English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese,
Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For February 16/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews21/english.february16.21.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 06/16-21: "‘Whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on February 15- 16/2021
Elias Bejjani/Visit My LCCC Web site/All That you need to
know on Lebanese unfolding news and events in Arabic and English/http://eliasbejjaninews.com/
What Are The Religious Concepts Of The Ash Monday/Elias Bejjani/February 15/2021
MoPH: 1735 new coronavirus cases, 44 deaths
Abou Sharaf: No Side Effects among First Batch Given Covid Vaccine
Editors’ Syndicate: Vaccination of journalists, media professionals begins next
week
Wazni receives letter from Central Bank Governor on collaboration with Alvarez &
Marsal
Amal Says Berri's Initiative Still Represents an Exit to Break Impasse
Report: Ain el-Tineh Says Lebanese Indifferent about Political Disputes
Mustaqbal Reacts after Jreissati Slams Hariri over 'Counting' Remarks
Sawwan Summons Fenianos, Hazimeh for Questioning over Port Blast
As Lebanon’s banks struggle to raise capital by 20 percent, a deadline looms
Lebanon's Hariri sees no way out of crisis without Arab support
Hariri on Lebanon Govt Crisis: No One Will Be Granted Blocking Power
Jumblatt Says Aoun is Irrational Ruler Who Wants to Commit Suicide
Jumblat Invited to Moscow, Discusses Govt with Bogdanov
President Aoun, it is time to step down/Mouafac Harb/The Daily Star/February
15/2021
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February 15- 16/2021
WHO OKs AstraZeneca Jabs, Allowing Supply to Poor Nations
Attack on Arbil Airbase Kills Foreign Contractor, Wounds U.S. Soldier
Iran accused of plot to attack UAE embassy in Ethiopia
Iran Wants 'Urgent Steps' Before Withdrawing from Additional Protocol to NPT
Iran deems US move to seize oil shipment an ‘act of piracy’
Iranian arrested in Turkey not consulate employee, says Tehran
US-led Int’l Coalition to Establish New Military Base at Iraq-Syria-Turkey
Triangle
Russian President Vladimir Putin with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Turkey summons US ambassador over statement on Iraq killings: Ministry
Turkey Accuses US of Backing PKK after Turks Killed in Iraq
Turkish operation to rescue intelligence operatives in Iraq ends in catastrophic
failure
Qatari FM in Iran as Doha Seeks Mediation on Nuclear Issue
Bogdanov Stresses Need for 'Mission-Driven Govt.' in Talks with Hariri
Canada launches bid to stop arbitrary detentions of foreign citizens by China
Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on February 15- 16/2021
Iran on its way to ‘solving nuclear missile puzzle’/Thomas
Harding/The National/February 15, 2021
Israel and Biden–Trouble on the Horizon/Yochanan Visser/Isreal Today/February
15/2021
Human Rights Back on US Agenda under President Biden/Seth J. Frantzman/The
Jerusalem Post/February 15/2021
The Person or the Constitution? Falsely Charging McConnell with
Inconsistency/Alan M. Dershowitz/Gatestone Institute/February 15/ 2021
Yes… We’re Grudging and Imagining/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/ February
15/2021
Yemen, the Decision-Maker and the Proxy/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat/
February 15/2021
Hostility to the Trump administration is not policy/Khairallah Khairallah/The
Arab Weekly/February 15/2021
Russia refuses to play Iran’s political games/Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab
News/February 15/2021
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 15- 16/2021
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What Are The Religious Concepts Of The Ash Monday
Elias Bejjani/February 15/2021
مفاهيم اثنين الرماد الإيمانية
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/72716/elias-bejjani-what-is-the-ash-monday/
Ash Monday is the first day of Lent and It is a moveable feast,
falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of
Easter. It derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads
of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God.
On The Ash Monday the priest ceremonially marks with wet ashes on the
worshippers’ foreheads a visible cross while saying “Remember that you are dust,
and to dust you shall return (genesis03/19)”.
Worshippers are reminded of their sinfulness and mortality and thus, implicitly,
of their need to repent in time.
Ash Monday (Greek: Καθαρά Δευτέρα), is also known as Clean and Pure Monday.
The common term for this day, refers to the leaving behind of sinful attitudes
and non-fasting foods.
Our Maronite Catholic Church is notable amongst the Eastern rites employing the
use of ashes on this day.
(In the Western Catholic Churches this day falls on Wednesday and accordingly it
is called the “Ash Wednesday”)
Ash Monday is a Christian holy day of prayer, fasting, contemplating of
transgressions and repentance.
Ash Monday is a reminder that we should begin Lent with good intentions and a
desire to clean our spiritual house. It is a day of strict fasting including
abstinence not only from meat but from eggs and dairy products as well.
Liturgically, Ash Monday—and thus Lent itself—begins on the preceding (Sunday)
night, at a special service called Forgiveness Vespers, which culminates with
the Ceremony of Mutual Forgiveness, at which all present will bow down before
one another and ask forgiveness. In this way, the faithful begin Lent with a
clean conscience, with forgiveness, and with renewed Christian love.
The entire first week of Great Lent is often referred to as “Clean Week”, and it
is customary to go to Confession during this week, and to clean the house
thoroughly.
The Holy Bible stresses the conduct of humility and not bragging for not only
during the fasting period, but every day and around the clock.
It is worth mentioning that Ashes were used in ancient times to express grief.
When Tamar was raped by her half-brother, “she sprinkled ashes on her head, tore
her robe, and with her face buried in her hands went away crying” (2 Samuel
13:19).
Examples of the Ash practices among Jews are found in several other books of the
Bible, including Numbers 19:9, 19:17, Jonah 3:6, Book of Esther 4:1, and Hebrews
9:13.
Jesus is quoted as speaking of the Ash practice in Matthew 11:21 and Luke 10:13:
“If the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”
MoPH: 1735 new coronavirus cases, 44 deaths
NNA/15 February 2021
1735 new coronavirus cases and 44 deaths have been recorded during the last 24 hours in Lebanon, as reported Monday by the Ministry of Public Health.
Abou Sharaf: No Side Effects among First Batch Given Covid Vaccine
Agence France Presse/15 February 2021
Head of Beirut's Order of Physicians Sharaf Abou Sharaf assured on Monday that
no side effects were experienced by individuals who got the Covid-19 vaccine on
the launch of Lebanon’s vaccination program on Sunday. Abou Sharaf said no
complications or side effects experienced from the vaccine were recorded,
stressing that the risk of infection is greater than the vaccine which has shown
effectiveness in alleviating severe injuries and deaths. He urged the Lebanese
to register their names at the platform set by the Health Ministry to get the
vaccine, stressing the need for commitment to preventive measures against the
virus. Lebanon launched its Covid-19 vaccination drive Sunday with jabs for
healthcare workers and the elderly, in a bid to rein in the pandemic amid a
deepening economic crisis. The country has been under lockdown since
mid-January, after an unprecedented spike in cases blamed on holiday gatherings
forced overwhelmed hospitals to turn away patients. Medical workers and those
aged over 75 were the first to receive Pfizer/BioNTech shots at three major
Beirut hospitals, a day after a shipment of 28,500 doses arrived at the
capital's airport.
Editors’ Syndicate: Vaccination of journalists, media professionals begins next
week
NNA/15 February 202
The Lebanese Press Editors’ Syndicate on Monday issued a statement saying that
in light of the continuous follow-up by Editors' Syndicate Head, Joseph Al-Qasifi,
and members of the Syndicate Council, the Editors’ Syndicate has been informed
by the Ministry of Public Health that journalists and media professionals, who
have registered their names through the MOPHCOVAX online platform will start
getting vaccinated against Covid-19 as of next week. Registered
journalists and media professionals will be receiving text messages specifying
the appointment date and vaccination center as per the mechanism being
officially used in the vaccination process against the Coronavirus.
Wazni receives letter from Central Bank Governor on
collaboration with Alvarez & Marsal
NNA/15 February 2021
Caretaker Finance Minister, Ghazi Wazni, received today a letter sent by
Governor of the Central Bank, Riyad Salame, hereby confirming his abiding by the
full provisions of law no. 200 dated 29/12/2020, as well as his positive
collaboration with Alvarez & Marsal, as announced by Wazni's press office on
Monday.
Amal Says Berri's Initiative Still Represents an
Exit to Break Impasse
Naharnet/15 February 202
The Amal Movement on Monday said that Speaker Nabih Berri’s initiative for
resolving the governmental crisis remains on the table. “The political bureau of
Amal Movement reiterates that Speaker Nabih Berri’s initiative still represents
the exit for everyone in order to pull the cabinet formation process from the
obstacles it has reached,” it said in a statement issued after an electronic
meeting. It added that the Speaker’s initiative would allow “benefiting from the
initiatives of friendly countries.”“The course of the cabinet formation process
over the past days exposed the futility of the debate that puts private and
partisan interests ahead of the higher national interest, at a time the people
are living the worst stage socially and economically,” the politburo said. “Some
are still seeking to boost their shares and capability to be in charge of
decisions,” it lamented. Berri had in early February called for the formation of
a government in which no camp would have the one-third-plus-one veto power and
whose ministers are “specialists who do not belong to parties, movements or
political figures.” The parties should name consensual figures who are “neither
with them nor against them,” Berri suggested.
Report: Ain el-Tineh Says Lebanese Indifferent about
Political Disputes
Naharnet/15 February 202
Political circles in Ain el-Tineh said the Lebanese are least concerned with the
disputes between political leaders who failed so far in forming a much-needed
reform government capable of steering the country out of its multiple crises,
al-Joumhouria daily reported Monday..“People are no longer interested in
political debates, they only want one thing and that is the formation of a
government” circles in Ain el-Tineh stated. Their remarks came after a speech
made by PM-designate Saad Hariri on Sunday accusing President Michel Aoun of
blocking the cabinet formation. It drew a prompt reply from the Presidency
Information Office, accusing Hariri of making “false and incorrect statements,”
and of “trying, through the formation of the government, to impose new norms
that are outside the principles, the constitution and the charter,” the
statement underlined.
Mustaqbal Reacts after Jreissati Slams Hariri over
'Counting' Remarks
Naharnet/15 February 202
A war of words erupted Monday between President Michel Aoun’s aide Salim
Jreissati and PM-designate Saad Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal Movement. In a statement,
Jreissati described Hariri’s remarks about “stopping the counting” of Christians
and Muslims in the country as “very dangerous.” Hariri had on Sunday reminded of
remarks voiced in the past by his slain father ex-PM Rafik Hariri. “We have
stopped counting and Christians are half of the state, regardless of the
numbers,” Hariri quoted his father as saying. “And until today, we have been
repeating: we have stopped the counting. The accusation of infringing on the
rights of Christians cannot be thrown at Saad Rafik Hariri,” the PM-designate
added. Jreissati snapped back on Monday, telling Hariri: “To the PM-designate I
say no and one thousand no’s. Neither you nor anyone else are the ones who
stopped or are stopping the counting, seeing as such a guarantee comes from the
National Pact and the constitution.”“This formula found its roots in 1920 when
the State of Greater Lebanon was established and was later enshrined in the 1926
constitution, after independence in 1943 and in the Taef Accord, which
stipulated equal power-sharing,” the ex-minister added. “No one has the right to
claim to Christians that he is their guarantee and the guarantee of their
presence and role in Lebanon,” Jreissati went on to say.
He added that “the real guarantee for our coexistence lies in Article 95 of the
Constitution, which is the abolition of sectarianism and not only political
sectarianism,” in an apparent reference to civil marriage and other
controversial issues related to personal status laws. “This pushes me to raise
the obvious question: are you ready for it and capable of doing it?” Jreissati
asked Hariri, suggesting that moving towards the secularization of personal
status laws will draw a backlash from Muslim religious and political leaders and
segments of the population.
Mustaqbal Web, the news portal of Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal Movement, later hit back
at Jreissati, calling him “the constitutional mufti of General Michel Aoun’s
tenure and the political provocateur since the days of Syrian tutelage.”
