English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese,
Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 14/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.november14.20.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
I tell you, the one who believes in me will
also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these,
because I am going to the Father.I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that
the Father may be glorified in the Son
John 14/08-14: “Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the
Father, and we will be satisfied.’Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all
this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen
the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am
in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not
speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that
I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me
because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in
me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than
these, because I am going to the Father.I will do whatever you ask in my name,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for
anything, I will do it.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on November 13-14/2020
Guila Fakhoury/My Dad Amer Fakhoury Was
Assassinated by Hezbollah and the Lebanese government
MoPH: 1904 coronavirus cases, 21 deaths
US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
President Aoun discusses path of border demarcation negotiations and
implementation of Resolution 1701 with Kubis
Diab affirms right to access "student dollar" as per Parliament-approved law
Diab: Lockdown aimed at avoiding the collapse of the health system
100 Days after Beirut Port Blast, Families of Victims Await Answers
Shea Says U.S. Still Supporting Lebanon, Pressuring Hizbullah
Families of Port Victims Meet Berri after Ain el-Tineh Sit-in
Report: U.S. Intervention Expected to Ease Border Demarcation Snag
Msharrafieh: Lebanon’s Refugee Plan Adopted at Damascus Conference
U.S. Ambassador Meets Arslan in Khalde
Hariri Calls Bahrain Leaders to Offer Condolences
Army Clarifies Why a U.S. Military Jet Has Landed in Riyaq
MP Says FPM to Challenge U.S. Sanctions against its Leader
Nissan's $95 Million Suit against Ghosn Begins in Japan
France urges speedy government formation in Lebanon/Najia Houssari/Arab
News/.November 13/2020
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on
November 13-14/2020
US Election: Biden to get 306 Electoral College votes
against Trump’s 232
Biden Wins Arizona, Cementing U.S. Election Lead
Trump Emerges from Election Gloom to Hold Rare Work Meeting
France to Urge U.S. to Remain in Afghanistan and Iraq
Moroccan army launches operation in Western Sahara border zone
Polisario Says WSahara Ceasefire over as Rabat Launches Operation
France Marks 5 Years since Deadly Attacks on Bataclan, Cafes
Saudi Crown Prince Vows 'Iron Fist' against Extremists after Attack
More than 10 Dead after India-Pakistan Kashmir ClashBahrain buries Prince
Khalifa, world’s longest serving prime minister
Twelve killed, 36 wounded as India, Pakistan forces trade fire in disputed
Kashmir
Titles For The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 13-14/2020
Question: "How is Jesus our Sabbath Rest?"/GotQuestions.org/November
13/2020
For as long as there have been people, there have been losers/Justin Marozzi/The
National/November 13/2020
US envoy on Iran: Any deal with Tehran must see hostages freed/Robert Tollast/The
National/November 13/2020
Svante Cornell on the Armenian-Azerbaijan Conflict/Marilyn Stern/Middle East
Forum Webinar/November 12, 2020
Arabs: “Westerners Must Stop Appeasing Islamists”/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone
Institute./November 13/2020
Erdogan increasingly governing on borrowed time/Dr. John C. Hulsman/Arab
News/November 13/2020
Iran the big loser in Nagorno-Karabakh war/Luke Coffey/Arab News/November
13/2020
US criticism of religious freedom in Turkey stirs debate/Menekse Takyay/Arab
News/November 13/2020
The US Elections: An Episode in a Cultural War/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/November
13/2020
Is Stephanie Williams hyping up the progress of Libyan talks in Tunis?/Jemai
Guesmi/The Arab Weekly/November 13/2020
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 13-14/2020
Guila Fakhoury/My Dad Amer Fakhoury Was Assassinated by Hezbollah and the Lebanese government
https://www.facebook.com/FakhouryFoundation/
November 12/2020
Today marks the day my dad was taken by Hezbollah. Today marks the start of Amer
Fakhoury’s assassination by Hezbollah and the Lebanese government. We will not
let them win and kill another US citizen, today we mark it as the birth of the
Amer Fakhoury Foundation.
MoPH: 1904 coronavirus cases, 21 deaths
NNA/November 13/2020
The Ministry of Public Health announced on Friday 1904 new Coronavirus
infections and 21 deaths across the past 24 hours.
US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling
price at LBP 3900
NNA/November 13/2020
The Money Changers Syndicate announced in a statement addressed to money
changing companies and institutions, Friday’s USD exchange rate against the
Lebanese pound as follows:
Buying price at a minimum of LBP 3850
Selling price at a maximum of LBP 3900
President Aoun discusses path of border demarcation
negotiations and implementation of Resolution 1701 with Kubis
NNA/November 13/2020
The President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, received UN Special
Coordinator in Lebanon, Mr. Jan Kubis, today at the Presidential Palace, and
discussed with him the general conditions and the course of negotiations to
demarcate the southern maritime borders in light of the deliberations of the
meeting held last Wednesday at UN headquarters at Naqoura. The discussion also
tackled the periodic report that Mr. Kubis intends to present to the Security
Council on the implementation of Resolution 1701.
Developments of the file for the formation of the new government, and the issue
of the US sanctions imposed on a number of Lebanese politicians were also under
discussion.
President Aoun offered his condolences to the peacekeeping forces in Sinaa, who
died due to a helicopter crash which they were traveling in due to a technical
failure.
Internationally, the meeting was attended by Mr. Kubis, Head of the Political
Unit, Mrs. Saskia Raming and Ms. Lina Al-Kidwa.
On the Lebanese side, former Minister Salim Jreissati, the Director General of
the Presidency of the Republic, Dr. Antoine Choucair, and Advisor, Osama Khashab
attended.
MP Nicolas Sehnaoui:
President Aoun also met MP, Nicolas Sehnaoui, and discussed with him current
internal developments, the issue of rebuilding the areas that were damaged as a
result of the port explosion, and the process of distributing compensations to
the affected.
MP Sehnaoui said that President Aoun is working to secure an amount of 150
billion pounds in addition to the 100 billion pounds that he previously secured,
in order to facilitate the process of returning the affected to their homes as
fast as possible.
Condolences to the Prime Minister of Bahrain and Oreiqat:
In addition, President Aoun telegraphed to the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al
Khalifa, condoling the death of the Prime Minister, Prince Khalifa bin Suleiman
Al Khalifa The President also telegrammed to the Palestinian President, Mahmoud
Abbas, condoling the death of the late Saeb Oreiqat. Presidency Press Office
Diab affirms right to access "student dollar" as per
Parliament-approved law
NNA/November 13/2020
Caretaker Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, affirmed that the families of students
who are pursuing their studies abroad have the right to access the "student
dollar" based on the law approved by the Parliament. PM Diab stated that evading
the application of this law entails legal responsibilities for the party that
refuses to implement it, for it causes great damage to the students' parents and
the students themselves.Premier Diab called for the immediate implementation of
this law. -- Presidency of the Council of Ministers Press Office
Diab: Lockdown aimed at avoiding the collapse of the health
system
NNA/November 13/2020
Caretaker Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, delivered Friday the following message:
“Good evening,
Tomorrow, the country will begin a nationwide lockdown aimed at avoiding the
collapse of the health system and protecting ourselves and our people.
The lockdown is not a solution per se. It is an opportunity to raise the
country's health sector preparedness in light of the dramatic surge in
coronavirus infections over the past weeks.
Who did not begin to feel that this pandemic will be knocking at every door? The
majority of patients won the battle against the virus, but they went through
hard times.
The consequence and reaction to the coronavirus hitting a father, a mother, or
any member of the family are unimaginable.
The feeling of losing a dear one without being there for a final goodbye leaves
us with a deep wound and profound sadness.
Many people have criticized the lockdown decision. I certainly understand them
and I am aware of their economic suffering. We are hearing feedback from many
sources. Lebanon's status is similar to that of other countries around the
world, where the authorities have to trade-off between the economy and our
health and lives.
Personally, I choose life and health over the economy, and this is definitely
your choice too, for the economy becomes meaningless if we lose our lives.
We are working hard to get the vaccines that would protect us from this pandemic
as soon as possible.
It is true that this pandemic is still beyond the ability of states to cope with
it, but protecting ourselves from the virus is not difficult at all.
We are only required to ensure self-protection:
Wearing a mask, washing hands frequently, and disinfecting the objects we use.
Can we do this?
Can we spare ourselves and our families this suffering?
We can certainly do that.
The Lebanese people’s unwavering tenacity will enable them to stand up to the
challenges.
This outbreak is not tougher than the one we have experienced.
All government measures will not work unless the Lebanese adhere to wearing
masks and disinfecting, and observe social distancing.
Is it difficult to do so?
Of course not...
I am confident that if we commit ourselves to safety measures, we will be among
the first countries to have triumphed over the pandemic, just as we were in the
first wave.
I call on every Lebanese citizen and resident, male and female alike: take care
of yourselves so that you can protect your family ... and so that things can
return to normal.
God bless you!” -----Grand Serail Press Office
100 Days after Beirut Port Blast, Families of Victims
Await Answers
Beirut - Youssef Diab/Asharq Al Awsat/November 13/2020
One hundred days after the devastating explosion at Beirut Port, which left 200
people dead, more than 5,000 injured and thousands of families without shelter,
the relatives of the victims await answers on those responsible for the
disaster. Faced with this bleak reality, the relevant judicial authorities
presented a different approach, stressing that the investigator, Judge Fadi
Sawan, was close to identifying the culprits. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, a
senior judicial source said that Sawan took very important and difficult
decisions that led to the arrest of 25 persons, including the Director General
of Lebanese Customs, Badri Daher, former Customs chief Chafik Merhi, the
director of Beirut Port, Hassan Qraitem, head of Land and Maritime Transport
Abdel-Hafiz al-Qaisi, and the port’s security official, Brigadier General in
Army Intelligence, Tony Salloum, in addition to senior personnel at the port.
Sawan also heard the testimonies of 53 witnesses, including the current and
former ministers of public works, finance and justice, and current and former
heads of security services. The judicial sources explained that the
investigation has followed two paths: “The first related to allowing the
ammonium nitrate shipment to be stored at the port for seven years; and the
second on whether the explosion was the result of failure and error or was a
premeditated terrorist or security attack.”The sources noted that the US Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has estimated in its report the volume of
explosive materials at 552 tons out of 2,750 tons that were stored in warehouse
No.12, which left 16 km of radial damage. The US report seemed to rule out a
terrorist act. The Lebanese judiciary is counting on the French experts’ report,
which is yet to be submitted, according to the judicial sources.
They noted that the French report “will be detailed in terms of determining the
causes of the explosion, since the French explosives experts worked for a longer
period of time, and undertook a comprehensive survey of the Beirut Port, the
destroyed buildings and facilities, as well as the sea.”
The head of the Beirut Bar Association, Melhem Khalaf, who filed lawsuits on
behalf of 664 victims, expressed concern over interference in the judiciary’s
work to keep high-ranking state officials away from prosecution. In remarks to
Asharq Al-Awsat, Khalaf said: “This is an opportunity for the judiciary to
regain self-confidence, restore people’s trust, and be free from any (political)
pressure.”
Shea Says U.S. Still Supporting Lebanon, Pressuring
Hizbullah
Naharnet/November 12/2020
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea said Friday that her country is
still following the policy of pressuring Hizbullah, while noting that Washington
has not ceased its support for Lebanon. “We have not done yet as the Gulf states
did in moving away from Lebanon and not supporting it,” MTV quoted Shea as
saying. As for the latest U.S. sanctions on Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran
Bassil, Shea reportedly said: “Through his relationship with Hizbullah, Bassil
covers the party's weapons while Hizbullah covers his corruption.” “We did not
support the last government because it was formed by Hizbullah, but we stood by
the Lebanese people and we will see what the next government will look like to
determine our position,” Shea added, according to MTV. “We will insist on our
positions, and if we do not do that, they will return to corruption; no one will
help them at all unless we see progress step by step, and there will be nothing
free from now on,” she went on to say. As for the coronavirus crisis in Lebanon
and the pro-Hizbullah caretaker health minister, Shea said: “Our condition to
help Lebanon confront the coronavirus was to move away from the Health Ministry
because the Health Minister is close to Hizbullah and to deal with friendly and
reliable institutions, such as AUB and the Lebanese Army.”
