LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
September 14/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 12/06-09/:”Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. ‘And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on September 13-14/2019
Martyr Bachir Gemayal: The Grain of Wheat & the Yeast
MP.Nadin Gemayel Denounces Hezbollah's Dominion over Lebanon's Sovereignty
Aoun to Del Col: Israel attempts to change status quo in south jeopardizing Lebanon and the region
Lebanese Cabinet to convene at Baabda palace Tuesday
Israel Warns Lebanon: Control Hizbullah or Face War
Schenker Says U.S. Sanctions Will 'Absolutely' Hit Hizbullah Allies
Report: Smuggling Line in Lebanon Stretches from Akkar to Bekaa
STL Registrar Ends Working visit to Lebanon
Lebanon Detains Former Militia Member Accused of Torture
Lebanese rmy: Army chief doesn't know Amer Fakhoury in person
General who escorted Amer Fakhoury in Beirut airport arrested
Russian Deputy Defense Minister, Hariri's Envoy discuss regional situation
Lebanon bids farewell to Television legend Simon Asmar
Solange Gemayel, gardienne de l’héritage de Bachir/L’Orient-Le Jour

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 13-14/2019

Trump Says Iranian Leadership 'Wants to Meet'
European powers call on Iran to cooperate with UN nuclear watchdog
US says it has evidence Adrian Darya 1 oil transferred to Syria
UN chief selects Nigerian general to lead Syria inquiry
Tunisia Gears Up for Presidential Poll Steeped in Uncertainty
Kuwait Ruler Leaves US Hospital after 'Successful Checkups'
Unable to Vote, Palestinians Shrug off Israel's Elections
Erdogan adviser criticizes Saudi Arabia for ‘favoring non-Muslims over Turkey’
Ex-Turkey Premier Promises New Political Party
Ukraine Leader Says Russia Sanctions Must Remain in Place

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 13-14/2019
Martyr Bachir Gemayal: The Grain of Wheat & the Yeast/Elias Bejjani/September 14/19
Solange Gemayel, gardienne de l’héritage de Bachir/Claude ASSAF/L’Orient-Le Jour/September 14/19
Iranian Tanker Fiasco Exposes Britain's Muddled Thinking/Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/September 13/2019
Putin and Netanyahu mark Iranian bases in Syria for removal to 80km from Israeli border/DEBKAfile/September 13/2019
Russia: Dreaming of a Return to the West/Amir Taheri/ Asharq Al-Awsat/September 13/2019
Italian Fiasco Proves One Thing About the Far Right/Leonid Bershidsky/The Guardian/September 13/2019
Apple Finally Confronts its Growth-Starved Reality/Shira Ovide/Bloomberg/September 13/2019

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on September 13-14/2019
Martyr Bachir Gemayal: The Grain of Wheat & the Yeast
Elias Bejjani/September 14/19
Today the patriotic and nationalist Lebanese people in both occupied Lebanon and Diaspora remember the sad day, the September 14, 1982, the day elect Lebanese president Bachir Gemayel was assinated. Bachir was asssinated on the same day that Lebanon was celebrating the Day of the Holy Cross. Sheik Bachir Gemayel, passed away into the hands of the Almighty God after carrying the cross of the country to heaven. He was not even 34 years old, but what he achieved for the freedom and dignity of Lebanon places him among the great men who left a stamp of glory on the history of Lebanon. May Almighty God Bless his soul.

MP.Nadin Gemayel Denounces Hezbollah's Dominion over Lebanon's Sovereignty
Kataeb.org/ Thursday 12th September 2019
Kataeb MP Nadim Gemayel on Thursday said that Hezbollah provokes the Lebanese, accusing it for destroying the Lebanese economy, the internal balance of forces, tourism, investments, and banking sector.
In an interview on MTV channel, Gemayel noted that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s statement does not represent today’s authority given that Hezbollah seems to be the authority itself as it appropriated the war and peace decision-making, as well as, monopolized Lebanon’s sovereignty. “The covenant has completely conceded its sovereign decision”.“An armed Iranian party with Lebanese personnel is fighting and striking in Syria, hauling a response from inside of Lebanon; it has dragged Lebanon into the regional conflict,” he condemned, stressing that Nasrallah is connecting Lebanon’s fate to that of Syria and is willing to tow the country into a crisis in order to protect Syria.“We do not wish to obliterate Hezbollah but we won’t grant it a final clearance or our consent,” he reproved, denouncing the presence and the cover up of illegal arms in the country. The Kataeb lawmaker asserted that Hezbollah has seized border control and it is getting a political clearance over it. “National awareness along with respect of the state, its institutions and decision are much needed,” he explained. “I aspire to a free, sovereign, independent and prosperous Lebanon,” he noted.

Aoun to Del Col: Israel attempts to change status quo in south jeopardizing Lebanon and the region
NNA - Fri 13 Sep 2019
President Michel Aoun said Friday that Israel's recent attempts to change the status quo prevailing along the southern borders have jeopardized Lebanon and the entire region, renewing commitment to UN resolution 1701.
"Lebanon preserves its legitimate right to self-defense in the event of any attack," he underlined. In remarks made during his meeting at Baabda palace with UNIFIL Commander Major General Stefano Del Col, Aoun valued the efforts exerted by the UN to contain the reverberations of what had happened and to restore stability. The President also extolled the UN resolution 2485 as per which the mandate of the UNIFIL had been extended without any change to its missions or strengths.

Aoun: We'll overcome hardship, Lebanon will not collapse

NNA - Fri 13 Sep 2019
President Michel Aoun on Friday maintained that Lebanon is capable of overcoming the current hardship and that it will not collapse, vowing to use all means to rescue the country and its ailing economic situation. "We will use all possible means in order to rescue Lebanon from the tough economic situation it is going through," the President told a delegation from Father Michel Khalife School in Fanar. "We will not allow Lebanon's collapse even though the crisis is indeed hard; yet we are bound to succeeding in the rescue process," he said. "I am upbeat and I cannot be pessimistic," he added. "I shall keep working to preserve the morale of the Lebanese people, and in the same time, I will push our case forward," he stressed. "We are facing a difficult situation which we are capable of overcoming," he underlined. "I reassure you, Lebanon will not collapse," he concluded.

Lebanese Cabinet to convene at Baabda palace Tuesday
NNA - Fri 13 Sep 2019
The Cabinet will hold a session at 10:30 am on forthcoming Tuesday at Baabda palace, to discuss an agenda of 26 items, including the 2020 state budget draft law.

Israel Warns Lebanon: Control Hizbullah or Face War
Naharnet/September 13/2019
The Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin on Thursday warned the Lebanese government that if it does not “rein in” Hizbullah’s “aggression” against Israel, it could drag the two countries into war, according to a statement issued on Friday. The statement issued by Rivlin’s office quoted him saying: “Lebanon shoulders the responsibility of Hizbullah’s action. “We hereby clearly tell the Lebanese government and its allies around the world that Hizbullah’s aggression must stop before we get involved into a conflict that neither Lebanon nor Israel want,” said Rivlin. The Israeli president added: “Israel will not tolerate threats to the safety of its citizens. With the Iranians, Hizbullah is building factories to produce rockets to fire at Israel and this is something Israel cannot tolerate. The Lebanese government cannot make excuses that it is not its responsibility. Hizbullah is part of Lebanon, part of the Lebanese government and part of the Lebanese people.”

Schenker Says U.S. Sanctions Will 'Absolutely' Hit Hizbullah Allies

Naharnet/September 13/2019
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker has confirmed that new U.S. sanctions will “absolutely” target allies of Hizbullah regardless of their “sect,” in an apparent reference to the Iran-backed group’s Shiite and Christian allies. In an interview with LBCI television, Schenker added that the sanctions will not affect Washington’s relation with the Lebanese government, while noting that Hizbullah is not being able to pay salaries to fighters or funds to its social institutions through Lebanese banks. Schenker also called for expanding UNIFIL’s mandate to allow the peacekeeping force to enter private properties, noting that everything that Hizbullah possesses in Lebanon is also being labeled private property. Adding that Lebanon is an important country to the U.S., the State Department official said he can officially reassure that the situation will not be similar to that in 1991, when Washington turned a blind eye to Syria’s hegemony over Lebanon.As for the demarcation of the maritime border with Israel, Schenker said he visited Lebanon to facilitate the negotiations, adding that President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri were responsive to the suggestions.

