English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For September 06/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews19/english.september06.20.htm

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006

Bible Quotations For today
God, Has chosen you, because our message of the gospel that came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction
First Letter to the Thessalonians 01/01-10/:”Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of people we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place where your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.”’”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 05-06/2020

Your Lebanon Is Holy, Defend Its Sovereignty & Independence/Elias Bejjani/ٍSeptember 06/2020
Hopes of miracle fade in search for Beirut blast survivor
Beirut explosion: Rescuers search rubble for third day, with nation transfixed
Families of victims reflect on tragedy one month after Beirut port explosion
Report: U.S. to Impose New Batch of Sanctions Next Week
World Bank cancels loan for controversial Lebanon dam
Army Busts Terror Cell, Potential Links to Kaftoun Crime
Adib Vows Commitment to Investigations into Beirut Blast
Art emerges from rubble of destroyed Beirut gallery, proceeds to help with rebuilding
Search for possible Beirut blast survivor enters third day
Lebanon says it will ‘abolish kafala,’ activists say new measures come up short
Macron’s visit was another disaster for Lebanon/Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri./Arab News/September 05/2020
Exasperated by their leaders, Lebanese find hope in a dog named Flash/Layelle Saad/ Al Arabiya English/Saturday 05 September 2020
Beirut residents race against rain to save historical homes ravaged by explosion
 

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 05-06/2020

UN chief warns of famine risk in four conflict-struck countries, including Yemen
Trump uses economic oil to resolve long Kosovo-Serbia dispute
President Trump calls on Fox News to fire reporter over veterans flap
Sudan declares three-month state of emergency over floods: SUNA

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 05-06/2020

Iran: "American Soil is Now Within the Range of Iranian Bombs"
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/September 05/2020
The Real Palestinian Tragedy/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 05/2020
What is the US aiming for by lifting the Cyprus arms embargo?/Menekse Tokyay//Arab News/September 05/2020
Why the world is watching Trump vs Biden/Andrew Hammond /Arab News/September 05/2020
Poison in the well of the Merkel-Putin friendship/Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/September 05/2020
A clear best choice to lead world trade reform/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/September 05/2020
Kadhimi goes full steam against barons of corruption/Hammam Latif/The Arab Weekly/September 05/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 05-06/2020

Your Lebanon Is Holy, Defend Its Sovereignty & Independence
Elias Bejjani/ٍSeptember 06/2020
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/77734/elias-bejjani/

History teaches us that almost none of the world’s greatest nations have ever been defeated by their rivals. All of them were first weakened and destroyed from within, before their enemies were able to bring them to their knees. Even medicine teaches us that when the body loses immunity it becomes vulnerable to disease. Perhaps the best examples of this can be seen in the fall of the Ottoman and Roman empires.
These historical and medical realities are a good example of what personifies the pathetic derailed stances of some of our people in both occupied Lebanon and in Diaspora. These people are destroying the Lebanese communities from within, through their shameless collaboration and subservience to the Iranian occupation.
“Everyone who sins is a slave of sin” (John 8-34), and every Lebanese who betrays his people to advocate for the Iranian occupation in any way and by any means is also a sinner too.
These mercenaries and Pharisees, are void of any kind of dignity or national honor. Unfortunately they come from all walks of life and from all religious backgrounds and regions.
They have sold themselves to the devil in a bid to increase their riches and solidify their power. They steal, cheat, embezzle, betray, and change their skin for personal interests, all at the expense of the Lebanese people and Lebanon.
They ignore Lebanon’s deeply rooted history, distinguishable identity, and they have no respect for the sacrifices of the many thousands of Lebanese patriots who offered themselves on the nation’s altar to enable us to be proud, prosperous and independent.
These antagonists are thirsty for power and blood; They sold their souls and honor for thirty pieces of silver. They have no respect for Lebanon’s 7000 years of civilization, culture and its glorious history. They are masters in defeatism, ignorance, cowardice and faithlessness.
Their wicked camouflage, sweet words and lies are well known to all those who are witnesses to the truth. They have missed the fact that Lebanon’s people have never, ever knelt and hung their heads before any tyrant, invader, occupier or conqueror.
All foreign invaders with their armies were forced to leave Lebanon in defeat, humiliation and a fractured dignity.
The only memory of these invaders are the primitive carvings on the “Nahr Al-Kaleb” rocks, near the city of Beirut. These carvings should foretell to the Iranian occupiers their fate in Lebanon and that they definitely are not going to be any better than those who like them deluded themselves and falsely believed that they can destroy Lebanon and subdue its people.
They have all left while Lebanon and its people still stand as proud and patriotic as they were 7000 years ago!
We remind the Pharisees and Trojans, who apparently suffer of an advanced selective amnesia that the people of Sidon in the year 350 BC, chose to burn themselves and their city after their prolonged heroic resistance failed to safeguard their city against the Persian invader Artechtahta. They preferred to die with dignity rather than live with humiliation.
The people of Tyre followed this same pattern in 332 BC. They resisted Alexander the Great’s mighty army for seven months refusing to surrender or kneel. Alexander, after capturing the city crucified many of the brave Tyrians, while enslaving others in a bid to revenge his huge loss and demeaning humiliation.
In the same context,The Maronite Patriarch Gabriel Hgola choose to be burned (1367 AD) in Tripoli northen Lebanese City in front of the Omari mosque in a bid to save his people from the Mamlouk’s humiliation and torture.
The same sacrifice was taken by the Maronite Patriarch Daniel Al-Amshiti in the same place in year 1282 for almost the same reasons and for the same cause.
In principle, a man is considered defeated when winning the whole universe, if he lacks the courage needed to witness the truth and defend God’s word. By the same token, the brave man who honors human values and dignity, remains victorious even when imprisoned and chained in shackles.
We remind those who are afraid to takes clear stances in life, change their skin to suit their opportunistic interests, and lack the courage to witness the truth, that by doing so, they are committing the worst mortal crime. Imam Ali says in this regard: “He who accepts acts of others is considered their partner. He who is involved in evil acts commits two sins, that of performing the act and that of its acceptance.”
We call on our derailed leaders and politicians in occupied Lebanon to strengthen your faith, repent for their cowardice behavior and be witness for the truth.
We call on them not to fall into the trap of individual interests, and not to be deceived by the golden garments and illustrious schemes of those who have been assigned to divide our nation and communities, and spread hatred and conflicts among its members.
These derailed and weak shepherds, “God has blinded their eyes and closed their minds, so that their eyes would not see, and their minds would not understand, and they would not turn to me, says God, for me to help them”. (John 12-39).
It is a proven fact that the coward is a blind man in both sight and discretion, whose conscience has turned numb.
Shame on every Lebanese who keeps a blind eye towards his people who imprisoned arbitrarily in the Syrian jails and shame on every Lebanese who does not support human rights and does not advocate for Lebanon’s liberation.
Shame on all these Lebanese who are scared to oppose the occupation of their country, so as not to be expelled from the heaven of opportunistic interests and privileges provided by the occupier, or in fear of his reprisal. They have chosen the track of sin rather than that of righteousness.
These Pharisees are destroying the country which is our holy temple. They should be dealt with in the same way Jesus did over 2000 years ago:
“It was almost time for the Passover festival, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. There in the temple he found men selling cattle, sheep and pigeons, and also the money changers sitting at their tables. So He made a whip from the cords and drove all the animals out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle; he overturned the tables of the money changers and scattered their coins; and he ordered the men who sold the pigeons: Take them out of here, stop making my Fathers House a marketplace”. John 03-13
We call on all those who have accepted slavery, are afraid to be witnesses for the truth, feel defeated inside themselves, have deviated from the righteous track, camouflaging, cheating and betraying Lebanon; We call on all of them to wake up and start thoroughly reviewing their dangerous acts! Forgiveness is always there and Lebanon’s open loving arms will embrace them once they repent.
“If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples, you know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. (John 8-13)

Hopes of miracle fade in search for Beirut blast survivor
AFP/September 05/2020
Rescue teams kept up their search for survivors in Beirut Saturday even as hopes raised by sensor readings of a pulse beneath the rubble of last month’s blast began to fade. The cataclysmic August 4 explosion in the port of Beirut killed at least 191 people, making it Lebanon’s deadliest peacetime disaster. One month on, seven people are still listed as missing. On Wednesday night, a sniffer dog deployed by Chilean rescuers detected a scent beneath a collapsed building in the heavily damaged Gemmayzeh neighborhood adjacent to the port. High-tech sensors confirmed an apparent heartbeat and, a full month after the August 4 blast, rescue teams took up the search. But despite removing piles of masonry, they have yet to find the source of the sensor reading. “Search operations have been going on since the day before yesterday but the chances are very low,” the civil defense agency’s operations director, George Abou Moussa, said. “So far, we have found nothing.”Saturday was the search teams’ third straight day of digging, much of it by hand. “We are not leaving the site until we’ve finished going through the rubble, even if a new building collapse threatens,” said civil defense officer Qassem Khater. Chilean specialist Walter Munoz put the chances of finding a survivor at “two percent.” Lebanese officials had played down the chances of anyone surviving so long beneath the rubble. But even the faint hope of a miracle caught the imagination of a country already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic and the country’s worst economic crisis in decades. “I was not aware I needed a miracle that much. Please God, give Beirut this miracle it deserves,” said Selim Mourad, a 32-year-old filmmaker. Residents had reacted angrilly on Thursday night when rescue workers said they were breaking for the night. Lebanon lacks the tools and expertise to handle advanced search and rescue operations, so they have been supported by experts from Chile, France and the Unites States. The Chileans, in particular, have been praised as heroes by many Lebanese on social media, who have compared their expertise with the lackluster performance of what they see as an absent state. The country observed a minute’s silence for the dead on Friday.

