English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For September 21/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today
Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels
Mark 08/31-38: “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things. ’He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 21-21/2020

Lebanon suffers another record in COVID-19 cases
US-brokered Israel-Lebanon talks on sea & land border disputes off to a good start
Dispute over new Lebanese government escalates/Najia Houssari/Arab News/September 20/2020
Al-Rahi Criticizes Shiite Duo, Says No Sect Can Monopolize Portfolio
Rahi: Which constitutional act permits the monopoly of a particular ministerial portfolio?
Shiite Council Hits Out at al-Rahi over 'Sectarian Incitement'
ISG Urges Lebanon to 'Swiftly Form Effective, Credible Govt.'
Army Surveys 85,000 Building Units Post-Beirut Blast
Reports: U.S. Sanctions, Iran Interests Played Role in Delaying Govt.
Reports: Berri Told to Pick Non-Shiite Figure for Finance Ministry
Lebanon Hosts Concert for Beirut Blast Victims at Ravaged Palace
Profils du fascisme Chiite/ Profiles of Shiite Fascism Zeinab al Husseini ou l’innocence humiliée/Charles Elias Chartouni/September 20/ 2020
Zainab al Husseini or the Humiliated Innocence/Charles Elias Chartouni/September 20/ 2020
Fahmy's Press Office: Lebanese society not a game to be subjected to one week of closure, another of reopening
Saad: What is the President's position on the Shiite Council's attack against the Patriarch?
The Beirut blast lays bare a shockwave of evictions hitting Syrians in Lebanon/Alicia Medina/Syria Direct/September 20/ 2020
 

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 21-21/2020

US to impose ‘snapback’ sanctions on 24 targets linked to Iranian weapons
U.S. Defies World to Say Iran U.N. Sanctions Back in Force
US set to sanction more than 24 people, groups linked to Iran’s weapons program
Iranians react to US declaration of UN sanctions against Iran
Pompeo accuses European leaders of inaction over Iran arms
Envelope with 'Ricin' Sent to White House
From Foe to Friend: How Iran Transformed Post-War Iraq Ties
Yemen Rebel Attack on Saudi Village Wounds 5
Egyptian ministry of irrigation — torrent season begins
Turkey faces renewed Salafist threat
Russian jets bomb opposition-held bastion in Syria
Some Libya oil facilities restart operations, companies, engineers say
Kuwait anti-corruption body reviews over 300 cases since 2016, 40 judicial referrals

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 21-21/2020

US needs to be tough on Iran, no matter who is president/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/September 20/ 2020
Give peace a chance to end the cycle of violence/Ray Hanania/Arab News/September 20/ 2020
Iraqi PM Mustafa Al-Kadhimi must face down Iran’s militias/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Arab News/September 20/ 2020
Greece, Turkey should refocus on key issue in eastern Mediterranean dispute/Yasar Yakis/Arab News/September 20/ 2020
Iran cannot bank on a Donald Trump defeat or European support/Raghida Dergham/The National/September 20/2020

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 21-21/2020

Lebanon suffers another record in COVID-19 cases
Arab News/September 20/2020
It was the third consecutive record-breaking day of confirmed virus cases
BEIRUT: Lebanon registered a record 1,006 cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, the government announced Sunday, amid a sharp increase in infections and deaths due to the new coronavirus. Health Minister Hamad Hassan recommended a total lockdown for two weeks to stem the alarming rise in daily detected infections, but authorities will find it difficult difficult to impose another lockdown amid an unprecedented economic collapse. The new cases registered by the Health Ministry bring the overall number of confirmed cases in Lebanon to 29,303, while deaths have reached 297 since the first case was reported in the country in late February. It was the third consecutive record-breaking day of confirmed virus cases. The rise began after a lockdown was eased and the country’s only international airport was reopened in early July. The surge continued after the massive Aug. 4 explosion in Beirut’s port that killed 193 people, injured at least 6,500 and devastated much of the city. The blast also overwhelmed Beirut’s hospitals and badly damaged two that had a key role in handling virus cases
 

US-brokered Israel-Lebanon talks on sea & land border disputes off to a good start
DEBKAfile/September 20/2020
Trump’s election campaign is giving new impetus to talks on the Israel-Lebanon controversies over their maritime and land borders – another deep-rooted Mid East dispute attacked by President Donald Trump’s diplomats after he achieved the coup of UAE-Bahrain ties with Israel. How to finally demarcate the overlapping Israeli and Lebanese Exclusive Economic Zones has defeated previous mediators. An agreement would allow Lebanon to start exploiting its offshore gas and oil reserves and help haul that country out of deep economic hole – with timely kudos for Trump diplomacy.
DEBKAfile’s sources report that the talks underway at the UN camp in Naqura on the Lebanon-Israeli border are focusing on the two border issues between the two countries. The land border marked by the Blue Line Since 2011 is more or less accepted, excepting for the small pocket of Shabaa Farms. It is based on the 1949 armistice agreement and the British-French agreement which demarcated the boundary between Mandatory Palestine and Mandatory Syria and Lebanon.
The maritime dispute is trickier: it is over an 856-sq km elongated triangle of energy-rich east Mediterranean Sea, In earlier negotiations, Israel agreed to assign 58pc of the disputed piece of ocean to Lebanon and retain 42pc for itself. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker has been shuttling between Beirut and Jerusalem in recent days to try and go forward on this basis. He found Lebanese officials he met, instead of the usual foot-dragging, raring for a deal, as the key to drawing investments and lifting its bankrupt finances out of the pit. The French Total has been given permission to start explorations in “Block 9” – the disputed area which partly overlaps Israel’s EEZ. Israel has meanwhile established a new energy company Alon D after the American Chevron giant purchased the Texan Noble Energy’s share of the Leviathan offshore gas field, including plans to build a pipeline to Europe. Recent tests have found between 3 and 4 new gas fields larger than Leviathan in the same patch of sea. While Israel is charging ahead with its energy bonanza, Schenkar has run into a major hitch in Beirut. The politicians there have not been able to put a government in place. Hizballah is demanding the key Finance and Health portfolios, against strong resistance from other factions, and the Christian President Michel Aoun has broken off his ties with the Shiite leaders, including Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah and the Parliament Speaker Nabih Beri. None of them, it must be said, have made any objections to a maritime deal with Israel. With the White House pressing for quick results, Schenkar, who is a seasoned diplomat and knowledgeable on Mid East corridors of power, may be expected to find the right buttons to push in Beirut for bringing the Trump administration another coup and arresting Lebanon’s disastrous slump.

Dispute over new Lebanese government escalates
Najia Houssari/Arab News/September 20/2020
BEIRUT: The dispute over who will be in charge of the Ministry of Finance in the Lebanese government escalated on Sunday with the end of the deadline to form a government of specialists separate from the parties in power. The disagreement showed that those who were formerly allies of Hezbollah in power have now become its opponent in forming the government. The Lebanese are waiting to see whether the prime minister-designate, Mustapha Adib, will go to the presidential palace on Monday to present a draft of his government formation, regardless of the disagreement — or to apologize for not completing the task he was assigned to do on Aug. 31. In his Sunday sermon, the Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rai continued his criticism of the insistence of the Amal Movement and Hezbollah in holding on to the finance portfolio. Rai asked: “In what capacity does a sect claim a certain ministry as if it were its own, and disrupt the formation of the government until it achieves its goal? It thus causes political paralysis and economic, financial and livelihood damage. What has become of the political forces’ agreement for reform: A miniature salvation government, independent specialists with political experience and portfolio rotation?”
Rai referred to the constitution, which stipulated that jobs be divided equally between Christians and Muslims. “Has the constitution been amended suddenly, or are matters imposed by some force or bullying? This is unacceptable.”
Rai called on the prime minister-designate Adib to “abide by the constitution, form a government and not be subject to conditions, nor to delay, or to apologize.”
The Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) attacked the conditions of the Amal Movement and Hezbollah.
FASTFACT
In his Sunday sermon, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rai continued his criticism of the insistence of the Amal Movement and Hezbollah in holding on to the finance portfolio. The FPM, which is Hezbollah’s ally in power, also rejected “that one party should dominate all the Lebanese, regardless of their strength.”
In a meeting on Saturday evening, former prime ministers urged Adib to “adhere to his full powers in terms of forming the government as soon as possible, in consultation with the president of the republic and under the ceiling of the rules stipulated in the constitution.”
The former prime ministers said that the French initiative “constitutes an important opportunity that must be exploited by expediting the formation of the government to keep Lebanon away from collapse, seditions and evils surrounding it.”
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry called on Lebanon on Sunday to “distance itself from regional conflicts and to accelerate the formation of a government on constitutional grounds.”The spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry, Agnes von der Mol, regretted “the Lebanese politicians’ failure to abide by the pledges they made on the first of September, in accordance with the announced timeframe.” She urged “all the Lebanese forces to fulfil their responsibilities and agree without delay to the formation nominated by Mustapha Adib for a missionary government capable of implementing the reforms necessary to fulfill the aspirations of the Lebanese people.”As politicians continued to wrangle over power, the Lebanese Army and Maritime Rescue Units in the Civil Defense recovered the bodies of Lebanese migrants who had died during a boat journey destined for Cyprus.
The boat set off on Sept. 7 from Burj Beach in northern Lebanon with 50 people on board, although it could only accommodate 30 people. The boat stopped hours after sailing and the passengers were told that the boat’s fuel had run out. They were abandoned and their food, drink and mobile phones were taken. The boat was cut off from the world for five days. The body of a child, Mohammed Nazir Mohammed, who was 20 months old, was found on the beach of Batroun, and the child’s grandfather recognized the body of his grandson. His son had told him that he had shrouded his child in black jeans and a white belt before throwing him into the sea two days after his death. The body of Mohammed Hassan Assaf was also found off the beach of Sarafand, and another body was recovered off the coast of Zouk. There are still nine people missing. The Internal Security Forces in Tripoli subsequently arrested a man called Burhan Q. “for being one of those who took money as a mediator between migrants and smugglers on the death boat.”

