LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
December 01/18
Compiled &
Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the
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Bible Quotations For today
I have set before you an open door, which no
one is able to shut
Book of Revelation 03/07-13: "‘To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
These are the words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who
opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens: ‘I know your works.
Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know
that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not
denied my name. I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they
are Jews and are not, but are lying I will make them come and bow down before
your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.
Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the
hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the
earth. I am coming soon; hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize
your crown. If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God;
you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God, and the
name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of
heaven, and my own new name. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit
is saying to the churches."
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 01/18
Al Arabiya documentary reveals Hezbollah’s drug trade,
money laundering links/Al Arabiya/November 30/18
Iranian jet carrying arms flies directly to Beirut/Ynetnews/Itay
Blumenthal/November 30/18
Tehran-Beirut Cargo Flight Sparks Concerns Iran Arming Hezbollah More
Easily/Agencies/November 30/18
Iranian airline now ferrying weapons directly to Beirut/Arutz Sheva/Tzvi Lev,
29/11/18
“Our Children Were Screaming”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, July
2018/Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/November 30/18
‘We will proudly bypass the sanctions’ – Oh really? How?/Karim Abdian Bani Saeed/Al
Arabiya/November 30/18
A secret apparatus for Tunisia’s Ennahda/Mashari Althaydi/Al Arabiya/November
30/18
Dictionaries, rockets and towers in the Arab world/Ghassan Charbel/Al Arabiya/November
30/18
Reading Montesquieu in Tehran/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/November 30/18
Is the Iran nuclear deal dead? Yes/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/November 30/,
2018
Putin is testing Western resolve in Ukraine/Luke Coffey/Arab News/November 30,
2018
Titles For Latest LCCC Lebanese Related News published on
December 01/18
Al Arabiya documentary reveals Hezbollah’s drug trade, money laundering links
Iranian jet carrying arms flies directly to Beirut
Tehran-Beirut Cargo Flight Sparks Concerns Iran Arming Hezbollah More
Iranian airline now ferrying weapons directly to Beirut/Arutz Sheva
Aoun to follow up on law on disappeared after govt is formed
For Israel, a Rearmed Hizbullah in Lebanon is 'Top Concern'
Jumblat Says Mukhtara 'Red Line' after Wahhab Supporters Bravado
Mustaqbal: March 8 Sunni MPs ‘Won’t Step Foot in Center House’
Bassil Discusses Govt. Formation 'Solutions' with Hariri
4 Suspects Killed, Several Apprehended in Army Pursuits in Baalbek
Hammoud Rejects Wahhab's Anti-Hariri Suit, Accepts One against Him
Daryan Warns against Heeding Those 'Stoking Strife'
UK and Lebanon: A Forward Look for Business and Investmnet
Kataeb's Economic Council Says Political Authority Making Lebanese Pay for Own
Fiasco
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports
And News published on December 01/18
Canada signs new trade agreement with United States and
Mexico
World Leaders Welcome Saudi Crown Prince at G20, Avoiding Isolation
G20 kick starts in Argentina amid division and tension among world leaders
Report: Israel jets bomb targets near Damascus, southern Syria
War monitor, Syrian media say anti-ISIS coalition air strikes kill dozens
Tunisia says it broke up four militant cells, foiled attacks
Israeli police arrest Jordanian suspected in Eilat attack
Hate crimes against Muslims in Canada rose 151 pc during 2017
Ukraine Closes Border to All Russian Males between 16 and 60
Iran Cannot 'Wait Forever' for EU Path to Skirt US Sanctions
Latest Lebanese Related News published on
December
01/18
Al Arabiya documentary reveals Hezbollah’s drug trade, money
laundering links
Staff writer, Al Arabiya
English/Wednesday,30/November 2018
In a deep look into a “thriller” investigation, Al Arabiya’s exclusive
documentary “Hezbollah’s Narco Jihad” discusses the involvement of the
designated terrorist organization, Hezbollah, in the global drug trade and
explains how it uses money laundering to substitute for its fund shortage.
From 2009 to July 2013, an estimated 7,000 people were killed in the Medellin
mafia wars in Colombia, as different challengers sought to claim Don Berna’s
criminal throne as head of the Oficina de Envigado (the Envigado office), and
become the successor to the Medellin Cartel.
Until his death in Medellin in 1993, Pablo Escobar was the unchallenged head of
the Medellin Cartel.
A former sicario of the Medellin cartel, who is also said to have been Escobar’s
most loyal man, told Al Arabiya in its exclusive documentary that: “The cartel
of Medellin was too powerful. It had an aircraft fleet of around 140, it had
more than 3,000 hit men, and it had a cruel intelligence structure. They bribed
people from the State, operated a lot of intelligence matters. It was a totally
criminal organization, with a great deal of money, possessing many weapons and
an elaborate infrastructure." For two years after Escobar’s death, the Cali
Cartel was able to continue operating with the same modus operandi, until the
leaders, the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers, were captured in 1995.Then the
Colombian underworld became fragmented, and now drug trafficking syndicates are
eluding countering forces with new strategies. The documentary explains that
this meant working with the Italian Mafia in Europe, and tapping into the huge
Brazilian and Argentinian markets in South America.It also meant increased
coordination between Colombian organized crime that had migrated to the Middle
East, and known Hezbollah associates that had been in the Guajira region of
Colombia for the past decade.In October 2008, a joint endeavor by American and
Colombian investigators dismantled an international cocaine smuggling and money
laundering ring that allegedly directed part of its profits to finance
Hezbollah. As the investigation progressed, the undercover agent got close
enough to the cartel to serve as one of its money launderers. The agent
laundered some $20 million, enabling the DEA to follow the money and map out
much of the cartel’s operations.
The operation broke down before direct terrorism charges were filed.
While some claim the operation ended due to interagency squabbling, many
government officials believe that the Obama Administration tamped down the
investigation of Hezbollah for fear of jeopardizing the impending nuclear deal
with Iran. Lebanon was the Middle East’s leading producer of illicit drugs in
the 1970s and 1980s, with cultivation taking place mostly in the northern Bekaa
Valley, according to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) figures.
American intelligence analysts believe that for years Hezbollah received as much
as $200 million annually from its primary patron, Iran, along with additional
aid from Syria. But that support has diminished, the analysts say, as Iran’s
economy buckles under international sanctions over its nuclear program and
Syria’s government battles rising popular unrest. Auditors brought in to scrub
the books discovered nearly 200 accounts with links to Hezbollah and their
classic signs of money laundering. “Hezbollah’s Narco Jihad” takes the audience
through the details of the organization’s drug trade and money laundering,
reaching up to today’s reality stating that the same networks are still active.
The exclusive documentary will be available on our website starting Friday.
Iranian jet carrying arms flies directly to Beirut
Ynetnews/Itay Blumenthal/November
30/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/69307/ynetnews-iranian-jet-carrying-arms-flies-directly-to-beirut-%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9-%d9%8a%d8%af%d9%8a%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d8%b1%d9%86%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%a7/
Iranian airline affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards reportedly continues
transferring to Hezbollah advanced weapon systems meant to convert inaccurate
projectiles into precision-guided missiles, conducting for the first time a
direct flight from Tehran to the Lebanese capital. A Boeing 747 belonging to
Iranian airline Fars Air Qeshm, reportedly used by the country’s Revolutionary
Guards to smuggle weapons to Tehran’s allies, conducted a direct flight from the
Iranian capital to Beirut for the first time on Thursday. Last month, Fox News
reported that a Fars Air Qeshm flight from Tehran to Damascus, which later
continued to Beirut, was carrying weapon systems—including GPS
components—intended to convert inaccurate projectiles into precision-guided
missiles. The 27-year-old Jumbo jet, registered as EP-FAB, took off on Thursday
morning at 8:02am from Tehran to Beirut on flight QFZ9964, and landed in Lebanon
at 10:19am. In the past, the jet has been in service of Japanese, Afghan,
Armenian and Russian airlines. Suspicions first arose that Iran uses the cargo
airline to smuggle advanced weapons two months ago after reports emerged that
the Israel Air Force (IAF) carried out an attack on targets at the Damascus
airport. "The Iranians are trying to find new ways to smuggle weapons to their
allies in the Middle East … They are exploring the West's ability to locate the
smuggling sites," said a Middle Eastern intelligence source, who chose to remain
anonymous. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed two months ago, during a
speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), that over the past year,
Hezbollah—guided by Iran—has attempted to build an infrastructure for the
conversion of surface-to-surface missiles into precision-guided missiles near an
airport in Beirut. "I have a message for Hezbollah today: Israel also knows what
you’re doing. Israel knows where you are doing it and Israel will not let you
get away with it,” Netanyahu stressed during the speech.
Tehran-Beirut Cargo Flight Sparks Concerns Iran Arming Hezbollah More Easily
Agencies/November 30/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/69307/ynetnews-iranian-jet-carrying-arms-flies-directly-to-beirut-%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9-%d9%8a%d8%af%d9%8a%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d8%b1%d9%86%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%a7/
An Iranian cargo plane allegedly transporting advanced weaponry to Hezbollah was
spotted flying directly from Tehran to Beirut on Thursday morning, hours before
Israel allegedly conducted airstrikes on pro-Iranian targets in Syria, The Times
of Israel reported. Israeli and American security officials have long claimed
that Iran has been supplying Lebanon’s Hezbollah with advanced munitions by
shipping them through ostensibly civilian airlines, including the one that flew
into Lebanon on Thursday: Fars Air Qeshm. However, these cargo planes typically
unload their materiel in Syria or stop there en route to Beirut, rather than
flying directly into Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based. According to publicly
available flight data, Fars Air Qeshm flight number QFZ-9964 left Tehran shortly
after 8:00 a.m., flew over Iraq, cut northwest into Syria and then landed in
Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport some two hours later.
Later, the Boeing 747 jet flew to Doha in Qatar before returning to Tehran.
Without specifically mentioning the flight, the Israeli army’s Arabic-language
spokesperson Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee tweeted that Lebanon should stop allowing
Iranian planes to bring war materiel into the country, along with a
black-and-white satellite photograph of Rafik Hariri International Airport.The
Tehran-Beirut flight came hours before Israel reportedly launched a series of
airstrikes against Iranian and pro-Iranian sites in Syria on Thursday night.
According to media reports and claims by the Syrian military, missiles were
fired at targets in and around Damascus, in southern Syrian near the Israeli
border and along the Damascus-Beirut highway, which runs to Lebanon. It was not
immediately clear if the two incidents were related to one another. Fars Air
Qeshm has previously been identified as one of several airlines allegedly acting
as transporters of weapons systems for the Iranian military. Some of these have
been targeted by US sanctions, though Fars Air Qeshm has not. Last month, the
airline reportedly transferred advanced GPS components to Hezbollah that would
allow the terrorist group to make previously unguided rockets into precision
guided-missiles, thus increasing the threat to Israel.