Beirut explosion: Rescuers search rubble for third day, with nation transfixed
Reuters/Saturday 05 September 2020
Rescue workers continued to dig through the rubble of a Beirut building for a third day on Saturday, still hoping to find someone alive more than a month after a massive port explosion shattered Lebanon’s capital. About 50 rescue workers and volunteers, including a specialist team from Chile, had yet to locate anyone after sensors on Thursday detected signs of breathing and heat. But they said they would continue while there was a small chance of finding a survivor, and had narrowed their search. “Always in search operations like this, you can neither lose hope nor absolutely say there is hope,” George Abou Moussa, director of operations in Lebanon’s civil defense, told Reuters. The August 4 blast killed about 190 people, injured 6,000 more and devastated whole neighborhoods. The authorities held ceremonies on Friday to mark a month since the explosion tore into a city already reeling from a crippling economic crisis.
Rescue efforts dominated local and social media, as the Lebanese were transfixed, desperate for some good news. The ruined building where the search was continuing lies between the residential districts of Gemmayze and Mar Mikhael, among the hardest hit areas by the blast and home to many old buildings that crumbled as the shockwave ripped through. Work was slow, rescue workers said, as the badly damaged building was at risk of collapse. “The building is really crumbling, it’s scary and there’s a lot of danger to the team,” Abou Moussa said. Workers were using shovels and their hands to dig, while mechanical diggers and a crane lifted heavy debris. Emmanuel Durand, a French civil engineer who was training local university students, volunteered his services and was working with the rescuers to monitor the structure. Scanning the building with high-precision lasers, Durand said his team had so far not found any signs of movement.

Families of victims reflect on tragedy one month after Beirut port explosion
Abby Sewell, Al Arabiya English/Saturday 05 September 2020
On the one-month anniversary of the August 4 Port of Beirut explosions, families of the victims in Lebanon gathered on the side of the highway above the blast site to remember their loved ones with tenderness and cast words of accusation at the government. At least 191 people died in the blast and some 6,500 were injured. At the commemoration ceremony, names of the victims were written on placards and hung on the wall on the side of the road overlooking the port. Some of the attendees carried flowers – others carried nooses, in a pointed message to the state that they hold responsible for the death of their loved ones. As the families were gathering to mourn, rescue teams in the nearby Gemmayze neighborhood were still picking through the rubble of a collapsed building in search of potential survivors after a Chilean rescue team detected potential signs of life in the wreckage Thursday using a specially trained search dog and a scanner. As of Saturday morning, however, they had come up empty handed. Michele Andoun, the sister of Joe Andoun, a port worker killed in the explosion, said the state had left her brother “buried, like maybe there are still people buried, and they are not searching for them.”
“I lost my brother, Joe Andoun, and that’s not something you can get used to, neither for me nor my brother, nor for my mother and father, nor for his wife and his children, Jenny and Joy, nor for his friends, of which there are many,” she said. “Most importantly, you can’t get used to this country where there is no longer anyone who wants to stay.”She noted that her brother had had the opportunity to leave the country but had not wanted to. In the end, she said, “Joe left through a different route, through a very ugly and painful route.” Their brother, Elie, had still harsher words for those in power. “We don’t have a state,” he said. “Those who stand accused include the President Michel Aoun, Hassan Nasrallah [leader of Hezbollah] and all the political parties and all of the authorities – they are all the reason for this. All the authorities stand accused.”A delegation of firefighters arrived to pay respects to the 10 of their colleagues who were killed as they responded to the explosion, and a group of religious leaders representing different sects led the gathering in prayer. Meanwhile, another gathering lit candles in Martyr’s Square to commemorate the blast.

Report: U.S. to Impose New Batch of Sanctions Next Week
Naharnet/September 05/2020
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker reportedly confirmed that a new package of US sanctions will be issued next week, the Saudi Asharq el-Awsat said on Saturday.
Schenker reportedly emphasized that Washington does not distinguish between the military and civilian wings of Hizbullah because they follow one leadership, and because the party interferes in the internal affairs of a number of Arab countries, and constitutes the security and military arm of Iran.
Schenker’s remarks came during a meeting with resigned Lebanese lawmakers at the Kataeb party headquarters in Bikfaya. MPs Marwan Hamadeh, Sami Gemayel, Henri Helou, Paula Yaacoubian, Nehmet Ifram, Nadim Gemayel, Elias Hankash, and Michel Mouawad resigned from parliament after the colossal Beirut port blast. According to the MPs, the US official did not detail the sides targeted by the new batch of sanctions and whether they include new names from Hizbullah, its allies, or associations and institutions affiliated with the party.
He only affirmed the sanctions will be issued next week. On the French momentum towards Lebanon, Schenker pointed out that US President Donald Trump had an understanding with French President Emmanuel Macron, before launching his initiative to save Lebanon.
Endorsing reforms and combating corruption remain a priority in Lebanon, Schenker had reportedly assured, noting that any failure in that regard will deprive Lebanon from financial and economic assistance to help it steer out of its economic crisis. He considered the French initiative a road map for a phased solution beginning with financial and administrative reforms, followed by political reforms, said the newspaper. Skipping meetings with members of the political establishment and limiting them with civil society activists and resigned MPs, Schenker said so as not to be accused of interfering or blamed for any delay in the government formation. Turning to the economic and financial crisis, he said Lebanon is going through an unprecedented crisis and is in need of financial aid conditional on the approval of the French road plan, provided that the first payment exceeds 4 billion dollars. The US diplomat said he will return to visit Beirut before the end of the current month to discuss the demarcation of the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel in light of the inability to reach a settlement.

World Bank cancels loan for controversial Lebanon dam
The Arab Weekly/September 05/2020
WASHINGTON - The World Bank on Friday said it was canceling a loan to fund a dam in Lebanon that environmentalists claimed could destroy a valley rich in biodiversity. In a statement, the World Bank said it had notified the Lebanese government about its decision, which takes effect immediately. It said it has also repeatedly underscored the need for “an open, transparent and inclusive consultative process.”The World Bank began raising concerns in January about Lebanon’s plans to build the large dam in the Bisri Valley, and put funding for the program under partial suspension on June 26.
Initially approved by Lebanon’s government in 2015 at a total cost of $617 million, the dam had long sparked criticism from environmental activists. Concerns about large infrastructure projects have spiked since the massive port explosion in Beirut on August 4 that killed more than 190 people.
The World Bank committed $474 million to fund the project, of which $244 million have not yet been disbursed. The Bank initially set July 22 as the deadline for authorities to meet all requirements to proceed with the project, but later agreed to extend the deadline until Septtember 4, given constraints imposed by the novel coronavirus pandemic.The Bank said the Lebanese government had failed to address questions about an ecological compensation plan and arrangements for operations and management of the dam. The contractor also had not been mobilized at the site, it said. Certain expenditures related to fiduciary and environmental and social safeguards would remain exempt, it said. The Bank said it remained ready to work with Lebanese authorities to see how existing loans, including undisbursed amounts from the canceled Bisri project, could be used most effectively to respond to the emerging needs of the Lebanese people following the port explosion. Located in a valley 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the capital, the dam aims to supply drinking water as well as irrigation for 1.6 million residents. Environmentalists and some farmers disputed assurances from the government and World Bank that the dam to be built on a seismic fault line does not increase the risk of earthquakes.

Army Busts Terror Cell, Potential Links to Kaftoun Crime
Naharnet/September 05/2020
The Lebanese army busted members of a terror cell linked to the Islamic State group, with potential links to the crime in Kaftoun back in August, the Lebanese Army Command-Orientation Directorate reported on Saturday.
The Army said in a statement, the cell was in the process of carrying out terror acts inside Lebanon. The vehicle of the cell’s commander and Emir, Khaled Tellawi, who is still at large, was used by the suspects involved in the Kaftoun crime that left three municipal police guards dead in August, added the statement. “Eradication of this cell comes within the framework of pre-emptive operations and the permanent follow-up of the terrorist organizations and cells associated with it,” said the army statement. Adding “the terrorist cell members were arrested on different dates in a series of security operations in the North and Bekaa regions. They had received military training, collected weapons and ammunition and carried out several thefts with the aim of financing the activities of the aforementioned cell.”The military confiscated the weapons and ammunition in their possession.

Adib Vows Commitment to Investigations into Beirut Blast
Naharnet/September 05/2020
Prime Minister designate Mustafa Adib marked one month since Beirut’s deadly port blast on Saturday, affirming commitment to investigations into the colossal explosion that took the lives of more than 191 people, injured thousands and left around 300,000 people homeless. “As we patch our wounds, we have to stand united with hope for the future and confidence in our ability to rise, reform and build a state up to the aspirations of the new generation,” said Adib in a tweet. “Meanwhile we are committed to investigations until justice says its word,” he added. Late in August, Adib, Lebanon's ambassador to Germany, was appointed by the president to form a new government, after he secured 90 votes among the legislators in the 128-member parliament. He pledged to speed up the investigation into the massive Beirut explosion and implement reforms after winning the backing of major parties in the crisis-hit country.
Judge Fadi Sawwan, leading investigations into the blast, issued several arrest warrants since the start of the probe.Many have blamed the disaster on official negligence and corruption.
 

