English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 31/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations For today

We urge you to abstain from fornication; that each one of you knows how to control your own body in holiness and honour, not with lustful passion
First Letter to the Thessalonians 04/01-12/:”Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication; that each one of you knows how to control your own body in holiness and honour, not with lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one wrongs or exploits a brother or sister in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, just as we have already told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness. Therefore whoever rejects this rejects not human authority but God, who also gives his Holy Spirit to you.Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, beloved, to do so more and more, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you, so that you may behave properly towards outsiders and be dependent on no one.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 30-31/2021

Health Ministry: 2,631 new Coronavirus infections, 61 deaths
France's Macron Says Will Visit Lebanon a Third Time
Aoun receives a call from Macron, confirming his country’s support to Lebanon
Presidency Media Office: PM-designate’s response includes false information that is far from reality
Army Intervenes after Minor Skirmishes in Tripoli
Army Arrests 5 Suspected of Torching Tripoli Municipality
Health Minister: Closure indicators are promising, country not to be opened all at once
Lebanon PM threatens mass arrests over deadly clashes
Report: Lebanon Opens Probe into ‘Planned’ Tripoli Tension
Fahmi Meets Security Chiefs, Urges Bigger Coordination
Abiad: Concerns over COVID-19 Vaccine Could Impede Vaccination Drive
Women Protesters Block Minieh Highway over Dire Living Conditions
FPM Again Hits Out at Hariri
NBN Channel denies news attributed to it over President’s health: Falls under fake news
Arslan’s Press Office: Reducing Druze representation in government an infringement upon the rights of Druze
Druze Sheikh Akl criticizes those in power
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 30-31/2021

Pope’s Iraq visit to put Christian minority in spotlight
WHO Virus Probe Team Visits China Propaganda Exhibit, Hospital in Wuhan
Blinken Calls for ‘More Equitable’ State in Iraq
Morocco, Israel to Exchange Visits in Feb.
Egypt Confirms Regular Navigation in Suez Canal
UAE to Offer Citizenship to Select Expats in Rare Move for Gulf

Iran to Macron: Nuclear deal non-negotiable, parties to deal ‘unchangeable’
UN condemns Iran execution spree, worried about minorities
Iran Hangs Ethnic Baluch for 'Terror', despite UN Appeal
N.Ireland Chief Minister Calls for Removal of Brexit Protocol
Biden faces calls to secure release of US man in Afghanistan
Israeli Embassy in Delhi on high alert before bomb blast: Ambassador
At least five people killed in car bomb attack in Syria’s Afrin
 

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 30-31/2021

Iran Regime’s Agents and Illegal Activities in the US/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/January 30/2021
School Reopenings Are Biden’s First Big Test/Michael R. Bloomberg/Bloomberg/January 30/021
Working From Home Means More Than No Commute/Sarah Halzack/Bloomberg/January 30/021
Washington and Tehran… Who Will Back Down First?/Elias Harfoush/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 30/2021
In Mideast, Biden faces Trump legacy/Geoffrey Aronson/The Arab Weekly/January 30/2021
Has Biden already got Tehran running scared on nuclear issue?/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/January 30/2021
New signs from Washington of a coherent world view/Yossi Mekelberg /Arab News/January 30/2021
Why it’s too soon to write off Trump/Andrew Hammond/Arab News/January 30/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 30-31/2021

Health Ministry: 2,631 new Coronavirus infections, 61 deaths
NNA/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
The Ministry of Public Health announced, on Saturday, the registration of 2,631 new cases of Coronavirus, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 298,913.
It added that 61 deaths were also recorded during the past 24 hours.

France's Macron Says Will Visit Lebanon a Third Time
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that France’s road map for easing the crisis in Lebanon was still on the table and he planned to make a third visit there, Al Arabiya television reported. Speaking at a media round table, he said the French plan was the only solution to Lebanon’s crisis and that he would do all he could to assist the formation of a government, according to the channel. Macron has been spearheading international efforts to rescue Lebanon, once a French protectorate, from its financial meltdown - its deepest crisis since the 1975-90 civil war. He has travelled twice to Beirut since a cataclysmic explosion at the port in August devastated swathes of the capital, but no progress has been made to form a credible interim government yet. Macron was scheduled to visit Lebanon a third time in December but the trip was cancelled after he was diagnosed with COVID-19. In Lebanon, fractious politicians have been unable to agree on a new government since the last one quit in the aftermath of the Beirut blast, leaving Lebanon adrift as poverty spreads. A new government is the first step on a French roadmap that envisages a cabinet that would take steps to tackle endemic corruption and implement reforms needed to trigger billions of dollars of international aid to fix the economy, which has been crushed by a mountain of debt.

Aoun receives a call from Macron, confirming his country’s support to Lebanon
NNA/Saturday, 30 January, 2021  
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, received this afternoon a phone call from French President Emmanuel Macron, with talks centering on the current situation and the latest developments pertaining to government formation course.
The French President reiterated that his country stands by Lebanon in its prevailing circumstances and extends its assistance in various fields, especially with regards to the government dossier. Aoun thanked Macron for his positions in support of Lebanon and his keenness on strengthening and developing the Lebanese-French bilateral relations in all fields. He particularly commended the French presidential initiative related to the governmental issue, and once again welcomed President Macron's visit to Lebanon.

Presidency Media Office: PM-designate’s response includes false information that is far from reality
NNA/Saturday, 30 January, 2021  
The Media Office at the Presidential Palace released the following statement on Saturday: "The statement released today by the media office of Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri contained false responses and baseless information. In order not to start a pointless debate, we are satisfied with noting that the PM-designate, through what was stated in his response, is determined to individually form the government, refusing to take into account the remarks made by the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, which embody partnership in forming the government, based on Article 53 of the Constitution. This is the main point in all the circumstances surrounding the formation of the government, especially since individuality is the opposite of partnership.  In short, there will be no government that contradicts partnership, and true coexistence, based on national balance and protecting its foundations". --- Presidency Information Office

Army Intervenes after Minor Skirmishes in Tripoli
Naharnet/Saturday, 30 January, 2021 
The restive northern city of Tripoli on Friday witnessed minor skirmishes between protesters and security forces after four days of violent clashes that left one person dead and over 250 injured. In the afternoon, a number of young men gathered outside Tripoli’s Serail, the government’s main building in the city, where they pelted security forces with stones as some of them chanted “we’re hungry, we want to eat!”Security forces fired tear gas to disperse them as army troops deployed around the city’s Abdul Hamid Karami Square, which is also known as al-Nour Square. Troops also deployed outside Tripoli’s central bank branch and at the intersection between the Fouad Chehab Boulevard and the Miten Street. The soldiers later intervened and pushed protesters away from Tripoli’s serail and the al-Nour Square, dispersing them to the neighboring streets after which they pelted the troops with stones. Al-Jadeed TV later reported that calm was engulfing the city amid the presence of a few protesters and a huge deployment of army troops.

Army Arrests 5 Suspected of Torching Tripoli Municipality
Naharnet/Saturday, 30 January, 2021 
The army on Friday announced the arrest of five people suspected of involvement in the overnight torching of Tripoli’s municipal building. In a statement, the army said three suspects -- two Lebanese and a Syrian -- were present inside the building when they were detained. An army force meanwhile arrested two others in the Bab al-Tabbaneh area and the Miten Street area on suspicion of preventing firefighters from reaching the burning municipal building and taking part in rioting. Noting that three soldiers were injured in Thursday’s incidents, the Army Command emphasized that “military units are sparing no effort to preserve security and stability in Tripoli and the rest of the Lebanese regions.”“As this Command underlines its respect for the right to peaceful protest and expression, it warns security violators that they will be pursued, arrested and referred to the competent judicial authorities,” the statement added.
 

Health Minister: Closure indicators are promising, country not to be opened all at once
NNA/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
Caretaker Public Health Minister, Hamad Hassan, deemed the current total lockdown in the country as “the second successful closure after the first lockdown last March.""Indicators are promising in light of the decline of the proliferative index to 0.93%, which will be reflected in about two weeks on the positive rate of the tests that we aspire to reduce from 22% to about 17%,” said Hassan in an interview with "Al-Manar" TV Channel. However, Hassan cautioned against a third surge in COVID cases after the port blast and the holiday season, as a result of the moves currently witnessed in the streets which will constitute the most risky threat to the indicators that are being worked on. "The spread of mutated strains is reflected in the high number of infections, but the high mortality rate is not related to the spread of these strains as much as it is related to the high rate of infections,” he explained. Over the current government-decreed lockdown, Hassan pointed out that "the decision to extend the total lockdown is up to the ministerial committee and not to the Ministry of Health.” He added: “It is important to stress that the opening of the country cannot take place all at once, as the Ministry is preparing for a safe and gradual exit plan that combines wisdom and firmness." As for the Coronavirus vaccines, Hassan encouraged “taking the vaccine expected to arrive in mid-February, as the Pfizer vaccine provides 95 percent protection." He added that a scientific and technical committee has been formed to evaluate a number of other vaccines that are proposed to be imported by the private sector, in order to prepare the necessary legal and administrative grounds to keep pace, with aspirations to reach herd immunity before next fall.