Al-Rahi Criticizes Shiite Duo, Says No Sect Can Monopolize Portfolio
Naharnet/September 20/2020
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday hit out at Hizbullah and Amal Movement without naming them, in connection with the ongoing row over the finance ministerial portfolio. “What entitles a sect to demand a certain ministry as if it owns it, what entitles it to suspend the government’s formation until it gets what it wants, causing political paralysis and economic, financial and social damages?” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon. “Where is the three-point agreement among political forces for reform: a small rescue government, independent and specialist ministers who have political experience and a rotation of portfolios,” the patriarch added. Noting that Article 95 of the Constitution “does not allocate a ministry to a certain sect,” al-Rahi wondered whether a new amendment is being “imposed by force.” “Our rejection of monopolization is constitutional and not sectarian or targeted a certain sect, but rather against a novelty that contradicts with the principle of equality between ministries and sects,” the patriarch explained. Addressing Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Adib, he called on him to “abide by the Constitution and press on with the formation of a government that the people and the world are awaiting.”“There is no need for bowing to conditions nor to delay or stepping down,” al-Rahi went on to say. The patriarch also said he will not accept changes to the political system “amid the presence of mini-states.”“What benefit will a change to the system carry amid the hegemony of chaotic and illegitimate arms,” al-Rahi asked.
 

Rahi: Which constitutional act permits the monopoly of a particular ministerial portfolio?
NNA/September 20/ 2020

Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, presided over Sunday Mass service at "Our Lady of Elige" Church in Mayfouk this morning. In his homily, the Prelate criticized the Shiite duo by asking: "In what capacity does a sect demand a certain ministry as if it is its own ministry, and the formation of the government is suspended until it achieves its goal, causing political paralysis and economic, financial and livelihood damage? Where has the tripartite political forces' agreement for reform become: a miniature rescue government, independent specialists with political experience, and rotating ministerial portfolios?""Which constitutional act permits the monopoly of a particular ministerial portfolio? We reject this monopoly because it aims to establish the hegemony of a group over the state. Our rejection is not against a specific sect," he added. Rahi also addressed the Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib, urging him to "abide by the constitution and move forward in forming a government that the people and the world await. There is no need to submit to the conditions, nor to postpone or apologize.""Form the government and let the parliamentary game run its course. You are not alone," he went on. Commenting on the regime change, the Patriarch finally said that there is no point in changing the regime in light of the dominance of illegal and out of control weapons, whether they are carried by Lebanese or non-Lebanese.

Shiite Council Hits Out at al-Rahi over 'Sectarian Incitement'
Naharnet/September 20/2020
The Higher Islamic Shiite Council on Sunday condemned what it called “the remarks voiced by a major religious leader against the Islamic Shiite sect,” in reference to Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.
“The rhetoric has descended into sectarian incitement that stirs sentiments, distorts facts and hurls false accusations against a sect that offered the best of its young men and capabilities in the battle of the country’s liberation,” the Council said in a statement. “If we are demanding to keep the Finance Ministry with the Shiite sect, that is out of our keenness on national partnership in the executive authority,” it added. Noting that “no voices had condemned the violation of the National Pact when a government was formed without the Shiite sect,” the Council said any rotation of ministerial portfolios should be accompanied by a rotation of the so-called first degree posts in state administrations -- such as the army chief and the central bank governor. “The policy of elimination, isolation and marginalization -- which Imam Sayyed Moussa al-Sadr had long warned against -- cannot build a country not produce a state,” the Shiite Council cautioned. “We have called and are still calling for abolishing political sectarianism and endorsing citizenship as the standard in political action, within a just state based on equality in rights and duties regardless of sectarian privileges,” it added. Apparently referring to the club of former premiers, the Council said it regrets that “a corrupt political class” is trying to “impose its conditions.” “It comprises those who bet on crushing the Resistance and prolonging the war against it,” the Council added, in a veiled jab against ex-PM Fouad Saniora. “We consider that this group is responsible for the country’s current economic collapse… due to its policy of share distribution, shady deals, the waste of public funds and the violation of the Constitution,” the Shiite Council charged. “Today it is trying to impose itself as a savior of the country,” the Council decried. Al-Rahi on Sunday hit out at Hizbullah and Amal Movement without naming them, in connection with the ongoing row over the finance ministerial portfolio. “What entitles a sect to demand a certain ministry as if it owns it, what entitles it to suspend the government’s formation until it gets what it wants, causing political paralysis and economic, financial and social damages?” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

ISG Urges Lebanon to 'Swiftly Form Effective, Credible Govt.'
Naharnet/September 20/2020
The International Support Group for Lebanon has urged Lebanese leaders to “swiftly form an effective and credible government.” “The ISG takes note of the designation on 31 August of M. Mustapha Adib as Prime Minister and the public affirmation by the Lebanese political forces for the swift formation of a mission-based government,” the Group said in a statement. “Lebanese leaders must act to address Lebanon’s many needs,” it added. “The ISG therefore urges all Lebanese leaders to act decisively, in a spirit of responsibility and in prioritizing Lebanon’s national interest, and swiftly form an effective and credible government able to undertake essential reforms to meet the challenges facing Lebanon as well as the legitimate aspirations and needs expressed by the Lebanese people,” the ISG urged. Recalling its statement of May 2020, the ISG also reaffirmed “the need for the right to peaceful protest to be protected.”
The International Support Group has brought together the United Nations and the governments of China, France, Germany, Italy, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States, together with the European Union and the Arab League. It was launched in September 2013 by the U.N. Secretary-General with former President Michel Suleiman to help mobilize support and assistance for Lebanon’s stability, sovereignty and state institutions and to specifically encourage assistance for the Lebanese Army, Syrian refugees in Lebanon and host communities and government programs and public services impacted by the Syrian crisis.

Army Surveys 85,000 Building Units Post-Beirut Blast
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 20/2020
Lebanon's army said Saturday it has carried out a survey of more than 85,000 dwellings, businesses and other building units damaged by the massive Beirut port blast last month. The August 4 explosion of hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut port killed more than 190 people, wounded thousands and ravaged large parts of the capital. "A total of 85,744 affected units have been surveyed," the army said. It had surveyed 60,818 housing units, 19,115 businesses, 1,137 heritage units, 962 restaurants, 82 teaching institutions and 12 hospitals, among other unis. It recorded almost 550,000 square metres (half a square kilometre) of glass ravaged, and well as 140,000 square metres of glass facades broken. More than 108,000 doors had been damaged, the survey showed. The army said it was still looking for nine people -- three Lebanese, five Syrians and an Egyptian -- still missing after the blast. The survey "is considered to be sufficient, and there is therefore no need for further surveys by donor countries", it said in a statement. The army said the donors, non-governmental organisations or volunteers could request access to the results. On August 9, international donors pledged over 250 million euros (around $300 million) in emergency aid, in a video conference jointly organised by France and the United Nations. French President Emmanuel Macron vowed in early September during a second visit to Lebanon since the blast to host a second conference in Paris in the second half of October.

Reports: U.S. Sanctions, Iran Interests Played Role in Delaying Govt.
Naharnet/September 20/2020
The recent U.S. sanctions on two former Lebanese ministers and Iran’s alleged desire to delay the formation of a new government in Lebanon until after the U.S. elections have played a role in impeding the cabinet formation process, according to media reports. Hizbullah and Amal Movement’s current stubbornness can be linked to “two issues: the first is domestic and related to placing Speaker Nabih Berri’s political aide MP Ali Hassan Khalil on the U.S. sanctions list,” informed sources told the Anbaa newspaper of the Progressive Socialist Party in remarks published Sunday. “The second issue is that Iran is seeking to delay the government’s formation until after the U.S. elections, which are scheduled for November 3, in order to know who will reign over the White House: Donald Trump or Joe Biden. It will then accordingly deal with the Lebanese file,” the sources added. And Lebanon’s ex-PMs continue to cling to their stance on the finance portfolio, MP Nicolas Nahas of ex-PM Najib Miqati’s bloc told Anbaa that “things were much better than now at the beginning of the week.”“Optimism that the government’s formation was nearing was very clear,” Nahas added. “Miqati is not at ease over the course of things but he is still hoping for good developments after the contacts that were carried out by the French president,” the lawmaker went on to say. MP Mario Aoun of the Strong Lebanon bloc meanwhile told Anbaa that “nothing changed after the French presidency stepped into the mediation efforts.” “The stances are still unchanged, amid intensive contacts behind the scenes,” he said. Ain el-Tineh sources meanwhile said negotiations are still underway over the finance portfolio, while noting that Berri “has not yet been informed of anything in this regard -- neither from the PM-designate nor from the French side.”

Reports: Berri Told to Pick Non-Shiite Figure for Finance Ministry
Naharnet/September 20/2020
Speaker Nabih Berri has been asked to name any Sunni, Christian or Druze candidate he approves of for the finance ministerial portfolio, in the latest suggestion aimed at breaking the deadlock and facilitating the formation of the new government, media reports said. “This would protect the principle of the rotation of portfolios,” Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying in remarks published Sunday, noting that such a move would dissuade the Free Patriotic Movement from insisting on the energy portfolio. MP Qassem Hashem of Berri’s Development and Liberation bloc meanwhile told the newspaper that “there will be no government without the allocation of the finance portfolio to the dear Shiite sect, on the basis of achieving balance and real partnership.” “Those seeking a challenge must acknowledge that this norm is unbreakable,” Hashem added.

Lebanon Hosts Concert for Beirut Blast Victims at Ravaged Palace
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 20/2020
Lebanon on Sunday held a concert for the victims of last month's deadly Beirut blast in the grounds of a 19th-century palace wrecked by the massive explosion. The August 4 blast at the capital's port killed more than 190 people, wounded thousands and destroyed or damaged buildings across swathes of the city. "To be able to mourn, to take the time to really remember, it was important to have this moment of music," artistic director Jean-Louis Mainguy said. The event was held in the gardens of the Sursock Palace, whose windows, red-tiled roof, ceilings and furniture were ravaged in the blast. The concert, broadcast on television and streamed online in the late evening, kicked off with a rendition of "Li Beirut", an ode to the city by famed Lebanese singer Fairouz. It was set to include virtual contributions from Lebanese artists, as well as the voices of some 250 choir singers from around the country. Organizers asked Beirut residents to place a lit candle on their balconies and in their windows in commemoration. The event was initially to be held at the port, but was moved after the air quality around the site was deemed too poor. On Saturday night, Mika, a singer of Lebanese origin, headlined another concert streamed online to fundraise after the blast.