Report: Smuggling Line in Lebanon Stretches from Akkar to Bekaa

Naharnet/September 13/2019
Smuggling operations from Syria into Lebanon extend from “Akkar’s town of Wadi Khaled to the Bekaa region” and the smuggled goods enter Lebanese territories through the Syrian Port of Tartus, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported on Friday. The “vital smuggling artery” into Lebanon stretches from Wadi Khaled in Akkar to the Bekaa region passing through Bekaa’s town of al-Qasr, a ministerial source told the newspaper on condition of anonymity. The source said the majority of smuggled goods enter Lebanon through the Syrian port of Tartus. “This leads to a reduction in state imports, although the 2020 state budget notes the need to increase imports in order to reduce the public deficit and service the public debt," he said. The source referred to the security-ministerial meeting chaired by Prime Minister Saad Hariri that strictly discussed way to counter smuggling. The source said the meeting stressed the need to activate the role of security forces in coordination with the General Directorate of Customs to close illegal crossings on one hand; and pin down smugglers on the other.He pointed out that the overlapping border areas between Lebanon and Syria facilitates the smuggling of goods, but that the security and  customs agencies have the ability to combat all forms of smuggling that deprive the treasury of resources estimated annually hundreds of millions of dollars. The source noted that “rich” smuggling operations that generate millions of dollars for mafias and parties that provide them a cover, lie in the influx of tons of foreign tobacco, alcoholic beverages ... and other, to the Lebanese market.Tobacco smuggling led to a reduction in treasury revenues by a high rate in light of the decline in its sales under the supervision of the Lebanese Tobacco and Cigarettes Company (Regie Libanaise Des Tabacs Et Tombacs). “Containers loaded with foreign tobacco arrive in Lebanon through the port of Tartus and their cargo is smuggled into Lebanon,” said the source.

STL Registrar Ends Working visit to Lebanon
Naharnet/September 13/2019
The Registrar of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s (STL) Daryl Mundis met with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on a working visit to Beirut this week. He also met with the Minister of Justice, Judge Albert Serhan and the Acting Prosecutor General Judge Imad Kabalan. This mission is part of regular visits the Registrar undertakes to update the Lebanese officials on the work of the Tribunal. The Registrar is responsible for all aspects of the STL's administration including the budget, fundraising, human resources and providing security. His responsibilities also include court management, oversight of the Victims’ Participation Unit, witness protection and language services

Lebanon Detains Former Militia Member Accused of Torture

Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 13/2019
Lebanon has detained a senior member of a disbanded Israel-backed militia, a judicial source said Thursday, after his return to the country sparked widespread condemnation and revived accusations of torture. Lebanon's military court had ordered the arrest of Amer al-Fakhoury, a former member of the pro-Israel South Lebanon Army (SLA) militia and a senior warden in the notorious SLA-run Khiyam prison, the source said. The country's General Security agency has been interrogating Fakhoury since Wednesday, the source added. Another security source said the former SLA member had fled to the United States and had already been charged in absentia to 15 years in prison for collaborating with Israel. Opened in 1984 in an Israeli-occupied part of southern Lebanon, the Khiyam prison was run by the Christian-dominated SLA. Former inmates accuse Fakhoury of ordering the torture of thousands of detainees held there before Israeli forces withdrew from the area in 2000, ending their 22-year occupation of south Lebanon. The former inmates joined nearly a hundred demonstrators on Thursday outside the Ministry of Justice in Beirut, where they condemned Fakhoury's return to Lebanon, calling him a "butcher." "Not a single person held in Khiyam was spared physical and psychological torture," said Abbas Kabalan, who was detained there from 1987 to 1988. "Fakhoury used to issue direct orders for the torture of inmates," Kabalan added, accusing him of also taking part in beatings. Hilal Salman, another former inmate, blames Fakhoury for his brother's death. "My father and mother and brother were all held in Khiyam," he told AFP at the protest. "My brother was killed there in 1989 because of a gas bomb thrown at inmates on the orders of two prison heads, including Amer al-Fakhoury." It was not immediately clear when Fakhoury entered the country, but the Lebanese Al-Akhbar daily said Thursday that he arrived in Beirut's airport "days ago". The newspaper claimed that all charges against Fakhoury had been "withdrawn", allowing him to leave the airport without being arrested. Fakhoury left Lebanon in 1998, two years before the Israeli withdrawal. Amnesty International and other human rights groups have often accused the SLA of torturing its prisoners. Thousands of former SLA members have been tried in Lebanese military court for collaboration, and the powerful Shiite Hezbollah movement has complained that sentences given to those convicted have been too light. Many of the Khiyam personnel escaped to Europe or North America when Israel withdrew its forces from south Lebanon in 2000. Thousands of SLA members and their families also fled to Israel for fear of reprisals by Hezbollah or of criminal charges.
Many have since returned to Lebanon.

Lebanese rmy: Army chief doesn't know Amer Fakhoury in person
NNA - Fri 13 Sep 2019
The Lebanese army said Friday that its chief General Joseph Aoun, does not know collaborator Amer Fakhoury in person, after photos of the two men pictured together circulated on social media. "The Army Command would like to clarify that the photos were taken during General Aoun's visit to the US in October 2017, during a reception ceremony held in his honor by the Lebanese Embassy," the military said, adding that guests, including Fakhoury, took pictures with the army chief during the event.

General who escorted Amer Fakhoury in Beirut airport arrested
NNA - Fri 13 Sep 2019
A General has been arrested and brought in for questioning after having escorted collaborator Amer Fakhoury to the General Security office at Beirut airport, National News Agency correspondent reported on Friday.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister, Hariri's Envoy discuss regional situation
NNA - Fri 13 Sep 2019
Russian Deputy Minister of Defence, Lieutenant General Alexander Fomin, received Prime Minister Saad Hariri's Special Envoy, George Chaaban, and discussed with him the current situation in the Middle East, including the issue of the return of the displaced Syrians to their country, as per a statement by the Russian Defense Ministry. An atmosphere of friendship prevailed during the meeting, with both sides' affirming continual cooperation and coordination, as per the statement.

Lebanon bids farewell to Television legend Simon Asmar
NNA - Fri 13 Sep 2019
Lebanon on Friday bid farewell to the Television Legend, Simon Asmar, at an official funeral at St Georges Cathedral in Beirut, attended by his family members and scores of politicians, singers, actors, media figures.
The prayer service, officiated by Beirut Maronite Archbishop Boulos Abdel Sater, was attended by the Representative of President of the Republic General Michel Aoun, Deputy Nicholas Sehnaoui, and the Representative of House Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Saad Hariri, former Deputy Atef Majdalani, as well as Minister of State for Administrative Development Affairs Dr May Chidiac.
In his eulogy, Archbishop Abdel Sater hailed the artistic works and TV shows produced by the late legend, which have filled the hearts of the Lebanese with joy and happiness esepcially in the difficult days, "the days of war, oppression, despair, death, fear and agony."The late Asmar was then laid to rest in his hometown Ghazir.

