English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 11/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Let no man say when he is tested, I am tested by God; for it is not possible for God to be tested by evil, and he himself puts no man to such a test: But every man is tested when he is turned out of the right way by the attraction of his desire.
James01/01-18: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, sends words of love to the twelve tribes of the Jews living in all parts of the earth. Let it be all joy to you, my brothers, when you undergo tests of every sort;

Because you have the knowledge that the testing of your faith gives you the power of going on in hope; But let this power have its full effect, so that you may be made complete, needing nothing. But if any man among you is without wisdom, let him make his request to God, who gives freely to all without an unkind word, and it will be given to him.  Let him make his request in faith, doubting nothing; for he who has doubt in his heart is like the waves of the sea, which are troubled by the driving of the wind.Let it not seem to such a man that he will get anything from the Lord; For there is a division in his mind, and he is uncertain in all his ways. But let the brother of low position be glad that he is lifted up; But the man of wealth, that he is made low; because like the flower of the grass he will come to his end. For when the sun comes up with its burning heat, the grass gets dry and the grace of its form is gone with the falling flower; so the man of wealth comes to nothing in his ways. There is a blessing on the man who undergoes testing; because, if he has God’s approval, he will be given the crown of life, which the Lord has said he will give to those who have love for him.Let no man say when he is tested, I am tested by God; for it is not possible for God to be tested by evil, and he himself puts no man to such a test: But every man is tested when he is turned out of the right way by the attraction of his desire. Then when its time comes, desire gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is of full growth, gives birth to death. Do not be turned from the right way, dear brothers. Every good and true thing is given to us from heaven, coming from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change or any shade made by turning. Of his purpose he gave us being, by his true word, so that we might be, in a sense, the first-fruits of all the things which he had made”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 10-11/2020
Health Ministry: 1,388 new Corona cases, 5 deaths
Baabda Official: Lebanese President Forming Delegation of Maritime Border Demarcation Talks
President Aoun follows up on investigations into explosion and fire that took place last night in Tariq ElJadida
Army Chief Meets Lebanon Delegation Tasked with Sea Border Talks
Gas Canister Explosion in Ashrafieh Kills One Person
Red Cross: 4 injuries in a gas canister explosion in Jiyeh
Army Helicopters Help Douse Wildfires in Akkar
Army conducts joint exercise with UNIFIL
Nadim Gemayel: Hezbollah wants Hariri to return to government to fail him
Diab issues circular to combat fuel storage phenomenon
Report: Najm Inquires FBI, France about Probe Results
Hariri’s Renomination for Premiership Revives French Initiative on Lebanon
Lebanon Stops Migrants Heading to Cyprus, Italy by Sea
Lebanon Stops Migrants Heading to Cyprus, Italy by Sea
PSP warns of trap of modifying members of demarcation negotiations delegation
The demarcation of the border between Lebanon and the occupation …..
LIC RECOGNIZES THE 116th U.S. CONGRESS FOR SOLIDARITY WITH LEBANON
3 Dead as Forest Fires Burn in Syria, Lebanon
Will Drawing Border Demarcation Put an End to the Resistance Charade?/
Elias Harfoush/Asharq Al Awsat/October 10/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 10-11/2020

WHO Reports a Worldwide Record of 350,000 New Virus Cases Daily
Iranian President, Central Bank Governor Make Conflicting Statements on US Sanctions
UAE’s Gargash says Turkey’s army in Qatar is an element of instability in region
Fire Breaks Out at Tehran Metro Station
Iraq's Sinjar Deal Threatens Iranian Regional Ambitions
Analysis: Conflicting Views in Tehran on White House Race
Karabakh Ceasefire Takes Effect under Armenia-Azerbaijan Deal
Trump Says He is 'Medication-Free,' Describes Covid Battle
Trump Restarting Campaign with White House, Florida Events
Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs on World Day Against the Death Penalty
SDC Calls for Ending ‘Turkish Occupation’ in Northern Syria
Egypt’s Sisi Signs Strategic Maritime Deal with Greece
Official: US Wants Khartoum, Tel Aviv to Normalize Ties Before Elections
Israeli Intelligence Warns of PA Collapse

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 10-11/2020

Thanks to Trump, China's Huawei Is Dying/Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/October 10/2020
The Battle of Tours: When the West ‘Manfully Resisted’ Islam/Raymond Ibrahim/October 10/2020
The Islamic Republic’s Main Fear is the History of the Iranian People/Camelia Entekhabifard/Asharq Al Awsat/October 10/2020
What We Learned from the Vice-Presidential Debate/Spencer Bokat-Lindell/The New York Times/October 10/2020
Prince Bandar sets the record straight on Saudi support for Palestinians/Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/October 10/2020
The last thing the world needs is another proxy war/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/October 10/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 10-11/2020

Health Ministry: 1,388 new Corona cases, 5 deaths
NNA/October 10/2020
The Ministry of Public Health announced Saturday the registration of 1,388 new Corona cases, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 52,558.It also indicated that 5 death cases were reported during the past 24 hours.

Baabda Official: Lebanese President Forming Delegation of Maritime Border Demarcation Talks

Beirut - Enass Sherry/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
President Michel Aoun has been working on forming the Lebanese delegation that would take part in the first meeting of the negotiations on the maritime border demarcation with Israel expected to be held under UN-sponsorship on Wednesday, a Baabda Palace official said. The official told Asharq Al-Awsat that Aoun has not yet named all of the delegation’s members. “The negotiation team will definitely include military officials, legal and geological experts in addition to a representative from the Lebanese Petroleum Administration, most likely its chairman, Wisam Chbat,” the official said.
He added that in addition to Chbat, the delegation will be headed by Deputy Chief of Staff of the Lebanese Army for Operations Brigadier General Pilot Bassam Yassin, Marine Colonel Mazen Basbous and maritime borders expert Najib Msihi, who works with the Lebanese Army on maps.
Late last month, Israel and Lebanon agreed to a framework for US-mediated talks on the demarcation of their shared maritime border. The talks will be held at the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura.
Before attending the first meeting with Israel, the Lebanese team would hold talks with Aoun for coordination in line with Article 52 of the Constitution, which says that the “President of the Republic shall negotiate and ratify international treaties.” “The delegation should avoid speaking directly with the Israeli side. Talks should happen through the UN negotiator,” the official said. The Lebanese negotiators should not sit close to or near the Israeli delegation, he said. A military source told Asharq Al-Awsat that so far, the Lebanese team is composed of four members, but the number could increase if Lebanon finds its necessary to add experts to it. “The names of the Lebanese delegation will be officially announced next week,” the source said.

President Aoun follows up on investigations into explosion and fire that took place last night in Tariq ElJadida
NNA/October 10/2020
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, followed-up on the ongoing investigations into the explosion incident that occurred yesterday night in the Tariq El-Jadida area, to uncover the true causes that led to it in a populated area. President Aoun expressed his regrets for the fall of a number of victims and the wounded. He extended his condolences for the families of the victims, hoping for the wounded to recover quickly. He also praised the efforts to combat the fire that resulted from the explosion, especially for the residents of the building at the site of the explosion, and the children who were there.
The President warned against the danger of storing inflammable materials in residential places and in the middle of populated neighborhoods, calling on the security agencies to take the necessary measures to prevent them and raise awareness of the dangers of exposing the population.
Aoun was briefed on the reports received about the fires that broke out yesterday and today in a number of Lebanese regions, especially in the mountain, the south and the north, most of which resulted from the heat wave, calling on the concerned agencies to remain fully prepared to combat these fires and work to extinguish them. -- [Presidency Press Office]
 

Army Chief Meets Lebanon Delegation Tasked with Sea Border Talks
Associated Press/October 10/2020
At the quest of President Michel Aoun, Army chief General Joseph Aoun held a meeting on Saturday with the Lebanese delegation tasked with “indirect” negotiations with Israel on delineating the maritime border, the Army Command-Orientation Directorate reported.
“The Army chief gave the basic directives for launching the negotiation process with the aim of demarcating the maritime borders on the basis of the line starting from Ras Naqoura on land and extends by sea according to the midline technology,” said the statement.
It said the “line will not take into account any impact of the coastal islands of occupied Palestine.”The statement also noted that the line was drawn “based on a study prepared by the Army Command in accordance with international laws.”Lebanon and Israel, which are still technically at war, last week said they had agreed to begin UN-brokered negotiations over the shared frontier, in what Washington hailed a "historic" agreement. The US-backed talks are set to begin next Wednesday at the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL in the Lebanese border town of Naqoura.
Lebanon and Israel, each claim about 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea as within their own exclusive economic zones.
Indirect talks mean that Lebanese army negotiators will not be speaking directly to members of the Israeli delegation but through U.N. and U.S. officials.
The United States has been mediating between Lebanon and Israel since 2010 until a breakthrough was reached in July on the framework for the indirect talks, according to Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who announced the deal last week. He said the U.S. mediation stalled but it received a push in March last year during a visit to Beirut by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during which he discussed the dispute with Lebanese officials. Lebanon's President Michel Aoun welcomed the agreement saying he hopes "that the American side will continue its role as a fair mediator.” Aoun said he will be closely supervising the talks starting with the formation of the team and throughout the negotiations.
Lebanon and Israel hold monthly tripartite indirect meetings in Naqoura to discuss violations along their border. The countries also held indirect negotiations in the 1990s when Arab states and Israel were working on reaching peace agreements. Although the Palestinians and Jordan signed agreements with Israel, Lebanon and Syria did not. The agreement on the framework comes as Lebanon is going through its worst economic and financial crisis in decades. Beirut is hoping that oil and natural gas discoveries in its territorial waters will help it pay back its massive debt.
Lebanon began offshore drilling earlier this year and is expected to start drilling for gas in the disputed area with Israel in the coming months. Berri, the parliament speaker, said the gas discoveries on the Israeli side of the Mediterranean “prove that there are reserves and God willing this will help us pay our debt.” Lebanon has one of the highest debt ratios in the world standing at about 170% of its GDP. Three of Lebanon's 10 offshore blocks are along the disputed maritime border with Israel.
The Trump administration is likely to celebrate the agreement as another diplomatic breakthrough in the Middle East, following recent agreements in which the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — Gulf countries that have never gone to war with Israel — agreed to recognize it and establish diplomatic relations. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker, said the talks have nothing to do with the establishment of diplomatic relations or normalization between Lebanon and Israel. He added that "they will hopefully come to a resolution that will allow both sides to benefit from the resources there.”Israel invaded Lebanon twice during the country’s 1975-1990 civil war to battle Palestinian militants who had launched cross-border attacks, and it occupied a strip of territory in southern Lebanon until 2000.
In 2006, Israel and Hizbullah fought a 34-day to a draw and the border has been relatively calm since despite some minor skirmishes.