Profils du fascisme Chiite/ Profiles of Shiite Fascism Zeinab al Husseini ou l’innocence humiliée
Charles Elias Chartouni/September 20/ 2020
Ce crime abject dont a été victime une adolescente ( 14 ans ) qui a été brûlée vivante par des criminels, représente un des exemples
les plus ignobles de l’esclavage sexuel qui est en cours dans la banlieue sud de Beyrouth, et met en relief le contexte anomique qui génère ces pratiques criminelles hideuses avalisées par les mouvances du fascisme chiite. La récapitulation des faits criminels nous éclaire sur les enjeux d’un milieu social qui rend possible ces pratiques et les cautionne au nom d’une jurisprudence religieuse. Ce crime loin d’être symptomatique d’une délinquance individuelle, répercute les dérives d’une société tribale et patriarcale régie par le diktat d’un totalitarisme primitif qui contredit le sens moral, les principes de l’État de droit, des droits humanitaires, et leurs requis culturel et civique. Ce visage rayonnant est la dénonciation des ignominies d’une société violente où l’adolescente meurtrie sert de
de victime émissaire, Quelle horreur.

Zainab al Husseini or the Humiliated Innocence
Charles Elias Chartouni/September 20/ 2020
This despicable crime whose victim is an adolescent ( 14 years ) burned alive by criminals, features one of the most contemptible examples of sexual slavery in practice in the Southern Suburbs of Beirut, and highlights the contextual normlessness which generates this pattern of hideous criminality validated by fascist Shiism. The review of the criminal facts sheds a light on the issues of a certain social environment which condones such practices, and endorses them on behalf of religious jurisprudence. This crime far from being symptomatic of an individual delinquency, illustrates the derivatives of a tribal and patriarcal society under the diktat of a primitive totalitarianism which impugns the moral sense, the principles of the Constitutional State, basic Human Rights and their cultural and civic requisites. This radiant face is the denunciation of the ignominies of a violent society where the murder of an adolescent serves as a scapegoat, how horrendous .

Fahmy's Press Office: Lebanese society not a game to be subjected to one week of closure, another of reopening
NNA/September 20/ 2020
The press office of the Caretaker Interior and Municipalities Minister, Brigadier General Mohammad Fahmy, issued a statement Sunday stressing that the security forces, governors, municipalities and mayors, are all carrying out their duties to the fullest to curb the pandemic spread through the data and information available to them, which often reaches them incomplete or at the wrong time. The statement came in response to a circular by the Public Health Ministry, in which it held the security forces and municipalities responsible for the failure to ensure a complete closure in the country last month as a precautionary measure against the Coronavirus spread. "Regarding the call for a renewed complete closure, and despite the need to take more stringent measures to limit the accelerating spread of the epidemic, the Interior Minister's press office confirms that such a decision is up to the Committee for Follow-up on Preventive Measures and Procedures against the novel Coronavirus," the statement asserted. "The Lebanese society is not a 'game' at hand, to be subjected to one week of closure and another of reopening," the statement corroborated. The Caretaker Interior Minister hoped that the Public Health Ministry would carry out its duties and adhere to them and the recommendations of the Ministry of Interior, to avoid throwing responsibilities left and right.

Saad: What is the President's position on the Shiite Council's attack against the Patriarch?
NNA/September 20/ 2020
"What we want to know today is the position of the President of the Republic, the supposed protector of the constitution, formula and charter, regarding the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council's infringement on Patriarch al-Rahi, and on the unity of the entity...We are waiting for a clear position on this fierce statement by the Council, which came as a clear direction to abandon the Taif Accord," tweeted 'Strong Republic" bloc member, MP Fadi Saad, on Sunday.

The Beirut blast lays bare a shockwave of evictions hitting Syrians in Lebanon
Alicia Medina/Syria Direct/September 20/ 2020
BEIRUT – On a September morning, Miasar al-Suliman and his wife Hasna peek into their living room and retrieve some clothes, documents and a photo of their son. They do it quickly; the Beirut explosion blew off the walls of the old stone house and the water tank hangs in the remains of the roof threatening to collapse over their heads. Their house in the Karantina neighborhood sits barely 500 meters from Hangar 12 in the port of Beirut, where negligent storage of 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate shattered the Lebanese capital over a month ago.
Standing in front of their home-turned-rubble, Miasar takes from his pocket a treasured piece of paper: the appointment slip for the pregnancy check-up of his wife on August 4 at 11 am in a hospital on the other side of the city. The visit took longer than expected and then they decided to have late lunch at his brother-in-law's home nearby. They finished around 6 pm, minutes before the explosion. “If we hadn’t been in the hospital and then having lunch with [my wife’s] brother, we would all be gone,” says this 42-year-old, originally from the countryside of Syria’s eastern Deir e-Zor province.
This Syrian family, though physically unscathed by the blast, is hit by a more silent shockwave: eviction.
Miasar used to work as a house cleaner earning 20,000 LBP per day (around $13 at the official rate exchange and $3 at the parallel market rate), but he has been unemployed for several months. The couple, who sought refuge in Lebanon in 2016, has six children and is expecting the seventh in less than a month. “We are hungry, we can’t even pay for oil. Sometimes the kids search the trash to eat, they are collapsing psychologically,” the father told Syria Direct.
They owe seven months of rent (400,000 LBP per month). The landlord, Miasar said, has been “patient” but prior to the explosion he had already told them to leave the house, although the eviction was never implemented. Then the Beirut explosion transformed their home in a maze of debris, serving as de facto eviction to them. “The house is ruined. But even if the house could be repaired, the landlord wouldn’t let us live here,” he said.
The family has temporarily moved with their in-laws to the outskirts of Beirut. “We are all sitting in one room, the rats are living better than us,” Miasar complained bitterly.
A spike in eviction rates
The Beirut blast is laying bare the increasing rate of evictions among Syrian households in Lebanon this year. In the first half of 2020, 27,410 Syrians were at risk of eviction and 4,613 individuals were evicted. This marks a drastic increase from 2019, where 8,649 Syrians were under eviction notice and 4,409 individuals were affected by collective evictions, per UN figures.
Flourish logoA Flourish chart
In previous years, evictions were mainly served by authorities due to security or environmental issues; like the evictions in Rayak for being too close to an airbase or in the settlements next to the Litani River. But this year, evictions are growing among Syrian families that no longer can afford rent.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, 90% of Syrians have lost their income or had their salaries reduced, 76% of those living in individual housing were unable to pay rent, a figure that rose to 81% for those in collective shelters, according to UN data.
Flourish logoA Flourish chart
“The Beirut explosion is going to further compound those pre-existing socioeconomic vulnerabilities, we are expecting that there will be an increasing risk of eviction,” Natasha Sax, Protection and Rule of Law Coordinator at International Rescue Committee (IRC), told Syria Direct. It is expected that some would go to cheaper housing or move to informal tented settlements, Sax added.
Some families are also being evicted from their tents in informal settlements. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) mediated in the case of a 32-year old Syrian living in a settlement in the Beqaa Valley who was recently evicted. M.M. (pseudonym), was unable to pay the 800,000 LBP yearly rent fee since he lost his job as a construction worker nearly ten months ago. In addition, he accrued a 700,000 LBP debt to a grocery shop in the camp - proprietary of the landlord. Due to the unpaid amounts, the landlord evicted M.M. and his three family members. Ten days after, NRC mediated between them and the family was allowed to go back under the commitment of paying the debts on different installments.
Taking advantage of the blast to evict Syrian tenants
The Beirut blast blew the wall that separated the one-room home of Fatima (pseudonym) and her landlady’s house in Karantina. Fatima‒who is in her 9th month of pregnancy‒her husband and their 7-year-old son left the house so an NGO could repair it, but then the owner told them she does not want them back. “The landlady was nice to me. We had a very good relationship,” the 29-year-old Syrian woman, originally from the eastern Raqqa province, told Syria Direct.
They didn’t have a written lease agreement but a verbal agreement - like 97% of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
The 600,000 LBP salary of Fatima’s husband who works as a truck driver at the port was meager but covered their 400,000 LBP rent. “With the situation with coronavirus, for three months we could not pay, but then we paid, even if it was little by little,” she added. Before the explosion, the landlady had never asked them to leave. Now the family is staying at Fatima’s brother’s home, also in Karantina.
A few blocks away, 28-year-old Waad Yasin al-Hariri sits nervously in the family living room that may soon not be theirs. “Two days ago, the landlord came and said he didn’t want the rent for September because at the end of the month he wants us out. We didn’t expect him to expel us like that, to be honest,” this mother of three told Syria Direct.
The house was affected by the blast and an NGO fixed the doors and windows. The family, originally from Syria’s southern Daraa province, has been living in the flat for years. Three years ago, they did some repairs in the bathrooms and windows with UN cash assistance. “We bought a water heater; we fixed the bathroom, we fixed this house,” Waad added.
Her husband has been working in the port and the fish market in Beirut for 16 years. Now the landlord says he wants his daughter to live here. “Where are we going to go?” she asked herself.
Fatima and Waad’s cases are not unique. The NRC has detected 20 cases of Syrian refugee households affected by eviction threats after the blast in the Karantina and Mar Mikhael neighborhoods alone. Lianna Badamo, Information Counseling and Legal Assistance at NRC, expressed concern that “some owners may want to repair and upgrade their properties, by themselves or with the help of NGOs, and this can lead to an increase in the rent so the tenants are not able to afford it, and they are evicted.”
“The blast should not be an opportunity to evict,” said Nadine Bekdache, co-founder of Public Works Studio, a non-commercial civil company concerned with housing rights. She argues that the government could issue a policy stating that “all people in the blast-affected-areas” have their “rental contract renewed automatically for the next five years,” and advocates that NGOs repair damaged houses “on the condition that the residents that were there come back.”
After the blast, the High Relief Commission, an aid agency in the Lebanese prime minister's office, asked citizens to give mukhtars (local elected officials) proof of ownership and damages on their apartments and announced that affected persons could begin the repairs at their own expenses provided they secure official invoices to be reimbursed later on. While some owners are rehabilitating their homes, “others may still be hesitant and are waiting for the Lebanese Army to visit them to be sure they can show the damages,” explained Badamo. On the same line, Fadel Fakih, Executive Director of the Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH), added that “landlords are afraid of fixing their houses and then not getting paid by the government, so they are waiting also. It is very important to speed up this process from the government side so the people can know what the procedure for this is.”
In the case of landlords unable to afford repairs, the options for tenants are limited. “The only thing tenants can do is to take any deposit that they had put with the landlord and try to move to another house,” said Fakih. If the property is uninhabitable due to the damages, the lease agreement can be terminated, but if it is still habitable, “the owner has the right to make repairs in a reasonable period of time and the tenant will remain bound to the rental agreement,” explained Badamo, adding that evictions “should follow legal procedures and due process should be ensured”. But in Lebanon, that is rarely the case.
Evicting second class citizens
Per Lebanese law, after three months of unpaid rent, the landlord can file a case for eviction and then the court has to issue an eviction order. But the precarious situation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon leaves them “depending on the will of the landlord” and they are usually evicted via “extra-legal ways,” explained Bekdache.
Eighty-eight percent of Syrian refugees lack legal residency; that is, their existence is criminalized and they are at constant risk of detention. Thus, when threatened by eviction, few dare to complain to the same authorities they fear. “They are already worried about the landlord calling the police because of not having legal papers and getting into other trouble, so they just do as the landlord says,” said Fakih.
Most Syrians do not have a written lease contract, but “verbal agreements are still binding in Lebanon under law,” explained Sax. Despite that, “the large majority of evictions that we see don’t go through any formal process,” she added.
Miasar walks in his destroyed living room in Karantina, 09/09/2020 (Syria Direct)
The CLDH has launched a hotline for tenants and landlords that have legal issues as a result of the explosion. The IRC has a team of lawyers mediating between families and landlords and they offer cash emergency assistance to defer rental payments. The NRC is providing counseling on housing rights plus cash for rent for those under threat of eviction. Between March-June 2020, its Collaborative Dispute Resolution team intervened in 127 cases, avoiding the eviction in 69% of the cases.
The battle to stay in Beirut
Experts fear that the post-blast reconstruction will lead to the same outcome seen after the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) and the reconstruction of downtown Beirut engineered by Solidere - the real estate company owned by the late PM Rafik Hariri, and later his family: a ghost city made up of shiny upscale buildings unaffordable for Beirut dwellers.
“I am indeed very concerned that the same pattern observed in Solidere, meaning investors purchasing apartments to store capital safely -rather than using the apartment as home and/or work area- can be replicated in the devastated districts,” said Mona Fawaz, Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the American University of Beirut. She foresaw “scattered actors buying buildings one by one” leading to an array of “empty buildings being kept as assets until a change in the economy renders their occupation lucrative. In the meantime, their current residents -whether they are refugees, Lebanese, or migrant workers- will be evicted,” Fawaz warned.
The blast has put a spotlight on the endemic issue of evictions in Beirut. “It has been a very violent process for the residents; to be able to stay in Beirut is an everyday battle,” said Bekdache. Twenty percent of apartments in Beirut are empty, an “unacceptable” reality for this urbanist and designer who advocates for taxing vacant apartments and putting a cap on rent so the increasingly impoverished inhabitants of Beirut can afford them. The UN recently warned that 50% of the population in Lebanon might be at risk of failing to access basic food needs as a result of the economic crash.
“The main challenge is the collective impoverishment,” pointed out Fawaz, adding that while many migrant workers are returning to their home countries due to the crisis, “refugees cannot go back home, so they are caught in a society where their presence is criminalized, their labor reduced to menial categories.”
Caught up in this downward spiral, some small property owners have become increasingly dependent on the rent from their tenants to make ends meet. This growing pressure “on the landlords themselves to ensure that rental payments are met, has maybe resulted in an increase of evictions that we haven’t previously seen,” explained Sax.
Sax highlighted the hospitality of some Lebanese landlords in previous years. “Very frequently people are staying in their current housing with multiple payments not being met and landlords frequently accept to defer the payments and to lower the payments.” The economic debacle is “squeezing” society from many angles and the increasing eviction rates are “a symptom of a much greater disease: the socioeconomic collapse and the inadequate social-safety net for all groups in Lebanon,” she added.
Bekdache advocated for a program where impoverished landlords do not pay taxes “in exchange for offering affordable housing.” Professor Fawaz argued that “the main response should be cash for work, social protection measures, and similar initiatives that allow the families to pay rent‒particularly because most landlords are not so rich. The main problem is that public regulators don't care.”
The high school teachers facing eviction
One hundred kilometers north of Beirut, far from the explosion’s epicenter, a Syrian family is trapped in the silent shockwave of evictions. Abdulmenem al-Slaiman and his wife Rabiaa do not know if next month they can call their third-floor apartment in Halba home.
Back in their hometown of Homs, he taught Arabic Language and Islamic Studies and she taught history in a secondary school. The Syrian war displaced them and they have been living in Lebanon for six years and a half with their three children.
Abdulmenem has volunteered with several NGOs and worked as a ‘perfume composer’ in a town next to Tripoli. In 2016, his son Jihad was sexually harassed in the street and the traumatic episode pushed the family to move to a center helping Syrians in Al-Kura (northern Lebanon), where they were offered free accommodation. “My children were at school, there were activities like football and swimming, and they learned English,” he explained.
But in 2019, “because of racism, a neighbor assaulted us,” he said while showing a video that he recorded of a man shouting at them. The Lebanese neighbors did not want Syrians in their area. “I know they know I had filmed them, so I was afraid,” he added. They decided to leave that town too and last February they moved to Halba where they currently live. Reporting the incident to authorities was out of the table, given that they lack legal residency. “I fear the army checkpoints in Lebanon.”
Once they settled in Halba, the family paid the first month of rent. One month later, COVID-19 hit Lebanon. Due to the lockdown restrictions, the landlord forgave the April rent and later reduced their rent from 300,000 to 250,000 LBP. “The landlord has a good heart but he is economically asphyxiated and has asked us to leave so he can get tenants that can pay rent,” Abdulmenem said. His landlord is a soldier and has seen his salary decimated by the devaluation of the Lebanese pound.
Abdulmenem has been unemployed for seven months, but they paid rent until they ran out of savings. Today they owe three months of rent. “He told me last month that this month will be our last month,” he said. The family sustains a debt of 900,000 LBP - 97% of Syrian households were indebted with an average debt of 2,000,000 LBP as of last May, per UN figures.
Abdulmenem shows dozens of calls on his phone to UNHCR. “Look, here, 30 minutes we talked, they tell me they will help, but they do nothing.” Earlier this year, the UN told them cash for rent was not an option at the moment and offered relocation in a shared shelter, which he says they rejected because it was far and they feared it would not be adequate for their children, but now under the imminent threat eviction, he says they would accept any option. “We’ve reached a stage where I am psychologically asphyxiated,” says this Syrian father who is receiving therapy via the Nassim Center of CDLH.
His brother lives in Spain as a refugee. When he speaks about how his nieces are learning a lot and are already fluent in Spanish his eyes light up. Then, he points at his three children: “We are not eating what we used to eat, we eat bread, potato and vegetables, I can’t afford chicken or meat for my children.”
When asked what they are going to do if they are evicted at the end of the month, the two teachers are out of words.
https://syriadirect.org/news/the-beirut-blast-lays-bare-a-shockwave-of-evictions-hitting-syrians-in-lebanon/?fbclid=IwAR1m8uBTB7gCNabNzTD0phA7aOreMhQX1oPI1YbzFh_YezmDpxeIB1GOWHw

