English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 04/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

#elias_bejjani_news
 

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Bible Quotations For today

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 04/18-25/:”As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 03-04/2020

Health Ministry: 2520 new cases of Corona, 10 deaths
Abi Hanna to NNA: Pfizer vaccine is effective
France Renews Efforts as Senate Delegation Expected in Beirut
Al-Rahi Urges Aoun, Hariri to Take 'Responsible, Brave Decision'
Rahi decorates Abu Sharaf with honor shield
Blasts Rock Fuel Depot on Lebanese-Syrian Border
Nasrallah: Iranian General's Remarks Distorted, Iran Itself to Avenge Soleimani
Hizbullah Commemorates Soleimani, al-Muhandis in Symbolic Event
Aoun Responds to Iranian General's Remarks about Lebanon
LF Officials Criticize Aoun's Response to Iranian Remarks
FPM Comments on Top Iranian General's Remarks
Hariri's Advisor: Lebanon will not be the confrontation front line on Iran's behalf!
Ahmed Qabalan: No Sovereignty without Soleimani's Missiles
Lebanese decry Hezbollah’s erection of Soleimani posters, monuments in Beirut suburbs
Jumblat Suggests Staying Out of Govt. Led by 'Defiance Camp'
Lebanon bridles at Iranian air chief’s remarks on missiles and sovereignty
Lebanon has no partner in defending sovereignty: Aoun
Lebanon should embrace international experts amid political paralysis/Rami Rayess/Al Arabiya/January 03/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 03-04/2020

Pope criticises people going on holiday to flee COVID lockdowns
Israel dismisses ‘nonsense’ Iran charge it seeks to trick US into war
Three Executed in Iran for 'Terrorist' Acts and Murder
Dozen U.S. Senators Plan to Oppose Biden Certification
Iraq wants US, Iran to respect its sovereignty a year after Soleimani’s killing
Anti-U.S. Chants as Iraqis Mourn Commanders Killed a Year Ago
Pope Accepts Resignation of Archbishop who Slammed Belarus Govt.
Aden International Airport Receives 1st Flight Since Deadly Attack
Yemen PM Launches Battle for Reform with Central Bank
Turkey Continues to Send Weapons, Mercenaries to Libya, EU Report Says
Anti-US Chants as Iraqis Mourn Commanders Killed a Year Ago
25 Cases of COVID-19 Among Palestinian Detainees in Israeli Prison
Arafat’s Widow Refuses to Accuse Israel of Killing Her Husband Without Evidence
Palestine's Abbas Hails Haniyeh’s Reconciliation Letter
Egypt Approves Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 Vaccine
Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan Resume Talks over GERD
Sudanese Public Prosecution Detains Two Senior Forensic Specialists
Two Algerian Soldiers Killed in Clash With Extremists
 

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 03-04/2020

US: "Not Now One of the World's Better-Functioning Democracies"/Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute/January 03/2021
A New Year: Better or Less Bad?/Amir Taheri/Asharq al-Awsat/January 03/2021
Mossad chiefs: Iran may avenge Soleimani killing after Biden inauguration/Yonah Jeremy Bob/The Jerusalem Post/January 03/2021
Iran regime’s bleak prospects after damaging 2020/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 03/ 2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 03-04/2020

Health Ministry: 2520 new cases of Corona, 10 deaths
NNA/January 03/2021 
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Saturday, that 2520 new Corona cases have been reported, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 186,408.
It also indicated that 10 death cases were also registered during the past 24 hours

Abi Hanna to NNA: Pfizer vaccine is effective
NNA/January 03/2021 
Head of the Bacterial Diseases Department at Rafic Hariri University Hospital, Dr. Pierre Abi Hanna, denied, in a phone call to the National News Agency, the ineffectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine. "What is being circulated through social networking sites about the ineffectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine is incorrect, especially since many studies have proven the effectiveness of the vaccine and that it has no serious side effects," he said. Abi Hanna indicated that the situation is difficult, as there are patients who can hardly find places in hospitals, and others are waiting for their turn in the emergency unit.

France Renews Efforts as Senate Delegation Expected in Beirut
Naharnet/January 03/2021
France has renewed its efforts regarding Lebanon in a bid to protect the Lebanese situations from the repercussions of the U.S. presidency dilemma and its possible consequences across the region, informed sources said. “In this regard, a delegation from the French senate will arrive in Beirut on Wednesday to hold talks with Lebanese officials and other figures including spiritual leaders, topped by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, with the aim of urging everyone to pacify the domestic situation in the face of the U.S. presidential storm,” the sources told Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper in remarks published Sunday.“The French embassy in Beirut has taken appointments for the delegation with the figures that they intend to meet,” the sources added.

Al-Rahi Urges Aoun, Hariri to Take 'Responsible, Brave Decision'
Naharnet/January 03/2021
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday called on President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri to take a “responsible and brave decision” regarding the formation of the new government. “The government will only be formed if the president and the PM-designate meet and agree on the formation of a special government enjoying true independence and democratic and pluralistic balance,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon. The new cabinet should comprise “ministers who are highly competent in their fields and who have patriotic knowledge about public affairs,” the patriarch added. “The president and the PM-designate are capable of taking this responsible and brave decision if they push away burdens and pressures, rise above shares and portfolios, block the various domestic and foreign interferences and focus solely on Lebanon’s interest,” al-Rahi explained.

Rahi decorates Abu Sharaf with honor shield
NNA/January 03/2021
Head of the Order of Physicians, Sharaf Abu Sharaf, received from Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Beshara Boutros Rahi, an honorary shield, in recognition of the Syndicate's efforts. Abu Sharaf, who briefed Rahi on the healthcare sector situation in Lebanon and the coronavirus pandemic, urged all citizens to demonstrate maximum levels of cooperation and commitment to preventive measures and to stay at home, restricting any outside movement or activity to strict necessity only, so as to reduce the number of infections and maintain their health safety and that of their families in wake of this serious epidemiological challenge. Finally, he indicated the necessity to impose a general lockdown, as there are no longer empty beds in hospitals nor in intensive care to receive patients.

Blasts Rock Fuel Depot on Lebanese-Syrian Border
Naharnet/January 03/2021
Blasts rocked a fuel depot on the Lebanese-Syrian border on Sunday evening, leaving ten people wounded. “Ten people were wounded in the fuel depot explosion in the town of al-Qasr, seven of whom were transferred to hospital and three were treated on the scene,” Lebanese Red Cross chief Georges Kettaneh told LBCI TV, adding that a missing person has been found. Military sources meanwhile told the TV network that the depots are located near the Lebanese border but inside Syrian territory, noting that no Lebanese soldiers were injured in the incident. Al-Jadeed TV said the “major blast” ripped through a warehouse containing fuel and gas tanks. Informed sources meanwhile told MTV that “the fire and blasts that the border town of al-Qasr has witnessed likely resulted from Israeli bombing, especially that they coincided with intensive low-altitude overflights by Israeli enemy warplanes over several Lebanese regions.”“The fire site contains diesel and gas tanks owned by a Lebanese person from the Obeid family and he is close to Hizbullah and runs a fuel smuggling route from Lebanon to Syria,” the sources added. “Years ago, Obeid turned from a truck driver into a wealthy man and he deals with several fuel companies in Lebanon. He purchases fuel from them, stores it and then smuggles it to Syrian territory through several means,” the sources went on to say.

Nasrallah: Iranian General's Remarks Distorted, Iran Itself to Avenge Soleimani
Naharnet/January 03/2021
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah noted Sunday that Lebanese media outlets have “distorted and falsified” remarks about Lebanon by a top Iranian general. “He did not say that we are a frontline for Iran but rather a frontline for confronting the Israeli occupation,” Nasrallah said in a televised address marking the first anniversary of the assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. “Some excel in falsification and the distortion of statements,” Nasrallah lamented. The remarks by Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the chief of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, have stirred controversy in Lebanon, drawing several responses including from President Michel Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement, who are key allies of Iran-backed Hizbullah. “All the missile capabilities that Gaza and Lebanon possess were achieved through Iran’s support. They are the frontline for the confrontation,” Hajizadeh said in remarks to al-Manar TV. Remembering Soleimani, Nasrallah said that “in Lebanon, we are concerned with thanking and appreciating the person who stood by us ever since the Israeli invasion.”“I ask the Lebanese people who supported Lebanon in liberating its land? Who stood by the Lebanese and protected and defended them? Who supplied them with arms to achieve the 2000 liberation?” he added. “Since the year 2000, the resistance has been protecting Lebanon against the Israeli enemy through the golden equation,” Nasrallah went on to say. Stressing that “Iran's support for the resistance in Lebanon is not conditional,” Hizbullah’s leader pointed out that it is aimed at “defending Lebanon's land and sovereignty.” “We are among the must independent resistance movements in history,” he said. He added: “If there is a chance to benefit from the oil and gas, this will only happen through the blessings and missiles of the resistance.”As for the possible retaliation to Soleimani’s 2020 killing in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq, Nasrallah said: “Some suppose that Iran will rely on its so-called proxies and friends in retaliating to Soleimani's assassination but this is not true... Iran is not weak, Iran is strong and it can retaliate at the appropriate time.”

Hizbullah Commemorates Soleimani, al-Muhandis in Symbolic Event
Associated Press/January 03/2021
Hizbullah on Sunday marked the anniversary of the killing of Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis with a symbolic event on a hill in south Lebanon overlooking the border area with Israel. A group of Hizbullah fighters dressed in military uniforms swore the oath of Hizbullah while officials raised the group's yellow flag with posters of Soleimani and al-Muhandis on it. Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to deliver a televised speech marking the anniversary later Sunday. Soleimani, a powerful Iranian general who led the country’s elite Quds Force, and al-Muhandis, a top Iraqi paramilitary leader, were killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq a year ago. The assassination operation at Baghdad's airport pushed Tehran and Washington perilously close to all-out conflict and sparked outrage in Iraq, leading parliament to pass a non-binding resolution days later calling for the expulsion of all foreign troops from Iraq. The anniversary of the assassinations is being marked amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. in the final days of President Donald Trump's administration.

Aoun Responds to Iranian General's Remarks about Lebanon
Naharnet/January 03/2021
President Michel Aoun on Sunday stressed that Lebanon has sovereignty over its border and territory, in an apparent response to controversial remarks by a top Iranian general. “The Lebanese have no partner in preserving their country’s independence, its sovereignty over its border and territory, and the freedom of its decision,” Aoun said in a tweet. Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the chief of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, had told Hizbullah’s al-Manar TV on Saturday that “all the missile capabilities that Gaza and Lebanon possess were achieved through Iran’s support.”“They are the frontline for the confrontation” against Israel, he added.

