English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese,
Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For February 09/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews21/english.february09.21.htm
News Bulletin Achieves Since
2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006
Bible Quotations For today
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it
remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit
John 12/20-25: “Among those who went up to worship
at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in
Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told
Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, ‘The
hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless
a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain;
but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and
those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 08- 09/2021
Lebanon, Maronities And Saint Maroun/Elias Bejjani/February
09/2021
The Trojan Michael Aoun and His Evil Paper of Understanding with the Axis Of
Evil/ Elias Bejjani/February 07/2021
Pope Francis: We demand national and international commitment to contribute in
strengthening Lebanon's stability and preserving its unique national identity
Health Ministry: 2,063 new Coronavirus cases, 61 deaths
Health officials call on Lebanese to register for vaccination amid low turnout
Poll Finds Only 31% of Lebanese Want to be Vaccinated
President Aoun meets German Ambassador, Audit Bureau delegation
Wife Says Slim wasn't Tortured as Shea Meets Najem
Lebanese Lokman Slim, Iraqi Hisham al-Hashemi, assassinated in similar
circumstances
Lokman Slim’s family calls for thorough investigation into his murder
Macron will send adviser to follow up on government formation in Lebanon
Top Christian cleric condemns illegal weapons in Lebanon
Card. Rai: An 'international conference' to unblock the 'Lebanese paralysis'
FPM Tepid about Rahi’s Call to 'Internationalize' Lebanon File
Report: Govt File ‘Hinges’ on Hariri’s Foreign Tour
Sawwan Resumes Probe in Port Blast Case, Summons Qahwaji
Lebanese MP Jean Obeid dies of COVID-19/Najia Houssari/Arab News/February
09/2021
Medicine shortages in Lebanon spark panic, smuggling
DiaLeb Raises Lebanon's Diabetes Challenges at Int'l Diabetes Conference
Poverty surges amid Lebanon’s self-inflicted crisis/Samar Kadi/The Arab
Weekly/February 08/2021
No compromize with Hezbollah please President Macron/Hanin Ghaddar/Al Arabiya/February
08/2021
Remembering Lokman And Honoring His Struggle/Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI Daily
Brief/February 08/2021
Archives/Mohsen Slim wrote: The fight for a Lebanese
Mohsen Slim a écrit : Le combat pour un Liban libanais
AUB is rooted in Lebanon and will stay in Beirut: University President/Joseph
Haboush/Al Arabiya/February 08/2021
Wehbe partakes in Arab League meeting, ups calls for solidarity en route to
regional security, prosperity
Titles For The
Latest
English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on
February 08- 09/2021
US general says Washington will help
Saudi Arabia defend against ‘common threat of Iran’
Arab League ministers call for revival of two-state solution at Cairo meeting
Iran’s militias pose a threat to Arab countries’ stability: Saudi Arabia’s FM
Canada/Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs on International Criminal
Court’s decision regarding its jurisdiction over West Bank and Gaza
Canada announces support to help advance democracy in Belarus
Iran U.N. Inspectors Find Radioactive Traces, Raising Fresh Concerns
Iran cleric: People who are vaccinated for COVID have ‘become
homosexuals/Benjamin Weinthal/Jerusalem Post/February 08/2021
US to rejoin UN Human Rights Council, reversing Trump's withdrawal
Iran calls on UN to respond to alleged Israeli threats - report
Iran Says French Mediation on Nuclear Deal Unnecessary
Khamenei: US must lift sanctions for Iran to return to nuclear commitments
Fatah, Hamas Begin Cairo Talks ahead of Palestinian Polls
Trump Defense Urges Dismissal of 'Absurd' Impeachment Trial
Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 08- 09/2021
How the Houthis became 'terrorists' for three weeks -
analysis/Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/February 08/2021
Iran facing calls to be kicked out of Olympics after execution of boxer/Benjamin
Weinthal/FDD/Februaru 08/2021
If You Thought the 2020 Elections Were Chaotic, Just Wait/J. Christian Adams/Gatestone
Institute./February 8, 2021
Why it's not so quiet on Israel's northern front/Jonathan Spyer/The JC/February
8, 2021
The Malley Test: What does progressive foreign policy actually accomplish on the
ground?/Martin Peretz/The Tablet/February 08/2021
How Biden might attempt to resolve the Syrian crisis/Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab
News/February 08/2021
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 08- 09/2021
Lebanon, Maronities And Saint Maroun
Elias Bejjani/February 09/2021
Fouad Afram Boustani, (1904- 1994), the Lebanese Maronite historian described
the Maronite denomination as, a faith of intelligence, an identification of
life, a solid belief in Catholicism, a love for others, an ongoing struggle for
righteousness, a mentality of openness on the whole world, and on its different
civilizations, and a vehicle for martyrdom. The Maronites established the state
of Lebanon and made it an oasis for the persecuted in the middle East. They
believed and practiced multiculturalism and pluralism. They created with the
help of other minorities in the Middle East the unique nation of Lebanon.
The Maronites made Lebanon their homeland since the 4th century after converting
its native inhabitants to Christianity. They were identified by it, and it was
identified by them, they were and still are one entity. The Maronite people were
always hopeful, faithful and strong believers in the Christian Catholic
doctrine. They made victories of defeats, joy of sorrow and hope of despair. The
Maronites successfully created with hard work and a great deal of faith and
sacrifices, the Maronite nation by fulfilling its four basic pillars, a land, a
people, a civilization and a politically independent entity. They constantly
fight for what was theirs, and never ever surrendered to despair.
On the ninth of February for the past 1600 years, Maronites in Lebanon and all
over the world have been celebrating the annual commemoration of St. Maroun, the
founder of their Christian Catholic denomination.
Every year, on the ninth of February, more than ten million Maronites from all
over the world celebrate St. Maroun’s day. On this day, they pay their respect
to the great founder of the Maronite Church, Maroun the priest, the hermit, the
father, the leader and the Saint. They remember what they have been exposed to,
since the 4th century, both good and bad times. They reminisce through the past,
examine the present and contemplate the future. They pray for peace, democracy
and freedom in Lebanon, their homeland, and all over the world.
Who was this Saint, how did he establish his church, where did he live, and who
are his people, the Maronites?
St. Maroun, according to the late great Lebanese philosopher and historian,
Fouad Afram Al-Bustani, was raised in the city of Kouroch. This city is located
northeast of Antioch (presently in Turkey), and to the northwest of Herapolos (Manbieg),
the capital of the third Syria (Al-Furatia). Kouroch is still presently in
existence in Turkey, it is located 15 kilometers to the northwest of Kalas city,
and about 70 kilometers to the north of the Syrian city, Aleppo.
As stated by the historians, Father Boutrous Daou and Fouad Fram Bustani, Maroun
chose a very high location at the Semaan Mountain (called in the past, Nabo
Mountain, after the pagan god, Nabo). Geographically, the Semaan Mountain is
located between Antioch and Aleppo. People had abandoned the mountain for years,
and the area was completely deserted.
The ruins of a historic pagan temple that existed on the mountain attracted
Maroun. Boustan stated that St. Maroun moved to this mountain and decided to
follow the life of a hermit. He made the ruined temple his residence after
excoriating it from devils, but used it only for masses and offerings of the
holy Eucharist. He used to spend all his time in the open air, praying, fasting
and depriving his body from all means of comfort. He became very famous in the
whole area for his faith, holiness and power of curing. Thousands of believers
came to him seeking help and advice.
St. Maroun, was an excellent knowledgeable preacher and a very stubborn believer
in Christ and in Christianity. He was a mystic who started a new
ascetic-spiritual method that attracted many people from all over the Antiochian
Empire. He was a zealous missionary with a passion to spread the message of
Christ by preaching it to others. He sought not only to cure the physical
ailments that people suffered, but had a great quest for nurturing and healing
the "lost souls" of both pagans and Christians of his time. Maroun’s holiness
and countless miracles drew attention throughout the Antiochian Empire. St. John
of Chrysostom sent him a letter around 405 AD expressing his great love and
respect asking St. Maroun to pray for him.
St. Maroun's way was deeply monastic with emphasis on the spiritual and ascetic
aspects of living. For him, all was connected to God and God was connected to
all. He did not separate the physical and spiritual world and actually used the
physical world to deepen his faith and spiritual experience with God. St. Maroun
embraced the quiet solitude of the Semaan Mountain life. He lived in the open
air exposed to the forces of nature such as sun, rain, hail and snow. His
extraordinary desire to come to know God’s presence in all things allowed him to
transcend such forces, and discover an intimate union with God. He was able to
free himself from the physical world by his passion and eagerness for prayer and
enter into a mystical relationship of love with the creator.
St. Maroun attracted hundreds of monks and priests who came to live with him and
become his disciples and loyal Christian followers. Maroun’s disciples preached
the Bible in the Antiochan Empire (known at the present time as Syria), Lebanon,
Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Israel, They built hundreds of Churches and abbeys as
well as schools and were known for their faith, devotion and perseverance.
At the age of seventy, in the year 410 AD, and after completing his holy
mission, St. Maroun died peacefully while surrounded by his disciples and
followers. His will was to be buried in the same grave with his beloved teacher,
the great monk, Zabena, in the town of Kena, next to Kouroch city, where a
temple was built in Zabena’s name. St. Maroun’s will was not fulfilled, because
the residents of a nearby town were able to take his body and bury him in their
town and build a huge church on his grave. This church was a shrine for
Christians for hundreds of years, and its ruins are still apparent in that town.
After Maroun’s death, his disciples built a huge monastery in honor of his name,
adjacent to the ornate spring, (Naher Al-Assi, located at the Syrian-Lebanese
border). The monastery served for hundreds of years as a pillar for faith,
education, martyrhood and holiness. It was destroyed at the beginning of the
tenth century that witnessed the worst Christian persecution era. During the
savage attack on the monastery more than 300 Maronite priests were killed. The
surviving priests moved to the mountains of Lebanon where with the Marada people
and the native Lebanese were successful in establishing the Maronite nation.
They converted the Lebanese mountains to a fortress of faith and a symbol for
martyrhood, endurance and perseverance.
Initially the Maronite movement reached Lebanon when St. Maroun's first disciple
Abraham of Cyrrhus, who was called the Apostle of Lebanon, realized that
paganism was thriving in Lebanon, so he set out to convert the pagans to
Christianity by introducing them to the way of St. Maroun. St. Maroun is
considered to be the Father of the spiritual and monastic movement now called
the Maronite Church. This movement had a profound influence on northern Syria,
Lebanon, Cyprus and on many other countries all over the world where the
Maronites currently live. The biggest Maronite community at the present time
lives in Brazil. More than six million Lebanese descendents made Brazil their
home after the massive emigration that took place from Lebanon in the beginning
of this century.
God Bless all those who struggle for freedom and liberty all over the world
The Trojan Michael Aoun and His Evil Paper of Understanding
with the Axis Of Evil
Elias Bejjani/February 07/2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBm9vzIcmM4&feature=emb_title
Fifteen years passed since the selfish and derailed Michael Aoun imprisoned
himself and his supporters in Hezbollah's locked jails and bunkers.
Fifteen years ago Aoun decided to betray himself, his national record, his
patriotic tags and rhetoric, His Maronite Church historic convictions, His Holy
Lebanon, His dignity, his country and the martyr's blood.
Fifteen years ago Aoun succumbed to the evil Iranian terrorist Hezbollah and
signed with its leadership the Anti-Lebanon and notorious "Paper Of
Understanding".
Exactly like Judas Iscariot Aoun sold Lebanon and its people for thirty pieces
of silver.
In conclusion, Aoun gained nothing and lost every thing because his gains were
transient false power and earthly benefits.
History will have no mercy for this politician or for his likes and shall
boldly curse their acts.
Pope Francis: We demand national
and international commitment to contribute in strengthening Lebanon's stability
and preserving its unique national identity
NNA/Rome - Monday 08 February 2021
During his meeting with members of the diplomatic members accredited to the Holy
Vatican, Pope Francis wished that "Lebanon will witness a political commitment,
nationally and internationally, that will contribute to strengthening stability
in a country facing the risk of losing its national identity and plunging into
regional tensions and tensions." He stressed, "The need for the Cedars Land
country to preserve its unique identity in order to ensure a pluralistic,
tolerant and diversified Middle East in which the Christian presence makes its
contribution and is not limited to being a minority only." He emphasized that
"the weakening of the Christian component in Lebanon threatens to destroy the
internal balance." He highlighted "the importance of addressing the problems
associated with the presence of displaced Syrians and Palestinians." He called
on political and religious leaders to "put aside their own interests and commit
to achieving justice, implementing reforms, and acting in a transparent manner
and bearing the results of their actions." He hoped that "the Libyan political
dialogue forum will give way to the launch of the reconciliation process in the
country." After stopping at the "difficult conditions experienced by some
African, South American and Caucasian countries," he spoke about "the scourge of
terrorism that the world suffers from, which has worsened over the past twenty
years, especially in Africa, Asia and Europe."
He said that his thought "is directed towards the victims and their families."
Health Ministry: 2,063 new Coronavirus cases, 61 deaths
NNA/09 February ,2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Monday, that 2,063 new Coronavirus
infections have been registered, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed
cases to-date to 321,980.
It also indicated that 61 deaths were recorded during the past 24 hours.
Health officials call on Lebanese to
register for vaccination amid low turnout
Rawad Taha, Al Arabiya English/09 February ,2021
Lebanon is expected to receive its first delivery of the Pfizer coronavirus
vaccine but the number of citizens who registered for the vaccine remains at
230,000 requests so far, in addition to 100,000 healthcare workers according to
the adviser to the Minister of Health Ridha Moussawi. Dr. Abdel Rahman al-Bizri,
President of the National Committee for Coronavirus Vaccination, indicated said
that coronavirus vaccinations will start very soon. “The best vaccinations are
secured for our people. We invite you to register on the platform for
vaccination. Together, united, we will win the battle against the coronavirus,”
Dr. al-Bizri added. Lebanon’s surge in coronavirus cases and deaths started
after a holiday season during which tens of thousands of visitors flew to the
country to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s. The surge in cases overwhelmed a
medical sector already crippled by the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion
and the economical crisis. A recent statistical survey showed that only 31
percent of respondents confirmed that they will be receiving the vaccine. CEO of
Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Dr. Firas Abiad, shared the results of the
survey on Twitter commenting that the most worrying thing about it is that only
33 percent of respondents over the age of 65 would like to be vaccinated. “It is
clear that we need to do more to spread awareness and answer people’s fears,”
Dr. Abiad added. According to Dr. Firas, Beirut Rafic Hariri governmental
hospital will be assigned as the central center for the vaccination storage and
processing. “Pfizer vaccine requires special storage at very low temperature.
Our Ultra Low Temp (ULT) refrigerators are inspected by an external expert
appointed by the Ministry of Health and UNICEF. Our staff have also undergone
special training by Pfizer representatives. The hospital will, once again, be up
to the challenge,” Dr. Abiad added on Twitter.Lebanon eases COVID-19
restrictions, allows supermarkets and banks to reopen. Dr. Abiad added that an
intense awareness campaign, more than 85 percent of health care workers had
registered to receive the vaccine.
“Protecting our frontline healthcare workers is our priority, and they will be
the first to get vaccinated. They are our heroes and they deserve it,” he added.
Dr. Abiad added that a Vaccine Information and Registration Center is currently
“up and running” and it be providing webinars, social media, and a hotline in
collaboration with the Ministry of Health. “Patients registered on the online
platform can book their appointments soon. For a start, we aim to vaccinate more
than 500 people per day,” Abiad added.
Poll Finds Only 31% of Lebanese Want
to be Vaccinated
Naharnet/08 February ,2021
Information International, a leading Beirut-based research consultancy firm, has
carried out a survey to determine how many Lebanese intend to be vaccinated
against Covid-19. The poll, conducted between Jan. 30 and Feb. 4, found that a
majority of 38% of the 500 participants surveyed over the phone do not want to
be inoculated. Thirty-one percent meanwhile said that they want to be vaccinated
as another 31% declared that they are still undecided. According to the survey,
men are more receptive to receiving the vaccine -- 39% of men want to be
inoculated compared to only 25% of women.
Forty percent of women meanwhile said that they do not intend to be vaccinated
compared to 35% of men. Furthermore, thirty-five percent of women said that they
are still undecided compared to 26% of men. The survey also found that those who
have jobs are more receptive to receiving the vaccine than those who don’t (34%
and 28%, respectively). As for the reasons behind rejection or hesitation, 41%
of those surveyed said that they fear possible side effects, 25% cited the
conflicting media reports, 17% questioned the efficacy of the vaccines as seven
percent mentioned the speed in which the vaccines have been produced. Ten
percent meanwhile declined to answer or mentioned other reasons. Lebanese
authorities, apparently aware of such concerns, have recently decided to launch
a vaccine information campaign. Authorities have also said that the objective is
to reached a 75-80% societal immunity.
President Aoun meets German
Ambassador, Audit Bureau delegation
NNA/08 February ,2021
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, met German Ambassador to
Lebanon, Andreas Kindl, today at Baabda Palace, and deliberated with him the
steps taken in the process of packing 52 containers containing flammable
materials, packaged by the German COMBI LIFT company, which were found in Beirut
Port after the August 4th explosion. Ambassador Kindl informed the President
that the packaging process had ended and that containers are ready to be shipped
by the company, to be transported outside Lebanon. The German Ambassador also
asked President Aoun to intervene in transferring the sums owed to the German
company, in order to open the necessary documentary credit to be shipped later
to Germany. In addition, Ambassador Kindl addressed the crime of assassinating
activist, Luqman Slim, and called for ensuring the security and safety of Slim’s
wife and family members, thanking the General Directorate of Internal Security
Forces for the response in this regard.
State Audit Bureau Delegation: The President also received a delegation from the
State Audit Bureau, headed by Judge Mohammed Badran, and discussed with them the
Bureau’s work regarding the state of public accounts and calculations of tasks
entrusted to the Bureau as part of the study of the 2021 draft budget. Judge
Badran, and the assistant Judges, briefed President Aoun about the work they are
completing to finish the study of financial accounts so that their tasks would
be done as soon as possible, especially in light of public mobilization and
lockdown. Attending the meeting were: Public Prosecutor, Judge Fawzi Khamis,
Judge Nelly Abi Younes, Judge Rana Lakkis, and Judge Najwa Khoury, in addition
to former Minister, Salim Jreisatti, and Presidency Director General, Dr.
Antoine Choucair. -----Presidency Press Office
Wife Says Slim wasn't Tortured as Shea Meets Najem
Associated Press/08 February ,2021
An independent autopsy revealed no signs of torture on the body of Lokman Slim,
a well-known Lebanese publisher and vocal critic of Hizbullah who was shot dead
in his car last week, his wife said Monday.