“He was annoyed because PM-designate Hariri emphasized the principle of equal
power-sharing between Muslims and Christians and reiterated the slogan launched
by his father,” the news portal said. “Jreissati’s dismay stands for President
Michel Aoun’s dismay, Aoun’s dismay stands for Jebran Bassil’s dismay, and
Bassil’s dismay stems from Hariri’s success in impeding his scheme to move the
clash over the government from the political square to the arena of sectarian
incitement,” Mustaqbal Web added. Jreissati later responded, accusing Mustaqbal
of naturalizing scores of people for sectarian reasons and blocking a volitional
civil marriage draft law approved by Cabinet.
Sawwan Summons Fenianos, Hazimeh for Questioning
over Port Blast
Naharnet/15 February 202
The lead investigator into the Beirut port explosion Judge Fadi Sawwan summoned
former minister of public works Youssef Fenianos for questioning on Thursday,
the National News Agency reported on Monday. Fenianos will appear before Sawwan
as a defendant in the August 4 blast, said the Agency. Sawwan has also summoned
former customs chief at Beirut port, Moussa Hazmieh, for questioning, added NNA.
Lebanon's former army chief Jean Qahwaji, who was army chief until 2017,
testified before Sawwan last week. He said that he had recommended, years before
the explosion, that tons of seized ammonium nitrate stored there be sold
privately or sent back to importers. In December, Sawwan filed charges against
caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers, accusing them
of negligence leading to the deaths of hundreds of people. The charges sparked a
backlash and the former ministers challenged the judge's authority in court,
bringing the probe to a halt. But the country's highest court asked Sawwan to
resume his work. The questioning of Kahwaji signaled the resumption of the
probe, and is likely to ease public concerns that the investigation was
derailed, given Lebanon’s decades-long culture of impunity and political
interference in judicial matters. Nearly 30 people, most of them port and
customs officials, have been arrested since the blast.
As Lebanon’s banks struggle to raise capital by 20 percent, a deadline looms
Reuters/15 February 2021
Paralyzed by financial crisis and riven with political risk, a number of
Lebanon’s banks are struggling to meet a central bank target to raise their
capital defenses by 20 percent by the end of this month.
Less than half of the country’s dozen or so large banks are expected to meet the
requirement, which the central bank set in August to reinforce the sector,
according to four banking sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Those
that are on track to meet central bank targets have largely tapped existing
shareholders or depositors, converting local dollar deposits into equity
instruments or sold overseas businesses.
The situation underscores the scale of the problem facing Lebanon’s banks,
heavily exposed to one of the world’s most indebted states and starved of
funding. Their customers have largely been frozen out of their dollar deposits
and blocked from transferring cash abroad since late 2019. Given the wall of
losses facing the sector, some investors and economists say it’s too little too
late anyway. The 20 percent target laid down by Riad Salameh, Lebanon’s veteran
central bank governor, is equivalent to around $4 billion, he confirmed to
Reuters. That is far short of the $83 billion hole in banks’ balance sheets
estimated by the outgoing government last year as part of a financial rescue
plan it had drawn up. “They are all insolvent,” said Mike Azar, a debt finance
adviser and a former lecturer in international economics at John Hopkins School
of Advanced International Studies.
“There’s no prospect for recovery as things stand, until there is a sector-wide
bank resolution and restructuring and finally a fresh capital raise.”A central
bank order for banks to request their largest depositors to repatriate up to 30%
of their deposits also appears to have yielded little, the four banking sources
say.
Salim Sfeir, the head of Lebanon’s association of banks and the chief executive
of Bank of Beirut, said most banks would “abide by the central bank
guidelines.”“If we believe that there is no prospect for recovery we would be
out of business by now. The challenges are difficult but we have a history of
resilience and creativity and we will adapt to the new situation,” Sfeir said in
an statement to Reuters.
The central bank said it was premature to assess banks’ response to the capital
hike target and to a separate request from it that they boost their liquidity by
3 percent with their corresponding banks. “Nevertheless, almost all banks have
applied for the increase in capital and serious work has been done for the
increase in liquidity,” Salameh said in an emailed response to questions.
He acknowledged the banks could require more capital. “The Central Bank will
work with the banks to tackle this issue individually,” Salameh said in emailed
comments. With the end of February deadline approaching, speculation has bubbled
on social media over which banks might be liquidated. The central bank issued a
statement last week saying such discussions were “devoid of any truth” The
governor has warned that those who cannot meet the target would have to exit the
market but some bankers told Reuters they expect it will be extended because
there is so little hope of attracting fresh investment.
The financial rescue plan devised by the outgoing government envisaged wiping
out bank shareholders but opposition from bankers and politicians torpedoed it,
contributing to the collapse of financing talks with the International Monetary
Fund. “A 20 percent increase in their capital is useful but insufficient,” said
Khaled Abdel Majeed, MENA fund manager at London-based SAM Capital Partners, an
investment advisory firm. “I would not touch Lebanese bank stocks at any price.
Things will get much worse in Lebanon, before they get better.”Salameh, whose
use of what he has described as “financial engineering” to keep Lebanon’s public
finances afloat has attracted criticism, is also facing fresh scrutiny, raising
questions about his future, bankers say. Switzerland’s attorney general said
last month it was probing possible embezzlement tied to the Lebanese central
bank.
Salameh has denied any wrongdoing and did not respond to a request for comment
about how the inquiry might impact his position and the wider banking sector.
Bank Audi and Blom Bank, the country’s largest banks by assets, have sold
foreign businesses to help bolster their finances.
“The proceeds from the sale of the foreign operations would allow us to meet
said regulatory requirements while positioning Bank Audi amongst viable Lebanese
banks with adequate capital and liquidity levels,” Bank Audi management said in
a statement to Reuters.
Blom Bank did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on its
progress in raising its capital buffers and liquidity levels. It said last month
the sale of its Egypt unit would allow it to comply with the central bank
target.
No consensus
For years, Lebanon’s banks were among the world’s more profitable lenders,
funneling funds from a scattered diaspora to the government’s coffers in return
for high interest rates. But exposure to the state has ultimately been the
banks’ undoing since dollar remittances dried up and anticorruption protests
erupted, starving the financial system of funding. Commercial banks have lost
roughly 49 trillion Lebanese pounds in deposits in the past two years,
equivalent to around 22 percent of current total assets and large depositors are
likely to be in the firing line in any resolution of the banking crisis. The
government’s default on a $1.2 billion eurobond in March left banks, with
government paper accounting for most of their assets, as the biggest casualty.
Much of the remainder of banks’ assets are in real estate, where valuations have
slumped amid the economic downturn.
If those assets were to be marked to market, then combined with write-offs
linked to government exposure, losses would overwhelm the sector’s capital base,
said economist Nafez Zouk. The central bank told banks in August to provision
for a 1.89 percent loss on their hard currency deposits with the central bank
and a 45 percent loss on government Eurobond holdings, levels some economists
have said underestimate the scale of the problem. The Lebanese pound has fallen
80 percent since late 2019 and Moody’s rating agency has estimated that Eurobond
losses are greater than 65 percent.
Privately, many bankers in Lebanon agree that the current banking sector, with
at least 40 lenders and assets that swelled to as much as 167 percent of the
country’s economic output at their recent peak of 2015, needs to drastically
shrink. Some acknowledge that that will require shareholders, bondholders and
customers to swallow losses. But there is no consensus on how many banks will
need to be wound down and how big the losses should be. Without a new government
– the current cabinet serves in a caretaker role since resigning in August amid
public fury over a devastating port blast in Beirut – the bankers acknowledge a
resolution appears unlikely anytime soon.
Lebanon's Hariri sees no way out of crisis without Arab
support
Reuters|/Monday, 15 February, 2021
Premier says Lebanon cannot be staging point for Gulf attacks, blames President
Aoun for delays to government as country seeks rescue from financial meltdown
Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri on Sunday said that his country
could not be rescued from its current crisis without the support of Arab
countries and the international community.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter. Gulf states have long channeled funds
into Lebanon's fragile economy, but they are alarmed by the rising influence of
Hezbollah, a powerful group backed by their arch-rival, Iran, and so far appear
loath to ease Beirut's worst financial crisis in decades. "There is no way out
of the crisis ... without a deep reconciliation with our Arab brothers and an
end to using the country as a staging point for attacking Gulf countries and
threatening their interests," Hariri said in a televised speech marking 16 years
since the assassination of his father, ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri.
A UN-backed tribunal in December convicted a Hezbollah member of conspiring to
kill Rafik al-Hariri in a 2005 bombing. Hezbollah has denied any links to the
attack. Saad al-Hariri, a former prime minister himself, was given the task of
forming a government in October but is struggling so far to cobble together a
cabinet to share power with all Lebanese parties, including Hezbollah. After a
meeting with President Michel Aoun on Friday, Hariri said there had been no
progress on the formation of a government. Under a sectarian power-sharing
system, Lebanon's president must be a Maronite Christian and the prime minister
a Sunni Muslim. President Aoun is an ally of Hezbollah, listed as a terrorist
group by the United States. On Sunday Hariri blamed Aoun for impeding progress,
saying he had visited the president 16 times since his nomination as prime
minister and proposed names to no avail.
France has been spearheading efforts to rescue Lebanon from its worst crisis
since the 1975-1990 civil war. A new government is the first step on a French
roadmap that envisages a cabinet that would take steps to tackle endemic
corruption and implement reforms needed to trigger billions of dollars of
international aid to fix the economy, which has been crushed by a mountain of
debt.
Hariri on Lebanon Govt Crisis: No One Will Be Granted
Blocking Power
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 February, 2021
Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri revealed on Sunday the obstacles
that are hindering is efforts to form a new government since his appointment in
October. In a televised address marking the 16th anniversary of the
assassination of his father and former PM Rafik Hariri, he declared that he will
not grant any political bloc the power to block decisions in the new cabinet. He
added that he had presented to President Michel Aoun a lineup of 18 ministers,
which even included names suggested by the president, but he rejected them. He
said that he offered to change some candidates if Aoun wanted to and proposed
several candidates for the position of interior minister. Aoun’s answer was “not
encouraging” and he was insisting on the blocking power, revealed Hariri. He
remarked that 16 years since the assassination of his father, Lebanon has
reached economic collapse and the series of assassinations that has plagued the
country for decades has not stopped, with activist Lokman Slim the latest
victim. Moreover, he stressed that the Arab and international countries are
“ready and eager to help Lebanon end its collapse, but that hinges on the
formation of a non-partisan government of experts that can achieve desired
reforms.”The reforms, he added, have been outlined in the initiative proposed by
French President Emmanuel Marcon. “Face with any other option, no one will help
us and the collapse will continue until we reach a major implosion,” he warned.
Reform, he went on to say, starts with an independent judiciary, not political
pressure on judges to politicize cases. He also slammed the “lies, slander and
allegations” that have been thrown his way since his appointment. “The campaign
against me is unbearable and I have been patient long enough. I have given
chances and am still giving chances,” Hariri stated. He revealed that he has met
with Aoun 16 times since his appointment, saying that he insists on refusing to
grant a blocking power to any bloc. Such a power means that any decision that
government would seek to pass is in the hands of this one bloc, he warned. The
cabinet has many important decisions ahead of it and they should not be
controlled by this bloc. “What is the purpose of this bloc? What is he (Aoun)
afraid of?” asked Hariri. “No power will make me lose hope in my country and the
ability of its people to stop the collapse,” he declared. “As we await a
breakthrough, I am visiting Arab, regional and international countries to garner
support for Lebanon and mend ties, especially with Arabs,” he stressed. “There
can be no solution away from the Arabs and international community and without
deep reconciliation with Arab brothers,” he added, saying Lebanon should no
longer be used as a platform to attack Gulf states and threaten the interests of
Lebanese people.