Lebanon PM threatens mass arrests over deadly clashes
Najia Houssari/Arab News/January 30/2021
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, broke his silence on Saturday to condemn days of violent protest in Tripoli, the country’s most impoverished city, as “an assault on the state and its integrity.” “Everyone who participated in the riots will be arrested,” Diab said. His comments followed deadly clashes during the week when protests at Lebanon’s extended coronavirus lockdown and worsening economic crisis turned violent. Frustrations boiled over after 30-year-old Omar Taibi was shot by security forces during protests. The ensuing clashes left more than 220 people injured. Protesters set fire to several buildings in Tripoli on Thursday as outrage grew. Violence escalated quickly as molotov cocktails, hand grenades and stones were launched at the security forces, who responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and then live ammunition. However, that did not deter others from expressing their outrage with the caretaker government as protests spread to other parts of the country. On Saturday, groups of female protesters blocked the highway linking Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, with Akkar. The women complained that they were no longer able to secure basic needs for their families.
The political dispute between Saad Hariri and the Free Patriotic Movement, led by Gebran Bassil, worsened on Saturday as both men swapped accusations.
Another group of protesters marched to the Beirut home of Mohamed Fahmi, Lebanon’s interior minister, to voice their anger at the security forces’ handling of the Tripoli protests. A shooting in Beirut’s Hamra commercial district late on Saturday sparked fears of worsening violence in the capital.
However, security forces described the attack as “an isolated incident.” A security source told Arab News: “The problem started between a delivery driver and one of the residents. Young men from the Syrian Social Nationalist Party interfered and defended the Syrian delivery driver, then started shooting into the air.”After nearby residents appeared on the street, troops arrived and cordoned off the site, the source said. Meanwhile, former prime minister Fouad Siniora, the leader of the Future Movement’s parliamentary group, warned that the violence in Tripoli has deepened Lebanon’s political divisions, making the formation of a rescue government even more difficult. “The most dangerous thing about the current situation is the inability of the political forces to take initiative in determining a national rescue destination,” he said. “Every sectarian party is waging two battles: A fierce internal battle to impose itself as its sole representative, and a grinding battle against other sects to identify the sect’s quota in the government.”The political dispute between Saad Al-Hariri, Lebanon’s prime minister-designate, and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), led by Gebran Bassil, worsened on Saturday as both men swapped accusations.
Bassil urged Al-Hariri to “head immediately to the Baabda Palace and form a government in agreement and full partnership with the president — a government that enjoys broad political and national support.”The FPM described the demand for partnership in the government formation as “a right.”However, the Future Movement responded later, accusing the FPM of “reducing the rights of Christians to the rights of a few men.”

Report: Lebanon Opens Probe into ‘Planned’ Tripoli Tension
Naharnet/Saturday, 30 January, 2021 
The latest heightened tensions in the northern city of Tripoli “were a deliberate and organized” act “exploiting” poverty in the northern city, and investigation was initiated to find the "culprits," al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday. A security source who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the daily that the protests were “organized and systematic exploiting the people’s poverty and hunger, but was actually intended to wreak havoc and chaos in the city.” He added: “This was evident in the aggressive approach practiced by masked individuals who used weapons and hand grenades at the security forces. The poor and hungry do not wear masks when they express anger.”He added that security agencies have obtained definite information about the sides instigating the chaos in Tripoli, “we have identified several names,” he said, adding “operations for their pursuit and detention have begun.” In response to a question whether the tension was planned in “foreign black rooms,” the source said: “The ongoing investigation will show who instigated and who funded the tension. We have clues that the incidents synchronized with similar moves in other areas.”Moreover, other sources following up on the incidents, said the army had concerns the situation would drag into other areas in Lebanon. “The army was concerned that clashes with protesters and those who practiced chaos would lead to casualties, thus dragging to a different situation.”Security forces have clashed every night since Monday with protesters angered by the combined impact of a severe economic crisis and a coronavirus lockdown.

Fahmi Meets Security Chiefs, Urges Bigger Coordination
Naharnet/Saturday, 30 January, 2021 
Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi on Friday held a meeting with the country’s army chief and heads of security agencies in the wake of several days of violent protests in the northern city of Tripoli. The conferees discussed “the security developments in all Lebanese regions, especially in the city of Tripoli,” the National News Agency said. Fahmi for his part stressed “the need to boost coordination among all security agencies to protect citizens and public and private property,” NNA added. “The acts of sabotage, attacks on public property and torching of the municipal building have nothing to do with the revolution of the hungry,” Fahmi said. “Through the efforts of its reasonable sons, Tripoli will not be dragged behind those tampering with its security and the security of Lebanon and it will not allow the tendentious hands to sabotage it,” the minister added.
The meeting was attended by Army chief General Joseph Aoun, Internal Security Forces head Maj. Gen. Imad Othman, General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, State Security head Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba, ISF Intelligence Branch chief Brig. Gen. Khaled Hammoud and military intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Tony Qahwaji.

Abiad: Concerns over COVID-19 Vaccine Could Impede Vaccination Drive
Naharnet/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
Firass Abiad, the Manager and CEO of state-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital, said Saturday that concerns among Lebanese over possible side effects from COVID-19 vaccine could impede the vaccination drive.
“The vaccine is about to arrive, and needs to be rolled out quickly if we are to stay ahead of the Covid variants. What is the attitude of the public towards receiving the vaccine? At RHUH, we conducted an employee survey to find out. It was informative and surprising,” said Abiad in a tweet. “Most of the responders (736) were healthcare workers, and just 12% said they will decline to take the vaccine. However, only 39% affirmed they will take it, and 49% were undecided. This is despite that 79% of the responders work in direct contact with Covid patients,” he added. Noting that more “importantly, 55% said that they have no or insufficient information about the vaccine. The main source of information for most (64%) was the media. The main concern was side effects (81%), and many (84%) thought that people at low risk for severe Covid can wait.”
Abiad raised concerns that “all this leads to one conclusion: if frontline healthcare workers have concerns about the vaccine, so too has the public. If not addressed, these concerns will impede the vaccination drive. An incessant public awareness campaign is much needed, and cannot start soon enough.”

Women Protesters Block Minieh Highway over Dire Living Conditions
Associated Press/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
A group of women blocked the highway in the northern region of Minieh on Saturday, protesting the dire economic conditions, the National News Agency reported. The protesters formed a human chain blocking the highway, and complained about inability to get the basic needs for their families amid a total lockdown imposed by the government until February 8, and a crippling economic downturn. Their move comes after four days of violent night protests in the northern city of Tripoli over growing poverty made worse by the coronavirus lockdown. A tense calm prevailed in Tripoli on Friday after rioters set fire to several government buildings, capping days of violent clashes. Repeated confrontations between protesters and security forces killed one person and left more than 250 others injured. Tripoli protests started Monday and came as Lebanon grapples with both the pandemic and the worst economic crisis in its history, with only a caretaker government in charge. Tripoli is among the most impoverished and neglected cities in Lebanon, which has been in a state of economic and financial meltdown for the past year.

FPM Again Hits Out at Hariri
Naharnet/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
The Free Patriotic Movement said in a sharp statement on Saturday hitting out at PM-designate Saad Hariri, that “the tragedy” in Tripoli calls on him to visit Baabda Palace “immediately” in order to form a government “in agreement with Aoun.”“The tragedy in Tripoli calls for PM-designate Saad Hariri to immediately head to the Presidential Palace, and to accelerate the government formation in full agreement with the President,” said the FPM in a statement. It noted that a new government must “enjoy broad political and national support, based on a reform program that responds to the aspirations of the Lebanese and persuades the countries concerned of assistance, especially France,” it added. The FPM stated that “out of patriotic consideration," the PM-designate must "immediately" head to Baabda to agree with the President on a government format, accusing Hariri of wasting time by firing accusations at others.
On Tuesday, the Strong Lebanon bloc of the FPM had blasted Hariri over the government formation crisis. The bloc accused Hariri of failing to carry out his constitutional duty of forming the government in agreement with the president.

NBN Channel denies news attributed to it over President’s health: Falls under fake news
NNA/Saturday, 30 January, 2021 
The management of “NBN” TV Station issued a statement on Saturday, in which it categorically denied the circulated news attributed to it, quoting “private sources” at the Presidential Palace regarding the health condition of the President of the Republic. The Station underlined that it has nothing to do with said news, which falls under the “fake news”.

Siniora launches an initiative for coexistence, the constitution and national rescue
NNA/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
Former Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, described the current prevailing situation in the country as "an unprecedented state of national uncertainty, even during the days of internal wars, in conjunction with catastrophic economic, financial, daily-living, health, institutional and economic collapses, exacerbated by the stalled new government formation, which heralds massive social chaos and a total collapse.""The state of uncertainty is reflected in the shaking authority in charge of regulating the life of the Lebanese in a nation and a state, i.e. the National Accord Document, the Taif Agreement, and the Constitution,” he added.
Siniora’s words came as he launched today the "Initiative for Coexistence, the Constitution and National Salvation."He deemed the most critical aspect in our current circumstances lies in the inability of the political forces to take the lead and the inventiveness in determining a destination for a national rescue. “The initiative from other places is necessary and possible, because waiting is tempting some parties to pass a coup proposal against the nature of the political system and the formula for coexistence,” explained Siniora. He affirmed that the origin of the current crises in which Lebanon is struggling stems from a separation, or signs of separation, between two options: the Taif option, which is consistent with the formation of Lebanon, its meaning and its role, and which did not have any real opportunity for implementation until now; and the aspirations from outside the real national pact which are betting on the balance of moving forces at home and abroad, denoted by projects of conquest or alienation that Lebanon cannot tolerate. “Based on this understanding of the National Accord Document and the Constitution, which is a realistic, positive and fair understanding of the experiences of the Lebanese people living together for a century, there deserves to be a comprehensive initiative for national salvation amidst the collapse that threatens the achievements of the Lebanese, as well as threatening their homeland, their state and their position in the region,” Siniora underscored, in reference to his launched initiative.

Arslan’s Press Office: Reducing Druze representation in government an infringement upon the rights of Druze
NNA/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
Lebanese Democratic Party Chief, MP Talal Arslan, on Saturday, underlined that “the approach to the issue of Druze representation in the government is a constitutional and national approach par excellence, and has nothing to do with political disputes. Therefore, it is beneficial to remind the concerned parties that proper Druze representation in cabinet is an acquired right and not a favor from anyone; and seeking to reduce this representation to one minister is an encroachment on Druze rights, a prerogative possessed by no one, neither the designated prime minister nor any other political group, and we will not permit this infringement, full stop!”This came in a statement by Arslan’s press office today, in response to the recent statement by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s press office.

Druze Sheikh Akl criticizes those in power
NNA/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
Sheikh Akl of the Druze Community, Naïm Hassan, criticized procrastination and destruction of Tripoli, calling for a comprehensive national and cross-sectarian movement to prevent the deterioration of the state, within the framework of the constitution and the law. In an issued statement today, he expressed his grief over the recent events that took place in Tripoli at a critical moment in the country's history, saying that "those in power are drenched in the 'edge of the abyss' game in search of personal gains on the ashes of the blazing state."

US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
NNA/Saturday, 30 January, 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 30-31/2021

Pope’s Iraq visit to put Christian minority in spotlight
The Arab Weekly/January 30/2021
ROME - Iraq’s top Catholic official said Thursday that a deadly suicide bombing in Baghdad hasn’t thwarted Pope Francis’s plans to visit, and he confirmed the pontiff would meet with the country’s top Shia cleric, Ali al-Sistani, in a significant highlight of the first-ever papal trip to Iraq. The Chaldean patriarch, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, provided the first details of Francis’s March 5-8 itinerary during a virtual news conference hosted by the French bishops’ conference. The Vatican has confirmed the visit, but it still could be called off given the coronavirus pandemic.
The trip is aimed primarily at encouraging the country’s beleaguered Christians, who were targeted relentlessly by ISIS extremists starting in 2014. “What we Christians expect (from the pope’s message) is comfort and hope,” Sako said. “We have always been persecuted and we have paid for our faith to Christ and the Gospel with our blood, not only in the past but also recently.”But the first visit by a pope to Iraq also has a strong interfaith component. Francis is scheduled to travel to Najaf on March 6 to meet with Sistani, one of the world’s leading Shia leaders, and to host an interfaith meeting that same day in the ancient city of Ur, the birthplace of the prophet Abraham, according to Sako.
Francis has spent years trying to forge improved relations with Muslims. He signed a historic document on human fraternity in 2019 with a prominent Sunni leader, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the seat of Sunni learning in Cairo.Brother Amir Jaje, an Iraqi Dominican who is an expert on Shia relations, said he hoped Sistani would also sign onto the fraternity document, which calls for Christians and Muslims to work together for peace. Sako said the message of peace was particularly important for Iraqis of different faiths: “As (Francis) always says, we are all brothers and sisters, part of the same family.”Francis’s meeting with Sistani will be enormously symbolic for Iraqis, especially its Christians, for whom the encounter will mark a turning point in their country’s often fraught interfaith relations.Christian communities that date to the time of Christ were run over by ISIS militants. Thousands of people were forced to flee in search of safety and a better life. The Vatican has called for Iraqi authorities and the international community to provide the security, economic and social conditions to allow them to return, arguing that Christians are a small but crucial part of Iraqi society.
The meeting’s implicit message of coexistence would resonate among members of the Christian minority, who have expressed fears of demographic change following liberation from ISIS. Most blame militia groups for erecting checkpoints near their villages and homes, deterring many from returning.
— Risk “for others” —
Sistani is a powerful religious figure whose opinion holds sway over the predominately Shia street. He rarely intervenes in political affairs, but his 2014 fatwa was instrumental in the creation of Shia militia groups who fought ISIS alongside Iraqi forces but have since acted more like pro-Iran proxies. In 2019, his sermon led to the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi amid pressure from anti-government protests. The Vatican has confirmed Francis’s intention to go to Iraq and made all the pre-trip arrangements, including sending front teams to Iraq to work out logistics and security, and accrediting media to travel on the papal plane.A rare twin suicide bombing last week, however, has sparked fears of an ISIS resurgence. The attack struck a busy Baghdad commercial centre, killing 32 and wounding over 100. It was the deadliest attack to strike the capital in years.
Sako dismissed the significance of the bombing on the overall security situation in Iraq and said, “There is no risk for the pope.”However, the coronavirus pandemic could force the trip to be suspended at any minute.
“The risk is not for him, it’s for others,” Jaje said, noting that while Iraq’s daily confirmed caseload is far lower than in European countries, it’s testing capacity is also lower. Francis and the Vatican delegation will have been vaccinated by the time of the trip.

WHO Virus Probe Team Visits China Propaganda Exhibit, Hospital in Wuhan
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
A team of WHO experts investigating the origins of the coronavirus toured a propaganda exhibition celebrating China's recovery from the pandemic in Wuhan on Saturday, after a meeting at the hospital that treated the first confirmed Covid-19 cases over a year ago. Details of the trip have been scant so far, with the media kept at arm's length and information on the itinerary dribbling out via tweets from the World Health Organization experts instead of China's tight-lipped Communist authorities. The group was driven to the Jinyintan Hospital, the first to receive officially diagnosed Covid-19 patients in late 2019, as the horrors of the virus emerged in the central Chinese city. In a tweet, team member Peter Daszak welcomed the hospital visit as an "Important opportunity to talk directly w/ medics who were on the ground at that critical time fighting COVID!"
On Saturday afternoon, the team visited a cavernous exhibition that applauds the emergency response of Wuhan health authorities in the chaotic, terrifying early stages of the outbreak -- as well as the agility of the Communist leadership in controlling a crisis without precedent. The WHO mission comes with heavy political baggage -- China refused the team access until mid-January and there are question marks over what the experts can hope to find a year after the virus first emerged. On Friday, the WHO's emergencies director Michael Ryan sought to manage expectations. Success "is not measured necessarily in absolutely finding a source on the first mission", he told a press conference in Geneva. "This is a complicated business, but what we need to do is gather all of the data... and come to an assessment as to how much more we know about the origins of the disease and what further studies may be needed to elucidate that." Last week, China warned the United States against "political interference" during the trip, after the White House demanded a "robust and clear" investigation. The WHO insists the probe will stick tightly to the science behind how the virus jumped from animals -- believed to be bats -- to humans. The team is also expected to visit the market believed to have seen the first major cluster of infections, as well as the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other labs, in what the WHO's Ryan described as a "very busy, busy schedule".
'Not an investigation'
Beijing is desperate to defang criticism of its handling of the chaotic early stages of the outbreak. It has refocused attention at home -- and abroad -- on its handling of and recovery from the outbreak. Since seeping beyond China's borders, the pandemic has ripped across the world, killing more than two million people and wrecking economies. China, with a relatively low reported death toll of 4,636, has bounced back, and has swiftly locked down areas where cases have been found, tested millions and restricted travel to snuff out the crisis. The country's economy grew by 2.3 percent despite the outbreak last year and its leadership misses few chances to boast of the country's resilience and renewal. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman on Friday flagged the WHO visit as "a part of global research" into the pandemic. "It is not an investigation," Zhao Lijian told reporters.
 

Blinken Calls for ‘More Equitable’ State in Iraq
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks on Thursday with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein amid demands by Iraqi factions for the withdrawal of American troops from the country. They discussed follow-up to the Strategic Dialogue and reaffirmed the principles agreed upon by the two sides in the Strategic Framework Agreement, said the State Department. Blinken “encouraged the foreign minister and Iraqi government to continue efforts to address the demands of the Iraqi people for a more equitable and just nation, and expressed support for proposed early elections this year.” He pledged to continue to work with Hussein on “ways to address the economic challenges facing Iraq in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, on helping Iraq enact fundamental economic reforms and enhancing US-Iraq commercial ties to the benefit of both countries.”

Morocco, Israel to Exchange Visits in Feb.
Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
Israel’s National Security Council chairman Meir Ben-Shabbat and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita agreed during telephone talks on Friday to send delegations to their respective countries in February. Israel and Morocco announced the creation of “working groups” to bolster bilateral cooperation, following an agreement to restore diplomatic ties. Such intergovernmental groups will work in cooperation in various fields, including investment, agriculture, water, environment, tourism, science, innovation and energy. The groups will meet virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. "A Moroccan high-level delegation will visit Israel as soon as possible, probably in February, to finalize the terms of these agreements," the Moroccan News Agency (MAP) said, adding that "an Israeli delegation, led by Ben-Shabbat, is also expected in Morocco in February." Bourita and Ben-Shabbat also "discussed the huge potential of cooperation that will benefit not only Morocco and Israel, but also the entire region." Bourita and Israel's Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi were supposed to hold talks via video conference on Friday to discuss bilateral cooperation, but they were postponed. Meanwhile, Israel's new ambassador to Morocco Ambassador David Govrin arrived in Rabat on Tuesday to take up his post. A source from the Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that Morocco will soon appoint a head to its liaison office in Tel Aviv, with Abderrahim Bayoud a candidate for the position. He will travel to Israel in the coming few weeks.

Egypt Confirms Regular Navigation in Suez Canal
Cairo - Walid Abdul Rahman/Asharq Al-Awsat/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
The Egyptian government denied reports that navigation in the Suez Canal was halted after a collision between two ships. The Cabinet’s Media Center contacted the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), which denied the rumors and confirmed regular navigation in the canal. In a statement, the SCA said it is fully prepared to handle any emergency that may occur in the waterway. “The authority has emergency pilot crews, maritime rescue units and a dedicated navigation control center that constantly monitors movement in the canal,” it stressed. Separately, Egyptian and Greek naval forces conducted a joint military training in the northern fleet region in the Mediterranean Sea. Egypt’s frigate Taba and Greece’s warship HS HYDRA F-452 took part in the exercise. The Egyptian military said the training is part of efforts to reinforce the exchange of expertise with the armed forces of friendly countries. It also helps in achieving the common interests of Cairo and Athens and improves military cooperation between their naval forces. Egypt is seeking to bolster its maritime capabilities amid rising disputes with Turkey, in light of Ankara’s gas exploration efforts in the disputed Eastern Mediterranean. Cairo has carried out several military drills in recent months. In November 2020, it held a drill with French naval forces in the northern fleet region. It also staged a maritime training with Bahrain in the same region. In December 2020, Egypt, Greece and Cyprus held the “Medusa 10” joint naval and aerial training in the Mediterranean, with the participation of naval, aerial and special forces from France and the United Arab Emirates.
 

