English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 24/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

#elias_bejjani_news
 

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Bible Quotations For today

‘Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap; they throw it away.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 14/25-35/:”Large crowds were travelling with him; and he turned and said to them, ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.”Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions. ‘Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap; they throw it away. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 23-24/2021

Health Ministry: 4,176 new Corona cases, 52 deaths
Top Lebanese Hospitals Fight Exhausting Battle against Virus
Abiad Says Covid New Mutations Contributed to Surge in Cases
Protests in Tripoli, Sidon Rejecting Lockdown Extension
Lebanon MPs accuse Aoun of ‘acting as a party’
Report: UK-registered Firm Possibly Linked to Beirut Explosion
Rai Is Not in Favor of Hariri Stepping Down
Walid Jumblatt describes deep divide between Aoun, Hariri
"Hariri has two options, either to apologize or form a government as per their terms," says Abou El-Hassan
FPM: Era of foreign tutelage is over, deluded are those who attempt to replace it with internal hegemony
Daher: Are we facing a crisis that requires change of this era's symbols?
US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 23-24/2021

Saudi Intercepts 'Hostile Target' over Capital
More Than 20 Injured in Gaza Blast
Vaccine Boost for Poor Countries as Biden Warns of '600,000 Dead'
Biden Speaks with Canada's Trudeau in First Foreign Leader Call as U.S. President
Trump Impeachment Trial to Begin Week of February 8
Biden Administration to Review US-Taliban Withdrawal Deal
Russia Arrests 350 Protesters Demanding Navalny's Release
Germany Investigates Spy Activity in Europe Linked to Former Iranian Diplomat
UN: Bloody tribal clashes in Darfur killed 250 and displaced over 100,000
Egypt’s security services bust Muslim Brotherhood network in capital
 

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 23-24/2021

Libya and A Seventh UN Envoy/Dr. Jebril Elabidi/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 23/2021
Rich Versus Poor, the Global Gap Is Narrowing/Ferdinando Giugliano/Bloomberg/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 23/2021
Tehran’s Presidential Show: A Game of Exclusions/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 23/2021
Larry King, legendary talk show host, dies at 87/Tom Kludt and Brad Parks, CNN/January 23/2021
The Religious Transformation of French Schools/Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/January 23/2021
A new glimmer of hope for Middle East peace/Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/January 23/2021
Triple challenge facing Biden in this region/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/January 23/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 23-24/2021

Health Ministry: 4,176 new Corona cases, 52 deaths
NNA/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced, Saturday, the registration of 4,176 new Coronavirus cases, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 27,658.
It added that 52 deaths were also reported within the past 24 hours.

Top Lebanese Hospitals Fight Exhausting Battle against Virus
Associated Press/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
Death stalks the corridors of Beirut's Rafik Hariri University Hospital, where losing multiple patients in one day to COVID-19 has become the new normal. On Friday, the mood among the staff was even more solemn as a young woman lost the battle with the virus. There was silence as the woman, barely in her 30s, drew her last breath. Then a brief commotion. The nurses frantically tried to resuscitate her. Finally, exhausted, they silently removed the oxygen mask and the tubes — and covered the body with a brown blanket. The woman, whose name is being withheld for privacy reasons, is one of 57 victims who died on Friday and more than 2,150 lost to the virus so far in Lebanon, a small country with a population of nearly 6 million that since last year has grappled with the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. In recent weeks, Lebanon has seen a dramatic increase in virus cases, following the holiday season when restrictions were eased and thousand of expatriates flew home for a visit. Now, hospitals across the country are almost completely out of beds. Oxygen tanks, ventilators and most critically, medical staff, are in extremely short supply. Doctors and nurses say they are exhausted. Facing burnout, many of their colleagues left. Many others have caught the virus, forcing them to take sick leave and leaving fewer and fewer colleagues to work overtime to carry the burden. To every bed that frees up after a death, three or four patients are waiting in the emergency room waiting to take their place. Mohammed Darwish, a nurse at the hospital, said he has been working six days a week to help with surging hospitalizations and barely sees his family. "It is tiring. It is a health sector that is not good at all nowadays," Darwish said. More than 2,300 Lebanese health care workers have been infected since February, and around 500 of Lebanon's 14,000 doctors have left the crisis-ridden country in recent months, according to the Order of Physicians. The virus is putting an additional burden on a public health system that was already on the brink because of the country's currency crash and inflation, as well as the consequences of the massive Beirut port explosion last summer that killed almost 200 people, injured thousands, and devastated entire sectors of the city.
"Our sense is that the country is falling apart," World Bank Regional Director, Saroj Kumar Jha, told reporters in a virtual news conference Friday. At the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the main government coronavirus facility, there are currently 40 beds in the ICU — all full. According to the World Health Organization, Beirut hospitals are at 98% capacity. Across town, at the private American University Medical Center — one of Lebanon's largest and most prestigious hospitals — space is being cleared to accommodate more patients. But that's not enough, according to Dr. Pierre Boukhalil, head of the Pulmonary and Critical Care department. His staff were clearly overwhelmed during a recent visit by The Associated Press, leaping from one patient to another amid the constant beep-beep of life-monitoring machines. The situation "can only be described as a near disaster or a tsunami in the making," he said, speaking to the AP in between checking on his patients. "We have been consistently increasing capacity over the past week or so, and we are not even keeping up with demands. This is not letting up." Boukhalil's hospital raised the alarm last week, coming out with a statement saying its health care workers were overwhelmed and unable to find beds for "even the most critical patients."
Since the start of the holiday season, daily infections have hovered around 5,000 in Lebanon, up from nearly 1,000 in November. The daily death toll hit record-breaking more than 60 fatalities in in the past few days. Doctors say that with increased testing, the number of cases has also increased — a common trend. Lebanon's vaccination program is set to begin next month. The World Bank said Thursday it approved $34 million to help pay for vaccines for Lebanon that will inoculate over 2 million people. Jha, the World Bank's regional director, said Lebanon will import 1.5 million doses of Pfizer vaccines for 750,000 people that "we are financing in full." He added that the World Bank also plans to help finance vaccines other than Pfizer in the Mediterranean nation. Darwish, the nurse, said many COVID-19 patients admitted to Rafik Hariri and especially in the ICU, are young, with no underlying conditions or chronic diseases. "They catch corona and they think everything is fine and then suddenly you find the patient deteriorated and it hits them suddenly and unfortunately they die," On Thursday night, 65-year-old Sabah Miree was admitted to the hospital with breathing problems. She was put on oxygen to help her breathe. Her two sisters had also caught the virus but their case was mild. Miree, who suffers from a heart problem, had to be hospitalized. "This disease is not a game," she said, describing what a struggle it is for her to keep breathing. "I would say to everyone to pay attention and not to take this lightly." A nationwide round-the-clock curfew imposed on Jan. 14 was extended on Thursday until Feb. 8 to help the health sector deal with the virus surge. "I still have nightmares when I see a 30-year-old who passed away," said Dr. Boukhalil. "The disease could have been prevented." "So stick with the lockdown ... it pays off," he said.

Abiad Says Covid New Mutations Contributed to Surge in Cases
Naharnet/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
Firas Abiad, director general of the state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the main government coronavirus facility, warned on Saturday of the new Covid mutations which he says have contributed to the increase in cases. “The spread of the Covid new mutations in Lebanon was expected, and may well have contributed to the recent sharp rise in Covid cases. More worrying were the reports from the UK suggesting that certain Covid mutations may be associated with an increased mortality,” said Abiad on Twitter. “Other mutations lead to a more contagious virus, thus thwarting containment measures. Recent studies have also suggested that virus mutations can lead to strains that are less identifiable by the body’s immune system, thus rendering vaccines less effective,” he added. Abiad noted that “mutations can be bad news. The more the virus is allowed to spread and replicate, the more likely new more virulent or contagious mutations will arise. For that reason, containment measures alone might not be sufficient to give us back our normal lives.”He said the “immediate goal in Lebanon is to regain some level of control over the virus. However, we will ultimately need to follow a zeroCovid strategy worldwide, and not just in Lebanon. Some might say this is unrealistic or impossible. Things will remain impossible if we do not try.”

Protests in Tripoli, Sidon Rejecting Lockdown Extension
Naharnet/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
A group of Lebanese blocked several roads in the northern city of Tripoli and others rallied in the southern city of Sidon protesting the authorities decision to extend the lockdown, and complaining about the dire economic conditions in the country. The highway that links Tripoli to al-Minnieh was blocked with huge trucks, as groups of protesters from al-Beddawi camp and from Wadi Nahle sat in groups in the middle of the road. They complained about the dire economic conditions amid lockdown measures preventing them from earning their day-by-day living. “The majority of the Lebanese live on daily incomes, with the absence of any relief or financial aid from the state,” protesters argued. The main Abdul Hamid Karami Square, and the Palma Bridge were also blocked. In the center of Sidon city's Elia Square protesters gathered for the same goal. Lebanon decided Thursday to prolong a total lockdown by two weeks to stem an unprecedented rise in coronavirus cases and protect its collapsing health sector. The strict restrictions include a round-the-clock curfew and limit grocery shopping to home deliveries. The complete lockdown had initially been due to run from January 14 to January 25. But daily infection rates have remained exceptionally high and Covid-19 death tolls are spiking.