Jumblatt Says Aoun is Irrational Ruler Who Wants to Commit
Suicide
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 February, 2021
Head of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt described Lebanese
President Michel Aoun as an "irrational ruler who wants to commit suicide.”"Let
him commit suicide alone, along with his dear son-in-law,” Jumblatt said in a TV
statement, in reference to former Minister and MP Gebran Bassil. His remarks
came on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the assassination of former
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. “Despite the severity of the circumstance, we must
derive strength from the occasion. We have continued to some extent, and others
must continue in the country of universities, diversity and civilized
coexistence,” he noted. Jumblatt further underlined the need for “a new
political formula, as we cannot continue with the old one.”“Today there is a
destructive ruler and an absurd rule.”Touching on the obstacles hindering the
formation of a new government, he told Future TV that Prime Minister-designate
Saad Hariri devised a formula that suits all components but rejected to grant
the “vetoing third” to the president. “Enough with this vetoing-third that
impeded the country for 15 years!” Jumblatt added. The PSP leader emphasized the
need for “a constitutional way to resolve the current impasse.”He reminded that
French President Emmanuel Macron stressed the need to implement reforms in
exchange for help from the international community. “We missed the opportunity,”
Jumblatt said.
Jumblat Invited to Moscow, Discusses Govt with Bogdanov
Naharnet/Monday, 15 February, 2021
Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat received an invitation to
visit Moscow from Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Presidential Special Envoy
for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov, a statement released by the PSP
press office said on Monday. The statement added that Jumblat received a phone
call from Bogdanov and that the two men discussed the government formation in
Lebanon. “Head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblat, received a
phone call from Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Presidential Special Envoy
for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov," the PSP's statement said: It
added that “discussions highlighted the need to accelerate the formation of the
Lebanese government, and the importance of Russia's initiative to help in this
field and its communication with the influential parties to help overcome the
artificial obstacles to the government's lineup.”
“Bogdanov invited Jumblat to visit Moscow who vowed to meet the invitation as
soon as he gets the Covid-19 vaccine,” it added.
President Aoun, it is time to step down
Mouafac Harb/The Daily Star/February 15/2021
موفق حرب/ديلي ستار/ إلى الرئيس عون عون: لقد حان الوقت لتتنحى
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/96080/mouafac-harb-the-daily-star-president-aoun-it-is-time-to-step-down-%d9%85%d9%88%d9%81%d9%82-%d8%ad%d8%b1%d8%a8-%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%8a-%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%a7%d8%b1-%d9%84%d9%82%d8%af-%d8%ad%d8%a7/
When the only courageous decision a president can take to please his own people
is to step down, you get an idea how bad his rule had been.
President Aoun’s tenure has witnessed the fragmentation of the Lebanese
institutions and the degradation of government services, leaving many wondering
about the viability of Lebanon as a viable state.
The lack of achievements and absence of any vision are an indication that the
president had no prior plan other than becoming a president. And despite the
current miserable condition of the economy, it seems the only plan he has for
the country is to secure the political future of his son-in-law former Minister
Gebran Bassil, who was placed under sanctions by the US for corruption
allegations. It is difficult to comprehend the current procrastination in
forming the Cabinet given the country’s status, other than serving narrow
personal interests. It seems the only legacy the president is working to leave
is to secure a leadership role or maybe the presidency for his son-in-law,
Bassil. Maybe he sees in him a political continuity. However, talking about
continuity raises an obvious question. Continuity of what? The governing model
offered by the sitting president is disastrous at best.
Political ambition is legitimate even when unjustified given the track record,
but Lebanon is on the verge of collapsing and losing its serious state status
among nations after its economy collapsed and the country’s political clique is
failing to face the challenges or offer any way out. In fact the political elite
who ruled and mismanaged the country is the main obstacle and cannot be part of
any solution.
Calls by the opposition, protesters and activists calling for early
parliamentary elections were met by deaf ears. Instead, there are concerns that
the current major blocs in Parliament may try to extend the term of the current
chamber when it expires a year from now. It would not be the first time that
Parliament failed to honor constitutional obligations. The only way to regain
the minimum trust in the government is to return to the source of legitimacy,
the people. The future of the country depends on the upcoming parliamentary
elections. This maybe the only hope for the Lebanese to replace the current
political clique they complain about.
A terrible pandemic, horrific explosion and the evaporation of savings in banks
have broken the resolve of the individual Lebanese, leaving young people in
despair and seeking opportunities outside the country.
A presidential tenure marred by corruption and the erosion of the state
exacerbated by the collapse of the national currency doesn’t qualify the
president and his allies to offer solutions and claim the role of protecting the
Constitution. The fallback position of Lebanese leaders when they are
politically bankrupt is to resort to the sectarian protectionism and appeal to
tribal and sectarian instincts.
Under the banner of protecting the Christian role in Lebanon, the president is
stalling in the forming the Cabinet. This argument should be exposed and
undermined by the international community and the head of the church. Christians
and the rest of the Lebanese are equally suffering and looking for a slight
hope. Engulfing political ambitions with the slogan of protecting Christians in
Lebanon to justify blocking the formation of a new Cabinet, is taking the
country on the fast track of total collapse. There should be no national agenda
other than remedying the economic conditions and restoring faith in the
government. The world is watching and the remaining friends of Lebanon are
poised to help but all are waiting for the president to put the interest of the
country ahead of political considerations. Failing to do so, leaves Lebanese no
choice other than calling and hoping for the president to step down.
Time is not on your side. At least be on the right side of history and step
down.
*Mouafac Harb is a veteran American-Lebanese journalist based in Beirut. He
contributes a weekly column for The Daily Star.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 15- 16/2021
WHO OKs AstraZeneca Jabs, Allowing Supply to Poor Nations
Agence France Presse/February 15/2021
The World Health Organization gave emergency use approval to AstraZeneca's
Covid-19 vaccines on Monday, meaning distribution can start to poorer countries
starved of doses to fight the pandemic. The AstraZeneca-Oxford jab forms the
bulk of batches being lined up through Covax, the global program aimed at
procuring and shipping out vaccines equitably around the world, regardless of
wealth. It is only the second Covid-19 jab to have received WHO authorization,
after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. "The WHO today listed two versions of the
AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, giving the green light
for these vaccines to be rolled out globally through Covax," the UN health
agency said in a statement. The two versions given the seal of approval are
being produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), and by SKBio in South
Korea. Separate reviews were needed for each production process, although the
vaccine is the same. "Countries with no access to vaccines to date will finally
be able to start vaccinating their health workers and populations at risk,
contributing to the Covax facility's goal of equitable vaccine distribution,"
said WHO assistant director general Mariangela Simao."But we must keep up the
pressure to meet the needs of priority populations everywhere and facilitate
global access. To do that, we need two things -- a scale-up of manufacturing
capacity, and developers' early submission of their vaccines for WHO review."
337.2 million doses
The organization's emergency use listing procedure assesses the quality, safety
and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines, and is a prerequisite for vaccines in the WHO
co-led Covax facility. AstraZeneca vaccines from India and South Korea made up
almost all of the initial 337.2 million doses lined up for Covax's first wave of
distribution, which is set to get moving in late February. Some 145
participating economies are set to receive enough doses to immunize 3.3 percent
of their collective population by mid-2021. The first wave includes 240 million
SII AstraZeneca doses; 96 million South Korean AstraZeneca doses; and 1.2
million Pfizer doses. Both vaccines require two injected doses. "We now have all
the pieces in place for the rapid distribution of vaccines," WHO
director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference. Simao
added: "There's no need to panic and no need for countries to go buying in the
market, because they're going to pay more."
OK for over-65s
Last week in a separate process, the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts
on Immunization issued its interim usage recommendations for the AstraZeneca
vaccine. Soothing fears about the jab, SAGE concluded it could be used for
people aged over 65, and also where coronavirus variants of concern are
circulating. SAGE acknowledged the lack of data on the vaccine's efficacy for
over-65s, which has prompted a number of countries to withhold it from by far
the most vulnerable age group. But the experts decided that given its
performance with younger adults, "it is likely that the vaccine will be found to
be efficacious in older persons. The trial data indicate that the vaccine is
safe for this age group." They said the vaccine proved more effective when the
interval between doses was extended to between eight and 12 weeks. The number of
reported Covid-19 cases globally has dropped for a fifth consecutive week,
nearly halving from more than five million in the week of January 4, to 2.6
million in the week starting February 8. "The fire is not out, but we have
reduced its size. If we stop fighting it on any front, it will come roaring
back," Tedros warned.
Attack on Arbil Airbase Kills Foreign Contractor, Wounds
U.S. Soldier
Agence France Presse/February 15/2021
A rocket attack targeting an airbase in Iraq's Kurdistan region late on Monday
killed a foreign civilian contractor and wounded five others and a U.S. soldier,
the U.S.-led coalition said. At least three rockets targeted the Kurdish
regional capital of Arbil, with one hitting a military complex at the Arbil
airport where U.S.-led coalition troops are based. Coalition spokesman Colonel
Wayne Marotto confirmed to AFP that the contractor was not Iraqi, but could not
give immediate details on the victim's nationality. The attack represents the
first time U.S. military or diplomatic installations have been targeted in Iraq
in nearly two months. At around 9:30 pm (1830 GMT), an AFP reporter heard
several loud explosions in the northwestern outskirts of Arbil, the capital of
Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region. Western military and diplomatic sites have
been targeted by dozens of rockets and roadside bomb attacks since the fall of
2019, but most of the violence has taken place in Baghdad. Both American and
Iraqi officials have blamed hardline armed groups, including the pro-Iran
faction Kataeb Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq. These groups are vehemently
opposed to the U.S.-led coalition, which has been based in Iraq since 2014 to
help local forces fight back the Islamic State group. With IS largely defeated,
the coalition has drawn down to under 3,500 forces in total, 2,500 of which are
U.S. troops. Most of those units are concentrated at the military complex at the
Arbil airport, a coalition source told AFP. But most rocket attacks had
concentrated on the coalition and U.S. diplomatic personnel based in Baghdad. In
October, the U.S. threatened to close its embassy there if the rocket attacks
did not stop, so hardline groups agreed to an indefinite truce.There have been
several violations since then, the most recent of which, prior to Monday night,
was a volley of rockets targeting the U.S. embassy on December 20.
Iran accused of plot to attack UAE embassy in Ethiopia
Arab News/February 15/2021
LONDON: Iran was behind a recent plot to attack the UAE embassy in Ethiopia, US
and Israeli officials have revealed. Iranian intelligence services activated a
sleeper cell in Addis Ababa late last year to also gather intelligence on the US
and Israel embassies, the officials told the New York Times. The operation was
part of a wider move to by Iran to seek out softer targets in Africa for revenge
attacks after the killings of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani by the US and
Iran’s main nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, reportedly by Israel. Ethiopia
said earlier this month it had arrested 15 people and seized weapons and
explosives as part of the plot against the UAE embassy. “The group took the
mission from a foreign terrorist group and was preparing to inflict significant
damage on properties and human lives,” Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA) reported. A
second group was planning to attack the UAE's mission in Sudan, EPA said. A key
link to Iran came with the arrest of the ringleader Ahmed Ismail in Sweden. Rear
Adm. Heidi K. Berg, director of intelligence at the Pentagon’s Africa command,
told the New York Times that Iran was behind the plot. “Ethiopia and Sweden
collaborated on the disruption to the plot,” she said. A senior US defense
official said the arrests were linked to an Iranian plot to kill the US
ambassador to South Africa reported in September. Iran denied in the New York
Times report that it was involved in the Addis Ababa plot.
Iran Wants 'Urgent Steps' Before Withdrawing
from Additional Protocol to NPT
London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 February, 2021
Iran warned it was going to reduce its cooperation with the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) by ending the implementation of the Additional Protocol
unless the US and its European allies save the 2015 nuclear deal. Iranian MP
Alireza Zakani said Sunday Tehran will terminate the Additional Protocol under
the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) unless the US and European countries took
urgent steps to lift sanctions. Iranian agencies quoted Zakani as saying that
the nuclear agreement “will not remain if the sanctions are not lifted.” Iranian
authorities are expected to breach a nuclear threshold that worries observers
and the parties of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (JCPOA). Under a law passed in December by Iran's parliament, dominated
by hardliners, the government should curtail the activities of IAEA inspectors
if sanctions are not lifted. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has demanded
that the US sanctions be eased by February 21. Intelligence Minister, Mahmoud
Alawi, hinted that his country could change the course of its current program to
produce nuclear weapons if Western pressure continued.