LF Officials Criticize Aoun's Response to Iranian Remarks
Naharnet/January 03/2021
A number of officials from the Lebanese Forces party on Sunday criticized President Michel Aoun’s response to controversial remarks by a top Iranian general. “Where is the General Michel Aoun whom I know regarding freedom, sovereignty and independence?” ex-minister Richard Kouyoumjian, head of the LF foreign relations dept., tweeted. “Mr. President, your tenure has turned into another Iranian model, like al-Huthi in Yemen, al-Maliki in Iraq and Bashar in Syria. Do you know that the least that is being said today is that Lebanon has turned into a failed, violated, isolated and bankrupt state where unemployment, poverty, disease and misery are prevalent?” Kouyoumjian added. Ex-MP Fadi Karam, the secretary of the LF-led Strong Republic bloc, meanwhile told Aoun in a tweet that his political movement is “still labeling as resistance… the mini-state that is loyal to the Iranian project.”
“This means that you have definitely renounced Lebanese sovereignty, so it would be more honorable for you to refrain from fictional statements,” Karam added. “There should not be resistance weapons outside of the army’s arsenal. We totally understand that you are not free and that you have exchanged keenness on sovereignty for a few posts,” the LF official went on to say. MP Pierre Bou Assi of the LF for his part said that Aoun should have said that “there is no partner for the Lebanese state in preserving the country’s independence and sovereignty over its border and territory.”
Aoun had earlier tweeted that “the Lebanese have no partner in preserving their country’s independence, its sovereignty over its border and territory, and the freedom of its decision.” His tweet came in response to remarks by Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the chief of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran. Hajizadeh told Hizbullah’s al-Manar TV on Saturday that “all the missile capabilities that Gaza and Lebanon possess were achieved through Iran’s support.”
“They are the frontline for the confrontation” against Israel, he added.

FPM Comments on Top Iranian General's Remarks
Naharnet/January 03/2021
The Free Patriotic Movement on Sunday stressed that any support for Lebanon should not be “conditional on giving up national sovereignty,” in an apparent response to remarks by a top Iranian general. In a statement issued by its media committee, the FPM emphasized “the right of the Lebanese to defend their sovereignty, land and resources in the face of any aggression, be it by Israel or other parties.”“The Lebanese are concerned with preserving Lebanon’s freedom, decision, sovereignty and independence, and the resistance that the Lebanese practice in defense of their land should always serve these goals exclusively,” the FPM said. “Any support that they receive should not be conditional on giving up national sovereignty or getting entangled in things that do not concern them,” the FPM added. Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the chief of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, had told Hizbullah’s al-Manar TV on Saturday that “all the missile capabilities that Gaza and Lebanon possess were achieved through Iran’s support.”“They are the frontline for the confrontation” against Israel, he added.

Hariri's Advisor: Lebanon will not be the confrontation front line on Iran's behalf!
NNA/January 03/2021
"Some Iranian officials insist on dealing with Lebanon as an Iranian province and are trying to plunge the Lebanese people into the Iranian regime's open wars with the international community," tweeted Advisor to Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, Hussein al-Wajeh, today. He continued, "Lebanon has not and will not be the front line in the confrontation on behalf of Iran. The Lebanese will not pay any price on behalf of the Iranian regime. Lebanon is an Arab country committed to the charters of the Arab League and it is sovereign, free and independent."

Ahmed Qabalan: No Sovereignty without Soleimani's Missiles
Naharnet/January 03/2021
Senior Shiite cleric Sheikh Ahmed Qabalan stressed Sunday that Lebanon can have no sovereignty without “Qasem Soleimani’s missiles,” amid controversy over remarks by a top Iranian general. “The behavior of some Lebanese is very strange. As this camp bows to the U.S. ambassador and calls on (French President Emmanuel) Macron to reinstate the mandate over Lebanon…, it blusters about defending sovereignty, which it turned into humiliation, murder and militia fiefdoms during the era of the Israeli occupation,” Qabalan said. “Although Qasem Soleimani’s missiles and the resistance’s arming capabilities from Tehran are what settled the battles of liberation, confirmed Lebanon’s sovereignty and regained its decision for nothing in return, some see sovereignty through the eye of Awkar (U.S. embassy), the checkpoints of slaughter, the autonomous administration of extortion and subservience to black (oil) money,” the Shiite cleric added, in an apparent jab at the Lebanese Forces party and reference to some civil war practices. “There can be no sovereignty without Qasem Soleimani’s missiles and you are responsible for robbing the country, leading it into bankruptcy and bargaining over its regional files, not the missiles of Qasem Soleimani who contributed to liberation and backed the resistance that recovered the country,” Qabalan went on to say. Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the chief of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, had told Hizbullah’s al-Manar TV on Saturday that “all the missile capabilities that Gaza and Lebanon possess were achieved through Iran’s support.”“They are the frontline for the confrontation” against Israel, he added. His remarks have been slammed by several Lebanese parties and figures.

Lebanese decry Hezbollah’s erection of Soleimani posters, monuments in Beirut suburbs
Rawad Taha, Al Arabiya English Sunday 03 January 2021
The installation of many billboards showing slain Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in the predominantly Iran-backed Hezbollah-controlled areas of Lebanon has sparked criticism by Lebanese who took to social media to protest Iran’s influence in the country. This week marks the one-year anniversary of the assassination of Iran’s top general and a senior Iraqi militia leader in a US drone strike in Iraq. Iran heavily backs and supports the Hezbollah Shia militant group in Lebanon.

Jumblat Suggests Staying Out of Govt. Led by 'Defiance Camp'
Naharnet/January 03/2021
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Sunday suggested that the Hizbullah-led camp should form the new government on its own.
“In my previous statement to al-Anbaa, I said that Iran was waiting to engage in dialogue with the new U.S. administration and that a government of specialists is some sort of heresy, which sparked an uproar,” Jumblat tweeted. “But today as the winds of confrontation blow from every direction, wouldn’t it be better to let the defiance camp be in charge of the country along with its partners?” Jumblat added.“Why should we get involved and participate while we will not have a say in anything?” the PSP leader went on to say, apparently referring to his party and to PM-designate Saad Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal Movement.

Lebanon bridles at Iranian air chief’s remarks on missiles and sovereignty
Najia Houssari/January 03/2021
BEIRUT: Lebanese reacted angrily on Sunday to an Iranian commander’s remarks about their missile capabilities and sovereignty, with people in a pro-Hezbollah town attempting to burn a picture of the slain Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani. Amir Ali Hajizadeh boasted on Saturday that Lebanon owed its missile capabilities to Iran and that the country was in the front line of Iran’s fight against Israel. “Tehran supports any party that stands against Israel,” he added. President Michel Aoun tweeted on Sunday that the Lebanese had “no partner” in protecting their country’s independence, sovereignty over its border and territory, and freedom of decision. But the mildness of his response — and its delay — was criticized by some media and public figures. The leading daily newspaper Al-Nahar called the Iranian stance “a very blatant breach challenging the principle of the sovereignty of Lebanon and a lack of respect to the minimal standards of dealings between states.”
The newspaper was surprised by Aoun’s initial silence on Hajizadeh’s remarks, while former MP Fares Souaid renewed his call for the president to resign. He said: “Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has announced its leadership of Lebanon’s missiles against Israel. Where is the Lebanese state? Mr. President, for the sake of your dignity and ours, resign.”Lebanon’s former ambassador to Jordan Tracy Chamoun, the granddaughter of former President Camille Chamoun, described Aoun’s response as “shy.”She said: “The foreign minister should summon the Iranian ambassador to answer to the matter and to be warned. If you are unable to uphold sovereignty, then at least save face.”
FASTFACTS
• President Michel Aoun tweeted on Sunday that the Lebanese had ‘no partner’ in protecting their country’s independence, sovereignty over its border and territory, and freedom of decision.
• The mildness of his response — and its delay — was criticized by some media and public figures.
Hezbollah hung pictures of Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike on Jan. 3, 2020, along the roads extending from the southern suburbs of Beirut to southern Lebanon and in the border town of Al-Khiam, which overlooks Israeli positions on the other side of the border.
But the act was criticized on social media. Former justice minister, Ashraf Rifi, said that naming Lebanese streets after the “leaders of vandalization and Iranian militias” did not represent Lebanon. He also described the hanging of the pictures as “an illegal and provocative act” that entrenched the image of Lebanon as a “prisoner of Iran.”
Hussein Al-Wajeh, who is a media affairs adviser to Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, said that Lebanon was not and would not be the front line for Iran’s battle. “The Lebanese will not pay any price on behalf of the Iranian regime. Despite this, some Iranian officials insist on considering Lebanon an Iranian province.”
Kataeb Party leader Sami Gemayel said that Lebanon and the Lebanese were “hostages” to Iran through Hezbollah. “They are using us as human shields in their battle, which has nothing to do with Lebanon.
“The president, the government, and parliament are false witnesses and they are covering the capture of Lebanon.”
Salam Yamout, head of the National Bloc Party, said that involving Lebanon in battles associated with regional disputes was a direct threat to the interests of the Lebanese and their battle to restore their sovereignty and dignity.

Lebanon has no partner in defending sovereignty: Aoun
The Daily Star/January 03, 2021
BEIRUT: President Michel Aoun Sunday said Lebanon had no partner in maintaining its independence and sovereignty, after a top Iranian commander claimed that Lebanon’s missile capabilities were a result of their support.
“Lebanese have no partner in maintaining the independence of their nation, its sovereignty on its borders, its land and freedom in decision-making,” Aoun said in a post on Twitter. His statement does not mention Iran, but comes one day after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said Lebanon’s missile capabilities were a result of Iranian support that serve their fight against Israel. The IRGC Aerospace chief, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, had told Al-Manar TV channel Saturday that the missile capabilities of Lebanon and Gaza were supported by Iran and were at the forefront of their line of confrontation with Israel. The Iranian commander’s comments came as he revealed that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had given an order to “destroy” Haifa and Tel Aviv if “any foolishness is committed against Iran.” IRGC Commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant were killed by a US strike last year on this day in Iraq. Trump had ordered the strike in response to the targeting of US interests in Iraq. The Free Patriotic Movement, the party founded by Aoun, also released a statement Sunday reaffirming the “right of Lebanese people to defend their sovereignty, land and resources in the face of any attack, by Israel or others.” “The resistance Lebanese practice in defense of their land should always serve this goal and not others,” the statement said. “Any support they [Lebanese] receive cannot be conditioned on letting go of national sovereignty,” the FPM said. These statements came after Lebanese leaders were harshly criticized by the public for remaining silent as Iran made those claims. Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon enjoys both political and military power and participates in wars and conflicts on behalf of Iran in countries such as in neighboring Syria.
 

