them and I think there's a possibility for that to happen also."He had earlier opened the door to negotiations with Tehran, saying: "if they'd like to talk, we'd like to talk also." Washington has decided to deploy 1,500 additional troops to the Middle East amid growing friction with Iran after Trump pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal and later re-instated tough sanctions. Trump also appeared to give backing to his host Abe to mediate, amid reports the Japanese prime minister is considering a trip to Tehran to negotiate. "I know for a fact that the prime minister (Abe) is very close with the leadership of Iran... nobody wants to see terrible things happen, especially me," Trump said before the summit.
'Tremendous economic potential'
Addressing the other hot-button issue in international diplomacy, Trump doubled down on his backing for Kim despite two short-range missile tests that sparked renewed concern in the region after a period of relative calm. Asked about the missile tests, Trump said: "My people think it could have been a violation... I view it as a man who perhaps wants to get attention." This appeared to be a second put-down of his hawkish National Security Advisor John Bolton, who said Saturday the launches contravened UN Security Council resolutions. Kim "is looking to create a nation that has great strength economically," said Trump, repeating his oft-held view there was "tremendous economic potential" in North Korea. "He knows that with nuclear, that's never going to happen. Only bad can happen. He is a very smart man, he gets it well," said the president, who even sided with the North Korean leader in criticising Joe Biden, who could be his main rival in next year's presidential election. "Kim Jong Un made a statement that Joe Biden is a low IQ individual. He probably is, based on his record, I think I agree with him on that," said the president. For his part, Abe stated the launches were a violation of UN resolutions and reiterated Tokyo's stance that they were "very regrettable". Abe said he had won Trump's blessing to hold face-to-face talks "without preconditions" with Kim in a bid to resolve the issue of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea decades ago -- a burning domestic political issue.
'Great time'
Trump was in Japan as the first foreign leader to visit the country's newly enthroned Emperor Naruhito, which he described as a "great honour". In the morning, Trump, dressed in a dark suit and red tie, reviewed the Japanese honour guard and greeted dozens of Japanese and visiting US officials as a military band played. Naruhito, wearing a light blue tie, and his wife Empress Masako, who was in a white hat and jacket, accompanied Trump and his wife Melania, who wore a summery white dress and tall red high heels. Monday marked the start of the official programme for the two leaders after a fun-filled weekend of sumo, golf and meals out. Trump said Sunday he was having a "great time" with his friend and close ally Abe. Abe was hoping that their diplomatic bromance would act to his advantage in delicate trade talks between the world's number-one and number-three economies. And this seemed to have had some effect, with Trump saying that "much" of that deal would wait until Abe faces upper house elections likely in July -- as rumours swirl that the popular prime minister will combine that vote with a snap general election. On the even tougher trade negotiations with China, Trump suggested there was a "very good chance" for a "very good deal" with China. In the evening, Trump and his wife Melania will be back at the palace for a banquet. That will mark the lavish high point in a Japan visit laden with feel-good moments aimed at celebrating US-Japanese ties at a time of growing regional uncertainty due to US trade policies, a rising China and nuclear-armed North Korea.

Trump: Washington Not Looking for Iran Regime Change
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 May, 2019/The United States is not seeking regime change in Iran, President Donald Trump said Monday, as tensions between the two countries rise with Washington deploying troops to the region. "I know so many people from Iran, these are great people, it has a chance to be a great country, with the same leadership," Trump said at a press conference in Tokyo where he is on a state visit."We're not looking for regime change, I just want to make that clear. We're looking for no nuclear weapons.""I'm not looking to hurt Iran at all," added Trump. The United States on Friday said it was deploying 1,500 additional troops to the Middle East to counter "credible threats" from Tehran, the latest step in a series of military escalations.Tensions have been rising between Washington and Tehran since Trump's decision last year to withdraw from an international nuclear deal with Iran and reimpose sanctions on the oil producer. The US president reiterated Monday his criticism of that "horrible Iran deal" but said he was open to new negotiations. Japanese media has reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering a visit to Iran next month. The Kyodo News agency, citing unidentified government sources, said on Friday that Abe's visit would be likely in mid-June. Earlier this month, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited Tokyo. With Abe at his side, Trump told reporters at Akasaka Palace on Monday that "nobody wants to see terrible things happen, especially me." The US president also said that "I do believe Iran would like to talk and if they'd like to talk, we'll talk also."

Rouhani to Khamenei: Iran Govt Maintained Nuclear Deal
London/Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 May, 2019/Iranian President Hassan Rouhani responded Saturday to Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei's criticism for neglecting his recommendation on implementing the nuclear deal between Iran and six nations. Rouhani said that his government is the main reason behind Iran's commitment to the nuclear deal, considering this an achievement by the government. If it wasn’t for the government, Iran would have breached the nuclear deal, he added, boasting that his government’s performance prevented Iran's condemnation, while other countries slammed the US for exiting the deal. In May 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal and reimposed US sanctions because of Iran's regional role and its development of ballistic missiles. Rouhani abstained from commenting further on Khamenei's criticism because it wasn't in Iran's interest. Again, Rouhani showed readiness to turn to the Iranians to settle major disputes including the nuclear deal. During his meeting with representatives from Iranian media, Rouhani said he proposed a referendum, on the nuclear issue to Khamenei back in 2004 while negotiating the nuclear deal. "Article 59 of the Constitution (referendum) is a deadlock breaker and could be a problem-solver at any junction," Rouhani said. Article 59 stipulates that a referendum shall be held to settle any critical topic in the country. Iran hasn’t carried out any referendum for 30 years since the constitutional amendment endorsed by Khamenei. Rouhani stated Saturday that the country is experiencing tough circumstances, but the government is seeking to prevent things from aggravating.

Iran’s IRGC Refuses to Negotiate with the ‘Great Satan’
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 May, 2019/The United States’ current presence in West Asia is the weakest ever, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Deputy Coordinator Admiral Ali Fadavi, who described Washington as the “Great Satan”.“Negotiating with the devil, the Quran says, bears no fruit,” he was cited as saying by the Fars News Agency. Attempting to lift the morale of Iranian forces, he emphasized their readiness, while belittling American military capabilities.
He claimed that even the US aircraft carrier, which was on its way to the region, has remained in the Indian Ocean over “fears” of a clash. On the Iranian government’s statements that it was engaged in an “economic war” with the US, Fadavi said Washington was instead waging a psychological one against Tehran. Last week, supreme leader Ali Khamenei described negotiations with the US as “poisonous,” adding: “There won’t be any war. The Iranian nation has chosen the path of resistance… We don’t seek a war, and they don’t either. They know it’s not in their interests.” Commander of the Quds Force, the foreign branch of IRGC, Qassem Soleimani said his country will not give in to the “humiliation” of negotiations with Washington. On Saturday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the US decision to deploy more troops to the Middle East in response to the perceived threat from Iran was “extremely dangerous” for peace. The United States announced last Friday the deployment of 1,500 troops in the Middle East to deter Iran's threats, accusing the IRGC of direct responsibility for attacks against tankers off the UAE's port of Fujairah this month.

