LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
November 20/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10/28-31/:”Peter began to say to Jesus, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.
But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on November 19-20/2019
Lebanese Protesters Force Postponement of Controversial Parliament Session
Protest-hit Lebanon assembly postpones session citing security
Protests force Lebanese parliament to postpone session, banks reopen
Protesters Form Human Chain, Force Postponement of Parliament Session
Scuffles as Protesters in Beirut Block Lawmakers’ Path
Protesters force postponement of Lebanese parliament session
Berri Says Some Didn't 'Honor Their Promises' on Legislative Session
Hizbullah MP Rides Scooter, Chants with Protesters Besieging Parliament
Lebanese protesters gather around parliament to block lawmakers from entering
Protests Force Lebanon, North Korea World Cup Qualifier into Empty Stadium
Lebanon: Hariri Insists on Technocrat Government but Not Rushing to Preside It
White House holding up Lebanon aid, official confirms
Hariri Invited to Attend Independence Day Parade
ABL Lauds Security Measures, Behavior of Clients, Employees
3 Riad al-Solh Protesters Hurt in Evening Scuffles with Riot Police
Gunshots Fired from Lawmaker's Convoy in Bab Idriss
Banks Open in Lebanon after Week-Long Strike
Lebanese parliament postponed after protesters block MPs from entry

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 19-20/2019
Amnesty Says at Least 100 Killed in Security Crackdown on Iran Protests
Iran supreme leader says recent protests were not carried out by the people
Iraqis Unfazed by Leaked Documents on Iran’s Influence over their Country
Iran, Pakistan Discuss Military Cooperation
US Aircraft Carrier Strike Group Sails through Strait of Hormuz
Turkey Hopes Iran Protests Will End, 'Stability Will Return'
Russia Bolsters Patrols in Northeastern Syria
Russia, France Agree on Military Coordination in Syria
Israeli military says 4 rockets fired from Syria intercepted
Israel Says Intercepts Rockets Fired from Syria
UN Envoy Says Peace in Libya Possible if Parties Shun Foreign Meddling
Sisi Discusses Boosting Cooperation with Germany

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 19-20/2019
Lebanese parliament postponed after protesters block MPs from entry/Sunniva Rose/The National/November 19/ 2019
Tehran’s control over Iraqi leaders — the smoking gun/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/November 19, 2019
How Activists Are Getting Around Iran’s Internet Blackout/Eli Lake/Bloomberg/November 19/2019
U.S. to no longer waive sanctions on Iranian nuclear site/Daphne Psaledakis/November 19/2019
“Police Urinated on and Cursed Him for Being Christian”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, September 2019/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/November 19/2019
Muslim Brotherhood and IRGC's Dirty Dealings Revealed in Intel Leak."/Seth Frantzman/The Jerusalem Post/November 19/2019
Iran's Palestinian Proxies: United Against Israel/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/November 19, 2019
US Doesn’t Need to Break Up With China/Scott Kennedy and Jude Blanchette/Bloomberg/November 19/2019
Denmark: Shootings, Car Torchings, Gang Violence/Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/November 19/2019
The road to an Iranian attack on Israel/Eytan Gilboa/JNS/November 19/2019
Qatar's Role In 9/11 And Hosting Jihadi Commanders; Afghan Taliban's Hideouts Move To Safe Haven Of Doha/Tufail Ahmad/MEMRI/November 19/2019

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on November 19-20/2019
Lebanese Protesters Force Postponement of Controversial Parliament Session
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 November, 2019
Lebanon's parliament, besieged by angry protesters, Tuesday for a second time postponed a session that had been due to discuss draft laws which critics charge would let corrupt politicians off the hook. From early morning, hundreds of noisy demonstrators and riot police had faced off and at times scuffled outside the assembly in Beirut, with activists also trying to block MPs' convoys. "Revolution, revolution," chanted the protesters, punching the air with their fists and waving Lebanese flags, in the latest rally in over a month of street protests. "This parliament is ours," chanted one woman through a megaphone as others banged pots and pans. Then, shortly before noon and after several parties had said they would boycott the session, parliament official Adnane Daher appeared before TV cameras. "The session has been postponed to a date to be determined later," he said, citing "exceptional conditions, in particular security conditions". "This is a new achievement for the revolution," cheered Mohamed Ataya, a 28-year-old demonstrator, vowing that no session would be held "as long as the people control the street".
'Great danger'
Lebanon, its economy in turmoil, has since October 17 been rocked by an unprecedented wave of popular street revolts that have cut across sectarian lines. What started with protests against government plans to tax online phone calls made through WhatsApp and other online providers has turned into a broader popular revolt against the perceived ineptitude and corruption of the entire ruling class. Amid the month-old crisis the prime minister, Saad Hariri, bowed to street pressure and resigned on October 29, but the parliamentary consultations needed to form a new government have yet to be started. A former minister, Mohamad Safadi, who had been considered to replace Hariri, has withdrawn his bid for the top job after more massive protests. Tuesday's plans for a parliamentary session, already postponed by a week, had further stoked anger as MPs were scheduled to discuss a bill to grant an amnesty to thousands convicted of a range of offenses. The anti-government demonstrators see the draft law as a way to exonerate people convicted or suspected of involvement in crimes ranging from tax evasion to breaches of environmental regulations. "They want an amnesty to escape (charges) of tax evasion and to release criminals onto the streets," said one activist who gave her name as Tracy, 24, and who criticized the "illegitimate" parliament. The specialist non-government group Legal Agenda labeled the proposed law "a great danger". The parliamentarians had also been due to consider a bill to create a court specializing in financial crimes and the mismanagement of public funds, whose judges would be appointed by the legislature, raising further fears of conflicts of interest. Protesters condemned the move to hold the session after Hariri’s resignation, saying officials should focus on appointing his replacement and forming a new government.
Banks reopen
Lebanon's street protests, including widespread roadblocks with burning car tires, have at times brought the country close to a standstill, and sent the already struggling economy deeper into crisis. Amid the turmoil, banks stayed shut for weeks and restricted withdrawals, foreign currency transactions and access to dollars, often causing bank clients' tempers to flare. In rare good news for Lebanese citizens, banks were due to reopen on Tuesday. The Federation of Syndicates of Banks Employees in Lebanon had announced the end of a strike on Monday, saying new security measures had been agreed with authorities to protect banks. The Lebanese pound has been pegged to the US dollar at around 1,500 for two decades and the currencies are used interchangeably in daily life. But amid the deepening economic crisis, the exchange rate in the parallel market has surpassed 1,800 Lebanese pounds for every dollar. The Association of Banks in Lebanon announced on Sunday "temporary" arrangements authorizing the withdrawal of $1,000 per week for those with accounts in US dollars. On Monday, the US State Department spokeswoman tweeted that Washington "proudly" stands with the Lebanese people who are demanding an end to endemic corruption. Morgan Ortagus posted a video recorded on Friday in which she blasted Russia for seeking to miscast the Lebanese protests as a "plot by the United States."

Protest-hit Lebanon assembly postpones session citing security
AFP, Beirut/Tuesday, 19 November 2019
Lebanon’s parliament, besieged by protesters, said Tuesday it had indefinitely postponed a session that had been due to discuss controversial draft laws. “The session has been postponed to a date to be determined later,” said parliament official Adnane Daher, reading a statement in front of television cameras, citing “exceptional conditions, in particular security conditions.”Lebanese protesters began gathering on Tuesday morning around the parliament in Beirut, where the legislative session was scheduled, to block lawmakers from reaching the building amid tight security measures, according to the Lebanese National News Agency. Banks were set to reopen for the first time in a week after announcing temporary steps, such as a weekly cap of $1,000 on withdrawals of hard currency and transfers abroad limited to urgent personal expenses, in moves to prevent capital flight. A month after the start of nationwide protests, Lebanon is in serious political and economic crisis with no indication of its leaders agreeing on a new government to replace the outgoing cabinet of Saad al-Hariri, who quit as premier on October 29. Near parliament, riot police scuffled with a group of protesters who were trying to use a cable to remove a barbed wire barricade blocking a road, a Reuters witness said. The protests have been fueled by perceptions of corruption among the sectarian politicians who have governed Lebanon for decades and are blamed for leading the country into its worst economic crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.

Protests force Lebanese parliament to postpone session, banks reopen
Arab News/November 19, 2019
BEIRUT: Protesters prevented Lebanon's parliament from holding its first session in two months on Tuesday, escalating a wave of demonstrations against rulers blamed for steering the country towards economic collapse. Banks reopened after a one-week closure, with police stationed at branches and banks applying restrictions on hard currency withdrawals and transfers abroad. The protests erupted last month, fuelled by corruption among the sectarian politicians who have governed Lebanon for decades. Protesters want to see the entire ruling class gone from power. Lebanon's economic troubles have increased since then. Despite the depth of the economic crisis, the worst since the 1975-90 civil war, politicians have been unable to form a new government since Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri quit on Oct. 29. Near parliament on Tuesday, gunfire was heard as several dozen protesters forced two SUVs with official plates and tinted windows to turn back as they approached the building, Lebanese television showed. The vehicles sped away after they were struck by demonstrators chanting "Out, out, out!"
Parliament postponed the session indefinitely.
"This is a new victory for the revolution and we are continuing until we achieve our goals," said protester Abdelrazek Hamoud. The session's agenda had included reelecting members of parliamentary committees and discussion of an amnesty law that would lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners. Protesters were angry the MPs were not tackling their demands for reform. Security forces had fanned out before dawn, shutting down roads around parliament with barbed wire. Police scuffled with protesters who tried to remove a barbed wire barricade. Ahmad Mekdash, a civil engineer, said: "They should be meeting right now to form a new cabinet and not to pass laws, especially laws that aren't urgent." The economic crisis, rooted in years of government waste and corruption, has now filtered into the financial system which faces dollar shortages and a weakening of the pegged pound. Banks had mostly been closed since the protests started. Though the banking association on Sunday had agreed a weekly cap of $1,000 on cash withdrawals from U.S. dollar accounts, some depositors found they could only withdraw a lesser amount.
Six customers at Bank Audi were told they could only take out a maximum of $300. Several customers at BankMed were told the cap was $400.
A banking source said the $1,000 figure had been set as a ceiling and for some customers it was less depending on the amount in their account. "I have an account with $8,000 dollars and they won't let me withdraw above 300. They told me you can take $1,000 out only if your account has above $100,000 in it," said Bank Audi customer Charif Baalbaki, 43, a copywriter. Bank of Beirut customer Khalid Maarouf, 40, who works in textiles, said he didn't know how he was going to come up with dollar payments he needed to make this month. "I need $20,000 before the end of the month to make payments to people and I can only get $1,000 each week," he said. Caretaker finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil said Lebanon was in "a critical condition" requiring a new government. But in the last few days he said there had been "no real new effort" towards forming one. Hariri, who is aligned with Western and Gulf Arab states, wants to return as prime minister of specialist ministers devoid of any other politicians, while the Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies say the government should include politicians. Capital Economics said in a research note: "Pressure is growing on Lebanon's dollar peg and, in the event of a devaluation, the pound could fall by as much as 50% against the dollar."The central bank has vowed to maintain its currency peg of 1507.5 to the dollar, in place since 1997. The dollar buying price on a parallel market was 1820-1830 pounds on Tuesday according to five currency dealers, about 20% higher than the official rate.

Protesters Form Human Chain, Force Postponement of Parliament Session
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 19/2019
Lebanon's parliament, besieged by angry protesters, Tuesday for a second time postponed a session that had been due to discuss draft laws which critics charge would let corrupt politicians off the hook. From early morning protesters from different parts of Lebanon formed a human chain blocking roads leading to the parliament assembly in Downtown Beirut to stop lawmakers from attending a session they deem as "unconstitutional". Scuffles with riot police broke out while women stood as barriers between the two sides to prevent clashes. The Parliament is set to discuss several controversial laws, already postponed for a week due to pressure from the street. It was planned to convene in two session, one to elect the secretariat and committee members, and another that includes draft laws related to fighting corruption as well as pensions and a general amnesty law. The general amnesty law would include thousands of people. "Revolution, revolution," chanted the protesters, punching the air with their fists and waving Lebanese flags, in the latest rally in over a month of street protests. "This parliament is ours," chanted one woman through a megaphone as others banged pots and pans. Then, shortly before noon and after several parties had said they would boycott the session, parliament official Adnane Daher appeared before TV cameras. "The session has been postponed to a date to be determined later," he said, citing "exceptional conditions, in particular security conditions"."This is a new achievement for the revolution," cheered Mohamed Ataya, a 28-year-old demonstrator, vowing that no session would be held "as long as the people control the street".
'Great danger'
Lebanon, its economy in turmoil, has since October 17 been rocked by an unprecedented wave of popular street revolts that have cut across sectarian lines. What started with protests against government plans to tax online phone calls made through WhatsApp and other online providers has turned into a broader popular revolt against the perceived ineptitude and corruption of the entire ruling class. Amid the month-old crisis the prime minister, Saad Hariri, bowed to street pressure and resigned on October 29, but the parliamentary consultations needed to form a new government have yet to be started.
A former minister, Mohamad Safadi, who had been considered to replace Hariri, has withdrawn his bid for the top job after more massive protests. The anti-government demonstrators see the draft law as a way to exonerate people convicted or suspected of involvement in crimes ranging from tax evasion to breaches of environmental regulations. "They want an amnesty to escape (charges) of tax evasion and to release criminals onto the streets," said one activist who gave her name as Tracy, 24, and who criticized the "illegitimate" parliament. The specialist non-government group Legal Agenda labelled the proposed law "a great danger". The parliamentarians had also been due to consider a bill to create a court specialising in financial crimes and the mismanagement of public funds, whose judges would be appointed by the legislature, raising further fears of conflicts of interest.

Scuffles as Protesters in Beirut Block Lawmakers’ Path
Associated Press/Naharnet/November 19/2019
Scuffles broke out in central Beirut on Tuesday as thousands of anti-government protesters tried to prevent lawmakers from reaching Parliament, outraged that a session was planned even though the country is still without a Cabinet. When one legislator headed toward the building and could not reach it and turned back, his bodyguards opened fire in the air to clear the way. No one was hurt in the incident. The house was to meet but the protesters on the streets question the constitutionality of such a session in the absence of a government. An earlier session last Tuesday was postponed amid nationwide protests that have gripped Lebanon since mid-October. Heavy police and army reinforcements were deployed in downtown Beirut since late Monday to cordon off the area around the parliament. Hundreds of young protesters thronged around the parliament building, blocking the entrances and vowing to disrupt the session. Some protesters tried to break through the barbed wire, scuffling with riot police, while women protesters tried to form a live barrier between the two sides. "We are here today because there is a parliament session that is anti-constitutional,” said protester Rania al-Akhras, speaking in English and decrying the ineffectiveness of the legislators. “What they need to be doing is selecting a prime minister and a government.” Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned his government on Oct. 29 in response to the protests, which erupted over proposed new taxes but have since snowballed into calls for the government to resign and for the entire political elite that has ruled Lebanon since the end of its 1975-90 civil war to step aside. President Michel Aoun has not set a date for consultations to select a new prime minister and there are deep divisions between the country’s political powers over the shape of the future Cabinet.
The political deadlock comes as Lebanon is passing through its worst economic and financial crisis in decades. The country, which suffers from widespread corruption, has one of the highest debts in the world, standing at $86 billion or 150 of the GDP. Lebanon’s bank staff resumed work Tuesday after a week-long strike. New regulations have been imposed that officially limit withdrawals and dollar transfers. The demonstrators have accused the banks of corruption and mismanagement. The banks first closed when the protests erupted in October but later opened for a week. Depositors then rushed in to withdraw money, but banks had begun imposing informal capital controls that angered many clients and added to the turmoil, prompting the bank employees’ strike. On Monday, the Banks Association declared formal controls, limiting withdrawals to $1,000 per week, and allowing transfers abroad only for “urgent matters.”

