English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For April 03/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

#elias_bejjani_news
 

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Bible Quotations For today

Holy Saturday: The Guard at the Tomb
Mathews 27/62-66/The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 02-03/2021

Elias Bejjani/Visit My LCCC Web site/All That you need to know on Lebanese unfolding news and events in Arabic and English/http://eliasbejjaninews.com/
Foreign billionaire conspired to violate election law in straw donor scheme/Anna Massoglia/OpenSecrecy. Org/April 1, 2021
Health Ministry: 2,963 new Corona cases, 60 deaths
Report: Macron, Bin Salman Want ‘Credible’ Govt in Lebanon
Report: PM-designate to Visit Moscow 'Soon'
Lebanon Must Ration Subsidies before Reserves Run out, Says Finance Minister
UK Crime Agency Considers Investigating Lebanon Corruption Report, Sources Say
Report: Germany Suggests Plan to Rebuild Devastated Beirut Port
Germany to Propose Beirut Port Reconstruction With Strings Attached
German Envoy Says Private Firms to Present Beirut Port Rebuilding Plan
Daryan: COVID-19 Vaccine, PCR Test Don’t Break Fast
UNIFIL welcomes Military Court’s ruling against a person convicted of committing an attack on its forces
Geagea, Hasbani test positive for Corona, LF Party urges everyone who participated in ‘Holy Week’ ceremony in Maarab to undergo a PCR examination
Meeting between French-Lebanese Friendship Group in French Parliament, LF deputies

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 02-03/2021

Two dead, including police officer, after suspect rams vehicle into US Capitol Police
U.S. Capitol locked down after vehicle 'rammed' into 2 officers; one officer and suspect dead
US studies weapons sales, military training for Saudi Arabia amid Houthi assault: WSJ
US, Iran to begin indirect talks on nuclear programme, sanctions relief
Greece Accuses Turkey of Trying to Provoke it with Migrant Boats
Suez Canal Says Close to Clearing Backlog after Ship Dislodged
Arab League Calls on EU to Recognize State of Palestine
Rights groups urge Russians to wake up to Syria abuses
Syria Kurds say 125 Daesh militants captured in displacement camp sweep
UK urged to bring women, children home from Syrian camps
Report: UK Israel-Palestine textbooks ‘dangerously misleading’
Critics say Turkish courts are influenced by politics, while Erdogan and his AK Party say they’re independent
At Least 41 Dead as Taiwan Train Derails in Tunnel
Jihadist Suspect Blows Herself, Child Up in Tunisia
Russia to Take 'Measures' in Case Western Troops Sent to Ukraine, Says Kremlin
 

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 02-03/2021

The European Union: From a Single Market to a Tragic Farce/Drieu Godefridi/Gatestone Institute/April 02/2021
Iran and the Regime’s Great Wall/Mustafa Fahs/Asharq Al Awsat/April 02/2021
Between Despair and Presumption a Reporter’s Dilemma/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/April 02/2021
EU, US attempting to bring Turkey back on board/Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/April 02/2021
 

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 02-03/2021

Elias Bejjani/Visit My LCCC Web site/All That you need to know on Lebanese unfolding news and events in Arabic and English/http://eliasbejjaninews.com/

Foreign billionaire conspired to violate election law in straw donor scheme
Anna Massoglia/OpenSecrecy. Org/April 1, 2021
تقرير باللغة الإنكليزية يتناول ملف الملياردير اللبناني جيلبرت شاغوري القضائي المتعلق بالتآمر لخرق قانون الانتخابات الأميركي الخاص بالمانحين
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/97535/%d8%aa%d9%82%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%84%d8%ba%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d9%86%d9%83%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%b2%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d9%8a%d8%aa%d9%86%d8%a7%d9%88%d9%84-%d9%85%d9%84%d9%81-%d8%a7%d9%84/

A Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire agreed to pay the U.S. government $1.8 million to resolve allegations that he conspired to violate federal election laws in a “straw donor” scheme to route illegal foreign contributions to U.S. presidential and congressional candidates, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
Gilbert Chagoury, a foreign national prohibited by federal law from making contributions to political groups or campaigns to influence U.S. elections, routed approximately $180,000 to the campaign committees of four U.S. candidates through straw donors over the course of three election cycles. He admitted the funds were intended to support candidates and was aware the contributions were made by giving his money under the name of another individual as illegal conduit contributions, according to court records.
The Justice Department’s release did not identify the donors and candidates by name but the amounts in court records match Federal Election Commission contribution records for the joint fundraising committee supporting the 2012 presidential bid of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) as well as the campaigns of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) and former Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), now a senior adviser at Kelley, Drye & Warren. The names of the recipient committees were first reported by Politico.
Federal prosecutors entered into the deferred prosecution agreement citing factors such as Chagoury’s “unique assistance to the U.S. government” and the massive fine he agreed to pay, the Justice Department noted. Two Chagoury associates entered into similar agreements.
Mark Corallo, former spokesperson for President Donald Trump’s private legal team in the Russia investigation, acted as Chagoury’s spokesperson since at least 2010. Corallo retroactively registered as a foreign agent of Chagoury in 2020 for influence operations promoting then-Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in connection with his 2015 re-election campaign.
Corallo’s firm routed funds through sub-vendors assisting with the foreign influence operations.
New World Group Public Affairs LLC, a lobbying firm run by former Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.), was paid a $15,000 retainer to arrange meetings with members of Congress and congressional staffers. Black Bag LLC reported receiving $25,000 from Corallo’s firm but did not disclose how much of that work was for Chagoury or what other clients the LLC might have performed work for.
Lobbying firm Kivvit LLC did not report any receipts from Corallo in FARA records but disclosed managing a Twitter account, providing public relations advice and media monitoring as part of the operation.
A firm referred to as 4Impact LLC served as a liaison to Chagoury in the foreign influence efforts, according to the FARA records. Toufic Baaklini, one of Chagoury’s two associate’s listed in Justice Department filings, reported 4Impact LLC as his employer in FEC filings.
As part of his agreement with the Justice Department, Baaklini admitted giving $30,000 in cash provided by Chagoury to individuals who later made campaign contributions to the 2016 campaign of a U.S. congressman, according to his deferred prosecution agreement signed March 1.
Former Republican congressman from Illinois and Obama transportation secretary Ray LaHood agreed to pay a $40,000 fine to settle a separate and unrelated matter after admitting to taking an undisclosed $50,000 payment from Baaklini in 2012, first reported by Axios. LaHood told prosecutors he “understood at the time” that the money was actually coming from Chagoury and did not disclose the transaction in ethics filings despite being a member of President Barack Obama’s cabinet at the time of the transaction.
Straw donor scheme not Chagory’s first brush with controversy
Chagoury was a top advisor to Nigerian head of state Sani Abacha, widely regarded as a dictator, and described by Nigeria’s top anti-corruption prosecutor as a “kingpin in the corruption that defined Abacha’s regime.”
Abacha diverted millions of dollars from Nigeria’s central bank to overseas bank accounts of his family and associates, including accounts under Chagoury’s control. In 2014, the Justice Department seized more than $480 million in corruption proceeds hidden in bank accounts around the world by Abacha and his co-conspirators, the largest forfeiture the department had ever obtained through a “kleptocracy action.”
Chagoury denied any involvement in the bribery case but he was known to work as an intermediary for Abacha, and Chagoury’s name was listed among attendees of meetings where bribes were allegedly discussed.
After Abacha died, Chagoury returned an estimated $300 million held in Swiss bank accounts to the Nigerian government to secure his immunity from prosecution in Nigeria. Chagoury was convicted of laundering money and aiding a criminal organization in a 2020 case in Geneva, Switzerland.
Corallo claims Chagoury has also been scrutinized due to his ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton after he spent years cultivating a close relationship with them, in part through large checks.
Chagoury gave $460,000 to Vote Now ’96, a tax-exempt voter registration group with close ties to the Democratic Party. The nonprofit was led by Democratic Party fundraisers and party officials regularly steered would-be campaign contributors to the group, which did not fully disclose its donors.
A few months after the donation, Chagoury and his family were guests at Clinton’s White House holiday dinner for top Democratic Party supporters. Chagoury did not donate to the party, as he was barred from doing so as a foreign national.
In 2003, Chagoury helped arrange a six-figure speaking fee for former President Clinton at a Caribbean event.
More than $1 million in contributions from Chagoury were disclosed by the Clinton Foundation in December 2008, the same month then President-elect Barack Obama’s appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State was announced. The Clinton Foundation faced media scrutiny for accepting money from foreign governments and controversial donors with interest in swaying U.S. policy during Clinton’s time at State.
Longtime Clinton adviser and then head of the foundation’s Clinton Global Initiative Doug Band emailed Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, two of then secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, to ask for a diplomatic introduction for Chagoury in 2009. “As you know, he’s a key guy there and to us,” Band wrote in the emails obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Abedin responded with the name of the acting assistant secretary of state at that time, Jeffrey Feltman, adding “I’ll talk to Jeff.”
The Clinton Foundation’s revenue began to drop in 2016 due in part to the foundation’s restricted fundraising efforts as Clinton pursued her unsuccessful 2016 presidential bid but started growing again in 2019, the most recent year tax returns are available. Since President Joe Biden took office, the Clinton Foundation has hosted events featuring the former president, current Vice President Kamala Harris and various other prominent Democratic Party figures.
Two years after Clinton left the State Department in 2013, Chagoury was denied a visa to enter the U.S. amid a review of his ties to Hezbollah. Chagoury has reportedly denied any support for the terrorist group but reportedly funded a Lebanese politician who the FBI claim passed those funds to Hezbollah and whose political party was part of a coalition with Hezbollah.

