English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese,
Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For April 19/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews21/english.april19.21.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
If you endure pain when you do right and suffer for it, you
have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also
suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps
First Letter of Peter 02,/18-25:”Slaves, accept
the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind
and gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is to your credit if, being
aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you
are beaten for doing wrong, where is the credit in that? But if you endure when
you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have
been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so
that you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was
found in his mouth.’ When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he
suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges
justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from
sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For
you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and
guardian of your souls.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on April 18-19/2021
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/
Saad Al Hariri is like a captured Bird In The Hezbollah Cage/Elias Bejjani/April
18/2021
Health Ministry: 1,900 new Corona cases, 42 deaths
Diab arrives in Qatar
Stockpiling fuel from Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah braces for state collapse
Reports: FPM Trio Convince Aoun, Hale to Soften Sea Border Stances
Al-Rahi Says Talk of Reform Absurd without Govt. of Specialists
Rahi: No forensic audit before government formation
Bassil Says 'Corrupt System' Preparing to Seize 'State Assets'
Potholes, Graffiti, Broken Streetlights: Lebanon's Crumbling Capital
'No Sweets': For Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, a Tough Ramadan
Future Bloc: Comedy scene in the judicial system, an attempt to complete the
coup against the constitution
Director General of the Presidency of the Republic: Enough of bidding,
misleading
Adwan discusses with Beirut Fire Brigade martyrs' families the port blast
investigation developments
Geagea launches second phase of 'Ground_0' operations: To restore 100 additional
housing units in Beirut
El-Khalil: What is happening in the judiciary reveals the true image of the
'strong covenant'
Hariri: Martyr Prime Minister chose Fleihan because he realized that reform is
the path to stability
1983 United States embassy bombing in Beirut
Titles For The
Latest
English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
April 18-19/2021
Iran asks Interpol to arrest Natanz ‘sabotage’ suspect –
media report
Envoys to Iran Nuclear Talks Hail 'Progress' in Vienna
Deputy commander of Iran’s Quds Force Mohammad Hejazi dies
Iran hit by 5.9-magnitude quake in nuclear plant province
Saudi and Iranian officials held talks to patch up relations FT
Syria to hold presidential vote on May 26: parliament
Israel and Greece sign record $1.65 billion defense deal
Israel and Greece sign their largest-ever defense procurement deal
Eleven dead, 98 injured after train derails in Egypt
EU ‘concerned’ over Navalny’s health in Russian penal colony
Domestic, foreign factors could boost the fortunes of Sadr in Iraq’s elections
Rockets hit Iraqi air base, 2 security forces wounded
Top US envoy says terror threat has ‘moved’ from Afghanistan
Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 18-19/2021
Did the Mossad 'shoot' and miss with Natanz sabotage? -
analysis/Yonah Jeremy Bob/Jerusalem Post/April 18/2021
Audio Brief Analysis from the Washington Institute: Can Erdogan Charm Biden?/
Speakers: Soner Cagaptay, Asli Aydintasbas, Max Hoffman, Jenny White/April18,
2021/
Iran’s Underground Las Vegas/Arash Aalaei/The Washington Insitiute/April 18/2021
Nuclear energy: Why the Arab world should lead in delivering clean
energy/Mohamed Al Hammadi/Arabian Gulf/April 19/2021
Tony Blinken’s Mideast Blind Spot/Martin Peretz/The Tablet/April 18/2021
Did Iran order a drone attack on the US in Iraq?/Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem
Post/April 18/2021
Hatred, Enmity, Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide”: The Persecution of Christians,
March 2021/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/April 18/2021
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 18-19/2021
Saad Al Hariri is like a captured Bird In The Hezbollah
Cage
Elias Bejjani/April 17, 2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/97984/elias-bejjani-saad-al-hariri-is-like-a-captured-bird-in-the-hezbollah-cage/
Sadly Lebanon’s designated PM, Mr. Saad Al Hariri has been a notorious failed
politician from his day one in politics following the assassination of his late
father, PM, Rafik Hariri, in 2005 by the terrorist Hezbollah and the criminal
Syrian Assad regime.
Hariri, in reality is just like a captured bird held in the Hezbollah cage no
more no less. He follows Hezbollah’s orders and does not have any margin of a
free decision making will or power.
His priorities are not Lebanon or the Lebanese people interests but his own
private business affairs.
Meanwhile the governments that he chaired since the assassination of his father
are the ones that legitimized the Terrorist Hezbollah’s occupation and handed
over to its local leadership and to the Iranian Mullahs’ the country’s decision
making process and gave them full control on all public institutions.
Al-Hariri, with his two Trojan and Satanic partners Samir Geagea and Walid
Jumblat, handed Lebanon over to Hezbollah and sold its sovereignty and
independence for thirty pieces of silver.
On top of all his failures, Hariri is a corrupted politician that is surrounded
by thugs, gangs and money sharks.
In short, Hariri is the Sunni facade behind which hides Iran’s scheme in
Lebanon.
There is not even one patriotic and free Lebanese citizen in Lebanon or in
Diaspora who is not fully aware that Hariri and the two evil Trojans Walid
Jumblat and Samir Geagea have maliciously handed over the country and its fate
to the terrorist Hezbollah in exchange for personal and selfish governing power
gains and agendas.
To conclude, Saad Al Hariri is a discredited and out of date politician, and if
Iran allowed him to form the new Lebanese government, it will only be a tool in
its hand and a cover for its criminal, terrorist and occupational schemes.
In summary, The Following politicians, Saad Al Hariri, Walid Jumblat, Nabih
Berri, Samir Geagea, Slieman Frangea, Gobran Bassiel, Hassan Nasrallah, Amin
Gemayel and all those of the second or third class Lebanese politicians who are
affiliated to them by any means are cut from the same corrupted, rotten and
Narcissistic garment.
Accordingly any change in Lebanon must start with the change of these sharks and
their puppets.
Health Ministry: 1,900 new Corona cases, 42 deaths
NNA/April 18/2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Sunday, the registration of 1,900
new Corona infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases
to-date to 510,403.
It also indicated that 42 deaths have been recorded during the past 24 hours.
Diab arrives in Qatar
NNA/April 18/2021
Caretaker Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, arrived this evening at Hamad
International Airport, Doha, as part of his official visit to the State of
Qatar, accompanied by his First Advisor, Khodor Taleb. He was received by
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sultan Al-Muraikhi, and the Chargé
d'Affairs of the Lebanese Embassy in Doha, Ambassador Farah Berri. Premier Diab
then headed to the designated residence at the Four Seasons Hotel, Doha.
PM Diab will begin his meetings with Qatari officials tonight. --- [Caretaker PM
Diab's Press Office]
Stockpiling fuel from Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah braces for state collapse
The Arab Weekly/April 18/2021
Iranian funding keeps Hezbollah better off than many in the country’s mosaic of
parties, including those opposed to its arsenal.
BEIRUT--Lebanon’s Hezbollah has made preparations for an all-out collapse of the
fracturing state, issuing ration cards for food, importing medicine and readying
storage for fuel from its patron Iran, three sources familiar with the plans
said. The moves, responding to a grave economic crisis, would mark an expansion
of services provided by the armed movement to its large Shia support base, with
a network that already boasts charities, a construction firm and a pension
system. The steps highlight rising fears of an implosion of the Lebanese state,
in which authorities can no longer import food or fuel to keep the lights on.
They underline Hezbollah’s growing role in tackling the emergency with services
that the government would otherwise provide. The plan chimes with worries in
Lebanon that people will have to rely on political factions for food and
security, in the way many did in the militia days of the 1975-1990 civil war. In
response to a question about Hezbollah’s plans, Leila Hatoum, an adviser to the
caretaker prime minister, said the country was “in no condition to refuse aid”
regardless of politics. The sources from the pro-Hezbollah camp, who declined to
be named, said the plan for a potential worst-case scenario has gathered pace as
an end to subsidies looms in the coming months, raising the spectre of hunger
and unrest. Lebanon’s currency has crashed as the country runs out of dollars,
with no state rescue in sight. Food prices have shot up 400%.
Fights in supermarkets are now commonplace, as are people rummaging through
trash. A brawl over food packages this week killed one person and injured two
others. Hezbollah’s plan would help shield its communities – not only members
but also mainly Shia residents of districts it dominates – from the worst of the
crisis, the sources said. It could also contain any restlessness among core
supporters, analysts say. Hezbollah, which with its allies has a majority in
parliament and government, did not respond to a request for comment. “The
preparations have begun for the next stage…It is indeed an economic battle
plan,” said one of the sources, a senior official.
Outsized network
Already, the new ration card helps hundreds of people buy basic goods in the
local currency – largely Iranian, Lebanese and Syrian cheaper items at a
discount up to 40%, subsidised by the party, the sources said. The card – named
after a Shia Imam – can be used at co-ops, some of them newly opened, in the
southern Beirut suburbs and parts of southern Lebanon where Hezbollah holds
sway. The sources did not elaborate on the budget or recipients. An Iran-funded
paramilitary force which critics once called “a state within a state”, Hezbollah
has grown more entangled in Lebanese state affairs in recent years. Washington,
which deems Hezbollah a terrorist group, has ramped up sanctions to choke off
its sources of funding, including what it estimates as hundreds of millions of
dollars from Tehran every year. Iranian funding keeps Hezbollah better off than
many in the country’s mosaic of parties, including those opposed to its arsenal.
Some factions have issued aid baskets to their patronage communities, but the
Iran-backed network remains outsized in comparison. “They’re all doing it…But
Hezbollah’s scope is much bigger and more powerful, with more resources to deal
with the crisis,” said Joseph Daher, a researcher who wrote a book on
Hezbollah’s political economy. “This is more about limiting the catastrophe for
its popular base. It means the dependency on Hezbollah particularly will
increase.”And while Hezbollah gives ration cards, the state, hollowed out by
decades of graft and debt, has talked up the idea of such a card for poor
Lebanese for nearly a year without acting. Ministers have said the need for
parliamentary approval has stalled the cabinet’s plan for cards.
Spectre of hunger
Photos on social media of shelves stacked with canned goods, reportedly from one
of Hezbollah’s co-ops, spread across Lebanon last week.
Fatima Hamoud, in her 50s, said the ration card allows her once a month to buy
grains, oil and cleaning products for a household of eight. “They know we’re in
bad shape,” she said. “Without them, what would we have done in these tough
times.”A second Shia source said Hezbollah had filled up warehouses and launched
the cards to extend services outside the party and plug gaps in the Lebanese
market, where cheap alternatives are more common than pre-crisis. He said the
card offers a quota, based on the family size, for needs like sugar and flour.
The goods are backed by Hezbollah, imported by allied companies or brought in
without customs fees through the border with Syria, where Hezbollah forces have
a footing since joining the war to back Damascus alongside Iran. The source
added that Hezbollah had similar plans for medicine imports. Some pharmacists in
the southern suburbs of Beirut said they had received training on new Iranian
and Syrian brands that popped up on the shelves in recent months. Two of the
sources said the plan included stockpiling fuel from Iran, as Lebanon’s energy
ministry warns of a possible total blackout. The senior official said Hezbollah
was clearing storage space for fuel in next-door Syria. “When we get to a stage
of darkness and hunger, you will find Hezbollah going to its back-up option…and
that is a grave decision. Then Hezbollah will fill in for the state,” said the
senior official. “If it comes to it, the party would’ve taken its precautions to
prevent a void.”
Reports: FPM Trio Convince Aoun, Hale to Soften Sea Border Stances
Naharnet/April 18/2021
MPs Elias Bou Saab and Alain Aoun and President Michel Aoun’s adviser Salim
Jreissati have convinced the president to shelve the proposed amendments to
Decree 6433 to give a chance to the resumption of sea border negotiations with
Israel, media reports said. “This trio met U.S. Under Secretary of State for
Political Affairs David Hale once he arrived in Beirut on Tuesday night and
before he kicked off his meetings with top officials and political leaders,” a
prominent parliamentary source told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks
published Sunday. “Discussions tackled three topics: the amendment of Decree
6433 which will certainly lead to the suspension of talks between Lebanon and
Israel, the European sanctions on those obstructing the government’s formation,
and dropping the preconditions that are still delaying its formation,” the
source said.
“The trio communicated with Aoun, prior to his meeting with Hale, and with Free
Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, and managed to convince the president of
softening his stance to facilitate the resumption of negotiations, especially
that he has no interest in entering a political clash with the U.S.
administration,” the source added. Aoun, according to the source, then agreed to
shelve the amendments and expressed desire to “show openness to Hale in a bid to
start a new chapter with Washington and mend the ties following his protest
against the U.S. sanctions imposed on Bassil.”
Al-Rahi Says Talk of Reform Absurd without Govt. of Specialists
Naharnet/April 18/2021
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday reiterated his call for the
formation of a “government of nonpartisan specialists.”“Without the formation of
a government of nonpartisan specialists in which no party has hegemony, it will
be absurd for officials to continue to talk about rescue, reform, fighting
corruption, forensic audit, defense strategy and national reconciliation,” al-Rahi
said in his Sunday Mass sermon. “The criterion of seriousness in raising all
these issues lies in the formation of the government,” the patriarch added. “Do
not preoccupy citizens with other affairs, and they now can differentiate right
from wrong,” al-Rahi went on to say, addressing officials.
Rahi: No forensic audit before government formation
NNA/April 18/2021
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Beshara Boutros al-Rahi, reiterated during Sunday
Mass service in Bkirki, the necessity of forming a government before logging
into any forensic audit. "No forensic audit will be carried out before a
government of non-partisan specialists is formed," Rahi stated in his sermon.
"The people of Lebanon are facing an open economic war that calls for victory
with steadfastness and staying in the homeland," Rahi added. "People are
destined to return to resurgence and prosperity. We cannot accept the political
community's practice nor the path of collapse and closing every door from which
good comes to the people and Lebanon, whether from donor countries, the IMF, or
the brotherly Arab countries," Rahi underlined.
Bassil Says 'Corrupt System' Preparing to Seize 'State Assets'
Naharnet/April 18/2021
Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil on Sunday lashed out at what he
called the “corrupt system.”“Usually, in corrupt nations, the people revolt
against oppressive regimes, topple them and recover their stolen rights, whereas
here the corrupt system has staged a coup against the people and seized their
money and is now preparing to stage a coup against the state’s assets and
existence,” Bassil said in a tweet. “To whom can people resort to recover their
savings? To the international judiciary? We will talk soon,” Bassil added.
Potholes, Graffiti, Broken Streetlights: Lebanon's Crumbling Capital
Agence France Presse/April 18/2021
Beirut's roads are riddled with potholes, many walls are covered in
anti-government graffiti and countless street lamps have long since gone dark.
At night, car drivers creep cautiously past broken traffic lights and strain
their eyes for missing manhole covers, stolen for the value of their metal. Many
parking meters have been disabled in protest over an alleged corruption scandal,
while cars are parked randomly on sidewalks. Charred patches from burnt tires
are seared into the asphalt downtown, reminders of angry street protests of past
years against the political leadership held responsible for the malaise. To
many, the dysfunctional capital has become emblematic of a country mired in its
worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war after decades of mismanagement and
corruption.
Much of Beirut's infrastructure started falling apart long before last August's
massive portside explosion killed more than 200 people, leveled the waterfront
and damaged countless buildings. Amid the crisis, the Lebanese currency has
collapsed and continues its downward slide at a sickening rate that in itself is
deepening the problem. As the currency has dived by more than 85 percent on the
black market, wary contractors are steering clear of any municipal repairs that
are paid for in Lebanese pounds. When the Beirut city council called for tenders
to fix lighting on streets and in tunnels, no one showed up at two meetings to
assign bids last month.
"Not a single contractor wants to work with the municipality," a Beirut city
council official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. But if the city
raised its offers, the official added, "there would be nothing left in the
coffers."
New garbage crisis?
The few contractors taken on in recent months, the municipality official said,
have been hired to repair buildings ravaged in the enormous portside explosion.
The buildings were divided into 15 groups depending on the degree of damage, but
the city only found firms willing to work in the four worst-hit categories. Just
months after signing on, the companies are complaining because the pound has
lost even more of its value on the informal exchange market. Meanwhile, civil
society and non-government organizations have often stepped in to help with the
badly-needed repairs. On other projects, companies contracted by the city are
unhappy too -- among them the waste management firm Ramco, which signed on to be
paid the equivalent of $14 million per year, according to Beirut mayor Jamal
Itani.
The sum is now worth less than $2 million. "From time to time, (Ramco) threatens
to suspend work until the fees are adjusted," the anonymous official said.
Many worry that this could lead to a repeat of Beirut's 2015 infamous trash
crisis, when a landfill closure led to festering rubbish piling up in the
streets. Public anger at the time sparked anti-government protests, years before
unprecedented cross-sectarian demonstrations broke out in late 2019.
Headed for bankruptcy -
Tenders for Beirut road and pavement maintenance cannot find bidders either, to
the frustration of professional drivers.
"The potholes in central Beirut alone are a pain," said Ahmad, a 32-year-old
minibus driver. "Every time I drive over them, the bus gets more worn down."The head of the engineers' syndicate, Jad Thabet, said private companies were
not interested in any contracts with state institutions in Lebanese pounds.
"People don't want to sign up to make a loss," he said.
The municipality official said Beirut only had 800 billion pounds left in its
coffers ($530 million officially, or $64 million on the black market).
Of that, around 300 billion pounds is spent each year on salaries and other
running costs. The city also owes the state electricity company 27 billion
pounds in arrears for 15 years. Yet revenues have plummeted, including from the
municipality's main source of income: building permits. "The construction sector
has ground to a halt," the official said. "Only four building permits were
issued in the whole of 2020," compared to dozens annually before that, the
official added."If it stays like this, the municipality is definitely headed for bankruptcy,
just like the country is."
- Charges of corruption -
Critics charge that the municipality has been bogged down by mismanagement and
corruption for years. "The municipality has been inefficient since before the
crisis," said Thabet, the syndicate chief, who added that even projects with
foreign funding were never implemented. One person familiar with the
municipality said that it often tailors terms in the call for tenders to
specific contractors chosen in advance to take on a project. The city was
suspected of corruption in 2019 after a row erupted over a deal under which
parking meter revenues would fund the maintenance of traffic lights. Amid
speculation on whether the revenues were indeed being put to their intended use,
protesters stopped people from using them.
Since then, the meters have ceased working, and traffic light upkeep has been
halted until further notice. Beirut's mayor, dismissing accusations of graft and
inefficiency, said many plans had not been implemented due to "exhausting
bureaucracy" and the rapid currency depreciation. "We haven't been able to
complete projects already underway," he said. None of this is doing much to lift
the public's spirits. Inside her deserted handbag shop in the Hamra
neighborhood, Elissar Bou Dargham said her city was turning into a decrepit and
"sad" place.
"Everybody is responsible," said the 49-year-old vendor. "The people, the
municipality, ministers and parliament."
'No Sweets': For Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, a Tough Ramadan
Associated Press/April 18/2021
It was messy and hectic in Aisha al-Abed's kitchen, as the first day of Ramadan
often is. Food had to be on the table at precisely 7:07 p.m. when the sun sets
and the daylong fast ends. What is traditionally a jovial celebration of the
start of the Muslim holy month around a hearty meal was muted and dispirited for
her small Syrian refugee family. As the 21-year-old mother of two worked, with
her toddler daughter in tow, reminders of life's hardships were everywhere: In
the makeshift kitchen, where she crouched on the ground to chop cucumbers next
to a single-burner gas stove. In their home: a tent with a concrete floor and
wooden walls covered in a tarp. And, definitely, in their iftar meal -- rice,
lentil soup, french fries and a yogurt-cucumber dip; her sister sent over a
little chicken and fish. "This is going to be a very difficult Ramadan," al-Abed
said. "This should be a better meal ... After a day's fast, one needs more
nutrition for the body. Of course, I feel defeated." Ramadan, which began
Tuesday, comes as Syrian refugees' life of displacement has gotten even harder
amid their host country Lebanon's economic woes. The struggle can be more
pronounced during the holy month, when fasting is typically followed by festive
feasting to fill empty stomachs.
"High prices are killing people," said Raed Mattar, al-Abed's 24-year-old
husband. "We may fast all day and then break our fast on only an onion," he
said, using an Arabic proverb usually meant to convey disappointment after long
patience.
Lebanon, home to more than 1 million Syrian refugees, is reeling from an
economic crisis exacerbated by the pandemic and a massive explosion that
destroyed parts of the capital last August. Citing the impact of the compounded
crises, a U.N. study said the proportion of Syrian refugee families living under
the extreme poverty line -- the equivalent of roughly $25 a month per person by
current black market rates -- swelled to 89% in 2020, compared to 55% the
previous year.
More people resorted to reducing the size or number of meals, it said. Half the
Syrian refugee families surveyed suffer from food insecurity, up from 28% at the
same time in 2019, it said.
Refugees are not alone in their pain. The economic turmoil, which is the
culmination of years of corruption and mismanagement, has squeezed the Lebanese,
plunging 55% of the country's 5 million people into poverty and shuttering
businesses.
As jobs became scarce, Mattar said more Lebanese competed for the low-paying
construction and plumbing jobs previously left largely for foreign workers like
himself. Wages lost their value as the local currency, fixed to the dollar for
decades, collapsed. Mattar went from making the equivalent of more than $13 a
day to less than $2, roughly the price of a kilo and a half (about 3 pounds) of
non-subsidized sugar. "People are kind and are helping, but the situation has
become disastrous," he said. "The Lebanese themselves can't live. Imagine how we
are managing."
Nerves are fraying. Mattar was among hundreds displaced from an informal camp
last year after a group of Lebanese set it on fire following a fight between a
Syrian and a Lebanese.
It was the fifth displacement for al-Abed's young family, bouncing mainly
between informal settlements in northern Lebanon. They had to move twice after
that, once when a Lebanese landowner doubled the rent, telling Mattar he can
afford it since he gets aid as a refugee. Their current tent is in Bhannine.
This year, Syrians marked the 10th anniversary of the start of the
uprising-turned-civil war in their country. Many refugees say they cannot return
because their homes were destroyed or they fear retribution, either for being
considered opposition or for evading military conscription, like Mattar. He and
al-Abed each fled Syria in 2011 and met in Lebanon.
Even before Ramadan started, Rahaf al-Saghir, another Syrian in Lebanon, fretted
over what her family's iftar would look like.
"I don't know what to do," said the recently widowed mother of three daughters.
"The girls keep saying they crave meat, they crave chicken, biscuits and fruit."As the family's options dwindled, her daughters' questions became more heart
wrenching. Why can't we have chips like the neighbors' kids? Why don't we drink
milk to grow up like they say on television? Al-Saghir recalled breaking into
tears when her youngest asked her what the strawberry she was seeing on
television tasted like. She later bought her some, using U.N. assistance money,
she said.
For Ramadan, al-Saghir was determined to stop her daughters from seeing photos
of other people's iftar meals. "I don't want them to compare themselves to
others," she said. "When you are fasting in Ramadan, you crave a lot of things."The start of Ramadan, the first since al-Saghir's husband died, brought tears.
Her oldest daughters were used to their father waking them for suhoor, the
pre-dawn meal before the day's fast, which he'd prepare.
A few months before he died -- of cardiac arrest -- the family moved into a
one-bedroom apartment shared with a relative's family.
This year, their first iftar was simple - french fries, soup and fattoush salad.
Al-Saghir wanted chicken but decided it was too expensive.
Before violence uprooted them from Syria, Ramadan felt festive. Al-Saghir would
cook and exchange visits with family and neighbors, gathering around scrumptious
savory and sweet dishes."Now, there's no family, no neighbors and no sweets," she said. "Ramadan feels
like any other day. We may even feel more sorrow."Amid her struggles, she turns to her faith.
"I keep praying to God," she said. "May our prayers in Ramadan be answered and
may our situation change. ... May a new path open for us."
Future Bloc: Comedy scene in the judicial system, an
attempt to complete the coup against the constitution
NNA/April 18/2021
Future Parliamentary Bloc said in a statement, on Sunday, that the comic scene
in the judicial system is an attempt to complete the coup against the
constitution and the democratic system, by obstructing institutions.
The Future Bloc statement warned of contempt for the constitutional institutions
and the incentives provided by some judges to put their hands on powers not
theirs, while they rebelled against the decisions of the Supreme Judicial
Council and the Judicial Inspection Authority. Moreover, the Future Bloc said
that it was surprised by the speech of Caretaker Minister of Justice, after she
established "equality between the wise judicial authority and the judge, who is
now a fugitive from justice."
Director General of the Presidency of the Republic: Enough
of bidding, misleading
NNA/April 18/2021
Director General of the Presidency of the Republic, Dr. Antoine Choucair, wrote
on his Twitter account: "The Director General of the Presidency of the Republic
is entrusted with preserving the implementation of the constitution, the
separation of authorities, their balance and cooperation, the prestige of the
remaining institutions, and the national reconciliation in matters of a national
dimension, under the directives of the President of the Republic.Parallelism is
the basis for governance in managing the affairs of the people and the country.
Enough outbidding and misleading!" --- [Presidency Information Office]
Adwan discusses with Beirut Fire Brigade martyrs' families
the port blast investigation developments
NNA/April 18/2021
Head of the Administration and Justice Parliamentary Committee, MP George Adwan,
met at his Broumana residence today with a delegation of the families of the
Beirut Fire Brigade martyrs, with whom he discussed the developments of the port
explosion dossier. Talks centered on the mechanism to be followed in the
Parliament to establish a special court for this case, in order to expedite the
investigations and issue indictments as soon as possible. "We discussed forming
a fact-finding committee and proposing laws that could help more in the path
this case is taking," Adwan said, adding that he promised the families to
continue to provide them with all possible support in this regards.
Geagea launches second phase of 'Ground_0' operations: To
restore 100 additional housing units in Beirut
NNA/April 18/2021
Lebanese Forces Party Chief, Samir Geagea, met Sunday at the Party's general
headquarters in Maarab, with a delegation from the Beirut Relief Committee,
"Ground_0", headed by former Minister May Chidiac, in the presence of "Strong
Republic" bloc member, MP Imad Wakim, the Party's Secretary General Ghassan
Yared, Assistant Secretary-General Wissam Raji, Assistant Secretary for
Administrative Affairs Walid Haidamous, Beirut District Coordinator in the Party
Daniel Spiro, "RIC" President Maya Zaghrini, and members of the committee.
Geagea indicated that the meeting today comes at the outset of the second phase
of restoration works that "Ground-0" is undertaking, after receiving a new
donation that enables it to restore approximately 100 housing units in Beirut.
Commending the Committee's efforts, Geagea considered it "a successful
initiative that left a very good impression on everyone, as it dealt with a
sensitive and complex issue in a transparent, professional, and hand-clean
manner, despite the difficult conditions that prevailed in Beirut following the
port blast."
He added that the Relief Committee "was established spontaneously after the
August 4 explosion to stand by the people of the affected areas and help them as
much as possible," revealing that "after its success in this mission, efforts
are underway to transform it into an official association concerned with relief
matters and natural disasters wherever they occur in Lebanon."Touching on the
unfortunate high unemployment in the country in wake of the economic
deterioration and the Corona pandemic, Geagea stressed "the need to focus on
this problem and study the labor market and the jobs that can be occupied by
Lebanese youth instead of foreign workers, and to create job opportunities for
this youth group." In turn, former Minister Chidiac gave a briefing during the
meeting on Ground-0's activities and achievements during the past period, the
most recent of which was the restoration of the building of the Lebanese
University's second branch in the area of Karmel Zeitoun, after the huge damages
it suffered as a result of the blast and in light of the moral symbolism and
educational value that this special building has in the minds of the people of
Ashrafieh region.
Chidiac indicated that 'Ground-0' has been able to restore and reconstruct 510
housing units to-date and a number of small shops," revealing the availability
of "more funding for the restoration of 100 additional apartments." She also
announced "the starting soon to technically rehabilitate the facades of some
buildings affected by the explosion in Gemmayze, to restore essence to streets
that have lost their liveliness." Chidiac pointed as well to the Beirut Relief
Committee's success in securing food rations for more than 2000 families, which
it is still providing to this day in cooperation with several associations and
through donations from the Lebanese Diaspora.She also referred to the petition
by the Relief Committee in calling for an international investigation, under the
supervision of the United Nations, into the Beirut Port explosion that it handed
over to the UN Secretary-General through its representative in Lebanon, after
Ground-0 volunteers collected more than 10 thousand signatures from families
directly affected by the blast.
