LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
December 06/17
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Bible Quotations
God opposes the proud. but shows favor to the humble
James 04/From 01-12/ What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us. But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud. but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 2 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 05-06/17
The Death of the Great Boxer/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/December, 05/17
France: Islamism in the Heart of the State/Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/December 05/17
UK: Perversions of Justice/Khadija Khan/Gatestone Institute/December 05/17
Religious Hate Crimes, USA.: Jews, Not Muslims, Still Key Victims/A. Z. Mohamed/Gatestone Institute/December 05/17
Kushner Is Said to Have Ordered Flynn to Contact Russia/Eli Lake/Bloomberg/December 05/17
The Hague and the Unbearable Slowness of Justice/Noah Feldman/Bloomberg View/Bloomberg/December 05/17
Saleh's Murder Unites Yemenis/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/December, 05/17

Titles For Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on December 04-05/17
Lebanese PM Hariri revokes resignation after consensus deal
Hariri to Return to Paris Friday for Lebanon Meeting
Aoun Says Lebanon's Dignity Must Not Be Undermined
Hariri Steps Back from Resignation after Endorsement of Dissociation Policy
Mustaqbal 'Relieved' by Hariri's Withdrawal of His Resignation
Change and Reform: Paris Meeting Reflects Support for 'Lebanese Legitimacy'
MP Geagea: New Settlement Very Positive, Hizbullah Serious in Committing to It
Sami Gemayel Vows Unwavering Steadfastness, Warns History Will Have No Mercy on Ruling Authority
International Support Group on Lebanon Meets in Paris on Friday

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 05-06/17
Israeli Jets Strike Syrian Military Site Near Damascus
Trump Tells Abbas, Jordan King of ‘Intention’ to Move Embassy to Jerusalem
Saudi Arabia Hopes Yemeni Uprising Will Rid Country of Houthi Terrorists
Abul Gheit: Saleh’s Assassination Reveals Houthis’ Criminal Nature
Iran Warns against Dissolving Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces
U.N. Security Council Calls on All Sides in Yemen to 'De-escalate'
Gulf States Skip Qatar, Blast Huthis as GCC Summit Ends
Most Detained in Saudi Purge Agree to Cash Settlements
Syria Peace Talks Resume in Geneva, without Govt. Delegation
Saudi King Warns Trump over 'Dangerous' Jerusalem Embassy Move
Trump Tells Arab Leaders He Wants to Move Embassy to Jerusalem despite Warnings
Russia Registers 9 US Media Outlets as 'Foreign Agents'
Islamist Chief Says 'Security Eased' in Ain Hilweh By Departure of Extremists
Iranian Newspapers Renew Support for Houthi-Fired Missiles Targeting Gulf Countries
Russian, Iranian Parliamentarians Discuss Reconstruction Efforts in Syria
Iran, South Korea Sign 720-Million-Euro Contract to Buy Rail Bus Wagons

Latest Lebanese Related News published on December 05-06/17
Lebanese PM Hariri revokes resignation after consensus deal
http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/news/world/lebanese-pm-hariri-revokes-resignation-consensus-deal-article-1.3678239
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri revoked his resignation Tuesday following a consensus deal reached with rival political parties, marking an end to one of the most bizarre interludes in Lebanese politics. The announcement came at the end of the first Cabinet meeting to be held since Lebanon was thrown into a political crisis following Hariri's stunning move a month ago. Hariri announced his resignation in a Nov. 4 televised broadcast from Saudi Arabia, citing the Iranian-backed Hezbollah's meddling in regional affairs as a main reason for stepping down. The nature of the announcement raised suspicions that it was orchestrated by Saudi Arabia, his main backer. The move thrust Lebanon to the forefront of the regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran and shattered the national unity government that Hariri headed. Following French mediation to bring Hariri out of Saudi Arabia to Paris for a brief visit, he returned to Lebanon on Nov. 21 and put the resignation on hold to allow for consultations. Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, attended by Hariri, endorsed a statement that calls on rival Lebanese groups to distance themselves from regional conflicts and the internal affairs of Arab countries.
"The Lebanese government, through all its political components, disassociates itself from any conflicts or wars, as well as the internal affairs of Arab countries to protect Lebanon's political and economic relations with its Arab brothers," Hariri said. He then said he had rescinded his resignation.It is not clear what, if anything, the agreement entails. Hariri has complained about the Shiite militant Hezbollah group's meddling in regional affairs, including the affairs of Gulf countries — a reference to Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is fighting Shiite rebels supported by Iran. Hezbollah denies having a military role in warn-torn Yemen. Two days before Hariri returned to Lebanon, the group said its fighters are coming back from Iraq now that the Islamic State group has been defeated there. Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters to Syria to shore up President Bashar Assad's forces. Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Hariri to Return to Paris Friday for Lebanon Meeting
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 05/17/Prime Minister Saad Hariri will attend talks in Paris Friday on the crisis triggered by his recent resignation announcement and the meeting will be attended by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, France said Tuesday. "The aim is to support the political process (in Lebanon) at a crucial moment," the French foreign ministry said, minutes after Hariri announced he had rescinded his resignation. "It will send a message both to the various parties in Lebanon and to countries in the region," the ministry added. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China -- will be represented at the meeting, along with Germany, Italy and Egypt. French officials said the goal was to shore up Lebanese institutions, by strengthening the army and supporting Hariri's economic program, with a view to encouraging foreign investment in the country. Hariri announced he was stepping down on November 4 in a surprise televised address from Saudi Arabia that sent tremors through Lebanon, long a proxy battleground for regional powers. His resignation was seen as part of an intensifying power struggle between the Saudi kingdom -- which had long backed Hariri -- and its regional rival Iran, which backs Hizbullah. After announcing he was bowing out Hariri, who accused Hizbullah of destabilizing Lebanon, remained in Riyadh, sparking speculation that he was being held hostage by the Saudis. French President Emmanuel Macron intervened to try defuse the crisis, inviting Hariri to Paris for talks, after which he returned to Beirut to a hero's welcome. Two weeks later, following consultations with the various political groups in Lebanon, Hariri announced Tuesday he was withdrawing his resignation.

Aoun Says Lebanon's Dignity Must Not Be Undermined
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 05/17/President Michel Aoun said on Tuesday that Lebanon reacted to the crisis that emerged following PM Saad Hariri's shock resignation because “we do not accept the country's dignity to be tampered with,” the National News Agency reported. “Our position on the recent crisis stems from our inability to accept that any authority in the world could tamper with our dignity. We believe that there is no such thing as small or major country; these must all be equal in dignity,” Aoun said at a Cabinet meeting from Baabda Palace. At the beginning of the extraordinary session aimed at endorsing the country's dissociation policy, Aoun presented in detail, the stages of the crisis that arose upon the announcement of Hariri's resignation, NNA said. He explained that the positions he took and the wide-scale contacts he made stem from “the main concern to absorb the situation at home and secure the return of Hariri from abroad to find out the circumstances that accompanied his stance." Aoun spoke about the broad consultations he made with all parties and a number of world leaders.

Hariri Steps Back from Resignation after Endorsement of Dissociation Policy
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 05/17/Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced on Tuesday that he is stepping back from his resignation after an extraordinary government meeting that endorsed the country's dissociation policy. In a statement he read to reporters, the PM announced that he had withdrawn his resignation in a step that comes one month after stepping down from his post in a shock move. “The Cabinet thanks the prime minister for rescinding his resignation,” Hariri said reading from a cabinet statement issued after its first meeting since his return. “The government has unanimously approved a statement pledging compliance with a policy of dissociation, the president's oath of office in terms of dissociating the country from regional conflicts and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries,” he added. "The Cabinet has also renewed commitment to the Taef Accord, the international resolutions mainly UN Resolution 1701 and continued support for the UNIFIL. The government will continue to strengthen relations with fraternal and friendly countries and to reaffirm partnership with the European Union," he said. President Michel Aoun chaired the meeting on Tuesday at the Baabda Palace with the aim of endorsing the dissociation policy. The Cabinet convened after a month of paralysis that gripped the country following Hariri's resignation, which he eventually retracted, citing Iran's influence, Hizbullah's involvement in regional wars and threats for his life. Aoun and Hariri held a closed door meeting before the government session began. The decision to hold the extraordinary session was reached after the political parties reached an agreement on a statement that will reaffirm Lebanon's so-called dissociation policy ending Hizbullah's involvement in regional conflicts. Hariri had caused widespread perplexity on November 4 when he resigned during a TV broadcast from Saudi Arabia, citing assassination threats and blasting the policies of Iran and Hizbullah in Lebanon and the region. After a puzzling mini-odyssey that took him to France, Egypt and Cyprus, Hariri arrived back in Lebanon on November 21 and then announced that he was putting his decision to quit on hold ahead of negotiations. But while Hariri and his Saudi backers seemed on a collision course with Hizbullah last month, an apparent behind-the-scenes deal now appears to be restoring the status quo.
The premier has called for dissociating Lebanon from the regional conflicts through ending Hizbullah’s involvement in them.