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/04/straw-donor-scheme-foreign-billionaire/

Health Ministry: 2,963 new Corona cases, 60 deaths
NNA/Friday, 2 April, 2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Friday, the registration of 2,963 new Corona infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 474,925.
It also indicated that 60 deaths were recorded during the past 24 hours.
 

Report: Maritime Border Controversy Rises between Lebanon and Syria
Naharnet/Friday, 2 April, 2021
At a time when Lebanon is "fighting" to fully secure its southern maritime border rights through indirect negotiations with Israel, the confusion came from Syria which seems to be “infringing” on thousands of kilometers from Lebanon’s northern borders, al-Hadath television station reported on Friday. A few days ago, the Syrian government signed a four-year agreement with the Russian Capital company, according to which it would conduct survey and exploration of oil in areas belonging to Lebanon, said the station. The contract concluded between Damascus and the company in Block No.1 on Syria’s border evidently shows the Syrian border overlapping with Block No.1 and Block No.2 from the Lebanese side. This overlapping means a breach of the Lebanese maritime borders of more than 1000 square kilometers, of which only 750 square kilometers are in Block No.1, it added. But the Lebanese state, represented by its caretaker Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbe, said he sees no breach of the maritime border, describing the reactions as “exaggerated.”“The case is more than nine years old when Damascus demarcated its maritime border with Lebanon in its own way, and Lebanon did the same awaiting bilateral negotiations to resolve the dispute over maritime points. There is no Syrian aggression, this is totally out of the question,” said Wehbe in remarks to al-Arabiya net. "The Russian company will start exploration in the Syrian part of Block No.1, it will not start in the Lebanese part, this is a right for Syria. As for the other part of the block located within a disputed area with Lebanon, resolving it needs to be negotiated between the two countries,” added Wehbe. He said Lebanon will soon make an official position in that regard.
In 2011, Lebanon demarcated its maritime borders with neighboring countries, and Syria did not issue any position until 2014. Through its ambassador to the United Nations Bashar al-Jaafari, Syria raised an objection to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Jaafari considered that Lebanon needs no legally binding effect towards other countries, because the move was an internal legislation issued in accordance with Lebanese laws. Lebanon responded to the Syrian position by contacting the Syrian government and asking it to start negotiations to resolve the dispute over the sea points, while recording its objection to Syria’s demarcation of the maritime borders. In 2013, Lebanon launched the first round of primary licensing and invited bids for Block No.1 in the north. But Syria at the time said it doesn’t recognize the Lebanese demarcation. “There is an overlap in the maritime borders between Lebanon and Syria, which is clearly visible in the demarcation map of the blocks,” said Laury Haytayan, Lebanese oil & gas expert in the Middle East and North Africa. "The overlap extends to an area of ​​750 square kilometers, and therefore Damascus has no right to start the exploration process before the border dispute is resolved. The Lebanese government must preserve its maritime rights recognized by the United Nations through launching negotiations," she told al-Hadath. For his part, expert in the border maritime conflict, former head of the Blue Line Committee, Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) Brigadier General Antoun Mourad said: “Syria’s move is an evident violation of the Lebanese border because it has no right to take a unilateral decision before resolving the issue with Lebanon". “Syria uses the logic of force in this issue, official Lebanon must respond,” he added. Antoun said Hizbullah has been fighting alongside the ranks of the Syrian regime and therefore is capable of using its good relations to improve Lebanon’s position and preserve its maritime border rights.

Report: Macron, Bin Salman Want ‘Credible’ Govt in Lebanon
Naharnet/Friday, 2 April, 2021
The French presidency announced that President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who met on Thursday, share "the same desire to see a credible government" in Lebanon to bring it out of its acute crisis, media reports said Friday. The two men consider it necessary for Lebanon to form a government "capable of implementing a road map for the reforms required for advancement, which the Lebanese political leaders have pledged to adhere to,” it added. Forming a government in Lebanon "is a condition for mobilizing long-term international assistance,” it said. PM-designate Saad Hariri was tasked to form a government in October last year after the resignation of now caretaker PM Hassan Diab’s government following the colossal Beirut port explosion. Last year Macron proposed a road map to break the political stalemate in the former French protectorate. Macron has been pressing Lebanese politicians to form a Cabinet made up of non-partisan specialists that can work on urgent reforms to extract Lebanon from a financial crisis worsened by the Aug. 4 explosion that devastated Beirut. Those efforts have led to nowhere as Lebanon’s politicians continue to bicker about the shape and size of a new Cabinet while the country is mired in the worst economic crisis in its modern history — a situation exacerbated by pandemic restrictions.

Report: PM-designate to Visit Moscow 'Soon'
Naharnet/Friday, 2 April, 2021
PM-designate Saad Hariri will reportedly make a trip to the Russian capital later in April for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Friday. According to information obtained by the daily, the Middle East departments in the Russian Foreign Ministry are preparing for Hariri’s visit to Moscow, which will be very close and most likely in the first half of April. Hariri will meet Putin in addition to Russian officials in the Foreign Ministry, added the daily. His talks with Putin are to focus on the Lebanese crisis mainly the problematic government formation. He will explain to Putin the obstacles hampering the line-up of a much-needed cabinet as the country grapples with an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, said the daily. Nidaa al-Watan said Russia is to affirm backing for Hariri as its candidate for a new government of specialists that does not grant any camp a one-third-plus-one veto power.
 

Lebanon Must Ration Subsidies before Reserves Run out, Says Finance Minister
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 2 April, 2021
Lebanon will run out of money to fund basic imports by the end of May and delays in launching a plan to reduce subsidies are costing $500 million a month, the caretaker finance minister, Ghazi Wazni, said. As Lebanon’s economy crumbles, the central bank has asked the caretaker cabinet to decide how to gradually lift subsidies to ration remaining foreign currency reserves, Wazni told Reuters on Thursday. “The government must speed this up. The cost of wasting time is very high. With every delay, it becomes higher,” he said. Lebanon’s financial meltdown is fueling hunger and unrest in the country’s gravest crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war. The subsidy plan scales down a list of subsidized foods from 300 to 100 goods, reduces fuel and medicine subsidies and introduces a ration card for 800,000 poor families, to roughly halve $6 billion in annual spending on subsidies, Wazni said. The overall subsidy plan will have to get the green light from parliament since it must approve funding for the cards, and the caretaker prime minister in turn wants the introduction of the cards tied to subsidy removal, he said, outlining a process that will likely take time. Meanwhile, foreign reserves are draining away faster than officials are making serious moves to ration the money left, back key imports and help the most vulnerable. The currency has lost most of its value since late 2019, making more than half the population poor as prices soar. Still, politicians have yet to agree a rescue plan or a new government since the outgoing administration quit in August over the massive Beirut port explosion that killed 200 people. Already, a year has passed since Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab cited dangerously low reserves when he declared Lebanon’s sovereign default.
Difficult decision
Foreign currency reserves stand at around $15.8 billion, Wazni said. That means, at best, two months of subsidies left before hitting obligatory reserves -- hard currency deposits parked by local lenders at the central bank -- which he estimated at $15 billion. “If the central bank’s foreign reserves keep depleting in the future, at the end of the day these will be what’s left of deposits,” he said. Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, who has said obligatory reserves should not be used to fund imports, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the figures. Along with its subsidizing of the food basket, the central bank has also drawn on reserves to subsidize wheat, fuel and medicine as dollar inflows dried up. Remarks about a looming end to subsidies have triggered panic buying and fears of shortages in the import-dependent country. Wazni said the prospect of a “harsh reaction” to lifting subsidies posed a challenge. “Today, the problem is this is a caretaker government, and this is a difficult decision socially...but it is necessary. It should have been done already.”Joining a chorus of Lebanese and foreign officials calling on political leaders to end a deadlock in talks for a new government, he warned that without one, chaos would ensue. To get badly-needed foreign cash, a new cabinet will have to revive IMF talks, reform the public finances and tackle graft at the heart of the crisis. “This would kickstart the rescue operation. This is a political decision,” Wazni said. “But without a credible government, in a few months things will get worse and worse. ...Poverty, misery and unemployment will rise even more, prices will keep soaring, and there will be chaos.”

UK Crime Agency Considers Investigating Lebanon Corruption Report, Sources Say
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 2 April, 2021
Britain’s organized crime agency is reviewing a report by a group of London-based lawyers which accuses Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salameh and associates of money laundering and corrupt practices, four sources familiar with the matter said.
The 76-page report, seen by Reuters, outlines what it says are assets, companies and investment vehicles in Britain worth hundreds of millions of pounds which it alleges Salameh, members of his family and his associates used over years to divert funds out of Lebanon.
Salameh, who has led Lebanon’s central bank since 1993, told Reuters he had read a copy of the report and described it as part of a smear campaign. “They are false allegations,” he said. London-based legal practice Guernica37 submitted the report to British police late last year, two of the sources said. They said it was then referred to Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA). The report was prepared on behalf a group from Lebanese civil society in the diaspora. “We can confirm we have received that report, but we are not in a position to comment further,” a spokesman for the NCA said, declining to say whether an investigation had been launched. Two of the sources said NCA’s financial investigation unit was carrying out a scoping exercise, a form of preliminary investigation, to determine whether there were sufficient grounds to start a formal investigation. Lebanon’s financial and political elite have been under growing scrutiny over years for alleged mismanagement, corruption and obstructing efforts to unlock international aid, particularly since a massive explosion at Beirut port eight months ago plunged the country deeper into distress. The Guernica37 probe is one of several underway or being planned in Europe that target officials in Lebanon’s financial sector and its broader political class. The Swiss attorney general’s office said in January it had requested legal assistance from Lebanon in the context of a probe into “aggravated money laundering” and possible embezzlement tied to the Lebanese central bank. In response to questions from Reuters, the Swiss attorney general’s office did not say whether Salameh was a suspect and declined further comment. Salameh has denied any wrongdoing. Lebanon’s banking system is at the heart of a financial crisis that erupted in late 2019. Banks have blocked most transfers abroad and cut access to deposits as dollars grew scarce. The meltdown has crashed the currency, prompted a sovereign default and fueled widespread poverty. Guernica37 co-founder Toby Caldman said in a statement to Reuters that the group’s report was one of a number of legal filings it had prepared on Lebanon for the British authorities. “Our intention is to address, investigate and expose all pillars of alleged corruption in the country,” he said.