Slim, a 58-year-old political activist and commentator, was found dead with six
bullets in his body Thursday on a deserted rural road in the country's south. He
was visiting friends there and was due back in Beirut late Wednesday when his
family reported him missing. Slim's family has expressed skepticism that a
national investigation would lead to those who killed him, citing a history of
unresolved assassinations and political crimes in Lebanon. They hired a private
forensic pathologist to carry out their own examination of Slim's body.
Monika Borgmann, Slim's German wife who also has Lebanese citizenship, said a
private autopsy was necessary to get all the needed information. There was
speculation in Arab media that Slim may have been tortured before he was shot.
The circumstances of his killing remain unclear and Borgmann said a full autopsy
report wasn't yet ready. Borgmann has called for an international investigation,
saying she has suspicions but no proof that his killers were members or
supporters of Hizbullah. "It is very clear who his enemies are," Borgmann told
The Associated Press in an interview Monday. "It is mainly Hizbullah but for me
it is not enough to say we know his enemies and that is it." "I really want to
find out. I want to know why. I want to know who and I want an international
investigation," she said. Borgmann said she is discussing with lawyers and
friends ways to push for an international investigation, joining other Lebanese
calling for similar investigations into other unsolved crimes. As a German
citizen, she said, she is also looking into whether she can launch an
investigation in Germany. Hizbullah condemned Slim's killing, calling for a
swift investigation and urging security agencies to combat crimes it said have
spread around Lebanon. Hizbullah said such assassinations have been "exploited
politically and by the media at the expense of security and domestic stability"
-- a jab at their accusers. Perpetrators of political violence or corruption are
almost never identified or prosecuted in Lebanon. An investigation into a
massive explosion in Beirut port last August has barely gotten off the ground
and was stalled because of political pushback from powerful officials who were
charged with negligence. This has also raised calls for an international probe
into the explosion that killed 211 people. "No local investigation has brought
any justice," Borgmann said. "This cold-blooded murder will not pass like this.
I will do whatever I can." Slim's killing led to international condemnation and
calls for a swift investigation.
On Monday, U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea met with Lebanon's caretaker Justice
Minister Marie-Claude Najem to discuss the investigation into Slim's killing and
the need to hold those responsible accountable, the U.S. Embassy said without
elaborating. Slim and Borgmann, a couple of 20 years, documented stories of
disappeared, prisons and national trauma in Lebanon and Syria, producing films,
art shows and keeping an elaborate archive of Lebanese and Shiite history. Slim,
a secular Shiite, was a harsh critic of Hizbullah's grip on power in Lebanon and
its alliance with Iran. He campaigned for more representation in Lebanese
politics but to his critics, mostly Hizbullah supporters who cite pro-Hizbullah
al-Akhbar newspaper and the WikiLeaks archives, Slim was a traitor who invited
Israel's intervention or military operations in Lebanon.
Slim had reported receiving threats before, including having posters calling him
a Zionist pinned to the walls of his home in Haret Hreik, which is Hizbullah's
bastion in Beirut's southern suburbs.
"I can't tell you why he was killed now ... (that is) another reason why I would
like to see an international investigation," Borgmann said, sitting in the
garden of Slim's family home. The dwelling also houses the research and
documentation center the couple founded together in 2005. Borgmann said she has
no plans to leave the country and will continue the work she and Slim did
together to preserve Lebanon's history and memory. Borgmann said she was
saddened but also angered by her husband's killing. "It is in the end... the
anger which helps me to move forward," she said. A memorial and burial ceremony
were planned for Thursday in the family home where Slim was born and which he
refused to leave even after Hizbullah set up its headquarters in the
neighborhood.
Lebanese Lokman Slim, Iraqi Hisham al-Hashemi,
assassinated in similar circumstances
Rawad Taha, Al Arabiya English/08 February ,2021
The assassination of Lebanese historian, publisher, and activist Lokman Slim in
south Lebanon brought back to light the assassination of Iraqi historian and
activist Hisham al-Hashemi who was assassinated in similar circumstances seven
months ago in Baghdad. Al-Hashemi and Slim were both assassinated in their cars
with bullets in the head and the chest. After the assassination of al-Hashemi,
Slim commented, saying, “They [the assassins] are known from their cowardness.”
It was later revealed by Iraqi activist Ghaith al-Tamimi that al-Hashemi had
shown him screenshots saying he received death threats from the Iran-backed
Kata'ib Hezbollah. Al-Hashemi reportedly received a repeated threat from a
Kata'ib Hezbollah member called Abu Ali al-Askari, who promised him that he
would kill him in his house. Slim had received threats last year from
pro-Hezbollah supporters who attacked his house in Beirut's southern suburbs,
where they posted papers on the fence saying, “glory to the silencer.” After the
incident, Slim issued a statement accusing what he called “the bats of darkness”
of attacking his home. He held Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and
his ally Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri responsible for what happened and
“what might happen” to him. The two researchers were subject to constant
campaigned attacks from pro-Iranian media in Iraq and Lebanon, labeling them
traitors. Al-Hashemi took a stance strongly supportive of the popular uprising
that began in Iraq at the beginning of October 2019, to demand a comprehensive
reform of the Iraqi political system and denounce the previous government's
loyalty to the Iranian camp. Similarly, Slim supported the uprising that started
in the same month in Lebanon, demanding political and economic reform while also
blaming Hezbollah and the Iranian influence on Lebanon over the nation's
deteriorating situation.
Lokman Slim’s family calls for
thorough investigation into his murder
Tamara Abueish, Al Arabiya English/February 08/2021
The family of prominent Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim will be cooperating with
the Lebanese authorities, the judiciary, and the police to ensure that a
thorough investigation is conducted into their relative’s murder, according to a
statement published on the National News Agency (NNA) on Monday.
“Some media agencies and platforms are conveying inaccurate news that the family
of Lokman Slim refuses to cooperate with the Lebanese security services, based
on the family’s desire to resort to an international investigation into the
assassination,” his family said in a statement.
“It is important for the family of Lokman Slim to confirm their full cooperation
with the Lebanese authorities, the judiciary and the police, since the first
hours after the disappearance of Lokman, and they are counting on the Lebanese
judiciary and those in charge of the investigation to uncover the criminals who
decided, planned, carried out and covered the assassination,” they added. Slim,
a prominent publisher and vocal critic of the Shia militant group, was found
shot dead in his car on Thursday morning. The body of 58-year-old Slim was
slumped over on the passenger seat with multiple wounds from gunshots fired at
close range, security and forensic officials said. The family clarified that
their previous calls for an international investigation were meant to be a push
for a more efficient and professional probe into the murder. “Saying an
international investigation means demanding an investigation that would raise
its efficiency and professionalism to the level of international
investigations,” his family said. Last week, Slim’s family had hinted that
Hezbollah was behind the attack. His sister Rasha al-Ameer told reporters that
her brother was found dead in an area under the group’s control, adding that
“killing for them is a habit.”
Southern Lebanon is dominated by the Shia group and its allies. “He was carrying
the weight of this country on his shoulder,” al-Ameer said. Hezbollah denied and
condemned Slim’s killing, calling for a swift investigation. It also urged
security agencies to combat crimes it said have spread around Lebanon and which
have been “exploited politically and by the media at the expense of security and
domestic stability” — a jab at their critics.(With The Associated Press)
Macron will send adviser to follow up
on government formation in Lebanon
Rawad Taha, Al Arabiya English/ 09 February ,2021:
French President Macron will send his adviser for Near Eastern affairs, Patrick
Durel to Lebanon this weekend, and he will meet with several officials as he
follows the Lebanese file on a daily basis, local Lebanese TV station MTV
reported. Lebanon has been facing an unprecedented economic and political crisis
with the political parties in control failing to agree on a roadmap to resolve
the crisis. French President Emanuel Macron proposed a resolution plan for the
small nation, but it has not been adopted yet by politicians in office. French
sources told the station that the United Arab Emirates is a main partner in the
French endeavors, which have been strengthened after a US mandate. The source
added that Macron will visit Riyadh and Abu Dhabi in a few weeks, where he will
attend the Lebanese file in his talks. Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has
recently visited the UAE, France, and Egypt which showed that the government
formation process may have been facilitated through regional powers. French
President Emmanuel Macron told Al Arabiya last month that he would pay a third
visit to Lebanon, less than a year after he made two trips in an attempt to
speed up the formation of a new government.
Macron, who took the lead on forming a roadmap for Lebanon to crawl out of its
unprecedented economic crisis, told Al Arabiya that the French proposal was
“still on the table” because there were “no other solutions available.”Sources
close to the French President recently told a Lebanese newspaper that Macron’s
visit will happen once the French initiative has been adopted and when a new
government is formed.
Top Christian cleric condemns illegal
weapons in Lebanon
The Arab Weekly/February 08/2021
“Our heart and the hearts of everyone were bloodied by the martyrdom of the
activist Lokman Mohsen Slim,” said Rai. “His assassination is an assassination
of the other, free opinion and a new motive to put an end to every illegal
weapon gradually eradicating the fine figures of the country.”
BEIRUT – Lebanon’s top Christian cleric Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai, called
on Sunday for organising a UN-sponsored international conference on Lebanon with
the aim of controlling the spread of weapons, in an apparent reference to
Hezbollah’s arsenal. The Maronite patriarch’s latest statements, made during his
Sunday sermon, came following the assassination of prominent Lebanese publisher
and vocal critic of the Shia Hezbollah group Lokman Slim, who was found shot
dead in his car last week.
The brazen killing had sparked fears of a return to political violence in the
country, already gripped by social and economic upheaval.
Following the assassination, Slim’s family hinted that Hezbollah was behind the
killing, without naming the group, adding that it is known who controls the area
where their relative was found dead.
“Killing for them is a habit,” Slim’s sister Rasha al-Ameer said. Hezbollah and
its allies dominate the area in southern Lebanon.
While calling for organising an international conference on Lebanon, Rai
stressed the need to stabilise the country within its modern constitutional
frameworks that are based on unity. The Christian leader also insisted on the
need to provide permanent guarantees to protect the country, prevent any
aggression against it, preserve legitimacy and put an end to the spread of
weapons. In recent months, Rai has been the most vocal Lebanese figure in
pleading against the spread of illegal weapons, while other opposition and
religious figures appeared reluctant to tackle the issue.
The Lebanese people, including the opposition, know that they cannot force
Hezbollah to abandon its arsenal unless there is real international pressure.
For years, Lebanon has been paying a heavy price for Hezbollah’s weapons on
different levels. On the domestic front, the weapons give the group the upper
hand in politics and decision-making while on the international front, the
arsenal is viewed as a serious threat to the region and a number of Arab
countries.
Today, Hezbollah is in fact fighting battles on behalf of Tehran and is making
its military presence felt on several fronts, including Syria and Yemen.
In his sermon, Rai warned that Lebanon is at a critical juncture, noting that
there are attempts to undermine the state. “The people are not sheep to
slaughter in your slaughterhouses,” he said, addressing Lebanese officials.
Rai added, “Those with authority are in one place with their interests,
calculations and power shares, and the people are in another place with their
poverty, deprivation and hunger.” “Our people are dying, and the state is
indifferent. All the countries of the world expressed sympathy with the people
of Lebanon except their state,” he said, asking“ Is there a greater crime than
this? ”Rai’s statements echoed a state of despair in the country over the
prospect of political parties finding a solution to the double crisis afflicting
Lebanon, on political and economic levels. The Maronite patriarch has previously
proposed several initiatives to rescue the country, including the active
neutrality initiative, of which he sent a copy to the United Nations. Since its
establishment, Lebanon has been dragged into regional conflicts due to its
sensitive geopolitical position.
Observers believe that the country’s geography alone cannot be responsible for
its ongoing crisis. Lebanon’s political elite, observers say, are the ones to
blame for the current situation that has been exacerbated by a fierce power
struggle and continuous political disputes.
All the above factors, according to observers, have thwarted efforts aimed at
reaching a consensus to form a new government since the resignation of Prime
Minister Hassan Diab’s government last August following the Beirut Port
explosion. In such a context, Rai’s call is seen as a last cry to save Lebanon
from its political class and Hezbollah’s weapons.
The risks, observers say, can no longer be overlooked as the situation in the
country is gradually worsening, resulting in serious incidents, including a
return to assassinations. In his sermon the Maronite patriarch condemned Slim’s
assassination, saying “We are fed up with wars, strife and the use of arms. We
are fed up with assassinations, and over the past two days.”“Our heart and the
hearts of everyone were bloodied by the martyrdom of the activist Lokman Mohsen
Slim,” he added. “His assassination is an assassination of the other, free
opinion and a new motive to put an end to every illegal weapon gradually
eradicating the fine figures of the country,” Rai went on to say. He demanded an
investigation be held into the circumstances of Slim’s assassination to reveal
the party that was behind “this heinous political crime.”Slim, 58, was a
fearless critic of Lebanon’s powerful politicians, Hezbollah and its allies Iran
and Syria, and a major resource on Lebanese civil war history. His killing has
raised fears that Lebanon’s political tensions could cause a new wave of
assassinations.
Card. Rai: An 'international
conference' to unblock the 'Lebanese paralysis'
AsiaNews Agencies)/February 08/2021
In his Sunday Mass homily, the cardinal recalls the expectation for the
formation of a government of national salvation, so far failed "due to the
prevalence of personal interests". Silence, he attacks, is equivalent to "being
accomplices". Metropolitan Audi condemns the murder of Lokman Slim.
The Maronite Patriarch Card. Beshara Raï is proposing an "international
conference" to "remedy the paralysis of the Lebanese system".
The cardinal launched the idea yesterday, during the Sunday Mass homily which
has become an opportunity to explore the issues of politics and local
institutions, paralyzed and unable to form a new government.
Meanwhile, President Michel Aoun and the Prime Minister in charge Saad Hariri
have not yet reached an agreement on the executive, six months after the twin
explosion at the port of Beirut that led to the resignation of his predecessor
Hassane Diab.
Card Raï recalls the expectations of a people aimed at the formation of a
"government of national salvation" which has so far been disregarded "due to the
prevalence of personal and partisan interests" of political leaders "unable to
agree and understand each other".
"Remaining silent in this dramatic context is equivalent to being complicit in
the crimes committed against Lebanon and its people and washing one's hands of
them," warned the cardinal.
He continued that "it is no longer time to escape from personal
responsibilities" and "from one's patriotic duties, whatever the reason". “The
question - he stated - now goes beyond the government, it is a question of
national destiny. Consequently, each authority that does not take this aspect
into account loses its popular legitimacy”.
Finally, he underlines how "vain" up to now "all Lebanese, Arab and
international initiatives and mediations have been, as if someone wanted to make
the state fail".
The prelate concluded that the only alternative is a "special international
conference" to be held "under the aegis of the United Nations". It alone will be
able to provide "permanent guarantees" to the country, protecting it "from
aggression against its national sovereignty, putting an end to the illegal sale
of weapons and remedying the absence of a clear constitutional authority" to
guarantee "stability" and avoid "paralysis” in the key moment of the election of
the president and the formation of a government.
In mid-October, Aoun tasked three-time Prime Minister Rafic Hariri with putting
together a new cabinet. The crisis of the last year is but one of the many
difficulties affecting Lebanon’s political and economic life, as well as its
very political institutions.
The already precarious situation has worsened with the onset of the COVID-19
pandemic and the two explosions that rocked the port of Beirut in August,
finally pushing 55 per cent of the population below the poverty line amid a
permanent emergency.
The extreme instability has triggered a spike in suicides and a rush to buy the
few remaining drugs, whilst hospitals are in catastrophic conditions.
During the mass celebrated yesterday in the Greek Orthodox church of St. George,
Metropolitan Élias Audi also vigorously attacked the political class of the
country, in particular Aoun and Hariri, accused of asserting personal interests
for the good of the country. "Is there only one manager - asks the metropolitan
- in our country who works for the general interest?". In his homily, he finally
condemned the murder of Lokman Slim. “Why silence - he concluded - people,
eliminate the free you and stifle the cries of the people? You don't win by
killing and silencing people, [this] is on the contrary a sign of weakness”.
FPM Tepid about Rahi’s Call to
'Internationalize' Lebanon File
Naharnet/February 09/2021
A delegation of the Free Patriotic Movement visited Maronite Patriarch Beshara
el-Rahi in Bkirki on Monday after his calls for a U.N.-sponsored conference on
Lebanon over a government deadlock. “We discussed with Patriarch Rahi the need
to form a high-credible rescue government in accordance with the terms of the
French initiative,” MP Mansour Bteish told reporters speaking on behalf of the
FPM delegation after meeting Rahi. Asked by reporters whether the FPM backs
Rahi’s calls to internationalize the Lebanese file, Bteish said: “Solutions must
come from within and coexistence requires us to cooperate to reach these
solutions.”He stated that President Michel “Aoun is keen on having a government
formed as soon as possible in accordance with national rules, and the
PM-designate (Saad Hariri) must go to Baabda and consult with Aoun.”The FPM
delegation to Bkirki included ex-Minister Mansour Bteish, MP George Atallah, FPM
deputy leader May Khreish and adviser to FPM chief Jebran Bassil Antoine
Kostantine, al-Jadeed TV. On Sunday, Rahi lashed out at the ruling authority and
called for organizing a “U.N.-sponsored international conference on Lebanon to
prevent attacks on it and prevent harm to its legitimacy and to put an end to
the multiplicity of arms.” He said the Lebanese “people are dying and the State
is nothing but a dead conscience.” Rahi’s call to internationalize the Lebanese
file comes in light of faltering formation of the Lebanese government, the
exacerbation of its economic crisis, and the collapse of alliances.
Report: Govt File ‘Hinges’ on Hariri’s
Foreign Tour
Naharnet/February 09/2021
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, currently on a visit to Abu Dhabi,
reportedly plans to head to Paris in the next two days for talks with French
President Emmanuel Macron on the latest government formation developments in
Lebanon, media reports said Monday.
Hariri, who also met the Egyptian President in Cairo last week, will highlight
Macron on his internal and foreign contacts on the file, and on his talks with
President Michel Aoun. He is expected to return back to Beirut before the week’s
end. Well-informed sources at the Center House told al-Joumhouria that “the
contacts that concern the Lebanese and are reflected in the course of their
daily lives and on the formation of a government are now governed by the results
of the visit.”They said it gains major importance “specifically when it is
completed with Hariri’s move to France for high-level French diplomatic and
political levels, even with the Elysee to meet with Macron.”On the other hand,
Baabda sources told the daily “it has become necessary to wait for Hariri's
return to Beirut to know the outcome of his consultations on more than one
regional and international level to resume discussion on the formation.”The
daily learned that Hariri could return to Beirut not later than Saturday to mark
the assassination anniversary of his father the late PM Rafik Hariri.
Sawwan Resumes Probe in Port Blast
Case, Summons Qahwaji
Associated Press/February 09/2021
Judicial investigator Judge Fadi Sawwan has resumed his investigations into the
August 4 catastrophic explosion at Beirut’s port.