Protesters force postponement of Lebanese parliament session
Associated Press/November 19/2019
Hundreds of young protesters thronged around the parliament building, blocking the entrances and vowing to disrupt the session.
BEIRUT: Thousands of protesters rallying against the Lebanese political elite blocked roads in central Beirut on Tuesday, preventing lawmakers from reaching the parliament and forcing the postponement of a legislative session.
The session had been scheduled even though the country is still without a Cabinet following the prime minister’s resignation amid unprecedented demonstrations that have gripped Lebanon since mid-October. The protesters scuffled with riot police as they closed all roads leading to the parliament building in Beirut. When one legislator headed toward the building and could not reach it and turned back, his bodyguards opened fire in the air to clear the way. No one was hurt in the shooting. The protesters are questioning the constitutionality of a parliament session in the absence of a government. An earlier session last Tuesday was postponed amid the protests. Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned his government on Oct. 29 in response to the protests, which erupted over proposed new taxes but have since snowballed into calls for the government to resign and for the entire political elite that has ruled Lebanon since the end of its 1975-90 civil war to step aside. The political deadlock comes as Lebanon is passing through its worst economic and financial crisis in decades. The country, which suffers from widespread corruption, has one of the highest debts in the world, standing at $86 billion, or 150 of the GDP.
Meanwhile, Lebanese banks reopened to customers on Tuesday after a week-long strike during which bank employees refused to come to work, fearing for their security amid random capital controls that have angered clients.On Monday, the Banks Association declared formal controls, limiting withdrawals to $1,000 per week, and allowing transfers abroad only for “urgent matters.”However, most banks on Tuesday were allowing depositors to withdraw only $500 from U.S. dollar accounts. Heavy police and army reinforcements were deployed in downtown Beirut since late Monday to cordon off the area around the parliament. Thousands of young protesters thronged around the parliament building, blocking the entrances and vowing to disrupt the session. Some protesters tried to break through the barbed wire, scuffling with riot police, while women protesters tried to form a live barrier between the two sides.
“We are here today because there is a parliament session that is anti-constitutional,” said protester Rania al-Akhras, speaking in English and decrying the ineffectiveness of the legislators. “What they need to be doing is selecting a prime minister and a government.” Later Tuesday, the parliament’s secretary-general, Adnan Daher, read a statement saying that the session has been postponed “until a new date is set.” He added that current parliamentary committees will continue their work as there was no session on Tuesday to elect new committees. President Michel Aoun has not set a date for consultations to select a new prime minister and there are deep divisions between the country’s political powers over the shape of the future Cabinet.

Berri Says Some Didn't 'Honor Their Promises' on Legislative Session
Naharnet/November 19/2019
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday lamented that “some parties did not honor their promises” regarding Tuesday’s botched legislative session. “The parliamentary blocs and MPs were honest, according to their statements, but other sides did not honor their promises,” Berri told his visitors, hours after he was forced to postpone the session due to lack of quorum. Several parliamentary blocs and MPs boycotted the controversial session, as others failed to reach parliament due to a blockade imposed by thousands of anti-corruption protesters. According to TV networks, only five out of 128 MPs managed to enter parliament building. Berri had postponed the session last Tuesday over “security concerns.”MPs were scheduled to discuss a bill to grant amnesty to thousands convicted of a range of offenses. The demonstrators see the draft law as a way to clear powerful figures charged with or convicted of crimes ranging from tax evasion to breaches of environmental regulations. "They want an amnesty to escape (charges) of tax evasion and to release criminals onto the streets," said one activist who gave her name as Tracy, 24, and who criticized the "illegitimate" parliament. The non-government group Legal Agenda labelled the proposed law "a great danger."The parliamentarians had also been due to consider a bill to create a court specializing in financial crimes and the mismanagement of public funds.Its judges would be appointed by the legislature, raising further fears of conflicts of interest among protesters.

Hizbullah MP Rides Scooter, Chants with Protesters Besieging Parliament
Naharnet/November 19/2019
Footage of Hizbullah MP Ali Ammar riding a scooter near parliament and chanting with protesters besieging the legislature’s building has gone viral on social media in Lebanon. A video shows Ammar arriving on foot to a road-blocking protest near parliament, where a controversial legislative session was due to be held. Ammar then engages in an apparently friendly chat with protesters before leaving the area. Another video shows Ammar raising his fist in the air and chanting “down with the rule of thugs” with protesters as he arrives to another road-blocking point. And as protesters chant “Hela, Hela, Hela, Hela, Ho, parliament is closed, sweetie!”, Ammar starts clapping. Ammar is seen smiling in most of the videos. A picture circulated on social media meanwhile shows him riding a scooter driven by an unidentified person. It was not immediately clear whether he was arriving or leaving the parliament area. Social media users meanwhile lauded the peaceful behavior of both protesters and the Hizbullah lawmaker.

Lebanese protesters gather around parliament to block lawmakers from entering
Agencies/Tuesday, 19 November 2019
Lebanese protesters began gathering on Tuesday morning around the parliament in Beirut, where a legislative session is scheduled, to block lawmakers from reaching the building amid tight security measures, according to the Lebanese National News Agency. Banks were set to reopen for the first time in a week after announcing temporary steps, such as a weekly cap of $1,000 on withdrawals of hard currency and transfers abroad limited to urgent personal expenses, in moves to prevent capital flight. A month after the start of nationwide protests, Lebanon is in serious political and economic crisis with no indication of its leaders agreeing on a new government to replace the outgoing cabinet of Saad al-Hariri, who quit as premier on October 29. Near parliament, riot police scuffled with a group of protesters who were trying to use a cable to remove a barbed wire barricade blocking a road, a Reuters witness said.
The protests have been fueled by perceptions of corruption among the sectarian politicians who have governed Lebanon for decades and are blamed for leading the country into its worst economic crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.

Protests Force Lebanon, North Korea World Cup Qualifier into Empty Stadium
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 November, 2019
Amid month-long anti-government protests, Lebanon will host North Korea in an empty stadium in a World Cup qualifying game. The Asian Football Confederation said the decision followed advice “to guarantee high security standards and a safe environment for the teams and match officials.” The game is to be played Tuesday at the 49,000-capacity Sports City Stadium in Beirut. Lebanon and North Korea trail one point behind South Korea in Group H. Two teams advance to the next round. Lebanon has been rocked by protests during an economic crisis which led Prime Minister Saad Hariri to resign three weeks ago. A parliamentary session was postponed Tuesday by the demonstrations.

Lebanon: Hariri Insists on Technocrat Government but Not Rushing to Preside It
Beirut- Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 November, 2019
Obstacles to the appointment of a new Lebanese prime minister are mainly caused by a dispute over the form of the new government. While caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri is insisting on a cabinet of technocrats, but not necessarily under his premiership, the Shiiite duo, represented by Amal Movement and Hezbollah, in addition to the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), are demanding a “techno-political” government, which would include the ruling political parties along with experts. Sources quoted Hariri as saying, during a meeting of the Future Movement political bureau on Monday, that he was keen on the need to form a new government as soon as possible, “today before tomorrow”, in order to get the country out of the current crises. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, the sources said Hariri emphasized that it was not necessary that he presided the government, but insisted on a cabinet of technocrats. “I support it because it is the only way to get the country out of its various crises,” he was quoted as saying, underlining the urgent need to speed up the holding of binding parliamentary consultations. The sources quoted Hariri as saying that it was not important for him to assume the premiership. What is important is forming a government of technocrats “to cause a shock, and meet the demands of the popular movement,” Hariri noted according to the sources. “The country can no longer bear crises, and now needs to be saved; because the vacuum is deadly,” he added. In parallel, ministerial sources close to the presidential palace told Asharq Al-Awsat that there were no signs of an imminent invitation for parliamentary consultations. The sources added that consultations over the name of the new prime minister have resumed, especially after former Minister Mohammed Safadi backed down from becoming the new premier.

White House holding up Lebanon aid, official confirms
AFP, Washington/Wednesday, 20 November 2019
The White House is holding up security assistance to Lebanon valued at more than $100 million, leaving lawmakers and policymakers in the dark, a senior State Department official publicly confirmed. David Hale, the top career diplomat at the State Department, acknowledged the freeze as he spoke under oath to lawmakers in the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. Asked about the controversial delay in military assistance to Ukraine, Hale said that it was not an isolated case and pointed to Lebanon. “There was information that came to me starting in late June that a hold had been placed on both Ukraine assistance and Lebanon military assistance without any explanation,” said Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, according to a transcript released by lawmakers late Monday. “It’s still not been released,” he said in the November 6 deposition when asked about the status of aid to Lebanon. Asked why the White House was not disbursing money approved by Congress, Hale said there was apparently “a dispute over the efficacy of the assistance,” but his full answer was redacted. The Trump administration, which has not explained its decision, has been pressing for the isolation of Hezbollah, the militant Shia movement allied with Iran that has seats in the government.
The aid freeze came before the outbreak of massive protests in Lebanon against economic hardship and corruption, which triggered the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Two senior Democrats, in a recent letter to the White House, said that the “indefinite and unexplained hold” affected $105 million in aid to Lebanon including military vehicles, weapons and ammunition. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Ted Deutch, head of its Middle East subcommittee, wrote that Lebanon “continues to face imminent threats to its security forces from a resurgent ISIS, al-Qaeda and its affiliates as well as an increasingly strong Hezbollah.”“A more capable (Lebanese Armed Forces) is clearly in the interests of the United States and Lebanon,” they wrote. Hale said the top State Department and Pentagon officials handling the Middle East wondered if aid freezes by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget had become “a new normal.”There was no immediate allegation that the Trump administration sought personal gain from blocking the aid to Lebanon. In the case of Ukraine, Trump is facing accusations over charges that he withheld assistance needed to fight Russian-backed separatists as he pressed Ukraine to dig up dirt on domestic rival Joe Biden. Trump denies wrongdoing.

Hariri Invited to Attend Independence Day Parade
Naharnet/November 19/2019
Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri met Tuesday evening at the Center House with a delegation from the Army Command, which was led by Brigadier General Wassim Saleh.A statement issued by Hariri’s office said the delegation invited the caretaker premier to attend the military parade that will be held Friday at the Ministry of Defense in Yarze on the occasion of Lebanon’s Independence Day. Hariri stepped down on October 29 in the face of unprecedented street protests against the entire ruling class. President Michel Aoun has not set a date for binding parliamentary consultations to name a new premier, arguing that there is a need to secure prior consensus on the nature of the new government.

ABL Lauds Security Measures, Behavior of Clients, Employees
Naharnet/November 19/2019
The Association of Banks in Lebanon on Tuesday lauded a security plan devised by the Interior Ministry and the Internal Security Forces to ensure the safety of bank employees amid the turbulent situations in the country. A statement issued after the first day of banking operations which followed around a one-week strike by employees said ABL had contacted banks to “follow up on the developments after a long period of compulsory closure.” “As a result of these contacts, it turned out that banks had served a relatively large number of clients, who showed appreciation of the temporary general instructions that ABL had provided bank employees with yesterday in order to overcome the current extraordinary circumstances,” ABL added. It also thanked caretaker Interior Minister Raya al-Hassan and ISF chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman for “their quick and effective response to the Association’s request that the appropriate security conditions be created in order to resume banking operations.”“The security plan that has been put into effect since this morning has created a climate of general relief in the vicinity of banks, which reflected positively on employees’ performance and citizens’ cooperation with their banks,” ABL said. Lebanese banks reopened to customers on Tuesday after a week-long strike during which bank employees refused to come to work, fearing for their security amid random capital controls that have angered clients. On Monday, ABL declared formal controls, limiting withdrawals to $1,000 per week, and allowing transfers abroad only for “urgent matters.”However, most banks on Tuesday were allowing depositors to withdraw only $500 from U.S. dollar accounts.

3 Riad al-Solh Protesters Hurt in Evening Scuffles with Riot Police
Naharnet/November 19/2019
Three protesters were injured and several were arrested in scuffles with riot police Tuesday evening at Beirut’s Riad al-Solh Square, the National News Agency said.NNA said the skirmishes broke out after some protesters tried to cross the barbed wire and enter into Nejmeh Square where parliament building is located. The protesters also “hurled water bottles at security forces,” the agency added. Live TV footage meanwhile showed a standoff among protesters themselves, with some hurling insults and a number of protesters chasing a young man who was carrying a baton.

Gunshots Fired from Lawmaker's Convoy in Bab Idriss
Naharnet/November 19/2019
Gunshots were fired into the air on Tuesday when a lawmaker’s convoy was making its way by force through crowds of protesters in Beirut's Bab Idriss area blocking routes to the parliament building. The gunshots were fired from inside the vehicle according to a video footage filmed by one of the protesters. No one was hurt in the incident. A photo taken of the car plate number went viral on social media and was reportedly identified as allegedly belonging to caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil. But in remarks made to reporters, Khalil said it was not his, “I have been here since 8:00 a.m,” he said.
The Minister later told reporters standing outside the parliament building: “I was giving a statement to you when the incident happened. I have spoken with the Minister of Interior and told her that the duty of security sources is to open the road for deputies to reach the parliament instead of filing random accusations.”Lebanese protesters from different parts of Lebanon formed a human chain on Tuesday blocking roads leading to the parliament assembly in Downtown Beirut to stop lawmakers from attending a legislative session they deem as "unconstitutional". Other reports alleged the convoy was that of caretaker Minister Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, while others said it belongs to caretaker Minister of State for Presidency Affairs Salim Jreissati. Both Ministers denied.

Banks Open in Lebanon after Week-Long Strike
Naharnet/November 19/2019
Banks in Lebanon opened on Tuesday after a week of strikes following incidents with clients angered by restrictions on withdrawals, as a protest movement entered its second month. The Federation of Syndicates of Banks Employees in Lebanon announced the end of the strike on Monday, saying new security measures had been agreed with authorities to protect banking institutions. The situation remains tense in the country, as an unprecendented protest movement against the ruling elite entered its second month on Sunday.
Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have filled streets and blocked roads across the country since October 17, demanding the ouster of a political class they deem incompetent and corrupt. The demonstrations led to the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his government, but a new premier has yet to be named weeks later. A parliamentary session to discuss several controversial laws, already postponed for a week due to pressure from the street, is set for Tuesday. A call has gone out for protesters to form a human chain blocking routes to the parliament building at the heart of the capital Beirut to stop lawmakers from attending the session. Lawmakers are expected to discuss a general amnesty law that would include thousands of people. Activists say the text could exonerate those convicted or suspected of involvement in tax evasion or environmental crimes. Protesters have demanded prioritisation of legislation that will bring corrupt officials to justice or recuperate misappropriated public funds. The protests have brought the country to a standstill and the already struggling economy closer to crisis. Banks have only opened for one week over the month of rallies, with restrictions on withdrawals, foreign currency transactions and access to dollars causing bank clients' tempers to flair.Protesters have also often blocked banks from opening to make a statement against a banking system they see has part of the problem. "It is unacceptable that bank employees become scapegoats, that they be humiliated and held responsible," the president of the bank employees union, George al-Hajj, told a news conference on Monday.  He said the strike has been called off after new security measures were adopted, including the posting police in front of banks. The Association of Banks in Lebanon announced on Sunday "temporary" arrangements authorising the withdrawal of $1,000 per week for those with accounts in US dollars.  The Lebanese pound has been pegged to the US dollar at around 1,500 for two decades and the currencies are used interchangeably in daily life. But amid the deepening economic crisis, the exchange rate in the parallel market has surpassed 1,800 Lebanese pounds for every dollar.