Art emerges from rubble of destroyed Beirut gallery, proceeds to help with rebuilding
Maghie Ghali, Al Arabiya English/Saturday 05 September 2020
A week before the August 4 blast at the port that ripped apart downtown Beirut, Lebanese artist Abed Al Kadiri was celebrating his latest exhibition at Galerie Tanit, only a few hundred feet from the port.
The mostly black paintings that made up “Remains of the Last Red Rose” were intended as a reflection of the despair felt by many Lebanese people, suffering under the weight of popular protests, economic collapse and the coronavirus pandemic.Kadiri could never have imaged how much darker Beirut would get.
Now, a new project in the shape of two large murals has taken form at what remains of the gallery, titled “Today, I Would Like to be a Tree,” with the aim of countering the destruction around it and raising money for those who lost their homes in the blast.
“I was on my way to the gallery when the blast went off,” Kadiri told Al Arabiya English. “I continued on, not realizing the scale of the explosion. The gallery was destroyed – all the walls had collapsed and my paintings were under the rubble. It was a shocking experience.”
Many residents of the Mar Mikhael building housing Galerie Tanit died in the explosion, which killed 191 people, including the gallery’s architect Jean-Marc Bonfils. Kadiri’s paintings and the walls they hung on were obliterated by 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, which are believed to have caught fire after being stored under unsafe conditions for seven years. Over the last two weeks, Kadiri has spent 12 hours a day working on the new project, seeking to pay tribute to the late architect, as well as work through some of the emotional trauma wrought by the blast.
“One week after the explosion I had this vision of the gallery full of trees and I felt I have to do it. I’ve always felt that the only place I feel at peace and full of serenity is when I’m next to trees,” Kadiri said. “It adds to the pain we all felt because it was my show at the gallery. I felt like I was responsible somehow, like it was my duty to create an alternative element to counter the destruction.”
Rendered in charcoal, the first finished mural shows a black and gray forest, with a red moon hanging ominously in the sky. Kadiri intends to finish the second forest in the next two weeks.
The murals are split into 80 cardboard panels, and each will be sold for a starting price of $500, with the goal of earning upwards of $40,000 for relief and reconstruction. All proceeds will to the non-governmental organization BASSMA, which is helping to rebuild homes of those affected by the blast.
The project has also been a healing process for Kadiri, who said he has always found solace in Lebanon’s forests-filled mountains and the ability of nature to creep back into even the most desolate places. Despite using the tree as a metaphor for endurance in the face a storm, Kadiri stressed that the project is in no way an act of hope or resilience. “Many of us Lebanese have lost hope and can’t think about it anymore,” Kadiri said. “All I’m trying to do is, as an artist, is to create a different image and say, ‘Ok, I didn’t die.’ I don’t want to say I was lucky, but so long as I’m still able to do what I’m good at and continue, then I can help.”Kadiri decided to divide the murals into panels not only to sell off individually, but also to replicate the imagery of entire buildings reduced to fragments and the notion of something whole now in pieces. At the same time, anyone purchasing a piece will have a piece of something that connects them to the others. With Kadiri camped out at what remains of the once popular art venue, gallery owner Naila Kettaneh-Kunigk is using the time to take stock of the damages and consider how to rebuild Galerie Tanit in the future.
Some temporary brick walls will be put in place and windows will be repaired to seal the place in preparation for the rainy season. Many of the artworks kept in storage were destroyed and everything is being kept at a freely offered storage unit, waiting to be looked over.
With uncertainty over how much damage, if any, insurance companies will cover, the costs may be considerable, especially where artwork is concerned. “The gallery will cost between $300,000 -$400,000 [to rebuild]…but the objects are irreplaceable,” she said. While one painting is intact, but its frame is broken, one sculpture has been reduced to 3,000 pieces. “I have every intention of reopening but we need to see with our program of artists how we will continue and what it will be about.”

Search for possible Beirut blast survivor enters third day
Al Jazeera and News Agencies/September 05/2020
Rescuers in the Lebanese capital have resumed work in a bid to determine if there is a person trapped under piles of debris of a building that collapsed a month ago following a deadly explosion. One month after the massive blast at Beirut's port devastated the city, a frantic search for a possible survivor entered its third day on Saturday after hopes of success had dwindled a day earlier.Chilean rescue workers on Thursday said they had detected a sign of life from under the rubble of a collapsed building in the Gemmayze neighbourhood. A sniffer dog named Flash - brought to Beirut by the Chilean rescuers - was the first to respond to a scent at the site. Electronic sensors were then brought in to examine the area and signals indicating someone was trapped below were detected.
Beirut Blast: In the Chaos
The Chilean volunteers are part of a Mexican rescue non-profit named "Los Topos" and are being aided by Lebanese civil defence volunteers. Francisco Lermanda, leader of the Chilean "Topos" rescue team, which is leading the search effort, told reporters on Friday evening he could neither confirm nor rule out that there was anyone alive under the huge pile of debris. "We have to reach three metres, this is where we received the signal," he said. He added that audio equipment detected what appeared to be weak breathing - initially between 18 and 20 breaths per minute - and that the specialists told them that it indicated a person could be about three metres deep. Lermanda said digging crews were tunnelling towards the location from multiple directions and had reached 1.2 metres deep so far.
'Not giving up'
Lebanese engineer Riad al-Assad, who is helping the Chilean team, on Friday said the team "did a test between 4:30 and 6:30 pm local time but they did not hear anything, they repeated it at 8:30 pm and again the same result". Al-Assad said work was briefly paused late on Friday since the Chilean team had been working for 48 hours non-stop. Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said the Chileans had decided not to "give up".Khodr said some people believe the inability to determine whether there is a person trapped beneath the rubble was because there were so many people in the area on Friday night, with many using mobile phones that were "jamming" the rescue team's equipment. "A short while ago, they used laser scanners," she said. "The Chilean team are not giving up, they said … even if it's just a 1 percent chance, we will continue until we prove or discount proof of life."According to Khodr, people are "furious" and are questioning why local authorities have not cleared the debris a month after the explosion. "What is clear is that the government has not been present," she said. "They have been absent in the rescue efforts, in the relief efforts … as well as the rebuilding efforts."Commemoration ceremony for the victims of massive blasts sn BeirutLebanese on Friday take part in a ceremony to remember the victims of Beirut port blast [Anadolu]
The search came as Lebanon on Friday marked a month since the devastating explosion on August 4, which killed some 200 people, wounded 6,000 others and left a country already reeling from a severe financial crisis in a state of shock.
On Friday, people in Beirut gathered for a vigil and prayer. The Lebanese army stood for a minute of silence at the port alongside family members who lost their loved ones in the explosion. At another event near the blast site, white roses were distributed to the families of the dead and wounded, and religious leaders representing the main sects in Lebanon prayed. A minute of silence was also observed by people passing the road near the port, while traffic came to a standstill at exactly 6:07 pm (15:07 GMT) - the time the blast occurred. The tragedy was caused by ammonium nitrate which was poorly stored in a port warehouse.

Lebanon says it will ‘abolish kafala,’ activists say new measures come up short
Lauren Holtmeier, Al Arabiya English/Saturday 05 September 2020
Lebanon caretaker Labor Minister Lamia Yammine Douaihy said on Friday that she has issued an order abolishing the country’s kafala system to ensure the rights of migrant and domestic workers are protected. The kafala, or sponsorship, system ties workers to their employer, and under the system, migrant workers must obtain written permission to transfer employers and leave the country. The move would allow “this group to obtain all of their contractual rights and benefit from wider social protection,” Douaihy wrote in a tweet. Human Rights Watch researcher Aya Majzoub noted that while the new unified labor contract for migrant workers is a first step, it does not abolish the kafala system. Reforms to the system have been long sought by activists who say the current system is rife with human rights violations. In March, activists and government officials, among others, met in Beirut to discuss reforms to the system. More recently, the system has come under pressure as the country descends steadily into economic collapse and families who can no longer afford to support their live-in workers have thrown them out on the streets, often not returning their passports, leaving them stranded. Dozens of women have been dumped outside the Ethiopian embassy in Beirut. There are approximately 250,000 migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, according to Human Rights Watch. “Their status in the country is regulated by the kafala system – a restrictive immigration regime of laws, regulations, and customary practices – that ties migrant workers’ legal residency to their employer. Workers cannot leave or change employers without their employers’ consent, placing them at risk of exploitation and abuse,” read a Human Rights Watch report from July on the kafala system in Lebanon.

Macron’s visit was another disaster for Lebanon
Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri./Arab News/September 05/2020
French President Emmanuel Macron’s first visit to Lebanon after the explosion at Beirut port was warmly welcomed by some Lebanese people. Others in the region decided to wait to see what it would lead to.
That first visit, in early August, was seen as an expression of solidarity for Lebanon and a desire for stability. Those who welcomed it felt it might help to save from terrorism a country that was already suffering from the results of prevalent corruption. The explosion, some felt, was one of the consequences of Lebanon straying too far from its own interests. Last week, Macron returned to Lebanon, this time demanding that a new government be formed. It is as if he wants simply to clean up the rubble in Beirut and close the file. The solutions to Lebanon’s problems, however, will involve a lot more than simply forming a government. Many governments have been formed, many times, and none have been successful in their endeavors.
In fact, the presence of an Iranian-backed terrorist militia prevents the establishment of a real, effective government in Lebanon. That militia, Hezbollah, has hijacked the country and turned it into a source of terrorist activity and intervention across the region.
Hezbollah, which is affiliated with Tehran, is no ordinary arms-bearing militia. It considers itself a political party, and it participates in and controls the Lebanese government. Its influence in the Lebanese parliament gives it control of the security services and other military forces. Its power and control springs directly from the force of its arms.
This terrorist militia is the cause of Lebanon’s problems. It was responsible for the Beirut explosion. It was the force behind the assassination of President Rafik Hariri in 2005, and it remains the cause of the rampant corruption that weakens and destroys everything in the country. Its powerful members are present in all parts of the state and are above the law. Nobody is allowed to question or challenge its actions, its terrorism or its corruption.
The presence of an Iranian-backed terrorist militia prevents the establishment of a real, effective government in Lebanon.
This is the country’s real problem and this is what the Lebanese people would like to be rid of. Lebanon wants to join the community of nations that supports democracy and would never accept the existence of an armed militia that operates outside the framework or control of the state.
Macron’s visit was not in the interest of the Lebanese people, the Lebanese state, or the stability of the region. The real beneficiaries of his visit were Iran and its terrorist militias, which continue to augment terrorism and interfere brazenly in the region — in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere.
The militias see themselves as unaccountable and believe the international mood is with them. This was especially true in the shameful nuclear agreement between Western powers and Iran. It was based on the greed that desired the return of oil companies, including France’s Total, to Tehran. In addition, some countries want to lift the arms embargo and sell weapons to Iran, the largest state supporter of terrorism.
The fact is that the region has gradually realized that Iran and its terrorist militias do not act alone, and that there are those who benefit from their interventions and efforts to destabilize the security and stability of many countries.
Unleashing Iranian terrorism in the region and failing to hold its militias to account will complicate matters even further and will not bring stability — quite the reverse. It will endanger everyone’s interests, and instead of thinking that Tehran and its militias are protecting the interests of the people, they will be seen to be doing exactly the opposite. Lebanon’s problems cannot and will not be solved simply by forming a sham government or visiting a Lebanese artist and drinking coffee with her, as Macron did last week. The problems can only be solved by eradicating terrorism, so that people start to enjoy their lives, support the coming of peace and stability, and be assured of a proper future for their children.
*Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri is a political analyst and international relations scholar. Twitter: @DrHamsheri