Solange Gemayel, gardienne de l’héritage de Bachir
L’Orient-Le Jour
Bachir Gemayel enlaçant son épouse après l’annonce de sa victoire à la présidentielle. Archives L’Orient-Le Jour
COMMÉMORATION
La veuve du président élu assassiné Bachir Gemayel raconte à « L’Orient-Le Jour » ses souvenirs de la vie qu’elle a partagée avec celui que beaucoup considèrent comme un héros.
Claude ASSAF | OLJ14/09/2019
14 septembre 1982, 16h10. Une bombe vient d’exploser sur le toit de l’immeuble abritant la permanence du parti Kataëb à Achrafieh. L’attentat coûte la vie au fondateur des Forces libanaises, Bachir Gemayel, élu à la présidence de la République 22 jours plus tôt, et à 32 autres personnes.
Sur le plan national, l’attentat balaie les espoirs de nombreux Libanais d’avoir un État souverain. Sur le plan familial, l’assassinat de Bachir Gemayel dévaste des vies, faisant deux enfants orphelins, Youmna, 21 mois, et Nadim, 4 mois, ainsi qu’une veuve éplorée, Solange.
L’Orient-Le Jour a choisi de solliciter cette femme qui, malgré le malheur qui l’a accablée, conserve une réelle force de caractère, stimulée par la détermination de préserver l’esprit de Bachir dans la famille fondée avec lui. L’occasion pour elle d’égrener les souvenirs et pensées qui l’accompagnent, et d’abord de revenir sur ce moment fatidique qui, brisant une idylle de douze ans couronnée par cinq années de bonheur conjugal, a également coupé court au parcours présidentiel que Bachir Gemayel venait d’entamer, succédant à Élias Sarkis. Dans la maison familiale bicentenaire de Bickfaya que le président fraîchement élu avait quittée ce matin du 14 septembre 1982, les photos cristallisent, trente-sept ans plus tard, l’image de l’homme au regard droit et à l’allure fougueuse. « Les meubles sont restés tels quels, rien n’a bougé », lance, d’emblée, Solange Gemayel dans le salon où les félicitations avaient été reçues suite à l’élection présidentielle du 23 août.
« C’est fini »
Cette maison que Bachir a héritée de sa mère Geneviève, et qui après avoir été restaurée était fin prête pour l’accueillir à l’été 1982, il n’y aura résidé que durant les trois semaines précédant sa mort. « Ce jour-là, réveillée au son des cloches des églises du village, j’ai ressenti un serrement au cœur, le temps de me rappeler que c’était la fête de la Croix », se souvient Solange Gemayel. « Vers 10h, voulant se rendre à Beyrouth, Bachir m’a demandé où était la clé de sa voiture. Après l’avoir longuement cherchée, j’ai découvert que Youmna l’avait cachée dans sa main, derrière son dos. Bachir l’a prise dans ses bras, l’a embrassée, et tenté de la convaincre de lui donner ses clés. Mais rien n’y fait, Youmna répétait “non”. Finalement il s’en est emparé. Youmna lui a lancé un regard profond, comme si elle sentait qu’il s’en allait loin. »
Avant de partir, Bachir Gemayel propose à sa femme de le retrouver à déjeuner en compagnie de sa sœur Arzé et des autres religieuses du couvent de la Croix. Au cours du repas, il improvise un discours après lui avoir demandé de le traduire simultanément au nonce apostolique qui se trouvait à ses côtés. Ensuite, vers 15h30, direction l’Hôpital libanais (Jeïtaoui), pour visiter la mère de Solange qui vient de subir une petite intervention. À 16h, Bachir se dirige vers le siège des Kataëb à Achrafieh, afin d’y présider une dernière réunion hebdomadaire avec ses collaborateurs.
« Restée au chevet de ma mère, j’ai reçu vers 16h15 l’appel d’un proche me demandait où avait eu lieu l’explosion. Je n’avais rien entendu, mais j’ai su qu’il s’agissait là d’un attentat visant Bachir », assure-t-elle, la gorge nouée, indiquant au passage qu’à chaque 14 septembre elle se sent « remuée » mais sans « fléchir » pour autant.
« Je me suis ruée vers la permanence des Kataëb. Face à la bâtisse détruite, je suis restée pendant plus de 4 heures debout, au milieu des décombres, en état de choc, atterrée et silencieuse au milieu des nombreuses personnes accourues sur place, dont certaines croyaient avoir vu Bachir s’extirper des gravats. À mesure que le temps passait, j’ai eu le pressentiment que je n’allais plus le voir vivant. Alors j’ai fait la tournée des hôpitaux. À l’Hôtel-Dieu de France, on m’a dit qu’il était là, sans me donner de détails. Il ne m’en fallait pas plus pour comprendre. Je me suis rendue au siège du Conseil militaire des Kataëb, où tous les proches attendaient, notamment son père et son frère, Pierre et Amine Gemayel. Même si je devinais son sort, il me fallait une preuve », poursuit-elle.
Celle-ci tombe vers 22h30, quand un ami médecin lui tend l’alliance octogonale de Bachir, en or blanc. « J’ai senti le monde s’écrouler autour de moi. » Accompagnée de son beau-père, la jeune femme de 32 ans se rend alors à la maison paternelle de Bickfaya. « Alors chérie, quoi ? » lui lance la mère de Bachir. « C’est fini », lui répond Solange.
Le rêve d’un Liban libre et prospère
C’était dans cette même maison que Bachir était monté le soir du 23 août pour fêter sa victoire avec ses parents. « De nombreux amis se pressaient déjà, dans une liesse indescriptible, à la maison, notamment Charles Malek (géant de la politique, de la diplomatie et de la philosophie), qui en raison de la coupure du courant avait gravi huit étages à pied pour venir nous féliciter. Il m’avait dit alors : “Le Liban est sauvé !” »,
raconte Solange Gemayel. De l’extérieur parvient un concert de klaxons.
Mais Bachir prévient tout de suite sa femme qu’ils ne s’installeront pas au palais de Baabda, qui pour lui devait abriter uniquement les bureaux présidentiels, indique-t-elle. Il voulait garder « une vie familiale simple et rester à l’écoute des gens ».
Cette simplicité, il la démontre quelques heures après son élection. « Sur le chemin du retour vers notre maison d’Achrafieh, ce 23 août vers 22h30, Bachir a eu faim. Devant Halabi à Antélias, il a arrêté la voiture et m’a demandé d’acheter des sandwiches de chawarma. Me voyant hésiter, il m’a dit qu’il allait lui même les acheter. Alors j’ai obtempéré, tout en essayant de me dérober au regard du cuistot qui me dévisageait en même temps qu’il me servait. »
Le président assassiné n’avait donc pas peur du danger qui guettait ? « Ni lui ni moi n’en étions vraiment conscients, en dépit des conseils de sécurité qui nous étaient prodigués », avoue sa veuve, notant que « lorsqu’il a brigué la présidence de la République, ce n’étaient pas les convois et autres honneurs qu’il recherchait mais plutôt un poste au moyen duquel il voulait réaliser sa cause et son rêve d’un pays libre et prospère ».
Cette accession à la tête de l’État, Solange Gemayel savait qu’il y parviendrait un jour. « J’avais confiance en lui, en ses capacités, son honnêteté, son énergie, son charisme, ainsi que sa détermination à réaliser son but de construire le Liban de demain, et bien sûr son idéalisme doublé de pragmatisme », déclare celle qui l’a accompagnée dans son militantisme depuis le milieu des années 60, alors que tous deux étaient encore lycéens. Un militantisme dans lequel Solange Gemayel s’est elle-même impliquée dès l’âge de 16 ans, allant jusqu’à participer à des camps d’entraînement où elle a appris le maniement des armes. C’est que son père, le chirurgien Louis Toutounji, était, aux côtés de Pierre Gemayel, un des membres fondateurs du parti Kataëb. Elle intègre à cette époque la section estudiantine du parti, où elle se lie avec Bachir, qu’elle connaissait auparavant grâce à l’amitié liant les parents, mais aussi parce que Joseph, son frère, et Bachir étaient des camarades de classe au Collège Notre-Dame de Jamhour. Une belle histoire d’amour s’enclenche, nourrie par le partage des mêmes idéaux et une collaboration étroite.
Mais l’idylle n’aura pas été toujours paisible, marquée par des rendez-vous souvent manqués en raison des multiples occupations de celui qui était devenu chef militaire, et par des attentes anxieuses lorsqu’il se trouvait au front. « Mes attentes étaient compensées par son affection, sa tendresse, sa franchise et sa transparence », confie toutefois Solange Gemayel.
Irréductible
Selon sa veuve, l’engagement de Bachir pour le pays s’était accru après son enlèvement en 1969 dans la région de Mkallès par des Palestiniens armés du camp de Tall el-Zaatar. « Libéré au bout de quelques heures grâce à des interventions politiques, Bachir était venu chez moi pour me tranquilliser. Il était très calme, mais son regard trahissait tristesse et souffrance. Cet incident a constitué pour lui un tournant décisif, parce qu’à partir de ce moment, son hostilité à l’encontre des Palestiniens armés était devenue irréductible, le poussant à se fixer pour objectif de les sortir du Liban », affirme Solange Gemayel, qui travaillait au département de la communication des Kataëb, au siège du parti, exécutant toutes les missions dont Bachir la chargeait, et restant proche de ses pensées, plans et secrets.
Mais tout en continuant à le soutenir, dès qu’elle s’est mariée en mars 1977, elle a voulu se dédier à sa mission de mère de famille et de maîtresse de maison, d’autant que les occupations de son époux l’empêchaient d’être souvent présent. Quand le drame est survenu, c’est cette responsabilité vis-à-vis de sa famille qui a contribué à la maintenir debout, poursuivant l’éducation de ses enfants avec force et dignité, les imprégnant des valeurs de leur père, qui l’avait soutenue lors de l’assassinat de leur aînée, Maya, en février 1980, mais qui cette fois n’était plus à ses côtés. Avec l’assassinat de son époux, Solange Gemayel a perdu un compagnon aimant et le père de ses enfants, mais aussi, dit-elle, « une personnalité exceptionnelle, dynamique, intègre, téméraire, visionnaire et animée par l’amour du pays ».
« Depuis la disparition de Bachir, je n’ai repéré aucun responsable qui pourrait combler le vide qu’il a laissé en ayant assez de force et d’autorité pour relever le pays et le soulager du suivisme, de la mainmise armée et de la corruption », déplore Solange Gemayel, exprimant toutefois l’espoir que « parmi les jeunes qui préservent en eux le sentiment patriotique auquel Bachir était attaché, puisse un jour émerger un leader capable de mener le Liban selon le seul bien public, loin des intérêts cupides ».
À la une