Lebanese parliament postponed after protesters block MPs from entry
Sunniva Rose/The National/November 19/ 2019
Banks reopened on Tuesday, but altercations between riot police and protesters caused a planned parliamentary session to be postponed
Lebanon's government once again postponed a parliamentary session on Tuesday as demonstrators scuffled with riot police while attempting to block MPs from entering the government building.
The house was due to meet on Tuesday for a legislative session despite opposition from demonstrators who are outraged at the delay in forming a new Cabinet several weeks after protests began. They have raised questions about the constitutionality of the session in the absence of a government.
Lawmakers gave no indication as to when the session may be held in future.
The session was scheduled to be held last Tuesday but was postponed by the parliament speaker for security reasons amid the nationwide unrest.
scuffles broke out between protesters and riot police as the former bypassed the first line of barbed wires and got closer and started throwing stones . I have witnessed at least one protester arrested #Lebanon #Lebanonprotests
“Right now, I may be taking a short break, but I’ll never get tired of protesting. We will live in dignity or we will die,” she told The National, a bandanna printed with the Lebanese flag tied around her head. Anti-riot police watched her wearily as she spoke, standing guard in front of a barbed wire fence that blocked one of the main entrances to downtown Beirut in front of Le Grey, a luxury hotel. Mrs Hanna was one of the thousands of protesters who clashed with anti-riot police and blocked entrances to Lebanon’s Parliament on Tuesday morning, forcing it to postpone indefinitely two parliamentary sessions due to the "exceptional circumstances."It is the second time in two weeks that parliament had to cancel sessions because of protests. Crowds gathered as early as 7.30am to stop MPs from attending the parliamentary sessions scheduled for 11am and 1pm, blocking roads with their cars and checking ambulances to make sure no politician was inside. The Lebanese Red Cross denied rumours that its ambulances were used to smuggle MPs into parliament.
However, at least one politician clashed with protesters as he attempted to force his way through in a convoy of several cars with tinted glass windows. In videos widely shared on social media, shots appeared to be fired in the air from one of the cars, although there were no reports of injuries or casualties.
Protesters confirmed the incident but were unsure which politician was inside the convoy. Caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, the most unpopular political figure with protesters, denied that it was his. Other MPs attempted to negotiate their way in.
Several protesters blocking the entrance to parliament near the United Nations headquarters told The National that they stopped Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar from entering on foot. One of them said that they chanted popular protest songs at him such as “the parliament is blocked, oh handsome one”, and “the people are the red line”.
“We then saw pictures of him riding a motorcycle to get in, but we are unsure if he managed,” said Jennifer Harb, 25.
Protesters also attempted to remove barbed wire fences that had been set up near parliament, leading to violent scuffles with anti-riot police. At least two people were arrested, said one witness, Rabab Nasser, 24.
“This is the blood of one of them,” she said, showing the palms of her hands and looking dazed as she sat in a small park near the UN headquarters.Dozens of people also banged loudly against scaffolding outside a dilapidated theatre that has been abandoned since the civil war.
“We are here so that politicians cannot ignore us,” said Patricia Gebrayel, 26, a marketing professional. Despite the continued protests, some progress appears to be being made. Banks reopened for the first time in a week after announcing temporary steps, such as a weekly cap of US$1,000 on withdrawals of hard currency and transfers abroad limited to urgent personal expenses. Seeking to avoid capital flight, the Association of Banks in Lebanon announced on Sunday that cash withdrawals would be limited to $1,000 a week and transfers abroad would be restricted to urgent personal spending only.
The central bank has said deposits are safe and that it has the capacity to maintain the value of the Lebanese pound, which is pegged to the US dollar. In Beirut’s Hamra district, about 50 people were waiting at a branch of Blom Bank shortly after it opened, a witness said.
In the Sodeco area of the capital, about 20 people each were waiting at another branch of Blom Bank and at a branch of Bank Audi, a witness said. “Everyone has a lack of trust, there’s a state of panic, and people’s feelings are justifiable because no one is giving them any trust,” said a customer at the bank, who declined to give his name. In the southern city of Sidon, about 50 people were waiting at a branch of Blom Bank before opening, a witness said.
* Agencies contributed to this report

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 19-20/2019
Amnesty Says at Least 100 Killed in Security Crackdown on Iran Protests
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 November, 2019
Days of protests in Iran over rising fuel prices and a subsequent government crackdown have killed at least 106 people across the country Amnesty International said Tuesday, citing “credible reports.”Iran’s government, which has not made nationwide numbers available for the toll of the unrest that began Friday, did not immediately respond to the report. A request for comment to its mission at the United Nations was not immediately acknowledged. The Amnesty report comes after a UN agency earlier said it feared the unrest may have killed “a significant number of people.” Amnesty added that it “believes that the real death toll may be much higher, with some reports suggesting as many as 200 have been killed.” The reports “reveal a harrowing pattern of unlawful killings by Iranian security forces, which have used excessive and lethal force to crush largely peaceful protests,” it said. Intelligence and security forces did not return the bodies to their families and forced others to bury bodies quickly without an independent autopsy, Amnesty said. Iran’s judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told a news conference that calm had been restored. But social media videos posted in defiance of an internet block showed protests continued in several cities on Monday night and a heavy presence of security forces in streets.
UN concern
About 1,000 demonstrators have been arrested, authorities said.
Iranian authorities have not offered a definitive account of how many people have been arrested, injured or killed in the protests that spread quickly across at least 100 cities and towns. Authorities shut down internet access to the outside world Saturday, an outage that persisted Monday in the nation of 80 million. That has left only state media and government officials to tell their story. Absent in the coverage was an acknowledgement of what sparked the demonstrations in the first place. The jump in gasoline prices represents yet another burden on Iranians who have suffered through a painful currency collapse, following President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the United States from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and the re-imposition of crippling US economic sanctions. President Hassan Rouhani has promised that the fuel price increase will be used to fund new subsidies for poor families. But the decision has unleashed widespread anger among Iranians, like Maryam Kazemi, a 29-year-old accountant in the southern Tehran suburb of Khaniabad, who said the new cost of fuel was “putting pressure on ordinary people.”The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights earlier issued a statement saying it was “deeply concerned” about reports of live ammunition being used against demonstrators. It also urged protesters to demonstrate peacefully. “We are especially alarmed that the use of live ammunition has allegedly caused a significant number of deaths across the country,” spokesman Rupert Colville said in a statement. He urged authorities in Iran to restore internet and uphold demonstrators' right to freedom of expression. Colville said it has been “extremely difficult” to verify the overall death toll. “Protests of this nature and on this scale are an indication of deep-rooted and often well-founded grievances that cannot simply be brushed aside,” he added.
Hijacked by violence
Those grievances could be heard in Khaniabad and elsewhere around Tehran. Several described taking part in peaceful protests later hijacked by violent masked demonstrators. Others heard gunfire. “We were out to protest the gasoline price on Saturday,” said Reza Nobari, a 33-year-old car mechanic. “Suddenly a group of six or seven who covered their faces appeared together and started to break the windows of a bank. This wasn’t what we were out for.”Jafar Abbasi, a 58-year-old who runs a dairy, said he saw another group of people who arrived in a van smash the windows of nearby shops. “Some looted the place and some other quickly disappeared,” he said. He added: “This is all the result of Rouhani’s decision to increase the price of fuel.”Police and security forces remained on the streets of Tehran on Tuesday, but in lower numbers. Traffic also appeared to be flowing better, after part of the demonstrations saw people abandon their cars on major roadways. On Monday, footage of masked young men clashing with security forces was broadcast on state television, which rarely shows any signs of dissent. In a video, a man can be seen firing what appears to be an assault rifle as others hurl stones apparently at security forces in the western city of Andimeshk. In the latest bloodshed, assailants wielding knives and machetes ambushed and killed three security personnel west of Tehran, the ISNA and Fars news agencies reported late Monday. One of the three was identified as Morteza Ebrahimi, a commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and father of a newborn child, according to Fars. The other two were Majid Sheikhi, 22, and Mostafa Rezaie, 33. Both served in the Basij militia, a volunteer force loyal to the establishment. Iran announced the decision to impose petrol price hikes and rationing at midnight Thursday-Friday, saying the move was aimed at helping the needy with cash handouts. The plan agreed by a council made up of the president, parliament speaker and judiciary chief comes at a sensitive time ahead of February parliamentary elections. It has received the public support of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili warned on Tuesday that the authorities would deal firmly with those who endanger security and carry out arson attacks. In televised remarks, he also called on citizens to inform on "seditionists" who have committed acts of violence.

Iran supreme leader says recent protests were not carried out by the people
Reuters, Geneva/Tuesday, 19 November 2019
Recent protests kicked off by a rise in fuel prices last week have been a security matter and not carried out by the people, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday in remarks published by his official website. “Friends and enemies should know we have pushed the enemy back in the military, political and security war arena,” he said. “This work of these days has been security work, not from the people.”As protests in Iran continue into their fifth day, opposition broadcaster Radio Farda put the death toll at at least 90, several activists have put the number as high as 200, while the government has yet to announce an official figure. Iran imposed petrol rationing and raised pump prices by at least 50 percent on Friday, saying the move was aimed at helping citizens in need with cash handouts. Anti-government protests have erupted in over 93 Iranian cities since the decision was announced.

Iraqis Unfazed by Leaked Documents on Iran’s Influence over their Country
Baghdad - Fadhel al-Nashmi/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 November, 2019
The Iraqi people were left unfazed by the hundreds of leaked pages of Iranian intelligence cables detailing how Tehran managed to gain influence over its neighboring country since 2003. “The documents are nothing new. The Iranian infiltration and Tehran’s detailed control of several files in Iraq has been known since 2003,” head of the Political Thinking Center, Dr. Ihsan al-Shammari told Asharq Al-Awsat. Obtained by The New York Times and The Intercept, 700 pages of Iranian cables exposed on Monday Tehran’s efforts to embed itself in Iraq, including the role Iranian spies played in appointing Iraqi officials. Al-Shammari told Asharq Al-Awsat that the documents are important because they have revealed part of the truth. “They will definitely impact the protests because they prove their convictions over Iran’s infiltration” of Iraq, he went on to say. “The documents have proven that the political elite, or at least a large part of them, never worked for their country, but cooperated with foreign powers,” he added. Analysts believe that the leaks will have little impact on the anti-government protests. Ali Sumari, an Iraqi journalist and activist told Asharq Al-Awsat that the information they revealed are common knowledge among the people, “including the fact that Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish agents were working against Iraq’s interest.”“They are beneficial, however, in shedding light to the world about what we have been saying for years” about Iran’s meddling, he stressed. Another activist, Ahmed Khoazm, blamed the United States for allowing Iran to infiltrate Iraq to such an extent. “Personally, I don’t trust the US anymore and many protesters share my conviction,” he remarked. He said that the timing of the leak coincides with the current clash between Washington and Tehran and serves “certain purposes.”“As for us, we know everything that Iran has done in our country and we do not need further evidence to incite us to pursue our struggle against the collaborator authorities,” he added.

Iran, Pakistan Discuss Military Cooperation
Tehran, London – Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 November, 2019
Iranian armed forces chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Baqeri received in Tehran on Monday his Pakistani counterpart Lieutenant General Qamar Javed. Discussions focused on bilateral defense, military and security cooperation, reported the German news agency. They also tackled the latest regional developments and joint efforts to bolster cooperation to preserve sustainable security and stability and secure their common border. They addressed countering terrorist groups and preventing their infiltration across their borders. The officials tackled economic cooperation and trade and Islamic affairs.

US Aircraft Carrier Strike Group Sails through Strait of Hormuz
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 November, 2019
The US aircraft carrier strike group Abraham Lincoln sailed through the vital Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, US officials told Reuters, amid simmering tensions between Iran and the United States. Tensions in the Gulf have risen since attacks on oil tankers this summer, including off the UAE coast, and a major assault on energy facilities in Saudi Arabia. Washington has blamed Iran, which has denied being behind the attacks on global energy infrastructure. The commander overseeing US naval forces in the Middle East told Reuters in May that he would send an aircraft carrier through the Strait of Hormuz if needed.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Navy said the Lincoln transited through the Strait into the Gulf. About a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz. The United States has deployed thousands of additional military forces in the Middle East, including bombers and air defense personnel, to act as a deterrent against what Washington says is provocative Iranian behavior.

Turkey Hopes Iran Protests Will End, 'Stability Will Return'
Ankara - Said Abdul Razek/ Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 November, 2019
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country hoped the ongoing popular demonstrations in Iran would end and stability would be restored as soon as possible.
In a speech during the discussion over next year’s Turkish foreign budget in parliament on Monday, Cavusoglu said that Turkey maintained the policy of “good-neighborliness” with Iran in a way that serves the common interests of the two countries. He added that his country has strengthened the existing cooperation with Tehran in many areas, most importantly trade, tourism, transportation and energy. Most Iranian cities have been witnessing large demonstrations and protests over a government decision to raise fuel prices, in light of the continuing economic crisis, which has been exacerbated by US sanctions on Iran over its nuclear file. Cavusoglu stressed that his country maintained consultations with Iran on regional issues, especially the Syrian crisis, which has been going on since 2011. “We have responded in a similar way to Iranian criticism of our military operations in Syria, and expressed our opposition to sanctions against Iran that are hurting the Iranian people and regional trade,” he remarked. The Turkish minister noted that his country was located in a geographic area full of challenges, pointing out that Ankara must follow a multi-dimensional foreign policy, under the regional circumstances.
Iran is Turkey’s main exporter of natural gas. Turkey also used to import crude oil from Iran, but stopped imports in May in compliance with the US sanctions, despite earlier criticism and assurances that it would not comply.

 Russia Bolsters Patrols in Northeastern Syria
London- Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 November, 2019
The Russian military says it is beefing up its forces in northeastern Syria.Russia´s Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Tuesday the military was fielding additional military police units to carry out joint patrols with Turkey. He didn´t elaborate.
Konashenkov bristled at Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu´s statement that Russia wasn´t fulfilling its end of the deal. He added that Cavusoglu´s warning that Ankara could resume its military action could "exacerbate the situation."Last month, Russia and Turkey struck a deal in which Syrian Kurdish fighters would pull out of the frontier region. They agreed to conduct joint patrols up to 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border in the west and east of areas seized by Turkey during its military incursion in Syria.

Russia, France Agree on Military Coordination in Syria
Moscow - Raed Jabr/Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 November, 2019
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron where the two discussed the latest developments in the Syrian crisis, announced the Kremlin. A statement issued by the Russian presidency said the talks touched on a number of bilateral and international issues, with a special focus on Syria. When discussing the situation in Syria, the two presidents emphasized the importance of launching the Constitutional Committee and the organization of comprehensive humanitarian aid to Syria. The Kremlin indicated that Putin and Macron agreed to further coordinate the work of French and Russian military agencies to effectively counter-terrorism in the region. Russian circles have linked between the discussion of military cooperation with the issue of US withdrawal from some areas in northeastern Syria and Washington’s ongoing operations to increase its military presence in areas east of the Euphrates. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan announced the postponement of the international meeting on a ceasefire in Syria between the guarantors: Russia, Turkey, and Iran till early December. This is the third delay of the meeting, which was originally scheduled for mid-October, and then postponed to mid-November in order to give an opportunity for the preparations of the Constitutional Committee in Geneva. Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi announced to reporters on Monday that there are preliminary plans to hold the meeting on Syrian settlement in early December. "The parties intend to hold talks in early December. We are expecting an official request," the minister clarified. The announcement reflects a lack of final agreement between the three guarantors on the arrangements for the next meeting within the framework of the Astana track. In addition, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a meeting between Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan could take place in January 2020. The last round of Astana process meeting on Syria was held in Kazakhstan's capital Nur-Sultan in August. Among participants were delegates from guarantor countries, from the Syrian government and from the armed opposition and the observers were representatives from the UN, Jordan as well as Lebanon and Iraq. On Monday also, Russia escalated its tone towards the situation in Idlib, as the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria announced that gunmen stationed in the de-escalation zone continue to violate the ceasefire. The Center registered 30 truce breaches in the country over the past 24 hours carried by armed militants in areas including Aleppo, Hama, Idlib, and Lattakia districts. The center, based in the Russian airbase of Hmeimim in Latakia countryside, renewed its call to the leaders of armed groups to abandon armed provocations and take the path of peaceful settlement in areas under their control.