Exasperated by their leaders, Lebanese find hope in a dog named Flash
Layelle Saad/ Al Arabiya English/Saturday 05 September 2020
On Wednesday night a Chilean rescue dog gave the Lebanese something they hadn’t felt in a long time — hope. A team of Chilean rescuers were walking between the gravely damaged residential districts of Gemmayze and Mar Mikhael when Flash — trained to find bodies — gave a sign that there was a person inside. Detector equipment indicated that there was a small body still breathing and with a pulse.
The discovery was something of a miracle, given the fact that it had been nearly a month since a cataclysmic blast ripped through Beirut’s port. It was later reported that 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate had been stored in one of the warehouses for at least six years. No Lebanese leader has taken responsibility for the criminal mismanagement of the explosives, which were alarmingly stored in close proximity to residential areas.
Subsequent protests from enraged citizens did not produce any real change as Lebanon’s political elite have refused to budge from their seats. The Lebanese government did resign, as did former Prime Minister Saad Hariri in October, when anti-government protests first erupted.
However, it was not enough to quell the anger on the streets, and the resignation was largely viewed as cosmetic — President Michael Aoun remained, and only a handful of parliamentarians have quit their posts. The Lebanese have little faith that the true culprits will be held responsible, due to what they view as a flawed and partisan justice system.
The fact that this glimmer of hope did not come from Lebanon’s leaders, but in fact a dog, was a sad irony not lost on most citizens. “When a dog (breed: Border Collie) does a better job than a whole government in #Lebanon,” independent journalist Luna Safwan tweeted along with a picture of Flash. The post was widely shared across social media platforms.
Another social media user, IvanDebs, shared a caricature he drew of Flash standing heroically on top of rubble. The image was shared over 1,000 times.
According to ground reporting from various activists and journalists at the rescue scene, the Chilean team TOPOS came to Lebanon on their own dime. When they told bystanders that they needed a crane to continue their work, it was arranged — not by the government, but by activists who had gathered hoping to witness a miracle.
According to Sara El-Yafi, a Lebanese analyst and activist, the hugely popular Lebanese actress Nadine Labaki, who had gathered with bystanders at the scene, called her up asking for a favor. El-Yafi knew the husband of Lebanon’s Defense Minister Zeina Akkar, and it was only then when a crane was dispatched to the scene. Protesters wondered why it had to take a call from a citizen to drive the government to some form of action.
Lebanese journalist Larissa Aoun tweeted a video she took the day after the explosion of the exact same collapsed building in the Mar Mikhael neighborhood. “People were asking local authorities for weeks to look under the rubble as there were bad smells. No one answered their calls,” she wrote.
Since the blast on August 4, Lebanese have accused their government, not only of gross negligence and corruption, which they believe were the prime factors that led to the explosion, but also of doing nothing to rescue victims or clear the destruction. Instead, Lebanese citizens from all corners of the country flooded Beirut with brooms and trash bags, sweeping up shattered glass and assisting anyone in need.
“Indeed it is quite emblematic of the suffering of the Lebanese people,” Karim Bitar, a political science professor in Lebanon and France, told Al Arabiya English.
“It shows the juxtaposition of the apathy of the Lebanese authorities and the extraordinary determination of the Lebanese civil society that went the extra mile to help the Chilean rescue team.”
Bitar pointed out the bleakness of the situation in which “many Lebanese respect a dog, more so than their so-called representatives.”
Since Wednesday night, there has been nearly 24-hour news coverage from the rescue site, not only from television stations, but also Lebanese activists live streaming the event on their social media accounts. Thousands of viewers from around the world have been glued to their screens, hoping that the rescue workers’ tireless efforts will produce a live human being.
Observers believe there to be two children trapped under the rubble. “The presumption is that the two children may be the flower sellers who used to sit on the stairs next to Pizzanini (a nearby restaurant). This would explain why their disappearance was not reported,” El-Yafi wrote on her Instagram account. “Neglected by society. Neglected by the government. Neglected by family.”
On Saturday, nearly three days since the heartbeats were first detected, there was renewed hope for a miracle. “More hope today than there was yesterday,” Chilean rescuer Walter Monos tells us after respirations — 18 beats per minute detected, as on the first day. This time they are investigating the destroyed staircase between the building in question and Pizzanini,” Tamara Qiblawa, a CNN International journalist reported.
Regardless if the workers are able to get to the breathing person in time, the entire episode is emblematic of the agony of the people. The Lebanese have not only been protesting to uproot what they view as a corrupt elite from power since October, but are facing an unprecedented economic crisis.
Lebanon’s currency, the lira, began losing value in October 2019, and last week inflation soared past 100 percent to levels last seen after the country’s civil war. This means the cost of basic materials needed to rebuild homes and businesses cannot be met by thousands of people who were struggling to make ends meet even before the explosion.
On top of that, a surge in coronavirus cases has exacerbated the situation with up to 600 daily cases, as opposed to the dozens of daily cases reported before August. Most people cannot afford the test which costs $100.
Lebanese journalist Medea Azzouri captured the sentiment of so many of her compatriots when she wrote on Instagram: “This person under the rubble, it’s us, the Lebanese people, agonizing, fighting for our lives and hooked on the slightest glimmer of hope.”

Beirut residents race against rain to save historical homes ravaged by explosion
Reuters/Friday 04 September 2020
Built in 1920, the house that Riad Asad’s family has called home for decades outlasted 15 years of civil war but took what could be a fatal blow in last month's mammoth, port-side explosion. Asad says his family - who has sought refuge outside Beirut - wants to restore the elegant home, with its high, ornate ceilings, arched windows and marble floors.
It faces quite a task.
The roof is caved - right to the dusty floor - and its structural bones are in danger of total collapse. In the sitting room, a grand piano sits shrouded in blankets, lit by the warm afternoon sunlight. The glassless windows give onto Beirut's once-lively Gemmayze neighbourhood, its many cafes shuttered a month on from the blast. What's left of Asad's home is skeletal; many walls, windows and wooden shutters went while the house awaits its rebuild.
“We have about 40 days until the weather shifts, it’s a tight window,” said Asad, a structural engineer, his voice riven with anguish. “It’s a race against the rain.”
Restoration is right off the agenda for now, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation; the aim is just to strengthen the walls and cover the roof with plastic sheets. “What we’re doing now is trying to prevent the worst - a total collapse. Restoration is a longer, more expensive process, which will take months, years even. It’s not compatible with a state of emergency.”
On Aug 4, an explosion stunned the Lebanese capital, killing at least 182, injuring more than 6,000 and damaging about 50,000 homes when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate blew up in the port.
The blast - hundreds of metres from Beirut's historic heart - rocked streets long lined with grand French- and Ottoman-style homes, balconies and terraces overlooking mosques and churches.
The area, now destroyed, was beloved by locals and visitors alike; a place where cultures sometimes at odds mingled easily over a morning coffee or an evening glass of wine.
Labor of Love
Like many Lebanese engineers and architects, Asad has been working for free ever since the explosion, not only taking on the rescue of his family home, but of several others, too. “The damage is so vast, we have to do what we can,” he said. While Gemmayse’s streets have been cleared, many houses lie in rubble, missing windows and doors, pillars and balconies. The Ministry of Culture says more than 300 historical buildings in the immediate area of the explosion were damaged - 86 are in critical condition. Work is underway on just 14, according to Asad. Independent heritage architects and structural engineers teamed up to form the Beirut Built Heritage Rescue 2020 two days after the blast, a collaborative of 40 Lebanese professionals intent on restoring the city’s oldest houses - as well as turning them back into homes.
“We try to have people back in their buildings as soon as possible, but if the structure is at risk, the move will have to be delayed until international funds have arrived,” explained architect and archeologist Yasmine Makaroun.
Makaroun said many Beirutis had moved in with relatives after the blast or had fled to nearby mountains.
Juggling priorities is hard, she said.
“We are trying to find the right balance between making houses habitable again quickly and renovating heritage, which requires specific, precise skills and is much slower. But right now, the priority is to secure houses before the rain.”
High Cost
Given the economic climate in Lebanon - with months of political turmoil essentially bringing the economy to a halt - spending scarce money on old houses may not be a top priority amid a slew of competing interests.
Structural engineer Michel Chalhoub, also part of the collective, estimates that restoring a historical home - officially any house that predates 1935 - could cost $1,200 per square meter, a sum most homeowners cannot afford.
All restoration plans need the Ministry of Culture's approval, which is a lengthy process, he added.
And the money needs to be found, too.
Even before the explosion, Lebanon had debts several times the size of its economy and was in talks for a bailout.
“Reconstruction funds will come from abroad - from UNESCO and non-governmental organisations, as well as from the private sector,” the Ministry of Culture’s press attache Amal Mansour told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
She refused to specify what financial role - if any - the government will play in the rebuild.
Abbas Mortada, Lebanon’s Minister of Culture, told a press conference that the state and the president are keen to preserve heritage buildings, but the population is skeptical, citing past controversy over reconstruction.
According to Save Beirut Heritage, a non-profit founded in 2010 to preserve architectural heritage, Beirut had about 4,000 heritage buildings when the civil war ended, many of them damaged. Numbers have since decreased to about 600. “Around 80 percent of the buildings could have been saved,” said Beirut Heritage’s Founder Naji Raji.
“Today it (downtown) is barely recognizable and has lost its heart. We don’t have any laws to protect heritage buildings.”
Almost a month after the explosion, shops and businesses are slowly opening again in Gemmayze. Engineer Chalhoub said so many people were donating time and expertise to restore the vibrant neighborhood.
“It’s not only about restoring cultural buildings; it’s the social culture, the life, the neighborhood dynamics that need restoration. Eventually we hope we can do just that.”

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 05-06/2020

UN chief warns of famine risk in four conflict-struck countries, including Yemen
The Associated Press, United NationsSaturday 05 September 2020
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that there is a risk of famine and widespread food insecurity in four countries affected by conflict - Congo, Yemen, northeast Nigeria and South Sudan - and the lives of millions of people are in danger. In a note to Security Council members obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, the UN chief said the four countries rank “among the largest food crises in the world,” according to the 2020 Global Report on Food Crises and recent food security analyses. But funding to help is very low, he said.
“Action is needed now,” Guterres said. “Having endured years of armed conflict and related violence, the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, northeast Nigeria and South Sudan are again facing the specter of heightened food insecurity and potentially famine.”
The UN chief said key indicators “are similarly deteriorating” in a number of other conflict-hit countries including Somalia, Burkina Faso and Afghanistan. “The situation varies from country to country, but civilians are being killed, injured and displaced; livelihoods are destroyed; and availability of and access to food disrupted, amid growing fragility,” Guterres said. “At the same time, humanitarian operations are attacked, delayed or obstructed from delivering life-saving assistance.”He said food insecurity in conflict-affected countries “is now further exacerbated by natural disasters, economic shocks and public health crises, all compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.”UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said in an interview with AP that the economic fallout from the pandemic including lock downs, border closures and restrictions on movement have all had “a big effect on food security and agricultural productivity.”
And extremists have taken the opportunity “to make hay out of all this,” he said.
“Everybody is very preoccupied by COVID and the virus,” Lowcock said. But “it is not the virus that’s creating most of the carnage. It is other things, and we need to focus on the things that will really cause the biggest loss of life.”Lowcock said many of those things are consequences of COVID-19 – the economic contraction, the declining availability of basic public services, “the insecurity into which extremist groups are occupying themselves.”He said a lot of effort has gone into things like providing personal protective equipment, public information campaigns on the virus, water and sanitation campaigns, “all of which are good things.”“But if you do those at the expense of basic humanitarian needs in these badly affected places, what you end up with is not a reduction in loss of life but an increase in loss of life,” Lowcock said.
He said having four countries meet the requirement in a 2018 Security Council resolution to report to the council when the risk of conflict-induced famine and widespread food insecurity occurs is highly significant.
According to the secretary-general’s note, escalating violence in volatile eastern Congo “is again driving disastrous levels of food insecurity and hunger,” and the latest analysis “indicates that over 21 million people are in crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity.”
With only 22 percent of the UN humanitarian appeal currently funded, Guterres said, “core programs will need to be reduced or suspended.”
In Yemen, where the international community mobilized to prevent famine two years ago, he said, “the risk is slowly returning.” Escalating conflict and economic decline brought the Arab world’s poorest nation to the brink of famine two years ago, and similar conditions and worsening key indicators are emerging today, he said. A recent survey indicated that 3.2 million people in government-controlled areas are now “highly food insecure,” and food prices are 140 percent higher than averages before the conflict began in 2015, Guterres said. “But with only 24 percent of humanitarian requirements funded in 2020, agencies are now forced to reduce or close core programs.”In northeast Nigeria’s Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, he said, “alarming levels of food insecurity and hunger have arisen largely as a result of the actions” of extremists affiliated with armed groups.
Guterres said estimates suggest more than 10 million people in the three states - about 80 percent of the population - need humanitarian assistance and protection, an almost 50 percent increase since last year and the highest recorded since humanitarian operations began. Yet, the UN appeal is only 33 percent funded, its lowest level, he said.
In South Sudan’s Jonglei and Greater Pibor administrative area, Guterres said the situation deteriorated rapidly in the first half of 2020, “fueled by escalating violence and insecurity,” Guterres said.
Fighting has been accompanied by widespread attacks on agricultural and pastoral land and the looting of livestock and food, leaving more that 1.4 million people in the area “facing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity, he said. In addition, at least 350,000 children suffer from severe or moderate acute malnutrition.”Guterres said the latest outlook from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network “is flagging worsening catastrophe conditions ... in areas affected by the violence.”Lowcock said “there’s a paradox” because overall UN humanitarian funding is ahead of 2019, which was a record year.
“But the money is not following the greatest need,” he said. “Some of our appeals are relatively well funded, but some of the places where the problems are worst are poorly funded - Nigeria, Yemen, Congo, they’re all in that category.”

Trump uses economic oil to resolve long Kosovo-Serbia dispute
DEBKAFile/September 05/2020
“I’m pleased to announce a truly historic commitment,” President Trump said in the Oval Office, on Friday, Sept. 4, after the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo signed a US-brokered economic cooperation agreement. The Christian and Muslim survivors of former Yugoslavia thus opened a new chapter after decades of hostility and disconnect. The accord, which leaves political normalization on hold, followed Trump’s earlier mediation of Israel’s first normalization pact with a Gulf state, the United Arab Emirates. The event added another diplomatic win to Trump’s campaign for reelection in November, plus more international perks for Israel. Belgrade agreed to open a commercial office in Jerusalem this month and move its embassy to Jerusalem in July, while mutual recognition between Israel and Kosovo for the first time may lead to the latter following the Serbian embassy to Israel’s capital, the first predominantly Muslim nation to take this step..Trump also undoubtedly saw his way forward towards overriding the Balkan policies carved out by his Democratic predecessors, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. They were acclaimed heroes of Kosovo on June 21, 2019, the anniversary of the NATO bombing of Serbia to stop the bloody crackdown against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. This episode ended in the rise of the first Muslim state in Europe on the ruins of Yugoslavia. But the Balkan dispute continued to simmer ever since. In 2008, Kosovo’s Parliament declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Most Western governments extended recognition, but Belgrade, backed by Russia and China, refused. At the White House on Friday, after two days of meetings with Kosovo’s prime minister Avdullah Hoti Serbian leader, Serbian President Alesandar Vucic stressed that the economic accord does not include “mutual recognition.” President Vucic made a point of hailing the White House talks as a big victory for Serbia and a step towards closer ties with the US, while bidding for EU membership. But they did agree significantly to cooperate on a range of economic fronts to attract investment and create jobs while advancing towards establishing the first air, rail and motorway links between their capitals, Belgrade and Pristina, in 21 years. The Trump’s administration’s mediation effort, headed by special envoy Richard Grenell, outlasted more than one obstacle. A White House face-to face meeting in June was called off when a war crimes indictment was issued for Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, and, again, by travel restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

President Trump calls on Fox News to fire reporter over veterans flap
AFP/Saturday 05 September 2020
US President Donald Trump has demanded that Fox News fire its national security correspondent after she confirmed claims that the Republican leader had disparaged the military – a bombshell that has dogged him for two days.
Trump came under fire after The Atlantic magazine reported that he had called Marines killed in action in World War I “losers” and “suckers” in connection with a November 2018 visit to France when he skipped a visit to a US military cemetery. The official explanation for that missed visit was bad weather.
Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin said two former administration officials had confirmed to her that the president “did not want to drive to honor American war dead” at the Aisne-Marne cemetery outside Paris, implying weather was not a factor. One official also told her that Trump had used the word “suckers” to denigrate the military, but in a different context related to the Vietnam War. “When the President spoke about the Vietnam War, he said, ‘It was a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker’,” she quoted the unnamed official as saying.
“It was a character flaw of the President. He could not understand why someone would die for their country, not worth it,” the source said. A furious Trump tweeted late Friday: “Jennifer Griffin should be fired for this kind of reporting. Never even called us for comment. @FoxNews is gone!”
Trump has furiously defended himself in the wake of the story in The Atlantic, tweeting and retweeting stories condemning it as “fake news.” The habitually Trump-friendly Fox News has been criticized for seemingly sidelining Griffin’s reporting in its coverage of the story. A story on its front page Saturday was headlined: “Sources dispute claim Trump nixed visit to military cemetery over disdain for slain veterans.”Several of Griffin’s colleagues at Fox have publicly defended her on Twitter, along with Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, who called her “fair and unafraid.”Just before The Atlantic published its story, a poll by the Military Times and the Syracuse University Institute for Veterans and Military Families found that just 37.4 percent of active duty personnel support Trump’s reelection bid, while 43.1 percent back Joe Biden.

Sudan declares three-month state of emergency over floods: SUNA
Reuters, Cairo/Saturday 05 September 2020
Sudan's Security and Defense Council declared a national state of emergency for three months because of floods that have killed 99 people this year and designated Sudan a natural disaster zone, state news agency SUNA reported early on Saturday. The Sudanese minister of labor and social development said that in addition to the deaths, floods this year have injured 46 people, inflicted damage on more than half a million people and caused the total and partial collapse of more than 100,000 homes, according to SUNA.
The rates of floods and rain for this year exceeded the records set during the years 1946 and 1988, with expectations of continued rising indicators, Minister Lena el-Sheikh added.The council also announced the formation of a supreme committee headed by the ministry of labor and social development to deal with the ramifications of the floods for the fall of 2020, SUNA said.
 