Israel takes First Step towards New Elections
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 May, 2019/Israel took on Monday the first step towards holding new elections as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struggled to form a coalition government ahead of a Wednesday night deadline to do so. On Monday, parliament gave preliminary approval to a law to dissolve itself. Three more votes are required for final approval of the law, which would result in new elections being held. The vote was 65-43 with six abstentions, according to parliament's website. Ex-defense minister Avigdor Lieberman has prevented a deal by refusing to budge from a key demand. He has insisted on passing a new law mandating that young ultra-Orthodox men be drafted into the military, like most other Jewish males. Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox allies demand that the draft exemptions remain in place. The PM, who claimed victory in April elections, delivered a primetime statement on Monday calling on his potential partners to put "the good of the nation above every other interest" in order to avoid sending the country once again to "expensive, wasteful" elections. Without the five seats of Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party, Netanyahu cannot muster a majority. Netanyahu and Lieberman met Monday evening in a last-ditch effort to find a compromise. Israeli media said the meeting ended without any progress, and quoted Likud officials as saying Netanyahu would soon order new elections. He placed the blame on Lieberman for creating the crisis, but said he was hopeful his efforts to salvage a compromise in the next 48 hours would succeed. Holding elections so close to one another would be unprecedented in Israel, and there have been concerns over the cost and prolonged political paralysis that would result. It would also be a major setback for Netanyahu, who received support on Monday from his close ally US President Donald Trump. "Hoping things will work out with Israel's coalition formation and Bibi and I can continue to make the alliance between America and Israel stronger than ever. A lot more to do!" Trump, currently visiting Japan, said on Twitter, using Netanyahu's nickname.

Baghdad Court Condemns Fourth French ISIS Member to Death
BaghdadAsharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 May, 2019/A Baghdad court on Monday sentenced another former French fighter with the ISIS group to death - the fourth Frenchman to get the capital punishment so far in Iraq - and postponed the verdict for a fifth man after he testified to being tortured in detention. France, meanwhile, said the Iraqi court has jurisdiction to rule in the cases, though a spokeswoman reiterated the French government's opposition to the death penalty. The trials come as questions swirl about the legal treatment of thousands of foreign nationals formerly with the extremist group. The Frenchmen on trial are among 12 French ISIS fighters whom the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces handed over to Iraq in January. The Kurdish-led group spearheaded the fight against ISIS in Syria and has handed over to Iraq hundreds of suspected ISIS members in recent months. ISIS "terrorists must answer for their crimes in court," said France's foreign affair's ministry spokeswoman, Agnès von der Mühll. As Monday's proceedings opened, the first to appear was Mustafa Mohammed Ibrahim, 37, from the Mediterranean city of Nice. Ibrahim, of Tunisian origin, with short hair and a light beard, walked in the courtroom wearing a yellow prison uniform with "Reforms Department" printed on the back in Arabic. "I ask for forgiveness from the people of Iraq and Syria and the victims," Ibrahim said before Judge Ahmed Mohammed ordered he remove his top in order to see if there were any signs of torture on his body. None were visible. "No matter what the sentence will be against me I want to go back to my country," said Ibrahim. He added that he used to work as a driver back in France before joining ISIS. The judge sentenced Ibrahim to death. The second man brought into the courtroom was identified as Fadil Hamad Abdallah, 33, of Moroccan origin. Abdallah said he was subjected to torture while in detention and the judge referred to him to a medical committee for investigation and postponed his next session until Sunday. The judge also postponed the sentencing of three other Frenchmen until next Monday.
The first three French ISIS fighters were sentenced to death on Sunday. Those convicted can appeal their sentences within a month. Iraqi prosecutors say the 12 French nationals were parties or accomplices to ISIS crimes, and threatened the national security of Iraq. Simply belonging to the extremist group is punishable by life in prison or execution under Iraq's counter-terrorism laws. In Paris, von der Mühll said France's position is that adults detained in Iraq must be tried by the Iraqi justice system, as soon as it declares itself competent. "France respects the sovereignty of Iraqi authorities" she added, though she expressed her country's opposition to the death penalty, "in principle, at all times and in all places."

Saudi Arabia Condemns Terrorist Attack in Mosul
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 27 May, 2019/Saudi Arabia condemned on Monday the terrorist bombing that targeted a market in the Iraqi city of Mosul, reported the Saudi Press Agency. An official source at the Foreign Ministry offered the Kingdom’s condolences to the victims and Iraqi government and people.
He reiterated Saudi Arabia’s solidarity with Iraq against all forms of violence, terrorism and extremism. Five people were killed and eight wounded in the bombing in Mosul on Sunday.

Qatar Invited by S. Arabia to Talks over Iran Tensions
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/May 27/2019/Qatar said on Sunday that it had received an invitation from Saudi Arabia to attend emergency regional talks to discuss mounting tensions between Iran and the United States. Riyadh had called two gatherings -- one for Arab League members, the other for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) regional bloc nations -- after a spate of attacks. Several tankers in Gulf waters were targeted under mysterious circumstances and a Saudi crude pipeline was hit by drone strikes coordinated by Yemen rebels who Riyadh said were acting on Iranian orders. King Salman had invited Gulf leaders and Arab League members to summits in Mecca on May 30 but it was not stated if Qatar was also invited to the Arab bloc deliberations. It was unclear if Qatar -- subject to a Saudi-led economic and diplomatic boycott over alleged support for Iran and Islamist movements -- would be invited at all, with Doha initially reporting it had not received an invite. Qatar's emir "has received a written message" inviting the government to join the crisis talks, the government's information office said in a statement. The invitation was received by Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani during a meeting with the secretary general of the GCC, it added. Al-Thani has previously called for a "dialogue" between Iran and the United States to resolve the crisis between their countries.

Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 27-28/19
 Despite Saudi Blockade, Qatar Plans to Attend Trump Peace Conference in Bahrain
Amir Tibon/Haaretz/May 27/2019
WASHINGTON — Qatar plans to attend the international conference on the Palestinian economy in Bahrain in June, Haaretz has learned.
Qatar is the third country to confirm its participation after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a source involved in organizing the conference told Haaretz.
Qatar has been under a Saudi-led blockade for almost two years, with Bahrain and the UAE, close allies of Saudi Arabia, also supporting it.
Should Bahrain allow a Qatari delegation to attend the conference, it would be a rare instance of cooperation between the sparring Gulf nations, and a gesture of goodwill on Saudi Arabia and UAE‘s part toward the Trump administration.
Qatar‘s Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “Qatar will spare no effort to contribute to addressing all the challenges facing the Arab region as a whole, while maintaining its firmed principled positions and the highest interests of the Arab peoples, including the brotherly Palestinian people.”
The statement reaffirmed Qatar’s position that improving the state of the Palestinian economy will also require a political solution, “in accordance with a framework acceptable to the brotherly Palestinian people, based on ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a fully sovereign Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, in addition to the right of return for Palestinian refugees, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of international legitimacy.”
The Qatari announcement came just days after the Palestinian Authority officially announced it would not participate in the conference, and called on other Arab countries not to support it.
Qatar has been the most significant donor for the Palestinians over the past year. It has recently pledged $480 million in support of the West Bank and Gaza, with most of the money intended for the Palestinian Authority.
The team working on the U.S. peace plan, which is led by Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, is poised to convince as many Arab countries as possible to attend the conference, despite the Palestinian objections to it.
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The American delegation that includes Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt, Kushner’s deputy Avi Berkowitz and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, will be officially led by Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin.
Most other delegations are also expected to be represented by finance or economy ministers.
Qatar’s participation in the conference, alongside Saudi Arabia and the UAE, will likely lead to more countries joining it.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in Qatar just this week, in order to discuss the country’s economic support of the Palestinians.
The country’s decision to participate in the conference next month despite Palestinian opposition and its own feud with the other Gulf states, is a sign of the country’s close relations with the Trump administration.
Qatar’s participation in the conference is seen by the administration as a major breakthrough and an achievement for the Kushner-led team, both because of the Palestinian objection to it as well as the Saudi-Qatari dispute.

Erdogan’s Istanbul Nightmare
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/May 27/2019
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an may have the Supreme Electoral Board on his side, but bread-and-butter issues are looking gloomy for victory in the re-run of Istanbul’s mayoral election… Even if Erdo?an wins Istanbul in the re-run, he will have lost the last few remaining crumbs of his international credibility. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Board, consisting of judges apparently under government pressure, cancelled the result of the Istanbul mayoral election on the pretext that some officials serving at the polling stations were not civil servants, as required by the law. “The Board’s decision brings Turkish democracy one big step closer to death,” wrote Kemal Kiri?çi, senior fellow at TÜS?AD, Turkey’s biggest business association.
“It appears that losing Istanbul entails too many risks for the AKP for the matter to be left to its own resources. Many are convinced that if the AKP were to lose Istanbul to the opposition, after having held it – with its precursor – for 25 years, a hornet’s nest of vested interests, corruption, and abuse of power would be revealed.” — Semih Idiz, a columnist for Sigma Turkey, an Ankara-based think tank.
Even if Erdo?an wins Istanbul in the re-run, he will have lost the last few remaining crumbs of his international credibility.
During most of his nearly 17-year-long term as Turkey’s leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s self-aggrandizing, assertive foreign policy and his Islamist and nationalist one-man-rule have earned him popularity and votes in a country where average schooling is a mere 6.5 years. Erdo?an believed — and made the average Turk believe — that Turkey is a major world power. He claimed that his rule made miracles in the economy. Therefore, since his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, he has not lost a single election. Everything was coming up roses all the time. Not anymore.
“Who wins Istanbul wins Turkey,” has been Erdo?an’s dictum since 1994, when he won mayoral elections in Turkey’s biggest city (home to nearly 15% of Turkey’s 57 million voters and accounting for 31% of its GDP). Twenty-five years later, his candidate for mayor of Istanbul, former prime minister Binali Y?ld?r?m, lost in the local election — the first defeat in Istanbul for Islamists since 1994. Game not yet over, Erdo?an ruled.
Upon appeal from the AKP over alleged irregularities, the Supreme Electoral Board, consisting of judges apparently under government pressure, cancelled the election result for Istanbul, suspending the mandate of the opposition candidate, Ekrem Imamo?lu, and setting the date for a re-run on June 23. The Board cancelled the election result on the pretext that some officials serving at the polling stations were not civil servants, as required by the law. “The Board’s decision brings Turkish democracy one big step closer to death,” wrote Kemal Kiri?çi, senior fellow at TÜS?AD, Turkey’s biggest business association.
Erdo?an may think this is a non-losing bet: he already lost Istanbul and a second loss would not cost him further; and this time there is a chance that he may even win. The opposition’s win had come in by a margin of only 13,000 votes in a city with 10.5 million registered voters. But he would be wrong to think so. A second loss for the man who says “who wins Istanbul wins Turkey” would be embarrassing. A win could trigger massive protests that might deepen Turkey’s economic woes and discredit Erdo?an even further in the West as an “elected dictator,” bringing his image closer to that of his ally, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
After the Supreme Electoral Board’s ruling, the European Union issued a statement that said:
“… The justification for this far-reaching decision, taken in a highly politicised context, should be made available for public scrutiny without delay.
“Ensuring a free, fair and transparent election process is essential to any democracy and is at the heart of the European Union’s relations with Turkey…”
EU officials are now calling for international observers to oversee Istanbul’s re-run.
“It appears that losing Istanbul entails too many risks for the AKP for the matter to be left to its own resources. Many are convinced that if the AKP were to lose Istanbul to the opposition, after having held it – with its precursor – for 25 years, a hornet’s nest of vested interests, corruption, and abuse of power would be revealed,” wrote Semih Idiz, a columnist for Sigma Turkey, an Ankara-based think tank. “Had he done the politically correct thing and accepted the defeat in Istanbul nobly he would have elevated his moral stature. As matters stand he and his party have been tainted and it is difficult to understand how they expect to reap any benefits from this”.
Erdo?an may have the Supreme Electoral Board on his side, but bread-and-butter issues are looking gloomy for victory in Istanbul. On May 7, only six weeks before the re-run, the Turkish lira slumped to its lowest level in seven months as further political unrest weighed on the nation’s currency. Justin Low, an analyst at ForexLive, attributed the lira plunge to the electoral board’s controversial decision. Meanwhile, Turkey’s unemployment rate “surged to 14.7 percent in the December-February period, its highest level in nearly a decade… The Turkish economy contracted a sharper than expected 3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, its worst performance in nearly a decade, indicating that last year’s near 30 percent slide in the lira had tipped it into recession.” The economy is performing too badly to be portrayed as “good” by any electoral board under pressure from Erdo?an.
But Erdo?an is not giving up. His re-run strategy is based on contacting every single registered voter who abstained from voting in the March 31 local elections and persuading them to vote AKP in the re-run. His party officials must visit 1.7 million people — an enormous task, but too much is at stake, and Erdo?an’s local party organization is known to be an efficient machine Besides, pollsters found outthat most abstainers are traditionally AKP voters who abstained due to economic reasons. Some of them may return home on June 23.
Even if Erdo?an wins Istanbul in the re-run, he will have lost the last few remaining crumbs of his international credibility.