Gas Canister Explosion in Ashrafieh Kills One Person
Naharnet/October 10/2020
One person was killed in an explosion of a gas canister inside a building in the Beirut district of Ashrafieh on Saturday, hours after an explosion at a Bakery killed four in the neighborhood of Tariq el-Jedideh. The explosion in Achrafieh left two other individuals injured as a result of shattered glass that hit passersby, Red Cross Secretary General George Kettaneh told LBCI. He said the "injured were transported to hospital," LBCI reported. It was not immediately clear what triggered the blast in the Ashrafieh. On Friday night, a diesel tank exploded inside a Beirut building in Tariq el-Jedideh killing four people and injuring several others, the Red Cross said. A Beirut television station said more than 30 people were hurt in the conflagration, with a medical source adding that three children were hospitalised with burns. The explosions were the latest in a series of terrible events in a country hit with an unprecedented economic crisis and lacking the most basic public services. Panic spread in the city already ravaged by a monster blast in August.

Red Cross: 4 injuries in a gas canister explosion in Jiyeh
NNA/October 10/2020
The Lebanese Red Cross reported, via Twitter, that "a gas canister explosion in the Jiyeh area has resulted in the wounding of 4 persons so far, two of whom were taken to hospital while the other two were treated at the scene."

Army Helicopters Help Douse Wildfires in Akkar
Associated Press/October 10/2020
Army helicopters began early on Saturday to suppress wildfires that have been raging for more than 36 hours in the outskirts of Akkar, the state-run National News Agency reported. The agency said the helicopters tried to douse wildfires that erupted in the outskirts of Safinet al-Qaytaa, Jdaydet al-Qaytaa, Bazal and in Kaf al-Shumar in Akkar’s of Ayoun al-Samak district. Municipal chief of Bazal, Hatem Othman, said: “Large parts of the fire were brought under control because of the joint efforts between army helicopters, the Civil Defense firefighters and residents of the area,” he told LBCI, hoping it would be completely doused soon. In other parts of Lebanon, wildfires erupted in forests Friday amid a heatwave hitting the Mediterranean country. Some of the fires broke out in villages along the border with Israel.
Other wildfires, some close to homes, were also reported in the South and in the northern regions of Akkar, Dinniyeh and Minieh, and the Mt. Lebanon regions of Chouf, Northern Metn and Upper Metn. Many residents evacuated their homes as several medics suffered suffocation injuries. The state-run news agency said a mine exploded in the Wazzani area because of the fire. There were no casualties.

Army conducts joint exercise with UNIFIL
NNA/October 10/2020
The Lebanese Army Command's Orientation Directorate issued a communiqué on Saturday, indicating that "units from the Fifth and Seventh Infantry Brigades and the Fifth Intervention Regiment, in conjunction with units of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in the Naqoura region, carried out a combat exercise named the "Steel Storm", which lasted for several days and included shooting with heavy and medium machine guns."This exercise comes within the framework of activating field cooperation between the two sides, and raising the level of readiness of the military units deployed in the southern Litani sector.
 

Nadim Gemayel: Hezbollah wants Hariri to return to government to fail him
NNA/October 10/2020
Resigned MP Nadim Gemayel, on Saturday, questioned why former PM Saad Hariri holds himself alone accountable for failure, deeming that "failure is due to the obstructive Shiite duo, the strong covenant and the combination that brought the country to where it is today, with varying proportions for this failure."Speaking in an interview with "Arab TV", Gemayel considered that "if Saad Hariri insists on taking responsibility alone for forming previous governments and for failure and collapse, then he and the former prime ministers must make room today for new blood to take on responsibility."
"If Hezbollah is demanding today for Hariri's return as prime minister, then that is for the sake of weakening him weak so that he cannot rule. Hasn't Saad Hariri learned yet? Whoever agrees to hand over the Finance Ministry to the Shiite duo so quickly, and without any guarantee, has learned nothing from recent past experiences, i.e. as he quickly agreed to the arrival of President Michel Aoun," Gemayel explained. "The failure of the French initiative has a cause and a consequence. If Hariri is relying on the good intentions and ethics of Hezbollah regarding this initiative, then he is mistaken as Hezbollah did not fulfill its obligations towards the French," he went on. "If the Shiite duo has a majority in parliament, then let them form a one-color government and name the finance minister they wish, and prove to citizens what they can do alongside the strong covenant. We will then see if the current situation improves or collapses," he corroborated. Gemayel considered that thwarting the French initiative was a risky endeavor by the obstructing Shiite duo, and has led to political, constitutional and moral chaos in the country. Addressing them, he said: "Take this government as you have taken the parliament council and let the people realize that the problem is not due to Saad Hariri, but rather due to the obstructing Shiite duo and the strong covenant who have destroyed the country along with those revolving around them!"
 

Diab issues circular to combat fuel storage phenomenon
NNA/October 10/2020
Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab issued, Saturday, a circular to all ministries, public administrations, relevant public institutions and municipalities over the issue of combating the recent phenomenon of fuel storage.
"In wake of the spreading phenomenon of storing fuel by private companies and individuals for various purposes, and in view of the repercussions of this dangerous storage and the accidents that result from it, all ministries, public administrations, relevant public institutions and municipalities are required to take the utmost resolute measures to prevent this phenomenon with its hazardous repercussions on public safety and the lives and security of citizens," the circular read.

Report: Najm Inquires FBI, France about Probe Results
Naharnet/October 10/2020
Caretaker Minister of Justice, Marie-Claude Najem reportedly inquired ambassadors of foreign countries that aided the probe into the colossal port explosion, about the “findings they reached so far to expedite the course of investigations,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.
Najm took the initiative after learning that Judge Fadi Sawan, the lead investigator into the August blast at Beirut port, did not receive any technical reports from experts of these countries, according to the daily. Although Lebanon has rejected an international investigation into the country's worst peace-time disaster, but its probe is being aided by foreign experts, including from the FBI and France. The FBI joined investigators probing the cause, and so did Paris after learning that French citizens were injured in the blast. The explosion of hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate on August 4 killed more than 190 people, wounded thousands and ravaged large parts of the capital. Lebanon has so far arrested 25 people as part of the ongoing probe, including top port and customs officials.

Hariri’s Renomination for Premiership Revives French Initiative on Lebanon
Beirut – Nazeer Rida/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s announcement that he was a possible candidate to head a new government has revived the French initiative that came to a halt with PM-designate Mustafa Adib’s stepping down from the job.
The former PM made the announcement during a televised interview on Thursday. Sources from his Mustaqbal Movement, however, explained that he did not present himself as a candidate, rather he said he was a “natural candidate” for the positions seeing as he is the head of an influential parliamentary bloc and leader of a large political party. They added that Hariri offered a specific plan on how to stop Lebanon’s collapse and revive the French initiative. Now, Lebanon will wait to for the reactions to his proposal to later determine the next step. This includes holding consultations with former prime ministers and talks between the Mustaqbal and Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) that will be followed with Hariri kicking off political contacts next week.
Hariri had previously said that he would not nominate himself for the premiership unless conditions he has stipulated are met. Among them are rejecting the appointment of known political figures to his government. Head of the FPM, MP Gebran Bassil, is among the names vetoed by Hariri.
Political sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the FPM may reject Hariri’s candidacy if he is still insistent on such a condition. FPM sources told Asharq Al-Awsat: “We are awaiting the result of the contacts that Hariri will make and see what he is proposing before taking a final position. Perhaps he has something new to offer.”“When Adib was appointed, we said that we do not want to be represented and that we will not place hurdles. However, what applies to Adib does not apply to Hariri,” they remarked. They added, however, that they will wait and see what Hariri comes up with and whether he will meet with Bassil.
Member of the FPM’s Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc MP Mario Aoun told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Hariri’s proposals appear to have good intentions, but in substance, he does not seem to have radically changed his stances.”
Sources from the “Shiite duo” of Hezbollah and Amal have refused to comment on Hariri’s position, telling Asharq Al-Awsat that they are “leaving room for contacts. We will review the positions of our allies and political forces before making any position.”
The Iran-backed Hezbollah and parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal movement have previously expressed their support for Hariri’s nomination. They also back the formation of a technocratic-political government and are demanding that the finance portfolio be retained by a Shiite figure. It is this insistence, among others, that had scuttled Adib’s efforts to form a new government. Amid all this speculation, the Mustaqbal sources stressed that Hariri ultimately renominated himself in order to save the country and French initiative. His proposal is summed up in his demand for returning to the political mechanism that was agreed in September during the meeting at the Pine Residence with French President Emmanuel Macron during his second visit to Beirut. Hariri has “opened the door wide for committing to the French initiative, its political, reform and economic mechanisms. He is not opening the door for more problems, but paving the way for more solutions by returning to the Pine Residence agreement, forming a government of experts, not partisan figures, and adopting a clear six-month program,” said the sources.

Lebanon Stops Migrants Heading to Cyprus, Italy by Sea
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces (ISF) said Friday it foiled several attempts to smuggle people by sea, arresting suspects. In a statement, the General Directorate said that ISF intelligence has been following up attempts to leave the country by boat from northern Lebanon to Cyprus. It said such attempts have increased since late August. “On several occasions, the ISF was able to arrest a number of Syrians planning to leave the Lebanese territories by sea,” it said. The ISF also arrested 14 men and women carrying the Syrian nationality who admitted to planning to head to Cyprus by sea.
The smuggler is also a Syrian and was arrested. The ISF found in his possession large sums of money that he received from the migrants. A boat carrying Lebanese and Syrians that illegally left Tripoli on Sept. 7 to Cyprus without water or food had stirred anger in Lebanon after six people died on board, including two children. Commenting on the issue, the ISF said that it identified the person responsible for mediation during the smuggling operation. It said the suspect is a Lebanese who was arrested at his residence in Qobbeh, Tripoli.
The ISF also raided a house in northern Lebanon, arresting six people from the Egyptian nationality and one Lebanese for preparing to make the journey by sea to Italy after paying smugglers a sum of money.

FPM: Reformative, productive, and effective government a priority
NNA/October 10/2020
The Free Patriotic Movement's political body held today its periodic meeting electronically, headed by Movement Chief, MP Gebran Bassil, following which it issued a statement highlighting the need for having a "reformative, productive and effective government."
"The political body deems it absolute priority at this stage to implement the reform program under the French initiative headline, and for this it considers it a priority to form a productive and effective reform government with its head, ministers and program," the statement affirmed.
It added that any other talk would be a deviation from the French initiative and would hold its bearer accountable for wasting said initiative and opportunity in search of other solutions which are clearly immature. "What is required is the adoption of clear, equal and fair criteria for forming a government. These criteria should be standards of competence and capability while providing political support to the government by giving it parliamentary and popular confidence," the statement underlined. "As for re-proposing the formation of a government according to traditional political standards, it is possible, but this would be outside the context of the French initiative, and this has its own conditions that we adhere to in terms of the requirements of the constitution and the legitimacy of representation which we would solely relinquish in favor of a cabinet whose goal is to stop the collapse, provided that it is formed on the basis of equality and equity among the Lebanese," the FPM political body went on. "In this context, FPM confirms its principle-position that every sect, component, or political group has the right to any ministerial portfolio without acknowledging the existence of obstacles that are fundamentally unconstitutional," the statement corroborated. "In terms of giving priority to the reform and legislative path, the FPM political body calls on the parliamentary blocs to unify their efforts and intensify work to approve reform laws, most prominently the laws on judiciary independence, controlling financial transfers abroad and public spending, and anti-corruption, namely the recovery of looted funds, the disclosure of accounts and properties, and the Court of Financial Crimes," the statement concluded, calling for serious internal discussions with the International Monetary Fund in preparation for agreeing on the program to be adopted.

