LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
September 04/17
Compiled &
Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations For
Today
I tell you, there will be more joy in
heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who
need no repentance
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 15/01-07/:"All the
tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees
and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and
eats with them.’So he told them this parable: ‘Which one of you, having a
hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the
wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has
found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he
calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, for
I have found my sheep that was lost."Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy
in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who
need no repentance.
Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to
us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."
First Letter of John
03,23-24.04,01-06/:"This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name
of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All
who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we
know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us. Beloved, do not
believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for
many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of
God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from
God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is
the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now
it is already in the world. Little children, you are from God, and have
conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the
world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and
the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and
whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error."
Question: "What does it mean that believers are to be salt
and light (Matthew 5:13-16)?"
Answer: Jesus used the concepts of salt and light a number of different times to
refer to the role of His followers in the world. One example is found in Matthew
5:13: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how
can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be
thrown out and trampled by men.” Salt had two purposes in the Middle East of the
first century. Because of the lack of refrigeration, salt was used to preserve
food, especially meat which would quickly spoil in the desert environment.
Believers in Christ are preservatives to the world, preserving it from the evil
inherent in the society of ungodly men whose unredeemed natures are corrupted by
sin (Psalm 14:3; Romans 8:8).
Second, salt was used then, as now, as a flavor enhancer. In the same way that
salt enhances the flavor of the food it seasons, the followers of Christ stand
out as those who “enhance” the flavor of life in this world. Christians, living
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in obedience to Christ, will
inevitably influence the world for good, as salt has a positive influence on the
flavor of the food it seasons. Where there is strife, we are to be peacemakers;
where there is sorrow, we are to be the ministers of Christ, binding up wounds,
and where there is hatred, we are to exemplify the love of God in Christ,
returning good for evil (Luke 6:35).
In the analogy of light to the world, the good works of Christ’s followers are
to shine for all to see. The following verses in Matthew 5 highlight this truth:
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does
anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it
gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such
a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in
heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16, NASB). The idea here is similar—the presence of light
in darkness is something which is unmistakable. The presence of Christians in
the world must be like a light in the darkness, not only in the sense that the
truth of God’s Word brings light to the darkened hearts of sinful man (John
1:1-10), but also in the sense that our good deeds must be evident for all to
see. And indeed, our deeds will be evident if they are performed in accordance
with the other principles which Jesus mentions in this passage, such as the
Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-11. Notice especially that the concern is not that
Christians would stand out for their own sake, but that those who looked on
might “glorify your Father who is in heaven” (v. 16, KJV).
In view of these verses, what sorts of things can hinder or prevent the
Christian from fulfilling his or her role as salt and light in the world? The
passage clearly states that the difference between the Christian and the world
must be preserved; therefore, any choice on our part which blurs the distinction
between us and the rest of the world is a step in the wrong direction. This can
happen either through a choice to accept the ways of the world for the sake of
comfort or convenience or to contravene the law of obedience to Christ.
Mark 9:50 suggests that saltiness can be lost specifically through a lack of
peace with one another; this follows from the command to “have salt in
yourselves, and be at peace with each other.” And in Luke 14:34-35, we find a
reference to the metaphor of salt once again, this time in the context of
obedient discipleship to Jesus Christ. The loss of saltiness occurs in the
failure of the Christian to daily take up the cross and follow Christ
wholeheartedly.
It seems, then, that the role of the Christian as salt and light in the world
may be hindered or prevented through any choice to compromise or settle for that
which is more convenient or comfortable, rather than that which is truly best
and pleasing to the Lord. Moreover, the status of salt and light is something
which follows naturally from the Christian’s humble obedience to the
commandments of Christ. It is when we depart from the Spirit-led lifestyle of
genuine discipleship that the distinctions between ourselves and the rest of the
world become blurred and our testimony is hindered. Only by remaining focused on
Christ and being obedient to Him can we expect to remain salt and light in the
world.
**Recommended Resource: Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in
the Life of the Soul, Revised and Updated by J.P. Moreland
**GotQuestions.org?
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on September 03-04/17
Bashar al-Assad has clung to power since the uprising in his
country turned into a bloody war /Robert Fisk/Independent/September 03/17
The Hezbollah-Daesh deal is sponsored by Iran and Syria/Raghida Dergham/ArabNews/September
03/17
Don’t shoot the peacekeepers, they’re doing their best/Yossi Mekelberg/ArabNews/September
03/17
Europe: Jihadists Posing as Migrants/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/September
03/17
Geert Wilders/The Europe We Want/Speech from the Ambrosetti Conference/
Gatestone Institute/September 03/17
Titles For Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on
September 03-04/17
Lebanon’s Free Patriotic Movement Renews Call for ‘Direct Dialogue’ with
Damascus
Hariri Concluding Paris Trip: Backing Army Strengthens Lebanon’s Institutions
Ibrahim: Ain el-Hilweh Security File Must be Addressed Once and for All
Hariri to Visit Moscow for Talks with Putin, Lavrov
Grenade Explodes in Ain el-Hilweh after Islamists Clash over 'Firecrackers'
Slain Troops' Families Say DNA Result Tuesday, Urge Omar Miqati Execution
Hizbullah Slams U.S. over IS Convoy Stranded in Syria
Activists: IS Convoy Evacuated from Lebanon Border Treks Ahead despite U.S.
Strikes Threat
Geagea sees Hezbollah's stance regarding Daesh convoy confusing
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports
And News published on
September 03-04/17
Trump Says 'Appeasement' Will Not Work after N. Korea Nuke
Test
Iran Tests Home-Grown Air Defense System
North Korea Says Tested Hydrogen Bomb with 'Perfect Success'
Sara Netanyahu Takes Polygraph Test over Graft Claims
IS Clashes with Syrian Regime Kill 150
Syria Refugees in Turkey Make Rare Trip Home for Eid
French leader says UN must react to North Korea
Saudi Arabia represents the heart of the Muslim world, strives to achieve
solidarity, says King Salman
Fatah Condemns Granting Israeli Settlers Administrative Power in Khalil
20 Sailors Saved as Cargo Ship Sinks Off Oman Coast
Latest Lebanese Related News published on
September 03-04/17
Lebanon’s Free Patriotic Movement Renews Call for ‘Direct
Dialogue’ with Damascus
Asharq Al-Awsat/September 03/17/Beirut – Lebanese Foreign
Minister and head of the Free Patriotic Movement Jebran Bassil reiterated on
Saturday that there can be no resolution to Lebanon’s Syrian refugee crisis
“without dialogue with the Syrian regime.”He therefore urged the Lebanese
government to launch direct dialogue with the regime in order to return the
refugees to their homeland. “We support their safe return to their country,
whether in communication of the regime or not,” he added. “This is not a
condition for their return. Some of them may return without contacting the
regime. Syria will not mind that. The return of others may require contacting
Syria…. This can be arranged during a time and through a mechanism that ensures
Lebanon’s interest and unity,” he continued. “The remaining refugees require a
longer time and better circumstances for them to return,” said the minister.
“The return can be organized in phases, but it is important that this process
begin,” stressed Bassil. “If the gunmen can return, why can’t the regular
people?” he wondered. “Should we wait for an international green light? This
will not happen any time soon,” he noted, saying that the refugee file “is a
national, urgent and existential issue in Lebanon.”“Can such a pressing matter
be linked to something that will not happen any time soon, such as the departure
of regime head Bashar Assad?” Bassil asked.
Hariri Concluding Paris Trip: Backing Army Strengthens
Lebanon’s Institutions
Asharq Al-Awsat/September 03/17/Beirut – Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri
declared on Saturday that supporting the army strengthens the Lebanese state and
“enables it to combat terrorism” that is threatening several countries. He hoped
at the end of his two-day visit to Paris where he met French President Emmanuel
Macron that a scheduled conference aimed at backing the army would garner the
required aid.The conference is set to be held in Italy.Hariri also met a number
of French officials during his trip, including Prime Minister Edouard Philippe
and Defense Minister Florence Parly. The Lebanese PM said that Macron had
asserted to him his country’s political, military and moral backing of Lebanon.
“Macron is assured of his steps and he is a man of vision,” stated Hariri in an
interview with local television. The French president will help encourage France
and Europeans to attend conferences that support Lebanon, he continued in wake
of the country’s hosting of 1.5 million Syrian refugees. One such form of
support is a Paris conference that will be held soon and which will encourage
investment in Lebanon, revealed Hariri. Another conference, whose date is
tentatively set for early 2018, will also be held in order to tackle the refugee
file. The Lebanese official also highlighted the military cooperation between
Beirut and Paris, saying that the joint trainings are held between the two sides
and that Lebanon’s army had received equipment from its French counterpart.
Hariri is scheduled to travel to Russia on September 13 where he will meet with
President Vladimir Putin. “Discussions between us are very frank. We will talks
about stopping support to Syrian regime leader Bashar Assad,” said the Lebanese
PM. Hariri had kicked off his visit to Paris at the end of August. He concluded
it on Friday by meeting Parly at his Paris residence. The two officials
addressed strengthening cooperation between Lebanon and France, especially in
regards to backing the army and Lebanese security forces. Lebanese President
Michel Aoun is meanwhile set to travel to Paris on September 25.
“Aoun’s visit will highlight the relationship between Lebanon and France,”
stressed Hariri. It will mark the first foreign trip Aoun makes since his
election as president last fall.
Ibrahim: Ain el-Hilweh Security File Must be Addressed Once
and for All
Naharnet/September 03/17/General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim on
Sunday called for a drastic solution for the security situation in the restive
Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh. “It should be addressed once and for
all, because it represents a security gap in the Lebanese and Palestinian
entities,” Ibrahim told Radio Voice of Lebanon (93.3) when asked about the Ain
el-Hilweh security file. Commenting on the removal of Islamic State militants
from the Lebanese-Syrian border following separate but simultaneous operations
by the Lebanese army and Hizbullah on both sides of the frontier, Ibrahim said:
“Militarily, IS’ threat has become something of the past.” “But this does not
negate the possibility of a security breach inside Lebanon,” Ibrahim added,
while noting that “this has become more unlikely and can easily be exposed.” The
restive camp had witnessed a week of deadly clashes last month between the
secular Fatah Movement and small Islamist groups led by the militants Bilal Badr
and Bilal al-Orqoub. By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army does not
enter Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, leaving the Palestinian factions
themselves to handle security. Ain el-Hilweh -- the most densely populated
Palestinian camp in Lebanon -- is home to some 61,000 Palestinians, including
6,000 who have fled the war in neighboring Syria. Several armed factions
including extremist groups have a foothold in the camp which has been plagued
for years by intermittent clashes.