Israeli military says 4 rockets fired from Syria intercepted
JERUSALEM (AP)November 19/2019
The Israeli military said it intercepted four incoming rockets from Syria on Tuesday and explosions were heard shortly after that in Damascus, a week after another Israeli strike targeted a top Palestinian militant in the Syrian capital. Israeli air defense systems captured the projectiles, the military said, and no harm was caused to Israeli communities in the Golan Heights after warning sirens awoke residents there early in the morning. There was no immediate official comment from Syria but the SANA state news agency reported explosions were heard near Damascus International Airport, indicating a potential Israeli retaliatory strike. The Israeli military would not comment on the explosions in Syria, but Defense Minister Naftali Bennett was convening the top military brass in Tel Aviv to discuss the latest developments. Speaking on Israel Army Radio, Foreign Minister Israel Katz was equally vague, saying only that “Israel will act in the way it sees fit.”The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel targeted posts southwest of Damascus with five missiles, adding that Syrian air defenses shot down some of the missiles. The war monitor said Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters are active in the area that was struck and that there was no immediate word on casualties. The Observatory said the area targeted near Damascus is where the four missiles were fired from earlier toward the Golan Heights.
The rare rocket fire comes a week after an Israeli airstrike against a top Palestinian militant based in Syria. Akram al-Ajouri, a member of the leadership of the militant Islamic Jihad group who is living in exile, survived the attack but his son and granddaughter were killed. Israel frequently strikes Iranian interests in Syria. But last week’s airstrike appeared to be a rare assassination attempt of a Palestinian militant in the Syrian capital. It came the same day as another Israeli airstrike killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza, settling off the fiercest round of fighting there in years.
It all comes amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iranian proxies along its borders. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a series of warnings recently about Iranian aggression throughout the Middle East.
Iran has forces based in Syria, Israel’s northern neighbor, and supports Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. In Gaza, it supplies Islamic Jihad with cash, weapons and expertise. Netanyahu also has claimed Iran is using Iraq and far-off Yemen, where Tehran supports Shiite Houthi rebels at war with a Saudi-led coalition backing the government, to plan attacks against Israel. Hamas also receives some support from Iran. At the same time, Iran’s regional influence is being challenged by unprecedented, economically-driven mass protests in Iraq and Lebanon — two countries where Tehran wields major influence. The protests are creating unrest that Tehran fears would spark a backlash against Iran-backed proxy militias in those countries. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accused the U.S. and its regional allies of fomenting the Iraq and Lebanon unrest.

Israel Says Intercepts Rockets Fired from Syria
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 November, 2019
The Israeli military said it intercepted four incoming rockets from Syria on Tuesday and explosions were heard shortly after that in Damascus, a week after another Israeli strike targeted a top Palestinian militant in the Syrian capital. Israeli air defense systems captured the projectiles, the military said, and no harm was caused to Israeli communities in the Golan Heights after warning sirens awoke residents there early in the morning. There was no immediate official comment from Syria but the SANA state news agency reported explosions were heard near Damascus International Airport, indicating a potential Israeli retaliatory strike. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rockets were fired from positions around the capital held by groups loyal to the Damascus regime. It did not elaborate on which group had launched the rockets or whether there had been any casualties in the retaliatory strikes.
"The Israeli bombardment targeted positions held by pro-regime groups who launched the missiles against Israel," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. The Israeli military would not comment on the explosions in Syria, but Defense Minister Naftali Bennett was convening the top military brass in Tel Aviv to discuss the latest developments. Speaking on Israel Army Radio, Foreign Minister Israel Katz was equally vague, saying only that “Israel will act in the way it sees fit.”The rare rocket fire comes a week after an Israeli airstrike against a top Palestinian militant based in Syria. Akram al-Ajouri, a member of the leadership of the Islamic Jihad group who is living in exile, survived the attack but his son and granddaughter were killed. Israel frequently strikes Iranian interests in Syria. But last week’s airstrike appeared to be a rare assassination attempt of a Palestinian militant in the Syrian capital. It came the same day as another Israeli airstrike killed a senior Jihad commander in Gaza, settling off the fiercest round of fighting there in years. It all comes amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iranian proxies along its borders. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a series of warnings recently about Iranian aggression throughout the Middle East. Iran has forces based in Syria, Israel's northern neighbor, and supports Hezbollah in Lebanon. In Gaza, it supplies Jihad with cash, weapons and expertise.

UN Envoy Says Peace in Libya Possible if Parties Shun Foreign Meddling
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 November, 2019
United Nations envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame said that peace in the country was possible if parties rejected foreign interference, adding that an attack on a Tripoli factory Monday may amount to a war crime. He told the UN Security Council that preparations for an international summit in Berlin are underway and that a "crucial" meeting of senior officials Wednesday aims to reach agreement on an outline of actions needed to end the conflict. These include a return to the Libyan-led peace process, a ceasefire, implementation of the arms embargo against Libya, security and economic reforms, and upholding international human rights and humanitarian law, he said. He pleaded with foreign actors to honor the arms embargo. The weeks ahead will be critical, Salame said, adding that he is "determined to see the end of this debilitating conflict." He told the council in a video briefing from the region that "ending the conflict and agreeing to the way forward is a realistic prospect." But he cautioned that the violence is being fueled by a growing involvement of mercenaries and fighters from foreign private military companies. He also pointed to drone strikes and aerial attacks by foreign supporters of the warring sides. "External investment in the conflict risks surpassing the amount of national involvement, taking control of Libya’s future away from the Libyans and putting it in the hands of foreign parties," he warned. "Once invited in, foreign intervention is the guest that settles and seizes control of the house," the envoy added. Further, he said: "The violence is facilitated by Libya’s plethora of Gaddafi-era arms as well as by continued shipments of war materiel brought into the country in breach of the arms embargo," ranging from spare parts for fighter aircraft and tanks to bullets and precision missiles. Salame urged all Libyans to reject outside interference in their country’s affairs and to urge outside countries to implement the arms embargo "and commit tangibly to ending the conflict on the ground, before it’s too late."He said the outlines of an agreement are known, options for a constitutional framework exist and electoral legislation has been produced before.
"All that is needed now is for you, the international community, to come together to provide the necessary umbrella for the Libyan parties themselves to join hands to end the conflict and resume dialogue," Salame said.

Sisi Discusses Boosting Cooperation with Germany
Berlin - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 19 November, 2019
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi held on Monday a series of talks in Berlin to boost and diversify cooperation with Germany on all levels. The president is on an official visit to Berlin to attend the G20-Initiative Compact with Africa (CwA) summit. CwA was launched by the Germany in 2017 with 12 African countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia, to promote private investment in Africa. Sisi held talks on Monday at the Bundestag with head of Germany's parliament, Wolfgang Schäuble, and a number of German MPs. Sisi and Schäuble tackled international efforts of counter-terrorism and the illegal migration, said a statement by Egyptian presidential spokesperson Bassam Radi. The statement added that the meeting tackled Egyptian efforts in disseminating the culture of tolerance and freedom of belief.
“Schäuble affirmed his country’s support to Egypt’s efforts in achieving comprehensive development, which has been seen over the last few years,” Radi said. Sisi also received Monday at his residence in Berlin a delegation from the Federation of German Security and Defense Industries. During the meeting, Sisi hailed the development of relations between Egypt and Germany, stressing Cairo’s keenness on developing relations with Berlin and increasing investment opportunities to achieve joint security and military cooperation. He asserted the importance of taking into consideration the challenges the region is facing, including the spread of terrorism and armed organizations that pose threats to the security and seek to spread chaos and violence. The German delegation praised Egypt's role in supporting security and stability in the region and its efforts in combating terrorism.
, said Radi. Egypt heads the G20-Initiative for this year. The Compact with Africa High-Level Conference and G20 Investment Summit will convene on Tuesday.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 19-20/2019
Tehran’s control over Iraqi leaders — the smoking gun
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/November 19, 2019
Our worst fears about Iranian dominance of Iraq have been proven true in the form of large quantities of leaked Iranian intelligence documents. These materials pertain to Iraq, yet provide insights into the nature of Tehran’s clandestine activities in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere.
These documents demonstrate that almost every senior Iraqi official is in Tehran’s pocket. Current Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi is characterized as having a “special relationship” with Iran. Former PMs Nouri Al-Maliki and Ibrahim Al-Jaafari were wholly under Iran’s sway. Even Haider Abadi, who is usually portrayed as pro-West, held regular private meetings with Iranian intelligence personnel. Most of Abadi’s ministers were likewise assessed to be beholden to Tehran. In the context of the fight against Daesh, one Iranian agent told Abadi: “The Sunnis are vagrants, their cities are destroyed,” adding that Iran and Iraq’s Shiite leaders should “take advantage of this situation” so that Shiites “can retrieve their self-confidence.” Abadi expressed “complete agreement.”The Quds Force’s Qassem Soleimani demanded that Abadi’s Transport Minister Bayan Jabr violate international sanctions by opening up Iraq’s skies for the mass deployment of Iranian munitions to Damascus. Jabr recalled: “I put my hands on my eyes and said, ‘On my eyes. As you wish.’ Then (Soleimani) got up and approached me and kissed my forehead.”
Other documents record Iran paying millions of dollars in bribes to Iraqi MPs and officials to obtain lucrative contracts — for sewage and water purification, for example. Iranian paramilitary allies use similar methods today to wield control over oil fields and other critical economic sectors, while acting like powerful mob bosses to dominate various districts of Baghdad.
Iraqi leaders were effectively acting as Iranian intelligence sources, allowing Soleimani to be briefed in real time about thousands of meetings with US and Western officials. Nechirvan Barzani, while prime minister of Kurdistan, immediately debriefed Iranian intelligence following meetings with foreign diplomats. Iranian agents were planted in former Parliament Speaker Salim Al-Jabouri’s office, reporting everything that happened. The documents also record tensions between Iran’s Intelligence Ministry (MOIS) and the Quds Force. One telegram reports MOIS agents spied on Quds Force personnel attending a 2014 meeting with Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Turkey, where the two sides agreed to work together in Yemen for a “joint effort to decrease the conflict between Houthis and Sunni tribes to be able to use their strength against Saudi Arabia.”
After 2014, MOIS personnel were so shocked by massacres, sectarian cleansing and other war crimes perpetrated by pro-Iranian Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi militias and overseen by Soleimani that they sent secret telegrams back to Tehran rebuking him. “In all areas where Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi goes into action, the Sunnis flee, abandoning their homes and property, and prefer to live in tents as refugees,” reported one telegram. They warned that Soleimani was arousing anti-Iranian anger in Iraq by “publishing pictures of himself on different social media sites.”
The wholesale destruction of previously Sunni-majority towns like Jurf Al-Sakhr is described in forensic detail. Entire populations of tens of thousands of people were displaced, “most of their houses (were) destroyed by military forces and the rest will be destroyed.” In Jurf, these same Iran-backed militias are still in full control today, with the town hosting massive detention centers outside of state control.
Iraq’s leaders are portrayed as mere puppets, forced to dance and sing for a malevolent Soleimani.
At a time when the Trump administration has abandoned former Kurdish allies to the mercy of the Turks in Syria, these documents demonstrate the risks of forsaking allies. When American forces departed Iraq in 2011, they left former Iraqi intelligence sources unemployed and destitute. Iran bought off dozens of these sources, who provided sensitive information about US activities in the region, including details of safe houses and the names of other Iraqis who had spied for the Americans. This also allowed for the penetration of intelligence-gathering equipment that the US had provided to the Iraqi government; including a secret system for eavesdropping on mobile phones run out of the prime minister’s office.
Those of us who write extensively about Tehran’s meddling frequently run into a wall of reticence and ignorance from senior Western and regional figures. Isn’t all this stuff about Iranian regional interference just exaggerated fearmongering? These hundreds of leaked Iranian documents attest that Tehran’s stranglehold of multiple Arab states is already dangerously advanced. Iraq’s leaders are portrayed as mere puppets, forced to dance and sing for a malevolent Soleimani, who hides behind the curtain, pulling the strings.
Hard evidence of culpability in war crimes and regional interference necessitates meaningful international action. We’re not talking about Western governments issuing meaningless statements or sanctioning entities that have already been sanctioned several times over. Iran’s other violations of international law (terrorism, attacking peaceful states, nuclear proliferation, economic sabotage, weapons smuggling, etc.) are too extensive to do justice to in a brief article. Tehran must be assertively held to account. Iraqis at least deserve to see Soleimani and his acolytes hauled before the International Criminal Court, along with the establishment of a special commission to investigate Iran’s role in sponsoring militancy and subversion of multiple sovereign states. Iraqi protesters are furious that Baghdad’s politicians, acting at Tehran’s behest, have looted vast quantities of oil wealth that is rightfully theirs. This anger is particularly acute in Shiite areas, where people are fed up with Iran’s contemptuous treatment. They will no longer accept that all aspects of their lives are manipulated by Tehran. Iran is not the defender of worldwide Shiites — it has exploited, impoverished and eviscerated these communities.
With Iraqis risking their lives against Iran-sponsored snipers and militia death squads, is it not high time for the world to belatedly acknowledge the extent of Tehran’s megalomaniacal regional ambitions and take meaningful action? These revelations, from Tehran’s own espionage agencies, must end this pervasive culture of denial once and for all.
**Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

How Activists Are Getting Around Iran’s Internet Blackout
Eli Lake/Bloomberg/November 19/2019
The latest unrest in Tehran and other major cities is a serious test of the regime’s power.
The latest unrest in Iran is about something far more serious than rising gasoline prices. The proof is that, over the weekend, the regime took most of the country offline.
NetBlocks, a nongovernmental organization that monitors digital rights, says that by Saturday, Iran’s internet connectivity was 5% of what it was earlier in the week. The clampdown began on Friday, coinciding with demonstrations and protests throughout Iran, with intermittent outages in major cities such as Tehran and Shiraz. By Saturday, the group said, it had “proceeded to a disconnection of all mobile networks followed by a near-total national internet and telecommunication blackout.”
And yet the images from inside the country have kept coming. In the past few days, the rest of the world has been able to see videos from inside the country showing mass demonstrations and at times violent crackdowns from security services.
“I keep getting these videos,” says Masih Alinejad, an Iranian activist who began the anti-hijab protests and is now based in Brooklyn. Anticipating the regime’s actions, many Iranians have developed a kind of digital resilience. They take advantage of networks that remain online and at times connect to the internet through satellites or service providers in neighboring countries.
In some cases, Iranians are also taking advantage of the country’s two-tiered approach to internet access. Despite the near national blackout, regime and university networks have remained online. “The government people have internet,” says Mariam Memarsadeghi, co-founder of Tavaana, a web platform that works to build civil society inside of Iran. “There are good reasons to think the friends and families of people who have government connections will use them to get the word out.”
Abdullah Mohtadi, the secretary general of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, says Kurdish activists use Iraqi SIM cards to gain access to the Internet. The participation of the Kurds in the national protests this time also marks a change. Kurdish Iranians have protested the regime for decades, but their protests are often against the regime’s treatment of the Kurdish minority. This time, he says, Iranian Kurdish parties are coordinating their activism with the national movement.
But Alp Toker, the director of NetBlocks, warns that there is no reliable way to circumvent the regime’s restrictions. Roaming SIM cards can be cut off, he points out, while satellite internet is expensive and slow. At the same time, some apparent connections may actually be operated by the government as a ruse — tricking users into thinking their communications are safe.
The U.S. government, meanwhile, is doing what it can. It has helped fund organizations such as Memarsadaghi’s, for example. It has worked to help Iranians get access to equipment that would make it easier to get online through satellite connections instead of the on-the-ground internet service providers controlled by the regime. One U.S. official tells me that the State Department has asked some of the big social media companies to suspend the accounts of Iranian regime leaders and entities as long as Iranian citizens are kept offline. Alinejad herself has called on Twitter to shut down the personal accounts of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
But banning Khamenei’s account, and those of other regime figures, is the least that Facebook and Twitter should do. It’s in their interest to develop easy-to-use technologies to circumvent internet bans such as Iran’s; Iranians use Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Telegram like anyone else.
More important, the digital resilience of Iran’s freedom movement is a U.S. national security issue. It’s too soon to say whether these latest convulsions will topple a regime that has made war throughout the Middle East. But it’s clear that online activism was enough of a threat to Khamenei and his deputies that he tried to turn the internet off. The rest of the world should be grateful that so many Iranians have found ways to defy his orders.

