English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For June 29/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations For today
Make My joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves
Letter to the Philippians 02/01-11:”If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 28-282021
The Cancerous Lebanese Political Parties/Elias Bejjani/June 28/2021
Health Ministry: 66 new Corona cases, two deaths
Lebanon’s economic collapse bites hard in neglected north
Lebanon central bank starts giving credit for fuel imports at weaker rate
Lebanon banks to close in solidarity with Lebanese Swiss Bank after staff assaulted
Lebanese troops deploy around Tripoli following protests amid economic crisis
Protests erupt in Lebanon ahead of fuel price hike, severe power shortages
Two journalists in Lebanon released after reportedly being detained by Hezbollah
Aoun Calls for Higher Defense Council Meeting
Aoun Asks Ministers, Administrations to Curb Fuel Crisis
Report: Idea to Resolve Christian Seats Hurdle Emerges, Bassil Still Adamant
Russian Team in Lebanon to Study Rebuilding Destroyed Silos
Diab Tackles Unofficial Exchange Rate Platforms, Slams Riots
Blast Rocks Lawyer's Office in Furn el-Chebbak
Hizbullah Strongly Condemns U.S. Strike on Iran-Backed Groups

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 28-282021
Two injured in stabbing in German city of Erfurt
4 killed in US airstrikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq, Syria
Iran-backed PMU threatens revenge after fighters killed in US airstrikes
US must stop its interference in the region, Iran says after overnight airstrikes
Iran will never get a nuclear weapon, US President Biden tells Israeli counterpart
Lapid to Blinken: Disagreements about Iran deal can be worked out quietly
Iraq, Egypt, Jordan prioritise economics at Baghdad summit, leave questions unanswered
Political solution only way to resolve Syrian crisis: Saudi FM
Oman contacts with Israel highlight normalisation prospects
Palestinian minister to resign as government faces mounting pressures
Ethiopia declares immediate, unilateral Tigray ceasefire after 8 months of conflict
Libya talks seek to pave way for December elections
Poland Summons Israeli Envoy over WWII Claims Row
Ministerial Meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS
Joint statement on the ministerial meeting on Syria
Canada/Minister Garneau meets with Indonesian counterpart
Canada/Minister Garneau speaks with Italian counterpart

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 28-282021
Supreme Court Cheerleads for First Amendment/Alan M. Dershowitz/Gatestone Institute/June 28/2021
Will US airstrikes be a gamechanger for Biden’s Mideast policy? - analysis/Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/June 28/2021
Beat, Raped, and Left for Dead: The Persecution of Christians, May 2021/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/June 28/201
A personality type that feels absolutely no guardrails': How Saudi Arabia's leader charmed Washington while cracking down on opponents/Michael Isikoff/Yahoo/June 28/2021
In Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s clerics have groomed and promoted their ruthless enforcer/Reuel Marc Gerecht/Ray Takeyh/The Washington Post/June 28/2021
U.S. Targets Turkey-Based Money Laundering Schemes With Links to Senior Turkish Officials/Aykan Erdemir/FDD/June 28/2021
Canadian Forensic Report Confirms Iran Bears Full Responsibility for Airliner Downing/Dylan Gresik/FDD/June 28/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 28-282021
The Cancerous Lebanese Political Parties
Elias Bejjani/June 28/2021
Quite frankly and with a peaceful conscience, we can say loudly that all the political parties in occupied Lebanon are mere thugs, Trojans and puppets. They serve their owners' hunger and greed for power and riches. The sole focus of all these parties is on securing ways and means to their owners' individual ambitions and agendas.
The parties hypocrite owners know nothing about honesty, patriotism, hope or faith. They are extremely cancerous and actually accountable for all the disasters and hardships that Lebanon and the Lebanese are facing and going through from A to Z and foremost the Iranian occupation.
These parties handed over the country to Hezbollah, with shame succumbed to its occupational Iranian anti-Lebanese scheme and betrayed the Lebanese people and state.
These same parties are currently advocating for parliamentary elections under the Hezbollah hegemony umbrella in an evil bid to legitimize its occupation
The first step in Lebanon's recovery and salvation must start with abandoning all these parties and by stoning their mercenary and malevolent owners.

Health Ministry: 66 new Corona cases, two deaths
NNA/June 28/2021
In its daily report, the Ministry of Public Health announced on Monday the registration of 66 new Coronavirus infections, thus raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 544,520.
It added that two deaths were also recorded during the past 24 hours.

Lebanon’s economic collapse bites hard in neglected north
Reuters/28 June ,2021
Taha Riz has worked just three days in more than a month at his Tripoli bakery, in Lebanon’s neglected north where economic meltdown has hit hardest and plunged thousands like him into precarious poverty. The bakery, like Tripoli itself, survived earlier hardship when sectarian tensions fuelled by the war in neighboring Syria exploded into clashes on the street outside, but its ovens are now cold and its shelves hold only two bags of flour. A victim of Lebanon’s economic collapse, Riz says the bakery has slashed its workforce from 25 to two, and he has worked only three days since a religious holiday in mid-May – most recently baking two trays of sweets worth 50,000 Lebanese pounds, or just $3.30 on the informal market. “We used to work, now we borrow and spend,” says the 33-year-old father of two daughters, whose wife is expecting a third child soon. The bakery which used to order flour by the ton now buys supplies like sugar and ghee in small bags of a few kilos, after demand for its sweet pastries evaporated and people cut their spending to the bare essentials. “Unfortunately north Lebanon has been hit much more than the other parts of Lebanon. The situation there is very dramatic,” said Bujar Hoxha, Lebanon director for the relief organization Care International. He said large numbers of businesses had shut and jobs had been wiped out. Even for those still in work, salaries in dollar terms are worth only a tenth of their 2019 level, while food prices rise relentlessly. The World Bank says Lebanon’s economic collapse is one of the world’s sharpest implosions in modern history. The caretaker government says it can no longer use foreign reserves to subsidize food and fuel. It hopes to offer financial support to poorer families as it reduces subsidies, but may not have the resources or political authority to deliver it.
Across the country, the proportion of people living in poverty and needing food assistance may hit 70 percent this year, Hoxha said, forcing aid groups to urgently refocus their operations. “When Care International entered Lebanon we actually entered to support Syrian refugees,” he said.
After nearly a decade helping Syrians, the organization saw the Lebanese crisis emerging two years ago. “We readjusted our strategies and reoriented our resources,” he said.
Child labor
The spike in poverty has hit young and old alike. Shadi Lababidi, 16, left school more than a year ago to work full-time repairing car components, saying he wanted to help his parents through difficult times. “I’m happy at work but it would be better if I was at school. I’m working to help my family,” he said at the workshop where he fixes fiberglass car body parts. “Everything’s expensive and a dollar is 15,000 pounds. Even a packet of crisps costs 2,000 pounds.” He says he earns between 75,000 and 100,000 pounds a week – or less than $7. His life revolves around work and sleep, but he dreams of getting out of Tripoli to see his country, from the ancient city of Baalbek in the Bekaa valley to the famed cedar trees in Lebanon’s mountains. “I want to have a permanent job which is decent, to get some money to help my parents, to live like other people instead of living this miserable life”. In a one-room ground floor apartment, 73-year-old Nuzha Hamza lives with her unemployed son and her daughter who has Down’s Syndrome. A survivor of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war, she now tries to make money sorting and packing bunches of vine leaves for grocers, earning 2,000 pounds (13 cents) per kilo. “If I have (money) I eat. If I don’t, I don’t eat,” she says. Like others hit by the scale and speed of Lebanon’s breakdown, she increasingly relies on aid to get by, receiving monthly cash support from Care while Lebanon’s politicians fail to agree even the first step to help - forming a new government to tackle the crisis.
“It’s like a kingdom of absence - absence of institutional support towards citizens,” Hoxha said of the political paralysis which has prompted the relief sector to step into the vacuum and provide emergency aid.
“This feels like a post-conflict situation, as if there had been a war two, four or six weeks ago. There are no mechanisms, no institutions.”

Lebanon central bank starts giving credit for fuel imports at weaker rate
Reuters/ 28 June ,2021
Lebanon’s central bank said on Monday it would open credit lines to import fuel at 3,900 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, a weaker rate than previously offered that effectively raises the costs for ordinary Lebanese amid a crippling economic crisis. Under a subsidy program, the central bank had been using 1,500 pounds to the dollar, the official rate used for all transactions until the crisis that erupted in late 2019 precipitated a currency collapse. The street rate for the pound is now over 17,000 to the dollar.Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister had on Friday approved a proposal to finance the imports at the new rate amid worsening fuel shortages. Lebanon is in the throes of a deep financial crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst depressions in modern times. Basic goods such as medicine and fuel are running short as financing dries up. Motorists in the past few weeks have had to queue for hours at gas stations to get barely any fuel, leading to violence in which gunshots were fired in some instances. The weaker exchange rate, which will effectively decrease the subsidy on fuel, is expected to raise the price of gasoline for consumers but enable the government to supply fuel for a longer period of time. The central bank had asked the government to provide it with the correct legal permission to dip into its mandatory reserves in order to provide financing for fuel, an indication that the bank has all but run out of foreign reserves. Mandatory reserves - hard currency deposits parked by local lenders at the central bank - represent a percentage of customer deposits and are usually not drawn upon other than in exceptional circumstances. Lebanon’s subsidy program, which covers wheat, medicine and fuel, costs it around $6 billion a year, half of which goes to fuel.

Lebanon banks to close in solidarity with Lebanese Swiss Bank after staff assaulted
Reuters/28 June ,2021
Banks in Lebanon will close on Tuesday in solidarity with the Lebanese Swiss Bank after it said staff at its headquarters had been assaulted by individuals seeking access to closed accounts, the Banks’ Association said in a statement on Monday.
The Lebanese Swiss Bank said in a statement it would close its branches and offices for the day after about a hundred men barged into the headquarters and assaulted its employees. It said the individuals who attacked the bank belonged to an organization called Baneen, a charity in southern Lebanon, that had held accounts with the bank but were closed on legal grounds. The bank statement said the men forced bank employees to make money transfers to Turkey. Baneen president Mohamed Baydoon denied use of any force and said the transfer of funds was done amicably. It was not immediately clear why the accounts had been closed. Lebanon is on the verge of political and economic collapse as the country has been left adrift following months of deadlock in forming a new government, said an expert recently. The outgoing government of Premier Hassan Diab resigned in the wake of an August 4 explosion at Beirut’s port that killed more than 200 people and ravaged swaths of the capital. On Sunday, nearly twenty people were wounded in scuffles in northern Lebanon between security forces and protesters angered by a spiraling economic crisis, a medical association said.

Lebanese troops deploy around Tripoli following protests amid economic crisis
The Hill/June 28/2021
Lebanese troops were deployed to Tripoli on Sunday following protests over Lebanon’s worsening economic conditions that left 10 soldiers and several protesters injured the night before, The Associated Press reported.
Protests and riots in the cities of Sidon and Tripoli on Saturday stem from the country’s economic crisis and political instability. The AP reports that the country’s currency reached 18,000 pounds to the U.S. dollar on Saturday, a record low. Additionally, since the beginning of the country’s 20-month economic crisis, the currency has lost over 90 percent of its valuation. The World Bank said earlier this month that the country’s “economic and financial crisis is likely to rank in the top 10, possibly top 3, most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century.”
Additionally, the World Bank said that it estimated that the country’s real GDP in 2020 had contracted over 20 percent in addition to a GDP contraction of 6.7 percent in 2019. Over half of people in Lebanon live in poverty, according to AP. Since late 2019, thousands of people have lost work.
The AP noted that the country has also experienced shortages in critical items like medicine and fuel. Additionally, the formation of Lebanon’s government has been delayed since October as Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and President Michel Aoun have failed to reach agreements. According to Reuters, former Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced the government’s resignation in August following an explosion at a port warehouse. The World Bank warned its report that there may be no end in sight for the continued economic and political crisis happening in the country.
"In the face of colossal challenges, continuous policy inaction and the absence of a fully functioning executive authority threaten already dire socio-economic conditions and a fragile social peace with no clear turning point in the horizon," the World Bank said in its grim report.

Protests erupt in Lebanon ahead of fuel price hike, severe power shortages
AFP/Published: 28 June ,2021
Protesters blocked roads across Lebanon on Monday over a deepening economic downturn that has led to a fuel crisis and severe power shortages.
The demonstrations came ahead of hikes in the price of fuel that the energy ministry said it would issue on Tuesday morning. They also came as power cuts resulting from fuel shortages caused disruptions at a main Beirut hospital and at a security force headquarters in the capital, according to local media reports.
AFP correspondents said protesters blocked major roads and burned tires and garbage bins in Beirut, while the official National News Agency said roadways north and southeast of the capital were also blocked. Protesters in the south Lebanon city of Nabatiyeh parked vehicles across a main artery to stop traffic, the NNA said. The demonstrations took place after weekend scuffles between security forces and protesters that left nearly 20 people wounded in the northern city of Tripoli following a plunge in the value of the Lebanese pound. Officially pegged to the dollar at 1,507 since 1997, the local currency now sells for a record low of more than 17,000 to the greenback on the black market.

Two journalists in Lebanon released after reportedly being detained by Hezbollah
Al Arabiya English/28 June ,2021
“The mere fact that those who did this feel free to do so without any concern … [is] a strong indicator to the identity of the perpetrator,” the Samir Kassir Foundation's executive director said. A British journalist was reportedly detained Monday by Hezbollah members in Lebanon before being handed over to the country’s authorities, the reporter’s employer said. “@NOW_leb journalist @MattKynaston has been detained on the Airport Road by men who introduced as #Hezbollah agents while trying to cover a story on the fuel crisis at one of the only petrol stations open. They requested his phone and passport, press card was not enough,” senior editor at NOW Lebanon Ana Maria Luca tweeted. In an article published regarding the reported detention of two of its reporters, NOW said: “NOW journalist Matthew Kynaston and German freelance reporter Stella Männer were detained on Monday by men identifying themselves as agents of Hezbollah while he was reporting on Lebanon’s fuel crisis. Kynaston, 33, and Männer were reporting on the ongoing fuel crisis at the gas station on the Airport Road when he was approached by the men who demanded to see his passport and his phone.”Later Monday, UK Charge d’Affaires in Lebanon Martin Longden said he had reached out to Lebanese authorities who said they had custody of Kynaston. “This remains a serious and troubling incident: journalists should not be impeded from carrying out their legitimate functions - a free press is critical to democracy in Lebanon,” the British diplomat tweeted. The Samir Kassir Foundation, a Lebanon-based press freedom group, blasted the detention by an “unofficial side who isn’t legally permitted to detain journalists.” Ayman Mhanna, the foundation’s Executive Director, told Al Arabiya English that Monday’s incident was “yet another sign of a state failing its basic duties.”“There is one word for this: abduction! And what is equally shameful: once their abductors handed them to General Security, the latter interrogated the journalists instead of interrogating those who abducted them,” Mhanna said. Mhanna added: “The mere fact that those who did this feel free to do so without any concern … [is] a strong indicator to the identity of the perpetrator.”Hezbollah, designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, the Gulf and many European, South American and Central American countries, has a history of detaining journalists. It has also detained international students doing research projects in areas Hezbollah considers its strongholds.

Aoun Calls for Higher Defense Council Meeting
Naharnet/June 28/2021
President Michel Aoun on Monday scheduled a Higher Defense Council meeting for Tuesday to “discuss the security situations in the country and the latest developments,” the Presidency said. The development comes amid a severe fuel shortage crisis in the country that has led to scuffles at gas stations and road-blocking protests across the country. The cities of Tripoli and Sidon have also witnessed clashes between protesters and security forces which resulted in injuries. The Lebanese pound has meanwhile plumbed fresh lows on the black market due to a financial crisis that the World Bank says is likely to rank among the world's worst since the mid-19th century.The price of fuel is expected to rise after the government said it would fund fuel imports at a rate of 3,900 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, instead of the official rate.
The move effectively reduces subsidies on fuel as the central bank tries to shore up fast-diminishing foreign currency reserves. The financial collapse has sparked outrage at Lebanon's political class, seen as woefully corrupt and unable to tackle the country's many difficulties. Lebanon has been without a fully functioning government since a massive blast in Beirut last summer that killed more than 200 people and ravaged swathes of the capital. The government stepped down after the disaster, but efforts to agree on a new cabinet have repeatedly foundered.

Aoun Asks Ministers, Administrations to Curb Fuel Crisis
Naharnet/June 28/2021
President Michel Aoun has been following up since early morning on “the developments of the fuel crisis in the country” and the “suffering of citizens at gas stations,” the Presidency said on Monday. To that end, Aoun held a series of calls with caretaker Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar and the relevant administrations at the Ministry, calling for “swift and firm measures to contribute to alleviating the fabricated crisis and ending the exploitation of citizens,” the Presidency added in a statement. The President also called caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi and several security chiefs, asking them to “help the competent administrative agencies in preventing the storing of fuel, putting them at citizens’ disposal and being strict in enforcing the laws against violators, pending the ease of the crisis during the next 48 hours.”

Report: Idea to Resolve Christian Seats Hurdle Emerges, Bassil Still Adamant
Naharnet/June 28/2021
All proposals about a so-called “four sixes government” and the redistribution of portfolios are “not serious” and the only serious endeavor is the one led by Hizbullah based on Speaker Nabih Berri’ initiative, al-Jadeed TV reported on Monday
“One of the serious proposals is for President (Michel) Aoun and PM-designate (Saad) Hariri to lodge names of Christian candidates with Speaker Nabih Berri in order to find two consensual nominees,” al-Jadeed said. In order to act, Berri has demanded “a solution for the obstacle of the Free Patriotic Movement’s participation and confidence votes, but (FPM chief Jebran) Bassil is still refusing to take part or to grant confidence,” the TV network added. Al-Jadeed also noted that Berri and Hariri are “showing flexibility” regarding the solution that has been proposed for resolving the two Christian seats hurdle.

Russian Team in Lebanon to Study Rebuilding Destroyed Silos
Associated Press/June 28/2021
A Russian business delegation met Lebanese officials on Monday to discuss plans to rebuild the grain silos destroyed last year in a massive explosion at Beirut's port, a Lebanese Cabinet minister said. The visit by the Russian team -- including officials from Russia's Hydro Engineering and Construction company -- comes as Lebanon is going through the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. Nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate -- a highly explosive material used in fertilizers -- had been improperly stored in the port for years. The nitrate ignited on Aug. 4, causing a catastrophic blast that killed 211 people and injured more than 6,000, devastating nearby neighborhoods. A government-commissioned study in the wake of the explosion said the 50-year-old silos could collapse at any moment and should be demolished. Several countries are said to be interested in rebuilding the port and the surrounding areas, including Turkey, Germany and China. Lebanon's caretaker Public Works and Transportation Minister Michel Najjar told reporters after meeting with the Russians that they expressed a desire to cooperate and would offer technical support for the silos repair at the port of Beirut. Najjar said the Russians were also interested in building silos in the port of the northern city of Tripoli. The Russian team will spend three days at each facility "and they will study the possibility of building new grain silos," he said. In April, representatives of several German companies outlined a multi-billion-dollar plan to rebuild the port of Beirut and surrounding neighborhoods. Germany's consortium, led by Hamburg Port Consulting and Colliers, was the first to visit Lebanon with a plan in hand that they presented to Lebanese officials. In 2019, Lebanon signed a deal with Russia's largest oil company, Rosneft, to upgrade and operate storage installations in Tripoli. The deal made Rosneft manage storage operations.

Diab Tackles Unofficial Exchange Rate Platforms, Slams Riots
Naharnet/June 28/2021
Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Monday chaired a meeting dedicated to tackling the electronic platforms that track the dollar exchange rate on the black market. The meeting was attended by the caretaker ministers of finance, interior, justice and telecommunications, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat, Cabinet Secretary-General Mahmoud Makkiyeh and Diab’s advisor Khodor Taleb. “There is a major difference between the screams of pain and objection and the acts of chaos, rioting, road-blocking and attacking people’s properties and the army and security forces,” Diab said during the meeting. Hailing the October 17 uprising as a “great example,” the premier warned that “what’s happening today distorts people’s scream and wastes their demands.”“What’s happening is against the people and not for them. Whose interest is served from the smashing of people’s cars, the attacks on their properties and the blocking of roads in their faces?” Diab added. He also lamented that “chaos erupts on the streets” whenever “a chance looms to benefit from a touristic season and from the money that can enter into the country due to this season.” “The entire country -- the state and its institutions, the central bank, 64 banks, companies, shops and six million people – are being controlled by a platform or several platforms that set, hike and lower the dollar exchange rate on the black market,” Diab decried. “How can we allow an unknown platform whose operators and objectives are obscure to control the fate of a state and its people? This is an absurd thing!” the premier added.

Blast Rocks Lawyer's Office in Furn el-Chebbak
Naharnet/June 28/2021
A blast rocked the office of the lawyer Sakhr al-Hashem in Furn el-Chebbak on Monday afternoon, causing material damage. The lawyer, who was at the office at the time of the incident, escaped unharmed along with his two sons who work with him. TV footage showed several parts of the office largely destroyed. Speaking to a-Jadeed TV, al-Hashem said it is unlikely that the explosion was caused by gas or electricity. The lawyer is known for handling controversial cases and he is the counsel of one of the detainees in the case of the Beirut port blast. In his remarks to al-Jadeed, al-Hashem hoped the incident is not a “message,” describing the explosion at his office as “very, very, very violent.”MTV meanwhile reported that the blast was caused by an electric "water heater."

Hizbullah Strongly Condemns U.S. Strike on Iran-Backed Groups
Associated Press/Agence France Presse/June 28/2021
Hizbullah on Monday strongly deplored an overnight U.S. airstrike against Iran-backed armed groups which a monitor said killed at least seven fighters. In a statement, Hizbullah said it "strongly condemns the treacherous American aggression that targeted the Iraqi-Syrian border.""What the U.S. warplanes have done is a blatant attack on sovereignty... the region will not enjoy stability... until U.S. forces are expelled" from Iraq and Syria, it said. The Pentagon said it had conducted retaliatory targeted airstrikes against "facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups" on the Iraq-Syria border.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the targeted sites -- two in Syria, one in Iraq -- had been used by "Iran-backed militias" involved in drone attacks against U.S. interests in Iraq.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 28-29/2021
Two injured in stabbing in German city of Erfurt
Jerusalem Post/June 28/2021
Officials are currently searching for the suspect, and a police helicopter has been deployed over the city.
Two people have been injured in a stabbing attack in the east German city of Erfurt, according to German media. German news site Die Welt reported on Monday morning that an unknown perpetrator attacked two members of the public, aged 45 and 68, with a knife before fleeing the scene.The victims have been transferred to hospital where they are receiving medical treatment for non life-threatening injuries, according to a police statement. The motive of the attack is unclear at this time. Officials are currently searching for the suspect, and a police helicopter has been deployed over the city. The attacker is being described by German police officials as being in his twenties, having light hair, and a scarred face. This attack comes shortly after a knife attack in the German town of Wuerzburg last week, in which three people were killed and another five were critically injured. The event is still under investigation as a possible attack motivated by extremist ideology.

4 killed in US airstrikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq, Syria
Reuters/June 28/2021
At least four members of Shi'ite militias were killed in “defensive precision airstrikes” which US President Joe Biden ordered against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region on Sunday night. According to Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby, the targets were selected “because these facilities are utilized by Iran-backed militias that are engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle attacks against US personnel and facilities in Iraq. Specifically, the strikes targeted “operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq, both of which lie close to the border between those countries,” said Kirby. “Several Iran-backed militia groups, including Kata'ib Hezbollah and Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, used these facilities," he added. “As demonstrated by this evening's strikes, President Biden has been clear that he will act to protect US personnel,” the Pentagon statement reads. “Given the ongoing series of attacks by Iran-backed groups targeting US interests in Iraq, the President directed further military action to disrupt and deter such attacks.”The US’ presence in Iraq is at the invitation of the Government of Iraq, he said, “for the sole purpose of assisting the Iraqi Security Forces in their efforts to defeat ISIS.”“The United States took necessary, appropriate, and deliberate action designed to limit the risk of escalation - but also to send a clear and unambiguous deterrent message,” Kirby added.
He noted that the United States “acted pursuant to its right of self-defense,” and that the strikes “were both necessary to address the threat and appropriately limited in scope.” At least four members of Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) were killed in the airstrikes, according to Iranian media. According to Sky News Arabia, five PMF members were killed. The PMF vowed to respond to the strikes, saying it was "fully prepared" to "take revenge."The Syrian state news agency SANA claimed that the airstrikes targeted residential homes, killing a child and injuring three civilians.
Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, a Shi'ite militant group which was targeted in the airstrikes, warned that it would now be in "open war" against the United States, threatening to target US aircraft in Iraqi airspace.
Iraqi Commander-in-Chief Yehia Rasool condemned the US airstrikes on Monday, saying that the strikes represent "a blatant and unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty and Iraqi national security in accordance with all international conventions.""Iraq renews its refusal to be an arena for settling accounts, and clings to its right to sovereignty over its lands, and prevents it from being used as an arena for reactions and attacks," added Rasool, calling for calm and avoiding escalation in all forms. "The United States continues to take the wrong path in the region. In the realm of regional behavior, it is a continuation of the failed US policy and legacy in the region," said Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, in response to the airstrikes on Monday morning, according to Iranian media. Khatibzadeh advised the US to "change its course, instead of creating a crisis and creating problems for the people of the region." The spokesperson called for the people of the region to "decide their own destiny without [US] intervention.
"What the United States is doing is disrupting regional security, and one of the victims of this disruptive regional security is the United States," added Khatibzadeh. Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington, told The Jerusalem Post: “It is heartening to see the administration set the edge with Iran. Attacks by terrorist groups against American troops should be a red line for any American president. “Iran, through its proxy groups, has provoked the United States at a time when the Biden administration appears determined to yield massive sanctions relief to the regime as part of the anticipated return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal,” Schanzer said. “Unfortunately, I don’t see the administration reversing course. Despite this aggression, the regime is likely to still receive everything it wants out of the deal.”The strikes came even as Biden's administration is looking to potentially revive a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. The strikes appear to show Biden's efforts to compartmentalize defensive strikes to protect American personnel, while simultaneously engaging Tehran in diplomacy.
The Jerusalem Post reported last week that the US is seeking to extend the time between rounds of indirect nuclear talks with Iran, in order to talk to the new Israeli government more about its position. Washington feels that the negotiations to return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are worth delaying in order to better cooperate with Israel, a source with knowledge of the US President Joe Biden’s administration's side of the talks said on Wednesday. His critics say Iran cannot be trusted and point to the drone attacks as further evidence that Iran and its proxies will never accept a US military presence in Iraq or Syria.
US officials believe Iran is behind a ramp-up in drone attacks and periodic rocket fire against US personnel and facilities in Iraq, where the US military has been helping Baghdad combat the remnants of Islamic State. Two US officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Iran-backed militias carried out at least five drone attacks against facilities used by US and coalition personnel in Iraq since April. One of the facilities targeted was used to launch and recover the drones, a defense official said. The US military carried out strikes with F-15 and F-16 aircraft, officials said, adding the pilots made it back from the mission safely. "We assess each strike hit the intended targets," one of the officials told Reuters. Iraq's government is struggling to deal with militias ideologically aligned with Iran which are accused of rocket fire against US forces and of involvement in killing peaceful pro-democracy activists. Earlier in June, Iraq released Iran-aligned militia commander Qasim Muslih, who was arrested in May on terrorism-related charges, after authorities found insufficient evidence against him. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement on Sunday night, saying that the airstrikes “appear to be a targeted and proportional response to a serious and specific threat.” “Protecting the military heroes who defend our freedoms is a sacred priority,” she said. “The Iran-backed militias utilizing these facilities have been engaged in attacks threatening US servicemembers, as well as our allies.”“Congress looks forward to receiving and reviewing the formal notification of this operation under the War Powers Act and to receiving additional briefings from the Administration,” Pelosi added.
*Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.

Iran-backed PMU threatens revenge after fighters killed in US airstrikes
Agencies/28 June ,2021
Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) militias, known as Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic, said Monday that US airstrikes had “resulted in the martyrdom of a group of heroic fighters” near the Syria border and threatened revenge. “We will remain the shield defending our beloved nation, and we are fully ready... to respond and take revenge” following the strikes announced Sunday by the Pentagon, which a monitor said had killed at least five Iran-backed militia fighters. The strikes targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq, the Pentagon said.
“As demonstrated by this evening’s strikes, President Biden has been clear that he will act to protect US personnel,” the Pentagon said in a statement. The strikes came even as Biden’s administration is looking to potentially revive a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. The strikes appear to show Biden’s efforts to compartmentalize defensive strikes to protect American personnel, while simultaneously engaging Tehran in diplomacy. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had reported that “at least five” Iraqi fighters were killed and several wounded in strikes on the Syrian side of the frontier.
The war monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria to collect information, said that military positions were among the targets hit. Since the start of the year there have been more than 40 attacks against US interests in Iraq, where 2,500 American troops are deployed as part of an international coalition  to fight the extremist ISIS.

US must stop its interference in the region, Iran says after overnight airstrikes
Tamara Abueish, Al Arabiya English/28 June ,2021
The United States is “moving on the wrong path” and must stop its interference in the region, Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday following US military airstrikes against pro-Iranian militias in Iraq and Syria. “Rising tension in the region is not in the interest of the United States of America,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. Iran called on the United States to avoid “creating crisis” in the region. “Certainly what the United States is doing is disrupting security in the region, and one of the victims of this disruption will be the United States,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday. The Pentagon announced early on Monday that it had carried out airstrikes against the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs) militias in Iraq and Syria in response to drone attacks by the group against US personnel and facilities in Iraq. The PMUs, known as the Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic, said that the airstrikes had “resulted in the martyrdom of a group of heroic fighters.” “We will remain the shield defending our beloved nation, and we are fully ready... to respond and take revenge,” it added. In one raid in Iraq’s al-Anbar province, four fighters were reportedly killed, PMUs sources told AFP. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had reported that “at least five” Iraqi fighters were killed and several wounded in strikes on the Syrian side of the frontier. The war monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria to collect information, said that military positions were among the targets hit.Since the start of the year there have been more than 40 attacks against US interests in Iraq, where 2,500 American troops are deployed as part of an international coalition to fight ISIS. (With AFP)

Iran will never get a nuclear weapon, US President Biden tells Israeli counterpart
AFP/28 June ,2021
President Joe Biden on Monday reassured Israel’s president, ahead of a visit by new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, that the United States will not permit Iran to develop nuclear weapons. “Iran will never get a nuclear weapon on my watch,” Biden told President Reuven Rivlin in the White House. Biden also dismissed congressional critics who have questioned his legal authority in ordering air strikes against Iranian-backed militias accused of attacking US personnel in Syria and Iraq. “I have that authority,” Biden said. The close US-Israeli relationship hit a rocky patch when Biden replaced Donald Trump in January. However, the formation of a new government under Bennett, following the downfall of key Trump ally Benjamin Netanyahu, has opened the door to a reset -- and a Bennett visit in the near future. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden-Rivlin meeting would “highlight the strength of the relationship from our shared interest in security and stability.” Psaki said there was no date yet for Bennett’s White House trip but “the president looks forward to hosting the prime minister and it’s soon.”

Lapid to Blinken: Disagreements about Iran deal can be worked out quietly
Jerusalem Post/June 28/2021
“Israel has some serious reservations about the Iran nuclear deal being put together in Vienna,” Israeli FM Yair Lapid said. Israel and the US should not air their disagreements publicly but instead should discuss them directly, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said Sunday at the start of a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Rome. “Israel has some serious reservations about the Iran nuclear deal being put together in Vienna,” he said. “We believe the way to discuss those disagreements is through direct and professional conversations, not in press conferences.”
FM @YairLapid meets with US Secretary of State @SecBlinken:
"Secretary Blinken and I represent new administrations, his a few months old, mine only a few weeks, but we also represent a very long and strong tradition of close friendship and cooperation."
https://t.co/dJOgbGfSeM pic.twitter.com/4UoszHSRce
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) June 27, 2021
Jerusalem and Washington share the same goals, and disagreements between them are about how to achieve them, Lapid said. “Mr. Secretary, I know we can count on you,” he added. The US is Israel’s most important and most loyal ally, and the new governments of both countries come from “a very long and strong tradition of close friendship and cooperation,” the foreign minister said. Lapid said he plans to work to rehabilitate Israel’s bipartisan support in the US, adding that he spoke with leading Democrats and Republicans in recent days to that end. “I reminded them all that Israel shares America’s most basic values – freedom, democracy, free markets, the constant search for peace,” he said. “In the struggle for those values, Secretary Blinken is a great friend and a great partner.” Lapid also thanked Blinken for US support for normalization between Israel and Arab states. “I look forward to working with you to widen the circle of peace in our region,” he said. “That is the best way to bring stability and prosperity to the Middle East.” Other issues Lapid said were on the agenda for his meeting with Blinken were “strengthening our ability to defend ourselves, working to minimize conflict between us and the Palestinians, while making life better for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”In addition, Lapid sent prayers and condolences to the victims of the building collapse in Surfside, Florida. Blinken agreed with Lapid that the US-Israel relationship is “based... on a set of shared values and shared interests.” US President Joe Biden “feels very, very strongly about... a deep, enduring, abiding commitment on the part of the United States to Israel’s security,” he said. Blinken put the reconstruction of Gaza at the top of the agenda for his meeting with Lapid.“The work, I hope, can be done to, as you say, offer a more hopeful future for everyone, Palestinians and Israelis alike, with equal measures of opportunity and dignity,” he said, repeating a phrase Biden administration officials used throughout Operation Guardian of the Walls last month. Blinken used the phrase “the Abraham Accords” – contrary to criticism of the Biden administration that it had refused to use the Trump-era branding – and said they “strongly support this, and hopefully there’ll be other participants.” At the same time, Blinken said: “I think we’ve also discovered, or perhaps rediscovered, that as important as they are, as vital as they are, they are not a substitute for engaging on the issues between Israelis and Palestinians that need to be resolved.”Lapid met with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al-Zayani in Rome after Blinken. “We spoke at length about the normalization process in the Middle East and the need to expand it to cooperate with additional countries,” Lapid said at the end of the meeting. “Peace with Bahrain should be an example for the correct process that must occur in our region.”Lapid said he and his Bahraini counterpart also discussed regional challenges, foremost of which is Iran. Lapid plans to visit the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday in the first state visit by an Israeli minister to the Gulf state.

Iraq, Egypt, Jordan prioritise economics at Baghdad summit, leave questions unanswered
The Arab Weekly/June 28/2021
BAGHDAD – The leaders of Iraq, Egypt and Jordan prioritised the economic aspects at their tripartite summit Sunday in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, over the political and security issues, which raises questions about what Egypt and Jordan can offer to Iraq.
The summit, which started Sudnay, brought together Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Iraqi President Barham Salih, Egyptian President Abdelfattah al-Sisi and Jordanian King Abdullah II. While Egypt and Jordan see opportunities in Iraq, which has just announced that it has overcome its budget deficit thanks to the rise in oil prices, many Iraqis do not see any economic benefits from these two countries. An Iraqi parliamentarian, who preferred not to be named, told The Arab Weekly that “Egypt and Jordan have nothing to offer to Iraq.”Iraqi political analyst Rahim al-Kaabi believes that “Iraq’s economic and living conditions, which are increasingly difficult and which add to the country’s tensions, call for partners who are capable of providing economic solutions to the frustrations of the Iraqi street. But the government has apparently chosen another option.”Talking to The Arab Weekly, Kaabi asked, “What has changed so that the Arab Cooperation Council in its modified form becomes the solution for a country deprived of sovereignty and burdened with crises, tensions and divisions such as Iraq?” Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh and King Hussein of Jordan established the Arab Cooperation Council in February 1989. But the alliance quickly unravelled after the Kuwait crisis of 1990. Iraqi political researcher Hamid al-Kafaei believes that Egypt and Jordan are important Arab countries for Iraq and are also important globally and rapprochement and coordination with them is beneficial for Iraq and enhances its regional and international standing.
Talking to The Arab Weekly, Kafaei added, “Iraq’s rapprochement with any other Arab country will not be at the expense of its Gulf relations, as it benefits Iraq and strengthens its position, especially in light of Iranian threats to its sovereignty and to its cultural and national existence.”
The Baghdad summit also represented an opportunity for Jordan to restore its normal relations with Iraq in the wake of a period of estrangement and mistrust after the US invasion. Jordan and Iraq had previously agreed on projects that could represent a new basis for economic cooperation between the two neighbouring countries, especially the Basra-Aqaba pipeline, the joint economic zone and the electrical grid integration project. The trade balance has been in favour of Jordan in recent years. But Amman expects to increase oil exports from Iraq, from which Jordan imports no more than 10 percent of its oil needs. For many years before 2003, Jordan imported most of its oil needs from Iraq for free or at preferential prices. Some experts link the economic ambitions that underlie the relationship between the three countries relate to a number of considerations including the desire to invest in Egypt’s large consumer market (110 million population) and to benefit from the huge oil wealth of Iraq and the geographical location of the kingdom of Jordan, which links the other two countries.
The head of the Arab Forum for Policy Analysis in Cairo, Mohamed Mohsen Abul-Nur, said that the summit had “declared objectives , which included boosting the economic and financial partnership between the three countries, and benefiting from each country’s assets. But there are other undeclared objectives.” Abul-Nur added, “there are implicit goals that can be deduced, such as confronting hostile regional expansionism in Iraq,” and setting up plans between the three countries to thwart “the expansion of Turkish and Iranian lobbies in Iraq against Kadhimi and to strengthen the Iraqi state’s defences through economic, political and security initiatives.” In some political circles, there has been an increasing use of the new term “Al-Sham Al-Jadeed” (the new Levant) to refer to the cooperation formula between the three countries. This is a hint to a change in political geography linking the Levant to Syria and reassuring those who may believe that the new bloc aims to pave the way for the assimilation of Syria into its fold after the rapid developments signalling the rehabilitation of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The use of this term lowers expectations and speculation that linked it to security and political alliances and focuses instead on its economic goals, at least at this stage. Such an interpretation is likely to mitigate the expected criticism by some regional powers, who may see in it as the nucleus of an alliance that goes beyond economic goals.
Kadhimi used the expression “the new Levant” for the first time during his visit to the United States last August, pointing out that he intends to enter into an economic project with Cairo and Amman to form a regional bloc capable of meeting challenges.
The same term has been repeated to different degrees and at different times by officials in the three countries which means that the “New Levant” project has been under consideration for some time and has been waiting for the appropriate conditions to be launched. The Baghdad summit may be a prelude to its general official use.

Political solution only way to resolve Syrian crisis: Saudi FM
Ismaeel Naar, Al Arabiya English/ 28 June ,2021
A political solution is the only way to resolve the Syrian crisis in accordance with UN Security Resolution 2254 and other relevant international resolutions, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said. Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Monday participated in the ministerial meeting on Syria at the joint invitation of the United States and Italy, in Rome. “The Saudi Arabian foreign stressed on the importance of international consensus to stop the human suffering of the Syrian people, and to reach a solution to the border crossings crisis, and to ensure the flow of international aid to those who deserve it,” the Saudi Press Agency reported on the Prince’s speech in Rome. “He also called on others to not politicize the humanitarian issue in Syria, and to not neglect the humanitarian needs of the Syrian people, and that neglecting this provides a suitable environment for the growth and spread of terrorist organizations and extremist ideology,” the SPA reported. “The absence of effective international will to solve the Syrian crisis contributed to the opportunity for some parties to implement expansionist, sectarian, and demographic projects aimed at changing Syria's identity, and heralds the prolongation of the Syrian crisis and its regional and international effects,” Prince Faisal said during his speech

Oman contacts with Israel highlight normalisation prospects
The Arab Weekly/June 28/2021
MUSCAT - A phone call between Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi and his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid showed Muscat and Tel Aviv were maintaining contact and good relations, despite a reluctance to officially declare a normalisation of ties.
Busaidi expressed hope on Thursday that the new Israeli government will take concrete steps towards creating an independent Palestinian state with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital. He also stressed the constants of the Omani peace policy in this regard.
The Omani minister spoke by phone to Israel’s top diplomat, according to ONA, the state news agency of Oman, which has a long-standing policy of neutrality in the turbulent region and often acts as a mediator. Thursday’s phone call marks first contact of its kind after the departure of Binyamin Netanyahu from the premiership of the Israeli government and the formation of a new government headed by Naftali Bennett. Experts noted that Thursday’s call reflects the strength of Omani-Israeli relations, which have not been affected by regional developments and the change of officials on both sides. Busaidi replaced his predecessor Yusuf bin Alawi as Oman’s top diplomat, when the latter was dismissed in August 2020. Over the years he spent in office, bin Alawi had contributed to the development of relations between Muscat and Tel Aviv. The government of Netanyahu also played a key role in boosting these relations, culminating in the former Israeli premier’s historic visit to the Sultanate in 2018. The good relations between Muscat and Tel Aviv have long raised questions about the two countries’ plans when it comes to a full normalisation of ties. These questions became more frequent during the past months after the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco normalised ties with the Jewish state and Sudan took a number of steps in the same direction. An Israeli diplomatic source said that neither Oman nor Israel is facing obstacles when it comes to normalisation. He added that Oman prefers to wait before taking such a step and that the Israeli side has shown a great deal of understanding , especially since the two sides are satisfied with the current level of bilateral relations.
The same source however noted, “This does not necessarily mean that the coming period will not witness an official normalisation of Israeli-Omani relations, especially that such a process enjoys the support of the United States, an ally of both countries.”Earlier in June, the Associated Press reported that the administration of US President Joe Biden is laying the groundwork for a renewed push to encourage more Arab countries to sign accords with Israel. The US administration is also working to strengthen existing deals after last month’s devastating war in the Gaza Strip interrupted those diplomatic efforts. The embrace of the so-called Abraham Accords is a rare carryover of a signature Trump administration policy by Biden and other Democrats. The Trump administration put US clout and incentives into landing the country-by-country pacts by four Arab states last year, easing enmity and isolation for the Jewish state in the Middle East that had dated back to Israel’s 1948 founding. The Biden administration saw significant prospects of several other Arab governments signing accords soothing and normalising relations with Israel. US officials have declined to publicly identify the countries they regard as promising prospects.
Sudan, which signed a general declaration of peaceful intent but has not yet signed on to diplomatic relations with Israel, had been a prospect. Oman, which has a policy of non-interference that allows it to be a broker across the Middle East’s fault lines, long has been seen by Westerners as a likely contender.
But the 11-day war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas militant rulers last month has complicated US-backed diplomacy for new Abraham accords.
The fighting “has strengthened the conviction of opponents of normalisation” with Israel, activist Doura Gambo said in Sudan. Israeli Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign  Sudanese were already divided over their government’s agreement last year to become one of the four Arab states signing accords. In Sudan’s case, the Trump administration offered financial relief from US sanctions. Last month’s bloodshed, which killed 254 Palestinians, including 66 children and at least 22 members of one family, resonated deeply with the Arab public, including in the other countries that had signed accords with Israel: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. Thirteen people died in Israel, including two children and one soldier. The Biden administration is considering appointing a former US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, to a Mideast role that would marshal and potentially expand the country-by-country accords between Israel and Mideast governments. Two people familiar with the matter confirmed Shapiro was being considered for the job, as first reported by The Washington Post. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
US officials also are working to encourage more business, education and other ties among the four Arab states and Israel. They hope visible success there will also promote the bilateral accords in the region, at the same time the US works to advance resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Last year, the United Arab Emirates became the first Arab country in over two decades to establish ties with Israel, after Egypt and Jordan in 1979 and 1994, respectively. It was a move that bypassed the Palestinians, who saw it as betrayal. The Abraham Accords include a general declaration of support for peaceful relations in the Middle East among Jews, Muslims and Christians, all followers of religions linked to the patriarch Abraham. The Trump administration saw the accords partly as paving a path toward full ties with Israel, including in security and intelligence cooperation to counter common rivals, such as Iran. The deals former President Donald Trump struck were “an important achievement, one that not only we support, but one we’d like to build on,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this month. In addition, “we’re looking at countries that may want to join in, and take part and begin to normalise their own relations with Israel. That, too, has been very much part of conversations I’ve had with, with several of my counterparts,” Blinken added. Before any new efforts on the accords move forward, big political and pragmatic developments need to fall into place in the region. Eyes are on Israel at the moment to see how a possible new coalition government led by a new prime minister may affect Israeli-Palestinian relations, especially in the aftermath of the Gaza war.

Palestinian minister to resign as government faces mounting pressures
The Arab Weekly/June 28/2021
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories – The labour minister in the Palestinian Authority will resign, a member of his party said Sunday, as protesters marched for a fourth day demanding president Mahmud Abbas step down. The left-wing Palestinian People’s Party has decided to withdraw from the Fatah-led PA government due to “its lack of respect for laws and public freedoms,” central committee member Issam Abu Bakr said. Nasri Abu Jaish, the labour minister and the People’s Party representative in the government, will therefore resign on Monday, Abu Bakr said. Demonstrations against the PA erupted Thursday following the violent arrest and death in custody of activist Nizar Banat and continued Sunday evening. Banat, a 43-year-old known for social media videos denouncing alleged corruption within the PA, died on Thursday shortly after security forces stormed his house, beat him and dragged him away, his family said. The PA has announced the opening of an investigation into Banat’s death, but this has done little to appease anger on the streets. On Sunday evening, protesters defied a heavy deployment of security forces, holding up photographs of the activist as they marched in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in Banat’s home town of Hebron. In Ramallah, the seat of the PA, protesters demanded those responsible for Banat’s death be held accountable, while several supporters of the Fatah party of Abbas gathered to shout slogans backing the president. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate called for the dismissal of the PA police chief “due to the police’s failure to protect journalists who were attacked, prevented from reporting and threatened” within view of police officers at the protests. According to the autopsy, injuries indicated Banat had been beaten on the head, chest, neck, legs and hands, with less than an hour elapsing between his arrest and his death, doctor Samir Abu Zarzour said.
Polls postponed
On Saturday, protesters in Ramallah hurled rocks at Palestinian security forces, who opened fire with a barrage of tear gas canisters, with reports of several injured. Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq on Sunday accused security forces of “attacking the participants with batons and rocks” while dragging others to the ground and beating them, adding that some suffered head injuries. Protesters called for 86-year-old Abbas to quit. Banat had registered as a candidate in Palestinian parliamentary elections, which had been set for May until Abbas postponed them indefinitely.
The president’s original mandate expired in 2009 and he has since governed by decree. In April, Abbas declared that legislative and presidential polls set for May and July respectively should not be held until Israel guaranteed voting could take place in annexed east Jerusalem. Al-Haq warned there had been a “serious regression on public rights and freedoms” since the decision to scrap the elections. In addition to holding the presidency, Abbas is also head of Fatah and president of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), recognised internationally as representing the Palestinians. But Fatah faces a growing challenge from its longtime rivals, the Islamist Hamas movement, which rules the Palestinian coastal enclave of Gaza.The PA exercises limited powers over some 40 percent of the West Bank, occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967. Israel, which controls all access to the territory and coordinates with  the PA, directly administers the remaining 60 percent.

Ethiopia declares immediate, unilateral Tigray ceasefire after 8 months of conflict
The Associated Press/ 28 June ,2021
Ethiopia’s government on Monday declared an immediate, unilateral ceasefire in its Tigray region after nearly eight months of deadly conflict and as hundreds of thousands of people face the world’s worst famine crisis in a decade. The statement carried by state media came shortly after the Tigray interim administration, appointed by the federal government, fled the regional capital, Mekele, and called for a cease-fire on humanitarian grounds so that desperately needed aid can be delivered. Meanwhile, Mekele residents cheered the arrival of Tigray forces. The cease-fire “will enable farmers to till their land, aid groups to operate without any military movement around and engage with remnants (of Tigray's former ruling party) who seek peace,” Ethiopia's statement said, adding that efforts to bring Tigray's former leaders to justice continue.Ethiopia said the cease-fire will last until the end of the crucial planting season in Tigray. The season’s end comes in September. The government ordered all federal and regional authorities to respect the cease-fire — crucial as authorities and fighters from the neighboring Amhara region have been accused of atrocities in western Tigray. “The government has the responsibility to find a political solution to the problem,” the head of the interim administration, Abraham Belay, said in calling for the cease-fire, adding that some elements within Tigray’s former ruling party are willing to engage with the federal government. There was no immediate comment from the Tigray fighters, with whom Ethiopia had rejected talks. And there was no immediate comment from neighboring Eritrea, whose soldiers have been accused by Tigray residents of some of the worst atrocities in the war. Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict as Ethiopian and allied forces pursue Tigray’s former leaders and their supporters, and as humanitarian groups plead for more access to the region of 6 million people. The region in recent days has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict. International pressure on Ethiopia spiked again last week after a military airstrike on a busy market in Tigray killed more than 60 people.

Libya talks seek to pave way for December elections
Reuters/28 June ,2021
Libyan delegates met in Switzerland on Monday at the start of four days of UN-facilitated talks aimed at creating the legal conditions for elections in December, which they hope will usher in a “new era” for the North African country.
Around 75 delegates are participating in the discussions, being held near Geneva, where they hope to agree on the constitutional basis for presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for Dec. 24. Several delegates expressed optimism as the talks began.
“The intent is to reach a consensus that serves the country and takes us out of the crisis and achieves stability and gets the economy rolling again to start a new era where democracy, a civil state and justice prevails,” Majda Alfallah, a senator at High Council of State delegation, told the forum. Warring factions have stuck to a truce since October and have all agreed to a temporary unity government and planned elections. However, there are private doubts about everyone’s commitment and myriad armed groups continue to hold power on the ground and might undermine the fairness of a vote.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that elections were the only way to ensure peace and stability in Libya.

Poland Summons Israeli Envoy over WWII Claims Row
Agence France Presse/28 June ,2021
Poland said Sunday it had summoned the Israeli envoy after Israel slammed as "immoral" a new Polish law that experts say could block World War II restitution claims. Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski said Warsaw would like to set the record straight about the legislation passed in parliament on Thursday. Tal Ben-Ari Yaalon, the charge d'affaires, "has been summoned ... and we will explain to her in a decisive and factual way what it's about", Jablonski told state television TVP about the meeting due on Monday. "We believe that unfortunately what we're dealing with here is a situation that certain Israeli politicians are exploiting for internal political purposes," he added. The Israeli embassy in Warsaw tweeted on Thursday that "this immoral law will seriously impact relations between our countries". It "will in effect prevent the restitution of Jewish property or compensation requests from Holocaust survivors and their descendants as well as the Jewish community that called Poland home for centuries. It's mind-boggling," the embassy said. The bill's authors argue it is needed to bring the law into line with a 2015 Constitutional Court ruling, which found that there must be a deadline after which administrative decisions can no longer be contested. The legislation sets the cut-off date at 10 to 30 years, depending on the case. Poland's foreign ministry said Friday the introduction of time limits would "lead to the elimination of fraud and irregularities, which occurred on a large scale." "The new regulations do not in any way restrict the possibility of bringing civil suits to seek damages, irrespective of the plaintiff's nationality or origin," it added. "Poland is by no means responsible for the Holocaust, an atrocity committed by the German occupant also on Polish citizens of Jewish origin." Six million Poles, half of them Jewish, were killed during Nazi Germany's 1939-45 occupation of Poland during World War II.

Ministerial Meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS
June 28, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Ministers of the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS, reconvening in-person after two years, met today in Rome at the invitation of Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Luigi Di Maio and U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. The Ministers reaffirmed their shared determination to continue the fight against Daesh/ISIS, and to create conditions for the enduring defeat of the terrorist group, which remains the Coalition’s sole purpose, through a comprehensive, coordinated and multifaceted effort. The Ministers welcomed new members joining the Coalition - Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritania, and Yemen.  Together the Ministers emphasized the protection of civilians as a priority and affirmed that international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, as applicable, as well as relevant UN Security Council resolutions, must be upheld under all circumstances. 
The Ministers committed to strengthening cooperation across all Coalition lines of effort in order to ensure that Daesh/ISIS Core in Iraq and Syria, and its affiliates and networks around the world are unable to reconstitute any territorial enclave or continue to threaten our homelands, people, and interests. The Ministers remain firmly united in our outrage at atrocities perpetrated by Daesh/ISIS and in our determination to eliminate this global threat, and stand alongside survivors and families of victims of Daesh/ISIS crimes working for accountability.
Daesh/ISIS no longer controls territory and nearly eight million people have been freed from its control in Iraq and Syria, but the threat remains. The resumption in Daesh/ISIS activities and its ability to rebuild its networks and capabilities to target security forces and civilians in areas where the Coalition is not active, requires strong vigilance and coordinated action. This includes allocating adequate resources to sustain Coalition and legitimate partner forces’ efforts against Daesh/ISIS, and significant stabilization support, both to address the drivers that make communities vulnerable to recruitment by Daesh/ISIS and related violent ideological groups, as well as to provide support to liberated areas to safeguard our collective security interests. In this regard, the Ministers noted the 2021 Pledge Drive for Stabilization as an important means to help sustain the recovery of areas liberated from Daesh/ISIS and prevent its resurgence.  The Ministers reaffirm that Daesh/ISIS will continue to be pressured by curbing its ability to raise revenue, enhancing information sharing on terrorists through bilateral and/or multilateral channels like INTERPOL, and fighting against Daesh/ISIS’ toxic propaganda and denying the group space to exploit social media online. 
The Ministers acknowledged Iraq’s efforts to counter Daesh/ISIS’ remnants and prevent its resurgence, and commended the increased capacity of the Iraqi forces to combat Daesh/ISIS. Appropriate measures to enhance the operational efficiency and coordination of our collective efforts to maintain the necessary pressure on Daesh/ISIS remain essential. The Coalition operates in Iraq at the request of the Government of Iraq in full respect of Iraq’s unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, and to the benefit of the Iraqi people. The Ministers firmly condemned the continuing attacks against Coalition personnel and convoys, and diplomatic facilities, emphasizing the importance of the Government of Iraq protecting Coalition assets.  The Ministers welcomed the incremental expansion of NATO’s non-combat advisory, training and capacity building mission in Iraq based on the requirements and consent of the Iraqi authorities and complementing the Coalition’s efforts.   The Ministers also welcomed the EU’s support to the Iraqi authorities through the EUAM Iraq Mission.
In Syria, the Coalition stands with the Syrian people in support of a lasting political settlement in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2254. The Coalition must continue to be vigilant against the threat of terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, to build on the success it has achieved and continue to act together against any threats to this outcome and to avoid security vacuums that Daesh/ISIS may exploit. The Coalition continues to support inclusive local recovery and stabilization in areas liberated from Daesh/ISIS and reconciliation and reintegration efforts to foster conditions conducive to a Syria-wide political resolution to the conflict under the parameters of UN Security Council Resolution 2254.
In a session of the meeting focused on the security situation in other continents and regions, particularly Africa, the Ministers noted with grave concern that Daesh/ISIS affiliates and networks in sub-Saharan Africa threaten security and stability, namely in the Sahel Region and in East Africa/Mozambique. The Coalition is committed to working with affected countries to address the threats posed by Daesh/ISIS in Africa to ensure the enduring global defeat of the organization upon the request and prior consent of the countries concerned, and in full respect of international law and in close coordination with existing initiatives, notably the Coalition for the Sahel and the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum. The Ministers welcomed the presence of delegations from several African nations as observers to this ministerial meeting.  The Ministers discussed that reinforcing civilian state institutions and consolidating the rule of law, including law enforcement capacity, will be an essential component of combatting Daesh/ISIS, and that the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS will seek to have effective engagement on the African continent. The Ministers tasked the Coalition Working Groups to assess ways in which they can contribute to counter Daesh/ISIS efforts in the affected regions.  The Ministers also welcomed Afghanistan’s efforts to counter the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria-Khurasan (ISIS-K).
Recognizing the challenge posed by foreign terrorist fighters who are in custody, as well as their family members who remain in Syria and Iraq, the Ministers committed to pursuing existing effective justice and accountability mechanisms in close coordination with the countries of origin. This also includes accountability for fighters who have used sexual violence as an instrument of terror. The Coalition remains committed to promoting efforts to ensure that accused terrorists, including those of foreign nationalities, are treated appropriately and tried consistently with applicable international law obligations, including fair trial guarantees, and urges the custodians of the detained Daesh/ISIS terrorists to treat them humanely at all times, in accordance with international law.  The Ministers further recognized that the situation for Daesh/ISIS detainees and family members in northeast Syria is of grave concern and recognized the importance of finding a comprehensive and long-term solution to this serious issue. 
The Coalition reaffirmed its belief that a comprehensive and collective effort remains necessary to achieve a full and enduring defeat of Daesh/ISIS worldwide. The Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS has proven that it is a cohesive, responsive tool that has achieved notable successes through military, political, stabilization, counter-messaging, financial, and law enforcement lines of effort. 
The Ministers also reaffirmed their intent to hold the next ministerial meeting of the Global Coalition by June 2022 and to hold a Small Group Political Directors Meeting in Brussels in the fall of 2021, circumstances pending.  

Joint statement on the ministerial meeting on Syria
June 28, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America, Italy, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, the United Kingdom, and representatives of the Arab League and European Union, which met today to discuss the crisis in Syria.
“We, the ministers and representatives of the United States, Italy, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, the United Kingdom, and representatives of the Arab League and European Union, met today on the margins of the Defeat ISIS Coalition Ministerial to discuss the crisis in Syria. We stressed the critical importance of meeting humanitarian needs, including life-saving assistance and COVID-19 response for all Syrians in need, through all modalities, including through the provision and expansion of the UN cross-border mechanism to which there is no adequate alternative. We also underlined the importance of continued support to Syrian refugees and host countries until Syrians can voluntarily return home with safety and dignity, in line with UNHCR standards.
“We welcomed UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen’s briefing and reaffirmed strong support for UN-led efforts to implement all aspects of UN Security Council Resolution 2254, including continued support for an immediate nation-wide ceasefire, the unimpeded and safe delivery of aid, and the Constitutional Committee, as well as fighting against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
“Reaffirming the unity and territorial integrity of Syria, we remain committed to continue working actively to reach a credible, sustainable, and inclusive political solution based on Resolution 2254. This is the only solution that will bring an end to Syria’s decade long conflict and guarantee the security of the Syrian people and fulfil their aspirations.”

Canada/Minister Garneau meets with Indonesian counterpart
June 27, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, met today with his Indonesian counterpart, Retno Marsudi, on the margins of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ and Development Ministers’ Meeting in Italy.
Both Ministers highlighted the strong bilateral relationship and cooperation between Canada and Indonesia in many areas, including support for the international rules-based order, trade and investment.
The two Ministers discussed the importance of working together toward a greener economy, the post-COVID recovery and expanding access to vaccines to lower income countries. Both expressed grave concern at the ongoing situation in Myanmar and agreed on the need for inclusive political dialogue as a critical step in peacefully resolving this crisis. Minister Garneau thanked Indonesia’s resolved efforts within ASEAN in responding to this crisis, and in advancing the swift implementation of ASEAN’s 5-point consensus. He reiterated Canada’s readiness to support ASEAN in these ongoing efforts.
The Ministers also welcomed the launch of negotiations between the two countries toward a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, which will support sustainable economic growth, help facilitate increased trade and investment, and reinforce both countries’ shared commitment to open markets and rules-based trade.
In closing, Minister Garneau congratulated Indonesia on taking on the next G20 presidency. Both Ministers look forward to working together in support of an inclusive, sustainable and resilient global recovery.

Canada/Minister Garneau speaks with Italian counterpart
June 27, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today spoke with his counterpart, Luigi Di Maio, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy.
Minister Garneau congratulated Italy for its leadership as co-host of this week’s Global Coalition Against Daesh ministerial meeting and host of the G20 ministerial meeting. The Minister reiterated Canada’s appreciation for Italy’s commitment to international cooperation and multilateralism.
The ministers exchanged views on issues of global concern, including climate change, peace building in the Middle East, the human rights situation in Xinjiang, China, as well as Russia’s destabilizing actions in other states.
They agreed that these issues were best addressed through joint action with allies and partners.
The ministers also raised key bilateral issues, such as trade that continues to thrive and increase between our two countries.
Finally, the ministers acknowledged the important work being done by Canada and Italy on the global scene, and they recognized how the two countries can continue to work together to advance mutual interests.

The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 28-282021
Supreme Court Cheerleads for First Amendment
Alan M. Dershowitz/Gatestone Institute/June 28/2021
[The decision] sends a powerful message that the Supreme Court is still in the business of protecting offensive speech, even as big tech, universities and many progressives have tried to justify pervasive censorship of speech with which they disagree.
[T]he most dangerous form of contemporary censorship comes not from the government, but rather from private parties who themselves have the First Amendment right to censor speech with which they disagree. In other words, what we are experiencing is an attack not on the First Amendment itself, but rather on the culture of free speech that the First Amendment is designed to protect.
Today many such institutions punish students and applicants for social media statements they may have posted when they were the same youthful age as the cheerleader. Nor is the punishment always based on neutral or objective standards. It tends to be imposed far more on conservative students who have violated political correctness norms of the left. It is rarely, if ever, imposed on left-wing students, especially students of color, who make statements that are deeply offensive to conservatives and/or white heterosexual men. The constitutional reach of the First Amendment permits such selective punishment by private institutions, but the culture of freedom of expression does not.
In an 8-1 decision, the United States Supreme Court reminded a nation that seems to have forgotten freedom of speech about the importance of the First Amendment.
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a thoughtful decision denying public schools the power to discipline high school students for talking the way high school students tend to talk among themselves outside of school. A 14-year-old cheerleader had made the mistake of sending a rant to a few friends, one of whose mothers was a coach.
This was not a broad decision that gave students the right to say or do anything outside of school. It was limited to cases in which students are disciplined for making statements that would generally be protected by the First Amendment and did not significantly affect the educational mission of the school. It would not apply, for example, to bullying or other harmful speech that would impact other students.
The significance of this decision goes well beyond the cheerleader and her juvenile gestures and words. It sends a powerful message that the Supreme Court is still in the business of protecting offensive speech, even as big tech, universities and many progressives have tried to justify pervasive censorship of speech with which they disagree. "Free speech for me, but not for thee" has become a common mantra of the hard left, and of those institutions that kowtow to the most radical elements of our society.
In a recent book, entitled, The Case Against the New Censorship: Protecting Free Speech from Big Tech, Progressives and Universities, I argued that the most dangerous form of contemporary censorship comes not from the government, but rather from private parties who themselves have the First Amendment right to censor speech with which they disagree. In other words, what we are experiencing is an attack not on the First Amendment itself, but rather on the culture of free speech that the First Amendment is designed to protect.
Although the cheerleader case involved a public school, its implications go beyond government. Many private universities, for example — such as Harvard, where I taught for 50 years — loudly proclaimed that although they are not technically bound by the First Amendment, they follow it to the letter. It will be interesting to see whether these private schools will now stop disciplining and denying admission to students and applicants based on statements they made on social media. Today many such institutions punish students and applicants for social media statements they may have posted when they were the same youthful age as the cheerleader. Nor is the punishment always based on neutral or objective standards. It tends to be imposed far more on conservative students who have violated political correctness norms of the left. It is rarely, if ever, imposed on left-wing students, especially students of color, who make statements that are deeply offensive to conservatives and/or white heterosexual men. The constitutional reach of the First Amendment permits such selective punishment by private institutions, but the culture of freedom of expression does not.
Justice Louis Brandeis correctly pointed out a century ago: "The Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher...", to which may be added, "and the Supreme Court is the dean." When the government suppresses speech, the lesson is learned and often emulated by other institutions. This is especially true of our public schools, which, as Justice Stephen Breyer pointed out, are the nurseries of our Constitution.
Surprisingly, Justice Clarence Thomas was the sole dissenter. He usually can be counted on to defend freedom of speech and other core constitutional values, especially against partisan and selective attacks from the left. But Thomas is an originalist who interprets the Constitution in accordance with what the Framers intended, and he concluded — erroneously in my view — that the Framers placed a higher value on school discipline than on freedom of speech for students. The important point, however, is that eight justices — three liberals and five conservatives — sided with the First Amendment over the claims of school authorities.
Let us see, then, how these new censors respond to that new decision.
Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus at Harvard Law School and author of the book, The Case Against the New Censorship: Protecting Free Speech from Big Tech, Progressives and Universities, Hot Books, April 20, 2021. His new podcast, "The Dershow," can be seen on Spotify, Apple and YouTube. He is the Jack Roth Charitable Foundation Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
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Will US airstrikes be a gamechanger for Biden’s Mideast policy? - analysis
Seth J. Frantzman/Jerusalem Post/June 28/2021
If the US rate of response is only two retaliatory rounds of strikes to dozens of attacks since January, the US is not deterring the pro-Iran groups.
For the second time this year, the Biden administration has responded to threats to US forces in Iraq by carrying out airstrikes. The second round of strikes took place early on Monday and targeted militia groups with ties to Iran.
The first airstrikes ordered by the Biden administration took place in late February and also targeted Iran-backed militias in Syria.
“At President [Joe] Biden’s direction, US military forces earlier this evening conducted defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said. “The targets were selected because these facilities are utilized by Iran-backed militias that are engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle [UAV] attacks against US personnel and facilities in Iraq.”
The reason the targeting of these groups is legitimate is because they are being carried out in the border region that is not under Iraqi sovereignty.
Iraq hosts the Popular Mobilization Units, pro-Iranian militias that are technically an official paramilitary force. This means airstrikes carried out on them are actually on Iraqi territory. These militias have carried out dozens of attacks on US forces.
US forces were invited to Iraq in 2014 to help fight ISIS, but since 2017, there have been increasing calls by the militias for them to pull out. Since May 2019, there have been increasing attacks, which culminated in the killing of a US contractor in December 2019 and led to US retaliatory airstrikes.
The US has said it “targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq, both of which lie close to the border between those countries. Several Iran-backed militia groups, including Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS), used these facilities.”
Biden is seeking to send a clear message that he will act to protect Americans in Iraq.
The most recent attack took place on Saturday when armed drones, likely flown by pro-Iran militias, targeted Erbil in the autonomous Kurdistan Region. The drones struck areas close to the site of the new US Consulate. No Americans were wounded.
It was not clear what the target was or if the attack was intended to be a message that Iran and its proxies have the means to strike the consulate. Over the past few months, some 45 attacks targeting US forces and facilities have been recorded. These include logistics convoys linked to the US that the militias assume resupply the US facilities.
There were also attacks on US contractors at Balad Air Base. Most importantly, a drone struck a secret CIA hangar at Erbil’s airport in April. The usual modus operandi of the militias is to use 107-mm.or 122-mm. rockets. But in recent months the drone threat has rapidly increased.
“Given the ongoing series of attacks by Iran-backed groups targeting US interests in Iraq, the President directed further military action to disrupt and deter such attacks,” the US said in a statement. “We are in Iraq at the invitation of the Government of Iraq for the sole purpose of assisting the Iraqi Security Forces in their efforts to defeat ISIS. The United States took necessary, appropriate, and deliberate action designed to limit the risk of escalation – but also to send a clear and unambiguous deterrent message.”
The US also said it has a right to self-defense and that the president took this action pursuant to his Article II authority to protect US personnel in Iraq.
Washington is currently in the middle of a military withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Iran wants to pressure the US in Iraq. In addition, Turkey and other players may want to pressure the US’s role in Syria as well.
These “defensive airstrikes conducted today by the Department of Defense on operational and weapons storage facilities in the Iraq-Syria border region appear to be a targeted and proportional response to a serious and specific threat,” US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said.
It was important to protect America’s military, she said in a statement, adding: “The Iran-backed militias utilizing these facilities have been engaged in attacks threatening US service members, as well as our allies. Congress looks forward to receiving and reviewing the formal notification of this operation under the War Powers Act and to receiving additional briefings from the Administration.”
According to Michael Knights, who specializes in Iraqi military security, the airstrikes that hit near the border town of Albukamal between Syria and Iraq “[do] appear to have the space and facilities to be the hub for militia drone development. This is why it was struck. We can expect the Biden team to have gone non/less-lethal again, trading strictly proportionally. Not sure that will cut it.”
He tweeted that he was “not convinced that hitting drone facilities themselves is very fruitful. These are cheap drones using many dual-use and low-cost systems, Iran is close enough [by land so that] resupply is easy and assemblers are replaceable. Only leadership strikes deter.”
The larger point Knights is making is that drone and rocket attacks have increased this year, and the new threat includes at least 10 attacks with several types of drones. If the US rate of response is only two retaliatory rounds of strikes in response to dozens of attacks since January, then the US is not deterring the pro-Iran groups.
Along with Crispin Smith, Knights wrote an article at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy regarding the drone threat.
This leaves a major question mark over whether Biden will go further and whether more strikes will occur. It is clear the Biden administration is attempting to justify the strikes to Congress. However, Iran appears to feel it has the impunity to attack the US, striking secret sites and targeting air defenses and other sensitive areas.
While some pro-Iran claims of attacks may be disinformation, the reality is that they appear to have the upper hand. The US is not prepared to do what the Trump administration did, which was to target Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, key leadership figures of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Popular Mobilization Forces, respectively.
This means the strikes may be more of an example of doing something just so that the US can say it did something. That would not be a game changer, and Iran will likely know that.
This then puts the Pentagon and White House in a bind: They know what needs to be done to deter Iran, but they may not want to increase tensions.
Instead, the US is withdrawing air-defense systems from the region, officials have told The Wall Street Journal. That is not a good message to an Iran that increasingly wants to push the US out of the way.
In addition, during the 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in May, a drone was launched from Iraq or Syria and flew into Israeli airspace before being shot down. This means the threats in Iraq to US forces also run parallel to emerging threats to Israel in the region.

Beat, Raped, and Left for Dead: The Persecution of Christians, May 2021
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/June 28/201
ريموند إبراهيم/جيتستون: جدول بقائمة اضطهاد المسيحيين في العالم لشهر أيار 2021/ضرب واغتصاب وترك الضحايا يواجهون الموت
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/100131/100131/
The boy eventually met up with his mother, and they went searching for Pastor Thomas. According to the wife, “As we continued doing the search, we found my husband in a pool of blood, beheaded and his tongue removed.” His tongue was likely cut out as punishment for “speaking against Islam.”
Although Azerbaijan claims to be repairing the damage it caused the cathedral, subsequent pictures and video footage suggest that they are defacing it more…. In the same area of Shushi where the cathedral is being profaned, Azerbaijan is preparing to build a “victory” mosque…. Finally, Azerbaijan is using gravestones from Armenian Christian cemeteries as building material.
Muslim men raped a Christian child and molested another. On May 2, Muhammad Awais, “beat, raped, and left for dead” Anum Bibi, an 8-year-old Christian girl, after he caught her trying to retrieve water with her 9-year-old brother. — Pakistan.
A group of Muslims attacked a Christian family and destroyed their home in an effort to seize their farmstead. “Muslims destroyed our mud house,” the mother explained. “They stole our tin roof, took the rice, food, everything of value. They also beat me and my husband with a stick, even my children.”… As a result, police failed to respond or make any arrests and instead asked for money from the victims. — Bangladesh.
Although Azerbaijan claims to be repairing the damage it caused to the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral (pictured), subsequent photographs and video footage suggest that they are defacing it more…. In the same area of Shushi where the cathedral is being profaned, Azerbaijan is preparing to build a “victory” mosque…. Finally, Azerbaijan is using gravestones from Armenian Christian cemeteries as building material.
The following are among the abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of May 2021:
The Slaughter of Christians
Uganda: On May 3, hours after Pastor Thomas Chikooma engaged in a public debate about Islam and Christianity, Muslims severed his tongue and beheaded him. The well-known pastor, father of 11, had planted 50 churches in eastern Uganda. During the open-air event, to which Muslims had invited him, he used the Bible and Koran to make his points. He won over several people — including six Muslims, who went on to convert to Christianity — prompting angry Muslims in the crowd to cry “Allahu Akbar,” prompted the pastor and his young son to rush away from the event.
Picture Enclosed/lAlthough Azerbaijan claims to be repairing the damage it caused to the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral (pictured), subsequent photographs and video footage suggest that they are defacing it more…. In the same area of Shushi where the cathedral is being profaned, Azerbaijan is preparing to build a “victory” mosque…. Finally, Azerbaijan is using gravestones from Armenian Christian cemeteries as building material.
“Two motorcycles carrying two Muslims each and dressed in Islamic attire speedily bypassed us,” his son, a minor, later explained. “When we were 200 meters to reach our house, the two motorcycles stopped at the junction opposite Nalufenya primary school and the road near our house.” The pastor told his son to wait while he went to confront the four men. “Immediately some commotion began as the men started talking about the open-air debate, and soon one of them slapped my father,” said his son. “I got scared and fled … and arrived at home.” The boy eventually met up with his mother, and they went searching for Pastor Thomas.
According to the wife, “As we continued doing the search, we found my husband in a pool of blood, beheaded and his tongue removed.” His tongue was likely cut out as punishment for “speaking against Islam.”
Separately, Muslims poisoned and killed a Christian pastor over his land: whether a church or mosque would be built over it. Initially, Muslims in the area urged Pastor Yolonim Oduchu to sell them his land, so they could construct a mosque on it. According to the pastor’s brother, Francis:
“Aliasa Opeduru and a number of [other] Muslims had approached my brother to sell them the piece of land several times, but my brother declined because their offer was small, and he also wanted to have part of the land set aside for constructing a church structure. Later my brother received a threatening message from Opeduru saying he would not negotiate with him again.”
Eventually the Muslims “found a sponsor in Turkey to fund the construction of the mosque.” Now the problem became that the Muslims did not want a church near their mosque, but Pastor Yolonim began clearing his parcel of land in preparation of construction. Then, one day, after eating at a hotel owned by a Muslim, “my husband,” said his wife Mary, “took a motorcycle and arrived at home complaining of severe stomach pains, diarrhea and started vomiting. We rushed him to a nearby clinic, and he succumbed to poisoning.” Soon after his burial, his brother saw blood sprinkled atop the pastor’s grave with papers with Arabic writing.
“We then sought assistance from police, who came with a sniffing dog that directed the mourners up to Opeduru’s home, where we found the suspect inside the house sleeping. When police asked him about the blood, he admitted to pouring the animal blood there because the pastor didn’t respect him.”
After being interrogated by angry residents, the hotel owner confessed that “Muslims had given him poison and instructed him to put it in Pastor Oduchu’s food.” The pastor is survived by his wife and eight children, ages 2 to 16.
Pakistan: A group of Muslims abducted, beat, and poisoned a Christian man, before leaving him for dead in the middle of a street. Thirty-two-year-old Arif Masih’s crime was that he had tried to defend his younger sister from sexual harassment. According to the report, on May 20,
“Rehana Bibi, 18, had gone to the bazaar to buy some milk. Returning home, two young men, Muhammad Tariq and Muhammad Majid, began to harass her. The girl tried to escape and took refuge in the house. The two broke into the house and got into a fight with Arif [her brother]. The two young men also took the girl and dragged her to the bazaar, tore off her clothes and mocked her.”
Although the family registered a complaint with police, the police failed to act. Instead, Masih began to receive threats from the two accused men to drop the complaint, or else. Then, on May 23:
“both perpetrators went to Arif’s home and attacked him. They loaded him onto their motorcycle and then beat and poisoned him, throwing him on the street. Local people informed the family that their son was lifeless in the middle of the road.”
He was rushed to two different hospitals but, “due to his injuries and the poison, he died.” Because they could not get justice, Masih’s family took his body and exhibited it in the middle of a road, stopping vehicles and begging for justice (picture here).
Germany: During court proceedings, it was learned that a Muslim migrant from Syria murdered his sister’s boyfriend for being Christian. According to the May 18 report,
“[H]e had killed his sister’s boyfriend because, as a Muslim, he would not tolerate his sister’s relationship with her Christian boyfriend. According to the verdict, the man waited more than an hour in the backyard for the victim in January 2019. When the 25-year-old got out of the car, the defendant fired shots from close range. The man died in the hospital from his gunshot wounds.”
Democratic Republic of Congo: The Allied Democratic Forces, designated by the U.S. as an Islamic terror group, massacred between 50 and 57 people in the Christian majority nation, and torched 25 homes between May 29 and 30. The group is committed to creating an Islamic Caliphate in Central Africa.
Burkina Faso: On May 18, Islamic terrorists attacked a Christian baptismal ceremony, where they massacred 15 Christians. “People are shocked and many are running,” a native in contact with town residents reported at the time. It is the fourth such attack in the nation’s Sahel region. According to the report:
“Violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State extremists has left thousands dead in the West African nation over the last several years. In recent weeks, attacks have spiked in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region and in the country’s east. Two Spanish journalists and an Irish conservationist were among more than 50 people killed during one week in April. The violence has displaced more than 1 million people, and aid groups say it’s also brought tens of thousands to the brink of starvation by disrupting aid operations to those in need.”
South Sudan: On Sunday, May 19, a group of Muslims attacked and killed more than a dozen Christians. The attack and other forms of “senseless violence” have been taking place in the most northern part of the nation, particularly in Abyei, “an area that experiences Islamic encroachments followed by harassment, intimidation and frequent attacks carried out by Arab Islamic militias,” said the Episcopal Church of South Sudan in a statement. Of the most recent attack, the Bishop of Abyei, Michael Deng Bol, said that the village of Dungob-Alei, had been “barbarically attacked by militiamen of Sudan since around 5.30 am on Sunday 16 May, killing 13 people and wounding eight others. “
“The fighting is still continuing up to now [late Monday night]… This is not the first attack of its kind. In 2020 Kolom village, 12km away from Abyei town, and Mabok Diil village, 18km east of Abyei town, were also attacked in the same way with 38 killed and 22 wounded, together with the abduction of 17 children and burning down of 77 houses including our prayer centres and medical facilities.”
Nigeria: Some of the massacres of Christians at the hands of Fulani Muslim herdsmen reported throughout the month of May:
May 23: “Fourteen Christians were butchered to death, including children,” a survivor from a raided village wrote in a communique. “Eight members of one family have all been killed. This is beside an additional six other Christians killed by the herdsmen in the village.” More Christians were killed in another village on or around that same day, for a total of 37 dead. Survivors heard the attackers shouting the jihadist war-cry, “Allahu Akbar.” Discussing the fate of her brother, one woman said,
“The armed Fulani herdsmen spotted him and shot him dead. I feel very sad about the way my brother was killed in cold blood. Why must we live in fear every day, not knowing the evil that awaits us as Christians in this country?”
May 21: Fulani herdsmen killed two Christian men — both of whom left behind young families. The same day, a young Catholic priest’s body was found thrown in the bush. “Sokoto Diocese has been struck again by another set of blood-sucking demons,” church member Emmanuel Albert wrote in a text. “The Rev. Fr. Alphonsus is gone but will never be forgotten. He died because of his Christian faith, and as he has gone to meet his Maker, may eternal rest be granted to his soul.” Another church member said, “My aging mother’s wailing when I broke the news to her over the phone is jaggedly ringing in my soul… We pray for other priests and good people in captivity that God will bring them back home.”
May 20: Muslim herdsmen killed two Christians, 21-year-old Ladi Jeffrey, mother to a 16-month-old child, and her nephew, during a nighttime raid on the family’s home.
May 19: Fulani herdsmen murdered eight Christians and burned down a church.
Finally, according to another report published on May 12, between January and April of this year alone, 1,470 Christians were hacked to death by Muslim Fulani. On average this comes out to about 368 Christians killed every month for four months straight.
Attacks on Apostates, Blasphemers, and Evangelists
Pakistan: Another Christian nurse was falsely accused of blasphemy. Sometime in early May, Sakina Mehtab was shocked to see videos of her Muslim colleagues marching on hospital premises while shouting Islamic slogans and accusing her of blasphemy. Soon thereafter she began to receive anonymous threatening messages to “maim and kill” her — which prompted the Christian nurse to go into hiding. Her “crime” was to have shared a video on WhatsApp of a Pakistani Muslim in France criticizing the response of Pakistan to an EU resolution. “There was no religious element in it, but a group of nurses spread lies that the video was anti-Islamic and accused me of blasphemy,” said Sakina, who was set to retire from the Punjab Institute of Mental Health in Lahore in two years. “My life has been put at serious risk with this false allegation, and I don’t know how I’ll be able to resume work at the hospital with the fear that someone might attack me from nowhere. My fear is not unfounded.” According to the report:
“Hours after she shared the video, a large group of Muslim nurses and paramedical staff, some armed with clubs and sticks, staged a protest rally. Witnesses said the protestors intimidated Christian workers in hospital wards and repeatedly tried to provoke them into fights. There are about 345 Christians in the 600-strong workforce.”
The Muslim mob then stormed into a hospital auditorium that Christian staff members and patients used as a church for worship and prayer. They “desecrated Bibles and other property and asserted that there would be no more Christian prayer gatherings there”; furthermore, they “took over the church and threatened their Christian colleagues with blasphemy cases if they failed to raze the church and convert to Islam.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, another Christian nurse said that such false blasphemy charges are part of a systematic plan to “replace them [Christians] with Muslims…. The administration’s bias towards Christians is evident, because no action has been taken against the persons who brought the false charge against Sakina and put her life at risk.” This is the third instance this year in Pakistan of Christian nurses being falsely accused of blasphemy. Earlier:
“On April 9, two Christian nurses complying with a supervisor’s orders to remove stickers at a government hospital were arrested in Faisalabad after a Muslim employee attacked one of them with a knife over the removal of a sticker bearing Koranic verses.
“Nurse Mariam Lal and student nurse Navish Arooj were charged under Section 295-B of Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes against ‘defiling the Koran’ after an Islamist mob demanded ‘death to blasphemers’ inside Civil Hospital… Conviction under Section 295-B is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and/or a fine.
“The two Roman Catholic nurses are in judicial custody while their families have gone into hiding out of fear of Islamist mobs.
“On Jan. 28, Tabeeta Gill, a nurse at a Karachi hospital and a gospel singer, was slapped, beaten and locked in a room by a violent mob after a Muslim co-worker baselessly accused her of blaspheming Islam. Police initially cleared her of denigrating Muhammad but later succumbed to pressure of an Islamist mob and charged her with insulting Islam’s prophet, punishable by death under Section 295-C. Gill has reportedly fled the country to avoid arrest.”
Uganda: After beheading Kanifa Namulondo’s husband some years back, some Muslims burned down her and her children’s recently reconstructed home on May 2. Earlier, when the Muslim family had converted to Christianity, local Muslims responded by beheading her father in 2015, prompting Kanifa and her children to flee. On April 25, though, with the help of friends, the apostate family had moved back into the same home.. On May 2, Kanifa noticed that the Muslim calls to prayer were unusually early. Then, “around 4 o’clock [in the morning] I heard people talking near the door,” she later recounted. “The husband betrayed our religion,” One of the voices said. “We should do away with the entire family.” She responded by hurriedly waking up her children, escaping through the backdoor, and breaking into her neighbor’s home, where she and the children locked themselves in the bathroom. She soon saw flames through the window and realized that her home had been set on fire by the would-be murderers. As last reported, she and her children were “living in great fear in temporary quarters … and must relocate far away, again.”
In a separate incident, a Muslim motorcyclist intentionally targeted and struck Hassan Muwanguzi, a former Muslim who converted to Christianity and was long known for helping other persecuted converts from Islam. After he was struck and suffered a leg injury, passersby surrounded both men and prevented the attacker from fleeing the scene. “The mob wanted to beat him,” the victim explained, “but he shouted, saying, ‘This man has been a trouble-maker to our Islamic religion,’ Soon the police arrived and arrested him.” The Muslim was later released on bail. Before that, Hassan had been receiving threatening messages from Muslims. A recent one said:
“You have been converting Muslims to Christianity. We have been warning you about this several times. But you have refused to heed to our directive, so be ready with whatever action we are going to take.”
Attacks on Churches
USA: Ali Alaheri, a 29-year-old Muslim man, went on an anti-Christian and anti-Jewish crime spree in Brooklyn, NY, until he was finally arrested and charged with hate crimes. During his rampage he knocked down and destroyed a large crucifix that had stood for eleven years outside of St. Athanasius Church in Bensonhurst, and burned the American flag on the premises. The damage was discovered on May 14. “It was a terrible morning,” said Monsignor David Cassato. “It was probably the saddest day in my life, to see this desecration of a cross of Jesus and the desecration of the flag.” Alaheri also deliberately set fire to a yeshiva and synagogue on 36th Street in Brooklyn. Surveillance video shows him piling and lighting garbage bags alongside the building. Firefighters responded in time to extinguish the flames. He also “allegedly attacked a man wearing traditional Hasidic garb.”
Turkey: In the same village where Christians were earlier persecuted, the Marta Shimoni Church in eastern Turkey was desecrated and vandalized on May 11. A year earlier, the elderly parents of a Chaldean priest were kidnapped. The wife was later found dead; the husband remains missing. According to the report,
“Marta Shimoni is a cave church built into the mountains, and thus cannot be destroyed in the same way as other churches. Video footage … shows that the destruction was primarily against the Christian items and relics inside the church. Crosses, pictures of Jesus, and rosaries were strewn across the path leading away from the mountain church’s entrance.”
Armenia/Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan continued to abuse the Christian heritage of the ancient Armenian territory of Artsakh, which was recently appropriated by its Muslim neighbor. In October 2020, for example, Azerbaijan shelled and damaged Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi. Although Azerbaijan claims to be repairing the damage it caused the cathedral, subsequent pictures and video footage suggest that they are defacing it more. Angles that sat atop the pillars of the main entrance are now gone, as are its domes. According to Nagorno-Karabakh Ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan, Azerbaijan is seeking to alter the cathedral’s appearance: “We have seen many times how Azerbaijan actually treats Armenian cultural values, and it is already clear what is hidden under the ‘restoration work.’ The goal is to eliminate traces of the Armenian presence.” In a statement, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said that “Azerbaijan carries out actions related to the church without consulting the Armenian Apostolic Church, which clearly violates the right of Armenian believers to freedom of religion.” UNESCO experts have also been denied access to Armenian cultural heritage sites.
In the same area of Shushi where the cathedral is being profaned, Azerbaijan is preparing to build a “victory” mosque. On May 12, the same day Azerbaijani troops entered Armenian territory, President Ilham Aliyev laid the foundation for the new mosque on ancient Armenian land. Further underscoring that it is meant to be a “victory” mosque, the new structure was commissioned to resemble the figure 8, because Shushi was conquered on November 8, while its two minarets will represent 11, for the month of its conquest.
Finally, Azerbaijan is using gravestones from Armenian Christian cemeteries as building material. During a May 10 interview, Foreign Minister of Artsakh, David Babayan, said,
“There is evidence showing that the Azerbaijani are demolishing the Hadrut cemetery…. This is another manifestation of cultural genocide and barbarism with a political purpose. They are not only completely destroying the Armenian trace, but are also using it for economic purposes.”
The gravestones, he said, are being used for the construction of the Hadrut-Shushi road, thereby allowing Azerbaijan to save money on construction material.
Indonesia: On May 31, police arrested 11 Islamic militants accused of plotting the bombings of several churches in the Christian-majority Papua province. The accused are members of a terror group affiliated with Islamic State and that has previously carried out several suicide bombings in Indonesia. Among the items confiscated during police raids were jihadi literature and bomb-making manuals, chemicals for explosives, and modified air guns capable of firing real bullets.
General Attacks on Christians
Pakistan: Muslim men raped a Christian child and molested another. On May 2, Muhammad Awais, “beat, raped, and left for dead” Anum Bibi, an 8-year-old Christian girl, after he caught her trying to retrieve water with her 9-year-old brother. She was later found unconscious in the field and taken to a hospital. Two days later, on May 4, Christians protested on learning that an 8-year-old Christian girl was sexually harassed by her teacher’s brother. According to the girl’s mother, “Muhammad Amir, the Muslim culprit, attempted several rounds of wrestling with my daughter to fulfill his sexual desire; however, he did not succeed. Jemima started shouting and crying very loudly. Finally, she managed to escape from Amir’s arms and ran into the street.” “The assaults,” the report adds, “are only the most recent examples of the vulnerability of Christian women and girls who are targeted by sexual predators in Pakistan…”
Separately in Pakistan, after a petty dispute between some Christian youths who were cleaning their church, and their Muslim landlord — who accused them of throwing dust on them — a Muslim mob consisting of some 200 persons, on May 15, formed and terrorized the eighty Christian families living in the same village. Eight Christians were seriously injured and 15 Christian households ransacked. “They were armed with glass bottles, stones, axes, batons and bricks,” recalled one Christian, who lost a thumb in the attack. “Others used stairs to climb to our roofs and started breaking our furniture. We pleaded to spare the women, but the attack continued for half an hour.”
“They broke the locks, grabbed our hair and pulled us out one by one,” another female survivor said. “Young girls were assaulted and left with torn clothes.” The boys accused of dirtying their Muslim landlord were especially sought out and punished. “The weakness on the part of the administration encourages such attacks on religious minorities,” said a local clergyman. “The culprits are usually let off scot-free. Religion is used to settle personal scores. The locals fear another attack.”
Bangladesh: A group of Muslims attacked a Christian family and destroyed their home in an effort to seize their farmstead.
“Muslims destroyed our mud house,” the mother explained. “They stole our tin roof, took the rice, food, everything of value. They also beat me and my husband with a stick, even my children.” The attackers are from the same village, which contains only two Christian families; everyone else is Muslim. As a result, police failed to respond or make any arrests and instead asked for money from the victims. “Being Christian and a minority is a problem,” the mother continued. “If Muslims want to, they can take over our land, occupy it quickly and easily. But let us not lose hope. We shall fight to keep our land.” Although her family has been living on land that has long belonged to her ancestors, the Muslim attackers acquired land adjacent to the Christians’ and want to absorb it.
A regional clergyman confirmed that the Christians “have valid property documents,” but “those Muslims want to seize their land illegally. It’s an injustice.”
Picture Enclosed/lAlthough Azerbaijan claims to be repairing the damage it caused to the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral (pictured), subsequent photographs and video footage suggest that they are defacing it more…. In the same area of Shushi where the cathedral is being profaned, Azerbaijan is preparing to build a “victory” mosque…. Finally, Azerbaijan is using gravestones from Armenian Christian cemeteries as building material. (Photo by Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images).
**Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again and Sword and Scimitar, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians by extremists is growing. The report posits that such persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place irrespective of language, ethnicity, or location. It includes incidents that take place during, or are reported on, any given month.
© 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.

A personality type that feels absolutely no guardrails': How Saudi Arabia's leader charmed Washington while cracking down on opponents
Michael Isikoff/Yahoo/June 28/2021
Joseph Westphal was wowed from the start. As President Barack Obama’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia in 2015, Westphal started paying regular visits to the rising new power in the royal court: the country’s new defense minister, Mohammed bin Salman, favored son of King Salman.
“First of all, we shared a really nice sense of humor,” said Westphal. “I mean we, we laughed, we joked around. ... It was just laughing about life, and talking about things that maybe happened to me or happened to him.”
More important, Prince Mohammed, who is known as MBS, was pledging to start to rein in the country’s religious police and grant greater rights to Saudi women — steps that U.S. officials had long been calling for. “Yes, absolutely,” Westphal replied when asked if he viewed MBS at the time as an agent of change. “From the very beginning. Absolutely.”
Saudi Arabia's newly appointed King Salman, left, shakes hands with the U.S ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Joseph Westphal, at a meeting with then-President Barack Obama, right, in Riyadh in 2015.
Westphal’s relationship with the young Saudi prince is one glimpse into a much broader and, from today’s perspective, unsettling phenomenon: the strange and successful courtship by MBS of America’s foreign policy and corporate elite, presenting himself as a cultured reformer who was positioned to revolutionize his rigidly conservative country.
The story of that courtship — and its embarrassing aftermath, as MBS’s ruthless crackdowns on dissent and his bloody military adventure in Yemen became ever more apparent — is the subject of “The Rise of the Bullet Guy,” Episode 5 in Yahoo News’ "Conspiracyland" podcast: “The Secret Lives and Brutal Death of Jamal Khashoggi.”
It is a courtship that came to a final, crashing and ignominious end when, in October 2018, a so-called Tiger Team of Saudi assassins brutally murdered the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi — drugging him with illicit narcotics brought from Cairo, suffocating him and then carving up his body with a bone saw and depositing his body parts in plastic bags.
It was a crime that the CIA soon concluded had been authorized by the crown prince himself, noting — among other factors — that MBS’s right-hand man had met with the team before they left to kill Khashoggi in Istanbul, and that seven members of the hit squad were part of MBS’s personal security detail, answerable only to him.
And yet the shocking nature of Khashoggi’s murder has tended to obscure the preceding years, when at first top Obama administration officials, and then President Donald Trump and his influential son-in-law, Jared Kushner, embraced MBS with few reservations and extolled his supposed virtues.
“He’s the only person I’ve met in 30 years of my involvement or more with Saudi Arabia who has put that kind of a vision on the table for the transformation of the country,” said John Kerry, Obama’s secretary of state, in an interview for “Conspiracyland” about his assessment of MBS at the time.
Kerry’s Georgetown home was the setting for perhaps the most iconic moment in MBS’s courtship of the U.S. government. It was in June 2016, and the new Saudi defense minister, during a trip to the United States, was invited to a Ramadan dinner at Kerry’s house. As he entered, MBS spotted the grand piano in the living room, promptly sat down and started to play Beethoven's “Moonlight Sonata.”
John Kerry, then U.S. secretary of state, left, greets Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman outside Kerry's Washington, D.C., residence, before a meeting with him in June 2016.
“I mean, we were all surprised,” recalled Kerry. “Somebody had trained him well.”
But even as he impressed the guests in Kerry’s living room, others saw the dark impulses of a would-be tyrant. Ben Rhodes, then Obama’s deputy national security adviser, recalls a summit in Riyadh the previous April, when Obama raised U.S. concerns about Saudi Arabia’s worsening human rights record, including a mass execution of 47 prisoners and the case of a Saudi blogger who had just been sentenced to 10 years in prison — and 1,000 lashes with a whip.
“Obama’s like, ‘What are you guys doing? I’m not gonna defend this,’” said Rhodes in an interview for “Conspiracyland.”
But suddenly, “MBS stands up in the middle of the room, and, and begins to lecture Obama: ‘You don’t understand the Saudi justice system. And if we didn’t do this, our people would demand vengeance.’ And then he offers to get Obama a briefing on the Saudi justice system. I mean, dripping condescension. You know? And I just remember sitting there and thinking, like, ‘What is going on here?’”
“It spoke to a personality type that feels absolutely no guardrails, you know?” Rhodes added. “I mean, if you’re comfortable standing up in a room full of people and lecturing the president of the United States … because he’s raising concerns about mass executions in your country, you are not the guy people [are] reading about … in the New York Times and the Washington Post, who’s [described as] a reformer. I mean, it just laid bare the utter bullshit of the narrative around MBS to me. And I’m, I’m sitting there thinking, you know, ‘How are people calling this guy a modernizer?’"
But there was an issue of far more concern to U.S. officials than the young prince’s condescending lecture to Obama. With virtually no warning to Washington, MBS had launched a merciless war in Yemen, targeting the Houthis — a religious minority group loosely aligned with the Iranians who had seized control of the country’s capital. Saudi warplanes, using American weapons, had unleashed a relentless wave of bombings that were slaughtering civilians by the thousands, sparking outrage from human rights groups.
There was “countless documentation of U.S.-manufactured bombs being used on markets, on schools, on people’s homes, on hospitals, on clinics throughout the country,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, then the director of Human Rights Watch’s Mideast Division and now the executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now.
Officials in the Obama administration were well aware of the compromising position this put them in. The State Department’s legal office even launched an inquiry into whether the United States was complicit in war crimes. (The lawyers never reached a firm conclusion.) But the White House was torn about what to do.
At the White House, officials were “repelled by what we were seeing,” said Rob Malley, who was then on the National Security Council and charged with coordinating U.S. policy in the region. “But the first instinct was, ‘Well, let’s see if we could give them advice on how to make sure that they don’t kill civilians again.’ But it turns out time and again, whether it’s a mosque, whether it’s a market, whether it’s whatever it is, that they would not only hit it once, they hit it twice, sometimes more.”
Girls demonstrate against the Saudi-led coalition outside the offices of the United Nations in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in August 2015.
Still, said Malley, Obama was reluctant to provoke a confrontation with the Saudis. At the time, relations were tense over the Iranian nuclear deal, which Riyadh opposed, and he wanted the Saudis' help in the war against the Islamic State group.
“There was a meeting [about the war in Yemen] of the Principals Committee, chaired by President Obama,” said Malley. “There were voices expressing a lot of concern.” But Obama “felt he could not, given everything else that was happening in the region, afford a crisis with one of the few countries with which we still retained ... strong relations and cooperation on a whole host of issues, counterterrorism first and foremost.
“I was extremely — how could I put it? — troubled by the whole decision, because we should not have been complicit in this war,” added Malley, who has rejoined the National Security Council under President Biden. “And, you know, the U.S. makes enormous — mistakes is probably too, too kind a word, to describe many, many of its actions.”
There was no doubt in the minds of Malley and other U.S. officials that it was MBS who was driving the train. “He seemed to be already oblivious to the consequences of the actions that he took,” said Malley. “And this was his war … because he was the one who appeared to order it.”
It was a harbinger of even more disturbing moves to come.
Next on "Conspiracyland": Influence Operations
MBS deposes his chief rival, Mohammed bin Nayef, as crown prince, while the Saudis launch covert influence operations on U.S. soil, including a campaign to curry favor with President Donald Trump with mass bookings at the new Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., and a plot to plant spies inside Twitter to steal personal data from critics of the Saudi regime.
In case you missed it:
Episode 1: “Exclusive: Saudi assassins picked up illicit drugs in Cairo to kill Khashoggi”
Episode 2: “Arms, harems and a Trump-owned yacht: How a Khashoggi family member helped mold the U.S.-Saudi relationship”
Episode 3: “‘I just fell apart crying heartbreak to you’: A murdered journalist's years-long relationship with Osama bin Laden”
Episode 4: "From royal insider to target: How the Arab Spring propelled Jamal Khashoggi into the Saudi leadership's crosshairs"

In Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s clerics have groomed and promoted their ruthless enforcer
Reuel Marc Gerecht/Ray Takeyh/The Washington Post/June 28/2021
This month, Iran held the most boring — and most consequential — presidential election in its history. Boring because the election was rigged virtually from the start. What made it consequential is not because the winner, Ebrahim Raisi, is a gruesome and unapologetic killer who has spent his entire career inside the regime’s coercive institutions. Nor is it because Raisi is the first Iranian president to fit that description. Both former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Hassan Rouhani, the current president, were instrumental in building and using the Iranian police state. Unlike Raisi, who has had little involvement in foreign affairs, these two supposedly “pragmatic” clerics advanced operations abroad that killed Americans, Israelis and Jews around the world.
What is instead most striking about Raisi is that he has been groomed for this moment — a moment when the regime teeters on the brink of illegitimacy and needs a brutal enforcer. Raisi isn’t a clever, well-read mullah, as were so many of the Islamic republic’s founding fathers. But he is the quintessence of a mature Islamic Republic of Iran: He’s all about compulsion sustaining a creed that ever-smaller numbers of Iranians embrace. The mullahs’ hope is that Raisi is ruthless enough to overcome rising resistance to their rule.
This election, if you can even call it that, was really all about who will succeed the 82-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the rahbar, the overlord of Iran’s theocracy. Khamenei has long eyed Raisi as his successor, and his promotion to the presidency presages his ultimate ascension. The theocracy’s stage-managed presidential election — now utterly stripped of any democratic pretense — has deepened the legitimacy crisis that has plagued the regime since 1999, when it crushed the “Islamic left,” first-generation revolutionaries who wanted to believe that the state could reform itself. With Khamenei and Raisi at the helm, or with Raisi as the supreme leader, it’s not hard to envision the police state pushing a disgruntled, angry society to the breaking point.
The Rise of Raisi
The story of Ebrahim Raisi tracks that of modern Iran itself. He was born in 1960 to a clerical family in Mashhad, in northeast Iran, now home to 3 million people. He began his theological training in the shrine city of Qom at age 15. Qom’s seminary was then the hotbed of anti-shah agitation, and many aspiring mullahs looked to the exiled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for guidance and inspiration. Raisi was a member of the Haqqani Circle, a radical school of thought that produced many disciples who would go on to work in key sectors of the Islamic republic, particularly its repressive institutions.
After the improbable success of Iran’s 1979 revolution, the coalition of secularists, liberals, Marxist Muslims and clerically led Islamists that displaced the Pahlavi monarchy soon collapsed, with competing factions fighting on the streets. Amid this power struggle, Khomeini (by now, returned to Iran) needed enforcers — men who had little compunction about ordering death sentences in religious tribunals. While still in his early 20s, Raisi was appointed prosecutor of Karaj, near Tehran, which saw its share of opposition activity and, after his arrival, executions by firing squad. Thus began his career on the republic’s dark side.
Khomeini would often summon Raisi when he needed special missions completed with efficiency and cruelty. This led to his service on the so-called death commission in 1988, which still defines his legacy. As Khomeini approached the end of his life, he grew apprehensive about the vitality of his revolution. He feared the Islamic republic would become less religiously driven in his absence and decided to test the mettle of his disciples. In 1988, shortly after the cease-fire with Iraq, the rahbar ordered one more bloodletting. In a span of few months, thousands of leftist prisoners were executed; the exact number is unknown, but most experts say a minimum of 5,000 were killed. Raisi was one of the commission judges overseeing the slaughter. Apostasy and the denigration of Islam were the usual charges hurled at the victims in hearings that often lasted minutes.
The 1988 executions sparked a debate within the regime, just as Khomeini had intended. The supreme leader wanted to separate the true believers from the skeptics. His heir-apparent, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, objected to the killings, and in a secret recording released in 2016, he can be heard chastising Raisi and his fellow executioners. “In my view, the biggest atrocity in the Islamic republic, for which the history will condemn us, has been committed at your hands, and in future your names will go down in history as criminals.” Montazeri fell from grace and ultimately died in 2009 under house arrest. Raisi publicly defended the killings as “one of the proud achievements of the system.”
Khomeini died in 1989, but his successor, Khamenei, also found Raisi a useful agent. In a succession of promotions, Raisi became the head of the General Inspection Office as well as a member of the Special Court of the Clergy, which is perhaps the most important institution in the republic: It is responsible for prosecuting troublesome mullahs.
Then came a series of harder tests: In the 1990s, the political elite fragmented over the reform movement led by President Muhammad Khatami, who called for greater harmony between religious convictions and democratic principles. Lower-level government officials and intellectuals aligned with Khatami were bolder and more explicit in their ambitions. But Raisi displayed a steady hand in battling the reformers. The judiciary and the intelligence services jailed dissidents, shuttered reformist newspapers and conducted targeted assassinations.
In 2009, the Islamic republic faced a popular insurrection. The fraudulent presidential election that returned populist, conservative firebrand Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power sparked the pro-democracy Green Movement, which, in turn, shook the foundations of the theocracy. Once more, many stalwarts of the revolution proved unsteady, including former president Rafsanjani, who was essentially purged. Not so Raisi, who as chief deputy of the judiciary remained a reliable critic of those who showed the protesters any quarter, to say nothing of the protesters themselves. “Those who have proposed the elections were fraudulent,” ruled Raisi, “and created doubt in the public’s mind have undoubtedly committed a grave crime and naturally will have to answer for the crime they have committed.” As late as 2014, Raisi scolded his fellow conservatives for going soft on Green Movement leaders, who had remained under house arrest. “The system of the Islamic Republic has treated the leaders of sedition with kindness. …Those who sympathize with the leaders of sedition should know that the Iranian nation will never go through this kind of oppression.”
The regime learned lessons from the Green Movement. Stuffing ballot boxes provoked million-man marches on the streets of Tehran; henceforth, the theocracy would manipulate elections by narrowing the choice of candidates.
By 2016, there were unmistakable public signs that Khamenei was grooming Raisi to succeed him. When it comes to personnel, Khamenei has always displayed a keen eye for talent and loyalty. And Raisi’s promotions all required the personal approval of the supreme leader.
But to rise in the Islamic republic’s theocracy, Raisi needed to move beyond the regime’s courts and dungeons and burnish his managerial skills. Khamenei appointed him as the head of one of Iran’s largest charitable organizations, the Astan-e Qods Foundation in Mashhad, which runs the Imam Reza Shrine. The shrine is visited by millions of pilgrims a year and has an estimated $15 billion in assets. Through the foundation, the supreme leader has access to vast discretionary funds. This job gave Raisi a more benign public profile as well as the power of patronage. He also became an important player in the regime’s shadowy financial empire.
Nonetheless, his public image remained flat: Raisi managed to win only 38.5 percent of the vote in his first run for office in 2017, getting trounced by the incumbent, Rouhani. As a consolation prize, he became the head of the judiciary, where he brandished his credentials as a corruption fighter, which in the Islamic republic means he became responsible for harassing those who’ve fallen out of favor.
In the 2021 election, Khamenei sacrificed popular legitimacy to ensure that a reliable disciple won. After the protest movements of 2017-2020, when even the poor started taking to the streets to express their anger, an elderly supreme leader likely wanted to see a version of himself in the presidency — a cleric with a proven capacity to repress and liquidate those willing to challenge the theocracy. An Iranian president doesn’t have much power — the rahbar has such a large shadow government that it has shrunk the influence and perks of the presidency. Nonetheless, in troubled times, if the supreme leader were to die, having an ideologically sound and bureaucratically accomplished cleric as president would guarantee continuity.
Which helps explain why, this year, the Guardian Council disqualified a high number of presidential candidates — not only did “moderates” get axed, but even the hard-line former speaker of the parliament, Ali Larijani, was removed from the ballot. As a result, Raisi ran nearly uncontested, with no real competitors. He ran an uninspiring campaign, talking mostly about corruption and the need for sound management. Crisscrossing the country, he often visited prisons. The presidential debates, which sometimes spark public curiosity and social media buzz, were insipid. The handpicked candidates united in attacking Rouhani, who has become unpopular, especially within official circles where mocking him has become routine. In the end, with half the electorate staying home and approximately 3.7 million Iranians turning in blank or protest ballots, Raisi was declared the winner.
Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard called Raisi’s victory “a grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran” and called for investigation of “his involvement in past and ongoing crimes under international law.”
A dilemma for Biden
The Islamic republic was never a typical authoritarian state: Embedded in its structure are a series of elected institutions. If in previous presidential races the Guardian Council may have pruned the choice of candidates, the public got some diversity and occasionally a provocative candidate who rattled the establishment such as Ahmadinejad, or historic men of the revolution, like Rafsanjani, who outshone Khamenei. The elections may not have altered the essential demarcations of power, but they offered the Iranian people an acceptable and orderly means of expressing their grievances. The regime even tolerated some critical press.
Thus, the genius of the Islamic republic was that it offered the masses an opportunity to participate in national affairs — while being cleverly hemmed in on all sides by clerical fiat. An Iranian could cast a ballot that might actually have a small impact on his life. (Khatami’s victory in 1997 for a year or two softened the surveillance of the morals police; Ahmadinejad’s first triumph gave lower-class Iranians a fillip of pride and increased welfare payments.) The elected institutions of Iran may not have governed the theocracy, but they did provide an important safety valve.
Raisi’s win in a fully rigged election strips the system of its off-ramps. The once-popular reformist notion that the theocracy could liberalize itself through its own constitutional provisions has died — except perhaps abroad among Western leftists. The Republic of Virtue is drowning in corruption and class divisions that are as pronounced as those in the last days of the shah. The government and the crony-capitalist class have never generated sufficient jobs. Khamenei’s idea of a “resistance economy,” in which Iran somehow weans itself off oil, relies on internal markets and trades heavily with China, has proved insufficient and impractical. A mismanaged pandemic has aggravated all of these problems.
The clerical oligarchs have no answers to Iran’s most convulsive dilemmas. They intend to rule by brute force, in part because they have minimal hold on a public that no longer can be counted on to choose the divine path over all others. As we learned from leaked conversations of Revolutionary Guard commanders, after the pro-democracy Green Movement was crushed, the regime came to see itself as unattractive to ever larger swaths of the population. The gap between state and society has never been wider. In Raisi, a political cleric recently promoted to “ayatollah,” the state has groomed, promoted and found its enforcer.
The Iranian people are hardly docile subjects. A nation that saw massive protests once a decade now sees them more frequently. In the latest nationwide revolts of 2019 and 2020, sparked by a drop in fuel subsidies, even the working classes joined the protests. Iran’s ethnic minorities, who probably make up 50 percent of the country’s population, have also become increasingly vocal in expressing their grievances. And the demonstrators, both Persian and non-Persian, have become explicit in their opposition to the very nature of the clerical regime. Given the violence unleashed by the security forces in 2019, Khamenei and his men obviously view these demonstrations as potential rebellions.
Raisi is an awkward, perhaps paralyzing, problem for the Biden administration’s diplomatic strategy. First, there is the issue of human rights, which the White House says is a new priority for the United States. A revived Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which would release tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief, will perforce be transacted with a new president who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in no uncertain terms in 2019: “Previously, as deputy prosecutor general of Tehran. Raisi participated in the so-called ‘death commission’ that ordered the extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.”
And then there is the substance of the nuclear deal. The talks in Vienna will likely succeed and both parties will resume their compliance with an accord whose key provisions are rapidly expiring. The White House insists that once the agreement is revived, it will seek to remedy its deficiencies with additional discussions that will extend the deal’s timelines and even address Iran’s malign regional activities and its ever-improving ballistic missiles. Raisi has made it clear, however, that he won’t concede to any additional agreements. And Raisi isn’t clever: He isn’t going to argue with Khamenei about the wisdom of short-term nuclear concessions for long-term economic power. Raisi, like Khamenei, thinks first and foremost about culture and nefarious, debilitating foreign influences.
These two clerics, who will likely reinforce each other’s hardest impulses, both understand what Washington appears to have missed: The era of arms-control diplomacy has ended. The Islamic republic’s nuclear trajectory will not be impacted by further negotiated restraints.
In the coming months, many in Washington will assure themselves that at least this nuclear accord imposes some limits on the clerical regime’s ambitions. The program, we will be assured, is back in the box even as Iran’s atomic infrastructure grows in sophistication and size. The arms-controllers and proponents of accommodation will surely dust off their old talking points. The opening to China will be invoked. Strategic breakthroughs, we will be reminded, require compacts with unsavory actors. Some may even go further and argue that only a hard-liner with close ties to Khamenei can negotiate an accord.
Such postulations, however, miss the reason Raisi was elevated to the presidency. He is there to seal the system, not open it. Repression at home and imperialism abroad remain the regime’s essential priorities. Such ambitions require Shiite proxy forces across the region, missile deployments and the ultimate strategic weapon. The notion of trading carrots and sticks is abhorrent to a man who abjures compromise with enemies both near and abroad.
Khamenei’s and Raisi’s designs will, however, make the Islamist system more vulnerable to internal unrest. Sanctions relief will provide some respite to the regime’s internal problems. American arms control will pave a bit longer path to the Iranian bomb while allowing the clerical regime a much-needed financial cushion against its own imperialism and incompetence.
But whatever the Biden administration does, it won’t change an irrefragable truth that bedevils the Iranian theocracy: A regime that does not address the grievances and expectations of its citizens will confront, if the past is future, increasing opposition. In the past few years, Iran has been rocked by demonstrations driven by all the social classes. The big dilemma for the Biden administration may not be the potential for arms control in the 21st century but how to deal with a mass murderer facing a mass uprising.
*Reuel Marc Gerecht, an Iranian-targets officer in the Central Intelligence Agency from 1985 to 1994, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
*Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of “The Last Shah: America, Iran and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty.” Follow Reuel on Twitter @ReuelMGerecht. FDD is a nonpartisan think tank focused on foreign policy and national security issues.

U.S. Targets Turkey-Based Money Laundering Schemes With Links to Senior Turkish Officials
Aykan Erdemir/FDD/June 28/2021
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Monday that it will seek to extradite Sezgin Baran Korkmaz, a Turkish businessman Austrian authorities arrested on June 19 for his alleged role in money laundering schemes that attempted to defraud the U.S. Treasury of over $1 billion. The suspect’s close links to senior Turkish officials could further strain U.S.-Turkish relations if he turns state’s witness in a U.S. court and exposes the role Ankara has played in facilitating and covering up various illicit financial schemes.
Korkmaz and his investment company, SBK Holding, have ties to Jacob and Isaiah Kingston, who pleaded guilty in July 2019 to defrauding the United States of $512 million in renewable-fuel tax credits through their company Washakie Renewable Energy LLC in Plymouth, Utah. As part of DOJ’s efforts to recover the Kingston brothers’ assets, U.S. prosecutors submitted to a Utah federal court a list of Turkish properties owned by the Kingstons and managed by Korkmaz and SBK Holding. Relatedly, in March 2020, a federal jury in Salt Lake City convicted California businessman Lev Aslan Dermen — a co-conspirator with the Kingstons and business partner of Korkmaz — of fraud and money laundering.
Korkmaz’s connections to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his inner circle make his potential extradition and testimony regarding money laundering and wire fraud charges a sensitive matter for Ankara. In September 2017, Erdogan met with Korkmaz and Jacob Kingston to discuss their investments in Turkey. Erdogan has since been trying to purge a photo of the meeting from the media by Turkish court orders. Korkmaz was also involved in Erdogan’s early outreach efforts to the Trump administration through unregistered lobbyists.
The role Korkmaz played in Ankara’s outreach has grabbed the attention of investigative journalists and U.S. authorities, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller. In September 2017, Korkmaz received a subpoena from Mueller to testify before a grand jury in Washington for “possible violations of federal criminal laws involving the Foreign Agents Registration Act.”
Moreover, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project exposed last March that Korkmaz played a central role in Erdogan’s September 2018 backchannel diplomacy with the Trump administration to free North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson from a Turkish prison.
The Erdogan government may have shielded Korkmaz and his associates from U.S. and Turkish legal action until recently, according to video confessions that Turkish mobster Sedat Peker started posting on YouTube on May 2 regarding illicit affairs involving Erdogan’s inner circle. Although both Dermen’s guilty verdict and the Kingston brothers’ plea agreements refer to the role played by Turkey-based individuals and entities in their tax fraud scheme, U.S. prosecutors thanked law enforcement partners in only Luxembourg and Malta “for their assistance in the case,” raising suspicions that Ankara was uncooperative in the process.
In a superseding indictment U.S. prosecutors filed against Korkmaz on April 28 and unsealed on June 21, they allege that Korkmaz offered to provide the Kingstons with “protection from a federal grand jury investigation, as well as civil lawsuits” against their company, “through unnamed government officials code-named the ‘grandfather’ and ‘grandpa.’”
As Korkmaz’s legal troubles have mounted, the Turkish government has pursued a strategy of obstruction guised as cooperation. Last December, Istanbul prosecutors issued a detention warrant against Korkmaz, and Ankara attempted to extradite him from Austria right after his arrest on June 19 to prevent his extradition to the United States. In Turkey, the government could easily manipulate judicial proceedings to prevent embarrassing revelations. Given that Korkmaz’s testimony potentially could shed light on a wide range of illicit financial activities in Turkey and implicate a long list of Turkish entities and individuals, including senior officials, U.S. authorities should take swift action to prevent yet another cover-up attempt by the Erdogan government.
*Aykan Erdemir is a former member of the Turkish parliament and senior director of the Turkey Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he also contributes to FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP). For more analysis from Aykan, the Turkey Program, and CEFP, please subscribe HERE. Follow Aykan on Twitter @aykan_erdemir. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_CEFP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

Canadian Forensic Report Confirms Iran Bears Full Responsibility for Airliner Downing
Dylan Gresik/FDD/June 28/2021 
Canada published on Thursday a long-awaited report confirming that Tehran’s “decisions, actions and omissions, by civil and military officials at the highest levels,” directly led to the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 last year. The report states that the Islamic Republic has “fallen well short of providing a credible explanation” for the missile strikes on PS752, underscoring Iran’s continued resistance to pursuing a transparent investigation, in violation of international law.
On January 8, 2020, a missile battery belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and positioned near Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport targeted and shot down PS752 with two surface-to-air missiles. One hundred and seventy-six people, including 85 Canadian citizens and permanent residents, were killed.
Canada’s forensic team, the report said, “analyzed the information at its disposal” but affirmed that “only Iran has full access to the evidence, crash site, and witnesses.” The report lists three key findings: Iran “failed to ensure the safety of its airspace,” by keeping the airspace open and declining to notify airlines of risks; the IRGC unit that downed the plane committed a “series of extremely flawed decisions” that were avoidable; and Iran’s flawed “command and control” structure broadly “played a major role in the downing.”
Last week, Omar Alghabra, Canada’s minister of transport, publicly condemned Iran in an address to the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the UN specialized agency for aviation. Alghabra questioned the safety of Iranian airspace absent verifiable reforms and said the international civil aviation community must demand answers from Iran.
ICAO requires an investigation process following the downing of an aircraft, pursuant to Annex 13 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. The convention requires the country of occurrence to lead the investigation, meaning Iran bore the responsibility to investigate itself in the case of PS752.
However, according to Canada’s forensic team, Iran’s final investigation report, which alleges “human error” was the primary cause of the downing and blames a handful of low-level personnel, is “evasive,” “presents a highly selective explanation of events,” and propagates “claims [that] are not substantiated with evidence.”
While the Canadian team could not conclude from available evidence that the downing was “premeditated,” the publication of its report represents the latest development in the months-long effort to secure accountability in the PS752 case.
On June 3, Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom — all countries that lost nationals on PS752 — delivered a joint “notice of claim” against the Islamic Republic. The notice demanded “a full accounting of events that led to the downing,” as well as “transparency in the criminal prosecutions” in Tehran. The Islamic Republic has yet to respond to the notice.
This process of international negotiation, arbitration, and dispute resolution is long and will require continuous multilateral pressure on Iran to achieve meaningful results.
Indeed, in the report, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that if negotiations with Iran do not arrive at “an acceptable outcome,” Canada “will pursue all available options, including recourse to the International Court of Justice.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab all expressed support for Canada.
Now it is imperative that world leaders back up their firm rhetoric with strong and concrete action. Ottawa must not allow Iran to continue stonewalling and should not accept ICAO’s tepid response to Iranian violations of the UN body’s founding convention.
As the Canadian forensic report again confirms, the Islamic Republic has avoided answering critical questions related to the PS752 downing, subsequent investigation, and ongoing prosecutions. Should Iran delay in responding to the notice of claim, Canada should not hesitate to demand accountability by quickly elevating the case to the ICAO Council for review and a decision.
*Dylan Gresik is a government relations analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he contributes to FDD’s Iran Program and International Organizations Program. For more analysis from Dylan, the Iran Program, and the International Organizations Program, please subscribe HERE. Follow Dylan on Twitter @DylanGresik. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.