A number of lawmakers said Alawi should be questioned for his comments, warning
that they have political implications that could create issues for the country.
Zarif was supposed to hold a closed meeting with members of the parliament’s
National Security and Foreign Policy Commission to discuss the required steps to
return to the nuclear deal.
IRNA agency quoted the commission's spokesman, Fadl Amoudi, as saying that Zarif
did not attend the meeting due to health reasons, without providing details.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden is determined to salvage the nuclear
agreement, which was abandoned by his predecessor Donald Trump, said a report
published by the Agence-France Presse (AFP). Biden, however, will not be rushed
into re-joining the deal, despite the series of deadlines coming up. The
president is ready to rejoin the deal, thus lifting the strict sanctions imposed
by Trump, if Tehran commits to the articles of the agreements.
Meanwhile, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association
in Washington, Kelsey Davenport, said that Iran can quickly undo most of its
recent breaches, such as uranium enrichment.
"But the steps that are coming, I think, do pose a more significant risk and are
more difficult to reverse," she said, warning that any loss of access would fuel
speculation that Tehran is engaged in illicit activities. Iran will hold
parliamentary elections in June that could bring to power the hardliners, which
could complicate the situation. Last January, US envoy to Iran, Rob Malley, told
the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera" that even if the hardliners won the
elections, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has the final say in how to deal with
Washington. In turn, a former EU diplomat warned that February 21 is fast
approaching and “it is imperative” that diplomacy happens.
Another European source believes it is necessary to ensure the threshold is not
crossed on that date, noting that Russia and China also view a further breach as
a red line.Jon Wolfsthal, who advised Biden when he was Obama's vice president,
told AFP that the US and Iran, along with other JCPOA nations, could issue a
statement before February 21 “that would show their mutual intent to return to
full compliance.”State Department spokesman Ned Price reiterated Friday that the
United States is "not looking at any particular deadline" when asked about
February 21. Officially, the Biden administration has been coordinating with
European allies and other signatories of the agreement. A former adviser to
Obama suspects that US officials have already engaged with Iranian officials in
a number of ways. Thomas Countryman, who was a top aide in the Obama
administration, indicated that Biden could immediately lift some sanctions to
show “good faith.” "Because of the domestic political situation in both
countries, I think they've got to find a way to say, we did not give in to
pressure," notes Countryman. Last week, Zarif suggested that the EU play a role
to “choreograph” between Tehran and Washington, however, Iran later rejected a
French mediation proposal.
Iran deems US move to seize oil shipment an ‘act of piracy’
Reuters, Dubai/15 February 2021
Iran said on Monday that a US move this month to seize a cargo of oil on the
grounds that it came from Tehran was an act of piracy, adding that the shipment
did not belong to the Iranian government. Washington filed a lawsuit earlier
this month to seize the cargo, alleging that Iran sought to mask the origin of
the oil by transferring it to several vessels before it ended up aboard the
Liberian-flagged Achilleas tanker destined for China. Washington said the cargo
contravened US terrorism regulations. “This shipment does not belong to the
Iranian government. It belongs to the private sector,” Foreign Ministry
spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a weekly news conference. He did not elaborate
on what he meant by the private sector. The Achilleas last reported its position
on Sunday as anchored within the Galveston Offshore Lightering Area, which is
outside the US Gulf port of Galveston, Refinitiv ship tracking data showed on
Monday. A US official said last week that Washington had sold more than a
million barrels of Iranian fuel seized under its sanctions program last year.
Tensions have mounted between Washington and Tehran since 2018, when former US
President Donald Trump abandoned Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers
and reimposed sanctions on the country. US President Joe Biden has pledged to
revive the nuclear deal if Tehran returns to full compliance with the accord.
“It is very unfortunate that such an act of piracy is happening under the new US
administration ... a solution should be found to stop such acts of piracy by
anyone for any reason,” the spokesman Khatibzadeh added.
Iranian arrested in Turkey not consulate employee, says
Tehran
AFP/15 February 202
Iran said Monday a citizen had been arrested in Turkey, but denied Turkish media
claims he was a consulate employee, amid reports he is linked to the murder of
an Iranian dissident. According to Turkey’s Anadolu state news agency, the
Iranian is suspected of providing forged travel documents to allow the alleged
leader of the 2019 killing in Istanbul to return to Iran. “No consulate employee
has been arrested,” foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters.
“What has happened is the arrest of an Iranian national upon entry,” he added,
noting that Iran was in contact with Turkey regarding the matter. He gave no
further details. Turkey’s Andalou agency, which did not name the Iranian but
said his initials were “M.R.N.” alleges he is linked to the November 14, 2019
shooting in Istanbul of Masoud Molavi. Turkey’s pro-government daily Sabah last
week claimed the arrested man was 43-year-old Mohammad Reza Naserzadeh, and the
alleged man who used the forged travel documents to escape Turkey, Ali Esfanjani.
Molavi was said to have helped run the “Black Box” channel on the Telegram
messaging service, publishing corruption allegations against Iranian officials.
Neighbors Iran and Turkey enjoy robust trade and diplomatic ties despite a
series of regional disputes, including in Syria.
US-led Int’l Coalition to Establish New Military Base at
Iraq-Syria-Turkey Triangle
London- Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 February, 2021
The US-led Coalition plans to establish a new military base at the
Iraq-Syria-Turkey triangle in the Ain Dewar area in Hasakah countryside.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a military convoy
of over 50 vehicles and trucks affiliated to the International Coalition were
seen crossing into north-eastern Syria from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
"Trucks, carrying armored vehicles, weapons, military, and logistical equipment,
entered via Al-Walid border crossing with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, heading
towards Al-Qamishli area," the Observatory reported.
"This is the 11th Coalition convoy to enter Syria since the beginning of 2021,"
it added. On February 8, SOHR activists reported seeing a new International
Coalition convoy, consisting of 45 military vehicles and trucks, entering Syrian
territory via Al-Walid border crossing with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
The convoy included military and logistical equipment. It headed to al-Qamishli
and then to the bases of the International Coalition in the countryside of
Hasakah and Deir Ezzor. In the same context, SOHR activists reported seeing on
February 6 another convoy entering Syrian territory via Al-Walid border crossing
with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It consisted of 50 military vehicles and
trucks, including military and logistical equipment. The convoy headed to the
bases of the International Coalition in the countryside of Hasakah.
Russian President Vladimir Putin with Saudi Crown Prince
Mohammed bin
Reuters, Moscow/5 February ,2021
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
discussed the implementation of the OPEC+ oil output deal in a telephone call on
Monday, the Kremlin said. The Kremlin said Putin backed continued close
cooperation between Moscow and Riyadh to support the stability of the global
energy market. articipate in the teleconference should dial 1-888-805-7923 or
613-960-7518. The access code is 1674540#.
Turkey summons US ambassador over statement on Iraq
killings: Ministry
Reuters, Ankara/5 February ,2021: 06:01 PM GST Updated: 15
February 2021
Turkey’s foreign ministry summoned the US Ambassador to Ankara on Monday to
convey “in the strongest terms” Turkey’s reaction to a US statement on the
killing of 13 kidnapped Turks by Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, the
ministry said. Turkey said on Sunday militants from the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) executed the captives during a military operation against
the group. The US said that it condemned the killings if it was confirmed that
responsibility lay with the PKK.
Turkey Accuses US of Backing PKK after Turks Killed in Iraq
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 15 February, 2021
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan laid into the United States, accusing it
of supporting Kurdish militants on Monday, days after Turkish troops found the
bodies of 13 Turkish soldiers, police and civilians abducted by Kurdish
insurgents in a cave complex in northern Iraq.
Erdogan also took aim at a US State Department statement that deplored the
hostages' deaths, but added that the US would condemn the deaths “in the
strongest possible terms” if it is confirmed that they died at the hands of the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“You are with them and behind, them pure and simple,” Erdogan said, referring to
Kurdish militant group as well as Syrian Kurdish groups linked to the PKK, which
Turkey considers to be terrorists but which were allied with the United States
in the fight against the ISIS.
“If we are together in NATO, and if we are to continue our (alliance) in NATO,
you have to be sincere toward us,” Erdogan said. Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu expressed Turkey's “unease" over recent US statements during a
telephone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, his ministry said. In
their first conversation since US President Joe Biden's administration took
office last month, the two also discussed other disagreements between the NATO
allies and agreed to “develop an open and sincere dialogue based on mutual
respect," the ministry said.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken expressed condolences for
the deaths of the hostages and “affirmed our view that PKK terrorists bear
responsibility.” Blinken also emphasized their shared interest in countering
terrorism. Earlier Monday, Turkey summoned US Ambassador David Satterfield to
the Foreign Ministry over the previous statement. The victims were discovered in
the Gara region, near the Turkish border, during an operation against the PKK
that had aimed to free the hostages. Twelve of the victims were shot in the head
and one died of a shoulder bullet wound. The 13 were kidnapped inside Turkey in
2015 and 2016. Erdogan said 51 PKK fighters were killed during the latest
offensive and vowed to press ahead with cross-border offensives. “We have the
power, capability and determination to come down hard on the terrorists
everywhere,” Erdogan said. In a statement carried by the PKK-linked Firat news
agency, the PKK said “prisoners of war” consisting of members of the Turkish
security forces and intelligence agency were killed as a result of Turkish air
strikes. Three Turkish troops also died during the operation to free the
hostages and three others were wounded, the defense ministry has said. Tens of
thousands of people have been killed since the PKK, which is designated a
terrorist organization by the US and the European Union, began an insurgency in
Turkey’s majority Kurdish southeast region in 1984.
Turkish operation to rescue intelligence operatives in Iraq
ends in catastrophic failure
The Arab Weekly/February 15/2021
ISTANBUL - A Turkish operation in northern Iraq ended in a bloodbath after
special forces failed to rescue 13 elite intelligence and police officers who
had been kidnapped by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants. Turkish Defence
Minister Hulusi Akar said that soldiers carrying out an operation against PKK
militants in northern Iraq found the bodies of 13 Turks who had been kidnapped
and executed in a cave. Although Akar did not reveal the identity of the dead
individuals, a high-ranking security source confirmed to Reuters that the
identity of nine of the dead whose bodies were found in the cave had been
ascertained. They include members of the Turkish intelligence, army and police.
Later, the governor of Malatya (eastern Turkey), where the bodies were taken,
said that 10 of the victims, most of whom were police officers, had been
kidnapped by the PKK in 2015 and 2016
Turkey had announced that Operation Eagle Claw - 2 was aimed at attacking PKK
militants, but the intelligence and police officers' deaths showed that it was
intended as a rescue operation. The Turkish foreign minister declared in 2017
that Ankara was working to bring home citizens kidnapped by the PKK. Turkish
media had previously reported that Kurdish militants had captured two Turkish
intelligence officers in Iraq. Turkey's confused reactions reflect the
operation's failure. Senior officials, including presidential spokesman Ibrahim
Kalin, first asserted that civilians had died, before it was revealed that those
killed were Turkish intelligence and police elite forces, and that Operation
Eagle Claw - 2 was designed to save them.
Statements by Turkey's Chief of General Staff Yasar Guler did not lessen the
impact of the operation's failure. Guler argued that Operation Eagle Claw - 2
was based on "very good evidence" on where the Turkish prisoners were being
held. According to Guler, Turkish forces reached the cave in question on the
third day of the operation. Turkish reporter Fehim Isik expressed doubt about
the defence minister's account that prisoners were executed by the PKK.
