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

#elias_bejjani_news
 

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://data.eliasbejjaninews.com/eliasnews21/english.march31.21.htm

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006

Bible Quotations For today

Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them: "It is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed"
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 11/47-54:”So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, ‘What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.’But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.’He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to put him to death. Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with the disciples.”t.’”

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

Elias Bejjani/Visit My LCCC Web site/All That you need to know on Lebanese unfolding news and events in Arabic and English/http://eliasbejjaninews.com/
US offers $10 million reward for info on Hezbollah operative
UN chooses a new envoy for Lebanon
France increases international pressure on Lebanon
Lebanon Vaccination Campaign Should Accelerate, Says Abiad
Aoun to UNHCR Representative: Refugees Drove Lebanon to Exhaustion
Mustaqbal MP: No Govt with Veto Powers, No Govt without Specialists
FPM Bloc Calls on Hariri to End Insistence on 18-Seat Govt.
”Berri Meets with Raad and Bkirki Delegation
Kabbara Affims ‘Firm’ Saudi-Lebanese Ties
Bitar Questions Daher over Port Blast
LF Team Visits Shiite Council, Says State Should Protect All Lebanese
Tripoli Lawyers, Retirees to Benefit from New LibanPost Services
Syrian Refugee Ends German Election Bid over 'Racism'
'It's all talk': Lebanese politicians brush off French sanctions threat/Aya Iskandarani/The National/March 30, 2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 30-31/2021

Iran 'Rejects' Ending 20 Percent Uranium Enrichment Before U.S. Lifts Sanctions
Canada/Minister Garneau announces funding for stabilization projects in Iraq and Syria at meeting of Global Coalition against Daesh
Joint statement on the WHO-Convened COVID-19 Origins Study
Turkey testing waters to dispatch ambassador to Israel
Israel President Says to Pick Leader to Form Govt. by April 7
EU, U.S. Pledge Over $1 Billion to Tackle Syria's Crisis
Syrian Refugee Ends German Election Bid over 'Racism'
Kurds Say 53 IS Members Arrested in Syria's Al-Hol Camp
With Ship Now Freed, a Probe into Suez Canal Blockage Begins
African Insurgents Pry Open New Fronts for Jihadist Campaigns
Ship crisis revives Russian, Israeli talk of alternatives to Suez Canal
 

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

His call to wage a global war for freedom echoes the dawn of the Cold War./David Adesnik/Foreign Policy/March 30/2021
Biden must confront North Korea via Beijing/John Bolton/Washington Examiner/ March 30/2021
Is Europe course-correcting after taking a hard-right turn?/Rashmee Roshan Lall/The National/March 30, 2021
Iran-China accord ushers in major geopolitical shift/Osama Al-Sharif/Arab News/March 30/2021
 

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

Elias Bejjani/Visit My LCCC Web site/All That you need to know on Lebanese unfolding news and events in Arabic and English/http://eliasbejjaninews.com/
US offers $10 million reward for info on Hezbollah operative
WASHINGTON (AP)//March 30/2021
The United States on Monday offered a $10 million reward for information on a Hezbollah operative who was convicted last year in the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik Hariri. The State Department said the reward will be given to anyone who provides information preventing Salim Jamil Ayyash from planning or engaging in any attack against a U.S. citizen or American interests. Ayyash is a senior member of Hezbollah’s Unit 121, an assassination squad that the department said reports to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The announcement said Ayyash is known to have been involved in efforts to harm American troops in the past. An international tribunal convicted Ayyash in absentia and sentenced him to five life sentences on charges related to the 2005 suicide truck bombing in Beirut that killed Hariri and 21 other people. The tribunal found that Ayyash led the team that carried out the attack. In addition to its December 2020 verdict, the Netherlands-based court issued new international arrest warrants for Ayyash and authorized its prosecutor to ask Interpol to issue “red notices” to its member states seeking his arrest. Three other Hezbollah members had been acquitted in August of all charges that they also were involved in the killing that sent shock waves through the Middle East.
All contents © copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

UN chooses a new envoy for Lebanon
The Arab Weekly/March 30/2021
NEW YORK - UNITED NATIONS--Poland’s ambassador to the UN has been chosen to be the new envoy for Lebanon, diplomatic sources said on Monday. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “has informed the Security Council of his intention to appoint Joanna Wronecka, as UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon and the Council has given its ‘consent,’” one diplomat said, speaking anonymously. There was no objection from the Security Council and a green light for the nomination was given late last week, other diplomats said. The formal appointment will be announced soon. Wronecka will succeed Slovakia’s Jan Kubis, who recently took office as the new UN envoy for Libya. The Polish diplomat, 63, graduated from the Faculty of Arabic Studies at the University of Warsaw. She has been studying in Algeria, Egypt and France as well. In 1985, she delivered her PhD thesis on Arab-Muslim philosophy. In the 1980s, she worked at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Wronecka has spent much of her decades-long career in northern Africa and the Middle East. In 1993, she joined the Polish diplomatic service, starting from the post of an expert. In 1996–1998 she was deputy director of the Department of the United Nations System and director of the Department of Africa and the Middle East (1998–1999) and Minister’s Secretariat (2003–2005). She served as Poland ambassador to Egypt (1999–2003), Morocco accredited to Mauritania and Senegal (2005–2010). From January 2011 to August 2015, she held the position of Head of the European Union Delegation to Jordan. On 26 November 2015, she was appointed Under Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland responsible for development aid, cooperation with African and Middle-East countries. Since 2017, she has been in New York, where she was tasked by the UN General Assembly with reviving endless negotiations on reforming the Security Council to expand it to include new members. She ended her term on 31 May 2021.

France increases international pressure on Lebanon
The Arab Weekly/March 30/2021
“The solution for ending Lebanon’s crisis requires the creation of a competent government that is ready to work seriously and for the common good on implementing reforms that everyone acknowledges,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.PARIS – The French government said Monday that “the time has come” to increase international pressure on Lebanon’s deeply divided political class to form a viable government for the crisis-wracked nation. “The solution for ending Lebanon’s crisis requires the creation of a competent government that is ready to work seriously and for the common good on implementing reforms that everyone acknowledges,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “After seven months of blockage, the time has come to increase the pressure for this to happen,” it said. It added that Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had spoken with Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun as well as parliament president Nabih Berri and prime minister-designate Saad Hariri after they again failed to break the political deadlock. “He reminded them that all of Lebanon’s political parties bore all the responsibility for this impasse,” the ministry said. Last week talks between Aoun and Hariri on the formation of a new Cabinet broke down. Le Drian is also asking European counterparts to join the push for action. Last year French President Emmanuel Macron proposed a road map to break the political stalemate in the former French protectorate. Macron has been pressing Lebanese politicians to form a Cabinet made up of non-partisan specialists that can work on urgent reforms to extract Lebanon from a financial crisis worsened by the Aug. 4 explosion that devastated Beirut. Those efforts have led to nowhere as Lebanon’s politicians continue to bicker about the shape and size of a new Cabinet while the country is mired in the worst economic crisis in its modern history — a situation exacerbated by pandemic restrictions. The Lebanese economy is in free-fall, with parliament approving Monday an emergency funding package simply to keep the lights on after one of the country’s largest power plants ran out of fuel. More than half the population lives in poverty, according to the United Nations, and protests flared again this month by a population fed up with a ruling elite lambasted as inefficient and corrupt. “In this context, the deliberate obstructions to ending the crisis, in particular on the part of certain actors of the Lebanese political system with unreasonable demands dating from another era, must cease immediately,” the French ministry said. Berri warned on Monday Lebanon would sink like the Titanic if it could not form a government as he opened a session to approve emergency funds to literally keep the lights on for two more months. “The whole country is in danger, the whole country is the Titanic,” Berri said. “It’s time we all woke up because in the end, if the ship sinks, there’ll be no one left.”

Lebanon Vaccination Campaign Should Accelerate, Says Abiad
Naharnet/March 30, 2021
Lebanon’s vaccination campaign against COVID-19 should accelerate to help control the virus spread, director of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital Doctor Firass Abiad said on Tuesday. “The vaccine roll out now should gather pace, and we all have to fight vaccine hesitancy. Vigilance is still required, Covid is a treacherous virus. Human behavior remains our worst enemy. Human scientific endeavor, meanwhile, have proven it is our best hope,” said Abiad in a tweet. Lebanon on Monday rolled out the Astrazeneca vaccine for people in the 55-65 years category. The inoculation campaign began in mid-February after finalizing a deal for some 2 million doses with Pfizer. Abiad noted a “recent decline in Covid infections among healthcare workers is undoubtedly due to vaccines. As more individuals receive the increasingly available vaccine, a similar drop will be seen countrywide. Still, 78 deaths were reported in the past 2 days.”
He said that the “majority of deaths occurred in patients older than 75 years, a category where more than 50% have been vaccinated. Yet it is still early, the reported fall in hospitalization is a good sign. Of course, it is premature to celebrate. Two issues can still derail the recovery.”Abiad urged compliance with wearing masks and maintaining safe social distance, because “a drop in cases may encourage people to be more complacent. This has triggered new Covid surges in the past.”

Aoun to UNHCR Representative: Refugees Drove Lebanon to Exhaustion
Naharnet/March 30, 2021
President Michel Aoun on Tuesday met at Baabda Palace with the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon, Ayaki Ito, with talks touching on displaced Syrians residing in Lebanon, the National News Agency reported on Tuesday. “Lebanon hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees on its soil compared to its population and small area,” said Aoun to his visitor. He added saying that Lebanon “has reached a stage of exhaustion as a result of the repercussions of this displacement.”Lebanon, a crisis-wracked nation, says it hosts 1.5 million Syrians -- nearly a million of whom are registered as refugees with the United Nations. Nine out of ten Syrians in Lebanon live in extreme poverty, the U.N. says.Lebanese authorities have pressured Syrians to return even though rights groups warn that Syria is not yet safe.

