English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For October 30/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
The Mastard Seed Parable & the Depth Of Faith
Matthew 13/31-35: “Jesus put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet: ‘I will open my mouth to speak in parables; I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.’

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 29-30/2020

Health Ministry: 1,933 new Coronavirus cases, 8 deaths
Aoun Says Lebanon Stands by France after Attack in Nice
Hariri Strongly Condemns New Carnage in France
Bassil: All solidarity with France!
Report: Draft Proposal of a 20-minister Cabinet Emerges
Lebanon, Israel Hold 'Negative' 3rd Round of Sea Border Talks
Govt. to be Formed 'Sunday or Monday' as 'Druze Hurdle' Lingers
U.S. OKs Extradition of 2 Nabbed over Carlos Ghosn's Escape
Hassan Calls for Expanded Lockdown Measures
Rights Groups Slam Lebanon's Block of New Worker Contract
1 Killed, 3 Wounded in Dekwaneh Shooting
Lebanon and Israel agree to continue maritime border negotiations next month
Lebanon justice minister ‘waiting’ to judge blast probe
No top officials to be indicted over Beirut blast: Sources
tayyar.org – News: Hill supports Hariri
Hill supports Hariri: Use our preoccupation with the elections to form...
Second round of Lebanon-Israel border talks described as ‘positive’
Internal and External Circulation: The Triumph of the Current and the Bet on the Future”:
Four years into ‘Hezbollah era’, the toll is heavy for Lebanon/Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/October 29/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 29-30/2020

Another terrorist attack jolts France
Knifeman Kills 3 at French Church, Ratcheting Up Terror Fears
Macron Vows France Won't Bow after 'Islamist Terrorist Attack' in Nice
Saudi Wounds French Consulate Guard in Jeddah Knife Attack
Malaysian ex-PM Mahathir Says Muslims 'Have Right to Kill French'
French investigators identify Nice attacker as a 21-year-old Tunisian migrant
World Leaders Condemn Deadly Knife Attack in France
Turkey Strongly Condemns 'Savage' Attack in France's Nice
Trump on attack in France: ‘Radical Islamic terrorist attacks’ must stop immediately
Karabakh Says Azerbaijan Forces Closing in on Key Town of Shusha
U.S. Passports to List 'Israel' for Birth in Jerusalem
Dubai's DP World, Israel's Shipyards sign for joint privatization of Haifa Port
Turkey denies Nordic Monitor report on AKP MP accepting $65 million bribe from Qatar
US to sell F-35 fighter jets to UAE, White House tells Congress
Canada/Statement in response to pattern of targeted school attacks

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 29-30/2020

The Irony of American History and Russian Disinformation/Chris Farrell/Gatestone Institute/October 29, 2020
A New Nuclear Deal with Iran?/Peter Huessy/Gatestone Institute/October 29, 2020
How vaccines became the unexpected superheroes of 2020/Dr. Walid Zaher/Al Arabyia/Thursday 29 October 2020
How the new global politics of climate change will affect the Middle East/Sultan Althari/Al Arabyia/Thursday 29 October 2020
America Should Not Sell F-35 Fighter Planes to the Qatari Regime/Jonathan Spyer and Benjamin Weinthal/Newsweek/October 29/2020 |
De Macron venu nous dire son amour de notre pays/Par Abdel Hamid El Ahdab, Avocat/October 29/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 29-30/2020

Health Ministry: 1,933 new Coronavirus cases, 8 deaths
NNA/October 29/2020
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Saturday, the registration of 1,933 new Coronavirus infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 77,778.It also reported 8 death cases during the past 24 hours.

Aoun Says Lebanon Stands by France after Attack in Nice
Naharnet/October 29/2020
President Michel Aoun on Thursday condemned the deadly attack on a church in the French city of Nice. In a cable sent to French President Emmanuel Macron, Aoun deplored "the terrorist attack in Nice" and stressed that "Lebanon stands by France in the face of this new plight."
A knife-wielding man killed three people at a church in Nice earlier in the day, slitting the throat of at least one of them, in the third apparent jihadist attack in just over a month. The attack comes amid growing anger among Muslims over Macron's vow not to "give up cartoons" depicting the Prophet Mohammed. On Thursday Muslims across the world were celebrating the anniversary of the Prophet's birthday.

Hariri Strongly Condemns New Carnage in France
Naharnet/October 29/2020
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Thursday said he strongly condemns the “abhorrent” deadly attack on a church in the French city of Nice. “Terror has no religion and all Muslims are asked to deplore this criminal act that has nothing to do with Islam nor with the prophet of love on the occasion of his blessed birthday,” Hariri said in a tweet. A knife-wielding man killed three people at a church in Nice earlier in the day, slitting the throat of at least one of them, in the third apparent jihadist attack in just over a month. The attack comes amid growing anger among Muslims over French President Emmanuel Macron's vow not to "give up cartoons" depicting the Prophet Mohammed. On Thursday Muslims across the world are celebrating the anniversary of the Prophet's birthday.

Bassil: All solidarity with France!
NNA/October 29/2020
Head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran Bassil, tweeted today against the crime that occurred in Nice, France, saying: "Respecting religions is a duty, and refraining from harming their symbols is sacred. Freedom of difference of opinion is safeguarded by the laws of the earth and heaven, which prohibit the killing the soul. Do not distort religions, for they do not accept murder but rather call for mercy and brotherhood among all people. All solidarity with France...!"

Report: Draft Proposal of a 20-minister Cabinet Emerges
Naharnet/October 29/2020
Parties concerned with the government formation file revealed what they said was an informal “proposal of a cabinet draft” to line up a cabinet of 20 ministers, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.
The report emerged after a meeting Wednesday evening between President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri. The Presidency said in a tweet that the two discussed the “governmental file in an atmosphere of progress and thoroughness.”
According to the sources, the sectarian distribution of ministers was reportedly suggested as follows:
10 Muslim ministers:
Sunni ministers (4): Hariri plus two ministers to be named by al-Mustaqbal Movement, and one minister gets to be named by ex-PM Najib Miqati’s bloc. Shiite ministers (4): Speaker Nabih Berri would name two ministers and Hizbullah would name two. Druze ministers (2): One minister likely to be named by head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblat and a minister named by MP Talal Arslan.
10 Christian ministers:
Maronite ministers (4) to be named by President Michel Aoun, head of the Marada Movement Sleiman Franjieh, Hariri and the Free Patriotic Movement. Greek Orthodox (3): The President names one minister, provided that he is the Deputy Prime Minister, a minister named by Hariri, and a minister named by Franjieh. Catholics (2): The President names one minister and the second gets to be named by the FPM. Armenian (1): Named by the Tashnag party. According to the above suggested format, the President would get a share of 3 ministers, FPM 3 ministers, Tashnag 1, Prime Minister 3, Al-Mustaqbal Movement 2, Miqati 1, Amal and Hizbullah 4, Marada Movement 2, PSP 1. Moreover and according to media reports, an informal distribution of portfolios was suggested as allocating the ministries of Defense, Interior and Justice as part of the President’s share.
Telecommunications and Economy portfolios as part of the FPM’s share. While allocating the Energy portfolio, Tourism portfolio, Public Works, and the Displaced ministries as part of Hariri’s share. The ministries of Finance, Health, Labor and Social Affairs are likely to be part of the Shiite duo’s share. The Industry Ministry, Youth and Sports as part of the share of Franjieh. While Jumblat would likely get the Education portfolio while Arslan the Ministry of Agriculture/Culture. The Environment and Administrative Development portfolio will likely be retained by the Armenian minister.

Lebanon, Israel Hold 'Negative' 3rd Round of Sea Border Talks
Agence France Presse/Associated Press
The atmosphere of the third round of Lebanese-Israeli talks over the demarcation of their maritime border was “negative,” Lebanese TV networks reported on Thursday.
“No progress was made, amid escalation by each of the negotiating parties, and the dispute is revolving around the point from which demarcation should begin,” al-Jadeed TV said.
MTV meanwhile reported that there are “divergent viewpoints and stubbornness in the stances of the Lebanese and Israeli delegations over two key issues, one of them is the land point” from which demarcation should begin.
The TV network added that the the next round of negotiations will be held on November 11. The talks are being held under U.N. and U.S. auspices to allow for offshore energy exploration.
A joint U.N.-U.S. statement described Wednesday and Thursday’s talks as “productive.”“Building on progress from their October 14 meeting, on October 28 and 29 representatives from the governments of Israel and Lebanon held productive talks mediated by the United States and hosted by the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL),” the statement said.
“The United States and UNSCOL remain hopeful that these negotiations will lead to a long-awaited resolution. The parties committed to continue negotiations next month,” it added.
The delegations met for around four hours Thursday at a base of the U.N. peacekeeping force UNIFIL in the Lebanese border town of Naqoura.
Lebanon's official delegation, led by the army, had no immediate comment. After nearly four hours of talks, the delegation went to brief President Michel Aoun. Lebanon's National News Agency said the Lebanese delegation carried with it "maps and documents showing the points of contention and the Israeli enemy infringing on the Lebanese right to include part of Block 9."
Lebanon brought new maps to the talks, pushing for what local media and experts called a "maximalist stance" aimed at rectifying previous positions that pushed for a smaller area to be part of the country's territorial waters.
Lebanese and Israeli officials have declined to comment on the secret, indirect talks. But Lebanese media, quoting informed officials, said the government is pushing for new maps to demarcate disputed maritime borders that involve potentially lucrative oil and gas deals. The Lebanese delegation -- a mix of army generals and professionals -- offered a new map Wednesday that pushes for an additional 1,430 square kilometers.
This area is to be included in Lebanese territory on top of the already disputed 860 square kilometer-area of the Mediterranean Sea that each side claims is within their own exclusive economic zones, according to local media. An Israeli official informed about the negotiations said Thursday the Israeli delegation wouldn't discuss Lebanon's maximalist proposal, which effectively lays claim to parts of Israel's Karish gas field.
The Israeli official said the negotiations should be on the lines previously submitted by the two countries to the U.N. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Laury Haytayan, a Lebanese oil and gas expert, said members of the Lebanese delegation have been known to adopt the maximalist approach that sought to rectify Lebanon's previous positions on where to draw the maritime border. The new pitch is based on adopting the same starting line as that set in 1923 between British Mandate over Palestine and French Mandate over Lebanon as the demarcation line, instead of the 1949 Armistice Agreement between Lebanon and Israel. It is also including new areas, ignoring claims by Israel to reefs there. With the new claim, Lebanon is aggressively seeking to change the starting approach to the talks, she said. Thursday's meeting included a lunch hosted by the United Nations in a tent on the edge of the Lebanese border town of Naqoura, according to Lebanon's LBCI TV station. It said there were no direct talks between the two delegations during the lunch. During the opening ceremony, the Lebanese delegation did not attend lunch and refused to appear in a joint photo with the Israeli team and the U.S. and U.N.
The talks are held amid tight security, including patrols by U.N. peacekeepers, Lebanese army patrols and Israeli navy ships.
After years of quiet U.S. shuttle diplomacy, Lebanon and Israel this month said they had agreed to begin the negotiations in what Washington hailed as a "historic" agreement.
The announcement came weeks after Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first Arab nations to establish relations with Israel since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
But Lebanon has insisted the negotiations are purely technical and do not involve any political normalization with Israel.
Lebanon, reeling from its worst economic crisis in decades, is hoping to settle the maritime border dispute so it can continue exploring for hydrocarbon reserves in the Mediterranean.
Exploration is on hold in an area off its coast named Block 9, as a section of it is located in an 860-square-kilometer area claimed by both Israel and Lebanon. In February 2018, Lebanon signed its first contract for offshore drilling for oil and gas in Block 9 and Block 4 with a consortium comprising energy giants Total, ENI and Novatek. Lebanon in April said initial drilling in Block 4 had shown traces of gas but no commercially viable reserves. While the U.S.-brokered talks look at the maritime border, a UNIFIL-sponsored track is also due to address outstanding land border disputes. UNIFIL head Major General Stefano Del Col welcomed Tuesday what he called "a unique opportunity to make substantial progress on contentious issues along" the land frontier.

Govt. to be Formed 'Sunday or Monday' as 'Druze Hurdle' Lingers
Naharnet/October 29/2020
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri will present a complete draft cabinet line-up to President Michel Aoun in the coming days and the government may be formed Sunday or Monday, MTV reported on Thursday.
It added that although the formation process has entered an advanced stage, some obstacles have not yet been resolved, including the one related to Druze representation. “Should Hariri insist on an 18-minister cabinet, that will limit this representation to a minister from the share of Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat,” MTV said. Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan meanwhile wants a portfolio for his party, which would necessitate forming a 20-minister cabinet.

U.S. OKs Extradition of 2 Nabbed over Carlos Ghosn's Escape
Associated Press/October 29/2020
The U.S. State Department has agreed to turn over to Japan two American men accused of smuggling former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of the country while he was awaiting trial, the men's lawyers said in legal filing on Thursday. Lawyers for Peter Taylor and Michael Taylor say the men are set to be flown to Japan from Boston on Thursday. They are urging a judge to block their transfer until they can have had a "full and fair opportunity to receive and review the State Department administrative record, present and support their challenges to the Secretary's decision, and have those challenges heard by the Court in accordance with U.S. law and procedure." The lawyers said the State Department informed them on Wednesday of its decision to approve Japan's extradition request.An email seeking comment was sent to the State Department. A federal judge in Massachusetts last month issued a ruling approving their extradition requests, although the State Department had the final say. The Taylors are wanted by Japan so they can be tried on charges that they helped Ghosn flee the country last year with the former Nissan boss tucked away in a box on a private jet. The flight went first to Turkey, then to Lebanon, where Ghosn has citizenship but which has no extradition treaty with Japan. Ghosn said he fled because he could not expect a fair trial, was subjected to unfair conditions in detention and was barred from meeting his wife under his bail conditions. Ghosn has denied allegations that he underreported his income and committed a breach of trust by diverting Nissan money for his personal gain. The Taylors have been locked up in a Massachusetts jail since they were arrested in May. Their attorneys never denied the allegations, but argued they can't be extradited because they say their actions don't fit under the law with which Japan is trying to convict them.