U.S. to no longer waive sanctions on Iranian nuclear site
Daphne Psaledakis/November 19/2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it will no longer waive sanctions related to Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant after Tehran resumed uranium enrichment at the underground site.
“The right amount of uranium enrichment for the world’s largest state sponsor of terror is zero ... There is no legitimate reason for Iran to resume enrichment at this previously clandestine site,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters.
The U.N. atomic watchdog and Iran itself said this month Tehran is again enriching uranium at the sensitive site, which Iran hid from U.N. non-proliferation inspectors until its exposure in 2009. [nL8N27R5MN]
While European countries have tried to salvage the 2015 nuclear nonproliferation agreement, Iran has increasingly distanced itself from the accord since the United States withdrew last year.
The pact requires Iran to restrain its enrichment program in exchange for the removal of most international sanctions, and it called for Fordow to be converted into a nuclear, physics and technology center.
Despite its withdrawal, the Trump administration has granted sanctions waivers that allowed foreign firms to do work in Iran that advanced non-proliferation. Those included Russia’s Rosatom at Fordow.
Pompeo said the waivers will end on Dec. 15. The State Department had said last month that it renewed waivers for 90 days.
Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham and Representative Liz Cheney praised the decision and called on the Trump administration to also end the waiver for the Arak heavy water reactor, where Chinese state-owned China National Nuclear Corp has operated.
“There is no justification for extending that waiver in light of recent confirmation that Iran is violating its heavy water obligations, let alone for letting Iran continue to build up its program – not at Fordow, and not at Arak,” the senators said in a statement.
Kelsey Davenport, director of the Arms Control Association, said Monday’s decision could further jeopardize the nuclear accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“This step further risks collapsing the JCPOA because it removes a tangible benefit to Iran under the deal,” Davenport said.
Pompeo also called on Iran to end violence against protesters, as demonstrations have spread across the Islamic Republic since Friday. Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards warned on Monday of action if unrest over gasoline price hikes does not cease. At least 100 banks and dozens of buildings and cars have been torched, state media reported.
“We condemn strongly any acts of violence committed by this regime against the Iranian people and are deeply concerned by reports of several fatalities,” Pompeo said. Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Matt Spetalnick, Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Grant McCool and Cynthia Osterman

“Police Urinated on and Cursed Him for Being Christian”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, September 2019
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/November 19/2019
The Slaughter of Christians
Nigeria: On September 22, the jihadi group, Boko Haram, released a video depicting the execution of two Christian aid workers. Lawrence Duna Dacighir and Godfrey Ali Shikagham, both members of the Church of Christ in Nations, appeared on their knees, with three armed men behind them, who proceeded to shoot them. Both Christians had gone to Maiduguri—near where they were captured—to help build shelters for people displaced by Islamic extremist violence. In the same video and “speaking in the Hausa language, the middle one of the three terrorists says … that they have vowed to kill every Christian they capture…” Responding to the executions, Pastor Pofi, a cousin of the two executed Christians, said, “Lawrence and Godfrey left Abuja for Maiduguri in search of opportunities to utilize their skills for the betterment of humanity and paid with their lives. We will never get their corpses to bury. The community will have to make do with a makeshift memorial to these young lives cut short so horrifically.”
Separately, a Christian pastor and the wife of another pastor were killed in two separate raids by Muslim Fulani herdsmen. “After they had killed her [Esther Ishaku Katung], they were still demanding the ransom without telling her family that they had killed her,” a local Christian said. “It was only after the ransom was paid that it was found by her family that she had been killed by her abductors.” Her mutilated body was found dumped in the bushes.
Pakistan: Police in Lahore tortured Amir Masih, a 28-year-old Christian man, to death. After the employer that Amir worked for as a gardener reported an incident of theft, police contacted and told Amir and the other employees to come in for questioning. “My brother went to the police station of his own will,” Sunny Masih, Amir’s sibling, explained. “When he reached there [n August 28] the cops seized his phone, bundled him into a vehicle and spirited him to some unknown place.” Four days later, police contacted his distraught family to say Amir was ill and that they should take him to a hospital. “We rushed to the police station, where we were handed a semi-conscious Amir,” his brother continues: “He was beaten up mercilessly, and his body was full of bruises.” While en route to the hospital, Amir told Sunny that six officials, two inspectors and four constables, had tortured him for four days. “He told us that the police officials had urinated on him while cursing him for being a Christian and tried to force him to confess to the crime.” Sunny also noted that all other employees who were questioned regarding the theft were released “without a scratch,” and that his brother “was subjected to severe torture because he was a poor Christian whom police believed could be coerced into a false confession…. But my brother was innocent, and he refused to admit to something that he had not done, which further infuriated his interrogators. They increased the intensity of the violence, also subjecting him to electric shocks.” Two hours after arriving in the hospital Amir succumbed to his injuries and died. A post-mortem report indicated broken ribs and visible torture marks on the hands, arms, back, and feet. The murdered Christian is survived by a wife and two sons, aged 7 and 2-weeks-old.
In a separate incident, also in Pakistan, three Muslim men—Muhammad Naveed, Muhammad Amjad, and Abdul Majeed—participated in the slaughter of two Christian brothers, Javaid and Suleman Masih. According to Javaid’s widow, “For over a year, we have been experiencing and smelling hatred against us by our Muslim neighbors. Often their women discussed and passed insulting remarks against Christians. However, keeping our safety in view, we always kept quite [sic] and never replied…. The Muslim neighbors did not like our van, which carries a holy cross inside, to be parked next to their door. They often criticized it.” Javaid’s 17-year-old son continues: “Naveed, one of the Muslim family members, was trying to put some scratches on the wind-screen of my uncle’s van on the incident day. When I tried to stop him, he reacted in anger stating ‘whenever I step out of my house, I see this hanging stuff (holy cross) in the van – which I don’t want to see.’ He pointed out the cross in an insulting way. ‘Therefore, you must remove it,’ he ordered.” Soon thereafter, both brothers “left their house to visit a relative in the neighborhood,” Javaid’s widow resumes; “they were suddenly attacked in front of their house by the two Muslims with knives. Each received 5 – 8 attacks, which resulted into their deaths. The father of the two Muslims was provoking his sons and chanting loudly, ‘don’t spare, kill all of these Chooras!’” (Chooras is a derogatory word used for Christians in Pakistan.) Javaid is survived by his wife and four children (aged 10 to 17). Suleman was recently married; he and his wife were expecting their first child weeks after his murder.
Violence against and Abuse of Christians
Philippines: In the early hours of September 6, an explosion occurred in the marketplace of a predominantly Christian area; several people were injured. The Islamic State claimed responsibility. According to one report,
The group issued a statement late on Saturday saying the motorcycle bombing had wounded seven Filipino Christians at a public market. It was the fourth blast in the area in 13 months, according to the Philippine military, which said a militant group operating in the mostly Christian city of Isulan in the province of Sultan Kudarat was among the suspects…. [T]hree incidents in the past year authorities said were suicide bombings by militants linked to the Islamic State.
Burkina Faso: “Christians … are currently being exterminated or expelled from their villages by Muslim extremists,” notes a September 18 report. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a local source said that the militants sometimes give Christians a chance to convert to Islam; he referred to it as “part of a program by the jihadists who are deliberately sowing terror, assassinating members of the Christian communities and forcing the remaining Christians to flee after warning them that they will return in three days’ time—and that they do not wish to find any Christians or catechumens still there.” He elaborated on the recent experiences of the village of Hitté: “At the beginning of September, 16 men arrived in the village, intercepting the villagers who were returning from the fields. Some of the men forced the people to enter the church where they threatened the Christians and ordered them to leave their homes in the next three days, while others set fire to whatever they found in their path. Now Hitté no longer has any Christians and any catechumens.” He also made an observation that has been made of militants in Nigeria: “Weapons like these [those used by the Muslim invaders] are not made in Burkina Faso. We know that the arms are supplied by international organizations. We are calling for the removal of these weapons, so that peace can return to Burkina Faso…. The situation is critical.”
Egypt: Unknown persons hurled bricks at Marina Sami Rageb, a Christian woman, as she exited her church. The 21-year-old medical student’s skull was fractured and she suffered hemorrhage from the assault. Little else is known about the incident or assailant(s). According to the report, “This type of incident, unfortunately, is common place in Egypt. Christian women are not religiously compelled to cover their hair, but are constantly pressured to do so by their Muslim peers. Uncovered women are frequently targeted for harassment, and even attacks. This underlying threat greatly impacts their ability to walk freely in Egypt and to choose their clothing preference.” One woman comments that “In Egypt, there are a lot of security threats in the streets. But I always avoid walking in the radical Muslim districts or areas, just preferring the main streets.” “I always wear long clothes,” explained another Christian woman. “In the streets, I always avoided dealing with the extremists or the radical Muslims.”
Pakistan: On September 16, Muhammad Ramiz and four other Muslim men, kidnapped a 14-year-old Christian girl, Samra Bibi, from her home while her family was away, “in what is but the latest in a long series of kidnappings and forced conversions of underaged minority girls, often obtained under threat and after sexual violence,” the report adds. Samra was subsequently forced into Islam and forced to marry her abductor. Her family rushed to the local police station on learning what happened. Police refused to open a case and instead mocked and insulted the distraught family. After two days of continued pleadings from the family and local Christian leaders, police arrested Muhammad—only to release him an hour later, in part due to pressure from Islamic clerics. According to Samra’s father, “Muhammad Ramiz had long set his sights on Christian girls and teased them. When they told him to stop, he used abusive language against them. When we were not at home, he abducted our underage girl. About ten days have passed and no one has been arrested.” Discussing this and other like incidents, a human rights activist said, “According to the law, no minor girl can be converted to any other religion but here no one has courage to challenge the radicals who are committing such crimes.” “Sometimes courts seem to be more supportive of perpetrators,” another family representative said. “For example, in Samra’s case, the girl is 14, a juvenile who cannot be married; yet police deliberately wrote in their report that she is between 15 and 16 years. We will also challenge this aspect during the trial.”
Attacks on and Hostility for Muslim Converts to Christianity
United Kingdom: Around mid-September, police announced that they would be taking no action against a Muslim man who had earlier threatened to sodomize any Muslim who dares convert to Christianity. Zaheer Hussain, 41, made a video, which subsequently went viral, while chatting with a laughing companion. Speaking to the camera, Hussain said:
Bro, listen… any motherf**er wants to convert to f**king Christianity, we’re both gonna f**k you up the a**, you under-f**king-stand? … We’re gonna f**ck you up the a** [moves his pelvis in a sexual act]…. Why you f**king converting for, you motherf**kers? Huh? Why you f**cking — why would you want to become Christian? You f**king baptizing sh*t motherf**kers. Ah [mocking sound] “in the Lord of Jesus”…
The above was spoken in English, of a sort, though extended portions of his tirade were in a foreign (likely Pakistani) language. “It frightens me now to identify myself as a Christian to someone that I don’t know,” said the Christian woman from Preston who reported Hussain to police; “[it’s] sad that I have to hide my religion… His threats to sexually assault those who convert to Christianity is the heart of hate speech…. I’m genuinely concerned for the welfare of the public who may not be aware of his extreme views.” Regardless, and despite the UK’s anti-hate-speech laws, police took no action, even though, as one report notes:
Hussain’s generous treatment by the authorities contrasts sharply with that meted out to Scottish comedian Markus Meechan … who was arrested, charged, and convicted in a trial without a jury for causing gross offence with a viral video in which he trained his girlfriend’s pug dog to imitate the “least cute thing that I could think of, which is a Nazi.”
Uganda: After the Muslim-in-laws of a widowed mother learned that she had converted to Christianity, they attacked her and her children, and drove them away from their home. 54-year-old Lezia Nakayiza’s problems began when her 8-year-old “told one of the relatives of the wonderful choir at church, and that we have been attending the church since March. This was the beginning of our persecution,” she said. It was not long before a “Christian neighbor informed me that the family was planning to attack us.” Soon thereafter, and “by the light from moonlight, I peeped through the window and saw many people approaching our house with sticks and other weapons with loud noise from the animals’ shed.” She heard them shouting, “Away with this infidel!” Nakayiza and her children managed to escape from the backdoor. Afterwards, “We walked on foot for two hours and arrived at the church compound around 11 p.m., and we were received by the pastor.” On the following day, the pastor learned of the “huge destruction” her deceased husband’s brothers visited on her home, including “five cows and six sheep killed, iron sheets pulled down, windows and doors destroyed…. The family has to be relocated to another place,” the pastor added. “Life for them is so hard. The children are out of school. They are very fearful of their lives. Even the church is at risk from the relatives who are radical Muslims. Our church is still too small to support the family.” Last reported, Nakayiza was offering to wash people’s clothes and/or work their land to earn enough for the basic necessities of her children, four of which are aged 15, 13, 11, and 8. “What we are going through at the moment is almost unbearable,” she said.
Iran: The Islamic republic denied two sons (17 and 15) of an imprisoned Christian pastor their high school diplomas, until such time that they complete Islamic education first. Their father, Yousef Nadarkhani, made headlines in 2009, when he was first arrested for protesting Iran’s educational requirement that all students study the Koran. The government responded by arresting him, a convert to Christianity, and charging him with the death penalty for apostasy. Due to international pressure, he was released in 2012—only to be arrested again in 2016. He is currently serving a 10 year sentence.
Contempt for Churches and Crosses
Turkey: “A local municipality in Trabzon (northern Turkey) has ruled that architectural elements of houses which resemble crosses will not be tolerated,” says a report:
This decision follows an investigation which opened last December following complaints that the balconies of certain villas in the village resembled crosses. Photos show that houses had two levels and a cross shape divided the houses into four quadrants. Multiple complaints from primarily local Arab families led the houses to be destroyed on the basis of their architecture incorporating the cross…. [T]he situation is not unusual. In other locations, such as Gaziantep and Ankara, buildings have been renovated so that the cross shaped architecture is no longer visible.
Separately, on September 18, a hooded man approached and threatened the Church of St. Paul in Antalya, Turkey. The incident occurred as representatives from three churches were meeting together, in part to prepare for celebrations of the 20th anniversary of their cultural center’s founding. According to the report,
The man became verbally abusive, and made threats of physical attacks. The identity of the man is unknown, and he was careful to keep his face hidden from security cameras. … The man was shouting that he would take great pleasure in destroying the Christians, as he viewed them as a type of parasitism on Turkey. Police are investigating the incident. Hate speech is one of the primary challenges facing Turkish Christians, who are often viewed as traitors to their country since they have left Islam. While violent persecution attacks are rare, the increase of hate speech throughout Turkey does cause alarm of what it may foreshadow in the future.
A separate study published in Armenian in September found that there were a total of 6,517 incidents of hate speech in Turkish media in 2018. The two peoples most targeted were Jews and Armenians, followed by Syrians, Greeks, and other Christian groups.
Iran: The government removed tax exemption status from all non-Muslim institutions. According to one report,
The Tehran City Council will no longer consider churches and synagogues as eligible for tax exemption… Before this decision, these non-Islamic institutions were eligible for tax exemption so long as they were purely religious in nature. The city’s decision has been heavily criticized by Assyrian [Christian] parliamentarians… Iran’s constitution recognizes the freedom of religious practice only for those who can prove that their families belonged to certain non-Muslim faiths prior to the 1979 revolution. These [sic] means that, technically, Assyrian and Armenian Christians should have some (albeit limited) freedom of religious expression. The reality, however, is that Iran does not follow its own laws. All Christian groups, as well as other religious minorities, face heavy persecution from the authorities.
Algeria: Authorities shut down two more church buildings. On September 24, eight police officers arrived at the Church of Boghni, and sealed off the Protestant church’s doors and windows. “I was surprised when one of the police officers contacted me to meet them at the site where our church is,” Pastor Chergui explained. “I had not received any notice; they went straight to proceed with the closure by sealing. They could have warned us before; why didn’t they?” The building had served two separate churches—Pastor Chergui’s congregation of 190 members, and another Protestant church of nearly 200 members from a neighboring village. Police left a note explaining that they closed down the building because it was being “illegally used … to celebrate non-Muslim worship.” A separate report discussing this same closure elaborates on the law being cited:
Since November 2017, the government has been engaged in a systematic campaign against Christians. EPA-affiliated churches [the Protestant Church of Algeria] have been challenged to prove that they have licenses according to the requirement of a 2006 ordinance regulating non-Muslim worship. These regulations stipulate that all places of non-Muslim worship must be licenced. However, the government has yet to issue any licence for a church buildings under this ordinance, ignoring applications from churches to regularise their status in accordance with the ordinance.
This closure raises the number of sealed church buildings affiliated with the EPA, to eight. Another four church groups have been ordered to cease all activities. In at least two cases, authorities have pressured the landlords renting to churches to deny Christians access to the premises.
Separately, on September 26—just two days after the closure of the Church of Boghni—authorities sealed off another church which had served 70, mostly elderly, people; it also functioned as a Bible school. “They told us that they are giving us time to clear useful objects out before they come back to seal it,” church leader Ali Zerdoud said the day before. “I can only say one thing: This is an injustice.”
General Discrimination against Christians
Egypt: Coptic Solidarity, a human rights group, took several initiatives in September—particularly by contacting the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, better known as “FIFA”—to draw attention to the fact that Christian soccer players in Egypt are regularly discriminated against. Although Christians are about 10 percent of Egypt’s population, not a single player on the national and reserves teams is a Christian, Coptic Solidarity noted in a September 17 letter sent to the Normalization Committee of the Egyptian Football Association, a portion of which follows:
CS has received dozens of reports of discrimination from Coptic footballers in Egypt, indicating systematic discrimination against them based solely on faith, which prevents them from reaching the highest levels of competition. In response, CS published a report titled Discrimination Against Copts in Egyptian Sport Clubs, which we also submitted to FIFA by email and via the online complaints mechanism.
The report contains an overview of the widespread discrimination against Copts in football including ample sources and testimonies by moderate Muslims corroborating reality of the ongoing discrimination. It also includes a sampling of 25 of the cases reported to Coptic Solidarity by Coptic footballers.
The Egyptian Olympic Mission to Brazil in 2016 was completely devoid of Copts, and the same applies to the Egyptian national team at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Not a single Copt can be found on either the main team or the reserve. There are currently 540 players in the top-flight soccer clubs in Egypt, and that number includes only one Coptic footballer.
Canada: The government’s immigration department sought to deport a refugee family—a mother and three children—that had fled their native country of Nigeria after they were attacked and threatened with death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity. “They ran because her mother wrote her [daughter] a letter saying that she is very disappointed that she is a Christian, but she must run because her father wants to kill [her] to become higher in the organization,” a family spokesperson said. “They face a ‘fatwa’ (a pronouncement of death) against them for converting to Christianity from Islam. They believe they face certain death if they are returned to Nigeria. They are quite fearful.” According to the report, “Ironically, both Hephzibah and Rejoice [two of the children, 14 and 10 respectively] were featured in a CBC News photograph with Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau, with an accompanying caption saying they were his supporters. In reality, they and a spokesperson for the family had delivered a plea to Trudeau in person when he appeared in Niagara-on-the-Lake last month.”
Supporters of the family said the government was not taking the time to establish the family’s humanitarian status or perform a proper risk assessment. “They’re trying to boot [them] out of the country before then.” The family’s current status is unclear.
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
*About this Series
The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic. Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed in 2011 to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that occur or are reported each month. It serves two purposes:
1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.
2)To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or second-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