Lebanon should embrace international experts amid political paralysis
Rami Rayess/Al Arabiya/January 03/2021
Lebanon continues to stagger on without a new cabinet in place. After almost four months on from the resignation of the incumbent government, the economy is in free fall. With no clear strategy forthcoming, is it time for the country to invite an international team of experts to help stop a complete catastrophe?
The economy is a disaster and poor governance over the years has resulted in billions of dollars wasted on poor infrastructure.
Utilities springs to mind, with electricity supply burdening the economy with billions of dollars in losses since 2005. The Lebanese economist Marwan Iskander estimated costs of $50 billion incurred over the last twelve years.
Infighting among Lebanese politicians highlights the country’s clear divisions that need to be surmounted to get the country on a clear, prosperous path.
With demand for the American dollar increasing, the Lira has slumped. What is the solution? No one in Lebanon seems capable of tackling the issue. Can the IMF help?
What exists of the economy is a damning indictment of the country’s politicians. The foreign policy is vague with no clear direction: Should the country ally with the East or the West? Should it restore relations with the Syrian regime? No one seems to know.
Lebanon has witnessed waves of refugees arrive from Syria, with an estimated 1.5 million already in the country. Top-down strategy and leadership are desperately needed to handle this issue.
Losing large numbers of the local population to brain drain, as they leave to pursue opportunities in other parts of the world in a bid to bring some stability to their lives, will have a severe impact on Lebanon’s future growth, hindering its economy further.
Coronavirus has only aggravated the situation further, leading to the closure of lots of businesses. Retail has been hit hard. With no official data published about the true scale of economic destruction, no less than fifty international brands have shut their doors and left Beirut.
Of course, Lebanon’s divided political community will not encourage the arrival of international economists, and other experts. Some might consider this part of a colonial imperialist conspiracy against the country, while others prefer to keep things as they are, and postpone reforms.
Last year’s port blast illustrated the resistance to international help. The Lebanese President and Iran-backed Hezbollah conspired to block all international investigation attempts of the world’s third biggest port explosion.
The idea of having the UN, IMF or similar organizations in Lebanon to bring stability on several fronts seems far-fetched, but it could be of real benefit to the country.
If the idea of inviting in experts that can help overcome economic problems builds traction, then it will ignite a new political conflict in the country.
When Hezbollah lifted its veto on negotiations with the IMF it paved the way for official talks that never reached a final conclusion. The reason was that Lebanon failed to present unified numbers for the IMF. Indicators and figures presented by the Central Bank were different from the ones presented by the Ministry of Finance. The cabinet resigned, putting the negotiation process on hold. It remains so.
The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jan Kubis, criticized the continued delay in forming the new cabinet and tweeted on Monday: “The economy and financial, banking system is in shambles, social peace starts to crumble down, security incidents on the rise, and the edifice of Lebanon is shaking on its foundations. And political leaders seem to wait for Biden. But this is Lebanon, not the USA.”
This tweet, after many others, reflects how the international community underestimates the capacities of the Lebanese politicians to resolve the current crisis and their reluctance to form a new cabinet.
Claims that it is not in the best interests of the President to sign the decree of cabinet formation because it does not grant him autonomy from the crippling third, a term referring to the process of 11 ministers of the 30 member cabinet resigning, triggering the resignation of the whole cabinet, and paralyzing the group from acting and blocking political action when the agenda does not suit those that resigned.
In the case of a Presidential vacuum, the incumbent cabinet takes over according to the Constitution. Collectively, the Council of Ministers exercise the executive authority fully, and earn the prerogatives usually granted to the President. The President himself, and his party (the Free Patriotic Movement), together with Hezbollah, will not accept granting the rights to the crippling third to other parties.
With all the accumulating problems in Lebanon, and in the absence of any potential political solutions the prospects for the country’s future appear dim.
As the French Initiative fades away as a practical solution, Lebanon should look beyond, and invite international experts to offer strategies that will get the country back on its feet.
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 03-04/2020

Pope criticises people going on holiday to flee COVID lockdowns
Reuters/January 03/2021
Pope Francis condemned on Sunday people who had gone abroad on holiday to escape coronavirus lockdowns, saying they needed to show greater awareness of the suffering of others. Speaking after his weekly noon blessing, Francis said he had read newspaper reports of people catching flights to flee government curbs and seek fun elsewhere. "They didn't think about those who were staying at home, of the economic problems of many people who have been hit hard by the lockdown, of the sick people. (They thought) only about going on holiday and having fun," the pope said. "This really saddened me," he said in a video address from the library of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace. The traditional Angelus blessing is normally given from a window overlooking St. Peter's Square, but it was moved indoors to prevent any crowds gathering and limit the spread of COVID-19."We don't know what 2021 will reserve for us, but what all of us can do together is make a bit more of an effort to take care of each other. There is the temptation to take care only of our own interests," he added. Many countries have imposed strict restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which has killed more than 84 million people worldwide, according to the latest Reuters tally.

Israel dismisses ‘nonsense’ Iran charge it seeks to trick US into war
Reuters/January 03/2021
JERUSALEM: An Israeli official on Sunday dismissed as “nonsense” an allegation by the Iranian foreign minister that Israel was trying to trick the United States into waging war on Iran. It was Israel that needed to be on alert for possible Iranian strikes on the one-year anniversary on Sunday of the assassination of Tehran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, in a US drone strike in Iraq, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Kan public radio. Washington blames Iran-backed militia for regular rocket attacks on US facilities in Iraq, including near the US embassy. No known Iran-backed groups have claimed responsibility. On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter: “New intelligence from Iraq indicate that Israeli agent-provocateurs are plotting attacks against Americans — putting an outgoing (President Donald) Trump in a bind with a fake casus belli.” “Be careful of a trap, @realDonaldTrump. Any fireworks will backfire badly, particularly against your same BFFs,” Zarif wrote, in what appeared to be a veiled threat against Israel. Steinitz said the remarks showed that Iran, after mounting US sanctions billed as curbing its nuclear program and involvement in regional conflict-zones, was “under pressure — economic pressure, and pressure in terms of national security.” “We hear this nonsense by Zarif, that Israel would set off terrorist attacks against the United States — this really is total nonsense,” Steinitz told Kan public radio. “But on the other hand it is a warning sign — a warning sign that Iran is taking aim at Israel, is looking for excuses to lash out at Israel, and therefore we need to have our finger on the pulse and be at the highest state of alert.”The US military flew two nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to the Middle East in a message of deterrence to Iran on Wednesday, but the bombers have since left the region. Interviewed separately on Kan, Israeli Culture Minister Chili Tropper, who like Steinitz sits in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, confirmed media reports that Israel was on heightened alert for the Soleimani anniversary.
Asked what possible Iranian reprisals Israel was anticipating, Tropper said: “I cannot comment.”

Three Executed in Iran for 'Terrorist' Acts and Murder
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
Iran's judiciary hanged two men on Sunday for "terrorist acts" and another for murder and armed robbery, the body's official Mizan Online news agency said. The three were executed early Sunday morning in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province. Two were named as Hassan Dehvari and Elias Qalandarzehi, arrested in April 2014 after being found with "a large amount of explosives" and weapons. The pair were convicted of the abduction, bombing, murder of security forces and civilians, and of working with the jihadist Jaish al-Adl ("Army of Justice") group, Mizan said. Dehvari and Qalandarzehi were also arrested in possession of documents from Jaish al-Adl on "how to make bombs" as well as "takfiri fatwas", terms used by Iran's Shiite authorities to refer to decrees issued by Sunni jihadists. Jaish al-Adl has carried out several high-profile bombings and abductions in Iran in recent years.
In February 2019, 27 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were killed in a suicide attack claimed by the group. Jaish al-Adl was formed in 2012 as a successor to Sunni extremist group Jundallah ("Soldiers of God"), which waged a deadly insurgency for a decade before it was severely weakened by the capture and execution of its leader Abdolmalek Rigi in 2010. The third man executed was named as Omid Mahmoudzehi. He was convicted of armed robbery and the murder of civilians, Mizan said.

Dozen U.S. Senators Plan to Oppose Biden Certification
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
A group of Republican senators led by veteran lawmaker Ted Cruz have said they will challenge Joe Biden's election win -- the latest last-ditch move to support Donald Trump's efforts to undermine the vote. The initiative, which appears certain to fail, flies in the face of rulings in dozens of courts and the findings by officials in several key states that there were no widespread voting problems. The Republicans' statement, signed by Cruz and six other current senators along with four senators-elect, asserts that "allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in our lifetimes."The group said that when Congress convenes in a joint session on Wednesday -- for what normally would be a pro-forma certification of Biden's victory -- they will demand the creation of a special commission to conduct an "emergency 10-day audit" of the election results. The statement says individual states could then convene special legislative sessions and potentially revise their vote totals. "An attempt to steal a landslide win. Can't let it happen!" Trump tweeted Saturday. Posting a list of the 11 senators, Trump added: "And after they see the facts, plenty more to come... Our Country will love them for it!" They join Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who said earlier that he planned to raise objections on Wednesday. A Republican member of the House of Representatives, Louie Gohmert, has also announced his plan to oppose certification, and more than 100 House Republicans reportedly will back his challenge. Gohmert sought to further raise the stakes with a lawsuit that would have given Vice President Mike Pence -- traditionally in a ceremonial role in Wednesday's session -- the power to overturn the election result.
Pence opposed that effort, and a federal judge in Texas on Friday rejected the suit. On Saturday, a federal appeals court upheld that dismissal. The Hawley and Gohmert challenges will ensure that Congress must meet to hear the complaints.
'The Electoral College has spoken'
The Congress sessions, sure to be contentious, will play out against a backdrop of pro-Trump rallies in Washington next week. As with Trump's other attempts to reverse his election defeat, the latest political maneuvering appears doomed. Democrats control the House, and many Republicans are expected to vote Wednesday for certification. The 11 senators conceded that most Democrats and "more than a few Republicans" would likely oppose their initiative. Among them is Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, a battleground state that helped Biden to victory. Its result is expected to be among those contested on Wednesday. "A fundamental, defining feature of a democratic republic is the right of the people to elect their own leaders," Toomey tweeted. "The effort by Sens. Hawley, Cruz, and others to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in swing states like Pennsylvania directly undermines this right."He added: "I voted for President Trump and endorsed him for re-election. But, on Wednesday, I intend to vigorously defend our form of government by opposing this effort to disenfranchise millions of voters in my state and others."Responding to Toomey late Saturday night Hawley criticized the "shameless personal attacks," and urged senators to avoid "making unfounded claims about the intentions of our fellow senators.""I never claim to speak for another senator, but I do speak for my constituents when they raise legitimate concerns about issues as important as the fairness of our elections," he said in a message to the Senate GOP conference, first reported by Politico. Earlier, Utah Senator Mitt Romney, a vocal Trump opponent, dismissed his colleagues' rationale as "nonsense.""The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic," Romney said. "Members of Congress who would substitute their own partisan judgment for that of the courts do not enhance public trust, they imperil it," he added. "Has ambition so eclipsed principle?"Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell also urged fellow Republicans to vote to certify and avoid a divisive political brawl. Pence, however, is reportedly encouraging lawmakers to debate the baseless accusations of voting irregularities. "Vice President Pence shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election," his chief of staff Marc Short said in a statement to U.S. news outlets.
Biden won in the all-important Electoral College by a vote of 306 to 232. Cruz is considered a likely 2024 presidential candidate. Hawley is also said to be positioning himself for a 2024 run -- and so is Pence.