Hariri to Visit Moscow for Talks with Putin, Lavrov
Naharnet/September 03/17/Prime Minister Saad Hariri is expected to visit Russia
in the coming days in the wake of his two-day visit to France, a media report
said on Sunday. “Hariri will continue his foreign visits in the coming weeks to
rally assistance and support for Lebanon in the face of the refugee crisis’
burden on the Lebanese economy, and to seek support for the Lebanese army,” al-Hayat
newspaper said. Quoting “reliable sources,” al-Hayat said Hariri will travel to
Moscow on September 10 for an official visit involving talks with Russia’s
President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Grenade Explodes in Ain el-Hilweh after Islamists Clash
over 'Firecrackers'
Naharnet/September 03/17/A hand grenade exploded by accident at 8:00 am Sunday
in the al-Briksat neighborhood of the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp,
causing no casualties, the National News Agency reported. The camp had witnessed
violence overnight after a dispute over “children playing with firecrackers”
escalated into an armed clash between the Islamist Usbat al-Ansar and Jund
al-Sham groups. The clash in the camp’s al-Tawari neighborhood resulted in the
wounding of a relative of a senior Usbat al-Ansar official after he was shot at
the hands of Jund al-Sham member Hassan M., aka al-Shibel, the agency said. The
restive camp had witnessed a week of deadly clashes last month between the
secular Fatah Movement and small Islamist groups led by the militants Bilal Badr
and Bilal al-Orqoub. By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army does not
enter Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, leaving the Palestinian factions
themselves to handle security. Ain el-Hilweh -- the most densely populated
Palestinian camp in Lebanon -- is home to some 61,000 Palestinians, including
6,000 who have fled the war in neighboring Syria. Several armed factions
including extremist groups have a foothold in the camp which has been plagued
for years by intermittent clashes.
Slain Troops' Families Say DNA Result Tuesday, Urge Omar
Miqati Execution
Naharnet/September 03/17/The official results of DNA tests conducted to
determine whether nine bodies found near the eastern border belong to Lebanese
troops abducted and killed by the Islamic State group will be released on
Tuesday, the soldiers’ families said. “The tests took some time due to
scientific and medical reasons,” the relatives told al-Hayat newspaper in
remarks published Sunday. A ministerial source meanwhile told the daily that by
Saturday, “the bodies of seven out of nine soldiers had been identified.” Eight
bodies had been recovered last Sunday while the body of a ninth soldier was
located on Tuesday as part of a Hizbullah-led deal with IS. The jihadist group
offered the information about the troops’ burial site in return for being
allowed to withdraw to eastern Syria. Hussein Youssef, the father of slain
soldier Mohammed, demanded “accountability for every person who took part in the
kidnap operation and for anyone who decided not to liberate our sons the moment
they were captured or shortly afterwards.”Youssef also demanded “the execution
of the detainee Omar Miqati, who filmed the crimes of the execution of the
martyr soldiers Ali al-Sayyed and Abbas Medlej.”Miqati has been described as a
senior IS official.
Hizbullah Slams U.S. over IS Convoy Stranded in Syria
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 03/17/Hizbllah has accused U.S.-led
forces of stranding a convoy of Islamic State fighters and civilians headed for
Syria's Deir Ezzor province under an evacuation deal. The convoy carrying
hundreds of IS fighters as well as civilians was meant to travel from the
Lebanon-Syria border to jihadist-held territory in eastern Syria under a deal
Hizbullah helped broker. But the U.S.-led coalition has pounded the road to Deir
Ezzor with air strikes to prevent the convoy reaching the IS-held town of
Albukamal on the Iraqi border. Hizbullah, which has defended the deal to remove
IS fighters from the Lebanese frontier, said U.S.-led forces had effectively
stranded most of the convoy's 17 buses in the Syrian desert, beyond government
reach. "They are also preventing anyone from reaching them even to provide
humanitarian assistance to families, the sick and wounded and the elderly," the
Hizbullah statement said. The convoy left the Lebanon-Syria border region on
Monday, but Hizbullah said six of the buses remained in Syrian government-held
territory. The deal, brokered by Hizbullah with the support of its Syrian regime
ally after a week-long offensive against IS, has been fiercely criticized by
U.S.-led forces and the Iraqi government. The international coalition fighting
IS has said it is unacceptable for jihadists to be transported to the border
with Iraq, where pro-government forces this week ousted the extremist group from
the northern city of Tal Afar.In a statement overnight, the coalition said it
had sent a message to Damascus through Syria's ally Russia to say that "the
Coalition will not condone IS fighters moving further east to the Iraqi
border.""The Coalition values human life and has offered suggestions on a course
of action to save the women and children from any further suffering as a result
of the Syrian regime's agreement," it added, without providing further
details.The coalition said it would not strike the convoy, but acknowledged
hitting IS fighters and vehicles "seeking to facilitate the movement of IS
fighters to the border area of our Iraqi partners." Hizbullah accused U.S.
forces of hypocrisy, saying they had previously allowed IS fighters to flee
territories in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has described the deal
as "unacceptable" and an "insult to the Iraqi people." In Lebanon some
criticized it for allowing fighters suspected of killing Lebanese citizens to
escape on "air-conditioned buses."
Deir Ezzor in Syria's east is one of the jihadists' last remaining strongholds,
where they hold most of the province and parts of its capital of the same name.
Activists: IS Convoy Evacuated from Lebanon Border Treks Ahead despite U.S.
Strikes Threat
Associated Press/Naharnet/September 03/17/Dozens of Islamic State group members
and their families have crossed into areas controlled by the extremists despite
U.S. threats to bomb the convoy days after they left the Lebanon-Syria border,
Syrian opposition activists say.
The opposition activists' announcement came after the U.S.-led coalition
fighting IS said the 17-bus convoy of IS militants and their families that left
the Lebanon-Syria border six days ago is still stranded in the Syrian desert.
More than 300 militants and their families are in the convoy after vacating the
border area as part of a Hizbullah-negotiated deal to transport them to an
IS-held town in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border. Hizbullah said in a
statement Saturday that warplanes of the U.S.-led coalition are still preventing
the convoy from moving east and barring anyone on the government side from
reaching them warning that the wounded and elderly people could die. Hizbullah
said that six buses are still in areas controlled by the Syrian government and
warned that if they are hit civilians will be killed. It added that if aid does
not reach the convoy because of the aerial imposed siege, "only the Americans
will bear the responsibility" for what happens. "The so-called international
community and international institutions should intervene to prevent the
occurrence of an ugly massacre," the Lebanese group said. The U.S.-led coalition
issued a statement Friday saying it has sought an unspecified solution that
would save the women and children in the convoy from further suffering. Earlier
this week, an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition created a crater in a road
that the buses had intended to take and destroyed a small bridge to prevent the
convoy from moving further east. Rami Abdul Rahman, who heads the Britain-based
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said dozens of fighters and civilians left
the buses and drove into IS-held parts of the eastern province of Deir Ezzor in
12 civilian vehicles. Opposition activist Omar Abu Laila, who is from Deir Ezzor
and currently lives in Europe, gave an account similar to that of Abdul Rahman
adding that most of them have crossed over. Abu Laila is with DeirEzzor 24, an
activist group that has reporters throughout the eastern province.
Geagea sees Hezbollah's stance regarding Daesh convoy
confusing
Sun 03 Sep 2017/NNA - "Hezbollah's position from Daesh convoy is ambiguous,
raises questions, doubts and suspicions," Lebanese Forces Party chief, Samir
Geagea, said on Sunday via Twitter. "Over the last 48 hours, I have tried to
find an explanation for it, but I haven't found the answer," he added.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
September 03-04/17
Trump Says 'Appeasement' Will Not Work after
N. Korea Nuke Test
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 03/17/U.S. President Donald Trump
declared Sunday that "appeasement with North Korea" will not work, after
Pyongyang claimed it had successfully tested a missile-ready hydrogen bomb.
"North Korea has conducted a major Nuclear Test," Trump said. "Their words and
actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States."His
comments came hours after the US Geological Survey picked up a 6.3 magnitude
"explosion" in North Korea, which Pyongyang confirmed was a nuclear test, its
sixth. The isolated regime said this one was of a hydrogen bomb that could be
fitted atop a ballistic missile, sharply raising the stakes in a U.S.-North
Korea confrontation. Trump last month threatened North Korea with "fire and
fury" if it continued to threaten the United States, but he refrained from
direct threats in his latest tweets. "South Korea is finding, as I have told
them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only
understand one thing!" he said. "North Korea is a rogue nation which has become
a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with
little success."
Iran Tests Home-Grown Air Defense System
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 03/17/Iran has tested its home-grown air
defense system, designed to match the Russian S-300, the head of the
Revolutionary Guards' air defense has said."In parallel with the deployment of
the S-300, work on Bavar-373 system is underway," Farzad Esmaili told state
broadcaster IRIB late Saturday. "The system is made completely in Iran and some
of its parts are different from the S-300. All of its sub-systems have been
completed and its missile tests have been conducted." Bavar (which means
"belief") is Tehran's first long-range missile defense system, and is set to be
operational by March 2018, he added. In 2010, Iran began manufacturing Bavar-373
after the purchase of the S-300 from Russia was suspended due to international
sanctions.Russia resumed the sale following the 2015 nuclear deal with world
powers which lifted sanctions, and Iran's S-300 defense system became
operational in March. On Saturday, the new defense minister Amir Hatami said
Iran has "a specific plan to boost missile power." He said he hoped "the combat
capabilities of Iran's ballistic and cruise missiles" would increase in the next
four years. The comments came amid increasing tensions with Washington, which
has passed new sanctions against Iran's ballistic missile program.