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 05-06/2020

Iran: "American Soil is Now Within the Range of Iranian Bombs"
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/September 05/2020
One day after the United Nations Security Council voted in favor of lifting the arms embargo on Iran, for instance, the ruling mullahs unveiled a ballistic missile that reportedly can reach the United States.
The report [by Iran's state-controlled Afkar News] boasted about the damage that the Iranian regime could inflict on the US: "By sending a military satellite into space, Iran now has shown that it can target all American territory; the Iranian parliament had previously warned [the US] that an electromagnetic nuclear attack on the United States would likely kill 90 percent of Americans."
The report also threatened the EU, which voted in favor of lifting the arms embargo against Iran: "The same type of ballistic missile technology used to launch the satellite could carry nuclear, chemical or even biological weapons to wipe Israel off the map, hit US bases and allies in the region and US facilities, and target NATO even in the far west of Europe."
For Iran's ruling mullahs, compromises and appeasement means weakness. The more the international community gives the mullahs, the more the regime apparently feels empowered to pursue its malign behavior.
Iran has unveiled a ballistic missile that reportedly can reach the United States. The headline of a report by Iran's state-controlled Afkar News read, "American Soil Is Now Within the Range of Iranian Bombs". Pictured: A ballistic missile on display during a military parade marking the annual National Army Day in Tehran, on April 18, 2019.
Those who advocate pursuing a policy of appeasement toward the ruling mullahs as a means of changing the Iranian regime's behavior fail to understand that the more the international community will give the mullahs, the more Tehran will become belligerent and emboldened. One day after the United Nations Security Council voted in favor of lifting the arms embargo on Iran, for instance, the ruling mullahs unveiled a ballistic missile that reportedly can reach the United States.
The headline of a report by Iran's state-controlled Afkar News read in Farsi, "American Soil Is Now Within the Range of Iranian Bombs". The report boasted about the damage that the Iranian regime could inflict on the US:
"By sending a military satellite into space, Iran now has shown that it can target all American territory; the Iranian parliament had previously warned [the US] that an electromagnetic nuclear attack on the United States would likely kill 90 percent of Americans."
The report also threatened the EU, which voted in favor of lifting the arms embargo against Iran:
"The same type of ballistic missile technology used to launch the satellite could carry nuclear, chemical or even biological weapons to wipe Israel off the map, hit US bases and allies in the region and US facilities, and target NATO even in the far west of Europe."
The Trump administration attempted to re-impose international sanctions on Iran after the UN rejected extending the arms embargo. Those are the four rounds of UN sanctions that were in place before the Obama administration and the Iranian regime supposedly reached the JCPOA nuclear deal, which Tehran never signed. When US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attempted to trigger the snapback, however, 13 of the 15 countries that are members of the Security Council wrote letters expressing their opposition to the US proposal and to the re-imposition of international sanctions against Iran. The opponents included longtime transatlantic allies and partners of the US, including France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium.
This is not the first time that the Iranian regime has become more aggressive after the international community pursued policies of appeasement with the mullahs. Recall when, upon the JCPOA's agreement, former President Barack Obama pointed out that he was "confident" that the lifting of sanctions and the nuclear deal would "meet the national security needs of the United States and our allies"? It was even outlined in the JCPOA preamble that all signatories -- which, again, Iran was not -- "anticipate that full implementation of this JCPOA will positively contribute to regional and international peace and security." What, though, was the outcome?
The international community witnessed a greater propensity for Yemeni Houthi rockets launched at civilian targets, the deployment of Hezbollah foot-soldiers in Syria, and increasing attacks by the Iranian-funded Hamas into southern Israel. With billions of dollars of revenue pouring into the pockets of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Tehran did not change its behavior for the better. Instead, it became more empowered and emboldened to pursue its revolutionary ideals of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism. Iran became, according to the US Department of State, "the world's worst state sponsor of terrorism."
At the peak of these appeasement policies towards the mullahs during the Obama Administration, Iran was emboldened to publicly harass the US Navy, detained US sailors and imprisoned American citizens. Khamenei also repeatedly threatened "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" and made incendiary remarks about wiping Israel from the face of earth "in less than 8 minutes."
As the international community gave the regime more, Iran intensified test-firing its ballistic missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, an act in clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231:
"Paragraph 3 of Annex B of resolution 2231 (2015) calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology."
After each act of appeasement towards the ruling mullahs, the regime also ratcheted up its domestic repression and human rights violations as well. According to Human Rights Watch, after the JCPOA "nuclear deal" and after sanctions were lifted, Iran escalated the imprisonment and executions of human rights and political activists. The regime became "the top executioner of women and holds the record on per capita executions in the world" and, according to Amnesty International, the world's leading executioner of juveniles.
For Iran's ruling mullahs, compromises and appeasement means weakness. The more the international community gives the mullahs, the more the regime apparently feels empowered to pursue its malign behavior.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The Real Palestinian Tragedy
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 05/2020
Unlike their leaders, however, the Palestinians living in Syria and Iraq do not appear to be worried about the Israel-UAE accord. These Palestinians have more existential concerns -- such as providing shelter for their children and safe drinking water for their families. They are disturbed about the homes they have lost, and they are in a state of anguish about fate of their missing sons.
The Palestinian families complained that the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations, including the United Nations, have refused to assist them in their search for their beloved ones.
Palestinian writer Nabil Al-Sahli said that the 4,000 Palestinians who remain in Iraq are facing an "ongoing tragedy." He said that according to some studies, at least 20,000 Palestinians have been displaced from Iraq to 40 countries around the world because of the "massacres" committed against them by sectarian militias.
By extreme contrast [to Syria and Iraq], the UAE and other Gulf states have long opened their doors to Palestinians and provided them with jobs and high living standards. Puzzlingly, Palestinian leaders have plenty of time to castigate the UAE, but no time at all to comment on the systematic abuse and killing of Palestinians in Syria and Iraq. For the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the true tragedy is when an Arab expresses willingness to make peace with Israel.
In Syria, since the beginning of the civil war there in 2011, 4,048 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded. Tens of thousands of others have fled their homes, some to other areas in Syria and others to neighboring Arab countries and Europe. Pictured: The Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, near Damascus, on May 22, 2018, days after Syrian government forces regained control over the camp.
Palestinian leaders are so committed to condemning the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for its normalization agreement with Israel that they have no time left to notice the horrific suffering of their people in some Arab countries, particularly Syria and Iraq. Specifically, these leaders seem unperturbed that in some in Arab countries, Palestinians are mysteriously disappearing.
Unlike their leaders, however, Palestinians living in Syria and Iraq do not appear to be worried about the Israel-UAE accord. These Palestinians have more existential concerns -- such as providing shelter for their children and safe drinking water for their families. They are disturbed about the homes they have lost, and they are in a state of anguish about fate of their missing sons.
In the past two weeks, leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas have focused their attention mainly on the Israel-UAE deal and how to persuade other Arab states from following in the UAE's footsteps.
Peace between Israel and the UAE, nevertheless, seems to be the last thing on the mind of the Palestinians residing in Syria.
In Syria, since the beginning of the civil war there in 2011, 4,048 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded. Tens of thousands of others have fled their homes, some to other areas in Syria and others to neighboring Arab countries and Europe.
In addition, 1,797 Palestinians have been detained by the Syrian authorities and are being held in harsh conditions, while another 333 have gone missing and their families know nothing about their fate.
While Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, at the behest of their leaders, were burning flags of the UAE and pictures of Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Zayed, hundreds of displaced Palestinian families were reported to be living in "dire humanitarian conditions" in tents in northern Syria.
The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria (AGPS) said that many of the families were forced to flee the tents because of the lack of basic services. "They face the intense summer heat, amid a lack of water," the group said. "Sometimes the camps lack drinking water for many days."
Last week, AGPS said it has documented the cases of 333 Palestinians (including 37 women) missing in Syria since the beginning of the civil war.
"Activists accused the pro-Syrian security agencies groups of carrying out kidnappings and arrests, either on the grounds that the missing person was wanted by the Syrian security forces, or for the sake of bargaining with the kidnapped person's relatives and demanding a ransom for his or her release."
The conditions of Palestinians in neighboring Iraq are also bad, even if not as bad as the unfortunate Palestinians living in Syria. In Iraq, too, Palestinians seem to be disappearing in mysterious circumstances.
Last week, several Palestinian families living in Iraq appealed to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi to reveal the fate of their sons who have been detained for many years without anyone knowing their place of detention or the circumstances of their incarceration. Some of the Palestinians have been in detention since 2005.
"We, the families of Palestinian detainees in Iraq who have been detained for many years, do not know anything about our sons' whereabouts," the families wrote in their letter to Kadhimi.
"We have visited many security departments and centers, but have not found any trace of them. We call on you to see the state of their families and the grief of their mothers, some of whom have died from mourning their sons. We ask you to kindly help us in this matter to find out what happened to our sons, and kindly to agree to meet with a number of families of these missing Palestinians to learn about their cause."
The Palestinian families complained that the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations, including the United Nations, have refused to assist them in their search for their beloved ones.
Mohammed Abu Omar, a Palestinian resident of Iraq, said that two members of his family have been missing since they were detained by the Iraqi security forces in 2005. "Two days after the arrest, we were asked to pay a $50,000 ransom," Abu Omar said. "We paid half the amount, so they released one of them and promised to release the second, who has since disappeared."
Palestinian writer Nabil Al-Sahli said that the 4,000 Palestinians who remain in Iraq are facing an "ongoing tragedy." He said that according to some studies, at least 20,000 Palestinians have been displaced from Iraq to 40 countries around the world because of the "massacres" committed against them by sectarian militias.
Al-Sahli said he expected the suffering of the Palestinians in Iraq to increase after the approval of the new Iraqi law that strips Palestinian refugees of their rights and classifies them as foreigners. The new law, enacted in 2018, replaced a 2001 law issued by Saddam Hussein that requires Iraq to treat Palestinians as equals to Iraqis, with all privileges and citizenship rights.
"Considering the popularity of the Palestinian cause, it is somewhat surprising that the plight of Palestinian refugees in Iraq is so severely under-reported," according to a study by The New Arab, a Qatar-funded website.
"After suffering more than a decade and a half of abuses, Palestinians who have been living in Iraq since the creation of Israel in 1948 are now seeking to leave their adoptive home to escape the torments they suffer on a daily basis."
The New Arab report pointed out that Palestinians have effectively been stripped of their identity and travel documents by successive Iraqi governments.
"Having been maligned as being 'Baathist loyalists', 'Saddam's favourites' and simply 'Sunnis', Palestinian refugees were heavily targeted by sectarian Shia militias in the wake of Saddam Hussein's regime. In 2003 alone, 344 Palestinian families were forcibly expelled from their homes by militias."
Palestinian leaders who are now accusing the UAE of "stabbing the Palestinians in the back" because it seeks to make peace with Israel might take note that Arab countries such as Iraq and Syria are not only stabbing the Palestinians in the back, but killing and wounding them, forcing them out of their homes, and making their sons "disappear".
By extreme contrast, the UAE and other Gulf states have long opened their doors to Palestinians and provided them with jobs and high living standards. Puzzlingly, Palestinian leaders have plenty of time to castigate the UAE, but no time at all to comment on the systematic abuse and killing of Palestinians in Syria and Iraq. For the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the true tragedy is when an Arab expresses willingness to make peace with Israel.
Palestinians in Syria and Iraq will continue to fear for their lives so long as their leaders prefer to derail peace agreements between Israel and the Arab countries rather than to rail against the persecution and killing of Palestinians in Arab states.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2020 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