PSP warns of trap of modifying members of demarcation negotiations delegation
NNA/October 10/2020
The Progressive Socialist Party renewed, in a statement on Saturday, "its cautioning against the consequences of the authorities falling into the trap of making adjustments to the members of the Lebanese delegation by adding figures of a political nature, in wake of the Israeli enemy's disclosed intention to form a political delegation, not only technical, to the border demarcation negotiations, which would be at the heart of the concerns that the Party referred to in its statement on October 2.""The demarcation of borders is a purely legal and technical issue, and therefore negotiations must be exclusively within this framework, and the members of the Lebanese delegation must be specially competent in the relevant specializations; whereas veering towards other options would create internal divisions at a time when everyone must be united in protecting the sovereign rights of Lebanon and its natural wealth, and trying to save it from economic and social collapse," the PSP statement concluded.

The demarcation of the border between Lebanon and the occupation …..
AlKhaleej/Saturday, 10 October, 2020 
According to the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, Lebanon is gradually being pulled towards a dangerous path, amid the American-Israeli insistence that indirect negotiations with the enemy over the demarcation of the maritime borders are the fall of the last dividing curtain, so Beirut becomes as if it has joined the knee of the typists, by accepting talks of a political nature.
Evidence for this unfolds, one by one. Tel Aviv threw its hook yesterday evening, by announcing the delegation that will represent it at the negotiating table in Naqoura, to show that it has raised the level of representation from military-technical to political heavyweight, as the delegation will include the political advisor to the prime minister of the occupation, Reuven Azar, and the president The political system in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alon Bar.
And Azar is not only an advisor, but he heads the foreign policy division of the Tel Aviv government, which coordinates strategic political planning in the National Security Council for the benefit of the Israeli “political authority”. How will official Lebanon deal with this matter? Is it on the way to “take knowledge” with it and adapt to it? Or will it stand lying in wait against the insistence of the Israeli enemy to drag Lebanon’s foot into a trap?
The matter is in the custody of the Lebanese President, Michel Aoun. This is what Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said on the day he announced the framework agreement from Ain al-Tineh, confirming the end of his role, and the transfer of responsibility to the first presidency and the army command. This was proven by Aoun by pointing out that he will receive the negotiations in accordance with what is stipulated in the constitution.
Baabda’s sources indicated that the issue of the delegation is “under discussion”, and that Aoun “has started consultations in this field and will speak to the army leadership.”
The same sources confirmed that “there is no decision regarding the Israeli delegation. We have not been informed of anything official by the United Nations, nor have they been informed of us also because the Lebanese delegation has not yet been completed.” While army sources confirmed that “the decision is exclusively in the hands of the President of the Republic”, they indicated that “the leadership is making routine preparations in terms of collecting information on the enemy’s delegation, preparing maps and everything surrounding the file.”
In this context, information was discussed about amendments that Lebanon would make to the delegation that would represent it, in response to the Israeli provocation. Note that President Aoun had decided the names of the members of the delegation, namely: Brigadier General Pilot Bassam Yassin (Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army for Operations), in addition to: Colonel Mazen Basbous, an expert in border negotiations, Najib Masih, and the head of the Petroleum Sector Management Authority, Wissam Shabat. And a number of experts. What is strange, however, is the tendency of some parties to expand the delegation to include a diplomatic figure representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, even though the Lebanese agreement provided for technical negotiations.
Another logistical matter that Lebanon must stand with is the two delegations sitting in one room. It is true that they will not directly exchange talks, but Lebanon must consolidate the idea of ​​indirect negotiations, and stick to the formula of the April 1996 Committee, which these negotiations are an extension of, to cut off the road to the American “mediator” and the Israeli enemy, and to prevent them from exploiting technical negotiations and turning them into a political victory. For them.
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LIC RECOGNIZES THE 116th U.S. CONGRESS FOR SOLIDARITY WITH LEBANON
Wahington DC, October 4, 2020
Following the devastating explosion at the Port of Beirut on August 4th, which killed nearly 200 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless, U.S. Congresswomen and Congressmen -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- swiftly extended a helping hand to disaster-stricken Lebanon.
The Lebanese Information Center (LIC), the largest grassroots organization of Americans of Lebanese descent, would like to express its most sincere gratitude to those members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives who contacted the LIC, issued statements of solidarity, urged action from the Administration to support Lebanon, introduced and co-sponsored resolutions to provide humanitarian assistance, and pushed for both an independent probe into the blast and anti-corruption reforms to set Lebanon on the path to economic recovery.
In particular, we would like to recognize those Members who took the lead in reacting to this tragedy with genuine compassion and concern:

Senators Mitch McConnell, Jim Risch, Tim Kaine, Jeanne Shaheen, James Lankford, Chris Murphy, Bob Menendez, David Perdue, Rob Portman, Marco Rubio, and Mitt Romney, and
Representatives Steve Chabot, Ted Deutch, Eliot Engel, Darin LaHood, Donna Shalala, Garret Graves, Charlie Crist, Debbie Dingell, Marcy Kaptur, Rashida Tlaib, Jerrold Nadler, and Zoe Lofgren.
More than 80 other members of the House of Representatives signed letters to the Administration in solidarity with the Lebanese people and backing a range of initiatives to support them.
The U.S. Congress has been a longtime friend to Lebanon, particularly in times of political tumult and humanitarian hardship. Today, with its economy in freefall, living conditions deteriorating further, and an inept ruling class rejected by the people and the international community, the Lebanese people need this sustained support more than ever. The LIC looks forward to working closely with members of Congress to strengthen the special relationship between the United States and Lebanon.
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3 Dead as Forest Fires Burn in Syria, Lebanon
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
Forest fires in Syria and neighboring Lebanon have killed three people and burned swathes of land since Thursday, state media and officials said. Syrian state television on Saturday morning broadcast scenes from the affected areas, where firefighters were working to extinguish the blazes.
It said hundreds of hectares had burned in the countryside of Syria's coastal Latakia and Tartus provinces, and in the central Homs province. The health ministry said three people had died in Latakia province since Friday as a result of the fires, and that 70 people were taken to hospital suffering breathing difficulties. Dozens of fires were burning, including "45 in Latakia and 33 in Tartus", Syria's Agriculture Minister Mohammed Hassan Qatana told a radio station late Friday. The Latakia fire brigade said they were "facing the largest series of fires seen in Latakia province in years". Official news agency SANA said fire burned homes in Banias, in Tartus province. In neighboring Lebanon, there have been more than 100 fires across the country since Thursday, according to George Abu Musa, head of operations for the country's civil defense.
"The situation is crazy, there are fires everywhere," Abu Musa told AFP. "We have mobilized 80 percent of our personnel and almost all our centers in Lebanon," he said. He said most of the blazes had been extinguished but some were still burning in the mountainous Chouf region in the south, and in Akkar in the north. Military helicopters were assisting firefighters in "hard-to-reach" areas, he added. Abu Musa was unable to identify the cause of the blazes, but said wind and high temperatures were helping them spread. On Friday, authorities reported several fires across northern and central Israel and the occupied West Bank as temperatures soared, forcing thousands to evacuate. Dozens of fires hit Lebanon in mid-October last year, amid unusually high temperatures and strong winds. The government faced heavy criticism and accusations of ill-preparedness over its response to the 2019 blazes.
Days after Lebanon's 2019 fires, mass protests broke out, triggered by proposed tax hikes but quickly transforming into months-long demonstrations against the ruling class, deemed by protesters as inept and corrupt.

