LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 05/2018
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

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Syrian civilians face landmine menace after ISIL
Returning families find homes booby trapped by insurgents, report warns
Mina Aldroubi/The National/April 04/2018
Syria is facing an unprecedented landmine crisis caused by departing ISIL insurgents, campaigners warned in a report released on Wednesday.
The explosives are killing and maiming hundreds of civilians, mostly children, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said, despite many areas having been liberated by security forces. Published on International Mine Awareness Day, the report said displaced people returning to the Deir Ezzor, Hassakeh and Raqqa regions of Syria face mortal danger. Numerous booby traps, landmines, ammunition and rockets have been rigged to explode in and around the homes of unsuspecting families.
"Many are not aware that there are a lot of risks waiting for them," Imad Aoun, MSF's field communication adviser for Iraq and Syria, told The National.
The explosives are suspected to have been planted by the insurgents or armed groups as they retreated.
"They are usually missiles that haven't exploded or booby traps set in place to harm people," Mr Aoun said. "Many people think it's safe to go back home but the minute they enter their homes …"
The problem is difficult to tackle as such devices are hard to detect, difficult to clear and often designed to maim, rather than kill.
Landmines are also hard to spot as they are usually buried under earth or rubble, a problem that has existed for decades in neighbouring Iraq.
In north-east Syria, ISIL's former heartland, civilians are being wounded in many ways, including reports of detonations after bedroom doors have been opened in homes. The majority of those treated in MSF-affiliated hospitals have suffered landmine injuries in Deir Ezzor.
More than half of the patients treated are children, one just 12 months old
"Children are not always aware of what these mines and booby traps look like, they come in forms of cars or teddy bears," Mr Aoun said.
Last year, Deir Ezzor topped Syrian areas for migration, with more than 800,000 leaving, according to UN estimates.
Those left critically wounded face immense difficulties in obtaining medical and acute trauma care because of Syria's war-shattered state. With many roads damaged or blocked, it often takes hours to reach hospital, increasing the odds of death before treatment can be given.
Satoru Ida, MSF's head of mission in Syria, said people interviewed outlined a catalogue of risks. "Landmines, booby traps and other improvised explosive devices are planted in fields, along roads, on the roofs of houses, and under staircases," he said. "Household items like teapots, pillows, cooking pots, toys, air-conditioning machines and refrigerators are also reportedly rigged to explode as people return home for the first time after months or years in displacement."
Iraq faces similar problems, stemming as far back as the war with neighbouring Iran between 1980 and 1988. Years of work by international organisations had limited those dangers but ISIL has raised them again.
The threat is highest in areas that suffered significant destruction such as Mosul and the province of Anbar, west of Baghdad, where landmines are still posing a security threat to civilians and security forces. With Iraqis returning home as more areas are liberated, unexploded ordnance lies hidden among the rubble, a separate report by the Mines Advisory Group said this year. Four Iraqi servicemen were killed on Sunday in a landmine explosion in Anbar, security officials said.
Over the past few years, thousands of roadside bombs planted around the streets and buildings of Ramadi, 100 kilometres west of Baghdad, delayed the return of about half a million displaced residents since the Iraqi military, backed by US air strikes, recaptured the city in 2016. The international action day on mines urges governments to develop better policies to tackle explosive ordnance.
A Mine Ban Treaty that became international law in 1999 currently has 162 state signatories. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for collective action to strengthen its reach. "I urge all governments to provide political and financial support to enable mine action work to continue, wherever it is needed. In our turbulent world, mine action is a concrete step towards peace."

Elections won’t improve the Middle East, good governance will
Sir John Jenkins/Arab News/April 04/18
Elections are like London buses: You wait impatiently for one to turn up and then a whole fleet arrives at once. This year we have already seen Egypt’s latest presidential election, and in May we’ll have parliamentary elections in Iraq and Lebanon. There should also be parliamentary and municipal elections in Bahrain, municipal elections in Tunisia — the first since 2011 — and provincial elections across Iraq, including in Kirkuk for the first time in a decade. I’m not holding my breath but we may also see elections of some sort in Libya and new parliamentary elections in the Kurdistan Regional Government.
This is surely good news. Elections are the life blood of democracy and democracy, after all, is what we all want. Isn’t it?
That was certainly the lesson many people drew from the events of 2011 to 2013 in the Arab world, when autocrats fell, domestic politics opened up and they saw — or thought they saw — a thousand flowers blooming on the streets of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen. If things subsequently became more complicated, then this simply meant the need for democracy was even more urgent.
