English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 16/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

#elias_bejjani_news
 

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Bible Quotations For today

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 01/46-55/:”Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’”

Question: "How can I learn to trust that God is in control?"
GotQuestions.org?
Answer: Before we can learn to trust that God is in control of all of life’s circumstances, we have to answer four questions: Is God really in control? How much control does He have? If He is not in complete control, then who/what is? How can I learn to trust that He is in control and rest in that?
GotQuestions.org?
Is God really in control? The concept of the control of God over everything is called the “sovereignty” of God. Nothing gives us strength and confidence like an understanding of the sovereignty of God in our lives. God’s sovereignty is defined as His complete and total independent control over every creature, event, and circumstance at every moment in history. Subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent, God does what He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases. God is in complete control of every molecule in the universe at every moment, and everything that happens is either caused or allowed by Him for His own perfect purposes. “The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, ‘Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, And as I have purposed, so it shall stand’” (Isaiah 14:24). Nothing is random or comes by chance, especially not in the lives of believers. He “purposed” it. That means to deliberately resolve to do something. God has resolved to do what He will do, and nothing and no one stands in His way. “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (Isaiah 46:10). This is our powerful, purposeful God who is in control of everything. That should bring us great comfort and help to alleviate our fears.
But exactly how much control does God have? God’s total sovereignty over all creation directly contradicts the philosophy of open theism, which states that God doesn’t know what’s going to happen in the future any more than we do, so He has to constantly be changing His plans and reacting to what the sinful creatures do as they exercise their free will. God isn’t finding out what’s going to happen as events unfold. He is continuously, actively running things—ALL things—here and now. But to think He needs our cooperation, our help, or the exercise of our free will to bring His plans to pass puts us in control over Him, which makes us God. Where have we heard that lie before? It’s a rehash of Satan’s same old lie from the Garden—you shall be like God (Genesis 3:5). Our wills are only free to the extent that God allows us that freedom and no farther. “All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:35). No one’s free will trumps the sovereignty of God.
Some people find it appealing to think that Satan has control over a certain amount of life, that God is constantly revising His plans to accommodate Satan’s tricks. The book of Job is a clear illustration of just who has the sovereign power and who doesn’t. Satan came to God and, in effect, said, “Job only serves you because you protect him.” So God gave Satan permission to do certain things to Job but no more (Job 1:6–22). Could Satan do more than that? No. God is in control over Satan and his demons who try to thwart God’s plans at every step.
Satan knew from the Old Testament that God’s plan was for Jesus to come to the earth, be betrayed, crucified and resurrected, and provide salvation for millions, and if there was any way to keep that from happening, Satan would have done it. If just one of the hundreds of prophecies about the Messiah could have been caused by Satan to fail to come to pass, the whole thing would have collapsed. But the numbers of independent, “free will” decisions made by thousands of people were designed by God to bring His plan to pass in exactly the way He had planned it from the beginning, and Satan couldn’t do a thing about it. Jesus was “delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). No action by the Romans, the Pharisees, Judas, or anyone else kept God’s plan from unfolding exactly the way He purposed it from before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1 says we were chosen in Him before the world was even created. We were in the mind of God to be saved by faith in Christ. That means God knit together Satan’s rebellion, Adam and Eve’s sin, the fall of the human race, and the death and crucifixion of Christ—all seemingly terrible events—to save us before He created us. Here is a perfect example of God working all things together for good (Romans 8:28). Unlimited in power, unrivalled in majesty, and not thwarted by anything outside Himself, our God is in complete control of all circumstances, causing or allowing them for His own good purposes and plans to be fulfilled exactly as He has foreordained. Finally, the only way to trust in God’s sovereign control and rest in it is to know God. Know His attributes, know what He has done in the past, and this builds confidence in Him. Daniel 11:32b says, “The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” Imagine that kind of power in the hands of an evil, unjust god. Or a god that really doesn’t care about us. But we can rejoice in our God’s sovereignty, because it is overshadowed by His goodness, His love, His mercy, His compassion, His faithfulness, and His holiness.
But we can’t trust someone we don’t know, and there is only one way to know God—through His Word. There is no magic formula to make us spiritual giants overnight, no mystical prayer to pray three times a day to mature us, build our faith, and make us towers of strength and confidence. There is only the Bible, the single source of power that will change our lives from the inside out. But it takes effort, diligent, everyday effort, to know the God who controls everything. If we drink deeply of His Word and let it fill our minds and hearts, the sovereignty of God will become clear to us, and we will rejoice in it because we will know intimately and trust completely the God who controls all things for His perfect purpose.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 15-16/2021

Ministry of Health: 6,154 new coronavirus cases, 44 deaths
Probe suggests links between Assad regime, Beirut blast
In Beirut’s empty streets, the Lebanese largely welcome a stringent lockdown
Pompeo Tweets Photo of Bassil, Stresses Support for Lebanese People
Abiad Warns of ‘Tough’ Coming Weeks to Curb Virus
A glimpse of light for some businesses in Lebanon as they cope with coronavirus
Beirut Port Administration signs agreement with French company to prepare study on recycling rubble at port premises
The Lost City… A Model of the Moments of Beirut Explosion
Hospital Says Hassan Doing Well as Lebanon Sees Record Virus Deaths
Parliament Approves Law Regulating Use of Covid Vaccines
Israel Frees Lebanese Shepherd after a Three-Day Captivity
First Syrian Plane since 2011 Lands in Beirut
Powerful Indonesia Quake Kills at Least 34, Topples Buildings
Armed Men Attack Residence of ex-Deputy in Hermel
French Judges Question Ziad Takieddine in Beirut
US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
How to Save Lebanon From Financial Ruin and Starvation/James Rickards/The National Interest/January 15/2021
Lebanon Wants an End to Iranian Occupation/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/January 15/ 2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 15-16/2021

US will impose sanctions on Iran over conventional arms, metals industry: Sources
US issues new sanctions on Iran organizations for arming military, IRGC
US troops in Afghanistan, Iraq cut to 2,500 each: Acting Defense Secretary
Turkey’s Erdogan hopes for positive steps on F-35 jet program during Biden’s term
Iran fires ‘abundant’ missiles, drones in latest military drill exercise: State TV
Turkish Leader Eyes Favorably Greek PM Meet amid Tensions
Russia Follows US in Withdrawal from Open Skies Treaty
Trump Receives Morocco's Highest Award for Middle East Work

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 15-16/2021

Iran’s missile programme and US-Israeli agendas/Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/January 15/2021
Trump’s Shadow Looms over Biden’s Presidency/Elias Harfoush/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 15/2021
Biden Must Avoid Obama's Mistake When Setting His Agenda/Noah Smith/Bloomberg/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 15/2021
Washington Riot and ‘End of America’ Crowd/Amir Taheri /Asharq Al-Awsat/January 15/2021
Pompeo shining light on Iran’s nefarious activities/Luke Coffey/Arab News/January 15/ 2021
Five steps to save the Republican Party/Dr. John C. Hulsman/Arab News/January 15/ 2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 15-16/2021

Ministry of Health: 6,154 new coronavirus cases, 44 deaths
NNAArab News/January 15/ 2021
 The Ministry of Public Health announced 6,154 new coronavirus infection cases, which raises the cumulative number to 243,286 confirmed cases.
44 deaths have been recorded over the past 24 hours.
 

Probe suggests links between Assad regime, Beirut blast
Arab News/January 15/ 2021
London-based company used to ship the ammonium nitrate that caused last August’s devastating explosion in Beirut has been linked to three individuals known to have ties to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

LONDON: The London-based company used to ship the ammonium nitrate that caused last August’s devastating explosion in Beirut has been linked to three individuals known to have ties to Syrian President Bashar Assad. An investigation by Lebanese filmmaker Firas Hatoum uncovered connections between London-based Savaro Ltd. and three figures who had been central to efforts to bolster Assad since the earliest months of the Syrian war. Hatoum’s findings for the first time raise the possibility that the 2,750 tons of nitrate that leveled much of Beirut’s port and killed 200 people may have been a by-product of Syrian officials’ attempts to procure nitrate to use in weapons. Joint Russian-Syrian citizens George Haswani, Mudalal Khuri and his brother Imad Khuri have all been previously sanctioned by the US for supporting Assad’s war effort. Companies linked to Haswani and the Khuri brothers — Hesco Engineering and Construction, and the now-defunct IK Petroleum, respectively — shared a London address with Savaro, which purchased the nitrate in 2013.
Haswani was a go-to businessman for Assad, and was sanctioned by the US for his role in purchasing oil produced by Daesh on behalf of the Syrian regime. Savaro is a shelf company — meaning it has never traded, conducted business or held assets — that was removed from the UK’s company lists on Tuesday, the same day that Hatoum revealed its links to the blast. Mudalal was accused by the US of attempting to source ammonium nitrate in the months leading up to when the Russian freighter Rhosus docked in Beirut’s port and unloaded the chemical compound. The ship’s opaque ownership and sudden diversion to Beirut, as well as the mysterious origins of its cargo, had fueled suspicion from the outset that the ammonium nitrate was always destined for Beirut rather than Mozambique, its official endpoint. A number of other complicating factors have obscured the truth behind the source of the ammonium nitrate and its intended destination. The shadowy world of international shipping, the volume of shelf companies used to move the nitrate, and the difficulty in tracking down and questioning witnesses in such a global context, have slowed the local investigation into the blast’s causes. Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab, three former ministers and more than 30 low-level officials have so far been charged in relation to the explosion. But the connections between Haswani, the Khuri brothers and the Assad regime have rippled through Lebanese society since they were exposed on Tuesday. Hatoum said he is skeptical that Lebanon will ever truly know how the blast was allowed to happen. “I doubt that (Lebanon can resolve an investigation) for many reasons, looking at the way that things were handled in previous months,” he added. “And I don’t trust any foreign or international investigation either because we have had such a bad experience in the past and politics always gets in the way.”

In Beirut’s empty streets, the Lebanese largely welcome a stringent lockdown
Sunniva Rose/The National/January 15/ 2021
The cash-strapped country is trying to control a recent spike in Covid-19 cases
Beirut’s usually jammed streets were much quieter than normal on Friday despite a few traffic jams at roadblocks aimed at ensuring that a new 24-hour curfew is enforced. “The lockdown is way better respected this time around because it’s a full lockdown,” said a policeman at a roadblock near downtown Beirut who withheld his name because he did not have the authorisation to speak to the media. Set to last 12 days, the new lockdown measures are the most severe ever applied in Lebanon. For the first time, supermarkets can only operate delivery services. People must stay home except for a limited number of reasons, such as going to the pharmacy or health emergencies, and have to fill in an online form. Some professions, including healthcare and food transport, are exempt. The Lebanese government is trying to curb the spike in Covid-19 cases after Christmas and New Year festivities. Each day brings a record number of new cases and deaths. In total, the virus has infected 237,132 people and killed 1,781 others in the small Mediterranean country. At the roadblock near downtown Beirut, most cars were pulled over and fined because their drivers had not filled in the online form.
“My employer gave me a letter certifying that I’m out for work, but that’s not enough apparently,” said Abdelhakim Al Masri, a 67-year-old employee of an electricity maintenance company who said he did not know about the form. The exact amount that offenders must pay remains unclear because it is at the discretion of a judge. “The fine is usually around 100,000 Lebanese pounds, and I don’t think it goes over 300,000 Lebanese pounds,” said the police officer. That’s between $66 and $200 at the official exchange rate, or between $11 and $34 on the black-market rate. The Lebanese economy crashed months before the country was hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The local currency lost about 80 per cent of its value in the past year. The lockdown complicates shopping for the poor, which is more than half the population. In Sabra, just south of Beirut, locals said that supermarkets do not deliver to them. “They’re worried about problems,” shrugged a man carrying groceries in plastic bags. Vegetable stalls were open on Friday at the popular Sabra market, one day after the Lebanese police tweeted pictures of shops with their shutters down. “When the police comes, everyone closes. As soon as they leave, people open again,” said Khaled, 47, standing in front of a small shop selling boiled chickpeas or humus. Its entrance had been closed off with large gas bottles. “They can’t really fine us anyway. How are people going to pay? They can barely eat,” continued Khaled, who said he was unemployed.
Children and women begged on the muddy streets, asking for as little as 500 Lebanese pounds, or $0,05. “We have to keep working because otherwise we would have no other income,” said Baker, a young man in his 20s who sells salad, mint and onions at Sabra’s market with his father.
Last August, Baker was laid off from his job as a receptionist at an upmarket hotel in downtown Beirut after it was heavily damaged by the explosion of thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate in capital’s port. The investigation into the cause of the blast that killed more than 200 people is ongoing.
“Of course, people are afraid of the coronavirus. But they also have to live,” said Baker as he served clients. Roughly half wore face masks. Despite some activity at the market, most people stayed home on Friday. “This is less than 10 per cent of the usual crowd,” said a man stocking potatoes.
Shops selling anything other than food, such as shoe repair shops, remained closed. In a country with a weak state and where laws are rarely enforced, the fact that the lockdown was largely respected surprised Fariha Saeed, a mother-of-one in her mid-thirties.
“I didn’t stock up in advance because I thought the market would remain open as usual. But it’s empty,” she said. “I can’t even find fruit or olive oil. I have no idea what I’m going to cook tonight.”

Pompeo Tweets Photo of Bassil, Stresses Support for Lebanese People
Naharnet/January 15/2021
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo posted on his Twitter account, a picture of Free Patriotic Movement MP Jebran Bassil bearing the phrase "punished", as part of a series of tweets in which he addressed his country's "support" for the Lebanese people. “Not just talk, @StateDept designated former FM Jebran Bassil for his corrupt activities,” Pompeo’s caption read under the picture. Pompeo re-posted a link to the US State Department's decision on sanctions against Bassil. High-ranking diplomatic circles operating in Washington reportedly saw Pompeo's tweet, "an official recognition that the sanctions against Bassil are political par excellence,” according to al-Joumhouria daily. “The US sanctions against Bassil aim to pressure him into changing his policy in general, and refrain from demanding the return of the displaced, in addition to changing his stance rejecting resettlement,” added the daily. In November 2020, the US Treasury announced sanctions against high-ranking Christian ally of Hizbullah, Bassil, accusing him of corruption involving billions of dollars that has left the economy in a shambles.
(https://go.usa.gov/xA89e)

Abiad Warns of ‘Tough’ Coming Weeks to Curb Virus
Naharnet/January 15/2021
Dr. Firass Abiad, the Manager and CEO of state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital said in a tweet on Friday that Lebanon faces “tough” coming weeks as the country observes a total lockdown due to an uncontrollable spike in cases. In a series of tweets Abiad said: The new record number of Covid deaths reported yesterday was sobering. The coming weeks will be tough. Yet, the compliance with the lockdown was encouraging. He added that in order “to move out of our predicament with minimal losses, our efforts should be concentrated on four important topics: Reported shortages in Oxygen for home use mean more patients will now be treated in hospitals. It will be very dangerous if hospitals, who are already overwhelmed, should also run out of medical supplies. It is important that distributors receive the promised subsidy. Authorities and people in general should be commended on a high compliance with the lockdown. Staying at home is not easy, and many, for sure, are under huge financial and mental stress. We need to be there for each other and make this work. The lockdown can not fail. Thinking ahead is also required. What comes after the lockdown? How can we avoid another one? This will require much planning, and a wide and relentless awareness campaign, to improve compliance. Clearly, easing the measures should not be rushed. Lessons have to be learned. The Parliament will pass the required law and herald the arrival of the vaccine in February. Vaccine rollout will be challenging, as many countries have seen. It needs to be done right. The presentation by the national committee was promising, but proper execution will be key.With vaccines, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Reaching it will not be easy. Sacrifices are required, and not only from healthcare workers. Yet, it can be done. Let us look forward, and support each other. Lebanon has seen darker times. This too shall pass.

A glimpse of light for some businesses in Lebanon as they cope with coronavirus
Ghinwa Obeid, Al Arabiya English/Friday 15 January 2021
Lebanon's severe economic crisis, along with the coronavirus pandemic, has provided challenging conditions for businesses to survive. Still, some have been able to find light during these rough times after an outpour of community support for local businesses and talents. As Lebanon rang in the New Year, putting 2020 behind its back was not an easy task, given that the consequences of the chaotic events that unfolded last year are still felt today. For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page. Lebanon was hit by Covid-19 and by an economic crisis that saw triple-digit inflation and the Lebanese pound depreciating by almost 80 percent since the nationwide anti-government protests, which broke out on Oct. 17, 2019. The currency had been pegged to the US dollar since 1997, at 1,507.5, as Lebanon was and still is highly dependent on imported goods. This was exacerbated by the devastating Port of Beirut explosion last August and that destroyed half of the city, crushing many businesses that were already struggling to keep their doors open. The World Bank estimated that the massive blast caused between $3.8 billion and $4.6 billion in damages. In a statement released this week, The World Bank estimated that around 1.7 million people in the country are expected to fall under the poverty line. Of those, approximately 840,000 people will be under the food poverty line.
An opportunity for local businesses
Despite the difficult situation, some local and home-based businesses saw increased support for their work. Layal Khaled is one of those. “This [holiday season] I received a lot of feedback from customers saying that they were buying my products because they wanted to support local artists due to the situation,” Khaled, who works with wires to create different art products, told Al Arabiya English. The 29-year-old artist showcases her products on her Instagram page, Smiles for Miles, which she started in 2017 as a source of extra income. Initially, she did this in the summers, but during her maternity leave in December 2019, she decided to take on working on her art. In comparison to when she first started, Khaled said that she had seen an increase in purchases over the past year. In addition to people’s willingness to support local products, the coronavirus pandemic also contributed to the increased number of clientele in Khaled's case. “Previously, people would have preferred to see items live themselves before buying them, but with the coronavirus and the lockdown, they were … forced to buy online.”Despite the ongoing crises and the risks that come with it, others saw in the worsened economic situation a possibility to start their own small business. For 29-year-old Ali Hammoud, the founder of Mounet Em Jamal, the economic situation and the need for an extra source of income to support his parents pushed him to embark on this journey last July. Hammond’s business focuses on homemade jams, labneh, olives, pickles and olive oil, all of which are prepared by his mother. “Since the Lebanese pound has depreciated, this means that not everyone can afford to buy imported products,” Hammoud, who has been living in France for 10 years, said. “Hence, the initiative was based on the equation of benefitting ourselves and others [by] providing quality products at affordable prices.”Hammoud said that they started slowly with limited quantities until people were more encouraged to try their products. With the help of social media, Mounet Em Jamal soon became popular. Although Hammoud and his parents are relatively new to the business, he said he could “sense support” from the community for his initiative given the country’s economic situation. “The economic collapse encouraged people to try to find an opportunity during these times to produce locally,” he said, noting that if the collapse worsens, it will also affect the sustainability of these businesses.
Consumer and community support
Nour Hakim, 30, has been buying local products from small businesses for the past year. As a consumer and a client, Hakim said that her purpose was to support these businesses during tough times. “I am supporting them, and at the same time, in return, I am getting very good quality products with good customer service and delivery,” Hakim said. “I am going to continue [buying local products] this year for sure.”The community support was also felt by former banker Gisane Yamak, who, along with a group of friends, launched an initiative ahead of the holidays to encourage people to buy from small businesses. The initiative focused on donating gifts to children across Lebanon, and those willing to contribute would make purchases from local businesses. Yamak, 45, resorted to social media platforms to share posts about the products they provide, something she was already doing since November as a personal initiative. “The target was to reach 1,000 gifts. But, we exceeded that target to reach 2,200 gifts, supporting between 20 and 25 businesses selling different items,” she told Al Arabiya English. Yamak said she hoped that this encouragement among business owners and clients would continue despite the ongoing crises and the challenges facing businesses with no online presence to promote their work. “Such initiatives are to tell people that these [crises] will pass if we act together,” she said.
 

Beirut Port Administration signs agreement with French company to prepare study on recycling rubble at port premises
NNA/Friday, 15 January, 2021 
Beirut Port Administration on Friday signed an agreement with a French company to prepare a study on recycling the rubble that has been left behind after the massive explosion that shattered the port’s premises and whereabouts. The agreement was signed between the port’s management and the French company in a ceremony attended by Caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transportation, Dr. Michel Najjar, alongside senior Lebanese officials, as well as well as Head of the French Embassy’s Economic Affairs department, François De Ricolf, and representatives of the French company. The Minister of Public Works seized the opportunity to thank French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the French people in general, for their "affection for Lebanon, knowing that the French army has played a major humanitarian role in Lebanon after the blast.”“The agreement signed today is a donation from the French state to the French company so as to prepare a study on recycling rubble and debris at Beirut port," added Najjar, wishing the group "success in carrying out its tasks in the interest of the port." For his part, De Ricolf affirmed the French state’s interest in assisting Lebanon in the reconstruction of Beirut Port. In turn, the French company has confirmed its keenness on drafting a recycling plan in an “optimal environmental way.”

The Lost City… A Model of the Moments of Beirut Explosion
Beirut- Vivian Haddad/Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 15 January, 2021
Few Lebanese have a clear idea of what constitutes a diorama. There are actually only a few practitioners of this art, which is usually used to document historical or military scenes. Dioramic pieces, which are popular abroad, are normally utilized in theater and three-dimensional works. Such works are also often featured in museums, with models that depict the details of a piece, castle, or monument. In Lebanon, two artistic pioneers, Wissam Zaghloul and Imad Abo Antoun, decided to pay tribute to Beirut by documenting the moment in which the port exploded on the fourth of August. As for Vincent Awad, his mission was to photograph the model in a short film, following the course of the events the model depicts moment by moment. In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Awad explains: "This model's value is in its depiction of the moment of the explosion in all its details, taking the port's obliteration as its main focus."He adds: "To prevent this disaster from being forgotten and to keep it engraved in our memory no matter how much time passes, we decided to erect this monument. We expect to place it facing Saint George Hospital in Ashrafieh or one at a Civil Defense center. Both are symbolic sites in the context of the Beirut bombing, the first because it was severely damaged and the second because of the fallen martyrs from its ranks."The model recreates the event with intricate detail, including the damage to the massive concrete walls of silos that absorbed much of the explosion's force. The color of the dirt covering the site of the disaster, the murkiness of the sea's water, and other subtle details of this surreal moment are conveyed with precision by Wissam Zaghloul and Imad Abu Antoun. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Zaghloul said he arrived at the site a few minutes after the explosion. He went to the port because he worked as a paramedic, and he saw the destruction it left behind. He continued: "The difficulty in working on the model was more psychological than practical. Depicting the catastrophic scene in all its details and reliving that moment gives you great pain. It is true that diorama, The Lost City, is a work of art par excellence, but it is also an indirect form of psychological treatment that my colleague Imad Abu Antoun and I received."Zaghloul adds that the site is shrunk 200 fold in "The Lost City." It is about 80 cm high, 1.5 meters wide, and 80 cm deep. He also explains that the materials were chosen to maximize accuracy. They include plastic pipes, gypsum, foam, iron wires, and other materials, which he says had to be imported, like "resin" and "resin acrylic."

Hospital Says Hassan Doing Well as Lebanon Sees Record Virus Deaths
Naharnet/January 15/2021
Covid-infected caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan is in a good health condition and is practicing his work from his hospital room, the St. Georges Hadath Hospital said on Thursday. The Health Ministry’s press office meanwhile announced that Hassan “looked into transactions and signed the ministry’s mail.”Lebanon meanwhile reported a record high of 41 daily deaths in addition to 5,196 infections. Lebanese authorities began enforcing an 11-day nationwide shutdown and round the clock curfew Thursday, hoping to limit the spread of coronavirus infections spinning out of control after the holiday period. For the first time, residents were required to request a one-hour permit to be allowed to leave the house for "emergencies," including going to the bakery, pharmacist, doctor, hospital or airport. Authorities came under pressure to take a tougher approach after the country's hospitals ran out of beds with daily infections reaching an all-time high of 5,440 cases last week in the country of nearly 6 million people. The dramatic surge in infections began in late December. As most governments around the world tightened lockdowns, Lebanon relaxed health measures over the holidays, allowing restaurants and nightclubs to reopen with barely any restrictions in place. An estimated 80,000 expats flowed back into the country to celebrate Christmas and New Years with loved ones, many of them expats who skipped visiting in the summer due to the devastating Aug. 4 explosion at Beirut port.

Parliament Approves Law Regulating Use of Covid Vaccines
Naharnet/January 15/2021
Parliament on Friday approved a law regulating the novel use of medical products to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, which aims to reassure international companies that they will not be responsible in case of side effects for the anti-virus vaccines. The law will allow for importing coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech. Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan had said the first batch of vaccines is expected in February. During Friday’s session, Speaker Nabih Berri lauded “the work and the members of the parliamentary health committee and the mighty effort that was exerted to accomplish the law for regulating the novel use of medical products for fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.”He said the law will allow “all medical companies and the private sector to import anti-coronavirus vaccines.”The head of the parliamentary finance committee, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, meanwhile asked the government why “it has not begun negotiations and a call for proposals with the various international companies,” saying Lebanon should not limit its imports to only one or two companies. Prior to the session, he had announced that the law will not give Pfizer an exclusive right to provide Lebanon with vaccines, calling on the government to immediately launch the necessary arrangements to obtain all vaccines that have been internationally licensed. MP Simon Abi Ramia for his part said citizens “should not be prevented from filing lawsuits against vaccination labs should they suffer side effects.”

Israel Frees Lebanese Shepherd after a Three-Day Captivity
Naharnet/January 15/2021
Israel on Friday said it freed the Lebanese shepherd, Hassan Zahra, after kidnapping him on Tuesday in the outskirts of Kfarshouba. Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a tweet that the Lebanese shepherd, whom it abducted after he “deliberately crossed the frontier into (Israeli-controlled territory) Jabal al-Rus area, was returned to Lebanon."Adraee said the abductee was handed to the Red Cross via the Ras el-Naqoura crossing. Adraee went on saying that “Hizbullah exploits the shepherds on the Lebanese border to serve its own goals,” adding that Israel "will not tolerate" any violation against its sovereignty. The Lebanese Army said Zahra was detained while he was guarding livestock.

First Syrian Plane since 2011 Lands in Beirut
Associated Press/January 15/2021
A Cham Wings plane flying from Aleppo in Syria, landed at one o’clock after midnight at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport following the restoration of air connectivity at Aleppo airport, the National News Agency reported Friday.
The round-trip route was resumed after being halted since Syria’s conflict began in 2011. Precautionary measures against the coronavirus were in place, with passengers required to show PCR tests taken less than three days before the flight, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA. The head of Syrian Air in Lebanon, Rashed Attar, said the flight arrived in Beirut carrying 36 passengers and returned to Aleppo with 44 passengers. Attar said a weekly flight between Aleppo and Beirut will continue. The Director General of the Syrian Civil Aviation, Basem Mansour, said in a statement to SANA that resumption of activity at Aleppo International Airport comes in implementation of the Council of Ministers decision after a temporary halt due to the virus. Director of the Health Center at Aleppo International Airport, Salwa Ibrahim, said: “All appropriate measures have been taken to prevent the virus, in accordance with the protocol approved by the World Health Organization and the Civil Aviation Organization.”Syrian Air currently conducts three flights a week between the Syrian capital of Damascus and Beirut.
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and its former commercial center, had its airport closed for years because of the conflict. The city was divided until late 2016, when government forces captured rebel-held eastern parts of Aleppo. Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 and has killed nearly half a million people. The fighting has displaced half the country’s population, including more than five million who are refugees outside the country

Powerful Indonesia Quake Kills at Least 34, Topples Buildings
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/January 15/2021
A powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia's Sulawesi island early Friday, killing at least 34 people, levelling a hospital and severely damaging other buildings, authorities said. Hundreds more were injured when the 6.2-magnitude quake struck in the early hours, triggering panic among the terrified residents of the island, which was hit by a huge quake and tsunami two and a half years ago that killed thousands. "The latest information we have is that 26 people are dead... in Mamuju city," said Ali Rahman, head of the local disaster mitigation agency, adding "that number could grow". "Many of the dead are buried under rubble," he said. Separately, the national disaster agency said at least eight people had died in an area south of Mamuju, a city of some 110,000 in West Sulawesi province, bringing the total death toll to 34. Rescuers were searching for more than a dozen patients and staff trapped beneath the rubble of the levelled Mamuju hospital. "The hospital is flattened -- it collapsed," said Arianto from the rescue agency in Mamuju city, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. "There are patients and hospital employees trapped under the rubble and we're now trying to reach them," he added, without giving a specific figure. Rescuers were also trying to reach a family of eight trapped under the rubble of their destroyed home, he added. The country's search-and-rescue agency said at least one hotel had partially collapsed after the quake struck at 2:18 am local time Friday (1818 GMT Thursday), while the regional governor's office also suffered extensive damage. A Mamuju resident said damage across the city was severe. "Roads are cracked and many buildings collapsed," said 28-year-old Hendra, who also goes by one name. "The quake was very strong... I woke up and ran away with my wife."
Tsunami panic
Images from the scene showed residents fleeing the seaside city in cars and motorbikes as they drove past corrugated metal roofs and other building debris scattered on the roadside. The meteorological agency warned residents that the area could be hit by strong aftershocks and to avoid the beachfront in case of a tsunami. "The aftershocks could be as strong, or stronger, than this morning's quake," said Dwikorita Karnawati, chief of the meteorological agency. "There is potential for a tsunami from subsequent aftershocks... Don't wait for a tsunami first because they can happen very quickly," she added. But the warning threatened to spark more fear in the quake-jolted city. "(Everyone) is panicking because authorities are saying there will be aftershocks that could cause a tsunami," Mamuju resident Zulkifli Pagessa told AFP. The city's airport had also been damaged, authorities said.
The quake's epicentre was 36 kilometres (22 miles) south of Mamuju and it had a relatively shallow depth of 18 kilometres, the United States Geological Survey said. Images supplied by the search-and-rescue agency showed rescue workers checking on two sisters who were trapped under rubble. It was not clear where they were trapped. Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide. In 2018, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi left more than 4,300 people dead or missing. On December 26, 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including around 170,000 in Indonesia.

Armed Men Attack Residence of ex-Deputy in Hermel
Naharnet/January 15/2021
A number of gunmen attacked overnight the residence of Baath Party ex-MP Assem Qanso in the Hermel district, MTV television station reported Friday. The former deputy was nowhere inside the house, it added. Relatives of Qanso claimed the gunmen planned to “assassinate” the MP. Security forces opened investigation into the incident.

French Judges Question Ziad Takieddine in Beirut
Naharnet/January 15/2021
A French judicial team on Thursday questioned Lebanese-French businessman Ziad Takieddine in Beirut in the case of the suspected Libyan financing of ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign. Takieddine has been under house arrest in Lebanon since early December. The 70-year-old businessman fled to Beirut after a French court in June condemned him to five years in jail in a separate case involving millions of euros in kickbacks from arms sales to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed in 1994. Lebanon’s National News Agency said the French team interrogated Takieddine on Thursday over the Sarkozy case. The session was held at the Court of Cassation at Beirut’s Justice Palace in the presence of Attorney General Judge Imad Qabalan and Takieddine’s lawyer Sharif al-Husseini. A French judicial source has recently said he was skeptical of the possibility of extradition to France. "France and Lebanon have not concluded an extradition agreement and Lebanon does not extradite its nationals. The proceedings could very quickly end there," the source said. Takieddine was once the main accuser in the inquiry into the Sarkozy case. He was investigated in late 2016 after he told the media he had delivered millions of euros in cash from Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi. Sarkozy caught a break in November when Takieddine suddenly retracted his claim. A Lebanese legal source who asked to remain anonymous has also said that Takieddine was being pursued in a number of financial cases in Lebanon, including on charges of slander, fraud and forgery.

US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
NNA/January 15/2021 
The Money Changers Syndicate announced in a statement addressed to money changing companies and institutions Friday’s USD exchange rate against the Lebanese pound as follows:
Buying price at a minimum of LBP 3850
Selling price at a maximum of LBP 3900

How to Save Lebanon From Financial Ruin and Starvation
James Rickards/The National Interest/January 15/2021
جيمس ريكردز/ناشيونال انترست: كيف يمكن تخليص لبنان من الدمار الإقتصادي والجوع
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/94939/james-rickards-the-national-interest-how-to-save-lebanon-from-financial-ruin-and-starvation-%d8%ac%d9%8a%d9%85%d8%b3-%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%83%d8%b1%d8%af%d8%b2-%d9%86%d8%a7%d8%b4%d9%8a%d9%88%d9%86%d8%a7/

A new, gold-backed bank coupled with reforms could save the economy and prevent a new civil war.
Lebanon is in crisis. It is now home to 1.6 million Syrian and Palestinian refugees and their descendants. The government is democratic but barely functions as numerous political parties, mostly divided along religious and sectarian lines, struggle to install a prime minister and cabinet. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group, is one of the largest parties in parliament, and it maintains an army larger than the Lebanese Armed Forces. Beirut is still reeling from an August 2020 explosion at its port that left over 200 dead.
To make matters worse, the country is now experiencing a deep and systemic financial crisis. The banking system, central bank, and currency reserves have all collapsed. Banks insist that dollar-denominated deposits are good money, but they have no dollars to back those claims. The central bank continues to operate but lacks dollars to meet promises to the country’s commercial banks. Lebanon has defaulted on over $42 billion of principal and interest on dollar-denominated eurobonds. Its currency, the lira, has crashed from an official rate of about L1,500 to $1 to a black-market rate of L9,000. Central bank currency reserves are near zero.
In a report I authored for the nonpartisan think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies earlier this year, I estimated the cost of a bailout of the Lebanese financial system to be approximately $100 billion. That figure is academic, since no bailout of that magnitude is possible in a world hard-pressed by the coronavirus and economic distress. New money allocated to Lebanon for a bailout or rescue would be gobbled up by corrupt politicians or siphoned off by elites. Lebanon is beyond hope in terms of the tried-and-true rescue playbook used by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In short, Lebanon is broke.
This financial collapse will not be confined to the financial system, unfortunately. Lebanon has few sources of direct foreign investment, negligible exports, and a moribund tourism sector. When reserves are depleted, which could happen soon, the country will be unable to pay for food. Indeed, Lebanon is facing a humanitarian crisis potentially worse than the slaughter of civilians in the Syrian civil war or the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Six million people are now under the threat of starvation.
A global humanitarian rescue will be needed. But it will be fraught with challenges. It will likely be conducted in a political power vacuum, which may be filled by sectarian warlords, Iranian proxies, and perhaps even intervention from Syrian, Russian, or Israeli forces. In a worst-case scenario, civilians will be caught in the crossfire of a new Lebanese civil war.
Fortunately, there is a solution to Lebanon’s financial woes that can forestall the humanitarian crisis. Lebanon has one remaining monetary asset: gold. Lebanon has over 285 metric tonnes of gold bullion, worth $78 billion at current prices. Lebanon could form a new bank under United Kingdom law, capitalized with $10 billion of its gold to be held in custody at the Bank of England to reassure investors. An additional $10 billion could be raised as preferred stock, secured by the gold. With a $20 billion capital base, up to $100 billion could be raised through senior notes and deposits.
This new bank should displace the irredeemably corrupt Lebanese central bank. Its board would include global financial elites and Lebanese professionals untainted by the crisis. The lira would be devalued to L10,000 to $1 and fixed at that rate using a currency board similar to that of Hong Kong. Existing banks would convert dollar deposits to local currency deposits. Letters of credit could support food and energy imports. The devalued currency would provide a foundation for the growth of the export sector.
Given their woeful balance sheets, most of Lebanon’s local banks would need to be liquidated. Their deposits and good assets would be transferred to a few surviving banks that would serve Lebanon’s banking needs. Receipt of liquidity from the new bank would be dependent on transparency, an end to terrorism finance, and bank governance based on best practices.
If done right, the reform of the Lebanese financial system would open the door to rescue funds from the IMF and a consortium of lenders. The financial crisis would be mitigated, even as the existing financial sector closed its doors. The winners would be the Lebanese people and regional stability. The losers would be Hezbollah and corrupt elites.
The gold-backed bank is feasible. The alternative is humanitarian disaster, civil war, and military intervention. The time to act is now.
*James Rickards is an advisor to the Center on Economic and Financial Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and is the author of the forthcoming book The New Great Depression from Portfolio. Follow him on Twitter @JamesGRickards. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

Lebanon Wants an End to Iranian Occupation
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/January 15/ 2021

خالد أبو طعمة/معهد كايتستون: لبنان يريد نهاية للإحتلال الإيراني/15 كانون الثاني/2021

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/94944/khaled-abu-toameh-gatestone-institute-lebanon-wants-an-end-to-iranian-occupation-%d8%ae%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af-%d8%a3%d8%a8%d9%88-%d8%b7%d8%b9%d9%85%d8%a9-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af-%d9%83%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%aa/
The Lebanese are worried that their country will meet the fate endured by Iraq, Syria and Yemen, where the Iranians and their militia proxies are playing a major role in the civil wars currently plaguing these countries.
The Lebanese are demanding an end to Iranian occupation of their country; they are clearly hoping that the international community will intervene to assist them in freeing Lebanon from Iran's control.
A policy of appeasement or engagement with the mullahs will yield only one thing: blood running even more freely in the streets of Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq -- as well as nuclear weapons.
A recent announcement by the chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh (pictured), that Iran intends to use Lebanon as a "forefront" for waging war on Israel, has enraged many Lebanese, who say that the time has come to end the Iranian occupation of their country.
Iran's recent announcement that it intends to use Lebanon as a "forefront" for waging war on Israel has enraged many Lebanese, who say that the time has come to end the Iranian occupation of their country.
The Lebanese are worried that their country will meet the fate endured by Iraq, Syria and Yemen, where the Iranians and their militia proxies are playing a major role in the civil wars currently plaguing these countries.
The Lebanese were reacting to statements by the chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, who was quoted as saying that Lebanon is at the forefront of Iran's battle against Israel.
Referring to the missiles Iran has supplied to Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip, Hajizadeh said: "Whatever you see in Gaza and Lebanon is with our support; these days they use missiles instead of simple rockets.
"Making Lebanon an extension of Iran violates the country's sovereignty and independence," wrote Lebanese commentator Souad Lazkani.
"Iran can and will use its rockets to fire from Lebanon to Israel if need be and whenever it wants, even if Lebanon does not agree to it. It will fall on the Lebanese people to pay the price of the heavy consequences as its territory becomes an arena for Iran's battle with Israel."
Hussein Wajeh, media adviser to Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, warned against turning Lebanon into an Iranian province:
"Some Iranian officials are trying to involve the Lebanese people in the Iranian regime's open wars with the international community.
"Lebanon has not – and will not – be the front line on behalf of Iran in any confrontation. The Lebanese will not pay the price for the Iranian regime. Lebanon is an independent, free and sovereign country."
To express their rejection and fear of Iran's malign intentions, many Lebanese have taken to social media to warn that they will not allow the mullahs of Tehran and their Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist organization to drag their country into another war with Israel.
A hashtag currently trending on Twitter under the slogan "Beirut is Free, Iran Out," shows how eager the Lebanese are to end the Iranian occupation of their country. The criticism, of course, is also directed toward Hezbollah, which has long been using Lebanon as a launching pad for carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel with Iranian-supplied weapons.
One of the posts on Twitter reads: "The defendant: The Iranian Hezbollah. The charge: Participation in the wars in our region."
"No to terrorism, no to Hezbollah, no to Iran," wrote Aline Hatem, a Lebanese woman. "Lebanon is always going to be independent."
George CK Wardini, a Lebanese citizen who describes himself as "center-left, progressive and secular," remarked: "Lebanon is under Iranian occupation and it needs to be freed from this oppressive dictatorship!"
Addressing Hezbollah and all Lebanese who support Iran, a Lebanese social media user called Cactus Jack commented: "if you love Iran so bad, why don't you go there and leave us the f*** alone? Lebanon is not for Iran or any rapist terrorist or warlords. Lebanon is for us, always life will win over death."
Sara Abou Rjeily, a Lebanese artist and photographer, wrote that any Lebanese politician who ignores the threat Hezbollah poses to Lebanon is acting against the interests of his or her own country: "Every Lebanese politician who does not publicly acknowledge that Hezbollah is an occupier and a terrorist and criminal [organization] and an existential threat is the one who denies Lebanon's rights, its identity and its independence."
Adding insult to injury, last week, Iran's allies in Lebanon unveiled in Beirut a statue of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a US drone attack in Iraq a year ago. In the past few weeks, several images of Soleimani have appeared on boards in the Hezbollah-controlled districts of Beirut and southern Lebanon, sparking a wave of online criticism from many Lebanese.
"Hezbollah seems pretty damn desperate to make late Iranian General Qassem Soleimani a local hero, despite knowing that for a majority of the people in Lebanon he simply represents a foreign power," said Lebanese researcher Nizar Hassan.
The Lebanese Social Democratic Party, Kataeb, urged the Lebanese government to summon the Iranian ambassador to Beirut for clarification regarding Tehran's ongoing military support for Hezbollah. The party accused Iran of holding Lebanon hostage and violating its sovereignty. "Hezbollah's illegal weapons did not protect Lebanon in the past and will not protect it today," according to a statement by Kataeb. "Instead, these weapons subject Lebanon to all forms of isolation, boycotts and sanctions."
The Lebanese, like a growing number of Arabs in the Gulf states, are saying that they prefer peace, stability and prosperity over weapons, statues and wars with Israel. The Lebanese are making it clear that they have suffered more than enough from Iran's endless meddling in their internal affairs. The Lebanese are demanding an end to Iranian occupation of their country; they are clearly hoping that the international community will intervene to assist them in freeing Lebanon from Iran's control.
The message the Lebanese people are sending to the international community is encouraging: Lebanon does not want war with Israel; Lebanon wants to get rid of Hezbollah and Iran. We Lebanese ask you to support this goal by applying unyielding pressure on the mullahs in Tehran. A policy of appeasement or engagement with the mullahs will yield only one thing: blood running even more freely in the streets of Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq -- as well as nuclear weapons.
*Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 15-16/2021

US will impose sanctions on Iran over conventional arms, metals industry: Sources
Reuters, Washington/ Friday 15 January 2021
The United States plans to announce additional Iran sanctions on Friday related to conventional arms and to the metals industry, sources familiar with the matter said. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not provide details on the sanctions, the latest in a series that US President Donald Trump has imposed on the Iranian economy to try to force Tehran into a new negotiation on curbing its nuclear program as well as its missile and regional activities.Trump in 2018 abandoned the Iran nuclear agreement that Tehran struck with six major powers in 2015 to rein in its nuclear program in return for relief from US and international sanctions that had crippled its economy. When he walked away from the deal, Trump said he was open to negotiating a much wider pact that would seek more extensive constraints on Iran’s nuclear program as well as limits on its development of ballistic missiles and its sponsorship of militias in regional nations such as Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. The Republican president’s administration plans to unveil the new sanctions five days before Trump is to hand over the White House to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. Biden has said he will return to the 2015 pact if Iran resumes strict compliance with it. The State and Treasury Departments did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the announcement.

US issues new sanctions on Iran organizations for arming military, IRGC
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/Friday 15 January 2021
The US announced new sanctions Friday on Iran’s Marine, Aerospace and Aviation Industries organizations for their role in manufacturing lethal military equipment for Iran’s military and the IRGC. “Today, we are announcing the designation of Iran’s Marine Industries Organization (MIO), Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO), and the Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO) for engaging in activities that materially contribute to the supply, sale, or transfer, directly or indirectly, to or from Iran, or for the use in or benefit of Iran, of arms or related materiel, including spare parts,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. He said each of the entities was manufacturing lethal military equipment for Iran’s military, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). This includes attack boats, missiles, and combat drones, Pompeo said. “Iranian conventional arms proliferation poses a persistent threat to regional and international security, as evidenced by Iran’s continued military support and confirmed arms transfers that fuel ongoing conflict in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and elsewhere,” Pompeo also said Friday. The outgoing top US diplomat called upon all states to prohibit the sale, supply, or transfer of arms to or from Iran. “The United States will continue working with its partners in the international community to pressure the Iranian regime to fundamentally change its behavior,” Pompeo said.

US troops in Afghanistan, Iraq cut to 2,500 each: Acting Defense Secretary
Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English/Friday 15 January 2021
The Pentagon announced Friday that it had cut the number of US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq to 2,500 each, days before President-elect Joe Biden is set to take office. “Today, US force levels in Afghanistan have reached 2,500. Directed by President [Donald] Trump, and as I announced on Nov. 17, this drawdown brings US forces in the country to their lowest levels since 2001,” Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said in a statement. “Today, the United States is closer than ever to ending nearly two decades of war and welcoming in an Afghan-owned, Afghan-led peace process to achieve a political settlement and a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire,” Miller said. The reduction could complicate matters for the incoming Biden administration, which must determine how to handle a Trump administration commitment to the Taliban to remove all US military, intelligence and contractor personnel from Afghanistan by May as a move to spur peace negotiations. Those talks are at an early stage. Senior US commanders are skeptical of the Taliban’s stated commitment to peace, although they have said they can accomplish their mission in Afghanistan with 2,500 troops. When Trump took office four years ago, there were about 8,500 troops in the country, and he raised it to about 13,000 that summer. Under the National Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress two weeks ago, the Pentagon was explicitly forbidden to use money from this year’s or last year’s budget on reducing the number of troops below 4,000 — or below the number that was in the country the day the bill was finalized, which was Jan. 1. Trump vetoed the measure, but both the House and Senate voted to override his veto. The defense legislation provided two conditions under which the Pentagon could get around the prohibition -- a presidential waiver or a report to Congress assessing the effect of a further drawdown on the US counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan and the risk to US troops there.
Iraq
Separately, Miller also revealed that the number of US troops in Iraq was now at 2,500. “The drawdown of US force levels in Iraq is reflective of the increased capabilities of the Iraqi Security Forces,” Miller said, adding that the ability to reduce force levels was “evidence of real progress” in the fight against ISIS. But the US official said the move did “not equate to a change in US policy. “US and Coalition forces remain in Iraq to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Miller said.There had been just over 5,000 US troops in Iraq before the initial decisions to reduce the troop level at the end of 2019.

Turkey’s Erdogan hopes for positive steps on F-35 jet program during Biden’s term
Reuters, Ankara/Friday 15 January 2021
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he hoped positive steps will be taken on Turkey’s role in the F-35 jet program once US President-elect Joe Biden takes office, describing Ankara’s exclusion for purchasing Russian defenses as a “serious wrong”. Last month, Washington imposed long-anticipated sanctions on Turkey’s defense industry over its acquisition of S-400 missile defense systems from Moscow, in a move Turkey called a “grave mistake”. The United States has also removed fellow NATO member Turkey from the F-35 program over the move. Washington says the S-400s pose a threat to its F-35 fighter jets and to NATO’s broader defense systems. Turkey rejects this, saying S-400s will not be integrated into NATO and purchasing them was a necessity as it was unable to procure air defense systems from any NATO ally on satisfactory terms. First parts of a Russian S-400 missile defense system are seen after unloaded from a Russian plane at Murted Airport, known as Akinci Air Base, near Ankara, Turkey. First parts of a Russian S-400 missile defense system are seen after unloaded from a Russian plane at Murted Airport, known as Akinci Air Base, near Ankara, Turkey. “No country can determine the steps we will take toward the defense industry, that fully depends on the decisions we make,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul, adding Ankara was in talks to procure a second shipment of S-400s from Russia and would hold talks on the issue later this month. “We don’t know what the Biden administration will say at this stage (on the S-400s),” he added. “Despite having paid a serious fee on the F-35s, the F-35s still have not been given to us. This is a serious wrong the United States did against us as a NATO ally,” he said.

Iran fires ‘abundant’ missiles, drones in latest military drill exercise: State TV
Reuters, Dubai Friday 15 January 2021
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards fired “abundant” surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and tested locally manufactured new drones in a military exercise on Friday, state television reported. The drill, which it said was overseen by Guards commander Major General Hossein Salami in the central desert region, came in the waning days of high tensions with US President Donald Trump’s administration. It followed short-range naval missile tests on Wednesday, as well as exercises earlier this month that featured a wide array of domestically produced drones. “The bomber drones struck the hypothetical enemy missile shield from all directions, completely destroying the targets,” the state TV broadcast said of Friday’s drill. “Also, an abundant number of a new generation of ballistic missiles were fired at selected targets, inflicting deadly blows to the hypothetical enemy bases.”Iran, which routinely boasts of technological advances in its armed forces, has one of the biggest missile programs in the Middle East, regarding them as a deterrent and retaliatory force against US and other adversaries in the event of war. There have been periodic confrontations between Iran’s military and US forces in the Gulf since 2018, when Trump abandoned Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and reinstated harsh sanctions against Tehran. US President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on Jan. 20, has said Washington will rejoin the deal “if Iran resumes strict compliance” with the agreement that imposed strict curbs on its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions.

Turkish Leader Eyes Favorably Greek PM Meet amid Tensions
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 15 January, 2021
Turkey’s president indicated on Friday that he would be open to easing tensions with neighboring Greece by floating the possibility of a face-to-face meeting with the Greek prime minister following months of saber-rattling over energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters after prayers in Istanbul that he would “positively” consider a meeting that he said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had requested. Erdogan said the two countries’ foreign ministers had met and bilateral talks were ongoing. “So we said we can take the steps for talks between our special representatives and then between the Prime Minister and myself could happen.” Relations between the neighbors and nominal NATO allies hit new lows over the summer due to a dispute over maritime borders and energy rights, bringing them to the brink of war.Turkey dispatched a research vessel, escorted by warships, to search for hydrocarbon resources in disputed waters. Greece answered by sending its own frigates, claiming Turkey had violated its sovereign rights. Earlier this week, both countries announced the resumption of exploratory talks on Jan. 25. The talks would be the latest in a long-running process of negotiations between Greece and Turkey that aim to improve their often testy relations. A Greek government official said the Greek side viewed the possibility of a meeting between the two leaders as positive, if the current positive climate in relations continued. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. The official said the prime minister has repeatedly stated his desire for open channels of communication with Turkey at the highest level. In December, the European Union gave the green light for the expansion of sanctions against Turkey over its exploration of gas reserves in waters claimed by EU members Greece and Cyprus. Though Ankara has repeatedly said sanctions would not deter Turkey from defending its energy rights, Erdogan has expressed a readiness to put frayed relations with the EU “back on track” and called on them display the same determination. Erdogan spoke with Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte Friday, thanking him for his support within the EU. “I believe Italy will direct the European Union to a prudent and just attitude in the Eastern Mediterranean,” the Turkish president said.

Russia Follows US in Withdrawal from Open Skies Treaty
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 15 January, 2021
Russia said on Friday that it will withdraw from an international treaty allowing surveillance flights over military facilities after the US exit from the pact, compounding the challenges faced by the incoming administration of president-elect Joe Biden. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the US withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty last year “significantly upended the balance of interests of signatory states,” adding that Moscow’s proposals to keep the treaty alive after the US exit have been cold-shouldered by Washington’s allies. The ministry said that Russia is now launching the relevant procedures to withdraw from the pact "due to the lack of progress in removing the obstacles for the treaty's functioning in the new conditions.” The Russian parliament, which ratified the treaty in 2001, will now have to vote to leave it. The treaty was intended to build trust between Russia and the West by allowing the accord’s more than three dozen signatories to conduct reconnaissance flights over each other’s territories to collect information about military forces and activities. More than 1,500 flights have been conducted under the treaty, aimed at fostering transparency about military activity and helping monitor arms control and other agreements.US President Donald Trump pulled out of the Open Skies Treaty, arguing that Russian violations made it untenable for the United States to remain a party. The US completed its withdrawal from the pact in November.
Russia denied breaching the treaty, which came into force in 2002. The European Union has urged the US to reconsider and called on Russia to stay in the pact and lift flight restrictions, notably over its westernmost Kaliningrad region, which lies between NATO allies Lithuania and Poland.
Russia has argued that the limits on flights over Kaliningrad, which hosts sizable military forces, are permissible under the treaty’s terms, noting that the US has imposed more sweeping restrictions on observation flights over Alaska.
As a condition for staying in the pact after the US pullout, Moscow unsuccessfully sought guarantees from NATO allies that they wouldn't transfer the data collected during their observation flights over Russia to the US.
Leonid Slutsky, head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of the Russian parliament, said in televised remarks Friday that Russia could review its decision to withdraw if the US decides to return to the pact, but acknowledged that the prospect looks “utopian.”
Moscow has warned that the US withdrawal will erode global security by making it more difficult for governments to interpret the intentions of other nations, particularly amid Russia-West tensions after the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014. The demise of the Open Skies Treaty follows the US and Russian withdrawal in 2019 from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The INF Treaty, which was signed in 1987 by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, banned land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,410 miles), weapons seen as particularly destabilizing because of the shorter time they take to reach targets compared with intercontinental ballistic missiles. The only US-Russian arms control pact still standing is the New START treaty that expires in three weeks. Moscow and Washington have discussed the possibility of its extension, but have so far failed to overcome their differences. Biden has spoken for the preservation of the New START treaty and Russia has said it's open for its quick and unconditional extension. But negotiating the deal before the pact expires on Feb. 5 appears extremely challenging.
New START was signed in 2010 by US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. It limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.
Arms control advocates have warned that its expiration would remove any checks on US and Russian nuclear forces, striking a blow to global stability.

Trump Receives Morocco's Highest Award for Middle East Work
Asharq Al-Awsat/January 15/2021
US President Donald Trump on Friday received Morocco's highest award for his work in advancing a normalization deal between Israel and Morocco, a senior administration official told Reuters. In a private Oval Office ceremony, Princess Lalla Joumala Alaoui, who is Morocco's ambassador to the United States, gave Trump the Order of Muhammad, an award given only to heads of state. It was a gift from Morocco's King Mohammed VI. White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz received other awards for their work on the Israel-Morocco deal, which was reached in December. The United States in the last five months helped broker deals between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. The agreements are aimed at normalizing relations and opening economic ties. Trump leaves office on Wednesday.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 15-16/2021

Iran’s missile programme and US-Israeli agendas
Khairallah Khairallah/The Arab Weekly/January 15/2021
It has become obvious that Israel, which launches strikes almost every day on sites in Syria and monitors Lebanese territory from the air and sea at day and night, has succeeded in making Iran’s ballistic missiles what may be the only common denominator between the administrations of US President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden.
In the end, Biden’s administration made the right call days before its term was to begin.
It linked reviving the Iran nuclear agreement, signed in the summer of 2015 under then President Barack Obama, to the conditions the agreement ignored and which led Obama’s successor, President Donald Trump, to tear it apart in 2018 and describe it as “the worst agreement of its kind.”
At the forefront of these conditions is the link between the Iranian nuclear deal and Iran’s ballistic missiles programme and aggressive behaviour in the region.
From this standpoint, the words of Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan represent a very significant turning point.
A few days ago, Sullivan said that the Biden administration is not against returning to the nuclear agreement that Iran signed with the Group of Five plus one (the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany), “but the missiles should be on the table.”
Such talk is significant because it indicates that the prospect of war with Iran no longer hinges on the Trump administration alone.
It is possible that nothing will change under Biden, who has aligned himself with Trump in this regard. The war option will hence remain on the table because of the ballistic missiles programme, which will perhaps draw now more attention than Iran’s nuclear programme.
The Biden administration certainly cannot publicly acknowledge that the Trump administration was right on Iran.
In fact, there was a working group around Trump which knows Iran and its modern history well, starting with its capture of US Embassy diplomats in Tehran for 444 days that began in November 1979.
This team was able to build a coherent policy against Iran that led to the Iran nuclear agreement being torn up and more sanctions being imposed on the Tehran regime
These sanctions have had a major impact on the country. This is what the regime’s leaders refuse to acknowledge, just as they refuse to admit that they will not be able to negotiate with the new US administration from a position of strength, regardless of what they pretend and whatever they do to confirm that they are in Lebanon and Gaza and that the missiles in those places that are aimed at Israel came from Iran and nowhere else.
Whatever Iran does, it will not be able to keep hold of Iraq, which it considers the biggest prize.
No matter how much it resorts to armed parades by the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), the sectarian militia group loyal to Tehran, Iraq will remain Iraq and Iran will remain Iran.
Whatever Iran does in Lebanon to show that the latter is in its orbit and that Qassem Soleimani, the late leader of the Quds Force, is present in every Shia neighborhood, it remains that Iran is rejected by most Lebanese people, who know that Tehran can destroy, but cannot build.
There was some reason for the new US administration to reconsider its calculations and rein in its Iranian enthusiasm for an unconditional return to the nuclear agreement.
This includes Sullivan, a key figure who is known to favour a return to the Iran nuclear deal.
In this context, we must consider two very important developments in this direction.
The first was the launch of missiles and rockets via drones at Saudi Aramco oil installations in Abqaiq in September 2019.
Iran’s hits were accurate and revealed the new advanced features of its ballistic missiles that managed to disrupt a significant part of Saudi oil production for a few days. This occurred again about two weeks ago. The Houthis, who are nothing but an Iranian tool, targeted Aden airport.
The shells fell a few metres away from a civilian plane that was transporting members of the new Yemeni government to the capital of southern Yemen.
Twenty-six people were killed and dozens wounded in a deliberate missile strike originating from an area near Taiz, the capital of the central Yemeni region, part of which is under Houthis control.
These missiles covered a distance of about 150km and fell a few metres away from their target. No American administration can help but take into account the fact that Iran’s missiles have become dangerously accurate.
It cannot ignore that Israel’s security is at stake, which is a real American concern.
The Iranian missiles fired at Saudi Arabia’s eastern region could have been launched from Iraq and not Iran. But it is now a fact that some deep changes have occurred and the Biden administration cannot just stand by and watch.
It is not possible for the United States to let Iran play the role of the dominant power in the Gulf and the Middle East, relying on missiles and on the sectarian militias that it finances. The policy pursued by the Trump administration was widely supported by both Republicans and Democrats in both houses of Congress.
What will Israel do? That is the big question. What it has succeeded in doing so far is making Iran’s missiles a common denominator or a bridge between two administrations that are not united on much else.
Moreover, if the Trump administration underestimated Iran’s missiles fired by the Houthis from Yemen towards Saudi territory, it is likely that this issue will be of interest to Washington in the next few months. It will view the development of Iranian missiles as an issue that is just as, if not more, important than Iran’s nuclear programme. More than that, talk has surfaced about the prospect of Yemeni territories being used to launch rockets towards Israel and that these missiles could reach the port of Eilat on the Red Sea.
 

Trump’s Shadow Looms over Biden’s Presidency
Elias Harfoush/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 15/2021
Normally, US presidents become history once their terms have expired. They retire on their farm and keep themselves busy writing memoirs and remembering the leaders they met, the deals they made, the laws they signed and the capitals they visited. They become outside the world of politics and decision-making. The US doesn’t have room for two presidents. Mid-day on January 20 separates this term from that.
On Mid-day next Wednesday, things will be different. True, Joe Biden will enter the White House, unless something even more exceptional occurs and prevents this from happening. Donald Trump will leave. But… will Trump really go? The forty-fifth president won’t have his hands on the steering wheel or his finger on the nuclear button. He won’t get Air Force One or the armored presidential limo. But the shadow of his stay at the capital of global decision making will not disappear. He has 74 million American votes in pocket, 11 million more than those allowed him to arrive at the White House in 2017. These millions aren’t going anywhere. They are staying in US cities and rural areas for the next four years of Biden’s term. They don’t accept the legitimacy of any president who isn’t Trump.
Trump’s shadow will loom over Washington during his successor’s inauguration ceremony. The fact that he will break with the US custom of attending the ceremony and the presence of over 20,000 armed forces to protect the capital from another “insurrection” affirms that apprehensions about the absent president who is leaving office and the impact of his future steps control the coming administration.
It will not be easy to get rid of this man’s legacy or his shadow. He came from outside the establishment and the party. His presidency became a milestone, and, like his character, it was different. The man doesn’t respect traditions or taboos; he has his personal constitution and laws. It is on this foundation that Trump built his broad popular base, a sample of which we saw at the “insurrection at the Capitol” on January 6. Under the slogan “you’re all traitors,” these protesters raised the gallows and guillotines in the face of Biden’s victory, bringing to mind the revolution that ended with the decapitations of Louis XVI and poor Mary Antoinette. Even Vice President Mike Pence’s name was on the gallows erected facing Congress, alongside the names of the other “traitors:”: House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, several Democratic state governors, and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, who is the most prominent member of the Republican Party to have voted against Trump, who said, “We got to get rid” the likes of her.
Those protesting against the “steal” of the elections and Trump being denied the presidency wanted their message to reach those who want to hear. It is a revolution against everything that American institutions represent: the headquarters of the executive authority at the White House, the center of legislation at the two chambers of Congress, the judiciary’s highest body, the Supreme Court. All of these institutions are accused of committing extraordinary fraudulent actions to prevent Donald Trump from realizing his historic right to remain in the White House: Trump is our president, and we do not recognize any president but him.
The slogan of Trump supporters’ revolution against American institutions was raised alongside slogans of the extremist and fascist movements of the American right and white-supremacist groups. The movements that had no luck in the ballot box and found their new calling in supporting a president in whom they see a genuine reflection of themselves, whose unconventional rhetoric allows him to defend them, even when they plan on attacking federal government headquarters. This was apparent in his call for them to march towards the Capitol to pressure the men and women of Congress to refrain from confirming Joe Biden’s victory.
Trump’s shadow will not leave Washington. It will be hard to ignore him while Congress votes to confirm Biden’s cabinet picks as he begins his term. The House vote in favor of impeaching Trump for violating the constitution and instigating an insurrection will make matters harder for Joe Biden, whose term was supposed to signal a new page being turned after the past four years, a new page that would allow for the reunification of the US as he had promised. Instead, his term will begin with Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate, before the vote on the resolution that deems him ineligible to assume the presidency. It will set a historic precedent, as Trump will be relaxing on the beach in his Florida resort while lawmakers in Congress are busy determining his illegibility for office.
Many would prefer for Trump’s legacy and the disputes that emerged during his term to be forgotten. If only this page could be turned. His opponents in the Democratic Party obviously prefer this, as do the Republican members of both houses of Congress who have been applauding him over the past four years, knowing that his support ensured that they would win their legislative seats. These Republicans know that Trump will continue to be an obstacle, whether they hope to run for the presidency in 2024 or obtain the votes they need from the electorate to retain their seat in Congress.
However, there is little to indicate that most Republican members of Congress are ready to relinquish their support for Trump or stop defending him. Despite the hurdles facing his political future and the fact that he had been impeached from the House of Representatives for abuse of power twice, the Republicans did save him from conviction the first time, and they could perhaps save him a second time.
Numbers don’t lie, and they affirm the Republicans’ reluctance to abandon Trump. Despite the siege of the Capitol on January 6 and the confirmation of his defeat by state councils and the courts, the fact remains that 147 members of Congress (139 House representatives and 8 Senators) voted against confirming Biden's victory.
Joe Biden’s ability to stitch America’s torn social fabric back together will hinge on the Republican Party leadership’s readiness to take part in this process and leave Trump’s legacy behind, a legacy that harmed the party’s image to the same extent that it drew votes. In other words, it depends on the extent to which Republicans are prepared to reclaim their party from the “Trumpists”, whom Donald Trump Jr. called the real Republicans on the day of the assault on the Capitol.

Biden Must Avoid Obama's Mistake When Setting His Agenda
Noah Smith/Bloomberg/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 15/2021
The universe of possibilities for the Biden administration radically expanded after the Democrats clinched the Senate majority, but the increase in political capital isn’t infinite. When deciding which problems to tackle first, President Joe Biden should prioritize initiatives that address the pandemic while moving the nation toward long-term goals for public health and green-energy stimulus.
Biden can learn from the experience of Barack Obama, whose focus on health-insurance reform provoked a midterm backlash and probably forfeited a chance to boost the country out of the Great Recession sooner.
He should heed the words of Winston Churchill who urged, “never let a good crisis go to waste.” Because crises are times when the public understands that change is necessary, it’s possible to make deep and lasting reforms. President Franklin D. Roosevelt understood this when he focused parts of his New Deal on long-term alterations to America’s economic structure, such as Social Security and the National Labor Relations Board. These policies not only contributed to the recovery from the Great Depression — the reason for Roosevelt's election — but created a more equal and stable economy in which workers had more bargaining power and old people didn’t have to live in penury.
The US was in the depths of the Great Recession when Obama took office in 2009. With the benefit of unified Democratic control of Congress, he passed a fairly substantial stimulus. But it was still too small to make more than a modest dent in the recession. It was too weighted toward tax cuts and it didn’t include much of a bailout for underwater homeowners. Instead, Obama spent much of his political capital on passing the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
Now, it’s true that health insurance was, and is, one of the country’s biggest problems. And it’s also true that Obamacare substantially reduced the ranks of the uninsured, which was a big, important victory. But the system Obama crafted was a compromise, which left the problem of ruinously high costs mostly unaddressed. The legislation failed to satisfy many on the left, with a few now even labeling it as mass murder for not making deeper reforms. Meanwhile, Obamacare remained unpopular throughout Obama’s term in office and may have substantially contributed to the Democrats’ catastrophic midterm election losses in 2010.
Alternate histories are difficult to imagine, but it seems likely that had Obama spent his 2009 political capital on things more directly related to the recession — such as more infrastructure spending, a bigger bailout for underwater homeowners and a stronger welfare state — he'd have realized a higher return on that political capital. In other words, a crisis does present an opportunity for long-term reforms, but it’s best to use that opportunity for reforms that address the immediate crisis.
The Democratic victories in the Georgia Senate runoffs have given Biden an unexpected opportunity to pass major legislation in the first year of his presidency, instead of relying on executive action and the faint hope of bipartisan compromise. The left will be clamoring for major action on health care and a variety of other momumental issues, but Biden needs to spend his political capital on reforms that are also tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting recession.
The first priority is public health. COVID-19 exposed deep and catastrophic weaknesses in the US public health institutions. Right now, vaccination is proceeding at a glacial pace due to an uncoordinated rollout that dumped vaccines in the lap of state public health agencies utterly unequipped to rapidly inoculate the entire populace. Biden needs to come right out of the gate with a coordinated, well-funded vaccination plan that reaches maximum vaccination rates as fast as possible. In doing so, he also needs to bolster public health agencies and revitalize and reform both the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration after years of neglect.
This will be a bigger challenge than is popularly realized because of the possibility that vaccine-resistant virus strains will emerge. Biden will need to reorient much of the US economy toward vaccine production and distribution until COVID-19 has been decisively beaten all around the world. It will take a lot of money and a lot of will. After the virus is beaten, the US economy will still linger in recession unless the government acts decisively to boost demand. The best tool for doing this, as usual, is infrastructure investment. And the rapid progress in solar power and batteries means that Biden has a unique opportunity to address the climate crisis at the same time. A huge build-out of solar power and electric-car charging stations, including subsidies to rapidly replace fossil fuel plants and gasoline vehicles, will ensure that the US economy comes roaring back while making huge steps toward decarbonization.
Public health and green infrastructure should be the top priorities for Biden in 2021 and 2022. Yes, there are lots of other things in America that need reform, including health care. But the realities of the political system mean these will have to wait. Reforms must fit the crisis of the day; Biden can’t afford to get sidetracked on a quixotic quest to fix everything that’s wrong with the American economy.

Washington Riot and ‘End of America’ Crowd
Amir Taheri /Asharq Al-Awsat/January 15/2021
Last week’s mob assault on the Capitol in Washington DC has injected new vigor in the “end of America” crowd across the globe. In China and Russia the talk is centered on the claim that American democracy is no longer a model for nations seeking a global profile. For Khomeinists in the Islamic Republic in Iran and Chavista in Venezuela, the event marked “the beginning of the end” for the “Great Satan”. Some chattering circles in Europe relaunched speculation about the end of America as leader in the international arena.
In the US itself, too, some commentators presented the incident as an historic turning point. Richard Haas of the Council on Foreign Relations, hailed by the Tehran daily Kayhan as “America’s greatest strategist”, saw the riot as the starting point of the “post-America” world order.
The idea that America is somehow “ending” or losing its leadership position is not new. The retired American linguist Noam Chomsky and Dr. Hassan Abbasi, known as “Dr. Kissinger of Islam” have been peddling that yarn for years. The Indian-American TV star Fareed Zakaria even wrote a book about the “American dream” being on its death-bed.
But, what if all the talk about “end of America and “death of the American dream” is based on partial or even total misreading and mis-description of the mini-riot in Washington?
The BBC headlined a remark by President-elect Joe Biden saying the Washington riot was “the darkest day in our history”. However, when you read the actual news item you find out that Biden said “one of the darkest days”. London newspapers headlined Biden “condemning” the difference in treatment of the Washington riots and that of Black Life Matters protestors. Several papers quoted un-named BLM activists saying that “had it been us, we would have all been dead.” The fact that in 2020 they had numerous riots in more than 20 American cities and they are still in good health was ignored. However, Biden described the difference in police treatment of pro-Trump and BLM rioters only as “unacceptable”, the weakest term in the lexicon of sulking.
The European Union foreign policy spokesman, Josep Borrel, described the riot as “unprecedented in a democracy” and, presumably, a sign of American decline. He may have to refresh his knowledge of European history to remember President Charles De Gaulle having to flee Paris to seek refuge with French troops in West Germany in 1968, not to mention the seizure of the Spanish parliament in Madrid by Lt. Colonel Antonio Tejero’s armed gang in 1981.
Some commentators compared the Washington blip with Mussolini’s 1922 march on Rome and spoke of an attempted putsch if not a full-blown coup d’etat. However, if only because America is America, seeing Donald J Trump Jr. as a new Mussolini is as hilarious as branding Joseph B. Biden as a new Stalin.
What happened, however, seems to have been less dramatic than what the hate-America had wished.
Capitol Police chief Steven Sund says that two days before Congress was set to finalize Biden’s victory he felt concerned about “the size of the pro-Trump crowd” expected to gather in protest. However, for reasons not yet known spelled out, the 1,900 members of the capitol police force, along with staff of Congressmen and senators, were told to stay home for the day.
Thus, when the riot broke out Capitol Police had only 400 or so officers on hand. Was that a conspiracy by the Trump machine? As the DC police is controlled by the Mayor, an ardent opponent of Trump, and with Democrats holding majority in the House of Representatives, it is hard to see how Trump could have plotted the “stay home” scenario for security officers and congressional personnel.
Even then, the pro-Trump crowd, estimated by the DC police at around 8,000 in its first phases, was rather smaller than Mussolini’s “One Million Man March”. In the final phase of the demonstration around 2,500 people joined the assault on the Capitol and around 150 actually penetrated the heart of the building. Of those 53 were taken into custody and, at the time of this writing 13 had been charged with “trespassing”. In other words, the DC police do not see the riot as a major attempt at seizing power by force, thus challenge claims that the United States has become a “banana republic” in which armed men seize government buildings and establish themselves in power with a pronunciamento.
The term “Trump supporters” is sued as a short hand to describe the rioters. However, if we go by electoral measures, Trump supporters number around 74 million people who voted for him. There is no evidence that many, let alone a majority, of them approve of the tactics used by rioters in DC just as it would be unfair to claim that anti-Trump crowds who pillaged shops and burned neighborhoods last year represent the majority of Democrat voters.
The attack on Capitol was not a March on Rome. Nor was it a Tiananmen style popular uprising that ended the massacre of over 15,000. Nor was it an anti-despot insurrection as we have seen in Tehran and Caracas, among other places, that left thousands dead in streets, in the past few years.
The whole episode disrupted the democratic process of formalizing Biden’s victory for just a few hours after which the nation’s legislative body resumed its work with full serenity.
Sadly, the incident caused claimed five lives. One policeman was shot and died of injuries. One woman demonstrator was killed apparently by a ricocheting bullet while three protesters were crushed in what may have been a stampede.
The key question is whether or not Trump was responsible for “incitement to violence”, a serious charge against anyone let alone the President of the United States. The best way to probe that is for the Capitol Police to demand that the District Attorney in DC opens an inquest, collects evidence, hears witnesses and, if possible, bring a case against the outgoing president. In other words, American democracy is alive and well with robust institutions capable of dealing with any political crisis within a constitutional framework.
To write America off, either as a democracy or as a world leader, is an obsession better left to Chomsky and Abbasi.

Pompeo shining light on Iran’s nefarious activities
Luke Coffey/Arab News/January 15/ 2021
America’s top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, is ending his time as secretary of state with a bang. In the past couple of weeks, he has delivered a number of major speeches and fired off a salvo of tweets highlighting the accomplishments from his time at the State Department.
He has also been announcing some robust, albeit at times controversial, policy decisions. For example, he revealed that the US was changing a more than four-decades-old set of guidelines regarding how American officials engaged with Taiwan. No doubt this decision had Beijing in mind.
He also announced that the US was redesignating Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism (former American President Barack Obama’s administration removed Havana from the list in 2015) and designating the Houthis as a terrorist organization.
With the finish line fast approaching for US President Donald Trump’s administration, Pompeo has seemingly announced several months’ worth of major policy changes in only a few days. His sharpest focus in recent weeks has been on Iran — and rightfully so.
The world is barely through the first weeks of 2021, and already Iran has wasted no time setting a terrible tone for the rest of the year.
Earlier this month the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy seized a South Korean-flagged tanker sailing near the Strait of Hormuz. Iran justified this blatant act of piracy on dubious claims of maritime pollution violations by the South Korean ship. The tanker and its crew are currently being held in Iran. The real reason for Tehran’s actions was more likely linked to the almost $7 billion in Iranian assets that are frozen in South Korea because of US sanctions.
In addition to acts of piracy, Iran also started enriching uranium to 20 percent concentration of Uranium-235. This violates the restrictions laid out in the Obama-era 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal), which capped uranium enrichment at 3.67 percent.
While this might seem complicated, or even confusing to some, in simple terms the move places Iran dangerously close to having a nuclear weapon. This is because enriching uranium to 20 percent represents approximately 90 percent of the effort in producing the weapons-grade fissile material required for a bomb.
Last week, Pompeo also took the opportunity to place the spotlight on Iran’s dangerous relationship with Al-Qaeda. During a speech, he said: “For Al-Qaeda, Iran is the new home base. Tehran gives sanctuary to the terror group’s senior leaders as they plan attacks against America and our allies.”
Although Pompeo announced publicly for the first time that Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Abu Mohammed Al-Masri, was killed on Aug. 7 in Iran, there was very little new in his speech. Some might question why a country of Shiite extremists would back a Sunni terror organization, but the reason is simple: They both have a common enemy in the US and its allies.
For years there has been mounting evidence linking those two unlikely bedfellows. The evidence dates back to America’s 9/11 Commission in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US. During the daring raid to kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011, correspondence was found linking Al-Qaeda with Iranian intelligence.
Pompeo’s actions in recent days will have implications for the incoming administration of US President-elect Joe Biden. On the campaign trail, Biden criticized the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Iran deal, along with the killing of the head of Iran’s Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, and the “maximum pressure campaign” against Tehran.
Many in Iran were hoping that Trump would lose the election to see if a Biden administration would change tactics. There is no doubt that in the coming months many of America’s friends in the Gulf and in Israel will be watching events closely and nervously.
The spotlight that Pompeo is shining on Iran’s nefarious activities is a reminder for Biden and his national security team that there is no easy answer to dealing with Tehran.
The American public, and indeed the world, was sold the Iran deal in 2015 with the bold claim that the agreement would moderate Tehran’s behavior and that it would become a more responsible actor in the region. However, nothing since the deal was inked has shown this to be the case.
Iran has funded, and continues to fund, proxy groups in Yemen, Syria and Iraq. It continues to back elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Iranians launched a strike against an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia and have illegally commandeered several oil tankers in international waters. These are not the acts of a responsible country.
The world is barely through the first weeks of 2021, and already Iran has wasted no time setting a terrible tone for the rest of the year.
Many who are expected to serve in the next US administration in national security roles have a personal stake in ensuring that the Iran deal is brought back to life, mainly because they were involved in the drafting of the accord to begin with. However, the world has changed since 2015. The incoming Biden administration needs to deal with, and confront, the Iran that it has and not the Iran it wants.
Some are questioning Pompeo’s approach during his final days in office. After all, announcing such important policy decisions with only days left in the administration is certainly unconventional. But for better or for worse, the Trump administration has been unconventional from Day 1.
Pompeo’s critics also argue that his recent actions are first about shoring up his political legacy at the State Department with an eye on the next presidential race in 2024. Others might suspect he is creating a distraction from the domestic crisis in America. Perhaps there is some truth to both these arguments. Even so, there is never a bad time to remind the American public and the world about Iran’s nefarious activities.
The next US administration should not let the messenger distract from the truth of the message.
*Luke Coffey is director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Twitter: @LukeDCoffey

Five steps to save the Republican Party
Dr. John C. Hulsman/Arab News/January 15/ 2021
As Washington insider Jim Papa puts it: “If the Republican Party had its own Mount Rushmore, that mountain would have three faces: Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. The goal of every Republican candidate should be to become the fourth face on that mountain.” After the unimaginable, sickening events of last week, suffice it to say that outgoing President Donald Trump will not be joining the pantheon.
Instead, for any good that he has done, Trump’s name will historically be forever linked with the US Capitol violence. But what of the party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan, how can it reconstitute itself from the ashes of Trump’s reign? Here are five steps that can save the Grand Old Party.
First, the real-world facts of the 2020 election must be accepted. Republicans are surely entitled to different feelings than the Democrats have about objective reality — but what they are not entitled to are different facts. Trump’s self-serving theories of voter fraud have led the GOP along the disastrous path of unreason, with the party increasingly serving as a refuge for conspiracy theorists. To be taken seriously, it must now act seriously. The 2020 election is what it is: The Republicans lost and it is well past time to get over it.
Second, Trump himself, and his immediate minions, must be anathema. Incitement to sedition must never be excused, condoned or explained away if the Republicans are to truly put this behind them. The traditional Party of Union (think Lincoln), the working man (think Roosevelt), and personal decency and responsibility (think Reagan) must not eschew these values precisely when they are needed. Trump must be forthrightly censured (through impeachment and conviction) and his enabling minions — such as feckless Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz — must be marginalized within the party. Patriotic love of country is at the base of Republicanism; it must once again serve as the party’s central organizing principle.
Third, while Trump is anathema, moving ahead, the party must adhere to the portions of Trumpism that have served the country well. In terms of domestic issues, a belief in deregulation, tax cuts, nominating originalist judges, and giving the working class a fair shake are all policies the party ought to forthrightly champion and retain.
In terms of foreign affairs, a laser-like focus on China as America’s new superpower rival, supporting the gains made in the Middle East signified by the Abraham Accords, and the US’ tilt toward the Gulf Arab states and Israel to balance against an expansionistic Iran that they symbolize, must also be retained. More than this, the party’s general shift back to its traditional realist foreign policy stance — where American national interests are paramount — must be seen as the present and the vital future for the party’s overall foreign policy orientation, eschewing its disastrous earlier flirtation with neoconservatism.
Patriotic love of country is at the base of Republicanism — it must once again serve as the party’s central organizing principle.
Fourth, the best way to come back is to serve as a loyal opposition to the new Biden administration, supporting him when his policies coincide with Republican ideals and respectfully opposing him when they do not. When the Biden White House governs from the center, Republicans must support his policies, in the name of serving the country. For example, a significant further coronavirus stimulus and a desperately necessary infrastructure program deserve GOP support when they are sent to the Hill.
On the other hand, Democratic Party efforts regarding court packing, ending the Senate filibuster, and advocating a ruinously expensive Green New Deal must be vigorously — if respectfully — fought tooth and nail as contrary to basic Republican beliefs and as not in the interests of the country as a whole. But, moving on from the discord Trump came to epitomize, disagreements must be centered on policies and not the people espousing them, who must be respectfully treated as the patriots they are, even if Republicans believe they are misguided.
Fifth, winning back the party on these terms will be an uphill battle. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll of Oct. 31, 2020 — taken just before the election — found 54 percent of GOP voters saying they were supporters of Trump primarily, while only 38 percent said they were Republicans first. Incredibly, 139 of 211 Republicans in the outgoing House, even after the insurrection, voted to contest the 2020 election results, defying the clear will of the people. Trump’s December 2020 Gallup poll approval rating with GOP voters was 87 percent and throughout his term this has been regularly over 80 percent — consistently the highest in Republican polling history, greater than Dwight Eisenhower’s popularity or even Reagan’s. There will have to be an uphill climb to redeem the party’s soul.
Winning back the party from the detour of Trump will take years of patiently pushing this five-point agenda. But, to put it mildly, this is what Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan would have us do. For those of us who are heartsick Republicans, it is the challenge of our time.
*Dr. John C. Hulsman is the president and managing partner of John C. Hulsman Enterprises, a prominent global political risk consulting firm. He is also senior columnist for City AM, the newspaper of the City of London. He can be contacted via chartwellspeakers.com.