Will Drawing Border Demarcation Put an End to the Resistance Charade?
Elias Harfoush/Asharq Al Awsat/October 10/2020
Let us imagine for a moment that another Lebanese official, other than Speaker Nabih Berri, who is not allied with the “resistors” and “objectionists,” stood up to announce that an understanding had been reached, through the United States, to initiate negotiations with Israel. The answer is that this person would be considered a traitor, and it suffices to demonstrate the balance of power in Lebanon, and who actually holds the keys to war and peace in this unfortunate country and can use them whenever it sees fit and under whatever conditions it decides.
All of a sudden, sitting at the same table with the Israelis in Naqoura has become patriotic. The United States’ sponsorship of these negotiations, rather, its bid to “help establish and maintain a positive and constructive atmosphere between the two parties,” is a requisite to furthering Lebanon’s interest! What is meant by the “two parties”, of course, is Lebanon and Israel, which, in “objectionist” literature, is referred to as the “Israeli entity” sometimes and the “Zionist entity” at other times, although neither of these terms were mentioned in the agreement that Berri signed and read out to the media.
Covering this matter up required a systematic media makeover to ameliorate the mission. It was said, for example, that Berri’s initiative has nothing to do with the threat of US sanctions, which targeted his political aide, former minister Ali Hassan Khalil. Berri himself said that the agreement over a framework had been reached before the sanctions’ announcement, but it is obvious that “openness” to the US facilitation of the negotiation process will be positively received by an American administration known for its fondness for tributes to its roles in resolving intractable crises.
The media at hand has also repeatedly been referring to “indirect negotiations” in Naqoura. This is all to say that the “objectionists” who will oversee the negotiation process - despite claims that the matter will be handed to the Lebanese president and the Army Command- will not be sitting “directly” with the Israelis. They must have a different interpretation of the term “direct” than that with which we are familiar. Even with the negotiations being conducted through an intermediary, who is described as the “Great Satan” anyway, how else could one describe sitting with another person in the same room, talking to him and listening to his positions?
All of this compels us to say that raising the cause of the southern border and the relationship with Israel has always been meant for use in the Lebanese political bazaar and has nothing to do with Lebanon’s real interests.
The first Article of the armistice agreement reached between Lebanon and Israel in 1949 stipulates the following:
The following principles, which shall be fully observed by both Parties during the armistice, are hereby affirmed:
The injunction of the Security Council against resort to military force in settlement of the Palestine question shall henceforth be scrupulously respected by both Parties. No aggressive action by the armed forces - land, sea or air - of either Party shall be undertaken, planned, or threatened against the people or the armed forces of the other; it being understood that the use of the term “planned” in this context has no bearing on normal staff planning as generally practiced in military organizations. The right of each Party to its security and freedom from fear of attack by the armed forces of the other shall be fully respected.”
One does not need to conduct a thorough revision of Lebanese history to determine how Lebanon has dealt with this agreement. First, it allowed Palestinian organizations to operate in the south (the 1970 Cairo Agreement), with the Lebanese parliament legalizing this and carving out a part of this territory, openly referred to as “Fatah Land” as grounds from which the organizations could carry out their operations from the borders of Lebanon. At the time, this legislation was passed for no other reason than to serve internal electoral interests, both presidential and parliamentary. Afterward, the National Movement rallied around the Palestinian resistance’s activities during the Lebanese civil war to further the same political interests and exploit this activity to impose a new political reality and power balance. This pursuit ended with the amendments made to the Lebanese constitution that ended the war.
The war ended with a new political reality in Lebanon. It also ended, however, with a new reality in the south, manifested in Israel’s occupation of part of Lebanon’s territory. Here, too, politics and internal interests came into play, preventing any communication or mediation that would allow for the armistice agreement’s restoration, which could have paved the way for Israel’s withdrawal in exchange for the cessation of the operations conducted against it from Lebanon, as stipulated by this agreement. Nothing of the sort happened. Indeed merely proposing something along these lines was taboo. Instead, bringing about liberation was entrusted to a single party that would act as it pleased, per its internal interests and those of its regional sponsor, Iran. No party or political entity in Lebanon could question the tripartite slogan (the army, the people, and the resistance).
The resistance led to the Israeli forces’ exit from Lebanon in May 2000. This could have been a chance for turning the black page that cost the Lebanese their youth’s blood and destroyed villages and regions in the south. However, Hezbollah’s interests and the preservation of its influence and weapons dictated new reasons that would allow for politically investing in resistance slogans domestically. Here, the “objectionists” recalled a small chunk of Lebanese territory called the Shebaa Farms, which had been occupied by Israel since 1967 and has nothing to do with the Israeli occupation of the southern territory covered by Security Council Resolution 425, from which Israel withdrew. Its area is no larger than 200 square kilometers.
Solving the Shebaa problem and restoring Lebanese sovereignty has nothing to do with Israel; in fact, it requires the cooperation of Hezbollah’s friends in Damascus.
In 2000, the Lebanese authorities sent to the United Nations a 1966 map indicating that this area was within Lebanon's borders. The UN responded as follows: “The United Nations has ten other maps issued after 1996 by Lebanese governmental institutions, including the Ministry of Defense and the Army, all of which place farms inside the Syrian Arab Republic. The United Nations has also studied six maps issued by the Syrian Arab Republic's government, including three maps dating back to 1966 that indicate that the farms are located inside the Syrian Arab Republic.”
When the Security Council discussed the implementation of Resolution 1701 issued after the 2006 war, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan emphasized that the solution to the Shebaa Farms question requires a Lebanese-Syrian agreement regarding the demarcation of the international borders they share.
Here we arrive at the other segment of the demarcation process, the land border. If the Lebanese and Israeli delegations reach an agreement on the demarcation of the maritime borders, it could pave the way for resolving their land border differences, which the two sides say are minor. Will that open the door to settling the pending border issues with Syria, including Syrian regime affirmation to the UN that the Shebaa Farms is Lebanese territory, an issue which Bashar al-Assad’s regime refuses to discuss? Or will it be easier to resolve border disputes with Israel than it is with Syria?
Will this put an end to the abuse of sovereignty and borders, and will Hezbollah become a Lebanese political party that does not raise self-righteous slogans about resistance and liberation?

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 10-11/2020

WHO Reports a Worldwide Record of 350,000 New Virus Cases Daily
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
The World Health Organization reported a worldwide record of 350,000 new daily coronavirus cases. The UN health agency said the confirmed daily high of 350,766 cases surpassed by nearly 12,000 a record set earlier this week. That tally includes more than 109,000 cases from Europe. British scientists reported the coronavirus outbreak is doubling every few weeks. French hospitals are running out of ICU beds. Spain declared a state of emergency in Madrid because of soaring cases. WHO’s emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan acknowledged the worldwide surges, saying “there are no new answers.”
He said although the agency wants countries to avoid punishing economic lockdowns, governments mu

Iranian President, Central Bank Governor Make Conflicting Statements on US Sanctions
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the US sanctions against his country’s financial sector are “cruel, terrorist and inhumane,” adding that Washington is creating serious obstacles in importing medicine and food.
However, the governor of Iran’s Central Bank said the new sanctions do not affect the existing exemptions for medicine and basic goods. Rouhani said in a phone conversation with head of the central bank, Abdolnaser Hemmati, that the sanctions violate international law, dismissing them as political propaganda that serve internal American interests. Washington cannot "break the resistance of the Iranian people,” vowed the president. He said the US administration wrongly believes the sanctions would break Iran's resistance, but time has shown that this analysis is far from reality and has been ineffective.
Rouhani discussed with Hemmati the report on the process of providing foreign currency for essential goods and medicine, praising appreciated the efforts exerted by the Central Bank and banks.
The new sanctions are a continuation of US President Donald Trump’s “strategic mistake” in withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal, according to the president. Rouhani also referred to American attempts to activate the snapback sanctions mechanism, saying all countries believe that these actions are completely against international law, and “with the outbreak of coronavirus, it is a completely inhumane act by Washington, and human rights activists around the world must condemn it.”Hemmati asserted that US sanctions have not cancelled previous drug and commodity exemptions, explaining that banks will continue to use the SWIFT service to continue financing commodities. Meanwhile, US Special Representative for Iran Elliott Abrams arrived in Germany for consultations with senior officials from the UK, France, Germany and the EU. They discussed areas of policy cooperation and blocking dangerous arms sales to Iran. German foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Adebahr, criticized the US sanctions on Iran, saying that they will drop the private trade of humanitarian aid, as it battles the coronavirus pandemic.

UAE’s Gargash says Turkey’s army in Qatar is an element of instability in region
Arab News/October 10/2020
LONDON: The presence of Turkey’s army in Qatar is an “element of instability in the region,” the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs said on Saturday. “The Turkish military presence in the Arab Gulf is an emergency... It reinforces polarization, and it does not take into account the sovereignty of states and the interests of the Gulf countries and its peoples,” Anwar Gargash tweeted. Commenting on a statement made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his recent visit to Qatar, Gargash said that Turkey’s army is not working toward stability in the region as the President claimed.
“The statement of the Turkish President during his visit to Qatar, in which he indicates that his army is working toward the stability of all Gulf states, is inconsistent with Turkey’s regional role, and the evidence (for this) is numerous,” the minister said. Gargash added that the statement is an attempt to divert attention away from the economic reasons for the president’s visit. Erdogan visited Qatar on Wednesday and met with the country’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Fire Breaks Out at Tehran Metro Station
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
A fire broke out at a metro station in the west of the Iranian capital on Saturday, the semi-official Mehr news agency said, adding there were no casualties.
A spokesman for the state emergency services, Mojtaba Khaledi, said a gas leak appeared to have caused the 7.45 a.m. blaze at the Ekbatan station in Tehran. No trains were damaged.

Iraq's Sinjar Deal Threatens Iranian Regional Ambitions
Erbil - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Friday met with a senior Kurdish delegation headed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Interior Minister, Reber Ahmed, and reached a historic deal over the governance and security of the disputed district of Sinjar in Nineveh province.
Erbil and Baghdad had been in conflict over the district’s standing. The deal, which collides with the Iranian plans to establish a Shiite crescent in the region, was signed with international presence and was welcomed by Washington. Sinjar Mayor Mahma Khalil, in a statement, said the deal stipulates the removal of all armed factions, including those tied to the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The deal is predicted to end the authority of intruding groups and paves the way for the reconstruction of the city and the full return of its people in coordination with the KRG. Member of the Nineveh Provincial Council Dawood Chiekh Jundi, in a phone call interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, warned of the negative fallout of the agreement if it fails to assimilate all parties with forces on the ground. All forces must participate in the administration-forming process and the selection of officials, Jundi said. Salman Dawoud, an Iraqi journalist focused on affairs of minorities, confirmed that the deal will be rejected by the Iran-aligned PMF, which currently controls the land. The PMF will refuse complying with the agreement because it directly threatens Tehran’s regional agenda and ambitions, Dawoud explained. Writer and political analyst Saman Noah believes that “it is not conceivable that the PMF will relinquish gains it achieved in the region.” PMF presence in Sinjar secures a land corridor linking between Iran and Syria, a route belonging to what is known as the Shiite crescent.
The Crescent is the notionally crescent-shaped region of the Middle East where the majority population is Shiite or where there is a strong Shiite minority. In recent years the term has come to identify areas under Iranian influence or control, as Iran has sought to unite all Shiite Muslims under one banner.
Areas included in the Shiite Crescent are Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan, Yemen, and western Afghanistan.

Analysis: Conflicting Views in Tehran on White House Race
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
For Iran, struggling from sanctions imposed under Washington's policy of "maximum pressure", the US presidential race raises hope of change -- but also fears that life could get even worse. "The general view is that the result of this presidential election is crucial for the population," said Zeinab Esmaili, who covers foreign affairs for the Iranian reformist newspaper Shargh. Tehran and Washington, long-time enemies, have not maintained diplomatic relations for decades. But tensions have soared under US President Donald Trump, who pulled out of a nuclear accord negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama -- as well as other nations -- and placed sweeping sanctions on the country. Iranians have grown used to having their day-to-day lives hit hard by foreign policy decisions taken far away in the US. "It is natural for us to talk about the American elections," AFP quoted Mohammad Amin Naqibzadeh, a 28-year-old geopolitics student, as saying. In May 2018, Trump withdrew from a landmark deal that gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for UN-verified guarantees that it is not seeking nuclear weapons. The subsequent waves of sanctions on Iran have crippled its economy. So along with the US election, two topics dominate conversation in Tehran: the rise in prices and the declining exchange rate of the Iranian rial.
Both crises are linked deeply to US relations with Tehra
Iran has also been battered by the coronavirus pandemic, with related restrictions adding to its economic woes. The value of its currency has slumped dramatically. The rial has lost nearly 90 percent of its value against the dollar in the past three years, fueling galloping inflation.
Iran regularly denounces as "lies" Washington's claims that the sanctions do not affect ordinary citizens. Officially, the authorities have a clear view on who they support: neither candidate. Both Trump and Democratic White House hopeful Joe Biden are two sides of the same coin of Washington's "international arrogance".For Iran's leaders, Washington is often dubbed the "Great Satan", or simply the "enemy". But on Tehran's streets, many residents say they believe they would be better off with Biden. If Trump is re-elected, people expect to get more of the same "maximum pressure" policy and crushing sanctions.
In September, Biden wrote that he "will offer Tehran a credible path back to diplomacy". Some hope that could mean the potential return of the US to the UN nuclear agreement on Iran -- a deal struck while Biden was Obama's vice-president. "There is therefore hope he will return to this agreement," said Mohammad Ali Kiani, a 28-year-old politics student.
"In general, people think that a victory for Biden... would be better for Iran," said Esmaili, the journalist for Shargh. But not all are convinced. "People are hoping for an improvement in their economic situation," said journalist Maziar Khosravi. "It does not matter to them who is in the White House."Others seem to expect that Trump will win a second term -- and that for them, life will grow worse. "They see it as very likely that Trump will start a second term and that... the rise in prices and the devaluation of the rial will continue," Esmaili said. The news that Trump tested positive for the coronavirus sparked several conspiracy theories on Iranian social media -- as well as jokes linking the state of his health to the exchange rate. If Trump wins a second term, the continuation of his hardline policies will further impact politics in Iran. "A radical American approach also radicalizes (politics) in Iran," said reformist economist Saeed Leylaz. According to AFP, Leylaz wants to believe that if Biden won, he would "seriously change US policy towards Iran".But others are skeptical, and say a Biden victory would unlikely change much -- not least because there are only five months between the January 20 inauguration of the US winner, and Iran's own presidential elections on June 18. Hamidreza Taraqi, a senior official in the conservative alliance which won legislative elections in February, is opposed to any discussion with Washington.
He pointed out that the decades-long political conflict between Tehran and Washington has already "tested both Democrats and Republicans", and calls the idea of change under Biden an "illusion". "Neither have embarked on a path that will resolve the problems" of Iran, he said.