UAE to Offer Citizenship to Select Expats in Rare Move for Gulf
Agence France Presse/Saturday, 30 January, 2021
The UAE announced Saturday it is opening a path to citizenship for select foreigners, in a rare move for the Gulf where the status and its welfare benefits are jealously guarded. Dubai ruler and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum said "investors, specialised talents and professionals including scientists, doctors, engineers, artists, authors and their families" would be eligible for naturalisation under the new amendment. "The UAE cabinet, local emiri courts and executive councils will nominate those eligible for the citizenship under clear criteria set for each category," Sheikh Mohammed said. "The law allows receivers of the UAE passport to keep their existing citizenship." The UAE government said the amendment to the citizenship law "aims at appreciating the talents and competencies present in the UAE and attracting more bright minds to the Emirati community". Citizens make up a small minority of the population of the UAE, which has a huge migrant labour force, largely from south Asia, some of whom are second or third generation residents. The UAE also has a growing community of wealthy expats attracted by the low tax regime and the luxury megaprojects and tourist attractions of the larger emirates. The wealthy oil states of the Gulf have long guaranteed their citizens a high standard of living through reserved jobs and a cradle to grave welfare system. To protect it, they have seldom allowed naturalisations.

Iran to Macron: Nuclear deal non-negotiable, parties to deal ‘unchangeable’
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English/Saturday 30 January 2021
The Iran nuclear deal is non-negotiable and the parties to the deal are “unchangeable,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Saturday. His remarks came in response to French President Emmanuel Macron, who on Friday said any new talks with Tehran should include regional allies, including Saudi Arabia. “Dialogue with Iran will be rigorous, and they will need to include our allies in the region for a nuclear deal, and this includes Saudi Arabia,” Macron told Al Arabiya while speaking to reporters in Paris. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have said that they should be involved in any new talks with Iran which they say should also address the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile program and its support for proxies in the region. The nuclear deal “is in no way negotiable and the parties to the deal are clear and unchangeable,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Khatibzadeh as saying.
He called on Macron to “exercise restraint and refrain from hasty and ill-considered positions.” To revive the nuclear deal, the US must rejoin the deal and lift all the sanctions that were imposed on Tehran under former US President Donald Trump, Khatibzadeh added. Trump pulled Washington out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign. US President Joe Biden has pledged to rejoin the deal if Iran returns to complying with it. Tehran has said it will only take action after the US rejoins the deal.

UN condemns Iran execution spree, worried about minorities
Reuters/Saturday 30 January 2021
The United Nations human rights office on Friday condemned an alleged spree of 28 executions in Iran, including several prisoners from minority groups, and called on Tehran to halt the hanging of an ethnic Baluchi man.
Iran has often faced criticism from world bodies and Western human rights group for its rights record and high number of executions - the world's highest after China, according to Amnesty International. Tehran has dismissed the criticism as baseless and due to a lack of understanding of its Islamic laws.
"#Iran: We strongly condemn the series of executions – at least 28 – since mid-December, including of people from minority groups," the UN human rights office said on Twitter. "We urge the authorities to halt the imminent execution of Javid Dehghan, to review his and other death penalty cases in line with human rights law," it added. There was no immediate official Iranian reaction to the UN statement on Friday, the weekend in the country. Dehghan was sentenced to death after being convicted "following a grossly unfair trial" of belonging to an armed group and involvement in an ambush that killed two Revolutionary Guards, Amnesty International said. "The court relied on torture-tainted 'confessions' and ignored the serious due process abuses committed by Revolutionary Guards agents and prosecution authorities during the investigation process," Amnesty said. Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province borders on Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer of opium, and Pakistan. The area has long been plagued by unrest from drug smuggling gangs and separatist militants. The population of the province is mostly Sunni Muslim, while the majority of Iranians are Shi’ites.
On Thursday, state media said an Iranian member of ISIS was executed in southwestern Khuzestan province, home to many of Iran's ethnic Arabs, for taking part in an attack that killed two paramilitary Basij militiamen.

Iran Hangs Ethnic Baluch for 'Terror', despite UN Appeal
Agence France Presse/Saturday 30 January 2021
Iran hanged a man for murder, abduction and "terrorist" links on Saturday, the judiciary's website said, despite international calls for the execution of the ethnic Baluch to be halted. Javid Dehghan Khalad was put to death early in the morning in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, Mizan Online reported. It comes a day after the United Nations had appealed to Iran not to go ahead with the execution of the 31-year-old. Mizan said Dehghan was arrested in June 2015 and later convicted of being "one of the leaders" of a "terrorist" group linked to the jihadist Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice). Also known as Mohammad Omar, he had been found guilty of carrying out "armed action against the state", the website said. Dehghan was found to have been involved in the killing of two Revolutionary Guards' members in 2015, as well as leading a raid aiming to abduct five border guards, one of whom was killed, it added.
The UN had on Friday urged Iran to halt the execution as it rebuked the Islamic republic for a spate of recent hangings, including of members of minority groups. "We urge the authorities to halt the imminent execution of Javid Dehghan, to review his and other death penalty cases in line with human rights law," the Geneva-based Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights wrote on Twitter. "We strongly condemn the series of executions –- at least 28 –- since mid-December, including of people from minority groups," it added. London-based rights group Amnesty International has alleged Dehghan's trial was "grossly unfair" with the court relying on "torture-tainted confessions" and ignoring abuses committed during the investigation. Jaish al-Adl has carried out several high-profile bombings and abductions in Iran in recent years. In February 2019, 27 members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in a suicide attack claimed by the group. Jaish al-Adl was formed in 2012 as a successor to Sunni extremist group Jundallah (Soldiers of God), which waged a deadly insurgency for a decade before it was severely weakened by the capture and execution of its leader Abdolmalek Rigi in 2010. The Islamic republic has come under fire over a series of executions since late last year of high profile figures, including the formerly France-based dissident Ruhollah Zam on December 12 and wrestler Navid Afkari on September 12.

N.Ireland Chief Minister Calls for Removal of Brexit Protocol
Agence France Presse/Saturday 30 January 2021
Northern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Forster on Saturday urged Britain to remove a post-Brexit protocol with the European Union after it became the focus of a diplomatic row over Covid vaccines. Brussels was forced to row back on threats it made late Friday to invoke Article 16 of the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol and stop the free-flow of vaccines over the Irish border. "The protocol is unworkable, let’s be very clear about that, and we need to see it replaced because otherwise there is going to be real difficulties here in Northern Ireland," Foster told BBC radio. The leader of the loyalist Democratic Unionist Party has long been critical of the protocol which allows Northern Ireland to follow EU customs rules and avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland. "It’s absolutely disgraceful, and I have to say the Prime Minister (Boris Johnson) now needs to act very quickly to deal with the real trade flows that are being disrupted between Great Britain and Northern Ireland," she added. A furious row over shortages of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by the British-Swedish drugs group AstraZeneca threatened to boil over on Friday just weeks after London and Brussels sealed a Brexit trade agreement. However, the bloc backed down from invoking the article to monitor and in some cases block exports of vaccines produced in EU plants. "The Commission will ensure that the Ireland / Northern Ireland Protocol is unaffected," the EU Commissioner said in a statement. Johnson had told EU chief Ursula von der Leyen of his "grave concerns about the potential impact" the European bloc's decision might have. Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, told The Times newspaper Brussels needed to step back from the escalating row over vaccines. “We are facing an extraordinarily serious crisis, which is creating a lot of suffering, which is causing a lot of deaths in the UK, in France, in Germany, everywhere," he said. "I believe that we must face this crisis with responsibility, certainly not with the spirit of one upmanship or unhealthy competition," Barnier added. The EU has still has plans to go ahead with a broader vaccine export ban which could impact on supplies of the Pfizer-Biontech jab in Britian.