Iraq wants US, Iran to respect its sovereignty a year after Soleimani’s killing
Ismaeel Naar/Al Arabiya English/Sunday 03 January 2021
Iraq has warned both the United States and Iran to respect its sovereignty, according to a statement from an Iraqi army official, as Baghdad marks the one-year anniversary of the US killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and an Iraqi militia commander.
“We do not want Iraq to be a starting point for striking neighboring countries. America and Iran must respect the sovereignty of Iraq,” the Iraqi News Agency quoted the spokesman for Iraq’s Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces as saying.
“The capabilities of the Iraqi army are very good, but it needs to strengthen the air defense capabilities. We are communicating with Syria to secure the borders. The sovereignty of Iraq is a red line for the armed forces. Any strike between America and Iran will be disastrous,” the statement from the spokesperson added. The statement from the Iraqi army comes as tens of thousands of supporters of Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitary groups chanted anti-American slogans in central Baghdad on Sunday to mark the one year since Soleimani was killed along with Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes on Jan. 3, 2020, in a US drone strike on his convoy at Baghdad airport.

Anti-U.S. Chants as Iraqis Mourn Commanders Killed a Year Ago
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
Thousands of Iraqi mourners Sunday condemned the "American occupiers", one year after a U.S. drone strike killed Iran's revered commander Qasem Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The anniversary of their deaths in Baghdad -- which brought arch enemies the United States and Iran to the brink of war -- was also marked in Iran and by supporters in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere. The lead-up to the commemorations of the Shiite Muslim commanders has again heightened regional tensions in the weeks before U.S. President Donald Trump, who ordered the killings, leaves the White House. In Iraq, the powerful pro-Iranian Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary network which Muhandis commanded has led the somber and angry vigils for him and General Soleimani, who headed the foreign operations arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Thousands of black-clad mourners Saturday night converged at the spot near Baghdad's international airport where the US hit the two vehicles and killed Soleimani, Muhandis and eight other men.
By candlelight, they honored their "martyrs" and condemned the American "great Satan" at the site where nearby walls are still pockmarked by shrapnel. "We tell America and the enemies of Islam that they can inflict the greatest sacrifices on us, but we will continue to resist despite the bloodshed," said Hashed supporter Batul Najjar. The Hashed -- factions of which Washington has blamed for rocket strikes against its embassy and troops in Iraq -- has increasingly challenged Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, whom it accuses of having helped plot the drone strikes.
This has brought to the boil once more tensions in the war-battered and politically fragile country which the United States invaded in 2003, and which is struggling with economic crisis amid low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic. - War of words - With more mass gatherings planned Sunday at Baghdad's central Tahrir Square, Ahmed Assadi, one of the leaders of Hashed's parliamentary bloc, vowed: "Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, we will go out by the millions to brandish your portrait on Tahrir".Giant posters of Soleimani and Muhandis were hung up above the iconic square, which in late 2019 became the center of large anti-government protests, from an abandoned building known as the Turkish restaurant. Amid the tensions, Iraqis, and many in the wider region, are nervously watching for any signs of escalation before Trump leaves the White House on January 20.
Trump confronted decades-old foe Iran by withdrawing in 2018 from its nuclear deal with world powers and launching a "maximum pressure" campaign to further economically punish and isolate the country.Trump recently tweeted that the US was hearing the "chatter of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq", and warned that "if one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over."In recent days, U.S. B-52 bombers have flown across the region for the second time in less than a month but, in what some read as a sign of deescalation, Washington has also reportedly ordered its Nimitz aircraft carrier to leave the Gulf. Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami vowed Saturday to respond to any "action the enemy takes", as he visited a strategic Gulf island. "We would respond with a reciprocal, decisive and strong blow to whatever action the enemy would take against us," Salami warned.
Iran and the United States -- bitter foes since the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution and the US embassy hostage crisis in Tehran -- have twice come to the brink of war since June 2019, most recently after Soleimani's killing. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday accused Trump of aiming to fabricate a "pretext for war", after the president blamed Tehran for a December 20 rocket strike on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. In the war of words, Zarif on Saturday also claimed that, in Iraq, "Israeli agent-provocateurs are plotting attacks against Americans (to put) Trump in a bind with a fake casus belli."

Pope Accepts Resignation of Archbishop who Slammed Belarus Govt.
Agence France Presse/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of the Catholic Archbishop of Minsk, the Vatican said on Sunday, after he spoke out against the Belarus government and violence against protestors. Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz was allowed to return to Belarus last month after being stopped from re-entering the country since August following a holiday in Poland where he called for the resignation of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. It was not immediately clear whether Kondrusiewicz' resignation was expected. The Vatican said in a short statement that the resignation was in accordance with a code that allows bishops to retire at age 75. While in Poland, Kondrusiewicz, who is a Belarus citizen, gave an interview to a radio station calling for an end to police violence against protesters and demanding the resignation of Lukashenko, who in August had won re-election in a vote the opposition said was rigged. Lukashenko, who faces ongoing protests by the opposition against his rule, accused Kondrusiewicz in November of plotting to "destroy the country".

Aden International Airport Receives 1st Flight Since Deadly Attack
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
A plane landed Sunday at the airport in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden, officials said, the first commercial flight to arrive since the deadly missile attack last week on the facility that killed at least 25 people and wounded 110 others. The attack Wednesday took place just moments after a plane carrying members of Yemen's Cabinet landed on a flight from the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh. Three precision-guided missiles that struck the airport targeted the plane carrying the Cabinet members, the arrival hall and the airport's VIP lounge, according to Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed.
On Sunday, the airport received a Yemenia airline flight arriving from Sudan’s capital Khartoum, according to Yemen's state-run SABA news agency. Yemeni Interior Minister Ibrahim Haidan and Aden Gov. Ahmed Lamlas were at the airport to receive the flight, the report said, according to The Associated Press. Haidan said the speedy reopening of the airport has underscored “the determination of the government to overcome obstacles and face the difficulties” caused by Wednesday’s attack.
The attack killed at least 25 people, including three workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross, and wounded 110 others. The Yemeni ministers were returning to Aden from Riyadh after being sworn in last week as part of a Cabinet reshuffle. The Cabinet reshuffle was part of a power-sharing deal between the legitimate government and the Southern Transitional Council. In this context, the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY) formed a team to assess the damage to the Aden airport. The SDRPY was coordinating efforts with the legitimate Yemeni government, local authorities and the airport administration. It also sent an engineering team that included contractors, consultants and technical experts.

Yemen PM Launches Battle for Reform with Central Bank
Aden – Ali Rabea/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
The Yemeni government has embarked on its battle to reform the economy through the Central Bank, four days after its arrival in the temporary capital, Aden, and following the attempt to assassinate its members in the Houthi missile attacks that targeted the airport on Wednesday. In his first economic move on Saturday, Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik stressed the importance of “accelerating the procedures for assigning an external audit team for the accounts of the Central Bank of Yemen, in line with transparency procedures and adopting the principle of governance and combating corruption, as a necessary step to ensure the continued application of international financial standards and rules.” Official sources said Abdulmalik chaired a meeting of the leadership of the Central Bank of Yemen, “to discuss the bank’s future plans and the need to invest the current opportunities in forming the government and the willingness of brothers and friends, especially the countries of the Coalition to Support Legitimacy, to back the national economy, continue measures to enhance confidence in the national currency and improve stability of the exchange rate, which directly affects the daily lives of citizens. In addition, the Minister of Transport in the Yemeni government, Abdul Salam Hamid, directed the return of air navigation and the operation of flights to Aden International Airport, starting Sunday, after it was suspended due to the attack on the airport. The Yemeni minister praised the efforts made by the aviation authority, the airport management, and the Saudi Program for the Development and Reconstruction of Yemen in equipping the airport and repairing the damage caused to it as a result of the attacks, in record time.

Turkey Continues to Send Weapons, Mercenaries to Libya, EU Report Says
Ankara - Saeed Abdul Razzak/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
European reports have revealed Saturday that Turkey is still sending weapons to Libya’s al-Watiya airbase in western Tripoli. Two cargo planes coming from Turkey landed in the airbase, Italian news agency Nova reported on Thursday.
According to the report, one of these aircraft carries advanced air defense systems, exclusively owned by NATO member states, while the second plane held a number of logistical materials and forces from Syrian armed factions loyal to Turkey as mercenaries to fight for the Government of National Accord (GNA). The Tripoli-based GNA and Turkey signed a number of security agreements last year, which paved the way for Ankara to send its own troops as well as Syrian mercenaries to fight with GNA against the Libyan National Army (LNA). Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) affirmed that Turkey is still keeping about 8,000 Syrian mercenaries in Libya despite the UN-brokered ceasefire agreement signed by the two warring parties in October 2020. SOHR Chief Rami Abdul Rahman said the Turkish mercenaries didn’t receive their full salaries promised by Ankara, which is estimated at $2000 to $3000. He pointed out that their leaders deduct large sums from their salaries before transferring them to their families in their home country. The number of recruits who arrived in Libya amounts to 18,000 Syrian mercenaries, including 350 children under the age of 18, of whom 10,750 returned to Syria after receiving their financial dues.

