LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
September 05/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Letter to the Galatians 03/15-22: “I give an example from daily life: once a person’s will has been ratified, no one adds to it or annuls it. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, ‘And to offsprings’, as of many; but it says, ‘And to your offspring’, that is, to one person, who is Christ. My point is this: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained through angels by a mediator. Now a mediator involves more than one party; but God is one. Is the law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law. But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on September 04-05/2019
Why was Nasrallah let off the hook? The IDF exposed – but did not bomb – the Iranian precise missile plant in Lebanon
Hezbollah facing growing criticism in Lebanon
Israeli army says it uncovers Lebanon’s Hezbollah missile site
Lebanon PM: Hezbollah Is A Regional Problem, Not Just A Lebanese Problem
U.S Has Agreement With Canada To Accept 100.000 Palestinians: Arab Report
IDF Pokes Fun At "Best Friends' Hezbollah, Syria, Iran On Nasrallah-Day
UNIFIL Says Hizbullah Attack Gross Violation, Urges No Arms South of Litani
S&P Warns on Foreign Currency Reserve, Hariri Vows to Keep Lira Pegged to Dollar
Duquesne Meets Hariri, Says Donors are 'Waiting' for Lebanon to Act
Report: Hariri to Travel to Paris Later this Month
Speaker Says 2020 Draft Budget May Be Distributed to Ministers Tomorrow
Maronite Bishops Laud Filing Complaint at Security Council against Israel
Lebanon Combats Customs Evasion Amid Doubts About Effectiveness
Lebanese Politician Mustapha Allouch: Lebanon Has Been Hijacked By Hizbullah And Suffers From Stockholm Syndrome; Iran Calls The Shots
Shots Fired in Dispute between Arslan Guard, PSP Official
Is a conflict with Lebanon still on the horizon?

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 04-05/2019
Trump on a meeting with Iran’s Rouhani: ‘Anything is possible’
US slaps sanctions on Iran shipping network over Syria oil
Iran says US sanctions on its space agencies ‘ineffective’
Brian Hook: US will not provide waivers for Iran credit line plan
Iran says will return to nuclear deal only under oil credit line
Rouhani: Iran will give EU countries two-month deadline to save nuclear deal
Iran announces steps to further scale back nuclear commitments
Iran says it will free seven crew members of detained UK tanker
US offering cash rewards to tanker captains of Iranian ships: FT
Sweden FM: Iran released seven crew members of seized tanker Stena Impero
Turkey’s Erdogan defies pressure not to have nuclear warheads
Netanyahu makes snap trip to London for Johnson talks
Kurdish official: Syria’s ‘safe zone’ off to a good start
Thousands of children in northwest Syria to miss school: NGO
Pressure on Netanyahu to Expand Hebron Settlement
Canada stands ready to respond to Hurricane Dorian

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 04-05/2019
Hezbollah facing growing criticism in Lebanon/Ynetnews/September 04/2019
Why was Nasrallah let off the hook? The IDF exposed – but did not bomb – the Iranian precise missile plant in Lebanon/DEBKA File/September 04/2019
Israeli army says it uncovers Lebanon’s Hezbollah missile site/AFP, Jerusalem/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
Lebanon PM: Hezbollah Is A Regional Problem, Not Just A Lebanese Problem/Jerusalem Post/September 04/2019
U.S Has Agreement With Canada To Accept 100.000 Palestinians: Arab Report/Jerusalem Post/September 04/2019
IDF Pokes Fun At "Best Friends' Hezbollah, Syria, Iran On Nasrallah-Day/Jerusalem Post/September 04/2019
Lebanese Politician Mustapha Allouch: Lebanon Has Been Hijacked By Hizbullah And Suffers From Stockholm Syndrome; Iran Calls The Shots/MEMRI/September 04/2019
Is a conflict with Lebanon still on the horizon?/Rachel Avraham/Israel Hayom/September 04/2019
Saudi Journalist: The Hadith Which Instructs Us To Fight Unbelievers Until Islam Is The Religion Of The Entire World Contradicts The Quran And Is Exploited By ISIS, Should Be Removed From The School Curriculum/MEMRI/September 04/2019
Italy: Salvini Down but Not Out/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/September 04/2019
Boko Haram: Bloody Terror, No End in Sight.Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/September 04/2019
Egypt Reinstates Hate Preaching against Non-Muslims/Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPage Magazine/September 04/2019
Brexit and its Effect on the Middle East/Tom Gross/Asharq Al Awsat/September 04 2019
Netanyahu to NY Times: Attacking Iran was ‘no bluff’/Ariel Kahana/Israel Hayom/September 04/201
ISLAM: The West’s “most formidable and persistent enemy”/Raymond Ibrahim/FPM/September 04/2019

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on September 04-05/2019
Hezbollah facing growing criticism in Lebanon
تقرير من صحيفة يديعوت أحرونوت: حزب الله يواجه انتقادات متزايدة في لبنان
Ynetnews/September 04/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/78202/%d8%aa%d9%82%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d9%85%d9%86-%d8%b5%d8%ad%d9%8a%d9%81%d8%a9-%d9%8a%d8%af%d9%8a%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d8%b1%d9%88%d9%86%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%ad%d8%b2%d8%a8-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%84%d9%87/
Mainstream media, social media and politicians are becoming more vocal in their displeasure of the Iran-backed group’s decision to fire missiles at an IDF base on Sunday, which resulted in a massive Israeli bombardment of a southern Lebanon town. Criticism is growing in Lebanon over the actions of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terror group that this week attacked an Israeli military base resulting in massive artillery fire in response.
While media outlets associated with Hezbollah were quick to report Sunday’s border incident – in which Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at troops over the border – as a victory for Lebanon, a different position began to appear both in the mainstream media and on social media. Criticism of the group, its leader and its Iranian benefactors have appeared with increasing frequency.A cartoon in the Lebanese media accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah of benefitting from Sunday's escalation
Former prime minister Fouad Siniora, who led the country during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, told Sky News Arabic that the Shi’ite group was entangling Lebanon in a mess and that his country needed a defense strategy.
“It is inconceivable that Hezbollah would launch such an operation,” he said.Cartoon in the Lebanese media mocking Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who has been mainly in hiding since the 2006 war
Meanwhile, a member of parliament from Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement party, said the Beirut government alone – and not Hezbollah – must make decisions on the country’s defense policies.
Another parliamentarian accused Iran of “pulling the strings” and deciding for Lebanon when and where such escalations would take place. “The decision to go to war is unfortunately in the hands of Hezbollah,” he said.Cartoon in the Lebanon media depicting Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his televised speeches as a lighter that will ignite the region. Hariri’s current coalition government includes Hezbollah, which made significant gains in last year’s parliamentary elections while Hariri’s bloc lost a third of its seats. The group now holds two ministries and a ministry of state, including for the first time the Ministry of Health, which has one of the country’s largest budgets. The Finance Ministry remains in the hands of a Hezbollah ally, Ali Hassan Khalil.

Why was Nasrallah let off the hook? The IDF exposed – but did not bomb – the Iranian precise missile plant in Lebanon
موقع دبيكا الإسرائيلي: لماذا سُمِح لنصر الله أن يتفلت من العقاب؟ اسرائل كشفت مكان مصنع تحديث صواريخ حزب الله لكنها لم تقصفه.
DEBKA File/September 04/2019
موقع دبيكا الإسرائيلي: ممارسات إسرائيل خلال الأيام الماضية أهدت حزب الله معلومات قيمة مفادها أن بأمكانه الإستمرار في تحديث مخزونه من الصواريخ. قصف إسرائيل يوم الأحد الماضي استهدف حقول فارغة وبعيدة عن قواعد حزب الله وأمكنه تواجد رجاله
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/78206/%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9-%d8%af%d8%a8%d9%8a%d9%83%d8%a7-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%a6%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%8a-%d9%84%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%b0%d8%a7-%d8%b3%d9%8f%d9%85%d9%90%d8%ad-%d9%84%d9%86%d8%b5/
Who decided to let Hizballah get away with a rocket attack on the Israeli military on Sunday, Sept. 1?
IDF retaliation was impressive. But the heavy smoke blanketing wide fields of south Lebanon concealed the fact that the IDF had shelled empty fields, well away from Hizballah bases or manpower.
Similarly, when the military spokesman reported an Israeli air strike against the Hizballah rocket launch squad, no one was hurt.
The same policy appears to have been applied to the production in Lebanon of precision missiles, despite the dire threats of destruction coming from Israel’s leaders.
On Tuesday night, Sept. 3, the IDF made a big show of discovering a secret Iranian-Hizballah factory upgrading surface rockets to precise missiles at Nebi Shait in the Lebanese Beqaa valley.
While displaying a detailed diagram showing the inside workings of the factory, the IDF spokesman omitted to explain why it was still standing and not destroyed. And although the military spokesman could tell reporters that the valuable production equipment was being dismantled and transported to hidden storage sites, he left unanswered the question of why the trucks carrying the equipment were not bombed in transit.
These unanswered questions lead to the conclusion that Israel has desisted from offensive operations against Hizballah in Lebanon ever since its drone attack of Aug. 24 on the Dahya suburb of Beirut.
Demonstrating the existence of a missile conversion factory in Lebanon to prove Hassan Nasrallah’s denials were false was no big deal. After all, he never took any prizes for telling the truth.
Could the IDF be pulling its punches to avoid an all-out war with casualties in the short time left before the Sept. 17 general election?
Or do Israel’s government and military leaders trust that the information they release will scare the Lebanese people into leaning hard on Hizballah to shut down its missile upgrade project?
That would be naïve; trusting ordinary people to rise up against brutal leaders has never worked in the Gaza Strip and is unlikely to work in Lebanon.
And, moreover, that policy has the dangerous side-effect of leaving the initiative for violence in the hands of the enemy.
Israel’s conduct this week has already given Hizballah valuable information: he understands that he can safely continue to upgrade his rocket arsenal.

Israeli army says it uncovers Lebanon’s Hezbollah missile site
AFP, Jerusalem/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
The Israeli army said on Tuesday it had exposed a Hezbollah site dedicated to the manufacture of “precision-guided” missiles in Lebanon, just days after a cross-border flare-up between the arch-foes.“The IDF is exposing a facility belonging to Hezbollah... designed to convert and manufacture precision-guided missiles,” the Israeli army said in a statement. It released what it said was an aerial photograph of the site in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, near the town of Nabi Chit. The statement comes after the Iran-backed Shiite movement said Sunday its fighters had fired anti-tank missiles into Israel, destroying a military vehicle and killing or wounding those inside. Israel’s army said it had responded with around 100 artillery shells after Hezbollah targeted a battalion headquarters and military ambulance, hitting both. Israeli officials refuted claims of casualties. Israel’s army said last week that Iran was collaborating with Hezbollah to convert “stupid rockets into precision-guided missiles,” through a plan to smuggle the required components into Lebanon. The facility near Nabi Chit was established a few years ago by the Lebanese Shiite movement and its ally Tehran, the Israeli army said on Tuesday. “Lately, various activities to facilitate the manufacture and conversion of precision-guided missiles at the facility have been identified,” it added. Such activities included “the establishment of a dedicated assembly line for precision weapons and the transfer of sensitive and dedicated equipment.”The facility hosted machines designed to manufacture the motors and warheads of missiles “with an accuracy of less than 10 meters,” with Iran supplying special machines and instruction for manufacturing crews, the Israeli army said. It further alleged that Hezbollah had “in fear of strikes, evacuated precious and unique equipment from the compound to civilian locations in Beirut.” Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Monday said his organization would respond to any further Israeli attacks with strikes “deep inside Israel” and not just along the border. For his part, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a cabinet meeting that he was determined to guarantee Israel’s security. Israel must “prevent Iran from supplying our enemies and its proxies, such as Hezbollah and others, with precision weapons that endanger us,” he said.

Lebanon PM: Hezbollah Is A Regional Problem, Not Just A Lebanese Problem
Jerusalem Post/September 04/2019
"Look, Hezbollah is not a Lebanese problem — only — it is a regional problem," said Hariri.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri stated that Lebanon is not responsible for Hezbollah and that the terrorist organization is a regional problem, not just a Lebanese problem, according to CNBC. "Look, Hezbollah is not a Lebanese problem — only — it is a regional problem," said Hariri. "Israel wants to have ... this scenario that Lebanon is responsible, with what Netanyahu says, and if you want to buy it, buy it. But he knows and the international community knows that this is not true."Referencing recent sanctions by the United States on the Jammal Trust Bank due to its facilitation of Hezbollah's finances, Hariri stated that such banks should "expect the consequences" of handling Hezbollah funds.  "If a bank misuses this trust, we don’t like it, definitely. We try to stop it, I try to stop it," said the prime minister, acknowledging that the US "had to take this action, and I don’t like it and I wish this bank didn’t go through (with) what they did."The prime minister acknowledged that he is limited in his ability to keep Hezbollah under control. "I am a pragmatic person, and I know my limits, and I know the limits of this region. If people were serious about this issue, they would have done things 10, 15, 20, 30 years" ago, said Hariri to CNBC.
Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have escalated since last week when two explosive drones fell in Beirut near crates containing equipment for precision guided missiles and Israel carried out an airstrike in Syria which led to the deaths of two Hezbollah terrorists.
On Monday, Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar news published footage of the attack carried out on Sunday from the Lebanese side of the border, claiming that it refuted "all the claims that the attack failed to hit Zionist soldiers." The footage showed that two missiles were fired from two positions. Israeli officials stated that no IDF troops were injured. Minutes after the Hezbollah anti-tank missiles hit, soldiers with bandages and fake blood were flown by helicopter to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. They were taken off the helicopters in stretchers and were discharged after the round of fighting ended.
Hezbollah broke "the biggest red line for dozens of years" for Israel by targeting it across border, not in the contested Shebaa farms area where the group had previously targeted IDF troops, said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The attack against Avivim was a message to Israel, Nasrallah warned. "We no longer have red lines. This is the start of a new phase. Remember this date."
*Anna Ahronheim contributed to this report.

U.S Has Agreement With Canada To Accept 100.000 Palestinians: Arab Report
Jerusalem Post/September 04/2019
Canada would receive 100,000 Palestinians from Lebanon and Syria and Spain would receive 16,000 Palestinians from Lebanon, alongside similar agreements with Belgium and France. The Lebanon-based newspaper Al Akhbar reported that an official source in one of the Palestinian factions revealed that there is an understanding between the United States and Canada for Canada to receive 100,000 Palestinians (40,000 from Lebanon and another 60,000 from Syria). In addition, there is a further understanding with Spain to receive 16,000 Palestinians from Lebanon, alongside similar agreements with Belgium and France. The understandings would lead to the reduction of the cost of migration from $12,000 to $7,000 per person. The representative of Hamas in Lebanon, Ahmed Abdel-Hadi, told Al Akhbar that part of the Deal of the Century aims to resettle between 75,000 to 100,000 Palestinians in Lebanon and displace the rest to more than one country. About 40,000 Palestinians have left Lebanon in the last four years through legal immigration. Others have taken illegal routes. Many Palestinian youth are trying to emigrate from Lebanon at all costs, but many attempts end in tragedy, according to Al Akhbar. Some who try to emigrate die while trying to cross seas or deserts. Those who have emigrated so far have been the "victims" of humanitarian and life pressures, the shrinking of UNRWA and the fabrication of security events, as well as organized networks that influence young people and families to persuade them to emigrate as American pressure grows to implement the deal of the century, according to Abdel-Hadi. "Hamas has developed a strategy to counter migration based on an understanding with Lebanon in order to relieve the pressure so that the Palestinians will feel that they are living a dignified life, achieve human rights achievements, pressure UNRWA to improve services and have Palestinian factions contribute to projects that provide jobs for youth," said Abdel-Hadi. The Trump administration’s "Deal of the Century" peace plan is not expected to be released until after Israel's Sept. 17 elections,as per US special envoy Jason Greenblatt.

IDF Pokes Fun At "Best Friends' Hezbollah, Syria, Iran On Nasrallah-Day
Jerusalem Post/September 04/2019
The somewhat humorous video includes animated images and not-so-subtle jibes about the three leaders, including a reference to Nasrallah as "bunker boy." The IDF tweeted a satirical video showing Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander Qasem Soleimani texting birthday wishes to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, including promises to deliver gifts of weapons. The video begins with Nasrallah making a group with the two allies titled, "You forgot my birthday [sad face emoji]."Soleimani was quick to put the Hezbollah leader at ease, ensuring that they had not forgotten his birthday and were just busy. The IRGC commander also promised that Iran's presents are on their way, prompting Assad to complain that Hezbollah always gets "the better toys."Israel has warned repeatedly that it would not allow for an Iranian presence in Syria, and has admitted to hundreds of airstrikes to prevent the transfer of weapons such as ammunition and surface-to-air missile kits to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and its forces in the Golan. The somewhat humorous video includes animated images and not-so-subtle jibes about the three leaders, including a reference to Nasrallah as "bunker boy."
In the chat, Soleimani apologizes to Nasrallah as some of the "gifts" did not make it all the way to Lebanon, to which Assad apologized for his borders not being what they used to be. The list of gifts included precision guided missiles and rocket launchers. In a similar spirit to the video released on Wednesday, the IDF on Monday tweeted a spoof version of the game "Cards Against Humanity" titled "Iran Against Humanity." The game is similar to the popular card game Apples to Apples, with a card with a statement with a blank that must be filled in. The IDF tweeted two example fill-in-the-blank cards, including one asking on what Soleimani should be focusing instead of arming Hezbollah with precision guided missiles and another asking what secret love Hezbollah is hiding in addition to the weapons it hides in Lebanese homes. The IDF announced on Tuesday that Hezbollah has set up a production and conversion site for precision missiles in Lebanon’s Bekaa, adding that the facility was established in recent years as a site for the production of weapons led by Iran and Hezbollah.
*Anna Ahronheim contributed to this report.

UNIFIL Says Hizbullah Attack Gross Violation, Urges No Arms South of Litani
Naharnet/September 04/2019
UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major-General Stefano Del Col held talks Wednesday with Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Beirut, after which he described Hizbullah’s latest anti-Israel attack as a “gross violation,” stressing that the area south of the Litani River must be free of any weapons other than those of the government. “I had very useful discussions with the Prime Minister today. I shared my serious concern at the incident of 1 September in UNIFIL area of operations when anti-tank missiles claimed by Hizbullah were fired from southern Lebanon across the Blue Line. This was a serious breach of the cessation of hostilities and a gross violation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701,” said Del Col after the meeting. “The missile attack triggered retaliatory shelling by the Israel Defense Forces (Israeli army) and could have led to unwanted escalation of the situation that UNIFIL and the parties might not have been able to control, hence endangering the safety of the local population,” Del Col noted. He said his priority was to quickly de-escalate the situation and restore calm in the area, which was achieved through “intensive engagement with the parties during the course of the developments.”“Once again UNIFIL’s liaison and coordination mechanism played a critical role in deconflicting the situation along the Blue Line. At this time, we remain closely engaged with the parties to contain tensions and incidents and enable a safe and secure environment in the area,” Del Col added.
Saying that he was very encouraged by Hariri’s “strong reaffirmation” in the meeting of Lebanon’s continued commitment to the cessation of hostilities under Resolution 1701, the UNIFIL chief said that it is of paramount importance that the area between the Blue Line and the Litani River is “free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and UNIFIL.”He added: “We also agreed on the importance of strengthening the capabilities of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in the UNIFIL area of operations in order to enable it to take greater security responsibilities along the Blue Line. I assured the Prime Minister of UNIFIL’s continued efforts to this end.”Hizbullah said its cross-border missile attack on an Israeli military vehicle in the Avivim settlement was aimed at avenging an Israeli strike in Syria that killed two of its members. It has meanwhile vowed a separate response to a drone explosion blamed on Israel that rocked its stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs on August 25.

S&P Warns on Foreign Currency Reserve, Hariri Vows to Keep Lira Pegged to Dollar
Associated Press/Naharnet/September 04/2019
An international ratings agency warned Wednesday there is a risk that customer deposit flows, particularly by nonresidents, could continue to decline in Lebanon, resulting in an accelerated drawdown of foreign currency reserves that would test the highly indebted country's ability to maintain the local currency peg to the U.S. dollar. Prime Minister Saad Hariri, however, pledged to keep the national currency pegged to the dollar, as it has been since 1997. In an interview with CNBC, Hariri said the government will not consider an International Monetary Fund program that would leave it to the markets to decide the price of the Lebanese pound. "This is something that we have extreme sensitivity on," Hariri said. "We believe that keeping the Lebanese pound at 1,500 (to the dollar) is the only stable way to move forward with these reforms." Standard & Poor's said it estimates that Lebanon's usable reserves will decline to $19.2 billion by the end of 2019, from $25.5 billion at the end of last year. Lebanon has one of the world's highest public debts, standing at 150% of gross domestic product. Growth has plummeted and the budget deficit has reached 11% of GDP and remittances from Lebanese living abroad shrank. Last month, international ratings agency Fitch downgraded Lebanon's long-term foreign currency issuer default rating to CCC from B-, while Standard & Poor's Global Ratings affirmed its long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings for Beirut at B-/B, saying the country's outlook remains negative.
In February, Moody's downgraded Lebanon's issuer ratings to Caa1 from B3 while changing the outlook to stable from negative.
On Monday, the country's political leaders declared what they called an "economic state of emergency" following a meeting aimed at finding a solution to the country's economic crisis. Hariri warned after that meeting that Lebanon could face the fate of Greece, which is still suffering from an economic crisis that began a decade ago. The downgrades and tensions over the border with Israel and inside Lebanon led for the first time in years to the U.S. dollar reaching 1,560 Lebanese pounds on the black market in recent weeks for the first time in more than two decades. Standard & Poor's warned it could downgrade Lebanon in six months if the conditions don't improve. "In our view, the central bank's foreign currency (FX) reserves remain sufficient to fund the government's borrowing requirements and the country's external deficit over the next 12 months," Standard & Poor's said. It warned that there is a risk that customer deposit flows could continue to decline, "resulting in an accelerated drawdown of FX reserves that would test the country's ability to maintain the currency peg to the U.S. dollar." "A continuation of these trends during the next six months could trigger a downgrade to 'CCC' rating category," Standard & Poor's warned. Hariri vowed in the interview with CNBC to fight corruption, adding that the Cabinet will work on bringing down the budget deficit to GDP to 7% in 2020.

Duquesne Meets Hariri, Says Donors are 'Waiting' for Lebanon to Act
Naharnet/September 04/2019
Pierre Duquesne, the French inter-ministerial delegate for the Mediterranean who is in charge of following up on the implementation of the CEDRE conference resolutions, on Wednesday called on Lebanon to speed up the implementation of key financial and economic reforms. “I left with an impression that the premier is moving forward on the path of the necessary transformations for the Lebanese economy within the framework of the CEDRE conference,” Duquesne said after meeting Prime Minister Saad Hariri. “The meeting that was held two days ago at the presidential palace indicated that the entire political class is aware of the urgent situation and I believe that this is important,” the French diplomat added. “As for donors, the message that I’m carrying is that there are present and always ready to help Lebanon and will not let it down, but they are waiting” for Lebanon to act, Duquesne went on to say.