Karabakh Ceasefire Takes Effect under Armenia-Azerbaijan Deal
Agence France Presse/October 10/2020
A ceasefire agreed by Armenia and Azerbaijan came into effect Saturday at noon local time (0800 GMT) to end nearly two weeks of heavy fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijani forces accused each other of firing missiles and rockets on civilian areas on Saturday morning shortly before the ceasefire was due to start. Bombing sirens that had been sounding all morning fell silent as the ceasefire deadline passed, an AFP journalist in the city said, and residents were venturing out of their homes after days of taking shelter from shelling, rocket fire and drone attacks.

Trump Says He is 'Medication-Free,' Describes Covid Battle
Agence France Presse/October 10/2020
US President Donald Trump said he was "medication free" and revealed more details of his fight with Covid-19 in a televised interview aired Friday, one week after he was hospitalized with the virus. The president appeared on Fox's Tucker Carlson Tonight for what the White House described as an on-air "medical evaluation" conducted remotely by Fox contributor doctor Marc Siegel. "Right now I'm medication-free, I'm not taking any medications as of, you know, probably eight hours ago," Trump told Siegel. It was unclear when the interview, which Carlson said was filmed by a White House camera crew, was taped. Trump's doctors had previously said they have given him an aggressive cocktail of therapeutic drugs including the steroid dexamethasone, usually associated with serious Covid-19 cases. Trump also said he had been tested again for the virus. "I have been retested and I haven't even found out numbers or anything yet but I've been retested, and I know I'm at either the bottom of the scale or free," he said. He said he did not know when his next test would be, adding that it was "probably tomorrow... they test every couple of days." Trump said the virus had sapped his energy levels, adding he "didn't feel very vital."He also said he "didn't have a problem with breathing." His doctors have said he was put on supplemental oxygen at least twice, and the president later said that lung tests had shown "some congestion in there." Trump said he did not know where he had contracted the virus, adding: "It's highly contagious. That's one thing you learn, this is a contagious disease."

Trump Restarting Campaign with White House, Florida Events
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
Looking to shove his campaign back on track, President Donald Trump and his team laid out an aggressive return to political activities, including a big White House event on Saturday and a rally in Florida on Monday, a week after his hospitalization for a virus that has killed more than 210,000 Americans.
As questions linger about his health — and Democratic opponent Joe Biden steps up his own campaigning — Trump planned to leave the Washington area for the first time since he was hospitalized. He is also increasing his radio and TV appearances with conservative interviewers, hoping to make up for lost time with just over three weeks until Election Day and millions already voting.
The president has not been seen in public — other than in White House-produced videos — since his return days ago from the military hospital where he received experimental treatments for the coronavirus.
Two weeks after his Rose Garden event that has been labeled a “super-spreader” for the virus, Trump is planning to convene another large crowd outside the White House on Saturday for what his administration calls “a peaceful protest for law & order.”
More than two dozen people linked to the White House have contracted COVID-19 since the president’s Sept. 26 event announcing Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee to the Supreme Court.
Trump will address the Saturday group, expected to be at least several hundred supporters, from the White House balcony. All attendees are required to bring masks or will be provided with them, and also will be given temperature checks and asked to fill out a brief questionnaire. Attendees will be strongly encouraged to follow CDC guidelines, which include mask-wearing and social distancing.
Trump’s Monday rally in Sanford, Florida, was originally scheduled to be held on Oct. 2, the day after he tested positive.
Announcement of the new event came as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, cautioned the White House again to avoid large-scale gatherings of people without masks.
He said of the Barrett event in an interview with The Associated Press, “I was not surprised to see a super-spreader event given the circumstances.” That means “crowded, congregate setting, not wearing masks. It is not surprising to see an outbreak,” he said.
District of Columbia virus restrictions prohibit outdoor gatherings larger than 50 people, although that rule has not been strictly enforced. Masks are mandatory outdoors for most people, but the regulations don’t apply on federal land, and the Trump White House has openly flouted them for months.
Meanwhile, next Thursday’s town hall-style Trump-Biden debate was officially canceled, a few days after Trump backed away when the sponsoring commission switched it from face-to-face to virtual following Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis.
Trump said the Commission on Presidential Debates was protecting Biden from having to take on the president in person. But Biden’s team said the one demanding protection was Trump. “It’s shameful that Donald Trump ducked the only debate in which the voters get to ask the questions — but it’s no surprise,” said Biden spokesperson Andrew Bates. “Everyone knows that Donald Trump likes to bully reporters, but obviously he doesn’t have the guts to answer for his record to voters at the same time as Vice President Biden.”
Trump is now making the rounds of friendly conservative media, calling in to Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night and spending two hours live on air with radio host Rush Limbaugh on Friday in what his campaign billed as a “radio rally.” Holding court on his reelection battle, his fight against the coronavirus and revived negotiations with Democrats to pass an economic stimulus bill, Trump was making a direct appeal to his base of loyal supporters, whom he needs to turn out to the polls in droves. He following with a taped appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show Friday evening. In that interview, Trump was asked if he has been retested for COVID-19. “I have been retested, and I haven’t even found out numbers or anything yet. But I’ve been retested, and I know I’m at either the bottom of the scale or free,” he said.
 

Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs on World Day Against the Death Penalty
October 10, 2020 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement:
“Today, on World Day Against the Death Penalty, Canada restates its strong opposition to the use of the death penalty in all cases, everywhere. Capital punishment is a cruel, inhumane and degrading affront to human rights, as well as an ineffective deterrent to crime.
“The worldwide trend to abandon capital punishment is encouraging. In particular, Canada welcomes Kazakhstan’s recent step toward abolition, and we will continue to work toward an end to the death penalty among the countries that still apply it.
“To that end, I am pleased to announce Canada’s intention to join the Support Group of the International Commission against the Death Penalty, a diverse group of 23 countries led by Spain. Together with these and other members of the international community, we oppose the death penalty at every step of the way.”

SDC Calls for Ending ‘Turkish Occupation’ in Northern Syria
Qamishli - Kamal Sheikho/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) urged the United Nations, US and Russia to end the “Turkish occupation" of cities and towns in northern Syria and help remove the intruders from the houses of original inhabitants. The Council issued a statement marking the first year of the Turkish offensive into northern Syria, known as “Operation Peace Spring.” The statement described the Turkish army as the “killing machine” which destroys Syrian cities and commits crimes against humanity. It urged the international community and human rights organizations to launch an independent investigation into the violations committed against civilians in Raqqa. It also stated that a probe should be launched into the assassination of the secretary-general of Future Syria Party, Hevrin Khalaf, indicating that perpetrators should be tried before international courts and be held accountable for war crimes. The Council stressed the need to secure the safe return of the forcibly displaced people to their areas. Meanwhile, several Arab tribes and dignitaries held a meeting in Abu Hamam, in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, urging the US, the International Coalition and the Deir Ezzor Civil Council to release all innocent detainees held by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The meeting, chaired by Sheikh Nasser Osman al-Sabaat, appealed to the international community to support the health and education sectors, provide services and rebuild destroyed infrastructure. They warned that they’d resort to protests and sit-ins if their demands were not met. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) announced that two bombs exploded in the desert of al- Mayadin, in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, near a military checkpoint of al-Abbas Brigade, which is backed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The bombs killed two of the Brigade members and injured seven others, bringing the death toll of Iranian militants in Syria since March of last year to 142, according to the Observatory.

Egypt’s Sisi Signs Strategic Maritime Deal with Greece
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi Saturday ratified a maritime deal setting its Mediterranean Sea boundary with Greece and demarcating an exclusive economic zone for oil and gas drilling rights, the state-run news agency reported. The bilateral agreement is widely seen as a response to a rival deal between Turkey and Libya’s Tripoli-based Government of National Accord that spiked tensions in the East Mediterranean region, along with Turkey's disputed oil and gas exploration in the seawaters. The MENA news agency said that the deal, signed by Sisi, was published by the official gazette on Saturday.
The ratification came over two months after the Egyptian and Greek foreign ministers signed the deal in Cairo. The Egypt-Greece deal establishes “partial demarcation of the sea boundaries between the two countries, and that the remaining demarcation would be achieved through consultations.”
Egyptian parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Al had in August called the deal with Greece “very significant.”The Ankara-Tripoli maritime deal was dismissed by the governments of Egypt, Cyprus and Greece as infringing on their economic rights in the gas-rich Mediterranean Sea. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the Egypt-Greece agreement “worthless,” vowing to keep his disputed pact with the Tripoli government in place.