Isik tweeted, "The prisoners were held for years by the PKK which did not kill
them. Why did they kill them now?"
He added, "Hasn't Turkey in the past managed to get back members of its forces
following negotiations with the Workers' Party? Why did it prefer that the
prisoners die this time? Who benefits from their death? Turkish-supported
Islamist groups previously claimed that civilians had died, before news spread
that the dead were Turkish intelligence and police officers. Akar said that
Turkey launched a military operation against the PKK in the Kara region in
northern Iraq on February 10 to secure its borders and find two kidnapped
nationals. A statement published by a website linked to the PKK said that some
of the prisoners it was holding, including members of Turkish intelligence,
police and army, died when Turkey bombed the the area, and denied harming any
prisoners. The statement added, "Among the prisoners were two directors with the
Turkish intelligence agency, and nine police officers and soldiers."
In a previously posted video, one of the captured soldiers questioned whether
the Turkish army was really working to save the prisoners, saying "I do not know
if anyone is working for our liberation."
The PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United
States and the European Union, began an armed insurrection in the
majority-Kurdish south-east region of Turkey in 1984. The conflict has claimed
more than 40,000 lives. Over the past two years, Turkey's campaign against the
party has increasingly focused on northern Iraq, where the group maintains a
stronghold in the Qandil Mountains on the border with Iran. Turkish operations
have fueled tensions with the Iraqi government, as Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan asserts that his country intends to solve the issue of the PKK in
northern Iraq if Baghdad is "unable to." Iraqi intelligence sources previously
revealed that the Turkish forces deployed to a number of locations in northern
Iraq have expanded the scope of their reconnaissance missions in preparation for
Operation Eagle Claw - 2.
The sources told The Arab Weekly that the Turkish air force carried out a large
number of reconnaissance operations over northern Iraqi cities.
Erdogan had vowed that his country's forces would "suddenly launch an operation
one night in northern Iraq." Erdogan made his statement just days after Defence
Minister Akar was dispatched to both Baghdad and Erbil to convey messages that
were not completely friendly, according to well-informed political sources. The
sources said that the Turkish defence minister threatened Iraqi Kurdistan that
Ankara would follow through with building a Turkish border crossing with Mosul
that would deprive Iraqi Kurdistan of revenue if the region did not cooperate
with it in the fight against the PKK.
Ankara's failure to rescue the intelligence and army personnel showed that
Turkish pledges on this issue, including Erdogan’s threat that “we will come one
night," have turned into a disaster for the Turkish army. Erdogan's phrase was
repeated before Turkish military operations in the battles between Azerbaijan
and Armenia. This time, the outcome was catastrophic for Ankara.
Qatari FM in Iran as Doha Seeks Mediation on Nuclear Issue
Agence France Presse/15 February 2021
Qatar's foreign minister met his Iranian counterpart Monday, after Doha signaled
its intention to mediate between Tehran and Washington over a landmark nuclear
deal, an AFP journalist said. The meeting comes as the 2015 deal between Iran
and world powers limiting Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for international
sanctions relief is hanging by a thread. Doha, a close U.S. ally, also has good
relations with Tehran. Qatar's Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met in
Tehran with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Iran's presidency
said the minister also met with President Hassan Rouhani, to whom he delivered a
message from the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. Former U.S.
president Donald Trump withdrew from the accord in 2018 and reimposed sanctions
on Tehran, with Iran a year later gradually suspending its compliance with most
key nuclear commitments in response. The new administration of President Joe
Biden has expressed willingness to return to the deal, but insisted that Iran
first resume full compliance, while Tehran has called for the immediate lifting
of sanctions. Iran has said it will restrict nuclear inspections later in
February if U.S. sanctions are not lifted, or other key parties to the deal do
not help Tehran bypass them, according to a law passed by the
conservative-dominated parliament in December. On Monday, Iran's ambassador to
the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Kazem Gharibabadi,
wrote on Twitter that the law "will be executed on time," giving February 23 as
the date. "The IAEA has been informed today to ensure the smooth transition to a
new course in due time," he added.
Bogdanov Stresses Need for 'Mission-Driven Govt.' in Talks
with Hariri
Naharnet/15 February 2021
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced in a statement Monday that a telephone
conversation took place between Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and the
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Presidential Special Envoy for the Middle
East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov.
“They discussed the social and political crisis that Lebanon is facing, and
stressed the need to form rapidly a mission-driven government headed by Saad
Hariri, who won the majority of votes in Parliament, and was designated by
President Michel Aoun,” the Ministry’s statement said, according to an
English-language translation distributed by Hariri’s press office.Hariri and
Bogdanov also discussed Russian assistance to Lebanon in combating the
coronavirus pandemic including sending a batch of vaccines to Beirut.Bogdanov
also held phone talks Monday with Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid
Jumblat.
Canada launches bid to stop arbitrary detentions of foreign
citizens by China
Reuters, Ottawa/15 February 2021
Canada on Monday launched a 58-nation initiative to stop countries from
detaining foreign citizens for diplomatic leverage, a practice that Ottawa and
Washington say China and others are using. Foreign ministers signed a
non-binding declaration to denounce what Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau
called unacceptable behavior. “Taking people from their families and using them
as bargaining chips is both illegal and immoral,” he said by phone, calling the
effort the first of its kind. Other signatories include Japan, Britain,
Australia and virtually all members of the 27-nation European Union. The
declaration does not target any nation. Garneau said it was designed to increase
diplomatic pressure on countries that detain foreigners as well as others who
might want to do so. But a Canadian official said the initiative had been
sparked by concern over arrests of foreigners by China, Iran, Russia and North
Korea.
Even before the declaration was formally released, the Global Times, a Chinese
state-backed newspaper, cited unnamed experts as saying the initiative was “an
aggressive and ill-considered attack designed to provoke China”. Ottawa is
locked in a dispute with Beijing, which detained two Canadians in 2018 after
Vancouver police picked up a senior Huawei Technologies Co Ltd executive on a US
warrant. Canada denounces what it calls “hostage diplomacy” while China insists
the two cases are not linked. Among the signatories is the United States. Last
week the StateDepartment called for the release of the two Canadians and
rejected China’s “use of coercion as a political tool”. The Canadian official
said the declaration could help put pressure on Beijing. “We want to make them
feel a little uncomfortable. We want them to know that a lot of countries think
this practice is unacceptable and hopefully over time it does contribute to a
change in behavior,” said the official, who requested anonymity given the
sensitivity of the situation. Last December the British parliament’s foreign
affairs committee called on the government to declare Iran’s “arbitrary
detention of foreign nationals” as hostage-taking. British-Iranian aid worker
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016 and sentenced to five years after
being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical establishment. The
Canadian initiative was started last year by Francois-Philippe Champagne,
Garneau’s predecessor. Champagne, now innovation minister, said by working
together nations could better focus attention on the detainees. “Their liberty
may have been stolen but their voices won’t be silenced,” he said by phone.
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on February 15- 16/2021
Iran on its way to ‘solving nuclear missile puzzle’
Thomas Harding/The National/February 15, 2021
Ease with which rocket booster can be converted into weapon draws mounting fear
of Tehran’s military capabilities
Iran’s scientists have “solved one half of the ballistic missile puzzle” by
developing a workable third-stage rocket booster, leading defence analysts said.
The stakes for a nuclear stand-off were raised after Tehran launched a satellite
rocket that could easily be converted into a nuclear missile with a range of
about 5,000 kilometres, bringing cities such as London within reach.
Missile experts believe it is now clear Iran is opting for “range over accuracy”
in seeking to develop nuclear-tipped intermediate-range ballistic missiles, a
strategy that has also been followed by Iran’s ally North Korea.
The worrying Iranian advances are likely to feature in negotiations over its
nuclear programme with US President Joe Biden’s administration.
While Iran can claim it is sending civilian communications into space
legitimately using its Zuljanah satellite delivery vehicles, security experts
said the rocket’s motors could be used to test IRBMs. In theory, they could take
those motors and use them to build a missile rather than a satellite launch
vehicle, at which point it would be their most important solid-fuel propellant
ballistic missile,” Jeremy Binnie, Middle East editor of Jane’s Defence Weekly,
told The National.
The Zuljanah’s launch into the high atmosphere marks a crucial new stage in
Tehran’s ballistic development, said Justin Bronk, an airpower expert at the
Royal United Services Institute, a think tank.
“The Iranians seem to have got to a stage where they have solved one half of the
IRBM puzzle, which is the boost phase in effect.”
This didn’t mean Iran had a missile capable of “high-velocity re-entry” through
the Earth’s atmosphere, he said. But the use of space launch rockets and
long-range ballistic missiles have been “relatively interchangeable for
decades”, Mr Bronk said, with the 1960s and 1970s British Blue Streak project
used as the basis for the European Space Agency’s Ariane space rocket.
Iran announced it had test-launched its first Zuljanah vehicle in late January
after a defence ministry spokesman said the regime had achieved “its most
powerful rocket engine”. The Zuljanah is a 25-metre, three-stage rocket with a
solid-fuel engine that can send a 220kg payload up to a height of 500km to
launch a satellite. But experts believe that if the scientists lowered its
trajectory they could send a one-tonne warhead about 5,000km.
While the Iranians might be on course to launch a nuclear weapon on a
sub-orbital trajectory, they still lack the capability to land the bomb with
reasonable accuracy on a target such as London, 4,400km away.
But highly skilled Iranian scientists will now be seeking to overcome the
technical obstacles of atmosphere re-entry at high speed.
“This requires a large amount of money as you need to test repeatedly both the
missile telemetry and, crucially, the re-entry vehicle performance,” Mr Bronk
said. “That’s why the many tests are very valuable for the North Koreans and
highly disturbing to the Americans.”
It is understood that North Korea has provided significant technical assistance
to Iran.
Dough Barrie, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, believes
that Iran previously focused on developing accurate cruise and medium-range
missiles but has now opted for “range over accuracy”.
“One of the things we’ve seen them doing is to really push extending the ranges
of their ballistic arsenal significantly,” he said. In the past year, Iran has
developed the Salman rocket motor, used for satellite launches, which is capable
of moving its nozzle to vector its thruster, making it much more accurate.
“The Salman thrust vectoring engine produces improved accuracy in the final
stage,” Mr Binnie said. “This is all part of investing heavily in ballistic
missile technology and steadily improving what they’ve got.”
Another important aspect of the solid fuel propellant is that it allows missiles
to be fuelled and stored in silos for long periods. Liquid fuel is less stable,
so rockets require fuelling shortly before launch, delaying their use and giving
spy satellites the opportunity to detect hostile intent.
“These missiles would be ready to go and a lot easier to bring into action,” Mr
Binnie said. “It helps in terms of having a more credible deterrence to have
missiles that are ready to launch when they need them.”
But Iran’s missile arsenal is having a destabilising impact on the region, with
Gulf states buying increasingly sophisticated jets to maintain a technological
edge.
“The Iranians have their missiles to counter that,” Mr Binnie said. “They cannot
get state-of-the-art jets because of sanctions so they’ve invested in missiles
to counter the air superiority arrayed against them.
“But now the ever-growing arsenal and improvements in the Iranian missiles does
look incredibly threatening. There’s an arms race going on in the region and
that is destabilising.”
The arms build-up is something that could be addressed in any future deal
between Iran and the West, which is more likely with Mr Biden in power.'
In an interview with The National last week, Lt Gen John Lorimer, Britain’s most
senior commander in the Middle East, said Iran was building up its forces to
strengthen its position in negotiations with America on the nuclear agreement.
“I agree entirely with Gen Lorimer in the sense that Iran is playing up to the
potential of the Zuljanah test and it’s very much about strengthening Iran’s
hand,” Mr Bronk said.
But he believes the deal is likely to concentrate solely on Iran’s nuclear
programme rather that its missiles, which is why Tehran is talking up its
uranium enrichment levels.
“If they overplay the nuclear missile capability it risks seriously blowing back
on them,” he said.
“Frankly, most of the countries with whom they’re really interested in getting a
deal have well-proven nuclear deterrence capabilities themselves. And it’s
hardly a stretch that if the British were concerned about a threat to London
then Iran would know that they would obviously get flattened by Trident
missiles. Iran understands its strength is to operate below the threshold of
explicit conflict.”
Experts believe there is a long way to go before Iran could have a
nuclear-capable missile. The Iranians could speed up development by increasing
missile test firing to make a viable re-entry vehicle, but this would send a
clear signal of intent and likely lead to an armed response by America and its
allies.
Instead, they are expected to test satellite rockets once every six months,
perfecting them without drawing undue attention, potentially leading to Iran
becoming a nuclear-capable nation.
Israel and Biden–Trouble on the Horizon
Yochanan Visser/Isreal Today/February 15/2021
The atmosphere between Israel and the US is changing, and it doesn’t appear for
the better
Israel has reason to be deeply concerned about the policy that US President Joe
Biden’s new administration will pursue vis-à-vis the Jewish state. As we will
see below, those concerns are justified and relate to diplomatic measures
already taken by the Biden White House.
The appointments of several ex-Obama officials to positions which are related to
the Middle East are another reason for concern.
“Shots fired”
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still waiting for a call from the new
US President, there appears to be a first clash between Israel and the United
States under this new administration.
On Sunday it was announced that the White House is demanding that Israel again
allow flights from US airlines to Tel Aviv.
Those flights were canceled on January 26, when Ben Gurion Airport was closed to
all passenger flights due to the out-of-control Corona crisis. Only El Al is
allowed to fly stranded Israelis into Israel.
According to Israel’s Channel 12 News, the White House sent the following
message to the Israeli government: “Why do you need a crisis with the new
government? Allow our planes to fly to Israel!”
The tone of the message indicates that the atmosphere between Israel and the US
is changing, and this is also reflected in comments Biden officials already made
about the Jewish state. For example, the Trump Administration’s recognition that
the Golan Heights is Israeli territory was effectively withdrawn.
New US Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged that Israeli control over
the Golan Heights is important as long as Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad rules,
but said there are “legal questions.” He was referring to Israeli sovereignty
over the Golan, which Trump recognized.
The position on Israeli settlement politics also appears to be back where the
Obama Administration left it, and the same is true for the status of Jerusalem.
The Biden Administration says Jerusalem’s status should be determined in
negotiations with the Palestinian leadership. Despite this, Biden recognizes
that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
Lifeline to a corrupt Palestinian regime
Another sign that things have changed since Donald J. Trump left the White House
is certain developments vis-à-vis the Palestinian Arabs.
The Biden Administration has announced that financial aid to the Palestinian
Arabs, which Trump canceled, will resume. The same goes for aid to UNRWA, the
organization that provides aid to Palestinian refugees and all their
descendants.
Biden, furthermore, will allow the Palestinian Authority to reopen the PLO
diplomatic mission that Trump closed in Washington DC.
The elephant in the room
One important issue viewed by Jerusalem as a threat to Israel is the opinion of
certain key figures in the Biden administration regarding Iran.
They say the US should return to dialogue with Iran and rejoin the 2015 nuclear
deal (JCPOA). More recently, Biden has linked such a move to Iran’s willingness
to stop enriching uranium.
Troublesome appointments
Another reason Israel worries about the policies the Biden Administration will
pursue towards the Jewish state and the Middle East are the appointments of a
number of ex-Obama officials to key positions.
Blinken, for example, is an appeaser when it comes to Iran. He was against
including Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the list of recognized
terrorist organizations. Blinken was also the one who questioned the legality of
Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights last week.
Biden’s Director for National Security, Avril Haines, signed a J-Street letter
calling upon the US government to be more critical of Israel. In the same
letter, Israel was condemned for “violence, terrorism, and incitement.” J-Street
is an American Jewish organization that is, in fact, anti-Israeli.
Then there’s Wendy Sherman, the female chief negotiator in the talks with Iran
over the JCPOA. Sherman is now the Deputy Secretary of State, which is a
position in which she also deals with Israel. She was a strong supporter of
negotiations with and concessions toward Iran. At the time, she also refused to
condemn Palestinian suicide attacks on Israelis.
The appointment of Robert Malley as Biden’s special envoy to Iran is another
problem point. Malley, the son of an Egyptian Jew, is a left-wing extremist who
was a member of the Obama Administration and worked for Hillary Clinton when she
was Secretary of State. He is in favor of negotiations with Iran and a return to
the JCPOA, but also wants dialogue with Hamas and Syrian dictator Assad. He is
also known for his aversion to Israel.
Jen Psaki, another former Obama official, is now the White House press
secretary. She questioned Israel’s commitment to peace, but remained silent
about the Palestinian refusal to return to the negotiating table.
Another anti-Israel official in the Biden government is Maher Bitar, who is the
new head of the US Intelligence and National Security Council. This is a
position in which he also advises Biden on issues related to Israel. Bitar is a
Palestinian American who once wrote in a paper the following:
“Israel’s political existence as a state is a cause for Palestinian
dispossession and statelessness…. Israel’s rejection of their right to return
remains the main obstacle to finding a durable solution.”
Another appointment of a Palestinian American to a key position when it comes to
Israel is Hady Amr, who was appointed as special envoy for the
Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Amr is known for his radical anti-Israeli
views and has strong ties to the Palestinian leadership. He was born in Lebanon.
Not surprisingly, the Palestinian leadership applauded Biden for the
appointment.
Other officials of Arab origin in the Biden Administration are Dana Shubat and
Reema Dodin, also an American of Palestinian origin.
Shubat’s parents are immigrants from Jordan. She has always been concerned with
matters related to the Middle East and has not-so-neutral views on the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Dodin now serves in the White House after working
for Senator Jin Durbin for years. She took part in rallies against Israel
calling for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). In 2002, Dodin said suicide
bombings by Palestinian Arabs were “the last resort of a desperate
people.”President Biden defended his decision to include a fair number of Arab
Americans in his administration. He said in a speech in which he stood up for
American Arabs that he always wanted a government “that looks like America.” It
should be noted that there are a few Jewish Americans in Biden’s government, as
well.
Human Rights Back on US Agenda under President Biden
Seth J. Frantzman/The Jerusalem Post/February 15/2021
The US called on Turkey to release human rights activist Osman Kavala, who has
been in prison for three years without being convicted of any crime. The reports
come as the new US administration of President Joe Biden has been coming down
hard on human rights abuses and taking up high profile cases, from Russia's
Alexei Navalny to praising Saudi Arabia's release of Loujain al-Hathloul.
Under the last US administration, authoritarian regimes around the world were
rarely critiqued on their human rights record. Although the US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo did slam China for "genocide" just prior to leaving office,
there was no meaningful US approach to supporting human rights during the Trump
administration. Because of the fragmented nature of the administration, some
officials did push various agendas that dovetailed with human rights issues, but
the White House rarely paid notice. For instance, Richard Grenell, ambassador to
Germany and then acting director of national intelligence, pushed for
decriminalizing homosexuality in 68 countries, but articles notice the US
achieved little on this issue.
Biden made it clear human rights is part of the "America is back" approach,
which is very different from the "America first" approach of his predecessor. He
made it clear in comments to the US State Department on February 4: "We'll
confront China's economic abuses; counter its aggressive, coercive action; to
push back on China's attack on human rights, intellectual property, and global
governance," he said. Now the US is also going after coup leaders in Myanmar.
Under the former US administration, there was little interest in abuses in
places like Myanmar. Biden also spoke to Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week,
and reports note he mentioned the clampdown on rights in Hong Kong.
Egypt has released a journalist from Al Jazeera named Mahmoud Hussein after four
years in detention. This appears linked to concerns over US pressure on human
rights. It does not look like it was a coincidence he was held for the four
years of the last administration and suddenly released.
The administration of former US president Donald Trump, now facing his second
impeachment even though he is out of office, appeared to ask foreign
authoritarian leaders to compete for US support. The competition was not
predicated on human rights, but a transactional foreign policy that often
revolved around things like arms sales and praise for Trump personally. Trump
even seemed to mock the Egyptian leader, calling him his "favorite dictator."
Under Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a direct line to the
White House, often calling Trump and demanding US concessions, threatening US
troops, kidnapping a US pastor and berating the US for training anti-ISIS
fighters. Erdogan even sent presidential security to attack US protesters in
Washington, DC, an unprecedented attack on peaceful protesters on US soil.
At the behest of the White House, little was done to stop the attack or bring
charges. Later, Turkey pushed extremist Syrian rebel groups it had armed and
recruited to hunt down unarmed Kurdish female activists in Syria. Turkey's press
celebrated the murder of Hevrin Khalaf, an activist in Syria, and it appears
Turkish-backed Syrian groups had direct support from Ankara to "neutralize" her.
Turkish-backed groups have kidnapped dozens of women in Turkish-occupied Afrin,
which Ankara ethnically cleansed of 160,000 Kurds in 2018. None of this faced
pushback from the White House, which appeared to support Erdogan's actions.
Former US national security adviser John Bolton and others were shocked by how
close the US president was to Turkey's regime and its abuses. Former US Syria
envoy James Jeffrey and others appeared silent on the abuses as well.
Now the tone may be changing. The release of Loujain al-Hathloul is timed well
with the incoming administration. The US speaking out about Kavala is only the
tip of the iceberg of abuses in Turkey. Turkey's regime has been bashing
homosexuals recently and attacking student protesters, calling them
"terrorists." Turkey continues to threaten to bomb Yazidi minorities in Iraq and
has imprisoned people for tweets and forced many journalists into exile.
However, the mention of Kavala is symbolic. At the end of the day, the US can't
reverse all the human rights abuses in the Middle East or other countries, but
it has taken up several symbolic cases.
The difference in tone means countries know they are at least being watched in
terms of their behavior. The former US administration presided over a period of
unprecedented rise of authoritarian regimes, from Turkey to Iran, Russia, China
and other countries. It was a period in which any hopes of democratization in
parts of the world were reversed. Consider the difference to the era of the
1990s, widely seen as a kind of Pax Americana or "new world order," as George
H.W. Bush termed it. That was a period when the US used force for humanitarian
intervention. Critiqued for being overzealous and thinking bombs could bring
rights, George Bush shifted strategy to "pre-emption." It is important to note
that despite many failures of the 1990s policies, the US did help make Kosovo
independent and put wind in the sails of movements by South Sudan and East Timor
to become countries. Other places, like Somaliland, or Palestinian demands for
statehood, were less successful.
When George W. Bush's attempt at democratization in the Middle East and
Afghanistan had mixed success, there was a denouement during the Obama years.
Although Obama spoke about key issues in his Cairo speech, the result of the
Arab Spring was more extremism, not more democracy. Exceptions exist. While the
Palestinians don't have elections these days, Iraq does have elections and
Afghanistan has a more consultative system than under the Taliban. Tunisia is a
success story, so far, of the Arab Spring. In general countries in the Gulf have
moved to push tolerance and coexistence and the threat of extremism has been
reduced in the heart of the Middle East. This is a mixed legacy, but what is
clear is that the US retreat into isolationism and the trend from Obama to Trump
of withdrawal from the region, did not lead to human rights taking center stage.
While the Trump administration did take action on Iran's abuses in the region,
it rarely did so systematically with an eye to actually improve human rights.
For instance, bans on people entering the US from Iran, and bans on refugees
impacted Iranian dissidents. Although it appeared the US was talking tough on
Iran and also pushing for support for minorities, like Christians in the Middle
East, the US did little for Iranian exiles and dissidents under the Trump
administration. The US officials, because the State Department had appointed
pro-Erdogan regime officials, also ignored human rights in Syria, enabling
Ankara-backed extremists to abuse human rights, target women, and disappear
activists. Furthermore, the US did little to stop attacks on Christian and
Yazidi minorities by Turkish-backed extremists from Tel Abyad to Afrin. When it
came to wars, like between Azerbaijan and Armenian fighters, the US was absent
and didn't appear to publicly even bother to put out statements, ignoring
complaints of locals about shelling of civilians.
It is unclear if all this will change. While some in Syria have hopes that the
US, EU and NATO will stop empowering Turkey's attacks on civilians in places
like Afrin, others are concerned about a potential Turkish attack on the Yazidi
minority of Sinjar. The Yazidis were victims of ISIS genocide and have now been
under attack by Ankara. There are so many different human rights concerns in the
Middle East, such as the assassination of Lokman Slim in Lebanon, that it is
difficult for the US administration to deal with all of them. However, initial
statements and moves appear to be centering US policies on human rights. Even
before the US has made key phone calls to the region, human rights have come up.
*Seth J. Frantzman is a Ginsburg-Milstein Writing Fellow at the Middle East
Forum and senior Middle East correspondent at The Jerusalem Post.
The Person or the Constitution? Falsely Charging McConnell
with Inconsistency
Alan M. Dershowitz/Gatestone Institute/February 15/ 2021
[I]t is CNN and the other media that failed to understand the distinction
between defending the Constitution and defending the person.
To have voted to convict citizen Trump would have given Congress a roving
commission to seek out and disqualify any potential candidate who ever held
federal public office or who might run for office in the future. McConnell
correctly rejected that open-ended power grab.
One does not have to agree with the substance with what President Trump did or
said on January 6, in order to correctly conclude that the Senate had no
jurisdiction over him once he left office, and that the statements he made --
whatever one might think of them -- are fully protected by the Constitution.
Back in the bad old days of McCarthyism, anyone who supported the constitutional
rights of accused communists was deemed to support communism. That was wrong
then, just as it is wrong today to believe that everyone who defends Trump
against an unconstitutional impeachment necessarily supports his views or
actions.
Senator Mitch McConnell taught the American people a civics lesson by explaining
that the Senate had no constitutional authority to place a former president on
trial, even one who had been impeached while still serving in office. Pictured:
McConnell speaks at Donald Trump's second impeachment trial on February 12, 2021
at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. (Photo by congress.gov via Getty Images)
CNN and other left-wing media went on a rampage after Senator Mitch McConnell
delivered his speech explaining why he voted to acquit Donald Trump, despite his
belief that Trump had engaged in improper behavior. They accused McConnell of
hypocrisy and inconsistency -- arguing that if he believed Trump had done wrong,
he was obligated to vote for conviction. But it is CNN and the other media that
failed to understand the distinction between defending the Constitution and
defending the person.
McConnell taught the American people a civics lesson by explaining that the
Senate had no constitutional authority to place a former president on trial,
even one who had been impeached while still serving in office. In doing so, he
echoed a constitutional argument I have been making from the very beginning of
this unconstitutional power grab by the Democrat-controlled Congress. The
language of the constitution is clear:
"The President ... shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and
Conviction of, Treason, Bribery or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
The constitutional power to impeach and remove does not extend beyond federal
civil officials who are still in office and can be removed. As James Madison,
the father of our Constitution wrote in Federalist 39: "The president of the
United States is impeachable at any time during his continuation in office." It
is true that once removed, presidents can also be disqualified, but they cannot
be disqualified unless they are first removed. The Senators voted by a majority
that they had power that the Constitution denied them, but McConnell dissented
from that vote along with numerous other Senators, and they acted on their
dissenting views in voting to acquit. They were right to do so. That is
precisely what happened in the Belknap case, which was cited by the House
Managers as a precedent.
The House Managers argued in their brief that the power to impeach is not
limited to officials who remain in office, but can extend back to any person who
held federal office despite how many years ago that person left the office. To
have voted to convict citizen Trump would have given Congress a roving
commission to seek out and disqualify any potential candidate who ever held
federal public office or who might hold office in the future. McConnell
correctly rejected that open-ended power grab.
The most important lesson taught by McConnell is that the Constitution protects
both the good and the bad, the agreeable and the disagreeable, Republicans and
Democrats. One does not have to agree with the substance with what President
Trump did or said on January 6, in order to correctly conclude that the Senate
had no jurisdiction over him once he left office, and that the statements he
made -- whatever one might think of them -- are fully protected by the
Constitution.
Back in the bad old days of McCarthyism, anyone who supported the constitutional
rights of accused communists was deemed to support communism. That was wrong
then, just as it is wrong today to believe that everyone who defends Trump
against an unconstitutional impeachment necessarily supports his views or
actions. I for one have been quite critical of Trump's actions on January 6 but
strongly defend his right to have made his speech even though I think he was
wrong to do so. I also defend his right not to be placed on trial as a private
citizen by the Senate.
So, three cheers for Mitch McConnell for trying to educate the American public
about this important distinction. No cheers for CNN and other left-wing media
for returning us to the days of McCarthyism, when these distinctions were
deliberately blurred.
*Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus at
Harvard Law School and author of the book, Guilt by Accusation: The Challenge of
Proving Innocence in the Age of #MeToo, Skyhorse Publishing, 2019. His new
podcast, "The Dershow," can be seen on Spotify, Apple and YouTube. He is the
Jack Roth Charitable Foundation Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 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.
Yes… We’re Grudging and Imagining
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/ February 15/2021
In 1968, the Warsaw Pact’s tanks crushed what was known as the “Prague Spring.”
Czech intellectuals bore the lion’s share of the repression overseen by
Secretary-General Gustav Husak and the bigger Secretary-General behind him,
Leonid Brezhnev. Imprisonment, surveillance, lay-offs from work, emigration,
despair, and cases of suicide and divorce… The plight Czech intellectuals faced
at the time, which went on for many years, nourished countless literary and
cinematic works. It has also become among our contemporary world’s most
prominent classic historical plights endured by intellectuals and elites.
The prominent role that education, the media, and publishing play in Lebanon-
all of which are freedom’s graces to us- has granted the country’s cultural
scene distinct standing. This standing did not merely turn into one of the
sources of the county’s economic growth; rather, it became equated with it, a
second meaning for it or another indication of its life: without the ability to
doubt, criticize and disagree on everything, i.e., without freedom, this country
would no longer have a justification for its existence. This applies whether it
is divided or united, liberated or occupied. These become, in the Lebanese case,
mere details and additions.
Today, Lebanon’s cultural milieu is suffering from a besiegement of the Czech
variety. Just as the plight emerged in Prague after its revolution was trampled,
a Lebanese plight is emerging after the two successive counter-revolutions in
Syria and Lebanon, the only consequences of which have been more killing,
poverty, and futility. And who knows, the siege on Lebanese intellectuals and
creatives could exacerbate and become even worse. Indeed, the disciplined empire
that was the Soviet Union and its bloc may have been more merciful than the
emerging chaotic empire with its Iranian center. There, weapons were chief among
the many sources of power and tyranny. Here, all power is derived from weaponry,
with only the void by its side: in this empire’s shadows, all the Lebanese are
undergoing an economic collapse, political impasse, and disassociation from the
world, in addition to the crime of nearly nuclear proportions that struck their
port in Beirut. All of this is being experienced as if it were without a reason
or source. But mind you: we still have one thing; it’s called resistance, and it
is supposed to compensate for losing all those other things!
Going back to the cultural milieu in particular, we can notice that, not far
from Haret Hriek (a neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs), Lokman Slim’s
resting place, universities, research centers, media outlets, and publishing
houses are being killed, each in their own way, but all of them breathe under
this empire’s shadow, which has had a divergently decisive role in each
assassination, either direct or indirect.
Amid this plight, and in the midst of the total absence of law and
accountability, demands for “international protection” have begun to reverberate
in Lebanon, with little confidence in the potential for its materialization,
multiplying the pain and adding bitterness to it.
Lokman Slim’s assassination stirred up this demand that is being circulated
among intellectuals, journalists, and writers, adding it to demands that had
been determined and circulated before it, like the adoption of neutrality and
the internationalization of Lebanon, and before them, the International
Tribunal. The dominant sentiment is that everything local does not protect: the
state, its laws, and its judicial apparatus have done everything needed to
entrench this conviction. The precedents are too many to count.
Many have become sure that the source of the solution, if it is a solution, can
only come from the world outside. And if it doesn’t come now, then it may come
tomorrow.
As they waited for that tomorrow, the Czech intellectuals “betrayed” “the
socialist homeland” defending a free homeland that became equated with free
culture. This “betrayal” came through emigrating, as those who could emigrate
did, or with intentions to do so, as those who couldn’t did. Those who were
thrown into a prison, a sanatorium, or unemployment, went about masterfully
imagining another country, one where freedom pervades and the decisions that
shape their lives are made by Czechs, not the patriarchal center in Moscow.
Twenty years later, this center fell, and those “traitors” regained their
homeland and their freedom. Many of Lebanon’s intellectuals are “betraying” this
senseless, criminal patriotism, either by immigrating or wishing to do so, but
also by mastering the art of imaging a country that is a homeland, where the
empire of the silencer and accusations of treachery collapses.
Today, the cultural milieu is saying it is not among the worshipers of the
nation when it becomes a sanctuary for obedience that punishes freedom, and that
it is not among the worshipers of liberation when it becomes a shortcut for a
choice between being enslaved and being murdered. In the meantime, imaginations
run far and wide, unbounded by bogus sacred limits or a border that splits the
inside from the outside. Here, a battle is being fought for the homeland,
freedom, and culture simultaneously.
Yemen, the Decision-Maker and the Proxy
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat/ February 15/2021
Years ago in Paris, Abdel Halim Khaddam was defending the image of al-Assad the
father as if he was defending his life and experience. His words caught my
attention. He said that Hafez al-Assad used to make accurate calculations before
getting involved in relationships… that he thought carefully about their outcome
on Syria’s role and interests and was obsessed with preventing any regional or
international party from taking control over his country’s decision-making.
I asked him about the relations with the Soviet Union, and he said that the
latter provided arms to the Syrian army, as part of an alliance based on the
balance between the interests of the two parties.
He stressed that the ally could express and defend his opinion and reject what
violates his interests; whereas, the agent is just a tool, who is obliged to
play roles that are not always for the best of his country. He gave the example
of Mengistu’s role in Ethiopia.
Khaddam said that the Syrian regime did not fall in the wake of the collapse of
the Soviet Union for many reasons, including that it was neither an agent nor a
follower of the Soviet policy. He noticed that Assad was deliberately sending
messages to the West through some Lebanese and regional channels, stating that
talking to Damascus via Moscow was not the most feasible way, because the Syrian
capital has its own voice and can be addressed directly.
Khaddam delved into the discussion about the decision-maker and the agent. He
pointed out that the latter loses the last say, whether in determining his
country’s fate or in making decisions of war and peace.
The story of the decision-maker and the proxy reminds us of several examples in
our region. But the first thing that comes to mind is the developments in Yemen.
Despite the Joe Biden administration’s clear interest in stopping the war in
Yemen, and taking some steps that it deems useful in this direction, the current
round of escalation launched by the Houthis raises the abovementioned issue.
Calls are mounting for a peaceful solution to end the war in Yemen, based on a
settlement that suits all parties. The concerned countries, led by Saudi Arabia,
are showing a desire to support an adequate solution. However, the Houthis’
response does not change, which is an attempt to use the arsenal placed at their
disposal to target civilian facilities in Saudi Arabia, such as Abha
International Airport. It is as if the Houthis are reminding us that their role
is limited to escalation, and that the parties seeking a solution must resort to
another address, meaning Tehran.
More than ever, the situation in Yemen is crystallizing. The behavior of the
Houthi leadership and the use of missiles and car bombs, explain in part why the
Yemen war initially broke out. It erupted because a minority carried out a coup
that overthrew the legitimacy, with the aim of turning Yemen into a focal point
for Iran’s project aimed at surrounding the influential countries in the region,
especially Saudi Arabia.
The infiltration that took place in Yemen appeared to be an Iranian attempt to
compensate for the failure of its attempt to surround Saudi Arabia through
Bahrain. Observers of the course of military and political developments over the
past six years realize that the Houthi proxy is pushing Yemen into a project
that is beyond its ability to bear. The picture is really bleak. Yemen has an
arsenal of missiles that exceeds the number of its universities, hospitals and
clinics. It has ranks of young people who are led by poverty or misinformation
into engaging in a war that only deepens the impasse in their country. The
Houthi leadership has a handful of slogans that it raises and chants, without
being aware of its lack of relevance to reality.
It is indeed a tragedy for the organization to chant “Death to America”, and
forget that it does not inflict death on anyone but its own people. We recall
here that Castro’s Cuba, which consolidated decades of hatred towards the
“American enemy” and collected billions of dollars for assuming the role of the
Soviet proxy, is now looking forward to better relations with the “enemy of the
people” and demanding the removal of obstacles to better exchange and
interaction. Another example worth paying attention to. No one fought the
Americans the way the Vietnamese people did. They achieved victory and forced
the US forces to leave. And here they are the heirs of General Giab, waiting for
opportunities to improve relations with the “Great Satan” and dreaming of
investors and tourists. They also long for some military cooperation with
America, so that they do not remain an easy prey, threatened to be swallowed up
if the lust for control strikes the Chinese giant.
This is a different world. A world of interests, numbers, opportunities and
improving people’s lives, not a world of hiding behind hollow slogans. Yemen,
which is under the grip of the Houthi coup, does not in any way resemble
Castro’s Cuba. It is not at all similar to the country of Ho Chi Minh. We will
not detail all the differences. Castro was the leader of a revolution that made
Cubans hopeful. His national legitimacy preceded any other characteristic. The
role of agent came due to the necessities of the confrontation with America. The
same can be said of the Vietnamese regime, which reunified the country.
The Houthis’ Yemen is something else. The primary reason for the current
situation in the group’s assumption of the role of proxy in the Iranian agenda,
which expanded its attack in the region, especially after the American army
toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Yemen deserves a chance to catch a breath and ease the pain of war. This country
needs to compensate for lost decades, and to overcome the disastrous effects of
the Houthi adventure.
But the observers of the recent developments feel that the US special envoy to
Yemen, Timothy Lenderking, will discover what his UN predecessor, Martin
Griffiths, knew for certain: the purpose of the Houthi missiles is to speed up
the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran, and Washington’s return to the
nuclear agreement. Trying to discuss a solution with the proxy is a problem, but
accepting a solution - the conditions of which were set by the decision-maker -
is a tragedy.
Hostility to the Trump administration is not policy
Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/February 15/2021
It is not possible to imagine US foreign policy in light of the current
administration’s desire to settle scores with the previous administration.
here is no point for US President Joe Biden’s administration’s policies to
remain solely focused on exacting revenge against the former administration of
Donald Trump. In clear terms, policy will not be effective when it is based on
hostility to everything that the previous administration did. That
administration was already held accountable by the American people for the
mistakes it made on election day. November 3 was the day the majority of voters
decided to punish Trump for his behaviour at home.
As long as the Biden administration’s policies continue to be driven by a Trump
administration complex, matters at home and abroad are likely to remain in
limbo. On the external front, it will be particularly difficult to build a
coherent policy without acknowledging that the Trump team, headed by US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has contributed to shedding many complexes and
breaking past a few red lines that were previously thought to be impervious to
transgression. It is true that the Trump administration was bad for the
Palestinians, but it is also true that the Palestinian leadership shot itself in
the foot by believing that boycotting America was an option and that it had what
it takes to influence the Trump administration.
In the end, Israel’s permanent goal is to sever the relationship between the
Palestinian leadership and Washington. It was possible, despite all that Trump
and those around him did, to preserve a thin connecting line between Washington
and Ramallah. One must recognise that there was a need to break the mould
considering the new facts born from direct Iranian threats to the countries of
the region, whether in the Gulf or the rest of the Middle East.
Iran boasted, starting in September 2014, after the Houthis (a.k.a Ansar Allah)
laid their hands on Sana’a, that it was in control of four Arab capitals —
namely Sana’a, Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut. The spokesmen for the “Islamic
Republic” went so far as to brag that Iran had become a world power, given that
it also controlled two strategic straits — Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb.
Fortunately, it found an Arab force capable of keeping it away from Bab
al-Mandeb in Yemen. Whoever controls Bab al-Mandeb and the Yemeni port of Mokha
controls navigation in the Red Sea, as well as shipping lanes leading to the
Suez Canal. Peace agreements signed by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain with
Israel did not come out of a vacuum. Oman preceded them by receiving Israeli
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Muscat in the days of Sultan Qaboos bin
Said.
Likewise, Sudan could not wait too long as it worked to return to the
international community and shed the inhibitions stemming from international
sanctions imposed on the regime of former leader Omar al-Bashir.
The Trump administration played an active role in facilitating everything that
would create a new situation in the region after Tehran crossed all red lines in
dealing with the countries of the Middle East and the Gulf, especially after
turning part of Yemen’s north into an Iranian missile base.
On top of all of that, the Trump administration acted in a civilised manner in
dealing with the contrived problem imposed on the Moroccan Sahara. It recognised
Moroccan sovereignty over Moroccan land, nothing more, nothing less. How is the
United States to blame if there is an Algerian regime that suffers from a
Moroccan complex, a regime that believes that escaping its borders guarantees
its continued rule considering its inability to reconcile itself with its own
people first? There is an artificial problem between Algeria and Morocco that
has been around since 1975. There is a practical solution on the table, which is
the autonomy formula proposed by Morocco within the framework of expanded de-centralisation.
The Algerian regime wants the problem to remain unresolved indefinitely so that
it can continue to oppress its people and deprive them of the country’s riches
under the pretext of endeavouring to enable a particular people to exercise
their right to self-determination? One cannot ignore that the Trump
administration has accomplished a number of achievements by breaking free of
closed circles… even if it made mistakes that led to its resounding defeat to
Biden. But it is not true that tearing up the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 was a
bad thing after all.
The Biden administration should admit that what the Trump team, not Trump
himself, did was a gigantic move against Iran’s expansionist project in the
entire region, a project that threatens anything Arab there.
This is made clear by the impact of the Iranian project in Iraq, Syria and
Lebanon, which aims to destroy state institutions through armed sectarian
militias affiliated with Tehran. Once again, there are good qualities to the
Trump administration and there are grave mistakes it committed, too. In fact,
Trump himself is not to be credited for the good qualities in question,
especially those inherent to his foreign policy. The former US president did not
know much about what was going on in the Middle East, the Gulf and North Africa.
There was a working group whose skills cannot be underestimated, even if it is
possible to criticise its bias towards Israel and its right-wing slant,
especially with regard to the issues of settlements and Jerusalem.
However, the question that arises in the end is: Can a policy be based simply on
objecting to everything the Trump administration stood for? Can this be called
politics? Reactions cannot constitute a policy. There is no doubt that Trump was
a temperamental person in many cases who was difficult to deal with or work
with, but the decisions his administration made on certain issues and in certain
parts of the world were bold steps that required an out of the ordinary
personality. There is nothing wrong with keeping the good and dispensing with
the bad parts of the Trump administration’s legacy.
In any case, one will need to wait a little longer before finding out whether
the new US administration will remain captive to the previous administration or
fashion a creative policy based on the fact that Biden knows the world much
better than his predecessor.
Russia refuses to play Iran’s political games
Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami/Arab News/February 15/2021
The first foreign trip made by Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher
Ghalibaf last week turned out to be both a PR disaster and an embarrassment,
sparking massive controversy across Iran and a barrage of public criticism and
mockery targeting Ghalibaf and the Tehran regime.
This was because Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to meet with Ghalibaf
at the Kremlin, where the speaker had planned to hand over a letter to Putin
from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The primary objective of the letter was
reportedly to emphasize the strategic nature of relations between Iran and
Russia and the need to ensure that these relations continue on solid, long-term
foundations for the coming 20 or 50 years, covering the political, economic and
military spheres and all other vital areas of cooperation.
In addition to the declared objective of Ghalibaf’s visit, it also apparently
had other, more covert goals, such as reassuring the Russian leadership that
Iran will take the Kremlin’s interests into account during any negotiations
regarding the 2015 nuclear agreement with the new US administration, as well as
seeking to allay Russian concerns about any potential Iranian-Western
rapprochement in the future.
Ghalibaf first expressed his desire to visit Moscow and meet with President
Putin more than two months ago. However, the Kremlin did not include this visit
in its schedule, citing health reasons following the outbreak of coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) cases among several Iranian lawmakers. Ghalibaf’s visit to
Russia was conditioned on him undergoing two COVID-19 tests before he would be
allowed to meet with Putin. The first would be conducted in Tehran and the
second on his arrival in Moscow.
The Iranian side did not make any official comment on Putin’s refusal to meet
with Ghalibaf. However, Tehran attempted to mitigate the intense embarrassment
it suffered by shifting the focus away from this humiliation. It raised another
issue instead, namely lodging an official message of complaint to Moscow in
protest at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s use of the term “Arabian Gulf” rather
than “Persian Gulf” on its website.
This Iranian reaction proves that the regime lacks the capability to
diplomatically express any concern it has or diplomatically embrace Moscow’s
shifting positions, to say the least. Maybe this is because Tehran is well aware
that the objective and timing of Ghalibaf’s visit were thoroughly ill-conceived
and completely wrong.
The Iranian leadership’s choice of Ghalibaf for this visit was so puzzling that
local media outlets raised multiple questions about why he, rather than Foreign
Minister Javad Zarif or one of the country’s senior diplomats, was selected for
such a sensitive diplomatic task. A seasoned diplomat could have handled the
situation much better and allowed the Iranian regime to save face.
Some have suggested that the principal reason for the Iranian leadership’s
insistence on entrusting Ghalibaf with the visit was his standing as one of
Khamenei’s closest confidants and one of the primary candidates for the coming
presidential election, which is scheduled to be held in June. If so, this
indicates that Khamenei has once again proven to the world that he has little
interest in diplomatic protocols or upholding his country’s international
repute. His primary interest is to ensure the implementation of his policies.
The supreme leader apparently deliberately shunned the customary diplomatic
channels for delivering official letters in order to polish Ghalibaf’s image and
begin his preparations for the presidential election through sending him on a
prestigious foreign visit. The plan was to bolster his reputation and encourage
greater public support among Iranian voters.
After it became clear that Ghalibaf had been given the cold shoulder by Putin,
his advisers attempted to salvage the situation by claiming that the speaker had
not agreed to the health procedures stipulated by the Kremlin and was simply
traveling to Moscow to deliver Khamenei’s letter to Putin’s representative.
However, it seems that this claim is dishonest, since the health procedures did
not prevent Putin from meeting with several other foreign officials during the
same period. Indeed, it was clear from the beginning that Putin would decline to
meet Ghalibaf despite the diplomatic crisis it would cause.
It is possible that Putin believed Ghalibaf wished to use his visit to promote
his potential presidential campaign, with Russia wishing to avoid accusations of
interfering in Iranian affairs by polishing his image and elevating his
credentials.
Iran has experienced such behavior from Russia in the past. Putin has not met
with Zarif during any of his 30 visits to Moscow, even though he met with a
number of European foreign ministers, as well as his counterparts from the US,
Saudi Arabia and Turkey during their visits to the Russian capital.
Putin refused to meet with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf
at the Kremlin.
This cold Russian attitude toward Iran — a country that is among Russia’s
closest allies — seems to spring from Putin’s awareness of the Iranian regime’s
weakened state, which has left it mired in political and economic crises and
compelled it to uphold relations with Moscow and coordinate with it on several
issues. This situation has been brought about by Tehran’s radical policies,
which have contributed to making it one of the most isolated regimes in the
world. Given these circumstances, Putin is aware that he has the upper hand and
sees no reason to play along with Khamenei’s political games and fulfill
Ghalibaf’s political and diplomatic wishes and aspirations.
*Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami is President of the International Institute for Iranian
Studies (Rasanah). Twitter: @mohalsulami