Mustaqbal MP: No Govt with Veto Powers, No Govt without Specialists
Naharnet/March 30, 2021
Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Mohammed Hajjar stressed on Monday that no obstruction powers will be given to any party in the new government, which will be formed of non-partisan experts as demanded by the PM-designate Saad Hariri. In remarks to LBCI television station, Hajjar said: “No government with a one-third-plus-one obstruction power, and no government without experts.” PM-designate Saad Hariri, leader of al-Mustaqbal Movement, insists on forming an 18-member cabinet comprised entirely of technocrats. Meanwhile, President Michel Aoun has been calling on Hariri to step down if he is incapable of forming a government suitable to all parties. Lebanese leaders have so far failed in forming a much-needed government to steer Lebanon out of a crippling economic crisis, and unlock international aid for the crisis-wracked nation. On Monday, France’s foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian cranked up pressure on Lebanese leaders to form a government, urging them in personal phone calls for an immediate halt to what he called “deliberate obstruction” that’s driving the country toward collapse. Le Drian is also asking European counterparts to join the push for action. Those efforts have led to nowhere as Lebanon’s politicians continue to bicker about the shape and size of a new Cabinet while the country is mired in the worst economic crisis in its modern history — a situation exacerbated by pandemic restrictions.

FPM Bloc Calls on Hariri to End Insistence on 18-Seat Govt.
Naharnet/March 30, 2021
The Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon bloc on Tuesday called on Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to “present a government line-up that meets the stipulations of the National Pact, the Constitution and specialty.”In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the bloc also asked Hariri to “put an end to procrastination and to the fabricated 18-seat obstacle.”Forming a bigger government would “bring solutions to the various problems,” Strong Lebanon added. Noting that “all arguments that have been used to accuse (the bloc) of obstruction have fallen,” it reiterated that it has no “specific or rigid demands as is being claimed.”It added that it “looks with hope and positivity to any initiative or proposal presented by any party,” pointing out that “there are plenty of solutions should the PM-designate decide to form the government according to norms.

”Berri Meets with Raad and Bkirki Delegation
Naharnet/March 30, 2021
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday met in Ain el-Tineh with the head of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc MP Mohammed Raad. “Raad briefed the parliament speaker on the atmosphere and outcome of his visit to Moscow,” the National News Agency said. “The discussions also tackled the latest political developments, the general situations and legislative affairs,” NNA added. Berri also met in Ain el-Tineh with ex-minister Sejaan Qazzi and the head of Bkirki’s press office Walid Ghayyad. Speaking after the meeting, Qazzi said: “We visited Speaker Nabih Berri to relay the greetings of His Eminence the Patriarch and to brief him on the efforts that he is exerting to rescue Lebanon in the short term in order to reach a government that would satisfy the Lebanese public opinion and the Arab and international communities.” “Speaker Nabih Berri also briefed us on the efforts that he is also exerting, in communication with His Eminence the Patriarch and the national leaders, in order to overcome the thorny governmental crisis,” Qazzi added.“I believe that the coming together of efforts can lead to exiting this crisis,” Qazzi went on to say.

Kabbara Affims ‘Firm’ Saudi-Lebanese Ties
Naharnet/March 30, 2021
The Lebanese ambassador in Riyadh, Fawzi Kabbara emphasized on Tuesday that ties between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon are “deep and historic. Kabbara praised the role of the Kingdom in supporting Lebanon during difficult circumstances which enabled Lebanon to overcome many of its crises.He said that Saudi Arabia has always provided support for Lebanon, indicating that the Saudi-Lebanese relations, including intellectual, cultural and educational exchange between the two countries, have always been firmly entrenched in history. SA has always been keen on Lebanon’s stability, security and prosperity, Kabbara added. He pointed to its unforgettable role in stopping the civil war, as well as the reconstruction efforts to build what was destroyed by wars and Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Bitar Questions Daher over Port Blast
Naharnet/March 30, 2021
Lead investigative judge into the Beirut port blast, Tarek al-Bitar, questioned the detained Customs chief, Badri Daher, over the colossal Beirut port blast, media reports said on Tuesday. The questioning session lasted for seven hours and commenced at 11:00 pm on Monday, in the presence of Daher’s lawyers Munir Hamdan and George Khoury, and the prosecutors, said the National News Agency. It is the first time that Daher appeared before the judicial investigator since his arrest on the third day after the August 4 explosion. He had submitted three requests for interrogation before the former judicial investigator, Judge Fadi Sawan, without response, said NNA. Last week, Bitar interrogated four detained port officials. They were identified as the port’s Director General Hassan Qureitem, Operations Director Samer Raad, cargo department head and hangars officer Mustafa Farshoukh, and guard chief Mohammed al-Aouf.Bitar has recently replaced Judge Fadi Sawwan, who was removed as lead investigative judge following political pressure and controversy that followed charges that he pressed in the case against caretaker PM Hassan Diab and ex-ministers Ali Hassan Khalil, Ghazi Zoaiter and Youssef Fenianos.

LF Team Visits Shiite Council, Says State Should Protect All Lebanese
Naharnet/March 30, 2021
A Lebanese Forces delegation on Tuesday visited the Higher Islamic Shiite Council and met with its deputy head Sheikh Ali al-Khatib. The delegation, dispatched by LF leader Samir Geagea, has met with several religious leaders in recent days to discuss the dire situations in the country. Al-Khatib welcomed the delegation, stressing that the Council was founded by Imam Moussa al-Sadr on the basis of “love, rapprochement, cooperation and openness.” “Imam al-Sadr was the first Muslim cleric to enter a church to lecture and pray,” Khatib added. Emphasizing the need to “eliminate concerns among the Lebanese and build trust among everyone,” the Council’s deputy chief underlined that “the Shiite decision, with all its components, is against any civil or sectarian war.”“We are not advocates of war, we pledge that the arms will not be used domestically and it is our religious and national duty to preserve Christians,”
Khatib added. “We will safeguard this special status and we will defend it, and others have to understand the concerns of southerners and the threat posed to them by the Israeli enemy,” the Shiite cleric went on to say. “The resistance is the result of the Israeli occupation and the state’s weakness and it hinges on the elimination of the threat and the state’s ability to defend its border and people,” he explained. Commenting on Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s call for Lebanon’s neutrality, al-Khatib said such a solution is not feasible amid “the daily violations of territorial, maritime and aerial sovereignty by a historic enemy.”He also warned that Lebanon is facing an “existential threat,” urging political forces to shoulder their responsibilities and form “a national unity government comprising everyone.”Speaking on behalf of the LF delegation, MP Antoine Habchi said “these critical times require extraordinary solidarity” among the Lebanese. Noting that the authority of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council is respected by the Shiite community and all Lebanese, Habchi added that “since its inception, this Council has sought to preserve Lebanon’s unity, freedom and independence.”“The foundations that Imam Moussa al-Sadr advocated are the foundations that led to the creation of Lebanon the homeland and the state,” Habchi added. He also said that in order for Lebanon to rise, there should be a “strong state” that monopolizes the use of “violence and arms,” which would enable it to “protect all Lebanese and protect Lebanon from any attack, be it from the Israeli enemy or any other source.”Habchi also reminded that Imam al-Sadr had called for the “firmest cooperation with brotherly Arab countries.”

Tripoli Lawyers, Retirees to Benefit from New LibanPost Services
Naharnet/March 30, 2021
LibanPost has announced that, starting April 1, it will begin providing the Tripoli Bar Association services listed in the memorandums of understanding that have been signed between LibanPost and the Association. The new services will allow members-lawyers to pay their annual fee, and the retirees, or their representatives, to receive their quarterly allowances. The services will be available at any of the LibanPost branches across Lebanon and, at a later stage, through home service at their doorsteps, LibanPost said in a statement.

Syrian Refugee Ends German Election Bid over 'Racism'
Naharnet/March 30, 2021
The first Syrian refugee to run for a seat in the German parliament has withdrawn his candidacy due to racism and threats, the environmentalist Green party said Tuesday. Tareq Alaows is ending his bid to enter the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, for the Greens in Oberhausen, in North Rhine-Westphalia state, for "personal reasons", the party said in a statement. "The high threat level for me and especially for people close to me is the most important reason for withdrawing my candidacy," Alaows said. "My candidacy has shown that we need strong structures in all parties, politics and society to confront structural racism and help those affected," he added. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas reacted to the news on Twitter, describing it as "a disgrace for our democracy" that Alaows' political ambitions had been thwarted by "threats and racism". Alaows will be spending some time out of the public eye due to the "tense security situation", the party said, without giving details. "We would have liked to be able to continue to fight for a humane asylum and migration policy with Mr Alaows as our candidate for the Bundestag. Unfortunately, this is no longer possible," it said. The Green party had said in February that Alaows would be running.  The 31-year-old fled Syria's civil war to arrive in the western city of Bochum in 2015 after studying law in Aleppo and Damascus, the Tagesspiegel newspaper reported at the time. He learned German in six months and quickly landed a job as a social worker, also taking part in various initiatives to help refugees, the newspaper said. Germany took in more than one million migrants including tens of thousands of Syrians at the height of the European refugee influx of 2015-16. Controversy around the decision led to the rise of the far right, which has often accused Chancellor Angela Merkel of contributing to the Islamist threat by letting in the migrants.