Report: Germany Suggests Plan to Rebuild Devastated Beirut Port
Naharnet/Friday, 2 April, 2021
Eight months after the devastating Beirut port explosion, Germany will reportedly suggest a plan to rebuild the port in a bid to encourage Lebanese leaders to form a much-needed government in crisis-wracked Lebanon, media reports said Friday. Unnamed sources revealed that Germany is going to present to the Lebanese authorities next week a “conditional” plan costing billions of dollars to rebuild the Beirut port as part of efforts to urge the country's politicians to form a government capable of avoiding an economic collapse. According to diplomatic sources familiar with the plan, Germany and France are seeking to lead the reconstruction efforts. On April 7th, they said, Berlin will put forward a proposal that the European Investment Bank agreed to help finance, under which the port area would be evacuated and facilities rebuilt.
One of the sources estimated the EIB financing between two billion and three billion euros.
 

Germany to Propose Beirut Port Reconstruction With Strings Attached
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 2 April, 2021
Germany will next week present a multi-billion-dollar proposal to Lebanese authorities to rebuild the Port of Beirut as part of efforts to entice the country's politicians to form a government capable of warding off financial collapse, two sources said, Reuters reported. A chemical explosion at the port last August killed 200 people, injured thousands and destroyed entire neighborhoods in Lebanon's capital, plunging the country deeper into its worst political and economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. According to two diplomatic sources with knowledge of the plans, Germany and France are vying to lead reconstruction efforts. Berlin will on April 7 outline a proposal that the European Investment Bank has agreed to help fund that would clear the area and reconstruct facilities, they said. One of the sources estimated EIB funding in the range of 2 billion to 3 billion euros. A senior Lebanese official confirmed that Germany was due to present a comprehensive port reconstruction proposal. Neither the German foreign ministry nor consultancy firm Roland Berger, which the diplomatic sources said put the plan together, immediately responded to requests for comment. The EIB was not immediately available for comment.
The two diplomatic sources said Lebanon's political elite first need to agree on the make-up of a new government to fix public finances and root out corruption, a condition which donors, including the International Monetary Fund, are also insisting on before they will unlock billions of dollars in aid.
"This plan is not going to come without strings attached," said one of the sources. "Germany and France want first to see a government in place committed to implementing reforms. There is no other way around it and this is good for Lebanon." Eight months after the port disaster, many Lebanese who lost family, homes and businesses are still waiting for the results of an investigation into the causes of the blast. Lebanon is on the verge of collapse, with shoppers brawling over goods, protesters blocking roads, and businesses shuttered. Foreign donors have said the new government must have a firm mandate to implement economic reforms, including a central bank audit and an overhaul of the wasteful power sector.
Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri and President Michel Aoun have been unable to agree on a ministerial line-up, however. The outgoing cabinet, which quit after the explosion, has stayed on in a caretaker capacity. The IMF has said there have been no program discussions with Lebanese officials, only technical assistance with the Ministry of Finance and some state-owned enterprises. In addition to the port itself, Germany's proposal would look to redevelop more than 100 hectares in the surrounding area in a project that the two diplomatic sources said would be along the lines of the post-war reconstruction of central Beirut. As in that redevelopment, the plan would involve the creation of a publicly-listed company similar to Solidere, which was set up by former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in the 1990s and remains on the Lebanon stock exchange. The sources put the project cost at anywhere between $5 billion to $15 billion, and said it could create as many as 50,000 jobs. The Lebanese official said France and French ports and container shipping group CMA CGM were also interested in the reconstruction project. One of the diplomatic sources noted that France had sent several missions, including one in March that included CMA CGM, that showed an interest in playing a role in the reconstruction. That mission focused on specific clear-up operations rather than a broader redevelopment, however, the source said. France's foreign ministry declined to comment immediately. CMA CGM declined to comment.
The Lebanese official put the onus for getting the project underway on the Europeans agreeing who would be the lead. "This is a European decision at the end of the day, because they have to decide on it among themselves. Then when it comes to it, the Lebanese government can go ahead," the official said. The diplomatic sources said Germany wanted to work closely with France on the issue, but that Paris was pursuing its own initiatives for now. "The irony of all this is that on the one hand the Europeans are talking about putting pressure on the political class while on the other fighting each other over these potential contracts when the vultures are still circling," one said.

German Envoy Says Private Firms to Present Beirut Port Rebuilding Plan
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 2 April, 2021
The German ambassador to Beirut said on Friday that several private companies would present a comprehensive proposal next week to develop Beirut port and nearby areas destroyed in last August’s massive explosion. The statement came after Reuters reported that sources said Germany would next week present a multi-billion-dollar proposal to Lebanese authorities to rebuild the port as part of efforts to prompt politicians to form a government that can stop the country’s financial collapse. The ambassador, Andreas Kindl, said the companies included HHLA, HPC, Roland Berger and Colliers, and that this was not a proposal presented by the German government. A chemical explosion at the port last August killed 200 people, injured thousands and destroyed entire neighborhoods in the Lebanese capital, plunging the country deeper into its worst political and economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
According to two diplomatic sources with knowledge of the plans, Germany and France are vying to lead reconstruction efforts. Berlin will on April 7 outline its proposal, which the diplomats said would in principle include support from the European Investment Bank (EIB), to help fund the clearing of the area and reconstruction facilities. A senior Lebanese official confirmed that Germany was due to present a comprehensive port reconstruction proposal. In his statement, Germany’s ambassador Kindl said Lebanon could only attract support from investors by enacting meaningful reforms.
Eight months after the port disaster, many Lebanese who lost family, homes and businesses are still waiting for the results of an investigation into the causes of the blast. Lebanon is on the verge of collapse, with shoppers brawling over goods, protesters blocking roads, and businesses shuttered.
Foreign donors have said the new government must have a firm mandate to implement economic reforms, including a central bank audit and an overhaul of the wasteful power sector. Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri and President Michel Aoun have been unable to agree on a ministerial line-up, however. The outgoing cabinet, which quit after the explosion, has stayed on in a caretaker capacity. The IMF has said there have been no program discussions with Lebanese officials, only technical assistance with the Ministry of Finance and some state-owned enterprises.

Daryan: COVID-19 Vaccine, PCR Test Don’t Break Fast
Naharnet/April 02/2021
Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan explained on Friday that getting coronavirus vaccine or a PCR test do not break the fast during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan. Daryan, Sunni Islam’s top religious leader in Lebanon, says the vaccine is intramuscular and won’t spoil the fast. Ramadan, where able-bodied and observant Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, is expected to begin in two weeks. It is celebrated by all Muslim countries, whether Sunni or Shiite.
 

UNIFIL welcomes Military Court’s ruling against a person convicted of committing an attack on its forces
NNA02 April ,2021
In a statement on Friday, the United Nations Interim Force in South Lebanon welcomed "the recent ruling issued by the Lebanese Military Court, which brought to justice another person convicted of committing an attack on the peacekeepers."The statement pointed out that "in July 2011, a UNIFIL convoy was targeted by an explosive device as it was passing through Sidon, causing the serious injury of three peacekeepers while two others were lightly wounded." UNIFIL also indicated in its statement that "the verdict issued on March 24 comes a few months after the same court convicted another person for killing two peacekeepers in 1980.""The attacks on men and women serving for peace are dangerous and horrific, and we are grateful to the Lebanese authorities for their commitment to hold the perpetrators of the attacks on peacekeepers accountable for their crimes," the statement affirmed.

Geagea, Hasbani test positive for Corona, LF Party urges everyone who participated in ‘Holy Week’ ceremony in Maarab to undergo a PCR examination
NNA02 April ,2021
Lebanese Forces Party’s media department issued a statement this afternoon, in which it indicated that on the day following the “Holy Week” ceremonial event that was organized at the Party’s headquarters in Maarab, Lebanese Forces Chief Samir Geagea felt slight symptoms over three consecutive days, after which he underwent a PCR examination along with his spouse, MP Strida Geagea, where Geagea's result came out positive while that of MP Geagea was negative. The statement added that former Minister Ghassan Hasbani, who also took part in the ceremony, tested positive as well. Therefore, the statement urged all those who attended the ceremony to undergo a PCR examination. “The Lebanese Forces Party Chief wishes to reassure all partisans, friends and loved ones that he is in good condition, and even the slightest symptoms have begun to disappear," the statement concluded.