Muslim Brotherhood and IRGC's Dirty Dealings Revealed in Intel Leak."
Seth Frantzman/The Jerusalem Post/November 19/2019
Leaked Iranian intelligence documents revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran sought to work together. Like an iron fist in a velvet glove, the IRGC would be the muscle and the Brotherhood could give it cover in the 85 countries it works in, members of the organizations discussed. They convened in Turkey in 2014 to discuss how they might work together and who to fight against. First target: Saudi Arabia. Other common enemies: Israel and the United States.
The revelations come from some of the 700 documents that were leaked from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security to The Intercept and The New York Times, which have been running stories about the documents. The leak reveals that the Brotherhood – a Sunni Islamic religious organization rooted in Egypt with branches in other countries which has inspired numerous Islamist groups, including Hamas – wanted to work with Iran's leadership.
The Brotherhood's embrace of Iran defies the conventional wisdom that Sunni and Shi'ite Islamists don't mix.
The embrace by these two groups in 2014 appears to go against the narrative that Sunni and Shi'ite religious extremists don't get along. But the region is not so simple, and in fact, they saw areas of cooperation. First of all, the Brotherhood came to power in Egypt in 2012 but had been swept from power in 2013 by Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. While its members were arrested, others reached out to Iran. This was in the spring of 2014. Could a meeting be arranged?
Iran's IRGC was so eager that it said it would send Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the IRGC Quds Force commander. The Brotherhood wanted to meet in Turkey where its allies among the AKP ruling party were in power. Hamas was being well received in Turkey as well, and Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been a key supporter of the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi in Egypt. Turkey was angered by Sisi pushing Morsi from power. Saudi Arabia had supported Sisi.
Herein lies the reality of the region in that year. Turkey didn't mind the meeting taking place, but Soleimani was too high profile. Instead an IRGC member named "Abu Hussain" was sent. A Turkish hotel was selected. The Brotherhood, The Intercept claims, sent "Ibrahim Munir Mustafa, Mahmoud al-Abiary and Youssef Moustafa Nada." But Nada told The Intercept he never attended the meeting.
What's important is that while the world was being told that Sunnis and Shi'ites were fighting each other in places like Syria, Lebanon or Iraq, in fact representatives of these groups were willing to work together. How would that happen?
Erdogan has been emboldened by Trump's kid-gloves attitude toward Turkey.
They could work against the "common enemy" of Saudi Arabia. The Brotherhood had once made major inroads in Saudi Arabia. But in recent years, it has been challenged. The United Arab Emirates began to crack down on it in 2011 and Saudi Arabia followed, designating it a "terrorist organization" in 2014. The US designated Hasm and Liwa al-Thawra, offshoots of the Brotherhood, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as terrorist organizations in 2018.
In 2014 the Brotherhood and IRGC said they might be able to cooperate in Yemen. This is a major revelation because Saudi Arabia didn't intervene in Yemen until 2015 to stop the Houthi rebels. The crackdown on the Brotherhood is largely seen as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's approach, as well as the war in Yemen. But this shows that actually the Brotherhood and IRGC were already plotting before MBS reacted.
**Seth Frantzman, a Middle East Forum writing fellow, is the author of After ISIS: America, Iran and the Struggle for the Middle East (2019), op-ed editor of The Jerusalem Post, and founder of the Middle East Center for Reporting & Analysis.

Iran's Palestinian Proxies: United Against Israel
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/November 19, 2019
Hamas is hardly on its way to transforming itself into a non-violent movement that would uphold Israel's right to exist. Its decision to refrain, this time, from pounding Israel with rockets is in no way a sign of moderation or pragmatism. Instead, the terror group needs a break from the fighting in order to prepare better for its main goal: to take down Israel down, once and for all.
Hamas leaders – like their PIJ counterparts – are motivated for their own well-being; the well-being of the two million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip is a joke to them. Why else would PIJ endanger their people by forcing Israel to respond to the launching of hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilian communities?
This is not a good guy/bad guy scenario. Instead, it is a temporary rift between two extremely bad guys, both of whom are wholly committed to destroying Israel, even if that means destroying their own people along the way as well.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is reportedly disturbed that Hamas did not join in firing rockets at Israel this month, in retaliation for Israel's assassination of a senior PIJ commander. But at the end of the day, both groups share the same strategy and goals, as well as the same "enemy" – Israel. Pictured: A house in Yehud, Israel that was destroyed by a Hamas rocket launched from Gaza, July 22, 2014. (Image source: IDF/Flickr)
Iran's Palestinian proxies, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), after last week's round of aggression towards Israel, are said to be at odds with each other. PIJ is reportedly disturbed that Hamas did not join in firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for Israel's assassination of senior PIJ commander Bahaa Abu al-Ata in the Gaza Strip. PIJ, it seems, feels that Hamas left it out in the cold.
The two terror groups may not enjoy a full meeting of minds – as witnessed by Hamas's current failure to bombard Israel with rockets, but these differences are unlikely to escalate into a major confrontation between Hamas and PIJ.
At the end of the day, both groups share the same strategy and goals, as well as the same "enemy" – Israel. They may disagree, but when it comes to waging jihad (holy war) and eliminating Israel, Hamas and PIJ always manage to find common ground.
PIJ's disappointment in Hamas has nothing to do with Hamas's recognizing Israel's right to exist and laying down its weapons: Hamas has done neither. Rather, PIJ and its supporters are disappointed because Hamas chose to refrain, this time, from firing rockets into Israel when PIJ was busy doing just that last week. Hamas, of course, remains committed to its ideology. Its charter, to which it also remains committed, states:
"There is no solution to the Palestinian problem expect by jihad. Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection; no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it."
Hamas's charter also makes it clear that the terrorist group "views the other Islamic movements with respect and appreciation." The charter goes on to explain that even when Hamas "differs from them in one aspect or another on one concept or another, it agrees with them on other points and understandings."
In the past few days, Hamas leaders have been working hard to reassure their friends in PIJ that despite the tensions that erupted between them after the assassination of the PIJ commander, the two groups remain "brothers in blood and weapons." This position is in total keeping with the spirit of its charter, in which Hamas "prays to Allah for guidance and directions for all, and spares no effort to keep the banner of unity raised."
The message Hamas leaders have been sending to their friends in PIJ is, in effect: "Although we may disagree on certain issues, we must remain united in order to achieve our main goal – the destruction of Israel."
PIJ is the second-largest terror group in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
One PIJ official, Ahmed al-Mudalal, described the tensions between his group and Hamas as a "natural quarrel among brothers."
Al-Mudalal and other PIJ officials predicted that the current tensions with Hamas will soon fade away, paving the road for the two groups to resume their cooperation, particularly in pursuing their jihad against Israel. "What happened between Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a passing dark cloud," the officials said. In the past few days, both Hamas and PIJ leaders, who seem engaged in a PR campaign to demonstrate that they remain best buddies, clearly reiterated this message.
So far, it seems that the campaign has been partially successful: PIJ appears ready to forgive Hamas for its failure to join the most recent attacks against Israel. Indeed, PIJ officials have communicated to Hamas leaders their desire to end the tensions, the better to unite for the big battle against the "Zionist entity."
Last week, PIJ members humiliated and expelled a senior Hamas official who came to offer them his condolences over the death of Bahaa Abu al-Ata. The incident, which took place in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza City, could well have triggered civil war between Hamas and PIJ.
It did not take long, however, before PIJ officials realized that throwing rocks at the car of a senior Hamas official and chanting slogans calling for the "death of Hamas" could be, shall we say, counterproductive. Not long after the incident, therefore, PIJ officials rushed to the home of Mahmoud Zahar, the Hamas leader, to apologize and beg for forgiveness.
Hamas had good reasons to stay away from the round of fighting between Israel and PIJ.
First, Hamas leaders apparently do not wish to meet the same fate as the PIJ commander, al-Ata, killed in an Israeli air strike. Instead, Hamas leaders most likely want to continue enjoying the good life in the Gaza Strip and Qatar.
Second, Hamas seems to be worried that another war in the Gaza Strip would undermine its regime and spark a renewed wave of protests against corruption and economic hardship, similar to the protests ones that erupted there in March 2019 and which were quickly and brutally crushed by Hamas.
Third, Hamas appears eager to preserve the ceasefire understandings reached with Israel earlier this year under the auspices of Egypt and the United Nations: the move makes excellent financial sense. Israel, in the context of those unwritten understandings, has allowed Qatar to deliver suitcases stuffed with millions of dollars to the Gaza Strip. Hamas presumably wants that cash to continue coming its way.
The thirst for Qatari money notwithstanding, Hamas is hardly on its way to transforming itself into a non-violent movement that would uphold Israel's right to exist. Its decision to refrain, this time, from pounding Israel with rockets is in no way a sign of moderation or pragmatism. Instead, the terror group needs a break from the fighting in order to prepare better for its main goal: to take down Israel down, once and for all.
Hamas seeks to ensure that it will remain in power, even if that plan sometimes upsets their friends in PIJ and their patrons in Iran. Hamas leaders – like their PIJ counterparts – are motivated for their own well-being; the well-being of the two million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip is a joke to them. Why else would PIJ endanger their people by forcing Israel to respond to the launching of hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilian communities?
According to Hamas and PIJ spokesmen, the two terror groups have agreed to lay aside their differences and devote themselves to a unified effort to terrorize Israel into extinction. They are well aware that the Tehran cash cow is unhappy to see its "calves" bickering when they should be working together to bring Israel to its knees. This is not a good guy/bad guy scenario. Instead, it is a temporary rift between two extremely bad guys, both of whom are wholly committed to destroying Israel, even if that means destroying their own people along the way as well.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

US Doesn’t Need to Break Up With China
Scott Kennedy and Jude Blanchette/Bloomberg/November 19/2019
The greatest challenge the US faces today is competing against a country and economy -- China -- with which it’s more entwined than any previous rival. A growing chorus in Washington, D.C. argues that the US would be better off extricating itself from the relationship entirely. While Vice President Mike Pence recently declared that such a decoupling was not official policy, when it comes to China, the administration seems to have adopted a “better safe than sorry” attitude, limiting ties wherever they seem risky.
Whether intended or not, this approach is propelling the US and China toward a precipitous breakup, with little appreciation of the costs involved or a clear sense of what would constitute success. Such an outcome would leave the US poorer and weaken rather than strengthen our national security. We desperately need a smarter framework to guide China policy. Decoupling may be superficially attractive, but it’s built on three myths. First, the US and China are not connected like a plug and socket, where the only two choices are full integration or complete autarky. In fact, ties fall along a spectrum. The level of integration varies dramatically across every sector of the economic and financial relationship.
Second, advocates of decoupling somehow believe the US government can control the process while everyone else plays a passive role. In reality, while Washington can create limits and disincentives to integration, companies and other governments, including China’s, still determine what actually happens.
When US President Donald Trump tweeted, “our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China,” US executives mostly shrugged and continued about their business. Some have moved a portion of production meant for global markets out of China, but simultaneously increased investment aimed at the China market. Despite new export controls, many US companies are still selling microchips to Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. through their overseas affiliates.
Meanwhile, China has courted other countries by offering greater -- albeit selective -- market access, while putting up new barriers for US companies and tripling down on its efforts to gain technological independence. A unilateral American attempt to decouple could very well leave the US, not China, isolated.
Third, the logic of decoupling assumes that greater connectivity with China inherently threatens America’s security; therefore the policy prescription is the opposite -- to roll back integration. In truth, stronger ties do expand some vulnerabilities, particularly in the cyber realm. But they’ve also bolstered US security by integrating China into international institutions, making it dependent on Western technology and markets, and increasing profits for American companies. That money funds greater R&D, which in turn strengthens the foundations of US military power.
The alternative to decoupling isn’t blind naivete about China. It’s to adopt a more judicious approach to integration, one that remains optimistic about its benefits and confident in the strengths of the American system and its capacity for innovation.
This approach will require great effort to ensure that engagement with China is economically fair, strengthens US security and aligns with American values. Yet by putting the emphasis on integration, not separation, it increases the chances that the US can effectively cooperate with other like-minded governments, industry and other stakeholders, and thus more effectively compete with China.
A shift in focus from decoupling to what we call “managed interdependence” with China involves a change in perspective as much as anything else. For example, export controls and investment restrictions will still be needed to make continued commerce more strategically viable. But that should be their goal; such measures needn’t be a pit-stop on the way to full-scale de-linkage. Similarly, while the US needs to create robust mechanisms to monitor research funding that goes to Chinese scientists and scholars, the purpose should be to enhance the integrity of transnational research, not to cut China off entirely. Having business operate in ways that align with American values doesn’t mean abandoning China outright but having companies better scrutinize their supply chains to ensure they are not sourcing products or using labor that is part of the Chinese government’s network of detention facilities in Xinjiang province.
One of the benefits of this approach is to eliminate the conventional distinction between engagement as a tool of economic growth on the one hand and protecting national security on the other. Yes, the US will need to continue to deter China from using force against Taiwan and do more to push back in the South China Sea. But the US -- and the West more generally -- needs to integrate concerns of security and values into every aspect of how we engage China. Otherwise, the relationship will have little chance of being sustainable.
A more holistic conception of interdependence and engagement will redound not only to economic ties, but to other elements of the relationship. If the US continues to react as defensively as it’s doing now, some sort of decoupling is almost inevitable. If it takes the initiative to establish a new equilibrium, though, a smaller relationship could be a stronger one.