Official: US Wants Khartoum, Tel Aviv to Normalize Ties Before Elections
Khartoum - Ahmad Youness/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
An informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat on Friday that Washington rejected a Sudanese request to separate between the issue of normalizing ties with Israel from a US decision on removing Sudan's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. The US is pushing for a peace agreement between the two sides before the presidential elections in November, a Sudanese official source said. The source expressed fears from losing the chance of removing Sudan from the terrorism sponsors list, which paralyzes the government performance and impedes the reintegration of the country into the international community.
“Sudanese officials should take a decision in this regard as quickly as possible since only two weeks separate us from the presidential election campaigns. After this period, the Republican candidate would not benefit from the normalization of ties,” the source added.
However, speeding up any peace agreement with Israel is still opposed by several members of the ruling coalition parties including the National Umma Party and the Communist Party.
Sudan's acting Foreign Affairs Minister Omar Qamareddine told France 24 channel on Friday that his country has discussed with Washington the issue of removing Khartoum from the list of sponsors of terrorism for several years and that talks concerning normalizing ties with Israel is separate from this issue.
The military component of the transitional sovereign council, headed by Abdel-Fattah Burhan, supports normalizing ties with Israel and considers in Sudan's benefit. However, the civil component of the council believes that the Transitional Government does not possess any “authorization” to decide on the normalizing process. Last week, Vice president of the sovereign council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said his country will continue to strive towards building relations with Israel. Speaking to television channel Sudania24, Dagalo said establishing relations with Israel will fulfill a promise by the US to remove Sudan from its list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

Israeli Intelligence Warns of PA Collapse
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 10 October, 2020
Iran and the possible collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA) are two threats facing Israel, according to Brigadier General Dror Shalom, head of the Research Division of Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate. Shalom told Yedioth Ahronoth daily that the threat of terrorism is increasing especially that the youth in Judea and Samaria, in the West Bank, can’t earn a living amid the coronavirus pandemic and its economic repercussions. He highlighted three main reasons that contributed to maintaining stability including the Israeli army, the “somehow acceptable” economic situation, and the security coordination with the Palestinians before it was suspended. The official indicated that despite signing two peace treaties with the UAE and Bahrain, the Palestinian cause is a “ticking bomb”. He explained that the Palestinian cause brings Arab states together, and the two peace treaties were signed because the plans to annex parts of the West Bank were postponed. “Empowering the Palestinian Authority is within the interest of Israel’s security," said Shalom, warning that Arabs still hate Israel and “the situation in the region should be improved." Asked about the situation in the Gaza Strip, Shalom said it remains a challenge even if it is a “secondary front" now. The official admitted that the situation could escalate, noting that four years ago, the Israeli intelligence issued a strategic alert on the Strip. Studies showed there is a civil-economic crisis in Gaza, which would push Hamas to change its policy, noted Shalom.
He also said Hamas chief in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar is a different kind of leader who is interested in showing his success in reconstructing Gaza, adding that Sinwar does not seek a war in the Strip and Hamas is fully aware of the strength of the Israeli army. Shalom indicated that Tel Aviv managed to push Hamas into “rock-bottom” without engaging in a war, adding that maintaining the current situation in Gaza is favorable so that Israel can focus on Iran. On Iran, Shalom said that so far, the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal has not served Israel's interests. He supports a strategy of pressuring Tehran, noting that Iran as a superpower has weakened. The future US strategy includes exerting maximum pressure until reaching a deal. Iran is capable of possessing a nuclear bomb within two years of its decision to build one, which worries Shalom, given that the duration is not long.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 10-11/2020

Thanks to Trump, China's Huawei Is Dying
Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/October 10/2020
Vice President Biden may say he will be tougher on China than Trump, but his supporters have signaled that he will not. Max Baucus, who served as ambassador to China in the Obama years, predicted that, with a Biden win, there would be a "reset" in U.S.-China relations.
So, expect chip companies to lobby a President Biden to restart the flow of chips to Huawei Technologies. The sound of a pen gliding over the signature line on a waiver is music to the ears of one Shenzhen-based threat to the United States—as well as its masters in Beijing.
By cutting off the supply of semiconductors, the Trump administration is severely undermining the viability of China's Huawei Technologies, currently the world's leading manufacturer of both telecom networking gear and smartphones.
And as goes Huawei, so goes China's ambitions of dominating global communications.
Washington has accused Huawei of persistent theft of U.S. intellectual property. In addition, the current administration believes the company poses a national security threat because Beijing uses its equipment to surreptitiously take data flowing through its servers and other networking gear.
At the beginning of this year, it was a sure bet that the Shenzhen-based Huawei, already in more than 170 countries, would dominate 5G, the fifth generation of wireless communications, for years.
Huawei, which says it is employee-owned but is in reality in the hands of the Chinese state, is one of China's "national champions," and it had 5G covered at both ends. The company has maintained its lead as the world's No. 1 maker of networking gear, a crown it has worn for years. Furthermore, in the second quarter of this year, according to industry trackers Canalys and IDC, it had leapt past South Korea's Samsung to become the leading manufacturer of smartphones.
The company, however, is unlikely to sustain its lead in either area. At the moment, its most immediate problem is that it is running out of chips, necessary for both lines of products.
Thank the current U.S. administration for Huawei's semiconductor shortage. The U.S. Commerce Department, effective May 16 of last year, added Huawei to its Entity List. The designation means that no American company, without prior approval from the Bureau of Industry and Security, is allowed to sell or license to Huawei products and technology covered by the U.S. Export Administration Regulations.
Since then, the Trump administration has issued waivers from the designation, but now it is tightening the rules and at the same time issuing new ones. The result is that chip companies are not supplying semiconductors to Huawei.
Not only U.S. companies have been affected by the ban. The Commerce Department in May extended its rules to require foreign businesses to receive an export license before selling to Huawei, or designated subsidiaries such as HiSilicon, chips made with U.S. equipment.
The wide-ranging prohibition has forced Asian producers such as Samsung and SK Hynix to cut off Huawei. Most significantly, TSMC, formally known as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., is no longer making the Huawei-designed Kirin chipset. The U.S. rules are so comprehensive that even Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., China's largest chip foundry, is no longer accepting orders from Huawei.
Industry analysts believe Huawei will run through its chip inventory for phones sometime in the middle of next year. Others say earlier.
Sales estimates reflect the exhaustion of inventory. Huawei has estimated it will ship 50 million handsets next year. That is down from both the 190 million sets analysts had originally predicted for the year and the 240 million sets it sold last year.
The shortage for Huawei's other line of business—5G networking kit—is not as severe. The company, in anticipation of a cut-off of supplies, has stored enough chips "for several years" according to one report.
Can Huawei save itself by producing its own chips? China at the beginning of this year made 16.3% of its chip requirement, according to Brandon Weichert of The Weichert Report. Some estimates are higher. Eventually, the percentage will increase, due in large part to the Made in China 2025 initiative and related efforts such as the 14th Five-Year Plan, which begins next year. Beijing, Claude Barfield of the American Enterprise Institute points out, is "hell-bent" on developing its own semiconductor industry.
Weichert thinks it would take China no more than two years to develop a "reliable indigenous semiconductor capacity." Huawei's founder Ren Zhengfei suggests a bit longer. In August of last year, he wrote that in the next three to five years he will create an "invincible iron army" to counter U.S. sanctions. Ren also referred to the company as facing a "live-or-die moment."
To build Ren's "army," Huawei, with its Habo Investments subsidiary, has gone into the business of making chips. Its effort, however, appears to be too late to rescue it from its current jam. Habo will not be able to turn out chipsets for years. In the meantime, Huawei will have to scrounge the world for product.
"Do not count Huawei out," Weichert told Gatestone this month. "The company is viewed by Beijing as an essential component of its national push to dominate technology, and the Chinese party-state will beg, borrow, and steal to keep Huawei competitive in the global tech war."
China is vulnerable now, but it is working to insulate itself from American rules. There is, consequently, a limited window to defang Huawei. November 3 could be a "life or death" day for the Chinese giant.
Vice President Biden may say he will be tougher on China than President Trump, but his supporters have signaled that he will not. Max Baucus, who served as ambassador to China in the Obama years, predicted that, with a Biden win, there would be a "reset" in U.S.-China relations. "You will see a president who will engage in quiet diplomacy," he told CNBC's Squawk Box Asia on October 8. Moreover, Jake Sullivan, a senior Biden advisor, has made it clear that the U.S. "should put less focus on trying to slow China down and more emphasis on trying to run faster ourselves." That is 2020-speak for "we should allow Beijing to do whatever it wants."
China's leaders are therefore looking for a return to China-friendly policies with Biden. "I think there will be some improvements made in other areas, such as pardoning companies that are crucial to us from targeted U.S. sanctions," said Li Yi of the Shanghai Academy of Social Studies, referring to Trump's prohibitions on chip sales, to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.
So, expect chip companies to lobby a President Biden to restart the flow of chips to Huawei Technologies. The sound of a pen gliding over the signature line on a waiver is music to the ears of one Shenzhen-based threat to the United States—as well as its masters in Beijing.
*Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China, a Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow, and member of its Advisory Board.
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The Battle of Tours: When the West ‘Manfully Resisted’ Islam
Raymond Ibrahim/October 10/2020
Today in history, on October 10, 732, an epic battle saved Western Europe from becoming Islamic.
Precisely one hundred years after the death of Islam’s prophet Muhammad in 632 — a century which had seen the conquest of thousands of square miles of formerly Christian lands, including Syria, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain — the scimitar of Islam found itself in the heart of Europe in 732, facing that continent’s chief military power, the Franks.
After the Muslim hordes, which reportedly numbered 80,000 men, had ravaged most of southwestern France, slaughtering and enslaving countless victims, they met and clashed with 30,000 Frankish infantrymen under the leadership of Charles Martel, on October 10, somewhere between Poitiers and Tours. An anonymous medieval Arab chronicler describes the battle as follows:
Near the river Owar [Loire], the two great hosts of the two languages [Arabic and Latin] and the two creeds [Islam and Christianity] were set in array against each other. The hearts of Abd al-Rahman, his captains and his men were filled with wrath and pride, and they were the first to begin to fight. The Muslim horsemen dashed fierce and frequent forward against the battalions of the Franks, who resisted manfully, and many fell dead on either side, until the going down of the sun.
Entirely consisting of wild headlong charges, the Muslim attack proved ineffective, for “the men of the north stood as motionless as a wall, they were like a belt of ice frozen together, and not to be dissolved, as they slew the Arab with the sword. The Austrasians [eastern Franks], vast of limb, and iron of hand, hewed on bravely in the thick of the fight,” writes one chronicler. The Franks refused to break ranks and allow successive horsemen to gallop through the gaps, which Arab cavalry tactics relied on. Instead, they tightened their ranks and, “drawn up in a band around their chief [Charles], the people of the Austrasians carried all before them. Their tireless hands drove their swords down to the breasts [of the foe].”
Military historian Victor Davis Hanson offers a more practical take:
When the sources speak of “a wall,” “a mass of ice,” and “immovable lines” of infantrymen, we should imagine a literal human rampart, nearly invulnerable, with locked shields in front of armored bodies, weapons extended to catch the underbellies of any Islamic horsemen foolish enough to hit the Franks at a gallop.As expected, the battle was a wondrous mess: “Muslims would ride up in large bodies, slash at the clumsier Franks, shoot arrows, and then ride away as the enemy line advanced.”
In response, “each Frankish soldier, with shield upraised, would lodge his spear into either the horsemen’s legs or the face and flanks of his mount, then slash and stab with his sword to cut the rider down, all the while smashing his shield — the heavy iron boss in the center was a formidable weapon in itself — against exposed flesh. Gradually advancing en masse, the Franks would then continue to trample and stab fallen riders at their feet — careful to keep close contact with each other at all times.”
At one point, Allah’s warriors surrounded and trapped Charles, but “he fought as fiercely as the hungry wolf falls upon the stag. By the grace of Our Lord, he wrought a great slaughter upon the enemies of Christian faith,” writes Denis the chronicler. “Then was he first called ‘Martel,’ for as a hammer of iron, of steel, and of every other metal, even so he dashed and smote in the battle all his enemies.”
As night descended on the field of carnage, the two bloodied armies disengaged and withdrew to their camps. At the crack of dawn, the Franks prepared to resume battle, only to discover that the Muslims had all fled under the cover of darkness. Their master, Abdul, had been killed in fighting the day before, and the Berbers — freed of his whip and having tasted Frankish mettle — apparently preferred life and some plunder over martyrdom. They all fled back south — still looting, burning, and enslaving all and sundry as they went. Aware that his strength lay in his “wall of ice,” Charles did not give chase.
The aftermath “was, as all cavalry battles, a gory mess, strewn with thousands of wounded or dying horses, abandoned plunder, and dead and wounded Arabs. Few of the wounded were taken prisoner — given their previous record of murder and pillage.” The oldest sources give astronomical numbers of slain Muslims, with only a small fraction of slain Franks. Whatever the true numbers, significantly fewer numbers of Franks than Muslims fell in that battle. Even Arab chronicles refer to the engagement as the “Pavement of Martyrs,” suggesting that the earth was littered with Muslim corpses.
“The joyful tidings were soon diffused over the Catholic world” and the surviving chronicles of the day — including that of the aforesaid and anonymous Arab — portray this victory in epic if not apocalyptic terms. Indeed, of all the many battles between Islam and Christendom, Tours has, beginning with the contemporary chronicles up until the modern era, been one of if not the most celebrated in the West. For although the Mediterranean was lost, and although raids on the European coastline became a permanent feature, Islam was confined to the Iberian Peninsula, leaving Western Europe to develop organically.
It is for this reason that, well into the twentieth century, leading Western historians, such as Godefroid Kurth (d. 1916), still saw Tours as “one of the great events in the history of the world, as upon its issue depended whether Christian Civilization should continue or Islam prevail throughout Europe.”
Historical quotes in this article were excerpted from the author’s Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West