State-run National News Agency said Sawwan has set dates for questioning a
number of suspects and witnesses this week and next week. The Associated Press
and al-Jadeed TV meanwhile reported that Sawwan will hear the testimony of
former army chief General Jean Qahwaji on Tuesday.
Judicial officials told the AP that Qahwaji will be questioned as a witness. The
names of the others to be questioned have not been released. The Army Command,
when Qahwaji was in charge, was one of the entities that exchanged letters with
the customs department on what to do with the ammonium nitrate as it was kept in
a warehouse at the port for six years until it blew up. In April 2016, the army
said in a letter that it didn't need the material, adding that if a private
explosive company in Lebanon also didn't need it, the material should be
exported at the expense of the ship owner who brought it to Lebanon. Sawwan's
resumption of investigations coincides with the easing of a coronavirus lockdown
in the country. Described as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in
history and one of Lebanon's most traumatic experiences, the massive explosion
ripped through Beirut's port and disfigured swathes of the Lebanese capital,
killing 211 people and wounding around 6,500 others. In a rare move, Sawwan
charged three former ministers and the current prime minister with negligence,
triggering a political storm. The prime minister refused to appear for
questioning, calling it "diabolic" to single him out for charges. Two of the
ministers challenged the judge and asked Lebanon's highest court to replace him
in a move that brought the probe to a halt since Dec. 17. The caretaker interior
minister has said he won't ask security forces to implement arrest warrants
targeting political figures. In early January, the Court of Cassation ruled that
Sawwan can resume his investigation while it reviews calls to replace him.
Sawwan’s decision to delay the resumption of his work until this week had raised
concerns among victims' families that he may have caved to political pressure.
Dozens of family members gathered outside his house last week, urging him to
restart the probe. "We want to know if they are not letting him," Kayan Tleis,
whose 40-year-old-brother was killed in the blast, said in reference to
politicians. "This should not be like every time." In a joint statement, France
and the United States said Thursday they expect "rapid results" and that the
"Lebanese justice system must work transparently, removed from any political
interference." At least 25 people have been held since August under the
investigating judge's powers of unlimited pre-trial detention. He only
questioned them once, according to Human Rights Watch. Most are port staff,
including the head of the port authority, the top customs official and a
maintenance engineer, and all face the same litany of charges no matter what
their position, said Aya Majzoub, HRW's Lebanon researcher. Senior political
faction leaders have publicly questioned the course of Sawwan's investigation or
hinted he may be covering up for their rivals. Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah questioned Sawwan's focus on domestic negligence. He urged him to
share reports by military, security and foreign agencies. "Was there something
military in the port that led to this explosion? Why not tell the people the
truth?" said Nasrallah. Hizbullah has denied claims it stored explosives at the
port. Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat meanwhile pointed at the
Syrian regime, suggesting it imported the explosives through Lebanon because its
ports were in the line of fire at the height of Syria's civil war in 2013. Some
described the 60-year-old Sawwan as "brave," even "suicidal" for taking the post
that could endanger his career or his life. Throughout Lebanon's history, judges
have been threatened, intimidated and even killed. Gunmen sprayed four judges
with bullets in court in 1999, killing them on the spot during a murder and drug
trafficking trial. In 1977, a judge investigating the killing of a Druze leader
was kidnapped in his own car and his house hit with a rocket-propelled grenade.
Lebanese MP Jean Obeid dies of
COVID-19
Najia Houssari/Arab News/February 09/2021
BEIRUT: Jean Obeid, the veteran Lebanese MP and former journalist who twice ran
for the presidency, died on Monday from complications related to COVID-19. He
was 81. Obeid, born in the village of Alma in northern Lebanon, was minister of
education, youth, sports, and foreign affairs in the governments of Rafik
Hariri. In 1987, during the civil war, he was abducted by gunmen in West Beirut
and released unharmed after four days. A member of a prominent Maronite family,
Obeid had a successful career as a journalist before entering politics. He was
an MP from 1991 until 2005, and returned to parliament in 2018 when he won a
seat representing Tripoli. Lebanon began gradually relaxing its three-week virus
lockdown on Monday despite a high number of COVID-19 cases. The Ministry of
Health recorded 54 deaths and 2,081 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the
cumulative death toll to 3,616 and the total number of cases to 319,917 since
Feb. 21, 2020. Arab News obtained a report by the Crisis Observatory at the
American University of Beirut (AUB) referring to three alarming indicators that
suggest a new wave of COVID-19 is underway.
According to the report, positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests reached
22 percent during the past two weeks, the highest rate in the world.
The World Health Organization (WHO) advises against the return to normality or
semi-normality before this percentage drops to 5 percent or below.
The report also highlighted that “the number of people registered on the
vaccination platform is low, with only 248,000 people registered, in addition to
70,000 health care professionals and workers. This means that the vaccination so
far will include 6.5 percent of the total population, provided that the total
population is 4,842,000, according to the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS).
“This is a very low percentage compared to the desired goal to reach community
immunity, which is estimated at 75-80 percent of the population,”it added. The
observatory pointed out that “the Ministry of Social Affairs’ national program
to support the poorest families has received a high number of applicants who
require assistance. The program received 370,000 applicants within two weeks of
opening applications. This number accounts for 37 percent of Lebanese families,
an indication of deteriorating living conditions, which means closure measures
not accompanied by financial support for these families will not succeed.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Firas Al-Abyad, director of the Hariri Governmental University
Hospital, announced the passing of a one-year-old baby girl “as a result of
complications from the (coronavirus) disease that her parents contracted,” the
first death of its kind in Lebanon.
Three other children had previously died of COVID-19 as they were suffering from
dserious underlying conditions, but the death of the otherwise healthy toddler
at Hariri Hospital is a previously unseen development.
Al-Abyad confirmed that “the toddler did not suffer from any chronic diseases
but was in good health and arrived at the hospital suffering from difficulty
breathing as a result of pneumonia.”
He added: “Lebanon’s policy of mitigating impacts, that is, coexisting with the
infection, did not yield the desired results. Instead, it increased the death
toll and worsened the economic decline.”
Protests were held on Sunday night in Beirut and a number of other regions.
Protesters blocked roads and burned tires to pressure the government to relax
lockdown measures and take into account the living conditions imposed on people
already suffering an unprecedented economic crisis, leading to mass bankruptcy
and hunger. The Ain Al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, meanwhile, has seen an
outbreak of COVID-19 after violations of lockdown measures, including a wedding
party. On Sunday night, several ambulances were seen transporting people from
the camp to hospitals in nearby Sidon.
The head of UNRWA’s health department in Lebanon, Dr. Abdel Hakim Shana’a, said:
“The number of active cases in Ain Al-Hilweh camp has reached 146, while there
are 103 cases in the Palestinian communities adjacent to the camp. The daily
rate of infections in all camps ranges between 30 and 50 cases.”Shana’a stressed
that “Palestinian refugees are responsible in the first place for protecting
themselves from the infection, and we have always warned that (social) mixing
and participating in funerals, weddings, and all forms of gatherings are
dangerous.”
The Crisis Observatory at the AUB warned that “we are facing a dilemma, and
overcoming it requires expanding the hospitals’ capacity even if the authorities
have to activate the general mobilization system and exert all efforts to
accelerate the launch of the national vaccination plan.
“Otherwise, the virus’s spread will be prolonged, and reopening businesses,
markets, and service and social institutions will be delayed.”
Medicine shortages in Lebanon spark
panic, smuggling
The Arab Weekly/February 08/2021
As boxes disappear from shelves, a black market has emerged, offering medicine
or medical equipment — sometimes counterfeits — at many times the normal price.)
BEIRUT--With Lebanon’s economy in a tailspin and the coronavirus pandemic
wreaking chaos, panic-buying has gripped pharmacies, creating shortages and a
flourishing black market. All manner of pharmaceutical products have started
disappearing from the shelves in recent weeks, including some of the most widely
needed. Mostly imported, they include any medicine thought to fight symptoms of
COVID-19, pills for patients with chronic diseases, baby formula and even
vitamin supplements. One customer, Abbas, 37, said he was giving up as he
stepped out of a large Beirut pharmacy.
“I asked for two things,” he said — aspirin and an antibiotic. “I found
neither.” Abbas said he would have to buy them at much higher prices on the
black market, adding dejectedly that the store had also run out of the special
shampoo he had been buying for years.
“This country is really going to the dumps,” he said.
Lebanon was already facing its worst economic crisis in decades and dollar
shortages before the pandemic.
Now, with COVID-19 overwhelming hospitals and little public trust, authorities
can secure vaccines any time soon, people have been rushing to pharmacies to buy
medicine. But even drugs that are rumoured to help treat COVID-19 and oxygen
tanks are becoming scarce, as people stock up, anticipating they may have no
alternative but to sit out an infection at home. As boxes disappear from
shelves, a black market has emerged, offering medicine or medical equipment —
sometimes counterfeits — at many times the normal price.
Black market
Inside the Mazen Pharmacy, one of Beirut’s largest, a pharmacist turned a
customer away, saying the medication was “out of stock.” Pharmacy owner Mazen
Bissat said: “People are scared medicine will run out, so they’re stockpiling at
home enough for a month, even six months, according to what they can afford.
“There’s a medicine shortage, and suppliers have not delivered on quantities
requested by the pharmacies.” He said the makers of a popular, over-the-counter
painkiller “just delivered 300 boxes. So we only display 10 a day to be able to
make them last until the end of the month,” he said. To slow the depletion, the
health ministry has ordered pharmacists to sell some medication only on
prescription, and suppliers to limit deliveries to pharmacies. Karim Gebara, the
head of the medicine importers syndicate, said Aspirin demand had skyrocketed.
Two companies “delivered 500,000 boxes in January, whereas normal demand in 2020
was just 200,000,” he said. “But even with that, there isn’t any left.”
When people cannot find medicine in shops, they sometimes turn elsewhere. Gebara
said there had been a run on Ivermectin, which is used to treat parasite
infections. Some Lebanese media had quoted a study suggesting it might be a
miracle cure for COVID-19 — a claim for which there is insufficient evidence,
according to health agencies. This had led to “the emergence of a black market,”
said Gebara, as people started smuggling it in from abroad, with a box selling
for the equivalent of $35.
But even after an importer obtained permission to bring it to Lebanon at a
subsidised cost of $1, Ivermectin is still hard to find and the informal market
for it is thriving.
‘Alarming situation’ Gebara said hoarding by manufacturers was one
problem, among others. We are facing “delayed money transfers abroad from the
central bank,” he said.
“If the manufacturer abroad does not receive his dues on time, he delays the
shipment.” With dwindling foreign currency reserves, the central bank is
struggling to continue funding key imports at a preferential exchange rate, and
fears have risen that medicine subsidies will be lifted soon. Moreover,
subsidised medicine is being smuggled out of Lebanon, Gebara said. In recent
months, travellers have been stopped at Beirut airport trying to fly out to
Egypt or Iraq with bags filled with subsidised medicine — some of which turned
up as far as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
All in all, “it’s an alarming situation that keeps on feeding off itself?”
Gebara added. Expecting subsidies to be lifted, some suppliers have been accused
of holding on to their stock so they can sell it later at a higher set price. In
January, the economy ministry seized such a stockpile of baby milk formula.
After visiting several pharmacies in and around Beirut, 36-year-old Nadine said
she still had not found powdered milk for her baby girl. “They’re even
profiteering off baby milk… You can find an alternative to painkillers. But milk
is essential.”
DiaLeb Raises Lebanon's Diabetes
Challenges at Int'l Diabetes Conference
Naharnet/February 08/2021
On Thursday February 4, Dr. Jackie Maalouf, the Founder and President of DiaLeb,
a Lebanese NGO that promotes diabetes care and prevention, was one of 8
international speakers at the virtual Launch of the Diabetes Epidemiology Guide
organized by the International Diabetes Federation.
“Dr. Maalouf spoke about the challenges of data processes in Lebanon and the
MENA region. She then shared some interesting facts related to diabetes
epidemiology. She also highlighted the benefits of this new guide especially for
countries with no updated data of patient registry,” a DiaLeb statement said.
“If you think diabetes is not your problem, look around you,” said Maalouf as
she ended her talk focusing on the importance of family support and mental
health in patients living with diabetes. The National Diabetes Organization,
DiaLeb, is a non-for-profit organization founded in 2011 which aims to promote
diabetes care and prevention and support research in search for a cure. To do
so, DiaLeb works to promote healthy lifestyles and spread awareness about
diabetes in order to make living with the disease more manageable for all those
affected and their families. “DiaLeb is a proud member of the International
Diabetes Federation since 2016 and has actively participated in many of their
conferences on both the regional and international scale,” the statement said.
Poverty surges amid Lebanon’s self-inflicted crisis
Samar Kadi/The Arab Weekly/February 08/2021
Things are bound to worsen as Lebanon’s economy shrivels. The currency has lost
nearly 80% of its value to the US dollar and unemployment has risen to more than
35%. Divisions among Lebanon’s sectarian leadership hamper attempts to address
the crisis.
BEIRUT- Living in a two-room apartment in the slum of Kobbeh in Lebanon’s
northern city of Tripoli, Nabiha Bishtani, a widow and mother of four young
children, relies completely on charity and donations to feed her family.
“I am registered with four different charities that provide me with some cash
and food. We have no income since my husband passed away two years ago. Life is
so difficult we are barely surviving with the assistance,” said Bishtawi, 43.
In Lebanon, people are growing more desperate by the day. The terrifying
combination of an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, rampant
unemployment, political instability and the COVID-19 pandemic with its
subsequent lockdowns is posing the biggest threat to the country’s stability
since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.
Mustafa Dallal, 75, another Tripoli resident without income or a retirement
pension, also depends entirely on a local NGO — Sawa Mninjah, which translates
“Together we succeed,” for his living.
“My wife and son were killed during the civil war, my parents died. I live all
by myself. Sawa Mninjah provides me with lunch and dinner meals. They gave me
clothes, shoes, blankets and even medication,” Dallal said.
“Poverty is nowhere deeper than in Tripoli. Despair and sadness is written all
over people’s (faces). I am an old man who feels abandoned and dumped by my
government just like a discarded wrecked car,” he added.
Overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim and home to over 700,000 people, Tripoli has
suffered years of neglect and has been plagued byviolence and extremism. Recent
riots triggered by a strict round the clock lockdown to contain rising COVID-19
cases saw protesters smash cars and banks and set government buildings on fire.
Several people and security members were injured in anti-riot clashes and at
least one protester was killed.
Even before the crises, almost 55% of Lebanon’s informal workforce depended on
day-to-day income. The lockdown deprived hundreds of thousands of extremely poor
families of the means to put food on the table.
According to the World Bank, more than half of the Lebanese people have fallen
into poverty and at least a quarter into extreme poverty due to the lingering
economic and financial crisis deepened by the pandemic.
“Things are only getting worse day by day. Our sense is that the country is
falling apart and there is a need for urgent intervention by the Lebanese
political system to focus on very critical structural reforms to bring some
stability to the country. Without that we expect further increase in poverty and
unemployment,” cautioned Saroj Kumar Jha, regional director of the World Bank’s
Mashreq Department (Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Iran).
“The economic and financial challenges in Lebanon are self-inflicted due to the
lack of any concrete policy by the government in trying to address these
challenges,” Jha told a zoom press conference.
He said the World Bank approved an emergency social safety net project for
Lebanon designed to support 147,000 extremely poor households, including 87,000
children who belong to these households.
“The program will be administered by the World Food Program and closely
supervised by the World Bank and it will be subject to independent monitoring
and external audit,” Jha stressed in a clear sign of mistrust in the
government’s integrity. Things are bound to worsen as Lebanon’s economy
shrivels. The currency has lost nearly 80% of its value to the US dollar and
unemployment has risen to more than 35%.
Divisions among Lebanon’s sectarian leadership hamper attempts to address the
crisis. Iran-backed Hezbollah, which dominates the government, is not keen on
supporting plans to seek help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). IMF
support will likely mean cuts in the public sector and cause squabbling among
political factions.
“With 80% devaluation of the Lebanese pound and 130% inflation, the major part
of the middle class are becoming poor, and the poverty of the extremely poor is
becoming more severe and they might reach the point whereby they are not able to
procure food,” said Adib Nehme, regional advisor at the UN Economic and Social
Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) on poverty.
“We are at the core of social and economic disintegration and collapse. The
majority of the population is suffering from a severe deterioration in their
livelihood. Poverty, demographic density and the feeling of being marginalized,
discriminated against, and oppressed is an explosive combination that could lead
to a social explosion,” Nehme said.
He warned that Lebanon was heading towards more social unrest, political
instability and insecurity as people would resort to stealing basic goods and
remote areas become legal no-man’s lands.
Diana Karameh, an activist, founded Sawa Mninjah in 2011 to sponsor the
education of poor children in Tripoli. But since the onset of the economic
crisis, she has set up a restaurant offering 500 free meals a day.
“We also installed fridges in different parts of Tripoli where people can grab
meals and opened a mini-market where they can shop for free. We try as much as
possible to provide them with what they need. Almost 70% of Tripoli’s population
is without income or have negligible income,” Karameh said.
Slim founded Umam, a research and film production house with a library
documenting Lebanon’s and Shia history. His family owns a publishing house and
Slim hosted public debates and political forums and art shows, including
exhibitions documenting the civil war’s missing.
He and his wife worked on a film documenting the atrocities of Syria’s notorious
Tadmor prison. Slim was previously targeted by Hebzollah supporters who accused
him of sowing sedition, undermining national unity and being a Zionist because
of his criticism of the Iran-backed Shia group.
In 2019, a group of young men attacked Slim during a public debate at the height
of anti-government protests. Slim at the time accused Hezbollah supporters of
being behind the attack.
Slim also accused Hezbollah supporters days before that attack of threatening
him at his home, holding rallies and hanging posters on its walls accusing him
of treason. Alex Rowell, editor of the English language al-Jumhuriya website,
said Slim always believed he was safe from physical harm. His killing will leave
many unable to sleep easily in Lebanon, Rowell said.
“In the memory of Lokman’s fearless grin, however, they may find courage — and
in the silhouettes of his cowardly murderers they may know their enemy,” he
said.
No compromize with Hezbollah please
President Macron
Hanin Ghaddar/Al Arabiya/February 08/2021
حنين غدار/يا سيادة الرئيس مكارون رجاء لا حلول وسط ولا تسويات ولا مساومات مع حزب
الله
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/95763/hanin-ghaddar-no-compromize-with-hezbollah-please-president-macron-%d8%ad%d9%86%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%ba%d8%af%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d8%aa%d9%86%d8%a7%d8%b4%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b1%d8%a6%d9%8a%d8%b3-%d9%85%d9%83/
The French President Emanuel Macron said last week that the French proposal was
“still on the table” because there were “no other solutions available.” He also
said that he would visit Lebanon for the third time after particular actions
were taken.