Hassan Calls for Expanded Lockdown Measures
Associated Press/October 29/2020
Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan on Thursday urged for expanded lockdown measures amid the spike in coronavirus cases in Lebanon which registered a daily record of 1,850 cases yesterday. Hamad said the partial lockdown implemented on selected towns and villages is not enough to curb the virus outbreak. His remarks came at the opening of a new hospital wing at the Mayyas hospital in Chtoura dedicated to treating patients infected with COVID-19. According to official data, 11.8% of every 100 tests are positive in Lebanon. Partial lockdowns have been implemented on selected localities, but it has failed to curb the spike. Lebanon’s health sector is reeling under the pressure of the pandemic. The economic crisis was compounded by the massive deadly blast in the capital’s port nearly three months ago. It knocked out three hospitals. Lebanon has a total of 75,845 confirmed cases and 602 deaths.

Rights Groups Slam Lebanon's Block of New Worker Contract
Agence France Presse/October 29/2020
Two rights groups on Wednesday criticised a Lebanese judicial council decision to strike down a new work contract for foreign domestic workers, calling it a "sharp blow" to their rights. The labour ministry in September approved the revised contract giving migrant helpers more rights, including being able to resign at will and keep their own passports -- to stop some employers confiscating them. But recruitment agencies who bring in workers filed a complaint, and the State Council on October 14 issued a temporary decision to block it from coming into force.
"The State Council has delivered a sharp blow to migrant domestic workers rights by suspending the implementation of the new standard unified contract," said Diala Haidar of Amnesty International. In its decision, "the council has failed to make any reference to the rights of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon... It only made reference to what the recruitment agencies consider to be severe damage to their interests," Haidar added. The State Council said it had blocked the new contract's implementation because it could inflict "huge harm to the worker recruitment sector", according to the decision seen by AFP.
Aya Majzoub of Human Rights Watch called the decision "very disappointing"."There needs to be a cultural shift," Majzoub said. "People are quite used to the idea that migrant domestic workers can't leave their employer without the consent of the employer, and they view that as normal."Ali Al-Amine, head of the recruitment agencies' syndicate, claimed they did not want to cancel the new contract completely, but to make amendments. "Our main objection was with the article on the recruitment mechanism and the termination of the contract, not to do with the rights of the workers," he said. "There needs to be balance between the rights and duties of all parties in the contract."Lebanon is home to around 250,000 migrants, mostly women from Africa and Asia, who work as housekeepers, carers or nannies. They are not protected by the labour law, but instead work under a set of laws, policies and customs called 'kafala', repeatedly slammed by rights groups as allowing a wide range of abuse. Activists had said the new contract was a step in the right direction until the labour law is amended to include all domestic workers.
Live-in domestic workers have been particularly hit by Lebanon's economic crisis, with many now receiving wages in the devalued local currency, and others not paid or even abandoned by their employers in the street.

1 Killed, 3 Wounded in Dekwaneh Shooting
Naharnet/October 29/2020
One person was killed and three others were wounded in a shooting at dawn Thursday in Dekwaneh, the National News Agency said.
“At 3:00 am, an unknown assailant opened fire from a Kia Picanto car at a grocery shop on the Antoine Chakhtoura Boulevard in Dekwaneh,” NNA said. “A 14-year-old Syrian national was killed and three people were wounded,” the agency added. “The competent security agencies have launched investigations to unveil the circumstances behind the crime and identify the culprit,” NNA said. Dekwaneh’s municipal chief meanwhile said that the incident is linked to a dispute between the shop's owner and those who were in the attacking car.

Lebanon and Israel agree to continue maritime border negotiations next month
US Department of State/Thursday 29 October 2020
In statement released jointly by the Government of the United States and the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, the two announced that Lebanon and Israel agreed to continue maritime border negotiations next month. Read More: Lebanon demands extra 1,430 sq. km. in US-brokered talks with Israel. "Building on progress from their October 14 meeting, on October 28 and 29 representatives from the governments of Israel and Lebanon held productive talks mediated by the United States and hosted by ​the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL). The United States and UNSCOL remain hopeful that these negotiations will lead to a long-awaited resolution. The parties committed to continue negotiations next month.", the joint statement added.

Lebanon justice minister ‘waiting’ to judge blast probe
Timour Azhari/Al Jazeera/October 29/2020
Marie-Claude Najm says she is waiting for the results of the probe, just like any other citizen, before she makes her judgement.
Beirut, Lebanon – Lebanon’s caretaker Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm said she was unable to judge the course of a probe into the massive August Beirut port explosion that killed 200 because she is unaware of internal details. Asked in a phone interview with Al Jazeera whether she was confident in the course of the investigation so far, Najm said she would wait to see the results. “I want the judiciary to do their job properly. I’m unaware of what happens inside, so I’m in the position of someone waiting and eager, as all the Lebanese people are, to see the result.”
The investigation into the August 4 explosion that also injured more than 6,500 and destroyed large parts of Beirut has been marked by criticism from the families of victims and watchdog groups since the outset because of the opacity of the process, the allegedly narrow scope of investigations and conflicts of interest. Organisations including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International have said an international investigation would be the only path to justice.
The investigation was on August 10 transferred to the Judicial Council, an exceptional court that issues verdicts that are not subject to appeal. HRW, Amnesty and local watchdog Legal Agenda criticised the decision, saying the court was opaque and did not rise to due process standards.
Najm defended Cabinet’s decision to move the investigation to the Judicial Council. “This decision allowed the victims – any victim – to participate and be aware of the content of the procedure, and this has been done – many have filed requests and so has the Bar Association. This would not have been possible at the military court,” she said.
Only a small number of victims have so far involved themselves in the process, with the Beirut Bar Association filing 679 lawsuits on behalf of victims, the wounded and their families on Wednesday, nearly three months after the blast.ince the case was transferred to him, Judicial Investigator Fadi Sawan, the lead investigator, has made no public statement other than brief news published by state media that says nothing more than who he has interrogated. Najm defended Sawan’s silence, saying he was aiming to maintain the secrecy of investigations.
Sawan’s lack of press statements has allowed for the media narrative to be largely based on leaks, a number of which are of dubious veracity.
Sawan was the justice minister’s third choice for lead investigator at the council, after the first candidate was rejected by a higher judicial council appointed by the executive branch. A second candidate said he did not want the job.
Najm said she had attempted to find out why the first candidate – widely seen as strong and independent – was rejected, but the council kept its deliberations secret.
Najm said Sawan was now waiting for reports by foreign experts to arrive in Lebanon before he moved to the process of writing his indictment. “These reports are key to such an investigation because they have technical and scientific means that we don’t have.”
Lebanon has already received a report from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which the Reuters news agency said had been inconclusive in its findings. Najm said the Lebanese investigators “are looking to build a lot on a French report because French experts did a deeper job”.
“This isn’t a small incident, it’s a disaster and I want a proper, deep investigation. So if it takes a bit more time and we get a proper investigation that’s fine,” she said.
Judicial sources told Al Jazeera that low and mid-level administrative and security officials would likely be indicted, rather than higher-ranking political and security officials. This is despite the fact that a number of high-ranking officials including ministers, the president and prime minister were shown to have known of the presence of large amounts of explosive material at Beirut’s port prior to the blast, but failed to address the issue.
Sawan has reportedly considered ministers and presidents outside of his jurisdiction because of legal immunity.
Najm said crimes by ministers and presidents – including treason and failing to carry out professional duties – would have to be tried at the Higher Council for the Trial of Presidents and Ministers, a body made up of MPs and judges that has never held anyone accountable.
“But it’s as if we’ve decided that there are some specific ministries involved, because they are tied to the port or customs. My view is different: there’s an investigation, it will show the responsibilities of people involved, and then we see which court has the jurisdiction.”

No top officials to be indicted over Beirut blast: Sources
Timour Azhari/Al Jazeera/October 29/2020
Lead investigator in Lebanon blast that killed 200 has limited probe to low- and mid-level officials, judicial sources say.
Beirut, Lebanon – The Lebanese investigator overseeing a probe into the August Beirut explosion that killed more than 200 people is winding down his investigation without accounting for the responsibilities of top-level political and security officials.
Judicial Investigator Fadi Sawan is waiting for the arrival of a report by French investigators within two weeks before he moves to the process of preparing an indictment, a senior judicial source told Al Jazeera. The indictment will draw from a pool of 25 people arrested in connection with the blast, including low- and mid-level administrative and security officials, the source said.
Those detained include current and former customs chiefs Badri Daher and Shafik Merhi, former port director Hassan Koraytem, Abdel Hafiz Kaissi, director of land and maritime transport at the public works ministry, which nominally oversees the port, and Anthony Salloum, head of military intelligence at the port. A second judicial source said the charges include “willful negligence that led to the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians and injury of others”, and “causing massive destruction to public and private property”.
“The first charge means this was intentional negligence, in the sense that they knew the dangers and they either did nothing or were slow to do anything, even as all reports indicated this was an explosive substance,” the second source said.
The maximum sentence under these charges would be five years in prison, the source said.
In addition to the more than 200 killed, upwards of 6,500 people were injured and hundreds of thousands left homeless in the explosion, which officials say was fueled by some 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate left at the port for nearly seven years.
Sawan had called in 48 people as “witnesses” throughout the investigation, including current and former ministers of public works, finance and justice, as well as the General Security Director Abbas Ibrahim and State Security Director Tony Saliba.
“This means they weren’t charged, no one is legally pursuing them, they basically come in to drink a cup of coffee and chat, though of course they still shouldn’t lie,” explained Nizar Saghieh, the founder of watchdog group Legal Agenda. Official correspondence between various branches of government, the judiciary and security officials show the president, prime minister, top security officials, members of the judiciary and more than a half-dozen ministers knew the large amount of explosives were at Beirut’s port but failed to take action.
But none of these top officials is officially considered suspects in the crime.
Sawan has reportedly considered ministers and presidents outside his jurisdiction because of legal immunity – an interpretation that Saghieh said was “ludicrous”. “Immunity applies to political acts carried out during time in office – not a massive explosion that destroys the capital city and kills hundreds. Where is the public interest in this?”
French to investigate
Lebanon’s top prosecutor, Ghassan Oueidat, who works directly with Sawan on the investigation, told Al Jazeera a French judicial team along with technical and security experts will arrive in Lebanon in January to conduct their own investigation into the blast, owing to the fact that several French citizens were killed in the explosion. He did not elaborate. The second source said the French judicial delegation’s work would be facilitated to the extent that “it does not conflict with the Lebanese investigations and does not constitute a confiscation of the judicial investigator’s decisions”. Caretaker Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najem told Al Jazeera she had no new information on the investigation, but confirmed Sawan was waiting to receive all foreign expert reports.
A French embassy spokesperson said they could not comment on the matter because of the ongoing investigation.
Test for the judiciary
Victims of the blast have since the beginning pushed for top-level officials to be held accountable, with many seeing the massive explosion as a direct result of the corruption that the Lebanese ruling elite have fostered at the port – and throughout state institutions – over decades.
But it appears low-level appointees will be the only ones to face some measure of accountability. Melhem Khalaf, the head of the Beirut Bar Association elected last year on an independent ticket, said on Wednesday the investigation must be in-depth and explore the “hierarchy of responsibilities” for the crime.
The Beirut Bar Association on Wednesday said it had filed 697 lawsuits in the names of the families of victims, those wounded and those otherwise affected by the blast, in a renewed push for accountability.
“The judiciary today has an opportunity to give us confidence and restore confidence to people who no longer trust anyone. This is an opportunity to say that there is accountability again,” Khalaf said after filing the lawsuits.
Saghieh warned the delay in filing lawsuits on behalf of the victims – nearly three months after the blast – was an issue in and of itself.
“This means that victims have until now not been represented in the investigation. That’s totally unacceptable – how is it possible for the investigation to seek accountability for them when they are completely absent from the process?” he said.
Saghieh said this merely adds to the previous evidence of due process issues in the investigation that led Legal Agenda, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, among others, to warn it would fail to bring justice for the victims.
‘Worst fears coming true’
In the days after the blast, the probe was overseen by a joint political-security committee, including the prime minister, ministers and heads of security agencies – a number of whom were themselves tied to the conditions that led to the blast.
Local news channel Al Jadeed documented an adviser to then-public works minister Michel Najjar removing stacks of documents from the ministry days later. It is unclear if this was ever investigated.
The investigation was on August 10 transferred to the Judicial Council, an exceptional court that issues verdicts that are not subject to appeal.
Sawan was the justice minister’s third choice for lead investigator at the council, after the first candidate – seen as largely independent from political pressure – was rejected by a higher judicial council appointed by the executive branch, and the second candidate bowed out.
No justifications were given.
Sawan, an investigative judge at the military tribunal, is seen as close to the security establishment and has been accused of bowing to political interference in the past. Meanwhile, public prosecutor Oueidat’s sister, Rola, is married to former public works minister Ghazi Zeaiter, who was nominally in charge of overseeing Beirut’s port for nearly three years, during which the explosive material sat there. Despite this clear conflict of interest, Oueidat has refused to recuse himself from the investigation.
Saghieh said the worst fears of victims and watchdog groups appeared to be coming true. Once Sawan issues his indictment, “It will define and outline the borders of the whole story,” making it difficult for new evidence against other suspects to be added, and narrowing the case down.
Even accountability on an administrative level has been elusive: President Michel Aoun has refused to sign decrees dismissing Daher, Koraytem and Kaissi, claiming the decision required a vote of the cabinet.
Daher is backed by Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement party, while Koraytem is seen as a loyalist of Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri.