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 21-21/2020

US to impose ‘snapback’ sanctions on 24 targets linked to Iranian weapons
Arab News/September 20/ 2020
WASHINGTON: The US will impose sanctions on Monday on more than two dozen people and groups involved in Iran’s nuclear, missile, and conventional arms programs.Iran could have enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon by the end of the year and Tehran has resumed long-range missile cooperation with nuclear-armed North Korea, a US official told the Reuters news agency. The Trump administration argues that Iran is in breach of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 deal to curb its nuclear program in return for an easing of sanctions and that the sanctions should, therefore “snap back.” It also says a ban on trade with Iran in conventional weapons, which expires on Oct. 18, should be renewed.

U.S. Defies World to Say Iran U.N. Sanctions Back in Force
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 20/2020
The United States has unilaterally proclaimed that U.N. sanctions against Iran were back in force and promised to punish those who violate them, in a move other major countries -- including its allies -- said lacked legal basis. The so-called snapback -- announced last month -- also drew a sharp rebuke from Tehran, which called on the rest of the world to unite against U.S. "reckless actions." "Today, the United States welcomes the return of virtually all previously terminated U.N. sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. He said the measures were back in effect from 8:00 pm Washington time (0000 GMT Sunday). The Trump administration also promised to "impose consequences" on any U.N. member state which does not comply with the measures. The sanctions in question were lifted in 2015 when Iran signed on to an international agreement not to seek to build nuclear weapons. But President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the landmark accord in 2018, saying the deal -- negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama -- was insufficient. He then renewed and even strengthened Washington's own sanctions. At the moment, the US is insisting it is still a participant in the agreement that it stormed out of, but only so it can activate the snapback option, which it announced on August 20. Virtually every other member of the Security Council disputes Washington's ability to execute this legal pirouette, and the council has not taken the measure any further. On Sunday, two permanent council members -- France and Britain -- issued a joint statement along with non-permanent member Germany saying Pompeo's "purported notification" was "incapable of having any legal effect." Russia's foreign ministry also said in a statement that Washington's statements lacked legal authority. "The illegitimate initiatives and actions of the United States by definition cannot have international legal consequences for other countries," it said. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a news conference in Tehran: "We expect the international community and all the countries in the world to stand against these reckless actions by the regime in the White House and speak in one voice."
'Consequences'
Pompeo had promised in his announcement that measures would be announced in the coming days against "violators" of the sanctions. "If U.N. member states fail to fulfill their obligations to implement these sanctions, the United States is prepared to use our domestic authorities to impose consequences for those failures and ensure that Iran does not reap the benefits of U.N.-prohibited activity," he stated. With 45 days to go until the November 3 election, Trump could unveil those measures in his speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. In mid-August, the United States suffered a resounding defeat at the UN Security Council when it tried to extend the embargo on conventional weapons being sent to Tehran, which was due to expire in October. Pompeo made an unusually vehement attack on France, Britain and Germany, accusing them of "siding with Iran's ayatollahs," and on August 20 announced the snapback. The Trump administration, however, is acting as if the international sanctions are in place, while the rest of the international community continues to act as if nothing has changed. Washington is hammering home that the arms embargo has been extended "indefinitely" and that many activities related to Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs are now subject to international sanctions. Some observers said Washington's latest announcement was counterproductive. "I don't see anything happening," said one U.N. diplomat. "It would be just a statement. It's like pulling a trigger and no bullet coming out."
Another diplomat deplored the "unilateral" U.S. act, saying that "Russia and China are sitting, happy, eating popcorn, watching" the "huge destabilizing fallout" between Washington and its European partners. Russia's deputy ambassador to the U.N., Dmitry Polyanskiy, lamented the decision. "It's very painful to see how a great country humiliates itself like this, opposes in its obstinate delirium other members of U.N. Security Council," he tweeted. "We all clearly said in August that U.S. claims to trigger #snapback are illegitimate. Is Washington deaf?" But if the United States were to carry out the threat of secondary sanctions, tensions could continue to spiral.