Denmark: Shootings, Car Torchings, Gang Violence
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/November 19/2019
"These numbers underline, first of all, that we are talking about a problem that has to do with ethnicity. The argument that this has nothing to do with foreigners has to be taken off the table." — Trine Bramsen, legal affairs spokesperson for the Social Democrats, in Berlingske Tidende, August 24, 2017.
"In addition to a common fondness for crime, the culture of immigrant gangs is a cocktail of religion, clan affiliation, honor, shame and brotherhood... The harder and the more brutal [you are], the stronger you are, and then you create awareness of yourself and attract more [people]". — Naser Khader, member of the Danish Parliament for the Conservative Party and co-founder of the Muslim reform movement, in a blog, "Immigrant gangs are also culture and religion" in Jyllands-Posten, November 2018.
"[T]he price for the failed integration [of immigrants] is [paid] by those with the least resources. It is the schools and neighborhoods of the working classes that are destroyed...." — Niels Jespersen, op-ed in Berlingske Tidende, October 1, 2019.
People with the means to move, such as Lunøe, will take their children and run to safer areas. What will happen to the many that are unable to do so and have no choice but to stay in the crosshairs of the shootings, the knives and the car-torchings?
The US embassy in Denmark recently advised that due to "an increase in gun violence in the areas of Nørrebro, Ishøj, and Hundige", people in the areas should "keep a low profile", "do not physically resist any robbery attempt" and "use caution when walking or driving at night". Pictured: The Metro station in Copenhagen's Nørrebro neighborhood. (Image source: Arc1977/Wikimedia Commons)
On September 24, the US embassy in Denmark published a security alert. It warned US citizens in Copenhagen that:
"The Danish National Police urge individuals living in or visiting the areas of Nørrebro, Ishøj, and Hundige to exercise heightened awareness at all times due to a recent increase in gun violence. Copenhagen Police have instituted a stop-and-search zone in a large area covering Nørrebro. The ordinance – which will run through September 30 – allows police officers to stop and search anyone within the area without cause".
The alert also encouraged US citizens to "keep a low profile", "do not physically resist any robbery attempt" and "use caution when walking or driving at night".
Police in Copenhagen eventually decided to extend the stop and search ordinance in parts of Copenhagen until October 14.
The police have confirmed that the numerous shootings, one of them lethal, are connected to rivalries between two criminal gangs, "Brothas" and "NNV". The situation is beginning to resemble that of Sweden, where shootings and bombings have become commonplace. In late August, in Denmark, a residential building in Greve, a suburb of Copenhagen, was targeted. A bomb with the approximate explosive force of a hand grenade was detonated at the entrance to the building. In June, also in Greve, a man was shot; and in April, several cars were blown up.
In 2017, when shootings in Copenhagen grew more frequent as the conflict intensified between the two gangs, "Brothas" and "Loyal to Familia" (the latter has since been prohibited by Danish authorities), statistics published by the daily Berlingske Tidende showed that 30% of the gang members involved had foreign passports.
"These numbers underline, first of all, that we are talking about a problem that has to do with ethnicity. The argument that this has nothing to do with foreigners has to be taken off the table," said the legal affairs spokesperson for the Social Democrats, Trine Bramsen, at the time.
"In addition to a common fondness for crime, the culture of immigrant gangs is a cocktail of religion, clan affiliation, honor, shame and brotherhood," wrote Danish Conservative Party MP Naser Khader, who is also a co-founder of the Muslim reform movement .
"They also distinguish themselves from the rockers [predominantly ethnically Danish biker gangs, Ed.] by an incredibly strong cruelty. The harder and the more brutal [you are], the stronger you are, and then you create awareness of yourself and attract more [people]".
The flare-up in gang violence has also led to what appears to be a new trend in Denmark: Carjackings at gunpoint. The Danish police confirm that there have been at least three armed carjackings in the conflict between the Brothas and NNV gangs. In one incident, two people were threatened with guns to get out of their cars and leave them.
As in Sweden, car-torchings have also become commonplace. In the first nine months of 2019, according to the Danish police, there were 648 car torchings, the highest number in the past four years.
Nørrebro, where 17.6 % of the inhabitants were non-Western immigrants and their descendants in 2018, has some of the most serious problems, and is where many of the criminal gangs originate. In July 2019, Mathilde Graversen of the daily Berlingske Tidende visited a small neighborhood in the area, where, according to locals with whom she spoke, just 20-25 local boys and young men of ethnic minority background, between the ages of 12 and 20, are causing all the problems. Describing the measures some residents take for personal security, she wrote:
"It has become a habit to use the back door instead of the front door [to their apartment building]. They pass a fence into the garden... and go through the basement up to their apartment. In this way, they avoid having to pass a group of boys and young men, who often hang out in front of the building. Other residents periodically give up using their bedroom. They blow up an air mattress every night and sleep in the living room because the group of boys and young men listen to loud music, shout and occasionally knock on the windows to the [residents'] bedrooms at night. Others say that they have friends who dare not visit them in the evening".
In September, Christian Lunøe, who lives with his children in Nørrebro, wrote an op-ed in Berlingske Tidende, in which he described his intention to move away from there.
"Last Sunday it became so dangerous at my house that I can no longer defend living [in Nørrebro] with my children," Lunøe wrote. He added that he had been out for an evening walk with his children when they encountered a group of boys and young men "with an aggressive and confrontational attitude". When he and his children passed the group on the street, the group "explodes in a... brawl, with two out of the five pulling a knife".
Lunøe described how there has been, "a spread of gang crime and associated groups of admirers, right down to the age of ten. Children who are left to the street and themselves. Young people with knives and threatening behavior". When he called the police, they told him, "We know it's bad out there, but we have no patrol cars to send."
"It is clear," Lunøe wrote, "that young criminals must be punished and weapons removed from the streets, and it is clear that there can be no denying that in my street, boys and young men with ethnic minority backgrounds make up 100 % of both the gangs and their aspirants..."
Lunøe is not the first person wanting to move away from Nørrebro because of the problems there. After his op-ed, the historian and columnist Niels Jespersen wrote, "I also left Nørrebro, because I couldn't stand the gangs". More importantly, Jespersen asked in his op-ed, "how many Danes, who do not have... access to [write] an op-ed in Berlingske, not to mention the resources to move away, have been exposed to the same things [as Lunøe] over the decades?"
"[T]he price for the failed integration [of immigrants] is [paid] by those with the least resources. It is the schools and neighborhoods of the working classes that are destroyed, while it is rare that the well-educated and progressive middle classes meet other immigrants than those who are equally well-educated and progressive".
People with the means to move, such as Lunøe, will take their children and run to safer areas. What will happen to the many people who are unable to do so and have no choice but to stay in the crosshairs of the shootings, the knives and the car-torchings?
*Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The road to an Iranian attack on Israel
Eytan Gilboa/JNS/November 19/2019
In light of the growing probability of a direct military confrontation between Israel and Iran, Israel would do well to remember Elie Wiesel’s words: “Better to believe the threats of our enemies than the promises of our friends.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently warned that increasing Iranian provocations and the absence of a US response could lead to a dangerous military confrontation between Israel and Iran. While some have suggested the warning is designed to break Israel’s political deadlock and push for the establishment of a national unity government of the type Netanyahu favors, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi and Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, the head of the IDF’s Operations Directorate, have issued similar warnings.
Military and strategic experts argue that an Iranian military attack on Israel is just a matter of time, in part due to American strategic weakness, as reflected in its failure to respond to a series of Iranian provocations in the Gulf. The main purpose of such an attack would be to deter Israel from continuing its relentless strikes on the military infrastructure Iran is attempting to build in Syria and more recently in Iraq.
Iran has attacked oil tankers and Saudi oil facilities and shot down an expensive American intelligence drone over international waters. It is building facilities to convert Lebanese Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah’s huge arsenal of rockets into more accurate and deadly weapons. It is trying to add a third military front against Israel in Syria and Iraq (the other two being Lebanon and the Gaza Strip) and is using the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip to attack Israeli towns and villages, with the aim of sabotaging the Egyptian effort to achieve calm there.
Iran is also systematically violating the 2015 nuclear agreement, which was signed by European powers as well as the United States.
On Nov. 6, 2019, Iran began to fuel over 1,044 centrifuges with uranium gas at the Fordow nuclear facility. The purpose is to enrich uranium at 20%. For peaceful purposes, uranium only needs to be enriched to between 3-5%, and indeed the nuclear deal allows Iran to enrich only up to 3.67%. Any enrichment beyond that level could indicate a plan to build nuclear weapons, which require 85-90% enrichment. Once the 20 % level is reached, enrichment can be boosted to 90% quite rapidly.
Iran also plans to increase its enriched uranium production tenfold at the Natanz nuclear facility. On Nov. 4, it claimed to be developing advanced centrifuges that can enrich uranium faster.
President Donald Trump’s decision to refrain from retaliation against Iranian provocations in the Gulf, his eagerness to meet Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani at the recent United Nations General Assembly, his reported willingness to lift the heavy sanctions he imposed on Iran in return for the meeting and possible negotiations over a new nuclear agreement, and his decision to pull out from Kurdish-controlled areas near the Turkish-Syrian border encourage Iran to believe the United States is weak and unprepared to use force against either military provocations or the new efforts to accelerate the quest for nuclear weapons.
The regime’s leaders may also have concluded that the United States is now an unreliable ally that will not retaliate strongly against either violation of the nuclear agreement or an attack on Israel.
On Sept. 14, 2019, Iran attacked the Saudi oil facility in Abqaiq, one of the world’s most important oil production facilities. The surprise attack was launched from Iran and carried out by sophisticated and accurate cruise missiles and attack drones. Tehran claims the attack was carried out from Yemen by rebel Houthis, but the evidence clearly shows the attack came from Iranian territory.
It is obvious that Iran would not attack Israel directly from its own territory. It is much more likely to use its proxies in the region. Fortunately, Iran lost some of the element of surprise against Israel as it already used precision-guided cruise missiles against Saudi Arabia.
Israel is preparing defensive and offensive answers to the prospect of an Iranian cruise missile and drone strike. An Israeli strategy should include several key components. First it should reveal Iran’s plan. Then it should threaten direct and massive retaliation and make clear that Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Gaza will pay a heavy price if attacks on Israel originate on their soil.
In the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Israel distinguished between Lebanon and Hezbollah. This distinction did not really apply then, and certainly does not apply now. If Israel comes under attack from Lebanese territory, it will attack all of Lebanon in response – the Lebanese army as well as Hezbollah. The same is true for Syria. Israel is trying to persuade Syrian President Basher Assad and Russia that if Israel comes under attack from Syria, Assad will pay the price and his regime will be endangered.
Coordination with the United States and consultation with Russia are critically important. Despite the US failure to respond to the Iranian provocations, the recent decision to withdraw from northern Syria, the forthcoming impeachment process against Trump and the 2020 presidential election, Israel should consult the US administration on alternative responses to an Iranian attack. Jerusalem should also attempt to persuade Trump to issue a warning that attacks on Israel of the kind launched against Saudi Arabia would trigger a severe American reaction.
Similarly, Israel should inform Russia of potential Israeli action after any attack by Iran, especially from Syrian territory. Russia hasn’t been happy about exchanges of fire between Israel and Iranian forces attempting to build a base in Syria. Russia has not protested Israeli military actions in Syria and is concerned about the survival of the Assad regime should an Iranian attack originate from there.
All these strategic components could create some level of deterrence or at least limit the damage of any potential Iranian attack. Yet given the changing circumstances in the region, even a limited attack could trigger a major war that nobody wants, at least right now.
Iran’s military leaders often threaten to annihilate Israel or at least destroy Tel Aviv. In view of the growing probability of a direct military confrontation between the two states, Israelis would do well to remember Elie Wiesel’s words: “Better to believe the threats of our enemies than the promises of our friends.”