tayyar.org – News: Hill supports Hariri
Translated by AlKhaleej Today/October 29/2020
Lebanon, like other countries in the region, entered the American election period, when everything is calculated according to the scale of the ballot boxes in the United States. In this context, visitors to the American capital reported that the US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, David Hale, supported his country for Saad Hariri’s assumption of the premiership, and its understanding of the political contacts that he conducts in the framework of forming the government.
Hill said that his ministry is working today according to a policy of close follow-up to the Lebanese file, but that no one else in the administration cares today about what is happening in Lebanon.
The visitors said that Hill intended that the Lebanese could take advantage of the preoccupation of the rest of the American decision-making circles with the elections in order to make viable settlements. They said that Hill was firm about the financial file, saying: “There is no framework for action outside the IMF program.”Locally, the permanent leaks that come out of the home of the President-designate in Wadi Abu Jameel, spread an optimistic atmosphere based, according to insiders, on his sessions with the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun. The sources underestimate this atmosphere, especially since the basic knot that Hariri must overcome is not resolved by meetings with Aoun, but with the head of the “strong Lebanon” bloc, MP Gebran Bassil.
However, sources in the Free Patriotic Movement indicated that the movement’s “dilemma” could be overcome through the president’s share, while sources on March 8 deny this, asserting that Hariri’s failure to agree with Bassil’s opinion will impede the formation of the government.
Prominent political sources consider that “regardless of the implicit agreement between Hariri and the Shi’ite duo on facilitation, and the most important thing in it is the naming of the specialized ministers,” what will be carried in the coming days will be sufficient to demonstrate if there is another contract or not. While the duo, specifically Hizbullah, confirms that “Hariri has not yet communicated with him, and that the party is awaiting the results of the consultations with Aoun and the agreement with Basil,” one of the indications of silent disagreements remains what was quoted from the head of the Socialist Party, former MP Walid Jumblatt, who “ Raise the cry »Yesterday, an expression of his dissatisfaction with Aoun’s meetings with Representative Talal Arslan and the head of the Arab Tawhid Party, Wiam Wahhab.
Jumblatt, who is promised the “Health” and “Social Affairs” portfolios, curses behind these meetings “attempts to share the Druze share between him and Arslan,” according to those close to him … and Jumblatt became more tense with the information that talked about Hariri’s insistence on obtaining the Ministry of Health!Just before Hariri went to Baabda yesterday evening, where there was a meeting, the Republican Palace declared that “a completion of the study of the government file in an atmosphere of progress and deliberation,” the Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s office quoted him as saying that “the coming government may see the light within four or five days if The atmosphere remained positive, as it currently stands. ”The meeting between Aoun and Hariri, which lasted about 45 minutes, did not come out of any information, as there is an insistence on “keeping the deliberations secret,” according to Baabda sources, whose assertion was limited to that “the debate has reached the stage of distributing bags.” In the evening, Hariri issued a statement denying everything reported in the media about the government’s consultations.
 

Hill supports Hariri: Use our preoccupation with the elections to form...
Translated by AlKhaleej Today/October 29/2020
The Law on Enhancing Basic Guarantees and Protecting Defense Rights, issued on October 16, 2020, escaped pressure from the security services, refusing to stop torturing detainees. The President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, published the law approved by the House of Representatives at the end of last September, and it is now forbidden for the security services to question any arrested person except in the presence of a lawyer, provided that the investigations are recorded in audio and video, under the threat of nullifying the initial investigations and detaining the investigator, if he does not respect the guarantees of the detainees If he was a judge of the Public ProsecutionAlthough the law does not provide comprehensive guarantees for detainees, it reduces the ability of investigators to practice torture as approved by “official means” by the majority of interrogators, with the knowledge and consent of the bulk of the judges, sometimes at their request. The law is opposed by the security services, because it deprives them of the means that they consider the easiest and most reliable to extract confessions from detainees. It also forces them to develop their investigative capabilities, technologically as well as in terms of their human resources. However, it is “surprising” that a large number of judges believe that the law will impede the work of public prosecution offices and investigative judges, as well as the judiciary. This law would make any public prosecutor genuinely responsible for the investigation, as required by the laws.
In addition, the judge will have to develop his investigative capabilities as well, similar to the security services, as the investigator’s call to the judge can no longer be terminated with the phrase “rough on him,” but rather the judge is obliged to propose new methods of work to solve the crimes that the investigators should work according to his instructions during the investigation. . For these reasons, a number of judges have appealed, specifically those who wish to continue to “vocalize” and who are adamant not to make any effort in their work beyond receiving a phone call from the security forces that are investigating. The mobilized judges began to incite to sign a petition, to present it to the President of the Republic, and to ask him to challenge the new law before the Constitutional Council. According to judicial sources, about 150 judges expressed their agreement to sign the petition, noting that one of the senior public prosecutors claimed before his colleagues that Aoun would challenge the law if he received a petition signed by at least 100 judges.
Within the framework of the deliberations on the reasons for the appeal (some of these deliberations are conducted by a special group of judges on the application of “WhatsApp”), information is circulated stating that the law subject of the appeal violated the laws in terms of not seeking the opinion of the Supreme Judicial Council before its issuance, based on the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Council in its decision No. 23 of 2019, in which he emphasized the necessity of seeking the opinion of the Supreme Judicial Council on legislation related to the judicial authority. However, according to a legal expert, “This pretext is dropped when we know that the law proposal has already been presented to the Supreme Judicial Council, but the latter did not interact with it positively or negatively.” Nevertheless, some judges seem enthusiastic about wasting the guarantees of the detainees, the majority of whom are from the most vulnerable groups in society, in a repetition of the scandal of reconsidering the Code of Criminal Procedure twenty years ago, when the security services imposed, by force of the Syrian authority, amending the law as appropriate.
Hill supports Hariri
On the other hand, Lebanon, like other countries in the region, entered the American electoral period, in which everything is calculated according to the scale of the ballot boxes in the United States. In this context, visitors to the American capital reported that the US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, David Hale, supported his country for Saad Hariri’s assumption of the premiership, and its understanding of the political contacts that he conducts in the framework of forming the government. Hill said that his ministry is working today according to a policy of close follow-up to the Lebanese file, but that no one else in the administration cares today about what is happening in Lebanon. The visitors said that Hill intended that the Lebanese could take advantage of the preoccupation of the rest of the American decision-making circles with the elections in order to make viable settlements. They said that Hill was firm about the financial file, saying: “There is no framework for action outside the IMF program.”
Judges are organizing a petition to challenge the law strengthening detainees’ guarantees that mitigate torture
Locally, the permanent leaks that come out of the home of the President-designate in Wadi Abu Jameel, spread an optimistic atmosphere based, according to insiders, on his sessions with the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun. The sources underestimate this atmosphere, especially since the basic knot that Hariri must overcome is not resolved by meetings with Aoun, but with the head of the “strong Lebanon” bloc, MP Gebran Bassil. However, sources in the Free Patriotic Movement indicated that the movement’s “dilemma” could be overcome through the president’s share, while sources on March 8 deny this, asserting that Hariri’s failure to agree with Bassil’s opinion will impede the formation of the government.
Prominent political sources consider that “regardless of the implicit agreement between Hariri and the Shi’ite duo on facilitation, and the most important thing in it is the naming of the specialized ministers,” what will be carried in the coming days will be sufficient to demonstrate if there is another contract or not. While the duo, specifically Hezbollah, confirms that “Hariri has not yet communicated with him, and that the party is awaiting the results of the consultations with Aoun and the agreement with Basil,” one of the indications of silent disagreements remains what was quoted from the head of the Socialist Party, former MP Walid Jumblatt, who “raised The Scream »Yesterday, an expression of his dissatisfaction with Aoun’s meetings with Representative Talal Arslan and the head of the Arab Tawhid Party, Wiam Wahhab. Jumblatt, who is promised the “Health” and “Social Affairs” portfolios, curses behind these meetings “attempts to share the Druze share between him and Arslan,” according to those close to him, noting that “Arslan is not entitled to a portfolio in the government of the twentieth.” Jumblatt became more tense with the information that spoke about Hariri’s insistence on obtaining the Ministry of Health!
Jumblatt is upset at the meeting of Aoun and Arslan … and Hariri wants “health”
Just before Hariri went to Baabda yesterday evening, where there was a meeting, the Republican Palace declared that “a completion of the study of the government file in an atmosphere of progress and deliberation,” the Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s office quoted him as saying that “the coming government may see the light within four or five days if The atmosphere remained positive, as it currently stands. ” The meeting between Aoun and Hariri, which lasted about 45 minutes, did not come out of any information, as there is an insistence on “keeping the deliberations secret,” according to Baabda sources, whose assertion was limited to that “the debate has reached the stage of distributing bags.” In the evening, Hariri issued a statement denying everything reported in the media about the government’s consultations.
These were the details of the news Hill supports Hariri: Use our preoccupation with the elections to form... for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new. It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at saudi24news and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.

Second round of Lebanon-Israel border talks described as ‘positive’
The Arab Weekly/October 29/2020
The local Al-Jadeed station called the talks serious and “very heated,” adding that the Lebanese delegation’s ceiling is the highest it has been and that there are “fundamental disputes on the starting point.”
BEIRUT –Lebanon and Israel, still technically at war and with no diplomatic ties, launched a second round of maritime border talks Wednesday under UN and US auspices to allow for offshore energy exploration.
The talks were held at the headquarters of UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL in the Lebanese border town of Naqura, guarded by army roadblocks and with UN helicopters circling above.
Delegations from the long-time foes reconvened to “assess the possibility of reaching an agreement on demarcating the maritime border … in a manner enabling the cultivation of natural resources in the area,” Israel’s energy ministry said.
“Today’s session is the first technical session,” said Laury Haytayan, a Lebanese energy expert who said she expected “detailed discussions on demarcation.”
Talks later wrapped up and were set to resume at 10am (0800 GMT) Thursday, the state-run National News Agency reported.
A Lebanese source familiar with negotiations said that the first round of technical talks were “positive.”
Local news reports described the meeting as “serious” as the two sides got down to technicalities and the Lebanese delegation pushed for an additional 1,430 square kilometers (550 square miles) to be included in Lebanese territory.
The English-language Daily Star reported that the Lebanese side was adopting a “maximalist stance.” It said Lebanon was pushing for the additional square kilometres to be included in Lebanese territory on top of the already disputed 860 square kilometre- (330 square mile-) area of the Mediterranean Sea which each side claims as being within their own exclusive economic zones.
The local Al-Jadeed station called the talks serious and “very heated,” adding that the Lebanese delegation’s ceiling is the highest it has been and that there are “fundamental disputes on the starting point.”
Turning point
After years of quiet US shuttle diplomacy, Lebanon and Israel this month said they had agreed to begin the negotiations in what Washington hailed a “historic” agreement.
The announcement came weeks after Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first Arab nations to establish relations with Israel since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. Sudan also announced last Friday it has agreed to normalise with Israel.
Lebanon — which last saw military clashes with Israel in 2006 — insists that the negotiations are purely technical and don’t involve any soft political normalisation with Israel.
“Today’s session is the first technical session,” said Laury Haytayan, a Lebanese energy expert. “Detailed discussions on demarcation should begin.”Lebanon, mired in its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, is looking to settle the maritime border dispute so it can press on with its offshore quest for oil and gas.
The search for hydrocarbons has already heightened tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean following repeated Turkish exploration and drilling operations in waters claimed by both Cyprus and Greece.
An Israeli government statement on Tuesday said its aim was to “examine the possibility of reaching an agreement … between the countries in a way that will enable the development of natural resources in the region.”
“Maximalist approach”
In February 2018, Lebanon signed its first contract for drilling in two blocks in the Mediterranean with a consortium comprising energy giants Total, ENI and Novatek.
Exploration of one of the blocks is more controversial as part of it is located in an 860-square-kilometre (330-square-mile) area claimed by both Israel and Lebanon.
Lebanon is expected to adopt a “maximalist approach” to maritime border negotiations, said Haytayan.
The energy expert explained that Lebanese negotiators will likely try to claim areas that fall beyond the disputed 860 square kilometres zone, including the Karish gas field currently operated by Israel, she said.
“We have to wait to see the reaction of the Israelis,” she said.
While the US-brokered talks look at the maritime border, a UNIFIL-sponsored track is also due to address outstanding land border disputes.
“We have a unique opportunity to make substantial progress on contentious issues along” the border, UNIFIL head Major General Stefano Del Col said in a statement on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz released a statement saying that Wednesday’s meeting would be attended by American diplomat and mediator John Desrocher.
He said the Israeli delegation would examine the possibility of reaching an agreement on the determination of the maritime border between the countries in a way that will enable the development of natural resources in the region.
On Wednesday, his office said the Israeli team updated Steinitz, who instructed them to continue talks Thursday.
Faint hopes
The meetings have raised faint hopes for a thaw between the neighbours who have repeatedly clashed on the battlefield.
The Israeli defence minister and alternate prime minister, Benny Gantz, said on Tuesday he was “hearing positive voices coming out of Lebanon, who are even talking about peace with Israel.”
Gantz, speaking during a tour of northern Israel, did not specify which Lebanese comments he was referring to.
But they came a day after Claudine Aoun, daughter of Lebanese President Michel Aoun, told Al Jadeed TV that peace with Israel would be conceivable if outstanding issues were resolved.
“We have the maritime border dispute, the issue of Palestinian refugees, and another topic which is more important, which is the issue of natural resources: water, oil and natural gas which Lebanon is depending on to advance its economy,” she said.
When asked directly if she would object to a peace treaty with Israel, she responded: “Why would I object?”
“Are we supposed to stay in a state of war? … I don’t have doctrinal differences with anyone … I have political differences.”
The Iran-backed armed movement Hezbollah, a major force in Lebanese politics, has criticised the maritime talks because they included Lebanese civilian negotiators, lending credence to accusations of implicit normalisation intent. Confrontation with Israel is the single most important element of Hezbollah’s self-legitimising narrative.
Israel and Hezbollah last fought a war in 2006, and both sides still exchange sporadic cross-border fire.
Even as the maritime talks proceed, Israel has been conducting a large-scale military exercise along its northern border with Lebanon this week simulating war with Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited the exercise and met with top military commanders Wednesday in northern Israel.
Lebanon Israel border map
“Even during the coronavirus, our enemies are not stagnant and neither are we. In this exercise I have been impressed by the vast improvement in the IDF’s offensive capabilities and Hezbollah and Lebanon would do well to take this into account,” he said.
“Whoever attacks us will meet firepower and a steel fist that will destroy any enemy.”