US set to sanction more than 24 people, groups linked to Iran’s weapons program
Reuters/Sunday 20 September 2020
The United States on Monday will sanction more than two dozen people and entities involved in Iran’s nuclear, missile and conventional arms programs, a senior US official said, putting teeth behind UN sanctions on Tehran that Washington argues have resumed despite the opposition of allies and adversaries.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official said Iran could have enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon by the end of the year and that Tehran has resumed long-range missile cooperation with nuclear-armed North Korea. He did not provide detailed evidence regarding either assertion.
The new sanctions fit into US President Donald Trump’s effort to limit Iran’s regional influence and come a week after US-brokered deals for the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to normalize ties with Israel, pacts that may coalesce a wider coalition against Iran while appealing to pro-Israel US voters ahead of the Nov. 3 election. The new sanctions also put European allies, China and Russia on notice that while their inclination may be to ignore the US drive to maintain the UN sanctions on Iran, companies based in their nations would feel the bite for violating them.
A major part of the new US push is an executive order targeting those who buy or sell Iran conventional arms that was previously reported by Reuters and will also be unveiled by the Trump administration on Monday, the official said.
The Trump administration suspects Iran of seeking nuclear weapons - something Tehran denies - and Monday’s punitive steps are the latest in a series seeking to stymie Iran’s atomic program, which US ally Israel views as an existential threat.
“Iran is clearly doing everything it can to keep in existence a virtual turnkey capability to get back into the weaponization business at a moment’s notice should it choose to do so,” the US official told Reuters.
The official argued Iran wants a nuclear weapons capability and the means to deliver it despite the 2015 deal that sought to prevent this by restraining Iran’s atomic program in return for access to the world market.
In May 2018, Trump abandoned that agreement to the dismay of the other parties - Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia - and restored US sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy.
Iran, in turn, has gradually breached the central limits in that deal, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including on the size of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium as well as the level of purity to which it was allowed to enrich uranium. “Because of Iran’s provocative nuclear escalation, it could have sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon by the end of this year,” the official said without elaborating except to say this was based on “the totality” of information available to the United States, including from the IAEA. The Vienna-based agency has said Iran only began significantly breaching the 2015 deal’s limits after the US withdrawal and it is still enriching uranium only up to 4.5%, well below the 20% it had achieved before that agreement, let alone the roughly 90% purity that is considered weapons-grade, suitable for an atomic bomb.
“Iran and North Korea have resumed cooperation on a long-range missile project, including the transfer of critical parts,” he added, declining to say when such joint work first began, stopped, and then started again. Asked to comment on the impending new US sanctions and the US official’s other statements, a spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations dismissed them as propaganda and said they would further isolate the United States. “The US’ ‘maximum pressure’ show, which includes new propaganda measures almost every week, has clearly failed miserably, and announcing new measures will not change this fact,” the mission’s spokesman, Alireza Miryousefi, told Reuters in an email. “The entire world understands that these are a part of (the) next US election campaign, and they are ignoring the US’ preposterous claims at the UN today. It will only make (the) US more isolated in world affairs,” he said. The White House declined comment in advance of Monday’s announcements.

Iranians react to US declaration of UN sanctions against Iran
AFP video edited by: Omar Omar Elkatouri/Sunday 20 September 2020
Iran on Sunday called on the rest of the world to unite against the United States, after Washington unilaterally declared UN sanctions against the Islamic republic were back in force. “We expect the international community and all the countries in the world to stand against these reckless actions by the regime in the White House and speak in one voice,” foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a news conference in Tehran.Washington has said it will “impose consequences” on any country not complying with the sanctions, although the US is one of the only nations that believes they are in force. “The whole world is saying nothing has changed,” Khatibzadeh said, adding sanctions were in place only in the “imaginary world” of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “This is much ado about nothing, and I believe these are the most bitter days and hours for the United States,” he added.
Calling Washington “isolated” and “on the wrong side of history”, Khatibzadeh said Tehran’s message for it was to “return to the international community, to your commitments, stop rebelling and the world will accept you.”
According to Pompeo, the UN sanctions were back in force from Sunday. The move relies on the controversial “snapback” mechanism, which the US claims allows any of the partners to the 2015 nuclear agreement to reimpose UN sanctions if Tehran violates its obligations.

Pompeo accuses European leaders of inaction over Iran arms
AFP/Sunday 20 September 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said European leaders “haven’t lifted a finger” to halt arms sales to Iran after they rejected a unilateral US declaration that UN sanctions on Tehran were back in force. The administration of President Donald Trump said the sanctions had been re-activated under the “snapback” mechanism in a landmark 2015 nuclear treaty – despite Washington having withdrawn from the deal. On Sunday, France, Germany and Britain issued a joint statement saying Washington’s “purported notification” was “incapable of having any legal effect.”
Pompeo told Fox News that “arms sales, tanks, air defense systems, all of those, in a couple of weeks, would have been permitted to have been sold. And the Europeans have not joined us in this.”“They tell us privately we don’t want the arms sales to come back... but they haven’t lifted a finger.” Pompeo added that “weapons that Iran will sell will end up in the hands of Hezbollah and make life tragically worse for the people of Lebanon,” which was rocked last month by a massive port explosion in Beirut. The sanctions on Iran were lifted when it joined the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Britain, China, France, Russia and the US) and Germany in signing the 2015 treaty to curb the Iranian nuclear program. Pompeo on Sunday also called for fundamental changes to Iran’s government in remarks at a conservative megachurch in suburban Dallas, Texas. “We pray for the Iranian people that they will get a government that they deserve,” he said.

Envelope with 'Ricin' Sent to White House
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 20/2020
U.S. authorities have intercepted an envelope addressed to U.S. President Donald Trump that contained a substance identified as the poison ricin, U.S. media reported. The letter was discovered earlier this week and did not reach the White House, according to the New York Times and CNN. The Times said it was believed that the letter was mailed from Canada. Mail addressed to the White House is first inspected and sorted in depots just outside Washington. CNN said the contents of the envelope were tested repeatedly at one depot and confirmed to contain ricin. "The FBI and our U.S. Secret Service and US Postal Inspection Service partners are investigating a suspicious letter received at a U.S. government mail facility," the FBI's Washington field office said in a statement. "At this time, there is no known threat to public safety." Authorities contacted by AFP declined to discuss additional details of the incident. Ricin, which is produced by processing castor beans, is lethal even in minute doses if swallowed, inhaled or injected, causing organ failure.
It has no known antidote.

From Foe to Friend: How Iran Transformed Post-War Iraq Ties
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 20/2020
In the four decades since Iran and Iraq went to war, Tehran has turned enmity into influence, seeing its allies installed in Baghdad's halls of power and becoming its top trading partner. It's a turn of events Aziz Jaber, a political science professor at Baghdad's Mustansariyah University and a survivor of the conflict, never thought possible. "It would have been hard to imagine at the time that this would happen -- that the parties linked to Iran would now hold the reins," Jaber told AFP. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Iran on September 22, 1980, fearing the threat to his rule if Tehran's new clerical rulers tried to replicate their 1979 Islamic Revolution in neighboring Iraq. Throughout the war, Iran offered safe haven to a range of anti-Saddam groups, from Kurdish figures to the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and its military wing, the Badr Corps -- both founded in Iran in 1982. It nurtured those contacts up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 -- meaning it had closer, older ties than Washington did to Saddam's successors.  In the 17 years since, Iran's ancient allies have cycled through Iraq's corridors of power. Of Iraq's six post-invasion prime ministers, three spent much of the 1980s in Tehran, including Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Nuri al-Maliki and Adel Abdel Mahdi, who resigned last year. Badr Corps officials still hold top positions in the security forces. Masrour and Nechirvan Barzani, whose families sought refuge from Saddam in Iran, are now respectively the prime minister and president of Iraq's Kurdish region.
"Iran has cunning politicians," Jaber said."It did not develop proxies solely for the purpose of war -- it has benefitted from them since they came to power until today."
Tehran's economic lung -
In Iran, too, the war remains a powerful symbol: medics battling the novel coronavirus this year are likened to "martyrs" who lost their lives fighting Saddam's forces. The annual parade honoring the war's victims is often used to showcase new weapons including ballistic missiles, while veterans now occupy top military posts in Tehran. The relationship goes far beyond politics. While there was no bilateral trade under Saddam, Iranian goods were smuggled into Iraq through the porous 1,600-kilometre (995-mile) border during the 1990s, when Baghdad faced crippling sanctions. Following Saddam's toppling, normal trade could begin, said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj of Bourse & Bazaar, a news and analysis website supporting business diplomacy with Iran. "It's the natural order of affairs for two countries that border one another to engage in commerce. You can make a similar argument about Poland and Germany after the horrors of World War II," he told AFP. As Iraq sought to rebuild following the US-led invasion, cheap construction materials from Iran were an appealing choice. That trade expanded to include food, cars, medicine and now, even electricity imports. From apricots to painkillers, Iranian goods are sold across Iraq, at lower prices than domestic products. Iraq is the top destination for Iran's non-hydrocarbon goods, worth $9 billion between March 2019 and March 2020, according to Iran's chamber of commerce. In July, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed to double that number. With Iran's economy increasingly strained by US sanctions since 2018, Tehran is relying on Iraq more and more as its economic lung. "Iranian companies are looking for somewhere full of consumers, as you can't grow your sales in Iran now because things are tough," said Batmanghelidj. 'Handed to Iran' Iran's ballooning sway in politics and economics has begun to irk Iraqis. "Iraqis in government today allowed Iran in. They handed over our country -- its economy, agriculture and security," said Mohammad Abdulamir, a 56-year-old veteran of the war. "I fought for five years, and was a prisoner of war in Iran for another 10 -- and in the end my country was handed over to Iran," he told AFP.His frustration is felt by many others and reached a head in October last year, when unprecedented protests broke out in Iraq's capital and south against a ruling class seen as corrupt, inept and subordinate to Tehran. Months later, a US drone strike on Baghdad killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and senior Iraqi military commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Soleimani began his military career in the Iran-Iraq war, rising through the ranks to become Tehran's pointman on Iraq. Muhandis served on the same side, as part of Badr. Their absence slashed Iran's most important nodes of influence in Iraq. Then, in May, Iraq got a new premier. Mustafa al-Kadhemi and his advisers are seen as less Iran-leaning than their predecessors. But Tehran isn't panicking, said Chatham House analyst Renad Mansour, as the diverse network it planted early in its war with Iraq would help it weather the current storm. "Iran cultivated allies in formal political networks but also informal ones -- among militias, businesses, and so on -- to ensure that today's Iraq is one which knows Tehran, and which Tehran knows," Mansour told AFP. With less influence in the PM's office, Tehran has turned to allies in Iraq's parliament and ministries. Already, Mansour said, Iran is asking: "Where do we want Iraq in 50 years?"

