English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For August 10/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations For today
I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did
Saint Luke 13/01-05/:”At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 09-10/2021
Lebanon’s Patriarch calls on army to confront Hezbollah
Lebanon's Maronite patriarch calls on army to confront Hezbollah/Tzvi Joffre/Jerusalem Post/August 09/2021
IDF identifies Hezbollah militant who fired on Israel/Anna Ahronheim/Jerusalem Post/August 09/2021
Health Ministry: 751 new Corona cases, 5 deaths
Guterres Urges 'Utmost Restraint' after Lebanon-Israel Flare-Up
Israel PM: Lebanon Responsible for Attacks, Hizbullah or Not
Port Blast Bereaved Hold Symbolic Funeral to Demand Justice
Army Chief meets with Qatari Defense Minister
Brawl over Scarce Fuel in Lebanon Turns Deadly
Raisi to Macron: Nuclear negotiations must preserve Iran's rights
Geagea: Manage your affairs, but do not allow citizens to die at gas stations
Jumblatt: What crime did Patriarch Al-Rahi commit?
Makhzoumi: We salute al-Rahi’s stances
Diab cancels all appointments, adheres to quarantine after being exposed to positive Coronavirus case
Druze Sheikh Akl on Hijra New Year: Renouncing the foundations of the homeland is a disregard for coexistence
Akar’s Press Office denies circulated news about a meeting on Tuesday to discuss lifting of subsidies on gasoline, diesel
Moawad, Rochdi discuss frameworks of joint cooperation
Fadlallah: We are constantly striving to import gasoline & diesel from Iran
Berri meets with “Amal” delegation following Tehran visit
Security Forces: Thwarting of narcotic drugs smuggling operation through Beirut airport, one network member arrested
One person killed in a clash at a gas station in Bakhoun - Al-Dinnieh
Two people killed in a shooting incident in Beddawi, Tripoli
Lebanese Journalist: Without A U.S.–Iranian Understanding, The Crisis There Will Only Grow Worse/MEMRI/August 09, 2021
South Lebanon’s missiles carry an Iranian message/Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/August 09/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 09-10/2021
Iran deal instigated violence, says senior Bahraini official in Jerusalem/Lahav HarkovJerusalem Post/August 09/2021
Diving for peace: Top Bahraini, Israeli FM officials bond under the sea
Iran’s Raisi names VP, chief of staff who are under sanctions
Saudi Arabia sentences 69 Hamas members to prison
Jordan's king strives to project image of dynasty cohesion
Calls for help with fires spark Erdogan’s ire, more censorship
Houthis put conditions on meeting with new UN envoy
Canada imposes additional sanctions on first anniversary of Belarus’s fraudulent presidential elections
Canada/Statement on International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
France Extends Macron's Covid Pass despite Protests
Firefighters Try to Stop Greek Island Blaze from Reaching Forest
Fighting Rages in Afghan South after Taliban's Weekend Blitz

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on August 09-10/2021
Making the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative Work/Rep. Jim Langevin/RADM (Ret) Mark Montgomery/Lawfare/August 09/2021
The Taliban Has a Military Solution for Afghanistan/Thomas Joscelyn/The Dispatch/August 09/2021
From Maximum Pressure to Maximum Deference/Richard Goldberg/The Dispatch/August 09/2021
Biden Team Discovers Merit of Trump’s Iran Approach/Anthony Ruggiero/Real Clear World/August 09/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 09-10/2021
Lebanon’s Patriarch calls on army to confront Hezbollah
The Arab Weekly/August 09/2021
BEIRUT –-Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai called Sunday on the Lebanese army to prevent the launch of rockets from Lebanese territory towards Israel, warning that escalation in southern Lebanon is aimed at diverting attention from the ongoing investigation into the August 4 Beirut port blast.“We call upon the Lebanese army, which is responsible with the international forces for the security of the south, to take control of the entire lands of the south, to strictly implement Resolution 1701, and to prevent the launching of missiles from Lebanese territory, not for the sake of Israel’s safety, but rather for the safety of Lebanon,” the Maronite Patriarch said during Sunday Mass, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA). He noted that he could not “accept, by virtue of equality before the law, that a party decides peace and war outside the decision of legality and the national decision entrusted to two-thirds of the members of the government.”Rai’s statements came a day after a televised speech by Hezbollah’s chief, in which he said his group will retaliate against any future Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon, a day after his supporters fired a barrage of rockets toward Israel.
Hassan Nasrallah said it would be wrong to assume Hezbollah would be constrained by internal divisions in Lebanon, or the country’s harsh economic crisis. Over several days last week, militants in Lebanon launched a barrage of rockets into Israel, drawing rare Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon. On Friday, Hezbollah fired additional rockets toward Israel, and Israel responded with heavy artillery shelling. Israel and Hezbollah are enemies who fought to a stalemate in a month-long war in 2006. Israel estimates Hezbollah possesses over 130,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking anywhere in the country. In recent years, Israel also has expressed concerns that the group is trying to import or develop an arsenal of precision-guided missiles.
Targeting lead judge
In his speech on Saturday, Nasrallah also took a swipe at the lead judge probing the explosion, calling on him to provide proof to back up his decision to summon current and former officials for questioning in the case. “Where is the evidence?” he said, calling on Judge Tareq Bitar to share the results. Lebanese political observers said they were surprised by Nasrallah’s criticism of the judge, noting that the latter had not accused any political party of being responsible for the incident, including Hezbollah. The observers added that Nasrallah’s statements could put Hezbollah in a direct confrontation with the judge, reinforcing suspicions about the group’s involvement in the Beirut port blast. The judge is demanding that parliament lift the immunity of three former ministers so he can proceed with investigations, but lawmakers have requested more evidence before deciding on whether to waive immunity.
Bitar has rejected parliament’s request. The caretaker interior minister also did not allow Bitar to question top intelligence official Abbas Ibrahim over the blast. “The investigation is politicised,” Nasrallah said. “Either he must work… in a clear manner or the judiciary must find another judge.”
In February, Bitar’s predecessor was removed by a court, which had questioned his impartiality because his home had been damaged in the explosion. Nasrallah’s televised speech on Saturday came after Lebanon marked one year since hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser exploded at the Beirut port, killing at least 214 people and wrecking swathes of the city. The Shia group’s detractors have in recent weeks claimed it was involved in bringing the substance to the port so it could travel on to neighbouring Syria for its ally the Damascus government to use in barrel bombs during the Syrian civil war. But Nasrallah dismissed these accusations as “fabricated” and “ridiculous.” He dismissed the accusations as “political targeting paid for by America and Saudi Arabia in service of Israel.”It emerged after the explosion that officials had known the ammonium nitrate had been lingering at the port for years.
Obstructing the investigation
A local probe was launched into the disaster but has stalled, with families of the victims and survivors growing increasingly angry and accusing politicians of trying to hamper it at every turn. Earlier this month, Amnesty International said Lebanese authorities have spent the past year “shamelessly obstructing victims’ quest for truth and justice following the catastrophic port explosion in Beirut.”The international non-governmental organisation also noted that “the Lebanese authorities’ relentless efforts to shield officials from scrutiny have repeatedly hampered the course of the investigation.
“Authorities dismissed the first judge appointed to the investigation after he summoned political figures for questioning, and have so far rejected the new investigative judge’s requests to lift MPs’ immunity and to question senior members of the security forces in connection with the tragedy,” Amnesty said in its statement released ahead of the one-year anniversary of the blast. “The Beirut blast, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, inflicted widespread devastation and caused immense suffering. Lebanese authorities promised a swift investigation; instead they have brazenly blocked and stalled justice at every turn, despite a tireless campaign for justice and criminal accountability by survivors and families of victims,” said Lynn Maalouf, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
Diverting attention
Some experts believe that Hezbollah’s threats to escalate tensions with Israel aim at diverting attention from the judicial investigation into the Beirut port blast. The Maronite Patriarch also seems to agree with this theory. The clashes were meant to “divert attention from the sanctity and glow of the Mass of the martyrs and victims of” the Beirut Port explosion, he said on Sunday. Rai attacked the country’s leaders saying, “We ask officials and politicians: How will you convince the people that you are qualified to lead them towards salvation, and every day you plunge them into a new crisis? How will you convince the world that you are worthy of help while you do not care about the international conferences dedicated to the relief of the Lebanese and which are ready to save Lebanon? How will you convince yourselves that you were up to the level of responsibility and hopes? Is there any humanity in you to feel with people in their misery? “We want to end the military logic and war and adopt the logic of peace and the interest of Lebanon and all the Lebanese,” the patriarch added. In August of last year, after the Beirut port blast, the Maronite patriarch called for the state to take control over weapons in the country and to confine decisions of war and peace to the state. Rai then called on all parties not to involve Lebanon in any conflict and to take Lebanon’s interest into consideration first. The patriarch has also repeatedly called for Lebanon to focus on neutrality and not to enter international and regional wars which he said have nothing to do with the country.

Lebanon's Maronite patriarch calls on army to confront Hezbollah
Tzvi Joffre/Jerusalem Post/August 09/2021
"We call upon the Lebanese army to prevent the launching of missiles, not for the sake of Israel, but for the sake of Lebanon."
Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi called on Sunday for the Lebanese army to take control of the southern part of the country, Hezbollah’s stronghold, and strictly implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, after recent clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.
“We call upon the Lebanese army, which is responsible with the international forces for the security of the South, to take control of the entire lands of the South, to strictly implement Resolution 1701 and to prevent the launching of missiles from Lebanese territory, not for the sake of Israel’s safety, but rather for the safety of Lebanon,” said Rahi during Sunday Mass, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).
The Maronite patriarch stressed that he could not “accept, by virtue of equality before the law, that a party decides peace and war outside the decision of legality and the national decision entrusted to two-thirds of the members of the government.”
On Friday, 19 rockets were fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel, with the Iron Dome intercepting 10 rockets and six rockets falling in open areas near Har Dov, along the Lebanese border. The others fell inside Lebanon. There were no injuries or casualties.
It was the sixth such attack in recent months and the first in which Hezbollah admitted responsibility.
Alongside the stance against Hezbollah’s actions, Rahi condemned what he called “periodic Israeli violations against southern Lebanon, and the violation of Security Council Resolution No. 1701, as well as the heated tension in the border areas of residential villages and their surroundings,” according to NNA.
The patriarch stressed that “it is true that Lebanon has not signed peace with Israel, but it is also true that Lebanon has not decided war with it, and is officially committed to the 1949 truce,” adding that “we do not want to involve Lebanon in military operations that provoke devastating Israeli reactions.”
Rahi also claimed that the clashes were meant to “divert attention from the sanctity and glow of the Mass of the martyrs and victims of” the Beirut Port explosion when the one-year anniversary of the blast was marked last week.
The Maronite patriarch would go on to attack the country’s leaders. “We ask officials and politicians: How will you convince the people that you are qualified to lead them towards salvation, and every day you plunge them into a new crisis? How will you convince the world that you are worthy of help while you do not care about the international conferences dedicated to the relief of the Lebanese and which are ready to save Lebanon? How will you convince yourselves that you were up to the level of responsibility and hopes? Is there any humanity in you to feel with people in their misery?” he asked rhetorically.
“We want to end the military logic and war and adopt the logic of peace and the interest of Lebanon and all the Lebanese,” stated the patriarch, according to NNA.
The head of Lebanon’s Kataeb Party and former MP, Samy Gemayel, expressed support for the patriarch on Monday, saying that the party is “convinced” that there are many Lebanese citizens who agree with the patriarch and the Kataeb Party concerning sovereignty and removal of arms outside the military.
Hezbollah supporters expressed outrage at the patriarch’s comments on social media, using the hashtags “Patron of bias” and “patron of surrender.” Hezbollah-affiliated reporter Ali Shoeib addressed the patriarch in a tweet, writing: “Just for once, ask the Lebanese army to prevent the Israeli attacks instead of asking it to prevent the firing of rockets!!”Lebanese MP Ibrahim Kanaan, a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, a Christian party allied with Hezbollah, responded to the social media responses to Rahi’s statements, saying that “insulting what [Rahi] represents and who he represents is rejected by all standards,” according to NNA. Kanaan called for dialogue between Hezbollah and Rahi and a “discussion of his concerns, which are national concerns, expressed by a wide segment of the Lebanese people, with its various components and colors, in terms of not keeping Lebanon an open arena for exchanging messages, heating the borders and opening battles that harm the country and its economy, especially since the Lebanese are going through the most difficult stage in their 100 year history.”The MP stressed that the patriarch’s positions must be discussed with respect, far from any abuse or anger. This isn’t the first time that Rahi has issued statements against Hezbollah’s control of southern Lebanon and existence as a paramilitary organization in the country.In August of last year, after the Beirut Port blast, the Maronite patriarch called for the state to take control over weapons in the country and to confine decisions of war and peace to the state. Rahi called on all parties not to involve Lebanon in any conflict and to take Lebanon’s interests into consideration first, according to NNA. The patriarch has also repeatedly called for Lebanon to focus on neutrality and not to enter international and regional wars which he said have nothing to do with the country. In 2014, Rahi visited Israel during a visit by Pope Francis. Hezbollah and other groups in Lebanon expressed outrage at the decision at the time.