What is the US aiming for by lifting the Cyprus arms embargo?
Menekse Tokyay//Arab News/September 05/2020
ANKARA: A new element has been introduced to ongoing disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announcing on Tuesday that a 1987 arms embargo on Cyprus was being partially lifted.
Experts are divided about Washington’s motive and whether this decision is connected to Ankara’s maneuvers in contested waters where it is drilling for gas.
The US decision, which was strongly criticized by Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Ministry on Wednesday, gives the green light for non-lethal weapons sales to Cyprus for a year. Turkey made it clear that it would take unilateral action if Washington did not reconsider its decision.
Ankara said that the US move might discourage Greek leaders from engaging in long-standing reunification talks with the Turkish side of Cyprus.
But for Aaron Stein, who is director of the Middle East program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the US decision was about Russia rather than Turkey.
“There is a strain of American thinking that is pushing for a US effort to begin to push back against Russian influence on the island,” he told Arab News.
Under the 2019 Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act, Washington has boosted ties with Greece and Cyprus and provided them with security assistance in a bid to stop Russian military vessels from docking and refueling at Cyprus’ Limassol Port.
According to Stein, Turkey is so unpopular that it has no support in US Congress to stop these efforts. “So, the US State Department folks that were pushing this line were able to get it through,” he added.
In the meantime, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced late Thursday that Greece and Turkey had agreed to enter into technical talks under NATO auspices to “establish deconfliction mechanisms and reduce the risk of incidents and accidents” in the eastern Mediterranean.
Joe Macaron, a Middle East foreign policy analyst at the Arab Center, thought there were growing voices inside the US administration that were pressuring President Donald Trump to push back against Turkish policy in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“And this pressure will only increase now that Turkey has signed a contract to deliver the second batch of Russia’s S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems,” he told Arab News.
In late August Ankara and Moscow reportedly signed a contract to deliver a second consignment of air defense systems to Turkey, making it the first NATO member to buy such a system from Russia.
Macaron said that the pressure was evident in the recent US condemnation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s meeting with Hamas, and now this partial lifting of the arms embargo on Cyprus. Both were issued by the US State Department not the White House, which meant Trump wanted to keep the lines open with Erdogan.
“The US is taking some distance from Turkey without necessarily siding with France in the Eastern Mediterranean tensions, as this decision is valid for 1 year only and is restricted to nonlethal military equipment,” Macaron said.
Greece and Turkey, which are both conducting extensive research for energy in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, have conflicting understandings of maritime boundaries together with the long-standing quarrel between Turkey and Cyprus over offshore gas reserves around the divided island since 1974.
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, Ankara office director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, agreed that the US decision was part of an effort to distance Cyprus from Russia.
“The timing may be related to the upcoming US elections as there are around 1.4 million Americans with Greek descent as opposed to around 350,000 Americans with Turkish descent,” he told Arab News.
Nevertheless, Unluhisarcikli added, while this move would not change the military balance on the island in any way, the timing was unfortunate as it may be perceived by Greek Cypriots as an endorsement of their current policy and disincentivize the start of dialogue with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on the exploitation of the island’s energy resources.
In the meantime, Brussels is expected to discuss a list of possible sanctions against Turkey during a leaders’ meeting later this month.

Why the world is watching Trump vs Biden
Andrew Hammond /Arab News/September 05/2020
As the Labor Day holiday in the US on Monday marks the traditional start of the presidential election campaign, it is striking how much international interest there is in the race.
As polls tighten between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the next two months of political drama will be eagerly watched from Asia-Pacific to the Americas. Indeed, given the major differences between the two platforms and the large stakes in play, including foreign policy, international audiences perhaps feel perhaps just as vested in the result as US voters.
Part of the reason is concern about the prospect of the maverick Trump winning a second term. To be sure, he is popular in a handful of countries, such as Israel, but generally gets low marks from people around the world who favor Biden, as they did Hillary Clinton in 2016. Many believe Trump has yet to paint a credible, coherent vision for the future of the world’s most powerful state.
However, perhaps a deeper factor driving global interest is the relatively high salience of international issues, contradicting the view that this election will swing on the two Vs — the virus (where many Democrats want to focus) and violence (which many Republicans see as their strong card).
While these two issues are certainly important, they are by no means the only ones. A Pew survey suggeststhat the economy ranks highest on the minds of voters, with 79 percent saying it will be a very important factor in their voting decision. The coronavirus pandemic and violent crime were mentioned by 62 percent and 59percent respectively.
A surprising insight from the same poll was that foreign policy also places highly in this hierarchy of issues,mentioned by 57 percent of those surveyed as a very important factor in their decision. While international issues are always a factor in US presidential elections, they rarely have such high salience.
As polls tighten between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the next two months of political drama will be eagerly watched from Asia-Pacific to the Americas.
A high-water mark for foreign policy as an issue was during the first 25 years of the Cold War, from 1948 to 1972, when it was the single biggest concern of US voters. But in the past few decades since the mid-1970s, economic issues have tended to predominate. In the 2012 election cycle, Pew polling suggested that 55percent of US citizens thought economic worries were the most important facing the country, compared with 6percent for foreign issues.
While the economy is the top issue again this year, the relative importance of foreign and security policy issues in 2020 reflects, in part, US concerns about the international environment, including the rise of China. In the eyes of a significant slice of voters, Washington may be on the cusp of a new Cold War with Beijing, making the 2020s comparable in their view to the period from 1948 onwards when the stand-off with the Soviet Union was beginning. And as in 2016, Trump is seeking to make anti-Beijing sentiment a core part of his re-election narrative, arguing that the Democrats will be weak on this issue.
But although foreign and security policy is again relatively salient, there are significant differences between now and during those first two decades of the Cold War. That period was characterized by a relative policy consensus in Washington and widespread bipartisan cooperation on foreign and security matters.
Today, however, foreign policy is significantly more divisive, and Trump has moved away from not just previous Democratic presidents, but Republican ones too. To be sure, the early Cold War consensus can be overstated. Nonetheless, a significant degree of bipartisan agreement on foreign affairs, and wider political decorum, did exist until it broke apart in the late 1960s under the strain of Vietnam and the demise of the notion of monolithic communism in light of the Sino-Soviet split.
No clear foreign policy consensus has emerged in recent years. For instance, Trump and an increasing number of populist Republicans differ significantly from Biden and many Democrats on how they view the power and standing of the US internationally; on the degree to which the country should be unilateralist; and on what the priorities of foreign policy should be.
At a time when divisions in the country are already intense, partisan splits on these issues will reinforce high rates of polarization in the US electorate. Indeed, the gaps between the parties on these issues may only widen during the remainder of election year, further denting the possibility of establishing a new US foreign policy consensus.
*Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics

Poison in the well of the Merkel-Putin friendship
Cornelia Meyer/Arab News/September 05/2020
When a German laboratory confirmed that Russian dissident Alexei Navalny had been poisoned by a substance from the novichok family of Soviet-era nerve agents, it marked a further deterioration in the relationship between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Until recently Merkel had been something of a “Putin whisperer,” translating Europe’s demands to him and relaying his thoughts to Europe. Russia is Germany’s near neighbor and played an important role in its detente with the East, which eventually led to German reunification. Merkel grew up in the former East Germany, is a fluent Russian speaker, and is familiar with Russia’s understanding of its place in the world. She brokered various agreements between East and West,and seemed to have endless patience.
However, even Merkel grew increasingly exasperated with Russia’s hack of the Bundestag in 2015 and the assassination of a Chechen rebel in Berlin last year. The Navalny case may well be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Russia has historically been an important provider of energy to Europe, and an integral part of that is the Nord Stream pipeline project from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Nord Stream 1 has a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas; Nord Stream 2 will double that, although 160km of pipeline in Danish waters is incomplete because of US sanctions against any company that works on it — a textbook case of how major cross-border energy infrastructure projects are where economic interests meet geopolitics.
The EU has condemned the Navalny poisoning and demanded an investigation with full Russian cooperation, and is considering sanctions. NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg asked for an investigation led by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, also with full Russian cooperation. Moscow denies any involvement in the poisoning.
The Navalny poisoning has illustrated the difficulty in separating business from politics and geopolitical interests.
When Navalny fell ill in Siberia and was transferred to the Berlin Charite hospital for treatment, Merkel initially insisted that any retaliatory measures be kept separate from economic and business considerations related to Nord Stream 2. Since then she has become increasingly vociferous in condemning Russia, and increasingly silent on the pipeline.
Reactions on Germany’s political spectrum vary. Greens co-leader Katrin Goering-Eckhardt, Liberal Democrats leader Christian Lindner and Christian Democrats (CDU) leadership contender Friedrich Merz demand that the project be scrapped or put on hold. North Rhine-Westphalia prime minister Armin Laschet, another CDU leadership candidate,wants to keep politics separate from business, as does Markus Soeder, who leads the CDU’s Bavarian sister party the Christian Socialists. Dr Rolf Muetzenich, head of the SPD faction in the Bundestag, argues that acting against Russia butnot against other countries with questionable human rights records is a double standard. The right-wing AfD questioned the use of a German lab instead of one in neutral Switzerland.
Thus, the Navalny poisoning has illustrated the difficulty in separating business from politics and geopolitical interests. Nord Stream has always been controversial, because the pipelines circumvent Ukraine to bring gas to Germany and on to the rest of Europe. From the point of view of energy security, it made sense, because as Germany quits nuclear and coal-fired power generation it needs gas as a transition fuel on the road to a zero-carbon economy. The gas reserves of the UK and Norway are dwindling, which makes Russia all the more attractive. There is the option of liquefied natural gas, which the US is keen to sell, but Russian gas is closer and cheaper. It has also been flowing steadily and reliably for more than 50 years, even during the break-up of the Soviet Union. Nothing better illustrates the strategic energy relationship between Russia and Germany than that a former chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, sits on the board of Gazprom.
From a geopolitical perspective the Ukraine feels circumvented. Poland and the Baltic states are also skeptical of Nord Stream, unsurprisingly given their histories with Russia. Poland also looks with envy at Germany’s strategic position distributing gas from east to west; it would rather hold that position itself, especially as its storage facilities were an operational cornerstone of gas sales to Europe during the Soviet era.
At some stage Merkel will have to be unequivocal about where she stands on Nord Stream 2; human rights, diplomacy, Germany’s position in the EU, energy security, and major business interests — there is a lot at stake.
*Cornelia Meyer is a business consultant, macro-economist and energy expert. Twitter: @MeyerResources

A clear best choice to lead world trade reform
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/September 05/2020
Erudite debates, extensive interviews and the occasional whiff of controversy surround the selection process for the pivotal and crucial role of director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Some of the candidates are unknown outside top-level business, international organizations and the upper echelons of political power in some of the world's foremost nations. However, considering the woeful circumstances the world is in, if there were ever a choice that the Arab world ought to pay attention to, this would be it.
The world has yet to bring the coronavirus pandemic fully under control, but what little progress there has been has sparked the next phase — rebuilding. The WTO is crucial in steering the world in a more equitable and sustainable direction. Unfortunately, the post-pandemic world is likely to remain hobbled by great-power rivalries, expansive regional scuffles and an increasingly disenchanted developing world, seemingly excluded from the promised bounties of globalization. The developed world is increasingly skeptical of international trade's benefits, with concerns ranging from environmental degradation and climate change to infringements on sovereignty, given international trade's aversion to protectionism.
The result is a potentially insular world, pursuing connectedness without meaningful cooperation and now desperately forging regional or bilateral ties as easier alternatives to serious reforms. Washington single-handedly sought to reform the WTO's guardianship of what is now a 73-year-old global liberal trade order, convinced the organization was no longer arbiter of (mostly) Chinese abuses or willing to curb Beijing’s designs for a world in disarray. However, the WTO’s 164 members cooperate and function by consensus and one country’s dogged pursuit for reforms was bound to fail. Washington’s praise for bilateralism and pursuit of greater insularity did not help its argument. “America First” and the tariff regimes born from it were anathema to an organization built to do the exact opposite.
Clouds of uncertainty now hang over about $25 trillion in global GDP stemming from uninterrupted trade flows. The pandemic has done its fair share of damage but hamstrung trade negotiations and the failure to resolve trade disputes due to the WTO’s crippled legal functions contributed to this growing impasse. The outgoing director-general, the Brazilian Roberto Azevedo, has stepped down a year before the end of his second term, leaving a dysfunctional WTO at a time when robust multilateralism and revitalized global trade is desperately needed.
Economies the world over are embattled by repeated shut-downs and pervasive uncertainty fueled by fears of additional waves before and even after a vaccine is found — coupled with long-term health complications attributed to the virus. Additionally, over $10 trillion in economic stimulus from higher and middle-income countries has grossly distorted the global market landscape at the expense of poorer nations. “Precautionism” has overtaken prudent planning and cross-border cooperation among otherwise friendly countries while regional rivalries and flexing of new-found geopolitical muscles have set back trade liberalism.
While there will certainly be a lot of hype surrounding each candidate, and inflation of what they can bring to the WTO, it is apparent the organization is in serious need of introspection and reform, led by the incoming director-general. Eight candidates have been nominated, not only to fix the organization from within but also to balance trade competition among the world’s largest economies, and re-define the role of regions in the emergent multinode global supply chain models billed as alternatives to China’s manufacturing monopoly. Most notably, the new director-general must carefully navigate the increasingly turbulent waters between the US and China in a way that appeases the polar opposites without disregarding the developing world.
Diplomatic experience will be as vital as technocratic expertise. However, what will really stand out is the ability to guide high-level decision making and mediate teething issues between members. This is where Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former Minister for Foreign Affairs and also Finance and Economy, stands out. She has extensive experience at the highest level of economic governance, trade and international finance, occupying several senior positions at the World Bank, rising to take up the No. 2 post as managing director. In her two terms as Nigeria’s finance minister she negotiated the cancellation of about $18 billion in debt, spearheaded anti-corruption reform efforts and oversaw a recalculation of Nigeria’s GDP, which resulted in a nearly 90 percent appreciation; crucial because it involved a fairly exhaustive data review to accurately capture Nigeria’s economic activity to unlock often missed growth and investment opportunities.
Her other accomplishments are too numerous to list, but what is most convincing is Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s vision for the WTO should she take the helm. Her approach separates problem solving and dispute resolution on trade matters away from the usual trappings of political bickering. For China, this would be a welcome leadership style that seeks to build on shared interests rather than antagonize differences.
She has also stated her hopes for China to continue playing its role as an economic growth engine in the post-pandemic world, as it did after the global financial crisis in 2008. It is a realistic approach to China’s hunger for resources, which has and still is an important driver of economic growth for most of the resource-rich global south. For the US, the jury is out on whether their preferred candidate will have an appreciable anti-Beijing tilt since Washington’s comments on the candidates and participation in the selection process are not made publicly known. However, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala already has extensive experience operating west of the Atlantic as senior staff in the World Bank, holds US citizenship and, more importantly, agrees with Washington’s criticisms of the WTO’s over-reach.
Europe, on the other hand, withdrew its nominees, seemingly in support of the outcry from the developing world seeking a seat at a table traditionally reserved for middle to higher income countries. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s views and priorities are likely to please some ears in Brussels and Frankfurt, given their focus on updating WTO rules to better account for 21st-century issues ranging from the digital economy, climate change, inclusivity and participation of women in economic activity as well as “ trade not aid” for Africa, as Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is famous for saying. It is a progressive platform that seeks to undo the notorious circumvention of WTO rules and the frequent destabilization of members’ rights and obligations.
Developing countries, in particular, have always been dealt the short end of the proverbial stick in the WTO’s special treatment for the privileged few at the expense of the rest.
The Arab world can be assured that Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, who worked in the region extensively in her long career at the World Bank, will prioritize fairness and cooperation among equals at a time when the region must quickly examine ways to mitigate the negative impact of peak oil. Forecasts predict a sustained drop in energy prices starting in the early 2020s, and for the oil-dependent Arab world economies the pandemic and increasing focus on climate change is a wake-up call. Economic diversification and increased trade will not happen overnight and will need the patient guidance of well-run supranational bodies such as the WTO to steer countries through the uncharted waters of increased regionalization, free trade and economic specification.
Today’s WTO is far from the ideals Dr. Okonjo-Iweala seeks and will require a lot of soul-searching and change to find renewed purpose in a tumultuous post-pandemic world. Her visionary leadership outside the traditional scope has the most potential to reverse the turn toward insularity and navigate the murky waters of geopolitical rifts to build common interests upon which multilateralism is founded. A new WTO must use today’s challenges to safeguard the global liberal order’s march toward a more equitable, climate-friendly and resilient future.
In short, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stands out as an exceptional candidate for exceptional times.
*Hafed Al-Ghwell is a non-resident senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Institute at the John Hopkins University School of Advance International Studies. He is also senior adviser at the international economic consultancy Maxwell Stamp and at the geopolitical risk advisory firm Oxford Analytica, a member of the Strategic Advisory Solutions International Group in Washington DC and a former adviser to the board of the World Bank Group. Twitter: @HafedAlGhwell

Kadhimi goes full steam against barons of corruption
Hammam Latif/The Arab Weekly/September 05/2020
BAGHDAD – Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has formed a special committee to focus on corruption and investigate its major cases, and gave instructions to grant it exceptional powers, thus preparing for a crackdown on the major corruption bosses in the country.
Looking at the list of the members of this new committee and considering the security authority that will carry out the tasks of hunting down and arresting the guilty parties, one gets the impression that there is real intent to go after names who may turn out to be front-row figures.
To head this committee, Kadhimi chose Lieutenant General and legal expert Ahmed Taha Hashem, who had previously served as a high-ranking intelligence officer within the Ministry of the Interior. To second Hashem, Kadhimi appointed a senior official in the intelligence service, and gave the task of executing the arrest warrants to the Counter-Terrorism Service, led by Staff Lieutenant General Abdel Wahhab al-Saadi, who had gained notoriety during the war on ISIS.
The PM reinforced the committee with representatives of other oversight and security agencies, and manned its offices and services with a large number of employees.
The executive order signed by Kadhimi gives the Special Investigative Committee the right to summon any Iraqi to give his testimony, except for those who were actually accused as primary culprits in cases that fall within the jurisdiction of this committee; these are handled by the judiciary.
According to interpretations by law experts, the new committee can summon all former heads of the republic, government and parliament, along with all ministers, officials, employees, politicians, merchants and businessmen, who have not been formally charged with corruption.
The committee can also reopen previous cases that had been suspended and summon and investigate former defendants who were either acquitted, convicted, or still under trial, provided that judicial orders are issued to do so, to prevent interfering investigations.
The news of the formation of this committee, and especially its composition, have sparked an enthusiastic reaction on social media sites, and many bloggers and online activists cheerfully announced that the real war on corruption barons has started.
Lieutenant General Saadi and his US-armed counterterrorism units are considered to be the main opponents of the pro-Iranian militias and politicians close to Tehran. Observers saw in assigning him the mission of going after the suspects an indication of the approaching confrontation.
Political science professor at Baghdad University, Ihsan al-Shammari, believes that “mandating the Counter-Terrorism Service to execute decisions related to corruption cases is an indication of coming armed showdown with the leaders and mafias of corruption.”
Observers place this development in the context of the countries of the region and the world urging Iraq to stand up to the militias loyal to Iran, and put an end to their dominance over the country’s political, security and economic decisions.
Political analyst Ahmed al-Abyadh says that the zero hour seems to have drawn very near in Iraq, pointing to the link between these developments and the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Iraq.
Abyadh added that the French president’s visit can be understood as him playing the role of “mediator to convey the final warning to the militias.”
“The real tough test for Kadhimi’s seriousness about imposing the power and prestige of the state begins now,” he explained.
Kadhimi’s government had on one previous occasion tested its power by going after one of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s in-laws, when it had seized the man’s properties after charges of exploiting state properties illegally were filed against him. Maliki is among the most prominent targets that the angry Iraqi street demands to pursue, for letting one third of the country’s territory fall in ISIS hands during the last year of his eight years as prime minister, in addition to his responsibility for the theft and squandering of about a thousand billion dollars in public funds between 2006 and 2014.
However, doubts about the chances of success of Kadhimi’s campaign against the lords of corruption still persist, essentially due to the political immunity these individuals enjoy, and to the close ties most of them have with Tehran, which can confuse the situation by ordering its militias in Iraq to take action.
This is why observers remain sceptical regarding the usefulness and efficiency of any legal campaign to bring the lords of corruption to justice as long as doubts linger about the willingness and readiness of the Iraqi armed forces to engage in a direct confrontation with the Iranian-backed militias protecting these criminals. The coming few months will definitely turn out to be a real test of whether this is warranted.

Exasperated by their leaders, Lebanese find hope in a dog named Flash/Layelle Saad/ Al Arabiya English/Saturday 05 September 2020
لبنانيون غاضبون من قادتهم وحكامهم يجدون الأمل في كلب تشلي اسمه فلاش
لن نترك الموقع»… عمال إنقاذ يواصلون البحث عن ناجٍ تحت مبنى مدمر ببيروت/الشرق الأوسط أونلاين/05 أيلول/2020
قلب صغير وأنين تحت ركام بيروت.. “إنه طفل كيف تنامون؟”
العربية.نت/05 أيلول/2020
Beirut residents race against rain to save historical homes ravaged by explosion
Reuters/Friday 04 September 2020
سكان بيروت يصارعون لإنقاذ منازلهم الأثرية التي دمهرها تفجير المرفأ قبل قدوم الشتاء
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/90133/exasperated-by-their-leaders-lebanese-find-hope-in-a-dog-named-flash-%d9%84%d8%a8%d9%86%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%8a%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%ba%d8%a7%d8%b6%d8%a8%d9%88%d9%86-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%82%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%aa%d9%87/