Yemen Rebel Attack on Saudi Village Wounds 5
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 20/2020
A projectile fired by Yemen's Huthi rebels hit a village in Saudi Arabia's southern Jizan province, wounding five civilians, state media reported. The civilians had been rushed to hospital after suffering "minor injuries" from flying shrapnel, the official Saudi Press Agency reported late Saturday. Three cars were also damaged in the border village, it said, without naming the village. The Iran-backed Huthis have so far not claimed responsibility for the attack. The Shiite rebels have stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent months, mainly targeting southern provinces along the long border between both countries, as well as Riyadh. A Saudi-led coalition, which has been battling the Huthis for more than five years, says it has intercepted most of them. Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia has repeatedly accused Shiite Iran of supplying sophisticated weapons to the Huthis, a charge Tehran denies. Assisted by Western powers including the United States, the coalition has struggled to oust a ragtag but highly motivated tribal militia that specializes in guerrilla tactics. The coalition intervened in support of the Yemeni government in 2015 after the Huthis seized Sanaa and closed in on the government's temporary southern base of Aden. Since then, tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed and millions displaced in what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian disaster.

Egyptian ministry of irrigation — torrent season begins
Arab News/September 20/ 2020
CAIRO: Egypt’s flood season began in August and will continue for three months — and the torrent season is about to begin — Mohamed El-Sebaei, spokesman for the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, has confirmed.
The Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation continues to prepare for the torrent season and to deal with flooding, which has caused the levels of the Nile to rise significantly over the past few days.
El-Sebaei said the ministry is monitoring the quantities of water that reach Egypt and accumulate in front of the High Dam on a daily basis, pointing out that the Minister of Irrigation, Mohamed Abdel-Ati, has been in Aswan since yesterday to inspect the water facilities of the High Dam.
He said that the torrential season is about to start in the period between autumn and winter, and that the ministry is following up with all torrent, canal and drain networks to ensure that they are ready to receive any volume of water and to preserve private and public property.
The ministry is preparing to cope with the torrents and rains expected to occur during autumn and winter by preparing Lake Nasser, located behind the High Dam, which is one of the most important strategic points in containing the quantities of water coming from the Ethiopian plateau.
The Egyptian River Revenue Regulatory Committee, in its meeting headed by Abdel-Ati, reviewed the situation of the Nile flood, the procedures for monitoring, analyzing and evaluating its condition, and the quantities of water expected to arrive until the end of the current water year 2021-2022.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Irrigation, the rates of rain in the sources of the Nile is expected to start decreasing by the end of September.
Preliminary indications of the flood showed that it is higher than average and that the incoming waters during August and September are so far higher than those of last year. Is still too early to make a final judgment on the type and size of this year’s flood. Eman El-Sayed, head of the planning sector and head of the forecast center at the Ministry of Irrigation, said the center works to calculate the rates of rain that fall on the upper Nile River countries until it reaches the country on a daily basis. She explained that the latest technology is used to take satellite images and download mathematical models to determine the amount of rain falling and when it will fall. El-Sayed added that the ministry holds two meetings every week to discuss the developments of the flood season, which have been confirmed more than once to be very high — once during the meeting of the River Revenue Regulatory Committee and the other during the Leadership Committee meeting. She pointed to the development of three scenarios to deal with a flood. If it comes at a power 10 percent stronger than expected, it will be water drainage as usual. If it comes 50 percent stronger than expected, the excess will be dealt with through drains and waterways and the Toshka spillway will open. If it is stronger than that, the country will declare a state of emergency, she said.

Turkey faces renewed Salafist threat
Arab News/September 20/ 2020
JEDDAH: Islamist cult leader Ahmet Mahmut Unlu, a pro-government figure, announced that he is ready to name at least 150 Salafi associations, along with their locations, as part of preparations to fight in Turkey.
Quoted by Saygi Ozturk, a prominent journalist from Turkish newspaper Sozcu, Unlu also claimed that there are 2,000 Salafi associations around the country that are preparing for a civil war, especially in the southeastern provinces of Batman and Adiyaman. The groups are believed to be intimidating local people with death threats and warning the government against implementing preventive measures against them.
Adiyaman was previously known as a hotspot for recruiting and deploying Daesh cells in Turkey. The accusations were harshly refuted by Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, who said the claims in the article were drafted with a “copy-paste” mentality.
In the meantime, a Turkish court recently sentenced Abu Hanzala, the leader of Daesh in Turkey, to 12 years and six months in jail. He has been imprisoned several times before in Turkey on suspicion of affiliation with Al-Qaeda and Daesh, but he was later freed due to the lack of evidence.
Colin Clarke, senior research fellow on terror financing networks with the Soufan Group, said that some Salafi groups might have struck a deal with the ruling government in Turkey.
“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may very well view these groups as useful counterbalances to the Kurds, which has always been the number one issue for Ankara,” he told Arab News.
Clarke said Turkey pays lip service to fighting Daesh and other terrorist groups, but has only taken limited actions toward combating jihadists on Turkish soil.
Four years ago, Turkish police released a report about the presence of Salafist groups in Turkey, claiming that their numbers totaled over 20,000.
Matteo Pugliese, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Barcelona and associate research fellow at Milan-based think tank ISPI, said that at the beginning of the Syrian conflict Turkey facilitated the flow of foreign fighters through the border to weaken the Assad regime, which contributed to the strengthening of Salafi-jihadi groups, including Jabaat Al-Nusra and Daesh.
“Later, Turkey suffered a number of terrorist attacks from Daesh, especially in Istanbul, Ankara and Diyarbakir,” he told Arab News.
Experts said that Turkey supported some Salafist factions during the Syrian conflict to fight the Assad regime, but this made the country a corridor for fighters, along with Daesh and Al-Nusra.
Turkey was attacked several times by Daesh. The group killed 315 people in 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks and four armed attacks.
The Salafist associations are believed to have grown root during this period, with an extremely sectarian discourse that was also found in the media. As these associations regularly engaged in humanitarian aid operations to the refugees, their widening presence in Turkish territories has been normalized.
“The attitude of the Turkish government slightly changed towards jihadists, but the main priority remained the fight against the Kurds. The Syrian militias used by the Turkish government to invade northern Syria and occupy strategic zones such as the Afrin canton and the Kobane area are full of jihadists who previously belonged to organizations such as Al-Nusra, Ahrar Al-Sham, Nour Al-Din Al-Zenki and even Daesh in some cases,” Pugliese said.
Pugliese said the Turkish government is most likely unfriendly with the Salafist domestic community, as Erdogan has strong relations with the Muslim Brotherhood.
“But I guess many Salafists like his religious policies. Turkey’s selective fight of terrorism undermines regional security. In that political environment radical Salafist ideas could flourish and find new recruits,” he said.
Pugliese said a strong intelligence and police campaign to find hundreds of former Daesh members in Turkey is needed, along with secular policies to tackle Salafist extremism.

Russian jets bomb opposition-held bastion in Syria
Reuters, Amman/Sunday 20 September 2020
Syrian sources said Russian jets bombed opposition-held northwestern Syria on Sunday in the most extensive strikes since a Turkish-Russian deal halted major fighting with a ceasefire nearly six months ago.
Witnesses said the warplanes struck the western outskirts of Idlib city and that there was heavy artillery shelling in the mountainous Jabal al Zawya region in southern Idlib from nearby Syrian army outposts. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
“These thirty raids are by far the heaviest strikes so far since the ceasefire deal," said Mohammed Rasheed, a former opposition official and a volunteer plane spotter whose network covers the Russian air base in the western coastal province of Latakia. Other tracking centers said Russian Sukhoi jets hit the Horsh area and Arab Said town, west of the city of Idlib. Unidentified drones also hit two opposition-held towns in the Sahel al-Ghab plain, west of Hama province.
There has been no wide-scale aerial bombing since a March agreement ended a Russian-backed bombing campaign that displaced over a million people in the region which borders Turkey after months of fighting.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow or the Syrian army who have long accused militant groups who hold sway in the last opposition redoubt of wrecking the ceasefire deal and attacking army-held areas.
The deal between Turkish President and Russian President Vladimir Putin also defused a military confrontation between them after Ankara poured thousands of troops in Idlib province to hold back Russian-backed forces from new advances.
Western diplomats tracking Syria say Moscow piled pressure on Ankara in the latest round of talks on Wednesday to scale down its extensive military presence in Idlib. Turkey has more than ten thousand troops stationed in dozens of bases there, according to opposition sources in touch with Turkish military.
Witnesses say there has been a spike in sporadic shelling from Syrian army outposts against Turkish bases in the last two weeks. Opposition fighters say the Syrian army and its allied militias were amassing troops on front lines.

Some Libya oil facilities restart operations, companies, engineers say
Reuters, Benghazi/Sunday 20 September 2020
Workers at Libya’s major Sharara field have restarted operations, two engineers working there said, after National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced a partial lifting of force majeure. They said flaring had restarted at the field and shared a video of it, and added that engineers had been returning to the area since Wednesday. It was unclear when production might restart and there was no immediate comment from the NOC.Two other NOC companies said they had issued directives to staff to start working to prepare to recommence production as soon as possible.
Libya’s oil sector has stood almost entirely quiet since January, when eastern-based forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar imposed a blockade on energy exports during their ultimately foiled assault on Tripoli. Haftar said on Friday the blockade would be lifted but NOC has demanded that his forces and allied mercenaries that it says pose a danger to its staff must leave all oil facilities. On Saturday it lifted force majeure on what it described as “safe” fields and ports but not on any where fighters remain, though it did not name these. The NOC has said facilities were degraded during the shutdown and during years of conflict, which could slow any recovery. Sharara has been plagued by security problems in recent years that have caused repeated full or partial shutdowns. The field is operated by the NOC in a joint venture with Spain’s Repsol, France’s Total, Austria’s OMV and Norway’s Equinor.
Elsewhere, Arabian Gulf Oil Co (AGOCO), an NOC company that had been producing around 300,000 barrels per day early last year, said it was ordering staff to start operations to prepare for a resumption in output as soon as possible.
Sirte Oil Co, another NOC company, said it had issued a directive to all staff to take the necessary measures to prepare for the start of production as soon as possible.