North Korea Says Tested Hydrogen Bomb with 'Perfect
Success'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 03/17/North Korea
declared itself a thermonuclear power on Sunday, after carrying out a sixth
nuclear test more powerful than any it has previously detonated, presenting
President Donald Trump with a potent challenge. The North has tested a hydrogen
bomb with "perfect success," a jubilant newsreader announced on state
television, adding the device could be mounted on a missile. The test was of a
bomb with "unprecedently large power," she said, and "marked a very significant
occasion in attaining the final goal of completing the state nuclear force." The
broadcaster showed an image of leader Kim Jong-Un's handwritten order for the
test to be carried out at noon on September 3. The announcement came after
monitors measured a 6.3-magnitude tremor near the North's main testing site,
which South Korean experts said was five to six times stronger than that from
the 10-kiloton test carried out a year ago. Hours earlier, the North released
images of Kim inspecting what it said was a miniaturised H-bomb that could be
fitted onto an ICBM, at the Nuclear Weapons Institute. Hydrogen bombs or H-bombs
-- also known as thermonuclear devices -- are far more powerful than the
relatively simple atomic weapons the North was believed to have tested so
far.Whatever the final figure for test's yield turned out to be, said Jeffrey
Lewis of the armscontrolwonk website, it was "a staged thermonuclear weapon"
which represents a significant advance in its weapons program. Chinese monitors
said they had detected a second quake shortly afterwards of 4.6 magnitude that
could be due to a "collapse (cave in)," suggesting the rock over the underground
blast had given way. Pyongyang has long sought the means to deliver an atomic
warhead to the United States, its sworn enemy, and the test will infuriate
Washington, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and others. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
said ahead of the announcement that a test would be "absolutely unacceptable."
South Korean President Moon Jae-In summoned the National Security Council for an
emergency meeting and Seoul's military raised its alert level.
'Super explosive power' . Pyongyang triggered a new ramping up of tensions in
July, when it carried out two successful tests of an ICBM, the Hwasong-14, which
apparently brought much of the U.S. mainland within range. It has since
threatened to send a salvo of rockets towards the U.S. territory of Guam, and
last week fired a missile over Japan and into the Pacific, the first time it has
ever acknowledged doing so.Trump has warned Pyongyang that it faces "fire and
fury," and that Washington's weapons are "locked and loaded." Analysts believe
Pyongyang has been developing weapons capability to give it a stronger hand in
any negotiations with the U.S. "North Korea will continue with their nuclear
weapons program unless the U.S. proposes talks," Koo Kab-Woo of Seoul's
University of North Korean Studies told the AFP news agency. He pointed to the
fact that Pakistan -- whose nuclear program is believed to have links with the
North's -- conducted six nuclear tests in total, and may not have seen a need
for any further blasts. "If we look at it from Pakistan's example, the North
might be in the final stages" of becoming a nuclear state, he said. Pictures of
Kim at the Nuclear Weapons Institute showed the young leader, dressed in a black
suit, examining a metal casing with a shape akin to a peanut shell. The device
was a "thermonuclear weapon with super explosive power made by our own efforts
and technology," KCNA cited Kim as saying, and "all components of the H-bomb
were 100 percent domestically made."
Actually mounting a warhead onto a missile would amount to a significant
escalation on the North's part, as it would create a risk that it was preparing
an attack.
Failure of sanctions
The North carried out its first nuclear test in 2006, and successive blasts are
believed to have been aimed at refining designs and reliability as well as
increasing yield. Its fifth detonation, in September last year, caused a 5.3
magnitude quake and according to Seoul had a 10-kiloton yield -- still less than
the 15-kiloton U.S. device which destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. The North Korean
leadership says a credible nuclear deterrent is critical to the nation's
survival, claiming it is under constant threat from an aggressive United States.
It has been subjected to seven rounds of United Nations Security Council
sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, but always insists it
will continue to pursue them. Atomic or "A-bombs" work on the principle of
nuclear fission, where energy is released by splitting atoms of enriched uranium
or plutonium encased in the warhead. Hydrogen or H-bombs, also known as
thermonuclear weapons, work on fusion and are far more powerful, with a nuclear
blast taking place first to create the intense temperatures required. No H-bomb
has ever been used in combat, but they make up most of the world's nuclear
arsenals.
Sara Netanyahu Takes Polygraph Test over Graft Claims
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 03/17/Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife has taken a voluntary lie detector test to
try and dispel allegations she misused public funds, her lawyer said on Sunday.
National fraud squad detectives questioned Sara Netanyahu last month on
suspicions she routinely claimed state payments for personal housekeeping
expenses at the couple's official and private residences. Private broadcaster
Channel Two reported at the weekend that the attorney general was expected to
announce charges against her by September 10. "She took the test," Netanyahu
family lawyer Yossi Cohen told Israeli public radio. "It's a very tough test.
It's humiliating and she did it wonderfully." He did not give details of the
questions she was asked or the test results. He said the decision to undergo the
examination, at a privately operated polygraph facility, was taken "following
the horrible mudslinging against her and after we heard that she is going to be
put on trial."Results of polygraph testing are not admissible as evidence in
Israeli criminal trials. Netanyahu himself is also under investigation on
suspicions of corruption, and last month his former chief of staff signed a deal
to turn state's witness in probes involving the premier. One is based on
suspicions Netanyahu unlawfully received gifts from wealthy supporters,
including Australian billionaire James Packer and Hollywood producer Arnon
Milchan. Also under investigation is a suspicion that Netanyahu sought a secret
deal with the publisher of top-selling daily Yediot Aharonot. The proposed deal,
which is not believed to have been finalized, would have seen Netanyahu receive
positive coverage in return for him helping to scale down the operations of
Israel Hayom, Yediot's main competitor. Netanyahu has been questioned about both
cases.The investigations have have stirred Israeli politics and led to
speculation over whether Netanyahu will eventually be forced to step down, which
he is not formally obliged to do unless convicted.
IS Clashes with Syrian Regime Kill 150
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 03/17/Fierce clashes
between the Islamic State group and pro-regime forces in central Syria have left
over 150 fighters dead in 24 hours, mostly jihadists, a monitor said Sunday. The
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 120 IS fighters "were
killed in clashes in and around the town of Uqayribat in the eastern Hama
countryside... along with at least 35 regime troops and loyalist militiamen."The
town is the jihadist group's last bastion in the central province apart from a
handful of small villages. Pro-government forces seized Uqayribat on
Friday night, but IS responded with a counter-offensive on Saturday that left it
in control of most of the town, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. An
intense barrage of artillery fire and Syrian and Russian air strikes on jihadist
positions allowed pro-regime forces on Sunday morning to push the jihadists back
out of the town and advance on villages to the west that remain under IS
control. IS has controlled Uqayribat since 2014, using it to launch attacks on
regime-held areas and a strategically vital road Abdel Rahman described as "the
only lifeline for the regime between Aleppo and central and southern
Syria."Regime forces, backed by heavy Russian air strikes, launched a major
assault on IS-held parts of Hama in June. "By consolidating their control of (Uqayribat)
and ousting IS from the surrounding villages, regime forces could oust the
organization from the whole of Hama province," Abdel Rahman said. Other rebel
groups still control parts of the province's rural north. Hama, which borders on
six other Syrian provinces, is strategically vital to the Assad regime,
separating opposition forces in Idlib from Damascus to the south and the
regime's coastal heartlands to the west.
IS has suffered multiple defeats across Syria and neighboring Iraq in recent
months, notably in its main Syrian base of Raqa. On Friday a U.S.-backed
Kurdish-Arab coalition seized Raqa's Old City and was advancing on the jihadists
in the heavily defended city center. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began
their offensive in May, capturing the city of Tabqa and a key dam nearby before
entering Raqa city in early June. Meanwhile, pro-regime forces have advanced
against IS in the eastern part of Homs province and western Deir Ezzor, where
they have come to within 19 kilometers (12 miles) of the provincial capital.
Syria's conflict has killed more than 320,000 people and displaced millions
since it started with anti-government demonstrations in 2011.
Syria Refugees in Turkey Make Rare Trip Home for Eid
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/September 03/17/Syrian refugee Mohamed Hajj Steifi
hasn't been home for a year, but this week he made the trip across the Turkish
border to celebrate the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha. He is one of over
40,000 Syrian refugees living in Turkey who have taken advantage of a rare
chance to return to their war-torn homeland for the holiday. "I haven't seen my
family for more than a year," Steifi said, sitting in the garden of his home in
Binnish, a town in Syria's northwestern Idlib province.
Seated around him, his parents and brother chatted with relatives visiting to
celebrate Eid al-Adha, one of the Islamic calendar's biggest festivals. From
time to time, they were interrupted by phone calls from the family's daughters,
who live in the Gulf. Almost three million Syrians have taken refuge in Turkey
since the conflict in their country began in 2011 with anti-government protests.
But the border crossings between the countries are mostly closed except to aid
convoys, meaning the chance to return for Eid is a rare opportunity.
Those taking advantage of the window had to register on a dedicated website, and
must return to Turkey by October 15. Some headed to towns like al-Bab and
Jarabulus in Aleppo province, targets of a Turkish-led operation launched in
mid-2016 against the Islamic State group. Others crossed into Idlib province,
now largely controlled by a jihadist group formerly affiliated with al-Qaida.
While Steifi was delighted to be home, he said he would soon return to the
Turkish town of Reyhanli, where he works for an internet company.
'Calm is not enough' "I'm definitely going to stay where I have a livelihood,
which is in Turkey," Steifi said. "If the work situation improves and the state
comes back, I would certainly prefer to return to my country."The grinding
violence of Syria's civil war, which has killed over 330,000 people, has dropped
off in recent months after the tentative and partial implementation of local
ceasefires. But Steifi says the relative calm hasn't tempted him to move back
home just yet. "Calm is not enough," he said. "If institutions, universities and
order are not restored, and life doesn't goes back to normal, we'll be living in
chaos."The International Organization for Migration said last month that more
than 600,000 displaced Syrians had returned to their homes this year. Most of
those were internally displaced, but 16 percent were refugees returning from
exile in neighboring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.While some returnees said
they were motivated by improved security and economic conditions, the IOM warned
that many were struggling to access clean water and health services in a country
ravaged by over six years of fighting.
'Everyone's dream is to return'
Yaman al-Khatib, a 27-year-old journalist, moved with his wife and child to the
Turkish province of Antakya last year after leaving a rebel-held part of Aleppo
city before it was captured by regime forces. He travels into Syria
clandestinely for his job, but has no plans to move his family back there for
now.