Hariri: From Resignation to U-turn
Naharnet/December 05/17/Events since the surprise announcement a month ago by Prime Minister Saad Hariri that he was resigning, up to his U-turn on Tuesday:
Shock resignation
On November 4, Hariri announces from Saudi Arabia that he is resigning, citing Iran's "grip" on Lebanon and threats to his life. In a broadcast, he accuses Tehran of "creating a state within the state" and blasts its Lebanese ally Hizbullah.
Iran rejects what it calls "unfounded accusations."
Detained or free?
On November 10, President Michel Aoun expresses "concern" at Hariri's situation. Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah says Hariri was "detained" by Saudi Arabia.French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says Hariri is "free to move around."
Hariri says 'free'
On November 12, Hariri says he will "return to Lebanon very soon."
"I am free here. If I want to travel tomorrow, I will," he says in an interview from Riyadh with his political movement's Future TV. French President Emmanuel Macron reiterates his wish that "Hariri can go to Lebanon," during a meeting with Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil.On November 15, Aoun accuses Saudi Arabia of having "detained" Hariri.
Long route home
Le Drian on November 16 flies to Riyadh and meets Hariri, as Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir insists he is free to leave the kingdom "when he pleases." Two weeks after announcing his resignation, Hariri leaves for France on November 18 with his wife. Two of his children remain in Riyadh. Hariri is greeted at the Elysee Palace by Macron. He returns to Lebanon on November 21 for the first time since resigning, stopping in Egypt and Cyprus en route for talks with their presidents.
Withdraws resignation
The next day, at Aoun's request, he agrees to suspend his decision to quit pending talks on the political situation, including Hizbullah's involvement in regional conflicts. Hariri accuses the group of violating Lebanon's policy of "disassociation" from regional conflicts by fighting alongside Syria's government and assisting Huthi rebels in Yemen. On November 27, Hariri says he wants to remain premier, but that his decision hangs on the discussions under way. On November 30, he charges that the Syrian regime, which he blames for his father's assassination in 2005, also wants him killed. On December 5, Hariri says he has withdrawn his resignation. The Cabinet, which comprises both rival camps and is meeting for the first time in a month, reaffirms its official policy of "disassociation."

Mustaqbal 'Relieved' by Hariri's Withdrawal of His Resignation
Naharnet/December 05/17/Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday expressed “relief” over Prime Minister Saad Hariri's formal withdrawal of his resignation. “The bloc welcomed the resolution that was issued by the Cabinet today in which it reaffirmed the commitment of all of the government's components to the policy of dissociation from any conflicts or wars, as well as the internal affairs of Arab countries," Mustaqbal said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting. The bloc also lauded “the efforts that PM Saad Hariri carried out in order to reach this resolution and to the implementation of the dissociation policy through both action and words.”And expressing “relief” over Hariri's withdrawal of his resignation, Mustaqbal hoped there will be “a quick resumption of the government's work” in order to “confront the major challenges that Lebanon is facing at the economic, social and political levels.”Hariri had announced a shock resignation in a Nov. 4 televised broadcast from Saudi Arabia, citing Hizbullah's meddling in regional affairs as a main reason for stepping down. The nature of the surprising announcement raised suspicions that it was orchestrated by Saudi Arabia, his main backer. Following international mediation efforts led by France and Egypt, Hariri revoked his resignation on Tuesday after the government components agreed on a statement reaffirming Lebanon's so-called policy of dissociation from regional conflicts.

Change and Reform: Paris Meeting Reflects Support for 'Lebanese Legitimacy'
Naharnet/December 05/17/The meeting of the International Support Group for Lebanon that will be held in Paris Friday is “an international rally in support of the Lebanese legitimacy embodied in the president, the premier and the parliament,” the Change and Reform bloc said on Tuesday. “Thank God for Lebanon's safety after the major crisis that we went through,” said the bloc in a statement issued after its weekly meeting. “We stress the bloc's full support for the statement that was issued by the government today and its commitment to its content,” it added, referring to a “settlement” statement according to which Prime Minister Saad Hariri rescinded his resignation. The statement reaffirmed Lebanon's so-called dissociation policy. "The Lebanese government, through all its political components, dissociates itself from any conflicts or wars, as well as the internal affairs of Arab countries to protect Lebanon's political and economic relations with its Arab brothers," the statement said. “Lebanon has returned to its sound constitutional course, and the government and all state institutions have resumed work and returned to the pre-November 4 phase,” Change and Reform said, adding that “Lebanon draws its dignity from the dignity of its presidents and institutions.”Recalling the period of Hariri's presence in Saudi Arabia after his resignation announcement, the bloc said “Lebanese diplomatic action, with full support from all Lebanese, led to a strong and firm international stance in support of Lebanon and the return of the premier.”It also said that the upcoming Paris meeting is “a clear message to the Lebanese and the world that Lebanon's stability is a red line and that Lebanon is supported and not abandoned.”Hariri had announced a shock resignation in a Nov. 4 televised broadcast from Saudi Arabia, citing Hizbullah's meddling in regional affairs as a main reason for stepping down. The nature of the surprising announcement raised suspicions that it was orchestrated by Saudi Arabia, his main backer. Following international mediation efforts led by France and Egypt, Hariri revoked his resignation on Tuesday after the agreement on the settlement statement.

MP Geagea: New Settlement Very Positive, Hizbullah Serious in Committing to It
Naharnet/December 05/17/MP Sethrida Geagea of the Lebanese Forces bloc on Tuesday described the new settlement that was reached among the government's components as “very positive,” noting that Hizbullah is “serious” in committing to it. “The LF was not away from the negotiations that led to the new settlement, although that was not highlighted clearly in the press,” Geagea said in an interview with al-Markazia news agency. “The settlement in the formula that was approved today in Cabinet is a victory for all Lebanese, because it will enhance internal stability and reactivate the government after months of absence, and this is what we in the Lebanese Forces were calling for,” Geagea added. “We will maintain our presence in the government, because what has been approved is a victory for us,” the lawmaker went on to say. Geagea saluted Prime Minister Saad Hariri over the “positive shock” he created through his surprise resignation from Riyadh last month. “Had it not been for it, the new settlement would not have been achieved,” the MP said. She also saluted “the souls of the martyrs, topped by martyr ex-premier Rafik Hariri and ex-minister Mohammed Shatah,” noting that “what was achieved today did them some justice.”And in response to a question, Geagea pointed out that “Hizbullah is serious in committing to the stipulations of the new settlement” and that “France is playing a key role in guaranteeing this.”Hariri announced his resignation in a Nov. 4 televised broadcast from Saudi Arabia, citing Hizbullah's meddling in regional affairs as a main reason for stepping down. The nature of the shock announcement raised suspicions that it was orchestrated by Saudi Arabia, his main backer. Hariri revoked his resignation Tuesday following an agreement on a government statement that reaffirmed Lebanon's so-called policy of dissociation from regional conflicts. "The Lebanese government, through all its political components, dissociates itself from any conflicts or wars, as well as the internal affairs of Arab countries to protect Lebanon's political and economic relations with its Arab brothers," the statement said.

Sami Gemayel Vows Unwavering Steadfastness, Warns History Will Have No Mercy on Ruling Authority
Kataeb.org/Tuesday 05th December 2017/Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel on Tuesday lashed out at the Justice Minister's request to refer his oil-related statements to the Judiciary so as to be probed, saying that it is his duty as a lawmaker to question any act that may seem as dubious to him.
"It is my duty as a lawmaker to inform the Lebanese about the hidden aspects of the oil exploration project," he said in a press conference held in Saifi. "By referring my statements to the judiciary, you have officially allowed political meddling into the judicial authority's work," he stressed. "The Judiciary is being used for political purposes." Gemayel wondered why Speaker Nabih Berri, MPs Walid Jumblat and Boutros Harb, former PM Najib Mikati and other officials who openly cast doubt over the power barges deal were not referred to the Judiciary so that their stances would be probed as well as his.
"You are being discriminating as you are only seeking to muzzle the opposition forces and pressure free people in Lebanon," he noted. "This referral indicts you because it encloses a blatant alteration as you premeditatedly omitted my stances related to the power barges deal which you are trying to evade due to the watertight evidence proving its illegality."The Kataeb chief slammed the justice minister's claim that he was jeopardizing Lebanon's stability due to his stances, adding that such allegations bring back to minds the same accusations that were used during the Syrian tutelage era.
"Isn't the group using its weapons inside as well as outside Lebanon, and disrupting ties with other countries destabilizing the country?" he asked. "Are we the ones destabilizing the country just because we are trying to defend the Lebanese who are struggling to live in dignity in their country?"
"What was still missing is to replace the name of State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud with that of his predecessor during the Syrian tutelage era, Adnan Addoum," he stated. "I advise the ruling authority to change its policy and performance because neither we nor the people nor history will have mercy on it," he stated. Gemayel affirmed that the Kataeb party will continue to say the truth and defend the Lebanese people just like it did during the darkest days that the country had witnessed, pledging to keep on confronting the political settlement based on which the country is being ruled.
"We will continue to reject the political deal that relinquished Lebanon's sovereignty and paved way for shady deals," he vowed. "Not one will subdue us."Commenting on PM Saad Hariri's decision to rescind his resignation after the government had endorsed a policy of dissociation, Gemayel deplored the failure to seize the "historical opportunity" that was presented to the local factions to make a drastic change, saying that the Lebanese were dragged into a state of confusion and despair for nothing. "All the confusion that you made the Lebanese experience during the past month ended up with the same old settlement," he said."The government issued a statement endorsing a policy of dissociation as if it was the Lebanese state or the Army the ones that were involved in regional conflicts and interfering in the internal affairs of other countries," Gemayel stressed.

International Support Group on Lebanon Meets in Paris on Friday
Asharq Al-Awsat/05th December 2017/The International Support Group on Lebanon will meet in Paris on Friday where Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri will meet ministers from major powers. Discussions will focus on ways to stabilize the country a month after his surprise resignation sent shockwaves across Lebanon and threatened to plunge it into political turmoil, three diplomats said. A French official said the meeting will be co-chaired by the United Nations and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, aiming at "reiterating the international community's commitment to supporting Lebanon's stability, integrity and security" and to encourage cooperation among rival Lebanese factions. The Arab and European diplomats said Hariri would take part in the meeting of the Group that includes the five members of the UN Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
Hariri resigned as prime minister on November 4 in protest against Iranian meddling in Lebanese affairs and the “Hezbollah” group’s interference in regional affairs. He suspended the resignation on November 22 pending consultations with Lebanese powers. A European diplomat said the Paris meeting would be an opportunity to reinforce that the Lebanese must stick by the state policy of "disassociation", or keeping out of regional conflicts. A guest list was not released, but the meeting comes when US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is scheduled to be in Paris. Before Hariri sets off, Lebanon's cabinet is this week set to meet for the first time since the political crisis erupted. The date of the cabinet meeting has not yet been confirmed but it is expected to address Hariri's resignation. MP Wael Abou Faour, who met Hariri on Monday, said discussions among politicians were "moving positively" and would result in a "unanimous stance" by the cabinet soon. The Lebanon support group, launched in 2013, also includes the European Union, the Arab League and United Nations.

Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 05-06/17
Israeli Jets Strike Syrian Military Site Near Damascus
Agencies/Tuesday 05th December 2017/Israeli jets struck a Syrian military site on the outskirts of Damascus late Monday night, as per media reports.The airstrike targeted the Jamarya military facility and research center, northwest of the Syrian capital. “Israeli planes targeted the Jamarya region near Damascus including a scientific research center and warehouses where weapons and ammunition of the regime and its allies were stocked,” Rami Abdel Rahmane, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group told AFP. Syrian state TV reported that the country's air defenses intercepted three missiles shot by Israel. The Jamraya research center is known to be a complex where the Syrian regime has developed missiles and weapons.

Trump Tells Abbas, Jordan King of ‘Intention’ to Move Embassy to Jerusalem
Tuesday 05th December 2017/US President Donald Trump on Tuesday spoke to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II over the phone, informing them separately of his “intention” to relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump “informed the president (Abbas) on his intention to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” a statement from the Palestinian presidency said. The Royal Hashemite court released a statement with similar language.It was not clear from either statement if Trump planned to move the embassy immediately or at some point in the future, with no further details provided. Abbas told the US leader the “firm” Palestinian position is “there is no Palestinian state without East Jerusalem as its capital,” the readout said. The PA president also warned Trump that moving the embassy to Jerusalem would be dangerous for the peace process, as well as to peace and security across the region and the world. The PA president’s spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said Abbas would continue to be in touch with world leaders to prevent what he called the “unacceptable action.”The Jordanian king warned Trump of the “danger” the measure will have if taken outside the framework of a comprehensive solution for a Palestinian state. He also cautioned it will have “dangerous repercussions” for peace and stability throughout the region and the world, according to the kingdom’s readout of the call. The White House said Trump was also scheduled to speak with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump’s call to Abbas and Abdullah came with Palestinian and Arab leaders warning that US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would ruin Trump’s efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Abbas has been speaking with world leaders over the past several days as part of diplomatic efforts to persuade Trump not to make the move. Trump on Monday delayed a decision on whether to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and move the US embassy there.The White House said Trump would miss a deadline to decide on shifting the embassy from Tel Aviv, after a frantic 48 hours of public warnings from allies and private phone calls between world leaders. There have been suggestions he will stop short of moving the embassy for now but recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — a move that would upturn years of precedent and run contrary to international consensus. Nabil Shaath, an adviser to Abbas, told journalists on Tuesday that a decision by Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “totally destroys any chance that he will play a role as an honest broker.”Israel captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War. It later extended sovereignty over East Jerusalem in a move never recognized by the international community. Israel claims the entire city as its undivided capital, while the Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.The city’s status is among the most difficult issues in the conflict. US traditional policy has been that its status must be negotiated between the two parties.

Saudi Arabia Hopes Yemeni Uprising Will Rid Country of Houthi Terrorists
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 5 December, 2017/Saudi Arabia stressed on Tuesday the Kingdom’s constant support for Yemen’s stability, hoping that it will return to its Arab fold, reported the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz chaired the cabinet session at the Yammama palace in Riyadh. The government hoped that the Yemeni people’s uprising against the terrorist sectarian Iranian-backed Houthi militias would help rid the country of their oppression, said Information Minister Dr. Awadh bin Saleh al-Awadh. It hoped that the Yemenis will be able to preserve their country’s security, identity, unity and social fabric within an Arab, regional and international framework, he continued. In addition, the Saudi cabinet welcomed the outcomes of the international meeting on Yemen that was held in London last week. The gatherers stressed the Kingdom’s right to defend itself against threats that target its stability and security. They said that the launch of ballistic missiles by the Houthis against the Kingdom is a threat to regional security that will prolong the Yemeni conflict, calling for the need to put an immediate end to these attacks by the Houthis and their allies. Addressing the recent dispute over the possibility that US President Donald Trump may recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the Saudi cabinet expressed its constant support to the Palestinian people. It said that the Palestinians have the right to establish their own state, whose capital is East Jerusalem. It therefore expressed its deep concern over the reports that Trump may recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Such a move may hamper peace talks and lead to very serious consequences, warned the Saudi cabinet. It hoped that the US would not go ahead with such a step so that it would not affect Washington’s ability to pursue a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Abul Gheit: Saleh’s Assassination Reveals Houthis’ Criminal Nature
Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 5 December, 2017/Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit called on the international community on Tuesday to take immediate action in order to contain the dangerous developments in Yemen. His spokesman Mahmoud Afifi quoted Abul Gheit as saying that the assassination of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Monday demonstrates the criminal nature of the Houthi militants. Saleh was killed on Monday at the hands of the Houthis days after he announced that he wanted to open a new chapter of ties with the Saudi-led coalition aimed at restoring legitimacy in Yemen, effectively ending his three-year alliance with Iran-backed group. Abul Gheit added that the Saleh’s death leaves Yemen, which is already exhausted by war, on the brink of further deterioration on the humanitarian level. The Houthi militias have rejected all solutions that have been proposed to resolve the conflict that erupted in 2014, he said according to his spokesman.Their refusal to deal with any political efforts reveals that their devious plot is aimed at having the Yemeni people submit to their rule, he continued. This plan should be thwarted through all possible legitimate means, he demanded. It is time that the international community, especially the influential powers, realizes that the Houthi militia is a terrorist organization that is ruling the people through the force of arms. All means should be used to save the Yemeni people from this nightmare, he stressed.

Iran Warns against Dissolving Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces
London, Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 5 December, 2017/Iran warned on Monday against any attempts to dissolve the Hashd al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq, and considered any calls to dismantle those units, which include militias loyal to Tehran, as a “conspiracy.”Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said that calls for dissolving the PMF is a “new conspiracy that would drive the comeback of instabilty and terrorism to the region.”He made his remarks during a meeting in Tehran on Monday with Humam Hamoudi, the head of Iraq’s Islamic Supreme Council and the country’s first deputy parliament speaker, reported Iran’s news agency ISNA.Shamkhani added: “The patience and perseverance of the Iraqi people and the heroics of the country’s army, security and popular forces, especially the PMF, led to the destruction of the region's greatest threat, ISIS, despite the discontent of some countries.”He stressed that the wisdom of the Iraqi officials and deputies would not allow enemies to sew conspiracies that would disintegrate the country. Sources close to the Islamic Supreme Council said that Hamoudi’s visit to Tehran aims to inform the Iranian leadership about the nature of alliances in the upcoming elections and to discuss the fate of Iraq’s Shi’ite “National Alliance.” Some Shi’ite blocs and figures, including the Islamic Supreme Council, are concerned about the “ambiguous” future that awaits the National Alliance, after the withdrawal of the Sadrist Movement and divisions among its members. Some sources said that Iran was currently exerting efforts to “repair” the crack left inside the Alliance, and to make sure that Shi’ite forces would win the prime ministry seat during the upcoming round of elections. On Sunday, Hamoudi criticized French President Emmanuel Macron, who on Saturday called on Iraq to dismantle all militias, including an Iran-backed military force, and for the government in Baghdad to open dialogue to ease tensions with Iraqi Kurdish leaders. Hamoudi said that the French position was an intervention in the internal affairs of Iraq.

U.N. Security Council Calls on All Sides in Yemen to 'De-escalate'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 05/17/The U.N. Security Council called Tuesday on all sides in war-torn Yemen to "de-escalate" and return to talks as the conflict there took an ominous turn with the killing of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh. "The members of the Security Council call all sides to de-escalate and to recommit and re-engage without preconditions in the U.N.-led political process to achieve a durable ceasefire," Japanese ambassador Koro Bessho, the council's president, said after a closed-door meeting on the situation. Bessho said the 15-member council was deeply concerned about the sharp escalation in violence as well as "the dire and deteriorating" humanitarian situation in Yemen. "Yemen stands on the brink of a catastrophic famine," he said. At the same time, he said the Security Council members "strongly condemn" missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. Huthi forces have fired at least two ballistic missiles over the past month at Saudi Arabia, which is leading a coalition against the Iranian-backed rebels. On Monday, Huthis killed Saleh, a former ally, and moved to consolidate their grip on Sanaa Tuesday after a night of heavy air strikes. At least 234 people have been killed and 400 wounded in five days of heavy fighting in the Yemen capital, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Gulf States Skip Qatar, Blast Huthis as GCC Summit Ends
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 05/17/The Gulf Cooperation Council wrapped up an annual summit Tuesday without discussing the Qatar crisis, the worst in the bloc's history, but they did blast Yemen's Huthi rebels and Iran. The six-nation regional alliance affirmed in a joint declaration the importance of preserving the GCC's existence which was threatened by a bitter dispute between its members. "The holding of the summit amid these delicate situations proves the faith and conviction of GCC leaders in this organization," Kuwait Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah told a concluding news conference. The summit was shortened to one day from the original two and saw the absence of the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which along with Egypt severed political and economic ties with Qatar six months ago. "We appreciate the level of representation of any country and highly evaluate that the six member states have participated in the summit," the Kuwaiti minister said. When asked if the summit discussed the dispute, GCC secretary-general Abdullatif al-Zayyani said: "This meeting was to reaffirm the solidarity within the GCC states and their joint work." In their declaration, the Gulf states called for faster integration of programs like the common market and the customs union to achieve complete economic unity by 2025. They affirmed "the important role of the GCC, its cohesion and unity among members" and reiterated their resolve to fight terrorism and extremism. The GCC members strongly condemned Yemen's Shiite Huthi rebels for killing former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. They called for unity of all Yemeni groups and parties, including the party of Saleh, to "get rid of the Huthi militias which are following and being backed by Iran." The GCC condemned "all terrorist actions carried out by Iran and its continued interference in the internal affairs and Arab countries," the statement said. It said GCC leaders were committed to work with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump in confronting terrorism and Iran's expansionist policies in the region. They selected Oman to host the next summit.

