LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
October 06/17
Compiled &
Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations
Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son
gives life to whomsoever he wishes.
Holy Gospel of
Jesus Christ according to Saint John 05/17-23/:"Jesus answered them, ‘My Father
is still working, and I also am working.’ For this reason the Jews were seeking
all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was
also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. Jesus said
to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only
what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does
likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing;
and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished.
Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son
gives life to whomsoever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all
judgement to the Son,so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the
Father. Anyone who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent
him."
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on October 05-06/17
Is Lebanon Heading Towards Economic Bankruptcy/Michael
Young/Carnegie Middle East Centre/October 05/17
Congress takes aim at Lebanese politicians with Hezbollah bill/Bryant Harris/Al
Monitor/October 05/2017
Saudi King asks Putin to help contain Iranian threat, accepts Russian gains in
Syria/DEBKAfile/October 05/17Fatah fears it will be 'trapped' by Hamas in
Lebanon-style deal in Gaza/MEE contributor/Thursday 05 October 2017
Saudi Arabia and Russia are not Foes/Salman Al-dossary/Asharq Al Awsat/October
05/17
What Iran Needs Are Not Concessions But Sanctions/Heshmat Alavi/The
Federalist/October 05/17
Islamic Sunset on Germany/Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute/October 05/17
The Real Roots of Islamic Terrorism/Khadija Khan/Gatestone Institute/October
05/17
Titles For Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on
October 05-06/17
Aoun: Corruption, Expenditures and Revenues Will be Controlled
Aoun: No turning back on fighting corruption, measures controlling revenues and
expenditures
Foreign Ministry Guard Found Dead Inside Guardroom
Report: Financial Legislation for Wage Scale on Parliament Table Monday
Soldiers Injured as Army Bus Rams into Pole in Jezzine
LF Lashes Out at Gemayel over 'Very Shameful' Remarks
Army Arrests IS Official in Arsal
Hariri receives Labor Union delegation and chairs economic meeting
Financial-Economic Meeting
MP Hariri welcomes Shorter
Hariri meets Salam at Central House
Ministry of Telecommunications organizes workshop on "Lebanon Digital Strategy
for Sustainable Development Goals"
Khoury meets Ambassador of Bangladesh
Army Commander meets French Director of Security Cooperation
Geagea tackles developments with Egyptian Ambassador
Berri meets Richard, Kaag
New EU Erasmus+ opportunities for Lebanese higher education students, staff and
institutions
Is Lebanon Heading Towards Economic Bankruptcy
Congress takes aim at Lebanese politicians with Hezbollah bill
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports
And News published on
October 05-06/17
Saudi King asks Putin to help contain Iranian threat, accepts
Russian gains in Syria
King Salman Says Coordination with Russia Continues on All That Promotes
Security, Prosperity
Moscow Welcomes Saudi King, Describes Visit As ‘Most Important Event’
Saudi King, Putin Eye Energy, Arms Deals on Landmark Russia Visit
France’s Macron says Iraqi unity ‘essential’, offers to mediate with Kurds
Iraqi Army Retakes Central Hawija from ISIS
Palestinian Government Sets Economic Reform Plan for Gaza Strip
Hamas Names Formerly Turkey-Based Commander as New Deputy Chief
Erdogan Says Kurdish Independence Referendum Shows ‘Perfect Ingratitude’
Bahrainis Stripped of Citizenship Over Training with IRGC
Egyptian FM Says Eliminating ISIS ‘Isn’t the End’
Sisi Tells Armed Forces to be on High Alert
'We Don't Want Armed Confrontation', Iraqi PM Says on Kurds
Spain Court Orders Catalan Independence Session Suspended
US to ask NATO allies for some 1,000 more troops for Afghanistan: ambassador
Latest Lebanese Related News published on
October 05-06/17
Aoun:
Corruption, Expenditures and Revenues Will be Controlled
Naharnet/October 05/17/President Michel Aoun stressed on Thursday that measures
to combat corruption and control expenditures and revenues will be taken. During
a meeting he held with economic bodies at the Baabda Palace, Aoun stressed that
“measures to control revenues, expenditures and combating corruption will be
taken. There will be no turning back,” he said. Aoun stressed that the “State is
in the process of preparing an economic plan that gives the production sectors
an important role.”He pointed out that “there is a positive change in the
balance of payments,” explaining that the “tourism season was successful and
incomes have increased through the customs fees.”Expenditure control is an
important element of budget execution and financial resources management
accountability system. The Lebanese government has not approved a state budget
since 2005 .
Aoun: No turning back on fighting corruption, measures controlling
revenues and expenditures
Thu 05 Oct 2017/NNA - President of the republic, Michel Aoun, on
Thursday maintained that the measures to control the state's revenues and
expenditures and to fight corruption would be taken. "There will be no turning
back on the measures controlling revenues and expenditures and those taken to
fight corruption," Aoun told a delegation of the Economic Committees who visited
him at Baabda palace today. "The state is in the process of preparing an
economic plan that gives the production sectors an important role," Aoun said.
Separately, Aoun met with Minister of Information, Melhem Riachy, with whom he
discussed the current general situation in the country. The pair also dwelt on
the condition of the Ministry of Information and Télé Liban. Aoun later received
a delegation of Zouq Mkayel municipal council, and Ambassador Roula Noureddine.
Hariri receives Labor Union delegation and chairs economic
meeting
Thu 05 Oct 2017/NNA - The President of the Council of
Ministers Saad Hariri received today a delegation from the General Labor Union
headed by Bechara Asmar, who said after the meeting : "During the meeting with
Prime Minister Hariri, we affirmed the basic principle of rejecting taxes that
affect people with low income, middle classes, workers and the poor, starting
with VAT, as well as the need to pay salaries next month according to the new
tables and the need to continue taxes as stated in article 45, which affect the
banks, marine and river properties and violations of public property as stated
in article 12 of this law. We also stressed the principle of dialogue in order
to correct wages in the private sector, and start a serious dialogue to correct
the wages in the private sector. We also emphasized the need to combat
corruption and insisted on reform in various sectors so the Lebanese state will
rise".
Question: What did you hear from Prime Minister Hariri? Answer: He insisted on
dialogue. We hope that the dialogue with government and parliament next week
will lead to a solution for the draft tax law and that the wages would be paid
according to the new scale.
Question: Do you still have the same position regarding tax raise? Answer: Of
course, especially the VAT and what is being leaked about an increase to 12%.
This is totally rejected, and PM Hariri stressed that this will not happen in
the foreseeable future.
Financial-Economic Meeting
In the afternoon, Hariri held a financial-economic meeting attended by the
Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil, the Minister of Economy Raed Khoury and
the Central Bank Governor Riad Salame to coordinate between the various
departments and ministries about the meetings to be held with the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund in the US capital between October 11 and 15.
Tripoli's development
Hariri chaired a meeting attended by Labor Minister Mohamed Kabbara, MP Samir
Jisr and the mayor of Mina, Abdelkader Alameddine, in the presence of Hariri's
advisors Fadi Fawaz and Abdel Ghani Kabbara, to discuss the necessary projects
for the city of Tripoli. After the meeting, minister Kabbara said: "We were
honored to meet with PM Saad Hariri to complete the discussion of projects
aiming to improve the lives of citizens in Tripoli and finding jobs for them
especially the young ones. PM Hariri expressed full care to implement a number
of projects for Tripoli and its people, especially as he intends to hold a
meeting of the Council of Ministers in Tripoli soon.
Minister Safadi
Hariri also received former minister Mohammed Safadi and discussed with him the
situation and the demands of Tripoli.
MP Hariri welcomes Shorter
Thu 05 Oct 2017/NNA - Member of Parliament, Bahia Hariri, welcomed on Thursday,
British Ambassador to Lebanon, Hugo Shorter. Talks between the pair featured
high on the general situation in Lebanon.
Hariri meets Salam at Central House
Thu 05 Oct 2017/NNA - Prime Minister Saad Hairi is currently meeting with Former
Prime Minister, Tammam Salam, at the Central House.
Ministry of Telecommunications organizes workshop on
"Lebanon Digital Strategy for Sustainable Development Goals"
Thu 05 Oct 2017/NNA - The Ministry of
Telecommunications and OGERO Telecom in cooperation with the European Union
TAIEX Programme organized on 2-3 October 2017 a workshop on "Lebanon Digital
Strategy for Sustainable Development Goals". The Aim of this workshop is to
promote a national consultation with EU experts and relevant stakeholders on the
role of ICT in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Lebanon. The
workshop will contribute to (i) draft a comprehensive ICT plan and (ii) define
ICT projects aimed at fostering SDGs and (iii) reinforce the capacity building
in line with the central role of digital technologies for the economy and
society and their predominant role in development.The workshop was attended by
over 60 participants. During the opening session, the Director General of
Operations & Maintenance at the Ministry of Telecommunications, Mr Bassel Al
Ayoubi, thanked the EU for supporting this initiative and welcomed the European
and Lebanese experts while stressing on the role of ICT in reaching the SDGs.
OGERO then presented its projects, and discussions followed for 2 consecutive
days with the different sectors' representatives.
Khoury meets Ambassador of Bangladesh
Thu 05 Oct 2017/NNA - Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury met on Thursday with
Bangladeshi Ambassador to Lebanon, Abdul Motaleb Sarker, who presented the
Minister with an invitation to attend the Bangladeshi Cultural Conference, to be
held in Dhaka from 2 to 4 December. Khoury then received a delegation from the
Lebanese Opera, accompanied by a delegation from Rome Opera. Talks touched on
ways to develop Opera in Lebanon and strengthen partnership between the two
countries.
Army Commander meets French Director of Security
Cooperation
Thu 05 Oct 2017/NNA - Lebanese Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, on Thursday
met in Yarze with the Director of Security and Defense Cooperation in France,
Didier Brousse, accompanied by the French military attaché.Discussions
reportedly focused on bilateral relations, as well as on cooperation projects
during this period. General Aoun then received Finnish Armed Forces Deputy Chief
of Staff, Eero Pyotsia, accompanied by Finnish Ambassador to Lebanon, Matti
Lassila, and military attache, Colonel Jurki Litmanen. The meeting discussed
ways to strengthen cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries, as
well as the role of the Finnish contingent operating under UNIFIL in southern
Lebanon.
Geagea tackles developments with Egyptian Ambassador
Thu 05 Oct 2017/NNA - Lebanese Forces Leader,
Samir Geagea, welcomed in Meerab on Thursday Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon,
Nazih Najari. Talks between the pair reportedly touched on the most recent
developments at the local and regional scenes.
Berri meets Richard, Kaag
Thu 05 Oct 2017/NNA - Speaker of the House, Nabih Berri, met on Thursday with US
Ambassador to Lebanon, Elizabeth Richard, who visited him at his in Ain Teeneh
residence. The pair discussed developments in Lebanon and the region. Berri
later had an audience with Minister of State for Combating Corruption, Nicolas
Tueni. United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Sigrid Kaag, also visited
Berri. Discussions featured high on ongoing developments.
New EU Erasmus+ opportunities for Lebanese higher
education students, staff and institutions
Thu 05 Oct 2017/NNA - The annual Information Day about the European Union's
Erasmus+ programme took place today. Erasmus+ is the EU programme for Education,
Training, Youth and Sport. The purpose of the Information Day is to ensure that
Lebanese higher education institutions are well prepared to submit their
proposals for support. Participants were informed on the different key actions
of the Erasmus+ programme, good practices were presented and training on how to
design a project was conducted. Additional EU opportunities for higher education
institutions and individuals under the EU programme Horizon 2020 in the field of
research were also presented at the event. Education and Higher Education
Minister Marwan Hamadeh said: "The European Union Erasmus+ Programme and its
predecessor the Tempus Programme played an important role in building human and
physical capacities in higher education institutions in Lebanon. It enabled them
to work closely with each other and with European universities." He added: "This
led to the generation of common ideas and projects that contributed greatly to
setting a unified framework for higher education in Lebanon."
EU Ambassador Christina Lassen said: "The internationalisation of higher
education helps prepare our students to live in a global world, increasing their
experience and knowledge, employability, and productivity. She added: "It brings
new opportunities for higher education institutions to promote strategic
partnerships around research and innovation activities''. Over the last 15
years, the EU has been supporting Lebanese higher education through several
programmes including Tempus and Erasmus Mundus (2002-2013) that have contributed
to the development of new curricula, the creation of new structures for
research, the modernisation of governance systems and the building of new links
between universities and the labour market. Between 2016-18, ERASMUS+ has made
it possible for 1736 staff and students short term exchange (1228 from Lebanon
going to Europe and 508 coming from Europe to Lebanon). New this year is that a
Jean Monnet module teaching about the European Union has been selected for
funding for the first time in Lebanon since 2007. The project consists of a
teaching module on "Europe and the MENA region: Issues and Challenges in the
Trans-Mediterranean Relations."
Is Lebanon Heading Towards Economic Bankruptcy? هل يتجه لبنان صوب الإفلاس
Michael Young/Carnegie Middle East Centre/October 05/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=59271
http://carnegie-mec.org/diwan/73280?lang=en
A regular survey of experts on matters relating to Middle Eastern and North
African politics and security.
Zafiris Tzannatos | Former professor in and chair of the Economics Department at
the American University of Beirut, served as a senior advisor to many
international organizations and governments, including that of Lebanon
Perhaps a more appropriate term is “crisis” and, under current economic
conditions the answer to the question is “yes”—even if the crisis is half the
size, say, of the one that occurred in Greece. Real GDP growth is projected to
remain anemic at around 2 percent per year (representing half of Lebanon’s
average in the post-civil war period until 2014) against a very tenuous fiscal
position. This includes a high debt-to-GDP ratio, estimated at 150 percent by
the World Bank and projected to increase, as well as a fiscal deficit of 10
percent. At the same time remittances have been declining while merchandize
imports have been rising, as has the already sizable current account deficit
that stands presently at 20 percent.
These three indicators (the debt and the dual fiscal and current account
deficits) are not only sizeable as such, they are also among the largest in the
world. This makes the size of the problem formidable, as evidenced by structural
adjustment programs internationally, even if one bypasses the risks arising from
the highly dollarized pegged economy and the lack of dynamism in a business
environment dominated by rentierism and corruption.
Prospects can deteriorate further (and quickly) with a reversal in oil prices,
increases in international interest rates, and an appreciation of the euro,
which have so far been favorable to the Lebanese economy. One can only hope that
regional instability will be reduced and that the political process will not
revert back to stalemate. But even under the most promising scenarios in these
two areas, the economic challenges are daunting.
David Butter | Associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa program at
Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs
The Lebanese economy is far from healthy, but it’s not on the brink of
bankruptcy. Public debt is a daunting 148 percent of GDP, but it has been higher
in the past, and there are well-established mechanisms to refinance debts as
they fall due. The foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank have climbed to
$42 billion—partly thanks to switching Lebanese pound debt to Eurobonds—which is
enough to cover more than two years of imports. Real GDP growth has slumped
since 2010 to below 2 percent, reflecting the impact of the Syrian conflict.
Syrian reconstruction and an offshore oil and gas bonanza could turn things
round, but not for some time, if at all. The revival of tourism has been
positive, but could be undermined by new security crises.
Keeping Lebanon solvent depends on maintaining the confidence of creditors. They
are unlikely to be impressed by the government’s failure to get a grip on fiscal
policy. The recent deal for higher state salaries in return for modest hikes in
the value-added tax and some other taxes has been stymied by political
squabbles, and the budget deficit is getting close to 10 percent of GDP.
Sami Nader | Director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, economist,
and a lecturer at Université Saint Joseph in Beirut
Lebanon’s financial situation today is not so very different from that of Greece
in 2009. It faces an increasing budget deficit, equivalent to 11 percent of GDP,
which is leading to an alarming level of public debt, coupled with a high level
of corruption and the absence of growth. In fact for the sixth year in a row,
since the outbreak of the uprisings in the Arab world, particularly in Syria,
Lebanon’s debt is growing five times faster than its economy—the economy is
growing at an average growth rate of 1.2 percent.
Lebanon’s Central Bank has managed so far to absorb the burden of the debt
through its repeated resort to financial engineering, drawing on foreign
currency in banks that are already overloaded with treasury bills. However, such
policy is unsustainable and will not make up for the absence of economic
planning and structural reforms. Unless drastic changes are initiated to
reabsorb the budget deficit, such as privatizing the national electricity
utility, Electricité du Liban, which is responsible for a significant share of
the deficit, and kick-starting rapid growth, Lebanon is indeed edging towards
collapse.
Sami Atallah: Economist and director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies
in Beirut
Indeed, Lebanon appears to be headed toward economic bankruptcy. Its chronic
fiscal deficit, compounded with a trade deficit, is exposing the country’s
financing needs. Although for many years Lebanon managed to attract capital from
abroad to address this gap through overly generous interest rates offered to
domestic banks, this practice may be coming to an end. Declining oil rents in
the Gulf countries, which are reducing remittances, regional instability,
including the war in Syria, as well as a lack of interest by Gulf governments in
coming to Lebanon’s rescue, all mean the Central Bank has had to financially
engineer ways to bring capital into the banking system for finance consumption.
Yet the political elite does not seem willing to actually reform the system that
is serving its interests through excessive spending and debt financing.
Politicians will buy time through other gimmicks and will try to monetize the
Syrian refugee crisis through another international conference to collect funds,
lest any economic collapse have geopolitical consequences for Europe. While some
may then praise the resilience of the economic system, it will remain fragile
and vulnerable, with a poor record in creating jobs and enhancing the
productivity of the private sector.
While Lebanon may avoid a crash as a result of these temporary measures, one
thing is for sure: The country’s policymakers are morally and intellectually
bankrupt when it comes to developing an economic system that delivers equitable
growth for its citizens.
Congress takes aim at Lebanese politicians with Hezbollah bill
الكونغرس الأميركي يستهدف سياسيين مع قانون عقوبات حزب الله
Bryant Harris/Al Monitor/October 05/2017
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=59268
Congress is moving ahead with a Hezbollah sanctions bill that targets the
Iran-backed Shiite militia’s allies in government, sending shock waves across
Lebanon’s political elite.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed legislation from Chairman Ed Royce,
R-Calif., last week that tightens the screws on Hezbollah’s illicit funding
streams abroad, setting up a vote in the full House later this month. The bill
notably calls on the US president to publicly disseminate US estimates of
Hezbollah and allied politicians’ net worth, a highly controversial move in a
country where corruption is rampant.
“I’ve had long conversations with the government from Lebanon on this [bill],”
Royce said at a Capitol Hill panel hosted by the hawkish Foundation for the
Defense of Democracies on Tuesday. “These conversations would probably be more
impactful to me and my colleagues if we didn’t have an agent of Hezbollah
sitting in the room when we have them. And this is one of the greatest
misgivings I have about Lebanon allowing Hezbollah into the government.”
Action on the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Amendments Act of
2017 follows last year’s accession to the presidency by Michel Aoun, a Christian
politician whose Free Patriotic Movement is allied with Hezbollah and the Shiite
Amal Movement. Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terrorist group,
also has about a dozen members in parliament.
Lebanese politicians and the country’s banking sector have been bracing for a US
crackdown since April, when a draft of the Royce bill was leaked to Lebanese
media. According to Lebanon’s Daily Star, the bill’s earlier iteration would
have targeted senior members of Hezbollah, including parliamentarians and
Cabinet ministers, as well as the Amal Movement.
The new version of the bill doesn’t sanction Hezbollah politicians or call out
Amal by name, but it would require the US president to issue a public report
every year on the net worth of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah,
members of Hezbollah’s political bureau and anyone the president determines “is
a senior foreign political figure of Hezbollah, is associated with Hezbollah, or
otherwise provides significant support to Hezbollah.” That information,
including “a description of how [those] funds were acquired, and how such funds
have been used or employed,” is to be posted on the State Department website and
all US embassy websites for everyone in Lebanon to see.
“Reporting does not necessarily mean sanctions but it could lead to sanctions,”
Joseph Gebeily, president of the Lebanese Information Center, a think tank
critical of Hezbollah, told Al-Monitor. “Congress was a little bit frustrated
with the previous administration because … they were not seeing actions being
taken.”In addition, the bill includes a “sense of Congress” that the president
should sanction financial institutions that do business with ”any member of
parliament or any Cabinet official of the Lebanese Republic who is a member of
Hezbollah, or any affiliate of Hezbollah.”
Lebanon’s banks, a crucial component of the tiny state’s economy, strongly
opposed the earlier draft, and a parliamentary delegation visited Washington in
May to make its concerns known. Opposition from the financial sector seems to
have died down as the bill evolved, however, even as Prime Minister Saad Hariri
continued to lobby Congress against additional Hezbollah sanctions during his
visit to Washington in July.
“I believe that there are already enough sanctions on Lebanon in the banking
sector,” Hariri told Al-Monitor at the time.
"I’ve had long conversations with the government from Lebanon on this [bill].
These conversations would probably be more impactful to me and my colleagues if
we didn’t have an agent of Hezbollah sitting in the room." — Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif.
The bill’s proponents in the House, however, believe that its main impact would
be on curbing Hezbollah’s illicit racketeering activities abroad and its support
from foreign states, namely Iran, Syria and Russia. The House bill, which is
co-sponsored by ranking member Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., builds upon a 2015 Hezbollah
sanctions package that also sparked a fight with the Lebanese government at the
time.
“The legislation we’re moving now … has a whole series of steps to try to close
any last loopholes that remain for this criminal enterprise,” Royce said at the
Foundation for the Defense of Democracies event. “It labels them a criminal
enterprise in a way which will help us with respect to our European and Latin
American friends and allies and give us additional leverage.”
The new bill would block the financial assets of anyone “the president
determines knowingly assists, sponsors, or, provides significant financial,
material, or technological support” for Hezbollah and its affiliates from the US
banking system. It would also require the executive branch to submit a report of
individuals to Congress if there is “credible evidence” that they have supported
Hezbollah.
Gebeily downplayed the fear that the additional sanctions on Hezbollah and its
supporters could destabilize Lebanon’s financial services sector. According to
him, the Lebanese concern over the sanctions is rooted in the fear that they
could have a chilling effect on US banks’ willingness to do business in Lebanon,
even though the US government has told the banks that Lebanon is complying with
the 2015 Hezbollah sanctions.
“If the correspondent bank in New York says, ‘This is too complicated for me,
this might be too risky, I’m just not going to deal with a Lebanese bank,’
there’s nothing you can do about it,” said Gebeily.
The bill's supporters have played down the concerns of the Lebanese public and
instead pointed to its measures sanctioning foreign states for supporting
Hezbollah.
"We must go after the Assad regime and its enablers and their campaign of
carnage,” Engel told the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies panel. “This
includes going after Moscow [and] Tehran, who also support Hezbollah.”
For instance, an amendment added by Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., during last
week’s House markup would require the administration to submit a report
detailing Russian military support and arms transfers to Hezbollah.
The bill would also sanction any “agency or instrumentality” of a foreign state
that supports Hezbollah or fights alongside Hezbollah in combat operations.
The Jerusalem Post reported in September that Iran is giving roughly $800
million a year to Hezbollah, a historic high.
"Hezbollah’s budget is estimated [to be] $1 billion to $2 billion, so the Iran
share was not that big and now it seems that it has increased substantially,”
said Gebeily.
The House bill directs the administration to sanction government entities on the
State Department’s state sponsor of terrorism list if they support Hezbollah.
The only three countries on the list are Iran, Syria and Sudan.
In another jab at Iran, the House bill also amends a 2010 Iran sanctions package
to include Iranian support for Hezbollah. The extra provisions on Iran come at a
time when the White House and some in Congress are expressing a desire to
increase sanctions on Tehran’s non-nuclear activities throughout the Middle East
in lieu of reinstating the far-reaching nuclear sanctions rescinded under the
2015 nuclear deal.
The Senate has its own companion Hezbollah sanctions legislation, introduced by
Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. It does not include
language urging the administration to sanction Hezbollah parliamentarians and
members of the Lebanese government, meaning such language may not survive
reconciliation between the two versions if the new sanctions become law.
“I’m in support of the strongest possible sanctions that we can get passed and
that’s been the challenge,” Rubio told Al-Monitor. “The House and the Senate
have some different constituencies arguing about certain provisions.”
Found in: Shiite militias, Economy and trade
**Bryant Harris is Al-Monitor's congressional correspondent. He was previously
the White House assistant correspondent for Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest
newspaper. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera English and IPS
News. Prior to his stint in DC, he spent two years as a US Peace Corps volunteer
in Morocco. On Twitter: @brykharris_ALM, Email: bharris@al-monitor.com.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on
October 05-06/17
Saudi King asks Putin to help contain Iranian
threat, accepts Russian gains in Syria
DEBKAfile/October 05/17
President Donald Trump’s best Middle East friend and ally, Saudi King Salman Bin
Abdulaziz, arrived in Moscow Thursday Oct. 5 for a three-day state visit, a week
before the President unveils his new Iran policy.
This policy, to be announced on Oct. 12 will, according to DEBKAfile’s sources,
introduce new sanctions against Iran’s hard-line Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC),
while refraining from taking the United States out of the nuclear pact (JCPOA).
He is expected to extend this pact on Oct. 15 for another 90 days, by certifying
that Iran is in compliance with the terms of the accord it signed with six world
powers in 2015.
In his comments on Wednesday, Oct. 4, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson indicated
that the pact was not the most important aspect of the administration’s Iran
policy, when he said: “The JCPOA represents only a small part of the issues we
have to address with Iran.”
The 82-year old Saudi king, and his powerful son, Crown Prince Muhammed Bin
Salman, are now persuaded that even in the capacity of President Trump’s senior
ally in the Sunni Arab camp he created during his Riyadh visit last April,
Riyadh is not precluded from developing relations with the most powerful player
in the region, Vladimir Putin.
As far as Riyadh is concerned, Iran’s nuclear program is not much of a problem –
the Saudis have long accepted its inevitability. They are far more concerned by
the failure of Trump’s Iran policies, new or old, to stop Syria and Iraq from
running downhill into the wrong hands.
They see Iran, far from pulling out of the two war-torn countries, deepening its
military grip. The Saudis feel they are left out in the cold by proactive
Russian-Iranian-Hizballah military cooperation in Syria and control of the
Syrian-Iraqi border. This military pact has been strengthened by Turkey, to form
a relationship that was celebrated Wednesday by President Tayyip Erdogan’s visit
to Tehran, accompanied by Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar.
For even minimal influence over Syria’s fortunes, the Saudis realize they must
open doors to the Kremlin. They also understand that Putin alone has the clout
to make Tehran limit its backing for the Yemeni Houthi insurgency, which a
Saudi-led coalition is fighting.
Indeed, Russian influence weighed in recently behind Tehran’s decision to
withhold from Houthi forces the high-precision ballistic missiles they demanded
for wreaking serious damage to Saudi cities.
King Salman arrived in Moscow with four instruments of persuasion in his pocket:
A pact with Saudi Arabia, the acknowledged leader of the Sunni Arab world, would
be another feather in the cap for Vladimir Putin when he campaigns for
re-election as president next March, as the Russian leader who restored his
country’s military power in the Middle East.
Coordination with Riyadh on oil and gas prices and supplies will also be an
achievement the Russian ruler can hardly resist, after their first successful
foray in manipulating the market together. Last year, the Saudis were able to
persuade 10 members of the OPEC oil cartel to cut back on oil quotas so as to
boost prices. The rising prices gave Putin the bootstraps for pulling the
Russian economy out of a hole.
Salman arrived in Moscow with a huge delegation of business executives, economic
leaders and potential investors seeking information on opportunities in Russia.
The king will also show an interest in large-scale arms purchases from Russia –
another bonanza for Putin – thereby breaking the US-European military
industries’ virtual monopoly of the Saudi market.
In July 2015, when the friendship between the then Crown Prince Salman and
President Putin blossomed, Riyadh pumped $10 billion of investments into the
Russian economy.
However, two months later, President Putin ordered the massive expansion of
Russian military intervention in Syria to rescue Bashar Assad’s rule, although
it is anathema to Riyadh. He has never budged from this goal.
This goes to show that even lavish Saudi petrodollars have a limited impact on
Putin’s strategic designs for the Middle East. And so Salman can’t be sure even
in three days of talks to sway the Russian leader from his path.
King Salman Says Coordination with Russia Continues on All That Promotes
Security, Prosperity
Asharq Al-Awsat/October 05/17/At the outset of the session, the
Russian President delivered a speech in which he highlighted the importance of
the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques’ visit to Russia and the talks made
between the two sides and said ” we made rich-content and trustworthy
talks.”Putin said he was glad to welcome the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
during his first visit to Moscow. He expressed confidence that the visit will
give a fresh impetus to the development of bilateral relations between the two
countries. For his part, King Salman bin Abdulaziz delivered a speech in which
he thanked the Russian President for the good reception and warm hospitality
accorded to him and the accompanying delegation. “I express appreciation of your
speech containing noble feelings. We are glad to be in your friendly country. We
are keen to enhance and consolidate relations between the two countries and
peoples in various fields,” King Salman said. The Custodian of the Two Holy
Mosques noted identical of the two countries’ views on many regional and
international issues. “Bilateral coordination is continuing on everything that
promotes security and the prosperity of our countries and serve the
international peace and security. We are keen on a continuation of the positive
cooperation between the two countries to achieve stability of the global oil
markets in order to serve growth of the global economy,” King Salman said. “We
are confident that there are vast opportunities for expanding and diversifying
economic cooperation between our countries and establishing an economic,
commercial and investment base in order to increase exploitation and consolidate
the relative advantages in the interest of the two countries and push the trade
exchange in accordance with the Kingdom Vision 2030,” the Custodian of the Two
Holy Mosques added. “The International Community needs to step up efforts to
combat extremism, terrorism and the sources of its funding. The Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia earlier called for establishing the UN Counter-Terrorism Center and
donated $110 million for this purpose. The Kingdom also worked to establish
Islamic Military Coalition to Combat Terrorism including 41 Islamic states in
addition to an establishment of the Global Center for Combating Extremism in
Riyadh,” King Salman said.
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques stressed the need to end the suffering of
the Palestinian people, “the Arab Peace Initiative and resolutions of the
international legitimacy should be the basis for reaching a comprehensive, just
and lasting peace that guarantees the right of the Palestinian people to
establish their independent state with Al-Quds as its capital,” he said. “The
security and stability of the Gulf region and the Middle East are an absolute
necessity for achieving international security and stability. Therefore, Iran
must commit to stop interference in the region’s affairs and destabilizing the
region,” King Salman said. “In Yemen, we emphasize the importance of the
political solution to the Yemeni crisis according to the GCC initiative, its
executive mechanism, the outputs of the Yemeni national dialogue, and the
Security Council resolution no. 2216 which preserves Yemen and its unity and
achieves its security and stability. With regard to the Syrian crisis, we are
required to put an end to it in accordance with the Geneva resolutions 1 and the
Security Council resolution no. 2254 and to find a political solution that
guarantees security and stability and preserves Syria’s unity and territorial
integrity,” the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques said. King Salman stressed the
importance of preserving Iraq’s unity and territorial integrity and its internal
efforts to combat terrorism. “We call upon the international community to
shoulder its responsibilities with regard to the problem of the Rohingya Muslims
and to find a solution that protects them from violence and violations in order
to alleviate their suffering,” King Salman added. “I am pleased to invite you to
visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to continue our consultations towards the
issues of common interest and enhance bilateral cooperation between the two
countries in all fields,” the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques concluded.
Moscow Welcomes Saudi King, Describes Visit As ‘Most
Important Event’
Asharq Al-Awsat/October 05/17/Moscow, Riyadh- Official and popular Russian
circles applauded the historic visit by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
King Salman to Moscow upon an official invitation by Russian President Vladimir
Putin. Saudi Foreign Affairs Minister Adel al-Jubeir said after talks with
Valentina Matviyenko, chairman of the State Duma, that King Salman and Putin
would sign a package of bilateral agreements of great importance. He described
the visit of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques – the first visit of a Saudi
king to Russia – as a historic event, stressing that it would contribute to the
development of relations between the two countries in various fields. Matviyenko
expressed her hope that King Salman’s visit would be successful and fruitful,
and would give a strong impetus to the development of bilateral relations. She
also expressed her gratitude to the Saudi foreign minister for his cooperation
with Moscow, especially with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. “We are well
aware that the development of cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia serves
not only our common interests but also stability in the region because Saudi
Arabia is one of the most influential countries in the Middle East and the whole
world,” she stated. Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov welcomed King Salman’s
visit, posting on his Instagram account: “Welcome to Russia.” “We warmly welcome
King Salman and we hope that his visit would contribute to strengthening
economic, political, cultural and religious relations between our countries,” he
stated. Alexey Gremov, director of the Energy Department at the Institute for
Energy and Finance, described the Saudi King’s visit to Russia as a “very
important event”, stressing that discussions over oil-related issues between
Russian and OPEC countries came following several visits by Saudi Energy
Minister Khalid al-Falih
Saudi King, Putin Eye Energy, Arms Deals on Landmark Russia
Visit
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 05/17/On a landmark visit
to Russia, Saudi Arabia's King Salman and President Vladimir Putin were set on
Thursday to clinch a host of multi-billion-dollar energy and defense deals
despite discord over the Syrian war. The first official trip to Russia by a
Saudi monarch will also see the leaders of the world's largest energy exporters
discuss an extension of an OPEC agreement to cap oil output. "This is the first
visit by a Saudi Arabian monarch in the history of our relations and that in
itself is a landmark event," Putin said as he welcomed King Salman to Moscow in
an ornate gilded Kremlin hall. "I'm sure your visit will boost the ties between
our countries," he said. "We aim to strengthen our relations in the interests of
peace and security, in the interests of developing the world economy," the Saudi
king responded.
'Positive cooperation'
Citing Russia's energy minister Alexander Novak, the Financial Times reported
that Russia and Saudi Arabia were expected to sign deals worth over $3 billion
(2.5 billion euros), including a $1 billion energy investment fund and a $1.1
billion agreement for Russia's petrochemicals giant Sibur to build a plant in
Saudi Arabia. Russia's Kommersant business daily reported Putin and Salman were
also due to discuss an arms deal worth more than $3 billion, to supply Riyadh
with S-400 air defense systems. Russia and Saudi Arabia are heavily dependent on
oil exports and the global plunge of the price of crude that began in 2014
lashed both their economies. OPEC members have joined with Russia and other
countries in cutting crude output in a pact that has helped prop up prices.
Putin said on Wednesday it was possible to extend an OPEC deal to cap oil output
"at least until the end of 2018". The current agreement runs until March 2018.
"We strive to continue the positive cooperation between our countries to achieve
stability on world oil markets which promotes the growth of the world's
economy," Salman said in Moscow. The leaders held one-on-one talks, followed by
broader discussions. Once they sign the expected deals, Putin will host a state
dinner for Salman. "The political will of Moscow and Riyadh for deeper
cooperation on the widest range of issues is clear," Putin's spokesman Dmitry
Peskov told journalists ahead of the meetings.
Awkward start
The 81-year-old Saudi monarch's three-day visit got off to an awkward start on
Wednesday evening after landing at Moscow's Vnukovo-2 airport when the escalator
he uses to descend from his plane malfunctioned. The escalator stopped midway,
forcing the king to walk down himself, to be met by Russian officials including
deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin and a military brass band. His delegation
of around 1,000 people occupied all the available hotel rooms in five-star
hotels around the Kremlin, including one entire hotel, state RIA Novosti news
agency reported. Salman arrived in Moscow along with Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih,
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and Minister of State Musaed al-Aiban. The head
of Saudi's state-owned oil giant Aramco Amin Nasser told Rossiya 24 state
television ahead of the talks that the company would sign agreements with
Russia's Gazprom, Gazprom Neft and Sibur energy companies as well as with an
affiliate of Lukoil.
Discord over Syria, Yemen
The Kremlin said ahead of the visit that Salman and Putin would also discuss the
Middle East, "especially focusing on conflict situations in the region." While
Russia and Saudi Arabia are partners on the oil market, they are at loggerheads
on Syria, where Moscow supports President Bashar al-Assad and Riyadh backs the
opposition. They also diverge on Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been
bombing Huthi rebels since 2015, drawing criticism from Moscow. Putin visited
Riyadh in 2007 and last met Salman in Turkey in 2015. Salman said he last
visited Russia in 2006, before becoming king.
France’s Macron says Iraqi unity ‘essential’, offers to
mediate with Kurds
Thu 05 Oct 2017/NNA - French President Emmanuel Macron has offered to mediate
between the Iraqi government and Kurds seeking independence from Baghdad, saying
the country’s territorial integrity is essential. Macron made the offer after
meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Paris on Thursday in
wide-ranging talks about French support for the fight against the Islamic State
(IS) group and rebuilding Iraqi's economy. Macron said France and others are
worried about the standoff between Iraqi’s Kurdistan region and Baghdad after
last month's disputed independence referendum, in which Kurds overwhelmingly
backed independence from Iraq. The French president insisted on the importance
of "national reconciliation and inclusive governance" that includes Kurds, "with
whom France maintains close ties". Macron said dialogue Baghdad and the Kurds
"is the only path", and that his country is "ready to contribute actively to
mediation".After thanking France for its support in the fight against the IS
group, Iraq's prime minister said he did not want an armed conflict on the
Kurdish issue, urging Kurdistan's Peshmerga forces in disputed areas to work
with the Iraqi army under Baghdad's control. "We do not want an armed
confrontation, we don't want clashes, but the federal authority must prevail and
nobody can infringe on the federal authority," Abadi said, standing alongside
Macron. While the Kurdish independence vote was non-binding, it has nonetheless
sent tensions in the country and the region soaring. In response to the poll,
the Iraqi government has cut Kurdistan's direct air links with the outside
world, partially isolating the northern region. Turkey and Iran, which both
border Kurdistan and have their own Kurdish minorities, have denounced the
referendum, while the United States described it as "unilateral" and lacking
legitimacy. ---Agencies
Iraqi Army Retakes Central Hawija from ISIS
Asharq Al-Awsat/October 05/17/Iraqi forces have captured Hawija and the
encompassing territory from ISIS, however some battles still raged in a pocket
toward the north and east of the town where the militants were surrounded, the
military said on Thursday. Hawija, where tens of thousands of civilians live,
has been under the militant group’s control since 2014. With the capture of
Hawija, the militants’ last stronghold in northern Iraq, ISIS will be left
controlling only a stretch of land along the border with Syria. i army said it
had killed 196 ISIS militants and recaptured 98 villages around Hawija, located
near the Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk. “The army’s 9th armored division, the
Federal Police, the Emergency Response division and (..) Popular Mobilization
liberated Hawija,” said a statement from the joint operations commander,
Lieutenant-General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah. The offensive on Hawija was
carried out by US-backed Iraqi government troops and Shi‘ite paramilitary groups
known as Popular Mobilization.The capture of Hawija brings them into direct
contact with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters who control Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic
region claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Kirkuk shaped up as a flashpoint last month when the KRG included the city in a
referendum on Kurdish independence in northern Iraq. Iraq launched its offensive
on Sept. 21 to dislodge ISIS from the Hawija area, where up to 78,000 people
were estimated to be trapped, according to the United Nations. The UN said on
Tuesday that an estimated 12,500 people had fled Hawija since the launch of the
offensive to retake the town and surrounding areas last month. It said
humanitarian agencies have set up checkpoints, camps and emergency sites capable
of receiving more than 70,000 people who could flee. The militants continue to
control the border town of al-Qaim and the region surrounding it. They also hold
parts of the Syrian side of the border, but the area under their control is
shrinking as they retreat in the face of hostile forces. ISIS’ cross-border
“caliphate” effectively collapsed in July, when US-backed Iraqi forces captured
Mosul, the group’s de facto capital in Iraq, in a grueling battle which lasted
nine months.The militants’ leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared the
caliphate from Mosul in mid-2014, released an audio recording last week that
indicated he was alive, after several reports he had been killed. He called on
his followers to keep up the fight despite the setbacks.
Palestinian Government Sets Economic Reform Plan for
Gaza Strip
Asharq Al-Awsat/October 05/17/Ramallah– Palestinian Prime Minister Rami
Hamdallah presented on Wednesday highlights of his government’s economic reform
plan in the Gaza Strip. “We have plans ready for action,” said Hamdallah, who
remained in Gaza with a group of ministers following a Cabinet session on
Tuesday. “We hope we can invest in industrial areas and gas fields,” he stated,
addressing a group of Gazan businessmen.The prime minister was referring to his
intention to reproduce the experience of the West Bank in the establishment of
large industrial zones, which is still in its early stages, and to start
extracting gas from the natural gas field off the coast of Gaza, which was
discovered in 1998. The Authority highlighted an initial agreement with foreign
companies for gas extraction, hoping that the Gaza gas field would be one of the
foundations of the Palestinian economy. In addition, Hamdallah said that his
government was looking to improve the business and investment environment in
Gaza, to work on the land settlement and water purification projects and to
complete infrastructure and sanitation plans. The economic file will be one of
the most important issues that the Palestinian government will have to deal
with, in the wake of the high rates of unemployment and poverty, and the
significant and dangerous economic decline witnessed over the last period.
According to a recent study, the Gaza Strip incurred losses worth $15 billion
over the past ten years. Hamdallah stressed that his government would work to
improve the economic situation, despite the decline of foreign aid by more than
70 percent, the delivery of only 35.5 percent of aid, and with many countries
not fulfilling their commitments to reconstruction in Gaza. The prime minister,
however, linked the ability of his government to implement its economic plans
with the agreement between Fatah and Hamas on the reconciliation files in Cairo.
“We hope that reconciliation will be a lever for our efforts in this context,
which will contribute to improving our economy and the living conditions of
citizens,” he said. Two delegations from Fatah and Hamas are expected to arrive
next Monday in Cairo, upon an invitation by Egyptian Intelligence Chief Khalid
Fawzi. On Tuesday, Hamdallah presided over a Cabinet meeting in the Gaza Strip,
in a move towards reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas parties.
Hamas Names Formerly Turkey-Based Commander as New
Deputy Chief
Asharq Al-Awsat/October 05/17/The Palestinian
Gaza-ruling group Hamas named as its new deputy chief on Thursday a formerly
Turkey-based commander Saleh al-Arouri. Israel has accused Arouri of
orchestrating a lethal triple kidnapping that helped trigger the 2014 Gaza war
in 2014 during which Israeli strikes, Palestinian rocket attacks and the ground
fighting resulted in the death of thousands of people, the vast majority of them
Gazans. Saleh al-Arouri’s promotion comes as Hamas seeks to close ranks with
US-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after a decade-old rift, in an
entente Israel says will not revive peace talks unless Hamas recognizes its
right to exist and Prime Minister Rami al-Hamdallah had chaired the first
meeting of the Palestinian cabinet in the Gaza Strip for three years on Tuesday,
in a move toward reconciliation between the mainstream Fatah party and Hamas.
The Palestinian Information Centre, a Hamas-linked news site, said Arouri, who
was born in the occupied West Bank and was exiled by Israel in 2010 after long
stints in its prisons, had been elected as deputy to the group’s leader Ismail
Haniyeh. The Washington Post cited a federal indictment stating that Arouri has
been a “high-ranking Hamas military leader dating back to his role as a Hamas
student cell leader at Hebron University in the early 1990s.” There, he studied
sharia law and the following year was elected leader of the Islamic Faction at
the university. After three Israeli teens were abducted and killed in the West
Bank in June 2014, Arouri – then in Istanbul – claimed responsibility in the
name of Hamas. Israel responded with a West Bank security sweep which, along
with the revenge killing of a Palestinian youth from Jerusalem by a group of
Israelis, spiraled into a 50-day war in the Gaza Strip, Hamas’ fiefdom. Gaza
health officials say 2,100 Palestinians were killed in the conflict, while
Israel put the number of its dead at 67 soldiers and six civilians. Israel also
pressed Ankara’s government to crack down on Arouri, describing him as the
mastermind of the kidnappings and other Hamas militant attacks. Hamas sources
said Arouri left Turkey in late 2015 for Qatar and later Lebanon. They declined
to give his current location.
Erdogan Says Kurdish Independence Referendum Shows
‘Perfect Ingratitude’
Asharq Al-Awsat/October 05/17/Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday
that his country would soon close its border with northern Iraq and shut its air
space in response to last week’s Kurdish independence referendum. According to
Reuters, Erdogan said the decision to hold the referendum showed the “perfect
ingratitude” of the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq, which had
developed close commercial and political ties with Turkey. “Flights to northern
Iraq have already been suspended, the air space and borders will also close
soon,” Erdogan said in a speech in the Turkish capital, Ankara. “We demand the
KRG take the necessary lesson from their mistakes and take steps to compensate
for them as soon as possible,” Erdogan said. On the other hand, Iraq’s central
bank on Wednesday eased financial restrictions imposed on the Kurdistan region
over its independence vote after receiving a pledge of cooperation from Kurdish
banks, an Iraqi banking source said. All but four Kurdish-owned banks were
allowed to send and receive dollar and foreign currency transfers on Wednesday,
the source told Reuters. It is the first de-escalation measure in the crisis,
which erupted after voters in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq overwhelmingly
backed independence in a Sept. 25 referendum. The Iraqi government has also
imposed a ban on direct international flights to and from the Kurdish region.
The central bank had informed the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Tuesday
it would stop selling dollars to the four Kurdish banks, and would halt all
foreign currency transfers to the autonomous region, banking and government
sources told Reuters. The measures are aimed at tightening the central bank’s
control over the Kurdish banking industry. The central bank will maintain its
dollar sale ban for four of the Kurdish banks pending a review of their
cooperation, the banking source said.
Bahrainis Stripped of Citizenship Over Training with IRGC
Asharq Al-Awsat/October 05/17/Manama- Bahrain’s public prosecution on Wednesday
sentenced two nationals to jail terms and revoked their citizenship after they
were convicted of training in Iran and the “possession of weapons for terrorist
purposes”.One of the two accused received special training in weapons and
explosives provided by the Revolutionary Guard in Iran, while the second
facilitated travel for the first suspect. The High Criminal Court convicted them
of the counts of charges leveled against them and revoked their nationality, the
Bahrain News Agency (BNA) cited Terror Crime Prosecution Advocate Esa Al-Ruwaei.
Based on a notification from The General Directorate for Criminal Investigation
(CID), an inquiry was launched into the case of one the convicts who received
military training in Iran. The investigation confirmed that the first convict,
who was among the most active participants in acts of rioting, rallying, and
sabotage, was in contact with terrorists in Bahrain and abroad, BNA reported.
The inquiry also established that he left Bahrain in 2015 and headed to Iran in
coordination with terror leaders based abroad, with the help from other elements
in the Kingdom. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard trained him on using, dismantling and
assembling all types of military armament as well as shooting so as to prepare
him to perpetrate terrorist operations. The second convict, who helped the first
travel to Iran, was also involved in recruiting him. The investigation revealed
that terrorists tasked the first convict with monitoring sensitive locations
inside the Kingdom of Bahrain. Based on results of the investigation, the two
accused were arrested and referred to the Public Prosecution to face charges, in
compliance with constitutional measures. The public prosecution based its charge
on the verbal testimony of a witness, the confessions of the first accused and
the monitoring of their movement in and out of Bahrain. The two accused, who
were provided all legal guarantees, stood trial at the Criminal Court in the
presence of their defense lawyers.
The convicts have the right to challenge the verdict before the Court of Appeal
within the legal deadline. The Bahraini judicial system also stipulates
post-appellate guarantees for the case to be reviewed by the Court of Cassation.
Egyptian FM Says Eliminating ISIS ‘Isn’t the End’
Asharq Al-Awsat/October 05/17/Cairo — Egypt warned against the dangers of
achieving what Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry put as “an incomplete victory”
over terrorist organizations in the region. Shoukry pointed out that eliminating
ISIS is not the end, stressing the importance of enhancing cooperation among
coalition countries to counter any financing or support being pumped into
terrorism. His remarks came during a meeting on Wednesday with Brett H. McGurk,
the United States special envoy to counter ISIS. Shoukry stressed the importance
of strengthening cooperation among countries partaking in the anti-ISIS
international coalition in terms of ending any activity related to financing or
supporting terrorism, under the guise of charity and activism. Shoukry reviewed
Egypt’s efforts in the framework of the international coalition against ISIS and
its various offshoots, highlighting efforts exerted by Egypt and its religious
institutions in combating radical ideology and closely reviewing religious
discourse and abolishing that used by terrorist organizations particularly
content used to influence the minds of young people. Egypt’s foreign ministry
later said in an official statement that Shoukry and McGurk exchanged views on
assessing the situation against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and what has been
achieved on the ground in so far–including ways to deal with the post-ISIS era
in Iraq and how to strengthen progress has been made on the ground. In April, US
President Donald Trump said during a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel
Fattah el-Sisi that Cairo and Washington would fight militants together. The
meeting discussed ways to strengthen coordination between Egypt and the United
States in the field of combating terrorism, as well as in international forums
and the United Nations. As for Iraq, Shoukry praised the sacrifices made by the
Iraqi army, supported by the international coalition, and the victories it
achieved in liberating the previously ISIS-held land. Reviewing effects entailed
by the Kurdistan referendum for independence, Shoukry points out to the
importance of not allowing any internal variables to negatively affect efforts
countering ISIS, noting the need to provide international support Iraq so
desperately needs to fully complete its mission in liberated areas and advancing
national reconciliation efforts.
Sisi Tells Armed Forces to be on High Alert
Asharq Al-Awsat/October 05/17/Cairo- Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has
lauded the armed forces on their efforts to confront terrorism and backing
stability and security, urging them to “remain on alert and stick to the highest
state of combat readiness given the delicate regional situation.”Sisi chaired
the meeting of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on Wednesday in the
presence of top military brass. A statement issued by the council said that the
conferees discussed the latest internal security developments amid the tense
regional situation. They also discussed the measures taken by the armed forces
in securing the border, eliminating terrorism in North Sinai, and consolidating
security and stability in the area. At the onset of the meeting, Sisi gave a
terse statement commemorating the 44th anniversary of Egypt’s October 6 victory
over Israel, saluting the Egyptian people for their sacrifices. “The October
victory was not just a military triumph to liberate our lands, but also a
victory over despair and frustration to restore dignity and peace,” Sisi said.
“Our current war against terrorism requires unity to protect our beloved
homeland’s fate and grant a bright future for our children,” he stated.
“Together, we are determined to be guided by the spirit of the October War to
lead us in victory against the current enemies of life and humanity and for the
prosperity and development of our nation,” Sisi added. Earlier, Sisi laid a
wreath at the memorial of armed forces martyrs in Nasr city (east of Cairo) and
at the graveyards of late presidents Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat and Gamal Abdel
Nasser.
'We Don't Want Armed Confrontation', Iraqi PM Says on Kurds
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 05/17/Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi
said Thursday he did not want an armed conflict with his country's Kurds, days
after the autonomous Kurdistan region voted for independence in a referendum.
"We don't want armed confrontation," he said after a meeting in Paris with
French President Emmanuel Macron, who voiced support for Kurds' rights while
defending Iraq's territorial unity.
Spain Court Orders Catalan Independence Session Suspended
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 05/17/Spain's Constitutional Court on
Thursday ordered the suspension of a planned session in Catalonia's parliament
which separatist leaders have called for the region to declare independence.
Judges "ordered the suspension of the plenary that has been called for Monday in
the (Catalan) parliament" while it hears an appeal by rival Catalan politicians,
a spokeswoman said. The court confirmed the decision in a written ruling.
Catalan lawmakers had summoned regional president Carles Puigdemont to address
the parliament about last Sunday's contested independence referendum in
Catalonia. The court warned that any session carried out in defiance of its ban
would be "null." It said the parliament's leaders could face criminal action if
they ignore the court order. Puigdemont and other Catalan leaders have said they
are not afraid of going to jail if Spanish authorities arrest them over their
independence bid. They have defied the court's rulings in the past. Puigdemont
carried out the referendum in defiance of a ban by the Spanish court and stern
warnings from the national government in Madrid. Thursday's ruling raised the
question of how the Spanish state will respond if Catalans decide to push ahead
with Monday's session. The vote last weekend saw shocking scenes of police
beating unarmed voters and plunged Spain into its worst political crisis in
decades. The vote was not carried out according to regular electoral standards
but Puigdemont said it had given legitimacy to the independence drive.
He said this week that the region's leaders could declare independence within
days. Madrid rejected his call for mediation in the crisis, heightening tensions
on Thursday. The national government could suspend Catalonia's existing
autonomous status if it declares independence.
US to ask NATO allies for some 1,000 more troops for
Afghanistan: ambassador
Thu 05 Oct 2017/NNA - The United States is to ask NATO allies to contribute
around 1,000 extra troops to help in the battle against the resurgent Taliban in
Afghanistan, the new U.S. ambassador to the alliance said Thursday. Kay Bailey
Hutchison said the forces would add to the roughly 3,000 US troops who are
already on their way to Afghanistan under President Donald Trump's new strategy
against the militants. ---AFP
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from
miscellaneous sources published on October 05-06/17
Fatah fears it will be 'trapped' by Hamas in Lebanon-style
deal in Gaza
MEE contributor/Thursday 5 October 2017
PA President Mahmoud Abbas does not want to become just an 'ATM machine in Gaza'
following reconciliation talks.
GAZA CITY/RAMALLAH, Palestine - As the Palestinian government took the first
symbolic and ceremonial reconciliation steps in Gaza, officials in the
Palestinian Authority in Ramallah said they are deeply concerned about Hamas’
apparent intention to “trap” them in a Hezbollah-style power-sharing deal in the
strip.PA President Mahmoud Abbas himself referred to the Lebanese political
party, whose militant wing oversees security over certain areas of the country.
In an interview with the Egyptian TV channel CPC on Monday, he said: “It should
be very clear that I will not accept a copy of the Hezbollah style in Gaza.”
Officials close to Abbas told MEE that the president will not accept a partial
deal that leaves Hamas in control on the ground while his government takes full
responsibility for service provision. “The president will not accept just being
an ATM machine in Gaza: either his government takes full control or not at all,”
Majid Fityani, head of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, said.
Every single gun and every single bullet in Gaza must be under the Palestinian
law,” he added. For its part, Hamas has stressed its willingness to make
“painful concessions” to make the reconciliation happen. Senior Hamas officials
told MEE the movement wants to get rid of the government burdens in Gaza and
focus on rebuilding the movement, and entering the Palestinian political system.
Hamas rule in Gaza Strip has been in a deep financial crisis since 2013, when
Egypt blocked the commercial tunnels between Egypt and Gaza, depriving the
Islamic movement of major financial revenues. Following the closure of the
tunnels, the local Hamas government has paid only 50 percent salary to its
40,000 government employees. And the financial crisis in Gaza has only deepened
since the unprecedented measures Abbas took earlier this year. Abbas cut 30
percent of the salaries of 60,000 allegedly idle PA employees in Gaza and scaled
back the payments for the electricity sector. He also sent several thousand
civil servants working in the Hamas government and receiving salaries from his
government into early retirement, and reduced expenditure on several key
ministries, such as health and education.
Abbas’ aides say the president took such tough measures to force Hamas to turn
Gaza over to the PA.
Concessions or traps?
Hamas officials tell MEE that they are willing to make concessions in three
areas which hindered previous attempts at reconciliation between the two sides:
crossings; the security apparatus and government employees. But Fatah is
concerned that these concessions are only designed to trap Fatah and burden them
with all the trappings of government, party officials tell MEE. Senior Fatah and
Hamas delegations are to meet in Cairo next Tuesday to discuss these three
policy areas. Abbas also said on Monday that the PA “needs to take over
everything in Gaza”. And he stressed that there could be only "one state, one
regime, one law and one weapon" in the Gaza Strip. Officials in Fatah reiterated
that this is indeed Abbas’ priority. “We cannot accept to rule under the control
of Al-Qassam Brigades,” one official told MEE, referring to Hamas' military
wing. But it will not be easy for Abbas to walk away from the talks, fearing
that Egypt would replace this path of reconciliation with an alternative path,
brokered between his rival, Mohammed Dahlan, and Hamas. Egypt helped both Dahlan
and Hamas to reach a deal shortly before it invited Abbas for a similar round of
talks that led to this current agreement with Hamas. Hamas officials say they
are willing to have “creative solutions” for the Al-Qassam Brigades and all
various military wings in Gaza. Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar has proposed a
“national army” in Gaza that encompasses Al-Qassam Brigades and the other
military groups, consisting of thousands of fighters. “There is coordination
between Al-Qassam Brigades and all military brigades in Gaza to have one unit
and build a Palestinian National Army,” he said in a speech before youth
activists a few days ago.
'Creative ideas' being pursued
One of the “creative ideas” being discussed within Hamas is to have Al-Qassam
Brigades operating underground, with PA above ground.
Officials say Hamas is also going to propose, in the Cairo talks next week, the
introduction of a different system for security services in Gaza, as a
“liberated part of the country” and not adopting the PA’s so-called “security
coordination” with Israel, and also not sharing security information with any
other foreign security agencies. Conflict issues will also be determined
collectively, according to Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk, who said in Moscow
last week that: “We are ready to share the decision of war and peace with the
PA.”“War and peace are national matters and Hamas is willing to share positively
the responsibility of the decision on these issues with the PA,” he said. But,
he said, “The issue of Al-Qassam’s arms was not on the discussions” in the
previous Cairo talks. Some in Hamas believe Sinwar has gone too far in his
concessions to Abbas, and he has been criticised on social media. Sinwar said
Hamas is unified in its support for reconciliation and that those most behind
the deal are Ismail Haniyeh, chair of the political office, and commander of the
Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammd Daif and the commander of the West Bank, Saleh
Arouri. And as far as it is concerned, officials say, Fatah and the PA have no
desire to wrest control of Gaza from Hamas.
Egypt's motivations
The first Fatah leadership meeting after the most recent Cairo talks was not
decisive and three main positions emerged. Some within the leadership believed
that Hamas should not be trusted, and that the party should keep out of Gaza.
But a second grouping believed that it would be unwise to reject such an offer,
and that initial steps should be taken to gauge just how serious Hamas is. The
third position was that the offer had to be accepted, regardless of Hamas’ real
intentions, as the people of Gaza desperately need help, and Fatah is the only
party capable of delivering such badly needed services.
Abbas concluded by deciding to send his government to Gaza to see how serious
Hamas were. But in the meantime, Egypt is still keen to oversee the
reconciliation process, and to see it completed. When Palestinian Prime Minister
Rami Hamdallah arrived in Gaza on Monday, Egypt sent senior intelligence
officers and a media team to monitor the process. PA officials say Egypt
abandoned the Hamas-Dahlan talks after they feared it would lead to a permanent
separation of Gaza and the West Bank, something the current government did not
want to bear historical responsibility for, and this is why they moved towards
brokering a deal between Hamas and Fatah. They say also Egypt is to play a
regional role in the Donald Trump plan for peace in the region and nothing can
be done without Abbas and the PA. Many observers also believe that Egypt's
involvement in the Palestinian reconciliation is motivated by a desire to become
a prominent regional player, akin to its rivals Qatar and Turkey. The two sides
will now meet again on Tuesday in Cairo.
Saudi Arabia and Russia are not Foes
Salman Al-dossary/Asharq Al Awsat/October 05/17
With steady steps, Russia returned over the past decade to the Middle Eastern
arena. This coincides with the development of its relations with Egypt, Turkey,
Iraq, the Syrian regime, and surely Iran. However, Moscow’s relations with Saudi
Arabia were going through rocky roads after which tensions became high following
different positions on the Syrian crisis. The first thing that comes to mind
when discussing the relations between the two countries is the Syrian issue. It
remained a complicated point of disagreement between both countries and a
barrier to the development of the bilateral relations despite several attempts.
However, after decades of discords, June 2015 was crucial in restoring the
Saudi-Russian relations during the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman to Russia under the directives of King Salman. Riyadh and Moscow reached
an inevitable result in their future relations that they would rather focus more
on common interests available in promising fields rather than disagreeing on
issues that affected them negatively.
One can say that Riyadh succeeded back then in breaking the ice in its relations
with Moscow. Prince Mohammed’s visit was reflected in the country’s success to
overcome the Syrian crisis. They both realized that what brings them together is
much more important than disparities. King Salman’s current visit to Russia is a
decisive development in the course of Saudi-Russian relations. The visit aims to
eliminate elements that affected the relations, or as the Russian Ambassador in
Saudi Arabia said that some parties are trying to target the Saudi-Russian
relations through the Syrian issue.
Through King Salman’s visit to Russia, a new phase of a coalition began based on
joint interests that will be reflected on the region’s stability and security
which is a strategic goal both Riyadh and Moscow aim to reach. At the same time,
Saudi Arabia continues to present itself as a regional and international player
that is indispensable. Saudi foreign policymakers are credited for taking into
consideration long-term planning in their relations with Russia through a packet
of strategic relations. Side differences or even special relations with the West
can’t hinder the success of the Saudi-Russian partnership.
Saudis are also credited for adopting a balanced foreign policy based on diverse
options through openness to Russia as well as other international forces. Saudi
policy aims to diversify its activity with different partners which grant it the
ability to manage the international relations on common interests. Needless to
say that as soon as this partnership is activated economically, commercially,
and militarily Moscow will have to balance its complicated relationship with
Iran. Architects of Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy are aware of this aspect
especially after Tehran took advantage that Riyadh steered clear of Kremlin’s
maze. Indeed, Riyadh disagrees with Moscow on the Syrian issue. But, at the time
it is adopting a realistic policy aimed at establishing partners and not allies
on the basis of exchanged interests, Saudi Arabia realizes that there is a lot
to be achieved from strong relations with Russia.
With 60 percent of Russia’s budget revenues from oil imports, the kingdom is
aware that Moscow prioritizes a sort of coordination and agreement with Riyadh
on oil prices and production. For the first time, the two countries succeeded in
leading the international oil market out of the most critical crisis. They
managed to leave the bottleneck and reach a price close to $60 after it fell
below $28 two years ago. During an energy forum in Moscow attended by several
OPEC oil ministers, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday:
“Everyone is interested in a stable market. What we did with OPEC, I believe, is
beneficial for all the global economy.” Saudi Arabia and Russia appeared as
though they were enemies separated by miles apart. Several attempts to reproach
the two countries failed until facts and realities proved that the two states
are not like that at all.
King Salman’s visit to Russia is a historic moment that will drive both
countries closer and the relations will enter a new phase of further
understanding and deeper cooperation.
What Iran Needs Are Not Concessions But Sanctions/ما
تحاجه إيران هو العقوبات وليس التنازلات
Heshmat Alavi/The Federalist/October 05/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=59273
http://thefederalist.com/2017/10/05/iran-needs-not-concessions-sanctions/
With concerns escalating, North Korea should not lead us to tone down our voice
and provide further concessions to Pyongyang and Tehran. We should in fact do
the opposite.
More than two years after the flaws of a deal between the P5+1 and Iran over the
latter’s nuclear program have become obvious, a chorus is busy insisting there
is no other option. While the rendered pact, known formally as the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has failed to rein in the Tehran regime,
correct measures are available at hand.
Some argue the JCPOA has successfully slowed Iran’s dangerous drive to obtain
nuclear weapons. The Center for a New American Security held a forum titled,
“Consequences of a Collapse of the Iran Nuclear Deal,” featuring “a plethora of
prominent speakers advocating in favor of preserving the deal, including former
senior Obama administration official, Colin Kahl, a chief proponent of the
agreement,” according to The Washington Free Beacon.
Yet with limited restrictions imposed on Tehran’s overall nuclear program,
international inspectors are not enjoying the access they should to Iran’s
controversial facilities. The Obama administration made many promises about the
nuclear deal, which we have yet to see materialize. This includes “anytime,
anywhere” inspections that have now morphed into a complicated process of
practically requesting permission from Iran.
We Do Indeed Have Other Viable Options
The highly controversial Parchin military complex, located southeast of Tehran,
was “inspected” by Iran’s own “scientists” to provide samples to the UN nuclear
watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. That is tantamount to asking a
murderer to deliver his DNA, in privacy without any supervision, as evidence to
compare with that found at a crime scene where closed-circuit cameras recorded
his presence at the time of the crime.
JCPOA advocates say the deal isn’t perfect, yet also claim measures against Iran
are ill-founded and can be counterproductive. This is not the case.
“The administration could discourage global firms from doing business with Iran
by leaving open its final position on the deal, and thus placing at risk their
business with America,” as proposed in a recent Foreign Policy piece by James
Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Turkey.
If not pulling completely out of the agreement, Washington also enjoys the right
to reinstitute non-nuclear sanctions in retaliation to Iran’s slate of
bellicosities, including ballistic missile advances, supporting terrorism,
meddling in states across the Middle East, and domestic human rights violations.
Yes, such measures would disappoint Tehran. Yet knowledge of this regime’s
nature suggests such actions will not push Iran to the brink of abandoning the
JCPOA ship, as they are benefiting from the present terms.
And yes, the Iran nuclear deal is a multilateral agreement, as European Union
foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini reminded. Yet also as a reminder, in
case of Iran violating the JCPOA terms, the United States can unilaterally
launch the “snapback” process and have UN sanctions re-imposed on Iran. In such
a scenario there is no need to garner support from Russia or China, both known
for backing Tehran, as Security Council veto authority is irrelevant in this
regard.
Appeasement Is a Failed Approach
With concerns over this issue escalating, the case of North Korea should not
lead us to tone down our voice and provide further concessions to Pyongyang and
Tehran. We should in fact do the opposite. This dossier should help us realize
that appeasement—the same mentality embraced by the Obama administration in
blueprinting the highly flawed JCPOA—has placed us where we are today with North
Korea.
Do we seek to trek down the same path with Iran, a state with dangerous
influence across the already flashpoint Middle East? One such horrible example
is Iran’s involvement in Syria. JCPOA advocates are also describing a “best-case
scenario” of providing more concessions to North Korea to muster a
“far-from-perfect” pact, similar to the Iran deal, in exchange for Pyongyang to
freeze its nuclear development.
Déjà vu. Haven’t we already experienced this with the Clinton administration’s
“Agreed Framework” of 1994? Kim Jong Un recently tested his state’s sixth and
most powerful nuclear device, claiming to be a hydrogen bomb. As another harsh
reminder, rapprochement with North Korea led to the notorious 2010 sinking of
the South Korean destroyer, the Cheonan. It is quite obvious by now that a
Pyongyang submarine torpedoed the warship and left 46 sailors dead.
Does another South Korea naval ship, or a city for that matter, have to be
targeted for us to realize that rogue states such as Iran and North Korea will
only consider engagement as a sign of the international community’s weakness and
take full advantage of it? Or must a U.S. Navy ship in the Persian Gulf come
into the crosshairs of Revolutionary Guards’ fast boats for the West to finally
open its eyes?
Some think Iran lacks the necessary will and understands all too well how such a
move would spark drastic international measures against its interests. JCPOA
advocates (read Iranian apologists) have also delegitimized any concern about
Tehran’s intentions by claiming pact violations, such as breaching limits set on
heavy water—the substance needed for plutonium-based nuclear bombs—as mere
“bumps in the road.”
This shows those making such arguments either lack the necessary knowledge of
Iran’s belligerent nature in the past four decades, or simply fall into the
category of Iran lobbyists. Fierce international sanctions left Iran no choice
but to succumb to nuclear talks with knees bleeding. More non-nuclear sanctions
are needed to make Tehran understand the international community means business.
“Peace for our time” was the claim made by British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain in his September 30, 1938 speech concerning the Munich Agreement
with Adolf Hitler. Seventy million people paid the price of that strategic
mistake with their lives. Let us finally learn our lesson of appeasement and put
aside such an approach for good.
Heshmat Alavi is a political and rights activist. His writing focuses on Iran,
ranging from human rights violations, social crackdown, the regime’s support for
terrorism and meddling in foreign countries, and the controversial nuclear
program. He tweets at @HeshmatAlavi & blogs at IranCommentary
Photo Adam Jones / Flickr
appeasement diplomacy Foreign Policy Iran Iran deal Middle East nuclear
proliferation rogue states sanctions
Copyright © 2017 The Federalist, a wholly independent division of FDRLST Media,
All Rights Reserved.
Islamic Sunset on Germany
Guy Millière/Gatestone Institute/October 05/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11100/germany-islamic-sunset
Because Germany had committed genocide, it was impregnated with self-hatred and
a rejection of its own identity. Germany turned to European construction and
tried to define itself as European, in order not to call itself German.
A gradual replacement of the non-Muslim population with a Muslim population is
taking place. Forty percent of children under five and born in Germany today
have foreign roots.
The demographer Michael Paulwitz wrote a year ago that unless the current trends
are reversed, Germans will become a minority in their own country, possibly in
fifteen to twenty years.
Germany's federal elections were supposed to lead to the triumph of Angela
Merkel. Their results were rather different from what was anticipated. Merkel's
"victory" looks like a disaster: the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDU-CSU) won
33% of the vote -- 9% less than four years ago, its worst result since 1949. The
Social Democratic Party (SPD), which governed the country with Merkel during the
last four years, lost more than 5%, and fell from 25.7 % to 20% of the vote --
the worst result in its history. Alternative for Germany (AfD), a conservative
nationalist party born in 2013, obtained 12.6%, and will enter in the Bundestag
for the first time. Die Linke, the Marxist left, received 9%. As neither the SPD
nor Die Linke will participate in the next government, and as AfD is radically
opposed to the policies pursued by Merkel, she has only two possible partners:
the libertarian Free Democratic Party and The Greens: both of whose positions on
most subjects seem incompatible.
Angela Merkel will remain Chancellor, but by default, and mostly because there
was no other real choice: six months ago, two-thirds of the German population
wanted her to be replaced. Only 8% wanted her to remain in her post. Martin
Schultz, former President of the European Parliament, who was the SPD candidate,
did not offer anything different and led a lackluster campaign.
If Merkel succeeds in forming a coalition, it will be a precarious and unstable
assemblage that will keep Germany on the verge of paralysis and make the country
the sick man of 21st century Europe.
Germany actually already is a sick country, and Angela Merkel is part of the
sickness.
In 1945, Germany was in ruins. It rebuilt itself and gradually became Europe's
leading economic power. While regaining strength, it did not assert itself
politically and remained discreet, humble, repentant, silently shameful. Because
of its role in the war, it was reluctant to recreate an army when NATO powers
asked it to rebuild one; instead, it adopted a general position of appeasement
that led to "Ostpolitik", a policy of rapprochement with the communist East and
the Soviet Union.
Because nationalism had led to National Socialism, Germany rejected any form of
nationalism. Because Germany had committed genocide, it was impregnated with
self-hatred and a rejection of its own identity.
Germany turned to European construction and tried to define itself as European
in order not to call itself German.
This process lasted until the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of
the country. Reunification was widely perceived in Germany as the fruit of
humility and discretion.
Angela Merkel, who had seemed to embody a successfully reunified Germany,
inherited this process when she became Chancellor in 2005.
Malfunctions had already begun to surface. The German economy remained
prosperous, but poverty was increasing (in 2005, 17% of Germans were officially
poor and earned half of the national average income) and the number of working
poor was growing.
The birth rate was extremely low. It had started to decline in 1967, and rapidly
fell to 1.5 children per woman. The population, in general, was aging.
Germany began to bring in Turkish migrants to compensate for the lack of
manpower. By 2000, the number of migrants had reached 3.5 million.
Importing Muslim migrants also brought a slow Islamization of the country. In
the main cities, mosques were built. Koranic schools were opened. Islam was
integrated into public school curricula.
Merkel constantly sought consensus and worked with the Social Democrats for
eight of the twelve years she spent as the head of the government.
Germans seemed to accept this arrangement until she decided to open the borders
of Germany to a huge wave of refugees and migrants from the Middle East in
August 2015. More than 1.5 million unvetted people entered the country; most
were young men entitled to family reunification.
Claims that refugees would assimilate without major problems started colliding
with reality. Rapes multiplied. Violence escalated.
In 2016, almost half the crimes in Berlin were committed by recent migrants to
the country Jihadist networks took shape. Terrorist acts started to take place.
Muslim anti-Semitism led to attacks on synagogues. The costs of welfare rose
sharply.
Merkel expressed no regret. She did not even have second thoughts after the
elections: she said that if she had to open the borders of the country again,
she would do it. She tried to impose her decisions on immigration on the
reluctant European countries of Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. She is
still trying. Shame is still present in the minds of million of Germans, but
fading away. A few years ago, a survey showed almost 70% of Germans were angered
at still being held responsible today for crimes against Jews. Roughly 25% of
people surveyed agreed with the statement: "Many Jews try to use Germany's Third
Reich past to their advantage". Recent polls shows that between one-third and
one-half of Germans view Israel as the political equivalent of Nazi Germany. The
German government now regularly pretends to give lessons on morality to Israel,
but never criticizes terrorist leaders such as Mahmoud Abbas.
Germany remains in a position of appeasing, securing and strengthening economic
ties with rogue regimes such as Iran. The German army is so ill-equipped that
during exercises instead of weapons, it uses broomsticks. Polls show that the
German population now think that the main danger to world peace does not come
from Iran or North Korea, but from the United States. Germany is today the most
anti-American country in the Western world . Stern, Germany's most popular news
weekly magazine, recently put on its cover an image of Donald Trump performing a
Nazi salute while draped in the American flag.
Economic efficiency is low. The German economy is essentially an industrial
economy and not adapted to the digital age. Investment in GDP has declined;
innovative activity is weak; productivity stagnates. Since 2008, annual
productivity growth has been only 0.5%. The planned closure of German nuclear
power plants in the name of "protecting the climate" raises wholesale
electricity prices, while German households and businesses bear the financial
burden of paying among the highest electricity costs in the developed world.
Unskilled immigrants from the Muslim world cannot replace skilled Germans who
retire or pass away. The number of poor people continues to increase. The
capacity for receiving immigrants has reached its limits; living conditions in
many shelters have become substandard: floors are not cleaned regularly and are
soiled for days with blood, urine, feces, and invasion of cockroaches are
frequent. The German Commissioner for Immigration recently said that only a
quarter to a third of the refugees who settled in Germany could enter the labor
market. The others will have to rely on government benefits for the rest of
their lives.
Diseases that were nearly eradicated, such as tuberculosis, made a comeback.
Vaccines did not exist as Europeans had stopped making them.
The median age in Germany is now 46.8. A gradual replacement of the non-Muslim
population with a Muslim population is taking place. Forty percent of children
under five, born in Germany, have foreign roots. Since 2005, the population of
new arrivals has increased by 24%, while the native population has decreased by
5%. Demographers say that unless the current trends are reversed, Germans will
become a minority in their own country, possibly in fifteen to twenty years.
Nothing at the moment indicates that the trends will reverse.
Most of the German press is permeated with political correctness. Newspapers and
magazines support multiculturalism, and do not talk about the most urgent
problems facing the country: anemic economic growth, population ageing, and
Islamization. Many journalists, professors and writers say that German culture
does not exist. When books criticizing Islam may become best sellers, their
authors are immediately demonized. Deutschland schafft sich ab ("Germany
Abolishes Itself") was an enormous success in 2010, but its author, Thilo
Sarrazin, was immediately treated as a "racist" and pushed towards the margin of
all political debates. Rolf Peter Sieferle, a former counselor of Angela Merkel,
wrote several articles describing the self-destruction of Germany. "A society
that can no longer make the difference between itself and the forces that
dissolve it lives morally beyond its means," he said in 2015. Insulted and
rejected by those with whom he used to work, he committed suicide in September
2016. A collection of his notes was published after his death, Finis Germaniae
("The End of Germany").
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party promises to "shake off the
Bundestag". The 12.6% of the vote it received will undoubtedly give it a voice.
Its leaders are treated by the media and other political parties as the
incarnation of the devil. Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned against the
entry of "real Nazis" into the parliament . A leader of the far-left Die Linke
party asked: "Have we not learnt the lessons from the war?". Jewish leaders are
scared: Dr. Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany
said that AfD uses strategies generally used by aspiring "fascist
dictatorships."
The AfD party is not Nazi, however. Its members rather seem to fear that Germany
and Germans will disappear under the weight of Islam. The Nazis were
anti-Semitic, militarist, socialist, and desired to conquer. The AfD is not
anti-Semitic, not militarist, not socialist, and does not want to conquer other
countries. Jewish leaders in Germany are frightened because they think that if
the AfD is hostile to one minority, the Muslims, it could grow hostile to other
minorities. They are probably wrong. There is no comparison between Muslims and
Jews. The AfD has strongly supported Israel's right to exist and Israel's right
to has to fight the Islamic threat against it.
Some AfD members have made controversial statements about German soldiers, and
about the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.
At the same time, the AfD is currently Germany's most pro-Israeli party. It is
also the only party that clearly foresees the very real risk of Germany sliding
towards an Islamic sunset.
Is it possible for Germany to recover? We shall see. What is at stake here,
however, is far more than Germany.
*Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27
books on France and Europe.
© 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.
The Real Roots of Islamic Terrorism
Khadija Khan/Gatestone Institute/October 05/17
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/?p=59301
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11102/islamic-terrorism-roots
Last month, an Islamic preacher was caught red-handed in Britain preaching for
ISIS and jihad, and inciting youths to commit violence against non-Muslims. To
everyone's purported astonishment, he was not delivering his lectures on
websites. He was delivering sermons live in a public-charity mosque -- funded by
taxpayers -- in Stoke-on-Trent.
France and Britain remain in the constant grip of Islamist terror, yet their
governments, despite having laws prohibiting "hate speech", have so far failed
to address the influence that preachers of violence and hatred have with local
Muslims.
Blaming terror recruitment only on the internet is just an invented story, like
the one that every suicide bomber or those who committed acts of terror in the
name of Islam were lone wolves who merely took "inspiration" from terror outfits
such as al-Qaeda or ISIS.
Governments in Britain and other countries in the grip of terror posed by
Islamists have probably also been using the "online" excuse to shake off any
charges of reckless endangerment or criminal neglect that they have might have
committed by allowing these extremists to flourish in West.
The terrorists involved in the Parsons Green Underground attack and other
incidents, as in Barcelona, were found to have ties with local mosques or
seminaries, yet the administrations of these places have refused to take any
responsibility, and stated that they are not accountable for the acts of their
members.
Another terrorist attacks France and slaughters two innocent women at the
Marseille train station. The terrorist was reportedly chanting the Arabic
verses.
Within 24 hours, another terror attack took place in Edmonton, Canada outside a
football stadium, when a man with a knife left five people injured. An ISIS flag
was reportedly found in suspect's car.
The strike in a country known for going extra miles to take in immigrants from
the war-torn Middle East exposes the fact that these terrorists are enemies not
only of human rights but often if the very people trying to help them.
No soft gesture, however, will deter extremist Muslims unless the whole world
submits to their version of Islam.
Western governments might nevertheless once again choose to ignore the existence
of religious schools and mosques that serve as radicalization and recruitment
centers for extremist Muslims across the West.
The authorities in Europe seem to have been doing very little to clamp down on
the recruitment of mainly Muslim youths by terrorists. Many apologists seem to
have been trying to confuse people by saying that the internet is root cause of
the Islamic extremism and terrorism problem, and authorities have been blaming
the websites of terror outfits. Websites do not vote.
France and Britain remain in the constant grip of Islamist terror, yet their
governments, despite having laws prohibiting "hate speech", have so far failed
to address the influence that preachers of violence and hatred have with local
Muslims.
Last month, an Islamic preacher was caught red-handed in Britain preaching for
ISIS and jihad, and inciting youths to commit violence against non-Muslims.
To everyone's professed astonishment, he was not delivering his lectures on
websites or communicating with the gullible youths through online "chats". He
was delivering sermons live in a public-charity mosque -- funded by taxpayers --
in Stoke-on-Trent.
Governments in Britain and other countries in the grip of terror posed by
Islamists have probably also been using the "online" excuse to shake off any
charges of reckless endangerment or criminal neglect that they have might have
committed by allowing these extremists to flourish in West.
The authorities seem deliberately to be ignoring the compelling presence of
hardline madrassahs, mosques and faith-schools that might well be involved in
clear instances of preaching violence and hate.
Blaming terror recruitment only on the internet is just an invented story, like
the one that every suicide bomber or those who committed acts of terror in the
name of Islam, whether in Paris, London or Berlin, are lone wolves who merely
took "inspiration" from terror outfits such as al-Qaeda or ISIS.
It is laughable to claim that a "lone wolf" has committed a terror attack,
especially when the terror outfits such as ISIS immediately take responsibility
for them.
The London Bridge attack left Prime Minister Theresa May stating "enough is
enough" and sounding finally determined to tackle terrorism a bit.
But the slogan merely ended up on the back-burner as the terror spree continued
-- as do the hardline seminaries and recruiters that then led to the Parsons
Green Underground attack.
The terrorists involved in that and other attacks, as in Barcelona, were found
to have ties with local mosques or seminaries, yet the administrations of these
places have refused to take any responsibility, and state that they are not
accountable for the acts of their members.
Westminster terror attacker Khalid Masood was serving as a public contact person
for the website of the Luton Islamic Center Mosque just a week before he rammed
a car into pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge and went on to kill a
police officer. Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi, who murdered 22 people,
including children, regularly attended Didsbury Mosque, which was also known to
have home to many other al-Qaeda and ISIS recruits. The mosque was also known
for having ties with al-Qaeda-linked jihadists such as the Libyan Islamic
Fighting Group.
The perpetrators of the London Bridge and Borough Market terror attacks --
Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouance and Youssef Zaghba -- were believed to be
associated with the outlawed Islamist group al-Muhajiroun, co-founded by the
convicted hate preacher Anjem Choudary. Khuram Butt was even seen brandishing an
Islamic State flag in Regent's Park in a Channel 4 documentary.
The Berlin Christmas Market terrorist, Anis Amri, was also reportedly
radicalized by a local mosque. One of the preachers of the Mosque, Abu Walaa, is
these days on trial with four others in Germany for serving as an ISIS
recruiter.
There is a dire need to hold government officials -- and the preachers and
administrators of these mosques -- accountable, and to demand that they take
action against extremists who target these breeding grounds, or face criminal
prosecution. The policy of avoiding the problem by keeping one's eyes shut only
enlarges it and sacrifices freedom on the altar of terror.
**Khadija Khan is a Pakistani journalist and commentator, currently based in
Germany.
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