Meeting between French-Lebanese Friendship Group in French Parliament, LF deputies
NNA02 April ,2021
Representatives and officials of the "Lebanese Forces" Party participated today in a virtual meeting with members of the French-Lebanese Friendship Group in the French Parliament, in the presence of “Strong Republic" Parliamentary Bloc Deputies, Pierre Bou Assi and Georges Okais, as well as former Minister Richard Kouyoumjian who is in charge of the Party’s foreign relations; LF’s responsible official for its relations bureau with international parties and institutions, Elsy Awais, and France’s official in the bureau, Marouan Harb; in addition to the French-Lebanese Friendship Group’s President in the French Parliament and its Vice President Loïc Kervran, alongside Deputies Sereine Mauborgne, Nadia Essayan, Marie-France Lorho and Florence Povendier. The meeting focused on the political crisis in Lebanon, its repercussions on the economic and social levels, and possible solutions to avoid complete collapse. Conferees also tackled the latest developments in the Beirut Port blast probe, and the petition signed by the “Strong Republic” bloc deputies addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, calling for the formation of an international fact-finding committee into the port explosion. On another level, the LF deputies expressed their support for the rescue initiatives of the Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, and praised the French initiative launched by President Emmanuel Macron. There was an agreement during the meeting to pursue dialogue between both sides in favor of strengthening bilateral relations, especially in this difficult period.
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 02-03/2021

Two dead, including police officer, after suspect rams vehicle into US Capitol Police
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/02 April ,2021
A police officer was killed Friday after a suspect rammed his vehicle into a security barrier and injured two police officers at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. The police officers and the suspect, who was shot, were taken to a nearby hospital. One of the police officers, Billy Evans, was later pronounced dead as was the suspect, the Capitol Police said during a press conference shortly after the incident. “Officer Evans had been a member of the United States Capitol Police for 18 years. Please keep Officer Evans and his family in your thoughts and prayers,” Capitol Police said in a statement. After crashing into the security barrier, the suspect got out of his car and began running at police officers with a knife in his hand. President Joe Biden, who was not at the White House during the time of the attack, said he was “heartbroken to learn of the violent attack.” “We know what a difficult time this has been for the Capitol, everyone who works there, and those who protect it,” the US president said in a statement. He added: “I want to express the nation’s gratitude to the Capitol Police, the National Guard Immediate Response Force, and others who quickly responded to this attack. As we mourn the loss of yet another courageous Capitol Police officer, I have ordered that the White House flags be lowered to half-mast.” The FBI later released a statement saying they were providing support to the Capitol Police. Videos from the Capitol showed a heavy security presence on the scene, and a helicopter was recorded flying close to the complex. DC Police chief Robert Contee said the incident did not appear to be terrorism-related, adding that the suspect was not previously on any security-linked radars. “I just ask that the public continue to keep US Capitol Police and their families in your prayers,” Capitol Police Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman said at the briefing. “This has been an extremely difficult time for US Capitol Police after the events of January 6 and now the events that have occurred here today.” Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in January after the former president claimed that the presidential election was stolen. Five people were killed during the riots, including one Capitol Police officer.

U.S. Capitol locked down after vehicle 'rammed' into 2 officers; one officer and suspect dead
Dylan Stableford/Yahoo NewsFri., April 2, 2021
The U.S. Capitol went into a lockdown on Friday after a vehicle plowed into two Capitol Police officers, officials said. In a statement, the U.S. Capitol Police said it was responding to reports that "someone rammed a vehicle into two USCP officers.""A suspect is in custody," the USCP statement said. "Both officers are injured. All three have been transported to the hospital." ABC and NBC News reported that the unidentified suspect was shot by police and later died. A photo taken by an Associated Press photographer showed officers surrounding a vehicle that appeared to have crashed into a barricade on the Capitol's north side. Earlier, a message played over the loudspeakers inside the Capitol said that all buildings were being locked down “due to an external security threat” and staff members were told they could not enter or exit the buildings.
Other footage showed National Guard troops marching toward the Capitol. Some were then seen surrounding roadblocks that had previously been installed on Capitol Hill. Tensions in Washington have remained high in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died during the assault. Trump was impeached for his role in inciting the riot and there were a number of resignations, including from the Capitol Police chief and the sergeants-at-arms of both the House and Senate. In early March, the House recessed early after Capitol Police said they discovered evidence of a "possible plot" against legislators tied to the same far-right conspiracy theorists that helped spark the Jan. 6 violence. Yet Republicans have spent weeks pressuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to remove protective fencing erected in the aftermath of the attack. Outer fencing around the Capitol came down over the weekend. And "inner perimeter fence" around the Capitol Building is still in place. Both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives were not in session Friday as Congress is on recess. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy asked for prayers for the injured officers. "Please join me in prayer for the two Capitol Police officers and their families," McCarthy tweeted. "They reacted quickly and bravely, as did all the other first responders at the scene. The whole country is pulling for them right now."

US studies weapons sales, military training for Saudi Arabia amid Houthi assault: WSJ
Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English/02 April ,2021
The US is studying sales of defensive weapons and military exchange programs to support Saudi Arabia against Yemen’s Houthis aerial attacks on the Kingdom, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday citing Pentagon officials. “Options on the table include sales of specific, defensive weapons, such as missile interceptors; expanded intelligence-sharing; additional training; and military-to-military exchange programs,” the report said. The report comes two months after the US froze the sale of 3,000 precision guided munitions to Saudi Arabia pending review.
Since January, Yemen’s Houthis have launched dozens of cross-border aerial attacks on Saudi Arabia. The Iran-backed militia targeted civilian areas and energy facilities in the Kingdom with explosive-laden drones and ballistic missiles. “By far that’s worse than any other period since before the beginning of the conflict,” a US official told WSJ, referring to the war in Yemen. The US officials praised Saudi Arabia’s defensive capabilities, with one saying: “The Saudis have been pretty effective at knocking this stuff down. They are doing better and better.” Another official stressed the importance of sending a message to the Houthis: “The bottom line is that the Houthis need to know that we are standing with the Saudis and we will continue to support their right to self-defense.” President Joe Biden’s administration revoked a terrorist designation of the Houthis introduced by former President Donald Trump in January. Biden also announced in February ending US support for the offensive operations of the Arab Coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, which intervened in Yemen in 2015. Saudi Arabia maintains that it will continue to treat the Houthis as a terrorist organization regardless of whether the United States decided to designate the group as such, according to the Kingdom's permanent representative to the UN. A group of US lawmakers wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urging him to redesignate Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia as a terrorist organization.

US, Iran to begin indirect talks on nuclear programme, sanctions relief
The Arab Weekly/April 02/2021
WASHINGTON - The United States and Iran said Friday that they would start indirect talks with other major world powers next week to try to get both countries back into an accord limiting Iran’s nuclear programme, nearly three years after President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal. Participants in the accord over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions — including China, France, Germany, Russia and Britain — said their officials would meet in-person on Tuesday in Vienna, the European Union said after a video conference. The fresh talks next week will involve shuttle diplomacy with US officials.
The US will not take part directly in the main negotiations since former leader Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018. However, the EU said its mediator will hold “separate contacts” with officials from Washington in the Austrian capital. The painstakingly negotiated accord saw Iran granted relief from international sanctions in exchange for accepting limits on its nuclear programme aimed at easing fears it could acquire an atomic weapon.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price called the resumption of negotiations in Austria, “a healthy step forward.” But Price added, “These remain early days and we don’t anticipate an immediate breakthrough as there will be difficult discussions ahead.” Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and President Joe Biden has said rejoining the agreement is a priority. The Biden administration and Iran have differed on any conditions for that to happen, including the timing of the lifting of US sanctions against Iran. The stalemate on those points had threatened to pose a major foreign policy setback for the new Biden administration. Agreement on the start of multiparty talks — being held to get Iran and the United States over their differences on conditions for returning to the 2015 nuclear deal — came after talks Thursday brokered by the other governments that have remained in the accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Price said next week’s talks will be structured around working groups that the European Union was forming with the remaining participants in the accord, including Iran.
“The primary issues that will be discussed are the nuclear steps that Iran would need to take in order to return to compliance with the terms of the JCPOA, and the sanctions relief steps that the United States would need to take in order to return to compliance as well,” Price said.
The United States, like Iran, said it did not anticipate direct talks between the US and Iran now. Price said the United States remains open to that idea, however. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif immediately stressed that no meeting was planned between officials from Iran and the US. In a tweet, Zarif said the aim of the Vienna session would be “rapidly finalise sanction-lifting & nuclear measures for choreographed removal of all sanctions, followed by Iran ceasing remedial measures.”Iranian state television quoted Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s nuclear negotiator at the virtual meeting, as saying during Friday’s discussions that any “return by the US to the nuclear deal does not require any negotiation and the path is quite clear.”
“The US can return to the deal and stop breaching the law in the same way it withdrew from the deal and imposed illegal sanctions on Iran,” Araghchi was quoted as saying. Russia’s ambassador to international organisations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said that “the impression is that we are on the right track, but the way ahead will not be easy and will require intensive efforts. The stakeholders seem to be ready for that.” Any return of the United States to the JCPOA would involve complications. Iran has been steadily violating the restrictions of the deal, like the amount of enriched uranium it can stockpile and the purity to which it can enrich it. Tehran’s moves have been calculated to put pressure on the other nations in the deal — Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain — to do more to offset crippling sanctions reimposed under Trump.Iran has said that before it resumes compliance with the deal, the US needs to return to its own obligations under the deal by dropping the sanctions.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has said that over the past two years, Iran has accumulated a lot of nuclear material and new capacities and used the time for “honing their skills in these areas.” The ultimate goal of the deal is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, something it insists it doesn’t want to do. Iran now has enough enriched uranium to make a bomb, but nowhere near the amount it had before the nuclear deal was signed. As part of its ongoing violations of the JCPOA, Iran last month began restricting IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities. Under a last-minute deal worked out during a trip to Tehran, however, some access was preserved. Under that temporary agreement, Iran will no longer share surveillance footage of its nuclear facilities with the IAEA, but it has promised to preserve the tapes for three months. It will then hand them over to the Vienna-based UN atomic watchdog if it is granted sanctions relief. Otherwise, Iran has vowed to erase the tapes, narrowing the window for a diplomatic breakthrough.
 

Greece Accuses Turkey of Trying to Provoke it with Migrant Boats
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 2 April, 2021
Greece accused Turkey on Friday of trying to provoke it by attempting to push boats carrying migrants into Greek waters. Greece and Turkey disagree on a range of issues, including energy resources in the Mediterranean, and tensions between the NATO allies rose last year when thousands of asylum-seekers in Turkey tried to storm the Greek land border. Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said the Greek coastguard had reported multiple incidents on Friday of the Turkish coastguard and navy accompanying migrant boats "to the border of Europe, in an effort to provoke an escalation" with Greece.
"It is beyond doubt that these migrants departed Turkish shores, and given the fact they were supported by Turkey, were not at risk," Mitarachi said in a recorded statement. "We call on Turkey to stand down and stop this unwarranted provocation." The Turkish foreign ministry said it was not aware of the incident while the defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Turkey has also accused Greece of "harassing" its vessels in the eastern Mediterranean and of taking "provocative actions". The Greek coastguard said that in one incident a boat carrying migrants tried to enter Greek territorial waters on Friday accompanied by a Turkish coastguard vessel. In another, two Turkish vessels tried to push a dingy with migrants into Greek waters. In a third incident off the island of Lesbos, a Turkish coastguard vessel entered Greek territorial waters and harassed a Greek patrol boat, it said. Nearly a million asylum-seekers, mostly Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans, crossed to Greece from Turkey on boats in 2015 at the start of Europe's migration crisis. A year later, the EU struck a deal with Ankara to stem the flow and numbers fell dramatically. Mitarachi called on Turkey to "live up to" its commitments under the deal.

Suez Canal Says Close to Clearing Backlog after Ship Dislodged
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 2 April, 2021
The Suez Canal said on Friday it was close to clearing a backlog of shipping that built up when a giant container ship was grounded in the waterway. Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Chairman Osama Rabie told Egypt’s Extra News TV that 61 ships were still waiting and would pass on Saturday, down from 422 that were queuing by the time the Ever Given container ship was dislodged on Monday. Some 80 ships were passing through the canal on Friday in both directions, including a US aircraft carrier, a liquefied natural gas tanker, and an oil tanker, the SCA said in a statement.

Arab League Calls on EU to Recognize State of Palestine
Cairo - Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 2 April, 2021
An Arab League official called on the European Union (EU) to urge its members that have not yet recognized the state of Palestine to take this step as soon as possible. Saeed Abu Ali, Arab League assistant secretary-general for Palestinian affairs and occupied Arab territories, said this step would protect the two-state solution, which is the only way to achieve regional peace, stability and security. It reflects the Palestinians’ right to establish an independent and sovereign state with East Jerusalem as its capital, he added during a meeting with Christian Berger, head of the EU delegation to Egypt, at the League headquarters in Cairo. Abu Ali briefed Berger on the latest developments in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the organization’s position on various relevant issues. He expressed the League’s appreciation of EU efforts to resume the peace process and hailed the European support for the Palestinians and their legitimate rights. He further called on the EU to exert pressure on Israel to comply with the principles of international law and UN resolutions and accept the 2002 Arab peace initiative. He told Berger that the ongoing preparations for holding legislative and presidential elections in Palestine reflect the people’s keenness to exercise their democratic right to choose their representatives. He stressed the importance of the European monitoring of the elections and the need to exert pressure on Israel to allow Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem, to participate in the polls.

Rights groups urge Russians to wake up to Syria abuses
AFP/April 03, 2021
MOSCOW: Rights groups in Moscow urged Russians to take responsibility for abuses in Syria as they released a damning report on Friday on the country’s role in the decade-old conflict.
Published to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the Syrian war, the report is the first into the conflict by Russian campaigners and seeks to shed light on the victims of the country’s military actions in Syria, a taboo topic for Kremlin-friendly media. Its findings are in stark contrast to Moscow’s official narrative and President Vladimir Putin’s praise of the Russian military for intervening in 2015 to root out “terrorists” and support Bashar Assad’s regime. Prepared by Memorial, Russia’s top rights group, and several other organizations, the 200-page report features interviews with more than 150 witnesses to events in Syria.“The overwhelming majority of our interviewees do not see Russia as a savior, but as a destructive foreign force whose military and political intervention helped bolster the war criminal heading their country,” the groups said. “Some of the people we interviewed revealed that they or their loved ones had been victims of Russian bombings.”The report accuses Russia of abuses in Syria including bombing civilians indiscriminately and backing Syria’s regime, which has been accused of atrocities including targeting civilians, using chemical weapons and starving people to death in besieged cities.
FASTFACT
A 200-page report — prepared by Memorial, Russia’s top rights group, and several other organizations — features interviews with more than 150 witnesses to events in Syria. The campaigners also noted abuses by US-led forces who had intervened in Syria, but said most first-hand accounts were related to “abuses suffered at the hands of Syrian government forces and their allies, and armed opposition groups, including terrorist groups.” Memorial’s Oleg Orlov, speaking to reporters, compared Russia’s bombing of Syrian civilians to the military’s tactics in Chechnya where Moscow fought two wars against separatists in the 1990s and 2000s. The report urged Moscow to conduct independent investigations into the Russian army’s bombardments in Syria and pay compensation to victims. The authors, who worked on the study for two years, were unable to enter Syria and interviewed Syrians who had fled the war in Lebanon, Turkey, Germany, Russia and elsewhere. A woman from the Homs city neighborhood of Waer, which was under siege between 2013 and 2016, told the authors Russia’s intervention emboldened Syria’s regime. “In the six months since the start of Russian bombing, there were more victims than there were over two years of Syrian bombing,” said the woman, who at one point weighed just 33 kg. Russia has denied that the Syrian authorities have used chemical weapons against civilians and used its veto power at the UN Security Council to protect Damascus. But the Russian activists said they collected testimony from witnesses of attacks using sarin and other chemical weapons.
“I saw 30 children lying dead with other people still pouring water over them,” a surgeon from Eastern Ghouta told the authors. “I will never forget that scene.” The campaigners said they wanted as many Russians as possible to read their study and “understand their responsibility for what is happening in their name in Syria.”“We felt both bitter and ashamed for how our Syrian interviewees view Russians.”Despite their efforts, Orlov said the rights campaigners did not hold out much hope. “I am afraid that we should not expect a serious reaction from Russian society,” he said.

Syria Kurds say 125 Daesh militants captured in displacement camp sweep
AFP/April 02, 2021
BEIRUT: Kurdish forces on Friday said they had captured 125 suspected Daesh members as part of a security operation in northeast Syria’s Al-Hol displacement camp. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced the launch Sunday of the sweep targeting Daesh operatives in the overcrowded settlement, which has been rocked by more than 40 assassinations since the start of the year. Kurdish authorities have warned that the camp, home to almost 62,000 people, is turning into an extremist powder keg because of Daesh militants hiding out among camp residents.
“We captured 125 members of IS sleeper cells, including 20 in charge of cells and assassinations in the camp,” said Ali Al-Hassan, a spokesman for the Kurds’ Asayish security forces. There have been more than 47 killings since the start of the year, Hassan said. Speaking at the Asayish headquarters in the town of Al-Hol, he said several Daesh members had infiltrated the camp by pretending they were displaced civilians. “Their goal was to work inside it and regroup,” Hassan told a press conference. During the sweep, the Asayish found “electronic circuits used to prepare explosive devices” as well as other military gear, he added. Al-Hol is the larger of two Kurdish-run displacement camps for suspected relatives of Daesh extremists in Syria’s northeast. It holds mostly Syrians and Iraqis but also thousands from Europe and Asia. Many residents see the camp as the last vestige of the Daesh proto-state that extremists declared in 2014 across large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq. “Despite the fact that we have arrested many sleeper cell operatives in the camp, including senior officials, the danger in Al-Hol is not over yet,” Hassan said. “The success of our operation... will not last long without international backing.” Syria’s Kurds have repeatedly urged the international community to repatriate foreign nationals held in northeast Syria. But these calls have largely fallen on deaf ears with only some, mostly children, allowed to return so far.

UK urged to bring women, children home from Syrian camps
Arab News/April 02/2021
LONDON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with his Bahraini counterpart Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani on Friday to discuss Manama’s relations with Israel. “Secretary Blinken and the foreign minister discussed Bahrain’s historic opening with Israel and ways to capitalize on progress made at the first US-Bahrain Strategic Dialogue held in December,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. The talks come after Bahrain announced it had appointed Khalid Al-Jalahma as head of its diplomatic mission to Israel on Tuesday. The Israeli foreign ministry said that a team from Bahrain would arrive in Israel in the coming weeks to make the necessary arrangements for the Bahraini embassy. Bahrain signed a US-brokered deal with Israel last year to normalize relations. The Abraham Accords were also signed by the UAE, Sudan and Morocco. Previously, only Egypt and Jordan had diplomatic relations with Israel, signed in 1979 and 1994, respectively. Price said the two sides also discussed joint regional security initiatives throughout the Gulf. “Secretary Blinken outlined key policy objectives, including continued progress on human rights, and commended Bahrain for its successful efforts to combat human trafficking,” Price added.

Report: UK Israel-Palestine textbooks ‘dangerously misleading’
Arab News/April 02/2021
LONDON: Distribution of two school textbooks in the UK on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been paused after a report called their content “dangerously misleading.”The books, “Conflict in the Middle East” and “The Middle East: Conflict, Crisis and Change,” were subject to significant revisions last year after complaints from the Board of Deputies of British Jews. But an investigation by two British academics, Prof. John Chalcraft and Prof. James Dickins — members of the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine — found that the revisions “overwhelmingly … favor an Israeli narrative, and remove or replace (information) that supports Palestinian narratives.” Their report found an average of three changes per page, with incidents of Arab or Palestinian violence “systematically added or intensified,” while incidents of Israeli violence had been toned down or removed from the text completely. The original work had contained 10 examples of Jewish Israeli terrorist acts, compared to 32 references to Palestinian terrorism. The revised versions mentioned just four incidents of terrorism by Jewish Israelis, compared to 61 caused by Palestinians. Charlcraft said: “The overall effect (of the changes) is to make these books dangerously misleading.” The textbooks’ publisher Pearson said in a statement: “Our core editorial principle is to support the teaching of this important period in Middle East history in a fair, neutral and balanced way. We welcome feedback but we have robust processes in place to review any feedback — this is particularly important for such a sensitive period of time in history.”It added: “We commissioned an independent review of these books last year and the changes made were based on the outcome of that review. We stand by our texts but had already taken the decision to pause further distribution while we discuss further with stakeholders.”Eugene Rogan, professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of Oxford, told The Independent: “Given Britain’s historical responsibility, it is particularly important that the (Israeli-Palestinian conflict) be taught in a way that is impartial and objective.” He added: “It is a betrayal of such objectivity to allow Israel advocates the opportunity to edit teaching materials without giving Palestine advocates an equal opportunity to provide input. The result can only undermine confidence in the impartiality of the teaching of an intensely complex and sensitive issue.”

Critics say Turkish courts are influenced by politics, while Erdogan and his AK Party say they’re independent
Arab News/April 02/2021
ANKARA — Turkish police on Friday detained a former lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the party said, after his parliamentary status was revoked last month over a finalized sentence on terrorism charges. Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a human rights activist, was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison for terrorism propaganda, in a ruling later upheld by the top appeals court. The charges were related to a link he shared on Twitter to a news story that included comments by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Gergerlioglu denies any wrongdoing.
“This is a shame for Turkey. This is a shame for the ruling party. I am being punished for opposing injustice,” Gergerlioglu told broadcaster Arti TV, adding that police were waiting outside his door to take him away. HDP said it expected Gergerlioglu to be sent to jail. Thousands of members of the HDP, Turkey’s third-largest party, have been tried as part of a years-long crackdown on the party over alleged links to the PKK. Many prominent members of the party have been jailed, including its former co-leader Selahattin Demirtas, one of Turkey’s most well-known politicians. Last month, a top prosecutor moved to shut down the party, after months of calls from President Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist MHP allies. Critics say Turkish courts are influenced by politics, while Erdogan and his AK Party say they are independent. Turkey’s top court sent the indictment calling for the HDP to be closed back to the prosecutor on procedural grounds this week. But it can be re-submitted after the necessary changes. HDP denies links to terrorism and has described the move to ban it as a “political coup.” The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union. It has fought an insurgency against the state in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey since 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

At Least 41 Dead as Taiwan Train Derails in Tunnel
Agence France Presse/April 02/2021
Dozens of people were killed on Friday when a packed train derailed inside a tunnel in eastern Taiwan, the island's worst railway accident in decades. Taiwan's National Fire Agency said at least 41 people were confirmed dead with more than 60 sent to hospital. Two people were still trapped in the twisted carriages inside the tunnel on Friday afternoon, the agency added. Officials said the accident could have been caused by a maintenance vehicle sliding down an embankment and striking the train before it entered the tunnel near the coastal city of Hualien. "There was a construction vehicle that didn't park properly and slid onto the rail track," Hualien county police chief Tsai Ding-hsien told reporters. "This is our initial understanding and we are clarifying the cause of the incident," he added.  Local media pictures from the scene showed the back of a yellow flatbed truck on its side next to the train. President Tsai Ing-wen's office said she had ordered hospitals to prepare for a mass casualty event. "The top priority now is to rescue the stranded people," it said in a statement. The accident occurred on Taiwan's eastern railway line around 9:30 am (0130 GMT). Pictures published by local newspaper UDN showed the front of the train inside the tunnel had been pulverised into a twisted mesh of metal. Footage released by the Taiwan Red Cross showed rescuers with helmets and headlights walking on the roof of the stricken train inside the tunnel to reach survivors.
Escape by roof
People further back in the train were able to walk away from the crash comparatively unscathed. A live Facebook broadcast by UDN outside the tunnel showed a row of undamaged train carriages with rescuers helping passengers escape. "It felt like there was a sudden violent jolt and I found myself falling to the floor," an unidentified female survivor told the network, saying she suffered a cut to her head. "We broke the window to climb to the roof of the train to get out," she added. The eight-car train was travelling from Taipei to the southeastern city of Taitung and was carrying about 350 passengers. The accident occurred at the start of the busy annual Tomb Sweeping Festival, a long holiday weekend when Taiwan's roads and railways are usually packed. During the festival, people return to ancestral villages to tidy up the graves of their relatives and make offerings. Taiwan's eastern railway line is usually a popular tourist draw down its dramatic and less populated eastern coastline. With the help of multiple tunnels and bridges, it winds its way through towering mountains and dramatic gorges before entering the picturesque Huadong Valley. Friday's crash looks set to be one of Taiwan's worst railway accidents on record. The last major train derailment in Taiwan was in 2018 and left 18 people dead at the southern end of the same line. The driver of the eight-carriage train was later charged with negligent homicide. More than 200 of the 366 people on board were also injured. That crash was the island's worst since 1991, when 30 passengers were killed and 112 injured after two trains collided in Miaoli. Thirty were also killed in 1981 after a truck collided with a passenger train at a level crossing and sent coaches over a bridge in Hsinchu. Apple Daily newspaper said the island's worst crash was in 1948 when 64 died. Another crash in 1961 killed 48 while a 1978 crash left 41 dead.

Jihadist Suspect Blows Herself, Child Up in Tunisia
Agence France Presse/April 02/2021
A suspected foreign jihadist blew herself and her little girl up with an explosives belt as security forces closed in in mountains of central Tunisia, the interior ministry said Friday. It said the child she was carrying died on the spot and another small girl was wounded Thursday as the woman detonated the belt in the remote Mount Selloum area of Kasserine near the Algerian border, a known jihadist hideout. National guard and army units the same day "eliminated" Hamdi Dhouib, a senior member of the outlawed Jund al-Khalifa, which is linked to the Islamic State (IS) group, in Mount Mghila, also in Kasserine, the ministry said in a statement. Tunisia faced several jihadist attacks after its 2011 revolution, with dozens of security personnel, civilians and foreign tourists killed. It has kept in place a state of emergency, renewed twice-yearly, since a deadly 2015 attack on a presidential guard bus claimed by IS.

Russia to Take 'Measures' in Case Western Troops Sent to Ukraine, Says Kremlin
Agence France Presse/April 02/2021
The Kremlin said Friday Moscow would be forced to take extra measures to ensure security if the West sends troops to Ukraine to buttress its ally amid reports of a Russian troop buildup on the border. "No doubt such a scenario would lead to a further increase in tensions close to Russia's borders. Of course, this would call for additional measures from the Russian side to ensure its security," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He insisted however that Russia was "not threatening" Ukraine.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 02-03/2021

The European Union: From a Single Market to a Tragic Farce
Drieu Godefridi/Gatestone Institute/April 02/2021
Five hundred years from now, when historians look back on the COVID era, they will say that America's "Operation Warp Speed," under President Donald J. Trump, was a triumph of science and logistics.
Many liberals have a short memory, but the EU has not always been the big, remote machine it has become.
The principle of equality of states and the principle of equality of citizens cannot be reconciled in the current EU setting of institutions, says Germany's Federal Constitutional Court.
Of course, EU institutions are dressed up with flowery language — such as "making the EU more democratic" — aimed at making people believe that EU institutions... are increasingly democratic and only waiting to become fully democratic.
This evolution consisted, first of all, in subverting European institutions to make them accomplish, in addition to their economic aims, missions that were foreign to them, such as a "common foreign policy" that was never anything than words. How could you have a foreign policy common to the UK, Austria and Portugal?
EU elites are weak, cowardly and pusillanimous because they know they do not represent anyone, in the true democratic sense of the word – they are not democratically elected, they are not transparent and they are not accountable to anyone. They are ultimately the playthings of governments that never agree with each other – but that do have the legitimacy of being truly democratic: elected, transparent, and accountable. There is also no mechanism for citizens to unelect anyone, should they wish to do so.
The European Union's vaccine management is a metonym for the EU: a tragic farce in the hands of ideologues as obtuse as they are inefficient. Pictured: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at a press conference, following a meeting about draft legislation on a common EU Covid-19 vaccination certificate, in Brussels on March 17, 2021.
Concerning the European Union, opinions are divided between those who consider it useless and costly, and those who believe it to be the future of Europe and a model for the human race.
What is the reality?
Before today's EU emerged, the construction of a European union was, at first, a tremendous success.
Many liberals have a short memory, but the EU has not always been the big, remote machine it has become. In the era of the more modestly named "European Communities" – entailing, for example, cooperation amongst multiple countries' economies; or within their coal, steel and nuclear industries – Europe achieved four freedoms of movement: those of people, capital, services and goods. Despite its flaws, shortcomings and innumerable imperfections (nothing human is perfect), this common – or single – market made a massive and substantial contribution to the freedom and prosperity of Europeans.
It is impossible not to consider as progress that a French citizen can move freely in Italy or that a Spanish entrepreneur has the right freely to offer services to citizens of the Netherlands. The original European common market was in every way in line with Jean Monnet's constructive concept of "peace through prosperity."
The problem was that the ideologues of all creeds could not be satisfied with this Europe as a mere tool, one that was essentially economic in nature. No, it was necessary to add a political Europe, a social Europe, a Europe of defense, a European foreign policy, an ecological Europe and even a geopolitical Europe.
This evolution consisted, first of all, in subverting European institutions to make them accomplish, in addition to their economic aims, missions that were foreign to them, such as a "common foreign policy" that was never anything than words. How could you have a foreign policy common to the UK, Austria and Portugal?
Next, the institutions and procedures were, and continue to be, constantly adapted, renovated and revolutionized to serve extra-economic ends — such as "peace", "combat social exclusion", "promote scientific and technological progress", "security and justice" — even at the expense of economic ones.
Today, the economic purpose of the European construction has been officially reduced — through treaties – to the bare essentials, aiming at "a sustainable development based on balanced economic growth and price stability" and given over to the demands of political, social and environmentalist Europe. Such demands begin, for example, with the European Green Deal that aims to turn Europe into the first "climate-neutral" continent by reducing Europe's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to "net zero" by 2050, even if the economic consequences to Europeans are unsustainable. According to IndustriAll, the federation of European industrial trade unions, there is a great risk that the European Green Deal will put entire industrial sectors on their knees, slashing millions of jobs in energy-intensive industries, without any assurances that workers in affected industries will have a future.
Thus, the EU, which in the past offered a counterbalance to the anti-economic fury of its member states, is now the permanent amplification of this fury.
No resolution concerning gender or environmentalism adopted by the German or French parliaments can compete with the increasingly extreme proclamations adopted on these subjects, as on others, by EU institutions. For example, the mainstreaming of the most extreme version of the gender theory — the idea that "male" and "female" are cultural, not biological, concepts — is now the official policy of the EU.
What allows these European institutions to go further and further down the path of ideology is that they escape democratic sanction, since the EU remains first and foremost an intergovernmental organization. Germany's Federal Constitutional Court diagnosed a "structural democratic deficit" in the construction of the European Union, in that the decision-making processes in the EU remain largely those of an international organization. The decision-making is based on the principle of the equality of member-states. The principle of equality of states and the principle of equality of citizens cannot be reconciled in the EU's current set of institutions, the Court said. Of course, EU institutions are dressed up with flowery language — such as "making the EU more democratic" according the Lisbon Treaty — aimed at making people believe that EU institutions, although imperfect, are increasingly democratic and only waiting to become fully democratic.
Nothing could be further from the truth; as an intergovernmental organization, the EU is not, never has been and never will be a democracy. An international organization is a compact between governments; to add an elected "European Parliament" to the scheme, with very limited capabilities, does not alter the intergovernmental preoccupations of such an organization.
What percentage of European citizens is capable of naming even one Member of European Parliament, European Commissioner or European Court of Justice judge? Americans feel American before being from Wyoming or Arkansas; while Italians, Spaniards, Swedes, Poles and Slovenes identify with their country before feeling European (in the generic sense of the word, not referring to the EU).
For historic reasons, Germany abides as much and often as possible by the EU rules and institutions. As was noted by Ulrich Speck:
"The country has built its political identity and its political system on the concept of being the opposite of the Nazi state. Germans today see the Nazi regime, among other things, as a radicalized form of classical power politics—something that they consider themselves lucky to have left behind."
In other words, many Germans see the EU as the ultimate antidote to the hegemonic tendencies of their past. While they managed the first part — the mitigation — of the recent pandemic relatively well, they decided to rely on the EU for vaccine management. There is logic in this approach: first, we are stronger together in negotiating with "Big Pharma," and, also, isn't this an opportunity to prove to Europeans that this EU that they do not like is at least useful?
Not content with being useless and costly, as in the case of vaccinations against COVID-19, the EU has shown itself to be horribly, comically and tragically ineffective. AstraZeneca, for instance, simply "informed" the bloc that it would not be able to supply the number of vaccines the EU had hoped — and paid for —by the end of March. EU leaders were "furious" that the company appears to be fulfilling its deliveries for the UK market and not theirs. The result of the EU's inability to uphold the commitments made to it by vaccine manufacturers is without appeal or recourse:
Five hundred years from now, when historians look back on the COVID era, they will say that America's "Operation Warp Speed," under President Donald J. Trump, was a triumph of science and logistics.
While it took five years to develop a vaccine against Ebola — the previous world record — it took less than a year in the West to develop several vaccines against COVID, mainly under pressure and with funding from United States taxpayers. Soon the U.S. government realized that the challenge was also logistical; it is all well and good to develop a vaccine, but it also has to be produced in large quantities and then distributed.
At the request of the US government, entire factories were built in a matter of months to produce the vaccine (which had not yet been developed at the time), in an effort whose breadth and scale were not unlike the U.S. industrial war effort of 1941. When it came time to distribute the vaccine, the U.S. government used the best tool at its disposal: the U.S. military. In the end, the U.S. mass vaccination program is being carried out in an unprecedented time frame; President Biden said at the beginning of March that the U.S. will have enough vaccines to inoculate every American by the end of May — two months earlier than previously expected.
Compared to the United States, the EU's failure is total. While in Europe, the challenge was only to produce and distribute the vaccine, the EU failed miserably on both counts. The European vaccination program now lags far behind the U.S. program and even farther behind those of Israel and post-Brexit Britain.
According to current data, the return to normal in Europe will be one year behind that of America and the United Kingdom. This year represents a cruel multitude of deficits, bankruptcies and personal disasters. It portends, in relative terms, a massive economic regression awaiting the EU, compared to the rest of the world.
The EU's vaccine management is a metonym for the EU: a tragic farce in the hands of ideologues as obtuse as they are inefficient. EU elites are weak, cowardly and pusillanimous because they know they do not represent anyone, in the true democratic sense of the word – they are not democratically elected, they are not transparent and they are not accountable to anyone. They are ultimately the playthings of governments that never agree with each other – but that do have the legitimacy of being truly democratic: elected, transparent, and accountable. There is also no mechanism for citizens to unelect anyone, should they wish to do so.
Common wisdom would dictate reducing the EU back to a single market, one territory without any internal borders or other regulatory obstacles to the free movement of goods and services. The ideological hubris that animates European institutions and their ideological sponsors will push them in the opposite direction – that of ever-greater centralization – at the expense of the European people and their vital interests.
**Drieu Godefridi, a classical-liberal Belgian author, is the founder of the l'Institut Hayek in Brussels. He has a PhD in Philosophy from the Sorbonne in Paris and also heads investments in European companies.
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Iran and the Regime’s Great Wall
Mustafa Fahs/Asharq Al Awsat/April 02/2021
Tehran presented its documents to Beijing, a significant step that resembles a strategic asylum request that aims to secure an additional 25 years for the regime, now protected by a new Chinese wall. The regime believes that this will allow it to stay in power without the need for internal changes or external concessions, as it considers that the agreement with China requires the preservation of the regime structure and decision-making hierarchy to safeguard its implementation in the long run.
The decision to resort to China came only after the Iranians became convinced of two things: first, the bet on Washington had been lost after Tehran was shocked by President Joe Biden’s administration. As for the second, it is the need to save the regime and end its plight. The agreement, in its geopolitical dimension, puts Tehran behind China’s wall. Internally, it is erecting a fence that protects the regime from the winds of change that may blow on the inside.
The regime sees that it shares many resemblances with the regime in Beijing. It is an ideological one-party state that raises socialist slogans but embodies the pinnacle of “savage” capitalism, one that is unrestrained by the law or humanitarian considerations. China enjoys - or finds easy - investing or colonizing countries that are struggling economically, especially those whose regimes share similarities with it in their approach to governance.
Tehran’s decision to open its markets to cheap Chinese goods suits the Iranian citizens’ weak purchasing power, but on the other hand, it could disrupt local production. More dangerous, the agreement, with its colonial aspects, will transform Iran into one of China’s primary colonies, which will remind Iranians of the difficult time when Russia and Britain put their hands on its geography and wealth, exploiting them to their benefit.
The regime’s future problem is that the agreement will not go through without internal repercussions.
Regardless of how hard the regime tries to deny the social realities in Iran, the Iranians are not like the North Koreans or Chinese, and the people’s potential repudiation of the agreement could ignite the streets for many reasons. One of the most important is that the agreement was concluded for the sake of the regime, not the people. It is a tool that the regime will use to consolidate its rule for a longer time. Thus, increased repression and more aggressive clampdowns on freedoms are expected during the forthcoming phase as citizens and elites opposed to the agreement are silenced. The paradox is that while the Iranian people had been calling for a policy open to the outside world, the regime built a wall isolating Iran from the world.
The agreement and the increased liquidity it offers Tehran will most likely inflame rivalries between decision-making forces and create conflicts between them as they compete for credit for its conclusion. It will also be an essential part of all the presidential election campaigns; since the agreement was signed, prominent regime figures have been playing up the primacy of the role they played in getting it over the line, chief among them are Ali Larijani, Ali Velayati and even Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
There is no doubt that the Iranian-Chinese agreement turns the supreme leader's geostrategic vision into a reality. The same applies to the theory of heading East to save the regime from the West’s ambitions, especially those of the United States, and to avert being obliged to comply with its political and economic dictates. However, it will put the regime in a fault line that begins in Moscow, passes through Central Asia and Turkey and reaches the Arab Gulf states. These states will not allow Iran to become an advanced Chinese base along the economic “Silk Road,” nor will they allow Iran to exploit its ties with China to continue to destabilize its surroundings.
No doubt, this agreement has brought China into the “Belt and Road” project, the pinnacle of Chinese international economic expansion, a significant blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Eurasian project, which Russia had been hoping would allow it to regain its political and economic influence in the area stretching from Central Europe to the Arab Gulf. The agreement has also stirred apprehension in Ankara, which is working on entrenching its presence in Central Asia or the so-called “Turkish world,” which connects it with Moscow and Beijing politically, economically and culturally, as Iran will try to infiltrate them again through the Chinese gate.
And so, Tehran has put itself at the heart of the impending Chinese-American conflict, and it could turn into an arena for conflict between the powers. Its results are difficult to predict early on, but one can envisage their outline and the dangers they could pose to Iran and its people.
 

Between Despair and Presumption a Reporter’s Dilemma
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/April 02/2021
“Don’t get emotionally involved!” This is one of the first lessons I was told to learn when as a young reporter in the 1970s I was sent to cover “events” in distant lands.
The euphemism covered wars, revolutions, ethnic-cleansing operations, famines, and in their less harmful version, military coups bringing jackboots with sunglasses to power. One of the first such “events” was the general election in what was then a united Pakistan. I arrived in Dhaka one early evening and was whisked to a hotel on the outskirts of the sprawling capital of what was then East Pakistan. After a brief shower, I came down to the lobby and asked for a taxi to take me to the city. My inquiry caused a sensation. I was told it was “perhaps inadvisable” to visit the city after sunset and that waiting until tomorrow was the best option.
In any case, hotel taxis didn’t operate after evening prayers. My verbal to-and-fro with hotel personnel was interrupted by a tall thin man who offered to give me a ride in his ramshackle rickshaw. That was good enough for me and we set out. As we approached the city I felt as if I were being sucked into a different world. This was a scene of absolute chaos with countless number of people, mostly half-naked, barefoot and obviously undernourished milling around amid rickshaws, tricycles, beasts of burden, beggars, children on the loose and men in sundry military or police uniforms, often dirty.
A couple of hours of that spectacle was enough to make me physically sick and to beat the retreat back to the luxury hotel which now looked like a big lie hiding the truth. I felt as if my youthful optimism about the future of mankind was evaporating. I had thought that even the most abject poverty could be defeated either by technology or by ideology. My first incursion into the heart of Dhaka had punctured that optimism. In a cowardly mood, I contemplated taking the next ‘plane out. Then I remembered that two days later I had an appointment with one Sheikh Mujib ar-Rahman, a man described by East Pakistani leaders I had interviewed a few days earlier as “a dangerous troublemaker.”
Sheikh Mujib, as everyone called him, sent a battered Studebaker, vintage 1951, to fetch me to his home. This was a fairly modest villa by most standards but at that moment looked like an oasis of tranquility and, because of a garden full of flowers, even of beauty. After endless cups of tea and half a dozen delicious but unidentifiable sweets, I concluded that far from being a troublemaker, Sheikh Mujib was a fantasist for he spoke of his people’s desire to assume control of their destiny which meant splitting Pakistan. Who would drive the powerful Pakistani military out? And would “interested powers” including India, China, the United States, the Soviet Union and Iran, under an ambitious Shah, tolerate such a major geopolitical earthquake?
Sheikh Mujib asked if I wished to accompany him on some of his hustings to “get the feel of the place”.
Observing election rallies in Dhaka, Cox’s Bazaar and Chittagong in the following days completely disoriented me. The energy that Mujib generated was truly amazing. The masses of the “walking skeletons” that I had seen were suddenly transformed into sizzling balls of fire. Yet, I had a feeling that all that was going to end in tragedy. And it did. Mujib won a majority in the Pakistan-wide election but was refused the right to form the government for a united Pakistan. The Pakistani leadership decided on a crackdown which included prison for Mujib and martial law in East Pakistan.
I was sent to cover the crackdown led by General Tikka Khan, a man known as the most ruthless member of the Pakistani top brass. I met Tikka twice for lunch and tea and listened to his long harangues while he used a fly swat to kill flies trying to share our chicken biryani. However, I didn’t think he was the ogre he was made to be. He wore high-heel shoes to look taller and dyed his hair black to appear younger. Tikka’s underlings had no qualms about the mass killing of real or imagined rebels. I saw piles of corpses in Dhaka’s streets. Bengali rebels repaid the compliment by organizing killing sprees against Pakistanis and their Bihari sympathizers.
I visited Mujib’s deserted villa which had been ransacked, looted and partially set on fire. I collected the debris left by looters, including family albums and school papers belonging to Mujib’s daughter Hasina. (These I returned years later through Bangladesh ambassador in Tehran Shams ud-Dhuha.) Fast forward, India intervened militarily, defeated the Pakistanis and helped Bangladesh gain independence. Mujib, in prison in East Pakistan, was released by the new Pakistani leader Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Mujib ended tragically when Bengali officers who had played almost no role in gaining independence staged a coup and killed the “father of the nation”.
I sent a letter to Khundegar Mushtaq Ahmad, the cleric that the jackboots named president as a façade. He wrote back promising to “bring the perpetrators to justice.” That didn’t happen and Khundegar was soon replaced by General Zia ul-Rahman who was to have his own tragic end. Why am I telling you all this?The reason is that this week marks the golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence, an occasion which I have a personal reason to mark. Bangladesh’s experience has shown that apart from technology and democracy, the two magic elements I idealized in my youth, a third and much more important factor is at play in our human affairs; that is people’s power. Bangladesh has not become a paradise on earth and, perhaps, never will.
Like most “developing nations” it is inflicted by corruption, mismanagement and injustice. But it is feeding its people and, having enjoyed growth rates of over 6 percent since 2005, its economy is now 40 percent larger than that of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. (It was 42 percent smaller before independence.) In fact, Bangladesh is one of only 20 “developing nations” in which all seven indices of human welfare, though still below the global average, are now positive.
Does that mean that all is a bed of roses in that chunk of Bengal? I would rather not speculate. Fifty years ago I despaired and was proven wrong. Now, I fear that if I presume I may also be proved wrong.
So let’s end with the cry that shook Asia half a century ago: Jay Bangla!

EU, US attempting to bring Turkey back on board
Sinem Cengiz/Arab News/April 02/2021
In 2005, when Turkey and the EU entered a new phase in their relationship with the start of negotiations for Ankara’s full membership, many were optimistic that this would be a turning point in the country’s ties with the Western world, including both the US and Europe.
A prominent Turkish scholar, Ziya Onis, wrote on the Turkey-EU-US triangular relationship’s benefits in 2005: “Not only will closer relations with the US continue to assist Turkey’s quest for EU membership, but also Turkey, not as an isolated state but as a member of the EU, will be in a far more advantageous position in developing a more balanced relationship with the US. This, in turn, will enable Turkey to protect its national interests better and to play a more constructive role in the wider Middle East as a ‘benign regional power.’”
Since then, a lot has happened that has seriously challenged Turkey’s relations with the EU and the US. Turkey did not become a member of the EU and its relations with both the EU and the US have not helped to protect its national interests. Nor has it become a “benign regional power,” which hardly any country could be in today’s Middle East. Rather, Turkey, especially since 2016, has pursued a more independent policy, mainly based on the use of military power and the engagement of military diplomacy, in order to consolidate its position in the region.
Moreover, the controversial US policies during the Donald Trump era not only harmed EU-Turkey relations, but also had an adverse impact on Washington’s ties with Europe, causing tensions in the transatlantic relationship. As the West’s political unity was disrupted due to the Trump administration’s lack of interest in multilateralism, EU member countries started to pursue their own policies, at times in opposing directions. This affected the EU’s approach toward Turkey on several regional issues, ranging from the eastern Mediterranean to migrant flow and from Syria to Libya.
As Joe Biden became US president, the country entered a new era of foreign policy restoration. This has caused optimism in European capitals. Unlike Trump’s focus on “America First” policies, Biden’s framework seems to prioritize coordination by enhancing Washington’s political and institutional ties with NATO, the EU and the UN.
This closer coordination between Washington and Brussels is likely to have implications for Ankara in the coming period. Given Turkey’s interest in pursuing independent policies both at home and abroad, it is likely that Biden will seek an assertive role in setting the EU’s relations with Ankara in order to bring it back to the transatlantic line. The role of the US in promoting closer links between Turkey and the EU, both historically and in the more recent context, has been critical. The EU, in its December summit, had already stated that its policy toward Ankara would be closely coordinated with the new US administration.
So last week’s EU summit, which Biden attended virtually to discuss transatlantic cooperation, had significant conclusions for Ankara. Firstly, Turkey welcomed Council of Europe President Charles Michel’s announcement of the EU leaders’ decision not to impose sanctions. The EU leaders were, in turn, pleased by the recent de-escalation in the eastern Mediterranean brought about by the resumption of bilateral talks between Greece and Turkey and the forthcoming talks on the Cyprus question under the auspices of the UN.
Moreover, the EU leaders noted that, if the current de-escalation is sustained and Ankara engages constructively, the bloc would be ready to engage with Turkey in a phased, proportionate and reversible manner to enhance cooperation and to take further decisions at June’s European Council meeting. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said this announcement was positive.
However, according to analysts, the main reason for Ankara receiving these remarks positively was that there was not much pressure on issues related to human rights and democracy. Just a day before the summit, the EU had expressed strong concerns about these issues, as Turkey had recently announced its withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on violence against women and had sacked a central bank governor admired by the West. Moreover, soon after the summit came Biden’s invitation to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the online climate summit he will host on April 22-23.
It is likely that Biden will seek an assertive role in setting the EU’s relations with Ankara in order to bring it back to the transatlantic line.
Needless to say, there are still lingering issues between Turkey and the EU-US bloc, ranging from the deal on Russia’s S-400 air defense system to the eastern Mediterranean and the issue of refugees. No one expects that these deep-rooted issues Turkey has with the EU and the US will be resolved overnight.
In any case, at a time when the EU and the US are redefining their transatlantic relationship, ties with Turkey seem set to remain as a critical chapter in this new dialogue. Therefore, Turkey should be prepared for a new era in which the coordination between the US and the EU will become more frequent. The echoes of such coordination have already emerged with the latest summit. So Turkey should take into account this new situation while shaping its policy toward the Western world, in which greater US-EU coordination lies ahead.
*Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkey’s relations with the Middle East. Twitter: @SinemCngz