Lebanon MPs accuse Aoun of ‘acting as a party’
Najia Houssari/Arab News/January 23/2021
BEIRUT: Deputies in the Lebanese Parliament have accused President Michel Aoun of acting “as a party, not as a president entrusted with the constitution.”On Saturday, MP Anwar Al-Khalil said that Aoun’s media office’s statement on Friday “undermines the Lebanese people’s minds and destroys the hope of forming an important government. It is also a digression from obstinacy and stubbornness.”Friday’s statement said Aoun was a “partner in choosing ministers and distributing ministerial portfolios.”Al-Khalil reminded Aoun that “the constitution named you as president, a symbol of national unity and a protector of the constitution.”“Your advisers are making you one team. Enough bickering! Support the whole country and save it from collapse,” Al-Khalil said. Aoun defended himself and the head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), MP Gebran Bassil, against the accusation of obstructing the formation of a government, which raised tension between him and Prime Minister-designate, Saad Hariri. MP Hadi Abu Al-Hassan said: “Hariri is faced with a crippling process in order to force him to resign.” He added that the president and the FPM “do not want the return of Hariri as prime minister without Bassil in the government.”He criticized Aoun, saying: “The covenant is unconscious. It lives somewhere else, as attested to by all, and through his practices, he wants to monopolize everything.”“The problem in the country is the non-presence of a conscious central authority that is aware of what is happening. It is absent and today, we are reaping what was sown,” he said. Former MP Mustafa Alloush, who is also the Future Movement’s vice president, said the president’s objective was “to make Bassil afloat again and move the presidency to his son-in-law. It is not the rescue of the republic.”Alloush said that the new government should “lend a helping hand to establishments and countries. Lebanon might be able to convince the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to have a loan, however, if that is not followed by CEDRE (Conference for Economic Development and Reform through Enterprises) and aid from the Gulf and the US, we will have increased our debt to the IMF.”He said the other team, specifically Hezbollah, was not interested in the rescue operation. “Aoun and the FPM rely on Hezbollah to justify their stubbornness to obstruct the formation of the government, with the aim of making Bassil president.” He said Bassil was subjected to US and personal sanctions that were neither accepted by the Gulf nor internationally and “they are trying to impose a de facto government.”On the calls to form an opposition against Aoun and his political team, Alloush said: “There is a lot of talk, but if these parties agree on the idea, they disagree on the details.”Abdel-Sattar Al-Laz, adviser to former prime minister, Tammam Salam, told Arab News: “A meeting was held a while ago at Salam’s house. It included former heads of government, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, and addressed the possible scenarios to solve the stalemate in the country.”
Forming an opposition was difficult at the moment, Al-Laz said. “Any new opposition needs Christian and Shiite participation and cannot be limited to Sunni forces and a Druze party. There is a need for a Christian team such as the Lebanese Forces and Kataeb, and those have their personal agendas. The opposition cannot be formed of independent people. It is required to have driving forces with a real representation.”“The ball is in the court of the Christian partner. Can they form an opposition against the president to ask for his removal or pressure him to resign? Such opposition should be headed by the Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rai, and I rule out its formation since it will affect the position of the Maronite presidency. In that light, there is no hope except to wait for change in the region, otherwise, we are facing a dead end.”

Report: UK-registered Firm Possibly Linked to Beirut Explosion
Naharnet/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
Two senior British lawmakers reportedly called for an investigation into a British-registered company that could be linked to the Beirut port explosion after reports the company had not disclosed its owners, media reports said on Saturday. Savaro Limited, is a company registered at an address in London, is obligated, like all British companies, to list the name of whoever owns it in the British companies register, known as Companies House, said the reports. They added that a woman listed as the owner of Savaro Ltd. and the sole director at Companies House, Marina Psyllou, reportedly said in a letter that she was acting as an agent on behalf of another beneficial owner whose identity was not revealed. She was quoted as saying: “The person who was and always been the ultimate beneficial owner of the company was always the same person. As you know, we cannot reveal his name,” she said without mentioning the reason for her discretion. The global corporate governance rules define the "ultimate beneficial owner" as the person who benefits from the transactions carried out by any company and usually owns at least 25 percent of its capital, the reports explained. Margaret Hodge, a former UK lawmaker and former minister who chaired the parliament's public affairs committee from 2010 to 2015, described the apparent failure to include the ultimate beneficiary of Savaro at Companies House as "outrageous,” they stated. John Mann, a member of the British House of Lords who has investigated the use of companies registered in Britain in illegal activity, reportedly said this showcases the need to impose stronger enforcement of British company registration rules. Psyllou, who provides company registrations to clients through its private Cypriot company, Interstatus, reportedly said on Thursday that her company "is strictly complying with the legislation and reporting to the relevant regulatory authorities." Psyllou also denied that Savaro was linked to the Beirut explosion, saying she believed it had not undertaken any commercial activity. “As far as we know the company in question has remained, ever since its registration, without any trading or other activity or keeping any bank accounts because the project for which it was founded was never realized,” she was quoted. Investigation into the August 4, 2020 Beirut bombing that killed 200 people found that the huge shipment of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that exploded in Lebanon was being held in Beirut while it was on its way to Mozambique. The buyer, FEM Mozambique, identified the company from which he bought the shipment as Savaro. A Lebanese source told investigators that the fertilizer sale contract identified Savaro Ltd. and mentioned its London address, which was then registered with the British authorities. Ben Cowdock, who investigates international corruption at Transparency International in London, reportedly said that tracing the origin of the shipment may ultimately depend on revealing who exactly is behind Savaro.

Rai Is Not in Favor of Hariri Stepping Down
Beirut - Mohamed Choucair/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
Recent reports over attempts by Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Hezbollah’s leadership and General Security Head General Abbas Ibrahim to break the stalemate in the issue of the government’s formation do not reflect the reality on ground. There is no communication between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-Designate Saad Hariri, despite Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rai’s continuous calls for the two to meet and reach an understanding. Notably, Rai insists that the ball is now in Aoun's court, who has not been responsive so far. Informed sources have told Asharq Al-Awsat that Aoun’s adviser and former minister Salim Jreissati has been tasked with meeting Rai after the latter held a phone call with Aoun, asking him to invite Hariri to discuss the government's formation. The sources said that Rai is still hoping that the president will rise above his personal disputes because removing the obstacles that prevent the government’s formation is in his interest, especially given Hariri’s adequate reaction to the leaked video in which Aoun accuses him of lying. It is against Aoun’s interest for the last third of his term to continue to be drained, especially that every day that goes by without a government exacerbates the severe social and economic crisis in Lebanon, the sources noted. Jreissati, for his part, responded positively to Rai’s arguments, affirming that it is not right for Lebanon to stay without a government in light of the changes sweeping through the region and with Biden’s ascension to the White House.
However, the sources said that the political decision is not Jreissati’s to make, in reference to Aoun and FPM leader Deputy Gebran Bassil. The latter and his political group are determined to prevent Hariri from forming a government, despite Rai’s insistence that the prime minister-designate should not step down.
Recently, Rai also met the Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon Yasser Al-Alawi who warned that a govt. vacuum will waste all efforts made to save Lebanon and win the trust of the Lebanese people and the international community. In this context, the sources said that if Aoun refuses to make a move, although he insulted Hariri, it will discourage others from launching initiatives and mediation efforts, regardless of rumors about the willingness of this or that party to intervene. Berri has headed to his house in the south, not because he is unwilling to intervene to salvage the govt. formation process, but because there is no room to make moves so long as Aoun refuses to budge from the demands which Hariri cannot accept. Ibrahim and Hezbollah are in a similar position. The former offered to mediate between the two sides when he met with Hariri, who said was awaiting for Aoun’s response. Hezbollah’s leadership, on the other hand, is wary of taking the initiative because they want to avoid putting Aoun and Bassil in an awkward position.

Walid Jumblatt describes deep divide between Aoun, Hariri
The Arab Weekly/January 23/2021
BEIRUT - Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said it is the wife of Lebanese President Michel Aoun who rules Lebanon through a “secret room”, and that she protects her son-in-law Gebran Bassil, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, whom he called “a permanent authority in the making”.
This comes at a time when the political scene in Lebanon is deteriorating at an unprecedented pace, as illustrated by the recently reported exchange between President Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri which was reflected in a leaked video during which Aoun described Hariri as a liar and put down his efforts to form a government. Jumblatt said, “There are dark rooms, there is Salim Jreissati and Mrs Aoun, they are the ones who rule and control the judiciary. There are incredibly strange military rooms.”
He added, “Behind the president of the republic there is the honorable son-in-law (Basil), and he is a permanent authority in the making.”
He pointed out that, “the dear son-in-law wants the blocking third, so if something happens to his uncle, power remains in his hands in the government, which according to the constitution holds the reins of power pending the election of a new president, and this is clearly the case.”
The interview of the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party with the website “Voice of All Lebanon” reflected a situation where personal considerations interfere with political affairs and explain the attacks on Hariri and the army commander, General Joseph Aoun.
Jumblatt said he considered Hariri to have been insulted in the leaked video where President Aoun described the prime minister-designate as a liar in the presence of caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab. The Druze leader called on the political class to focus on important issues instead of trivial matters.
The relationship between Aoun and Hariri is prey to tensions after the government lineup presented by the latter and which the Lebanese president refused to approve, accusing the prime minister-designate of ignoring his demands. Hariri denied the accusations.
However, observers say that the personal disagreements between the president and the prime minister-designate are mainly due to their reliance on different alliances. The first pins any progress in forming the government and a breakthrough in the political crisis on heeding the interests of its Hezbollah ally, the de facto ruler of the country, while the second relies on his foreign ties and the advantage he takes from international pressures which link financial and economical support to Lebanon to the formation of a cabinet. Jumblatt urged Hariri to withdraw from the task of forming the government as long as the matter is in the hands of Hezbollah and its ally, the Free Patriotic Movement, saying, “Let them take over the whole country with all its joints, and bear the responsibility for gains or setbacks, why should one participate and not receive anything in return?” He added that “there is a very strong political party, and behind it there is a very strong state (Iran),” wondering whether Tehran “recognizes Greater Lebanon, or are we only a province among the provinces of the Islamic Republic along with Lebanon, Syria and Iraq?”
The Lebanese presidency issued a statement, on Friday, to respond to what it called the false allegations accusing the president of obstructing the formation of the government.
The statement said that President Aoun has “a constitutional right to approve the entire cabinet lineup before ratification.”Aoun sought to defend his son-in-law and denied Bassil’s playing any obstructive role. The presidential statement said, “Allegations abound that the head of the powerful Lebanese bloc (…) Bassil is obstructing the formation of the government, while reality says that MP Bassil did not engage in the cabinet formation process at all, and the bloc has its own political stances.” The statement also defended Hezbollah against any responsibility in the matter, and said that “the party does not interfere in decisions by the president on all issues, including the formation of the government, and that the party has its political positions which it expresses.”Lebanon has been unable to form a government since Hassan Diab’s cabinet resigned, six days after the catastrophic blast in the port of Beirut, on August 5, which killed about 200 people and injured about 6,000 others, in addition to the huge material damage it caused. Lebanon is facing a financial and economic crisis, the worst in decades. The Lebanese are mostly despaired over the inability of the current political elite to end the ongoing crisis, especially after the failure of the French initiative and the persistent attempts by all Lebanese parties to decline any responsibility for the impasse while accusing other parties of obstructionism. As a result, analysts expect external support to remain on hold for a while, at least until agreement about forming a new government is reached.

"Hariri has two options, either to apologize or form a government as per their terms," says Abou El-Hassan
NNA/January 23/2021
MP Hadi Abou El-Hassan confirmed, Saturday, that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri is faced with two options at the government formation level, either to apologize or form the new cabinet according to the other side's terms. He explained that the PSP Chief Walid Jumblatt's call on Hariri to apologize does not mean "to surrender", but rather it is part of the confrontation. "The PM-designate has two options, either to apologize or form a government according to their conditions, which means that they would use the legal cover that Hariri secures to gnaw at what is left of the country, so why would Hariri want to stay in this position?" questioned Abou El-Hassan. In an interview with "Voice of All Lebanon" Radio Station earlier today, the MP considered that the PM-designate is facing impediments in order to pressure him to apologize, adding that "the utmost that the President of the Republic aspires to achieve is to guarantee the presence of his political heir in the event of delaying the parliamentary and presidential elections, so as to control matters." Abou El-Hassan welcomed President Michel Aoun's talk about not seeking a third-veto power as being "good"; however, he stressed that it has to be linked to reality by the President approving the cabinet line-up presented to him by Hariri. Touching on the Coronavirus outbreak in the country, the MP criticized "the absence of decisions based on scientific foundations by the authority, which deals with everything according to the rule of mutual consent."Meanwhile, Abou El-Hassan assured that the Progressive Socialist Party, in cooperation with the competent medical authorities, continues to undertake numerous initiatives in the Lebanese Mountain regions that fall within the framework of confronting the dangerous outbreak of the Corona pandemic. He revealed that as a result of the exerted efforts over the past year, the "Al-Jabal Hospital" has a special wing to treat Corona patients, in addition to the diligent work of the "Ain W Zain Hospital" in this respect.

FPM: Era of foreign tutelage is over, deluded are those who attempt to replace it with internal hegemony
NNA/January 23/2021
The Free Patriotic Movement's political council held an extraordinary virtual meeting today, chaired by its Chief, MP Gebran Bassil, during which talks centered on the first blueprint for an internal workshop by the Movement, in preparation for its national conference upcoming March 14th.
In its issued statement following the meeting, the council called on the concerned security apparatuses to be very strict in implementing the adopted measures to curb the Corona pandemic outbreak, while calling on the caretaker government to provide support to the underprivileged families who are suffering due to the government-decreed lockdown. On the other hand, the council cautioned the Lebanese against the dire health situation, highlighting the need for all citizens to abide by the firm precautionary measures to protect themselves and their families. At the government level, the council urged Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to be well-aware of the negative repercussions of the stalled cabinet formation process. The council affirmed that forming the long-awaited government "requires the highest levels of support and national solidarity more than ever before, which entails that everyone adheres to the rules of the Charter and the Constitution, stopping all attempts to seize the political rights of any Lebanese component." "The era of tutelage is far gone, and deluded are those who attempt to replace it with internal hegemony," the statement underlined. The council denounced the decline in the standards of political speech in the country, adding that "stopping the moral, financial and economic collapse necessitates that the judiciary bravely investigates all corruption files and prosecutes all those involved," while urging the judiciary to work on restoring the stolen funds. "The rights of the Lebanese are sacred, be it their bank deposits or their property, and there is absolutely no justification for those who steal their life-time earnings on the inside, nor for those who try from the outside to steal their oil and water resources," the council's statement underscored.

Daher: Are we facing a crisis that requires change of this era's symbols?
NNA/January 23/2021
MP Michel Daher tweeted, Saturday, over the stalemate situation in the country, saying: "Are politicians disagreeing over the state-building project or the project of power? The majorities today are not familiar with the constitution and the law, and are working to feed conflicts for narrow individual interests...Are we before a national crisis that requires a total comprehensive change of the symbols of this era in the history of Lebanon? Lord Almighty, answer the prayers of your oppressed people...!"

US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
NNA/January 23/2021
The Money Changers Syndicate announced in a statement addressed to money changing companies and institutions, Saturday’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
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 23-24/2021

Saudi Intercepts 'Hostile Target' over Capital
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
Saudi Arabia intercepted a "hostile target" over Riyadh on Saturday, said state media in the kingdom which has come under repeated attack from Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels since 2015. An explosion was heard in the Saudi capital at around 11:00 am (0800 GMT), AFP correspondents reported.
"I heard a loud sound and thought that something had fallen from the sky," said one resident, who lives in the Al-Sulaimaniyah district of Riyadh. "The whole house was shaking." The Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen's internationally recognised government against the Huthis, said it had "intercepted and destroyed a hostile air target going towards Riyadh", without elaborating, according to state-run Al Ekhbariya television station. Riyadh's King Khaled International Airport said there were a number of flight delays, but it was not immediately clear if they were linked to Saturday's incident.
Saudi Arabia has been repeatedly targeted by the Huthis since its intervention in the Yemen war in 2015. It is rare, however, for drones and missiles launched by the Huthis to reach the kingdom's capital -- about 700 kilometres (435 miles) from the Yemeni border. The Shiite rebels have yet to comment on the incident, which comes only days after Joe Biden was sworn-in as US president, replacing Donald Trump. According to the new US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, the Biden administration will quickly revisit the designation of Yemen's Huthi rebels as terrorists. At his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Blinken said he would "immediately" review the Trump administration's labelling of the insurgents, fearing the move was worsening a humanitarian crisis.

More Than 20 Injured in Gaza Blast
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
more than 20 people were injured and several homes destroyed by a large explosion Saturday in a residential area of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said. The source of the accidental explosion was apparently the home of a member of one of Gaza’s armed groups. “An explosion occurred in a house in Beit Hanoun this morning, resulting in a number of injuries,” the interior ministry said, adding that an investigation had been launched into the cause of the blast. Medical sources said more than 20 people were injured, two of them seriously, AFP reported. Witnesses said several homes were damaged as a result of the explosion in the home of an “activist”. Police cordoned off the area. There was no immediate official explanation of the explosion, but the Israeli military said it was the result of militants “storing weapons in residential homes." Houses “have been turned into warehouses for weapons... and missiles for terrorist organizations, and those who pay the price in the end are innocent civilians,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on Twitter. Hamas seized control of Gaza from rival Palestinian movement Fatah in a near civil war in 2007. Since then, Hamas has fought three devastating wars with Israel, which has maintained a crippling blockade on the territory of some two million people.

Vaccine Boost for Poor Countries as Biden Warns of '600,000 Dead'
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
US President Joe Biden on Friday said "well over 600,000" Americans could die of the coronavirus as he stepped up federal aid in the world's worst-hit country, while less wealthy nations anticipated better access to tests and vaccines thanks to several international deals. "The virus is surging. We're at 400,000 dead, expected to reach well over 600,000," Biden told a news conference, giving his highest estimate yet for the US outbreak's eventual toll. His new administration boosted stimulus handouts as well as payments to help families buy food, with more poor children going hungry after the school lunches they depended on disappeared as classrooms shuttered. "The American people can't afford to wait," said Brian Deese of the White House's National Economic Council, adding that many people were "hanging by a thread." Various US states meanwhile grappled with vaccine distribution, with New York reporting its supply of shots would run out Friday. The country marked its third consecutive day of more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths, bringing the overall count to 413,000 with 24.8 million confirmed infections. In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a new strain of the virus that has swept his country and beyond could be more deadly as well as more transmissible, with the variant having spread to more than 60 countries already. Around the world there were new signs of the depth of damage dealt to the economy, with the closely watched PMI index showing that Europe is heading for a new recession, and Latin America suffering its steepest drop in foreign trade since the global financial crisis.
Hungarian rebellion
As vaccine rollouts gain pace around the world, Hungary announced it was going it alone and buying two million doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, frustrated by the European Union's unwieldy strategy of buying shots in bulk on behalf of members. "It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches the mouse," Orban said of the different vaccines, despite wariness from some experts over the fact that Sputnik V was rolled out before large-scale clinical trials. Brazil was meanwhile due to receive two million doses of a different jab developed by British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca and Oxford University. The World Health Organization has repeatedly warned that richer countries are hogging the vaccine. But there was good news Friday for poorer nations, as the WHO and pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer announced a deal for up to 40 million initial doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be made available to them through the Covax global pool. "We can only end the pandemic anywhere if we end it everywhere," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. A separate deal, brokered by international agencies working with the WHO, will supply developing nations with tens of millions of rapid antigen tests at half the usual $5 price.
Imams back vaccine campaigns
In Britain, imams were using their Friday sermons to reassure worshippers that coronavirus vaccines are safe, exercising their clout in Muslim communities to support the immunization drive. "The hesitancy, the anxiety (and) concern is driven by misinformation, conspiracy theories, fake news and rumors," said Qari Asim, chairman of Britain's Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board. The imams' campaign comes as Britain battles to constrain the new strain of Covid-19. Chief government scientist Patrick Vallance said the strain could be 30-40 percent more deadly for some age groups, though he stressed the assessment relied on sparse data. The British strain, along with variants first detected in South Africa and Brazil, are fuelling a tightening of travel restrictions, with Belgium banning non-essential trips out of the country. Denmark meanwhile banned all flights from the United Arab Emirates, saying it needed to make sure the testing regime in Dubai was rigorous enough. Hong Kong imposed its first coronavirus lockdown on Saturday, targeting a poor, densely populated neighborhood that's battling an outbreak. Authorities planned to test everyone inside the designated zone within 48 hours.
Rio Carnival cancelled
From music to sports, organizers of large-scale events are grappling with the continued fallout of Covid-19, with Rio de Janeiro's famed carnival called off for this year. Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane became the latest sports star to test positive, while former tennis world number one Andy Murray announced he will not compete in the Australian Open after failing to find a "workable quarantine" following his own recovery from the virus. In Japan, organizers of the Tokyo Olympics -- already postponed from 2020 -- are facing almost daily questions over whether the Games can really go ahead in July. The Japanese government insisted, however, that there was "no truth" to a media report that said "the consensus is that it's too difficult" to hold the Games in 2021.

Biden Speaks with Canada's Trudeau in First Foreign Leader Call as U.S. President
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
In his first call to a foreign leader as US President, Joe Biden spoke with Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau Friday on a number of topics and made plans to continue the conversation next month, Ottawa and Washington said in separate statements. During the conversation, which Canada said lasted approximately 30 minutes, the two leaders covered everything from the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to the closure of the US-Canada border since March, to environmental protections. In a similar call Friday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador confirmed on Twitter that he and Biden had discussed topics ranging from Covid-19 to migration. Trudeau and Biden made plans to talk again soon, with Canada leaving open the possibility of a virtual or even in-person discussion, while the White House said only that "the two leaders agreed to speak again in a month." The discussions, the Canadian statement said, would "advance the important work of renewing the deep and enduring friendship between Canada and the United States." Neither Washington nor Ottawa confirmed an exact date. According to both countries, the leaders discussed Biden's decision to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, a project fiercely opposed by environmentalists but backed by Ottawa. Upon taking office on Wednesday, Biden rescinded a permit for the pipeline via executive order, blocking completion of the project started almost a decade ago. Trudeau had previously said it was "an important project for us," citing continental energy security and jobs, and reacted with disappointment Friday over its cancellation. "The prime minister raised Canada's disappointment with the United States' decision on the Keystone XL pipeline," Trudeau's office said in its statement, but added that the prime minister emphasized the "important economic and energy security benefits of our bilateral energy relationship." The 1,210-mile (1,947-kilometer) pipeline, starting in 2023, was to transport up to 830,000 barrels of oil a day from the Alberta oil sands to Nebraska and then through an existing system to refineries in coastal Texas.
'Friendly and respectful'
Mexico's Lopez Obrador wrote on Twitter that his discussion with Biden had been "friendly and respectful." "We talked on issues related to migration, #COVID19 and cooperation on development and well-being. Everything indicates that relations will be good for the well-being of our peoples and nations," Lopez Obrador said. The three countries form the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and binds nearly half a billion consumers in a single market that comprises about 27 percent of global GDP, in a region where trade hit $1.2 trillion in 2019 -- though that was before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Trudeau said prior to the call that the new administration represents an opportunity to turn the page on a challenging relationship with the US under Trump, who once labelled Trudeau as "dishonest" and "meek." "We are truly beginning a new era of friendship," he said. The White House said the pair's Friday phone call highlighted "the strategic importance of the US-Canada relationship" while "reinvigorating our bilateral cooperation on an ambitious and wide-ranging agenda."
 

Trump Impeachment Trial to Begin Week of February 8
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
Donald Trump's US Senate trial will begin in the second week of February, days after a fresh impeachment case against the former president is transmitted by the House, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday. The newly announced schedule reflects a deal struck by Senate leaders to delay the substantive portion of the trial for two weeks so that the chamber may conduct other critical business including confirmation of President Joe Biden's cabinet nominees. The House of Representatives impeached Trump for a historic second time on January 13, just one week before he left office. Schumer said the article of impeachment will be delivered and read out to the Senate on Monday at 7:00 pm (0000 GMT Tuesday). The chamber's 100 members will be sworn in as trial jurors the next day. The House members assigned by Speaker Nancy Pelosi as impeachment managers, and members of Trump's yet-to-be-named defense team, will then be given time to draft their legal briefs. "Once the briefs are drafted, presentation by the parties will commence the week of February 8," Schumer told colleagues on the Senate floor. During the two-week interim, the Senate will act on Biden's cabinet nominations "and the Covid relief bill which would provide relief for millions of American who are suffering during this pandemic," Schumer added. "Healing and unity will only come if there is truth and accountability, and that is what this trial will provide." Members will deliberate whether to convict Trump on what the US Constitution describes as "high crimes and misdemeanors." Trump was impeached on a single charge of "incitement of insurrection" for his role in whipping up his supporters during a speech in Washington on January 6, the day a pro-Trump mob stormed Congress and threatened the lives of lawmakers and then-vice president Mike Pence. Five people died in the violence, including a police officer.
'Unprecedentedly fast'
The delay is the result of a deal Schumer struck with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell was a close congressional ally to Trump during his term, but he severely reprimanded the outgoing president for repeatedly seeking to overturn results of the election and for his incitement of protesters, and he left the door open for voting to convict Trump. But he had sought a delay in the trial until February, arguing Trump needs time to hire lawyers and mount a defense. On Friday, McConnell appeared to express regret for the Democrats' speedy timetable. "As I understand, it must be headed our way Monday. By Senate rules, if the article arrives, we have to start a trial right then," he said on the floor. But the Senate can agree to its own parameters of the trial timeline.  McConnell spoke of the "unprecedentedly fast" process in the House, where Trump was impeached in a single day. "The sequel cannot be an insufficient Senate process that denies former president Trump his due process or damages the Senate or the presidency itself," he said. Trump survived a first impeachment almost a year ago when the then Republican-controlled Senate acquitted him of abusing his office to try to get dirt on Biden's family before the presidential election. With the Senate now comprised of 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, and a two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump, at least 17 Republicans would have to vote against the former president to secure a conviction. If that occurs, a subsequent vote would be held on whether to ban Trump from holding public office in the future. A handful of Republicans have spoken out harshly against the president but it remains unclear if there would be enough GOP senators to vote for conviction.

Biden Administration to Review US-Taliban Withdrawal Deal
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
The Biden administration said Friday it will review a landmark US deal with the Taliban, focusing on whether the insurgent group has reduced attacks in Afghanistan, in keeping with its side of the agreement. Washington struck a deal with the Taliban in Qatar last year, to begin withdrawing its troops in return for security guarantees from the militants and a commitment to kickstart peace talks with the Afghan government. But violence across Afghanistan has surged despite the two sides engaging in those talks since September. President Joe Biden's newly appointed national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, spoke with his Afghan counterpart Hamdullah Mohib and "made clear the United States' intention to review" the deal, National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said. Specifically, Washington wants to check that the Taliban is "living up to its commitments to cut ties with terrorist groups, to reduce violence in Afghanistan, and to engage in meaningful negotiations with the Afghan government and other stakeholders," her statement continued. It added that Sullivan "underscored that the US will support the peace process with a robust and regional diplomatic effort, which will aim to help the two sides achieve a durable and just political settlement and permanent ceasefire." Sullivan also discussed the United States' support for protecting recent progress made on women and minority groups' rights as part of the peace process.  The move was met with a sigh of relief from officials in Kabul after months of speculation over how the new administration would potentially recalibrate its Afghan policy. Mohib, the Afghan national security advisor, tweeted that during the call the two sides "agreed to work toward a permanent ceasefire and a just and durable peace" in the country. Another top Afghan government official lambasted the Taliban's failure to live up to the February 2020 deal, saying the agreement had failed to achieve its stated goals. "The agreement so far, did not deliver a desired goal of ending Taliban's violence and bringing a ceasefire desired by the Afghans," Sediq Sediqqi, Deputy Interior Minister and former spokesman to President Ashraf Ghani said on Twitter. "The Taliban did not live up to its commitments." Deadly attacks and high-profile assassinations have increased in recent months, particularly in Kabul where several journalists, activists, judges and politicians have been murdered in brazen daylight attacks. The Taliban have denied responsibility for these killings, but Afghan and US officials have blamed the group for the murders. On Tuesday, Biden's nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told his Senate confirmation hearing that "we want to end this so-called forever war."
 

Russia Arrests 350 Protesters Demanding Navalny's Release
Associated Press/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
Russian police on Saturday arrested hundreds of protesters who took to the streets in temperatures as low as minus-50 C (minus-58 F) to demand the release of Alexei Navalny, the country's top opposition figure. Navalny, who is President Vladimir Putin's most prominent and durable foe, was arrested on Jan. 17 when he returned to Moscow from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from a severe nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Authorities say his stay in Germany violated terms of a suspended sentence in a criminal conviction in a case that Navalny says was illegitimate. He is to appear in court in early February to determine if he will serve the 3 1/2-year sentence in prison. More than 350 people were detained in protests in the Far East and Siberia, according to the arrests-monitoring group OVD-Info, and large demonstrations were expected in the afternoon in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities in the European section of the country. Several thousand people turned out for a protest in Yekaterinburg, Russia's fourth-largest city, and demonstrations took place in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok, the island city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and the country's third-largest city of Novosibirsk, among other locations. Thirteen people were reported arrested at the protest in Yakutsk, a city in eastern Siberia where the temperature was minus-50. In Moscow, thousands of people were converging on the downtown Pushkin Square as the protest's planned start neared. A police public-address system repeatedly blared messages telling people not to gather closely because of pandemic health concerns and warning that the protest was unlawful.
Helmeted riot officers sporadically grabbed participants and pushed them into police buses. Moscow police on Thursday arrested three top Navalny associates, two of whom were later jailed for periods of nine and 10 days. Navalny fell into a coma while aboard a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20. He was transferred from a hospital in Siberia to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent. Russian authorities insisted that the doctors who treated Navalny in Siberia before he was airlifted to Germany found no traces of poison and have challenged German officials to provide proof of his poisoning. Russia refused to open a full-fledged criminal inquiry, citing a lack of evidence that Navalny was poisoned. Last month, Navalny released the recording of a phone call he said he made to a man he described as an alleged member of a group of officers of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, who purportedly poisoned him in August and then tried to cover it up. The FSB dismissed the recording as fake. Navalny has been a thorn in the Kremlin's side for a decade, unusually durable in an opposition movement often demoralized by repressions. He has been jailed repeatedly in connection with protests and twice was convicted of financial misdeeds in cases that he said were politically motivated. He suffered significant eye damage when an assailant threw disinfectant into his face and was taken from jail to a hospital in 2019 with an illness that authorities said was an allergic reaction but that many suspected was poisoning.

Germany Investigates Spy Activity in Europe Linked to Former Iranian Diplomat
Berlin - Raghida Bahnam/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 23 January, 2021
Germany is conducting extensive investigations to track down Iranian intelligence activity on its soil, revealed documents retrieved from ongoing probes. Spy activity connected to Tehran is being traced through ledgers collected from a former Iranian diplomat’s car. Asadollah Asadi had worked as a diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Vienna until he was arrested in Bavaria in 2018 for involvement in plotting the attempted bombing of an assembly organized by the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI) outside Paris.
German authorities had handed him over to Belgium, where his trial is currently taking place in the port city of Antwerp alongside the trial of a Belgian-Iranian couple who were arrested for attempting to stage the attack. When Asadi was arrested on July 1, 2018, the German police discovered many documents, including a black ledger in his car, with coded dots, which seem to be instructions on making bombs, a report by German TV’s Channel One said. Instructions found in the black ledger are believed to have been intended for the arrested couple, whose verdict is expected to be announced this February.
The Channel One report said that the couple received hundreds of thousands of euros in the past several years for their cooperation with the Iranian secret service. Among other documents discovered in Asadi’s belongings is a green checkered ledger with 200 pages, with receipts that show the diplomat has distributed cash among some individuals in different European countries. The green ledger has 289 Latin and Persian notes, which mention tourist attractions, stores, hotels, and restaurants, with times and dates. These spots are believed to have been visited by Asadi. German agents have figured out that this information involves around 11 countries including France, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium, Netherlands, and Italy, but there are also 144 notes about locations in Germany. One note points to the entrance of the Hamburg Islamic Center, which is under German internal security surveillance. According to German intelligence, the center is used by the Iranian regime to “export revolution” and is known for supporting Lebanese militias. When interrogated by German authorities, Asadi defended himself by saying that he was merely a tourist and that the sites found in the green ledger are for touristic spots he used to visit accompanied by his children. Asadi, however, had been carrying several receipts that indicate suspicious cash payments. The recipients who have signed the receipts all have very common Iranian names and their identities are still unknown. Some have received payments between 2,500-5,000 euros. Another individual has confirmed receiving a laptop. German police speculate that the payments are for espionage. Sources at the NCRI have confirmed reported findings to Asharq Al-Awsat. “The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence has a network of agents in Europe that are managed with the help of Iranian embassies, and the misuse of diplomatic capabilities,”Javad Dabiran, a spokesman for the Iranian opposition group, told Asharq Al-Awsat “Asadi is the head of Iranian intelligence in Europe and used to run a network of spies,” Dabiran confirmed, adding that three agents linked to the ex-diplomat now face trial in Belgium. “At least 40% of Asadi's meetings with his network of agents were held in Germany,” he noted. Dabiran warned that there are various Iranian terrorist sleeper cells and spy rings across Europe and that they are handled by Iranian embassies.

UN: Bloody tribal clashes in Darfur killed 250 and displaced over 100,000
AP/January 24, 2021
The violence has been a major test for Khartoum’s ability to protect civilians in the war-torn region following the end of the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force’s mandate in Darfur. CAIRO: Tribal clashes in Sudan’s Darfur region have killed at least 250 people and displaced more than 100,000 people since erupting earlier this month, the UN refugee agency said. The violence in the provinces of West Darfur and South Darfur has posed a significant challenge to the country’s transitional government. Among those displaced were some 3,500 people, mostly women and children, who fled into neighboring Chad, according to Boris Cheshirkov, a spokesman for the UNHCR said on Friday. Those fleeing the violence into eastern Chad’s Ouaddai province have been overwhelmingly forced to seek shelter — often nothing more than a tree — in remote places that lack basic services or public infrastructure, the spokesman added. The fighting in West Darfur between members of the Arab Rizeigat tribe and the non-Arab Massalit tribe grew out of a fistfight Jan. 15 in a camp for displaced people in Genena, the provincial capital. Four days later, the clashes in South Darfur erupted between Rizeigat and the non-Arab Falata tribe over the killing of a shepherd. The violence has been a major test for the Sudanese government’s ability to protect civilians in the war-torn region following the end of the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force’s mandate in Darfur this month. Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising led the military to overthrow of strongman Omar Bashir in April 2019, after nearly three decades of rule. A joint military-civilian government is now in power.

Egypt’s security services bust Muslim Brotherhood network in capital
Arab News/January 23/2021
CAIRO: Egypt’s security services have announced the capture of a Muslim Brotherhood network in downtown Cairo. The network was led by a Turkish man and prepared negative reports that contained “false and fabricated information about the political, economic, security and human rights situations in Egypt,” according to security forces. The information was aimed at tarnishing the country’s image inside and outside the country, with the reports sent to the group’s handlers in Turkey. An official statement said the National Security Sector monitored an apartment in the Bab Al-Luq area that was being used by a Muslim Brotherhood group to prepare negative reports with Turkey’s support. The house was being used as a center for their activity, under the cover of SITA Studies Company. The premises were raided and Helmy Moamen Mustafa Bilji, the Turkish financial director of the group, and three other members were arrested. Legal steps are being taken against them.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 23-24/2021

Libya and A Seventh UN Envoy
Dr. Jebril Elabidi/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 23/2021
Libya has been suffering for years from the prolongation of its crisis and its people’s suffering because of a blend of international and internal disputes, and chaos, which has resulted in deliberate efforts to delay the crisis’ solutions.
Jan Kubis, a former Slovak diplomat, is the UN’s seventh envoy in Libya. His appointment came after the mysterious resignation of Bulgarian Nikolay Mladenov, who attributed it to personal reasons, which itself succeeded the Lebanese Ghassan Salame’s resignation for health reasons. Neither justification is compelling. The new envoy has many of the same obstacles ahead of him. The realism he is known for cannot bring an end to the Libyan crisis alone. Bringing the parties together requires immense effort, which could be initiated by the envoy’s office and replacing the controversial figures who were part of the previous envoys’ teams. The “Libyan-Libyan” dialogue, which was held under the United Nations’ auspices, through its envoy Stephanie Williams, was mismanaged. The problems start with the members selected for the dialogue committee, members whose selection framework was not explained. This obscurity is particularly problematic because many influential national figures- like those who supported the unarmed movement of February 2011 or those who are still loyal to the “revolution” of September 1969- were not included on the list of 75 figures who had been selected to take part in the dialogue, although some of those who had been invited apologized for not being able to participate.
This raises many questions about who formed the committee, who chose its 75 members, and what was the criteria adopted for having 75 individuals represent the Libyan people. Did they decide that 75 people should participate because this year marks the 75th anniversary of the United Nations’ establishment? The Libyan crisis is not a birthday party for the United Nations; the flares of its war cannot be used to light up the candles that symbolize the years the organization has been alive for. Recreating these figures and imposing their inclusion on the list of every Libyan dialogue- figures who do not represent the Libyan people, some of whom represent the international Brotherhood organization or openly pledge allegiance to Al-Qaeda and have direct ties to it, all of whom do not believe in the geography of the national state- is a strong indicator of why the crisis has gone on for so long amid the absence of a sincere pursuit of consensus.
Despite the difficulty of establishing negotiations, the reconciliation process in Libya could follow the model of the broadly attended meetings that used to be the county’s tribes (the real social representatives in Libya), together with community leaders, religious scholars, politicians, university professors and thinkers, in a meeting that resembles a general assembly to work out a way out of a legislative and constitutional paralysis, as political maneuvering has demonstrated an inability to save the country from the quagmire of political partisanship and factional rivalry, and the failure to exercise democracy- due to democratic illiteracy, given the limited spread of a genuine democratic culture.
Democracy is a concept and system of governance, a collective way of behaving and a collective culture. It emerges as a result of an accumulation of experiences over time. Thus, “consociational democracy”, with the kinds of broad meetings mentioned before, could be the Libyan version of democracy. It may be the most applicable and fruitful in the Libyan context given the feebleness of the “political elites”, both those who are indoctrinated and those who are not. This will help save the country from the chaos and violence resulting from partisan discourse and the disputes of political parties, who are merely serving their own interests and projects and whose agendas had been written outside of Libya for the benefit of those who do not belong to it and have no affiliations with it. The United Nations is actively seeking to hold elections in a divided Libya at the end of December without any guarantees regarding results, as though the elections are being held for the first time in Libya. In unified Libya, electoral “celebrations” were held but were soon swiftly disregarded by the Islamic political parties, particularly the Brotherhood, which does not recognize an election result unless it wins. The Libyan crisis, in its current state, can only be resolved through consensus and a settlement between all the parties involved. Figures obscurely chosen by the United Nations, with an imbalance in social and political representation, cannot bring it about. Any solution will fail if it does not include factions.

Rich Versus Poor, the Global Gap Is Narrowing
Ferdinando Giugliano/Bloomberg/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 23/2021
Income inequality is among the most hotly debated economic topics of our times. It’s also one of the most misrepresented. For years the left has condemned the widening disparities that followed the financial crisis. And yet, a recent paper showed the global income gap actually declined between 2008 and 2013.
The next myth to be busted concerns the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. A number of scholars and international organizations, including economics Nobel prizewinner Joseph Stiglitz and the United Nations, worry that the world has become a less equal place because of Covid-19 and the ensuing economic crisis. They think richer countries have been better able to protect themselves.
This is wrong. A new study by Princeton University’s Angus Deaton, another Nobel prizewinning economist, shows that — in 2020 at least — the opposite happened on a global level. As the pandemic hit high-income economies disproportionately, the gap between poor and rich countries narrowed. This doesn’t speak to the sizeable inequalities within individual wealthier countries, but it at least shows us that the recent catching up of developing nations has continued.
Unfortunately this isn’t exactly a cause for celebration at the end of a grueling year of Covid. It tells us more about the abysmal failure of many Western governments to protect their citizens than it does the successes of poorer nations. The pandemic has exposed tragic gaps in the public-health systems of wealthy countries. Remarkably, Deaton finds that states with a higher per capita income also suffered the heaviest death toll from the pandemic on average. This result may be skewed by underreporting in poorer nations, and the younger populations in Asia and Africa. It could also be reversed as the pandemic continues to rage on and richer countries secure better access to vaccines. But the extraordinary number of Covid fatalities in some of the world’s wealthiest places — such as the US, the UK and Sweden — is still striking.
The paper also shows that nations that took a looser approach to lockdowns in the hope of protecting their economies didn’t benefit much. The countries with the most deaths were also, on average, those with the biggest predicted drop in gross domestic product, as measured by International Monetary Fund forecasts. “It is not a matter of your money or your life, but your money and your life,” writes Deaton. The reduction in worldwide disparities follows a trend that started in 2007, but it appeared more marked in 2020 than was forecast before the pandemic. If we weighed different countries according to their number of inhabitants, we would see a slight increase in inequality. But that is driven entirely by China, which has weathered the pandemic much better than many other states. Once Deaton excludes China, the downward trend reappears.
This paper doesn’t mean that the world has become more equal at an individual country level. In the US, there is evidence that the pandemic recession has destroyed lower-earning jobs much faster than higher-earning ones. Sweden is worried that loose monetary policy is widening the income gap and creating lots of new Swedish millionaires.
There are also significant sectoral differences in how these in-country divisions are widening — people who work in tourism have fared much worse than logistics staff, for example — but it has overall been much easier for clerical workers to adapt to a socially distanced society and protect their wages.
It’s also important to look at individual nations when considering the improvement in the developing world. Even if income in these countries fell less sharply than in richer nations, it would probably be more painful since a larger proportion of the population is close to the poverty line. The World Bank expects the pandemic to push between 88 million and 115 million more people into extreme poverty in 2020. And it’s far too early to have a full picture of the long-term economic damage from the pandemic, especially on the opportunities of poorer children who’ve had to cope with school closures.
However, Deaton’s results remind us of the need to take a closer look at the numbers before making assumptions over the economic impact of the pandemic. Just like Covid-19 and the human body, this recession has hit the world economy in baffling ways.

Tehran’s Presidential Show: A Game of Exclusions
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 23/2021
Perhaps to divert attention from here and now problems. such as the ravages caused by the Civid-19 pandemic, economic meltdown, hyperinflation and rampant corruption, Tehran’s ruling elite have decided to give an early start to a presidential election expected to be held next June.
The main tune played by the official media is that the election this time is going to be the final showdown between the “reformist” and “principalist” factions that have provided an Islamist version of the Punch-and-Judy show as a sign of democracy in the Islamic Republic.
A sub-theme is also built around rumors that the “Supreme Guide” has decided to have a military president as his sidekick. So far at least two of Iran’s estimated 1,000 or so active or retired brigadier-generals have already thrown their caps into the ring.
Finally, a third tune would have us believe that the “Supreme Guide” wants a change of generations at a time that almost all top positions in his Islamic gerontocracy are held by septuagenarians to nonagenarians.
However, judging by the strident new conditions set for those who wish to stand for presidency, it may be hard, if not impossible, to find a candidate that would meet the desiderata fixed by the “Supreme Guide”. In fact, the rules, published last week, seem to be designed more to show who cannot stand than who could. The aim, here, is exclusion rather than qualifications.
First exclusion, of course, concerns female Iranians, although they account for some 52 percent of the population. Next exclusion affects non-Muslim Iranians who account for two to four percent. Non-Shiite Muslims, accounting for 12 percent of the population, are also excluded. Even then, being male, Muslim and Shiite isn’t enough to secure qualification. As a Shiite you have to be a duodecimain to be considered. But that isn’t all. Being male, Muslim, Shiite and duodecimain you must also be an “oslui” (fundamentalist) which means that dozens of sects, such as akhbaris, sheikhis, Sufis etc; are excluded.
Thought that was all? Wrong. Even being male, Muslim, Shiite, duodecimain and “osuli” won’t be enough to let you stand for the presidency of the Islamic Republic. You must also be “Imam-mand”, a neologism by mullahs to indicate the belief that Islam is incomplete without imams.
However, even being “imam-mand” won’t do the trick. You still need to be “wala’i”, or someone who believes that Walayat al-Faqih (Custodianship of the Jurisconsult) is the only legitimate form of government.
Ouf! Is that all?
Not by a long chalk.
Belief in “walayat al-faqih” isn’t enough either. You must believe in its absolute version. Finally, once you have fulfilled all the above conditions you must meet another one, absolute devotion to the “Supreme Guide” Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei who has quietly asked to be referred to as Imam.
Apart from those basic conditions for candidacy you must also be aged at least 30, which excludes over 50 percent of Iranians, and under 70 that excludes another 5 percent.
Needless to say the estimated eight million Iranians in exile are also barred from candidacy. The new conditions also stipulate the necessity of university level degrees or equivalent in theological seminaries and military schools.
That, too, won’t be as easy as it sounds.
A Majlis report in 2018 claimed that there were thousands of fake PhDs in the Islamic Republic, including many in the high echelons of government. Being suckers for titles, Iranians love to be called “doctor” or “engineer” when they cannot be called “sayyed”, ayatollah or, at least, Hojat al-Islam. The height of glory, of course, is to bear several titles as was the case with Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Doktur Muhammad Beheshti, one of the early operatives of the Khomeinist power grab in 1979. It is not surprising that almost all top commanders of the Revolutionary Guard also use the title “Doktur” on the strength of real or fake degrees from real or non-existent universities. One fake university with an address in the island of Saba, in the Caribbean, has sold over 500 doctorates to Iranian officials for $25,000 apiece. Theological qualifications are equally subject to doubt and speculation.
Traditional seminaries in Qom, Mashhad and Najaf do not recognize seminaries set up by the regime under mullahs on state payroll. In exchange, state-funded seminaries do not recognize certificates of jurisprudence (Ijtihad) issued by traditional seminaries.
Again, leaving aside women and non-Muslims, and non-Shiites, that condition would exclude 80 percent of those who might wish to apply.
To complicate matters further, the conditions demand other qualifications that are hard if not impossible to measure.
For example, how do you prove “heartfelt belief in the necessity of religion” or “transparent hostility to the West” or “opposition to all seditions that have taken place against the Islamic Revolution”? Another hard-to-prove condition is “preferring the interests of the system to personal interests” while “a deep knowledge of domestic affairs, regional politics and international situation” may require at least an undergraduate course followed by examinations. Things become more complicated when would-be candidates are asked to prove loyalty not only to the regime and all its policies but also to be committed to preservation of all existing institutions of the Islamic Republic. This means that those who dream of reforming let alone disbanding the High Council of Guardians of the Constitution or merging the Revolutionary Guard with the national army need not apply.
One condition, perhaps designed to exclude President Hassan Rouhani’s so-called New York Boys, bars anyone with double nationality or permanent residence permit in foreign countries to stand. But that is not all. Those with foreign-born or foreign-resident parents, offspring or any other close relatives are also barred. In 2018 the Islamic Majlis, the ersatz parliament claimed in a report that over 1,500 senior officials, including un-named members of the Cabinet and provincial governors had double nationality, mostly US or Canada, or had children attending school in Western Europe and North America.
Last week Islamic Majlis gave the Council of Guardians the power to veto would-be candidate on the basis of their program as well.
Even if you fulfil all those conditions your application may still be rejected by the Council of Guardians on grounds that are never explained. But approval by the council isn’t the final hoop either. The “Supreme Guide” may veto your candidacy and, as you believe in his infallibility, you won’t be able to challenge his decision. One can think of only one candidate who might have all the qualifications and certainty of approval by the “Supreme Guide”: Major-General Qassem Soleimani. Problem is, he is no longer available.

Larry King, legendary talk show host, dies at 87
Tom Kludt and Brad Parks, CNN/January 23, 2021
(CNN) Larry King, the longtime CNN host who became an icon through his interviews with countless newsmakers and his sartorial sensibilities, has died. He was 87. His son, Chance, confirmed King's death Saturday morning.
King hosted "Larry King Live" on CNN for over 25 years, interviewing presidential candidates, celebrities, athletes, movie stars and everyday people. He retired in 2010 after taping more than 6,000 episodes of the show.
A statement was posted on his verified Facebook announcing his passing.
With profound sadness, Ora Media announces the death of our co-founder, host and friend Larry King, who passed away this morning at age 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles," the statement said. "For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry's many thousands of interviews, awards, and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster."
The statement did not give the cause of death.
King had been hospitalized with Covid-19 in early January at Cedars-Sinai, a source close to the family said at the time.
"We mourn the passing of our colleague Larry King," CNN President Jeff Zucker said in a statement.
"The scrappy young man from Brooklyn had a history-making career spanning radio and television. His curiosity about the world propelled his award-winning career in broadcasting, but it was his generosity of spirit that drew the world to him. We are so proud of the 25 years he spent with CNN, where his newsmaker interviews truly put the network on the international stage. From our CNN family to Larry's, we send our thoughts and prayers, and a promise to carry on his curiosity for the world in our work."
King battled a number of health problems, suffering several heart attacks. In 1987, he underwent quintuple bypass surgery, inspiring him to establish the Larry King Cardiac Foundation to provide assistance to those without insurance.
More recently, King revealed in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and successfully underwent surgery to treat it. He also underwent a procedure in 2019 to address angina.
King also suffered personal loss last year when two of his adult children died within weeks of each other: Andy King, 65, suffered a heart attack and daughter Chaia King, 52, died after being diagnosed with lung cancer. King is survived by three sons.
In an era filled with star newsmen, King was a giant -- among the most prominent questioners on television and a host to presidents, movie stars and world class athletes.
With an affable, easygoing demeanor that distinguished him from more intense TV interviewers, King perfected a casual approach to the Q&A format, always leaning forward and listening intently to his guests, rarely interrupting.
"I've never learned anything," King was fond of saying, "while I was talking."
For 25 years, he hosted "Larry King Live" on CNN, a span that was highlighted by more than 30,000 interviews, including every sitting president from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama, and thousands of phone calls from viewers.
The show made King one of the faces of the network, and one of the most famous television journalists in the country. His column in USA Today, which ran for nearly 20 years until 2001, showcased King's distinct style in print, inviting readers down a trail of non-sequiturs that served as a window into his mind.
"The most underutilized player in the NFL this year was Washington's Desmond Howard...Despite what you think of Lawrence Walsh, we will always have the need for a special prosecutor because a government cannot investigate itself," King wrote in a 1992 column.
Those musings, combined with his unmistakable appearance -- oversized glasses, ever-present suspenders -- made King ripe for caricature. In the 1990s, he was portrayed on "Saturday Night Live" by Norm MacDonald, who channeled the USA Today column with a spot-on impersonation.
Jokes aside, King's influence is evident today in the generation of podcasters who have mimicked -- whether deliberate or not -- his conversational approach to interviews.
"A good interview — you know more than you do before you start. You should come away with maybe some of your opinions changed," King told the Los Angeles Times in 2018. "You should certainly come away entertained — an interviewer is also an entertainer."
Born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger on November 19, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, King was raised by two Jewish immigrants. His mother, Jennie (Gitlitz) Zeiger, was from Lithuania, while his father, Edward Zeiger, hailed from Ukraine. Edward died of a heart attack when King was 10, a memory King said he mostly "blocked out."
Left to raise King and his younger brother Marty alone, Jennie Zeiger was forced to go on welfare to support her children. The death had a profound effect on King, and his mother.
"Prior to his death, I'd been a good student but afterwards, I just stopped being interested," King told The Guardian in a 2015 interview. "It was a real blow to me. But eventually I channeled that anger because I wanted to make him and my mother proud."
King said his father had enormous influence on him, instilling in his son a sense of humor and a love of sports. And no sport drew more of King's affection than baseball.
He grew up a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and continued to support the team after its move to Los Angeles. He was a fixture at the team's home games in Dodger Stadium, often spotted in the high-priced seats behind home plate. In 2004, King wrote a book aptly titled, "Why I Love Baseball."
King's career in media began in earnest in 1957, when he took a job as a disc jockey at WAHR-AM in Miami. It was then when he made the decision to drop his surname.
"You can't use Larry Zeiger," he recalled his boss at the station saying. "It's too ethnic. People won't be able to spell it or remember it. You need a better name."
"There was no time to think about whether this was good or bad or what my mother would say. I was going on the air in five minutes," King wrote in his 2009 autobiography.
"The Miami Herald was spread out on his desk. Face-up was a full-page ad for King's Wholesale Liquors. The general manager looked down and said, 'King! How about Larry King?'"
It was around this time that King entered what would become a string of failed marriages. His union with Frada Miller was annulled, and the dates of his second marriage with Annette Kaye are publicly unavailable.
From 1961-63, King was married to Alene Akins, whom he married again from 1967-71; before they re-married, King tied the knot with Mickey Sutphin in 1964 before they divorced in 1966.
He had two more divorces -- with Sharon Lepore, with whom he was married from 1976-82, and Julie Alexander, with whom he was married from 1989-92 -- before marrying his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick in 1997 at UCLA Medical Center, as he was about to undergo cardiac surgery. King filed for divorce from Southwick in 2019, citing irreconcilable differences.
CNN's Ray Sanchez and David J. Lopez contributed to this report.

The Religious Transformation of French Schools
Giulio Meotti/Gatestone Institute/January 23/2021
In France, a low-intensity war is bubbling, aimed at radicalizing education.
At the Pierre Mendès France School in Saumur, a student told his teacher, "My father will behead you". It has become impossible even to make a precise list of these incidents. They occur every day in France.
"Faced with Islamist intimidation, what should the free world do?" — Title of Robert Redeker's column in Le Figaro in 2006. A few days later, he began receiving death threats.
If extremists have managed to intimidate France's schools and universities, why should they not be able to subdue all of society?
In France, a low-intensity war is bubbling, aimed at radicalizing education. Minister of Education Jean Michel Blanquer revealed that after the beheading of the schoolteacher Samuel Paty in October, 800 Islamist "incidents" had taken place in French schools. Pictured: Bois-d'Aulne College in Conflans-Saint-Honorine, where Paty was murdered on October 16, 2020.
"Unlike you, Colonel, and so many others, Mila will never submit", wrote the French teenager's father to her school's principal in a letter published by Le Point. On January 18, 2020 Mila O., then 16 years old, made insulting comments about Islam during her Instagram livestream.
"During her livestream, a Muslim boy asked her out in the comments, but she turned him down because she is gay. He responded by accusing her of racism and calling her a 'dirty lesbian'. In an angry follow-up video, streamed immediately after she was insulted, Mila responded by saying that she 'hates religion'".
Mila continued: "The Koran is a religion of hatred; there is only hatred in it... Islam is sh*t..." Since then, she has received approximately 50,000 messages and letters that contain threats to rape her, slit her throat, torture and behead her. She has had to keep moving from one school to another.
Once again, Mila has found herself without a high school. On a social network, she accidentally gave the name of her new military school. Its management promptly excluded her for being a potential threat to the students' security. "Devastated by so much cowardice", Mila's father wrote. "Even the army cannot protect her and allow her to continue her education, what can we do, us, her parents? This observation is for us a horror film".
Even the French army cannot protect her? "She is 17 years old and now lives like the staff of Charlie Hebdo, in a bunker; it is unbearable!" Mila's lawyer, Richard Malka, said.
A few days later, "Caroline L.", a professor at the Faculty of Law of Aix-Marseille University, received countless death threats, accusing her of being "Islamophobic". The Aix-en-Provence prosecutor opened an investigation for "public insults for belonging to religion". Her "crime"? The professor had explained to her students there:
"There is no freedom of conscience in Islam. If you were born to a Muslim father, you are a Muslim for life. A kind of sexually transmitted religion. One of the biggest problems we have with Islam, and unfortunately it is not the only one, is that Islam does not recognize freedom of conscience. It is absolutely terrifying".
The Pierre Joël Bonté High School in Riom (Puy-de-Dôme) was closed on January 11 due to "insults and death threats" targeting teachers. "We have decided to close the school following insults and death threats to protect students and staff", a spokesperson of the school explained. A few hours later, a teacher in Toulouse, Fatiha Boudjahlat, asked for police protection after receiving significant threats.
In 2015, Islamic State announced that French schools must be attacked and invited its followers to "kill the teachers". According to Gilles Kepel, an expert on Islamism, "The school, for the supporters of political Islam, has become a citadel to tear down."
An article in L'Express tragically points out that schools are the object of violent campaigns by Islamists throughout the world. In 2014, a military school in Peshawar, Pakistan was targeted by a deadly Islamist attack that claimed the lives of 132 students. The Pakistani Taliban movement, between 2009 and 2012, attacked 900 schools according to a report by the NGO International Crisis Group. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, known for her fight for girls' education, was shot in the head by the Taliban in Swat. Boko Haram, responsible for numerous attacks in Nigeria, claimed it had kidnapped 276 high school girls in Chibok. In an attack by Islamists affiliated with al-Qaeda on Kenya's Garissa University, 142 students were killed. In Burkina Faso, more than 2,000 schools have closed their doors.
In France, a low-intensity war is bubbling, aimed at radicalizing education. While many Muslims might not support such a transformation, the current effort seems to have begun in 1989, during the bicentenary of the French Revolution and the French publication of Salman Rushdie's fictional novel, The Satanic Verses. A college in Creil refused admission to three students wearing the Islamic veil. French authorities tried by dialogue and appeasement to calm the situation. In an appeal, however, published by Le Nouvel Observateur and signed by authors Alain Finkielkraut and Elisabeth Badinter, several intellectuals denounced the "Munich of the republican school".
The Islamization of French education is now proceeding at a rapid pace. In 1989, the cry was, "Teachers, let us not capitulate!". Since then, some French teachers who have refused to capitulate have paid with their lives.
In October 2020, a French history teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded by a Chechen terrorist for having carried out his work: educating his students to respect the founding values ​​of Western societies and the words mounted over the doors of their school (Liberté, égalité, fraternité), for discussing freedom of speech and showing them Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of Mohammed.
"Living together is a fable," Alain Finkielkraut wrote after Paty's beheading; "the lost territories of the Republic are the territories conquered by hatred of France. Eyes have opened, the evidence can no longer be hidden".
French Minister of Education Jean Michel Blanquer revealed that after the beheading of Paty, 800 Islamist "incidents" had taken place in French schools.
Another teacher was physically threatened at the Battières School in Lyon, where Samuel Paty had started his career. This teacher of history and geography had given a lesson on freedom of expression, in accordance with the school curricula, to a fifth-grade class. He stated, among other things, that Emmanuel Macron was not "Islamophobic". The father of a student came to see the teacher, challenging him verbally in front of witnesses. "He was vocal and very intrusive about what he said was and was not allowed to say in his classes", a witness said. Shocked, the teacher was put on sick leave and asked to change schools.
At a high school in Caluire-et-Cuire, near Lyon, a student threatened a teacher to "cut off his head". In Gisors, a girl distributed a photo of Paty's beheading to her companions. In Albertville, Savoy, the police had to summon four ten-year-old children and their parents because in the classroom they said "that teacher deserved to die". In Grenoble, an extremist Muslim was arrested for threatening to behead a teacher of history and geography named Laurent who appears on a reality TV show. "I will behead you" he said . Laurent was evidently preparing a video tribute to Paty. At the Pierre Mendès France School in Saumur, a student told his teacher, "My father will behead you".
It has become impossible even to make a precise list of these incidents. They occur every day in France.
A new survey reveals the level of self-censorship among French teachers. To avoid possible incidents, one out of every two teachers is admitting to self-censoring in class. By means of fear, terror and intimidation, Islamism is reaping what it has sown.
How We Let Islamism Enter the School is the title of Jean-Pierre Obin's new book about the rise of Islamism in French schools. Obin, a former inspector-general of national education, in 2004 coordinated a report on manifestations of religious affiliation at schools. It was not the first report from a French education insider. Bernard Ravet was, for 15 years, the principal of three of the most problematic schools in Marseille. In his book, College Principal or Imam of the Republic?, Ravet wrote:
"For more than ten years, fanaticism has been knocking on the door of dozens of establishments.... It has sought to encroach on the physical territory of the Republic, centimeter by centimeter, by imposing its signs and standards",
French philosopher Robert Redeker wrote in 2006:
"Islam tries to impose its rules on Europe, opening swimming pools at certain times exclusively for women, a ban on caricaturing this religion, the demand for special dietary treatment of Muslim children, the fight for the wearing the veil at school, the accusation of Islamophobia against free spirits."
His column in Le Figaro was titled, "Faced with Islamist intimidation, what should the free world do?" A few days later, Redeker began receiving death threats. "I can't work and I am obliged to hide", Redeker said. "So in some way, Islamists have succeeded in punishing me on the territory of the republic as if I were guilty of a crime of opinion".
We should have paid more attention to that first case. It was the first in a long series of attacks on French teachers and schools. Fourteen years later, Samuel Paty has paid with his life, a university professor just received security protection and another had to leave his school after threats. If extremists have managed to intimidate France's schools and universities, why should they not be able to subdue all of society?
*Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.
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A new glimmer of hope for Middle East peace
Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/January 23/2021
Any mention of a comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians any time soon is bound to raise eyebrows. For nearly 20 years, every initiative has failed to get off the ground because of the unwillingness or inability of at least one of the sides to depart from their habitual positions and behavior patterns.
Nevertheless, in recent months, especially since the signing of normalization agreements between Israel and a number of Arab countries and more recently the result of the US presidential election, there is some sense of a mini-momentum for bringing the peace process back on track. Is it merely wishful thinking? Probably, but any flicker of hope for peace deserves at least some consideration and examination of the conditions that could make it more probable.
A much welcome gathering in Cairo at the beginning of this month, of the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Jordan and Egypt, discussed a possible revival of the peace process, in an expression of this renewed, though cautious, optimism that some progress can be made in bringing the Israelis and the Palestinians back to the negotiation table. With the Trump administration and his fantasy so-called peace plan now confined to history, diplomatic efforts can be resumed, albeit exploratory ones, to test the water on both sides to see if at least an initial dialogue is possible.
After more than 27 years of failed efforts to bring about the peace that was envisaged by the Oslo accords, the international community needs to lose its despondency and instead tackle the issue head on with determination and courage. During the Oslo negotiations the very fact that Israelis and Palestinians were talking peace was a welcome novelty that could generate domestic and international support and carry the process forward. In light of the eventual tragic consequences, in addition to the current climate in both societies, any revived peace process should be driven by the international community, and should be limited in time and results orientated.
For the Palestinians in particular, a process without results would be not only futile, but also dangerously damaging for the peace camp. After more than 70 years of millions of their people living as refugees, and more than half a century of living under occupation and blockade, there is not much for Palestinians to celebrate in negotiations themselves, unless they can see radical changes on the ground. Further prolonged rounds of endless talks that fail to yield any result would mean not only the prolonging if not the perpetuation of the occupation, but for all intents and purposes its legitimization.
After more than 27 years of failed efforts to bring about the peace envisaged by the Oslo accords, the international community needs to lose its despondency and tackle the issue head on.
Equally worrying in recent years has been the prevailing mood in the international community that since a comprehensive peace agreement is impossible to achieve, there is no point in trying to prevent the entrenchment of the current situation or even stop it from deteriorating. For the past four years the Israeli government has enjoyed a US tailwind as it expanded more settlements and toyed with the idea of annexing parts of the West Bank. This led to questioning whether an independent Palestinian state would ever materialise, let alone one whose capital would be Jerusalem, while the plight of 5.5 million Palestinian refugees in desperate need of a just and fair answer to their decades-long predicament is being ignored.
There is no reason to question the sincerity of those who met in Cairo in wanting to resuscitate the stalemated relations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but it is legitimate to ask what they are prepared to do for this to become a reality. For the next few months both Israeli and Palestinian politics will be preoccupied with their respective elections, which will make any meaningful dialogue in the spirit of compromise next to impossible. Still, there is now an opportunity, given the new and possibly proactive US administration, the normalization agreements, the prospect of elections to the Palestinian Authority and the restoration of the PA’s cooperation based on Israel’s commitment to past agreements, to join forces and push to prepare the ground for a peace dialogue.
In a joint statement at the end of the Cairo meeting the participants laid down what could become the foundation for negotiations, as long as they can use their influence to make this happen. In recent years the sands have shifted in many quarters of the international community toward accepting as fact the unilateral actions taken by Israel in the occupied Palestinian Territories, almost conceding that this is the new benchmark for peace negotiations. But this approach, even if tacit, is counterproductive, undermines the rule and role of international law and is morally reprehensible.
Therefore, the statement by the four foreign ministers in Cairo that past UN resolutions must be the basis for any future negotiations, which means that any future negotiations on territorial compromise should be based on the June 1967 borders, was crucial. Territorial compromises may be necessary, but must not be based on legitimising Israel’s illegal acts of building settlements in the West Bank and installing more than half a million Jewish settlers there. Instead, the statement decries the fact that the settlements project undermines the prospect of a peace agreement based on a two-state solution with the Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.
Another sign of the world breathing a sigh of relief at Trump’s departure is the overdue emphasis in the Cairo statement of the “indispensable role of UNWRA in providing humanitarian assistance and essential services to the Palestinian refugees.” While such a call for the international community to honor its commitments to UNRWA is timely considering the organization’s chronic shortage of resources, steps must also be taken to include representatives of the Palestinian refugee community in any future negotiations to ensure that the refugees’ rights are recognized and addressed.
If the international community is serious about resurrecting the peace process it must follow the vision presented in Cairo, but it must also ensure that whoever is elected in Israel and Palestine this year understands that diverting from this vision will have serious consequences.
*Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations at Regent’s University London, where he is head of the International Relations and Social Sciences Program. He is also an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. He is a regular contributor to the international written and electronic media. Twitter: @YMekelberg

Triple challenge facing Biden in this region
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/January 23/2021
The US has played an active role in the Middle East for the past 70 years, with significant investments of military, diplomatic, economic and political capital. It is unsurprising, therefore, for Americans to ask when those investments will deliver returns in line with overall US foreign policy objectives.
Meanwhile the security, political and energy environment in the region has only become more complicated, particularly in the past decade as regional dynamics are increasingly affected by domestic challenges from economic reform to civil-military relations, uprisings and even leadership transitions.
The next four years, however, appear to signal a different trajectory from the traditional regional concerns about energy security, stability and curbing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. A Biden administration takes the helm at a time when US wariness of endless overseas commitments is far more pronounced.
Most Americans are simply exhausted by the region’s intractable conflicts, heightened tensions and complex maze of interconnected interests and rivalries. Additionally, America’s energy independence and intensifying competition with China and Russia have increased domestic pressure for the US to focus its attentions elsewhere.
As powerful as the US military is, it cannot be optimally deployed in three places simultaneously — addressing the separate threats of Iran in the Middle East, China in the Pacific, and Russia in the Atlantic (and increasingly the eastern Mediterranean).
The past four years of virtual US absence have only emboldened Beijing, Moscow and Tehran and allowed all three to gain significant footholds from Syria to Yemen. Even more, should Iran proceed unchecked it will benefit from a nuclear corridor from North Korea through China and Pakistan. North Korea and Iran already cooperate on long-range missile development, with that corridor supporting the transfer of core components. There is little to deter Pyongyang from sharing nuclear secrets with Tehran since both have a mutual adversary in the US and recognize the effectiveness of a nuclear deterrent.
If the Biden administration is to reverse decades of failures and seemingly rudderless policies, what the Middle East needs now is a sustainable, flexible and robust US presence that is as effective as it is persistent in delivering mutually beneficial outcomes.
What the Middle East needs now is a sustainable, flexible and robust US presence that is as effective as it is persistent in delivering mutually beneficial outcomes.
What would that presence look like?
There is some worry that the new White House and State Department are treading a familiar path of being so laser-focused on dealing with Iran that they shut out allies and divert attention from other regional priorities. That is the path that produced a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran without regional support, and paved the way for the Trump administration to withdraw from it.
Thus, as the Biden team set about the preliminary work to establish a framework for new talks, including discussions with allies and traditional adversaries alike, the new tenor of US foreign policy starts becoming visible. There is a marked return to multilateralism to address global challenges. Whether countering terrorism or weapons proliferation, supporting reforms, restoring stability in conflict zones and even Israeli-Palestinian relations, Middle East dynamics are heavily intertwined. Going too far in one direction risks unearthing new tensions or intensifying old ones.
The same applies when trying to bolster each state's capabilities separately, without a region-wide framework for everything from preserving the integrity of borders, missile defense, counterterrorism, training, and intelligence sharing. The primary objective will be to boost the region’s self-sufficiency and strengthen its capabilities as a bloc in order to deter threats. Of course, interregional competition would make such an ambitious undertaking challenging and force uncomfortable compromises so that US allies benefit equally from re-focusing support to a regional level.
Fortunately, existing intraregional tensions make it easy to convene allies and partners around common objectives. For instance, in the eastern Mediterranean, tensions are about undersea energy resources. In the Gulf itself, the foremost priority remains countering the triple threat posed by Iran’s support of proxies, long-range missiles and its nuclear ambitions.
While Arab governments are quick to point to the fairly short policy priorities of the Biden administration as proof the US is still intent on fashioning an exit from the region, the reality is that the US can no longer simply vanish or even take a back seat. If anything, the vastly changed landscape since 2015 has transformed US Middle East policy from a binary proposition to a more nuanced search for a sustainable presence.
Dealing with Iran is only the start. Washington will soon have to address the gains made by China and Russia in the region. Neither Beijing nor Moscow has any interest in filling a security vacuum in the region, aside from Russia extending its footprints in strategic zones and China pursuing geo-economic dominance via the Belt and Road Initiative. Those priorities still require a secure and stable Middle East, which is a crucial point of common interest, useful to achieving favorable outcomes in future dialogues on countering regional challenges and threats.
*Hafed Al-Ghwell is a non-resident senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Institute at the John Hopkins University School of Advance International Studies. He is also senior adviser at the international economic consultancy Maxwell Stamp and at the geopolitical risk advisory firm Oxford Analytica, a member of the Strategic Advisory Solutions International Group in Washington DC and a former adviser to the board of the World Bank Group. Twitter: @HafedAlGhwell