Families of Port Victims Meet Berri after Ain el-Tineh
Sit-in
Naharnet/November 12/2020
Relatives of victims killed in the Beirut port blast on Friday staged a sit-in
outside Speaker Nabih Berri’s headquarters in Ain el-Tineh, demanding that he
hold an extraordinary session to grant the families compensations similar to
those granted to the families of the army’s fallen soldiers.
They also called on citizens to join their demos in order to fulfill the demands
and unveil the investigation’s developments. Berri later met with a delegation
representing the demonstrators and reassured that he will “endorse the cause of
the martyrs and the wounded of the port blast at all levels, especially at the
legislative level.” “The least amount of loyalty to the martyrs of the port and
the rest of those affected would be passing legislation that does them justice,
closes their wounds and rebuilds and repairs what was destroyed by the
explosion,” the Speaker added.
The catastrophic August 4 blast killed around 200 people and wounded more than
6,500 others. It also devastated swathes of the capital and displaced around
300,000 people.
Report: U.S. Intervention Expected to Ease Border
Demarcation Snag
Agence France Presse/November 12/2020
The upcoming fifth round of maritime demarcation talks between Lebanon and
Israel reportedly awaits the intervention of the U.S. mediator to solve some
hurdles arising during their latest meeting, the Saudi Asharq el-Awsat reported
Friday. On Wednesday, Lebanon and Israel held their fourth maritime border talks
to allow for offshore hydrocarbon exploration. The Israeli delegation has
reportedly presented a “provocative proposal" showing a new map that cuts off
additional parts of the Lebanese economic waters, in response to a map presented
by the Lebanese delegation, declaring Lebanon's right to parts of the Israeli "Karish"
energy field, said the daily. The fourth session of indirect negotiations that
took place at the UNIFIL headquarters in Ras el-Naqoura under US and UN auspices
was described as “tense,” according to a Lebanese source close to the
negotiations. The Israeli delegation “raised new demands not based on any legal
order, in response to the maps, documents, legal, topographical, historical and
geographical evidence presented by Lebanon in the second session,” a source told
the daily on condition of anonymity. In an earlier session, Lebanon presented
new maps rectifying the previous positions course, demanding an additional area
of 1,430 square kilometres further south. The additional area extends into part
of the Karish gas field which Israel has assigned to Greek firm Energean for
exploration. Meanwhile, the Jewish state has reportedly demanded the sea
frontier be moved further north, deeper into areas claimed by Lebanon. A source
who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the daily that “the talks were
strained, given that the Lebanese delegation basis its maps on the law of the
sea, while the Israeli side does not rely on anything legal,” he said, refusing
to provide additional information in commitment to an agreement to keep the
details of the negotiations undisclosed. “It is normal to engage in horsetrading,
it is expected, but Lebanon is negotiating from a position of strength, and
adheres to its full rights under international law,” he concluded.
Msharrafieh: Lebanon’s Refugee Plan Adopted at Damascus
Conference
Naharnet/November 12/2020
Caretaker Minister of Social Affairs Ramzi Msharrafieh announced Friday that the
Lebanese government’s plan to repatriate Syrian refugees back home was adopted
at this week’s Damascus conference on the displaced. He said a time frame for
the return of refugees is set to be approved in coming meetings. “The refugee
conference in Damascus adopted the Lebanese government's plan in this regard,
and this plan was presented to the Russian delegation and to the concerned
persons in Syria,” said Msharrafieh. In televised remarks on LBCI, he said that
Lebanon has the “highest refugee density in the world, reaching to one third of
Lebanon's population amid a crunching economic and health situation.” He said
the issue is being tackled from a humanitarian perspective away from politics,
noting that "Syria provided shelters for the displaced persons.”Msharrafieh
stressed that “the exodus from Syria was a result of a security situation rather
than political,” noting that a time frame will be set for the return of the
displaced." Syria's government kicked off a two-day Russia-backed conference in
Damascus Wednesday towards facilitating the return of millions of Syrian
refugees to the war-torn country, despite reservations within the international
community. Of neighboring countries hosting the bulk of Syrian refugees, only
Lebanon and Iraq sent representatives, according to organizers. Neighboring
Turkey hosts the highest number of Syrian refugees, followed by Lebanon and
Jordan
U.S. Ambassador Meets Arslan in Khalde
Naharnet/November 12/2020
Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan held talks Friday with U.S.
Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea at his residence in Khalde.The ambassador was
accompanied by the embassy’s adviser Fadi Hafez. The National News Agency said
the talks tackled “the latest local and regional political developments.”The
visit comes after a row between Shea and Arslan’s ally Free Patriotic Movement
chief Jebran Bassil over the latest U.S. sanctions against the latter.
Hariri Calls Bahrain Leaders to Offer Condolences
Naharnet/November 12/2020
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Friday contacted the King of Bahrain,
Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa, and the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Salman bin
Hamad Al Khalifa, to express his condolences on the passing of Sheikh Khalifa
bin Salman Al Khalifa, the late prime minister.
During the phone call with the Bahraini King, Hariri emphasized "the depth of
the historic relations between Lebanon and Bahrain," a statement released by
Hariri's press office said.
Army Clarifies Why a U.S. Military Jet Has Landed in Riyaq
Naharnet/November 12/2020
The Lebanese Army on Friday clarified why a U.S. military plane has landed at
the Riyaq military airport in the Bekaa. “A newspaper and some websites have
circulated a report about the arrival of a U.S. military plane to the Riyaq
airport to carry American journalist Austin Tice,” an army statement said.
Freelance journalist Tice, 39, vanished Aug. 14, 2012 after he got into a car in
the Damascus suburb of Daraya to make a trip to Lebanon and was detained at a
regime checkpoint. The army statement clarified that the U.S. military plane had
been on a routine mission and that it had carried a U.S. team that will train
some Lebanese military units. The plane “ended its mission and departed without
carrying the journalist Tice, contrary to what has been reported,” the statement
said.
MP Says FPM to Challenge U.S. Sanctions against its Leader
Naharnet/November 12/2020
Free Patriotic Movement MP Cesar Abi Khalil said Friday that the party’s lawyers
will challenge before US courts the recent sanctions imposed against its leader,
Jebran Bassil. “The FPM has its own rules of procedure. Bassil assumed the
party’s leadership and will remain head as long as he is elected,” said Abi
Khalil in televised remarks on LBCI TV station. Khalil said the batch of
“sanctions have drawn a wave of popular sympathy with Bassil and the party.”Last
week, the US Treasury announced sanctions against former energy and foreign
affairs minister Jebran Bassil, accusing him of corruption involving billions of
dollars that has left the economy in a shambles. On the stalled government
formation which many blame on the FPM leader, the MP said: “The party continues
to facilitate the process to the utmost level,” noting that when “unified
standards are adopted in the formation process, a cabinet can be formed in 3
hours.”
Nissan's $95 Million Suit against Ghosn Begins in Japan
Associated Press/November 12/2020
Proceedings in a $95 million lawsuit brought by Japanese car giant Nissan
against its former chairman Carlos Ghosn began Friday in a court near Tokyo.
Nissan filed the suit against Ghosn in February and is seeking 10 billion yen
over what it said were "years of his misconduct and fraudulent activity". Ghosn
is an international fugitive after jumping bail last year and fleeing Japan,
where he was awaiting trial on charges of financial misconduct, which he denies.
Nissan says the suit is aimed at "holding Ghosn accountable for the harm and
financial losses incurred by the company due to the misconduct". In a statement,
Ghosn said the civil lawsuit was an extension of "the extremely unreasonable
internal investigation with sinister intent by a portion of Nissan's senior
management and the unreasonable arrests and indictments by the public
prosecutors". He said his Japanese defence team, which is representing him in
his absence, "will show that the suspicions of wrongfulness and charges... have
absolutely no foundation". Ghosn spent more than 100 days in detention in Japan
after his sudden November 2018 arrest, but launched an audacious escape while
out on bail in Tokyo, arriving in Lebanon apparently undetected. He alleges
Nissan turned on him over concerns he wanted to more closely integrate the
automaker with French partner Renault. Renault has also filed a civil claim for
damages against Ghosn over alleged financial misconduct. Ghosn's former aide
Greg Kelly remains in Japan and pleaded not guilty to allegations of financial
misconduct at his first court hearing in Tokyo in September. Two men accused of
helping Ghosn flee Tokyo are currently being held in the United States, where
they are fighting extradition to Japan.
France urges speedy government formation in Lebanon
Najia Houssari/Arab News/.November 13/2020
Durel said: “France will keep providing urgent assistance to Lebanon in several
fields, especially education”
Macron’s rescue initiative has not led to the formation of a government yet,
three months after its launch
BEIRUT: France urged Lebanon to “speed up the formation of an efficient
government, accepted by all political parties” to enact badly needed reform and
provide proper leadership amid tensions and a severe economic crisis. The
adviser to the French president for the affairs of the Middle East and North
Africa, Patrick Durel, held a series of meetings on Thursday and Friday, with
officials and the heads of the eight parliamentary blocs, including the
representative of Hezbollah, Mohammed Raad, and the leader of the Free Patriotic
Movement (FPM), Gebran Bassil.
French President Emmanuel Macron had previously met with these figures at the
Pine Palace during his two visits to Beirut in the wake of the explosion at the
Port of Beirut on Aug. 4 and again on Sept. 1.During his meeting with President
Michel Aoun on Thursday, Durel said: “France will keep providing urgent
assistance to Lebanon in several fields, especially education.”He said: “The
international community’s fulfilment of its obligations toward Lebanon is linked
to the implementation of reforms.”
Macron’s rescue initiative for Lebanon has not led to the formation of a
government yet, three months after its launch. Then prime minister-designate,
Mustafa Adib, apologized on Sept. 26 for his inability to form a government. His
successor, Saad Hariri, is still facing formation obstacles since his
designation on Oct. 22.Pessimism over the possibility of resolving the stalemate
is rising amid ongoing disagreement over the government’s form, the number of
portfolios and the names of the ministers, in light of the FPM’s inflexibility,
Hezbollah and the Amal movement’s position on the finance portfolio, and the
objection of Hezbollah’s allies for not having the party represented in the next
government. US sanctions against Bassil, on the grounds of corruption charges,
have increased his supporters’ intransigence. Aoun’s office said he assured the
French envoy that “Lebanon adheres to the French initiative for the benefit of
Lebanon,” but stressed the need for “a broad national consensus to form a
government that can achieve the required tasks, in cooperation with parliament,
to pass necessary reform laws.”A spokesperson continued that Aoun complained to
Durel: “The financial forensic auditing process in the accounts of the Lebanese
Central Bank, which is considered one of the foundations of these reforms, is
facing many obstacles” adding that “a three-months extension has been made for
Alvarez & Marsal to secure what facilitates its mission.”The president added
that “the US sanctions targeting Lebanese politicians (has) made matters more
complicated,” suggesting “conducting a broad national consultation at this
delicate stage so that the authorship comes in line with the French initiative.”
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri described the meeting with the French envoy as
“good.”
Berri reiterated to Macron’s adviser his adherence to “the French initiative and
the necessity to implement reforms, especially in the field of energy and
fighting corruption.” He added that “creating a government whose ministers are
specialists and have the parliament’s confidence is the only means for Lebanon’s
salvation.”Hariri has so far refused to go into any details related to the
formation of the government and the obstacles he is facing. His media adviser,
Hussein Al-Wajh, told Arab News: “Any statement or analysis regarding the fate
of the government issued by any party is a personal opinion and Hariri has
nothing to do with it.”The French envoy’s visit was accompanied by questions
about whether he wanted to convey a final warning to the politicians who backed
away from their commitments to Macron and inform them of the possibility of
postponing the international conference in support of Lebanon, which France
promised to organize by the end of this month. The immediate outcome of Durel’s
visit did not show signs of a rapid breakthrough, to stir the stagnant waters of
the French initiative. Durel reiterated: “The French initiative is the only
valid option on the table to save Lebanon, otherwise the cost will be much worse
than what is happening now, if the time factor is ignored.”According to what a
participant in the French envoy’s meetings with party leaders told Arab News,
Durel stressed “the French side’s adherence to a government of specialists and
not partisans, that has acquired broad internal consensus.”