How Brexit Ate the Prime Minister
Therese Raphael/Bloomberg View/May 27/2019
Prime Minister Theresa May was popular once. That may be hard to remember as she steps down in two weeks’ time, but it’s true. Just three years before her own political party forced her to step aside, she was hailed by politicians and citizens as the wisest choice to lead the UK's separation from the European Union. Then came the reality of Brexit and the political stalemate she was unable to break. History will judge her by that failure, which has hardened national divisions and hollowed out the center of British politics. But it's not fair to assess May's legacy without separating the things she could control from the things that were out of her hands. May had slid quietly into her position. When Prime Minister David Cameron resigned after the shock of the 2016 Brexit referendum, it seemed a foregone conclusion that charismatic Boris Johnson would succeed him. But Johnson withdrew after being betrayed by another hardline Brexiter, Michael Gove, who accused him of lacking character. Now the former foreign secretary is the front runner to succeed her.
May wasn’t an obvious choice then, but she quickly became a popular one in the months after the referendum. In August, 2016, she was regarded favorably by 48 percent of all voters and unfavorably by 36 percent, opinion polls showed. In July that year, 52 percent of those asked said that May would make the best prime minister; only 18 percent said the same of opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
People weren’t looking for magnetism in a leader so much as a cool head and the ability to unite. May exuded the qualities of a dutiful public servant and a steadfast leader. As the longest-serving home secretary, a job that is often the graveyard of political ambitions, she built a reputation as a master of detail who would stick to a position until she wore down or outlasted her opponents. When Conservative lawmaker Kenneth Clarke referred to her accidentally on camera as a “bloody difficult woman,” most saw it as a compliment, intended or not. Margaret Thatcher, after all, was difficult too.
After the referendum, May spoke movingly to the whole country, but especially to the people whom she referred to as “just about managing.” By that she meant voters hard-hit by years of austerity and whiplashed by globalization and the widening gap between their skills and the demands of the modern workplace. They put Brexit over the line and May saw it as her job as to listen to them.
What happened to all that promise?
One thing that happened was the 2017 election. She hoped to ride her popularity to a sweeping Conservative victory that would strengthen her Brexit hand at home and in Brussels. Government ministers were essentially sidelined as the campaign focused less on the Conservative Party and more on its “strong and stable” leader. But campaigning requires a level of relatability that May lacked, and her opponent, Corbyn, had in spades. The slogan descended into self-parody. May’s wooden appearances didn’t help. She was mocked as the Maybot.
To say that train wreck of an election sowed the seeds of her downfall misses the point. Yes, May ran a horrible campaign and the Conservative Party lost its parliamentary majority. Yes, she had to then make the fateful decision of entering into a confidence-and-supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party, whose 10 Northern Irish MPs would later hold the fate of the government Brexit plan in their hands. But two crucial contributors to her problems were independent of the electoral setback: the divisive Brexit vote itself, and May’s flawed leadership and communication style.
People tend to dwell on the latter, blaming her failures on an absence of charisma, but it’s the cocktail of the two that was toxic. Just ask: If you added charisma to May’s other qualities, would the outcome have been different?
She is undeniably wooden. She’s not the first Tory leader with that deficit. Edward Heath – described as “vain, rude, penny-pinching” – was so lacking in magnetism when he occupied 10 Downing Street in the early 1970s that journalists checked their watches when he addressed them. John Major, prime minister for most of the 1990s, was known as a “dull man in a grey suit.”
The public retained some of its early admiration for May as she battled to get her agreement to leave the EU through Parliament, but support drained away. By late March, 65 percent of the public held a negative opinion of her. May seemed adrift, unable to do anything but push the same rejected plan. A low point came when she addressed the nation late one night to harangue MPs for not making a decision. It wasn’t just Brits who felt exasperated. EU leaders barely hid their own frustrations. At successive EU summits, the mood went from commiseration and empathy to despair at May’s style. One member of the European Parliament, the Belgian Philippe Lamberts, complained to reporters that May was “devoid of the basic human skills needed for a leader.”
May’s fall partly came because her strengths – determination, loyalty to her party, ability to resist pressure – were also weaknesses. The flip side of her steely resolve was intransigence. The flip side of her loyalty to party was an inability to make decisions that would be unpopular with a small but powerful part of it. The flip side of her sense of duty was an allergy to compromise. It didn’t help that May had few friends. She is a private person who relied on so small a group of advisers that, to some, only her husband Philip really knew where she stood. She seemed out of touch with the mood in her party and the public. Her cabinet members were so disloyal and mistrustful that discussions in meetings were leaked in gruesome detail. Not even Security Council proceedings were safe, and May had to fire her defense minister after word got out on a matter involving the role of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei in building Britain’s 5G network.