Biden faces calls to secure release of US man in Afghanistan
The Associated Press, Washington/Saturday 30 January 2021
As the Biden administration considers whether it should pull remaining US troops out of Afghanistan in the coming months, some fear for the fate of an American who could be left behind: an abducted contractor believed held by a Taliban-linked militant group.On the one-year anniversary of Mark Frerichs’ abduction, family members and other supporters are urging the Biden administration not to withdraw additional troops without the Navy veteran being released from captivity. Frerichs was abducted one year ago Sunday while working in the country on engineering projects. US officials believe he is in the custody of the Haqqani network, though the Taliban have not publicly acknowledged holding him. “We are confident that he’s still alive and well,” his sister, Charlene Cakora, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We don’t have any thinking that he’s dead or that he’s injured.”
For US diplomats, Frerichs’ captivity is a piece of a much larger geopolitical puzzle that aims to balance bringing troops home, after a two-decade conflict, with ensuring regional peace and stability. Biden administration officials have made clear that they are reviewing a February 2020 peace deal between the US and the Taliban, concerned by whether the Taliban are meeting its commitment to reduce violence in Afghanistan. The Trump administration, which had made the release of hostages and detainees a priority, ended without having brought home Frerichs, who is from Lombard, Illinois. He is one of several Americans the Biden administration is inheriting responsibility for, including journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, as well as US Marine Trevor Reed and Michigan corporate executive Paul Whelan, both of whom are imprisoned in Russia. It is unclear to what extent, if at all, Frerichs’ fate will be complicated by the declining American military presence in Afghanistan committed to by the Trump administration. Days before President Joe Biden took office, the Trump administration announced that it had met its goal of reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan to about 2,500, part of a broader plan to remove all forces by May. The Biden administration must determine how to handle that commitment. New Secretary of State Antony Blinken held his first call Thursday with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and told him the administration was reviewing the peace deal. A State Department description of the conversation did not mention Frerichs. Separately, the Pentagon said the Taliban’s refusal to meet commitments to reduce violence in Afghanistan is raising questions about whether all US troops will be able to leave by May.
Frerichs’ supporters are concerned that a drawdown of military personnel from Afghanistan leaves the US without the leverage it needs to demand his release. “Further troop withdrawals that are not conditioned upon the release of American hostages will likely make it harder to subsequently secure their release,” the two Democratic senators from Illinois, Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, wrote Biden in a letter provided to the AP.
In an interview, Duckworth said she wrote Biden and Blinken to stress “that this needs to be a priority, that we need to bring him home.” She said Lloyd Austin, the new defense secretary, had given assurances that any negotiations about military presence would include discussion about detainees “as opposed to us just unilaterally pulling out of there.” Representatives of the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, which advocates for hostages, told new national security adviser Jake Sullivan in a conversation during the presidential transition period about concerns that Frerichs and Paul Overby, an American writer who disappeared in Afghanistan in 2014, weren’t adequately prioritized during discussions with the Taliban, according to the organization’s executive director, Margaux Ewen. The State Department is offering $5 million for information leading to Frerichs’ return. “American citizen Mark Frerichs has spent a year in captivity. We will not stop working until we secure his safe return home,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price. Frerichs remains in Afghanistan despite a year of steady diplomatic negotiations, including peace talks in November with then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Taliban and Afghan negotiators. The US and Taliban signed a peace deal last February, but much to the family’s frustration, Frerichs’ return was not made a predicate for the agreement even though he had been abducted weeks earlier.
“I don’t want any troops to start packing up and heading out until Mark gets home safely, because I don’t think we really have a leg to stand on once they’re all out of there,” Cakora said. “You don’t leave Americans behind, and I just really want to make sure that he’s home safe.”
Blinken told reporters Wednesday that the Biden administration wanted to take a detailed look at that deal, saying. “We need to understand exactly what is in the agreement” before deciding how to proceed. He said the administration had asked Trump’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, to remain on the job for continuity’s sake. In his call with Ghani the following day, according to the State Department, Blinken expressed “robust diplomatic support” for the peace process but said the US was reviewing the peace deal to assess whether the Taliban were living up to their commitment to “cut ties with terrorist groups.” There were other internal government discussions in the Trump administration.The Taliban had sought the release of a combatant imprisoned on drug charges in the US as part a broader effort to resolve issues with Afghanistan. The request prompted dialog between the State Department and the Justice Department about whether such a release could happen, though it ultimately did not, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss the private discussions and spoke on condition of anonymity.
It is unclear whether those conversations will pick up in the new administration. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Israeli Embassy in Delhi on high alert before bomb blast: Ambassador
AFP, New Delhi/Saturday 30 January 2021
The Israeli embassy in New Delhi was on high alert because of “threats” it had received, even before a small bomb went off outside the mission, its ambassador told AFP on Saturday. The envoy, Ron Malka, said he was not surprised by Friday’s attack, which caused no injuries but blew the windows out of three cars. The road outside the embassy remained sealed off Saturday as forensic experts sought clues as to who was responsible for what Israeli officials in Jerusalem have said was terrorism. Indian police have so far only described it as “a mischievous attempt to create a sensation”. “This could have ended differently in other circumstances, so we were fortunate,” Malka said in a telephone interview. “We are always prepared. Especially these last days, we raised the level of alert due to some threats,” he added, without giving further details. “We are not surprised.” Indian media reports said investigators had found an envelope with a letter addressed to the Israeli ambassador in the street. The Indian Express newspaper reported that the letter described the low-intensity explosion as a “trailer” and made references to “Iranian martyrs” Qasem Soleimani and Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Soleimani, considered Iran’s most powerful military commander, was killed in a US drone strike in January 2020. Fakhrizadeh, one of the country’s top nuclear scientists, was killed in November - an assassination for which Iran blamed Israel. In 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran for a bomb attack on an Israeli diplomatic car in Delhi that injured at least three people. Asked whether there was an Iranian link this time, Malka said: “Those non-state actors that are striving for destablization in the region and the world don’t like what is happening between Israel and India, that are striving for stability and peace. “It might be a threat for them.”The device exploded as India and Israel marked the 29th anniversary of their diplomatic relations, and Malka said the timing was part of the investigation. “We take this very seriously,” Jaishankar said. “No effort will be spared to find the culprits.”The national security advisors of both countries have also held discussions. Since establishing relations, India and Israel have become close and India is now one of the biggest buyers of Israeli weapons and defense equipment.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel in 2017, and Netanyahu made a return visit a year later.

At least five people killed in car bomb attack in Syria’s Afrin
Reuters/Saturday 30 January 2021
At least five people were killed and scores wounded when a car bomb detonated in the northern Syrian town of Afrin on Saturday, the Turkish defense ministry and local civil defense said. The ministry said in a statement the bomb attack took place in an industrial site at the center of the town and wounded 22 people, blaming the attack on the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.There was no immediate comment from the YPG. Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist group tied to the PKK inside its own borders, and has staged incursions into Syria in support of Syrian opposition factions to push it from the Turkish frontier. Ankara now retains a large military presence in the area deploying thousands of troops in the last opposition enclave. The local civil defense said the death toll due to the bomb stood at six, including children.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 30-31/2021

Iran Regime’s Agents and Illegal Activities in the US
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/January 30/2021
د. مجيد رافزادا/معهد كايتستون: عملاء إيران وانشطتهم المخالفة للقانون في الولايات المتحدة
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/95419/dr-majid-rafizadeh-gatestone-institute-iran-regimes-agents-and-illegal-activities-in-the-us-%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%af-%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%81%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%a7-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af/

What is alarming is that Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, who has been in the US for almost 35 years, was working for the Iranian regime and getting paid [by Iran] for nearly 13 years without being detected.
Afrasiabi presented himself as an independent political scientist, academic and expert. He allegedly wrote articles, including instance for The New York Times, a book, and gave TV interviews while getting guidance and payments from the Iranian regime. When Iranian officials reportedly asked him to revise an article already submitted, he followed up on their instructions.
A year ago, three Republican Senators, Ted Cruz (TX), Tom Cotton (AK) and Mike Braun (IN), called on the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). “NIAC’s innocuous public branding masks troubling behavior,” the senators wrote. The congressmen noted that this entity was a lobby group acting as a “foreign agent of the Islamic Republic….”
For safeguarding America’s national interests, it is urgent that the US follow up on the recommendation of these Senators, at least to investigate who might be operating for the Iranian regime and what they might be up to.
The US is apparently not immune from the Iranian regime’s operatives; unfortunately, the significance of this issue has long been downplayed.
Last week, Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, also known as Lotfolah Kaveh Afrasiabi, was arrested at his home in Watertown, Massachusetts. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Afrasiabi is charged with “acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)”.
What is alarming is that Afrasiabi, who has been in the US for almost 35 years, was working for the Iranian regime and getting paid for nearly 13 years without being detected. It is alleged that from July 2007 to November 2020, he received at least $265,000 from the Iranian government. According to the Lobbying Disclosure Act, anyone who is paid to lobby the US federal government is required to “register with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives.”
Looking at Afrasiabi’s activities cannot possibly tell us what other agents of Iran may be doing. Afrasiabi presented himself as an independent political scientist, academic and expert. He allegedly wrote articles, including instance for The New York Times, a book, and gave TV interviews while getting guidance and payments from the Iranian regime. When Iranian officials reportedly asked him to revise an article already submitted, he followed up on their instructions.
In addition, without disclosing his ties with his paymaster, the Tehran regime, he helped a US Congressman draft a letter to President Barack Obama in favor of a deal desired by Iran. He also allegedly tried to acquire important information, such as sending an email to an official in the State Department asking the administration’s “thinking” about Iran’s nuclear program.
Why do Iran’s agents conceal their connections to their paymaster? To evade paying taxes? To maintain some legitimacy and credibility by not exposing their links to what the US Department of State has called the “world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism”?
The ruling mullahs of Iran attempt to spread their propaganda through their agents and to promote their preferred narratives. Some of this propaganda may include the following:
Sanctions on Iran ought to be lifted.
The nuclear deal, aka the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is a good deal for the West and the international community.
Iran’s involvements and interventions in other countries are minimal or nonexistent.
Iran’s military role in Syria and Iraq are for protecting those nations from extremist groups…
It is worth mentioning that a year ago, three Republican Senators, Ted Cruz (TX), Tom Cotton (AK) and Mike Braun (IN), called on the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).
“NIAC’s innocuous public branding masks troubling behavior,” the senators wrote. The congressmen noted that this entity was a lobby group acting as a “foreign agent of the Islamic Republic…. For example,” the senators wrote, “on December 31, NIAC circulated an email memorandum blaming the United States government for Iranian-backed militias’ repeated attacks against US forces in Iraq and brazen attempt to storm the US embassy in Baghdad.”
NIAC is not registered as a lobby group and has been reportedly operating for more than a decade. The organization calls itself a “nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advancing interests of [the] Iranian-American community.”
Intriguingly, however, according to the senators’ statement:
NIAC’s former acting policy director, Patrick Disney, admitted in internal emails that he and the organization’s legislative director spent more than 20 percent of their time conducting lobbying activities. He wrote, “I believe we fall under this definition of ‘lobbyist’….”
In addition, the former FBI associate deputy director, Oliver Revell, stated:
“[A]rranging meetings between members of Congress and Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations would in my opinion require that person or entity to register as an agent of a foreign power; in this case it would be Iran.”
Revell’s statement came after NIAC’s Swedish-Iranian founder, Trita Parsi, reportedly arranged meetings between Iran’s then-ambassador to the United Nations (and current Foreign Minister) Mohammad Javad Zarif and members of the US Congress and the. According to the Iranian American Forum:
“Some of these documents are posted here and reveal NIAC’s relation and collaboration with Iranian officials and business interests inside Iran. They show that NIAC coordinated its lobby with the Iranian ambassador to the UN to influence the US policy with Iran. Some of NIAC’s internal documents released during the lawsuit have been used to prepare this report.”
For safeguarding America’s national interests, it is urgent that the US follow up on the recommendation of these Senators, at least to investigate who might be operating for the Iranian regime and what they might be up to.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

خلفيات المقال/Background
تقرير يحكي تفاصيل وأسباب اعتقال السلطات الأميركية الأميركي-الإيراني المدعو كافيه لطفولة أفراسيابي
بتهمة التجسس للجمهورية الإسلامية الإيرانية
US-based political scientist arrested, accused of secretly working for Iran/Officials say Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi was paid by diplomats from Tehran’s UN mission, urged Iran to end nuclear inspections after Soleimani killing
ALANNA DURKIN RICHER/20 January 2021/BOSTON (AP)

— A Massachusetts-based political scientist and author is accused of secretly working for the government of Iran while lobbying US officials on issues like nuclear policy, federal authorities said Tuesday.
Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi was arrested by FBI agents at his home in Watertown, Massachusetts, on Monday, officials said. He is charged in New York City federal court with acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of Iran.
An email seeking comment was sent to an attorney for Afrasiabi. Afrasiabi appeared before a Boston federal court judge via videoconference during a brief hearing and a detention hearing was scheduled for Friday.
Authorities said Afrasiabi, an Iranian citizen and lawful permanent US resident, has been paid by Iranian diplomats assigned to the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations in New York City since at least 2007. At the same time, he made TV appearances, wrote articles and lobbied US officials to support the Iranian government’s agenda, officials said.
In 2009, Afrasiabi helped an unidentified congressman draft a letter to former US president Barack Obama about US and Iranian nuclear negotiations, according to court documents. He never disclosed that he was working for Iran, officials said.
After the January 2020 US military airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Afrasiabi told Iran’s foreign minister and permanent representative to the United Nations that Iran, in response, should “end all inspections and end all information on Iran’s nuclear activities pending a [United Nations Security Council] condemnation of [the United States’] illegal crime,’” according to court documents.
Doing so will “strike fear in the heart of enemy” and “weaken Trump and strengthen his opponents,” Afrasiabi wrote, according to court documents.
US Assistant Attorney General John Demers said Afrasiabi portrayed himself “to Congress, journalists and the American public as a neutral and objective expert on Iran.”“Mr. Afrasiabi never disclosed to a Congressman, journalists or others who hold roles of influence in our country that he was being paid by the Iranian government to paint an untruthfully positive picture of the nation,” William Sweeney, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office, said in a statement.