I have a lot of sympathy with this view. I saw a lot of these events up close and personal and I have no doubt that people in the region want a say in who governs them and, more importantly, how they do so. In particular, they want an end to corruption and to be able to hold their leaders accountable in some way for their promises and their ability to deliver real improvements in their daily lives and hope for the future.
The problem lies in believing that elections are necessarily the way to ensure all this happens. And this goes to the heart of the problem. There have been elections of various sorts in the Middle East and North Africa for decades — in Egypt since the 1920s and patchily elsewhere since the 1930s. But elections have been no guarantee of good governance, and in some ways the reverse.
We can see this clearly when we consider the recent history of elections in Lebanon and Iraq. In Lebanon, the distribution of political authority continues to be decided not in the polling booth but in the deals cooked up beforehand between the main blocs. These reflect sectarian and communal organizational power rather than the considered and collective judgment of ordinary people. Even with the new electoral law, we will again see the major Shiite, Sunni and Maronite blocs dominating particular geographical areas and the ultimate allocation of seats.
The basis of democracy is a sustained, structural and effectively intermediated relationship between the governed and those who govern.
In Iraq, there is a long history of bad electoral faith and sharp practices. Former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, put in place in 2006 by a backroom deal, lost the 2010 popular vote to Iyad Allawi. But Al-Maliki hung on to power through a series of squalid and secretive machinations involving the then chief justice, the US, Iran and some factions of the Kurds, who all had different motives but came to the same conclusion: Better the devil they knew. That was a disastrous decision, but it was driven by a sense that elections were simply an opening bid, not the final word. The real game lay elsewhere.
We saw similar turns of events from 2012 in Libya and Tunisia, with superficially different results but ultimately the same outcome: The absence of any serious attempt to grapple with real national needs for reconciliation, reconstruction and social equity.
And this illustrates a great truth: Elections are the end of a process of political development, not the beginning. In many ways, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak were far more democratic in the sense of holding frequent elections than Gamal Abdel Nasser. But the results were never in doubt; they were the product not of the free decisions of voters but of deals struck in advance in order to create a theater of democratic choice for the world to admire.
Iraq is in many ways the country that needs a real reconnection of rulers and ruled more than any other in the region. It is striking how many hopes the key external players in the West are investing in Prime Minister Haider Abadi winning again. Partly this is in order to avoid Al-Maliki making a comeback. Abadi has done some good things, including seeking to rebuild Iraq’s relations with the Arab states of the Gulf. But, in the current electoral campaign, there is no discussion of a vision for the country (apart, interestingly enough, from the occasional intervention by Muqtada Al-Sadr).
Elections are not the main issue; good governance is. This is emphatically not an argument about democracy or its alternatives, it is an argument about where we start. Underlying good governance means administrative efficiency, education, tolerance, social justice and the rule of law. And these, not the outer trappings of electoral process, are the things on which we should collectively focus. Otherwise the cycle of conflict, repression, stagnation and the exploitation of national politics for their own purposes by outside actors will continue.
The late, great philosopher Ernest Gellner once said that nations did not produce nationalism: Nationalism produced nations. Form follows content. In the same way, elections do not produce democracy: Democratic habits produce elections.
The basis of democracy is a sustained, structural and effectively intermediated relationship between the governed and those who govern. It can take many forms. The purpose is to improve governance — that’s the bus we’ve been waiting for all these years.
• Sir John Jenkins is a senior fellow at Policy Exchange. He was the British ambassador to Saudi Arabia until January 2015.

ISIS comeback? How US withdrawal is a triple whammy for Assad in Syria
Martin Jay/Al Arabiya/April 04/18
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is disquieting adage surely about to prove its validity in the coming months as President Trump announces plans to pull out what many believe is around 2000 troops in Syria. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise though as, not only does the US President relentlessly go against the flow of advice from him own experts who tell him that withdrawal is not an option – but he has also been hinting it since mid-February in a press conference with Australian PM Michael Turnbull. What’s less clear is what has provoked the announcement in recent days. Perhaps it may well have been the death of a British soldier embedded with US forces in Manbij or the recent reports that he asked for a $4bn from Saudi Arabia for a new push in Syria. لاWhat is clearer, however, is the impact this will have on the ground, which from a Washington perspective would appear to be entirely self defeating at best and suicidal at worse, which will lead many to second guess that it is a temporary wile designed to leverage a better deal with partners in Syria. Yet at what cost? The Assad regime will benefit enormously from money put aside to go into rebuilding infrastructure once destroyed by ISIS, being withheld, which Trump also announced just days ago. Yet the killer blow is what this erroneous plan will do to ISIS, which far from what some media reports, is not dead in the water but in reality rebuilding itself and its ideology
Edge of the wedge
But pulling US forces out of these tiny enclaves which were taken over from ISIS is only the thin edge of the wedge. If Washington goes the full nine yards, it might well even freeze the military aid it has pencilled in for the Kurdish-led SDF forces which were benefitting from US Special Forces help. Such a move is also an unpalatable victory for Assad’s allies in Syria, namely Hezbollah and the Iranians, with the latter expanding throughout southern Syria in recent months and building military garrisons. Russia too will toast the announcement as America appears to be in retreat, a point even endorsed by a US military magazine which admitted losing Syria to the hands of Moscow.
Yet the killer blow is what this erroneous plan will do to ISIS, which far from what some media reports, is not dead in the water but in reality rebuilding itself and its ideology. It was, in a nutshell, waiting for the right moment for a comeback. And here it is.
Nobody in the White House nor even in the Pentagon – and certainly not its chief James Mattis – believes that the fight with ISIS is over in Syria (the death of the British soldier in Manbij, who was on an anti ISIS mission was a sad reminder of that). In fact, in many ways, it’s only just begun in Iraq and the US pull out in Syria will be a godsend for the extremist group, given the border with Syria, remarkably, is still not secure. As King Abdullah of Jordan once said in a TV interview “what the West doesn’t get is that terrorists don’t recognize the Iraqi Syrian border”.
ISIS rebuilding itself
Indeed, and, according to one of region’s leading journalists and experts on ISIS, Hassan Hassan, the group is already rebuilding itself and planning a comeback –already starting to take back small pockets of terrain originally won in battle by the Iraqi army. Estimates vary but leading experts say that ISIS still has 10,000 fighters, many lying dormant in villages and towns in both Syria and Iraq. Yet if the decision by Trump is genuine and US troops will not return in the coming months, then the mistakes of the US invasion of Iraq – and subsequent premature withdrawal – have clearly not been learnt, nor for that matter the West’s bundled intervention in Libya. Pulling out of Syria will give Iran an even greater justification for remaining as it will use the rise of ISIS and America’s innocuous, confused policy in the region – which barely misses a heartbeat before it contradicts itself – as a basis for a bigger military build up. In turn, this will attract more fighters from Iraq to join their brothers in arms against a new enemy whom they loath even more than Assad or the Americans. It’s senseless and only begins to become comprehensible when the pundit examines Trump’s track record on such capricious stunts, whether it be threatening North Korea or slapping trade tariffs on the EU, only to lift them a week later. We will have to wait a while to see if it is really genuine. ISIS, in the meantime, will look on curiously in particular to the suspension of 200 million dollars which was put aside for mine clearing and the restoration of water and electricity.
In such desperate times, any faction whatsoever which enters such devastated towns which can restore public services will be mightily welcomed. History is about to repeat itself in Syria due to the tumultuous foibles of US foreign policy and we already have ringside tickets.

Russia’s nuclear deal with Turkey targets NATO
Huda al-Husseini/Al Arabiya/April 04/18
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has deployed ground and air forces in Syria and Iraq. He is also moving his naval fleet in the Aegean Sea threatening Greece and Cyprus.
Turkey-Greece spat
He is taking things further as it is time to harvest, and according to Erdogan this is what will specify his share. On March 25, on the commemoration of Greek independence from Ottoman rule, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called on Turkey to suspend its illegal activities in the Aegean Sea and to respect international law. On the same occasion, Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said: “We will crush whoever dares to question our national sovereignty. Whoever has in mind large Ottoman empires should remember 1821. How the Greek people faced the Ottoman empire and crushed it.”
Tensions between Greece and Turkey have escalated over the past two months due to several problems such as the gas drilling operations around Cyprus and extradition of Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece following the coup on July 15, 2016. Turkey opposes Cyprus’ right to exploit huge gas reserves in East of the Mediterranean Sea claiming that this violates the rights of Cypriot-Turkish people in north of the island. Turkey has prevented the Italian oil and gas company ENI from carrying out exploratory drilling operations twice this year. American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil only began its drilling operations; there after a US amphibious assault ship and other naval units arrived to the Cypriot coastal city of Limassol.
As ties between Russia and the West deteriorate, it is to some extent reminiscent of the Cold War, if not worse
Relations with neighbors
Europe’s limited ability to influence Turkey adds to the difficulties which Greece and Cyprus have in their relations with their neighbor. The Turkish president presents himself as the protector of Muslims and a great victor. In order to maintain this image, he engages in practices that defy Cyprus’ sovereignty and continuously pressures Greece. The only country that can pressure Turkey is Russia as Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin now find themselves in a marriage of convenience. The reasons behind these tensions are nothing new. Greece and Turkey want to confirm their sovereignty over disputed islands in the Aegean Sea, which the Turks call Kardak and the Greek call Imia.
Disputed islands
The roots of the dispute date back to the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 in which Turkey agreed to its modern borders after the Ottoman empire was dissolved in the wake of World War I. In this treaty, Turkey conceded islands to Italy. Then Italy handed these islands to Greece when the Paris Peace Treaties were signed in 1947. The islands, though small and uninhabited, thus became disputed. In 1996, Turkey and Greece were on the verge of war due to this dispute. A war was avoided thanks to the efforts of Richard Holbrooke, then-US Assistant Secretary of State for European affairs. The issue of these disputed islands surfaced again following in recent times.In December last year, during the first visit by a Turkish president to Greece in 65 years, Erdogan hinted at the controversial borders upsetting and surprising his hosts. Tensions escalated after the July 2016 coup when Greece refused to extradite eight Turkish officers who fled to it. Ever since, confrontations between Turkish and Greek naval forces worsened tensions. What added fuel to the fire is that on March 2, Turkey arrested two Greek soldiers who entered Turkish territories due to bad weather conditions. Both soldiers are still detained.
As reports about gas in Cyprus increased, Ankara said it was looking after citizens’ interests in North Cyprus. A western source said the situation has begun to take a dangerous turn and that there are no indicators that tensions will dissipate anytime soon. Although no one desires to see a new conflict erupt, it seems a prolonged confrontation is likely to occur. When Erdogan became prime minister in 2003, relations with Greece were bad due to the disputed islands. In 1999, Turkey detained Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, while he was looking for refuge at the Greek ambassador’s residence in Nairobi in Kenya. This caused a scandal for Greece and upset Turkey. However, relations significantly improved during the Justice and Development Party’s reign, especially as Ankara sought to join the EU. To prove good intentions, Greece and Turkey opened a gas pipeline in 2007. However, this did not resolve issues – such as find a permanent solution to the Cypriot conflict and to the situation of minorities in each country. Instead of using his visit to Greece to mitigate tensions, Erdogan called for reviewing the Treaty of Lausanne. This shocked Greece which felt that the Turkish president wants what’s rightfully for Greece in the Aegean Sea. In this context, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras described Turkey as an “aggressive neighbor” during the Davos Forum in January. A western source told me that tensions between Greece and Turkey are significant particularly in terms of their impact on the future of the NATO. As Russia further intervenes on the outskirts of Europe – not just in Ukraine but also in East of the Mediterranean Sea via its intervention in Syria – the increased hostility between two major members creates a serious problem for NATO. What worsens the NATO’s fears is the increased friction between Turkey and the US.
Turkey’s future in NATO
Ankara’s decision to buy the advanced S-400 defense system from Russia also worries NATO. There’s also Moscow’s ambition to divide the NATO. All these, in addition to the Turkish-Greek dispute, threaten to hand over victory to Putin on a silver plate, as my source puts it.
The source added that there’s no clear exit from this crisis, especially that the Akkuyu nuclear power plant – launched by Turkey and Russia – is a large joint project that symbolizes the strategic Russian-Turkish ties. Officials hope everything goes as planned despite funding difficulties.
Turkish officials insist that Akkuyu will begin operating in 2023, which happens to mark the 100th anniversary of forming the Turkish republic – although it looks unlikely that they will commit to this timeframe.
It’s well-known that nuclear energy is an important constituent in the strategic arsenal of Russia’s foreign policy. The Russian company Rosatom, which was granted a construction license for the Akkuyu project, currently has contracts to build 34 nuclear power stations.
According to my source, this makes Russia more capable of reaching out to more countries, which it cannot reach via oil and gas pipelines. There are also other Russian projects in Turkey, in addition to its projects in other countries like Egypt and Iran. There are also ongoing negotiations with Gulf countries. The source added that although ties between Russia and Turkey may not be a real alliance, Russia will enjoy strong geopolitical benefits.
Relations between Turkey and the NATO are deteriorating. A Greek political commentator said that as ties between Russia and the West deteriorate, it is to some extent reminiscent of the Cold War, if not worse. It’s not possible that Russia’s pressure on Turkey will have any benefits.
Turkey will be capable to act like it’s in its own parallel universe and do as it likes. It began doing so in Iraq and then in Syria. It’s now eyeing Greece. The Middle East has slowly begun expanding towards Europe. Russia is happy and the US is reiterating: We must not lose Turkey!

A US-Saudi entertainment summit
Mashari Althaydi/Al Arabiya/April 04/18
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is currently in Los Angeles to meet with leaders from the entrainment industry.  A Saudi-US summit on the future of entertainment in Saudi Arabia will be held in LA, the land of arts and future, and will be attended by a number of ministers and leaders from the most prominent entertainment companies in both countries. The crown prince had met with Kevin Tsujihara, the chairman of Warner Bros. Entertainment, and top executives from other relevant companies. Warner Bros. Entertainment is of course one of the most famous companies in the entertainment sector. There are two questions here. Why is there an interest in entertainment? And why head toward the US in this regard?
When it comes to the first question, we do not need to remind of the importance of entertainment in spreading tranquility and helping one usefully spend his time. Seeking entertainment is a human “instinct.” Look at an infant who after he eats, drinks and gets warm begins to play.
We are before an “entertainment revolution” in Saudi Arabia which is aware of the vitality of revitalizing this sector and its significant effects on the social, cultural, security and economic fronts.
As to why the US was chosen for this purpose, the US is a leader in this sector as it’s one of the first countries to gain experience in this field. The crown prince did well when he chose to head to the masters of this industry in the US.
According to the Saudi daily Okaz, Saudi Arabia signed a deal with AMC Entertainment granting it the first license to build and operate movie theatres in the kingdom. AMC has the largest share of the theater market in the US and is also the largest movie theater chain in the world.
We are before an “entertainment revolution” in Saudi Arabia which is aware of the vitality of revitalizing this sector and its significant effects on the social, cultural, security and economic fronts. In February, the Saudi Entertainment Authority announced that 5,550 events were planned this year in 56 cities.
According to a piece by Dr. Abduallah al-Radadi in Asharq al-Awsat daily, the Saudi Entertainment Authority announced it will invest around $64 billion over 10 years. He noted that although this seems like a huge amount, it’s actually small when compared with what’s spent in other countries. The value of the global entertainment market reached $1.6 trillion in 2014 and it’s expected to grow to $2.2 trillion in 2019. In the US alone, there are over 3 million people working in the entertainment sector. The Saudi crown prince’s US tour is historic given the significance of the weapons, energy, political and security deals signed. Welcome to the new Saudi Arabia.

What is happening in Arabistan, the region Iran has dubbed as Khuzestan?
Mohammed Al-Hammadi/Al Arabiya/April 04/18
When Iran occupied Arabistan region north-west of the Arabian Gulf in 1925, it brazenly changed the name of the region to Khuzestan and made AAhwaz its capital. This occupation came to control a vast area extending from the Strait of Hormuz to the Iraqi border, having a population of more than 10 million people. Thus the second largest oil and gas reserves in the world came under the control of the Iranian regime. The Arab people who live in this land remain in a state of ignorance, poverty and neglect, although 90 percent of the oil and gas in Iran comes from Ahwaz, and the region has a fertile terrain.
This occupation, that is about to complete a hundred years, exposes the reality of the Iranian regime. Ironically, this regime talks about the rights of the oppressed people and claims to supports the rights of the Palestinians, Iraqis, Syrians, Yemenis, Bahrainis and others, even as suppresses the rights of its own supposed citizens! In recent months, a series of protests have struck Arab Ahwaz and the southwestern region of Iran. Although protests are quite common here, but they have been occurring more frequently.
These protest are the result of the policy of racial discrimination which the Iranian regime practices against the Arab people in Ahwaz. These people are demanding their legitimate rights of leading a good life, of freedom and equality. Unfortunately, all these issues have evoked repressive measures — tear gas, arrests, daily executions. Iran claims that it defends the rights of other peoples. However, its real motive is to expand its hegemony and fulfill its delusions of grandeur which we all know would never be achieved
Widespread protests
About a week ago, protests erupted in the region after Channel 2, television media outlet of Iran, purposely overlooked in a children’s TV program the presence of Arabs in Ahwaz. In the show, all Iranian provinces were shown with their peoples wearing their local dresses except for Ahwaz.
This mischief forced people of the region to hold demonstrations, as this was a clear manifestation of repression of the Arab identity of the region, which comes in the wake of Iran’s recent changing the names of the region’s places and preventing its people from learning and teaching Arabic.
Iran should respect the rights of the Arab people living in its territory, and preserve their rights before things gets out of control. Iran claims that it defends the rights of other peoples for “doctrinal” reasons.
However, its real motive is to expand its hegemony and fulfill its delusions of grandeur which we all know would never be achieved. The people of Ahwaz would not let surrender their rights, and the Palestinians do not want anything from the Iranian regime after realizing that it is only using their case.