"There's nowhere safe for us to live after we left Aleppo," he said. "Syria in
general is a war zone, so Turkey is the safest place I've found for my
family."But he too dreams of returning."The flood of Syrian families from Turkey
to Syria is proof that everyone's dream is to return home," he said. "But the
lack of security, along with the lack of basic necessities like water and
electricity, make it impossible."Rahaf, 19, was overjoyed to be visiting family
in Binnish to mark Eid. But she too planned to return to Reyhanli at the end of
the festival. Wearing a black tunic and new jeans bought to mark Eid, she said
she fled to Turkey five years ago along with her mother and sister, and plans to
start university there. She said the family fears returning to Syria before the
conflict ends. "I would definitely think about going back to Syria if security
returned and the situation went back to how it was before the war," she said.
"There's nothing better than a person's country, it will always be better than
any other country."
Climate Change & Environment
Suicide bombers dressed as members of the Iraqi security forces killed seven
people and wounded 12 in an attack on a power plant north of Baghdad on
Saturday, officials and a survivor said. The Islamic State group claimed
responsibility for the attack.
Wearing military uniforms and armed with grenades, three attackers entered the
facility in Samarra, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the capital, said
General Qassem al-Tamimi, head of a police unit charged with protecting vital
installations. A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said one
of the bombers detonated his explosives belt and the two others were shot dead
by security reinforcements who rushed to the scene. He said seven people were
killed and 12 wounded in the attack. "At 2:00 am we were woken up by shots being
fired," Abdel Salam Ahmed, one of the employees who was hit by gunfire in the
legs, told the AFP news agency from his hospital bed. He recalled running with
colleagues away from the shooting. "We ran into one of them (the jihadists).
Some of us hid while two others kept running towards the exit, shouting 'we are
employees', but they (the attackers) shot them dead," he said. Prefabricated
houses where employees were sleeping were destroyed as explosions rang out in
the power plant, an AFP reporter said.
Several tanker trucks were also damaged and the remains of one of the suicide
bombers lay on the ground, the reporter said.
The police official said security reinforcements evacuated the employees.
The attack comes as Iraqi Shiites mark the first day of the Eid al-Adha feast.
The jihadist Islamic State group, which frequently carries out suicide bombings
in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack. In 2014, IS captured almost a
third of Iraqi territory in a lightning offensive. It now holds just two pockets
of territory in the country.
French leader says UN must react to North Korea
Sun 03 Sep 2017lNNA - French President Emmanuel Macron has
condemned "in the strongest possible terms" North Korea's sixth nuclear test. In
a written statement, Macron "calls on the members of the United Nations Security
Council to quickly react to this new violation by North Korea of international
law."He also calls for a "united and clear reaction of the European Union."He
says the international community "must treat this new provocation with the
utmost firmness" to bring North Korea back to the path of dialogue and give up
its nuclear and missile programs. North Korea's nuclear test Sunday was
apparently its most powerful yet. State-controlled media say it was a hydrogen
bomb. South Korea's weather agency says the detonation set off a magnitude 5.7
earthquake. ---AP
Saudi Arabia represents the heart of the Muslim world, strives to achieve
solidarity, says King Salman
ArabNews/September 03/17/JEDDAH: King Salman on Saturday held the annual
reception at Mina Palace for heads of state, Islamic dignitaries, guests of the
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, guests of government bodies and heads of
delegations and pilgrim affairs offices who performed Hajj rituals this year.At
the outset of the reception, King Salman shook hands with Sudan’s President Omar
Al-Bashir; Gambia’s President Adama Baro; Comoros President Osman Ghazali;
Yemen’s Vice President Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmr; Egypt’s Prime Minister Sherif Ismail;
Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawki Allam; Princes Hashem and Hamzah bin Al-Hussein of
Jordan; Iraq’s Representative Council Speaker Salim Al-Jubouri; Jordan’s House
of Representatives Speaker Atef Tarawneh; Nigeria’s Senate President Bukola
Saraki; Niger’s National Assembly President Ousseini Tinni; Mauritius Vice Prime
Minister Showkutally Soodhun; Bangladesh’s former President Hussain Mohammed
Ershad; Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the
Russian Federation Ilyas Umakhanov; Afghanistan’s former Vice President and
current Chairman of High Peace Council Mohammed Karim Khalili; Comoros Vice
President Abdallah Sarouma; Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Najib Mikati; and
senior officials from a number of Islamic countries.
“I welcome you from these holy places to which the hearts of all Muslims are
inclined. I congratulate you on the blessed Eid Al-Adha, praying to Allah
Almighty to accept pilgrims’ Hajj and prayers, praising Him that pilgrims
perform their Hajj rituals in tranquility, security and ease,” said the king.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has utilized all its human and material potentials
to enable pilgrims to easily perform Hajj. We are determined — with Allah’s help
— to proceed in achieving the highest level of services for the Two Holy Mosques
and the holy sites within an integrated system aiming to increase the
facilitation of Hajj performance and the safety of the visitors of the Grand
Holy Mosque and the Prophet’s Holy Mosque. We are completing in our works the
gigantic efforts exerted by the kings of this blessed country since the era of
its founder late King Abdul Aziz (May Allah bestow mercy upon his soul),” he
added.“The arms of terrorism have sought to harm the holy sites without any
consideration to their sanctities. However, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — with
Allah’s help and in cooperation with the Kingdom’s brothers and friends — have
achieved great successes in eradicating terrorism and drying up its sources
firmly and persistently,” the king continued. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
represents the heart of the Muslim world. Therefore, it senses the hopes and
pains of Muslims everywhere, strives to achieve unity, cooperation and
solidarity in our Muslim world, and achieves security and peace in the whole
world. I pray to Allah Almighty to help our brothers the pilgrims of the Grand
Holy Mosque to complete Hajj rituals and return home safely. I wish that you are
well every year. May Allah’s peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.” Minister
of Hajj and Umrah Mohammed Salih Bentin, delivered a speech in which he
congratulated King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Arab and
Islamic nations on Eid Al-Adha, praying to Allah Almighty to repeat it to all in
peace, progress and prosperity. He said: “The leadership of our blessed country
since the era of the founder, the late King Abdul Aziz, and thus far bears with
all honesty, faithfulness and sincerity the honor of the responsibility of
serving the Two Holy Mosques and their care, as well as serving pilgrims, Umrah
performers and visitors to enable them perform their ritual easily and
comfortably.” Minister of Islamic Affairs and Traditional Education of the
Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Ahmed Ould Ahl Dawood, delivered a speech on
behalf of the guests and heads of delegations of the Islamic countries
participating in this year’s Hajj season, during which he congratulated King
Salman and the crown prince on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha and the great
facilities and services being provided to the pilgrims.
Fatah Condemns Granting
Israeli Settlers Administrative Power in Khalil
Asharq Al-Awsat/September 03/17/Ramallah –
The Palestinian Fatah movement condemned on Saturday the Israeli authorities’
granting of Israeli settlers administrative power to manage their own affairs in
the al-Khalil area in the southern West Bank. Spokesman for Fatah’s Shura
council Oussam al-Qawasimi said described during a press conference Israel’s
decision as “very dangerous.” “This is a violation of all international
agreements and an application of a discriminatory system,” he declared. He said
that the measure is aimed at separating al-Khalil city from its old town in an
attempt to “Judaize” the old town. He therefore demanded immediate and urgent
official, popular, legal and diplomatic action against this move, “which paves
the way for a real catastrophe against al-Khalil city, its residents and
history,” reported the German Press Agency (dpa). Qawasimi also urged the
international community to “act immediately to thwart the discriminatory and
destructive measures that violate international law and agreements.”Some 800
settlers alongside 250,000 Palestinians reside in al-Khalil. Israeli authorities
granted the settlers the rights to manage their municipal affairs. The Israeli
army explained in a statement that the settlers were managing their daily
affairs through a local council that did not have legal status. Through the
latest decree, the settlers will be able to form a council that represents the
Jewish settler quarter in al-Khalil. International law bars settlement building
in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A Palestinian official deemed the latest
Israeli measure as the “most dangerous one since 1967.”Al-Khalil governor Kamil
Hamid said that the procedure paves the way for establishing Israeli sovereignty
in the area, which will ultimately hinder any settlement in the region. “This
violates everything that the peace process stands for and attempts to establish
a Palestinian state,” he added. He warned that the new power granted to the
settlers will destabilize all districts in Palestinian territories.
20 Sailors Saved as
Cargo Ship Sinks Off Oman Coast
Asharq Al-Awsat/September 03/17/Twenty
sailors were saved on Sunday after their cargo ship sank off the coast of Oman.
Authorities in Oman said that the ship was loaded with construction material,
consisting of steel bars and sand. Police and Oman’s Transportation and
Communications Ministry said that the boat sank off the coast of Lakabi, a town
some 620 kilometers (385 miles) southwest of the sultanate’s capital, Muscat.
The ministry in a statement carried by the state-run Oman News Agency said
seawater poured into the ship through a leak, sinking it.
A nearby fisherman saved the sailors. The ministry said the Tanzanian-flagged
ship was heading from the United Arab Emirates to Eritrea in East Africa. The
Royal Oman Police on Sunday posted pictures online of sailors on a boat after
being rescued by the local fishermen, their sinking ship slipping beneath the
waves of the Arabian Sea. The concerned naval authorities, police and coast
guard are keen on preserving marine security and the Sultanate’s environment and
marine wealth, said the Oman News Agency.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on
September 03-04/17
Bashar al-Assad has clung to power since the uprising in
his country turned into a bloody war
Robert Fisk/Independent/Published on Thursday 31 August 2017
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-civil-war-rebellion-isis-assad-western-intervention-arms-a7921526.html
When Nikolaos van Dam was a young diplomat in Damascus, he knew Syria better
than many Syrians. A fluent speaker of Arabic, this Dutch scholar’s first book
on Syria’s modern history was so well researched that even members of the Baath
party would reportedly turn to its pages to understand the history of their
institution and the nature of the regime for which they worked.
Precise, polite, his analysis as cool and lethal as a sword, Van Dam also
possesses a cynical – perhaps sarcastic – attitude towards the diplomatic elite
that other officials might secretly admire. “It is better to do nothing than to
do the wrong thing with terrible results,” he told me a few days ago. “But
Western democracies feel they have to do something … If there had not been any
Western influence, there would have been a tenth of the violence, the country
would not be in rubble, so many would not have died, you would not have had so
many refugees.”
It’s not that Van Dam blames the Syrian West for the war, but he holds it to
account for the influence and interference it exercised so promiscuously. And
his new book, Destroying a Nation: The Civil War in Syria, is perhaps the only
one so far published about the conflict that attempts to set out coldly what the
opposition as well as the Assad government did wrong.
Van Dam has never avoided talking about the torture and suppression that the
regime has used to maintain power. He stated in the very early weeks of the 2011
demonstrations – in The Independent – that Syria’s crisis might well end in a
bloodbath. He acknowledges the cruelty and stupidity with which the Syrian
security apparatus turned to guns and humiliation and torture to suppress a
largely peaceful mass protest movement inspired (or seduced) by the Arab
revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. But he also notes how early the
“peaceful” opposition turned to violence once the crisis began.
On the Syrian border with north-eastern Lebanon, inside Lebanese territory but
in sight of the plain of Homs in the spring of 2011, I listened to a fierce gun
battle being fought only a few hundred metres across the frontier – at a time
when only the Syrian army and the security police were supposed to be using
weapons against unarmed demonstrators. A week later, an Al Jazeera camera crew –
working for the Qatar-funded channel whose ruling family would soon fund the
Nusra-al Qaeda fighters in Syria, as even its royal family acknowledged – asked
to meet me in Beirut. They showed me footage also taken near the north-eastern
border of Lebanon. Their tape clearly showed armed men shooting at Syrian
troops. Al Jazeera, adhering to the “soldiers-shoot-down-unarmed-demonstrators”
story, had refused to air their film. They had resigned. Later, Syrian state
television itself showed – all too real – film of armed men among the crowds of
protestors in Dera’a. Van Dam dismisses reports that these men were government
“provocateurs”.
He does not dispute the Assad government’s killing of the innocent – though he
suggests this came about through the inherent and untamed brutality of the
regime’s security apparatus rather than a policy decision by Bashar al-Assad
himself. Faisal Mekdad, the deputy foreign minister whom Assad sent to Dera’a
(the minister’s home town), after the torture of children and killing of
demonstrators, admitted to me that “bad mistakes” had been made there. But such
“discoveries” were useless. Within months, the public’s demand for “reforms” had
turned into an uprising determined to overthrow a regime that then resorted to
all out-war against its enemies. Early reports of a massacre of Syrian troops by
armed men at Jisr al-Chagour, dismissed by government opponents as the killing
of army deserters by the regime, were, Van Dam concludes, true. The soldiers
were murdered by those whom we would soon call “rebels”.
Exactly when – and, more important, why – peaceful protest turned to armed
uprising and then, inevitably, to an Islamist insurgency against the supposedly
“secular” rule of the regime is one of the most important historical questions
about Syria’s war. And it remains largely unanswered. There are clues enough.
Van Dam is scalpel-sharp in his condemnation of Western policies, which breathed
fire into the bosom of the opposition – the American and French diplomats who
travelled to Homs to join the demonstrators immediately lost their neutrality,
he says – and then left them to the mercy of their enemies. Van Dam praises the
work of my colleague Patrick Cockburn, who has often pointed out how those two
ambassadors told the protestors not to negotiate with the Assad regime on the
basis that it would soon collapse.
But the West closed its embassies, abandoning its new opposition friends. “Had
they remained in Damascus, the ambassadors might have been a kind of last
contact through whom attempts might have been made to influence the regime,” Van
Dam says.
Instead of serious political advice, the West, especially the US and their proxy
Arab allies in the Gulf, then poured weapons into Syria – enough arms to destroy
Syria but not enough to overthrow the regime, as one ex-rebel told me – and
tried to direct the armed groups from Turkey and Jordan. And all the while, they
and the UN encouraged talks between the regime and the opposition which had no
chance of success – because the rebel groups would only settle for the overthrow
of the Assad government and because the Assad regime would never negotiate for
its own overthrow.
When the rebellion turned largely Islamist, there was no one to explain to us
why this had happened. Journalists who had arrived in Aleppo with the rebels, en
route for the “liberation” of Damascus along the lines of the “liberation” of
Tripoli in Libya, justifiably retreated when the warriors of Isis took to
beating, imprisoning and chopping off their heads – but largely without telling
us what had happened to the revolution. The “good guys” in our stories, after
all, are not supposed to turn into the “bad guys”. Van Dam asks why, in all the
later reports on the bombardment by the regime of eastern Aleppo, the world
never saw film of the Islamist fighters there, nor their weapons, nor their
armed control of the streets. “If you look at the media reports,” he says, “it’s
as if the bombs only fell on schools and hospitals.”
The people of Aleppo did not invite the armed opposition into their streets,
according to Van Dam – he is right – and the fighters then, eventually, failed
to win their battle. They lost. The declarations of horror by Western nations
helped to obscure this defeat. All along, both the original demonstrators and
the fighters and the West “miscalculated the ruthlessness of the regime”.
Van Dam hasn’t visited Syria since the war began, and it sometimes shows. He
gives too much credit to the slovenly and undisciplined regime gangs for
military victories. When an Alawite militia tried to persuade me they were now a
disciplined force – their “commander” speaking in his Lattakia office under a
vast metal two-edged Shia sword – the demonstration turned to farce when some of
his men turned up in brand new Mercedes with smoked windows and no registration
plates. And Van Dam believes that the Syrian army, in 2011, was at its lowest
operational capacity in years. In fact, the Syrian military, corrupted by a
quarter century in Lebanon, became a fighting machine in the war, took on Isis
(despite Washington’s claims to the contrary), lost 75,000 of its men but – with
Russian military help – turned on its armed enemies and is now pushing the
Islamists from much of the country.
Van Dam, an expert on the Alawis of Syria, slightly overstretches their
influence on the army – where perhaps 80 per cent of the soldiers are Sunni
Muslims, the same sect as their enemies – but accurately emphasises the enormous
casualty figures among the families in the Alawi mountains.
When Assad called his ministers a “war cabinet” – Van Dam takes the evidence for
this from a defecting official – and it was clear that there would be no
government punishment for its own operatives’ murder or torture, it was clear,
he says, that “reforms” were no real part of government policy. He talks of the
disastrous pre-war harvest that drove a million rural poor to the cities
following the worst drought for 500 years – a unique contribution to the Syrian
revolution by global warming – and writes that war crimes should be recorded for
future “justice”. But who will ensure such justice is implemented? Without any
Western desire for real military intervention (save that of Vladimir Putin),
Western “humanitarian corridors” and “safe zones” were a nonsense.
Van Dam speaks mournfully of the continuation of the Assad government, which
might win “95 per cent in the negotiations” and in which the opposition might
gain the right to hold “the ministries of tourism and culture”. It’s not a
prediction. But Van Dam’s expertise shows all too painfully how ignorance and
stupidity governed the reflexes of Western politicians who preferred moral
correctness to the realities of finding a solution: they sent weapons instead.
In some ways, Van Dam concludes, the situation was similar to that in 1991 “when
the United States and others encouraged the Shia community to rise up against
... Saddam Hussein, but did nothing to help them when their uprising was
bloodily suppressed”. And we all know what happened then.
The Hezbollah-Daesh deal is sponsored by Iran and Syria
Raghida Dergham/ArabNews/September 03/17
The deal that allowed hundreds of Daesh fighters and their families to leave the
Lebanese-Syrian border in air-conditioned buses towards Daesh-held areas near
the Syrian-Iraqi border is suspicious in many ways. In equal measures, Iraqi
reactions, wavering between sharp criticism of the deal by Prime Minister Haider
Al-Abadi as an insult to the Iraqi people, and a warm welcome for what happened
from his pro-Iranian predecessor Nouri Al-Maliki, who rejected the notion that
the deal undermines Iraq’s national security, are confusing and confused.
What is interesting here is the near complete silence from Russia regarding the
suspicious dealings of its allies in Syria, bearing in mind that any
negotiations with terrorists and any deal that would spare them from being
crushed are anathema to the Kremlin, a position similar to that of the White
House. The US-led coalition fighting Daesh in Syria intercepted the Daesh
convoy, making it appear as though the roles had been coordinated in advance,
while the messages Washington was sending to Beirut were full of contradictions.
Indeed, some of these signals included expressions of regret over what
Washington deemed to be the Lebanese state’s sanctioning of the deal between
Hezbollah and the Syrian regime over the eviction of Daesh militants from
Lebanese territory under their protection. Yet other American messages were
congratulating the Lebanese army for pushing Daesh out of Lebanon. As usual,
Lebanon’s political leaders spiraled down into endless differences bearing
little relation to what happened during the battle to liberate the barrens in
Ras Baalbeck and Al-Qaa border regions from terror groups, before Hezbollah’s
deal with Daesh prevented the Lebanese army from taking credit for the
liberation and regaining its political prestige.
Beyond the suspicious deal, what is even more intriguing is the role played by
the major sponsors and its implications. This is not just about who is behind
that terrible international cocktail of intelligence services behind the “joint
stock company” that created Daesh and their true motives, but also the nature of
the objectives of those pushing for deals at the expense of accountability, and
those pushing for crushing groups such as Daesh at the expense of any political
promises and pledges of accountability for those responsible for the massacring
of Arab peoples and the destruction of their cities.
In Lebanon, any official who had previous knowledge that Daesh murdered the
Lebanese soldiers kidnapped in 2015, and deliberately misled their families, is
a hypocrite who has committed a moral crime. Accommodating their feelings is one
thing, but misleading them is another. Misleading people for political gain is a
national insult. The death of soldiers in the line of duty is part and parcel of
military life, meanwhile.
Blaming Hezbollah for striking a duplicitous deal with Daesh is on the mark,
without argument. But claiming that Hezbollah and its ally the Syrian regime
struck this unprecedented deal without the knowledge of the Lebanese government
is an insult to our intelligence.
True, Hezbollah’s deal headed off the Lebanese army, which was ready to regain
its sovereignty on the Lebanese-Syrian border if it managed to complete the
offensive against Daesh in the Lebanese borderlands. It is also true that
Hezbollah deliberately prevented the army from achievement that, because it
wants the armed forces to appear weak and unable to impose their authority and
finish the job. Hezbollah wants to have exclusive rights over “liberation” and
not have to share its investments and prestige with others.
However, none of this contradicts the fact that Hezbollah’s deal with Daesh has
spared the Lebanese army from fighting a battle that may have caused a large
number of casualties in its ranks. What happened in the end is not a disgrace
for the Lebanese army. What happened was a deal between two militant groups that
fought each other in Syria. The deal for Daesh’s surrender was conditional upon
the provision of safe passage for its fighters and their families out of
Lebanese territory through Syrian territory to Daesh-held positions along the
border with Iraq. It is a deal between two parties to the militia wars in Syria
sponsored by the Syrian and Iranian governments, not the Lebanese government.
The deeply suspicious agreement to allow fighters safe passage from the
Lebanese-Syrian borders to eastern Syria was hatched in Tehran and Damascus, and
criticizing the Lebanese government is futile.
The Lebanese government has played the role of facilitator for a deal that drove
the terrorists out of its territory. Some have criticized the settlement,
arguing that Lebanon should have sought to try the terrorists who abducted and
executed Lebanese army soldiers instead of facilitating their escape. Others
have supported the government’s actions, which ultimately led to liberating
Lebanon from Daesh, even if through negotiations and deals rather than military
operations.
There is no need to outbid Hezbollah in the bazaar of “victories,” and no need
for knee-jerk criticisms of a settlement between Hezbollah and Daesh to which
the Lebanese government was not a party. What Hezbollah did not achieve is to
drag the Lebanese government into directly and publicly coordinating with the
Syrian government, the sponsor of the militia deal. What Hezbollah achieved,
rather, is to secure the exit of terrorists from Lebanese territory to Syrian
territory in suspicious arrangements that are reminiscent of the accords between
Daesh, the regime in Damascus and the pro-Iranian government of Nouri Al-Maliki
under whose tenure Daesh emerged and almost overnight defeated the Iraqi army,
seized its equipment and looted the banks in Mosul.
Perhaps the use of Daesh to crush moderate Syrian rebels was always one of the
tasks assigned to that suspicious organization. It is no secret that Daesh
fighters had been released from Iraqi and Syrian prisons, to carry out the task
of eliminating the rebels and turn the Syrian uprising into a war on terror.
But there is another striking dimension: The alternating between Daesh and the
Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Iraqi Popular Mobilization, and Lebanese Hezbollah
in the same territory in Iraq and Syria. This territory is represented in the
arc dubbed the Persian Crescent.
Daesh emerged with a view to thwart the Persian Crescent project in the
geographical area linking Iraq and Syria, and Iran and Lebanon. The IRGC took it
upon themselves to become the key partner of Washington and Moscow in
eliminating Daesh, whose name and deeds have become synonymous with appalling
terrorism. Daesh has occupied the geographical area of that crescent for the
past few years, but now, Iran and its proxies have all the military and
political justifications they need to seize the territory seized from Daesh,
without much objection. This is a terrifying proposal behind which stands a
patient long-term strategy that characterizes the carpet weavers of Iran.
Daesh will slowly fade away, having now completed the task of destroying ancient
Arab cities and moderate rebels, and stoking sectarian wars, not to mention
looting wealth and using children as weapons in dirty wars following the
devastating ideology of this sick group. But Daesh may be called upon to
continue to operate in the Arab region, especially in the Gulf, which that
“joint stock company” wants to weaken and dismantle. Some may have the idea to
use the remnants of the group in Europe, to spur a panicked isolationism similar
to America’s current mood.
So far, the weakening of Daesh seems to directly benefit Iran and its proxies,
just like the emergence of the group in Iraq and Syria had served the purpose of
creating a special partnership between the IRGC and Washington and Moscow in the
name of combating terror. By contrast, the Arab partnership that first fostered
and then fought Daesh has always been arbitrary, politically naive and
strategically chaotic. Indeed, no one is innocent in the manufacturing of Daesh,
and everyone is a partner in the “joint stock company.”
Now, the Arab parties must undertake an honest and comprehensive post-mortem
into the Daesh phenomenon and its Arab cost and implications. Daesh was created
to pose an existential threat to the Gulf countries as well as the Levant and
North Africa. It may be fading, but it has not yet disappeared, and its threat
remains existential.
• Raghida Dergham is a columnist, senior diplomatic correspondent, and New York
bureau chief for the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper since 1989. She is the
founder and executive chairman of Beirut Institute. She is a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations, and an honorary fellow at the Foreign Policy
Association and has served on the International Media Council of the World
Economic Forum. Twitter: @RaghidaDergham
Don’t shoot the peacekeepers, they’re doing their best
Yossi Mekelberg/ArabNews/September 03/17
There is not much of a novelty these days in someone bashing one UN institution
or another. There is an international consensus that the organization, in its
eighth decade, is far from fulfilling its founders’ expectations. Yet the US
ambassador Nikki Haley’s criticism of the Irish commander of the UN peacekeeping
force (UNIFIL) in Lebanon last week was something of an exception in its
accusatory and brash manner. Haley leveled against Maj Gen Michael Beary the
charge that he is “blind” to the “massive flow of illegal weapons” to Hezbollah
in southern Lebanon, echoing longstanding Israeli sentiment.
Gen Beary’s protestation that his force has no evidence of weapons being
illegally transferred and stockpiled in the area under his control did not
satisfy the American envoy. Whoever is right, their exchange lends itself to a
wider discussion of the role of peacekeeping operations in maintaining peace and
stability.
First, is not the notion of peacekeeping a complete misnomer? There are
currently 16 UN peacekeeping operations deployed on four continents, in places
such as Darfur, Cyprus, Kosovo, Congo and India–Pakistan. In some of these areas
there is actually no peace to keep. Israel and Lebanon are formally in a state
of war; not to mention the war of words between Hezbollah’s leader Hassan
Nasrallah and Israeli leaders, which constantly leaves both sides on the verge
of fresh hostilities. UNIFIL is often more of a buffer zone between two sides
preparing for war rather than heading for peace. UNMOGIP in Kashmir oversees the
cease-fire between India and Pakistan, but a peaceful solution is nowhere in
sight. In cases such as Cote d’Ivoire or Haiti the objective is one of
preventing civil war, protecting civilians and promoting political dialogue,
rather than averting a war between countries.
When these operations fail, or at least are not fully successful, it is not
necessarily due to military failure. It is mainly the result of a vague and
restrictive mandate, or of inadequate resources given to peacekeeping
operations. The end of the Cold War brought with it an end to the stalemate
between the two superpowers and hence an increased readiness to deploy
peacekeeping operations. Tragically, there have also been increasing numbers of
civil wars and extreme cases of state violence toward civilians which have
triggered international intervention.
Nevertheless, this hasn’t resolved the problem of the interests of individual
members of the UN versus those of the international community as a whole. In the
aftermath of the Cold War when peacekeeping operations began to mushroom, a US
Presidential Policy Directive by Bill Clinton made it clear that his country
would participate in UN peace operations only when they served US national
interests. This gives some insight to the reason behind the reluctance of the
US, among other countries, to respond positively to the pleas by Gen Romeo
Dallaire, commander of the UN forces in Rwanda at the time of the genocide, for
urgent support, desperately needed to stop the worst atrocities committed since
the Second World War.
US ambassador Nikki Haley’s attack on UNIFIL shines a light on the difficulties
facing UN forces with vague mandates and inadequate resources, often in places
where there is no peace to keep.
Since the first UN peacekeeping mission in 1948, more than 70 peacekeeping
operations have been deployed, a number of them still in place decades after
they were first commissioned. This is unfortunate testimony to the failure to
deal with the root causes of these conflicts and build a lasting peace. These
missions are aimed and designed as an interim measure in the process of peace
making and peacebuilding. In quite a few cases they have become a permanent
fixture that at least indirectly contributes to the perpetuation of the
conflict.
One of the inherent difficulties for peacekeeping missions to accomplish their
goals is that their mandate and formation are hurriedly decided in response to
an urgent crisis. Consequently the commanders on the ground are unclear about
what they are expected to accomplish; the size of the force sent doesn’t reflect
the magnitude of the challenges; and the soldiers are not necessarily trained or
equipped for the mission assigned to them. Those troops are thrown into an
unknown and uncertain political, cultural and physical terrain, and as a result
are set to fail, spending much of their time shielding themselves from danger
rather than fulfilling their task.
Furthermore, there is also a huge discrepancy between those who provide troops
for peacekeeping and those who fund it. The three biggest contributors to the UN
peacekeeping budget are the US, China and Japan, and together the top 10
countries contribute 80 percent of the budget. However, because the UN pays
countries $1,330 a month for each soldier they send, it is mainly attractive for
poor nations to send troops. Their armies, however, are not necessarily the best
trained to deal with the adverse and complex challenges of peacekeeping,
especially when civilian populations are involved.
Nikki Haley took a swipe at UNIFIL, which plays nicely to the way the Trump
administration and certain constituencies in the US perceive the UN. However, a
more constructive approach would be for a diplomat in her position to ensure
that all peacekeeping operations have a clear mandate with full political
backing. It is for those at UN headquarters in New York and those who send them
to ensure clear command-and-control arrangements, adequate resources and, most
importantly, a clear exit strategy. If this were ever to happen, Haley’s
criticism of the troops on the ground would gain some credibility.
• Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations at Regent’s University
London, where he is head of the International Relations and Social Sciences
Program. He is also an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. He
is a regular contributor to the international written and electronic media.
Twitter: @YMekelberg
Europe: Jihadists Posing as Migrants
"More than 50,000 jihadists are now living in Europe."
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/September 03/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10929/europe-jihadists-migrants
More than 50,000 jihadists are now living in Europe. — Gilles de Kerchove, EU
Counterterrorism Coordinator.
Europol, the European police office, has identified at least 30,000 active
jihadist websites, but EU legislation no longer requires internet service
providers to collect and preserve metadata — including data on the location of
jihadists — from their customers due to privacy concerns. De Kerchove said this
was hindering the ability of police to identify and deter jihadists.
German authorities are hunting for dozens of members of one of the most violent
jihadist groups in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, but who, according to Der Spiegel,
entered Germany disguised as refugees.
The men, all former members of Liwa Owais al-Qorani, a rebel group destroyed by
the Islamic State in 2014, are believed to have massacred hundreds of Syrians,
both soldiers and civilians.
German police have reportedly identified around 25 of the jihadists and
apprehended some of them, but dozens more are believed to be hiding in cities
and towns across Germany.
In all, more than 400 migrants who entered Germany as asylum seekers in 2015 and
2016 are now being investigated for being members of Middle Eastern jihadists
groups, according to the Federal Criminal Police (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA).
The revelation comes amid new warnings that jihadists are posing as migrants and
arriving from North Africa on boats across the Mediterranean and onto Italian
shores. In an interview with The Times, Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj
said that jihadists who had been able to pass undetected into his country were
almost certainly making their way into Europe.
"When migrants reach Europe they will move freely," said al-Sarraj, referring to
the open borders within the European Union. "If, God forbid, there are terrorist
elements among the migrants, any incident will affect all of the EU."
Independent MEP Steven Woolfe said:
"These comments show the problem to be two-fold. Firstly, potential terrorists
are using the Mediterranean migrant trail as a way of entering Europe unchecked.
Secondly, with Europe's lack of borders due to Schengen rules, once in Europe,
they are able to move from one country to another freely. Strong borders are a
necessity."
Around 130,000 migrants arrived in Europe by land and sea during the first eight
months of 2017, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The main nationalities of arrivals to Italy in July were, in descending order:
Nigeria, Bangladesh, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Mali. Arrivals to Greece were from
Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Congo. Arrivals to Bulgaria were from
Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Turkey.
In recent weeks, traffickers bringing migrants to Europe have opened up a new
route through the Black Sea. On August 13, 69 Iraqi migrants were arrested
trying to reach the Romanian Black Sea coast, having set off from Turkey in a
yacht piloted by Bulgarian, Cypriot and Turkish smugglers. On August 20, the
Romanian Coast Guard intercepted another boat carrying 70 Iraqis and Syrians,
including 23 children, in the Black Sea in Romania's southeastern Constanta
region.
A total of 2,474 people were detained while trying to cross the Romanian border
illegally during the first six months of 2017, according to Balkan Insight.
Almost half of them were caught while trying to leave Romania for Hungary. In
2016 only 1,624 migrants were detained; most were found trying to cross from
Serbia to Romania.
Meanwhile, more than 10,000 migrants reached Spanish shores during the first
eight months of 2017 — three times as many as in all of 2016, according to the
IOM. Thousands more migrants have entered Spain by land, primarily at the
Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the north coast of Morocco, the
European Union's only land borders with Africa. Once there, migrants are housed
in temporary shelters and then moved to the Spanish mainland, from where many
continue on to other parts of Europe.
Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, has warned that jihadists
are using the migration crisis to enter Europe and plot attacks across the
continent. Frontex It has also conceded that it does not know the true number of
migrants who have crossed into Europe and has no way of tracking them. In its
annual risk analysis for 2016, Frontex wrote:
"The Paris attacks in November 2015 clearly demonstrated that irregular
migratory flows could be used by terrorists to enter the EU. Two of the
terrorists involved in the attacks had previously irregularly entered through
Leros [Greece] and had been registered by the Greek authorities. They presented
fraudulent Syrian documents to speed up their registration process.
"False declarations of nationality are rife among nationals who are unlikely to
obtain asylum in the EU, are liable to be returned to their country of origin or
transit, or just want to speed up their journey. With a large number of persons
arriving with false or no identification documents or raising concerns over the
validity of their claimed nationality — with no thorough check or penalties in
place for those making such false declarations, there is a risk that some
persons representing a security threat to the EU may be taking advantage of this
situation."
In an August 31 interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Gilles de
Kerchove, the EU's Counterterrorism Coordinator said that more than 50,000
jihadists are now living in Europe:
"Three years ago, it was easy to identify someone who has become radicalized.
Now, most fanatics disguise their convictions. We do not have exact figures, but
it is not difficult to do approximate calculations. United Kingdom, it is not a
secret, it has been published, it has 20,000. France, 17,000. Spain much less,
but more than 5,000, I suppose. In Belgium almost 500 have gone to Syria and
there are about 2,000 radicals or more. I would not venture to a specific
figure, but tens of thousands, more than 50,000."
Masked Spanish policemen in Madrid arrest a man suspected of recruiting
jihadists to fight for the Islamic State, June 16, 2014. (Photo by Gonzalo
Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)
In an interview with the Belgian daily Le Soir, de Kerchove warned that even if
the Islamic State is militarily defeated, it will continue to thrive as a
"virtual caliphate." He also said that Europol, the European police office, has
identified at least 30,000 active jihadist websites, but that EU legislation no
longer requires internet service providers to collect and preserve metadata —
including data on the location of jihadists — from their customers due to
privacy concerns. De Kerchove said this was hindering the ability of police to
identify and deter jihadists: "On metadata, I confess that we pull our hair
out."
**Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
Follow Soeren Kern on Twitter and Facebook
© 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.
Geert Wilders/The Europe We Want
Speech from the Ambrosetti Conference
Geert Wilders/Gatestone Institute/September 03/17
September 3, 2017 at 5:00 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10928/the-europe-we-want
Thank you for having me here today. I applaud the fact that you invite someone
who does not share your enthusiasm for the European Union. Or your European
dream, as Euro commissioner Frans Timmermans just called it. To be honest: his
dream is my nightmare.
I realize that my views are different from those of the many members of the
European establishment in our midst, but I am an optimist.
I believe in a positive future for Europe as a community of independent,
sovereign and democratic nations -- working together without a supranational
political union -- a Europe without the European Union.
I believe that true democracy can only exist and flourish within a nation state.
National sovereignty combined with domestic culture gives us our identity. As
does control over our own borders and budget and the right to decide how to use
it ourselves as a nation.
Unfortunately most of our governments have transferred ever more powers to the
EU, undermining many important things we Dutch have achieved over the past
centuries and hold very dear.
Our forefathers have fought for a democratic Netherlands. That is a Netherlands
where the Dutch electorate and nobody else decides on Dutch matters. Democracy
means that a people can decide its own legislation.
Democracy equals home rule. But owing to the transfer by our governments of
powers to Brussels, the EU institutions and other countries are now deciding on
issues which are vital to our nation state: our immigration policy, our monetary
policy, our trade policy and many other issues.
A huge part of our legislation has been outsourced to Brussels. Our national
parliaments have become implementing bodies of the EU. Many people object to
that.
In the 2005 referendum, the Dutch voted against the European Constitution, but a
few years later a slightly altered version under a new name was forced down our
throats.
Last year, a large majority of the Dutch voted in a referendum against the EU
Association Treaty with Ukraine, but the treaty was pushed through anyway. Very
few people can still take the EU seriously as a democratic institution after
experiencing this.
Another extremely important thing the Dutch have achieved over the past
centuries were clear and defined borders. Borders are important. Because they
protect us and define who and what we are. Thanks to our governments who gave
away sovereignty we are now no longer in charge of our immigration policy and
even our own borders.
And the result is devastating.
If you give away the keys of your own house to someone who leaves the doors
unlocked you should not be surprised when unwelcome guests force their way in. I
believe every nation should be in charge of its own borders and decide
themselves who is welcome and who is not. The Netherlands is the home of the
Dutch people. It is the only home we have got. And we should regain control over
its border and immigration policy.
One of these things we, Dutch, hold dear as well is our national identity. The
Dutch have their own identity. And so do the other nations of Europe.
But there is NO single European identity.
The EU is characterized by cultural relativism and enmity towards patriotism.
But patriotism is not a dangerous threat, it is something to be proud of.
It means defending a nations sovereignty and independence, and not selling it
out in shabby compromises to the EU and its bureaucrats.
As the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said -- I quote -- "Europe is a
community of Christian, free and independent nations. The main danger to
Europe's future comes from the fanatics of internationalism in Brussels. We
shall not allow them to force upon us the bitter fruit of their cosmopolitan
immigration policy." End of quote.
I couldn't agree more.
The European Commission has recently started procedures against Poland, Hungary
and the Czech Republic because they refused to take in immigrants. Two years
ago, Mrs Merkel invited millions of immigrants to come to Germany.
A historical mistake. She didn't just let millions in, her policy encouraged
them.
Her "Wir schaffen das" ("We can do it") call was one of the greatest pull
factors in Europe's migrant crisis. It is impossible to preserve your identity
if you are inundated with millions of newcomers from an entirely different
culture. A culture that -- as is the case with the Islamic culture -- aims to
dominate and refuses to assimilate.
The EU resembles a cartel of governments dominated by Germany and France. These
two powerful nations decide almost everything.
But the Poles, the Hungarians, the Dutch, the Italians, they did not elect Mrs
Merkel, nor did they elect Mr Macron.
They did not elect Mr Juncker, and we, Dutch, in last March general elections
have decimated the most pro-EU and pro-Islam party of The Netherlands: the
social-democratic party of my fellow countryman Mr Timmermans, sitting next to
me here this morning, his party lost 75% of its seats. My party, the most
anti-EU and anti-Islam party of The Netherlands won 33% of its seats.
Out of the 13 party Lower House of Parliament of The Netherlands we are number 2
now for the first time ever. And next time we will be number 1.
Another thing we, Dutch, hold dear is our safety and security. In our streets
today, as in many other European cities, we can see what the EU together with
pro-EU national leaders have brought us. We are confronted in our inner cities
with places that no longer look and feel like the Netherlands, and where Dutch
people are no longer safe. We have people in our country, who were born in our
country, but who do not share our basic values and it even gets worse.
Parts of Europe even resemble war zones. The EU did not prevent war. There have
been horrible murderous attacks in Barcelona, London, Manchester, Berlin,
Brussels, Nice, Paris, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Madrid, Amsterdam.
Terrorists have entered Europe among the flow of immigrants which the EU and the
national governments allowed in. Meanwhile home-grown terrorists are already one
of the biggest problems our nations are currently facing. There are thousands of
them, all over Europe, able to travel around unhindered and strike wherever they
want.
This morning in a Belgian newspaper the European anti-terrorism coordinator
Gilles de Kerckhove says that there are 50,000 radical Muslims in Europe today.
They can commit a terror attack any moment as already happened so many times
recently.
Brussels together with the pro-EU leaders in the national capitals created the
conditions which made these horrible events and attacks possible by allowing
millions of immigrants to enter Europe -- often unchecked, by making no
assimilation demands whatsoever, by refusing to impose a leitkultur, a dominant
culture, by being politically correct and because of a total lack of leadership.
In my office in The Hague, there is a huge portrait of Sir Winston Churchill. In
1946, he held a speech advocating what he called -- I quote -- "a kind of United
States of Europe." But by this, he did not mean at all what the Europhiles
meant. He referred to the British Commonwealth as an example: a loose federation
of nations, economically cooperating and bound by a set of principles.
But when he became Prime Minister in the 1950s, Churchill did not apply for
membership of the precursor of the EU. He was horrified by the idea of giving up
national sovereignty. Because he knew that this would lead to the end of
democracy, identity and safety for his people.
And neither does the EU care much about the preservation of the Judeo-Christian
culture.
On the contrary, it facilitates Islamization.
Our European civilization, based on the legacy of Jerusalem, Athens and Rome, is
the best civilization on earth. It gave us democracy, freedom, equality before
the law, the separation of church and state, and the notion of sovereign states
to protect it all. The remedy to all the misery and terror, is clear: We have to
reassert what we are. Only then will we be able to ensure a future for our
children in a safe, strong and free Europe.
The problems Europe faces today are existential. Not economics but Islamization,
terrorism and mass-immigration are our main problems. Existential indeed, it
determines who we are, what we are and if we will exist as free people in the
future.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I believe in free speech. I pay a very heavy price for it. I am on the death
list of Al-Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban and other Islamic groups. I live in a
safe house provided by the Dutch state and I am under 24/7 police protection for
13 years now. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. So am I.
And I think that Islamization is the greatest threat to our European future. I
am not talking about all individual Muslims, many of whom are moderates, but I
am talking about the Islamic ideology which is incompatible with freedom and
democracy and that we are importing massively.
The European Commission voices its concern about the so-called threat to
democracy in countries like Poland and Hungary, but it totally ignores the
devastating effect Islamization has on the security and freedom of Europe.
For all these reasons -- protection of our democracy, our borders, our identity,
our safety and our freedom -- we want a Europe without the EU. Sovereign
democratic nations are perfectly capable of working together where there are
common interests - without needing a supranational political institutional like
the EU. But, despite all the bad news, as I said at the beginning, I am an
optimist. All over Europe, ever more people are becoming proud patriots.
And know that the patriots will win. And so will the nation-state.
Nations that of course will be willing to work together closely where they see a
common interest. There is nothing wrong with economic cooperation, on the
contrary. We can also work together to fight terrorism. But all on a voluntary
basis, as sovereign nations.
And without a political union. Without the EU.
The future belongs to the Europe of sovereign nations.
Thank you.
This speech was delivered at the Ambrosetti conference, Italy, Villa d'Este,
September 2, 2017 and is reprinted here with the kind permission of the author.
© 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.
A Grim Portrayal of Syria at War
by Amir Taheri/Gatestone Institute/September 03/17
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10922/syria-civil-war
The blurb of Destroying a Nation: The Civil War in Syria presents the author,
Nikolas Van Dam, as an experienced Dutch diplomat with a direct knowledge of the
Middle East.
Having served as Holland's Ambassador to Egypt, Turkey and Iraq, Van Dam also
had a stint (in 2015-16) as his country's Special Envoy for Syria. In that last
assignment Van Dam monitored the situation from a base in neighboring Turkey.
Van Dam's diplomatic background is clear throughout his book as he desperately
tries, not always with success, to be fair to "all sides" which means taking no
sides, while weaving arguments around the old cliché of "the only way out is
through dialogue".
Thus he is critical of Western democracies, which according to him, deceived the
Syrian opposition by making promises to it, including military intervention,
which they had no intention of delivering. He is especially critical of former
US President Barack Obama who launched the mantra "Assad must go" and set "red
line" which the Syrian despot ended up by crossing with impunity.
The first half of the book consists of a fast-paced narrative of Syrian history
before the popular uprising started in the spring of 2011. The picture that
emerges is that of a Syria in the throes of instability and frequent outburst of
violence including sectarian conflict. Van Dam then juxtaposes that with Syria
as it was reshaped under President Hafez al-Assad, who seized power in 1970, and
his son and successor Bashar al-Assad.
"Under Hafez and Bashar, Syria experienced more internal security and stability
than ever before since independence," Van Dam asserts.
But isn't Van Dam confusing terror with security and stagnation with stability?
Leaving aside the past six years that, according to Van Dam, have claimed almost
half a million Syrian lives, the previous four decades of rule by the two Assads
were anything but a model of security and stability. In all those years, Syria
lived under Emergency Rules while thousands were imprisoned and/or tortured and
executed. The absence of genuine security and stability meant that the Ba'athist
regime was unable to build the durable institutions of a modern state. That's
why Syrian society at large saw its creative energies stifled, something that
none of the previous dictators, from Hosni a-Zaim onwards, had managed or,
perhaps, even intended to do.
In other words, contrary to Van Dam's assertion, the two Assads destroyed
chances of Syria building the political, not to mention the ethical,
infrastructure of genuine security and stability.
Van Dam tries to portray Syria as a society that had always been ridden by
sectarian violence, and frequently refers to "the killing of Alawites" by Arab
Sunni Muslims. However, the only example he cites is that of the mass murder of
Alawite military cadets in Aleppo which took place during Hafez al-Assad's rule.
The biggest "mass killing" of that epoch was the week-long carnage of unarmed
civilians by Assad's troops in Hama in 1982 which, according to Van Dam, claimed
up to 25,000 lives, almost all of them Arab Sunni Muslims.
Those familiar with Syrian history would know that while sectarianism did play a
role in almost all events in that unhappy lands, it was never the dominant
factor.
What Syria experienced, and to some extent is experiencing today, is a war of
sectarians, not a sectarian war.
The fight today is not between Syrian Sunnis and Alawites, and it would be wrong
to see the Assad dictatorship as ruled by the Alawite community as such. The
fight is between the mass of disenfranchised Syrians of all sects against a
despotic regime determined to go to any length to preserve its hold on power, or
as we increasingly note, the illusion of power. To that end, the Assad regime
has focused on dominating the coercive organs of power, the army, the police and
at least 15 security organizations, with the appointments of individuals loyal
to Assad rather than any particular sect or even the supposedly ruling Ba'ath
Party. Van Dam cites estimates of the number of Alawite officers in the Syrian
army at around 86 percent. However, the key in that was loyalty to the Assad
clan rather than adherence to a religious sect the tenets of which are kept
secret even from its followers.
Van Dam estimates support for the Assad regime at around 30 per cent of the
Syrian population. This roughly coincides with the percentage of Alawite,
Christian, Ismaili and Druze communities in that country. However, to translate
the statistics of a census, and even then one based only on estimates, into
facts of political support for a regime requires a giant leap of imagination.
One might prefer the estimates offered by Sami Khiyami, one of Syria's most
experienced diplomats now in exile, whom Van Dam quotes as well. According to
Khiyami the Assad regime and its armed opponents together enjoy the support of
no more than 70 per cent of Syrians, the rest disliking, even hating both, for
different reasons.
According to Van Dam, the demand advanced by the Syrian opposition and more than
100 countries that Assad must go was a big hurdle on the road to a negotiated
end of the conflict. Instead, Van Dam argues, the opposition and its Arab and
Western democratic backers ought to have demanded Assad's cooperation in forging
transition. Van Dam may not know this but this is precisely what was attempted
in 2012-13 when a Track-II plan under which Assad would "step aside" rather than
"step down" was advanced with European and, to some extent, American support. It
failed because Assad refused its basic tenets while Obama, even believing that
Assad would fall in any case, also withdrew US support.
One may wonder about the book's title and sub-title. What is happening in Syria
is not about "destroying a nation", nor is Syria likely to be destroyed as a
nation. In fact, one may argue that, once the dictatorship is brought down,
Syria may emerge from its current ordeal stronger as a nation than ever. The
theme of "destruction" is used by Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers as a
prop in a campaign of psychological terror to cow the Syrian people into
submission. The slogan "Either Assad or We Shall Burn the Country" is openly
used by diehard pro-Assad thugs including the Shabbihah.
The description of the conflict in Syria as a "civil war" may also be
problematic. From ancient times in Rome, say between Marius and Sula or Caesar
and Pompey, the term civil war applied to armed contest over power between two
local camps of roughly the same strength at the starting point. This is not the
case in Syria where the conflict was initially one between unarmed
demonstrations and heavily armed security machine controlled by Assad. The
parallel conflict that later developed between anti-Assad armed groups and the
remnants of the regime's army did not morph into a civil war either, if only
because foreign elements, and powers, became heavily involved on both sides.
Van Dam cites estimates that put the current strength of what is left of Assad's
army at over 65,000. At the same time, General Qassem Soleimani, the man who
leads Tehran's "exporting the revolution" campaign, has just boasted that he has
over 60,000 men in Syria, including "volunteers for martyrdom" from Lebanon,
Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. In other words almost half of those fighting to
keep Assad safe in his last hideout in Damascus are not Syrians. At the same
time, it is clear that without carpet-bombing by the Russian air force, Assad
would have had no chance of making even a symbolic return to such places as
Aleppo.
On the armed opposition side, too, foreign intervention is significant.
According to Western estimates, more than 30,000 non-Syrians, many of them
European passport-holders, are fighting on the side of ISIS, the various
militant groups and even Kurdish armed bands in Syria. The financial, political
and training support given by more than 50 countries to the Syrian opposition
may be "too little, too late", as Van Dam asserts, but it makes it difficult to
underestimate the non-Syrian element of this tragic conflict.
In other words, the proxy aspect of this conflict, something that Van Dam
acknowledges, vitiates its descriptions of a classical civil war.
Despite its obvious shortcomings, Van Dam's book is a welcome contribution to
the international debate on the Syrian crisis if only because it offers a
glimpse into thinking in European diplomatic circles.
What some of us might find hard to accept is Van Dam's deep pessimism as to the
future of Syria. He writes: "There is no good future for Syria with Bashar
al-Assad in power, but without al-Assad, future prospects for Syria do not look
promising either."However, regardless of what happens next the Assad terror
machine has been broken and, even with Russian and Iranian support, cannot be
restored to its previous strength.
If only for that, "future prospects" need not look so grim. Well. We shall see.
The Assad terror machine in Syria has been broken and, even with Russian and
Iranian support, cannot be restored to its previous strength. Pictured: Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad is greeted in Moscow by Russian President Vladimir
Putin, October 20, 2015.
Amir Taheri, formerly editor of Iran's premier newspaper, Kayhan, before the
Iranian revolution of 1979, is a prominent author based on Europe. He is the
Chairman of Gatestone Europe.
This article first appeared in a slightly different form in Asharq Al Awsat and
is reprinted here with the kind permission of the author.
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