School Reopenings Are Biden’s First Big Test
Michael R. Bloomberg/Bloomberg/January 30/021
America’s schoolchildren and teachers have just gotten some very good news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After reviewing data from multiple studies in the US and abroad, the agency has concluded that in-person schooling poses very little risk of coronavirus transmission as long as basic safety precautions are followed. That should send a clear message to governors, mayors and teachers’ union leaders: It’s time to open the schools.
In addition to the terrible toll Covid-19 has taken on the nation’s health, it’s been a calamity for American education. Only about 15% of school districts offered full-time in-person classes last fall. For students and parents elsewhere, the pandemic has meant navigating novel and often dubious remote-learning software. Any parent of a young child can attest that virtual instruction typically falls somewhere between subpar and hopeless.
The results have been alarming but not surprising. Early research suggests sharply reduced learning gains; widening racial disparities in achievement; and an eruption of anxiety, loneliness, depression and other mental-health afflictions among students isolated from their peers and stuck at home. Some districts have seen a rash of suicides. Education analysts warn that the long-term consequences — for disadvantaged kids, for racial equity, even for America’s global competitiveness — could be disastrous.
In short, getting kids back into classrooms should be a national priority. More local leaders are recognizing that, but in some cases, districts have tried to reopen, only to be stymied by unions. In Chicago — which has one of the country’s largest school systems, and where more than 75% of students are economically disadvantaged — the union has simply defied the city’s reopening plans. In Montclair, New Jersey, the local union is blocking even two-day-a-week instruction. In Fairfax County, Virginia, the union got teachers moved to the front of the line for vaccines — and then decided that in-class instruction shouldn’t resume until vaccinations were ready for students. No vaccines are currently authorized for those under age 16.
Educators are understandably hesitant to return to work, and exceptions should be made for those in high-risk populations. But for the vast majority, the moment has come to return — and many are eager to do so.
To help more districts reopen, President Joe Biden should reassure union leaders that he takes teacher safety seriously. But he also needs to apply some pressure to states and cities. Funding from previous relief bills — more than $67 billion, all told — has helped schools to pay for testing, protective gear, improved ventilation, added staff and more. Biden is offering an additional $130 billion, and has rightly pledged sweeping federal support for schools that need it. But he should be clear that this is a two-way street. The government will do everything it can to ensure classrooms are safe; in return, school districts must prioritize getting kids back at their desks. Biden should also be willing to use the bully pulpit. His public support for reopening without delay can help give state and local officials, particularly his fellow Democrats, the kind of political capital they need to overcome opposition — and to then go further, by extending the school year into the summer and thinking more creatively about how to make up for lost time. He should urge labor leaders publicly and privately to get on board as well. His statement on Monday about the Chicago dispute — “The teachers I know, they want to work” — hit the right note. If such efforts fail, he should consider working with Congress to condition future aid on whether districts in low-risk areas are willing to open their doors.
The pandemic has demanded sacrifices from everyone. Hospital employees and first responders, who work in environments that are far more dangerous than classrooms (and who are also often represented by unions), as well as transportation workers and other public employees, have steadfastly done their jobs throughout this crisis, honoring their responsibility to their communities — and making the nation proud. Children — and all of America — need teachers to join them.

Working From Home Means More Than No Commute
Sarah Halzack/Bloomberg/January 30/021
The arrival of the pandemic forced retailers and consumer brands to spend much of 2020 solving immediate problems. Many had to take urgent steps to protect their liquidity. Some had to hire thousands of workers to support booming demand. Others had to figure out how to get toilet paper on shelves, even if it meant buying it from a hotel chain.
Now, almost a year later, consumer companies must start reshaping themselves for the long-term effects of the public health crisis. In particular, they must adapt to the reality that the pre-Covid ritual of nine-to-five workers going to the office each Monday through Friday is probably never going to resume in full force. Even if many Americans only make adjustments around the edges of their schedules – say, working from home once a week – it has wide-ranging consequences for what people buy and how they buy it.
Some industries have already been hit hard by the pandemic. Apparel in particular has been roiled by the move away from dresses, blazers and tailored office wear as workers hunkered down at home. That shift may only become more pronounced, hastening the need for department stores and specialty clothing chains to shift their assortment toward casual attire — something Kohl’s Corp., for one, has already pledged to do. Similarly, the gadget business will see different customer demands, such as for laptop and desktop computers, which hadn’t been as much of a necessity in the smartphone era but are a must for remote work. I’d also bet long-term telework arrangements end up being a boon for Best Buy Co.’s Total Tech Support, a yearly membership that offers help with some of the issues a worker might otherwise have put to the office IT team.
Supermarkets and packaged-food companies have enjoyed a boom during the pandemic, and that will fade when people are able to safely resume dining in restaurants. Still, grocery buying will not completely return to 2019 patterns, thanks to telecommuting. Workers will continue to buy coffee and snacks for home consumption, which should shape marketing investments and product innovation priorities for companies such as Kraft Heinz Co. and Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc.
And there are other ways that people spending more of their days at home will leave a mark. Furniture and appliances may experience more wear and tear, potentially speeding up the replacement cycles for these items – or leading people to trade up to pricier products as they seek the most durable versions. Retailers from Lowe’s Cos. to Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. could be affected by this dynamic and would do well to plan their supply-chain development and growth plans with this shift in mind.
Even that, though, is just scratching the surface of how widespread telework will change shopping habits. Fewer commutes will scramble consumer mobility patterns, which determine in large part how people spend their money. Fitness centers – including those of chains Town Sports International and Flywheel Sports, which filed for bankruptcy during the pandemic – are often close to where people work, not where they live. Restaurants such as Starbucks Corp. and Shake Shack Inc. may have to grapple with the reality that highly productive urban locations get a bit less foot traffic than before. Drugstores that used to serve commuters in nearby offices will likely see some “fill-in trips” disappear for good. Stores and restaurant chains should keep this in mind when deciding on locations and estimating how much traffic they’ll get.
And here’s another thing: One of the key pain points of e-commerce is the possibility that you won’t be home to accept the delivery, leaving items vulnerable to porch pirates. Working from home might give people more flexibility to receive deliveries and thus give them added incentive to shift even more of their spending online. Less working in offices doesn’t mean it will be a stay-at-home future. People want to resume gatherings and vacations, so as vaccines are distributed more widely, sales of certain products should snap back relatively quickly. Plenty of companies have suffered because of a particular aspect of social distancing: The social part. I expect that trendy clothier Revolve Group Inc., for one, will see momentum when music festivals and cocktail parties are back. Party City will likely see a burst in demand for supplies for birthday bashes and bridal showers.
But when it comes to the daily grind, workers don’t want to go back to the rigid schedules and commuting hellscapes that ruled their lives before, and employers have good reasons – from attracting and retaining talent to saving on rent – to accommodate them. Brands and stores need to do the same.

Washington and Tehran… Who Will Back Down First?
Elias Harfoush/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 30/2021
In the way it deals with its relationship with the Joe Biden administration, Iran is behaving as though it is the “victor” of the US presidential election. It is putting conditions on recommitting to the nuclear deal, striving to put its cards in order with allies, as it is doing with Moscow and Beijing, and it is calling on both to support its position vis a vis Washington, as they are among the six countries that signed the agreement. It is also issuing warnings that it will pressure International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and threatening to prevent them from returning to inspect their nuclear sites if Washington does not back down from its suspension of its commitments to the agreement.
Iran’s government spokesman Ali Rabiei recently said: “The US will not have all the time in the world. This opportunity is also limited for the European signatories to the agreement.”
However, the spokesman overlooks the fact that Iran is the one being subjected to sanctions and that it, not Washington nor the Europeans, is most in need of saving its freefalling economy and breaking its isolation, which will exacerbate with the return of the strength of Washington’s alliance with Europe’s capitals to what it had before the Trump administration. Consequently, Tehran is the party that must consider that it does not have all the time in the world to take the opportunity for the resumption of the deal’s commitments.
Any effort to explain the reasons for Iran’s behavior would inevitably conclude that it is built on an erroneous reading of the Biden administration’s position on the Iran nuclear deal and other Middle Eastern issues.
Tehran believes that Biden has come to the White House to pursue vengeful policies that do away with everything Donald Trump’s administration had done, and it thinks that walking back on Trump’s uncompromising approach to dealing with Iran is on top of the new administration’s priority list.
Of course, Biden is changing quite a few of his predecessor’s policies, regarding the climate accord, the border wall with Mexico, nationals from select Muslim majority countries’ ability to come to the United States, and the way the US communicates with its allies around the world, and others. However, on several occasions before and after he was elected, Biden was clear concerning the requisites for Washington’s recommitment to the nuclear deal. They can be summed up with the following three conditions:
1- Iran’s resumption of total commitment to the terms of the nuclear deal beforehand (that is, before Washington’s return).
2 - The necessity of formulating a joint policy for confronting Iran with Washington’s European allies who signed the agreement (France, Britain and Germany).
3 - The need to consider the current agreement as a starting point for new negotiations that explicitly encompass the issues of Iran’s ballistic missiles, its interference in the internal affairs of several Arab countries and that Washington’s allies in the region take part in those negotiations.
Joe Biden, as nominee and then as president, stated his position on these issues on several occasions. Among the most important expressions of his stance is an article he wrote for CNN in September, two months before he was elected, entitled There’s a smarter way to be tough on Iran. A second is his discussion with Thomas Friedman published in the New York Times, where Biden backtracked on his commitment to the agreement with Iran. However, he did criticize Trump from two starting points; the first is that going back on the agreement allowed Tehran to enrich Uranium unchecked and increase its production tenfold compared to the amount it had been producing before the agreement, thereby making its program more dangerous for its neighbors. The second is that this retreat left the US isolated even from its allies, who refused to go along with it and backtrack on their commitment to the deal.
The European stance on the issue is different today, with their position so close to that of Washington that the two are almost fully aligned. The phone call between Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron was followed by an announcement by an advisor to the French president in which he said that Iran “must refrain from further provocations, and second they must respect what they are no longer respecting if they want the United States to return to it.”
The German and British governments share this position. It is known that the three countries share many objections to Iran’s practices and behavior in the region. On the other hand, Tehran is working on gaining the support of its two traditional allies, Moscow and Beijing, benefiting from the expected escalation of their disputes with the Biden administration.
After the first meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif since Biden assumed the presidency, Lavrov put the responsibility for the resumption of the nuclear deal on Washington. He said that its return is a requisite to Iran respecting its obligations and “saving this important agreement.”
He added that Moscow and Tehran have a single position and that Moscow will not tolerate the “provocations” that Tehran is being subjected to and are pushing it towards confrontation with Washington. Zarif called for preserving the unity of Moscow and Tehran’s position.
The question the Iranians have to be asking themselves must be: what can Moscow and Beijing do for them after they failed to provide any help to save the Iranian economy over the past three years, since the Iranian economy came under the pressure of US sanctions? And so, what cards can Iran play to confront the conditions the Biden administration has put for the resumption of the agreement?
Through its apparent intransigence, Iran wants to signal that it is not in a hurry to agree terms with the Biden administration or comply with its conditions. Perhaps it has been trying to play the traditional internal game by putting the new US administration and the Western powers in front of a choice between dealing with either a “moderate or hardline” Iran as it is about to hold new presidential elections. But these countries have tried this game before and have become aware that pandering is not a realistic or useful approach so long as decision-making on solutions in Tehran is in the hands of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards.
If Tehran is actually not in a hurry, as it wants to indicate, Washington is not rushing either. Antony Blinken, in his statement to the Senate during the hearing for his approval as Secretary of State, said that he does not expect to come to a swift agreement with Iran because Washington will need time to assess Tehran’s compliance to its commitments even if it were to return to the deal, and “we're a long way from there.”
He also called on Tehran to refrain from its “worrying behavior” in the region, adding a phrase that clearly demonstrates the direction the Biden administration will take: “It’s vitally important that we engage on the takeoff, not the landing, with our allies.”An essential phrase that Tehran should process so that it becomes aware that it does not have the luxury to wait and see: who will back down first?
 

In Mideast, Biden faces Trump legacy
Geoffrey Aronson/The Arab Weekly/January 30/2021
جيفري أرونسون/بايدن يواجه في الشرق الأوسط إرث ترامب
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/95426/95426/
Former US President Donald Trump made history in the Middle East. Notwithstanding his considerable transgressions, American recognition of Israel’s conquests in Jerusalem and the abolition of the famous three noes of the Khartoum Declaration by the Abraham Accords leave a legacy that the administration of US President Joe Biden will be hard pressed to beat.
Soon after Israel’s victory in the June 1967 war, Defence Minister Moshe Dayan set out the challenge to the Biden administration still posed by Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. The problem, Dayan asserted, was not to find a solution, but to learn to live without one.
More than half a century later, Dayan’s assessment has proved to be prescient.
In the face of almost universal approbation, Israel has nonetheless achieved the three objectives at the heart of policies established within months of its 1967 conquests. It has consolidated its security monopoly in the West Bank and settled more than half a million of its citizens in territories beyond its borders. These two achievements have served Israel’s driving strategic quest to undermine the ability of Palestinians to rule as sovereigns anywhere west of the Jordan River.
The relentless expansion of Israeli settlement is the critical barometer for measuring Israel’s success in pursuit of this objective.
The numbers don’t lie. They illustrate the ineffectiveness of any effort over the last half century –diplomatic or otherwise — to constrain let alone reverse the influx of Israelis throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Rather than pursue the ineffective policies of the past, the Trump administration surrendered to this reality.
Apologists for this effort suggest without much conviction that Israel’s reconciliation with Arabs “outside” the immediate circle of conflict would give Israel the confidence to make territorial concessions to Palestinians “inside.”
Like most assessments of Washington’s Middle East cognoscenti over the last three generations, this one too proved to be off the mark.
The value of the “Iron Wall”against the Arabs erected by Israel over the last century is now paying off. The reconciliation of Arabs and Muslims outside the immediate circle of conflict jump-started by Trump has only just begun. The equation at the heart of the Arab Peace plan –recognition in return to withdrawal from its 1967 conquests and the creation of a Palestinian state — joins a host of peace plans that have come to naught.
Israel has always rejected the initiative. But the unfolding Arab rapprochement with Israel signifies that the very authors of the plan themselves have despaired of the prospect of Israeli withdrawal and have other more pressing strategic challenges where good relations with Israel can figure positively in the balance.
It is not only Arabs who have lost hope in an Israeli retreat. Among Israelis, the idea of withdrawal and the creation of a Palestinian state no longer even figures in domestic political debate. The disappearance of Israel’s Labour Party symbolises the destruction among Israelis of an option that has been the central pillar of the international consensus for three decades.
There is a price to be paid for this failure. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu crows that the issue at the heart of diplomatic engagement on the West Bank no longer focuses on how much territory Israel will surrender, but the opposite — how big a bite of the West Bank it will formally annex.
But as Dayan so prophetically argued 50 decades ago, a dynamic status quo that enables the all-but unfettered pursuit of creating “facts on the ground” trumps annexation.
Without a wink from Washington, a unilateral decision by Israel to annex part or all of the West Bank, was and remains a nonstarter.
Netanyahu and Trump made history by placing the issue on the agenda. But Netanyahu’s failed effort to convince the Trump administration to support a unilateral Israeli declaration of annexation consigns this option – like the Arab Peace Plan — to the diplomatic scrap heap for the foreseeable future.
The last two American presidents have bequeathed to the Biden administration a scorched diplomatic landscape lacking the most basic prerequisites for successful engagement. The last agreement between Israel and the PLO was in January 1997 – a quarter century ago!
The hearts of the Biden team are in the right place. They believe that an Israeli withdrawal and the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state at peace with Israelis the best and preferred outcome.
But, as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Doing no more than tinkering with Trump’s history-making decisions, in other words “do nothing … with conviction” — would make Moshe Dayan smile.

Has Biden already got Tehran running scared on nuclear issue?
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/January 30/2021
بارعة علم الدين/هل جعل بايدن خوف طهران فعلياً بشأن القضية النووية؟

http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/95430/baria-alamuddin-arab-news-has-biden-already-got-tehran-running-scared-on-nuclear-issue-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%b1%d8%b9%d8%a9-%d8%b9%d9%84%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%8a%d9%86-%d9%87%d9%84-%d8%ac%d8%b9/