IDF identifies Hezbollah militant who fired on Israel
Anna Ahronheim/Jerusalem Post/August 09/2021
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah condemned the Druze who stopped and filmed the operatives loading rockets towards Israel.
The Hezbollah operative who fired a salvo of 20 rockets towards Israel on Friday was identified by the IDF as Ali Kajak, and he had been documented near the border in civilian clothing several times. Kayak “was near the Israeli border a short while ago in civilian clothes-as is usual for Hezbollah terrorists, wearing civilian clothes- in order to violate international resolutions that bind the Lebanese state,” posed the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee on Twitter. “Kajak fired rockets near the Druze village in order to implicate it, like his border tours are aimed at implicating the Lebanese state,” Adraee continued, adding this “this is more proof of the terror party’s disregard for Lebanon’s sovereignty, Lebanese sects, and international resolutions.”Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks on Friday saying that “at 11.15AM the Islamic Resistance responded to the Israeli aggression by targeting the vicinity of Israeli enemy posts in Shebaa Farms with dozens of rockets fired from woodlands that are far from residential areas.”
The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted 10 rockets, with 6 falling in open areas near Har Dov on the Lebanese border. The others fell inside Lebanon. The truck carrying the mobile multi-barreled rocket launcher as well as Kajak and the other Hezbollah militants was later stopped by Druze residents of the village of Shwayya. Kajak was seen being violently forced into the car and is heard saying that he did not belong to the Lebanese Shi’ite terror group. Though the Lebanese Armed Forces arrested the four militants involved in the rocket fire, Kajak was later released.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday praised the Druze residents who stopped the truck, saying that “There is a very important awakening of many citizens in [Lebanon] against Hezbollah and the Iranian involvement in the country, which in the midst of the severe economic and political crisis there are also embroiling them on the front with Israel.”In a speech on Saturday evening, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said that the rocket fire had been carried out far from a residential area targeting the Shebaa Farms and that he condemned those who had stopped and filmed the operatives.
“I tell the residents of the non-Shiite villages that we had to use that area in order to target (a specific area of the Shebaa Farms),” he said. “What was worse than the Shwayya incident was the filming of the incident and the distribution of the footage, which inflamed sentiments, and I was personally dismayed.”
“What happened in Shwayya was very, very bad,” Nasrallah said.

Health Ministry: 751 new Corona cases, 5 deaths
NNA/August 09/2021
In its daily report on the COVID-19 developments, the Ministry of Public Health announced on Monday the registration of 751 new Corona infections, which raised the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 572,401.
The report added that 5 deaths were recorded during the past 24 hours.

Guterres Urges 'Utmost Restraint' after Lebanon-Israel Flare-Up
Naharnet/August 09/2021
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed his "deep concern" about the recent escalation between Hizbullah and Israel across the Blue Line, "including rocket fire into Israel and return air strikes and artillery fire into Lebanon," the U.N. said.
"The Secretary-General calls on all parties to exercise utmost restraint and to actively engage with UNIFIL's liaison and coordination mechanisms," the U.N. said in a statement."It is paramount that all actors involved avoid actions that can further heighten tensions and lead to miscalculation," the statement added, quoting Guterres.

Israel PM: Lebanon Responsible for Attacks, Hizbullah or Not
Associated Press/August 09/2021
Israel's prime minister said Sunday he holds the Lebanese government responsible for rocket fire launched from its territory, whether Hizbullah launched the weapons or not. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's comments came days after one of the heaviest flareups in violence between Israel and Hizbullah in several years and indicated Israel could expand its response if the rocket fire continues."The country of Lebanon and the army of Lebanon have to take responsibility (for) what happens in its backyard," Bennett told his Cabinet. Over several days last week, militants in Lebanon launched a barrage of rockets into Israel, drawing rare Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon. On Friday, Hizbullah fired additional rockets toward Israel, and Israel responded with heavy artillery shelling. "It is less important to us if it's a Palestinian organization that fired, independent rebels, the state of Israel won't accept shooting on its land," Bennett said. He spoke a day after Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said he'd retaliate against any future Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon and added it would be wrong to assume Hizbullah would be constrained by internal divisions in Lebanon or the country's harsh economic crisis. "Don't miscalculate by saying that Hizbullah is busy with Lebanon's problems," Nasrallah said, adding that the firing of rockets was a "clear message."Israel and Hizbullah are bitter enemies who fought to a stalemate in a monthlong war in 2006. Lebanon is experiencing its worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history, which the World Bank describes as among the worst the world has witnessed since the mid 1800s. Israel estimates Hizbullah possesses over 130,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel. In recent years, Israel also has expressed concerns that the group is trying to import or develop an arsenal of precision-guided missiles.

Port Blast Bereaved Hold Symbolic Funeral to Demand Justice
Agence France Presse/August 09/2021
Lebanese protestors have carried imitation coffins in a symbolic funeral procession from Beirut port to demand justice, days after the first anniversary of a vast dockside explosion that killed more than 200 people. Families of the victims were joined by dozens of supporters, some wearing black and carrying burning torches, at an entrance to the port where a warehouse fire on August 4 last year ignited a vast stash of ammonium nitrate, causing one of the biggest peacetime blasts in history. Wives, sisters and mothers of those killed held portraits of their loved ones and marched ahead of three symbolic coffins covered in flowers. "Ammonium nitrate did this," read one sign. Accompanied by drumming from a marching band, the demonstrators marched through the nearby districts of Gemmayzeh and Mar Mikhail, which were heavily damaged by the blast. "These coffins are symbols to remind people that we carried the coffins of our martyrs," said Ibrahim Hteit, spokesman for a bereaved families' association. "We deserve the truth and we deserve justice for our loved ones. We're not going to give up," he said. On Wednesday, thousands of people demonstrated in Beirut to mark the anniversary of the blast, voicing outrage that nobody has been held responsible for the disaster which left 214 people dead. The ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive fertilizer, had been stored for years at the port with no safety precautions, according to the government itself. The explosion wounded 6,500 people and caused billions of dollars-worth of damage. Yet a judicial inquiry into the disaster has made little progress. Former ministers are suspected of complicity in the negligence which culminated in the explosion. Lebanon's deeply unpopular ruling class have been accused of making every effort to torpedo the investigation and avoid prosecutions. "The crime goes on, lift immunity!" read one placard at Sunday's rally. Helene Ata, a psychologist who lost her twin brother Abdo, 38, called on Lebanese citizens to hit the streets every day until justice is served. "The pain gets worse every day, under the shadow of injustice around this affair, officials' inaction, their avoiding justice," she said. "A year later, it's as if nothing happened," she said.

Army Chief meets with Qatari Defense Minister
NNA/August 09/2021
The Lebanese Army announced via Twitter today that “Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, met with the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of State for Defense Affairs, Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah, with discussions touching on issues related to the military institution.”

Brawl over Scarce Fuel in Lebanon Turns Deadly
Associated Press/August 09/2021
A brawl at a gas station in northern Lebanon over scarce fuel supplies descended into deadly violence on Monday, turning into a fight with knives and guns that killed one man, the National News Agency said. Lebanon has faced months of severe fuel shortages that have prompted long lines at gas stations and plunged the small country, dependent on private generators for power, into long hours of darkness.The shortages are blamed on smuggling, hoarding and the cash-strapped government's inability to secure deliveries of imported fuel. The crisis worsened when the government reduced subsidies on fuel amid a deepening financial crisis unfolding since 2019. The Lebanese currency has plummeted and now sells at 20,000 Lebanese pounds to the dollar on the black market while the official rate is fixed at 1,500 pounds for $1. The price of a gallon of fuel has increased by more than 220% in the last year, triggering panic and a thriving black market. The fuel crisis has turned violent before, with motorists clashing at gas stations after long waits and fuel running out. But Monday's brawl is a rare incident of tensions turning deadly. The National News Agency said it started with a fistfight at a gas station in Bakhoun, a village in the northern Dinniyeh region. A man was shot in the melee; he was taken to a hospital in the nearby town of Zgharta where he died of his wounds, the agency said. The shooter handed himself in to authorities. "The situation is very hard, and we can't handle it much longer," Fadi Abu Shakra, a spokesman for fuel distributors, told al-Jadeed TV. Lebanon's national electricity company, dependent on imported fuel, has expanded a rolling blackout system, delivering only around one hour of electricity a day to homes and businesses.
This prompted private generator operators to turn off their engines to ration the consumption of fuel, plunging entire areas into hours-long darkness. Hospitals have warned that they have been unable to secure diesel, threatening the already struggling health sector with shutdowns of medical facilities.

Raisi to Macron: Nuclear negotiations must preserve Iran's rights
NNA/August 09/2021
Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi confirmed to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron today, the need for negotiations on the nuclear deal to preserve the "rights" of the Islamic Republic, according to the Iranian presidency. The presidency statement said that Raisi stressed, in a telephone conversation with his French counterpart, that "in any negotiation, the rights of the Iranian people and the interests of our nation must be preserved," as reported by AFP.

Geagea: Manage your affairs, but do not allow citizens to die at gas stations
NNA/August 09/2021
“Is there a crime more heinous than the killing of three Lebanese citizens today at gas stations in the north?" questioned Lebanese Forces Party Chief, Samir Geagea, in an issued statement today. “The President of the Republic, the caretaker Prime Minister and the caretaker government are responsible for what the Lebanese have reached in their daily lives,” Geagea said. He added: “For the past year and a half, and to-date, billions of dollars have been wasted before their eyes under the subsidy pretext, either smuggled to Syria or channeled to some of the major traders and importers, or wasted through blind subsidy, with no action taken until we reached our current status.”“The billions that were wasted would have sufficed the needy families in Lebanon for the next five years at least,” Geagea went on, adding that “even after we have reached this point, they are still reluctant to take any decision.” “They do not seek to obtain any specific external aid, gift or loan to continue the rationalized subsidy on one hand, nor do they want to work on lifting subsidies on the other hand, which leads to emptying the Lebanese market of many of the raw materials that the citizen needs daily, including medicine, gasoline and diesel, to other needs,” the LF Chief maintained. Addressing the concerned officials, Geagea said: "By God, either you find a way to manage your affairs, outside the mandatory reserve that belongs to the people, or you lift the subsidy and spare the Lebanese citizens from dying daily at gas stations, diesel depots and pharmacies!”