Report: Hariri to Travel to Paris Later this Month
Naharnet/September 04/2019
Prime Minister Saad Hariri is expected to meet in Paris later in September French President Emmanuel Macron to follow on the pledged billions in loans and grants agreed at the CEDRE conference in Paris last year, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat reported on Wednesday.
The daily said Hariri is expected to fly to Paris on September 20 to meet Macron. On Tuesday, Pierre Duquesne, the French inter-ministerial delegate for the Mediterranean tasked with following up on the results of CEDRE, met with Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and Minister of Economy and Trade Mansour Bteish. Duquesne is expected to meet the Premier today. The French diplomat discussed with Lebanese officials several issues related to CEDRE, to the 2020 state budget and the reforms it introduced. He expressed “cautious satisfaction with the official moves to face the deepening financial crisis, and encouraged the acceleration of measures starting with the completion of the 2020 draft budget,” said the daily. Donors at the so-called CEDRE conference last year in Paris pledged $11 billion in aid and soft loans to Lebanon, which has promised to reduce its public spending including on electricity. The objective of the CEDRE conference for the international community was to support the development and the strengthening of the Lebanese economy as part of a comprehensive plan for reform and for infrastructure investments as prepared by the Lebanese authorities and presented during the conference.

Speaker Says 2020 Draft Budget May Be Distributed to Ministers Tomorrow
Naharnet/September 04/2019
Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday said Lebanon can steer away from the economic crisis if it implements the items agreed at an emergency economic meeting earlier this week, adding that the 2020 draft state budget “may” be distributed to ministers at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow. Berri said Lebanon can “teer away from the economic pressure if it puts into action 22 items discussed at an emergency economic meeting” at Baabda on Monday, he said at his weekly meeting with lawmakers. On the 2020 draft budget, Berri said “ministers might get a copy of the draft budget during the Cabinet meeting scheduled tomorrow.” He stressed that “approval of the state budget within the constitutional deadlines and addressing the problematic issue of electricity sector, which accounts for one third of the fiscal deficit are positive indicators for Lebanon.”
The Speaker declared he made five proposals on the economic dialogue table, including activation of a law on public-private partnership so that the state does not continue to borrow from abroad.

Maronite Bishops Laud Filing Complaint at Security Council against Israel
Naharnet/September 04/2019
The Maronite Bishops on Wednesday lauded Lebanon’s move in filing a complaint to the United Nations Security Council against Israel’s aggression, and commended the “initiative” of President Michel Aoun in declaring a state of economic emergency in Lebanon.
“The Maronite Bishops commend President Aoun’s initiative by holding a political-economic meeting in Baabda. We ask the government to refrain from imposing new taxes mainly on low-income earners, stop the waste of public funds and to control smuggling in public facilities,” the Bishops said in a statement after their monthly meeting in al-Diman. As for the Israeli drone attack on Beirut's southern suburbs, the Maronite bishops voiced support for Lebanon’s official move in filing a complaint with the UN Security Council. “We support Lebanon’s official move to the Security Council regarding Israel’s aggression,” they said. The bishops finally hoped that the state would implement the required reforms at the economic level "in a peaceful climate, in which reason and dialogue prevail over individual interests."

Lebanon Combats Customs Evasion Amid Doubts About Effectiveness
Beirut - Caroline Akoum/Asharq Al Awsat/September 04 2019
Director General of the Lebanese Customs Badri Daher told Asharq Al-Awsat that an anti-smuggling plan launched several weeks ago has reached "good results." He announced that smuggling operations had stopped by 70 percent at illegal crossings on the eastern and northern borders of Lebanon and 90 percent at legitimate border posts. Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil had earlier talked about the presence of 136 illegal crossings known by the names of persons or the type of certain goods, pointing out that the phenomenon of smuggling “threatens the country’s economy, contributes to the fiscal deficit and reduces imports.” He had also complained of the inability to take “real steps” to combat smuggling. In contrast, Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab announced that 90 percent of the smuggling took place through legal crossings and only 10 percent through illegal ones. Daher, for his part, stressed that estimates indicating that the volume of smuggled goods was around $600 million were exaggerated, noting that those did not exceed $200 million. He pointed out that Lebanon imported products and goods worth $20 billion annually, 51 percent of which are not subject to customs duties, according to the law. He also said that the customs directorate suffered from a significant shortage of staff. In this regard, he emphasized that the customs needed 10,000 employees to carry out the tasks assigned to it, but only 1,000 elements were currently working in the directorate, distributed as follows: 500 staff in the administrative and logistical departments, 300 in legal posts and only 100 monitoring illegal crossings. As for the equipment used in the fight against smuggling, Daher said: “We do not have more than one hundred cars, which are on average 15 years-old, while we face smuggling mafias that use new four-wheel drive vehicles. We also don’t have modern mechanisms and techniques for surveillance.”The Lebanese Army plays a key role in countering smuggling operations. This was also confirmed by Daher and military sources, who underlined constant cooperation along the borders.

Lebanese Politician Mustapha Allouch: Lebanon Has Been Hijacked By Hizbullah And Suffers From Stockholm Syndrome; Iran Calls The Shots
MEMRI/September 04/2019
Mustapha Allouch, a Lebanese politician who is a member of the March 14 Alliance, said in an interview that was uploaded to the Internet by Orient Net that Hizbullah has hijacked Lebanon and the authority to make decisions regarding war and peace in the region. He said that the Lebanese people suffer from Stockholm syndrome since they are sympathizing with and defending Hizbullah, and he stated that everybody in Lebanon knows that Iran and Hizbullah call the shots rather than the Lebanese government and military. Mustapha Allouch: "Hizbullah has not only appropriated the [authority to make] decisions about war and peace in Lebanon. "It has appropriated the [authority to make] decisions about war and peace anywhere between Iran and the Mediterranean Sea – in Syria, in Iraq, and, of course, in Yemen. "The question now is: Where does this all lead? A person who was kidnapped should not be asked for his opinion about his kidnapper. There is no doubt that we are a state that has been hijacked by Hizbullah. What is happening to us is a consequence of this hijacking. The hijacked country is acknowledging [Hizbullah's] right to hijack it. It even defends this hijacking. I believe that us Lebanese people are all suffering from Stockholm syndrome. We have become sympathetic towards our kidnappers. We all know that the Lebanese state and military are not calling the shots here. Decisions begin in Iran and end in Dahieh, Beirut."

Shots Fired in Dispute between Arslan Guard, PSP Official
Naharnet/September 04/2019
A dispute between a guard of MP Talal Arslan and a Progressive Socialist Party official escalated into gunfire Wednesday in the town of Choueifat. “LDP member and MP Talal Arslan’s personal bodyguard Fahd Jadallah Azzam intercepted the head of the PSP Choueifat-Khalde department Marwan Abi Faraj and slammed his car into the latter’s car,” the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa news portal reported. “Once Abi Faraj got out of the car, Azzam fired five gunshots from his gun towards him,” al-Anbaa added, noting that Abi Faraj “escaped unharmed miraculously.” Azzam then fled towards Arslan’s palace, leaving behind his cellphone and a firearms license issued by the army’s Intelligence Directorate, al-Anbaa said. Later on Wednesday, the LDP issued a statement saying the incident occurred after Abi Faraj repeatedly sought to “provoke” Azzam by passing in front of his car several times, noting that the latter is a guard of Arslan’s palace and not a personal bodyguard. “The guard asked him about the reason behind his provocation, which prompted Abi Faraj to shout in a loud voice, ‘It’s none of your business,’ and to make an insulting gesture with his hand,” the LDP said. “Abi Faraj and the guard later met for a second time while in their cars on one of the city’s internal roads, during which Abi Faraj intentionally slammed his car into the guard’s car, prompting the guard to exchange shouting with him and to carry a stick that was in the place with the aim of deterring him,” the LDP added.
“At that point, Abi Faraj brandished his gun and opened fire at the guard who responded by firing in the air,” the LDP went on to say. Arab Tawhid Party leader Wiam Wahhab meanwhile urged everyone “in Choueifat in particular and in Mount Lebanon in general to resort to rationality instead of resorting to weapons upon any dispute.” “All of Mount Lebanon’s sons reject the use of arms and the army and security forces should be in charge. We reject strife, we reject intimidation and we reject aggression. We want Mount Lebanon to be a safe oasis,” Wahhab tweeted. Choueifat had witnessed a deadly incident between the PSP and the LDP in the wake of the 2018 parliamentary elections. A PSP supporter was killed in that incident as the assailant reportedly fled to Syria. In June 2019 another deadly clash between the two parties in the Aley town of Qabrshmoun sparked a 40-day political crisis in the country after two bodyguards of State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib were killed in the incident. The standoff was resolved after a reconciliation was reached between the two parties’ leaders on August 9.

Is a conflict with Lebanon still on the horizon?
Rachel Avraham/Israel Hayom/September 04/2019
US sanctions on Iran have resulted in big budget cuts for Hezbollah. This and Israeli operations have compromised its preparedness for battle. But the battle is coming: It’s not a matter of if but when.
Recent days have been extremely tense in northern Israel after Hezbollah fired a missile at an IDF vehicle. Although no one was wounded in that missile attack, pundits are wondering whether a Third Lebanon War is on the horizon.
Hezbollah has since asked Israel to bring the conflict to a halt and the firing has ceased. But IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi reiterated that the UN Interim Force in Lebanon needs to stop Hezbollah’s missile program or Israel will. According to a recent report in The Jerusalem Post, Hezbollah is currently setting up a precision missile site in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
According to Mendi Safadi, head of the Safadi Center for International Diplomacy, Research, Public Relations and Human Rights: “Israel is prepared and ready for any scenario, both from Lebanon and the Syrian border; every small shell will be answered by heavy artillery that will paralyze the source of the shooting.” Nevertheless, he notes, “Hezbollah does not have the physical ability to launch a continuous war with Israel.”
According to Safadi, due to the Iran sanctions implemented by US President Donald Trump, Hezbollah’s budget has been decreased significantly. This, along with Israeli operations in Syria, has compromised its preparedness for battle. The Syrian Civil War has exhausted Hezbollah’s resources and ability to fight against Israel. Moreover, “Hezbollah has lost the support of the Lebanese street and finds itself facing a frontal collision with most of the Lebanese public, even within Shia homes.” For this reason, when Israel began to respond to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, many locals decided to flee north and abandon the area, which forced Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah to “abandon the ongoing attack on Israel. It would have been a suicidal act with devastating consequences.”
Though Hezbollah is not now in the best position to take Israel on, it still seeks to threaten the Jewish state. Interestingly, just a few months ago, former Education Minister Naftali Bennett, speaking at Shurat HaDin’s annual Law and War Conference, said that Hezbollah now has 140,000 missiles aimed at Israel: “Now, they have piled up tens of thousands of missiles, embedded them within homes, and they can shoot at population centers in Israel in order to kill Israelis. You come into a home in a Lebanese village in southern Lebanon and there is a parents’ room, the children’s room, the kitchen, the living room and there is the rocket room. There is a rocket room, literally. There is a rocket targeted toward Israel. There is a movable ceiling so, like a convertible car, you can move the ceiling, shoot, and then you close it. So, they might have a dog, a cat, and a missile in their home.”
The placing of missiles in civilian homes in southern Lebanon is a callous strategy utilized by Hezbollah. “Deliberately, in the beginning, they build the homes around the missiles,” Bennett explained. “It’s a long-range missile. It is a pretty big thing. You cannot bring it in after you build the homes, so there are some homes that they actually built around the missiles. Quite literally. This happens primarily in Shiite villages but not only. You got villages where 30 to 40% of the houses are hosting missiles right now. The rest of the villages are booby-trapped.” Bennett noted that when you have 140,000 missiles aimed at Israel, this gives Hezbollah the ability to fire 1,000 missiles into Israeli civilian population centers per day over a period of five months.
For this reason, though another Lebanon war was temporarily averted, many believe that a Third Lebanon War is just a matter of time. Former Consul General Dr. Yitschak Ben Gad noted, “It is not if but when. In my opinion, Israel is changing the rules of the game. Israel is not going to tolerate Hezbollah getting accurate missiles. Israel has to take the take initiative and remove this danger of 140,000 missiles threatening our population. Now, if we listen to what [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu says, we have a problem with Lebanon, not with just Hezbollah alone. Hezbollah is part of the government of Lebanon. This means if a war starts, it is Israel against Lebanon and that will be a catastrophe for Lebanon. It is like a war between the US and Mexico. The US would destroy Mexico.”
However, Ben Gad added that there are many Lebanese who do hate Hezbollah and these people could potentially try to rein in Hezbollah: “Most of the Lebanese think Hezbollah is a troublemaker and proxy of Iran. They are saying, what do we have to do with Iran? We are not Iran but Lebanon. Hezbollah is serving the interests of Iran, not Lebanon. They are putting Lebanon into trouble with Israel.”
Though Hezbollah seeks to threaten Israel, it is not interested in self-destruction. Its leaders still remember what happened during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, when two Israeli soldiers were abducted and killed. Lebanon suffered massive destruction during that war. Its people are still traumatized. According to Nasrallah: “Had I known the results of this war, I would not have kidnapped those two soldiers.” Ben Gad concludes, “It doesn’t pay for Hezbollah to start troubles. If many Israeli soldiers and civilians get killed, that will start a war between Israel and Lebanon.”

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 04-05/2019
Trump on a meeting with Iran’s Rouhani: ‘Anything is possible’
AFP, Washington/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday declined to rule out meeting with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani even as his administration piled more sanctions on Tehran. Asked at the White House whether he might meet with the Iranian leader at the United Nations, Trump responded: “Sure, anything is possible.”Rouhani had announced earlier Wednesday that Tehran was poised to take another step back from its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal, from which the US withdrew from in May. A short time after Rouhani’s statement, US officials announced new sanctions on Iran, this time targeting a shipping network it said was run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to smuggle oil. Brian Hook, the State Department coordinator on Iran, also ruled out a French-proposed credit line that Tehran said could bring it back into full compliance with the 2015 deal curbing its nuclear program.

US slaps sanctions on Iran shipping network over Syria oil
Agencies/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
The United States on Wednesday sanctioned an “oil for terror” network of firms, ships and individuals allegedly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that supplied Syria with oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars in breach of US sanctions.
The US action intensified a “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at driving to zero Iran’s oil exports, the country’s main source of income, and almost certainly will increase tensions that erupted when President Donald Trump withdrew last year from an international accord designed to stop Tehran from producing nuclear weapons. Iran has been gradually reducing its compliance with the 2015 agreement in a bid to pressure European countries to compensate it for the severe damage done to its economy by multiple rounds of US sanctions. Tehran was expected to announce further breaches sometime this month. The 10 individuals blacklisted on Wednesday included Rostam Qasemi, a former Iranian oil minister, and his son, the US Treasury Department said in a statement. Also hit were subsidiaries of an Indian company with an interest in the Adrian Darya, the Iranian tanker suspected of carrying oil for Syria that has been cruising the Mediterranean since its release from detention by British authorities off Gibraltar in July, it said. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control action froze any assets in the United States of the designated entities and generally prohibited US citizens or companies from doing business with them. US officials said that the Qods Force, the IRGC’s elite foreign paramilitary and espionage arm, and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia movement, profited financially from the sales of Iranian oil and petroleum products, mostly to Syria, that this spring alone were worth more than $750 million. “Treasury’s action against this sprawling petroleum network makes it explicitly clear that those purchasing Iranian oil are directly supporting Iran’s militants and terrorist arm, the IRGC-Qods Force,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement. US officials said that the Qods Force used the network to hide its involvement in the oil sales to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and other unidentified “illicit actors” and relied heavily on Hezbollah officials and front companies to broker the contracts. The Qods Force and Hezbollah have been major backers of Damascus in the civil war that erupted in 2011 against decades of Assad family rule. The Qods Force and Hezbollah are on the US list of foreign terrorist organizations. “This vast oil-for-terror shipping network demonstrates how economically reliant Tehran is on the IRGC-QF and Hezbollah as financial lifelines,” said Sigal Mandaker, the senior Treasury official who oversees sanctions. On Tuesday, the United States imposed sanctions on the three Iranian space agencies, the Treasury Department said, as Washington ramps up pressure over Tehran's nuclear program. The Treasury targeted the Iran Space Agency, Iran Space Research Center and the Astronautics Research Institute, according to a statement on its website. “The United States will not allow Iran to use its space launch program as cover to advance its ballistic missile programs,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

Iran says US sanctions on its space agencies ‘ineffective’
Reuters, Dubai/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
Iran rejected on Wednesday as “ineffective” US sanctions imposed on Tehran’s civilian space agency and two research organisations for allegedly being used to advance the country’s disputed ballistic missile program. “Americans are addicted to sanctions. These sanctions are totally ineffective,” Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Foreign Ministry Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying. On Tuesday, the US Treasury sanctions targeted the Iran Space Agency, Iran Space Research Centre and the Astronautics Research Institute, according to a statement on its website.

Brian Hook: US will not provide waivers for Iran credit line plan
Agencies/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
The United States Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said on Wednesday that the United States would not provide any sanctions waivers to accommodate a French proposal to extend a $15 million credit line to Iran. “We did sanctions today. There will be more sanctions coming. We can’t make it any more clear that we are committed to this campaign of maximum pressure and we are not looking to grant any exceptions or waivers,” Hook told reporters. Hook said Iran engages in “nuclear extortion” in talks with west. He added, however, that he has not yet seen a “concrete” French proposal and could therefore not comment on the idea.Hook was speaking to discuss the latest volley of US sanctions on Iran. He noted that the United States also imposed other sanctions on Iran on Friday and Tuesday and warned, “There will be more sanctions coming,” according to AFP. France has proposed offering Iran about $15 billion in credit lines until year-end if Tehran comes fully back into compliance with its 2015 nuclear deal, a move that hinges on Washington not blocking it, Western and Iranian sources said. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said talks on the credit arrangement, which would be guaranteed by Iranian oil revenues, were continuing, but US approval would be crucial.

Iran says will return to nuclear deal only under oil credit line
Reuters, Dubai/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
A senior Iranian official confirmed on Wednesday that Tehran would return to its nuclear deal commitment only if it gets $15 billion for oil sales over four months, as stipulated in a draft French plan to salvage the accord, Iran’s Fars news agency said. France has proposed offering Iran about $15 billion in credit lines until year-end if Tehran comes fully back into compliance with its 2015 nuclear deal, a move that hinges on Washington not blocking it. “Our return to the full implementation of the nuclear accord is subject to the receipt of $15 billion over a four-month period, otherwise the process of reducing Iran’s commitments will continue,” Fars quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi as saying.

Rouhani: Iran will give EU countries two-month deadline to save nuclear deal
Reuters/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
Iran will give another two-month deadline to EU countries to save its 2015 nuclear deal, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday, according to ISNA. Rouhani added that it is unlikely that the country would reach an agreement with the EU to salvage the nuclear deal. If the EU countries fail to take effective measures by September 7, then Iran will take the third step in scaling down its commitments to the nuclear deal, Rouhani told a cabinet meeting according to Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency. Rouhani also said that new steps to further scale back Tehran’s commitments under a 2015 pact with major powers will accelerate Iran’s nuclear activity, state TV reported. “We will announce (cuts in commitments) which will accelerate the activities of Iran’s nuclear programme,” Rouhani was quoted as saying by Iran’s state TV. On the same day, a senior Iranian official confirmed that Tehran would return to its nuclear deal commitment only if it gets $15 billion for oil sales over four months, as stipulated in a draft French plan to salvage the accord, Iran’s Fars news agency said. Meanwhile, the Iranian army confirmed it has recently conducted secret military missions and will continue to do so.

Iran announces steps to further scale back nuclear commitments
Reuters, Dubai/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Tehran will further scale back its nuclear commitments, adding that “the country's leadership will take all actions to secure Iranians’ interests.”During his speech, Rouhani said that Iran’s third nuclear step involved the development of centrifuges.
His comments came after the United States sanctioned a sprawling network of firms, ships and individuals allegedly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that supplied Syria with oil worth tens of millions of dollars. Iranian officials appeared to give a guarded welcome to a French proposal to save the atomic pact by offering Iran about $15 billion in credit lines until the end of the year if Tehran comes fully back into compliance. On Tuesday, the United States imposed sanctions on the three Iranian space agencies, the Treasury Department said, as Washington ramps up pressure over Tehran's nuclear program.

Iran says it will free seven crew members of detained UK tanker
Reuters/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
Iran will free seven crew members of the detained British-flagged tanker Stena Impero, Iranian state television reported on Wednesday. The owner of the UK-flagged tanker Stena Impero said Wednesday that arrangements are underway for the release of the seven crew members by Iran. The vessel’s owner added that no confirmation of a release date has been directly received from Iranian authorities, adding that the remaining 16 crew members will remain on board to operate the vessel. Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told the TV that the seven, who include Indian citizens, were allowed to leave the tanker on humanitarian grounds and could leave Iran soon. “We have no problem with the crew and the captain and the issue is violations that the vessel committed,” Mousavi said. The Swedish-owned Stena Impero was detained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on July 19 in the Strait of Hormuz waterway for alleged marine violations, two weeks after Britain detained an Iranian tanker off the territory of Gibraltar. That ship was released in August. The seizure of the Iranian tanker exacerbated tensions between Tehran and the West since the United States last year pulled out of an international agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear program and reimposed economic sanctions.

US offering cash rewards to tanker captains of Iranian ships: FT
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
The United States is offering cash rewards to captains of Iranian tankers in a bid to “disrupt and deter illicit oil exports” of the Iranian regime as part of their “maximum pressure” campaign, a report by the Financial Times shows. According to the report, the Indian captain of the Adrian Darya 1 – formally known as the Grace 1 – received an email from the US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook in which he was offered several million dollars if he steered the Iranian vessel toward a country that would seize it on behalf of Washington. “With this money you can have any life you wish and be well-off in old age,” Hook wrote in one of several emails to Kumar seen by the Financial Times. “If you choose not to take this easy path, life will be much harder for you,” Hook also warned in the message. According to Hook, the offer was part of the US State Department’s “Rewards for Justice” program established in 1984 in which the US Secretary of State is authorized to offer and pay cash rewards to persons with counter-terror information. “The majority of reward offers are up to $5 million; however, all reward payments are made at the sole discretion of the Secretary of State,” according to the State Department. On Aug. 30, the US sanctioned Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1 and its captain for enabling Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to “ship and transfer large volumes of oil… to fund the regime’s malign activities and propagate terrorism.” The Adrian Darya 1 was ordered released by Gibraltar on August 15 and was last registered off the coast of Lebanon and Syria on Monday. A day later, it appeared to have turned off its transponder in the Mediterranean west of Syria. The vessel was detained by British Royal Marine commandos off Gibraltar on July 4 as it was suspected to be en route to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.
As part of Washington’s “maximum pressure campaign”, Hook told Al Arabiya in a previous interview that imposed oil sanctions on Iran alone will deny the regime 50 billion dollars in revenue annually, adding that the pressure is going to continue. On Wednesday, the US sanctioned an “oil for terror” network of firms, ships, and individuals allegedly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that supplied Syria with oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars in breach of US sanctions.

Sweden FM: Iran released seven crew members of seized tanker Stena Impero
Reuters/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
Iran has released seven of the 23 crew members of the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero that was seized earlier this summer, Sweden’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. The Swedish-owned Stena Impero was detained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on July 19 in the Strait of Hormuz waterway for alleged marine violations, two weeks after Britain detained an Iranian tanker off the territory of Gibraltar. That vessel was released in August. Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said in a statement that the Swedish embassy in Tehran had confirmed that seven of the 23 members had been released. “I note with relief that part of the crew has been released. I now look forward to the release of the entire ship and the rest of the crew. This is, of course, very gratifying for the crew and their relatives,” Wallstrom said. The statement did not say which of the crew members had been released or mention their current whereabouts. Wallstrom said Sweden had been in daily contact with Iran, on a high political level since the vessel was seized. “It was also an important item on the agenda when I met Foreign Minister Zarif in Stockholm. Although the ship is British-flagged, we have done everything we could to assist,” Wallstrom said. Earlier on Wednesday Erik Hanell, Stena Bulk’s chief executive and president, said in a statement that seven members would be released and that the remaining crew would remain onboard the vessel to safely operate the vessel. Earlier on Wednesday, Iran’s state television reported that Tehran would free seven of the crew on humanitarian grounds.

Turkey’s Erdogan defies pressure not to have nuclear warheads
AFP, Istanbul/Thursday, 5 September 2019
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday lashed out at pressure on some countries - including his own - not to acquire missiles with nuclear warheads. “Some (countries) have missiles with nuclear warheads in their hands but I shouldn’t have it. I do not accept this,” he said in a speech in the eastern city of Sivas. Turkey does not possess nuclear weapons and has been a party to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty since 1980. The Turkish leader’s remarks come amid burgeoning defense ties between Turkey and Russia in defiance of Ankara’s NATO ally the United States. Washington has reacted to Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 by kicking the country off its F-35 fighter jet program. The US says Russia will be able to glean sensitive technical knowledge about the new fighter if it is operated alongside the S-400. On Friday, Erdogan suggested Turkey could look to Russia for an alternative after its F-35 exclusion.

Netanyahu makes snap trip to London for Johnson talks
AFP, Jerusalem/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
With less than two weeks to go before Israel’s general election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he is to visit London on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It said Netanyahu, facing what could be a tough fight for re-election on September 17, would also meet US Defense Secretary Mark Esper while in the British capital. Netanyahu returns to Israel on Friday. It would be his first meeting with Johnson or Esper since the two took up their current posts, his office said in a statement. “The PM will discuss with British prime minister Johnson the situation in the (Middle East) region and how to repel Iranian terror and aggression,” it said. The meeting with Esper, it added, would focus on “Israel’s security needs” after the two had spoken by phone on Tuesday and agreed to “expand their conversation in London.” Israeli media have said that the United States and Israel are discussing the possible announcement of some form of defense alliance, likely to boost Netanyahu’s image as an international statesman. Just ahead of inconclusive April 9 parliamentary polls, US President Donald Trump acknowledged Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, in what amounted to a major pre-election gift to his close ally Netanyahu. On March 25 the two men met in Washington for a signing of Trump’s order recognizing Israel’s right to the strategic Golan Heights it captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Kurdish official: Syria’s ‘safe zone’ off to a good start
The Associated Press, DarbasiyahWednesday, 4 September 2019
A senior Syrian Kurdish official says the creation of a so-called “safe zone” in northeastern Syria is off to good start, with US-backed Kurdish-led forces pulling back from an initial part of the border with Turkey. But she says calm can only prevail if Turkey also removes its troops. Ilham Ahmed of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Council says details are still being worked out but an understanding was reached last month between Ankara and Washington. It was announced after repeated Turkish threats of a military offensive in northeastern Syria. Turkey views the US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units as an extension of a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey. Ahmed says the arrangement could include joint US-Turkish patrols in areas from which Kurdish-led forces pulled out. Syrians in Turkey could start returning home.

Thousands of children in northwest Syria to miss school: NGO
AFP, Beirut/Wednesday, 4 September 2019
Thousands of children risk missing out on their education in northwestern Syria after a months-long regime assault on the extremist-run bastion that has closed dozens of schools, a charity said. A fragile ceasefire has held in the Idlib region since Saturday, following four months of air strikes that have killed hundreds of civilians and caused mass displacement. “Thousands of children due to start the school year in northwest Syria may not have access to education” after the latest violence, Save the Children said. Classes are set to start at the end of September, but just over half of the region’s 1,193 schools can still operate, it said.“As the new school year starts, the remaining functional schools can only accommodate up to 300,000 of the 650,000 school-age children,” it said. The heavy bombardment since late April has damaged or  impacted 87 educational facilities, the Britain-based NGO said. A further 200 schools are being used as shelters for those displaced by the fighting, it added. The Idlib region is home to some three million people, almost half of whom have been displaced from other parts of Syria in the country’s eight-year war. Children make up nearly half of the region’s total population, the United Nations says. The violence since late April has killed more than 960 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and displaced more than 400,000 people, the UN says. After bombardment damaging schools or forcing them to close, many parents are scared to send their children to those still open, Save the Children said. “Teachers are telling us that parents are pleading with them to shut schools for fear of them being attacked,” the group’s Syria country director Sonia Khush said. “Many children are dealing with losing their homes, loss and grief. They should not have to fear losing their lives whilst they try to learn,” she added. Idlib has since January been ruled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance led by Syria’s former al-Qaeda affiliate. Syria’s conflict has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced more than half of the country’s pre-war population since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Pressure on Netanyahu to Expand Hebron Settlement
Tel Aviv - Ramallah- Nazir Magally and Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 4 September, 2019 - 11:45
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing pressure by settlers to announce an expansion of the Jewish settlement in Hebron, political sources have revealed. The Palestinian Authority warned of an expected visit by Netanyahu to Hebron, describing this visit as a “colonial” move. The sources said that Netanyahu is likely to yield to pressure despite the international criticism and strong Palestinian condemnation he would be subjected to. Netanyahu’s planned visit is “racial and colonial,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said, noting that it comes at a time he is seeking to secure more votes from the right-wing. It pointed out that the visit comes also in line with “Israeli plans to Judaize the old city of Hebron, including the Ibrahimi Mosque.” The Ministry further deplored policies on settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories, along with the crimes of destroying houses, mosques and institutions.
It also warned of the risks and consequences of the Israeli PM’s visit, especially after the occupation authorities took discriminatory measures against the residents of Tel Rumeida, the Old City and its vicinity in preparation for the visit.The Ministry called on the international community and international organizations to “assume legal and moral responsibility towards the suffering of the Palestinian people in Hebron.” Hebron was a prosperous commercial city, until a settler doctor carried out a massacre in 1994 when he entered the Ibrahimi Mosque during fajr prayers and shot the worshipers, killing 29 Palestinians, while the Israeli army killed 20 others. Yitzhak Rabin’s government was offered the chance to evict settlers from Hebron, but he failed to do so and he protected them militarily with a fence, which was later used to tighten the noose on the city mainly under Netanyahu’s rule.

Canada stands ready to respond to Hurricane Dorian
September 4, 2019 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister of International Development and Minister for Women and Gender Equality, today issued the following statement regarding Hurricane Dorian:
“Canadians remain gravely concerned by Hurricane Dorian and we express our condolences to all those affected by its devastation. “Canadian government officials have been deployed to the Bahamas to assess the situation. “An airport engineering specialist is now in Nassau as part of two Regional Rapid Needs Assessment Teams led by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). As they gain access to the hardest hit areas, these assessment teams will help provide a clearer picture of the storm’s impact on the affected populations and their associated needs.
“Two additional Canadian officials are arriving in Nassau today to provide added capacity and expertise as well as support to Canadians. “In the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas, Canada is also announcing up to $500,000 in emergency assistance to support experienced humanitarian organizations. Canada’s contribution will support the efforts of humanitarian partners to respond quickly to needs once assessments are completed of those communities most affected by the disaster. We continue to work closely with CDEMA and the Government of the Bahamas to identify how Canada can best support the provision of emergency assistance. “Canada takes the safety and security of Canadians abroad very seriously. We continue to closely monitor Hurricane Dorian’s trajectory and the situation in the affected areas and stand ready to provide consular assistance to Canadian citizens as required.
“We encourage Canadians to regularly consult the Travel Advice and Advisories for updated information and to register with the Registration of Canadians Abroad service to receive the latest advice. “Canadians in the affected areas should monitor local media for information and advice and follow the instructions of local authorities and emergency workers. We urge Canadian citizens in the affected areas to contact and reassure their loved ones, even if they have not been affected by the hurricane. “Canadian citizens requiring emergency consular assistance can contact Global Affairs Canada’s 24/7 Emergency Watch and Response Centre in Ottawa at 1-800-387-3124 (toll-free), 1 613-996-8885 or email sos@international.gc.ca. “The Government of Canada remains in close contact with all its partners in the Caribbean and stands ready to continue to respond as needed and appropriate.”

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 04-05/2019
Saudi Journalist: The Hadith Which Instructs Us To Fight Unbelievers Until Islam Is The Religion Of The Entire World Contradicts The Quran And Is Exploited By ISIS, Should Be Removed From The School Curriculum
MEMRI/September 04/2019
Saudi Arabia recently published its new school textbooks for the 2019 school year. Following the publication of the books Dr. Suhaila Zain Al-'Abidin Hamad, a researcher of Islam and the daughter of Sheikh Zain Al-'Abidin Hamad (d. 1975), a former imam and preacher at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, published an article in which she opposed the inclusion in the high school curriculum of a hadith (tradition attributed to the Prophet) which calls for fighting the non-Muslims until they convert to Islam. Writing in the Al-Madina daily, she argued that the hadith is not authentic because it contradicts the Quran, and said that it has been included in the curriculum only because it is quoted in the two most important Sunni collections of hadiths, Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, which grants it credibility in the eyes of many.
Hamad noted that Muslim jurisprudents have used this hadith to issue fatwas condoning the killing of all non-Muslims, and of Muslims who do not fulfill all the commandments of Islam, and calling to fight them until Islam is the religion of the entire world. Furthermore, she said, the Islamic State (ISIS) has used it and the fatwas based upon it to justify its acts of terror.
Suhaila Zain Al-'Abidin Hamad (Source: Alarabiya.net, November 5, 2013)
The following are translated excerpts from Hamad's article:[1]
"[According to a hadith, the Prophet said:] 'I have been commanded to fight against people until they testify that there is no god but Allah, that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and fulfill the obligation of prayer, and pay the zakat; and if they do it, their lives and property are guaranteed my protection on condition that [they conduct themselves] according to the law of Islam, and [on Judgement Day] Allah [will determine] their fate.'
"This hadith contradicts the Quran, according to which Allah says:
"1. 'And had your Lord willed, those on earth would have believed – all of them entirely. Then, [O Muhammad], would you compel the people in order that they become believers? And it is not for a soul to believe except by permission of Allah, and He will place defilement upon those who will not use reason.' [Quran 10:99-100]
"2. 'And if your Lord had willed, He could have made mankind one community; but they will not cease to differ. Except whom your Lord has given mercy, and for that He created them. But the word of your Lord is to be fulfilled that, "I will surely fill Hell with jinn and men all together."' [Quran 11:118-119]
"3. 'There is no coercion in religion.' [Quran 2: 256]
"4. 'Not upon you, [O Muhammad], is [responsibility for] their guidance, but Allah guides whom He wills.' [Quran 2:272]
"5. 'Indeed, [O Muhammad], you do not guide whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills. And He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided.' [Quran 28:56]
"Presenting [Quran] 8:39 – 'And fight them until there is no fitna and [until] the religion, all of it, is for Allah. And if they cease – then indeed, Allah is Seeing of what they do' – as proof [of the need to force non-Muslims to convert] is [also] inappropriate, for this verse descended in the context of the infidels of Mecca, who led the Muslims astray and tormented them, forcing them to emigrate to Al-Habash [a region in the Horn of Africa] and later to Al-Madina, after they conspired to kill the Prophet Muhammad. It did not [descend] in the context of fighting all non-Muslims until they convert.
"Although this [hadith] contradicts all of these Quranic texts, it turns out that those in charge of our religious studies insist on including it in the high school curriculum on the topic of tawhid,[2] or the oneness of God..., because it appears in the [major collections of hadiths considered authentic in Sunni Islam], Sahih Bukhari... and Sahih Muslim... [Bukhari and Muslim, who compiled these collections] apparently failed to notice that this hadith contradicts the Quran, [but 8th century theologian] Imam Malik [ibn Anas] omitted it from his [compilation of hadiths,] the Muwatta... because it contradicts the Quran. Hadith scholars agree that texts which contradict the Quran must not be accepted as authentic, for [whoever does so] attributes greater sanctity to the books of Bukhari and Muslim than to the Quran.
"Some scholars relied on this hadith in issuing fatwas that accuse others of heresy and permit the killing of any [Muslim] group which refrains from saying certain prayers or [performing certain religious] duties... Some [scholars] even issued fatwas obliging [the Muslims] to fight until all religion [in the world] is for Allah. If we follow this fatwa, we must fight until Judgement Day in order to impose Islam on the entire human race.
"Fatwas like these strengthen the lies of the Orientalists, that Islam was spread by the force of the sword. The members of ISIS used this hadith and the fatwas based upon it to justify the killing of people whom they accused of heresy, including Muslims. In fact, they went very far in accusing Muslims of heresy, killed them and their families, destroyed their property, and captured and raped their wives.
"How long will we remain hostage to the understanding and interpretations of religious texts provided by certain ancient religious scholars, despite the fact that [these interpretations] are clearly at odds with the Quran? [How long will we] accept the authenticity of hadiths that lack a chain of transmission [leading back to] the Prophet even though they contradict the Quran? Who benefits from [including] this hadith in our curricula in the age of terror organizations that exploit hadiths of this sort to justify their acts of terror and the accusations of heresy they make against others?"
[1] Al-Madina (Saudi Arabia), August 23, 2019.
[2] Tawhid is the oneness of God, i.e., the belief in Allah alone (monotheism) and the public declaration of this by means of the phrase "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." The Salafi-jihadi stream stresses the centrality of this Islamic principle and its adherents and even use the term muwahhidoun ("those who declare the oneness of God") to designate themselves.

Italy: Salvini Down but Not Out
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/September 04/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14817/italy-matteo-salvini
The new governing alliance, if realized, may be short lived. In an interview with the Italian daily La Stampa, former Interior Minister Roberto Maroni of the Lega Nord party said that the new government, if it comes to fruition, will be "intrinsically weak" because it would exist, "not for a shared political project but only to avoid elections." He added that there was a possibility that the new government could last for the entire legislature "in order to avoid delivering the country to Salvini."
"Do you think I am afraid of a few months in opposition?" Salvini asked in a Facebook video. "You have not got rid of me with your political games. You do not know me, I do not give in." He has called for a protest against the new government in Rome on October 19. Polls show that 67% of Italians are in favor of early elections.
"We Hungarians will never forget that you [Salvini] were the first Western European leader to make an effort to prevent illegal migrants from flooding Europe via the Mediterranean Sea. Irrespective of future political developments in Italy and of the fact that we belong to different European party groups, we consider you as a brother in arms in the fight to preserve Europe's Christian heritage and stop migration." — Hungarian President Viktor Orbán.
Matteo Salvini, Italy's deputy premier and interior minister since 2018, has been shut out of the Italian government after his gambit to force snap elections to become prime minister backfired. (Photo by Ernesto S. Ruscio/Getty Images)
Matteo Salvini, Italy's deputy premier and interior minister since 2018, has been shut out of the Italian government after his gambit to force snap elections to become prime minister backfired.
As the de facto leader of Europe's anti-mass-migration movement, Salvini's departure from government may set back efforts to slow illegal immigration to the continent. Many analysts, however, believe that Salvini, who continues to lead his rivals in opinion polls, will be back in government soon and in an even stronger position than before.
On August 8, after months of public feuding, Salvini declared the governing coalition between his League party and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) unworkable. He accused M5S of blocking the League's main policies and said that the only way forward was to hold fresh elections.
The League and M5S, ahead of an inconclusive election in March 2018, had been political adversaries. Three months later, however, they formed an unlikely alliance. Their June 2018 coalition agreement, outlined in a 39-page action plan, promised to crack down on illegal immigration and to deport up to 500,000 undocumented migrants.
Since then, Salvini has accused M5S of failing to implement parts of the coalition agreement. Tensions came to a head on August 7, when, during a session in Parliament, M5S voted against a project supported by Salvini for a high-speed train link with France. "It is useless to go ahead with 'no's' and quarrels," Salvini wrote on his Facebook page. "Italians need certainty and a government that works, not a Mr. 'No.'" Salvini called for new elections to be held on October 13.
In an effort to avoid early elections, which polls show that Salvini would win, M5S reached out to the rival center-left Democratic Party (PD), cutting Salvini's League party out of power. M5S and PD clinched a preliminary coalition agreement on August 28, and a day later Italian President Sergio Mattarella asked Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, an independent, to form a new coalition government. Although the League is Italy's most popular party, M5S and PD are the two largest forces in parliament.
Although the anti-establishment, anti-EU M5S and the pro-establishment, pro-EU PD have long been political enemies, M5S appears to have set aside many of its core principles to meet PD's demands. For now, M5S has insisted on maintaining a hardline anti-illegal immigration law passed with the League in November 2018. The law, championed by Salvini, saw public support for the League skyrocket from 17% in the March 2018 election to 38% in August 2019.
The new government — which aims to govern until the next general election, due to be held no later than May 2023 — will have to be approved in a vote of confidence by both houses of Parliament.
The new governing alliance, if realized, may be short lived. In an interview with the Italian daily La Stampa, former Interior Minister Roberto Maroni of the Lega Nord party said that the new government, if it comes to fruition, will be "intrinsically weak" because it would exist, "not for a shared political project but only to avoid elections." He added that there was a possibility that the new government could last for the entire legislature "in order to avoid delivering the country to Salvini."
Several Italian newspapers reported on efforts by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European officials to prevent early elections in Italy — solely to stop Salvini from becoming prime minister. Merkel reportedly ordered leaders of the PD to reach a coalition agreement with M5S. "Make the agreement and stop Salvini," she reportedly said.
A leaked document showed that outgoing EU Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger had offered to relax EU rules on public debt in exchange for "a pro-European government that does not work against Europe."
Writing for the Italian daily Il Giornale, political correspondent Andrea Indini noted:
"Berlin's interference with the decisions of the Democratic Party are not surprising at all. As we have reported in recent days, the first meeting between M5S and PD dates back to July 16, when Ursula von der Leyen was elected president of the European Commission, thanks in part to support from M5S and PD. Von der Leyen is not just any person, she is Merkel's clone. Her election is part of a strategy executed alongside French President Emmanuel Macron to split the nationalist bloc in Europe. It is certainly not a coincidence that, moments after Salvini pulled the plug on his government, [former Italian prime minister and former European Commission president] Romano Prodi, faster than a slingshot, called for Italy to be governed by an 'Ursula Coalition' that is formed by the same political forces [M5S and PD] that helped to elect von der Leyen.
"That there are international interests behind the formation of the new coalition government is now clear to most. 'The Democratic Party is at the service of foreign countries,' Salvini said last night during a rally in Pinzolo. 'They think we are all sheep and slaves, ready to wait for what they say in Brussels and Paris, but the League defends the Italians, because we are free men.' At this point Salvini has no choice but to play the next match against the opposition with the weapons he has available. His men have already made it known that they will pass nothing in the Parliament that comes from M5S-PD, but above all from those who sponsor them: Merkel, Macron and Ursula von der Leyen."
Salvini's political rivals relished his departure from government. Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, in a Facebook post, proclaimed: "Today, Salvini has left the political stage. Institutions 1 — Populism 0."
Salvini, however, has vowed to fight:
"While PD and others are fighting over government positions, we are preparing for the Italy that is to come from among the people. They will not be able to run away from the elections for long, let's get ready to win!"
"Do you think I am afraid of a few months in opposition?" Salvini asked in a Facebook video. "You have not got rid of me with your political games. You do not know me, I do not give in." He has called for a protest against the new government in Rome on October 19. Polls show that 67% of Italians are in favor of early elections.
International commentators agree that Salvini remains a political force to be reckoned with. International Business Editor of The Daily Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, noted that Salvini is down but not out:
"Be careful what you wish for in Italian politics. The exile of the volcanic Matteo Salvini is a Faustian Bargain for the EU establishment and the defenders of the euro project.
"There must be a high chance that the Lega strongman — and de facto leader of the Continent's anti-EU rebellion — will sweep back into power with an overwhelming majority next year or soon after.
"He may then be strong enough to push revolutionary changes through the Italian constitutional system that would be impossible sooner: A New Deal spending blitz backed by a politically-controlled Bank of Italy and a parallel "minibot" currency that neutralizes the enforcement tools of the European Central Bank.
"His departure this week means that others will be left to grapple with Italy's intractable stagnation. It is they who will have to push through €23bn of austerity cuts to comply with the EU's stability pact and the fiscal compact, the paraphernalia of arcane budget rules concocted by lawyers and unworkable in a serious downturn. Mr. Salvini's hands will be clean. 'It is a win-win situation for us,' said Claudio Borghi, the Lega's economics chief."
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán thanked Salvini for his efforts "benefitting Italy and the whole of Europe including Hungary." In a letter published by the Hungarian news agency MTI, Orbán wrote:
"We Hungarians will never forget that you were the first Western European leader to make an effort to prevent illegal migrants from flooding Europe via the Mediterranean Sea. Irrespective of future political developments in Italy and of the fact that we belong to different European party groups, we consider you as a brother in arms in the fight to preserve Europe's Christian heritage and stop migration."
On August 30, meanwhile, 62 Pakistani migrants landed on an island off Gallipoli in southern Italy. On September 1, Salvini, who remains acting interior minister, banned the Alan Kurdi, a ship operated by the German charity Sea-Eye, with 13 migrants aboard, from entering Italian waters. Another ship, the Mare Jonio, is anchored a kilometer from the Italy's southernmost island of Lampedusa with 34 migrants who were rescued on August 28 off the coast of Libya.
Salvini has warned that the new coalition would end his ban on migrant boats arriving from Africa: "If the PD wants to reopen the doors and allow the business of illegal immigration to start up again, it should tell that to Italians."
*Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Boko Haram: Bloody Terror, No End in Sight
Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/September 04/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14785/boko-haram-bloody-terror
Every year, Nigeria's Boko Haram, which has gained a foothold in the neighboring African countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, appears to be growing stronger.
Suicide bombings and other deadly attacks committed by Boko Haram terrorists over the past decade have claimed the lives of tens of thousands of innocent people, while more than two million others have been displaced.
"Nigeria's government has proved itself to be incompetent at best, and at worst, complicit in the attacks." — International Christian Concern's regional manager for Africa, Nathan Johnson, to Gatestone Institute.
"The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), for example, gives billions of dollars in aid to northeastern Nigeria. The problem is that aid, which helps fix small amounts of damage, is not a sufficient answer. As long as groups such as Boko Haram are able to keep destroying whole villages and infrastructure -- while devastating populations -- NGOs will never be able to keep up." — International Christian Concern's regional manager for Africa, Nathan Johnson, to Gatestone Institute.
Boko Haram just celebrated the 10th anniversary of its establishment. Every year, the Nigerian terrorist group, which has gained a foothold in the neighboring African countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, appears to be growing stronger. Pictured: Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, from a November 2018 propaganda video by the group.
Boko Haram, the ISIS-aligned group seeking to establish an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria, just celebrated the 10th anniversary of its establishment. Contrary to initial and subsequent assessments, however, the terrorist group, also known as Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP), was not to be easily defeated. On the contrary, every year, the jihadist group, which has gained a foothold in the neighboring African countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, appears to be growing stronger.
Suicide bombings and other deadly attacks committed by Boko Haram terrorists over the past decade have claimed the lives of tens of thousands of innocent people, while more than two million others have been displaced. These figures do not even include the thousands of women and children abducted, some of whom, according to the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), "have been forced to carry out suicide missions."
The CEP explains:
"Boko Haram has increased the number of female suicide bombers due to the easy concealment of weapons under hijabs and Islamic customs that forbid men to frisk women."
According to International Christian Concern (ICC), so far in 2019, Boko Haram has kidnapped 179 people in Niger alone, mostly women and girls, a number that amounts to nearly one person per day. This does not include the many unreported abductions or those that took place in Nigeria or Cameroon.
ICC's regional manager for Africa, Nathan Johnson, recently told Gatestone that "this increase in abductions in Niger is worrying, because it shows that Boko Haram's influence and power are spreading."
Johnson continued: "Islamic extremism has found a home in Africa for multiple reasons. The first is insecurity. A lack of governmental control has allowed jihadist groups to hold vast areas of land and have sway over millions of people's lives. This provides the terrorists with space to train and rest, a population from which to recruit operatives and the opportunity to raise or steal money.
"The second reason is poverty and illiteracy. Millions families live in the poorest of circumstances in Africa's Sahel region. Four of the 10 countries in the Sahel are among the 25 poorest countries in the world. Their lack of money means that infrastructure, education and healthcare, among other things, suffer. With all of these issues, extremist groups find an easy source of volunteers when they are able to offer money and power.
"The third reason is easy access to weapons. With funding and support from outside sources such as ISIS, groups like Boko Haram can easily get weapons that match or beat those of the local militaries of these countries. When Muammar Gaddafi fell in Libya, a flood of weapons hit the black market and were made available to terror groups across West Africa. This has made it easier for them to attack both civilians and soldiers, as well as capture lands.
"Finally, Islam holds a historical claim to much of Africa. It is clear that the farther north in Africa you go, the stronger Islam's hold. Many North African countries also already adhere to a very strict and extreme interpretation of Islam. Mauritania, Algeria and Sudan, for instance, constantly persecute Christians and other non-Muslims. This means that they are also more likely to support terrorist groups that share their beliefs. Sudan is a known supporter of terrorism, for example.
"Nigeria has been the most devastated by Boko Haram, which roughly translates as 'Western education is forbidden.' Until very recently, the Nigerian government continued to claim that Boko Haram was defeated. Although the terrorist group did lose territory and power between 2015 and 2017, however, it has regained almost all of it. Nigeria's government has proved itself to be incompetent at best, and at worst, complicit in the attacks.
"Many groups have been working for years in Nigeria to help those most affected by Boko Haram. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), for example, gives billions of dollars in aid to northeastern Nigeria. The problem is that aid, which helps fix small amounts of damage, is not a sufficient answer. As long as groups such as Boko Haram are able to keep destroying whole villages and infrastructure -- while devastating populations -- NGOs will never be able to keep up. The attacks have to stop before there can ever be real healing in those areas."
Boko Haram's campaign of death and destruction includes: An attack on the U.N. headquarters in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, in 2011.
The abduction of nearly 300 children from the mostly Christian town of Chibok, Nigeria in 2014. About 112 Chibok schoolgirls are still missing.
The multi-day massacre of the northern town of Baga and surrounding villages in 2015 that killed approximately 2,000 civilians;
The 2018 attack on a military base in Borno state, which left about 100 soldiers dead;
The July 2019 attack on a funeral gathering in northeastern Nigeria, in which 65 people were killed;
The July 2019 release of a video of six Christian aid workers in Nigeria begging for their lives after being kidnapped by Boko Haram
The July 29, 2019 attack on the Christian village of Kalagari in northern Cameroon, reportedly kidnapping at least eight Christian women and cutting off their ears.
The August 2019 night raid in southeastern Niger, which left 12 villagers dead.
*Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Egypt Reinstates Hate Preaching against Non-Muslims
Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPage Magazine/September 04/2019
Egypt’s leading authorities have reinstated a notoriously “radical” cleric and hate preacher to the pulpit (minbar), despite strong opposition.
According to Arab Weekly, “The Egyptian Ministry of Religious Endowments, which controls the mosques, gave Yasser Burhami, the deputy head of the Salafist Call, the umbrella organisation of Salafi movements, approval to deliver sermons before Friday prayers at the Wise Caliphs Mosque in Alexandria.”
“Everybody is shocked at the decision to allow this man to preach at the mosques,” said Saad al-Zunt, the head of the Strategic Studies Centre, a local think-tank.
“Salafists adhere to a strict version of Islam,” the report explains. “They do not believe in women’s rights and call for women to be clothed from head to toe. The Salafists adopt a hostile stance towards non-Muslims, saying they are not full citizens.”
Indeed, Sheikh Yasser al-Burhami has authored numerous fatwas—edicts based on Islamic scriptures—that demand hate and hostility for non-Muslims, most specifically the nation’s largest and most visible minority, the Christian Copts, whom Burhami has referred to as “a criminal and infidel minority,” one that he regularly invokes “Allah’s curse” on.
For example and in keeping with the doctrine of al-wala’ w’al bara’ (“Loyalty and Enmity”), Burhami has called on all Muslims to hate all non-Muslims—going as far as to say that, although a Muslim man is permitted to marry Christian or Jewish women (ahl al-kitab), he must make sure he still hates them in his heart—and show them this hate—because they are infidels; otherwise he risks compromising his Islam.
Burhami has stated that churches—which he refers to as “places of polytheism (shirk) and houses of infidelity (kufr)”—must never be built in Egypt. He issued a separate fatwa forbidding Muslim taxi and bus drivers from transporting Christian clergymen to their churches, an act he depicted as being “more forbidden than taking someone to a liquor bar.”
Burhami has also stated that Egypt’s Christians must pay jizya—“protection” money in exchange for a measure of tolerance, a la Koran 9:29—or be fought to death.
Even so, the wily sheikh insists that circumstance is the ultimate deciding factor. In a 2013 video, Burhami said that “Destroying churches is permissible—as long as the destruction does not bring harm to Muslims, such as false claims that Muslims are persecuting Christians leading to [foreign] occupations.”
He further added that “the reason we agree to their being built … and the reason we do not collect the jizya from the Christians, is because the condition of Muslims in the current era is well known to the nations of the world—they are weak and deteriorating among the people.”
Burhami went on to explain that, when the Muslims first conquered Egypt in the seventh century, and because Christians still far outnumbered their Muslim overlords, churches were allowed to remain—“just as the prophet allowed the Jews to remain in Khaibar after he opened [conquered] it, but once Muslims grew in strength and number, [second caliph] Omar al-Khattab drove them out according to the prophet’s command, ‘Drive out the Jews and Christians from the Peninsula.’”
Burhami elaborated on the importance of circumstances in an earlier video:
The Jews of Medina represent a paradigm—laid by the prophet [Muhammad]—that shows how Muslims should deal with infidels. ….. Today in Gaza, we do not tell Muslims to launch rockets every day and so destroy the country, but we tell them “Refrain from action and respect the truce.” When the Prophet first arrived in Medina, he made conciliation with the Jews, conciliation without jizya [i.e., equal-term conciliation without forcing Jews to pay tribute and live as second-class dhimmis]—this is a pattern that can be followed whenever circumstances dictate…. Yes we can deal with those Christians [Egypt’s Copts] as the Jews were dealt with in Medina; it is an option. The Prophet made the Hudaybiya Reconciliation with the infidels and held a truce for ten years [which he abrogated on becoming stronger]; that is also an option…. So, it is legitimate to choose from examples set by the Prophet, depending on what suits the situation of Muslims now.
In plain language, when strong, wage jihad—including by destroying churches and forcing jizya/extortion money from non-Muslims; when weak, preach peace and coexistence, including with the “archenemy,” Israel.
Even so, according to the reinstated Salafi cleric, no circumstance ever requires Muslims to be on friendly terms with non-Muslims. Burhami has accordingly issued fatwas banning Muslims from congratulating the nation’s Christian minorities during the latter’s religious holidays; banning Muslims from in anyway participating in such festivities; and, in an effort to further impoverish the nation’s Christians, banning Muslims from going to Christian businesses, pharmacies, hospitals, or any other place of business.
One can go on and on with Burhami’s fatwas—including calling for the persecution of apostates, permitting Muslim husbands to abandon their wives to rape, permitting “marriage” to 12-year-old girls, and banning Mother’s Day—but his quality should be evident by now.
Dr. Naguib Ghobrial, a Coptic activist, politician, and head of the Egyptian Union for Human Rights Organization—which over the years has lodged 22 separate complaints against Burhami—expressed his shock concerning the hate preacher’s reinstatement in a recent video. He repeatedly questioned the leading religious authorities of the Egyptian Ministry of Religious Endowments, and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, how they could allow for the return of Burhami:
Is what Burhami teaches truly what Islam teaches—is that why no one has done anything to him [in regards to the 22 complaints lodged against him]? Truly I’m shocked! Please answer Sheikh of Al Azhar; please answer Grand Mufti: are the things Burhami teaches what Islam teaches? Is this why none of you oppose him or joined us when we lodged complaints against him?… Why are you so silent? Amazing!
Egypt’s Muslim leaders are not alone in their silence and/or complicity; as the Arab Weekly explains, Egyptian President Sisi is also involved, even if for “political” reasons:
By allowing the Salafists to be present, despite public opposition, Sisi perhaps wants to discredit Muslim Brotherhood propaganda that his government is waging a war against Islam, in general, and political Islam, in particular. Sisi has been a champion of religious reform, calling several times for removing extremist content from textbooks used in religious schools, reforming religious discourse and renewing the understanding of religious texts…. Sisi, however, appears to be repaying the Salafists [Egypt’s most radical Muslims] for backing him all through.
At day’s end, and whether for political or religious reasons—which in Egypt are often one and the same—the reinstatement of a notorious hate preacher is an official nod from the nation’s highest religious and political authorities to the ongoing radicalization of Egypt—with the nation’s Christian minority the first to feel the brunt.

Brexit and its Effect on the Middle East
Tom Gross/Asharq Al Awsat/September 04 2019
Britain is in frenzy over Brexit. The country almost seems to be experiencing some kind of collective ‘mid-life crisis’. Many economic and social decisions are on hold, and both major political parties, the Conservatives and Labour, are engaged in bitter infighting over whether, how and when to leave the European Union. Politics is decidedly domestic at present, so it is not surprising that there has been little discussion in Britain about how Brexit might affect the country’s foreign policy. Key international players, including Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and the Chinese leadership, are eager for Brexit to proceed because they believe (correctly, in my view) that it will result in both a weaker EU and a weaker Britain, and hence boost their own global power and influence. In order to encourage Britain to make a clean break with Europe, Trump has asserted that Brexit would enhance Britain’s standing in the world. But that is not what I hear in private from influential politicians both in Washington and elsewhere. “We’ve already downgraded the UK,” a senior foreign policy adviser to a long-standing Republican senator on the influential US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told me in private.
Indeed we already see signs of a weakened Britain, as other countries test the UK’s resolve. Iran seized a British ship in the Gulf in July and arrested 23 crew members. The British government called it “state piracy” but initially did little in response (though they announced on September 2 that they are now sending drones). China continues to push back on its treaty with Britain guaranteeing rights and freedoms in Hong Kong – the UK only agreed to hand the territory to China [in 1997] on that basis. Yet the British response has been timid. Observers have noted that criticism of China over Hong Kong by Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been more muted than that by leaders in Australia and Canada, for example.
The UK may well continue to be immersed in domestic issues even after Brexit, not least because many in Scotland and perhaps also Northern Ireland may step up their campaigns to break away from the UK. They see Brexit as a form of English nationalism, rather than a British phenomenon. They don’t want to be “England’s last colonies”.  Despite all this, the UK remains an important world power. It is one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council. It has (with France) one of the two strongest militaries in Europe. London will remain an important international financial capital. And British companies and media will continue to have global influence.
And what of the Middle East? Will Britain change its policies, post-Brexit? In some ways, perhaps yes. But it is worth remembering that even while the UK was in the EU there were sharp differences on key issues, most notably the 2003 Iraq war. The UK, along with Poland, Italy, the Netherlands and others, backed the American-led overthrow of Saddam, whereas France, Germany and other EU states rejected American calls to help.  On the questions of Iran, and the Israeli-Palestinian issue, however, the consensus Britain currently enjoys with the EU may change after Brexit.
On a visit to London last month, US national security adviser John Bolton said that the US is enthusiastic about “no deal Brexit” and said the US may be prepared to sign quick trade deals with the UK, sector by sector, rather than wait for a comprehensive deal which may take years to conclude.
What Bolton did not make explicit is that the Trump administration, as part of these negotiations, may require the UK to fall into line with American positions on the Iranian regime.  This would please many in both the Arab world and Israel who share Bolton’s view that the EU-backed “Iran nuclear deal” increases not decreases the chances of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons in the medium term. As for Israel, so long as the British Conservatives remain in power, the UK may also move closer to American p

Netanyahu to NY Times: Attacking Iran was ‘no bluff’
Ariel Kahana/Israel Hayom/September 04/2019
Lengthy New York Times piece shows the extent to which Obama administration pressured Israeli leader not to attack Iran. US also tested 30,000-pound bomb, report says. “If I’d had a majority, I would have done it, unequivocally, ” Netanyahu tells Times.
Netanyahu warns Iran: 'Our planes can reach anywhere in the Middle East' The US monitored Israeli activity to make sure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not carry out an uncoordinated strike against Iran’s nuclear program, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, the US believed that Israel was on the verge of attacking the Islamic republic in 2012, and at one point discovered that Israel was allegedly carrying out extensive intelligence operations without its knowledge through Azerbaijan.
The Times said that the information was gathered through “interviews with dozens of current and former American, Israeli and European officials over several months reveal the startling details of how close the Israeli military came to attacking Iran in 2012.”
The interviews also showed “the extent to which the Obama administration felt required to develop its own military contingency plans in the event of such an attack, including destroying a full-size mock-up of an Iranian nuclear facility in the western desert of the United States with a 30,000-pound bomb; how Americans monitored Israel even as Israel monitored Iran, with American satellites capturing images of Israel launching surveillance drones into Iran from a base in Azerbaijan; and previously unknown details about the scope of Netanyahu’s pressure campaign to get Trump to leave the Iran deal.”
Netanyahu is quoted in the report as saying “this [the potential attack] was not a bluff – it was real. And only because it was real were the Americans truly worried about it.”
“If I’d had a majority, I would have done it,” Netanyahu said. “Unequivocally.”The Times reported that “a parade of top American officials began flying to Israel during Barack Obama’s first term to take the measure of the Israeli planning and to convince Netanyahu and [then Defense Minister] Ehud Barak that the United States was taking the problem seriously and that Iran was hardly on the brink of getting the bomb.”Regarding the possibility that the Trump administration would strike another deal with Iran rather than continue the pressure on Tehran, Netanyahu told the Times that “this time, we will have far greater ability to exert influence [compared to during the Obama presidency].”

ISLAM: The West’s “most formidable and persistent enemy”
Raymond Ibrahim/FPM/September 04/2019
At the height of Western dominance over Islam in the early twentieth century, the European historian Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) made a remarkably prescient observation that may have seemed exaggerated at the time:
Anyone who doubts that Islam has been “the most formidable and persistent enemy which our civilization has had,” should familiarize themselves with Islam’s long offensive record vis-à-vis the West. A succinct summary follows:
According to Islamic history, in 628, the Arabian founder of Islam, Muhammad, called on the Byzantine Emperor, Heraclius—the symbolic head of Christendom—to recant Christianity and embrace Islam. The emperor refused, jihad was declared, and the Arabs invaded Christian Syria, defeating the imperial army at the pivotal Battle of Yarmuk in 636.
This victory enabled the Muslims to swarm in all directions, so that, less than a century later, they had conquered the greater, older, and richer part of Christendom, including Syria, Egypt, and North Africa.
Their drive into Europe from the east was repeatedly frustrated by the Walls of Constantinople; after the spectacularly failed siege of 717-718, many centuries would pass before any Muslim power thought to capture the imperial city. The Arabs did manage to invade Europe proper through and conquered Spain but were stopped at the Battle of Tours in 732 and eventually driven back south of the Pyrenees.
For more than two centuries thereafter, Europe continued to be pummeled by land and sea—untold thousands of Christians were enslaved and every Mediterranean island sacked—in the ongoing Muslim quest for booty and slaves, as what historians have dubbed “the Dark Ages” descended on the continent.
The vicissitudes of war ebbed and flowed—the Eastern Roman Empire (“Byzantium”) made a major comeback against Islam in the tenth century—though the border largely remained the same. This changed when the Turks, under the leadership of the Seljuk tribe, became the new standard bearers of jihad. They nearly annihilated eastern Anatolia, particularly Armenia and Georgia in the eleventh century and, after the Battle of Manzikert, 1071, overran Asia Minor.
By now, however, Western Europe’s military might had so matured that when the Pope called on the knights of Christendom to come to the aid of the Christian East, the First Crusade was born. Western Christians, led by the Franks, marched into the beast’s lair, defeated their adversaries in several encounters and managed to establish a firm presence in the Levant, including in Jerusalem, which they recaptured in 1099—only to lose it less than one hundred years later, in 1187, after the fateful Battle of Hattin. By 1297, the Crusader presence was eliminated from the Middle East.
But if it failed in the East, the Crusade succeeded in the West. A handful of years after the Muslim invasion and conquest of Spain around 711, fugitive Christians holed in the northern mountains of Asturia began the Reconquista; by 1085 it had proven effective enough to prompt two new Muslim invasions from Africa to counter it. Again, the ebb and flow of war dominated the landscape, but by 1212, at Las Navas de Tolosa, Spain’s indigenous Christians gave Islam its death-stroke, so that by 1252 it was confined to Granada at the southernmost tip of Iberia.
Around that same time, a violent but relatively short-lived Mongolian storm overwhelmed much of the east; both Christians (notably Russians) and Muslims were pummeled. A new Turkish dynasty arose from the Seljuk ashes: the Ottomans—whose identity revolved around the concept of jihad more than any of their predecessors—renewed Islam’s perennial war on Christendom. They managed to enter Eastern Europe, defeated a combined army of Crusaders at Nicopolis in 1396, took much of the Balkans, and crowned their achievement by fulfilling Muhammad’s desire of conquering Constantinople—and enslaving and raping thousands of its inhabitants in ways that ISIS tries to mimic—in 1453.
But mourning was soon tempered by joy: to the west, Spain finally conquered Granada in 1492, thereby snuffing out Islam as a political power; to the east, the most overlooked chapter of Muslim-Christian conflict was also coming to an end. The Russians, who had lived under distinctly Islamic rule for nearly two centuries, finally cast off the “Tatar Yoke” in 1480.
Even so, the Ottomans continued to be the scourge of Christendom; they continued making inroads into Europe—reaching but failing to capture Vienna in 1529—and sponsored the seaborne jihad originating from North Africa. While the Muslims largely failed to capture new European lands, Barbary pirates and Crimean slavers captured and sold approximately five million Europeans.
In 1683, over 200,000 Ottoman jihadis attempted to take Vienna again. Even though their failure marked the Ottoman Empire’s slow decline, Muslim slavers of the so-called Barbary States of North Africa continued to wreak havoc all along the coasts of Europe—reaching even Iceland.
The United States of America’s first war—which it fought before it could even elect its first president—was against these Islamic slavers. When Thomas Jefferson and John Adams asked Barbary’s ambassador why his countrymen were enslaving American sailors, the “ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that … it was their right and duty to make war upon them [non-Muslims] wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners.”
Europe’s final triumph over the Barbary States in the early 1800s ushered in the colonial era. By 1900, most of the Muslim world was under European control; by 1924, the more than 600 year-old Ottoman caliphate was abolished—not by Europeans but Muslim Turks, as the latter sought to emulate the successful ways of the former. Islam was viewed as a spent force and virtually forgotten, until recent times when it reemerged again.
Such has been the true and most “general” history between the Islamic and Western worlds.
The above map (© Sword and Scimitar) should give an idea of how far reaching and multi-tentacled the perennial jihad was. The darkest green shading represents Western/Christian nations that were permanently conquered by Islam; the lighter green shading represents those Western/Christian nations that were temporarily conquered by Islam (sometimes for many centuries, as in Spain, Russia, and the Balkans); green stripes represent areas that were raided, often repeatedly, though not necessarily annexed by Islam; the crossed swords mark the sites of the eight most landmark battles between Islam and the West.
From a macrocosmic perspective, the consequences of the historic jihad are even more profound than first appears. After writing, “For almost a thousand years, from the first Moorish landing in Spain [711] to the second Turkish siege of Vienna [1683], Europe was under constant threat from Islam,” Bernard Lewis elaborates:
The “loss” of North Africa and the Middle East “was sorely felt” by premodern Europeans because they thought more along religious and civilizational lines than nationalist ones. And before Islam burst onto the scene, most of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East were part of the same religio-civilizational block. As such, Islam did not merely invade and eventually get repulsed from Europe; rather, “Muslim armies conquered three-quarters [or 75 percent] of the Christian world,” to quote historian Thomas Madden.
Thus what is now called “the West” is actually the westernmost remnant of what was a much more extensive civilizational block that Islam permanently severed, thereby altering the course of “Western” history. And, once Muslims overran Africa and the Middle East, most of its Christian subjects, to evade fiscal and social oppression and join the winning team, converted to Islam, thereby perpetuating the cycle, as they became the new standard bearers of jihad against their former coreligionists north and west of the Mediterranean.
Such are the rarely noted ironies of history.
Returning to Hilaire Belloc, one can also see how an accurate understanding of true history—as opposed to the widespread indoctrination in “alternate” histories that prevails throughout American schools—leads to an accurate prognosis of the future. For Belloc was not only correct about the past but the future as well:
It [Islam] is, as a fact, the most formidable and persistent enemy which our civilization has had, and may at any moment become as large a menace in the future as it has been in the past…. The whole spiritual strength of Islam is still present in the masses of Syria and Anatolia, of the East Asian mountains, of Arabia, Egypt and North Africa. The final fruit of this tenacity, the second period of Islamic power, may be delayed —but I doubt whether it can be permanently postponed (emphasis added).
Note: The historical portion of this article follows the outline of Ibrahim’s recent Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West— a book that CAIR did everything it could to prevent the U.S. Army War College from learning about.