Kuwait anti-corruption body reviews over 300 cases since 2016, 40 judicial referrals
Ismaeel Naar, Al Arabiya English/Monday 21 September 2020
The Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) has reviewed over 300 cases since it was established in 2016, with over 40 cases being referred to the public prosecution as a result, the local Kuwait Times newspaper reported citing an official. “Over 300 reports of corruption have been made to Nazaha since 2016, and 40 were referred to the public prosecution. Out of these, seven final verdicts have been issued, while the rest are still in court. The final verdicts stipulated financial penalties, in addition to forcing those convicted to return double the amount of funds misappropriated,” Dr. Mohammed Buzubar, Assistant Secretary General for Detection and Investigation at Nazaha, told the Kuwait Times newspaper. Nazaha was established in 2016 after an increasing number of corruption cases cropped up in the Gulf Arab country. Buzubar told Kuwait Times that the anti-corruption body only accepts reports from public sector employees across the ladder of positions, numbering around 40,000.“Exceptions can be made if misappropriated amounts are very large, but usually the public prosecution deals directly with those in lower positions,” Buzubar added in his  interview with the Kuwait Times newspaper. One of the body’s biggest cases this year alone involved a case of alleged brides paid to secure Airbus plane orders involving Kuwaiti parties. Nazaha at the time said it had reached out to local newspapers and media outlets that had covered the scandal to collect all possible evidence.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 21-21/2020

US needs to be tough on Iran, no matter who is president
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/September 20/ 2020
After Hassan Rouhani became Iran’s president in 2013, then-US President Barack Obama’s administration viewed his government as a “moderate” administration. This assessment had a dramatic and damaging effect on the Middle East that is still being felt today.
The relatively inexperienced Obama administration unwisely assumed that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal, the lifting of sanctions on the Iranian regime, and allowing it to rejoin the global financial system would usher in a better era for the region and the Iranian people. However, it should have been obvious to anyone who understands the complexities and characteristics of the Iranian regime and the region that, not only would this not be the case, but that Tehran had no interest in empowering its ordinary people. Instead, it wanted to pursue its hegemonic ambitions and military adventurism in the region. Now, after seven years of Rouhani’s presidency, it is clear that the so-called moderates in the Iranian regime had no desire to prioritize peace and stability in the Middle East. Can anyone seriously point to the region today and say that the rush to tolerate or even embrace Iran’s “moderate” politicians has made the region a safer, more prosperous and more stable place? The consequences are there for all to see: A Syria torn to pieces by destructive civil war; Iran-backed militias in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon being more emboldened to wreak havoc across the region; and an Iran that has seen its missile program and funding of proxies proliferate unabated due to the overly generous JCPOA.
Another consequence of believing Iran’s so-called moderate politicians to be constructive players was a worsening of relations with traditional US allies. The Gulf states were needlessly excluded from the nuclear deal negotiations with Iran, despite living on its doorstep and feeling the consequences of Iranian proxy actions far more acutely than any of the JCPOA nations. This generated a scenario that failed to recognize their rightful concerns about missile proliferation and the funding of violent proxies within and next door to their territories. The Obama administration’s soft spot for the so-called moderate politicians of Iran, such as Rouhani and his Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, was arguably a key factor in the Iranian regime feeling like it had even greater license for foreign adventurism.
It is clear that the so-called moderates in the Iranian regime had no desire to prioritize peace and stability in the Middle East.
In recent years, relations between the US and its traditional allies in the region have somewhat improved. The Donald Trump White House’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, despite its many detractors, is also beginning to bear fruit, with Tehran finally feeling the economic need to pull back resources from its band of proxies, making it extremely difficult for them to continue fighting and destabilizing the region. Iran’s currency, the rial, has been in freefall in the last few weeks and has plunged to a record low. The regime is subsequently finding it extremely difficult to acquire enough revenue to pay its employees. Many government employees have even been protesting over their unpaid wages. However, there remains a sense of American disinterest in the region. This is allowing other powers, in the form of Russia and China, to play a more prominent role; visibly in the case of the former and more discreetly with the latter.
America’s presidential election is the democratic contest above all others whose impact is felt far beyond the country’s borders. That is no less true for this November’s poll and how it will affect the Middle East. Despite America’s gradual withdrawal from the region in recent years, the occupant of the Oval Office still holds considerable sway and influence across the region. Whether it is Trump or Joe Biden in office come January, pushing back against the destabilizing activities of the Iranian regime and its hard-line agenda should definitely be the overarching priority.
In order to achieve this important objective, the US needs to build a bulwark against the Iranian regime and continue building dependable, reliable security partnerships in the Middle East. This is particularly the case given America’s reluctance to commit troops and military hardware to the region in the numbers it once did. The Iranian regime is at the root of many of the major tensions seen across the Middle East. If the US wants to avoid the destabilization of its close allies in the Gulf and avoid giving Russia and China a freer hand, then it cannot offer Tehran and the so-called moderates such as Rouhani even tacit acceptance. The approach the next US president takes to this issue will define America’s regional standing for decades to come.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Give peace a chance to end the cycle of violence
Ray Hanania/Arab News/September 20/ 2020
It is easy for most Arabs to criticize the peace accord signed by the UAE and Israel, especially considering that Israel and the Palestinians have long records of hostility against each other. It is much harder to see the silver lining that exists in the deal, which could change the dynamics of the environment of fear, hatred and violence that has dominated relations between the Palestinians and the Israelis since the 1940s and has prevented the Palestinians from achieving statehood.
Israel’s policies have been driven by fear of the Palestinians and the Arabs. Many believe the Palestinians want to turn the clock back to before Israel’s creation in 1948. Other Israeli activists and leaders have supported and fought for compromise with the Palestinians, but their efforts were derailed by violence committed by the extremists who oppose peace.But if those on either side who support genuine peace based on justice, the rule of law and fairness could replace the fanatics and violent extremists, they could restore the brief atmosphere of hope that Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat brought to the embattled biblical lands with their 1993 handshake. The image of Rabin and Arafat shaking hands on the White House lawn was more threatening to the extremists than the actual peace accords that were signed that day. This is because, once Israelis and Palestinians can respect each other, any peace treaty becomes almost meaningless. Two sides that respect each other treat each other with fairness and justice. We would have had two states by now if that environment had been allowed to continue.
However, Israeli extremist Yigal Amir assassinated Rabin in 1995 to destroy the atmosphere of peace that he and Arafat were trying to create. Even before Amir threw the Israeli-Palestinian peace process into disarray, another Jewish settler fanatic, Baruch Goldstein, took an automatic weapon into the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron on Feb. 25, 1994, and murdered 29 Muslims who were at prayer and wounded 125 others. A Palestinian state doesn’t exist today because the extremists on both sides have prevented it with their rhetoric and terrorism.
In response, Hamas launched the first of what became a wave of suicide bombings, killing eight Israelis at a bus stop in Afula. Hamas’ suicide bombings became the cornerstone of the extremist resistance against peace with Israel.
Hamas’ violence, in turn, empowered the Israeli extremists, who used the widespread anger to take control of Israel’s government, swinging power from the Rabin moderates to the extremists led by Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon, both disciples of Likud founder Menachem Begin. Begin was a former terrorist leader who headed up the Irgun militia that murdered more than 100 civilians at Deir Yassin in 1948.
Netanyahu, who was accused by Rabin’s widow Leah of creating an atmosphere of hatred that motivated Amir to kill her husband, became prime minister in 1996. Sharon, who made a name for himself when he ordered the killing of 69 men, women and children in Qibya in the West Bank in 1953, succeeded Netanyahu in 2001. Netanyahu returned to office 2009 and has been prime minister ever since. Both have done everything in their power to unravel the Rabin-Arafat accords and block peace based on two states, creating an atmosphere of rejectionism and extremism.
One could argue that the Israelis have been equally responsible for fanning the flames of violence, making it easy for Arabs to criticize the UAE-Israel deal. The truth is that a Palestinian state doesn’t exist today because the extremists on both sides have prevented it with their rhetoric and terrorism. Imagine if the extremists could be replaced by clear-thinking moderates who want peace. Jamal Al-Musharakh, the director of the UAE Foreign Ministry’s Policy Planning Department, last week discussed such a vision of creating an environment of peace in order to end the violence that has consumed the Palestine-Israel conflict and push aside the extremists on both sides. Many may still disagree with the UAE’s decision, but why not give it a chance? Over the past 72 years, the Arabs have confronted Israel’s violence with their own — an approach that has failed. I would argue that the violence has overshadowed the justice of the Palestinian cause and replaced it with the false perception that the Palestinians do not want genuine peace.
The extremists can continue to believe that using violence will one day allow them to win and take control of everything. That misguided belief is a myth, but it has fueled the anger and hatred that has made violence appear to be the only choice. Violence is not the only choice, and poor public relations have put the burden of this violence on the backs on the Palestinians.If we can create a new atmosphere of peace, we might be able to push back the extremists, bring the moderate successors of Rabin and Arafat into power and build a future in which the Palestinians and Israelis live together in a two-state environment of sharing and respect. We have given violence a chance for far too long. Why not give peace a chance?
*Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com.
Twitter: @RayHanania

Iraqi PM Mustafa Al-Kadhimi must face down Iran’s militias
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Arab News/September 20/ 2020
In a recent interview, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said he envisaged the Middle East as a region that he called “the New Levant,” which would be like the EU, where capital and technology flow freely. He also said he favored the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq because it would remove the raison d’etre of pro-Tehran militias operating in Iraq. As befitting a man known for his intellect, Al-Kadhimi believes that peace, good governance and trade — rather than endless vendettas and wars — are the best way to secure a better future. Clearly, he is saying all the right things, but can he deliver?
His four months in power have been a mixed bag, especially concerning his promise to restore state sovereignty and rein in Iran’s militias, despite winning the support of top Iraqi cleric Ali Al-Sistani and the population at large. The power and influence of the pro-Iran militias have yet to be curtailed. In fact, the militias continue to hunt down Iraqi anti-Iran regime activists, including one of Al-Kadhimi’s advisers.
The only explanation for the prime minister’s reluctance to face down the militias is politicking. As a political outsider, it is likely that Al-Kadhimi wants to avoid confrontation while he builds as big a consensus as he can before elections next June. If he remains in power until then, he will probably run on a ticket designed to turn him into a real political player who can then use his bloc to implement his vision. But June is a long way away and, if Al-Kadhimi fails to take some risks, it is unlikely his popular support will last that long. He became prime minister on the promise that, as an outsider, he would not play political games and would instead confront opponents head-on and impose drastic, rather than incremental, change. If Al-Kadhimi does take that risk, he will find he has both the region and the world on his side.
Facing up to the pro-Iran bloc, however, risks the loss of Al-Kadhimi’s parliamentary majority. But it is not a given. With popular support on his side, Al-Kadhimi will make it hard for legislators who might try to cast a vote of no-confidence against him, especially if they try such a move in order to impede the restoration of Iraqi state sovereignty against the militias.
But if Al-Kadhimi does take that risk, he will find he has both the region and the world on his side. America’s policy on Iraq has been to boost the state and undermine violent non-state actors. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have expressed a willingness to supply Iraq with whatever Iran threatens to withhold — mainly electricity to the southern provinces. In fact, leaning on neighboring Arab countries for help in rolling back Iranian influence might prove to be a good test of Al-Kadhimi’s proclaimed commitment to a more integrated Arab region living in peace and prosperity.
Over the past decade and more, it has become clear both to Iranians and to people in the countries subject to Iranian influence that the type of political Islam practiced by the “Islamic Republic” is a recipe for governmental failure, economic collapse and misery.
By contrast, Arab countries — mainly in the Gulf — have offered a different model, one that has delivered a good standard of living to all and is the envy of the rest of the Middle East. Replacing Iraq’s current trade and financial links with Iran with new links forged with Arab countries could be a way to begin improving Iraq’s government indicators and the quality of life for millions of Iraqis. If that were to happen, there could be no better boost to Al-Kadhimi’s chances in next year’s elections.
The prime minister’s caution in confronting Iran may be understandable, but to many Iraqis this reluctance is inexcusable. Iraq’s bureaucracy is notoriously bloated, costly, inefficient, incompetent, and corrupt. It is no more than one of the world’s biggest patronage networks. The country urgently needs reforms that will slim down the government and unleash the power of the private sector to create jobs and grow the economy. The shake-up announced last week could be a start, but more is needed. As in Lebanon, pro-Iran militias in Iraq use corruption to reward loyalists and they will fight tooth and nail against any attempt to eradicate graft. Al-Kadhimi has already wasted four months testing the waters. It is time to do what has to be done: Crack down on the militias and clip Iran’s wings in Iraq, even if it invites Tehran’s wrath against him. If Al-Kadhimi continues to say the right things but not implement them, he is likely to lose next June. That is the price of caution toward Iran and its militias.
*Hussain Abdul-Hussain is the Washington bureau chief of Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai and a former visiting fellow at Chatham House in London.
Copyright: Syndication Bureau

Greece, Turkey should refocus on key issue in eastern Mediterranean dispute
Yasar Yakis/Arab News/September 20/ 2020
Greece has for weeks been asking Turkey to stop its seismic research in an area of the eastern Mediterranean that it claims to be within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), while refusing to negotiate with Ankara if it did not withdraw the Oruc Reis vessel from the area. Turkey had been responding that it would not negotiate with Greece if Athens put forward preconditions. This tug of war seems to have been suspended for now, with the vessel on Sunday arriving back in port for “regular maintenance.”
Whether or not the vessel was genuinely withdrawn for maintenance purposes, this was a welcome development, because the main reason for the conflict had almost been forgotten. From the outset, the key issue has been whether the tiny Greek island of Kastellorizo — which is situated close to Turkey’s southern coast — should have its own EEZ. French President Emmanuel Macron’s frequent interventions in the Turkish-Greek conflict were delaying discussions over this issue.
Focusing on Kastellorizo may also help France disentangle itself from an unnecessary imbroglio because its position is even more untenable than that of Greece. This is because France has in the past argued the opposite of what it says in the Turkish-Greek conflict before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Let us first take a look at Greece’s case. Athens claims that it is entitled to a 40,000 square km EEZ in the eastern Mediterranean because of the tiny, 10 square km Kastellorizo island, which is located just 1 mile from the Turkish coast and about 350 miles from the Greek mainland. This amounts to claiming that Kastellorizo, which is home to about 500 people, can create an EEZ 4,000 times bigger than its entire surface.
Greece bases its claims on the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The convention states in its article 121.3 that: “Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.” By negative interpretation, Greece probably draws from this article the conclusion that an island may have an EEZ or continental shelf if it is inhabited. Greece should not be blamed for this approach. It is natural for any country to pick out from an international convention the provisions that favor its national interests. However, there are, in the same convention, several other provisions that support Turkey’s claims.
France has in the past successfully argued the opposite of what it says in the Turkish-Greek conflict.
Greece and France ignore not only the UNCLOS provisions that are in favor of Turkey, but also a catalogue of ICJ verdicts that support Ankara’s position. In two of them, France was a direct party.
The first concerned the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey, which are close to the French coast but belong to the UK. The British government claimed that the maritime space between these two islands and its coast should be considered as a British EEZ. The two countries could not agree and decided to refer the case to the ICJ, which ruled in favor of France. That is to say that the two islands could have their own territorial waters around them, but beyond that it was high sea rather than a British EEZ.
The second example involved a French dispute with Canada that was resolved in 1992. There are two islands — St. Pierre and Miquelon — at the entrance to Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence that belong to France. Paris claimed that the EEZ of these two islands should stretch all the way to the median line between the islands and the Canadian peninsula of Nova Scotia. The ICJ, consistent with its verdict on the Channel Islands, ruled against France’s claim. That is to say, St. Pierre and Miquelon could claim to have sovereignty over the territorial waters around them, but beyond that it was high sea.
Other examples of similar verdicts handed down by the ICJ include the conflicts between Tunisia and Libya over the Kerkennah Islands and Jerba in 1982; Guinea-Bissau and Guinea over Alcatraz island in 1983; Eritrea and Yemen over Jabal Al-Tair and the Zubair Group in 1999; Ukraine and Romania over Snake Island in 2009; Bangladesh and Myanmar over St. Martin’s Island in 2012; and Nicaragua and Venezuela over Providencia and San Andres islands, also in 2012. All these ICJ verdicts say that the EEZs of such islands are confined to their territorial waters.
If the present respite leads Turkey and Greece to submit their conflict to the ICJ, there would be much relief at this outcome.
*Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkey and founding member of the ruling AK Party. Twitter: @yakis_yasar

Iran cannot bank on a Donald Trump defeat or European support
Raghida Dergham/The National/September 20/2020
Iran’s leaders believe that cornering US President Donald Trump with a series of provocations will weaken his re-election chances, assuming he would have to back down to avoid taking major risks before Election Day on November 3. But they are greatly mistaken. Iran would be misreading both the American and European positions if its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were to engage in a confrontation with, say, Israel or the Gulf countries.
The European Council leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to discuss, among other things, the continent’s fraying relations with neighbours Russia and Turkey. They may also have a debate on the 2015 nuclear deal, which the western powers signed with Iran in 2015 but looks in jeopardy for a combination of reasons. The Europeans are aware of likely Iranian retaliation should they rethink their commitment to the agreement. But they also realise that sanctions deployed by the US have proved punishing for the regime in Tehran, and may impose some of their own.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, intends to step up sanctions on Iran as well as on countries aiming to sell weapons to it after October 18, when China and Russia are expected to block American efforts to extend the arms embargo against Tehran at the UN Security Council. America’s hardline stance, in other words, could have short- and long-term implications for the world – especially the Middle East.
Some European powers are expected to throw their weight behind a new resolution reaffirming the nuclear deal, as a means to absorb Iran’s anger at US sanctions that might come into effect in October. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has hinted at the possibility of returning to the Security Council to make another case for the arms embargo before it expires – even though vetoes from China and Russia might be inevitable at this stage. In which case, Washington might sell to its public a narrative that, by letting the embargo expire, Beijing and Moscow are effectively aiding Iranian transgressions in the Middle East, as well as its nuclear and ballistic programmes. This could be the way it makes the argument for imposing fresh sanctions against Iran and the two powers.
My conversations with experts in the US lead me to believe that some of these sanctions would all but cut off Iran from the rest of the world. And yet, the US realises that the time has not yet come to punish Iran and China for their new security pact. It has prioritised imposing sanctions in the foreseeable future, but its endgame would be to force China to disengage with Iran.
Tehran is in a conundrum less than two months before the US election. One segment of its leadership has argued for patience and prudence until it is over, while the other has sought confrontation and provocation. Whatever be its strategy to undermine Mr Trump’s re-election bid, it must know that US policy towards the regime is unlikely to change even if the current incumbent loses.
Some in Iran assume that Mr Biden will revive the nuclear deal and spare the country of sanctions. But this reflects a misunderstanding of American policy, some which has been baked into US law, leaving Mr Biden with little chance to overrule them – even if he wanted to do so. On the contrary, it might be naive to expect Mr Biden to reach out to the regime. America’s electoral landscape indicates that Iran will be the Trump administration’s top target in the run-up to the election. The administration may even benefit from its likely failure to convince China, Russia and the Europeans to allow the extension of the arms embargo. Mr Trump will use it as ammunition to make the case for his hardline stance.
Mr Trump’s campaign team will encourage him to paint Iran and China as America’s biggest enemies. The Gulf-Israeli peace deals, brokered by his administration and signed in Washington, are also likely to favour the President in the upcoming debates with Mr Biden.
Apart from giving Mr Trump a win, the Abraham Accord has also come as a shock to Iran. The regime did not expect it would happen, and now it finds – no doubt to its chagrin – a largely positive reaction across the Arab and Islamic worlds. The regime has lost a strategic asset: Islamic anger. It will continue to bank on the support of proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, which probably explains the recent visit to Beirut by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at Hezbollah’s invitation. But Iran must know that popular support for its continued exploitation of the Palestinian cause is waning.
Iran’s other problem is that, even though the European Union might be careful how it plays its cards, there remains the likelihood of sanctions in the future for its destabilising operations in the Middle East, including inside Lebanon.
At the first e-policy circle of the Beirut Institute Summit in Abu Dhabi, Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, reminded the international community to place human rights at the centre of its efforts to pressure the Lebanese political class to legislate and enact sweeping reforms, following the fatal Beirut Port blast a little more than a month ago. For his part, Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, blamed “governance weakness and failures as an origin of humanitarian needs” for the situation in Lebanon. But he also expressed frustration at the international community’s lack of action regarding what he called the “strategic neglect of Lebanon and the Lebanese people”.
Given Iran's influence in Lebanon, the Europeans will be closely watching its actions there, particularly on the back of French efforts to press for political and economic reforms – something Tehran does not desire. Don't entirely rule out Lebanon becoming a point of discussion at the Brussels summit.
*Raghida Dergham is the founder and executive chairwoman of the Beirut Institute