The Islamic Republic’s Main Fear is the History of the Iranian People
Camelia Entekhabifard/Asharq Al Awsat/October 10/2020
Iran lost one of its brightest stars of art and music on Friday when world famous maestro and traditional Persian singer Mohammad Reza Shajarian lost his battle with cancer.
The 80-year-old singer dedicated his life to Persian poetry, art and most importantly to stand with people when it comes to politics.
He was banned from performing to the public after he upset the regime with his comments about the disputed presidential election back in 2009.
Iran’s tolerance of music and artists became limited after the revolution took place. Music was called “haram” (forbidden) by founder of the republic, Khomeini, and it would take years after his death for artists to perform in public.
Fifteen years after the revolution, Mohammad Reza Shajarian had an opportunity to sing and to enliven Iranian cultural heritage.
In a country where everything is politicized, the death of an artist is viewed as a threat for a regime, whose greatest fear is the Iranian cultural heritage that can act as a source of unity.
Despite all of the challenges confronted by the Iranian people, their habits and love for art and poetry has not changed and has not been forgotten.
The Shiite regime has not succeeded in changing the people, nor put an end to public interest in music and art. The regime is afraid of history – anything that can connect or remind the Iranians of their past.
Public resistance of attempts to melt their hundreds of years of habits and culture is the main fear of the rulers of Iran.
One of the most well-known national television presenters, Mr. Mohammad Reza Hayati, lost his job a few months ago when he causally expressed his admiration of Iranian singer, Ebi Hamedi, who is living in exile in California.
The presenter has a long history of devotedly working for the system and had announced the news of Khomeini’s death, but lost his job because of his causal comments about admiring a banned singer.
The Iranians are not only suffering from sanctions and an oppressive regime, but also restrictions imposed on cultural heritage that the regime deems as un-Islamic or “vulgar”.
When news of the maestro’s death broke out, people gathered in front of Jam hospital in Tehran and chanted “death to the dictator”.
The chants were directed against Ali Khamenei, who is running the nation with an iron fist and leading a normal life that most Iranians can only dream of. They dream of a life where people can live respectably and exercise their constitutional rights as citizens that have been denied to them.
The maestro was buried of national epic poet Hakim Ferdosi in Mashhad.
During the dark ages of the mullah rule over Iran, the respect and dedication shown to an extraordinary artist like Mohmmad Reza Shajarian will help keep the small flame of the cultural heritage alive.
Mr. Shajarian was laid to rest near the tomb of the great Ferdosi. This is a reminder that art and culture played a major role for Iranians to resist against the oppressive rulers and to persevere. History always tells the truth.

What We Learned from the Vice-Presidential Debate
Spencer Bokat-Lindell/The New York Times/October 10/2020
Wednesday night’s debate between Senator Kamala Harris of California and Vice President Mike Pence may have been more conventional than last week’s presidential debate — not a high bar to clear — but there were many ways in which it did not qualify as normal.
In one corner, you had the man first in line to take the place of a president who was just hospitalized for a deadly disease with which he may still be ill. In the other corner, you had the first Black woman and first Indian-American woman to participate in a US general election debate, running alongside someone who at 78 would be the oldest sitting president. What did we learn from the candidates’ answers and non-answers, and what does the debate mean for the election, now less than four weeks away? Here’s what people are saying:
It probably shouldn’t have happened
Given the continuing coronavirus outbreak in the White House, many experts cautioned that an in-person debate shouldn’t take place at all. Mr. Pence has tested negative for the virus, but according to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who have had close contact with an infected person — defined as an instance of being within six feet for a total of 15 minutes or more, starting from two days before the onset of symptoms or a positive test result — should quarantine for 14 days even if they do not test positive.
Nonetheless, the director of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield, released a memo on Tuesday clearing Mr. Pence to participate in the debate, contending that based on his physician’s description of his movements, he was not in close contact with anyone with Covid-19.
The memo did not do much to quiet people’s skepticism. “He was sitting in a sea of people with Covid,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, an infectious disease expert at Harvard, told The Times. “There is no way he should go anywhere.”
And while Wednesday night’s debate featured plexiglass shields as a safety precaution, experts told my colleague Apoorva Mandavilli that they wouldn’t have done anything to protect Ms. Harris if Mr. Pence was infected, since the virus is airborne. Linsey Marr, an environmental engineering professor at Virginia Tech and an expert in airborne viruses, laughed when she saw a picture of the debate setup. “It’s absurd,” she said.
A set of relatively cheap box fans and filtration devices is a superior precautionary measure, but experts agreed the safest option is to move debates online. As The Times editorial board points out, remote presidential debates have happened before: In 1960, the third debate between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon was held with the competitors on separate coasts. “A virtual face-off may not be ideal for sizing up the contenders — but it’s far more important to protect the health of all involved,” the board writes.
Both candidates made notable deflections. As politicians are wont, both Mr. Pence and Ms. Harris engaged in mild overstatement and rhetorical flourishes, my colleague David Leonhardt notes. “But Pence was far more dishonest,” he writes. “At several points, he seemed to want to run on a record that didn’t exist,” misrepresenting not only his own but also Mr. Biden’s.
Mr. Pence also changed the subject nearly every time he was asked a difficult question. At one point, he skirted a question about whether the Trump administration had a plan to protect patients with pre-existing conditions if it succeeded in voiding the Affordable Care Act. (It does not.) At another, he refused to say whether he would want to ban all abortions in his home state of Indiana if the Supreme Court struck down Roe vs. Wade. He also ignored a question about why the US death toll from the coronavirus, as a percentage of our population, is higher than that in almost every other wealthy country.
But Mr. Pence made perhaps his most consequential dodge when the debate moderator, Susan Page, asked him what he would do if President Trump refused a peaceful transition of power in the event of a Biden victory. “Just as Mr. Trump has done repeatedly,” The Times’s Reid J. Epstein observed, “Mr. Pence declined to say what he would do — nor did he offer any commitment to accepting a negative result.”
Ms. Harris made some significant deflections of her own. Like Mr. Pence, she didn’t answer Ms. Page’s question, inspired by the fact that whoever wins the election will be the oldest president in American history on Inauguration Day, about whether she had discussed “safeguards or procedures when it comes to presidential disability” with her running mate. She also danced around Mr. Pence’s direct question about whether Democrats would add justices to the Supreme Court if Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed.
“Given their general willingness to shut down the left on other issues, it makes me think this is something they don’t want to rule out as an option,” my colleague Jamelle Bouie noted.
A big difference on climate change, but neither led
There are few issues on which the policy commitments of the two campaigns diverge more widely than climate change. When asked about the increase in extreme weather, Mr. Pence suggested that scientists have yet to reach a consensus about whether humans are causing climate change — they have, and we are — and his administration’s policies serve only to exacerbate it. The Biden campaign, on the other hand, has proposed a $2 trillion plan to achieve net-zero emissions before 2050, which scientists say will be necessary to keep global warming at its least catastrophic levels.
But Ms. Harris, rather than make the widely popular case for more aggressive action on climate change, fought mainly on the Trump administration’s turf, stressing that “they don’t believe in science” and fending off Mr. Pence’s false claims that Mr. Biden plans to ban fracking. (The issue has been seen as potentially decisive for voters in Pennsylvania, a key swing state, though a more recent poll challenges that conventional wisdom.)
Many important issues went unmentioned
Of course, no debate can cover every policy disagreement, but there were some particularly glaring omissions.
War: “How depressing that on the 19th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, the war received no attention besides a passing reference,” tweeted Stephen Wertheim, the deputy director of research and policy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “Three-quarters of Americans want our troops to come home. Ending the war should be a priority, even a source of national unity when we need one most.”Schools: “No questions on the shutdown of the nation’s school system and the millions of kids with essentially no current access to organized education,” wrote the Times reporter Dana Goldstein.
Who won, and will it matter?
More Americans said Ms. Harris did a better job than Mr. Pence did, according to a CNN instant poll of registered voters, by a margin of 21 percent. FiveThirtyEight also found voters liked her performance and policies more.
“For the most part, Kamala Harris owned this debate,” Melanye Price, a political scientist who specializes in contemporary Black politics, wrote in The Times. “Unlike Biden, she was able to make her opponent stop talking and interrupting her.”
But the Times columnist Ross Douthat argues that all things considered, Mr. Pence came out the victor. “You have to take into account degree-of-difficulty here: Pence’s task was to normalize the presidency of Donald Trump after its most insane week yet, and he gave a truly remarkable (and, yes, often truly brazen) performance of normalcy, from which Harris’s prosecutorial style was unable to shake him,” he wrote.
But he also added that vice-presidential debates usually don’t matter. The Times columnist Gail Collins agreed: “Nobody is going to be talking about this debate in two days. They’ll be lucky to get a 10-minute discussion by serious political junkies at breakfast.”

Prince Bandar sets the record straight on Saudi support for Palestinians
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/October 10/2020
A few weeks ago, I wrote here about the Palestinian cause and the Arabs, especially in Saudi Arabia, who have supported it since the beginning of the Israeli occupation.
I received some comments on social media accusing me of prejudice against the Palestinian leadership, and suggesting that the article came across as an emotional reaction to recent Palestinian statements critical of Arabian Gulf countries, especially the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
An interview with Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi ambassador to Washington and former secretary-general of the Saudi National Security Council, was broadcast in three parts on Al-Arabiya TV news channel this week. It clarified many of the facts that Saudi citizens, especially the younger generation, might not know about Saudi Arabia's support of Palestine, starting with the Kingdom’s founder, King Abdul Aziz, and continuing until the reign of King Salman.
The interview also highlighted Saudi Arabia’s insightful vision of the events, and its acceptance of the two-state solution from the start. The Palestinian and Arab stance at that time was emotional and far from political realism — it did not read the development of events properly and did not accept a two-state solution and UN Resolution 181, which was passed in 1947 and called for the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. As a result, Israel was recognized as a member state of the UN, while Palestine was not.
What was more serious is that this option was removed from the table, and so Israel — which had initially accepted a two-state solution while the Palestinians and Arabs rejected it — rejected the two-state solution the Arabs later demanded and was included in the Arab Peace Initiative adopted during the 2002 Arab League Summit in Beirut.
Prince Bandar also reviewed Saudi Arabia’s position on Palestinian refugees, including the need for them to remain on their land and for camps for the displaced and refugees to be built on Palestinian territory. But Saudi Arabia’s long-held strategic vision, which aims to connect Palestinian citizens to their land even in the most difficult of circumstances, was ignored.
The conclusion that everyone who watched the three parts of the interview with Prince Bandar will have reached is that the Palestinian cause has been plagued by Palestinian leaders who failed to invest in successive opportunities to build their independent state.
The results of building Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan were raging internal civil wars in Lebanon, and Palestinian refugee uprisings that aimed to overthrow the Jordanian state and occupy the country.
Successive Palestinian leaderships went beyond that to support Saddam Hussein in 1990 and congratulate him on Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait. Now, they stand with Turkey and Iran against Arab countries, even though the number of Arabs these two regimes have killed in seven years exceeds the number of those killed by Israel in seven decades.
The other subject that occupied a significant amount of time during the interview was the Saudi position on the reconciliation of Palestinian factions. Prince Bandar discussed the work of the Kingdom’s negotiation team, led by Prince Muqrin, to bridge the gap between the Palestinian Authority delegation, led by Mahmoud Abbas, and the Hamas delegation, led by Khaled Meshaal.
These negotiations took place at the royal palace in Makkah, just meters from the Grand Mosque, and continued for nearly two days. A formula was agreed to resolve the disagreements between the delegations, which was signed in the presence of King Abdullah. The two delegations then swore to God before the Holy Kaaba to adhere to the terms of the agreement.
However, the Palestinian sides returned to their old ways and broke the deal and the covenant after only a few weeks. Prince Bandar said that the Palestinians would ask Saudi Arabia for financial assistance and advice, and when the Kingdom agreed to provide both, the Palestinians would take the money and go against the advice.
Not only did the prince explain the facts and chain of events in a calm and composed manner, and in coherent language full of respect and tact, he also set up a website, and associated social media accounts, to provide access to important documents that support the information he presented in the interview. This is an important development in efforts to communicate with the audience and learn the reactions of followers.
The conclusion that everyone who watched the three parts of the interview with Prince Bandar will have reached is that the Palestinian cause has been plagued by Palestinian leaders who failed to invest in successive opportunities to build their independent state. Instead, they sought the wrong choices at home and abroad, and failed to learn from history and the mistakes that have been repeated since 1948.
The facts presented in the interview emphasized the honorable stance of Saudi Arabia on the Palestinian cause, despite the jabs and disappointments from the Palestinian leaderships, and sections of the Palestinian people, over those decades
It can also be concluded from the interview that Saudi Arabia will continue to support the Palestinian cause because it is convinced that it is a just cause, even though its advocates have been failures. This Saudi support is for Palestine and its people, not the warring leaderships whose actions have allowed the Israeli occupation to endure.
In conclusion, I would repeat my previous call for a younger Palestinian leadership that cares more about their land and people than their own personal interests.
*Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is head of the International Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah). Twitter: @mohalsulami

The last thing the world needs is another proxy war
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/October 10/2020
A territorial dispute over Nagorny-Karabakh has escalated from small-scale skirmishes into all-out engagement as Armenia and Azerbaijan deploy increasingly lethal offensive capabilities. Despite a fragile cease-fire, there are worrying signs that both sides are ratcheting up for an extended conflict.
Even more, there is a gaping mismatch between the objectives and paths chosen to achieve them. At its core, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a dispute over ragged, mountainous terrain of little strategic value. However, we live in an era when far-off powers wade into disputes in the service of mostly unrelated geopolitical aims. Thus, there is ample reason to worry this conflict in the Caucasus may become a repeat of similar scuffles in Libya, Syria, Yemen or the eastern Mediterranean.
Both sides maintain strong ties with Russia and Turkey, themselves on opposing sides of conflicts in Libya and Syria, via Armenia’s mutual defense pact with Moscow, while a NATO-aligned Ankara is allied with the Azeri. Shifting strategies and deployments of troops and munitions in zones of conflict suggest an expectation by both sides of a protracted conflict. Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic has relegated conflict de-escalation and resolution to Zoom diplomacy, which still fails to replace shuttle diplomacy’s ability to foster dialogue between warring factions. Should current trends persist, a perfect storm is likely to cascade over the Caucasus in the form of yet another geopolitical standoff in an increasingly conflict-weary world.
Setting aside the obvious risks and potentially disastrous consequences of the escalating battles descending into all-out offensives, events in Nagorno-Karabakh appear to follow an emerging pattern. Conflict is no longer the purview of organized militaries financed by taxation or realignments of entire societies and economies in support of a total war. Instead, what is happening in Libya, Syria, Yemen and will probably happen (should diplomacy fail) in the eastern Mediterranean will probably happen in the Caucasus too.
Gone are the days of stiff hierarchies in well organized militaries, deployed in pursuit of ideological ideals or to gain strategic advantages in the 21st century’s relentless geopolitical gamesmanship. Instead, belligerents made up of state and non-state agitators coalesce in loose coalitions based on mutual interest, staking a claim to power or access to state apparatus based on sectarian, religious notions.
Unfortunately, while all-out battles are few, civilians suffer the brunt of marauding bands of mercenaries, warlords, militias and self-professed revolutionary groups, frequently joined by regular armed forces, law enforcement and state security agencies. The ensuing chaos creates a fog of war, which often leads to deliberate acts of violence targeting civilians, such as genocide and ethnic cleansing — as already happened in Nagorno-Karabakh from the late 1980s to the middle of 1994. In some cases, it can be difficult to distinguish civilians from combatants, resulting in egregious human rights violations with little international outcry given conflicting narratives. Impartial media coverage of asymmetric conflicts such as these also becomes impossible as violence escalates.
And that's not all. Classical wars built states and enhanced their power, but the new wars have demonstrably revealed their goal to be the destruction of the state. However, war is expensive, and even with external support proxies must largely “self finance” via organized, transnational criminal activities such as kidnapping, smuggling, trafficking in arms and persons, looting, even withholding humanitarian aid.
A territorial dispute over Nagorny-Karabakh has escalated from small-scale skirmishes into all-out engagement as Armenia and Azerbaijan deploy increasingly lethal offensive capabilities.
In the end, a war enterprise emerges, dependent on the perpetuation of violence to generate incomes to sustain war efforts. The longer such conflict persists, the more difficult it becomes to contain it, let alone undo its damage. Worse yet, belligerents and their proxies emerge from the conflict substantially more powerful, wealthier and entrenched in the rifts of the identity politics they used to justify insurgency.
Proxy wars are not new. They became a viable alternative in a nuclearized post-1945 world, which made battles between superpowers inconceivable. The trouble is the extent to which proxies have become a go-to option for geopolitical rivals seeking to capitalize on a competitor state’s fragility or perceived weaknesses in a superpower’s sphere of influence.
Inflaming tensions and lending material support to non-state agitators has proved a cheaper alternative to conscription and mass mobilizations. In Nagorno-Karabakh, Syrian mercenaries have been deployed in support of the Azeri while Armenians have welcomed the help of Iraqi and Syrian Kurds affiliated with the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
These are just the early stages, and should the cease-fire fail it could attract the attention of regional players such as Iran, where misfired rockets from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have landed. Turkey has pledged unconditional support for the Azeri, while Armenia remains assured of Moscow’s commitment to its defense with military hardware supplied via Iran. Israeli drones occupy the skies for Azerbaijan, and the Armenia-affiliated Artsakh Defense Army — from the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh — uses Serbian weapons.
The involvement of Russia and Turkey is particularly concerning since the Caucasus conflict presents an opportunity for either country to frustrate the other. Proxy battles in these new wars can become a major vulnerability to grander goals, such as the stability of regions or dominance of their affairs. For instance, France has sought to capitalize on tensions in the eastern Mediterranean to frustrate Ankara in a bid to insulate its interests in the North Africa and Sahel from Turkish encroachment. Moscow has equally used the conflict in Syria and Libya to undo US-led efforts to stabilize a region still sore from a disastrous War on Terror and the emergence of Daesh.
Should tensions intensify in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Caucasus will be the next region where geopolitical rivals wade in, carve out spheres of control via local proxies and earn a place at the negotiation table to assert dominance or frustrate the opposition. Lessons have been learned after nearly a decade of such asymmetrical warfare in the Middle East. Conflict has changed, becoming messier, more deadly and increasingly challenging to contain as it requires consensus among deeply divided interests, many of whom benefit from the war.
The world cannot afford another Syria or Libya. Nagorno-Karabakh must not escalate any further.
*Hafed Al-Ghwell is a non-resident senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Institute at the John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He is also senior adviser at the international economic consultancy Maxwell Stamp and at the geopolitical risk advisory firm Oxford Analytica, a member of the Strategic Advisory Solutions International Group in Washington DC and a former adviser to the board of the World Bank Group. Twitter: @HafedAlGhwell