El-Khalil: What is happening in the judiciary reveals the
true image of the 'strong covenant'
NNA/April 18/2021
MP Anwar El-Khalil tweeted today on the recent judiciary developments, saying:
"What is happening at the level of the judiciary reveals the true image of the
strong covenant, and the smoke bombs that the head of the reform movement fired
to cover the shame caused by these events in the judiciary will not hide the
apparent failure of the mandate, which led to a cry of conscience from the
Minister of Justice...The solution lies in an independent judiciary."
Hariri: Martyr Prime Minister chose Fleihan because he
realized that reform is the path to stability
NNA/April 18/2021
"When Prime Minister Rafic Hariri chose a figure with the competency of Bassel
Fleihan to be the head of the economic team, he knew that reform is the
inevitable path to national stability, and that Bassel was aware of the
importance of reform in the economic engineering process," tweeted Prime
Minister-designate, Saad Hariri, today. In a second tweet, Hariri said: "On the
anniversary of Bassel Fleihan's absence, we pay tribute to the soul of the
beloved martyr. We pause before a bright experience that rises above politics
and sectarianism...a distinctive sign of integrity and transparency in the field
of public work."
1983 United States embassy bombing in Beirut
ذكرى تفجير ايران وحزبها الإرهابي حزب الله السفارة الأميركية في بيروت في 18 نيسان
عام 1983
تفجير السفارة الأمريكية في بيروت
حادث تفجير السفارة الأمريكية في بيروت حدث في اليوم 18 من شهر نيسان عام 1983م،
وتسبب بمقتل 63 شخصا في السفارة، وكان ذلك في زمن الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية، أتهمت
الحكومة الأمريكية حزب الله بأنه وراء التفجير الذ تسبب بمقتل 17 أميركياً و32
لبنانياً و14 زائراً كانوا في المبنى ومارين من قربه
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/98012/1983-united-states-embassy-bombing-in-%d8%b0%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%89-%d8%aa%d9%81%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%b1-%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%86-%d9%88%d8%ad%d8%b2%d8%a8%d9%87%d8%a7-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%b1%d9%87%d8%a7/
The April 18, 1983 United States embassy bombing was a suicide bombing in
Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 32 Lebanese, 17 Americans, and 14 visitors and
passers-by. The victims were mostly embassy and CIA staff members, but also
included several US soldiers and one US Marine Security Guard. It was the
deadliest attack on a US diplomatic mission up to that time, and was considered
the beginning of Islamist attacks on US targets.
The attack came in the wake of an intervention in the Lebanese Civil War by the
United States and other Western countries, which sought to restore order and
central government authority.
The car bomb was detonated by a suicide bomber driving a van packed with nearly
2,000 pounds (910 kg) of explosives at approximately 1:00 p.m. (GMT+2) April 18,
1983. The van, originally sold in Texas, bought used and shipped to the Gulf,[1]
gained access to the embassy compound and parked under the portico at the very
front of the building, where it exploded. Former CIA operative Robert Baer's
account says that the van broke through an outbuilding, crashed through the
lobby door and exploded there.[2] The blast collapsed the entire central facade
of the horseshoe-shaped building, leaving the wreckage of balconies and offices
in heaped tiers of rubble, and spewing masonry, metal and glass fragments in a
wide swath. The explosion was heard throughout West Beirut and broke windows as
far as a mile away. Rescue workers worked around the clock, unearthing the dead
and wounded.
Robert S. Dillon, then Ambassador to Lebanon, recounted the attack in his oral
history:
All of a sudden, the window blew in. I was very lucky, because I had my arm and
the T-shirt in front of my face, which protected me from the flying glass. I
ended up flat on my back. I never heard the explosion. Others said that it was
the loudest explosion they ever heard. It was heard from a long distance away.
As I lay on the floor on my back, the brick wall behind my desk blew out.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The wall fell on my legs; I could
not feel them. I thought they were gone. The office filled with smoke, dust, and
tear gas. What happened was that the blast first blew in the window and then
traveled up an air shaft from the first floor to behind my desk. We had had tear
gas canisters on the first floor. The blast set them off so that the air rush
that came up through the shaft brought the tear gas with it and also collapsed
the wall.
We didn't know what had happened. The central stairway was gone, but the
building had another stairway, which we used to make our way down, picking our
way through the rubble. We were astounded to see the damage below us. I didn't
realize that the entire bay of the building below my office had been destroyed.
I hadn't grasped that yet. I remember speculating that some people had
undoubtedly been hurt. As we descended, we saw people hurt. Everybody had this
funny white look because they were all covered with dust. They were staggering
around.
We got to the second floor, still not fully cognizant of how bad it was,
although I recognized that major damage had been done. With each second, the
magnitude of the explosion became clearer. I saw Marylee MacIntyre standing; she
couldn't see because her face had been cut and her eyes were full of blood. I
picked her up and took her over to a window and gave her to someone. A minute
later, someone came up to me and said that Bill MacIntyre was dead; he had just
seen the body. That was the first time I realized that people had been killed. I
didn't know how many, but I began to understand how bad the blast had been.[3]
A total of 63 people were killed in the bombing: 32 Lebanese employees, 17
Americans, and 14 visitors and passers-by.[4] Of the Americans killed, eight
worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, including the CIA's top Middle East
analyst and Near East director, Robert Ames, Station Chief Kenneth Haas, James
Lewis and most of the Beirut staff of the CIA. Others killed included William R.
McIntyre, deputy director of the United States Agency for International
Development, two of his aides, and four US military personnel. Janet Lee
Stevens, an American journalist, human rights advocate, and scholar of Arabic
literature, was also among the dead. Lebanese victims included clerical workers
at the embassy, visa applicants waiting in line and nearby motorists and
pedestrians.[5] An additional 120 or so people were wounded in the bombing.
US President Ronald Reagan on April 18 denounced the "vicious terrorist bombing"
as a "cowardly act," saying, "This criminal act on a diplomatic establishment
will not deter us from our goals of peace in the region."[6] Two envoys, Philip
C. Habib and Morris Draper, continued their peace mission in Beirut to discuss
Lebanese troop withdrawals with a renewed sense of urgency.
The next day, Ambassador Robert Dillon, who had narrowly escaped injury in the
bombing, said: "Paramount among the essential business is our work for the
withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon." It is only by securing Lebanese
government control over the country "that terrible tragedies like the one we
experienced yesterday can be avoided in the future."[5]
The President of Lebanon, Amine Gemayel, cabled President Reagan on April 18,
saying, "The Lebanese people and myself express our deepest condolences to the
families of the U.S. victims. The cross of peace is the burden of the
courageous."[5] Meanwhile, Lebanon asked the United States, France, and Italy to
double the size of the peacekeeping force. As of March 16, it numbered about
4,800 troops, including some 1,200 US Marines, 1,400 Italian soldiers, 2,100
French paratroopers and 100 British soldiers.
Iran denied any role in the attack. Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Velayati said,
"We deny any involvement and we think this allegation is another propaganda plot
against us."[7]
On April 19, Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sent President Reagan a
message of condolence for the embassy bombing. "I write in the name of Israel
when I express to you my deep shock at the terrible outrage which took the lives
of so many of the American embassy in Beirut yesterday."[5] Defense Minister
Moshe Arens, was quoted by Israeli radio that he told the cabinet the attack
"justified Israel's demands for security arrangements in Lebanon." Minister
Yitzhak Shamir of Israel called the embassy bombing "shocking" but added that,
"In Lebanon nothing is surprising. I think the lesson is simple and understood.
The security problems in Lebanon are still most serious, and terrorist
organizations will continue to operate there, at times with great success."[5]
US Congressional response
The House Foreign Affairs Committee April 19 voted to approve $251 million in
additional economic and military aid for Lebanon, as requested by the
administration. But it attached an amendment to the bill that would force the
White House to seek approval for any expanded US military role.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee followed suit April 20, approving the aid
request but attaching an amendment that required the president to obtain
congressional authorization for "any substantial expansion in the number or role
of US armed forces in Lebanon or for the creation of a new, expanded or extended
multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon." If Congress did not act jointly on
such a request within 60 days, however, the increase would then take effect
automatically.
The Senate amendment was sponsored as a compromise by the committee's chairman,
Republican Charles H. Percy of Illinois. It prevented a move by the committee's
ranking Democrat, Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, to extend the 1973 War Powers
Resolution to Lebanon. On April 20, Pell said he would have had the votes to
apply the resolution to US Marines in Lebanon. The law limited presidential
commitment of troops in hostile situations to a maximum of 90 days unless
Congress specifically approved their use.
Deputy Secretary of State Kenneth W. Dam, in a letter to the committee, had
argued forcefully against use of the War Powers Resolution. Dam said it would
"amount to a public finding that US forces will be exposed to imminent risk of
involvement in hostilities", which "could give entirely the wrong public
impression" of US expectations for Lebanon's future. Several influential
congressmen had been urging an end to the US military role in Lebanon. After the
embassy bombing, April 19, Republican Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona said,
"I think it's high time we bring the boys home."
Responsibility
A pro-Iranian group calling itself the Islamic Jihad Organization took
responsibility for the bombing in a telephone call to a news office immediately
after the blast. The anonymous caller said, "This is part of the Iranian
Revolution's campaign against imperialist targets throughout the world. We shall
keep striking at any crusader presence in Lebanon, including the international
forces."[8] The group had earlier taken responsibility for a grenade attack in
which five U.S. members of the international peacekeeping force had been
wounded.
Judge John Bates of the US District Court in Washington, D.C. on September 8,
2003, awarded in a default judgment $123 million to 29 American victims and
family members of Americans killed in the bombing. Judge Royce Lamberth of the
US District Court in Washington, D.C. on May 30, 2003, determined that the
bombing was carried out by the militant group Hezbollah with the approval and
financing of senior Iranian officials, paving the way for the victims to seek
damages. Iran was not present in court to challenge witnesses nor present
evidence of their own.
Other effects
Following the attack, the embassy was moved to a supposedly more secure location
in East Beirut. However, on September 20, 1984, another car bomb exploded at
this embassy annex, killing twenty Lebanese and two American soldiers.
The April bombing was one of the first suicide attacks in the region. Other
suicide car bombings over the next eight months included one against the US and
French embassies in Kuwait, a second attack on Israeli Army's headquarters in
Tyre, and the extremely destructive attacks on the US Marine and French
Paratrooper barracks in Beirut on October 23, 1983.
Along with the Marine Barracks bombing, the 1983 US Embassy bombing prompted the
Inman Report, a review of overseas security for the US Department of State. This
in turn prompted the creation of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the
Diplomatic Security Service within the State Department.
The Latest
English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
April 18-19/2021
Iran asks Interpol to arrest Natanz ‘sabotage’ suspect –
media report
AFP/April 18, 2021
TEHRAN: Iran has asked Interpol to help arrest a suspect in a sabotage attack on
its Natanz nuclear facility which it blames on Israel, a local newspaper
reported Sunday. National television has published a photo and identified the
man as 43-year-old Reza Karimi, saying the intelligence ministry had established
his role in last week’s “sabotage” at Natanz. The broadcaster said the suspect
had “fled the country before the incident” and that “legal procedures to arrest
and return him to the country are currently underway.”Neither state TV nor other
media provided further details on the suspect. The intelligence ministry has not
issued an official statement. The ultraconservative Kayhan daily reported in its
Sunday edition that “intelligence and judicial authorities” are engaged in the
process. It added that “after his identity was established, necessary measures
were taken through Interpol to arrest and return” the suspect.
Kayhan did not specify what form of Interpol assistance had been requested. As
of Sunday noon, Interpol’s public “red notice” list online returned no results
for Reza Karimi. A Red Notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to
locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or
similar legal action, according to Interpol’s website. A “small explosion” hit
the Natanz plant’s electricity distribution system a week ago, according to the
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. The Iranian foreign ministry accused
arch-foe Israel of an act of “nuclear terrorism” and vowed revenge. Israel has
neither confirmed nor denied involvement but public radio reports said it was a
sabotage operation by the Mossad spy agency, citing unnamed intelligence
sources. The New York Times, quoting unnamed US and Israeli intelligence
officials, also said there had been “an Israeli role” in the attack.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh last week indirectly accused
Israel of attempting to scuttle talks underway in Vienna aimed at reviving a
landmark nuclear agreement. The talks are focused on bringing the US back in to
the accord after former president Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and
reimposed sanctions on Tehran, and to bring Iran back into compliance with key
nuclear commitments it suspended in response to the sanctions.
Envoys to Iran Nuclear Talks Hail 'Progress' in Vienna
Agence France Presse/April 18, 2021
The EU, Russia and Iran have hailed progress made at nuclear talks as
discussions resumed in Vienna following an attack on one of Tehran's nuclear
sites. The talks also took place just a day after Iran said it had started
producing uranium at 60-percent purity following an explosion at its Natanz
nuclear facility that it blamed on arch-foe Israel. The Islamic republic had
warned it would sharply ramp up its enrichment of uranium earlier this week. A
spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told AFP Saturday
the agency had "verified" that Iran had begun this process and that according to
Tehran the enrichment level was 55.3 percent. IAEA inspectors have taken a
sample to check and will report back to member states in due course, the agency
added. News of Tehran's latest actions cast a shadow over the talks in Vienna
aimed at rescuing a nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers that the
United States ditched almost three years ago. European Union envoy Enrique Mora
said Saturday that "progress has been made in a far from easy task. We need now
more detailed work." Russian ambassador to Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov added that
"participants took note with satisfaction of the progress made so far and
expressed determination to continue negotiations with a view to complete the
process successfully as soon as possible".
'Common final goal' -
The discussions involved EU officials and representatives from Britain, China,
France, Germany, Russia and Iran. The talks are aimed at determining which
sanctions the United States should lift and the measures Iran has to take in
order to rein in Tehran's nuclear program. Iran delegation head Abbas Araghchi
remarked on Telegram that "a good discussion took place within the joint
commission. "It appears that a new agreement is taking shape and there is now a
common final goal among all," he added. While noting that all sides appeared to
agree on which path to take, Araghchi cautioned: "This will not be an easy path.