Internal and External Circulation: The Triumph of the Current and the Bet on the Future”:
Hayam Al-Qasifi/Al-Akhbar newspaper/October 29/2020
AlKhaleej Today
under the title ““What reached diplomatic circles is that governmental negotiations in Lebanon are still stagnant, meaning that every file is discussed and left for completion later. Only Hezbollah He specified what he wanted from the Ministry of Finance, but until now he has not fully informed the concerned parties of what he wants.
But what has transpired so far, began to draw questions about the distribution of portfolios and the number of ministers, especially since there are serious mistakes committed in determining the number of ministers, without taking into account the rules of sectarian and sectarian distribution within the Council of Ministers, because any numerical combination is supposed to be taken into account from Within the parity, the bags are divided according to the numerical sectarian map for Christians and Muslims.
With regard to the ministries, the approach of distributing the sovereign portfolios, as it used to be, has shifted to achieving rotation in the main ministries and the division of services ministries. This has given the nature of government reform among the attempts to present a new image of the upcoming traditional government again on the basis of quotas For example, it presents the two most important services portfolios for the socialist progression, even if it is shared equally with its opponents, in a stage of social and health deterioration, so that they become a main attraction for foreign services and aid, as if they were a cover or a reward for Jumblatt for the regularity of his role in re-establishing the settlement pillars. The foreign and internal exchange between the Free Patriotic Movement and the future also becomes a cause for questioning what the two sides achieve from it, in light of what was previously proposed about them.
After the assassination of Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, no political force waged a battle to obtain the interior.

First, it linked the assassination and the international investigation, and secondly, its pledge to the President of the Republic, Michel Suleiman, after the Doha agreement, until the future returned to clinging to it, for various reasons, including what is related to the security structure in which it is considered that it has a stake through the security forces, or by holding the councils Local and Independent Municipal Fund.
General Michel Aoun, before he became president, was not enthusiastic about obtaining the interior during the government negotiations, since his parliamentary bloc had grown and became a rioting party to obtain his full share. He was interested, as was MP Gebran Bassil, in ministries of services, such as communications and then energy, so that the interest gradually increased towards the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a window through which Bassil communicated with the countries of expansion, and from which a presidential candidate would appear to the world. According to Aoun, the Defense Ministry was a “emotional” demand that was more important than the interior, and not strategic, despite all the advice to him that the defense minister did not represent an additional weight, given the influence of the stronger and more effective army leadership. Later, Bassil began to care about the interior, asking about it and its details, exploring its privacy, and recognizing its vital importance, but his eye remained on diplomacy. Today, the inner bag is subtracted from the current share, in light of a series of tensions around it.

The movement’s experience in defense was not encouraging, and the army leadership and the Intelligence Directorate were not obedient to Basil. There is no doubt that the current acquisition of the Interior Ministry represents a political victory for Bassil after the failures of recent months, as well as the insistence on placing the Christian share in the custody of the President of the Republic. This will contribute to re-tightening the service-aux nerve, which has many chapters in this ministry. And victory also lies in the fact that the movement becomes in control of two security arms, between the Ministries of Defense and the Interior, while questions have been raised in political circles about the wisdom of giving the movement this security position, related to the ministry’s responsibility towards the internal security forces (specifically) and public security.

And the internal dedication of the movement increases the chances of monopolizing influence during the preparation of the election law and the municipal and parliamentary elections, given that this government will remain until that time. This gives another dimension to the current assumption of the responsibility of this ministry, as the Covenant Party and as a party force, in addition to sensitive and important departments and interests, such as the municipal fund, refugee affairs and associations. Entry into this ministry is completely different from entering the Ministry of Defense, because it will be enhanced entry by seeking to show strength after a political breakdown, and because the ministry in itself is an independent reference, unlike the Ministry of Defense.
These were the details of the news Distribution of portfolios … “Hezbollah” defined what it wants and the... for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new. It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at saudi24news and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.

Four years into ‘Hezbollah era’, the toll is heavy for Lebanon
Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/October 29/2020
In a couple of days, on October 31 precisely, it will be the fourth anniversary of the election of the former army chief, General Michel Aoun, as President of the Lebanese Republic. Michel Aoun became president thanks to a settlement imposed on the Lebanese by Hezbollah.
The Lebanese were given a simple choice then: accept Hezbollah’s candidate for the presidency of the republic or suffer the consequences of shutting down the parliament forever and have the presidency permanently vacant.
Four years into Michel Aoun’s presidency, all that can be said is that the Lebanese should have gone with the option of vacancy. This conclusion seems logical in light of the country’s current state of misery. With the collapse of its banking system, Lebanon’s future was scattered to the four winds. As people’s deposits were seized, Beirut is no longer trusted as the solid financial centre it used to be in the region, putting at risk most state institutions.
As if these ailments were not enough, the horrific explosion at the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020, came to add to the misery of the already suffering Lebanese. The blast made numerous victims from all sects, communities, regions and social classes. The Christian neighbourhoods of Beirut in particular were the most affected,with tens of thousands of homes being damaged, and prompting another wave of immigration of Lebanon’s Christians, while the country continues to suffer from an unprecedented isolation from Arab countries, never experienced since independence in 1943.
With the arrival of Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace, a different Lebanon emerged. He became president because the Parliament was kept closed for two and a half years to prevent any other candidate from becoming the next president. That fateful presidential settlement was an unforgivable mistake, especially after it became clear that Michel Aoun’s arrival at Baabda Palace would mark the beginning of the “Hezbollah era” in Lebanon.
There is a need to simplify matters to the greatest extent in order to understand what has happened in Lebanon since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, called the Mar Mikhael Document, between Michel Aoun and Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on February 6, 2006, that is, less than a year following the assassination of Rafik Hariri. The record of the events, from February 2006 to October 31, 2016, shows that Michel Aoun successfully passed all the tests that Hezbollah subjected him to.
The tests began with covering up for Hezbollah’s war of the summer of 2006, and then for its “invasion” of downtown Beirut and al-Jabal in May 2008, which was a coup attempt in every sense of the word. The effects of that “coup” are still reverberating today. It was enough reason for all political forces in the country to reject a settlement that would bring Michel Aoun to the presidency of the country. Aoun went even further in his services to Hezbollah and provided political cover for the party’s incursion into the Syrian crisis on the side of the minority Syrian regime in its war on the Syrian people since March 2011.
Yes, Hezbollah’s choice for the person to sit at the Baabda Palace was not random. It was deliberate and it was successful, albeit for the party, of course, and not for Lebanon. Hezbollah knew Michel Aoun’s biggest weakness, which was his lust after the presidency of the republic. The party also knew that its channel of communication with Aoun at the time, namely Aoun’s son-in-law Gebran Bassil, was no less ambitious and he too had his eye on the presidency. Gebran Bassil ended up becoming Michel Aoun’s only trusted person. After all, he was the person who managed to get him to Baabda Palace, no more, no less. What is important here is that this person, Gebran Bassil, has an excellent relationship with Hezbollah, better than anyone else in Lebanon. When he was Lebanon’s minister of foreign affairs, he acted as Iran’s voice on the Council of the Arab League. It was unheard of in the history of Lebanon’s membership in the League. In all of his interventions at the League, all of the other members felt a flagrant bias towards Iran and its so-called “axis of resistance” in the region. It was clear to the members of Arab League that Lebanon has swung militarily and politically to the Iranian axis, with no hope to rescue it from that quagmire; so they abandoned it.
Lebanon is paying the price of accepting Michel Aoun as president and the Christian Lebanese are paying the price for the Aounist movement’s political cover of Hezbollah’s rogue weapons, with what that means in terms of clashing with the international financial system on the one hand and Arab isolation on the other hand. After four years of Michel Aoun’s presidency, Lebanon left the international banking system after receiving several warnings from the US administration and refusing to understand their meaning and the consequences they would entail.
Four years into the Hezbollah era, Lebanon is no longer the same. It is no longer the hospital of the region, the university of the region, nor is it the capital of art, literature, media and tourism in the region. Gone are the cafés, theatres, and cabarets where the Lebanese and Arabs can go to catch a breath of fresh air. Worse, Lebanon is no longer a place for Arab investments.
What Michel Aoun could not do in 1988, 1989 and 1990, when he became for the first time head of a temporary military government that had no other mission than securing the election of a president of the republic to succeed President Amin Gemayel, he succeeded in accomplishing in the last four years. Finally, the Lebanese Christians and Muslims who chose not to leave the country in the late 1980s are now considering emigration.
The Lebanese have not yet realized the extent of wear and tear reached by their country and the extent to which they have become poor at a time when the so-called “Shia duo” chose to provide the necessary political cover for Lebanon’s negotiations with Israel on demarcating the maritime borders, with all what it entails in terms of significance and symbols. The most significant aspect is that Hezbollah can actually do what many others in the country never dare do, and can in the end lead Lebanon wherever the party decides. More than that, it can impose what it wants on the Lebanese in the service of Iran’s expansionist project that has nothing to do with the interests of Lebanon, from near or afar. It does that at a stage when the region appears to be on the verge of major upheavals in light of Israel’s encroachment in different directions, a catastrophic drop in the oil price, and an unprecedented pandemic around the globe.
Four years into the era of Michel Aoun, or more precisely Hezbollah’s era, Lebanon is trapped more than ever in the labyrinth of the unknown.
**Khairallah Khairallah is a Lebanese writer.
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 29-30/2020

Another terrorist attack jolts France
Agencies/NICE, FRANCE/October 29/20
--Still reeling from a terrorist attack earlier this month where a history teacher was beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen extremist, France was jolted by a new terror attack in the southern city of Nice. A woman was beheaded by an attacker with a knife who also killed two other people at a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday, police said, in an incident immediately investigated as an act of terrorism. Mayor Christian Estrosi said on Twitter the knife attack had happened in or near the city’s Notre Dame church and that police had detained the attacker and was taken to a hospital.
Police said three people were confirmed to have died in the attack and several were injured. A police source said a woman was decapitated. French politician Marine Le Pen also spoke of a decapitation having occurred in the attack. Le Pen described the attack as “an act of war” perpetrated by “an Islamist solider”. The French anti-terrorist prosecutor’s department said it had been asked to investigate the attack. Police armed with automatic weapons had put up a security cordon around the church, which is on Nice’s Jean Medecin avenue, the city’s main shopping thoroughfare. Ambulances and fire service vehicles were also at the scene. The attack comes while France is still reeling from the beheading earlier this month of French middle school teacher Samuel Paty in Paris by a man of Chechen origin. The attacker had said he wanted to punish Paty for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics lesson.
It was not immediately clear what the motive was for the Nice attack, or if there was any connection to the cartoons, which Muslims consider to be blasphemous. Today, Thursday, Muslims around the world celebrate the birthday of Prophet Mohammad.
Since Paty’s killing, French officials – backed by many ordinary citizens – have re-asserted the right to display the cartoons, and the images have been widely displayed at marches in solidarity with the killed teacher.That has prompted an outpouring of anger in parts of the Muslim world, with some governments accusing French leader Emmanuel Macron of pursuing an anti-Islam agenda.

Knifeman Kills 3 at French Church, Ratcheting Up Terror Fears
Agence France Presse/October 29/20
A knife-wielding man killed three people at a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday, slitting the throat of at least one of them, in what officials are treating as the latest jihadist attack to rock the country. The assailant was shot and wounded by police, Nice's Mayor Christian Estrosi said. "He kept repeating 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Greater) even while under medication" as he was brought to the hospital, Estrosi told journalists, a claim later confirmed by police sources. Police found the body of a woman whose throat had been cut in an apparent beheading attempt inside the Basilica of Notre-Dame, in the heart of the Mediterranean resort city, a source close to the inquiry said. The body of a man was also found inside, while a third person succumbed to injuries after seeking refuge in a nearby bar. Father Philippe Asso, who serves at the Notre-Dame's basilica, said that no mass was underway at the time of the attack, but the church opens around 8am (0700 GMT) and "people come in to pray at all hours." He told AFP that one victim was a church employee of about 45 years old. The apparent decapitation attempt comes just days after thousands rallied across France in solidarity with a teacher beheaded for having shown pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. The latest attack, just days ahead of the Catholic holy day of All Saints Day, prompted Prime Minister Jean Castex to raise the terror alert level to maximum across the country.
Police sources said the suspect gave his name as "Brahim" and his age as 25, but his identity had yet to be confirmed. Daniel Conilh, a 32-year-old waiter at the Grand Cafe de Lyon, a block from the church, said it was shortly before 9am when "shots were fired and everybody took off running.""A woman came in straight from the church and said, 'Run, run, someone has been stabbing people'," he told AFP, and dozens of police and rescue vehicles quickly sealed off the neighborhood. French anti-terror prosecutors have opened an inquiry into what Estrosi called an "Islamo-fascist attack." France has been on high alert since the January 2015 massacre at the satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo which marked the beginning of a wave of jihadist attacks that have killed more than 250 people. But tensions have heightened since last month, when the trial opened for 14 suspected accomplices in that attack. The paper marked the start of the court proceedings by republishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that infuriated millions of Muslims worldwide. Just days later, an 18-year-old man from Pakistan seriously injured two people with a meat cleaver outside Charlie Hebdo's former offices in Paris.
'Act of cowardice'
In Nice, painful memories remain fresh of a jihadist attack during Bastille Day fireworks on July 14, 2016, when a man rammed his truck into a crowded promenade, killing 86 people. Just a few days later, two teenagers murdered an 85-year-old priest as he conducted mass at his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in northern France, an attack later claimed by the Islamic State group. Thursday's attack drew condemnation from France's allies, with Germany's Angela Merkel saying she was "deeply shaken" and EU Parliament President David Sassoli saying: "This pain is felt by all of us in Europe. "We have a duty to stand together against violence and those that seek to incite and spread hatred," he said on Twitter. Abdallah Zekri, director general of the French Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM), said: "I can only denounce as strongly as possible this act of cowardice against the innocent."Zekri called on French Muslims to cancel festivities to mark the Mawlid, or the Prophet's Birthday, which ends Thursday, "in solidarity with the victims and their loved ones."Estrosi meanwhile called for churches around the country to be given added security or to be closed as a precaution.
Tensions high
The attack comes with tensions heightened following the killing of history teacher Samuel Paty by 18-year-old Chechen Abdullakh Anzorov, who committed the gruesome crime outside Paty's school in a Paris suburb on October 16 after the teacher was denounced by angry parents on social media. His murder prompted Macron to promise a crackdown in Islamic extremism, including shutting down mosques and organizations accused of fomenting radicalism and violence. But the move has inflamed tensions with many Muslims saying Macron is unfairly targeting France's estimated five to six million Muslims -- the largest community in Europe. Protests against France have erupted in several Muslim countries, with some urging a boycott of French goods, and tensions have flared in particular between Macron and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey's foreign ministry said it strongly condemned the attack in Nice, offering "solidarity with the French people."