Practices, Interventions and the ‘Inevitable Curse’
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/May 27/2019
Ahmed Chalabi was a brilliant politician whose thorny career sparked diverging opinions. But he was a brave man, who did not hesitate to name things. And he was not only the friend of the Americans in those days.
When the US Army started to uproot Saddam Hussein’s regime, Chalabi entered Iraqi territory on foot from Iran after an official farewell, which included a meeting with Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi and Al-Quds Force Commander General Qassem Soleimani.
Years later, remarks made to me by Shalabi continue to resound in my head. He said that the United States was never willing to intervene in Iraq and overthrow Saddam’s regime. “We have carried out a long and hard work in Congress in order to entice the Americans to intervene, trying to convince them that the survival of the Baath regime is a threat to their interests.”
He said that two events facilitated the intervention: Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the September 11 attacks. He explicitly said that without American intervention, Iraq would have stayed under the rule of Saddam or one of his sons for decades to come.
Chalabi said Americans do not want to shed their sons’ blood and billions of dollars in the Middle East as long as their interests are secure. But this region - which sleeps on a great wealth of energy - is a meeting point for three continents and requires external intervention, because it sometimes gives rise to adventurous leaders who do not know the world and its balance of power, or to ideas that resemble time bombs.
He said he believes that Iranian officials are smarter than directly engaging in a war with the United States, because the latter is capable of returning Iran decades back if not more.
During a long evening in Baghdad, Chalabi told me that there are two issues that the West cannot tolerate - exposing energy sources and corridors to danger, and threatening Israel’s existence - Such threats ignite Western intervention in the region.
He noted that US-Iranian relations will not settle until the waning of the enthusiasm of an Iranian generation that believes in the spirit of confrontation with America to ensure the continued cohesion of the Iranian revolution; pointing out that Ahmadinejad and Qassem Soleimani belong to this generation, which sees the US presence in the region as an obstacle and a threat to the revolution.
There is no doubt that western political, security and military institutions include hawks that support hegemony and imposition of models and codes of conduct. But the West has institutions that discuss and study, and parliaments that monitor and practice accountability.
Simply put, could the West have sent hundreds of thousands of its soldiers to discipline Saddam’s army if it had not occupied Kuwait? Or was not the invasion of Kuwait a kind of call to intervene because the option to accept the Iraqi fait accompli in Kuwait was not expected or even conceivable?
Another point. US forces left Iraq with some disappointment. The goal of overthrowing Saddam has been achieved, but without reaching the most important objective of building a democratic, stable and pro-Western Iraq that strives for prosperity.
Moreover, the deployment of the US military in Iraq led to the spread of extremism and the birth of jihadist groups, and facilitated neighboring Iran to leak into the Iraqi fabric and its decision-making.
It was therefore believed that America would distance itself from the region and avoid military interventions. But the emergence of the ISIS leader from Mosul, the expansion of the organization into large swaths of Iraq and Syria and its brutal practices within and outside its “state” have left the US with no choice but to intervene to prevent the organization from growing and possessing a stable popular base through which its lone wolves would plot attacks across the world.
Chalabi did not consider the West a charitable organization. He did not think that the West would sacrifice its sons for a difficult surgery to transplant democracy in our region. But he believed that the Middle East was a birthplace of dangers and the cradle of old conflicts and chronic hatreds, so the world finds itself faced with the option of encircling these dangers or intervening in the hope of uprooting them. He gave the example of al-Qaeda attacks in New York.
Another point that is directly linked to the current situation: Would it have been easy for Donald Trump to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran if it had succeeded in curbing Tehran’s missile ambitions and regional goals?
Would it have been possible for the Trump administration to send its vessels to the Gulf if Iran did not repeat its threats to close the Strait of Hormuz and if the Houthis did not resort to harassment that would ultimately lead to threatening energy sources and corridors?
Talking about mutual doubts between Iran and the United States should never obscure the fact that Iran’s first problem is its policy that worries neighboring countries before distant states. Iran says it wants to live in peace with its neighbors. Its foreign minister declares that it proposes non-aggression treaties.
In the light of repeated practices, neighbors have the right to suspect that the purpose of these offers is to enable Iran to avoid confrontation with America and turn a blind eye to its actions through its small mobile armies.
Problems in the Middle East do not begin with external interventions. They begin with practices that call for and facilitate such interventions.
The solution starts with the decision to return to the maps, to comply with international law and norms in inter-state communication, and to refrain from violating borders with rockets or drones.
No country in the region has the right to impose its model and policies on others. Infiltrating into the maps of others and threatening stability and interests are the main cause for larger interventions.
The Middle East’s problem can only be resolved from within, by changing policies and adopting the option of coexistence, acceptance of differences and respect for interests.
Without such a solution, the region will remain a problem for itself and the world. A diplomat, who has long gained experience in the capitals of the region, once said: “It’s better for armies to stay away from this region. But the Middle East equals the world’s economy and stability. It is sometimes an inevitable curse.”

German Jews Demand Ban On Hezbollah After Kippah Warning
جيرازولم بوست: يهود ألمانيا يطالبون حكومتهم بحظر حزب الله بعد تحذير لهم من وضع طاقية "الكيبوت" على رؤسهم في الأماكن العامة
Benjamin Weinthal/Jerusalem Post/May 27/2019
Merkel's gov't has refused to outlaw the terrorist entity
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/75246/%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%88%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%AA-%D9%8A%D9%87%D9%88%D8%AF-%D8%A3%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D9%8A%D8%B7%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%AD%D9%83/
The nearly 100,000-member Central Council of Jews in Germany urged Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration to outlaw the entire terrorist entity Hezbollah.
Just days after Dr. Felix Klein, Merkel’s commissioner to combat antisemitism and support Jewish life in Germany, said it is not safe for Jews to wear kippot in public, the council’s weekly German Jewish paper Jüdische Allgemeine reported on Monday that “The Central Council of Jews in Germany calls for a ban of the Shi’ite militia Hezbollah.”
Council head Dr. Josef Schuster said that “a full ban of Hezbollah’s organization has already happened in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom,” adding that “Hezbollah is heavily financed by Iran, and Hezbollah poses, in its entirety, a threat to the entire world.”
Germany and the EU merely outlawed Hezbollah’s so-called military wing in 2013. In addition to the Netherlands and the UK, the US, Canada, Arab League and Israel classify all of Hezbollah as a terrorist entity.
“A continuation of the distinction between their individual wings would be negligent and should therefore be corrected as soon as possible,” Schuster said.
Ibrahim Mousawi, the terrorist group’s own spokesman, has said that: “Hezbollah is a single, large organization. We have no wings that are separate from one another.”
Schuster also criticized the Berlin authorities for allowing the annual al-Quds Day rally to take place on Saturday.
“The Al Quds demonstration conveys nothing but antisemitism and hatred of Israel,” Schuster said. Jüdische Allgemeine quoted Schuster saying the rally “is as an Islamist propaganda campaign against Israel that seeks the conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of Israel,” and at which the Iranian mullah regime is praised.
“It’s incomprehensible to us that this demo is approved year after year,” he said.
Berlin’s Mayor Michael Müller said in 2017 that he would crack down against the al-Quds Day march in the heart of Berlin, but he has taken no action to stop the antisemitic rally since that announcement.
In May, Müller’s Social Democratic Party think tank the Friedrich Ebert Foundation hosted an Iranian regime Holocaust-denial institute in Berlin.
In February, Müller’s social democratic colleagues – German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Niels Annen, an undersecretary at the foreign ministry – celebrated Iran’s Islamic revolution.
Michael Spaney, executive director of the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin, said in a statement on Monday that 1,600 radical Islamists are expected to attend the al-Quds rally on Saturday. An opposition protest titled “Against the al-Quds March! No Islamism and Antisemitism in Berlin” is slated to also be held on Saturday.
At past marches observed by The Jerusalem Post, a mixture anti-Israel activists – Hezbollah members, pro-Iranian regime supporters, neo-Nazis, pro-boycott Israel activists and supporters of the designated terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – have participated in the march.
“The BMI does not comment on concrete prohibition considerations in general,” a spokesman for Germany’s Interior Ministry (BMI) wrote to the Post in March after the UK banned Hezbollah. “This applies regardless of whether there is reason to do so in individual cases.”
BMI has provided the same answer to Post queries since 2008 about whether Merkel’s administration plans to outlaw all of Hezbollah, while the EU has banned its “military arm” since 2013.
According to 2018 German intelligence reports analyzed by the Post, there are 950 Hezbollah operatives in the federal republic who raise funds, recruit new members and spread Hezbollah’s lethal antisemitic ideology.
“According to the case law of the Federal Administrative Court, the entire Hezbollah is against the idea of international understanding in the sense of the Basic Law, because it fights the right of existence of the State of Israel with terrorist means,” BMI’s spokesman said. “Such an objective is antisemitic in nature.”
Hezbollah has murdered Jews in Europe, including a 2012 attack in which its operatives blew up an Israeli tour bus in Bulgaria. Five Israelis and their Bulgarian Muslim bus driver were murdered in the terrorist attack at the seaside resort of Burgas on the Black Sea.