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on November 13-14/2020
US Election: Biden to get 306 Electoral College votes
against Trump’s 232
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/November 13/20
President-elect Joe Biden garnered 306 Electoral College votes versus President
Donald Trump’s 232, US media outlets reported Friday. The final tally came after
Trump was declared the winner of North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes and Biden
won Georgia with 16 more electoral votes. A presidential candidate must get 270
electoral votes to be declared the winner. This year’s highly anticipated
presidential election was the center of controversy after Trump claimed voter
fraud and Democrats quickly gained leads in states after mail-in ballots flooded
vote counting centers. Read more: US elections: How the American president is
elected, not by the people. However, senior US officials and election board
supervisors downplayed Trump’s claims. Lawsuits brought forth by the Trump
campaign are still being played out in court and will be over the next few
weeks. Some of the lawsuits have already been thrown out or rejected by US
courts. Trump has yet to concede defeat although tens of international leaders
and heads of states have contacted Biden to congratulate him. Biden has already
appointed his soon-to-be White House chief-of-staff and his transition team is
getting coronavirus briefings.It has been reported the White House officials
have so far not contacted Biden or his team to provide them with classified
briefings on national security, which is customary during a transition period.
Biden Wins Arizona, Cementing U.S. Election Lead
Agence France Presse/November 13/2020
Joe Biden has won the state of Arizona, US networks said late Thursday, further
cementing his lead in the Electoral College and flipping the state Democratic
for the first time since 1996. NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN declared Biden the winner
in the tight race with a lead of more than 11,000 ballots, giving him the
state's 11 electoral votes. Fox News and The Associated Press called the race in
the southwestern state in Biden's favor on Election Night, triggering the wrath
of president Donald Trump, but the other outlets held off on declaring a winner
until after nine days of ballot counting. Arizona gives Biden a 290-217 lead
over Trump in the Electoral College that ultimately decides the presidency, with
270 needed to win the White House. Despite Biden being declared winner of the
election on Saturday, Trump has refused to concede and continues to make
baseless claims of election fraud. Races in North Carolina and Georgia have yet
to be called. Bill Clinton was the last Democrat to win Arizona in a race for
the White House.
Trump Emerges from Election Gloom to Hold Rare Work Meeting
Agence France Presse/November 13/2020
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has largely vanished from public view since his
election defeat, was to emerge Friday for a White House meeting on the Covid-19
vaccine drive. For 10 days the Republican has been consumed by his pursuit of a
conspiracy theory that Democrat Joe Biden won through massive ballot rigging.
Despite his own intelligence officials' declaration Thursday that the November 3
election was "the most secure in American history," Trump and his right-wing
media allies show no sign of giving up their crusade. "Biden did not win, he
lost by a lot!" Trump asserted falsely again late Thursday while tweeting
commentary on the Fox News evening show starring his booster Sean Hannity. Trump
has been tweeting day and often night on the unproven fraud claims. But he has
been absent from his normal presidential duties and notably silent about
dramatically soaring coronavirus infection rates around the country and steadily
rising deaths. Friday's midday (1700 GMT) work session was marked as an "update"
on Operation Warp Speed, the government partnership with pharmaceutical
companies to create and distribute a vaccine. The closed meeting marked a rare
change in the president's public daily schedule which has mostly been empty
since the election. He has gone more than a week now without speaking in public
or taking questions from journalists.
- Split reality -
Trump and his senior aides are living increasingly in a split reality.
Despite a healthy majority of ballots tallied for Biden and days of failed
attempts by Trump lawyers to present proof of significant irregularities, White
House trade advisor Peter Navarro told Fox Business on Friday that his side
remained convinced of victory.
"We think he won that election," he said. "We are moving forward here at the
White House under the assumption that there will be a second Trump term."Biden,
meanwhile, is steadily preparing to take over on January 20 and the list of
world leaders accepting that he will be the new president keeps lengthening.
China was the latest nation on board, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying
"we express our congratulations." However, Biden's newly appointed chief of
staff, Ron Klain, told MSNBC late Thursday that moves by Trump to block the
incoming administration from access to confidential government briefings posed a
growing risk. Klain highlighted the inability to join in on preparations for
rolling out the Covid vaccine in "February and March when Joe Biden will be
president.""The sooner we can get our transition experts into meetings with the
folks who are planning the vaccination campaign the more seamless," he said. Top
Republicans remain outwardly loyal to Trump, but there appears to be widening
discomfort within the party over the blocking of Biden's transition team.
Senator James Lankford told Tulsa Radio KRMG earlier this week that he was
giving Trump until Friday to allow Biden access to the daily presidential
intelligence briefing or "I will step in." John Bolton, a former national
security advisor under Trump and a popular figure on the hawkish foreign policy
wing of the Republican Party, said his side has to "acknowledge the reality that
Biden is the president-elect."
"They may not like it but the country deserves to give him the preparation he
needs," he told NPR radio Friday. Since the election, Trump has only left the
White House to play golf twice and to attend a brief Memorial Day ceremony at
Arlington National Cemetery.
France to Urge U.S. to Remain in Afghanistan and Iraq
Agence France Presse/November 13/2020
The French government will tell Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is preparing
for a visit to Paris, that the US should not pull its troops out of Afghanistan
or Iraq, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Friday.
Asked in a televised interview to react to outgoing President Donald Trump's
reported plans to hasten a US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Le Drian said "We
don't think that should happen. We will also say that it shouldn't happen in
Iraq, either." According to political and diplomatic sources, Pompeo issued an
ultimatum in September that all US personnel would leave Iraq unless the
government puts a stop to a rash of attacks against them. Le Drian said the Iraq
situation was on the agenda for talks with Pompeo, as was Iran, terrorism, the
Middle East and relations with China. Trump said in October that he wanted all
US troops home from Afghanistan "by Christmas", December 25. That promise was
followed by clarification attempts by high-ranking officials, including national
security advisor Robert O'Brien who said that troop numbers in Afghanistan would
be cut to around 2,500 in early 2021. Pompeo will see President Emmanuel Macron
on Monday in a meeting that will be conducted "in complete transparency towards
the team of president-elect Joe Biden", Macron's office said. Pompeo's visit to
France will be the start of an international tour that will see him travel to
Turkey, Georgia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia from
November 13–23.
Moroccan army launches operation in Western Sahara
border zone
Reuters/November 13/2020
RABAT: Morocco announced Friday that its troops had launched an operation in no
man's land on the southern border of the Western Sahara to end "provocations" by
the pro-independence Polisario Front. Rabat said its troops would "put a stop to
the blockade" of trucks travelling between Moroccan-controlled areas of the
disputed territory and neighbouring Mauritania, and "restore free circulation of
civilian and commercial traffic." In response, the Polisario Front said the
three-decade-old ceasefire in the disupted Western Sahara was over . "War has
started, the Moroccan side has liquidated the ceasefire," senior Polisario
official Mohamed Salem Ould Salek told AFP, decribing the action by Rabat as an
"aggression". "Sahrawi troops are engaged in legitimate self-defence and are
responding to the Moroccan troops," said Ould Salek, who serves as foreign
minister of the Polisario-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
Pro-Polisario protesters have for weeks blocked the road where it passes through
a UN-monitored buffer zone near the Mauritanian border after a UN Security
Council resolution that included language seen as favourable to Morocco. In a
statement the Foreign Ministry said Morocco “had no other choice but to assume
its responsibilities in order to put an end to the blockade ... and restore the
free flow of civilian and commercial traffic”. Morocco took over the desert
territory in 1975 when Spanish rule there ended and considers the phosphate-rich
region part of its own country.
The Algeria-backed Polisario movement seeks independence for Western Sahara.
Last month the UN Security Council passed resolution 2548 which called for a
“realistic, practicable and enduring solution... based on compromise”. That
language was widely seen as calling into doubt any referendum on the territory’s
future - a goal long sought by the Polisario and backed by the United Nations in
1991.
Polisario Says WSahara Ceasefire over as Rabat Launches
Operation
Agence France Presse/November 13/2020
The pro-independence Polisario Front declared a three-decade-old ceasefire in
the disputed Western Sahara was over on Friday after Morocco launched an
operation to reopen the road to neighbouring Mauritania.Rabat said its troops
would "put a stop to the blockade" of trucks travelling between
Moroccan-controlled areas of the Western Sahara and Mauritania, and "restore
free circulation of civilian and commercial traffic."The Polisario, which had
warned on Monday that the 1991 ceasefire was hanging by a thread, said the move
by the Moroccan military had brought it to an end. "War has started, the
Moroccan side has liquidated the ceasefire," senior Polisario official Mohamed
Salem Ould Salek told AFP, describing the action by Rabat as an "aggression".
"Sahrawi troops are engaged in legitimate self-defence and are responding to the
Moroccan troops," said Ould Salek, who serves as foreign minister of the
Polisario-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The Moroccan foreign
ministry said it had been forced to act by the actions of Polisario fighters in
no-man's land on the Mauritanian border. "The Polisario and its militias, who
have infiltrated the zone since October 21, have been carrying out acts of
banditry, blocking traffic and continually harassing MINURSO military
observers," a ministry statement said. Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita insisted
the action being taken was a measured response and had not affected any
civilians. "This is not an offensive action, it is a firm action compared to the
action (by the other side) which is unacceptable," Bourita told AFP.
A senior ministry official contacted by AFP said that for some three weeks,
around 70 armed men had been "attacking truck drivers, blocking their passage
and engaging in extortion."Currently, 108 truck drivers with vehicles from
different countries including France, Morocco and Mauritania, are stranded on
the Mauritanian side of the border and 78 on the other side, the official said.
In a joint statement issued on November 5, the stranded truck drivers appealed
to both Rabat and Nouakchott for help returning home after Polisario fighters
blocked their passage. Western Sahara, a vast swathe of desert on Africa's
Atlantic coast, is a disputed former Spanish colony. Rabat controls 80 percent
of the territory, including its phosphate deposits and its lucrative ocean
fisheries. The Polisario's forces are largely confined to the sparsely populated
desert interior and refugee camps in neighbouring Algeria, the independence
group's main foreign backer.
- 'Vigorous response' -
Peacekeeping force MINURSO has patrolled a buffer zone between the two sides
since a UN-brokered ceasefire took effect in 1991.
The village of Guergerat in the far south of the Western Sahara is the last
village under Moroccan control. Beyond it is a strip of desert where Polisario
fighters have maintained a periodic presence in recent years. An informal trade
has grown up exporting Moroccan fresh produce to the Mauritanian coastal city of
Nouadhibou, but to the growing anger of Rabat it has periodically fallen foul of
the Polisario. In its statement on Monday the group, which has campaigned for
independence since the last days of Spanish rule in the 1970s, warned it would
"respond vigorously in self-defence and to defend its national sovereignty" in
the event of any Moroccan incursion. "This will also mean the end of the
ceasefire and the beginning of a new war across the region," the statement
added. Morocco, which maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the
kingdom, has offered autonomy for the territory but insists it will retain
sovereignty. The Polisario demands a referendum on self-determination as set out
in the 1991 ceasefire. The planned referendum has been repeatedly postponed due
to disputes between Rabat and the Polisario over voter rolls and the question to
be put. Negotiations on the territory's future involving Morocco, the Polisario,
Algeria and Mauritania have been suspended for several months.
France Marks 5 Years since Deadly Attacks on Bataclan,
Cafes
Associated Press/November 13/2020
In silence and mourning, France marked five years since 130 people were killed
by Islamic State extremists who targeted the Bataclan concert hall, Paris cafes
and the national stadium in a series of coordinated attacks. It was France's
deadliest peacetime attack, deeply shaking the nation. It led to intensified
French military action against extremists abroad and a security crackdown at
home. Five years later, Prime Minister Jean Castex was leading silent ceremonies
Friday at the multiple sites targeted by coordinated attackers around the French
capital on Nov. 13, 2015: the Stade de France in the Paris suburb of
Saint-Denis, the Bataclan, and five cafes in eastern Paris where gunfire
shattered the balmy Friday night. The public could not join this year's
commemorations because of France's partial virus lockdown. The ceremonies came
as France is again under high alert for terrorist attacks after three Islamic
extremist attacks since September have killed four people.
Saudi Crown Prince Vows 'Iron Fist' against Extremists
after Attack
Agence France Presse/November 13/2020
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pledged Thursday to strike extremists
with an "iron fist", after a bombing against a gathering of diplomats was
claimed by the Islamic State group. "We will continue to strike with an iron
fist against all those who want to harm our security and stability," Prince
Mohammed said in an address to the Shura Council, the top government advisory
body, a day after Wednesday's attack in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.
More than 10 Dead after India-Pakistan Kashmir Clash
Agence France Presse/November 13/2020
Indian and Pakistani forces on Friday waged their biggest artillery battle in
several months leaving more than 10 dead and dozens wounded either side of their
disputed Kashmir frontier, officials said. At least five separate clashes --
involving shelling and gunfire -- were reported along the 740-kilometre
(460-mile) ceasefire line that has separated the nuclear-armed rivals for the
past seven decades, officials from the two sides said. Hundreds of villagers
were moved away from the so-called Line of Control (LoC) in Indian-controlled
territory, while Pakistani officials said dozens of homes were set ablaze by
Indian shelling on their side. The new peak in tensions came only five days
after three Indian soldiers and three militants were killed in an exchange along
the LoC. India is also involved in a border showdown with the Chinese army in
the Himalayas. The latest fighting erupted on Friday morning and shells were
still being fired into the night, according to residents. The two sides each
accused the other of launching "unprovoked" attacks. "Pakistan used mortars and
other weapons" and "deliberately targeted civilian areas", said an Indian army
statement. Three Indian soldiers were killed and three wounded in the Keran
sector of the frontier. Kashmir police said three civilians were killed and at
least three suffered serious injuries, with one man losing both legs. On the
other side of the border, Raja Farooq Haider, senior minister in Pakistani
Kashmir, said five people were killed and 31 wounded in the intense shelling on
the Neelum and Jhelum valleys.
"For how long we have to bear such colossal losses?" he said in a Twitter
message directed at Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. A senior local official
in Neelum, Raja Shahid Mehmood, confirmed the casualties and said the shelling
was continuing late Friday.
Indian officers said the fighting was sparked when militants tried to cross into
Indian-controlled territory at the northern end of the LoC. Indian troops
"retaliated strongly causing substantial damage to the Pakistan army's
infrastructure and casualties," said the military statement adding that
ammunition dumps and forward bases had been hit. The two sides regularly stage
artillery duels across the LoC, and invariably blame each other for the clashes.
Kashmir has been divided between the two countries since their angry separation
in 1947. It has been a cause of two of their three wars since then. Both
countries claim the whole of the Himalayan region, where India is also fighting
an insurgency that has left tens of thousands dead since 1989. Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi was to visit troops in a border area on Saturday for
Diwali, the biggest Hindu holiday of the year, according to media reports. Modi,
who portrays himself as tough on security, has spent every Diwali with the
military since becoming the country's leader in 2014. Modi launched what he
called "surgical strikes" inside Pakistani Kashmir in 2016 after militants
attacked an Indian base killing 19 soldiers. The neighbors staged air strikes
against each other last year after a suicide bomb attack in which more than 45
Indian troops were killed.
Bahrain buries Prince Khalifa, world’s longest serving
prime minister
Reuters, Dubai/November 13/2020
Bahrain on Friday buried Prince Khalifa bin Salman al Khalifa, the world's
longest serving prime minister, after his body returned from the United States
where he died on Wednesday. Khalifa, 84, the uncle of King Hamad bin Isa al
Khalifa, had served as prime minister since independence from Britain in 1971.
The al-Khalifa family has reigned since 1783. King Hamad on Wednesday appointed
Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, 51, as the small Gulf state's new
prime minister. He was buried in the Hunainiyah cemetery in Riffa in a small
ceremony attended by royal family members and senior representatives of the
Bahrain Defense Force, Interior Ministry and National Guard, state news agency
BNA said.
Twelve killed, 36 wounded as India, Pakistan forces trade
fire in disputed Kashmir
The Associated Press, Muzzafarabad, Pakistan/November 13/2020
Pakistani and Indian troops clashed anew in the disputed Himalayan region of
Kashmir, leaving 12 people dead, including three Indian and one Pakistani
soldier, and wounding at least 36 on both sides, officials said Friday. The
fighting came amid increasing tensions between the nuclear-armed South Asian
neighbors — since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, Pakistan and India
have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, which is split between them
and claimed by both in its entirety. The Pakistani military and government
officials accused India of initiating the fighting by firing rockets and mortar
shells overnight and on Friday that killed a soldier, five Pakistani civilians
and wounded 27, including women and children. Five Pakistani soldiers were also
wounded in the clashes, the military said. The fatalities were some of the
highest reported in recent years. Sardar Masood Khan, the leader of the
Pakistani-administered Kashmir, urged the United Nations and world community to
take notice, saying he feared a wider conflict. “If such Indian hostilities are
not stopped, then it will also be difficult to stop a war between Pakistan and
India,” he said. Earlier, Pakistan’s military described it as the latest
unprovoked cease-fire violation by India and said Pakistani troops responded by
targeting Indian posts. Raja Shahid Mahmood, a government official in
Pakistan-administered Kashmir, said several homes were damaged. “People are
running for safety in panic and India is deliberately targeting the civilian
population," he told The Associated Press. Villagers were hiding in community
bunkers as the exchange of fire intensified, he said. Mohammad Shabir, a shop
owner in the border village of Chakothi, said officials shut the main bazaar
after rockets targeted the village. In Srinagar, the capital of
Indian-controlled Kashmir, the Indian army said three of its soldiers were
killed and three others were wounded. According to police officer Mohammed
Ashraf, three Indian civilians, including one woman, were also killed by
Pakistani shelling. He said one wounded civilian was in critical condition in
hospital and two houses were damaged.
Col Rajesh Kalia, an Indian army spokesman, blamed Pakistan for starting the
clashes. In another statement, late on Friday, Pakistan's military said India
launched the assault after four Indian soldiers died last Sunday fighting
Kashmiri rebels in the Indian-controlled Kapwara district. The military said
Pakistan stands “committed to defend the motherland and our Kashmiri brethren,
even at the cost of our blood and lives."In the Indian-controlled sector of
Kashmir, rebels have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989. Most Muslim
Kashmiris support the rebel goal that the territory be united either under
Pakistani rule or as an independent country. On Thursday, Pakistan summoned an
Indian diplomat to protest what it called India's violation of a 2003 cease-fire
agreement. Two civilians were wounded on Thursday on the Pakistani side of the
border in that exchange.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry again summoned an Indian diplomat on Friday in
protest. Tensions soared in February 2019, when Pakistan shot down an Indian
warplane in Kashmir and captured a pilot in response to an airstrike by Indian
aircraft targeting militants inside Pakistan. India said the strikes targeted
Pakistan-based militants responsible for a suicide bombing that killed 40 Indian
troops in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir.
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 13-14/2020
Question: "How is Jesus our Sabbath Rest?"
GotQuestions.org/November 13/2020
Answer: The key to understanding how Jesus is our Sabbath rest is the Hebrew
word sabat, which means "to rest or stop or cease from work." The origin of the
Sabbath goes back to Creation. After creating the heavens and the earth in six
days, God "rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made"
(Genesis 2:2). This doesn’t mean that God was tired and needed a rest. We know
that God is omnipotent, literally "all-powerful." He has all the power in the
universe, He never tires, and His most arduous expenditure of energy does not
diminish His power one bit. So, what does it mean that God rested on the seventh
day? Simply that He stopped what He was doing. He ceased from His labors. This
is important in understanding the establishment of the Sabbath day and the role
of Christ as our Sabbath rest.
God used the example of His resting on the seventh day of Creation to establish
the principle of the Sabbath day rest for His people. In Exodus 20:8-11 and
Deuteronomy 5:12-15, God gave the Israelites the fourth of His Ten Commandments.
They were to "remember" the Sabbath day and "keep it holy." One day out of every
seven, they were to rest from their labors and give the same day of rest to
their servants and animals. This was not just a physical rest, but a cessation
of laboring. Whatever work they were engaged in was to stop for a full day each
week. (Please read our other articles on the Sabbath day, Saturday vs. Sunday
and Sabbath keeping to explore this issue further.) The Sabbath day was
established so the people would rest from their labors, only to begin again
after a one-day rest.
The various elements of the Sabbath symbolized the coming of the Messiah, who
would provide a permanent rest for His people. Once again the example of resting
from our labors comes into play. With the establishment of the Old Testament
Law, the Jews were constantly "laboring" to make themselves acceptable to God.
Their labors included trying to obey a myriad of do’s and don’ts of the
ceremonial law, the Temple law, the civil law, etc. Of course they couldn’t
possibly keep all those laws, so God provided an array of sin offerings and
sacrifices so they could come to Him for forgiveness and restore fellowship with
Him, but only temporarily. Just as they began their physical labors after a
one-day rest, so, too, did they have to continue to offer sacrifices. Hebrews
10:1 tells us that the law "can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly
year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship." But these
sacrifices were offered in anticipation of the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on
the cross, who "after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right of God" (Hebrews 10:12). Just as He rested after performing the
ultimate sacrifice, He sat down and rested—ceased from His labor of atonement
because there was nothing more to be done, ever. Because of what He did, we no
longer have to "labor" in law-keeping in order to be justified in the sight of
God. Jesus was sent so that we might rest in God and in what He has provided.
Another element of the Sabbath day rest which God instituted as a foreshadowing
of our complete rest in Christ is that He blessed it, sanctified it, and made it
holy. Here again we see the symbol of Christ as our Sabbath rest—the holy,
perfect Son of God who sanctifies and makes holy all who believe in Him. God
sanctified Christ, just as He sanctified the Sabbath day, and sent Him into the
world (John 10:36) to be our sacrifice for sin. In Him we find complete rest
from the labors of our self-effort, because He alone is holy and righteous. "God
made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). We can now cease from our spiritual
labors and rest in Him, not just one day a week, but always.
Jesus can be our Sabbath rest in part because He is "Lord of the Sabbath"
(Matthew 12:8). As God incarnate, He decides the true meaning of the Sabbath
because He created it, and He is our Sabbath rest in the flesh. When the
Pharisees criticized Him for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus reminded them that
even they, sinful as they were, would not hesitate to pull a sheep out of a pit
on the Sabbath. Because He came to seek and save His sheep who would hear His
voice (John 10:3,27) and enter into the Sabbath rest He provided by paying for
their sins, He could break the Sabbath rules. He told the Pharisees that people
are more important than sheep and the salvation He provided was more important
than rules. By saying, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath"
(Mark 2:27), Jesus was restating the principle that the Sabbath rest was
instituted to relieve man of his labors, just as He came to relieve us of our
attempting to achieve salvation by our works. We no longer rest for only one
day, but forever cease our laboring to attain God’s favor. Jesus is our rest
from works now, just as He is the door to heaven, where we will rest in Him
forever.
Hebrews 4 is the definitive passage regarding Jesus as our Sabbath rest. The
writer to the Hebrews exhorts his readers to “enter in” to the Sabbath rest
provided by Christ. After three chapters of telling them that Jesus is superior
to the angels and that He is our Apostle and High Priest, he pleads with them to
not harden their hearts against Him, as their fathers hardened their hearts
against the Lord in the wilderness. Because of their unbelief, God denied that
generation access to the holy land, saying, “They shall not enter into My rest”
(Hebrews 3:11). In the same way, the writer to the Hebrews begs his readers not
to make the same mistake by rejecting God’s Sabbath rest in Jesus Christ. “There
remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s
rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore,
make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following
their example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:9–11).
There is no other Sabbath rest besides Jesus. He alone satisfies the
requirements of the Law, and He alone provides the sacrifice that atones for
sin. He is God’s plan for us to cease from the labor of our own works. We dare
not reject this one-and-only Way of salvation (John 14:6). God’s reaction to
those who choose to reject His plan is seen in Numbers 15. A man was found
gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, in spite of God’s plain commandment to
cease from all labor on the Sabbath. This transgression was a known and willful
sin, done with unblushing boldness in broad daylight, in open defiance of the
divine authority. “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘The man must die. The whole
assembly must stone him outside the camp’” (verse 35). So it will be to all who
reject God’s provision for our Sabbath rest in Christ. “How shall we escape if
we neglect so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3).
For as long as there have been people, there have been losers
Justin Marozzi/The National/November 13/2020
How to lose well? It is a question that has taxed humans since time immemorial,
from the Ancients over 2,000 years ago to those involved in today’s unedifying
brouhaha in Washington.
For most of the world’s history, contests for political power have tended to be
a zero-sum game, frequently fatal for the loser. Victory for one protagonist has
generally required the defeat of another. And while victories – whether on a
football field, battlefield or by the ballot box – are synonymous with glory,
defeats are mostly ignoble affairs. The first-century Greek philosopher Plutarch
tells us how steely Spartan mothers used to wave their sons off to battle with
the ominous warning: “Come back with your shield, or on it,” meaning victory or
death. Living as a loser wasn’t so much dishonourable as completely unthinkable.
Losing may be distasteful, in politics as in other walks of life, but it is an
important force for stability. Acknowledging and coming to terms with loss
enables an entire country, as well as the loser, to move on. It is difficult to
have a stable transition when a losing candidate for office refuses to accept
defeat.
Cody Combs: US presidential prediction professor talks 2024 election
US President Donald Trump does not have to look too far back to find a
spirit-lifting example of how a one-term president, having been humiliatingly
fired by the American public, grew greater in defeat. On January 20, 1993,
President George HW Bush sat down in the White House to write a letter to Bill
Clinton, the man who had just wiped the floor with him in the presidential
election. It was a model of decency and grace.
“I wish you great happiness here,” Mr Bush wrote. “You will be our President
when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well. Your success
now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you. Good luck — George.”
Does anyone think Mr Trump will be able to write something similar to
President-elect Biden?
On the other side of the Atlantic, British Prime Minister John Major was
trounced by Tony Blair in the 1997 election. He knew his time was up and took it
on the chin. “When the curtain falls, it’s time to leave the stage,” he said.
In the Middle East and North Africa, leaders have not always spotted the curtain
falling in time. Both Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya paid
for this failure with their lives. Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
got out in the nick of time. In Syria, President Bashar Al Assad remains in
power but it is a blood-soaked, pyrrhic victory, achieved only through the
immiseration and defeat of the entire country.
If war is politics by other means, as the Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz
taught us, then 21st-century western politicians should be grateful that these
days, politics is non-lethal war by other means. It wasn’t always this painless.
In 1649, the English king Charles I, a ruler who revelled in the divine right of
kings, was tried and executed by Parliament. Appalled by this revolutionary
reversal of the natural order, his final speech on the scaffold was nevertheless
a model of composure and grace in defeat.
“I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown; where no disturbance can be,
no disturbance in the World,” he said before the axe fell. Sic transit gloria
mundi, the account of his execution ended. Thus passes worldly glory.
American politics may be a bruising business but at least it’s not a matter of
life and death. President Trump – he keeps the title for life, remember – can
certainly take some solace from Thucydides. As the Greek historian wrote almost
2,500 years ago in his History of the Peloponnesian War: “In a democracy,
someone who fails to get elected to office can always console himself with the
thought that there was something not quite fair about it”. Acceptance is a
necessary first step towards this consolation.
In order to lose well, it is equally important to master one’s ego and not be
controlled by it. In the epic Roman poem Pharsalia, the poet Lucan explained the
civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great from 49-45BC partly as an
excess of unchecked male ego. Neither man could back down. “Caesar [could not]
tolerate a superior, nor Pompey an equal.” The republic paid dearly with the
resulting chaos and instability. Suetonius made a similar point in his Life of
Caesar, which is again relevant to Mr Trump’s white-knuckled hold on power.
Caesar, considering that “it would be more difficult to force him from first
place to second than from second to last, resisted with all his power”.
Losing and failure are hardly unique to political life. The business world also
offers some enlightening lessons in how to deal with them. Failure here tends to
be regarded as an indispensable step on the path to success. It famously took
Thomas Edison 1,000 attempts to invent his prototype light bulb. Asked by a
reporter how he felt about failing 1,000 times, Edison shot back: “I didn’t fail
1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” Over in Silicon
Valley, failure and bankruptcy are rightly seen as essential components of the
Darwinian life cycle for business, spurring innovation, rebuilding and success.
Losing really shouldn’t be too difficult to deal with. It’s part of everyday
life and most of us are taught from an early age to get used to it. If we don’t
always lose gracefully, we know that we should. Before they step out onto the
world’s most famous tennis court, the greatest players on earth are reminded of
the need to behave properly and rise to the occasion, whatever the result.
Inscribed above the entrance to Wimbledon’s Centre Court are words from Rudyard
Kipling’s poem If: “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those
two imposters just the same…”
Losing really shouldn’t be too difficult to deal with. It’s part of everyday
life and most of us are taught from an early age to get used to it
No one has done this better in recent years than perennial champion Roger
Federer, who last year lost to Novak Djokovic in five sets in perhaps the
greatest Wimbledon final of all time. Federer is a greater champion not just for
his winning record but for his magnanimity in defeat. As the Novak Djokovic
Foundation reminds us: “The feeling of losing and moving on are particular
skills children need to develop in order to deal with negative experiences in
life when they become older.”Mr Trump’s favourite insult is to call someone a
loser. “I hate to lose, and if anybody gets used to losing they are going to be
a loser… I still hate to lose. And that will never change.” The simple truth is
that Trump is now a loser. In the two months that remain of his one-term
presidency, however, he still has time to salvage some good, for his own legacy,
for the Republican Party and, more importantly, for the US. He now needs to
learn the art of the fail. The president once said: “Sometimes by losing a
battle you find a new way to win the war.” To adapt a line from German officers
to British paratroopers taken prisoner at the Battle of Arnhem in 1944: For you,
Mr Trump, the war is over. It is time to accept it.
US envoy on Iran: Any deal with Tehran must see
hostages freed
Robert Tollast/The National/November 13/2020
Tehran's rights abuses and missile development give countries common ground for
action, Elliott Abrams says.
It would be “unconscionable” for any US President to make a new deal with Iran
that didn’t see Western hostages freed to return home, US Special Representative
for Iran Elliott Abrams said on Thursday.
In a wide-ranging interview with The National on US policy towards Tehran and
its regional context, he said that the last four years had given America
leverage to stop Iran's destabilising activities in the Middle East.
“This is a regime in Tehran that is using people, their families, in the
cruellest ways. There are three American hostages in Iran – Baquer Namazi,
Siamak Namazi and Morad Tahbaz. Baquer is 84 years old. Why are they holding
him? Why can’t he go back to his family?” he said.
“I think that it would be unconscionable to have any kind of agreement next
year, no matter who is president, that does not include the return home of the
three American hostages.
“Several other countries are dealing, certainly the UK, with hostages that
remain in Iran. We can only hope that there is a unified international demand
that these people be returned to their families.”
Mr Abrams stressed that America’s increasing actions against Iran in recent
months had not been unilateral, nor were they devised in the twilight of
President Donald Trump’s administration, contrary to what critics claim.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif accused the US of “reckless
unilateralism” after Mr Trump’s administration withdrew from the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the “nuclear deal”, in 2018 and
starting a “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign.
An Iranian technecian at the International Atomic Energy Agency inspecting the
site of the uranium conversion plan of Isfahan, central Iran, 03 February 2007.
EPA
“Maximum pressure is a campaign to build leverage. Years later, we have a lot of
leverage. We have done tremendous damage to regime revenues,” said Mr Abrams.
“They can’t take four more years of it. Now is the moment to use that that
leverage. Get Iran to stop the missile programme and the sabotage and the
nuclear violations. Otherwise, they don’t want to do these things. We’ve built
the pressure. Now we have the leverage.”
Mr Abrams explained that one reason for the far-reaching sanctions is the
overlap between the Iranian military and the economy.
“I do hear people saying from time to time, ‘surely there is nothing left to
sanction’. And that is an outright fact. But sadly, it is because of the
pervasiveness of the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] in the Iranian
economy,” he said.
“So many companies and activities produce funding for the IRGC. In fact, under
counterterrorism sanctions, there are many more targets that deserve to be
sanctioned, and this is in addition to the nuclear sanctions.”
Since the start of the maximum pressure campaign, sanctions on Iran have cost
the country $70 billion, curtailing Tehran’s ability to fund regional militias.
But Tehran has also scaled up its prohibited nuclear activities and lashed out
at countries in the region either directly or through its proxies, attacking oil
infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, sabotaging oil tankers and stepping up arms
transfers to militias in Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.
Human rights
Mr Abrams described how new sanctions focusing on human rights abuses and
conventional missiles refocus the narrative on issues where US allies could find
common ground.
“There is a focus on human rights right now because it is November and in
November last year there was a great uprising of the Iranian people that was
brutally suppressed by the Iranian regime.”
Mr Abrams believes that while sanctions to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear
weapon are important, its human rights abuses must not be forgotten.
Nuclear programmes
Iranian soldiers during a military exercise in the Gulf, near the strategic
strait of Hormuz in southern Iran during a three-day exercise. AFP, HO via
Iranian Army website
When pressed on whether focusing sanctions on human rights, terrorism and
missiles could sidetrack US policy on nuclear non-proliferation, Mr Abrams said
he did not think this was the case.
“In June, there was a unanimous IAEA resolution including Russia and China,
demanding that Iran allow access to two suspicious sites. I hope we can return
to closer unanimity in the IAEA because here, we’re not just talking about the
JCPOA. We’re talking about older and more fundamental safeguard agreements, and
we’re talking about pledges that Iran made many years ago to the international
community,” he said.
“Now we have, on November 11, a report by the IAEA which says that the
explanation that Iran has given for the existence of suspicious things found by
the IAEA, such as the presence of suspicious particles that appear to be
manufactured, the explanations are not technically credible.”
“If I escape from diplomatic language, that means they’re lying to the IAEA
again. And there were long delays in access. In the case of a request from the
IAEA to access a site in January, it took about nine months. This is really not
acceptable. There is a board meeting coming in late November and it is our hope
that every member will speak up about the need to hold Iran up to the Nuclear
Non Proliferation Treaty pledges it has made.”
Regional pressure
The ballistic missile named after Qassem Suleimani is being tested in an
undisclosed location in Iran. AFP / Iranian Defence Ministry
Going back to the regional picture, Mr Abrams noted how the US still sought to
place pressure on Iran’s regional militias and economic interests.
On November, Christian Lebanese politician Gebran Bassil was sanctioned for his
ties to Lebanon's Iran-back Hezbollah movement.
Notably, Mr Bassil was also sanctioned due to allegations of corruption, under
an act passed in 2012 by Barack Obama’s administration, the Global Magnitsky
Act.
“We’d like to see a profusion of Global Magnitsky statutes by other countries,”
said Mr Abrams.
“The UK has one. We’d like to see the EU, and every democratic country adopts
something like it, because it’s an effective way for all of us together to fight
corruption.”
Asked how the US should respond in Iraq if more American soldiers are killed by
Iran-backed militias, after two were killed in attacks in March, Mr Abrams said,
“I hope that the Iranians get the message that the United States will defend
itself and will defend its people. And I think that this will continue in 2021
no matter who is president.”
Svante Cornell on the Armenian-Azerbaijan Conflict
Marilyn Stern/Middle East Forum Webinar/November 12, 2020
https://www.meforum.org/61767/cornell-on-the-armenian-azerbaijan-conflict
Svante Cornell, director of the Institute for Security and Development Policy
Council's Central Asia-Caucasus Institute (CACI), and founder of the Institute
for Security and Development Policy (ISDP) in Sweden, spoke to participants in
an October 19 Middle East Forum webinar (video) about the Armenia-Azerbaijan war
over Nagorno-Karabakh that erupted in late September of this year.
This latest outbreak of fighting erupted due to shifts in the "power
differential between Armenia and Azerbaijan" and the fact that "regional and
global geopolitics were getting too unstable for the status quo to hold,"
explained Cornell. The conflict first erupted in the late 1980s between the
Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave
inside Azerbaijan, which is majority ethnic Armenian. Armenians in
Nagorno-Karabakh wanted unification with the Armenia but faced resistance from
Moscow as well as from Azerbaijan.
As the conflict escalated into a war between the two republics as the Soviet
Union collapsed, Russia intervened in support of Armenia against the
nationalist-led Azerbaijan Republic. Armenia, although three times smaller than
Azerbaijan and lacking its enormous natural resources, won the war and took
control of Nagorno-Karabakh and its population of 150,000, as well as seven
other nearby provinces populated by approximately 700,000 Azerbaijanis.
Armenia's success was attributable to internal turmoil in Azerbaijan, Russian
support, and the failure of Turkey to intervene on behalf of Azerbaijan. By
taking over such vast territory, "Armenia bit off more than it could chew,"
Cornell said. Azerbaijani society refused to reconcile itself to the loss of
Nagorno-Karabakh. As Azerbaijan became enriched with petrodollars in the years
that followed, it spent massive amounts on building its military. "The disparity
between the two parties to this conflict increase[ed]," to an extent that the
status quo "was no longer sustainable ... something had to give."
The status quo held as long as it did largely due to geopolitical circumstances.
Turkey and Israel – which were strategic partners in the 1990s – supplied
military equipment to Azerbaijan, while "Russia and Iran supported Armenia in
order to ... prevent Western and Turkish influence from spreading into the ...
Caucasus of Central Asia." Even though Turkey has turned Islamist under Erdoğan,
Azerbaijan still manages to maintain positive ties with both Turkey and Israel.
The status quo held so long as outside players restrained their clients.
Turkey, in particular, became less willing to do so as a result of the
"prominence" nationalist factions have assumed in Turkey since the attempted
coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2016. Turkish
nationalists in the military and state institutions see Russia as Turkey's
historical adversary. Erdoğan has of late been provocative in his dealings with
neighboring Greece, Cyprus and the Aegean; now he has taken the same approach to
developments in the Caucasus.
Cornell said that the most important factor in the timing of the latest round of
fighting was "the change in Armenia's positioning in this conflict." As a result
of the 2018 Velvet Revolution, opposition activist Mr. Nikol Pashinyan came to
power as prime minister. Pashinyan initially sought to restart peace
negotiations with Azerbaijan but insisted that Nagorno-Karabakh should have
separate representation in peace talks. At the same time, he provocatively
announced, "Karabakh is Armenia," at a time when Azerbaijan's rhetoric warned of
military action if negotiations were fruitless.
Armenia miscalculated by depending too heavily on Russia's protection from
military confrontation with Azerbaijan. Russia considers Azerbaijan a
strategically important country in the Caucuses and does not want to antagonize
their relationship. Russia also took a dim view of Velvet Revolutions and had no
qualms about Pashinyan being cut down to size in the conflict. As long as the
fighting took place on the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan,
Russia was content to limit its involvement to selling arms to Armenia. Russia's
traditional modus operandi is "try[ing] to use the conflict [to] increase its
influence on both sides." Cornell speculated that Moscow hopes "insert Russian
peacekeepers into the conflict zone" (which in fact since happened under the
recent cease-fire agreement).
Cornell argued that permanent solution to the conflict will require the U.S. and
the European Union (EU) to take on the role of lead mediators, as they are the
only honest brokers acceptable to both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Both the U.S. and
the EU have a strong interest in "creating a stable land bridge between ...
Europe and Central Asia" and "making sure that governments in the Caucasus
countries are able to make their own decisions." Without a high-level of
international involvement to find a long-term solution in lieu of ceasefires,
episodic wars between Armenia and Azerbaijan will continue to erupt.
*Marilyn Stern is communications coordinator at the Middle East Forum.
Arabs: “Westerners Must Stop Appeasing Islamists”
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute./November 13/2020
خالد ابو طعمة/معهد كايتستون: العرب يطالبون دول الغرب التوقف عن التملق للإسلاميين
(الإسلام السياسي) وتحديداً جماعة الإخوان المسلمين وعدم التساهل معهم
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/92334/khaled-abu-toameh-gatestone-institute-arabs-westerners-must-stop-appeasing-islamists-%d8%ae%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af-%d8%a7%d8%a8%d9%88-%d8%b7%d8%b9%d9%85%d8%a9-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af-%d9%83%d8%a7/
"Political Islamic organizations are the reason for perpetuating terrorism and
hatred. These organizations are banned in most of the Islamic countries, while
Europe, especially Britain, embraces them and allows them to operate freely.
Europeans can only blame themselves." — Mohammed al-Sheikh, Saudi writer,
Twitter, October 29, 2020.
"There is no doubt that France's previous policies, lenient with [Muslim]
extremists, contributed to the current wave of terrorism, as well as legislation
that guarantees the right to asylum and immigration to every expatriate on its
soil." — Hailah al-Mashouh, Saudi columnist and political analyst, Elaph,
November 5, 2020.The group [Muslim World League] warned that Islamists have
succeeded in implementing their political projects in non-Muslim countries under
the umbrella of training mosque preachers and funding Islamic charities.
We are now seeing a large number of Arabs and Muslims warning about the clear
and present danger Islamism poses to many different societies. These individuals
are demonstrating courage and conviction in taking this public stance. Their
advice, that Western states must eradicate Islamist organizations in Europe, is
vitally important. The recent terrorist attacks carried out by Muslims in France
and Austria should serve as a warning to Europeans who have long been appeasing
and endorsing extremist Muslim politicians and organizations. Pictured: The door
of a restaurant, riddled with bullet holes, in Vienna, Austria on November 3,
2020, the day after a terror attack in which four people were killed. The recent
terrorist attacks carried out by Muslims in France and Austria should serve as a
warning to Europeans who have long been appeasing and endorsing extremist Muslim
politicians and organizations.
This warning was sounded in the past few weeks by a growing number of writers,
political analysts and politicians in Arab and Islamic countries. The main
message they are sending to the Europeans: Political Islam is a threat not only
to non-Muslims, but to Muslims and Arabs as well. Europeans need to wake up and
start confronting the Muslim extremists.
"Political Islam organizations are the reason for spreading hatred and terrorism
in the world," said Saudi writer Mohammed al-Sheikh. "Political Islamic
organizations are the reason for perpetuating terrorism and hatred. These
organizations are banned in most of the Islamic countries, while Europe,
especially Britain, embraces them and allows them to operate freely. Europeans
can only blame themselves."Abdel Moneim Ibrahim, a prominent political analyst
from Bahrain, wrote that France is paying the price for its "courtship" of
political Islam.
"Is France really paying the price for its complacency and its lax security grip
on the dozens of terrorist organizations operating under the cover of charitable
or Islamic societies, Quran memorization or teaching the Arabic language, as
well as scores of imams in French mosques who incite violence and hatred and
sympathize with jihadist terrorist groups?
"This is true. France bears part of the responsibility for not closing these
suspicious associations under the pretext of freedom of expression and freedom
of religions..."The French government knows very well that there are suspicious
Islamic governments and organizations currently supporting terrorist acts in
France. It knows very well that Turkey -- specifically the government of
[Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan -- and Qatar -- are the ones that feed
terrorism and support it with money from France and the rest of the European
countries. Turkey and Qatar rely on suspicious associations supervised by the
Muslim Brotherhood and other terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and ISIS."
If France continues to flirt with political Islam, Ibrahim cautioned, "the
innocent French will continue to pay a very high price."
Palestinian political analyst Adli Sadeq pointed out that in many Western
countries, the Muslim Brotherhood organization was still being treated as a
"moderate political movement."
Many countries, Sadeq said, have refused to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as
a terrorist organization because they falsely consider it a "moderate" group.
"It makes no sense to say that the Muslim Brotherhood is centrist and moderate,"
he argued. "There is no difference between them and the jihadist groups."
Tunisian newspaper editor and political analyst Alhashimi Nawiri called on
Western countries to re-evaluate their relations with Islamic organizations:
"It has become clear that these [Islamic] organizations, in their ideological
depth, are fascist groups that have nothing to do with democratic values.
"The damage that the West has begun feeling is having a severe impact on the
cohesion of its societies and states. This is the result of embracing and
nurturing these [Islamic] political movements. The presence of these groups in
Western countries has begun to cast a shadow over millions of Muslims living
there and who are required (after each terrorist attack) to prove their
innocence and clarify that Islam is innocent of these groups and their actions."
Hailah al-Mashouh, a Saudi columnist and political analyst, also took France to
task for its conciliatory policies toward Islamic organizations:
"There is no doubt that France's previous policies, lenient with [Muslim]
extremists, contributed to the current wave of terrorism, as well as legislation
that guarantees the right to asylum and immigration to every expatriate on its
soil."
She advised the European Union to outlaw and criminalize all political Islamic
groups, especially those affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, and said such a
move would be an effective weapon to combat terrorism.
"There is no decisive solution to the [terrorist] attacks except by
criminalizing and expelling extremist groups," al-Mashouh emphasized. The
Western countries, she added, should learn from the Saudi Arabia and United Arab
Emirates crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups, which were
expelled from the two countries. Failure to expel these groups from France and
other Western countries, she warned, will lead to more violence and
bloodletting.
The Muslim World League, a pan-Islamic group whose declared goal is to clarify
the true message of Islam by "advancing moderate values that promote peace,
tolerance and love," warned that political Islam is an extremist, dangerous and
violent ideology.
"The ideas of political Islam are based on spreading hatred, interfering in the
affairs of states and influencing their national cohesion, as well as inciting
violence in it in order to pass its political agenda," the group said in an
apparent message to France, Austria and other Western countries and those who
embrace and empower Muslim Brotherhood groups and figures. The group warned that
Islamists have succeeded in implementing their political projects in non-Muslim
countries under the umbrella of training mosque preachers and funding Islamic
charities.
Several other prominent Arab and Muslim media personalities and political
analysts advised the Europeans to be wary of the financial and political support
the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups receive from Turkey, Iran and Qatar.
Faisal Abbas, editor-in-chief of Arab News, said that the "malicious hands" of
Turkey are aiding the Muslim terrorists in Western countries.
"The misuse of religion to score points has always been the preferred method of
these malicious regimes, and perhaps Iran is a professional in this field,"
Abbas commented. "They are using religion for political gain and to stir hate
and incitement. "We are living through difficult and dangerous times."
Abbas's warning about the role of Turkey, Iran and Qatar in financing and
supporting Islamist groups and individuals in Western countries was shared by
Tunisian writer Al-Habib al-Aswad, who wrote that "terrorism has turned into an
industry run by Islamists aspiring to rule the world and who still think in the
logic of Islamic conquests and infidels."
Al-Aswad warned that Turkey and Qatar have been funding Islamist organizations,
militias and media outlets in the West and said: "We are nearing a new wave of
terrorism that could be more violent than the previous ones."
We are now seeing a large number of Arabs and Muslims warning about the clear
and present danger Islamism poses to many different societies. These individuals
are demonstrating courage and conviction in taking this public stance. Their
advice, that Western states must eradicate Islamist organizations in Europe, is
vitally important. Further appeasement of terrorists will have a direct result:
more beheadings and murders on the streets of European capitals and cities.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a
Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Erdogan increasingly governing on borrowed time
Dr. John C. Hulsman/Arab News/November 13/2020
As ever, the ancient Greeks had it right about how humans can go very wrong,
very quickly. As the great dramatist, Euripides, put it, “He who overreaches
will, in his overreaching, lose what he possesses.” When I recently came across
this wise adage, embattled Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan immediately
came to mind. For Ankara’s present regional overreaching in the Caucasus, the
eastern Mediterranean, Syria, and Libya is sure to end in tears. At the same
time Erdogan has launched his aggressive neo-Ottoman foreign policy, the walls
are closing in on him, both economically and strategically, as new
President-elect Joe Biden is likely to have far less patience with his antics
than did his old friend, Donald Trump.
But even beyond geopolitics, Turkey’s ambitious foreign policy is doomed to fail
for the simple reason that an expansionistic strategic policy cannot be run on
the cheap. For years now, domestic economics has been Erdogan’s Achilles heel,
amounting to his greatest weakness in terms of both domestic and foreign policy.
Earlier this month, the Turkish president seemed to have been caught unawares,
as his son-in-law and closest political confidant, Bert Albayrak, abruptly quit
his job as Turkey’s economy minister, and de facto, second most important leader
in the country. This signaled chaos inside the presidential palace, as well as
calling unwelcome attention to Turkey’s endemic economic woes. Albayrak, 42, has
spent two years futilely trying to turn around the country’s economy. During his
tenure the Turkish lira has lost fully 45 percent of its value against the
dollar. At the same time, due to both the pandemic crisis and a longstanding
lack of Turkish economic reform, growth remains elusive, while inflation — the
scourge of the poor — remains a high 11.9 percent this month. Albayrak’s
departure, coming the same week his father-in-law fired the governor of Turkey’s
Central Bank, Murat Uysal, illustrating that the chickens are coming home to
roost for the long-serving Erdogan government, bereft of positive economic ideas
as it is, and looking for scapegoats. Given these economic realities, and no
sign of improvement on the horizon, it is hard to see how Turkey’s expansive
neo-Ottoman foreign policy can be sustained into the medium term.It is hard to
see how Turkey’s expansive neo-Ottoman foreign policy can be sustained into the
medium term. If economics are beginning to limit the Turkish president’s freedom
of maneuver on the international stage, worsening relations with the US are
about to dramatically exacerbate Turkey’s economic and strategic problems. Shorn
of Erdogan’s personal rapport with the outgoing American president, Ankara is in
for a very bumpy ride.
It was Trump alone, in defiance of both the House of Representatives and the
Senate, who held back sanctions being imposed on Ankara, over two different
matters. First, Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system is
viewed in Washington as a brazen betrayal of NATO itself, as Ankara is opting to
buy major weapons systems from the alliance's putative enemy. Erdogan knew all
about the congressional outrage, and chose to inflame it, counting on Trump to
deflect any serious damage.
With Trump on his way out, and with a Biden administration far more interested
in reinvigorating the NATO alliance, this amounts to a major political
miscalculation.
Secondly, American securities regulators have determined that Halkbank, a
Turkish public bank viewed as close to the Erdogan government, is alleged to
have aided Iran in evading US sanctions. Trump held up the ongoing investigation
in the name of national security interests. Again, it is unlikely that a far
less sympathetic Biden White House will shield Ankara from its folly. In both
cases, American sanctions are expected to hit Ankara hard and fast in the early
days of the new Biden government. The timing of this economic hit literally
could not be worse for the Erdogan government, already on its knees from the
effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, as well as its longstanding
aversion to reform.
In such circumstances, increasingly cornered by these dual political risk
realities, it is hard to see how Turkey’s expansionistic foreign policy can be
sustained with endemic economic crisis setting in, and with America — still the
most important player in the world — increasingly turning against its erstwhile
ally. Erdogan’s grandiose dream of Turkey emerging as the dominant regional
power in the Middle East seems doomed to failure as the country’s underlying
power realities simply do not justify such a lofty, unattainable dream.
But, as Euripides pointed out, the cost of overreaching is not just the failure
to attain the unattainable dream, such a fevered delusion historically tends to
lead to the loss of what the utopian dreamer had in the first place. For the
better part of a generation, since 2003, Erdogan has towered over the Turkish
political scene, dominating everyone and everything in his path. Initially
sustained by decades-old economic reforms — instituted by his ally-turned-rival
former Turkish President Abdullah Gul — and close ties with a supportive
America, Erdogan thrived in this very specific context.
Now that context — an economic revival and close ties to its superpower ally —
have dramatically shifted. In wanting too much, as Euripides wisely foretold —
Erdogan now stands in danger of losing all he has.
*Dr. John C. Hulsman is the president and managing partner of John C. Hulsman
Enterprises, a prominent global political risk consulting firm. He is also
senior columnist for City AM, the newspaper of the City of London. He can be
contacted via chartwellspeakers.com.
Iran the big loser in Nagorno-Karabakh war
Luke Coffey/Arab News/November 13/2020
An almost three-decades-old conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over
Nagorno-Karabakh was brought to an end this week after 45 days of hard fighting.
The conflict had its origins in the collapse of the Soviet Union. During this
period, ethnic Armenians living inside Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region
tried to break away and join Armenia. Armenia took advantage of the chaos and
invaded the region, capturing a sizable chunk of Azerbaijan’s internationally
recognized territory.
A ceasefire agreement was signed in 1994, which, for the most part, held —
albeit there were occasional minor skirmishes over the years. That same year,
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe established the
so-called Minsk Group to help broker a final peace — but it failed to do so.
Having grown impatient over the lack of progress in peace talks and the
bellicose rhetoric coming from Armenian leaders, Azerbaijan decided to act.
Major fighting kicked off in late September and was brought to an end this week
by an Azerbaijani victory. With the help of Turkish and Israeli drones, and a
lot of bravery from its soldiers, Azerbaijan was able to liberate large swathes
of its territory from Armenian occupation.
Armenia is estimated to have lost approximately 40 percent of its equipment,
including hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles and pieces of artillery. It is
likely that Azerbaijan ended up capturing more equipment from Armenia than it
lost on the battlefield — probably one of the few cases in history of an army
ending a war with more equipment than it started with.
Turkey and Russia played a big role in the conflict. Russia traditionally backs
Armenia, but in this conflict took a standoffish approach to the dismay of
Yerevan. Turkey has always been close to Azerbaijan and has been in a protracted
geopolitical competition with Russia over places like Syria, Libya, and to a
certain extent Ukraine in recent years.
The peace agreement announced earlier this week was brokered by Russia with
Turkish influence behind the scenes. It led to the surrender of Armenian forces
inside Azerbaijan and the deployment of a small Russian peacekeeping force to
regions in Nagorno-Karabakh with a sizable Armenian minority. While a lot of the
commentary has been focused on what Armenia’s defeat means for Turkey and
Russia, one country that was a big loser in this conflict was Iran.
Iran will have to devote time, resources, and troops to adjust to the new
geopolitical reality along its northern border with Azerbaijan.
For historical reasons Iran sees itself as entitled to a special status in the
South Caucasus. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan were once part of the Persian
empire. Today, Armenia and Iran enjoy cozy relations.
Azerbaijan is one of the predominately Shiite areas in the Muslim world that
Iran has not been able to place under its influence. While relations between
Baku and Tehran remain cordial on the surface, there is an underlying tension
between the two. During the war in Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s, Iran sided
with Armenia as a way to marginalize Azerbaijan’s role in the region.
There are three reasons why Iran is a big loser in this conflict.
Firstly, it remains to be seen how Azerbaijan’s victory will play out with
Iran’s sizable Azeri minority. Azeris are the second-largest ethnic group in
Iran. During the conflict there was a lot of pro-Azerbaijani rhetoric and
protests on social media and on the streets in support of Baku by ethnic Azeris.
The Iranian regime was very careful to appear balanced during the conflict, but
at the same time stifled many of these pro-Azerbaijani protests. There is a
constant low-level push for self-determination and increased autonomy in
northern Iran for the Azeri minority. Although this has not materialized into a
mass movement for independence, it makes some in the Iranian leadership nervous.
Secondly, Iran will have to devote time, resources, and troops to adjust to the
new geopolitical reality along its northern border with Azerbaijan. This could
mean less Iranian focus on other places such as the Gulf and Syria. Part of the
Azerbaijan-Iran state border has been under Armenian occupation since 1994. Now
that this border is back under the control of Baku, a new security dynamic has
been created between the two countries. Also, the presence of 2,000 Russian
peacekeepers — now only 100 km from the Iranian border — is bound to make many
in Tehran nervous. Although Russia and Iran have enjoyed good relations in
recent times, the two have been rival powers in the region for centuries. Iran
has already started to deploy more military assets along its northern border. It
remains to be seen whether this is just a temporary measure or will become
permanent due to the new security situation on the ground.
Finally, it is unclear how Azerbaijan’s success in the war will affect its
bilateral relationship with Iran. Azerbaijan has strived to maintain cordial
relations with Iran because it relied on access to Iranian airspace and
territory to supply its autonomous region of Nakhchivan — an exclave of
Azerbaijan nestling between Iran, Armenia and Turkey. In addition to transit
rights, Azerbaijan also relied on Iran to provide natural gas to Nakhchivan. As
part of the recent peace deal, Armenia is opening up a corridor through its
territory to allow Azerbaijan to transport goods directly to Nakhchivan. In
addition, earlier this year Turkey announced a new natural gas pipeline to
supply Nakhchivan with energy. Iran is less important for Azerbaijan now and it
is likely that the dynamics in the bilateral relationship will change in Baku’s
favor.
Iran has many problems. A stagnant economy, political unrest at home, the
fallout from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the never-ending costly
interventions in places such as Syria and Iraq. The last thing Tehran needs
right now is a change to the cozy status quo it has enjoyed in the South
Caucasus for the past three decades.
Unfortunately for Iran, this is exactly what is happening.
*Luke Coffey is director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign
Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Twitter: @LukeDCoffey
US criticism of religious freedom in Turkey stirs debate
Menekse Takyay/Arab News/November 13/2020
Pompeo is scheduled to meet the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, but no
Turkish officials
He is expected to run for the senate, and support from the Greek Orthodox
community and evangelicals would be a boost to his hopes of election
ANKARA: A US statement saying that its Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to
“promote our strong stance on religious freedom” during his visit to Istanbul
next week has drawn the ire of Ankara.
Pompeo’s visit is part of his planned tour of seven nations, including countries
in the Middle East and the Gulf. During his time in Istanbul on Monday and
Tuesday, the top diplomat is scheduled to meet the Greek Orthodox Patriarch
Bartholomew I, but no Turkish officials.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry criticized the US statement “as extremely
inappropriate.”
“It would be more advisable for the United States to look in the mirror first
and to show the necessary sensitivity to human rights violations such as racism,
Islamophobia and hate crimes in its own country,” the ministry said in its own
statement.
Pompeo is expected to run for the senate, and support from the Greek Orthodox
community and evangelicals would be a boost to his hopes of election in Kansas.
“Religious freedom, more specifically issues facing Christians around the world,
is a shared concern among many Republicans — especially influential evangelical
and diaspora communities,” Ziya Meral, senior associate fellow at RUSI (Royal
United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies), told Arab News.The
tension surrounding Pompeo’s visit is just the tip of the iceberg, however. The
incoming administration of US president-elect Joe Biden, who will assume office
in less than three months, will also pressure Ankara over religious freedom in
Turkey — an issue that has been in the spotlight recently following President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to convert Istanbul’s Haghia Sophia into a
mosque in July, which drew accusations that he was attempting to erase the
cultural heritage of Orthodox Christians in the city. Turkey is also under
increasing pressure to reopen the Greek Orthodox theological school shut down in
1971.
Biden is expected to be a staunch supporter of religious freedom globally,
including the rights of Greek Orthodox followers. Under former President Barack
Obama, Biden became the only sitting vice president to visit the Ecumenical
Patriarchate, which he did twice.
Turkey drew further criticism late in October when it opened the former
monastery of Christ the Savior in Chora, an ancient Christian basilica, for
Islamic prayer services, compromising the building’s architectural and
historical value. That decision was taken following a presidential decree
claiming that the use of the building as a museum was illegal.
According to Meral, there is non-partisan anger at Turkey over a long list of
issues from the reconversion of Hagia Sophia to the prolonged detainment of an
American pastor and the termination of residency permits for foreign Christian
church workers living in Turkey.
“Geopolitical issues from Greece to Armenia to northeastern Syria have now
melted into the usual narratives of ‘us versus Islamists,’ which continues to
politicize the issue of religious freedom beyond the actual concerns of
religious minorities,” Meral said.
While Meral expects the Biden administration to continue to raise these issues
with Turkey, he said it “won’t pursue a similar agenda on religious-freedom
issues abroad (to the one) we saw Trump and Pompeo pursuing.”
In June, the US Department of State published its 2019 Report on International
Religious Freedom. It criticized Turkey for limiting the rights of non-Muslim
religious minorities, especially Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Christians, Jews,
and Greek Orthodox Christians.
“The government continued to restrict efforts of minority religious groups to
train their clergy,” the report also noted.
Dr. Mine Yildirim, head of the Freedom of Belief Initiative and the Eurasia
Civil Society Program at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, said Turkey’s
long-standing key challenges in the area of freedom of religion or belief
require fundamental changes.
“Some of the central legal issues include the lack of legal personality of
religious or belief communities, the status of places of worship, and the
glaring inequality related to the public funding of the Presidency of Religious
Affairs and those individuals and communities that do not receive services from
this institution,” she told Arab News.
“Most of these issues have been the subject of judgments from the European Court
of Human Rights. However, those judgments have not been effectively implemented.
All states can hold each other accountable on account of their ratifications of
international human rights instruments,” Yildirim added.
Experts underline that religious freedom is and will remain a foreign-policy
priority for the US under the Biden administration.
Yildirim believes that, while multilateral initiatives are important, states
should focus more on strengthening international human rights control mechanisms
in order to contribute to the protection of human rights, including freedom of
religion or belief.
Anna Maria Beylunioglu Atli, a lecturer at MEF University in Istanbul,
meanwhile, suggested that external pressure from the West can only go so far,
and that real domestic change will only happen if there is a shift in mindset
among policy makers in Ankara.
“Otherwise, we will only see cosmetic changes in religious freedom,” she told
Arab News. “There has been serious regression in this area since 2013, and there
has been no significant improvement so far.”
The US Elections: An Episode in a Cultural War
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/November 13/2020
Although we don’t yet know the denouement of last week’s election in the United
States, one thing is already clear: this was an exceptional event in America’s
200-year old democracy.
To start with this was the first time that the election was not fought within
the rules of the traditional two-party system. The Republican Party offered no
manifesto or program, allowing the exercise to become a duel between President
Donald J Trump and his opponents. That, in turn, gave the election a personal
aspect never seen before. The Democratic Party did offer a program, but mostly
to furnish the vacuum- a program half of which canceled the other half. The
party’s presidential candidate, Joe Biden claimed he had a secret plan to deal
with the Covid-19 pandemic but mostly campaigned as anti-Trump and attracted
support from diverse sectors largely on that basis.
The Republicans suffered a split with the old establishment and some of the
wannabes opting for anti-Trump shenanigans.
The Democratic Party’s left tried to focus on winning in Congressional elections
and voted for Biden holding its nose.
For months before election-day, numerous polls predicted a landslide victory for
Biden with a blue tsunami that would sweep Trump and the segment of the
Republican Party supporting him into oblivion.
In the end, however, the Republican secessionists failed to help cut Trump down
to size and thus acquire a base for future plans. Results show that Republican
voters turned up en masse to back their candidate. That enabled the split party
to increase its numbers in the House of Representatives and hang on to its
Senate majority. In contrast, the Democrats’ leftist segment failed to achieve
the revolutionary score it had hoped for. To be sure the “four furies”, the four
ladies who have energized the left, did keep their seats. But in most cases
Democrat voters went for centrists or rightist candidates of the party, people
closer to Joe Biden than Bernie Sanders.
There were other surprises.
The Democrats saw part of the “coalition of minorities” that has been their
electoral backbone for decades abandon them in favor of Trump. The vilified
incumbent increased his vote among Blacks, or African-Americans, by almost 50
percent and won a larger share of Latino votes than any Republican presidential
candidate in decades. This time round the Democrats also sustained losses among
Jewish Americans who turned to Trump in unexpected numbers.
In this election, Bill Clinton’s cliché “it’s the economy, stupid!” showed its
limits. More voters continued to trust Trump on fixing the economy than Biden.
With all that in mind one might ask: what was this election really about?
An analysis based on class divisions, in the Marxian sense, would miss the
point. More rich and well-to-do Americans voted for Biden than for Trump. Biden
raised much more money for his campaign than did Trump. The bulk of the
establishment elite of business, academia and media voted for Biden along with a
majority of celebrities, big or small. However, Trump’s constituency was not
exclusively composed of what Hillary Clinton described in unflattering terms.
Leaving the class angle aside, one could also see that foreign policy was not a
key factor either- in fact it wasn’t even properly debated by the two sides.
Both candidates agreed that China was a looming threat.
With minor cosmetic caveats, Biden also endorsed Trump’s initiatives for
bringing peace to the Middle East. Nor was defense policy a source of divisions
with Biden indicating he would not undo the build-up and modernization begun
under Trump.
But what if this election was an episode in a cultural war over the American
national narrative? The central theme of the American national narrative is that
of victims of religious persecution and political oppression coming to the New
World, and, thanks to pioneer spirit, hard work, thirst for freedom and
innovation, transforming themselves into heroes. In that narrative America is a
celebration of individual success and heroism.
The German writer Erich Mari Remarque noted that one enters America by leaving
behind one’s autobiography, joining the great American story. Other non-American
writers, among them Charles Dickens, Ivan Bunin, Ilya Ehrenburg, Frantz Kafka
and Parviz Dariush have also depicted America as “the land of new beginnings”
for all those fleeing “old grievances and ressentiments”. Alain Robbe-Grillet
wrote of the challenge of making the “I” correspond with the “me” as one aspired
after being a subject in one’s own life but often ended up an object manipulated
by others through religion, tradition and sheer power. Only in America with its
huge physical and social spaces one could think of a first-person narrative.
Now, however, that narrative is challenged by a good segment of the American
elite, especially in academia and media, in favor of a new narrative that
replaces heroism with victimhood. In that narrative you must show that you or
your ancestors have somehow suffered, granting you the status of a victim
deserving empathy, apology and compensation from “the system.”
Victimhood was a trope for most candidates in this election. Biden reminded
people about the tragic death of his first wife in a car accident and that of
one of his sons. He also revived his middle name Robinette to point to his
ancestors’ sufferings as Protestants in a militantly Catholic France. Biden’s
Vice-Presidential running-mate Kamala Harris was unable to point to any
suffering endured by her Jamaican and Indian-Tamil parents in America but made
much of her blackness to commiserate with victims of slavery in the New World.
For his art, Trump alternated between playing hero and victim. He cast himself
as the little man’s champion heroically standing against the powerful
establishment. But then he also played the victim persecuted by the mainstream
media.
There were other signs of candidates distancing themselves from the classical
American narrative. Biden spoke of “our communities”, implicitly choosing the
salad-bar shibboleth over the melting pot image. With the confederacy of
minorities in mind, he promised to protect and advance community rights
forgetting that human rights, as spelled out in the Bill of Rights and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, also largely an American product, are
individual not collective rights.
For more than a century, America offered the world a different
socio-politico-economic model, implicitly trying to make others like itself. It
succeeded beyond expectation as, today, a majority of nation-states are
democracies with constitutions and a largely market-based capitalist economic
system. The classical American model remains the most attractive around the
world. The irony, however, is that the model in question is being challenged
inside the US itself. Rather than wanting to make others like the US, a growing
segment of US establishment, wants to make the US like others, notably European
social democratic models. If this election was about an attempt at ditching the
American narrative, it failed. But the cultural war is far from over.
Is Stephanie Williams hyping up the progress of Libyan talks in Tunis?
Jemai Guesmi/The Arab Weekly/November 13/2020
TUNIS – Libyan political circles in the west and east of the country have
expressed their wariness about the repercussions of the method adopted by the
Acting Head of the United Nations Mission in Libya Stephanie Williams in
managing the work of the Tunis Forum for direct Libyan Political Dialogue, which
ended Thursday its fourth day of meetings.
Williams’ statements—in which she sought to promote the atmosphere of
“understanding” supposedly prevailing in the work of the Libyan Political
Dialogue Forum in Gammarth, Tunisia, and to highlight that “achievements” were
being made towards the new roadmap for the upcoming transitional
period—contributed to nourishing the fear of an intent to pass “lame” agreements
and understandings for real breakthroughs in order to cover up for the failure
of the forum.
Williams said, during a press conference she held late on Wednesday evening,
that the participants in the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum “reaffirmed their
commitment to Libya’s unity and sovereignty and the need to move towards
transparent elections, as they agreed on many steps, including the
constitutional basis.”“The participants have also reached a preliminary
agreement on a roadmap to end the transitional phase and which clarifies the
necessary steps to unite Libya’s institutions and start a national
reconciliation process, and which includes the organisation of fair, free and
transparent parliamentary and presidential elections to be held in no more than
18 months,” Williams added.
These statements found no echo with Sheikh Ali Misbah Abu Sbeiha, Head of the
Supreme Council for Fezzan Tribes and Cities and member of the Presidential
Council of the Libyan Tribal Forum, who did not hesitate to warn that Stephanie
Williams could turn into a new Paul Bremer in Libya, in reference to what the US
administrator did to split Iraq along ethnic and sectarian lines during the 2003
US invasion and occupation of that country.
“If the information circulating about the expected outcomes of the Tunis
dialogue is accurate, then the UN Acting Envoy, Stephanie Williams, will become
Libya’s Bremer,” Abu Sbeiha wrote, warning in this context that “Williams could
shove the country into a new phase of conflicts.”
He appealed to “all those with a hint of patriotism from among the masses of the
Libya people to reject this projector at least declare their withdrawal from it
if they are unable to reject it.”
Libyan parliamentarian, Ali Takbali, considered that the United Nations mission
is trying by all means to make the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum succeed in
Tunisia, and to push it towards reaching an agreement.
Speaking with The Arab Weekly by phone from the city of Benghazi in eastern
Libya, Takbali said that the UNSMIL “wants a lame agreement so that the crisis
will go on for years to come, for this is an agreement that, if officially
announced, will not lead Libya to stability, but will instead open other doors
for division and conflict.”
Libyan political analyst Kamal Merash said, in a phone call with The Arab Weekly
from the French capital, Paris, that Williams’ statements are part of a strategy
in which she is betting on giving the impression that there are important
breakthroughs on which to build an agreement to solve the Libyan crisis.
“This strategy depends on nourishing an exaggerated sense of optimism and taking
advantage of the state of anticipation of all Libyans, who are tired of wars and
the deterioration of their living conditions,” Merash said. This strategy “may
succeed in the short run, but it will fail fairly quickly when the time comes to
implement the agreement on the ground.”
This divergence in opinions did not obscure the disappointment of many Libyans
who are suspicious of these wrong introductions reflected in the unsatisfactory
indicators in relation to the issue of the distribution of positions, especially
the presidency of the next government. Williams’s optimism has fuelled
speculations about how and to whom these positions will go, especially in light
of the remarkable competition between the names being advanced for this
position.
Leaks from inside the halls of the Libyan dialogue sessions in Tunisia revealed
several names that are being promoted in different ways. It seems that the next
head of the transitional government will be from Misrata, and the most prominent
candidates for this position are Fathi Bashagha, Ahmed Maitig, Mohamed
abdullatif al-Muntasir, Abulkacem Qzit, Khaled al-Ghwail and Abdulhamid Dabiba.
According to The Arab Weekly sources from inside the corridors of the Libyan
Forum, some of these proposed names have already started buying votes and
resorting to various other pressure tactics, while others kept their options
open in relation to prevailing political balances, pending the official
announcement of the candidates for the position.
The sources did not rule out that the leaked information about the arrival
earlier in Tunis of Libyan businessman Ali Triki, as a special envoy of Field
Marshal Khalifa Haftar with a mission to support the nomination of Ahmed Maitig
to head the new transitional government, was part of these pressure tactics
which seem to be changing and adjusted according to the balances of power.
Nevertheless, the fact that all of the leaked names were of figures from Misrata
and only Misrata prompted MP Ali Takbali to warn against the repercussions of
these leaks and raised his suspicions that the United Nations mission might be
behind the whole scenario, pointing out that “western Libya cannot be reduced to
the city of Misrata alone.”
Political analyst Kamal Merash disagreed and said the leak was most likely
related to Stephanie Williams’s strategy, a sort of “test balloon.”
“I think Williams is deliberately exaggerating optimism as a weapon to pressure
all parties, and among her tools for that purpose is leaking certain names for
important positions and excluding others as a ‘test balloon’ to gauge
everybody’s reactions,” he said.
He believes that the list of candidates for these positions “is ready and has
already been drawn up in advance in the embassies of some countries that are
blatantly interfering in the Libyan crisis, and Williams will bring it out at
the last minute after exhausting the participants in the forum with fruitless
discussions about reaching a consensus over the names.”