Iranian airline now ferrying weapons directly to Beirut
Arutz Sheva/Tzvi Lev, 29/11/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/69307/ynetnews-iranian-jet-carrying-arms-flies-directly-to-beirut-%d9%85%d9%88%d9%82%d8%b9-%d9%8a%d8%af%d9%8a%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d8%b1%d9%86%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a5%d8%b3%d8%b1%d8%a7/
In irregular flight path, Iranian 747 packed with weapons flies directly from
Tehran to Beirut. Flight part of militia arms buildup.
In a highly irregular move, a 747 packed with Iranian weapons destined for
Hezbollah flew directly from Tehran to Beirut's Rafic Hariri Airport on
Thursday. According to reports, a 747 registered as EP-FAB, took off this
morning at 8:02 am from Tehran to Beirut on flight QFZ9964 and landed in Lebanon
at 10:19 am. The plane was operated by Fars Air Qeshm, an aviation company owned
by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps to ferry weapons to Hezbollah. According to
the website Intelli Times, the plane carried equipment to convert Hezbollah's
rocket arsenal to precision missiles capable of hitting sensitive sites within
Israel. Iran’s Fars Air Qeshm airline has long been accused of flying arms for
the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the elite Quds force led by
Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleiman. Last year, the Trump administration imposed
sanctions on the IRGC and Quds force.
The airline had ceased operations in 2013, citing poor management, but restarted
under new management in March 2017. It is said to have two Boeing 747s in its
fleet. Among the members of the company’s board are three IRGC representatives,
named in the report as Ali Naghi Gol Parsta, Hamid Reza Pahlvani and Gholamreza
Qhasemi.
While Iran has invested considerable efforts to transfer advanced missiles to
Hezbollah, it commonly flies from the Islamic Republic to Syrian air force
bases, making the flight path highly irregular. Western intelligence has already
tracked two similar flights within the past few months. In September, Fox News
reported that a Boeing 747 that departed from an air force base in Tehran,
stopped for a short layover at the international airport in Damascus, Syria, and
then continued with a rather “uncharacteristic flight path” to the Beirut
international airport, where it landed shortly after 4:00 p.m. local time.
According to flight data obtained by Fox News, the route passed over northern
Lebanon, not following any commonly used flight path. A regional intelligence
source who asked to remain anonymous told the news network, “The Iranians are
trying to come up with new ways and routes to smuggle weapons from Iran to its
allies in the Middle East, testing and defying the West’s abilities to track
them down.”Western intelligence sources said the airplane carried components for
manufacturing precise weapons in Iranian factories inside Lebanon. The U.S. and
Israel, as well as other western intelligence agencies, have supplied evidence
that Iran has operated weapons factories in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. The
Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah has been building factories in the heart of
Beirut to convert missiles into highly-accurate precision weapons capable of
striking sensitive Israeli sites. Upon deciding to convert its massive
150,000-strong rocket arsenal to missiles with pinpoint accuracy, Hezbollah
chose to transfer its sites to the heart of Beirut in order to deter Israeli
airstrikes. Israel has repeatedly reiterated that it will not allow Hezbollah to
obtain highly accurate missiles that would threaten sensitive Israelis sites and
has been escalating its threats vis a vis Lebanon. Hezbollah currently possesses
over 150,000 thousand missiles, more than most NATO countries. Senior defense
officials have said repeatedly that Hezbollah is now Israel's major threat and
predict that hundreds of Israelis will die in the next war between the two
sides.
Aoun to follow up on law on disappeared after govt is formed
The Daily Star/November.
30/18/BEIRUT: President Michel Aoun said Friday that once a government is
formed, he will follow up on the implementation of Lebanon’s new law on
investigating enforced disappearances, according to a statement from the
presidency.Aoun’s remarks came during a meeting with Baabda MP Hikmat Dib, who
gave the president a copy of the law, which sets up a commission to investigate
enforced disappearances during the Lebanese Civil War. “The president promised
to follow up on the law’s implementation in Cabinet after the government is
formed, to establish the national commission for the disappeared,” Dib was
quoted as saying. “The law is a historical achievement for President Aoun, who
was among the first to call for the law’s passing,” Dib added. The statement
said the MP has assured relatives of the disappeared that the law will be
enforced. On Nov. 12, Parliament endorsed the law to investigate the whereabouts
of around 17,000 Lebanese citizens forcibly disappeared during the 1975-90 Civil
War. The law however still needs government action to go into full effect, and
government formation is currently in its seventh month of deadlock.
For Israel, a Rearmed Hizbullah in Lebanon is 'Top Concern'
Associated Press/Naharnet/November 30/18/Israel's most pressing security
concerns reportedly lie to the north, even with attention currently focused on
Gaza-based Hamas militants along its southern border. Israeli officials say the
threat of the Palestinian Hamas group pales compared to the Iran-backed
Hizbullah in Lebanon — a heavily-armed mini-army with combat experience in
neighboring Syria and an arsenal of some 150,000 rockets. The standoff plays out
along a frontier where Israeli soldiers come face-to-face with Hizbullah
guerrillas. Under the U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended the 2006 war,
Hizbullah's troops are prohibited from approaching the border. But Israeli
intelligence says Hizbullah men operate freely, generally unarmed and in
civilian clothes. Sometimes they come within just a few meters of the Israeli
troops, it says. Only a coil of barbed wire separates them but there are no
interactions.
Jumblat Says Mukhtara 'Red Line' after Wahhab
Supporters Bravado
Naharnet/November 30/18/Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat
warned Friday that his hometown Mukhtara is a “red line” after supporters of
ex-minister Wiam Wahhab staged a show of force in the Chouf region a day
earlier. “Mukhtara is a red line whatever the regional balances might be,”
Jumblat tweeted. “The campaigns of defamation and falsification reached
yesterday the extent of rioting and showing off on Mount Lebanon’s roads,” the
Druze leader warned. He also thanked the army for “reopening the roads and
arresting the rioters,” noting that “the salaries of the army are also a red
line.” Wahhab supporters had on Thursday roamed Chouf in convoys before many of
them were arrested for blocking roads and carrying weapons in their cars. The
bravado followed a war of words between Jumblat and Wahhab after the PSP leader
defended Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri against Wahhab’s blistering verbal
attacks on him. Wahhab has meanwhile filed a lawsuit against Hariri over street
banners apparently hoisted by Mustaqbal Movement supporters that carried insults
and death threats against the former minister. State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud
dismissed Wahhab’s lawsuit on Friday, citing Hariri’s position as premier and
parliamentary immunity.
Mustaqbal: March 8 Sunni MPs ‘Won’t Step Foot in
Center House’
Naharnet/November 30/18/In light of insulting accusations fired against Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri by allies of the pro-Hizbullah Independent Sunni
MPs, al-Mustaqbal Movement source emphasized the deputies “won’t set foot in the
Center House,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday. “How can the Premier
receive a group of deputies with some among their ranks accusing him of working
for the American-Israeli axis? Such people won’t step foot inside the Center
House,” an ired Mustaqbal official told the daily on condition of anonymity. He
was referring to fiery statements made by several Hizbullah figures namely MP
Walid Sukkarieh who accused Hariri of “allegiance to the American-Israeli
axis.”Ex-minister Wiam Wahhab who, in a leaked video, also addressed harsh
personal insults to Hariri and his slain father Rafik Hariri. Said Sunni
deputies of March 8 have been demanding to meet with Hariri over their quest to
get a ministerial portfolio in the new government, which the Premier
categorically rejects. The MPs of the Consultative Gathering, have escalated
rhetoric recently announcing their intention to name a specific portfolio of
their convenience. They said an earlier intention to get any ministerial
portfolio provided they become part of the government has been withdrawn. They
demand now to name a ministerial portfolio of their choice.“For the third time
in a row we reiterate our demand to have a meeting with Hariri. Negativity must
not be met with negativity. Hariri is free to choose the time of his
convenience,” MP Faisal Karami of the six MPs said. Karami said the Gathering
insists that the ministerial portfolio to be allocated for the deputies must be
selected after “consultations with us,” and that one of the six deputies
“exclusively” is to be chosen for the seat.
Bassil Discusses Govt. Formation 'Solutions'
with Hariri
Naharnet/November 30/18/Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil held
talks Friday at the Center House with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri. “The
meeting tackled the ideas that Minister Bassil had discussed with Speaker Nabih
Berri as part of the efforts to find a solution to the government formation
crisis,” a statement issued by Hariri’s office said. Sources informed on the
meeting meanwhile told LBCI television that “the atmosphere is positive” and
that “many solutions are being discussed.”
4 Suspects Killed, Several Apprehended in Army
Pursuits in Baalbek
Naharnet/November 30/18/Four “dangerous” suspects were killed and several others
were apprehended during army raids in the Baalbek towns of Hay al-Sharawneh and
Haouch Tall Safyieh on Friday. The National News Agency said the suspects were
killed during army raids in the restive neighborhood of Hay al-Sharawneh. Army
soldiers did not sustain any casualties, it added. Meanwhile in Haouch Tall
Safyieh, armed clashes erupted between the troops and suspects, said NNA. The
army erected checkpoints near the entrances leading to the town. It was able to
apprehend several accused fugitives, it concluded. The restive neighborhood of
al-Sharawneh witnesses frequent clashes between the army and fugitives and
between members of powerful Baalbek clans.
Hammoud Rejects Wahhab's Anti-Hariri Suit, Accepts One against Him
Naharnet/November 30/18/State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud on Friday dismissed a
lawsuit filed by ex-minister Wiam Wahhab against Prime Minister-designate Saad
Hariri as he accepted a suit filed against Wahhab by a number of lawyers.
Hammoud told al-Jadeed television that he shelved the lawsuit in light of
Hariri’s “immunity as prime minister and lawmaker.”Wahhab had announced Thursday
that he filed a lawsuit against Hariri and “his aides” over street banners that
surfaced in Beirut and Tripoli in recent days and carried “insults and death
threats” against him. The banners were hoisted by Hariri supporters in response
to blistering remarks by Wahhab against the PM-designate. In a supposedly leaked
video Wahhab also addressed harsh personal insults to Hariri and his slain
father Rafik Hariri. Wahhab has apologized over the video, saying it was leaked
without his knowledge and that it was an immediate response to the banners that
insulted him. Hammoud meanwhile accepted a lawsuit filed against Wahhab by a
number of lawyers in connection with his verbal attacks on Hariri, referring it
via Judge Mirna Kallas to the Intelligence Branch of the Internal Security
Forces for “further investigations and measures.”
Daryan Warns against Heeding Those 'Stoking
Strife'
Naharnet/November 30/18/Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan on Friday
condemned “the campaign of disinformation and unjust accusations” against Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri, as he warned against heeding strife calls. “The
campaigns of unjust accusations, insults and disinformation against the great
national figure PM-designate Saad Hariri are shameful,” Daryan said, noting that
motives behind the campaigns are “political par excellence” and aimed at
“obstructing his national role which coincides with his intensive efforts to
form a government within the constitutional stipulations.”The Mufti also urged
citizens not to heed “those stoking strife” and to avoid “stirring problems,”
emphasizing that “Lebanon is bigger than these petty things that the instigators
are fabricating.”Daryan was apparently referring to the latest war of words
between Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal Movement and pro-Damascus ex-minister Wiam Wahhab,
which has spilled into the streets in recent days.
UK and Lebanon: A Forward Look for Business and Investmnet
Naharnet/November 30/18/Simon Penney, Her Majesty's Trade Commissioner (HMTC)
for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, ended a two-day visit to Lebanon.
This is his first visit since assuming his role in October 2018, and it comes
ahead of the much-anticipated Lebanon Investment Conference taking place in
London next month, the British embassy said in a statement on Friday. During his
meetings with the Prime Minister, Minister of Trade and Economy, President of
the Council of Development and Reconstruction, Heads of Lebanon’s Trade and
Economic Associations, and the UK-Lebanon Tech Hub, Mr. Penney voiced the UK’s
strong relationship with Lebanon, the quality of UK companies in Lebanon and the
opportunities to deepen UK-Lebanese trade ties and support Lebanese prosperity.
He welcomed from his Lebanese counterparts the importance they placed on steps
to make the business environment more appealing to overseas investors, including
implementation of the CEDRE reform once the new government is formed. As part of
his role, Mr Penney aims to forge new business and economic relations that will
drive trade and investment bilaterally and across the region.
Speaking after visit, Simon Penney said: ‘I am delighted to be in Lebanon for
the first time in my new role as Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner. Lebanon is a
key ally and friend of the UK and we are pleased that it continues to be a key
partner in our endeavour to drive commercial ties between our two countries. I
had excellent meetings across the board with government officials and the
private sector, and had a private meeting PM Saad Hariri. We want to work in
partnership with business and government to identify opportunities for greater
collaboration; we believe that the true potential of opportunities between
Lebanon and the UK has not yet been tapped. There are considerable PPP
opportunities in infrastructure and energy, which presents significant potential
for UK firms to partner with Lebanese companies. UK expertise has much to
contribute in sectors which are key to transformation such as education and
healthcare. British Ambassador to Lebanon Chris Rampling said: ‘I am delighted
to welcome HMTC Simon Penney to Lebanon, at an important time for trade
relations between our two countries. We strongly support the Lebanon-UK Business
and Investment Forum in London next month. This is an important economic and
trade milestone for Lebanon and the UK. This week for example, we took part in
the launch of a unique partnership between the UK and Lebanon, in the form of
the new London Stock Exchange Group’ ELITE programme for Lebanese businesses.
LSE’s ELITE programme has an excellent reputation and track record of taking the
best businesses through the dual listing process and helping them to access
significant investment into firms that are willing to make the necessary
corporate governance and capital structural improvements to attract global
investors. This is good news for Lebanon’s economy. Our nations have much in
common: an entrepreneurial spirit, a highly educated and highly skilled
workforce and a global outlook that champions business large and small. We look
forward to working closely with our Lebanese partners and Mr. Penney to explore
new trade opportunities and to further foster our UK-Lebanon economic
relationship.
Kataeb's Economic Council Says Political Authority Making
Lebanese Pay for Own Fiasco
Kataeb.org/Friday 30th November 2018/The Kataeb's Economic and Social Council on
Friday warned against making the public employees pay the price for the state's
failure to manage the salary scale file, calling for reformist measures that
would safeguard social stability in Lebanon.
The council stressed in a statement that the public sector's pay hike,
stipulated by the salary scale law, must be shored up by a set of reforms; an
overhaul that starts with a comprehensive study which determines the needs of
the public sector, specifies the number of current and assesses their
productivity. “Once again, the political authority has proved its failure in
managing the Lebanese people’s affairs as well as the files that pertain to
their daily life and livelihood needs, after it had handled the salary scale
file with an unprecedented frivolity,” the council said.“This same authority,
which has failed to estimate the cost of the salary scale, find proper ways to
fund it and manage its repercussions on the Lebanese economy, is now trying to
shirk its responsibility by pitting the Lebanese against each other," it added.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports
And News published on December 01/18
Canada signs new trade agreement with United States and Mexico
November 30, 2018 - Buenos Aires,
Argentina – Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today welcomed
the signing of a new agreement to modernize the North American Free Trade
Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico. The new agreement will
support good, middle class jobs in Canada; strengthen economic ties between the
three countries; and contribute to North America’s global competitiveness.
The modernized agreement preserves Canada’s preferential access to the U.S. and
Mexican markets, ensuring that the vast majority of trilateral trade remains
duty-free—something that is vital to the continuing prosperity of Canadians. The
agreement includes an exemption for a significant quantity of Canadian
automobiles and auto parts from potential future U.S. 232 tariff measures. In
addition, Canada succeeded in preserving key elements of the original NAFTA,
including the cultural exemption and the use of binational panels to resolve
disputes on duties.
Canada maintained a constructive approach throughout these negotiations to
modernize NAFTA. Canada’s objectives remained clear: defend Canadians’
interests, fight for Canadian jobs and living standards, and uphold Canadian
values within an agreement that is mutually beneficial for all three countries.
Canada, the United States and Mexico will now move forward with their respective
domestic procedures toward the ratification and implementation of the new trade
agreement.
Quotes
“Our focus from the outset of the negotiations was the need to preserve middle
class jobs and foster economic growth. The new NAFTA preserves tariff free
access in the North American trading bloc and secures essential cross-border
supply chains that make North America more globally competitive. Our job as a
government is to safeguard economic gains and prevent economic threats, and that
is what we've done with the new agreement. What we have achieved is a reflection
of the team Canada approach we took throughout negotiations, and I thank
Canadians for their support and unity.”
- Hon. Chrystia Freeland, P.C., M.P., Minister of Foreign Affairs
Quick facts
The three countries also welcomed the new Environmental Cooperation Agreement (ECA),
a complement to the new free trade agreement’s environment chapter, which will
support continuous environmental cooperation among the three countries to
address environmental challenges and seize opportunities arising from the
agreement.
The globally competitive regional market created under the original NAFTA in
1994 today accounts for nearly 486 million consumers and a combined GDP of more
than US$22 trillion.
The United States and Mexico are, respectively, Canada’s first- and
third-largest merchandise trading partners in the world.
Canada is, respectively, the second- and fifth-largest merchandise trading
partner of the United States and Mexico, and the largest export market for the
United States.
Canada and the United States share the world’s longest secure border, over which
approximately 400,000 people, and goods and services worth $2.4 billion, cross
daily.
Canada is the largest market for the United States—larger than China, Japan and
the United Kingdom combined.
To reach this new agreement on trilateral trade, the Prime Minister, ministers,
parliamentarians, federal officials, premiers and industry and labour
representatives directly engaged political and business leaders in the United
States to advocate on behalf of Canadians.
To help guide negotiations, the Government of Canada consulted with Canadians
from across the country and from all sectors and backgrounds about trade.
Consultations included meetings with the provinces and territories, the
government’s NAFTA Council, industry, unions, civil society, think tanks,
academics, Indigenous peoples, women, youth and the general public.
World Leaders Welcome Saudi Crown Prince at G20, Avoiding
Isolation
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 30/18/World leaders welcomed Saudi
Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday at the G20 summit, showing
he was no pariah less than two months after the kingdom killed a dissident
journalist. The 33-year-old heir apparent was seen chatting with U.S. President
Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka and shaking hands with French President
Emmanuel Macron at the start of a two-day meeting of the world's top economies
in Buenos Aires. Prince Mohammed and Russian President Vladimir Putin both
grinned broadly and shook hands robustly as leaders converged for a group photo.
British Prime Minister Theresa May also said she would meet Prince Mohammed. She
said she would press the crown prince both on the killing of journalist Jamal
Khashoggi and the Saudi-led offensive in Yemen, where millions are on the brink
of starvation in what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian
crisis. "The Saudi Arabians need to ensure that their investigation is a full
investigation, that it's credible, that it's transparent, and that people can
have confidence in the outcome of it, and that those responsible are held to
account," May told Sky News. Macron told reporters before meeting the prince
that he will "no doubt" mention the death of Khashoggi, a U.S.-based contributor
to The Washington Post who was killed when he visited the Saudi consulate in
Istanbul. The killing has sparked widespread outrage but Western powers have
pledged to maintain close relations with Saudi Arabia, a top oil producer and
buyer of U.S. weapons. Trump, in an exclamation-heavy statement before the
summit, said it did not matter whether Prince Mohammed knew about Khashoggi's
death and that Saudi Arabia was important for business and for its hostility to
Iran. The U.S. Senate nonetheless moved this week to end support for the
Saudi-led war against rebels in Yemen amid outrage over attacks on civilian
sites including a school bus and hospitals.
G20 kick starts in Argentina amid division and tension among world leaders
Reuters, Buenos Aires/Friday, 30
November 2018/The G20 Summit kickstarted in Argentina with leaders of the
world’s top economies gathered on Friday for talks overshadowed by a US-China
trade war that has roiled global markets. The two-day annual gathering will be a
major test for the Group of 20 industrialized nations, whose leaders first met
in 2008 to help rescue the global economy from the worst financial crisis in
seven decades. With a rise in nationalist sentiment in many countries, the group
faces questions over its ability to deal with the latest round of crises.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who is attending the summit, met
with the leaders of the participating countries at the summit, according to the
Saudi Foreign Ministry.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, left, and Russia’s President
Vladimir Putin speak at the start of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
Friday, Nov. 30, 2018. (AP)
Overhanging the summit in Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital, is a trade
dispute between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies,
which have imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other’s
imports. All eyes will be on a planned dinner between Trump and Chinese
President Xi Jinping on Saturday to see whether they can
make progress toward resolving differences threatening the global economy.
Beijing hopes to persuade Trump to abandon plans to hike tariffs on $200 billion
of Chinese goods to 25 percent in January, from 10 percent at present. “We hope
the US can show sincerity and meet China half way, to promote a proposal that
both countries can accept,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a
briefing in Beijing. Speaking in Buenos Aires, US Trade Representative Robert
Lighthizer said he would be surprised if the dinner was not a success, but it
would depend entirely on the two presidents. On the eve of the summit, G20
member nations were still trying to reach agreement on major issues including
trade, migration and climate change that in past years have been worked out well
in advance. Trump’s skepticism that global warming is caused by human activity
has raised questions about whether the countries will be able to reach enough
consensus on climate change to include it in the summit’s final communique.
Earlier this month, officials from countries attending a major Asia-Pacific
summit failed to issue a joint statement for the first time after the US
delegation clashed with China over trade and security. However, delegates to the
talks in Buenos Aires said good progress had been made on economic sections of
the statement overnight. Argentina’s presidency voiced optimism consensus would
be reached on a draft.
Report: Israel jets bomb targets near Damascus, southern Syria
AFP, Damascus/Washington/Friday, 30 November 2018/Israeli jets on Thursday
bombed several areas near Damascus as well as in southern Syria, the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights monitor said. “Israeli forces bombarded for an hour
positions in the southern and southwestern suburbs of Damascus as well as in the
south of Syria at the border of Quneitra province” the Observatory’s chief Rami
Abdel Rahman said. Earlier, Syrian state media said air defenses downed a number
of “hostile targets” close to the capital. “Our air defenses fired on hostile
targets over the Kisweh area and downed them,” the official SANA news agency
reported, citing a military source. The area south of Damascus has been targeted
by alleged Israeli strikes in the past, which a monitor said have killed members
of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards force and other pro-Iranian militias. Abdel
Rahman said there are “weapons depots belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah
(group) as well as Iranian forces” in Kisweh. Israel has carried out hundreds of
air strikes in neighboring Syria against what it says are Iranian targets.
Syrian air defenses in September opened fire to intercept alleged Israeli
missiles targeting ammunition depots in the northwestern province of Latakia,
but instead downed a Russian jet. Abdel Rahman said Thursday was the first time
Syria’s air defenses had been called into action since the incident on September
17 in which 15 Russians were killed. Moscow pinned responsibility for the
downing of its jet on Israel, saying its plane used the larger Russian one for
cover, an allegation Israel disputed. Following the incident, Russia sent
advanced air defense missiles to Damascus.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russia his country would
continue to hit hostile targets in Syria to prevent Iran from establishing a
military presence across the border. He added that Israel would “continue
security coordination” with Russia.
Astana process produced Syria ‘stalemate’
The Astana process by Russia, Iran and Turkey to end the Syrian conflict has
only led to a “stalemate” in efforts to establish a constitutional committee
crucial to a political settlement, the US said on Thursday. Establishment and
convening of the committee by year’s end “is vital to a lasting de-escalation
and a political solution to the conflict,” State Department spokeswoman Heather
Nauert said in a statement. Her comments came after the outgoing United Nations
envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, regretted that there was “no tangible
progress” on the composition of the constitutional committee at two days of
talks which ended Thursday in the Kazakh capital Astana. Moscow and Tehran,
allies of the Damascus regime, began the Astana process in January 2017 along
with rebel-backer Turkey. The Astana process followed a Russian military
intervention which tipped the military balance in favor of Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian regime. “Russia and Iran continue to use the
process to mask the Assad regime’s refusal to engage in the political process”
under UN auspices, Nauert said. She added that “success is not possible without
the international community holding Damascus fully accountable for the lack of
progress in resolving the conflict.”The Astana process has gradually eclipsed
the earlier UN-sponsored negotiations framework known as the Geneva process,
which had put more emphasis on political transition but failed to curb violence
that has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions.
Syria’s war began in March 2011 as an uprising against Assad but morphed into a
complex conflict with myriad armed groups, many of whom are foreign-backed.
War monitor, Syrian media say anti-ISIS coalition air strikes kill dozens
Reuters, Beirut/Friday, 30 November 2018/The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
said air strikes by the US-led coalition against ISIS in eastern Syria this week
killed dozens of people in the militant group’s last major foothold. The
coalition could not immediately be reached for comment on the report. Syrian
state media also reported dozens of deaths this week. The Observatory said
strikes beginning overnight on Wednesday in and around al-Shafa in the Deir al-Zor
countryside had targeted a hospital, prison and houses used by militants in
their pocket on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river near the Iraqi border.
The Observatory said around 40 prisoners, civilians and fighters had been killed
in strikes with more wounded. The toll rose as bodies were pulled from the
rubble. New air strikes Syrian state news agency SANA, citing local sources,
said new air strikes on Friday on al-Shafa killed around 30, bringing the total
killed this week in strikes on the ISIS pocket to around 45. The Syrian
government has written to the United Nations a number of times protesting
casualties caused by air strikes by the US-led coalition against ISIS. The
US-led coalition, now in a push to defeat the final remnants of ISIS in Iraq and
Syria, has previously said it investigates reports of civilian casualties and
does all it can to avoid them.
Tunisia says it broke up four militant cells, foiled attacks
Reuters, Tunis/Friday, 30 November 2018/Tunisia said on Thursday it had broken
up four Islamist militant cells and seized explosives, poisonous gas and drone
aircraft. The militants had been planning a “series of attacks against vital
targets in the country, through stabbing, poisoning, cars attacks and
detonation,” the interior ministry said, without identifying any targets. The
seizures came a month after a woman blew herself up in the center of the
Tunisian capital and wounded 15 people in an attack that broke a period of calm
after dozens died in militant attacks three years ago. Tunisia was the only
country to oust a long-serving leader during the “Arab Spring” uprisings without
triggering large scale unrest or civil war - and has won widespread praise for
its democratic transition, new constitution and free elections.
Israeli police arrest Jordanian suspected in Eilat
attack
The Associated Press, Jerusalem/Friday, 30 November 2018/A Jordanian man has
been arrested by Israeli police after allegedly attacking two Israelis on
Friday, in the port city of Eilat, which borders Jordan. Police said that the
two victims were hospitalized with serious injuries after the Jordanian beat
them with a hammer. The suspect was apprehended and police were investigating
the circumstances of the incident. The countries signed a peace treaty in 1994,
but relations have been tumultuous due to occasional violent incidents and
political disagreements. Bilateral ties sank to historic lows last year after an
Israeli embassy guard shot and killed two Jordanians, contending that one tried
to attack him and the second was caught in the crossfire. Jordan announced last
month that it won’t be renewing
Hate crimes against Muslims in Canada rose 151
pc during 2017
AFP, Ottawa/Friday, 30 November 2018/The number of hate crimes reported to
police in Canada jumped by 47 percent in 2017 from the previous year, targeting
mostly Muslim, Jewish or black people, the government statistical agency said
Thursday. “For the year, police reported 2,073 hate crimes, 664 more than in
2016,” with most of the uptick in graffiti and vandalism, incitement of hatred,
assaults, and uttering threats in Ontario and Quebec provinces, said Statistics
Canada. This followed steady but relatively small increases in previous years,
the agency said. Property crimes played the biggest role in the increase while
violent hate crimes grew by 25 percent, it said.
Race or ethnicity
These were motivated primarily by hatred of a race or ethnicity (878 crimes, up
32 percent), religion (842 crimes, up 83 percent), or sexual orientation (204
crimes, up 16 percent).
In particular, hate crimes against Muslims rose 151 percent to 349 in 2017 -- a
year marked by a xenophobic young man’s killing of six worshippers at a Quebec
mosque. Hate crimes against Jews rose 63 percent to 360, while those targeting
blacks increased by 50 percent to 321.
Overall hate crimes accounted for a mere 0.1 percent of the 1.9 million crimes
reported to police that year, excluding highway traffic offenses.
Ukraine Closes Border to All Russian Males between 16 and 60
Associated Press/Naharnet/November
30/18/Ukrainian officials on Friday barred Russian males between the ages of 16
and 60 from traveling to the country in the latest escalation of tensions
between the neighbors. The long-simmering conflict bubbled over Sunday when
Russian border guards rammed into and opened fired on three Ukrainian vessels
near the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014. The vessels were
trying to pass through the Kerch Strait on their way to the Sea of Azov. The
Russians then captured the ships and their 24-member crew. The Ukrainian
parliament on Monday adopted the president's motion to impose martial law in the
country for 30 days in the wake of the standoff. Petro Tsygykal, chief of the
Ukrainian Border Guard Service, announced at a security meeting on Friday that
all Russian males between 16 and 60 will be barred from traveling to the country
while martial law is in place. President Petro Poroshenko told the meeting that
the measures are taken "in order to prevent the Russian Federation from forming
private armies" on Ukrainian soil. The announcement follows Thursday's decision
by U.S. President Donald Trump to scrap the much-anticipated meeting with
Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Trump said it isn't appropriate for him to meet
with Putin since Russia hasn't released the Ukrainian seamen. Russian
government-appointed ombudswoman for Crimea told Russian news agencies that all
the seamen have been transported from a detention center in Crimea. The three
commanders have been taken to Moscow, she said. It wasn't immediately clear
where the other 21 have been taken. A Crimea court earlier this week ruled to
keep the Ukrainian seamen behind bars for two months pending the investigation.
There has been growing hostility between Ukraine and Russia since Moscow's
annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Russia has also
supported separatists in Ukraine's east with clandestine dispatches of troops
and weapons. Fighting there has killed at least 10,000 people since 2014 but
eased somewhat after a 2015 truce.
Iran Cannot 'Wait Forever' for EU Path to Skirt US Sanctions
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/November 30/18/Iran said Friday the European Union
must be given more time to set up a trade mechanism meant to circumvent
reimposed US sanctions on Tehran, but warned it could not "wait forever".
Brussels is working on a payment system to continue trade and business ties with
Iran after the US ditched a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran earlier this
year and reintroduced a raft of sanctions on the country. "Europe's efforts for
implementing a financial mechanism are continuing despite mounting US pressure,"
Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told the official IRNA news
agency. "We believe that Europe must be given more time ... they have so far
been unable to introduce operational measures, but we are not supposed to wait
forever," he added. The US sanctions aim to cut off Iran's banks from
international finance and significantly reduce its oil exports. The EU hopes its
"special purpose vehicle" (SPV) announced in September will keep the nuclear
deal alive and pursuade Tehran to stay on board by giving companies a way of
trading with Iran without fear of US sanctions. But Brussels is struggling to
find a host for the SPV and many EU countries are fearful of repercussions from
US President Donald Trump's administration. "Americans are out to block all
paths and have already started pressuring countries aiming to implement the
mechanism and work with it," said Araghchi, refusing to comment on potential SPV
hosts due to the "sensitivity" of the issue. Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg
have already rejected hosting the special payment system, Bloomberg News
reported. Araghchi said Iran will stay in the nuclear deal as long as it meets
Tehran's interests, but will "make a different decision" the moment it no longer
does.
Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from
miscellaneous sources published on December 01/18
“Our Children Were Screaming”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, July 2018
ريموند إبراهيم: جدول الإضطهاد الإسلامي للمسيحيين خلال شهر تموز 2018
Raymond Ibrahim/Gatestone Institute/November 30/18
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/69302/raymond-ibrahim-our-children-were-screaming-muslim-persecution-of-christians-july-2018-%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%88%d9%86%d8%af-%d8%a5%d8%a8%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%87%d9%8a%d9%85-%d8%ac%d8%af/
Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches
Egypt: Police encouraged a Muslim mob while attacking a church. After local
Muslims in Ezbet Sultan Pasha village learned that Christians, who form about 20
percent of the population, were on their way to legalizing a church building,
they surrounded it following Friday prayers on July 6. “The protesters were
chanting slogans against us [Christians], such as ‘We don’t want a church in our
village,’” said one resident. “We locked ourselves in our homes during the
demonstration because we were afraid that they would attack us. Police didn’t do
anything to disperse the demonstrators and didn’t arrest anyone of them.”
Demonstrations continued into the next day with no police intervention. On the
following Friday, again after Muslim prayers, local Muslims augmented by Muslims
from neighboring villages, surrounded the church again and hurled stones and
bricks at it and a nearby Christian home.
“They were shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ [Allah is greater] and chanting hostile
slogans against Copts, such as: ‘We will not allow any church to exist in our
Muslim village,’ ‘We will not allow any other prayers to be held in our Muslim
village except our prayers,’” said another Christian resident. According to the
report, “While police did not intervene, one of the officers apparently promised
the protesters that no church would be allowed in the village. … [T]his
declaration encouraged the protesters who clapped shouting ‘Allahu akbar’….
There are at least approximately 3000 pending applications from churches that
still need to be examined by the government commission set up to verify whether
they meet legal requirements.” Archbishop Makarios released a statement saying,
“We are saddened by official appeasement of and acquiescence to demands by some
who possess no right to such demands [the demands to have no church in the
village], to the detriment of Coptic rights.” Last reported, a local said,
“Terror dominates the village because the Muslims can demonstrate and gather at
any time. We are in great fear and in anticipation of the situation.”
Pakistan: Five members of a Muslim family stormed a small church during worship
service on July 13 in Samundari, a district of Faisalabad; they were armed with
guns and brought kerosene oil in an attempt to torch the church. According to a
local Christian, “A group of armed Muslims abused Christianity and desecrated
the church stuff. Around 50 men and women were praying in the church when the
group of Muslims did aerial shots, attacked the church, beat men and women,
damaged windows, altar, pulpit, chairs, and desecrated Christian literature.
However, timely intervention of the local police controlled the situation and
saved the Christians. The [attackers] had a property dispute with Abid Masih and
wanted to [take] the church property as well. In order to pressurize the
Christian community, a young Christian was kidnapped a week ago, however later
recovered.” According to Shamaun Qaiser, a local Christian activist “It is sad
to note this new violent trend in which Muslims have started attacking places of
Christian worship to settle personal disputes. Such acts against the weaker
sections of society often go unpunished. I have no hope that justice will be
done for these Christians as the administration and legislatures have often
turned a blind eye to the issue of violence against Christians.”
France: Muslims sprayed “Allahu akbar” (Allah is greater) on a church before
setting it aflame. According to the report, “On Wednesday night [July 25] the
Saint-Pierre du Matroi church in Orleans was set on fire with ‘criminal intent,’
according to police sources. Furniture and sheet music were burned and the
heinous graffiti [was] found, one of which said ‘Allahu Akbar.’ Fortunately the
fire was extinguished quickly by firemen and it didn’t burn the church’s
supporting structure. This isn’t the first attack on a French church. On 26 July
2016, two Islamist terrorists attacked participants in a Mass at a Catholic
church in Normandy. The men killed the 85-year-old priest Jacques Hamel, by
slitting his throat, and also critically wounded an 86-year-old man. Last year a
Muslim woman, only known by her first name ‘Kenza,’ was given a two-year
suspended sentence for vandalising the Sainte Marie Madeleine Church in
Rennes-le-Château… [T]here were 128 incidents of church vandalism or other
anti-Christian attacks in France in the first five months of 2018.”
Kyrgyzstan: A church that served many Muslim converts to Christianity was
ordered to halt its Sunday worship services. Before that, groups of people that
included local authorities and followers of the region’s imam twice interrupted
services. On both occasions, the intruders insulted and threatened the
congregation and said things like: “You will not be able to live and carry out
your ministry here… We will come here again and again to disturb and persecute
you in every possible way.” According to the report, “The church has for more
than a decade been led by Pastor Miran. The leadership of the school where he
worked threatened to fire him after they learned of his conversion and his role
as a church leader. He was also accused of child abuse by the school and jailed
for six months… [T]he church felt the allegation was only levelled against him
because of his conversion. Since his release, Pastor Miran, a father of five,
has been unable to find paid work.” Local Muslims say “If Miran could betray his
‘native pure Islam,’ maybe he could do other bad things too.”
Algeria: Authorities shut down another Christian church. According to the pastor
of the congregation of 60, he arrived to the church on July 11 to find two armed
police vans parked near its door. “Three of the gendarmes entered the church and
executed their order. They put the curtain and the front door under seal, which
strictly forbids us to open the doors of the church once closed,” said Pastor
Benamara. “After execution of the order of the wali [governor] of Bejaia to
close the premises, the gendarmes left. …That’s where we are… [O]ur church is
closed, and our faithful can no longer meet…. This is injustice,” he said: “The
authorities who are supposed to respect and enforce the laws of the republic
themselves do not respect them. Is it not true that Algerian law and
international laws respect and demand respect for all religions as much as
Islam? And also their practice? Why are they flouting these laws of the
republic?” Six other churches were earlier closed by authorities—three were
later allowed to reopen—in the preceding months. On July 26, the United Nations
Human Rights Council said in its concluding observations that it “remained
concerned” over these closures. It called on Algeria to “guarantee the full
exercise of their [its citizens’] freedom of thought, conscience and religion to
all.” It also called on the Algerian government to “refrain from obstructing the
religion of persons who do not observe the official religion, in particular by
the means of destruction and closure of establishments or refusal to grant
registration of religious movements.”
Turkey: Robbers broke into a historic Armenian church in the Muslim majority
nation. The intruders wrought “irreparable damage,” including by digging up the
church’s main foundation in order to gain entry—an elaborate procedure that
would not have been possible were it not for the government’s total disregard
for the nation’s Christian heritage, says one report: “Turkish authorities …
have, in practice, encouraged the destruction of valuable Armenian cultural and
civilizational [sites]…. Turkey’s rulers after the Armenian genocide and their
physical destruction in western Armenia (present-day Eastern Turkey), the land
of their ancestors, have for centuries consistently pursued the cultural
genocidal policy of their affairs as a state policy to eliminate any trace of
them.”
Muslim Slaughter of Christians
Egypt: Maher Girgis Tawfiq, a 45-year-old Christian father-of-four, died under
mysterious circumstances after he went to the local police station to complain
about threats from a Muslim. “[A]round midnight,” says the report, “his wife
received a call from the police, telling her that her husband had fainted and
been transferred to hospital in a critical condition. The family rushed to the
hospital, where they were told that Tawfiq had died at the reception of the
emergency department. The police told local media that the Copt had died after
falling into a coma due to his diabetes, but his family say he was not diabetic
and that they believe he was murdered.” “We headed to the morgue to see Maher’s
body and noticed some bruises on different parts of it—a blue bruise at the back
of his neck, his lips turned blue, and we saw white foam coming out of his
mouth,” said his cousin. “There was also blood in his pupils,” adds George, the
slain’s brother-in-law: “A group of police officers threatened Maher’s brothers
that if they insisted that he was killed at the police station or demanded an
autopsy, they would receive charges, meaning the police would fabricate charges
against them…. I will not find consolation until the perpetrators are held
accountable. We want to feel that we live under the rule of law, with justice
and equality, and not in a state of repression…” This is not the first case of
its kind. A year earlier, another Christian man died while in custody. Egyptian
police said he committed suicide, though his body also bore marks of torture.
Nigeria: Among the many Christians slaughtered in the ongoing jihad, six were
killed—and their church and twenty other buildings torched—during an early
morning jihadi raid on Sunday, July 1. In a separate incident, a pastor, his
wife, and another Christian leader were murdered by Islamic Fulani herdsmen.
They were traveling home after visiting relatives when the terrorists ambushed
and opened fire on them. The married couple left behind eight children; the
other Christian leader left behind a wife and three children. In a separate
incident, six more Christians were slaughtered.
Muslim Attacks on Apostates and Blasphemers
Egypt: After a Christian man was accused of insulting Islam’s prophet on his
Facebook page by linking to an article that compared Muhammad to Jesus, police
arrested him and local Muslims rioted—including by attacking Christian homes and
trying to storm the village church—on July 9 in Menbal village. Windows were
smashed and some Christians sustained injuries from glass shards. “The Muslim
extremists in our village and the nearby villages incited the Muslim villagers
against us …. They began pelting the Coptic-owned houses with stones and bricks,
while shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ [Allah is the greater] and chanting slogans
against Copts, such as ‘We will displace you and the priest from our village, oh
kafir [infidels], oh the worshipers of the cross, oh defiled people,’” said one
Christian resident. “We lived very terrible moments while the mob were attacking
our homes. Our children were screaming,” said another: “All of us [Christians]
have stayed in our homes. We are afraid to get out to the village streets. There
is a state of panic and fear among all of us here…. [W]e are still receiving
threats from our Muslim neighbours. They say they will take revenge on all of us
as soon as the security forces leave the village. We are afraid that they will
attack us this Friday after their noon prayers.” “We spent a painful evening we
shall never forget,” said another Christian resident of Menbal. “An evening of
terror.”
Greece: A Muslim mob attacked seven Iranian converts to Christianity at a
refugee camp, as police stood by and watched. According to the report, the
Christians “met as a small group together in one of the Conex containers they
were housed in, gathering a few others. Somehow, they came to the attention of
the other camp residents… a mob formed on Sunday night as they were holding a
Bible Study meeting. The mob attacked them, threatening them with knives and
beating the men, resulting in hospitalization for two of them. The two women and
two young children were also threatened with knives. Petrol was poured into
their Conex.
They were called ‘kaffirs’ [infidels] and told to leave the camp. One of the men
had a previous heart condition and the attack caused him to pass out. An
ambulance was called but the mob tried to prevent its entry into the camp. The
Greek police present did nothing, being massively outnumbered by the mob of
30-40 people.” “Before I even woke up for my work, (a lady) called me and told
me she was in the University Hospital because she and her husband were assaulted
by a group of Muslims,” recalls Pastor Apostolos Theodorakos of the Free
Evangelical Church in Larissa: “I ran into the hospital and I found this beloved
soul with her child, terrified, with jabs…. [A] group of 30-40 people had come…
accusing them of being Christians and going to church. In fact, one took a
liquid inside the container and someone tried to (ignite a) fire.” All of the
victims of the attack have since fled to a safe house.
Indonesia: On July 24, Martinus Gulo, a 21-year-old Christian university
student, was sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of 1 billion Rupiah
(68,914 USD) for religious defamation, or “blasphemy,” against the Muslim
prophet. On hearing the verdict, dozens of Muslims cheered and shouted “Allahu
Akbar” (Allah is greater). Months earlier he had posted a Facebook post likening
Muhammad to a pig. According to the report, “Gulo, who is Christian, told
authorities that he made the post because he was upset that his own religion was
criticized online….The case fueled concerns that Indonesia’s moderate brand of
Islam is coming under threat from increasingly influential radicals.”
Uganda: Muslim death threats to a former Muslim turned Christian pastor and his
children caused him to stop constructing a church on his land and flee.
According to the report, “The 55-year-old pastor had resettled his family in
Mazuba five years ago after fleeing persecution by Muslims in Sironko village…
In April, Muslims in Mazuba noticed that some Muslims had become Christians and
were attending his church… Word that he was a convert from Islam spread quickly,
and Muslim schoolchildren began bullying the pastor’s eight children… As area
Muslims threatened to kill his children, the pastor and his wife felt compelled
to send them to a boarding school in another town. At beginning of the year
Pastor Budallah donated a part of his land for construction of a church
building. After walls had been built, however, area Muslims … put a stop to
construction.” That did not stop the threats: “We know your tricks, that your
intention of building the church is for you to convert our members to
Christianity,” reads one letter. “If you continue building the church, then you
are risking your life as well as the life of your church members.” The pastor’s
Muslim relatives also continued to send him threatening messages: “You have
refused to come back home [Sironko], and we hear that you have started building
a church for infidels,” a text message said. “Know that Allah is going to deal
with you soon, and you will not finish it nor pray in it.” “The church members
are now living in great fear for their lives and have stopped attending church
services,” says the pastor.
Separately, “Irate Muslims” hurled stones at and knocked out a Christian pastor
after he apparently shamed his Muslim opponent in a public debate. According to
the report, on June 21, “A stone struck pastor Tom Palapande, 38, in the head
during an open-air debate …with area Muslims about Islamic and Christian
scriptures, the Trinity and the Sonship of Jesus, among other topics…. [I]n the
fourth debate about Jesus as the Son of God, a sheikh found himself ill-prepared
and left in the middle of the event… Embarrassed Muslims in the crowd responded
by throwing stones at Pastor Palapande and shouting the jihadist chant, ‘Allah
akbar,’ [Allah is greater]… A big stone hit the pastor’s forehead, and the
stones as well injured three other church leaders who were close to the pastor
at the podium…” After regaining consciousness in a clinic and being transferred
to a hospital in Mbale, the pastor said, “This is not the first time when
Muslims attacked us, especially when they lost debates.” Uganda is a
Christian-majority nation; Muslims make up approximately 12 percent of the
population.
Muslim Discrimination against and Abuse of Christians
Iraq: The Kurdish regional government imposed jizya on local Christians—a
discriminatory tax Christians and Jews were historically obligated to pay to
their Muslim overlords. According to the report, “The Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) has imposed a discriminatory new regulation requiring all
business owners from the Assyrian-majority city of Ankawa [which is more than
80% Christian], located in the Erbil Province, to renew their business licenses
… for a fee. This new regulation applies exclusively to Ankawa, despite the fact
that a total of ten districts are under the Erbil Center District’s
jurisdiction…. The new order targeting Assyrian shop owners is the latest form
of discrimination targeting Assyrians in Ankawa…. One Assyrian politician … was
told by a KRG official that this was a form of jizya tax, justified because
Ankawa is a Christian town.” The meaning and usage of jizya is recorded in Koran
9:29: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not
consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not
adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture—[fight]
until they give the jizya [tribute] willingly while they are humbled.”
Bangladesh: “Thousands of Christians … are being persecuted in Bangladesh over
land,” says a July 31 report. In one instance, Muslims rose up against and
seized the land of Christian villagers, with the aid of local police. Four
Christians were killed and 30 wounded. A Catholic priest visited them in July,
2018—two years after the incident—and concluded that “In all about 1,500
Christians [continue to] live in inhumane conditions. Some NGOs have provided
them with metal sheeting to build makeshift shelters. Even though the victims
formally complained about it and called on the government [to intervene], they
have been abandoned and the administration has been silent. I do not know what’s
behind it.” One of the homeless Christians, Joseph Murmu, said that “the
government has behaved badly [with the people]. We want to get our land back.”
In another instance, a Muslim man escorted by fifty armed people seized the land
of Abraham Cruze, a 65-year-old Catholic. “For two years, I have been asking for
help,” said the evicted man. “ But so far, all my efforts have been in vain. I
had a small house and now I am a homeless person; I live with some of my
relatives.”
Zanzibar: Christian pastors quoted in a July 10 report explained how Tanzania’s
semi-autonomous and Muslim-majority archipelago of Zanzibar “has concealed
Christian persecution for decades.” According to Simon, the pastor of a church,
“It is crystal clear that the rise of Christianity in Zanzibar has attracted
hostility and discrimination, issues that the international community knows too
little or nothing about. It’s true Zanzibar is known for tourism and spices, but
the truth of the matter is that the Christian body has been persecuted for so
long.” Another pastor, Amos, was ordered to halt construction of a church on his
land in 2017: “Our legal pursuit to retain the ownership of the church compound
has been halted by the Islam-influenced judicial ruling,” he said. “We fear that
the unfinished church building will be demolished anytime and a mosque will be
constructed.”
Egypt: Newly appointed Minister of Health, Dr. Hala Ziyad, issued an ordinance
that requires all doctors to recite daily an Islamic version of the Hippocratic
Oath, so that hospitalized Egyptians hear it. According to the report, the oath
“contains wording that is not unlike the Islamic confession of faith… The
problematic section comes at the very end, where the oath-takers recite ‘Allah
and his Prophet.’ Whereas most Copts [Christians] have no difficulty
acknowledging ‘Allah’—which is just Arabic for ‘God’—‘his Prophet’ is more
problematic, as it is an acknowledgement that Muhammad is indeed the prophet of
God. Any Coptic physician publicly reciting this oath places his or her
religious identity in danger, as this would represent an implicit conversion to
Islam.” The fear is that such wording may increase the chances of Christian
doctors falling afoul of more zealous Muslim colleagues or patients: on hearing
a Christian professes Muhammad as Allah’s apostle—that is, essentially profess
the shahada—physicians may be harassed to follow through and embrace Islam.
Separately, a Christian journalist based in Cairo published an op-ed discussing
the challenges facing Christian women in Egypt. An excerpt follows: To be a
woman in a country where most of her people see women as a disgrace, and at best
look at her from a sexual point of view, it is a heavy burden, but even worse
when you are a Christian woman. It is hell!…. Sexual harassment can be described
as an epidemic that spreads throughout Egypt. According to a 2013 study by the
United Nations, more than 98 percent of all Egyptian women have been subjected
to harassment. But the study did not show how harassment differs from a woman
wearing hijab to another who reveals her hair. Most Muslim women in Egypt wear
hijab and therefore, the others who do not wear it are most likely Coptic.
This means that the Egyptian man thinks he has the right to harass her, simply
because he sees her as a whore and a disbeliever. You may think that I am
talking about a certain class of men, but in fact, most Muslim men (not all, but
the majority) view the Coptic woman as easy prey. He thinks that he will have a
religious reward if he can manipulate her emotionally and persuade her to marry
him, or to convert to Islam, a phenomenon prevalent in Upper Egypt.
**Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen
Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at
the Gatestone Institute and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East
Forum.
About this Series
The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.
Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed to collate some—by
no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves
two purposes:
1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not
chronic, persecution of Christians.
2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and
interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a
specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols;
apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish
with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced
conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute
expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like
cowed dhimmis, or third-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and
murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof. Because these accounts of
persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in
the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds
them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the
supremacist culture born of it.
‘We will proudly bypass the sanctions’ – Oh really? How?
Karim Abdian Bani Saeed/Al Arabiya/November 30/18
That’s what Iranian President Rouhani said on November 6, one day after
President Trump’s new round of anti-Iran sanctions took effect.
So, the immediate reaction is: “Oh really? How?”
It is not clear whether this claim was merely an immediate response and a
political pose for domestic consumption, or an illusion on President Rouhani’s
part, or that he really thinks or was advised that it is possible to break and
circumvent the sanctions.
In my opinion, it is all of the above. It is simultaneously an illusion and a
calculated political move for domestic consumption, while also acting as a
response to the president’s rivals that nothing has changed and that sanctions
can readily be circumvented.
It may be possible to circumvent part of the sanctions, but breaking or
bypassing the entirety of the sanctions is completely unlikely. Rouhani’s
assertion that Iran conceivably can bypass some of the sanctions was either
purposely confrontational, or it was just a political move for domestic
consumption—and the latter is conceivable.
The Islamic Republic has faced various types of sanctions imposed on it, in one
way or other, at different points in its nearly 40 years of history. The first
was in response to taking over the US embassy and holding Americans hostage, and
then during its eight-year war with Iraq.
The main cause of the war in fact was Iran. Right after the revolution,
Ayatollah Khomeini pro-actively and deliberately began a campaign of provocation
against Saddam Hussein. Different reasons existed for the provocations. Some
were due to his personal hatred of Saddam Hussein. Second, it was a reflection
of his staunch anti-Arab character.He also aspired to lay claim to the
leadership of the Shiite world and domination of the Shi’a sites in Iraq. And
finally, his belief in the mission to take over Jerusalem and eventually destroy
Israel. The sanctions were imposed by the United Nations and the international
community for eight years because of Khomeini’s foolish and illogical lack of
military expertise and the mullah’s stubborn insistence on continuing the war.
This network has enabled Iran to successfully meet the needs of the country,
from agricultural products to food to weaponry, including highly specialized
industrial and military items and nuclear and missile parts
These are the assertions of ex-President Rafsanjani and Ebrahem Yazidi, the
first Iranian foreign minister, who publicly revealed these facts before their
deaths recently. Other sanctions followed in response to other notorious actions
in the region.
Iran has become superbly efficient at bypassing sanctions by instituting a vast
and very sophisticated network and web of trading companies to procure and
purchase the goods and services the regime needs to survive. These legal and
mostly front companies were established in Iran and stretch to the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Turkey as well as Russia, Asian
countries, and even the US and Europe. This network has enabled Iran to
successfully meet the needs of the country, from agricultural products to food
to weaponry, including highly specialized industrial and military items and
nuclear and missile parts and components.
However, it has had to pay up to ten times market prices, according to credible
sources. Iranians have had the ability and the capacity to continually and very
quickly change the names of compromised and exposed illegal companies. Over the
past decade, the US has carefully pieced together evidence of this network and
in the process quietly dismantled it. Beginning in 2008, a secret project was
launched by the CIA, the FBI, and the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) called
the Open Source Intelligence and Exploitation Center. It was located in a
six-story building just outside the Washington Virginia Beltway in, a suburb of
Washington, D.C., halfway between CIA headquarters in Langley and the Pentagon.
The building housing the center has no address, no name, an unknown owner in the
public records, and no records of property taxes.
The agency’s function is to collect and assess foreign-based, publicly available
information or open source intelligence that spans traditional media, academic
papers, geospatial data and technology, datasets, and social media. The Center
is managed under a civilian director by DIA with active cooperation from the CIA
and the FBI counter-intelligence division.
While each agency has its own open source intelligence, the specific function of
the Center is to have all materials about Iran and Al-Qaeda that were collected
abroad and brought in to the center. Hundreds of Farsi and Arabic linguists sift
through and identify important and intelligence-worthy documents and translate
them into English. Material on Al-Qaida was limited, and most of the information
consisted of a vast and comprehensive array of documents obtained from raids on
and the monitoring of Iranian front companies around the world that facilitated
the procurement of materials and bypassed the sanctions. Documents included
details of transactions, materials prices, names of the purchasers and the
various in-between companies, orders, bills of shipping, modes of shipping,
letters of credit and banking documents, and related emails—the full transaction
cycle from the beginning to the end.
Researchers found that there were thousands of illegal and front companies by
Iranians and others running these companies. The Center slowed down its work
after 2015 when President Obama brokered and signed the Joint Plan of Action (JPA),
or the Iran nuclear deal. On July 14, 2015, Iranian President Rouhani boasted of
JPA as a great achievement and issued a memo to ministry and government
directors to eliminate the procurement networks created to bypass the sanctions.
This included the elimination of all go-betweens and instead to deal directly
with Western original equipment manufacturers (OEM).
However, before any actual transactions between Iranian end-users of products
and manufactures were to be signed, the Iranians were required to fill out a
70-page questionnaire, designed and provided by OEMs and original service
providers in the West, to state how the items or commodities were purchased
before JPA, from whom, name of agents, vendors, the purchase price, mode and
place of original and destination shipment, through what port, the freight
forwarders’ names, the country and the currency of purchase, and detailed
history of the overseeing organizations in Iran.
The direction from Rouhani was that all the needed information must be provided,
and he instructed directors to tell the new Western trading partners the truth.
His memo stated that at least for the next 15 years, the country no longer needs
go-betweens.
Iranians believe that there has been coordination between Western companies who
designed the questionnaire such as Boeing, Airbus, Total, Shell, and other
giants in major industries. As a result, the entire illegal procurement network
has been destroyed and these sources are now completely burnt.
However, after November 5 all these companies withdrew from Iran, creating a
disaster for Iranian purchasing managers who blame Rouhani for eradicating the
networks. Moreover, with Iranian oil production now slashed and the rial
collapsing in value, the country is struggling to pay for ongoing government
expenditures, let alone importing goods at up to ten times their market value.
Despite the extension of eight countries, India, Turkey, South Korea, Japan,
Italy, Taiwan and Greece, to buy Iran's oil for a maximum of six months, it is
anticipated that Iran's oil export to diminish to zero afterward.
Additionally, 700 Iranian banks, companies, and individuals were added to the
U.S. sanctions blacklist. Also, all ports and insurance companies were warned by
the US to steer clear of Iranian ships as “floating liabilities.”. And to make
matters worse, the “Swift” system for transferring money to Iranian banks has
been banned
Surely, President Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Brian Kook, the
U.S. Special Representative for Iran must have known that Iranian secret trade
networks had been destroyed as they all recently asserted that it would be so
difficult to circumvent the new sanctions.
Now, under the circumstances, it remains unclear if Mr. Rouhani gets it, and how
can he boast that “we will proudly bypass the sanctions”?
A secret apparatus for Tunisia’s Ennahda
Mashari Althaydi/Al Arabiya/November 30/18
“I cannot close my eyes as it has become blatant.” This is how Tunisian
President Beji Caid Essebsi commented on the presence of a secret security
intelligence and terrorist organization affiliated with the Tunisian Brotherhood
Ennahda Movement.
In the details, President Beji Caid Essebsi convened with the country’s national
security council, a commission linked to the presidency and that handles matters
relevant to the Tunisian national security in general, and he was briefed on a
folder submitted by the committee defending the two secular Tunisian leaders who
opposed Ennahda Movement, Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, who were killed in
2013. Essebsi said that Ennahda’s statement opposing him after his page
published details of the meeting with the committee defending Belaid and Brahmi
is a “personal threat” against him, i.e. the Tunisian president! He emphasized
that he will not allow these threats and will not let Ennahda do as it likes,
noting that the judiciary will be the criterion. The president and the veteran
politician then commented on the secret apparatus of Rached Ghannouchi saying:
“The entire world now knows this party’s apparatus, and it’s no longer
secret!”What’s more dangerous is that the defense committee provided Essebsi
with data of Ennahda’s secret apparatus’ attempt to assassinate him when he was
with former French President Francois Hollande in 2013.What’s more dangerous is
that the defense committee provided Essebsi with data of Ennahda’s secret
apparatus’ attempt to assassinate him when he was with former French President
Francois Hollande in 2013
First line of defense
The Tunisian Ennahda supporters, Qatar’s and Turkey’s allies and the first line
of defense which is “whitewashed with secularism,” strongly denied the validity
of these accusations and launched a campaign against President Essebsi and his
party Nidaa Tounes which prevented Rached Ghannouchi’s group from hijacking
Tunisia so it becomes part of the Turkish-Qatari Brotherhood camp via using
leftist or populist faces such as Moncef Marzouki. The question is: Is it
strange for a Brotherhood group, whether Tunisian or any other, to follow this
approach? Is it an uncommon behavior in their political habits and culture?
Didn’t Rached Ghannouchi himself, the symbol of the Brotherhood there, spoke in
different ways more than once? One time he spoke as if he’s a liberal as per the
western standards and as a dreamer who believes in freedom and democracy. At
another time, he spoke using the tone of the Mujahid sheikh who aims to empower
the young who were left powerless on earth and to make them imams and the heirs.
I’ve always said that the “society,” which is one of the terms used by Hassan-i
Sabbah, the leader of Hashshashin, i.e. the Brotherhood, have found it
acceptable to exploit what is pious.
They have statements to make to the public and other statements to make within
their closed circles. They have a certain political behavior to follow within
the normal contexts and another “jihadist” behavior to practice in secret. They
are the Batiniyya of Ahl al-Sunnah.
It’s a common behavior by Brotherhood formations. This is exactly what the
founder of the original Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, inaugurated when he
blessed the “private secret system.”
Dictionaries, rockets and towers in the Arab world
Ghassan Charbel/Al Arabiya/November 30/18
Belonging to an era is not like going to the movies. It’s not enough to buy a
ticket to book a seat. The issue is more complex and difficult to circumvent.
You have no choice but to stand boldly in front of the mirror, to get rid of
some of your illusions and old ideas and to put your dictionary on the table and
examine the vocabulary and concepts that you think are difficult to change. You
must open the door to an internal war within your thoughts and perceptions… your
relationship with time… your community… the others… and the world. You will not
head to the future if you decide that the past is better. I don’t claim that the
task is easy… that overcoming the burdens of the past is simple. But the Arab
people are now at the turning point and they have to make a decision. The issue
is very serious. It is whether you sleep in your ancestors’ bed and hide in
their dictionary or contribute to building a world worthy of your grandchildren.
Century after century, we slept on the pillow of similarity and considered time
as just accumulating stones. Many circumstances did not make our region the
arena for promising events. Nothing like the French Revolution, the Industrial
Revolution or the Renaissance. But now the era has confronted us and dragged us
to face the test. Feel the phone inside your pocket.
It is the greatest traveler, the smartest spy and unyielding reporter. The world
is in your pocket with all the images and sounds, with information and
questions. You have to choose. The poison has leaked into your dictionary. You
shall not look into your grandfather’s drawers for a cure.
There is no choice but to contact the era; no matter how much effort and
rehabilitation you may require. You cannot be a journalist today in the way you
were ten years ago. You cannot be a minister today as you were ten years ago.
The same is true for the officer, the university professor, the engineer, the
governor and the government. Our separation from the era has cost us nations,
cities and seas of human and financial losses… breaking with facts and the
concept of the State and institutions.
The battle of stability aims to restore some balance in the region, which would
allow the preservation of the Arabs’ role and interests, and enable their
countries to take a breath and fight for reform and modernization
Friend from Libya
This is what came to my mind when a friend from Libya contacted me to comment on
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s interview with Asharq Al-Awsat. He
recalled how Colonel Mmammar al-Gaddafi called Sheikh Mohammad and expressed his
desire for Tripoli to become “a new Dubai” and Africa’s economic hub. He said
that the construction of a modern city that could accommodate many nationalities
and where people lived under the rule of law required a mentality that did not
exist in the colonel’s system, and institutions that were not present during his
time.
“Some of our countries have fallen into the hands of men who have a World War II
mentality, if not older,” said the man who knows both the regime and the
colonel. “These are selfish men, who don’t know the world and their real war is
that of retaining power. They didn’t reflect on the deep meaning of the collapse
of the Soviet Union – that of never catching up with the era and failing to
improve the people’s living conditions.”He went on to say: “These regimes were
busy with security and intelligence, not with universities and education. They
preferred to buy and stock missiles instead of getting engaged in rehabilitating
the infrastructure, promoting investments and building towers. They believed
that the citizen could provide his bread and income under the cloak of the
regime and its revolutionary committees.”
He noted that Arab governments are increasingly aware of the importance of
building intra-Arab relations on the basis of mutual interests. The same
strategy has enabled the Europeans to remove the specter of war and transformed
the ancient continent into a prominent player in international politics and
economy.
He expected that the process of reform and modernization witnessed by Saudi
Arabia within the framework of Vision 2030 launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman would have a major impact in the Arab and Islamic world. He emphasized
serious and difficult measures applied by the Egyptian government to put the
economy on the path towards recovery, and the same for Jordan.
Dubai in Tripoli
He said that if Gaddafi had managed to build Dubai in Tripoli, both Libya and
its leader would not have suffered their current fates. Had Saddam Hussein built
something like Dubai in Baghdad, neither the Iraqi leader nor his country would
have been exposed to such calamities.
But you cannot build a modern city with an old and outdated dictionary. Tripoli
could have now been a city teeming with tourists and investors and enjoying all
the necessary resources. This is also true for Baghdad. Abandon the old
dictionary... The dictionary of fear and domination… It is clear that our region
must engage in two battles simultaneously: the battle of stability and the quest
for prosperity. The battle of stability aims to restore some balance in the
region, which would allow the preservation of the Arabs’ role and interests, and
enable their countries to take a breath and fight for reform and modernization.
The battle of prosperity must start by adopting a new dictionary in dealing with
the world, the era and the people’s needs and aspirations.
The success of the two battles depends on the ability to exit the cycle of old
fears to enter the circle of strategic partnerships and the exchange of benefits
and expertise. It is no secret that we need to get out of the old dictionaries.
We need education that awakens the capabilities of Arab students and enables
them to belong to the world of transformation, competition and innovation. We
need an actual developmental effort that positively changes the conditions of
people’s lives, stops the waves of despair that attract young people and push
them on suicidal routes or incite them to abandon home.
We must remember that countries, which have modernized their dictionaries, have
preceded those that adhered to the past; and that countries that have
accumulated developmental achievements are today stronger than those that
stocked rockets. The states that built towers are today more prosperous than
countries that have wasted their time digging trenches.
Reading Montesquieu in Tehran
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/November 30/18
Although the recent visit to Tehran by Britain’s new Foreign Secretary Jeremy
Hunt did not produce the result he had hoped for, it may have helped him get a
better understanding of how things work in the Islamic Republic in Iran.
According to London sources, Hunt had hoped to secure the release of Nazanin
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual national hostage serving a five-year prison term on a
vague charge of trying to overthrow the Iranian regime.
Had she been released Hunt and his boss, Prime Minister Theresa May would have
scored a double win. With a “Nazanin-home-for-Christmas” number, they would have
been able to divert attention from the ordeal of Brexit with at least a
momentary flash of national unity at a time of deep divisions.
On a less grand scale, they would also have scored a point against Boris
Johnson, the previous Foreign Secretary and Mrs. May’s principal rival for the
leadership of the Conservative Party. The flamboyant but gaffe-prone Johnson had
visited Tehran as Foreign Secretary and tried to snatch Nazanin from the
mullahs’ claws. Not only did he fail to achieve that but he may have made
Nazanin’s case more complicated by claiming that she had been involved in
training Iranian journalists.
To be sure, Nazanin isn’t the only hostage in Tehran. At last count, there were
21 of them from six nationalities, including at least four more dual British
nationals.
Seizing hostages has been a permanent feature of the Islamic Republic politics
from its first moments of existence in 1979. Since then hardly a day has passed
without the mullahs holding some foreign hostages.
Initially, most of the hostages were Western diplomats, journalists, and
businessmen. By the 1990s the number of such would-be hostages had fallen
dramatically as fewer Western diplomats, journalists and businessmen traveled to
Tehran. Because the regime couldn’t do without hostages it had to find a new
category of victims. It was thus that a number of ordinary Western tourists,
including a group that had strayed into Iran from Iraq by mistake, were seized
as hostages. However, that new category had to be abandoned soon because tour
companies owned by the mullahs or their front-men complained that seizing
hostages was wrecking their business.
A new category of hostages was found among individuals, including some dual
nationals, who believed themselves safe because they had campaigned in favor of
the Islamic Republic in Europe or North America. Soon, however, that sense of
safety proved to be misplaced as a number of prominent pro-mullah campaigners,
especially in the US, were seized during visits to Tehran.
When that source of hostages also dried up because many pro-mullah apologists in
Europe and the US realized that going to Iran was a high-risk undertaking, the
mullahs found a new trick for replenishing their supply of captives. That new
trick was to actually hire people in Europe and North America, offering
mouth-watering contracts, and then seize them as hostages when they came to
Iran. Thus, we witnessed surrealistic scenes in which a Western or dual national
employee of the Islamic Republic would arrive at Tehran Airport to a full
official welcome only to be arrested a few days later and charged with
espionage.
The need for hostages meant that even lobbyists for the Islamic Republic were
not safe. Right now several founders of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC),
Tehran’s principal lobby group in the US, are held as hostages in Tehran on
spurious charges among them 82-year old Muhammad-Baqer Namazi and his son Siamak.
In dealing with the Islamic Republic, Hunt has repeated the mistake of his
predecessors by believing that he is dealing with a normal state structure in
which men who act as high officials truly represents the decision-making
machinery.
For example, he raised the issue of hostages with Foreign Minister Muhammad-Javad
Zarif who promptly asserted that he and his office had no influence on the
issue. In fact, Zarif cannot guarantee his own safety let alone help the British
secure the release of any hostages.
By most accounts, the Islamic Republic has at least nine parallel security
agencies separately controlled by the office of the “Supreme Guide”.
Those agencies can operate outside the official legal framework and, at times,
could even arrest each other’s agents. They also get involved in bizarre
situations. For example, Mrs. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested by a security
outfit based in the southeastern province of Kerman. How such a group could come
to the capital to arrest a British citizen at the Tehran airport remains a
mystery. The Lebanese-American hostage Nizar Zaka who had come to Iran as a
technician invited by the Islamic Minister of Communication was seized by one
branch of the security despite the fact that he had received “full clearance”
from yet another branch.
The standard excuse used by Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani in refusing to
take up the issue of hostages is that the Islamic Republic observes the
principle of “separation of powers” cherished by Montesquieu.
“Our justice is independent,” Zarif reportedly told Hunt.
In a sense, Zarif is right as the presidency and the Council of Ministers have
no influence in the judiciary. But what Zarif didn’t say is that the judiciary,
being independent and all, also has no influence on who gets arrested and
sentenced in the Islamic Republic. In the Islamic Republic, Montesquieu’s
teaching is taken to the extreme to create a system in which power is divided
into numerous apparently autonomous branches that are, nevertheless, all
controlled from a single center. And that single center hides behind a
governmental façade that includes a presidency, a Council of Ministers, a
judiciary, a legislature and other paraphernalia of statehood whose task is to
lead people like Jeremy Hunt up the garden path.
In their time, both Presidents Muhammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised
to ensure the release of various hostages in appreciation of what they believed
was European Union support in the face of American sanctions. They failed to
secure freedom for even a single hostage. Instead, both men now found themselves
hostages in Iran because, having had their passports confiscated, they cannot
travel abroad.
Instead, they have enough time to read Montesquieu’s “Persian Letters”.
Is the Iran nuclear deal dead? Yes
د. ماجد ربيزاده: هل الاتفاق النووي الإيراني ميت؟ نعم هو فعلا ميت
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/November 30/, 2018
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/69305/dr-majid-rafizadeh-is-the-iran-nuclear-deal-dead-yes-%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%a7%d8%ac%d8%af-%d8%b1%d8%a8%d9%8a%d8%b2%d8%a7%d8%af%d9%87-%d9%87%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%aa%d9%81%d8%a7%d9%82-%d8%a7/
Iran, China, France, Russia, the UK, the US and Germany came
together to sign the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as
the Iran nuclear deal. But it is the US, the EU and Iran that will decide its
destiny.
The JCPOA has become a source of major disagreements between the US and its old
transatlantic partner, the EU. Meanwhile, Iranian leaders have ratcheted up
their threats regarding the deal. This week, Ali Akbar Salehi, the top official
at Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, warned that if the deal collapses, his
country will resume its nuclear activities and uranium-enrichment program.
But despite Tehran’s stern warnings, maintaining the deal is crucial to it
because the JCPOA has provided Iran with economic relief, trade, business deals
and revenue. As such, Tehran has been looking to the EU to help maintain the
nuclear deal.
The EU appears determined to help salvage it.On Wednesday, EU foreign policy
chief Federica Mogherini, who met Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in
Geneva, reiterated the bloc’s support for maintaining the deal. Recently, the EU
introduced a plan to facilitate payments to Iran via a new mechanism. The barter
program is designed to help Tehran circumvent US sanctions. When Iran exports
products to the EU, the bloc will pay with goods and services of the same
monetary value.
The JCPOA may be alive on paper, but in reality it died when US sanctions were
re-imposed on Iran’s energy and banking sectors.
The EU is trying to pursue a policy that preserves its economic interests,
including trade and business deals with Iran. In the coming months, the EU will
likely amplify this policy by investing significant political capital in
maintaining the nuclear deal and satisfying Tehran’s demands by shielding the
regime from sanctions. Will the EU succeed? The US plays a vital role when it
comes to addressing this question.
US President Donald Trump has made good on his pledge to oppose the nuclear deal
and re-impose economic sanctions on Tehran. The US withdrawal from the deal, and
the subsequent renewal of sanctions, have significantly damaged the JCPOA and
put an unprecedented amount of economic and political pressure on Tehran.
As a result of US sanctions, many foreign companies have abandoned their
projects and taken immediate action to back out of the Iranian market. Iran’s
oil revenues have already begun sinking and will likely continue to do so. Its
currency has plummeted to new lows, trading at more than 150,000 rials to the
dollar.
These developments have provoked further protests over the economy in various
Iranian cities; this has become the norm in recent months. The regime’s hold on
power appears to be in danger as many ordinary Iranians blame it for the
economic crisis.
In the nuclear triangle comprising the US, the EU and Iran, the US appears to
have emerged the winner. The JCPOA may be alive on paper, but in reality it died
when US sanctions were re-imposed on Iran’s energy and banking sectors. And
sooner or later, Tehran will find that the EU cannot continue to satisfy its
economic demands.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist.
He is a leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, a businessman and
president of the International American Council. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh
Putin is testing Western resolve in Ukraine
Luke Coffey/Arab News/November 30, 2018
Sometimes, to understand the present we must better understand the past. It was
the Victorian statesman and British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston who best
summed up Russia’s behavior during the Crimean War in 1855.
“The policy and practice of the Russian government has always been to push
forward its encroachments as fast and as far as the apathy or want of firmness
of other governments would allow it to go, but always to stop and retire when it
met with decided resistance and then to wait for the next favorable
opportunity,” he said.
Some things never change. On Nov. 24, three Ukrainian navy ships were traveling
from one Ukrainian port to another. During their journey, they were intercepted
by Russian patrol boats near the Kerch Strait. One Ukrainian ship was rammed and
others were shot at. Six Ukrainian sailors were wounded; all 24 are now in
Russian custody.
The location of this latest incident was no coincidence. The Kerch Strait is a
narrow body of water between Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea, which the vast
majority of the international community considers to be part of Ukraine. The
strait links the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov, and according to a 2003
agreement between Russia and Ukraine, both countries have equal right of
passage.
Those who follow events in Ukraine know that the strait has been a potential
hotspot for some time. In May, Russia completed construction of a controversial
bridge connecting Crimea with the Russian mainland. The bridge was controversial
in Russia because of its high price tag of almost $4 billion, at a time when the
economy is struggling.
Putin will do as much as he knows he can get away with until someone pushes
back.
The bridge is controversial in Ukraine because it limits the height of ships now
able to safely transit the strait. Large Panamax ships, which as recently as
2016 accounted for almost a quarter of all ships passing through the strait, are
now too tall.
In addition to the physical restrictions placed by the bridge, Russia has also
been harassing, delaying, and in some cases stopping Ukrainian commercial
shipping from using the strait. This is starting to take its toll on the
Ukrainian economy. For example, the shipping of steel and iron products through
the strait alone accounts for 25 percent of Ukraine’s export revenue. A country
already at war, Ukraine cannot afford another economic disruption.
If the location of the confrontation was no coincidence, neither was the timing.
Recent developments between the West and Ukraine, combined with Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s shaky approval ratings, mean that an incident such as
the recent one in the strait was inevitable. In September, the US Coast Guard
signed an agreement providing two patrol boats to Ukraine within the next year,
angering many in Russia.
A few weeks ago, the UK said it was increasing the number of troops it has in
Ukraine to train the military there. The Russian Embassy in London promptly
released a statement calling this a “matter of deep concern.” Also, Ukraine’s
Parliament recently held its first reading of new constitutional amendments
providing for the country’s future membership in the EU and NATO.
On top of this, Putin’s approval ratings are at their lowest since 2012. It is
likely that in order to increase his popularity, he ordered some sort of
aggressive military action. This approach has worked before. In 2013, Putin’s
approval ratings stood at 54 percent; when Russia invaded and illegally annexed
Crimea in 2014, they jumped to 83 percent.
Ever since Russia occupied Crimea and started a separatist movement in the east
of the country, Ukraine has been locked in a struggle for national survival.
This latest incident in the Kerch Strait is merely an extension of a war that
has been ongoing for almost five years now, and that has cost the lives of more
than 10,000 people.
If Russia’s aggression has done anything though, it has solidified support among
Ukrainians to link the country’s destiny closely with Europe, not with Moscow.
Today, Ukraine represents the idea in Europe that each country has the sovereign
ability to determine its own path, with whom it has relations, and how and by
whom it is governed.
This is why US President Donald Trump was right to cancel his planned meeting
with Putin at the G20 Summit. In addition to canceling the meeting, Trump should
use the international spotlight afforded to the G20 as an opportunity to demand
the release of the Ukrainian prisoners.
Russia’s latest act of aggression in the Kerch Strait is yet another example of
Putin’s imperial mindset. And it is another reminder that he will do as much as
he knows he can get away with until someone pushes back.
• Luke Coffey is director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign
Policy at the Heritage Foundation.