“We will do everything to help form a new government in Lebanon,” even if it
does not meet all the criteria, he added.
Since the Beirut Blast of August 4, 2020, and the resignation of Hassan Diab’s
government, current political leaders have failed to form a new government or
tackle the economic and health crises. For Macron, a new government is the first
step in a long roadmap that entails reforms and political change, which would
eventually generate billions of dollars of international aid to fix Lebanon’s
economy.
Local and International Context
Macron’s diplomatic efforts to form a government in Lebanon still depends on the
current political elite, who still refuse to make concessions, such as changing
the electoral law or implementing economic reforms. Macron’s vision cannot be a
breakthrough if the current unscrupulous political leadership stays in control
of the next government, but at the same time, there can be no government as long
as they are in power. It is a vicious circle that cannot be broken by yet
another visit by Macron. Coming back to compromise there is no push for change.
His visit will only give the same leaders legitimacy, and enable their
corruption.
Macron will revisit Lebanon in the aftermath of Lokman Slim's assassination, an
intellectual and activist long known for his political views against Hezbollah.
The horrific crime has Hezbollah’s previous actions written all over it, with
the killing sending a clear message from the terrorist group to its opponents
and critics.
This adds a complicated layer to the dynamics of the French initiative and the
international context of Macron’s visit, linked mainly to the new Biden
administration in Washington. One day after Slim’s assassination, State
Department Spokesperson Ned Price condemned the crime, and urged the Lebanese
officials to hold those responsible accountable, without mentioning Hezbollah,
his work, or the mounting threats he received.
As both Macron and Hezbollah believe - from different perspectives - the Biden
administration could move with the nuclear negotiations with Iran forward, and
in so doing will preserve Hezbollah’s power in Lebanon. Blinkin’s statement
could have held more sway.
Recommendations to Break the Vicious Circle
With every new change in the political scene in the West, and mainly from the
US, Hezbollah and Iran tend to test the water by pushing the older lines. With
the view that Hezbollah did kill Slim, while offering no compromises on the new
government formation or any reforms, the terrorist group is testing the new US
administration, and in turn, Macron’s willingness to compromise. Redlines need
drawn.
First, Macron should either cancel his trip to Lebanon, until Hezbollah accepts
compromise, and if he still has a reason to go, he should refuse to meet with
their officials and allies, including President Aoun and his son-in law.
Instead, he should meet with the victims of the Beirut Blast, their families,
and with Slim’s family and friends.
Second, the French and the Biden administration should push for an independent,
international investigation covering both the Beirut Blast and Slim’s
assassination. The local authorities, and the judicial system in Lebanon cannot
be trusted. Asking Hezbollah to investigate itself is preposterous.
Third, refuse to make compromises. Hezbollah is still powerful politically and
militarily, but they lack a socio-economic vision for Lebanon, and one that
would fix its current crisis. They need the international community, and the
potential aid available.
Without aid and an eventual bail-out of the state’s economy, Hezbollah will face
social unrest and major Shia discontent. Military power cannot quell these
facts.
Fourth, the US and EU should support a vigorous initiative for Lebanon through
the Macron, and one that guarantees economic, judicial, and political reforms.
Only then will freedom of expression, a civil society empowerment and proper
representation be in the Lebanese people’s hands.
Otherwise, Macron’s initiative will fail in both the short and long-term.
Forming a government doesn’t change anything in Lebanon. On the contrary, it
would legitimize the current political elite while sending a negative message to
the Lebanese people.
Remembering Lokman And Honoring His
Struggle
Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief/February 08/2021
البرتو فرنندس/موقع مميري: كيف نتذكر لقمان سليم وواجب تكريم نضاله
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/95750/alberto-m-fernandez-memri-remembering-lokman-and-honoring-his-struggle-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%aa%d9%88-%d9%81%d8%b1%d9%86%d9%86%d8%af%d8%b3-%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9-%d9%85%d9%85%d9%8a%d8%b1/
In the wake of his murder last week, some apologists for the terrorist group
Hizbullah have sought to downplay Lokman Slim as some sort of nobody. He was
actually a bigger man than most of the big names that make headlines from
Lebanon because he combined three extremely powerful, rare – and for Hizbullah –
dangerous personal attributes: He was a man who could not be bought, he was a
man without fear, and he was a man with something to say.
I first met Lokman 20 years ago when, as a mid-level US diplomat based in Amman,
I visited Beirut book publishing houses. My purview at the US Embassy in Jordan
included the State Department's Arabic Book Program, which had once been based
in Beirut, before the Lebanese Civil War. Lokman and his sister Rasha, a dynamic
figure in her own right, ran a wonderful Arabic publishing house, Dar al-Jadeed.[1]
The beautifully designed books selected by Lokman and Rasha reflected their
discerning tastes and wide interests: political and religious reform, art,
literature, free inquiry. Lokman, his friends and family had other projects and
initiatives during the years, all of them connected to his primary concerns,
which were always human dignity, justice, and freedom, both inside Lebanon and
in the region.
Another early effort was research and a documentary film on the 1984 Sabra and
Shatila Palestinian refugee camp massacre, interviewing six Lebanese Forces
fighters involved in that horrible episode of the Lebanese Civil War.[2] A
parallel effort, also from 2005, was UMAM Documentation and Research, which
served as an umbrella organization for a variety of initiatives, from preserving
the heritage and memory of Lebanon's recent conflict to a rare cultural and
artistic space in Beirut's heavily populated southern suburbs, to the MENA
Prison Forum.[3]
A later (2016) documentary by the documentary filmmaker Monika Bergmann,
Lokman's wife, and Slim focused on Syria's notorious Tadmor prison.[4] Hayya
Bina, still another initiative, focused on providing opportunities and
alternatives for Lebanon's impoverished southern Shia population until
precipitously cut off from US government funding in 2015 by an Obama
administration eager to reconcile with the Iranian regime.[5] Lokman was
passionate about the community from which he came and among whom he still lived.
Indeed, he could have easily gone and lived in Paris if he wished but he
preferred to stay and work in Haret Hreik.
Given the often-defamatory attacks by Hizbullah's propaganda network on Lokman
and others – Lokman was accused of being a puppet "Shia of the (US) Embassy" on
the payroll of American imperialism – it is worth exploring a bit how the whole
subculture of US government funding of civil society overseas actually works.
Actual amounts are small and closely monitored, nothing like the cash windfalls
Iran and others give their regional proxies. And the bitter reality is that such
NGO funding was always far smaller and more attenuated than what the Americans
regularly give to regimes. Hizbullah's puppets in the Lebanese government are
recipients of more largesse and tangible support from Uncle Sam than all of
Lebanese civil society put together could ever dream of.
But Lokman wasn't killed because of his NGO activity per se, but more likely
because his high-profile advocacy against Hizbullah had crossed some sort of
internal red line known only to the group. Lokman had been marked for death for
years and he knew it, but none of us knew when or if that moment would finally
arrive. There is plenty of criticism of Hizbullah in Lebanon every day, but it
is only when advocacy can lead to change or it touches some core priority that
the group feels the need to strike. The group is also much more concerned about
criticism coming from within the Lebanese Shia community that it seeks to
control than from Sunnis and Christians (although Hizbullah has killed plenty of
those too). In that sense, the targeting of Lokman reminds us of the 2020
assassination of Iraqi researcher Hisham al-Hashemi: both had either already
learned or might learn too much about the internal workings of Iranian-funded
militia/death squads in their respective countries.[6]
Lokman's was a life lived well and passionately. After the January 2015 Paris
massacre by Salafi jihadists at Charlie Hebdo he wrote me: "On this sad day,
it's good to remember that Hassan Nasrallah, in the wake of the Danish cartoons
frenzy, stated on February 1, 2006: "'If a Muslim had enforced the fatwa of Imam
Khomeini and killed this renegade of Salman Rushdy, those bastards wouldn't have
dared to attack the prophet neither in Denmark, nor in Norway nor in France...'"
When I took over Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN) in 2017 and started an
op-ed page,[7] Lokman was one of the first people I thought of as a columnist.
But he didn't accept; he didn't want to be tied down. He did occasionally send
us some opinion pieces but he refused payment for them. When I visited Lebanon
in 2017 for the first time as a private citizen and was a bit concerned about
being allowed in, he wrote back, "sadly, I know a little about this... As I'm 'greylisted,'
each time I leave the country or come back, I have to spend some extra hours
waiting to be cleared..." I was able to get both Lokman and al-Hashemi to a 2018
conference we held in Tunis on the ongoing struggle for human dignity in the
Arab world.[8] I had hoped to do a follow up conference with him in Lebanon but
that opportunity never came. "Lebanon deserves to be offered such an
opportunity... We're getting so much provincial that we need a wakeup call even
in the shape of a conference or so!"
Productive and focused in all the good ways that the world approves of – NGO
work, conferences, publishing, research, advocacy – Lokman knew that this kind
of incremental work was both essential and insufficient. He was an idealist but
also a man who understood how power, real and ruthless power, is wielded for ill
in the real world. He never despaired but understood the tragedy of Lebanon and
the deadly correlation of forces strangling it all too well.
Later that year, he described "a true episode about which I didn't stop thinking
at over the last days, we were three Lebanese around the dining table of the
German ambassador who organized this function at the occasion of the visit of a
Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag. Upset by my remarks
regarding the European 'gold rush' to Tehran, he turned to me and asked
undiplomatically: 'But why don't you want to see the positive impacts of the Pax
Iranica?'"
As Lebanon descended in 2019 into more or less permanent political and economic
crisis and many took to the streets to demonstrate against intolerable
conditions, Lokman was there and some of us were concerned with his exposure. He
answered me, "thank you very much for your message and advice. As you can
imagine, with everything that is happening, it has been very difficult remaining
cautious while still keeping a clear conscience and being true to one's
commitments and values." In typical fashion, instead of thinking how to hide, he
offered up half a dozen great to wild ideas on how to help the "thawra" flourish
and grow. But there was no real appetite in Washington for such activities.
These were ideas that a West that was as committed to its supposed ideals as
much as Iran and the Salafi jihadists are to theirs would have embraced. But
that world seems to have passed, if it ever really existed.
Less than a year ago, as Al-Hurra Television attempted, in our own small and
pitiful way, to shine additional light on the Iranian- Hizbullah connection to
corruption in the region, he was encouraging: "I'm happy that the corruption
nexus between Iraq and Lebanon caught your attention. I believe that exposing
these networks will really help illuminate the financial/political/clerical
schemes that are sustaining the 'axis of resistance.' Of course, this will not
spare revealing the multi-confessional enablers that make up the political elite
of these countries."
Those who see Lokman as some sort of Western proxy are completely mistaken. His
was a singular struggle with much more consistency, principle, and honesty than
that shown by a West seemingly distracted and full of doubt about itself and its
place in the world, a West tired of striving and eager to embrace any sort of
regional hegemon that will relieve us of working and trying too hard.
In a better world, the "international community" would be rushing to embrace
Lokman's struggle and that of his colleagues in the days ahead. I don't see
either Europe or Biden's America having that sort of moral clarity. The
statement by Secretary of State Blinken condemning Lokman's assassination
couldn't even mention Hizbullah by name.[9] Instead, it called on Lebanon's
judiciary and political leaders – almost all in the pocket of Hizbullah – to
take action against the perpetrators. A charitable interpretation of this
statement would be that this is the product of a new administration's foreign
policy team that is just getting started. Others will see it as an act of deep
cynicism.
I am angry for the death of my friend for selfish reasons, because he was a man
I respected and admired. But both his life and his death demonstrate with
startling clarity a bitter and enlightening truth, that the Middle East will
find its way forward largely alone. It will find a better way and change through
the sacrifice and struggle of its best and bravest or fall into even greater
despair and dysfunction than we have heretofore seen. The West must and should
help in creative and smart material ways. But we lack the moral capacity,
subtlety, and seriousness to lead. If the region does have a future it will be
because of living and future generations willing to fight without ceasing, as
Lokman did no matter the cost.
*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.
[1] Twitter.com/daraljadeed2?lang=–.
[2] Youtube.com/watch?v=HAm69aiVTQE.
[3] Umam-dr.org/.
[4] Al Jadid, Aljadid.com/node/2089, 2017.
[5] Wall Street Journal, June 14, 2015, https://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-favors-for-the-mullahs-1434320132.
[6] Newlinesmag.com/essays/the-man-who-knew-too-much-why-shiite-militias-killed-iraqs-finest-isis-scholar/,
October 4, 2020.
[7] Alhurra.com/different-angle.
[8] Alhurra.com/different-angle/2018/10/06/%D9%85%D8%A4%D8%AA%D9%85%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B3-%D9%8A%D9%81%D8%AA%D8%AD-%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B0%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%A4%D9%84-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%85%D9%84.
[9] U.S. Department of State, "Assassination of Lebanese Activist Lokman Slim,
Press Statement," February 4, 2021, State.gov/assassination-of-lebanese-activist-lokman-slim/.
Archives/Mohsen Slim wrote:
The fight for a Lebanese
June 24, 1999
′′ We have one mission and we have only one, to maintain the fight for the
liberation of our country. We have only one goal: to deliver Lebanon. Our
Lebanon is Lebanese. Any other Lebanon is stranger to our homeland and ourselves
". These lines were written in 1986. They conclude a message from Mohsen Slim to
Pope John Paul II, and handed over during a hearing granted by the Pontiff
sovereign on January 28, 1986, at the Vatican. The message to the pope, in a
bilingual edition, is one of the six related books of the box just edited by Me
Slim. Other titles in this selection include: Ms. Slim's pleadings at the trial
of Kamel Mroué's assassination, a study on Lebanon and Arab countries, a text on
constitution supremacy in Lebanon, a message ′′ For Jerusalem ′′ (presented to a
1980 Jerusalem Congress in Paris, under the presidency of King Hassan II), and
finally an account of the lawsuit brought by Mohsen Slim at Sélim Laouzi's Al-Hawadess
magazine for defamation. Hawadess had requested Me Slim's judgement or his
removal from the bar. Lawyer, parliamentarian, human rights defender, Slim first
claims the label of Lebanese for himself. The Lebanon it defends is neither
Christian nor Muslim nor Syrian nor Israeli. He is Lebanese. In his message to
the pope, who had made a sensation at the time of his publication, Me Slim,
assuming that an Islamo-Christian Lebanon is the only viable Lebanon, argues for
strengthening the role of the Maronite patriarchy, in line of the role that this
seat plays in history. ′′ The Maronite patriarchy must be back to what it used
to be: a meeting place and a decision-making center for Maronites as well as for
all Lebanese ", he writes. And again: ′′ To save Lebanon, you must save the
Maronite patriarchy ". And to add: ′′ The Christian presence in Lebanon is a
necessity for the country's survival as such. In addition, this presence is
beneficial to Lebanese Islam. Indeed, the Muslims in Lebanon would not want
their country to lose part of its identity and thus become an Arab and Muslim
state along the lines of those who already exist ". While considering ′′
salutary ′′ to work at ′′ The definition of acceptable arabity for all aspects
of Lebanese society ", Slim says ′′ The Lebanese are unable to rebuild their
unity without external aid from the Vatican and the major international powers
′′ and argues for a quick and ′′ timely ′′ initiative. The box of works by Me
Slim also contains a series of articles published in the newspaper L ' Orient,
in 1961, by President Alfred Naccache, Edmond Na aïm and President Charles Hélou
, then engaged in the legal debate on checking the constitutionality of laws,
before the establishment of the Constitutional Council.
Mohsen Slim a écrit : Le combat
pour un Liban libanais
le 24 juin 1999
«Nous avons une mission et nous n’avons qu’une seule, celle de maintenir la
lutte pour la libération de notre pays. Nous n’avons qu’un seul but : délivrer
le Liban. Notre Liban est libanais. Tout autre Liban est étranger à notre patrie
et à nous-mêmes». Ces lignes ont été écrites en 1986. Elles concluent un message
adressé par Me Mohsen Slim au pape Jean-Paul II, et remis en mains propres au
cours d’une audience accordée par le souverain pontife le 28 janvier 1986, au
Vatican. Le message au pape, dans une édition bilingue, est l’un des six
ouvrages reliés du coffret que vient d’éditer Me Slim. Les autres titres de
cette sélection portent sur : la plaidoirie de Me Slim au procès de l’assassinat
de Kamel Mroué, une étude sur le Liban et les pays arabes, un texte sur la
suprématie de la Constitution au Liban, un message «Pour Jérusalem» (présenté à
un congrès sur Jérusalem tenu en 1980 à Paris, sous la présidence du roi Hassan
II), et enfin un compte rendu du procès intenté par Me Mohsen Slim à la revue
Al-Hawadess de Sélim Laouzi, pour diffamation. Le Hawadess avait demandé le
jugement de Me Slim ou sa radiation du barreau. Avocat, parlementaire, défenseur
des droits de l’homme, Me Slim réclame d’abord, pour lui-même, l’étiquette de
Libanais. Le Liban qu’il défend n’est ni chrétien ni musulman ni syrien ni
israélien. Il est libanais. Dans son message au pape, qui avait fait sensation à
l’époque de sa publication, Me Slim, partant du principe qu’un Liban
islamo-chrétien est le seul Liban viable, plaide en faveur d’un renforcement du
rôle du patriarcat maronite, dans la ligne du rôle joué par ce siège dans
l’histoire. «Le patriarcat maronite doit redevenir ce qu’il était jadis : un
lieu de rencontre et un centre de décision pour les maronites comme pour
l’ensemble des Libanais», écrit-il. Et encore : «Pour sauver le Liban, il faut
sauver le patriarcat maronite». Et d’ajouter : «La présence chrétienne au Liban
est une nécessité pour la survie du pays en tant que tel. De plus, cette
présence est bénéfique à l’Islam libanais. En effet, les musulmans du Liban ne
souhaiteraient pas que leur pays perde une partie de ce qui constitue son
identité et devienne ainsi un État arabe et musulman sur le modèle de ceux qui
existent déjà». Tout en estimant «salutaire» de travailler à «la définition
d’une arabité acceptable pour l’ensemble des composantes de la société libanaise»,
Me Slim affirme que «les Libanais sont incapables de refaire leur unité sans une
aide extérieure venant du Vatican et des grandes puissances internationales» et
plaide en faveur d’une initiative rapide et «opportune». Le coffret des œuvres
de Me Slim contient en outre une série d’articles publiés dans le journal
L’Orient, en 1961, par le président Alfred Naccache, Me Edmond Naïm et le
président Charles Hélou, alors engagés dans le débat juridique sur le contrôle
de la constitutionnalité des lois, avant la création du Conseil constitutionnel.
AUB is rooted in Lebanon and will stay
in Beirut: University President
Joseph Haboush/Al Arabiya/February 08/2021
The American journalist David Ignatius penned an op-ed last summer entitled:
“The American University of Beirut deserves our aid.”