Iranian militias in Syria under pressure from all sides
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/May 27/2019
Many questions are being raised about the future of Iran’s role in Syria. For instance, how is it being affected by the rapidly shifting positions and alliances among the parties to the Syrian crisis? What about Iran’s expansionist ambitions in Syria, the US’ demands, and the intensive Israeli raids aimed at pressuring Tehran to pull its militias out of the country?
These questions arise at a time when the clerical regime in Tehran has reached its lowest point in modern times and Syria’s status as one of the most important arenas for regional conflict is still growing. It is also a time when the US strategy of maximum pressure on Iran is intensifying, after it decided not to extend its waivers on importing Iranian oil. One of the aims of this strategy is to curb the Tehran regime’s regional activities in a way that will ensure that its influence is curtailed and the regional balance of power is tipped against it.
The external activities of expansionist states such as Iran are dependent on several factors, such as their financial and economic standing (the economic lungs pumping blood to the regime’s organs elsewhere) and the scope of their influence within the regional order.
Considering these factors during an extremely confused and ambiguous stage in the Tehran regime’s regional activities, we find that Iran is facing an economic situation far worse than expected. This is due to the success of the current US administration in escalating its comprehensive sanctions to tighten the noose on Iran’s regime, and to reduce its dollar reserves, as well as to sever the financial arteries pumping funds to its regional activities. To date, this has led to Iran’s oil revenues declining by more than half. This explains why Iran has resorted to a scenario of limited confrontations following the failure of its efforts to persuade regional countries to circumvent US sanctions against it.
In addition to the Trump administration’s success in targeting the regime’s supply lines for its activities in Syria, Iran is also experiencing another terrible dilemma. While the Iranian-Russian alliance enabled the Assad regime to maintain power, tensions have begun to grow in Syria between Russia and Iran, with their positions diverging. Armed confrontations have already broken out on several occasions in areas across the country between forces loyal to Russia and Iran. The Russians have implemented their own policy of occupation, replacing Iranian forces with their own troops, with Moscow also in the process of restructuring the Syrian army in a way that ensures its upper hand in the Syrian equation.
Former allies Iran and Russia are now shifting from the phase of cooperation and coordination to one of confrontation.
Earlier predictions regarding the inevitable divergence in positions between Russia and Iran have been proven correct, as the former allies are now shifting from the phase of cooperation and coordination to one of confrontation over influence and control of the new Syrian equation. For Iran’s regime, this is an additional source of pressure as well as a hindrance to its schemes and ambitions in Syria, coming at a time when Tehran has waited impatiently to reap the rewards of the financial and human losses it has incurred since it first stepped in to help Assad following the outbreak of the Syrian revolution eight years ago. Iran’s regime has been desperate to seize control of the phosphate-rich areas and get the lion’s share of reconstruction contracts in Syria to help with its efforts to circumvent the US economic sanctions and to mitigate their impact on the Iranian economy.
It seems there is a growing Russian conviction that the time is right to take advantage of the US pressure on Tehran to get rid of the Iranian burden shackling it in Syria. This means that there is a convergence between Russia, the US and Israel, with Tel Aviv no longer the only power keen to expel Iranian militias out of Syria. The Russian decision-makers are also eager to impose restrictions on Iran in Syria, curb Tehran’s power within the conflict, and limit its influence and gains. The Russians want to drive the Iranians away from Latakia port on the Syrian coast and they want the opportunity to have the final say over the decisions of the Syrian regime in a way that maximizes their role in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Russian measures against the Iranian regime’s forces and militias in Syria will soon escalate to the point of no return due to the divergence of objectives, strategies and tools between the two countries. The Russians have no intention of conceding any influence in the new Syrian equation, of reducing their share in the reconstruction contracts, or of lowering their expanding control of the Syrian coast. Likewise, the Iranians do not have any intention of ceding their attempts to attain a foothold on the Mediterranean through Iraq and Syria or their demands to be compensated for the massive costs they have incurred in the conflict.
Nobody can assess the probable fate of the Iranian regime’s role in Syria without mentioning the intensive Israeli raids on the Iranian militias’ positions there, the most recent of which took place on May 17. Tel Aviv is working to erase Iranian proxies from Syria, with which it shares a 38-kilometer border. Israel wants to ensure the complete destruction of the Iranian scheme and to maintain Assad’s regime in its weak position in order to ensure that it can pose no direct threat, while maintaining the current regional balance of power so that it doesn’t change in Iran’s favor. Israel also aims to undermine the legitimacy of Syria’s demands concerning the occupied Golan Heights through blaming the Assad regime for the spread of militias in southern Syria.
All these factors show that the US strategy of maximum pressure is paying off, and Iran’s regime is going through a critical phase in Syria. There are a number of possible scenarios for its militias there. Either they will continue operating without submitting to the overt Israeli-US demands and to the tacit Russian demands that they leave; or, if there’s some shift in the seriousness of the US administration’s strategy in besieging Iran, which is possible given the recent US escalation against Tehran, the regime will be prompted to at least suspend its militias as a prelude to ceasing its expansionist activities in Syria in the short run.The second scenario seems more likely, given the tough Russian escalation, the Israeli bombing of Iranian positions in Syria and the continued regional and international embargo against Iran, with the seriousness of President Donald Trump’s policy of tightening the noose around Tehran increasing his chances of winning a second term in the 2020 presidential elections.
*Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is Head of the International Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah). Twitter: @mohalsulami