'It's all talk': Lebanese politicians brush off French sanctions threat
Aya Iskandarani/The National/March 30, 2021
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian's comments have fallen on deaf ears, analysts say.
Members of Lebanon's political class have shrugged off thinly veiled threats by France to impose sanctions against them for failing to form a government capable of enacting reforms, after seven months of a power vacuum. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Monday said there was a need to “reinforce pressure” on Lebanese leaders, two weeks after President Emmanuel Macron hinted at a tougher approach towards Lebanese politicians. Mustapha Allouche, who is close to prime minister-designate Saad Hariri, said the threat of sanctions was not enough to convince politicians to act. “This is a threat and a warning,” he said, referring to Mr Le Drian’s comments. “But will anything come out of it? It’s all talk.” France has been at the forefront of relief and economic development efforts in Lebanon for years, but bickering and self-interest among Beirut's political elite has impeded efforts to save the country’s crumbling economy. Muted reactions from Lebanese politicians to Mr Le Drian's comments indicate how intractable the crisis in Lebanon has become, as foreign-backed parties refuse to compromise to form a government. Mr Allouche said France was likely sending a warning to Gebran Bassil – son-in-law of Lebanon's President Michel Aoun and leader of the party Mr Aoun founded, the Free Patriotic Movement. The party's alliance with militant group Hezbollah propelled Mr Aoun to the presidency in 2016 and gave the Christian party leverage on the political scene. Mr Bassil is accused by Mr Hariri's Future Movement party of pressing Mr Aoun to seek a "blocking third" of ministerial portfolios – the equivalent of a veto. Mr Aoun and Mr Bassil deny the claim.
“In truth, French pressure is not in the right place because Gebran Bassil, who is blocking the formation of a government, is already sanctioned by the US,” Mr Allouche, a former member of the Lebanese Parliament, said.
Seven months ago, Mr Macron launched an initiative to aid Lebanon, which has been struck by a severe economic crisis. This has been compounded by Covid-19 and a huge explosion at Beirut port that killed more than 200 people and unleashed angry protests that toppled the government.
But political leaders have failed to follow the French plan and agree on a reformist government, a requirement to unlock debt relief and aid payments. Mr Le Drian's comments are his latest bid to revive Mr Macron’s initiative. Diplomatic sources had previously confirmed to The National that Europe is exploring the possibility of sanctions. "The minister has indicated to his European, regional and international counterparts that after seven months of deadlock, the time has come for reinforced pressure," Mr Le Drian said. His position seems to be shared by the EU's Foreign Affairs Council. The bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell last week said: "We share the concern expressed by France about the situation in Lebanon." Mr Le Drian's comments came after he spoke to Mr Aoun, Mr Hariri and Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, the political leaders of Lebanon's three largest sects. There was no public comment about the talks from any of the Lebanese leaders. Mr Berri's office declined to comment on the issue. An official from Mr Aoun's office also declined to comment on the possibility of sanctions, saying that the talks “were fruitful on both sides”A representative for Hezbollah's representative told The National that the group "hopes the French initiative will succeed" but deems talk of pressure and sanctions "unacceptable". Analysts were sceptical about the effectiveness of French threats. Imad Salamey, an associate professor at the Lebanese American University, said this threat had been made by the French too many times to make politicians react.“The French have been threatening Lebanese politicians for more than a year now but nothing has materialised,” he said. And in any case, sanctions imposed on Lebanese politicians are unlikely to succeed unless their foreign backers are also pressurised, Mr Salamey said.
Hezbollah and its allies are backed by Iran and Syria.
"The problem does not end with politicians in Lebanon," Mr Salamey said. Another major issue is that France does not have enough leverage against groups it may consider imposing sanctions against, said Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Centre. "There are growing European fears about the ongoing crisis but French leverage is pretty weak," Mr Hage Ali said. A European politician close to EU foreign policy circles told The National that France appears to have over-estimated its influence in Lebanon, and that the power vacuum in Beirut has allowed other international players to step in, undermining the role of Mr Macron. He said that although Mr Macron is exasperated, he must keep communication channels open with the politicians who France is implicitly threatening with sanctions. "Russian-US relations are at rock bottom and Lebanon is developing into a playing field for other external actors – not just France," the source said. Both Hezbollah and Mr Hariri had opened channels with Moscow and Turkey had started forging ties in Lebanon, said the source. A parliamentary delegation from Hezbollah went on a four-day visit to Moscow earlier this month. "It is not exactly news that all the Lebanese political class is corrupt, that they do not care about putting together a plan to save the country. "They put their personal gain above anything else," the European politician said.
 

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 30-31/2021

Iran 'Rejects' Ending 20 Percent Uranium Enrichment Before U.S. Lifts Sanctions
RFE/RL/March 30, 2021
Tehran won’t agree to stop its 20 percent uranium-enrichment work before the United States lifts all sanctions, state television quoted an unnamed official as saying, after a U.S. media report said Washington would offer a new proposal for talks to resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.
"A senior Iranian official tells Press TV that Tehran will stop its 20 percent uranium enrichment only if the U.S. lifts ALL its sanctions on Iran first," the state-run TV channel reported on its website on March 30. The report quoted the official as saying that Tehran will further reduce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers if the United States does not lift the sanctions. “Washington is rapidly running out of time" as Iran holds a presidential election in June, with campaign season kicking off in May, it added. The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has been seeking to engage Iran in talks about both sides resuming compliance with the international nuclear agreement. The accord provided relief for Iran from international sanctions in exchange for limitations on its nuclear program, which Iran says is strictly for civilian energy purposes. But Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew the United States from the pact in 2018 and reimposed crippling economic sanctions on Iran. Iranian President Hassan Rohani delivering a speech during Nuclear Technology Day in Tehran in April 2019. Tehran responded by violating some of the accord’s nuclear restrictions, including a 3.67 percent limit on the purity to which it can enrich uranium. Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran was enriching uranium up to 20 percent purity, and that its enriched-uranium stockpile had reached 14 times the limit established by the 2015 nuclear deal.The media outlet Politico on March 29 quoted “two people familiar with the situation” as saying that U.S. administration officials “plan to put forth a new proposal to jump-start the talks as soon as this week.” The proposal would ask Iran to halt some of its nuclear activities such as work on advanced centrifuges and the enrichment of uranium to 20 percent purity, in exchange for some relief from U.S. sanctions, according to one of the people, who said the details were “still being worked out.” Iran's mission at the United Nations tweeted that "no proposal is needed for the U.S. to rejoin” the nuclear agreement. “It only requires a political decision by the U.S. to fully and immediately implement all of its obligations under the accord," it added. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on March 21 reiterated Iran's "definite policy" that the United States must lift all sanctions if Washington wants to see Iran return to its commitments under the 2015 agreement.
*With reporting by Reuters and RFE/RL’s Radio Farda

Canada/Minister Garneau announces funding for stabilization projects in Iraq and Syria at meeting of Global Coalition against Daesh
March 30, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Government of Canada recognizes the importance of supporting the stability and security of the Middle East region. Canada continues to support the peace and stabilization efforts of the Global Coalition against Daesh and the Global Coalition’s regional partners in Iraq and Syria.
The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today announced more than $43.6 million in Peace and Stabilization Operations Program funding for 11 projects in Iraq and Syria, at the Foreign Ministers of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS Small Group meeting.
This funding is another example of Canada’s commitment to the Global Coalition to ensure the enduring defeat of Daesh and advance stability in Iraq, Syria and the region. These projects will support the Global Coalition’s priorities of rehabilitating public infrastructure and delivering essential services. It will also contribute to the clearing of the explosive remnants of war as well as foster local peacebuilding efforts to support the reintegration of internally displaced peoples.
Through its diplomatic engagement, military contribution and peace and stabilization operations programming, Canada contributes to all 5 lines of the Global Coalition’s efforts, which include: the military campaign against Daesh, preventing the flow of foreign terrorist fighters across borders, tackling Daesh’s financing and its economic infrastructure, supporting the stabilization of areas liberated from Daesh and countering its propaganda.
Canada also knows that providing humanitarian assistance in the region is essential to help alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable. Today, at the Brussels V Conference on Syria, the Honourable Karina Gould, Minister of International Development, announced $49.5 million in new funding for humanitarian assistance in the Middle East.
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) continues to support the Global Coalition through Operation IMPACT, Canada’s military contribution in support of stability in the Middle East. The CAF also contributes to NATO Mission Iraq and conducts bilateral activities in Jordan and Lebanon as part of its contributions to the Global Coalition.
Quotes
“While Daesh has been militarily defeated through the efforts of the Global Coalition, it continues to pose an insurgent threat. We are committed to working with our allies and partners to help address the persisting underlying conditions that gave rise to Daesh. By working to address them, we can help build a more stable and secure region and put all efforts toward lasting peace and prosperity for the Iraqi and Syrian peoples.”
- Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Quick facts
Canada has contributed to the Global Coalition since it was formed in 2014. The Global Coalition is comprised of 83 members, including many of Canada’s closest allies and partners.
Since 2016, Canada has committed up to $3.5 billion in funding to respond to the crises in Iraq and Syria and address their impact on the region.
A part of Canada’s total funding includes up to $1.4 billion in life-saving and gender-responsive humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable populations in Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Canada is 1 of the top humanitarian donors in the region.

Joint statement on the WHO-Convened COVID-19 Origins Study
The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom.
March 30, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Governments of Australia, Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America remain steadfast in our commitment to working with the World Health Organization (WHO), international experts who have a vital mission, and the global community to understand the origins of this pandemic in order to improve our collective global health security and response. Together, we support a transparent and independent analysis and evaluation, free from interference and undue influence, of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, we join in expressing shared concerns regarding the recent WHO-convened study in China, while at the same time reinforcing the importance of working together toward the development and use of a swift, effective, transparent, science-based, and independent process for international evaluations of such outbreaks of unknown origin in the future.
The mission of the WHO is critical to advancing global health and health security, and we fully support its experts and staff and recognize their tireless work to bring an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, including understanding how the pandemic started and spread. With such an important mandate, it is equally essential that we voice our shared concerns that the international expert study on the source of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was significantly delayed and lacked access to complete, original data and samples. Scientific missions like these should be able to do their work under conditions that produce independent and objective recommendations and findings. We share these concerns not only for the benefit of learning all we can about the origins of this pandemic, but also to lay a pathway to a timely, transparent, evidence-based process for the next phase of this study as well as for the next health crises.
We note the findings and recommendations, including the need for further studies of animals to find the means of introduction into humans, and urge momentum for expert-driven phase 2 studies. Going forward, there must now be a renewed commitment by WHO and all Member States to access, transparency, and timeliness. In a serious outbreak of an unknown pathogen with pandemic potential, a rapid, independent, expert-led, and unimpeded evaluation of the origins is critical to better prepare our people, our public health institutions, our industries, and our governments to respond successfully to such an outbreak and prevent future pandemics. It is critical for independent experts to have full access to all pertinent human, animal, and environmental data, research, and personnel involved in the early stages of the outbreak relevant to determining how this pandemic emerged. With all data in hand, the international community may independently assess COVID-19 origins, learn valuable lessons from this pandemic, and prevent future devastating consequences from outbreaks of disease.
We underscore the need for a robust, comprehensive, and expert-led mechanism for expeditiously investigating outbreaks of unknown origin that is conducted with full and open collaboration among all stakeholders and in accordance with the principles of transparency, respect for privacy, and scientific and research integrity. We will work collaboratively and with the WHO to strengthen capacity, improve global health security, and inspire public confidence and trust in the world’s ability to detect, prepare for, and respond to future outbreaks.
 

Turkey testing waters to dispatch ambassador to Israel
Arab News/March 30/2021
ANKARA: Turkey has informed Israel it is set to appoint an ambassador to Tel Aviv once Israel commits to simultaneously reciprocating the gesture, according to a media report. Newspaper Israel Hayom, citing a senior Turkish official, made the claim on Monday. Turkey has not confirmed the report.
Analysts said that following a decade-long deterioration in bilateral ties, especially after the Mavi Marmara incident when Israeli commandos boarded a ship in a Gaza aid flotilla and Turkish activists died, both sides would need to restore trust with each other through concrete and sincere steps, rather than immediately expect the red carpet treatment. From the Turkish side, any diplomatic reconciliation with Israel would try to break its regional isolation and also please US President Joe Biden’s administration. However, the presence of senior Hamas officials in Turkey remains the major stumbling block in any rapprochement between the two countries. The Hamas office in Istanbul, seen as a safe haven for the group’s senior members, is allegedly run by the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement. The group reportedly set up a secret facility in Istanbul to conduct cyberattacks on Israel.
Turkey’s hosting of a senior Hamas delegation last year was also condemned by Washington, DC. But, since December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has toned down the rhetoric and hinted at Turkey’s willingness to restore ties with Israel. He publicly declared that Israeli and Turkish intelligence cooperation continued. “Ankara had already signaled its wish to improve relations with Israel a few months ago, but Israel’s response to the Turkish overtures was quite muted,” Gallia Lindenstrauss, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, told Arab News. “It seems that Turkey is losing its patience and would like to advance in the direction of the return of the ambassadors in the immediate term to break some of its isolation in the diplomatic front.”
FASTFACT
Analysts said that following a decade-long deterioration in bilateral ties, especially after the Mavi Marmara incident when Israeli commandos boarded a ship in a Gaza aid flotilla and Turkish activists died, both sides would need to restore trust with each other through concrete and sincere steps, rather than immediately expect the red carpet treatment. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin is expected to begin consultations with representatives of the parties elected to the Knesset to begin the process of forming a new government, following the recent election. But there is still the possibility of a fifth election in a two-year period. Lindenstrauss added that there was no major impediment to the return of ambassadors to Tel Aviv and Ankara because relations were not formally downgraded in 2018. It was, she said, an issue that could theoretically be advanced even with a caretaker government in Israel if a professional diplomat was chosen. On March 20 some Istanbul-based TV channels affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood - El Sharq TV, Watan TV, Mekameleen - were ordered by Ankara to stop airing anti-Egypt rhetoric in their political shows otherwise penalties would be imposed. This move to curb Muslim Brotherhood channels could be seen as another message of reconciliation with Israel if Turkey also commits to meeting Israel’s demands in this field and removes some senior Hamas leaders living in Turkey. “With regard to the activity of Hamas, Ankara has also signaled that it is less tolerant to the movement’s military activity on its soil and hence is moving in the right direction on this issue from Israel’s perspective,” Lindenstrauss said. During a visit to Cyprus in early March, Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said that Tel Aviv was ready to cooperate with Turkey on natural gas in the Eastern Mediterranean, and expressed his hopes that Ankara could join the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum in the future. But last week Turkey’s Foreign Ministry released a harsh statement about “Israel’s recent evacuation, destruction and confiscation decisions against Palestinians” violating international law. It also urged the international community to stand on the side of the Palestinian people against Israel’s expansionist policies. “Turkey has recently launched a charm offensive to repair relations with countries in the region, including Israel and Egypt,” Dr. Selin Nasi, the London representative of the Ankara Policy Center, told Arab News. “While Israel has received Turkey’s overtures with skepticism, it nevertheless leaves the door open for negotiations.”Nasi said that Ankara may also take measures to reassure Israel’s security concerns, such as limiting the activities of Hamas offices operating on Turkish territory or expelling senior Hamas officials, the way Turkey did prior to the normalization deal with Israel in 2016. “Turkey and Israel have converging interests when it comes to regional security, trade relations and energy cooperation. However, Israel is not in a rush to restore relations with Turkey as it gained an advantageous position in the Middle East, at the expense of Turkey, with the post-Abraham Accord security landscape.”Nasi also said that Turkey may have stepped up normalization efforts with Israel in the wake of press reports saying that Biden would refer to the 1915 massacre of Armenians as “genocide” on the upcoming April 24 anniversary. “Turkey might be hoping to win back support of the Israeli lobbies in the US Congress, in this regard. Against this backdrop, Israel is likely to set Turkey’s recalibrating ties with Hamas as a condition for normalization.” Turkey called back its ambassador in 2018 but did not downgrade the level of diplomatic representation, she explained, and sending back ambassadors was a technical matter. Now that the elections were over, Israel’s domestic political conjuncture provided a more conducive environment for Ankara’s normalization efforts. “Still, given the bad blood between the two leaders, a change of government in Israel would make it easier for Erdogan to make the first move in restoring ties with Israel,” Nasi said.

Israel President Says to Pick Leader to Form Govt. by April 7
Agence France Presse/March 30, 2021
Israel's President Reuven Rivlin has said he will pick a candidate to form the next government by April 7, following a tightly fought general election. The president will "hold a round of consultations with all parties on Monday 5 April," a statement from his office said, adding that "the task of forming a government would be assigned to one of the candidates by Wednesday." Israeli voters last week gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party 30 seats, the biggest bloc in the 120-member parliament.  However, to extend his 12 years in office, Netanyahu will need to form a coalition of at least 61 lawmakers. A group of 57 lawmakers is trying to oust the veteran premier, who is on trial for corruption. So far, the parties of 52 lawmakers are likely to back Netanyahu. Naftali Bennett's hard-right Yamina party, which won seven seats, has not declared its loyalty. Among the challengers is former military chief Benny Gantz, who was Netanyahu's main rival in three previous elections before joining a unity government to battle the coronavirus. His Blue and White party shrank to eight seats, and Gantz called on his fellow "change camp" leaders to speak with one voice. "I've called upon the leaders of the pro-change bloc to sit down as soon as possible so that we can get an honest government in place and end the Netanyahu era," Gantz said Monday in a statement. An Arab Islamist party has emerged as an unlikely tie-breaker.  Raam party chairman Mansour Abbas told AFP last week that he had not yet made up his mind. "The interests of our Arab community will be the parameters of the final decision," he said. The leading candidate will have 28 days to form a coalition. The president can extend the deadline by another 14 days before assigning a new candidate to form a coalition or deciding nobody can build a government -- setting the stage for Israel's fifth election since 2019. Also Monday, evidence-gathering begins in Netanyahu's trial on corruption charges. Netanyahu, the first Israeli premier to be indicted in office, was formally charged last year over allegations of accepting improper gifts and seeking to trade regulatory favor with media moguls in exchange for positive coverage. He denies all charges.
 

EU, U.S. Pledge Over $1 Billion to Tackle Syria's Crisis
Associated Press/March 30, 2021
The European Union and the United States pledged a combined $1.2 billion in aid Tuesday to help tackle war-ravaged Syria's deepening humanitarian and economic crises. The promise of aid comes amid a worsening coronavirus pandemic and as the war enters its 11th year without a political solution in sight. The 27-nation EU and the U.S. announced their commitments on the final day of an annual pledging event co-hosted by the United Nations. The virtual event gathered dozens of countries and international organizations. The total amount pledged was expected to be announced Tuesday night. The U.N. and other aid groups are seeking more than $4 billion for aid to Syria at this year's conference, their biggest appeal yet. Another $5.8 billion is requested for nearly 6 million Syrian refugees who fled their homeland. Underscoring the added suffering imposed on Syrians by the COVID-19 crisis, the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said the bloc's pledge of 560 million euros ($656.6 million) was equal to the amount pledged last year. "This is not something to be celebrated. It just shows how tragic and prolonged the situation is for the Syrian people," he said.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced more than $596 million in U.S. humanitarian assistance. The State Department said the aid will benefit people in Syria and refugees in neighboring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.
The decade of bloodshed in Syria has killed more than a half million people and sparked an exodus of refugees that has destabilized neighboring countries and impacted Europe. According to the U.N., 13.4 million people in Syria - more than half the country's pre-war population - need assistance. That's a 20% increase from last year. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Syria's humanitarian situation has worsened. The local currency has crashed and food prices have soared - increasing by 222% from last year. Nine out of 10 people live below the poverty line and in northwestern Syria, an area that is held by the rebels, close to three-quarters of the 4.3 million residents are food insecure. "The situation for Syrians in their own country and neighboring countries is worse than it has been at any time really over the previous nine years" U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said. "There is less violence, but there is more suffering."
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas pledged 1.738 billion euros ($2 billion) on Germany's behalf Tuesday, an amount he described as the country's largest pledge in the last four years. "The Syrian tragedy must not last another ten years," he said. "Ending it begins by restoring hope."
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom cut its pledge to "at least" 205 million pounds ($281 million), compared to 300 million ($411.8 million) last year.
"Coming just weeks after the 10-year anniversary of the conflict, this decision is deeply concerning, especially given the high impact that British aid has had over the last ten years," said David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee aid group.
Calling for a political resolution of the conflict, Borrell said the future of Syria "belongs to none of the factions and to none of the outside powers. It's for Syrians to shape, in Syrian-owned and Syrian-led negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations."
The Syrian government has taken back control of the country's biggest cities, but large swaths of Syria are still held by rebels. President Bashar Assad's supporters include Russia and Iran, while Turkey and Western powers have backed the opposition.
Geir Pedersen, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, said a cease-fire remains "more urgent than ever" and expressed worries about the threat posed by extremist groups. "The resurgence of these groups and the territorial hold of some of them cannot leave the international community indifferent," he said. "At the same time, it is clear that this challenge can only be addressed in manners that uphold international law and the principles of the protection of civilians." Lowcock insisted on the crucial importance of providing support for Syrian children, not only on humanitarian grounds, but also for strategic reasons. "What do we think those children will be like as adults, if they never go to school, if all they have known is a world of war, if all they see is suffering?" he said. According to the U.N. children's agency, the civil war has killed or wounded almost 12,000 children and left millions out of school.

Syrian Refugee Ends German Election Bid over 'Racism'
Naharnet/Agence France Presse/March 30, 2021  
The first Syrian refugee to run for a seat in the German parliament has withdrawn his candidacy due to racism and threats, the environmentalist Green party said Tuesday. Tareq Alaows is ending his bid to enter the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, for the Greens in Oberhausen, in North Rhine-Westphalia state, for "personal reasons", the party said in a statement. "The high threat level for me and especially for people close to me is the most important reason for withdrawing my candidacy," Alaows said. "My candidacy has shown that we need strong structures in all parties, politics and society to confront structural racism and help those affected," he added. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas reacted to the news on Twitter, describing it as "a disgrace for our democracy" that Alaows' political ambitions had been thwarted by "threats and racism". Alaows will be spending some time out of the public eye due to the "tense security situation", the party said, without giving details. "We would have liked to be able to continue to fight for a humane asylum and migration policy with Mr Alaows as our candidate for the Bundestag. Unfortunately, this is no longer possible," it said. The Green party had said in February that Alaows would be running.  The 31-year-old fled Syria's civil war to arrive in the western city of Bochum in 2015 after studying law in Aleppo and Damascus, the Tagesspiegel newspaper reported at the time. He learned German in six months and quickly landed a job as a social worker, also taking part in various initiatives to help refugees, the newspaper said. Germany took in more than one million migrants including tens of thousands of Syrians at the height of the European refugee influx of 2015-16. Controversy around the decision led to the rise of the far right, which has often accused Chancellor Angela Merkel of contributing to the Islamist threat by letting in the migrants.

Kurds Say 53 IS Members Arrested in Syria's Al-Hol Camp
Agence France Presse/March 30, 2021
Kurdish forces said Tuesday they had arrested 53 suspected Islamic State group members in a northeast Syria camp for relatives of jihadists, in an anti-IS security operation. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced the launch Sunday of the sweep in Al-Hol camp, which has been rocked by assassinations and breakout attempts.  Kurdish authorities have warned that the settlement, home to almost 62,000 people, is turning into an extremist powder keg because of IS jihadists hiding out among camp residents. The Kurds' Asayish security forces said they had "detained 53 IS members, including five leaders of IS sleeper cells that carried out violent terrorist attacks in the camp." They had also "confiscated mobile phones as well as several laptops", the SDF-allied police unit added. Heavily-armed Kurdish forces stood guard outside the camp as others stormed suspected hideouts inside the vast settlement, an AFP reporter said. In some sections, residents stood outside their tents watching the anti-terrorist squad scour the area. Al-Hol is the larger of two Kurdish-run displacement camps for relatives of IS jihadists in Syria's northeast. It holds mostly Syrians and Iraqis but also thousands from Europe and Asia suspected of family ties with IS fighters. Many residents see the camp as the last vestige of the IS proto-state that jihadists declared in 2014 across large swathes of both Syria and Iraq. Kurdish authorities have recorded more than 40 murders in Al-Hol since the start of this year. They say IS sympathizers are behind most of the murders, while humanitarian aid sources have said tribal disputes could be behind some of the killings. Simand Ali, a Kurdish official, told AFP jihadists had dug trenches in Al-Hol that they used to hide prohibited electronic devices and other goods. Those detained so far have mostly been Syrians and Iraqis, he said.

With Ship Now Freed, a Probe into Suez Canal Blockage Begins
Associated Press/March 30, 2021
Experts on Tuesday boarded the massive container ship that had blocked Egypt's vital Suez Canal and disrupted global trade for nearly a week, seeking answers to a single question that could mean billions of dollars in legal implications: What went wrong? As convoys of ships again began traveling in this artery linking East and West through the Mediterranean and Red Seas, hundreds more idled waiting for their turn in process that will take days. Egyptian government officials, insurers, shippers and others similarly waited for more details about what caused the skyscraper-sized Ever Given to become wedged across the canal's southern single-lane on March 23. When blame gets assigned, it could turn into years of litigation over the costs of repairing the ship, fixing the canal and reimbursing those who saw their cargo shipments disrupted. And with the vessel being owned by a Japanese firm, operated by a Taiwanese shipper, flagged in Panama and now stuck in Egypt, matters quickly become an international morass. "This ship is a multinational conglomeration," said Capt. John Konrad, the founder and CEO of the shipping news website gcaptain.com. Experts boarded the Ever Given as it idled Tuesday in Egypt's Great Bitter Lake, just north of the site where it previously blocked the canal. A senior canal pilot, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists, told The Associated Press that experts were looking for signs of damage and trying to determine the cause of the vessel's grounding. Damage to the vessel could be structural, Konrad warned. Stuck for days across the canal, the ship's middle rose and fell with the tide, bending up and down under the tremendous weight of some 20,000 containers across its 400-meter (quarter-mile) length. On Monday, when workers partially floated the ship, all that pressure came forward to its bow, which acted as a pivot point until the ship ultimately came free.
"Structural integrity is No. 1. You know, there was a lot of strain on that ship as it was sagging in the waterway," Konrad said. "They have to check everything for cracks and particularly that rudder and the propeller in the back that's connected to the engine room.""And then they have to go through all the mechanical equipment, make sure they test the engines, all the safety valves, all the equipment, and then determine that it's safe to sail either by itself or with a tug escort to the next port," he added. As of Tuesday morning, more than 300 vessels carrying everything from crude oil to cattle were waiting on both ends of the Suez Canal and in the Great Bitter Lake for permission to continue sailing to their destinations, canal service provider Leth Agencies said. The ship's owner, the Japanese firm Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., said Tuesday that it would be part of the investigation along with other parties, though it did not identify them by name. It also refused to discuss possible causes of the incident, including the ship's speed and the high winds that buffeted it during a sandstorm, saying it cannot comment on an ongoing investigation. Initial reports also suggested a "blackout" struck the vessel, something denied by the ship's technical manager. The company added that any damage to the ship was believed to be mostly on its keel. It said it was not immediately known whether the vessel will be repaired on site in Egypt or elsewhere, or whether it will eventually head to its initial destination of Rotterdam. That is a decision to be made by its operator, rather than the shipowner, the company said.
The grounding of the ship had halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce. Those losses. as well as physical damage from the incident, likely will see lawsuits. Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. is covered with some $3 billion in liability insurance through 13 Protection & Indemnity Clubs. Those clubs are not-for-profit mutual insurers used by the vast majority of global shipping firms. Global legal firm Clyde and Co. said the Ever Given's owner likely would pay Egypt's canal authority for the assistance already rendered to the vessel. The authority also could fine the Ever Given.
"We anticipate a detailed investigation will follow which will determine the cause," the firm said. "Evidently the cause will impact upon the legal liabilities of the ship and cargo interests."On Monday, a flotilla of tugboats, helped by the tides, wrenched the bulbous bow of Ever Given from the canal's sandy bank, where it had been firmly lodged since March 23. The tugs blared their horns in jubilation as they guided the Ever Given through the water after days of futility that had captivated the world, drawing scrutiny and social media ridicule. Analysts expect it could take at least another 10 days to clear the backlog on either end of the Suez Canal. The Ever Given had crashed into a bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez. That forced some ships to take the long, alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip — a 5,000-kilometer (3,100-mile) detour that costs ships hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and other costs. The unprecedented shutdown, which raised fears of extended delays, goods shortages and rising costs for consumers, has prompted new questions about the shipping industry, an on-demand supplier for a world under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.
 

African Insurgents Pry Open New Fronts for Jihadist Campaigns
Agence France Presse/March 30/2021
From the arid expanses of the Sahel into the Sinai Peninsula and now Mozambique, Africa is proving fertile ground for jihadist groups looking to bolster their notoriety by exploiting conflicts that have often festered for years. The fighters who have seized Palma, the Mozambique town near key natural gas projects, are the latest manifestation of a threat that could spread to other weak African nations where corruption is often rife. The insurgency is linked to the Islamic State group (IS) which, like al-Qaida, is vying for influence on the continent as both recover from defeats and growing pressure in their original bastions of the Middle East and southern Asia. "If it receives increasing support from the ISIS core -- whether in terms of funding or tactical expertise -- it could continue to gain momentum and eventually form a viable threat throughout the region," warned analysts at the New York-based Soufan Center think-tank. Decentralized hierarchies of the "historic" jihadist groups facilitate alliances with African locals, who generally operate without direct military orders or transfers of cash, weapons or reinforcements. Instead, homegrown groups often pursue longstanding grievances against established powers, borrowing the ideological trappings of a war against "infidels". For Tore Hamming, a researcher at the war studies department of King's College London, the threat reflects two evolving trends. "One is how militant Islamists involved in conflicts in various African countries have managed to emerge as the most successful insurgents, and second, how local insurgents over time have moved closer to the global jihadi movement," he told AFP.
Key contributions
Africa accounts for 16.5 percent of all attacks claimed by IS since January 2020, according to a well-respected terrorism analyst who publishes on Twitter as Mr. Q. While that is just half the 35 percent involving Iraq and Syria, the IS's self-proclaimed "provinces" in West Africa (ISWAP), central Africa (ISCAP) and the Sinai have held pride of place in 38 of the 64 most recent front pages of its propaganda weekly Al-Naba. For government officials and Western authorities, the risk is clearly the emergence of another Sahel struggle, where France's Barkhane forces have had to back local armies for years against a nebulous jihadist network. That would be music to the ears of IS and Qaeda leaders trying to keep their movements alive despite targeted killings of top officials over the years -- and the loss of the IS "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria two years ago. "Their African affiliates contribute significantly to their vision to portray resilience through global expansion despite major losses," said Brenda Githing'u, a counter-terrorism consultant based in Johannesburg.
'Local agendas' -
But despite the range of insurgents active on the continent, including Al-Shabaab in Somalia and groups in Algeria, Egypt, Libya and DR Congo, analysts say the emergence of a structured "Sahelistan" under jihadist control is not in the making. In Mozambique, for example, "IS is not necessarily supplying weapons or money. It's more of an ideological membership, a sharing of a program," Mr. Q. told AFP. It is the modus operandi of groups across the continent: a declaration of allegiance, centralized communications and even strategic advice that unites groups under a single structure, but no functioning military hierarchy. And despite their pledges of adherence to a global cause, local groups usually pursue immediate goals such as territorial control or an end of oppressive central government policies that often go hand in hand with endemic poverty. As a result, and despite warnings from some Western officials, analysts say African jihadists have little appetite for trying to orchestrate terror attacks in western Europe or North America. For the same reason, local insurgency chiefs are unlikely to reach the upper echelons of IS or al-Qaida leadership. That is the case for Iyad Ag Ghaly, leader of the shadowy Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) in the Sahel, or the Shabaab chiefs in Somalia, said Stig Jarle Hansen, an Africa expert at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. "They all have local agendas and I don't see any of them being a leadership candidate," he said. "But their relative importance has increased."

Ship crisis revives Russian, Israeli talk of alternatives to Suez Canal
The Arab Weekly/March 30/2021
The fact that the Ever Given blockage of the Suez Canal was resolved within a week does not mean an end to speculation about the sea routes.
CAIRO - The crisis of the “Ever Given” container vessel, which ran aground in the Suez Canal and was freed after it had completely blocked all other shipping for six days, has revived talk about alternatives, including Israel’s Ben Gurion canal project that would link the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.
Experts say every time the vital Suez canal, which is used by some 19,000 vessels a year carrying up to ten percent of global trade, is clogged for whatever reason, alternatives automatically resurface .The Israelis are promoting their projected Ben Gurion waterway as a rival to the Suez Canal. They say that the distance between Eilat and the Mediterranean is not long, and is in fact similar to the distance of the Suez connection between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Tel Aviv plans to turn this canal into a multi-faceted project, in addition to having it play a commercial role challenging the Suez Canal. It aims to build small towns, hotels, restaurants and nightclubs around the waterway.Analysts say that the Egypt’s downplaying of the importance of the Israeli project does not conceal the risk it poses to the Suez Canal’s $6 billion annual revenues. It is also possible that the alternative canal could win regional backing from countries such as Jordan, which is facing social and economic difficulties. Amman may find in this project a way out of its crises after having failed to garner sufficient Arab support to shore up its economic situation.
It is not unlikely that the Israeli canal project will also win the approval of countries such as Saudi Arabia whose mega-project on the Red Sea, aims to turn the city of Neom into a tourist attraction. The Saudi project may be a short distance away from the proposed Israeli southern end of the Ben Gurion canal at Eilat.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi sought to calm Egyptian fears about the alternatives that the world shippers could be compelled to seek after the Suez Canal blockage and the subsequent disruption that lasted for days.
“The Egyptians have succeeded in ending the crisis of the ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal, and brought things back to their normal course. This reassures the whole world about the transportation of its goods and its needs through this pivotal shipping artery,” Sisi said.
Sisi seemed to be hinting at the Ben Gurion Canal project, especially since Israel used the Suez Canal crisis to announce the start of work on its project. This has increased the pressure on Cairo and pushed it to issue reassuring statements.The idea of an Israeli canal linking the Mediterranean and the Red Sea is not new.
The US newspaper Business Insider published Thursday the content of a classified memo stating that the United States had studied a proposal to build an Israeli waterway to rival the Suez Canal by detonating nuclear bombs in the Negev desert decades ago.
According to the US 1963 memorandum, which was declassified in 1996, the plan would have meant the use of 520 nuclear bombs to carve for “excavation of Dead Sea canal across the Negev desert.”It said that an “interesting application of nuclear excavation would be a sea-level canal 160 miles long across Israel.”The use of conventional means for digging the canal would have “prohibitively expensive,” it added. The newspaper quoted historian Alex Wellerstein that the plan would have been a “model proposal for the Suez Canal situation.” After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the canal was closed for eight years.
The canal would have opened a pathway to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, thus ending the shut down of the Suez Canal.In Cairo, both the government and media have been echoing real public concern at the prospect of an Israeli canal.
Egyptian specialist in Israeli affairs, Ahmed Fouad Anwar, told The Arab Weekly: “The reports that questioned Egypt’s ability to solve the ship’s crisis were accompanied by Israeli gloating and unofficial speculations regarding the necessity of building the canal, but these speculations receded after Cairo’s success in prudently dealing with the crisis.”
Anwar added, “The Suez canal was closed to the Israelis and the international community for years and an alternative path was never initiated, because energy exporters were not enthusiastic about it and would doubt its ability to compete with the Suez Canal, not to mention security concerns.”
The 1960s US memo pointed out at the time that one of the problems that the authors of the proposal did not take into account was the “political feasibility, as it is likely that the Arab countries surrounding Israel would strongly object to the construction of such a canal.”
The Secretary-General of the Egyptian Seaports Association, Major General Issam Badawi, said this week, “Talk about an Israeli canal is old. It depends on the nature of the soil in the projected location and the sea level, which are two of the things that have hindered the project’s emergence so far.”Talking to The Arab Weekly, Badawi admitted that “talk about alternatives has intensified as a result of the incident in the Suez Canal. Incidents are a usual occurrence in international shipping lanes.”“The Egyptian Canal will remain the most important global shipping corridor. In the near future total trade passing through this waterway may reach 12 percent of the global trade volume, an increase of 2 percent over the current volume.”Israel is currently talking about extending a railway connection to link the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. However, this project is seen as an unlikely substitute for the Suez Canal considering that shipping containers would take twice as long to be transported by land as on giant sea vessels.Meanwhile Moscow is majoring on its plan for the Northern Sea Route along Russia’s Arctic coast as an alternative to the Suez Canal. The idea had been promoted by President Vladimir Putin for some time.
Russia took advantage of the 380 vessel Suez Canal traffic jam caused by the Ever Given grounding to re-market the Russian scheme internationally, promising adequate guarantees of safety, movement and low cost.The Russian “Rosatom” company underlined the importance of the North Sea Route as a magic solution for last week’s maritime traffic jam on the Suez Canal.The distance along the northern sea link from China to European ports is about 40 percent shorter, cutting by 15 days sailing from Asia to Europe compared with transit via the Egyptian waterway. With climate change, the Arctic route is increasingly free of ice and Russia is promising to send icebreakers for any vessels that become stuck. It is already planning to use the route to export is own oil and gas.The Iranian ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, called for activation of the Russian sea route, and tweeted Saturday, “Accelerating the completion of infrastructure and activating the north-south corridor is more important than ever, and is a better option as a transit alternative to the Suez Canal.”

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

His call to wage a global war for freedom echoes the dawn of the Cold War.
David Adesnik/Foreign Policy/March 30/2021
On March 12, 1947, in a special address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, President Harry Truman laid to rest any hopes that the Allies’ victory in World War II would usher in a new era of international cooperation. Instead, Truman told the assembled lawmakers: “At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life … One way of life is based upon the will of the majority [and] guarantees of individual liberty.” The other, he warned, “relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.” The United States, therefore, would “support free people resisting attempted subjugation.” That, in a nutshell, is what every student of international relations knows as the Truman Doctrine.
As a candidate, President Joe Biden gave the impression that he would be a kinder and gentler commander-in-chief. He would stop insulting allies and rejoin multilateral accords like the Paris Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. As he liked to say on the campaign trail: “We lead not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.” He would be a healer and uniter at home and abroad.
But if we are now seeing a harder-edged Biden take an increasingly clear line on the challenge posed by a totalitarian China, it should not come as a surprise. There was always another thread running through his candidacy—one that sees the world divided between democratic nations and the aggressive dictatorships working to undermine them. Only the United States could lead the democratic coalition to victory. This worldview was not something Biden inherited from his tenure as President Barack Obama’s vice president. Rather, it grew out of Russia’s intervention in the 2016 presidential election and the deepening polarization of American domestic politics. It also drew on the emerging consensus that China’s rulers were determined to exploit the West while committing atrocities against dissenters at home.
In other words, Biden came to see the world in remarkably similar terms to Truman’s at the dawn of the Cold War.
Six weeks into his presidency, on March 3, Biden affirmed his harder edge by releasing a draft national security strategy. The 23-page document titled “Interim National Security Strategic Guidance” can be read as the foundation for his actions since—corralling allies around the threat from Beijing, clear statements on Russia, his focus on shoring up NATO and upgrading the Indo-Pacific Quad. In the document’s preface, Biden writes: “I believe we are in the midst of an historic and fundamental debate about the future direction of our world. There are those who argue that, given all the challenges we face, autocracy is the best way forward. And there are those who understand that democracy is essential to meeting all the challenges of our changing world.” Biden sees Western democracy under siege, as Truman did in 1947. “We must prove that our model isn’t a relic of history,” the president insists.
For Biden, the threats at home and abroad are inseparable. His inaugural address barely mentioned foreign policy, yet it was a summons to battle on behalf of democracy within the United States. “I ask every American to join me in the cause,” Biden said, “uniting to fight the common foes we face: Anger, resentment, hatred. Extremism, lawlessness, violence.”
There is a strong precedent for the pursuit of moral and democratic restoration at home proceeding in tandem with a return to a more idealistic and ideological foreign policy. When Jimmy Carter made his commitment to human rights as central to foreign policy, it was a response to the moral crisis of Watergate and the civil rights movement no less than the Nixon-Kissinger policy of embracing anti-Communist autocrats. Similarly, Biden is responding to the ways in which President Donald Trump attacked the democratic process at home and drew close to authoritarian leaders abroad.
While the language of the new Strategic Guidance is unusually forceful, Biden began migrating to a more idealistic, democracy-focused foreign policy soon after Trump took office. In December 2017, Biden co-authored a lengthy essay that began by recalling how, “During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union faced off in an existential struggle between two antithetical systems.” Truman was the first president to articulate that view, yet as the Cold War progressed, many of his fellow Democrats came to reject it as simplistic and needlessly provocative to Moscow.
Biden, however, does not question the orthodox view of systemic rivalry during the Cold War. In that 2017 essay, he also observes that Russia had an opportunity to reinvent itself in the 1990s, yet: “Today, the Russian government is brazenly assaulting the foundations of Western democracy around the world.” Since Trump ignored or even abetted the threat, small-d democrats would have to fight back both at home and abroad.
Biden’s call to wage a global struggle for freedom represented a sharp break from the foreign policy of the administration in which Biden had served as vice president. Obama’s 2015 national security strategy highlighted Russian aggression, but framed the threat as a challenge to the rules-based international order, not the foundations of democracy worldwide. With regard to China, the 2015 strategy demonstrated a certain wariness while emphasizing the bright potential for better relations. “The scope of our cooperation with China is unprecedented,” Obama wrote in his preface to the strategy, “even as we remain alert to China’s military modernization and reject any role for intimidation in resolving territorial disputes.” Fast forward to 2018, when Biden’s future national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and chief Asia advisor, Kurt Campbell, announced that “there is a growing consensus that the era of engagement with China has come to an unceremonious close.” Competition was now the order of the day, although the United States would have to manage it carefully to avoid catastrophe.
The evolution of the future Biden team’s approach to China recalled the sudden about-face with regard to the Soviets between the end of World War II and the unveiling of the Truman Doctrine. The premise underlying the establishment of the United Nations Security Council was that Moscow would become a partner in preserving stability and order—or a “responsible stakeholder,” to borrow the hopeful phrase applied to China in the early 21st century. In 1946, then-U.S. Embassy Counselor George Kennan’s famous “long telegram” from Moscow smashed much of the hope for cooperation with the Soviets that persisted in the State Department and Pentagon, yet the telegram remained classified. When Truman articulated his doctrine, he was tearing down the conventional wisdom of his day.
Biden’s call to wage a global struggle for freedom represents a sharp break from the Obama administration’s foreign policy.
Biden affirmed his view of a global struggle between democracy and dictatorship even when it seemed to be a political liability. In January 2020, as Biden’s polling numbers continued their descent in Iowa and New Hampshire, the candidate published a detailed look at his plans for foreign policy. The article began with an indictment of Trump’s failures, concluding: “Most profoundly, he has turned away from the democratic values that give strength to our nation and unify us as a people.” Biden also recalled how “the triumph of democracy and liberalism over fascism and autocracy created the free world,” adding that “this contest does not just define our past. It will define our future, as well.”
Biden saw threats that reminded him of 1947, while his rivals for the nomination tended to focus on the need to bring troops home from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. With Sen. Bernie Sanders moving into the lead, Biden’s language seemed to reflect how out of touch he was with Democratic voters who wanted to rebuild at home, not take on new responsibilities abroad. Yet precisely because Biden put forward his global democracy agenda despite the political drawbacks, the content of his new Strategic Guidance is no accident—and can be seen as the foundation for his administration’s emerging foreign policy.
Biden’s strategy paper has some gaps. It has surprisingly little to say about the most dangerous autocracies other than China, which may have something to do with the word “interim” in the document’s title. The passages about China are reminiscent of Trump’s 2017 National Security Strategy, describing it as the only foreign power with the ability to “mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system.” The document pledges to “ensure that America, not China, sets the international agenda.” It promises that following its guidance will “allow us to prevail in strategic competition with China or any other nation.”In contrast, the strategy contains only three sentences about Russia, despite Biden’s firm stance on Moscow during the campaign, and his more recent description of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “killer.” There are no references to Ukraine or the Baltics, whose elected governments are key targets of Russian subversion. North Korea merits one full sentence, a vague pledge to “empower our diplomats” to address Pyongyang’s “growing nuclear and missile programs.” As for Iran, the guidance only tells us that the administration will engage in nuclear diplomacy while opposing Tehran’s aggression. Neither Pakistan nor Venezuela comes up at all.
These omissions serve as a reminder that it is much easier to declare one’s commitment to a global struggle for freedom than to confront specific adversaries who are likely to push back. When Truman laid out his doctrine, his immediate objective was very modest: to secure congressional support for American aid to Greece and Turkey. The former was under threat from a communist insurgency, while the latter faced Soviet demands for border concessions and naval bases. Yet the commitment to resisting Soviet expansion soon required measures that entailed greater costs, greater risks, or both. In the space of two years, Truman committed himself to the Marshall Plan, the Berlin airlift, and the founding of NATO. When Kim Il-Sung’s forces invaded South Korea, there seemed to be no choice but to make a stand in defense of freedom. More than 33,000 Americans were killed in action. Truman’s popularity suffered irreparable damage, ensuring he would not run for reelection in 1952. Instead, he would leave office with the lowest approval rating of any president until George W. Bush.
Eventually, Biden will have to decide whether he is prepared to lead a global struggle for democracy like Truman.
The end of the Cold War rescued Truman’s reputation, although he was long dead. He is now seen as the resolute architect of a successful strategy and historic victory. In 2017, a survey of more than 90 leading historians ranked Truman as the sixth greatest U.S. president, one spot ahead of Thomas Jefferson.
What risks is Biden prepared to take in pursuit of his vision? If he imposes tougher sanctions on North Korea and stations more U.S. troops in the south, leader Kim Jong-un may resume nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches. If Biden redoubles support to Ukraine, Russia may heat up the war in the Donbas and escalate cyberattacks against the West. If Biden confronts Beijing in the South China Sea and continues to sanction it for atrocities in Xinjiang, the intimidation of Taiwan is likely to intensify while the odds of an agreement to limit Chinese carbon emissions will sharply diminish. With regard to Iran, Biden has already made clear that he wants to reverse Trump’s “maximum pressure campaign” and return to the 2015 nuclear deal.
Yet on multiple fronts, Biden has shown a readiness to clash with authoritarian rivals. Anger pervaded the administration’s first high-level meetings with Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska. Days later, the United States, Britain, Canada, and the European Union imposed coordinated sanctions on Chinese officials over atrocities in Xinjiang. After Biden called Putin a “killer,” Blinken said the administration would not waver in its push for new sanctions on firms involved in the construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline. It would be premature to conclude, however, that Biden’s resolution is as firm as Truman’s was in 1947—even if the parallels between their approaches are aptly clear. So far, the costs of confrontation have been minimal, yet they are unlikely to stay that way. Eventually, when it stops being easy, Biden will have to decide whether he is prepared to lead a global struggle for democracy like Truman.
*David Adesnik is a senior fellow and the director of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @adesnik. FDD is a nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.

Biden must confront North Korea via Beijing
John Bolton/Washington Examiner/ March 30/2021
North Korea’s first ballistic-missiles launches during Joe Biden’s presidency triggered the usual flurry of speculation about Kim Jong Un’s intentions, Biden’s possible responses, and whether to resume Washington-Pyongyang negotiations.
But before we yet again commence a diplomatic minuet of semiotics and process, two questions demand answers. First, how close is North Korea to nuclear weapons and delivery systems that can accurately target America? Second, does Biden really intend to stop the North from achieving these objectives?
On capabilities, the Kim family dynasty has made slow but steady progress for decades. The best bet, although not certain, is that its nuclear-warhead stockpile has steadily increased. Pyongyang likely now has the ability to put a warhead over North America, and it is pursuing systems beyond land-based ballistic missiles. There is, however, no certainty among observers that the North can target accurately or that its warheads can survive the difficult atmospheric reentry process. Critically, therefore, enough time remains (albeit not much) to stop North Korea before it directly threatens the United States.
That said, important U.S. allies like Japan are already vulnerable. Accordingly, Tokyo has long pressed Washington to stand firm against both Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missiles (whatever their range), stressing correctly that technological advances at shorter ranges also benefit longer-range missile developments.
Biden's intentions remain unclear. The administration scoffed at North Korea’s March 21 launches of two anti-ship cruise missiles, describing them as "normal missile activity." Whereupon Pyongyang fired two nuclear-capable ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan. On March 25, Biden said plainly that these latter launches violated U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718, thereby reversing his predecessor’s unwarranted insouciance about such activity. Biden acknowledged that North Korea was "the top foreign policy issue that he was watching" and that America’s Pyongyang diplomacy "has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearization." If Biden is serious, he has rejected the idea, advocated by the international left, that we accept Kim’s regime as a nuclear power and instead try merely to constrain it. And hopefully, Biden won’t be the second president to fall in love with Kim.
These positions are necessary but hardly sufficient conditions for realistic U.S. policy. Biden said further, "we’re consulting with our allies and partners" about the launches. This is simply common sense (in all except the last administration). Biden added, "If they choose to escalate, we will respond accordingly."
The problem: Pyongyang has already escalated, and Washington is not responding.
To the contrary, U.S. officials admit they made several unrequited efforts to open discussions with Pyongyang, thereby potentially looking desperate for a deal. Nor has Biden restored joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises to levels necessary for true readiness against North Korean conventional attacks. Doing so would be not just a "signal," but an important, long-overdue correction in its own right. Congress should demand it. Next week, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will be the first foreign leader to visit Biden’s White House. Suga has stressed his intention to "thoroughly discuss" North Korea’s threat, meaning Biden will surely hear, prior to completion of the National Security Council's ongoing policy review, a strong, realistic message about the grave risks of conventional diplomacy with Kim.
Tokyo and Washington should both understand, however, that the real target of their efforts must be Beijing, not Pyongyang. History has proven clearly that North Korea has never made the strategic decision to give up its nuclear goals. It is always willing to trade promises of denuclearization for financial assistance and sanctions relief. That route has been tried and failed for 30-plus years. Pyongyang gets the financial benefits upfront, but mysteriously to some, never fulfills its denuclearization commitments. It is time for the U.S. to focus on China.
Over 70 years, Beijing has provided North Korea with enormous military assistance and, while denying recent support for nuclear-related programs, undoubtedly provided considerable help previously (as did Moscow). Politically, Beijing flies protective cover for Pyongyang at the United Nations Security Council. This is no casual activity: Beijing and Pyongyang's respective communist parties once proclaimed themselves "as close as lips and teeth." Economically, North Korea would collapse quickly if China suspended energy transfers, which constitute 90%-plus of its supplies, not to mention massive subsidies and humanitarian assistance. Indisputably, China made and sustains North Korea. Beijing must now own up to its responsibility.
Either Xi Jinping takes serious measures to help terminate Kim’s nuclear ambitions, or he risks dramatically raising the level of disagreement between China and America. Will this approach offend Xi? Possibly, but his sensitivities are hardly a useful metric of American interests. For too long, Washington has meekly accepted Beijing’s line that it too wants to "solve" the North Korea nuclear problem. That was likely never true, and it is certainly not true today. Until we accept and act on that reality, Pyongyang will only continue to progress toward deliverable nuclear weapons.
*John Bolton served as national security adviser to President Donald Trump between 2018 and 2019. Between 2005 and 2006, he served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Copyright 2021. Washington Examiner. All Rights Reserved.

Is Europe course-correcting after taking a hard-right turn?
Rashmee Roshan Lall/The National/March 30, 2021
Now that the Netherlands’ election results have been finalised and officially published, chances are much of the world will lose interest in what happens next. After all, the incumbent won a fourth term after a dull campaign in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and the process of forming a coalition government in the Netherlands is long and protracted. Is there any reason to pay further attention to Dutch politics? As a matter of fact, yes. The Dutch election is reason to think a new political season may be coming in Europe. It holds the promise of a springtime of hope and not just because of who won. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s success indicates voters’ preference for stability and the political middle over the bromides and wild-eyed promises of the far right.
But it is the surprise runner-up – the socially liberal, pro-EU D66 party – that tells a further good news story. In becoming the second-largest party in the Dutch Parliament, D66 will displace Geert Wilders’ Eurosceptic, anti-Islam, anti-migrant Party for Freedom.
D66 is led by Sigrid Kaag, a former UN diplomat who is married to a Palestinian and is fluent in Arabic. At a time of waning support for hyphenated identities, Ms Kaag conspicuously and deliberately spoke out in favour of “cosmopolitanism”. This was considered courageous, a euphemism for political suicide, because a broader worldview has of late been attacked as unpatriotic, even by centre-right politicians in other European countries. Not too long ago, former British prime minister Theresa May declared “if you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere”.
That Ms Kaag was able to lead her party to its best electoral showing since 1994 lends credence to her ecstatic post-election diagnosis that “Dutch people are not extreme, they are moderate”.
So, is the Netherlands really an early sign of the revival of liberal political strands in Europe? And if so, what might that mean for the European bloc as a whole and for liberal internationalism more generally?
Look east over the Dutch border to Germany. Two states that together account for around one-fifth of Germany’s population, went to the polls on March 14, three days before the Netherlands. As with Mr Rutte, the results were heartening for the incumbent leaders of Baden-Wurttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate.
In Baden-Wurttemberg, an industrial powerhouse that is home to auto giants Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, the Green party built on its track record of success. Winfried Kretschmann, its septuagenarian leader, the only Green party politician to serve as a state premier in Germany, was comfortably re-elected on the strength of his moderate policies. His victory is thought to be a signal that a Green coalition government could become a reality at the federal level in late September, when Germany holds its national election.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, the centre-left Social Democratic incumbent premier, won re-election. The first woman to hold the office of premier in this state, Ms Dreyer’s coalition government of Greens and middle-of-the-road Free Democrats is also being talked of as yet another, if somewhat distant possibility at the federal level.
Three points emerge from these state elections, which kick off something that Germans call “superwahljahr" or “super election year” with multiple state polls and a federal election.
First, the Green party is doing exceedingly well, which reflects widespread voter concerns about climate change. The expectation is that the Greens are almost certain to be part of a future coalition government in Berlin.
Second, the far-right Alternative for Germany party, much hyped in its eight-year life, lost some support in both states. And a third, related conclusion may be drawn. Voters favoured democratic stability and progressive social policies over right-wing conspiracy theories.
Most of these trends were evident in the Netherlands as well, except that the Dutch far right grew a bit overall, even as it splintered into more parties.
The implications for the EU and further afield are significant. Environmentalism is firmly on the winning political agenda in Germany, the bloc’s largest economy, as well as in the Netherlands, which is vying to become post-Brexit Europe’s share-trading hub. Except for the populist right, every Dutch party campaigned on strong climate friendly policies. And it has to be a boon that the ascendance of pro-European voices such as D66, the German Greens and the Social Democratic Party of Germany comes at the expense of the Europe-bashing far right.
In the Netherlands, there was a further reason to celebrate the goal of an ever closer European union. The pan-European Volt party – founded in 2017 as a reaction to Brexit and populism – won three seats and will enter the Dutch Parliament for the first time.
All of this is good news for Europe’s struggle against blood-and-soil politics. But then there is Sweden. The anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats are negotiating with opposition parties to jointly challenge Prime Minister Stefan Lofven’s Social Democrats in next year’s election. Though the far-right Sweden Democrats are the third-largest party in Parliament, they were uniformly reviled until recently by all the other parties. But now, the political dynamic appears to be changing, and in a quite radical way for a country that has long prided itself on a unique brand identity – the humanitarian superpower.
In France, too, President Emmanuel Macron has made obvious if occasional lurches to the right as he battles a surge in support for the far-right leader Marine Le Pen ahead of next year’s election. Mr Macron has paired a promised clampdown on "Islamist separatism" with criticism of multiculturalism and tough rhetoric on illegal immigration.
Clearly, a Dutch national election and two German state polls cannot and do not signify a continent-wide liberal wave. But they might indicate the direction of travel, down a greener path that recognises the virtue of sharing the journey.
*Rashmee Roshan Lall is a columnist for The National

Iran-China accord ushers in major geopolitical shift
Osama Al-Sharif/Arab News/March 30/2021
The 25-year comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement between China and Iran, which was signed in Tehran on Saturday, is a major breakthrough for the two countries and will have long-term effects on the geopolitical balance of the Gulf and the region as a whole. After five years of negotiations, the inking of the deal, which covers various economic, political and security issues, comes at a time when relations between Beijing and Washington are at their worst. It also puts Tehran in a strong bargaining position in relation to the shaky nuclear deal and the West’s attempt to renegotiate and expand it.
The agreement, parts of which remain undisclosed, will release $400 billion of Chinese investments over 25 years in return for a regular supply of low-cost Iranian oil. The impact of the deal on the struggling Iranian economy will be enormous and will lessen the effects of US-imposed economic sanctions. The proposal for a strategic alliance between China and Iran was made by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2016, but Iranian leaders hesitated to embrace it for fear that it would affect the newly signed nuclear deal. But this week’s signing of what amounts to a treaty testifies to the failure of the Trump administration’s policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran. It leaves Donald Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, in a difficult position vis-a-vis rejoining the nuclear agreement unconditionally, as Tehran demands.
The pact, which will allow China to put 5,000 security and military personnel on Iranian soil, is a regional game changer. Before China, Tehran had signed a 10-year cooperation agreement, especially in the nuclear field, with Moscow in 2001 that has since been extended by five years twice. Two years ago, Iran joined naval exercises with Russia and China. The latest accord will allow China to have a presence in the Gulf region, as well as Central Asia. In return, Iran will have access to Chinese technology and investments in its poor infrastructure. The two parties will invest in a free industrial zone close to the Strait of Hormuz. The Chinese have been strengthening their economic ties with other Gulf countries for years. Beijing has signed cooperation agreements with the UAE and Kuwait and has good working relations with Saudi Arabia. The latest accord will raise red flags in Arab Gulf capitals. Iran continues to be a major source of instability in the region and its alliance with Beijing will only embolden the hard-liners in Tehran and Qom.
Israel too will be feeling uneasy about the Chinese move. Both Russia and China, co-signatories to the nuclear deal, have supported Tehran’s position and openly violated US sanctions. The deal is a major step in China’s ambitious multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which is expected to allow it to become the largest global economy in a few years.
So far there has been no reaction from Washington. The signing of the accord will put the Americans and Europeans in a difficult position diplomatically. The Iranians are likely to stay firm in their rejection of any proposal to renegotiate the nuclear deal or expand it to cover Tehran’s long-range missile program and its regional behavior. The signing of the deal came just days after a failed US-China meeting in Alaska, which saw a bitter war of words break out between the two nations. Biden appears to be following in Trump’s footsteps by taking a hard stand against Beijing.
The Iran-China deal has been attacked by the Iranian opposition for violating the country’s sovereignty. It is not clear whether Iran will allow China to have a permanent military base on its territory. Beijing has shown an interest in getting involved in regional issues, such as by offering to host preliminary talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The recent accord will be seen as another attempt by a foreign nation to fill the vacuum left by the US in the region. Already, Russia has established a number of military and naval bases in Syria and is active in Libya. Turkey, which has a military base in Qatar, is also not shy about its territorial ambitions in northern Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan. Unlike the US, China continues to be dependent on Gulf oil. It is certain we will see increasing Chinese activity in the region as America reduces its presence. Beijing has made it clear that its alliance with Iran will not affect its ties with the Gulf countries.Countries in the region will be under pressure, primarily from the US, not to get closer to China. The region, like in the 1950s, will be caught in a new cold war between China and Russia on the one hand and the US and its European allies on the other. This requires a careful diplomatic balancing act by countries in the region as we witness major geopolitical aftershocks.
*Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. Twitter: @plato010