Macron Vows France Won't Bow after 'Islamist Terrorist Attack' in Nice
Naharnet/Thursday 29 October 2020
President Emmanuel Macron vowed Thursday that "France will not give up on our values" after a knife-wielding man killed three people at a church in what he called an "Islamist terrorist attack."Macron offered condolences to the country's Catholics after the killing, and urged people of all religions to unite and not "give in to the spirit of division."

Saudi Wounds French Consulate Guard in Jeddah Knife Attack
Agence France Presse/Thursday 29 October 2020
A Saudi citizen wounded a guard in a knife attack at the French consulate in Jeddah Thursday, officials said, as France faces growing anger over satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. The assault follows another knife attack at a church in the French city of Nice that left three people dead and several others wounded, in what authorities are treating as the latest jihadist attack to rock the country. "The assailant was apprehended by Saudi security forces immediately after the attack. The guard was taken to hospital and his life is not in danger," the French embassy said in a statement. Police in Mecca province, where Jeddah is situated, said the attacker was a Saudi, but it did not give the nationality of the guard, who they said had sustained minor injuries. The French embassy in Riyadh strongly condemned the attack and urged its nationals in Saudi Arabia to exercise "extreme vigilance." Neither the Saudi authorities nor the French embassy gave any indication of the motivation for the attack. But it comes after French President Emmanuel Macron vigorously defended the publication of satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on free speech grounds.
Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia -- home to Islam's holiest sites -- has criticized the cartoons, saying it rejected "any attempt to link Islam and terrorism" but it stopped short of condemning the French leadership. Macron's defense of Charlie Hebdo's right to publish drawings of the Prophet, which is forbidden under Islam, came after the brutal murder on October 16 of a French school teacher who had shown cartoons to pupils during a class discussion about freedom of speech.
Spotlight on Saudi
The history teacher, Samuel Paty, was killed by an 18-year-old Chechen man, Abdullakh Anzorov, who committed the gruesome crime outside Paty's school in a Paris suburb after the teacher was denounced by angry parents on social media. His murder prompted Macron to promise a crackdown in Islamic extremism, including shutting down mosques and organizations accused of fomenting radicalism and violence. Charlie Hebdo was targeted by jihadists in a 2015 massacre that killed 12 people, including some of its most famous cartoonists. France has been on high alert for terror attacks since the massacre. The trial of suspected accomplices in that attack is under way in Paris. On Thursday Muslims across the region are celebrating the anniversary of the Prophet's birthday. The Jeddah attack puts a spotlight on Saudi Arabia, long criticized for promoting an ultra-conservative brand of Islam.
The kingdom, however, is now in the midst of a once unimaginable liberalization drive as it pushes a new era of openness while de-emphasizing religion. As part of the contentious drive, the kingdom has introduced glitzy mixed-gender concerts, magic shows and sporting extravaganzas with thumping after parties. Last November, a Yemeni national wounded four Spanish nationals when he went on a stabbing spree during a live theatre performance in Riyadh. Saudi state media pinned the blame on al-Qaida, but so far there has been no claim of responsibility from the group and observers point at simmering resentment among arch-conservatives in the kingdom over the entertainment push.

Malaysian ex-PM Mahathir Says Muslims 'Have Right to Kill French'
Agence France Presse/Thursday 29 October 2020
Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said Thursday that Muslims had a right "to kill millions of French people," shortly after a knife-wielding man launched a deadly attack in Nice.  Three people were killed at a church in the southern French city, with the attacker slitting the throat of at least one of them, in what authorities were treating as the latest jihadist attack to rock the country. Shortly afterwards, Mahathir -- who was prime minister of Muslim-majority Malaysia until his government collapsed in February -- launched an extraordinary outburst on Twitter. Referring to the beheading of a French teacher who showed pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, Mahathir said he did not approve of that attack but that freedom of expression does not include "insulting other people." "Irrespective of the religion professed, angry people kill," said the outspoken 95-year-old, who has in the past drawn controversy for remarks attacking Jews and the LGBT community. "The French in the course of their history has killed millions of people. Many were Muslims. Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past." Mahathir, who served as Malaysian premier twice for a total of 24 years, said that French President Emmanuel Macron was "not showing that he is civilized," adding he was "very primitive." "The French should teach their people to respect other people's feelings. Since you have blamed all Muslims and the Muslims' religion for what was done by one angry person, the Muslims have a right to punish the French. "The boycott cannot compensate the wrongs committed by the French all these years." He made no direct reference to the Nice attack. The beheading of the teacher, Samuel Paty, prompted Macron to promise a crackdown on Islamic extremism. But the move has inflamed tensions, with protests against France erupting in several Muslim countries, with some urging a boycott of French goods.

French investigators identify Nice attacker as a 21-year-old Tunisian migrant
AFP/Thursday 29 October 2020
The man suspected of killing three people at a church in the southern French city of Nice on Thursday is a 21-year-old Tunisian who arrived in Europe just a few weeks ago, sources close to the inquiry said.
The suspect, identified as Brahim Aoussaoui, landed in late September on the Italian island of Lampedusa, where he was placed in virus quarantine by authorities before being released with an order to quit Italian territory.
He arrived in France in early October, the sources said.

World Leaders Condemn Deadly Knife Attack in France
Agence France Presse
World leaders condemned Thursday's deadly stabbings in the French city of Nice, which authorities are investigating as a terrorist act, and expressed solidarity with France. Condemnation came from the pope and European leaders as well as from Turkey, which is involved in a heated diplomatic spat with Paris over cartoons mocking the prophet.
- 'Savage' attack -
"We strongly condemn the attack committed today inside the Notre-Dame church in Nice," a Turkish foreign ministry statement said.
It also expressed solidarity with France, and offered condolences to the relatives of the three people killed in the attack.
- EU solidarity -
European Union leaders expressed solidarity with France as well, and pledged to confront "those that seek to incite and spread hatred".
"I condemn the odious and brutal attack that has just taken place in Nice and I am with France with all my heart," European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen tweeted. "My thoughts are with the victims of this hateful act. All of Europe is in solidarity with France. We will remain united and determined in the face of barbarity and fanaticism."
- Merkel 'deeply shaken' -
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said "I am deeply shaken by the brutal murders in the church in Nice. My thoughts are with the relatives of those murdered and injured. Germany stands with France at this difficult time."
- 'Vile attack' -
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte condemned what he called a "vile attack" and said it "will not shake the common front defending the values of freedom and peace. "Our convictions are stronger than fanaticism, hatred and terror."
- 'Defending freedom' -
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said: "We continue to defend freedom, our democratic values, peace and the security of our citizens. United against terror and hatred."
- 'Sowing death' -
Pope Francis prayed for the victims as the Vatican said that "terrorism and violence can never be accepted. "Today's attack has sown death in a place of love and consolation. The Pope is aware of the situation and is close to the mourning Catholic community," Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
The pontiff urged people in France to "unite to combat evil with good."
- UK stands with France -
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged solidarity with Paris in the fight against extremism. "I am appalled to hear the news from Nice this morning of a barbaric attack at the Notre-Dame Basilica," he tweeted in English and French. "Our thoughts are with the victims and their families, and the UK stands steadfastly with France against terror and intolerance."

Turkey Strongly Condemns 'Savage' Attack in France's Nice
Agence France Presse/Thursday 29 October 2020
Ankara strongly condemned Thursday's "savage" knife attack in southern France that left three people dead, offering its "solidarity", despite a running diplomatic spat with Paris. "We strongly condemn the attack committed today inside the Notre-Dame church in Nice," a foreign ministry statement said, while offering condolences to the victims' relatives.

Trump on attack in France: ‘Radical Islamic terrorist attacks’ must stop immediately
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 29 October 2020
US President Donald Trump described the knife attack that killed three people at a church in the French city of Nice as a “radical Islamic terrorist attack.”Trump said in a tweet: “Our hearts are with the people of France. America stands with our oldest Ally in this fight. These Radical Islamic terrorist attacks must stop immediately. No country, France or otherwise can long put up with it!”A man armed with a knife attacked people inside a French church and killed three Thursday, prompting the government to raise its security alert status to the maximum level hours before a nationwide coronavirus lockdown. French President Emmanuel Macron vowed that "France will not give up on our values" after a knife-wielding man killed three people at a church in what he called an "Islamist terrorist attack". Macron offered condolences to the country's Catholics after the killing, and urged people of all religions to unite and not "give in to the spirit of division". The attack in Mediterranean city of Nice was the third in two months in France that authorities have attributed to “Muslim extremists,” including the beheading of a teacher. It comes during a growing furor over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that were republished in recent months by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo — renewing vociferous debate in France and the Muslim world over the depictions that Muslims consider offensive but are protected by French free speech laws.
- With Agencies

Karabakh Says Azerbaijan Forces Closing in on Key Town of Shusha
Agence France Presse/Thursday 29 October 2020
The leader of Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh on Thursday said Azerbaijani forces had advanced to within a few kilometers of the key town of Shusha. "The enemy is several kilometers from Shushi, five kilometers at most," separatist president Arayik Harutyunyan said in a video on Facebook. "The enemy’s main goal is to capture Shushi... whoever controls Shushi controls Artsakh," he said, using the Armenian names for the town and Nagorno-Karabakh.

U.S. Passports to List 'Israel' for Birth in Jerusalem
Agence France Presse/Thursday 29 October 2020
The United States said Thursday that its citizens born in Jerusalem will be able to list Israel as their place of birth, after President Donald Trump recognized the contested holy city as the Jewish state's capital. Until now, Americans born in the city had simply "Jerusalem" listed in their passports without specifying the country. Effectively immediately, Jerusalem-born Americans can elect to state Israel but otherwise their passports would still say only Jerusalem -- an option sure to be preferred by many from the city's predominantly Palestinian eastern part. The announcement comes days before the presidential election in which Trump has promoted his steadfast support of Israel, a key cause for his evangelical Christian base. In his first year in office, Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and later moved the US embassy there -- putting the United States at odds with virtually every other country. "The United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and its seat of government but continues to take no position on the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said as he announced the passport changes. "This matter remains subject to final status negotiations between the two parties." The Palestinian leadership has refused to accept diplomacy by the Trump administration, calling it biased toward Israel. Since September, the Trump administration has secured breakthroughs as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan agreed to recognize Israel despite the lack of a peace deal with the Palestinians. Under a plan proposed earlier this year by Trump, the Palestinians would enjoy a limited, demilitarized state with a capital on the outskirts of Jerusalem, which would remain under full Israeli sovereignty.
 

Dubai's DP World, Israel's Shipyards sign for joint privatization of Haifa Port
Reuters, Jerusalem/Thursday 29 October 2020
Israel Shipyards Industries has submitted a joint bid with Dubai’s DP World in a tender to privatize Israel’s Haifa Port, the company said on Thursday. The two signed an agreement for exclusive cooperation in the privatization of the port, one of Israel’s two main sea terminals on its Mediterranean coast. The joint bid to the government privatization agency comes in the wake of Israel and the UAE agreeing to normalize ties in September. Israel Shipyards said the cooperation would help boost ports competition, lower costs and establish an advanced international trade and logistics infrastructure, adding it would make Haifa a central hub in the Middle East. Last month, Dubai state-owned DP World, which operates ports from Hong Kong to Buenos Aires, said it signed a series of agreements with Israel’s DoverTower that included a joint bid in the privatization of Haifa Port. DoverTower is co-owned by Israeli businessman Shlomi Fogel, a shareholder in Israel Shipyards. At the time Fogel said DP World would collaborate with Israel Shipyards in the Haifa Port privatization. Israel is selling its state-owned ports and building new private docks to encourage competition and bring down costs. Haifa Port will need to be upgraded to compete with a modern one China’s Shanghai International Port Group is building nearby.

Turkey denies Nordic Monitor report on AKP MP accepting $65 million bribe from Qatar
Ismaeel Naar, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 29 October 2020
Turkish officials have denied a report that an MP from Turkey’s ruling party accepted a $65 million bribe from a Qatari intelligence officer linked to a deal that allowed Turkish troops to deploy to Qatar.
Last month, the Stockholm-based Nordic Monitor news website reported that a 19-page intelligence report that was discussed in a Turkish court alleged that a senior member of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) received a bribe from Qatari intelligence.
The document reportedly described how Ahmet Berat Conkar, the head of the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs commission in 2015, secretly communicated and accepted a $65 million bribe from a Qatari intelligence officer to fast track the military deal with Qatar through Turkey’s parliament.
According to the Nordic Monitor, the 19-page intelligence report was brought up by Rear Adm. Sinan Surer during his trial over his alleged role in the failed military coup of 2016. Surer, who was responsible for the external intelligence branch of the Turkish military at the time, raised details of the document during his testimony after accusations by pro-Erdogan Turkish media outlets that he had prepared it himself. “The reason for his insistence is that pro-Erdogan media picked up some parts from the document and published fake stories as if he was the one who wrote it. He sent corrections to the media, filed a motion with the prosecutor’s office with no avail,” Nordic Monitor’s director Abdullah Bozkurt told Al Arabiya. Turkey: accusations ‘disgraceful black propaganda’. But in a written statement sent to Al Arabiya English by Turkey’s Consul General in Dubai on Monday, Conkar himself rejected the allegation of bribery and instead alleged that the Nordic Monitor was affiliated with the movement allegedly behind the 2016 Turkish coup attempt. “The allegation of bribery in the news article, referring as its source to the website ‘Nordic Monitor’ owned and run by persons known to be affiliated to the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO), is a disgraceful utterance of completely ungrounded slanders that serves as black propaganda,” Conkar said, in the statement sent by Turkey’s Consul General in Dubai Ilker Kilic. “Moreover, these hateful slanders are based on the remarks of a person who personally took an active role in the July 15 coup attempt of FETO,” Kilic added. FETO is the name the Turkish government uses to refer to the Gulen movement inspired by exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the government alleges was behind the failed coup in 2016.
Nordic Monitor’s response
In response, Nordic Monitor said that the allegations against Conkar were made during Surer’s testimony in a Turkish court after the intelligence was intercepted by Turkey’s MIT intelligence agency, and that Conkar should therefore redirect his complaint to Turkish intelligence.
“According to the information obtained from a source, Berat Conkar communicated with a Qatari intelligence officer before the session [in the Foreign Affairs Committee] to push the law [that allowed the deployment of Turkish military units in Qatar] and received a $65 million bribe,” the Nordic Monitor quoted Surer as saying in the article. The author of the Nordic Monitor article pointed to Turkish intelligence as the source of the allegations in his response to Conkar. “The allegation was raised in this [19-page] document. If correction is needed, Mr. Conkar should have sent his challenge to the MIT that sent this intel to all relevant branches in the Turkish government,” said Bozkurt. Bozkurt is currently in exile after the previous newspaper that he worked for, Today’s Zaman, was seized by the Turkish government in 2016 over its perceived support for Gulen. “The document was explained in detail in the court by a senior general who was in charge of the external intelligence of the General Staff and saw and analyzed the document. It has nothing to do with a coup attempt and it took place before that,” Bozkurt told Al Arabiya English. Bozkurt said that he cross-referenced some of the allegations made in the document such as the changing of the dates in the Foreign Affairs Commission. “I cross-referenced some of the allegations in the document such as changing dates in the Foreign Affairs Commission, rushing the approval and challenges by the opposition deputies in the commission. The minutes of the commission verified the allegations covered in the document which gives more credence to bribery charges in my opinion. The document specifically states that the bribery claim was obtained from a source,” Bozkurt added.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, walks with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, left, as they review an honour
Request to “depublish” the report
Kilic, Turkey’s Consul General in Dubai, had requested by email and several phone calls that Al Arabiya English “depublish” its reporting on the Nordic Monitor article. “We would therefore like to kindly ask you to publish this correction and remove the September 3 article from your websites,” Kilic said in an email. He also cautioned Al Arabiya English of the “danger of using the Nordic Monitor website in Turkey-related news.” A follow up email to Turkey’s Consul General in Dubai regarding Bozkurt’s statements about the intelligence document and Nordic Monitor's subsequent report on it were not answered in time of publication. Gulen, a one-time ally of President Erdogan who subsequently became his archfoe, has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999. The Turkish government accuses Gülen of orchestrating the failed coup attempt against Erdogan and continuing to undermine the Turkish government, charges Gulen denies. Turkey approved in 2015 the establishment of a military base in Qatar as part of a defense agreement signed in 2014 aimed at helping them confront “common enemies.” At the time, Turkey said it would station 3,000 of its ground troops at the base.

US to sell F-35 fighter jets to UAE, White House tells Congress
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/Thursday 29 October 2020
The White House informed Congress that it intends to push ahead with the sale of F-35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates, the head of the powerful Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee said Thursday. The deal will see 50 F-35 jets sold to the UAE, sources told Reuters. Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel, chairman of the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee, questioned the move, saying it would “significantly change the military balance in the Gulf and affect Israel’s military edge.”Engel, first elected in 1988, lost his primary race earlier in the year and he will not be up for reelection. He said the F-35 was a “game-changing stealth platform,” and called for Congress to study the sale carefully. “Rushing these sales is not in anyone’s interest,” he said. Engel repeatedly said the sale of the fighter jets to the UAE must ensure what is referred to as Israel’s qualitative military edge. “Lastly, the transfer of these weapons to one Arab state inevitably will generate demands from others in the region. Will the price for normalization with Israel be an infusion of advanced weapons? Is this wise?” he questioned. Israel initially balked at the prospective sale but dropped its opposition after what it described as US guarantees that Israeli military superiority would be preserved. Washington and the UAE have been aiming to have a letter of agreement for the F-35 jets in time for UAE National Day celebrated on Dec. 2, Reuters reported last month. The move came after a three-way peace deal was brokered by the US between the UAE, Bahrain and Israel in what became known as the “Abraham Accords.”

Canada/Statement in response to pattern of targeted school attacks
October 29, 2020 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement:
“Education is a fundamental right. Safe schools allow young people to broaden their minds and realize their full potential. That is why it has been so disturbing to witness recent attacks that have deliberately targeted children and education facilities.
“Canada condemns the recent attacks on schools in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Cameroon. These attacks are grave violations of human rights. Canada stands in solidarity with the families who have been affected by these horrible attacks. The perpetrators of these atrocities must be held to account.
“Canada will always defend the right to safe access to education, both at home and abroad.”

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 29-30/2020

The Irony of American History and Russian Disinformation
Chris Farrell/Gatestone Institute/October 29, 2020
One must also consider the "arguments" about the "evidence" of Russian disinformation. First off, we have unending "investigations" by various bodies and persons who are not qualified to investigate a price check at Wal-Mart. Here, I speak of persons like Adam Schiff or the members and staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Second, we have the "tv experts." These folks are usually the former heads of the agencies and departments that are actually guilty of the subversion and sedition that got us to this point. Think of John Brennan giving his expert opinion on the innocence and honor of James Comey. When any of these characters (and paid CNN contributors) invokes Russian disinformation (usually quoting each other), you know they are lying. Period.
Of course, anyone who asks questions about any of the logical disconnects and fallacies of any alleged Russian disinformation campaign must be on Putin's payroll. Ask a question? Sure "comrade," go ahead!
It is terribly important to be reminded of all these things just a few days before the election. You should go to your polling place in-person and "vote angry." You've been lied to – savagely – for nearly four years. Go ahead and take your electoral revenge.
We have been subjected to four years of large parts of the US government shrieking about Russia and the threats posed by that country to the safety of our republic. How did so many miss their own serial treasons, in concert with the Soviet and Russian governments, dating back to 1917? Let us refresh our recollections of how so many Americans reframed history and disinformation. Some of the following may be "lost history" to you, but that is okay, because we definitely need some reminders before election day.
FDR himself personally schmoozed Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs Maxim Litvinov in the White House and acknowledged the USSR diplomatically for no US advantage whatsoever in November of 1933. When Litvinov returned to his embassy from the White House, he openly mocked FDR's naïveté and gullibility to his staff.
FDR's "co-president," Kremlin-loving Harry Hopkins, has been airbrushed out of the history of the FDR White House. Hopkins went on to live in the FDR's Lincoln Bedroom between May 1940 and December 1943 while running the entire Lend-Lease Program. Hopkins bellowed "All hail to the Russian people and their gallant army!" in Madison Square Garden on June 23, 1942, while promoting US war aid to the Soviet Union.
The usual rebuff to this sort of inconvenient historical observation is, "Oh, but that was when the Soviets were our allies!" If you are satisfied with that explanation, then I recommend reading Stan Evans, Diana West and Paul Kengor in order that you to get much-needed additional information and perspective.
How about when Ted Kennedy asked the Soviets to intervene in the 1984 elections? You may remember that Kennedy derisively coined the phrase "Star Wars" to mock Reagan's "Strategic Defense Initiative" and aided the Soviet Union by opposing the program. Americans repeat "Star Wars" like parrots and do not even know why or how the term came to be associated with the program. Kennedy was not alone in his "Soviet friendship." The FBI ran a program monitoring congressional contacts with the Soviet embassy for nearly 40 years, and they still will not release those records.
What about Barack Obama's wooing and collusion with Medvedev on a "hot mic," with a special message for Vladimir? Hillary Clinton conjured up the fake Trump-Russia scheme, and then paid political operative cut-outs and Russians to advance the story.
There is a 100-year-old pattern.
The Soviet Union and modern-day Russia are expert practitioners of deception, provocation, diversion, active measures, and double-agentry -- all of the tools and techniques of disinformation. Deception and manipulation are the goals of the disinformation. False information itself is not enough. There is a desired outcome. Decisions must be affected. Changes made. People persuaded. Actions taken.
One hundred years ago, there was a cottage industry of forgeries peddled around the embassies, consulates, attaches and spies of European capitals. Some of the forgers were criminals looking to make a fortune, but most were Soviet agents sowing confusion. Letters, documents, reports, maps, diagrams, etc. -- all forms of records, both physical and sometimes photographic reproductions that were used to tell a certain story to a certain audience. Books were also generated for deceptive purposes -- writing and rewriting "facts" and "history" to serve on another front of the political war. It is really no different today. We have the "Steele dossier" and James Comey running around on his book tour(s). There really is "nothing new under the sun."
We are supposed to believe that the life-long career "friends of Russia" are suddenly terrified by Russia. Someone should have told Bernie Sanders. This sudden alarm over Russia by its erstwhile admirers is similar to the "old switcheroo" many Democrats did on civil rights for Black Americans. Lincoln and the Republican abolitionists freed the slaves of the Confederacy from Democrats through a bloody civil war, suffering 600,000+ casualties. Many of today's Democrats pretend Republicans were Alabama plantation owners. Half the Republicans agree, or do not understand the insidious lie.
Many switched party affiliation colors during the 2000 election. America now stupidly assigns Republicans the color of revolutionary, communist red. That was and is always the color of the Left. Hence "Red Army," "Red Square," etc. Republicans are too stupid and lazy to challenge it in the media and their own branding, so now a whole generation of Americans have been brainwashed and do not know any better. In fact, they are proud to be "Reds!" So sad.
One must also consider the "arguments" about the "evidence" of Russian disinformation. First off, we have unending "investigations" by various bodies and persons who are not qualified to investigate a price check at Walmart. Here, I speak of persons like Adam Schiff or the members and staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Second, we have the "TV experts." These folks are usually the former heads of the agencies and departments that are actually guilty of the subversion and sedition that got us to this point. Think of John Brennan giving his expert opinion on the innocence and honor of James Comey. When any of these characters (and paid CNN contributors) invokes Russian disinformation (usually quoting each other), you know they are lying. Period.
Of course, anyone who asks questions about any of the logical disconnects and fallacies of any alleged Russian disinformation campaign must be on Putin's payroll. Ask a question? Sure "comrade," go ahead!
It is terribly important to be reminded of all these things just a few days before the election. You should go to your polling place in-person and "vote angry." You've been lied to -- savagely -- for nearly four years. Go ahead and take your electoral revenge.
*Chris Farrell is a former counterintelligence case officer. For the past 20 years, he has served as the Director of Investigations & Research for Judicial Watch. The views expressed are the author's alone, and not necessarily those of Judicial Watch.

A New Nuclear Deal with Iran?
Peter Huessy/Gatestone Institute/October 29, 2020
How then can the United States get around the Iranian regime's adamant opposition to any restrictions on its nuclear or missile ambitions and secure a sound nuclear deal?
Even if the United States secured a new nuclear agreement with Iran, or resuscitated the old one, what makes anyone think that Iran would honor a deal any more than it honored the last ones?
Given the seriousness of these issues and the lack of trust in the mullahs, all provisions must not have "sunset clauses" but be permanent.
Even if these six factors may now make it possible to give "diplomacy a chance," it might be advisable only to try that route if it is reinforced with resolute military force.
The JCPOA it is not only a fraud, it is camouflage for the appeasers of the world to pretend they are doing something about Iran's nuclear ambitions when in fact they are not doing anything but allowing Iran, after a short delay, to have nuclear weapons.... The mullahs will not change on their own. Diplomatic options are poor and unrealistic.
The JCPOA deal not only fails to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them, it also hides Western inaction in confronting Iran's missiles, nuclear sites and terrorism.
The defects of the current JCPOA deal are real. As Ambassador Eric Edelman and retired General Chuck Wald recently explained, Iran's search for a nuclear-capable missile was actually given an impetus by the current deal, including a provision ending the UN arms embargo against Iran. Pictured: Edelman testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on November 27, 2018 in Washington, DC.
Both US contenders of the presidency, the incumbent Donald J. Trump and the challenger, former Vice-President Joe Biden, have indicated that no matter what the election results are around November 3, they intend to negotiate with Iran. Even if the United States secured a new nuclear agreement with Iran, or resuscitated the old one, what makes anyone think that Iran would honor a deal any more than it honored the last ones?
US choices seem to come down to : (1) keeping the current JCPOA, a seriously deficient semi-agreement that, contrary to what was promised by the Obama administration -- that it would prevent Iran from having a nuclear bomb, instead leads straight to Iran's having as many as it would like; or (2) pin US hopes on a wholesale campaign of diplomatic, political, and economic sanctions against Iran in the hope that Iran might secure an internally generated revolution and overthrow the mullah's regime.
There are those who say that the current nuclear deal is the best option for the United States. They assert without a doubt that going back to the JCPOA will bring Iran into complete compliance with a non-nuclear future. One adherent of such an approach is apparently former Vice President Joe Biden, with whom the Iranians say, understandably to judge from his financial track record, they would rather "do business."
The defects of the current JCPOA deal are real. As Ambassador Eric Edelman and retired General Chuck Wald recently explained, Iran's search for a nuclear-capable missile was actually given an impetus by the current deal, including a provision ending the UN arms embargo against Iran. The current deal is even worse, given Iran's ongoing space launch and missile production. One expert described them as a "... a crucial building block establishing a global range nuclear missile force..." to say nothing of the potential for stimulating or even underwriting nuclear proliferation.
How then can the United States get around the Iranian regime's adamant opposition to any restrictions on its nuclear or missile ambitions and secure a sound nuclear deal?
First, tough ongoing and snap-back economic sanctions have significantly reduced Iranian support for its terror proxies in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and the Gaza Strip.
Second, U.S. domestic production, and especially fracking, have reduced oil and gas prices by upwards of fifty percent from a decade ago. Those circumstances have insulated the U.S. economy from Middle East oil price shocks including those from Iran, should Iran seek to disrupt oil transport though the Strait of Hormuz or attack Gulf oil storage or export facilities.
Third, the U.S. has created a significantly better armed coalition of allied nations including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel, which are now vastly more able to counter Iran's malignant behavior in the Middle East. Regional U.S. military commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, for instance, has explained that Iranian-created tensions have ebbed. Some coalition members have, in fact, adopted unprecedented formal peace agreements with Israel.
Fourth, America's successful destruction of the ISIS "caliphate" removed a major source of Middle East instability and allowed the U.S. to focus on Iran's threat.
Fifth, the U.S. took out Iran's top terrorist leader -- General Qassem Soleimani -- thereby proving to the Iranian mullahs and US allies that the America, at least under the current administration, means business.
Sixth, and perhaps most importantly, more and more expert analysts have determined the JCPOA was an extremely toxic agreement; fatal flaws identified by the Israelis years ago have now been confirmed.
Even if these six factors may now make it possible to give "diplomacy a chance," it might be advisable only to try that route if it is reinforced with resolute military force.
Of what should a sound nuclear deal with Iran consist? First, there should be five principal prohibitions:
No right to enrich.
No right to advanced centrifuges.
No right to offensive ballistic missiles.
No right to sunset provisions.
No right to terrorism.
The original JCPOA gave Iran the right to enrich uranium -- a right that no other non-nuclear member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty had ever been granted.
With no right to enrich, possessing advanced uranium centrifuges have no legitimate purpose.
With no nuclear warheads in Iran's future, ballistic missiles with which to carry such warheads also become unnecessary.
Given the seriousness of these issues and the lack of trust in the mullahs, all provisions must not have "sunset clauses" but be permanent.
Finally, if Iran wants to "do business" as a normal nation state, the mullahs must also reject their jihadist agenda. There are no legitimate grievances that justify Iran's terrorism. Any normalization must also include reparations paid to American victims of Iranian terrorism.
The principles for such a deal with a possible chance for tenuous success are well known; the real question seems if anyone in charge of Iran will actually abide by them.
Iran may indeed reject any deal outright. Is there a third way?
The JCPOA it is not only a fraud, it is camouflage for the appeasers of the world to pretend they are doing something about Iran's nuclear ambitions when in fact they are not doing anything but allowing Iran, after a short delay, to have nuclear weapons.
So, keeping the JCPOA deal means that the mullahs get nuclear weapons; waiting for the mullahs to come to their senses also means that the mullahs, down the road, get nuclear weapons. The mullahs will not change on their own. Diplomatic options are poor and unrealistic.
The JCPOA deal not only fails to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them, it also hides Western inaction in confronting Iran's missiles, nuclear sites and terrorism.
*Peter Huessy, Senior Consulting Analyst at Ravenna Associates, is President of GeoStrategic Analysis
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How vaccines became the unexpected superheroes of 2020
Dr. Walid Zaher/Al Arabyia/Thursday 29 October 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the world’s attitude to vaccines, revolutionized their development, and elevated them to the role of potential savior. The UAE’s and world’s first phase III trials of an inactive COVID-19 vaccine ensure it is helping to lead this change.
For the past decade, people have generally taken vaccines for granted; many thought of them as just a couple of jabs for polio, diphtheria and other shots that kids received at school, which were then forgotten. But for the past six months, the world has become transfixed with the concept of vaccines like no other time in history. Daily news bulletins present us with the latest updates on the global race to develop a vaccine to combat COVID-19 pandemic and help bring all our lives back to normal.
Despite the recent attention on vaccines, they are not new – in fact, vaccines have been in our lives since the 17th century, when the first vaccine was discovered for smallpox. Immunization is also an age-old tradition dating back to Buddhist monks and other civilizations that employed ranging methods, including extreme ones involving snake venom to build immunity.
Yet, many people would have never believed that the world would place its hope of resuming a normal life on the successful discovery of an effective vaccine. You could argue that vaccines are rapidly becoming the unassuming superheroes of 2020 – replacing the Hollywood summer blockbusters with their potential to come to the rescue of all of mankind and to do their bit for humanity.
Vaccine development and testing processes have been rapidly accelerated. Research milestones that would have taken a decade or more have now been compressed into months through expediting regulatory functions, optimizing data systems, providing transparency, and demonstrating faith in the powerful spirit of humanity. Governments have invested considerable amounts on clinical trials, manufacturing, and vaccine supply.
The pandemic has revolutionized the vaccine production processes in ways never seen before. Uniquely, vaccine approval protocols are now running in parallel to the trials, manufacturing, and supply, to hasten the delivery of a safe and effective vaccine to people around the world. These faster processes and protocols may lead to questions about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines under development. But a closer look at the science behind these trials eases any doubts.
These trials follow the international guidelines of research and ethics, while using the latest and most sophisticated technology to support the efforts of governments, companies, medical experts, scientists, researchers, and individuals in a global coalition of clinical expertise and technology to find a solution to our biggest modern health crisis.
The UAE’s role
Here in the UAE, the 4Humanity trials – the world’s first Phase III trial of an inactivated vaccine for COVID-19 – have had 31,000 volunteers successfully vaccinated.
The Phase III clinical trials are testing the safety and efficacy of two inactivated vaccine candidates, both of which were developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd and Beijing Institute of Biology Products – subsidiaries of Sinopharm CNBG. The tests in Phase I and II trials in China were successful and triggered a strong neutralizing antibody response. These are now part of the ongoing double-blind trials in the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan, which have seen a total of 41,000 volunteers from over 125 nationalities participate in the trials – with the aim to measure efficacy on a larger population size in line with major trials of this nature around the world.
Launching from the UAE, these are now the first Pan-Arab trials of their kind and have showcased the value of collaboration across entities and countries to work closely as partners for safeguarding the future health of nations. The trials have set a benchmark for being the most technologically advanced, with results of the trials fast-tracked using sophisticated AI technology and machine learning, helping researchers to conduct tests at a previously unimaginable scale.
Globally, inactivated vaccines are just one of the types of vaccines being tested. The over 200 trials worldwide are also testing vaccines including live-attenuated vaccines, subunit vaccines, and toxoid vaccines. An inactivated vaccine – the type that is being tested in these clinical trials – uses a killed version of the germ or antigen that causes the disease to help the immune system prepare itself for an eventual infection and has been successfully used for the Influenza, Hepatitis and Diphtheria vaccines.
*Dr Walid Zaher is the Chief Research Officer and Vaccine Study Director at G42 Healthcare.

How the new global politics of climate change will affect the Middle East
Sultan Althari/Al Arabyia/Thursday 29 October 2020
The global shift toward clean energy will come with a new set of foreign policy risks, power shifts, and economic relationships. For the countries of the Arabian Gulf, home to 31 percent of the world’s oil, the shift presents both challenges and opportunities.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the world continues to undergo a global energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. BP – one of the world’s most expansive oil companies – projects oil demand to peak in the next ten years, gradually handing its share of the energy mix to renewables.
This transformation will shape the Middle East, both through its global and regional-specific consequences.
First, renewable energy expansion will lessen resource-driven tensions between states, decreasing the likelihood that states will engage in direct confrontation for energy security on a global scale. Why? Simply put, renewables are less geographically concentrated than fossil fuels – increased self-sufficiency amongst states means less interdependencies, and potentially, less conflict.
However, while direct conflict over resources between states may become less likely, the shift to renewables comes with a new set of geopolitical risks to energy supply, for example maritime disruption in the delivery of fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia. As sectors come to rely more heavily on electricity, cyberattacks pose an increased threat to a country’s energy resources.
States will therefore benefit from investing in cybersecurity. Saudi Arabia has taken steps to empower the sector with the national policies, resources, and regulatory frameworks to create a resilient cyber defense. Recent Saudi investments have strategically enhanced cyber-threat detection and prevention capabilities—Riyadh will therefore find the energy transition much safer and easier than states that have not anticipated or been unable to act on the increased importance of cybersecurity in the new renewable energy mix.
Second, the increased importance of materials essential to renewable energy materials, such as rare earth elements and lithium, could lead to the development of cartels whose members will be empowered by their access to resources.
While OPEC ensures the stabilization of oil markets through a steady supply of petroleum to consumers, future clean energy cartels may substantively restrict supply and raise destabilizing geopolitical tensions in the process. China and Russia stand to benefit the most from the increased importance of rare earth elements for clean energy.
Ironically, rare earth elements are not geologically rare; mining and processing them is capital intensive, meaning it is their production that is actually rare. Today, most of that production occurs in China—a nation that would dominate rare earth supply chains in a future era of zero-carbon energy. In fact, China and Russia jointly hold 57 percent of global reserves—as demand for rare earths picks up, the strategic significance of this statistic should not be overlooked. Beyond rare earths, China refines over twice as much lithium as any other country, thereby dominating the supply chain for lithium-ion batteries with over 60 percent of component production and 77 percent of cell capacity.
This provides further justification for the Gulf’s tilt towards China and Russia, while highlighting the need for Gulf states to diversify their pool of strategic partnerships. Countries can mitigate risks of monopolized production by reducing the need for rare earths in renewable energy through technological innovation, and more importantly, diversifying the production and processing of rare earths across states.
Third, greater geopolitical clout will fall into the hands of “electrostates”—countries that dominate the production of solar panels, electric car batteries, and other clean energy technologies. Unsurprisingly, China is uniquely positioned to rise as an influential electro-state: By producing over 70 percent of the world’s solar modules, Beijing is making solar panels both accessible and affordable (costs dropped 85 percent in the past decade). In addition, 7 of the world’s 10 largest solar-cell manufacturers are based in China.
Based on these figures, will China’s status as a leading electro-state give it the same energy-based clout as leading oil producers today? Not quite. The difference in leverage is tied to the fundamental difference between oil and clean energy: while curbing the latter may generate higher prices or delays for new electric cars, cutting off the former brings mobility, heating, and manufacturing to an immediate halt.
Fourth, given projected supply-demand trends, lowest-cost oil producers—like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—will sustain selling their oil the longest, thereby adding to their strategic geopolitical influence as the world edges closer to a renewable-centric energy mix. In addition, these states are both financially and environmentally efficient producers with less methane leakage and lower life cycle emissions than any other oil-producing state. Lowest-cost producers will therefore end up with higher market shares and oil revenue as lower costs and emissions strengthen their grip on the oil market.
Fifth, states with energy prowess today may enjoy similar status in a future era of zero-carbon energy. How can we define energy prowess in the post-oil era? Producing affordable, zero-carbon energy for export. Saudi Arabia is a case in hand: beyond an abundance of low-cost solar power, the Kingdom recently unveiled a $5 billion project to build the world’s largest green hydrogen project. Riyadh’s experience at the helm of global energy in one era will undoubtedly come in handy as the world navigates its way to the next.
For over a century, the geopolitics of energy has been synonymous with the geopolitics of oil and gas. Today, renewable energy is expanding rapidly, accelerating the pace of the energy transition while redefining the intersection of energy and geopolitics. A new energy mix comes with a new set of foreign-policy risks that states must strategically identify, and proactively address. This means that today’s petrostates can very well become tomorrow’s electrostates, tilting the balance of power accordingly. Successfully detecting and responding to paradigm-shifting scenarios will enable states to emerge into an era of greater geopolitical stability and clean energy at once.
* Sultan Althari is an adviser and recent Masters graduate in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). He tweets @sultanalthari

America Should Not Sell F-35 Fighter Planes to the Qatari Regime
Jonathan Spyer and Benjamin Weinthal/Newsweek/October 29/2020 |
Israeli energy minister Yuval Steinitz, speaking to the Ynet website on Sunday, expressed concern that despite Jerusalem’s objections, Qatar will eventually acquire state-of-the-art Lockheed Martin F-35 combat aircraft from the U.S. The minister’s words reflect Israel’s determination to maintain its qualitative military edge over all other Middle Eastern states.
The Israeli desire to prevent any regional state from approaching military parity with it holds for friends as well as foes. A heated discussion is currently underway regarding the acquisition by the United Arab Emirates of the F-35 stealth aircraft as part of its normalization deal with Israel. Egypt’s efforts to modernize its submarine fleet remain a matter of debate and concern in Israel. Cairo and Jerusalem have been at peace for 40 years. These concerns derive from Israeli awareness of the volatile and dysfunctional nature of Mideast politics. Israeli defense officials point to the experience of Egypt under Muslim Brotherhood rule in 2012-2013. At the time, Israel’s 1979 peace treaty with Egypt—a cornerstone of Israel’s subsequent economic development, societal flourishing and partial integration into the region—came within visible distance of abrogation. This regional volatility renders the military capabilities of every nation, even currently friendly ones, a matter of concern.
With regard to Qatar, which pursues a regional strategy hostile to the Jewish state, this wariness is multiplied manyfold.
Qatar, which hosts the largest U.S. military facility in the Middle East at Al Udeid Air Base, nevertheless consistently aligns with and assists anti-Israel and anti-American forces across the region.
Doha seeks to leverage its connections to both pro- and anti-Western camps to its diplomatic advantage. Its financing of the Hamas enclave in the Gaza Strip is one example. Its apparent payment of ransoms for the release of Western hostages to Syrian Islamist rebel groups that Qatar itself supports is another. Sometimes, Qatar openly sides with the anti-Western forces of Iran and its associates, and of Turkey and the Sunni Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood. Doha remains staunchly opposed to the normalization agreements recently reached between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain and most recently Sudan. Its influential Al Jazeera satellite news channel offers a non-stop diet of incitement against Israel and the United States. Qatar strongly supported and promoted the short-lived Muslim Brotherhood government in Cairo. It maintains close links with Iran, with which it is jointly developing the Gulf’s North Dome/South Pars Gas Condensate field, the largest natural gas field in the world.
Qatar also maintains a growing strategic partnership with the Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This alliance between Turkey and Qatar is perhaps the central pillar of Qatari foreign policy. The two countries share a core sympathy for Sunni political Islam, in particular in its Muslim Brotherhood form. They signed a strategic security agreement in 2014, and a Turkish military base was subsequently established in Qatar.
Qatar has also assisted Turkey in ameliorating the impact of U.S. sanctions. In 2018, Doha pledged $15 billion in investment in Turkish banks and financial markets. This was payback for Turkey’s efforts in helping the Qatari monarchy break the blockade imposed by neighboring Saudi Arabia and the UAE in 2017 because of Qatar’s support for terrorist groups and too-close relations with Iran. As Turkish journalist Burak Bekdil pointed out in a recent article, a significant component in the growing friendship between Qatar and Turkey, both supposedly U.S. allies, is the assistance afforded the latter by the former in evading U.S. sanctions.
Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family has contributed to the demise of Middle East stability over the last decade. In 2014, Germany’s development minister said Qatar was financing the Islamic State terrorist movement in Syria and Iraq. In response to a growing list of allegations, the regime of the 40-year-old ruler of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who was appointed emir by his father in 2013, frequently issues platitudes denying the country is a state sponsor of Islamic terrorism.
Take the most recent terrorist finance operation allegedly conducted by Qatar. The prominent German weekly paper Die Zeit published allegations in July that Doha funded the Shi’ite Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah, the Iranian regime’s chief regional proxy, with weapons and cash. Qatar’s regime mirrors the Islamic Republic of Iran in its efforts to have its hands in as many terrorist cookie jars as possible; in short, both Sunni and Shi’ite terrorist entities. The strategy of the tiny, gas-rich Gulf state is to project as much power as possible across the region.
Qatar has provided a safe haven for the Taliban since at least 2013. This is the relationship to which the Afghan presidential palace referred on Sunday when it said the “Taliban’s links to terrorist networks are still in place.”
Qatar also provided a lavish lifestyle to the then-head of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, in Doha. Both the U.S. and the EU have designated Hamas a foreign terrorist organization.
All of this helps explain why Israel’s then-ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, termed Qatar’s Islamist regime the “Club Med for Terrorists” in a 2014 New York Times opinion article. And it illustrates why Israel would be deeply concerned about Qatar acquiring the F-35.
Putting aside Qatar’s atrocious human rights record, including its lethal homophobia, exploitation of workers of color during the build-up to hosting the 2022 soccer World Cup and widespread gender apartheid, the Al Thani regime poses a grave danger to Middle Eastern and international security.
The sale of F-35 all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft to Qatar would empower the enemies of America in the Middle East. The U.S. should announce, loudly and publicly, that it will not sell F-35s to the state sponsor of terrorism in Doha.
Jonathan Spyer is executive director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis (MECRA), a research fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Strategy and Security and a fellow at the Middle East Forum. Follow Jonathan on Twitter @jonathan_spyer. Benjamin Weinthal is a research fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal.

De Macron venu nous dire son amour de notre pays
au Tchétchène qui a décapité le professeur d’histoire
Ne revient-il pas aux vrais musulmans d’affirmer haut et fort
que la décapitation d’un enseignant d’histoire n’est pas de l’Islam ?
Par Abdel Hamid El Ahdab, Avocat/October 29/2020
Les spectacles affligeants dont le monde est aujourd’hui le théâtre n’on pas surgi du néant. Ces avatars sont engendrés par les lois mêmes de l’évolution. Des changements quantitatifs s’accumulent et donnent naissance à des réactions qui produisent, à un moment ou à un autre, un changement qualitatif qui semble instantané mais qui ne l’est pas en réalité. A l’exemple de la vie qui surgit du fœtus, de la plante qui naît de la graine enfouie dans le sol, elle est, au début, immobile, puis des changements interviennent, inter réagissent et quelque chose surgit qui est très différente de ce qui préexistait.
Ainsi le Président français, Macron, s’était-il réuni avec ceux dénommés , par erreur, « leaders du Liban » à la Résidence des Pins, avant de se rendre au port de Beyrouth pour voir le spectacle de la catastrophe et tendre la main de secours, la main de l’amour qu’il porte au libanais que les politiques ont isolé, au cours du mandat actuel , du reste du monde et fait que les pays influents l’ignorent en ces moments de détresse alors que le Liban fut la perle du Moyen-Orient, la capitale et le joyau de la culture mariant l’occident et l’orient.
Aujourd’hui, soit peu de temps après, un professeur d’histoire-géographie dans cette France laïque et d’avant-garde, donnait un cours sur l’Islam et voulait montrer une caricature du Prophète puisée de cette culture laïque et civile. Un tchétchène partisan de Daesh a estimé que cette initiative du professeur constituait une atteinte à l’islam et au Prophète et il l’a décapité à sa sortie du collège. Cette culture daeshiste appréhende toujours la religion à sa manière, barbare, sauvage et inculte. Ce professeur avait indiqué en ses explications sur l’Islam que le Coran dit : « … Vous verrez que les plus proches des croyants sont ceux qui disent qu’ils sont nazaréens … ». Le Coran comprend, d’ailleurs, une « sourate » du nom de Mariam (Marie) et ce professeur avait expliqué le sens de cette évocation coranique de Marie, « celle que n’avaient pas approché les hommes ». Mais ce crime odieux a donné lieu à une colère, violente, virulente, faisant peur, parce que les français tiennent très fort à leur système laïque où l’Etat n’a pas de religion et où la neutralité est assurée entre les diverses croyances.
Les français ont leur culture et leurs conceptions et ils ne sont pas prêts à s’en défaire. Ils n’imposent pas aux croyants des autres religions leur système laïque et civile et n’acceptent pas que leur soient imposées les cultures des autres religions, même si ces autres religions comportent des ramifications, certaines tolérantes et d’autres barbares. Ce qui importe aux français est la liberté et, particulièrement, celle de l’expression, même si cette dernière ne plaît pas aux ramifications barbares précitées !
La colère des français s’explique par le refus que ces sous-religions constituées par ces ramifications n’imposent leurs conceptions barbares sur leur propre sol et par le glaive et la terreur.
L’Histoire rengorge de développements néfastes de cette sorte. Les chrétiens se sont divisés, entre catholiques et orthodoxes. Ils se sont même entretués (entre catholiques et protestants). Les musulmans ont fait de même et l’islam a donné naissance à plusieurs autres avatars, dont le sunnisme, le chiisme et les religions alaouite et druze.
Mais le spectacle auquel a assisté particulièrement le Liban était effrayant. Certains pays arabes n’ont pas hésité à rejoindre les ramifications barbares de l’islam, à l’exemple de la Jordanie qui a boycotté les produits français et brûlé les drapeaux de la France.
Macron est celui qui a brisé l’isolement dont a souffert le Liban du fait de la politique suivie par les actuels gouverneurs du pays, résidus de la guerre civile. Il a brisé cet isolement avec beaucoup de noblesse, avec honneur et avec amour pour notre Liban. Il lui a tendu la main du secours et lui a offert l’aide permettant de le sauver de l’effondrement.
Le spectacle, à la fin de la semaine passée, était étrange : Emergeait, d’une part, le soutien et l’aide au Liban éclopé, et d’autre part, le tchétchène daeshiste qui égorge le professeur d’ histoire à la porte d e l’école parce qu’il a exposé la caricature de Mohamed et discuté de l’Islam. La liberté, la culture et la tolérance se heurtait de la sorte à la barbarie jaillie au nom des choses sacrées. Des pays arabes, e n tête desquels la Jordanie, se sont joints au tchétchène et ont commencé à appeler au boycott des produits français !!
Où va-t-on ? !
Les arabes normalisent avec Israël et œuvrent à une alliance avec cet Etat tout en permettant aux musulmans pro Daesh et au tchétchène de trucider un professeur à la sortie de l’école à Paris parce qu’il a fait exhibé une caricature du Prophète.
L’exhibition d’une caricature du Prophète n’est pas admise dans l’Islam ni aux yeux des musulmans, mais les intellectuels musulmans de France ou ceux qui souhaitent vivre en France peuvent engager un dialogue culturel avec les français, dialogue à travers lequel se dégagent des vérités nombreuses et qui fait fondre la glace de la haine, de la rancune et de l’ignorance pour laisser place au vrai Islam fondé sur la tolérance et le dialogue.
La pensée, dans les pays arabes, ne s’est pas exprimée. Elle a été contrainte au mutisme à certains moments de notre histoire, mais elle n’a pas émigré. Notre Histoire récente a connu des exemples nombreux de penseurs, à commencer par Rifaat Rafeh Al Tahtaoui, qui a su distinguer sa responsabilité sociale et humaine de sa responsabilité religieuse dont il a assumé les charges, pour finir avec les deux grands cheikhs, Jamaleddine Al-Afghani et Mohamed Abd, qui ont porté haut l’étendard de la connaissance et de la libération, et , depuis peu, Taha Hussein, qui a déclaré haut et fort que l’école est un droit pour tous, au même titre que l’eau et l’air.
Mais une brisure dans la ligne du progrès est survenue à l’occasion de la seconde guerre mondiale. Les portes du monde arabe ont toutes été ouvertes en grand à des courants et puissance mondiales qui ont enfoncé les demeures et envahi sur leur passage les fondements et les symboles naturels dans les domaines de la pensée et de la culture.
Ces brèves minutes au cours desquels le tchétchène décapite le professeur d’histoire à Paris parce qu’il a exhibé la caricature de Mohamed, nous portent à revernir sur l’Histoire.
Le retour sur l’Histoire est comme le creusement des couches du sol. Il est toujours fatiguant et parfois ennuyeux et semble lié au passé plus qu’au futur. Je pense que le regard vers le passé et le regard vers le futur sot tous deux nécessaires comme pour le conducteur d’un véhicule qui se doit de regarder également le rétroviseur ou le petit miroir fixé au haut de son pare brise...
Que fait la chrétienté orthodoxe en Russie et la chrétienté catholique en Europe et en Amérique ? Et que fait l’Islam dans les républiques du sud de l’ancienne Union soviétique ? Que font l’Islam et les musulmans dans les pays arabes et que font les musulmans en Europe ?
Ce sont à présent les rues, et non les châteaux, qui décident de l’avenir à notre époque, et il existe des moments dans l’Histoire où les places ouvertes deviennent plus puissantes que les forts et forteresses. Les manifestations pacifiques deviennent une arme plus efficace que les équipements militaires et la pensée devient plus bruyante que le son des bombes, même si elle est aberrante ?
L’effacement des lignes de séparation conduit à une confusion dans les rangs induisant un changement des positions et des orientations. Ce rôle était joué par Washington à l’Ouest, et par Moscou à l’Est. A présent, le monde est en passe d’entendre des refrains contraires ou entrecoupés parce qu’il n’existe plus de guerre froide. Les deux grands géants ont laissé la place à deux autres : l’Islam et le Christianisme.
Cela rappelle ce que dit Gorbatchev dans ses mémoires. Il s’était exprimé comme suit lors d’une réunion du parlement :
« Lorsque j’ai accédé au pouvoir, j’ai trouvé la marmite soviétique en train de bouillir sur le feu et je me suis imaginé que ce qui était requis était de libérer cette marmite de la vapeur qui l’étouffait, mais ce que j’ai trouvé dans cette marmite était plus difficile que ce que j’avais imaginé et il ne m’était pas possible de remettre le couvercle et faire semblant de ne rien entendre ni voir. J’ai, au contraire, vu que mon devoir était d’être honnête avec le peuple soviétique et à l’inviter - et il en était le seul capable – à participer à l’affrontement du danger.
Lorsque Gorbatchev est arrivé au pouvoir en mars 1985 et qu’il a été contraint de préconiser la perestroïka et la glasnost, il est apparu à la grande surprise que la défaillance économique et sociale de l’expérience soviétique n’est pas moindre que le danger constitué par les abus contre les droits de l’homme. Cela doit porter à réfléchir chaque gouvernement ou parti. La même situation se retrouve dans les pays arabes et islamiques qui, au lieu, de suivre les enseignements de Tah Hussein, commencent à suivre ceux de Daesh, les yeux fermés. Le monde arabe a besoin d’une révolution de la pensée le faisant retourner à Jamaleddine Al-Afghani, Mohamed Abdo, Tah Hussein et Abdelkader Al-Husseini.
La maladie était seule à causer la contamination dans le passé. Aujourd’hui, la santé est, pour la première fois dans l’histoire, contagieuse. Ce monde ne connaît plus de limites. Nous pouvons nous prémunir contre les contaminations - comme celle du Corona - mais l’humanité ne sait ou ne sait plus se prémunir contre les idées !
A une étape précédente, les slogans pouvaient, à eux seuls, constituer des politiques (Empire du mal – Monopoles impérialistes). A présent, la politique a besoin d’une nouvelle langue dans les discours et d’une révolution intellectuelle qui réintègre l’homme dans la pensée et incruste la vertu dans la pensée.