Jumblatt: What crime did Patriarch Al-Rahi commit?
NNA/August 09/2021
Progressive Socialist Party Chief, Walid Jumblatt, tweeted today on the recent stance by Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, saying: “I was wondering about the crime committed by Patriarch al-Rahi when he reminded of the armistice agreement, so that insults came pouring down on him from all sides...? I recall the defense strategy that we discussed with President Michel Sleiman, and then it was aborted. It seems that it is forbidden to discuss anything outside the literature of the opposition group…A democratic atmosphere par excellence!”

Makhzoumi: We salute al-Rahi’s stances
NNA/August 09/2021
"We salute the positions of Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi and affirm that any targeting act against him is unacceptable, and this is proof that his positions in calling for neutrality and not being drawn into what is troubling our country's atmosphere are right and required to preserve Lebanon's security and stability,” tweeted MP Fouad Makhzoumi on Monday

Diab cancels all appointments, adheres to quarantine after being exposed to positive Coronavirus case
NNA/August 09/2021
The Press Office of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers issued the following statement on Monday: Caretaker Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, canceled all his appointments for the coming days and adhered to quarantine measures after getting in contact with a positive coronavirus case.Premier Diab will resume his duties after conducting a PCR test on Friday morning and making sure he is not infected with the virus.

Druze Sheikh Akl on Hijra New Year: Renouncing the foundations of the homeland is a disregard for coexistence
NNA/August 09/2021
Sheikh Akl of the Druze Unitarian Community, Sheikh Naim Hassan, addressed a speech on Monday marking the Islamic New Year, in which he regretted the present dire conditions and calamities that have befallen the Lebanese in their country, considering that “denying the basics of the homeland is a disregard for coexistence.”“There is no need to emphasize, given the prevailing Lebanese situation, that denial of the foundations of the nation’s existence enshrined in the constitution is an indication of complete disregard for the will of what was called ‘coexistence’, and this means complete political absurdity in the absence of dialogue and the spirit of participation and the desire to cooperate and ratify partnership with the Lebanese other,” he said. “Here lies the major problem,” Sheikh Hassan continued, “which is the inability to breathe essential life into state institutions, and this is most evident in the fatal stagnation reflected in the severe failure to form a government over months while sectors of the country collapse one after the other, as if the screams of the afflicted people are resounding in a barren wilderness,” he added remorsefully. “The first of Muharram is a blessed day. A day for insight into the meaning of faith, and it is a belief that we cling to in our hearts, with its treasures of immortal human values, motivating us to realize the treasures of virtues by which a person rises through its meaning according to the divine will,” he said. The Druze Sheikh Akl concluded by renewing prayers on this day, saying: “We ask God Almighty that this celebrated day returns to our nation in all goodness, inspiring us towards the paths of truth, honesty and altruism, for He is the Most Generous, the Forbearing!”

Akar’s Press Office denies circulated news about a meeting on Tuesday to discuss lifting of subsidies on gasoline, diesel
NNA/August 09/2021
The press office of Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates in the caretaker government, Zeina Akar, denied in an issued statement today, the recent circulated news about lifting subsidies on gasoline and diesel fuel. The statement referred to what was reported by MTV Channel about a meeting that will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, between Akar and caretaker Ministers Raymond Ghajar and Raoul Nehme, and the Central Bank Governor, to discuss this issue as “groundless”. It clarified that tomorrow’s meeting will be devoted tackling the ration card, calling on respected media outlets to maintain accuracy in reporting news.

Moawad, Rochdi discuss frameworks of joint cooperation
NNA/August 09/2021
Chief Executive Officer of the René Moawad Foundation, resigned MP Michel Moawad, received today at his Baabda residence the United Nations Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Humanitarian Coordinator Najat Rochdi, at the head of a delegation, in the presence of the Foundation’s Director General Nabil Moawad. Discussions touched on the latest developments in Lebanon and the prospects for change in the country. The visit comes within the framework of developing cooperation between the Foundation and the United Nations programs, with the aim of confronting the collapse in Lebanon at the economic and social levels.

Fadlallah: We are constantly striving to import gasoline & diesel from Iran
NNA/August 09/2021
MP Hassan Fadlallah criticized, in a statement on Monday, “the insistence of the Central Bank on controlling the decision to legalize subsidies for oil derivatives and medicine, and the insistence of ‘darkness dealers’ from the public and private sectors, during the sacred month, on illicit profit by monopolizing fuel oil to be smuggled or sold on the black market, keeping people without electricity.”“All our follow-ups with the concerned official authorities are being met with evading responsibility and blaming others, without any convincing answers about the reason for the presence of large quantities of diesel on the black market, and the leakage of quantities sent to the municipalities, especially in the south, to mafias to trade it at the expense of the patient people, without being deterred by any human or religious concern or national conscience,” he said. "Despite the general weariness in state institutions, the security and judicial apparatuses bear the full responsibility for identifying those involved, including employees, companies and individuals, and prosecuting and holding them accountable regardless of their sectarian and political identity,” Fadlallah went on, stressing that “there is no way to combat monopolists and smugglers except through the state." “To our good people who are calling for the speedy import of gasoline and diesel from the Islamic Republic, we assure them that the quest continues to reach the desired result, and Hezbollah is making every possible effort to alleviate the suffering of the people,” the MP concluded.

Berri meets with “Amal” delegation following Tehran visit
NNA/August 09/2021
House Speaker Nabih Berri received today at Ain El-Tineh the "Amal Movement” delegation returning from Tehran, where they represented the Speaker at the swearing-in ceremony of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi. The delegation included: MP Ayoub Hmayid, Caretaker Culture and Agriculture Minister Abbas Mortada, Presidency Council Member Khalil Hamdan, and Amal Political Bureau Member Talal Hatoum. They briefed Speaker Berri on content of the official meetings they held in Tehran with a number of officials in the Iranian Islamic Republic, particularly with the Speaker of the Iranian Shura Council, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, and the Chairman of the Defense and National Security Committee, Vahid Jalalzadeh. The delegation also presented the Speaker with the gift that was extended to him by the Secretariat of the Shrine of Razavi in ​​the holy city of Mashhad, which is the banner of Imam Ali al-Ridha.

Security Forces: Thwarting of narcotic drugs smuggling operation through Beirut airport, one network member arrested
NNA/August 09/2021
In an issued statement by the General Directorate of the Internal Security Forces - Public Relations Department on Monday, it indicated that within the framework of combating drug smuggling and through continuous surveillance by the Central Anti-Narcotics Office in the Judicial Police Unit, information was made available about several people preparing for the smuggling of a quantity of drugs through a shipping company. Accordingly, a Judicial Police force managed on 26-7-2021 to seize about 1.6 Kg. of the "Crystal Meth" anesthetic drug, professionally hidden inside water filters.
The statement added that as a result of intensive investigations and through ongoing follow-up and tracing, the police force succeeded in identifying the network members and arrested one of them (Syrian national, born 1996) on 27-7-2021, noting that investigations are held under the supervision of the concerned judiciary and work is continuing to arrest the remaining culprits.

One person killed in a clash at a gas station in Bakhoun - Al-Dinnieh
NNA/August 09/2021
A person was killed in a dispute in front of a gas station in the town of Bakhoun - Dinnieh, which developed into a clash of hands and knives and shooting from a military weapon due to quarreling over filling fuel. The victim was transferred to a medical center in Zgharta, were he died of his injuries. Meanwhile, members of the security forces immediately arrived at the scene and worked to contain the situation, and it was later reported that the shooter turned himself in to the Army Intelligence.

Two people killed in a shooting incident in Beddawi, Tripoli
NNA/August 09/2021
Two people were killed during a clash that occurred in al-Baddawi, which later spread to the Bab al-Tabbaneh locality in Tripoli, where a single weapon was fired and a bomb was thrown in wake of a dispute over the sale and purchase of gasoline.
The ambulance teams of the emergency and relief service of the Islamic Medical Association rushed to the scene and transferred both victims to the Islamic Hospital in Tripoli, where the surrounding area is currently witnessing a heavy deployment of army units.

Lebanese Journalist: Without A U.S.–Iranian Understanding, The Crisis There Will Only Grow Worse
MEMRI/August 09, 2021
In an article in the Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily, Gilbert Achcar, a Lebanese journalist and a professor of international relations at SOAS University of London, wrote that, while the Olympics are happening in Tokyo, Lebanon is scoring up negative records in terms of its economic situation. Lebanon, he said, is just another theatre of the struggle between the U.S. and Iran, and as long as these two countries do not reach an understanding, the crisis there will only grow deeper. He added that the wealthy businessmen of Lebanon's ruling elite earn their capital outside the country, and therefore are hardly interested in extricating it from the economic crisis it is experiencing.
Gilbert Achcar (Source: Hafryat.com)
The following are translated excerpts from his article:[1]
"As the Olympic games take place in Tokyo, Lebanon has unfortunately won the gold and the bronze in two categories that nobody wants his country to [even] compete in. It won the gold for the explosion that occurred in it exactly one year ago, which is the greatest non-nuclear explosion of the 21st century… and the sixth greatest non-nuclear explosion in history. It won bronze for experiencing the third worst economic crisis to occur in the world since the advent of the capitalist economic model in the mid-19th century. This is according to the latest report of the World Bank's 'Lebanon Economic Monitor.'[2]
"These two records are actually closely linked to another achievement, which is difficult to measure, but Lebanon is [surely] a serious contender for the gold in this category as well, [namely] the indifference of the 'officials' to the suffering of the people. History has seldom seen a ruling elite like the one that controls Lebanon's fate, which insists on wasting time in Sisyphean efforts while the country is sinking and its people are groaning. This is closely related to the socio-economic status of Lebanon's ruling elite, for there is hardly a single key figure among them who relies on the local economy and is therefore truly interested in extricating the country from its crisis. This is true not only of the political forces that are officially funded from abroad, such as Hizbullah, but also of [various] 'businesspeople' – for a unique feature of Lebanon is that its greatest tycoons do not regard it as an [ordinary] economic arena, but, at best, as an economic hub which, thanks to the jungle laws that control it, allow [them] to avoid tax restrictions that could be imposed on them in other [economic] hubs.
"Looking at the wealthiest tycoons in Lebanese politics, we find that the richest of them is the designated prime minister, Najib Mikati. He is a senior partner in the Arabian Construction Company, one of the biggest contractors in the Arab world, which operates globally…Another wealthy businessman in Lebanese politics is of course Sa'd Al-Hariri. He entered politics following the death of his father on behalf of his family, which appointed him to this task while ensuring his share in the family fortune.
"Lebanon's current ruling elite is bereft of roots in the homeland, and is permanently sponsored by foreign [forces] which share their influence over it. The latest of these sponsors are the U.S. and Iran. The American sponsorship was behind the Saudi sponsorship [of Lebanon] after the Taif Agreement (of 1989, which put an end to the civil war in the country), until three years ago, when Saudi Arabia decided to renounce any responsibility for what is happening in Lebanon. The Iranian sponsorship was behind the Syrian sponsorship [of Lebanon] until [Iran] replaced Syria, after the latter itself fell under the sponsorship of Tehran due to the war and uprising that broke out in it a decade ago.
"A distinguishing feature of Lebanon's ruling elite is that [its members] receive a 'fresh' [supply of] dollars from abroad, whether from the countries with which they are affiliated, as [in the case of] Hizbullah and Iran, or through close business ties with the Gulf states. This explains the extreme indifference of this ruling elite to the immense tragedy that the Lebanese people are experiencing. As for the French plan to settle the disputes between the components of this elite, so that France can regain a large part of its [former] sponsorship of Lebanon, [this plan] is doomed to failure as long as [Lebanon's] sponsors – the U.S. and Iran – cannot reach an understanding between them…
"The bottom line is that things have become more complicated than they once were, even though [Joe] Biden has replaced [Donald] Trump as U.S. president. For the ascent of Ebrahim Raisi to the presidency in Iran, instead of [Hassan] Rohani, reflects a shift towards a more hardline stance in Iran, which makes the change in America meaningless. In the absence of understandings between the two sponsor states [the U.S. and Iran], any measures taken in the Lebanese arena will bring no more than a temporary respite, like morphine drops given to a dying patient."
[1] Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London), August 3, 2021.
[2] This report , issued in spring 2021, states that " The Lebanon financial and economic crisis is likely to rank in the top 10, possibly top three, most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century." See https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/394741622469174252/pdf/Lebanon-Economic-Monitor-Lebanon-Sinking-to-the-Top-3.pdf.