Rogue states such as North Korea, Iran and Venezuela love to be lavished with international attention, even in the form of condemnation and sanctions; it makes them feel important and relevant on the world stage. Thus, the Biden administration’s approach so far of virtually ignoring Tehran could make good policy sense.Iran is being forced to make all the running, with noisy op-ed articles from its foreign minister and UN envoy full of the usual self-important bluster, and vague comments from President Hassan Rouhani about “returning to our commitments.”
We have simultaneously been showered with other depressingly familiar attention-grabbing tactics: Threats about recommencing segments of the nuclear program and blocking IAEA nuclear inspections; missiles fired by Iranian proxies targeting Riyadh; the espionage conviction of an Iranian-American businessman; the seizure of a ship belonging to US ally South Korea.
Meanwhile, trial balloons about Iran mending ties with Gulf states appear ridiculously cosmetic as long as Tehran’s Iraqi and Lebanese lackeys are actively sabotaging any manifestations of GCC investments and engagement, and given ceaseless Houthi belligerence in Yemen.
After early speculation that it would be Biden making all the running, Secretary of State Antony Blinken radiates confidence about playing the long game. As he says: “Iran is out of compliance on a number of fronts. And it would take some time, should it make the decision to do so, for it to come back into compliance and time for us then to assess whether it was meeting its obligations.” In his confirmation hearings Blinken maturely advocated maintaining successful aspects of Trump’s foreign policies — which bodes well concerning Iran. Biden’s new Iran envoy Robert Malley has already been busy consulting European allies.
It’s not America’s place to beg and cajole Iran to fulfil its obligations, whatever Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says about the US making the first moves. The ball is manifestly in Tehran’s court if it truly desires to escape the crushing sanctions regime. For now, this is a relatively comfortable position for the Biden administration, given the pile of domestic and foreign challenges it faces.
This unhurried US attitude is a blow to Tehran’s deludedly inflated sense of its own importance. It was always Obama who appeared more desperate for a deal than the regime, and outcomes were often consequently one-sided. America mustn’t repeat this mistake. Nevertheless, Biden’s announcement of B-52 bomber overflights are a salutary reminder that the US remains engaged and vigilant.
Iran is in a terrible bind. Its economy has been devastated by four years of Trump’s sanctions and its society has been laid waste by COVID-19. None of Iran’s actions are from a position of strength. It starves its citizens in order to continue diverting funds to overseas paramilitarism and its nuclear and ballistic programs, although the shortage of hard cash means these programs are woefully underfunded.
Time is on America’s side to bring Iran kicking and screaming back to the negotiating table for a deal that permanently cuts off all pathways to a nuclear bomb.
On the nuclear program, Tehran wants to panic the international community into rushing back into a deal. But it’s not that simple. These programs are ruinously expensive, and were subject to a series of attacks last year — presumably by Israel — which necessitated a large amount of additional construction work, in the knowledge that Israel will probably continue such sabotage. Let’s also not forget daily Israeli air strikes against Iran-associated sites throughout Syria and beyond, depleting Tehran’s valuable arsenals of missiles and military hardware.
In response to rapprochement between Israel and Arab states, Iran appears to be redoubling its efforts to reinforce its region-wide “axis of resistance,” encouraging Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Assad regime to work more closely together at political, financial, military and cultural levels.
While Biden and Blinken can shrewdly feign lack of interest in a quick nuclear deal, they must project urgency and determination in signaling that Iran’s regional subversion and destabilization cannot be tolerated. The famously Francophile Blinken is well placed to establish a united front with EU states in addressing these challenges, particularly with regard to the desperate political crisis in Lebanon.
Iran’s “resistance” forces are experiencing unprecedented weakness and fragmentation. Never before have we witnessed such an awakening of open contempt against Hezbollah and Iraqi militias from citizens, not least within Shiite communities, with figures such as Ayatollah Sistani acting to curtail their influence. Even in Iran itself, there are decisive trends away from organized religion, given how the regime’s corrupt leaders have distorted Islam for political gain.
America must bind Iran into fresh commitments that repair the gaping shortcomings of a deal in which many of the key clauses will soon expire. Time is on America’s side to bring Iran kicking and screaming back to the negotiating table for a deal that permanently cuts off all pathways to a nuclear bomb.
Iran must also dismantle its regional paramilitary and terrorism infrastructure. If such concessions were in the context of a multifaceted deal between Iran and GCC/Arab states, it would go a long way toward addressing security concerns of all parties, while undermining Tehran’s long-standing security doctrine that the motherland can be protected only through occupying and dominating a swath of its neighbors. Sanctions should be eliminated only in the context of a comprehensive deal.
President Macron says Gulf states must be consulted over a new nuclear deal, and Blinken has also emphasized the need for close partnership with the GCC as part of a balanced formula that guarantees security for all. Region-wide Middle East stability must remain a top priority, and in the key arenas of Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon this is entirely premised on curtailment of aggressive Iranian dominance.
It is thus a no-brainer that the nuclear issue and Iranian regional warmongering must be addressed simultaneously if Biden is to consolidate long-term stability and peace in the Middle East.
*Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

New signs from Washington of a coherent world view
Yossi Mekelberg /Arab News/January 30/2021
A fortnight after the US Capitol looked like a scene from a dystopian movie, the building had a rebirth of sorts with the inauguration of President Joe Biden, and once more resembles what it was historically destined to be – the symbol of American democracy.
As expected, the lion’s share of Biden’s inaugural speech dealt with domestic issues and the indispensable need for unity, a word he used 19 times, but the speech fell short on the new administration’s approach to international affairs. There had been signs of it during the election campaign and from the executive orders that followed Biden’s entrance to the White House, but as much as American citizens were glued to their screens, eager to discover what their new leader was envisaging for their future, so was the rest of the world.
The separation between domestic policy and foreign policy is an artificial one, and no country can project international power while it is crumbling from within. And in recent years, the US has barely been able to keep itself together, let alone be a world leader. A speech that reinforced the need for unity and the requirement to combat racial injustice, deliver affordable health care and defeat the coronavirus pandemic, was therefore essential. But we were left guessing about Biden’s commitments beyond the water’s edge.
Still, the commitment to reengage with the world and repair alliances was a crucial message after four years during which it was almost impossible to discern America’s attitude toward its allies and enemies alike. Engaging with the world means abandoning unilateralism and returning to multilateralism – “working with the world instead of against it.” This was a promising start for a leadership committing itself to be a “strong and trusted partner for peace, progress and security,” but it left us needing more details and fewer abstract promises, especially in the midst of one of the most challenging crises the world has ever faced.
A picture is emerging of an administration that is keen to play a constructive role in world affairs based on democratic values and pragmatic diplomatic dialogue guided by experience, facts, and science.
Some clues to the new administration’s foreign policy emerged in the first days of Biden’s presidency. Top of the president’s global agenda throughout his election campaign had been rejoining the international battle against the impact of climate change. True to his promises, one of his first moves by executive order was to rejoin the Paris Agreement and once more be at the heart of efforts to curb global greenhouse emissions. Significantly, he didn’t stop there, but embarked on reversing the culture of climate change denial that has ruled Washington in recent years, warning that the worsening environmental crisis is an “existential threat” to humanity with consequences that could be truly catastrophic.
Following words with deeds, he has already introduced new measures to tackle this threat by appropriating further funds to confront climate change, including a plan to promote the protection of the Amazon rainforest and other critical ecosystems. The new administration is also taking the initiative on leading innovation in addressing environmental challenges, an approach that would also assist in creating jobs, and better paid ones too. Ordering the replacement of the current fleet of government vehicles by 645,000 electric cars and trucks sends a clear message that this administration is determined to lead the way on climate change while also transforming the country’s economy.
But it was not only on climate change that the new Biden administration was quick to reengage with the world. For most of us, it was a no-brainer that fighting a lethal pandemic required all international forces to join together, and in an act of unifying the global response to the coronavirus crisis Biden reversed Trump’s decision to leave the World Health Organization, in one of the most significant moves in combating the pandemic. Moreover, in the drive to undo all of the deliberate and unnecessary confrontations with the international community that Trump instigated to appeal to his base, Biden has already reversed his predecessor’s policy that barred entry to the US for refugees and residents from seven predominantly Muslim countries, and he has terminated the construction of the wall on the Mexican border.
Another issue that the previous administration left behind as scorched earth was the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and rightly the new administration was quick to begin rebuilding bridges with the Palestinians, by restoring ties with the Palestinian Authority and renewing aid to Palestinian refugees. One of the biggest challenges in the coming weeks and months is going to be how to revive the nuclear agreement with Iran, where there are quite a few circles to be squared before Washington and Tehran will be able to agree on the terms of their mutual commitment to the JCPOA.
For those watching the inauguration who expected to be presented with a far-reaching vision of America’s standing in the world, there was only a mere hint of this. Nevertheless, a picture is emerging of an administration that is keen to play a constructive role in world affairs based on democratic values and pragmatic diplomatic dialogue guided by experience, facts, and science; and one that has a refreshingly coherent world view.
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

Why it’s too soon to write off Trump
Andrew Hammond/Arab News/January 30/2021
With the US Senate making final preparations for February’s impeachment trial of Donald Trump, the odds are growing that not only will he be acquitted, but also that he could run for the presidency in 2024.
Trump is a precedent-shattering politician and will care little that only one president in US history has been elected in non-consecutive terms (Grover Cleveland, in 1884 and 1892).
To be sure, if sensational new evidence comes to light in the trial, there remains an outside possibility that Trump will be convicted of inciting his supporters to mount an insurrection at the US Capitol. But 45 of the 50 Republican senators voted last week to stop the trial before it even starts, and 17 of them would need to break ranks and vote with the 50 Democrats to convict the president with a two-thirds majority. That is unlikely, although there are other possible ways Trump may be disqualified from running again.
One option being considered by centrist Republicans and Democrats is a censure vote that would bar Trump from holding future office, requiring only a simple majority. But legal opinion is divided over whether such a censure would definitely prohibit Trump from running again, since the constitution appears to give Congress authority only to punish its own members, except for the power of impeachment. Some legal scholars insist that such a censure would be nonbinding, and the issue may ultimately need judicial resolution if Trump were to run again in 2024.
While it is by no means certain that Trump is gearing up for another shot at the White House, this possibility would grow if he is acquitted by a wide margin. Legal barriers aside, there are no insuperable personal or political obstacles.
In 2024, Trump will be about the same age as Joe Biden is now. And in refusing to concede last November’s election, his game plan for winning power again may well be to try to emulate the 1828 campaign of Andrew Jackson, an insurgent president many have compared him to.
Despite the many debacles of Trump’s presidency, he would be a formidable contender for the Republican nomination in 2024.
In 1824, Jackson came close to winning the presidency by securing the most electoral votes, but not enough for the necessary majority in a field of four candidates. In what Jackson’s supporters denounced as a “corrupt bargain,” the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams as president, despite Jackson’s electoral college advantage. Jackson went on to win the presidency in 1828 and 1832.
While the circumstances of Trump’s loss to Biden are different, he has sought to nurture a similar sense of grievance, despite Biden’s clear win in both the popular vote and the electoral college.
Despite the many debacles of Trump’s presidency, he would be a formidable contender for the Republican nomination in 2024. While he lost in November, he performed above the expectations set by polls that had pointed to a possible landslide for Biden, and won more votes than he did in 2016.
The other reason Trump could do well is his advantage over rivals. History indicates patterns to previous races that point to success for the former president. The eventual nominee of both major parties frequently leads national polls of party identifiers on the eve of the first presidential nomination ballot in Iowa, and raises more campaign finance than any other candidate in the 12 months before election year. On both these counts, Trump could be very strong.
From 1980 to 2020, the winner in about half the contested Democrat and Republican nomination races was the early front runner by both of these measures. Moreover, in at least four partial exceptions to this pattern, eventual presidential nominees led the rest of the field on one of the two measures, including Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2016.
However, even if Trump were to win the Republican nomination again, he would not be certain to win back the presidency. Much would depend on the success of Biden’s presidency, and whether he stands for reelection in his eighties.
Another key factor that will influence Republican prospects of winning back the White House will be whether, and how quickly, the party can unite around its eventual nominee, given the debate between moderate, centrist Republicans and pro-Trump insurgents over future direction. While the circumstances of 2024 will be different from 2020, a rancorous, divisive Republican nomination contest may only benefit Biden (or the eventual Democratic presidential nominee) in four years.
*Andrew Hammond is an Associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics