English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For July 14/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the
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http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews21/english.july14.21.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
Ask, and it will be given
to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you
Luke 11/09-13: “‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to
you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For
everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone
who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your
child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?Or if the child asks
for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give
good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on July 13-14/2021
Martyr Amer Fhakoury's Daughter: I stand with the victims of Lebanon
Judge in Beirut blast probe rejects MPs’ immunity move
Relatives of Port Victims, Protesters Scuffle with ISF near Fahmi's Home
Relatives of Lebanon blast victims scuffle with police
French firm seeks new use for tons of grain blown up in Beirut blast
Visiting French Minister Warns Lebanese Leaders of Upcoming Sanctions
EU Paves Way to Sanctions over Lebanon Crisis
Aoun to Riester: Lebanon Grateful for French Aid, Needs Capable Govt., Audit
Aoun to EU: Elections on Time, Lebanon Welcomes EU Observers
Hariri Postpones Meeting with Aoun to Wednesday
Stung by Lebanon currency loss, UNICEF gives aid handouts in dollars
New UK Funding to Boost Children Education in Conflict Zones including Lebanon
'Great Frustration': Foreign Diplomats in Lebanon Despair
Hezbollah releases new video of 2006 abduction of IDF soldiers
Fifteen years after the abduction of IDF soldiers Sgt. Eldad Regev and Sgt. Ehud
Goldwasser, Hezbollah releases new footage from the attack.
Hezbollah and allies drive Lebanon toward state failure
‘Guardian of the Republic’s Tomb’: Aoun Returned to Baabda Onboard an Iranian
Train as a Guard, Not a President
The Beirut Port blast investigation will not bring justice unless Lebanese act/Makram
Rabah/Al Arabiya/July 13/2021
Has the West Forgotten Lebanon?/Hicham Hamdan/Pulse News Mexico/July 13/2021
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
July 13-14/2021
Iranian networks at risk of more cyberattacks, officials warn
Iran says US will delist IRGC, lift sanctions on Khamenei, Raisi if nuke deal
revived
Iran confirms ongoing ‘negotiations’ with US over potential prisoner swap
Iran says talks underway with US on prisoner exchanges
Iranian commander urged escalation against US forces at Iraq meeting: Sources
UN demands accountability over Syria mass disappearances
New hospital fire in Iraq sparks accusations of negligence
Speedy verdict in Jordan’s ‘sedition’ case leaves questions unanswered
Egypt to sack Muslim Brotherhood-linked civil servants
Taliban Say Do Not Want to Fight inside Afghanistan's Cities
Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC
English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on
July 13-14/2021
Iran and Cuba, the Covid Pandemic and the Metrics of Decaying
Dictatorships/Charles Elias Chartouni/July 13/202
Taliban advances as U.S. completes withdrawal/Bill Roggio/FDD's Long War
Journal/July 13/2021
Taiwan does what needs to be done for Daniel Suidani, and for us all/Cleo Paskal/FDD/July
13/2021
How Palestinian Leaders Are Deceiving Americans/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone
Institute/July 13/2021
EU: New Political Alliance to Fight Creation of European Superstate/Soeren Kern/Gatestone
Institute/July 12/2021
France Learns about Islam’s 1,400 Year Assault via French Sword and
Scimitar/Raymond Ibrahim/July 13/2021
Biden and the Mullahs: "Feeding the Crocodile"/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone
Institute/July 13/2021
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 13-14/2021
Martyr Amer Fhakoury's Daughter: I stand with the victims of Lebanon
Guila Fakhoury/July 13/2021
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/100602/guila-fakhoury-i-stand-with-the-victims-of-lebanon-%d8%ba%d9%88%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a7-%d9%81%d8%a7%d8%ae%d9%88%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d9%85%d8%b9-%d8%b4%d8%b9%d8%a8-%d9%84%d8%a8%d9%86%d8%a7%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84/
Lebanese security officials have resorted to
physical abuse of innocent men and women practicing their right to protest
against the failure to lift immunities of corrupted criminals responsible for
the Beirut Explosion. These are some of the same criminals that ordered the
torture of the late US hostage and my father Amer Fakhoury. They are great at
fabricating lies and illegally detaining innocent individuals, and when finally
Judge Bitar had the audacity to call them out on their crimes and especially in
aiding with the Beirut explosion, they quickly lawyered up and refused to lift
immunity. I stand with the victims of Lebanon.
Judge in Beirut blast probe rejects MPs’ immunity move
The Arab Weekly/July 13/2021
BEIRUT – The judge investigating last year’s deadly Lebanon port blast on Monday
rejected a request by MPs for more evidence before immunity for three
ex-ministers can be waived, a judicial source said. Hundreds of tonnes of
ammonium nitrate fertiliser exploded on the dockside at Beirut port last August
4, killing more than 200 people, injuring thousands and ravaging swathes of the
capital. Afterwards, it emerged that officials had known about the explosive
substance being stored there unsafely for years. Coming less than a month before
the first anniversary of the tragedy, Monday’s move may mean a new standoff,
with fears that the probe could be derailed by political interference. Earlier
this month, lead judge Tareq Bitar said he had demanded that parliament lift the
immunity of ex-finance minister Ali Hasan Khalil, former public works minister
Ghazi Zaiter and ex-interior minister Nohad Machnouk. Bitar said he was looking
at possible charges of “probable intent to murder” and “negligence.” Deputy
speaker Elie Ferzli said parliament’s administration and justice committee on
Friday decided to “request all evidence available in the investigation, as well
as all documents that prove suspicions.”He said the committee would reconvene
once it had received a reply, to decide whether or not to waive immunity. On
Monday, the judicial source said no further documents would be forthcoming. “The
investigating judge rejected parliament’s request … In an official letter he
explained that he had already handed over all the documents that needed to be
handed over,” the source said.
Protests
Lawyer and activist Nizar Saghieh said the committee’s request on Friday went
against the separation of powers between the judiciary and the legislature, and
“violated the confidentiality of the investigation”.“They’re just trying to buy
time,” he alleged. On Monday, relatives of victims of the massive blast
protested outside Machnouk’s and Zaiter’s homes, demanding that their immunity
be lifted, the official ANI news agency reported. Last month, rights groups
including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for a UN
investigation into the explosion in light of the stalled investigation. In
February, Bitar’s predecessor as lead judge in the probe was removed by a court,
which questioned his impartiality because his home was damaged in the explosion.
The judge had in December issued charges against caretaker prime minister Hassan
Diab and three former ministers for “negligence and causing death to hundreds”,
triggering outrage from politicians. Rights activists condemned the court ruling
as another example of the country’s entrenched political class placing itself
above the law. Diab stepped down after the blast, but has stayed on as caretaker
premier. The economic crisis that started in the autumn of 2019, sparking mass
street protests, has deepened over the past year. Foreign donors have pledged
millions of dollars in aid to the Lebanese people, but stopped short of offering
any assistance to the state itself.
Relatives of Port Victims, Protesters Scuffle with ISF
near Fahmi's Home
Agence France Presse/July 13/2021
The Internal Security Forces (ISF) fired tear gas on Tuesday during scuffles
with demonstrators outside the home of caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed
Fahmi, accused of stalling a probe into last summer's huge port explosion. The
protests, called for by relatives of the victims of the August 4 blast, swelled
by the evening, with dozens of demonstrators streaming in to join families
storming Fahmi's heavily guarded home in Beirut's Qureitem area. The angry
crowd, demanding accountability as the anniversary approaches of Lebanon's worst
peace-time disaster, were pushed back by riot police who swung batons and fired
tear gas to disperse them. AFP correspondents saw a man with a bleeding wound on
his head after he was beaten by security forces, and paramedics treating
protesters for tear gas suffocation.The detonation of a huge stockpile of
fertilizer at the port last summer killed more than 200 people and wrecked huge
swathes of the capital. An investigation launched in the wake of the tragedy has
yet to hold any officials to account. Victims' families say political
interference has derailed the process. Earlier this month, Fahmi rejected a
request by the judge investigating the blast to question Abbas Ibrahim, head of
the General Security bureau, one of the country's top security agencies. "By
refusing to lift Abbas Ibrahim's legal immunity, the interior minister is
standing between us, the relatives of blast victims, and justice," said Paul
Najjar, who lost his three-year-old daughter Alexandra to the explosion. Fahmi
"is killing us a second time," he told AFP outside the minister's home. During
Tuesday's angry protest, relatives tore off the gates at the entrance to Fahmi's
apartment building after displaying portraits of the deceased in a makeshift
shrine and piling up white coffins nearby. "These are the coffins of our
children," Najjar said.
The stand-off, which started in the afternoon, escalated with the arrival of
dozens of angry demonstrators after sunset. Protestors chanted: "the people
demand the overthrow of the regime!" Last month, rights groups including Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch called for a U.N. investigation into the
explosion, in light of Lebanon's stalled probe. Lead judge Tarek Bitar is
demanding that parliament lift the immunity of three former ministers so he can
proceed with investigations but lawmakers have requested more evidence before
deciding on whether to waive immunity.Bitar this week rejected parliament's
request, a judicial source told AFP. In February, Bitar's predecessor as lead
judge in the probe was removed by a court, which had questioned his impartiality
because his home had been damaged in the explosion. Judge Fadi Sawwan had issued
charges against caretaker premier Hassan Diab and three former ministers in
December for "negligence and causing death to hundreds," triggering outrage from
politicians. Diab resigned in the wake of the explosion but has stayed on as
caretaker prime minister as the country's bitterly divided political leaders
wrangle over a replacement for his government.
Relatives of Lebanon blast victims scuffle with police
AFP/13 July ,2021
Carrying mock coffins, relatives of those killed in Lebanon’s port blast
scuffled with police Tuesday outside the residence of caretaker interior
minister Mohammad Fahmi whom they accuse of stalling a probe. The detonation of
a huge stockpile of fertilizer at the port last August 4 killed more than 200
people and wrecked huge swathes of the capital. A blast investigation launched
in the wake of the tragedy has yet to hold any officials to account, with the
victims’ families charging that political interference has derailed the process.
On Tuesday, dozens gathered outside Fahmi’s Beirut apartment after he rejected a
request by the judge investigating the blast to question Abbas Ibrahim, head of
the General Security bureau, one of the country’s top security agencies. “By
refusing to lift Abbas Ibrahim’s legal immunity, the interior minister is
standing between us, the relatives of blast victims, and justice,” said Paul
Najjar, who lost his three-year-old daughter Alexandra to the explosion. “He is
killing us a second time,” Najjar said, referring to Fahmi. Less than a month
before the first anniversary of the tragedy, the relatives tore off all the
gates at the entrance to Fahmi’s apartment building, an AFP correspondent said.
They displayed portraits of the deceased in a makeshift shrine and piled up
white coffins just outside the block, the correspondent said.
“These are the coffins of our children,” Najjar said. The demonstration sparked
a stand-off with police who tried to push families back. Last month, rights
groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for a UN
investigation into the explosion in light of Lebanon’s stalled probe.
Lead judge Tarek Bitar is demanding that parliament lift the immunity of
ex-finance minister Ali Hasan Khalil, former public works minister Ghazi Zeaiter
and ex-interior minister Nouhad Machnouk. Deputy speaker Elie Ferzli said
parliament’s administration and justice committee on Friday decided to “request
all evidence available in the investigation, as well as all documents that prove
suspicions” before immunity is waived. However, Bitar this week rejected
parliament’s request, a judicial source told AFP. In February, Bitar’s
predecessor as lead judge in the probe was removed by a court, which questioned
his impartiality because his home was damaged in the explosion. The judge had in
December issued charges against caretaker premier Hassan Diab and three former
ministers for “negligence and causing death to hundreds,” triggering outrage
from politicians.
French firm seeks new use for tons of grain blown up in Beirut blast
Reuters/13 July ,2021
A French firm has begun sifting through the rubble from Beirut’s destroyed grain
silo to collect the remnants of thousands of tons of wheat that is rotting and
attracting rats almost a year after a chemical blast ripped through the port.
The impact of the Aug. 4 blast, which killed more than 200 people and devastated
swathes of Lebanon’s capital, can still be seen everywhere, with a half sunken
ship, mangled cars and the remains of once-stored clothing strewn among the
wreckage. One of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history scattered an
estimated 20,000 tons of wheat throughout the blast zone. Some remains
inaccessible inside the jagged shell of what is left of the silo, just minutes
from the city center. The wheat is no longer fit for human or animal consumption
and now Recygroup and its local partner Man Enterprise are working out how best
it can be put to good use. One idea is that it could be turned into fertilizer,
or maybe use it as building material as a landfill layer as the companies embark
on one of the first large scale clean-up operations after the blast. “We are
doing all the lab tests to see how best we can utilize them,” Marwan Rizkalla,
director of Mondis, a subsidiary of Man Enterprise, said. “The wheat causes
smells and insects and rats, we can’t keep it like that it has to be treated the
right way,” he said. Christophe DeBoffe, vice president of Recygroup, said work
to separate the grain from the other debris would take to three to four months
while the lab work is ongoing. The contract for Recygroup, which specializes in
dealing with waste to help create circular economies, is worth 1.3 million euros
($1.5 million). “When the blast happened ... I thought we have something to do
here,” DeBoffe said.
Visiting French Minister Warns Lebanese Leaders of
Upcoming Sanctions
Associated Press/13 July ,2021
A French Cabinet minister criticized Lebanese leaders on Tuesday, warning them
of upcoming sanctions from Paris that will target Lebanese officials blocking
the formation of a new government. The remarks by France's Foreign Trade
Minister Franck Riester came during a visit to Beirut's port, devastated in a
massive explosion in August last year. Reister said members of the political
elite in Lebanon failed to respect their declared commitment to reforms and
warned of a first wave of sanctions by France, Lebanon's colonial ruler. He did
not say whether the measures will be imposed only by France or perhaps by the
European Union as well. "France respects its promises, unlike Lebanese
authorities that did not implement reforms," Riester told reporters, standing
amid the ruins in the port. "Things cannot continue this way." Lebanon is going
through an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, made worse by a
political deadlock that's left the tiny country without a fully functioning
government since August. French President Emmanuel Macron visited Beirut twice
since the port blast, pressing Lebanese politicians to implement reforms in
order to release international investments and loans worth billions of dollars.
Repeated promises of reforms by Lebanon's political elite, which has run the
country since the end of the 15-year civil war in 1990, never materialized. The
ruling class, including some former warlords, has been blamed for decades of
corruption and mismanagement that have brought Lebanon to near-bankruptcy. Prime
Minister Hassan Diab's government resigned days after hundreds of tons of
ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material used in fertilizers that had been
improperly stored in the port for years, exploded on Aug. 4, killing 211 people.
It also injured more than 6,000 and damaged entire neighborhoods of Beirut.
Riester later briefed President Michel Aoun on French aid to Lebanon since the
blast, according to the president's office. After the meeting, Riester tweeted
that almost a year ago Lebanese political leaders pledged before Macron "to form
a government and reform their country to stem the collapse.""Nothing was done,"
he said. "This blockage is suicidal."
EU Paves Way to Sanctions over Lebanon Crisis
Agence France Presse/13 July ,2021
EU foreign ministers have agreed to move ahead towards sanctions against
Lebanon's ruling elite over the political crisis wracking the country, the
bloc's foreign policy chief said. Josep Borrell said the top diplomats from the
27 nations gave the green light at a meeting in Brussels to establish a legal
framework for measures against Lebanese leaders who have driven their nation
into economic collapse. "The objective is to complete this by the end of the
month," Borrell said. A political crisis has left the country without a
functioning government since the last one resigned after a massive explosion
killed dozens and destroyed swathes of Beirut in August 2020. "The economy's
imploding and the suffering of the people of Lebanon is continuously growing,"
Borrell said. "They need to have a Lebanese government in order to avoid the
breakdown of the country, (one that is) fully able to implement reforms and
protect this population."Lebanon is mired in what the World Bank has called one
of the worst economic crises since the 1850s, and the cash-strapped state is
struggling to buy enough fuel to keep the lights on. The economic crisis has
seen the Lebanese pound lose more than 90 percent of its value against the
dollar on the black market, and left more than half the population living below
the poverty line. In April, France imposed sanctions by restricting entry of
Lebanese figures it says are responsible for the political crisis.
Aoun to Riester: Lebanon Grateful for French Aid, Needs
Capable Govt., Audit
Naharnet/13 July ,2021
President Michel Aoun affirmed during his meeting with visiting French Foreign
Trade Minister Franck Riester, Tuesday afternoon, that Lebanon is grateful for
the “efforts” and “initiatives” made by French President Emmanuel Macron to
support and “help the country out of its current crisis.”The President thanked
Macron for “his constant interest in Lebanon” and added that "the Lebanese are
thankful for Macron's initiatives in the conferences that have been held and
will be held to support Lebanon, including the conference scheduled for the
beginning of the upcoming month.”
Aoun demonstrated to the French minister the current political situation and the
difficulties facing the new government formation, stressing on "the need for a
government capable of making the necessary reforms and uncovering the facts that
led to the crisis."
Aoun considered that "the forensic financial audit of the Banque du Liban’s
financial accounts is an essential starting point in the reform process,” and
declared “all support for this audit” that both the International Monetary Fund
and the French initiative had requested. The French minister for his part
explained to Aoun the objectives of his visit to Beirut and that he is seeking
“to follow up on the French aid to Lebanon, especially after Beirut’s Port
explosion."The meeting was held in the presence of French Ambassador to Lebanon
Anne Grillo and the accompanying delegation.
Aoun to EU: Elections on Time, Lebanon Welcomes EU
Observers
Naharnet/13 July ,2021
President Michel Aoun on Tuesday held talks with Elena Valenciano, the head of
the EU delegation that monitored Lebanon’s 2018 parliamentary elections.The
meeting, held in the presence of EU Ambassador to Lebanon Ralph Tarraf, tackled
the EU’s role in monitoring the upcoming parliamentary elections. “The
parliamentary elections will be held on time, in the spring of 2022, and Lebanon
welcomes the presence of European observers to monitor them, as happened in the
year 2018,” Aoun told Valenciano. “This time the efforts will be focused on
preventing the exploitation of the difficult economic and social situations to
affect voters’ freedom and choices,” the President added.Valenciano for her part
told Aoun that the European Union is willing to repeat the experience of
monitoring Lebanon’s parliamentary elections next year.
Hariri Postpones Meeting with Aoun to Wednesday
Naharnet/13 July ,2021
President Michel Aoun on Tuesday received a phone call from Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri, who requested that a meeting between them be
postponed from Tuesday to Wednesday, state-run National News Agency reported.
Al-Jadeed TV meanwhile reported that Hariri requested the postponement due to an
"urgent appointment." The PM-designate "did not specify a time, which means that
the meeting will take place following Hariri's return from Cairo," al-Jadeed
added. Annahar newspaper had reported that Hariri would visit the Baabda Palace
on Tuesday to submit a 24-minister cabinet line-up in line with Speaker Nabih
Berri’s initiative, The daily added that the line-up would comprise
"independents and specialists."“After his visit to Baabda today and his meeting
with Aoun, Hariri will make a visit to Cairo tomorrow for talks with (Egyptian)
President (Abdel Fattah) al-Sisi before returning to Beirut the same evening,”
Annahar said. “Should Aoun reject the new line-up, Hariri is likely to resort to
the choice of stepping down and will announced it in a TV interview on Thursday
evening,” the daily added. Al-Mustaqbal Movement deputy head Mustafa Alloush had
said Monday that Hariri would step down at the end of the week to pave the way
for parliamentary consultations to name a new premier. Aoun meanwhile tweeted
Tuesday that "whoever wants to criticize the President over his jurisdiction in
the formation of governments must read well the fourth clause of the
constitution’s Article 53."
Stung by Lebanon currency loss, UNICEF gives aid handouts in dollars
Thomson Reuters Foundation/13 July ,2021
The families of vulnerable children in Lebanon have started receiving UNICEF
cash handouts in US dollars as the UN children’s fund seeks to put a stop to
hefty losses in aid due to unfavorable exchange rates at Lebanese banks. The new
initiative, named Haddi, or “next to me” in Arabic, provides cash aid to 70,000
Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian children at risk of child labor, early marriage
or exclusion from schooling during Lebanon’s deep economic crisis. “UNICEF chose
to explore the risks and feasibility aspects related to switching to USD
disbursements ... we assessed that the benefits were important and made the
decision to switch to USD,” the fund told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by
email. To get the full value of aid to those who need it, UNICEF’s Haddi program
includes a new cash disbursal mechanism that cuts out private banks and instead
channels aid in greenbacks to beneficiaries via money transfer services.
Families with one child will receive monthly assistance of $40, rising to $60
for those with two children and $80 for larger families, allowing them to choose
how to spend it “to ensure people retain some dignity in the current situation.”
UK-based charity Save the Children said on Tuesday it had documented a “dramatic
increase” in child labor in Lebanon this year, identifying 306 cases so far
compared to 346 in all of 2020. Children as young as five are selling fuel on
the streets and collecting scrap metal or plastic, and more than one million
minors - Lebanese and refugees - now need support, it said. Lebanon’s outgoing
deputy prime minister, who has been involved in aid talks, could not immediately
be reached for comment on the new UNICEF strategy, nor could the caretaker
ministers of finance or social affairs.
Dollar worries
UNICEF has now effectively left a program known as LOUISE, which also involves
the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the World Food Program (WFP), to disburse aid
via the Banque Libano-Francaise (BLF) bank. A Thomson Reuters Foundation
investigation in June found unfavorable conversion rates used by the bank had
led to losses in aid of about $250 million via the program since 2019. The bank
has declined to comment on the rates used. The foreign exchange losses stemmed
from a plunge in the value of the Lebanese pound since the country’s economy
began to collapse in late 2019, sending prices soaring and forcing many Lebanese
into poverty. During 2020 and the first four months of 2021, banks exchanged
dollars for UN agencies at rates on average 40 percent lower than the market
rate, thereby slashing the amount of money reaching beneficiaries. Though LOUISE
agencies have since received progressively better exchange rates, they still lag
behind the market price. Some UN agencies, donor nations and Lebanese officials
have raised concerns that paying out dollars to refugees, the country’s primary
aid beneficiaries, would fuel tensions between them and members of host
communities. But including Lebanese children in the Haddi program and using
money transfer outlets should alleviate such risks, UNICEF said. “Providing cash
through ATMs ... often leads to crowding and raises tensions in the community.
To avoid this, Haddi does not use ATMs, instead leveraging a much larger network
of money transfer branches across the entire country,” UNICEF said. It said
small-scale surveys among the first beneficiaries had not highlighted any safety
or exchange rate problems. “The response so far has been one of relief,” the
fund said.
New UK Funding to Boost Children Education in Conflict
Zones including Lebanon
Naharnet/13 July ,2021
The British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has announced new UK aid funding to
find the “most effective ways to give the world’s most vulnerable children an
education,” the British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said. The
funding will address a chronic lack of research into the best methods to provide
schooling in conflicts and long-term crises around the world, the FCDO said in a
statement. The £15.8 million research project will focus on northern Nigeria,
South Sudan, Myanmar, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. “These areas are all affected
by conflict and are currently home to an estimated 3 million children who are
either refugees or internally displaced,” the British statement said. “Children
whose lives have been impacted by wars, political unrest and natural disasters
often suffer a severe disruption to their learning, with life-long
consequences,” it added. “This is most acute at the primary and lower secondary
level, where vital reading and writing skills are taught. Girls are
disproportionately affected. Even before the pandemic, only half of refugee
girls were in school. Girls living in conflicts are 2.5 times more likely to be
out of school. Now, due to the impact of Covid-19, 20 million girls are at risk
of permanently dropping out of school in the next year,” the statement added.
The new UK-backed research comes ahead of the Global Education Summit, hosted by
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London in late July. It will raise money
for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), an organization which aims to
transform education for children worldwide give 175 million children the
opportunity to learn. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: “We believe that
every girl and every boy should receive a quality education, no matter where
they live. “This research will find better ways to teach the world’s most
vulnerable children who are caught up in conflict and long term crisis to
receive a better education.” He added: “Without access to schooling and
effective teaching, many children are at risk of falling behind and dropping out
of education permanently. A staggering 20 million girls globally are at risk of
permanently dropping out of school in the next year, leaving them more
vulnerable to child marriage, gender-based violence, human trafficking and
sexual abuse.”“The research, which will launch in September, will inform
education programs and policies worldwide,” Raab went on to say. “Previous
research in this field has helped shape schooling in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, where two in every three children who start school leave by the age
of 11 or 12. The research has helped keep some of the country’s most traumatized
children in school, by creating a secure and nurturing environment,” Raab added.
'Great Frustration': Foreign Diplomats in Lebanon
Despair
Agence France Presse/July 13/2021
As Lebanon's economy tanks, foreign envoys are resorting to increasingly
undiplomatic language to make clear their exasperation with politicians who
demand bailout cash without delivering basic reforms in return. Donors have
conditioned any financial aid to the Mediterranean country on the establishment
of a new government to enact urgently needed reforms that would tackle endemic
graft. But while Lebanese citizens slide further into poverty, politicians
remain unable to agree on a new government line-up, nearly a year on from a
deadly port explosion that forced the last one to resign.
"There's great frustration with the Lebanese political class, because it's
incapable of placing the common good above its personal interests," a French
diplomatic source said. As political parties squabble over ministerial
portfolios, the Lebanese pound has plunged, lately trading on the black market
at less than a tenth of its official value. Bread has become more expensive and
petrol scarce, while at home and work Lebanese swelter during increasingly long
power cuts. Supplies of some drugs have run low and the cash-strapped state can
barely buy enough fuel to keep the nation's power on, respectively leaving
charities and private backup generators struggling to fill the gap. The French
diplomatic source said the international community was ready to help Lebanon.
But "sadly we can't because, opposite us, we have no one to talk to, or we do
but they don't have the means -- or the willingness -- to act."The last
government, painstakingly cobbled together, had barely got off the ground before
the explosion at Beirut port on August 4, when hundreds of tons of ill-stored
ammonium nitrate fertilizer ignited, killing more than 200 people.
'Help yourself
Foreign donors have over the past year pledged millions of dollars in
humanitarian aid to the Lebanese people, including at two conferences organized
by former colonial power France. But, said the French source, "we're not going
to provide the Lebanese state with a blank check." A high-ranking U.N. official
said a third donor conference this month would be the chance to sound the alarm
over the "humanitarian consequences" of the political paralysis. "Lebanon –-
which has a GDP higher than most poor countries –- is facing food insecurity,
malnutrition and issues of access to basic services," the official said. But
"humanitarian aid cannot be a sustainable solution," the official noted, adding
that the international community will not "take over the state's... role."An
Arab diplomat in Beirut said Lebanese decision-makers did not appear to have a
plan of their own, hoping instead that the international community would help,
without them "making any concession, any change" in return. "The international
community has long been repeating the same thing: Help yourself so that we can
help you." In Lebanon, more than half the population now lives below the
official global poverty line. Beirut's diplomats have seen living conditions
deteriorate first hand. "Electric power supply is down at my residence since
early morning," the Japanese ambassador Takeshi Okubo tweeted Friday. Canada's
envoy, Chantal Chastenay, earlier this month tweeted a photo as she edged
bumper-to-bumper in a gas station queue, "waiting in line patiently like
everyone".Local media then asked lawmakers and ministers how they filled their
tanks."The guys" took care of it, they said, referring to their drivers and
bodyguards.
'Something rotten' -
In a meeting with ambassadors last week, outgoing prime minister Hassan Diab
urged donors to drop their pre-condition that a government be formed ahead of
releasing funds. He said money was needed now to "save" the country, and tried
to blame the crisis on a foreign "siege." The French ambassador, Anne Grillo,
said on Lebanese state television that the country's collapse was instead "the
deliberate result of years of mismanagement and inaction" by the country's
political class. The broadcast was then suddenly interrupted. Alongside her U.S.
counterpart Dorothy Shea, Grillo last week headed to Saudi Arabia, to discuss
with Riyadh how to press for the creation of a Lebanese "government that is
committed to and able to implement reforms." Saudi Arabia has major influence
over Lebanon's Sunni politicians, while Riyadh's regional rival Iran backs
powerful Shiite group Hizbullah -- a cleavage that has long complicated
governance in Beirut. The two ambassadors said "concrete actions by Lebanon's
leaders to address decades of mismanagement and corruption" would be crucial to
unlocking donor money. Days earlier, and with the one-year anniversary of the
Beirut port explosion fast approaching, the outgoing British charge d'affaires
wrote a farewell note decrying "something rotten at the heart of Lebanon"."The
failure so far to hold anyone accountable... is just the most dramatic example
of the impunity and irresponsibility that characterizes too much of Lebanese
life," Martin Longden said.
Hezbollah releases new video of 2006 abduction of IDF soldiers
Fifteen years after the abduction of IDF soldiers Sgt.
Eldad Regev and Sgt. Ehud Goldwasser, Hezbollah releases new footage from the
attack.
Jerusalem Post/July 13/2021
Hezbollah released a new video of the 2006 attack and abduction of IDF soldiers
Sgt. Eldad Regev and Sgt. Ehud Goldwasser. Footage shows the Hezbollah
assault and consequent maneuvers toward the vehicle containing the soldiers, and
then their seizing of the men and withdrawing from the site. This video
was released to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the incident that sparked
the Second Lebanon War in 2006. It was posted by the Lebanese channel which is
owned and operated by Hezbollah. In the video, Hezbollah terrorists are seen
crossing into Israel from Lebanon and then firing at an IDF Humvee. The
terrorists then run toward the vehicle, removing the bodies of IDF soldiers and
carrying them back over the Lebanese border. Seconds later, another terrorist is
seen running away from the Humvee carrying an additional body, seconds before an
explosion. The bodies of both of the soldiers have been censored in the video.
At least part of the footage which Hezbollah called new on Monday was released
in 2018 on a Hezbollah-affiliated Twitter account. Some footage of the
kidnapping was also published in a three-part series broadcast by Al-Mayadeen.
It seems that the footage released on Monday shows more of the moments leading
up to and after the kidnapping, which were previously not released. The ambush
occurred on the morning of July 12, 2016, as two Hummer vehicles were attacked
while on patrol along the Israeli-Lebanese border. The bodies of
Goldwasser and Eldad were returned to Israel as part of a deal with Hezbollah in
2008. in 2016, Lebanese TV station Al Mayadeen, a pro-Hezbollah channel
broadcast a documentary series called "2006" on the Second Lebanon War that
introduced a Lebanese account of the abduction. The initial episode of the
three-part series included a conversation about the plans for the kidnapping,
and an interview with the only survivor of the attack, Tomer Weinberg.
Hezbollah and allies drive Lebanon toward state failure
Tom Rogan/Washington Examiner/July 13/2021
Lebanese Hezbollah and its allies are driving the Lebanese state toward complete
failure.
The meltdown has been a long time coming, but it was exacerbated by the July
2020 Beirut port explosion. Encapsulating the government's endemic
mismanagement, corruption, and lack of interest in serving its people, that
explosion offers a metaphor for the coming political explosion. The ingredients
for the crisis are clear.
Lebanon's economy is in free fall. Its currency has collapsed. Its government is
unable to pay for much-needed medical, engineering, and critical utility
imports. Making matters worse, the currency collapse has smashed a
once-flourishing black market. This has led to a situation in which Lebanese of
all classes (except the kleptocratic elite) are unable to access regular power
supplies, basic medicines, and even food. Ration cards have just been introduced
for the poorest citizens. According to the United Nations, more than half the
population now lives in poverty, and the middle class shrunk by 30% in the last
year.
Facing this human catastrophe, top political actors are blocking political
reforms necessary to fix things. Front and center is the resistance of President
Michel Aoun and Hezbollah to a comprehensive political reform program. That
reform effort centers on Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri's attempts to
forge a consensus around a technocratic Cabinet that could act in the national
interest. The government, structured around a sectarian division of power, has
been unable to reform its banking sector or establish more prudent control over
government spending accounts. Hezbollah and Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement (now
led by his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil) are the major obstacles. They have used
the sectarian system to enrich themselves and veto reforms at their expense.
While Aoun and Bassil are kleptocrats, Hezbollah remains obsessed with using
Lebanon as a sovereign shield for its Iran-aligned external agenda. They appear
to care nothing for Lebanese citizens outside their narrow ideological orbit.
It's not clear what will happen next. Hariri is expected to introduce another
government formation plan in the coming days. But Aoun has shown no signs of
backing down. Meanwhile, Hezbollah is deflecting its culpability by pretending
that foreign saboteurs are responsible for the crisis. One small sign of hope
can be seen in the increasing efforts of erstwhile Hezbollah ally and Amal party
leader Nabih Berri to assist Hariri in getting a new government into office.
Berri appears to recognize that time is running out.
For able-minded politicians, the sense of urgency is real. The normally
sanctions-hesitant European Union has just pledged to introduce sanctions on
senior Lebanese politicians. It's a warning shot off Aoun's bow. The Biden
administration should now work with France (which is leading EU diplomatic
efforts on Lebanon) and U.S. allies in the Middle East to ensure that serious
reform precedes any bailout. Otherwise, the present crisis will simply be a
stepping stone to worse problems in the future.
‘Guardian of the Republic’s Tomb’: Aoun Returned to
Baabda Onboard an Iranian Train as a Guard, Not a President
Asharq Al-Awsat publishes excerpts from a new book by Lebanese Writer Fayez Azzi
(Part 1/2).
Beirut – Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 13 July, 2021
In his new book titled, “Guardian of the Republic’s Tomb”, Lebanese writer Fayez
Azzi reviews President Michel Aoun’s term in office and presents documents and
analyses that show that he placed the country in Iran’s clutches, instead of
achieving his long-touted slogan of “freedom, sovereignty and independence” that
he used to address the “great people of Lebanon.”
Azzi was very close to Aoun when the latter acted as army chief and then head of
the military government in 1988. But he distanced himself from the general in
2006 after he signed the memorandum of understanding with Hezbollah – an
agreement that Azzi saw as a breach of Lebanon’s sovereignty and a change in the
values that Aoun had long touted.
Asharq Al-Awsat is publishing two episodes of excerpts from the book, which will
soon be published by Dar Saer Al-Mashreq in Beirut. This is the fifth book by
Azzi, who had played a role in Aoun’s communication with the Syrians before his
return from Parisian exile in 2005.
On the choice of the title of his book, Azzi said: “I hesitated a lot, and
disregarded the advice of my friend (former information minister) Melhem Riachy,
whom I visited a few days after he assumed the media portfolio in the government
of Prime Minister Saad Hariri…”
“I have a new book. But I am taking my time to publish it. Because it is related
to Michel Aoun,” Azzi told Riachy, who replied: “What is its title and what is
it about?”
He said: “Aoun... the Republic.”
“Why three dots?” Riachy asked.
“I don’t want to rush in judging the man’s tenure, after I have accompanied him
sincerely and with conviction for more than twenty years. So I’ll wait a year
into his tenure, at least, to fill in the blanks in the title. I am torn between
two words: guardian or protector; knowing that I am inclined towards my first
choice: ‘Aoun, the guardian of the republic’s tomb,’ instead of: ‘Aoun, the
protector of the Republic Palace,’”Azzi told his interlocutor.
The information minister responded: “Without hesitation, I advise you not to
wait, just choose the first option.”
In his book, Azzi says that Aoun was able more than anyone else to fulfill an
urgent need to protect the return of the displaced to their villages after they
were forced to flee in 1985 during Lebanon’s civil war.
“This was my first concern and the only project that took me on a new political
adventure called the Aounist experiment, to which I committed to the point of
intoxication.
“This clarification has become necessary and obligatory. Without it, the reader
will not be able to understand my long relationship with General Aoun,
especially when they discover how close the ties were at times […] until he
surprised me on February 6, 2006, by signing a memorandum of understanding
between the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah at the Mar Mikhael Church. I
then dropped my understanding with him, turning it completely into a doctrinal
enmity.”
Azzi recounts: “I knew Michel Aoun closely […]. He was practical and succinct
and had convictions based on the purposes and intentions of reform and change.
Here lies the secret of his strength and the fear that worried his allies before
his opponents, especially if they (his allies) did not react to the general’s
born or promised convictions.
“But this duality between the ‘rebellious’ general and the inconsistent
president posed a great danger to the republic, specifically to the complex and
almost impossible equation between a leader of the liberation battle and a
president who was eager to satisfy the electorate.
“Therefore, I complete in this book a truth born of my conviction that the
‘former general’ who was elevated to the presidency, buried the dream of the
republic, even before becoming an agent of the occupier and allied with the
state’s rapists.”
On the general’s return from his exile in Paris, Azzi says: “Aoun’s visit to
Syria was completed in a figurative sense. I was witness to the matter, on
December 27, 2004, when Aoun and the Syrians agreed on his return to Lebanon
[…]. Gaby Issa (an official in the Free Patriotic Movement) visited Damascus and
met with then-Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam.”
Azzi recalls: “After his conditional return from Paris, he agreed with the
Syrians, who, after [former Prime Minister Rafik] Hariri’s martyrdom, added two
conditions to the agreement with Aoun: the first is to support [President] Emile
Lahoud until the end of his term, and the second is to reach an understanding
with Hezbollah.”
However, Aoun’s presidential ambitions collided with the endorsement of Hariri’s
movement and Hezbollah of the election of Army Commander Michel Suleiman.
Thus, the Mar Mikhael understanding of 2006 did not fulfill the promise of Aoun
becoming president.
Azzi said that at the end of Suleiman’s term, “the presidential elections turned
into a theater for which two candidates initially competed: [Lebanese Forces
leader Samir] Geagea and Aoun.”
“Michel Aoun, his team and his main allies did not spare any maneuver to disrupt
the elections and maintain the presidential vacuum, as long as victory was not
guaranteed […]. The speaker of parliament joined the scheme to disrupt the
election in order to exploit the vacuum […].”
Azzi explained how Speaker Nabih Berri and Aoun both manipulated the
constitution to hold the parliamentary session that saw the election of Aoun.
He says: “Aoun played an active role in disrupting the constitution, in letter
and spirit, to reach the presidency.
“It was the end of the maneuver and the beginning of humiliation and surrender.
Everyone welcomed [the elections] - some of them against their will – while
failing to notice that the Lebanese politicians had abandoned the principle of
free democratic elections, and submitted to the nomination of a biased
president, who was increasingly submissive to the Iranian ruler. General Aoun
repeated his old and constant phrase: ‘There is an empty chair, either they will
invite me to it, or I will take it by force.’”
*Episode 2/2: Geagea: We were unable to break Aoun’s position.
The Beirut Port blast investigation will not bring justice
unless Lebanese act
Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya/July 13/2021
Over eleven months have passed since the titanic Beirut port explosion, which
claimed 214 innocent lives and injured thousands of people, leaving many
displaced from their houses due to the destruction wreaked by the blast, and no
justice has yet to be served.
The explosion was heard all the way in neighboring Cyprus and is estimated to
have had the strength of 500 tons of TNT, the biggest non-nuclear explosion in
history and around one-twentieth of the size of the atomic bomb dropped on
Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.
Despite the incredible damage caused, justice has yet to be found, with
Lebanon’s political elite time and again refused to cooperate with judiciary
authorities – a judiciary which, like the rest of the country’s archaic
institutions, is mired by corruption and hampered by the absence of the rule of
law.
Recently, Judge Tarek Bitar, the special investigator on the Beirut port blast,
filed charges against a number of former ministers, including the caretaker
Premier Hassan Diab and senior security officials for their role and negligence
which led to the blast. Bitar’s daring act was naturally received with optimism
by the Lebanese public, especially the families of the victims which have been
vocal and unwavering in their demand for swift justice. However, Bitar’s charges
were not novel, nor surprising, but merely reiterated the findings of his
predecessor Judge Fadi Sawan, who six months ago was forced out by the Court of
Cassation, Lebanon’s highest court, because he summoned and interrogated many of
the same individuals Bitar has now indicted.
Despite the positive implications of Judge Bitar’s actions there are many
factors and indicators that the judiciary action will fall short of identifying
the real culprits behind the Beirut blast. To begin with, the names of those
accused of negligence and criminal endangerment are merely scapegoats for their
respective feudal lords, meaning that even if they are found guilty the true
perpetrators of the disaster will continue to escape punishment.
Perhaps more importantly, judicial authorities continue to refuse to pursue much
of the evidence that local and regional press have uncovered, chiefly the
blast’s ties to pro-Syrian regime businessman and Russian-Syrian citizen George
Haswani, who was responsible for importing the 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate –
the explosion’s fuel – despite the case underscoring that the disaster was
mainly due to criminal neglect. Naturally, Assad’s implication in the blast
hides Hezbollah’s and Iran’s involvement in storing these explosives, as well as
weaponry, in the Beirut port, as they continue to fight in Syria to keep Assad
in power.
While the ongoing investigation is confidential under law, it is clear that the
investigation has purposely sidestepped Hezbollah and has been apprehensive to
address the real elephant in the room, why is Hezbollah so eager to defend those
accused of this heinous crime, including perhaps themselves. The Beirut blast
might indeed be the result of criminal negligence, but the true cause needs to
be identified by a judge after a long a thorough investigation with tangible
evidence used to decide an outcome, a culture which unfortunately remains alien
to most Lebanese, at least those in power.
Regardless of the legal process or the millions of forensic pieces needed to
reconstruct the crime, one is soberly reminded that the real enforcer of the law
is not Judge Bitar and his fellow judges, but Hezbollah, which sees itself above
the law, and has time and again accused anyone who is even willing to hint to
the possibility of its involvement in the blast as being an Israeli
collaborator.
Two days after Judge Bitar’s indictment, Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General
of Hezbollah, soberly reminded everyone, including the families of the victims
of the blast, that the current course of the investigation, although technically
not known to him nor the public, is being politicized, and that it will not
achieve real justice.
History instead teaches us the irony of Nasrallah’s words. Real justice to
Nasrallah exempts Hezbollah’s top assassination squad and one of its senior
members, Salim Ayyash, who was found guilty of the murder of former Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri, an act which Hezbollah and its supporters shamelessly
celebrated as a victory, rather than hand in the criminal. In fact, Nasrallah is
not wiling to entertain any form of justice which implicates him or his group
directly, or by association to any act of violence.
Bitar and his crusade to bring peace for the hundreds who lay dead in the
graveyards, and the thousands who remain homeless because of the disastrous
August 4 blast, will fail as long as the Lebanese refuse to acknowledge the fact
that Hezbollah should be put on trial, and not limit judicial proceedings to
only a few corrupt politicians and security officers who have for years
benefited from their protection.
Bringing the culprits of the Beirut port explosion, whomever they are, to
justice will set a dangerous precedent and will end the culture of impunity
which Hezbollah and the entire Lebanese political establishment has exploited
for decades. The fight for justice requires the Lebanese to protect Bitar and
his likes, not by only flooding social media with letters of support, but by
being ready to face the real leviathan, Hezbollah and the corrupt class it
protects.
Has the West Forgotten Lebanon?
Hicham Hamdan/Pulse News Mexico/July 13/2021
Has the world forgotten Lebanon? Perhaps those who are too young to remember the
Land of Cedars before 1975, when the civil war began, do not know of its
glorious past.
But those who are older and who follow world history will recall that Lebanon
was once known as the Switzerland of the East.
Indeed, Lebanon was a Mecca of the Western and free world for all those fleeing
persecution in the neighboring dictatorial countries. Lebanon was a refuge for
families eager to offer the highest standards of education to their children, or
seeking the best medical hospitals in the East, or wishing to know the meaning
of true cultural openness and freedom of religion and ideas.
Has the West forgotten that Lebanon was once its cultural bridge into the Arab
world? Did it forget the Evangelical School, founded there in 1862, that evolved
into the most important American university in the East?
In the 1960s, Robert Kennedy observed that the number of graduates from the
American University of Beirut working in the United Nations exceeded the number
of graduates from any other university in the world, including Harvard. Has the
world forgotten that Beirut was the Francophone center of the East?
Where else in the world can you a Christian church that shares a wall with a
Muslim mosque, and only 400 meters away, a Jewish synagogue? Where, other than
in Lebanon, are churches, mosques and synagogues located in the same part of
town and remain active peacefully for hundreds of years?
Throughout its long history, Lebanon has been the seat of a plethora of schools,
cultural centers and universities from almost all types of educational stances.
Has the Western world forgotten that democratic Lebanon and its public freedoms
were its primary pathway into Arab thought and literature, and that its banks
were the engine that allowed Arab money to reach Europe and the Americas?
Has it forgotten that Lebanon’s beaches, mountains and plains are full of
evidence of early human development, and that its historical landmarks. dating
back to the early Phoenicians 5,000 years ago, hold the secrets of nature,
history and mankind himself?
Or that the Old Testament referred to Lebanon and its cedar trees more than 75
times? The cedar tree was praised in songs of the sacred books, and its wood was
the material that sailed the seas as the first indication of the importance of
global trade and world peace.
Perhaps the West has forgotten what Pope John Paul II said in 1997, that Lebanon
is more than a homeland; it is a message to humanity. Or what former U.S.
President George Bush Jr. and then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in
their conference in Washington in 2007, that a free Lebanon is necessary for a
democratic West?
Did not U.S. President Bill Clinton say at the 2015 Dulles Conference on
leadership that sound leadership in Washington must include the ability to help
restore stability to this small, model country in the Middle East?
In case the West has forgotten, Lebanon has faithfully adhered to an armistice
agreement with Israel since 1949. It has not entered into any war against Israel
since then.
So why should Lebanon continue to be a proxy battlefield for other nations and
have to keep paying such a high price in terms of human suffering, a loss of
national dignity and a squandering of our children’s future?
Lebanon was one of the founding nations of the United Nations in 1945. It helped
write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Lebanon today is in crises, and it is screaming out to the world for help.
In just a few months, the country’s currency has spiraled downward, losing more
than 90 percent of its worth, and nearly 77 percent of Lebanese households have
been left without enough food to feed their families, according to United
Nations figures.
Lebanon is on the brink of imploding into a failed state.
Lebanon’s security and survival are now at stake.
The most crucial issue at this time is to retain Lebanon’s sovereignty in the
face of aggressions by Iran, which is threatening the countries of the entire
Middle East, distributing weapons and financing terrorist acts.
Urgent international action is direly needed to stop Lebanon’s descent into
total state collapse.
Overlapping fiscal, banking, economic, health and political crises are tearing
at the threads of its social fabric.
Without immediate intervention by the United Nations and outside countries,
Lebanon could very well become a failed state in just a question of weeks, and
it would take decades to undo the damage, opening the door for a resurgence of
terrorist groups such as ISIS and al Qaeda, as well as an expansion of
Hezbollah.
This would have dire consequences for the region and the world as a whole.
Lebanon’s inherent sovereignty and traditional democracy must be protected and
defended against from outside intervention.
The people of Lebanon have the political will and moral capabilities to return
their country to its traditional role and prosperity, but it cannot do this
alone.
Lebanon appeals to the world to save its people and all humanity from all forms
of military occupation and violated human rights that are now committed daily in
its territory. Lebanon is asking the world to protect our democratic system,
which was seized by a corrupted authority, backed by Iran, that fully supports
Hezbollah.
It is not too late for the international community to act, but it could soon be.
*HICHAM HAMDAN served as Lebanese ambassador to Mexico from March 2013 to July
2016. Previously, he served his government’s ambassador to Argentina and as a
legal counsel to the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was his
government’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations in New York and Geneva from
1987 to 1999. He is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Texas in
Austin and founder of a forum in Beirut to seek justice for Lebanon and its
people.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News
published on July 13-14/2021
Iranian networks at risk of more cyberattacks, officials
warn
Jerusalem Post/July 13/2021
Improper configuration and lack of timely updates and proper security policies
are the main reasons for vulnerabilities in Iranian networks.
A number of vulnerabilities, including a failure to implement proper security
policies and a lack of timely updates, are putting Iranian networks at risk of
cyberattacks, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported on Monday, after
a string of recent cyberattacks targeted transportation in Iran.
Over 20 malware files were detected by Iranian Padvish antivirus software for
different platforms of Windows, ESX and firmware after the recent cyberattacks.
According to ISNA, none of these files have been detected by global antivirus
companies as of yet.
Iran's National Computer Emergency Response Team (Maher) warned that three
vulnerabilities were found in HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO), a technology that
allows the remote controlling and monitoring of HP servers. Some of Iran's
networks are not properly protected against these vulnerabilities, according to
Maher. Improper configuration, lack of timely updates and lack of proper
security policies when using HP iLO are the main reasons for this vulnerability
in Iranian networks, according to ISNA.
Iranian Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad-Javad Azari
Jahromi recently warned about new movements by cyberattackers, which are very
similar to ransomware attacks that targeted iLO in 2018. On Monday, the website
of Iran's Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company
was down for a number of hours. While rumors spread on social media about a
cyberattack being behind the site crashing, no official confirmation of such
claims has been made as of publication time, although the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim
News Agency did confirm that the site had been taken down. The site was back
online as of Tuesday morning. A number of alleged cyberattacks have been
reported in Iran over the past week, disrupting transportation infrastructure
and government websites.
The site for the national real estate and housing system of Iran's Roads and
Urban Development Ministry was taken down in recent days and remained
inaccessible as of Tuesday morning. An official in the ministry told Iranian
media that a cyberattack was not responsible for disruptions on the site, adding
that information of people in the system is protected. The system of the
Railways of the Islamic Republic of Iran was also disrupted by a reported
cyberattack last week. Iranian officials said the incident was under
investigation..
Iran says US will delist IRGC, lift sanctions on Khamenei, Raisi if nuke deal
revived
Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English/13 July ,2021
The United States will delist Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
and lift sanctions on the country’s supreme leader and members of his inner
circle if the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers is restored, the
Iranian foreign ministry said on Monday. In its quarterly report to the
parliament on the state of the nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign ministry said if
negotiators in Vienna reach an agreement to revive the deal, the US will revoke
the designation of the IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) as well as
revoke Executive Order 13876, under which the previous administration imposed
sanctions on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, his office and appointees. This
includes President-elect Ebrahim Raisi, who will take office on August 5. The US
and Iran have engaged in indirect talks in Vienna since April to revive the
deal, which Washington withdrew from under former President Donald Trump in
2018. The last round of talks took place on June 20, and it is not yet clear
when the talks will resume. US State Department Spokesman Ned Price said on
Monday that Washington would not impose a deadline for a seventh round of talks,
adding that only Tehran could determine when the talks will resume.
According to the Iranian foreign ministry’s report, which was published on its
website on Monday, if an agreement to revive the deal is reached in Vienna, the
US would also remove sanctions on “more than a thousand individuals and
entities,” including “all banks and financial institutions, except one, all
insurance companies, all Iranian oil and petrochemical companies and refineries
… and the Atomic Energy Organization and its affiliated companies and research
institutes.”
In return, Iran would return to compliance with the deal, but only “after the
verification of the lifting of sanctions.”Khamenei, who has the final say over
state affairs in Iran, had said in February Iran would return to its commitments
under the deal only after the removal of all sanctions and its “verification” by
Tehran. The US has not commented on the Iranian foreign ministry’s report.
Iran confirms ongoing ‘negotiations’ with US over potential prisoner swap
AFP/13 July ,2021
Iran confirmed Tuesday ongoing “negotiations” with the United States over a
potential prisoner swap, after a US official said Washington is working to
release its detained citizens. The US envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, said on
Saturday that President Joe Biden insists on the release of all Americans and
will not accept a “partial deal.”Malley called the release of Americans detained in the Islamic republic a
“priority” and said that negotiations with Iran have “made some progress,” NBC
News reported.
Asked about Malley’s remarks, Iran’s government spokesman Ali Rabiei confirmed
the talks and said Tehran calls for the release of all Iranian prisoners, not
just those held in the US. Iran “is ready to swap all political prisoners in
exchange for freeing all Iranian prisoners across the world,” he told reporters
at a televised press conference.
They include those “who have been detained upon US orders” or at Washington’s
request, he added, saying that “the negotiations on this issue are ongoing”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Monday that Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had “put forth a plan to swap all Iranian and
American prisoners,” state news agency IRNA reported.
“Biden’s administration also considered this issue from the first day” in
office, he added.
The remarks came as Iran has engaged in talks with world powers in Vienna on
reviving its 2015 nuclear deal. The agreement, which limited Iran’s nuclear
program in exchange for international sanctions relief, has been on life support
since former US president Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed
sanctions.
Arrests of foreigners in Iran – especially dual nationals who are often accused
of espionage – have increased since then.
Tehran and Washington have held indirect negotiations in the Austrian capital
since early April. The two countries in May denied having concluded a prisoner
exchange deal, following reports that an agreement was made on the sidelines of
the Vienna talks to release four prisoners from each side. Iran and the US have
had no diplomatic relations since 1980, and tensions between them worsened
during Trump’s tenure.
But they have released each others’ citizens in the past, most recently in June
2020, when the US freed Iranian scientist Majid Teheri as Tehran set free US
Navy veteran Michael White. The most prominent exchange between them came in
2016, months after the nuclear deal was clinched, with four Americans released
in exchange for seven Iranians.
Iran says talks underway with US on prisoner exchanges
The Arab Weekly/July 13/2021
DUBAI – Iran said on Tuesday it was holding talks on prisoner exchanges with the
United States aimed at securing the release of Iranians held in US jails and
other countries over violations of US sanctions. “Negotiations are under way on
the exchange of prisoners between Iran and America and we will issue more
information if Iranian prisoners are released and the country’s interests are
secured and the talks reach a conclusion,” government spokesman Ali Rabiei said.
“Because of its humanitarian aims, Iran is ready to exchange all American
political prisoners in exchange for the release of all Iranian prisoners who
have been detained around the world at the behest of America,” he told a news
conference carried on a government website. There was no immediate US comment on
his remarks. Iran’s talks with world powers on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal,
which the United States quit in 2018, have been suspended for three weeks. The
deal imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for lifting
international sanctions. US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday
that Washington would not impose a deadline on a seventh round of talks and only
Tehran could determine when talks would resume. The Islamic Republic, which is
holding a handful of Iranian-Americans, has been accused by rights activists of
arresting dual nationals to try to extract concessions from other countries.
Iran has dismissed the charge. In May, the United States denied a report by
Iranian state television that the countries had reached a prisoner swap deal in
exchange for the release of $7 billion in frozen Iranian oil funds under US
sanctions in other countries.
Iranian commander urged escalation against US forces at Iraq meeting: Sources
Reuters/13 July ,2021
A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander urged Iraqi Shia militias to step
up attacks on US targets during a meeting in Baghdad last week, three militia
sources and two Iraqi security sources familiar with the gathering said.
American forces in Iraq and Syria were attacked several times following the
visit by an Iranian delegation led by Revolutionary Guards intelligence chief
Hossein Taeb, which came after deadly US air strikes against Iran-backed
militias at the Syrian-Iraqi border on June 27. While encouraging retaliation,
the Iranians advised the Iraqis not to go too far to avoid a big escalation,
three militia sources briefed on the meeting said.
The Iranians did, however, advise them to widen their attacks by retaliating
against US forces in Syria, according to one of the three militia sources, a
senior local militia commander briefed on the meeting said.
The flare-up comes as significant differences cloud diplomatic efforts to revive
the Iranian 2015 nuclear agreement, which was abandoned by former US President
Donald Trump but which Iran wants reinstated to allow it to resume key exports
of oil.
A senior official in the region, who was briefed by Iranian authorities on
Taeb’s visit, said that Taeb met several Iraqi militia leaders during the trip
and conveyed “the supreme leader’s message to them about keeping up pressure on
US forces in Iraq until they leave the region”.
Since the US air strikes, attacks on US troops and personnel or bases where they
operate have intensified in Iraq and widened to eastern Syria.
Iran’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters
for this article, and officials at the Revolutionary Guards public relations
office were not immediately available for comment.
Iran’s UN envoy this month denied US accusations that Tehran supported attacks
on US forces in Iraq and Syria, and condemned US airstrikes on Iranian-backed
militants there. There was no immediate response from the Iraqi government or
the prime minister’s office to questions about the meeting.
The sources to whom Reuters spoke did so on condition of anonymity due to the
sensitivity of the subject.
The Arab world’s biggest Shia majority country, Iraq has been a theater of
US-Iranian rivalry since the US-led invasion that toppled Sunni leader Saddam
Hussein in 2003.
The Shia militias have been waging a sustained and increasingly sophisticated
campaign against US forces which, after withdrawing in 2011, returned to Iraq in
2014 at the head of a coalition to fight ISIS.
But the attacks, including explosives-laden drones, have gone up a gear since
the US air strikes, which Iran-aligned militias say killed four of their
members.
The two Iraqi security sources close to the activities and operations of the
groups said the Iranians handed their Iraqi allies aerial maps of US positions
in eastern Syria at the July 5 meeting.
The Pentagon said it was deeply concerned about the attacks, including a July 7
rocket barrage on the Ain al-Asad air base in which two American service members
were wounded.
A senior Guards figure, Taeb is a mid-ranking Shia cleric seen by insiders and
analysts of Iranian politics as close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The senior official in the region said Khamenei had sent Taeb to Iraq after
visits there by Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani, appointed last year as head of
the Guards’ expeditionary branch, the Quds Force, had failed to yield an
escalation.
An Iraqi government official said it appeared Iran was seeking to use its allies
in Iraq to apply pressure for a return to the nuclear deal, under which harsh US
sanctions would be lifted in return for curbs on Iran’s atomic activities.A senior Iranian diplomat said Taeb’s visit to Baghdad indicated that Khamenei
was getting directly involved in Iraq affairs after the killing of General
Qassem Soleimani, a previous Quds Force head, in a US drone strike in Iraq early
last year.
A spokesman for one of the Iranian-backed militia groups hit by the US air
strike last month confirmed that the recent attacks were carried out by the
Iraqi Islamic Resistance, a reference to the Shia Iran-backed groups.
“The military escalation against the American forces will continue until all
their combatant forces leave Iraq,” Kadhim al-Fartousi, the spokesman for the
Kataib Sayyed al-Shuhada faction, told Reuters.
Saad al-Saadi, a senior official in the political office of the Iranian-backed
group of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, said if the Americans continued to strike at
militias, then more effective attacks on US forces could be expected anywhere in
Iraq and Syria.
The meeting was held in Baghdad’s upscale Jadiriya neighborhood in a villa just
across the river Tigris from the US embassy, two of the local militia commanders
said.
Iran and the US began indirect negotiations in Vienna in early April to restore
the nuclear deal. No date has been set for further talks, which adjourned on
June 20.
Some Western and Iranian officials have said the talks are a long way from a
conclusion, as disagreements on which US sanctions should be lifted and on the
nuclear commitments that Iran has to make and when still remain in place.
UN demands accountability over Syria mass disappearances
AFP/13 July ,2021
The UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday called for those behind “massive scale”
enforced disappearances in Syria over the past decade of conflict to be held
accountable. The resolution, presented by Britain and a number of European
countries, along with the US, Turkey and Qatar, decried that Syria’s crisis had
entered a second decade “marked by consistent patterns of gross violations.”
The war in Syria has killed nearly 500,000 people since it started in 2011, with
all sides in the increasingly complex conflict accused of war crimes.
Tuesday’s resolution, adopted with 26 of the council’s 47 members in favor, six
opposed and 15 abstaining, voiced particular concern about the fate of tens of
thousands of people who have vanished. The text “strongly condemns the continued
use of involuntary or enforced disappearances in the Syrian Arab Republic, and
related human rights violations and abuses, which have been carried out with
consistency, in particular by the Syrian regime.”It also criticized enforced
disappearances by other parties to the conflict, including ISIS, but said the
Syrian regime was the main perpetrator.
The resolution voiced alarm at recent comments by the UN’s independent
commission of inquiry on the rights situation in Syria indicating that
“widespread enforced disappearance has been deliberately perpetrated by Syrian
security forces throughout the past decade on a massive scale.” The
investigators had indicated that such disappearances had been used “to spread
fear, stifle dissent and as punishment,” and that tens of thousands of men,
women, boys and girls detained by Syrian authorities “remain forcibly
disappeared”.
Presenting the resolution to the council, British Ambassador Simon Manley
slammed the regime’s role in such a massive number of disappearances was “simply
inexcusable.”That regime, he said, “has the bureaucratic means to provide information on
these disappeared individuals, the means to end the suffering of the families
and loved ones of these people.”“But it chooses not to employ those means. This
is a deliberate act of unspeakable cruelty.”He echoed a charge in the
resolution, accusing Damascus’s forces of “intentionally prolonging the
suffering of hundreds of thousands of family members.”It emphasized “the need for accountability, including for crimes committed in
relation to enforced disappearance,” stressing that “accountability is vital in
peace negotiations and peace-building processes.”
New hospital fire in Iraq sparks accusations of negligence
The Arab Weekly/July 13/2021
NASSIRIYA, Iraq – The death toll from a fire that tore through a coronavirus
hospital in southern Iraq rose to 66, health officials said on Tuesday, as
authorities faced accusations of negligence from grieving relatives and a doctor
who works there.
More than 100 others were injured in Monday night’s fire in Nassiriya, which an
investigation showed began when sparks from faulty wiring spread to an oxygen
tank that then exploded, police and civil defence authorities said, the second
such tragedy in three months. Rescue teams were on Tuesday using a heavy crane
to remove the charred and melted remains of the part of the city’s al-Hussain
hospital where COVID-19 patients were being treated, as relatives gathered
nearby. A medic at the hospital, who declined to give his name and whose Monday
shift ended a few hours before the fire broke out, said the absence of basic of
safety measures meant it was an accident in the making. “The hospital lacks a
fire sprinkler system or even a simple fire alarm,” he told Reuters. “We
complained many times over the past three months that a tragedy could happen any
moment from a cigarette stub but every time we get the same answer from health
officials: ‘We don’t have enough money’.” In April, a similar explosion at
Baghdad COVID-19 hospital killed at least 82 and injured 110. The head of Iraq’s
semi-official Human Rights Commission said Monday’s blast showed how ineffective
safety measures still were in a health system crippled by war and sanctions. “To
have such a tragic incident repeated few months later means that still no
(sufficient) measures have been taken to prevent them,” Ali Bayati said. The
fact that the hospital had been built with lightweight sandwich panels
separating the wards had made the fire spread faster, local civil defence
authority head Salah Jabbar said. Health and civil defence managers in the city
and the hospital’s manager had been suspended and arrested on Monday on the
orders of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, his office said.Government
investigators arrived in Nassiriya on Tuesday morning, according to a statement.
Mounting anger
At the city’s morgue, anger spread among people gathered as they waited to
receive their relatives’ bodies. “No quick response to the fire, not enough
firefighters. Sick people burned to death. It’s a disaster,” said Mohammed
Fadhil, who was waiting there to receive his brother’s body. Two health
officials said the dead from Monday’s fire included 21 charred bodies that were
still unidentified. The blaze trapped many patients inside the coronavirus ward
whom rescue teams struggled to reach, a health worker told Reuters on Monday
before entering the burning building. In Najaf, a holy Shia city around 250 km
(155 miles) northwest of Nassiriya, an angry Imad Hashim sobbed as he prepared
to his collect his mother, sister-in-law and niece, who all died in the fire.
“What should I say after losing my family,” the 46-year-old said. “No point from
demanding anything from a failed government. Three days and this case will be
forgotten like others.”
Speedy verdict in Jordan’s ‘sedition’ case leaves questions unanswered
The Arab Weekly/July 13/2021
Jordanian political analyst Malek al-Athamneh said the outcome of the case sends
a message to Washington and Riyadh.
AMMAN – Informed sources in the Jordanian capital said the verdict in the
“sedition” case and the tough 15-year sentence for the accused, former royal
court chief Bassem Awadallah and Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a royal family member,
in the absence of witnesses, reflected an attempt by the authorities to quickly
wrap up a case that has received a lot of public attention in Jordan. These
sources said that closing the case this way was not very convincing, considering
that the authorities had argued beforehand that the charges were serious and had
wide-ranging implications. The outcome left observers wondering how it was
possible to reach a verdict so quickly while leaving unanswered most of the
questions on the minds of Jordanians. The sources considered that, although the
trial may be over, it was no longer possible to conceal the details of the
investigation nor avoid explaining why the trial had not taken place in public
but behind closed doors. The general impression is that the case has ended up
putting the spotlight on the royal family itself, which was revealed not to be
as cohesive as it was presumed to be. On Monday, Jordan’s State Security Court
sentenced Awadallah and Sharif Hassan bin Zaid to fifteen years in prison on
charges of attempting to cause chaos and sedition within the state. The ruling
can be appealed to a higher court. Jordanian political analyst Malek al-Athamneh
said the verdict was predictable, but what was surprising was the speed with
which it was reached. He pointed out the whole process in fact reflected the
haste with which the trial was put together. Athamneh told The Arab Weekly that
“the case could have been closed more coherently if a more logical formula had
been found to account for Prince Hamzah’s role, as he has been morally indicted
through the indictment of the defendants, Awadallah and Sharif Hassan,” He ruled
out the possibility of a pardon for the defendants, at least in near future. He
added that “the verdict regarding Bassem Awadallah, in particular, is a message
addressed to Riyadh, as well as to Washington, which Jordan’s King Abdullah II
is currently visiting”. Athamneh revealed that “Washington, as it was said and
leaked to us, was the first party to alert the Jordanian authorities to the
so-called plot.”Jordan watchers did not rule out however that the speedy legal
procedures would pave the way for a final closing of the file via a royal pardon
on Awadallah and Sharif Hassan, so as to contain the issue politically and in
line with public opinion. The authorities wanted a secret and speedy trial
through a special military court, arguing that the public hearings could
jeopardise national security.
It also rejected the defence’s request to call witnesses, including Prince
Hamzah. The family of Awadallah, who holds dual US and Jordanian citizenships,
hired former US federal prosecutor Michael Sullivan to represent them. Sullivan
alleged that his client was tortured and that his confession was coerced.
He said the State Security Court’s 15-year sentence lacked transparency and
justice. Sullivan added in a statement that Awadallah was “beaten and tortured”,
forced to sign a false confession and deprived of a fair trial that would have
enabled him to refute the prosecution’s accusations. Along with the mistreatment
allegations, the closed-door trial before Jordan’s state security court “has
been completely unfair,” Sullivan said. The prosecutor’s office at the Jordanian
state security court denied the trial was unfair along with the accusations of
abuse. Awadallah was “guaranteed due process” in line with Jordanian law, the
prosecutor said in a statement. “He has not been mistreated in any way and his
allegations of torture of any kind are false.”Jordanian officials say they had
stopped what could have evolved into a foreign-directed plot. They add that
Awadallah tried to push Prince Hamzah to influence King Abdullah into accepting
former US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan, but Prince Hamzah did
not show interest in such entreaties and focused only on his ambitions to ascend
the throne. Awadallah and Sharif Hassan arrived at the court under heavy
security, handcuffed and wearing blue prison uniforms, as shown by photos and
videos released by the authorities. Journalists watched short live video
broadcasts streamed from the courtroom to a nearby tent. Video transmission
included the reading of the sentences. At the beginning of the sentencing
session, the senior judge, Lieutenant Colonel Military Judge Mowaffaq al-Masaeed,
read out the facts of the case and the details of the indictment. He said that
Awadallah and Sharif Hassan were “tied by friendship since 2001” and the latter
had bonds of “kinship and friendship with Prince Hamzah bin Al Hussein.” He
added that both defendants shared “notions of hostility and incitement against
the existing political regime in the kingdom and the person of His Majesty King
Abdullah.”Sharif Hassan was also convicted of possession of a narcotic substance
and one case of consumption of a narcotic substance (hashish). He was sentenced
to one year in prison and a fine of 1,000 dinars ($1,400) for each of the two
charges. However, the court applied the most severe penalty, which is 15 years
imprisonment.Defence lawyers Muhammad al-Afif and Alaa al-Khasawneh, confirmed
that they would appeal the sentences.According to the 13-page indictment, Prince
Hamzah, who was not implicated in the case, was personally driven by ambition to
accede to the throne.
Egypt to sack Muslim Brotherhood-linked civil servants
The Arab Weekly/July 13/2021
CAIRO – Egypt’s parliament Monday authorised the dismissal of public workers
listed as government opponents and “terrorists”, after a string of deadly rail
accidents blamed on the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, lawmakers said. The
legislation stipulates that all public employees proven to have “failed to meet
their duties, as part of a bid to harm public services or the economic interests
of the state” will be sacked, according to a final version. Being named on a
list of “terrorist” elements compiled by the authorities, ranging from Islamists
to liberal opponents, would be grounds for dismissal, lawmakers said.
Individuals added to the terrorism list by court orders are generally subjected
to an asset freeze and a travel ban and have 60 days to appeal the decision.
Public prosecutors submit requests in court to put people or groups on the list
and the court decides on the matter. Since 1972, the Dismissal Without
Disciplinary Action Act has allowed the government to dismiss any public
employee considered a threat to state security. The legislation, which has been
ratified and awaits presidential approval, targets “civil servants (belonging
to) the Muslim Brotherhood” and other “terrorist elements” within the state
apparatus. A parliamentary committee said in a report on the legal amendments
that they aim to preserve Egypt’s national security and combat corruption and
were in line with a constitutional commitment for the state to fight terrorism.
In recent months, Transport Minister Kamel al-Wazir has sought to blame a series
of deadly rail accidents on sabotage carried out by public sector workers
belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood. A rail crash in the Nile Delta in April
killed 23, while a collision in March in Egypt’s south killed 20, according to
authorities. Poor infrastructure and shoddy maintenance had previously been
cited as the main cause of such accidents. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in
1928 and has been banned through most of Egypt’s history, apart from a brief
period following the 2011 revolution. In 2012, Egypt elected Brotherhood
candidate Mohamed Morsi as the country’s president, but he was deposed following
massive protests a year later and his organisation was once more designated a
“terrorist” entity by the state. General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the military’s
takeover of the state, and became president in a 2014 election with an official
96.9 percent of the vote. Sisi has presided over a sustained crackdown on
terrorism, focusing especially on the Muslim Brotherhood, but extending also to
other radical groups. The legislation amends a 1973 law that sets out a
disciplinary code detailing the grounds for dismissing public servants.The
parliamentary session on Monday also extended by three months a state of
emergency that has been in place since 2017.
Taliban Say Do Not Want to Fight inside Afghanistan's
Cities
Agence France Presse/July 13/2021
The Taliban do not want to battle government forces inside Afghanistan's cities,
a senior insurgent leader said Tuesday, as the militants also warned Turkey
against extending its troop presence. The insurgents have swept through much of
northern Afghanistan in recent weeks, and the government now holds little more
than a constellation of provincial capitals that must largely be reinforced and
resupplied by air. On Tuesday, the head of a Taliban commission that oversees
government forces who surrender to the insurgents urged the residents of cities
to reach out to them. "Now that the fighting from mountains and deserts has
reached the doors of the cities, Mujahiddin don't want fighting inside the
city," Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a message tweeted by a Taliban spokesman, using
another term for the group. "It is better... to use any possible channel to get
in touch with our invitation and guidance commission," he said, adding this
would "prevent their cities from getting damaged". The strategy is one well-worn
by the Taliban -- particularly during their first rise to power in the 1990s --
cutting off towns and district centers and getting elders to negotiate a
surrender. In a separate statement Tuesday, the Taliban said Turkey's decision
to provide security to Kabul airport when U.S.-led forces leave was "reprehensible.""We
consider stay of foreign forces in our homeland by any country under whatever
pretext as occupation," the group said, days after Ankara agreed with Washington
to provide security for Kabul airport.
Rapid changes
As foreign forces wind up their withdrawal -- due to be completed by August 31
-- the situation on the ground is changing rapidly. The top U.S. general in
Afghanistan relinquished his command Monday at a ceremony in the capital, the
latest symbolic gesture bringing America's longest war nearer to an end.
The pace of the pullout -- and multiple offensives launched by the Taliban --
have raised fears that Afghanistan's security forces could be swiftly
overwhelmed, particularly without vital US air support. Around 650 American
service members are expected to remain in Kabul, guarding Washington's sprawling
diplomatic compound. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he
had agreed with the United States on the "scope" of how to secure Kabul airport.
Peace talks between the insurgents and the government supposedly taking place in
Doha have largely fizzled out, and the Taliban now appear set on a complete
military victory. But claims by the hardline group to control 85 percent of the
country are impossible to verify independently -- and strongly disputed by the
government. Last week in Moscow, a visiting Taliban delegation said the group
now controls more than half the country's near-400 districts -- a claim
steadfastly rejected by security forces spokesman Ajmal Omar Shinwari. Still,
the situation has alarmed foreign nations, and on Sunday India became the latest
country to evacuate some of its diplomats. On Monday, Russia announced it was
relocating some diplomats to Uzbekistan, while China also evacuated 210
nationals from Afghanistan.
The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials published on
July 13-14/2021
Iran and Cuba, the Covid Pandemic and the
Metrics of Decaying Dictatorships
Charles Elias Chartouni/July 13/2021
“ I wish we had better relations with the worlds”
Dr.Saeed Rezamehrpour, head of the Shariati Hospital in Teheran
“ Nos estamos muriendo de hambre”
“ We are starving to death” a Cuban demonstrator
Demonstrations In Teheran and Habana have become a pattern, the Covid 19
ravaging effects have taken their toll in respective societies, where hollow
revolutionary slogans have long lost their ripple effect, and glaring
governmental ineptitude have proven over decades their insolvency and failure to
build and sustain functional public policies. The late demonstrations in both
capitals, the tempo of illegal migration in the two countries, the massive
Iranian influx to Armenia for vaccination ( 2/100 of the 84 million Iranians
have received full vaccination), the rigged presidential elections in Iran, and
the mass rebellion in Havana are quite instructive about the systemic crises
that have been building over decades. The Covid crisis in both countries were
indicative of the foundering ideological States, the bankruptcy of their
outdated narratives, and their incremental inability to rest their legitimacy on
hollow rhetorics, empty promises and naked violence, while life conditions are
deteriorating at a meteoric pace.
The badly aging revolutions have no other outlet but to revive dead memories,
trite revolutionary humbug, and hide their compounded failures at a time when
nothing works, and inter-generational chasms have become unbridgeable. Iran and
Cuba had nothing better to offer than a henchman (Ibrahim Raisi) as a safeguard
against the faltering fortunes of the Islamic dictatorship, and a puppet (Miguel
Díaz-Canel) to bolster the destinies of the Castro satrapy. The Iranian
international bargaining scenario is sham maneuvering designed to buy time while
tinkering with nuclear and ballistic ventures, and promoting destructive power
politics throughout the Middle East, while vying with competing Islamic imperial
politics; whereas, the imploding Cuban satrapy has a hard time managing its
Venezuelan and Nicaraguan clones, and providing for the basic needs of a staving
and sick population. On my way out of Cuba in 2005, the front desk clerk at my
hotel told me “ hopefully your next visit would take place when this nightmare
is over”. Iranian scenarios are heading towards further compounded complications
mapped on the intersections of a decaying interior and a chaotic regional
environment; Cuba, for the first time, might be on the edge of a general
outburst that puts an end to the fallacies of a cruel dictatorship, and the
miseries inflicted on the Cuban people
Taliban advances as U.S. completes withdrawal
Bill Roggio/FDD's Long War Journal/July 13/2021
The Taliban has made dramatic gains since President Joe Biden announced the U.S.
would leave Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021. The time lapse map, which is dated
from April 13 to today and was created by FDD’s Long War Journal, shows the
jihadists’ swift advance since Biden made his announcement.
The current Taliban and al Qaeda offensive was planned far in advance. The
jihadists laid the groundwork for seizing large parts of the country years ago
by directly challenging the Afghan government and military in rural districts.
The insurgents seized more rural ground after the NATO handed over primary
security responsibilities to the Afghan government in 2014. The Taliban’s
strategy was downplayed and dismissed by U.S. military commanders in
Afghanistan, who touted population control over territorial control. But the
Taliban and its al Qaeda allies slowly but methodically took control of remote
districts, using them as bases of operations to project power in neighboring
districts as well as recruit, train, and indoctrinate future fighters.
The jihadists’ military strategy is complemented by its political strategy. The
Taliban’s ultimate objective is to regain control of country and restore its
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In order to achieve this, the Taliban needs the
U.S. to leave the country. In 2018, the Trump administration entered into talks
with the Taliban. On Feb. 29, 2020, the Trump administration signed the Doha
agreement, in which the U.S. agreed to leave the country by May 1, 2021 in
exchange for nebulous and unenforceable counterterrorism assurances from the
Taliban. Although the accord was widely trumpeted as a peace agreement, the
negotiations were really designed to get the U.S to withdraw its forces and
undermine the Afghan government, which was excluded from the talks.
President Biden adhered to the agreement with the Taliban, even though he
described it as a “bad deal,” and announced on Apr. 14, 2021 that U.S forces
would leave the country by Sept. 11, 2021 — the 20th anniversary of 9/11. The
U.S. withdrawal is now ahead of schedule and expected to be completed by late
August.
Importantly, the Taliban waited for the U.S to announce its exit before
executing its plan, which was obviously formulated well in advance.
By May 1, the Taliban offensive was in full swing. The U.S., NATO and the Afghan
government was caught off guard. The Taliban planned, organized and executed its
offensive without detection. With the exception of Commandos and Special Forces,
Afghan security forces remained on the defensive for years, giving the Taliban
the time and space it needed.
Districts began falling under Taliban and al Qaeda control at a rapid pace as
Afghan security forces surrendered and even abandoned multiple district centers,
military bases, border crossings and other key facilities. The Taliban and its
allies have taken control of 139 districts in the span of less than two months,
nearly tripling the territory under its rule. Multiple provincial capitals are
now under direct Taliban threat, and it has launched incursions in cities such
as Ghazni, Kunduz, Kandahar, Lashkar Gah, Maidan Shahr, Mihtarlam, Taloqan,
Sheberghan, and Qala-i-Naw. Afghan security forces, meanwhile, have largely been
on the defensive and have only managed to regain control of a handful of
districts.
The Taliban’s northern offensive is especially clever. It is designed to
undercut the Afghan government’s traditional base of power. If the north is
lost, the Afghan government loses its base of traditional support and is at risk
of collapse.
The Taliban has not planned and executed this operation without help. Pakistan
remains the Taliban’s primary backer and primary safe haven. Iran has helped the
Taliban to a lesser extent. Al Qaeda, which was never defeated in Afghanistan,
has also played a key role in the Taliban’s success.
Al Qaeda has fought alongside the Taliban both before and during the current
offensive. But more importantly, it provided the Taliban with military and
political advice (including strategy sessions on talks with the U.S.), and
helped the Taliban integrate regional jihadist groups to fight under its banner.
In the north, Al Qaeda helped the Taliban organize groups such as the
now-defunct Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Jamaat Ansarullah, Kataib Imam
Bukhari, and the Turkistan Islamic Party to fight in the Taliban’s ranks. In the
east and south, groups like the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan,
Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harakat-ul-Mujahideen have aided the
Taliban’s offensive.
The Afghan government is at a critical moment. It must halt the Taliban advance
and reverse its gains in the north and the provinces surrounding Kabul. To do
so, it must consolidate its forces, stop attempting to defend indefensible
terrain, and abandon regions of the country, including in the south and east. It
must also take the risky move of fully mobilizing the militias of pro-government
(or at least anti-Taliban) warlords. If the Afghan government does not do this,
and soon, it is at risk of losing to the Taliban and al Qaeda on the
battlefield.
*Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and
the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.
Taiwan does what needs to be done for Daniel Suidani, and
for us all
Cleo Paskal/FDD/July 13/2021
Premier Suidani and others are on the front line now, but if they aren’t
supported, and their cause fails, the front line expands. President Tsai
understands this, and she took a stand, for the people of the Solomons, the
people of Taiwan, and for all of us.
Alexandria, Virginia, US: At its most basic, this is about a man of courage and
principle who needed help. And a woman of courage and principle, who helped him.
Which is how it should be. But it is not how Beijing wants it to be. And that’s
a problem. A problem for all of us.
Let me explain.
In September 2019, after over three decades of diplomatic relations with Taiwan,
the country of the Solomon Islands switched recognition to China. It was a
unilateral decision made by the central government—it hadn’t been brought up as
an issue during the national elections just five months before, and there was
widespread discontent with “the switch”, as it became known, including at the
provincial level.
Daniel Suidani, the Premier of the most populous province in the Solomon
Islands, Malaita, was one of the most vocal and eloquent speaking out against
the switch. There were attempts to bribe him and, when that didn’t work, to
threaten him.
Still he insisted he wanted his province to stay free of CCP influence—saying
that if you work with authoritarian governments, you become more
authoritarian—and he believed in democracy, transparency and accountability to
the people who elected him.
And then he got sick. He got severe headaches, and local doctors said he needed
a CT scan. But there was no machine in the country. The central government
stonewalled his requests for support to go abroad, though reportedly there were
hints to his team that if he changed his position on China everything would be
resolved. He refused.
There aren’t many people outside China who can say they’d rather die than give
in to the CCP. Daniel Suidani is one of them. Within China, of course, there are
jails and concentration camps and cemeteries full of them.
The Australians said they could give him a visa to go to Australia for
treatment, but he would have to fund it himself. The Australian hospital told
him he’d have to come up with around $100,000 up front. Being an honest
politician, he didn’t have $100,000. His friends started a “go fund me” and
gathered enough to get him to Australia, but not for the treatment.
Which is when Prof M.D. Nalapat heard about the situation. He got in touch with
friends in Taiwan and, as a result, President Tsai—recognizing a fellow person
of courage and principle in need of help—extended an invitation to Premier
Suidani in the name of the people of Taiwan to come to the country for medical
treatment. Premier Suidani is currently in Taiwan, and is on the road to
recovery.
But the fact that it almost didn’t happen uncovered some very serious issues.
Ones that risk destabilizing the entire region.
First, it showed that China is essentially exporting its social credit approach,
where the powers of the state (or in the case of the Solomon Islands, a proxy
state) are used to coerce—to the point of death—dissent.
Second, in spite of New Zealand trumpeting its values and saying it is spending
millions to build up accountable, transparent, democratic governance in region,
when a real leader of that sort needed help there was complete silence. To this
day no major New Zealand media has even covered the story.
Third, it raises serious questions about Australia, for the same reasons as New
Zealand. However, to their credit, there were some in Australia who understood
the situation and wanted to do something about it, with the Australian newspaper
bluntly saying, “Taiwan Steps in as Australia bows out”.
In the end, and this is the fourth point, it came down to good people taking
risks to do the right thing for strangers who are also trying to do the right
thing. Premier Suidani, Prof Nalapat and Dr Tsai all showed what courage and
principles could accomplish, and in so doing stymied an attempted bureaucratic
murder of democracy—and possibly a democratic leader himself—in the Solomon
Islands.
Those lessons are important to learn because this isn’t over. Soon, Premier
Suidani will be heading back to the Solomon Islands. There are rumors that the
government is looking into charging him with treason.
The Chinese embassy already lodged a complaint saying the Premier’s medical trip
to Taiwan breached the agreement of the Solomon Islands to adhere to the One
China Policy. This raises a range of questions, including, are all the Chinese
citizens who travel to Taiwan for medical treatment also treasonous? And in this
new world of Chinese proxies, is disrespecting Beijing now the same as
disrespecting your own government?
This isn’t over. Premier Suidani has enormous support. If he is arrested on
return, there are risks of reigniting a civil war. This is what it means to
bring in China. All that is anti-CCP has to die, smothered by the proxy, or the
country will be tortured. Canberra, Wellington and others can’t hide from this.
If China is allowed to prevail in killing democracy in the Solomons, it is one
step closer to doing it in Australia and New Zealand.
Premier Suidani and others are on the front line now, but if they aren’t
supported, and their cause fails, the front line expands. President Tsai
understands this, and she took a stand, for the people of the Solomons, the
people of Taiwan, and for all of us. The only way to resist is to grow and
reinforce that network. To push against the line, to regain ground for
democracy. We didn’t start this, and it is not going to end on its own. We are
running out of time.
The Solomon Islands was the site of some of the bloodiest and hardest fought
battles for freedom of World War II—including the Battle of Guadalcanal. This
time around, some don’t even want to notice the battle has already started, let
alone that freedom is at serious risk of being lost.
So, the question is, where do you stand?
*Cleo Paskal is Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies and The Sunday Guardian Special Correspondent. Follow her on Twitter
@CleoPaskal. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and
national security issues.
How Palestinian Leaders Are Deceiving Americans
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/July 13/2021
The Palestinian Authority does not want the world to know that it has a law that
prohibits the sale of property to the Israeli "enemy."
This is the same Palestinian leadership that is now telling the Biden
administration that it is keen on resuming the peace process with Israel.
It is also safe to assume that the Congressmen are not aware of the Islamic
religious decrees banning Muslims from even attempting to engage in such deals
[selling land to Jews].
The Congressmen do not know about these matters because the mainstream media in
the West rarely reports about the apartheid policies of the PA leadership,
including the ban on selling properties to Jews.
Abbas knows that if he makes such concessions, he will never enjoy the privilege
of being buried in a Muslim cemetery, according to the ruling of his mufti and
Islamic religious bodies.
In the meantime, Abbas has no problem telling the Biden administration and
members of the Congress what they like to hear (about a peace process with
Israel and the so-called two state solution) in order to receive US financial
aid.
Abbas will take the money while at the same time his security forces are chasing
Palestinians who do business with Jews.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has no problem telling the Biden
administration and members of the Congress what they like to hear in order to
receive US financial aid. Abbas will take the money while at the same time his
security forces are chasing Palestinians who do business with Jews. Pictured:
Abbas consults a card with a written statement during a visit from US Secretary
of State Antony Blinken in Ramallah, on May 25, 2021. (Photo by Alex
Brandon/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
A Palestinian man was sentenced on June 30 to seven years in prison with hard
labor after he was convicted of attempting to sell land to Israeli Jews. The
man, whose identity was not revealed, was sentenced by a Palestinian Authority
(PA) court in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the de facto capital of the
Palestinians.
"The Ramallah Court of First Instance, represented by Judges Ramez Jamhour,
Ramez Musleh and Amjad al-Sha'ar, issued a ruling convicting the defendant of
attempting to carve out part of the land of the State of Palestine in favor of
the enemy," the PA's official news agency Wafa reported. "He was sentenced to 7
years in prison with hard labor."
"Carve out" is the term the PA uses to describe the transfer of ownership of
real estate from a Palestinian to an Israeli Jew. The "enemy," needless to say,
refers to Israel.
The PA resorts to this kind of vague terminology to avoid criticism from the
international community over its policy of punishing any Palestinian who sell
his land or house to an Israeli Jew. The PA does not want the world to know that
it has a law that prohibits the sale of property to the Israeli "enemy."
In 2014, PA President Mahmoud Abbas amended Article 114 of the Jordanian
Criminal Code (1960), which is in effect in the PA-controlled areas in the West
Bank. According to the Jordanian law, a person who attempts to sever any part of
the Jordanian territory to annex it to a foreign state will be subject to at
least five years in prison with hard labor.
Abbas raised the maximum punishment to life imprisonment with hard labor for any
Palestinian who is found guilty of selling or leasing "part of the Palestinian
lands to a foreign country or a hostile state or any of its citizens."
In 2018, a PA court sentenced an American-Palestinian to life imprisonment for
violating the law. The defendant, Issam Akel, who holds an Israeli ID card in
his capacity as a resident of Jerusalem, was accused of attempting to sell
property in Jerusalem to Israeli Jews.
He was sentenced in spite of protests from Israel and the US. Then US Ambassador
to Israel David Friedman said that Akel's incarceration was "antithetical to the
values of the US and all those who advocate the cause of peaceful coexistence."
The PA was eventually forced to release Akel in January 2019 under pressure from
the US government.
Akel was lucky to be released because he held an American passport. Other
Palestinians who have faced the same charges, however, remain in PA prisons
because they are not US citizens.
The June 30 court ruling shows that the PA is determined to continue punishing
Palestinians who are caught selling property to Israeli Jews. The verdict also
aims to send a warning to Palestinians that anyone who even tries to engage in
real estate transactions with Israeli Jews will be thrown into prison.
The PA's war on Palestinians suspected of selling property to Israeli Jews is
not only limited to legal measures. In the past few years, the Palestinian
religious authorities have issued a number of edicts banning Muslims from
engaging in such deals.
In 2018, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, the Palestinian mufti of Jerusalem, issued a
fatwa (Islamic ruling) calling the "land of Palestine" an inalienable religious
endowment that cannot be sold to "the enemies." The fatwa bans Muslims from
"facilitating the transfer of ownership of any part of Jerusalem or the land of
Palestine to the [Israeli] enemy." It also calls on Muslims to boycott those who
violate the fatwa and prevent them from being buried in Muslim cemeteries.
In 1996, Dar al-Ifta, the Palestinians' Islamic advisory body responsible for
issuing religious guidelines, ruled that it is forbidden for a Muslim to sell
land to Jews. It too urged Muslims to boycott anyone involved in such deals:
they are considered "heretics and traitors."
Since the ruling, several Palestinians have been killed for allegedly brokering
land sales to Israeli Jews. Dozens of others have been arrested by the various
branches of the PA security forces. Three suspects, who were not identified,
have been sentenced to 15 years in prison, with hard labor.
According to the PA's Preventive Security Service (PSS), the crackdown on
suspected land dealers is being carried out in accordance with instructions from
the Palestinian political leadership. "The sale of properties [to Jews] poses a
dangerous threat to [Palestinian] national security," the PSS said in a
statement.
When the PSS talks about the Palestinian leadership, it is referring to Abbas
and the PA government in the West Bank. The PSS is actually admitting that Abbas
and the PA leadership ordered the Palestinian security forces to arrest any
Palestinian suspected of selling properties to Jews.
This is the same Palestinian leadership that is now telling the Biden
administration that it is keen on resuming the peace process with Israel.
While the PA security forces were continuing to hunt down Palestinians on
suspicion of engaging in real estate transactions with Jews, Abbas told visiting
US Congressmen on July 8 that he is committed to a "just and comprehensive peace
through negotiations [with Israel] under the auspices of the Quartet members,"
the US, European Union, Russia, and United Nations.
The members of Congress are undoubtedly unaware that Abbas's law punishes
Palestinians for allegedly selling lands to Jews. It is also safe to assume that
the Congressmen are not aware of the Islamic religious decrees banning Muslims
from even attempting to engage in such deals. The Congressmen do not know about
these matters because the mainstream media in the West rarely reports about the
apartheid policies of the PA leadership, including the ban on selling properties
to Jews.
Even if Abbas returns to the negotiating table with Israel, he will not be able
to make any territorial concessions to Israel because of the Palestinian law and
edicts.
Abbas knows that if he makes such concessions, he will never enjoy the privilege
of being buried in a Muslim cemetery, according to the ruling of his mufti and
Islamic religious bodies.
In the meantime, Abbas has no problem telling the Biden administration and
members of the Congress what they like to hear (about a peace process with
Israel and the so-called two state solution) in order to receive US financial
aid.
Abbas will take the money while at the same time his security forces are chasing
Palestinians who do business with Jews.
*Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.
© 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.
EU: New Political Alliance to Fight Creation of European Superstate
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/July 12/2021
The July 2 "Joint Declaration on the Future of the European Union" represents
the first significant endeavor by euroskeptic parties to jointly oppose efforts
by European federalists to transform the European Union into a godless
multicultural superstate.
The document states that the European Union requires "profound reform" because,
"instead of protecting Europe," it has itself become "a source of problems,
anxiety and uncertainty." The signatories say that the EU has become a tool of
"radical forces" that are determined to carry out a civilizational
transformation of Europe. Their objective, they say, is to create a European
superstate void of European traditions, social institutions or moral principles.
"We are convinced that the cooperation of European nations must be based on
tradition, on respect for the culture and history of European States, on respect
for the Judeo-Christian heritage of Europe and on the common values that unite
our nations — and not in their destruction." — Joint Declaration on the Future
of the European Union, July 2, 2021.
"All attempts to transform European institutions into bodies that take
precedence over national constitutional institutions create chaos, undermine the
sense of the treaties and call into question the fundamental role of the
constitutions of EU member states. The resulting disputes over competences, in
effect, settled by the brutal imposition of the will of the politically stronger
entities on the weaker ones. This destroys the basis for the functioning of the
European Community as a community of free nations." — Joint Declaration on the
Future of the European Union, July 2, 2021.
"Some EU officials are doubtful that an additional layer of bureaucracy — the
conference will have a 'Joint Presidency,' an 'Executive Board,' a 'Conference
Plenary' and a 'Common Secretariat' — will solve the EU's already confusing
bureaucratic ills." — Maïa de La Baume, French journalist, Politico, March 4,
2021.
"The EU's 'Conference on the Future of Europe' has already written its
conclusions. It seeks the forced federalization of the EU against the true will
of European nations and apart from the national parliaments.... We do not want a
federal Europe in which all decisions are made in Brussels." — Santiago Abascal,
leader of Spain's conservative party Vox, July 2, 2021.
Leaders of 16 political parties from across Europe have announced an
unprecedented alliance to defend the sovereignty of European nation states,
protect the nuclear family and preserve traditional Judeo-Christian values. It
represents the first significant endeavor by euroskeptic parties to jointly
oppose efforts by European federalists to transform the European Union into a
godless multicultural superstate. Pictured: The headquarters of the European
Commission in Brussels, Belgium.
The leaders of 16 political parties from across Europe have announced an
unprecedented alliance to defend the sovereignty of European nation states,
protect the nuclear family and preserve traditional Judeo-Christian values.
The July 2 "Joint Declaration on the Future of the European Union" represents
the first significant endeavor by euroskeptic parties to jointly oppose efforts
by European federalists to transform the European Union into a godless
multicultural superstate.
Signatories include Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, former Italian
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and French presidential candidate Marine Le
Pen. The document, penned by former Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski,
who leads the powerful Law and Justice (PiS) party, has also been signed by
conservative parties in Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece,
Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain.
The document states that the European Union requires "profound reform" because,
"instead of protecting Europe," it has itself become "a source of problems,
anxiety and uncertainty." The signatories say that the EU has become a tool of
"radical forces" that are determined to carry out a civilizational
transformation of Europe. Their objective, they say, is to create a European
superstate void of European traditions, social institutions or moral principles.
The signatories say that conservative establishment parties in Europe have
abandoned traditional Judeo-Christian values and have aligned themselves with
leftist positions for political gain. They are especially critical of mass
migration policies that have allowed millions of migrants from Africa, Asia and
the Middle East to settle in Europe even though many newcomers reject European
values.
Following is an English-language translation of the joint declaration, which can
be found here in French and Spanish:
"The recently launched debate on the future of Europe should include the voice
of the parties committed to the freedom of nations and the traditions of
European peoples, the parties representing citizens devoted to the European
tradition.
"The turbulent history of Europe, especially during the last century, brought
many misfortunes. Nations that defended sovereignty and territorial integrity
against aggressors suffered beyond human imagination. After World War II, some
European countries had to fight the domination of Soviet totalitarianism for
decades before regaining their independence.
"This independence, the Atlantic link between the EU and NATO, as well as peace
between cooperating nations, are great achievements for many Europeans, giving
them a permanent sense of security and creating optimal conditions for
development. The integration process has contributed greatly to creating lasting
cooperation structures and to maintaining peace, mutual understanding, and good
relations between states. This work must be maintained as an epoch-making value.
"However, the series of crises that have shaken Europe over the past ten years
have shown that European cooperation efforts are faltering, above all because
nations feel that they are slowly being stripped of their right to exercise
their legitimate sovereign powers.
"The European Union needs profound reform because today, instead of protecting
Europe and its heritage, instead of enabling the free development of European
nations, it is itself becoming a source of problems, anxiety and uncertainty.
"The EU is increasingly becoming a tool of radical forces that would like to
carry out a cultural and religious transformation of Europe — and ultimately a
construction of a Europe without nations. Their aim is to create a European
superstate by destroying or cancelling European tradition and transforming basic
social institutions and moral principles.
"The use of political and legal structures to create a European superstate and
new forms of social structuring is a manifestation of the dangerous and invasive
social engineering of the past, which must elicit legitimate resistance. The
moralistic overactivity that we have seen in recent years in the EU institutions
has led to a dangerous tendency to impose an ideological monopoly.
"We are convinced that the cooperation of European nations must be based on
tradition, on respect for the culture and history of European States, on respect
for the Judeo-Christian heritage of Europe and on the common values that unite
our nations — and not in their destruction. We reaffirm our belief that the
family is the basic unit of our nations. At a time when Europe is facing a
severe demographic crisis with low birth rates and an aging population,
pro-family policymaking should be the response rather than mass immigration.
"We are convinced that the sovereigns of Europe are and will continue to be the
nations of Europe. The European Union has been created by these nations to
achieve objectives that can be achieved more effectively by the Union than by
individual member states. However, the limits of the Union's competences are set
by the principle of conferral: all competences not conferred upon the Union
belong to the Member States, respecting the principle of subsidiarity.
"Through a constant reinterpretation of EU Treaties by the institutions of the
European Union in recent decades, these limits have shifted significantly to the
detriment of the member states. This is incompatible with the fundamental values
of the Union and leads to a decline in the confidence of European nations and
their citizens in these institutions.
"To stop and reverse this trend, it is necessary to create, in addition to the
existing principle of conferral, a set of inviolable powers of the EU's member
states and an adequate mechanism for their protection with the participation of
national constitutional courts or equivalent bodies.
"All attempts to transform European institutions into bodies that take
precedence over national constitutional institutions create chaos, undermine the
sense of the treaties and call into question the fundamental role of the
constitutions of EU member states. The resulting disputes over competences, in
effect, settled by the brutal imposition of the will of the politically stronger
entities on the weaker ones. This destroys the basis for the functioning of the
European Community as a community of free nations.
"We believe that consensus must remain the basic means of reaching a common
position in the Union. Recent attempts to circumvent this procedure or the ideas
of its abolition threaten to exclude some countries from influence in
decision-making and to transform the Union into a special form of oligarchy.
This could lead to the de facto incapacitation of national constitutional
bodies, including governments and parliaments, reduced to the function of
approving decisions already taken by others.
"In the member countries there continues to be an overwhelming desire to
cooperate, and a spirit of community and friendship permeates the nations and
societies of our continent. It is our great capital. A reformed Union will make
use of this capital, while a Union that rejects reform will squander it.
"That is why today we present this document to all parties and groups that share
our points of view as the basis for a common cultural and political work,
respecting the role of current political groups.
"Let's reform the Union together for the future of Europe!"
Europe's 'Civilizationalist' Parties
The document is a response to French President Emmanuel Macron, who, in March
2019, called for a "European renewal" based on more, not less, federalism. In
the wake of an impending Brexit, he demanded a "common border force," a
"European asylum office," a "treaty on defense and security," and a "European
Climate Bank" to "finance the ecological transition." Macron further called for
the creation of a "Conference for Europe" to counter "nationalists" who, he
claimed, "exploit the people's anger."
Since then, the Coronavirus pandemic has laid bare many failures of the European
Union, including the disintegration of Europe's open border system; the looming
collapse of Europe's single currency; the breakdown of Europe's much-vaunted
healthcare systems; and the "epochal failure" of the EU's Covid-19 vaccination
campaign.
In April 2021, the 27 EU member states, after two years of bickering, grudgingly
announced a plan to launch a "Conference on the Future of Europe" that will
"invite" EU citizens "to contribute to shaping their own future and that of
Europe as a whole." Presumably, only ideas that promote further multicultural
federalism will be welcome.
Not everyone is convinced that more "Europe" is what is needed. Writing for
Politico, Maïa de La Baume observed:
"Some EU officials are doubtful that an additional layer of bureaucracy — the
conference will have a 'Joint Presidency,' an 'Executive Board,' a 'Conference
Plenary' and a 'Common Secretariat' — will solve the EU's already confusing
bureaucratic ills....
"As the only institution that EU citizens directly elect, the Parliament
positioned itself as the lead institution and main architect on the matter.
"Yet while the European Council took many of the Parliament's proposals on board
in its declaration, the joint presidency will take away much of the power the
Parliament had hoped to wield. And the final declaration also removed any
mention of treaty change, another significant blow to the Parliament's initial
proposal."
European federalists spitefully have branded critics of a European superstate as
"far right," "neo-fascist," and "radical right wing." In fact, they could best
be described as "civilizationalists," a term coined by the American historian
Daniel Pipes. In a November 2018 essay, "Europe's Civilizationalist Parties," he
wrote:
"Better to call them 'civilizationist,' focusing on their cultural priority,
because they feel intense frustration at watching their way of life disappear.
They cherish Europe's and the West's traditional culture and want to defend it
from assault by immigrants aided by the left. (The term civilizationist has the
additional benefit of excluding those parties that loathe Western civilization,
such as Greece's neo-Nazi Golden Dawn.)
"Civilizationalist parties are populist, anti-immigration, and anti-Islamization.
Populist means nursing grievances against the system and a suspicion of an elite
that ignores or denigrates those concerns....
"At the height of the migrant tsunami in 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
responded to a voter worried about uncontrolled migration with... condescending
advice about attending church services more often.
"Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner for migration, flatly
announced that Europe 'cannot and will never be able to stop migration' and
proceeded to lecture his fellow citizens: 'It is naive to think that our
societies will remain homogenous and migration-free if one erects fences. ... We
all need to be ready to accept migration, mobility, and diversity as the new
norm.'
"Former Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt argued for more migrants: 'I
often fly over the Swedish countryside and I would advise others to do. There
are endless fields and forests. There's more space than you might imagine.'....
Their contemptuous dismissal of anti-immigration sentiments created an
opportunity for civilizationist parties through much of Europe....
"Civilizationist parties, led by Italy's League, are anti-immigration, seeking
to control, reduce, and even reverse the immigration of recent decades,
especially that of Muslims and Africans. These two groups stand out not because
of prejudice ("Islamophobia" or racism) but due to their being the least
assimilable of foreigners, an array of problems associated with them, such as
not working and criminal activity, and a fear that they will impose their ways
on Europe.
"Finally, the parties are anti-Islamization. As Europeans learn about Islamic
law (Sharia), they increasingly focus on its role concerning women's issues,
such as niqabs and burqas, polygamy, taharrush (sexual assault), honor killings,
and female genital mutilation. Other concerns deal with Muslim attitudes toward
non-Muslims, including Christophobia and Judeophobia, jihadi violence, and the
insistence that Islam enjoy a privileged status vis-à-vis other religions."
Additional Comments by Signatories
The author of the document, former Polish President Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said
that the EU is "preparing to carry out a cultural revolution that will destroy
social structures, starting with the family and traditions, and create a new
man." He added: "We don't want this revolution, which we believe will bring
unhappiness and a drastic decline in the freedoms of individuals and countries."
Estonian MEP Jaak Madison, the deputy chairman of the Conservative People's
Party of Estonia (EKRE), added that the declaration is the first step toward the
consolidation of European national conservative parties:
"With this joint declaration, a foundation has been laid for the creation of a
potential new group in the European Parliament. This would be one of the biggest
groups in the European Parliament, which would bring together Poles, Hungarians,
Estonians, the French, Austrians, Danes, Finns, Italians and representatives of
several more states in the European Parliament."
Santiago Abascal, the leader of Spain's conservative party Vox, said that the
EU's "Conference on the Future of Europe" demonstrates, once again, the
disconnect between European institutions and European citizens:
"The EU's 'Conference on the Future of Europe' has already written its
conclusions. It seeks the forced federalization of the EU against the true will
of European nations and apart from the national parliaments.
"This initiative directly threatens the original European project and seeks to
impose a model of society increasingly distant from the principles and values
that make up the Christian roots and history of Europe.
"We do not want a federal Europe in which all decisions are made in Brussels. We
have to show that millions of Europeans respect, value and want to preserve as
something good, and that we are willing to defend the sovereignty of our nations
and parliaments, our governments and our judges, the plurality and variety of
our nations; that borders must be an insurmountable wall for those who enter
illegally or do not have the will to respect Western civilization; that there
can be no freedom without security and without justice; and that we firmly
believe in the person, in life, in the family and in ideological freedom and
thinking."
Marine Le Pen, leader of the French opposition party Rassemblement National
(National Rally), said:
"The European Union continues to pursue the federalist path which inexorably
distances it from the peoples who are the beating heart of our civilization.
"The 'Conference on the Future of Europe' is just yet another smokescreen that
will allow the EU to dispossess states of the capacity to control their destiny.
"Armed with this observation, the most influential patriotic parties on the
continent have understood the importance of joining forces to have more
influence in the debates and reform the European Union....
"This founding text brings together parties and political leaders who, in their
respective countries, are the dominant or ascending forces. Carried by the
popular will, these groups will soon be in the majority.
"The signatories of the declaration plead for a Europe that is respectful of
free peoples and nations. They cannot accept that the peoples are subjected to
the bureaucratic and technocratic ideology of Brussels which imposes its
standards in all aspects of daily life.
"This in no way means that it is necessary to act in an isolated or reclusive
manner: on the contrary, it is by combining the know-how and talents specific to
each nation — and not by merging them into a whole without identity and
therefore without flavor — that we will make our civilization shine.
"At a time when the globalists and Europeanists, of whom Emmanuel Macron is the
main representative in France, are launching the 'Conference on the Future of
Europe,' which aims to increase the power of European bodies, today's agreement
is the first step towards the constitution of a great alliance in the European
Parliament."
**Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
France Learns about Islam’s 1,400 Year Assault via
French Sword and Scimitar
Raymond Ibrahim/July 13/2021
Note: My book, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and
the West, was recently translated into French and released in France. Arnaud
Imatz of the French magazine La Nef interviewed me about it (online version
here). The full English version of that interview follows (a much shorter
version appears here).
The American Raymond Ibrahim has just published a fascinating and erudite
history of the centuries-old conflicts between Islam and Christianity: L’épée et
le cimeterre (Jean-Cyrille Godefroy Editions). This book is the almost
exhaustive account of the fourteen centuries of antagonisms and fights, major or
minor, which took place since Yarmuk (636), until the end of the Barbaresque
wars (1830), through the famous battles of Guadalete (711), Poitiers-Tours
(732), Manzikert (1071), Hattin (1187), Las Navas de Tolosa (1212), Koulikovo
(1380), Constantinople (1453), Malta (1565), Lepanto (1571) and Vienna (1683).
Sword and Scimitar: the French version.
A historian, linguist and philologist, and a specialist in oriental languages,
Ibrahim has methodically exploited first-hand sources, both Muslim and
“Western”, and has consulted numerous manuscripts from the Library of Congress
in Washington. His book is not only a detailed chronicle of the battles, it is
also and above all a rigorous analysis of the intentions and strategies of the
various warring leaders. Ibrahim shows that the Muslim forces were essentially
obeying a religious, messianic, expansionist, conquering logic, whereas the
Christian armies wanted above all to recover territories that for centuries had
been Roman, Greek and Christian. He also shows that the religious fervor of
today’s Islamists overlaps exactly with ancestral Islamic dogmas, that Western
reactions are 1400-year-old self-defense mechanisms, and that current rivalries
are the reflection of a very old existential struggle. We interviewed him for La
Nef.
La Nef: Is the hostility between Islam and Christianity an accident of history
or is it part of the continuity of Islamic history?
Ibrahim: It is most certainly part of a continuum. The problem is that modern
historians tend to sideline this religious aspect, and focus instead on national
identities. For example, we know that for centuries, a great array of “Eastern”
peoples invaded and sometimes conquered portions of Christendom. Modern
historians give them a variety of names—including Arabs, Moors, Berbers, Turks,
and Tatars; other times they are called Umayyads, Abbasids, Seljuks, Ottomans,
etc. What modern historians fail to do, however, is point out that all these
groups relied on the same exact jihadist logic and rhetoric that contemporary
terrorist groups such as the Islamic State do today. Whether it was the Arabs
(or “Saracens”) who first invaded Christendom in the seventh century, or the
Turks and Tatars who terrorized Eastern Europe into the eighteenth century—all
of them justified their invasions by citing Islamic teaching, namely, that it is
Islam’s “destiny” to rule the whole world through the means of jihad. They also
followed the classical juridical injunctions of, for example, offering the
“infidels” three choices before battle—conversion to Islam, acceptance of dhimmi
status and payment of tribute (jizya), or death. And, once they conquered a
Christian area, they immediately destroyed or transformed churches into mosques,
and sold whichever Christians were not slaughtered into abject, and often
sexual, slavery.
The degree to which the modern West fails to realize this is evident in its
claim that groups like the Islamic State are not behaving according to Islamic
teaching and doctrine. In fact, not only are they acting in strict accordance
with Islam’s traditional worldview—hating, combating, killing and enslaving
infidels—but they often intentionally emulate the great jihadists of history
(such as Khalid bin al-Walid, the “Sword of Allah”) whom the West tends to know
nothing about.
La Nef: In your opinion, the term “West” masks the real history because it
suggests that the “Eastern” and North African lands conquered by Islam (Syria,
Egypt, Asia Minor, North Africa), that is to say two thirds of the original
Christian territories, were not really part of the Greco-Roman Christian
heritage, contrary to what is usually said of the Christian regions of the
Balkans or Hispania. Why do we always refer to the Byzantine Empire and never to
the Greek-Roman Christian Empire?
Ibrahim: Yes, just as post-Christian Europe and its offshoots (America,
Australia, etc.) fail to understand Islam’s true history, so too do they fail to
understand their own true history—especially as impacted by Islam. What is now
referred to as “the West” was for centuries known and demarcated by the
territorial extent of its religion (hence the older and historically more
accurate term, “Christendom”). It included all the lands you mention and more;
they had become Christian, many centuries before Islam arrived and were part of
the same overarching civilization. Then Islam came and violently conquered the
majority of those territories, some permanently (the Middle East, North Africa,
Anatolia), some temporarily (Spain, the Balkans, the Mediterranean islands).
During this time, most of Europe became the last and most redoubtable bastion of
Christendom not to be conquered though constantly attacked by Islam. In this
(forgotten) sense, the term “the West” becomes ironically accurate. For the West
was actually and literally the westernmost remnant of what was a much more
extensive civilizational block that Islam permanently severed. Overall, however,
the term “the West” shortchanges its own history with and truncation by Islam.
It further implies that all those “Eastern” lands conquered by Islam were never
part of “Western civilization,” when in fact they were the original inheritors
of its Greco-Roman and Christian heritage.
Which leads to the so-called “Byzantine Empire.” In 330, Roman emperor
Constantine the Great built a new capital for the empire, which he named “New
Rome” (though it was later dubbed Constantinople in his honor). Although it was
profoundly Christian; although it was Old Rome’s direct successor and survived
the former’s fall by a thousand years; although everyone, friend and foe, called
it “Roman”; and although it was Christendom’s easternmost bulwark against Islam
for centuries, since 1857 it has been known as “Byzantium”—another neologism
that severs the continuity and significance of the post-Christian West’s own
history and heritage.
Collectively, all these terms—“the West,” “Byzantium,” etc.—do one thing: they
remove the “C” word—Christianity—from the consciousness of the descendants of
those who fought and died for it. They are part of the same trend that has
supplanted terms such as B.C. (Before Christ) with B.C.E. (Before the Common
Era)—even as one wonders in vain what differentiates the so-called “common era”
from what came before it, other than Christ.
La Nef: The battle of Manzikert, which was for the Turks what Yarmuz was for the
Arabs, is celebrated as a great victory of Islam by Erdogan and Turkish
dignitaries. On the other hand, the leaders of countries like France and Spain
prefer to ignore or underestimate the historical importance of Tours-Poitiers or
Las Navas de Tolosa. Many French scholars no longer consider the battle of
Poitiers-Tour (732) as a “turning point” but rather as a “minor raid episode”.
Should we see in this attitude signs of the revival of fighting Islam and,
conversely, of European pacifism and renunciation?
Ibrahim: Yes, you should most certainly see this, because that is precisely what
these attitudes signify. But I would argue that, for the European elite, the
matter is worse than merely “downplaying” their ancestors’ defensive victories
against Islam. Some are actively condemning them. For a growing number of
Spaniards, for example, the Reconquista—centuries of warfare to liberate Spain
from Islam—is a source of shame, a reminder of how “intolerant” and “backwards”
their forbears were, particularly vis-à-vis the supposedly “tolerant” and
“advanced” Muslims of al-Andalus. In reality, the shame such elites have for
their ancestors, and the praise they have for their ancestors’ enemies, is
indicative of the degree to which they have been indoctrinated in a “history”
that is antithetical to reality.
La Nef: You write that the Crusades had a decisive influence on subsequent
events and that “even the voyages of Christopher Columbus were motivated by the
desire to recapture Jerusalem”. Why?
Ibrahim: Hostile Islam so overwhelmed and surrounded Europe that there were few
aspects of life not to be impacted by it—including, for example, travel and
trade. Because Islam (under the Ottomans and Mamelukes) dominated the eastern
Mediterranean—killing or enslaving any Christian foolhardy enough to come
near—Columbus opted to find another route to get to the East; others, like the
Portuguese, sailed all around Africa to get to Asia. But even the motives for
Columbus’s voyages are less “romantic” than depicted in schoolrooms: he was
searching for potential allies to help in the long war against Islam, including
by liberating Jerusalem. In this sense, even the voyager Columbus was a crusader
against Islam—just as many other European travelers before him were,
particularly in the context of the centuries-long search for Prester John, a
fabulously strong Christian monarch living somewhere beyond the eastern borders
of Islam. If they could only reach this legendary figure, it was believed, he
would come and help the Europeans against Islam.
La Nef: Is the doctrine of taqiyya, which traditionally defines how Islam should
function under non-Muslim rule, outdated today or still relevant?
Ibrahim: Taqiyya—which permits Muslims to fool non-Muslims by, for instance,
pretending to disavow jihad, or even to apostatize from Islam and convert to
Christianity—is still very much relevant today. As the late Dr. Sami Nassib
Makarem, the foremost authority on taqiyya, wrote in his seminal book,
Al-Taqiyya fi’l Islam (“Taqiyya in Islam”): “Taqiyya is of fundamental
importance in Islam. Practically every Islamic sect agrees to it and practices
it … We can go so far as to say that the practice of taqiyya is mainstream in
Islam, and that those few sects not practicing it diverge from the mainstream …
Taqiyya is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era
[emphasis added].”
La Nef: The feeling of Christian solidarity has disappeared nowadays not only
among European politicians and chancelleries but more generally in public
opinion. What about Muslims who know the history of Islam? Do they consider the
concept of jihad against the infidels to be an integral part of Islam?
Ibrahim: Yes they do, certainly the ones learned in history—and the average
Muslim is by far much more learned in Islamic history than the average European
is in their own history. Worse and as mentioned, Europeans tend to be
“learned”—that is, indoctrinated—in false histories, ones designed to demonize
their past and heritage, while whitewashing the past and heritage of others, in
this case, Muslims. Jihad against infidels is indeed an integral part of Islam,
documented and validated everywhere—in the Koran, hadith (and subsequently Sunna),
and the consensus of the umma. No authoritative Muslim cleric (or ‘alim,
singular for ‘ulema—“they who know”) past or present, has ever denied
this—except, of course, when speaking before “infidel” audiences and practicing
taqiyya.
La Nef: Is the community of Muslims, the umma, nowadays totally divided or
relatively united?
Ibrahim: They are, of course, physically divided into what some criticize as
artificial nation states established by colonial powers. That said, many Muslims
share a certain amount of “tribalism” with other Muslims—meaning they may prefer
the company of another Muslim of whatever race, than the company of an infidel
of even their own race (in keeping with the doctrine of al-wala’ w’al bara’ (or
“loyalty and enmity”). Dreams of reunification under a caliphate are also common
and regularly expressed by every segment of society—from the Islamic State, to
the Turkish president, and of course among the average Muslim on the street.
Whether such a reunification is realistic and realizable is another matter.
La Nef: Are the “militant”, “extremist” or “Islamist” Muslims faithful to Islam
or are they holding it hostage to their own political interests?
Ibrahim: The bottom line is this: there is hardly anything that these types of
Muslims do that is not already part of their religion and heritage. For example,
all the depravities the Islamic State engaged in—enslaving, selling, and buying
infidel “sex slaves”; beheading, crucifying, and even burning infidels alive;
destroying or turning churches into mosques—were committed countless times over
the centuries by Muslims, always in the name of jihad. Such depravities are,
moreover, defined as at least “permissible” (when not obligatory) in Islamic
law. How then can we call such Muslims “militant” and “extreme”? Seems more
logical to call Islam itself “militant” and “extreme,” no?
Moreover, the argument that these types of Muslims do such things because they
are “holding Islam hostage to their own political interests” is irrelevant: From
the very start, beginning with Muhammad himself, Islam was always used—and
arguably “designed”—for political interests. As one example, after proclaiming
that Allah had permitted Muslims four wives and unlimited concubines (Koran
4:3), Muhammad later declared that Allah had delivered a new revelation (Koran
33:50–52) offering him, the prophet alone, a dispensation to sleep with and
marry as many women as he wanted—prompting his child-bride Aisha to quip, “I
feel that your Lord hastens in fulfilling your wishes and desires” (narrated in
Sahih Bukhari 6:60:311).
La Nef: The communitization of French society is now a widely accepted fact. In
spite of the warnings of prestigious “alarmists” such as Malraux, Ellul,
Lévi-Strauss or more recently Houellebecq, to name but a few, the French elites
have been betting for more than fifty years on the emergence of a “new Islam,
modernized, reformed, open, contextualized, secularized, democratized”,
compatible with the Western model, which would make it possible to marginalize
the “small fundamentalist minority that is the breeding ground of Islamist
terrorism”. Is such an Islam possible? Are lasting arrangements and compromises
realistic or are they the result of angelism (naïve optimism)?
Ibrahim: Such a “Westernized” Islam, were it ever to come into being, would by
necessity have so little to do with authentic Islam that it would be
intellectually dishonest to associate it with—let alone call it—“Islam.” The
bottom line is that the essential teachings of Islam were promulgated by a
seventh century Arab—who thought and acted precisely as one would expect a
seventh century Arab to think and act, meaning draconically and even
barbarously. The teachings of Islam—including hating and when convenient warring
on infidels, ostracizing or killing apostates, subjugating religious minorities,
and a host of misogynistic measures—are inherently not “modernized, reformed,
open, contextualized, secularized, or democratized.” In short, shari‘a, that
sacred body of Islamic teachings, is by definition not only not “compatible with
the Western model”; it is the antithesis of the Western model.
This, of course, is not to say that individual Muslims cannot be secular,
reformed, etc. It is simply to say that, if they are—and good for them—that is
because they are ignoring the teachings of Islam. For Islam to conform to the
Western model is for it to become something entirely unrecognizable from itself.
Biden and the Mullahs: "Feeding the Crocodile"
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/July 13/2021
ماجد رفي زاده/معهد جيتستون: بايدن والملالي: "إطعام التمساح"
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/100593/majid-rafizadeh-biden-and-the-mullahs-feeding-the-crocodile-%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%ac%d8%af-%d8%b1%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d9%87-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af-%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%aa%d8%b3%d8%aa%d9%88/
Have the Biden administration and the European Union already
forgotten the disastrous outcome of appeasing the mullahs in 2015...? US
President Barack Obama pledged at the time that he was "confident" the deal
would "meet the national security needs of the United States and our allies".
هل نسيت إدارة بايدن والاتحاد الأوروبي بالفعل النتيجة الكارثية لاسترضاء الملالي
في عام 2015 ...؟ وتعهد الرئيس الأمريكي باراك أوباما في ذلك الوقت بأنه "واثق" من
أن الصفقة "ستلبي احتياجات الأمن القومي للولايات المتحدة وحلفائنا" .
Throughout that time, the EU and the Obama administration not only initiated and
expanded appeasement policies, they made unprecedented concessions in an attempt
to dissuade the ruling mullahs from their internal and external aggression. The
US and the EU met the Iranian mullahs with generosity and flexibility every step
of the way.
طوال ذلك الوقت ، لم يشرع الاتحاد الأوروبي وإدارة أوباما في سياسات الاسترضاء
وتوسيعها فحسب ، بل قدموا تنازلات غير مسبوقة في محاولة لثني الملالي الحاكمين عن
عدوانهم الداخلي والخارجي. التقت الولايات المتحدة والاتحاد الأوروبي بملالي إيران
بكرم ومرونة في كل خطوة على الطريق.
After sanctions against the mullahs were lifted, instead of bringing peace and
curbing Iran's malign behavior at home and abroad, those appeasements...
generated billions of dollars in revenue for Iran's military institution, the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as for Iran's militia and terror
groups. Tehran used that influx of revenues to expand its influence throughout
the region, especially in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.
بعد رفع العقوبات عن الملالي ، بدلاً من إحلال السلام وكبح السلوك الإيراني الخبيث
في الداخل والخارج ، أدت هذه المهادنات ... إلى توليد مليارات الدولارات من
العائدات للمؤسسة العسكرية الإيرانية ، الحرس الثوري الإسلامي ، وكذلك للميليشيات
الإيرانية والجماعات الإرهابية. استخدمت طهران هذا التدفق من الإيرادات لتوسيع
نفوذها في جميع أنحاء المنطقة ، وخاصة في سوريا واليمن ولبنان والعراق
Iran's aggressive expansion campaign proved immensely successful. The
Iranian-armed Houthis ratcheted up efforts to cause death and destruction in
Yemen, and Hezbollah escalated its involvement and control of large swathes of
Syrian territory. The region also saw a greater propensity for Houthi rocket
launches at civilian targets in Saudi Arabia, the deployment of thousands of
Hezbollah foot soldiers in Syria, and the constant bombardment of southern
Israel by Iranian-funded Hamas rockets.
The present Western strategy is no different from enriching the Nazi Germany
during WWII or Soviet Russia during the Cold War. For the rogue state,
concessions and appeasements mean weakness. It would have been so much less
costly in life and treasure to stop Hitler before he crossed the Rhine.
The Biden administration and the EU appear determined to pursue a dangerous
policy of appeasement against a regime that chants "Death to America", that
plots to push the US out of the Middle East, that is committed to uprooting and
replacing Israel, and that is, according to the US Department of State, one of
only four state sponsors of terrorism, as well as a leading violator of human
rights. Pictured: Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, proclaims "Death to
America." (Image source: MEMRI video screenshot)
Winston Churchill famously warned against appeasing the aggressor: "Each one
hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last.
All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be
devoured. But I fear -- I fear greatly -- the storm will not pass. It will rage
and it will roar, ever more loudly, ever more widely. It will spread to the
South; it will spread to the North."
History has repeatedly proven that appeasing a rogue state only emboldens and
empowers it. Nevertheless, the Biden administration and the European Union
appear determined to pursue this dangerous policy of appeasement against a
regime that chants "Death to America", that plots to push the US out of the
Middle East, that is committed to uprooting and replacing Israel, and that is,
according to the US Department of State, one of only four state sponsors of
terrorism, as well as a leading violator of human rights.
All the same, on July 2, sanctions against three Iranians were lifted under
Executive Order 13382. These individuals had also been sanctioned by the
previous US administration for their involvement in advancing Iran's ballistic
missile program.
The European Union is forging ahead as well to revive the nuclear deal and lift
sanctions against the mullahs even after the Iranian regime handpicked a mass
murderer to be its next president. Josep Borrell, High Representative of the
European Union, announced that an agreement was "very close". "We have invested
a lot of political capital," he added, "... so I hope that the result of the
elections is not going to be the last obstacle that will ruin the negotiation
process. As far as I know... this is not going to be the case."
In addition, on June 10, the Biden administration removed sanctions on three
former Iranian government officials and two Iranian companies involved in the
country's oil industry. The Biden administration also revoked the designation of
Iran's proxy, the Houthis, as a terrorist group, and is ignoring that the
Iranian regime sent a destroyer, the Sahand, and a support vessel -- the
intelligence-gathering Makran -- to Venezuela. The Makran set sail on the
mission "with seven high-speed missile-attack craft strapped to its deck,"
according to a report published by the U.S. Naval Institute.
June 20, 2021, Borrell claimed that lifting sanctions against the Iranian
government would bring peace. Have the Biden administration and the European
Union already forgotten the disastrous outcome of appeasing the mullahs in 2015,
when the Obama administration and the European Union reached with the Iranian
regime a deal in order to lift sanctions against the Islamic Republic? US
President Barack Obama pledged at the time that he was "confident" the deal
would "meet the national security needs of the United States and our allies".
Throughout that time, the EU and the Obama administration not only initiated and
expanded appeasement policies, they made unprecedented concessions in an attempt
to dissuade the ruling mullahs from their internal and external aggression. The
US and the EU met the Iranian mullahs with generosity and flexibility every step
of the way.
After sanctions against the mullahs were lifted, instead of bringing peace and
curbing Iran's malign behavior at home and abroad, those appeasements gave the
ruling mullahs of Iran a newfound global legitimacy. The removal of sanctions
generated billions of dollars in revenue for Iran's military institution, the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as for Iran's militia and terror
groups. Tehran used that influx of revenues to expand its influence throughout
the region, especially in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.
Iran's aggressive expansion campaign proved immensely successful. The
Iranian-armed Houthis ratcheted up efforts to cause death and destruction in
Yemen, and Hezbollah escalated its involvement and control of large swathes of
Syrian territory. The region also saw a greater propensity for Houthi rocket
launches at civilian targets in Saudi Arabia, the deployment of thousands of
Hezbollah foot soldiers in Syria, and the constant bombardment of southern
Israel by Iranian-funded Hamas rockets.
The US and the EU must put a stop to feeding the crocodile and end their
mercenary appeasement policy of the mullahs of Iran. The present strategy is no
different than enriching the Nazi Germany during WWII or Soviet Russia during
the Cold War. For the rogue state, concessions and appeasements mean weakness.
It would have been so much less costly in life and treasure to stop Hitler
before he crossed the Rhine. The more the US and the EU appease the mullahs, the
more aggressive and belligerent they become.
*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
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