South Lebanon’s missiles carry an Iranian message
Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/August 09/2021
If the firing of rockets from southern Lebanon towards the settlement of Kiryat Shmona and Shebaa Farms means anything, it means that there is only one authority that controls Lebanon. It is Hezbollah. Hezbollah is nothing but a brigade in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, with Lebanese elements. All in the matter, if we want to simplify matters, is that Aoun’s “Era of Strength” that has been in place since October 31, 2016 is nothing but a “Hezbollah era.”In the ten years, between the signing of the Mar Mikhael Agreement in February 2006… and the election of Michel Aoun as president, the latter proved that he is ready to provide any Christian cover that Hezbollah needs. This included the 2006 summer war that the Shia group triggered and the assassination of Samer Hanna, a pilot officer in the Lebanese army, under the pretext that he was flying in southern Lebanon in an area prohibited to the army. In any case, Aoun’s era carries regional implications and puts the fate of all Lebanon at risk. This explains the launch of rockets from southern Lebanon at this particular time. The missiles are an Iranian message. The message is that Lebanon is an integral part of the battle that the Iranian regime is waging in order to ensure that its expansionist project is not dead. South Lebanon is not different from the Gaza Strip, from which Hamas rockets are launched as soon as Tehran presses the button. This is happening at a time when there is no Lebanese government and no president of the republic who can emphasise to all that Lebanon is not “Hezbollah.”In order for Gibran Bassil to reach the presidency of the republic, the Aoun era seems ready for all concessions, including complete surrender to Hezbollah. This is opposed by most Lebanese, who have proven once again that many of them are ready to confront Hezbollah. This is what was shown by the population of the Druze town of Chouya in the Hasbaya district whenthey intercepted a Hezbollah rocket launcher and its crew. The incident revealed that the true spirit of resistance has not yet died in Lebanon. The country may be dead, but among its people there are those who still defend the culture of life. In the end, there is no political authority in Lebanon that understands where Lebanon’s interest lies. There is only a political authority that is ready to acquiesce to all of Hezbollah’s demands.
The least that can be said is that surrendering to Hezbollah does not protect Lebanon as much as it pushes it to wither and decay. In the final analysis, Lebanon has acquiesced to becoming another Gaza Strip. This strip, which has been ruled by “Hamas” since 2007, has turned into a Taliban-style Islamist emirate. What is the function of the Gaza Strip? Its only role is to show that Iran has missiles which have the range to target Tel Aviv. This function may have changed now with the revival of the Egyptian role in the strip.
Lebanon has only one option, that the Aoun era-ruling class will not dare take. This option is that the president of the republic, if there is a republic left, declares that Lebanon is not an Iranian base for missile attacks. To put it more clearly, Lebanon needs to assert that it is not the Gaza Strip nor the Houthi-controlled Yemen, from where missiles and drones are directed at civilian targets in Saudi Arabia. On what did the Aoun era bet by not lifting a finger to prevent the Beirut port blast a year ago? It bet on diluting the investigation into the bombing, so as not to reveal the truth about who brought ammonium nitrate to the port of Beirut, who stored it in hangar No. 12, and who took out the quantities that needed to be removed. It is betting on a mirage, the mirage of Iran’s victory in the battle it is waging on the international community, on the one hand, and towards reaching a deal with the US administration, on the other. It is a losing bet from A to Z. A bet that will cost Lebanon a lot, after Hezbollah became the one and only authority in town.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 09-10/2021
Iran deal instigated violence, says senior Bahraini official in Jerusalem
Lahav HarkovJerusalem Post/August 09/2021
“The JCPOA [nuclear deal] has caused more instigation and extremism in many different regions across the Middle East.”The 2015 nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran led to greater violence and extremism in the Middle East, Bahrain Undersecretary for International Relations at the Foreign Ministry Dr. Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said in Jerusalem on Sunday, the first day of a four-day trip aimed at deepening relations between Bahrain and Israel.“The JCPOA [nuclear deal] has caused more instigation and extremism in many different regions across the Middle East,” Al Khalifa warned. “Was there any good result that we have come out with? On the contrary. The JCPOA fueled crises across the Middle East.”The Bahraini official spoke at the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (Derasat), which Al Khalifa heads, and the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. JCPA president Dore Gold said the goal of this partnership and his think tank’s work with a research institute in the United Arab Emirates is “to create an array of cooperation agreements with the countries of the Abraham Accords and to convey a message to the US, Europe and other countries, of a realistic understanding of the challenges that we share – the danger of Iran’s policies in the region and the world.”The 2015 nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran led to greater violence and extremism in the Middle East, Bahrain Undersecretary for International Relations at the Foreign Ministry Dr. Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said in Jerusalem on Sunday, the first day of a four-day trip aimed at deepening relations between Bahrain and Israel. “The JCPOA [nuclear deal] has caused more instigation and extremism in many different regions across the Middle East,” Al Khalifa warned. “Was there any good result that we have come out with? On the contrary. The JCPOA fueled crises across the Middle East.”The Bahraini official spoke at the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (Derasat), which Al Khalifa heads, and the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. JCPA president Dore Gold said the goal of this partnership and his think tank’s work with a research institute in the United Arab Emirates is “to create an array of cooperation agreements with the countries of the Abraham Accords and to convey a message to the US, Europe and other countries, of a realistic understanding of the challenges that we share – the danger of Iran’s policies in the region and the world.”

Diving for peace: Top Bahraini, Israeli FM officials bond under the sea
Jerusalem Post/August 09/2021
"One knows it is a true friendship when your partner in peace is your diving buddy."Bahrain’s undersecretary for international relations at the Foreign Ministry, Dr. Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, took a dive in the Mediterranean Sea with Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz on Monday.
The two senior officials went diving at Rosh Hanikra, or Ras al-Naquora in Arabic, as Al Khalifa called it. Ushpiz tweeted a video of himself and Al Khalifa waving their countries' flags underwater. One knows it is a true friendship when your partner in peace is your diving buddy
“We took advantage of a rare chance for underwater diplomatic etiquette. One knows it is a true friendship when your partner in peace is your diving buddy,” Ushpiz wrote. Al Khalifa, an avid diver, said the site had been on his “to-dive list.” He is a licensed scuba instructor who often goes deep-sea diving off Bahrain’s coast. “We took advantage of a rare chance for underwater diplomatic etiquette. One knows it is a true friendship when your partner in peace is your diving buddy,” Ushpiz wrote. Al Khalifa, an avid diver, said the site had been on his “to-dive list.” He is a licensed scuba instructor who often goes deep-sea diving off Bahrain’s coast.

Iran’s Raisi names VP, chief of staff who are under sanctions
The Arab Weekly/August 09/2021
TEHRAN – Iran’s new ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday named the chairman of a powerful state-owned foundation sanctioned by the United States as his first vice-president, the president’s official website said. Mohammad Mokhber, long rumoured by local media to be top pick for the position, has for years headed the foundation known as Setad, or the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s order, in reference to the Islamic republic’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini. Mokhber was appointed to the position by the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2007, following a string of official positions at the southwestern province of Khuzestan. The Setad was originally founded in the late 1980s to manage confiscated properties following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It has since turned into a sprawling conglomerate with stakes in various industries, including health, and its Barekat Foundation produced out Iran’s first local Covid-19 vaccine project. The vaccine received emergency approval in June from health authorities in the Middle East’s worst-hit country. The Setad and Mokhber were blacklisted by the US Treasury in January. Washington had said that Setad “has a stake in nearly every sector of the Iranian economy, including energy, telecommunications, and financial services.” Raisi, who won a June 18 election marked by record abstention, takes over from moderate Hassan Rouhani. On Thursday, Raisi took the oath of office before parliament, to which he must present a list of ministers within two weeks.
A former judiciary chief, Raisi has been criticised by the West for his human rights record and sanctioned by the US since 2019. Raisi also picked Gholamhossein Esmaili, the judiciary’s spokesman during his tenure, as his chief of staff. A former prosecutor, Esmaili is under sanctions by the European Union.
He was first blacklisted in 2011 as Iran’s prisons’ organisation chief over “serious human rights violations”. Raisi’s presidency is due to consolidate power in the hands of conservatives following their 2020 parliamentary election victory, which was marked by the disqualification of thousands of reformist or moderate candidates. Also on Sunday, ultraconservative MP and 2021 presidential candidate Alireza Zakani was elected as mayor of Tehran, state news agency IRNA reported. He won the majority of conservative-dominated city council votes, but he cannot take over before resigning from the parliament, it said.
He succeeds Pirouz Hanachi, a veteran public servant with a background in urban development seen as close to the reformist camp. Zakani has served in parliament between 2004 and 2016, and won a seat again last year. A doctor in nuclear medicine, aged 55, he dropped out of the June presidential race in favour of Raisi.

Saudi Arabia sentences 69 Hamas members to prison
The Arab Weekly/August 09/2021
RIYADH --Saudi Arabia dealt a severe blow to the Palestinian Hamas Movement on Sunday after a Saudi criminal court sentenced former Hamas representative Mohammed al-Khudari to 15 years in prison on charges of illegally collecting and circulating money to support the Palestinian group. According to Hamas, 69 of its Palestinian and Jordanian members and supporters were sentenced by the Saudi court to prison terms ranging from three to 21 years. Riyadh has declined to comment on the issue, only saying that the detainees are enjoying their rights enshrined in law.
The men were arrested three years ago and accused of affiliation with a terrorist organisation and raising funds on its behalf. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been designated by Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf states as a terrorist organisation. Mediation efforts and appeals launched by Hamas to dissuade the Saudi authorities from prosecuting the 69 members and supporters of the group failed. Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas political bureau, said Wednesday that he is looking forward to a Saudi “judicial decision and royal will” to close the file of Palestinian detainees in the kingdom.
The news about the sentences emerged two days after Haniyeh visited Iran and congratulated the new Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, in a clear provocation to Saudi Arabia, which views Iran as an existential threat. Hamas — and to some extent Hezbollah — had in the past enjoyed freedom to operate and move in Arab Gulf states, where they collected and circulated funds. The situation later changed when Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz rose to power. The Saudi crown prince sees the role of Hamas as detrimental when it comes to the national security of the kingdom. He also considers Hamas as hostile to Riyadh directly or through its alliance with Tehran. The last visit by a senior Hamas official to Saudi Arabia took place in July 2015, when Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud received the movement’s former leader, Khaled Meshaal. The recent sentences dash the Islamist movement’s hopes of restoring relations with Saudi Arabia. Over the past months, Hamas has shown a desire to restore warmth to relations with Riyadh, with letters sent to King Salman and to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the success of 41st Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit organised in the Saudi city of al-Ula. Three and a half years after the crisis that struck the core of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the 41st GCC summit, held in al-Ula, brought a blockade on Qatar to an end. In the letter sent to King Salman, Haniyeh welcomed the Al-Ula Declaration, which put an end “disputes among brothers, healed the division and enhanced unity and rapprochement between them, as well as boosted the joint Arab work in order to reinforce development and cooperation in all fields.” Haniyeh expressed his movement’s appreciation for the efforts exerted by Saudi Arabia in this regard, which is a “continuation of its historic role of embracing and defending the issues of the Arab world.”In a separate letter, Haniyeh hailed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for this role in making the 41st GCC’s summit succeed and accomplishing Gulf reconciliation. “Hamas views this reconciliation as an important step to reinforce the joint action in favour of the Palestinian cause, amid the challenges facing it, including the occupation, siege, Judaisation and the attempts to liquidate and abolish it,” Haniyeh said. Some observers also trumpeted the appearance of Khaled Meshaal last July on the Saudi TV channel Al Arabiya as an indication of an imminent return of relations between Hamas and Saudi Arabia. The recent sentences, however, show otherwise. “These brothers did not commit what necessitated these harsh and unjustified sentences, as well as trial,” Hamas said in a statement. “All they did was support their cause and the people to whom they belong, without any offense to the Kingdom and its people.”

Jordan's king strives to project image of dynasty cohesion
The Arab Weekly/August 09/2021
"My dearest uncle and my beloved son, may God bless you in the service of our nation," tweeted King Abdullah II.
Comments by Jordan's King Abdullah II on his official Twitter account reflected his continued efforts towards underlining the unity of the Hashemite dynasty and its support for his rule. The comments were posted next to two photos, showing the king's uncle, former Crown Prince, Prince Al Hassan bin Talal, affectionately hugging and walking with the current Crown Prince, Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah. The Jordanian monarch commented on the two pictures, saying, "My dearest uncle and my beloved son, may God bless you in the service of our nation."
The comments seemed aimed at sending a clear message according to which reconciliation between Abdullah II and Prince Hassan is based on strong principles, especially after the king’s uncle played an important role in ending the crisis which erupted a few months ago over the “sedition” case involving former Crown Prince Hamzah bin Al Hussein, who is the king's half-brother. The prosecutor of Jordan’s state security court had filed sedition and incitement charges against two confidants of King Abdullah II’s half-brother Hamzah, a few months ago, in a palace drama that has rattled the kingdom. Both were tried by Jordan’s State Security Court and sentenced to jail. Hamzah was not charged with any wrongdoing. Political sources said that King Abdullah II's awareness of the role played by Queen Noor, mother of Prince Hamzah, in removing Hassan from the line of succession in favour of her son, and the extent of Prince Hassan's sensitivity to this issue made King Abdullah II edge closer to his uncle Hassan. Last May, the Jordanian monarch entrusted his uncle, Prince Hassan, with resolving the issue of former Crown Prince Hamzah and the "sedition" case.
The same sources say Jordan's crown prince wants to show that his uncle is on his side, not on Prince Hamzah and Queen Noor's side. The so-called sedition case revealed sharp divisions within the royal family with two wings battling for power: that of Mona, the mother of King Abdullah along with Rania, his wife, and that of Queen Noor.
The divisions further fueled popular anger, as a large number of Jordanians, whose living conditions have deteriorated in recent years, see the royal family as being more preoccupied with struggle for power rather than finding solutions to their social problems, as about one million Jordanians live in poverty.
The country's closure for several months due to the pandemic has made the situation worse, as ordinary residents could no longer find work and provide for their essential needs. The announcement of the “sedition” case came at a time when criticism mounted against King Abdullah II, with allegations that he is leading the kingdom to the brink of catastrophe because of the spread of corruption under his watch. At the beginning of last April, the authorities announced the discovery of a plot led by Prince Hamzah with the purpose of overthrowing King Abdullah. The prince later pledged allegiance to King Abdullah and his Crown Prince, Prince Hassan, while Bassem Awadallah, former head of the Jordanian royal court, and Sharif Hassan were sentenced each to 15 years in jail. Observers believed that the ruling was aimed at closing the case and paving the way for a royal pardon to be issued, especially after the visit by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan to Amman and his meeting with the Jordanian monarch. But appeals by defence lawyers for Basem Awadallah and Sharif Hassan of the ruling showed these expectations to be unwarranted. These observers believe that raising the "sedition" case has made Prince Hamzah more popular among Jordanians. Most of the population still wants the Hashemite family to remain, but has been angered for years by mismanagement and corrupt practices of King Abdullah and his wife, Queen Rania. This makes Prince Hamzah look like a better alternative, especially considering his ties to the tribes and his affinity with Jordanians and their concerns. While Queen Rania is criticised for her "profligate spending" over appearance, Jordanian media close to the palace are working full throttle to highlight the important role being played by the king. The Amman Group for Future Dialogues held at the Royal Cultural Centre on Saturday its second dialogue symposium as part of an initiative aimed at boosting the symbolism of King Abdullah II. The initiative includes several tracks that extol the king's efforts to enhance Jordanian security and serve Jordanians, and highlight the monarch's achievements.
The group's head, Bilal Hassan al-Tal, said at the opening of the symposium that "the group is carrying its obligation of commitment to the homeland and its leader so as to build a cohesive internal Jordanian front." He added, "His Majesty the King is a symbol of our state and a cornerstone of its stability. It is our duty to be of assistance to him and to rise to the level of his strategic thinking."

Calls for help with fires spark Erdogan’s ire, more censorship
The Arab Weekly/August 09/2021
As Turkey burned, ravaged by its deadliest and most destructive wildfires in living memory, #HelpTurkey began trending on Twitter, supported by sympathetic celebrities and traumatised Turks.
But in a deeply divided country where even minor events spark culture wars between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s supporters and opponents, the hashtag turned into a scandal, leading to a prosecutors’ probe.
The powerful Turkish leader, unexpectedly facing one of the most serious challenges of his 18-year rule, sounded scandalised by the idea that his country needed help, even as the government revealed it no longer had functioning firefighting planes. “In response to this, there’s only one thing we can say: Strong Turkey,” Erdogan said after Friday prayers, mentioning a hashtag being circulated by his voters.“A terror of lies is being spread from America, Europe and certain other places,” he said about the #HelpTurkey campaign. Acting on Erdogan’s anger, the prosecutors’ office said it would investigate whether the posts were designed “to create anxiety, fear and panic in the public, and to humiliate the Turkish government”. Around the same time, the media regulator threatened to fine TV channels that continued airing live footage of the fires or running stories “that provoke fear and worries in the public”. Most stations complied, minimising their coverage of a disaster that has killed eight people, destroyed forests across vast swathes of the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts, and upturned the lives of a generation of farmers.
Impact of purges
The uproar stemmed in part from Erdogan’s proud nationalism, and in part from a perception among his opponents that cronyism and corruption were taking root.
Erdogan’s fiercest critics charge that he sacked capable leaders from top positions in the purges that followed a failed coup attempt in 2016, replacing them with friends and allies who were not up to the job. An energetic, hands-on leader who rose to power on a popular anti-graft campaign, Erdogan’s own actions suddenly seemed out of touch. Twitter exploded in outrage when he went on tour of the damaged region under heavy police escort, tossing bags of tea to locals out of a moving bus in the middle of the night while a megaphone announced his presence. “Help us!!!!!” Turkish comedian Enis Arikan tweeted hours after Erdogan’s visit in a typical #HelpTurkey post. “We need planes urgently. We only have one world.” Gareth Jenkins, a veteran Turkey analyst, said the criticism of the calls for help cuts both ways. Erdogan’s government “oversees thousands of fake accounts, which they use to troll and try to intimidate into silence anyone who questions its narratives,” Jenkins told AFP. “But I think a much greater problem is that a large number of Turks, including many of those around Erdogan, actually believe the regime’s propaganda.”
Tightening the screws
The battle over #HelpTurkey comes with the screws tightening on social media, which had remained an area of spirited debate in a country dominated by pro-government media and newspapers. After initial resistance, Twitter, Facebook and others have complied with a new law requiring platforms to appoint local envoys who can handle court orders to take down contentious posts. Erdogan says his government will submit another bill to parliament in October to further regulate social media, although he has not explained how. Yaman Akdeniz, a digital rights expert who questions the strength of Jones’s “sock puppet” analysis, said Turks’ pleas for outside assistance were “real and not a hoax”. “While the hashtag wars continue on the social media platforms, the fires continue in real life,” Akdeniz said. “In reality, we have a seriously malfunctioning government machinery which in turn will undoubtedly introduce a new crime and law on disinformation to further silence critical voices on social media platforms,” he said.

Houthis put conditions on meeting with new UN envoy
The Arab Weekly/August 09/2021
ADEN--The chief negotiator for Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement said on Sunday his militias’ conditions must be met before accepting to meet with the United Nations new special envoy for Yemen. The appointment of Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg on Friday as the new UN envoy comes as the United Nations and United States struggle to secure a breakthrough to end more than six years of war between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition that backs Yemen’s recognised government. A UN-led initiative for a ceasefire and the lifting of sea and air restrictions imposed by the coalition on Houthi-held areas has stalled, with the coalition seeking a simultaneous deal and the Houthis trying to impose a agreement on specific aspects such as lifting the blockade before any truce. Their stance has extended the conflict and its related humanitarian tragedy. “There is no use in having any dialogue before airports and ports are opened,” Houthi negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam, who is based in Oman, tweeted in response to Grundberg’s appointment. When contacted by Reuters, Abdulsalam said in a text message a meeting would be pointless as Grundberg “has nothing in his hands” and that there was no progress following last month’s visit to Riyadh by the US envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking. Lenderking’s latest trip to the region came as ground battles spread beyond Yemen’s gas-rich Marib, the government’s last northern stronghold that the Houthis are trying to seize. The conflict, widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine. The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Houthis ousted the Saudi-backed government from the capital Sana’a, but the war has been in military stalemate for years with the group controlling most big urban centres. The Houthis say they are fighting a corrupt system and foreign aggression.

Canada imposes additional sanctions on first anniversary of Belarus’s fraudulent presidential elections
August 9, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today announced new sanctions under the Special Economic Measures Act in response to the ongoing, gross and systematic violations of human rights in Belarus. These new measures impose restrictions on key sectors of the Belarusian economy and minimize Belarusian state actors’ access to international finance. The targeted sectors include transferrable securities and money market instruments, debt financing, insurance and reinsurance, petroleum products and potassium chloride products. These measures are being taken in solidarity with those of international partners.
It has been 1 year since the fraudulent August 2020 Belarusian presidential election, which followed a campaign marred by systematic voter repression, including state-sponsored violence against protestors, activists and journalists. Since then, the grave injustices carried out by the Belarusian government against its own people have not stopped. The regime, led by Aleksandr Lukashenko, continues to muzzle political opposition, and crackdowns on independent media have only escalated. The reckless forced diversion of Ryanair Flight 4978 to arrest Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich and his companion, Sofia Sapega, was a particularly brazen attack on the independent media, but far from the only one.
The regime has refused to engage in meaningful dialogue, and there has been no sign that it is willing to seek a peaceful and democratic resolution to the crisis. This is why Canada has today taken steps to impose these additional sanctions.
These measures will apply further pressure on Belarus’s leadership and send a clear signal to the Belarusian people that Canada continues to stand with them in their ongoing efforts to live peaceably and without fear of persecution in an open and democratic society.

Canada/Statement on International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
August 9, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Karina Gould, Minister of International Development, and the Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, today issued the following statement on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples:
“Today we renew our pledge to listen to, learn from and work together with Indigenous Peoples in Canada and around the world. It’s important to recognize that Indigenous Peoples have always been here and that we all have a role to play in achieving reconciliation.”
“Canada took an important step in this direction when the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples became the law of the land, on June 21 this year. This legislation demands that Canadian laws, policies and practices respect the internationally recognized human rights of Indigenous Peoples. It is a key step forward on the path to reconciliation—but it is only a step. Much-needed and urgent work remains to be done to address past and present injustices.
“At Global Affairs Canada [GAC], we are pursuing the goal of advancing reconciliation in Canada in everything we do. In this regard, the department has developed a 2021-to-2025 action plan in close collaboration with members of GAC’s Indigenous Peoples Network, as well as with other self-identified First Nations, Inuit and Métis employees. We are also continuously partnering with Indigenous Peoples, at home and abroad, in support of Indigenous rights and economic development, and to promote the contributions of Indigenous Peoples and cultures around the world. This vision defines our work in diplomacy, trade and investment, security, international assistance and consular affairs.
“Indigenous Peoples—including women, youth, children, persons with disabilities and 2SLGBTQQIA people—are a focus of Canada’s inclusive, human rights-based Feminist International Assistance Policy, as well as key partners in achieving the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. GAC supports many projects that support Indigenous Peoples in the Global South, including in Latin America and the Caribbean. Since 2017, the International Aboriginal Youth Internships Initiative has enabled 202 Indigenous young persons to gain professional experience in international development, including through virtual internships since the outbreak of COVID-19.
“While many initiatives over the past year and a half were cancelled or postponed because of the pandemic, we have continued to support Indigenous professionals, and education and reconciliation globally. We have helped showcase Indigenous artists and culture in Australia, Brazil, Germany, Norway, Peru and the United Kingdom. Some 70% to 80% of the world’s Indigenous people live in the Asia-Pacific region, and we understand the need for dialogue with these populations.
“GAC strives to be inclusive when it comes to trade and investment. Whenever possible, Canada seeks dedicated chapters on trade and Indigenous Peoples in its free trade negotiations. As a first for Canada, the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement featured a general exception which ensures that nothing in the agreement prevents the government from fulfilling its legal obligations to Indigenous Peoples. Building on this, the same general exception is now a part of Canada’s 2021 Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement Model. In these and other efforts, GAC is guided by advice from, and dialogue with, the department’s Indigenous Working Group on Trade Policy.
“GAC played a role in this country’s colonial past. We acknowledge that we must commit to working as partners with First Nations, Inuit and Métis toward a better future here in Canada, as well as with other Indigenous Peoples worldwide.”

France Extends Macron's Covid Pass despite Protests
Agence France Presse/August 09/2021
France on Monday began enforcing a Covid pass championed by President Emmanuel Macron in cafes, restaurants and trains, a tightening of rules the government hopes will boost vaccinations but which has prompted weeks of angry protests. The pass, already needed for the last three weeks to go to a cinema, attend a concert or visit a museum, will be needed to partake in usually routine aspects of life in France such as sipping a coffee in a cafe or travelling on an inter-city train. Almost a quarter of a million rallied nationwide on Saturday against the extension of the pass, the biggest in four consecutive weekends of protests, but Macron has shown little patience with the demonstrators' concerns over vaccination or alleged erosion of civil liberties. The health pass is generated in a QR code either by a full course of vaccinations, a recent negative virus test or a recovery from Covid-19. The government expects a one-week grace period for consumers and businesses to get used to the new rules. As cafes opened for business on Monday morning, there were early signs of frustration in cafes who have had to survive long months of closure during pandemic lockdowns. "They don't have the health pass and there is nothing I can do," said Mirela Mihalca, waiting on a table at cafe in central Paris, pointing to two customers who sat down but who she had refused to serve. "Some understand it quickly, others not. It is going to be difficult, we are not the police!" she added.
- 'Utter mess' -
At a cafe in the center of the southwestern city of Bordeaux, manager David Fourton described the new rules as a "pain" that would require the hiring of an extra person to carry out the checks. "And if we turn clients away what is there reaction going to be? It will slow things down for sure and risks being an utter mess at busy times."Macron hopes the plan will further accelerate the vaccination drive in France where over 55 percent are now double-jabbed. Aides have noted that almost seven million new bookings were made for first jabs since the plans were outlined. The president, who faces re-election next year, has in recent days repeatedly taken to the social media platform TikTok, popular among young people, to get his message across. "Get vaccinated. Get vaccinated. Get vaccinated," Macron said in the latest video Friday. "It's a question of being a good citizen... our freedom is worth nothing if we infect our friends, neighbors or grandparents. To be free is to be responsible." About 237,000 people protested across France on Saturday, including 17,000 in Paris, the interior ministry said, exceeding the 204,000 recorded last weekend -- numbers that are extremely unusual for protests at the height of the summer break.
- 'Lost their senses' -
In remarks to the Paris Match weekly, Macron made no secret of his frustration with the protesters, who he described as "a few tens of thousands of citizens who have lost their senses to such an extent that they say they live in a dictatorship.""I will not give into their radical violence," he added. The Le Monde daily noted Macron's defiance, saying: "Just a few months before the presidential elections the president is not hesitating to be divisive", while appearing to keep the support of his core electorate. The numbers in hospital with Covid-19 in France are still way off previous highs but the government admits the country is battling a fourth wave of the virus. Cases have been rising fastest in Corsica and the Mediterranean coast, which are seeing a summer influx of holidaymakers. But the biggest concern is over France's overseas territories in the Indian Ocean and Caribbean, notably Martinique and Guadeloupe, where new lockdowns have been ordered amid a slow vaccine uptake. Recent polls though have shown that a clear majority of French back the pass, even including the extension to cafes and restaurants. The pass has already been required since July 21 to visit cultural venues such as cinemas, theatres and museums. Its extension was approved by France's Constitutional Council on Thursday.It will be needed both in the indoor and outdoor areas of restaurants but will not be required on metro systems and suburban transport.

Firefighters Try to Stop Greek Island Blaze from Reaching Forest
Agence France Presse/August 09/2021
Firefighters tried Monday to prevent fires from reaching key communities and a thick forest that could fuel an inferno that one official said has destroyed hundreds of homes in seven days on the Greek island of Evia. If most of nearly two weeks of fires had stabilized or receded in other parts of Greece, the ones on rugged and forested Evia were the most worrying and created apocalyptic scenes.Firefighters were putting the priority on saving the villages of Kamatriades and Galatsades on Monday because "if the fire passes through there, it will end up in a thick forest that will be difficult to extinguish," firefighters told the Greek news agency ANA. After the fire laid siege to one village after another on the north of the island, firefighters also toiled until dawn to quench flames at Monokarya in order to protect the town of Istiaia, all without the help of water-dousing aircraft, ANA reported. Thick and suffocating smoke on Monday also enveloped the coastal region of Pefki, where hundreds of villagers had been evacuated by sea, while others regrouped, an AFP reporting team said.
Climate change reality
Greece and neighboring Turkey have been battling the devastating fires for nearly two weeks as the region suffers its worst heatwave in decades. Two people have been confirmed dead in Greece and eight in Turkey, while dozens have been hospitalized. While rain brought some respite from the blazes in Turkey over the weekend, Greece continued to suffer from an intense heatwave that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said should show even doubters the hard reality of climate change. On Sunday Civil protection deputy minister Nikos Hardalias warned of "another difficult night" ahead, saying that strong winds were pushing a fire front towards beach villages on Evia, northeast of Athens. Among 650 firefighters deployed on the island, Greece's second biggest after Crete, were 250 from Serbia and Romania, supported by 11 planes and helicopters dousing flames with water during the day, according to the Greek firefighting services. But the air support faced "serious difficulties" because of turbulence, thick smoke and limited visibility, Hardalias said. Giorgos Kelaitzidis, Evia's deputy governor, echoed many when he blasted the "insufficient forces" to fight the fires while "the situation is critical" on the island. He said at least 35,000 hectares of land and hundreds of homes have been burned.
'In the hands of God'
Hundreds of people have already fled the island and another 349 were taken to safety early on Sunday, the coast guard said. In Pefki village, young people carried older people over the sand on to a ferry. Elsewhere, villagers joined in the battle against the flames, helping firefighters. "We are in the hands of God," 26-year-old Evia resident Yannis Selimis told AFP. "The state is absent. If people leave, the villages will burn for sure."The situation looked better elsewhere, with officials saying that fires in the southwestern Peloponnese region and in a suburb north of Athens had abated. A fire on Crete was brought under control. But Hardalias warned the risk of fires resurging was heightened. Some 300 firefighters remained mobilized on the Peleponnese and rescue teams on Monday still fought flames at the foot of Mount Parnes, 30 kilometers (17 miles) north of Athens. These included units from Israel as well as Cyprus and France. From July 29 to August 7, 56,655 hectares (140,000 acres) were burnt in Greece, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. The average area burnt over the same period between 2008 and 2020 was 1,700 hectares.

Fighting Rages in Afghan South after Taliban's Weekend Blitz
Agence France Presse/August 09/2021
Afghan government forces were fighting the Taliban for a string of southern cities Monday, after the insurgents took control of five provincial capitals in a 72-hour weekend blitz. The ministry of defense said hundreds of insurgent fighters had been killed or injured in the last 24 hours, with clashes reported in Kandahar and Helmand provinces -- traditional Taliban strongholds. Interior ministry spokesman Mirwais Stanekzai said the Taliban had suffered "heavy losses", and the security situation was improving. "Afghan security forces are patrolling the cities," he said.
Fighting in Afghanistan's long-running conflict has escalated dramatically since May, when the US-led military coalition began the final stage of a withdrawal set to be completed before the end of the month. While the Taliban's weekend gains were mostly sparsely populated cities with less strategic value, the loss of any major southern city would represent a significant shift in the balance of power. The insurgents have for weeks been trying to take Kandahar and Lashkar Gah -- both with Pashtun majorities from where the Taliban draw their strength -- but the government says they have so far managed only to reach the outskirts, or pockets of neighborhoods. "We're clearing houses, roads, and buildings that the Taliban occupy," General Sami Sadat, commander of the Afghan army's 215 Corps, told AFP from Lashkar Gah.
Northern prize
The Taliban said Monday they had turned their sights on the north's largest city, Mazar-i-Sharif. The insurgent's spokesman announced on social media that they had launched a four-pronged attack on the city, after the weekend capture of Sheberghan to its west and Kunduz and Taloqan in the east. Residents and officials in city, however, said the Taliban were exaggerating and fighting was confined to surrounding districts. "The enemy is trying to distort public opinion and create anxiety for the civilian population by their propaganda," said a statement from the provincial police force in Balkh, where Mazar-i-Sharif is the capital. Steeped in history and long an economic hub, Mazar-i-Sharif is the largest city in the north and considered a linchpin to the government’s control over the area. Mazar's longtime strongman Atta Mohammad Noor vowed Monday to fight for the city, saying there would be "resistance until the last drop of my blood.""I prefer dying in dignity than dying in despair," he tweeted. The loss of the city would signal the complete collapse of Kabul's control over the north and likely raise major questions about the future of the government.
Lightning offensive
The insurgents have snatched up five provincial capitals in Afghanistan since Friday in a lightning offensive that appears to have overwhelmed government forces. On Sunday alone, Kunduz, Sar-e-Pul and Taloqan in the north fell within hours of each other, raising fears that the government grip over the north was slipping rapidly. Northern Afghanistan has long been considered an anti-Taliban stronghold that saw some of the stiffest resistance to militant rule in the 1990s. The region remains home to several militias and is also a fertile recruiting ground for the country's armed forces. In another northern provincial capital, Aibak in Samangan, residents were also bracing for the worst. "We don't hear any fighting in the city, but we have reports the Taliban are massing at the gates," Mohammad Hashim Sarwary, deputy head of the provincial council, told AFP. "People in the city started to panic after a former senator and his men joined the Taliban this morning."The withdrawal of foreign forces is due to finish at the end of this month ahead of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The U.S.-led invasion sparked by 9/11 toppled the first Taliban regime in 2001.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials published on August 09-10/2021
Making the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative Work
Rep. Jim Langevin/RADM (Ret) Mark Montgomery/Lawfare/August 09/2021
On Aug. 5, Jen Easterly, the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), announced the creation of the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) to unify public and private national cyber defense efforts under one entity. This is welcome news—when discussing federal cybersecurity efforts, an emphasis on this kind of public-private collaboration is critical to embracing a “whole-of-nation” approach and strengthening overall U.S. cybersecurity.
Easterly, as the second person confirmed by the Senate to head CISA, chose an auspicious location for her first speech: Black Hat, one of the largest and most influential cybersecurity conferences in the world. Each year, Black Hat and its companion conference, DEF CON, attract tens of thousands of cybersecurity professionals to the Las Vegas desert. These are exactly the people that the JCDC will need to bring into the fold to be successful, and Easterly’s early roster of private-sector participants is impressive.
The JCDC represents a further evolution of the government’s drive to operationalize collaboration with the private sector, one of the six pillars of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission report we helped craft. The creation of this collaborative is also a crucial step in fulfilling the mandates in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (NDAA) for the creation of a Joint Cyber Planning Office (JCPO) and the design of an Integrated Cybersecurity Center.
However, we commend Easterly for going beyond the framework in the commission report and laying out a vision for integrating these elements within CISA. Strengthening CISA is vital to our strategic vision for securing the U.S. in cyberspace, and the JCDC announcement has the potential to be hugely consequential for CISA’s future. As we track the stand-up of the JCDC, there are three parts fundamental to its success: planning, operations and information fusion.
First, the JCDC should develop and maintain cyber planning and exercising capabilities. This must be an integral part of the collaborative—successfully defending the United States against malicious cyber incidents will require the federal government to be able to mount its own coordinated defensive campaigns that includes integration between the public and private sectors. Effective cyber planning and exercising ensures that the government can utilize the full range of tools it has available for cyber defensive purposes. Status quo measures have been more “reactive” to individual incidents, rather than being more “proactive” and forward looking. Section 1715 of the NDAA created the JCPO, which will develop plans for cyber defense operations between the public and private sectors. Per the statute, these plans should include coordination actions that would help the federal government protect against, detect, respond to, and recover from significant cybersecurity incidents. As part of a broader national strategic approach, the JCDC should house the JCPO to strengthen the United States’ capacity to conduct meaningful planning across government and between the public and private sectors.
Second, the JCDC should have the ability to integrate public- and private-sector cyber defense operations as well as operations within the federal government. Without effective, meaningful cooperation between federal government entities, defensive cybersecurity measures will continue to lag the threat and the federal government will fall short of being a mature operational partner for the private sector. CISA is currently a key component in coordinating cyber defense operations between the federal government and the private sector, but the ability to conduct fully integrated cybersecurity operations with federal and nonfederal partners remains immature. In particular, while there have been ad hoc working groups that have conducted public-private operations, these efforts have not been institutionalized.
Section 1731 of the NDAA requires the secretary of homeland security, in coordination with other key federal actors, to submit a plan to Congress to better improve the coordination of federal cybersecurity efforts within an integrated cybersecurity center. This report is due in January 2022. Based on Easterly’s vision, we believe the JCDC should serve as a venue for integrated operations within the federal government and as the lead federal cyber center for cybersecurity operations.
Finally, the federal government must improve its combined situational awareness of the cyber threats that are affecting the United States—particularly through sound analytics that encompass and fuse key threat information, insight, and other relevant data from the federal government and other critical public- and private-sector entities. The Cyberspace Solarium Commission’s report from March 2020 proposed the creation of a Joint Collaborative Environment (JCE)—an information-sharing environment with a common toolset that would integrate the federal government’s unclassified and classified cyber threat information, malware forensics, and data related to cybersecurity risks, and would enable real-time public-private collaborative analysis. The JCE will ensure that the most informed analysts in the public and private sectors can come together to look at common data streams, share notes and make life more difficult for U.S. adversaries.
The JCDC is the perfect venue to house the JCE and chair its governance board. If the collaborative is to be successful, it must emphasize the importance of having a steady stream of analytics to inform public and private actions to defend critical infrastructure.
The Path Forward for the JCDC
As the JCDC gets off the ground, CISA and Congress will need to take key steps to consolidate its functions and powers and work with ongoing initiatives within the federal government.
First, the JCDC should take responsibility, in coordination with CISA’s National Risk Management Center and the Office of the National Cyber Director, for the Continuity of Economy planning required by the NDAA. Section 9603 of the NDAA requires the president to develop and submit a plan to Congress in the next year and a half for ensuring the reliable functioning of key economic assets and sectors in the event of a significant incident that might debilitate the United States, including a cyber incident. The JCDC, in scoping its mission, should take on the task for planning (the National Risk Management Center should focus on risk assessment) and ensure that consistent and coherent leadership exists for this crucial national endeavor. The Office of the National Cyber Director will be a key partner for the JCDC in developing, socializing and implementing the plan.
Second, the JCDC should contribute to the report required by the NDAA on the need for an Integrated Cyber Center. The Department of Homeland Security—and potentially Congress—should then task the JCDC with fulfilling the function of an Integrated Cyber Center within CISA. Complementing this assessment, the force structure assessment of CISA (to include personnel, programs and infrastructure) required by the NDAA should be informed by the JCDC’s plans to support the efforts of other federal departments and agencies and the gaps that the collaborative can fill in national defense measures.
Third, Congress must work to establish the JCE in law, empowering it to serve a critical function fusing the cyber information picture. CISA can get a head start by helping to unify federal civilian government efforts to fuse cyber threat information both within the federal government and between the public and private sectors.
At the end of the day, the JCDC is set to provide the essential superstructure to tie together the JCE, the Integrated Cybersecurity Center, and the JCPO. Wrapping together the planning, defensive operations, and information fusing functions under one roof has the potential to significantly benefit the United States’ overall cybersecurity and resilience. As CISA moves forward with its plans, it should ensure that the visions for joint cyber planning, integrated operations, and public-private cyber threat analysis can be realized. The JCDC should take responsibility for ongoing lines of effort to provide leadership and direction and begin the work of bolstering the nation’s cyber defenses. Congress must also take action to ensure that CISA is authorized to perform this work and that appropriations support authorizations accordingly. The welcome step to establish the JCDC is only the beginning. The hard work of implementing the vision starts now.
*Congressman Jim Langevin is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, on which he chairs the Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems Subcommittee and serves on the Subcommittees on Seapower and Projection Forces and Strategic Forces. Mark Montgomery is the senior director for the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and senior adviser to the Co-Chairmen of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkCMontgomery. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

The Taliban Has a Military Solution for Afghanistan
Thomas Joscelyn/The Dispatch/August 09/2021
As the Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies wage jihad to conquer Afghanistan, the Biden administration clings to the fanciful idea that a negotiated settlement to the war is possible. On Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price produced a short summary of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s most recent conversation with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
As Ghani’s forces fight for their lives, this is what the U.S. government decided to say:
The Secretary and President Ghani emphasized the need to accelerate peace negotiations and achieve a political settlement that is inclusive, respects the rights of all Afghans, including women and minorities, allows the Afghan people to have a say in choosing their leaders, and prevents Afghan soil from being used to threaten the United States and its allies and partners.
In reality, there are no “peace negotiations.” The Taliban has no interest in a “political settlement,” other than one in which Kabul surrenders and the jihadists’ totalitarian Islamic emirate is resurrected. The Taliban certainly isn’t going to respect “the rights of all Afghans, including women and minorities.” There is nothing in the group’s history or current behavior to indicate that is even remotely possible. Instead, the Taliban is waging a violent campaign against Afghanistan’s civil society, attempting to roll back the “rights” ordinary Afghans have enjoyed since the end of the Taliban’s authoritarian rule in late 2001. Nor is the Taliban going to allow the “Afghan people to have a say in choosing their leaders.” The jihadists reject any form of democracy, because it is anathema to them. And the Taliban remains closely allied with al-Qaeda, which continues to threaten the U.S.
Price’s summary did condemn “the ongoing Taliban attacks, which show little regard for human life and human rights,” noting that the group’s offensive had led to “the loss of innocent Afghan lives and displacement of the civilian population.” And, as reported by CNN, Price did acknowledge that the Taliban’s behavior is at odds with the idea that a settlement is in the cards. But Price also said this:
“It is self-evident that the Taliban seek a durable solution. It is not in their interest to attempt to wrest power by force and only to be displaced down the road after some period of conflict.”
Self-evident?
Delusional is more like it.
Here are some basic facts about the current state of the war.
The U.S. and Afghan government have repeatedly begged the Taliban for a ceasefire. The State Department’s hashtag campaign—#CeasefireNow—is part of a desperate attempt to persuade the Taliban to halt its violence. Unsurprisingly, it hasn’t worked. The Taliban has never agreed to a meaningful ceasefire. This fact, alone, should give pause to anyone holding out for a broader political settlement.
Around May 1, the Taliban launched a massive offensive throughout the country. The insurgents seized about half of Afghanistan’s territory. This is mostly rural, sparsely-populated terrain. But the insurgents’ objective was to surround a number of provincial capitals and capture some other strategic points, including several lucrative border crossings. They then began laying siege to a number of more densely populated provincial capitals.
Zaranj, the small capital of the remote Nimruz province, which sits on the Iranian border, has just fallen to the insurgents. Zaranj is the first provincial capital seized by the Taliban since the current offensive began. It likely won’t be the last. While Afghan security forces—buttressed by unannounced American airstrikes—have prevented any larger provincial capitals from falling, the cracks in Kabul’s defense are noticeable. The Afghan government is relying heavily on special forces to contain the jihadists’ advances, but those commandos are stretched thin.
Defying America’s hashtag and in-person diplomacy, the Taliban’s jihad has taken a heavy toll since the beginning of the year. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) documented 5,183 civilian casualties (1,659 killed and 3,524 injured) during the first six months of 2021. This is a 47 percent increase over the same timeframe for 2020. According to UNAMA, the main culprit has been the Taliban, which has caused approximately 39 percent of the civilian casualties. Other anti-government actors have tried to take advantage of the chaos as well. In sum, actions taken by the Taliban and other anti-government “elements” have accounted for 64 percent of the civilian casualties.
According to UNAMA, the Afghan government has unintentionally killed and wounded innocents, too, causing 23 percent of the civilian casualties. But the government’s actions are part of a desperate attempt to stymie the advancing jihadis. If it were up to Kabul, the two sides would be engaged in meaningful talks under a ceasefire. The Taliban isn’t having it.
Targeted killings are among the three deadliest tactics documented by UNAMA. The Taliban and other jihadists have been hollowing Afghanistan’s civil society, deliberately assassinating human rights activists, civilian and humanitarian workers, tribal elders opposed to the jihadi project, as well as media personalities and employees. Of course, none of this is consistent with Price’s claim that the Taliban’s interest in a “durable solution” is “self-evident.” The Taliban isn’t preparing for a diplomatic reckoning with the people who support the Afghan government. It is attempting to conquer them.
Just this week, the Taliban’s campaign of targeted killings expanded into the Afghan capital of Kabul. The acting defense minister, Bismillah Mohammadi, narrowly escaped a suicide assault mission by one of the Taliban’s “martyrdom” units on the evening of August 3. Dawa Khan Menapal, the director of the Afghan government’s information and media center, wasn’t so lucky. The Taliban gunned him down in a car traveling through Kabul earlier this morning. Menapal wasn’t a military man—he was a media spokesman whose main task in recent months has been to combat the Taliban’s propaganda.
The Taliban has made it clear that it will continue to hunt down Afghan officials in the weeks and months to come. This is yet another indication, as if it were needed, that the group isn’t preparing for a negotiated settlement with Afghan officials. It is actively trying to kill them.
President Ashraf Ghani and the members of his government cannot afford to entertain America’s servile diplomacy with the Taliban. Nearly all American and NATO forces have been withdrawn. The Afghans must now lead the fight against the jihadis. If they fail, subjugation awaits.
American diplomats and military leaders alike are fond of saying there is no “military solution” for the war in Afghanistan. That’s because the U.S. gave up on any possibility of victory years ago.
The same cannot be said for the Taliban.
*Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD’s Long War Journal. Follow Tom on Twitter @thomasjoscelyn. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

From Maximum Pressure to Maximum Deference
Richard Goldberg/The Dispatch/August 09/2021
Biden’s appeasement of Iran has let the regime become more brazen.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken this week vowed a “collective response” to Iran’s drone attack against an Israeli-operated tanker off the coast of Oman that left one British and one Romanian citizen dead. But President Joe Biden and his administration would do better to pause for a moment of collective self-examination. After more than six months in office, Biden’s strategy of maximum deference toward Iran is failing miserably.
At the outset of his presidency, Biden’s top national security officials asserted that by abandoning the Trump administration’s policy of maximum economic pressure, the United States could put Iran’s nuclear program “in a box.” They hoped to persuade Tehran to negotiate a “longer and stronger agreement” to replace the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). But the JCPOA was never much of a box: narrow, temporary accord that began expiring in late 2020 failed to account for the Islamic Republic’s undeclared nuclear activities, rein in its hostage-taking of American citizens, cease its sponsorship of terrorism or even curb its development of nuclear-capable missiles. As for the longer, stronger deal, it’s nowhere to be seen. Six months into Biden’s term, the results of his Iran strategy are already in.
When the Trump administration left office on January 20, 2021, the Islamic Republic was closer to financial collapse than most people realized. According to the International Monetary Fund, the regime’s accessible foreign exchange reserves had declined from $122 billion in 2018 to just $4 billion by the end of 2020. Had U.S. sanctions been enforced and increased during the first quarter of 2021, the mullahs might have run out of hard currency.
But that’s not what happened. Instead, the Biden administration stopped enforcing many of the most important U.S. economic sanctions on Iran—allowing Iran to drastically scale up its crude exports to China while also issuing a presidential waiver to allow Tehran to use billions of dollars in once-frozen accounts to pay debts to creditors.
If rescuing the clerical regime from a balance of payments crisis was not enough, Biden sent diplomats on a seemingly endless mission to offer Tehran a complete economic bailout—lifting all U.S. sanctions, even those imposed on banks and companies tied to terrorism and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard—in exchange for a return to the flawed JCPOA. Even more embarrassing for Biden, the Iranians refused direct talks. U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley makes offers to European diplomats who then relay messages to the Islamic Republic in another room.
During the presidential transition, when Iran knew that Donald Trump’s hands were politically tied, the regime began producing high-enriched uranium at 20 percent purity—that has long been a red line for the international community because it dramatically shortens Iran’s breakout time to a bomb. At the same time, Iran refused to cooperate with an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into undeclared nuclear sites and activities within the country.
At the March 2021 IAEA board meeting, U.S. allies were preparing to censure Iran for its misconduct—a path that could ultimately lead the IAEA to refer Iran’s nuclear file back to the U.N. Security Council. The Biden administration objected to anything that could provoke Tehran and pulled its allies back. Since then, the clerical regime has increased its enrichment to 60 percent, announced it would produce uranium metal (another move toward potentially developing nuclear weapons) and began extorting the IAEA by withholding and threatening to destroy inspection tapes from key facilities.
The president must face this unpleasant truth: Iran has vastly expanded its illicit nuclear activities on his watch. His policies of maximum deference, not Trump’s policies of maximum pressure, have allowed this.
The same is true of Iran’s terror activities in the Middle East and around the world. Whatever level of military deterrence that the United States restored by killing Qassem Suleimani—the theocracy’s overlord of terrorism and paramilitary activities– in early 2020 has disappeared. In Iraq it’s been open season on U.S. forces for militias taking orders from Tehran.
Biden did nothing in response to a March attack on a U.S. base that resulted in the death of a U.S. contractor—encouraging Iran to escalate by ordering drone strikes on American positions for months. Instead of ordering a military strike against key Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders in Iraq to restore deterrence, Biden ordered two pinprick retaliations against militia installations along the Syrian-Iraqi border.
Attacks against Saudi Arabia by Iran-backed Houthis and against Israel by Iran-backed Hamas and Islamic Jihad did nothing to change Biden’s offering Iran a bailout. Nor did last week’s tanker attack or this week’s attempted tanker hijacking.
But Biden’s most devastating decision thus far was to keep the offer of cash on the table for Tehran after the Department of Justice indicted four Iranians in a plot to kidnap an American citizen from New York City. This was an attempted terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland—a brazen scheme to snatch an American off American soil. If anything the Iranians have done over six months merited a final break from maximum deference, this was it. And yet, the response from the Biden administration was to reaffirm its commitment to rejoining the nuclear deal and lifting sanctions on Iran.
In an interview last week with MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan, Malley said, “America is less safe because Iran has a more expansive nuclear program and because it accelerated and intensified its regional activities,” due to the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign and the killing of Soleimani.
Malley may be the most ideological of Biden’s senior advisors. But for those inside the administration who may be more clear-eyed—and certainly for Washington policy analysts and pundits—now should be a moment of reckoning for the precious time lost over the last six months.
Iran’s nuclear program is more dangerous today than it was six months ago. Iran’s terror activities are more aggressive and target Americans more frequently than they did six months ago. Iran’s terror proxies are more emboldened to attack American allies today than they were six months ago. These are facts—and they are the direct result of six months of maximum deference.
*Richard Goldberg is a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He served on Capitol Hill, on the U.S. National Security Council, as the governor of Illinois’s chief of staff, and as a U.S. Navy Reserve intelligence officer. Twitter: @rich_goldberg. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

Biden Team Discovers Merit of Trump’s Iran Approach
Anthony Ruggiero/Real Clear World/August 09/2021
The Biden administration and its advocates have never hidden their contempt for Trump’s policy of maximum pressure on Iran. According to Robert Malley, the lead U.S. negotiator at nuclear talks in Vienna, “we’ve seen the result of the maximum pressure campaign. It has failed.” A few days later the New York Times editorial board declared “‘Maximum Pressure’ on Iran Has Failed.” The administration’s plan was to revive Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal by demonstrating its good will and flexibility. Yet with little progress to show after six rounds of negotiations, Biden’s team appears to be discovering that leverage is an indispensable part of diplomacy.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday questioned whether Tehran really wants to return to the nuclear deal, stating, “this can’t be an indefinite process.” One day earlier, the administration appeared to lay the groundwork for a potential pivot back to pressuring Iran. An unnamed senior U.S. official said Biden may consider an alternative policy especially as Tehran continues its nuclear advancement. If Iran makes it impossible to go back to the nuclear deal, the administration will return to “the dual track strategy of the past—sanctions pressure, other forms of pressure, and a persistent offer of negotiations.”
The unnamed official also warned Iranian negotiators that they “may believe they have taken the best punch the Americans can give, and that now they will be ok.” But that would be a mistake. The official noted that if Biden increased the pressure on the Islamic Republic he would benefit from an “international consensus…that there is no deal because of Iran, they will face the situation of 2012, not 2019.” In other words, Washington’s tougher stance would have European support, as it did during the pre-nuclear deal phase of Obama’s Iran policy.
But it will take a lot more than warnings from unnamed officials to persuade Tehran that Biden is less eager for a deal. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday criticized outgoing Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, saying: “In this government, it was shown up that trust in the West does not work.” Khamenei’s remarks were broadcast on state television and come a week before Ebrahim Raisi ascends to the presidency. Raisi is Khamenei’s hand-picked hardliner. His likely foreign minister believes that intransigence extracts concessions from U.S. negotiators. The first six months of Biden’s tenure showed that to be true, so his first challenge, if he is serious about changing course, will to be undo the mistakes already made.
First, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s monitoring of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program has been significantly degraded. Despite growing evidence of illicit nuclear activity, Tehran knew it would face few consequences for stonewalling inspectors.
Biden can take the first step toward fixing this error by building a coalition with the E3 (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom) and other likeminded countries to increase diplomatic pressure on Tehran at the agency’s Board of Governors meeting in September. The U.S. should lead an effort to pass a resolution that supports the agency’s director general and urges the Islamic Republic to comply. If it does not, Biden should push the issue to the United Nations Security Council.
The odds of both Russia and China supporting punitive action are lower than low, so the Biden administration should be ready to pivot to a new maximum pressure campaign in coordination with the E3. The good news is many of the Obama officials who devised the original pressure campaign are in the Biden administration. They can build on the Trump administration’s maximum pressure initiatives, most of which the new administration has not yet dismantled. This reversal would have strong bipartisan support among former Republican officials and in Congress.
Reportedly the administration is considering tougher enforcement of sanctions on China’s imports of Iranian oil, a major source of revenue for Tehran. This is a good start, but Biden must go further, including signaling a willingness to target Chinese individuals, companies, and banks. One-time advocates of engagement both inside and outside the administration may be unwilling to go this far, but that’s what it may take. We need to return to the mantra of “you can do business with the United States or Iran, but you cannot do business with both.”
Iran’s nuclear activities have expanded, including the production of uranium metal, which is a crucial step in the development of nuclear weapons. And Tehran has already increased uranium enrichment to 60 percent purity, a level close to what is needed for making nuclear weapons. And there is no known civilian use in the country for such material.
Israeli officials are reportedly visiting Washington this week to prepare for Biden’s first meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, possibly in late August. This is an opportunity for Biden to signal publicly that his administration is embarking on a new course designed to prevent the clerical regime from developing a nuclear weapon. And Biden should mean it.
*Anthony Ruggiero is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). He previously served in the U.S. government for more than 19 years, most recently as senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense on the U.S. National Security Council. Follow Anthony on Twitter @NatSecAnthony. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. The views expressed are the author’s own.