His plea to help AUB, came on the heels of an unprecedented drop in revenue due
to, among other things, the collapse of the local currency.
The Lebanese economy is in a shambles with rampant corruption. Led by a failing
political class that has been in power for decades, governance is seeped in
cronyism and sectarianism at its core.
Nationwide, anti-government protests continue, and the fragile situation in
education is palpable.
Students, who traditionally were able to pay their fees in Lebanese pounds or US
dollars saw tuition costs rise at AUB, exacerbated by a national shortage of the
greenback, and an almost 80 percent devaluation of the local currency.
This, in turn, led to a dramatic drop in revenues at AUB, from both tuition fees
and patients visiting the university’s hospital, the American University of
Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC).
AUB President Fadlo Khuri pressed ahead with efforts to increase funding for the
university, despite several media campaigns set out to tarnish the school’s
longstanding reputation.
Most recently, reports suggested that Khuri met with regional officials with the
view to move the university to Dubai. In a recent interview with Al Arabiya
English, Khuri vehemently denied this and said there was “really no basis, in
fact, for this rumor.”
No meeting took place between the president and senior officials in the region,
and after asking the Board of Trustees about such a meeting, Khuri said there
hadn’t been any discussions about moving the university “ever.”
“So, I can't be more categoric than that. You know, AUB is deeply rooted in
Beirut, in Lebanon. And there would be no sense relocating such a massive
enterprise … to Dubai, or anywhere else. Beirut provides a wonderful
environment,” he said.
Khuri was quick to point out that AUB is an American university, and not a
Lebanese one. Established by the American Protestant Mission to Lebanon in 1866,
AUB is not tied to any religious body.
It has consistently been ranked as one of the top universities in the region
and, according to Khuri, has students from 96 different countries.
“So we’re naturally interested in reaching well beyond Beirut to a global
audience,” he said, adding that there have been, and continue to be, discussions
about collaborations on-site, and virtually, with universities across the world.
“I’m not going to forestall opportunities for meaningful collaborations outside
of Beirut, it’s just that the campus won’t be relocated, and it will remain our
base,” Khuri said.
AUB will remain affordable: the level of teaching will not change
Asked how he would assure current, and potential students that the university
will remain affordable, with the financial, political and socioeconomic
obstacles facing the local population, Khuri said there was no secret to
retaining and recruiting the best students.
“It's through careful strategic planning, fiscal prudence, and by working hard
to provide the very highest quality of education in a wide array of subjects by
employing top quality teaching and research faculty,” Khuri said.
Merit-based and financial scholarship programs will remain accessible to many
students. In the 2015-2016 academic year, AUB raised around $51 million in
financial assistance for students. Projections show numbers will almost double
to more than $90 million this year.
Khuri said he would work to make sure that underrepresented students from all
over the world are within the reach of AUB. He noted that the BBC ranked the
school as one of the twelve most impactful universities in the world.
“I promised … in my inaugural address that AUB would be more intellectually
elite, and less economically elite,” Khuri told Al Arabiya English.
Khuri said the “careful” control of tuition increases over a five-year period,
proper management of the operating budget, and donations from alumni, had
allowed it to recruit more students from modest financial backgrounds.
“So yes, it's more acute now in Lebanon, but the support of our students,
including poor and working class Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian refugees, and
financially disadvantaged, but intellectually gifted students from even poorer
countries like Afghanistan and Yemen, and more than 16 African countries,” is
something AUB continues to strive for.
Khuri also hit back at hearsay alleging AUB was not helping its students
complete their degrees. “The 89 percent on-time graduation rate is comparable to
the best in the world,” he said.
Regarding the teaching quality of professors, Khuri revealed that he proposed to
the Board of Trustees the need for $50 million for a faculty support program. It
was granted. The tuition increase makes sure that the professors live with the
financial security “they deserve,” he said.
Bipartisan US support for AUB
When Khuri took over at AUB, there was a little over $12 million annually in
US-government aid between The United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), The US-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and other agencies.
That number has risen to over $19 million per year, and is increasing, according
to Khuri, who was in the US at the time of the interview.
Although support for AUB has increased, Khuri said that despite US leaders
prioritizing domestic needs, the university needs more.
“I have to say I’m confident that both Democrats and Republicans recognize more
than they have in decades, the singular importance of AUB and I’m confident more
support will be sought.”
Khuri voiced his belief that there was increasing recognition from both the
Trump and Biden administrations that AUB was “the greatest American education
asset, and values-driven higher-education institution beyond the US.”
COVID and Lebanon’s dilemma
After being one of the few countries commended for the way it dealt with the
coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, Lebanon has found itself now, as one of the
worst in the world for managing the outbreak.
Seen daily, record numbers of positive cases and coronavirus-related deaths
spread rapidly, while the country has yet to distribute any vaccines to its
citizens.
A recent deal struck between the Lebanese government and Pfizer/BioNTech and
AstraZeneca will see shipments of their vaccines transported to the country.
AUB will be one of the key sites for vaccinations, Khuri revealed, and added
that its allocation is 8 percent of the national supply, he said, and added that
the university, and its hospital will train others with the skills to properly
vaccinate.
The university will look to obtain more vaccines out with the government, but
with its full support. The university cannot oversee grants, disburse medicines,
vaccines or food.
“We can advise … but the granting agencies themselves have to insist on
monitoring, given the long and troubling track record of waste and mismanagement
in many serial Lebanese governments.”
In spite of the difficult situation AUB is facing, Khuri remains positive for
the future, and hopes his call for Lebanon and AUB is heard.
“We're optimistic that over time this will stabilize, but we cannot compensate
for the economic, and social meltdown of Lebanon, our host nation.”
Wehbe partakes in Arab League meeting,
ups calls for solidarity en route to regional security, prosperity
NNA/February 08, 2021
Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Charbel Wehbe, on Monday
delivered a speech at the extraordinary ministerial session of the Council of
Arab League States which was held in Cairo. In his address, Wehbe congratulated
the Arab Gulf and the Arab Republic of Egypt for reconciling while noting the
special effort and active role of the State of Kuwait in this regard. "This is
an enhancement of Arab security and stability in the face of the many challenges
that the world has been enduring in general, and our Arab world in particular,”
said Wehbe, who also praised Egypt and Jordan’s initiative “calling for this
exceptional meeting.”"It comes at a right time, especially in view of the
importance of the Palestinian cause. This requires Arab solidarity and a unified
position capable of pushing for a just, lasting, and comprehensive solution that
paves the way for peace after the establishment of the State of Palestine; a
solution that proves commitment to the principle of land for peace, and which
enshrines all the rights of the Palestinian people,” Wehbe added. “The vast
majority of countries are still confirming their intention to push towards
stability in the Middle East region, but the question remains: What stability is
possible without ending occupation, without the return of Palestinians to their
homeland, and without the establishment of their independent state?" pondered
Wehbe. He went on to refer to some recent stances expressed by US Secretary of
State, Anthony Blinken, “which were highly encouraging, especially in his
affirmation of the two-state solution and his emphasis on the importance of
avoiding steps that would hinder reaching this goal."“Lebanon renews its
commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative launched by the Arab Summit in Beirut in
2002, and to the principles of the international humanitarian law, in addition
to the relevant United Nations and Arab League resolutions,” he added.
“Fortifying our Arab home and strengthening the causes of its unity is a
fundamental goal that we must endeavor towards achieving. We affirm that our
Arab solidarity and our concern over our common interests remain among the basic
pillars for achieving security and prosperity in our region,” Wehbe concluded,
stepping up calls for “fortifying our one Arab home and our umbrella
organization."
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 08- 09/2021
US general says Washington will help
Saudi Arabia defend against ‘common threat of Iran’
Arab News/February 08, 2021
Central Command's Gen. Frank McKenzie says US has reached period of contested
deterrence with Iran
Says Saudi Arabia and US share common threat of Iran
LONDON: The US will continue to help Saudi Arabia defend itself “efficiently and
effectively” against the common threat of Iran, Washington’s military chief in
the region said on Monday. Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of US Central Command (Centcom),
said nothing had been said or done by Joe Biden’s new administration that would
stop the US working with the Kingdom against Tehran’s destabilizing activities.
“Our focus there is going to be to do things that will help them (Saudi Arabia)
defend themselves more effectively and efficiently,” Gen. McKenzie told the
Middle East Institute. “There’s a common threat there and that common threat is
Iran.” Biden said last week that the US would continue to help Saudi Arabia
defend its territory and people from Iranian attacks through its proxy forces,
including the Houthi militants in Yemen. “Over the last several weeks a number
of attacks have been launched out of Yemen against Saudi Arabia,” Gen. McKenzie
said. “We will help the Saudis defend against those attacks by giving them
intelligence when we can.” In his outline of the US military position in the
Middle East and Afghanistan, Gen. McKenzie referred to a drone and missile
attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities in September 2019 that shook global
energy markets. the attack was widely blamed on Iran. He said the threat of a
similar attack remained “very real.”
“Anything we can do to assist the Saudis in getting better and more effective in
defending against that attack is good for them and good for us as well,” Gen.
McKenzie said. Under the Donald Trump presidency, the US targeted Iran with a
“maximum pressure” campaign after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal.His
administration unleashed punishing sanctions and despatched military resources
to the Gulf in a bid to deter Iran from ramping up its aggressive foreign policy
in the region. In January 2020, the US assassinated the regime’s most powerful
military figure, Qassem Soleimani, in an airstrike at Baghdad airport.
While tensions between the US and Iran remain high in the Arabian Gulf, Gen.
McKenzie said Washington’s stance in the region had sent a signal “clearly
received by the Iranian regime.” “I believe our presence in the region, mostly
defensive in nature, has brought us to a period of contested deterrence with
Iran,” he said. “That presence sends a clear and unambiguous signal of our
capability and will.” In the online event, which included Gerald Feierstein, a
former US ambassador to Yemen, Gen. McKenzie said Iran remained the most
challenging driver of instability in the Middle East. Along with Yemen, he
referred to Iran’s influence in Syria and Iraq, which he said Tehran uses as a
proxy battlefield. He welcomed the move last month by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and
Bahrain to repair ties with Qatar, saying a united GCC helped the US at a
practical military level.
Soleimani’s shadow
Qassem Soleimani left a trail of death and destruction in his wake as head of
Iran’s Quds Force … until his assassination on Jan. 3, 2020. Yet still, his
legacy of murderous interference continues to haunt the region
Arab League ministers call for revival
of two-state solution at Cairo meeting
The National/February 08/2021
First in-person meeting of the group's foreign ministers in over a year will
focus on the protracted Israel-Palestine conflict
Arab League foreign ministers called for the revival of a two-state solution to
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and for Israel to resume peace talks at a
meeting in Cairo on Monday.
A three-page resolution adopted by the ministers also welcomed Egyptian-led
efforts to achieve Palestinian reconciliation to end years of rivalry between
the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
It also welcomed last month’s decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to
hold legislative and presidential elections later this year. Monday’s emergency
meeting at the league’s Cairo headquarters was called by Egypt and Jordan, which
have jointly drafted the resolution.
Initial comments made at the start of the meeting by Arab League chief Ahmed
Abul Gheit and the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Palestine suggested
that the Palestinian question topped the meeting agenda.
In some ways, the meeting appeared to be partially an attempt to disavow steps
taken by the administration of former US President Donald Trump and which
angered Arab nations. These included recognising Jerusalem as the capital of
Israel, moving the US Embassy there and halting funds to the UN aid agency
dedicated to the Palestinians, UNRWA. It also comes less than a month after
President Joe Biden succeeded Mr Trump, raising hopes among many Arabs that his
administration would pursue a more balanced approach to the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict than his predecessor’s.
“We are here to renew our commitment and pledge to stand by Palestine until it
realises its independence,” Mr Abul Gheit told the Arab delegates. “Our meeting
today sends an important message to the entire world that, when it is related to
Palestine, Arab nations speak with one voice.”
He added: “There is not on the horizon a substitute formula for a two-state
solution that can meet the Palestinians’ aspiration for their own state and
Israel’s need for security.”
Mr Abu Gheit also denounced the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West
Bank. “Recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving foreign
embassies there are acts void of legitimacy,” he added.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyadh Al Malky called for an international
conference to work toward the end of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian
territory and to restore Palestinian rights.
“We hope and expect the Biden administration to embrace a deeper vision and more
understanding of history, law and human nature,” he said, adding that the
Palestinians continue to see “salvation” in the 2002 Arab peace plan, which
offers Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from Arab
territories it occupied in the 1967 Mideast war.
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, called for “positive engagement” with
the Biden administration on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, saying Washington
has shown some “positive signs.”
The resolution said the ministers, “emphasise the adherence by Arab states to
the two-state solution that envisages a sovereign Palestinian state under
international law and relevant resolutions by the United Nations as well as the
Arab peace plan in its entirety."
The document also states that Arab states must stand united to face dangers,
regional and international meddling and Israel’s repeated breaches of Arab
sovereignty.
Member states must honour financial pledges made in previous Arab summits to the
Palestinians and the international community must also honour its pledges to
UNRWA, according to the draft. In addition, it calls on Arab states to engage
the International Quartet and waste no time in urging it to work for a
settlement. “All international parties, including the United Nations and the
International Quartet, must be urged to take practical steps to launch credible
negotiations that deal with all the final solution issues,” it said.
For the first time in nearly a year, more than a dozen foreign ministers
attended the Arab League meeting in person. Most delegates in the Arab League’s
opulent conference room wore masks as a precaution against the coronavirus
pandemic. The remainder were represented by lower ranking officials or
participated virtually. It was also the first such meeting since the January
announcement by Mr Abbas that parliamentary and presidential elections would be
held in May and July respectively. The elections, the first in more than a
decade, are widely expected to help narrow differences between the rival
factions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Separately, Palestinian factions
began an Egyptian-sponsored national dialogue forum in Cairo on Monday aimed at
pushing forward election talks. Egypt has successfully brokered agreements
between the two sides only to see them ignored or unraveling.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last Wednesday that he hoped the
Middle East Quartet of mediators would meet again in the next "few weeks" now
that there is a new US president in the White House.
The Quartet – the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United
Nations – does not appear to have had a meeting since September 2018. "The truth
is that we were completely blocked in relation to any form of peace negotiation.
We had the Israelis and the Palestinians that wouldn't talk to each other," Mr
Guterres said during an interview broadcast by The Washington Post. "There is a
strong will of the new US administration to play a positive role in creating
these conditions for a true peace process to restart.”
Iran’s militias pose a threat to Arab countries’ stability: Saudi Arabia’s FM
Tamara Abueish, Al Arabiya English/Published: 08 February ,2021
Iran’s support for militias across the region pose a threat to the security and
stability of Arab countries, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin
Farhan said on Monday, during an emergency Arab League meeting in Cairo.
“Iran’s nuclear activities and its ballistic missiles threaten regional
stability,” the minister said, adding that he calls on the international
community to put an end to Iran’s violations. The Iranian regime – which backs
the Houthis against the internationally-recognized Yemen government as well as
other groups in Lebanon and Iraq – supplies its militias with missiles, drones,
and even training.
The Houthis have intensified their attacks on Saudi Arabia in the past two days,
and have launched more than four explosive-laden drones towards the Kingdom.
Prince Faisal condemned the Houthis’ attacks on civilian infrastructures and
urged the group to halt its violations.
For his part, Yemeni foreign minister Mohammed Abdullah al-Hadhrami said that
Iran has been encouraging the Houthis to destroy Yemen.
The group’s recent escaltion in Marib is evidence of their unwillingness to
reach a peaceful solution, he added. Speaking on the Israel-Palestine conflict,
Prince Faisal reiterated Saudi Arabia’s support for a Palestinian state based on
the borders of 1967. The Arab League meeting, which was held in Egypt’s capital
city Cairo, was focused on reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and
Arab unity.
Canada/Statement by Minister of
Foreign Affairs on International Criminal Court’s decision regarding its
jurisdiction over West Bank and Gaza
February 7, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs
The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the
following statement:
“Canada strongly supports the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the
important work that it does as a key pillar of the rules-based international
order. Canada continues to respect the independence of its judges and of the ICC
Prosecutor.
“Canada is firmly committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. We continue to support the goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting
peace in the Middle East, including the creation of a Palestinian state living
side by side in peace and security with Israel. The creation of a Palestinian
state can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties.
“Until such negotiations succeed, Canada’s longstanding position remains that it
does not recognize a Palestinian state and therefore does not recognize its
accession to international treaties, including the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court. Canada has communicated this position to the Court
on various occasions.”
Canada announces support to help advance democracy in
Belarus
February 7, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today announced that
Canada will provide $2.25 million to support civil society organizations who are
working to help advance democracy in Belarus.
This support is in addition to a previous announcement of $600,000 to respond to
the needs of civil society in Belarus, with a focus on women and independent
media. The new funding will help strengthen the diversity, sustainability, and
effectiveness of Belarussian civil society as they advocate for their rights and
civil liberties to be respected. This support will also help these organizations
inform the international community’s response to the demands and interests of
the Belarusian people, and will bolster the important role of women in the
pro-democracy movement.
This announcement coincides with the Day of Solidarity with Belarus, initiated
by opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to mark 6 months of peaceful
protests in the country and to reinforce common support for the people of
Belarus.
Canada will continue to work with its international partners to ensure that the
voices of the people in Belarus are heard and to pursue accountability for those
responsible for undermining democracy and for committing human rights
violations.
Quotes
“Canada has been actively engaged since the start of the crisis in supporting
the democratic aspirations of the people of Belarus and a peaceful resolution to
the current political situation. We will continue to advocate for a genuine and
inclusive national dialogue to ensure that the future of Belarus reflects the
will of its citizens. ”
- Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Quick facts
Since August 2020, Canada has joined the international community in condemning
the crackdown on peaceful protestors, political opposition, and media following
the fraudulent presidential election in Belarus.
Canada has imposed 3 rounds of targeted sanctions under the Special Economic
Measures Act against 55 Belarusian officials implicated in the ongoing
large-scale and systematic human rights violations occurring in Belarus. These
measures, taken in collaboration with the European Union and the United Kingdom,
effectively freeze any Canadian assets of the listed individuals and make them
inadmissible to Canada.
Canada, along with 16 other states that are members of the Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe, invoked the Moscow Mechanism to investigate
allegations of human rights violations in Belarus. The report casts no doubt on
the massive and systematic human rights violations committed by Alexander
Lukashenko’s regime.
Related products
Backgrounder - Canada’s support for civil society organizations in Belarus
Iran U.N. Inspectors Find Radioactive Traces, Raising Fresh
Concerns
The Wall Street Journal/February 08/2021
Material is found at sites where Iran had blocked inspections by the
International Atomic Energy Agency
BRUSSELS—United Nations inspectors have found new evidence of undeclared nuclear
activities in Iran, according to three diplomats briefed on the discovery,
raising new questions about the scope of the country’s atomic ambitions. Samples
taken from two sites during inspections in the fall by the U.N.’s International
Atomic Energy Agency contained traces of radioactive material, the diplomats
said, that could indicate Iran has undertaken work on nuclear weapons, based on
where it was found. The diplomats said they didn’t know the exact nature of what
was found.
Last year, Iran blocked IAEA inspectors from checking the sites involved for
seven months, leading to a standoff. Tehran has long denied that it has sought
to make an atomic bomb and said all of its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes
such as power generation and health care. There was no immediate comment from
Iran on the findings.In Washington, officials at the White House and State
Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Iran cleric: People who are vaccinated for COVID have ‘become homosexuals
Benjamin Weinthal/Jerusalem Post/February 08/2021
Iran’s regime has executed 4,000-6,000 gays and lesbians since its 1979 Islamic
revolution.An Iranian regime cleric in the holy city of Qom on Tuesday issued a
homophobic rant against people vaccinated for COVID-19, claiming that they
become gay after receiving the vaccine.
Ayatollah Abbas Tabrizian wrote on his Telegram social media platform: “Don’t go
near those who have had the COVID vaccine. They have become homosexuals.”The
radical Islamist has nearly 210,000 followers on his Telegram account.
Tabrizian has a history of anti-Western medicine views. Last year, a video
showed him burning Harrison's Manual of Medicine, in which he argued that
"Islamic medicine" has made such books "irrelevant,” according to an article on
the US government Radio Farda website.
Sheina Vojoudi, an Iranian dissident who fled the Islamic Republic of Iran due
to repression, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that, “like other clerics in
the regime, also Tabrizian relates all the shortages to sexuality. The clerics
in Iran are suffering from lack of knowledge and humanity.
"Actually, his goal of spreading nonsense is to try to scare people [out] of
getting vaccinated while the leader of the regime and other officials got Pfizer
and they don't provide it for the people with the excuse that they don't trust
the West,” she said. Peter Tatchell, the LGBTQ+ and human rights campaigner,
told the Post that "Ayatollah Tabrizian combines scientific ignorance with a
crude appeal to homophobia.
"He's demonizing both the vaccination program and LGBT+ people, without a shred
of evidence," he said. "By seeking to scare the public into not getting
vaccinated against Covid-19, he is fueling the pandemic and putting lives at
risk. Typical of many Iranian religious and political leaders, his bizarre,
irrational claims scapegoat LGBTs and put theological prejudice before
scientific knowledge."Iran’s regime has executed 4,000-6,000 gays and lesbians
since its 1979 Islamic revolution, according to a 2008 British WikiLeaks cable.
The foreign minister of the Islamic Republic, Mohammed Javid Zarif, justified
his regime’s executions of gays in 2019. When questioned why it does this, Zarif
said, "Our society has moral principles, and according to these principles we
live,” adding that "these are moral principles regarding the behavior of people
in general. And that's because the law is upheld and you abide by laws."In 2019,
the Post reported that Iran’s rulers publicly hanged a 31-year-old after being
found guilty of violating the country's anti-gay laws.
US to rejoin UN Human Rights Council, reversing Trump's
withdrawal
Jerusalem Post/February 08/2021
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a senior US diplomat in Geneva will
announce on Monday that Washington will return to the UN Human Rights Council as
an observer. US President Joe Biden's administration
will reengage with the United Nations Human Rights Council, three years after
former President Donald Trump withdrew over what his administration called bias
against Israel and a lack of reform. Secretary of
State Antony Blinken will announce on Monday that the United States will return
to the Geneva-based council as an observer, a senior State Department official
said on Sunday.
"We intend to do so knowing that the most effective way to reform and improve
the Council is to engage with it in a principled fashion," the official said.
"We know that the Council has the potential to be an important forum for
those fighting tyranny and injustice around the world. By being present at the
table, we seek to reform it and ensure it can live up to that potential," the
official said. The plan was first reported by the
Associated Press. The decision is likely to draw
criticism from conservative lawmakers and many in the pro-Israel community as
Trump's withdrawal from the body in 2018 was praised, over the UNHCR's biased
treatment of Israel and its longtime failure to address serious abuses
throughout the world. “For too long the Human Rights
Council has been a protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political
bias,” former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said at the time.
Trump, a Republican whose "America First" agenda contributed to his decision to
withdraw from multiple international organizations and agreements over his term,
rescinded the US's position the Human Rights Council in 2018 - halfway through
the country's three year term as a member of the 47-nation body.
The council damages the very cause of human rights, Haley noted at the time, and
also pointed out the long-standing issue of anti-Israel bias.
Israel is “singled out in a way that no other country is singled out,”
she added.
Former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman attacked the move.
He tweeted that he had heard "with grave concern that the reconstituted
Obama foreign policy team will replicate the mistakes of the past, I’ve chosen
to limit my criticism to policy, not people (in contrast to the way we were
treated). Well here’s a terrible policy: rejoining the UNHRC.
"Who is leading the UN’s commission on human rights? China, which places
its undesirables in concentration camps, Russia that jails its dissidents, and
Cuba! Who is the permanent target? Israel. Donald Trump and Nikki Haley got it
exactly right by withdrawing!," Friedman wrote. The
193-member UN General Assembly is due to elect new members to the council later
this year. Members are elected for three years and cannot serve more than two
consecutive terms. Candidates are elected by secret ballot in geographical
groups to ensure even representation.
The next session of the 47-member Geneva-based council is due to start later
this month.
Iran calls on UN to respond to alleged Israeli threats -
report
Tobias Siegal/Jerusalem Post/February 08/2021
In a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Iran's
representative to the UN noted a recent speech given by IDF Chief of Staff Aviv
Kochavi. Iran has reportedly submitted a complaint to
the United Nations over alleged Israeli threats made against the Muslim state
and called on the intergovernmental organization to respond accordingly, Al
Jazeera reported Sunday. The letter, addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres, noted a recent speech given by IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv
Kochavi during the annual Institute for National Security Studies (INSS)
conference in January, during which Kochavi indicated that the IDF is preparing
several military operations in response to Iran developing its nuclear program.
“I have directed the IDF to prepare a few operative plans, in addition to what
they have already, and we are working on those plans and developing them,”
Kochavi said at the time. Iran's UN representative Majid Takht-Ravanchi noted
that such a statement violates the second article of the UN charter and called
on the international community to respond immediately.
The specific clause referred to by the Iranian official is clause 4, which
reads: "All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the
threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political
independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes
of the United Nations."
Takht-Ravanchi added that Israel holds “destabilizing and warmongering policies”
and stated that the issue should be dealt with by the international community.
He added that the alleged threats should be taken seriously especially
considering Israel's history of attacking other nations in the region, and
submitted a request for the letter to be registered as a formal document in the
UN's Security Council. Kochavi's speech that is mentioned in representative's
letter addressed the Iran Nuclear Deal as a whole and was meant as a signal to
US President Joe Biden that the Israeli top military echelon is completely in
line with Netanyahu on the subject – unlike his predecessor, Gadi Eizenkot, who
often questioned Netanyahu's position in regard to Iran and to the deal. “Going
back to the Iran deal from 2015, or even to a similar deal with a few
improvements, is a bad, wrong thing. It is bad operationally and strategically,”
Kochavi said at the time. “Anything that is similar to the current deal is a bad
thing, and we cannot allow it,” he added.
*Herb Keinon contributed to this report.
Iran Says French Mediation on Nuclear
Deal Unnecessary
Agence France Presse/February 08/2021
Iran appeared Monday to dismiss an offer by France to mediate between the United
States and the Islamic republic in order to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. "The
nuclear deal has no need for a mediator," foreign ministry spokesman Saeed
Khatibzadeh told reporters without specifically mentioning France, but in
response to a question about recent comments by the country's president.
Emmanuel Macron said last week he was ready to act as an "honest broker" in
talks between the new US administration of President Joe Biden and Tehran after
the multilateral deal was torpedoed by ex-president Donald Trump.
"I will do whatever I can to support any initiative from the US side to
re-engage in a demanding dialogue, and I will... try to be an honest broker and
a committed broker in this dialogue," Macron said. The landmark 2015 deal has
been hanging by a thread since the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew
from it in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Tehran. A year later Iran suspended
its compliance with most key nuclear commitments in the deal. The Biden
administration has expressed willingness to return to the deal, but insisted
that Tehran first resume full compliance.
On Sunday Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the US must
"completely lift" sanctions first, followed by verification by Tehran, before
the Islamic republic returns to its commitments. This was Iran's "definite
policy" and Tehran "will not turn back from it", he said.
Khatibzadeh also insisted that there was no need to renegotiate the nuclear
deal. "When a document is written with such precision and length it means that
it is not necessary to discuss it again... It is all there in more than 150
pages," he said of the deal officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (JCPOA). Last week, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani likewise ruled out
changes to the nuclear deal, saying "no clause of the JCPOA will change".
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javid Zarif asked the European Union to coordinate a
synchronised return of both Washington and Tehran to the deal.
But the US State Department said last week that it was too early to accept the
Iranian proposal, and reiterated Washington's call for Tehran to come back into
full compliance.
Khamenei: US must lift sanctions for Iran to return to nuclear commitments
Jerusalem Post Middle East/Reuters/February 08/2021
But former US President Donald Trump abandoned the deal in 2018, denouncing it
as one-sided in Iran's favor, and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran's
economy.Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday that
Tehran's "final and irreversible" decision was to return to compliance with the
2015 nuclear deal only if Washington lifts sanctions on the Islamic Republic,
Iranian state TV reported. The deal between Iran and
six major powers limited Iran's uranium enrichment activity to make it harder
for Tehran to develop nuclear arms - an ambition Iran has long denied having -
in return for the easing of US and other sanctions.
But former US President Donald Trump abandoned the deal in 2018, denouncing it
as one-sided in Iran's favor, and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran's
economy. "Iran has fulfilled all its obligations under
the deal, not the United States and the three European countries ... If they
want Iran to return to its commitments, the United States must in practice ...
lift all sanctions," state TV quoted Khamenei as saying in a meeting with Air
Force commanders. "Then, after verifying whether all
sanctions have been lifted correctly, we will return to full compliance ... It
is the irreversible and final decision and all Iranian officials have consensus
over it."In response to Trump's withdrawal, Tehran has breached the deal's key
limits one after the other, building up its stockpile of low-enriched uranium,
refining uranium to a higher level of purity and using advanced centrifuges for
enrichment.
US President Joe Biden, who took office last month, has said that if Tehran
returned to strict compliance with the pact, Washington would follow suit and
use that as a springboard to a broader agreement that might restrict Iran's
missile development and regional activities.
Iran has repeatedly said it could quickly reverse those violations if US
sanctions are removed but has ruled out any talks over the country's ballistic
missile program and Tehran's influence in the Middle East, where Iran and Saudi
Arabia have been involved in proxy wars for decades.
Fatah, Hamas Begin Cairo Talks ahead
of Palestinian Polls
Agence France Presse/February 08/2021
Key Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas opened talks Monday in Cairo aimed at
clearing the way for the first elections in the West Bank and Gaza since 2006,
Egypt's state television said. "The national dialogue sessions are underway in
Cairo under the auspices of (Egyptian) President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi," it
reported. Before his departure to Cairo, Fatah's delegation head Jibril Rajub
was upbeat, telling AFP: "We are confident we will overcome any obstacles in
going ahead with legislative elections slated for May 22." On the agenda figure
thorny issues such as judicial and security arrangements for the vote and the
fate of Palestinian voters in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. The polls will be
the first Palestinian parliamentary elections in 15 years. The Islamist movement
Hamas won an unexpected landslide in the last vote, a victory not recognised by
president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah, leading to bloody clashes the following year and
a split in Palestinian governance. Fatah has run the Palestinian Authority
in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Hamas has held power in the Gaza Strip
since 2007, the year Israel imposed a devastating blockade on the Mediterranean
enclave. The divide has left the Palestinian territories under two different
political systems and without a functioning parliament. Fourteen Palestinian
political groups are taking part in the sessions sponsored by Egypt, as it seeks
to leverage its regional clout. The talks come on the same day as an emergency
Arab League meeting, also held in Cairo, to discuss the Palestinian cause.
Trump Defense Urges Dismissal of
'Absurd' Impeachment Trial
Agence France Presse/February 08/2021
Donald Trump's legal team argued Monday on the eve of his impeachment trial that
the case is constitutionally flawed and it was "absurd" to hold the former
president responsible for the U.S. Capitol riot.
But in a preview of their prosecuting arguments, Democrats declared that Trump
committed the "most grievous constitutional crime" in the 232-year history of
the American presidency when he incited supporters to storm Congress on January
6. The House of Representatives impeached Trump for a historic second time last
month over his role in the deadly siege by his supporters, and his trial begins
Tuesday with the Senate's 100 members sitting as jurors. Trump, a deeply damaged
political figure, nevertheless remains a powerful force in the Republican Party.
Charged with "incitement of insurrection," he is likely once again to avoid
conviction due to loyal party support in the Senate, but his lawyers contended
in their final pre-trial filing that the Constitution does not give the chamber
jurisdiction to try a former president. "The Senate should dismiss these charges
and acquit the president because this is clearly not what the framers wanted or
what the Constitution allows," his attorneys Bruce Castor, David Schoen and
Michael T. van der Veen wrote. "Indulging House Democrats hunger for this
political theater is a danger to our Republic democracy and the rights that we
hold dear." The defense used blunt language in their 78-page brief, saying it
was "simply absurd" to argue that Trump conjured up a mob to commit violent
crime, and that those who attacked the Capitol did so on their own.
The lawyers were equally forceful in rejecting as "patently ridiculous" the
trial of a former president, a private citizen who can not be removed "from an
office that he no longer holds."
'Leave it to the Senate'
President Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump on January 20, weighed on Monday, but
declined to address whether Trump should be found guilty or denied the right to
hold political office in the future. "We'll let the Senate work that out," Biden
said. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki later told reporters that Biden ran
against Trump in 2020 "because he felt he was unfit for office.""But he's going
to leave it to the Senate to see this impeachment proceeding through," Psaki
added. The congressional Democrats prosecuting the trial, known as House
impeachment managers, provided their final counterarguments Monday, pushing back
against Trump's legal contentions. "The evidence of President Trump's conduct is
overwhelming (and) his efforts to escape accountability are unavailing," they
said in a five-page brief. "His incitement of insurrection against the United
States government -- which disrupted the peaceful transfer of power -- is the
most grievous constitutional crime ever committed by a president."The trial
begins at 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) Tuesday when senators will step into uncharted
territory, as no president has faced an impeachment trial after already leaving
office.
Loyal conservatives -
The proceedings will take place in the Senate chamber that was raided by
rioters, threatening the lives of lawmakers in an effort to stop the ceremonial
certification of Biden's election victory. The impeachment managers argued in an
earlier pre-trial brief that Trump, who rallied supporters in Washington shortly
before the mob assault, was "singularly responsible" for the unrest which left
five people dead. And they said acquitting Trump -- who escaped conviction in
his first impeachment trial in 2020 -- could do severe damage to American
democracy. But convicting him would require the vote of more than two-thirds of
the senators, meaning 17 Republicans would need to break ranks and join all 50
Democrats -- seen as near impossible. Even though Trump retains a strong base of
support, the riot has eroded his popularity -- not good for a 74-year-old who
may eye a fresh presidential run in 2024. Public support for a Trump conviction
is stronger now than during his first impeachment trial, according to a new
Ipsos/ABC News poll. Meanwhile Senate leaders are hammering out the trial rules,
including whether any witnesses will be allowed to be called and how long debate
will last.
Trump has already declined an invitation to testify.
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on February 08- 09/2021
How the Houthis became 'terrorists' for three weeks -
analysis
Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/February 08/2021
US flip-flop on terror designations underpins the problem with political
decisions impacting counter-terror strategy.
The US decision to remove the Houthis in Yemen from the list of foreign
terrorist organizations reflects yet another roller coaster in US foreign
policy.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others pushed to label the Houthis
“terrorists” in the last days of the Trump administration. The announcement was
made on January 10 and took effect on January 19, the day before the
administration left office.
On February 5, reports said the Biden administration would revoke the decision.
The Houthis were therefore “terrorists” for just a few weeks.
The Houthis, known as Ansar Allah, are an Iranian-backed rebel group in Yemen.
They have used missiles and drones to attack Saudi Arabia and also civilians in
Yemen. Because the definition of “terrorism” is often political, with peaceful
groups like Kurds in Afrin called “terrorists” by NATO-member Turkey, it is not
always clear today what constitutes “terrorism.”
The US has a robust list of groups and individuals designated terrorists over
the years. However, administrations often change those that they target.
The Trump administration sought to target Iranian-backed groups with these
designations; other administrations have targeted al-Qaeda-linked groups. The US
may be fighting the Taliban and terrorists one day and then looking to make
peace with them the next.
This lack of clarity stands behind the flip-flop on the Houthis and calls into
question the overall Western parlance when it comes to “terrorism.” Designating
groups as being “terrorist” has been used by countries such as Turkey as
justification to invade, bomb, ethnically cleanse and target civilians under the
guise of “fighting terrorism.” WHEN IT came to the Houthis, things were more
complex. They are openly a movement of hate. Their slogan is “death to America,
death to Israel, curse the Jews.” It is also a rebel movement based in the
mountains of Yemen that draws strength from historic divisions in the country.
In 2015, as the Houthis rose from the chaos and conflict in Yemen, they
threatened to take Aden and give Iran a strategic perch at the Bab al-Mandab
Strait. Saudi Arabia led an intervention. The fighting has dragged on, and there
has been a famine and concerns over human-rights abuses.
The Houthis are not the only alleged terrorist group in Yemen. For many years,
al-Qaeda was active there, and men such as Anwar Awlaki operated there until US
drone strikes ended their lives. The US has had a long-term role in Yemen’s
instability. Al-Qaeda targeted the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen prior to
9/11.
The UN special envoy for Yemen opposed Washington’s designation of the Houthis
as terrorist in early January. The Trump administration, like in most things,
did not consult with others, create a consensus or try to build support. Because
the administration often governed through executive orders, there was no attempt
to consult with European or other allies about the Houthis.
The arbitrary nature of labeling them as terrorists paved the way for them to be
removed from the list. The US administration likely knew this, but Pompeo’s
agenda was to let a series of decisions drop right before the end of the
administration to either box in or force the Biden administration to walk them
back.
THE STATE Department website says: “Executive Order 13224 gives the U.S.
Government a powerful tool to impede terrorist funding and is part of our
national commitment to lead the international effort to bring a halt to the evil
of terrorist activity. In general terms, the Order provides a means by which to
disrupt the financial support network for terrorists and terrorist organizations
by authorizing the U.S. government to designate and block the assets of foreign
individuals and entities that commit, or pose a significant risk of committing,
acts of terrorism.”
The website includes a list of press releases on designations. But that list
begins with the new administration, and the “archived” list from 2017 to 2021
goes to a link that doesn’t work. This illustrates how the US list of
organizations and press releases lacks clear continuity and is overly political.
There are no press releases at the new link. America is the most powerful
country in the world, but its State Department can’t bother to maintain a clear
list of press releases on foreign terrorist organizations.
The State Department does maintain a list of designated organizations with dates
that were added or removed. But it does not have links to say why the
organizations were put on the list or what criteria they met. This is because
the US does not explain why it has labeled one group or another as “terrorists”
or what they did to get on the list.
Of the groups that were designated and then removed, there are those designated
from 1997, such as the Tupac Amaru movement until 2001, the Khmer Rouge until
1999, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine – Hawatmeh Faction
until 1999, the GIA until 2010, the Mujahdein-e Khalq until 2012 and Abu Nidal
until 2017. The Trump administration also added Asaib Ahl al-Haq and the IRGC
between 2019 and 2020.
On Friday, the US said it would revoke the designation for the Houthis. “Our
action is due entirely to the humanitarian consequences of this last-minute
designation from the prior administration, which the United Nations and
humanitarian organizations have since made clear would accelerate the world’s
worst humanitarian crisis,” an official said.
THE ISSUE of humanitarian aid and needing to have it go through or into areas
controlled by a “terrorist” group is one of the problems inherent in the US
concept of designating some groups as such. It is unclear why America does not
simply have an exception for humanitarian aid. Rather than making an exception
so that civilians living under a terrorist group’s control can get aid, the US
rather handedly tends to lurch back and forth.
On the side of not having groups labeled “terrorists” are those who advise
“engaging” with them rather than blacklisting them and empowering “hard-liners.”
Under this logic, it is better to talk with these groups than make it impossible
to do so.
The US does not negotiate with or deal with “terrorists.” The logic of
“engagement” has tended to cement in place and legitimize these groups, enabling
Hamas, Hezbollah or the Houthis to become de facto rulers of terrorist statelets.
On the other side, those who seek to label them as terrorists tend to do so for
reasons that also have no positive outcome. For instance, blacklisting the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was done largely at the behest of Turkey in 1997
and has given Ankara impunity to massacre Kurds and crush dissent under the
guise of “fighting terrorism.” Ankara invaded Afrin in 2018, claiming to “fight
terrorism” and then ethnically cleansed 170,000 civilians.
Totalitarian regimes, from Hitler to Stalin, also conjured up various excuses
about how they were fighting various bogeymen to excuse wanton human-rights
abuses.
Today, Turkey’s authoritarian regime calls student protesters and journalists
“terrorists” and has removed opposition mayors. In this sense, the “war on
terror” often becomes Orwellian, with peaceful people who never put their hands
on a weapon called “terrorists,” while regimes such as Ankara back far-right
extremists who actually terrorize civilians.
The roller-coaster ride with the Houthis betrays any real discussion about the
group’s methods. The Houthis do terrorize civilians and use missiles and drones
to attack other states and the government of Yemen.
The criteria for designating “terrorists” no longer appear to be about their
methods. They don’t need to target civilians or blow up buses to be
“terrorists.” Groups that never target civilians can be called “terrorists,”
while groups that ethnically cleanse and massacre are not.
This lack of clarity unsurprisingly means that this becomes more a political
tool than one that has a clear criteria and logic, and US administrations need
to show cause and go through some rigorous court rulings to determine who is a
terrorist and who is not.
The flip-flop of calling Houthis “terrorists” one week and then not the next
will make many groups assume that all they need to do is wait for a new
administration in Washington to get their enemies labeled “terrorists.” Turkey
has played this game with Washington already; other states will likely learn the
trade.
Iran facing calls to be kicked out of Olympics after
execution of boxer
Benjamin Weinthal/FDD/Februaru 08/2021
The Islamic Republic of Iran imposed yet another extrajudicial death penalty on
a champion athlete last week, sparking renewed calls from sports advocacy
organizations for the regime to be banned from this year’s Tokyo Olympics.
Ali Mutairi, a champion boxer and popular coach, was executed in Sheiban Prison
in Khuzestan Province on Jan. 28. Mutairi, 30, first endured severe torture,
which led to his false confession to killing two Basij militia members in 2018,
activists and family members said.
Rob Koehler, the director-general of Global Athlete, an international advocacy
group for Olympic athletes, told the Washington Examiner: “The International
Olympic Committee must act now. Their silence has left them complicit. Their
lack of action clearly indicates they favor stakeholders over athlete rights.”
He continued: “The tragic recent execution of boxer Ali Mutairi is the third
athlete in just four months that has been murdered by the Iranian government.
The IOC must immediately suspend the Iran National Olympic Committee. They can
no longer neglect their duty of care: Athletes’ lives are at stake.”
When asked about Koehler’s comments and whether the IOC plans to sanction Iran’s
regime, a spokesperson for the IOC said, “The case of Ali Mutairi, a local boxer
from Iran, is tragic. We were informed that his participation in local sports is
not related in any way to the case itself. Based on this information, this case
is clearly outside the IOC’s remit.”
After the execution of Mutairi, a member of Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority group, a
spokeswoman for the United Nations, said, “We strongly condemn the series of
executions, at least 28, since mid-December, including people from minority
groups.”
She called on Iran’s clerical regime “to review his and other death-penalty
cases in line with human rights law.”
A Persian-language article published by the Islamic Republic News Agency
reported that “Ali Motairi, a terrorist member of the ISIS group, attacked the
Basij base,” resulting in the deaths of two Basij members, the Khuzestan Justice
Department said.
The Britain-based Iran International news outlet reported that local sources did
not confirm the regime’s allegations that Mutairi held membership in the Islamic
State.
Athleten Deutschland, the German athletic advocacy association, on Sunday urged
the IOC to bar Iran’s regime from participating in the Olympics and said that
United World Wrestling should impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic for
hanging Navid Afkari, an apparently innocent champion Greco-Roman wrestler, in
September.
“Athleten Deutschland is deeply shocked by the death of Navid Afkari. His
execution must not be without consequences,” Athleten Deutschland said.
In an interview with Deutschlandfunk public radio on Tuesday, Maximilian Klein,
a spokesman for Athleten Deutschland, said the association had long observed the
situation of athletes in Iran and came to the conclusion that “there must be
sanctions against the Iranian regime.”
Klein added that Iran’s regime must be banned from international sports
competition, but under the condition that Iranian athletes be allowed to compete
under a neutral flag and not the flag of the Islamic Republic.
Press queries were sent to Iran’s foreign ministry and U.N. mission.
Human rights activists said Mutairi was “physically and mentally tortured in the
detention center of an intelligence agency, and after being transferred to
Sheiban Prison, he was severely harassed in solitary confinement by prison
officials,” Iran International reported in Persian.
In late January, Iran’s regime executed wrestler Mehdi Ali Hosseini for
allegedly killing a young man during a botched burglary. The circumstances of
Hosseini’s execution remain shrouded in judicial mystery because of Iran’s
opaque legal proceedings.
The clerical regime tortured Afkari in August and September to frame him on a
charge of killing a Basij security guard who was tracking protesters during
demonstrations against the regime in 2018.
Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden tweeted: “Iran’s cruel execution of Navid
Afkari is a travesty. No country should arrest, torture or execute peaceful
protestors or activists.”
Then-President Donald Trump tweeted about Afkari, who became a cause celebre,
and urged Iran’s rulers not to execute him.
The regime hanged Afkari for his peaceful protest against regime corruption,
according to Iranian human rights experts and the U.S. government.
*Benjamin Weinthal reports on human rights in the Middle East and is a fellow at
the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @BenWeinthal.
FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on
national security and foreign policy.
If You Thought the 2020 Elections Were Chaotic, Just Wait
J. Christian Adams/Gatestone Institute./February 8, 2021
H.R.1 packs into one 791-page bill every bad idea about how to run elections and
mandates that the states must adopt the very things that made the election of
2020 such a mess. It includes all of the greatest hits of 2020: Mandatory mail
ballots, ballots without postmarks, late ballots, voting in precincts where you
do not live.... The Senate companion bill, S.1, might be even worse.
In 2020, states such as Nevada and New Jersey sent ballots through the mail to
anyone on their registration lists despite having voter rolls full of errors.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation documented thousands of ineligible
registrations in Nevada alone that received mail ballots. Some were sent to
vacant lots, abandoned mines, casinos and even liquor stores.
States also would be blocked by H.R.1 from signature verification procedures.
H.R.1 rigs the system for any lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the
law. All lawsuits can only be filed in one court -- federal court in the
District of Columbia. And all opposition must be consolidated into one brief
with only one attorney being able to argue the merits.
There is a federal mandate, passed in the 19th Century, to have one single
election day.... Like Obamacare earlier, H.R.1 transitions our federalist
Republic to some other brave new system that purports to right generations of
structural wrongs, while at the same time entrenching other wrongs.
H.R.1 packs into one 791-page bill every bad idea about how to run elections and
mandates that the states must adopt -- the very things that made the election of
2020 such a mess. It includes all of the greatest hits of 2020: Mandatory mail
ballots, ballots without postmarks, late ballots and voting in precincts where
you don't live. It includes so many bad ideas that no publication has
satisfactory space to cover all of them. The Senate companion bill, S.1, might
be even worse.
These bills rearrange the relationship between the states and the federal
government. The Constitution presumes that states regulate their own elections,
but the Constitution has a big "but" in what is called the Elections Clause. The
Constitution says, "but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such
Regulations." For over 200 years, Congress rarely used this power. After all,
the power was put in the Constitution only to prevent the states from
suffocating the federal government out of existence by never holding federal
elections.
Do not assume that the bills will stall and wither in the process. They are
named H.R.1 and S.1 for a reason. The bills are the top priority of the newly
empowered Democrats in Congress.
Dissatisfied with the effectiveness of the last federal mandate -- 1993's Motor
Voter law -- H.R.1 dispenses with the idea that an American should go
affirmatively register to vote.
In 2020, states such as Nevada and New Jersey sent ballots through the mail to
anyone on their registration lists despite having voter rolls full of errors.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation documented thousands of ineligible
registrations in Nevada alone that received mail ballots. Some were sent to
vacant lots, abandoned mines, casinos and even liquor stores.
States also would be blocked by H.R.1 from signature verification procedures.
H.R.1 rigs the system for any lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the
law. All lawsuits can only be filed in one court – federal court in the District
of Columbia. And all opposition must be consolidated into one brief with only
one attorney being able to argue the merits. It also grants automatic
intervention to any legislators who want to join in the fight against the lone
opposition.
It prohibits states from conducting list maintenance on the voter rolls. That
means deadwood and obsolete registrations will stack up.
HR.1 and S.1 are omnibus bills that would change every American citizen's -- and
foreigner's -- relationship to voter registration.
Universal automatic voter registration has, for years, been a top priority of
the institutional left. In fact, H.R.1 would do away with actual voter
registration and instead make the voter rolls merely a copy of anyone already on
a government list -- such as welfare recipients and other social service
beneficiaries. The bills would expand well beyond to federal entities like the
Social Security Administration, Department of Defense, Customs and Immigration,
and elements of Health and Human Services.
Naturally, a giant federal database would serve as the home for this list of
people who must be automatically registered to vote, whether they know it or
not.
Imagine the number of government databases in which your information is
contained. Do your names and addresses all match? Does Social Security know you
moved out of your birth state? Are your married and maiden names different? Did
you get a driver's license before obtaining American citizenship?
You can see the pitfalls. One person will be "registered" to vote multiple
times, with slight variation in names, and perhaps greater variation in
residence addresses.
Making it "easier" to get registered to vote through automatic registration from
government lists might seem attractive, until you consider the disaster of
universal auto-mail voting as we saw in 2020.
H.R.1 and S.1 will force states to push ballots into the mail. It builds slack
into the election system. Decentralized mail elections introduce error because
of error-filled rolls. Mail-in ballots delay results, create uncertainty and
push the elections into kitchens and bedrooms where election officials cannot
observe the voting process and cannot protect the voter from coercion.
H.R.1 takes the absolute worst emergency rule changes of 2020 and enshrines them
as federal law. Gone also are state witness and notary requirements during the
mail ballot application process. Nor may states enact identification
requirements of "any form" for those requesting a ballot. That means no more
voter ID as a matter of federal law.
States also would be blocked by H.R.1 from signature verification procedures.
It gets worse. The 791-page bill also includes:
"Congress can reduce a state's representation in Congress when the right to vote
is denied." Without qualification or definition, Congress could rely on this
sentence unilaterally to cut the number of House members from any state it
claims is denying the right to vote.
It criminalizes anyone who uses state challenge laws to question the eligibility
of registrants wrongly. The penalty is up to one year in prison per instance.
It prohibits states from conducting list maintenance on the voter rolls. That
means deadwood and obsolete registrations will stack up.
It criminalizes publishing "false statements" about qualifications to vote and
"false statements" about which groups have endorsed which candidates.
Information banned from being published includes false qualifications to vote
and the penalties for doing so. What is a false statement will apparently be in
the minds of the Justice Department lawyers who bring the charges. And if they
do not act, the law provides a private right of action to individual plaintiffs
to drag speakers to court. You can be sure this provision would be used as a
merciless weapon against political opponents.
And in case it was not clear that H.R.1 was dismantling state power to run their
own elections, the bill makes it clear: "The lack of a uniform standard for
voting in Federal elections leads to an unfair disparity and unequal
participation in Federal elections based solely on where a person lives." In
other words, state laws which have the Constitutional authority to determine the
voting eligibility of its residents, will be preempted by a federal uniform
standard.
That is not all. Nationwide, states must accept mail ballots on Election Day
plus 10 days later. States are allowed to add extra time to the window. No more
election day. It will be election season, with a month of early voting and weeks
of ballots arriving and being counted.
And of course, unlimited ballot harvesting -- having a third party "help" to
fill in and gather up ballots, then drop them off at a polling station or other
designated station -- is guaranteed.
Misinformation, protests, unrest, and even violence were all symptoms of the
trauma of 2020. Activist groups and collusive officials in 2020 turned courts
into weapons to transform state laws into election procedures that were
favorable to one particular party. H.R.1 would finish the job, and federalize
the policies and election procedures that made 2020 such a mess.
It is no solution to presume that federal rules, even if they were crafted the
right way, would solve the problem. When Washington D.C. gets control over
elections, the policy always skews in one direction.
I worked at the Justice Department, where career staff ignored federal laws they
didn't like, and only enforced the ones they thought would help advance their
political beliefs. Motor Voter, for example, had a federal mandate that states
clean voter rolls. Guess what happened after that rule passed in 1993? No
private enforcement actions were brought for two decades until I brought one
against Indiana.
There is a federal mandate, passed in the 19th Century, to have one single
election day. The bureaucrats in Washington in charge of enforcing that law
ignore that law. Federal mandates are a one-way political ratchet. They always
and only help one political party.
The nation has seen this line of thinking before. Like Obamacare earlier, H.R.1
transitions our federalist Republic to some other brave new system that purports
to right generations of structural wrongs, while at the same time entrenching
other wrongs. Unifying American experiences such as coming together to vote on
one single Election Day, governed by rules passed by state legislators, well, to
the authors of H.R.1, that is just old fashioned.
*J. Christian Adams is the President and General Counsel for the Public Interest
Legal Foundation and a former Justice Department lawyer. He also served on the
Presidential Advisory Commission for Election Integrity and currently is a
Presidentially appointed Commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil
Rights.
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Why it's not so quiet on Israel's northern front
Jonathan Spyer/The JC/February 8, 2021
Key operations are part of the regional strategic contest underway between
Israel and its allies and Iran
Last month, Israel carried out a series of major airstrikes against Iranian
targets in the deserts of south east Syria. The peak of intensity was reached on
the night of January 12, when 57 people were killed according to the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which monitors developments on the ground
in Syria.
This was the third strike to take place since the beginning of 2021. The dead
were members of the coalition of forces aligned with Teheran in the country:
Syrian regime soldiers, Iraqi Shia militiamen and members of the Fatemiyoun, the
Afghan Shia militia deployed by Iran in Syria. The targets were drawn from the
extensive infrastructure of warehouses, arms depots and military facilities
maintained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in this remote,
inhospitable landscape which traverses the nominal border between Syria and
Iraq.
The raids resulted in the largest death toll in a single day for the Iranians at
the hands of Israel since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, according to
SOHR.
That was not the last engagement to date. Syrian sources reported a fourth
airstrike on January 31, targeting pro-Iranian militias near the Abu Kamal
border crossing between eastern Syria and Iraq.
Last month’s events form the latest chapter in an ongoing, undeclared war
between Israel and Iran conducted on Syrian soil. This is a very 21st century
conflict. It takes place mainly far from the headlines. And it involves only
very small numbers of the citizens and capabilities of the two states which are
engaged in it. On the Israeli side, parts of the air force, the intelligence
services and members of certain special forces units are engaged. On the Iranian
side, the Qods Force of the IRGC and their loyal lieutenants in Lebanese
Hezbollah are marshalling an array of mainly (but not entirely) Shia volunteer
fighters hailing from a variety of locations, including Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan
and even Pakistan.
The stakes are very high. The Iranians are seeking to construct an area of
contiguous control stretching from Iran itself across Iraq, through Syria and
reaching Lebanon and the Mediterranean; from there to the Israeli controlled
Golan Heights. Achieving this would confer manifold strategic benefits on the
Iranian regime. It would at the most basic level bring direct access to the
Mediterranean, a goal of Persian empires since antiquity.
Of more urgency to Israel, the intention of the Iranians is to use this corridor
for the transport of weapons to Lebanese Hezbollah, for stationing and
transporting fighters and for deploying and eventually activating missile
systems against Israel.
Teheran also intends to create a second front for paramilitary activity against
the Jewish state in Syria’s Quneitra Province, which faces the Golan Heights.
This front would be intended to resemble and to assist the current confrontation
line along the border of Israel and Lebanon.
As of now, Iran has secured its control of and freedom of action in Lebanon in
its entirety. In Iraq, it does not exercise a similar level of full spectrum
dominance but its militia clients have freedom of movement across the territory.
In Syria, the Iranians played a key role in the preservation of the Ba’ath
regime. They control a contiguous line across the country. But they have yet to
consolidate and entrench their presence along this line.
The unique geopolitical situation of Syria at the present time, divided into
areas under different authorities and without an internationally legitimate
government, has created a situation in which the putative Iranian project is
vulnerable to Israeli efforts to degrade and disrupt it.
The significance of the Israeli effort goes beyond Syria. By hitting the Iranian
project at its weakest point, Jerusalem intends to disrupt it in its entirety. A
bridge with a gap in its middle, after all, is of limited use. This is the
meaning of the current battle of wills between Jerusalem and Tehran in the ruins
of Syria.
So what is the current balance of advantage? Israeli security officials are
optimistic regarding the success of the air campaign in disrupting Iranian
attempts to seed a hard military infrastructure of missile emplacements, bases
and permanent emplacements in Syria. A former national security adviser, Yaacov
Amidror, told me that he estimated 80-85 per cent of this effort had been
destroyed. Indeed, the concentration of Iranian facilities close to the remote
border with Iraq (and on the other side of it) may well be a response to Israeli
successes at eliminating or rendering unusable infrastructure further west, at
the Damascus airport and at al-Kiswah south of the Syrian capital, in the course
of the last year.
When it comes to the broader Iranian project of recruiting local militias and
deploying them along the area of control, Israeli success has been more modest.
The latest evidence suggests that the Iranians and Lebanese Hezbollah are
currently located near the Quneitra Crossing and the Golan, woven into the
fabric of Brigade 90 of the Syrian government army. This aspect of the project
is rather harder to destroy from the air.
Some analysts have suggested that the flurry of Israeli activity in January on
this front was connected to the change of power in Washington DC.
By this reading, Israel was seeking to use up the remaining minutes on the clock
available to it before a new President probably less willing to permit the
Israeli campaign to continue took office.
This explanation is unconvincing. Regardless of President Biden’s stance
regarding the Iranian nuclear deal, there are no indications that he is opposed
to the ongoing Israeli effort against Iran in Syria. The Israeli campaign of
disruption looks set to continue. As does the opposing Iranian effort to
entrench and consolidate. It is part of the larger regional strategic contest
underway between Israel and its allies and Iran. All is not quiet on the
northern front.
The Malley Test: What does progressive foreign policy actually accomplish on the
ground?
Martin Peretz/The Tablet/February 08/2021
مارتن بيرتس/ موقع التابليت: أختبار روبرت مالي ...ما الذي تقدمه السياسة الخارجية الأميركية فعلاً على الأرض
In the rhetoric of restoration-era Washington, D.C.,
reality is reclaiming a place. The post-insurrection hoopla was always going to
deflate into the realpolitik of competing ideologies—and, in foreign policy, it
already has. Robert Malley’s appointment as special envoy to Iran points to a
deepening fissure within the Democratic Party: It is being hailed as a victory
for those who reject the postwar liberal promotion of American capitalism and
democracy and instead identify with the credo of institutional progressivism.
This is an ideology increasingly endorsed by powerful American structures, in
which correcting the West’s historical marginalization of people of color,
people with different sexual identities, women, people from developing nations,
and others is understood to be the determining goal of politics.
Malley is a policy expert and operative—he is a doer, not an active ideologue.
But the policies he has promoted and facilitated over 20 years are consistently
in the service of rapprochement with the Palestine Liberation Organization,
Hamas, and Iran, which are held up by institutional progressives as the marquee
victims of Western interventionism in the Middle East. To be fair, Biden’s
entire foreign policy team, starting with Biden himself, supported and
implemented the Iran deal, which was the cornerstone of Barack Obama’s
second-term foreign policy and would now appear to be heading into its third
term—with Malley, Jake Sullivan, Antony Blinken, Wendy Sherman, and Samantha
Power all serving in nearly the same roles they occupied while ensuring the Iran
deal’s implementation and passage. What’s new is the liberal Democratic
establishment’s use of the new, harder progressive logic, which holds that any
opposition to its policies is psychologically rooted in inherited racism,
sexism, or trauma.
Bernie Sanders backs Malley: Sanders does not speak the language of identity or
the establishment, but his unqualified brand of democratic socialism mandates
support for any group that American imperialism has plausibly impacted. And so,
most fervently of all, does Peter Beinart, newly contributing editor to The New
York Times, who in 14 years has successfully completed a 180-degree turn from
writing “The Good Fight: Why Liberals—and only Liberals—Can Win the War on
Terror” to writing “to honor [my] anti-imperial inheritance while participating
in the foreign policy debates of the world’s most powerful empire,” while
maintaining his positioning within the party’s dominant ideological framework.
Beinart writes on his Substack that “Rob Malley has shown the capacity to do
something Beltway militarists find deeply threatening: See beyond America’s
self-congratulatory self-conception and grasp how the US and its allies look to
their victims.”
Beinart, like many observers of Malley, ascribes the diplomat’s perspective to
Malley’s Egyptian Syrian Jewish father’s experiences supporting the Algerian
anti-colonial uprisings against France. Like many Democrats, he equates this
perspective to the Democrats’ presidential icon: “Like Obama,” he concludes,
“Malley’s background enables him to see America—and the West more generally—from
the outside in and the bottom up.”
Empathy might or might not be a helpful capacity, but it is not a measurable
one. Policy is—because policy can be held up to the criteria of its impact on
the ground: Who benefits, who is harmed, what stays the same. The case of Rob
Malley, with his extensive record setting the terms for policies that affect
people in the Middle East, therefore offers a good test for the impact of
policies that institutionalist progressives support, measured on their own
terms, which they describe as democratic, organic, anti-systemic: addressing the
reality of regular people left behind by the structures of power, as Beinart
puts it, “from the outside in and the bottom up.”
Malley is known for three major diplomatic initiatives: with the Palestinians,
the Iranians, and against the Islamic State group (previously known as ISIS or
ISIL). His first recognition came with his participation in the Camp David
Summit of 2000 as an adviser to Bill Clinton, and his subsequent recounting of
the negotiations in a piece co-written with a Palestinian negotiator, Hussein
Agha, in The New York Review of Books. This recounting didn’t absolve the
Palestinians of responsibility for the negotiating breakdowns but made the case
that Israel and the United States hadn’t laid the groundwork sufficiently to
engage the (in this reading) justifiably paranoid Yasser Arafat. After this
analytical foray, “engagement” became Malley’s theme—he was booted from his
advisory role on the Obama campaign in 2008 when it was “discovered” that he had
been meeting with representatives of Hamas. (But not to worry: When out of a job
he could always count on George Soros to cover his expenses.)
Six years later, after serving in various unofficial diplomatic roles, Malley
was formally appointed to the National Security Council; the next year he became
White House coordinator for the Middle East, Africa and the Gulf region; that
same year he was the lead U.S. negotiator on the Iran deal. It was in this
period, from 2014 to 2017, that he worked with Brett McGurk, deputy assistant
secretary of state for Iraq and Iran and special presidential envoy to counter
ISIL—now President Biden’s National Security Council coordinator for the Middle
East and North Africa.
The policies Malley and McGurk developed were continued, after Obama left the
White House, by McGurk, who stayed on, and then by Donald Trump’s first
Secretary of State James Mattis. This meant that the policies had time to
produce concrete results—helping to create a new reality on the ground. It’s
against these results that Malley’s policies can productively be judged.
Almost the only beneficiary of the Malley-McGurk-Obama plan turned out to be
Israel: The Gulf states have rushed to ally with the Jewish state to stave off
the challenge of Iran.
The map of the Middle East in 2014 presented a dense but clearly delineated
canvas for anyone who wanted to structurally, carefully realign the region in
favor of its people. Iran had jumped on the U.S.-created muddle in Iraq
beginning in the mid-aughts, sponsoring many of the militias that had created
chaos in Iraq and killed hundreds of American soldiers. Meanwhile, Iran was
contracting with Russia for missiles and arms, while sponsoring Hamas in the
Gaza Strip and exercising de facto control in Lebanon through the corrupt,
Iranian-backed Lebanese Armed Forces, which allowed the Iran-sponsored terrorist
group Hezbollah to operate with impunity there. Iran was also sending operatives
as far as Venezuela for rapprochements with Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, and
it was suppressing protests at home with unapologetic, public brutality. And by
2013, through its backing of Bashar Assad, along with Russian assistance, it was
functionally sponsoring the Syrian genocide.
These moves weren’t quiet, and they didn’t require an inductive leap of logic to
understand. Whatever one thought about how best to respond to its aggression,
Iran’s culpability in the Middle East’s problems was obvious: It was clearly the
sponsor of regimes and actors that created chaos and repression on the ground.
Compared to the aggressive gambles of Iran, Saudi Arabia—which led the other
Middle Eastern bloc and was engaged in a canny balancing of its own radicals
while assisting the United States’ war on terror— was a small-stakes player.
What was Malley’s response to this reality? He did not look at Iran, the
underlying disruptive state actor, taking a root-and-branch approach to
deconstruct some of what the Iranians had managed to build for themselves.
Instead, he addressed the most immediate and most reported on problem in the
region, the Islamic State group. IS had made its bones off the Syrian civil war:
With Assad’s state on the defensive, a branch of the rebels took the opportunity
to become street thugs of messianism. Yet Malley and McGurk ignored the causal
reasons for IS, and instead swept the surfaces, treating it as the problem that
had to be solved. This meant that Iran, which was supporting the state that had
caused IS to exist, was now our partner in combating it in Iraq and Syria.
Interestingly, some of the biggest enablers of these policies were institutional
conservatives—people like Mattis, concerned above all with stability, making
functional common cause with policies that originated in an institutional
progressive agenda, the result of which was to bring the United States into
alignment with Iran and Assad.
The real ground-setter for these moves was not Malley, of course, nor Mattis,
nor McGurk. It was President Obama, who since the Iranian protests of 2009 had
set an agenda directed toward rapprochement with Iran. The concrete results of
Obama’s approach were institutional deals aimed at correcting what he saw as
historical misunderstandings and promoting equity with enemies. In this case,
that meant subordinating other concerns—human rights in Iran, the Syrian
genocide—in favor of treating with America’s major regional enemy, thereby
meliorating the faults of American policy, the list of which was familiar to any
foreign policy progressive: The United States had (ostensibly) deposed Mohammad
Mossadegh (per Kermit Roosevelt), and unquestionably supported the shah, thereby
creating the conditions for Ruhollah Khomeini’s seizure of power.
BYTONY BADRAN
The human detritus of Malley’s subordinations piled up quickly.
Four-hundred-thousand people died in Syria; 4 or 5 million more were refugeed.
Iranian protesters were jailed; its women stoned; relatives of dissidents
coerced into denouncing them on camera. Hamas and Hezbollah continued to receive
funding from Iran as they inflicted terror on Israel and disorder on Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia responded to Iran’s expansion of influence with pivots of its own.
Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince, has now been raised to de facto kingship,
and this crown prince, at 35, plays an aggressive game with ambiguous outcomes:
domestic liberalization, a war in Yemen that has cost 100,000 lives and
counting, the sharp curtailing of the kingdom’s old intrafamily governing
approach in favor of something more centralized, and the ostentatious execution
of the former Saudi intelligence officer Jamal Khashoggi. Almost the only
beneficiary of the Malley-McGurk-Obama plan in this region, ironically enough,
turned out to be Israel: The Gulf states and the conservative monarchies have
rushed to ally with the Jewish state to stave off the challenge of Iran.
The agenda husbanded by Obama and implemented by McGurk and Malley, judged on
its own terms, has created a Middle Eastern reality very different than the
reality it publicly claims to want. Ordinary people, people who have indeed
lived with imperialism and domestic repression for a century or more and have
demonstrated their willingness to take a stand against them, have been actively
silenced by these policies. The institutionalist progressive use of
international agreements to right historical wrongs has given power to states
whose leaders claim to speak in the people’s name even as they cut off their
voices, and murder their citizens on an industrial scale. No one could
empirically argue that the people of the Middle East are better off materially
or representationally because of the policies Malley promoted. And no one could
empirically argue that the policies Malley promoted were root-and-branch, close
to the ground, concerned with the realities of the region’s people or their
actual spokespeople and leaders.
In fact—and this has become the pattern—institutionalist progressivism’s biggest
allies are the people, like James Mattis during his time in the Pentagon, who
want to protect some version of the status quo. Indeed, institutional
progressivism seems not to be a solution to problems of the ground. Instead it
seems to be an elite reaction to, actually an inversion of, the petering out of
the midcentury liberal internationalist view: America not as liberator but as
oppressor; the government and market not working to lift all boats (with all of
the limits midcentury society imposed) but categorizing, through ideology, which
boats are worthy of being lifted.
And it’s true: The old liberal ethos is threadbare—it increasingly doesn’t match
the present as many people experience it. For most people, World War II and the
creation of the postwar order—the one that saw expanding liberal democracy as a
viable agenda—is a distant memory. The country is defined not by Western
European culture but by the cultures of immigrants from all over the world, some
of whom come from places exploited by the West. Capitalism and institutionalized
democracy, which earlier generations saw as empowering, seem unresponsive and
repressive. Unimpeded by any coherent set of American aims and values, both
ordinary people and experts who come from elsewhere to reside in Washington
naturally interpret both American domestic realities and American foreign policy
through the lenses and values of the sectarian societies in which they were
raised, and for which they offer themselves as interpreters and spokespeople.
Meanwhile, for many Middle Easterners, Western-backed modernization has come at
too high a price. But both ordinary Americans, who are increasingly discouraged
about the future, and ordinary Middle Easterners, who are enduring literal
oppression, seem less attuned to the progressive reaction to liberalism’s
petering out, to this narrow ideological answer to the receding of a worldview,
than the people who promote it may want to believe. The view from above looks
different from the view from below, even when the former is called progressive.
*Martin Peretz was Editor-in-Chief of The New Republic for 36 years and taught
social theory at Harvard University for nearly half a century.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-malley-test
How Biden might attempt to resolve the Syrian crisis
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/February 08/2021
Ever since US President Joe Biden was inaugurated last month, politicians and
analysts focusing on Middle Eastern affairs have been assessing his policies and
evaluating their possible direction in relation to the outstanding issues in the
region. Considering the US’ standing as the leader of the free world and
influencer of global politics, Biden’s Middle East policies will be decisive in
influencing the direction taken by other nations and shaping the course of
regional and global affairs.
The Syrian question, which has remained unresolved for a decade, is one of the
main issues preoccupying politicians and analysts. Biden’s position on this
issue will help guide future policies and trajectories in relation to Syria and
the region as well. This is due to the massive and far-reaching impact of the
Syrian crisis on the other issues with which it is intertwined, further
complicating the overall situation in the Middle East and escalating disputes,
hence impacting regional and global peace and security.
Among think tanks and analysts, as well as within the corridors of power, the
debate is growing over which strategic direction the Biden administration will
take in relation to Syria, with his policy on the crisis currently lacking
transparency and coherency. This is because Biden has not yet presented a clear
policy statement or outlined his approach to the crisis. This is not limited to
Syria, with the administration currently broadly prioritizing domestic issues,
such as combating the coronavirus crisis, while simultaneously strengthening
international alliances, expressing misgivings about the Iranian nuclear
program, and showing determination to counter Russia’s growing global influence.
There are two possible approaches Biden could take on Syria. The first would
replicate Barack Obama’s policy — this is based on Biden appointing several
officials who previously served under Obama. Moreover, Biden himself served as
vice president to Obama throughout his two terms. These officials want the US to
withdraw from the Middle East generally and from Syria in particular, viewing
the region as crisis-ridden due to sectarian disputes. These officials had no
problem in the US carrying out combat missions against terrorists using drones,
according to Obama’s autobiography.
The second possible approach on Syria would be different from Obama’s policy,
and this is a strong possibility as Biden has reiterated on multiple occasions
that his rule will not be an extension of Obama’s. Also, experts believe that
Biden is unlikely to repeat Obama’s mistakes in Syria, which resulted from his
eagerness to conclude the Iranian nuclear agreement without paying heed to the
Tehran regime’s regional behavior. The nuclear deal turned Iran into a country
with extensive and destabilizing influence in the Middle East, making it
extremely costly for regional and international actors, including the US, to
confront it.
For these reasons, the Biden administration’s policy approach toward Syria is
expected to be shaped by political reformist voices within the Democratic Party.
In addition, the president’s wider regional policy approach is likely to focus
on countering Russian influence, providing absolute and constant support for
Israel, combating terrorist organizations, and reaching understandings on
Washington’s potential return to the nuclear deal.
In line with the second approach, remarks made by one of Biden’s close advisers
to the Syrian community in the US, speaking before Biden assumed his duties as
president, shed some light on Biden’s expected Syrian policy. The adviser
reiterated the incoming president’s intention of explaining to Russia that,
following consultations and coordination on the Syrian question between
Washington and the European capitals, they would refuse to participate in
Syria’s reconstruction without real progress toward comprehensive political
reform, including the release of prisoners. Hence, the US sanctions imposed on
the Assad regime and the entities cooperating with him will remain in place,
including those imposed on Russia under the Caesar Act, which entered into force
last June.
This strategy aims to push Syrian President Bashar Assad toward a political
settlement, in tandem with US diplomatic efforts to counter the Russian
propaganda that aims to polish Assad’s image and convince global powers to
participate in Syria’s reconstruction.
In addition, the Biden administration is likely to underline its support for
de-escalation moves and outline plans to keep US forces in northern Syria to
stop the Assad regime’s airstrikes targeting Kurdish areas. The Biden
administration is also likely to coordinate with Turkey to settle the Idlib
issue.
It seems that keeping US forces in the north of the country and the sanctions on
the regime will be the two main pillars of Biden’s Syria policy. In addition,
the US is likely to limit Russian and Iranian influence. However, the Russians
are unlikely to withdraw from their areas of influence, which contain strategic
resources. And the Iranian regime won’t end its sponsorship of armed militias.
On the other hand, the Syrian regime will ultimately comply with the Caesar
Act’s conditions in order to get the sanctions lifted. This will include
releasing prisoners, carrying out political reforms, facilitating the return of
refugees, and bringing war criminals, including senior figures in the Assad
regime, to justice.
The Biden administration’s policy approach toward Syria is expected to be shaped
by political reformist voices within the Democratic Party.
The Biden administration is also aware of the growing dangers of new Daesh cells
in some Syrian and Iraqi provinces, which will make it imperative for it to keep
some military forces in Syria to counter the terrorist group.
In addition, the Biden administration’s commitment to providing absolute and
constant support for Israel will prompt it to ensure a robust military presence
in Syria. This will allow Washington to fully support Israeli airstrikes
targeting Iranian militias in Syria to push them to comply with Israel’s red
lines.
This means that the US pulling out from Syria is fraught with difficulties,
unless a new consensus is reached, under which the US has a satisfactory share.
In addition, the US pulling out will complicate Washington’s support for the
Syrian Kurds, who are its allies within the Syrian equation. However, ongoing US
support for the Syrian Kurds could escalate tensions with Ankara, a foe of the
Kurds.
I foresee, according to the prevailing calculations, that the Biden
administration will pursue a much more resilient regional policy than that of
the former US administration, particularly when dealing with Iran and its
behavior in Syria and elsewhere.
*Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is President of the International Institute for Iranian
Studies (Rasanah). Twitter: @mohalsulami