"It is not as if disagreements have been resolved. There are still serious
disagreements that must be reduced during future negotiations."On Friday, Ali
Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, confirmed Iran was
now producing uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, taking the country closer
to the 90-percent level required for use in a nuclear weapon. "The enrichment of
uranium to 60 percent is underway" in Natanz, he was quoted by Tasnim news
agency as saying.
- Biden 'pleased' -
U.S. President Joe Biden said this would not help resolve the standoff.
But he added: "We are nonetheless pleased that Iran has continued to agree to
engage in discussions."Iran has repeatedly insisted it is not seeking atomic
weapons, but has gradually rolled back its nuclear commitments since 2019, the
year after Washington withdrew from the accord and began imposing sanctions.
The 2015 deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),
gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program. Iran
had committed to keep enrichment to 3.67 percent, a level it raised to 20
percent in January. Negotiations aimed at ensuring the return of the United
States to the JCPOA and the lifting of sanctions resumed this week. "We think
that negotiations have reached a stage that the parties can start working on a
joint text. The writing of the text can start, at least in the fields with a
consensus," Araghchi said.
Deputy commander of Iran’s Quds Force Mohammad Hejazi dies
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English/18 April ,2021
Brigadier General Mohammad Hejazi, the deputy commander of Iran’s Quds Force,
has died, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced in a statement
on Sunday. Hejazi died due to a “heart condition,” the IRGC statement said,
without elaborating further. Hejazi was appointed as the deputy commander of the
Quds Force – the overseas arm of the IRGC – in January 2020 following the US
killing of Iran’s top commander Qassem Soleimani. Born in 1956 in the city of
Isfahan, Hejazi joined the IRGC in 1979. He headed the IRGC’s Basij militia for
over 10 years and was the IRGC deputy commander in 2008. Hejazi was also the
commander of the IRGC’s Tharallah base in Tehran in 2009, which oversaw the
suppression of protests in the city that followed Iran’s controversial
presidential elections that year. The Council of the European Union added Hejazi
to its sanctions list in October 2011 for playing a “central role in the
post-election crackdown.”
Iran hit by 5.9-magnitude quake in nuclear
plant province
AFP/April 18, 2021
TEHRAN: A 5.9-magnitude earthquake Sunday hit Iran's southwestern Bushehr
province, which houses a nuclear power plant, injuring five people but causing
no major damage, state media said. The 10-kilometre (six mile) deep quake hit 27
kilometres northwest of the port city of Genaveh at 11:11 am local time (0641
GMT) and was felt in nearby provinces, Iran's seismological agency said. State
news agency IRNA reported that the quake and several aftershocks caused power
blackouts and cut phone lines nearby but caused "no damage" at the Bushehr
nuclear complex about 100 kilometres away. "The minor damage to Genaveh's water,
electricity, telecommunication and gas infrastructure has been repaired," the
head of the province's crisis management told IRNA. Iran sits astride the
boundaries of several major tectonic plates and experiences frequent seismic
activity. In 2003, a 6.6-magnitude quake in southeastern Iran levelled the
ancient mud-brick city of Bam and killed at least 31,000 people. Iran's
deadliest quake was a 7.4-magnitude tremor in 1990 that killed 40,000 people in
the north, injured 300,000 and left half a million homeless.
Saudi and Iranian officials held talks to patch up
relations FT
NNA/Reuters/April 18, 2021
Senior Saudi and Iranian officials have been holding direct talks in a bid to
repair relations between the two regional rivals, four years after they cut off
diplomatic ties, the Financial Times reported https://www.ft.com/content/852e94b8-ca97-4917-9cc4-e2faef4a69c8
on Sunday, citing officials briefed on the discussions. The first round of
Saudi-Iranian talks took place in Baghdad on April 9 and included discussions
about the Houthi attacks and were positive, FT report added, citing one of the
officials. --- Reuters
Syria to hold presidential vote on May 26:
parliament
Reuters/April 18, 2021
DAMASCUS: Syria is to hold a presidential election on May 26, the parliament
speaker announced Sunday, the country's second in the shadow of civil war, seen
as likely to keep President Bashar Al-Assad in power. Syrians abroad will be
"able to vote at embassies" on May 20, Hamouda Sabbagh said in a statement,
adding that prospective candidates could hand in their applications from Monday.
Assad, who took power following the death of his father Hafez in 2000, has not
yet officially announced that he will stand for re-election. He won a previous
election three years into Syria's devastating civil war in 2014, with 88 percent
of the vote. Under Syria's 2012 constitution, a president may only serve two
seven-year terms -- with the exception of the president elected in the 2014
poll. Candidates must have lived continuously in Syria for at least 10 years,
meaning that opposition figures in exile are barred from standing. Candidates
must also have the backing of at least 35 members of the parliament, which is
dominated by Assad's Baath party. This year's vote comes after Russian-backed
Syrian government forces re-seized the vital northern city of Aleppo and other
opposition-held areas, placing Damascus in control of two-thirds of the country.
But the poll also comes amid a crushing economic crisis. The decade-long civil
war has left at least 388,000 people dead and half of the population displaced.
Israel and Greece sign record $1.65 billion defense
deal
Reuters/April 18, 2021
JERUSALEM: Israel and Greece have signed their biggest ever defense procurement
deal, which Israel said on Sunday would strengthen political and economic ties
between the countries. The agreement includes a $1.65 billion contract for the
establishment and operation of a training center for the Hellenic Air Force by
Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems over a 22-year period, Israel’s defense
ministry said. The training center will be modeled on Israel’s own flight
academy and will be equipped with 10 M-346 training aircraft produced by Italian
company Leonardo, the ministry said. Elbit will supply kits to upgrade and
operate Greece’s T-6 aircraft and also provide training, simulators and
logistical support. “I am certain that (this program) will upgrade the
capabilities and strengthen the economies of Israel and Greece and thus the
partnership between our two countries will deepen on the defense, economic and
political levels,” said Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz. The announcement
follows a meeting in Cyprus on Friday between the UAE, Greek, Cypriot and
Israeli foreign ministers, who agreed to deepen cooperation between their
countries.
Israel and Greece sign their largest-ever defense
procurement deal
Udi Shaham/Jerusalem Post/April 18/2021
The agreement amounts to approximately NIS 5.4 billion and includes the
establishment and operation of an International Flight Training Center for the
Hellenic Air Force. Amid ongoing tensions around the eastern Mediterranean,
Israel and Greece signed on Friday their biggest defense agreement to date, the
Defense Ministry said in a statement. As part of the
agreement, the ministry and Elbit Systems will lead the establishment of an
International Flight Training Center for the Hellenic Air Force. Modeled after
the Israel Air Force (IAF) flight academy, the Greek International Flight
Training Center will be equipped with 10 M-346 training aircraft produced by the
Italian company Leonardo. On the Israeli said, the agreement was signed by
Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Yair Kulas, head of the Defense Ministry's Directorate for
International Defense Cooperation (SIBAT). The G2G
agreement amounts to around NIS 5.4 billion ($1.65 b.) and will span over 22
years, the ministry said in a statement released on Sunday.
Within the framework of the agreement, Elbit will provide kits to upgrade
and operate the Hellenic Air Force's T-6 aircraft. It will also provide
training, simulators and logistical support. In the future, the parties will
also consider areas of cooperation between the Israeli flight academy and
Hellenic Air Force Academy. Defense Minister Benny
Gantz said in response to the signing that “this cooperation agreement rests on
the excellence of Israel’s defense industry and the strong relations between the
defense establishments of Greece and Israel. “I thank the Greek Minister of
Defense, Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos for promoting the agreement, which we had
discussed at the last trilateral meeting held in Cyprus,” he added. “I am
certain that [this program] will upgrade the capabilities and strengthen the
economies of Israel and Greece, and thus the partnership between our two
countries will deepen on the defense, economic and political levels.”
Kulas said that "the strategic partnership between the Israel Defense
Ministry and Hellenic Ministry of National Defense is further cemented today,
via the signing of the most expansive and one of the most significant defense
agreements to date. I would like to thank the Hellenic Ministry of National
Defense for choosing Israel – and we look forward to future opportunities for
partnership and collaboration." President and CEO of
Elbit Systems, Bezhalel (Butzi) Machlis, said: “We are honored to have been
awarded this contract to provide such an important capability to the Hellenic
Air Force. This contract award attests to the leading position we hold in the
area of training, providing tested know-how and proven technologies that improve
readiness while reducing costs.”
Eleven dead, 98 injured after train derails in Egypt
Arab News/April 18/2021
CAIRO: A train derailed in Egypt's Qalioubia province north of Cairo leaving
eleven dead and 98 injured, the health ministry said in a statement. 58
ambulances rushed to the site and moved the injured to three hospitals in the
province, it said. Egypt’s health minister Hala Zayed visited the injured in
hospital after the incident and 14 wounded people have been discharged from
hospital. The train departed Cairo at 1:20 P.M. and was due to arrive in
Mansoura at 5:00 P.M. At least 20 people were killed and nearly 200 were injured
in March when two trains collided near Tahta in Sohag province.
EU ‘concerned’ over Navalny’s health in Russian penal
colony
AFP/18 April ,2021
The EU on Sunday said it was “deeply concerned” about reports that Kremlin
critic Alexei Navalny’s health was failing in a Russian penal colony and called
for his “immediate and unconditional release”. The matter is on the agenda of an
EU foreign ministers’ videoconference to be held on Monday, EU foreign policy
chief Josep Borrell said in a statement. Navalny, 44, was arrested in Russia in
January after returning from a near-fatal poisoning with a banned nerve agent
that he says was carried out by Moscow. President Vladimir Putin’s
administration denies the accusation. Navalny was sentenced to two and a half
years in a penal colony east of Moscow. He began a hunger strike there on March
31 to demand medical treatment for back pain and numbness to his hands and legs.
On Saturday, several doctors close to Navalny warned his health had rapidly
deteriorated and he could “die any minute”. After the US government warned of
“consequences” if Navalny died, Russia’s ambassador to Britain, Andrei Kelin, on
Sunday said the prominent opposition leader “will not be allowed to die in
prison”. Borrell called on Russia to grant Navalny immediate access “to medical
professionals he trusts” and stressed that “the Russian authorities are
responsible for Mr Navalny’s safety and health in the penal colony, to which we
hold them to account”. Navalny’s detention was “politically motivated” and went
against Russia’s human rights obligations, he said. Borrell noted that the EU in
October put sanctions on six Russian officials over the assassination attempt,
and in February sanctioned another four individuals over Navalny’s arrest and
sentencing. “The Navalny case is not an isolated incident but confirms a
negative pattern of a shrinking space for the opposition, civil society and
independent voices in the Russian Federation,” Borrell said.
Domestic, foreign factors could boost the fortunes of Sadr
in Iraq’s elections
The Arab Weekly/April 18/2021
BAGHDAD – Informed Iraqi sources said that the Sadrist movement has begun to
prepare for the upcoming Iraqi elections and that it will present itself to the
US as a “moderate” movement and the best option in the Iraqi Shia community. The
sources told The Arab Weekly that the Shia political spectrum is now divided
between the pro-Iranian Popular Mobilisation Forces, accused by the US of
responsibility for attacks targeting its forces in Iraq; the Dawa Party, which
is internally splintered and the remnants of smaller formations, such as the Al-Hikma
groups.
In this context, the Sadrist movement finds itself to be the strongest and most
influential political faction, despite the fact that many forces within the
Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) were originally offshoots of the Sadrist
movement. An Iraqi source familiar with the movement’s internal discussions
said, “The time for propaganda against American occupation is gone after the
Sadrist movement had a taste of power. It has benefited from the quota system
through the appointment of cabinet members in various positions and subsequently
gained a level of influence within Iraqi state institutions that is similar to
that wielded by the Dawa Party.”He added that, “The leader of the movement,
Muqtada al-Sadr, realises that the options of the United States are limited.
There is no way to deal with the PMF, which is almost completely under the thumb
of the Iranian Quds Force, nor with the Dawa Party, whose fortunes are eroding
and which stands accused by many of its followers of corruption, nor with the
smaller Shia groups that enjoy more popularity in the media than among political
activists. The Sadrist movement has become the ‘moderate tendency’ despite all
that happened during the past few years.”
On Monday, Iraqi President Barham Salih signed a decree to hold early elections
on October 10. Despite the endeavours of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi
to co-opt a large segment of the Shia electorate within the civil state, the
Sadrist movement is betting on its popularity among the poor in major popular
neighbourhoods of Baghdad, in addition to segments of the population in the
central Euphrates and southern Iraq regions that are dissatisfied with the
government. Kadhimi has yet to flesh out his personal political plan even though
time is running out for him. It is unclear whether he will enter the election
race as a separate political movement or whether Iran will allow him to operate
politically outside the Shia grouping that is loyal to Tehran. This is
especially so because the Iranians consider him to be close to Washington and to
the West and hold him responsible for opening the door for the return to Iraq of
the pan-Arabist policies. The Kadhimi government has vowed to ensure “a fair
voting election process under international supervision, far from the influence
of arms,” but it would be difficult for the PMF militias to leave the scene
without putting up a struggle.The position of the Sadrist movement in relation
to the political system in Iraq has evolved from attacking it for lack of
legitimacy, when not prohibiting it altogether, to infiltrating Iraqi state
institutions, the army and security services and exerting partial control over
the powers of the prime minister. The United States does not seem totally
opposed to the option of backing to Sadr, as long as he is able to curtail the
domination of the Popular Mobilisation Forces over the state, or confront
Kadhimi’s reluctance to thwart the PMF’s daily challenge to the authorities in
line with the Iranian policy of targeting US forces in Iraq with “light” strikes
that do not provoke President Joe Biden’s administration and push it to a tough
response against Iran or its militias.
Sadr often tries to suggest that he is outside the Iranian orbit in Iraq and
that he deals with Tehran as an equal. He stresses also that his late father,
Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, saw himself as an Arab standing up to Iran’s hegemony
over the supreme Shia authority of Iraq and whoever assumed it.
With the elections approaching, Nuri al-Maliki, who heads the State of Law
coalition, is seeking to flirt with Sadr and bring him into the fold of Iran’s
allies, minimising his differences with the populist leader. Maliki said, “my
hand is extended to whomever wants to reconcile with me, and I do not want
disputes, and I do not want the continuation of the dispute, neither with
Muqtada al-Sadr nor with anyone else,” denying “the existence of mediation for
reconciliation with Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr.” Iraqi observers believe that Sadr
may achieve good results in the upcoming elections by billing himself a
“moderate” and keeping his distance from Iran. But he will nevertheless remain
part of the “Tehran system” which controls the Iraqi scene and uses it
regionally for its own purposes. Iraqi political analyst and writer Mustafa
Kamel, believes, “Sadr is Iran’s most dangerous agent in Iraq (…) and the role
assigned to him is limited to reshuffling cards and providing a lifeline to the
political system, and this is the secret of his fluctuating positions and
wavering between right and left.”Talking to The Arab Weekly, Kamel added that
Sadr might win the elections “not because he enjoys support among the Iraqis, as
he is widely rejected by them, but because overt and covert bargaining,
influence-peddling and foreign interferences might push him to the fore”. He
pointed out that, during the past few years, Arab efforts have been devoted to
polishing Sadr’s image but he has failed to play a national leadership role as
he quickly reverted to his usual sectarian and chaotic course.
Rockets hit Iraqi air base, 2 security forces wounded
AP/April 18, 2021
BAGHDAD: Multiple rockets hit an Iraqi air base just north of the capital
Baghdad Sunday, wounding two Iraqi security forces, an Iraqi military commander
said. In comments to Iraq’s official news agency, Maj. Gen. Diaa Mohsen,
commander of the Balad air base, said at least two rockets exploded inside the
base, which houses US trainers. The attack comes days after an explosives-laden
drone targeted US-led coalition forces near a northern Iraq airport, causing a
large fire and damage to a building. Mohsen said the attack resulted in the
injury of two security forces, one of them in serious condition and the other
only slightly. There was no material damage inside the base from the attack, he
added. The incident was the latest in a string of attacks that have targeted
mostly American installations in Iraq in recent weeks. There was no immediate
responsibility claim, but US officials have previously blamed Iran-backed Iraqi
militia factions for such attacks. American forces withdrew from Iraq in 2011
but returned in 2014 at the invitation of Iraq to help battle Daesh after it
seized vast areas in the north and west of the country. In late 2020, US troop
levels in Iraq were reduced to 2,500 after withdrawals based on orders from the
Trump administration. Calls grew for further US troop withdrawals after a
US-directed drone strike killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and an Iraqi
militia leader in Baghdad in January 2020. Last month, a base in western Iraq
housing US-led coalition troops and contractors was hit by 10 rockets. One
contractor was killed.
Top US envoy says terror threat has ‘moved’ from
Afghanistan
AFP/18 April ,2021
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday defended the US decision to withdraw
from Afghanistan, saying the terror threat had moved elsewhere and that
Washington needed to refocus resources on challenges such as China and the
pandemic. President Joe Biden announced last week that the US would withdraw all
forces from the country before this year’s 20th anniversary of the September 11
attacks. The unconditional withdrawal -- four months later than a deadline
agreed with the Taliban last year -- comes despite a deadlock in peace talks
between the insurgents and the Afghan government. CIA head William Burns and US
generals including the former armed forces chief David Petraeus have argued that
the move could plunge the country deeper into violence and leave America more
vulnerable to terrorist threats. “The terrorism threat has moved to other
places. And we have other very important items on our agenda, including the
relationship with China, including dealing with everything from climate change
to Covid,” Blinken told ABC’s “This Week.”“And that’s where we have to focus our
energy and resources.” Blinken met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as well as
senior US officials in Kabul last week and briefed them on Biden’s announcement
Wednesday that he was ending “the forever war,” which began in response to the
2001 September 11 attacks. Blinken told ABC the US had “achieved the objectives
that we set out to achieve.” “Al-Qaeda has been significantly degraded. Its
capacity to conduct an attack against the US now from Afghanistan is not there,”
he said. The Pentagon has around 2,500 troops in Afghanistan from a high of over
100,000. Thousands more serve as part of a 9,600-strong NATO force, which will
withdraw at the same time. The delay in withdrawal -- even by just over four
months -- has angered the Taliban, who have threatened to resume hostilities
against US forces. Blinken said, however, that Washington would be able to see
any move by the Taliban “in real time” and take action. “So if they start
something up again, they’re going to be in a long war that’s not in their
interest either,” Blinken said. National Security adviser Jake Sullivan said the
US would seek to keep a diplomatic presence with “a security component” after
the withdrawal. “Our intelligence community made clear this week in public
testimony that we will have months of warning before Al-Qaeda or (ISIS) could
have an external plotting capability from Afghanistan,” Sullivan told “Fox News
Sunday.” “So we are not going to take our eye off the ball.”
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from
miscellaneous sources published
on April 18-19/2021
Did the Mossad 'shoot' and miss with Natanz sabotage? -
analysis
Yonah Jeremy Bob/Jerusalem Post/April 18/2021
After initial denials, Iran has admitted that it lost the use of thousands of
centrifuges plus extensive aspects of its electricity from the April 11
incident.
Did Israel’s mythic intelligence agency, the Mossad, take its best shot at
slowing Iran's nuclear program last week and miss?
Although Israel’s supporters were complimenting the spy agency all week on the
incident at Natanz on April 11 (about which sources told The Jerusalem Post and
others that it was involved), which supposedly set back Tehran’s nuclear program
by nine months, this may be a case of winning the battle but losing the
war.Whoever carried out the April 11 sabotage of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear
program did so to achieve two goals:
One was to set back Iran’s clock for how quickly it could potentially break out
to a nuclear program. Allegedly, Natanz’s centrifuges for enriching uranium were
to be off-line or unusable for nine months. The second
broader goal was to eliminate Tehran’s bargaining leverage at the negotiating
table with the US and world powers so that Washington would feel less pressure
to rush a return to the 2015 nuclear deal and only return if it received
significant concessions. After initial denials, Iran
has admitted it lost the use of thousands of centrifuges plus extensive aspects
of its electricity from the April 11 incident. But
within days, the Islamic Republic was claiming it would make a major jump in
uranium enrichment to the 60% level. This act, if it
happened, could bring Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei much closer to a
nuclear weapon than he had been prior to the Natanz incident.
People familiar with the matter belittled the idea that Khamenei retained such a
capability after the success of the Natanz sabotage. It was empty Iranian
propaganda to save face and try to maintain a false sense of pressure on the US
in negotiations, they told the Post.
Former IDF intelligence chief Aharon Ze’evi-Farkash and Institute for Science
and International Security president David Albright expressed a combination of
doubt and lack of clarity about how the Islamic Republic could achieve such a
new high level of enrichment after being hit so hard at Natanz. But both said
they were working only from public estimates.
When questioned by the Post, even the International Atomic Energy Agency
initially seemed silent about any new Iranian violation, which could have
supported the idea that it was all a bluff. But over
the weekend, the IAEA finally confirmed that Iran had in fact achieved a 60%
enrichment level using new, advanced centrifuges that were apparently not among
those knocked out on April 11. It is still unknown why
these centrifuges and their electrical power source survived undamaged.
Was it because they were off when the incident hit, because they were
separated from the rest by distinct electrical systems or geography, or because
they were being powered by alleged reserve electricity that Iran maintained in
case of such an incident (following a similar method of attack on the Fordow
nuclear facility’s electrical power in 2012)? The
amount of enriched uranium is still tiny: only a couple of hundred grams per
day, compared with the kilograms that uranium enrichment is typically measured
in. But even this slow-moving process maintains
pressure on the US and shortens the clock for the Islamic Republic to break out
to a nuclear bomb. Rather, than giving the US more
time and leverage, the net total impact of the April 11 incident and the jump to
60% enrichment seems to have given the Biden administration a deeper sense of
purpose and an understanding that speed is of the utmost importance to complete
the negotiations before any new sabotage might further upset the applecart.
The US, Iran and China all made positive comments about progress in the
negotiations over the weekend despite the April 11 incident and the
60%-enrichment announcement. Alternatively, this was
the endgame that Washington and Tehran always intended, and the two sides did
not change their approach after last week’s events.
But even if that is true, it means that the April 11 incident plus Khamenei’s
reaction may not have advanced Israel’s broader policy goals of driving the US
toward taking longer to strike a tougher deal. If so,
it is possible that a remarkable intelligence operation may have succeeded
tactically but failed at a strategic level. Iran’s
elections are set for June 18, and there is high pressure for at least an
interim deal toward returning to the nuclear deal before Election Day.
The coming month or so will likely tell whether the sabotage of Natanz
was worth it.
Audio Brief Analysis from the Washington Institute: Can Erdogan Charm Biden?
Speakers: Soner Cagaptay, Asli Aydintasbas, Max Hoffman,
Jenny White
April18, 2021/
فيديو حلقة نقاش حول دور اردوغان وطموحاته
التوسعية وما يمكن أن تكون علاقته مع الرئيس بايدن
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/can-erdogan-charm-biden
Watch an expert conversation on the pitfalls and potential areas of cooperation
between Washington and Ankara in the coming years.
Although U.S.-Turkish ties stretch back to the early Cold War era, one cannot
describe them as warm today. From Ankara's purchase of Russian missiles, to
Washington's cooperation with Syrian Kurdish armed groups, to President
Erdogan's autocratic policies at home, the long list of friction points will
likely compel the Biden administration to adopt a cautious, realistic approach
to the relationship. This may mean striving for less than complete restoration
of ties and accepting that the ride with Erdogan will sometimes be bumpy.
To discuss the pitfalls and areas of potential cooperation in such an approach,
The Washington Institute is pleased to announce a virtual Policy Forum with Alan
Makovsky, Asli Aydintasbas, and Soner Cagaptay, author of the recently released
Transition 2021 memo, Defining a Realistic Policy Toward Erdogan's Turkey:
Advice for the Biden Administration. The event will be moderated by Institute
executive director Robert Satloff.
*Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family Fellow and director of the Turkish Research
Program at The Washington Institute. His widely cited works on Erdogan's
strategic and historical impact include the books Erdogan's Empire: Turkey and
the Politics of the Middle East and The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of
Modern Turkey.
*Asli Aydintasbas is a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign
Relations, focusing on Turkish foreign policy and the external ramifications of
its domestic politics. A columnist for the Washington Post, she formerly worked
for the Turkish newspaper Milliyet, and her work has been featured in numerous
major media outlets worldwide.
*Max Hoffman is the director of National Security and International Policy at
the Center for American Progress, where his work focuses on Turkey and the
Kurdish regions, U.S. and European defense policy, and the Middle East. Prior to
joining American Progress, Hoffman worked on disarmament and security issues for
the United Nations and the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services
Committee. He received his M.A. in history from the University of Edinburgh in
Scotland.
**Jenny White is a professor, writer, and social anthropologist based at
Stockholm University’s Institute for Turkish Studies. She has published a number
of books on contemporary Turkey, including Money Makes Us Relatives, Islamist
Mobilization in Turkey, and Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks. Her latest
monograph, Turkish Kaleidoscope: Fractured Lives in a Time of Violence,
published in 2021, is a graphic novel that traces the political violence, which
swept through Turkey in the 1970s.
*The Policy Forum series is made possible through the generosity of the Florence
and Robert Kaufman Family.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
*Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family fellow and director of the Turkish Research
Program at The Washington Institute.
*Asli Aydintasbas is a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign
Relations, focusing on Turkish foreign policy and the external ramifications of
its domestic politics.
*Max Hoffman is the director of National Security and International Policy at
the Center for American Progress, where his work focuses on Turkey and the
Kurdish regions, U.S. and European defense policy, and the Middle East.
*Jenny White is a professor, writer, and social anthropologist based at
Stockholm University’s Institute for Turkish Studies.
Iran’s Underground Las Vegas
Arash Aalaei/The Washington Insitiute/April 18/2021
From pop stars to porn stars to bitcoins, the rise of online gambling sites in
Iran is raising eyebrows—as well as questions about whether the IRGC and other
regime organs are benefitting from the scandalous new industry.
Recently, a viral music video named “Tehran Tokyo” has been causing controversy
in Iran. Sasy, the pop singer behind the video, is well established in the
country—his songs are among the most popular with Gen Z Iranians at home and
abroad, who seem to favor his mix of provocative slang and anti-establishment
slurs enough to give him millions of views online. And like most of his
macro-influencer peers, he relies on sponsors who pay for his production costs
in return for views and online chatter about their products.
“Tehran Tokyo” checks all of these boxes. It was filmed in California with a
cast and production values that outdo other Farsi music videos. It includes
highly provocative imagery such as the singer dancing with American porn star
Alexis Texas. And most significant of all, it shows the two of them gambling in
a scene that flashes the Iranian sponsor’s name: River Poker. In other words,
the video blatantly advertises a domestic online poker website in a country
where gambling is banned and often harshly punished under the regime’s brand of
Islamic law.
River Poker and Currency Access
Besides being a provider of illegal gambling services, River Poker is notable
for accepting bitcoins, e-money, and fiat currencies from all over the world at
a time when the Iranian regime badly needs access to cash. The fact that it
enables bitcoin deposits and withdrawals inside Iran makes it a particularly
attractive avenue for corruption. Gambling sites are well known as a way to
launder illicit cryptocurrency worldwide, and the Islamic Republic is no
exception. In all likelihood, citizens involved in such activity are using River
Poker to launder their illicit funds into “clean” coins and/or currency, making
the site and similar apps an “Iranian Las Vegas” of sorts.
Even apart from potential laundering, River Poker has become one of the most
popular betting sites among young Iranians precisely because it enables users to
deposit and withdraw money in the form of cryptocurrencies and electronic
vouchers such as Perfect Money, giving them access to U.S. dollars and numerous
other foreign currencies. And like hundreds of other online Farsi poker sites
based in other countries, it allows them to conduct such transfers from their
Iranian bank accounts.
Are Regime Authorities Complicit?
Given the nature of the Iranian regime, this rise in online gambling and slick
videos advertising it is eyebrow-raising at the very least. In private
communications with the author, experts who have deep experience dealing with
the country’s financial sector note that local banks are often several steps
behind individuals who engage in unregistered crypto trading activity. In
general, however, regime authorities are heavily involved in monitoring both the
banking sector and domestic online activity, regardless of how interested or
capable they may be in terms of monitoring specific transactions linked to
illicit activity. So one of two conclusions seems inescapable: when a popular
website like River Poker openly enables gambling transactions to and from
domestic banks, the regime is either choosing to tolerate this activity or is
actively complicit in it, perhaps as another avenue for laundering funds while
under international sanctions and financial restrictions.