Qatar's Role In 9/11 And Hosting Jihadi Commanders; Afghan Taliban's Hideouts Move To Safe Haven Of Doha
Tufail Ahmad/MEMRI/November 19/2019
May 8, 2003: Qatar's emir Hamad bin Khalifa Aal Thani meets with George Bush in Washington
Introduction
This report examines Qatar's relationships with jihadi organizations. Right through the 1980s, Afghan mujahideen – backed by the U.S., Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Arab donors – fought against the Soviet troops from their hideouts in the mountainous terrains of Afghanistan. Since the 9/11 attacks on New York, the Pentagon, and other American targets, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Afghan Taliban, especially its Haqqani Network) has been fighting and killing American and NATO soldiers from its shelters in Afghanistan and in Pakistani cities such as Abbottabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, and Quetta.[1]
While this situation has not changed, a new dimension has been added since 2013: As part of a highly ingenious plot, which the world is yet to realize, the Afghan Taliban leaders' hideouts have moved to the safe haven of Doha, the capital of Qatar, from where the senior-most Taliban commanders plot, direct, and execute terror attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. These jihadi leaders execute such anti-U.S. activities while dining with American officials in Qatar's luxurious hotels in the name of peace talks.
While American taxpayers bear the cost of the meals that U.S. officials have with the Taliban commanders in Qatar, it is disturbing to learn that three top commanders of the Haqqani Network – Anas Haqqani, Hafiz Rashid, and Haji Mali Khan – may soon settle in Doha, Qatar. Under a U.S. deal with the Taliban, the Afghan government reluctantly agreed to free the three terrorists in exchange for two Western professors of the American University of Afghanistan.[2] The attempt to move the Haqqani Network's commanders to Doha is perfectly in tune with Qatar's long-standing relationship with jihadi commanders, as this report will review.
The Trilateral Relationship Between Qatar, Pakistan, And The Taliban
In a November 13, 2019 article in Roznama Ummat, a pro-Taliban Urdu-language daily, noted that the three Haqqani Network commanders will "be taken to Qatar within a week."[3] The Haqqani Network, founded by late jihadi commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, and now run by his son Sirajuddin Haqqani, is a highly effective terror organization within the Afghan Taliban. On September 22, 2011, Adm. Mike Mullen, the then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Haqqani Network carried out a truck bombing at a NATO post and another attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul earlier that month.[4]
Two of the three terrorists being freed are related to Sirajuddin Haqqani: Anas Haqqani is Sirajuddin's brother, and Hafiz Rasheed is their maternal uncle. Of the third terrorist being freed, Roznama Ummat noted: "[Haji Mali Khan] has played an important role in the reorganization of the Haqqani Network and training of its commanders."[5]
Qatar and Pakistan are working in tandem to move the Taliban leaders to Doha. This suits Pakistan, which has been under scrutiny by the international community for supporting the Taliban. Further, not only do these commanders work freely from Qatar, but they also help Pakistan escape international scrutiny for its support to them. The Haqqani Network is a terror behemoth with up to 20,000 members.[6]
Three Haqqani Network terrorists freed for two western academics
In his 2011 testimony, Mullen clearly said that the Haqqani Network executed the terror attacks with the aid of the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), stating: "The Haqqani Network acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency" and "with ISI support, Haqqani operatives planned and conducted that truck bomb attack, as well as the assault on our [American] embassy."[7] America's top military general added: "We also have credible evidence that they were behind the June 28th attack against the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul and a host of other smaller but effective operations."[8]
In the years after 9/11, Qatar emerged as a preferred host for jihadi groups and their commanders. In 2016, a journalist reported: "In one western district [of Doha], near the campuses hosting branches of American universities, Taliban officials and their families can be found window-shopping in the cavernous malls."[9] The report noted: "Officials from Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, work from a luxury villa near the British Embassy, and recently held a news conference in a ballroom at the pyramid-shape Sheraton hotel."[10]
Qatar's critics say: "Doha, rather than the benign meeting ground described by Qataris, is a city where terrorism is bankrolled, not battled against."[11] Qatar is also host to the radical Egyptian cleric Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who radicalizes Muslims by issuing statements such as: "We have the 'children bomb,' and these human bombs must continue until liberation."[12]
Qatari Emir's Role In Protecting "The Principal Architect Of The 9/11 Attacks"
In 1996, Qatari emir Hamad bin Khalifa Aal Thani helped Khalid Sheikh Mohammed escape.
Qatar also has a long-standing relationship with not only the Taliban and Haqqani Network but also with Al-Qaeda commanders and Pakistani jihadis such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. According to Richard A. Clarke, who served as National Coordinator for Security and Counter-Terrorism under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Qatar was instrumental in foiling the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad (KSM) – the Pakistani terrorist described in The 9/11 Commission Report as "the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks" on American cities.[13]
The 9/11 Commission Report observed: "In 1992, KSM spent some time fighting alongside the mujahideen in Bosnia and supporting that effort with financial donations. After returning briefly to Pakistan, he moved his family to Qatar at the suggestion of the former minister of Islamic affairs of Qatar, Sheikh Abdallah bin Khalid bin Hamad Aal Thani. KSM took a position in Qatar as project engineer with the Qatari Ministry of Electricity and Water. Although he engaged in extensive international travel during his tenure at the ministry – much of it in furtherance of terrorist activity – KSM would hold his position there until early 1996, when he fled to Pakistan to avoid capture by U.S. authorities."[14]
However, it was the Qatari government that enabled KSM to flee. According to The 9/11 Commission Report, after an indictment against KSM was obtained from a U.S. court in January 1996, "an official in the government of Qatar" warned KSM about it and he successfully "evaded capture (and stayed at large to play a central part in the 9/11 attacks)."[15] It was also from Qatar that KSM wired money to Mohammed Salameh, a co-conspirator of Ramzi Yousef, who had been involved in several other terror plots and was convicted in the U.S. for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.[16]
Clarke, who chaired the multi-agency Counter-Terrorism Security Group (CSG), noted that 9/11 attacks could have been prevented if KSM's arrest was not foiled by Qatar. He wrote: "We could not trust the Qatar government sufficiently for us to do what otherwise would have been obvious: ask the local security service to arrest him and hand him over. The Qataris had a history of terrorist sympathies and one cabinet member in particular, a member of the royal family, seemed to have ties to groups like Al-Qaeda and appeared to have sponsored KSM."[17]
However, a decision was taken to talk to the Qatari government to arrest KSM. "Within hours of the U.S. ambassador's meeting with the Emir [of Qatar to seek the arrest], KSM had gone to ground. In tiny Doha, no one was able to find him. Later, the Qataris told us that they believe he had left the country. They never told us how," Clarke noted.[18] In 1996, Hamad bin Khalifa Aal Thani was the emir of Qatar, succeeded later by his son Tamim bin Hamad Aal Thani.
Qatar's Long-Standing Relationship With The Afghan Taliban
October 31, 2019: Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Baradar Akhund hands over certificates to students at a graduation ceremony in Doha
In the years after 9/11 terror attacks, several Taliban commanders moved to Qatar, which was seen by them as a hospitable refuge for jihadis. Taliban leaders like Mullah Abdul Salam Zaif, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner and the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan in pre-9/11 years, moved to Doha, whereas some Taliban members arrived as Afghan laborers and businessmen to work in Qatar.[19] Mullah Abdul Aziz, a former first secretary of the Taliban government's pre-9/11 embassy in the UAE, moved to Doha, ostensibly as a businessman.[20] Tayyab Agha, a former official of the Taliban leadership office in Kabul, emerged in Qatar as the Taliban's lead negotiator, though he resigned in 2015, over internal differences, as the head of the Taliban's Doha-based Political Office.[21]
Qatar's hospitality of jihadi commanders was a result of its state policy pursued by the Aal Thani royal family. Around 2010, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Aal Thani, the emir of Qatar till 2013 and father of the current emir, Tamim bin Hamad Aa Thani, was being billed as "the Arab Henry Kissinger."[22] The United States shut its eyes to Qatar's support for the terror organizations operating in and outside the Middle East, especially in Bosnia.[23] According to one report, even before 9/11, Qatar "did have cordial relations with the [Taliban] militants" during 1996-2001 when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from Kabul.[24]
Qatar's deep influence among the Taliban was also evident in the release of Canadian citizen Colin Rutherford. For five years to 2016, Rutherford was held captive by the Afghan Taliban. When the militants freed him in 2016, Qatar's envoy to Ottawa Fahad Mohamed Kafoud noted that "instructions" to help free Rutherford came from Qatar's emir, adding: "We received direct instruction from our government and from His Highness the Emir to facilitate and to do our best."[25] According to the Qatari government's website, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a personal telephone call to Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Aal Thani "in which he expressed deep gratitude and thanks to HH the Emir for the efforts made by the State of Qatar."[26]
Arrival In Qatar Of The Five Taliban Commanders From Guantanamo Bay
Five Taliban leaders released from Guantanamo Bay detention center, from left to right: Mullah Norullah Nori, Mohammed Nabi Omari, Mohammed Fazl, Khairullah Khairkhwa, and Abdul Haq Wasiq.
In 2014, the United States Treasury Department's Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said: "Distressingly, Iran is not the only state that provides financial support for terrorist organizations... Qatar, a longtime U.S. ally, has for many years openly financed Hamas, a group that continues to undermine regional stability. Press reports indicate that the Qatari government is also supporting extremist groups operating in Syria."[27] However, driven by a strong desire for talks with the Taliban, the Obama White House overlooked the Qatari government's support for terrorist organizations.
In March 2009, then U.S. President Barack Obama – motivated by "the success of the U.S. strategy of bringing some Sunni fighters in Iraq to the negotiating table" – said that "there may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and the Pakistani region."[28] In fact, by then he had decided to talk to the Taliban. Speaking on International Women's Day in 2009, then Afghan President Hamid Karzai noted: "Yesterday [March 7], Mr. Obama accepted and approved the path of peace and talks with those Afghan Taliban who he called moderates."[29]
In and around 2010, the Taliban leaders had begun arriving "secretly" in Qatar as part of efforts to engage with American officials.[30] In 2013, a report noted that "more than 20 relatively high-ranking Taliban members" lived in Qatar.[31] It was estimated in 2018 that "about three dozen Taliban leaders" lived in Doha with their families.[32]
While President Obama initiated the process of talks with the Taliban in 2009, another incident happened in Afghanistan that year. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl of the U.S. Army walked away from his unit in Afghanistan and was held by the Taliban for several years. The initial series of contacts between the U.S. and the Afghan Taliban involved the freedom of Sgt. Bergdahl in exchange for five top Taliban leaders being freed from the Guantanamo Bay detention center in 2014. Following their release these five leaders went to Qatar. According to a report, "Qatar played a role in brokering" Sgt. Bergdahl's release.[33]
The five Taliban prisoners who joined the Taliban's Political Office in Doha are: Mohammed Fazl, the former Taliban army chief; Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former governor of Herat province; Abdul Haq Wasiq, the Taliban's deputy intelligence minister; Mullah Norullah Nori, a close confidant of the late Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar; and Mohammad Nabi Omari, a Taliban communications officer.[34]
In 2010, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund, a top Taliban leader, was arrested in a joint U.S.-Pakistani intelligence operation and was released in 2018. Following his release he went to Doha where he replaced Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai as the head of the Political Office in early 2019.[35] Mullah Baradar Akhund – who has led delegations to Indonesia, Uzbekistan and Pakistan in 2019 – also holds the post of the Islamic Emirate's Deputy Emir for Political Affairs. Mullah Baradar Akhund, a key terrorist commander until 2018, now acts from his base in Qatar as the head of the state of Afghanistan, rejecting the existence of the elected Afghan government.
Qatar's Violation Of Afghanistan's Conditions For Hosting Taliban Leaders
In 2013, as the United States was pressing for a dialogue with the Taliban to end the war in Afghanistan, then Afghan President Hamid Karzai reluctantly agreed with the U.S. to allow for the Islamic Emirate's Political Office to be established in Doha. However, Karzai laid down some conditions: "[The Political Office] would maintain a low profile and work only as a venue for peace talks... [And it would not] be used for other activities, such as the expansion of Taliban ties with the rest of the world, recruitment or fundraising."[36] All of these conditions have been repeatedly violated by the Taliban on the watch of the Qatari leadership.
The Political Office opened on June 8, 2013, in Doha. The first condition that it would maintain "a low profile" was violated on the first day. It came as a shock to Afghans and the Afghan government that "an opening ceremony" was organized for this purpose while the Taliban were "yet to renounce" their "known ties to Al-Qaeda."[37] A former Afghan official noted that organizing such a ceremony for the jihadi terror group was "contrary to the careful policy agreements and diplomatic exchanges which had been worked in details between President Karzai, the United States and other relevant parties, including efforts by the Qatari government," yet the main parties, being the U.S. and the host Qatar, allowed for it.[38]
July 9, 2019: Qatar's current emir Tamim bin Hamad Aal Thani meets with U.S. President Donald Trump
Subsequently, the Political Office did become the venue for peace talks. However, another of the three conditions set by President Karzai was violated routinely as the Taliban began using it for diplomatic outreach with other nations for holding bilateral talks, thereby undermining the role of the Afghan government in international relations. On the watch of the U.S. and Qatar, the elected Afghan government was undermined regularly and repeatedly.
From the Doha-based Political Office, the Taliban commanders began acting as the sole government of Afghanistan on the international stage. Since 2013, the Taliban have sent delegations to Japan, Iran, Norway, Russia, China, Germany, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, and formally to Pakistan.[39] Their objective was to achieve international legitimacy as the sole representative of the state of Afghanistan.
At least one of the five Guantanamo Bay detainees freed by the U.S. had "contact with members of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Haqqani Network during the past year [in 2015] while in Qatar," whereas "the U.N. acknowledges their sanctions have been circumvented" by the Taliban leaders based in the Doha office.[40] These are not the only violations by the Doha-based Taliban leaders of the conditions set by President Karzai.
In November 2019, it emerged that the Taliban run religious schools in Qatar: Abdullah bin Abbas Dar-ul-Huffaz and Abdullah bin Masood Dar-ul-Huffaz. Evidently, a terrorist group, given an office to hold talks with the U.S., is being allowed by the Qatari government and the U.S. to spread its tentacles. On October 31, 2019, the Taliban also organized a graduation ceremony for the students which was attended, according to a Taliban website and a video report, by 20 people, including the Taliban and other Afghans based in Qatar.[41]
Some very young students sitting alongside the Taliban leaders in the audience at a graduation ceremony in Doha on October 31, 2019
In recent years, questions have been raised about Qatar's role in facilitating and legitimizing the activities of the Afghan Taliban. In 2018, Mutlaq bin Majed Al-Qahtani – Qatar's special envoy for counterterrorism and conflict resolution – was asked specifically about this and, while arguing that it was the U.S. that wanted Qatar to host the Taliban's Political Office, noted: There was "no military solution" to the Afghan situation.[42]
It is unfortunate that a terrorist organization, which was operating more like a guerrilla force from its hideouts in the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan, has moved to the safe haven of Doha. In September 2013, a former Afghan official warned that in addition to deriving legitimacy through the Political Office, the Taliban "hope to kill their way back to power in Afghanistan and help create the same state which gave rise to a safe home to Al-Qaeda."[43] This prescient remark appears more real than ever as the world moves into the year 2020.
*** Tufail Ahmad is Senior Fellow for the MEMRI Islamism and Counter-Radicalization Initiative
[1] While Quetta has served as the operational headquarters of the Afghan Taliban, it was in Abbottabad that U.S. special forces found and killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
[2] The two professors are U.S. national Kevin King and Timothy Weeks of Australia, whom the Haqqani Network abducted in Kabul in August 2016. It should be noted that King and Weeks were freed on November 19, 2019.
[3] Roznama Ummat (Pakistan), November 13, 2019.
[4] The New York Times (U.S.), September 23, 2011.
[5] Roznama Ummat (Pakistan), November 13, 2019.
[6] MEMRI JTTM report, Pakistani Daily: 'Haqqani Network: Another Behemoth In The Making'; It has 15,000 – 20,000 Active Sympathizers, February 14, 2011.
[7] The New York Times (U.S.), September 23, 2011.
[8] The New York Times (U.S.), September 23, 2011.
[9] Nytimes.com (U.S.), July 16, 2017.
[10] Nytimes.com (U.S.), July 16, 2017.
[11] Nytimes.com (U.S.), July 16, 2017.
[12] Nytimes.com (U.S.), July 16, 2017.
[13] The 9/11 Commission Report. For further discussion of Qatar's role involving the Afghanistan-Pakistan jihadis, see MEMRI Daily Brief The US-Taliban Negotiations: A Deadly Qatari Trap, by Yigal Carmon, September 1, 2019.
[14] The 9/11 Commission Report.
[15] The 9/11 Commission Report.
[16] The 9/11 Commission Report.
[17] Nydailynews.com (U.S.), July 6, 2017.
[18] Nydailynews.com (U.S.), July 6, 2017.
[19] Bbc.com (UK), June 22, 2013.
[20] Thedailybeast.com (U.S.), April 24, 2017.
[21] Arabnews.com (Saudi Arabia), August 4, 2015.
[22] Bbc.com (UK), June 22, 2013.
[23] It appears the Qatari royal family did know of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11 attacks, since his days in the Bosnian jihad.
[24] Bbc.com (UK), June 22, 2013.
[25] Nationalpost.com (Canada), January 11, 2016.
[26] Mofa.gov.qa (Qatar), January 12, 2016.
[27] Cnsnews.com (U.S.), June 10, 2014.
[28] Aljazeera.com (Qatar), March 9, 2009.
[29] Aljazeera.com (Qatar), March 9, 2009.
[30] Bbc.com (UK), June 22, 2013.
[31] Bbc.com (UK), June 22, 2013.
[32] Nytimes.com (U.S.), October 31, 2018.
[33] Nationalpost.com (Canada), January 11, 2016.
[34] Militarytimes.com (U.S.), October 30, 2018.
[35] MEMRI JTTM report Afghan Taliban Appoint Mullah Baradar As Head Of Political Office In Qatar, January 31, 2019.
[36] Bbc.com (UK), June 22, 2013.
[37] Huffpost.com (U.S.), September 22, 2013.
[38] Huffpost.com (U.S.), September 22, 2013.
[39] MEMRI JTTM report Photos: Taliban Delegation Led By Mullah Baradar Akhund Meets With Uzbek Officials In Tashkent, Visits Tomb Of Ninth Century Islamic Jurist Imam Bukhari, August 14, 2019.
[40] Voanews.com (U.S.), June 1, 2015.
[41] Alemaraenglish.com (Afghanistan), November 4, 2019; AlemarahVideo.org (Afghanistan), October 31, 2019.
[42] Nytimes.com (U.S.), October 31, 2018.
[43] Huffpost.com (U.S.), September 22, 2013.