Nile neighbors’ relations return to normal
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Arab News/May 27/2019
Sudan’s hostility toward Egypt, which lasted more than 20 years, has finally ended. During these years, Cairo and Khartoum were estranged and differences dominated their relations, with each capital being an axis against the other.
The visit of Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s ruling interim military council, to Cairo is an important political development toward positive arrangements that will restore the desired regional equation. Sudan under Omar Al-Bashir was aligned with Qatar, Iran and Libya’s militias, although it took part in the war in Yemen under arrangements that secured Khartoum and Bashir an additional regional role. As for Egypt, Bashir’s rule witnessed the worst relations between the two countries since independence. Bashir and the “Islamic nationalist” Muslim Brotherhood movement made Khartoum a rival to Damascus as the capital of extremist organizations, and Cairo was suspicious of Sudan’s role in the terrorist attacks that hit Egypt in multiple waves.
The removal of Bashir thanks to an overwhelming popular desire has changed the regional equation. Al-Burhan’s visit to Cairo reinforced the expectations of changing the removed president’s policy and it was preceded by many meaningful signs, including the refusal to receive the foreign minister of Qatar and receive the Bahraini foreign minister instead; and, more importantly, Al-Burhan's own statement that Sudan will not adopt hostile policies toward its neighbors.
The steps taken by Sudan’s ruling interim military council seem to indicate that it wants to get rid of Bashir’s political legacy and put an end to its intense animosity. These steps include international and national reconciliations, the most recent of which was the return of Yasir Arman, who was accused of serious charges when he decided to run for president.
The steps taken by the head of Sudan’s ruling interim military council seem to indicate that it wants to get rid of Bashir’s political legacy
The arrangements of Sudan’s internal affairs may take longer due to the difficult legacy of the previous regime, as well as the multiplicity of forces and different orientations. The external affairs seem to have been determined by the Sudanese leadership through several messages, most notably Al-Burhan’s visit to Cairo and his statements that have ended two decades of bad relations between the two neighbors, which were reflected in the poor relationships on the border, water, security and political files. In addition, the visit of Al-Burhan’s deputy, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, to Jeddah has stressed the new policy of Sudan and the continuation of its membership of the military alliance in Yemen.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Sudan are the mainstays of the Red Sea security system. Attempts were made to establish the system last year but the main obstacle to its implementation was the lack of confidence in the Bashir regime, which had already concluded a hostile agreement granting the island of Suakin to Turkey as a military base. A Turkish military presence in the waters of the Red Sea has no justification whatsoever, unless it is directed against Egypt and Saudi Arabia. With the removal of Bashir, it seems that Turkey will not be able to harness the island as a military base against the Red Sea states. Among the first steps announced early after the fall of Bashir’s regime was a review of the administration of ports that Bashir gave to hostile regional governments. These ports were believed to have been used for suspicious non-civilian purposes.
The interests of Sudan as a large country have come from the framework laid down by the former regime, which was based primarily on the policies of the extremist Muslim Brotherhood. Moreover, no one expects Sudan to engage in another cycle of chaos. The ultimate goal is for Sudan to devote itself to internal development and benefit from its relations with its neighbors, as the interim military council has done since the middle of last month, with the support of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to stabilize the Sudanese pound and fuel prices. It is in the interests of Sudan for the Red Sea to be a region free of war and enmity, including Somalia and Yemen.
*Abdulrahman Al-Rashed is a veteran columnist. He is the former general manager of Al Arabiya news channel, and former editor in chief of Asharq Al-Awsat.Twitter: @aalrashed

GCC countries feel force of trade spats between US and Asia
Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/May 27/2019
Donald Trump is visiting his “good friend “and golf buddy Shinzo Abe in Japan. While his words on trade were tough at the beginning of the visit, he made some concessions on the timing and sequencing of the negotiations during Monday afternoon’s joint press conference of the two leaders.
The US will give Japan an extension and only conclude the negotiations after Japan’s Upper House elections. This is a huge concession, because Trump wants greater access to Japan for agricultural goods such as US beef. Agriculture is important to both the president and the prime minister. Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party depends heavily on the rural farm vote; hence the grace period during the election campaign is more than welcome. Trump, too, needs to court his farmers as they are suffering from the fallout of the ill-fated US China trade negotiations.
There is the matter of Japanese car imports to the US as well. Abe would like to see the 2.5 percent tariffs scrapped. He can afford to be more lenient because most of the Japanese cars on America’s streets are produced in-country.
The US and Japan are the world’s biggest and third-largest economies. Still these negotiations are a side show compared with the continuing talks between China and the US. The negotiations are going nowhere.
Trump has increased tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports to 25 percent and threatened the same level of tariffs on the remaining $300 billion of imports. This hit China badly. It also hit the US; the tech sector is particularly affected. The Huawei ban means that Intel Qualcomm and Broadcom will lose one of their most important clients once the three months’ grace period has expired. Apple assembles many of its iPhones in China.
The tech sector on both sides of the Pacific needs to fundamentally reconfigure its supply chain. Alas, the US does not hold all the cards. The chip industry relies on rare earths as major raw materials. When it comes to gallium, germanium indium, etc., China controls about 90 percent of its deposits as well as the refining capacity. This is a strong card, should China choose to play it.
The US China trade war also hit US farmers, who now export less to China.
As mentioned above, the US China trade war also hit US farmers, who now export less to China. On top of that it will affect US consumers via higher inflation. Indeed, clothing manufacturers have issued a stark warning to the White House.
It is not just the spats between the US and Asia that should worry us. The US Mexico Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA), while signed in November, has still not been ratified. Then there is also Europe, where Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on European car imports. That would hit Germany particularly hard, but would also affect France and Italy, particularly in light of the merger talks between Fiat/Chrysler and Renault, which — if successful — will create the world’s largest car manufacturer.
There is a lot to be concerned about when it comes to trade. No one sees this more than the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its Director-General Roberto Azevedo. In April, the WTO released its economic growth figures for 2018 and its forecasts for 2019. According to the organization the global economy grew by 3 percent in 2018, a far cry from the 3.9 percent the IMF predicted in January 2018. The WTO forecast for 2019 stands at 2.9 percent.
In other words, the whole world is affected by global trade woes. There are four ways in which GCC countries feel trade tensions and lower growth.
First, trade and integrated supply chains are important to demand for petroleum, which is the premier transportation fuel. Less trade means less demand for oil, which will hit GCC producers such as Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait.
Second, the region’s sovereign wealth funds and individuals are heavily invested in global capital markets. They feel the impact when stock markets plunge due to trade woes, and when the share-price investees such as Intel, Qualcomm or Apple lose double digits in their value overnight.
Third, most of the GCC economies have ambitious plans to diversify their economies away from oil. These include manufacturing — none more so than Saudi Vision 2030. These plans depend on an open trading system for their successful implementation.
Fourth, several of the GCC countries have signed up to Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road plan. The initiative wants to bring back to life the trading routes of the ancient Silk Road. Oman and the UAE, especially, contribute to and benefit from the scheme both as logistics — and manufacturing — hubs.
In other words, developments in trade matter to the global economy and to all countries — especially if they are as integrated into the global system as the larger GCC economies.
*Cornelia Meyer is a business consultant, macro-economist and energy expert. Twitter: @MeyerResources

Why Iran’s diplomatic overtures ring hollow
Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg/Arab News/May 27/2019
Iranian diplomats are in overdrive, trying to demonize their adversaries and portray Iran as an innocent, peaceful victim in the current standoff in the Gulf. But the regime’s actions belie those proclamations.
On Friday, Rear Adm. Michael Gilday, the director of the US Joint Staff, said that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was responsible for this month’s attacks on four oil tankers off the UAE coast. “The attack against the shipping in Fujairah, we attribute it to the IRGC,” he said, adding that the US believed that “limpet mines” were used in the attacks.
The ship attacks coincided with drone attacks by Houthi militias — a proxy for Iran — on oil installations in Saudi Arabia. The attacks appeared to be coordinated as part of a campaign by Iran in response to US sanctions on its oil exports. Tehran had earlier threatened to prevent other nations from exporting oil if the US continued its sanctions against Iran’s oil exports.
The attacks and threats by the IRGC and its proxies also appeared to be a response to the US decision last month to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the time: “This designation is a direct response to an outlaw regime and should surprise no one. The IRGC masquerades as a legitimate military organization, but none of us should be fooled.”
In response to the terrorist designation, IRGC leaders threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz and attack US forces in the region. The repeated threats and subsequent attacks on oil shipping and pipelines have been met with an increased readiness on the part of US forces and its allies in the Gulf. Joint exercises, close coordination and additional fresh troops from the US, in small numbers, were part of this increased readiness to safeguard the freedom of navigation and protect critical oil infrastructure.
The posture of the US military and its allies remains defensive in nature and to deter future attacks. However, these precautionary moves have thrown Iran’s officials into a frenzy. While Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif and other diplomats have preached peace, IRGC leaders have continued their bellicose rhetoric against the US and its allies. In Lebanon, Hezbollah, another IRGC proxy, intensified its threats against the US and its Gulf partners. In Iraq, militias loyal to Iran started a campaign aimed at ending the US military presence in the country.
In every hot spot in the Middle East, IRGC-trained and funded militias have shown little or no interest in diplomacy.
More ominously, the Houthis intensified their missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia. After the twin attacks on the strategic East-West oil pipeline, they targeted the holy city of Makkah and the civilian airports of Najran and Jizan in southwestern Saudi Arabia. While those threats were intercepted and did not cause casualties, the increase in the number of attacks signals a new, higher level of coordination to serve Iran’s purposes in its faceoff with the US.
Militias loyal to Iran also increased their attacks against civilians in Syria in support of Bashar Assad’s campaign to squash the rebellion against his hold on power. In every hot spot in the Middle East, IRGC-trained and funded militias have shown little or no interest in diplomacy or trying to find political solutions to complicated internal struggles. Instead, they rely on violence and whipping up religious hatred to fan the flames of various civil wars.
It is for these reasons that Iran’s worn-out diplomatic cliches ring hollow. First, Iran has said that it has no interest in negotiating with the US “directly or indirectly” in response to President Donald Trump’s calls for talks between the two countries. Second, Iran has rejected calls for revisiting the nuclear deal, while at the same time announcing that it was planning to violate some of its provisions. Third, it has rejected European and US calls to negotiate about its ballistic missile program and its regional activities. The US and Europe have repeatedly expressed genuine desire for negotiations to address real concerns about Iran’s conduct, including its ballistic missile program and destabilizing activities in the region — conduct that frequently and flagrantly violates universally accepted rules of state action. Iran has declined to negotiate seriously, declaring, for example, that its missile program was off-limits or the alleged malign activities were lies spread by its enemies.
Fourth, Iran has frustrated previous attempts at mending fences with its neighbors. More than two years ago, the Gulf Cooperation Council sent a letter to Iran proposing that the two sides agree on a set of principles that should govern their relationship. They included adherence to the UN-mandated principle of respect for national borders, political independence, and sovereignty of nations. They also included rejecting sectarianism and refraining from interfering in the internal affairs of neighboring countries.
So, for Iranian diplomacy to be credible, Iran has to respond positively to previous calls for negotiations and it has to rein in the IRGC to stop it from spreading mischief in the region. The split between Zarif’s diplomacy and IRGC commander Hossein Salami’s bellicosity raises questions of either duplicity or an inability to come to a unified position on what Iran’s role in the region should be: An extraterritorial hegemon or a normal state that lives within its borders and the confines of international law and the UN Charter.
*Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the GCC Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs & Negotiation, and a columnist for Arab News. The views expressed in this piece are personal and do not necessarily represent GCC views. Twitter: @abuhamad1