Most Detained in Saudi Purge Agree to Cash Settlements
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 05/17/Most of those detained in a sweeping anti-corruption purge of the Saudi elite have struck monetary settlements in exchange for their freedom, the attorney general said Tuesday, a month after they were locked up in a 5-star hotel. Dozens of high-profile figures including princes, ministers and tycoons are being held in Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton hotel, now a makeshift luxury prison, in the biggest sweep of the kingdom's elite in its recent history. Some 320 people were called in for questioning and 159 people are currently being detained, many of whom have agreed to a "settlement", or handing over allegedly ill-gotten gains to the Saudi state treasury, attorney general Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said. "The necessary arrangements are being finalized to conclude such agreements," Mojeb said in a statement. The attorney general has previously said he estimates at least $100 billion has been lost in embezzlement or corruption over several decades. His latest statement comes after Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, the former National Guard chief once seen as a contender to the throne, was released last week following a settlement reportedly exceeding $1 billion. Some analysts saw Prince Miteb's removal as an attempt by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also Saudi defense minister, to consolidate his control over the security services. But Saudi authorities insist the purge was meant solely to target endemic corruption as the kingdom seeks to diversify its oil-dependent economy. In a recent interview to The New York Times, Prince Mohammed described as "ludicrous" reports equating the crackdown to a power grab, saying that many of those detained at the opulent Ritz-Carlton had already pledged allegiance to him. The attorney general said the bank accounts of 376 people have been frozen, all of whom are detained or linked to corruption allegations. Saudi forces also grounded private jets at airports, possibly to prevent high-profile figures from leaving the country, an aviation source told AFP. The purge has triggered uncertainty among businesses that could lead to capital flight or derail reforms, experts say, at a time when the kingdom is seeking to attract badly needed investments to offset a protracted oil slump. Other high-profile targets of the crackdown include billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, dubbed the Warren Buffett of Saudi Arabia. The government has not commented on his current status. The crackdown has exposed the kingdom's once-untouchable elite to rare public scrutiny -- Saudis on social media have quipped that the Ritz-Carlton was not the worst place to be trapped.

Syria Peace Talks Resume in Geneva, without Govt. Delegation
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 05/17/U.N.-backed peace talks for war-ravaged Syria were set to resume in Geneva Tuesday, but without Syrian government negotiators, who sources said have yet to determine if they will return."The delegation will not leave today or tomorrow for Geneva, and the final decision (on attending) has not been taken yet," a source close to the government delegation told AFP on Tuesday. An eighth round of peace talks aimed at ending Syria's nearly seven-year war began in Geneva last week. U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura announced shortly after the talks began that they would be extended by two weeks. Negotiations were paused over the weekend, but both sides were expected to return to Geneva to resume discussions on Tuesday. A U.N. spokeswoman said the talks would indeed resume Tuesday as planned. "The Special Envoy has announced last week a recess. This recess (ends) today," Alessandra Vellucci told reporters in Geneva. However, the Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the government, said the regime's delegation was in Damascus and was not expected to leave either Tuesday or Wednesday. The daily said the invitation to return to the talks "is still being studied by the Syrian leadership". When asked about the delay, Vellucci said the government delegation had "been invited back in Geneva as of today (Tuesday). The Special Envoy stands ready to engage them when they return.""We expect and we hope they will be here very soon," she added. Meanwhile, the opposition delegation to the talks said its head Nasr al-Hariri had arrived in Geneva and would meet de Mistura on Tuesday afternoon.
'No final decision'
On Monday, a government source had already cast doubt on the return of the delegation to the talks. "For the time being there has been no final decision. Damascus is still thinking about the feasibility of its participation," the government source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. "As soon as a decision is reached, it will be made public through the usual diplomatic channels."The government delegation left Geneva on Saturday, after its chief negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari said there were "big problems in this round of talks". He was referring to a communique published by the opposition last month in Riyadh signaling that it was maintaining its insistence on President Bashar al-Assad's removal. The opposition, united in one delegation for the first time, has defied calls to give up on its demand that Assad must step down before any peace deal can be reached. Jaafari described that position as "provocative" and "irresponsible," warning that "there will be no progress" if the opposition maintained that position. De Mistura has tried to maintain an upbeat note on the talks, and on Friday he published a document suggesting 12 principles for a future Syria that he suggested the two sides could agree, including that the country "shall be democratic and non-sectarian."He asked the parties to discuss the points and add their thoughts before the talks resumed. More than 340,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.

Saudi King Warns Trump over 'Dangerous' Jerusalem Embassy Move
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 05/17/Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Tuesday warned President Donald Trump that moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was a "dangerous step" that could rile Muslims around the world. "Moving the U.S. embassy is a dangerous step that provokes the feelings of Muslims around the world," state-run al-Ekhbariya TV quoted King Salman as telling Trump in a phone call.

Trump Tells Arab Leaders He Wants to Move Embassy to Jerusalem despite Warnings
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 05/17/President Donald Trump on Tuesday slapped down warnings of widespread Middle East unrest as he told anxious Arab leaders he still intends to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, on the eve of a much-anticipated policy speech. Amid a frantic round of telephone diplomacy, Trump told Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah that the deeply controversial move was coming, but crucially did not give a timeframe. Trump "informed the president (Abbas) on his intention to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem," the Palestinian leader's office said in a statement that was echoed from Amman. Trump missed a Monday deadline to decide whether to keep the embassy in Tel Aviv or fulfill a campaign promise and move it to Jerusalem -- de facto recognizing Israel's claim on the disputed city. Such a move would delight both Trump's donors and the conservative and evangelical base that is so vital for the embattled president's survival. But it could also extinguish Trump's much-vaunted efforts to broker Middle East peace and ignite the flames of conflict in a region already reeling from crises in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Qatar. The 71-year-old president will give a speech on his decision Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. Anticipating widespread demonstrations, U.S. government officials have already been ordered to avoid Jerusalem's Old City and the West Bank.
'Threading the needle'?
U.S. officials talk of "threading the needle" -- fulfilling Trump's pledge, while keeping the peace process on the rails -- but critics say Trump's approach is more like "splitting the baby." Officials say he will hold off on moving the embassy right away, largely for logistical reasons, but may present a timetable for that to go ahead on Wednesday. Equally controversially, he is also expected to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, while leaving open questions about control of the predominantly Palestinian eastern part of the city. The White House argues that such a move would not prejudge final talks and would represent the reality that west Jerusalem is and will continue to be part of Israel under any settlement. But it could upend a decades-old western policy -- observed by both Republican and Democratic presidents -- that stated Jerusalem's status can only be decided by negotiation. Saudi Arabia's King Salman warned his close ally that moving the U.S. embassy was a "dangerous step" that could rile Muslims around the world. "Mr Trump! Jerusalem is a red line for Muslims," Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a raucous televised speech, echoing alarm expressed by Palestinian and Arab leaders.
In his address, Erdogan warned that any move to back Israel's claim to the city would mobilize "the entire Islamic world" and even prompt Ankara to sever its recently renewed diplomatic ties with Israel. Israel's government has largely been silent. It earlier left the Trump administration with the impression that moving the embassy was a "no go," leading to Trump signing the waiver the first time around. The armed Islamist Hamas movement has threatened to launch a new "intifada" or uprising. Most of the international community, including the United States, does not formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
'A way must be found'
Following talks in Brussels with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, top EU diplomat Federica Mogherini warned that any move which risked undermining efforts to jumpstart moribund peace talks "must absolutely be avoided.""A way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both states, so that the aspiration of both parties can be fulfilled," she said. In Cairo, Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit warned it would be viewed as an act of "clear aggression" against the Arab and Muslim world. The Palestinians said it would shatter any illusion about Trump's ability to fairly mediate in any talks. "That totally destroys any chance that he will play a role as an honest broker," said Nabil Shaath, an adviser to Abbas.
The Jerusalem Embassy Act
In Israel, however, hardline Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman hailed the moment as a "historic opportunity" for Trump, expressing hope he would see the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem "next week or next month."The U.S. Congress has already made its aim clear in the so-called Jerusalem Embassy Act, which was passed in 1995 and which stated that the city "should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel" and that the U.S. embassy should be moved there. But an inbuilt waiver, which allows the president to temporarily postpone the move on grounds of "national security," has been repeatedly invoked by successive US presidents, meaning the law has never taken effect. Israel seized the largely-Arab eastern sector of Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it, claiming both sides of the city as its "eternal and undivided capital."But the Palestinians want the eastern sector as the capital of their future state and fiercely oppose any Israeli attempt to extend sovereignty there. Several peace plans have unraveled over the issue of how to divide sovereignty or oversee sites in the city that are holy for Christians, Jews and Muslims.

Russia Registers 9 US Media Outlets as 'Foreign Agents'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 05/17/Russia's justice ministry on Tuesday named nine US media outlets including Voice of America as "foreign agents" after President Vladimir Putin signed a law last month allowing international media to be slapped with the controversial label.
The ministry on its website posted a statement saying that US-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty and seven of their media affiliates have been recognised as "carrying out the functions of a foreign agent."Russia last month hastily issued legislation allowing the measure to target media in a retaliatory move after Kremlin-funded RT television registered itself as a "foreign agent" in the United States under official pressure. Radio Free Europe and Voice of America had already been formally warned by the justice ministry that they risked recognition as "foreign agents."The justice ministry has now formalised this, naming them and their affiliates, including Radio Free Europe's news sites dedicated to regions including Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine, and the Caucasus and a television channel run jointly by Radio Free Europe and Voice of America called Telekanal Nastoyashchyeye Vremya. The 2012 law previously applied only to non-governmental organisations that had international funding. Those branded "foreign agents" have to present themselves as such on all paperwork and submit to intensive scrutiny of their staffing and financing. Many NGOs have closed down as a result, saying the measure made it too difficult for them to operate.Rights groups fear the measure applied to media could have a chilling effect on the ability of outlets to carry out independent reporting.

Islamist Chief Says 'Security Eased' in Ain Hilweh By Departure of Extremists
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 05/17/In light of reports that two prominent suspects taking refuge in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh in Sidon have left the camp and headed to Syria, Jihadi Islamist Movement's chief Sheikh Jamal Khattab affirmed the reports on Tuesday saying “it eases the security burden in the camp.”In remarks he made to al-Mustaqbal daily, Khattab said he obtained information confirming that the suspects identified as Haitham al-Shaabi, Palestinian, and Mohammed al-Arafi, Lebanese, have “likely” fled to Syria. There is no definite information on whether other extremists have followed the same steps he said in reference to the extremist group of Bilal Badr. Khattab pointed out saying that some people view the departure of extremists as positive while others see it the contrary, “but in overall it reduces the security burden on the camp.”Ain el-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in the country, is home to about 50,000 refugees and is known to harbor extremists and fugitives. By long-standing convention, the Lebanese army does not enter the country's 12 refugee camps, leaving security inside to the Palestinians themselves.

Iranian Newspapers Renew Support for Houthi-Fired Missiles Targeting Gulf Countries
London – Asharq Al-Awsat/Tuesday, 5 December, 2017/Iranian newspapers supported the Tehran-backed Houthi group in Yemen in their launching of a cruise missile at the Barakah nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates. Papers led with headlines and justifications saying that the alleged missile attack last was in response to confrontations witnessed by the forces of late former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Houthi militias. Iranian newspapers omitted however the UAE’s denial that any missile had struck the nuclear reactor project’s site. They went ahead instead and promoted the claims made by Houthis. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasimi meanwhile denied reports by local news agencies of arson in the Iranian embassy in Yemen. He also denied that Iranian diplomats were present in the capital Sanaa. Ultra-conservative newspapers loyal to the Revolutionary Guard led with headlines supporting the launch of Houthi rockets into Saudi Arabia and the UAE even after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had called for resolving the region's disputes through dialogue. An editorial from the Iranian Kayhan newspaper led with stirring headlines that supported the missile attacks by the Houthis. In addition, Iranian media went into a state of alert after clashes erupted in Sanaa last week between forces loyal to Saleh and the Houthi militias.The newspaper, which is close to the office of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, renewed calls on the Houthis to fire rockets against countries participating in the coalition to support the legitimacy in Yemen. A semi-official Iranian news agency said authorities at the Iranian culture and information ministry suspended the Kayhan newspaper for two days following its calls for rockets to be fired against the UAE. Officials in the spiritual administration said that such calls went against Iran's supreme interests. The Kayhan ban came after it ran a headline saying Dubai was the "next target" for Yemen's Houthis.

Russian, Iranian Parliamentarians Discuss Reconstruction Efforts in Syria
Moscow- Taha Abdul Wahed/Tuesday, 5 December, 2017/Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani and Russian Parliament speaker Vyacheslav Vallodin held talks on the sidelines of an anti-drug conference in Moscow on Monday. The talks dealt with several issues, first and foremost the situation in Syria. Speaking at presser afterward, Larijani told reporters that both Russia and Iran affirmed their determination to continue cooperation to combat terrorism, pointing out that the cooperation between the two countries in this area in Syria “made progress, and saw important achievements.”Larijani also criticized the US military presence in Syria, calling it "illegal”."We look suspiciously at the role of the United States in Syria. They establish military bases there and carry out adventures. "He also condemned Israeli operations in Syria and said they were "military drills" that caused problems in the region. For his part, Leonid Slutsky, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma's Committee on International Affairs, said the committee would hold a meeting with the Iranian parliamentary delegation. The two sides will discuss the reconstruction efforts for Syria’s infrastructure. RIA Novosti quoted Slutsky as saying that parliamentarians from both countries will also discuss the activities of the ‘Shiite police’ in areas where Shiite citizens live in Syria. US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman said in an interview to the newspaper Vedomosti that discussing US withdrawal from Syria will be possible only after terrorism is abolished there. Huntsman pointed out that all the terrorists can be expelled from Syria’s Raqqa and from the Euphrates region in general. “But they can regroup and regain their strength,” he said, stressing that “for this reason it is necessary to ensure that the war on terror is successfully completed before withdrawing troops.” The two presidents made great progress at their meeting in Vietnam's Da Nang, the ambassador said in an interview. Huntsman added that he considered the content of talks more important than their length, and the meeting between Putin and Trump in Da Nang was important in terms of content. The joint statement of Putin and Trump was issued on November 11, following their meeting on the sidelines of the APEC conference in Vietnam. The two presidents confirmed their commitment to defeating ISIS in Syria and also agreed on the inadmissibility of a military solution for Syria.

Iran, South Korea Sign 720-Million-Euro Contract to Buy Rail Bus Wagons
Tehran - Asharq Al-AwsatTuesday, 5 December, 2017/Iran has signed a contract worth 720 million euro Saturday with the South Korean company Hyundai Rotem to buy 450 rail bus wagons, reported the Iranian TV. The contract was signed in Tehran by Hyundai Rotem and Iranian Rail Industries Development Co (IRICO), which is part of Iran's railways department. Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi attended the signing ceremony. As per the contract, funded by the South Korean side, Hyundai Rotem will manufacture 300 trailers in Iran in cooperation with the Iranian company, and will create 1,000 direct jobs and 1,700 indirect, along with manufacturing 150 vehicles in South Korea, according to IRICO’s general manager. In August, Iran received an 8 billion-euro loan from the Export–Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM). Director of Iran’s Central Bank Valiollah Seif said that the loan will boost many of the development and production projects. South Korea is an important economic and trade partner for Iran, but has greatly reduced its ties with Tehran over international sanctions linked its nuclear program. Since the signing of the nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers in July 2015, Tehran has sought to develop its economic and trade relations with Asian and European countries despite the opposition of US President Donald Trump. In September 2017, Iran signed an agreement with the Bank of China to fund several infrastructure projects worth $10 billion, and was promised to receive an additional $25 billion fund, the central bank said.

Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 05-06/17
The Death of the Great Boxer
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al Awsat/December, 05/17
The Houthis immediately sensed the danger of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh abandoning the alliance that brought them together three years ago. They realized that he had taken away the excuse they had used to seize the Yemeni state. His absence uncovered their agenda and threatened to lead to their isolation. The end of the alliance would have changed military, political and tribal balances and would have turned them back into a rebel militia that lacks popular support in Yemen. The internal isolation would exacerbate the external one and lead to the break of the Yemeni link in the regional plot that they are a part of. They realized the danger of his abandonment of the alliance and immediately sought to kill him.
Taking into consideration the complexities of the Yemeni scene, as well as the security, military, popular and tribal support that Saleh enjoyed, we realize that yesterday’s scene may be more dangerous than previous ones. It is more dangerous than the image of the noose being tightened around Saddam Hussein’s neck amid the ecstasy of the onlookers. It is more dangerous than the image of Libyans harassing Moammar Gadhafi before his death. It is more dangerous than the image of the Lebanese people failing to find Rafik Hariri’s corpse because his killers sought to blow it up in all directions.
Ali Abdullah Saleh was not a regular player along the Yemeni faultline. The story of Yemen since the late 1970s is also his story and it bears his hallmarks. When he first became president in 1978, the country was still reeling from the assassination of two presidents, Ibrahim al-Hamdi and Ahmed al-Ghashmi, within eight months. Saleh fondly used to remember how the Washington Post predicted that he would not remain in power for more than six months. He left the presidential palace 34 years later in 2012.
He was not a regular player on the Yemeni scene. He was the great boxer, who dealt punches and received them. He bent to the will of the storm and then stood up straight again. He launched cannons and then mobilized mediators. He controlled Yemen, from the ballot boxes to the security agencies to the military, but above all else, he had a deep understanding of the Yemeni fabric and the ties between the state and the tribes.
From the capital Sana’a, he watched how “friends” back-stabbed each other in Aden in 1986. With the fall of the Berlin wall and Soviet Union, northern and southern Yemen united in 1990. He was called the maker of Yemen’s unity and he emerged victorious from a four-year war that threatened to divide the country once again.
Skill was Saleh’s primary asset. He had an extraordinary political instinct and ability to sense dangers. He would let the game play out and once its crosses the red line, he would seize the reins and don his general’s cap once again. On the internal and external fronts, he was not a compliant ally nor an easy adversary. He was a master at the art of longevity.
Saleh was the victim of his fate of the great boxer who did not find meaning for his life outside of the ring. I heard him say more than once that he was tired and longed to spend time with his grandchildren after the presidency deprived him of their company. I heard him say that he admired Lebanon, where a former president could stroll freely in the country without feeling threatened. He once said that it was time to break the rule that says an Arab president only leaves power to head to the grave or to exile. I used to skeptically listen to him because he was a man who clearly loved to remain at the heart of the game no matter how dangerous it became.
Those who knew Saleh, knew that he never got over the scene of Saddam Hussein’s death. He saw it as a form of revenge, not justice. He saw it as a bad omen, similar to what happened with Moammar Gadhafi. He said: “When they shave the beard of your neighbor, you must prepare to shave your own beard.” Despite these omens, the joy of staying in the heat of the battle never left him. His passion for the game was not diminished even after his body burned in a failed assassination attempt. He treated his wounds and returned to the game. He was forced to leave the presidential palace in order to preserve his role as the great boxer, who could not be taken out of the equation.
Saleh’s story cannot be separated from the thorny issue of Yemen that goes back to the past four decades. He was the focal point of this story and his absence will open a new chapter in this tragedy. Who knows, perhaps his blood would tighten the noose around the Houthis if the legitimacy forces came together with the supporters of the General People’s Congress and if the tribes mobilized against the militias that are trying to impose themselves on the country. They will however fail in altering Yemen’s Arab identity.
In 2009, I asked Saleh if ruling Yemen was tiring, he replied: “Ruling Yemen is like dancing on the heads of snakes.” I asked him the same question a year later, and he replied that the snakes have now turned into vipers.
The region is full of surprises and dangers where even the most expert player could be stung.

France: Islamism in the Heart of the State
Yves Mamou/Gatestone Institute/December 05/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11423/france-state-islamism
On all questions dedicated to immigration and Islam, France's Council of State has become an Islamo-leftist body, dedicated to encouraging Muslim immigration and protecting the expansion of Islam and Islamism in France.
The government wanted to expel foreign workers immediately after the cancellation of their work permit. Due to the Council of State, deportation was delayed by 24 hours, enough time to allow them to escape and become permanent illegal immigrants.
Maybe the elites are looking for "redemption" after France colonized parts of Africa. They are forgetting, however, that it was Muslims who colonized the Middle East, the Christian Byzantine Empire, North Africa, Greece, much of Eastern Europe and Asia, Northern Cyprus and Spain.
On October 25, 2017, the highest French administrative court, the Council of State (Conseil d'État), ordered the removal of a Roman Catholic cross from the top of a monument dedicated to Pope John Paul II in a public square in Ploërmel, Britanny. According to the France's highest administrative court, this cross was said to violate the secular nature of the State. Not the statue of the ex-pope John Paul II by itself; just the cross above it.
Social media, in France and abroad -- especially in Poland where John Paul II was born -- flew into an immediate uproar: How could the government of a country considered the "eldest daughter of the Catholic church" ask for the removal of a Catholic cross in a tiny village that nobody even knew about before this incident?
The Council of State is an independent legal body that has jurisdiction over disputes concerning civil liberties, administrative police, taxes, public contracts, the civil service, public health, competition rules, environmental law and secularism, to name just a few of its missions. The Council of State is also -- as its name implies -- the main advisor of every branch of government. Each time a minister or a prime minister has a difficult political decision to make, he sends the case to the Council of State. Generally, the Council of State's advice becomes the law.
The immense respect due to the Council of State seems to have caused even the keenest observers to miss the fact that, on all questions dedicated to immigration and Islam, the Council of State has become an Islamo-leftist body dedicated to encouraging Muslim immigration and protecting the expansion of Islam and Islamism in France.
On all questions dedicated to immigration and Islam, France's Council of State (Conseil d'État) has become an Islamo-leftist body, dedicated to encouraging Muslim immigration and protecting the expansion of Islam and Islamism in France.
A few examples include:
1978. The right to migrate and work in France without an employment contract. The Council of State cancelled the government's decision to require an employment contract for a foreigner to migrate and work in France.
1978. The right to family reunification. Against the will of the government, which wanted to adapt migratory movements to a slower growth of the economy, the Council of State ruled that non-French immigrants have the "right to a family life", meaning that the wives and children of migrants workers are authorized to come, live and work in France as if they were French citizens. From that date, "family reunification" became an open door to migrants from North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
1980. The right to polygamy. A foreign citizen is allowed to migrate in France with as many wives as he is married to in his country of origin. In 1993, a previous law had prevented second wives from obtaining visas.
1985. The right to illegal immigration. The government wanted to expel foreign workers immediately after the cancellation of their work permit. Due to the Council of State, deportation was delayed by 24 hours, enough time to escape and become a permanent illegal immigrant.
1989. Islamic veil in school is not "incompatible" with secularism. Since 18th century, state public schools were a tool of the state to build an education system away from the influence of the Catholic church. In 1989, with the authorization for schoolgirls to wear the Islamic veil, the Council of State introduced the right for a religion to influence a secularist education system. After 15 years of heated controversy, a 2004 law reversed that ruling and again prohibited the Islamic veil in the public secondary-school system, but not at universities.
2004. Authorization of Al Manar, Hezbollah's virulently anti-Semitic television channel, to broadcast in France. After strong protests by leaders of the Jewish community, however, the government passed a law that made it obligatory for the Council of State to prohibit the Islamist channel.
2010. The Council of State strongly opposed the government's decision legally to ban the burqa in the public space. A law banning the burqa was eventually passed.
2011. Public money is allowed for building mosques after the Council of State bypassed the secularist law from 1905.
2013. The Council of State gives the right to veiled mothers to be part of public school trips. Before that, school trips were considered an extension of the school. Consequently, the 2004 law prohibiting Islamic veil at school was applied against veiled mothers. In 2012, however, that law was reversed; now, veiled mothers are allowed to accompany pupils on school trips.
2013. The Council of State opposed the dismissal of a veiled employee in a daycare nursery, Baby Loup. The Baby Loup veil controversy, which lasted five years, mobilized national and international media, politicians, and a large part of the judicial system. The question was: Does a female employee have the right to wear an Islamic headscarf, even if company rules prohibit it? Eventually, the employee was dismissed and Baby Loup, which was located in a Muslim suburb, moved elsewhere.
2016. The Council of State allowed burkinis, the full-covering swimsuit for women. The ruling affects seaside resorts such as Nice, and places where the burkini does not create public disorder. In August 2016, burkinis started appearing on French beaches. In Nice, the capital of the Côte d'Azur, a few weeks after an Islamist terrorist murdered 82 people on July 14, four policemen delivered a warning to a burkini-clad woman lying on a beach. Pictures in the Daily Mail of policemen surrounding "poor and isolated Muslim woman," were published throughout the world. The Council of State ruled that any municipal prohibition of the burkini was prohibited -- unless the burkini was creating public disorder.
2016. More money for "refugees". The Council of State ruled that the State had to give more money to help tens of thousands of "refugees" to find a place to sleep while their files were being examined by immigration officials, contrary to other applicants.
2017. A government-funded mega-mosque in Paris. The Council of State helped the mayor of Paris legally build a giant mosque and donate it as a gift to an Islamic association.
2017. Islamic veil in nursing schools. The Council of State authorized the Islamic veil in nurses' training institutions even if internal rules prohibited exhibiting conspicuous religious signs.
2017. Public showers and toilets for migrants. The Council of State ruled that the government has an obligation to provide illegal immigrants with public showers and public toilets in Calais, where thousands of young men from Africa and the Middle East try every day illegally to cross the Channel to England. Notably, this ruling is based on Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which says this obligation is only for prisoners of war. Does the Council of State consider the French State as a jailer of migrants? There is no mention whatsoever in the ruling of considerations of public health.
Although the list above is not exhaustive, the rulings of the Council of State in favor of Islam, Islamism and unlimited, unvetted Muslim migration is systematic.
The question is: Why? Many French elites seem to be followers of a globalist ideology of no borders, no rules -- only the "human rights" of migrants from other nations vs. the rights of the citizens of France.
Perhaps many elites feel guilty after French State actively collaborated with Nazis, especially against Jews, during World War II, so that now they are trying, instead, to help Muslims -- whose culture and goals could hardly be farther from that of the Jews. Nevertheless, many seem to think of Muslims as "the Jews" of 21st century.
Perhaps many among the elites secretly do not like their country.
Or perhaps many elites are looking for "redemption" after France colonized parts of Africa and Northern Africa. They are forgetting, however, that it was Muslims who colonized the Middle East, the Christian Byzantine Empire, North Africa, Greece, much of Eastern Europe and Asia, Northern Cyprus and Spain.
Maybe it is a mix of all these guilts. What is certain is that after the collaboration of the French State with the Nazis, the judges of the Council of State are collaborating with yet another totalitarian ideology: political Islam.
**Yves Mamou, author and journalist, based in France, worked for two decades as a journalist for Le Monde. He is finishing a book about "Collaborators and Useful Idiots of Islamism in France," to be published in 2018.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

UK: Perversions of Justice
Emboldening Muslim Pedophiles, Discrediting Law Enforcers
Khadija Khan/Gatestone Institute/December 05/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11481/uk-perversions-of-justice
That the British government turned on the chief executive of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, Nazir Afzal -- a pioneer of the campaign to rescue under-aged girls from the drugging, torture and rape of violent criminals -- is beyond shocking.
While the British authorities made a concerted effort to sweep the identity of the pedophiles under the carpet, the perpetrators themselves proudly shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("Allah is the greatest") in the courtroom after they were convicted and sentenced.
Boys educated by their fathers and radical clerics to view women as chattel would be likely to grow up as misogynists. Accounts from the female family members of some of the convicts in the grooming cases revealed a monstrous hatred for women in general, and non-Muslim women in particular.
It is bad enough that women and girls in the Middle East are inferior in the eyes of their families and the law. Yet, for Britain to look the other way, if not sanction, practices that are anathema to a democracy that prides itself on human rights, is a perversion of justice to Britons of all backgrounds, including law-abiding Muslims.
The former Manchester police detective who exposed a pedophile ring in Rochdale -- and resigned in 2012 over the failure of the system to bring the perpetrators to justice -- recently broke her silence. She told the British press about the abuse to which she was subjected in her department for attempting to reveal that the perpetrators were Muslim men of Pakistani origin.
Maggie Oliver explained that the reason she decided to come forward with her story was the discovery that a former colleague, detective John Wedger, not only had experienced similar bullying at the hands of the Greater Manchester Police department, but is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his ordeal. Wedger said he was forced into early retirement in October, after more than two decades of service, due to his mental state. His shaky condition was caused, he said, by the behavior of his colleagues and superiors, who were aware that children were being sexually exploited; not only did they dismiss the fact, however, but at least one officer was providing the perpetrators with information about the investigation.
Oliver recounted that her assignment during what was dubbed "Operation Span" was to gain the confidence of the victims and encourage them to speak about their abusers. She claimed that once the children started pointing fingers at mostly Muslim men, the police department began to downplay her findings.
Oliver and Wedger were not the only secondary victims of Operation Span, however. In May 2017, a few months before their stories were made public, the chief executive of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, Nazir Afzal, was forced to resign over harsh statements he made about Islamists, following the Manchester Arena bombing.
Sadly, Afzal was shunned by certain groups of fellow Muslims for his part, as Chief Crown Prosecutor, in bringing the Rochdale "grooming gang" to justice, while openly attributing their misogyny to radical Islam. That the government, however, also turned on him -- a pioneer of the campaign to rescue under-aged girls from the drugging, torture and rape of violent criminals -- is beyond shocking. That he was ousted for putting British law and safety above any personal racial, ethnic or religious consideration conveys three dangerous messages.
Nazir Afzal was shunned by certain groups of fellow Muslims for his part, as Chief Crown Prosecutor, in bringing the Rochdale "grooming gang" to justice, while openly attributing their misogyny to radical Islam. (Image source: United States Mission Geneva)
First, it signals to members of the police that it is not in their best interest to tell the truth about Muslim criminals and terrorists. Second, it indicates to Muslim criminals and terrorists that they can get away with anything in the U.K., where the level of religious tolerance trumps even the law. Third, it serves to discourage victims (in this case, young girls) or those who are helping them -- such as Afzal, Oliver and Wedger -- from speaking out and reporting crimes, for fear of the devastating repercussions that befall anyone labeled racist or "Islamophobic."
The tragic irony is that the racists or "Islamophobes" are actually those who give Muslim criminals and terrorists a pass -- those who have lower expectations of Muslims than of anyone else. Furthermore, willfully ignoring the link between radical Islam and certain types of violent behavior makes it impossible for law enforcement agencies to confront and eradicate that behavior. While the British authorities made a concerted effort to sweep the identity of the pedophiles under the carpet, the perpetrators themselves proudly shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("Allah is the greatest" in Arabic) in the courtroom after they were convicted and sentenced.
In August, Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham, resigned from her position as shadow women and equalities minister, after she penned an op-ed in The Sun in which she said, "Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls."
Champion wrote the piece after 17 men and one woman were found guilty of committing violent crimes, including rape, against women and girls in Newcastle.
In the wake of Champion's resignation, Channel 4 News examined the statistics, published in a 2013 Child Exploitation and Online Protection report that referred to the identity and motives of perpetrators. What the data revealed is that the number of Muslims from South Asia involved in grooming gangs is three times higher than that of criminals of other backgrounds.
The situation is not coincidental. Boys educated by their fathers and radical clerics to view women as chattel would be likely to grow up as misogynists. Accounts from the female family members of some of the convicts in the grooming cases revealed a monstrous hatred for women in general, and non-Muslim women in particular.
The daughter of one of the convicts told the Daily Mail:
"My dad is in prison because he was with others raping small white girls. I hate him. He made my mum pregnant eight times even when she didn't want to do it. I heard her crying. Six babies died. He did that to her for so long. But never went to prison."
Another woman said: "You know our girls are raped by uncles, fathers, brothers and imams. My neighbour's daughter had a baby when she was 12. It was her uncle. They blamed her. Sent her to Pakistan. We don't see the truth."
Many others also blamed the victims. White girls, one said, are "filthy. How they dress. They have no shame, no fear of Allah."
This sentiment was echoed by one of the convicts, Badrul Hussain, who -- when caught in 2014 by a female ticket inspector for not having paid for his ride on public transportation -- had shouted: "All white women are only good for one thing: for men like me to f*** and use like trash. That's all women like you are worth."
Rather than rejecting the culture in which Hussain and other sex offenders were raised, Britain enables it to flourish, as is illustrated by a well-documented book -- Women and Shari'a Law: The Impact of Legal Pluralism in the UK -- published in 2016.
According to author Elham Manea, a Muslim professor and human rights champion, Islamic sharia courts in Britain are more extreme and "totalitarian" than those in some parts of Pakistan. Manea's findings, the result of a four-year study of approximately 80 Islamic councils in London and the Midlands, reveal that some of the clerics who head them support fathers having the power to annul their daughters' marriages at will.
One cleric interviewed in the book said, "A woman will be beaten in the name of religion. Beaten. And it will be legal." Another asserted, "A man should not be questioned why he hit his wife because this is something between them." Yet another, discussing property disputes, said, "We are very happy to give the woman half and the man double because I think this is a very fair way of dealing with the situation."
It is bad enough that women and girls in the Middle East are inferior in the eyes of their families and the law. Yet, for Britain to look the other way, if not sanction, practices that are anathema to a democracy that prides itself on human rights, is a perversion of justice to Britons of all backgrounds, including law-abiding Muslims.
Afzal is pessimistic about the direction that Britain is headed in this respect. "Will South Asian communities condemn these atrocities -- and take the necessary action? I'm not convinced," he wrote in the Daily Mail. "As for wider society, we must start to understand what drives this abuse if we want to stop it."
It is perhaps not surprising, then, that a mere few weeks ago, Afzal was disinvited from giving the keynote address at the annual gala for the Society of Asian Lawyers (SAL). A month before the October 28 event, he received a letter from the SAL committee, informing him, "Candidly, and regrettably, a member of our committee voiced concern over whether your article in The Mail on Sunday on grooming and your keynote speech may cause offence to guests at the ball."
**Khadija Khan is a Pakistani journalist and commentator, currently based in Germany.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Religious Hate Crimes, USA.: Jews, Not Muslims, Still Key Victims
A. Z. Mohamed/Gatestone Institute/December 05/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11447/religious-hate-crimes
Hate crimes -- defined as those directed at someone "based on his race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity" -- are not only illegal; they are immoral and should not be tolerated.
However, we must not allow the dictates of political correctness, according to which "Islamophobia" is the most rampant form of bias in America, to cloud the reality that anti-Semitism is still more widespread.
In a prepared statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 2, 2017, Prof. Brian Levin -- director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino -- stated, "Hate crime, especially those based on religion, have [sic] increased in recent periods."
Levin, who has dealt extensively with the topic for decades -- analyzing statistics, compiling data and advising American and European policy-makers -- argued that one of the problems involved in tracking hate crimes in the U.S. is that some states do not cooperate in collecting or reporting on the information. Another, he said, is that there is no uniform way in which different bodies (such as the FBI and the Anti-Defamation League) receive and investigate complaints.
Prof. Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. (Image source: CNN video screenshot via CSUSB)
Additional confusion lies in that some crimes initially suspected as having been motivated by hatred of Muslims or Jews often turn out not to be "hate crimes" at all, but something else entirely. One example Levin provided was that of an attack on a Muslim establishment that turned out to be a simple robbery. Another was the recent case of a disturbed American-Israeli teenager who issued bomb threats to Jewish community centers and other institutions in the U.S. and elsewhere.
One thing, nevertheless, seems to be constant and underreported. Since 1992, two years after Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act, the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program information showed that anti-Semitic incidents have been higher than those perpetrated against other groups. By contrast, from 1992 to 2000, anti-Muslim incidents were the second least-reported. This changed in 2001, after the 9/11 attacks, when reports on anti-Muslim incidents rose to the rank of second-highest, with a steep spike in the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. To this day, the greatest number of reported religion-based hate crimes have been directed at Jews, and the second greatest against Muslims.
Between 2010 and 2014, the number of people victimized for their religion declined dramatically. This shifted in 2015, when there was a sharp rise in religion-based hate crimes, particularly against Islam and Muslims. Yet even then, Jews were 2.38 times more likely than Muslims to become victims of a hate crime. Hate crimes -- defined as those directed at someone "based on his race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity" -- are not only illegal; they are immoral and should not be tolerated. However, we must not allow the dictates of political correctness, according to which "Islamophobia" is the most rampant form of bias in America, to cloud the reality that anti-Semitism is still more widespread.
**A.Z. Mohamed is a Muslim born and raised in the Middle East.
© 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Kushner Is Said to Have Ordered Flynn to Contact Russia
Eli Lake/Bloomberg/December 05/17
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn's guilty plea Friday for lying to the FBI is alarming news for Donald Trump. But the first person it's likely to jeopardize will be the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Two former officials with the Trump transition team who worked closely with Flynn say that during the last days of the Obama administration, the retired general was instructed to contact foreign ambassadors and foreign ministers of countries on the UN Security Council, ahead of a vote condemning Israeli settlements. Flynn was told to try to get them to delay that vote until after Barack Obama had left office, or oppose the resolution altogether.
That is relevant now because one of Flynn’s lies to the FBI was when he said that he never asked Russia's ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, to delay the vote for the UN Security Council resolution. The indictment released today from the office of special prosecutor Robert Mueller describes this lie: "On or about December 22, 2016, Flynn did not ask the Russian Ambassador to delay the vote on or defeat a pending United Nations Security Council resolution."
At the time, the UN Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements was a big deal. Even though the Obama administration had less than a month left in office, the president instructed his ambassador to the United Nations to abstain from a resolution, breaking a precedent that went back to 1980 when it came to one-sided anti-Israel resolutions at the UN.
This was the context of Kushner's instruction to Flynn last December. One transition official at the time said Kushner called Flynn to tell him he needed to get every foreign minister or ambassador from a country on the UN Security Council to delay or vote against the resolution. Much of this appeared to be coordinated also with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose envoys shared their own intelligence about the Obama administration's lobbying efforts to get member states to support the resolution with the Trump transition team.
(Kushner's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, did not return an email seeking comment for this column before deadline.)
For now it's unclear what to make of all of this. Lying to the FBI is a felony and always a serious matter. We also know from Flynn's "statement of the offense" that he lied to FBI agents as the bureau was investigating Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and any links between Russia and the Trump campaign in this period. Nonetheless, nothing in the Flynn plea sheds any light on whether the Trump campaign actually colluded with Russia to influence the election.
ABC News reported Friday that Flynn is prepared to tell Mueller's team that Trump had instructed him to make contact with Russia during the campaign itself. If those contacts involved the emails the US intelligence community charges Russia stole from leading Democrats, then Mueller will have uncovered evidence of actual collusion between the president and a foreign adversary during the election. Impeachment could then be in the cards.
But it's also possible that the Justice Department became interested in Flynn's initial conversation with Kislyak on other, less explosive grounds. One leading theory pushed Friday by Democrats involves a violation of a 1799 statute known as the Logan Act. A relic of the John Adams administration, this discredited law makes it illegal for a private US citizen to undermine the foreign policy of a sitting president in contact with a foreign power. No American has ever been successfully prosecuted under that law. Some conservatives urged the George W. Bush administration to prosecute former House speaker Nancy Pelosi under the Logan Act in 2007 when she visited the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, when the White House was trying to isolate him. Nothing ever came of that.
A Logan Act investigation would explain the bureau's interest in Flynn's conversations about the UN Security Council resolution on Israel. This is what Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Friday: "This shows a Trump associate negotiating with the Russians against US policy and interests before Donald Trump took office and after it was announced that Russia had interfered in our election. That’s a stunning revelation and could be a violation of the Logan Act, which forbids unauthorized US citizens from negotiating with a foreign power."
If that's all there is, then the whispers of collusion will look foolish. Nonetheless, it may be enough to take out not only Flynn, but also the man who married the president's daughter.

The Hague and the Unbearable Slowness of Justice
Noah Feldman/Bloomberg View/Bloomberg/December 05/17
The suicide of Croatian war criminal Slobodan Praljak in open court last week was bizarre -- mostly because it felt like something out of another century. Sure, Hermann Goering famously cheated the executioner at Nuremberg by swallowing cyanide. But Praljak wasn’t going to be executed, no matter how many innocent civilians he was found guilty of killing. In the highly civilized, highly bureaucratic world of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the worst thing that can happen is a long jail sentence -- like the 20 years awarded to Praljak.
It’s precisely the old-timey, anachronistic aspect of the public suicide that carries a lesson. There’s a reason the act seemed very 20th century: because it was. The crimes for which Praljak was convicted took place in 1993, when he let his soldiers round up Muslims for slaughter. He was indicted in 2004, and gave himself up for trial then. He was convicted in 2013, 20 years after his crime; his suicide followed the denial of his appeal four years later, in 2017.
The lesson is the unbearable slowness of international criminal justice. And it’s not only a lesson about Europe. The trials of the Sept. 11 plotters at the US military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are going on now.
There are three major problems with such a super-slow judicial process. One is about justice to the particular defendant, who may claim a lack of due process. A speedy trial is a basic constitutional right in the US and in most jurisdictions. The main reason is that no one should be detained for too long without being convicted, but it’s also true that the passage of time makes witnesses unreliable and can make it harder for a defendant to mount a credible defense.
The difficulty with this criticism as applied to the Hague trials or Guantánamo is that delay can also be the result of a careful process designed to respect all of a defendant’s rights. If the defense has made the trial go slowly, the defendant shouldn’t be able to use that delay to impugn fairness.
The second problem with a slow process involves the cruelty of holding someone for too long before executing a sentence. On the US Supreme Court, the former Justice John Paul Stevens took the view that it becomes unconstitutional to execute someone for a crime when he has been on death row for as long as 17 years. (Among current justices, Stephen Breyer has embraced this position)
The claim might someday be relevant for the Guantánamo defendants. Assuming some or all of them are sentenced to death, there will unquestionably be a long and complex appellate process before the sentences are carried out.
In the case of the Yugoslavia tribunal, the cruelty wouldn’t stem from keeping the defendants on death row, because, like Europe and most of the rest of the world, the tribunal doesn’t administer the death penalty. It could conceivably be argued that spending a long time awaiting the resolution of one’s case has some elements of cruelty. Once again, however, it would be hard to make this claim if the delay was attributable to a careful process of trial and appeal.
That leaves the most important problem with a slow judicial process: the extended gap between the crimes and the ultimate punishment. This may not be a problem as a matter of pure justice, because terrible wrongs deserve to be addressed even after much time has passed. But it is a significant problem when it comes to the pragmatics and the symbolism of punishing terrible wrongs like those that took place in Yugoslavia.
Practically, the deterrent effect of the eventual punishment is bound to be substantially reduced when it takes so long to bring the perpetrators to justice. A potential genocidal actor might conceivably think twice based on the imminent threat of punishment. But if that punishment is many decades in the future, that actor, like the rest of us humans, will be inclined to discount the future probability of punishment.
Symbolically, the problem with long-delayed justice lies in the slow, grinding nature of the war crimes tribunals when compared with the short, sharp shock of most war crimes. When a trial takes so long, the problem isn’t so much that the evil of the underlying crime becomes banal as that the judicial process takes on its own bureaucratic banality. The process essentially ensures that no one, least of all the defendants or the survivors, can relate the trial to the actual events that gave rise to it.
Praljak’s suicide stands out because it seems so serious, so extreme and so urgent. That’s in stark contrast to the dullness of the tribunal’s justice, slowly moving along a conveyor belt outside of public attention. Soon enough, however, we’ll forget about Praljak, the way we forget about all trials that take so long. And that’s just the problem.

Saleh's Murder Unites Yemenis
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al Awsat/December, 05/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=60838
Had President Ali Abdullah Saleh been killed five days ago, the Saudi-led coalition and the legitimate government would have been blamed for his murder.
But, Saleh was killed by the Houthis after he had terminated his alliance with them.By killing Saleh, the Houthis have practically become rivals to all of Yemen’s components as Saleh was their only alleged patriotic card and their political front before the Yemenis and the world.
The war map in Yemen dramatically changed the night he appeared in a televised speech announcing his acceptance of the reconciliation, and his assassination will not stop the new change he imposed. The question now is whether the late president can manage the battle from his grave by allying with the legitimate government and confronting the Houthis? In other words, will his influence, institutions, and men who have been loyal to him, his instructions and ideas as result of his forty years of influence, carry on?
What we know is that all attempts to abolish Saleh have failed in the past. Even after he was forced to quit as a result of popular protests, he continued to be a leader. Also, after the assassination attempt at al-Nahdayn mosque, everyone thought he was finished. He spent months in a military hospital in Riyadh for burn treatment. Saleh surprised everyone after he returned, ruled Sanaa, and managed political and military battles. This is why Houthis finally decided to kill him; not to retaliate because he turned against them but because he’s capable of destroying their political project.
A few days ago, he altered the equation when he ended his alliance with the Houthis and cut the number of the legitimate government’s enemies to half, shrinking areas controlled by the armed insurgency. Saleh abandoned the enemy camp and joined the allies camp which would have expedited Houthis’ defeat and ended the main war. But Saleh’s murder was meant to reshuffle the deck and stop the reconciliation project.
As long as we realize that Saleh's assassination is aimed at thwarting the reconciliation, we must work to ensure its success. What the late president did in the last four days of his life is the most important development since the war began three years ago. It will boost operations against Houthis and besiege them in their areas north of Yemen, that is, of course, if Saleh army's commanders decided to participate in the fighting alongside ranks of the Yemeni army.
In the past few days, Saleh tried to liberate the capital, which has been occupied by the insurgents since 2014, when Houthis seized the headquarters of the First Division and the remaining military and security institutions were defeated without much resistance. Questions today revolve around the size of Houthis’ power in Sanaa, with rumors claiming they are the strongest party and that any attempt to get them out would cause a bloody war between the two sides in the city's historic streets. It was difficult to figure out the truth but assassinating President Saleh proved that Houthis are an influential power.
In the past, Sanaa was Saleh’s stronghold and Houthis could only enter and occupy after his approval. But, ever since they entered the capital, they seized arms’ warehouses, bought loyalties and laid plans for the day when they clash with their ally Saleh, and perhaps assassinate him and take control of the capital.
The new reality is critical, dangerous, and requires Yemeni army and the coalition forces to enter Sanaa and work with Saleh’s forces that are in shock. The people of Sanaa and forces of late Saleh have a great interest in going to war to restore their city from Houthis. In his televised speech, the late president called for lifting the siege, including resuming military and civil navigation in the airport for the first time since the beginning of the war and reopening crossings for aid convoys and trade activity. It is not possible to do so after Saleh’s assassination without entering into a new alliance with Saleh’s forces and deterring Houthis in Sanaa. If the reconciled parties agree on managing Sanaa, it will be reconstructed faster and restore its role as the administrative capital of the country, after most governmental institutions had been moved to Aden as a temporary alternative capital. People of Sanaa, leaders of the General People’s Congress and commanders of Saleh’s forces must realize the importance of change which Saleh adopted and was killed for. They must defend his decision and project.
What about the savage wolves, i.e. Houthis? They succeeded in getting rid of Saleh, their new enemy, and disrupting his plan. Yet, practically, they’re finished as decision makers in this big war. Their hope to influence the shape of the governing political system is over. The Houthis went from being partners in governance to murderers of Saleh. This is a crime they cannot justify, and by losing Saleh, they became nothing more than Iran’s militias against Yemenis.