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 13-14/2019
Trump Says Iranian Leadership 'Wants to Meet'

Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 13/2019
President Donald Trump said he believes that Iran's leadership wants to talk, adding to expectations that he is trying to arrange a summit with his Iranian counterpart at the upcoming UN assembly. "I can tell you that Iran wants to meet," he told reporters at the White House. Trump has repeatedly indicated he is ready to meet with President Hassan Rouhani, who is expected to attend the UN General Assembly in New York this month. However, the Iranians have so far not given a positive response. On Wednesday, Rouhani blasted the Trump administration, which has poured pressure on Iran, saying "the Americans must understand that bellicosity and warmongering don't work in their favor. Both... must be abandoned." Arch-foes Tehran and Washington have been at loggerheads since May last year when Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal and began reimposing punitive measures. Iran responded by scaling back its commitments to the accord, which gave it the promise of sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program. However, some analysts see hope for more compromise following this week's exit of Trump's hardline national security adviser John Bolton, who in the past has called for the use of military force and regime change.Bolton's departure came just days after Iran announced it had fired up centrifuges to boost its enriched uranium stockpiles in another step back from the deal. Hesameddin Ashena, an adviser to Rouhani, hailed Bolton's dismissal as "a clear sign of the defeat of America's maximum pressure strategy."Yet even with Bolton gone, top Trump officials have shown no signs of backing down from the strategy of sanctions against Iran. "Now the president has made clear he is happy to take a meeting with no preconditions, but we are maintaining the maximum pressure campaign," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said after Bolton's departure. The idea of a Trump-Rouhani meeting was floated last month by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been spearheading European efforts to de-escalate tensions. Rouhani said in response that Iran was ready to comply with the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, only if the Americans did so too.

European powers call on Iran to cooperate with UN nuclear watchdog

AFP/Friday, 13 September 2019
European powers on Friday called on Iran to cooperate with the UN’s nuclear watchdog the IAEA, after Tehran warned that undue pressure from the US and Israel could jeopardize the agency’s activities in Iran. In a joint statement, Britain, France, Germany and the EU’s foreign policy chief said they “strongly urge Iran to reverse all activities that are inconsistent with its commitments” under the 2015 deal on its nuclear program and “to cooperate with the IAEA on all relevant matters, including safeguards issues.”The four European signatories of the 2015 accord on Iran’s nuclear program said they were “deeply concerned” by an IAEA report that showed Iran was installing advanced centrifuges. Expressing fears that the nuclear deal “further unravels,” they urged Iran “to reverse all activities that are inconsistent with its commitments.”US President Donald Trump last year pulled out of the deal on curbing Iran’s nuclear program and reimposed crippling economic sanctions, throwing the accord into jeopardy. European powers led by French President Emmanuel Macron have been scrambling to try to save the accord and to convince Iran, which has begun reneging on some of its nuclear commitments, to abide by the agreement. Tehran on Wednesday accused the US and Israel of applying “undue pressure” on the IAEA to vet its nuclear program and warned it could be “counterproductive” to its cooperation with the agency.Tehran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharib Abadi, said statements by Israel and the US could jeopardize Iran’s “constructive, timely and proactive cooperation” with the watchdog.

US says it has evidence Adrian Darya 1 oil transferred to Syria
Reuters/Friday, 13 September 2019
The United States has evidence that the Iranian tanker Adrian Darya 1 has transferred its crude oil to the Syrian government, breaking assurances it gave not to sell crude to the country, the US State Department said on Thursday. British commandos on July 4 seized the vessel, formerly named the Grace 1, on suspicion that it was en route to Syria in breach of European Union sanctions. Gibraltar released it on Aug. 15 after getting written Iranian assurances that it would not discharge its 2.1 million barrels of oil in Syria. Britain’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said the tanker had sold its crude oil to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, breaking those assurances, and that the oil had been transferred to Syria. Iran’s envoy to Britain, who was summoned by the British foreign ministry over the matter, on Wednesday said Adrian Darya 1’s oil cargo was sold at sea to a private company, denying Tehran had broken assurances it gave. He also said the private buyer of the oil “sets the sale destination.”Asked if the United States had evidence that the ship had offloaded its crude oil to Syria, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told reporters: “Yeah ... The Iranian regime delivered oil to Syria, and that fuel goes straight into the tanks of troops that are slaughtering innocent Syrians.”Pressed on whether Washington had evidence of such a transfer from the Adrian Darya 1, Ortagus added: “I wouldn’t say that if we didn’t.”On Tuesday, the State Department had stopped short of confirming whether Iran had sold the oil to Assad’s government, but strongly suggested it had. The United States, which last year abandoned the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, has imposed severe sanctions on Tehran designed to cut Iran’s oil exports to zero, starve it of resources and force it to accept more stringent limitations on its nuclear and missile programs as well as other regional activities.

UN chief selects Nigerian general to lead Syria inquiry
The Associated Press/Friday, 13 September 2019
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has selected a Nigerian general to lead a UN Board of Inquiry to investigate a series of attacks on hospitals in Syria’s last opposition stronghold in the northwest. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced Friday that the three-member board, which will start work on Sept. 30, will be led by Lt. Gen. Chikadibia Obiakor and include Janet Lim of Singapore and Maria Santos Pais of Portugal. Dujarric said the board will ascertain the facts of the attacks and not assess blame. Its findings will not be made public, he said. Guterres announced the establishment of the board on Aug. 1 following a series of attacks on hospitals in Idlib in northwest Syria.

Tunisia Gears Up for Presidential Poll Steeped in Uncertainty
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 13/2019
Tunisia will hold on Sunday its second free presidential election by universal suffrage since the 2011 uprising that toppled an autocratic regime, with growing uncertainty over who will reach the next round. Twenty-six candidates are in the race, including the incumbent prime minister and a media magnate who was arrested just weeks before the polls, as well as a presidential hopeful put forth by an Islamist-inspired party. Seven million voters are expected to head to the ballot box after a campaign that largely focussed on social and economic challenges that have plagued the North African country's fledgling democracy.
"There are favourites and everything is possible, but even God cannot predict the results of the first round, let alone what will happen next," columnist Ziyed Krichen said. Political analyst Hatem Mrad agreed. "This election is really one of uncertainties," he said. Tunisia has been praised as a rare success story for democratic transition after the Arab Spring regional uprisings sparked by its 2011 revolution. Three years later, it held its first post-revolution election, during which the political fault lines were clear, said Mrad, with Islamists squaring off against modernists. But this time around, the differences are huge, with a plethora of candidates -- Islamists, secularists, populists and partisans of the toppled regime -- political programmes and issues, he added.Preliminary results are expected to be announced by the electoral commission on September 17, but the date of the second round, which will decide the presidency, is not yet known.
Heavyweights
Heavyweight candidates include Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and his nemesis Nabil Karoui, the media magnate arrested on charges of money laundering just three weeks before the election. Karoui's supporters accuse Chahed of orchestrating his arrest, a charge denied by the ambitious prime minister who became the country's youngest ever head of government in 2016 at age 40. A controversial businessman, Karoui has built his popularity by using his own Nessma television channel to launch charity campaigns, handing out food aid to some of the country's poorest. On Wednesday, the jailed candidate started a hunger strike, according to a member of his defence team, Ridha Belhaj. Studies suggest that his arrest boosted his popularity, and observers say that if Karoui makes it to the second round of voting, it will be hard for authorities to justify keeping him behind bars without a trial. Also in the race is lawyer Abdelfattah Mourou, 71, who was selected to run by the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, and Mohammed Abbou, who was imprisoned under the ousted regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Candidates also include former defence minister Abdelkarim Zbidi, a technocrat who said he would "restart the social ladder" and make public services accessible to all Tunisians, if elected. Two women are also eyeing the presidency, including Abir Moussi, a staunch anti-Islamist lawyer and champion of Ben Ali's regime.
Social challenges
The presidential campaign wraps up on Friday, but none of the candidates appears to have stood out despite squaring off in multiple debates that were broadcast on radio and television. Around two to three million Tunisians are believed to have tuned in to three major debates, during which candidates were asked to respond to questions drawn randomly. The economic and social hardships that undermine Tunisia's transition to democracy took centre stage during the campaign. The country, hit by terrorist attacks against its key tourism sector and security forces, has struggled to combat unemployment and bring down inflation. Unemployment in Tunisia is at 15 percent, while the cost of living has increased by more than 30 percent since 2016. The election was brought forward from November after the death in July of Beji Caid Essebsi, Tunisia's first president democratically elected in nationwide polls in 2014.
It will be followed by legislative elections, due to take place on October 6.
Some of the 26 hopefuls have called for the president's powers to be beefed up in Tunisia, which has a parliamentary system.

Kuwait Ruler Leaves US Hospital after 'Successful Checkups'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 13/2019
Kuwait says its ruling 90-year-old emir has left a U.S. hospital after having "successful checkups" that forced him to cancel a visit to the White House. The state-run KUNA news agency reported early Friday that Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah's checkups "showed reassuring results." The report did not elaborate. KUNA earlier said Sheikh Sabah would reschedule his visit with President Donald Trump. On Aug. 18, tiny, oil-rich Kuwait acknowledged the emir suffered an unspecified medical "setback," without explaining what that setback was. That came after visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter that he was "praying for emir's speedy recovery."Sheikh Sabah has ruled Kuwait since January 2006. He's pushed for diplomacy to solve regional issues.

Unable to Vote, Palestinians Shrug off Israel's Elections
Associated Press/Naharnet/September 13/2019
Barhoum Saleh's town is surrounded by Jewish settlements, the sign above his roadside mechanic shop is in Hebrew, most of his customers are Israeli and he needs an Israeli permit to visit the beach a half hour's drive away. But unlike his Jewish neighbors, he can't vote in next week's elections. Saleh is among the 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank who have no voice in choosing Israel's next government and no control over whether it decides to annex part or all of the occupied territory, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to do . With the peace process having sputtered to a halt a decade ago, they also have little hope of getting a state of their own anytime soon. Saleh, who is not particularly political, just wishes it was easier to take his kids to the beach. Israelis who get their cars serviced at his shop describe their trips: one drove down to Egypt's Sinai, another vacationed in Thailand. But while they can travel in and out of the West Bank freely, Saleh must apply for a permit to enter Israel — and they are not given for family vacations. So, a few years back, he took his family to neighboring Jordan and its Red Sea port of Aqaba, several hours away. "My kids were astonished when they saw the sea," he recalls, smiling at the memory. "They said, what's that?"
The movement restrictions apply to all Palestinians in the West Bank, even those, like Saleh, who live near major settlement blocs that Israel expects to keep in any peace agreement. His shop is just down the road from Elkana, the settlement where Netanyahu kicked off his campaign by vowing to annex parts of the West Bank. Palestinians here say they have good relations with Israelis, including settlers, who patronize their businesses. But they have little interest in Israel's elections and expect nothing to change. Maraei Maraei runs a hardware store in the West Bank village of Mas'ha, which is separated from the Elkana settlement by a wall and a closed metal gate. Elkana's settlers can vote, while residents of Mas'ha cannot. Still, he shrugs off the talk of annexation. "It would be hard for them to annex this area because there are too many of us," he said. "They want land without people."
The question of what to do with the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 war and would be the heartland of any future Palestinian state, once dominated Israeli elections. Right-wing candidates argued that Judea and Samaria, the biblical name they use for the West Bank, was an integral part of Israel. Candidates on the left said the failure to create a Palestinian state there would eventually lead to a one-state outcome in which Palestinians would outnumber Jews and demand the right to vote, spelling the end of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. But that debate has faded in recent years , and has hardly featured in the campaign ahead of the Sept. 17 vote. Netanyahu's main rivals have dismissed his talk of annexation as a campaign stunt but have not opposed it on the merits.
They have also vowed to be much tougher toward Hamas, the Islamic militant group ruling the Gaza Strip, accusing Netanyahu of being too soft in the face of Palestinian rocket fire. His main rival, former army chief of staff Benny Gantz, has boasted about his role in the 2014 war, saying he sent parts of Gaza back to the "stone age." "When it comes to these big issues that affect Palestinians, we haven't seen that there's any difference," said Diana Buttu, a former legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team. "Both of them believe in settlement construction, both of them believe in this concept of greater Israel and both of them believe in being hard on Palestinians."
Israel's Arab citizens, who make up 20% of the population and largely identify with the Palestinians, are eligible to vote. But it's unclear whether they will turn out in large enough numbers to make a difference, or whether a Jewish coalition would partner with them. Ayman Odeh, leader of the main Arab faction in Israel's parliament, has said he would consider joining a government led by Gantz depending on his political agenda, including his seriousness about pursuing peace with the Palestinians.
A poll released this week by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, in partnership with the German foundation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, found that more than 40% of Palestinians believe the elections will have a negative impact, with another 25% saying they would have no impact at all. Fewer than 20% thought the impact would depend on the outcome. The poll surveyed 1,200 people in the West Bank and Gaza and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. "The general sense is that regardless of who is in power, much of the same will unfold on the ground here," said Tareq Baconi, an analyst with the Crisis Group, an international think tank. "But certainly there is a belief that with (Netanyahu) the mask is off, and the international community cannot hide behind the fig leaf of a peace process anymore."
Some Palestinians say they prefer Netanyahu, with his strident nationalism, to a center-left government that they say would cloak the same policies in the guise of a peace process. Netanyahu's close ties to President Donald Trump have delivered major gains for the Israeli right, including U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, but have alienated many of Israel's traditional supporters in the U.S., including many Democrats and Jewish Americans.
"I think it serves us better, as a Palestinian, to have an exposed Israeli leadership, kind of like what we have today," said Sam Bahour, an Ohio-born Palestinian entrepreneur who runs a West Bank consulting firm. "I think third states are going to have to intervene, and those third states only recently have seen Israel and the U.S. for what they really are."

Erdogan adviser criticizes Saudi Arabia for ‘favoring non-Muslims over Turkey’
Ismaeel Naar, Al Arabiya English/Thursday, 12 September 2019
A senior adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized Saudi Arabia on Thursday for “favoring the Europeans and non-Muslims” over Turkey and other Muslim countries after the recent visit of the Saudi Arabian foreign minister to Cyprus. “What does the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia benefit from this visit and establishing this relationship with Southern Cyprus, the Roum (Rum), which Turkey does not recognize?” Yasin Aktay, a senior adviser to Erdogan and the Turkish AK Party, asked during an interview on state-broadcaster TRT Arabi channel.“Roum” is a term used by Turks to refer to the people and countries of Greek Orthodox Christian origins. “Saudi Arabia should not have recognized this country but as a Muslim country and as part of the Organization of Islamic Countries, we were waiting and wishing for them to recognize the state of Turkish Cyprus (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) which is a Muslim country. They take the Europeans, the Roum and the non-Muslims as friends of theirs but are moving away from Muslims. This is surprising,” he added. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf began an official visit to Cyprus on Wednesday where he met with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades. They reviewed bilateral relations, as well as the latest developments at the international level. Al-Assaf said there’s “high interest” in developing relations “on all fronts” with Cyrpus, given the European Union member country’s geographic location and longstanding ties with the Arab world.
Cypriot Foreign Minister Christodoulides described the visit - the first by a top Saudi official - as historic, noting that the two countries shared a common vision. According to AFP, Cyprus has been divided on ethnic lines since Turkish troops occupied its northern third in 1974, following a Greek Cypriot coup sponsored by the military junta - then in power in Athens - seeking union with Greece. Turkey continues to maintain a sizeable military presence in the north of the island. Turkey, which has no diplomatic relations with Cyprus, is the only country which recognizes the breakaway state in the north of the island.
Turkey's Aktay also accused Saudi Arabia of “moving away from Muslims.” “Truthfully, this country is responsible and takes responsibility of being the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, so they should be more keen to protect the interests of the Ummah (Islamic community) and Muslims,” Aktay said. The Kingdom's role as custodian of the Two Holy Mosques includes facilitating the Islamic pilgrimage of Hajj for approximately 2.3 million Muslims from around the world. Aktay also said that Saudi Arabia should approach solving the problems of the Islamic world with “more rationality” and that Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister al-Assaf’s visit to Cyprus was in conflict with its regional role. “This visit to the Roum and this challenge to Turkey from this policy is not worthy of the Kingdom to do so. They should take a more rational stance and should realize that Turkey is not an enemy to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Turkey wants to advise her as a true brother and friend to establish justice,” he added. Aktay previously accused Saudi Arabia and the UAE of “treason” over what he called “normalization” with Israel, despite the Gulf countries having no diplomatic ties with Israel - while Turkey has had diplomatic ties with the state since 1949, with relations booming in the 1990s. In recent months, Turkey has been criticized for sending several drill ships to waters off Cyprus to explore for oil and gas.

Ex-Turkey Premier Promises New Political Party
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 13/2019
Former Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday said he would launch a "new political movement" in the latest challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from his former allies.Davutoglu was the prime minister and chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) between 2014 and 2016 until relations soured with Erdogan and he was forced out. There have been persistent rumours that he would establish his own party to rival the AKP."It is our historical responsibility and duty to the nation... to set up a new political movement," Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara.
Davutoglu had already served notice of his intentions earlier this year when he criticised the AKP's trajectory, especially after a controversial decision to annul the results of Istanbul's mayoral election when it was won by the opposition. The opposition went on to win the re-run of the vote in Istanbul by an even wider margin, having also conquered the capital Ankara, both of which the AKP and its predecessors had held since 1994. "I resign from the party where I have served with great honour, worked for years and given much effort to," Davutoglu said. His resignation appears to have come before the party's decision earlier this month to send him to its disciplinary board for dismissal. He described that decision as "very grave" and "not in harmony" with the AKP's founding principles. "Unfortunately this decision on September 2 has passed in history as the day on which the AK Party has renounced its founding values and principles," he said. Erdogan has seen an increasing number of defections from former allies in recent months, amid disquiet over the crackdown on political opponents following a failed coup in 2016. Most notable among the defectors has been ex-economy minister Ali Babacan, who this week told Turkish newspaper Karar that he would launch his own party by the end of the year. Babacan was credited with overseeing Turkey's economic boom in the 2000s, having served as both economy minister and deputy prime minister between 2002, when the AKP first came to power, and 2015 when he left the government. Babacan, also a founding AKP member, resigned from the party in July, citing the need for a "new vision" for Turkey and "deep differences" over policy.

Ukraine Leader Says Russia Sanctions Must Remain in Place
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 13/2019
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday warned the West against lifting sanctions on Russia as France pushes for rapprochement with Moscow. Speaking at an annual economic forum in the capital Kiev, the 41-year-old leader claimed that some of Ukraine's Western partners have considered lifting sanctions against Russia. "Sometimes they think about lifting sanctions. You are losing money. Seriously? I am sorry but we are losing people," Zelensky told the Yalta European Strategy (YES) forum, referring to Russia's annexation of Crimea and the Moscow-backed separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. "Essentially, sanctions are a tax needed to maintain world order. A peace tax, if you will. And you know in the civilised world it's normal to pay taxes," he said. "Sanctions should remain" until peace was restored in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky added. In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and supported a separatist insurgency in Ukraine's industrial east. The conflict between Russia-backed fighters and Ukrainian troops has killed more than 13,000 people. In response, the West has imposed sweeping economic sanctions targeting the Russian oil, defence and banking sectors as well as Russian officials over their alleged involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. On Thursday, the European Union extended by six months sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian officials while it extended economic penalties in June.  French President Emmanuel Macron has in recent weeks pushed for a review of ties with Russia, indicating that more sanctions against Moscow were not in France's interests. In a keynote speech to French ambassadors in late August, Macron said: "The European continent will never be stable, will never be secure, if we don't pacify and clarify our relations with Russia."

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 13-14/2019
Iranian Tanker Fiasco Exposes Britain's Muddled Thinking
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/September 13/2019
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14877/iran-britain-shipping-seizure
The ensuing diplomatic stand-off between London and Tehran eventually resulted in Britain agreeing to release the Grace One, but only after the British authorities received written assurances from Iran that the oil would not be delivered to Syria.
Now it appears that Iran has deliberately misled the British government about its intentions after satellite photographs revealed the ship, which has now been renamed the Adrian Darya 1, is in Syria, where its $130 million oil cargo has been handed over to the Assad regime.
"Anyone who said the Adrian Darya-1 wasn't headed to #Syria is in denial. Tehran thinks it's more important to fund the murderous Assad regime than provide for its own people. We can talk, but #Iran's not getting any sanctions relief until it stops lying and spreading terror!" — Ambassador John Bolton, then US National Security Advisor, September 7, 2019.
When Iran seized the British-registered tanker Stena Impero on July 19 as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz, it caused deep embarrassment for the government of then British Prime Minister Theresa May, which had failed to put adequate measures in place to protect British shipping from any act of Iranian retaliation. Pictured: The Stena Impero and one of the Iranian gunboats that seized it. (Image source: Fars News/CC BY 4.0 [cropped])
orry saga of the Iranian oil tanker that was originally seized by Britain before making its way to Syria to unload its cargo in breach of EU sanctions highlights the confusion that lies at the heart of the British government's policy towards Tehran.
The Iranian-registered tanker, which at the time sailed under the name Grace One, was seized by British Royal Marines in early July off the coast of Gibraltar on suspicion that it was delivering its cargo of 2.1 million barrels of oil to Syria, a clear violation of EU sanctions that are in place against the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Iran responded two weeks later by seizing the British-registered tanker Stena Impero as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz, thereby causing deep embarrassment for the government of then British Prime Minister Theresa May, which had failed to put adequate measures in place to protect British shipping from any act of Iranian retaliation.
The ensuing diplomatic stand-off between London and Tehran eventually resulted in Britain agreeing to release the Grace One, but only after the British authorities received written assurances from Iran that the oil would not be delivered to Syria.
Now it appears that Iran has deliberately misled the British government about its intentions after satellite photographs revealed the ship, which has now been renamed the Adrian Darya 1, is in Syria, where its $130 million oil cargo has been handed over to the Assad regime.
The ship's arrival in Syria has certainly caused deep embarrassment in London, where this week the Foreign Office issued a statement saying that Iran's actions represented an "unacceptable violation of international norms" and added that it would raise the issue at the UN General Assembly in New York later this month. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab warned that, "We want Iran to come in from the cold, but the only way to do that is to keep its word and comply with the rules-based international system."
Iran, meanwhile, has refused to confirm that the oil was delivered to Syria, with a spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry saying only that the ship had delivered its cargo after docking "on the Mediterranean coast".
Iran's duplicity is nevertheless deeply humiliating for Britain, which has sought to maintain relations with Iran and continue to support the controversial nuclear deal with Tehran despite the Trump administration's decision to withdraw from the agreement last year and impose fresh sanctions on Iran.
Washington was particularly keen that the Iranian tanker should not be allowed to deliver its cargo to Syria and, following the British government's decision to let it leave Gibraltar, threatened to impose sanctions against any European country that provided assistance to the tanker.
The news that the vessel had arrived in Syria provoked a strong reaction from then National Security Advisor John Bolton who, in one of his last acts before leaving the Trump administration earlier this week, directly criticised Britain's handling of the issue in a tweet:
"Anyone who said the Adrian Darya-1 wasn't headed to #Syria is in denial. Tehran thinks it's more important to fund the murderous Assad regime than provide for its own people. We can talk, but #Iran's not getting any sanctions relief until it stops lying and spreading terror!"
The affair certainly highlights the underlying tensions between Washington and London over the Iran issue, with Britain still refusing to support Washington's more robust approach despite being on the receiving end of numerous acts of provocation on behalf of Tehran.
Apart from the seizure in the Strait of Hormuz of the British-registered tanker -- which is still being held in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas despite the release of the Iranian vessel -- Iran has detained a number of British nationals on a trumped-up charge of spying.
British officials have also spent the past three years attempting to secure the release from Tehran of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman who is being held, apparently for a time chained to a bed in a psychiatric ward in Evin prison, after being convicted of spying, charges which she denies.
Now the Iranians have seized Jolie King, a British-Australian blogger, and her boyfriend after they were found camping close to an Iranian military base. The Iranians have informed Miss King that they will free her as part of a prisoner swap for an Iranian mother currently being held in the U.S., prompting British campaigners to accuse Tehran of pursuing "state-sponsored kidnap".
Despite these constant acts of provocation by Iran, however, the British government mystifyingly remains committed to upholding the 2015 nuclear deal, insisting that it is the best means of maintaining a dialogue with Tehran.
*Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Putin and Netanyahu mark Iranian bases in Syria for removal to 80km from Israeli border
موقع دبيكا: اتفاق نيتنياهو وبوتين على ابعاد القواعد الإيرانية 80 كيلومتر عن الحدود الإسرائيلية
DEBKAfile/September 13/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/78508/%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9-%d8%af%d8%a8%d9%8a%d9%83%d8%a7-%d8%a7%d8%aa%d9%81%d8%a7%d9%82-%d9%86%d9%8a%d8%aa%d9%86%d9%8a%d8%a7%d9%87%d9%88-%d9%88%d8%a8%d9%88%d8%aa%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%89-%d8%a7/

Marking the Iranian bases in Syria to be distanced from the Israeli border took up most of the nearly five hours Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spent in Sochi this week with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu. In their intensive deliberations over large maps on Thursday, Sept. 12, the leaders were assisted by the Russian-speaking Israeli Minister Zeev Elkin, National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, IDF Intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Tamir Hayman and OC Operations Maj. Gen. Aharon Havilah.
The Israelis sat down with Gen. Shoigu for more than an hour and-a-half, after which Netanyahu visited Putin who greeted him by saying: “I understand you had an excellent meeting with Shoigu and we shall talk about this later.” The prime minister replied that the bond between Moscow and Jerusalem “had prevented unnecessary and dangerous friction between their countries,” and “I can say without reservation that it is a fundamental component of regional stability.”
What was discussed in their three-hour long conversation?
DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report that, in recent weeks, Putin has focused on redistributing Iranian forces in Syria by pulling them back to an 80km line from which they no longer pose a threat to northern Israel. He was persuaded to take this course by three considerations:
1-He adopted the Netanyahu line which urges the removal of Iranian military forces from Syria, because he believes it will provide him with a bridge on which to strengthen his political and military cooperation with President Donald Trump.
2-While Moscow and Washington are at odds on key issues such as US sanctions against Russia and disarmament, especially of intermediate nuclear weapons, Putin believes they have common ground in Syria, which can be expanded, thereby bolstering Russian military ascendancy in that country, to which he attributes supreme importance.
3-The Russian leader is convinced that his close ties with Netanyahu will help him promote his case in Washington.
In recent weeks, our sources report that Russian forces, under orders from the president, have been pushing Iranian Al Qods Brigades and pro-Iranian Shiite militias out of bases within a m 80km radius from the Israeli border. Putin is therefore finally making good on the pledge he gave Trump at Helsinki in July 2018 to remove the Iranian military presence in Syria to that line.
He procrastinated on that pledge for 14 months for two reasons:
*Defense ministry circles in Moscow and the upper echelons of the Russian contingents in Syria disagreed with this course and evaded his order on various pretexts. Putin decided against imposing his will in this internal dispute.
*Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and sections of the ministry staff were strongly against going against Tehran in the Syrian arena.
However, in recent weeks, the Russian president has taken up the cudgels and is forcing his will on the dissenters in the defense and foreign ministries, and keeping them under his eye.
Our intelligence sources disclose that all Iranian requests to the Russian command for permission to move soldiers into bases inside the 80-km adjacent to the Israel border were rebuffed. The Russian officers also cancelled meetings with their Iranian counterparts to discuss the deployment of Iranian forces and proxies at the new air and naval bases going up in Syria.
These steps provided the context for Shoigu’s announcement on Sept. 3 that the Russian air and naval bases at Khmeimim in Latakia and the port of Tartous were to be upgraded since, “The tasks of protecting, preserving and maintaining the combat readiness of weapons and special equipment of the Russian military contingent [in Syria} are now in the forefront.” In other words, the Russian army was the dominant military power in Syria and Iran could forget about its longstanding hope of gaining a preeminent foothold.
Putin’s affection for Netanyahu and Israel’s special standing in the Kremlin were amply manifested by his willingness for them to spend three hours together with their aides in studying the map of Iranian locations and reaching agreements on which bases would stay, which would go and what weapons the Iranians would be allowed to deploy.

Russia: Dreaming of a Return to the West
Amir Taheri/ Asharq Al-Awsat/September 13/2019
If every nation, like every language, has its grammar, what is the grammar that might help us understand Russia today?
Even the least observant foreign visitors to Russia these days are likely quickly to discover the first rule of that metaphorical grammar: the unity of opposites. On one side, we have a Russia that is attached almost obsessively to its “otherness”. On the other, we have a Russia that craves after “sameness” as a member of the family of Western nations.
This “otherness-sameness” duality is not new in Russian history.
Initially, Russia built its identity around its claim of “otherness” by casting itself as “The Third Rome”, after Rome and Constantinople, the last standard-bearer of Christ in a rapidly de-Christianized Europe. Two centuries of wars against the Muslim powers of the time, notably the Ottoman Empire and Iran, added over 12 million square kilometers to Christendom as the Tsarist Empire expanded into Central Asia, Siberia, the Caspian Basin, and the Caucasus.
Caught between a supposedly de-Christianized Europe and a supposedly revanchist Islam, some Russian writers, poets, and philosophers developed Slavophilia, the idea that the Slavic peoples constitute a distinct, and subtly superior, a segment of humanity, as the national ideology. Basil the Blind’s refusal in 1439 to bring Russia into the fold of European nations under the Latin Church formed the root of that ideology. In time, philosophers like Alexei Khomiakov and Konstantin Aksakov, and writers such as Nikolai Gogol, gave that new identity a secular expression.
Over time, Slavophile as Russia’s national ideology was criticized and opposed by a variety of figures including Boris Godunov, Peter the Great, Pyotr Chaadayev, van Krieviski and Aleksandr Herzen who fostered the idea of an alternative identity for the emerging nation. They came to be labeled “Occidentalists” because they saw Russia as a European modernizing nation, not as the “Saint Russia” of Slavophiles who behaved as if time had frozen in the 15th century.
Vladimir Putin has been a symbol of that duality at the highest level of Russian politics. He behaves as a Slavophile when he needs to justify his authoritarian style of government when compared with modern European democracies. One of his favorite phrases is: Russia is different!
Putin has succeeded in co-opting the Russian Orthodox Church by persuading his bishops that his regime is their ally and protector against atheism and infiltration by Wester churches and American bible-pushing movements. Putin takes pride in recalling his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he is supposed to have had mystical experiences, and cultivates a reputation as a collector of icons and relics.
At the same time, however, Putin wants to cast himself as the arch-Westernizer modeled on Peter the Great because he knows that the rapidly expanding Russian middle classes with bank accounts in London and Zurich are more interested in trips to the French Riviera than the disputed Holy Land in Israel-Palestine.
After the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia as a punishment for annexing the Crimean Peninsula, Putin launched a campaign to persuade his people to spend their holidays in Turkey and the Islamic Republic in Iran both of which agreed to visa-free travel for Russians. Two years later, the number of Russians taking up the offer remains insignificant. Latest estimates show that around 100,000 Russians visit Turkey while the number going to Iran remains stuck at below 5000. In contrast, in 2018, France attracted 3.2 million Russian visitors.
Geopolitical gurus in the West might try to sell the idea of Putin forming a trip with Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ali Khamenei. However, the truth is that Putin, and even more much of his electoral base, crave after closer ties with people like Emmanuel Macron and Donald J Trump.
Russia may be talking in Slavophile tones but deep in its heart, desires to be readmitted into the Western camp. This is seen in the way Russians dress, the kind of food they eat, the beverages they drink, the music they listen to, the TVs and the DVDs they watch, and the books they read. Queues in front of Mcdonald's joints may be a vulgar sign of creeping Westernization. Moreover, the fact that millions of Russians have bank accounts in the West, including in Cyprus or even in dicey Greece, cannot be dismissed as mere aberrations.
In conversations with Russian intellectuals, a visitor quickly detects a concern that Russia may find itself isolated in the face of a rising China’s economic and military power on the one hand and Islamist extremism, spearheaded by both Iran and Turkey, on the other.
The results of this month’s municipal elections, declared last week, show a clear setback for Putinism in its Slavophile version. The president’s United Russia party lost more than a third of its seats in Moscow that, like in other metro-centric countries, has set the tone for national politics at least since the 1920s.
Russia is dreaming of a returning to an Occidentalist aspect of its identity. Some analysts in the West claim dismiss that as a feigned dream; Putin wants to fool the Western democracies into helping negotiate a bad patch before he returns to his old shenanigans. President Macron’s call for reintegrating Russia into the G7 summit last month was dismissed by other participants even before it made it into the agenda. Other analysts, however, argue that even if one thinks beyond Putin, that thinking must start before Tsar Vladimir attains his sell-by date.
Under Putin, Russia has behaved much like a loose cannon, causing nasty surprises, not to say mystification, not only in the West but also in China and elsewhere. Thus stabilizing Russia, by defining its proper place in the emerging world order, or world chaos if you like, must be a major concern for policy-makers and strategists in all key capitals. That such a re-definition cannot be done solely through anathema and interdict, or their modern version that is economic and diplomatic sanctions, is as evident today as it was in the Florence Council of the 15th century.

Italian Fiasco Proves One Thing About the Far Right
Leonid Bershidsky/The Guardian/September 13/2019
Political parties of the far-right make unreliable, even disastrous, coalition partners. The history of governments that involve them, the latest of which has just collapsed in Italy, should be a warning to their mainstream rivals.
The center-right Christian Democrats in the German state of Saxony would do well to pay particular attention. It’s possible they may form a minority government backed by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) after an election on Sept. 1.
In the last 20 years, far-right parties have occasionally entered into governments or supported center-right minority administrations. Arguably, these deals have worked well in only two cases: Italy, where the Northern League held three or four portfolios in a string of governments led by Silvio Berlusconi, and Denmark, where the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party supported minority cabinets led by Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
But in both these cases, the far-right was kept at a certain distance from the center of power, merely getting a chance to push through some of their favorite policies.
More ambitious experiments have failed miserably. In the Netherlands, a 2002 coalition that included the anti-immigrant Pim Fortuyn List only lasted 87 days, and a second attempt at cooperation, in which Geert Wilders agreed to support liberal Mark Rutte’s cabinet in 2010, fell apart spectacularly at Wilders’ initiative. Rutte never attempted a similar alliance again.
In Austria in the 2000s, Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel presided over a scandal-ridden government with the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) that didn’t last a full legislative term; then, during a second iteration of the coalition, the FPOe broke apart. In 2017, Sebastian Kurz made another attempt to work with the FPOe, but it ended in a spectacular scandal earlier this year.
In Finland, the nationalist Finns party got into government in 2015, only to leave the coalition in 2017 after splitting in two.
Matteo Salvini deserves a place of honor on this list. The leader of Italy’s League party stabbed his coalition partners from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement in the back earlier this month. Then, when it became apparent Five Star could form an alternative government with the center-left Democratic Party, he begged them to come back, even offering their leader Luigi di Maio the prime minister’s post. I doubt, however, that they will ever want to play ball again: More likely, they will write off Salvini as Rutte wrote off Wilders.
Back in 2003, Austrian political scientist Reinhard Heinisch discussed the roots of the far right’s sorry performance in public office in a paper aptly titled “Success in opposition — failure in government.”
“Their nature as relatively de-institutionalized parties oriented toward charismatic personalities and as organizations seeking to maintain ‘movement character’ while engaging in spectacular forms of self-presentation is a poor match for the specific constraints of public office,” he wrote. “Populist parties frequently lack both the proper mechanisms of resolving intra-party disputes and experienced policymakers capable of translating the programmatic agenda into policy. The situation is usually exacerbated if such movements are forced into a coalition.”
In one way or another, the far-right parties’ failures are all ones of execution. They find it hard to implement what they preach, their charismatic leaders lack the checks and balances to prevent miscalculations, while their internal conflicts are too public and too emotional. A lack of ideological moderation translates into instability and errors of strategy. What helps these parties to win elections — the emotional connection they make with voters, the simplicity of their slogans — tends to undermine them in government.
Heinisch recently remembered his old paper in connection with the Austrian and Italian far-right parties’ fiascos: "With two radical right populist Parties, FPÖ and LN, in strong position in govt. bringing down their governments barely half a term into it, one wonders about their fitness and about who would want to coalesce with them-success in opposition failure in government?"
All this should be a warning for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union in Saxony. The east German state is home to some of the most vocal AfD supporters, and the CDU faces a powerful challenge from the anti-immigrant, nationalist party.
The latest polls show the CDU more or less comfortably ahead. Even if it wins, however, there is no comfortable path for it to form a majority coalition. While a straight alliance with the AfD is impossible because the CDU’s central leadership would never allow it, the two parties have close ties on the local level. Deep down, many of the CDU’s more conservative supporters sympathize with much of the AfD’s agenda. That could lead the CDU to form a minority administration that would be “tolerated” by the AfD, along the lines of Rasmussen’s Danish governments or Rutte’s 2010 experiment in the Netherlands.
Usually, I’m in favor of trying to draw the far right into the political mainstream. Doing so helps to overcome radical voters’ sense of being excluded from democratic politics while educating them about the impossibility of some of the promises their favorite politicians make. But any center-right politician trying their hand at this game should be aware it has an abnormally high probability of failure: The very nature of the far right resists, if not completely precludes, success in coalition government. The CDU certainly doesn’t need a failed experiment on its hands before the 2021 general election.

Apple Finally Confronts its Growth-Starved Reality

Shira Ovide/Bloomberg/September 13/2019
Apple is finally getting real.
With its most important product category not growing anymore, Apple Inc. on Tuesday confronted its changing circumstances by doing two unusual things: hustling hard and displaying a willingness to change its business model.
The hustle is all about Apple’s willingness to do something against its nature: go wide in the number of devices and internet-tethered products it offers. The company used to brag that all its products could fit on a single table. It was a symbol of Apple’s focus on a small number of devices that it could make obsessively perfect, along with software and apps that made them more useful.
Hustling is more in Apple’s bag of tricks these days. The company’s annual iPhone extravaganza on Tuesday showed starkly that the table of Apple products would need to be the size of a convention center. Apple now has at least three different iPhone models that it refreshes every year, a dizzying number of iPad and Mac versions, many flavors of computers for the wrist, multiple headphones, a voice-activated speaker, smartphone cases, iPad keyboards, and a growing number of online collections of video entertainment, video games, news and much more.
The potential downside of this explosion of products is that some of them may not be very good or in demand. The HomePod speaker, for example, doesn’t seem to have sold well, and Apple executives barely mention the six-month-old Apple News+ subscription service other than to acknowledge that it exists.
The pragmatic impact of more products that Apple tweaks frequently is that they deliver more revenue and (usually) profits. Apple’s revenue from its shining star, the iPhone, has slid 15% this year, and the company has run out of pricing tricks and other tweaks to prop up its smartphone growth. Apple’s willingness to rapidly expand its product lineup reflects that harsh reality. With its headline act not delivering, Apple needs a larger supporting cast to pick up the slack.
It’s utterly pragmatic, but also surprising, that Apple is willing to shake up its plain vanilla product-pricing approach and actually — clutch your pearls, everyone — drop its prices.
Apple said at its event that it would include a one-year subscription to its new streaming-video service, Apple TV+, for customers who buy iPhones, Mac computers, iPads or the Apple TV media player. It’s baby steps, but this is a version of the “iBundles” — a single price for hardware products plus internet add-ons — that people have been urging Apple to try.
A free Apple TV+ subscription may persuade people who are on the fence about buying an iPhone or iPad to take the plunge. And it gives Apple a chance to hook customers on TV+ who then decide to keep paying — or forget to unsubscribe — after the year is up. This is an old business tactic, but it’s a departure for Apple.
I should say that with Apple giving up on potential direct subscription sales for TV+, and with a low monthly price of $4.99, its online video service isn’t likely to be the profit-lifting engine that investors are expecting from the company’s software and internet offerings. Strange times demand a departure from old tactics.
Apple also updated its least-expensive new iPhone and priced it $50 less than the comparable iPhone XR model of 2018, at $699. This is a reversal for a company that has been steadily increasing phone prices and helped the rest of the industry surge past the $1,000 barrier. The iPhone XR model seems to have done well, and it’s interesting that with a price drop, Apple is willing to trade off some revenue to persuade more people to refresh their old iPhones.
It’s a smart idea if Apple is serious about filling that iPhone-sized growth hole and persuading more owners of Apple devices to try TV+ or other Apple internet add-ons. So is everything else that Apple is doing, from expanding the number of products it sells to its willingness to experiment with bundled hardware and software.
I don’t know if Apple’s new bag of tricks is going to work. Smartphone sales have stalled globally, and the trends toward more automated software, artificial intelligence and the globalization of technology are simply not in Apple’s wheelhouse. I do give Apple enormous credit for changing — finally — to confront a more difficult new normal.