To connect with Iran’s banking system and maintain accounts there, any business
with such a high volume of transactions must pass the regime’s thorough vetting
process. Yet a simple web search for “play poker on Iranian websites” generates
a long list of gambling providers that are openly connected to banks in Iran
despite being illegal there. One might naturally question why the regime is
seemingly allowing this “hiding in plain sight” industry to proliferate, and
whether Tehran is benefitting in any direct way.
Iran was not always open to cryptocurrency trade, with authorities formally
banning it in 2016. Two years later, the domestic online gambling industry
emerged and quickly flourished against the backdrop of a global crypto boom.
Soon thereafter, the Central Bank announced plans to regulate crypto trading.
Meanwhile, the banking system introduced an integrated online credit card
service called IraniCard, a “private” company with an alliance of twenty-four
domestic banks, some operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or
its affiliates. Since lifting the ban on cryptocurrencies, the government has
been planning to use bitcoins in domestic and international transactions—now,
all an Iranian needs for that purpose is an ATM card and an account on the
IraniCard network.
These institutional changes and networks raise the possibility that the IRGC and
other regime elements are using sites like River Poker as yet another money
laundering tool, exchanging bitcoins for rials and vice versa. At the very
least, the banking system and government regulators are looking the other way as
hundreds of thousands of Iranian clients engage in gambling transactions deemed
illegal by the regime—a situation that should raise red flags in Washington
given the high risk of money laundering and fraud by individuals and entities
who are subject to U.S. sanctions.
Although the amount of money being transferred back and forth by these websites
is unknown, other details are well established, including the fact that most of
the claimed 3,500 Iranian gambling sites are managed or promoted by Iranian dual
citizens residing in Turkey, according to a 2020 report by Fars News. Most of
these individuals do little to hide their identities; in fact, they often post
openly on Instagram and other social media outlets to attract more clients. At
times, such promotional activity has led to backlash against these influencers,
with users of some sites claiming that their poker accounts were suddenly
disabled or emptied of thousands of dollars’ worth of credit. Yet any Iranian
users who find themselves in this predicament cannot file a formal complaint,
since admitting to being a client of an illegal website could put them at risk
of getting fined or otherwise punished. In theory, then, the Iranian underground
gambling industry and any regime elements involved in it could be manipulating
user accounts with relative impunity.
Apart from potential manipulation, the industry’s growth inside Iran is
certainly serving owners and sponsors well, while also helping the regime make
cryptocurrencies more mainstream by incorporating them into a popular online
service. These indirect benefits alone merit U.S. attention, especially when
combined with the high likelihood that the IRGC and other regime entities are
involved in the industry and reaping direct benefits via money laundering and
other crimes.
Accordingly, the U.S. government should urge Apple, Google, Amazon, and other
app providers to remove all Iranian gambling services from their stores and
cloud services. Authorities should also warn Iranian-U.S. dual citizens involved
in the industry and U.S. celebrities who promote it that they could be subject
to legal action related to U.S. sanctions if they continue with such activity.
One way to convey this message is via media projects and other initiatives that
shine a light on the extent of money laundering schemes and the dangers of
participating in them, even unknowingly. Lastly, U.S. authorities should work
closely with their Turkish counterparts to determine which parts of the online
gambling and banking network are tied to money laundering inside and outside
Iran, dismantling any entities found culpable.
*Arash Aalaei is a veteran television producer and video journalist who has
reported from inside Iran for outlets such as People magazine and CBS News. He
has also worked with Voice of America and Iran International television in
Washington.
Nuclear energy: Why the Arab world should lead in delivering clean energy
Mohamed Al Hammadi/Arabian Gulf/18 April ,2021
The Arab world, and those nations located along the same lines of latitude,
should move to embrace and lead the global clean energy revolution as the region
is set to benefit the most from limiting climate change.
The region is home to some of the key global hotspots that will be impacted by
the very real impacts of climate change. Ignoring climate change will lead to
more frequent and unprecedented disruptions, as well as extremes periods of
heat, which are detrimental to human, animal and environmental health – more so
in the Arab world than anywhere else. This is the sobering conclusion of a
recently published scientific report on the impacts of climate change in our
region.
The good news, however, is that we can do something about this now. We don’t
have to wait for new technology to be invented and can use the proven technology
available today.
Where do we start? A growing group of climate and energy experts agree that one
of the most efficient ways to address this is by decarbonizing the electricity
sector. We believe that clean electricity, generated in a safe and reliable
manner, will change the game.
For example, think of the electric car and imagine if all the cars in the Arab
world were electric and that they were powered by energy plants that do not emit
greenhouse gases. This is called decarbonizing road transportation and it can be
achieved in just the next 10 years. Even more positively, we have the
opportunity to decarbonize other energy intensive industries.
The potential pay-off is incredibly worthwhile. If we start by decarbonizing the
electricity sector, we take 27 percent of emissions off the table. With the
electrification of industrial processes that produce steel, cement and plastics,
we can take a further 31 percent of emissions off the table. Add to this
electrifying transportation or using energy produced from electricity, such as
green hydrogen, and we take 16 percent of emissions off the table. That’s over
three quarters of global emissions, or 39 billion tons of emissions, removed.
And it all starts with the decarbonization of the power sector, using existing
technologies based on hydropower, nuclear and renewables. This transformation is
possible and is already happening in the United Arab Emirates. The UAE has
already installed 80 percent of all renewable energy projects in the region and,
combined with its latest addition – Unit 1 of the four-unit Barakah Nuclear
Energy Plant – the nation is leading the biggest decarbonization effort of any
industry in the UAE and the Arab world to date.
As the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant’s Unit 1 commences commercial operations,
the UAE joins a group of more than 30 countries around the world already
benefitting from electricity produced with zero emissions by peaceful nuclear
energy.
Nuclear energy is an important factor in achieving sustainability – eight out of
the top 10 most energy sustainable nations already use nuclear energy, studies
by the World Energy Council have shown. Nuclear energy provides abundant,
continuous, emissions-free electricity, complementing intermittent, lower
capacity renewables to create a formidable energy mix.
The UAE has long held its position as a major global energy producer, and the
transition to cleaner energy sources only solidifies this further. Indeed,
Barakah signals the beginning of a clean energy future for the UAE, an ambition
envisioned over a decade ago to help the country diversify its energy mix and
achieve its long-term sustainability goals through a significant reduction in
carbon emissions. Today, clean electricity from nuclear energy is a
ground-breaking step forward towards a carbon free future.
Operating at 100 percent power, Unit 1 of the Barakah plant is now the largest
single source of electricity in the UAE. The four Units of Barakah, once fully
operational, will provide up to 25 percent of the UAE’s electricity needs for
the next 60 years ahead.
Located in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi, the Plant is generating 24/7
emissions free electricity that is reliable and efficient. When all four units
are operational, the plant will prevent the release of 21 million tons of carbon
emissions every year, equivalent to removing all the cars, buses, and trucks on
the UAE’s roads. The benefits of this clean energy strategy are enormous, and
inspire hope and positivity for our future. Not only will we be able to
sustainably meet our requirements for cooling, and desalination, but we also
enhance our ability to sustainably supply the electricity and water needed for
advanced agricultural techniques, such as hydroponics and aquaculture to enhance
food diversity and security. And we will have the electricity needed to power
the increasingly digitalized jobs and automated industries of the future.
The UAE’s oil and gas industry will continue to thrive – we simply cannot exist
without many of the products and services we enjoy today without hydrocarbons.
In Abu Dhabi, the industry is taking bold steps to ensure its products are more
sustainable, and the greatest value is derived from this precious natural
resource. As a country that is committed to transparency and the sharing of
lessons learned, the UAE is open to share this know-how in achieving a greener
grid with nations across the Arab world and ensure we can all enjoy the benefits
of decarbonized electricity. We believe that, as one of the regions most
affected by climate change, we have a duty to deliver a more sustainable Arab
world to the generations that will come after us.
As the first nuclear new-build in more than 30 years, it is our hope that the
UAE’s peaceful nuclear energy program demonstrates that nuclear energy can, and
must, be part of the climate change solution.
Tony Blinken’s Mideast Blind Spot
Martin Peretz/The Tablet/April 18/2021
The U.S. secretary of state and his regional envoy Robert Malley played in the
sandbox together as children in Paris but speak different languages when it
comes to American foreign policy. The results may be the same.
tony Blinken has been secretary of state for less than 100 days. On the most
important strategic issue facing the United States, China, and on the most
important moral issue, human rights, he has marked those days with a brand of
muscular internationalism that has been absent from Foggy Bottom for too long.
He has labeled China’s treatment of its Muslim Uyghur minority as genocide and
taken a tough stance on trade imbalances, while committing to work with China on
issues like the environment—using exact but firm language backed by coherent
policy.
For the most part, Blinken’s stated policies have been strong yet moderate. On
the one hand, for example, he will probably not press for international
sanctions or reparations from China when it comes to its responsibility for the
COVID outbreak. He will probably not use a boycott of the Beijing Olympics to
respond to China’s crimes against the Uyghurs. On the other hand, he will push
to sanction Chinese officials for their clear, documented, ongoing violations of
human rights in Hong Kong. The Biden administration has warned Wall Street not
to expect government support for corporate expansion in China—a stand with real
substance, since it affects both daily investments and America’s ethical
position in the world. For its part, the Treasury Department is pushing for a
global minimum tax rate to constrain corporate outsourcing.
But Blinken does have blind spots when it comes to both rhetoric and policy, and
these could have large consequences for him and the Biden administration in its
larger project of promoting human rights abroad while confronting China. The
twinned issues where Blinken has remained conspicuously reticent and indistinct
are the Middle East and the elephant in the Middle East, Iran. In lieu of
asserting himself, the secretary of state has approved the reopening of nuclear
talks with Iran and outsourced them to Robert Malley, whom he appointed or
allowed to be appointed U.S. special envoy to that country. Blinken’s reliance
on Malley, and Malley’s own history of finding any opportunity to engage with
groups and countries that demonstrably align themselves against American
interests, point to a large lacuna, so far, in the otherwise sober vision
Blinken has laid out.
It is worth noting here that Malley, besides being an architect of President
Barack Obama’s Iran deal and a longtime proponent of outreach to Iran and Hamas,
is a childhood friend of Blinken’s: The two grew up together in Paris, Malley as
the son of a European-style Jewish communist with anti-imperialist politics and
links to Yasser Arafat and Fidel Castro, and Blinken as the stepson of an active
and influential Zionist businessman and philanthropist who was also a public
supporter of détente between the West and the Soviet Union. The divergences and
convergences of their fathers’ politics are not irrelevant to understanding the
sons.
Malley’s vision is shaped, he and others have repeatedly told us, by the
immersion of his father, the Egyptian-born journalist and publicist Simon Malley,
in the Algerian struggle for independence from France; his American-born mother
was also an advocate for Third World causes. The younger Malley’s
anti-imperialist heritage has made his concern for the oppressed categorical,
not contextual: In his view, any opponent of American postwar international
expansion is on the side of the angels, and therefore a worthy candidate for
rapprochement. This kind of sentimental attachment to the anti-colonial politics
of the late-middle Cold War period might explain why the Iranian mullahs and
Hamas have earned more outreach from Malley during his time in government than,
say, the victims of the Syrian civil war.
Blinken’s vision, which I know from his time at Harvard and from having employed
him with great satisfaction at The New Republic, is shaped by a belief in
improving human lives through building international institutions, along with
support for the occasional use of force to stop human rights abuses. His vision
doesn’t lack power. But its reliance on multilateral institutions as the go-to
mechanisms for improving international relations means that it sometimes misses
something else: appreciation for the on-the-ground context that delineates what
is possible in a particular situation and what is not—the kind of practical
horse sense that determines the difference in real world impact between policies
and tropes.
The assignment of Malley—who, when he is out of government, runs his inherited
anti-imperialist priorities through dogmatic internationalists like George
Soros, for whom the idea of a national interest is inherently suspect—shows that
Blinken hasn’t looked very hard at the reality of Iran’s actions on the ground,
or paid much attention to the recent history of attempted rapprochements with
the regime, especially Malley’s. (Soros has not been mentioned in the debate
over Malley’s appointment, but he should be: No one can claim that Malley’s
proximity to an ideologically driven billionaire who funds a multinational,
activist NGO empire and has real interests in international decision-making,
currency, and oil markets is irrelevant or an unfit subject of discussion.)
Since George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq threw the Middle East into realignment,
the mullahs in Iran have taken every opportunity to aggrandize themselves at the
expense of peaceful, ordered, democratic government: sponsoring Iraqi extremist
militias and backing the Palestinian extremist group Hamas, the corrupt Lebanese
armed forces, Bashar Assad’s genocidal regime in Syria, and the incompetent and
oppressive regime in Venezuela, all while turning to Russia and China for great
power support when it comes to energy and cash. Malley’s actions from 2014 to
2017 represent the archetypal attempt to tame Iran by engaging it, and the
abject failure of that attempt—in both its local and geopolitical context—points
to the misguided futility of the project.
Malley’s main contribution to Middle Eastern geopolitics was to solicit Iran’s
help in combating ISIS, while ignoring the cause of ISIS—the Syrian civil
war—and throwing U.S. backing behind Kurdish militias like the YPG, which,
unlike other Kurdish fighting units, has direct ties to Bashar Assad, and thus
to Iran. Malley had nothing to show for this strategy, only hundreds of
thousands dead in Syria, millions of Syrian refugees in Turkey and Europe, a
further destabilized Iraq, an increasingly disordered Lebanon, and an Iran which
rapidly gained influence in the Middle East, spreading chaos and death
throughout the region.
Iran’s U.S.-funded aggrandizements were not byplays made in some larger game of
eventual engagement with “the international order”: They are the game, which
itself is part of a larger realignment of autocracies like Venezuela, Syria,
Iran, Russia, and China against liberal democracies. On March 29, China and Iran
signed a $400 billion energy deal by which further Chinese investment in Iran
will strengthen its influence in Eurasia, giving both countries leverage over
America. That deal took place in the context of a 25-year “strategic
cooperation” agreement signed two days earlier, formally bringing Iran into
China’s Belt and Road Initiative. “Our relations with Iran will not be affected
by the current situation, but will be permanent and strategic,” said Chinese
Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who had concluded a meeting with Blinken in Alaska
only a few days earlier with public contempt.
We don’t really know what President Biden thinks or feels about Iran’s ties with
China, only that he has publicly supported reentering Obama’s Iran deal as fast
as possible. Yet the ever-increasing and consequential public ties between the
two countries underline the extent to which the Middle East can no longer be
understood in isolation from China’s drive to supplant the United States as the
world’s preeminent power.
Something more than childhood chumminess is therefore at work when Blinken sends
an actor with Malley’s track record out to negotiate with a state that is openly
allying with America’s main strategic rival. At root, it means that there exists
some level of underlying tolerance for a version of what Malley espouses:
engagement no matter the circumstances, regardless of actual present-day human
misery and oppression in Syria—and even if it strengthens Iran’s strategic ally
in Beijing. By turning the means of international coalition-building and
decision-making into a political end, Blinken risks abetting Malley’s worst
instincts rather than checking them, as some moderate and mainstream
congressional Democrats had openly hoped. Malley’s preferred policy can be
summed up in a single word: realignment, toward Iran and away from America’s
traditional allies in Israel and the Gulf.
While Blinken’s muscular rhetoric may appeal more to liberal centrists than to
the ghoulish regimes Malley openly courts, policy is something other than
language; it is what happens on the ground once the talking stops. Just as
Malley’s toxic brand of Third World “empowerment” must be subjected to the
real-world test of whether it actually benefits the people it purports to
champion, Blinken’s rhetoric about curbing Chinese abuses and blunting Beijing’s
drive for supremacy must be analyzed in terms of the actual impact of Malley’s
diplomacy in the Middle East.
Malley’s preferred policy can be summed up in a single word: realignment, toward
Iran and away from America’s traditional allies in Israel and the Gulf. It is in
that context that other moves in Malley’s regional purview can be understood:
downgrading the Abraham Accords, amping up support for the YPG, delisting the
Houthis as sponsors of terrorism even as they starve Yemen’s civilian population
and launch missiles into Saudi cities, sending cash to Palestinian officials to
circumvent the Taylor Force “pay for slay” Act, and reinstituting U.S. financial
support for UNWRA, the Palestinian aid organization, with $150 million—a
symbolic move that implicitly shifts the onus for peace from Hamas and the
Palestinian Authority to Israel.
Maybe Blinken and Biden feel constrained by Obama’s Mideast realignment policy
and obligated to continue his intended legacy-making initiative, at least for a
time; maybe Malley is leveraging the public strength of Obama’s legacy, and the
former president’s sway with key administration figures like Susan Rice, to
exercise undue influence in the Biden White House.
In any case, sometimes engagement is the wrong approach, because it weakens
America’s strategic and moral imperatives, and keeps policymakers from seeing
the forest for the trees. Iran is the place to start the practice of isolation,
sooner rather than later.
*Martin Peretz was Editor-in-Chief of The New Republic for 36 years and taught
social theory at Harvard University for nearly half a century.
Did Iran order a drone attack on the US in Iraq?
Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/April 18/2021
A day before the attack, a shadowy group told Sabereen news that it had targeted
“Mossad” in northern Iraq.
A drone attack last week on Erbil in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region
has all the hallmarks of an Iranian-backed attack. Drones have been used by
Iran’s proxies in Yemen, and Tehran has exported them to partners in Iraq, Syria
and Lebanon.
Iran has a sophisticated series of drones, many of which are kamikaze drones
that operate like cruise missiles. You put in coordinates and then send them on
a mission. Iran also used drones in 2018 during a missile attack on Kurdish
dissidents in Iraq, and as surveillance against ISIS in Syria.
What do we know about the attack on Erbil? It is the third attack on US-led
coalition forces in the city. Pro-Iran militias in Iraq, led by Kataib
Hezbollah, shifted tactics after 2019 and 2020 when US forces consolidated their
facilities in Iraq, withdrawing from a series of smaller bases such as Q-West,
K-1, Nineveh and even Tamp Taji. This left less targets for Iran’s militias in
Iran's neighbor to the west.
At the same time, those militias, called PMU and which also have political wings
in the government and receive government salaries, have now been forced to use
aliases.
There was an attack on Erbil in late September 2020 and another on February 15.
The recent attack was likely a message to the US and the new Biden
administration. Iran and its allies in Iraq want the US to leave.
The first attack on Erbil had followed dozens of other attacks. A US contractor
was killed in December 2019 in Kirkuk and several force members were killed in
Camp Taji in March 2020. The rockets fired in 2020 at Erbil were 122mm Grads
that did little damage. However, the March attack included rockets falling on
numerous warehouses and harming civilians and contractors.
THE DRONE attack is more mysterious. Not many details are known. The US-led
coalition spokesperson has not released new details. “A drone packed with TNT
targeted a coalition base at Erbil airport,” the Kurdish region’s Interior
Ministry said in a statement. A pro-Iranian group calling itself Awliyaa al-Dam
(Guardians of Blood), applauded the strike on the messaging app Telegram. Iraqi
politicians pointed fingers at the pro-Iran militias and at “terrorists.”
Many leading Iraqi politicians are afraid of the Iranian-backed groups, which
have threatened the president and prime minister in the past. The powerful Badr
organization has tentacles in the Nineveh plains near Erbil and its 30th brigade
of the PMU, a Badr affiliate, has hosted rocket-firing squads that not only
targeted Erbil last year but also targeted a Turkish base on the same night as
the drone attack.
In addition, on April 13 a day before the drone attack, a shadowy group told
Sabereen news that it had targeted the “Mossad” in northern Iraq.
While many noted that the drone attack is likely linked to Iran, others also
commented on how it is an escalation. "Suicide drones are particularly useful in
these types of hits as they can avoid counter rocket, artillery and mortar
systems such as C-RAM," the system deployed by the Americans to protect their
troops in Arbil and Baghdad, Hamdi Malik, associate fellow at the Washington
Institute, told AFP.
The AFP report includes other important details. Not only is this the first
drone attack on US forces in Iraq, but “this method is tried and tested for
Iran-aligned groups in the region.” The article alleges that the attack was
carried out by an Iranian-made drone having a 15-foot wingspan, similar to the
ones used by the Houthis. They are known as Qasef-style drones.
THE US senior defense official who spoke to AFP linked this to a January attack
on the royal palace in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, allegedly carried out from
Iraq. "We know the attack was launched... out of southern Iraq," added the US
official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
That gives these drones a range of some 1,500 km. They use GPS as a guide and
are pre-programmed. “They can even be loaded onto a ship from Basra" the report
notes. In January another report indicated Iran may have supplied the Houthis
with a drone that has a 2,000 km. range and can reach Israel.
What we know about the drone attack on Erbil now adds to growing evidence of
Iran sending drones to Iraq and using them against Saudi Arabia and now US
forces. For instance, in May 2019 it was believed that attacks on Saudi Arabia
were planned by Iran using Iraqi soil. In February, AP noted that
“explosive-laden drones that targeted Saudi Arabia’s royal palace in the
kingdom’s capital last month were launched from inside Iraq, a senior
Iran-backed militia official in Baghdad and a US official said.”
The US is clearly building a case against Iran for these attacks. But Washington
already had a lot of evidence of Tehran’s role in drone attacks. At the
so-called “petting zoo” at the Iran Materials Display at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling,
there were examples of Iranian drones. Details compiled by Conflict Armament
Research already linked Iran via gyroscopes to drones used across the Middle
East. Kurdish authorities have also investigated the February attacks that used
rockets.
But despite all the investigations, little is done against the Iranian groups
because everyone fears them. The US fears escalation, for instance.
The claim that drones can get around C-RAM pose another threat to American
forces. The US sent Patriot air defense to Iraq in 2020 after the rocket attacks
increased. C-RAM, a statistical weapon that fires massive numbers of rounds at
an incoming munition, is also in Iraq to defend US bases. But these outdated air
defense technologies have difficulty against drones, cruise missiles and even
rockets.
Israel’s Iron Dome works much better against these new threats. The US has two
Iron Dome batteries, but there is no evidence it will deploy them to Iraq.
Hatred, Enmity, Ethnic
Cleansing and Genocide”: The Persecution of Christians, March 2021
/جدول بأعمال التعدي والإضطهاد التي طاولت المسيحيين خلال شهر
آذار 2021
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/April 18, 2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/98020/raymond-ibrahim-gatestone-instituthatred-enmity-ethnic-cleansing-and-genocide-the-persecution-of-christians-march-2021-%d8%ac%d8%af%d9%88%d9%84-%d8%a8%d8%a3%d8%b9%d9%85%d8%a7%d9%84-%d8%a7/
After a mosque leaders’ wife embraced Christianity, and as a form
of “retribution,” the imam ordered the rape of three Christian girls related to
a local pastor…. — Morning Star News, March 11, 2021, Uganda.
“Intercourse with a girl below the age of 16 is statutory rape in Pakistan, but
in most cases a falsified conversion certificate and Islamic marriage
certificate influence police to pardon kidnappers.” — Morning Star News, March
12, 2012, Pakistan.
On March 20, a court “changed a sentence of life imprisonment to the death
penalty for a Christian convicted of sending a blasphemous text message in
2011″…. Such petitions are “seen often as a service to Islam and as jihad or
holy war against blasphemers.” according to the report. — Union of Catholic
Asian News, March 29, 2021, Pakistan.
“[O]rthodox Muslims demand to make capital punishment the only penalty for
blasphemy”…. The courts increasingly seem to be complying. — Union of Catholic
Asian News, March 29, 2021, Pakistan.
That night, our village was attacked…. I was at home with my four children. We
tried to escape to the woods, but they took my eldest son and beheaded him. We
couldn’t do anything because we would be killed too.” — Save the Children, March
16, 2021, Mozambique.
“In one of the worst attacks last year, the jihadists turned a village football
pitch into an execution ground where they beheaded more than 50 people in three
days of savage violence.” — Barnabas Fund, March 30, 2021, Mozambique.
Algeria is becoming less tolerant of religious minorities.
On March 24, scores of people were massacred or forced to flee during an Islamic
terror attack in the city of Palma, Mozambique, near a major gas plant in the
Cabo Delgado province. Pictured: Internally displaced people from Palma gather
in the Sports Center in the city of Pemba to receive humanitarian aid on April
2, 2021.
Attacks on Christian Women and Girls
Uganda: After a mosque leaders’ wife embraced Christianity, and as a form of
“retribution,” the imam ordered the rape of three Christian girls related to a
local pastor; he also planned to attack the pastor’s church. “When my husband
interrogated me about being a Christian, I refused to answer him,” the wife
later explained:
“Soon a Christian neighbor told me that my husband was out to kill me, hence I
should escape with my children. That particular day in the evening hours, I
escaped with my five children. I am thankful that the church received us.”
The rapes of the Christian girls—aged 16, 17, and 19—came two days after the
imam learned of his wife’s conversion. Before the orgiastic punishment, one of
the girls heard one of the Muslims tell his fellow rapists not to harm them,
since “we were sent only to bring embarrassment and a warning signal to the
church.” The imam also sent a Muslim to the pastor’s Sunday church services to
gather logistical information for a future attack. However, when his behavior
raised suspicions, and the congregation surrounded and interrogated him, “He
pleaded for mercy and revealed that he had been sent on a mission by an imam of
Kasese masjid [mosque] to inflict suffering on the Christians for the conversion
of his wife to Christianity together with his five children,” a church member
said. He also confessed that “Imam Hussein paid a total of 3 million Ugandan
shillings (US$815) to 13 teenaged Muslims to attack the church.”
Pakistan: After Shakaina, a 13-year-old Christian girl, disappeared, her parents
filed a missing person report with local police; they were reluctant to file it,
finally doing so two days later. A few days after that, the investigating
officer summoned the parents to the police station where he showed them a
nikahnama—an Islamic marriage certificate. “He said that Shakaina was now a
married Muslim woman and did not want to return to her family,” her father
explained.
“According to the Nikahnama, her so-called husband’s name is Ali Bashir. We
haven’t heard this name before. Shakaina is just a kid. She was kidnapped and
taken to Okara, where they forcibly converted her and conducted the fake
marriage to give it a religious cover.”
Police have since ignored the father’s appeals to see and speak with his
daughter:
“It’s been over 20 days that our daughter is in the custody of unknown
abductors, yet we haven’t been able to see her. We were just handed a photocopy
of the Nikahnama and told to approach the court if we wanted to meet her. They
also refused to act when we showed them her official birth record, according to
which she’s just 13 and five months…. My family’s shattered, and each passing
day adds to our misery. Is there no law or justice for poor Christians like us?”
“Intercourse with a girl below the age of 16 is statutory rape in Pakistan,” the
report clarifies, adding, “but in most cases a falsified conversion certificate
and Islamic marriage certificate influence police to pardon kidnappers.” The
family’s lawyer said he has even petitioned the Lahore High Court and senior
police officers to help produce the girl, with no result:
“It is [a] great injustice for the poor family. Their daughter is missing for
the last so many days but there’s no information yet about her safety and
well-being… Laws barring underage marriage are in place, but police do not apply
them in the cases. Moreover, sections related to rape and abduction are also
ignored, which enables the perpetrators to obtain bail and walk free from the
case. This prejudicial attitude is putting the security of all [religious]
minority girls at risk and needs to end immediately.”
According to the report, “Pakistan leads the world in forced marriages, with
about 1,000 Christians married against their will to Muslims from November 2019
to October 2020.” Although a parliamentary panel on minorities recommended key
legislation to help combat the forced conversion of minority girls, most
recently on Feb. 16, the government remains unresponsive. Discussing this, legal
activist Asiya Nasir said:
“Last month the Senate’s Committee on Religious Affairs rejected a bill seeking
protection for minorities against religiously motivated violence, including
forced conversions and misuse of the blasphemy law. Such draft legislation has
previously also been opposed, which has emboldened perpetrators of this heinous
crime, and we are now witnessing a record increase in cases. Enough is enough.
It’s time that the political parties realize the consequences of this crucial
human rights violation and do something worthwhile to end the sexual
exploitation of the minority girls in the name of religion.”
Separately in Pakistan, after months of stalking and harassing her, a Muslim man
broke into and tried to rape a 27-year-old woman and Christian college professor
in her home. According to the mother of Neelam Bibi, the Christian woman in
question, “It was about 7:15 p.m. when I left home to get some groceries from
the nearest market. My daughter was alone at home when Faisal Busra intruded
into the home forcibly.” Once in, the Muslim man dragged her into an inner room
and, at gunpoint, tried to rape her. Neelam fiercely resisted and was brutally
beaten for it. A male Christian neighbor heard the ruckus, rushed to the house
and “intervened before Busra could fulfill his purpose.” Angered at being
thwarted, the Muslim would-be rapist exclaimed before leaving: “How dare a
Christian refuse me and another one rescue her. They both will have to pay for
it.” This incident was the culmination of months of Busra harassing and trying
to form a relationship with Neelam. Although she and her family filed a report
with police, the police did nothing to arrest or even confront Busra. The report
adds:
“Christian women in Pakistan are often viewed as soft targets by criminals.
Christian women face multiple layers of discrimination due to their religious
and gender identity.”
Egypt: On March 13, a Muslim man harassed and then beat a teenage Christian girl
named Marian Rif’at as she was returning home from church. After she rebuffed
and rebuked his advances, he struck her face with a broken bottle; when she ran
to her home near the church, the man chased her, broke in, beat her parents and
ransacked the house. When the girl’s father filed a complaint with police
against the man, the latter responded by filing his own complaint against the
girl (though it is unclear what the nature of his complaint was or could
possibly be). The man was subsequently arrested for questioning.
Indonesia: According to a March 18 Human Rights Watch report, Muslims are
forcing and creating “psychological distress” for Christian and other non-Muslim
women to wear the hijab, Islamic covering. Those who resist are being either
forced out of their schools and jobs or voluntarily leaving due to the pressure;
children are being humiliated and bullied at school. According to a Human Rights
Watch representative:
“Indonesian regulations and policies have long forced discriminatory dress codes
on women and girls in schools and government offices that violate their right to
freedom from coercion to adopt a religious belief,” said Elaine Pearson,
Australia director at Human Rights Watch. “Indonesia’s national, provincial, and
local governments should immediately end these discriminatory practices and let
women and girls wear what they choose without sacrificing their right to
education or work.”
Murder and Mayhem at Churches
Indonesia: On Sunday, March 28, a newlywed Muslim couple launched a suicide
attack on Sacred Heart Cathedral during Palm Sunday service in Makassar. Thanks
to security, who prevented the motorcycle-riding couple from entering the
building, only the two suicide bombers died in the blast near the building’s
entrance, but approximately 20 churchgoers were injured. The female suicide
bomber was four months pregnant. Had the couple managed to enter the cathedral,
the blast would likely have massacred dozens of Christian worshippers. The
husband suicide bomber was a member of a jihadi cell that had bombed other
churches before—including the 2019 Jolo church bombing in the Philippines that
left 20 Christians dead and more than a hundred injured. He left a suicide note
saying that he was “ready to die a martyr.” According to one report, “Indonesian
supporters of Islamic State (Isis) are calling for more attacks” on Christians
and churches following this attack.
Nigeria: On March 30, armed “bandits,” presumably Islamic terrorists, attacked
St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Benue State. The priest and six others were killed
in the raid. According to a statement from the local diocese:
“After celebrating Mass and while he [the priest] prepared to leave … to renew
his priestly vows alongside his brother priests, there was pandemonium among the
internally displaced persons who took refuge in the parish premises. Fr
Ferdinand went out to find out the cause of the confusion. He was shot in the
head as he tried to take cover after sighting armed gunmen.”
The murderers, continuing shooting at the fleeing Christians, killed six more.
Separately, in Nigeria, in mid-March, Muslim riots erupted and Christians and
their churches came under assault after Christian schools asserted their right
not to enforce the hijab, the Islamic head covering, onto their students.
According to a statement by President of Kwara Baptist Conference, Reverend
Victor Dada:
“Christians who were today at First Baptist Church Surulere, Ilorin on peaceful
demonstration with drums and trumpets, came under serious attack by Muslim
fundamentalists who mobilized themselves and louts in large numbers to attack
us. More than 20 people (including four Pastors) were wounded with three
hospitalized. The fundamentalist in the presence of security officials
vehemently attempted to burn the church and when repelled, threatened to burn
the church either during the day or at night. They doused the church gate with
petrol and vandalized the auditorium. They also went ahead to vandalize The
Apostolic Church, Eruda, Ilorin, a church without any grant-aided school.”
Azerbaijan: According to a March 29 report, over the course of just two weeks,
at least three Armenian churches in the Nagorno-Karabakh region were vandalized
or destroyed by Azerbaijani forces—even though a ceasefire had been declared in
November. Video footage of the desecration of one of these churches appeared in
late March. It shows Azerbaijani troops entering the church, while laughing,
mocking, kicking, and defacing Christian items inside it — including a fresco of
the Last Supper. Turkey’s flag appears on the Azeri servicemen’s uniform,
further implicating the possible involvement of the government of Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As the troops approach, one of the Muslim
soldiers says, “Let’s now enter their church, where I will perform namaz” — a
reference to Muslim prayers. When Muslims pray inside non-Muslim temples, they
immediately become mosques. In response to this video, Arman Tatoyan, an
Armenian human rights activist, issued a statement:
“The President of Azerbaijan, and the country’s authorities have been
implementing a policy of hatred, enmity, ethnic cleansing and genocide against
Armenia, citizens of Armenia and the Armenian people for years. The Turkish
authorities have done the same or have openly encouraged the same policy.”
By way of example, he pointed to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev’s proudly
stating in early March that “the younger generation has grown up with hatred
toward the enemy,” meaning Armenians.
Bangladesh: Authorities and approximately ten Muslim civilians demolished a
church that was under construction in a remote and hilly region. According to a
local Christian:
“Officials said they demolished the Protestant church building because it was
being constructed in a forest reserve. But my question is, then why are illegal
activities like cutting down trees and lifting stones from rivers not stopped?
Can’t we, as a minority, practice our religion properly?”
The church under construction was being built with donations from its 160-strong
congregation to replace an old and dilapidated structure made of bamboo and
straw, which had existed in the same area for years without complaint or
reprisals from officials. Discussing the razing of this church, a local Catholic
priest said,
“We are worried and terrified over the incident. We also have our churches here
and the incident is a bad example. We want justice for this incident and hope
the government will compensate the Seventh-day Adventists for it.”
Although officials brushed it off as a minor and inconsequential incident, a
local human rights activist argued otherwise:
“The Forest Department has hurt the religious sentiments of Christians by
demolishing the church. We demand a fair investigation and justice for this
heinous act. If not, it will be difficult for Christians in the region to
practice their religion in the coming days.”
Some days later, on March 8, “around 200 Christians formed a human chain and
held a silent protest against the demolition of the church.” In a written
statement, the protesters said that “Christians in the Chittagong Hill Tracts
have been the victims of terrorism and have had their churches destroyed and
their homes set on fire.”
Algeria: Because growing numbers of churches have been shut down or denied
permits in the North Africa nation, often over minor technicalities, according
to a March 30 report, Swiss National Councilor Eric Nussbaumer has called on the
Swiss Federal Council to act; he presented “the continued closure of 17
Protestant churches, sealed since November 2017, as evidence of a possible
systematic violation of Algerian Christians’ freedom of worship by the
government.”
Turkey: One of three Orthodox churches in the Black Sea region, the fourteenth
century Hutura Hagios Monastery Church, was violently plundered. In the search
for “treasure,” the church’s foundation was dug up, walls were torn down, and a
library consisting of seven thousand precious books destroyed.
Separately, callous construction above a historical Catholic Armenian cemetery
in Ulus, Ankara, has been visibly desecrating and unearthing the human remains
beneath it. Although the Chamber of Architects has requested a halt to the
construction, the overseeing ministries have refused and even barred
oppositional leaders from entering the site. The president of the Chamber of
Architects in Ankara said:
“The continuation of the construction [of a bank] in spite of this [unearthed
human remains] is a great disrespect to the multiculturalism in the Anatolian
lands… It’s a human rights violation and barbarism. Regardless of their religion
and race, pouring concrete and building shops on the graves of the people who
lived in the Anatolian region is inhumane.”
Attacks on Christian Blasphemers and Evangelists
Pakistan: On March 10, a court “changed a sentence of life imprisonment to the
death penalty for a Christian convicted of sending a blasphemous text message in
2011.” Filed by a senior lawyer, such petitions are “seen often as a service to
Islam and as jihad or holy war against blasphemers,” according to the report.
The change comes after a group of fanatical Muslims stormed the court and “told
the judge that capital punishment was the only sentence for blaspheming against
Islam’s prophet,” and that the Christian blasphemer “must be executed without
delay,” said a local source. In 2013 Sajjad Masih Gill, 36, was sentenced to
life imprisonment and fined (the equivalent of US $2,000) for sending what was
deemed a controversial text message to a Muslim man in December 2011. Over the
following years, radicals threatened and attacked his relatives and Christian
lawyers whenever they visited him in prison. The senior Muslim lawyer who filed
the petition for a death sentence said, according to the report, that the “court
had accepted the prosecution’s argument that capital punishment was the only
possible sentence for blasphemy and that life imprisonment was ‘repugnant’ to
the injunctions of Islam.” The report adds that “orthodox Muslims demand to make
capital punishment the only penalty for blasphemy. They argue life imprisonment
as an alternative punishment violates Islamic ethos and Shariat regulations.”
The courts increasingly seem to be complying: “I am defending a death-row
couple,” both Christians, one of whom is paralyzed, a lawyer said in a March 19
report, “but their appeal against the conviction has been delayed by the high
court on one pretext or the other for the past six years.” Moreover, according
to statistics from the Lahore-based Centre for Social Justice, “the highest
number of blasphemy accused (200) was reported last year.
Algeria: A pastor and another Christian were convicted and sentenced in absentia
to two years in prison each, and a stiff fine of 500,000 Algerian dinars
(US$3,745), for previously running a Christian book store from their church in
Oran. The court ruling, which was slipped under their church door, says that
they are guilty of “distributing publications or any other propaganda
undermining the faith of a Muslim.” Pastor Rachid Seighir and the Muslim
governor of Oran have been embroiled in legal fights over the bookstore since
2008; although the governor forcibly closed it in 2017, local courts have since
declared the church’s right to have and operate a bookstore, despite the
governor’s refusal to comply and reopen it. According to the report:
“Algeria’s 2006 law regulating non-Muslim worship, known as Law 03/06,
criminalizes the publishing or distributing of any materials ‘which aim to
undermine the faith of a Muslim.’ Punishment can range from two to five years in
prison and fines of 500,000 to 1 million Algerian dinars (US$3,745 to
US$7,490).”
Algeria is becoming less tolerant of religious minorities. Two months before
these two Christians were convicted of “undermining the faith of a Muslim,”
another Christian was sentenced to five years imprisonment for reposting a
cartoon of Muhammad on his Facebook account three years earlier.
General Slaughter of Christians
Mozambique: On March 24, scores of people were massacred or forced to flee
during an Islamic terror attack near a major gas plant in the Cabo Delgado
province. The number of casualties remains unknown; a local source said the area
was covered with bodies, “with heads and without.” Among the native corpses were
12 Western people who were “tied up and beheaded here” said an official. The
Islamic State later boasted of “killing at least 55 people, including
Christians, Mozambique soldiers, state nationals and ‘crusaders.'” (Although
Mozambique is Christian majority, nearly 20 percent of the population is Muslim.
The terrorists nevertheless dismiss them as apostates worthy of the same fate.)
Hundreds fled into the bush on foot: “We have many children here,” said a
survivor who walked three days without food and water. “Many children are dying
in the bush … People have been captured and others have died.” According to a
separate report, published on March 16, a few days before the latest massacre,
correspondents in Mozambique were “sickened to our core” listening to mothers
recount the fate of their children, some as young as 11, at the hands of the
Muslim terrorists: “That night, our village was attacked, and houses were
burned,” one mother recalled.
“When it all started, I was at home with my four children. We tried to escape to
the woods, but they took my eldest son and beheaded him. We couldn’t do anything
because we would be killed too.”
Such accounts are all too common. According to a March 30 report,
“More than 2,500 people are estimated to have been killed and 700,000 displaced
since 2017 when militant Islamists began a brutal campaign to establish an
Islamist caliphate in Cabo Delgado province. In one of the worst attacks last
year, the jihadists turned a village football pitch into an execution ground
where they beheaded more than 50 people in three days of savage violence.”
Nigeria: During a raid on his village, machete-swinging Muslim Fulani herdsmen
ambushed and hacked a Christian man to death. According to a statement from the
village, “The Fulani have continued attacking and killing our people without any
form of provocation…” Bitrus Chollom, 36, is survived by his wife Esther and
their four children, aged 5, 8, 10, and 12.
Generic Hate for and Attacks on Christians
Turkey: In response to a question being asked to random passersby on the street
by staff for a YouTube channel—”If you could get away with one thing, what would
you do?”—a woman said on video: “What would I do? Behead 20 Armenians.” She then
looked directly at the camera, and smiled while nodding her head. She later said
she was Azerbaijani, a Muslim people who, with the aid of jihadi mercenaries
funded by Turkey, have been slaughtering Christians during their recent
appropriation of ancient Armenian territory.
Malaysia: Many Muslims were outraged on March 10, after the nation’s highest
court ruled that Christians can also use the Arabic word “Allah” to refer to
their God—as Arabic speaking Christians regularly do. As part of the uproar, one
Muslim woman “dressed in a dun-colored hijab” made and “uploaded a 12-minute
hate-filled rant pledging to ‘destroy’ Christians if they dared use the word
‘Allah’ to mean God.” The video quickly garnered more than 650,000 views and
8,000 shares before being taken down. A criminal investigator confirmed that
“police had identified several statements [in the video] that challenged the
High Court ruling that had elements to incite racial and religious hatred.”
*Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again and Sword and Scimitar, is a
Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the
David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle
East Forum.
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by
extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but
rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or
location. It includes incidents that take place during, or are reported on, any
given month.
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