Anti-US Chants as Iraqis Mourn Commanders Killed a Year Ago
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
Thousands of Iraqi mourners Sunday condemned the "American occupiers", one year after a US drone strike killed Iran's revered commander Qasem Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The anniversary of their deaths in Baghdad -- which brought arch enemies the United States and Iran to the brink of war -- was also marked in Iran and by supporters in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and elsewhere. The lead-up to the commemorations of the Shiite Muslim commanders has again heightened regional tensions in the weeks before US President Donald Trump, who ordered the killings, leaves the White House. In Iraq, the powerful pro-Iranian Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary network, otherwise known as Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which Muhandis commanded has led the somber and angry vigils for him and General Soleimani, who headed the foreign operations arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Thousands of black-clad mourners Saturday night converged at the spot near Baghdad's international airport where the US hit the two vehicles and killed Soleimani, Muhandis, and eight other men. By candlelight, they honored their "martyrs" and condemned the American "great Satan" at the site where nearby walls are still pockmarked by shrapnel. The Hashed -- factions of which Washington has blamed for rocket strikes against its embassy and troops in Iraq -- has increasingly challenged Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, whom it accuses of having helped plot the drone strikes. This has brought to the boil once more tensions in the war-battered and politically fragile country which the United States invaded in 2003, and which is struggling with economic crisis amid low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic. Amid the tensions, Iraqis, and many in the wider region, are nervously watching for any signs of escalation before Trump leaves the White House on January 20. Trump confronted decades-old foe Iran by withdrawing in 2018 from its nuclear deal with world powers and launching a "maximum pressure" campaign to further economically punish and isolate the country.
Trump recently tweeted that the US was hearing the "chatter of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq", and warned that "if one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over." In recent days, US B-52 bombers have flown across the region for the second time in less than a month but, in what some read as a sign of de-escalation, Washington has also reportedly ordered its Nimitz aircraft carrier to leave the Gulf. Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami vowed Saturday to respond to any "action the enemy takes", as he visited a strategic Gulf island.
Iran and the United States -- bitter foes since the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution and the US embassy hostage crisis in Tehran -- have twice come to the brink of war since June 2019, most recently after Soleimani's killing. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday accused Trump of aiming to fabricate a "pretext for war", after the president blamed Tehran for a December 20 rocket strike on the US embassy in Baghdad. In the war of words, Zarif on Saturday also claimed that, in Iraq, "Israeli agent-provocateurs are plotting attacks against Americans (to put) Trump in a bind with a fake casus belli".

25 Cases of COVID-19 Among Palestinian Detainees in Israeli Prison
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
The Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS) announced Sunday that 25 new COVID-19 cases were registered among Palestinian detainees in an Israeli prison in the Naqab desert. The new infections raised the total number of Palestinian prisoners who have contracted the coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic to 171, according to the PPs. It also noted that the Israeli prison authorities had moved all of the infected prisoners to section 8 in neighboring Ramon prison, but said it has not received any information about their health conditions. PPS stressed that there was a real danger to the lives and health conditions of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention facilities, given the lack of proper health measures. It further called on the international human rights organizations, the World Health Organization and the United Nations to pressure the Israeli occupation authorities to release all sick and elderly Palestinian prisoners. For her part, the Palestinian Minister of Health, Mai Al-Keela, also warned about the danger of the virus outbreak among Palestinian detainees, highlighting major overcrowding in prisons. Al-Keela stressed that “all Israeli prisons are vulnerable to becoming centers of the epidemic, which means that all Palestinian prisoners are highly vulnerable to infection with the COVID-19, and this puts their lives in danger, especially the sick prisoners, who amount to 700, especially chronic patients and cancer patients.”She also called on the international community to pressure the occupation over the immediate release of the sick and elderly prisoners to form a neutral medical committee to supervise the results of the prisoners’ samples and their health conditions.

Arafat’s Widow Refuses to Accuse Israel of Killing Her Husband Without Evidence
Tel Aviv- Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
Suha Arafat, widow of the late Palestinian Authority (PA), Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Fatah leader Yasser Arafat, has said she was quoted out of context in a recent interview with a Hebrew newspaper. "Arafat was definitely poisoned, not by Israel, but by a Palestinian," Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot quoted the widow as saying on Friday. In the interview, she was also quoted as saying that the 2000 Palestinian intifada was a "big mistake". However, later in the day, she claimed she was quoted out of context and her words were misconstrued.
On her Instagram account, Arafat wrote that she does not accuse anyone, “not even Israel, of killing [him], because until now I don’t have evidence against anyone.” She said that she did not want the issue of her husband’s death to be part of Palestinian “internal political battles.” Arafat confirmed that she was recently interviewed for an Israeli documentary about her husband, and said that the Second Intifada was a mistake. “I expressed my opinion that the Intifada was a mistake because we lost a lot and our war with them [Israel] was asymmetrical,” she wrote on her Instagram account. I’m not afraid of expressing my opinion,” she said. Yediot Ahronot said that its lengthy interview with Arafat was a part of a promotion campaign for a documentary called Enemies. It is worth noting that Arfat’s statements in the interview with the newspaper surprised and shocked many. “I do not know who convinced him (Yasser Arafat) to carry out an intifada while he was in the midst of a peace process. I told him that he must stop Hamas attacks because they would eventually lead to a civil war. I explained that after the September 11 attacks nobody wants to see more explosions, and that people don’t want bloodshed,” Arafat told Yediot Ahronot.“I told him: Hamas or not Hamas, you are committed to the peace process and you must stop the uprising,” she added.

Palestine's Abbas Hails Haniyeh’s Reconciliation Letter
Tel Aviv- Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has hailed a letter from Hamas’s Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh on the movement’s readiness to end internal division and achieve reconciliation. According to a presidential statement on Saturday, Secretary-General of the Central Committee of Fatah Movement Jibril Rajoub conveyed the letter to Abbas who welcomed what came in it on ending division, building partnership, and attaining national unity. He decided to invite the Chairman of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC), Hanna Nasser, to discuss procedures for issuing the decrees related to holding the elections. He expressed appreciation to Egypt, which has been sponsoring the reconciliation file, as well as Qatar, Turkey, Russia, and Jordan, all of which contributed to converging points of view and reaching an agreement. Hamas has earlier pointed to new efforts to resume the national dialogue and complete the reconciliation process. “There are internal and external contacts to make these efforts and steps a success and complete what we have started in our dialogue with our brothers in Fatah movement and the national and Islamic factions to fulfill the unity requirements,” Haniyeh stated on Friday. He affirmed that the requirements for building national unity are accomplished through rebuilding the Palestinian leadership institutions, whether the PLO or the Palestinian Authority, on the basis of partnership and national consensus and in accordance with people’s will through free and fair elections. National unity “is the cornerstone in confronting the Zionist occupation and its schemes aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause and suppressing our right to holy sites and of return.”In Sep 2020, Fatah and Hamas agreed to hold free and fair elections gradually and according to proportional representation. They decided to first hold the general elections then presidential polls, followed by the election of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) national council. All are supposed to be held within six months. However, on October 17, the PA announced it will resume coordination with Israel suspended in May over an Israeli plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. Hamas slammed the decision and considered it a blow to reconciliation efforts. Yet the PA refused this accusation and stressed that unity is necessary to bolster the Palestinian position.

Egypt Approves Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 Vaccine
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
Egypt has approved the use of a covid-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharma giant Sinopharm with its rollout to start later in January, the health minister said. “The Egyptian pharmaceutical authority approved on Saturday the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine,” Hala Zayed said late Saturday, on the local MBC Masr channel, AFP reported. The first batch of the vaccine was delivered in December, with further doses expected this month. “The second shipment of this vaccine is due to arrive in the second or third week of January, and as soon as it arrives, we will start vaccinations,” the minister said. Each batch of the vaccine consists of 50,000 doses, and the ministry has announced that the first group to receive it will be medical workers. Zayed said Egypt plans to purchase 40 million doses of the Sinopharm jab. Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country with around 100 million inhabitants, has recorded more than 140,000 cases of the covid-19 disease, including 7,800 deaths. After a brief lull, the number of infections rose dramatically in late 2020, from around 100 new cases confirmed per day in October, to some 1,400 daily cases currently. Egypt will also receive the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine in the third or fourth week of January, according to Zayed, who added that a contract “was being finalized.”Negotiations with Pfizer “are underway” as well, she added.

Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan Resume Talks over GERD
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia resumed negotiations Sunday over the controversial huge Ethiopian dam on the Blue Nile, officials said. The resumption came six weeks after Khartoum boycotted talks in November, urging the African Union to play a greater role in reaching a deal over the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD). The negotiations have centered on the filling and operation of the $4.6 billion dam. Key questions remain about how much water Ethiopia will release downstream if a multi-year drought occurs and how the three countries will resolve any future disputes. Ethiopia has rejected binding arbitration at the final stage of the project. The foreign and irrigation ministers of the three Nile Valley countries met online Sunday, said Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez. Sudan also confirmed the meeting. Ethiopia’s Water and Energy Minister Seleshi Bekele said earlier the meeting was called by South Africa, the current head of the African Union, and that US observers and AU experts would attend. In November, Sudan did not attend a round of talks called by South Africa, arguing that the current approach to reaching a tripartite agreement on the filling and operation of GERD had not yielded results. Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas said at the time that the AU should do more to “facilitate the negotiation and bridge the gap between the three parties.” Egypt has called GERD an existential threat and worries that it will reduce the country’s share of Nile waters. Ethiopia says the 145-meter tall dam will be an engine of development and is vital to meet the power needs of its population. Sudan, in the middle, worries about the effects on its own dams, although it stands to benefit from access to cheap electricity. The Blue Nile, which meets the White Nile in the Sudanese capital, provides the great majority of the combined Nile’s flow through northern Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean.

Sudanese Public Prosecution Detains Two Senior Forensic Specialists
Khartoum- Ahmed Younis/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
The Sudanese Public Prosecution has arrested two senior forensic specialists on charges related to medical reports according to which victims of the violent dispersal of the sit-in were buried in front of the army headquarters in Khartoum in 2019. In November 2020, the public prosecutor found mass graves near the al-Markhiyat Mountains northwest of Omdurman for the remains of civilians who were killed during the bloody attack by security forces and militiamen outside the army headquarters. Former director of the forensic medicine authority and the suspended director of the Omdurman morgue were arrested for the illegal burial of the victims, Sudan Tribune quoted judicial officials on Saturday. Army forces and members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) perpetrated unconscionable acts of violence to disperse the peaceful sit-in in front of the army headquarters on June 3, 2019. Over 200 people were killed during the brutal attack and 1,000 were injured. Those acts included “extrajudicial killings and torture, excessive use of force, sexual and gender-based violence, and the forced disappearance of detained protesters,” the newspaper reported. Health authorities, however, said that the number of the victims reached 85 persons, it added. The Director of the Omdurman morgue was accused of releasing an autopsy report on the circumstances of the killing of a Sudanese youth under torture inside an RSF prison. He claimed that the death was not a result of a criminal act but rather a pathological cause, pointing out that there were no visible signs of violence on the body. Following a request by the deceased’s relatives, the Public Prosecutor ordered a re-autopsy. The probe report found that there were bruises under the scalp and on both sides of the chest, which were not proven in the doctor’s report. It concluded that the death was due to a hemorrhage in the brain resulting from a head injury, contrary to what was stated by the arrested doctor's report. A peaceful sit-in in front of the army headquarters on April 6, 2019 led to the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir’s Islamist 30-year rule in Sudan. Protesters remained on the streets, mainly outside army headquarters, after Bashir's fall, to pressure the military into sharing power with civilians. They demanded that ousted regime figures be held accountable and its political and economic structure be dismantled. During negotiations between the military and the rebel leaders on June 3, the military forces dispersed the sit-in. Head of the Transitional Military Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan then announced the halt of talks, telecommunications companies cut off internet service, and protesters in Khartoum and other cities were chased for more than a day after the sit-in ended.

Two Algerian Soldiers Killed in Clash With Extremists
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 3 January, 2021
Two Algerian soldiers were killed on Saturday in a clash with extremists, four of whom were also killed, the defense ministry said. “During a search operation... a detachment of the People’s National Armed Forces shot dead four terrorists” west of the capital, a ministry statement said. It identified the soldiers killed in the Tipaza district as a sergeant and a corporal, in one of the deadliest such clashes in recent years. Several firearms were recovered, the ministry said, adding that the operation was still underway, AFP reported. Between 1992 and 2002, a civil war pitting the army against multiple extremist groups left an estimated 200,000 people dead. A 2005 Charter for Peace and Reconciliation was supposed to have turned the page on the conflict, but extremist groups continue to carry out sporadic operations. Last month, a clash in the Jijel region east of Algiers killed an army staff sergeant and three suspected militants. The army later announced it had captured a “dangerous terrorist.” Over the course of last year, 21 militants were killed, nine were captured and seven surrendered during Algerian army operations, the military said in a tally published on Saturday. A statement added that the army had arrested 108 people who had provided support to the militants last year, as well as seizing dozens of firearms, while experts neutralized nearly 400 bombs and mines.
 

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 03-04/2020

US: "Not Now One of the World's Better-Functioning Democracies"
Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute/January 03/2021
"As President, I have no higher duty than to defend the laws and the Constitution of the United States. That is why I am determined to protect our election system, which is now under coordinated assault and siege". — President Donald J. Trump, December 2, 2020.
"The top line here is very simple: [Many people] used a coordinated strategy across six battleground states -- you've got Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin -- a coordinated strategy to stuff the ballot box with mail-in and absentee ballots, and do it in a way where they bend and often break the law..." — Peter Navarro, regarding his report, "An Indecent Exposure," Newsmax, December 21, 2020.
There are accusations that many politicians in America are not even slightly interested in fair elections or equal justice under law -- only about attaining power and keeping it in perpetuity.
"Make no mistake: voter fraud is real. [Many people], the media and the so-called public interest groups on the political Left will tell you otherwise, but they are either lying or totally ignorant. Voter fraud is a threat to the integrity of our elections, the heart of our democracy—and [many people] want to make the problem worse with their new voting laws." — Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, Newsweek, June 7, 2020.
The evidence gathered is available to be seen. That judges dismissed lawsuits without seeing it does not make it disappear.
Many commentators apparently accept the idea that Biden will soon be president and resign themselves to it. Others apparently have decided that accepting so much lawlessness is unacceptable. It could, they assess, undermine American democracy, fatally erode American institutions, and plummet the country into an authoritarian future, foreign or domestic, and economic ruin.
"Weak-kneed [politicians]," columnist Charlie Eastman wrote, "who choose to wave the white flag instead of fighting to the last man to challenge the fraud that occurred in the 2020 election are committing political suicide".
November 3, 2020. New York. Midnight. A reporter on television said that election vote counting had been stopped in several states. At this point, President Donald J. Trump seemed in a position to win and easily to have a second term. Commenting a bit later, he said, "We did win," but added a warning: "We don't want them to find any ballot at four o clock in the morning". By morning, everything had changed. Thousands more ballots had appeared. States where Trump had a clear lead displayed different results. Former Vice President Joe Biden appeared to have won.
Three days later, on November 7, Biden delivered a victory speech. Trump repeated, "I won this election". He added, "by a lot".
Over the next weeks, lawyers with the Trump campaign talked about massive fraud, gathered evidence, collected affidavits and expert analysis. Public hearings were organized in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan. Lawsuits were launched, and files prepared and presented to judges. Almost all the judges dismissed the lawsuits even before the evidence could be heard.
On December 8, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin with the US Supreme Court. Paxton, with 18 states joining Texas as "friends of the court", said that those four states had made changes to voting rules and procedures through the courts or executive actions instead of making the changes through the state legislatures, as required by the US Constitution, and were therefore diluting the lawful votes cast in other states. On December 11, the Supreme Court, rather than addressing the merits of the case, dismissed the complaint for "lack of standing". They said that in their view, a state has no right (standing) to disagree with the sovereign decision of another state and, furthermore, that Texas could not demonstrate that actual harm (a tort) had been done to anyone.
"Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections", the Supreme Court obfuscatorally wrote in an unsigned ruling. Only Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito were interested in at least seeing the evidence: "We do not have discretion to deny the filing of a bill of complaint in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction".
In fairness, according to both the Federalist Papers and the Constitution, the courts play no role in elections. That privilege is reserved for states' legislatures and the Congress. Regrettably, only one -- quite shattering -- hearing on election "irregularities" took place, on December 16, under the impressive leadership of Senator Ron Johnson.
Senator Josh Hawley, Representative Mo Brooks and an increasing number of members of Congress have now called for another hearing on January 6, with the intent to challenge the results of the Electoral College vote in Pennsylvania and possibly six other states -- Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and the Third District of South Carolina, where massive "irregularities" -- the preferred euphemism for election fraud -- have appeared. These include allegations that the voting machines are able to be hacked in real time and had been rejected in 2019 by [politicians] such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who warned about "security problems". Many of these "irregularities" have been documented, in his private capacity as a citizen, by the noted economist and current Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy at the White House, Peter Navarro. His 36-page report, "The Immaculate Deception," released on December 20, was immediately disparaged by many in the media.
In it, Navarro precisely details the kinds of fraud that took place on November 3. After referring to countless documents, Navarro concludes that "if the fraudulent votes were removed, it would become clear that Trump won". In an interview he added:
"The top line here is very simple: [Many people] used a coordinated strategy across six battleground states -- you've got Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin -- a coordinated strategy to stuff the ballot box with mail-in and absentee ballots, and do it in a way where they bend and often break the law... They used the shield of the Chinese Communist Party virus as part of their way to flood the zones with these absentee ballots."
Stuffing the ballot box and breaking the law may be a time-honored tradition in some cities run by one party, but when it reaches a scale of millions, it can hardly be considered behavior that is permanently acceptable in a functioning republic.
Navarro's report was, again, disparaged. The mainstream media did not even try to refute any of the arguments in it. Instead, they simply brushed them aside, just as they had done with massively substantiated reports in the New York Post about the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop, which implicated the entire Biden family in selling access and influence abroad, especially in China.
Most of the mainstream media have remained faithful to the guidelines they adopted on November 4. They repeat that the election had no fraud, they pour scorn on anyone who dares to talk about fraud, and they keep emphasizing that Joe Biden won overwhelmingly. It seems as they are hoping that by repetition they can present the citizenry with a done deal and stifle any kind of dissent. They hide facts. Very few articles have pointed out that the US economy, before the onset of the Chinese coronavirus, had not done as brilliantly in 50 years or that President Trump, also before the pandemic, had received major concessions from China, among other major accomplishments. Instead, for more than three years, they parroted unfounded assertions about a supposed collusion with Russia that many, from the start, knew was false. Accusations that disregard the presumption of innocence is expected of propagandists, but not of a free press. Unfortunately, however, propaganda, often false, was and still is the behavior many have adopted towards President Trump, even before he became president.
Gradually, the states in which the election results were disputed nevertheless certified the results and appointed electors, thereby giving way to reports of possible bribes and threats. On December 14, when the electors voted, Biden obtained 306 electoral votes out of 270 required. The mainstream media rejoiced. As Trump refused to concede, as is perfectly within his constitutional rights, they tried to claim that he did not "respect democracy."
It might be worthwhile in this context to ask if President Trump was wrong and if the November 3 election in the disputed states actually was lawful.
The evidence gathered is available to be seen. That judges dismissed lawsuits without seeing it does not make it disappear. Rather, it probably leads to questions about the open-mindedness and moral fortitude of the judges and others who have refused to see it.
The arguments presented by Paxton have not been refuted. The Supreme Court did not even take them into account. Several legal scholars have said that Paxton's arguments were perfectly valid. The renowned defense attorney Alan M. Dershowitz stated about the attitude of the Supreme Court towards the Texas State complaint: "I think this sends a message. It's not a legal message, but it's a practical message: the Supreme Court is out of this game." The Constitution clearly appears to have been violated by Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. If Paxton's arguments are valid, the Supreme Court, by declaring itself "out of this game", appears to have failed in its role as guardian of the Constitution. Attorney Clarice Feldman stated that said the Court had engaged in an "outright abdication"
On the evening of Trump's election, November 8, 2016, commentators on CNN and MSNBC had already begun saying that Trump's election might not be legitimate. Mere minutes after he was sworn in as president on January 20, 2017, The Washington Post announced: "The campaign to impeach President Trump has begun".
Thousands of defamatory articles and comments followed and have not stopped. A study released in October showed that news about President Trump on evening newscasts has been negative 92% of the time. A survey conducted in seven swing states and published on November 26 revealed that negative news for Biden and positive news for Trump had not only been hidden, but that this subterfuge had influenced the vote on November 3. Seventeen percent of those who voted for Biden said they would not have done so had they been aware of the family's compromising financial transactions; allegations of sexual assault brought against President-Elect Biden; or Kamala Harris being labeled as "most liberal senator in 2019".
It now looks as if Biden will be declared President on January 6 and inaugurated on January 20, but imagining that a page will be turned and that what happened before, during and after the November 3 election will leave no mark is most probably an illusion.
President Trump still has not conceded, as is his right. "As President", he explained on December 2, "I have no higher duty than to defend the laws and the Constitution of the United States. That is why I am determined to protect our election system, which is now under coordinated assault and siege". These do not seem the words of a man who gives up. On December 22, he released a video in which he repeats what he has said many times: "The truth is we won the election by a landslide. We won it big". On December 26, he added, "If we have corrupt elections, we have no country". Even if Donald Trump were to leave the White House, the 74 million people who voted for him probably hope that he will not remain silent.
A poll conducted on November 17-18 shows that nearly half of likely voters (75% of Republicans, 30% of Democrats) think the election was stolen from Trump. No poll on the subject has been conducted since, but information on election fraud is more available today than a month ago, and it is reasonable to think that the number of voters who think that the election was stolen has also grown, not shrunk.
A president who arrives at the White House surrounded by so many questions of impropriety has an extremely dark shadow of illegitimacy hanging over him.
The behavior of the U.S. Department of Justice -- which has refused to hold accountable visible instances of felonies (here, here, here and here); the many Americans who refuse to consider evidence, to question if today there really is equal justice under law in the United States; the behavior of the Supreme Court refusing to hear evidence concerning alleged violations of the Constitution -- all of these should rightly lead many Americans to doubt the functioning of the country's most crucial institutions.
There are accusations that many politicians in America are not even slightly interested in fair elections or equal justice under law -- only about attaining power and keeping it in perpetuity.
"Make no mistake," wrote former speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich: "Voter fraud is real. Democrats, the media and the so-called public interest groups on the political Left will tell you otherwise, but they are either lying or totally ignorant. Voter fraud is a threat to the integrity of our elections, the heart of our democracy—and [many people] want to make the problem worse with their new voting laws."
There are reports that if the runoff election in Georgia on January 5 awards all of the branches of government to just one party, that party will immediately rush to revise the United States structurally -- dismantling the safeguards of checks and balances in the Constitution that its framers so carefully placed there precisely to avoid the kind of totalitarian "tyranny of the majority" that much of the public seems eager to adopt. As one member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, revealingly said, "I'm going to spending my next couple of months doing everything I can... so that we don't have to negotiate..."
Americans' confidence in the media, already low, appears to have fallen even lower. A September 2020 poll disclosed that six out of ten US adults have "not very much" trust in the media, or "none at all". With good reason.
Other disturbing elements have also come to light.
The contents of a computer left by Hunter Biden at a repair shop revealed ties between Hunter Biden, other members of his family and foreign powers, especially China, which indicate that Joe Biden may be seriously compromised. The Biden family appear to have received millions of dollars from Chinese firms, most of which, as is the compulsory system in China, have a Chinese version of close "public-private partnership" ties to the Chinese regime.
Former Attorney General William Barr said in November that he had instructed prosecutors to prevent any mention of investigations into Hunter Biden from becoming public to "not affect the result of the election". However, as Trump campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley said:
"Covering this whole thing up and not allowing the American people to know it and to try and pretend as though the reason this doesn't come forward is because it would affect the election -- not bringing it forward affected the election".
Despite the appearance of widespread election fraud that appear worth investigating, Barr said: "To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election." Has Barr looked?
According to former counterintelligence case officer Chris Farrell, "Barr was integral to the destruction of Trump... As a businessman, President Trump had the naïve non-Washington DC notion that his employees would actually work for him". If members of the President's cabinet are not working for him and instead try to destroy him, it probably means that American republic is in danger and that the will of the American people no longer counts.
That a man belonging to a family suspected of corruption, who could well be subject to blackmail by the main political and economic adversary of the United States, China, might become president of the United States, should worry every American.
The year 2020 has been disastrous. It has brought suffering and devastation to millions of Americans. The outbreak of the Chinese coronavirus has already caused more than 350,000 deaths in the US. The resulting lockdowns triggered a recession, a sharp increase in unemployment and and a far-reaching poverty that has not been fully absorbed. "Big box" stores, crowded with customers, were allowed to remain open; while smaller, neighborhood businesses, especially restaurants and personal services, were closed and crushed. The June-July riots devastated many cities, killed at least 25 people and injured 700 police officers, sometimes seriously. Mayors in several of the ravaged cities have reacted by defunding their police forces, protecting criminals rather than potential victims, and easing accountability for criminals. This inversion of justice has created an Alice-in-Wonderland situation that appears to have led to still more insecurity and crime.
The arrival at the head of the country of a man, President-Elect Biden, who appears both illegitimate and compromised before he even begins, only adds a more dangerous dimension to an already dangerous geopolitical setting.
Many commentators apparently accept the idea that Biden will soon be president and resign themselves to it. Others apparently have decided that accepting so much corruption and perceived corruption is unacceptable. It could, they assess, undermine American democracy, fatally erode American institutions, and plummet the country into an authoritarian future, foreign or domestic, and economic ruin.
"Weak-kneed [politicians]," columnist Charlie Eastman wrote, "who choose to wave the white flag instead of fighting to the last man to challenge the fraud that occurred in the 2020 election are committing political suicide".
The author Conrad Black noted:
"It is one of the great ironies of modern times that the world owes chiefly to the United States the spread and comparative success of democracy and of the free market, and yet the United States is not now one of the world's better-functioning democracies. All through this election year we heard spokespeople for both parties repeating the tired pieties about the 'greatest country in human history.' By some measures it certainly is, but it now appears not really to be a functioning democracy. If the United States cannot, in Lincoln's words, 'bind up the nation's wounds,' and re-emerge as a strong democracy, the end of Western Civilization is in sight. It remains the indispensable country, and as Richard Nixon said in 1970: 'No power on earth can. . . defeat or humiliate the United States, except the United States.'"
"I think we are headed toward a serious, bitter struggle in America," noted former Speaker of the House Gingrich. "This extraordinary, coordinated... power grab threatens the fabric of our country and the freedom of every American."
*Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
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A New Year: Better or Less Bad?
Amir Taheri/Asharq al-Awsat/January 03/2021
To start with, it made most of us understand that as members of the human species, we are all in the same leaking boat. The pandemic was like a general amnesty or a conflagration that transcends boundaries and includes everyone, high or low, rich or poor, young or old.
One other important feature of the crisis may have been the reassertion of capitalism as the surest means of coping with a disaster hitting us out of the blue. The huge mass of available capital with historically low interest rates.... and virtually inexhaustible productive capacities across the globe, provided many nations with a shield against potentially fatal economic and social shocks.
The year just ending taught us not take things for granted and to value even the most pedestrian joys that existence allows us, such a walk in a park....
As 2021 begins, one is reminded of the verse by Persian poet Masud Saad Salman, hoping that the new year would not resemble the old one.
Masud, of course, was expressing that hope from the Nay Fortress where, having fallen from the grace in the court of a local despot, he had been imprisoned for a year, and was to remain there for the rest of his life. He lamented the fact that Saturday was like Friday and April like March and his share of sunshine reduced to a sickly ray from a hole in the roof of his cell. In other words, he wasn't doing any better than many us did in the year just ended.
But, let us be provocative, didn't 2020 have any redeeming feature?
I think it did.
To start with, it made most of us understand that as members of the human species, we are all in the same leaking boat. The pandemic was like a general amnesty or a conflagration that transcends boundaries and includes everyone, high or low, rich or poor, young or old. The old cliché about the flapping of a butterfly in the Amazon affecting the planet as a whole was never more than a cute abstraction. But the fact that a virus jumping from a beast in a Chinese animal market could travel to the whole world is a reality that we have all experienced in various ways.
So, those who insist that this is the end of globalization may find out they have seen nothing of the cursed system yet.
To be sure, the world isn't going to revert to 2019 as if 2020 hadn't happened. Just as after Black Death in Europe or the Mongol invasion of large chunks of Asia and Europe, things didn't simply snap back to their original dimensions, this time, too, a return to paradise scenario seems dicey to say the least.
Those catastrophes, the virus-based one and the military one, led to major changes in many aspects of human life. Black Death showed that all the churches and prayer books were helpless in the face of an uncontrollable plague and that only science could have a chance to stem it. The ravages caused by the Mongol hordes revealed the fundamental weakness of ramshackle empires that were to be replaced by nation-states eventually emerging from the Westphalian Treaties.
Over time, the two catastrophes paved the way for what was to become the Enlightenment, a new way of interpreting the world that slowly but surely replaced the old ones provided by church and empire.
Fast forward to here and now, one might say that 2020 has placed question marks in front of many of our certainties. One badly shaken certainty is that of progress woven around the myth of endless growth, or, the possibility of always having our cake and eating it.
The obsession that more is always better is challenged by the notion that less but better might be preferable.
Another shaken certainty is governments, regardless of ideological hue, are often part of the problem rather than a crucial component of any solution. Even ardent advocates of "less government means better government" applaud the decision by almost all nations to print money on a no-tomorrow basis as "timely and wise". After three decades of worship at the altar of austerity, we are now invited to attach pieces of cloth to a magical money tree and convert to what they call the New Monetary Doctrine.
Nevertheless, our responses to the 2020 catastrophe reveal certain unalterable features of human behavior when dealing with disasters. Here, the Roman historian Pliny the Younger may give us some hints. Chronicling the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 BC, which cost the life of his adoptive father, he divided the reaction of the people into several categories.
First, there were those who tried to flee the disaster, trying to run faster than the molten lava which proved to be faster than them. Next, there were those who ran towards the disaster area in the hope of saving fellow human beings. Then there were those who took the first boat to get as far away from the disaster area as possible, not knowing that the aftereffects of the tragedy would catch up with them. Finally, some came from all quarters, including many from afar, to plunder the abandoned houses and shops, to sell snake-oil remedies, and to make a fast buck out of people's misery.
In the year just ending, we have witnessed similar reactions across the world. There were those who tried to flee but were caught up and those who rushed back to help others even at the risk of their own lives. Hundreds of millions were made poorer while a small number increased their wealth -- Amazon and Big Pharma being just two examples.
In the political sphere, the way various governments dealt with the pandemic is certain to impact their standing with public opinion at home and abroad. All in all, no government managed to fully gauge a phenomenon about which they knew next to nothing.
And, in almost all cases, whatever governments did or did not do proved to have had little or no effect on altering the course of the pandemic. Governments did well or badly in dealing with the economic and social consequences of the pandemic.
One other important feature of the crisis may have been the reassertion of capitalism as the surest means of coping with a disaster hitting us out of the blue. The huge mass of available capital with historically low interest rates, not to mention food reserves at historic record levels, and virtually inexhaustible productive capacities across the globe, provided many nations with a shield against potentially fatal economic and social shocks.
In the new year, the pent-up demand imposed by the pandemic is likely to provide a launching pad for an upsurge in global economic activity with emphasis on significant re-localization of many industries and services. In other words, when you have hit the bottom you have nowhere to go but up.
The year just ending taught us not take things for granted and to value even the most pedestrian joys that existence allows us, such a walk in a park without wearing muzzles that suffocate us.
However, if 2020 had any redeeming feature it may have been the salutory lesson it taught us neither to despair nor to presume.
*Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987.

Mossad chiefs: Iran may avenge Soleimani killing after Biden inauguration
Yonah Jeremy Bob/The Jerusalem Post/January 03/2021

جيرازوليم بوست: قادة سابقين للموساد يقولون بأن إيران قد تنتقم لمقتل سليماني قبل تنصيب بايدن

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/94576/yonah-jeremy-bob-the-jerusalem-post-mossad-chiefs-iran-may-avenge-soleimani-killing-after-biden-inauguration-%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%b1%d8%a7%d8%b2%d9%88%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%85-%d8%a8%d9%88%d8%b3%d8%aa-%d9%82/

Former Mossad  director Shabtai Shavit told the 'Post' that “the Iranians’ patience is never-ending.”
Two former Mossad chiefs and a former national security council chief all said on Sunday that Iran had failed to avenge the assassination of one of its most senior officials in 2020 and likely would not do so prior to US President-Elect Joe Biden taking office.
However, they all told The Jerusalem Post that the Islamic Republic would eventually find a moment to avenge the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Chief Qasem Soleimani exactly one year ago.
Former Mossad director Shabtai Shavit told the Post that, “the Iranians’ patience is never-ending.”
Shavit said that the killing of Soleimani in January 2020 along with the assassination of Iran military nuclear program chief Mohsen Fakrhizadeh in November was “a double blow against its military activity in the Middle East” which it has not recovered from.
The Mossad chief between 1989-1996 said that Esmail Ghaani who replaced Soleimani “isn’t at a level even close to the same capabilities and importance and managerial ability.”
Whereas Shavit said there is a continuous debate about whether assassinations make sense, he said in the cases of Soleimani and Fakrhrizadeh, there was no doubt.
“Some say they are not useful because one goes and the next one comes into line and replaces him…the level of talent of the one who entered his [Soleimani’s] shoes disproves that argument,” said the former spymaster.
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In terms of retaliation, Shavit said that even though Tehran has not successfully retaliated in a big way so far (it did fire missiles on US bases and has failed at some other attempted plots), “we must take into account that they will respond. They will wait for an opportunity to attack a high quality target.”
He gave the example of Iran and its proxies’ attacks on the Israeli Embassy and Jewish Community Center in Argentina in 1992 and 1994.
Questioned if his example meant he believed Iran would attack Israel or Jewish targets outside of the Jewish state, he responded, “when they do an operation, they use the strategy of deniability. This way, legally no one can bring them to court, but publicly everyone knows they did it.”
Former Mossad director Danny Yatom told the Post, “the assassination [of Soleimani] was a very impressive one of strategic value covering the full field with Iran.”
Yatom said, Soleimani, “was much more than just the leader of the Quds Force. He was more important than the commander of the IRGC who supposedly was his commander. He was very close to the supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The former Mossad chief from 1996-1998 said that the death of Soleimani was “a harsh blow to both morale and actual operations…the Quds Force is still licking its wounds.”
Yatom said that “since Ghaani relieved Soleimani, there is a feeling that the Quds Force still hasn’t returned to the status it had before the killing and I doubt if it can get back.”
“There are reports that Iran is looking for the chance to attack an Israeli target or an American target. I don’t say that it is impossible…but they have waited a full year and have not succeeded to avenge one of the most important people in Iran,” he said.
He explained that, “this teaches us about the weakness of the Quds Force and of the IRGC today now that they don’t have Soleimani.”
Yatom added that, “even under his [Soleimani’s] command, attempts directly against Israeli territory itself were not successful,” including years in which he tried to create a capability to attack Israel using Shi’ite militias on the Syrian side of the Golan.
Former national security council chief and Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland said at a virtual Jerusalem Press Club event that Iran has, “no interest today in resuming a large-scale confrontation with anyone, especially not with the US in the next two weeks before the transition of the presidency.”
“So I don’t think anything dramatic will happen in the next few days or hours just because it is the anniversary of the death” of Soleimani, said Eiland.
The former national security council chief continued, “But Iran feels that at some point, it will have to retaliate, if not against the US, then against Israel or Israeli interests.”
Like Shavit, Eiland mentioned Iran’s proxies worldwide, including in South America, which could attack Israeli and Jewish targets that are less well-defended than Israel itself.
He added that, “They would probably prefer to do it after Biden takes over. Trump is unpredictable,” and the Islamic Republic is hoping they can lure Biden into rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal at a low price.
Despite heightened threats surrounding the one-year anniversary of Soleimani’s death, he said both sides have taken actions to reduce friction, such as the US moving an aircraft carrier out of the area.
Shavit concurred, saying that, “they won’t forget to retaliate. Maybe the timing will be not when they are in negotiations with the Americans…They would be foolish to carry out an attack [during negotiations] just because they have an opportunity. But they are very shrewd people, you can’t underestimate them.”
Further, Shavit warned that even if the assassination of Soleimani worked this tool for fighting enemies must not be overused.
He said it could only be used for a very high quality target whose removal achieves a major purpose or there could be a danger of Israel losing some of its own ethics and humanity as well as facing increased global criticism.
Eiland warned that Israel still needed to watch out for “a cloudy Saturday morning when [mainland] Israeli targets may be attacked by cruise missiles from Iran, Iraq, Yemen, or with ballistic missiles from Hezbollah.”

Iran regime’s bleak prospects after damaging 2020
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 03/ 2021
د. مجيد رافيزادا: الآفاق القاتمة للنظام الإيراني بعد عام 2020 المدمر
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/94578/dr-majid-rafizadeh-iran-regimes-bleak-prospects-after-damaging-2020-%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%af-%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%a7-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a2%d9%81%d8%a7%d9%82/

The Iranian regime could never have expected that the year 2020 would be one of the worst it has had to endure since the Iran-Iraq War.
Qassem Soleimani was killed in early 2020 under a direct order from US President Donald Trump. The unexpected death of Iran’s top general, the head of the elite Quds Force, was a humiliation and a severe blow to the country’s leadership, particularly its military apparatuses. When it came to authority in the Islamic Republic, Soleimani was the second man after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Being a staunchly loyal confidant of Khamenei, he had great influence over the regime’s foreign policy, and he had personal connections with militia leaders across the Middle East. With his death, the regime lost an invaluable and irreplaceable asset.
Then came the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane, after which the regime finally agreed to pay $150,000 to the families of each of the victims. But the Iranian leaders initially attempted to hide the truth and mislead the international community by denying any involvement in the incident. The regime argued that the jet exploded due to technical defects. Tehran rejected offers of cooperation with international investigators. But, when faced with overwhelming evidence — including credible intelligence reports from various governments and a video showing that the plane was hit by a missile — the Islamic Republic was forced to acknowledge that it shot down the civilian passenger jet.
Later, Iran became the center of the Middle East’s coronavirus disease outbreak. The regime kept its citizens in the dark for political reasons. With parliamentary elections due in late February, the regime was concerned that if it warned the public about the impending health crisis it would negatively affect voter turnout. Instead, the ruling mullahs wanted to strengthen the hard-liners’ base and project to the international community that it enjoys a high level of legitimacy. Thanks to its mishandling of the pandemic, the overwhelming majority of the Iranian people appear to have come to the conclusion that the regime is more concerned about its own survival than the health of its citizens.
The Iranian people appear to have come to the conclusion that the regime is more concerned about its own survival than the health of its citizens.
Things got worse for the regime when the Trump administration imposed further sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Among other effects, these have ensured that Tehran’s oil exports have shrunk from nearly 2.5 million barrels per day in April 2018 to as little as 100,000. As a result, the ruling clerics are facing one of the worst budget deficits in their four-decade history of being in power. The regime is currently running a $200 million budget deficit per week and it is estimated that, if the pressure on Tehran continues, the deficit will hit $10 billion by March. This deficit will increase inflation and devalue the currency even further. The decrease in Iran’s revenues directly impacts the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its affiliates, the Office of the Supreme Leader, and the regime’s associates who control considerable parts of the economy and financial systems.
In 2020, Iran’s currency, the rial, lost more than half its value. That decline made it one of the least valued national currencies in the world and pushed the Iranian authorities to agree to remove four zeros from the currency. Iran’s newspapers began warning about economic collapse. The state-run Mardom Salari daily wrote: “We have an extremely failed and fallen economy. The main reason is the currency shock and the plundering of the economy by semi-private companies and banks. Sanctions have become an excuse for some people to plunder the country. We suffer from both foreign and domestic sanctions and those who profit from this situation.”
Regionally speaking, the regime became more isolated as its rivals formed new alliances. In addition, Tehran had a difficult time paying its militia groups. Facing such significant financial problems, Khamenei in October surprisingly ordered all factions of the Iraqi armed groups to stop attacking US interests in Iraq, according to Middle East Eye. A senior commander of an Iranian-backed armed group involved in the attacks reportedly said: “Khamenei’s orders were straightforward and clear. All attacks targeting US interests in Iraq must stop.”
Although the regime is hoping that things will change for the better in 2021, the odds are heavily against the theocratic establishment.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh